global headquarters. welcome to "worldwide exchange," and here is your "five@5." d.c. versus google. two government agencies taking aim at the search giant with the justice department weighing the nuclear option, looking to maybe break up the company. shares are under pressure this morning. the s&p and nasdaq are trying to keep their momentum with indices riding a four-session winning streak, futures pointing toward a higher open. key to the market action today, the latest look at inflation. today's cpi report could lay the

groundwork for the fed to actually start cutting rates next month. former chair roger ferguson lays out the likelihood of that likely happening. plus the latest developments out of japan, the prime minister is stepping down. we're live in asia with the market fallout . >> and southwest airlines looking at new fallout as they look to make big changes. it's wednesday, august 14th, 2024, and you're watching "worldwide exchange" right here on cnbc. ♪ good morning and thank you for being with us. i'm dominic chu in for frank holland this week. let's kick things off with u.s. eck request i the i futures. right now as i pointed out, their bid, modestly sow. the dow is implied higher by 63 points. modest moves, but slightly. the s&p rising more than 1% from

yesterday's session and the nasdaq jumping 2.5%. this is on the back of that cooler than expected i report. the s&p and nasdaq are higher for the last four sessions. you can seek the week-to-date moves. but the s&p is up 1.5% and 2.5% for nasdaq. with the consumer price index report today, we've got more on that coming up. first a mark with the 10-year treasury yield ticking at 3.9%. 3.852% the last trade there. the u.s. 2-year, 3.947%. and the 30-year taking lower at 4.1 f 1%. that's the current state of the interest rate complex. we'll get a check on the oil side of things, breaking their

five-session read. $79, wti. 81$81.36 for rbos gas. dan murphy is in our london newsroom with the early action there. dan. >> dom, good morning to you. we bean tracking across europe for the last couple of hours. safe to say it's a broadly positive session after the positive to mixed lead from asia with investors reacting to the u.s. ppi print, which was certainly softer than expected, helping to give rise to the hope we'll see the cut from the u.s. fed. all of that driving optimism across europe today. i want to put you on what we're seeing with ftse's lead with a rise of around 1%. as i mentioned, broad positivity here. we're seeing stocks in switzerland better by 7.3%.

also a close watch on what's happening in the uk today right here in london with the ftse up by half of 1%. this is after we saw uk inflation rising less than expected in july. that number coming in at 2.2% after two months at the bank of england's -- just above the 2% target. analysts now saying that the odds of a back-to-back rate cut are on the rise. so that's also positive news when you look at what the boe is likely to do next. of course, we also have earnings in focus as well. today, numbers from the big one. ubs posting a 1.1 billion dollar profit, which was well ahead of expectations. we're seeing shares better. the firm hitting the market, revealing additional cost savings of $900 million in the quarter as it continues that integration of former rival credit suisse. what was interesting is we saw

ubs adding assets of $20 million. it is certainly continuing to attract new money, and investors are taking that in stride. back over to you. >> dan murphy in london. thank you very much. meanwhile shares of alphabet are lower on reports that the justice department is weighing the possible report of the barackup of google. weighing. the landmark case found that they were monopolizing the online search market. other options being considered by the doj forcing google to share more data with competitors and steps to prevent it from gaining an unfair advantage in artificial intelligence products. if the doj were to go the breakup route, it would mark the government's first attempt to break up monopoly powers since the unsuccessful attempt to break up microsoft two decades also. also the ftc asked the court to

break up its power over the epic games fight against the practices relating to competition and payments in its play store. it's a lot to unwrap. for more let's bring in sarah kuntz. we turn to you off on the get a bird's-eye view of the tech landscape. this is maybe not all that surprising. they often weigh all kinds of things. do you expect any real substance to come out of this particular antitrust move by the government? >> i think it's going to be expensive for google, but the good news is google has a lot of money to pay. you know, the reality is we've seen enough with the ftc, the s.e.c., and the judiciary, they do not love big tech. they have al lies like the elizabeth warrens of the world. this is not shocking that it's happening.

