technologies when they split up the company. raytheon split off carrier and otis and others. very strong names. value plays as well. industrial sector's very strong. you got to own the sector. charles: all right. we got to leave it there. david, we always love it. you help us out a lot. cheryl casone, we have to get to 3393 and change on the s&p for a new high. we are at 3393 and change. i hand it off to you. cheryl: 4.16 is the magic number. we are up over 10 right now. we got this covered, charles. absolutely. thank you, sir. we have a lot of breaking news this hour. we are going to do it. we are going to do it. it's another record day on wall street and the nasdaq and s&p 500 both hit all-time intraday highs so far. that's what charles is talking about. but will the major averages be able to hang on to the gains as we go into the close and will we get new record highs for the s&p and nasdaq? right now the s&p and nasdaq are

on track, we will see what happens in the next 59 minutes. global air travel is down 85% from a year ago. one airline is looking to build confidence among travelers. delta is teaming up with cvs to rapid test its employees with results available in 15 minutes. with rapid covid testing on the rise, we will talk to the ceo of a dyiiagnostics company which applies a newly approved test. how these rapid tests are a tool in the fight against covid-19. warnings over sales pressure once the stimulus checks end, really kind of a surprise how the stocks have performed. what could this mean for the sector as consumers prepare for not just back to school but for the holiday season? yeah. we got to talk about it. we will get the inside scoop from one of our all-star retail experts during the hour. plus, new drama for apple.

this time with new york city's metro transit authority. and charlie breaks it on the newest entry to the tiktok race. less than an hour to the closing bell. i'm cheryl casone in for liz claman. let's start "the claman countdown." cheryl: we begin with some breaking news right now. california authorities are fighting to keep the light and ac on as a heat wave is currently stressing the state's electrical system. the california independent system operator expected to make utilities start rotating blackouts to as many as 3.3 million homes and businesses, as temperatures may hit triple digits in many areas in the golden state. residents already enduring a series of blackouts on friday and saturday. we will keep you posted, watch what's happening out west. then there's this beverage

giant, dr. pepper falling today after its largest shareholder, maple holdings, sold 45 million shares. those shares were sold in a 2% discount from monday's closing price. maple is still the largest shareholder, with a 49.5% stake, but take a look at the stock right now. it's down 2%. pinterest gaining popularity intraday. take a look at it, up almost 3%. this as the digital pinboard and image sharing company appointed their first black female board member. andrea wisham has worked with harpo studios for more than two decades. this move coming amid claims that discrimination and pay inequities by former employees but again, pinterest higher by 3%. move over, amazon. chinese e-commerce jd.com getting a coveted spot on goldman sachs' conviction list, the move coming after the online retailer blew past earnings estimates just yesterday.

goldman also raising its price target on shares from $73 up to $85 and they are forecasting strong growth prospects for the china-based digital giant. jd right there, that conviction list, it's a big compliment, up more than 5.5% right now, jd.com. well, pandemic or not, americans went on a building spree last month. did you see it this morning. housing starts increased 22.6% in july, exceeding estimates. that was the biggest gain that has seen since october of 2016. that one report from the commerce department. the boom in residential construction is proving a boom for all of the home builders. look at them, all of them except for nvr in the green. toll brothers up by 1%. as you can see, pulte, horton, lenard all in the green. blockbuster numbers this morning for the builders. part of this impetus is mortgage rates which have dropped to record lows on eight separate

occasions in 2020 and there's the 30-year fixed as of today. 3.14%. then also helping is the mass exodus frankly from the cities to the suburbs as folks are like look, i can work and attend school remotely, why live in a big city and pay for that. let's get some tape from our traders. david is the ceo of new constructs, and phil flynn is here. david, these numbers were pretty astonishing this morning. i covered a lot of these surveys. we got the nahb numbers yesterday. this exodus to the suburbs is really something else. >> that's absolutely true. we think a lot of these -- d.r. hort horton, very undervalued stock that didn't participate in the big melt-up. we think there's a lot of upside. they are industry leaders, best in class, and i think they will be taking market share out of covid so these are still, they have been good stocks, they will continue to be good stocks. cheryl: phil, that economic

