on this this year. that does it for us today. gentlemen, i'll be out tomorrow, but i'll see you guys back here the day after. >> okay. >> you promise >> good show. >> i promise as always. miss you guys. anyway, that does it for us today. make sure you join us tomorrow right now it's time for "squawk on the street. good otuesday morning, welcome to "squawk on the str street". i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer, david faber. the cease fire talks in istanbul are called the most constructive so far russia says it will cut military activity near kyiv vix below 19, oil dips below 99. our road map begins with that optimism signs of constructive talks and renewed cease fire hopes buoying investors hopes. >> fred smith is set to step aside as the ceo of a company that he founded more than 50

years ago. and you may have seen it yesterday, that meme craze returns, shares of amc, gamestop and others red hot once again. >> start with the markets here and the reaction to those developments surrounding the cease fire talks in istanbul hosted by erdogan who jim said it was the most constructive round so far doesn't sound like you buy into much of it. >> my problem is that this is not the first rodeo of putin, and he is historically told you he's going to do one thing and then he did the other. he's played the media. he played -- he shut down the media for chechnya he never really told you what he was going -- what he actually did in chechnya versus what he told you to do he would say listen, capital city, i don't need to -- we'll pull back, and then he'll -- and then he raise it had right after that. >> how good of an analog are some of his prior conflicts? because it's not like he had the whole world against him back then. >> no, and he was able to say that he was always upagainst terrorists, so chechnyan

terrorists, syrian terrorists and of course no real verification that they were terrorists in syria. look, where's kharkiv in this talk the old karkov is a giant ukrainian city why isn't he pulling back from chernobyl where apparently there's a tremendous amount of radiation that they've unleashed to a great deal of soldiers. >> their own >> their own soldiers. >> by the way, he's never -- never mattered to him that he killsrussians. >> so you're somewhat cautious on this reaction to what seems to be the progress being made in turkey >> i'm not going to be in kharkiv. look, maybe it's possible you create this little state, right, that he owns, but has this man expressed -- has this man -- is there a single word that this man says that you have felt is gospel >> no, i think as you say history would show that you

can't trust him at all you can see what happens on the ground, so that's what i guess we need to focus on. >> i remember in our country like you would talk about -- unfortunately president nixon also had a problem with the truth, and you would talk about bombing pauses we'll have a bombing pause so in other words what you're going to do is you're going to take a break from bombing the hell out of us, okay that was kind of nixon's plan, and then as soon as they thought that there was going to be a break, pow >> yeah. >> but to carl's point, i mean -- >> i don't think that -- >> to carl's point, they're not doing very well in terms of their initial goals at all. >> right. >> they are getting beat >> well, then why don't they pull out entirely instead of saying, listen, i'm not going after a couple of cities kharkiv is the one that is most important because that's the east they don't want to take the east away. >> there's a lot talk about east/west. >> i know. we did that already with germany, and that was a massive failure, and it's quite

different, the regime change, i walk that back mentally given the fact that i don't favor nuclear war, but that's just one man's opinion, but i do think that it's -- it's constructive if they pull out let's see them pull out. >> yeah, but the market gets ahead of those kiennds of thing. that's what a market does, i don't need to tell you that. >> as soon as we got to 50% retracement, i said the market would be up dramatically, 21 out of 21 times so far so good and by the way, i don't know, i don't want to be too -- switch from ukraine to memes, but there are some -- there's some great enthusiasm out there in the marketplace. >> we are going to get to that a little bit later. >> gamestop up 45% yesterday 20 to 29, boom >> that was your fault, david. you asked some tough questions, and everything adam aron

answered made me feel more bullish about it >> we'll get to that in a bit. >> we had british banks -- we had european banks up there for a second. >> yeah. >> they looked okay. >> they did. >> everyone's just decided this war is over because russia's done badly for a couple of weeks. all i can say is that would be so good. >> zelenskyy has pushed them to actually stop using russian oil and gas, which they have not done certainly germany has not been willing to do that this obviously if, in fact it does prove to be true and there is a cessation in utilities would then take the heat off which would have been really bad for the european economy. >> i have some bad news for putin, you look at the most recent numbers, the numbers that we're getting in march out of louisiana and texas, russia losing all leverage. it's that big. >> suddenly we are producing more >> no, we're not producing more. we are -- our l and g current plants are surprisingly more --

>> got it. >> they're producing far more than we thought, and they repealed the ferc law, the president repealed the ferc law that blocked interstate commerce that would have hurt -- remember i told you that ferc -- i was telling you the president -- >> yeah, yeah. >> well, that's appealed and there's one more big plant coming on and the numbers -- thank you russia and brazil -- shocking on how little leverage russia will have over the eu. >> a year from now >> one year from now. >> if i were putin, i would be like saying has anyone seen these numbers out of louisiana >> there's the tape today saying they're capping some storage of crude because no one is buying russian benchmark crude. >> when you move that natural gas over, it is incredible how much more we're shipping than we thought we could and if you take it from england and take it from turkey, i think what you would say is the russians are in so much trouble next year with their natural gas that maybe

they ought to pull back from say kyiv. >> and others. >> yeah. >> we'll find out. we'll keep an eye on that. the other big news this morning corporate wise is fedex, fred smith, the pioneer of express delivery stepping down as ceo of the company he founded back in the '70s ceo raj subramanian will take over the top job june 1, he'll be jim's guest tonight on "mad money" at 6:00 p.m. eastern time, most famous college thesis ever >> yes he's a hero of mine, known him for a long time. when i was partners with larry kudlow, kind of a -- i'm going to put him in the great american category, he came up with an idea the idea is with us. it was almost like an idea created for the direct to consumer, and fred was relentless in terms of quality he did stumble on europe because he bought a company that -- europe is very difficult. >> tnt that deal has not gone well. >> i've done same day to italy,

and it's same month. [ laughter ] >> it's really amazing same month. >> by the way, that is a beautiful suit that you're wearing, particularly if -- >> if you want to star in "guys and dolls," there's an opening >> you know what, i don't want to sit here and be insulted by you. i hope you go away for a couple of days. >> i am going away not because he banished me, you'll see on twitter -- oh, jim, banished david. i really resent that >> these are wide pinstripes this happens to be beautiful. >> it is beautiful i've got a horse right here, his name is paul revere. if the weather is clear. >> rocking the boat. >> i was down in florida and people said, you know what, you do like him, right you do like him. >> he didn't answer. >> let's get back -- >> my father thought you hated me. >> he knew i didn't. >> i know, but every time you

said something bad, i'd get the phone call 5 after 10:00, you got to say something to david. i think he doesn't like you. >> not at all. it's the opposite. let's talk more about fedex, though, you're going to have fred smith on tonight. i'm looking forward to that. i brought this up a few weeks ago, the shares more than stalled. they well underperformed rival u.p.s. similar revenues, half the market cap, and so there is some frustration on the part of shareholders that the company's just not as profitable to put it simply as it could be. free cash flow, conversion is not as strong as it could be perhaps spends too much on planes you mentioned the tnt deal, and europe hasn't worked out well at this point and so, you know, there is some frustration. i brought this up a few weeks ago. a number of people were paying attention about the prospect of an activist. is any of this related to potentially the prospect of an activist getting in there and pushing for change in terms of succession

unclear, very much unclear, you know, this has been something that has been in process for some period of time potentially, but i will say this. this is not going to discourage -- and there you see the memo he talked about raj, talked about making him chief operating officer. by the way, that role now empty. no coo anymore, and an orderly transition >> he was much more of a factor on the conference call. >> right >> and this was the least combative conference call over the last say eight there were some conference calls that, frankly, were cringe worthy, that you just -- like will you please show some res respect to this man, but the analysts kind of went away you're right i want to know -- several times have hinted to me there could be -- >> what i will say now this is not going to discourage potential activism in fact, it might actually embolden it in a sense because if you were coming as an akts vis, a lot of your campaign would have been focused around succession and mr. smith, and that could have been very tough given his iconic status.

