Transcripts For CNBC Squawk Box 20240712

In southwestern louisiana, about 30 miles east as a cat 4 a storm surge forecasters say could be 20 feet deep. Good morning to you. Reporter good morning. The rain is steadily coming down here as hurricane laura moves up the coastline or state line from lake charles up to shreveport where i am the rain is coming down steadily for the past several hours this storm has been downgraded to a category 3. Many concerns remain around heavy rain that could lead to flooding and the possibility of high winds that could impact trees and cause trees to fall and lead to downed power lines and outages much like we are seeing in the southern part of the state. Shreveport is one of the places folks were evacuated to from lake charles we are here along the riverside where folks are staying in hotels to get away from the storm but the businesses here are closed casinos here are closed. The cities in the area, the surrounding area, School Districts all closed for the day as they wait out to see what exactly is going to happen with the storm here as it progresses throughout the day okay. We appreciate that report. Stay safe out there. Some of those images look difficult. Well keep up with you and it. Lets get to the moment that shocked the nba. The Milwaukee Bucks decided not to take the floor for game five of their series against orlando. They made the decision to call for change following the Police Shooting of jacob blake in wisconsin. The cause later taken up by the wnba, several baseball teams, Major League Soccer games and tennis players milwaukee player delivered a powerful message on what would have been the Live Telecast of the game we understand it is not gonna end but that does not mean, young men, you do not do anything dont listen to these people telling you dont do anything because it is not going to end right away you are starting something for the next generation and the next generation to take over. Do you have to be smart . Yes be articulate about the plan, yes. All of those things. They are professionals and they know how to be the best of themselves so i applaud it. It is the young people leading the way and i applaud them the nbas Players Association held a meeting about whether to continue to play this season multiple reports say l. A. Lakers and clippers voted against the season and the other teams voted to continue. The board will meet today to determine the next steps Milwaukee Bucks owner said they didnt know about the boycott before hand but wholeheartedly agree with the players dallas march riffs owner mark cuban gave us this statement i fully support our players. Change is never easy i am with them every step of the way. Its amazing to think the bucks decision to protest four years to the day after Colin Kaepernick took a knee moved on to baseball as well last night unlikely that there is anything near term. Im not convinced that the season was over. That was the lakers and the clippers, the first reaction last night patrick will be on, i think you are going to lead that interview. He said, if you want to continue to bring attention to the whole movement, maybe staying in the bubble and playing might be the way to do that it is not going to be today. There are games scheduled. Whether through the weekend, the week, whatever it is im hopeful that the season eventually gets played finished to me, joe. The thing that is so interesting is that there is a large, moral protest taking place, a test of leadership that could happen here, not just among folks like adam silver and folks in the league and other ceos in the country are watching this and thinking to themselves far outside of sports, what would happen if our employees protested in this way. From a business perspective, uniquely, this is a work stoppage and strikes are done to protest their employiers that arent doing something right the nba has worked hand in hand for players. How do you support these protests and movements sports is a form of entertainment. In other areas, there are operations that are harder if every ups driver decided one day to make a statement on a big moral issue like this, what do you do a lot of ceos have come out in favor of social movements in the like and staked their company and companys reputation on these things how do you handle these things when effectively the employees, this is now about stake holder capitalism in a weird way. Suddenly, they have a lot of power. They are saying something important to the country and the dialogue a unique conversation for our audience about what this means in the context of business we know what happens to how many people are affected by a sports shutdown. It is not just the players im glad there arent any concession workers or anyone else being affected because there arent any fans. There are people dependent on the games. People behind the scenes it is not nearly the number it would be if it was normal. There are ramifications. I dont want to get into the money about it id like to see the players compete. For everyone, i hope it comes to an ending where everybody is satisfied with what is accomplished and then get back to what we love to see them doing. In terms of direct impact, you are right. This is not a money issue. We go to that issue. You go to the Media Networks like espn. Draft kings took a leg lower sighing how it is rippled across think of what andrew said where we were as a country four years ago when Colin Kaepernick first took a knee. Corporate america was divided. Nike was criticized for taking a stand and backing that movement. Fast forward four years later and we have Massive Companies boycotting facebook for the month of july. There is almost an expectation of social activist if employees chose to walk out, there would be an expectation that companies should back them and that is a tricky situation i wasnt going to mention draft kings. It has nothing to do with me obviously. I was settled in yesterday for the bucks game and i got voided that has nothing to do with whats going on. I liked watching it for the past week i know the players love competing too. If you can feel comfortable that youve made your like chris webber said. Youve made your statement it wont come immediately and probably will be who knows, well be talking about this years to come. Hopefully progress is quicker. It is unfortunate. You remember when there were no sports during covid and now there are no sports for another reason its a journey. 2020 has been a journey and maybe an Inflection Point over a lot of our lives and things in our country. Well talk more about this decision its ramifications on sports and on business. After this break, well talk about the other stunning twist that took place overnight. The tiktok soapopera the newly minted ceo quitting last night in a letter made public well bring you the details after the break. Check out shares of netanyahuapp outperformed well be right back after this pampers the 1 pediatrician recommended brand, helps keep baby skin dry healthy so every touch is as comforting as the first pampers. The 1 pediatrician recommended brand what happens when switch to Xfinity Mobile . Well, the good news gets shared. And it gets rated 1 for customer satisfaction. But dont just take our word for it. Take theirs. Its your wireless. Your rules. Only with Xfinity Mobile. Call, click or visit a store today. Saying in recent weeks, ive taken reflection on the corporate reflection and the role i signed up for its with a very heavy heart i wanted to let you all know i have decided to leave the company. Mayer left disney to take this job. This is going to raise a lot of questions about the future of tiktok and the transaction microsoft with deep negotiations to buy that company. There is a clock against the deal President Trump said this company is either going to exist in the United States with a u. S. Owner or it wont be available oracle also said to be looking at this as well there was a question as to what the role of kevin mayer would have been sf r if he was considered a deman you might want to stick around if he felt there was a pay day on the other side or to negotiate the sale clear about the leadership and what this means for potential transaction as he did say, he is expecting a quote unquote resolution very soon whether that leads to one of these types of deals on the table or Something Else, well have to see. Melissa . It almost seems like it would lead to a resolution he was the coo of the chinese parent bytedance that role for him goes away. This is a shadow of what could have been if everything remained the same you have to wonder if the valuation of tiktok takes a hit. With him gone, does that impact what the company is valued at. Coming up, well get you ready well get you ready for a highly anticipated speech from fed chair jay powell at 9 00 a. M. Eastern time. Take a look at shares of box it looks at larger clients for cloud based business on top of the 7 gain in yesterdays regular session. Squawk box will be right back. Good morning, mr. Sun. Good morning, blair. [ chuckles ] whoo. Im gonna grow big and strong. Yes, you are. Im gonna get this place all clean. Ill give you a hand. And im gonna put lisa on crutches wait, what . Said shes gonna need crutches. She fell pretty hard. You might want to clean that up, girl. Excuse us. When owning a Small Business gets real, progressive helps protect what you built with customizable coverage. And im gonna eh, eh, eh. Donny, no. Oh. So much going on fed chairman to deliver a highly anticipated speech and how it will shift its approach after years of falling below the 2 target that speech to begin shortly after 9 00 a. M. Eastern. A busy day for data. Well get the closely watched leakly jobless claims. The second estimate of gdp in the Second Quarter pnding home sales for july Retail Investors have been buying boeing and advanced prices in the last week. The last couple of days, they bought American Airlines facebook and twitter have seen some selling joining the chief Market Strategist how are you . Good to see you. Despite that slight change, what do you think is behind that . I think for tesla and the split, you look at the past history of the splits we have seen i did think the American Airlines buy was particularly interesting. Our clients were buyers of the airlines when this started in march. Turn to the sell side there in early june now to see them start to nibble back when america started to announce some of the layoffs starting, i thought it was really interesting on the other side of it, looking at facebook and twitter. Obviously, facebook has been in the news a lot taking risk off of the table there because they feel the risk is some of the scrutiny they have been under could hurt them as they get closer and closer to the election ill keep our eyes on social media stocks as they have been involved with recently you started with today on the show how will facebook and twitter get into that. Of all the social unrest and the elections will people be more afraid to put their money back turning to the overall markets, nasdaq booked their straight day of gains. I know you noticed as of 12 30, they went to the market highs and the vic move higher. Do you anticipate that moving higher for both at the same time yesterday . Interesting and not a pattern you would expect to see. Weve seen strange patterns a lot. It has to do with a couple of things number one, weird a year as 2020 is, a lot of people are still on the final throws of vacation some places have people starting school and in some places, it wont start until after labor day. A couple of big orders could send things going. Weve seen a lot of things where weve had bonds and stocks higher at the same time. Overall, im not going to make a big deal out of what happened yesterday. It fairs watching. Whenever you see the vic, bonds and gold thats when i think youd have to start paying attention that Something Else may be going on whether stocks that day are higher or lower. We have a little bit of stocks being lower today. It is eight points and the s p 500 future you see recently that gets made up in a couple of seconds. Im not making a huge amount out of Yesterdays Movement there. We want to keep our eyes on it again today. You see it again today and two and three days in a row, you have to think there is a bigger story being told yesterday, a huge winner brought the entire sector higher wondering in days like b that, it was higher and you got news higher box sent that hire again for the premarket now do you seek that in the follow through given the market searching for growth i think the Technology Sector and some of the stocks we are talking about today continues to be incredibly appealing to everybody. It is the one area where you can see growth across the board in covid19 in retail, you dont see that. There seems to be two or three big winners. We are seeing Companies Taking advantage of it. They cannot only gain customers, they can keep customers. Once they start to get on services and salesforce talking about the fact that theyve had a great lift i dont expect people to say once they go back to work, i dont want salesforce anymore. Taking advantage of it and they dont want to see the growth in those one or two industries. They have so Many Companies continuing to innovate and now extending the time theyll go back to the office until at least january. So many of these have the opportunity to continue to do so i got to ask you one last question, that is about bar stool sports hes been a force in bringing Retail Investors aboard. That, i would imagine is good for all of you guys. Hes out there and professes hes not a professional. Is he a positive or a negative in your view i think first of all, more people being interested in the market is a definite positive. Two or three years ago, with sque talked about the market, particularly millennials and why arent they interested in the market hats off to him. Hes had this following the one word of caution he admits, go get educated that is the kind of thing that can tend to not go well. People understand the investments and people are working from home for the first time peeking interest and they want to do so it is a good thing for investments overall. Thank you coming up, could the white house cut congress out of the e equation on a Second Airline bailout. Check out shares of abbott labs they won u. S. Marketing for covid tests. Rolling out at a price of 5 bringing the stock up 18 . Well be right back. As business moves forward, were all changing the way things get done. Like how we redefine collaboration. How we come up with new ways to serve our customers. And deliver our products. But no matter how things change, one thing never will. You can rely on the people and the network of at t. To help keep your business connected. Good morning u. S. Equity futures this hour are in the red down a little less than a point. The dow indicated to be down s p down 2. 