story is interesting as well. you and i talked repeatedly about gas prices and have seen a lot of pressure on the oil market but because frankly people aren't driving. now i'm wondering what your take is on this. this is going to be more of a permanent story. two months ago we would have thought that working from home was temporary. i don't think it's temporary anymore, phil. >> well, it may not be. the big question is usually when you think of people buying houses in the suburbs you think they have to commute into the city and use more gasoline but this is a totally different dynamic. when you look at it, you know. one of the things to look at from an investment point of view, when you see this kind of home building, it's also very good for a lot of the commodities. we have talked a little bit about the explosive moves we have seen in lumber. take a look at copper today. that is through the roof as well. so this is actually going to be very good for the commodities. and listen, whether you live in the suburbs or work remotely or not, there is going to be travel

and travel will come back. it may not get back to the levels we were at before, but it's going to change and we may not commute to the city as much, but we may spend more time on the weekends traveling to get out of the house because anybody working at home realizes you start to go stir-crazy if you stay home for a long period of time. people will want to get out. it's going to be interesting to see how this dynamic trades out. but i'm very excited. i like the confidence we saw in the home builders, it's through the roof. that confidence is being reflected in the records we are seeing in the s&p and hopefully, it's going to start being reflected in main street as we start to come out of this coronavirus panic. cheryl: i agree. let's get to some i guess happier news. this is the fact we are looking at new record closes, david, for the nasdaq and the s&p. i was looking at the s&p, this is the first record we have had for this particular index in six months. that is the majority of that is the pandemic. does that tell you that -- i know we have had question marks

about whether or not the market was ahead of itself with the coronavirus recovery, at least from a financial perspective, but does this tell you this recovery is here to stay for the second half of the year? >> i think so. i think we are going to see the markets probably topped out. i don't expect a whole bunch more upside but i do see sort of filling out the foundation of this market. most of the leadership has been concentrated in a precious few names. we know the big five, who they are and we think there's a lot of opportunity to rotate into some names that have been overlooked like home builders, like a lot of other stocks we think got unfairly punished because they were effectively priced as if covid was permanent and now that we know covid will not be permanent, there are plenty of great opportunities out there to still find a lot of value. cheryl: also, a couple other things i was looking at in the markets today. by the way, gold went above $2,000 again for the first time in -- well, the first time in a week but still, above $2,000.

still trying to wrap my head around that. and the dollar index is down to a two-year low which obviously, that's an impact on the energy story as well. >> well, it is. energy makes donald trump happy, right? he was complaining the dollar was too strong. our exports were terrible. everybody else manipulating their currency. with our weakness, it will help our exporters in a big way. you talk about gold, i want to needle warren buffett a little. i used to hear i'll never buy gold, i don't get it. then all of a sudden he goes out and buys barrick. i think he started to get it about gold. maybe, just maybe, there's part of the gold world that you want to own. barrick is a big buy, really kept that sentiment going in the gold market. cheryl: times have changed and sometimes, stability and a little protection is needed even if you are warren buffett. phil, david, guys, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> thank you. cheryl: well, it is the economy.

democrats looking on the first night of their convention to gain ground with voters in how they could handle the economy better than president trump. former 2020 candidate, senator bernie sanders, digging the president from his handling of the economy during the pandemic but also arguing that the trump administration wasn't doing enough for small business. hillary vaughn is in wilmington, delaware with details on the fight over the economy and the 2020 election as we go into or we are on day two of the democratic national convention. hillary. reporter: cheryl, well, democrats last night on the virtual stage at the dnc tried to make the case that the economy is a winning issue for them because they think that president trump has not done a good enough job during this pandemic and they want to turn it into a winning issue for democrats at the ballot box in november, but they did draw a contrast. several people last night in their speaking slots between how obama/biden handled the 2008

recession and how president trump is handling the economic crisis today. >> auto workers in this union and across our state could have lost their jobs if not for barack obama and joe biden. in 2009, president obama and vice president biden didn't waste time blaming anyone else or shirking their responsibility. they got to work. reporter: out of the 2008 recession, obama and biden passed a massive stimulus package, $831 billion in unemployment benefits and also tax cuts. they also later approved $80 billion in federal funds to stop general motors and chrysler from folding, saving over 2.5 million jobs, many of those in the battleground state of michigan. yesterday, bernie sanders said trump has not done enough to help small businesses and says that 30 million people pushed out of work during the pandemic. there are major differences, though, between the economic crisis we face now and the 2008

