Transcripts For CNBC Squawk Box 20240712

Was up by better than 5. 7 also watching whats been happening here with the treasury market in the United States. Keeping an eye on those things and youll see that right now at least it looks like a ten year is yielding 0. 689 just below that 0. 7 that we had the last couple of weeks. What was that i dont know. Im trying to explain this. I could make up a bunch of reasons. Because were reopening its the same thing over the weekend. New records were hitting the states where they were talking about more than 10,000 cases a day coming in and here you are watching the markets this morning saying yeah, okay. I was just listening to Worldwide Exchange and by the time he got done talking we should be at 10,000 on the dow look at whats happening and this, that, gaps here that are it can all end badly. At this point, this is really serious when you got this many people obviously that have passed away from the disease remember at one point i said we need a reality check i think that overall, maybe were learning that we need to live with it until we get the vaccine until we get therapeutics we have gotten good news on the prospects on the vaccine were seeing things. And you dont need 100 immunity i dont know what you actually mean even if you have 30 or 40 that lowers the possibility that youll have that where you have a one where every person gives it to somebody else. And it means that everybody has gotten it. Im just trying to explain why. I know that its still really bad and things are really scary. Were trying to figure out why we keep setting new highs. The only distinction that i was going to make is that the headlines around coronavirus i dont think are hysterical and not funny hysterical. Thats one story. But theres another story which is the market story which is that theyre shrugging this off saying 12 months out from now or maybe 18 months out from now, i think by the way, people are giving it a lot more time even in their own heads because obviously its unclear that were all going to be back in business this fall and for some reason were still powering through. And oddly enough you can have krr headline implications on that and while they dont make sense in front of you. When we get to july employment numbers well know. May and june show pretty surprising numbers the worsening of the situation in all of these states like arizona and texas and elsewhere, if that shows up in the july numbers, thats one thing but if it doesnt, you are seeing it. Unabated back to work story and if its not good and its really disappointing. And at this point reopening is still on track. So it might be dicey and be protected and send kids back to school and do what we need to do and theres people hurting from not having a job and being depressed and being at home i cant imagine being in a one room apartment in new york city going through this and we were talking about that because we came in the city yesterday what have these people been doing with kids that live in a studio or a one bedroom apartment in new york city so well see. The markets obviously the other thing that youre going to wait to see is what happens now is its not as serious. And in four or five weeks do you see the transition and take place to their parents and grandparents thats the question about going back to school thats all of the issues the market is able to say business continues entrepreneurship continues ingenuity continues and allow their employees to work from home and news on that front this morning too. And just yesterday this announcement came out that warren buffets Berkshire Hathaway was making a big move in the Energy Sector its spending 4 million to buy dominions storage assets when you include the assumption of debt in this deal, it toltals 9. 7 billion and then the subsequent market collapse in march. Amid that deal, Dominion Energy announcing that its pulling the plug on its Atlantic Coast pipeline project with duke energy that was an 8 billion project facing increasing regulatory scrutiny and delays that boosted projected costs and raise doubts about its feasibility approved a critical permit for the pipeline and other laws were passed including one in virginia a few months agatha would have made it difficult to be able to raise rates and to go ahead and pay for the plant that they would be building and pipeline they would be building for some of those issues. Youre not going to be able to build pipelines in this country any more and this was years of delays. It says a lot about being a regulatory utility the assets that it was selling to Berkshire Hathaway energy were leveraged at 60 . Its a big deal because Berkshire Hathaway said it was interested in spending money back in may we learned that it spent up to 137 billion at that point, buffet said that they didnt see anything that was really opportunistic anything that they liked it was not like 2008 and 2009 because the Federal Reserve stepped in he thought the fed had done the right thing but as a result it calmed the markets and made sure that companies could get access to any sort of capital they needed through the Public Markets and so there werent really opportunities for berkshire to step in and do deals like in 2008 and Goldman Sachs and ge and others. Hey, becky, i have a question i was thinking about thisdeal. You were reporting on it yesterday on cnbc. Com and i was thinking to myself and clearly given the dominion, around this Atlantic Pipeline and yet still decides to sell, how much of that is a bet on politics in the future in terms of democrats winning in the fall because clearly they won in one place at the Supreme Court level and possibly could have gone ahead but clearly think its challenged but what does it say about warren buffets view i dont know if it says something about politics to view that assets are valuable on to themselves without having to expand and do more. I would say probably the latter i think if you look at this, this is an infrastructure play for Berkshire Hathaway these pipes are important for moving natural gas through the United States and with this deal, berkshire is now going to have 18 of the interstate transmission of natural gas throughout the United States a lot of the problems that were having are on the state level of things so these issues and its been states that have raised the biggest ruckus with things to go through. The atlantic pocoast pipeline to thats interesting. Very interesting thanks meantime, we should tell you about another deal today uber is set to acquire post mates in a 2. 6 billion all Stock Transaction. The announcement expected this morning. Uber would merge postmates with uber eats and reports last week we talked about it after uber failed if you remember in the bid earlier this week to acquire rival food delivery grub hub putting them together would give them about 37 of the total market i believe and it will be very interesting to see if theres antitrust issues around this theres clearly no market meter by a wide margin once this deal goes through between grub hub and door dash and uber eats. Well see what they have to say about all of this. Meantime a lot more coming up this morning struggling to control covid outbreaks. Well do it next enter phase three of its reopening. Plans for Indoor Dining as just mentioned and the up tick on coronavirus cases and theyre doing that in advance and were back with so much more on squawk in a moment. You should be mad at forced camaraderie. And you should be mad at tech that makes things worse. But youre not mad, because you have e trade, whos tech makes life easier by automatically adding technical patterns on charts and helping you understand what they mean. Dont get mad. Get e trades simplified technical analysis. Wow. Jim could you ipop the hood for us . . There she is. Turbocharged, right . Yes it is. Jim, could you uh kick the tires . Oh yes. Can you change the color inside the car . Oh sure. How about blue . Thats more cyan but. Jump in the back seat, jim. Act like my kids. How much longer . Exactly how they sound. Its got massaging seats too, right . Oh yeahhhhh. Oh yeahhhhh. Visit the mercedesbenz summer event or shop online at participating dealers. Get 0 apr financing up to 36 months on select new and certified preowned models. Iredefined the wordng thschool this year. Its why, at xfinity, were committed to helping kids keep learning through the summer. And help College Students studying at home stay connected through our university program. Were providing affordable Internet Access to low income families through our internet essentials program. And this summer, xfinity is creating a Virtual Summer camp for kids at home all on xfinity x1. Were committed to helping all families stay connected. Learn more at xfinity. Com education. Communities of color have always been underrepresented in the u. S. Census. That means less federal funding for schools, hospitals, libraries, and other Public Services for Diverse Communities and less representation in congress. This year, its critical that you participate in the 2020 census. Its safe and confidential. Lets make sure everyone is counted in our community. For more information, visit getcounted. Com, and to participate, go to census. Gov. Hospitals are now at full capacity theyre on track to be overwhelmed in about two weeks the number of tests that are positive is at about 13 in texas. The number of tests that were positive was 14 floridas governor said he wont reclose businesses but local governments are taking stricter measures the mayor imposed an overnight curfew and some businesses that reopened in june, andrew out with a warning saying the path to a vaccine can be long and complex. Hes calling for Drug Companies to ramp up production of drugs that mimic an immune response and good morning to you. A lot to talk about. Lets go over the numbers for the weekend. You heard the conversation that joe and becky and i were just having about where the markets are. About a lot of the headlines the criticism, i dont know if you can did you lose me can you hear me . I think scott may have just lost us i think that you have us back can you hear me . Yeah. I got you. Were you able to hear the conversation joe and becky and i were having arlier when you see these headlines, in my view these are obviously facutal headlines people are trying to report but theres a whole other view that this is overdoing it what do you think of that . Well, theres people that claim a false narrative. That this is overblown covid isnt a big deal sometimes its invaded china and japan and all of these countries that took this seriously. And it could peak sometimes and people looking at google mobility data and the rate of infection is probably pretty high right now. Were going to be contending with this for a long time at this point is this going to change the path of reopening its going to change behavior thats what is going to be a backstop against the epidemic. But people that are vulnerable are with drawing and protecting themselves at doing a better job than that the government can override the local school board but theyre not going to want to do that because youll have a situation where wealthier districts will have the resources to do that. And people are going to be uncomfortable about sending kids to school. They are vulnerablement they do get the virus on a less prevalent basis. They do get sick on a less prevalent basis and not as commonly one was an implication that the vaccine might take longer than the market is expected and the market is expected by the end of the year that thats a vaccine maybe not at scale but available to a lot of people and what are the drugs that you think need to get made and how quickly they can or cannot get up and running. The implication here is that the drug remdesivir looks effective but the reality is that we dont have enough of that drug if this epidemic worsens and if data demonstrates the drug is effective in earlier settings of the disease. If we demonstrate that for patients at high risk of a bad outcome. We dont have enough drug for that we should have made decisions two or three months ago to try to ramp this up. What im arguing is we shouldnt make the same mistakes with the antibody drugs that might be all we have. Its an early one. For certain high risk groups and the complexion of the epidemic if you will. Its probably 2021 its forced its way to the population this may have naturally started to decline on its own. The doubling time right now is about 30 days, a little bit more than that. So if were doubling the number of infections by the time you get to the late fall or early winter you probably have 30 of the population thats already had this it must be around 7 right now there was a story over the weekend that said even six months into the coronavirus pandemic and were getting our arms around testing thats several reasons theres still issues in the supply chain theyre not readily available and you talked about it so long ago with us. You told us about that 3. 5 months ago but Companies Want to make sure that they can check all of their workers pretty routinely and how big of an issue do you think coronavirus testing is at this point and will we get to a point where its readily available. Its a bigger problem at this point. All the low commodity products are back in shortage and what is surprising is how quickly the supply chain got pressed in states like georgia and florida. And those states dont have enough testing theres delays of 3 to 5 days. Theres long lines long ways to get past testing. We really still dont have a system and we can distribute these products nationally. Look at new york, massachusetts, theyre doing a lot of testing right now. And we dont have a national planment we dont have a National Strategy or a National Pool of resources and we have these epidemics so states start to get pressed very quickly. In terms of when well have more supply in the market well see major aprufls of new products pretty soon. Thats going to provide a lot of capacity into the market new systems that have control over their own supply chain. I thought we would be in a better place you dont have the ability to marshall resources and focus them into that state clearly thats not happening we dont have that still so really, what the total number is, is it really what we should be talking about here, 5,000 or 10,000 cases on a given day. Is it 50,000 or 100,000 . The 2. 