average. so bad news for tech stocks, and gamestop down about 25% right now. there's gamestop -- oh, wait a minute -- yeah, 25.5% right now, down to $135 a share. so for all those meme stocks out there, take notice. cheryl casone is in for liz claman right now. cheryl, over to you. cheryl: david asman, thank you so much, sir. good to see you. yeah, david just showing you those numbers. we do have the split decision on wall street, the s&p just going into negative territory. markets are mixed. the dow up as much as 364 points, now it's only up 127. s&p again just going into the red, at one point it was up by 31. the nasdaq though, this is the big story, there's a lot of movement that we're seeing out of those growth stocks and out of those big tech names, headline stocks. we're going to talk about that during the hour. meanwhile, there are signs that the infamous gamestop trade that pitted reddit room retail

investors against wall street shorts could be done as the video game retailer is taking a tumble. our floor show traders are going to tell us if it is game over for gamestop. but it is game with on for a new etf. it's focused solely on sports. its ticker is mvp. roundhill cofounder and ceo will hershey is going to be here and the numbers are in. concrete proof of what young men lockedded down by a pandemic do with too much time on their hands, stimulus checks in the bank. the ceo of playboy is going to tell us about his company's blockbuster quarterly results as they make a big return to the public market. well, gamestop, tell you what, this is quite the story today. it is this a downward spiral after falling short of analysts' estimates for its fourth quarter earnings. real numbers coming from gamestop, but it was the company's failure to answer

questions on the earnings call that sent analysts really into a treason si, if you will. the stock, as you can see, is down more than 25%. also webbush lowered its rating to an underperform from a neutral and said the retailer's real value is around its price target of $29 per share. but with the board shake-up and fresh blood like chewy cofounder ryan cohen, former amazon exec jenna owen, they are preparing for an overhaul. but are these changes going to happen fast enough? teddy weisberg and phil flynn joining me now. happy hump day to both of you. gamestop jumped after its initial earnings release after the bell last night, but now the stock is getting crushed. do you think this spiral is going to continue downward, or do you think the changes within the executive ranks of the company could help it? >> well, or yeah, who knows? it's not a name that i have

other than watching from afar, it's not the kind of stock i would ever buy, we would buy for our clients. but, you know, the issue is with the earnings it's all about bottom line, top line and guidance. and companies that get it right on all three, i call it the earnings trifecta, the stock's usually rewarded in a positive way. but in this case, the whole topic of guidance and looking forward and trying to get answers from executives, you know, this just creates a lot of unknowns, a lot of unsettlement, and the stock the market and individual stocks are forward looking, not looking behind. and, boy, when the outlook, cheryl, is cloudy and it's not clear and this is kind of a high profile tech name, i mean, it makes people nervous. and you know what? if you can't get any kind of clarity looking forward, it's probably time to exit the store. cheryl: especially because

they've gotten, the name has become so high profile because of the trading frenzy that erupted in the short squeezes between the hedge funds and those retail investors, it shook the whole market which was fascinating. phil, i want to move to something else with you. oil prices really jumping of after that stranded vessel blocked the suez canal this morning. remember, that connects europe and asia, one of the busiest shipping routes in the world, and then you had inventories out this morning. what's your take on what's happening with the contract? >> you know, i think the selloff last week was overdone, and we're starting to see that. make no mistake about it, cheryl, when you have the suez canal blocked where about 10% of the global oil and gasoline supply goes through on a daily basis, even for a couple of days, it's a major shake-up to the global market. so i think that was one of the things that really ignited the rally where yesterday it looked like nobody wanted to own oil, like it was going to have no value anymore. we also saw some other things

that were very interesting. you know, i talked can be everybody was talking about sell oil because europe's going to shut down, and then we get german manufacturing numbers, the strongest in history, and it's like, wait a second, if you're going of to have a strong manufacturing sector, you're going to need a lot of oil, so the market turned up. in the inventories today, we did see crude oil build an increase in supply, but that was offset from the fact that we saw refiners with a big jump in activity. that probably means refiners have to work really hard to make sure we have enough gasoline this summer. that means we're going to use an awful lot of crude in the coming weeks and probably have cemented a bottom from this recent contraction. cheryl: i was going to ask you about gasoline prices. i'm glad you wrought that up, phil -- brought that up, phil, because we're going into the summer season, and it is going to be game on for americans this summer with the vaccine rollout. they're going to be traveling, they're going to be hitting the roads, it's going to be like a party in the streets, basically, when we finally start to see the

