game that could rear its head, and we have to keep a close eye on it as traders and investors and have a chance to rotate into some other stocks. charles: right. d.r., you are absolutely fantastic, my man. your intelligence, your knowledge and your energy. all right, liz claman, the s&p was negative, i hand it to you positive. [laughter] liz: oh, thank you, that's so of you -- oh, you were talking to d.r.. okay, never mind. [laughter] liz: charles, we got some serious fisticuffs going on right now between elon musk and jeff bezos on twitter over this nasa rocket contract fight. elon musk has just responded to blue origin's suit regarding nasa and the rocket -- we're going to get you that tweet in just a second. in the meantime, we've got our head in the clouds as microsoft and google get set to release quarterly earnings in less than an hour.

both of those stocks, investors keenly focused on one part of their business. microsoft's intelligent cloud and google's cloud services. as the coronavirus pandemic had people working around the clock, around the globe learning, gaming, working out at home, our power panel spins its forward on whether to own both, either or neither of these stocks. yeah, back to tesla, why is tesla's stock down? elon musk revealed a bang-up quarter and how bitcoin actually helped tesla beat estimates. we're about to dissect the negative reaction and the one thing elon said about the supply chain that has a certain sector popping. and, no, it's not semiconductors. ripple ripping higher, the cryptocurrency transaction company in a heated battle with the sec over its xrp digital token which, by the way, has quinn temperature thinged in price -- quintupled in price as the fight rages on whether it's more like bitcoin or a share of

stock. the ceo is here on where the case stands and why and how he's prepared to fight. markets gaining steam with big tech's imminent earnings, the dow has erased earlier losses. but perhaps more interesting, the s&p barely but in the green. the nasdaq, if it can get in the green, both the s&p and nasdaq, if they close there, or we'll see new record highs. investors scanning the clouds for news from google and microsoft. we are about 58 minutes away from after the bell and the earnings coming in. both stocks are on the move here. we do have alphabet, google down three-quarters of a percent. microsoft flat to slightly higher. now, as we await quarterly results after the bell, what a run the tech world's kong and godzilla have had as people were forced to reimagine the way they work and where, right? but microsoft though, the work and live at home movement has

pushed the software giant closer to the $2 trillion market cap milestone. it is hovering just below with it right now at about $1.9 trillion. yes, both have huge, diverse businesses, but could their clouds be the key to splashing continued sun shine on their investors' portfolios? let's bring in two heavy hitters, global ex funds jay jacobs and daniel rubino, windows central. dan, let's tackle microsoft first. its intelligence cloud which includes the monster progression peaking last year with $13 billion in revenue. what are you expecting and why is the cloud so important right now? >> great question. so the cloud is obviously going to be the future for microsoft. it's one-third of their business. it's continuing to grow. it's gaining on amazon. we do expect it to pass aws this

year. google's competing there, but microsoft has the lead mostly because of their hybrid structure which works very well for a lot of enterprises who are not yet ready to completely switch over to the cloud. i'd also say though gaming is a big part of the strategy now, we're starting to see that with xbox. and now we're also hearing they're going to be watching a cloud operating -- launching a cloud operating system so you won't actually need the operating system on the computer itself. instead it'll stream from the cloud. so they're really going to push this technology as far as it can go ott -- not only for themselves, but for other customers. and they just have this massive structure that is ready to go especially with the pandemic kind of winding down. liz you know, great point. and, jay, let's just cut to the chase about why the cloud matters. it's basically data storage in the servers in the sky, that's what i usually say.

they're not in the sky, they're actually on the ground all over the world. but the point being that people can access that data from any device and then share it with anybody because it rests elsewhere. so where do you see microsoft's numbers coming in, and what about google? >> yeah, i mean, that's exactly correct. with the cloud, you know, you're no longer needing companies like law firms or doctors' offices or financial firms developing their own i.t. staff. the companies are not experts in i.t., they're experts in what they do. they don't need to be putting servers in their offices and upgrading every 18 months or so. an expert like google or microsoft, it's an incredible business for these companies because it's a recurring revenue, it's their expertise, very large scale benefits from it. so we're expecting really strong revenue growth numbers from both google and moth. these are their -- and microsoft. it's really going to drive top line profitability. it could be easily in the double