recession but when you look on paper, president trump has done a lot to help businesses. the cares act alone, columbia university estimates successfully kept 12 million people out of poverty. the paycheck protection program direct funding to small businesses helped save 30 million jobs and there are two other big differences between obama/biden's economic approach and president trump's. taxes and regulations. under obama/biden, nearly all businesses saw higher tax rates except for those bringing in less than $50,000 in revenue. today, most small and midsized businesses have seen a double digit tax break under president trump. 21% flat corporate tax rate. when you look at regulations, obama/biden's administration made history for some of the most rules and regulations issued during their tenure, over 600 of them were cited by government agencies having negative impact on small businesses and trump has spent most of his time undoing a lot of those regulations that obama and biden put in place, and

according to the council of economic advisers, removing 20 of those regulations has helped save $220 billion for consumers and businesses in the past year. cheryl? cheryl: investors certainly looking to analyze what these candidates bring to the table. hillary vaughn, thank you very much. well, the closing bell going to be ringing, we have now got about 46 minutes to go. the dow is down 43 points. we are looking at new records for the s&p and nasdaq. so far, we are on track to get there. we will see what happens. amazon making a big bet on in-office jobs. the e-commerce titan adding 3500 tech and corporate positions at its hubs in six major cities, dallas, detroit, denver, new york city, phoenix and san diego. amazon investing more than $1.4 billion in this expansion. that stock up more than 4% right now as we go into the closing bell. then how will covid-19 testing play into getting people back to the office?

coming up next, we talk to the founder of entrivo diagnostics on the rapid test his company is supplying to help the company get back up and running. "the claman countdown" is coming right back. before money, people traded goods.

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cheryl: rapid covid testing movement flying high. delta announcing it's partnering with cvs to expand its current testing program to include speedier tests which could provide results in just 15 minutes or less. this is for employees. delta says it plans to test its workers on site using cvs health's rapid response nasal swab test. this will be in addition to testing it already does with at-home kits or other on-site appointment testing. the airline doesn't currently test passengers but one biotech company that just got emergency fda approval might. their test if approved for at-home use could get results back even faster. joining me is intrivo diagnostics founder, reeve benaron. great to have you here. thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me this afternoon, liz. cheryl: it's cheryl casone in for liz claman today. it is her show, well said. the question about your company

here is you've got a fingertip test so you put a little spot on your hand and do that, but you've also got the saliva test -- excuse me, the nasal swab test. we are also hearing about the saliva test. what are you finding more interest in for your testing? is it the quick blood test? is it the swab? who is reaching out to you to buy these? >> well, first of all, there's two types of tests. there is the rapid test and then you've got tests that have to be done in a laboratory. so the first approval we got was on what's called a pcr test which is a nasal swab test that has to be done, sent to a laboratory and then we got the approval on the antibody test which is a finger prick. however, the fda's emergency use authorization does not yet allow for point of care which is what is going to be the answer, i believe, to a lot of the problems we are having.

cheryl: so with the finger prick antibody test, obviously that tells you whether or not you've had the virus but more importantly, with the swab test, is there a scenario you see playing out where this could be an at-home situation for americans? i mean on a mass scale, maybe you get up every day and you do a swab test, you get your results, you know that you can either go to work or school or not. is that where we're headed? >> yes, absolutely. i think that's going to be the answer. we have to have rapid testing. look, we have to test 300 million people. the problem with these laboratory tests and the saliva test, there has been a lot of talk on other networks and everywhere about the saliva test, that's known as an lbt, lab developed test. while it does not require the extraction kit, it still has to be sent to a lab. i believe the answer is going to be in these rapid testings that are going to be able to test people and get the results back in ten minutes, they are going

