investor, are there ceos that you admire enough that influences you investing in their stock? >> there are a few, i probably have a little less than some of the others, but i think marry ba ra for gm and again, she, you know, stellar record. charles: she's done extraordinarily well. we got to leave it there. thank you, both very much. ashley, over to you. >> take care. ashley: any time you can get stevie wonder into market coverage, that is a good day, charles payne. i know, you did it! superstition, one of the greatest songs ever written before. thank you very much, charles. all right, cryptos and cybercrimes front and center today, as the ceo of colonial pipeline testifying before the senate homeland security committee about last month's ransomware attack that shutdown his company's key energy pipeline. meantime, bitcoin slipping after the department of justice

announced in this hour yesterday that actually, it had recovered more than half of the millions of dollars in bitcoin ransom it paid to a russian cyber crime syndicate. we'll go live to capitol hill for the fireworks at the hearing , and our power crypto panel will analyze the fallout from all of this. >> plus home builders getting taken out to the wood shed as lumber prices drive up the cost of new homes that's been going on for a while. well guess what one of the nation's top lumber experts will be here to explain the source of all the timber troubles. and markets, well, one of those choppy directionalist days, near the flat line as new meme stocks bring good luck to the reddit rebels in their battle against wall street shorts but as you can see , all the major indices up modestly so, the nasdaq up nearly half a percent. welcome, everybody, to the "claman countdown." colonial pipeline ceo joseph blo

unt explained why he made the decision to pay hackers after the may 7 cyber attack which stopped operations for a critical fuel supply line in the u.s.. blount did it for his country to keep the massive fuel pipeline that delivers oil and gary cohen to 45% of the nation in operation. blount was testifying about the ransomware attack at a senate homeland security committee hearing today, pretty dramatic stuff and for more on today's proceedings we go live to capitol hill and hillary vaughn. hillary good afternoon. reporter: good afternoon, ashley even though the federal government says paying off ransomware hackers is a very bad idea and only encourages them to go after bigger and more critical companies, a source familiar with the behind the scenes discussions between colonial pipeline and government officials tells me that the government did not communicate to colonial whether or not they should have paid that ransom but today, colonial

ceo joseph blount did defend it saying it was the fastest way to get the pipeline back online. >> their official position is you shouldn't pay ransoms, and yet, they didn't communicate that to you as far as you know? >> ranking member, i was not in that conversation. i can't confirm or deny that. >> so you knew what their advice was going to be and provided that day? >> yes, sir, we did. reporter: after paying the ransom hackers gave colonial a key that colonial says today is working, but it's not perfect they still have not recovered 100% from the attack. >> after you paid the ransom and received the key to unlock your systems, did that actually fix all of the problems? >> i think what a lot of people don't realize about cyberattacks and the repercussions of a cyber attack is it takes months and months. this week we're bringing back on line seven finance systems that

we haven't had since the morning of may 7. reporter: and blount also told lawmakers they are working on coming up with a plan so they might be able to manually operate the pipeline, in case there is a future attack, but one point that he said today, ashley, was that a lot of the pipeline workers that know how to operate a pipeline by hand, the old fashion way, has actually retired. ashley? ashley: very interesting. hillary vaughn, thank you very much. a lot of interesting testimony today on capitol hill about this the doj success in collecting the partial ransom sum of $2.3 million paid by colonial pipeline to those hackers can be attributed to recently-launched ransomware and digital extortion task force. there's a task force for everything these days, and that is one of them. let's bring in the former chief information officer of the fbi, gordon bitco and kareem hajazi.

gentlemen thank you both for being here and kareem is also the former director of intelligence for the company that worked with colonial to assess the damage to its networks and help strengthen its systems so gentlemen, both of you know very well the scenario here. gordon, let me begin with you. a lot is being made of paying the ransom. i think it was the first day after the hack happened, they were very quick to pay the ransom. it was a bad idea, but on the other side of that argument, we already saw the chaos it caused at the pumps. if that had been delayed any longer perhaps paying a ransom quickly was the more prudent move. what do you say? >> ashley, good afternoon. thanks for having me on. i think you're right. companies like colonial, they really have to look at the overall risk, and make a decision that's best for themselves and their customers. what they really need to be doing, what really was highlight ed by doj ability to recover this money afterwards is colonial and other companies

