Transcripts For CNBC Closing Bell 20240711

Work and no relief in sight. Speaking of relief, the top democrat in the Senate Chuck Schumer has republican Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell agreed the rekindle talks about a stimulus package the senate is on recess through next week. We will speak with Colorado Governor Jared Polis who just moved 15 counties including denver into level red restrictions he is also part of a group of governors speaking with president elect biden this weekend. Plus we will talk with the ceo of the National Association of manufacturers who is working with bidens team to help fight the pandemic today we have with us mike santoli, steer liesman mike, the broader markets are well off the lows as we speak. They are. Kind of a little bit of an aimless back and forth type day. Absorbed a little bit of a morning selloff. Didnt do any real damage it has been firmly bid, especially with son of the bigger nasdaq stocks coming back. Holding the indexes together relatively well. As we speak, the s p around 3,580. Thats the closing level here september 2an. Are we going to be back in the box trading range . We went above it for a few days there. A little bit of a back and forth struggle the market is trying to maybe reset and get a rest after the big sprint the first two weeks of november. Seems to be whats been going on most of the week a heavy continued issuance of stocks and bounds by companies the market is resentive to the new issues thats the bullish side. All types of equity issuance on a quarterly bases going back to 2018 heres the Fourth Quarter to date what is relevant, look at the Fourth Quarter last year and the Fourth Quarter of 2018 halfway through the pace lets bring it up to a full quarter worth at the current place and you are well above prior levels thats of course after the massive issuance we saw in the second and third quarters of this year as companies tried to pull in cash whenever they could and bolster their blaets aalanct and get through the pandemic on this it shows you well above what we have seen in Fourth Quarters past. You want to have a Capital Markets setup thats receptive to companies being able to raise capital however they like. But also it can get to the point of a mismatch in supply and demand in the near term. Mike, this clearly favors Big Companies over Smaller Companies those that have access to the deepest parts of the Capital Market process what does it suggest two or three years out when rates do rise about the pressures some companies could find when paying various interest costs. To me it depends on their cash flow. To me it is not like there is cliff out there where all of a sudden they are hot going to be abe the refinance because it is more expensive i think they are rate sensitive right now. It is going to be an issue with high yield right now, under 5 in terms of the high yield index in remarkable. Thats remarkable. It seems like the wolf is not at the door just yet when it comes to really coming to squeeze their finances but obviously have to see how it all develops mike, stay there because we have to talk about the economic picture here as well jobless claims heading in the wrong direct todays number coming in at 742,000 which was above estimates. And it was also the first increase after four straight weeks of decline Steve Liesman with a closer look at the economic picture in america right now. Steve . Sara, at this point economists are wondering if the rise in jabless claims is connected to the surge in the virus, but they are not quite ready yet to make that call. They do seem more convinced, though, that the pace of improvement in the job market is slowing. Heres the numbers sara just gave you, 742. Going back a week, 6. 3 million, thats down. Thats a good sign on the other hand look at extended benefits, people rolling off regular claims thats been on the way up. People are losing their regular claims and going to the extended benefits total claims, 20. 3 million americans getting some form of jobless benefits thats down. One week does not necessarily break the downward trend but it could be a seen if the recent surge in the virus spread is negatively impacting the labor market the latest claims data comes amid news of new School Shutdowns that could have by the way a big economic effect. Yesterdays announce men that new york city would shut down its schools that has seen 33 states enacting full or partial closures in recent weeks including michigan where the governor yesterday shut down the states high schools more virtual schooling make it harder for caregivers to go to work to bring it full circle, sara, that could have an impact on jobs in the weeks ahead. We will be watching steve, thank you very much mike, as far as it relates to the stock market and what people should be doing with their money will you look at the three best performing sectors this month, energy, industrials and financials they are cyclical. Yeah. They are tied to the better performance of the economy is that a risky bet to be in right now because of the numbers that steve is talking about, starting to cool off, also retail sales. The market has been determined to price in improvement both on the trill and consumer side. That has been the correct trade but i think there is an argument to be made that you can get a rethink of that whole trend. You saw it before. I grabbed three stocks sensitive to overall Employment Trends credit cards an outplacement Employment Agency all of them have big excitement in the june period when you thought it was going to be a quick reopening. Then the roll over to the cyclical trade recently horizontal moves, and now it is stutterstep in this trend. I think it is going to be sensitive to the incoming numbers and the prospects for stimulus knowing when we know now you are not sure if the market has gotten it exactly right in pricing. Steve, if you are still there, clearly yields have come down this week steve is not there. I will pose a similar question to mike. Of the value sectors that performed well of late but plateaued banks held their gains this week and are up 1 or 2 . Wells and citi popped so far this week despite the fact that yields have come down, mike. Yeah. I wonder whether that can continue or whether banks are saying we expect the rates to pick up again in the next couple of weeks right or the pullback in yields hasnt jeopardized the rising trend in yields there is a level at which if you go back 3 4 of a percent on the tenyear people will say that was a false move to the upside and maybe banks look like they are offsides in that context we have to see how that goes but it is definitely true, if the market hasnt been quick to back off this general theme of cyclical recovery even though the numbers have gotten a little softer mike santoli, we will see you soon thank. Up next, the National Association of manufacturers is calling on trump to work with president elect biden to help steer the country through the pandemic we will talk to the head of that group after they spoke out today right after this break you are watching closing bell on cnbc. Dow is positive, just barely, by about 13 points. 48 minutes left of trade the National Association of manufacturers calling on the Trump Administration to work with president elect bidens team to help fight the pandemic writing in astatement in part, quote, it is highly appropriate that the Trump Administration allow key individuals from the biden team to access critical government personnel and information now. Also adding, there is no time to waste, nor room for error. Manufacturers have been leading throughout these crises and we know what is at stake, american lives and livelyhoods. Joining us now is one of the leaders behind that statement, jay timmons, president and ceo of the National Association of manufacturers. Thank for being here tell us more about why you felt as an organization you needed to step up and speak out right now. You know, sara, we have just been working tirelessly since the beginning of this pandemic as manufacturers to try to make sure that our citizens are safe, that we are saving lives, that were protecting Hospital Capacity right from the start we started advocating for the importance of a very simple thing, wearing a mask making sure that everybody when they are outside of their family unit is wearing a mask to try to contain this virus unfortunately, that has not worked we have a quarter of a million americans who have died. In the process, it is just absolutely destroyed our economy. And we have lost tons of jobs, people are being thrown out of their homes, their livelihoods are destroyed. So all of the health factors, all of the economic factors, its incredibly important that we have a seamless transition, if there is to be a transition its important that those who are working with the federal government to produce ppe and to produce that vaccine and get it distributed have have complete and seamless work with the federal government jay, you have been working closely you have worked closely with this administration President Trump has focused at least in the first two years a lot on manufacturing you were a frequent guest at some of his ceo meetings and advisories, he was a guest at our annual meeting you met with javanka trump what has been your access to this white house were you pushing internal will he for them to concede and work with the transition team. I dont want get into whether or not he should concede what i want to get into is the proper operation of government, a seamless transition and continuity thats the most important thing. Manufacturers work with every administration for us it is not it is about poll is he, it is not about politics or permit or process. It is about getting thing done right now there is no more urgent priority than containing this pandemic and ensuring that our economy can heal and recover and that we dont know lose americans to this terrible disease. We have appreciated many of the policy priorities that this administration has put forward whether it is tax reform or regulatory certainty, we worked with them on trade, we worked with yaunk trump on Work Force Development and the task force there. But the most important thing is that manufacturers know that we will always be part of the solution, to any of the problems that face us as a country. There is no more urgent priority than dealing with this pandemic today. Forgive me, jay, for following up on this hi, wilf. Good afternoon to you are you saying the president should concede or should not concede . I am saying that we completely understand, obviously, that Court Challenges are a part of the democratic process and that he has every right to do that the campaign is going to pursue that but in the interim, we have the opportunity for the gsa administrator to sign a letter to allow members of the biden transition operation