8 million that you see at the bottom of the screen now, total u. S. Covid cases. Is it 28 million or what do you really think this is the way i think about it so 34,000 cases on one day that was probably around 700,000 cases. Now diagnosing 1 in 10 now diagnosing one in 12 cases and well hit 60,000 cases this week for certain. So were back to 700,000 infections a day id say 700,000 infections a day. Thats probably what we should be thinking about. We should multiply it by 12. Its a record of 6,000 cases at least 10 or 12 times thats what the real number is. Thats why a large percent thats why a large percentarkgeo the population is already closer hope springs eternal, right . If you look at the private modeling we could see a peak in the Southern States this month its going to be an extended plateau though unfortunately thanks a lot. When we come back, teslas elon musk is feeling confident after his markets capitalization passed toyota last week. Over the weekend he supported a new president ial candidate and mocked short sellers we have the details on some of the stories next. In the meantime, the stock futures this morning soaring dow futures up by 450 points were not entirely sure why. But you did see huge gains in the asian markets trading overnight and very big gains in europe this morning too. 154 points this morning. S p up by 50 points higher squawk box back after this break. Take a look at the biggest premarket gainers in the s p 500. Laleinthway. Were carvana, the company who invented car vending machines and buying a car 100 online. Now weve created a brand new way for you to sell your car. Whether its a year old or a few years old, we want to buy your car. So go to carvana and enter your license plate, answer a few questions, and our technowizardry calculates your cars value and gives you a real offer in seconds. When youre ready, well come to you, pay you on the spot, and pick up your car. Thats it. So ditch the old way of selling your car, and say hello to the new way at carvana. Kanye west says he is running for president. He is making good on his 2015 promise to run previously he had been vocal about his support for President Trump. Its unclear if he is serious about a run. He hasnt taken any steps you need to take to run for president but he also announced last week he has a new album coming out soon, but he has already had a couple of billionaires backing him up. Elon musk and mark cuban both voicing their support. Vegas has his odds at 661. Separately, thanks, becky, tesla mocking short sellers. Elon musk mocking short sellers. Limited edition short shorts for sale on its website. Elon musk tweeted yesterday about their availability passing toyota to become the most valuable car company and guys, if i remember right, there was a mention about short shorts and he might have gone after him that was short this Company Maybe two years ago. Does that ring bells with anybody. Very vaguely. Im going to pick it up. Glaringly bad picks and ill tell you what, heres what heres the thing theres no room for short shorts ever anywhere and i guess they went out of style so badly, like when i see an adult man that is running and who inadvertently is wearing an old pair. You know, shorts now come down to right above the knee and thats what were used to. So its so bad i mean it works if you wear really high, white socks. And wearing a shirt and you look like you have no shorts on when youre wearing that shirt. I cant unsee will ferrell in semi pro that basketball movie no one looks good in short shorts hes kidding around but theyre there to make the point that you have gotten your you dont have short shorts andrew, right . Back in 2018, he did he actually went short shorts directly to David Einhorn and he wrote back to him on twitter and said i want to thank you for the shorts he is a man of his word. They did come with some manufacturing defects. At tesla given that there were problems with the early cars coming off the line if you remember back then. I mean, just fashion wise, we do not we would have to have it they look really crazy and then i dont think short shorts are up but theyre out now because when i see someone ill say to a person if im in my car get yourself get yourself a regular. Buy a new pair of shorts those are obviously ten years old. Its bad its the nair commercial. And maybe guys, maybe im dense but the other thing that i wanted to ask you guys about is the other elon musk tweet. On thursday he wrote sec, middle word is elons. I dont know. Any ideas. Just kidding about kanye too right . I think he has he has a new album. Thats more about what this is about isnt it i dont know. Yeah. Coming up, market rally rolling on he might have a reason why the market is up it may be closer than a lot of people think stock futures pointing to an extension of big games were going to talk strategy next later he has been bullish and we almost hit his targets already well take you to china erwhe stocks soared overnight. Squawk box coming right back youre first. First to respond. First to put others lives before your own. And in an emergency, you need a network that puts you first. That connects you to technology to each other and to other agencies. Built with and for first responders. Firstnet. The only officially authorized Wireless Network for first responders. Because putting you first is our job. Good morning, up for the dow after a strong week of gains the s p was up 4 and the nasdaq gained 4. 6 in a holiday shortened week joining us now for the Market Analysis where he is thinking right now. To update us on what has been a very bullish stance that he had for months Capital Wealth Planning and chief investment strategists would you say that when youre trying to come to a decision, do you use technicals more or fundamentals more. And the market is sort of anticipating things and what got you really bullish at the lows and got you to stable and 3,400 on thes p. What got you there technicals or a b shaped recovery or something close to it. My dad was a portfolio manager. He used to say fundamentals and technicals are like words and music, they go together. So we look at both and ive actually been very bullish since october of 2008 which is when the majority of stocks bottom. The averages actually went lower into march of 09 because the financials kept going down but the majority of stocks bottomed in october of 08 and i have been bullish ever since. We tried to call some downturns, yeah we tried to make some trading calls. Lets get more recent than 2008 lets go last week and today to given the backdrop, why dont you why are you so certain that were not going to have some economic bumps in the road. Theres two good jobs numbers but now were seeing problems and a lot of sunbelt states. We could have reclosures we could have trouble opening schools. Why arent you doubting your vshaped thesis given the data that were seeing about the virus in the last two weeks . I mean, go to the restaurants. Restaurants are full restaurants in st. Petersburg are full the economy is doing better than most of the economists think so i think that the economics are going to come on strong and people are woefully uninvested theres 5 trillion in money market funds in money market funds. So i think that the markets are going up theyre going up a lot more than people think we may stall here for awhile into the fall, into september, october, november but i think that youre going to get a rocket ship coming in the fall of this year and the s p is going to trade out above 4,000 were at 3130 now thatsmore bullish than in the past over 4,000 by what the next how many months . 12 months . In the next 12 months, the s p will be above 4,000. So thats about 25 the other thing that we always hear is this is all just a femoral fed and bernake, yellin, powell it would be mount print more and we can change it and put all the recent fed chairman and chair women on mount print more. Have you heard that . Yeah. Its more than most Analysts Expect people are woefully under invested this is a secular bull market and not many of us have been around 50 years so see what asecular bull market looks like 15 to 20 years depending on your starting point 5 or 6 or 7 years left in it and nobody believes it. So youre not questioning why the market is going up youre not saying that theres no reason for it you think thats the reason . And you have a lot of conviction in this and im just wondering whether youre factoring in some of the data that were seeing in some of these trouble spots where, you know, icus are getting near capacity and, you know, youre just seeing cases we thought we had under control at one point and now were sitting new highs. Those things dont bother you in terms of the vshaped premise that you have for the economy. No, no, they do not i mean, theres not many people that have been around long enough and the economy is Getting Better earnings are going to come in better than people expect and theres going to be a huge amount of money thats going to flow into equities 4,000 within 12 months on the s p. Youre always bold youre not shy youre not shy maybe youll just grow that mustache back if that doesnt happen anyway, thank you. Happy monday. Pleasure. All right andrew okay. Coming up when we return, were going to take a check on china as it continues to reopen business there and try to recover from the pandemic. Stocks there overnight are soaring. As we head to a break, take a look at the biggest winners in the dow this morning American Express leading the way and a reminder you can always watch or listen to us live any time on the cnbc app squawk returns in just a moment. Massmutual healthbridge is a free Life Insurance program just for healthcare workers fighting covid19. Apply today at massmutual. Com healthbridge still to come this morning, we will talk more about the big jump were watching in the futures this morning it all comes after big gains in asia overnight the chinese economy showing signs of momentum in the last week well take you live to bjieing for the latest squawk box will be right back. music anncr give customers access to precisely what they want, when they need it the most. With adyen, the payments platform that delivers convenience for all. Adyen. Business. Not boundaries. Welcome back, everybody. Stocks surging in china overnight as there are signs there that the economy is showing some pretty positive signs of recovery. Eunice yoon joins us with more on this front. Eunice, its good to see you. Reporter its good to see you too, becky it wasnt only the Economic Data but also the chinese investors have gotten a really strong signal from the government today that now is a good time to buy chinese stocks, and i say that because the Chinese Security journal, which is a prominent official state paper, ran a front page editorial where they said that after the pandemic, fostering a healthy bull market is more important to the economy than ever. So that was taken as a bullish cue by investors and really outweighing some of the concerns that people have here of the u. S. china tensions. In fact, china today accused the u. S. Navy of ulterior motives after they toured the seas after drills in foreign waters the Foreign Ministry in hong kong threatened the u. S. , canada, u. K. , australia with unspecified consequences for criticizing beijings new National Security law for the City Hong Kong has now pulled the books of several local activists from the Public Libraries for review under that law. Now business people, as you can imagine, expect the confrontation between the u. S. And china only to get more tense. This would be over hong kong because President Trump is set to sign a bill to sanction chinese officials and banks. Congress is pushing him to get tougher on beijings treatment of the muslim minority, the weigers. Then the World Health Organization is also sending an advance team here this week to a look into the origins of covid19 so all of this sensitive and of course raising a lot of questions as to just how long the trade deal could last even as the economy here continues to reopen eunice, is that is it really that simple they can simply put an op ed from the government on the front page of a newspaper and says, hey, its a good time to buy its a time to be bullish . Do investors or citizens look at that and say its my duty as a citizen to buy or do they say the government is doing things and setting policies to be advantageous to buy stocks right now . Reporter its the latter people think that the government is going to set in place policies that are going to be supportive for the stock market and the reason why they saw it as a signal in this journal is that this is a really important official securities journal that if youre a company, you release your information in this journal. So that was the reason the language was quite strong and in fact it did have an impact on social media the term bull market was up 20 times since last month and also there are a lot of brokerages that were reporting that the number of accounts, of new accounts, were opening have risen by 30 since last month. So a lot of bullishness now because of what the government has been saying through the state media. Eunice, thank you lets bring in James Mcgregor who is the chairman of the Greater China region jim, lets talk a little bit about what eunice was saying what do you think about china, what theyre doing, how do you think the economy is coming along and what lessons do you think we can take out of that . What im hearing from my friends who are Running Companies in china, their businesses are actually pretty good right now better than anywhere else in the world for some of them because of the u. S. And europe still having somewhat closed economies. Theyre feeling pretty confident and the government is really now wants to just goose the economy, wants to goose the stock markets, especially in hong kong in the wake of this security law that has everybody very worried. So i think the economys okay at least, but unless the u. S. And europe, unless demand from the u. S. And europe comes back before long, the Chinese Consumer can support the chinese economy so deeply. So well see what happens. Everybody is kind of waiting and watching how much has demand come down and what has that meant . Is there any way to try and get a measure of that that we can believe or kind of put any faith in i dont have any numbers. I can just say that because actually, their business has surged when they reopened because there is a lot of pentup demand in china. Especially for automobiles we dont want to be on public transportation, lets get a