i personally wonder if they're fighting the last war. google has the lion's share of the search, but at the same time, a lot of people don't go to a search engine. they go to pinterest, a meta pro product, and elseyoutube. it will impact a lot what google does from here. >> this administration, the biden administration, the white house, the justice department, even the ftc with lina khan, they've had good success if you want to call it that against corporate or monopolistic antitrust-type beihavior. if that were to continue, would you expect them to push further on the momentum by google and

alphabet? >> i think it's clear that donald trump said if he's elected, the first thing he's going to do is fire gary gentzler. i don't think that's how it works, but i'm not going to be the with unto tell him that. is there more of a conversation in a relationship with tech like there was under obama? i think that through november, there will be a lot of question marks around this. that being said, the government the ends to get their guy, and so this is going to cost google a lot. we probably will see some changes in terms of how ad works operates. on the epic game side, we're going to see changes in how the app store operates. that's not necessarily bad. i just don't know that it's going to be this sort of complete 180. >> this is also a scenario where many of these big tech companies are coming under fire because they're very much if the public view.

they make consumer products we use on a daily basis. can you explain how you view things developing with regard to why this kind of a move with consumer facing very high-profile products is something that this administration wants to pursue? >> i think that there's an uneasy feeling that these companies are too big and have too much power, that the market caps are too big, that they control too much of what we do on the internet, which is everything we do. at the same time, there's not necessarily a ton of understanding of both how the consumer is using these products as well as what it would look like to kind of shift that sort of dominance that they have. i mean, this is -- google's a product that doesn't charge consumers, and so it's different than the monopolies of yore where you're price fixing and the prices are too high. it's a different situation. that being said, the most interesting thing that google is doing now is not on the consumer

side. it's their ai business, the original white paper that launched all of this gen ai craze that came out of google, and a lot of the people still work there or have come back and have deep minds. i can see a bit of a pause and a shift away from sort of turbocharging that ad business that keeps getting google in trouble and a focus on more of the google cloud and what they're doing in ai because i think there's a huge opportunity for them and regulators are certainly not ready to regulate in the ai space, so maybe they get a few years' breathing room there. >> interesting move. sarah kuntz, thank you very much. developing news out of japan, the prime minister says he'll step down next month, bowing to continuing pressure for him to resign. let's get over to lin lin.

>> you can describe this as shock but not necessarily a surprise as one analyst described earlier today, this is japan's version of the joe biden moment. as you were just saying there, cue tschida has been under intense pressure. the opinion polls tell that story. the leadership session that was to happen, it was unlikely he would be able to win. now, during his three-year tenure, it has been rocked by political controversy as certainly in relation to the funding scandal late last year, but also concerns around the economy as well as cost of living. of course, we all know japan has been dealing with inflation, but prices are now rising, but wages have not kept up. of course, japan has been dealing with that weak yen, which has contributed to imported inflation, and that's particularly significant for a

country that virtually imports all of its fuel and a lot of its food. in terms of the market reaction, we saw the nikkei 225 rising for a third straight session off the back of that intense market turbulence bs up by 0.6%. but it has been range-bound, but choppy given the political uncertainty as has been dollar/yen. dom, back to you. >> all right. lin lin in singapore with the latest on the japanese leadership situation. thank you very much for that. we've got a lot more here to come on "worldwide exchange" including the one word investors need to know today. but first a $30 billion deal has shares of one food company sharply higher this morning. we've got the details coming up. plus southwest airlines facing new activist action. and later on, former fed vice chair robert ferguson is

standing by with what the re rate cuts could mean next month. we've got much more on "worldwide exchange" after this commercial break.

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carrier's 15-person board. elliot revealed earlier this summer it had built a big position in southwest and was looking to overhaul the company's leadership, including calls for replacing ceo bob jordan and replacing executive chairman gary kelly. meanwhile mars is apparently set to announce a nearly $30 billion deal to buy kellanova. according to reports, that deal could come as soon as today, likely paying $83.50 a share for the food maker. it was spun off from kellogg last year and includes brands like prynne gels, pop-tarts, and eggo. and intel unloaded the nearly 1.2 million shares, likely getting it $147 million

based on arm's average cuts. it struggles to keep up with competitors in the chip can space, dom. >> silvana henao with the corporate headlines. back to markets and investor attention locked in on the latest look on inflation later on this morning. the july consumer price index, cpi, expecting to show a gain of 3% from a year ago and unchanged from the previous reading. if you strip out the effects of food and energy, expectations of a gain of 3.2% are in place, down slightly from the month of june. this is all year over year. the data will provide the latest piece of the fed's potential rate piece puzzle and questions around whether the bank will be behind the curve on positive easing rates. for more let's bring in vance. we saw the ppi reaction yesterday. business, wholesale-level inflation is certainly. coming down month over month and just a modest move year over

