Transcripts For CNBC Closing Bell 20240711

Highs. Coming up a busy news day, and a series of big interviews as well. The ceo of gap, jonah snngal, her first interview since taking the job in march talking about the post covid lavin escape and the partnership with kanye west. Plus we have patrick frisk with his partnership with steph curry. We will discuss the fierce competent anything footwear. And salesforces deal to buy slack is expected to be announced today after the bell we should get those details. And sales details also out after the close. Looking forward to that. Slack up a little bit today. Lets get to the Market Action mike santoli is tracking it. As stocks moving higher but off the highs of the session. For three weeks they have been mostly sideways around the recent highs right now we are a little less than 1 above the intraday high from november 9th. Est that was the day the election was called. Then you had the vaccine from pfizer that was right in here intraday high. At a record. 67 above the march 23rd low right now at todays levels from the intraday low up by two thirds in value the s p 500. How did we get here . Look at the performance recently of the most shorted stocks in the market this is Goldman Sachss index the basket of the most shorted stocks it rolls depending on what is the most shorted ferocious move to the upside we have cleaned out a lot of the shorts we have had record inflows into stocks we have pivoted from people being very cautious to being aggressive and wanting to make sure they latch on to the market before we get what is expected to be an acceleration of the economy into next year the head wi then i wanted to take a look too at other dynamics here this is sml it is a small etf thats the s p 500 stocks but weighted in inverse order. The Smallest Companies are weighted the highest look at the huge acceleration higher we saw there in november. The laggers, the small stuff, the mega caps have been resting. The big nasdaq names have done really nothing for three months, sidew sideways, below their september highs and now they are starting to perk up thats whats going on today apple up 3 . Facebook up 3 seems as if just when people want to get more exposure to the markets they are seeing the disciplined way to do it is buy the old winners. Thats often what happens in december the year to date winners not the most recent best performers are the ones who take the fore we will see if this continues for stocks right now it looks update. Everything of course is up today as you said mike interestingly the factors today, starting the month and the end of the month yesterday perhaps a factor but the move in the yield suggests economy and stimulus hopes. No doubt. Especially this the morning, the pop higher in treasury yields. Credit stretched a lot good Economic News being digested by the markets and yes, the hopes for added stimulus is without a doubt almostgraphy on the overall story when people were already thinking things look relatively positive despite the difficulties we are looking at right here now. Got it. Mike thank you. We will see new just a few minutes. Fed chair jay powell and treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin spent the morning on capitol hill we also heard from bidens nominee for treasury secretary, janet yellen this afternoon. Steve liesman what did we learn overall. Count with me the president elect biden, his chosen treasury secretary, the current treasury secretary and the fed chair, four big titans agreeing on one thing today the need for congress to bring aid to the economy here is janet yellen so many people struggling to put food on the table and pay bills and rent its an american tragedy and its essential that we move with urgency the team introduced today signalled they will focus on minorities, women, and those hit hardest by the pandemic. Earlier in the day Steven Mnuchin called on congress to use unused funds given back by the fed chairs act. There are Small Businesses at risk of being out of business during this winter custom could be a tough few months. At the same time we are getting the news about the vaccines when are more effective and they have come sooner. There really is in the medium term upside risk here. Mnuchin took tough questions about his controversial decisions to end five fed emergency lending programs he insisted he was following the letter of the law and said he was looking forward to reviewing 908 billion Bipartisan Senate aid proposal they agree on it but cant agree on it i guess. I wanted to focus on the data manufacturing, disappointment. The jobs numbers ahead of fridays jobs report not looking too holiday. How is the economy shaping up now that we have a new surge in the virus . There is definitely a slowing in the pace of recovery. The fed chair jay powell said that i reported yesterday as you know sara that some of the High Frequency data that i follow is suggesting the possibility of a negative number on friday. I say possibility and not probability. I guess advisedly because the economists who follow this they are not changing their forecast in a way that they are saying we expect a negative number but two indicators the home base data and the ukg data which used to be known as krone owes have trended down this morning the ism manufacturing data also showed a negative number for manufacturing employment there is reason to be concerned this number may not fulfill the potential of the consensus which is north of i think it is 450,000 is the wall street consensus. And by the way, thats down from about 640,000. It is a risk to the market coming on friday. Steve thanks for that though manufacturing is still above 57 today pretty strong, all things considered. After the break, under armour launching a new brand around super star steph curry. Ceo patrick risk will join to us talk strategy, competition and much more. Thats coming up next. You are watching closing bell on cnbc. I felt like. I was just fighting an uphill battle in my career. So when i heard about the applied Digital Skills courses, im thinking i can become more marketable. You dont need to be a computer expert to be great at this. These are skills lots of people can learn. I feel hopeful about the future now. See yourself. Welcome back to the mirror. And know youre not alone because this. Come on jessie one more. Is the reflection of an Unstoppable Community in the mirror. 49 minutes left of trade under armour and steph curry launching the curry brand. In addition to being a footwear and apparel line, curry brand is also working to provide opportunities for youth sports in underresourced opportunities. This launch comes seven years after under armour first signed curry in 2013. The stock is down 20 since that time patrick frisk joins us, the ceo of under armour. Welcome back great the see you. Great to be here. Across categories, across sneakers, apparel, it sounds a lot like the jordan brand. Is that the model here no, i think what we have tried to do here and i think what steph and under armour are really excited about is the fact that we are creating a brand for good here. And i think the big difference is its not just about product its also about giving back. Giving the costumer a chance to participate and for stefen to do something he wanted to do for a long time, impact youth and participation in sport which is also what under armour is trying to do. This is really about both brands combining their values and doing some good at the same time sure, but you are also trying to grow under armour and look for new opportunities, patrick i guess my question is, why didnt you do this a few years ago when curry was winning championships and mvp titles you have had the relationship so long why now . It is a combination of both under armour maturing as a brand together with stefen stefen wanted to do this we started talking about it two years ago or a little bit more than that. It has been pa maturing. I think this year especially there has been more time for stefen to dedicate more time to this effort. As we have been working on it, it matured and we felt that now was the perfect time, right before the season starts this year you know, this is something we are building on for the future there is a being commitment here from under armour and from curry to really impact youth sports. We are looking to impact about 100,000 kids until 2025. And you know, if you want to do that, you have got get going we believe that by starting in 2021 and putting a Great Program together thats not just about product, its also about places and about people, its about training coaches, its about getting spaces for kids, and its about putting programs together that can actually educate both the coaches and the kids so it goes beyond. This goes beyond just product and business. What patrick qualifies a sportsman or sportswoman from being someone who you wanted to be associated with as a brand by a typical sponsorship toing with someone that you want part of the bran themself . Is it quality on their field of play how many sports people around the world could reach that level. I think there are very few that have the kind of appeal that stefen has. Again, like sara said, wilfred, we have been with stefen curry for a very long time what we have found during that time is that our values align so very well. If you want to go out there and do something today you have got do something thats beyond just the shirts and shoes business. We feel that, as i side, by combining the purpose with the product, you know, impacting kids you know, one of the big problems that we see today is the fact that so few kids have access to sports there is only about a 22 participation in low income families today in sports this whole covid pandemic has certainly made that even more difficult. We are trying to team up here with stefen and do our part and change the game for good. What about under armour itself, patrick . And the time right now you and i talked about the transformation you are trying to execute here, prioritizing profit, ride sizing the business a lot of the recent announcements focused on retrenching out of the ucla deal or my fitness pal. Whats your capacity to build and grow and up vest a brand like this . And how large can it be . Well, we think, first of all, it is a long term endeavor we are trying to make sure that everything we do Going Forward is going to be long term and the fact that we have been restructuring ourselves, we have been doing that to be able to be aggressive where we feel it is important. And we have been really really happy with our act to do so. What you see now is our go to market starting to really work well the next step as we said in our next Earnings Call is execute on our go to market the final step here in 2020 is actually releasing this brand and on the back of that, on december 11 let the first product fly which is going to be the curry 8. We are excited how we are thinking about the bran, where we are at right now and what is ahead for us in 2021 when we start to really compete again as a brand. What will be the measure of success that you will mark yourself against for the curry brand . Is it 1 billion in sales. 