end of this pandemic again, phil. but if gas prices go up, that also hurts the airlines. that hurts shipping companies. that hurts cruise lines, that hurts everyone. >> it is. there's no doubt that the energy prices are going to be headwinds this year. and i think, you know, we took energy prices for granted, you know? we keep talking about peak demand, we're all going to be driving electric cars. well, not this summer, i can tell you that. [laughter] and this summer with the pullback in investment, the pullback in u.s. production which is down 2 million barrels a day from the peak, it's going to mean we could have a tight gasoline market. i'm afraid $3 a gallon might be looking cheap when we get to the fourth of july. cheryl: phil flynn, teddy weisberg, thank you very much. >> thank you, cheryl. cheryl: well, the new york yankees are going prime. the team announcing 23 games this -- 21 games this season are going to be streamed on amazon prime. amazon was part of the $3.5 billion of the yes network, the

yanks' television home. amazon expanding its sports footprint after news broke last week of its $1billion dollar deal to exclusively stream thursday night football. joining me now roundhill investments' cofounder and ceo, brian hershey. love the ticker, mvp. this is really a pure play on sports. why now in. >> no, that's exactly right. you have to have fun with the tickers, right? mvp, why not? when we look at the sports industry, there are a few things that are playing into why we thought it made sense to launch this etf now. the first is probably obvious, we kind of view sports as one of the purest reopening trades out there. there's tons of pent-up demand from fans to get back to stadiums. that's going to drive merchandise and ticket sales

that flows down through the leagues and the teams. the second is what you just touchedded on, you know, the media rights story which is one of the biggest drivers for these assets. the shift to streaming, even though we had heard for years about declining television viewership for sports, these are the crown jewels. you saw amazon prime going after the new york yankees' assets. and on so much that last week, the nfl just signed a tremendous deal, over $100 billion over 11 years. so media rights are going to be one of the driving factors. and kind of the last play here, it refers to the technology in sports betting. you know, sports betting is rolling out on a state-by-state basis. that's going to drive engagement particularly from those younger fans that have member -- maybe been lost over the years. live betting is going to bring in that younger fan base. it's part of the reason why we're excited. cheryl: i was looking at your holdings breakdown, and your top

holding is madison square garden. i thought that was interesting. i want to ask you about that. you've got liberty media, i know you're talking about tv and sports because who wants to, you know, watch sports on your computer? and manchester united. you've got some european plays as well. >> yeah, no, it's a very diversified etf in terms of exposure. about 50% of the portfolio is invested in leagues and teams that are actually outside of the u.s. and kind of as we look forward, i think there are going to be more of these teams and leagues that look to go public. balance sheets are in a difficult position right now. the parent company of the ufc, i think we're at an interesting point where retail engagement, more retail investors paying attention to the market. i would look for teams to potentially ipo and take advantage of their fan bases. you touched on a couple of our top holdings. msgs trades around a $4 billion

market cap. i would say maybe the knicks are around that on a stand-alone basis. [laughter] cheryl: maybe so. we'll see how their season plays out. again, nikeing, adidas, callaway, puma if, under armour, why those names? online retail can be strong, but retail inmight see a little bit of pressure this year. >> no, i think you're absolutely right, and i think when you look at the portfolio as a whole, i touched on it being a reopening trade. in many cases, these are kind of the value names as well when you look at where are these names trading versus kind of where they were on a pre-covid basis. we look at these kind of sports apparel brands as a way to play into that reopening trade. call golf, think about how many -- callaway golf, think about how many americans are ready to hit the links after staying at home for the past year. we think those sales are going to be strong as people not only at an amateur level, but at the professional level really get back to engaging and playing

sports. cheryl: well, you know what? it's very interesting what you're doing here, will, and again, love the ticker. it's a solid portfolio company, i've got to say. good luck to you with this one. thank you, sir. >> thanks so much. appreciate it. cheryl: well, from sports to the movies. amc extending losses into its second day right now. the theater chain getting a super villain-sized punch after disney's decision to release black widow simultaneously in theaters and on disney plus. yeah, it's down 13% and change. disney, though, is also lower, not much though, about 1.president 6%. well, from the box office, charlie is going to break it on the newest celebrity who's looking to turn his are riches into blank check superstardom. closing bell is going to ring in 49 minutes. dow is up 166. we'll be right back. ♪