to be a part of briefings and to be a part of talking to or to be able to talk to employees with the federal government about the work thats happening on the pandemic just as we have worked with the Trump Administration over the last ten months to try to get a handle on this, if joe biden is our next president , and frankly by all signs it looks like he will be, then we want to make sure hes prepared and that his teams prepared to hit the ground running on day one. At that point we are going to be focused i hope on the distribution of vaccines so we dont want to have the chance that we are going to miss one beat when the next president takes office and we want to make sure that we can continue with our work to then federal government get those vaccines distributed. I wanted to ask about china, jay. I know you will want the next president to have a tough approach on china. Is a fresh approach, a resetting of relations, needed, though look, this president the current president has certainly gotten chinas attention and there are a lot of things in place that i think has made them perhaps rethink some of their policies about, for instance, the theft of intellectual property which belongs to manufacturers in the United States so thats a very good thing. We also are hopefully on path to eliminating some fairly discriminatory practices that give us an unbalanced Playing Field. So think of things like dumping your product on the Worldwide Market or subsidizing your products those are things that we simply dont allow when it comes to a level Playing Field and when we are engaged in free trade agreements with other countries. Our hope is that a Biden Administration would continue to keep the focus on china to make sure that they are playing by the rules. But obviously, every administration has a different way of every president has a different way of engaging with other world leaders. Senator biden i actually used to work in the senate when senator biden was there. And he has an amazing understanding of the complexities of the world and he has a lot of personal relationships with world leaders. So, obviously, that inner to his benefit. But the most important thing we can do in terms of a trade agenda, whether it is china or anybody else, is expand our access to other markets where 95 of the worlds customers reside toe that manufacturers in the United States can make more stuff here and sell it there. Jay, you framed the whole transition point, and calling on the Trump Administration to start working on it around the pandemic, and vaccines, and ppe and all of that necessary stuff which obviously is of the utmost importance broadly speaking how do you think about the cost to business and society if we dont get a transition of power normally as we normally do even without the pandemic its broader than that, isnt it first of all, we have a pandemic so that question you cant really look at it outside of that. Would you have called on him to do this if we werent in the middle of a pandemic well, i think thats thats an interesting question, but it is not reality today. What i would say is business always likes certainty business likes certainty and to the extent that we can have certainty, we want to make sure that it exists. And frankly, the certainty that today that is most important for us is the certainty that whoever is is in control of the levers of government is able to work with the private sector to ensure that we can save more lives and get our economy in better shape and thats what we are calling for. And the only way to do that is to make sure that everybody who may who may have their hands on those levers of power in january is fully briefed and fully educated on the challenges that we have in place today. Jay timmons, thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me. After the break, the paypal mafia strikes again. Micro lending company, a firm run by a paypal is making a play at the market those details right after the break. Micro lending Carbon Monoxide company affirm becoming the latest unicorn to apply for a listing. The San Francisco based Company Provides installment loans for more than ,500 merchants including walmart and expedia. It has been a beneficiary of the pandemic related boom in on line shopping and financing bigticket items for their home. It is fill year revenue doubledier over year gross merchandised volume soared 77 . It is still not profitable but losses narrowed this year. Affirms cophoneder and ceo was also a founder at paypal he will have voting control in the dual class share structure they have investments in fidelity, an truce and horowitz and founders fund. Poll ton is a big chunk of their business is that a surprise how risky is that if they pull them as a client huge. Thats something analysts are talking about today in terms of Going Forward what the companys revenue looks like a third of it coming from peloton, that could be a risk Going Forward if they dont see the same level of growth that poll ton has seen this year. On other side they have customers like expedia which has gone in the other direction and seen weakness in things like booking and travel could offset but we dont know yet. But it is definite low a revving. Planet fitness saw a big pop following pfizers vaccine news but has been falling ever since. We will discuss the challenges and longer term impact with the Fitness Industry with that firms krochlt. The tenyear is yielding around. 85 near the highs of the recent range we have been in. Taking a step back today perhaps on the weaker jobless claims data well be right back. In some ways, things are kind of the same. In other ways, well. Any questions . The good news is. Weve learned, we can do this. Turns out when were hitting our goals, nobody cares if were wearing pants. We just need the right tools. So our team, stays a team. So no matter what comes next we can work better do better this is going to work. Got just about half an hour left of trade. Time for our daily coronavirus tracker. Another piece of positive news on the Vaccine Development front. Astrazeneca and the university of oxfords vaccine candidate was found to produce an immune response in adults, particularly in elderly folks according to preliminary phase two results yesterday. While the results are promising astrazenecas vaccine is not as far along in the approval process as modernas or fizers, both of which announced positive information about their phase three trials this week meantime case numbers in the u. S. And around the world keep climbing today the cdc issuing new guidance strongly recommending americans against traveling. 1 until new cases just in the last week. The cdc particularly worried about the spread at travel hubs like airports and game gatherings rooifld became the latest to pause its reopenings for two weeks. Curfews, colleges and bars and a lot of those things will close. We will have a guest coming up from one of the states that has seen of the rise a lot time to you a cnbc news update with sue herera. Heres whats happening at this hour. In wisconsin recount preparations are under way in two counties in milwaukee, the ballots are going moved to a Convention Center where the count is set to start tomorrow in chicago, Wrigley Field has been designated a National Landmark the move gives the cubs owners the ricketts family, a path towards earning millions in tax credits for the ballparks renovation, which cost almost a billion dollars. Former president obamas book a Promised Land sold nearly 890,000 copies in its first 24 hours that is a record for the publisher, Penguin Random house. And take a listen to this. That is grover, a covid19 patient at a hospital in utah. He couldnt thank his caregivers with words because as you can see there, he is intubated so he played his violin to show his gratitude. He spent more than a month at the hospital recovering from the coronavirus. A bit of inspiration for us all. That is the news update at this hour wilf i will send it back to you. Sue, thank you. We look forward to seeing you again next hour. With 59 29 minutes until the bell heres where we stand intraday recovery, now higher on the dow, s p is flat and the nasdaq. Up next, Planet Fitness ceo tell us how they are doing in the pandemic closing bell, back in a few minutes. [squeaky shopping cart] [sniffing] is the salmon wildcaught . She only eats wild caught. [cash register beeps] uh, i need a price check on honey. Dont get mad. Get e trade and get more than just trading. Investing. Banking. Guidance. Minnesota announcing last night it will close all bars and restaurants for Indoor Dining as well as gyms for the next four weeks. This comes as new york city has closed all inperson learning for schools. Some expressed outrage that while those schools go remote Indoor Dining and gyms remain open deblasio said it is a matter of time of we see further closures. Joining us now, the ceo of plan it fitness they have they have locations in the 50 states and abroad thank you for joining us. Appreciate it. What is your view on further lockdowns . Do you fear they are leakly . How much is it going to hit your business 90 of our 2,000 stores open we have some opening, some closing. It is fluid. We have data internal she showing we havent had any breakouts and no exposure. Some states did allow us to stay open open even though they were originally going to shut us down. You had 14 million members, i think, and lost about a million of those since july. What can you tell us about where that million has fallen . Is it strongly correlated where there have been outbreaks and lockdowns . It has been broad no geographic difference in southern states, northern states or weather related the interesting thing with covid cancellations is interestingly enough to date we have had more cancellations year the date than last year, they are not that much worse year to date. It is the join issue that we have we were closed for many months without sales. But we started if he can using on sales in september and demand is way up. What is the deal with masks can you work out wear a mask, Drinking Water is this are people doing that . It is all by state. Our Planet Fitness policy is you Must Wear Masks walking in, out, and throughout the facility. In 13 states you are required to wear them 100 of the time those states clubs react the same as the clubs required only while working around the mask rules vary from club the club it has worked out well. With the lost members, can you update us on the number . Also whats your expectation whether those members will come back once we are on the other side of the pandemic at the ends of q 3 we ended with 14. 1 million fems we lost 1. 