100 million of sales . And by why first of all we are happy with the curry business right now and the work we have done with stefen over the past seven years. There is also a business there what we got excited about last year is when we started to release some of the curry golf product that worked well for us both last year and this year as well we see the opportunity across categories and across product lines. As we have said it is not just about footwear it is about apparel, footwear, and access reese and in this case, also changing the game for good. Making an impact from a purpose perspective. I lining our values and going to market together. Ultimately, this will be a brand that grows in revenue. And it will also be a brand that grows in terms of impact, in terms of what we can do for the kids out there a lot of people want to know, patrick, why you didnt go with a project rock brand because the rock has been such a Successful Partnership for you guys right now. Rock is doing great i think we have learned a lot with the work we have done with the rock and we love that business. We love him and his team i think we are going to be able to apply some of the learnings here but, again, you know, this is an opportunity where you know stefen himself feels really strongly about the brand and also about the product you know, stefen is tremendously involved here in terms of the creation of the product which we have felt has been really exciting for under armour as a brand. Just the opportunity to create great product, stellar product with a great purpose, and driving that for the betterment of, you know, the sports industry, if you like, by engaging kids, i think that is something thats uniquely something that stefen can help us with. Well, he certainly has global appeal i saw it firsthand a few years ago when i went with him to asia, to taiwan and hong kong. Patrick, thank you for joining us to talk about the plans we appreciate night thank you very much. Pat rish rick frisk of under armour. Getting stimulus headlines koomg across the wires ylan mui has a summary of them for us. Democratic leaders nancy pelosi and Chuck Schumer sent a letter to Senate Majority leader mitch in hopes of starting talks around more covid relief mcconnell said he is trying to figure out exactly what the president would sign because he says they are out of time for messaging documents. Mcconnell said that any package could potentially move with the government funding bill that needs to be passed next week guys. Another update there. Thank you very much ylan mui we will see what comes of it 42 minutes left of trade here. We higher across the board check out the dow, s p, and nasdaq we are looking at record high force the s p and the nasdaq, which is up 1. 2 the dow is up almost 200 points. Off the session highs but starting december on a strong note. Business travel is down, 85 to 90 because of the pandemic now airlines are trying to convince companies it is safe for executives to fly again. We will tell you how they are doing that when closing bell comes right back youre all, youre all i need youre all, youre all i need as long as i got you then baby you know that youve got me, oh yea. Welcome back the uk reporting they and the eu have entered the tunnel stage of negotiations, ie that no disagreements remain and a deal could be announced this week though the report also said that things could still fall apart. Either way, markets celebrating the news earlier today when that crossed. Sterling up. 7 . It was up over 1 at one point ask. The ftse 100 up 179 at the close. Rare that both rally together. Ftse 200, the smaller cap in the uk up 2. 6 up 8 now for barclays all of this sara playing into the weak dollar overall. The euro up a full as well today. The broader dxy down at 91. 3 declining significantly as yields also here in the u. S. Have risen, playing into this weak dollar risk on sentiment today. Which has been a helpful green light for the stock market the dollar is coming off of its worst november in months, a more than 2 decline across broader currency rveg currency baskets potentially bitcoin has gone up so much. But it is interesting that tunnel is so bullish i guess that means they are close to a deal, taking a head wind off the table for the global market. If you look at the betting markets the last couple of weeks they have been expecting a deal to come whether this week or next week pretty confidently the interesting point from here is how much is already priced in today suggests it is not all already priced in excite despite the betting market confidence in recent weeks we will see from here if something gets confirmed in the next week if we get a further jump it is interesting to see a big jump in sterling and the ftse 100 on the same day suggesting there is more room for more positivity to come rarely do those have positive correlation. They normally have negative correlation. An interesting tweet today, very positive with the caveat at the end things could still break down the market sill celebrates it. Business travel continued to plng amid the pandemic some airlines are trying to equips Corporate America it is safe to fly again. Phil lebeau with the details. Reporter sara this is about airlines giving what we call covid19 safety tours sngsly taking the managers of the Corporate Travel from their corporate customers their lints and taking them to the airplane. We were in boston logan yesterday as they were taking through one client delta taking one clipt on board showing how they are wiping town planes, disinfecting planes, social distancing, everything that makes travel safe of they have done about 850 types of these coors for corporate customers and yet when you look at Corporate Travel it is going nowhere. It is down 85 steady increase is expected post vaccine. A full recovery however, not for another two to four years. Lets throw the Airline Stocks back up. People will say they are moving higher today is that good news for the airlines all of the airlines have been moving higher and then they sell off. Yes, they have moved higher over the last several months but guys they are nowhere close to where they were nine months ago before the pandemic and again most dont expect a full recovery in Corporate Travel for another two to four years. It is going to take some time and those are the most lucrative customers. Gap saming a big comeback this year. It is one of the best performing consumer stocks in 2020. Coming up the ceo on the dramatic turn around and how sales are shaping up for the Holiday Season as we head to break a check on bonds. Yields up just a bit 2. 9 on the tenyear. 9 back in a couple of minutes. Flexshares may look like other etfs. But inside. Theres advanced research, modeling and refinement. Constructing funds that dont simply follow an index. But explore new terrain. Helping you fill portfolio gaps. Connect to client goals. And strengthen confidence in you. Flexshares. Powered by over a century of investment expertise. Before investing consider the Funds Investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. Go to flexshares. Com for a prospectus containing this information. Read it carefully. Welcome back dow is up a little over 200 points little over 30 minutes of trade. Time now for our daily coronavirus tracker. The number of people hospitalized due to the virus hitting 95,000 today with california, pennsylvania and new york, seeing the biggest increase in hospitalizations week over week overall, new cases added daily appear to be rounding a corner in the u. S. At least for now the sevenday average of new case is down nearly 7 from yesterday. And yesterdays average was more than 4 lower than the day before that. A new cdc study has found that coronavirus was circulating in the u. S. Far earlier than previously thought the study tested more than 7,000 red cross blood donations from last december. Finding, 100 of those samples will be infected with the virus. The First Official case of the coronavirus in the u. S. Was not reported until late january. Shares of moderna all over the place today, selling off during the session. Mike santoli has been watching the move i think there was an ever corps presentation but this is an interesting stock story. It is down so much it was spiking this morning. There is a short story here. This is a company at the forefront of the vaccine for covid. No revenues on the come and a lot of speculation this is responsible for the latest surge in the stock. From one week ago today the stock at this mornings high was up 70some percent 70 . Not a small company. As you say 55 billion market cap. It seems as if there were comments by the ceo on a call ever corps, steams like that