Transcripts For CNBC Squawk On The Street 20240713

Second week in a row that its starting out just in the right way. Yeah. I think theres people who just feel that this great shutdown is over obviously its worldwide the spending will begin again. I keep hearing that theres a surprising number of survivors that its not as bad as we thought. With the exception of some mortgages and some credit card, the forbearance wont really reverberate through the system reverberates to the banks. I know theres people who want to try to get the banks going. I say stick with whats working. I know its boring i know people want to rotate its something that Portfolio Managers love to do. I dont like to rotate into any stocks that have numbers cut thats really important. Im looking at david faber, who looks, of course, fabulous im thinking about him because its the credit markets we have to worry about, not the stocks they look great. Whats your concern in the credit market specifically, jim . Like hertz. Its not like theyre nothing. Hertz owns a lot of cars hertz has a lot of debt piled on and we just dont we cant say that, you know what . Dont worry about hertz. Macys, 1. 1 billion. Do we want to buy that i dont know. Youre talking about the decision to try to sell 1. 1 billion of notes due in2025. What is Something Like that going to be priced at is the key question 7, 8, 6 you think 6 i dont know. Look at the yield. Look at the yield in the common stock. Then we have regeneron which feels to me like when they came in when pnc came in and sold blackrock. If you got any, you crushed it im urging people on this deal to try to get as much regeneron as possible. Regeneron is buying 5 billion of it sanofi needs the money regeneron has Monoclonal Antibody, they have a great franchise, thats the stock today like blackrock was the stock when pnc needed the money. Yeah. The biggest public Equity Offering ever in health care and youre right, sanofi needs the money for cancer i guess you could by extension deduce that regeneron feels good about their prospects whether its ilea or vaccines. And they have this ant anticancer if it werent for the pandemic, we would be talking about their anticancer drug this is a remarkable company its been inventive. Novavax never came up with anything regeneron has come up with so many things. Buy regeneron on the sanofi giveaway we should explain to people san fi has o sanofi has owned a good amount of this company for some time. Theyll sell 12. 8 million shares in a public offering, a secondary, a true secondary. And then, as you point out jim and carl, regeneron will step up and buy 5 billion. You wonder, jim, do they want to add 1. 5 billion in debt to their Balance Sheet . Theyre using 3. 5 billion in cash its a funny time to be adding debt to buyback stock . Its 7 , they generate a huge amount of cash, its a level of confidence that you rarely see, especially when everyone is pulling down revolvers, trying to fight for cash. Regeneron has a huge franchise in this ilea its just an unassailable franchise for Macular Degeneration what will happen with this, theres so many ways to win, they have a great antieczema drug that can be moved across different fields is it as good as buying blackrock . Pnc just gave it away. Sanofi doesnt have to give it away, theyre doing fine, but they need money to do a lot of experimental stuff i am not even counting anything Monoclonal Antibody for regeneron or vaccine regeneron thats too much high look at novavax, too high. Maybe merck with this combination of a company they bought that conquered m eed meas carl, its another example of the incredible level of activity in the markets jim talked about the debt side of it, thats been extraordinary. Theres been the convertible preferreds and these straight Equity Offerings you mentioned the pnc sale of blackrock. Lets not forget you will have softbank sell a good amount of tmobile once they get the signoffs from deutsche tel a lot of that will go into the market an enormous amount of activity when it comes to the Capital Markets, led by debt but surprising amount of equity as well right its a more exciting time, carl, than you would think were in a pandemic. Yet companies are doing these huge trades as if were not in a pandemic so then, what you could doc s take from the month of may and what happens when the debt market by sheer momentum cools off a bit . I was reading Myles Ferguson last night, i think whats happening is this. People are saying we really shut down the economy too much. We overshot, this will be the ethos, and there are more industries doing better than we think or can start doing better. I still say dont forget, the Small Business guys, two months is way too much. Theyre thinly capitalized many of them will not make it still. I do think that will be the new et tshg ethos, the governments didnt have to be this tough. I personally feel as someone who wears a mask around town that im grateful about the authorities, but obviously when you look at the states that were supposed to have the big spike you see it, they were supposed to have the big spike in georgia, big spike in florida, big spike in texas. We had a little spike in alabama. But it just didnt happen. You can say hey, one more week we know its 11 days of where theres infection. They got that down and i dont think there was all that much social distancing if you look at the pictures no. The pictures, the ones that go viral that we all see tell that story. Well have to wait to some extent and see but youre right, right now while there have been increases it hasnt gone down in terms of hospitalizations in those states, but it hasnt gone up dramatically is your point. The other point about Small Business, the additional costs that theyll be taking on to prepare their businesses, restaurants, gyms, to prepare them for the new world, thats an added cost. Theres the cost of getting going again and making sure your employees are back some of them who may be making 15 bucks an hour or Something Like that, probably happy to say on unemployment until the 600 a week bonus runs out at the end of july. Hard to get them back. Then the protocols in terms of when they report in. How do you go about making sure theyre fine what about if theyre actually fine but they say theyre not fine to get a day off . I know it sounds odd but theres a lot of Different Things that Small Businesses will be dealing with as they get back to work. I was at a garden store this weekend. They put up a piece of plexiglass nobody used it but it was up. Now, i mean, some places, costco are rigorous everywhere on the eastern long island, it says no mask, dont come in. But i think the Small Business people desperately need to come in and no one really knows the rules in the new york area the expenses as david said are terrible and a person that, lets say, did a ppp loan with intuit 80 million, 90 million, its a 33,000 loan if it doesnt open soon, its no good as david said, the competition from unemployment is so high you have to see those benefits run. Right now were just amass with dollars that have been provided by the government which makes it feel like everything is better than you realize i dont know if it is. Yeah. Thats sort of the point of the additional dollars, to provide that cushion but are we still in a period where we are we keep hearing this, well check back in two weeks. You have good state data, the caseloads dont look too bad, well check back in two weeks. Tom lee says of the 13 states that have been open for three weeks or more, at least partially going back prior to may 1st, their daily case load is down 29 . Were not getting that expected verdict of pain because of the reopening. I think one thing that were finding, carl, and tom lee does very good work, is the scientists who had been initially saying it was just a bad flu season, then went overboard the other way and said its a death sentence, and now many predictions that we had about the i think in northeast, many schadenfreude predictions, let me see what your state does and then we find out their state did okay it makes us feel like, well, did science let us down . They told us no masks on february 3rd now they tell us masks are good. Its too late. The president doesnt wear a mask, joe biden wears a mask and he gets made fun of for wearing it now authorities are saying if everyone wore a mask we would cut it down. Its too late. The people in the cool states are having a dynamite time the people in the northeast states look like theyre creatures from another planet. I didnt go to a gathering this weekend because i heard that people may not wear masks. I think people just said you know what . There goes cramer again. Loser. David, am i a loser . No. Definitely not why did you take so long to answer that . I was going to say. He got the right answer. That was a room delay is that the l no. You know what im a loser. As we mentioned at the top, the nyse has a partial floor reopening today. Well talk to Stacey Cunningham about how the exchange moves forward from here and the governor of the state of new york, cuomo will ring the opening bell in just a few minutes. There are times when our need to connect really matters. To keep customers and employees in the know. To keep business moving. Comcast business is prepared for times like these. Powered by the nations largest gigspeed network. To help give you the speed, reliability, and security you need. Tools to manage your business from any device, anywhere. And a team of experts here for you 24 7. Weve always believed in the power of working together. Thats why, when every connection counts. You can count on us. Well get some data at the top of the hour, but first we check in with rick santelli. Markets are on the move not everybody was closed yesterday, some of these markets had some big moves look at tenyear bunds, the highest credit instrument sovereign in europe. Hovering just under 40 basis points its up from minus 48, and indeed you can see this chart were close to the highest yields in a month. Now, if we look at an intraday of tenyear being closed yesterday, certainly were up four basis points, but a month to date chart reveals that we need to get through here even though we swung up a bit three quarters of a percent is resistance and everybody continues to look at this 1 mark, both big psychological barriers maybe higher rates are not everybodys cup of tea, but at this point in time as you look at that chart it should dawn on many thatlow Interest Rates have become associated with negatives and rising rates with a solid equity market is the place to be in terms of Foreign Exchange today, huge moves if you look at the dollar versus the yuan, the dollar is the strongest. The chinese currency at the weakest since september. That goes a long way it isnt only the chinese currency thats on the move to the downside many currencies are pushing the dollar down this morning one of those is the euro look at the euro versus the dollar it doesnt quite have the power to push through that 110 level, but that chart starts on april 1st. Clearly most of the power is in the euro we see the pound also gaining ground on the dollar as is the yen and the interesting thing about the euro versus the dollar, its the exact mirror image of the dollar index, which is down today, and that 99 level to the down side is the same as the 1. 