great booking, andrew, i'm glad we did that with ackman. make sure you -- and we will see you tomorrow, melissa and andrew make sure you join us tomorrow "squawk on the street" is next ♪ >>> good wednesday morning, welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer, david faber. got some chop to futures this morning amid new china tensions, the u.s. telling china to close its consulate in houston got results from united, snap, microsoft, tesla tonight, pfizer news, oil is below 42 on this api inventory build, jim, along with the president's comment yesterday that covid is likely to get worse before it gets better. >> there's so much confusion right now. we've got pfizer news because the going is going forward, will be able to produce a vaccine if it goes forward enemas the president saying masks are patriotic. then he said things are going to get worse. i think that's counterintuitive if you wear a masks it won't get wors worse. >> the pfizer news you mentioned is that the u.s. government engaging to produce 100 million

bill ackman will be right we're us in the next hour.nderwriters, joins us this morning to talk about the popularity of spacs. this spac in particular and what trend we're seeing here. i'll start with you, suzanne this is a pretty unique deal spacs for many, many years had very bad name. people thought they were effectively a compensation scheme masquerading as a compensation scheme because they typically took so much, such a big piece of the deal. what do you think is driving it now? >> well, the -- thank you for having me. spa skrrch a great market environment in general now for spacs. financial investors have significant liquidity, you know, interest rates are low, public equity market valuations are at all time highs, the number of public companies available to own has declined steadily, and, obviously, the covid pandemic has challenged the financial position of vast majority of companies. so all of these factors create tremendous opportunities for a great sponsor, the right sponsor to get a deal done >> let me go to jim on this thos

alix: this concerns bill ackman. a special purpose acquisition vehicle that opened on the stock exchange and it is trading at about 2110. $21.10. they have been around forever. last year with the year of the oil spat. a lot of oil guys were getting in. they are popular when it comes to the name attached to it. some of them failed last year. it is all about the person behind that, what happens when you run out of those people? francine: this one is resting on one person, lachman. he is going to go unicorn hunting. if you are a small to medium-sized enterprise, i don't know how you pitch to him, but something we need to keep an eye on. it began trading a short while ago. alix: he will keep you updated on how it is trading. trading right around that ipo price. this is bloomberg. ♪ >> #of the worsening relations between the u.s. and china. the u.s. has ordered the chinese consulate in houston to be closed. according to the state department, it is to protect americans' intellectual property. china calls the move unprecede

i will be speaking with bill ackman.e will discuss the debut of his new blank check company which raised $4 billion in its initial offering. he will weigh in on what kinds of companies he wants to target with the money and other investments. first, let's look at the markets. we are higher. the nasdaq has erased all of its gains. .25%.p 500 is up mark forck at the 70 the you in the. with heating up today expulsion of the envoy from china. i want to point to the fact that we will be talking about in a moment and that is the blank check company that is trading up an ipo today. the expectation was to raise $4 billion and we will be talking more about that in a moment. apple is out with headlines touting a study defending its app store fees. that is the latest out of apple again, talking a study defending its app store fees. apple has had to vehemently defend what it charges developers for developing and taking a cut of their development even though it says it is an open platform. once again, let's get to our guest this hour.

when you are talking to ackman, that silver tongue, you are hypnotized yes, bill. it never happened. you ask him about valent how can you acquire a position in alergan he talked about it and you go yes, bill. he's so smooth, you know i think we saw that yesterday. >> silver tongue, it's like yes, bill it is cnbc's fault because we put you on it's our fault >> look, the thing about bill, he's only trying to hit home runs he's either going out of the park or he strikes out >> swings for the fences the dire warning was on cnbc so i guess it was the network's share responsibility for putting him on >> anyway, we'll see thanks guys for the conversation coming back, we'll talk southwest airlines crossing the wires. the numbers and reaction we'll hear from at&t and travelers and reaction on that straight ahead a huge lineup still to come including ceos of tractor supply, auto nation and we'll talk about stacks an all of that venture capitalist who always makes news by just opening his mouth. and treasury secretary steven mnuchin followed by senate minority leader. twitr t