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former president donald trump said to be considering looking at the possibility to take a company public. charlie charlie gasparino's got details. >> i'm going to get into that in a second, cheryl, because i created a little bit of a twitter firestorm. surprise, right? [laughter] not the usual arguments i get having people in their mom's basement. but i tweeted out something involving infrastructure spending. as you know, the biden administration is planning a $3 trillion blowout. major investors are worried about rising deficits and spiking interest rates on the 10 and the 30 which could cause a lot of problems for the markets and for the economy. one thing i'm hearing from these same investors is if this does happen -- and it's still an if, we don't know that interest rates will spike dramatically. they've been going up and down a little bit now. they're still at historic lows. a lot of people believe that powell will come back in the market and do either an

operation twist, which is a way of buying long-term bonds but somehow keeping the fed's balance sheet neutral. when you buy a long-term bond, it's a way of suppressing longer yields. but you keep your interest rate, you keep your portfolio stable. and/or just do an outright bond sale -- bond purchases. there's a lot of talk about this, and it's a story you're going to be hearing more of, and it has massive implications for the markets and for the economy economy. if they do this, you know, this is something that, you know, is going to keep the markets at their current levels or even higher. so just keep an eye on this. this is being spoken about at major hedge funds right now. getting into the trump spac conversation, lydia moynihan, my producer, broke it. i did some of the reporting, is so i can tell you there are people in the spac industry -- and these are people that are major financial firms. lydia has a very plugged-in source. i spoke with some other people

that say there is speculation that donald trump may do a spac or is looking at doing a spac. it's a fascinating story, as you know. there are other celebrities that are doing spacs. of everybody in the world has a spac now. shaquille o'neal, colin kaepernick, a-rod. trump, as you know, is much more than a celebrity, he's the former president, he was also a real estate mogul, so the investment world is not totally foreign to him, so it makes sense that this could be going on. we did speak with eric trump on this, and he gave kind of an interesting answer. he said i am not working on anything with any spac, so i just can't comment. eric is the vp of the trump organization, so it's kind of an odd non-denial denial,, right? cheryl: yeah. >> we tried to get the former president, he didn't get back to us. jason miller, adviser, had no comment. we can't confirm that donald

trump is actually in someone's office talking about a spac, but i can con firm that people in the business are talking about this left and right. and we'll see what happens. it would be an interesting entree into the business. you know, there's a degree of if you start a spac if, it's a public company. so there's a degree of disclosure that goes on, cheryl. that disclosure would, obviously, could involve illegal loans. he's under investigation by manhattan district attorney cy vance for possible bank and insurance fraud. if you're going to do a spac if offering amid that, it would have to to be a disclosable evet even if trump organization's doing it, because he's a leading principal at the trump organization. so that the could be an issue. but then again, he's got 70 million people who voted for him and, as you know, with a spac you raise money, you list your blank, your shell company on an

exchange, you target certain companies, and you do that also with investor interest. and retail investors can buy spacs. cheryl: but should they? i had to say it, but should they. that's been my question all along. [laughter] no, i'm serious. >> that's a whole other question. cheryl: celebrities, everybody's doing a spac. great for them but good for the average person? i don't know. i'm not convinced. >> listen. when you have 0% interest rates, you have nowhere else to put your money. you can't keep it in cash -- you can, but you're taking it on the chin finish that's the whole notion of keeping interest rates low. and by the way, this is where it's related to my earlier report on infrastructure. if jerome powell does go in the market and buy -- and do an operation twist or even, you know, suppression on the long end, i mean, that does force people into stocks and to more risky investments. cheryl: to qualify, yeah.

