billion, 110 billion in market cap. that's going to 500 billion in my eyes, so i think there's a lot of opportunity therement also we talk walmart a lot, reopening trade that's going to be e to do very well. charles: mike, thank you very much. my friend is back, liz claman. welcome back, and i hand it to you. liz: hand me a dud and hand me a bowl of chips. that is kind of empty here. we're talking about the global chip shortage. it is rising to the top of the white house agenda at this hour ooze ceos for -- as ceos from companies like general motors, ford, intel and micron meet with president joe biden to share their thoughts on how to bring this chip crisis to an end. but wait til you see the true impacts of the semi slowdown on car showroom floors. celebrity motor car company owner, he's got six dealerships,

tom maoili, what he would normally have, a hundred suvs, would you believe me if i told you he's got fewer than ten because of the ship shortage? what it means for potential car buyers. now, right this second the president at this moment is meeting with bipartisan members of congress about his $2.5 trillion infrastructure plan. we've got the ceo of one of the top companies poised to benefit from it. steel giant ceo lorenzo is joining us in a fox business exclusive. loving the the idea of this. investors await a slew of economic data and the start of earnings season this week. any gains for the dow and s&p would make a new record close if we see a late session turn-around. you guys never know what's going

to happen in the final hour. the nasdaq down 76, this after emerging from correction territory back on friday. but let us begin with a fox business alert. breaking news, intel is now saying it's working with auto chip suppliers to start making semiconductor chips within the next 6-9 months to help a aleeuate the -- aleve great the -- alleviate the shortage. intel was one of the 19 u.s. companies participating in a white house virtual ceo summit today to discuss the issue. leaders of the companies debating potential solutions to the problem affecting the production of cars, cell phones,tops, you know -- laptops, snap-on wristwatches, who knows? all products that are electronic. it's a national security issue, the president says, that the brightest minds in the business world help to solve as china spends heavily on semiconductor sector. let us go live to the white

house, blake burman has the latest. you've got this news about intel saying it's going to work with the auto industry, it's almost like it's going to be the mask making where they transferred over some of their assembly line. i've got to hear about this one. >> reporter: it was interesting too, liz, jen psaki was asked what exactly the white house could do at this moment to address the chip shortage. there really wasn't a specific answer other than to say at least in the short term the president is doing what we saw over here just a little whiling ago, con veeping this meeting -- convening this meeting virtually of 19 ceos who are in and around this space. as you detailed off the top of the show, really it's a threefold purpose. one, there's a real problem in this space right now. chip shortage, bad for consumers, bad for companies, perhaps the auto industry has been hit if not the hardest, certainly right up there at the top. it's part of the reason why there were auto executives in this meeting today. the head of gm and ford, for example, along with the heads of google and dell and 15 other

companies meeting with the president. is so that clearly one reason. but also, the president used this meeting with the ceos to tout his $2.25 trillion american jobs plan. in it, it calls for $50 billion for manufacturing and research and development of semiconductors. here was the president earlier this afternoon. >> chips like the one i have here, these chips, these wafers are batteries, broadband, it's all infrastructure. this is infrastructure. so look, we need to build the infrastructure of today, not repair the one of yesterday. >> reporter: liz, when you talk about semiconductors, chips, this is actually one of those issues here in washington, d.c. where republicans and democrats agree that something needs to be done. there is legislation that has been cosponsored on both sides of the aisle. one of the questions going forward is how exactly could it get to some sort of bill to the

president's desk, would it be in a massive spending package or maybe something else more targeted. liz? liz: but he says, you know, we've got to get ramped up. we're behind on this game and, boy, is that true. because as you guys know, taiwan semiconductor is a huge maker of semiconductor chips. maybe they'll come here to the u.s. i think the administration's trying to do that. blake, thank you very much. now, let's dig down deeper into this. the fact that ford, gm and formerly chrysler fiat were all in attendance at this meeting indicates how hard the shortage is hammering the auto world. all the majors both here and overseas have been forced to idle at least some plants due to the chip crunch. but it's car dealers all across america who right now have been left high and dry waiting for thousands of pre-ordered vehicles that are nowhere to be found. the owner of six car dealerships

