and i think if when you finally see an etf come out, i think when you get that, it's going to reduce a lot of the friction in there. yep. charles: all right. well, you were ahead of the curve as well. thank you very much. i'm out of time. ash hi webster's in for liz liz claman so, ashley, over to you. ashley: thank you very much, charles payne. looking forward to that coinbase debut next week on the nasdaq. thank you very much, charles. breaking news for our viewers, president joe biden making his pitch for the american jobs plan otherwise known as infrastructure, fixing the nation's roads, rails and power lines. but, oh, yeah, also raising corporate taxes. the president hoping for bipartisan support for trillions in new spending but claiming inaction is just not an option. we will go live to the white house for a full recap on the president's comments. meantime, the markets have been

pretty mixed for much of this, and they are just that at the moment. in his much-anticipated annual letter, jpmorgan chase chairman and ceo jamie dimon says get ready for the u.s. economy to boom. our floor show trade thers will dissect all of that and more. while astrazeneca is hitting a bump in the road with its coronavirus vaccine, one company is hoping the fda will green light a new drug to treat the deadly disease. neurorx ceo dr. jonathan jaf visit is here to tell us all about it. and a massive semiconductor shortage could mean millions of less cars produced by automakers around the world. our all-star auto panel is here to tell us what it means for investors and, yes, car buyers. lots to talk about. 30 minutes ago president biden wrapping up a speech at the white house making his case for the american jobs plan, calls it

the blue collar blueprint to help get the american economy back on track. trillions of dollars will be used to help fix the infrastructure of today and build tomorrow, we are told. and, oh, yes, he expects corporate america to foot a large part of that bill. we head to the white house where we find blake burman with more. blake. >> reporter: hi there, ashley. certainly a sales pitch and really an impassioned sales pitch from the president at that. the president touting the need for a $2.25 trillion package far beyond an infrastructure package, as he describes it, saying that he needs this to go through because -- or at least one of the reasons because he's not going to to settle for inaction. the president also making the case that the definition of infrastructure should include things like expanding internet access, helping caregivers and investing in research and development. he says infrastructure has evolved over the years. >> 200 years ago trains weren't

traditional infrastructure either until america made a choice to lay down tracks across the country. highways weren't traditional infrastructure until we allowed ourselves to imagine that roads could connect our nation, cross state lines. of the idea of infrastructure has always evolved to meet the aspirations of the american people and their needs. and it's evolving again today. >> reporter: to pay for his plan, as you mentioned, the president wants to increase the corporate tax rate from 21% where it stands now up to 28 potentially. however, the white house today, ashley, also signaled that they are up, at least they say, to potentially compromise on that figure. >> i'm willing to listen to that. i'm willing -- i'm wide open to, but we've got to pay for this. we've got to pay. there's many other ways we can do it, but i'ming willing to negotiate that. >> reporter: by the way,

ashley, on friday -- so a couple days from today -- we are also expecting the president to unveil his first discretion their budget proposal which will give us a pretty good insight as to how the president wants to spend or believes the federal government should spend when it comes to federal agencies across the government. ashley? ashley: yeah. fire up the printing presses. all right, blake burman, thank you very much for that recap of what the president had to say. as we mentioned earlier, the markets pretty mixed today the, trading in a tight range. the dow down just 10 points. the s&p and nasdaq also up about a ten theth of a percent -- tenth of a percent which is interesting. we've had a lot of news today, the markets reacting not at all. the fed minutes were released just about an hour ago. i guess that's because the fed said the economy and employment are well below their desired levels, so the easy, accommodateoff policy will go on. but jpmorgan's ceo jamie dimon out with his 65-page annual

shareholder letter saying we are seeing a goldilocks moment, not too hot, not too cold for the u.s. economy. according to dimon, stimulus, vaccine distribute and the potential for a $2.3 trillion infrastructure bill could all combine to lead to an economic boom through 2023. that, by the way, is quite a turn-around from mr. dimon's letter a year ago that warned investors to brace for a bad recession. i'm glad he's changed his mind. but with the infrastructure bill not a done deal, could all of this be wishful thinking? to our traders now, teddy weisberg and phil flynn, two great friends of of the show. teddy, who's been riding out the pandemic aboard his luxury yacht in the caribbean -- [laughter] keeping the local rum industry in business. i only say it, teddy, because i'm a bit jealous. let me ask you this, teddy, do you agree with jamie dimon's assessment of what we can expect