need to be thinking about these types of operational risks in advance. look at what those government capabilities are. look at what the consequences might be, and be prepared so they aren't in the heat of the moment having to decide, should i pay a ransom or not. if they have that preparation and got the connections, the tools, the resources internally and with government they are going to be in a much better position but the bottom line is they are going to be the right choice. ashley: right. yup, it's never an easy choice for sure. kareem so the hackers got into colonial's i.t. system through a vpn. how wide open were they, i think that's the question and i read somewhere there wasn't even a two-step authentication in place , is that correct? >> yes that's correct. unfortunately this is a widespread issue. people have this idea that, you know, vpn's are a security product. while they are, they product your data in transit but i've actually likened the vpn to the

equivalent of a hypodermic needle that can inject into a company and bypass security products if you do not have things like two-factor or multi -factor authentication so unfortunately that simple step is what facilitated their ability to get these credentials on the dark web and then leverage them through and effectively get in without any really knowing they were there. ashley: so kareem let me follow-up with how many other companies out there, some with some perhaps critical exposure to our infrastructure, also has this wide open door to hackers who want to find it? >> unfortunately, due to the pandemic, it's probably greater than ever, partially because vpn technology and work-from-home has opened up the doorway for a lot of organizations to lighten the load on the security products so they have to deploy because there's too much training to do for remote workforces that were not accustomed to that type of capability so unfortunately you're dealing with a lot of access points via theory is adversaries that were not there

before when everyone was working from the offices so that's actually forced multiply the ability for the actors to get in. certainly that's not the only method. they deploy malware and those open doors for them to get in as well. they deploy botnets considered commodities and people ignore them because they consider these just run of the mill everyday botnets but they are underlying plumbing that these adversaries use to get in and it's hard to manage unless you have the means to see that malware communicate outbound. ashley: gordon, i guess if there's any good news to this , the fbi did manage apparently to recoup more than $2 million of the ransomware. does that surprise you or is this something they've been working on? >> the fbi is definitely made cyber work a priority over the last few years. they've invested significant resources quite a bit, and quite a few field offices have great capability and great tools. it's also a combination of circumstances as well, that they were able to identify a server

that they got access to and were able to recover the bitcoin. i also think that it's important to note that it sounds like only half of the ransom but a big part of that is just the value of bitcoin having dropped so much in the last month since the ransom was paid. it actually recovered quite a larger percentage of the bitcoin themselves. ashley: that's a good point because it's so volatile, the price, but that is well- stated. to follow-up, gordon. we know, apparently, we suspect this is tied to a cyber gang. dark side, probably in eastern europe, ties to russia. how can we get back at these entities? do we hold russia accountable? should we consider some sort of retaliation? >> i think it's clear in the way the government is looking at this right now that they see this as a matter of national security. it's not only nation state intrusions like solar winds at that level right now.

the activity is critical of key actors like this also rises to that level so i think that we need a whole government response and not just u.s. but allied countries as well, because they are also being targeted and victimized. i think that there was a really good ransomware task force report just a few months ago that had some specific suggestions about things that the can be done to minimize the risk, to help manage the response and to put appropriate resources on to it and i would strongly encourage both industry leaders to look at that and be aware but also government to be taking those recommendations seriously. ashley: very quickly, kareem and to follow-up on gordon, should government have more input and should be helping companies more in the private sector to stop this kind of hacking? >> i think i certainly agree with gordon. i think it's a cooperation between private sector and public sector to help facilitate this. it's entirely unfair to expect the government to completely burden this entirely. there's a lot of areas of this

that are the expertise resides in the private sector. they understand a lot about where things are and that information sharing and that cooperation is going to be critical going forward because it really is only going to get worse. we'll see a lot more of this and simply the manpower necessary to be able to address these intrusions and these ransomware attacks is going to require everyone with an all hands-on deck approach. ashley: yeah, well let's hope that happens. gordon bitko, thank you, gentlemen, both for talking with us today. good stuff. all right, the appetite for meme stocks getting even bigger. what a crazy story this is. the new name that the reddit crowd is hungering for and if you should be joining the retail investor revolution. the closing bell ringing in about 45 minutes from now. the "claman countdown" coming right back.

