White House CEA Chair Reacts to December Jobs Data, GameStop Surges on NFT/Crypto Report and Abbott Labs CEO Looks to Boost COVID Test Production as Omicron Spreads

Published: Jan. 7, 2022, 4:21 p.m.

b'Carl Quintanilla and Jim Cramer focused on market reaction to the big news of the morning: The December employment report showed non-farm payrolls up 199,000 -- about half of what Wall Street had been expecting -- but the unemployment rate fell to 3.9%. Cecelia Rouse -- Chair of President Biden\'s Council of Economic Advisers -- joined the program to discuss the jobs report, inflation, the COVID-19 omicron variant outbreak and what\'s at stake for the economy. GameStop shares soared on a report that the videogame retailer is launching a division to develop a marketplace for NFTs and establish cryptocurrency partnerships. The anchors did a "Squawk on the Street" flashback to April 2021 when Cramer said that GameStop has to "go crypto." Also in focus: Abbott Labs\\u2019 CEO said the company plans to boost production of its COVID-19 test kits to 100 million a month, Cramer on companies that should have gone public via IPO instead of striking SPAC deals, plus an upbeat week for the banking sector and cruise line stocks.'