for the u.s. economy for possibly the next couple of years? >> clearly, you know, i don't have the benefit of his vision and his tremendous bank behind him to help him draft these letters, but i'm sure it's based on what he feels and what the bank sees and, clearly, very, very positive. but even as we stand now, ashley, just today we saw the -- for the last week. nobody talks about that anymore, up 17%. they've been positive week after week after week going on months now. so the fact is the u.s. economy seems to be doing just fine. i don't know9 what the fed is looking at, clearly they're looking at something different than perhaps the rest of us are looking at. so you have on the one hand you have the jamie dimon letter, and on the other hand you have what the fed is saying. it's a bit confusing, and it's sort of reflected in the market9 a little bit. but at the end of the day, the market continues to climb this wall of worry.

and i would say if you want to go with jamie dimon's letter, and i think that's probably a pretty good place to start, it's a very positive backdrop for stocks going forward. ashley: but a lot of this, phil, you know, depends on the infrastructure bill being passed and all that money being, you know, funneled in. what if that doesn't happen? >> you may have to look at other stocks that'll probably still do pretty good because what we heard from the fed minutes today, they're not ready to take away the punch bowl just yet, you know? and jamie dimon is talking about goldilocks, but everybody forgets how that story ends. [laughter] this can't go on forever. you know, at some point we're going to have to pay the piper. yeah, let the good times roll for the next two the years,

we're going to party and it'll be good, but we can't run 10-15% deficits forever. in other words, we're going to have to pay the price at some point. we have to pay for it? i mean, come on, i thought this was all free money, you know? he thinks there's going to be a price to be paid. but it will be a disappointment to the market, we'll see a break in some of the hard commodities, but other firms are going to continue to do, you know, home depot, all the nonrelated stocks will still do well. >> ashley? ashley: teddy, i have no idea how goldilocks ends, but i just pulled it up on my phone. it's a picture of the three bears. it looks a bit threatening. let me ask you this, you have the threat of inflation, but you talk to people and they talk about the increasing costs already of, you know, groceries and, certainly, gas prices have gone up. is that something that you worry about that could derail all of

this? >> well, yes. i think inflation is very, it's around us everywhere. once again, you wonder what the fed is looking at. if they went to the grocery store like you and i would go to the grocery store, i think we see it all around us. and we see it at the gas pump. but, you know, back to what your other guest just said, you know, if, in fact, we don't get the stimulus bill, you know, it might not, in fact, be a bad thing because the economy is doing just fine. we've just had a stimulus bill which a lot of people thought was overkill to begin with. so to pile on another one on top of that, it brings a lot of potentially negative by-products. and i think if we didn't have the bill, i don't really think it's going to affect the market that negatively. i think maybe some people would kind of breathe a sigh of relief. ashley: yeah. you know, talking about, you know, paying the piper, as phil pointed out. phil, very quickly, talking about the gas prices, you're the man in the know. are we going to see them

continue to rise as we head into the summer? >> i think we sure are. in fact, joe biden came out today and said he's taking away all the tax breaks for oil companies and giving them to, you know, green energy. well, guess what? that means less energy production in the u.s., higher prices for you. ashley: all right. well, that's great news, is it not? phil, teddy, thank you as always for joining us today. great stuff, thank you very much. let's talk about the vaccine and the virus right now. the use of astrazeneca's covid-19 vaccine in the u.s. is taking a blow as europe's top regulator inspects a deadly side effect. we'll explain that. plus, the doctor who has held drug production jobs of merck and -- at merck and pfizer and worked under four presidents will share news on the details of the new treatment for covid. as we head to the break, the dow's been slightly down. is the, essentially, flat for most of the day.