in new york and new jersey, tom joins us live from his celebrity dealership in new jersey. tom, when did you first notice that there was a problem receiving cars that was specifically related to the semiconductor shortage? >> well, listen, it happened -- it started evolving after the ramp-up when business started opening up from covid. you know, i saw this coming. my background is supply chain, i used to own a global logistics company, so i get it. i called this over a year ago. i saw this coming. you know, you can't just shut down plants. you know, there's thousands of parts that go into making a vehicle, and when you shut down that plan, it gets backlogged, and you just don't start it up. , and, you know, here we are trying to get it started again, and now we're going to stall again. it's a big issue and, listen, i commend the president for calling a meeting today, but you've got to do something about it, you know? the big issue, one of the big issues is that, you know, i call it the china effect.

you know, it used to be oil that we relied on other countries for and now we're self-sufficient, the u.s. needs to become chip independent, and we're not. we're relying on china, other areas of the world to give us chips that we can manufacture our products. that has to come to an end if we're going to build infrastructure. the infrastructure we need to build is here in the usa. that's where it needs to happen. liz: yeah. tom, tell me about your situation on your showroom floors. in particular, you know, i've dealt with you, i've bought many -- leased many lexuss from you -- >> and thank you for that, yes. yes. liz: yeah. and i know neil cavuto does work with you too. but you've got to tell me, you know, how many would you normally have in the lot? because we're showing video of some of your empty lots at this moment, and how many do you actually have? >> you know, listen, historically we would have 90-120 day supply of inventory on the lot ready to sell to

customers who are walking in our doorment of we're sitting right now with, you know, historically we would have a hundred suvs available to sell. we have ten. so we're at 10% capacity. you know, it's interesting, i pulled in this morning and saw a truck, and i was so excited. i thought that somebody, you know, gave me a lottery ticket. it was unbelievable. [laughter] customers were coming in, and they want vehicles. and they can't get 'em. you know, my bmw dealership this weekend, i had a customer a friend who wanted an x7, and i said there are none available. he said, get me one, i'll pay extra. it's not a matter of money. you can't get them. the supply -- the manufacturers' supply is shut down, and it's going to be this way for a while. i see six months. liz: ah, boy. six months. does that mean that with this crunch you will have to raise prices? >> well, listen, the manufacturers are going to raise

prices, you know, that's what they're going to do, we're going to have to raise prices to the consumer. and, you know, or this is not just on the new car side. we're, our repair centers are busting at the seams because people want to repair the cars that they have. they're not getting on trains, airplanes or mass transportation, so they want to repair those vehicles that they have. but we don't have the parts to repair them. so we have vehicles sitting up on the list that can't be repaired because we don't have the parts. so this is a global problem, and it's going to be for a while. it's going to affect the industry -- liz: tom -- for a long time, you say. let me finish with this: we were talking to the subaru ceo, and he toll me that an average subaru today has 34 semiconductor chips in it because there's so much that has been electrified and they need these chips. i can remember when we got all excited if a car came with a cup holder and a cassette deck.

how would you suggest the president, quote, do something? at the tart of this interview, you said we've got to do something. what? >> well, listen, you've got to -- we have to get, we've got to look to become semiconductor chip-independent just like we became oil independent, and we need to have the supply chain. we need to have a year's worth of supply in warehouses sitting ready to go in case we get hit with a covid again. listen, we got blindsided by this. the american people, businesses were blindsided, they got shut down, and this is something we've never experienced before, and it's going to take a while to get back up and running. people don't know what to do, business owners don't know what to do, and when you don't have the supply and you can't have people sitting around doing nothing, you start laying off people again. we're going of to have to deal with this issue, and we're going to have to deal with it fast. liz: tom maoli of celebrity motor, he says we need to be