car. However, the from over seas it basically died for a while and now its coming back logistics are coming back and all of that. I dont have any numbers to really, you know, put a fine point on that. Jim, if you try and take a look at what its meant for any of these companies, what youre hearing from the people you talked to on the ground there, we have seen a few flareups of additional pandemic or additional covid coming back, some small outbreaks that have happened in beijing and other places how quickly were they able to tamp that down what does that mean . Its incredible my own office and a couple of my staff that were in a taxi cab and it was tracked on by chinese officia officials. They ended up in quarantine. Proof positive they got all of the film from public spaces. They were put in quarantine. What china is doing with surveillance, theyre pretty good at tamping down on this there has been some reaction especially with food and salmon and that market. Food imports are very hard to get through customs right now. But what im seeing really is a concern by Foreign Companies about being squeezed first off, on the security law in hong kong, they can be required to pledge allegiance basically to that law and be in favor of it, but what is that going to do to them back at headquarters meanwhile, theyre being squeezed between the Trump Administration and xi jinping with all of these things going on so nobodys very comfortable these days theyre all watching whats happening and theyre worried and trying to plow through their business and keep their heads down, but in the back of their mind theyre feeling very vulnerable jim, thank you very much its good talking to you we will see you again soon okay. Coming up, more on the big dealings of the morning. Berkshires big purchase of natural gas from assets from rgog tk a wee intoalton analyst next hey, our workers comp insurance is expiring. Should i just renew it . Yeah, sure. Hey there, Small Business owner. Pie insurance here with some sweet advice to stop you from overpaying on workers comp. Try pie instead and save up to 30 . Thirty percent . Really . Sure get a quote in 3 minutes at easyaspie. Com. That is easy. So, need another reminder . No, im good. Reminder for what . Oh. Ho ho, yeah need workers comp insurance . Get a quote in 3 minutes at easyaspie. Com. When we started carvana, they told us that selling cars 100 online wouldnt work. But we went to work. Building an experience that lets you shop over 17,000 cars from home. Creating a coast to Coast Network to deliver your car as soon as tomorrow. Recruiting an army of customer advocates to make your experience incredible. And putting you in control of the whole thing with powerful technology. Thats why weve become the nations Fastest Growing retailer. Because our customers love it. See for yourself, at carvana. Com. I see all the Amazing Things you have been doing. You are transforming business models, and virtualizing workforces overnight. Because so much of that relies on financing, we have committed two billion dollars to relieve the pressure on your business. As you adapt and transform, were here with the people, financing, and technology, ready to help. A rally starting the week. Futures are pointing to more gains here at home as well monday morning deal news warren buffets Berkshire Hathaway is buying dominions assets the second hour of squawk box will be right now. Welcome back to squawk box. They had a great july 4th weekend. Becky quick and joe kernen as becky mentioned, the u. S. Futures this morning are pointed higher, much higher. The dow up 400 points which could be 1. 5 . Youre looking at the s p up over 1 . Nasdaq up over a percent lots going on keying off of some green arrows across the boards in asia and europe as well joe . Thank you breaking news now from regeneron in the battle against coronavirus. Meg tirrell joins us with the details. Breaking news. Meg, what is it . Reporter good morning, joe more evidence of the lightning speed of Drug Development during this pandemic. Regeneron now announcing its in late stage Clinical Trials of its antibody drug for covid19 now they are starting a phase 3 in partnership with the National Institute of allergy and Infectious Diseases of a prevention trial that will be given to people identified as close contacts of people infected with covid19. So, you know, family members who live with people or housemates, for example. They also say theyre in the later stages, the phase 2 3 trials to treat patients with covid19 both people in the hospital and who arent home hospitalized that data they say expected to start later this summer. They started in early june they made the announcement june 11th they were starting the trials this is moving incredibly quickly. They hope to have data by the end of this summer, which they say would potentially make these available a lot sooner than a vaccine. Both a treatment potentially and prevention if all works well meg, this is phase 1 which was started. As far as safety goes, we can assume its fairly safe. Is there any reason you do see sometimes even though youre not necessarily testing for efficacy, sometimes you do get an idea. We have no idea about efficacy, but by moving this quickly to phase 3 does that indicate to you that they saw some efficacy . Reporter i have no way of knowing. All we know is from the companys statement this morning, from the trial which was from 30 patients. Is it a Monoclonal Antibody to the spike do you know anything about how it works reporter yeah. Its two monoclonal antibodies that target the spike protein of the coronavirus in different places and regeneron says the cocktail approach works better because it can prevent the virus from escaping around the drug approach. So they could use it with, as you call it but the cocktail youre talking about were both monoclonals, youre not talking about an antiviral combined with the monoclonal reporter right this drug itself is a cocktail of two different ways of blocking the virus in one. The same thing they did in ebola and they think its a better approach than a single monoclonal blocking the spike protein. Unlike some of the other results that we get, we the market just hasnt done anything sometimes you come on here with something and we just watch it play out before us but not a whole lot to go on here except that very quick move to more advanced Clinical Trials much quicker than people thought. Thank you, meg tirrell reporter thank you joe, thanks. In the meantime, warren buffets Berkshire Hathaway is buying Dominion Energys natural gas assets for about 4 billion. Thats 4 billion in cash and then the assumption of debt of about 5. 7 billion this deal will add about 7,700 miles of Natural Gas Storage and pipeline to berkshires portfolio. They gain a 25 stake in an export import for liquefied gas. At the same time dominion is canceling the Atlantic Coast pipeline project with duke energy joining us for the conversation we have rob raymond, rch energys founder stephanie link who is chief investment strategist at hightower advisor. Shes also a cnbc contributor. Welcome to both of you this morning. Rob, lets start with you. Reporter good morning. Good morning. This is a big move to see what dominion is doing here theyre stripping themselves down and going as a Utility Company for the most part, a regulated Utility Company. Do you think thats a good move right now . Yeah. I mean, i think from a sellers perspective, becky, thats exactly right. Theyre headed down the path of becoming really a pure regulated utility which on the margin gives them a more predictable earnings stream which they hope will translate to a higher overall multiple of that earnings stream. So theres different businesses. The longhaul Gas Transmission storage business is very different than the electric, the regulated utility. So, you know, i think from the sellers perspective, thats their move from a buyers perspective, berkshire is getting another foot ahead of the idea of a broad transition to electrification broadly across the energy spectrum. So, you know, they already have some Legacy Assets in that domain this is obviously a big another big further sort of step towards that goal. You know, we would argue that the fleet side of the Vehicle Market is going to transition broadly to electric over the next several years and thats really driven by technology. And so all those electrons are going to have to come from somewhere. We think a lot of them are going to be provided by burning, if you will, the consumption of natural gas. The technology is really driving this, i would point everybody to a press release out of Jaguar Land Rover along with a Company Named momentum dynamics a couple of weeks ago that basically is the first step to electrifying the entire fleet in oslo, norway rob, do you think warren buffet wanted to buy these because he thinks the electrification of vehicles is going to be juicing the demand for natural gas going to the ee electropower plants to put this together thats a step further than i would have taken it. Yeah, no, but i do, right if we look, natural gas is trading at a 15 and 20year low, which means its cheap ultimately, right, as we think about all of the vehicles out there that operate on a consistent daily basis, whether those are taxi cabs, city buses, Home Delivery vans, amazon, ups, et cetera, all of that is going electric much faster than the personal automobile. Whats changing here is the idea that, you know, what ill characterize as a single charge range is no longer really the holy grail of electrification. If you have vehicles that have welldefined demand patterns can i yeah, go ahead. Could i just ask . As far as i understand, its not a play on the price of natural gas. This is a play on transmission of natural gas and the idea that natural gas is going to be a necessity around for more than a decade, probably decades to come anybody who wants to talk about clean energy, thats great if you want to do solar and wind, thats great a lot of these Power Companies have gone to that, but if you want a Reliable Energy source youll have to back it up with fossil fuels and natural gas is the cleanest of those. Yeah, no. That really is my point, right at the end of the day theres going to be as a transmission owner, right, its about how many molecules, how many thousand cubic feet do you flow through your system, millions and millions, right . Right so as people burn as they consume more and more natural gas for the purpose of generating electrons to feed the electrification of the vehicle fleet domestically, ultimately this will happen around the world, the Intrinsic Value of the assets goes up a lot because youre moving a lot more molecules through the system. Stephanie, overall when you hear about a deal like this, what do you think of Berkshire Hathaway putting down the money . What do you think about the outlook for deals . What does this mean in a broader sense from your perspective . Reporter yeah, thats exactly how im looking at this. I think it is the signal he is sending. This is the largest deal since precision cass parts its not going to be material to the Balance Sheet in terms of a creation, it is we are getting kind of a sign and signal of confidence from him. That as well as uber today, right . This is to me i always look at what ceos are doing, saying, acting and these acquisitions suggest that they have more confidence in the future i also think they got a good price for this, by the way, because Natural Gas Prices are last month were at the lowest levels in 25 years. Then it also signals that greg able is likely going to be the successor, right he is the person that was in charge of the energy assets. Theres a lot of ways of looking at it. I think from a big picture point of view, this is a good sign this is the reason the market is up today i think we have confidence that the outlook Going Forward is improving. Stephanie, can i just take the other side of that im not going to talk down the market today i think its keying off the confidence coming out of asia and what youre seeing in terms of european markets right now and expectation that we do get to the other side of this, but i look at both of these transactions and i actually think these are both defensive transactions, if you will, in that dominion is trying to sell this because it doesnt think this is the right business anymore. You can give some confidence and credence to it from warren buffet, but i think arguably hes getting a good deal in part because this is now i dont want to call it a diminished asset, but maybe if you look at the uber transaction, this is not where they wanted to go originally obviously they wanted to go and get this other deal with grubhub if they could. This is a genuinely challenged industry and the only way its going to work is if they get consolidation and postmates is not the bride, if you will, that uber wanted to begin with. So im its hard for me to look at these two transactions and say thats were the market is going up. I can make other arguments why the market is going up, but these transactions dont give me great confidence theyre good deals for companies that needed them. Reporter well, and those are great points, andrew, but you had warren buffet only a couple of months ago say he was not doing anything because he couldnt find anything that was interesting, and now hes being opportunistic. Yeah, sure, he got a good price on this. Dominion wanted to do this because theyll simplify their structure and get a higher multiple, right . I can understand this. My point is that if these ceos have more confidence and they have better visibility, theyre willing to shell out these kinds of numbers, these kinds of valuations and i think you have to think a little bit longer term i think these deals are good actually for both parties, right . For uber because thats the direction they are going to go in, is in food delivery. Theyre getting bigger, theyre getting size, theyre getting scale. That to me was more surprising than the buffet transaction. The buffet transaction, hes being opportunistic. If the ceos are doing anything, thats very telling. Warren buffet told us he wasnt doing anything and now hes doing something. He completely feels better and has the confidence im picking the other side of your other side. I think this is very positive. Okay. Well take it. Thats what makes the markets go yeah. Stephanie, rob, i want to thank you both for your time this morning. Thank you. Coming up, reopening the u. S. Economy amid rising cases were going to talk to one of wall streets top gaming and lodging analysts as we head to break, check out the futures. We are up just over 400 points on the dow stay tedyoreatinun, u wchg squawk box on cnbc r. In new ways. To new customers. What if you could come back stronger . Faster. Better. At comcast business, we want to help you not just bounce back. But bounce forward. Thats why were helping you stay ahead and adapt with a network you can count on, 24 7 support and Flexible Solutions that work wherever you are. Call or go online today. 