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♪♪ ashley: europe's top drug regulator says it has found a possible link between astrazeneca's covid-19 vaccine and rare blood clotting issues in some adults who got the shot. while the news is a blow for astrazeneca and its vaccine, there is good news, however, for another drug developer. neurorx says it is hoping to get approval for emergency use from the fda for its therapy medicine targeting the lungs of patients suffering covid-19 respiratory distress. and with that in mind, let's bring in dr. jonathan javit, ceo of neuror, and. he's also led drug development at merck, allergen, novartis and pfizer. you know what you're talking about, doctor. before we get to your treatment in particular, could you kind of give me a summation, if you like, of 4:you see the battle -- of how you see the battle

against covid are going in the united states? is there light at the end of the tunnel? >> well, we're certainly hoping that we've turned the corner. i mean, there's no question that the intensive care units are down in in many states. but as we see the surge in michigan, as we see surges elsewhere, as we see variants come along that may not be sensitive to the vaccine, we realize that it's far from over. ashley: well, i'm just getting some news in my ear here, doctor, saying that moderna has just announced it may have a booster shot available by the end of the year. and there have been questions how long do these vaccines last, and now we're already hearing stories of booster vaccines. is that good news, and is that what you expected that we would need these extra boosts? >> well, i think in the best of circumstances this is going to be like the flu. the virus is going to keep changing, and we're going to

fight to stay ahead of it just like with the flu. but even though we take the flu for granted, it's important to remember that 25,000-50,000 americans may die of the flu. ashley: yeah. so we're going to have a flu season and a covid season, it appears. i want to move on, if we can, to your treatment helping the lungs of patients who have suffered particularly from respiratory distress. how big of a problem is that the, and how hopeful are you that your treatment will get approval? >> well, if you don't get respiratory distress, from the virus doesn't a-- if the virus doesn't attack the lining of the lung, you almost certainly will not die of covid. there are infrequent cases where people die of blood clots, but for the most part people who die from covid die of respiratory distress. so we've developed a drug that specifically attacks that mechanism by which covid kills

people. ashley: and how close do you think you are to approval? >> well, we just shared results of a phase two, three trial where we saw a substantial reduction in deaths from covid-19 and also a substantial improvement in recovery from covid respiratory failure in people in icus who were treated with our drug as compared to those who were treated with placebo which is a fancy word for an injection of saline or saltwater. [laughter] ashley: right. you know, there's been a lot of talk, doctor, about covid long, the long-term effects that some people -- now, i'm not sure, you know, is there any particular characteristics that bring this on, but they are afflicted with symptoms, varying symptoms from covid, and it apparently just goes on and on and on. i know we're just learning about this, but what are your thoughts on that?

>> well, we think we know exactly why that happens. covid attacks the rare cell in the lining of the lung called the type 2 cell, and that's the cell that makes the fluid that has to line the lung in order for the lung to absorb oxygen. so we've developed a drug that has for 65 million years, for as long as mammals have breathed air, this drug, this natural hormone has protected those cells in the lung. it's called vip. it's been with us all along. and it turns out that this pepcide is the way the body protects against lung injury. those people who have suffered a lung injury, it's going to be with them for a long time. and the next trial we start is going to be to determine whether vip can help those people.

some people call them covid lung, some people call them long haulers. ashley: yeah. i've heard that expression. so your drug treats it but not cure it, perhaps. >> our drug helps the cell that's attacked by covid heal itself and protect itself against the covid virus, the stars-cov2 virus. ashley: i hope the fda will give you the green light. it sounds like good news for those suffering is so badly with lung problems. dr. jonathan javitt, thank you so much for joining us today. >> thank you. ashley: all right. well, if you're vacation-bound this summer, lucky you, first. but also, get ready to pay a pretty penny on that rental car. the rebound in tourism has rental car companies scrambling to rebuild their fleets thanks

to a pandemic-induced shortage. we're going to take you live to beautiful paramus, new jersey, with tips on how you can make the process just a little less stressful this summer. take a look at the big board, we're just now about 40 minutes, 39 minutes from the close. the dow still around flat, just down 32 points. we're down a tenth of a percent. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ from fidelity keep you tuned in all day long. so when something happens that could affect your portfolio, you can act quickly. that's decision tech, only from fidelity.