5 President Trump considering executive action to avoid the big layoffs at u. S. Airlines joining us now to talk about that and it is scott kirbys first hundred days as ceo of united 100 days ago is when scott kirby took over at united. A lot of people say, when you look at a ceo, look at the first 100 days on may 20, these stocks. All of the airlines, they were close to the lows of how far they fell off because of covid19 since then, united shares up 48 . What kind of a stamp has he put on united. The entire industry has been struggling hes been very aggressive and decisive about aggressively making moves, cutting costs. Adjusting the squed you adjusting the exceed you adjusting the schedule and adjusting the fleet. Uniteds capacity down 68hour. If there is one signature move, if there has been a number of them, that push centered around leveraging the mileage plus frequent Flier Program they borrowed about 5 billion the q 3 cash estimate 17 billion. They are still burning millions a day but thats down compared to where they were late march early april. Lets shift gears a little and look at all the Airline Stocks and focus on the question of if there is the possibility of another payroll package coming from the white house saying it is possible the president will say, look, lets do something so employees are not fired or let go. The Flight Attendants Union is not crazy about the idea why . Most likely, it would involve telling the treasury department, look, make several million available to borrow to pay these employees. The airlines have already leveraged substantially. They do not want to barrow anymore money. Theyll take a grant ultimately, joe, this comes down to how many people are flying. Right now, the traffic levels are down between 67 and 74 of the day. They are not down what people were hoping for. Remember, september and october are slower than what you get in july and august. The first quarter, that is the slowest time of the year for the airline. Tough stretch for the airlines coming up. It is a tough stretch you are right. There are realities of where you are right now. You like a bridge. If you knew there was going to be a block buster therapeutic or vaccine, you might try to keep everybody on that would imply a really sharp snack back in the fall is that even possible . Can an airline and a guy running a guy or a gal, can he depend on that and say keep everybody on no. Not right now. You talk with the airline executives, scott kirby, hell be the first one to say, i dont want to let however people we have to let go on october 2. But this has to become a smaller airline. They are not alone there is not the traffic or the business there in terms of international or Corporate Travel it is just not there they have to become smaller. The question comes if you want to keep the employees in place particularly the pilots and others that would cost a lot if you want them in place, congress has to step up with another cares act. This comes down to a stimulus package. There is no way of attaching that, the republicans, democrats and the white house are basically all on board with giving the employees another 25 billion to keep it in place if there is a stimulus package. Washington is just looking at each other right now like they are not doing anything the spokesman is a union where 15,000 pilots fly for united airlines. I dont think management and unions here are really adversaries. You dont want airlines eventually to go belly up. Everybody loses a job. Does the union understand there are necessary but painful things that need to be done how should we approach this . What is the unions view point weve got to get that cares act payroll extension. It worked for six months and brought us to this point you had mentioned the vaccine will come. This is the holding fuel to get there. We expected the furlough we expected the one two punch. They denied our early out products to leave early and lose jobs they are shocked by that they signed the deal necessity didnt understand or withdrew that. We are talking over 200 jobs they snatched the feet out of the jaws of victory and turned a win win into a lose lose its difficult to go to the hill and talk about how we are working together when management made this near sighted move. There is more than just the airline workers. There is 1,300 jobs attached to each one thats a million jobs across the space beyond the Airline Industry that is at risk here. We have to get this done the president is on board. The house is on board. The senate is there. We have a bunch of pilots saying, yes, we have a bunch of cockpits but nobody wants to get this on the runway and keep going. This affects a lot of service if we get it done my question to you is what do you think the american taxpayer should get for this help should they get anything should they get warrants or a shake in the company to the extent that the Company Comes back should taxpayers benefit what do you think would be a fair and equitiable change theyll be subsidizing these jobs im a taxpayer just like you. We take a keen value in those dollars. It goes beyond those jobs. The investment for taxpayers, im one of them. Officials have determined to be valuable put us out six months from now when we have a vaccine and you dont have the airplanes flying. It takes 6 to 12 months im not disputing we want to keep planes in the air and help jobs the beneficiaries of this ultimately keeping people beyond these jobs will be the Share Holders. The taxpayers are subsidizing the Share Holders. Thats what is happening im asking whether you believe, if thats the case, should taxpayers get anything or why the Share Holders should somehow be a uniquely advantaged group of Share Holders unique to every other kind of share holder in america as a hockey fan, you are looking at where the puck is through a straw. There are vast benefits keeping airlines healthy and ready to roll why wouldnt you advocate if you care so much about the pilots and the economy and keeping planes in the air. Why wouldnt you say, sure, absolutely they should get warrants or shares because we care so much about this industry why wouldnt you advocate for that with we ae are asking for an extension of the c. A. R. E. S. Act. There were warrants in that im saying we understand what the program was and we are asking for that extension denis, what do you think the right size is for if it was a bridge and the question of a vaccine to be here, maybe we leave everybody on does the union foresee shrinking the workforce to match the new reality. In a perfect world, wed like to keep everybody on buts that not possible what do you think needs to happen with supply and demand for air travel in the post covid world . Management doesnt make the call you didnt make the call on the warrants either . No. You are like a pilot. Thanks for reminding me what the size of the airline, managements call. We are in touch with the sell side and buy side. This is holding fuel we dont want to divert. The diversion is to cut the jobs and shrink airlines and be ready for recovery the airlines are more utility than ever before beyond Share Holders, it is stake holders and communities and everything wrapped up in the million plus jobs. 1. 5 trillion of value brought by the airlines every year 5 of the gdp. If you dont think the airlines are connected to the economy, g to manu faplaces like boeing and others tough times we are hoping there is im going to drive 13 hours again tomorrow id much rather fly. Well toss it over to you now. Coming up, well tell you what jeff bezos did yesterday. It is related to the stocks. We are digging into last nights decision by the milwaukebue cks that brought the sports world to a stop squawk box will be right back. At leaf blowers. You should be mad your neighbor always wants to hang out. And you should be mad your smart fridge is unnecessarily complicated. Make ice. Making ice. But youre not mad because you have e trade which isnt complicated. Their tools make trading quicker and simpler so you can take on the markets with confidence. Dont get mad get e trade and start Trading Commission free today. Welcome back to squawk box. Jeff bezos reaching a new milestone as his net worth soars above 202 billion thanks to gains in amazon, hes now 78 billion richer than bill gates who stands at number two a jump in tesla shares has pushed elon musks net worth to make it crazier, jeff split his wealth when he got divorced with his wife. You can think about what that number otherwise may have been when we come back, more on the night that shocked the sports world players boycotting and sending a Ripple Effect across the league. A Ripple Effect of stocks this morning. Getting to business and leadership in social movements ldiss the country wel g into all of this after the break. [beep] [whoosh] give everyone something to look up to. The allnew highlander hybrid. Toyota. Lets go places. Welcome back to squawk box. This morning, a stunning show of support by various sports teams overnight. It began when the nbas Milwaukee Bucks cancelled that playoff game against the Orlando Magic to protest the Police Killing of jacob blake that decision quickly snowballed with players and teams and other sports taking a similar stand in cancelling their games for more on whats next, were joined by patrick ricci, the director of Sports Program in the st. Louis, as well as our own jabbar young, Sports Reporter at cnbc patrick, i do want to start with you trying to understand what the implications are, not just the moral implications for sports, but the business implications of where we are in this particularly unique moment. Well, its a very unique situation. And obviously, a historic one. And certainly, i do not blame the players at all for taking the stance that they did, but the financial repercussions, if they boycott the remainder of the season, andrew, are substantial. Were talking in the billions of dollars. The league could potential enact a force Majeure Clause where they would essentially december avoid the collective Bargaining Agreement which could lead to a lockout for this season. Were not only talking, andrew, about billions of dollars lost for this season, what are the financial impacts for the 2021 season thats on the table as well. Jabari, help us understand, i know youve been doing reporting around this issue. How the players have felt about the protests themselves. To the test this is a big test of leadership for adam silver in all of this because he has tried to be, i think, as supportive as any commissioner could be over the black lives matter issue how theyre thinking about it, and i hate to talk about money, but were going to because were here on cnbc trying to understand the business implications who is going to openly pay for this well see its okay to talk about money, andrew, but you have to understand for the money to be made, people have to be satisfied. Right now, you have the people, the nba players, the product is not satisfied. Youre talking about a league that shared revenue. And players have heard enough on these particular issues and i think they want more answers its one thing to say how much money is being lost. Human lives are being lost black lives are being lost thats the issue wnba has stood on its ground, maya moore, to help a man out of prison, after a Wrongful Conviction thats movement. Last night, thats movement. The nba players they followed, thats movement. Im looking at the nfl, obviously, the owners talking to people about this, and its very sensitive because its still new. The emotions are really still high when you talk about this type of issue, people around the league. I remember talking to one person last night you know, the 76ers, talking about meek mill, saying meek was right, things dont happen to rich white people, guess what happens when meek mill gets involved ma kraft came to his side when you have people all around the world come to the players side and the black lives matter issue and really throw money at it nba has been phenomenal. They have a platform they have black lives matter theyve had a 3 million Nba Foundation that they started, the coowner of the brooklyn nets, i know theyre doing another 50 million there is money being tossed to the issues, but i think players want more. Unless they get that, who cares what happens guess what, lives are being lost jabari, i think there are a lot of business and policy leaders who are watching us this morning. I think one of the bigger issues here, i dont want to say bigger issues, but an issue here that folks are trying to contend with and think about, a. , its not just whats happening in the nba. But actually whether this kind of, quote unquote, work stoppage in the form of a protest is going to spill into other industries were seeing, obviously, other sports but other industries it could how those businesses are supposed to react to it . And the interesting component about this, is typically, when, quote unquo quote unquote, employees participate in a work stoppage, its usually to protest their own employers. Right