so much so that titans like bill ackman are getting in the mix.hey so hot and i want to bring in spac founder. you were investment banker involved in billions of dollars of these deals. you're laser focused on spaks. explain what they are and why they're so hot? >> so you're right. they are a, way to go public. they're alternative ipo product but you know, the reason they're so hot right now is due to a bunch of different reasons. but in particular, you know, with covid the markets were extremely volatile. you know, back in early to spring. but, further than that, the ipo process. the traditional ipo process inherently much more risky and uncertain. so whereas if you do traditional ipo you don't know how much you can raise or even if you're able to raise any money at all, since we reworked that deal, that ipo never happened. with a spac there is much more certainty. you already know you will be public and for the most part you already know the price because that price is sort of prenegotiated between the company and the spac. so you know, you comb

we come back, snapchat shares are slashed another payday for elon musk and details behind a bill ackman backed ipo the dow futures are down 170 we are back after this ♪ ♪ now is the time to support the places you love. spend 10 dollars or more at a participating small business and get 5 dollars back, up to 10 times with american express. enroll now at shopsmall.com. save without even leaving your house. just keep your phone and switch to xfinity mobile. you can get it by ordering a free sim card online. once you activate, you only have to pay for the data you need, starting at just $15 a month. there are no term contracts, no activation fees, and no credit check on the first two lines. get a $50 prepaid card when you switch. 5g is now included with all new data options. switch and save hundreds. xfinity mobile. >>> welcome back we have a breaking and unusual story we are following out of houston. the united states is ordering china to close its consulate in houston in a, quote, unprecedented escalation of tensions china says the unilateral move by the u.s. will necessitate equal respons

completely shut down the country according to bill iver -- according to billionaire investor bill ackmans vonnie quinn. >> if we mishandle this crisis, i.e. we do nothing, we said inlet the virus run around the world, we end up in a very dark place, every business goes bust. we should shut down the country, that was basically my argument. i have made a pretty bullish case that had we taken a hard shutdown, we could have had a better outcome both economically and from a virus perspective. there is going to be a vaccine. it is a reasonably high probability event. we are on the cusp hopefully. i heard from a trusted colleague come on the board of a company, called a chinese vip who is on the board of one of the state owned enterprises in china. he was recently vaccined along with 40,000 other chinese vips. the chinese government is 40,000 mosttheir high-profile citizens, they are clearly pretty far along in developing a safe and effective vaccine. letter to investors in march, you had said thousand people had become very sick. you said, we must learn lessons from this. i was going to mentio

ackman speaking to vonnie quinn. up next we talk covid-19 and the pandemic. bloomberg. ♪ ritika: this is bloomberg surveillance. i am ritika gupta. microsoft comes up short. the company failed to meet lofty expectations of 49% growth in its cloud computing business. still, overall sales beat estimates. demand for the subscription software remains strong. apple would be interested in bidding for a chip designer. the firm had discussions but apple isn't planning to pursue a with their hardware -- hardware focused business model. -- the swiss drugmaker says they are rick nash drugmaker says they are recovering and have a positive outlook for the year. that is your bloomberg business flash. francine: thank you so much, ritika. reported cases of coronavirus have topped 15 million across the world. the three worst countries, the u.s., brazil and india account for nearly half of all cases and 40% of fatalities. we are joined by ucl principal research fellow, jennifer rohn. we also spoke to the rosche chief executive early on and he said we have to be careful about t

. >>> welcome back bill ackman joined the gang on "squawk box" this morning since march. he wanted to talk about his new world and the rumor that hell is coming andrew, good to have you back. quite a lively conversation this morning. >> yes, kelly, it was. tontine holdin is the largest back to date, and that's why he came on. in total it could reach as high as $7 billion. he explained all this. >> that was a 28-minute segment and that was about a 15-second piece of it, and i want to remind people the message and i encourage everyone to go watch it i said, look, we're at a fork in the road at that point we hadn't shut down one state in the country. it's march 18th, you see the compounding of the growth of the virus. i said, look, one path is we do nothing. if we do nothing, hell is coming but i'm bullish. i'm buying stocks. why? because i believe the president, the government, is going to shut down the country and the answer is we did something in the middle, which is it wasn't what we were recommending, which was a 30-day hard shutdown of the country statewide, every stat