chip inch dependent. i like that term. -- independent. good luck, tom. >> good to see you, thank you. liz: cryptos lighting it up as the crypto brokerage of record prepares to go public. add to that big banks 48 hours away from kicking off earnings season, and we've got the user's guide on how you should be playing all of the action in your portfolio to come out a sparkling winner. closing bell ringing in about 49 minutes. we've got the dow jones industrials down 108 and, of course, there's red on the screen for the s&p which earlier was positive. it's down 7 points right now. we're coming right back. ♪ ♪ did you know you can go to libertymutual.com to customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need? really? i didn't-- aah! ok. i'm on vibrate. aaah! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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everyone's paying more for nearly everything. and thursday one of the ultimate tests of how the consumer's really doing, march retail sales numbers will be revealed. it's also a very big week for the crypto space. digital currency brokerage coinbase set to ipo this coming wednesday. could be a monster, folks, with a $100 billion market cap under the ticket symbol coin. but there's something pretty serious going on in the crypto world. that chip shortage, now investors are concerned that there could be an upcoming bitcoin shortage due to the increasing lack of chips out there. so look what it's doing to what we see here with bitcoin. bit coyne price up -- bitcoin price at 59,893. here's the question, will the shortage in bitcoin continue to push prices higher? could this also cause a shortage of coinbase shares? and finally, earnings season set to kick off this week with the

big banks. they all report in just 48 hours. to our floor show traders, david trainer and phil flynn. gentlemen, a lot of points investors will be absorbing. what will be the standoutst phil? will there be a surplus or shortage of good earnings news? what? >> i think there's going to be great earnings news. the banks have a lot of money. even with the recent problems that they've had with some of the investors, i think their earnings are going to be very good, and i think they're going to set the stage for a big market. but i'm so excited about coinbase. look at this ipo, a company that is listing that actually made profits, you know? a lot of times these ipos go crazy, and these companies haven't made profits. they've made about $322 million of profit. so i think this ipo is going to set the stage for the appetite of the investors. i think t going to be huge. and i think if investors can get a piece of this, i think they

should, you know, because you mentioned, you know, the mining for bitcoin. that's going to drive those prices higher. but the nice thing about the coinbase is if they trade all the currencies, and you just have to have activity, and i think you're going to have plenty of that. liz: it's pretty stunning, david. we've got 56 million registered verified users. they're adding 13,000 users per day at coinbase. not to mention the fact that they have 5.5 million daily users. you know, i worry that maybe this is getting a little frothy, but then again, people said that about airbnb, and their stock has actually done pretty darn well. whenst there's just one best in class at the moment, what do you think? would you buy it here and then get to the banks. >> we would not buy it here. we think this ipo is ridiculously priced. the margins right now for coinbase are 46 times higher

than intercontinental exchange and nasdaq. so, look, this is a nascent industry x. like all early industries, a lot of the early players are overvalued. these margins are going to invite tons of competition. the chip shortage really undermines the credibility of cryptocurrency, especially bitcoin, as a holder of value, right? just because you're going to have a crimp in supply doesn't mean it's all of a sudden more valuable. it means it can't be relied upon as a store of value as much. the coinbase valuation is too much. it's -- possibly a good company, not a good stock at these prices. liz: okay. phil, that said, because we know you like it, what about the banks? haven't the banks done very nicely over the past year, and even as rates at some point should rise because we are seeing inflation, i don't care what anybody in d.c. says, you know, how do investors prepare their portfolios ahead of the bank earnings on wednesday? >> liz, there's no inflation as

long as you don't eat or drive. other than that, you don't have to worry about inflation. [laughter] when we talked about the banks, listen, they're well set for the comeback. they had to pull in their horns a little bit because of the covid-19 situation. and they're very well positioned right now. i think the earnings are going to be good, and with the reopening of the economy, the hot housing market that we have right now, these banks are going to do very, very well. to even though they've had a few headwinds here, i think the bank earnings are going to blow away expectations, and i'm very excited. i think we're going to see some justification of what we've seen in the optimism in stock prices. liz: optimism, let's just hold on to that. phil, david, great to have you both. we'll see you later. dow jones industrials right now down 110. we've got to talk about astrazeneca ca shares. they've been hit by headlines as the u.s. reportedly sits on millions of unused doses of the

company's covid vaccine. as your boon nations continue to -- european nations continue to looked at the blood-clotting deaths, could johnson & johnson be threatened? we are coming right back. stay with us. ♪ ♪ don't like surprises? [ watch vibrates ] proactive notifications 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. the lexus es, now available with all-wheel drive. this rain is bananas. lease the 2021 es 250 all-wheel drive for $339 a month for 39 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer.