to allow us to reopen our schools and get our kids back to school, they are going to be able to allow us to get our society back. that is the answer. that is what we are working on. cheryl: well, you mentioned obviously you are talking about the big news yesterday with yale university, they worked with the nba, the basketball association, for the saliva testing. at the same time, i think it's a time frame, right? i mean, it seems like it would be three to six months away just because i think the question of efficacy is a very fair question, whether it's your testing or yale university's testing, you know, where are we with that? they are not 100% accurate. >> well, our test, first of all, our test was validated by the fda and we had 100% sensitivity and a 97.5% specificity. there are accurate tests and fda has done a great job of cleaning up. they have kicked out over 100 tests on the market and now i think we are recognizing that we

can be self-sustaining and self-reliant. we can count on american manufacturers to make these tests and to make them reliable, to make them good, and to be able to get us back -- to get things reopened again. cheryl: i'm assuming you are working on the manufacturing side of it just like they are with the vaccine, correct? >> we are, correct, we are working on the manufacturing side of it. we can make a lot of tests now, tens of millions of tests, and really, when you think about it, if three great american manufacturers got together and we banded together which is what we have been doing, we have a lot of support from the american government, you know, a wonderful organization is giving grants to support american manufacturers, the nih is wonderful. i spoke to them last week. we have to step up and buy american and support american manufacturers. cheryl: never thought i would see gm make ventilators but they sure did. i think this can happen as well. yeah. it's exciting. >> absolutely. cheryl: reeve benaron, thank you

very much. thank you for joining us. >> thank you very much. i appreciate you having me on. cheryl: absolutely. all right. i hope all of you at home appreciate this. s&p and nasdaq are on track for record closes today. as of now. not promising anything but i'm hopeful. we have right now 38 minutes to go until the bell rings. we also have some good news for uber today. the company's subscription service uber pass officially launched nationwide with the exception of california. uber pass which is now available in more than 200 cities is $25 a month and offers a 10% to 15% discount on uber rides. uber up 1.75%. is your face mask getting in the way of you unlocking your iphone? yeah, it probably is. well, the big apple is facing off with the market's big apple on that very issue. the changes being called for in the name of safety for commuters. kristina partsinevelos is on the case when "countdown" returns. from fidelity.

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cheryl: face masks hindering the face id feature on apple products and now new york city's metropolitan transportation authority, we call it the mta here in new york city, asking the tech giant for updated technology so riders don't have to remove their masks to unlock iphones during their commute. subway ridership has plummeted 90% since march, largely due to safety concerns surrounding covid-19. so when will the big apple feel comfortable enough to take public transit? kristina partsinevelos live in new york city with all the latest. kristina? kristina: you have public transit systems all across the country that have suffered from lower ridership since march. we already know this. but specifically in new york city, they are going after apple. they sent a letter, you mentioned the mta, directly to apple ceo tim cook asking him to better educate all of the iphone users out there so they are not

lowering down their masks while on the subway in close proximity with others. you can see the subway is right here at the moment. i spoke to some riders this morning about their experience with iphones. listen in. >> i have to pull my mask down. it's quite inconvenient. >> whenever i touch stuff, i don't like to touch my mask. >> if i need to unlock my phone, i take my mask off to let my face open it. kristina: fox business reached out to apple for comment. they responded quote, we simplified the unlock process for people wearing masks with an update to face id in ios 13.5 that automatically presents a passcode. it's just a lot faster. this comes as a lot of major city public transportation systems are in dire straits. they are desperate to make everyone feel safe and comfortable so that riders come back. right now, the estimates for the mta in new york is that we could face a deficit of $16 billion

through 2024 and most cities across the united states have already used most of their federal relief which is why collectively, all of the public agencies are asking for a total of $32 billion in federal aid. so as the return to the office is continuously delayed, we know ridership is going to suffer which is why it's so important for public transit systems, there's no one around me at the moment which is why my mask is on, is that you maintain social distance and keep your mask on, especially when using your iphone. back to you. cheryl: very good advice. kristina partsinevelos. thank you. closing bell going to ring in exactly 30 minutes. how about that. home depot and walmart reporting some store-busting sales in store and online in a lockdown quarter. why are shares of the retail site under pressure? what happened today? coming up, we've got the woman, she eats and sleeps and breathes retail. on the warning flags that have