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. Iredefined the wordng thschool this year. Its why, at xfinity, were committed to helping kids keep learning through the summer. And help College Students studying at home stay connected through our university program. Were providing affordable Internet Access to low income families through our internet essentials program. And this summer, xfinity is creating a Virtual Summer camp for kids at home all on xfinity x1. Were committed to helping all families stay connected. Learn more at xfinity. Com education. Good morning welcome back to squawk box, everybody. If you are waking up on this monday morning, check out the futures. They are up sharply. Dow futures up by 420 points which comes after big gains in asia overnight as well market up better by 5. 7 45 points this morning nasdaq up by 150 points almost joe . Thanks, beck. Andrew biggest dow gainers. 422 after 3. 5 last week amid a resurgence in covid cases. And on las vegas as well since casinos reopened and could put a damper on whats happening in las vegas especially if any force are temporarily reclosed jason joined us about a month ago previewing what a reopening might look like. He joins us now for an update. Jason is cofounder of Spring Asset Management what has changed since early june, jason . Is it being affected is it a bump in the road or full speed ahead . Well, good morning, joe good to see you. Hope you had a good fourth of july whats changed in the industry, at least there are sports. There was still a lockdown in sports a month ago the good news for the industry is the Sports Betting is back. Las vegas is doing its best. Had a lot of people out this past weekend and some amazing fireworks. I wasnt there, but i saw the pictures i heard great reports and theyre doing their best the casinos are doing their best all the people who work in town are trying to get people back, feeling comfortable, feeling safe its just very difficult with the rules that are in place. Spacing people out, slower velocity of the games. No real swimming pools, spas, nightclubs, restaurants. Tables are real far apart. So people are coming its not that profitable for the owners and that looks to be the case for the foreseeable future. In the last two weeks or three weeks, were seeing the sunbelt and that has caused people to wonder about whether things were moving too quickly or whether we were having to reclose some things. Even as youre saying if that had happened, thats not going to be as positive because you thought of increasing cases around the country yeah, joe i think it would have been possible for any casino in las vegas to make money for the next year with the rules that are in place. Now you see these outbreaks regionally obviously texas, arizona, nevada thats one of those states that if you come to new york, you have to quarantine very difficult situation now it was bad enough and if we continue to see a spread of cases in that market and around the country, its going to get worse. So you are saying the prospects given where we were when we last spoke to you, that theyve actually diminished. Theyve got a couple and other than sports i think uncertainty not knowing. It will fare with whats likely regional outbreaks, particularly in the southwest area. I like online. I think online folk, casino, Sports Betting, thats the business to own right now. The numbers are just surging sports is back. Well, ive tried to bet on golf and i should have taken this guy who won yesterday. You know, i think hes got, i dont know, beats in the last tournament i saw an ad for Major League Baseball and it really made me think i really miss baseball bows of how well done it was are we really going to see that . I think it said july 25th. Is that happening . I think were going to see baseball, basketball, major league soccer. Were already seeing English Premier League throughout europe sports is coming back. Various pockets of tennis which looked like to a large extent its just being played at private homes but tennis is happening. So there will be sports. They will be in empty arenas i like how the English Premier League at least has the sound of cheering in the background so it feels like youre watching something. If you watch italian soccer or futbol, its silent. They should make an adjustment to that. Were going to have sports this summer were going to have betting on sports and things are going to feel a little bit closer to normal, at least from our living rooms. Right uneven, i guess, jason we shouldnt assume anything better than three steps forward, hopefully only two or two and a half steps back. Hopefully not four steps back. Thats the three steps forward, four steps back is the concern anyway, i like your shot thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks. Stay close to your phone. Well check back let us know if you get a sure thing to bet on, too, because, i dont know, i have to figure out baseball how do you do that call me ill give you some tips on that, basketba baseball, sure. Maybe ill call pete from cincinnati good talking with you. Good to talk to you never bet on the reds. Maybe never bet against the reds i think anyway, thanks, jason. Andrew coming up, thanks, joe, when we return were going to talk about todays biggest tech headlines with Industry Expert gene munster talk to him about a headline that crossed with facebook and whatsapp as we head to break, look at the biggest winners and losers stay tuned, youre watching squawk box on cnbc hey frank, our workers comp insurance is expiring, should we just renew it . Yeah, sure. Hey there, Small Business owner. Pie insurance here with some sweet advice to stop you from overpaying on workers comp. Try pie instead and save up to 30 . Thirty percent . Really . Get a quote in 3 minutes at easyaspie. Com. Wow, that is easy. So, need another reminder . No, no no, im good. Uh, yes please. Oh. Ho ho ho, yeah need workers comp insurance . Get a quote in 3 minutes at easyaspie. Com. Welcome back to squawk box. Futures up 389 points. Nasdaq up 144 points after a strong week. The new highs last week. The s p 500 indicated up over 42 points this comes as futures or markets around the world are pretty solid this morning. Thats whats happening in asia. 4 , 5, almost 6 gain in shanghai solid gain in japan and then in europe, take a quick look. This all factors into what were seeing similar gains to whats expected here premarket in the United States andrew okay. Thanks, joe. Among the stories making headlines this hour, uber agreeing to buy Food Delivery Service postmates according to multiple reports the deal said to be an all Stock Transaction worth 2. 65 billion. Combined with uber eats service. We had the ceo of postmates on and they talked about the need for consolidation. Here we are. Meantime, the fda has granted approval for rapid detection of covid19 test that test will provide results in 15 minutes using portable analysis instrument from becton dickinson. Hopefully that might be one step closer to some of the testing challenges that weve had here in the United States meantime, the annual fashion week in paris is underway with quite a different look than in years past due to the pandemic fashion designers are showing off their latest offerings online with a schedule of videos running through wednesday. Becky . Andrew, thank you still to come this morning on squawk box, were going to be talking about a big deal. Uber has reportedly agreed to buy postmates for 2. 75 billion in stock, i believe. Well talk about that deal with tech watcher gene munster. Thats next. News out next from facebook. The companys Whatsapp Messaging Service will stop processing Law Enforcement requests for user data in hong kong. The company is assessing the impact of chinas law particularly on human rights quk xig he cu are watching sawbo rhteronnbc. Good morning and welcome back to squawk box. Its 7 30 on the east coast. Times square indicator you can see video from this time on march 23rd and then on the right, livid yes, and it really depends when you look out there. Ive seen some actual activity looking out there right now, people Walking Around. I will tell you, i was quite a bit, actually, compared to where we have been as i said, we have our cart. I want to go out and get, i dont know, some kind of fattening carb i was in yesterday morning in the city and there were a lot of people around. Thats all ill say. It wasnt 7 30 about 11 10 30, 11. There were a lot of people on the west side, a lot of people Walking Around many people en masse but there were a lot of people out but like i would i was talking earlier, i just cant imagine having a new yorktype apartment and wondering what that was like for three months i dont know well, and imagine if you have kids with the situation. With kids with kids trying to do that when you worry about going down the hallway, worry about going on the streets if you do go out no people in central park. You can go to the park, but its not like youre missing anything its not like, wow, a lot of people there so its been pretty amazing. Maybe well start checking out the times square indicator. You know what we need for that indicator yeah. We need a third box that shows you what we looked like lets say july of last year or november of last year. Right. Or, you know, something before or maybe january, rightbefore things turned down at the same time to see because, i mean, im times square can get pretty busy around rush hour right not a lot of police around usually we have a lot of police around here, too i dont know what that means nothing, i dont think any commentary there usually a lot of cars. Because we have a new york police department, i dont know what that is, Satellite Office or whatever. But not i dont see anyone any cop cars around either usually we do at least when it comes in yeah lets take a look at the futures really quickly this morning, too this has been something to watch. Huge couple of weeks that weve seen in the run up here and now the dow futures indicated up by another 405 points this morning. S p futures up by 45 the nasdaq up by 152 and this follows some gains that weve seen around the world. Stocks in asia were sharply higher especially in shanghai. I think the gains were 5. 75 that flows through to europe and here a lot of what weve been seeing, just these continuous positive gains in the market. In our headlines this morning, lets talk about what we heard from the european union. It is taking aim again at big tech giants. The wall street journal reports that amazon, facebook, googles parent alphabet are all facing a slew of proposed regulations trying to curb their alleged anticompetitive behavior the companies would have to pay taxes and take more responsibility for legal content on their platforms the e. U. s antitrust chief has outlined a comprehensive plan drawing boundaries for Tech Companies instead of applying existing laws. The Companies Want to work with e. U. Regulators but they are concerned about elements of the proposals. In the meantime, the u. K. Is phasing out huawei gear from the 5g networks. This would be a policy change from the British Government and comes after the u. S. Introduced new segments andrew meantime, thanks, becky, Facebook Ceo Mark Zuckerberg and chief operating officer Sharyl Sandberg will meet with at least three civil rights groups. That comes as the social media giant is grappling with a boycott to do more on cracking down on hate speech. We want to continue this conversation about big tech because theres other news that just crossed this morning from the wall street journal. The companys Whatsapp Messaging Service just announcing that it will suspend processing Law Enforcement requests for user data in hong kong. This is important. It says its assessing the impact of chinas new security law, particularly on human rights joining us is gene munster i want to talk to you about other tech stocks and companies. Want to talk to you about this whatsapp decision and facebook in terms of what theyre doing in hong kong, again, jumping into the deep end of a deep political more than skirmish, battle taking place and how much you think that that is motivated by commercial interests, by moral interests, by perhaps the administration here in the United States putting pressure on them. How do you think that came to be i think facebook ultimately wants to do the right thing. Thats a good starting point so there is this moral compass that they have unfortunately, their business just simply doesnt apply to it. The way we think about this, facebook is a pit bull and its impossible to steer it into becoming a lap dog this is another example is that theyre trying to do the right thing here theyre trying to balance human rights with a commercial business one of the challenges as they step into yet another catch 22 for them, this will be the fourth of that has now come to fruition in the last few weeks, as they step into this seemingly doing the right thing for human rights obviously would jeopardize the availability of whatsapp in the region now the good news for investors is that whatsapp is less than 5 of revenue so not a lot to factor in on that front. The simple take away, andrew, i think facebook really wants to do the right thing, unfortunately it is intensely complicated and surprising to me that with these four waves of catch 22s that are coming at them, it surprises me that the stock is near an alltime high at 650 billion valuation. Well, gene, real quick, thats my question what are the commercial implications maybe the stock price is a better way to put it relative to these moral, ethical and in some cases now going to be legal and regulatory implications mark zuckerberg, by the way, participating later this month in a hearing on capitol hill, perhaps virtually, but alongside the likes of tim cook, alongside the likes of jeff bezos and google the biggest commercial implication is whats going to happen to facebook and instagram. The vast