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♪oohhh there's a lot of opportunities♪ with allstate, drivers who switched saved over $700. saving is easy when you're in good hands. allstate click or call to switch today. liz: fox business alert, microsoft kicking off merger monday in today's pop stocks. the tech titan announcing it's buying a. i.-based firm nuance for $9.7 billion -- 19.7 billion, that would be a 23% premium on friday's closing price. if you look at nuance right now, it's up 15% and is not yet at that level. is so it stands at $52.80, that

means it's a pretty good premium microsoft if's offering. this would be microsoft's second biggest acquisition. of course, the first being linkedin which it bought back in, i guess, 2016 for $billion. let's flip it -- 26 billion. let's flip it over to gamestop, shares in the red for the sixth straight day, down about 5.9%. it was just a second -- wasn't it, brad -- down 11%. there are reports, according to reuters, that the company is searching for a new ceo. why would that be good news? because, of course, on the board, ryan cohen, the chewy cofounder who's been very much at the forefront9 of modernizing gamestop which right now is a retail chain. he's trying to make it more online for games and videos. and maybe the belief is that he would find somebody to ensconce

in that ceo role. we have seen the stock go from down 11% to down 4.1%, and it is still on the move. looks to be climbing back to the flat line. but could the poster child of meme stock mania all be looking to jump on the crypto and nft wagon? there's a new job posting at gamestop's texas headquarters for a, quote, security analyst with additional experience in cryptocurrency, blockchain and nonfungible tokens, nfts. that's raising eyebrows. crypto watchers speculating the job could be signaling that gamestop is looking to start maybe its own line of digital gaming collectibles. we shall see. and united pulling the airlines sector lower after disappointing first quarter revenue guidance despite coming in at $3.2 billion which is actually at the higher end of the forecast along with a rebound in traffic to the

tune of 1.2 million travelers a day. clearly oring some investors wanted more. investors always want more, right? american, you see, down 2.8, delta down 1%. with the future looking brighter overall though, there may be another tailwind on the way. regeneron is seeking u.s. approval for its covid-19 cocktail as a preventive treatment after studies show the antibody therapy cut the risk of symptomatic infection in a household where at least one member had covid. johnson & johnson, though, is faced with a headwind just as it began delivering its single-dose vaccine to e.u. nations such as greece and italy today, the shot will be in short supply across the u.s. this week after millions of doses were recently ruined. let's get to grady trimble. he is at a mass vaccination site in kinly park, illinois. what are you seeing, and how's the flow there for availability? >> reporter: so this is actually the johnson & johnson side of the room, liz.

they're also doing the moderna vaccine here, and as you can see on this side of the room, there are still people getting the jab from j&j with. that being said, they got a delivery on friday, but as of this week, on monday, and next week they're expecting exactly zero doses because of those production issues. and cities are plagued with that challenge all across the country. but the good news here in cook county is that they have enough of the moderna and pfizer vaccines to offset any drop in the j&j vaccine. also today in illinois, eligibility expanded to 16 and up. and because of that and trying to get this out to as many people as possible, the illinois national guard has been called in. that's who tech sergeant andy morris is with. you've done 90,000 plus dose at this site alone, and the goal is to get this into everybody's arms now that eligibility has expanded. >> absolutely, yeah. since january, just like you

said, over 90,000 doses, averaging between 2-3,000 doses every single day. so it's a big task that we've taken on. >> reporter: and by the end of this week, it's safe to say that half of the population, adult population in the u.s. will have at least one shot. we're seeing similar numbers here in illinois. actually, i've noticed just looking around today the age of the people is a lot younger than places, vaccination sites i've seen previous. >> you're absolutely correct. we're here, we're doing moderna and jobon -- johnson & johnson. we do have some other sites here in cook county that are doing pfizer, and they are doing the 1 plus. -- 16 plus. >> reporter: we thank you for what you're doing, and we want to out, liz, the -- points out, liz, the year other year performance of the vaccine makers, moderna, the big breakthrough over the past year, up 342% compared to this time a