was the impetus for the stock declining. Now you have this reversal even with the pullback today you are nowhere near where we were just a couple days ago so it really seems like you have to have a little bit of a cooling off period here. Otherwise i mean who knows how big this thing is going to get again, on one product. And a lot of excitement about the other way this is virus technology might be used moderna current low down 9 in todays trade. Time for a cnbc news update. Attorney general william barr says the Justice Department has found no evidence of voter fraud that would change the outcome of the president ial election. This despite repeated claims by President Trump the election was stolen from him. In germany the death toll has risen to four including a baby after a man drive through a pedestrian zone. Officials say the suspect is a 51yearold local man with no record and no terrorism links. The first English Premier League football match has been postponed due to the coronavirus. United requested a delay of its game against aston villa because a number of their players and staff were infected. Thats your cnbc news update at this hour. I feel i have to comment. But this is the point where you comment to sue herera about the last soccer game you were almost as good as her almost is the greatest anyone could have, compared to sue. We have got 27 minutes left of trade heres where we stand in the markets. We are off session highs, but still markedly higher across all the major averages the dow is up more than 200 points the s p is up 1. 1 the nasdaq zooming up 1 this comes off of november which was the best month for stocks since april. Every sectors is higher, Communication Services and financial leading. Nikola shares falling sharply after gm decided not to take an equity stake in the electric struck maker up next, mark fields on what he thinks it means for nikola and later, jim fitter lincoln where he sees strength in the economy and comeback stocks like his own and the whole materials group. Welbeig bk. L rhtac first up is this exquisite bowl of french onion dip. Im going to start the bidding at 5. Thank you, sir. Looking for 6. 6 over there do i hear 7 . 7 in the front 7 going once. Going twice. Sold to the onion lover in the front row next up is lot number 17, a spinach and artichoke dip, beautifully set in a hollowedout loaf of sourdough bread. Dont get mad get e trade and get more than just trading investing. Banking. Guidance. Get e trade and get more than just trading before money, people tools, cattle, grain, even shells represented value. Then currency came along. They made it out of copper, gold, silver, wampum. Soon people decided to put all that value into a piece of paper, then proceeded to wave goodbye to value, printing unlimited amounts of money as they passed the buck to the future. Thats why its time for Digital Currency and your investment in the grayscale funds. Go digital. Go grayscale. Shares of nikola getting slammed for a second straight day, down by nearly 16 . The move lower follows General Motors giving up its equity stake in the Truck Company yesterday as well as dropping plans to build its badger pickup struck lets bring in former ford ceo mark fields. Great to see you, as always. Thank you for joining us the fact that this partnership wasnt pulled in total, can that be seen as a slim victory, given the turmoil that nikola has faced and the headlines they faced in the last couple of months i guess there is an old saying you make lemonade out of lemons in this case, nikola if you think back to when they announced the first announcement of this back in september they called ate strategic partnership, and they said amongst other things that they were getting including the technology, the scale, the engineering and manufacturing expertise from gm, they also said they also get the Investor Confidence and importantly, a big Blue Chip Company that has a vested interest in nikolas success when you look at this agreement, this is just a run of the mill supply agreement where they basically have to pay up front for the Capital Investment to put the capacity in place. You know, from that standpoint thrks this is going to make it harder for nikola because it is going to put pressure on their cash burn. I think whats missing a lot in the discussion wilfred is at the end of the day these class 8 and class 7 trucks is the talk about the customers. For these customers that buy these kinds of products they want a high quality vehicle thats going to be durable thats proven and thats going to be easy to refuel they still have to build out a Hydrogen Fuelling system with a partner and they have to prove that these vehicles, forget about getting to production they can actual low hold up and deliver the goods. What does this mean for gm . Have they lost face on this . Or have they kind of saved the day by not having to commit the capital perhaps people thought they would in the first place . From a purely business standpoint this doesnt impact them matter of fact i think with this agreement it not only protection them financially but reputationally Going Forward keep in mind when they announced this agreement yesterday or the day before this is nonbinding they still have to negotiate the final commercial agreement here. In the interim you have an scc and doj investigation going on it gives them an offramp i think from a reputational standpoint this is a black eye for them they touted it as a strategic partnership. Mary barra was quoted as saying nikola was a industry disruptor. Now in the latest announcement shes not quoted and it is just about working together i think there are Lessons Learned for gm and others around doing appropriate Due Diligence before you want to get in bed with an industry disruptor what about for investors in general and doing appropriate Due Diligence . Any warning signs around the spac craze every single day it is there is a now spac it is the hottest gold rush on wall street. Does this raise some red flags i think when you have taxicab drivers and others and even my mother Start Talking about spacs you know that it is a bit of a bubble but i do think there is a couple of Lessons Learned here. First i think the Lesson Learned is investors have to be very wary of investing in a company that basically is preskprechb has a Business Plan and a prototypes have investing in a company that actually has produced revenue and has a product and service that people want and value secondly, people should look at the vintage of the spac. As you know, spacs are only good for 24 months. At the end of that time period, they have to give their money back to investors f. The spac thats bringing the company to market is on the back end of the last few months, well, you know, you could argue they are running against the clock and maybe they might not do the appropriate or full governance on the technology or the product or the service. I think finally it is really important for spac investors to look at the boards of those spacs. If you have a spac thats filled with lets say a bunch of Technology Marquee names that is investing in a Technology Company there is a lot of Domain Knowledge there. But if your spac just has a few marquee names of industries that are not directlyrelated to the investment they are making thats a bit of a red flag. Mark, the traditional autos have been on a tear of late. Ford is up 40 or so this quarter. Does that feel justified to you . Do you think they are going to have a really strong 2021. Well, i think overall the industry is going to have a strong Fourth Quarter. I do believe it is going to be a strong 2021. The reason i say that is because the industry has been incredibly resilient and it is actually Pretty Healthy despite you see things like covid surging again and high unemployment claims i think part of that has to do with the fact that it is mainly more wealthy consumers that are buying cars and they have fared okay during this pandemic. You have the car park the oldest it has ever been and overall consumer Balance Sheets are in great shape. Plus covid has changed consumers buying behaviors. They are taking less mass transit. More are buying vehicles for personal safety and comfort. But i think the industry is in a sweet spot right now the reason i say that is retail levels are almost approaching last years levels at this time. And in addition, because of the low inventories, there is much less incentives. I think for those the viewers out there, you are going to see the Fourth Quarter Auto Companies report really robust and i think most of them will beat their profit forecasts. I think that will fall over into 2021 particularly as more stimulus comes to the market. Mark fields thank you for joining us up next, airbnb kicking off its ipo road show. Salesforce preparing for earnings and possibly a big deal as we take you inside the art ne. Ats coming up next. A little bit off the highs only up. 6 on the dow. Its moving day. And while her friends are doing the heavy lifting, jess is busy moving her xfinity internet and tv services. It only takes about a minute. Wait, a minute . But what have you been doing for the last two hours . Delegating . Oh, good one. Move your Xfinity Services without breaking a sweat. Now thats simple, easy, awesome. Xfinity makes moving easy. Go online to transfer your services in about a minute. Get started today. Hey, son no dad, its a video call. You got to move the phone in front of you like. Like its a mirror, dad. You know . Alright, okay. Hows that . Is that how you hold a mirror . [ding] power e trade gives you an awardwinning mobile app with powerful, easytouse tools and interactive charts to give you an edge, 24 7 support when you need it the most plus 0 commissions for online u. S. Listed stocks. Dont get mad. Get e trade and start trading today. Welcome back 14 minutes left in the trading day. We are now in the closing bell market zone. Commercial free