diversification with strong technicals and fundamentals. >> actually, it is a minimum volatility etf, i think we're showing the wrong ticker when we talked about defensive in the portfolio, it's a good way to do it >> weiss >> delta airlines. flying is back people can't wait to get away for the summer >> good stuff. thanks i'll see you in ot "the exchange" is now. and thank you, scott hi, everybody. i'm kelly evans. he's what's ahead. elon musk becomes twitter's biggest shareholder disclosing a 9% stake worth almost $3 billion. twitter shares soaring almost 27 %. and dan clifton explains why the upcoming midterms make the perfect time for musk's involvement with the company and cathie wood warning the fed is playing with fire, calling it a mistake to raise rates. larry lindsey takes the other side are these the best or worst

of times for financial stocks? and which should you bet on? traditional banks or fin tech? we'll get to that, but first a check on the markets the market is up five points right now as we try to start the second day of the month straight with positive gains. we were down more than 200 at the lows dow is up seven. s&p up 19. the nasdaq is up 212 points. by far the outperformer. flying 1.5% today. we'll get more on that in a bit. the two-ten yield curve is -- down about by five basis points. the stock of the day is twitter. on pace for the best day ever after regulatory filings showed elon musk taking a 9% stake in the company and makes him the largest shareholder in the stock. twitter now up almost 29% to $50 a share. the big question is how much near-term influence will musk really have. joining me now is our very own

steve kovak and sara fisher. let's start with what we know about musk with a shareholder portion this size and what it can exert. >> the influence is investors think it might go from being a passive investment to active the stack is up, inus ves or thes are excited twitter has been stagnant for the past two years competitors are getting ahead in the metaverse, even subs subscr subscriptions, twitter has dipped its toes but hasn't made massive progress i think investors are excited about the potential shakeup. in the short-term, that passive stake isn't going to wield too much influence we haven't even heard musk comment on it yet. >> we haven't heard many comments from twitter, from steve. >> we got an lol, hi that's the comment from us >> what about -- how does jack dorsey feel about it

how long ago did he leave the company? >> a few months ago. >> and he only has a 2%, 3% stake? >> you would think they are aligned in what sara is describing we know the current ceo is also in line with that vision so they're good there. >> with what vision? >> the web free and the decentralization version of twitter. >> what does that mean >> i think it was explained well on tech check. it means they can create these separate versions of twitter that's not controlled by twitter itself so you can basically write your own policies on top of that. if elon rusk wants his crazy free speech anything goes of twitter, he can write it on top of that. that's the theory. or what we've seen so many people doing from the trump-backed thing all the way down to gab, people try to create far right versions of twitter, and they fail at the time >> i'm surprised -- it's a good

point. that's why i want to dwell on it musk and the current ceo or dorsey would be aligned on anything they seem politically so different, dorsey and musk >> politically, yes. >> i wonder does twitter want to open the door to that kind of change to a platform that's basically part of the traditional media landscape at this, leaning generally left and plays by the same rules this would be a big departure for them >> i'm going to push back on leaning left here's the thing why the conservative versions of twitter fail so often. it's because what's the conservative version of twitter? it's twitter what's the conservative version of facebook? it's facebook. you can find your own niche within that. that's my theory why these don't work out so well it's interesting to see musk say i'm going to come in and buy this 9% stake in the existing platform, and make the change from within. >> i agree, with steve's point, that the rivals have not gained any traction however, the problem with censorship, whether it was the

hunter biden story, they kicked trump autoplatform is musk going to try to bring him back on, or does twitter allow that type of return? does it look different really? >> jack dorsey and elon musk in a way want the same thing. in moving toward a decentralized platform, you take away the controls from the few and give it into the hands of the many. what would that look like? it would require the community to start creating rules for the platform, and twitter has experimented with this they introduced bird watch, kind of community moderation of content on the platform. i don't know what that looks like to date the only big platform that has that is wikipedia there's still a lot of problems with it despite there are advantages as well it's ran through a nonprofit foundation we've seen never a major social platform be completely governed by the masses. unclear what that is going to be i will say if you take a big picture look at twitter, for