year ago. liz? liz: yeah. you know, i'm looking at some of them right now. moderna's down about eight-tenths of a percent. i don't know if we can put those three stock up, but when you look at all of them, it's true, keep in mind we're not paying for those vaccines. they are so-called free. but either way we are looking at very heroic efforts on behalf of all of of these names. thank you, grady trimble, we appreciate it. good stuff. business round table calling foul on president biden's plans for a corporate tax hike to pay for the pricey infrastructure plan, but what about the ceos of companies who stand to benefit greatly from the spending? as his stock is already popping ahead of the spending boom, we will ask the top gun at steel giant cleveland cliffs, lorenzo gonzalez, he is next in a fox business exclusive. closing bell ringing in 29 minutes. we're till down 89 on the dow, s&p has scaled off about 1

point, we'll see if we can try and make a record here. stay tuned, we're coming right back. ♪ ♪

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liz: we're hearing that president bin has just about wrapped up his member with bipartisan members of congress in his attempt to push through his infrastructure plan if. back in february as president biden first spoke to a group of senators about stepping up spending, one sector in particular, american steel stocks, began firing higher in anticipation of what could be the infrastructure rainmaker. lorenzo gonzalez is the ceo of cleveland cliffs. over just the past year, the stock has jumped 286%. lorenzo joins us in a fox business exclusive. great to have you. first, how do you view the build

back better plan, and do you view it as a positive for the company? tell me if you're excited or you're worried. tell me. >> i am excited, liz. and, by the way, thanks for having me on. it's as always a pleasure speaking with you about manufacturing in america and supporting business here in our country. that's what cleveland cliffs does. we believe in manufacturing in america, and it's good to see a president that is really geared towards supporting manufacturing in america. liz: well, we haven't seen it passed yet, obviously, and there's some pushback from not just republicans, but at least one democratic senator, joe manchin. because they don't like one piece to it, and that is to pay for it, raise corporate tax rates from 21% to 28%. joe manchin's saying now -- and he's a democrat, obviously, from west virginia -- how about 25%. now, that was actually addressed today, i believe, in the press conference for the white house,

jen psaki. and she said it's good to hear that the democrat is at least talking about it, but is that sort of a breaking point or a no-deal point of 28%? >> look, to be very honest with you, i don't think so. i do believe that there is room for negotiation. but i also believe that the deferred infrastructure and deferred maintenance in this country got to a point beyond ridiculous. we are going to have to spend money, and it's got to come from somewhere. if it's taxes and taxes that are directed to where the money is needed, business people like myself that really work here in america, support american business and making american employees make more money, they will go for it. liz: okay. okay. and what do you foresee as the real opportunity? we always hear about crumbling bridges. bridges need steel. obviously, roadways need all kinds of steel.

where's the true opportunity for you right now? >> everywhere. everywhere. we have been neglecting infrastructure in this country for way too long. you don't need to be a specialist to see it when you travel how much worse our airports are even in comparison, when compared with middle eastern airports, let alone the ones in asia. roads, infrastructure for water and other things. we are pretty much in need of a lot. and it's time to do it x it's time for businesses like cleveland-cliffs and others to support that. and i would think, liz, if you allow me, i think it's also about time to bring everything back to america to be manufactured in america. it's about time to get rid of the gateways that we have that now are resulting in shortages of pretty much everything. liz: well, that is exactly what president trump had pushed for

very dramatically and, in fact, he implemented tariffs. now that tariffs have had a couple of years to gel and stew, can you give me a sense of how good they were for your business? i know you've made, certainly, some act by cigs over the past year. -- acquisitions over the past year. you were able to get the ak steel acquisitions to really come into play. how much would you say the tariffs hurt or helped. >> the tariffs helped a lot. we not only acquired, but we also invested $1 billion to put in place -- and it's now in operation -- the most modern steel plant to -- right here in ohio. but we have been hiring people. we have hired in the last 12 months more than a thousand people. and we would not be able to do that without the tariffs. i hear a lot that the tariffs