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cheryl: talk about a mixed shopping cart. the two biggest retail names reporting some big records in the lockdown quarter. this is amazing. home depot posted its biggest ever sales growth number as demand for do it yourself products boomed there, then you've got walmart seeing record online sales as shoppers spent up their stimulus checks from the safety of their couches. 97% jump on e-commerce there. but get this. shares of both retail giants are selling off intraday alongside department store kohl's, who also reported this morning, we should say. but remember, walmart and home depot are dow components, both in the red. kohl's is down more than 14.5%. walmart, by the way, sounding the alarm on stalled stimulus and back-to-school uncertainties

and kohl's warned this morning that sales in july were moving in reverse amid new surges in covid across the country. here to help us unpack all of this confusion, my favorite retail analyst, hitha herzog. great to have you here. >> thanks for having me. cheryl: help me make sense of walmart. i actually did the numbers this morning with maria on the show. these were blowout numbers from walmart. next thing you know, the conference call starts at 8:00 a.m. eastern time and the stock starts going down. what gives? >> we saw a little bit of the selloff, mostly having to do with investors taking profits. they saw this record runup and then they started taking most of their profit earlier in the morning. but you also mentioned that the fact that the stimulus has stalled and a lot of what we saw with walmart, especially on the discretionary side, was the spending of those stimulus checks. with that said, walmart is squarely, and they did this on purpose, they positioned them as an essential retailer and what we are seeing with retailers is

a real bifurcation. the essential retailers like walmart, home depot and target and lowe's that are reporting out tomorrow of the world, then you have the other non-essential retailers, for example, the department stores, jc penney which you know is filing for chapter 11, neiman marcus which is really non-essential, may be essential for people like me, but for those that it's not essential, they are not selling toilet paper, so you are seeing that also hitting the doldrums there. that's what we are seeing with the consumer. cheryl: it's also interesting about walmart, i was reading a note from a ubs analyst going into the report this morning that he was pretty bullish on their back-to-school story which now, they get on to the conference call and by the way, doug will be on with maria tomorrow so this is all going to come up, but basically the company said we are a little uncertain about back-to-school. ubs was saying no, no, no, walmart is perfectly positioned because you and your family or

just you can go and do one-stop shopping. you don't have to go somewhere for clothes, you don't have to go somewhere for school supplies, you don't have to go somewhere to pick up, you know, things for your home. it's all within the doors of a walmart. then the e-commerce story as well which i still think is a strong story, 97% jump, because they are going after amazon. i think amazon should be nervous at this point about walmart. >> right. walmart has spent upwards of, i mean, we are talking into the billions of dollars trying to take away that market share from amazon. we're not just talking about really dominating when it comes to back-to-school items such as clothes and supplies, right. we are talking about consumer package good as well. oracle came out with this study that says a lot of packaged goods these stores were selling really hit a peak at march and april, just as the height of the pandemic, everyone was sheltering in and started to trail off towards may, right, when people were able to see that supply chain loosen up a

little bit. so what we are seeing now, and to your point, walmart really positioned themselves so perfectly. years and years after trying to go up against amazon, taking away that market share, pouring money, capital expenditure into their online infrastructure, now is the time that really they were able to shine. we saw that in the numbers. 97% online growth e-commerce, that's -- if they can sustain that for the next couple quarters, i would say that has paid off in billions. cheryl: what you are saying this morning about the people taking some profits off the table with walmart, very interesting take on that stock action today. that's why we love you. hitha herzog, good to see you. >> good to see you, too, cheryl. cheryl: well, the closing bell going to ring, we have now got 21 minutes to go. as you can see, the dow is down 62 but the s&p and nasdaq are holding on to what will be new record closes whenever we get in the green for the nasdaq it's a new record.

if we get 4.14 to the upside on the s&p, you've got a new record. we haven't had that in six months. again, is the coronavirus, is the markets ready to move on and not go back? anyway, we will talk about that more with our "countdown" closer and a new dance partner taking the floor in the tiktok tango. coming up next, charlie breaks it on the big tech titan that could be looking to take the wind out of microsoft's sails in the race to buy the shiny social media star's u.s. operation. "countdown" will be right back.