coverage of all of the action going into the close. Cnbc markets dement ator mike santoli here to break down these crucial moments of the trading day. Today we have Joe Terranova with us here as well. Great to have you join us. Lets kick thing off with the broader markets. S p and nasdaq currently on track for record closes. The dow was up 445 now up 172 everything was up pretty equally but now there is a growth tech tilt. It is not all one or none of the other. There is not a zero sum gain there be that a shift back toward the big growth names. Obviously the market is behavioring favorably. It has broken above the range we have been in on the s p. It is tough to fight the seasonal strength, tough to fight a rush of new month inflows but i think we have feasted on an awful lot of positive news almost on every front. It begs the question whether we were due to have a stall or a giveback on that basis alone and people have gotten overexcited in the shortterm. In general it is not a structure criticism, bits more about the tactical set up. You could say that and then, joe, the s p is up another . How are you looking at the fact the market doesnt seem interested in processing any of the Downside Risk and only the upside at this moment. I think the market does process the potential Downside Risk i think on investors minds on a daily basis is are the valuat n valuations rich . Is this a peak thats coming look no further than the price action today in the commentary we traded to an all time high infraday in the s p. We are falling back a little bit. We are suspicious of that type of price activity. I think thats where investors are best served to better understand what are the secular tail winds within the market and what will those secular tail winds impact for goble risk sentiments for the next nine to 12 months. Just dont focus on the shortterm nature of this market. Lets head amazon web sources kicking off its annual conference. We spoke with ceo andy jassy. I have time for one highlight. Overall, jassy emphasized the strength of amazons cloud info system and the idea there is money to be made for everyone even if you compete with amazons own Technology Offering thats his answer when i asked him about snowflake which competes with red shift. Customers want to run snowflake for their data wear husband on top 6 aws we are just as happy with that as if they are willing to run red shift on too much us. I think these arevery, very large market segments, john. And there is such a large transition happening right now from on premises Data Warehouse providers to cloud Data Warehousing providers that there is room for a lot of companies to be successful. Meanwhile aws still launches its own new apps and tools many geared toward Machine Learning and helping both factories and storesthrough. There are more and more Companies Looking to be consistent that could boost profitability even if top line growth isnt what it used to be in materialier days. Do you feel like the likes of amazon and other big software stayathome winners are still momentum names or the last couple of months mean they have pull a towed into Something Different and they need a fresh catalyst wilf, i think they are established growth it is rather comecal when you think about amazon and the contribution from aws that we identify that as a Consumer Discretionary name i am not sure thats exactly what it is but i do like the established growth that you get in vesting from amazon and i like what amazon is doing here today, really challenging alphabet and microsoft to give the customer a better experience in terms of controlling their personal data. And thats what we are doing here i think ultimately at some point we are all going to have our own little server that is able to protect our information. We are expanding here for amazon beyond remote farm servers and going to more of a local zone server platform. I think thats good for the end user ultimately. And i think it is going to challenge other Technology Names to do the same. Jon fortt thanks for bringing us the highlights of that interview. Airbnb launching its ipo road show. Alsoly picker has the details of that for us. Wilf, thats right, air airbnb kicking off a virtual road show as one does in 2020. Executives in the home rental platform will host digitate investor immediatings as they seek to sell 275 billion for 44 to 50 each. At the high end of that range the three founders, including ceo Brian Sheskey hold stakes worked about 3. 5 billion each airbnb is asking investors for a valuation of about 35 billion on a fully diluted basis in the ipo. Thats nearly double what it was valued when the company got engine pundsing in april and a step up from its 31 billion valuation from 2017. Leslie picker, thank you. We are getting more headlines on the stimulus front out of washington. Lets get back to ylan mui. We have gotten a copy of yet another Coronavirus Relief proposal this one being circulated by the office of senator Mitch Mcconnell amongst republican sfaerts and business groups as he tried to figure out what exactly his house would support and what the president would sign they would take book the money that the treasury took from the feds mming lending programs and put it toward other relief measures including unemployment assistance, extending the programs that would expire by the end of the year by one month and phasing then out over the next two months. It also includes 332. 7 billion for another round of the Paycheck Protection Program as well as revenue loss thresholds for certain businesses it includes also a special provision for Entertainment Venues that have lost business during the pandemic. And it also includes a provision to offer protections from liability concerns for some businesses so this is something that i am hearing is still in draft form they are trying to slits some feedback from members. And it comes as democrats are sending their own letter on covid relief to republicans as well we will see where these talks go clearly there is a lot of momentum to try to get something done in the next two weeks to move alongside a government funding bill and before congress would leave for the holiday recess guys so the total size of this bill, elon, is what . Do ylan, is what it is unclear the way the document is put together you dont really see a spreadsheet of the numbers i am trying to add it all up also it is being offset by the 429 billion being return to the treasury from the fed. We are working throughthat bow i dont think it would approach the nearly 1 trillion that was proposed early today today by a Bipartisan Group of senators and house members as well i think it would be below that number because republicans had been concerned about exactly how wig this price tag to be. Ylan thanks so much for that. Mike, i guess either way positive news on the stimulus front is helping today, including from janet yellen in her comments once she took over the mic from joe biden earlier. It is contributing to the general sense that there is something in motion. I dont think that i think the street would love if it guess paired down. Also missing here is state and local aid. I think it is going to be some impact on how we think how soon and how dramatically the economy can accelerate in the First Quarter of next year right now i think everyone is very focused on the broader dynamics of we think there is pent up demand, we think there is excess savings in the system. We think companies basic kilotopped. Their cash levels with all of this debt there is all this pent up energy for next year. The stimulus would bridge us to that point right now everything tastes like candy. It doesnt have to be reality. It is how they are interpreting it. Vaccine at the top of that list. Lets talk salesforce. Overshadowing earnings at the ends of the day a potential slack purchase which could be announced after market close and price the Workplace Communications app at a premium. Investors havent responded well to the prospect pushing shares down more than 7 since the journal reported the two parties were in talk part of the reason is because salesforce performed well during the pandemic thats expected to continue this court. There is concerns the purchase to be a costly distraction when investors want to see operational leverage they will be looking to hear the argument for slack from ben ony himself. Do you like salesforce. I like it so much i purchased it in the wake of the potential announcement for slack so i think there is going to be a quarter where clearly we are going to have to get an understanding what have the relationship is between Revenue Growth which is running in the high 20s versus operating expenses which is also beginning to rise to the upper 20s. We have got just over two minutes left in the session. Currently up 200 on the dow. What do the internal say mike. Skewed to the positive but not as ormingly so as you might believe looking at the index not quite 2 to 1 advancing to declining. A lot of big numbers blackberry traded 300 million shares on its own. 100 times normal volume on the aws deal on the nasdaq, moderna has traded over 100 million shares itself a lot of fevered activity but netting out to marginally positive right here. Look at a couple of materials plays. Metals as well as timber both to the upside clearly as the tech stocks do pretty real there is kind of a real economy reflation move in there as well underneath the surface. Then the volatility index, the mark itself has been jumpy, the s p popping a here. It is hard for it to decline too much in the vix. It breached into the 20 level. A lot of folks believe if it breaks below that you have all of these Systematic Trading players out there that will raise their equity exposure just because thats the key signal they use to decide how much risk can be taken even though the market is up tremendously at this point sara. One minute left to go we are seeing a rally on wall street dow is up 200. We have offset the losses, made up more than the losses of yesterday. Coming off of a blockbuster month of november. Kicking it off strong here for the month of december. The only sector thats lower receipt now, industrials if you look at what is outperforming, technology is doing well as mike noted the nasdaq is up 1. 