knows. down about 27 points now. >> it's early in the morning if you had told me, i would forget. >> you would forget. maybe i'll count on that and do something to both of you let's see. make sure you should tune in for that right now "squawk on the street" is next. good thursday morning. welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer david faber is on assignment say goodbye to g 1 longest quarter every wrote b of a. a potential record release from oil spr. road map begins with energy. the oil line opec stays the course and the u.s. nears the historic release of reserves recession risks. jpm said not this year why the bank said the u.s. is poised to weather the inflation storm. then meme volatility

amc's gains for the week have been cut in half we start with oil under pressure and the president considering huge reserve releases. jim, they're talking a million a day for 180 days up 5% of the daily consumption. >> right we can easily take our consumption up we have a lot of wells drilled but not in production. i've looked at all the spr releases wait one day, buy oil stocks. >> because we did one in november iea did one. >> right it doesn't have any real impact on the market. by the way, what what happens a lot of oil companies immediately take their production and you can sell it anywhere we are still producing probably a million barrels less than we can every single day and that's because a decision by our major oil companies to hold back and return money to shareholders those are the things you buy when you get that kind of thing.

that's what they do. they're looking mostly -- most of the oil companies are looking to curve showing oil will be lower this time next year why would you start drilling now if you know a year from now, it'll be lower. >> right even the back end of the curve would be a profitable price. >> oh, yeah. they're making -- it's costing $30 to $40 on average. >> 80s. >> right they are going to get a variable dividend for the independence is probably between 7 to 9% so you may think that the yield curve -- did i mention 2z and 10z. i like to confuse everybody. i don't think there has to be -- is every single person confused? it's predicted -- we don't talk about that if you think that are rates are high you'll get a better return by owning oils they'll be down today. >> opec, of course, meeting, as well the next meeting is may 5th. looks like they'll stick to

about 400,000 plus boost. >> yeah. i don't understand why we have not been able to have any impact the president biden has not had any impact on them i think we speak softly and don't carry a stick. i think that's opposite of what tr did i find we're not effective with some of these allies that doesn't really compute. >> we're trying to reach out to the saudis a bit more. >> yeah. >> ha huge russian influence at opec plus. >> yeah. it's interesting how much russia is considered to be an important country. if you take away their natural gas to germany, which we will at this time next year because of the flood of new energy. we have huge projects that are sending a huge amount to europe that when i spoke to someone from an oil company, they --

russians will have no leverage this time next year. if the germans were to recommission some of their coal plants they took out and change their plan, russia would not be a factor this year in this career. >> all right well, lavrov, for example, going to deli today as india continues to buy russia -- >> yeah. they're probably no worse -- the worst enemy we have now when it comes to russia. it's extraordinary. >> the ruble's rebound has been driven, in part, by the oil sales. >> i know. >> the central bank intervention. >> yeah. >> you think we're going to chip away >> paper tiger it's becoming a paper tiger. we have bad supply chain issues in this country. you have a problem in your car, you're probably not getting a part they have supply chain issues in russia, too, but we decided let's have a race to berlin in 1944 i don't know why we insist other than the fact they have nukes,

they look like argentina, to me. no one wants to hear that. we sent over 100 of the switchblades i've operated a switchblade. this is the environment. switchblade goes up and has 40 minutes. it looks at heat signature then it kills whoever is doing the operating the artillery. this has been lagged because right now we have about five mile range to be able to wipe that -- the artillery is further. we sent a hundred. why not send a thousand? i think jake sullivan, the national security advisor, now i speak with people in the pentagon, and they just wish we didn't have some, like, you know, kind of like background. >> right. >> he looks like my background believe me, i didn't fight like my father. >> page one of the "times" talks about u.s. and uk intelligence suggesting that their tensions inside the kremlin

putin is not getting reliable information. the troops on the ground are -- >> they don't -- >> sabotaging their own operations >> and in chechnya before putin took over, the troops in russia would sell bullets to the enemy in order to make money and then they would run it i'm not hearing anything good about this conscripted army. the united states decided not to allow ukraine to call offensive. they're basically seeing the eastern part why this is, i think it's because jake sullivan is, again, jake sullivan is, like, it's like me running the army i mean, you know, hey, i would ask my dad he was in the army what do i do how about the pentagon the pentagon was once wanting to arm ukraine. they're being consulted but my sources are saying -- actually my source are pretty good. they say if they listen to us, they can go on the offensive and wipe out russia because they've

got the spare parts but nato won't give them what they need why this -- i have a totally different narrative than what everybody else is saying i don't know, my father was a decorated veteran and people trust me. >> you've been hawkish but, i mean, the whole state defense split is a classic executive battle. >> right. >> it all resists. -- it always is. i keep coming back to the fact, if you think we have a supply chain problem trying to fix your nissan infinity, you should imagine what they have nobody is shipping i've got pictures of actual supermarkets where there's nothing! nothing. they're protesting every day in the 1994 chechnya war, they had a free press that's why the war ended because people saw how many people were dying and realized there was nothing in the supermarkets it's a complete blackout there are everywhere in russia are the same problems. you're not allowed -- i have

people on the ground sending me pictures there's nothing in the aisles. there's nothing in the feminine hygiene aisle. remember who sends everything to them us some of our companies spent years in trying to get in the aisles of supermarkets they got in there. russia doesn't make anything they make nothing. why don't people realize russia makes nothing. they're out of tank parts. >> a lot has been written about the population's tolerance for that it's been built up over the year. >> 1944 they had nothing this is not '44. okay >> right as you said to becky -- >> right it's not '44 like, the level of belief -- right now they have nukes, okay. but you want to believe in something. they've got nukes. they can do chemical because anybody can do chemical. we can do chemical when it comes to cavalry, you know, tank cavalry, they might as well be horse cavalry

why did we decide ukraine can't go on the offensive? i'm struggling with that. >> as you said, jim, they have nukes. >> yeah. give me $100,000 for my travel trust for red cross for ukraine. what i wouldn't want to do is give $100,000 to aero environment to send the switchblade 600. when i blew the 600, i can fly it you can fly it. >> obviously, it's been a huge dynamic for the quarter. we're entering the final trading session of the month and the quarter. it's been a strong march for stocks we are on pace -- the s&p, at least, jim, for the first quarterly decline in a couple of years. >> yeah. i mean, it's been close. >> we have a lot of companies that really had amazing performance in the fourth quarter. i mean, like some of them -- someone when they weren't showing pictures of me being sodomized by gorillas. i'm trying to get limited by twitter, but so far they think it's free speech but i'm seeing people hating me

for liking nvidia. in invade -- nvidia is not doing well this year it represented what a lot of people were doing in the fourth quarter, which is buying the stocks the stocks didn't do well. instead what people did is buy the oils you know, nike is a good example. the stock went down from 120 and came back. >> i'm sure you read cass last night as home depot -- >> the cfo, they're not doing nearly as bad as people think. >> and we haven't yet mention much of the calls. one is -- >> yeah. barclays came in and ever slashed. dallas fed did the piece there was a giant bubble in housing. you know, if you bought a house in the sun belt and it was a $40,000 house, you probably paid $500,000 it's probably unsustainable. i know the fed thinks it's unsustainable. that's what the rising rates -- mortgage rate of 5% will come