1 million from the end of q 2 to q 3. You can see that the trajectory of loss is slowing greatly compared to the first three months of q 3. I really think that the nose is starting to come up, the marketing is working the drive demand cancellations are still over last year but the demand is there and offsetting a lot of it i do see the declines slowing a quite a bit. Going into q 1 hopefully a vaccine comes around and we will start to see some more sense of normalcy here. I realize that the income groups might not overlap here, but if you look at a stock like peloton and their performance has been so good with selling bikes, the at home fitness thing, the longer it lasts, chris, how much do you worry these are going to be permanent shifts around Consumers Behavior around going the gyms even when we get a vaccine and can get back to normal. Peloton customers costwise are different. Home fit seasons nothing new it has been around since richard simmons, jane fonda, billy blank. In theory it makes sense, in reality how many people have the space in their house for the peloton bike cost you could be a member for ten years and never equal that the variety of equipment i use my local planet because the variety and the morale and the atmosphere is so much better this the facility. People often head back to the gym after the holidays, try to be healthy again do you fear that wont happen this time around because people will be stuck at home and there wont be that sort of same incentive. Who knows what is going to happen in january. That seems light years away compared to how quickly the world is changing now. If it stays the way it is today each with the news and the media that you see, the sales are still there. So i think in january we will see a strong result there, too but i think it is a matter of us planet wise getting our bran out there, showing how clean our facilities are, showing our perot coals of what members are doing in the facilities and showing that everybody is safe i witnessed it in the club this morning it is totally safe since we reopened we have had zero cases of a breakout and exposure to being exposed to somebody who had it is. 008 fit subpoenas essential when you think about it you look at obesity and diabetes and all the thing that lead to the people that this is affecting the most to shut gyms down is counterproductive. We are part of the Health Care Delivery system. We are not just a gym, 14 million members we are getting people healthy so they dont go to the hospital and they can fight a pandemic or an epidemic, flu or any other element. Some of the studies back you up i have a question about smaller independent gyms across the country. You are a big Public Company are you making market share across the industry . Do you plan to as we have seen so many small and independent businesses suffer because of the lockdown and because they dont have access to financing. The studios are feeling it because they are small, 800 square feet. Planet fitness is 20,000 square feet social distancing for success relatively easy. We continue to stay open and service members. Back to your question, you are right, there is 41,000 gyms in this country you take out the National Players you are left with 36,000 mom and pops out there and single small operator locations out there. They are going feel this even more so. You are right, i think the market share gain i think it is upwards of 7 to 10 of the industry is shut down already. My guess is over the next 12 months it will be double that. We have 2,000 starts our next competitor has 700. Our moat will be bigger at the ends of this for sure. Do you think as much as 20 of gyms across this country could close for good. I believe so. I definitely believe, so, yes. Unfortunately. Unfortunately, yeah we have got to leave it there. We are out of time but we appreciate you coming on to talk about, it from Planet Fitness. Good day. When we come back, sales at macys slip and tesla gets bad news from consumers reports. Those stories and more when we go inside the market zone. We have 18 minutes left of trade, dow is up 55 points, nudging higher a remind, he you can watch or listen to us live on the go or the cnbc app well be right back. Olivia please turn your screen on. Okay, lift the. There you go. Mondays remote, tuesdays at school. Its the other way around. We might not be able to solve everything. But we can help make sure students and teachers can stay connected to learning. Its why at t has connected more than 200 Million Students to brighter futures. Its time you make the rules. 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We are know in the closing bell market zone, commercial free coverage of all the action going into the close mike santoli here as always to break down these crucial moments of the trading day today we have got high tower chief investments strategists, stephanie link back for a thursday stocks are higher for the first time in three days we are inching up here the s p is up. 4 of a percent. Mike, a number of sectors have gone into the green. Energy leading and only utilities and health care are lower. Tells like there is still a tension between optimism over a vaccine and some pest mitchell or nervousness about the current state worsening state of the economy and the pandemic yeah. What is the market to make of it i think thats one of the reasons for the markets hesitation this week over the last couple of weeks it has not really made headway. It is also a push pull between a sprang trend seasonal patterns are in favor credit is sturdy all those thing you would look at it has been a broad rally. Those are the assets also, sentiment just got ahead of itself. I keep saying that we are having to try and fight a little bit of excess optimism and aggressive positioning thats something that can happen with the market sitting around and not doing much for a while or through pullbacks steph, are you surprised at todays intraday recovery, which is fairly pronounced now it is nice to see i just think that the market feels a little tired here in the short run. You just talked about that because it is a back and forth between good news and bad news on the days that we are focusing on the vaccine progress or we are focusing on really good earnings, and they have been good, and this week really impressive from some of the retailers and the housing data was great even though initial claims was not if you focus on the good stuff, thats when the cyclicals work the noncovid and the no stimulus and the imf saying that Global Growth is fading. If you focus on that thats when the defensives lead. You have to own a little bit of both because if you only all cyclicals you are going to be hammered on days like yesterday or the day before. Then on days when we are focusing on the bad you want to have some secular growers in technology it is a hard time. I worry that earnings season is over, now we are really macro focused. Seasonab seasonably, you want to be in the market. Macys reporting macys beat on the top line, too w nearly 4 billion in sales but that was down more than 20 from a year ago. Digital sales were up 27 from a year ago though not enough to why have set instore sales missys is attracting new younger shoppers through the Digital Commerce and the ceo told cnbc beauty and fragrance sales were up 85 . Seems people are looking to treat themselves right now and he also thinks there issent approximate up demand for apparel once a vaccine makes us safer. There is going to be a surge of demand when that happens and there is going to be customers that have been wearing the same clothes, lounging, inactive in casual sports wear and her going to want to dress up. That fits squarely in our strengths. In the meantime, digital will help them weather the covid surge during the holiday season. Hes not really giving too much detail when it comes to that bertha thank you for that steph, as for when there is a surge in demand, is macys the main beneficiary no, i dont think they will certainly see higher sales, for sure. Thinking is better 23 in total revenues or down 31 in comps but these guys are structurally impaired as is nordstrom and kohls they suv investing ten years ago like all the other companies that are winners, costco, walmart, target. These Companies Still have too much overhead. They are too challenges. There are too many other places to go. I think one place toss contrarian to go is tjx or the offpricers because i think they have home goods, which did gray, number one. And number two, people like to treasure hunt. So we when do reopen you will see traffic return. Where is wall street, mike, on the future of macys . Is it a buying opportunity if so, what is the thesis . I have not heard it from stephanie just now, obviously. And have not really seen it. When the company talks about recovery it is macro driven and talks about having to be closed because they were nonessential but it is that macys wasnt doing well before the pandemic. Thor to is survival they cut costs there was a line that says that the real estate valley was holding it i think that leans on the Flagship Store in new york there is a bunch of debt the stock is going to react inn exaggerated way to any infleck better or worse. What i find amazing is the ceos saying we are well positioned once everybody wants to dress up again. And kohls ceo saying we are well positioned because nobody ever wants to dress up again tesla got bad news from Consumer Reports phil lebeau has the details. General motors laid out an aggressive plan, increasing what they have already said they are going to do with evs, increasing it by 35 . Investing now 27 billion. It was 20 billion, by 2025. That means 30 new evs by 25 two thirds of those will be here in north america and cutting the battery pack cost by 60 middecade heres the big one they are planning to sell 1 million electric vehicles by the middle this decade that is an ambitious goal. Lets shift gears and talk about tesla. As long as we are talking about electric vehicles. Consumer reports, its annual Auto Reliability issue is out. They released it today they are no longer recommending the model s. They have questions about the computer on the vehicle as well as the touch screen. Some issues there. Remember, this is based on consumers who own the vehicles rating the vehicles. According to Consumer Reports tesla now has the second worst reliability among all auto brands lincoln is rated dead last when you lock at shares of tesla, look at that, that tack was over 500 at an alltime high earlier today now just under 500 a share guys, back to you. But still up. Not too worried about that Consumer Reports thumbs down phil, thank you. Steph, i think you like the autos, right, gm could it be as an ev play . Is there some room here do you think for some of the other radio makers who are really shifting into high gears, pun intended when it comes the taking on tesla. We heard from bm, with a few weeks ago and now from gm. Thats always been my concern that the competition is going to heat up and get more intense for tesla. It is hard to value tesla. You can say it is a technology company, an esg. I got it all but competition is competition its coming. I dont own gm or ford, but i own active, an auto parts company. 