10 to the upside one or both of those will pop through sending the other for a trend move and many believe the dollar indexs strength is slowly starting to give away as the Global Economy starts to do better carl, jim, david, back to you. All right well see you in a little while for Consumer Confidence. When we come back after the break, the first nyse opening bell with some floor brokers on the floor. Well get you that in a few moments. When the world gets complicated, a lot goes through your mind. With fidelity wealth management, your dedicated adviser can give you straightforward advice and tailored recommendations. Thats the clarity you get with fidelity wealth management. And tailored recommendations. Its only human to find inspiration in nature. And also find answers. Our search to transform. Farm waste into renewable natural gas led chevron to partner with california bioenergy. Working to provide an alternative source of power. For a cleaner way forward. That Liberty Mutual customizes your insurance, i just love hitting the open road and telling people so you only pay for what you need [squawks] only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. All right. Lets get to our mad dash. I can just send it, i dont know, about 40 feet, 50 feet across to you. Something like that. Social distance of extreme. Every time i want to toss a football with you. I want to throw a spit ball at you. You and i both follow moffett nathanson. They do a lot of work on advertising, Media Industry and google and facebook are both prominently mentioned in a report you want to focus on them in the mad dash a lot of people know advertising is going down because were in a recession theyre still spending on advertising. What Craig Moffett sees is an evolution now, almost a revolution, into google and facebook he may say thats too much of a distillation and too simplistic, but when i read the piece, tons of people may want to rotate into other forms of media, in the end google and facebook are winners for Small Business its a place for them go i mentioned as a metaphor for those who want to rotate into something aerospace, as you see those stocks fly, remember, they are not getting a lot of business you are presuming business i know people want to buy the cruise ships i know they want to buy the airlines thats very exciting off the bottom but remember, airlines owe the government a lot of money. Cruise ships are about bookings. Youre not allowed to go youre buying companies that are not allowed to be in business now. I would rather be in a facebook. I would rather be in an alphabet, which are very open for business you know, we had wondered back in late march whether given the decline amongst small and medium sized businesses or the need toconserve capital would result in less spending on advertising overall and hurt google and facebook. At the same time we know Big Companies are cutting capex. Theres been a parade of them are not, and the first thing that can go is marketing and advertising. Is the market shrinking but market share growing i have intuit on tonight. Intuit in different presentations has said the following, because of desperation, because the stores are closed, because of issues involving covid, they have no choi choice but to keep omni channel. When they have those incremental dollars theyre giving them to facebook and google. That is something to watch remember, a lot of Small Businesses, they need some cash coming in. Its very interesting. You saw something that Mark Zuckerberg was interested in, the Small Business initiative of which theres a lot of leverage if you can get people looking at the ads. Thats where its going. Theyre desperate. Theyre absolutely desperate we did see commentary from some of the Media Companies that own local stations that its weak restaurants, gyms, auto dealerships, all of those a key part of local advertising, not happening on typical broadcasts now. Coming up, Stacey Cunningham this as the big board reopens for Business Today with some floor traders returning to their posts. Stay with us its not pretty good or nothing. Its not acceptable or nothing. And its definitely not close enough or nothing. Mercedesbenz suvs were engineered with only one mission in mind. To be the best. In the category, in the industry, in the world. Now, get 0 apr financing up to 36 months on most models and 90day firstpayment deferral on any model. Mercedesbenz. The best or nothing. It is a historic morning at the New York Stock Exchange which will open to floor brokers for the First Time Since it closed march 23rd. The longest the exchange has ever been closed Governor Cuomo will ring the opening bell and then hold his Daily Press Briefing from the boardroom at 11 30 a. M. Eastern. But liability waivers, cant take public transportation, Temperature Checks, well see how this goes, and then hopefully at some point in the future well join them down there. I always think the greatness of the place is the excitement, the crowds, the emphases on whats hot, the next deal. Its so exciting whoever rings the bell if its just going to be social distancing and a skeleton group, it will lose its allure, i think. I think that we will become this is not hubris, but post nine will become the representative of the floor if the floor is so spartan. Thats one thing that will happen it will be about us, which is a little crazy were just the media see the governor there, Governor Cuomo will be ringing the opening bell making his way into the nyse did an elbow bump there. Im not sure thats allowed. That was fauci said no to that but you can see going in. Of course were familiar with that i dont know when the question for me continues to be, this is for a lot of people whose employees take mass transit, when will you feel comfortable taking mass transit . Thats still the way many people get to this building including myself, carl you know, i dont know when that day is i dont know. We look at the cities like madrid what happened there . The subway when you have a subway, its probably the worst incubator in the world. Temperature checks, can we stop it for a second to realize the worst days are when youre asymptomatic and dont have a temperature. Maybe a blood oximeter we all learned by now that a thermometer aint the way to stop it. Its the mask and people hate the mask they just the president makes the president mocks masks. Hes our leader. So, its very hard to get behind you can say im not going to wear a mask, look at the president he doesnt wear a mask thats kind of america thats what happens as i look at david. Yes we both wear masks when were out at this point. Thats an expectation in this part of the world but not in a lot of places. Like taiwan, where they have no covid and japan i know having been to tokyo, i was struck long before covid at how many people wore masks it would seem they benefited from that. A lot we dont know. Theres Governor Cuomo getting ready and some real applause in the building for quite some time yeah. Its nice to hear. At the big board, new york governor Governor Cuomo with sta Stacey Cunningham. Jim, weve thought about this moment for nine weeks. Its nice to see it finally here but look, this is another one of those things that people can say i feel like buying its obviously coming back its coming back its down a lot. Theres a lot of down and out stocks lets buy carnival and buy southwest. I like southwest here. Lets go after the ones that no one has bought because its coming to an end i keep thinking about 1918 and the way it came back that is considered now to be a downer narrative and you have to get on board i like tons of stocks. Tons but im respectful of the ability of nature to come back because it has come back but i also recognize that people are sick of it when youre sick of it, you buy some stocks. Jim, value has become suddenly a bit of a favorite a lot of them were short or people investors were short value stocks it may be Short Covering here. Weve been waiting forever it seems like for value to outperform growth, which has not happened theres always hope. Always hope this will be the time, if you can find value in this market. I was looking at rockwell automati automation very good company. Robots in america. Ill buy that. Then again, im looking at dow chemical, dupont im saying, i dont know are the numbers too high i worry about the numbers. I cannot buy carnival and think or nor weewegian and tk the numbers are weak i looked at booking a norwegian cruise for the spring next year as an option for whats going on with the vaccine the prices are absurd. They are onethird of what they were you can have an exclusive thing for what used to be not exclusive. And if they have a if we have a vaccine, all aboard gung ho. Gung ho on that note, carl, its worth mentioning mercks news this morning. It involves a number of Different Things one is they acquired a vaccinemaker, but they also acquired Ridgeback Biotherapeutics. The governor of new york i guess leaving there after having rung the bell its also about antivirals merck announcing this partnership with Ridgeback Bio therapeutics, developing an oral antiviral in conjunction with science from emory university. Worth mentioning this morning because they do announce they entered a Collaboration Agreement to develop the compound, an orally antiviral candidate in early clinical development. In fact, there is a hope they will be moving it to Covid Patients, testing the antiviral in Covid Patients soon they have already done the dosing part of it in the trial they have been successful at high doses quotes here from roger paulmutter, a guy at amgen and then back at merck talking about it positively in terms of saying phase one studies demonstrated the compound is well tolerated since preclinical studies demonstrate it has potent Antiviral Properties against multiple coronavirus strains, were eager to advance the next phase of clinical studies. Theyll be in charge of all manufacturing as well. Clinical development also. Its incredible people want to be in these trials. I asked my doctor. I said i would like to be in the moderna trial. He looked at me like i had three heads. Like