5 Communication Services is the best performing sector in the s p. All the faang names for instance are higher today you have also got some of the other groups working as well, like financials. Part of the story there, across assets you have got this overall enthusiasm going treasuries are selling off thats pushing yields higher thats helping the banks and some of the pro cyclical sectors. We have also got the dollar weaker which helps stocks as well there is the bell, wilfred it looks like it is going to be a solid finish to an overall strong day whether it is stimulus talks reigniting again, more vaccine optimism, or just continued hope that the economy will continue to bounce back. Yeah, over 1 of gains in the s p 500. Welcome to the closing bell, im wilfred frost along with sara eisen and mike santoli, cnbc senior markets commentator. The dow did slip more than the other two indices in the final couple of hours. Only up 184 points at the close. It had been up 445 at the high of the session thats 0. 6 at the close. S p 500 up 1. 1 . Nasdaq up 1. 3 , Communication Services, financials, real estate tech all up more than 1 . One sector in the red, industrial down 5. 2 salesforce reporting earnings after the bell and also expecting the subpoena to announce their act i sigs of slack. Plus, gap has been a huge retail winner this year. Up more than 200 since the beginning of april gaps new ceo on the dramatic turn around is coming up an exclusive interview her first in fact. You dont want to miss that. Joe terra nova is still with us. And brent hill joining uz as well and Karen Swisher will also join us to discuss the salesforce numbers tech performance and deal with slack. Mike santoli coming to you first. Financials right up there with tech, with Communication Services, highlighting the point we mentioned that this was a sort of broad positive day even though we slipped approaching the close. Eclectic. We talked about the treasury yields moving higher,. 90 on the tenyear at the same time, high yield debt rallied really strongly today and compressed those spreads. Thats all positive backdrop why not . We are processing the vaccines, the rising earnings estimates and expectations we are going to be through this period of difficulty ina while i think the issue becomes how overexcited it is. The market is overextended the bulls are pushing their luck it is not unusual but at some point you get where you need a lot more good news to feed it. Joe, i like to track these numbers. S ps year to date 27th record close, nasdaq 47th record close. People wonder is it too late to get in joe . Joe . Joe is frozen. Mike santoli, do you want to take that . I would be happy to take it almost all the indicators i look at when you look at all the early cycle patterns from this economic recovery and a lot of the tough in terms of the market behavior over the last weeks how loud and strong the rally has been, they all indicate that it is probably favorable in terms of a sixmonth outlook, 12month outlook. Even when you had such a strong month as november and finished at an alltime high. It is all upbeat the projection for six to 12 months out the nearer term gets moor dicey. We had months where there was giveback or you had corrective activity in the shortterm thats what i think we are dealing with more of the position of the market this is market phases i go back to the don draper line, happiness is just a moment before you need more happiness eventually you get to that point. I dont know if we are there yet but as i said seasonal forces are strong thats the tradeoff no it is not too late if you are a long term investor. Joe is back joe, we were discussing whether we are too late in the game to get into the rally. Here i am unfrozen. No it is not too late. I mentioned secular tail winds before there are a tremendous amount of them 90 trillion of global liquidity. Looking forward think about 2021 the reintroduction of fwloeblization, think about the potential for a capex recovery and i heard mike talking about a tenyear thats pricing at 90 basis points we are seeing a steepening in that yield curve potentially for 2021 the catalyst could be a rotation out of global Government Debt into both growth and value within the Market Action today i would say one thing was interesting from a rotation standpoint we saw a little bit of rotation out of emerging growth into established growth so while you saw zoom was down significantly, very quietly it looks like a coiled spring to move higher is building in amazon, apple and facebook hmm brent, why dont you jump in on that and talk about what you are hearing from clients and the overall enthusiasm for some of the growth names that you cover and whether now is the time to be there given this rotation we have seen into more value and cyclecally oriented places. The majority of our clients are still sticking with the internet and Software Names on the growth side. The best stories regardless of valuing a. You have seen some new highs we have never seen stocks trade at triple digit multiple rchbs like snowflake and a handful of other Companies Trading at 30 times revenue. I think the best investment is vest in the fundamental stories. We put valuation in 2020 in the back seat. The best performing stories have been the best fundamentals we continue to see our clients still focus on owning those best stories regardless of the valuation. As a fundamentals. We continue to fear the biggest concern is really on a multiple basis. But i think this ongoing crisis we are living in is increasing the focus on Digital Transformation you are seeing it in the amazon aws numbers. You are seeing it in the salesforce. Com numbers and across the board so we continue to be very bullish on tech with a second on valuation. It has been a big run. And i think everyone is concerned going into 21 is there going to be a rotation out of tech into the broader stories, around travel, casino and other stories out there. So many of the factors we have been discussing today are positive for the outlook of the market and the economy, including president elect bidens team and janet yellen as treasury secretary rchl the big cap tech stocks wrong to be rallying on the Election Results . Will there be more regulatory fears for them next year is this me, kara . Yes hi, sorry i didnt hear you introduce me there are going to be regulatory fears but these companies have done well this the pandemic and they are in a position to lap up all the opportunities Going Forward. Thats why the stocks are going up they really do represent the future they lean into the future. They lean into growth. They are not stocks that are doing financial manipulations to get ahead. It is because real business is happening. So i think people have factored in an element of regulation, for sure. Speaking of, we are getting that deal from salesforce and slack. Lets get to deirdre bosa with the news sara, it is official. Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to acquire slack we have the pricing. Slack shareholders will receive 26. 79 in cash and. 776 shares of salesforce stocks for each slack share. That amounts to 27. 7 billion based on the Closing Price of salesforces Closing Price of their stock on november 30th, 2020 benny says stewart, the ceo and founder of slack, says stewart and his team have built one of the most beloved platforms in enterprise history with an incredible ecosystem around it he says this is a match made in heaven as we show you these shares in crm investors need more convincing i said this moments ago, but there is thought among some investors that salesforce after acquisitions in the last years should be focusing on margins and efficiency slack is a very big of were, 27. 7 billion, by far salesforces largest acquisition to date. While continue to look through the release. We also have earnings which i will get back to you i will bring you more as i see it we appreciate it deirdre. We will get back to you quickly. First a read on the stock deal both stocks down after hours reaction to the price, 27. 7 billion in enterprise value. Mark benny off told us in august he wasnt ready to do m a. I think everyone is completely thrown off by this their largest deal by far. It is twice the multiple what they paid for tableau, over twice. I think there is going to be explaining to do shortterm investors are bummed out no question. Clients i spoke are not happy with this transaction. I think long term they will. Like with meal soft and tableau initially there was a reaction, why would they do this ultimately as time passed it was a smart acquisition. Slack no question is a good acquisition for them long term slack couldnt keep up with microsoft. With salesforce and slack together it is a two horse race between those two vendors. Shortterm we dont like it. Long term i like i think those investors fell they were lied to by mark. They wanted to see with quarters of no m a, margin improvement and i care about you mrs. And mr. Shareholder and he threw this out the window with this transaction. There is explaining to do on marks behalf. It will boil over and we will go back to a great story. We still have a lot of positive things to say about the platform to that point, cara, why now for mark benioff i am sure other companies were fishing around slack. It would be difficult for google or microsoft to buy it as quickly because of all the antitrust concerns. He had to have it. Thats mark benioff. He has to have it. Shortterm shareholders should be wary when he says thinks like that he wanted to buy twitter this is one those hot properties with a big name, with a big consumer you know, people know what it is. People in the workplaces know what it is but it just couldnt get there on its own i think Microsoft Teams is going to be a big competitor it is a matter of execution who they keep from slack i didnt hear what stewart was saying we will have to see if they can execute on it. The idea they didnt create it themselves is interesting to me. I think Microsofts Team is going to put a lot on their shoulders, et cetera going to be tough the compete. It is a great brand name mark had to have it. Slack had no other choice. It is a great owner for it of it is just a big threat. Slack shares coming back after yours, now down only 1 . Q 3 was another record quarter for revenue for salesforce growing 20 year over year raising the revenue guide for 2021 to the high end they are also initiating 2022 guidance of 25. 