20 of its total revenues gom from gm and vw it is a technology inside. Its anything connectivity they are doing. They have the best free cash flow, the best margins, the best growth in the any and a fabulous management team. They were smart during the downturn they did secondary at 75 a share. Look at where the stock is now thats the wi i am going to play this team. And i will continue to buy on digs. Da davidson upgrading wells fargo to buy saying the stock has upcoming cat lests including the reemergence of buybacks in 2021 citi also getting an upgrade at kbw. The firm estimates the Unemployment Rate will fall to 5 by year end 2022 and says lower unemployment will be correlated to lower credit loss force citi jp morgan downgraded to market perform today saying it has no i think hower the upside to warrant outperform rating for jp morgan of course it still trades on a premium to the other banks. Steph have you been particularly encouraged i would imagine by wells fargo, up 4. 6 today but up 9 this week, well ahead of the market, eve when rates have pulled back a bit. I will take whatever i can get, wilf. You know that. The stock this stock is still down 50 on the year, right . Trades at. 8 tangible. It is cheap. It has been cheap for a long time i have been adding to this one and Morgan Stanley over the last couple of days heres why i think you can get aggressive on wells. The ceo has been there over a year he has his team in place now maybe we are going to get results. You are hear being asset sales of their noncore businesses, more aggressive cost cutting and i think they already reset the numbers low enough and also cut the dividend i feel like all the bad news is out. I agree with the upgrade i am hurting with this game but i will take whatever i can get this week or any other week. Are you adding to any other bank positions that you have, steph . The group is showing some signs of life. Yeah. I i have been adding to the way i view it is that i dont want to own a lot of financials especially if i dont think the yield curve goes up materially, if it doesnt steepen materially i want to own special situations the other one i have been adding to is Morgan Stanley because i like what the ceo is doing, diversi diversifying, buying eaton vance and e trade. I like this call very much and he is chomping to buy back stock and raise the dividend i expect very large increases on both sides. Thats going to be a key swing factor for the sector as a whole, as when they are allowed to increase dividends and buybacks again. Absolutely. That is the next thing besides tracking the yield curve and tracking the economic story. If you look at citi and wells in particular on a year to date basis they have very aggressive moves to the upside. All they are really doing is coming into that longer term downturn people trying to handicap the stocks in the shortterm say this is a test to see if things changed iffer they are going to be a prolonged recovery or if it is an exas rated bounce off a very low level and it is going to fail. Just over two minutes wilfred, i was going to continue the bank and ask you a question i wonder if we will see more m a with this uncertainty whether they can buy back their own stock. Morgan stanley has been active i wonder what that sis about their expectations about being able to do buybacks. I think as we framed it earlier in the week, that all the stars were aligned for pnc and it just got a deal over the line listen, if price start to rise and buybacks are back in place by early next year it make it harder to see significant deals again. Certainly in terms of the sort of top ten to 12 names we mention quite often. Won would have thought if there was going to be a deal, two, three, four months ago was most likely the so many, pnc, special situation, had a lot of cash on the balance sheet, just got a deal over the line we will have to see. But it doesnt seem like a wave of school dapgs has been unleashed as of yet. Just over a minute and a half left in the session, mike, what are the internals. They have been firm the follow submit for the new york stock exchange, it is 2 to 1 to the positive. Even before this bump. That seems like it is in the bulls category look at big tech or big growth the nasdaq 100 against the financial sector, the s p. Earlier it was all tech supporting the market. Now they are both kind of in yun turn this is a day when the growth and noncyclicals did make up a bit of ground they lost in the past couple of weeks the volatility index, a very calm day a back and forth across this flat line day. You have some bleed, volatility down to 23, custom is still a comfortable level at this point for the market. Before we get into the close, i want to know, we already knew we loved stephanie link but we want to give her a shout out for being on the cover of kiplingers where to invest in 2021 it is an amazing pekt and stock pick stay with us for more expert commentary and stock ticks from stephanie link love that shot thank you as we head into the close we are well off of session lows. And we have done better throughout the session maybe from talk of resuming stimulus negotiations. Schumer and mcconnell may be coming together. Who knows . But we are closing out here near session highs. The s p up. 4 most sectors, wilfred in the green, except for health care and utilities in the close. Intraday turnaround well to the closing bell, everyone im wilfred frost along with sara eisen and mike santoli, cnbc senior markets commentator. As sara said, a strong final hour of trade. The s p up. 4 , and the dow up about. 2 , or 43 points. The high of the session was up 86 the low was down 210 closing tor well off the low the nasdaq led the charge of the three indexes. The russel continues its strong run. Up. 8 up 2. 3 this week. The dow is just higher for the week now the s p just lower. Still to home, the white house set to hold a Coronavirus Task force News Conference in just a few minutes we will bring you that live as soon as it begins. We are also awaiting president elect biden who is set to speak after holding a call with several state governors about the coronavirus. That was due to start about 30 minutes ago. They might now start at the same time we will have to wait and see we will be joined by Colorado Governor Jared Polis who was on that call with the president elect. Thats coming up as well. Plus, the president of the United Federation of teachers on new yorks citys decision to close schools did the time line for when they might reopen again. Stephanie link is still with us. And omaring a wi lumbar of Charles Schwab joins the conversation govern to you. Mike, i come to you first. Interesting. The nasdaq was the best. Approximator of the three major afternoons but the intraday recovery came in energy and some of the cyclical sectors that suffered at the open. That trade has not resewed easily even though there was a concern with the weak jobless claims number today. Cyclical was going to start to take a back seat it hasnt really done so i dont think the market is really showing us much about sbrengs more broadly or what really matters in the near term. We have been chopping around in a relatively now range several days now we closed at fridays closing level for the s p. If you look at a chart of the week today was spent in between the rails. I think it is encouraging. You saw thing like retailers as well respond relatively well to things like macys and l brands numbers which you wouldnt think would be drivers in the overall market i still say we are in a rest and reset mode for the overall market that Investor Expectations too probably have to cool up. I am glad you brought up l brands steph, our cover gal really nice cover on kiplingers. Thank you. L brands is an interesting story. It is a turnaround the stock is i think now more than double so far this year i bring it up because i wonder how many of these cases there are in troubled sectors like retail who are using the current environment, the pandemic, to reset their business, resize i am thinking under armour maybe and come out looking a lot different and whether thats a real opportunity for investors. Is that a theme you are watching there . Absolutely thats a team. I used to own l brands i sold it. They are doing a nice job. I agree with you on under armour the thing is there is so much to fix. They have got to fix the brands, the supply chain, the cost structure. They are really nowhere internationally and nike is right down their throats who is doing everything right and expanding dtc and thats helping their operating leverage story one name i like a lot is the gap stores i think to your point, this is exactly what the company is doing. They are totally changing their stripes. They are going to be 80 dtc in the next couple of years as you improve your dtc and Digital Business your margins expand over time i am watching that one that is one that i want to take a look at if there is a weak to add there. Omar are we closer now to getting the vaccine distributed that you can look through the spikes in cases in the winter months and buy cyclical stocks we clearly see in the market thinking through already i think the news that we heard on the vaccine on different fronts have basically pushed that cyclical trade back into motion i do think that you know in order for the market to feel more comfortable and sustain that cyclical trade we need to get past the winter months i think we are getting close i think part of the economy rebound as opposed to recovery happened already i think the recovery started with those views the cyclical frayed and the recovery of the Global Recovery is starting to get a clear pat of the Health Crisis that started it all it will be interesting as we go through the next few mondays as we continue to see the number of cases rise and thenews on the development of the vaccine and each one of those will weigh into the market volatility Going Forward. Given that overview, omar, what types of stocks or sectors are you telling investors to buy . Well, this is a very interesting situation because if you think about the spread we have seen on the technology and Consumer Discretionary sectors to financials and technology this year. Its about 70 thats right, 70 of what the spread has been there. Even though when you see the volatility of the over all market it looks tame around 20 when you cici the swrid stuff, the volume it the has sky rothed that makes you think about several thing. Number one we always try to think about diversification. So in this particular case, some of the advice we will provide to clients is start to get to the cyclical trades early on as well as emerging markets as well as international. That overall diversification is part what have the long term trend is for ig Everything Else because that dispersion that i mentioned has been drastic that it dislocated a lot of strategies when we see momentum trading on one has hurt at will customers because they werent diversified enough because they were thinking the overall market was going to take them over. We are trying to help them take profits out and at the same time rebalance into long term. Steph, goss energy feature in your barbell it is hard, wilf. It is edge 2 of my benchmark in the s p 500. I have been able to kinds of ignore it. It is a little bit different in terms of a supply and demand characteristics. What plays more in my i own one name, and pretty big, chevron because of the yield, and i know that yield is definitely covered because they cut cap ex several times this year to make sure they can pay that dividend. I like that. So thats good more in my portfolio is more the different commodities, we talked about copper it is at new 36month highs it is a different of a material because it is hard to get and there is not that much of it i own freeport mcnamara as a play that. But thats difficult, and you have to be careful with them. The Enterprise Cloud company seeing a big beat on eepz revenue in line with the streets expectations. Look at shares up nearly 4. 