in america have done well with that. they're pension funds. >> there was a real moral compass there, too. he instilled a sense of giving back. the bain capital guys are the most philanthropic guys you will ever meet. >> fantastic, guys, happy father's day. good to be here. >> make sure you join us tomorrow. "squawk on the street" begins right now. good morning. welcome to "squawk on the street" on this thursday morning. we're here at the new york stock exchange. jim cramer has the day off. we want to look at u.s. futures as they're trying to shrug off jobless claims, ahead of a big week in terms of the fate of the european union. we are looking at a lower picture, i believe, getting the latest quote here -- actually up 25 here at this point.

s&p 500 spanish ten-year yield squarely in focus, higher by about half a percentage point, but pretty much red arrows across the board in europe. >> spanish yields hit 7% after two downgrades yesterday, more trouble in europe, credit suisse is told to race capital. >> meantime, more cuts in knock i don't, 10 thousands jobless cuts, in a little over a year with asset sales looming, and the stock under -- what's next? and one year since ron johnson was named head of j.c. penney, shares down 30% at that time. the top analyst will give us the report card. we're going to start with the european crisis. the yield hitting 7% for the first time. moody's investor service has cut its rating on spain, lowered it three notches just above junk

territory, the, greek bank stocks are actually up this morning, traders betting that pro-bailout parties are likely to win. there's still some that sprout up secretly, quote/unquote. >> yeah, that's been a noted topic this morning, an e-mail chatter, a couple conversations with people. who knows what's going on with greece. they'll go to such lengths to avoid the tax collector that we know there's all sorts of things happening there. perhaps there are, as you say, secret polls or maybe they don't. but we have noted that those stocks have been quite strong in greece, because this is the important event of the weekend and will set the tone action at the very least, for next week, and of course could have potentially very, very significant consequences for the european union if you vote goes the wrong way -- or the one way. >> look at what our market as

done this week. we have almost three days of triple-digit moms, but robert humm back at hq, volume has not kept pace with the volatility. >> and the lesson may be that people gist don't know how this weekend is going to turn out. >> theres no way of knowing. what's interesting in greece there are more and more reports. we environment have ahead a lot about withdrawals from greek banks, and in "new york times" today, they cited a couple sources saying about $734 million a day. that's a lot of money, being pulled out. >> why anybody would have their money in a greek bank at this point if you're a greek citizen, where there are other opportunities and places to keep it is beyond me. corporations are sweeping their bank accounts, not just in greece, but in other countries as well. why take the risk? it doesn't seem worth it.

that, of course, is a key issue that we are very focused on, the withdrawal of deposits, which goes hand in hand with the idea that if you want to stem this crisis, you need a deposit guarantee. you probably also need euro bonds, and here we are having the same conversation that we've been having for the last two years. >> there continue to be the reports, "the telegraph" in london about merkel and what happens to be some comments that would support a redemption fund and you hear from her herself, and she says no. we'll hear her lay her party line down, but you mentioned consumers and retail withdrawals, a story in the f.t. yesterday which i read, which talked about business owners trying to decide, do i liquidate my business this week or not. if we're going to the drachma, you would want to get into liquidity fast. >> yes. we don't understand the full ramifications, but we know it

probably would be bad and probably devastating for greek citizens who are already going such a difficult time. if they would vote in favor of withdrawing, it would be because austerity has been so hard for them already, yet on the other side of the debate, saying you can't man what worse it will get. >> well, let's get more on the european crisis and the greek elections which are just three days away. let's go to michelle caruso-cabrera on the ground. >> you guys have done a great job of framing the discussion and the debate. i don't think it's -- as we see what the greek voters decide. let me give you insight into those secret polls. it is illegal to publish the results of polls in a certain time period before the elections, but polling is getting done by both parties. we have spoken with both parties. they tell us both of them that the two parties are neck and

neck. there has been some momentum towards the pro-bailout party, however it's not with a margin of certainty, and 15% of greek voters are undecided. i think it's safe to say going into sunday this is neck and neck. greek bank stocks in the greek stock market is soaring is because of those rumors about those secret polls. guys, they're not secret in greece, everybody knows about them t. everybody talks about them, you just can't publish them in the paper, which makes it a silly law, but we'll put that aside. the market is rallying sharply. it's we're so pleased and privileged to be the chairman of the stock exchange right with us on this bail coin socrates laseretes is here with us. he's told us he's not going to

endorse either party, but can you tell us how important this election is in. >> very important if you can imagine the greek people are suffering with two years with ought sister measures. they want a clear pathway for the -- the country is not very -- >> do you think the greek people see this as a vote to stay in the euro or not? >> no, i clearly believe that the greek people as previous polls are saying, more than 75% are believing that we have to stay in euro. so the issue is to, let's say, follow a clear pathway for rebounding the economic situation in greece. >> reporter: we have jokingly said on the air, you won't find this funny, but we want, wow, can the athens stock market go to zero? is that possible? it's gotten so punished over the

last couple years. >> yes, you are right, the price of the stock exchange has been close for the last two years, very hardly. this of course is creating investment opportunities in the market, and you are seeing the reaction that we have in days where a clear resolution is seen for the future. >> like a good salesman. do you think that anybody's really going to invest in greece until there's some clarity about whether or not you're staying in the euro? >> what i know very well is the figures we are announcing and publishing, that are saying that 53% of our market capitalization is owned by foreign investors. this is sustainable the last two years. that means that nobody is battling the market, and because, as you have mentioned,

a -- companies that are facing 50 or 80% reduction on the prices, they are given some signals of investment opportunities. >> mr. laziridis, thank you for joining us ahead of this key weekend. melissa, back to you. >> thank you, michelle caruso-cabrera on the ground for us in athens this morning. nokia announcing it will cut another 1,000 jobs as it continuing to restructure. it's also warning that a second quarter loss will be wider than previously expected. since steven elop took over in 2010 as a ceo, the job cuts are now totalling more than 40,000. that's a lot. 10,000 right now is 1 out of every 5 jobs at nokia. these are very deep cuts, on top of a lot of announced asset sale, to raise some money, but for how much longer? >> trying to reduce their

operating expenses by another billion, this already after they've already gone $700 million lower in terms of that, clearly trying to bring operating expenses in line with where revenues have been going. we know the story, of course, it starts with "a" for apple. >> we were talking about this before the show this morning. it is kind of sad to watch. whether it's their own fault or just the power of the rivals, to watch them, to what bernstein calls essentially a niche player. >> and what's left? >> their target is 2 euros for the stock in europe. all right where it is set to open, at least in the u.s. session, it looks like this would be a fresh 52-week low, probably an all-time low, so it's a staggering decline to watch. also keep in mind it's fascinating to think what the market cap is right now. just in 2007, doumpl navtec?

they bought that company for more than $8 billion and now they're just a $10 billion country, and as david has mentioned, the iphone has taken off in popularity and usage not only across consumers, but also enterprises. >> and you have cramer today on twitter saying rimm is a few months behind nokia. that's all he said. i wish he we are here to flesh it out. here it is -- r.i.m. is a few quarters behind nok. i6789s some speculate eventually that will end with an acquisition of r.i.m. in some fashion, and nokia we should mention as well replacing a lot of senior managers, maybe a bit late, so kind of a wholesale replacement, not at the ceo level, but not far below that.

the executives have been -- where it has left market share. hard to believe that one year that -- was named -- shares of jp penney d. announced a slump in sales and suspended its dividend. it's been talked about largely as an example of how now to over-promise and underdeliver, part of this he probably came in with the halo effect of apple, but they laid it out in ways that maybe potential left room for disappointment. >> the largest single shareholder, bill ackman would say this is too early to judge. this is the one-year anniversary of the announcement, but he did not take over until last fall. >> that's true, but in terms of the halo effect --

>> it can happen prior, and it did, but remember this stock really started running. you would mention all the time it's multiple versus its peers, which is much higher. that's corrected a bit, though unfortunately so has the "e" in the p.e., because it's been coming down sharply since the last quarter. >> just the stock performance. macy's shares over the same period are up 25%, 26% here while j.c. penney shares have slumped. a lot of people saying j.c. penney handing over market share to the likes of a macy's which has a high overlap, so macy's using that as an opportunity to grab for j.c. penney. can they correct the pricing plan? >> which they have tried to back away from. >> completely confusing. what the heck is going on here? >> there's also the issue of trying to match your promotion,

new ad campaigns with ellen degeneris, matching that with the experience that the consumers actually see, and that's been another criticism. what they saw on television is not what they saw when el they went in the door. another fascinating tale to watch. the jury in the insider trading case of raj gupta is expected to begin deliberations this morning. bertha coombs is in lower manhattan with the latest. bertha? >> reporter: hey, melissa, after listens to testimony for four years this morning, the judge is instructing the jury on what they should deliberate on. the key here will be how he defines insider trading and what is a benefit in this case where there's no allegations that there's any actual cash changed hand. as he entered the courthouse, saying he felt fine, when asked how he was feeling. unlike most of the cases in the long-running wall street insider

trading case that resulted in the conviction of raj most of this case is on phone patterns. perioding to the $5 billion investment by warren buffett in goldman sachs, the evidence against the former goldman sachs member is devastating, and they say it points to a pattern where he continued to tip raj rnot on could you hear raj gupta tipping -- another badge of innocence, he says, is he never

made money. a lot of those urgent calls were allegedly because he had been cheated. carl, this morning the jury is expected to begin deliberation within a few minutes, the eight men and four women will be five counts of securities fraud, one count of conspiracy. if convicted he faces up to 25 years in federal prison. back to you. >> looking forward to talking to you more this morning. as we just mentioned ron johnson has his work cut out for him. we're going to ask an analyst how much time invest arors could give him to turn things around. greece much higher today. futures here a little more tepid. a lot more "squawk on the street" in just a moment. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 we're hitting new highs. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 the spx is on my radar. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and i'm on top of it all with charles schwab.

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has been too has been too companiesie with rupert murdoch. kayla tausche is back at hq, with the story. >> it is cameron himself who nearly a year ago called on esteemed lawyers in the uk to do an independent deep dive into

media behavior. the eight months of interrogation have revealed decisive details and in his testimony, cam rho says such cozyness has been a problem for decades. in the last 20 years i think the relationship has not been right. i think it has been too close as i explain in my evidence, and i think we need it on a better footing. i don't think the regulatory system we have at the moment works, so we need to improve it. >> the issue today is cameron's own relationship with the mural talks, including several intimate dinners during times of intense regulatory scrutiny about the takeover of one of britain's biggest broadcasters. >> i wanted to win over newspapers and other journalists, editors, i worked very hard at that, because i wanted to communicate what the conservative party and my leadership could bring to the

country. i made those arguments, but i didn't do it on the basis of saying action you know, either over or coveredly, your support will mean i will give you a better time on this policy or that policy. >> reporter: that claim comes a day after a big rift between cameron's party and one closely allied with them, sparring over whether the culture secretary reviewing the aforementioned deal was off the hook or should be. >> a bevy of -- we've seen several inquiries melissa into this activity, but only one conclusive report. so we expect a lot still to come. >> kayla, thanks so much. meantime, coming up, how much would you pay for a fully functioning computer that's more than 30 years old. we'll have the story beindependence had the vintage apple computer being auctioned off. jobless claims and a big weekend in greece, right here at the open.

more "squawk on the street" is straight ahead.