back the affordability for a home is misrabble in this country. >> bar clay's point is builder evaluations don't really bottom until you either exit a recession or rate speak. both of those things are probably not close. >> that's absolutely true. kbh is $2 above. kbh is $2 above the book value it sells at three times earnings the lowest in the s&p. well, it means that they're not going to make the estimates. when you see that, like, bethlehem steel sold at two times earnings now kbh is a strong company. i'm not saying that. you're going to see the earnings be a fraction of what people think. >> interesting note out of jpmorgan today not research but rather the desk they argue, jim, there will be no recession in the u.s. this year they say that $6 trillion in stimulus under trump and biden has been released. more than half is not yet spent. instead it sits in household and

government balance sheets, in their view, the u.s. is almost uniquely positioned to weather the storm that is inflation right now. >> i had pay chex on last night. it's the strongest it's been in years. >> continuing claims, again, you have to go back to the 60s. >> yeah. it'll be hard. it's not unlike steven seagal. it's hard to kill. i find the fed has the work cut out for them they want to slow down the economy. except for housing. >> your terminal rate in the 3s or something like that >> it's pretty good. let's understand, housing, indeed, punches above the weight it's 10% of the economy but it's possible to listen to gary friedman and say, listen, don't drink milk until late next year. he's calling for nuclear -- it's close to a nuclear war that was dr. strange he kind of stopped worrying. he has to start loving the bond. it was a disjointed conference -- i love gary. i sent him a nice note after the

conference call but it was like, oh, wow! >> in the furniture business >> i know. but he's got the guest house it's going to open up in the meat packing district and bethlehem steel in san francisco. he made me feel like don't venture outside. like when i had to stick my head in the hole in the cuban missile crisis that's what they made us do. >> that's what they did? >> yeah. we were next to the air force base a lot of planes went to cuba we were told to stick our heads in the cubby holes and no matter what happened, we would live i think that was probably suboptimal thinking. that's what we did all of our heads were in the cubby hole. >> we don't want to see the drills come back. >> no. we're going to watch this final trading session of the quarter. take a look at futures here. it's going to be actually break even for the quarter on s&p. $47.66 so unlikely that we get above it but the day is young

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getting some headlines on the tape from vladimir putin relatively vague here, but he said he signed some degrees on gas for ruble trade and that the buyers have to open ruble accounts in russian banks. jim, payments for gas supplies to begin on april 1st. they'll try to leverage what they have to sell. >> and prop up the ruble

it's obviously a currency that is your last resort. as long as the russians prop it up, you can do something if you want to pile anything that the civilized world is saying. i understand that china is not inclined in the last 48 hours, china has said, you know, good luck. we're not in favor of -- and not against. india continues to buy separate came out this morning and talked about they have a deal of natural gas there. obviously lng will be full anyone who thinks the lng won't overwhelm at this time next year it could be sped up, germany were not more complicit with the russians by keeping the decommissioned one of my guy said, listen, if they would stop closing the coal plants for 45 minutes, they -- germany would not need russia. the germans have been uniquely inefficient. i don't want to say they're

complicit because germany is part of nato they're not being very -- >> last night one theory about the president's expected announcement today on the spr was maybe to condition the market for a ban on russian energy in europe, right? >> i think that russia, you know, look, i don't think that -- that many countries should be inclined to pay transfer and buy rubles. india, a great democracy, isn't as being -- ah, i say anti-nato here the countries are doing so many crazy things and none is being reported on. i spend every hour on this stuff, carl. it's shocking how much lng we can ship there it's shocking the germans are acting 2838 energy plan is still on target. they think it's sunny every day there. what a bunch of fools. >> they are trying to get there.

they're starting to talking about rationing and telling consumers, you know, basf say if we can't get half behalf we need, we have stop production. >> my family is a big basfors, they'll get what they need the chemical companies and the auto companies actually run germany right now because merkel is not there it is just, i mean, they're in total disarray, the germans. they're in disarray. they don't know what to do the new leader -- it seems that he's not quite yet doing the right thing. >> he's brand new. >>well, i mean, why is poland -- poland, hungary -- maldives has probably taken more than they have it's hard to figure out what

charity to give to 1 $100,000 is not much in the grand scheme of things it keeps coming back to the red crosses. i want ed to give money to churches but no one is set up. no one is set up for the refugee crisis this is when germany should step up but poland stepping up. >> yes, they have. gnat gas on track for the best start for the year since 1990. we'll get am'smacrer "d dash" and count down to the opening bell on the final day of q1. don't go away. sure! ...after homework. thankfully, voya provides comprehensive solutions, and shows me how to get the most out of my workplace benefits. what's the wi-fi password again? here... you... go. cool, thanks. no problem. voya helps me feel like i got it all under control. because i do. oh, she is good. voya. well planned. well invested. well protected.

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reading about apple wanting to be bigger in finance is true it if they had their truthers they would like to take on american express it's not clear how much goldman was involved i think they want to -- everybody in typical fashion let's say you're in uber and want to take a trip. they would like that to be one on apple and be seamless. i think -- i've seen more and more of this the stock had a huge streak. when the streak was broken people said, oh, my. kind of like joe dimaggio. i think that apple is a hated stock. right here a lot of people got short because that's when we learned from the incredibly reliable -- they were cutting supplies remember when apple reiterated

they said the same thing do you think we would pick up the phone and say, guys, we're struggling here. no they switch constantly you never know i know all the ceos of the companies. they say, wow, we wish we knew what apple was doing. >> there are more headlines they're continuing to diversify chip suppliers and chinese players. >> oh, yeah. by the way, watch nokia. it's a winner in europe. because, again, people are trying to cut back on china. we have to realize our president is more in tune with what is going on with in the world everyonements to go american but we said tend to not be as proud as we should be, i think >>well, invoking the defense production act on mattering ev materials. >> you've been calling for that forever.

that was in the wheel house of elon musk. he said one day we would have a giant field of solar panels in northern colorado and supply the whole country. well, i think he's a little premature. he said it five years ago. >> most of his calls have been premature. >> but he's getting there. someone said he hates me that's untrue. i have developed -- i've -- he's right about twitter. there's free speech on twitter. >> we'll talk about tesla extending their shanghai production through tomorrow. >> it was 200 points below. >> yep he's doing everything right. he has spare parts e we'll get the opening bell in about four and a half minutes. catch us any time anywhere on the opening bell podcast don't go away.