5 in extended trade. Eepz 86 cents. A strong beat there. Revenue come in line at 1. 11 billion. Thats up will 18 year over year what the street really likes, though, is the fact that the Company Raised its q 42021 subscription guidance. Keep in mind this stock has moved strongly after its march low but investors cooled over the last few months, some concern about slowing rate of raitt in it is Core Hr Software segment. We are looking at the Financial Software segment to that point, the coceo saying in the release they are seeing continued moment up there. He is also saying employees wasnt be required to return to the office prior to august 22nd, 2021 slightly behind other Tech Companies like google. Up 4 in extended trading. Kram letter have much more on workday tonight at 6 00. Mike back to you in terms of the markets as we still await president elect biden. What do you make of teslas jump this week . It is interesting it was almost a delayed reaction i think you have not fully kind of gotten away from this environment where you have a ton of investors speculating in the options, driving these kind of very much consensus exciting stocks down. It closed just below 500s. Split adjusted 500 is basically the peak from late august when they had the stock split and everything once they announced they were going to enter the s p 500 in the next few weeks you would think that would have been the str trigger. But what it is a global ev phase. China people are going nuts. And tesla is being dragged along with the crowd as gm is trying to highlight its ev credibility, the rest of the word is piling into this trade right now. It seems mostly about a rediscovered momentum for tesla, the stock, not the company while we are talking themes, steph got it. One question i wanted to ask you was about the work from home trades and what to do with them. They worked really well all year and definitely hit a speed bump with the vaccine news. Sc climbed today you get the bursts as the future is uncertain over cases and hospitalizations and potential restrictions what do you do with those names . Are you buying any of them now on the expectation that we have still got a while . Well, we do have a while. Thats the sad part about it but you also novell that the market is a forward looking indicator. By six, eight, ten months down the road i think we would have a vaccine by that time frame thats why i think on these kinds of days when it is kind of slow, it is client of sleepy, now you are starting to see the cyclicals take leadership. I think it is because they are thinking forward versus looking back in terms of the stayathome, these stocks clearly had enormous runs. I think it is hard to chase them because they are overourn owned. But i dont mind owning Something Like a sales force dot com. Workday just told Us Sales Force is doing just as fine. I dont mind owning them i still own amazon thats well owned as well. But retail ecommerce is here to stay i want to have participation in that there are pockets where i want to own i dont want to go follow zoom or z scaler because i cant understand the valuations there. I understand why they have been popular but i dont need to buy them when i have other names i can get the same theme with . We have an earnings alert on ross stores. Bertha comes with the numbers. Sara, weve got earnings of 37 cents a share from ross unclear ifs that comparable to the analyst estimates of 61 cents a share. But it does beat on the bottom line in terms of sales thats why you see the stock going up a little bit. 3. 75 billion compared to estimate of 3. 43 billion overall comps were down 3 they say the november comps are down in the mid Single Digits one of the things thats interesting, barbara bentsler said they will continue to not give guidance because of uncertain and because of the high level of uncertainty, she is concerned with the surge that we are seeing in the coronavirus, that that may impact Consumer Behavior here during the Holiday Quarter but as you can see, the sales beating. We are getting the president elect joe biden speaking now after his conversation with governors, lets listen. Executive leadership of the national governs krch they included govern or cuomo, new york governor hutchinson, governor hoageon, with itmer, ivy, polis, governor baker, governor grisham, governor herbert, and Governor Carney and it was really a worthwhile undertaking. You know, they have had to make some really tough calls during this unprecedented crisis. And we are incredibly grateful for everything they have done and are doing to try to keep their communities safe unfortunately, because of the lack of acertainment, as they say, which is acertainment as they say, thats a fancy word but also the head of the gsa say we in fact, this transition team, our team, the senator and, are the likely winners, until she does that, we dont have access to all the information we need to get from all the various agencies woulder not able to deal with everything from testing to guidance to the vaccine districts and more importantly, vaccination plan to actually get vaccinations we havent been able to get into operation warp speed but we will take what we have learned today and build it into your planning. The country is still in a crisis and there is a dark winter still ahead. Yesterday, america reached another tragic milestone 250,000 deaths a quarter of a Million People died due to covid19 there are empty chairs at dining room tables where they were filled days and weeks ago with loved ones, family, friends, who laughed and talked together. To those families and friends that are left behind, jill and i sends our love and our prayers we know, like many of you do, how tough it is to find purpose in the memory of a loved ones you have just lost it will take time. But you will find it you will find it and you will fine your purpose as we are going to find our purpose for our nation as a nation now i promise you that and i promise you that we will work together. There is a great meeting we had today. All the governors, no matter their political party, whether they are from wherever part of the country they represented, no matter their political philosophy shared a strong and abiding sense of a common purpose. There was a real desire for a Real Partnership between the states and the federal government each of the governors emphasized that we might be democrats and republicans, but we are all americans first. They congratulated us heartily for our win. What really pleased me most was that governors made clear that beating covid19 is going to require all of us working together as one country. Kamala and i agree we are we were deeply impressed with how much consensus there was, how to move forward among the governors. What we need to do now is how we need to do it. How are we going to do it . In what coordinated way can it be done . We discussed the number of critical ways we can wok together and unify around a National Approach to controlling covid19 first, delivering Economic Relief to the cities, states, and tribal communities the lost revenue from covid and the cost of Covid Recovery is devastating to state and local budgets. As governors as all of them indicated we have got to come together the federal government has the deliver this release sooner than laider and with flexibility for the states to meet their needs it includes helping businesses, schools, working families, from unemployment ben it is to early education, continued access to Affordable Care act all of that is needed during this community. States and communities shouldnt have to layoff teachers, cops, fire fighters, cut vital skfrs for families and businesses, the second thing there were uniform agreement on, delivering a safe and equity and free vaccine. The governors all acknowledged that this be a massive untaking one of the greatest challenges we will face as a nation one statistic that was raised by the governors it took eight months to provide 100 million covid tests. Eight months to provide covid tests. Just imagine how much who difficult it will be, they point out, if we dont find a more efficient and effective way to provide 330 million vaccinations put it in perspective. They made the point, we cant wait thats what the governors are raising. In the meeting we discussed the challenges that lie ahead in distributing and administering the vaccine. The governors talked about how getting doses of vaccine distributed will be just one step we have to actually get vaccinations into the arms of 330 million americans. That takes enormous resources. People, product. We scud the difficulty of that task it is going the take tight it is going to take coordination it is going to take the federal government and state governments working hand in glove, working together the governors all emphasized we need to be clear with the American People about who to expect no false expectations. Let them know what we anticipate they all acknowledge this is going to take a Massive Public Education Campaign and we also need to reach treschly underserved communities that are being hardest hit by pandemic, black, brown, latino, native American Communities. Small toups, Rural Communities they talked about that in some detail thirdly we discussed the need to help states with title 32 funds forth the National Guard thats a fancy way of saying governors governors need to be able to get funding when they they need to bring their National Guard into play and National Guards are going to have to play this. That cost as lot of money. Governors need that paid for governors discussed the