so, theres an understanding or an acceptance of the economic ramifications of that, because somehow the employer is not serving their employees properly thats usually the argument. So, we can understand that economic understanding, right . It becomes harder when eyoure protesting a larger issue outside of your own employer and employee and who is protesting. Because it effectively means that the nba, if they bear the cost of this and disney bears the cost of this, and everybody else down that line bears a cost, that they as corporations are protesting these issues as well im not saying they shouldnt. I just think there has to be an understanding of what it all is. Yes, weve got to understand where its coming from a human element, though, andrew. When you talk about business business cant get done unless human beings are alive to do the business okay we can talk about that all the time thats what you see from the nba. The nba are not employees, theyre partners, and the nba and owners are partners. It doesnt fly its different theyre a cba, theyre tied together they share revenue its about a 50 50 split these are not employees. This is telling the owners who have political ties we need your help okay the same way you can buy a team and it can go up and make a lot of money based on that team. Are you putting enough money in black communities . Are you helping areas around that arena that develop . Because money talks. And if you put money behind the issues maybe youll see results. I think thats what it is. Right or wrong, remember, theyre expressing their american right to protest. To go up and say, hey, i dont like just so you understand, do you think theyre protesting the owners, do you think theyre asking the owners to spend more money on these issues . Thats not what im i think theyre asking for theyre asking the owners, listen, we need your influence to help solve these matters. Like i said before, the nba doesnt everybody is not going to agree with the way they did this theres a lot of confusion about how they did, but they did it. I think thats where the moment is and the statement is. The hard part is what happens next jabari, we very much appreciate the conversation. Patrick, i appreciate the conversation sorry we couldnt go longer. We will continue this, i promise. Squawk box returns with a lot more 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. Good morning, welcome back to squawk box here on cnbc im joe kernin along with Andrew Ross Sorkin. Melissa, we didnt have to say goodbye yesterday until tomorrow pop. Until tomorrow. See you later u. S. Equity futures at this hour are nixed wow, that screen again the dow indicating down 50 points in the s p. Off by two but more records could be in the works. Nobody knows andrew meantime, some breaking news on hurricane laura officially making landfall overnight. That storm slamming into louisiana near the texas border as a category 4 storm, before weakening to a cat 3 maximum sustained winds are close to 129 Miles Per Hour. The storm making its way inland as officials warn from the devastation stemming from the storm. In the area of nearly half of the worlds oil making capacity. Weve been watches wti crude, 43. 24. Fed officials and bankers will gather for the first ever jackson wholesomet which kicks off today. Chair powell about to give a speech in a few hours. An joining us now for that is jason turner, chairman of strategics Research Parter ins jason, good to see you Jerome Powell is expected to talk about average inflation targeting, letting inflation run a little hotter so clearly an asset bubble is not a first order of concern for the fed but should it be i dont think so, melissa i think at this point, you know, the rate at this point is equal to the worst levels we saw in the 2008 2009 recessions i think we are, where we are a lost of decisions have been made in terms of lockdown. Were beyond the feds control and i think the fed is doing what it has to do, given the circumstances. I would also argue that the fiscal package going throughout probably makes it more important that the fed stay vigilant, in terms of getting more liquidity into the system. There are no great choices here. I would argue, for the fed but i think given the state of the play at this point, in my own opinion, it shouldnt be particularly where the asset bubble is right now. Do you think in terms of what the fed talks about, in terms of what the fed might do, that the elections play a jorole and im not talking about the politics of anything, just in terms of timingafter jackson hole, theyve got a september meeting and they dont meet until after the election i wont if that changes in your view how the fed affects policy . Yeah, melissa, in my own opinion, theres not a lot of wiggle room for the fed here i think most of the time when people have gotten wrong about the fed is when they dont listen to the fed itself at this point when i started my career, there was a lot of white smoke black smoke stuff where the fed was not quite as transparent. I think the fed has for a long time telegraphed precisely what its doing im not sure the election changes anything at all. If anything, the election, given the difference in the two candidates creates more Economic Uncertainty which would make it more important for them to have a lot of liquidity in a system that remains extremely accommodative. I dont think it changes as much, but perhaps given the differences between the two candidates it makes it more likely its accommodating. This sounds a green light, jason, for investors to continue to be invested in the growth areas, higher yield areas of the market, highyield get odebt or emerging market debt you already said the fed isnt worried about an investment bubble so here we are. What sort of investment views do you take listen, i take and this is where it gets tricky, of course, because most of us who are professional have some sense of valuation discipline and yet, its very hard to have any sort of valuation discipline and growth running at 25 a year at an animnual rate. So for the individual with my own particular opinion, you want to stay careful, you want to stay invested. But you want to perhaps move into the more reciprocal sectors that are cheaper, theyre prape and the vaccine, lord willing that happens shortly, but it could take a while but you want to be careful in chasing a narrow group of companies because things could change very quickly. The top five, not that theyre uniquely positioned to benefit from whats happened in the lockdown, ultimately its what youre paying for the asset. And in my opinion, those companies are fully valued right now. It doesnt mean they wont continue to go up. Its just that you could have a lifestyle change very quickly in those companies should other things happen. That would be as an individual investor, that would be my advice all right jason, good to see you, thank you. Thank you, thanks for having me on. Coming up, the jackson hole virtual symposium kicks off today. Ecb chief economist philip lane joins us after the break we will have a number of guests throughout the day and tomorrow. And later, the ceo of tiktok stepping down just months after takinghe j tob were going to discuss the future of the company and much more on squawk box coming right back and provide solutions that help you run your business better. Because the decisions you make have far reaching implications. And a relationship with a Corporate Bank like pnc can provide just what you need. As one of the nations largest banks, pnc brings customized insights and a local approach. To make informed choices now and in the future. We know that traditions matter more if theyre celebrated with the ones you love. Thats why were proud to partner with the kentucky derby. Welcome to camp witonsafun on xfinity y. Its summer camp, but in your living room. Learn how to draw with a minions expert. How to build an indoor Obstacle Course plus. Whatever shes doing. And me, jade cattapreta. The host of es the soup camp tonsafun. Its like summer camp, but minus the poison ivy. Unless you own poison ivy. In which case, why . Just say summer camp into your xfinity voice remote to join. Learned a second languageument applied to college applied for a loan started a business started a blog shared a picture shared a moment turn your wish list into a checklist, with internet essentials from comcast. When youre connected, youre ready for anything. Welcome back to squawk box. The feds virtual jackson hole symposium kicking off in just a few hour investors are waiting to hear from fed chair jay powell. Well, of course, have live coverage of his speech later this morning ahead of that, we want to get to Steve Liesman with a bit of a preview and a bit of speculation of what wemay be hearing this morning, steve and a special guest markets are awaiting that speech from fed chair Jerome Powell at 9 00 p. A. M. Theyre also listening to the European Bank economist and governor of the bank philip lane. Governor, thank yous for joining us thank you lets get into it here, the eurozone fell a little bit less than the u. S. In the first quarter. Fell a little more in the Second Quarter. Im talking about gdp. Tell us where you think the eurozone is right now when it comes to recovery and where its going. So, i think what weve seen over the summer, its more or less in line with our baseline projections. So, in our baseline, like everywhere, quarter 2 is going to be the worst quarter. Which, by the way, within quarter 2, at the worst month would have been april. So, weve had a great big falling out, but also week by week, the recovery is happening. One of the undersides is its still a long way to go so, in terms of growth rates, we think quarter 3 is going to be quite a strong growth rate but the growth rate doesnt mean so much in this world, we follow two quarters of very negative performance. Its going to take a number of quarters of positive performance to get back to where we were so, i think, theres nothing our baseline was built around once the economys unlocked that will will be recovery. But the reality is, you know, while we still have to manage this virus in terms of social distancing, other restrictions, theres not going to be a return to normal or Economic Activity for a considerable period. Philip, there was a good spurt of growth that you had the numbers were actually outperforming earlier this summer now, youve had a bit of a return of the virus. Are you starting to be more pessimistic about whats going to happen in the fall . Well, i think our baseline was based on essentially a concept of bumpiness that it there were zigs and zags it was not going to be the case that the dynamic of managing the pandemic would be perfectly line linear, where progress is made and maintained you know, i think the study of past pandemics is that essentially, youre going to have localized outbreaks recurrently. And, you know, the big challenge now is to make sure, when we see these outbreaks that thats in a prompt localized manner as makes sense in order to avoid a generalized lockdown so, it remains, we do think, that the business, what we expect is, but of course, the more the authorities can really make sure that the virus is contained, as much as possible, thats the most important policy objective for the economy. Philip, just two more questions here is the European Central bank prepared to do more . And if so, what more could it do its already created a very large loan fund. And already is at negative Interest Rates is there more in the ecbs arsenal . Is it prepared to use it you know, weve signaled all along that were basically ready as needed. So, youknow, weve made a lot of policy moves between march and june and we stand ready to do more as needed and i think what you maybe have come to learn in these months that Central Banks have a lot of capability Central Banks, even in this world where Interest Rates are low or negative, theres a lot we can do. This is not to say the Central Banks can solve all of the problems we have a very limited role, really, compared to fiscal policy in this environment but within our mandates, within our remiss, i were not be concerned. And the move for action, we can definitely step up as needed philip, im sorry, thats all the time we have thank you so much for joining us look forward to your speech later this morning thank you back to you, guys all right, thank you very much, steve. Of course, jay powells speech 9 00 a. M. Eastern time coming up, tiktoks leader leave after a couple months. And apple still simmering, cnbcs jon fortt breaking it down time now for todays aflac trivia question. What Company Announced it will be opening a new Flagship Store in times square in september thanere sw when cnbc squawk box continues is the aflac duck who helped me cover it. Aflac. These are all the cab rides to my physical therapy. And aflac paid me directly to help. Aflac. What he said. And this unexpected bill is from. The twothousanddollar specialist. Thanks. Aflac. When youre sick or injured, aflac is there. We can help with Expenses Health insurance doesnt cover. Get to know us at aflac dot com. Its the simple joy of gewashing your hands,. Without ever touching a faucet. Its the Little Things that matter. Thats why we create moments to feel kohler clean, every day. Come on in, were open. All we do is hand you the bag. Simple. Done. We adapt and we change. You know, you just figure it out. Weve just been finding a way to keep on pushing. Weits totally not theg a way tsame without you. Were finally back and cant wait until you are too. Universal orlando resort. Buy now and get two days free at the parks. Restrictions apply. Now, the answer to todays aflac trivia question. What Company Announced it will be opening a new Flagship Store in times square in september the answer krispy kreme the store will include a glazed waterfall and a protection line capable of making 400 dozen doughnuts per hour thats what we need you know, the controversy is still simmering