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a year from now you'll see us move closer to consumerzation of health care we'll have access to data patients people from more health conscious since the pandemic we'll say i want to get my mri at this location versus that location because it'll save me and the insurance plan money, if i can decide i want to make sure a year from now, we're putting customers and patients in the driver's seat. >> that's walgreens ceo talking to bertha about the health care of the consumer. the company beats as demand for vaccines help to boost sales some discussion about a potential q2 slow down, jim, as covid demand ands. >> it could happen they have a new ceo -- [ applause ]

what do they do in order to be like cvs larry was criticized for all the money spent but it started to be brilliant. it's time for walgreens to buy -- [ opening bell and won the championship i thought that was still a down. it's good to see a little, i mean, maybe it's a little objective. >> we'll get mlb a week from today. that'll be nice. >> yeah! the mets doing it? they already won. >> they did? >> oh, yeah. yeah pretty good owner there spending a lot of money. [ laughter ] global m & a in q1 down 29%.

>> yeah. we've got nftc head who i think would try to block anything. you have to take a court case to them i want people to understand the anti-trust guy is not as anti-as the ftc. so sue the ftc if you can go against the ftc on a deal, i think you can win. so, look, i know it'll hurt goldman. they need it but they are sure things are okay i think you have to really watch us it's been a major problem. now there's fewer deals, thank heavens. we have less supply. the demand side was really bolstered by m & a you're seeing private equity deals. >> yeah. >> yeah. asia was down more than north

america. >> yeah. >> down 33 versus north america down 28. we're looking at the gainers for the quarter, jim energy some financials managed to make the quarter work maybe not the month. >> right i think squawk has the idea it might be a take over now that duck was asked we don't know why. we have a story. we did a story about pane opioid and how they found a pain alternative. i don't know if we have a clip i thought it was powerful. i think it's important but i think they have something against pain it's not addictive. i don't want it to be like house of pain. like the empire. >> yeah.

>> because they said perdue said they weren't addictive either. i don't know consumer electronics, jim, not only morgan stanley cut it to equal weight they cut dell to underweight. >> yeah. i thought it was odd not just consumer demand normalizing but the geopolitical uncertainty. >> yeah. hardware spend -- dell did not have a good quarter. we said business is strong dell is mostly enterprise. i don't want to go against the calls. dell has been down because the last quarter then they made the acquisition i'm not sure i want to step against that. >> yeah. on top of that you have barclays cutting amd to 23neutral.

they see them as a share gainer. talking about the risk and demand weakening i said the travel trust would sell some. the reason why, when you look -- been restricted. you look at the breakdown of amd. you have gaming which is not so -- we think has weakened. you've got pc, which is weakened but you've got high performance computing, which is strong then you've got the merger we don't know how it'll come out. soft of the businesses is slower than amd i'm not against, look, the downgrade. we wered a manned we would have sold a lot of amd. both to get to the distributions which i mentioned the money going to humanitarian in ukraine.

>> yeah. >> we predicted someone would downgrade it. >> yeah. we're about there. >> yeah. >> part of their line is that over time insell will play some catch up are you going that far >> you know, look i think intel has low end. they can flood the market. but with low end not with high end. the high end pc, like this pc, it has microsoft 11 is almost like you have to upgrade. >> you asked that. >> yeah. there's been ample evident that the 11 of microsoft 11 needs an upgrade. people are wondering about pat gelsinger because pat made some statements when he was in washington and his cash flow will go entirely to helping make us more semiindependent.

i think all systems go i don't like what he's saying. we're going to sell everything and raise money but i think the analysts are reacting to an old amd business the new rise in chip i think is doing well with micro. >> he said everything positive about 5g not positive about 4g. everyone decided what he said was negative for cell phone. it was the opposite. he's saying that 5g is getting stronger hp said enterprise is getting

stronger they're buying every share when it sets down. >> right i don't think -- if you're selling amd, which i said people are going to do, understand it's to be sold and i don't think the people of intel are ready for what pat gelsinger wants to do in order to be able to make us semiindependent. >> think you should be looking for the company and less with the country. >> exactly right. >> yeah. by the way, to know on the -- it's not up today. i think that people -- it already happened a lot of moves they put up have happened be careful don't pile on those. intel is at 51 it probably goes to 47 because if you're down -- the downgrade dell you should downgrade intel. that's who they sell to but i

don't know pat gelsinger is incredibly nice. >> yes yes. you made that clear. >> yeah. we didn't talk about the pvh. >> i was going to go there. >> morgan stanley cuts to equal weight it's mostly about the tax rate guidance. >> i know. they used the temple they were talking about maybe there wouldn't be enough -- they were talking about, like, cash issues and i was kind of aghast you know, they have a new ceo. stephan larson they don't do tv previously many would tell you everything it's time to refute the dire statements analysts are making and the downgrade was hideous. >> yeah. it will be taken down in sympathy. >> yeah. >> watch pvh we talked about it all week. >> yeah.

they determine pairing when i see it, it says look out! now that was just -- they wanted that stock lower larson must come on. he has to. now we often talk about, like, who comes on and when the times are good or bad. well, many came on to larson, i think one of the reasons the stock is so bad because people are very circumspect about his work now ralph lauren is doing well you're absolutely right. it's a depletely d-- completely down because of what pvh is doing. patrice is doing the opposite. i think that this is a power of all traits together. >> yeah. cruise lines cdc removing their most stringent travel warning. i think you have to think about disney they have a lot as a fleet they did the big meeting yesterday on disney world. i want people to start thinking

about them as being back in the business and, you know, franc del rio said that bookings are good for next year. i know that i want to do a cruise for the investing club. i do i do i do. >> yeah i think it would be -- fabulous i have reached out to franc del rio and said, listen, i want a ship three-day cruise where we talk about stocks i would do it all day and night! where would you want to go does it matter >> all i want is like they do with the electronic music -- >> like weezer. >> yeah. i'm happy -- you know, i'm happy to circle around i want the opportunity to have a cruise for people who want to talk stocks. also, want to go to las vegas,

of course. i don't care we have to talk stocks to everybody who wants to talk stocks that's what the club is about. >> no masks? >> he said, you know, when you really get to where you have to be, you have to do stock cruises. we're there! the club is going to go on a cruise. >> it's a fabulous i would assume you can do a live shot from there, at least. >> oh, no, absolutely. they have terrific wi-fi to me, we need to get dates. can you imagine how much fun would it be to talk stocks we had a couple of ceos who know about the stock market and get a couple of market technicians my wife said, listen, cruises are safe let's go >> jim, it's been a long time coming disney itself citi reiterates a buy about the series of notes about the management meeting early in the week. we're back down to 140. >> yeah. i try to get the die

-- guy. >> yeah. i think the company is frustrated go gambling. >> yeah. they haven't done gambling i guess their legend of jimmy the creek, they have to go all in. >> yeah. before we go to break, take a look at the bond report. we mentioned -- continuing claims the lowest since the 1960s. spending was a little weak as we keep our eye on consumer appetites now. 10-year yield back to 234. we're back in a moment

welcome back to "squawk on the street." rick santelli here live at cme hq our march read on chicago pmi. expected to be 57. a better number! 62.9 well above expectations. well above essential 56.3 in the rear view mirror now, i can say it's the highest level all the way back to this january when it was 65.2, but that really doesn't do justice to the notion that we have reversed that's a very good sign! interest rates have started to creep up 10-year note yields down every day this week. we see two year and three year, a short maturities now with higher yields, lower prices on the day. they just flipped. "squawk on the street" will returnft tseesge aerhe msas.