now you can make an activist campaign about the operations of the company, improving profitability, the fact that you want perhaps other leaders in there. long-term these are not things that can happen overnight, but it doesn't mean from what i understand that in any way it will deter those who have been thinking about potentially saying, hey, this is a company that needs fundamental change in terms of its execution by the way, no staggered board here at all. >> they didn't like the governance. >> right >> they didn't like europe, and remember ground margins were disappointing and ground margins is what we all get with direct to consumer. >> again, when it comes to that, we shall see unclear whether this had a lot to do with the potential for activism i can't divorce it from that. >> he is an older gentleman. >> he was one of the longest serving ceos of all time now i think buffett stands alone at this point. well, he's still ceo fred smith until june, but and --

>> but let's back up let's go back to what carl just said can we just like on this one particular day say that this guy had an idea. >> oh, my god. >> holy cow did he change the world. >> changed without a doubt without a doubt, and your current shareholders today they're like, yeah, that's great. what does that do for me, right? >> well, i mean, look, united parcel has done well. >> the value of u.p.s. is real in the market t, this could be double if you get it right. >> i think that some of it's cause, some of it is the bizarre way that you can get a franchise. you get these franchises and the franchises were very stretched by covid, and a lot of overtime pay, and then, yes, let's get to the bottom of the airlines, and tnt, every call don't worry, and yet when you're over in italy, i'm not kidding, when you're over in any part of europe, it is just not a factor maybe at a certain level of business, but it doesn't work

because the unions are so powerful there they just don't -- they're like the unions -- they're like the longshoremen, which contract comes up july 1. that will be some contract. >> and talk more about just transports in general, the action we've seen the last couple of days going into the end of the quarter when we come back, the meme stock madness, of course amc and gamestop each doubling in a span of about two weeks got some call on etsy, pins, google, mcdonald's, can the vix stay below 19 and can oil close 'rba ia mee-digits today wee ckn mont re. so you don't lose sight of the big picture, even when you're focused on what's happening right now. and thinkorswim® is right there with you. to help you become a smarter investor. with an innovative trading platform full of customizable tools. dedicated trade desk pros and a passionate trader community sharing strategies right on the platform. because we take trading as seriously as you do. thinkorswim® by td ameritrade

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methamphme stock madness continues. over the last two weeks shares of amc and gamestop each more than doubled bed bath up more than 30% during that period, and in case you missed it, we talked with amc's adam aron yesterday. take a listen. >> are you surprised there are not other ceos who are seeking a level of engagement with their shareholders that are. >> if you'd asked me a year ago, i'd say no, i wasn't surprised because it was a pretty novel thing that a ceo of medium-sized public company would embrace retail investors the way we did at amc, but that was a year ago. yes, i am amazed now that others have not followed in our foot steps. as you know, i talked with our

investors almost every day through twitter. the message that i convey and the thousands of inbound messages i get that i actually read myself, it's so important to talk to your shareholders, to talk to your investors, to listen to your shareholders, to listen to investors. i do think this is the wave of the future we have great respect for the retail investors who own amc. >> monday's 45% move best day since june, when it was on its way to fresh highs >> yeah, look, i think that aron's right, i do not understand why ceos only cater to large institutions. that was one of the reasons why we haven't had any stock splits because the institutions want fewer shares, the commissions are lower. he took a company that was largely institutional, made it individual, and then made it fly. now, david, you could argue that there aren't enough individual investors, but i would argue that, wait a second, the institutions are overly catered

to and if you go -- i have a lot of people call "mad money," ceos, they say listen to me, we need more individual investors they're sticky, they're more responsive, they're not trading in and out >> right >> well, trading in and out, i don't know about that. i think there's a lot of trading in and out of amc and gamestop, don't you? >> i'm not sure. >> no? >> these people -- very sticky investors. >> yeah. i don't know, i can check my mentions column, see if there is -- >> it's fascinating how he has made this into a business model, and he addressed that yesterday as well, in other words using these investors to allow amc to now move into other areas, fully recognizing and acknowledging that his companies -- that the fundamentals of his business do not in any way -- are not the -- that the stock price -- >> what the heck are you saying? >> i'm trying to say the stock is overvalued and he fully recognizes that basedon amc's business -- >> watch this post, okay disney should change its model

right now and go individual and stop it with the institutions, which hate them. what do you think? are you good >> so disney could become a meme stock and the stock would go up? >> cater to individuals, cater to individuals the individuals are fickle -- >> how would you do that if you were disney? what would you do? >> you're going to like do a poll before you take a big proposal to the board? >> going to conduct most of your business on twitter? i think it's great that adam apology to us got a 1.6 million views. >> you own shares in disney, maybe you get a discount at the incredibly expensive food park maybe you get to cut in line, maybe you get to go into the theme park even earlier than other people, if you can prove that you own a couple of shares. this is so smart, i can't believe it holy cow. >> i mean, in aron's case it was because no one was filling seats. disney does not have that

problem. >> no. why would you ever need to do that >> that's a very good point, but i think that one of disney's problems is they need to get -- get pricing higher, get some pricing. >> pricing, they've raised pricing dramatically. >> then you can come under if you're -- >> okay. and that in turn is going to then what? generate a lot of appetite for the shares amongst the retail audience because i want to go disney for the rest of my -- >> it's a loyalty program is what you're saying. >> don't they have that? >> it's a loyalty program, and i've got to tell you right now -- >> the institution's -- >> serve disney. >> listen to me, the institutions don't really care for disney or else the stock would be dramatically much closer to where it's worth so let's get the individuals involved, and they'll pay up, and you know what? they can get certain benefits and -- >> they're watching right now. >> it's an interesting topic. >> disney's watching right now, and you know what they're t thinking he was right with tim cook about the service revenue.

he was right about the -- >> a gold mine what he's going to do with his -- i'm kidding. >> i'm just saying, what logical thing to have -- to pivot and go for individuals because disney's like that. i mean, i don't think jamie dimon, say, listen, i really want -- i want guys who have an account. >> nobody cares about jpmorgan >> i'll give it to you a little love. >> you got it, baby, i've got a dice game downtown, too, i'd like you to be a part of. >> it's going to happen. it's going to happen now >> can you set it up >> i'm going to set it up right now. >> we'll get kcramer's mad dash, countdown to the opening bell just about eight minutes away. don't go away. ( ♪♪ ) i call it the wheel. okay. this is a miss.

edison, can i be honest with you? i-i-i-it stinks. (speaking japanese) like i was saying, it's ftx. it's a safe and easy way to get into crypto. ehhh, i don't think so. and i'm never wrong about this stuff. never.

we've been talking all morning about these headlines on the tape about what appears to have been a constructive round of cease fire talks in turkey. oil, as we mentioned, flirting with double-digits and the vix below 19 for the first time really since january st mens mi uincongp ju aomt.

