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

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’ 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.