At a record high for the dow the s p set a record high on friday up another 30 points and the nasdaq, an underperformer last week, is indicated up by close to 60 points stocks have been on a big run. If you look at last weeks returns the dow was up just over 4 last week the s p was up just over 2 . And the nasdaq was down only by half a percent you are talking about the third week out of four that is seeing negative returns and that has been the underperformer. Really across the board a lot of strength the russell 2000 hitting a record high last week and big, big moves. Remember, its only been a week since weve heard from pfizer. That set things off especially ones underperforming as people stay home. The ten year is yielding 0. 885 . Joe, that was a wild ride last week, too, watching what happened with treasury yields. Potentially getting up to 1 but now were back where we started. All part of, i guess, reopening. The market given the backdrop i will talk about right now the market is looking ahead to life after this whether its a pandemic or whatever because were right in the middle of a second wave, third wave. We continue to monitor the spread of covid and the impact on life, business and the economy. The u. S. Now has hit 11 million cases, a million cases recorded in just the last week. More than a dozen states broke daily records during the weekend and new restrictions as we near the thanksgiving holiday in Washington StateIndoor Dining is closing starting today. Illinois began a 30day stayathome order michigan is partially shutting down restaurants, bars and schools. And in new york city mayor de blasio announced schools would remain open today but once again set a Positivity Rate of 3 from below. Well see. But that would trigger another shutdown we have much more on this story with former fda commissioner dr. Scott gottlieb at 6 30 eastern, talking about in the hands of governors now. Hes recommending closing nightclubs and bars. Yeah theyre open every time we say that, wait theyre open the young people, theyre sidling up to each other, talking and everything else. They probably arent as at risk. You know you can do the Contact Trace to ing to a nursing home, whatever people are doing. Theres a lot of people, maybe no one there is they probably are, too they should be worried about mortal risk, but you can connect the dots to a mortal risk somewhere else thats the whole key its reached Community Spread in a lot of places right now i have a good friend who found out she was covid positive just over the weekend shes got it i think her husband definitely has it its spreading and theyve been very safe, tried to stay in. Its reached Community Spread in a lot of places and thats concerning especially when you have the prospect of these great vaccines or medications, things that could help. You have the prospect of it but its not here yet. The market may be able to look through that but a very difficult several months were still going to be facing all of this its not an easy solution. I dont know what governors do, what governments do in shutting down and what they choose to keep open. I read this in the journal, the pandemics disruptions of Digital Commerce yeah. Thank you its the weekend okay, lets see. This guy this lady harriett doesnt have anything to do. How about writing this story again for the 1,000th time how do you make that a new story . How do you put that on the front page ill tell you how you can come up with a new storyline on that i havent seen the story but i will tell you the cdc has come out i havent read the story but the cdc has said some of the risky things are going to include people shopping around thanksgiving and the holiday every time you are out in the stores you raise the potential for being able to pick up on this theres that, the idea stores are starting to limit and count the number of people coming in again. Walmart hadnt done that in months when you reach Community Spread levels like that even simple things like going to the Grocery Store can be risky a recent survey found that three out of four people have tried a new shopping method. Theres a reason for front page news. Doing my best to tap dance around this. I think four guys who got on a space ship, lets go. What thank god it worked and good luck yes reading that its from Kennedy Space center, nasa is involved, its just a private involvement with nasa involved going up to the space station. Im amazed weve gotten to that point. Maybe i wouldnt be sitting on top of that. Youre a nervous nellie so am i. Weve admitted that. Were not going to be the first to sign up i fly i dont worry about planes neither one of us was going to be one of the guys signing up to do this first andrew talks a good game. Well see what hes like he wouldnt do it either. No way. There is no shortage of news out there. China and 14 other asiapacific countries signed the Worlds Largest trade agreement yesterday. The trading bloc covers a market of 2. 2 billion people and 26. 2 trillion of global output. The deal will attempt to lower tariffs across multiple aareas this marks the first time they are in a single trade agreement. Well have a live report from beijing later this hour. Investors continue to monitor President Trumps election challenges Kayla Tausche joins us with the weekend headlines. Kayla, there are plenty of them. Good to see you that morning reporter good morning, becky. There are plenty including President Trump has begun to allude to a transfer of power. At a friday rose garden even he referenced another administration and in a tweet yesterday he began it simply with the words he won followed by some false claims about the election being rigged even as the Trump Campaign was dropping the majority of its legal challenges in pennsylvania, one of the last remaining challenges outstanding that a judge had not overturned several biden advisers were appearing on the sunday shows over the weekend airing a steady drumbeat of frustration