around apples app store. Developers say apple wields too much control over digital commercial jon fortt joins us now with his take on the situation. Hey, jon joe, you know, apples got a strong argument here these complaining Developers Like epic, their ridiculous. Apples app store is 12 years old. 2 million apps, 68 billion in commercial enabled just last year apple did the work of creating a phone that was easy enough to use and an App Store Safe and reliable enough that people would spend money on it. Even though there are more android user phones, iphone users spend more money in the app. Like a retailer charging extra to make a profit since when, joe, is that against the law true. I have a feeling that theres another way of looking at this, though well, yeah. I mean, on the other hand, epic and the developers do have a point. I mean, apple is a 2 trillion juggernaut and it rules its app store with an iron fist youre a small developer and you want to sell gains or mobile content in the mobile era, basically, you have two choices, apple or google play either is going to take 30 out of your hide youre apple says you can switch to android. Thats like saying if you dont want to shop in the company town you can move out of pennsylvania and work at another town this is digital paternoism, john i want another segment on it the concept that ios 14, and facebook cant believe the audacity isnt that weird i need to think about it more to see whose side to come down on its perfect for this segment. Theres no shortage of issues, joe. Seriously, on this one, ive talked to former apple executives about this. Ive talked to Developers Like epic about this. Theres some strong issues and points on either side. But i think it comes down to the question of is the iphone just one lone smartphone swimming in an ecosystem of lots of different devices where you have all of this choice or, once you get an iphone, do you get locked into a particular ecosystem where youve got imessages and your apps and its not so easy to switch out of because if the apple phone is an ecosystem on to itself, maybe youing out to look at practices because its central to life thats something that lawmakers have to figure out andrew and melissa, both. Melissa, go ahead. Jon, you made the case that this is a monopoly you said that apple is one of many phones out there in the whole eco you know, then, whatever but here it, apple is one of a few phones and so, like you said before, its the company town. So, 30 does seem like a lot, if you think about your comparison you that made, with a retailer selling like a third party on a platform what if amazon charged 30 you dont think that would catch the ire of all of those retailers out there . Isnt that sort of the similar argument you would never think of charging a Third Party Seller 30 of profits . If theres a viable alternative. I happen to be an amazon prime subscriber, i recently started buying stuff from walmart. Walmart. Com, theyve done a lot on their app they ship pretty quickly theres a bit of competition there. When it comes to that phone, i mean, im in that ecosystem. Im not going to carry around another phone because i dont like a particular app stores policy yes, there are questions that the tightly controlled app stores keep us safe. Does that mean thats the only way they keep us safe . What if google were to have it on apple and vice versa what could that do to the user. Jon, im not going to be balanced about this at all im only on one hand on this particular issue i see this very differently which is i say to myself, apple built the phone. And all of the developers that are developing apps for the iphone are the equivalent of somebody being commissioned to do effectively, a white label or Supplier Program for that phone. These apps are purposebuilt for that phone so the developer decides or not that they want to do business for that phone and thats it. All of these things by the way, this whole industry doesnt even exist prior to this if they want to make games for all of their things and do it own a web browser, they can. But its a little bit to me if a car manufacturer went to a car part supplier. And the car part supplier started to build purposebuilt products for the car company and then negotiate what the deal is, and thats the end of it the idea of the sort of larger picture, sure. There are other alternatives but i dont even think its about alternatives in this instance. For me its very cut and dried what the story is. If walmart were to get somebody to make batteries for them, theyre making the batteries for them andrew, you could have argued very effectively on microsofts side in the late 90s in that case, because, hey, they had an operating system, windows. They decided to make a browser on it. And put the two things together because they argued that was a better experience. Its their operating system. Thats how they chose to run it. If you didnt like it, you could go get a mac, right . And, by the way, that was somewhat of my view even back then meantime, we wanted to get your views on this breaking news overnight, tiktok Ceo Kevin Mayer, as you know, quitting the company just months of that appointment after they came over from disney said in the recent weeks, as the political environment has sharply changed ive done significant reflection on what the corporate changes require and what it means for the global role i signed up. Against that backdrop, we expect to make a decision very soon its with a heavy heart i wanted you to know that ive decided to leave the company. Whats the potential reaction to that i think the implication to this is this is pretty much a done deal. Its just a question who its going to go to he can see the writing on the wall from kevins perspective, my goodness, life comes at you fast he gets passed up for the disney ceo role he finds this role with a hit app and that role gets pulled out from under him 2020, boy, the pace hes moving. Heres the question i have, either he would have been consider the key man for the transaction or you would have had something built into your contract that would have paid you out had there been a transaction. Maybe thats still in the cards. Do we know anything about either i do not. Heres a guy who clearly wanted to be a ceo of a global company, right . That seems to be what he wanted at disney. Thats what he wanted from tiktok thats not happening either place. I imagine hes eager to find a place where that can happen. Okay. Jon, great to talk to you on one hand or the other. So this is fun well do it again soon lets do it. Still to come on squawk box, the ceo of rite aid discusses the companys Covid Response and strategy as we head into flu and on nbc, mike tirico is going to join us, to talk about the boycott that has shocked the sports world nba players walking out of the playoffs following the shooting of jacob blake were going to talk about it and implications for businesses across the country and in the next hour, jeff blau is going to talk office space, from new york city, the impact on the Real Estate Market we might even talk about Jerry Seinfelds oped in het New York Times about how new york is coming back squawk box is coming back, too, right after this. Some Companies Still have hr stuck between employees and their data. Entering data. Changing data. More and more sensitive, personal data. And it doesnt just drag hr down. It drags the entire business down with inefficiency, errors and waste. Its ridiculous. So ridiculous. With paycom, employees enter and manage their own data in a single, easy to use software. Visit paycom. Com, and schedule your demo today. Welcome back to squawk box. The issue of whether its safe to return to school front and center for so many voters. Eamon javers joins us with the latest results how voters feel in battleground states eamon. Reporter yeah, good morning, andrew as we get ready for that backtoschool season, some kids already in school. Some parents telling us in these battleground states they dont feel its safe to go back to school yet the country is split on this is everywhere in the country. Take a look at the numbers, overall, 42 feel its safe, 47 feel its not safe College Students say 26 , College Parents say 46 . It is safe to go back to school. So parents might be a little bit more eager there to have the kids go back to school overall, whether it will be safe to go back to school, people say its 47 of the people say its not going to be safe until theres a covid vaccine. 54 say it wont be safe until theres rapid covid19 testing so theres some thresholds that the nation has to get over before people feel that its fine to go back to school. What are people doing to go back to school . Parent its surveyed in this poll, 47 say theyre buying additional technological devices. 30 are asking family and friends for help 30 say theyre quitting a job or working fewer hours and thats got Enormous Economic implications and 21 are moving to a school with inperson classes if they can afford that. Andrew, i think that 30 number of people considering overall, this idea of just moving on here, i think thats a staggering one that they cant continue their work life the way it is. They may have to quit or work fewer hours. Eamon, real quick, try to extrapolate that out to what you think it really means in terms of the election and the politics of all of this reporter yeah, what were seeing by a small margin, voters do trust joe biden and the democrats more to reopen schools safely than they do donald trump and republicans. What youre seeing is an edge here for democrats but its not a dramatic edge. Weve seen in the poll as we talked about yesterday, a bump for President Trump in the past week or so you are seeing momentum for the president. Its very narrow right now, i think biden has the edge on all of these issues. Eamon javers in washington, thanks thanks, andrew. Avoiding the flu this year is more important than ever. Covid19 is still a threat to lives because it putsmore of a burden on our Health Care System here to talk about how these handling the Upcoming Season much more is heyward donigan, ceo of rite aid. I guess dread isnt the right word 2020 has been one thing after another, heyward, were certainly aware that flu season is problematic if covid is still prevalent. How is rite aid taking steps to try to manage that situation for all of justice. Well, it certainly is one thing after another. The good news is flu is something familiar to us in fact, we do 2. 4 million flu shots or distributed 2. 4 million flu shots last year. Were anticipating a significant surge in the need for flu shots and the desire to get flu shots this year. In fact, only 40 of americans got flu shots last year. The recommendation now, from the cdc, is that 80 of americans really need to get a flu shot this year because you dont want to get the flu and covid plus, its going to be confusing to know whether you have the flu or covid luckily, we among others are doing both flu tests and covid tests. So, you can find out, you know, which is which but the best thing to do is not get the flu in the first place and while the flu shot in 100 , you know, it doesnt prevent 100 of all flu cases, it significantly helped last year, it was very effective. So we highly encourage everyone to get flu shots we are donning all of our personal protective equipment to keep you safe and were already seeing a lot of flu activity but certainly, flu and covid is not going to be a pretty picture. Heyward, a day doesnt go by where we dont report on new technology, or tests, whether a saliva test or another test. You must need a whole department to study the testing on covid19 to understand which one is best to order in bulk for the coming flu season where do you stand now has a decision been made well, right now, we were the early tester we were actually the first test up in america to do the covid19 testing and a lot has changed since then the original test that we did which we dont do anymore is the one that goes way up into your brain and is pretty painful. We dont do that its painful ive had it. We offer a test for anyone who symptomatic or asymptomatic, its free. Its a swab that goes around both nostrils. Its administered through the drivethrough test site. Our average turn around has been 2. 6 days for many, many weeks now. We are very rapid. We say two to seven days is what you should count on but it has been 2. 