why would you want to be in that trial i said i would like to give it a shot the people doing this are really brave souls. There is nothing proven in the science that would make it so you want to do this. I salute the people in there doing it but youre being injected youre healthy and injected with something that could be horrible yet tons of people want to be in these tests. There are what made people hopeful as well when it comes to a vaccine, remember the animal data for sars 1 vaccine was bad it made animals sicker right and worse but the animal data for sars 2, for covid19, has been good. Thats a good thing. Merck itself has a Coronavirus Vaccine for animals already. And so there is that question. Theres also some people who believe that given you can be asymptomatic, theres a possibility that you would not need the most powerful immune response from a vaccine to actually give you immunity because so many people are asymptomatic as well but antivirals are another part of this. Particularly as it deals with peoples willingness to go back out and engage in full Economic Activity and engage in the world. If you have an antiviral that can be taken early on, that would be powerful. Thats what merck is partnering with ridgeback on. Thats what many are working on. Many are out there i did speak to wayne holman from ridgeback a number of weeks back, almost a couple months back when they were first moving into trials. Heres what he had to say about his hopes at that point. Our vision for any product, but we think 2801 is the best product thats ready to be tested in humans that has the highest probability of achieving this sort of profile. It could be a pill that you take twice a day for three to five days as soon as you get symptoms you knock down the virus early you avoid hospital pneumonia, ventilator, icu and we want to prevent people we want to increase survival. All antivirals work better if you use them early so that thats the vision obviously with merck involved, it becomes a vision that theyll be in a better position to realize. Whats whats incredible is merck not long ago looked like they werent going to be involved this is the space race now everybody pfizer is in there. People are saying pfizer could have a leg up. It is incredible that everyone said listen, we want to be the one that does it by the way, its not for a lot of money you dont hear from these companies that its for money. J j was the leader for a long time they have fabulous science up in harvard. In the end, i think whats incredible theres only remdesivir now they knocked off the hydroxychloroquine love that, david. I know you were guzzling that. Yeah. You know me. I was giving them out to everybody. Right right. Prescriptions. Dr. David faber. Yeah. Sure the president gave that as part of the mnuchin plan thats a joke. I do think that one of the things thats incredible is how poorly everybody has done so far. Novavax is in there. They never even had a drug approved, a vaccine approved stock is up. I had novavax when they were on at 11. By the end of the interview they were at 22 and people are playing this one. If you Say Something bad about novavax, you are torched novavax is the one everyone has these different ones they bet on its kentucky derbylike peoples lives. It does feel that people just think its all game on oh look at that i had them on 40 points ago. 52 stock up 14 moderna is down 6 . Its almost as if people believe it will be one or the other. Gottliebs point is that is not the case there may end up being a pallet of vaccines, some might go to the higher risk patients, some to the elderly, some to kids by the way, ken frazier will be on closing bell later this afternoon. And then novavax, well have to wait until july until we get that result. If you want to have some science, jensen huang, nvidia on friday all the naysayers and the short sellers that i talk about vaccines with talk about four years. A lot of what was going on during this long period when people were doing vaccines had to do with the science and coming up with the permutations. Nvidias chips, amazon web services, these are things that make it so well have it ahead of time. Thats terrific. One of these shots on goal will win. Will it be the end of 2020 like the president says its hard to find Drug Companies willing to give themselves that. Moderna is if you read stat my new goto, youll see that there are serious reactions. Whos the market . We dont want any reactions, but people are moving so quickly. Jensen huang, nvidia, not of this world just not i dont know alien alien then i think when you talked with einstein, i think you got that feeling that maybe you were not as smart thats how i feel. Its a pass to go in to headquart headquarters i would think so. Not even the need for a mask no. Nvidia is ready to roll. Nvidia up a little. The stock up 149 over the last 12 months. The point i made earlier, value, you see names, again, value in the eyes of the beholder ge up 6 the banks are seeing a significant move as well the higher growth names that weve been coming accustomed to that performed so well already this year, yes performed well period, the likes of apple up over 9 . Alphabet up 7 facebook up 16 . Amazon 32 those are not showing quite as big a move theres so much catch up to do if you look at the Real Estate Investment trust these have opinion so horrendous people are saying, okay, whats been horrendous . Lets go and say norwegian cruise has been horrendous united how about fashion . Pvh . Thats been horrendous the horrendous trade is on game on for horrendous but then day two, you know, these analysts come out and say i actually want to downgrade the horrendous be aware of the downgrade horrendous thats tomorrows business s p 3000, First Time Since march 5th. Some discussion about how long it needs to live above that level of the 00day to be legit. Some suggest it could be the next 100 point move in the s p over the next couple weeks that matters. What do you think . I got because of your work, carl, i went and got well, there is an up, up and away trade be aware of that from the axis and where it could they figure out the time and the axis yeah were in liftoff zone. I think its coming from people who are saying i can buy gap. These guys are falling into the gap what are they buying gap for . Theyre buying gap because its low. How about sales and earnings no no you dont understand what were buying is something low because the economy is opening and as soon as its open, people will go to the gap. The latter part is not really true theyre in the mall. The mall is not that intriguing. I do like the oil trade. At 35, a lot of oil has come alive. Theres been a big shutdown in the permian. You will see prices go up a little higher even thats thats a welcomed trade for eog and for pioneer. Then the ubiquitous chevron, which i think goes to 100 because mike worth has the best Balance Sheet. Mike worth yeah. 34. 50. Got to 34. 81 this morning. Interesting month in oil jim, lets get down to the floor of the nyse with president Stacey Cunningham and bob pisani this morning hi, bob. Hello, carl stacey, good to see you. Congratulations on being back. All of us look forward to joining you as soon as possible. You dont get better than having the governor ringing the opening bell how do you feel about reopening the floor today . It feels great. Cant wait to have you back here in person. But its a great start it was an honor to have the governor with us as well his leadership has been tremendous throughout the process. Tell us about the timetable for reopening. We all know a small portion of the floor brokers are back about 25 , maybe 80 of them now. The designated marketmakers are not back yet can you give us some idea, is there a timetable for bringing everybody else back . Just like we didnt have a timetable when we shut down march 23rd and it was not clear, it was going to be based on conditions, thats how it is now. We started small with 25 of the trading floor, heavily skewed towards the small to mid size firms. Well see how this plays out reopening is certainly not going back to normal thats not the point theres been some complicated legal and medical issues involved in the reopening. I guess all companies will face this the nyse not alone on this we had a lot of questions about this indemnification agreement that youre requiring people to sigh promising to indemnify the nyse against lawsuits. Some firms are balking at signing them can you explain to us why an indemnification agreement was required the most important part about that waiver is acknowledging that theyre going to commit to following our protections. Keeping in mind the traders on the floor are not employees of the New York Stock Exchange. We dont have the ability to tell them they cant come in unless they agree to follow the terms of this agreement. Thats why it was so important that agreement is focused on wearing your masks, keeping social distancing, and committing to take those steps to protect each other, to protect the others on the floor, because its not just about protecting yourself and your own comfort level, its about protecting those around you. Some of the big firms have chosen not to come back just yet. Thats fine. No one is compelled to come back not our employees, not anyone on the trading floor. Were opening up and saying they have the ability to come back if we can start to take things slowly thats a decision made differently by each firm and each individual. Stays cey, walk us through te expected procedure when we get a positive case. You said in your journal piece we wont eliminate risk completely if we get a positive case on the floor, does it close again is full closure again off the table . When we paused for the past two months, we took the opportunity to learn a lot about this virus what weve learned is how to protect ourselves. So its not designed to prevent an individual case somebody may be exposed outside of this building, show up here and we find out they tested positive the protections we put in place have been designed to prevent an outbreak so that likelihood is of infection passing around the floor is greatly diminished by the protections we have like ppe and social distancing. Weve been taking the advice of Public Health experts and government authorities and state and local executives so that we can make sure that were protecting the community as best weve been working with scott gottlieb, the former fda commissioner who i know you know well hes been giving us advice on this, too, its all designed to prevent an outbreak. So, stacey, lets think about this before when there was an ipo, a lot of people would be out there bidding, it was exciting you cant do that close quarters anymore. Did you find that things