♪ as we mentioned, nokia's not doing so well. shares are down sharply in the premarket. it's announced 10,000 job cuts to come. that brings us to this morning's squawk on the tweet. we're asking you to put on your creative marketing cap and tell us what is the real definition of nokia? tweet us, we'll air your responses throughout the morning. should be some interesting

answers. >> we tried to do this online and look up the meaning of the work nokia, but it's not very clear. it's very obscure in finnish. >> maybe that's appropriate at this point. a few minutes before the bell here, art cashin joins us here at post 9. art, good morning. >> good morning. >> you have most of your notes by saying stay very nimble. sz the spanish bailout has bakley opened the door to renegotiate all of the bailouts in europe, and so whichever party gets in, it will probably be easy to form a collision. david and i would like to take credit for easing the burden on

the people, with whoever negotiates -- it will strengthen holland's hand. he's going to try to eliminate the sarkozy reforms. the germans are not happy with that. lost way, way in the back are the ejepgs elections. that could change the face of the middle east. so this is a good weekend to have lots of ice cubes on hand. dodds the market -- i think it doesn't come quite that way, it will be easy to form a collision. i think all the parties realize they can renegotiate something that will be lesson russ. therefore, they will take credit for it. before this, it had looked like tough sledding, you wouldn't want to form a coalition, now you would, so you say we did it, and would you like to reelect

uss again. >> it will be interesting to watch. >> it will be very interesting to watch. then you have the fomc right behind it. >> a very busy week next week. >> thanks. opening bell just a few moments ago. moments away. [ male announcer ] if you believe the mayan calendar,

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there's the opening bell. as we inch closer and closer to this weekend's elections in greece and france and egypt. a look at the big board there at the top of your screen is the s&p 500, and down here, logistics, a provider in freight services. also at the nasdaq, the finish line, retailer of athletic shoes and apparel. taking a look just quickly at the markets, financials here in the united states looking high, though credit suisse right out of the gate with a 52-week low, the swish national bank

saying that it needs to -- or issues new shares, obviously suspending a different bad for shareholders, because that's dilutive. they say to absorb we are seeing a sharp lower for shares of credit sweet. it is down just slightly, though. not as stern a warning to ubs. a big proxy fight between the company and one of their large investors. the company seems to have won in this case. it's been said on twitter and the wires that tim armstrong has vang wished one of his biggest adversaries, so we'll keep an eye on aol. julia boorstin, by the way, will talk to armstrong at 11:45 a.m. eastern. >> which, by the way, like a lot of shareholders has still benefited because of that big sale of intellectual property.

you may recall the stock took a big jump, but they had been trying to get aol to shut down its patch service. >> another some of the metrics have come back a bit. >> that was in support of the board, which again looks like aol, all of their nominees have won, but their argument is that it's starting to gain traction, but they spend a lot of money on it and there are other shareholders as well, to return that capital to shareholders themselves, about you it appears that armstrong at least got a vote of confidence. best buy is an interesting story, interesting call which seems to good against the herd. citigroup, the price target moving to $21 a share. citi say it's near -- and because of that, it is elementing the downside risk to this stock. they say tv price declines are in fact flattening, there are plenty of risks out there, but the up side looks better than the down side. at this point shares are higher

than 2.5%. pier one, interesting 16 cents didn't meet the estimate, but raising their outlook, they now see 1.08 to 1.14, and saying that more and more consumers appear to have the ability to pay full price for goods, which you don't hear a lot about, but pier 1 is one those names. i like a bed bath and be yond that's benefiting from pent-up demand. >> and retailers have been keeping inventories low, so while the same- -- while some of the metrics may not look quite as good, people say keep an eye on that inventory to sales ratio, which is quite strong. quest software, if we can, not much going on in mergers and acquisitions land, but this is an instant where it's been acted on. they did get a 25.50 all-cash offer from what they're calling

a strategic buyer, that topping a $2 offer. interesting here, the all-cash offer not going to help the founder or ceo. he owns 33%. he want add nontaxable deal, which would include getting stock from any acquirer. they were behind that $23 a share offer. but, again quest software, we don't know the strategic buyer at this point. there was some conjecture that dell might be interested, but again, that stock is higher, in fact trading above the current bid price, perhaps on hopes -- that they have said is superior to what existed previously. all right. just quickly on smithfield, miss for the fourth quarter, higher costs there, lower pig prices, and that's all weighing. interesting data point in the food sector here. that stock is down by almost 5% at this hour. let's check on bob pisani, here

on the stoke floor exchange. >> and we're up, did you notice futures began rallies almost immediately after the disappointing initial jobless claims numbers? and the revision for the prior week was moved up a bit as well. this is what i call rallying for all the wrong reasons. you know what i'm talking about, folks, because there's speculation qe-3 is coming, if not qe-3, an extension of "operation twist" next week. this is the bad news is good news story. it makes trading extremely difficult, but that's what we're getting this morning here. the important thing is what was going on here on the qe-3 speculation, it's been getting louder all throughout the week. that's one of the things that's been prop our markets up. a story on greece is very simple. generally the feeling is no matter who wins, the troika will lose. what they're going to do is give them more money as part of the concessions, no matter who wins.

they're going to roll back the reforms, they're going to extend the terms, reforms, economy, the layoff that we stalked about under the old austerity package, forget it, they're going to extend all of that. just at a time when theoretically greece does need to address these issues, they're going to give them easier terms. that's why the greek banks are rallies, but bottom line is, where are the reforms? by the way, this whole thing is being complicated by the fact we're getting a quadruple sxirtation on friday, but these rollovers aren't cover the greek elections on sunday, so there's a lot of activity in option-land to try to protect themselves. a lot of people, in that of rolling over into the next quarter are rolling over into options that expire at the end of this monday so it's very, very busy.

finally i've been asked a lot about credit suisse and ubs. ubs is not down much. that's because it's in a lot better shape. credit suisse will likely have very hef have dilutive raising of shares. they're in a lot worse shape. that's why they're down a lot. guys, back to you. >> thank very much, bon. wants to switch to bonds and the dollar. we'll check in with rick santelli. good morning, rick. >> hi, carl. i think this morning's data points are obviously fascinating, we're going to show some bar charts. whether you're looking at the 386,000, which of course may be under 400, but not close enough for 350, but the market didn't pay a huge amount of attention, the kurt account balance, the trade balance at $137 billion minus, worst since '08, but the data points aren't really the issue. bob nailed the issue, but you'll have to go to retraining, bob,

to say the stock market is rallying for all wrong reasons is dissing the point that -- and that of course is, you know, low interest rates to bolster ecity prices, if we're to see a chart of 30-year bonds, yesterday at an auction, by the way, today is the 30-year, we had the lowest auction ever on record. but obviously the problem is that these interest rates aren't low enough and jobless claims are too high. on the $13 billion reopen 30s today we'll be looking to see which side of 270 it starts to move. until 270, you can see a bit of short covering. back to you, melissa. >> let's check out the latest moves. sharon epperson at the nymex, crude seems to be hemmed in. >> we are still trading at eight-month lows here and waiting for a decision from the opec members.

we already know so far, from at least three of the oil ministers from iran, from kuwait, from nigeria, they want to keep the current output target as is, but we know that opecs is currently producing much more than that, closer to 32 million barrels a day, so we will see whether we see production levels kept as they are. we're continuing to watch, though, what is coming up. that is what traders say will determine the next price move. that of course is what we've been talking about on the show, it is greek elections, but also for the oil market, it's going to be important to see what happens on moscow on monday and tuesday with the talks about iran's nuclear program. so that is what traders are watching. they're also waiting for the fomc meeting on wednesday. all those factors will play into the direction of gold as well. we've seen it seesaw quite a bit. we're currently slightly lower, but traders are looking at if we

continue to see some support in the gold market, the next level would be 1640 on the up side. back to you, david. >> thanks very much, sharon epperson. one name that we haven't mentioned and used to quite often, we talk about j.c. penney, the year anniversary of at least the announcement of ron johnson coming on. take a look at netflix. they had seen a rally in the early part of the year, you can see what's happened since. you go back about a year, you were talking about a stock over $300 a share, but those are right near new lows. it's fallen to below $4 billion. it's add to do a lot of value that create content. hey, you know what? we want you to buy "the good wife". >> or "matlock." that's available. >> they can say, here you go, here's your check.

advisory, the question is ned flicks content contest, at a rapid enough rate, can they keep doing it? but that stock has given up all the gains and more, on the very strong first quarter. >> interesting. meantime viacom has issues, the ratings of dora the explorer. >> felipe duped was on "squawk box" earlier, talking a bit about that. >> nickelodeon, and just needing to refresh content and what they need to do there. that stock has been hanging in there. they have their own pretty good deal. all those deals helping a lot in terms of the content side. you know, it's nice to come into a quarter and think, okay, we've got to -- let's create more if we need to. >> sure. >> you're netflix, write ugh a check. ron johnson would like a deal like that, too. he was named ceo of j.c. penney about a year ago today. he's off to a rough start. will his game plan boost shareholder value?

don't forget to tweet us. our question of the day nokia announcing thousands of job cuts. we're asking you, what is the real definition of nokia? what does it mean? tweet us. we'll get your responses later on this morning. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 let's talk about how some companies like to get between ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 you and your money. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 at charles schwab, we believe your money should be available ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 to you whenever and wherever you want. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 which is why we rebate every atm fee worldwide. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 and why our mobile app lets you transfer funds, ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 execute trades, even deposit checks just by ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 taking a picture, right from your phone. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 so talk to chuck and put those barriers behind you. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550

a year ago today ron johns unwas announced as the new ceo of j.c. penney. down 26% since johnen took over as ceo on november 1st. we spoke with johnson back in january. >> we're going to get a little better month by month. pretty soon the momentum will kick in and we hopefully will become america's fave store, but like at apple it won't happen overnight. >> just how low will it go. debra wineswig joins us on the phone this morning. it's always great to speak with

you, deb. we do want to give johnson some time, but they are losing -- are we reaching a point where they're in danger of never getting that share back, so the turnaround story could actually be in jeopardy? >> i think what we want to watch is what happens in august, where 44% of their product is new. they have really tweaked their marketing, so i think august is where we start to write the report cards. i think we have to wait until then. >> until august. are you getting decent clarity on the pricing strategy, which has caused so much confusion out there among consumers? even with new inventory if -- they might not go into the stores. >> i think, you know, we had actually done our own consumer survey back in march and it said that two thirds of the consumers were, as you said, confused about the pricing survey. i think they were confused about the pricing and the survey said they were starting to lose consumers to other retailers. i think they have put forth an aggressive effort.