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let's get to a mad dash before we head to the opening bell mccormick. >> the stock's all over the place. micron, the stock's up 2, the oil and gas is down. we know that anything ag is down, so let's look at an ag-related company, which is mccormick, which has spice it has packaging, like consumer packaging companies. obviously it's got cost of goods sold that have gone up, and yet they delivered a pretty good quarter. they're going to be on tonight i think what people are not happy with is that they feel that while solutions were good, restaurants are strong, the actual sales are on top of

the -- are 4% on top of 20%, and so people would like to see more on top of 20 i'd say will you give me a break. people still cook at home, and one of the reasons why they cook at home is because they can drink alcohol at home for much less than a restaurant makes it so you're a better cook. >> i cook with mccormick i'm not that good of a cook, but i pour some of their stuff on. >> no, but you're good at drinking >> got that down. >> yes, i am. >> ask you're a value drinker. >> i pride myself. >> you do own a bar too. >> you'd never know that i know how to drink you would say, wait a second, he's a water guy no it's clear, but just because it's clear, it's not water. >> i would know, actually. >> anyway -- >> back to mccormick >> the mexican initiatives that they have, spice initiative, and

they also have i think -- >> look at that, stock turned around. >> frank's, i don't know what you put -- do you use frank's? you can put it on a lot of things. >> i'm aware of that you've made me aware of that. >> yeah. >> speaking of restaurants, cowen today calls mcdonald's one of their top europe ideas because they think u.s. comps will more than compensate for the european weakness. >> okay. i found that piece distinctly lacking in rigor because it never once told us why europe would be good. you go over it and the stock could go up, sure, it's a classic name but there was nothing in that piece that gave me any sort of feel that you want to own it because now europe is at an inflection point because anything it's not. >> at best they argue consumers still see quick service as value, which means they ostensibly have some pricing power. >> right, but i just think that there's so many better names >> the opening bell here, the cnbc realtime exchange, at the

big board it is internet service provider starry scelebrating a l listing via spac, and pepsi co. starting a campaign for latina organizers to gain access. we're going to watch the index here >> alcohol-infused mountain dew this week, david, i drink mountain dew and now you'll never know that it's the alcohol-infused mountain dew they're putting alcohol in mountain dew >> that's not a good idea, is it >> it's not a good idea? i think it's a brilliant idea. i sure do. it's a very popular drink. you want to keep it so that 16-year-olds and 18-year-olds don't get it that is a primary issue. college campus. >> at 46.15, jim, that's 500 s&p points in a matter of weeks. >> this was a breakout -- like i

said, 21 times, when you get back and you have that 50% retracement, thank you, larry williams, it is off to the races, and we are off to the races in with you know, with th mike wilsons almost all the big strategists they lost conviction that this market could still have upward movement where are they >> some of them, mike wilson doesn't dock us but a lot of the people got very negative at what seemingly might look like the bottom. >> they did. we're heading into earnings season which -- >> might be. >> well, many of those who are positive actually believe it will confirm some of the rally that we've seen. >> right >> that we will still continue to see strong earnings. >> look at jeffries, david year-over-year the numbers were hideous, and yet here's the stock going up. >> jeffries right, it was 16 something percent above estimates, 38% above for revenues and 38 or something percent above for earnings.

>> yep >> better than -- repurchase. >> 12% had a consensus. >> earnings per share were down 42%, david. >> they were 2021 was a year unlike any other for all of these guys. >> did you see ipos last year versus this year i mean, hello. >> a 16, 17% return on equity for their first quarter. tangible book value was 33 bucks. that gives you a sense stop looking at my texts they're trading right at book value at jeffries. it does give us a sense in terms of capital markets in particular as you know, jim, as to what we're going to see from the bigger firms whether it be morgan, goldman and the like in terms of some of their capital markets. the debt markets, by the way, have been difficult to say the least. >> true, true, in terms of financial. >> financing's still available. >> what happens if let's say jpmorgan, which has been the bellwether going down, what would happen if they actually

reported a decent number >> i don't know. would it really go up? i feel -- i can't remember the last time jpmorgan responded positively to earnings even when you sat there and said these are great earnings >> it's been a hallmark of financial earnings in general, wouldn't you say, jim? >> i'm still stunned at his slap i'm trying -- >> what are you talking about? you have said -- there have been -- my point was there have been plenty of times that people, many including yourself have said jpmorgan's numbers are quite good and the stock has still gone down. >> what are you doing? >> i think it's this i think it's this darn suit. i think he's not taking me seriously because of the suit. so let's go back to seriously -- >> you look very nice in a nice blue shirt. >> you like that >> there's a big investor day at walt disney world right now. they have a giant crowd, 100 analysts there's going to be a major focus about how well the park is doing, and when we start doing my individual investing thing,

the thing goes back to 180 takeback here we come. >> that's conservative compared to some targets. i think jessica erlich, 2, 210. >> 190. >> i think this meeting could be a breakthrough meeting you think i'm kidding. this is going to be the theme park writ large, which has not been emphasized. there's been too much talk about disney plus, minus, hot spur, kind of like shakespeare remember hot spur? he didn't farewell in henry iv part two >> no. >> king richard didn't fare that well either. >> no. >> but disney focus investors on their direct to consumer purpose. it's not as though they were shi shifting. >> it's during covid >> they chose to make that the key focus for any number of reasons. >> we're pivoting now. >> and benefitted for quite some period of time. >> we're pivoting.

>> they may well be. >> we are pivoting. >> they're pivoting right now. >> he ran into some significant internal resistance in terms of the lbt -- lgbtq. >> he admitted he made a mistake. >> okay. >> that was positive. >> you don't like the suit either >> i like the shirt. >> well, i'll tell you, i'm going to put it back on because i think that we may have to pay an homage to nathan detroit. i think it's time to pay an homage to nathan detroit i think luck be a lady do you mind it there we go. ready? luck be a lady tonight oh, my god >> luck be a lady tonight. >> awesome >> we'll go to the track later, we'll go downtown and shoot some more dice. ♪ there is room for doubt ♪ ♪ at times you have a very

unlady like way of running out ♪ >> no one did it better. >> it is good. >> sky, how great was sky? that was the name of the character. >> yes, i'm aware. sky masters. >> you were harry the horse. >> back on broadway. >> can we start talking about stocks again i am not kidding that disney is a buy. i think disney could be up as much as 5. >> on a much smaller scale, dave & buster's, although the quarter wasn't all that scintillating, jim, up 60%, back to 45. a lot of analysts are trying to argue that some of these domestic leisure plays are not -- the correlation to gas price is not really there. >> this stock was at 40 when i read the release when i was doing the show last night, and i said there isn't anything negative in this release. why are they slamming it, and they were quite wrong as is often the case in the after hours. i do want to talk about speaking

of stocks, the collapse of the steel companies, which just turned to be entirely involving russia i mean, nucor, these companies are coming down. they're raining steel. >> they've all been up dramatically -- >> steel prices have gone up there are some people, by the way -- i know this is going to -- i'm out here on this one -- who are saying -- well, steel trades, oil goes down, steel goes up. who are calling peak commodity there are some commodities that have peaked. >> lumber's already 30% off the high. >> peak commodity but then we have against that housing up 19% on cay shiller, but peak commodity might give jay a little room. a little room. and we don't want 50 basis

points, 50 basis points, 50 basis points >> i don't know. peak commodity -- i have a friend who runs a paper company, last week he's gotten two notices like this, one from now cowater, announced we're going to implement a temporary energy surcharge on all our global products to mitigate the short-term spikes we're experiencing with hyper inflation. the surcharge will be added to the bottom of your invoices april 1st effective, and it will be tied to the brent oil index and the amount of the surcharge will be based on a four-week average calculated on the 15th of each month. a lot of chemicals are provided to a paper plant as well we have to increase prices by 10 to 25% to keep up with unprecedented inflation. and will since our announcement, we've noticed that all our competitors have released essentially the same news. i mean, input costs are going up anything tied to oil even with that decline today is going up