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congress, please act you have to act immediately. consequences without action are severe they'll only grow with time. >> that is the president yesterday pressing congress to approve emergency covid funding. mcconnell is doing an even today, jim, with punchbowl saying they want to pay for the package but might skinny it town from 15 to ten. >> one of the things that is sadly dysfunctional, those of us who looked into this, can't get any clarity from the nih or cdc about the actual booster that's supposed to happen, whether you should take it now, how long can you wait between the last shot so literally, and i have been trying to figure this out when i can take it. no one -- there have been no guidelines from the cdc about when you can take the booster versus not there are a lot of doctors who consider taking the booster too soon after the earlier so i think if we got clarity on the actual shot, much more

clarity on the package but the president doesn't speak to the cdc he doesn't speak to the nih. nih is often at odds with the cdc. this has continued since the first month of the crisis. >> huge lack of data relying on the israelis once again. "the times" suggested this week in their article about whether or not to get it, maybe time it to your travel this summer, literally saying if the duration is that short, maybe you wait until the fall or the summer or fall. >> i didn't bring up coin because people don't use change any more it's authoritative as the cdc. the cdc, by the way, in that interview on "60 minutes," shocking she cannot get data from our country. so they use israeli data. >> right >> yeah. directionless to a large degree. >> yeah, everyone's nice i have dealt with all of them. they had that -- they are like pat gelsinger. they are nice. like my ma said, if you're nice, that's all that matters. >> let's move on to developments regarding amazon and the ongoing

push to unionize deidre with more on that this morning. hey, d >> hey, guys, this is a key day for the small but growing unionization drive at amazon two elections. one at an alabama warehouse and, another at a staten island warehouse wrapping up. workers in bessemer, alabama, voted for the second time whether to join the rwsdu. this is a do-over after the board found that amazon improperly interfered in the union contest last spring. you may recall the controversy over the first vote. hinging on a warehouse mailbox organizers said to make workers feel like their votes were monitored. that went in amazon's favor. this time it was actually lower, 39% versus 55% last spring both- both mail-in ballots the public portion of the vote

is expected to begin this afternoon. meanwhile, in-person union voting at the staten island warehouse finished yesterday with ballot counting expected to begin today as well. a third warehouse in brooklyn is expected to vote later this month. what began as a small movement as gained traction it makes up a tiny proportion of amazon's now more than 1 million strong work force and even with a win at any of these locations, amazon is likely to appeal but this does, guys, represent thecompany's biggest labor challenge ever in the u.s. and could threaten its famous efficiency carl, jim, bezos has said in recent years now they want to be the world's number one employer. so this certainly is a challenge to that. >> yeah. what do you think? how much do they suffer from an efficiency standpoint if this happens at scale >> we know that the union workers are what everything is about. the same case with sfuks-starbucks, too if you can't tell the employees

when they work, you are not able to have much of an ability to be able to move product or move coffee and i think that people, the unions will be in charge of time that you need to work. and that would be dreadful for -- very dreadful for them. >> that is just the u.s. picture, right >> they got europe to think about as well. >> starbucks hassounianized places in the ones they franchised if you can't control the work pools, no one wants to work certain shifts you can say i am not going to work that shift and amazon would not be able to say yes you must work it. so that's what is at stake with union, is time that you have to work. >> thanks to d we will watching developments in new york. >> more on the "techcheck" >> yi imagine we will. this is a very important story because the reason why -- one the reasons amazon works so well is because people work when

amazon says you must work. >> "stop trading" today? >> i am taking a very hard look at boeing, okay? boeing is owned by the travel trust. there is some confusion. yesterday they had an order from china southern max, okay but it was not a real order. 39 planes was not a new order, but simply a confirmation. some people argue, wait a second, it's good that they confirmed rather than cancel i like that. ryanair interested in buying some, asl wants 20 freighters. ryanair previously blasted boeing and said we are not playing. so these are positives as a whole. mosaic for boeing, travel trust, we talked about it today at the 1020 meeting i don't think anyone to think that the china southern order is new. it was not new >> michael o'leary said he would be willing to pass on the ten following this dispute over pricing. we have to wait for boeing to be in a head space for talking about max 10s.

at the moment, a backlog, 777, tee zion delays, certification delays >> we have been selling some boeing we have a nice profit in it. not huge just because hoping for more from boeing at this point. certainly hoping 787, some good news but at least the chinese didn't cancel the order >> i mean, i tell you what it's not the picture you envision when travel returned in earnest. >> we bought boeing because we felt -- you could have bought booking.com or airbnb. but boeing has been stepping on its own toes for a long time we are all hoping, great american company, it returns to its greatness. >> how about tonight >> all right whoa we've got -- i'm going there i'm going to find out whether we are blocking cyber threats from -- there has been no cyber activity, it seems, i think

what's really happening is that we're in it. so i am going to ask ni nikesh arora supposed to be able to shut down our krooechlt so far russia should be able -- should worry about having stuff in their supermarket shelves. they look worse than the dollar general i went to that just opened where, like, hey, guys, where is the stuff and they ask you, would you like to work here i am telling you, russia, it's argentina. >> yeah, argentina with nukes. >> operationally poor. >> we have decided we've made them think they are 1944 they are not 1944. there is no zukof, okay? >> jim, see you at 6:00. "mad money" 6:00 p.m. eastern time as we are getting the final trading day of the quarter underway, just south of 4,600. ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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♪ good thursday morning. welcome to another hour of

"squawk on the street. carl quintanilla, morgan brennan, david is on assignment. final day of q1. dow down 125 a little bit of everything rebalancing, got earnings, plenty of eco data and watching the white house, morgan on this expected record release of oil from the spr. >> another big day for energy. we are 30 minutes into the trading session. here are three big movers we are watching walgreens, beating q2 forecasts comparable pharmacy sales 7%, helped by demand for covid vaccines still the shares are down 5.5% right now. we will have more on that later in the hour. plus, under pressure after the fcc added the company to the u.s. traded chinese stocks that could be delisted. shares down 7% now if the companies don't allow american regulators to review three years worth of financial audits we will see how that goes. and chip giant smd getting

downgraded to equal weight, pointing to cyclical risk in every send marks for amd and shares are also down 5.5%. carl. >> morgan, another big mover as you said is oil. the president reportedly considering huge reserve releases our brian sullivan joins us with now talk about what tit may mea and what the prior two might have meant brian. >> yeah, carl, a lot of at play. the spr in a second. i got to knock out the opec news very quickly by the way, speaking of quick, it was another quick opec meeting. they virtually met, we didn't see it, no press conference, nothing, they rubber stamped raising output by 432,000 barrels a day. they added 32,000. that's basically a rounding error. opec not bowing to u.s. pressure what's interesting about opec, they believe russia will produce 10.5 million barrels a day opec is not counting russia out