they had this thing called best fridays, and they moved that to the big deal to get the sense of urgency into their stores, i think they put forth a big effort to try to clarify the strategy, and what i like about ron johnson, if it doesn't work, he's willing to change it. the stock also shows that, deborah, are there better places to put your money, even on a valuation basis than j.c. penney? >> you know, i think that obviously j.c. penney is for us one of the stocks we like longer term. i think the thing is at this point in the game, if they do anything right, the stock will work. macy's certainly has gained, you would have thought that kohl's would have, but they have their own issues at this point.

i think there are big bock retailers that have been winners. >> deb, how long until the different comes back, do you think? what's the bar to reinstate that? >> i actually think, you know, when you talk about commune indication, i think that ron looks at this company as, you know, he must have said it five times, probably more, at the most recent earnings meeting, which was, you know, it's start-up. he's looking at this as almost a new company and start-ups don't pay dividends. it's not that at the don't have the cash flow. i think it was misinterpreted and probably could have explain it better. it's not really a cash issue, but they're looking at this as a new company, so i think they could have explained it better. i think investors do require dividen

dividends. >> some headlines tend to stick out. when you say your turnaround is 29% of the way through, you're going to catch some flack, right? you'll get some ribbing. any idea why he threw that out there? do you think it was a mistake? >> i think it was. i actually don't this is it was a mistake. it was like we're about one third through what we set out to do, kind of stick with us. we've done a lot of great stuff, but there's still great stuff to do. if you look at it from the product mix, home is where they have done a lot of the heavy lifting on the merchandise side, but they still have a ton to do in men's and women's, kids, accessories, so it will take a while. one of the reasons i do believe in this company and stock from bakley, you know, from my head to my toes is it needs to work in order for, you know, basically bring and more tar research to work.

>> from your head to your toes, great endorsement. always great to speak with you. thanks for your time. >> thank you. i haven't heard that before. >> head to my toes. >> by it does shine light on the thinking we're starting from scratch. we're going to start it all anew. >> turnarounds take time. >> they do. >> the question is how long will investors give him? he has two big investors that more or less have a big say. >> but again to the valuation, if you're paying a forward p.e. on macy's of 10, and forward p.e. of 17, there are a lot of expectations. where a stock like a macy's or another stock, you're paying for performance, not on a hope and a prayer. fwloo don't forget to tweet us, nokia announcing thousands of job cuts. so we're asking, what is the true meaning of the word

"nokia"? we're not interested in what wikipedia says, put on your creative cap and tell us what you think the word means. the bigger decliners on the s&p 500, stay tuned.

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simon hobbs is coming up with a look at what's on the next hour on "squawk on the street." >> we're going to do real big themes. we're going to take you to the cutting edge of social media, a guy who sold his last business for $100 million, now working with facebook. the ceo of branch. goldman sachs, and also a mini-cnbc sum mutt to sort out the euros. all those big themes by 11:00 eastern. time for the stocks to watch. costco is buying 50% of cost on ko members i don't that it doesn't already own. regions finnell upgraded.

citing a housing recovery in the southeastern part of the united states. adobe systems trading lower after being downgraded jeffries questioning some of the demand for the creative software solutions. "squawk on the tweet" nokia is looking more like r.i.m. today. we're asking what is the real meaning of is the word "nokia". >> acronym, not operational, killed in action. >> a walkman of the cell phone and clayton tweets, nokia. that is tough. >> that's rough, man. >> about as rough as the 16% decline, which continues to acceleration.

rimm shares also down about 5%. you think back wouldn't that have been an easy trade, the kind of generational -- >> hindsight is -- >> yeah, you never know. there's a look at rimm as well. close to new lows i want a lot of the sentiment probably got solidified by apple's conference, and the degree to which the raise is now between an apple and google, things in large part of really not relevant to a nokia or a r.i.m. phone, right? the lack of a p.m. ps is the problem. >> you think of the dominance they have in the 1990s, and how it was so far ahead. i'm sure they'll by studying it for many years to come, because it's a great one in terms of not taking on the next challenge and figuring out what your customers want. steve jobs was good at that. >> he was, as henry ford said,

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welcome back to "squawk on the street." let's get to the road map for the next hour. we're up 70 points as we head into the weekend's greek elections. we'll take a pulse on the market from the u.s. to the euro zone with a five-star fund manager. the ceo of networking site brandout joins us. the china gdp could come in below 7. we're joined to laid -- could we be saved by the lower price of oil? as the price of crude hovers near, of course, eight-month lows. let's go live to kelly evans. good afternoon, kelly. hey, simon,ali naimi had a smile

on his face and seemed in good spirits walking into the building behind me just a short while ago. this amid reports that the saudis and iranians have reached a deal with regard to the current ceiling, keeping it roughly at where we are at 30 minute yos barrels a day. production has been higher than that level, a ceiling would give cover for the minister to rein in production without having to change their official position. if this is true and this is happened and naimi and the iranians have reached a deal it could help the meeting to wrap sooner than expected, means we won't be here by tomorrow. we're told by opec sources that it seems likely the meeting will wrap today. the first hour is the session with other people involved is likely just finished. now the second hour is getting under way. 5:00 local time is probably the soonest we'll have a decision.

but keep in mind that doesn't -- it could mean essentially no decision is taken. and i want to just play you, to get a sense of what it's lying, a bit of the tape we have from our conversation with naimi just a few minutes ago. you seem to be in a good mood. >> yes, very good mood, but i am not making any comments. >> why are you in such a good mood? >> the weather is great. >> reporter: yeah, the weather is great. that's what he says, but smiles and contrasts to some of the frowns and bit pour tense atmosphere we saw yesterday. last june it seemed there was similarly a deal struck, as we know, that meeting ended in quite fractureius behavior. naimi himself stormed out of the meetings, and it appears the nigerians are quite hawkish, and

were among the reasons for that. we can't yet say everything will be okay. we won't know until the press conference later today, again the soonest we'll have that decision within about an hour's time. >> kelly was on "squawk box" this morning, and basically there was a deal made to keep the price of oil down for the election and for other reasons. is that essentially where we are? is naimi stacked up against everyone else? >> reporter: it's interesting, i don't know what special info donald trump has, but i can tell you, it's the saudis versus everyone else, to some degree. the saudis are the biggest member, they have the most political influence, but they have the most output. if they want to output more, what the saudis tell you is a lower oil price would be good

for the global economy, they think other members can handle that, and maybe they're just taking a longer view here. >> in the meantime you are a force to be reckoned with when doorstepping needs to be down. the saudi oil minister just didn't stand a chance. >> they cower. >> reporter: no. he didn't, but you know, that's what you've got to do. you have to sharpen the elbows. you should have seen the scrum upstairs a bit. a bit of a change from london. >> enjoy austria. thank you, kelly live from vienna. no business surprise it seems to have the french and the german at odds. steve liesman's got this story. >> hey, melissa, thanks very much. for the past week there has been talk about a eurowide plan, tim geithner giving it a sense of reality with an interview with andrea mitchell. >> fourth major escalation, not

just in the crisis but in their response. this is different from the way it's felt before, in the sense that they're not minimizing the risks, and they're not telling us they feel they are a whole bunch of time to way. >> there is no sense a plan has been agreed to, but there are efforts centered around three key parts. let's go through them. commitment to banks, and supporting rates for countries undertaking reform. geithner and others say that countries can't undertake reform if interest rates are too high. a slight or modest shift towards growth. that means perhaps extending austerity plans, not cancelling them out. the big area of contention is use of the esm in europe, their bailout fund, to recapitalize the banks. the french want this to happen, according to this morning's "financial times." the germans have indicated their opposition without a treaty change, because it would be taking on added liabilities for

the germans. the ecb could become a regulator for the biggest banks, with the question on whether or not the emsm is big enough. some of this will be discussed, though expectations are being played down. but more likely it's a matter for the european council meeting on june 28th. a lot depends on what happens in greece over the weekend to the urgency of getting anything done. you and i both know this chatter obvious leads to much less than is inside the chatter, but you have to pay attention, as geithner says the europeans have been through this and they come up with something eventually. >> you think back to the past three or four communiques, they have been basically empty. the odds would say sthrlt there would be something of substance out of the mexico. >> i'm not banking on mexico. i think there would be a trying to do the bare minimum that the market expects, i would not be

looking for any major breakthroughs out of it, ball in part, if you remember, carl, the american attitude is the europeans have to gather their financial resources to solve their own problem. if the world steps up or the u.s. were to step up to help europe financially, they would look weaker. that's one of the reasons why -- what geithner seemed to be pointing to is that look to europe and the europeans meetings for these big announcements. >> steve, i'm fascinated by what you're saying, but i'm not quite sure where it takes us. inevitably if we have two big summits, two big eu summits, there will be a lot of suggestion around. if you've got a g-20 meeting on monday, there would be a lot of suggestion around, but i'm not quite sure what you're pinning us to. angela merkel again has said in the last 24 hours there would be no grand deal coming through in the next two weeks. >> simon, i'm going to throw

this back at you and tell you, you know as well as i do that almost every major decision out of the europe over the past several years has been taken on the floor what were initial german objection. yeah, the germans may be out there opposing certain things, but ultimately they have allowed most of the -- though less than. >> no doubt something has to be done. no doubt the markets can move very fast. the question is, can the politics get what's done or something done in time? i really don't know that we have the answer to that. >> i'm just saying what's being talked about here, simon, the use of the esm for europeanwide recapitalization, and this chatter about the ecb being a big regulator and the idea of quote/unquote extending or delaying all sister measures. >> man, there's a lot for investors to handle right now. thank you, steve. stocks, of course up 81 points on some very disparate

headlines. how should investors tackle this is markets? joining us is george young. he joins us from new orleans. good morning to you. >> good morning. how are you doing? >> i'm good. i know you think the market is cheap, it's not a place to gab up but to invest, geffen what we're handed this week, is there any directional trade ahead of the events in europe this weekend? >> sure. three stocks we think are very important. we're not really worried about what happens in europe. so specifically if you want a good stock, you want to buy something like flour, bread, bakers, names you know, sunbeam, nature zone. it's going to grow 10% per year through acquisitions and good management. we think that's a great stock. >> you like pool corp, which make swimming pool supplies, you think the average pool in this country needs to be replastered every seven years, and 3-d