ackman could be in a position to buy, i don't know, airbnb? you just wonder what it will be. at&t wants to spin off directv the spac world is now becoming a place of liquidity for pe firms in a significant way that's been the case, but even more so. even major companies that are looking for potentially a strategic spin of some kind if they can do it there is the biggest numbers so far, again, the ackman spac will blow them all away, but they keep getting bigger and bigger martin franklin. >> martin franklin. >> who told us a few weeks ago we're a frothy world in spacs, he is launching another one, viking is a partner there as well this keeps going, jim, it's amazing to watch and it has become a real feature now. it's not just sort of a corner of the market. >> david, explain to people why this is different from private equity buying a company. >> well, it's -- first of all, you are reverse merging into a public entity, you're getting new capital as a result of doing that and you are -- i mean, you are subject to a shareholder vote by the spac itself, the shareholders can reje

shery: pershing square capital founder and ceo, bill ackman.an get more on the intensifying tensions between the u.s. and china in today's edition of daybreak. bloomberg subscribers can go to dayb on their terminals and it's also available on mobile in the bloomberg anywhere app. next, tesla extends its streak, paving the way for inclusion in the blue-chip s&p 500. we will get details of the carmakers big quarter. this is bloomberg. ♪ shery: we are just a few minutes away from the major market opens across asia. let's turn to sophie kamaruddin for a check on what to watch. sophie. sophie: taking a look across asked ask -- nasdaq, momentum surging this week as we saw tech plays staying hot, pushing the valuation to the highest in over 15 years, and here in asia, the tech rally running hot with the msci aipac i.t. index at a record high underpinned by hardware makers and sk hynix in focus with its earnings beat operating profit tripled to 1.6 billion dollars on chip price and demand recovery, reflective of economic activity picking up and th

ackman claimed this morning that overall "i gave a very bullish message. i think that's pretty hard to conclude >> able to raise a lot of money which we'll keep an eye on. >>> time to get a cnbc news update with sue herera >> hello, everyone here's what's happening at this hour nearly 1 in 3 americans say kids should not be in classrooms this fall that's according to a new poll from the associated press. the poll found similar opinions about reopenings of colleges and universities >>> in philadelphia, a s.w.a.t. officer accused of pepper spraying protesters in early june has been charged with ten miss da meerns demeanors includ counts of assault. he is accused of spraying multiple peaceful protesters and throwing one demonstrator to the ground that's the news update i will send it back to you >> thank you >>> we've got a news alert on wynn resorts and jobs. contessa brewer has the details. >> layoffs and furloughs coming for some wynn resorts workers in las vegas. i've learned that the percentage of the overall work force is in the single digits, and that

mistake as many trump critics you're exaggerating without adequate evidence and i hope your question ackman i know from your questions you obviously despise trump that's fine and i understand that but but the way you're approaching it makes it difficult for those of us who are opposed to him getting another term to make the case to americans who want to know what the facts are that that's something that you know the people will decide here in 4 months and we'll see what the outcome is before you get hyperthyroid about it let's see what happens but i need to see the whole contentious interview here on the deadly news or a live dot com forward slash conflicts out now you might remember this story from the back in may a white woman walking her dog in new york's central park calls a place about a black bird watcher after he asks her to put her dog on a lead. i've heard his record. my dog all the video that was emergency call went viral on social media as an example of every day very soon isn't this week a week or worse charged with filing a false police report. thank you. well they do reporter

earlier this week on "squawk box" ahead of his spac beginning to trade, we talked to bill ackman andy interesting words about the model and what it may mean >> we're committing a billion, billion and a half, possibly more of our own capital. every investor in u.s.spac has a full right to redeem it. if you don't like the deal, you get your money back with interest so, you know, the idea of a lead investor looking throughout the world to find the highest quality business on the best terms, negotiating a transaction, committing capital and only then do investors get presented with the detailed information they have to make a decision and they have a full opt out. the process is several days, it's a scramble. >> stacey, some people who are fans of the spac say effectively it's an indictment of the ipo process. what do you think of that? >> i think that investors and companies looking to become public are looking for choices earlyinvestors are looking for the alternative. it's not going to replace the ipo process. when we talk about ipos on your show and in other places and you see it up