majority of their revenue. If you look at those two pieces independently, facebook in terms of its rhetoric, i view this as just a toxic platform. Instagram is i think more benevolent but ultimately think about the implications as 50 of facebooks revenue is going to come under greater scrutiny. There is everything from the publisher aspect, and this could impact advertising dollars were seeing that with the boycott. What is the impact is that youre going to see more advertisers scrupulous about how facebook is doing its kind of curating its content by definition, when you start to curate content, you become a publisher which creates different waves of regulation around that. Then theres another wave around this, which is the wave around regulation you had mentioned at the top whats going on in europe. Obviously facebook will be one of the tech giants zuckerberg at the end of the month testifying before congress what does all of that mean as continued regulation, unbundling products when you put it altogether, bring it back to the stock, investors love to sleep well at night. They love to know that the platform is going to be moving in the right direction, growing, but in the case of facebook, it is really unclear how these four waves are going to impact their ability to monetize. Okay. Meantime, want to talk to you about your take on tesla weve been talking about tesla all morning and elon musk. J. P. M. Securities raising its target on tesla to a street high of 1500 per share, thats from 1050 the analyst saying the automaker positioned to make 150 million in revenue elon musk mocking short sellers. The Company Listing limited short shorts on its website. I believe all the short shorts are sold out except forex tra large for extra large teslas market cap passed toyota to become the worlds most valuable company youre still long tesla. Weve had so many analysts come on for this to work, you have to believe everybody else is out of business i think there are some automotives in trouble some names that have been around for the last 100 years will likely be around but be vastly irrelevant in the conversation when you look at Companies Like ford, 25 billion market cap or gm at i think its a 35 billion market cap, those can be significantly smaller in the future i recognize that when you think about tesla, 225 billion market cap, it doesnt seem to really jive with these a view that ford could be much lower in the future but that, in fact, is whats going to happen the reason is that theres a dilemma the traditional auto has. Its Pretty Simple right now theyre getting crushed when it comes to evs tesla holds 80 share in the u. S. For them to be competitive they need to either lower their price, which is going to be negative for profitability, or they need to increase the features which will increase the costs to be negative for market share. And they fundamentally approached building electric cars as a feature for gasoline cars and thats not the case though manufacturing process is very different and the Technology Behind it obviously is remarkably more advanced so when you put all of this together, im a view that even though some of these Automotive Companies look cheap, i think what we will see is a gravitation towards tesla. This could be a Much Bigger Company in the decades ahead i wish elon musk would take a step back and not worry about the shorts and worry about his business but thats a whole nother topic the reality is pretty straightforward. Traditional auto is going to look dramatically different and its not good for the longterm players. Okay. Then i wanted to get you on two other stocks real quick. Theres this Uber Postmates transaction this morning are you a fan of it . You know, this was not the original transaction that i think uber wanted and that deal went south because of antitrust issues, or at least thats what they said. Do you think that this deal is going to get a look from regulators no, it shouldnt because the combined postmates uber, theyre going to have 37 market share and then, you know, you put grubhub at 45 so theyre underneath that threshold excuse me, doordash. If they acquired grubhub, that would have put them over the 45 . Whats important is these businesses need to scale these are expensive Infrastructure Companies you need to increase the number of deliveries per ride and ultimately its the right move for uber to double down on this business fair price . Yeah. I think 2. 7 billion, you know, its called 1 3 of what grubhub was and its 1 3 of the market cap what they got acquired for when you put that together, it makes a ton of sense what youre really seeing, this intensity around the companies trying to get some scale is quite noteworthy okay. Gene, weve got to run i have one final question. I hear youre thinking that this 5g apple introduction this fall may not go as well as some people are expecting but that well, ill let you say it. What do you think is going to happen on this quote, unquote, super cycle . Let me start with the conclusion is i think apple is going to be one of the best performing names in tech over the next few years because of 5g but that first year is going to be a disappointment for investors, then it should have a threeyear upgrade cycle the reason is coverage simply isnt there. 5g will live up to its hype. Apple will be the biggest beneficiary. Investors need to have the correct bearings about what the first year looks like. Okay. Gene muenster, always great to see you. Well see if that bears out a million more times between now and the launch of those phones this fall. Joe, back to you great thanks got some stocks to watch for the morning and reminder you can always watch us live on the cnbc app. Stay tuned were coming right back. Stock slices. For as little as 5, now anyone can own companies in the s p 500, even if their shares cost more. At 5 a slice, you could own Ten Companies for 50 instead of paying thousands. All Commission Free online. Schwab stock slices an easy way to start investing or to give the gift of stock ownership. Schwab. Own your tomorrow. Hey, our workers comp insurance is expiring. Should i just renew it . Yeah, sure. Hey there, Small Business owner. Pie insurance here with some sweet advice to stop you from overpaying on workers comp. Try pie instead and save up to 30 . Thirty percent . Really . Sure get a quote in 3 minutes at easyaspie. Com. That is easy. So, need another reminder . No, im good. Reminder for what . Oh. Ho ho, yeah need workers comp insurance . Get a quote in 3 minutes at easyaspie. Com. announcer carvanas had a lot of firsts. 100 online car buying. Car vending machines. And now, putting you in control of your financing. At carvana, get personalized terms, browse for cars that fit your budget, then customize your down payment and monthly payment. And these arent madeup numbers. Its what youll really pay, right down to the penny. Whether youre shopping or just looking. It only takes a few seconds, and it wont affect your credit score. Finally a totally different way to finance your ride. Only from carvana. The new way to buy a car. Welcome back, everybody. Dow futures indicated up by 400 points s p up by 43 and nasdaq up by almost 150 andrew okay thanks, becky. Meantime, some stocks to watch this morning want to talk about spotify downgraded to underperform bernstein saying although podcast could increase the streaming services in market share, not going to add much to the bottom line, not after the news of the massive joe rogan deal and so many others. Meantime, harleydavidson given a buy rating in new coverage at citigroup. The analysts noting an attractive valuation a significant turn around under the companys new ceo. Becky . Andrew, thank you. When we come back, well be speaking with former shell oil chairman marvin odum hes now running the covid19 Recovery Efforts in houston. Hell join us to talk about how texas is dealing with the rise in cases and what businesses there need to do thats all coming up when we return you say that customers make their own rules. Lets talk data. Only Xfinity Mobile lets you switch up your wireless data whenever. I accept 5g everybodys talking about it. How do i get it . Everyone gets 5g with our new data options at no extra cost. Thats good. Next item corner offices for everyone. Just have to make more corners in this building. Chad . Your wireless your rules. Only with Xfinity Mobile. Now thats simple easy awesome. Switch and save up to 400 a year on your wireless bill. Plus get 200 off a new Samsung Galaxy s20 ultra. But with the covid19 crisis, many veterans are struggling to make ends meet or get the care they need. Dav has helped ill and injured veterans for one hundred years, but today, the need is greater than ever. Give to the dav covid19 relief fund and help provide critical assistance to veterans in need. Go to dav. Org helpvets or call now. Your donation will make a real difference. Welcome back, everybody. As you know, coronavirus cases are still on the up swing in some parts of the United States, including texas where there are reported more than 8200 cases just on saturday alone joining us right now to talk more about this is marvin odum, he is the former chairman of shell oil. Hes also the covid19 recovery leader for the city of houston marvin, thank you for being here today. Its really good to see you. Good to see you as well thank you. Theres been a lot of concern about the headlines that are coming out, not just the number of cases, increasing cases that weve seen, but even houstons mayor came out yesterday and said if we dont change this trajectory, that your Hospital System is going to be facing some serious, serious issues in two weeks or less. What are you seeing on the ground right now well, thats an apt description. If you look at the period of time, say from memorial day to the end of june, weve seen a four fold increase in the number of people that are going into the hospital every day another way of saying that is you hear a lot about Positivity Rate the number of people being tested that are positive in the city of houston, that number is on the order of 25 so one in four, and thats relative to a number that youd like to see to have a more stable situation up 5 . So its a pretty serious situation. The mayor said the hospital situation weve already full with our normal icu capacity that could be expanded, of course, and that is being expanded so we have potentially another two weeks if we stay on this same trajectory before we get into what i would call unsustainable Surge Capacity you know, you start to run into problems with staffing and a number of other elements so its a very serious situation. Governor abbott did declare that masks are mandatory did you see an increase in people willing to wear a mask . Absolutely. That was an Important Message to everybody in the state because you can look at this it really comes down to individual behavior in the end. When you think about the tool kit that we have to control this virus, it really is just so very simple its wearing a mask to protect others and to protect yourself, its keeping a distance of something on the order of six feet and thats really it. So, i mean, if every individual would follow those simple rules, this kind of spread would not be happening. We need to continue to emphasize that Point Communications is a big part of this program to help people understand that. If you can get people to do that and implement the programs which are already existing around testing and Contact Tracing, then you can control again the spread of the virus. But without that participation and individuals to do those simple things, its a very difficult thing to control where is texas right now, both in terms of testing for coronavirus but also the Contact Tracing . Because from what i hear from some people, you know, the United States has not done a great job in terms of trying to make sure they find everyone who has been exposed and try and make sure they quarantine. Lets talk about testing for a second weve gone from a program that was constrained by supply, if you will, whether it was ppe materials or some of the reagents that were needed. By the time we got to the end of may we were able to expand our capacity quite significantly so we went from these very large, centralized, federally run sites to think of two of those in the city of houston to on the order of 27 sites that we spread out mainly to address our vulnerable and atrisk population so we went to the right place. We made that testing free and more accessible to people. That was actually working very well if you take a look at where we were during the end of may, that capacity was getting to the point where i would say it was pretty accurate to start to understand what was happening in the city and to direct our resources to the right place to control that spread. But then as we started to see this dramatic increase a couple of weeks after memorial day, now all of a sudden testing is short again. When you have one in four people testing positive, its hard to build enough capacity certainly in this period of time and i would say its really a very similar story with Contact Tracing. So when a virus like covid19 is in control, youre managing that virus at a quantity that is manageable then you can build a Testing Program and a Contact Tracing program to help contain that when its spreading virtually out of control, its very difficult to have enough of those resources to contain it. Marvin, what do you hear from businesses because theres been an awful lot of concern that as the cases build, as the attempts to try to shut down the virus come youll see a rollback in the reopening of the economy and see some restrictions putback on which we have seen in texas, california, other places what do you hear from Business Leaders . What can they do, entrepreneurs and business owners, to try and be as safe as possible what are the concerns they have . Well, of course if youre a business person or if youre anyone, frankly, shutting in the economy again is just an untenable thought. But the potential to be push to that point is absolutely there were facing that now. But its just such a devastating situation and theres so many executive elements associated with rolling back the economy to any significant degree i think to talk about business in general is challenging because you have to see it as a number of tiers, i think so restaurants, bars, businesses like that, Small Businesses like that have already been curtailed again. Its a pretty dire situation for