systems, a play on 3-d printing, but overall, your world view in terms of equities and how next week may or may not be different? >> sunday is a big event, but there's news today that credit agri-comay just walk away. you have comments from germany saying the problem is it's like a patient where blood is not circulating through. this is acute distress. so again in our portfolios, we still to domestic trades. we're also concerned about inflation. remember, right now the ten-year government bond is yielding 1.6%, if that boddees moving up to 2%, that means the value of your bond goes down 4%. this is a bank of zimbabwe, $100 million note. you can have problems with

inflation, but long term, we think the economic here is great. it's very different than in europe. >> in terms of the three picks you brought along, do you find they don't have much correlation to the markets, or what sort of time horizon are you citing on these particular stocks? are you actually is it epg into the market and adding to your positions? >> yes, we are. 3-d is a great example. if you can imaginage item, you can design it and build it. it's 3-2 printing, you can use it in prosthetics, in dental krounds, in hearing aid devices. all these things than small about have been to be fashioned. it can grown at 25% per year. it's got inown economy, its own needs that are out there. so it's a k350e that we think is fantastic, it can deliver good returns for investors over a long period of time. >> george, you mentioned of course the risk in the bond

market, yet we continue to see outflowing and inflowing to bond funds. what will changes that dynamic, and does it concern you? >> sure. there's always a concern about everything. there's no safe haven for capital or capitalists, you have to remember that, but long therm, think about the difference the s&p yields 2.1%, so a better yield right there, and after taxes, remember the taxes will be about 28% tax on dividends of 15%. >> but, george, just because the yield is so low doesn't mean to say you automatically get pushed back into equities. there's a lot of other places you can go, and people make money in the bond market from the precious and the value of those bonds. what scares me is not the fact that you hold up a zimbabwe note, because i think deflation is potential a big problem, what really scares me a man of your caliber is picking up a supply of swimming pools or a baker or

a 3-d printer, hand that's the best investment you can find, not the mcdonald's or the ciscos or the huge businesses that stampede across the world that you've gotten so micro and so isolationist. >> i think that's the way to go. think about a pool, a pool you can't let it go black. it needs to be replastered every seven years. this is something that has to be done. you don't see people filling in pools very often. you can see isolationists, but this is bigger than the 20 other competitors put together. this is a huge company. it's one that people don't know. just because you don't know about a company didn't necessarily mean it's a bad company. they have no debt. compare that to the horrors we see in europe. you don't see that with pool or 3-d or flours. people have to eat bread or replaster their pools. investments can make money over a long period of time. >> eating and plasters --

>> eating and swimming u. you've got to do it. >> talking about the bare necessities. george, appreciate your time. thank you so much. george young joining us from new orleans. >> i eat bread and plaster my pool all the time. in all seriousness, in terms of that trend, spokes had a study out yesterday, taking a look a pair of companies that operate in the same exact industry that are more domestically oriented. one example is jack-in-the-box, 100% of revenues in the united states, for the second quarter the stock is up 6.6%. mcdonald's has 32% of the revenues in the united states and for the second quarter the stock is down 11%. they had this in a number of industries. it is a stark contrast. >> surely we are kidding ourselves and the viewer if we think europe implodes that these stocks are going to be safe. >> they may be hurt less and may therefore be safer. >> people who are watching do

not have been to be fully invested. >> nobody is say that, but if you choose to be invested, this is one way to think about it. >> growth is slowing in the united states, we're talking about the possibility that the fomc could embark on on the round the quantity tiff easing. >> and we've seen stocks respond to the up side. >> temporarily. >> no, not temporarily. >> what happened to the bounce in the first quarter? completely erased, more or less. that was on qe. >> aggregate since the last ltro, up 29%. >> okay. all right, coming up next. >> just saying. talking to a key member, the ceo of brandout joins us next to talk about his efforts to take on link ee eelinkedin. stay tuned. and its tools like... tdd# 1-800-345-2550 screener plus - i can custom build my own screens

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>> since going since going public, facebook has zeroed in on driving traffic to its ads. it's generated attention for raising a total of $49 million in venture capital. brandout cofounder joins es for an exclusive cnbc interview. great to have you with us. job networking for the millennials. i don't even know anybody in my generation to uses linkedin. >> i'm on it.

>> do you use it? >> i like to network, i like to know people as i'm sure david does. >> i like to know people, that is true. >> it took linked in 5 1/2 years to hit that mark and us about a year and a half. so clearly people do want to do -- >> and this is only an app. so in terms of where it's used, does it matter in terms of its own versatility? >> no, not at all. they can use it on a deckstop, or mobile. >> mobile has been a big push for us. we've seen it go from 0 to about a third of our traffic in less than three months. >> in terms of your profitability, does it matter in terms of how much you make,

where they access brandout? >> no, it doesn't. facebook has credits, and that really applies to social gaming companies. so for branchout as a utility, it doesn't affect us. we have two revenue streams. companies pay to be able to post jobs. the other is a subscription model. we call that recruiter connect on brandout. that's geared for advanced features for recruiters. >> you sold yus last business for $100 million, but you'll be aware that there have been some negative articles suggesting that your monthly average user has plunged and there's an issue that once people start using your app, you contact all of their friends on facebook, whether they like it or not, and perhaps it's a bit antisocial. how would you deal with those negative comments? >> the user has total control.

you'll have criticing. for me we're trying to build a great service for our users. you want to put a dent in the university, and i think that's what we're doing. >> what's your best read on the mood inside facebook since the ipo and all the coverage. >> i think they are feeling really good. at the end of the day they care about the user experience first. they don't kay if foiblible -- they care about a good user experience. i think they will continue to work welt on the business side, but at the end of the day, if mark continues to focus on user experience, facebook will be fine.

>> that can't go unaddressed, i'm sure. on mobile, i think that's going to be a big part of facebook's future. obviously with inns that gram we saw that. anytime there's a gap between adoption and monetization, and facebook fort latly is getting in front of that. are you an investor in facebook? >> i am through a mutual fund i have, sure. >> thanks for your time. >> thank you. brings us to a quick reminder, to all of you who tweeted us where you thought facebook shares would hit their bottom. it's the sweepstakes, of course, we'll announce the big winner on monday, june 18th, the one-month

mark since the giant began trading. that's the prize, a hoodie that melissa and simon and gary, rick and me all signed. >> our signatures aren't worth melissa's? >> no, they're worth much more. >> jim cramer in there. >> i think he might have written a boo-yah. >> i think that's part of his trademark. chinese inflation dropped to 3%. today credit suisse is talking about china being more troubled by deflation. we'll sit down with the chief china equities strategy from goldman sachs. we'll get her take on this very important economy, right after this. there's big news. presenting androgel 1.62%. both are used to treat men with low testosterone. androgel 1.62% is from the makers of the number one prescribed testosterone replacement therapy. it raises your testosterone levels, and...

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seven dollar trades are just the start. our support teams are nearby, ready to help. it's no wonder so many investors are saying... [ all ] i'm with scottrade. investors obviously positioning for the election, the rerun the the election sunday night in greece. let's address or money in motion segment, andy joins us from chicago. andy, i'm imagining that it's a brave man or woman that would call which way this vote will go on sunday, so let me talk about where we're likely to trade on the euro in particular.

steve barrow has a note out from standard charted. he's suggesting a business asymmetry in where the euro might go. in other words, if there's a positive outcome, it still doesn't sort out problems with the economy or other economies, therefore the potential bounce higher on the euro is far less than its ability to fall first thing monday morning, if the vote goes the wrong way in the view of the rest of euro. >> yeah, i think the risk is for the market because of what happened with spain on saturday, and the way it opened on monday, the market doesn't want to risk buys euros, but simon, we're at 126 right now. so underlying this there's some demand for euros here. >> the interview isn't going to go well if i ask questions and you ask questions back.

>> why do you think we're stuck at 1.26. >> i think because my overall theme for this year is policy makers will step in to eliminate economic risk. that's what we have seen. if the pro-bailout team, if they can form a government, you want to buy -- it's a very simple trade, but overall, i like to buy euros on a dip. i want to do it around 125.25, leave a stop at -- take prove at 128125. it's the break of the euro/swiss peg at 120. if that thing goes, you don't want to be long euros at all. you want to wait for the smoke to clear. obviously there's comments from the smb suggesting they're going to shove as much money at the

situation to defense 1.20 we're hearing estimates of maybe a billion a day they're buying of euros. i believe it was last month their numbers says smb soared as the amount of euros taking in. i don't know how long they can keep it up, but at some point it looks so ugly, my guess would be there's a tremendous amount of stop/loss orders down below. i don't know that, but that's the way this thing is setting up. you know, simon, the risk, when you have a currency peg, going back to the erm and the break which george sore ross made all his money against the uk, they die nighed they were going to break the pound out, and it did four, five days later. >> sure. the only thing is it's much more different to support a currency than to weaken it. got to leave it there, andy.

thank you very much. be sure to calf a special edition, my word, "money in motion" currency trading on friday feature mark farber. so that should cheer you up going into the weekend. inventory, sharon epperson is with us. >> as the bell sounds, we are waiting for natural gas number from the energy department. they have risen by 67 billion cubic feet in the last week. that's an increase that is actually below what analysts were anticipating. they were looking for an increase somewhere between 71 and 75 billion cubic feet. we've seen a flatline, and looking at we were that's not been really that much out of the norm. so this is a key data point that is definitely sending prices above that 230 level.

we'll see if we go even higher as traders interpret this data and see, of course, how to play it. natural gas, though, definitely the standout here in the energy space, carl, because a lot of traders say they're reluckettened to have muchingses on until we see the outcome of the opec meeting. back to you. >> we continue to monday that, too. thanks, sharon. >> an influencian government official say second quarter gdp could come in below 7%. we're going to find out what chief china equity strategist has to say about that. once again positive for the week. back in a moment.

7:34 on the west coast, 10:34 here on wall street. both kimberly-clark and family dollar hitting fresh highs today. the slot machine make announcing a buyback program. according to freddie mac, the average raid for a 30-year has risen to 3.71%, end ago six-week streak of record-setting lows, reconfirming simon's decision to lock in rates. >> however, they could come down again. we want to hi to hans.