and going up dramatically. >> i think it's spot -- my thesis is a little out there wheat's down a little. oil controls so visible, underneath, yes, absolutely, david da david, there's a lot of capacity skon constraint, and if we get a longshoreman strike coming into the talks in july 1, carl, i don't know what's going to happen. >> it's always something truckers, convoys chevron. >> four businesses like the one i mentioned, yeah, you're dealing with transport, your chemical costs typically 3 to 4% of revenues, going to 6 to 8%, your costs for water, trucking as you say, transport, so many different things coming in how much can you raise price is always the question. >> if you don't take price, you're regarded as a fool. >> right. >> and that's one of the things that -- that was what jay has to really break is the notion of i have to take price because

everyone else is, and if i don't my gross margins are bad, and people will think i'm a bad business person. >> yeah. >> so you're right like i say, my thesis is spotty and not there yet but it's based on oil, and i still think oil is a great buy, by the way, because when china comes back there will be a bid underneath oil. but i just think you just need to see -- jay needs a break. he needs a break he has not gotten the break that i think a lot of us were hoping he'd get. >> you see the dud ley piece this morning that the fed has made recession inevitable, and powell, he's gotten some tough breaks but in the end they are responsible. >> nothing's gone jay's way. nothing. i mean, i just think that it's extraordinary. you know he's listening to what you just said and just saying, oh, my god, more rate increases. more price increases >> doesn't know what he's doing right now as you might imagine.

>> and you get to the supermarket and the supermarket is a nightmare that's why i look forward to talking to mccormick tonight anybody can raise prices at will, but the resistance according to the big supermarkets is not there. kroger had that great quarter. i remember that terrific interview with sarah where it's very clear that he had no problem raising prices i don't know, it's a really difficult time because there's -- like you said, there's, okay, so i thought that things were calming down, and then out of nowhere russia and russia did hurt everybody's business i mean, i'm sure if you're apple right now, you're saying, look, we've got to balance this, balance that, balance this, so i don't know i mean, i'm hoping they can help us understand better tonight because they've got a great worldwide view. i did want to get to a large private equity deal this morning as well. yeah, talking about that takeover of nielsen, not the first time, by the way, for

those who may remember, this is a company that went private in 2006 the multiple was 13.4 times, 2005 normalized ebitda that was a real club deal. i mean, everybody bought that thing back then, blackstone, carlisle, kkr, thomas lee, oh, my god. >> was yolks in there? >> and they took it public in '11, and now it's gone private again. you can see the move up in stock is a result of what was a significant increase above what was the original -- and this got leaked -- original potential price. elliott is the main engine here along with brookfield. elliott, though, will actually control the company. they're providing more of the equity, more on that in a moment you can see it right there 28 bucks a share, equity value 10 billion you got debt, all adds into about 16 billion, that premium by the way, and the way they moved up from the 2540 bid to 28 is ultimately 60% premium. it represents the largest cap premium that you've seen in five

years. nielsen had projected 2540 this is a fund people really weren't aware of this is kind of reminiscent in the sense of archegos, they own 9.6% of the equity and 14.4% in derivatives. this could become an issue because we didn't hear about windacre in the press release, and making calls on this nothing in terms of whether they're supportive now they said they thought the company was worth as much as 40. why is it potentially at least important? well, this is a uk company they're going to do it under a scheme of arrangement. you need 75% to be -- 75% of the shares, and if he were to convert those swaps, well, potentially it could be a gating issue, forcing them to go to a tender, which would mean they only need to buy more than 50% i'm told they're willing to do that it could be a bit of a timing issue, but ultimately doesn't seem to be standing in the way of elliott's ability to get the deal done. as i said or as we showed you there, 55% of the $5.7 billion

equity check, $5.7 billion equity check is being provided by elliott, so they will be the majority holder in the sense of the company, the rest being provided by brookfield financing is in place, so we talked about earlier when we talked about the jeffries quarter, it's been a difficult market for financing, but you can get it done. here they did i'm told as well in part they were able to do it because it's a large cap lbo people were familiar with the credit as well even back from the previous lbo, and they started talking about this deal prior to the hostilities in ukraine. so all of which has allowed them to get this deal done, banks being the key financiers for what's going to be 10-plus billion in bank financing. about 11 times ebitda this time, jim, as opposed to the 13.4 times when they -- when this company was taken private. the first time 16 years ago. >> yeah. >> what's interesting is there's

no justice department issues because it's a p/e firm. i wanted to ask you about the united health deal. >> they are an aggressive acquirer. >> aren't they >> united health care, man they have been here there and everywhere you're talking about obviously this lhd deal, 170 a share i don't have a lot of visibility into any trust concerns here i just don't have an answer for you. >> at home business. unh is one of the great companies of our time, and if you think about the fact that they just got crushed in the previous deal with the government. >> right oh, that's right change health care, right. >> incredible, but i think the nielsen's very interesting because what you have to hope for, people -- the bears have to watch out that once again, there will be deals at david fedex up nine looking at fedex's market cap versus say united parcels,

wealth created by u.p.s. >> final point quickly on nielsen, elliott has become a real power mpe they have -- i wouldn't say they've shifted their business, but activism is what we know them for track record there, i mean, man they still own a lot of at&t that hasn't done much for them, but on p/e, they have already seen some significant wins, of course, as well. deals they've done, atathena, thank you. athena health was a huge win they sold it to another private equity consortium. we'll see how they do here that's a big deal. >> as we said earlier, 46.17 is almost exactly 500 points above the february low let's get to bob pisani. >> a lot of round trips this quarter. we are moving on reports that russia may be taking steps to deescalate the conflict. you can see a lot of more speculative parts of the market moving anything having to do with travel moving as well. take a look here at kathy woods

ark fund, flagship fund doing well, retail is doing well, semiconductors doing well, and jim was talking about peak commodities, there's metals in mining and the energy index also to the downside as well. peak commodities very much on people's minds you can see that on the s&p leadership group, anything that involves spending money, traveling really on the top of the leader board so all the airlines are moving, mastercard's having a really good day the car companies, general motors and ford are all up here, more spending anticipated, of course, on lower oil a lot of round trips that we see in the charts for the quarter. we're only two and a half days left in the quarter, quite amazing. s&p 500, the peak in the s&p was the january 4th as i recall. we started at 47.80 or so, we went as low as -- i don't know, the high was 47.93 the second or third day and now you see we're less than 4% from the highs that we had at the beginning of the year round trip on the vix, too, the volatility index

we started at 16 we went as high as 38. that was on february 24th, and look, we're back to essentially 19 today, almost a round trip there. oil the same thing, we started the year at $75. we went to 124 march 8th, and today we're back at $99. gold same thing, $1,800 or so started the year, went to $2,000 or so, today we're back to $1,800 see these round trips, not a round trip on treasury yields, we started at 1.5%, we essentially went to 2.4, 2.5% yesterday, and we're essentially at the high. we're going into the second quarter with rates right near their highs, but the most important thing is earnings are holding up really well we're not changing much at all these numbers for the first, second, and third quarter have held in very well for the last couple of months a lot of people were surprised about that we'll see if this changes, but this is the main reason things are holding up so well i want to point out something about robinhood. they said they're going to start

providing trading hours, expanded trading hours, 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. schwab is doing this, interactive brokers, i would recommend that people look at what the s.e.c. has to say about after hours trading. they cite, there's a lack of liquidity in after hours trading. there's larger quote spreads there's higher price volatilities and there's competition with professional traders. you know, carl, day trading is hazardous. we know that, but day trading in the after hours can be very hazardous. i would recommend people go to sec.gov and look at what the s.e.c. has to say about what g goes on in after hours trading. >> as we go to break, take a look at the bond report. we will get some fed speak today and a little e codata ten-year this morning right around 2.4 apple joining tesla going green for the year riding 11 straight daily gains. we're back in just a moment.