in any way okay so the spr news. the president today around 1:30 eastern time maybe expected to announce the release of maybe 180 million barrels of oil from the spr but not at once. one million barrels a day for up to six months. that would be the biggest ever release. wouldn't be the biggest ever at once, but the biggest total release. obviously, there is some that feel it would be dangerous to dump more on the market because inventories are already low. let's not forget, guys, the spr is there for an emergency like a hurricane or another kind of disaster so they probably don't want to drain it too quickly in case we get, you know, a hurricane or a disaster the keir hery is to replace lost russian barrels. i might blow your mind with this random but interesting stat. there are 17 or 18 tankers filled with russian oil on the way to america right now according to vortexa

buyers who bought in the 45-day window while we thought we had seen the last russian oil, we have not. more tankers on the high seas coming to america. point is that will end at some point, guys, because that window to buy is over once that 3%, 5% of u.s. oil, got to replace it. by the way, this news could be bullish for u.s. producers i'll tell you why. if youtello peck that we're going to release more oil but you are also sort of asking them to release more oil, why would they release more oil when you just said you're going to? so this could actually be very good news for some major u.s. oil drillers >> the part i keep coming back to is the fact when you have releases from the spr, and we have talked about this quite a bit, longer term doesn't that buoy the price of oil because you are going to have to replace it >> that's right. you are going to have to replace it that's a great point the spr has become -- and by the way, it was done in 2011 when

libya had a war. we can argue whether or not we can an oil crisis or not because of what's going on with russia the spr was there for true emergencies. mostly it was released the first eight or nine times strictly for hurricanes that, you know, blocked pipelines, cut off production, cut off distribution to make sure we can keep the wheels of america going. the spr has become, morgan, almost a political mechanism i know the biden administration loves the tool, the term tools in the tool belt this has now become a tool in the tool belt. but your point is taken. once they sell it off, it's not a swap it's likely going to be a sale which means you have to refill it prices are lower that's good. if prices for some reason are higher, maybe china reopens, starts using a bunch of oil, guess what then you got to refill it at higher prices. i have a feel, just a little cynicism here, morgan, this may

have something to do with what's going to happen november 8th there is an election, i'm told >> meanwhile, brian, you got putin who, obviously, feels there is enough demand for russian energy that he can demand that you open an account and have the transaction in rubles what does that mean? >> i was so afraid you were going to ask me that, carl, because i don't know actually i sent a note to leishman if you are out there, read your email. what does this mean? here's my question, carl is this putin's move to wedge in the banks by forcing companies to pay in rubles you have to convert to rubles. i know they are setting up a special account in some russian banks. i wonder if this is a trick that putin is using not just to boost the ruble, but to force western companies to deal with russian banks which are mefly sanctioned because otherwise i don't know how in the heck they are going

to transact in rubles. so i don't know. i am sort of speculating this could be a fancy way to get around some banking sanctions and firm up the ruble at the same time. but again that's just brian sullivan b.s who knows? steve leishman may know. >> we'll take it i mean, it's a little wonder that prime minister boris johnson said it's time to add more sanctions yesterday we'll find out a lot going on in the energy space. let's turn to tech stocks. apple's win streak coming to an an end today down 1%, back to 175 take a look at the biggest s&p laggards for the quarter etsy and paypal and netflix. joining us this morning independent solutions portfolio manager. good to see you both. >> good morning. >> paul, when you think back at

the quarter, is the bounce in tech that's happened in the latter half, is that long lasting? how much of a bargain was that that we saw in mid-february? >> so, for some names i think it's a great buying opportunity. at the beginning of the broadcast you highlighted the amd down so much today on the sell side, downgrade that's an example of one that you could swiftly ocome in and guy buy now. what happened in the first quarter in 2022 is we are outing a lot of very expensive covid-only-driven unprofitable companies. so those will be down and out and they might be down and out for some time, but other companies that don't show the characteristics actually i think are great buying opportunities, amd just one of them. >> quickly, you also think micron is important. why, paul? >> micron is probably one of my favorite ideas here is a company that just announced results the other day and despite all of the headwinds

and the headwinds are obvious, not just united states, but globally, this company may do $10 in earnings per share this year, up from six last year. it's trading at seven times. and i think the growth rate for both revenue and earnings per share are going to accelerate in the out year i have been at this a long time, since the '80s this is one of the best long-term bargains, not a comment on the short term that i have seen in my career. >> tom, i want to get your reaction to that given your coverage universe. you have been running screens to see where you see winners and losers in this environment. >> when i think about the stocks that will do well in the june quarter, you mentioned etsy had a challenging march quarter. for me etsy and overstock. we have seen a slowdown in the home e-commerce space, but including from way faye.

the big news intercontinental exchange placed a executive in t zero, they are going to have a may 10 analyst day highlighting bl blockchain investments for etsy, the reason i think it had a weak march quarter is they are lapping the stimulus checks. so they had tremendous growth last year north of 100%. i think that's now priced into the stock and what investors are underestimating is that they just increased the commission rate for sellers and historically when they do that they reinvest the proceeds and this drives higher sales on the platform on the stocks i'm concerned about i worry about high interest rates rising interest rates and big valuation. in that regard, shopify would be on my concern list for the june quarter. >> it looks like you have apple on your concern list i realize it's under pressure today and was yesterday as well, but in general it's had a pretty strong rally in recent weeks why are you cautious on the

name >> well, i don't know that i would say i'm cautious i still have a buy rating in apple. but if you think about the move to 3 trillion, i think it's more of a function of things to come. expectations that apple will get into electronic vehicles, that they will have a better way to exploit the metaverse. by way of comparison, apple at 2 trillion was an 5 a g upgrade cycle and i think that will help you out in the years to come. >> paul, you said you have been in the bunker regarding tech since thanksgiving one thing you noticed is the fed pivot is vocal, markets absorbed it, the war with ukraine horrific, market has absorbed it you think that leaves us in a different place? >> i sure do i can't predict what putin is going to do next i don't have much confidence in that call. but the fact that the fed has put out a marker with very hawkish comments so in reality it will probably

be less than their hawkish portrayal. you have a good chance, particularly with some of these tech stocks that, frankly, were too expensive, they are still great, they're not dependent for revenue and eps growth, only from covid they have growth prospects afterwards they come down for reasonable valuations i say game on. >> interesting, guys what a quarter it's been feels like it lasted forever we'll talk to you soon paul, tom, thanks. as we head to a break, here is a look at the roadmap the rest of the hour including the s.e.c. going after spacs proposing a new set of rules that could change the outlook for blank check companies. >> plus, the wwe getting into nfts, signing a deal ahead of "wrestlemania" this weekend. the president of wwe will join us. and after more than two years the cdc is dropping its risk advisory for cruise travel. we will discuss with the ceo of he reagoyes