digits, probably in the 20 plus percent growth just in the last quarter here. liz: jay, do you agree with dan that microsoft will you are pass amazon web services? i mean, amazon's the biggie here. microsoft's huge too, but just behind it in second place, google in third for the cloud. >> it's very possible. microsoft has the ability to leverage a lot of different services and integrate their cloud into it, so if you're already using microsoft word, sure, why not store your documents in the cloud? why not store your xcel in the cloud? just funneling more revenue into their cloud computing business, they really have this incredible integrate model. amazon's e-commerce business is great, but just just because yoy charging tables on amazon.com doesn't necessarily mean you're going to use as.

liz -- aws. liz: dan, as we look at microsoft as sort of the major player when it comes to breaching the $2 trillion market cap, you know, apple's already there, but you've got to look at that and say if i had to pick between the two, and i know you're not a stock picker, dan, but as you look at the services that both of these companies offer a, i mean, google just struck a huge deal in the cloud with univision. they're playing to win here. >> yeah, there's a lot to go around. we're just at the beginning of this kind of revolution in computing. you have to keep in mind that microsoft is thinking the next a 5-10 years of computing here. we're just starting to see it with gaming coming online, game streaming. but a cloud operating system for enterprise is going to be massive. it could be completely managed by microsoft. so there's still so much potential here. but the idea in the future that we just have screens around us and the operating system streams

to it, you don't actually need a physical, you know, computer with the hardware locally, is going to really change things. but this is down the road. but it's starting to happen this year, and that's what's really important to watch with. liz: okay. and finally, jay, i've got to get you on this apple, facebook battle when it comes to app tracking. of course, now we know that if we have iphones, we get to choose whether our information is harvested, and that has facebook infuriated for all sorts of reasons. they want to target ads, they want to make money off their ads. where do you think this goes and who's the real beneficiary in it's not so clear. you would think apple, but what is your bet here? >> i think apple holds the cards here. ultimately, apple is the portal to the internet. when you pull out your phone, you are going to apple to decide what you're going to do, what you're going to consume. apple is in a very powerful position. they don't like what facebook is doing on the data privacy side. they think from a marketing perspective apple wants to be

viewed as the good guys in silicon valley, so they're happy to fight this battle in the name of consumers, and facebook is probably just going to have to acquiesce. i just don't think they hold enough cards in this scenario the really be able to fight back against apple. liz: jay, dan, we'll be watching the stocks. apple just slightly lower. facebook is has had a better one-year picture. we'll keep an eye on this and more and, remember, google, alpha bent after the bell. it's the day after for tesla investors who despite the top and bottom line beats did not love what they saw in the rearview mirror. with the stock down 4% in the final hour of trade, we were parsing ceo elon musk's earnings call and one particular word and phrase jumped out. he used the word insane and not in a good way. he was referring to the domino effect the microchip shortage is having on multiple segments of his company and the auto

industry. listen. >> q1 was, had some of the most difficult supply chain challenges that we've ever experienced in the life of tesla. insane difficulties with supply chains, with parts over the whole range of parts. obviously, people know about the chip shortage. this is a huge problem. liz: yeah, huge, indeed. checking the companies that make chips for the auto companies, you've got names like invidia and s&p semiconductor. we've got texas instruments down a third of a percent, ft micro up about 1%. but what about a different sector that's related to all of this? auto part suppliers, active, magna international. these names that, on balance, are looking pretty good right now. here to make dollars and cents of the insanity, the $3.5

billion mainstay capital ceo and investment strategist, david. clearly, elon's troubles are not company-specific. every auto company's struggling with broken links in the supply chain. what's the trade as you see it? >> yeah, elon is right, this is an industry-wide problem. you know, mainstay capital management 70% of our clients are in or related to the auto industry, so we're hearing about this every day with our clients that are auto manufacturers and auto suppliers: it's the a serious problem that'll continue through the year. we're expecting 2-5 million fewer vehicles be manufactured this year because of semiconductor shortages alone. and, you know, this problem has gone on for a number of months already, and it's going to continue for a number of months and goes back to the pandemic and the problem with semiconductor manufacturers