should have completely shut down the country according to billionaire bill ackman. >> if we mishandle this crisis, if we do nothing and sit and let the virus run around the world, we end up in a very dark place. we can't allow that to happen and we shouldn't. we should shut down the country. that was basically my recommendation. i made a pretty bullish case that had we take an hard shutdown, we would have had a better outcome economically. the good news is we're going the get through this. there is going to be a vaccine. there are a number of candidates on the cusp, hopefully. i heard from a trusted colleague on the board with a state-owned of the enterprises in china and he was recently vaccined along with 40,000 other chinese v.i.p.'s. f china -- 40,000 most important high profile since the, they are pretty far along developing a safe and effective vaccine. francine: it was actually going to -- in march we said 1,000 people had become very sick. at the end of that call you said we must learn a lesson from this. i was going to mention that you alled it in many ways. can i ask you a f

how's that for a blank zmek billionaire hedge fund manager bill ackman has raised money for spa spacs looking for cheery uniforms to buy. >> regardless who our next president is, whether it's president trump and biden, there will be certainty and uncertainty. uncertainty is the enemy of the ipo process. >> he told me the economy won't get back to normal. i asked him if the recovery would be a v shape, a u shape or something else? >> i think it's a bit like the ocean, okay? i think we're going to have waves between the sort of now and what the general trend is to throttle back because of the emergence of the virus. >> he called the initial shutdown in the economy sloppy and that's why the recovery will be sloppy he says. wednesday david solomon said the pac will make it bumpy. the rebound could fizzle out in the months ahead. >> that's an interesting interview, christine. >>> a quick programming note for you. join anderson cooper. we'll have a special guest, bill gates. that begins at 8 eastern tonight only on cnn. we'll be right back. - [narrator] the shark vacmop combines powerful su

bill ackman came out and said these portfolio companies are going to zero, and now they have all beenescued, but they already have their protector, their private equity on umbrella. should private equity have gotten this bailout here? the board affiliation rules that the sba had that were supposed to limit how much portfolio companies could get, counte the 500 employee includes all the different portfolio companies that the private equity has controlling interest over. there were some built-in protections there. the fact that there is private equity behind it does not mean that the company otherwise would have laid off their entire workforce during the shutdown. qualify, andwise that was the decision-making process, i have much less of a problem with that. assuming all the rules were followed. it is better to have those people employed been laid off. in those instances, it doesn't bother me as much, assuming all of the rules were followed. vonnie: a slightly separate ap and its landlord, a potential precedent. gap will not pay its landlord and times square. who should be liable, the l

bill ackman's company has increased the size of its ipo.e now seeking $4 billion for an unspecified acquisition. his filings have singled out large companies as potential targets. the company says it will also be targeting ipo candidates and family-owned businesses. one of the unlucky investors caught up in the waste management debt debacle is the federal reserve. the fed by $3 million of the company bonds last month. they will lose about $120,000. another corporate casualty from the downturn in the u.s. she'll industry. high crush has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. they have agreed with some bondholders to eliminate $450 million in debt. that is related bloomberg business flash. florida breaking the record for daily coronavirus cases in the u.s. dr. arturo casadevall from the johns hopkins bloomberg school of public health will be with us about his thoughts on putting the virus. this is bloomberg. ♪ erg. ♪ vonnie: key therapeutic in the fight against the coronavirus is convalescent plasma. demand for the product from patients who recover

ackman,p later, bill pershing square founder and chief executive officer, 1:00 p.m. in new york, 6:00 p.m. in london, and this is bloomberg. ♪ ritika: let's get the bloomberg first word news. another sign of worsening relations between the u.s. and china. beijing says the u.s. ordered the closing of the chinese consulate in houston. anna calls that unprecedented escalation. the u.s. says it is because of intellectual property issues. firefighters were sent to the thatlate after it learned papers were being burned in outside containers. president was notably more reserved than in the past, encouraging americans to wear masks and avoid risky behavior. the president promised the virus will be defeated, but he said it will probably get worse before it gets better. republicans putting together a coronavirus relief plan, supporting the idea of more stimulus checks to individuals, but they expressed doubts about president trump's call for a payroll tax cut. the differences between republican senators and the white house threatened to push action on the stimulus into next mo