year. can we expect the same with the consumer prices that we all pay at the store? >> i think that we can. inflation is starting to drop. we're starting to see that, the markets feeling pretty good about it. you have to watch what fed chair jerome powell says, . we'll see if he's dovish or hawkish on some statements he says. the unemployment figure last month or a week and a half ago was very disturbing. he needs to be very careful. he's walking a tightrope on interest rates and he'll cut interest rates sooner than later. >> that growth slowdown leads to inflation slowdown. things are tempering there. does that now mean you feel more comfortable going back in the markets given the malaise we saw

in the last week and a half or so? >> that's a really interesting question. we wrote about this a week and a half ago, that we expected to get what we got when the market went straits down with a carry trade. no, we do not expect that. it stopped us with a few positions. i'm very bull usual on the market long term. i think by the end of the year, we can see 5700. on the near term, there's a lot of nervousness there. i think being a little bit patient and picking your positions carefully is a very prudent way to trade, especially for the next two, four, six weeks, especially until things calm down. >> how deep do you think a pullback could be at this point? do you feel like we could retest some of the lows we saw over the course of the past five to ten days? >> we're coming up and hitting resistance now. we've han four, five, six days

in a row. i think we'll get a pullback from here. yes, i do. that's what we're anticipating and planning on. i think we'll come down and retest the lows. i think there's a 75% possibility we will. i think we'll get a pullback, but i don't think we're going to get much lower. i think that's sort of low for the year. i think that carry trade washed things out and clearly took out the drop in the market. we're bullish, but in the next three to four weeks, it does get sloppy. >> if it gets sloppy, what are you buying? >> i think you buy strength. look at biotech. it held up very, very well in this nasty market that we had. i think eli lilly -- goodness gracious. that ozempic drug is printing money. at last report, they had 7 million to 8 million people using it, and they're expecting 35 to 40 million using it in the next three to five years.

regeneron held up very, very well. some of the biotechs are very interesting. they held up in a weak market. they held up strongly. >> advance howard at howard capital. thank you very much. we'll see you soon. ahead on "worldwide exchange," get ready. the presidential kaejtss set to flood the airwaves with a round of ads to help sway the undecided voters. 24's coming up. ♪♪ the enemy is always adapting... deepfake: hey handsome. ♪♪ [inner monologue] ...always iterating. ♪♪

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welcome back. it's been less than a month since kamala harris has replaced joe biden in the white house. be ready. ads are about to flood the markets from coast to coast. we're joining from washington, d.c., with just how much of an ad blitz we can expect. >> it's a big one, dom, good morning. the 2024 campaign is increasing on the airwaves. ad campaigns have been rising dramatically in the past three weeks. pennsylvania is getting most attention here. new figures show that since july 22nd -- that's the day after biden dropped out of this race -- each campaign and its affiliated super pacs have spent more than $25 million on advertising in pennsylvania alone. that's $51 million alone being spent in three weeks. that underscores for us just how much both campaigns see it as

their biggest prize. take a look. spending has been significant across battlegrounds. the second highest in michigan, where harris is outspending trump. the georgia spunld comes as trump is on the defensive there. he had a healthy lead against biden, but harris has made it much more competitive. these campaigns are so far using their ads differently. harris is using her ads to introduce herself and her bio, and he focus on her upbringing and work as a prosecutor. trump doesn't have to do that. one last point, to put these numbers in context. trump has birthday spending almost on nothing in ads in his first half and harris spent

little in the first week because she didn't have much. it's been increasing and is on track to grow or soar through the last few months of this race. dom? >> the battleground states are key and that's where a lot of the spending is taking place. how much can these ads influence those who are leaning just slightly one way or the other as 'p opposed to those who are in one camp or the other? >> the short answer when i spoke with a political scientist, he told me the research shows the most it can ever matter is half a point to a point in a certain state, but that matterses in these battleground states where the margins have been so narrow. it matters more now, i would say, than it did a month ago because ads seem to make more of a difference when candidates are less well known.

harris is less well known by a significant amount than biden was. she has more work to do to introduce herself. she's going to to stay on the airwaves through november so people get to know her. >> megan cassella with the latest on the ad blips. as we head to break, flutter jumps on second quarter results on the company fan duel. those results have been led by the strong growth in the u.s. business. the shares up 6.5% in the early market trade. if you happen to muss us, check us out on apple or spotify or your podcast choice. we'll be right back.