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welcome back to "squawk on the street." while it might not always be right, the fed usually talks with confidence about the economic outlook but recent fed speak shows schathat confidence might actually be wang our steve leishman has more on that for us. hi, steve. >> good morning. their comments show they are not ruling it out either faced with the uncertainty of

russia's war which threatens to drive high prices higher in the u.s. and abroad and the unknown of how much monetary restrain will be required to control inflation, fed officials are speaking with far less confidence the economic outlook. and is recounting a previous successful effort by the fed to rein in inflation. fed chair jay powell said it was, quote, some grounds for optimism that a soft landing could be achieved. and then you had the kansas city fed saying a soft landing is possible but not guaranteed. she warned of tougher policies if inflation does not come down towards the fed's target and philly fed president telling cnbc earlier this week there may be pubumps when we get below trn growth for a while he is forecasting a safe but not necessarily a soft landing powell and other fed officials have said they believe the economy is strong enough to

withstand rate hikes, but a series of unknoclouding whethere fed have to tighten policy here are some of the unknowns. this idea of nominal yields versus inflation or real yields. is this enough to raise the nominal one or do you have to raise real yields into the 3% range in order to battle inflation? how much inflation reduction you get from producing the balance sheet versus hiking rates. and is the change enough in other words, going from 100 to 200 sufficient or do you have to go to a higher level to battle it? so the road to a soft landing according to fed officials begins with unclogging the traffic jam in the supply chain. includes bringing workers back into the labor force to avoid a wage price spiral and of course the unoff of fiscal stimulus even then not clear that the eight rate hikes baked in and balwani sheet reduction will be enough to corral inflation without a recession next year. >> you have been covering this a

very long time you have seen a number of tightening cycles. in terms of the messaging out of fed officials now, how does it compare when you talk about confidence levels and sort of the possibility perhaps of a coming recession in the midst of this high inflation? how does that stack up against what you have heard from other officials over the years coming into similar cycles? >> well, let me divide it into two sort of situations you have the shock rhetoric and then the kind of normal times. usually, the fed talks with a certain confidence because they pull the strings, they get to really sort of pretty much design outcomes. you know, plus or minus. now pause of the uncertainty of war, uncertainty of the very larn balance sheet being at zero and a very high inflation rate they are talking with less certainty than i have heard in the past. >> steve, appreciate that. what a journey we have been on and continue to be on.

steve liesman. still to come, the cdc dropping its cdc risk advisory for crispr travel. we will talk about that with the ceo of virgin voyages next. and shares down 23% after ui path issues disappointing q1 and full year revenuguane idce the dow's down 207 stay with us amd.

nikesh arora the cdc dropping its covid travel warning for cruises our seema mody with a special guest. tom mcalpin, president and ceo of cruise line company virgin voyages. seema, take it away. >> thank you tom, welcome to "squawk on the street." appreciate your time this announcement from the cdc clearly good news for this industry that has been operating under this travel warning for two years. but yi think there are question afternoon the demand story curious what you are seeing. what is the level of interest in cruising now compared to six months ago when you and i met onboard virgin's scarlett lady in miami >> we are glad to see that the cdc is finally seeing all of the

hard work that the industry has put into it, put into making cruising safe. i said to you many times before, we believe cruising is the safest way to travel given we require all our sailors and passengers to be vaccinated and all the other things onboard we are seeing a big boom i think we are ready for a boom in travel. people have been two years in their homes cooped up, ready to get out, and now they're excited. we have seen bookings that have skyrocketed up 120% since just january. we had a record booking week last week and we are off to beat that booking week this week. so things are looking very promising for the industry and for virgin voyages >> impressive numbers, especially at that time when there is a new survey from jeffreys that says an overwhelming number of americans are still not sold on the cruising experience, tom do you think you along with the other operators, carnival, norweigian, have to do a better job at convincing americans,

changing the safety or public perception around cruising going forward? >> well, as i said, the series of protocols and processes and procedures we have in place is clearly safer than anywhere on land and you know what? consumers love cruising. they love virgin voyages we have, you know, we con cruise critics ship of the year last year we were -- we have more tfive star ratings on tripadvisor than any other intship people want to get back out there that's one statistic, people want to get back out there. it's a great vacation. it's great value fantastic consumer experience. you are packing and unpacking once we offer six different restaurants to go to, amazing entertainment and great value compared especially with inflation the way it is, compared to land-based and other vacation alternatives. it is a bargain to go on a cruise today >> let's talk about that because

it seems like pricing is actually your weapon at a time when i -- i just filed a story yesterday about airfares, hotel rates are getting more and more expensive and the average cruise is a more cost effective option for americans. does that work in the industry's favor in the coming months as you try to get more americans to book a cruise? >> well, obviously, yes. we are a premium product we get a premium rate. but it is still a fantastic value. prices are down. there are good bargains. the country is coming back and it is a good time to buy with, you know, everybody has an offer out there. we've got fantastic values out there. so if people haven't booked a vacation, we encourage them to do so. we are seeing a great pickup and great demand at virgin voyages we now have 40 different itinerary options on thdifferen ships and the opportunity to go to 100 ports of call we have great product as well. >> tom, it's morgan. great to see you

given this conversation right now, the fact that you are seeing a boost in demand, the fact that this is a way to counter inflation in terms of travel and leisure, how does that play out in terms of the high energy prices we are seeing in fuel? does that create a tailwind in terms of consumer demand on the flip side, how are you managing that in terms of powering those ships >> yes, look, you know, no secret that we use energy. we use the fuel to power the ships. relatively speaking, compared overall, it's relatively low percentage overall cost the biggest cost is in crew and maintenance of the ships while, yes, our costs are up because of that, we are able to manage it and we also believe that this is something that will not last forever and the prices will come down we are not talking about any type of extra type of a fuel add-on or surcharge at this point. we don't see that is necessary it's a great value prices are going up everywhere

and cruise prices have come down and been stable and a great opportunity, great value tout there. when you look at the value that we have, we are much more inclusive. gratuities are included. dining options are included. your basic wifi. and you get to go to fantastic ports of call. they have three ships, one operating in miami, one athens and one in barcelona this summer. >> and now you have j.lo a brand ambassador as well in terms of the markets you do operate in, where are you seeing the greatest demand? what is that profile of consumer looking like >> well, not surprising we are seeing pick up in the uk we have very strong brand awareness in the uk with the virgin brand we see demand pick up here in the u.s. as well people are loving the product, word of mouth is growing we are now back in markets in advertising and investing in advertising. we hadn't dunta for a long time because we were waiting to see the, you know, people get into

the mindset where they want to travel again they are there and we are advertising. we are seeing rewards associated that >> tom, bank capital is your largest investor does this recovery story you are conveying speed up your timeline to go public >> i knew you were going to ask that question much what i promise is you will be the first to know. but you know what? we are out in the market raising more capital right now through some private placements. obviously, the rest of the industry has had to do the same thing. i think we need to be operating on three ships and maybe the fourth ship before we even think about it we are working on getting occupancy levels where they need to be. obviously, the customer experience a amazing people are raving about it so it will come. we will get there in the near future but perhaps it does speed the process up we'll see over the next several months >> got it:we will be waiting thanks for joining us today. tom mcalpin of virgin voyages.