you're seeing really decent brand name people, now bill ackman is pursuing the spac world. you're seeing incredible spaces in the finance world seek out spac's as their next act, new proje project, if you will it's clear if you go out and do these things, in this market which is looking a little frothy, you will see some pretty strong aftermarket performance especially with these brand name companies. >> i can see where the sponsors do well in these kinds of properties do investors do well what's the history tell us and question number two, where a spac which is known as a blank check company, do you know going in or does the spac sponsor know going in what their target company is going to be who they might merge with? who they might invest in or is that somebody that's tbd >> on the first part, there's some very good examples. things they have done well some they have done poorly when you buy into a spac as an ipo, you don't know what it will buy. you might have some prod strokes. it's a risk for companies that sell into spacs and you do have redemption rights. >> there's

was a doubter, and i said oh, my god, my daughter wants to buy one, my wife wants to buy one bill ackman bought one he actually said i bought a tesla. >> but he bought a tesla they're just waiting for the stock to drop. >> and they're begs for that supply, where is the -- jon najarian, where is the supply? at what level does the supply live >> i can't see, is that peet >> it's p.j., p-jon. >> my take has been the same for a long period of time. gene muenster said a long time ago this is a tech company, not a car company. he's always stated, i think gene just said, this is what it is. now you talk about battery superiority, and the -- you can improve the soft way and get downloads. it's an absolutely amazing ecosystem. that's why it says this was a lot like what apple was a long time ago. >> yes >> how about the -- >> no, the ekecosystem is comin up -- >> a new -- [ laughter ] >> you don't own the stock, though, pete >> i've always said that very rarely i think i owned the stock once, but i've traded many times the options. so you've got to be not in the stock necessarily you understand h

businesses that have not gone public, be advised, bill ackman is out there with $4 billion in his backt willing to put toward in a position -- to what an acquisition. -- toward an acquisition. >> i have with me tyler dixon, who co-leads the investment banking businesses at citigroup. they were the lead left on the deal for this they have been working on. say that the ipo model has broken, because we have had a lot of ipos. with that said, there's clearly thing different the market once of these listings. how does the model need to change? spac as an alternative to ipo. we continue to see vibrant ipo markets for the right situations. we see other situations that are fitted for spac. >> what are those situations? what is the push for change people want? >> i think there's a lot of interest in the equity capital markets. the opportunity for investors to buy ipo's order by spacs is a direct result of them trying to em outside of this market. we are giving them more alternatives today. >> are the facts taking up a lot more of your feed base now than in the past? >> i think they have gotten

coming up on bloomberg tv and radio, bill ackman. if you look the share price, it is still gaining.terview at 6:00 in london, 1:00 in new york. this is bloomberg. ♪ francine: is a busy day in europe and the u.s.. what i am watching will be microsoft. we could be looking at quarterly results after the closing bell that will crush it when it comes to the cloud computing business. a huge tailwind for the company. all analysts bullish on it. a nice run. how much can they deliver is what i am paying attention to. francine: every time you have a big company in the u.s. report, whatever they do will have an impact on european stocks at the open tomorrow. i'll be watching that and also watching some of the earnings in europe tomorrow. we have roche, daimler, unilever, and we were just talking in the break about daimler. there was a report earlier today from manager magazine saying daimler might put up took -- might cut up to 30,000 jobs worldwide. that is quite a lot. they say that is speculation for the moment but certainly there will be an extra layer of interest when they report earnings

jonathan: bill ackman there, pershing square capital founder and ceo.de tom keene and lisa abramowicz, i'm jonathan ferro. i think we are all sick to death of this rising u.s.-china tensions. tensions have been simmering for the best part of two and half years as this administration has confronted the chinese communist party. tom: it has been a very careful ramp up. to your credit, i would mention mr. farrow has been -- mr. ferro has been way out front on this. meredith sumter is the eurasia group head of research strategy and operations. course, a profound knowledge of china. what can you add to the conversation? you see the punditry. it is in the zeitgeist right now. what can you add on this thursday morning about this consulate tit-for-tat? meredith: great to be here with you. this is a remarkably unusual escalation, a closure of a consulate outside of wartime is rare. it is one of a myriad of actions to try to put the bilateral relationship on a fundamentally different course. we heard comments that this is strong, but is it effective? what is key h