switching over to consumer electronics, computers and now that vehicles are ramping back up, they're behind and trying to play catch up. it is a supply/demand imbalance, going to take a while to catch up. we think there's -- liz: so what are the winning plays? >> yeah. you talked about st microelectronics, that's one that we like for a broader play. we think that investors can just look at the ishares semiconductor etf, soxx. that gives you a lot of names that you talked about in the semiconductor space. and we think even when we look more broadly, go beyond this to some of the materials plays because we're also seeing shortages there that are affecting the awe auto industry as well, that'll be the next area that'll be impacted. and you could look at a semiconductor site like -- i'm sorry, an etf like xlb which is

materials and even some of the materials that go into semiconductors. liz: fascinating. and there's always a trade, is there not? you know, what else do you like in this atmosphere at the moment beyond the discussion that we're having with the auto industry and tesla, etc. >> you know, we, you know, last year was the stay at home trade. we like technology a great deal, the e-commerce trades. valleyed very good at the end and beginning the year, now we're row tating into that quality growth at a reasonable price, those sustainable business models will continue to do well through 2021. we still like value, the cyclicals moving from the early cyclicals to the later cyclicals. but we think value-oriented stocks will continue to do well with all the fiscal stimuluses that we have and monetary stimulus that we think will continue. we'll hear that from jerome powell tomorrow, that they're going to continue easing

monetary policy going into the rest of this year and onward. liz: david, great to see you. we'll be watching it. and as david was speaking, the s&p popped up by one single point. [laughter] as i said, any gain is a record, a record close, so we're watching that so closely. david, see you next time. mastercard is getting ready to masto the crypto world in -- master the crypto world. gemini, the crypto exchange backed by the winkle boss -- winklevoss brothers giving customers a chance to earn 3% back in bitcoin or other digital currencies. that sounds a lot like lolly. mastercard right now up a third of a percent. bitcoin, of course, taking the lead on big business is and its growing adoption of cryptocurrencies, but what about the other virtual currencies and tokens?

are they feeling the same love and acceptance? well, the ripple ceo knows how that goes as the sec has filed suit against its xrp token. he's joining us coming up. don't go away, i you've got to hear brad garlic house and how he plans to continue the fight here. dow is now up 35 points. we're really watching that s&p s&p though, hugging the flat line. we're coming right back. ♪ ♪ they said it couldn't be done but you managed to pack a record 1.1 trillion transistors into this chip whoo! yeah! oh, hi i invested in invesco qqq a fund that invests in the innovators of the nasdaq 100 like you you don't have to be circuit design engineer to help push progress forward can i hold the chip?

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♪♪ liz: where do you stand -- and i know this is a dicey question considering you're at the sec -- but is xrp a digital currency or a security? >> look, i can't speak about xrp. i do get lots of inquiries about it. i can't speak about that because there is an ongoing litigation with the sec now. and i should say that i speak for myself when i think about these or other issues. and i've been very up front about the fact that i think we need to do a better job providing better regulatory clarity around when an offering of a crypto token will be

treated as the sale of a security. liz: you know they call her crypto mom because she understands cryptocurrency. that was sec commissioner hester peirce with us on the sec's lawsuit against ripple and the xrp which the sec maintains is a security and should be regulated as such. just yesterday new case developments as the legal battle is heating up. but regardless of the huge storm cloud happening over ripple's head, xrp is up 530% year to date. jumping just recently, what, from a dollar two weeks ago to today's price of $1.38. but a couple of month ago it was 28 cents. let's get to the man in the eye of the storm, ripple ceo brad garlinghouse. okay, brad, epic moves in xrp, but you say that xrp a currency. where does the suit with the sers c stand?