didn't help. the tariffs of the trump administration helped immensely for us to be running the business that we are running today. to the benefit of employees, to the benefit of shareholders. liz: interesting. and that is important to hear straight from you in the heartland, in cleveland in the steel industry. cleveland-cliffs. lorenco, thank you so much. and, please, keep in touch because as we see this infrastructure bill develop and maybe even pass, we will have you back. thank you. >> my pleasure. thank you so much, liz. liz: anytime. georgia's new election law launch. ing a new battle between big business and lawmakers at every level of government. up next, charlie breaks it on the next steps in this fight as the battle lines actually get drawn even more deeply across the country. and after decades of building his start-up, sports media and gambling business, john levy's looking at a slam

dunk. how the founder and ceo of the score or started in his teens toiling at his father's small company in canada until he ventured off and bit his own sports -- built its own sports empire. his climb was packed with curveballs, strikeses, foul balls, losses. you've got to hear his story on my pod cast -- podcast, everyone talks to liz. we're could be just 49 on the dow, we're coming right back. stay with us. ♪ ♪ s me moving forward... even after paying for this. love you, sweetheart they guide me with achievable steps that give me confidence. this is my granddaughter...she's cute like her grandpa. voya doesn't just help me get to retirement... ...they're with me all the way through it. come on, grandpa! later. got grandpa things to do. aw, grandpas are the best! well planned. well invested. well protected.

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republicans apparently plan how they do want to fight back against the new sort of, quote woke capitalism. to charlie gasparino, who has been following it all. charlie. >> there is no set game plan here. my producer, lydia moynihan, and myself have been speaking with republican activists, key activists, people -- conservative activists and how they plan to combat some of the stuff that you saw breaking over the weekend, the, i guess, teleconference between yale's jeffrey sonnenfeld and some major ceos who want to attack these voter id laws in georgia. how these ceos are taking what many believe, at least republicans believe is overt political stances and essentially adopting democratic and progressive policies from a corporate level. gop, let's just say major

republicans in both the house, the senate are furious, and they're talking about ways to combat this. one of the ways we've been hearing is through proxy battles. you know, proxy9 battles are very expensive, liz. it takes a lot of money to mount a successful proxy campaign, but the pressure that the left has used through proxy ballots has influenced a lot of corporate decision making. the conservative activists are saying they may plan the same thing. for example, you go to delta and say it's good for shareholders that you're doing x, y and z or coca-cola, why it's good for shareholders that you opposed the georgia voting law. and make them put up or shut up and do this on a continuous basis. they think they may be able to frame the debate a lot differently. then there's sort of what the senate republicans will likely do particularly as, you know, the senate is divided 50/50

though kamala harris the tiebreaker, and that nominally gives the democrats the mate. that could change in a couple years, in the meantime -- or a year. in the meantime, we're hearing senate republicans plan to prevent the sec from mandating disclosures on esg investing, on corporate diversity. show us why this is good for shareholders, why shareholders should care about this. we actually got a comment from senator pat toomey, ranking member of the senate banking committee which, as you know, the primary regulator of the securities and exchange commission. he tells fox business, stakeholder capitalism is a ready-made excuse for managers who want to play politician at the company's true owners, its shareholders. so you can see where this is going, it's going clearly in a proxy battle, on the proxy battle stage and in hearings

when gary gensler is called before the senate banking committee. liz, back to you. liz: yeah. although i would say, just to balance it out, you know, the levi strauss ceo was apparently very vocal on the sonnenfeld call, and his stock is up more than 2.5% on a day where the markets aren't doing much. let's continue this conversation tomorrow because there is so much more when it comes to shareholders and how they feel about ceos taking a stand. thank you very much, charlie gasparino. the fed chair not worried about inflation. can you believe that? but today's countdown closer says, it's here. prices are rising, and he's got the picks he says will pad your portfolio. the s&p has now turned positive, everybody. it is up just about a point here. we're watching it closely. closing bell ringing in five -- let's see, nine and a half minutes. stay tuned. ♪ ♪