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all right. we're just coming up on 5:30 a.m. here in new york. there's a lot coming up. here's what's on deck. google facing more pressure from washington. one thing reportedly on the table is a possible breakup. we'll look at the possibilities. today's market focus will be squarely on inflation yet again and whether this morning's cpi number will bolster the case for the feds to start cutting the interest rates. former fed chair roger ferguson will weigh in. activist action. southwest is the target. shares are higher. it's wednesday, august 14th,

2024. you're watching "worldwide exchange" right here on cnbc. welcome back to "worldwide exchange." i'm dominic chu in for frank holland. let's pick up the half hour with the u.s. equity futures. they're somewhat mixed but modestly bid. the dow higher, the s&p higher and the tech-heavy trade roughly down by 11. that's the future side of things. investors will get the latest read with today's consumer price in index. that's the cpi report. first a check on the bond market. the benchmark 10-year yield, below the market. 3.85. the u.s. 2-year note yield, 3.9%, and the u.s. 30-year,

4.161%. shares of alphabet turning lower. the justice department is weighing a possible breakup of google. the apparent option comes after they found google has been monopolizing the search market. they want to force google to share its information with comp competitors. if the doj were to go the breakup route, it would mark the federal government's firsted by to try to dismantle a company over monopoly behavior since the unsuccessful attempt to break up microsoft roughly two decades ago. the ftc has asked a district court judge to use its power to break up its power relating to competition and payments inside of its google play store. it's a lot to break down.

let's bring in the head of intelligence at globaldata. cyrus, is this a concern? do we feel that government access by u.s. regulators, not even european ones, will have a long-term impact on alphabet? >> thanks, dom. i think it's worth mentions the two ironies. the first is that everyone, especially u.s. politicians expected the eu to break up big tech, not the u.s.'s department of justice. next is the timing. google has never faced so many thr threats. its ai service has changed the search. with co-pilot, you don't need a search engine at all. google is in the midst of a threat at the same time it's

being judged as a monopoly. >> this is a threat, but it's not as though they're not taking steps to remedy it. they're putting a lot of resources into a lort of artificial intelligence products including consumer-facing ones. google, co-pilot, meta's ai platform is doing a lot of this stuff as well. how does that fit in with alphabet's efforts when artificial intelligence is going to be the future anyway? >> i think on paper, google and alphabet are leaders in ai. the problem with google is it's a bit like a kodak moment in the sense that they are leaders in ai, but it's a threat to their core search business. so they don't know what to do. they're coming up with a business model and some of the other tech players like openai are runs rings around them. the course market is still strong, but that may not be the case in five years. the problem for the regulator, of course, is a massive problem.

the geopolitical environment is that the u.s. is in a tech war with china, and the u.s. needs tech champions. you can't be an ai champion if you're broken up. and specifically, you know, in terms of the reason google's strong in search is because it controls user data. it controls its own cloud platform and is very strong in ai. if you mess around with any of those things as regulator, you're going to reduce the tech leadership versus china. >> this is an important point. this is arguably the next battleground when it comes to dominance around the world. things will be developed because of artificial intelligence prowess, super computing pr prowess. it is a race between the u.s. and china specifically. how does that play out, and what do regulators -- what does this administration need to understand and a future administration about america's

competitive position in ai and super come pugt given what it's true iing to do with alphabet and maybe others? think regulat understand that u.s. needs to dominate. if you look at ma bell being broken up decades ago, it had little effect. it didn't really help consumers in the telecom market. the big talk is you spin off android or google search. android is the operating system. google is the engine. if you split them off, google's strength will be nullified. the real thing as we alluded to earlier is that google controls the entire search value chain

from controlling user data to controlling the cloud platform on which they process the search results to having ai, which makes everything much better and decision-making much better. and so breaking up those businesses, you know, could be considered. but if i was a regulator in the u.s., i wouldn't do that because that would erode google's ai power. there's a little talk. google actually on the back end of advertising, it owns lots of -- it owns most of the value chain within the digital advertising industry. so it plays as a buyer. it plays as an ad exchange and plays as an agent. spinning off one of those businesses could be an option, you know, to kind of make it less powerful in the back end where ads are traded. but there are other remedies, too, that don't involve a breakup because a breakup will always weaken google in the world, and the two big ones are

data transferabilities around users to control where the data is or allow users to choose their search engine. >> all right. it's a lot to unpack. a lot of hypotheticals. coming up on the show, rgontained vice chair roger feus sndg by, what the rate cut could mean next month. we're back in a moment. over time. th signit ( ♪♪ )