need for funding when waving certain fema fees the fact is that this is a National Emergency thats what fema is supposed to deal with. Our view is that should be done when it comes to deploying the National Guard or covid or relief, that should be paid for. You know, thats something kamala and i will be very focused on fourthly we discussed the implementation of a National Mask mandate ten governors, democrat and republican have imposed masking requirements and recognized the need for universal asking. North, south, and east, and west it is not a political statement. It is a patriotic duty and fifth, we discussed making testing more available and accessible anyone who wants a test should be able to get one, period and finally, while we focused on the immediate needs to control the virus the governors also raised and talked about how much we have to build back better, especially on i infrastructure, and education, and so much more. This was not a oneoff meeting i committed we committed. We agreed that we will continue to work and meet with the governors on a regular basis, continue the seek their input and that our covid teams will follow up and coordinate on the issues coming out of that call because some of them have very competent ten poem on their covid teams in their states. The bottom line we can do this there is nothing beyond our capacity but we have to come together as a country. With this meeting along what this meeting along with others we have had reinforces in my view is the unity the country is looking for. They are looking for to us come together and deal with problems, most of which have no itio logical basis for disagreement thats what we have to do. Thats what the governors talked about. It really was pleasing to hear them i want to thank you all. And may god bless you all, and those who lost someone, you are in our prayers may got protect our troops i am happy to take a few questions. And my boss is going to tell me who that is. Thank you, mr. President elect. I know you mentioned the Economic Impact and talked a bit about the relief package you wanted i was wondering if we could talk about thing that you will be able to do just as president , or what will sort of govern your decision in terms of the economy. So i was wondering if i could ask, what kind of frame wok you are liking about as you decide about a treasury secretary Going Forward, whether you would consider you had said during the debates that you wanted to punish china over the way that they have been acting, whether that could include economic sanctions or tariffs for china and finally, do you think a strong dollar helps or hurts the u. S. As we are grappling with historic unemployment . Look, let me try to take them one at a time. You will soon hear my choice for treasury we have made that decision you will hear that either just before or just after thanksgiving number one you will find it is somebody who i think will be accepted by all elements of the democratic party, from progressive to the moderate coalitions. Secondly, its not so much about punishing choichblt it is about making sure china understands they have got the play by the rules. It is a simple proposition thats one of the reasons why we are going to rejoin the world health organization. We are going to rejoin on day one as well and it needs reform i act among and rejoin the Paris Climate Accord and we have to make sure that the rest of the world and we get together and make sure there are certain bright lines the chinese understand we have to not only deal with this pandemic. We have to plan for the next one. The idea that viruss are going to go away is not rational we are going to recalibrate and set up the institute the institutional structures we had in our administration, obama biden, and build on it what was your third question it was about the dollar, sir, whether you help think a strong dollar are help or hurt with unemployment or generally how you would like the Federal Reserve approach frankly, the way the Federal Reserve has been approaching the dealing with the dollar i think has been in a positive direction. Our Interest Rates are as low as they have been in modern history. And i think that is a positive thing. It lends credence to the possibility of us being able to expend the money and deficit spend in order to be able to generate Economic Growth right off the bat. So i think its been positive so far. Thank you thank you, mr. President elect. You have said that if this transition doesnt get going, especially coordination on Vaccine Distribution that lives will be lost how many lives do you think are at risk here if this transition remains stalled . Look, you have heard the projections. The projections are that if nothing fundamentally changes between now and the beginning of february, we are likely going to lose a total of 400,000 live, another 150,000 lives. So it is real. Whether it is that, or gets to 360 whatever it is, it is real and there is no excuse not to share the data and let us begin to plan. Because on day one it is going to take us time if we dont have access to all this data. It is going to put us behind the 8 ball by a matter of a month or more thats lives how many would be lost as a consequent to that, i cant tell you. But the purpose here is to get we talked a lot with the governors about what their immediate needs are. We are going to enforce the excuse me employ the defense act to be able to go out there and dictate companies build and do the following things we need much more testing. We need much more masking. We need much more we need gloves i asked the National Governors association through Governor Cuomo and the ones on the line to let us know what their shortages are, what they anticipate because we are going to move on day one. That should be moved on now. Now. If it waits, it takes a long time to get this thing going. If you sake a step back and you look at the way the president is handling this, his refusal to concede, what do you think is really going on here . If your view, mr. President elect, what do you think the president is doing what are americans witnessing here. Let me choose my words. I think their witnessing incredible irresponsibility, incredibly damaging message is being sent to the rest of the world about how democracy functions. And i think it is well, i dont know his motive, but i just think it is totally irresponsibility. Are you concerned he may succeed, that people may question the legitimacy of your administration no i am not concerned the vast majority of the American People, the polling data although republicans who worry about it is higher but over 70 of the American People believe without question it is legitimate and i just think it is and i think most of the republicans i have spoken to, including some of the governors think this is debilitating its not a it sends a horrible message about who we are as a country thank you mr. President elect, thank you Vice President elect. You have said that lives could be lost if you dont start getting briefings from the Trump Administration now here we are, more than 250,000 lives could be lost. Given that, how do you justify not taking legal action to get the briefings that you say are critical, that you say you need . It would take a lot of time it would take time it is not going to speed it up considerably in my view. And in the meantime, i ip ho hopeful i will get cooperation from the republican colleagues in the senate and the house as well as the governors as to build a consensus as to how we proceed when we do. But why not use every tool in your tool box to get the information that you say you need to did your job and do it effectively on day one i am making a judgment based on many years of experience on how to get things done with the opposition my judgment is do you think you would win . My judgment is that it is, we will get further along by actually working with our republican colleagues now. And because the time in which we would win would not materially change necessarily but its still an open question. Its an open question. It could change. You reason is ruled it out in you havent ruled out legal action against the Trump Administration, against the gsa . We havent ruled it out. Okay. And given the death toll now, more than 250,000 americans who have now lost their lives you have said that you would support a nationwide shutdown if scientists recommended it. No you keep everybody asks that question every single team i stand here it was a hypothetical question the answer was, i would follow the science. I am not going to shut down the economy, period. I am going shut down the virus thats what i am going to shut down. Thats ruled out. I will say it again no National Shutdown no National Shutdown because every region, every year, every community is can be different and so theres no circumstance which i can see that would require a total National Shutdown i think that would be counterproductive but there are constraints in which, the degree to which businesses can be open for example, its one thing to say that you can have, in a state where the infection rate is not as high you can have a gymnasium open it is another one to say it can only be open four hours away with x number of people. The church i go to, they are not allowing more than 40 of the people to come into the church rational decisions it is not shutting down everything calibrating based on what the threat is. Thank you, mr. President. Thank you thank you, mr. Vice president elect thank you mr. President elect and Vice President elect harris the question for you first is what do you make that the president is having these calls with michigan county officials amid his bid to overturn the election hes going to be having also Michigan Republican leaders at the house tomorrow is anything that he is doing making you rethink your strategy i know you say you dont want to have legal action right now. And what do you say to americans, especially immigrant americans to came to the United States looking for political stability and seeing all the things that the president is doing. Hoang on. Im on my way. Thats what i say to them. Not a joke and what the president is doing now is is really its going to be another incident where he will go down in history as being one of the most irresponsible president s in American History its its just out of the not even within the norm at all. Theres questions whether its even legal but its going to be interesting to see who shows up in that call to meet with the leadership. But this is going to we won michigan it is going to be certified. We are going to end up making clear that they are they are making clear that we won and but it just i just its hard to fathom how this man thinks its hard to fathom. Im confident he knows he hasnt won, is not going to be able to win and we are going to be sworn in on january 20th and i just you know, but