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♪. liz: even about every airline is down, doesn't matter. the dow transports are hits an all time high as the s&p 500. can the numbers hold? the transports up 68. s&p up 1.3 points. we're watching this closely. we look like we're possibly going to clock two new record closes. here is question for you guys, when is a $2.75 billion fine, an antitrust fine, good news? well, today at least when it comes to alibaba investors who are breathing quite the sigh of relief of regulatory clouds looking to be finally clearing over the chinese e-commerce giant. shares are spiking 8.6%. months of scrutiny into jack ma's empire seem to be coming to an end at alibaba's

fintech group set to relaunch itself as a financial holding company, allowing china central bank more scrutiny of the firm. joining us, the host of "kudlow," larry, investors are happy probably to see the end of the doctor drama, jack ma's literal disappearance and tightening of the policy, is this good news? it looked like he was under the thumb of the chinese political party? >> they had to put a gun to his head to join the economist party. he said he wasn't a communist. went on various business networks, said that time and time again. then you didn't see him for a while. then he resurfaced, you're absolutely right. this is kind of the way the chinese do things, right? in autocracy, communist party of china is not good. look, i think all u.s. investors should be extremely wary of investing in chinese companies. i don't think you get the truth anymore and they don't pass our

regulatory sec blue skies muster. they don't pass britain's either. now that hong kong has been taken over, you can't trust the hong kong exchanges. i think this is part of a larger problem. liz: you talk about how ham-fisted, the people's republic of china is when it comes to this thing. we can't really get a sense. yet, they look like they have more and more billionaires in china. they're trying to scale the fence, sort of straddle it with big capitalism, communism as well. >> i don't know that is muddled, difficult story, because the government turned much, more authoritarian in recent years, giving the benefits of their credit expansion, for example to, state-owned enterprises, closing down a lot of the entrepreneurial sectors. so we'll see about that, liz. one thing we got to worry about

coming up on our show, why is our infrastructure package, quote, unquote, infrastructure package, putting all of this money, investing all of this money in electric vehicles and charging stations when china dominates the rare earth materials necessary for the batteries? we are playing right into their hands. we'll be more dependent on china, not less. they're not a friendly competitor, i will just leave it at that. mike pompeo, former secretary of state will weigh in. he knows a lot about the subject. liz: absolutely. we're building a lithium plant in north carolina. we had the guest on the show. maybe it will inspire us. thank you. we'll see you at the top of the hour. federal reserve chairman jerome powell saying on "60 minutes" last night we have the ability to wait to see real inflation. wait? it is already here. i'm saying that but every businessman and women i speak to says inflation is here impacting

their supply chain, therapy prices of all kinds of materials. our countdown closer sees it that way. get ahead of the rising inflation he says is on the way. rob hayward. how do you do it, rob? how do you get ahead of it? >> how -- it's a great point. for us we're pivoting towards cyclicals and looking for real asset investments. meaning those producing raw materials. because we think that inflation is starting to leak into this system. there are some shortages when it comes to some of the supply chains that means prices will probably be higher as we get into, get through the summer. skew like financials, industrials and energy. can i push you on industrials? some of it is industrials. some of it is going up, materials where they source from overseas wherever they're coming

from jumped anywhere up 12%? >> that put as little pressure on them in terms of profit margins but we think demand for their markets and enmarkets are going higher as well. inventorirys are relatively low and orders across the board are ramping up. on one hand they're getting price pressure on the front end but some benefits on the back end when it comes to revenue and sales. liz: rob, before we go, medium inflation expectations, one year, three-year horizons ticking month over month. year-over-year we're seeing highest since 2014. is inflation here? is jay powell is wrong? owe says it is transitory, it will pass? >> we see signs of inflation. we agree it will be transitory. it will come through the system as we absorb a economic reopening. the decline in the fiscal impulse, the decline in the deficit in 2022 and out years

probably reduces that impact. liz: great to have you. rob hayworth, u.s. bank wealth management. [closing bell rings] here comes the closing bell. is it a record for the s&p 500? we're slightly lower. it could settle higher. that is it for "the claman countdown." "kudlow" is next ♪ larry: hello, everyone, welcome back to "kudlow." i'm larry kudlow. great to be here with you. president biden today stepped up his efforts to negotiate changes to his 2 plus trillion dollar initiative called infrastructure. there is a bipartisan oval office meeting. the president claimed he was ready to negotiate changes. >> i'm prepared to negotiate as to how the extent of the infrastructure project, as well as how we pay for it? larry: what the president doesn't seem to want to negotiate his total redefining of the word infrastructure. here is the president this