6 days. Its painfree and its free, you do it through the drivethrough, so theres no contact. And that right now is the cheapest most reliable, most effective and fastest way, really, in any case to get your testing done now, youre right, we have a whole team of people looking at, you know, what are the rapid tests going to look like in the future saliva testing, point of care testing, home testing, all of that is something that were looking at and something that well be on top of and hope to distribute in our retail stores. But for now, we really think this is a great, great solution for most americans and its free and its painless. Heyward, i want to ask you a question that could give us an idea not only of rite aids business but just the overall environment, and that is back in the pharmacy, were going to ask you about the front end sales in a second, too, with amazon but as far as the pharmaceutical sales, have you seen any decline in your average pharmaceutical business and what im getting at is whether people have neglected or not been to a doctor because of quarantine so that they dont have prescriptions for all of the things that before 2020 used to pack the you always have to wait when youre at the pharmacy maybe not at rite aid but its a busy, busy place, with people maintaining their health has there been any decline in just, you know, standard care that pharmacies provide, given that, you know, people arent going to the doctor. Maybe theyre not being diagnosed. Maybe theyre not treating other ailments absolutely, the biggest headwind for our business and the reason we bull pulled guidas that the doctors offices shut down starting in march and theyre only now reopening in some markets its not affected the maintenance medications. Everyone has loaded up on the maintenance medications but acute scripts is where were seeing pressure point. And up until two weeks ago, we werent even doing vaccines. All of a sudden, markets are opening. Virginia, for example, where i live and where wehave rite aid is back in business. In fact, the doctors that i talk to say theyre seeing more than their normal business because people are trying to catch up. But in some markets like california, theyre still not all open you cant necessarily go to a doctor the same way, all hours arent open. All facilities arent open so its very marketspecific we are seeing the acute medications bouncing back. But theyre not yet until recently, they were not at the levels that they were before we expect this to all normalize toward the end of the year but, you know, you just never know if another wave hits were not sure what the states will do in terms of doctors and elective surgeries. Wherever i go, i always bring stuff from the front end, i dont have to wait in at that cashier. Whatever it is i buy a lot of stuff, heyward, tmi, i know. But with Amazon Online during the quarantine are front end sales really being impacted by that weve really had the best run in comps weve had in a long time so, we had an extremely strong first fiscal year quarter. And were still seeing very, very strong results. Were not seeing the traffic as much as were seeing basket size significantly up were seeing very good results on the front end ecommerce business skyrocketed. And we Just Launched instacart on a National Basis and that business is really cranking. So were seeing really good front end results. Thats been one of the benefits of covid, ironically people dont really want to go to a big box so much they like to go in and out and our stores arent as crowded as a Grocery Store its much safer social distancing its just better and more convenient so we are seeing great, great result there, all Things Considered i mean, not talking about anything weird, you know what i mean, toothpaste, shaving stuff. Fibercon just normal stuff, haeyward thats expensive, that fibercon stuff. Thank you for coming on this morning. Good luck. A lot of the pharmacies, everybody is pitching in its heroes all over the place i think people in pharmacies giving the tests as well, thank your employees for us. Theyve been there through this whole thing unbelievable to see them in action thank you so much. Youre welcome. See you later. Andrew okay coming up on the other side of this break, were going to check on markets and then nba players boycotting the playoffs over the shooting of jacob blake and the move spilling over to other sports and questions about whether it could spill over to other businesses were going tope sak to nbc sports host mike tirico about this in just a bit squawk returns after this. Welcome back to squawk box. Taking a look at futures at this hour the s p and nasdaq have booked five Straight Days of gains in the session. Looks like the s p may snap that winning streak, looking to open lower. And abbott labs on the move right now to deliver mobile covid tests, priced at 5 apiece up 9 premarket. Coming up, nba players boycotting yesterdays playoffs games following the shootings of jacob blake of kenosha and assistant to the president Jared Kushner joins us squawk box will be right back. Hey, kids welcome to camp tonsafun on xfinity its summer camp, but in your living room. Learn how to draw with a minions expert. How to build an indoor Obstacle Course plus. Whatever shes doing. And me, jade cattapreta. The host of es the soup camp tonsafun. Its like summer camp, but minus the poison ivy. Unless you own poison ivy. In which case, why . Just say summer camp into your xfinity voice remote to join. Welcome back to squawk box. Getting back to one of the top stories of the morning the Milwaukee Bucks players boycotting last nights playoff game that rippled across not only the rest of the nba, but other sports leagues as well with us now is somebody who can add perspective to last nights events mike tirico, nbc sports host mike, its great to see you. Really, im hoping that youll help us walk through or think through what the implications are not just for the nba right but for sports more broadly we talked about this being a real test of leadership for adam silver it may very well become a test for other leaders in sports but also potentially leaders of other businesses around the country. I was thinking yesterday as this was unfolding and all of a sudden it was the bucks, then the entire nba, then the wnba, and three baseball games and naomi osaka in tennis. Its almost like traveling in the summer and you get a wildcat strike and the tube shuts down in london and the louvre it doesnt happen. It used to happen in our Labor Industry in the 70s it hasnt happened here in a long time and essentially thats what it was. And it was with a very specific point. It was to try to continue to bring attention to the Police Violence the social injustice the racial divide that we have in our country and lets face it, along with the obamas and musicians, athletes are probably the most wellknown, visible, prominent africanamericans in our country. And for these players to use their platform at this significant time really is impactful across the spectrum, beyond the sports page mike, may i ask, and i hope its not an uncouth question sure. Given the moral issues that underpin these protests but theres an economic issue as well with all of this. Yeah. Which is to say, it costs something to protest historically, entertainers have often used their stage to make protests to stand on that stage and make protests this is something very different. And in some respects is going to cause spotentially the owners o these leagues, the networks that have deals with these leagues. The sponsors should the cost be borne by them should it be borne by the players . Should it be borne by all of them how is this supposed to work air, andryeah, andrew, its impact the entire economy. Jordan was asked to support a democrat and the line was republicans buy sneakers, too. Theres been a reticence by athletes to put their foot, toe, body in the water to make a change and because of that, their voices are carrying a lot louder and farther. This is going to happen. We arrived at that reflection point yesterday. To the financial side, the players, a lot of their salaries and revenue are generated by Television Money and people coming to the games. Okay just, people coming to the games, leagues have taken a hit. All of the designated Gross Revenue that goes into the salary caps in the sports are certainly impacted by the pandemic by who will knows if were going to see fans again, if there are no tv games, rights fees, thats going to impact it as well so, youre right, its going to be an issue. Had you that gets spread out and who feels the burden of that the players are going to feel some of that thats pat of the reason what theyre doing resonates with a lot of us, more than weve ever seen athletes be active on this broad a scale. Melissa i mean, whats so touching about this particular stand, mike, as you saw sterling brown yesterday speak on behalf of the bucks after the amount of time which the game would have been played, he himself, of course, suing the city of milwaukee for stunning him for a parking violation. So its been something that has touched personally its not just a social justice issue out there. Its a social justice issue that they are facing every day. How do you see this playing out, seeing how close of an issue this is for so many players. Do you see the power of the strike being more powerful if they continue to boycott or if they say, you know what, that was our stand and we will play melissa, theres a part of me that thinks by grabbing everyones attention, and they did look at this day, this is the president speaking on the last night of the Republican National convention. We have the pandemic still going around we have a massive cat 3 4 hurricane hit down in lake charles, louisiana and going to impact a good part of the country with weather, wind and rain and yet, these players are still able to grab a significant piece of real estate for their actions and their story. Do they continue to use that newly grabbed land to speak loudly and gain attention to their issues . Or are they so personally affected that they cant continue and there are some players who really are feeling this personally i think weve seen that in some of the sound bites and comments from coaches and players in part, melissa, because theyve experienced this first lan hand in most of these locker rooms theres an individual who has come across a police stop and treated differently than a white person they do feel the pain. Its not that theyre seeing it on tv in kenosha or louisville they relate directly to this their power of social media, their ability to be heard, theyre trying to use as an opportunity to educate and change they might not feel that going on and playing is the best way to do that some might feel that thats what will they have to figure out probably today down in orlando hey, mike, its joe thanks for coming on today of course, bud. Youre a sportscaster we went without sports they came back, we talked about it, texting each other, tears in our eyes, i guess. And here we are again. What are you hoping happens from this do you want the season to be completed . Is it possible to go back to business as usual. Certainly not today, probably. Not in a week. What can we hope for i feel guilty selfishly wishing that everything works out in terms of being able to see the competition and season ended when these things are still happening. Theres not going to be a Police Reform bill before the end of the season right how do we think about that joe, the selfish part of me wants to see sports. I think most americans do. But i think if we can see sports with the true respect for the athletes and let the athletes use their platform for their voice, it probably can have a bigger impact than if they dont play thats just my gut feeling thats not a right answer or wrong answer, just a personal feeling. Folks at home may have their same feelings. You must be frustrated that the games were stopped yesterday that they werent played maybe it makes you listen, understand from a different light what these athletes and players are feeling. Look, the protests that happened yesterday started with the Detroit Lions having a long deep honest conversation about what happened in kenosha and feeling that they wouldnt practice. And their leadership, Matt Patricia and lebron james has 71 instagram followers, 40 some odd million on twitter theres obviously a crossover there somewhere. But those people now have a chance for their followers to truly follow their lead. Whether its political activism. Whether its voting. They could activate their base, to use the political term, if they so choose i think thats more effective than playing and being seen in public and saying it after games and stuff. Hey, mike, we mentioned it earlier, but this is maybe the greatest example of stakeholder capitalism at work yeah. Which is to say, the employees now have a big say in how this business operates how long do you think that the owners will continue to pay the contracts in these instances or do you think theres going to be a different type of conversation around that andrew, because of collective bargaining, certainly, the Players Associations and the leagues are going to have significant conversations. Im sure that they happened last night. Theyre ongoing. I think the other angle i would take of that, with the owners, most of whom, almost all are white. And obviously, because they own sports teams, they have money. Will they use their resources to support the message and the causes that their teams and their athletes are bringing up its a significant hurdle. It might cross political lines but if your ownership of the team requires the players. And the players need the team as well its not a mutually exclusive relationship they both need each other. Will the ownership support the players. Some have. Mark cuban who is on with you often has come out and made his comments known that. Well see if that happens in the next few day thats the next thing that were crossing in this very difficult and continuing conversation. Mike, thank you for helping us through this particularly unique moment in our country today. Weha y f tnkouor being with us of course, great to be with you guys thank you weve got a lot more on squawk in the next hour good morning a potential course change ahead for the Federal Reserve. Fed chief Jerome Powell set to speak in just over an hour were expecting to hear a new tone on inflation. Hurricane laura lashes the gulf coast its a category 4 hurricane. Forecasters have warned of unsurvivable conditions. And weve got a special interview with Jared Kushner Senior Adviser to President Trump. Well ask him about the president s plan to rebuild the economy post pandemic and so much more. The final hour of squawk box begins right now good morning and welcome to squawk box here on cnbc, im joe kernin along with Andrew Ross Sorkin and melissa lee. Becky is off today futures indicate a little lower, 44, 45 points on the session and weve got the nasdaq now in the republic and the s p down 3 and change. Melissa. Weve got a whole host of breaking news this morning well start off with the very highly anticipated speech from fed chair Jerome Powell at this years virtual jackson hole symposium. Just after 9 00 a. M. , powells expected to lay out a more flexible policy of inflation meantime, hurricane laura has been downgraded to a category 2 storm laura slammed the coast as a 4 this morning packing winds of 150 Miles Per Hour forecasters had warned of an unsurvivable storm surge, up to 20 feet in some areas. Were