investors, this has been a tumultuous time for the company. first, elliot management came in as an activist investor, essentially forcing jack dorsey out. now less than a quarter in you have this new major investor outside voice also one of your biggest platform users coming in potentially threatening to shake it up, maybe buy out the platform if you're the korea of twitter right now, it must be very hard to think about the core tenets of your business, product innovation, monetizing when you're trying to deal with all the corporate maneuvers, it's not a great place to be >> i wonder, let's quickly think through this let's call it a 10 % stake for 3 billion. you can buy the whole company for 30 billion there's plenty of people who can do that, top tech million airs who want to say we're not going to let musk take it in a different direction or make it private or what have you do you expect this to continue to escalate, or do you think it's all going to die down and

quiet down and go away in a few months >> elon musk doesn't like to deescalate i do think this fight will continue, but if your point about other billionaires remember bob iger saying about whether disney would buy twitter. twitter comes with a lot of bag damage and i think a lot of people are going to feel allergic to getting too close to it. especially to the point coming ahead of the midterms. the free speech debate can get thorny i don't know that many people will want to challenge musk in this the only thing i can imagine is are other institution yal backers going to try to square off with him that's more likely >> statement of the century, elon musk doesn't like to deescalation it's going to see when the passive stake turns active >> we'll leave it there. thank you so much. steve and sara

my next guest says the timing may work out perfectly for twitter given the upcoming midterm elections. joining me is dan clifton. dan, it's good to see you. i do think your take is important here, because this twitter is a platform that's come under heavy criticism from both sides of the aisle. what does musk's involvement now mean, do you think >> yeah. so let's look at where we are today. it's a very important platform it's where the discussion of world events is happening every day. it's not been a great company. and they're under political fire from both the left and the right for different reasons. and you can apply that to all of social media we spent the last couple weeks trying to get to what the republican agenda will be if they win the house of representativities i have been struck by how top tier issue going after social media and in particular twitter was at that level. energy number one, given inflation concerns but social media, number two on that list. and what that's telling you is

that all the revelation out there in a hunter biden story was real, regardless of how you feel about it, or the members being banned from that, they were going to push for changes in divided government were they going to get it? no, but no maerlt where the companies go, they're hit from the left or right. this creates a disrupting event. i think sara did a good explanation of walking through what those businesses issues are, and the decentralization and trying to create a different level of platform that would be open to everybody. he does not -- elon musk does not do things on a half measure. my sense is if he's in, he's coming in to make a big change, and that may wind up inoculating him down the road if there's big political head winds >> thinking about the tesla shareholders who are nervous about every time he talks about human oid robots here we're nervous about what time he'll spend on twitter. it could come at a time when

we're seeing crackdowns, post med term elections does that now make twitter more of a friend to the republicans who can end up in charge of congress in the fall, or are we just going to have to see how this actually changes, if it does >> well, i think twitter has to up its government affairs game the fact they're such an important medium and have so many enemies on both sides building up against them and we don't agree on much in washington, but we had a 21 -1 vote on tech regulation a month ago. the idea of regulating the tech sector continues to get momentum that's why the companies have to be engaged i'm not sure the musk changes will happen before the midterm election, but i think the republicans would feel easier if trump was on the platform if the president of china or iran or whoever is also allowed on that. they find that to be discriminatory, and that's why i think that this could be a positive change for the company itself >> final word, if you're social

media where they say the lobbying hasn't born fruit is that because of the inherent -- >> that's true at the same time they're large companies and they need to be discussing what value they provide and adjusting to the value. we have found that robbieing is an underpriced benefit in the market companies that lobby well get earnings benefit from it the companies haven't done it well they're the largest lobbying spenders, and yet, they're continually under fire that tells you they're not getting a good return on their investment >> that's unusual, you have an etf for this, sgap, and the point is to show that lobbying typically pays off as better investment returns why are we not seeing that for social media names is metapart of that? >> metais the best of them, but google is really bad at this, and amazon hasn't been that good as well. what our etf tries to identify, large and small u.s. companies

as well as non-u.s. companies that lobby in the u.s. and get an earnings benefit. we launched this on january 25th th we've had great performance during this equity market volatility, because what are the themes defense, health care, energy and mining these are the issues that matter, and those companies really do a very good lobbying job as the issues start to come to them. and the social media companies just have not been that effective. maybe because they're newer companies. i'll leave you with this there was 26% of s&p 500 companies who ranked the government as their top risk prefinancial crisis. today that's 52% you have half the s&p 500 company saying that they see the government as a bigger risk. they need to see that table -- a seat at the table. when you look at the tech companies, they're at 15 % to 20 % net risk they have not caught up to what's going on in the regulatory front, and they still have a ways to go. >> even looking at the holdings can be revealing names like match group and universal music that you