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well, we've got a good one tonight. we have fred smith we are going to talk about that paper that he wrote that he got a c on that was the idea behind this some people questioned whether how much of fedex is his he ran the company into an amazing -- an amazing company. u.p.s., market cap, talk about that maybe and then lawrence kersse, people have recognized that people are staying at home and cooking and mccormick is the best way to know and then, david, i understand -- >> what do we got? roll them for me, baby >> you know what, david? >> nathan, put it down. >> come on >> okay. >> rolling the dice! >> whoa! >> because he is nathan detroit.

yeah trying to beat sky. >> sky's a good roll i would take any of them, really. >> the chairman. anyway, thank you, david i hope you enjoy your trip to wherever the hell you're going. >> i will. have a good time at the track later. >> you going to the gulfstream is it -- >> going to the middle of nowhere. >> take care. >> thank you >> just go down to pimlico, okay, so we can take track of you. >> see you tonight, 6:00 p.m. "mad money" on cnbc. still above 4,600.

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welcome back to "squawk on the street." rick santelli here live at cme hq breaking news. our march read on the conference boards consumer confidence expecting a number in the neighborhood of 107. 107.2 is the number. that happens to be the weakest level actually since february of last year when it was at 95.2. now, if we look at the present situation, it moved from a final read last month of 145.1 to 153

an improvement, by the way, the headline number lower also last month 110.5 now 107.2. jumping towards expectations, i don't have that level yet. last month it was 87.5 and finally, job openings and labor turnover, joaknown as jol, 11 million it's not higher than the high-water mark which was december of last year at 11,448,000 these records go back to december of 2000 we tcontinue to have a surge in openings remember, quints have been moving up a little bit and started moving down in december and if we remember the last jobs report, wages have moderated just a bit these are all important to match those openings with ultimate

applicants finally, i do see the expectations on the conference board 76.6 76.6 sequentially, following an updated revised 80.8 so, carl, we do see that interest rates around the globe really heated up this morning. they have moderated a bit. boon deals responding to some of the better peace talks purportedly going on monitor 70 basis points and the ten-year boon and continue to acknowledge there is six basis points that now separates two-year note yields from ten-year note yields carl, back to you. >> watching that closely thank you. good tuesday morning welcome to another hour of "squawk on the street." >> i'm carl quintanilla with morgan brennan and david faber bulls are trying to rick's point to take advantage of the headlines regarding the latest round of ceasefire talks s&p highest since mid-january and i will to is trying to dip below 100. opec plus coming up on thursday, morgan. >> yes

meantime, 30 minutes into the trading session. three big movers that we are watching fedex announcing that founder fred smith is stepping down from the ceo post june 1st. he will be replaced by the current president and coo. we are going to have a lot more thoenz leadership changes a little bit later this hour shares are up 4% now nielsen holdings, those shares are also surging agreeing to be acquired by a private equity consortium for $28 per share the deal with worth 16 billion, including assumed debt shares up 21%. and the world's largest company, apple. aiming for the 11th straight day of gains this will be the longest winning streak for the mega-cap stock since 2003 shares up 1% carl. >> meantime, turning to russia and ukraine, as we said holding another round of ceasefire talks today. kayla has the latest good morning >> good morning, carl. the first round of such talks in two weeks and there are a few

different developments that suggest a potential softening of russia's owe six, including dropping the demand of denatsfication for ukraine, refocusing the russian military effort around the eastern part of the country, not the cities, and suggesting president vladimir putin would be open to meeting president volodymr zelenskyy if there is a draft peace agreement in place ukrainian negotiators outlined its proposals that it made to russia this morning, that if kyiv were to become naught result, countries like france, turkey and israel would guarantee its security the goals at a minute fumble for ukraine were to establish and enforce safe humanitarian corridors and at most to see a ceasefire and complete withdrawal of russian troops last hour president biden convened a call with leaders of uk, france, germany, italy we believe that call is still

jon going and are waiting any readout from the white house later in the morning president biden will be meeting with the prime minister of singapore with possible coordination on new sanctions against russia being discussed. asked whether singapore could join in to exact more economic punishment on russian, a senior administration official said just to watch that space morgan. >> thank you. stocks getting a boost on the positive talks joining us rockefeller global family office cio jimmy change and andrew good morning to you both jimmy, i'll start with you i mean, we have seen a pretty incredible bounce in equities in recent weeks the fact that we have regained all of the losses from when russia did invade ukraine. just give me a sense of where you think the market is headed from here whether this rally is for real >> two things. you look at the bigger picture, it's difficult to argue for a lot of further upside from this

point onward you look at the big picture, we have the war is conflicting in europe, 77 years with the heiighest inflation readings in four decades here. we have the most hawkish fed tightening cycle getting started a and they have not gone down to five with quantitative tightening and u.s. consumers compared to a year ago where we were flush with stimulus checks are struggling with higher gas, food and shelter costs. so overall i think it's a pretty challenging macro environment where at this point i think in the near term the downside risk potentially outweighs the upside potential. >> andrew, how do you see it >> well, my view basically is it's a third year coming out of recession just like last year with consistent second year, the third year tends to be a single-digit return yore because you have a battle between fed pivoting, but good corporate fundamentals and so i think at 4,200, which

where the market was a couple weeks ago, i said, hey, fundamentals are going to come in strong. but as we get up to basically where we started the year, i think the upside becomes more limited and so i think you, you know, you want to be a little more cautious at this level. so don't get too optimistic. don't get too pessimistic. take advantage of the pull backs because in a single-digit type returning year, which is what i think we will have this career, you are going to have more volatility to take advantage. >> i am hearing caution from both of you which raises the question where do investors put their money to work this this market the argument or i guess the narrative has surfaced in recent days that u.s. equities have seen the moves to the upside that they have because it is sort of seen as maybe one of the best places right now to put your money to work >> yeah, i think the expectations in a more challenging environment, as andrew said, don't expect to swing for the fence.

but i prefer to stick to the quality names, you know, those that generateent free cash flow growth, dividend payoff stocks and also with long/short equity strategies that net short in a tougher environment that allows you to go on the offense >> andrew, similar question to you. given we're moving back to almost flat on the year, as you pointed out, what sectors do you think will benefit through the rest of this year? >> well, at these levels, david, you know, i think what you said earlier, david, is right, which is that the market validating we are going have good corporate fundamentals this year i think that's accurate. i get a little bit more cautious up at these levels i suspect we'll have another chance to get more aggressive, you know, later this spring into the summer at lower levels and then i'll want to buy more of the cyclical value stocks

because i suspect there will be another kind of, you know, another scare out there, another recession scare. so at these levels, if i have to put money to work, i want to make sure they are in the lower beta, lower risk because i don't see a lot of upside at these levels and i think there will be a better chance to get aggressive later this spring >> andrew and jimmy, thanks for joining us today the s&p hovering just below 4,600. shanghai is still in lockdown this as china attempts to combat a surge in covid cases in the country. eunice yoon has latest for us. good morning >> good morning, david shanghai officials announced more explicit rules for residents saying that those who are locked down on east side of the city cannot leave their homes unless they want to go out for a covid test so that means no walking around in hallways, no throwing out the

trash, and no walking your dog so authorities have vowed this clampdown would minimize the economic impact because shanghai is so important economically, the ports as well as the airports and the shanghai stock exchange, all of them are open however, manufacturers, shippers, and logistics firms have been reported that warehouses in particular have had some trouble in addition to that, the trucker capacity has been very, very limited, and then on top of that there has been a lot of concern about the -- generally the across board requirements for -- have raised fees so those are some of the issues that a lot of the companies have been facing. in fact, maersk had said that it's seeing problems where the trucking capacity is down by