much tp bil coming, bill ackman.ar from the former secretary of homeland security on the question of china and u.s. relations. this is bloomberg. ♪ mark: i am mark crumpton. another grim milestone for the coronavirus. officials say there have been more than 15 million confirmed cases around the world. more than 600,000 have died. the three worst hit countries, the u.s., brazil and india account for nearly half of all confirmed cases and more than 40% of fatalities. global cases are growing by more than one million per week. u.s. and china tensions flaring up after the u.s. abruptly ordered the closure of the chinese consulate in houston, texas citing intellectual property concerns. mike pompeo spoke about the issue in copenhagen earlier today. >> we are setting up clear expectations for how the chinese party is going to behave and when they don't, we will take actions to protect the american people. tok: china is vowing retaliate. the european central bank might ask banks to hold off on dividends through the end of t

. >> that was bill ackman on "squawk box" today the stock managed to head higher today. he said that long-term he is bullish america, he is long in the markets, he's long on a lot of the reopening trades that he bought close to the march lows, names like hilton, lowe's the home improvement retail, as well as chipotle. he remains in some of these trades and i thought the hedge using a short on high yield was sort of interesting as well. >> yeah, it's been interesting high yield, because the government's professed defense of fallen angels and some high yield and buying the etfs that occupy the space has been interesting. bill's in broad brush strokes have been tactical in this and it seems like he's been on the right side of the trade, buying near the bottom wherever he remains in some of those positions. i think the key is ultimately we are in a credit crisis, whether the government is there to defend ever balance sheet or not, so being cautious and having that as a hedge i think is fair. talking about a couple of those trades, lowe's and chipotle for different reasons ha

ackman. >>> system censorship in america many debate discuss 2020 presidential election, a new surveyato institute finds 26% americans hold police beliefs afraid to have express survey finds republicans more cautious than democrats, about expressing their views cato institute says self-censorship has risen during trump administration interesting numbers dagen i think this may explain some of the polls out there. dagen: if you voted for trump you are going to get called nazi or racist even worse than that particularly if you work with progressive company people are afraid of of losing jobs where we are in this nation disgraceful. >> because of the mobs gianno will come at you if they don't agree with you. >> one hundred percent. one hundred percent, the poll shows favors trump in november because only political thing unpopular are those that favor trump you should see a very happy about what we're seeing here. maria: quick wreak the initial jobless claims after the break get that economic data coming up, it could move markets stay with us. [indistinct radio chatter] (mom) come on, hurr

our air in the last week of march and they were somewhat negative >> yes, i do remember that bill ackmanmr. chanos. yeah, that was not great timing. >> no. >> you had -- yeah, there was a lot of -- >> a lot of rich people. >> a lot of negativity in terms of the market. their view on the economy may end up being correct but certainly their view of what would happen to the stock market has not been. >> there is a classic chasm between what the stock market is doing except for the banks this week and what the economy is doing but that's not unusual people don't understand that if you are buying z scale and buying octen, if you are buying palo alto networks and buying fort net, you're to buying that because of something that happened at twitter. if you buy paypal it's because of something that happened with the banks. octo is a company that does identity wasn't that the problem with twitter? bring octa in. >> i just saw that tweet, jim. interesting. we are on track for a third week higher on the s&p. let's get to bob pisani this morning. good morning, bob. >> good morning, carl. happy friday

tomorrow we will probably get ackman's gigantic spac at least sort of hitting.s, again, a continued area of focus, an alternative for companies to go public, remember, and the process is you raise the money first, so that's when we talk about the offering, that's what's happening with this pricing of this deal we were just talking about and then you obviously do the deal. we will see how fortress performs today as well and, guys, real quickly on corelogic, they did have that meeting yesterday, corelogic's management, some directors as well in cannae and senator they want to be able to do due diligence, they want a level of customer level diligence, they are not getting that from the guys at corelogic at this point who say, no, raise your bid first, then we will give you diligence. in fact, it's the other way from the other guys, they're saying, no, give us diligence, then we might raise our bid. theres a look at corelogic at 67 other private equity firms scrambling out there at least to try to figure out if they want to try to do something here. no formal proces