wouldn't typically think of. do you think twitter will ultimately benefit in the wrong run if musk pushes them toward a free speech approach, or is it going to invite further political scrutiny and pressure? >> i'm not a stock analyst of twitter, but i would say you have sophisticated investors like elliot investment, now elon musk coming in i think large investors are starting to see the potential and the opportunity. it's about being able to turn the rubices krub to get the formula right. there's an effort to take the underused asset and turn it into something more productive. that makes me optimistic >> and maybe are a reminder that so far none of the other rivals have chipped away. the shares up 30% in the session. we'll leave it there thanks so much >> right thank you. all right. coming up, the reopening stocks are flying the travel and retail stocks have led the way since early march, and my next guest has one pick that's nearly tripled off the pandemic lows.

plus arc invest, cathie wood says raising rates is a serious mistake. is she right we'll ask larry lindsey at the bottom of the hour and as we head to break, here's a look at stocks. we see the dow up four points. the s&p up 19. the nasdaq up 207. we're back in a moment welcome to ameriprise. i'm sam morrison, my brother max recommended you. so my best friend sophie says you've been a huge help. at ameriprise financial, more than 9 out of 10 of our clients are likely to recommend us. our neighbors the garcia's, love working with you. because the advice we give is personalized. hey john reese, jr. how's your father doing? to help reach your goals with confidence. my sister told me so much about you. that's why it's more than advice worth listening to. it's advice worth talking about. ameriprise financial. your shipping manager left to “find themself.”

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the travel and reopening stocks have been some of the best performers in recent weeks as the market regained the footing. the shares of simon property up since then, although down from their highs in early november. especially as the recession talks swirls, what are the messages the stocks are sharing. david, it's great to have you here what do you think is going on with these markets these days? >> well, there's obviously a lot of volatility around the ukraine headlines. but in terms of the particular story that you're talking about, i think there's a great value in -- and we bring up simon property, because we just simply think it's one of the most misunderstood stories on wall street and we're very optimistic about its forward path regardless of

market skittishness >> is there optimism in the reopening plays that benefits from an economy -- people are confused by what part of the cycle we're in right now what part of the recovery? does the pandemic make this similar to past cycles or not? is it sort of beating to the tune of its own drum curious for your thoughts there. >> i think people need to stop thinking about the reopening as if we're in that covid context the world is reopened. i mean, obviously not all the world. china and certain parts are dealing with this. anyone trying to get a restaurant reservation in new york city knows things are back to open, back to normal in that context. the total dining reservations are only down 1% from where they were in march of 2019. airline travel is only down 10% from where it was in march of '19, and we know business and international travel are not reflected yet. i think in terms of people out

and about doing what they do, which were americans is generally spend money. i think that part of the post covid life is normalized >> does that mean near-term recession is minimal >> that would not be a byproduct of a declining consumer. that's where a lot of people are confused they see 70% of the economy and gdp metric is usually consumer activity, so they wonder how that looks with inflation pressures and yield curve indicators, but the fact of the matter is what we have to be concerned about going forward is business investment. this was the part that held the economic growth down post financial crisis for years is we weren't getting enough capital expenditures we didn't see a lot of industrial production, manufacturing, those metrics and i think that what we have to see is strong business re-investment, and we can't get that until we get clarity around this monetary side, so in a lot of ways, the fed normalizing will help produce normalization

and allow normal business re-investment to continue. >> i haven't heard that take, and that's interesting i don't know if you could exthe end that to the market are there stocks that would benefit if that starts to play out? and how will we know or what would the ramifications be >> well, of course what you and i care about most in this context, our conversation, is stocks but i will say what people benefit from the most is overall economic growth. and that's what would happen if we finally got sustained business investment. the reason we don't get it is excessive indebtedness and a fed that has continued to coddle asset markets. if the fed can get to some degree of normalization, i'm not saying they will, but i hope they will. we need a fed funds rate higher than 0%. we need a ten-year higher than two or 2 .5% nobody believes any growth is coming and so people are constantly rooting for the fed to continue giving the market morphine when what the economy needs is a lack