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i'm talking about pay pal, spotify, amazon, and wall street bets, just to name a few. home based reddit also among those affected. vastly living up to its name though, quickly responding to the outage, what it said was due to a technical era, and not a cyber attack, shares under pressure at the open but right now look at that up 10%. bad morning, good afternoon apparently. all right let's move on and get to our floor show if we can. reddit being down temporarily, certainly not stopping two new names from joining the meme stock watch list today. clover health let's have a look at that, rallying, a mere 74%, after popping 30% yesterday, clover health is a medicare insurance start up but look at that, the meme stock, the reddit gang is getting involved. also wendy's up 24% today, hitting new record highs. both those names emerging as the latest targets for trader s on reddit's wall

street bets page. we know all about that and while the overall market is searching for direction, other meme names also rallying. build-a-bear, remember those , workhorse, bed, bath and beyond, all up in fact workhorse up 17.5 %. now flipping it over to lords town motors also up very nicely, lord's town up 17, acromoto also up about 18%. now is a good time to begin our floor show, frank holmes u.s. global investor ceo and david trainer, new constructs ceo. gentlemen thank you both for being here. all right, frank, how has the rush to these names and all the volatility that we've witnessed, how does that impact the market overall and what would you say to someone that comes to you and says do you know what? i kind of like to kind of get in on this action. what would you tell them? >> well, i've been very fortunate to be in part of that

action, as last year etf experienced them coming in the millennials coming in for robinhood and the volume went from 40,000 shares a day to 8 million. buffett blew out all of the airlines and they piled in and made 130% of their money. and its gone from 40 million to 4 billion and now a tracks price discovery by the millennials coming in, basically facilitates and attracts the cougars, everything, the whole animal echosystem goes wild with it, so i think that it's important and now we're seeing institutions taking major companies are the largest shareholders. ashley: well, david, i mean, look. none of this based on fundamentals though, right? what would you tell someone that came to you and said hey, i'm kind of tempted to jump in. >> i'd say be careful. you know, look, we never know

when the music is going to stop and there's just not enough chairs for everyone with respect to the fundamentals. i mean, these stocks are trading at levels that are so disconnected that that's why i'm out of these meme stock investors, they make fun of each other, they don't care about fundamentals. it's not about fundamentals. it's about sticking it to the institutions, and i think unfortunately, most of these individuals are going to find themselves getting stuck when these prices fall back down to earth. ashley: all right, david let me follow-up with you and get out of the world of meme stocks, and i don't know whether you have much to say in the bitcoin space , but i wanted to ask you the rose, the bloom has come off the bitcoin rose is what i was trying to say. what say you? >> yeah, i would agree 100% but there's not a lot of underlying value in bitcoin. people too often like confuse bitcoin for blockchain. there's an enormous amount of value in blockchain, but bitcoin is just one of many applications and protocols related to

blockchain. if you want to be a part of the defi movement focus on projects and protocols that really create value by taking cost out of the system. bitcoin is becoming just another gambling tool, another meme stock so to speak and it's a very dangerous place to play and we'll continue to see it come down especially as the status of this sort of super crypto, untouchable currency starts to go away, right? like with the u.s. regulators, i think hacking a wallet here recently proves that maybe it's not as super safe as people like and i think that the more that the hacker community is using bitcoin to sort of hide the more regulators and for that notion, nations are going to come down on it. ashley: all right, frank very quickly. what about gold? i hadn't gotten into inflation but can i just ask you quickly, why is the gold trade not as strong as it should be in an inflation environment? >> well because the cpi number

how they look at the cpi number as a factor and that number is way understated. if you included food and energy, inflation is well over 11-12% and there's a huge trade on the 10 year government bond as versus the cpi number so when it comes to bitcoin, i just attended that conference in miami and it was not at a convention hotel. in the 12,000 people, investors paid $600 to attend. that means lots were not there. the other investment conferences i've spoken at, they get 6,000 people and it's free. it's not $600 a ticket. you had hedge fund managers there, and so there's something that's real that is happening and what bitcoin did is it validated the blockchain technology. in fact blockchain technology came before the internet. it was created by telecom

companies, and it was really only rationalized this worked because of bitcoin. bitcoin has declined here, on no volume. i launched the first crypto min ing company called hide blockchain technology and its come down from trading 8 million shares a day to a million and change and it's not capitulation and not this dumping and panic. ashley: right. very well-said. frank holmes, david trainer, thank you so much for your insight today on the markets. bitcoin, meme stocks, you name it, great stuff gentlemen, thank you very much. all right, how about this. viva las vegas conferences the reopening in sin city entering a new phase and we're live in the thick of the action. the closing bell ringing in about what, 40-odd minutes, 38 minutes, we'll be right back.