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♪ ashley: all right. pop stocks, chipses and auto news tooling around today's pop stocks. let's move right ahead. carnival docks at the top of the s&p 500 after the cruise line operator said, hey, booking volume up 90% in the first quarter from the previous quarter. separately, by the way, carnival is threatening to move its ships out of u.s. waters because of federal covid cruise ship rules,

but all the cruise lines, as you can see, moving higher today. meanwhile, in the tech world apple says it will start enforcing a new privacy notification rule that digital ad firms such as facebook says will hurt their sales. but despite that, the social media giant is still near the top, up 2%. speaking of facebook, it has added zoom's video conference center to its portal tv device. zoom's stock down 2% today. meanwhile, let's take a look at tesla after the electric carmaker reported it is delaying deliveries of the new model s and model x electric vehicles. the stock down about 3% today. there's also a report that the ev maker has also applied for construction of the world's largest supercharger at harris ranch in california. interesting. meanwhile, across the pacific li automotive and after the chinese -- let's see what

it's doing, it's down 12, nearly 13% after the chinese ev maker says it is planning a $750 million debt offering to fun research and development. that hitting the stock. well, if you're planning an upcoming summer vacation, if you are, lucky you. renting a car could become increasingly more difficult. the car rental industry says the post-pandemic travel surge has created a strain on their car fleet, and the semiconductor shortage has also made purchasing more cars to keep up with the demand nearly impossible. lydia hu is live in beautiful paramus, new jersey, with how the industry is handling the shortage and what you can do, more importantly, to make renting a car less stressful this year. lydia. >> reporter: good afternoon, ashley. you know, big rental car companies right now, they're in the process of trying to acquire more vehicles to alleviate the

strain on the supply of rental cars. but in the meantime, they say that they're moving the cars that they do have around the country to try to match that demand. if you look at destination cities right now, you'll see there's scarce inventory for these rental cars. auto slash.com shows cars are sold out in many airports across florida, hawaii, arizona and georgia. usually car rental company buy their fleets of cars at a discount, but that has been limited by the conductor chip shortage. some companies scale down last year during the pandemic as demand waned, and now supply is limited. listen to this. >> the prices are at historic highs right now both for new and used vehicles. and the chip shortage is one of the primary drivers there, and the manufacturers can't seem to get enough pumped out to meet

the demand. >> reporter: experts say this shortage really concentrated in destination cities right now, but they expect it to ripple across the country in the coming months reaching even the northeast. so what can you do about this now? well, experts say a few things that you're going to need in the coming months maybe for vacation travel, book early to try and secure that reservation. another thing that you can do is consider the parental facility -- rental facilities that are to outside and away from the airport. they might have better prices and more availability. and finally, ashley, one last tip, join the loyalty program because if it comes down to you or another customer and there's one car left, if you're a member of that loyalty program, you might just get the car. back to you. ashley: gives you the edge. bottom line is plan ahead. lydia, thank you very much. appreciate that. interesting stuff. and that global chip shortage that lydia just mentioned stalling out production from some of the most popular cars

and trucks around the world. our all-star panel assesses the damage that will do and what it could mean for those of you on the hunt for a new car. and as we head to the break, the markets, well, they're slightly lower but not by much. it's been one of those days. we'll see if anything happens going into the final bell in about 30 minutes, and we will be right back. ♪ ♪ i really hope that this vaccine can get me one step closer to him. to a huge wedding. to give high fives to our patients. to hug my students. with every vaccine, cvs is working to bring you one step closer to a better tomorrow.

♪♪ ashley: automakers and their employees are getting hit hard by the growing global semiconductor shortage. it's a real mess. finish the alliance for auto innovation who represents companies like ford and gm says the chip-related issues will stop production of 1.28 million cars this year in the united states. that's a huge number. also talking of numbers, numbers from the auto forecast solutions says that ford had to remove

44,000 vehicles from production schedules last week alone because of this microchip shortage. it's having a huge impact. so the question is how do we get out of this mess? we posed that question to jessica caldwell and dow jones senior special writer an root. -- alan root. jessica, let me begin with you. cars these days, they're computers on wheels. you have no chips or certainly not enough, you really are stuck. how long do you see this going on? >> the scary thing is that we don't know at this point in time. we thought that perhaps there could be some capacity to get it sorted a bit quicker. it doesn't look like that. it seems as if by all projections it looks like inventory and production will be affected until later this year, and that's pretty detrimental to the industry that which has been on a good sell streak.