>> thank you. >> thanks to seema mody. let's hit the eft spotlight. we are looking at the gold miners ticker gdx up more than 20% year to date, gold on pace for the best quarter since september of 2020. the quarter ending september of 2020 you can see shares of that etf up fractionally. top three holdings, new month, barrick gold and franco nevada up double digits so far this year wl ke qckre right here ♪ ♪ wow, we're crunching tons of polygons here! what's going on? where's regina? hi, i'm ladonna. i invest in invesco qqq, a fund that gives me access to the nasdaq-100 innovations, like real time cgi. okay... yeah... oh. don't worry i got it! become an agent of innovation with invesco qqq

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here is your cnbc news update at this hour. russian president putin has signed a decree requiring foreign buyers use rubles to pay for russian natural gas, it can be made in foreign currency to a

russian bank which converts the money into rushls the g-7 has corr rejected that. >> you know that natural gas, they have to open ruble accounts in russian banks it is from this accounts that they will be paying for russian gas if such payments are not made we will consider this as their failure to carry out their commitments by buyers with all the consequences in western florida, police say two people were killed and two others injured by a tornado across the south severe storms have destroyed homes and knocked out power to tens of thousands of people and businesses. and starting april 11, americans will have a third gender option to list on their passports. male and female joined by the letter x as choices on new

passport applications. airport security procedures will also become more vend wejinder neutral. an hour into trading on this final day. dow down 184 s&p on pace still for the worst quarter in a couple of years, but we are on pace for three positive weeks in a row for all three indices and we have not done that since november oil below 103 as we are on watch for a potential announcement about that spr release later this afternoon. >> yes, that's right we will be tuning in for that. meantime, we are going to turn to meme stocks those are cooling off in today's session after awild week of swings we will start with cornerstone investment capital co-founder and former nasdaq chairman and chairman, bob, great to have you on the show. i want to start there with the so-called meme mania and the fact that we have seen a number of wall street notes just in the last couple of days talking about retail investors getting back into the market in a more

meaningful way, largely piling into risky assets likes, for example, these meme names or cryptocurrencies or speculative tech, if you will. your thoughts on this? >> yes one, thanks for having me here today, morgan. so the first point i have to make is this is no way analogous to what happened a year ago. when you look at the dollar, the amc yesterday, it was $47 million. so that's reasonably important but truly not significant. so you have some interest, but nowhere near the interest you had a year ago obviously, this was triggered somewhat by the announcement of getting into the gold mining business and myself as a person who ran operating companies for a long period of time, you always wanted to diversify. but you diversify where one plus one equals three so if you go from amc going to gold mining, that's not diversification of an operating company. that's more like a hedge fund, which makes multiple investments

there. so i think that is probably also the reason you don't have the great demand you had a year ago. >> the fact that the s.e.c. is taking a closer look at short selling and disclosures around where hedge funds are concerned it's take a critical approach to protecting retail investors whether on this front, whether in terms of spacs as well. how do you see the regulations continuing to evolve and will to make this market for friendly for retail investors or potentially add more hurdles >> i would say this. when you look at society at different points in time, they have different risk appetites. the last one we saw where there is tremendous or heightened risk appetite was back in the dot-com era. it's not the job of regulators to really regulate what the risk appetite of society is at that particular point in time but clearly they have to be in the business of providing as much transparency and information so investors can make things decisions.

any effort do that i think is fundamentally important. when you look at the spac marketplace today, you know, the big controversy is you can give three-year projections that's good. that's additional information. but that information has to be grounded in retail the one thing i know running companies for a long period of time, your annual budget projection is always wrong you never nail that number you can't expect the spacs to do that they should, i think, and this would apply to standard ipos give a range of outcomes, a because outcome and upside and a downside and then if you see a spac company miss the downside by a significant amount, then you might have cause for action against those people who put those numbers out. don't expect them to hit the base case number, but if they miss the downside number, which has to be done, obviously, with proper care, then you have some kind of issue. >> bob, i wonder how you think about -- we talked about memes

and that rally just talked about the spark crackdown. we haven't even mentioned the momentum of de-listing some chinese names as we get bidao perhaps added to the list. how do you think of those buckets of regulatory pressure that we are seeing right now >> well, certainly this issue has been around a long time. it was there before i came to nasdaq, which was a long time ago. so it has to be resolved and resolved well. so tiying back to the early theme, investors need to have transparency, need to have information. so the chinese companies that are not providing similar information to a listed company in the u.s., that has to be corrected at some point in time. my hope is you would see cooler heads prevail, they will come to a compromise that will not lead american investors in disadvantaged position when a company is based out of china or from the virgin islands. >> as we are having this

conversation it's been a rocky start to the year in terms of new companies going public i mean, the ipo pipe lin, the spigot didn't close but narrowed down to a taper or a drip, if you will i want to get your sense of what that pipeline looks like as the year goes on given the fact that we are seeing so much market volatility right now. >> well, the big change, one, put it in context. the ipo market has been incredibly strong the last three years. that's not going to continue forever. waves happen and they recede and come back. when you look at the cycle, it's been kbit quite good the big change in the marketplace is the price put does not exist any more. so that causes all of your modeling to hang and to know the fed is going to be aggressively raising rates the last comments from chairman powell i felt were clearly enlightening i thought at one point that the half point raise seems to be in the cards. when you look at the difference

this year versus last year, obviously, you have -- but even before ukraine, you had the impact of the fed saying we have completion that's beyond their threshold, beyond their threshold by a significant amount, and we might sit double-digit inflation in one of these quarters they are going to be active. that will always kill an idealle market but over three years, it's been strong and will get stronger again. >> bob, always great to have you on thanks for your insights >> thank you still to come this morning, we are going to talk with the president of the wwe ahead of "wrestlemania" coming up this weekend. shares up 27% so far this year first though, take a look at the top gainers on the dow for the quarter. little surprise that chevron is going to ld u eayooff, 40% we'll be right back.