moved and were as smooth without people as with people . What we saw was trading continued to function smoothly but not quite as good as it did when people were involved. So stocks traded with more volatility, a little less liquidity around the end of the closing day. So what we saw was, yes, things functioned, the electronic markets can run, but you lose that benefit of human judgment that dampens volatility, narrows spreads. Thats what were looking to w reintroduce slowly some companies do use Temperature Checks, but the Temperature Checks do not find people in day two or day three what do we do with the people who are those days and cant really be found out through Temperature Checks its all about layers of protection if you take a number of measures and put them altogether, you reduce the overall risk. Temperature checks is one of those layers of protections. Ppe is another one social distancing, all of those combined together reduces the likelihood of an outbreak. I mentioned there was complicated legal and medical issues you addressed the legal issues i get this asked all the time. Why arent you requiring a coronavirus test the temperature test as jim noted doesnt test asymptomatic people there were people infected on the floor before even with the temperature test is the coronavirus test not feasible its another layer. What were seeing is combining all those things so testing is part of being able if somebody doesnt pass that medical screening questionnaire and Temperature Check they cant come in without a negative test result or they can choose to self quarantine for 14 days before they come back testing is another layer of protecti protection but were not requiring every Single Person to get tested before they come in. Was the coronavirus test not feasible, couldnt do it atfeas . Im curious why there wasnt a decision made to do that, given they do exist. Were not requiring anybody to get tested. Were not asking them to take that measure were protecting the people who come into the building by making sure that there are not symptoms, there are not indicators of a higher level of risk, and testing is a component of that system but not its not a blanket test applied to everybody. But as weve seen over the past two months, new information comes out all the time there are new tests, there are new protective measures. Were constantly going to be evolving what we have and what our process and procedures are, and importantly, that might look like an expansion or a retraction over time, so were ready to be flexible, based on the information we have at hand. Carl . Okay, i think the important thing, stacy is getting the whole Stock Exchange open and the country moving again im wondering if other companies are going to face the same kind of dilemmas that youre facing right now, that is the legal requirements at the door, temperature tests going in is this the sort of new normal for anybody going to visit any office in the United States, whether i go see the New York Stock Exchange or jpmorgan or a real estate closing in my building in downtown cleveland is this the new norm for people going to buildings in the United States we have over 2,200 listed companies. I talked to many of the ceos over the past two months and all asking the questions, what are the right protections and measures for their businesses and each business has its own unique set of circumstances. Youll see a number of companies change course as to how they protect their employees and their workforces and what the level of time is before they start to bring back, i cant say this enough, reopening is not a return to normal its not for us and shouldnt be for us around america. If people are starting to reopen things, they still need to take the information weve learned over the past two months to protect ourselves, otherwise all these sacrifices people have made will be for naught. We need to continue to be smart and safe and cautious and businesses around the consideration how they want to reopen final question, does the fact that the floor brokers havent been there dramatically impact the Business Model for the chrnchrnNew York Stock Exchange, can you show your revenues are lower or pricing isnt quite as good when theyre not there . Any direct impact on the nyses Business Model you made it clear the floor san important component but can you show harm for them not being there the last two months . Reporter we certainly see a lot of the business around the closing option comes from the trading floor, we saw that over the past couple of months. We can do much of our business electronic electronically, we continue to do that, it worked smoothly throughout the two months the equity and options phase we saw a downtick initially and saw that come back pretty quickly as people got accustomed to the new norms really what we see is the impact on prices is not quite as good as it was when people were involved we published data on that, some other third party studies that also looked at the deterioration and pricing without the value of human judgment we want to get back to that full level of service because we know that trading operated just fine for the past two months, but it can be better. We do better the reason why we have this model is because our stocks trade better and we want to get back to that full service level. Stacey, look forward to being with you as soon as possible i look forward to having you guys back here, and well take our time doing it, but well get it right bob, our thanks to you, bob pisani along with Stacey Cunningham of the nyse jim, interesting, and you mentioned ipos we got that warner music range established a nasdaq issue but interesting to see not just how the floor opens and operates but how they handle what were used to seeing, which is a crowd of visitors and guests coming into the floor and n that space right look, its one of the most exciting things in the world and reduced to kind of a paper trade. I get that you cant have crowds. I think crowds are antithetical if the exchange were in georgia, i guess it would be national parade, but we are stuck with who we are, which is a regime that frankly has far more covid. We still we fortunately have fewer deaths but i do look at what staceys trying to do i think its brave i know that they use multiple levels of protection at the same time, its crowds. We dont know whether they can really make it so theres no crowd, just people screaming at each other, but i think that things have changed permanently. I really do. You guys, we mentioned Capital Markets activity carl just mentioned the warner music potential ipo moving ahead with that. Of course, they had a plan originally to come public. I can remember when this company of course was public and had an enormously difficult time given the changing nature of its business, but now streaming is everything and its a different profile for warner music interesting they are going to try, they think this market is safe enough to come in with an ipo. The volatility certainly has calmed down. And then it makes you wonder back to the nyse all those chinese ipos, the legislation coming out of d. C. , whether it advances or not but would require audits of any Chinese Company that has an ownership stake by the state, the nyse depended a lot to some extent at least on those ipos from china right, they came off and they had very sketchy financials. I know that i was uprated by the people who were, who brought luck in, and told i hadnt done any homework i always love that, thats code for look out, and it really pressured. They really just said listen, jim, you got to do more lock in. I called a bunch of Coffee Companies and heres what they said its phony they never said like yeah, the triple venti cappuccino, no, luckins numbers cant possibly you true and maybe its goodbye to these companies if they dont have domestic american numbers alibaba had great numbers. People decided we want to sell that we were told there would be a lot of money pulled out of the market, 4 trillion. We were told the buybacks were going to cease they w they have ceased. There is still capital out there. Maybe we just underestimate how much money there is and who wants in, and who is missing out on a wall of green, a sea of green. It does get back to the fed, too, where Interest Rates are, the fed support of course not for this stock market, but for the bond markets and what that has meant overall in terms of confidence and the ability of companies to Access Capital in the way that they have, and really in a numbers weve never seen if we continue anything like that pace, well break all records for Investment Grade issuance this year, but thats what you also hear, jim, its the fed. The fed. The fed. I had s p global on and the rating more bonds than ever, the most bonds its been extraordinary time but if you go back to the depth of this particular biological recession, epression, it came when boeing was able to make, get the money in the private market, and carnival, which stock was just sinking like all rig right, titanic was backstopped basically it made it so that you could bring debt i think this is the one where the fed acted very differently from 2007. Obviously were not done yet theres going to be a time when all this money is going to run out. Well see what will happen but maybe it was the bridge to where we were able to add the plexiglass and have fewer people in the stores and flatten the curve in a way that you didnt think was possible yep, that was the point, and of course, you see were not done, jim. Ecb theres room to innovate and act rapidly and powerfully as the eu leaders meet in the summit tomorrow. So you got the french and the germans working together its clear the value banks are not done and even if its stimulus bill in this country, still possibly in the works. So mad money tonight we have intuit, which is an amazing company. The perfect one to ask about because they know who are about Small Business than anyone that i know, and then corteva, one that was the ad spinoff and we got to ask about monsanto, which looks like theyve been settling the roundup roundup is a big competitor for Crop Protection and it is going to be very, very exciting. Dont forget regeneron, put your order in yes i know, we never actually, we didnt get to the wells upgrade today, overweight, 734 target. That had actually was not really about anything other than other kinds of drugs, jim, more about the portfolio. Yes, great, great piece people should buy it it happened with blackrock, when it was dumped. Pnc was much tougher, but not tougher, they needed the money obviously they would say no but im looking in doing my own work but regeneron is spying. Remember, 5 billion themselves, this is len schleifer. How did my first stock do on mad money . Very well david, this is just different. Yes i miss you. Im getting a haircut, everybody, all right, so dont worry about it im getting a haircut. Thats all people care about. Everything else weve said is secondary. It is so enjoy it now its going jim, see you tonight, mad money 6 00 p. M. Eastern time. Good Tuesday Morning hope you had a good long weekend. Welcome to squawk on the street with david faber and sara eisen coming to you live from separate locations. Highest intraday levels. The ndx within 2 of an alltime high on this day where the New York Stock Exchange reopens. Got data coming on the tape as well let answer gs get to rick sant. This is from the month of april, comes in much better than expected, 623,000, seasonally adjusted annualized units, follows a slightly revised 619,000 so were up a little over half of 1 . Many were expecting a number below 500,000. Now, if we look at the Consumer Confidence number, of course, this is a may number were expecting a number around 87 86. 