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ashley: all right, pop stocks fox business alert stich fix sewing up a win in today's pop stocks the direct to consumer fashion service feeling the glow of the retail rebound for apparel, a 20% increase in active clients pushing stich fix to beat some of the top and bottom lines impressive as well as full year forecast that stock thank you very much up more than 13% today. gap getting a halo effect of its own from its tie-out with rapper kanye west shares jumping after the retailer sold out of all available pre-orders of its first branded product right there a $200 round jacket just hours after the jackets online launch. those jackets expected to ship some time in the fall, gap shares up more than 3%. >> a big win for veladine, leading to laser focused games and surging on news it will be joining the russel 2000 small

cap index on june 28 shares as you can see right there up nearly 20%. rivals luminar and avar technolo gies also up, avar technologies up more than 13%. keurig dr. pepper advertising out as its stake in the beverage making giant, the snack maker selling 28 million kdb shares of a discount in a secondary offer ing announced yesterday. and keurig closing in on a four- day losing streak as you can see down about 4% today, meanwhile also off about half a percent. >> las vegas is reopening its doors the world of concrete convention is back in town as the cities first major trade show, since the pandemic began. industry professionals from around the world are coming out to not only talk about the future of construction, but also, take a big step forward in a vaccinated world. edward lawrence, you got the

assignment joins us live from the convention floor at the concrete trade show and edward i would imagine, there's a lot of solid mixing going on, right? reporter: oh, i see what you did there, yeah, it was tough, believe me, this assignment they had to really twist my arm to come out here but some of these vendors do a years worth of bookings just at this convention , which is why this is so critical. i mean just look around here a little bit. one of the vendors here you could see they have a vacuum for lack of a better term that sucks up almost everything, so they do some demonstrations here , you can see exactly what's going on. you know, i caught up earlier with the nevada governor and i asked him, if he regrets waiting to open things up 100% so this could happen until june 1, because given the success, for florida and texas. here is his answer. >> we had a balance of welfare and health of our community and overwhelming the potential of overwhelming our healthcare system our hospitals.

we made construction essential jobs, early on in the pandemic, which meant that we could send those men and women to work and build this magnificent building so it was extremely important and when the time was right and statistics showed we could open safely, we did that. reporter: and this world of concrete has become more critical because there's a lumber shortage but also a concrete shortage, so some of these vendors are able to get new suppliers to be able to handle the supply from across the country. >> they are often having to find new sources for products because whoever they work with currently may have limited supply, so they are having to use new vendors and so we provide that platform for them to come and do the research at the event. reporter: and some of the vendor s here, they have about 50% of the vendors back from a normal year, normally this convention has 60,000 attendees it'll be less now, because of the international restrictions, but again, there's

a huge domestic demand that the organizers of this event have talked about. back to you, ashley. ashley: edward, thank you, and thank goodness there was a machine available to clean-up your lunch there. that was very handy indeed, edward lawrence in vegas. reporter: it really sucked. ashley: we have the stock right there, edward lawrence. thank you so much. another supply chain crunch slam ming home ore owners the latest product that could make the cost of your next renovation even higher, and lumber prices sliding today, but will it be enough to take the heat off home builders, we're stripping it all down for you, next, the closing bell ringing in about 29 minutes, the dow, s&p and nasdaq all on the upside, but very modestly so we're coming right back.