going to get a live report on laura in just a few minutes in the meantime, the sports world grinding to a halt, players opting not to take the court or the field last night in protest of shooting of jacob blake, a black man, by police in kenosha, wisconsin the nba Milwaukee Bucks began, followed by teams and players in baseball, the wnba, Major League Soccer and the world of tennis and tiktoks ceo has resigned after a few months on the job. Kevin mayer blamed a sharply changed political environment for the move and weve got a 200 billion man. According to the bloomberg billionaires index, amazon found found found founder bezos is worth 200 billion. Wow. Melissa, thank you the s p 500 hit new highs for four straight sessions but have stocks gone too far too soon thats the question. Cnbc commentator mike santoli joins us with more mike, theres no doubt were on a liftoff here, its starting in the short time to run hot you see this angle has gotten pretty steep over here in the last week or so. A couple of levels that i think are significant in terms of deciding whether its come too far. 3080 thats about the 200day average for the s p 500. The difference between where we are now and that is 13 . Its about as high as that longer trend term as weve been in the last couple of years. It doesnt automatically mean that the market gets fragile but is it does suggest it probablying out to be sl ing oo down how about this though, 3170 is the average year end price target of wall street strategists at this moment theres only one strategist officially what has it up for the end of the year, above where year trading right now thats not usually the norm when you have people overexcited about the market when you have people essentially thinking that this game is easy. That works against the idea that this market has gone too far usually, you dont have that cautious sentiment out there it does also say the velocity of this move has surprised everybody. Theres been a psychological whiplash thats gone on with a huge shock in the spring and a comeback farther than you think right now. You might say it makes sense in the market to have the market chop around a bit. But trendwise, things are valley vulnerable in a big way, guys. Before we let you go, mike, what do you expect i should really ask you what do you think the stock market expects to hear from powell today . And whats priced in and what isnt . I mean, it expects quite a bit. You want a formalization of the idea that zero rates for an extremely long period of time, somewhere where we get to full employment is the premise. I think thats fully baked in. Now, does the market want specifics how much theyre doing in the way of qe bond buying down the road, the metrics with what the economy is doing is going to determine what happens with the Balance Sheet there, i think, the market has gotten ahead of itself trying to get everything on a platter and saying we have it figured out now that we know that the fed is going to be generous for a specific period of time. Its not that the market is dazzled by the speech its the articulation of what the market assumes the fed is up to at the moment, guys okay. Mike, thank you. All right. Coming up, an update from hurricane laura live from the center of the storm in louisiana. Then two big interviews you wont want to miss first the ceo of Real Estate Developer related companies why w rkitnks its time to reopen neyo cy offices. And then the Senior Adviser to the president , Jared Kushner stay tuned youre watching cnbc 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 400 off when you buy the new Samsung Galaxy note20 ultra 5g. News breaking overnight, tiktok Ceo Kevin Mayer has quit its company just months after his appointment. In a letter by employers obtained by cnbc, mayer said in recent weeks as the political environment has sharply changed ive done significant reflection on what the corporate structural changes will require and what it means for the global role i signed up for against this backdrop as as we expect to reach a resolution very soon, its with a heavy heart that i let you all know that ive decided to leave the company. Mayor leer left too take the jo tiktok earlier this year Vanessa Pappas will take over. Clearly, mayer wanted to run a company, he went there to run tiktok but also hes coo of bytedance, with this move. His job role becomes very, very different. So, he leaves behind disney which he left because he got basically passed over for the job. When it came to replacing bob iger and here he is at tiktok, leaving tiktok and it will be interesting to see where he lands next, especially given the wars heating up all around. Andrew yeah, no, i mean i think were all trying to understand what this means for him. What it means for the deal i think the deal is going to be moving forward i think clearly he either wasnt a key man going with the transaction. I think theres probably questions about the economics of what he gets or doesnt for having sold the company. And also what his role is within the negotiations itself to bow out before the deal is reached makes me wonder and speculate to some degree whatever the deal may not be necessarily the deal he was pushing for or maybe Something Else happened theres got to be a lot more behind this headline that meets the eye. Of course, well continue to report it out and bring you that news what we do. Melissa. Coming up, when it comes to revving the economy, we are all essential workers. That is the message from jeff blau, the ceo of Real Estate Developer. And then we bring you Jared Kushner, thats all ahead when squawk box returns e checking h their supervisor to see how much Vacation Time they have. Or sending corporate their expense reports. Ill let you in on a little secret. They dont. By empowering employees to manage their own tasks, paycom frees you to focus on the business of business. To learn more, visit paycom. Com hurricane laura lashing the gulf coast after coming ashore after a category 4 storm Nbcs Jay Gray joins us from lake charles, louisiana. Gr jay, i think i saw it downgraded where it stands now and if it lands its a 4, right . Reporter yeah, it did, joe its the strongest hurricane to ever make landfall in this area. This is a region that sees a lot of point it is a 2 at this point. Came in as a 4 here in lake charles, we saw winds of 132 miles an hour so, it really battered this area and for quite some time. It was a real rough ride overnight and into the Early Morning hours here now, thankfully, things have eased up a bit were still seeing wind gusts but the rain has stopped at this point. Weve got early information about damage where the storm came in, really took a lashing as you can imagine the winds were 150 miles an hour the storm surge really wiped away a big area there. Well learn more later in the day. Hundreds of thousands are without power. That number is only going to grow as this system moves to the north and finally off to the east coast and we know theres significant damage to several buildings in lake charles but, again, weve got to let the sun come up here weve got to let the storm pass. As First Responders come out and take a look as well. Unfortunately, i think its going to be a couple hours that well see the wind gusts well see more scattered rain as the final bands of this storm makes its way through. Boy, it has been a toughgo here and now with the flooding, with the power outages, i think its going to be some time before those who were evacuated can finally get back in. Joe, back to you all right, jay, thanks for pulling obviously for everyone, and hoping for the best outcome, we wont know for a couple days, i guess andrew okay, coming up, what we return, breaking jobless claims data and instant market reaction. Then a pair of interviews you cant afford to miss related company ceo jeff blau and Senior Adviser to President Trump Jared Kushner. Those are on its way just minutes from now first, as head to the break, i want to draw your attention to abbott labs soaring after they won the permission for a 15minute health test d an medical labs weve got a lot more on squawk, when we return so when they got a little surprise. Two . They didnt panic. They got a bigger car for their soontobebigger family. After shopping around for insurance, they called usaa who helped find the right coverage for them and even some muchneeded savings. That was the easy part. Usaa insurance is made the way liz and mike need it easy. Welcome back to squawk box. Check out some of these stocks making moves ahead of the opening bell today well kick things off with shares of coty roughly 300,000 of premarket value. Shares of cover girl and max factor reported quarterly loss they were hurt none other than the covid19 pandemic. Shoppers stayed at home. Traveled less. Less emphasis on makeup and personal hugygiene coty is seeing significant improvement. And dollar tree, roughly 550,000 shares of value. Posted better than expected revenues and better than expected growth in sales dollar tree is not giving Financial Guidance but it does say it sees trends in shoppers not going to stores as much but spending more when they actually do up 6 . And that will end on shares of under armour down roughly 7,000 shares of volume not helping sentiment, a lawsuit brought against it by the university of california los angeles, ucla is seeking 200 million in damages after under armour pulled out of its 15year apparel deal citing the sports due to the pandemic. Watch for shares flipping around right now. Andrew, back to you. Our next guest is calling for offices to reopen in new york an oped in the wall street journal this week, redd relate company ceo jeff blau writing when it comes to the economy, we are all essential workers. Jeff is joining from us new york city in his office weve got a number of different real estate executives on oftentimes, talking to us about new york but not always coming to us from new york. Youre walking the talk, jeff. Help us understand what steps you think have been taken, and how employers, but also employees should think about this so i know a lot of employers, on the management side would like to do this but theyre reticent because they hear from their employees who say, you know what not so fast. Good morning, andrew. Thanks for having me so, as i talked about in the oped, i think its really important that we bring our Office Workers back to work in new york city for a couple of different reasons. First and foremost, you need to do it safely what we did at related companies, we spoke to the employees. Anyone who has medical issues, we said you need to stay home and take care of the situation that was 11 of the population 89 of the people, we brought them back and we did it for three reasons. First and foremost, we have 4,000 employees at related 60 of our workforce worked all the way through the pandemic they were either in buildings or on construction sightings and i just felt we needs to be here to support them at the Corporate Office weve been open for nine weeks now, june 22nd, when the governor lifted the order and its been very, very positive. The second reason, probably the most important reason, really, though, is about new york city because new york city, i mean, im here, weve been here for nine weeks and ive driven all through the city and when you drive around the city, there are parts of the city that are empty. Nobodys there why . No one needs to come here right now. People have left the city. Theyre staying with their parents. Theyre in the hamptons, theyre in westchester they need to come back, two reasons, one is to go to school and the other is to go to work what do you do when you go to the office you stop at the coffee shop, you stop at the deli and support Small Businesses this is about bringing new york back to life this is about supporting new york and helping new york recover. There are so many people who have left new york on a temporary basis and they expect ill come back a year from now and everything is going to be the same city the doesnt recovery by itself, the city will recover, but we have to work at it. And part of working at it is coming back to new york city jeff, theres no question that we all want our beloved new york city to return to some semblance of normal. One of the trends precovid in the real estate, commerce real estate, was to move to openfloor office plans. And in a postcovid world that doesnt seem necessarily to have been the right strategy. To the extent that youre talking to clients who are some of these office buildings, how are they remaking the spaces are they remaking the spaces and when you talk about encouraging people to come back to the office is everybody coming back five days in, and one hot and dusty the next day how do you think it should happen i think its a combination of all of those things. And every company is going to do it slightly different. Here at related weve never been that dense to begin with weve been able to bring our people back. Many of our people spend portions of their day at job sites. The actual occupancy at the office is certainly under the required level on any given day. Some companies that have trading floors or bench seatings are going to have to spread out and they may have to do an a. B. Situation. Weve heard from tenents looking for temporary shortterm space post covid to expand to have less dense space, postcovid starting now i think youll see some combination of remote being part of the workplace i dont think remote and i dont think zoom replaces going to the office i mean, what our people see now is they miss the routine they miss the socialization. They miss collaboration and innovation none of that can happen on zoom. How do you bring new employees into your firm and train them and teach them culture on zoom i just read an article this morning. Jpmorgan decided to bring all of its new recruits in london and new york city, have them report to the office. You know, i spoke to another financial servicee, 2500 new employees starting