>> we were all commenting it's a calm, but a nervous calm, it will be about what trades, how you can putting something on right now i would -- it took a peak below and responded back up. well, just above there, i think the roof at least is on the house. so the other thing i would watch out for is away from the election in greece is the potentiality that the barber is coming to town. if the haircuts start, you have to watch that this doesn't turn into johnny depp as edward

scissorhands. i think that's the real shock. >> you're referring to haircuts on your ozone bonds? >> i think you'll start with bank debt. i think it's got to go senior. i think really the negotiations are probably already at that point. what you're talking about is how can they buttress the system to take that shock. we've said for sometime that's the direction it has to go. >> dollar index, a discussion about whether it's peaked. what's your view on that? >> well, i like andy bush's what's the deal with that? you're not necessarily bringing

anything new to the table. yesterday, in ten-year notes, today in bonds, the treasury will sell them and the fed will buy them. people seem to be okay with that. so look for more of the same. >> how do you think expirations will factor in, given that we're ahead of the elections. >> that's a cool -- if you've noticed, unlike may, where things were kind of moving in a steady stream, even down on s&ps and since unemployment, the rangers have been broader, so i think some amount of that volatility you would fear around that expiree is already taking place. my pat answer would be look for it to continue. >> kevin feehery, thank you very much. >> europe has said there had be no private sector haircuts and greece was a mistake. i appreciate they might go back to that, about you to his point. brian sylvan is back at hq.

>> it's been a tough go so far for petrobras, the brazilian oil company, saying it will need to spend more money to reach the products goals. they want they're on pace, so they'll have to spend more money to get more oil out of the ground and the ocean. the bigger store this down is down 45%. this is a gigantic company that's kind of being ignored, so i'm paying closer attention right now. >> thanks very much. brian sullivan. says it's gdp could gipp beloaned -- helen drew is the chief china equities strategist for goldman sachs. what is your scenario right now for china?

the second quarter? >> hi, we actually don't think that we would be that bearish. we actually it's -- we're probably looking at something in the high 7s, clearly the data was on the weak side. may was not showing any meaningful recovery, either, but not incrementally getting worse. we think that somewhere in the high 7s in terms of gdp is probably doable for the second quarter. >> high sevens. i want to go straight into where you think there are investment opportunities. so many people would like to invest, and you take a look at the population, over 600 million and break them into segments. you like the segment that is basically going to be a structural story. can you explained that? >> sure, bakley i think if you look at china's consumer, obviously a huge market opportunity, but is really anything but a homojeanous group. if you look -- actually you

could probably look at them, you know, all the way across the spectrum from mass market, which is basically the lowest end affordability, something like minimum wage. all the way up to the movers and shakers, who are really kind of the billionaires and people who are boosting the global luxury consumption. i think at the high end, it's cyclical drivers, and we're probably more on a cyclical down cycle rather than an up cycle. any kind of rebound is unlikely to go back to the high growth levels we had seen in 2009, 2010. comparatively at the other end of the spectrum for the low-end guys, i think the disposable income was very structural. we think that's a structural -- >> helen, a lot of very bright, very well-informed people that i spoke to, often time will say

the same thing, there's never been a civilization without a huge dislocation. do you see a dislocation coming in the chinese economy, either through an implosion of growth or through some sort of social unrest? any time soon? >> well, i think the policy makers are certainly trying to keep growth still relatively stable, bull really aim for quality of growth rather than just quantity of growth that we have seen in the past few years, and i think it's that quality of growth that's really consumption oriented rather than export dependent or investment driven that's going to allow us to maintain the type of social stability that people want to see. essentially the wealth gap has gotten much bigger over the past years. it's precisely the lowerend urban population that i was just mentioning that's the potential root of any possibility social unrest, so it's important to keep them happy and make insure

that minimum wages will probably double, according to the five-years plan, you know, from 2010 through 2015, and really make sure that's the population that's feeling like their lives are getting better to minimize their risk of social unrest. so, helen, getting back to where you identify the opportunity to take advantage of these lowerend sort of consumers benefiting from higher wages, what sorts of stocks and company should we be thinking about? >> well, i think we basically broke down different consumption sectors into 14 different groups, so there's a very wide variety of choices there. everything from, you know, lower-end internet consumption to computer hardware handsets, retail branded, you know, those type of things, we actually think that consumption cyclicals are particularly attractive, but the valuations have come down a lot. there are many names offering double-digit growth potential and trading at like single-digit

pes. comparatively we're probably less positive on the staples, because of the fact that their valuations are probably closer to mid cycle, or maybe higher, and the fact we may see saturations in some of the segments. >> hell, thanks for phoning in, we do appreciate it. >> investors are preparing 230 what may happen with the election, the rerun of the elections in greece, michelle caruso-cabrera and steve liesman are here next to solve the euro crisis. stay with us. at u.s. trust, our expertise extends well beyond investment advice and research analysis. it includes proprietary offerings like our eldercare program, which helps provide for those who came before you. and our financial empowerment program, which helps prepare those who come next. resources like these have made us the number-one trust company. that's why generations of families

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recently, students from 31 countries took part in a science test. the top academic performers surprised some people. so did the country that came in 17th place. let's raise the bar and elevate our academic standards. let's do what's best for our students-by investing in our teachers. let's solve this. a a lot of people wondering what's going to happen in greece over the weekend as we head into the key elections. what plan of action do eu leaders need to take to solve the sovereign debt crisis? oh, yeah, we can figure this out in a minute and a half, can't we? our own summit michelle caruso-cabrera, steve liesman and this man sitting to my

right, simon hobbs. >> two minutes. >> let me say only one of the people in this prerecord is speaking the truth. or justice. >> and we will let you the viewer decide. take a listen. ♪ >> folks in greek election is this coming weekend, we're at this crucial moment where europe has to decide if they're going to get their act together, what are the key things that they have to do? >> i think they need to thattic a page from the 12-step program and decide they have a problem. he need to recognize they are incapable of making decisions. my proposal is that they consolidate the decision-making process underneath the imf, and this allows for a cover for u.s. leadership to help start to solve this problem. >> that's an interesting suggestion. the problem is the solutions to europe require more integration. either the ecb takes a much more aggressive role in the markets or i think you have euro bonds. that has to be the end games. >> to me the key issue is to

stabilize markets. they need to stabilize debt markets in the first order. that requires a massive pot of money. what makes me crazy is we've been through this in the united states. the idea of a big bazooka will stabilize markets and allow for the things you want to happen to occur. >> the ultimate way to stabilize the debt market is for these companies to prove they can grow. right now their economies need tore far more liberalized. it's an awfully wonky word to say you have to make it easier to hire and fire. you can't have barriers. >> the difficulty is how do you lead people through that ripping up contracts as cab drivers or whatever it is. the reason people don't want the euro, they will see it at a much more short-term -- >> you are right. >> view than where you're coming from. >> that is due to lack of leadership and political will to tell them your life is going to be worse if you stay this way. >> you have that with mario

monti. >> and he's failing. >> and now he doesn't necessarily -- >> you agree with me the process by which europe makes decisions is not working. its believi not workable. my secret agenda is with the threat of the i want mf becoming involved, with the idea that the world is frustrated, no longer willing to tolerate the decision-making process in europe, as they come forward, make that brings them together. >> it's not a seeing celt anymore, steve. you just put it to television. >> really nice stuff. provocative ideas. >> interesting ideas. >> to steve's point about the bazookas, the first time that worked is because no one had been threatened with it. now it's sort of old hat. >> except that it's been 14 weeks since the ecb was in the market buying bonds. >> listen, i heard things from everybody that made sense. euro bonds, depositwise, insurance -- eurowide deposit insurance scheme, certainly has to happen, yet the idea of these

economies that need to be growing and liberalization is maybe one -- gdp is going down, not going up. that's a key part of this equation. i don't know, a boatload of money is help. the issues are structural. >> the sad thing is that everybody at the table is right. you need to stabilize but that's not the whole game. michelle is right, too. you have to show you can grow after that. >> none of those ideas are simple and, therefore, none much of those ideas can simply come out this weekend or at the g-20 or at the summit. >> tick-tick. it is happening. we are in the midst of a crisis that is only becoming more serious by the day, and at some point we're going to say we keep having time. they're going to run out of time. >> who is speaking the truth and does that imply the other two were not and are therefore lying? >> actually i thought liesman spoke a lot of truth. >> really? so you were not speaking the truth. wow. >> i thought michelle is

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♪ it's ♪ it's a beautiful day it's a beautiful day ♪ welcome back to "squawk on the street." i'm kayla tausche. a superior proposal to the previous deal with inside venture partner, a buyout led by vinny smith. it might get one better. sources tell me insight is likely to increase its bid, working on a revision to its previous offer of $23 a share or around $2 billion for qwest. they are trading through the new offer price by an unnamed bidder which many expect to be dell but is unconfirmed and that's in

expectation of another deal. quest could solicit additional offers. even so, insight's previous offer, a $210 million in equity. it's received a financing commitment to raise its offer should it choose to do so. quest gives insight a three-day grace period to work on a revision. insight declined to comment and quest could not be reached for comment but the stock tells the story today, guys. back to you. >> kayla tausche, thank you very much. we know the hotel business is competitive. best western is trying to go for cleanliness. jane, you are fearless. >> reporter: well, i spend a lot of time in hotel rooms. this is on sunset plaza. the hotel business is rebounding, stocks like marriott and windham have outperformed the broader market year to date. how to stand out, well, all

those gross news stories about hotel rooms are seen as an opportunity. >> and through our research we found no hotel chain was recognized for being extremely clean. >> reporter: so best western decided to try to grab that title. a study that says cleanliness is now the number one priority for hotel guests next to godliness. ahead of customer service. best western franchisees are using black lights and cleaning wands, spending $300 per 100-room hotel to give each room a second going over. any dirt? >> no. >> reporter: that's maria and me in the dark. it adds five more minutes to each room. they are buying new remotes without crevices at a cost of 20 buck ace piece. when they rolled out the program, can customer satisfaction is up more than double digits. next up it will tackle my pet peeve, letting you pick when the

room is clean. >> we've all had that knock on the door at 8:00 in the morning that had he want to clean our room -- >> housekeeping. >> exactly. and so by letting the customer choose when they want their room cleaned and the type of service, we find that almost 40% of our stayover customers say, come in and change my towels and empty my trash and then leave me alone. >> reporter: see, if you don't have to clean someone's room, that saves you money and water, perhaps offsetting the cost of scheduling around customer desires. will other chains follow? we become this nation of jer mo foebs. it's a dirty job. you don't see mike rowe doing this. maria, the housekeeper says using these tools, the biggest surprise for her is she has found extra places to clean on the head board. >> i am never, ever traveling again. thank you so much, jane.