30%. so shanghai though is trying to offset some of those problems, rolling out relief for companies. $22 billion in tax breaks measures also to cut costs like pushing online delivery firms to reduce fees and subsidies for retailers and front line workers for regular covid tests. the chinese state media has been playing quoting local economists saying the city's gdp could be cut by half a percent in q1 and q2, but that nationally this isn't going to become a big issue, it's going have minimal impact, it says. however, as evidence that officials have been rethinking or tinkering with the zero covid approach, shanghai updated its guidance for the covid strategy, including a line, david that, said the city would support the import of covid vaccines and therapeutic drugs. so this the first time that the

idea of using an imported vaccine has been inserted in a mainland chinese guidance on covid. so it also comes as shanghai is being seen and touted by the state media as a testing ground for a new chinese approach on covid. so you could see, david, how the authorities here are trying to find a new way to deal with the reality on the ground, which is they are seeing a much bigger spread. >> eunice, some of these things are so draconian, not being able to take out the trash or your dog. what is compliance like? is everybody sort of obeying do you have any sense, come on, i can't adhere to that >> there are people who want to be able to not adhere to that. there are some people who have been very frustrated you can see that online. you could also see that on the

streets. however, for the most part, you are forced to comply it's really difficult not to comply not only because of the community, but also because there are a lot of officials and technical issues with your phone, for example, that would make it much more difficult for you later because of, say, a change in your health code or something if you don't comply. carl >> all right eunice, thanks so much for that. as we take a break here, a roadmap the rest of the hour more on the big c-suite shuffle at fedex fred smith stepping down. plus, we will talk with former energy secretary ernest moniz on russia and the price of oil. of course, it is sliding today in trading. and defense stocks sliding as well amid today's rally lockheed martin, northrop grumman and others are all in the red. we will tell you why

more "squawk on the street" straight ahead don't go anywhere.

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welcome back to "squawk on the street." watching fedex shares which are trading up about 4.5% now, the delivery company announcing founder fred smith will step down as chief executive come june 1st president and coo raj subramaniam will succeed him with smith who is currently chairman the of the board. who is raj subramaniam he is a three-decade veteran of

fedex. he has held a number of senior roles before becoming coo in 2019 and elected to the board before the pandemic in early 2020 really signaling he as heir apparent to take over. subramaniam has orchestrated or been heavily involved in some of fedex's most significant strategy shifts in recent years, including the move to cut ties with amazon as that company pilt out its own logistics and transportation network somebody i discussed with him in february of 2020. >> if you look at the marketplace, 2016 there are 50 million parcels per day in the united states. we expect that market to grow to 100 million parcels per day by 2026 there is a lot of growth the second thing is that we have a very, very diversified customer segment from small, medium and large businesses and they are growing with us it's a lot easier to manage when you are not dependent on one customer and i think they know it's a much better strategy over the long term. >> yeah, of course, we know,

david t that that was a painful break that took place over quite a number of months between the two companies and very opposite tact to what we have seen play out with u.p.s., which has picked up market tshare. wall street, i would say, not surprised to hear about this succession plan and the leadership change especially since smith had stopped participating in a regular way on earnings calls. jpmorgan noting that they expected this to be a positive catalyst for the stock many analysts did, but they are now focused on the investor day that's coming up and the ability to articulate a credible ground margin improvement program and generate meaningful synergies. really in recent years against chief rival u.p.s., it does have his work cut out for him. >> without a doubt and there is, as you pointed out, fraus u frustration among shareholders in terms of respective revenue numbers that are very close, u.p.s. and

fedex. but market caps that are far apart with u.p.s., obviously, a far larger company many saying fedex, morgan, is not as profitable as it should be and they spend too much on their planes and their network, their free cash flow conversion, simply too low as i brought up in the past, the prospect of an activist unclear whether any of this was related to that, but from what i understand and hear at this point it doesn't in any way deter the possibility of somebody challenging the company to improve operationally and in fact by removing the prospect of having a fight over mr. smith's role as ceo might emboldened potential activists to come forward. we'll see. we got a little bit. the window doesn't open until may. it is not a staggered board, as you well know. >> yeah. and certainly this is a conversation that has been happening on wall street in general in recent weeks. i think the citi note regarding the succession plan touching on

the possibility of an activist investor, although i think the analysts there put those odds still fairly low but it speaks to the fact that there have been some growing pains for this company, even as we've seen the huge surge, carl, in e-commerce growth the last wel couple of years amid the pandemic >> yeah. certainly hasn't hurt the transports, which are now positive for the year along with other big names like apple and tesla going green for 2022 as we go break, a look at shares of robinhood jumping this morning as they open up trading from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. until today. users could only trade 30 minutes before the open and two hours after the close. robinhood says the move is a step towards its goal of 24/7 investing and shares up almost 15%. more "squawk on the street" continues after the break. - o open up my diploma from southern new hampshire university. - i'm nervous, i'm excited. - [man] okay, let's see it.

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for semiconductor manufacturing in the u.s it's one of the last year's winners but underperformed the s&p so far this year to the tune of about 5% or so. joining us now, co-founder tjx rogers who always has a thing or two to say about the government and chips. so i'll start on that. 52 billion, the government getting involved, t.j. does industry need its hor shoul it forge this problem on its own? >> on its own. you just told me 52 million. >> billion. >> 52 billion, yes intel has 100 billion. tmc 105 and samsung is talking about 200. so, okay, fine you get an extra dollop of money that you can't spend for a couple of years because it takes a couple of years to build buildings. and in return for that, of

course, there will be the strength of things you have to do, new indices you have to watch. i wish the government would get the hell out of the semiconductor industry and stay the hell out they never helped. their efforts in the past have been harmful to the semiconductor industry last boon doing the like this was a disaster that everybody agrees is a problem. joe biden is not going to help anybody to go anything just stop this stuff it's stupid. >> okay. stop it, it's stupid you mentioned semitax. give me more sense i know having spoken to you how you feel about these issues. specifically on this, what is the downside of the government being involved >> okay. let's take them. last time they got they said the japanese are going to overrun us didn't happen. we have to help you, otherwise they will doing it didn't happen.

let's give you a lot of money. we gave none to the semiconductor industry they took a government length time hiring a government group of people to build a plant in austin, texas, the thing got built on a slow scale. by the time it was ready to go it was obsolete because the private economy moves way faster than government speed. the government is not going to keep up with it. they subsidized it a couple more years and then gave it away. during that time my company, i was trying to buy a member, one of the things that they did that was outright harmful, we were trying to buy, like everybody else, fab equipment. and i remember my team calling me from the company and saying we're not allowed to look at the most advanced etcher, it's in the back room. only semi tech members could look at it they took the money and gave a bunch of contracts to the equipment industry and tried to prevent equipment going to everybody else but sem pi tech

members including companies unsubsidized like mine this is the stuff that goes on when you have the government involved you read about every day if you read about it ten years, you don't believe it, i'm talking to at deaf but this is not going to help. >> because, tjx, why i mean, if we agree that we are too reliant on foreign powers for chip supply, is this something that you believe that the industry can solve on their own in a decent amount of time or do you think that maybe the government's gonna subsidize this and we will wind up with oversupply and it becomes too cyclical >> okay. reasonable question. first of all, the supposition behind the question is wrong at face value we have this dumb semiconductor industry going along, not doing the right thing, and now the government is going to come in