sec stand? >> look, i feel really good about the progress that's been made in the courts so far. it's been very clear to me, you know, you have other parts of the u.s. government saying that xrp's a currency whether it be county of justice, whether it be the u.s. treasury. so the sec, you know, eight or nine years after xrp started trading, over a trillion dollars has traded out there, for them to say, hey, we now think it's a security, you should have known that all along, that's pretty hard to swallow. the commissioner deserves that crypto mom moniker because she really has the support of the industry and really champions the need for that clarity that, hopefully, we'll now get through the court process. liz: well, this is an ongoing situation is, but look at the spike. and some of the most recent spike has to do with the fact that the judge just dealt the sec a bit of a blow, the sec did not like the motion that was is

set to prevent the sec from receiving data that it really wanted from you guys. what do you read into that right now? and you've got a lot of xrp investors who are really concerned at the moment. >> well, the sec has fought us at kind of every step. we had sought discovery around how and why they concluded that bitcoin and ether were not securities. as you know well, under chairman clayton, jay clayton came out and said -- bill henman as the director of court finance at the sec said ether's not a security. and we have sought information even before the lawsuit how were those determinations made. given the similarities between xrp as an open source, decentralized technology, how is it that one can be determined to not be a security, and the other is a security? and so if it's not obvious to us as experts, how could it be obvious to the industry? and really the sec, jay clayton bringing this lawsuit did a lot

of damage to those xrp holders. the day the lawsuit was filed $15 billion of value was driven the out of the xrp ecosystem, and that affected the exact people that the s everybody c is empowered to protect -- sec is empowered to protect. liz: leapt me play devil's advocate. i get what the sec at least is trying to say. you just called it a technology. the question is are people using it to buy and sell things, which is what traditional currencies do. and when we start to see that paypal's accepting bitcoin and all these other companies are ready to accept it, where does srp stand? are you striking those kinds of deals with the expedias of the world and morgan stanley and venmo? >> look, the great thing is we don't even need to strike those deals. as an open source technology, there are literally hundreds of different projects around the world that use xrp in lots of different ways including for payments.

one of the leading companies that provides infrastructure to accept payments via crypto, so bit pay. i happened to see a new one called rocket fuel. they accept xrp to enable payments in realtime. and this is one of the many examples of how xrp not a security. ripple has used it as a currency to solve the problem whether it's for immigrants or really, solving as the economy grows, it's a compelling use case for these compelling technologies. liz: the sec accuses you guys of harassing them as it pertains to their search for discovery, for more information. are you harassing the sec? >> i mean, you know, i -- it's hard for me to imagine a small company like ripple against the united states securities and exchange commission could be described as harassing. jay clayton, under his leadership, decided to bring this lawsuit, and we're going to defend ourselves. we think it's so important for

the industry to have clarity. innovation here in the united states in some ways is on trial. we want innovation here in the u.s. around crypto, around blockchain to thrive. and without that clarity, you know, that innovation goes to markets where there is clarity. one of the ironies is the united states is the only country on the planet that has viewed xrp as a security. whether it's japan, u.k., switzerland, singapore, they all view xrp as a currency, yet here at home the united states has taken a different position. liz: we do not want to be that country that squelches innovation. this is an emerging world when it comes to cryptos and digital payments. we'll be watching it. brad, please come back when there are more development. >> great the see you. liz: brad garlinghouse of ripple xrp. we are coming right back, the dow still gaining 38 points. stay tuned. ♪ ♪

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liz: fox business alert, crocs shoe morning its way to the top of today's pop stocks. the footwear maker posting record revenue and profitability in the first quarter after seeing growth in all regions across -- you know, i think that people were buying crocs because it was the pandemic and they just wanted to slip 'em on and say i'm not going to do anything fancy here. it's the shoe version of sweats. yeah. yoga pants. but strong demand sending crocs' forecast into overdrive with ceo andrew reese saying the company is expecting 2021 revenue growth of 40-50%. no wonder the stock jumping 16.7% right now. by the way, year-over-year that stock is up 261 %. gamestop jumping after raising $551 million on a 3.5 million

stock sale. the new proceeds will be used to help speed up chairman and chewy cofounder ryan cohen's goal of turning gamestop from sort of a storefront retail company to an online -- usually when they have stock floats like this, it dilutes the stock and people sell it. right now gamestop's up 6.33%. at session highs though it was up 11%. now, the long, sad story of general electric drags on. shares of the superstar looking anything but electrifying at this hour after revenues dropped 12% in the first quarter. weakness in its jet engine unit and restructuring-related costs also propelling ge to a loss of $2.8 billion compared to a quarterly profit of $6.2 billion just one year ago. the news though not all bad. even though the stock is down 1% to $13.44, ge is standing by its 2021 guidance and it's still up more than 110% over the past 52