>> that's why you have people talking about bitcoin, gamestop is trading wherever it's trading now, $150 -- it's down off its highs. and spacs. cheryl: i have to go to commercial so i can look at your twitter feed, more importantly -- oh, i see meghan markle. okay, anyway. [laughter] i love you. all right, charlie -- >> -- needed something about meghan markle. cheryl: oh, charlie, thanks. we'll see you tomorrow. all right. so marriott resting easy into the close right now. shares are getting a boost of confidence in the form of a $25 price target hike to $175. that call came from citigroup. stock is up almost 2% right now. spring break surge in air travel and increased vaccinations is lighting a spark in the u.s. travel market overall as you can see, 144.86, we are watching marriott. and with travelers setting out across the cup by the millions once again, we've got a firsthand look at how the windy

city is hoping to cash in on the staycation season. closing bell rungs, we have got 39 minute -- rings, we have got 39 minutes to go. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪

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cheryl: guess what is popping at the temperature of pop stocks today? hall of fame resorts and dolphin entertainment both skyrocketing. dolphin is up 31.5% -- 11.5%, hall of fame is up 45 and change. nonfungible token, nfts, kind of the hot new thing. fans are going to be able to buy and sell nfts in the form of exclusive content involved by hof and its partners. so have cryptos, especially after this, tesla ceo elon musk saying that the u.s. customers out there can now buy his electric vehicles with bitcoin. late last night musk tweeted the

news, and that sent bitcoin higher. we're at $55,000 and change now. tesla accepting the crypto as a form of payment for its cars, that is viewed as a transactional game-changer. it really is. winnebago industries, let's take a look at this one, it is actually down more than 5.25% off of session gains. the motor homemaker reporting upbeat second quarter earnings, but winnebago is reporting a strong backlog for its tow bl rvs and motor homes. americans' strong interest in the outdoors, though, not helping vail resorts. each though i think -- even though i think a certain -- is skiing as we speak. i think claman's skiing. the ski resort operator announced prices for next season's epic pass going to be 20% lower than this season, the

price could apply to the entire portfolio of the north american path lineup. again, vail resorts is down. well, after its worst year to date, the hotel industry is predicting a summer rebound with more states moving to reopen and vaccinations ramping up. but with hotel occupancy rates rising pretty slow, is opening a new hotel really a good idea right now? well, grady trimble is live if from chicago where he is touring the brand new sable hotel at the very famous navy pier. grady. >> reporter: cheryl, the folks here would argue that it's a good time to open a hotel. in fact, they were supposed to open last november, but they pushed it to march, and they're being rewarded by that decision because occupancy is pretty strong for any new hotel, let alone during the pandemic. bob habib can talk more about this. we've been talking about people doing sort of staycation type trips because they don't want to go too far, so far that's what you're seeing here.

>> there appears to be a lot of pent-up demand with people who want to spend a little bit of time doing something besides being locked up with covid. so we found amazing results with our opening just thursday and being at 50% occupancy and 60 on saturday. >> reporter: just a beautiful shot. the first hotel ever on navy pier even though it's been here for a hundred years. seems like it was about time somebody made this decision. you said 60% occupancy. that's way above the city's average right now. what do you attribute that to? >> i think it's good timing. i think people are ready to get out and explore the city again. this has been the most difficult years in the hotel industry with 27% occupancy annual toized in a market like chicago -- annualized, and that's well below the 74% from last year. so it's a very welcome sight for people to be out and staying no he hotels again. >> reporter: affiliated with the hilton brand.

bids travel, what are your -- business travel, what are your predictions on that with this property and others across the cup? >> the industry has had a mixed view on what's going to happen with business travel. my personal view is the same. phenomenon is going to occur with business travelers. they haven't seen their customers, they haven't been out in the field the, they're going to want to get out and touch their customers again, and that's going to to happen a lot more quickly than people expect. but yet others say that business travel might be suppressed for some time to come. >> reporter: of course, navy pier known for its rides, attractions, shops and restaurants. those are still, unfortunately, closed, cheryl. but a lot of the city is open especially when you compare it to just a few weeksing ago. so you can come to a place like this and explore the city even if you're not necessarily staying on the pier. there's, obviously, a beautiful skyline out there. cheryl: thank your photographer for giving me just a quick glimpse of my favorite run in chicago, along the water right there. that is a great jogging trail. it's literally my favorite in

the city. >> reporter: i hit it almost every day, cheryl. cheryl: oh! so jealous. [laughter] grady, thank you very much. that was a great report. appreciate it. grady trimble live in chicago. well, playboy is hopping to its highest level since returning to the public market last month on the stay at home-fueled revenue surge. we have the ceo, ben cohn, he's going to take us through his plan to keep stimulating his customers post-pandemic. closing bell is going to ring 29 minutes from now. the dow up 124, well off session highs of 364, but i'll do what i can in the next half hour. and you can see the s&p is up by 3, nasdaq down 191. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ yes! hey ava, how's my bracket looking? , in investedstedsco qqq. tha yes! hey ava, how's my bracket looking? a fund a t a invests in the innovations of the nasdaq-100.0 like ts artificially telligent home syshomehomem. a fund a t a invests in the innovations of the nasdaq-100.0