right after labor day. What are those employees supposed to do they have to be trained. They have to be together they have to be indoctrinated. So that needs to happen in the office jeff, real quick, i know its a question we always ask you when we talk to you, what is rent payments . How do rent payments look both on the office side and on the retail side right now . Right so, Office Actually has been the strongest sector of all, you know, in our portfolio and in most class a buildings, rent collections are essentially 1200 . Tenents have been there. These buildings are prepared for companies to come back with large lobbies and touchfree access and extra cleaning and security weve been able to collect 100 in those buildings in some parts of the city, the class b buildings have struggled more where they dont have great tenents and things are a little tighter. We have not seen that in the class a building retail is obviously struggling the governor has opened parts of upstate malls to open. In new york city, theyre still closed were hopeful that theyre going to open next week here in new york city. Were collecting just over 50 in the interior vertical retail centers, time warner center. And we expect that will pick up. Postopening jeff, how do you see your Portfolio Properties evolving over the next five years or so there is an acknowledgement by you and many others that going to the office has its values, but they dont see a full time work worst going back to the office it will be in shifts how does that translate into what sorts of real estate is needed and hold in the future . Right i do think again, im not giving up on the office, and i dont think companies are either i had a call yesterday with the head of one of the tech real estate groups talking about the future of their office space and it was going to be a combination of everything that andrew just said it was going to be people having the ability to work from home a portion of time. Not random times but the whole group needs to come in together because it was the realization that innovation only happens when people are together and so, i dont think the demand for office space is going away and i do think people will come back to the cities theres a reason that people came to new york for the past decades, right they came here because new york city provides arts and entertainment and night life and the demand for the cities is not going away so, i do think the Office Market will recover postcovid. Jeff, we appreciate you joining us today and we look forward to, hopefully, rooting along for the progress of new york city. Thank you so much. Thank you coming up, jobless claims coming right up. Stay tuned squawk box will be right back. [ engines revving ] its amazing to see them in the wild like th shhh. For those who were born to ride, theres progressive. We know that traditions matter more if theyre celebrated with the ones you love. Thats why were proud to partner with the kentucky derby. Welcome back to squawk box. Rick santelli here with breaking news maybe some of the most Important News of the week initial continuing claims, initial claims still hugging that 1 million line on the north side of it 1. 006 million. And on continuing claims, 14. 5535 million. The revisions, im sure, will trickle in at least at this point, continuing claims is a smidge lower than last weeks 14. 844. And obviously, initial claims, well, it moves a bit lower but unfortunately, the only week that we have thats under 1 million since all of this began in midmarch was the week of the 7th. The first week of august when it was 971,000. Now, our second look at Second Quarter gdp, not much difference we move from minus 32. 9 to minus 31. 7 now, this series on quarter over quarter goes back to 1947. And obviously, this is the worst level. And on consumption, minus 34. 1, virtually the same as the minus 34. 6 on the first look also the historic worst. And some point its going to change its a quarterly number. The rate is going to be high consumption, up 32 . Gdp, 62. 7, q1 1950 we will challenge those numbers on this quarter. The price index, deterioration of 0. 2, abdomnd on the personal consumption, quarter over quarter, minus 1 minus 1. 1. The revisions have trickled. Last week, the claims moved from 1. 6 million to 1. 4 million, a subtle change. Continuing claims move from what i told you earlier, 18. 44. To 18. 578. Were still lower on continuing claims basically a smidge lower on initial. But the headline is still slightly above 1 million on the Interest Rate side, we see 67 basis points on a tenyear note. We know that the jackson hole Virtual Meeting of course is going to talk about all policies related to the fed im not sure theres market implications at least for now. But important in considering that on the backside of all of this debt and spending there will be issues of pricing. Melissa lee, back to you issues of pricing is putting it politely. Rick santelli, thank you by the way, we did see a slight wobble in the futures but looking at averages looking to open slightly higher at the open steve, what do you make of the data melissa, disappointing expected but disappointing that we still remain at above 1 million. Or slightly above. The total amount of claims remain at 27 million those are all of the programs combined it did fall by a million but still enormously high here the claims falling to 223,000 to 14. 5 million also, 607,000 new applicants for the pandemic unemployment assistance it just tells you theres still a very, very troubled job market out there. People are not going back to work with the speed that we had obviously hoped when all of this started. We saw a big rise in the prior week in california a big decline in florida but what must be happening is that there are still large number of claims in the major states that are out there. Well see if this is a knockon effect for the weakness that happened perhaps in august as the spending might have rolled off. Or as Companies Got to a point with ppp, that they could no longer hold on to their employees and the need to extend that is one thats been talked about by a lot of people that weve had on our air here. So a disappointing number, melissa. And it was indeed, though, in line with expectations and we can only hope it gets better soon. Steve, thank you, Steve Liesman. Thank you, steve. Lets get some instant reaction to the latest read on the economy from someone intimately involved with President Trumps recovery plan. Joining us now, Jared Kushner. Hes an assistant to the president and he happens to be, wait a second, his soninlaw. I guess thats true. Hes also advising President Trumps Reelection Campaign jared, thank you for joining us. Its great to be with you this morning pretty nice backdrop of the white house. Last week it was the dems. This week, its the gop. What type of contrast do you see . And obviously, youre going to be representing the president in the gop case, but what are the key differences between what we saw both proposed last week and what were seeing proposed this week well, i think last week what you heard was a lot of complaints and a lot of a lot of rhetoric, a lot of people who were complaining about a lot of things in america without offering a lot of solutions. Tonight, what youre going to hear from President Trump is a very hopeful vision for america. Hes very proud of this country. He believes that this country has incredible room to grow coming out of this pandemic. He believes he can build it to be stronger than its ever been before hes obviously going to explain this is a serious election with serious consequences and hes going to explain what the consequences would be of making a change at this point but hes going to make a strong case of having President Trump back for four more years with a Republican House and Republican Senate could bring to this country. Theres a lot about the administrations response to covid last week, jared how do you characterize the response, or defend the response, i assume what i would say, look, this is a Global Pandemic its an unprecedented challenge. You have a lot of factors you need to take into account. President trump acted very decisively and quickly shutting down travel from china and we had claims before we thought the Financial Markets were beyond breaking and people expected wed be beyond 25 unemployment President Trump has had a steady hand through this. Hes made a lot of right decisions. People thought wed have as many as 2. 2 million deaths. That number has been lower obviously, one death is too many i would say people politicizing this has not been productive, when, we were in the midst of this, and we were providing a lot of the resources to the democratic governors that they didnt have. He was getting nothing but praise but now that the pandemic is in a more controlled state, hospitalizations down by 30 test positivity, down 5 30 days ago. Cases are down and the economy is opening up obviously at a prudent pace. So, i think if we were still in the crisis phase, hopefully, they would have been politicizing it less i do think were making great progress on the vaccine. The fastest vaccine was 13 months, thanks to operation warp speed, we achieved the first vax see vaccine in four months in a week we have six trials being mass produced. And President Trump is on pace to achieve what is a very ambitious goal of having 100 millions doses by the end of this year. Jared, i know that andrew and melissa want to get in the president had a lot of criticism for the fed chief powell speaking in jackson hole today. Do you think if the president were to win reelection, would he warm to him, in your heart of hearts what do you think would happen what i would say, look, you really see what people are made of in times of crisis. I think chairman powell has stepped up to the plate and hes done a lot of the right things to make sure that the market was able to get through the crisis so, again, it was a lot of great work by obviously, the president , Vice President , secretary mnuchin and obviously chairman powell. I think theyve worked well together to get the country through a very, very difficult period now, were obviously in a better place than we would have been. But the opportunity to go ahead is going to be tremendous. And what were seeing through covid so many trends are being accelerated. Coming out of this, if were make the right move its, americas relative strength in the world can be substantially increased if we make the right moves coming out of this well run out of time eventually, i just wanted to ask you about the recent deal in the middle east. And whether that could usher in more positive developments over there, in your view . Is it the beginning, end of the beginning, what is it . Well, you have a lot of great dealmakers that obviously watch your show. And people always say the hardest deal to do is peace in the middle east. President trump thinks that leadership achieved the first peace deal in the middle east in the last 26 years. He did a lot of unconventional things i think its emblematic, broader of the president s leadership. He doesnt take the washington way. Hes not doing good on the washington style but what Washington People were not able to achieve. They dont like him for it and hes going to continue to do that in the middle east, im actually taking the first commercial flight ever from israel to the United Arab Emirates which is a followon to a peace teadeal to bring these two countries together, theyre economic powerhouses, bringing them together is to continue the paradigm shift that President Trump has led to have a more peaceful environment andrew, i know youve got a different view of the Covid Response you probably want to ask jared some questions andrew you know what i actually want to just ask jared about a couple of headlines in the news frankly over the past 24 hours to get the administrations sense of thing. One we saw that kevin mayer just stepped down from tiktok overnight. The president made a comment as you know several weeks ago, saying tiktok, bytedance, should ultimately have to pay the u. S. Government in some form of payment. Sanch a. , what do you make of kevin mayers decision to resign and two, what do you think that meant . Theres a lot of people on the deal team themselves who still dont understand what that meant. Ive only heard fabulous things about kevin mayer i dont know the details about his resignation. Idol know that President Trump is the first president , we spoke about the Democratic National convention, one thing they didnt mention is china. All of the years that they allowed china to take advantage of our country President Trump took on china. And able to take on paris and get a deal to rebalance and go after the unfair trade practices but the tiktok deal is really about protecting the privacy of american citizens and making sure that were looking out for that obviously, in the details of this, there will be a windfall, and i know that will be something discussed in the context of the deal. Jared, the other thing that happened overnight is that the nba has now postponed games as a result of a protest or boycott by the players this relates to a sort of larger black lives matter issue does the white house support the players and the owners in this case look, i think that the nba players are very fortunate that they have the financial position where theyre able to take a night off from work without having to have the consequences to themselves financially. So they have that luxury which is great look, i think with the nba, theres a lot of activism. And i think that theyve put a lot of slogan out. But i think what we need to do is turn that from slogans and signals to actual action thats going to solve the problem and if you look at President Trumps record, people are talking about social injustice, he passed criminal Justice Reform they talk about wealth and equality he passed opportunity zones to bring more access to capital in the black and minority