weeks. but the most epic move ott of -f the day coming from ups. with 29 minutes left to trade, ups is holding on to 10.7% of its gains here. in an all-out blitz of covid vaccine shipments across the u.s. driving record results for the shipping titan, shares dominating the top of the s&p 500 right now after hitting a new all-time high. rival fedex getting a little bit of a halo effect at this hour, up 4.33%. and, by the way, as ups the top gainer on the dow transports as well, the transports also hit a new record. the transports are up 231 points or 3.5%. i -- 1.5%. i believe they must be up 37 points, which they've way outpaced here, to clock a new record. so we'll see another new record for the transports unless something dramatic happens. in the meantime, the center for disease control has taken a major step toward relaxing

covid-19 guidelines that americans have endured for more than a year. the cdc now says fully vaccinated people can now indulge in outdoor activities without a mask, and that includes hanging out with others in small groups. president biden announcing the news just over an hour ago. he also talked about helping covid-19-ravaged india get a toehold on at least trying to wrap with its arms around the situation. blake burman live at the white house with more details on the new cdc guidelines. >> reporter: hi there, liz. it was interesting, president biden walked up with his mask, made the announcement, and when he left, he walked without his mask into the white house because, as you mentioned, there is, indeed, new guidance from the cdc which says that if you are fully vaccinated in this country and you are outdoors, you no longer need to be wearing a mask when you are outdoors. the one exception to that guidance the cdc says if you're vaccinated and in a large crowd, something like, say, a concert or a sporting event.

the cdc at this point says the data and the science back up this change, and when we heard from the president a little while ago, he used the announcement to say it is the reason why or certainly one of the reasons why more people should continue to get their covid-19 vaccine shots. watch. >> the bottom line is clear, if you're vaccinated, you can do more things more safely both outdoors as well as indoors. so for those who haven't gotten their vaccination yet, especially if you're younger or thinking you don't need it, this is another great reason to go get vaccinated. now. >> reporter: before he left, liz, the president was also asked about the devastating covid surge in india. the president said that the is sending medical equipment, necessary equipment to that country, and he said it is the intention of the u.s. to be

sending vaccines to india as well. liz? liz: blake, thank you very much. blake burman live at the white house. the archegos fire sales are burning another big bank. ubs now baring all, but who might be next? charlie breaks it on the fallout and the soul searching major financials are doing right now and whether we'll see more head rolling to come. with the closing bell ringing in 25 minutes, we've got the 10-year yield just ticking higher by a bit, 1.61%. the s&p now up 3 points, how about that? that's a record. nasdaq, though, still down 42. stay tuned, charlie breaks it next. ♪ ♪ ♪♪ 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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too, got flogged by the archegos capital collapse to the tune of $774 million in the first quarter. but investors, as the tock drops 1%, are now demanding to know why the firm waited until its results for the quarter to inform them about its exposure to bill wang's hedge fund. charlie gasparino, this whole situation must be triggering some serious soul searching on wall street. >> you know, it is. and i've been talking to people at jpmorgan, morgan stanley, goldman sachs, across the board, credit suisse, obviously, for obvious reasons, and i said what is the sort of soul searching, what is going on afterwards? you know they're going to do something. they have to. here's what they're telling me, that all the big banks following this blow-up and their exposure, remember, the banks had some marginal exposure or

nonsignificant, nonmaterial exposure like goldman sachs or very material exposure like credit suite which had a $5 billion loss. remember, we were first to report that we believed our sources were saying we could be as much as $5 billion, and credit suisse is trying to push away from the capital part. they did seek to raise capital, we should point out. the banks are strengthening their oversight of family office relationships. they're investigating their family office relationships. and if there's -- a good sign here and, obviously, you know, you never know til it happens sometimes, but the word i'm getting9 from the banks is that as they start investigating the leverage they've extended to their family offices and their risk profile, they found that bill wang, the guy who ran arche