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ja welcome back. the first july cpi report is expected to show a gain of 3% from a year ago period. that's unchanged from the previous reading. today's cpi report kicks off a busy schedule y'all of key events for fed chair jerome powell and company ahead of their september 18th policy decision. questions about whether it will be a 25- or 50-basis point cut or maybe one if one even happens. that's a big deal. for more let's bring in roger ferguson, former fed vice chair and cnbc contributor. this is an interesting move in that it has to tackle the definitive nature of the economy

when there's still no definitive verdict where it's going. how difficult a decision will this be? >> i think you're right to say they're always making important decisions with a certain amount of uncertainty. they have said they wanted to have increased confidence and i think yesterday's ppi should give them some increased confidence as with others. i'm expecting the cpi to continue to show a cooling of inflation. that's what the market is expecting as well. >> the markets are pricing in that uncertainty, but now the conversation is pricing in could it be a quarter point, a half a point, what does it look like for the balance of the year? the markets could turn on a dime. do you think there the economy -- your intuition -- is a place where we want to cut interest rates? >> i think we definitely want to cut interest rates and should

cut interest rates. you know, there's ongoing evidence that the tightens of rates that have occurred has had a tightening look. the direction is clear. i think there's data that suggests things are slowing. last week there was confidence that ceos are confidence but much more cautious. and it shows for current conditions that things are pretty stretched, and so i think there's a great deal of data showing the economy is just enough to warrant cuts from these restrictive rates. >> there's almost as you point out this idea of certainty that the fed is going to cut interest ra rates at the next meeting. but ahead of that we have

there's just the staut of play with regard to global policy what can you expect to happen in jackson hole with respect to interest rate hooser in the u.s.? >> you're right on the jackson hole symposium. that would be a important place for jerome powell and his colleagues to correct the market expectation if they think that's worth doing. so i will be there listening to whether or not there's any suggestion that they're getting confidence the market currently expects. it would be wise for them if they think a rate cut is not in the cards to try to figure out some way to soften that market expectation to avoid the blow. the second point, and you talked about central banks around the world, i've noticed a number of central banks starting to talk about rate cuts. japan is the notaable exception.

i think there's the sense the global economy is moving away from inflationary pressures and the central banks are ready to remove the restrictions as much as possible with the fed in the lead, and jackson hole would be the one to correct it and is starting to firm up in markets as you point out. >> a complex picture for sure developing. roger ferguson, thank you u very much. we always appreciate your thoughts. >> coming up ahead on the show, the one word every investor needs to know today. plus a fresh proxy is taking flight. southwest airlines becomes the lawsuit latearst tget of an activist shakeup. those stories when we come back after this.

welcome back. activist manager elliot says it plans to nominate members to its 15-member board. shares are down 11% so far this year. secondly, starbucks had its biggest gain on record going all the way back to 1992 after the company disclosed it was going to replace its ceo with current chipotle ceo in a surprise move as it tries to turn around its business and ease pressure from activist investors including

elliot management. let's take a look at how this is taking place. we're joined by a cnbc contributor who joins us on the cnbc c newsline right now. ken, this is an activist renaissance that's going on right now. what do you make of it?% >> certainly with elliot, they've been very active late letter and other activists have beentiv been active in starbucks. the real activist has been howard schultz. i think there's no indication that they engaged in the company. they've been telling with mellody hobson and their style in activism certainly was talking about operation moves like this. but i think at starbucks at least was howard schultz from the beginning. >> what about southwest airlines

right now? that's the next chapter developing. how much success could elliot have on that front? >> you never underestimate elliott. they have tons of resources. they should definitely get board seats. the company's been severely underperforming. elliot has a very good point that the board and management needs more external airline experience, and i don't think 10 out of 15 is in the cards for them. i don't think they'll get a majority. but they should get a handful of board seats, and if they do go to a special meeting for this, it's because they know other shareholders feel the way they do. they would be going into this alone or without knowledge that they have a good chance of winning something. >> so this is the new development here. ken, in your experience, are there places elsewhere, industry groups, sectors, companies in particular that you think could be the next target for activist

investors? >> you know, the markets are pretty much down outside a handful of stocks. and in situations like that, it's harder for, you know, bad management and bad management plans to hide and it's easier to get support from other shareholders. so any company that's underperforming its peers that has been -- that's been underperforming the markets, the benchmarks, should be -- should be on notice. activism has really gotten a huge tailwind with these markets, and i don't know that there's anyone underperforming that's really safe. >> kenneth squire, thank you very much. coming up, our next guest says inflation shouldn't be the next tnghi. what you should be focusing on right now. we'll be right back after this.