5, also at the high end and they beat earnings joe by it looks like more than double the expectations as 175 per share. What is your reaction as somebody who likes the stock, and it is down after hours in reaction to the deal the eemz i think is adjusted. It was a Strong Revenue quarter once again i agree with kara and brett. I think what you want to be doing here is looking past the shortterm nature of this. Understand the way i read this this deal does not close until fiscal year 2022 salesforce will be accessing the debt markets in the interim to gain some capital for the deal lets keep in mind that a lot of the Revenue Generation that salesforce enjoyed in this quarter and the prior quarter has come without really strengthened i. T. Spending we like to talk a lot about a return to normalcy in that return to normalcy lets factor in i. T. Spending accelerating significantly cara and brent, thaunks thank so much for joining us on that discussion salesforce down 3. 6 mark benioff will be on mad money tonight, 6 00 p. M. Eastern time dont miss that. Joe, quickly, before we let you go, we wanted to ask you about the etf that Just Launched with your name on it, joe t we were debating whether it was pronounced joet or joe t. Tell us about it. The investment philosophy is something i incorporated over the last 30 years to approach the capital markets. It is trying to identify High Conviction opportunities you know if you are playing soccer wilf that you are only going to be performing well if you have confidence behind your play i think as investors we need to try and emanate that same behavior of confidence so combining two modernday factors into a strategy called quality momentum i think is offering to investors an opportunity to have this nuanced modernday approach that offers a compelling alternative not the solution, to what seems to be this binary debate between growth and value and it is curating from a universe of 500 u. S. Large cap equity names down to 125 of those names, which we can identify as best performing, with high quality metrics. And as an example, the return on equity for the quality momentum index is over 20 . The return on equity for the s p 500 sits at 11 . If i look at performances, momentum, s p 500 right now, 40 of the s p 500 is still lower on the year for the quality momentum index only 40 of the index is lower on the year. High conviction opportunity, modern day approach and very happy to take the investment philosophy that i have used for 30plus years and bring it into the market joe t an etf thank you very much. We appreciate you joining us for closing bell today. Thanks for having me. And you were up today, almost a percent. Up next gaps ceo on the outlook for the Holiday Shopping season and the big comeback the stock has made this year we are back on closing bell in just 90 seconds. Im still on the road to whats next. And im still going for my best. Even though i live with a higher risk of stroke due to afib not caused by a heart valve problem. So if theres a better treatment than warfarin, im on top of that. Eliquis. Eliquis is proven to reduce stroke risk better than warfarin. Plus has significantly less major bleeding than warfarin. Eliquis is fdaapproved and has both. Whats next . Getting out there. Dont stop taking eliquis unless your doctor tells you to, as stopping increases your risk of having a stroke. Eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. Dont take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. While taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily and it may take longer than usual for any bleeding to stop. Seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. Eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. Tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. Ask your doctor about eliquis. And if your ability to afford your medication has changed, we want to help. It has been a rocky road for retailers in 2020, at least the ones that dont sell toilet paper. Gap temporarily closing its stores in march and just a few days later named sonia syngal as their brandnew ceo. Since then the stock is up 200 . She laid out her vision for the post pandemic economy focusing on fewer stores. She joins us now for her first interview since becoming ceo welcome. Thank you good to be here. I want to start with that stock recovery the stock is up more than 300 from the 52week lows. What is the main factor, would you say, driving the turnaround . [ no audio ] three big areas of focus. First being the power of our brands we have these four purposedriven billion dollar iconic American Brands that have been in business for decades and bring a lot of joy into a lot of and fuel a lot of inspiration and optimism for with a they stan for the power of the brand coupled with the power of the portfolio and the fact that our portfolio before brands covers about 80 of apparel spending in north america. 80 of what people wear. You know, we have always led with the casualization of the american wardrobe. And for 51 years that has been really how we have continued to move the Company Forward the portfolio and that coverage in a 200 billion plus industry is a distinct advantage. Followed by the power of our platform and that platform grounded in our digital dominance being the second largest ecommerce site for apparel and very fast growing as well as our scaled operations it is really the trifecta of power of the brand, power of the portfolio, the power of the platform that i think has driven a level of clarity for us over the last eight months. And you know, i think when you go through a crisis moment, thats when things become very, very clear so, sonia, old navy anda at athlete, what is the runway there . We have laid out a multiyear plan that shows that old navy and athlete will be 70 of our sales by 2023. We see consistent momentum ahead. We couldnt be happenier about their strong q 3s that we Just Announced with old navy being a 15 growth and athleta being 15 growth and comps being strong. The Comparable Store sales for the entire company are at plus 5 for q 3 and the fact that we delivered flat sales is something improud of we havereluntlessly been focused on sales growth. The clarity of who we are is something that we spent a lot of time on. What is your purpose as a company . What is your north star . And i believe articulating that north star and saying look we are inclusive by design, that is what this company s thats our unique place in the world. And then thee four brands that stand for something laddering up to that has been an enabler for us in a pretty compelling way. Thats sort of where i want to go, custom is talking about what you stand for and the whole identity of the gap brand itself because, you for example this is a brand that people on wall street were ready to write obituaries for, you know, before this turnaround that you have seen in the stock. It was khakis, it was jeans, it was solid color tshirts i think the kornacki khakis, our colleague at msnbc had a bit of a moment but what exactly is the gap brand standing for right now what is the target audience. Whats the future for it. Gap brands stands for modern american optimism and has done for 51 years since the first store opened i think what changed over that time is the fact that the way we monetize the brands has radically shifted. We had classically defined ourselves as a mall based brand. Now the majority of our sales for gap come from ecommerce we have partnerships in our sales that are growing we have franchise fwreemts and we have a solid outlet business thats healthy in that particular real estate segment the way we are bringing the brands to customers is where the customers are today. Our customers anyone who is an individual that connects with, you know, the principles of gap, whether you are a Younger Generation that cares about sustainability and you know, quality, and enduring style, and enduring individuality thats really what the brand has always stood for and we are holding ourselves to meet the brands promise in the ways in custom our customers shop with us. What about the kornacki khakis i will say about the kornacki khakis today is giving tuesday. We gave steve a lifetime lifetime access to the khakis that he loves so must have and he in turn turned and fwaf that to the boys and girls club for their i think their working for future segment of what they do it is just a wonderful way for us to give to him and for him to give, you know, to those in need with, you know, the khakis i mean it really warms my heart. It is a fun moment for the brand and for steve and more the recipients of the next generation that will, you know, i think sucksy seed with these khakis lets move from one style of the bran to another. Kanye west tons of excitement about the deal you signed with him a ten year deal. Set to launch, yeezys gap launching next year. But there have been headlines that he threatened to pull and has been demanding a board seat. How is that going . This relationship has been 20 years in the making. Kanye worked in a gap store when he was young we have been