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use a single hr software? nope. we use 11. eleven. why do an expense report from your phone when you can do it from a machine that jams? i just emailed my wife's social security number to the entire company instead of hr, so... please come back. how hard is your business software working for you? with paycom, employees enter and manage their own hr data in one easy-to-use software. visit paycom.com for a free demo. hon? first off, we love each other... how great is it that we get to tell everybody how liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need? i mean it... uh-oh, sorry... oh... what? i'm an emu! no, buddy! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty. ♪ ♪♪ cheryl: playboy group hitting a record today after reporting

fourth quarter revenues that surged 118%. this is the first earnings report since the company returned via spac in february. the adult-oriented brand has pivoted from the male-focused magazine business which was, of course, founded by hugh hefner to a global consumer products start-up that currently sells about $3 billion worth of playboy-branded items globally. one of its licensees operates a brand in china with, get this, 2500 brick and mortar stores in that country. the man who spearheaded it is ceo and president ben conan. he joins me now on "claman countdown." >> thanks for having me. cheryl: first you made the decision to come back to the public market after you took the company private, but you also are really changing the core of the company and making it

really, i think, her of a, i guess, a products company that's focusing on, in particular, clothing. how successful has this been so far? >> look, we were up 89% last year year-over-year, this year we're forecasting $200 million in revenue. what's so unique about this brand is the power of the ip. this is a brand that drives $3 billion in consumer spend in over 180 countries. and we're just getting started. the brand has really resonated with gen-z, we've grown 15 times in the last two years and exceeded over $100 million last year. but what's so unique about this brand, and i think it's one of the most valuable pieces of ip in the world, i sort of equate it to the nike swoosh, is how many different products this brand works in. we're organized around four key product categories, beauty and

grooming, gaming and lifestyle. and so it really gives us an endless runway moving forward. cheryl: $3 billion is a pretty astonishing number considering that, you know, is that a pandemic result, do you think? is that, did that kind of drive business for you? >> it's not. this is a brand, again, it's been around for 68 years. we have such a rich archive, and i think we've done and the team has done an unbelievable job in really taking the core dna, the personal freedoms this company has fought for for 68 years, modernizing it for today's audience. we have an audience that spans generations from gen-z to, you know, late stage millennial withs. it's a brand that's been in china for 25 years. you mentioned our 2500 stores, we did over a billion dollars last year in e-comm alone in china. cheryl: you with also have the streaming service as well, i

know that sometimes you have new articles, but how difficult was the decision to get out of the publishing business? i mean, playboy is -- it's been part of american history. hugh hefner, a huge part of american history. obviously, you're taking his work and moving forward. how tough was it to give up the magazine, first and foremost in. >> that's a very controversial subject. internally, it was not tough. the magazine really hasn't resonated for decades with generations. i don't think that's how consumers consume content today. and when we think about the magazine, it was a compilation of multiple different franchises. so what we've done is we've taken certain editorial pieces out of the magazine like the playboy interview which is one of the most famous pieces of editorial journalism, you know, for the last four decades, and we brought that to a podcast to resonate9 with audiences. but i think what's emerged over the last 30 years of the company is the product side of the

business. what does playboy stand for today, you could look at this $2.5, 3 billion when when i took over as ceo of global consumer spend against the brand. so we focused the company on really back to its core which i believe it was one of the original lifestyle brands. and really putting consumer products around those four key product categories in front of consumers. and so, you know, we have 50 million people we reach every day through our social media audience. that is our marketing. and we're really excited about the future. we have tons of opportunities from nft to if they ever legalize marijuana in the united states, you know, this company is -- cheryl: i saw the cbd products. i do want to ask you about nfts, nonfungible tokens. if anybody could make a success out of that business, i think it would be playboy considering 68 years of content and images that

you own as a company. are you going to get into nfts? >> we are. we have an announcement coming up shortly. look, our nft strategy is really threefold. it's, one, working with phenomenal influencers that we've worked with in the past. we think there's opportunities to create new ip with them. second is that archive we have, that 68-year history with millions of images. our collection is on top of that. we have a 5,000-piece art collection. you know, what a lot of people don't know is that the company's worked with andy warhol, salvador dali, we have picassos in our collection. so our ability to not only monetize that, but also commission and work with new artists on new pieces of art. we're really excited by the nft market. we think it's going to be here for the long term, and we believe that our catalog as well as our relationships with both influencers and artists is directly relevant to that market. cheryl: thank you for confirming that on fox business, by the