welcome back today marks another successful launch for blue origin,

completing the fourth human spaceflight earlier this hour. the ns 20 mission lifting off from west texas for the jaunt jeff bezos experienced last july and almost exactly ten minutes suborbital ride traveling 66 miles above earth, including several minutes of weightlessness and then for the capsule a parachute landing back in texas in the desert the booster relanded a few minutes before that touchdown as well bezos though for the first time not actually on site nonetheless, today's flight carried six crew members, five of them paying passengers. "snl's" pete davidson couldn't join it included gary lie, who dezwriend this reusable new shepherd spacecraft. that's perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of this mission. no celebrity names no big historic milestones it speaks to how space sfliet, d /* flight is becoming more common place

now largely the purview of the wealthy. blue origin said its position to double launches from three in 2021 price per seat still unknown. direct competitor virgin galactic is charging $450,000 for a seat for bezos's space company this is just one piece of a broader business model to revenue stream that helps enable development of a orbital rocket, a space station, and a lunar lander that is expected to recompete for a nasa contract. today's launch though comes days before another even more significant private flight by axiom space alongside spacex and nasa, which will be sending three passengers, paying passengers, plus fourth to the international space station. first time for a private mission to the iss i spokes with axiom's ceo for the podcast "manifest space. you can hear that conversation now live and again, carl, the fact that we're even discussing

multiple spaceflights, human spaceflights, across multiple companies over the course of several days i think really does speak to how we have turned a corner in terms of space and all of these visions now starting to manifest where space travel is concerned. >> yeah. used to be, each one a huge deal now it's becoming routine, which is part of a business maturing no doubt about it. still to come on "techcheck," more on amazon and those big union votes taking place in new york, staten island, and alabama. iesing off on the sharpre tea couple of days above 200. don't go anywhere. who's responsible for building esg into your investments? at pgim, the pursuit is on for outperformance. as active investors, to outdeliver with customized strategies, integrating esg best practices into our investment decisions. as asset managers and fiduciaries, to outserve, with our commitment to better esg outcomes.

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wwe's "wrestlemania" 38 taking place this saturday and sunday in texas. the first tonight full capacity "wrestlemania" in the company's history. joining us, wwe president and chief revenue officer nick kahn to talk with "wrestlemania," nfts, the transition to peacock from pay-per-view. a lot going on in the shares have reflect add lot of that good to have you. >> thank you for having me. >> i always think of you guys, you are in the business of

gathering people, which during covid went through an existential crisis, or did it? >> it did. it was absolutely a challenge as it was for so many otherpeople we came up with a way to not miss one week of television thanks to our performers who we call our superstars, our producers, writers we did every week of television for fox and usa and fortunately got through it okay. >> is there pent-up demand were you able to stay active enough to where the consumer base got enough of the product during the worst of the pandemic >> we think both, carl when we had the return of live fans last july, we returned to sold-out arenas, did a stadium show in las vegas in august that sold out allegiance stadium, 55,000 people there. so both. we need our fans, yet we were able to put on the product without them. >> what's the significance of two nights >> first time ever we thought there was an appetite for more "wrestlemania." we think we are on the precipice of doing something bigger and two nights made sense. if you look at the ticket sales, we think our thoughts are reflected in the strong sales.

>> talk about the difference between the live aspect and the broadcast aspect we mentioned the transition to peacock. we are used to this being a per purview business. >> yes in 2014, vince mcmahon, the founder and ceo of the company, took the pay-per-views it was an s 5. you had to be the third best in the world after netflix and hulu so for usas we went into 2021 with the cluttered streaming wars landscape out there, it didn't necessarily make sense to stay agnostic. nbc news/peacock, our longtime partner made us an interesting offer for ourselves and our fans to take the product of there for a lower price while offering the additional peacock program it made sense for us. >> morgan's got a question. >> hi, nick. it's morgan. i'm wondering what that means in terms of new revenue

opportunities for the company. i realize you've got scripted content you're working on as well how do you see that expansion taking place >> morgan, you already read "the wall street journal" piece. >> i did. >> thank you for that. yes. scripted content, unscripted content, we think wwe is a treasure trove of intellectual property, a treasure trove that's not been exploited the way we want to exploit it. to go into that and come up with content, scripted site, unscripted site, we have over 12 products in development all around the globe, and we're happy with that setting. >> is there a way to monetize it i ask because a number of analysts have written about this recently. >> thanks for asking there's a number of things we can do to help monetize every part of our business half of the folks who come to our live events come with a child. we think we're just getting started in that space, and we

look for a lot of growth there over the next year and beyond. >> we mentioned nfts in the intro. i remember this time last year there was a lot of buzz. we've seen some value roll over. what are your thoughts what do you want to do >> what the metaverse is now is what the etfs were a year ago. we did a partnership with blockchain labs which is owned by fox our platform is going to be launching in about a month or so we're mooiped on it. with the intellectual property we have, we think there's a lot of ways to collect collectible that our fans want we announced a deal the other day with fanatics and trading card space look for nft action there a well. >> do you think there will be inflation there or will it always be sort of a curiosity? niche? how brown can it be? we wrestle with that >> i think it's going to go broader and broader until it

doesn't. then it's going to go a little more narrow. everybody will try it. few will succeed for those who succeed, we think it will be a profitable space. >> we're looking for the appetite to get broader. it got expensive in the early days. >> absolutely. fantastic. it's going to be exciting to watch this weekend please come back. >> thank you we'll be on peacock and we appreciate having you here thank you. the u.s. has now officially announced the plans to release oil from the spr it's been under some pressure, morgan below 102. >> yeah. it seems like when we see the pressure on oil, we tend to see positive response in stocks. we're going to get a quick check on the markets because it is a down day the dow, s&p, and nasdaq we're positive for the month of march, but it is a negative

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welcome back to "squawk on the street." shares of walgreens earnings down about 6%. bertha coombs has more on the quarter and caught up with ceo roz brewer hi, bertha. >> hey, morgan walgreens posting a qte. $33.8 billion in revenue beating on the top line. but the guidance was a disappointment because they didn't raise their guidance. covid vaccines helped draw pharmacy sales up 7.3% there were 112 million boosters and 6.5 million tests. despite the ba.2 variant, it's not clear whether that pace was

going to continue. prescriptions were 4.7% year over year. there were increases in investments and honoring prescriptions on the back end and expansion of village and d-clinics. the cornerstone of the new walgreens health transformation. on theretail side, u.s. retail sales rose so on the earnings call, roz brewer saying there's continuing, quote, the strategic review of boots which means there's likely a sale. when i spoke to her at our healthy returns summit, brewer seemed to decline another part of the retail business, tobacco sales. can walgreens health continue to sell cigarettes? >> you know, that is one of those things i am personally looking at i think it's something you'll hear us talk about and make some

announcements about it in short order. >> it's one of those things that some shareholders have been asking for a while. >> absolutely. i hear them loud and clear. >> you know, cvs ftook a hit whe it dumped it back in 2014. but their sales have been better by about a point walmart has already moved in that direction is it seemed like a pretty good hint that they're headed that way too. >> really interesting. you know, bertha, we talk about with some of the tech companies and stay-at-home places, the idea of the bob pisani return to normal post pandemic, knock on wood is. that what we're seeing with walgreens, too, in terms of how it's reflected in the guidance >> a little bit in terms of the covid testing and the vaccines of course, we do have the new omicron variant that is starting to rise.

so that remains to be seen, whether that will drive more testing this quarter but overall, they are all in the midst of a transformation to try to provide more service, and that is going to take time. >> all right bertha coombs, appreciate it the nasdaq turning positive. that's going to do it for "squawk on the street. "techcheck" starts right now ♪ good thursday morning. welcome to "techcheck. i'm carl quintanilla with deirdre bosa and jon fortt paypal, netflix, meta, some of the top laggards today we're going to discuss a few opportunities. the s.e.c. has