>> makes you want to own a black light for personal use so you can make sure everything is clean. i can't examine what the stock exchange looks like. >> do you want to know? >> i don't think you really want to know. >> thousands of job cuts announced this morning, warning of greater losses in the second quarter. so we asked you, what's the real meaning of the word nokia. lots of great responses. denise tweets the tech decisionary defines it as fruitless. nokia means no performance. and it's finnish for blackberry. >> people are harsh. people have strong opinions. that's elicited some of the most emotional responses. >> i am very sad that companies like nokia go down -- >> we had that discussion this

morning. >> you know, they were at the top of their game. presumably one day apple will be the same. >> it's a free market. >> it's harsh. >> that's what business is. >> it's true. >> for that nation, that's a huge issue. >> that is true. >> we'll see you tonight on "fast." we know what's coming up? >> our top picker series is coming up. one of the early angel investors in facebook and square joins us to tell us what is next. what's the next big thing in tech. >> we'll see you tonight. david, see you tomorrow. see you in 30 minutes. meantime, still to come, sunoco and carlyle getting close to a refinery deal. later on a piece of apple's history goes up for auction. we'll find out just how much that may fetch. our cloud is not soft and fluffy.

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tell us bobby, what would you do with all those savings? hire a better ventriloquist. your lips are moving. geico®. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. welcome to hour three of "squawk on the street." here is what's happening so far. >> we need growth in this k country. you can't do it by redistributing the pie. you have to make the pie greater, and we want to incent people here to do that. >> the record companies take advantage of the consumer. the consumer then wises up to it and instead of embracing some

pr practices that were happening they went after certain people and in turn lost it. >> if they were to vote in favor of withdrawing, it's because austerity has been so hard for them already and yet on the other side of the debate are both saying you can't imagine how much worse it will get if we go back to a drachma. >> do you think the greek people see this as a vote of whether to stay in the yeuro or not in the euro? >> no, clearly previous reports are saying more than 75% are believing we have to stay in the euro. >> it is kind of sad to watch whether it's their own fault or just the power of their rivals to watch them be reduced. they call it a niche player. >> there's the opening bell. >> on mobile i think that's very much going to be a big part of facebook's future. obviously with the insta gram deal we saw that, and anytime

you have a gap between adoption and monitorization and that's what we're going through and facebook, fortunately, is getting in front of that. >> good thursday morning to you. welcome to the third hour of "squawk on the street." we're looking at the third triple digit move in four sessions for the dow at 12,602. the dow now positive for the week and if the s&p gets one more point it, too, will be positive for the week so far. home builder stock spiking this morning. one sector to watch very closely, all sharply in the green after the 0-year mortgage rate grows from 3.7. they are all seeing some gains. netflix one of the big losers on news that it's increasing its lobbying efforts to fight against the cable tv giants. the company also testing a site redesign and appointed a new business development officer today. time for the road map for the 11, nokia shares falling as much as 15% today on news of job cuts at a poor earnings forecast.

we'll find out if there's any profit left in this beaten down stock. plus, mitt romney calling president obama's policies antibusiness. we're going to talk to the romney campaign's special economic adviser about their policies and how they differ from obama's. then find out how you can own a piece of apple's history. the very first apple computer ever built is going up for auction tomorrow. we're going to get a first look and see how much it can sell r for. also an exclusive interview with aol's chairman and ceo armstrong. the latest on the proxy fight and a sense of what he's telling shareholders of the company's meeting today. all that have is coming up in the next hour. we'll start with "squawk on the beat." sunoco is close to finalizing a deal with the carlyle group for its philadelphia refinery. kay joins us now with all the details on that. good morning, kate. >> reporter: refineries are appare apparently all the rage. if you're in the airline or private equity business, so carlyle has been talking to

sunoco for about two months now about the possibility of taking over this philadelphia refiny. it employs about 800 people, generates 330,000 barrels of products per day and they're get getting very close to the expiration of an exclusive deal they inked in april which is set to expire friday. i'm told not necessarily to look for a finished deal in the next day or two, but they are close. they're working out the final terms. i don't have the price but apparently it will be attractive considering the economics of refinding these days. it's a lot cheaper to purchase these plants than about five years ago. the other interesting thing, actually a couple of points. sunoco is likely to retain a minority stake in the facility. they will also, you know, continue to be somewhat involved. but carlyle, of course, would have the majority owner shship the other piece i'm told carlyle is focused on is bringing in some sort of partner to whom they can kind of subcontract some of the process. so, for example, taking on a bp as delta did as part of its trainer refinery deal to purchase the crude 0 oil from

overseas, ship it across the atlantic and get it here and then possibly also something delta didn't do which is to take on a partner to help the so-called financing process, taking a risk, a balanced sheet risk and operational risk of refining the crude into various products. look for some news within the next week or two, but it doesn't necessarily seem, carl, like they're going to be able to make this deadline of tomorrow before the exclusivity elapses. >> interesting to watch. natgas seeing some movement as well. nokia's announcing this morning a massive management shake yum and they will be cutting 10,000 jobs. the hand set maker also warned of a q-2 loss from its cell phone business bigger than initially reported. shares of nokia down 17% on the news. the managing director has a sell on nokia, a price target of $2.

michael, you say the company, at least the ongoing business in your view, is worth zero. what does that leave, the ip? >> yeah. hi, carl, that's absolutely right. our $2 price target is based on the view of the intellectual property of the company, about $7.5 billion or $2 a share. we've been telling our clients to bet against this stock. we're not at all surprised about today's profit warning or about the job cuts. we actually went into the at&t and t-mobile stores last month and found the big marketing push for the phones had died down. we found the clerks in the stores were actively advertising people not to buy windows phones and were telling us they weren't selling many of them so we're not at all surprised by this. we think the business of making handsets is worth nothing. we think this company will continue to struggle and the most disturbing thing is they have $4 billion in net cash but they're going to burn through that with the restructuring and with operating losses over the next two years. so i think probably what will happen is microsoft will step in, give them more cash to keep

the windows phone dream alive. they may demand some equity but they're not going to buy it at a prem wrum. we think the stock is still going to go lower. >> your point about the cost, restructuring is expensive. and your point is well taken that it does use up cash. is the move today, do you think, misguided? should they focus more squarely on reselling the ip? >> i did listen to the conference call this morning. unfortunately some of the stuff i heard from the management about new phones coming down the line, windows 8 and new applications and mapping. they sound almost as out of touch as the previous r.i.m. management was. the fact of the matter is consumers have spoken. they want iphones. they want androids. they don't particularly want windows phones. nokia has bet the farm on windows phones. i do think they should be looking at trying to generate value, yes, for their ip and mapping assets. i'd like to see the restructuring go even further

because organically this company will get smaller because people don't want their products. >> people talk about apple and their pour tunes in china. an incremental 6 million users is to have a low-end phone, right? you'd think at least a layman might argue that's the perfect play for nokia. if the business is worth nothing here, who takes some of that share at least at the low end? >> well, actually what we've been seeing, we've been seeing the android phones have been coming at price points that were previously unheard of. sub $100, $50 android phones out there in india and china and a lot are coming from the chinese manufacturers as well as samsung which is doing very, very well on the high end and at the low end. there was a rumor that samsung was interested in buying nokia. that was just a rumor. nothing behind it. samsung, i think, would never buy this company, has no reason to. but they're doing very, very well with their android models.

>> galaxy, having that name across the platform is really powerful. it's tough to watch but i appreciate your insight on nokia. michael genovese joining us. to phil lebeau in chicago. we have some breaking news out of the airline second are tore. >> reporter: we have the latest numbers on on time arrivals for the airlines. in april a very strong performance, 86% on time. hawaiian, air tran, and delta above 90%. bottom three, american, united and express jet down to the 81%, 82% range. one other interesting note from the report, the number of complaints regarding mishandled baggage, the lowest that the d.o.t. has recorded since they've been tracking this. something like 2.6 bags missing per 1,000 passengers. want to show you shares of u.s. air. this stock has been on a tear. annual meeting today, our producer caught up with the head of the airline or the american

flight attendants' union which, by the way, is pushing for a merger between u.s. air and american. here is what the president of the flight attendant's union for american had to say about a potential merger. >> i firmly believe they should merge and for many reasons. the standalone plan is just the same plan they've been working under and we see where that took them. u.s. air and american together make a much stronger network. u.s. air and american. >> reporter: the heads of the three biggest unions for american were all at the u.s. air annual meeting today, all pushing the idea of a merger between u.s. air and american. carl? >> wow. unbelievable to watch consolidation in that space. thanks a lot, phil lebeau in chicago. rick santelli with the santelli exchange watching europe and this weekend's elections as we all will be, rick. >> reporter: absolutely, carl. i think there's some interesting

post-facebook lessons to be learned. if you're looking to be trading in markets based on surprises or no surprises out of elections or even beyond, the new bazooka approach gaining some traction. will it satisfy? will it not satisfy? and the reason i bring up facebook is when you have so many eyes focused on an event that affects marketplaces, sometimes the system can't handle it. and we saw how that turned out. i'm a firm believer that many of the exchanges will never ultimately be liable in any big fashion for the kind of quote/unquote forced majority that occurs when so many want to do so much and so short a period of time. i can remember in the '87 crash when stocks crashed we had many limit up days in treasury futures but yet those that and tis pated that type of response and wanted to buy bonds or calls, the obligation but not the right to buy some of these bond futures, they were almost

shut out. i remember calls trading below intrinsic value. why? it's hard to interact with the market. now to the point. we know that volatility is going to be large and we know if good things come out of the elections you're most likely going to see all the sovereign, safe harbor interest rates move up and the underlying sell off. if something more nefarious occurs and an ill-fated prologue or epilogue to europe. so you want to have your orders in. otc, we've heard of all these stories or some of these dark pools where you have the right trade. you even have it in on time but you still don't get filled. an exchange such as this exchange has issues called time and sales. if you're looking to embark on trading what really can can be great opportunity during periods of volatility, have your orders in but have price orders. put them in and also volatility. if you think volatility is going up, you could be long both the

calls and the puts. there's great opportunities but the markets aren't going to stay at these extremes long and that's the reason there is lots of opportunity. back to you, carl. >> rick santelli in chicago for us today. when we come back, he is mitt romney's right-hand man when it comes to the economy. vin webber, the economic adviser, after a break. one more look at the markets as the dow is up 113 points and positive for the week. we'll see how long this trend stays with us. back in a moment. your cash? here's one you may not have thought of -- fidelity. now you don't have to go to a bank to get the things you want from a bank, like no-fee atms, all over the world. free checkwriting and mobile deposits. now depositing a check is as easy as taking a picture. free online bill payments. a highly acclaimed credit card with 2% cash back into your fidelity account. open a fidelity cash management account today and discover another reason serious investors are choosing fidelity.