6 basically another number that is in the sixyear category as to the last time Consumer Confidence was at these levels remember, last look was 86. 9, same thing, were going back to 2014 here, and if we look at expectations, they move from 94. 3 down to 96 up to 96. 9. So better than expected, and if we look at the present situation, its slightly revised 73 in the rear view mirror that moved down a bit to 71. 1. So headline number, pretty close to last look in housing, a much better glimpse, but we all know theres lots of issues in the Housing Market besides low Interest Rates of course and the coronavirus of course affecting that in an adverse way as well diana olick will give us more details about new home sales diana . Reporter rick, i have to say, this is a remarkabl number the street was looking for 490,000, we came in at 623,000 that is above the march number as well. So new home sales, the builders have got a pop on this one interesting though, the median price of a newly built home 309,900, significantly lower than april of 2019 when it was 339,000 so builders obviously lowering the prices or giving some kind of incentives and that has the inventory at 6. 3 months. I want to Say Something that Mortgage Rates popped higher at the end of march and came down in april these april numbers are based on signed contracts, not closings, so people out shopping during the month of april while most people were locked down, but you can still see that demand was incredibly strong. The builders are a lot easier to show their houses than existing homes because you can go in by yourself they have model homes, nothing to steal there, so you have more people shopping for newly built homes and this really adds on to that idea that people may be looking to move out further to the suburbs, where the builders are, and into new never previously lived in homes that are clean and they see as very safe, but again, an incredible number on new home sales for the builders is sara having an impact on the stocks as well with the housing index up 5 . Stocks overall are surging to begin the week as optimism on reopening and hopes of a coming vaccine help push the major averages higher. Meg terrell joins us as merck becomes the latest company to pivot its efforts to the virus response big news here, meg thats right, sara. A company with a more proven track record in vaccines is hard to find. Merck announcing three deals in the covid19 space one to develop an antiviral drug, a small molecule or pill in phase one, the company saying its shown to be well tolerated and theyll take it through clinical development, similar to remdesivir but in pill as opposed to iv. The Company Announcing two deals on two separate vaccines, so theyre going to take both of them through Clinical Trials the first one is a deal with the nonprofit iavi to develop a similar vaccine to the technology they used for the ebola vaccine and its actually the same team, mark feinberg, the feo of iavi was with merck when they developed the ebola vaccine, supposed to enter human trial sometime this year the company acquiring a Company Called themis, a privately held company for another potential for vaccine. I talked to ce, ken frazier by phone and he said they are looking for three things one that the technology could be deployed broadly two that only a single dose would be enough to confer protection you wouldnt need a booster shot and three, that the technology has already been proven in people he said they found that with these two and well get to hear more from him on your show, sara, closing bell at 4 00 i wanted to point out news from novavax, a Smaller Company that hasnt gotten any products across the finish line but today they started phase one trials of their covid19vaccine in australia, and well have that ceo on at 11 45 today as well. Meg, its david looking forward to your talking to ken frazier later today and sara on requesting closiclosin. Ridgeback therapeutics i know very well. Hopeful this would be an oral antiviral you could take at its first signs of anything or even when you think you may have been exposed which conceivably would be quite different at least in sort of act as that chain terminator again if it works theyre moving into Covid Patients fairly soon in terms of trying it. They think theyve got the dosing right absolutely. I saw your interview with ridgeback a couple weeks ago you were very ahead of this story. The comparison to remdesivir is in the way the drugs work but of course the fact that this can be taken as a pill and there is of course hope that this will be even more potent than remdesivir whose effects are described as modest we have to see how the how many trials go. Hopeful meg, thank you very much see you in a bit, meg terrell. Lets talk more about this market David Rosenberg, founder, chief economist and strategist at Rosenberg Research joins us now. Welcome, david its been a while. You were bearish going into this crisis i can only imagine where you are right now, given some of the Economic Data that we just got better Consumer Confidence, better new home sales and all of this good vaccine news does that provide any encouragement about the outlook . Well, look, the vaccine news is certainly welcome, but you know, once again, its based on a lot of hope as opposed to reality, but the markets will respond to hope as well. I wouldnt classify the new home Sales Numbers as a bellwether economic number. How much of the buying was on spec as opposed to sales of a final production, so i think a lot of spec buying might be going on but we all know looking at the real time indicators that gdp for the Second Quarter could be anywhere from negative 40 to negative 50 annualized. I think if youre going to ask me, has this, i still call it a bear market rally, remains to be seen if this is going to be the start of a new bull market but i still classify it as a powerful bear market rally, but lets not lose sight and i think this was discussed earlier that it is all about the fed and when youre taking a look actually dollar for dollar the 3 trillion of market cap added to the s p 500 since the end of march exactly matches the 3 trillion increase in the feds Balance Sheet over that time period theres over 90 correlation with the feds Balance Sheet and the direction of the s p 500 so the answer to the question is that this is actually an lshaped equity market recovery, where the l assistance for li stands for liquidity is your point you can be bullish on the stock market because of the fed but bearish on the outlook for the economy at the same time well, ive been saying that, the answer is yes. For those of us that were too busy focused on fundamentals, probably missed out on the big part of the equity rally from 09 to 2019, because we had one of the most powerful bull markets of alltime take place alongside the weakest economic expansion of alltime, and that again was recurring rounds of quantitative easing and ongoing zero to negative real Interest Rates. So that again was a central bank manipulated or induced rally and we saw it in 2019. By october 2019, the equity market year on year was actually flat next thing you know, the repo market the fed started dramatically increasing the size of its Balance Sheet and we finish off the year with a 30 runup in the s p 500. In fact, the correlation, if you look at correlations, the correlation between the spx and gdp is almost zero the stock market is giving you zero economic information. Meanwhile, the correlation with the feds Balance Sheet is over 90 . So i guess that so long as the fed continues to pump the system of liquidity and you get the money supply numbers surging like they have, its going to flow through in an asset prices and the equity market will benefit from that. I guess a counter argument, david, which some are arguing is that this is not a crisis that the fed can necessarily fight. They cant do anything about the virus from ject trajectory, cano anything about bringing people back to work in a safe and confident way. They cant do anything about solvency problems as businesses, small and large, will go bankrupt as a result of not having demand. They can continue to provide liquidity and pump up the markets but ultimately it cant fix this well, i dont think that they cant fix it, and the best they can do is continue to pump the system for liquidity ultimately the problems that were discussing right now really come down to a fiscal policy but what the fed can do, i mean its got a lot of powers, but the fed always and everywhere can produce gobs and gobs and gobs of liquidity. If it doesnt work, theyll keep on going further and further, because you know when you are looking at the stock market, you have to look at the fundamentals you have to look at the technicals you have to take a look at the valuations you have to take a look at the fun flows and also have to take a look at liquidity. Im blown away by these numbers. If youre taking a look, for example, at that n2 growth is running like 80 annual rate over the past three months these are bigger money supply numbers and the money will flow. From my analysis, we have in the stock market valuations on tenyear normalized journeys 20 multiple. Almost unheard of, in the top 10 of valuations of alltime but investors will continue to bid these up and almost like an auction, so long as the fed continues to feed them with more and more liquidity so it has to flow somewhere. Its not just flowing into equities take a look at what high yield spreads are starting to do in the past few weeks they start the funding, start to narrow considerably. Look at the commodities sector its not as if trerveryes are selling off. Pretty well everything is rallying with the liquidity. So