far for me to question his motive. Its just outrageous what hes doing. As he ups the things that he is doing, calling officials, is it making you rethink your strategy at all . Is there anything that he would be doing that would make you say okay we really have to go to court now . Are you still watching what he is doing thinking we can still kind of wait and see what happens . I am not going to rule anything out or anything in. But at the moment, the streaming is not changing. If i could ask the question to the Vice President elect harris sure. Would that be okay. Vice president elect harris, you talked about your state, your state experience. My question is, is there anything you heard from governors today that made you specifically concerned about vulnerable populations especially as i talk to americans who say i dont have the privilege to work from home, i dont have the privilege to social distance if i am living in a house with multigenerations did you hear anything that concerns you specifically . And what can we do for that as a country. As the president elect shared with everyone, we heard a lot from the governors, including that including the concern that africanamericans, lateinlatino, native americans, people who live in Rural Communities, people who as groups of people have historically been underresourced and underserved so there was consensus among the governors, bipartisan consensus that our federal strategy should reflect those concerns in a way that we support the states with the resources they need to get to the folks who have been often overlooked or ignored. The president elect has made it very clear that it is one of our highest priorities to support that as you know n the senate i actually led what we called a Racial Disparities task force. That approach is something that we will be incorporating in our administration, to ensure that all people have equal access to resources. But also taking into account equitable distribution of resources based on need. Thank you Vice President elect harris. One important thing to understand is, there is a we talked a lot about this and talked about it and talked about it when i was running and seeking the nomination as well and that is the idea of the brown, black, asian american, native American Communities are always the first ones hit the hardest and the last ones who are brought back we are going to flip that around it is going to be really important to determine priorities based upon access to the information thats available, access to everything from the vaccine to other opportunities to be able to deal with helping the country, part of the country that has been hurt the worst three times as many africanamericans have died than white americans died from covid. So there has to be a prioritization thats why i would like to know exactly what this what this administration has in mind in terms of their operation warp speed and how they plan it and thats what we talked about with the governors today they all mentioned a need to focus on the communities that have been left behind. Particularly Governor Cuomo. Its one thing if for example, vaccines are distributed in all the walgreens of america no criticism of walgreens. But you know, there is a lot of those facilities that arent in Rural Communities and are not in poor communities, africanamerican and latino communities. So we have got to make sure there is access for them thank you so much thanks, guys. Okay. Thank you. That was president elect biden, and Vice President elect harris addressing a News Conference after speaking with ten governors of republicans and democrats. Main headline for us really coming out of that, that they have picked their choice for treasury secretary, saying we will get an announcement in and around thanksgiving. Possibly before, possibly soon after ask. Framed as someone that will be accepted by all corners of the democratic party, both progressives and centrists also heard the president elect say they were considering implement of a National Mask mandate but not a National Shutdown also said that the vaccine would be free. One of the greatest operational challenges the u. S. Has ever faced as a nation. Also saying it plans to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord immediately. We have more analysis on that to come when we speak with Governor Polis of colorado who was one of the ten governors on the call that the president elect was just discussing. Before we get to that, breaking news on the c. A. R. E. S. Act. Steve liesman has it for us. Whistle, thanks the treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin dee kleined to extend several c. A. R. E. S. Act lending programs that were funding emergency funding programs over at the Federal Reserve they include the main Street Lending facility the Corporate Bond purchases as well as the Municipal Bond purchases the Federal Reserve, jay powell made clear in no Uncertain Terms he wanted these programs extended up mooin saying no, he wants this money back. He specifically requested that the Federal Reserve now send back some 420 billion that was available to the fed for lending. Could have been trills but it didnt end up being very much. It was the existence of the program. We of course brought you the story about the split frein mnuchin and powell on this issue earlier this week. And now a decision has been made in which powell and mnuchin, who have i guess worked pretty well together throughout most of this crisis now going their separate ways on the issue of extending these emergency lending programs. Steve, why . Why would the treasury want to pull these important lifelines or potential lifelines as the virus crisis is getting worse and while the economic crisis has gotten a lot better, it is far from over. We still have millions of americans unemployed and many Small Businesses municipalities suffering. So my understanding is that they believe that the markets have restored themselves that the markets are trading well, especially the Corporate Bond market i dont know what the rationale is on the main Street Lending facility which is just now ramping up and certainly you could make an argument many main street or midsized businesses which are the target of these need these funds thats unclear the muni market seems to be trading okay on the other hand you could argue there is a political wherein, giving this money back before a Biden Administration takes off it would deny them these funds and future lending would have to come from a smaller pot of lending it would leverage up to much less lending that otherwise would be available Steve Liesman steve, thank you we are going to go straight to Vice President mike pence giving a Coronavirus Task force briefing for the first time in a while. Lets listen. This week members of the Coronavirus Task force and weve continued. We have continued to be on the same mission we have been on throughout the course of this year that is to save american lives and work every day toward that day that we put the coronavirus in the past. Im joined today, and you will hear in a few moments from members of the white house Coronavirus Task force, including those that are leading the effort of distribution of vaccinations under operation warp speed i think you will be as impressed as i was at fema earlier today when i heard the detailed plans for the virtual Immediate Distribution of vaccine when they become approved and available to the American People from early on in this pandemic at the president s direction we have followed an approach to this pandemic that was federally supported, state managed, and locally executed and to that en, this mast monday we completed our 41st Conference Call with all of the nations governors. Every state, every territory there we spoke about our current circumstances where we see cases and hospitalizations rising. But we also continued to speak to them about the expansion of testing, the availability of supplies and our ongoing efforts to continue to drive forward toward the development and the distribution of a vaccine for the American People. As we gather here today with cases and hospitalizations rising across the country, President Trump directed us to host this briefing, to describe the ongoing work of our task force and our partnership with state and local officials and our partners in the private sector to continue to put the health of america first. But first, let me begin simply by saying that our hearts and our prayers are with all of those families that have been impacted by the coronavirus over the course of the past ten months and let me say personal will he not a day has gone by that i havent thought personally about families that have lost loved ones and i want to assure each of you that you will always be in our hearts and you will remain in our prayers. But we wanted to take this opportunity also to thank the American People for the extraordinary sacrifices that you have made over the course of the past ten months. We have been through a lot together we have went through 45 days to slow the spread back when the positive rate across this country was more than 20 . We managed to accomplish our objective. We slowed the spread we flattened the curve we saved lives then during the outbreak across the sun belt this summer when we saw positivity rise to nearly 10 the American People and official at the state level stepped up again and we put that outbreak in the past even as we see help is on the way, as vaccines are developed at a fast pace cases and positivity are rising across the country. But we approach this home with the confidence of experience we know the American People know what to do we have forged a hipp that is truly seamless with state and local Health Authorities as well describe to you today we have continued to work seven days a week all throughout this year and up to this very moment to make sure the American People have access to the health care that we want any member of our family to have as we meet this pandemic now, cases are rising throughout the country. Positivity in the last 30 days as risen from an average of 5 to 10 to that ends, we have continued the mobilization that began at President Trumps direction early this year. We increased testing from a standing start in the month of february to now, as of today, we have completed more than 170 million tests and we continue to approve new tests including an athome test that the fda just recently approved. And we are distributing more than 150 million bind extests to schools can Nursing Homes around america as we speak. Our mobilization of supplies you will hear described in great deal, continues to surge every day. We actually are able to track ppe and supplies on a hospital by hospital basis. So we are carefully monitoring we are working with state officials with hospital administrators to make sure that our hospitals have the support