way, because there'd been a lot of speculation in the market about you and nfts, but to be clear, you could take an image of marilyn monroe, i'm just throwing that out there. i'm sure you've already thought it. is that one good example? >> sure. again, we have a -- [inaudible] 16 years young, is the way i look at it. we will continue to grow that, and there's a lot of very interesting ip within that archive that we plan are on monetizing in the future. again, we're not forecasting any of that this year in our revenue model, but we believe there's a significant opportunity to build a long-term business in the space. cheryl: well, considering the brand recognition around the world of playboy, i would agree with you. that's why i asked. i do want to ask, if you don't mind, about hugh hefner. you obviously worked with him through the transition, he passed in 2017. what did you learn from hugh

hefner? >> look, i think hugh hefner, obviously, controversial. i think there's a lot of good things that he did in fighting for certain personal freedoms throughout the early years of the company. the one thing i've learned is that he was one hell of a marketer. one of my first meetings when we decided to take the company private in 2011, he said to me i might not be the best publisher, but i was, you know, the best marketer really that ever existedded. and i think that is something that this brand -- he created this illusion of what was behind the gates, what was behind the door. and i think that the perm freedoms he fought for -- personal freedoms is what resonates with audiences, fighting for lgbtq plus rights, civil rights, personal first amendment freedoms. but he was a marketer. and i think at the end of the day we can create that illusion today, i think the lifestyle nature of this brand, you know, especially coming out of this pandemic will be more vel relevant than ever before, and i believe our best days are this front of us.

cheryl: well, ben, we'd love to have you back on fox business especially when you announce which nfts you're going to do. ben kohn, thank you very much. >> thanks, cheryl. cheryl: all right. let's switch gears and take a look at a market we've been following actuallien on fox throughout the day, foil hitting a high water mark after a tanker ran aground along the suez canal. what that mean for the global economy and the american recovery. larry kudlow going to weigh in when "the claman countdown" comes right back. closing bell is going to ring 15 minutes from now, dow is up only 88. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ [announcer] durán catches leonard with a big left. ♪♪ you can spend your life in boxing or any other business, but one day, you're gonna take a hit you didn't see coming.

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♪ cheryl: so we've been talking about oil a lot today. oil is pushing, it was pushing -- that's gamestop, actually. let's go back to oil. i want to start with oil. pushing higher after that major logjam in the suez canal. one of the largest cargo container ships in the world ran ashore, it turned sideways, and it's been blocking traffic in and out of the narrow waterway. this is over in egypt. the suez canal, by the way. the blockage presenting a new threat to an already strained global supply chain, continuing to grapple with traffic jams due to an uptick in demand for consumer goods driven by the pandemic. and oil is something that we've been following today. we're looking at oil. we also have two fox business alerts for you, now let's pull up gamestop, another big story we're following. as you can see, it is down about 32% and change. we're near session lows for

gamestop. they came out with earnings after the bell last night, and, you know, the story was kind of a mixed bag. they weren't strong on details, and analysts didn't like that. analysts wanted to have more of a strategy in place. they did have some personnel shake-ups, we talked about that at the top of of the show. and then we're also just getting some reports, breaking news on disney i want to bring to you. stock down 1.7%. variety is reporting that disney plus, prices are going higher. and this is the first time that disney plus has ever raised prices on the consumers. this is going to start march 26th. monthly prices are going to go up $1 a month from 6.999 to 7.99, and then if you have the annual package, that goes from $69.99 to 79.99. variety reporting that disney plus stock -- excuse me, prices are going higher. larry kudlow joins me now. larry, i want to go back to oil

with you. all these shortages we're seeing around the world with coffee, you got that suez canal logjam that happened this morning, europe and its lockdowns are still kind of a storyline this morning. are you worried about the global economy? larry: actually, probably the place i'm worried most about is europe. but then again we're always worried about europe. because europe has galloping socialism, and they never deliver the good. and they bungled this pandemic vaccination stuff because they wouldn't use astrazeneca. so that's too bad. if europe would open, you know, end the lockdowns, their economy would do better. and then, hopefully, they'll modify their socialism. the suez canal thing is an interesting story, but it looks like it's being fixed, right? i think the container ship will be gone by tomorrow according to reports, so this that's good. i don't think there are any serious shortages, i just think