arche -- archegos, that the family offices were not as leveraged as this guy. this guy was out on the risk spectrum. here's also what they're telling us, liz, that they expect gary gensler to do something on this, making sure that there are some rules for family offices. now, what is a family office? it's literally a hedge fund run by a rich family. like jeff bezos, who we've been talking about a lot lately, will have a family office at some point. he probably does right now which manages his investments, his $197 billion of stock that he owns in amazon. these are huge clients for, when they're rich people, when they have a lot of money, for the big banks. because they were such good clients, the banks let 'em slide, let's face it. they did not ask them for that much disclosure. and in letting them slide, one literally fell through the cracks, and that one was bill wang which is having massive implications for wall street right now. the good sign again, liz --

[audio difficulty] mr. wang is an outlier, but they will now strengthen their oversight of the family office relationships. they also fear that the sec, again, is going to come down hard on him. they better react before the sec comes to town which they think -- this is described to me as a layup for gary gensler, the new sec chief, in terms of imposing some discipline on the family office relationship. again, it got out of hand because these guys, you know, bill wang was a huge client of all these firms. and, you know -- liz: yeah, but -- >> i know. i'm just telling you why it happened. liz: they get dollar signs in their eyes, oh, he's a good client. yeah, he's so good, look what happened. >> you know, that's funny -- it's a great point, liz. i was talking to somebody who used to work for goldman sachs' prime brokerage which does the work with these big clients, just tells you how they got out

unscathed, we don't make nickels to lose dollars. that's the word at goldman sachs. that's how they operate with their family offices, and it paid off in this case. if you notice, they got out basically scot-free. liz: just put your red line in the sand and don't cross it when it comes to, you know, taking risks like that with investors' money. charlie, great to see you. thank you very much. charlie gasparino. all right, when billionaires attack. the big complaint jeff bezos' blue origin rocket start-up now launching with nasa over elon musk's spacex winning that moon contract. and, by the way, elon has just replied on twitter. we're going to read that to you. and from college barista to coffee king, cofounder and ceo of -- coffee joins my everyone talks to liz podcast. new episode just dropped. mike went from minimum wage

worker from the first location in michigan to taking on massive coffee giants today. hear how his caffeine kick helped him grind it out, growing from one location to the 250 storefronts bigby has today. catch it on apple, spotify, google, wherever you get your podcast. closing bell ringing in 15 minutes. we're coming right back. please stay with us. ♪ ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪

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for fifteen hundred dollars off your kohler walk-in bath. visit kohlerwalkinbath.com for more info. ♪ liz: yeah, there's a new episode of this really popular show on netflix, when billionaires attack. that's not really a show, but -- laugh it could be. jeff bezos' rocket start-up blue origin blasting nasa's decision to award rival spacex a nearly

$3 billion contract to build the space agency's next moon lander. blue origin protesting nasa's decision to the government accountability office saying nasa, quote, moved the goalposts by solely choosing spacex to build a human landing system for the moon after originally saying it intended to pick two the companies to compete in the building stage of the program. and, by the way, blue originals criticized nasa's analysis of its proposal which nasa said was more expensive than spacex's system as, quote, flawed. elon musk, never one to pass up an opportunity to, you know, troll a tweet, right? he has now responded to reports of the blue origin complaint. he's saying on twitter, quote: can't get it up to orbit. lol. hilarious. let's bring in a huge elon musk fan, larry kudlow. [laughter] larry, i think these kinds of battles are fantastic for capitalism. you have two private companies

dying to beat each other out on huge contracts. larry: sure, you're right. look, lizzie, from your reporting it, and i think -- it was competitive bidding, was it not? liz: well, there was a third company that also has lodged a complaint. larry: all right. so the losers are sore losers because their bids were rejected for whatever reason. liz: right. larry: i guess, again, you just reported that the amazon bid was too high, it was too expensive. so they lost -- liz: spell, -- well, and they're saying -- larry: i doubt if nasa would change. here's the point you're make, and i agree, it's competitive bidding, right? that's life. jimmy carter once said, liz, probably his best adage, some things in life are unfair. in this case there has to be a loser. or you could do it like -- liz: we're looking at -- larry: -- you could give trophies to everybody. there are no losers. liz: yes. everyone gets a trophy.