them and if i stay on that very bottom rung, not bottom rung in terms of importance but just size of business, the you think about some of these Small Businesses in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods, those businesses are really the heart and soul of those communities. So if you lose those businesses, you impact those neighborhoods in a way that it will have knock on effects for years and years to come. Its sort of that end of the scale. The bigger businesses, of course, have i think have managed this surprisingly well i mean, of course i come from a company like shell i understand the capabilities of these companies but to be able to move to a virtual capacity very quickly, to be able to keep their businesses going from that perspective, and of course what theyre facing is a supply issue and a demand issue in some cases, not necessarily a local issue or something that a local government has so theres quite a few different tiers here the most important thing that the city can do, the state can do is everything they can to control this virus so they can allow the economy to come back to a more normal place texas is a great place to do business so its not about policies and that type of thing. Our role is primarily about supporting those more disadvantaged businesses that dont have the capacity to otherwise survive. Marvin, thank you for your time today and good luck in your mission. Thanks very much. Good to see you again. You, too. Joe . All right. Coming up in just a moment, were going to continue reopening the conversation with texas congressman kevin brady. Does the u. S. Economy need more stimulus its a big date ebin congress right now. Well talk about it next part of building one of the greatest game shows in history. During that time, we handed out millions of dollars to thousands of contestants. And i thought, what if we paid the contestants their winnings in gold instead of cash and prizes . Back in 1976, we had a wonderful contestant named lee whose threeday winnings were valued at 12,850, and you know what . That was a pretty big haul back in 1976. So i wondered, what would have happened if lee had put 12,850 in cash and then put 12,850 in gold in a safe, just sitting there sidebyside from 1976 until now . Well, i went back and i ran the numbers, and what i found was amazing. We all know that 12,850 in cash would still be sitting there, but it would be worth a whole lot less than it was in 1976. But that 12,850 in gold, safely stored away, its worth 135,000 as of the taping of this commercial. Now, thats more than 10 times the original amount. And thats why ive been putting my money in Precious Metals for years, and i dont see any reason to stop now. [announcer] if youve bought gold in the past, or would like to learn more about why physical gold should be an important part of your portfolio, pick up the phone and call to receive the complete guide to buying gold, which will provide you important, neverseenbefore facts and information you should know about making gold, silver, and platinum purchases. If you call right now, you can also receive a copy of our new u. S. Gold report for 2020. Inside, youll find the top 25 reasons why you need to start owning gold today. With nearly two decades in business, over a billion dollars in transactions, and more than a half a million clients worldwide, u. S. Money reserve is one of the most dependable gold distributors in america. 4 billion on a big collection of gas assets. Well talk about it. The final hour of squawk box begins right now. Good morning, everybody. Welcome back to squawk box here on cnbc im becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. The futures this morning are sharply higher youre looking at the dow futures up by 430 points right now. Weve been above 400 points for most of the morning. S p futures up by 46 nasdaq up by 148 its kind of building off the gains that we saw in asia overnight. Shares in china actually jumping to a fiveyear high if you want to take a look at that the shanghai composite up by 5. 7 nikkei up by 1. 8 . Keeping track of treasury yields the 10year is yielding 0. 694 andrew thanks, becky we do have breaking news on uber and were going to go out to deidre bosa on the west coast joins us now with more on that deidre reporter hey, andrew it is official uber has announced that it is buying smaller food delivery postmates in an all stock deal worth 2. 65 billion. Now it combines two Major Players in the food delivery space, postmates the clear number 4 im going to give uber eats more to compete against grubhub and door dash. They went after grubhub first and that went to a european rival. Postmates is the smaller company. Its also unprofitable remember, grubhub had gotten to profitability. Im told by sources that postmates was running out of money and it had to do this uber deal or move forward with its ipo. Im still going through the release right now, guys. I think theres some questions, what happens to postmates cofounder and ceo Bastian Lehman well continue to look through this, guys its a big deal as pretty much every player in this space has said its necessary and many of the market watchers still look at them. Back over to you great deidre, thank you. My one quick question, we talked about it with a couple of the other analysts that weve had on this morning, is the idea of whether you think this is going to pose any regulatory hurdles . Its obviously a much smaller deal than the original proposed transaction that they were looking at reporter yeah, i heard gene munster talk about this, too i think theres a thought its far more unlikely. What postmates does is give uber two critical markets which is l. A. And miami uber will have the lead in these markets, but otherwise it doesnt move the needle as much as grubhub would grubhub and uber have 23, 24 of the market the combination would have pushed it above door dash. This is a smaller deal the question, 2. 65 billion for postmates, it last raised money at a valuation of 2. 4 billion as i mentioned, this company is very unprofit annual and so is uber eats. So shifting from ride share which was getting closer profitability into the food space which uber has made a significant bet on this puts them as a whole further away from profitability. Back to you. I know there will be complete analysis on squawk alley where youll drill down into all of it well look forward to see you there. Meantime, send it over to joe. Thanks, joe President Trump over the weekend signing into law a temporary extension of Paycheck Protection Program they have until july 8th to weather the virus. Lawmakers debate whether another fiscal stimulus is needed and what form that should take joining us texas congressman kevin brady, Ranking Member of the house ways and means committee. Lets start with texas, congressman. Its good to see a lot of angst a lot of worries about sunbelt cases and covid and we had a big jobs number obviously which came after the big jobs number the prior reporting period there are concerns that theres going to be an uneven reopening given whats happening is that what you see at this point . And is texas an example of that, congressman . Yeah. So my belief is joe, its good to see you, by the way. Its an important state to reopen for the first month and a half we saw a drop in infection rates and drop in hospitalization as well since the memorial day, certainly weve seen just the opposite the good news here is the governor has to make sure we open responsibly, reput in place some key common sense measures to do this we are fortunate that the reopening states have some of the lowest covid fatalities per person of the top ten states, safest rates are in texas, california, florida, georgia, arizona. The deadliest per capita states are in the lockdown states, new jersey, new york, massachusetts, illinois, and pennsylvania so lockingdown the economy wont address this putting in place some common sense approaches now that we know youre going to see these flareups. As marvin odum said, you have to take it seriously. The Hospital Executives i talked to are confident they have the surge plans in place and the capacity, but they know, too, these next couple of weeks are pretty critical. What ive noticed is the dramatic change over the last week and a half in distancing, in mask wearing. Just the businesses im thinking are taking a more serious approach as well i think there is a way to address this flareup as we continue to reopen youre here to talk about stimulus and to try to keep things going in terms of these companies that need help so you still want to do this backtowork bonus because if we extend unemployment, it does there is an incentive to stay at home to some extent. You think this is still crucial . Yeah, i think it really is. It is. It is a barrier for people coming back to work, and its not just anecdotal we saw it aee it all across texs i was in a business that got a ppp loan, grateful to be able to be open, but not a single worker returned to that local restaurant were seeing that all over so, yeah, keeping the state Unemployment Benefits in place many of them have extended those into next year already, but the generous federal supplement needs to be redesigned completely so that incentive to reconnect workers. Thats one key thing secondly, youll see in the next week or so ways and means republicans are introducing a credit to help businesses create and reconfigure their workplaces so they are safe and healthy and then you also see a package here in the next few weeks from ways and means republicans that focus on restoring a healthy economy, including new incentives to bring back innovation and medical medicines, medical supplies, all of that through the United States. We dont think spending just for the sake of it will get the job done but some smart policies, absolutely can help us recover. Your view is that there will be another round of something . What are the chances you think 80 theres going to be more you know, you saw the jobs number pretty good. Yeah. Yeah so i think i think some smart adjustments are needed here. Youre right, those jobs numbers, highest monthly gain on record it certainly appears this recession was shallower than predicted and the fundamentals for recovery are strong, but we have to do some smart things as well i think it could be, you know, businesses where the ppp loans are running out. We may want to look at how they can go back to get a little more help we certainly i know the president is very interested in another round of stimulus checks, but i think there will be some smart, targeted approaches i think will get the job done andrew . Congressman, i just wanted to take issue with this comment you made about states that lock down versus states that did not you took a knock at new york and new jersey by the way, they deserve a knock insofar as clearly mayor de blasio in new york and Governor Cuomo in new york were late on this in a big, big way, but to suggest for even a moment that somehow lockdowns dont work and being open does, and im not suggesting we go back to lockdowns full stop, but you look at whats happened in europe where they brought their rates down remarkably, you look at the lockdowns in china where they brought their rates down and then you look frankly, boy, do i not want to cast aspersions anywhere and i want everybody to be safe, but there are over 8,000 people in the hospital in your own state right now and clearly the steps that should have been taken were not and there were months to prepare so i dont really understand why you would take that approach so, andrew, to be clear, not knocking new york or new jersey, but focusing on one of the key elements here, are we keeping people alive of the top ten states with covid cases, including texas, the five with the deadliest per capita fatality rates happen to be those lockeddown states. And the safer ones are the reopening states its he not a knock but the rationale for that is so clear because the tristate area got hit first as you very well know and they made some mistakes early on that i think hopefully other states are not youre not making those mistakes and now people are protecting themselves in ways that they didnt we now have younger people getting it thank god relative to older people and i hope that younger people dont get it either, but i think to suggest that lockdowns versus not, i dont think thats really the issue in terms of deaths versus hospitalizations i think its a very different issue. But, andrew, i dont think it is because interwoven under all of this is did States Reopen too quickly . Should they go back to locking down their economy my answer is, no, they didnt we didnt we expected, i think everyone did, these flairups other states, including new york, will likely see that as well my point is that the answer to this is not more locking down the economy, it is those smart behaviors, both by individuals and businesses, and we saw in texas some businesses open without any seriousness towards what we need to continue to do we are fortunate that this is the Younger Group with the cases that are being hospitalized. The stays are shorter. Thankfully theyre leaving those hospitals safely, but my point is this, the debate is did States Reopen and should we relock them . My answer is i dont believe thats the solution. Congressman, that Human Behavior at this point that sort of dictates a lot of times before lockdowns people dont want to go to a movie, people dont want to do things. I dont think id be have to want to drink pretty bad to want to go into a bar at this point standing next to someone breathing on them. Yeah, you know, we saw, you know, some businesses remarkably responsible in everything they did. You knew it before you drove into the parking lot others very much not so. Human nature is we follow those clues. Governor abbotts made it clear that were going to return in a big way to just those common sense safety measures. You can already tell over this weekend as well. I think you have to keep maximum pressure on this virus andrew is exactly right from that standpoint and each phase going to have to also learn from others about how you address these flareups, especially among younger people Contact Tracing, while not perfect and its voluntary, is telling us where these cases are coming from. Thats why youre seeing the targeted response by the governor rather than just a wholesale lockdown of the economy. Well see were always between jobs reports and weve got a ways to go, obviously, but if theres going to