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even if you're not on the app. according the a report by axios, a social media company is working to test making public content like snapchat's original programming and content like from celebrities, for example, available outside of the app. users will be able to share content via links that will take the viewer either back to the app or it's going to open up a mobile web players. that test expected to roll out next month. this could help the stock which has kind of struggled since its ipo we should say. snap up more than a quarter percent. a new name is emerging in tiktok's list of possible suitors. the financial times is reporting that oracle, yes, larry ellison has been in talks with the short video platform, but is this a likely pairing, in particular if oracle wants all of tiktok? charlie gasparino has the details. hey, charlie. charlie: hey. i can't tell you that this deal is definitely going to happen. i can just tell you two things. there were talks, there's no doubt about that. we have been able to confirm

that. preliminary talks. and the impression i'm getting from our sources is that these were talks that occurred in the past. it's unclear if oracle is seriously going to make a bid. at least i don't have that level of detail, that they are going to make a bid for tiktok or at least enter the phase of talks that is now going on between microsoft and tiktok which are very advanced talks and talks about how -- talks involved essentially how to secure the data, the user app data that the trump administration believes is being surveilled upon by the chinese government because tiktok is owned by a chinese company, bytedance. those talks are very advanced with microsoft and tiktok. i do not have whether those talks are that advanced with oracle or even if they are at that stage. couple things to keep in mind here, cheryl. oracle's a big company, very

successful company. it's got something like $50 billion of cash on its balance sheet. it has something like $40 billion in debt. microsoft has almost no debt and $136 billion of cash. microsoft is a $1.3 trillion market cap company and you know, oracle, i don't have the numbers off the top of my head, but they're not near that. so you have to put this into context who is better positioned to buy this company. and one other thing. microsoft is an expert at the secure -- at secure cloud and that's how this deal is going to happen. that's how you are going to keep the data secure away from any chinese influence. is that oracle's main line in business, i don't think so. so if you just look at it, as a

whole, the company that's best positioned to buy this thing is microsoft. now, they may walk. this is not an easy deal to do. but if they walk, why would it be any easier for oracle? so just keep that in mind. one other thing you've got to keep in mind on all this. everybody and their uncle has looked at tiktok. the investors in tiktok, general atlantic group, sequoia and of course, bytedance, the people that run bytedance, they knew that they were about to get squelched by the trump administration for months. they have been shopping themselves. they have had meetings with everybody from microsoft, obviously, to twitter which doesn't have obviously the balance sheet to do the deal without massive amounts of borrowing and fund-raising. it makes sense that oracle joins facebook and google also, from what we understand, looked at them and maybe others. apple, there was a report that

apple looked at them. they say they're not interested but they still may have looked at them. everybody has looked at tiktok here. everybody's had what's known as preliminary discussions. there is one discussion that's advanced beyond the preliminary and that's microsoft. now, again, microsoft could walk away from this thing. this is a very complex deal. if they do walk away, you got to ask yourself why is oracle any better at doing this than microsoft. just given their relative size and scale and what their expertise is in. so again, you know, i think we have about two or three weeks left before that trump administrative order kicks in. it was a 45-day executive order that the president signed, that said you have to sell tiktok to a u.s. buyer or it's going to be banned from the u.s. then there was a second ruling, a 90-day ruling from cfius, that's the treasury committee on foreign investments which also

rules on these things. i'm not sure which one takes precedent. i would think the president's order does so it's the shorter time frame. but if you really see serious talks with oracle, then you know that microsoft is getting cold feet on this thing. i do not have that they are in serious talks just yet. another theory out there is that general atlantic and sequoia want to stay as investors in whatever deal and they might have a better shot at staying in as investors with oracle than microsoft, which could do the whole thing itself. you know, it's just big enough. it doesn't need anybody else. cheryl: and remember twitter was at one point interested in tiktok. there's a lot of names floating around. but you're right -- charlie: lot of names. twitter does not have the balance sheet. they would have to borrow from everybody. twitter buying tiktok is almost like a-rod buying the mets. you need to get a lot of people. cheryl: lot of friends.

that's true. charlie gasparino, great reporting. the tiktok saga continues. thank you, sir. charlie graasparino. we have ten minutes to go and the dow is down 86 but still, the s&p and nasdaq are looking at new records. this could be the first record for the s&p in six months. we are kind of teetering here. we need 4.16 to the upside for the s&p. stay with me, folks. all right. between the pandemic and the upcoming presidential election, uncertainty surrounding the markets is mounting but our "countdown" closer says it's crucial to have a glass half full outlook. plus, he's got the sectors you need to have in your portfolio. that's coming up next on "the claman countdown."