this is definitely taking some wind out of the sails. ashley: it certainly is. alan, what kind of financial hit? you're not making cars, you're not selling cars. maybe you're saving money on shutdown production, but overall, i would believe this is a nasty hit to the automaker, right? >> absolutely. both ford and general motors, the way i would characterize it, they've called it a billion dollar headwind for 2021 profits, so it's definitely an issue. of investors so far seemingly have given them a pass. the stocks aren't really getting hit as they watch it unfold. that could change in the second half of the year if it gets worse. ashley: jessica, if i'm in the market for a car, do i get any leverage out of this, or does this mean car prices are going to become more expensive to make up for a lag in the sales overall -- to make up for a lag in is sales overall? what does it mean in the car market? >> car prices have climbed a lot

just even in the past year. the average transaction price in the u.s. is over $40,000. and as inventory gets tighter, we all know what happens with supply and demand, people don't necessarily want to negotiate as much, there's just not as many options if you want something that's, perhaps, cheaper. the good news for consumers is if you have a trade-in, used prices are always going up. you're going to get more money for your trade in and also lower interest rates. other than that, not the friendliest buyer market right now. ashley: that's not good news. alan, let me bring you back. what does this say about the supply chain? clearly, they've been caught with their pants down, so to speak. does that mean we could see reliance or production of chips being bought much closer to home? i don't know if automakers could get in the chip-making business, but you know what i'm saying. rather than rely on overseas, is there a way this could push a

new way of getting your supply of chips? >> right. i mean, you've asked a huge question, ashley. and, you know, the global supply chain, you know, because of covid and a whole host of issues is sort of asking and answering that question slowly. it's not going to be in time to help this situation. you know, it's not only, you know, being overseas, it's, you know, new technologies that didn't ramp as fast as they were expected to while old technologies were ramping down. so it's been a real weird confluence. in the future i do think people will take a look at the geographic regions where they're getting chips. but, again, it's just not in time to help the situation now. i think it's worth noting that the executives aren't that worried. even on the supply chain side. they all talk about it. they go to investment conferences, they reference it, but it's not even the first, second or third question that they're getting asked yet. ashley: that's really

interesting. jessica, let me follow up on that. do you think things could change with regard to where these auto companies yet their key supplies of semiconductors? because, you know, clearly even if it's not been talked about much, it has stopped production up to 1.28 million vehicles this year. you know, i mean, that's considerable. to you see the likelihood -- do you see the likelihood of perhaps things changing after this? >> i think that there is a good likelihood to localize some of the production especially as vehicles get more sophisticated. we are on the cusp of more electric vehicles, working on autonomous vehicles. one would think given the situation that automakers are looking towards in the future, that that would make a lot more sense. it does seem to make more sense, and it seems like it's becoming a better business case. ashley: yeah, i think you're right. well, thank you both. we're out of time, both jessica and alan, thank you for joining

used today bad news if you're in the market for a car though. that's not great news. all right, let's move on. georgia's voting law controversy throwing a curveball into baseball's all-star plans, we know that. but what really went into the mlb's decision to move its game out of atlanta? guess what? charlie will break it. he'll be here to explain more behind the curtain of what went on. also let's check the big board. well, there you have it, it's been flat for most of the day, and it's the same story with the dow with less than 20 minutes until the session is closed. "the claman countdown," though, will be right back. ♪ ♪

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♪♪ ashley: major league baseball didn't exactly met a home run with its decision to pull the all-star game out of georgia. what went behind that decision? guess what? charlie gasparino joins us now with some behind the scenes details. charlie? >> ashley, the back story to this is going to be fascinating, and it's still developing. we're getting bits and pieces of it. but it's fascinating how this came down the pipe with rob manfred announcing the all-star game would be moving out of atlanta. here's what i'm getting from my major league baseball sources. these are people very much in the know, very close to owners, and here's what they're telling me, that the owners themselves were blind sieppedded at least by the timing of this move -- blindsided. this was a move that was done not by a vote of the owners but by, basically, manfred and a few close associates. the entire ownership class was not broadly consulted about the timing of this move.