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ashley: the hot housing market is still going strong as the median home price across the country continues to rise. check out these latest numbers from the national association of realtors that show the median home prices in the u.s. now at an all-time record high of 341, 600, as compared to $286, 800 just one year ago, and as we head to summer, people looking to open up their pools, they have another issue on their hands. what is it? well chlorine supplies are running low, can you believe, sending prices through the roof, if you are even able to find some of those chlorine tabs. and on top of all of that, grady trimble is in naperville, illinois, with another consumer item that is becoming harder and harder to find. namely, paint. grady? reporter: ashley, whether you're painting a brand new house or sprucing up an older house like this one, painting it is going

to cost you more, bob jung is with family painting so part of the reason is the shutdowns from last year they weren't able to make the paint and then demand just exploded. you guys have been how busy since what, last summer? >> we had an incredible increase of 35% and above. reporter: what if i wanted to get my house painted today? >> you'll have to wait a few days probably a month or so to get in but for you we'll help you out. reporter: okay i appreciate that and we'll show these guys working here and part of the other side of this story is that those petroleum plants that turn petroleum products into paint were hit by those winter storms in texas and louisiana, and they are still catching up from that. i mean, its just been a one-two punch everywhere you look. what's the solution going forward? you moo it have to pass the cost on to your customers, i guess. >> yes, sadly we'll have to pass the cost on. it's probably between 6-9% increase when we have to pass it on. reporter: what about the folks like these who already agreed on a certain price? >> so right now we honor their

price because we have a contract so we absorb the cost for the rise of the paint. reporter: unfortunately, and actually, they were just saying they were looking for the paint they are using on this house, ashley, and they weren't able to find it in the size that they were looking for , so i guess that's the state of the industry i've got to go though. jeremy said he's putting me to work here, ash, and i'm not going to be around the edges there i'm just doing the center of the wall. center of the wall. ashley: look at that. look at that. oh, yeah the technique of a pro, grady trimble. i'm impressed. wait until they get your bill though that's the only problem. grady thank you so much. paint by the way not the only building material drying up, lumber as we know is already in short supply, driving prices up over 70% since january 1, in a fox business exclusive, now, we welcome in one of the experts in

the lumber business, economic advisors principal paul yankee. paul thank you so much for joining us. so many people around this country saying what the heck is going on with lumber so, i guess the first question to you is, when will we see this market for lumber even out? so we're paying a price that will be considered reasonable. >> well i think it's going to be a while before you're paying a price that most people would consider reasonable, if you're comparing it to where you were five years ago. so the markets have just simply changed. there's demand is stronger than it was. we were in a period of very weak demand for an extended period of time so because of that we saw a lot of production curtailments so production isn't where it was a decade ago and demand is stronger than it was a decade even five years ago, so we're going to be at higher price levels. now, having said that we're not going to be anywhere near the levels that we're at today.

ashley: as you were talking, paul, we're showing some file video of workers in a mill, i presume. is that part of the problem too? we know that there's a worker shortage across the country. is that true for the lumber mills as well? >> absolutely, yeah. it started off during covid and we had, if you were working in a mill and you caught covid, then you would have to go into isolation, people would have to quarantine so typically when we see lumber prices as high as they are right now and as high as they were, we would see mills operating at 100-110% of capacity as they tried to produce as much lumber as they could and take advantage of those high prices, but then, even now, one of the things we're seeing is that even with covid really moving away and going away, we're seeing a shortage of labor at the mills, so there's two issues here. one, if you're looking at this over a long period of time, the lumber industry, the main end use market for lumber is new homes and new homes, new home construction has been very weak, in fact, since the great

recession, we've averaged below any recessionary low since world war two so this is an industry that's constantly beating down its cost and constantly trying to keep its cost under control and they do that by controlling their labor cost, so if you're a worker and you have a choice of working in a hot saw mill or going and delivering packages for amazon making the same amount of money or maybe even more perhaps you'll choose to work for amazon, and then another issue is that extended unemployment benefits and the fact that for a lot of these workers they can stay home and make more money than they would make if they go into the mill, so yeah, there's a labor shortage going on right now and it's amazing to me who i've been following this industry for more than 25 years now, and typically , if we're going to see prices where they are at you'll have operating rates in the high 90% range but mills are operating at 86-88% because they can't get the labor to operate any more than that. ashley: that is a huge problem. also i've noticed that yes the housing industry is hot, but