and help if they help, they will throw money of a it. we know throwing money at anything really makes it better. of course, then they do things like i just described. this $52 billion, the companies have a lot of money. they don't need money. of course, they are not stupid somebody walks around and says, here, i got this free check, you have yet another generation of -- the semiconductor industry the semiconductor industry by self has changed the earth you have more chips in your car today than existed on the face of the earth, you know, when i went to college. okay that has changed the earth it changed the earth and it got done by private industry in a free market. if you don't believe in it, you go through the platitudes of government health, government intervention, government clearing the way, all of the government industry partners, my favorite you go through all of those

illogical discussions and conclusions. the government needs to help the poor old semiconductor industry. we don't need help we don't want help stay out of silicon valley. >> so, tjx, key question where are we at in terms of supply and supply chains how quickly can those be rectified especially if you don't have government funding involved >> first of all, another presumption. government funding can fix the supply chain wrong. not true never was true never had a possibility of being true secondly, how did the supply chains get screwed up? okay t his name was donald trump. donald trump played games withtives. now, i am not arguing some of his motives, for example, correcting china's behavior weren't reasonable but he did it by bashing people over the head. i don't know why he had to put a trifon french cheese and wine, by the way, in order to do it. he played cowboy with the tariffs and wrecked a bunch of the supply chains. they are extremely valuable,

extremely not well understood. and when they get -- and they take years to create when they get trashed by government, this is not government health, this is government harm. when they are trashed by government it takes a long time to put them back together. yes, they will get put back together it won't be some trade thing with some politician waving at the cameras. it will be businessmen spending weeks in foreign countries living in hotels cutting deals, trying to reconnect the supply chains that have been trashed by the government >> tj, always good to get your thoughts on these things thank you. >> sorry to supply this happiness this early in the morning, guys. this is the wrong thing. don't do it. >> i think our viewers definitely picked that up from you. thank you. >> you're welcome. after the break we will talk with former energy secretary ernest moniz crude oil slipping today, down

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update at this hour. it appears progress has been made between russian and ukraine after they met in turkey a reduction in military activity near kyiv. he said russia wants to in his words increase mutual trust for future negotiations. a white house official tells nbc the u.s. is seeing some movement of troops away from the capital city but warns russia could change plans at any moment meanwhile, the war continues seven people were killed by a missile attack when a government building in a southern port city

russia has unsuccessfully tried to capture this is video from a security country mounted on building that was hit. and just over an hour ago president biden started a call with the leaders of france, germany, italy and the united kingdom to talk about the latest development at the same time several european countries announced they are expelling some russian diplomats and for the first time in five months a public appearance for queen elizabeth. she attended a memorial for her late husband prince philip held in london's westminster abbey. that's the latest. carl, back to you. >> thank you. turning back to the energy markets this morning, crude oil nearly a two-week low as russian and ukrainian delegates meet in istanbul for the latest round of peace talks which reports are have described as constructive former u.s. energy secretary, ernest moniz good to have you back. good morning. >> pleasure. >> a lot of unknown knowns right

now, but i wonder whether or not you think oil is close to a period where it can once again become trading on fundamentals >> i think the price is likely to remain volatile for a while any apparent progress, any event that goes in the opposite direction screamsens the price dramatically i think we are a fair amount what i would call the fundamentals, and i think it will be a while yet. >> what do you make so far of europe's early efforts to pivot away from russian supply with the help of the u.s. is that going to work? >> i think it will in the lornger term i am assuming that the nord stream 2 gas pipeline will probably be permanently delayed, shall we say, and the agreement with the united states particularly to build up to a stable 50 billion cubic meters

per year of gas by 2030 is a big deal and we can in principle handle that. it represents a significant part of the expected lng export capacity in the united states, but working with europe, working with japan, south korea, in general our asian allies as well, i think we can manage this and as far as oil goes, russia is now beginning to find a shortage of buyers and so that oil is coming off the market and that's another possible source of volatility in the weeks ahead. >> secretary moniz, are you surprised to docio peck standing pat, as it were, or at least claiming apolitical card where russia is concerned right now and where output levels are? >> i'm somewhat surprised. on the other hand, i have to say that -- and i said this before -- that our allies in the

region, i mean, allies, i don't mean in a formal sense, but the saudis, the emirates, for example, who have a huge impact on the oil markets, they have not been entirely happy, frankly, with the united states' posture on various threats that they are living under. for example, missiles and drone attacks from the houthis, including on iranian -- on saudi oil infrastructure quite recently so i think there is -- i think we are responding. i think there is room there for better understanding on both sides, and that could influence the oil markets. >> mr. secretary, why don't we, when it comes to electricity generation talk more about nuclear power nowadays they are decommissioning plants in germany, doesn't produce

carbon i know you studied this closely. give me your thoughts. >> i certainly think nuclear power particularly advanced nuclear power, the new generation of reactors, first of all, we have to get them out and demonstrated and there are some financing gaps there but once we do that, i believe this can and should be an important part of going to low carbon and doing so effectively in a secure way. now, i think the realization that we need to support the existing nuclear power plants, it really has become adopted fairly broadly i think the real challenge will be in getting the new generation of power plants built to scale by, say, mid-century, so that it can be an appreciable contribution to firm power, firm no carbon power.

i say firm because i think there is also a realization in the last several years that we will not be able to get a resilient, reliable, low carbon electricity system based only on variable sources, weather dependent sources like wind, for example they will be very important, wind and solar we expect major, major growth in those sources. but it must be accompanied by firm power for a reliable resilient system, nuclear power both nuclear fission, like today's reactors, and i might add for the future nuclear fusion will supply that kind of firm base load power. >> yeah. even though the japanese coming around on some of the nuclear support. finally, mr. secretary - >> the japanese, very important point. the japanese public has reversed position >> yeah. finally, when you look at retail gasoline prices here in this

country, the white house has been critical of gasoline energy providers when you judge wholesale prices versus retail, but could you think that spread is working efficiently right now? >> well, frankly, the kinds of you increases that we see in gasoline prices are reflective of the change in crude oil prices, which is set on the international market and as we discussed earlier, is experiencing volatility right now. but if you look at the difference, you know, and maybe the -- those tuning in should know that a barrel is about 42 gallons and if you look at the difference of prices from a year ago to today, 50, $60, it pretty much reflects the increase in gasoline prices. >> all right we'll see what summer driving season does to demand. obviously, a lot of people going to be driving as, hopefully, we get back to work as well mr. secretary, appreciate it thank you. >> thank you

bye. as we head to break, a check on defense stocks with names like lockheed martin, northrop grumman, general dynamics, raytheon technologies, l3harris and others sliding again in today's trade. space missiles shipbuilding stand to benefit from president biden's new defense spending proposal for fiscal 2023 however, that proposal includes a 4% increase for defense spending for next year and that is a number experts say is not enough to offset inflation depending on your gauge, let alone account for geopolitical risks. wall street and washington analysts already predicting another continuing resolution, which impacts defense stocks hence, the red on your screen. we're back in three.