members haveopec >> reporter: opec members have agreed to keep pro-did deduction at the 30 million barrel ceiling limit, this according to news wire sources to dow jones. what that means is that the meeting which is still taking place in the building behind me isn't over yet but that it's likely ministers have at least come to a decision with regards to that ceiling temperature allows them on the one hand to keep production levels consistent with where they've been recently and on the other hand to appease the politics between people who wanted to see them curbed back. what it means for oil bulls maybe not quite so good because it would take a significant cutback by opec at this point to support oil prices or to push them high er. what we are still waiting on is any word whether they are going to select the next secretary-general, the current one's term is up this year. they may be behind closed doors for quite some time still on making a decision on this front, but what matters most to markets for now is that ceiling level.

it sounds like we already have news they're keeping it constant. back to you. >> we are seeing some movement in crude, kelly, as you speak, up some 68 cents. thank you for your reporting in vienna, kelly evans. the president plans to deliver a speech on the economy in ohio today. meantime mitt romney commenting on a speech to ceos yesterday that the obama policies have been the most antibusiness in recent history amount former congressman from the great state of minnesota, special policy adviser to mitt romney and joins us from washington. good to have you back. >> great to be here. good morning to you. >> the governor spoke yesterday and said he expects the president to change course especially after last week when he said the private sector is doing just fine. i wonder how you think his message may change today. >> well, i think that the rhetoric is going to change today, but i don't think the policies are going to change much. the president has made it very clear, i think he revealed his mi mindset when he said the private sector is just fine and we need to focus on the public sector. that means more of what we've been doing the last three years.

we spent $800 plus billion in a stimulus which is just government spending. it was supposed to keep unemployment under 8% and jump-start the economy. unemployment has been above 8% for 40 months and we're now told basically by the president and his supporters that it didn't jump-start the economy. we're going to have to have continued infusion of government spending to keep the economy moving along. we really need to change course and that's what governor romney is laying out. >> do you think there's any justification for the just fine comment when you look at the levels of cash that american businesses have right now, the way in which they're able to borrow money almost for free, the fact that the stock market is up 50% since the president took office. if you had to, could you build that argument? >> well, i think he's going to try to build the argument but i don't think it flies. business formation at a 30-year low, unemployment rising again. long-term unemployed at a record level 4.8 million people.

those are lives that have been shattered. so i think you have a hard time making the case. the statistics that came out just this week about household wealth at the lowest point in decades. we've lost 40% of our household wealth and we're not getting back on track. the plans that this president put in place were supposed to restore the economy to rapid rates of growth by now and they've not. 1.9% growth in the first quarter. that's not just anemic, that's pathet pathetic. >> we had the governor on a couple of weeks ago. we talked about how he views the problems that are coming out of europe right now. we have a big greek election this week, people are worried about the currency collapsing. he seemed to want to bring it back to more of a domestic responsibility that the president has to keep our economy afloat, but we have ceos on all the time who say, look, europe is a serious issue. if a governor doesn't acknowledge that in a larger way, is he in danger of appearing out of touch like he's not reading headlines from across the pond? >> well, i think the governor recognizes clearly that we have

a problem in the yeurozone but there's very little at this point that an american candidate for president can do about that. president obama has not tried to influence anything going on over there. it's a sign of how weak our country has become and our ability to influence world events. we're all going to watch the greek election on sunday. that could be a very bad thing if it goes the wrong way. governor romney understands the eurozone's a problem but it shouldn't distract us. it shouldn't be used as an excuse to stop doing things that are hurting our domestic economy like the massive overregulation that's coming out of this administration and the big tax increases they have planned for us if president obama is re-elected. >> interesting today as well, vin, that the first time the president and romney have held public events on the same day as they're both in ohio. >> great to talk to you. >> congressman vin weber. the pits of the cme react on

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go to deliveringalpha.com and secure your attendance now. welcome back to "squawk on the street." rick santelli. before i bring james into the conversation, i continue to try to research all the issues that have and may not be brought up that could affect the outcome of mf global and a couple of things i remember. back in 2009, being on the floor every day for decades, there was talk that there was going to be an issuance at that point of securities, corporate securities, by mf global. but it was scuttled last minute. jpmorgan was said to be one of the main underwriters within that security. i would like to see if somebody could ask jpmorgan, indeed, if there was talk about an issuance at that point in time and why it didn't come to the marketplace because many of the issues i read online were that while mf

global was shoppy, they had a security issuance months before in october of 2011 and there was material information regarding the position in european debt that was unknown to investors. these are huge issues. james, why aren't these things brought up? >> honestly the mainstream media doesn't care about this case and getting the information out has been very difficult. i mean, we've been trying and trying to educate the department of justice, educate congress. >> reporter: but, i mean, this is a major s.e.c. issue. this is material information. the information was not made known to customers. now you also say there are other issues, quote/unquote, a fraudulent like activity. tell me the one that's been bugging you that we were discussing off camera. >> the truss trees report last week details criminal fraud took place at mf global, prosecutions can be done under sarbanes oxley, three days prior to the bankruptcy an accountant made a manual adjustment to their books

showing a $540 million transaction out of thin air that allowed mf global to publish a falsified sag report to their regulator showing exactly $200 million of excess capital being held in customer accounts. that $200 million just so happens to be the same amount they owe to jpmorgan on a wire call. mf global then wired out $200 million of customer money to jpmorgan to meet that margin call and that transaction was approved. under one minute internally though the cme had told them no wires were allowed out of customer accounts without their prior consent. >> reporter: give me a simple version of what sarbanes oxley is supposed to do and the type of crimes, quote/unquote, that should be able to be brought to the courts using sarbanes oxley. give me a simple version? >> it exists so the officers of a publicly held company have to

certify their financial statements and adequacy of internal controls. it was -- it became a law due to enron. >> reporter: this transaction, something adjusted on the books that shouldn't have been, was there a signoff by all the principles at some point in time? >> there were internal control deficiencies known within the firm dating back to 2010 as documented by the trustees' report. there's a long-standing pattern of failing -- >> reporter: a pattern? we're going to have to go but when i hear pat earp and fraud, maybe rico should be talked about. at drexel they threw that out against the employees and had far less, in my opinion, to go on. carl, back to you. >> thanks so much, rick santelli, with big muse today. bring in simon hobbs to talk about the close in europe. there's been a lot going on. some economic data, simon. news of secret poll results floating around athens and moving that market. >> everybody is just waiting in positioning for what might happen.

we simply don't know. there's a blackout on official opinion polls so we're kind of in the dark. what is very interesting today is the way peripheral europe has rallied its people, i assume, in the main short did -- >> the european markets are closing now. >> let's see where we are. portugal, spain and greece are higher. your main markets that haven't done so badly, germany and the united kingdom, are lower. i've got to mention obviously the events we have in greece as we wait and watch. who knows what will come through there. michelle caruso cabrera will be live. just show you the way the greek banks bounce today. the telecom companies, the local coca-cola operator there. they also did well. big cap stocks in a greek sense but don't forget that, for example, national bank of greece has actually lost 92% of its

market cap over the last three years. so these are beaten down stocks coming down today and of course wasn't just as we saw a moment ago, it wasn't just greece that bolted higher. you saw spain during the course of the session making gains. you saw milan making gains. greece is the big one with a gain of 10% into the close. ibex, we have a gain there -- actually not as good as i thought, just 1%. of course the ibex has lost 30% of its value. that's the base from which we're coming from. in fact, one of the senior commissioners in brussels today said that there might have to be a bank liquidation in spain because it might not be worth saving them. you see kbc world bank and unicredit coming through higher. the fact that you had heavy selling again on the spanish bonds today. that pushed the yields on the ten year up above 7% and we've

not been at that level before since the euro's inception. certainly it's higher than we were last november. both the italians and the spanish are promising further measures to come to try and less seven the situation. i just want to importantly show you where we are in germany because one of the characteristics of this week is the fact that the german yields have begun rising, as you can see. and you have to wonder what sort of tail risk they are worrying about. is that because people are quitting the eurozone market entirely or is it a fear that maybe you are a tail risk, that euro bonds might come or some sort of redemption fund that would lift germany's yields high high higher? it is significant and we need to watch it particularly on monday morning. ameri merkel today was up in parliament, as you probably saw, carl, suggesting there would be no miracle solutions, whatever the prime minister of spain or the prime minister of italy may be promising in the days to

come. >> it's hard to listen to that and think -- be priced. >> uncharted territory like never before. we say it each time. it genuinely is. >> right. if it's dramatic here, imagine what it's like in athens. our chief correspondent michelle caruso cabrera is live in that set ahead of the country's elections and we'll talk to michelle in a moment. simon, i do wonder long er term if we have spanish yields above seven and we talk about six being the danger zone, what's the ceiling on that front? how high can this go? >> i think there are two things to say. those who went for the bailout islands never came back after 7%. the elephant in the room is the european central bank which is on its 14th week where it has not intervened in the market and that is very, very significant, certainly for the spanish. you saw the learn letter written to everyone else saying why isn't the ecb acting? you have to wonder why draghi is holding back at the moment, presumably to force politicians'

hands. they don't like the bond buying. that's been clear. also importantly to save the power to drive for the after market in the greek election. >> and the ecb is said to be at the end of its mandate. that it would be difficult to give them any more political power to move forward. >> at the same time that is the german view. you also have other central banks around europe who are pushing for action. for example, the head of the bank of italy was quite vocal in suggesting there should be the redemption fund we spoke of earlier in the week. it's really dividing along nationalistic lines and the concern is what the effect of isolating the germans is in the environment given they are still the major contributor to failing everybody else out. >> we'll see you at the g-20 meeting they can bring them together, get them out of country and into a retreat of some sort. michelle caruso cabrera is in athens covering the story on the ground there for us. michelle, what is the view from where you sit and how are people

feeling ahead of this weekend? >> reporter: there's a lot of nervousness here, there's a lot of nervousness because the building behind me has been empty for the last month. there's been no government in charge of the country so to speak since those inconclusive elections last month. there's hope this sunday's elections will be far more conclusive. the future of greece hangs in the balance and you heard simon talking perhaps the future of the economy and the global economy in the medium term. stability hangs in the balance depending on how the greeks vote. we saw this morning clearly what the markets would like. we saw a sharp rally in greek banks, in the greek stock market on rumors that the pro bailout party -- and that's not perhaps completely correct term but for cable tv it works. the pro bailout party appears to be leading. we've seen the poll numbers. it's not by a margin of error that is conclusive and we know that 15% of greek voters are undecided at this point. let's just say it's neck and neck and there's a lot of hope

among investors at least that the pro-bailout party wins this coming weekend. we're going to hopefully know mid sunday afternoon. by monday morning we'll see whether or not there's enough togetherness here to actually form a government and remove this uncertainty. if the anti-bailout party wins, we'll see the stock market fall but calm in the streets. the pro bailout party wins, maybe you see a rise in stock markets but perhaps more violence in the streets. carl, back to you. >> and, michelle, really quickly, we keep reading about withdrawals ahead of sunday. is that tangible to the naked eye? do you see that going on or is this going on on the web? how does it manifest itself? >> reporter: we look at every bank and every atm as we drive around, as we walk around. we don't see lines, so to speak. we don't see those lines that are famous for bank runs. we do know that people are taking out money every single day. there are reports of up to a

billion dollars worth per day. that still leaves about $150 billion within the system is here but certainly the anecdotal reports, people we talk to say they've taken out. full scale runs, no, you would have to believe greece is leaving the euro for that to happen and we don't see it, at least not yet. >> michelle, we'll come back to you later on. michelle caruso cabrera. bob pisani is watching the story here and how it ties into some other things like -- >> gold, for example. you won't believe the speculation that people are making in it the last few days. gold has been bouncing around a lot. and some of it, some of it has to do with speculation about what might or might not happen in greece. gold in the morning, see this, look at this. boom, all of a sudden moves down. now starts moving up. this is a little choppy action here. so different people are speculating on greece. some people feel, well, if the anti-bailout forces win over the weekend, increases the chance they might leave the euro, this might mean that greece would have to sell its gold holdings.