it's coming off the boil. i've seen some, you know, like housing starts in april were considerably down and i think maybe, maybe you can answer this , part of the problem is that when people start to realize that the cost of lumber is adding 25, 30, 35,000 to the cost of the new home, they're pulling out of that contract. >> yeah, you know, i would actually point, i don't actually think that's the case because i would point to the existing home prices, which are up just as much as new home prices, so i think what we're seeing is the same issue it's facing builders which is a lack of labor and we had, we have had seen very very little improvement in productivity in the homebuilding industry. i like to joke around that we're building homes that today is the same way noah build his ark. there hasn't been much change in builder technology over the past

decade, so if you look at other industries, you know, the automotive industry, the agriculture industry, i mean , it's crazy to think that if you wanted a new car, it's crazy to think that ford would come to your house and deliver tires and doors and windows and put the whole thing together there. of course they would do it in a factory. it's so much more efficient. you can have tremendous productivity gains but we can't get that when building homes on site and delivering the products there so part of the issue is just simply a lack of productivity and the ability to improve productivity from the home builder side and if we could do that we would solve a lot of these problems and build more homes, but certainly, there's no doubt that $1,500 lumber prices are not helping. ashley: no, they're not, i was going to say no real relief at least in the mid-term. paul jannke, thank you so much, paul for bringing us up to speed on what we are, what we can expect in the lumber market for the months to come. thanks so much. appreciate it. >> you're welcome, ashley,

thank you. ashley: thank you. amc starting to get the attention of more than just the reddit rebels. why wall street's top cop could be ready to take aim at the theatre chain's massive 2500% year-to-date rise, charlie will break it next, closing bell ring s in 16 minutes. incomparable design makes it beautiful. state of the art technology makes it brilliant. the visionary lexus nx. lease the 2021 nx 300 for $359 a month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. that building you're trying to sell, $359 a month for 36 months. - you should ten-x it. - ten-x it?

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why choose proven quality sleep from sleep number? because a good night's rest is where muscles recover, and our minds are restored. the new sleep number 360 smart bed is temperature balancing. and it helps keep you asleep by sensing your movement and automatically adjusts to keep you both effortlessly comfortable. perfect for those relaxing weekends. proven quality sleep, is life-changing sleep. only from sleep number. ashley: kroger taking the bull by the horns when it comes to ongoing worker shortage across the u.s.. the grocery chain looking to hire 10,000 workers via its first-ever nationwide hybrid hiring event, which will take place thursday. kroger saying it will be

interviewing people both in- person and online, as it looks to staff up everything from its retail, e-commerce, pharmacy operations and manufacturing teams. the whole gamut kroger right now just slightly lower in trading today down about a quarter of a percent. >> now to this story. the securities and exchange commission is playing a game of whack-a-mole, as meme stocks such as amc are gaining eye- popping momentum. i mean eye-popping. the sec is seeking evidence of stock manipulation on message boards, but will the strategy work? i know who might know. charlie gasparino, all over this story. charlie? will the strategy work in your opinion? charlie: probably not, and let me just give you a little background on my sourcing on this , not the exact names but i've been speaking with securities lawyers who speak with the sec a lot. their intention is clearly to look at some sort of manipulation case here involving

the run-up in the meme stocks, because if you look at the way they are trading, there's a lot of in and out going on here, and trying to coordinate that and the issue comes in if you can coordinate that with pumps on the message boards, okay? the problem is that these, from what i understand, these are really very difficult cases, maybe impossible cases to bring in terms to prosecute because you really have to tie a message board leak to a person, you have to essentially show that the person is lying, and that was benefiting from the lie. i mean, by owning the stock, this is a multi-faceted procedure to prove a case here, so that's kind of where we are hearing is like they want to bring cases in gary gensler, the sec chair, is from what i understand extremely concerned about the meme stock mania, as you saw, they had the latest healthcare company is up i don't know, 60% today, healthcare company what is it called?