lockdowns created short ams, cheryl. -- shortages, cheryl. i want to say one thing i'm not sure of, i needed to do more work on this, i'm not sure why we're always having these semiconductor shortages, right? front page "wall street journal" today, autos are cutting back. mary barra, ceo of gm, they're having to cut back because they can't get their paws on enough check ups, semiconductors. so -- chips, semiconductors. i'm not sure why that that is. i just have to look at it. semiconductors drive the economy. it's the most important, powerful thing. and advanced design semiconductors not only drive the economy, they drive 5g, telecommunications and national security. so that's tricky. i'll give you that one, that's the trickiest one. why there a chip startage? i don't get it -- shortage. cheryl: they keep blaming the pandemic, but that seems like kind of a broad brush.

larry: yeah, when in doubt, plame the pandemic. but regarding all this talk about supply chain shortages, any other shortages, open the economies everywhere. get vaccinated, open the economies, and we'll be fine. just don't raise taxes and regulations. cheryl: oh, lord. i 1,000% agree with you. larry, thank you very much. we are going to see you seven minutes from now. "kudlow" at the top of the hour. he's got stephen miller and senator rob portman of colorado. you'll see him in seven minutes from now. speaking of the pandemic, pandemic fatigue has got investors -- a return to normal. stocks that are ready to break out when the covid nightmare finally ends and, gosh, we hope it is soon. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪

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cheryl: we're hitting new lows. this is just happening in the commercial break. the new low of the dow is jump of about 45 points. s&p 500 also hitting fresh lows. the nasdaq, by the way looks like we're sitting on two-week lows and closing at the lows of the session. we're definitely at session lows on the nasdaq. we're down 250. s&p is down 16. we're teetering for the dow as well with its session lows. still higher at least for the next three minutes. volatility is down today but our closer says it will not go away and that could actually be a good thing. barry james, james advantage funds ceo and president. has two billion of assets under management and he is here. volatility has been a little better. certainly not where it was last year but why do you think it

would be a good thing for investors? >> it shakes out weaker hands. we have a lot of money coming into the market, money from stimulus, but they have been pouring it into technology. that is not what is running. cheap technology is running. cycle of value stocks, cyclical stocks, starting to run right now. that is where we see great opportunities. this volatility gives us a chance to move in there. >> made a great point in your note. you said the cheapest tech stocks have been doing the best since october. the more expensive names are ones under pressure which is very, very true. get to your names. innovators international. this is your top pick. why? >> it is small, start with that and folk focuses on people not borrowers, small businesses, seeing tens of thousands of new businesses springing up right now. people are coming back, starting to borrow. they're well-run. good with your debt management.

they have plenty of cash available. so we see that as a great opportunity. cyclical stock, relatively cheap. super cheap, actually. that is my top pick right now. cheryl: down today. buy it when it is down, sell it when it is higher. pioneer natural resources and caterpillar. larry kudlow were talking about the global economy that seems a bet for caterpillar? >> it does. you know, if you ever watch these gold rush shows their equipment is always failing. that is true around the globe. one of the very oldest fleets out there. so they're going to start to really ramp up. mining, mining prices have gone through the roof. so we think it's a great opportunity, well-run, lots of profits there. talk about larry, shoutout to him, thank you, he endorsed my little book, seven-timeless principles of investing. that is kind of him. cheryl: he is nice man. finally got to meet him yesterday in person. we're lucky to have him and lucky to have you, barry,

appreciate it. have to go to the dow right now. look at that. [closing bell rings] we're only up 19 points. the s&p is at session lows, at the close down 18. nasdaq is down 258 points that will do it for for for "claman countdown." "kudlow" starts now ♪ larry: welcome back to "kudlow." i'm larry kudlow. markets today closed kind of mixed. dow edged higher. bullish comments from fed chair jay powell on economic growth and the labor market may have helped and that bullishness seems to have permeated the white house as well as president joe biden reportedly optimistic that he can ram his left-wing agenda through congress, all right? to do so he is on board with eliminating the senate filibuster as well as ditching any notion of unity in washington. he is going back on his word. republican senator