be a step back, you figure it would be in july if there was some weakness that were going to see given that maybe theres an uneven reopening. But certainly may and june look like maybe not a v but closer to a v than an l. Congressman brady, we appreciate your time. Thanks andrew coming up, were going to talk about the race for the coronavirus vaccine. Brent saunders is going to join us last hour we got that news from regeneron that its covid19 antibody drug is in late state Clinical Trials. Well talk about that as well. Stay tuned, youre watching squawbo rhteronnbk xig he cc. Save hundreds on your wireless bill 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. Futures indicated down sharply. Up 30 points lets take a look at shares of tesla. Tesla this year alone. Tesla is ready and satin short shorts across the back you can see s y sexy four characters that correspond to four tesla model names. Guys youre right. I never knew that i never knew that thats how he was naming the cars. Was that on your radar before . No. At one point didnt they have the se the e, the x, that was a joke for a while that sec thing ive gotten some clarity on. But i dont think i want to talk about it. I realized that after i asked the question i realized that after i asked the question i love elon musk. I told you i was dense. I was dense. I didnt understand it now im with sort of with the program. I dont know how to respond to the program hm. We can move on if you want. You can check it out on twitter. Were talking about people think were stupid i think maybe we are because we said i was on a roll. Sec then i look down and i go oh. Yeah, you can see what theyre saying on twitter. Well leave it there do a twoscreen thing. Keep watching and check it out separately meantime, we have more record coronavirus cases increasing over the weekend meg tirrell joins us with the latest numbers and also some news on vaccines and drugs meg . Reporter hey, andrew holiday weekends are always a bit wonky when you look at tracking cases any way you slice it numbers continued to rise across the south and west if you take a look nationally at what the situation looks like, yesterday we saw about 43,000 new cases reported but, again, a few states didnt report probably because of the holiday. The u. S. Has reported more than 50,000 cases in many of the last few days hospitalizations are starting to increase though deaths have not started to increase and we are watching that quickly to see if those do tick up now we were just showing you a map from the covid tracking project which shows you by state the number of new cases reported yesterday, and you can see that florida by far announced the most new cases more than 10,000 thats after more than 11,000 on saturday you can see there among the darker colors, california also reporting quite a large number texas continues to be concerning as hospitalizations are rising the death rate there or the number of deaths also increasing slightly arizona and california also of concern. Here is the list of evercores isi. Seeing case doubling numbers jacksonville is the fastest in the country. Seeing cases double every eight days charleston, south carolina, san antonio, orlando, tampa rounding out the top five the orange states the largest slowdowns. Northeast kentucky and virginia seeing larger slowdowns as well. So, guys, these trends just continue in the south and the west meanwhile, of course, andrew, as you mentioned, we got that news from regeneron this morning. Starting phase 3 trials. Presumably theyll be running some of them in these areas with this large infection rate as we expect the Vaccine Companies to do as well guys thanks. Ill take it thank you for this update, and of course the regeneron news earlier this morning that you briefed us on. Right now lets talk about that race for the vaccine and the most realistic time line we might be under in terms of when well get that vaccine joining us to do that is Brent Saunders the former chairman and ceo of allergen who just recently left about four weeks ago brent, really good to see you. How are you . Great nice to see you as well, becky thanks for having me. We need your advice on this or your Expert Opinion because the pace of this is happening so rapidly and every day it seems like there is another company that is talking about its phase 2 studies, phase 3 studies, good results theyve seen in a phase 1 perhaps. Honestly its kind of hard to keep up with it. Youve watched this industry youve known a lot about whats happening. Where do you think we stand . Look, i think its very impressive that the biopharmaceutical has responded to the call for a vaccine the way they have. They have over 100 vaccines in development. We have to be realistic. There are challenges associated with developing vaccines normally this takes seven to ten years. Were trying to cut this down to a year or less that poses a lot of risk for example, recruitment into trials for vaccines is a big hurdle manufacturing scaleup is a big hurdle safety testing is a big hurdle the testing is were doing a lot of these things in parallel. The market and a lot of people given the rhetoric thats out there believe that a vaccine is very close i think were looking at the best Case Scenario for a vaccine beingwidely available in 2021, likely First Quarter, maybe Second Quarter so we have to plan around that that doesnt surprise me. Thats what i would have anticipated, first or Second Quarter. You think the market thinks its going to happen Fourth Quarter this year . I do. I think theres been rhetoric around the vaccine being available this year. We might have a candidate finalized, but by the time we finish safety testing, scale up and distribution, that can take a few months i was trying to explain this to a builder. Why cant we have a vaccine . Why cant we have a 90 Story Building on this block right . You have to build a foundation you have to put steel, build a building, get permits, all sorts of surveys same thing with scaling up a vaccine. It takes a lot of work and a lot of time. If thats the case, if were looking optimistically at first or Second Quarter of next year before ones widely available, what does life look like in the meantime here in the United States i think there are so many questions, particularly given some of the outbreaks and flairups that were seeing in the south. We had dr. Scott gottleib with us earlier this morning and he said you have to realize that this now actively the second wave we are looking at a daily number of cases its about to surpass the peak that we had seen back in march and hes pretty actively concerned about that how would you suggest we handle things from here look, i think we have to have a real open discussion around the tradeoffs. A Lockdown Society versus an open society and something in between. I was listening to you and andrew discuss this prior, and i think the reality is, look, theres a saying, right . The presence of disease kills people but the absence of livelihood also kills people so we have to look at how we balance these two things the virus is going to be around for a while. The vaccine is at best several months away. Were Getting Better at therapeutic treatments were able to bend the curb in terms of death rate. I think we have to look at how do we appropriately open society. How do we get back to work in a safe way we need to wear a mask, we need to socially distance, we need to wash our hands and we need to make sure the Health Care System isnt overwhelmed by cases that being said, we cant just go back and close down society either that has a profound impact in Public Health as well. How come its been so difficult to convince people just to wear masks then . For texas to only on thursday make it mandatory to wear masks. If you want to reopen the economy, if you want to get back to a place social distancing and mask wearing are the best defenses you have in that scenario and yet the very people who demand that the economy be open are the ones who are most reluctant to do any of those things. Yeah. It doesnt make a lot of sense to me. I think mask wearing is a very simple thing that we all should do universally i think it has become politicized for some strange reason its a very simple thing to do we should have a National Policy we should have local enforcement of mask wearing and its not just something i think people believe wrongly that its just something you do to protect others you actually protect yourself. The other thing i think we need to do is we need Higher Quality masks in the United States right now the cloth masks or some of the very single one layer masksdont protect as well as the other durable masks. There are better masks the same price as some of these very not well made masks. So we need a better policy on masks. We need Higher Quality masks we need masks available to all and we need to enforce it. Yeah. Probably testing and Contact Tracing i would add to that list, too, so you can actively see where theres an outbreak, where theres a problem, catch it quickly and that would be something that would probably lead to more consumer confidence, too . Right youre exactly right i was with somebody who was diagnosed with covid19 last week and so i went and was tested on friday of last week and i just got my results back on saturday. So eight days to get my nasal swab results back. Thats unacceptable. Thats not the way were going to be able to slow transmission down we need much better testing. In fact, we need Rapid Testing thats got a real predictability about it and is real i take it your test came back negative it did. It did thankfully it did come back negative and my friend is doing well all is good there. But eight days is way too long yeah, it is. Brent, thank you i have a feeling well have you back to talk more about these issues. Great thank you. Joe coming up, is the coronavirus once again flipping the Airline Industrys wings well tell you about a troubling new trend as things are supposedly taking off. Plus, got an update from yelps Data Science Team on what a resurge in virus is doing for american Small Business. As we head to break, check out the shares of boeing wall street journal says another key test flight for the grounded 737 max could take place as soon as this week involving government pilots and Airline Crews from around the world. Stay tuned, youre watching squawk box on cnbc welcome back to squawk box. Dow up 451 nasdaq up 158 points check out the shares of facebook the companys Whatsapp Messaging Service announcing its going to suspends processing Law Enforcement requests for user data in hong kong. Its assessing the impact of chinas new security law particularly on human rights andrew we should mention, joe. Two tweets coming from the president in just the last couple of minutes. The first, and theyre on the economy, folks quote, if you want your 401ks and stocks getting to an all time high, he writes to disintegrate and disappear, vote for the radical left do nothing democrats and corrupt joe biden. Massive tax hikes, they will make you very poor fast. He also tweeted, china has caused great damage to the United States and the rest of the world. A couple of thoughts there hes moved on from sleepy joe, guys hes going with corrupt biden. And but interestingly, if you thought that biden was going to win given where the markets are, its interesting that they havent that the upward pressure especially over the past week has not moved the opposite way so hard to know which way things are headed, but the president tweeting this morning. Meantime, coming up when we return on the other side, new on the ground business closure numbers from yelp. Those are some important pieces of data for all of us. Plus, more on warren buffets new Dominion Energy nat gas deal shares of that company you can see there trading a little bit dominions trading a little bit lower this morning. Well talk about it as well. Stay tuned squawk returns after this. Now you can trade stocks and etfs for any amount you choose instead of buying by the share. All with no commissions. Stocks by the slice from fidelity. Get your slice today. Welcome back to squawk box. In theory the Summer Travel season is here, though this ones anything but normal thanks to the coronavirus after a few weeks of increasing passenger traffic, a new troubling trend is emerging. More people are canceling their trips. Phil lebeau joins us with the latest on that story phil reporter andrew, we are hearing more about this from people in the Airline Industry they were hoping that july and august would really see a big bump in terms of number of people taking trips, but whats happened because of the resurgence of coronavirus cases in places like florida, texas, california, you know, destinations that people maybe were thinking about going to, instead of taking those trips, a lot of people are saying, you know what, im going to hold off. I dont have to use my ticket until the end of 2021 in most cases. As a result, what youre seeing is a gradual increase not of a super snap back that we were expecting. Were still waiting on the fourth of july numbers the bookings are slowing, cancellations are rising covid19 hot spots, this is part of the issue people may have had a trip planned for a particular destination. As cases surged they sat there and said, one, i dont want to get the virus. One, if i go there and a lot of businesses are shut down, why am i taking the trip . Yeah, i want to get away but i dont want to sit in a condo or hotel and have i to get takeout food airline stocks, lets take a look at american secured a 4. 