of dependency on the morphine. >> you also like the financials here energy give me specific ways you would play this. >> well, i can't say enough about the simon property story a 5% yield and clearly one that proved they have the assets. they have a balance sheet filled with great properties. some of those rents are going to decline and they have to repurpose. some of it is going to be turned over altogether. but they just simply are holding a portfolio of value that is going to be monetized in the years to come, and financial wills we're focussed on asset managers that are fee-based businesses blackstone started to recover. it was down earlier in the year. but everyone is talking about the banks and the yield curve. and i just think that the far more interesting story are fee-based businesses that are growing. look at the asset managers >> even though you said the fed has to stop coddling them? >> well, the fed needs to stop coddling all aspects of capital

markets. i don't think blackstone or apollo need the fed for them to create value they're incredible operators real estate, credit, private equity we've seen a number of cycles, and ultimately, when you get zombie companies out of the way, the cream rises to the top i don't have any doubt blackstone is that cream >> very interesting. david, great to have your perspective today. thank you. >> thanks, kelly still ahead, semis are trying to break out of their own slump. one wall street firm is saying there's a catalyst that could give a much needed boost we'll tell you what it is next shares of starbucks are falling on howard shult's first day look at the helm we'll tell you why and it may surprise you with the stock coming off the worth quarter since the start of the pandemic. starbucks wndo 4.5%. we're back in a moment but all my employees need something different. oh, we can help with that. okay, imagine this.

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welcome back, everybody. the nasdaq having a strong session here up 217 points with 1.5% the s&p and dow trying to stay in positive territory. here are the movers we're watching china tech names lead. the kybtf up 14% that's a nice month. it's been two sessions apple on track for a three-day losing streak after the longest winning streak since 2003. back out for perspective, apple is flat since january 1st. this is the third year in a year shares posted a slight loss. netflix is higher after posting the fifth straight monthly loss

at the worst quarter in a decade the company is now reportedly asking employees to be more mindful about spending and hiring, and that if you're wondering why the shares are up almost 6%, it's fueling more speculation, including by ben thompson about whether the streamer will introduce an ad supported subscription plan. kohl's, their battle with an activist heats up. they're up 22% year to date in the red today. here to get us caught up on the latest developments of this saga is courtney reagan who has been following it for us all along. >> i like your dress it is a saga, indeed today the activist investor in kohl's sent a strongly worded letter to the board asking for details about the current evaluation of bids to take the company private. saying in part, we have never seen a corporate leadership team operate in a more defensive and insular manner when so many shareholders seem very supportive of a sale, and

various suitors have expressed interest a number of sizable shareholders have informed us they're frustrated with the board's poorly communicated process. in response, kohl's says in part that the board, quote, will not allow mccallen's ill-informed commentary and a push for sale at any price to drive process decisions. they said the board and advisers are in the process of evaluating bids for the company thoughtfully and thoroughly, but no timeline has been set for when more details had been shared there's no guarantee a bid will be shared. it's weighing offers against the current strategy which kohl's believes has potential for value creation it's putting up a full slate of ten new board members. so i have a feeling the barbs will continue until then and maybe thereafter >> exactly i like your dress, too

courtney, thank you very much. still ahead, the two-year yield hovering above the ten-year my next guest says that's a sign the bond market believes the fed, but he wonders if the fed will lose incredibility if inflation doesn't soon wane. fo larry lindsey joins me live right after this what if you were a major transit system with billions of passengers taking millions of trips every year? you aren't about to let any cyberattacks slow you down. so you partner with ibm to build a security architecture to keep your data, network, and applications protected. now you can tackle threats so they don't bring you to a grinding halt. and everyone's going places, including you. let's create cybersecurity that keeps your business on track. ibm. let's create ♪ ♪ connecting to opportunity is just part of the hustle.

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welcome back i'm tyler mathisen here's your news update. the ukrainian president zelenskyy says if his country hadn't defended it, russia's mass killings in bucha would have been everywhere, and ukraine's foreign minister says the killings in bucha are just the tip of the iceberg of crimes committed by the russian armies. zelenskyy says the fate of central europe is being decided in ukraine and more sanctions are needed against russia. in sacramento the coroner has identified the six people killed in sunday mornings' mass shooting the three men and women ranged in age from 21 to 57 police are still looking for at least two shooters on the news with shep smith,