yeah, that doesn't work in capitalism. i would say this, i started covering spacex back in i want to say 2006, and about that time blue origin was also coming into existence. it was very secretive. elon was wide open to me and us saying, you know what? come on over, and we did. we went and covered it, we were the first broadcast crew to go over and shoot in el segundo, california, where it was just a start-up itself. to me, it almost feels like spacex is well ahead. they just had a very successful launch with astronauts onboard. however, moon landerses are slightly different. i just think this bodes well for all of these start-up companies. larry: yeah, i think it does. as you say, capitalism is alive and well. this is good. markets are competitive. look, i am a big fan of elon musk, but i acknowledge that jeff bezos is a genius too. i don't particularly like his politics. musk is a libertarian, i rather like that. but putting politics aside, you've got two geniuses here

and, look, let bezos go back and make a better product and next time he'll get to play. the space program is going to be the ultimate winner here, so we like this. lots of activity the, lots of bidding, lots of competition. and i don't know if nasa should run it. that's my -- i hate to see the bureaucrats run this, liz. liz: hey, nasa, those guys are geniuses. i'm a big fan of those guys. larry: yeah, i agree. liz: all right. we're seven minutes away from your show, larry. see you at the top of the hour. good stuff. thank you so much. we'll see larry in just a few minutes. all right, gold showing its metal in april, and our countdown closer says, hold on, it's not the only metal that can really add luster to your portfolio. he's got two other metal picks. the metal pack, that's what we're talking about next with the closing bell ringing in six and a half minute now. dow still holding on to gains of 36 points, the russell's up about 3 points. we're watching all of this and more.

stay tuned. ♪♪ . .

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♪. liz: all right. we're just over three minutes before the closing bell rings. look at the s&p, folks. we are up just two points. could it be the second straight record close and the 25th record of this year? you've got to stay tuned in next couple minutes to see, we're awaiting google, microsoft earnings. starbucks. coming out after the bell as well. i want to check starbucks before we actually go to our "countdown" closer. we do have starbucks moving higher by a quarter of a percent. we're watching this as the company pivoted pretty well during the lockdowns. as the economy and markets continue to recover this year, our "countdown" closer says you need to ask three things from your portfolio are different from stocks, precious metals. he is joining me with the three

metals out there. pressures, sure, some have usages when it comes to business and building, right? what do you like here? >> well that's correct, a lot of people are looking at the precious metals as an inflation hedge. they have been performing differently. gold has been performing for a number of years but you have metals that are strategic metals for production, predominantly, platinum, palladium, and silver. if people followed the palladium market it has had six straight years of tremendous gains coming off of $450 an ounce to just under $3,000 an ounce now. so that is, this goes hand in hand with the commodities boom you're seeing, right? for many years commodities have generally been underpriced but they have perked up under, in tandem with this supply chain

disruption, these events going on now percolating up as inflation, that is visible to all now. liz: yeah. you know, for your silver play you have actually have an etf you say is a great way to at least dip your to put into it for your portfolio? >> well, so, the etfs, i would say for silver, silver is a very volatile metal. it offer as lot of opportunities for traders. bias is towards the upside after half a decade building a base. they broke out of that basics months ago, it is by no means topped out. the bias is towards the upside. short-term trading, tracking the price of silver, one of the largest etfs, slv, could be a good vehicle for that. but we also advocate the actual acquisition and holding of the physical metals and there is different ways of doing that but for the more intermediate to

long term there are benefits to controlling the assets. [closing bell rings] liz: chris, great to have you. perfect timing. there is the closing bell, our thanks to chris. will it be a win for the s&p. i say we're too close to call. larry kudlow will tell you. he is next. ♪. larry: hello, everyone, welcome back to "kudlow." i'm larry kudlow. great to be with you. so let me get this right, president biden has proposed the highest capital-gains tax probably in history, not quite sure about that but i do know it is the highest in the past 50 years plus. 43.4%, added with the corporate tax that gets you to over 50%, well over 50%, then of course state cap gains will get you close to 60%. nobody in europe is even close to that. average is 18%. not even bernie sanders beloved sweden whi