on and off engaged for ten years. And this tick partnership i think is a culmination of the arc of that relationship you know, we have been really focused on the creative audacity that he brings to his work and the linkage with our brand i have been really pleased with what i am seeing in terms of the development of the product, the you know, what we have planned to launch as a company for the next year and the first half of next year. We are on track. What has been hitting my desk has been pretty awesome to see and i cant wait to bring to it customers. I know there is a lot of interest certainly i get a lot of requests for the first hoodie or the first item we cant wait to bring it out. Finally, just an investor question, sonia. We saw the stock sell off sharply last week on the back of earnings you mentioned there was a sales improvements but earnings missed i think it was surprising and disappointing to the street that you were taking up the marketing spend and that was the reason for the miss and that you will continue to do that into the next quarter how flexible are you around that and what would you tell investors who are questioning the earnings because of it. Yeah. We feel great about top line sales, as we have discussed. We think thats a standout performance. In terms of earnings you know it is very much in line with our threeyear plan that we have laid out we feel good to what we communicated on investor day there is three drivers to. So of thecos that we spent money on two of which are not going to be around for a long marketing spend went up, very intentional. We had a lot of rigor and a lot of flexibility daily with how we invest in marketing. Feel good about that kppt expect that to continue we invested in safe retailing. We are getting paid back for that not only for long term as the vaccine hits but in the shortterm our customers are telling us they noticed. Our in stores are up from last year. So customers are feeling comfortable coming in and shopping with us and a third driver of the cost which is shortlived is some of the restructuring related to exiting stores that are not part of our future fleet again, shortterm, one time, and we feel very good about those decisions in line with our strategy we hope you will come back, sonia, and update us on the Holiday Season for now,great to talk to you, thank you for joining us. Thank you i hope you get out and buy some masks for stocking stuffers. We will see you next time. Okay. Yeah always in the market for masks these day. Sonia syngal, appreciate it. Thank you. Ceo of gap. Byebye. And some khakis of course as well. Lets get to dee bosa who has more on salesforces acquisition of slack for us. I have been reading through the release. More details here. Slack will become an operating unit of salesforce and it will continue to be led by slacks ceo Stewart Butterfield. This is of course the company he founded. He just brought it public last year through a direct listing. The transaction is expected to close in the Second Quarter of salesforces fiscal year 2022. Thats next year for us. Of course subject to approval by slack shareholders and subject to getting all of the regulatory approvals. We also received slack earnings earlier. They actually posted a surprise profit, just a penny, a four cent loss was expected guys total revenue was up 39 year over year this is a really important point because over the last three quarters we have seen annual Revenue Growth of about 50 . Thats part of the reason that slack has been an underperformer amid the work from home names. You had zoom just yesterday with Revenue Growth of over 300 for a second straight quarter. Slacks Revenue Growth just hasnt been there. And of course it is at competition with microsoft amphetamines and a lot of analysts and investors are pointing to. But there was that surprise penny profit, duis we will continue to bring you more as we get it. For now, Stewart Butterfield will remain ceo. Back to you. Dee, thanks for that. More earnings have been crossing the tape as well hpe and box. Josh lipton has both for us. Hpe revenue 7. 2 billion. Turn to the forecast, q 1 they are looking for between 40 and 44 cents street was 35 cents. For 2021 they raised their eps guidance to a better than expected 1. 60 to 1. 78. Had a chance to catch up with the ceo. I wanted to talk to him about a few things he is selling a lot of products to a lot of customers around the world. He says hpe sees a good deal of certainty but cities customers still need to upgrade specifically they are intelligent edge business, networking hpe is gaining share and sees steady income momentum they are also relocating headquarters from san jose, california, to houston, texas. Telling me houston is a strong market to attract and retain talent especially on the nontechnical side the new camp us in houston will be nearly four times the size of the Silicon Valley campus, the Silicon Valley campus will remain he says an Innovation Hub for hpe. No layoffs socialed with this decision tax incentives he said were not a consideration. Stock was down 30 in 2020 but had a strong rally in november, up around 30 . Its best month since march 2016. Turning to box they reported as well ads you noted. Lets get to those numbers q 3 eps of 20 cents. Of 15 cents and wretches of 196 million versus 194 millions billings in line at 185. 5 million. For q 4 above consensus on the bottom line, 16 to 18 cents. But below where the street was at they are calling for between 196 and 197 mm i caught up with the ceo i asked him whether some of these tail winds that box is enjoining are sustainable. He said they are, and they will accelerate he argues boast pandemic basically the need for managing collaboration will only increase software will be even when covid restrictions have been removed consulting revenue was lower than what box had anticipated. Back to you. That stock down what 7 after hours. Josh, thank you. Josh lipton. Up next we will be joined by dow cejio m fitterling on the way quid is disrupting demand. St the applied Digital Skills courses, im thinking i can become more marketable. You dont need to be a computer expert to be great at this. These are skills lots of people can learn. I feel hopeful about the future now. Sometimes, you want speedy but reliable. Stateoftheart but dependable. In other words, you want a hybrid. So do telcos. Thats why theyre going hybrid with ibm. A hybrid cloud approach with watson ai helps them roll out new innovations anywhere without losing speed. From telco to transportation, businesses are going with a smarter hybrid cloud, using the tools, platform and expertise of ibm. Good work little buddy. President elect biden rolled out his Economic Team this afternoon and treasury nominee janet yellen spoke about the struggle americans are facing so many people struggling to put food on the table and pay bills and rent its an american tragedy and its essential that we move with urgency joining us now, krishna gughar thank you for joining us i mean, clearly, there is rhetoric from pretty much all corners that wants to see stimulus whether or not we get it i guess remains to be seen but in the eventually we saw something small now and bigger medium term early next year where will the tenyear be in ten months time well, that depends on a lot of things, above all how the vaccine developments play out as well as many other things. No question having some timely fiscal now and sustained fiscal support Going Forward want very, very important in a benign scenario you could see the tenyear 1. 25, even 1. 50 a year from now but a lot of things have to go right between now and then. Do you think Janet Yellens nomination for treasury secretary is bullish overall for risk assets and for yields. I think janet is certainly superbly qualified for the job i think they are nomination and more broadly the rest of the team thats been designated this is a team of pros, experts, competent people, also people who work well with the fed i would say that you know i am a huge fan of janet yellen but there area aspects of the job, the political side, the negotiation with congress, where she doesnt have, you know, that much expertise so its not like janet yellen is a Silver Bullet for awful our problems but we have a lot of challenges it is great to have someone who is of her caliber in that seat. What about the outlook for the dollar. Clearly it is weak of late. Do you think next year is another weak year for the dollar i have been expecting a dollar weakness. My inclination is to think that that will continue to play out Going Forward. Really for a couple of different reasons. One is just that as stress and risks to the Global Outlook moderate in particular with ongoing progress on vaccines, that might tend to favor some moderation in the dollar but also in crucially. Because i think you have a very strong commitment from the fed to keep Monetary Policy extremely easy as we move tedeer into the expansion whats that going to mean is that real Interest Rates adjusted for inflation are likely to fall at least on the front end as we move deep sbeer the recovery and real Interest Rates tend to be influential on currency this is an unusual situation dont normally expect real rates to be falling as you move deep sbeerl a recovery but thats likely what we are going to see in the u. S. , distinctively in the u. S. And i think thats something that will likely weigh on the dollar of course that then gives opportunities in particular for emerging markets it makes life more difficult for the europeans who have to deal with the euro spread. Thank you for joining us. Any time. Shares of dow, inc. , moving higher by 40 over the last six months can the covid run up roll on we will discuss with the ceo, jim fitterling, right after this break. [whats this . ] oh, are we kicking karly out . We live with at t. It was a lapse in judgment. At t, we called this house meeting because you advertise gigspeed