the latest on the hunt for the suspects and why police think they opened fire that's tonight at 7:00 eastern meantime in washington, lawmakers are closing in on a $10 billion covid age package. this according to multiple reports. the deal was rescued -- reduced from over $15 billion after money for global vaccination efforts was cut from the legislation. kelly, back to you >> tyler, i'll see you soon. stocks holding onto modest gains. investors are all over the place when it comes to the fed cathie wood expressing her concerns wood warning the fed is going to raise interest rates as growth or inflation surprise on the low side of expectations which will be a mistake is she right joining me now is larry lindsey, president and ceo of the lindsey group and former director of the national economic council under president george w. bush larry, welcome back. >> it's great to be here >> i'm going to assume that you

disagree, but to -- there's many people out there who go, tell me why? if deflation was the worry going into the pandemic, why at some point we won't be back to deflation as we move through and put it all in the rear-view mirror >> well, two reasons the first is that we have excess ghand. in terms of the demand and supply, we're roughly about through 2020 and then we passed a bill that was much too big in march of last year, and if you just look at the cpi, you can see that is exactly what inflation took off. now, i do agree with half of what she said. i do think we're going to have a recession probably starting next quarter. but the reason is going to be inflation. inflation is eating into consumer spending power. they're going to have to cut back >> i was going to tweet that,

because quite a statement to say you think we're going into recession next quarter but like you said, you think it's because of inflation. so you're saying it's too late for the fed. i mean, should they still try? it sounds like they have to then still try to bring the inflation rate down. but will they risk this aggressive tightening right as real demand like you said is slowing, and where does that leave us >> kelly, it's not really aggressive tightening. i'm not polling for that it's appropriate we've got to get there there has never been significant disinflation since the early 50s. treasury fed, without the cpi being lower than the fed funds rate the fed funds rate is now 50 bips inflation is now 8%. we are nowhere close, nowhere close to being able to control inflation with what we have, and the pressures are probably going to be -- inflation is going to

tick up. i'm very worried about having one to 1.5 monthly inflation prints that's going to push consumer purchasing power down about two points on top of the 2 .5 points it's already declined since the beginning of 2021. you can't have a consumer absorb that much of a shock quickly without having recession >> and you've said that we need to start getting the monthly cpi increments down to .3% that's what to watch for if the fed is going to reach the goals it wants and have a soft landing. and we're running at three times that pace. it's a lot to go down. even goldman, think they we're going to see about 1% gdp growth this year q 4 over q 4 they're saying they're not sure that's enough for the fed to hit the inflation targets. >> oh, no. not only do we need to have the fed funds rate above cpi

we've never had a disinflation without a recession. so you really would be defying history this time if we somehow escaped without a recession and without very, very significant hikes in the fed funds rate. >> isn't this different because it's a pandemic? for those who say this cycle is different because we did have a pandemic going into it, and so we hear this from a lot of different people we'll see the goods' prices normalize and see things drift back to normal, and most people sense it's all going to be fine 18 months out. >> inflation did not pick up until march of 2021. the pandemic started in -- a year earlier so i think that created some stresses it created some supply bottle necks. but when you pour demand, massive amounts of demand on top of that, you can't help but have inflation. and that's what we're going

through now. also, and this is why it's going to be tough. the inflation is built into a wage price spiral. you could talk to any business person out there that is exactly what they're facing costs are going up wages are going up and their job is to maintain their margins. that's a very definition of a wage price spiral. >> you've identified the fiscal spending as the when inflation started to accelerate. a lot of people look at what the fed has done separate from that and say that was too much. they really need to pull back more aggressively. so basically is all of that stimulus impulse still now working its way through the economy? how much needs to be drained, so to speak, if we want to get things back to quote, unquote, normal >> well, yes i think the fed certainly printed too much but i think that is wood on bonfire. we have a huge pile of wood before inflation took off. massive. we were at 36% of gpd in terms

of the fed balance sheet six times normal still no inflation it wasn't until we struck the match to the bonfire back in march of 2021 that inflation took off now the fire is roaring. you can't really pull the wood out of the bonfire it's too hot to touch. >> even if people have now spent their stimulus checks and if at some point they spend down their bank balances, just because the fiscal side kicked off the monetary tinder that was there, will it -- how will it keep going in and of itself without further fiscal stimulus maybe we'll get some gasoline rebaits here or something, but itseems like even the biden budget is saying we are shifting from fiscal largesse into something more restrained. >> what's going to keep the momentum going is that we now have changed psychology. whereas the fed would put it, we have no longer have

well-anchored expectations in fact, they're now becoming anchored higher and higher this happened in the 70s as well when everyone expects there to be higher inflation, it's easy to push a cost of price increase through if you're the company, and it's easier to demand a wage hike if you're a worker. tight labor markets help that. so that is what's going to keep it going now, that is ultimately over a long term, going to slow demand, because inflation is going to -- has been outpacing wages but remember, that is the recession that is needed to begin the process. we also have to have much higher fed funds rates in order to break the back of the wage price spiral >> do you have any final words or parting advice for investors who are trying to navigate it by figuring out where they want exposure where do you turn in this kind of environment