that is still the primary element here and the feds going to cross its fingers that well get some trickledown from asset inflation or Wealth Creation from all this and trickle down with the real economy but the problems that were facing now, a vaccine is a game changer. Outside of that, well have to continue to rely on fiscal policy, income transfer to the people that lost their jobs, and the fed can only do what it can do and weve seen firsthand in the past decade that the feds primary influence is on asset values and were seeing that firsthand in the past couple of months thats been the primary factor behind the equity market rally Everything Else is tied for second yep some fascinating stats you threw out. We appreciate that and talk to you soon, David Rosenberg joining us on this rally, which continues today. Coming up after the break, the founders of warby parker and their vision for retail post pandemic dow is up 560. At mercedesbenz, nothing less than worldclass service will do. Thats why were expanding your range of choices. Many dealers now offer optional pickup delivery and athome maintenance, as well as Online Shopping with Home Delivery and special finance arrangements. So, whether you visit your local dealer or prefer the comfort of home you can count on the very highest level of service. Get 0 apr financing up to 36 months on most models, and 90day firstpayment deferral on any model. Welcome back time for our etf spotlight looking at wti crude oil, trading at its highest levels since early march and doubling from a month ago the surge in oil pushing the Energy Groups higher this morning. Xle, xop and oih all in the green. Those are some big etfs tracking the move well take a quick break stay with us as we watch this overall rally. A surge with the dow up 555 points, 2. 25 , much like last monday built in part on some hopes for a vaccine as merck makes some news. Well be right back on squawk on the street. Turn on my tv and boom, its got all my favorite shows right there. I wish my Trading Platform worked like that. Well have you tried thinkorswim . This is totally customizable, so you focus only on what you want. Okay, its got screeners and watchlists. And you can even see how your predictions might affect the value of the stocks youre interested in. Now this is what im talking about. Yeah, itll free up more time for your. Uh, true crime shows . British baking competitions. Hm. Didnt peg you for a crumpet guy. Focus on what matters to you with thinkorswim. Woi felt completely helpless. Hed online. My entire career and business were in jeopardy. I called reputation defender. Vo take control of your online reputation. Get your free reputation report card at reputationdefender. Com. Find out your online reputation today and let the experts help you repair it. Woman they were able to restore my good name. Vo visit reputationdefender. Com or call 18778668555. All 50 states are now at least partially reopened how eased rules are impacting the health of the country. Our map breaks town case count changes by color lightest states with increases below 40 since reopening. The darker shade shows states with increases above 80 its been one week since massachusetts and new jersey have at least partially reopened lets take a look in massachusetts, the state has seen an 8 rise in cases, daily average of 907 cases a day, but week over week the average of daily new cases has fallen 28 testing in massachusetts is up 17 , and 17 of tests are returning positive that seems fairly high the beaches reopened in massachusetts this weekend, along with retail Curbside Pickup and hair salons by appointment only restaurants they get the green light in phase two in new jersey, cases have risen 6 in the last week a daily average of 1,074 a day, but week over week cases have also fallen, down 15 , testing in new jersey up 29 , and 25 of tests are returning positive ahead of the holiday weekend, governor murphy said 25 people are now allowed to gather. Restaurants remain limited to takeout and delivery also said theyll allow outdoor graduations on july 6th. There you go, carl, graduations. Maybe theres still hope you know something about that, david, thats for sure speaking of reopenings, warby parker starting to reopening its doors after a full shut down in its doors Dave Blumenthal will hop on in a couple of months but neil, good to see you thanks for having us. Sounds like youve got at least a week or week and a half under your belt on some of these modified reopenings. Can you talk about how its gone sure. So weve completely revamped our protocols, obviously Controlling Traffic into the stores to make sure were social distancing, ensuring mask wearing so we have masks available for our customers when customers come in, and the store is full, we have a textbased waiting list and we also encourage people to download our apps so they can use their virtual tryon while waiting. The nice thing about a textbased waiting list is it enables people to go on with their business and not congregate outside the store which presents a risk. But sales are definitely depressed from precovid levels but theyve seen them tick up every single day since weve opened interesting how much of an obstacle has it been for ophthalmologists and eye doctors unable to see patients i assume youre dying to get those guys moving again. Definitely. The challenge is that eye doctors, dentists, a bunch of Health Care Workers were the most at risk because of the proximity of giving somebody an exam or a treatment where youre literally so close to somebodys face in a small confined space so we completely revamped our protocols so that way were limiting the amount of Oral Communication that happens and ensuring doctors are wearing n95 masks and face coverings, where we created a bunch of Digital Products like digital intake forms to make it safe t not passing along paper prescriptions but emailing people digital prescriptions, so theres no question theres a lot of demand that people now need to go to their doctor and its important that we all put in place these robust Safety Measures in the meantime weve seen a massive uptick in the use of our prescription check app that allows people to do a simple vision test from the safety of their home dave joins us as well this morning. Dave, always good to see you as well thanks for the time. Yes, thanks for having me on. Weve talked to you, both of you guys for years as weve used you as sort of a template for where retail stands in america you guys were zigging when others were zagging a few years ago, and i just wonder where you think instore shopping is headed, and as we see a lot of mall space, store space likely to open up in the coming year or two, i wonder to what degree is that an opportunity for warby . Theres no question that we think that all the trends that weve been seeing are just going to accelerate due to this crisis, and probably be pulled forward by several years and we think that the brands and the companies that are able to serve customers across multiple channels, whether thats ecommerce, through apps, using telemedicine, and serving customers and stores are going to be the ones that win over the longterm. We do expect that theres going to be continued carnage in the physical retail world and thats going to present opportunities for companies with strong Balance Sheets, that are serving customers well, to continue to get better and better deals with landlords and so were still expecting that fiscal retail going to be a big part of our business Going Forward and well be excited to reopen all of our existing stores and in the future well be excited to sign new leases and continue to expand our footprint dave, its sara im just trying to get a clear picture of how the retail reopening is going to work so you have a few thousand employees. If one of your employees end up testing positive for covid, what is the protocol . Do you have to reach out to all of your customers and to the Contact Tracing . How does it work yes, it starts by having completely new safety protocols for how we operate in our stores, and all of our Retail Team Members and all of our team members that work in our optical lab go through daily health streamings that include Temperature Checks, they verify that they dont have any symptoms, that they havent been exposed to someone who tested positive i think we lost you, dave neil, maybe you want to pick it up im very interested in hearing all the different ways youre helping your folks that work there and how youre making sure its safe for the customers. So we have daily Health Checks for all of our team members, and then were maintaining social distancing right within the stores. Weve even put vinyl demarkations to ensure that our customers are maintaining sixfoot distances and were disinfecting every frame before and after someone tries it on, so literally every pair of glasses gets cleaned twice before a customer touches them if somebody were to become sick, we would absolutely do Contact Tracing, and actually, one of the things that we found presort of our store shutdowns, we made the decision to shut down all of our stores on friday march 13th we were one of the First National retailers to do that, and we got a call the next day that one of our customers had tested positive for covid, and what we did was we looked at the videotape of the store to see had that customer come in close contact with any other customers or our team members, and thankfully, we had already put in place guided experiences where we were disinfecting every frame before and after, and we were able to verify that the person did not come in close contact with any other customers. Had they done that, we absolutely would have reached out to those other customers i think dave is back with us. Dave, its david faber everything im hearing here sounds like its going to cost a good amount. Im curious as to whether you have a sense as to just how much this is going to impact your margins and what your expectations are in terms of how long its going to go on sure. Our number one priority by far is the health and safety of our team and our customers, and were intentionally limiting traffic. Were intentionally putting new protocols in place that will lead to Less Efficiency in our stores in the near term, but we really wanted to ensure that we can serve customers well while keeping them safe and keeping our team safe and over time we think there will be tons of opportunities for us to improve margins and focus on driving our pnl metrics. We expect that were operating in a World Without a vaccine for many months, if not years, and so we need to figure out how we can operate in this new world, and do so efficiently and effectively, but right now really the main priorities