now, of course, they knew he was negotiating, he was actually talking with democratic party officials, democratic political operatives before he made that decision. that's key here as well. so this is clearly something that they knew was going on behind the scenes. but the timing of it was, you know, blew a lot of people out of the water. they had no idea this thing was going to happen when manfred, from what i understand, when manfred announced it. and the other thing was that he was speaking with various democratic political operatives, from what i hear, before making that decision. and what i find interesting as well is now the backlash is coming, and what i understand, inside the mlb is that they are worried about a significant fan backlash because of this. and that's the sort of feedback they're getting from fans through e-mails and phones calls that this thing -- getting directly involved in a very overt political issue over this

georgia voting law which the president has deemed a new type of jim crow which republicans say it's not, it's a major political issue that the major league baseball getting that entrenched in this is rubbing fans the wrong way. and the openers aren't crazy about it as well, and they are -- owners aren't city. donald trump already called for a boycott, and they are feeling the heat via e-mails and betweens, you name it. so there is another thing going on here. from what i understand, baseball is trying to figure out some sort of solution to this problem. and i can't tell you exactly what that solution would be. i don't think -- they're not going to do a 180 after they announced they're taking the all-star game to denver. what you could see is getting the all-star game to atlanta maybe next year or, you know, in a couple years, something along those lines. because one of the reasons why is because it's so obvious that this move, while making an overt

political statement the, is devastating economically to a city that's majority african-american and minority. and it's clear when you've got someone like stacey abrams even writing that in "usa today." and let's get to stacey abrams, who was -- who almost was named governor of georgia and who led the voting drive in georgia to both turn the state blue and to help raphael warnock and jon ossoff win the senate seats. she, from what i understand, was -- she was having conversations with manfred before this ruling came down. this is what's puzzling to me. she was having considerations with manfred, and then she -- conversations with manfred, and then she attacks the position. i don't -- like i said, ashley, there are pieces here that need to be put together. it's a fascinating back story. it's highly political. and i will say one thing, if there's one lesson to be learned

here, it's that these businessmen probably shouldn't get this deep involved in sort of very touchy, hot button political issues because rob manfred, know him pretty well. he's a nice guy, good businessman, but he just doesn't understand these broader forces at work here. and major league baseball knows that they're in deep, deep trouble right now because of this with their fan base. ashley, back to you. ashley: yeah. thank you, charlie. when you're getting advice and talking with democratic operatives, it's almost like being driven by the administration themselves. all right. charlie, good stuff. thank you so much. by the way, the s&p crossing the 4,000 mark for the first time ever just last week and still holding above it nicely. but wait until you hear where the elite club of stocks is headed by the end of the year. the closing bell rings in just

10 minutes. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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♪. ashley: closing bell rings in over seven minutes from now. look at s&p 500. it needs to be up around four points or thereabouts to get into that record territory. dow and nasdaq have been slightly lower. breaking news. the u.s. state department issued a release on restart of nuclear talks. they have had consultation with our european a allies along with russia and china. the meetings are being characterized as business like. the biden administration is prepared to drop sanctions that are inconsistent with the iran

nuclear deal made under president obama. the u.s. citing lack of trust between the u.s. and iran as the biggest obstacle in the ongoing meetings. interesting, dropping sanctions. bring in the host of "kudlow," larry kudlow himself. good to see you. i know it is coming at you, what do you make of this? larry: terrible idea, ashley, terrible idea. there are a lot of angles to this including the abraham accords and how trump changed the map in the middle east for better, but, but, think of this angle geopolitically, china is iran's financeeer. iran sells china oil, far more than any other place because of the boycotts and sanctions. ashley: right. larry: we're suppose to be, the u.s. is supposed to be tough on china a policy which i completely agree that president trump put together but how will we stay tough on china with we're aiding and abetting iran's