>> well, i don't think i'm allowed to say the words buy or sell, but i can say that in my personal accounts, i am definitely short long-term bonds. i'm long commodities and i think that's probably the safest way to play it. >> and that is certainly a refrain we have been hearing a lot. larry, we appreciate it. thank you so much. >> my pleasure good to see you. >> larry lindsey joining us today. still ahead, this semi stock is down nearly 10 % over the past week. but there is a strategic shift happening within the company and within the sector that could catapult the group higher. we will reveal that right after this unlimited is going ultra! and now, you can too with the offer you just can't miss. for a limited time, get a 5g phone on us! (mom) delightful. (vo) with no trade-in required. plus, 1,000 dollars to help you switch! (dad) nice savings! (vo) yeah it is! verizon is going ultra, so you can get more. [sfx: street ambience] ♪ ["fly me to the moon"] ♪

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the deal signifies a strategic shift that could become the next catalyst for growth. kristina has the details >> thank you, kelley amd's latest 1.9 billion acquisition will further much amd's business into data centers. pensando manages how hardware moves through software stocks. we had the ceo on this morning and she spoke about the company's biggest avenue for future growth. >> high performance compute is the fastest growing, the most exciting part of the industry, and we have all the components for it so of course, we love our traditional pc and gaming markets. but the data center is the most strategic area >> so this new acquisition boasts enterprise companies like oracle, goldman sacks, and potentially give them a chance

to expand the reach when it comes to interprides, and amd can compete against intel and nvidia, specifically in dpus that would be data processing units. these are processors that can help a data center move data across an entire network and pretty much is vital for everything that is going to become connected in the near future and today we have new data that shows the semi conductor industry continues to shine. look at this two-year chart. total revenue across the industry up 48 % in february compared to last year during that time. with most of the drive coming from memory chip sales wall street like amd's latest purchase price targets of $150, $165. there could be great up side given the stock is trading around $108 a share. >> and so in many ways this is symptomatic of companies who had one thing going really well for them during the pandemic >> i have to interrupt you

because there's a director in my ear. i can't hear you at all, but i'm -- now you are go ahead start your question again. >> saying it's a shift from pandemic levers that drove demand to now post pandemic. >> is this something -- it was tiger bid the pandemic everything being connected and coming online. all of the inenterprise softwar, these are points of the strength for the semi conductor space i know last year barclays downgraded amd complaining about pc sales this could show how they're trying to mitigate through that and think of the long-term growth >> and a result of the pandemic. great point. kristina, thank you. we appreciate it still ahead, between the yield curve inversion and raising rates, financials are facing several cross currents right now. some of the big banks are down as much as 7% just over the past week while the fin tech trade has been crushing it my next guest has unique insight

on both caareas. the ceo of cross river bank joins me next. and social media quizzes. because the only way you're ever gonna know is by heading into the big, wild, raging so-damned-beautiful- it-hurts world and finding out for yourself. were you born to follow a path? or were you born free? these are the things we thought about when we made the new grand cherokee. made for what you're made of. ♪ ♪

welcome back to "the exchange " the yield curve remains inverted it's casting a shadow on the

financial industry the big finn tech names like block and paypal are up 20% to 30%. my next guest is a bridge between traditional finance and fin tech let's bring in the ceo of cross river bank it's great to have you back. welcome. >> thank you thank you. >> it is such an environment as well what is the main driver of your profitability and how important are rates in the curve relatively speaking? >> i think people are starving for new product services we are going into an industry that was in dire need of a fresh look at how to do conduct business finance, and we're just there to facilitate all this there are folks that figured it out. they have listening ears to their consumers, to their merchants, and we're just

facilitating that by providing the infrastructure put behind them >> what does loan growth look like >> it's robust as you can imagine, post pandemic everybody stayed home they were shopping at home they all used folks like affirm upstart and many others in order to purchase life that's why the loan growth has been spectacular particularly over the past three years. once they're in it and they get the taste, the long extension through online mean, then they're staying with us. they have no reason to go back to the traditional ways of shopping >> are these primarily consumers or we know you guys came on the scene in a big way with the ppp loans. >> predominantly consumers, but we're slowly transitioning and trying to diversify our growth