about not being able to meet with the Coronavirus Task force and not getting real time information about pandemic preparedness because there has not been this official handover. Ron klain, the chief of staff for the biden transition and the incoming Biden White House essentially said that he hopes they make this ascertainment this week to enable that show to get on the road. He said he did agree with Senate Republicans that there should be a stimulus deal in the lame duck session. Here is what he said theres a lot of things that will have to wait until joe biden is president , but this is not one of them. Getting help to people, to state and local governments, obviously we need urgent help to individuals. Were going to see layoffs in the next month in a lot of states and localities unless they get the aid they need he stressed the need for that urgency and said democrats are united in trying to push for that Speaker Pelosi has said her position from before the election has not changed she had been pushing for a rather high number that republicans would not be able to get behind so its unclear exactly how they would get to yes on that package. I want to show you a few of the companies the biden transition is in discussions with klain said discussions with pfizer and other vaccine candidates will begin this week and ive also learned that the biden team has been in regular contact with cvs and walgreens for months even preceding the election to figure out potential distribution of this vaccine because the expectation is you will need to be distributing tens of millions of vials of this vaccine, sort of dove tailing with the inauguration and the early days of this administration so theyre at least trying to establish those lines of communication unofficially even as officially here in washington those keys havent been handed over kayla, interesting to hear ron klain talking about what needs to be done in the lame duck session that doesnt mean anything is going to get done. There are some pretty high hurdles. Its more difficult now to get a deal passed than it would have been before the election when you had an administration that was really pushing for that. They have stepped back and said that theyll let mcconnell and pelosi be the ones who determine this and even the calendar itself, theres not a lot of legislative time left because of the thanksgiving holiday and then the end of the year christmas holiday. Theyre not in session much. What are the odds something gets done before Inauguration Day reporter well, theyre not in session much but they do have one major priority and that is to continue to fund the government past december 11th. Lawmakers in both parties have a history of getting in line behind these must pass pieces of legislation and being able to add things that pose urgent need to these legislative vehicles as they call them here. So there is a potential that depending on how bad the virus gets, how much funding is needed, that there could be an effort to try to pass some sort of stimulus attached to funding the government because that is seen as a must do item on the todo list before people go home for the holidays now certainly both parties have very different priorities when it comes to stimulus democrats want a very high number republicans have wanted a lower number democrats on multiple legislative priorities, drug pricing, throughout the summer we saw them hold their fire in anticipation of a potential Democratic White House because their belief was they would get a multiple of the dollar figure, that they would get otherwise if they were to reach a compromise with republicans in the interim. That dynamic has not changed, but what has changed is the seriousness of the virus we saw in march partisan differences were put aside a major piece of legislation, the largest in american history, was passed well see if that presents itself again what do you think would be the bipartisan issues, extending ppe, cleaning up the problems with that, making sure Unemployment Benefits were extended, the additional Unemployment Benefits, trying to make sure there was money for testing and maybe schools . Reporter so those are some of the core issues the white house has said over and over again it wants to see as sort of the nuts and bolts of any package that goes forward but, remember, republicans put together what they were calling a skinny stimulus back in september with the hope if they could prove that republicans could get behind a package like that then perhaps democrats could get behind something that would at least push forward those core priorities they all agreed on. That didnt work so its unclear what would create or necessitate more votes on that this time around democrats have wanted to add more money for testing, for schools and for state and local governments. It was that line item for state and local governments that proved to be the death knell for negotiations the last time around all right kayla, thank you its good to see you this morning. Reporter sure. Likewise when we come back, we have this mornings stocks to watch including a bank deal. But first as we head to a break check out this mornings biggest s p movers you are watching squawk box on cnbc carnival corporation, norwegian and Simon Properties the biggest movers carnival up almost 5 . You can go your own way its time you make the rules. So join the 2 Million People who have switched to xfinity mobile. You can choose from the latest phones or bring your own device and choose the amount of data thats right for you to save even more. And youll get 5g at no extra cost. All on the most reliable network. So choose a data option thats right for you. Get 5g included and save up to 400 dollars a year on the network rated 1 in customer satisfaction. Its your wireless. Your rules. Only with xfinity mobile. I decided that i wanted to go for Electrical Engineering and you need to go to college for that. If i didnt have internet in the home i would have to give up more time with my kids. Which is the main reason i left the military. Everybody wants more for their kids, but i feel like with my kids, they measurably get more than i ever got. And i get to do that. I get to provide that for them. Welcome back to squawk box. Among the top corporate stories pnc is buying spanish Banking Company bbva for 11. 