they need. Also, as we gather, more than 140 Clinical Trials for therapeutics continue to be under way. But effective therapies are already available that are widely known among the American People for those over the age of 70, we are proud to report that we actual will have decreased the fatality rate by more than 70 since those heart breaking days of april in may of this year of course as the president spoke last week in the rose garden, we launched operation warp speed, focusing on accelerating the development, the manufacture, and the distribution of a safe and effective vaccine. And you will have an update today on the progress from two of our leading experts and those that are coordinating operation warp speed what i want to say in the midst of all of this to the American People as we begin this briefing is that with the with the massive increase in testing over the last ten months, with ppe and medical supplies and equipment that are available to the American People, with the medicines and the therapeutics and very soon the vaccines that are available, america has never been more prepared to combat this virus than we are today our pledge and each and every american looking on today is we are going to work around the clock to keep it that way. We are going to make sure that hospitals that are seeing patients coming in on an increasing basis know that we are going to work around the clock to meet that need. And you have our continuing pledge and the practice of experience that we have had along the way so in a few moments you will hear from members of our team. We are going to begin with dr. Deborah birx who is going to describe what we are seeing in the rising cases literally, every day, for members of the task force begins with details analysis of whats happening across the country and she will give you our very best information on rising cases and hospitalizations that information is summarized each and every week for the nations governors and provided to them in particular detail as well after dr. Birx speaks we have asked general David Sanford with fema to give an update on our ongoing efforts to provide ppe and medical supplies to our hospital needs we are literally going to make sure, as i said, that as we see cases rising that we are meeting the needs in hospitals around america to stand up the response that any one of us would want a Family Member to be able to have access to. Then we have asked dr. Anthony fauci to give us an update on the up credible and his for, he development of vaccines. Seems like good news is coming every couple of days it is an encouragement to the American People. Then general gus persona will outline our distribution plans in operation warp speed. I received a briefing about those plans and i asked general persona to come here today to make that presentation to the American People. It is in a very real sense putting us in a position that literally the day after one of these vaccines is approved, we will be shipping vaccines to the American People. And within a day after that, we will be seeing those vaccines injected into paper with a particular focus on those most vuler inable and those providing health care to the American People finally, we will talk a bit about the way forward as state and local governments are continuing to act and take mitigation measures to slow the spread you can assure them as we go governors this week that we will support Decision Making at the local level and continue to support decisions that are made in each individual Community Based on the circumstances on the ground with that being said, President Trump wanted me to make it clear that our task force, this administration, and our president , does not support another national lockdown. And we do not support closing schools. You will hear from dr. Robert redfield of the cdc that actually, the cdc never recommended that we close schools at any point this year and dr. Eleanor mccantskatz who also served with Substance Abuse and Mental Health services at hhs will describe the real costs to children being describe the t from being away from school. In every one of these cases we will give you the best information we have up to this moment i want to assure the American People as i trust that you will have a sense today that we are going to continue to work around the clock to meet this moment. Help is on the way we have every confidence that in a short period of time we could have one or more safe and effective vaccines for the American People. As each of us does our part and partnership with state and local officials, each of us does our part to look after our own families and communities i believe the day is coming soon to put coronavirus in the past let me introduce dr. Deborah birx and we will get a presentation on the availability of supplies we continue to make available to hospitals and Health Care Providers around the country. Thank you, mr. Vice president. It is a moment we want to call on every american who increase their vigilance. I want to go through data why we are asking people from elko, nevada to denver, colorado to el paso, texas to increase their vigilance. I want to thank at the mayors and commissioners that i have had the privilege to talk to in the past 4 1 2 months on the road 42 states, 30 universities from a large part of our tribal nation the reason we wanted to be here and hear the reality on the ground what they were facing and how to be more supportive. This is a call to action for every american to increase their vigilance because of the graphic shown here i wanted to show you the difference between the spring surge, the summer surge and the fall surge so people know we can diagnose more rapidly than before we are asking every american to do these things today our increase in test positive is shown. The lightweight brown bars are the number of tests performed, but even with the ever increasing number of tests performed, you can see the increasing test positive to around 10 in some areas of the country it is much higher than that and it illustrates the on going Community Spread in your county, in your small and large metros and rural areas. The next slide really shows the country as a whole and why we are asking every american to remain vigilant, to do those things that we have been asking yall to do, to wear a mask, physically distance, continue your hand hygiene, but really, in this moment of bringing people together, to really listening to dr. Deborah birx at the White House Briefing room who is giving us an all too familiar Task Force Briefing President Trump notthere Vice President pence loading this one we will bring news as we get it. And breaking news in response to what the feds did. The Federal Reserve making known its displeasure to not extend the lending programs from the cares act. I will read it we would like them to continue to serve their Important Role for our still strained economy very explicit about the Federal Reserve not agrowing with the decision with the treasury secretary. The treasury secretary asking for some 429 billion set aside for the fed to be given back to the treasury and i believe that debt would be extinguished from the general account. Public disagreement between the two institutions thank you. President elect joe biden and Kamala Harris wrapping up a meeting with several governors working on coordination on the pandemic you were on the call with president elect biden. Governor, i also guess you were on the call Vice President mike pence referred to with all 50 governors. Thank you for joining us what was and is the key difference between the Current Administration and the Incoming Administration on how to handle the virus . It sounds like from the press conference a National Mask mandate is something President Biden wants to embrace absent the transition which should be occurring, the governors are caught in the middle anybody who can help the next administration it was a productive call with president elect biden and Vice President elect harris we had members of President Bidens task force i think there are broad areas of agreement with what Vice President pence said, getting kids back to school. We dont want kids to miss out an entire year of education. In colorado, the first semester was off and on, off and on some had it, some didnt we hope the second semester is more reliable. Governor, we know you have seen significant spikes across your state but you havent enacted a stayathome order across the state. Vice President Biden was talking about the need for stimulus directly to the states and local governments. If you saw that, would you enact a stayathome order if you could offset the pressure businesses will face from that most of all, businesses and individuals would rather be safe for a few weeks and get the numbers down and protect themselves if they could, if they can afford to we recognize reality, many businesses and individuals cant. Another ppe program would be welcome. Stimulus for people so people dont feel the brunt of the steps needed to be taken on the Public Health side we want to be open for business in colorado, but encouraging responsibility discouraging gatherings and wearing a mask we have a public mask mandate in colorado and i think thats part of the reason the numbers are lower here you heard Vice President biden talking about what he would do to fight covid and then you heard from Vice President mike pence and he had his call from everything they have been working on its hard to see what would be very different under a Biden Administration besides the mask mandate, which european nations have and are still seeing a surge. Other than having you decide on restrictions, it seems the same under both administrations is that wrong . It is like a split screen where you talk to one and other. We would rather have a matchmaker and have them talk to one another so they can have a seamless transition with this interNational Emergency. I think we will have a president elect biden who understands the weight of his words, moral leadership regardless of what you think about President Trumps policies, i think it is an accurate critique to say he doesnt use his soap box to help save human lives Governor Polis of colorado. Do you think markets will be spooked by that spat between the treasury and fed i am not sure we have got mikes mike is not on. Sarah, clearly it was a strong late in the day rally so this pressure, there might be room for the wind to be taken out of the sails in the morning there has been a ton of breaking news. Fda emergency use authorization of lilys use of the drug remdesivir further progress doling with this crisis which we need more much more coming up now on fast money. I am melissa lee and this is fast money. Couldnt we are trading the treatment. Promising news on the vaccine front but one bio analyst says dont expect this to be a shot in your arm. Whattie l what elon musk