as well as our revenue channels towards the small business arena. you know like you said, ppp put us on the map with a lot of small businesses we managed to help get bailed out to the tune of about half a million. so these as a way of saying thank you for coming back to us and if there's anything else you can do for us. >> let me go back to the consumer piece maybe you can give us insight into credit quality, sustainability housing side is slowing yet services may be taking off what's going on with the consumer balance seat? >> i think that honestly, post banking debacle in 2008, there's one thing the regulatory environment did very well is to impose the concept of affordability to credit. and now fast forward some 14 years, we're in the midst of a

financing boom and people have learned these lessons in order to extend a loan only the consumer can afford it the thing is that with data analytics, there's a way to extend the loan to folks that did not have access to credit previously and that has definitely brought them the credit spectrum. so there's a confluence of events here. number one, affordability to credit, this critical to extend that credit to folks number two, data analytics will broaden that spectrum to provide it to more people. >> would you say you have more concerns about the macro environment? do you think the growth, the spending we've seen is sustainable? >> listen, it's a great question i'm not an economist i just react to the market we're very adaptable and nimble and we stay within our lanes what we do know well is that if our consumers did something,

we're there for them so we can only compose with the changes. we're not one of the big four banks in the country but we definitely benefit from a host of consumers that do need a refreshing outlook on how to conduct their financial life and that's, that's why we're here. it's a little difficult for me to opine on their question sorry. sfl. >> i'd rather have you not take a guess than guess my last question would be where do you hope to be, especially you've raised almost half a billion dollars. where do you hope to be a year from now >> just continuing to provide and cater to the consumer aspirations. that's really critical at the end of the day, the consumers will need themselves to be more nimble to have the ability to access financial products in order for them to save, to invest better so that they can continue to afford life life is becoming more expensive

by the day that's where we come in with our partners because we're always continuously innovating. not only text mchnology, but prs and innovation >> continuing to afford life would be like a good catch phrase i think for this year hopefully maybe not next gilles, we appreciate it and con grates the ceo of cross river bank. ahead, howard schultz returning to starbucks and he's making a big splash. the shares are down 4.5% as a result as we head to break, a quick check on the markets with the dow clinging on to a 22-point gain sd sll u1.naaqtip 5% back in a moment in the future we'll travel to incredible places with the help of magical technology. but what about today?

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howard schultz is back and he kicked off the day with a huge announcement. suspending the company's stock buyback program. the shares are down 4.5% as a result kate >> you said it he's back starting today and investors are reacting negatively in his move of suspending the buyback program starbucks says it will invest that money into caves and workers, but didn't provide specifics. he is expected to host a town hall with employees in the next hour and has sent out a letter to starbucks partner that said, quote, our company, like many companies, is facing new realities in a changed world the supply change, des information caused by covid, highened tensions, a racial reckoning and a generation which seeks a new accountability for business the union says he's taking a good cop bad cop approach.

they notched a major win last week getting a ninth store in new york more than 167 stores in 20 states have petitioned the lrb and they've lost one he is returning to a starbucks that looks quite different than when he left the way consumers want to interact has shifted with digital ordering front and center and not to mention the stock is struggling down about 20% in the last six months >> really made my jaw drop because buyback programs have been such a key part of stock performance really for the last decade for the last couple of expansions for this market so this is something to watch and the factors he cites are pretty broadly shared amongst corporate america. so maybe the unionization is more specific to them. how much do you think that was a direct catalyst? >> it remains to be seen because you have to remember, starbucks announced last fall that it was

going to be raising pay for workers reaching a minimum of about $15 an hour. coming up this summer, the union reacted and said this is about more than money. this is about benefits the culture in the caves, better training for workers i'll be curious to see what they do with this money and what the union actually responds and if they're happy about it in the end. >> absolutely. i think that's one we should all watch closely. thank you. that does it for the exchange. "power lunch" begins right now >> thanks, kelly welcome to "power lunch. here's what's ahead on a busy monday the value of a tweet elon musk taking a 9.2% stake in twitter. that makes him the company's biggest shareholder. the stock is soaring, but what's his end game we'll talk about his motives and his influence. plus, the ce