6 billion the second biggest Banking Transaction since the financial crisis in 2008 and simon will buy taubman in a revised takeover deal worth 43 cents a share down from an original deal worth 52. 50 joe, thanks folks, lets get you set for the market week ahead. Joining us now with his thoughts and stock picks is james mcdonald, the ceo and cio of hercules investment and, james, its good to see you thanks for being with us this morning. Its great to be here, thank you. So the market has been up all last week since we heard from pfizer about this vaccine. We continue to watch the covid count going up obviously we could be in for a rough few months before we get to that. When you start thinking about all of this, markets are forward looking. What are you thinking right now about markets being at alltime highs . Would you buy in here . Would you hold off for a little while . Whats your thesis i believe that the rally that weve seen here in the past week or so isreally a recovery from a 9 pullback that we had at the top of the month and whats interesting about the current market it stopped going up weve been going higher since march and hit a climax, came off 9 , rallied back, came off again 9 and have rallied back i think were at a Tipping Point for a continuation higher. We do not believe the market will go higher in the absence of a stimulus package and in the absence of an abatement of the spread of the virus. We think the risk will overtake the upside potential we are buying volatility on the nasdaq as a protective measure as most of the gains weve seen in the market, over 78 of the gains in the s p can be attributed to the Top Ten Holdings in the nasdaq 100 the gains have been very narrowly focused around tech tech has shown weakness. Were cautious Going Forward and bullish on nasdaq volatility you forgot a few stocks that youre watching pretty closely that you like. One of them is next air energy is that because the Biden Administration coming in will change things up for the newer Energy Companies wed like to see a pullback but in terms of stock ownership, in terms of upside, it will be a beneficiary. Biden is expected to eliminate tariffs imposed by President Trump on solar panels from china. And President Trump stayed firm to his stance on energy. That will put a lift on Energy Stocks and the overall sector. When we want to go long, we want to go long because it will get a tail wind from the Biden Administration people have figured that out especially lately and the stocks have been running higher is there a point where you think, okay, this is too rich of a valuation . Its a good question. We have to see what the macro environment looks like if it keeps the market afloat i do think it has potential to go significantly higher again these are a lot of new opportunities and while investors are flocking in that is actually going to be momentum for the sector and we like nextera, Intuitive Surgical to pivot away from energy for health care. These are all shifts in terms of the inflex ctions of the new president. A lot of jobs, a lot of investments. Intuitive surgical is an interesting call they control a huge part of the robotic surgery market, a massive part of that you are looking at a situation where hospitalizations because of covid at this point could force hospitals and local governments to say you cant go back for surgeries that arent absolutely necessary at this point. Does that concern you just in the short term obviously pressure from covid will continue to be an issue and we have to look at the risks if someone hires me today i have to make money Going Forward and we have to look past the situation which will end at some point and at that point we think theres a ton of upside there. Intuitive is positioned to take advantage of that. All of the different impacts covid has had we have to look at them as temporary and as difficult and as impactful in the short term our longterm thesis stays strong with that sector and that firm in other words, buy on any dims y dips you see, too . We want to see if we can get support at 3,200 if not well go another leg lower. We think these are good opportunities to come into nextera and intuitive where well see a Secular Movement both in terms of Investment Capital as well as upside potential. Caught me off guard, 20 off the market do you think that will happen between now and the end of the year i think its possible if you look at whats happened weve seen 9 pullbacks happen lightning quick. We got the risk presumably out of the way with the president ial election and we got the risk presumably out of the way with light at the end of the tunnel with covid but no stimulus package and we are getting more infections we think as we get to the resistance levels here we think theres an imminent decline of 9 , 10 and follow through to 3200 this is not something that would be catastrophic, normal in the course of bull markets but the risks have not gone away as much as the gains have lifted this current market would imply were stronger now than we were precovid and that is not the case we do think the market will turn over just a bit and when we get stimulus support well get a market where there are more buyers and sellers net over. James, good to see you this morning. Thanks for your time thank you so much coming up, relaxed withdrawal rules around 401 k the benefits and the risks up next first as we head to break check out spacex launch. Were going to look at that from last night we should probably look at a couple of those swings of dustin johnson, too, if were going to summarize all the news of the weekend. This launched four astronauts to the International Space station and a taxi flight for nasa due to reach the destination late today and remain until spring. Did you see tiger on lets not talk about that on number 12, becky. And then that guy, tiger, five straight birdies after that, or six straight amazing. Stay tuned for skin that never holds you back dont settle for silver 1 for diabetic dry skin 1 for psoriasis symptom relief and 1 for eczema symptom relief gold bond champion your skin lexus has been celebrating driveway moments. Heres to one more, the lexus december to remember sales event. Lease the 2021 is 300 for 339 a month for 36 months and well make your first months payment. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. Retirement savings can take advantage of relaxed withdrawal rules around 401 k but tapping savings even in hard times can impact your financial future am Sharon Epperson joins us now with more. If you ever needed an excuse, this would be it theres a reason, right, sharon, the rules are in place in the first place. I cant think of that. What would cause to you relax the rules . Reporter exactly right, joe. People are facing hardships and do need extra help when you take a look at the c. A. R. E. S. Act, people affected by the coronavirus, they do have until the end of september to take up to 100,000 out of their 401 k or their i. R. A. Without penalty but not many people have done it. Just over 5 , about 1. 3 Million People, withdraw from fidelitys work place savings plans between april and october. At vanguard 4. 5 of participants made a 401 k withdrawal by the end of september and 7 at t. Rowe price have taken a distribution the average was about 10,000. That could grow to be a significant slice of Retirement Income it could grow to 100,000 by the time youre 70 assuming a 7 annual return. Thats why they warn jeopardizing your Financial Stability in the future, joe so whats considered a coronavirusrelated distribution must be pretty wide latitude reporter you or a dependent must have experienced covid or Financial Hardship due to the coronavirus. The key is to check with your employers plan and exactly what theyre allowing you to do though this federal legislation is in place it is up to the employer to decide how to execute that for its employees and make sure you understand the Tax Implications as well you still have to pay taxes on the income you take out. So many people maybe have not had it directly in their frmly but a lot of hardship with people who havent had a direct havent had it themselves or a direct family member, right . Still a lot of Financial Hardship reporter a lot of people have had that. The issue, joe, and perhaps why more people havent taken advantage they are working and do have some income. The people hardest hit have been those who have lost their jobs this does not impact them if they are out of work or taking a loan from their 401 k thats the issue all right, sharon thank you. I cant believe that every single one of those, a couple times, all those books behind you, right about five times each one amazing amazing. And raising a family becky . I do like sharons books that she chooses to highlight because she moves them around. I check out which ones she puts where. She has good choices when we come back, dr. Scott gottlieb on the rising covid cases were seeing and what the nation needs to do to stay safe. Stay tuned isxnd watching squawk bo a th is cnbc everyone wakes up every morning to a world that must keep turning. Moving. Going. The world cant stop, so neither can we. Because the things we make, help make the world go round. We are builders, constantly creating things that make our world cleaner, healthier, and more connected. So that the small moments that help define who we are, and the big plans that make life wonderful can keep on rolling. Because while gravity may keep our planet on its axis, its what we build that keeps things moving forward. So with every turn, well keep building a world that works. The United States has hit 11 million covid cases with a million cases recorded in just the last week. Former fda commissioner dr. Scott gottlieb writing in the wall street journal its time for thegovernors to help slow the spread by working together or risk another shutdown dr. Gottlieb is with us this morning. Hes also a cnbc contributor and sits on the boards of pfizer doctor, its not just that we are in the midst of a transition in the executive branch actually a transition across all of government really as we switch thats difficult to look for federal responses. So the governors need to step up every state is different, too. This should have always been participate of the solution. Yeah, i think what youre going to see are the governors starting to Work Together at least on a regional basis and coming up with regional solutions. The virus doesnt respect state sovereignty. It crosses borders youre having regional kinds of epidemics. If the states Work Together within the regions we are seeing the spread be more continuous, thats going to be far more effective. We saw michigan go first last night with some targeted mitigation i think more states will take those kinds of steps construction wont be stopped. We will target indoor settings where people gather in groups and cant mask, restaurants, bars, clubs, gym classes, things like that. Thats what michigan focused on. Also high schools. I think what youre likely to see are districts open theyre losing teachers. Teachers are in quarantine, theyre getting sick its more important and the younger kids are at less risk than the older kids. Theyre likely to close the high schools and middle schools to reapportion teachers back to the elementary schools. We want to do everything we can and youve pointed that out in terms of sequestering, masks, testing, but we need to go to the most Vulnerable People and use a special amount of attention to those that are vulnerable there will still