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now you can trade stocks and etfs for any amount you choose instead of buying by the share. all with no commissions. stocks by the slice from fidelity. get your slice today. ♪. cheryl: we are just minutes away from the closing bell. the s&p slipping just a little bit but we're trying to hang on

to the gains. we need to be up by 4.16 points for a new record for the s&p. they got to hold on. nasdaq on pace for the second straight record. 34th by the way for 2020. another electric vehicle maker riding the blank check money train or maybe in this case skateboarding on it. l.a. based canoo said the move will raise 600 million in production costs. lauren simonetti with all the latest. lauren. lauren: looks kind of weird, the skateboard ev company, canoo is a merger with hennessey capital with a special purpose acquisition with a blank check company. the deal provides $600 million for canoo to produce an electric vehicle by 2022. we were talking about the skateboard like technology. it looks like a microbus. it is available in two forms. by subscription for customers in

2022. for businesses in 2023. if you kind of just change out the top of it, so the base remains the same it could be something like a restaurant or a clinic on wheels. and it could be used in the transit system for that all important last mile delivery. some of the options for this company. they are the latest in a way of spac-based listings for this year including nikola and fisker. the share price is rocketing. look at tesla, it is pushing $2,000 a share. nye yo up 250%. workhorse is rallying 75% in into the close. cheryl: it's a hot sector. elon musk was on to something. lauren, thank you thank you. >> nasdaq and s&p, from the pandemic to the press den sit policy fears.

is it okay being positive despite mounting uncertainty with the pandemic and economy? according to today's closer the half glass full approach is crucial in the face of the 3 ps. alan i hope i said that correctly. >> [inaudible]. cheryl: thank you for alan, coming on the show. ubs wealth management, senior portfolio manager. the glass half-full scenario is a life lesson but how is that a investing lesson? >> there is a concept of animal spirits and so much what happens in the market is driven by confidence, by consumer confidence, by confidence of the markets generally. when you have a market down 34% on march 23rd and now it is reaching record highs you see this confidence is starting to build on itself. that in of itself can help the economy as people become more positive and are willing to participate. cheryl: as we look at the second

half of the year as the s&p is hopefully about to close in three minutes, a new record. we haven't had a new record on the s&p in six months. i can't help by wondering if this is the final leg up not just for the markets but for the economy? we're to the going back to march 23rd? >> look, there is three big things that are going on right now. there is the pandemic. there is this notion, this feeling there is light at the end of the tunnel. there is idea that this will be vaccine positivity. there is this whole idea that the pandemic, there is some point where it is going to be in our rear view mirror. there is the idea of the presidential election. there is policies, fiscal and monetary. fiscal, monetary policy right now are very accommodative. that the federal reserve is helping us to have the markets and economy be stronger as is the fiscal side of the picture. these are positive things f the

investor stays positive we can get through difficult times. like you said in life you can go through difficult times if you maintain positive. cheryl: where are you investing? >> the mid-cap area is a way to play this. there is clearly some cyclical bias here that the broader economy, the broader market will do better. you've seen the big names do well. you haven't seen it trickle down to the mid-cap, smaller names. we're looking at industrials, consumer discretionary. health care, in the mid-cap sector. that hasn't really participated yet. it goes to the broad idea things will be positive, that there is light at the end of the tunnel and this too shall pass. cheryl: alan, thanks for joining us from ubs. i like being positive. we have nail-biter. i think we'll do it. the dow is down 70, right now,

but the s&p, here we go into the final moments. that is what really matters. [closing bell rings] i think we'll do it. new record for the first time in six months for the s&p. the nasdaq hitting another record. this is the 14th record in 2020 for the s&p. obviously this is good news for everybody. that is it for me. liz is back tomorrow. "after the bell" is now. charles: whoo-hoo all-time highs on wall street. s&p closing first time in six months. nasdaq with a record close for second day in a row i'm melissa francis. hey, ashley. ashley: always a good day. i'm ashley webster in today for connell mcshane. this is "after the bell."