75 billion loan from the Treasury Department still waiting for the exact terms of that loan when you take a look at delta, southwest, United Airlines keep in mind the airlines have raised 46 billion that number is going to go higher, guys over the next three months as they prepare not only for the fall and the winter. Theyve got to get through that First Quarter of next year the First Quarter is the slowest part of the year for the airlin airlines. Where are we now . Reporter compared to last year yeah. Reporter down. Fourth of july it might improve, down 72, 73 , maybe down as much as 70 the hope was you see the snap back youre seeing more flights theyre adding more capacity in july and august. The hope was more people would be taking a summer trip, weekend, week, whatever it might be while the bookings were there initially, what im hearing back is bookings are definitely slowing down and cancellations are in. Things take time, phil. We have to make it safe. Reporter yeah. I also think Everybody Needs to do the drive like were planning on a drive, you know what i mean . Were going to do that. Reporter oh, i know. Were going to plan on one. Its 13 hours. Were like, i dont think we need to stop and spend a i think lets just do it straight we forget what 7 hours is like with those semis and passing reporter i know somebody who drove back from myrtle beach yesterday, left the beach in the early afternoon, thought they would make it home, you know, late evening they didnt get home to new jersey until 1 in the morning. Theyre a little tired this morning. Then its, okay, where is that plane give me a mask where is that plane . Weve got to be reminded its been a while. I remember the last time that will get your attention, the number of semis that youve got to be very, very ready as youre passing, you know, they seem to be coming over i mean, theres a lot that goes on on a 13hour drive, phil. Its not easy. Reporter i agree i remember those days. I havent done one of those in a long time. You know what, lets go down memory lane and do it again. Right all right. Anyway, i do love those places, like the stucces, getting into flying j, being seeing the road warriors. Reporter stop and get yourself some waffle house nothing is better on a road trip than a waffle house. That almost makes it worthwhile thanks, phil data from yelp shows as states have seen a resurgence in coronavirus, many businesses who had reopened have been forced to shut down again. Since march 1st, 16 of previously closed businesses have reopened. Thats a decrease from the last time we looked at it when we saw 20 of businesses had reopened joining us now for a closer look at this, justin norman, Vice President of yelp data and science and a naet at that markowski of jeffries. Justin, i looked at you can predict which ones were talking about, cant you can you tell us which ones are really most vulnerable to the latest setbacks weve had . Yes, thank you. Thanks for having me back. Sure. As you said, you know, we have seen a bit of a bumpy road towards the reopening and recovery, but the main categories that have hit have stayed consistent. Its retail, restaurants, and beauty and fitness have been the hardest sectors being hit. In particular, retail has showed theres about 30,000 businesses overall that have closed since the height of the pandemic and continued to close at a fairly steady rate as weve gone through the reopening process in addition in the restaurant category where a lot of the businesses have had a certain amount of runway that they were hoping to come through, especially as the reopening and recovery has accelerated, we still saw about 26,000 close, which was up since the last time we talked. Can you give us sort of an insight into permanent closures . Is there a way you can tell the difference in the data yeah. Absolutely, we can about 40 we were having a bit of more bumpy road and in addition to that, were seeing that some of the innovation that some businesses have had have been successful in some categories in some categories like restaurants and retailers are more difficult as the government protections have run out or the sort of mitigations that those businesses have used are not really making allowing them to pay the bottom line or get to the bottom line that they need to to stay open or sustain their operations. So, anetta, you look at different data but youre seeing kind of like the same thing, i think. I dont remember very much, but were near in terms of coming back, were near highs in terms of coming back but the Second Derivative has changed you can tell theres bumpiness in trying to reopen from the data exactly if you look at the level of activity, we reflected from mid april. From mid april to mid june it was pretty much a Straight Line up we started to flatten out. You see it in Small Business data, restaurant bookings. Even retail traffic and mobility data very even obviously state by state. You are seeing now contractions in activity and in covid hot spots. That is offsetting the ongoing improvement that you are seeing in late opening states like new york so next basically flat activity now for three weeks in a row so as far as official data in june is still okay as we saw with payrolls last week but by the time we get into july, unless we see something change dramatically in the next week or two, julys data will be much more challenging. Although not everything is losing steam like anything else, there are some things that arent headed that way im going to ask justin whether hes seen that, too. Which ones are they . So for me, geographically were seeing the biggest difference, as i mentioned, youre seeing activity contract in the early reopening states where you had covid Resurgence New york, new jersey, connecticut, a lot of the late reopening states, were still grinding higher. Things are looking good here, its just that, you know, at a National Level thats sort of canceling out and net net youre seeing things flatten out. And its very geographic. Im sure with yelp, too, right, justin you know what, people should buy stuff online would you ever start a bricks and Mortar Retail business i mean, its like theyre gone forever it seems like. Its just hastend that move. Well, there are a couple of things that are happening that are allowing some of these brick and mortar businesses to sort of transition their operations. You mentioned an offline and when youve been on our own platform, people are in the Restaurant Industry shifting pretty heavily into takeout and delivery so some folks are using our software instead of having people seated into tables at a restaurant, theyre using that same software to manage people in parking lots and being able to bring the food to them in a cue thats very similar to sitting in a restaurant. There are ways to transition the business and in those categories were seeing most businesses successful in sustaining. Very good all right. Justin, well check back with you. Aneta, thank you similar stuff arriving from different places but were looking forward to the same picture. Appreciate both of you thank you joe, thanks. When we return, well talk about what Berkshire Hathaway Energy Purchasing natural gas assets means for the future of the industry in the United States if youre watching natural gas this morning, its up by 4. 5 . Squk xilbeig bk. Awbo wl rhtac 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. Total deal is 4 billion in cash and then the assumption of about 5. 7 billion in debt with the purchase Berkshire Hathaway energy is going to be carrying close to 20 all interstate natural gas in the state. They carry now 8 . Now they carry 18 dominion is canceling the pipeline project with duke energy thats a big deal. Thats an 8 billion project theyve been working on since 2014 joining us is rob. I know you didnt have any Dominion Energy shares, but you do say that this strategy, their move to kind of become a pure play utility thats regulated is kind of in keeping with your own kind of series of what youre thinking is that true well, electric utilities, becky, are moving towards electrification model where electricity demand globally is increasing utilities in general are trying to become the pure play, playing that electricity theme this move by dominion allows them to be a more pure play Electric Company basically what do you think is the future of natural Gas Transmission lines, pipeline is this a good buy for berkshire . Yeah. Thats the interesting part here i think this transaction by berkshire, natural gas is a fuel for the future we think that we are in an Energy Transition but natural gas can play a Critical Role you can buy natural gas and renewables Going Forward the world can produce energy and have less carbon emission so, at tortoise we think a Natural Gas Pipelines Going Forward and increasing market will pay off for investors in the future Dominion Energy shares this morning were up as much as 8 and closer to about 5 30 this morning and now down by 2 what do you think of all the moving pieces here not just that theyre selling these assets but also talking about trying to get their earnings or sorry, their dividend to a level of paying out 65 of their operating earnings versus 85 they have been paying out now. More in line with what their peers are looking for now and the big deal of the Atlantic Coast pipeline deal being scrapped, as well. The second point you make is a very interesting one scrapping a pipeline that was started back in 2014 increased regulatory concerns associated with that pipeline and it just made the pipeline uneconomic for dominion and duke it made sense to cancel those. The important thing 90 of the customers that were on that pipeline and subscribed to that pipeline still wanted that pipeline to be built those customers will have to find another natural gas pipeline so, what we think is to your point about Natural Gas Pipelines, you need more or those customers are going to have to find pipeline. Existing pipelines in the ground are going to be more we think we offer opportunities here to capture the volumes because of the Atlantic Coast pipeline do you think additional deals or is this a one off well, this is a big deal, obviously. 10 billion. You know, we think in general the utility sector and the midstream sector both are under value. So that always warrants potential for new deals. But at this point, both sectors are focused on generating Free Cash Flow for investors, returning capital to investors and that will help boost stock prices and it wont necessitate, you know, significant deals like this in the future all right, rob, thanks for your time today. Thank you coming up, what to watch ahead of the opening bell. Futures continue to be pretty solid. Were about to kick off the first full trading week of the third quarter. The shortened week we got like 4. 5 gain in the nasdaq. Wel e at a full week can do lexus suv at the golden opportunity sales event. Lease the 2020 nx 300 for 339 a month for 36 months. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. Experience amazing i am totally blind. And non24 can throw my days and nights out of sync, keeping me from the things i love to do. Talk to your doctor, and call 8442142424. Welcome back to squawk box a little more than half hour before the opening bell and futures are surging this morning. Bring in ben rendell we have been debating what is driving what looks like a rally into the open this morning what do you think is happening here weve obviously seen green arrows in europe and asia which were keying off of, but explain the optimism ben, unfortunately, were not hearing you. Were going to take a quick pause for just a moment. Try to get that back as we just mentioned, the dow looks like it will open up 450 points literally up 1. 5 there. The s p 500 there clearly over a percent higher and nasdaq similar story there. I dont know if we can get ben back and maybe his audio has been fixed, guys not yet im told were going to wait on ben i should note that the big thing that and i dont know if ben could hear us before, i think he could. Ben, ill give you the floor back with your answer. Hi, can you hear me all right . Yes, i can. I can. I think you were about to explain the optimism in the markets this morning after the july fourth weekend. Yeah. Well, i think were at a transition point somewhere between, you know, the fat early cycle stage of michael performance and moving very quickly into mid cycle i think since the beginning of this experience and this recession, weve been thinking about the macro outlook as some combination of a classical recession dynamic on one hand and on the other, Something Like a natural disaster, which is a very fast moving shot to the economy. And, so, i think as time has gone on, we have gotten a lot of evidence and the monthly constellation of data for may and june support the notion that this is a much more fast moving shot than we thought it was. I think there is, obviously, a good thing in terms of staying risk on in portfolios but we have to be cognizant of the fact that that speed and the way things are moving also means that the fat early cycle performance is not going to last forever. And we need to be thinking about what a robust portfolio to that eventual and diversifying risk dollars between equity and credit and thinking about what is the right constellation of equity markets and u. S. And europe emerging markets. I think transitioning from early to mid suggests taking some profits on those cyclical markets that are really bounced hard and emerging markets, obviously, is a very good example of that right now. So, just to be clear, though, as you move into this second phase, how much of the concern is about either reopening or reshutting certain parts of the market how much of it is just a slow down or a Slower Growth rate in terms of the return back yeah, i think its the former so, i think its the tail on the distribution that has been reemerging and, as you said, thats a function of the virus and the policy response to the virus. Another way of putting it is over the last couple months the reason we have been so pleasantly surprised with data is that, you know, youve had the pickup in the fundamentals as the economy reopened and thats far exceeded what everyone expected but the book end for the negative side of the shot in the sense that everything was the worse data weve ever seen in april transitioning to the best data weve seen in may and june and that sign wave is almost complete our baseline outlook is for decent but slower than it has been and that left tail of the distribution that you need to be cognizant of ben, always good to see you we appreciate your perspective very, very much as we just mentioned the dow up close to 450 points 1. 5 on the market well see where things land at 9 30 a. M. This morning the nasdaq up about 160 points and the s p 500 up about 50. Joe and becky, what a morning. Well see how the day ends and talk about it tomorrow morning make sure you join us tomorrow, guys squawk on the street begins right now. Monday morning welcome to squawk on the street. Coming to you live from separate locations. Kram cramer has the morning off. Shanghai pops nearly 6 and hopes that policy support can offset more record covid cases in the u. S oil is above 40 and plenty of news in energy as squawk was just discussing, david but if jim was here, he would marvel, once again, at the level of interest in buying in this market it is, it is something to behold you