best friend which is china? iran is an enemy of the united states. make no doubt about it. and they want to you know, slaughter israel, push them all into the sea and so forth so on. ashley: right. larry: i don't like this one bit and iran's whole history is full of lies and deceit, okay it will not change. believe me, it will not change. so i think this is a very big mistake on the part of team biden. i also add, ashley, i've been a supporter of team biden so far on china, absolute supporter as have our expert guests but this is not good, sorry, not good. ashley: not good. we hear you, larry. thank you so much for joining us. we should point out "kudlow" airs at the top of the hour, discuss minutes from now. larry's special guest today is andrew weiderhorn, fat brands ceo. "kudlow," weekdays, 4:00 p.m. eastern only on fox business and just around the corner. as we've been saying pretty much all day the markets are

mixed but the economic recovery is hitting the gas according to today's closer, that is encouraging. federated hermes portfolio manager, i butchered that, 60 billion in assets under management. that is a lot of money. steve, thanks for joining us. you're bullish, correct? >> we are. we think we have meaningful upside between now and end of the year. 4500 is our target. we don't think the rally ends there. we think that is where we get this year. ashley: wow. >> this economic recovery is at least the strongest since 1984, probably the strongest since world war ii. this is a real robust economic recovery, ashley. ashley: where do we put our money then? rebound starts with the airlines and cruise lines today particularly rebounding but where does the smart money go to ride this wave? >> look, i think you want to be exposed to reopening. there is a belief that has been

priced in. i don't believe that is priced in at all. a number of large states are still very much in terms of lockdown mode. we're starting to hit levels of vaccination. vaccination is another example of american exceptionalism along the with uk. much higher vaccination rates than the rest of the world. we think this summer will represent modern day gis coming home from world war ii moment. we think you will see a lot of wallet share towards experiences going out, entertainment, travel. the american consumer is coming back, going out in a big way this summer. ashley: for so long, steve, the big tech stocks have been you know, putting everyone else on its back and tracking us forward. you still like the big tech stocks? you still like them at these prices? >> look, we have been underweight tech and growth since last august. we remain that way. we prefer the cyclicals but it is not because we think there is anything wrong with tech. we still think the companies are big inners going forward.

just that so much goods you can consume locked in our homes, we consumed as much of that as we can whereas we have not been able to engage in entertainment, travel, restaurants, all those things we love to do outside of our house. for the time-being some of that wallet share will shift to more cyclical value and reopening trades but longer term, make no mistake about it, these countries, these companies are disrupting industries, they're changing the world. we think they will be long-term winners. we don't think they are the exact best plays right now. ashley: what potential fly in the ointment to do you see? is it inflation? what potential headwinds do you worry about? >> look. you have got to look at the impact taxes have. that we don't engage so much government spending that overheats the economy, causes inflation. we don't expect that will be the case. those are things you need to worry about but by and large, when you look around the world,

there is much bigger problems elsewhere. europe only vaccinated 10, 15% of their population. that number is sub10% in asia. here we are sitting 50%. really around the 50% level where israel started to see a big decline in cases, hospitalizations, really turned the corner. i think we see that in a number of states in the coming weeks. ashley: do you still have a lot of clients, steve, that cashed in, sitting on their cash, just kind of a little wary to jump in, feeling the bull run has gone on for so long that they have missed out? >> i think anytime you have a big percentage move off of a robot people are wary jumping in. ashley: yeah. >> our response is the following, we're early economic cycle. we have not gotten gdp where it was before the pandemic. prolonged, deep market downturns are uncommon this early in a economic cycle. we think risks are very much to the upside. you missed it.

don't let that make you miss the rest of the move up as the economy continues to recover and expand. [closing bell rings] ashley: still room to run as they say. steve, thank you very much for your insight. as we head to the bell, dow up slightly, s&p, nasdaq slightly upward. kudlow, the -- ♪. larry: hello, everyone, welcome back to "kudlow." i'm larry kudlow. great pleasure to be here. today the taxman cometh. president biden gave a speech today on his new infrastructure tax hike. treasury secretary janet yellen, formally unveiled the administration tax hike plans in a media conference call. commerce secretary gina raimondo who actually has a private sector financial background, she tried to persuade folks there is room for compromise. and the president himself swears he will talk to republicans. >> look, what i said was i would