community. We talk about education. Hes fighting for School Choice so people in the innercities and failing schools can go to better schools. And hes also granted longterm funding historically to the black college and universities. President trump has been strong to say we dont want violence in these cities but we just have to take this conversation from an emotional one to a constructive one and say what are the policies that we can agree on. We all can agree on where we want things to go. President trump has a policy platform but its great if we can all come together on a policy platform that will lead forward and start executing. Youll hear President Trump talk about that tonight and on the campaign which is a lot of people in washington have failed these innercities for a long time quite frankly, as a former democrat, andrew, we know each other from new york. I was a democrat, too, coming to washington but now im a trump reputatiob. President trump has a platform that actually will make a difference i think youre not going to get a different result by following the same people who have failed and doing the same policies that havent worked its time for something new. We want to see the country moving forward and President Trump is a leader and try to get these visions done and bring action that can bring change in the past, theyve used the stock market as a report in the administration we just got data crossing of jobless claims of over 1 million. How does the white house then use the stock market card, so to speak, during an election period so much americans are feeling tremendous pain . Theyre out of work, theyre food insecure, et cetera yarl, there eah, there is a f heartbreak out there President Trump has certain that we cant shut the country down again. What weve done, weve used the tools weve had, weve used science to open our country and keep it open i just hurts jeff blau, a great guy, talking on your television before, figuring out how to readjust to use office space to work we need to figure out how to adjust to keep things open to have the economy running vibrant. Again, we were projecting wed be at 25 unemployment now well hopefully be lower. Were working with republicans to get us on a pathway to recovery theyve been put in funding to bail out past sins i will say this as well a lot of people are benchmarking the president s response to other countries but if you look at the response to the american stock market, versus the other stock markets around the world, youll see that people believe that interventions and the policies that we put forward are the right policies and theyre going to lead our economy back to have a stronger growth coming out of this than people anticipated so, again, i think were focused on unemployment. President trump is very proud of the fact that before this Global Pandemic hit, we had the lowest unemployment that we had in 50 years. There were more jobs open and people looking for jobs. We had wages rising, from the lowest wage earners at the fastest rate in 20 years we believe we can get back there, and obviously do an even better job with the vaccine and get going in next year next year, 2021, under President Trumps leadership could be the best year we have in a long time Jared Kushner, i know you have to run. Thanks for planning some time with us. Great to be with you. Good to be with you as well andrew coming up at the top of the hour, weve got special coverage of a highly anticipated speech from fed chairman Jerome Powell. So many on wall street expect him to lay out a more flexible policy surrounding inflation it comes as we continue our coverage of this years virtual jackson hole symposium a huge lineup of regional fed presen cinyo widtsomg uray, too. Tomorrow, weve got more as well stay tuned were watching squawk after this break. Right now, switch to tmobile and get four lines of unlimited for just 25 bucks a line. With access to americas largest 5g included. Thats right. Unlimited and nationwide 5g for the whole family for just 25 bucks a line. Only at tmobile. A few stocks on the move this morning shares of Abercrombie Fitch rising reporting an unexpected profit for its latest quarter, as well as better than expected revenue. It did say, though, the covid19 pandemic will continue to impact results this quarter shares of Cloud Software company box are higher it raised its fouryear Sales Forecast box helps with a jump in demand for Cloud Computing services as more people work remotely. Andrew okay, i want to get over to cnbcs headquarter jim, i dont know if you think powell is going to be i imagine pole will be the news of the day and i think we are all going to, you know, wait to hear every last word and comma and breath and sentence. What do you think were going to hear and what do you want to hear look, i think the market is saying that maybe it feels things have picked up enough and given the fact that there is a gigantic amount of issuance of treasuries, the most ever coming up in the next five weeks that could actually make it so it looks like people want to sell some of the more expensive stocks which is typically what happens when you get Interest Rates going up rather radically in the 30 year, i think thats what people are prepped for. I dont know if thats whats going to happen but that is the negative causing the market to be down even though abbott labs has this new test that i think is pretty revolutionary and should matter a great deal, particularly for travel and leisure. Jim, youve got a take on this Kevin Mayer Tiktok microsoft news overnight i was listening to you, that great interview that you guys had with jared this is one ive been working on for three and a half hours, i have put in more calls you have never supposed to admit on air, i dont have the answer to this story. Im working on it. What do you guys think i think we are all trying to understand what it really means, was he pushed out, did he jump before he was going to get pushed out, was he not going to be a keyman in a future transaction . If he was you would have thought he would stick around for that payday, is there a payday that comes if the company gets sold when he first signed on. Do you have my phone tapped those are the questions ive been asking all the people because its too crazy i mean, in a crazy year this is really crazy, you know i loved your show today. Thank you, though the question i was going to ask you and its not a stock question, but, you know, you have one of the great moral compasses and i genuinely believe that how do you see this nba boycott and the effectively the leadership test that i think is now happening for owners, for adam silver and could lead to a test frankly for ceos and other leaders around the country in business if there could be other kinds of protests or work stoppages in that regard players are not commodities, players are thinking people, adam silver knows that, so proud of this guys i cannot believe that they are saying, do you know what, this is the right thing to do, contract be damned wow. I mean, just amazing we are in a different good time. No one is tolerating this stuff anymore. This is all people are talking about, thats what they got, they did the right thing i dont know i was loving the playoffs but i think that freedom of expression is something adam silver really wants. Its only business conversation would have who do you think should pay and i say do you think the players should pay do you think the owners should take it on the chin . Do you think the networks should, the sponsors how should this work i actually think its a real question because typically when there is a work stoppage thats a protest its usually to protest the employer this is not that no. Its really not. But if the owners stepped up and said, listen, were going to pay some, too, because we believe wouldnt that be amazing what a sea change. Capitalism is not everything capitalism with a human face i dont know i think its terrific. Adam silver encourages dissent, he encourages free speech and this is what you get when you treat people like people i think its fabulous. I dont know who is going to pay, if the players have to pay look, these guys are people of conscience, i never thought id see this remember when jim brown gave a great press srchs, muhammad ali and we always felt that this could happen, people could stick up, but there were always owners who said no and this time these players dont care i think its miraculous and fabulous, got the whole country talking about what happened, isnt that what you want real dialogue. Got to congratulate these guys for having a conscience, its fantastic. Jim, thank you for this morning. We are looking forward to seeing you and the gang on squawk on the street in just a little bit. I want to hear im sure you will get more calls kurnd on kevin mayer, we will be watching that and you later on mad money as well melissa . Fed chair Jerome Powells speech kicks off in just about 15 minutes time in which many expect powell to lay out new ideas surrounding inflation. Joining us sara bloom raskin and jim grant. Great to have you both jim, i will start off with you in terms of the markets, you know, this notion of average inflation targeting seems to be sort of a blank checks for the markets to go out on a limb and go to some of the more risk yer assets at what point should the fed or should the fed at all be concerned about the ramifications of its policies in terms of asset bubbles oh, yes you know, there is a rip roaring inflation in among other things in the cost of income, cost of a dollar of income when the treasury long term treasury, 10year treasury yield at 5 if you were fortunate enough to have 11 million in savings you could take 50,000 a year in income from that pool of savings. At 70 basis points or thereabouts you need upwards of 6. 7 million or so to generate the same 50,000 and if the tenyear yield were to fall to 50 basis points you would need 10 million. So there is a huge there is there is an intended consequence and then there are the unintend td consequences of low rates and nonstop intervention and what we are looking at is a great levitation in assets, a great levitation in speculative sentiment and widespread i would say misallocation of capital and we are building up much more debt, you know, i think march of 2019 president kaplan of dallas, dallas fed, said we should not raise rates because corporate debt is encumbering the economy. Well, the past six, eight, ten weeks we have had record issuance of junk bonds, investment rate corporates, more intervention, lower rates, more certainty about the absence of checkout counterinflation. So this is i think chairman powells challenge today is not to sound like the president of the National Institutes of Health Getting behind a plan to reinstitute the measles. Thats what hes up against because it certainly sounds that way to me with a fed getting behind the scheme to reinflate our economy. Sara, what do you think of what jim said and does Jerome Powell face that challenge so jim has made some great points and i would add that this is really the culmination of a twoyear effort that the Federal Reserve has undertaken to reevaluate its Monetary Policy frame works, particularly in light of the fact that inflation has been so low. Even prepandemic it has been extraordinarily challenging for the fed to be reaching this agreedupon consensus of a 2 target with that backdrop weve got to weve got to and the fed in particular has to grapple with the fact that something is going on in the economy in terms of usual economic relationships that havent held. And really havent been Holding Since the time of the you know, the great recession. So that really is an important context to keep in mind, which is essentially the 2 number is really something that cant be hasnt been able to be hit or even get close to being hit and the fed really needs Something Else it needs something that is much more realistic you will remember that, you know, price stability and the inflation mandate is one of the two important mandates that the fed has and the fed has been missing it, missing it consistently so this is part of you know, this new framework which will, i think, only begin to get introduced at chairman powells talk today is an attempt really to grapple with the fact that that 2 number is not has not been working thinking about how the fed can be meeting that part of its mandate. Now, theres an additional, you know, an additional set of reactions that this change could have and it could have the effect of being slightly more accommodative or signaling more accommodation, but remember this is an effort that has been under way even prepandemic in terms of trying to understand why the fed has been losing out on this part of the mandate. Okay. Were going to have to leave it there, but we hope you will both come back to us soon sara raskin and jim grant. Thank you both lets get a final check on the markets. Wow. Big moves there. Look at that decimals all around. You dont always see that. That is a true unch. Less than a point down on the s p, now weve got forget it. Im going to say goodbye to melissa. Thank you. We appreciate you being here today. Andrew sorkin, every day, right, we come in here. Every day. How do you know how do you know what its going to be . We really do need to keep an open mind and be ready to talk about anything, i think, which we do anyway. We do that we do. Good to be here. See you tomorrow, my friend. Well see you squawk on the street is next good thursday morning, welcome to squawk on the street. Im Carl Quintanilla with jim cramer and david faber we are moments away from the fed chair speaking to the jackson hole symposium conducted virtually, one of the most important speeches of the quarter, maybe the year, and we will bring it to you live. There is a look at the fooed theyre giving us in the meantime futures are flat, q2 gdp revised slightly higher, claims although above a million edged down week on week and oil close to