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welcome back to "worldwide exchange." time for your w.e.x. wrap-up. the doj may seek to separate google's android browser and other elements. elliott targets southwest airlines and will nominate ten

directors. mars is looking to buy kellanova for roughly $30 million. japanese prime minister fumio kishida announcing he's stepping down next month following political scandals calling for him to resign. intel sells stakes in arm. they sold more than a million shares of arm worth more than $150 million. taking a look at how trading is shaping up, futures right now are relatively mixed with the dow implied by 21 points, the s&p by 2, and the nasdaq down by about 3 to 4 points. joining us now is kari firestone. she's also a cnbc contributor. this is a curious market but one being driven by a headline this morning on a mag 7 stock in alphabet. this is a stock that you own. what do you think? do you continue to own it? >> yes, we do continue to own

it. good to see you, dom. we've watched the justice department and other regulators come after not just alphabet but others of the mag 7. there's always been battle and there will always be controversy. that's the basis of what social media is, all types of digital communications. it's ubiquitous. it's regardless of location, certainly not geogrgeography. they're given a monopoly just because of networks that communicate worldwide. and that's a tough thing to prove from the part of the justice department that it was intentional. this was applied to them. so it's not nothing. of course it's a concern. it's not a reason we would say we want to hold the stock. it's trading at below market multiple. we believe there's growth from not just the search but all of

the other parts of the company. >> all right. that's a big part of the may crow story and the markets right now, company-specific ones. there's also a cpi print and everything else today. i wonder if you might take us through your word of the day and why you think it is. >> two words, but short. deja vu, but not to the paris olympics. we've done this before, waited for a cpi. here we are, a.m., 2 1/2 hours later, we've got through the process over and over, what is the print going to be. people have worried and panicked. this time we've already seen the ppi come in at a recently low level. that's probably going to be true for the cpi. if it isn't, the market might panic a little bit today if it's 0.3 or 0.1 or 0.2. i don't feel that's a problem because we're confident the fed is going to lower interest rates at least 25 basis points. the economy is slowing.

it needs to do that. it's brought down inflation from 9% to 3% roughly. that's the reason we can calm down and not again be so concerned that the focus should be entirely on cpi this time. >> given that slowdown that you see is taking hold right now and the need for cutting rates, how exactly then do you put portfolio money to work? what sectors are you most curious about? is it still big tech, or do we broaden out? >> i think it's important to think about areas other than technology, because these companies have had enormous moves over the last year, over many years. we own alphabet, meta, amazon, et cetera, and we like these stocks, but i think we can also look to other parts of the economy that perhaps are slightly more defensive, a little less cyclical, and have not participated as much. we recently bought abbott.

it's a kicker with sustainable energy. that's been a good stock. there's a company that does a lot of defense work. thermo fisher, health care, it's got a lot of interests and things we like. >> always good to get your thoughts. thank yos very much. squauks picks up the market coverage coming right now. good morning. inflation data in focus today. we're going to get you ready for the july consumer price index and the potential impact on the fed's next rate decision. meanwhile a new report saying the department of justice considering pushing to break up google on last week's monopoly ruling. we'll bring you details on that. last month, southwest's changes to its business model they were not enough to satisfy elliott management. they're not preparing a proxy slate of 10 board candidates.

it's wednesday, august 14th, 2024, and "squawk box" begins right now. good morning and welcome to "squawk box" right here on c nbc. we're live at the nasdaq times square along with melissa lee. becky and joe are off. u.s. equity futures at this hour, still got about 3 1/2 hours to go, but right now the dow would open up higher, about 13.5 points higher. the nasdaq down, by about 5.5 points. all of this coming after the gains from yesterday's session. the dow adding 409. the s&p 500 adding 1.7%. and the nasdaq gaining 2.4%. th