ashley: clover health. charlie: it's up 70% or so. ashley: 88% it's up now. charlie: how much? ashley: 88. charlie: that's insane. i mean, obviously the sec is monitoring all of this and looking foreman in you legislation because these stocks are trading well above their valuation. we should point out that amc, as you pointed out is up something like 2,500% since the beginning of the year. the company itself has warned that the shares are overvalued and maybe you shouldn't be buying them at these levels, the company said that last week. clearly, the sec is worried as well that they are overvalued and that small investors are going to be holding the bag at some point. it's tools to go after the manipulation are very difficult. one thing that is being floated out there from the sec, from my understanding, gensler has been just speaking about this specifically, is having some of the online trading

platforms, the robinhood step in somehow, and, you know, maybe alert investors like are you sure you should be doing this or providing some sort of investor education, that's being talked about. the one problem that gensler has on top of the fact this is very difficult stuff he has a very packed agenda. he's got corporate america woke, he's got spacs to look at, crypto that has gone crazy and now starting to bottom out. he's got a lot of stuff on this plate and now he's stuck with this , which quite frankly, is pretty dangerous stuff, because you know, this isn't like adults screwing over adults here. these are retail investors, small investors, first time investors who could be holding on and losing a lot of money if you have been following this story which i have, so, they are definitely looking at it and they would like to make a case, uphill bat l and i'm sure this is not the last we'll be talking about this , ashley, back to you. ashley: no, certainly not, charlie. thank you. it's all going to end in tears

and clover health is a medicare insurance start-up that went public through a spac so it covered all of bases and it's up 88%. charlie, great stuff as always, and this is going to be an ongoing story for sure. thank you. all right, up next, today's countdown closer tells you how to drive past inflation and supply chain problems in your portfolio. you can get around them. the $4 billion man ira rothberg is here with his top picks next closing bell ringing in just under seven minutes. . .

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♪. ashley: nasdaq on pace for its first three-day gain since april 5th. meantime as you can see the dow and s&p and s&p essentially flat. the dow slightly lower, both hovering around record levels of

course. today has been kind of a flat session. but as investors watch for further signs of inflation this week, cpi out on thursday i believe, how should long term investors focus their portfolios? that is the key question. hiram rothberg, hennessey co-portfolio manager. i strung that out. co-portfolio manager. ira, thanks so much for joining us. i look at your picks. i'm intrigued. let me get to the first one, restoration hardware, what do you like about this stock? >> restoration hardware is the leading luxury home furnishings retailer in the united states. we think they have an opportunity to doubt their sails in the united states as they continue to to transform their real estate from smaller mall-based stores to larger design galleries located in prestigious off-mall locations. they are building an unrivaled brand image here in the united states. in 2022 expect them to expand

into england and into paris as well. so, you know, looking very long term there is an opportunity to be a 25 billion-dollar in sales business. ashley: very interesting. all right. the next one, allegiant travel. isn't that a small regional airline? they have a couple of resorts as well? >> allegiant is an ultralow-cost carrier with a focus on medium haul routes from small and medium-sized cities to destination markets like las vegas and orlando. they're poised to benefit significantly for all the pent-up demand for leisure travel. in fact we think coming up in july we that i fares will rival where they were pre-pandemic in 2019. unlike many airlines. allegiant added to its base of planes and routes. it should be about 15% larger through the routes prepandemic. it trades at very low multiple

at normalized -- ashley: very good. last one i have here, carmax. we know, ira, used car prices are going through the roof. >> yeah. used cars are in significant demand as the chip shortage is making it harder for the eoms to produce new cars but it is more than just this temporary benefit that we would like in carmax. over the long term we think they have a significant opportunity to gain market share through the rollout of their omni channel capability. over the last few years they have been building up capabilities. but just now they're throwing advertising dollars behind it. getting message out to consumers you can buy a car any way you want to, as much online or as much in the store as you like. we think they can grow from 4% market share late model used cars to something much larger over the next decade as there are very few competitors that have the omni channel

capabilities. ashley: ira rothberg, great stuff. thanks so much for those three picks. very interesting indeed. we appreciate that as we head towards the closing bell. [closing bell rings] ashley: the dow off slightly. the s&p essentially flat. the nasdaq up 43 points, good for a third of a percent gain. mixed markets today. that will do it for "the claman countdown." "kudlow" is next. ♪ larry: hello, everyone, welcome to "kudlow." i'm larry kudlow. a little under the weather. little bit of allergies and i hope my voice holds up. no deal between shelley moore can tito and president biden. capito says she doesn't expect a infrastructure deal. senator mcconnell says the era of bipartisanship is over. take a listen.

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