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buying up millions of dollars of bitcoin and that may be helping

prices this week kate rooney will fill us in. >> a crypto project called tara a major buyer of bitcoin building up reserves for a stablecoin to the price of a dollar the project confirming it bought another 135 $1 million worth of bitcoin bringing its total to roughly $1 billion and unlike other so-called stablecoins, it's not backed by cash or cash equivalents it's going to be partially backed by bitcoin. the ultimate goal, according to the founder, is to build up $10 billion worth of reserves. and terra is among the five top blockchains out there. it has more going on there is a number of other cryptocurrencies and initiatives. one of those is the popular cryptocurrency called luna the stablecoin i mentioned ust has grown to a $16 billion market cap

analysts i'm talking to say all of this is likely to catch the attention of u.s. regulators and it may not sit well. there has been a couple of warnings so far out of washington about stablecoins and the risk to financial stability. it is worth noting that this project is based in south korea and its dowfounder was subpoenad by the s.e.c. but also sued that agency in response so the idea of this new steady demand is helping the narrative around bitcoin the so-called whales adding to the balance sheets and holding for the long-term is seen as a bullish sign for crypto markets. in addition to that demand, microstrategy saying that it closed a $205 million bitcoin collateralized loan to purchase, you guessed it, guys, more bitcoin. carl, back to you. >> getting very meta here, kate. coming up this morning on "techcheck," downgrades for pinterest and etsy we will talk to the analysts behind some of those calls as we said, apple trying to make it 11 positive sessions in a

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breaking news from the fda let's get to meg tirrell hey, meg >> hey, carl the fda authorizing second booster doses from fda let's get to meg tirrell. >> the fda authorizing second booster doses from pfizer biontech and moderna for every adult in the u.s. over 50 as well as immunocompromised folks. they can go out and get the second boosters if they're four months from their last booster dose this happening for both pfizer and moderna, just them as of right now. not expanding the j&j additional boosters ers at this point. this had been expected and fda saying it is because of additional evidence that a booster could protect from severe disease against covid doesn't appear to be safety concerns with doing so we know because this had been

telegraphed and reported by "the new york times" and our colleagues in the news earlier this week. folks over the age of 50 are probably trying to decide, is now the time to get this additional boost the fda holding media availability later this afternoon. we'll bring more information as we get it. david? >> yeah. we were talking about that at the desk right here, when to potentially consider going and getting a fourth shot. is the government still paying for this how long will that be the case >> yeah, that's a really important question right now, the government is still paying for this. these are available under emergency use authorization. so only the primary series are cleared through full approval and could potentially transition into a more transitional vaccine provision market right now, they are all provided by the government. however, if fourth doses are recommended broadly for the general population, the government has said they don't have enough funding to provide all of those doses for everyone. they need more funding from congress, and if we need to change the vaccine for the fall, for example. right now, they have enough

doses for this group. >> meg tirrell, thank you. space getting a boost from the biden 2023 fiscal budget not just on the defense side nasa would receive $26 billion, that's up 8% from the 2022 enacted level, including a doubling in funding for commercial space stations versus last year's request. axiom space is positioned to build a habitat. right now, it is preparing for its first human space flight with spacex and nasa to send the first ever all private crew to the iss next wednesday this is something i discussed with axiom ceo and co-founder mike suffredini. >> if you look at the long-term plan, it starts with this small, multi-purpose space station. it evolves to a larger space station. we separate from iss when it is retired, take all the already happenings on iss and move it over so it can keep growing. we grow the economy from there in fact, in the second half of the century, we expect to have a

city, really what we call a city in space, rotating station if you look at the way we're positioning ourselves, it's all about being this provider of this access to lower earth, a place to benefit from microgravity and also learn how to live off the planet so when you think about it that way, wow, tourism in space doesn't seem like much, it is just a piece of many customer bases. >> don't call this mission space tourism. he says the missions, the first of level, will help form space station development. axiom has a deal with nasa to attach private modules beginning in 2024. they'll detach, become a free-flying outpost. but our discussion also coming amid the backdrop of the ukraine war, which has raised questions, thanks in part to recent tweets by russia's space agency head, about the future of iss, which represents a longstanding

partner shiepship between the un russia. >> we kind of represent an opportunity for the u.s. to be a little more independent of the russian segment, not that that's something we have to do. once we show up, we can provide attitude control and translation, which is what the rest of the segment with do for the stack that the u.s. segment cannot do. >> you can catch more of my conversation with mike now on "manifest space. it is available whatever you get your podcasts. david? >> thanks, morgan. want to give people a quick check on the markets, of course. this morning, we got some what are certainly positive headlines, along with some progress being made. talks between ukraine and russia might actually result in russia stopping certain of its hostilities in parts of that country. the market is responding, as you might expect oil is down sharply. equity markets are up, as you see with the s&p 0.66, the gain there nasdaq now down only, morgan,

7.2% for this year well-ofs and off its lows. we're going to continue our equity and opportunity coverage today. looking ahead to the year 2288 266 years from now that's when the world economic forum estimates we'll reach gender parity in education less than a quarter of board seats are held by women, and only 15% of executives are female, lagging the larger 350er peers. joining us to discuss, a strategist behind the report, jill kari hall thank you for being with us today. when you calculate it like that, 267 years to reach gender parity in employment and education, i mean, it makes my brain hurt what did your research yield >> thanks for having me. i think there's been, obviously, a ton of research out there

about the economic implications of, you know, the wage gap and inequality with respect to gender and other factors and economic implications there. covid also exacerbated many of these factors. you know, had a more abreggress im3pact on bimminorities and won we've also found some interesting takeaways of the corporate level. you know, unfortunately, we've seen a slowing of progress there in terms of, you know, the number of women on boards, as you mentioned, for when we look at s&p 500 companies or even smaller cap companies. the staffs were pretty much little changed versus a year ago. you know, even though they are up from a decade ago and progress has improved, we haven't seen much progress in the past year or so. i think the implications for

this is that, you know, a focus on diversity and equity and inclusion matters. we've actually seen that show up in financial results companies that have more women on boards or more women in management, focus more on equity programs have actually seen lower earnings volatility, stronger subsequent returns on equity, and often premium valuation multiples appears. >> that's the investment case to see more gender and diversity efforts. because you're talking about higher multiples, at least where caps are concerned, and talking about a better return on equity. what i found surprising in your report was that the quote, unquote, new economy sectors tend to lag the old economy sectors when it comes to these policies and benefits. >> yeah, when we looked at the sector level, the new economy sectors like tech, communication services, health care, they lag some of the more traditional

sectors on diversity, equity, and inclusion policies and benefits, even though they have better gender diversity at the board level or in their workforces so that was one implication we saw at the sector level. when we looked more broadly at sectors in terms of who ahead and who is behind, utilities has been generally one in both large and small caps has seen better gender diversity at the board level. has ranked a bit better on the diversity, equity, and inclusion metrics. energy is one sector, at the other end of the spectrum, that has been further behind and may have more catching up to do. certainly, a lot of room for progress a lot of room for this to have implications on subsequent financial results, asmentioned really, we've seen that it can impact performance, as well. companies that have had tr controversies, we've seen underperformance relative to the market.glassdoor they

that, companies with better culture scores, this has been a driver of employee satisfaction and more so than compensation. i think focusing on these factors has very clear implications for financial results, for employee satisfaction, and in many cases, for performance. >> well, jill carey hall, we appreciate your insights and your research. thank you for joining us to break it down. >> thank you. david, just taking another check on the markets we are in rally mode again today. the dow is up 253 points s&p is up 33 points. 4,609 is where it is trading, and the nasdaq is up 1.1%. we're actually on pace for our first positive month of gains since the start of the year. i can't believe it, we're already talking about the end of the month and the end of the first quarter. >> yeah. earning season is soon to come, as well. as you know, morgan, important test for the market. notable prmoves today, apple has

been up 11 straight sessions, now in the green for the year. actually just negative for the year by 0.22%. tesla up again i am seeing a bid for some of thenames, so to speak, in ev, with rivian up 12.5% or more this morning still down 50% for the year. that'll do it for "squawk on the street." "tech check" starts now. good tuesday morning welcome to "tech check." i'm carl quintanilla with jon fortt. dierdre has th