internet, but we cant sign up for that here. Yeah, but im just like warming up to those speeds. Youve lived here two years. The personal attacks arent helping, karly. Dont you have like a hot pilates class to get to or something . [ muffled scream ] stop living with at t. Xfinity can deliver gig to the most homes. Materials have surged since the march lows the sector rallying 86 . One of the sectors big winners in that time is dow, inc it is more than double since the march lows of joining us more for a cnbc exclusive interview is jim fitterling. Dows ceo. Welcome back. Nice to be here your cfo presented at an Investor Conference today. Characterized the recovery in your business and kbloefr all as moderate, continuing at a moderate pace, driving sequential higher business results. Can you expand on that, what you are seeing out there yeah, we saw we saw a pretty strong Third Quarter rebound and we continue to see strength from that Third Quarter pace chgt october demand and november demand have been good particularly in plastics and consumer applications. In those areas we actually see volume growth year over year we are still a little bit below year over year volume growth in areas like our polyurethanes business which goes into applications like automotive although automotive has improved tremendously we are starting the see good numbers in building and construction it is modest but it is improving. We are also starting to see a good rebound in durable goods orders a lot of that driven by the fact we have low cost money, low Mortgage Rates and home sales in the United States are up 11 ier over year. Also, asia is coming back strongly we are starting to see good growth year over year in the Fourth Quarter in asia october, november have been good and december is off to a good start. It is a little bit unpredictable this year, as everybody knows. But if we continue this pace i think our outlook for Fourth Quarter is good. As i mentioned the investors have been buying your stocks and other value stocks that typically do well at the beginning of cyclical recoveries we are expecting this vaccine hopefully to start getting administer this is the next few weeks. Where are we, do you think, in the Economic Cycle and how long do you project this is going to be with us if we do get the vaccine and return to normal. Well, the visibility has been tough. When i look at some of the projections for real gdp growth for next year, the median of those projection is probably in the four to four and a half percent real gdp growth range. And i think given the trajectory that we are on Third Quarter and going into Fourth Quarter, we could actually see that come to fruiti fruition we are doing that, remember, on the back of mostly consumerdriven demand some return in automotive. But not a lot of Capital Spending if we start to see Capital Spending increase, then i think we will get ourselves to the point where everything is getting to year over year growth i would say realistically we have to look at 2021 because the first wave of vaccines are probably going to go to Health Care Workers and front line workers and it will take a while before the general population is able to take the vaccine so we are looking at 2021 as a year where we still have to manage carefully but by 2022 i think we see a window where we could be back to precovidtype levels. Whats your outlook for margins, potential margin improvement over the next couple of years do you think there will be a lot of operational leverage to come through . I think there will. The costs have been relatively low. So thats happened and we are a big demand call on the upstream downstream there are not a lot of projects could tom on and demand continues to grow if we continue that pace, supply demand balances will tighten in 2021 and into 2022 i think thats going to help we saw a substantial margin improvement in Third Quarter we are continuing to see that not as big a change Fourth Quarter over Third Quarter but i think we are going to continue to see improvement in Fourth Quarter. And then i think if we see that real gdp growth in 2021, we will see good margins jim, you and i have talked about some of your efforts when it comes to tackling Plastic Waste. How much are you hearing from investors these days on esg . And i also on that note find it interesting that you are positioning yourself not just as part of the solution when it comes to a circular economy in plastics but also on evs, which is very much at the forefront of how investors think about esg plays right now . I think we look at esg as an opportunity. Obviously, i get asked this question a lot as a threat but i think it is real opportunity for our industry to show science and Technology Leadership clearly we dont want Plastic Waste going into the environment. And so everything that we can do through the alliance to end Plastic Waste or through your own products to make them more recyclable and more circular is going to help us plastics are going to be with us for a long time. They enable so many thing in the economy and they are a very sustainable product but the waste has to be better managed i think we can tackle that on the Bigger Picture of climate, co 2 emissions reduction is a big area. And of course of course thats a hot topic right now. And we have made commitments not only to reduce our real net Carbon Emissions by 2030 by 15 but to be Carbon Neutral by 2050 that takes more than just incremal improvements. That takes Breakthrough Technologies and i think we have an opportunity for the United States to show some of that technology, the technologies that we are showcasing and piloting in the gulf coast now to make propylene with 20 lower Carbon Emissions and ethylene with as much as 40 lower Carbon Emissions. We are working in the eu as well to look at hydrogen as an opportunity and how that can help reduce carbon emission there is in jim fitterling, we always appreciate the update thank you for joining us. Nice to see you take care. Up next, the vaccine debate. We are moments away from the cdcs big vote on who will get the Coronavirus Vaccine first. The latest on that developing story when closing bell returns. 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They will be selling 35 million shares raising about 545 million for corporate purposes not a surprise when you look at shares of jetblue. Since the announcement the stock is going lower after hours, a little under 3 . But look at the stock. It makes sense they will sell about 35 million shares. Why . The stock is up. They dont want to go in debt, but they want to raise cash, this is a way of doing it. 35 million shares going on sale from jetblue in another offering back to you. Down 3 after hours new deals to buy slack announced at the top of the hour james cramer caught up with the ceo. What he had to say straight ahead. Things are a little different this school year its different because i have to talk to a computer. I get like 6 emails a day. 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. Sales are cramers interview and we will keep watch on everything closing bell back in a couple. Boss you alright . [sigh] [ding] never settle with power e trade. It has powerful, easytouse tools to help you find opportunities, 24 7 support when you need answers plus some of the lowest options and futures Contract Prices around. Dont get mad. Get e trade and start trading today. Dont get mad. Lets get checked for those around us. Lets get checked for a full range of conditions. Introducing letsgetchecked a Health Testing you do at home. Lets get round the clock support from a team of nurses. Lets get fast, accurate results. Know your health. Know yourself. For a limited time only, get 40 off at letsgetchecked dot com the ceo of salesforce announced they will be acquiring slack. Jim cramer conducted an interview and asked about details. Slack changes everything and makes salesforce a new type of company. A company architected to work from anywhere. We have always introduced sales from a couple months ago you know that, but now it super charges our approach their workforce could be truly from anywhere. That interview with cramer. Mad money tonights at 6 00 eastern time clear feel there, work from anywhere i guess we could have guessed that shortterm investors not jumping for joy. The theme behind it, you can see. It makes you see transformational to strategy from here on out not just a tuckin product line. Suggesti suggesting that slack will be the backbone of that strategy to work from anywhere crm stock is down 18 already even with this after market move so it seems like the market has already inflicted its punishment it will be hard to see a great financial return soon, but strategically i think is where the market wants to see the company prove it out with is why it will be key to listen to cramers interview and he also had the Earnings Call which kicks off at 5 00 eastern time we will see if this rally continues with mixed Economic Data manufacturing is going strong, but easing off high levels we are going to talk to robert kaplan, interesting to see what the feds are talking about what else will you be watching i want to see what the market does navigate things when you are in this position where the people have given the stock market a lot of credit for foretelling better times down the road thats why current numbers dont matter much. The fed is a given that will be supportive powell told you that today the mechanics of getting to that place and how much the stock market has already front loaded that the dollar was weaker, down almost a full we are out of time thanks for watching. Fast money starts now. Im melissa lee and this is fast money. Our newest fast money trader James Mcdonald special welcome to james hope you know what you are getting into stocks tumbling after hours on salesforce after they announce plans to buy slack and bio stocks going wild. Trading more like bitcoin than biotech