are learning how we can operate safely in this environment finally neil, what was the calculus after you shut town in march of maybe reaching out to treasury, taking advantage of some loans or some Grant Programs rent forbearance, was that ever part of the calculus in maintaining your Balance Sheet it definitely was so weve been obviously watching what the federal governments doing very closely some of the programs didnt make sense for us, given our scale and the strength of our Balance Sheet. Certainly there were some aspects of the c. A. R. E. S. Act in particular, the 600 supplement for Unemployment Insurance that was important for certain team members. We kept our entire stores team on salary five weeks into closure, but when it was clear that we didnt know when we were going to reopen stores, we did furlough some portion of that team, but we did sort of guarantee that those folks would be made whole once we reopened and we brought them back as part of a Retention Program in case Unemployment Insurance didnt cover their full compensation. So that 600 supplement was a real benefit to our team members, and our business and what i mean by that is that unemployment supplement that people can get on a weekly basis, but we didnt participate in any of the ppp loans. We have been profitable over the last few years and thankfully we have a really robust ecommerce presence where the only top ten optical retailer that has a robust ecommerce channel and weve been able to sort of see growth within our ecommerce channel during this time well as dave said, trends getting pulled forward or accelerated as a result of all of this. Its been remarkable to see how you guys have performed. Always good checking in with you, dave and neil talk to you next time. Thanks thank you thank you lets get the latest now on the coronavirus outbreak, broader update for us. Sue herrera, how is it back at hq good to see you, sara good morning, everybody. Six flags says it will reopen the first of its theme parks on june 5th frontier city in Oklahoma City will start operations at limited capacity, and raise attendance limits throughout the month. New Safety Measures include Temperature Checks, reduced seating on rides, and mandatory use of masks british Prime Minister Boris Johnson is sticking by one of his top aides who has come under fire for taking a 500mile round trip while infected with the coronavirus. Johnsons spokesperson says the Prime Minister is satisfied with the explanation from Dominic Cummings you can go to cnbc. Com for more on the calls for cummings to resign and some good news for j. K. Rowling fans the creator of harry potter is publishing a fairytale called ickabog online for free, the first chapter is available today. Look forward to that david, back to you thank you, sue. Martin franklin joins us on ay wh akr side of this bre stitus across america, Business Owners are figuring things out. Finding new ways to serve customers. Connect employees. And work with partners. Comcast business is right there with you. With a network that helps give you speed, reliability and security. And enough bandwidth to handle all your connected devices. Voice Solutions Like remote Call Forwarding and readable voicemail. And safe, convenient installation. When every connection counts, you can count on us. Get the connectivity your business needs. Call today. Comcast business. The Consumer Discretionary sector rebounding. The spdr fund up more than 25 since the beginning of the quarter and outpurchasing the s p since the start of the year. Martin franklin is cochairman of the api group and a lot of other things going on. Martin, i can remember benson eyecare, thats how far you and i go back. We go back a long way we do but youve always had a connection with the consumer in all of the businesses, so many you started that youve been a part of. What is your sense in terms of what were seeing in the world in terms of consumer appetite . Lets start there. Well, look, americas a very resilient place, consumer economy. I think theres a lot of pent up demand to be quite frank and i think that in a way, the stock market being as strong as its been in the sense of a recovery will probably help Consumer Sentiment continue that momentum so although retail behavior will change and probably for a long time, i think the consumer will be there and it will be good for the economy in the short term. What about retail, when it comes to the way people go about buying things. That trend was well under way but as we said so many times during the last couple of months, so many trends seemed to be accelerated thats exactly right. The inevitable of brick and mortar being under pressure is happening, which means that rents are going to have to change on a fairly significant scale, volumes are not going to be the same at brick and Mortar Retail and a lot of other behaviors are going to change. Companies having a lot of work at home means consumption will be done at home more often than if you like from people traveling back and forwards from offices. Yes, so i would assume youre not investing in an office space read any time soon as well, martin not for me. You have experience with supply chains obviously given your former positions in the companies, particularly in terms of importing from the places such as china and lowcost producers. Whats your sense in terms of the supply chain right now, and given the deteriorating relationship between the u. S. And china, are those changes that were already under way as a result of the trade war going to accelerate as well in terms of where people are sourcing their product . Look, i think that things like medical supplies after this experience where its sort of every country for himself attitude, and behavior, i think medical supplies are going to be treated like products tied to defense. Theyre going to become domestically produced, at least capabilities to produce them domestically are going to be wrapped up i dont think america is alone in that. Europe and a lot of countries within europe are feeling the same sentiment about that. I have an operation, continue to have operations in china its as they say complicated relationship America Needs china. China needs america. There is an enormous amount of trade. On the whole this is going to drive the current ethte effortsg on, whether it be government or corporate level to bring a lot of other components of manufacturing domestically back to the United States something that happened in jarden in the early days and i think that trend will continue you think it will be significant, again, even given the cost differential . Look, theres a lot of price elasticity in medical products so i think if you have to pay 50 cents more for a mask and have it made in the United States, i dont think thats going to be an issue is the reality of it. Martin, its sara i wanted to ask but the food sector, which i know you have some experience with, with your work with nomad and Restaurant Brands eating at home trend, is that going to be here to stay is that ultimately a bill challenge for restaurants, even if they do start to reopen i think for sure. Its not look, its like Everything Else. Its going to be gradual i dont think people are going to go back to restaurants in the scale and levels that they have in the past, but it will recover. Youre going to see some strong recovery i think fast food retail will actually probably fair better than most because of the nature of drivethroughs and the like, but i think that we look at our frozen food business at nomad in europe its extraordinary the demand is not only significant, but were finding a lot of new consumers going into that space, cooking at home. Its not hoarding. We see it in the turnover and the sellthrough, not just the sellin that is happening. People are eating more at home and i think people are going to get used to that i think theres a comfort factor that will be there for quite a long time, so it will settle, but it will settle at a higher level of consumption at home than has been the case for many, many years i wonder what ultimately thats going to mean for the economics of food. Were starting to see some inflation in food prices at the grocery, and ultimately what thats going to mean in terms of restaurant prices as well as we think about a consumer with a lot less money in their pockets, as incomes and jobs go down as well how do you see the economics shaping up well, look, i think that again, america is a resilient place and i think people will get back to work and i think that whether they work from home or work in an office, productivity will pick up again as the economy does but i think that look, the restaurants experience is going to have to shift, no question about it and its going to, you know, there are going to be a lot of small restaurant chains that just arent going to make it and its going to be a thinning of the herd if you like, in my opinion, but thats just the nature of changing behaviors having said that, companies that are in food delivery, companies that are producing Innovative Products that people want to use and eat at home are probably going to benefit from all of this finally, martin, youve been involved with special purpose acquisition corporations, quite a few, platform of course, nomad, you mentioned it, nomad foods. Yes we seem to be peaks back, hedge funds are interested in it, private equity theres so many different efforts being made in that area. Are we at peak spac . I think all you need at the moment for an Investment Bank to build a spac for you is a pulse. Its like every other band wagon, too many people getting on it. A lot of whats interesting to me is not just the level of spacs in america, because these spacs are not all created equal. The kind of vehicles i do nowadays for the last five, seven years are very different in terms of structure, and alignment with shareholders and the like, but the american spacs theyre becoming almost Venture Capital vehicles some of the larger and more successful transactions that have happened of late of companies that are Growth Companies that make no money, and either that story will end really well or it wont. So its definitely gotten very frothy as jimmy goldsmith, my fathers old partner used to say, if you spot a banding a ing wagon, ite to get on it i tend to stay away from all of that at the moment interesting as you point out and weve noted their popularity has surged it seems almost every day theres a new one. Yes martin franklin, a man i knew long before you became a sir thank you. Thank you for joining us when did that happen when did i miss the knighting . About a little over a year ago. Okay. All right, well done well done. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Take care. Be safe. You, too. Later today on the closing bell dont miss interview with ken frazier, a cnbc exclusive as that Company Moves into finding treatments for the coronavirus, treatments and vaccines, big news today, 4 00 p. M. Eastern time this afternoon. Were back in a moment on squawk on the street. With the market up almost 2 for the s p. Where will you go first . Will it be familiar streets . 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Right now is the time to take care of what matters most. Like weve done together, so many times before. Discover all the ways were helping members at usaa. Com coronavirus nchs we welcome back to squawk on the street. Stocks are up across the board with every sector higher this morning. Financials and industrials are the best performing groups with banks in particular benefitting from higher treasury yields. Regional banks are outperforming with citizens financial, Lincoln National and coamerica the top perform ears the kre Regional Bank etf is up 6 today, though down more than 35 on the year. The larger banks are higher as well today citigroup, Goldman Sachs and wells fargo are each up at least 5 david faber, ill send it to you. Okay, i will take it. Thank you, eric. Celebrity chef and restauranteur tim love is with us on the other side of the break. How dining out will be changed perhaps forever and that will be our topic next stay with us [announcer] if youve tried college but never finished, snhu lets you transfer up to 90 credits toward your bachelors degree. [woman] it doesnt matter how old you are, you can do it. You can finish. [announcer] finish your degree at snhu. Edu. Our next guest is asking for changes to the Payroll Protection Program after meeting with other Industry Leaders and the president last week on how the Restaurant Industry can move forward postvirus crisis. Celebrity chef and restauranteur tim love joins us now. Tim, welcome so tell us about the changes that you are requesting to the white house on ppp and whether you think its going to happen. Yeah. So when i spoke with the president , the main thing is that about the ppp program is that in restaurants, because we havent been allowed to open up until just recently and a lot of places still havent opened up, this eightweek runway to hire all your employees back really doesnt make any sense for anybody. The idea is that we get people back to work, so for us to just take over the employees if that eightweek period only to lay them off at the end of the eightweek period because the restaurants arent allowed to open doesnt make sense. What i asked the president was, can we expend the eightweek period to hire your staff back from eight weeks to 24 weeks to give people a longer runway to get americans back to work the goal for the, pp was to make sure that we cut numunemployment down if you give us a longer runway, it allows other restaurants to open up, hire their employees back and get them back to work. Have you heard anything about whether theyre going to do that weve heard a lot theres a lot of talk amongst congress about how to institute those changes but the president has the capability of making that one minute change in the meeting with him, he, quote, said that might be the easiest thing anybody has ever asked me im sitting on the other side waiting for that to happen on top of that, you know, were fighting these unemployment deals that are happening right now. Theyre getting extra money during unemployment. For me ive offered a job for everybody in my entire team to come back. Weve got about 80 of our workforce back we need that other 20 and need to get things moving forward. Why isnt the other 20 coming back . Unemployment or maybe theyre afraid, maybe it feels early you know, its possible for people to feel afraid. We pride ourselves on our safety protocols, mainly putting safety first on our employees our protocol is some of the strongest in the country i feel like we make sure that our employees are safe first and therefore our guests can be safe if people are scared to come back thats fine, but we want to encourage those that want to work have the opportunity to work people want to earn their money. Sitting on the couch and getting a check doesnt make anybody feel great, but working does we want the opportunity to do that tim, if you had a restauranteur come to you and said, i have an opportunity to pivot to direct to consumer or pivot to grocery, at this stage of the game would you recommend that or is it time to start doubling down on reopening dinein even though there may be challenges well, thats a great question that really would depend on the neighborhood, the city, the state, all those make a big factor in whats happening i think you look at illinois right now, not very much is opening up there if somebody said i wanted to pivot to a Grocery Store i would say that would be great advice if youre in the state of texas i would say its time to start focusing on dining in if thats what you do. We realize some restaurants that converted to go only have been doing better sales than when doing dine in. I wouldnt have anybody dine in, cut your costs on the dining in and stay in to go. Every restaurant is unique which is what makes our 11 Million People who are employed in a unique situation because a blanket answer is not always the right thing for our industry its very individualized and neighborhoodized you have to look at it and look at it safety first, which is what were doing make sure whatever were doing safety is at the top of every decision you make. I would advise people if you can open up, it lets people get back into their normal jobs we talk about normalcy a lot but what were looking for is stability. People want stability. They can change and adapt and get stable, but normalcy is not going to be there, right that doesnt exist anymore were creating a new normal every day creating a stable environment for our employees and guests thats the most important thing we can do in our industry right now. Well lets talk about what that looks like for you, tim i believe in texas you are allowed to open at 50 capacity restaurants this past memorial day weekend. Were you able to get 50 of restaurants full and if so, how did the economics work for Something Like that . Can you make money so thats a great question as well we were at 25 for two weeks or pardon me two and a half weeks i guess, and, you know, thats the first question everybody asks, can you make money at 25 and my answer to that every time is, the governor has allowed us to open up and create our safety protocols which we all know right now is not easy to do. We have to retrain people, teach them how to do things the right way, make sure our employees are safe, and that two and a half week runway to do that was very important for me and very important for my team, so now that were at 50 we can concentrate on making money now, now that we have the safety protocols in place at about 50 youre about at Maximum Capacity with the sixfoot rules we have until we can reduce the social distancing rules from six feet to three feet, really 50 capacity is about as big as any restaurant can get right now if you do the math in your head and take away a six foot space in between each table you will not get more than 50 in the room anyway. You have to learn how to make money at 50 until our leaders decide its better for us to go to a shorter space you know, weve heard Different Things weve seen pictures of restaurants that have lines or are crowds, but tillman came on a week or so ago talking about his restaurants and saying in texas even people didnt seem to be ready to go out what are you seeing . Well, you know, i have restaurants in four different cities here in texas and in ft. Worth were seeing great crowds and responsible crowds at that people are coming in and keeping their distance and enjoying themselves i say this all the time about restaurants, what you dont realize what you miss about restaurants is the conversation you cant really hear, that stability that were talking about that makes you feel like okay, everything is okay, theres other people enjoying themselves now, in houston, its a little lighter. In austin, were a little bit lighter. In denton, were seeing people come out i think its individualized by the city, depending on what theyre hearing from their friends or depending on what theyre seeing tillman has a big base in houston so i can understand what hes saying about people not coming out, but in ft. Worth our restaurants are full our restaurants are full at 50 but were not getting huge crowds like people arent lining up in houston. You know, were looking forward to nap in austin, people what they want to do right now is outdoor spaces my restaurants with large outdoor spaces seem to have a lot of confident people coming to visit them. You know, tim, open table, which makes the reservationsreservations, reservations, put out a forecast and said a quarter of restaurants in this country will fail and not reopen. Does that sound too pessimistic to you, just about right what does that look like in this country . Well, im one of the most optimistic people in the world, i believe, but when all this started and you take restaurants and turn the faucet off on the revenue, in restaurants we pay for things with the next two weeks revenue, so i had a prediction in the beginning probably 30 of the restaurants would not come back. Im super optimistic it just the mathematics dont work you get beyond four and five weeks and you have to pay the rent and unless theres some really, really breaks given by the landlords and then breaks given by your vendors, all these things have super multiple reflections on the back of the suppliers. It just hurt so quickly that seeing 25 or 30 of the restaurants close would not surprise me. Im not in the doom and gloom on that you have to look at it as opportunistic. The people that were there will gather money and open up a new spot i dont want anybody to close at all, that includes myself, but it takes a lot of planning and most restaurants dont carry cash like that because they generally have a lot of investors and the investors want their checks on a monthly or quarterly basis, so they dont carry a lot of cash and when you cut off revenues like that its hard for people to survive you got to make some quick changes and swift changes and be very, very smart to come back in the market with that being said, i see the market on a very big v curve i think things start to go up and very quickly over the next three or four months so long as everybody gets a little more comfortable and everybody is safe we say it over and over again, we have a protocol every day at 9 00 with our general managers, stay with the safety protocols, dont let down on saty