and greece does have gold holdings. the central bank have gold holdings. what a coincidence. here is the list by central banks. the u.s. is number one. you see 8,000 tons of gold. we do here in the united states. here is germany, imf, italy, france. greece is number 3 in terms of holdings. 111 tons of gold there. that's not a lot of gold, folks. take a close shot of that. 111 tons, my reckoning $6.4 billion. there is speculation they might have to sell some of that if they, in fact, do have to leave the euro. it's an interesting story and a lot of people are playing around with this idea. here in the united states, you see the dow here, the best close for the dow if we close here since may 15th, by my reckoning. a nice little morning that we're having here. lo look, going back already almost a month. what's really helping things? the energy stocks are doing better today. that's because nat gas has been a nice morning here, been a bullish supply report.

pull up nat gas. when was the last time you saw that up 10%. all the energy stocks are moving and this is an old trade. put up the energy stocks up 7%, 3%. they have gotten killed. if we get a colder winter than expected, these stocks are going to take off. pull up the index. there's an index of all these natural gas stocks. the symbol is epx. you can look at it yourself. 25% decline. so there's a lot of speculative money betting into these stocks will move up. finally, carl, markets are up but you know what's not doing so well, take a look at the tech stocks. they are having a nice day except apple. it was in negative territory until just a few moments ago and finally went positive. what happened to the idea that as goes apple so goes the market. not today and not recently. so it's an interesting little divergence there. >> great stuff on gold. thanks so much, bob. as bob mentioned the markets are

picking up steam. want to get more insight from art hogan, manking director. art, good morning to you. >> thank you, carl. how are you. >> pretty good. trying to make sense of what's happening here. the conventional wisdom is that there is no directional trade going into sunday. that's just too treacherous. so why the buying today? >> yeah, it's interesting. it seems is every other day the risk on/risk off. we had the worst week of the year two weeks ago, the best week of the year a week ago and every other day a triple kijt move in the dow. a lot of uncertainty over the greek election and a lot mover uncertainty because it's hard to gauge how close the race is. they stopped releasing any poll results a week ago. it's going to come down to the wire and the second we're through the greek election and know where we stand pro-bailout or not, you have to figure out how much spain and germany is willing to give and how they can do it. we have plenty of things to worry about and the market is reflecting that. >> yeah, we've been disappoint

ed by g-20 sum is milts in the past. i can't imagine you think this one is going to be much different but i don't know. maybe when the fire is in the actual living room it prods some of these 17 countries to act. >> that's exactly correct. what we've seen is you have to get to the edge of the abyss with some of the leadership in europe before action is taken. and we are exactly at that point now especially with spain, if you look at their yields on debt and you look at the financial situation they'll be in. i think it's a binary situation where something will have to happen and happen very soon. i think that we may actually get more constructive rhetoric out of the g-20 than in the past. >> finally a look at the big winners today. just glancing at the s&p 500 winners, names like family dollar and super value, it's kroeger. a lot of research has been done about companies comparing those that have revenue exposure just to the u.s. versus those that are split between the u.s. and europe, the outperformances is

unbelievable. is that still a safe trade or do you take a venture on those who have exposure overseas? >> i think you are still safe, the least amount of exposure in europe. the overseas exposure is to develop, it will be slower in the next two years and europe will be the slowest developed region. you want to stay away from exposure but developing exposure is great to have. >> art, appreciate you coming to the camera. appreciate that very much. art hogan of lazard. straight ahead, how you can own a piece of apple's original computer. just how much money you'll need to pay for that, a piece of apple's history. our cloud is not soft and fluffy. our cloud is made of bedrock. concrete. and steel. our cloud is the smartest brains combating the latest security threats. it spans oceans, stretches continents. and is scalable as far as the mind can see.

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on coming up coming up on "the halftime report" in 15 minutes, the greek elections. we have strategies to get you off the sidelines and into the marke markets. natural gas popping 9%. we've got the trade there. and a strong u.s. dollar hurting some stocks but boosting others. a list of the winners and the losers on "the halftime report," carl, at the top of the hour. >> we'll see you in a few minutes, simon. how much would you pay for a piece of apple history? a fully functioning apple one computer from the year 1976. it's up for auction tomorrow at sotheby's here in new york city. richard austin is head of the books department at sotheby's and joins thus morning. good to talk to you. good morning. >> good morning. >> a fascinating piece of

history. walk me through what it is and the back story about how it came into sotheby's hands. >> this is really the beginning of personal computing as we mo it. this is the first computer that apple produced in 1976 and it was quite expensive at the time. it was $666. and you didn't actually get what we think of as a computer today. what you got was this board. you had to supply your own keyboard, your own monitor and, in fact, your own cassette machine to run the programs. >> and the owner of the store that ordered these insisted that the boards come fully assembled. we're talking boards that steve jobs and wozniak built together, right? >> early on it was very unusual. you had computer kits before you had to assemble at home. this was the first time you could go to a shop and buy a fully assembled board. >> how many of those are known to be in working condition? >> well, they only produced about 200 and only 50 or so survived.

because they sold them to hob yiss, very few are in the original condition. this works and is highly unusual. only five are known to be in working condition. >> now how much is that expected to fetch? there always is an apple product whether old or new. we expect a fairly strong price on the unit. >> it's not all that's up for auction. the sale will include a report written by jobs from earlier, 1974, when he was working at atari. what's that? >> that's interesting, in fact. the world cup actually arcade game.

it is used as a video game so that's one of the reasons you have the great ability of apple to be intuitively used. >> that is going to fetch around $10,000 to $15,000? >> that's the expected estimate. again, because it's jobs, it's early jobs, a lot of the report is in his handwriting, we expect that to do very well as well. >> interesting. overall, i'm curious, we keep hearing about investors who were nervous around the world really about keeping their money in paper currency so they're looking at hard assets, real estate, art, and collectibles. has sotheby's gotten a taste of that trend? i assume so. >> a lot of people are wanting horde assets and items of cultural importance. this fulfills one of the most significant offerings in the computing industry. >> interesting stuff. richard austin over at sotheby's, best of luck. thanks for your time. >> thank you.

when we come back, tim armstrong will join us for an exclusive interview about winning will proxy fight against starboard and what it means for him and the company.

here is a look at the dow, s&p at 1325. that means it has crossed the barrier for being positive for the week but just barely. one other name we're watching today is aol, the internet giant fought a proxy bat the l this morning. and it won. but the shares right now are down sharply today. take a look at what aol is doing. join us for a cnbc exclusive, tim armstrong along with our julia. >> good to see you. >> my favorite headline today, you have fail, referring to the shareholder here saying that you have vanquished what they call a pesky investor insurrection. is that how you feel today? >> i think anyone who owns a share of aol stock is part of

our family. we are really looking forward to continue the turnaround of aol and the shareholder vote was an underpinning support for our strategy and we have a big, bold strategy to turn the company around and shareholders stepped in behind the company. so we're looking forward to working with all the shareholders going forward 0. >> julia? >> but, tim, the fact that the shares are down 6.5%, despite the fact that you won this proxy battle, there are ongoing concerns about your strategy. how are you going to address them? >> look, i think the vote was the vote and the shares are down today. you guys are probably better experts than i am. i'm sure there's a lot of holders who jumped in helping to make a fast dollar. we have a lot of long-term holders, the vast majority of the company held by really long-term holders. i think when you look at the vote and what we've been doing strategy wise and most importantly the operational improvements we made to the company, i think what you're seeing is the long-term holder stepping in and supporting where

the company is going and i'm a single individual shareholder in the company so i watch these things as closely as anyone does and i feel really positive about where the company is. >> tim, we had a discussion today with someone else about-face book and sort of challenges they're facing n. address the spread between mon at thisization and the degree to which investors make that gamble, stick with you through th that. how far along with you on the platforms you've been challenged with? >> sure. so just to be clear so your viewers understand, aol is invested in two main areas. one is around content and building content brands as the internet it continues to ebbs panned, there's an urbanization effe effect. and the second piece is in the advertising business where we're helping brands transition online. the question about-face book and how you think about investing in front of monetarization,

consumers are adopting digital services faster and faster. businesses have been slower. there's a natural gas happening for years where consumers continue to outpace businesses. we help businesses close the gap between consumers and the businesses in retail and commerce and that's a very, very big, significant community for us. the business we have been out investing in things, grow consumer adoption, we have some of the best brands. you are starting to see it click behind that. as an aol shareholder for years to come, you are going to be able to ride our consumer transition and revenue transition that's happening in the industry. >> tim, there's been a lot of talk about how facebook needs to make more money from its mobile use users. as we see the rise of mobile access to content, how are you going to try to make more money on mobile? >> we have two programs we're

work i working on. one is internally called mobile first where we're start to go rebuild all of our brands from the smallest screen to the biggest screen and a couple of products coming out we've been reviewing. i stepped out of the boardroom. i think that mobile first strategy of building the product for mobile first is something the company is about. we have the newest industry standard around advertising and brands called project devil. we are just launching project devil on mobile which essentially is one of the highest performing brand advertising units that's on line. we're taking that to mobile and i think we're going to close the mobile gap by having better and better products in the mobile brand side for consumers and really rethinking how mobile advertising and commerce lands on a consumer's phone desktop over time. the other thing is local and

mobile combined. we are by far outpacing from the standpoint of leadership the local retail zip code of information space. we're very well set up across multiple segments of the business to really take advantage of mobile and i think the people innovate the fastest and i would expect them to be one of the leaders in that space. >> tim, always good to talk to you. thanks for coming. julia, thanks for bringing you to us. [ male announcer ] this is genco services --

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