good morning. the dow is now on its longest winning streak in 16 years. thursday, march 14th, 2013 and "squawk box" begins right now. good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm becoky quick along with andrew ross sorkin.

joe is on vacation. he's still skiing. we are joined on set by mike san tilly. good to have you here. >> good to be with you. thanks. >> good to see you. we have a lot of stuff to talk about because of the markets. the markets have been our lead just about every morning. >> not the pope? >> no, the pope was red. we'll talk more about that in a bit. but as we have been doing every morning lately, we begin with the markets because just about every has been closing. as andrew mentioned, it's a nine-day winning streak. that's the longest we've seen since 1996. the s&p still hasn't reached the all-time high of 1565.15. it's been get veg close, but at this point, the broader index is

still 11 points away. do you have any idea why it's been tough on the s&p 500? >> financials and tech have not been dominant groups. that is where the water mark was set. i don't think there's any big reason for it. >> yeah. and we're only about 11 points away from it at this point. traders are also watching the s&p's all time intraday high of 15 a 76. the index is about a percent away from that level. take a look a the how things are shaping up this morning. as it has come in the last several days, dow futures are up about 39 points. you see green arrows once again. at the present futures up by 4.5. in europe, there are green arrows there, as well. the dax in germany is up about 0.is 7%. in asia area overnight been you can see that the nikkei was up by 1.6%, this green arrows in the chinese market, as well. oil prices have ticked higher.

they're up this morning by about 21 cents. i think 92.7 3 is the last straight there. so above 92, but still well below what we had seen earlier this year. if you take a look at the ten-year note this morning, you're going to see that -- actually, we'll take a look at the dollar first. the dollar is up against the euro. oh, wow, 11.2956, so euro back below 1.30. the dollar is up against the yen, but it's down with the pound. the next board, i think we take a look at gold after this. yeah. let's take a look at gold. down by 1.40. $1587 an ounce. we have a number of important economic tests before the bell this morning. at 8:30 eastern time, we get weekly jobless claims. that's going to be very closely watch because of what happened with the jobs report last friday. it was better than expected numbers. we'll see if the jobless claims go up even further. consensus is for 350,000. we get the february producer price index in the fourth

quarter current account. first time filings to have for unemployment is expected to rise by 10,000. polled economists say that the headline ppi likely increased by 0.7%. the core is expected to tick higher by a more modest 1.10%. let's put a little bit in context. another piece of news that makes this interesting, investors are now pouring 2.9 billion in mutual funds. the money that went to funds, that money went into funds that hold international stocks. so those funds had inflows of $3.5 billion. so we have all this money going into u.s. funds, but now even more money going into u.s. international funds. meantime, funds that hold u.s. stocks suffered outflows of $578 million. >> that's crazy. you would think at this point that maybe people would be putting more money into the u.s. stock market, they would be chasing this. >> it's been the pattern. it's been the pattern for a long time now. we're talking about numbers that are just around the edges of

exactly how much people have in total invested in there, but really, the international has gotten more than its share for a long time. >> everybody says we just saw what happened in the u.s. >> i don't think so. i don't think it's that tactical. i think it's people basically saying, you know, if you're looking at a three or five-year trailing number, for some reason it's drawing you in that direction, i don't know. to me, the etf kind of flow is what you're seeing in terms of the coincidence money going into and recognizing what is already happening here. >> let's talk housing news this morning. there was a sharp drop -- this is good news, by the way. there was a sharp drop in u.s. homes to foreclosure last month. among the reason, rising home prices in efforts to buy states more time to avoid losing their homes. foreclosures listing firm realty track reports the number of homes last month fell 11% from january. declined 29% from february last year. foreclosures are now at their

lowest level since 2007 and i remember when warren buffett said at some point all this housing thing is going to work itself out. now we're finally getting it. >> maybe. >> you're still on a maybe? >> well, it's definitely bottomed out, but it doesn't feel like we are anywhere near the levels just in home prices and people's -- >> oh, but i think we're still -- i mean, from housing getting back to where we -- the market just got back to where we were in 20307. >> if you bought in 2007, 2008, 2009, you probably are still waiting. >> and i know where he lives in new york city, those places are actually much higher now. >> no. there's no doubt about it. but i think in the real america -- >> not out here. >> it's basically still an impaired market. you have this disproportionate kind of not just a foreclosure side, but the investors are a big proopponent of it. it's obviously healing itself, but it doesn't feel organic at this point. even though it is going in the right direction, it will continue.

>> all of real estate, the local market, it very much depends on where you are. you did mention the pope. that is a huge story today. you got it? >> i got it. i heard. i heard the news. it's on the cover of -- can you believe how they did that on the "wall street journal" today. squeeze tighter. they used to do it -- remember when they used to have just a little thing. it was farther down. now it's moved over. you know what i'm talking about. >> i do, yeah. >> with the what's news column? >> yeah. with the what's news column. they would occasionally knock it down. >> you about it is huge news. yesterday at this time, we were watching and we saw smoke that came just about this time yesterday. the official news is out. it's pope francis. and mary thompson joins us with more on this story. this is huge, mary, because this is the huge time we're seeing a leader come from latin america. >> first time from the americas. becky, the 266th leader of the

catholic church greeted people yesterday saying the cardinals had to go to the end of the world to find a new pope. the former arch bischoff of bun yo beunos aries, at 40% of the world's clath licks reside that. jorge mario bergoglio was runner up to benedict xvi. this time he's 76. he's known for his humility. he took public buses instead of a chauffeured car, living in a simple apartment and cook his own meals. in his 14 years as arch bishop, he weighed in on many political and social conflicts while honing in on skills needed to reform the vatican's sometimes incompetent curia.

pop francis is best known in his retire life as an advocate of the poor. in latin america, growth has been great and misery has been reduced to least. and while a conservative on social issues, he has be rated breefts for not baptizing children that have been born out of wedlock. the new pope may bring reform himself. certainly he brings change. he had the first jesuit to be named pope. guys, back to you. >> mary, all the reports that i've heard, at least the initial reports, show that huge amount of enthusiasm, talking about what you mentioned with his humility, with his real touch with the people. he's known as a soccer fan and a man who walks among the streets and that's makes the people in argentina love him all the more

for those issues. but you're right, he face aes huge number of hurdles with the scandals that have come up in recent years. >> it's true. and i think what's interesting is picking basically someone who is considered a pastor as opposed to a theologian. the church is understanding that. they need someone who can reach out and make a connection with the people because pope francis had a similar problem in argentina, feeling the catholic church didn't do enough to fight back against a very abusive government. so he's used to dealing with a disaffected populous. >> that has been the one criticism that i've heard, is that you'll see much more on his silence during those years in argentina during the '70s and the '80s that he didn't speak out more against that ruling goftd. >> right. and the cycle has already started in that he did do more than what was led on. it was just that he remained

silent about those actions. >> heir mary, that i think very much. this is a huge story, one would have been following closely. >> sure. a little corporate news this morning, samsung will unveil its latest galaxy tonight in new york. apple going on the defensive. in a rare interview, apple's marketing chief attacked samsung and google's android software calling it fragmented. it underscores the extent of pressure on apple right now to explain what fragmented means because google has an android platform but traditionally doesn't own the hardware. there are different versions of the software on different devices. that's why they're calling it fragmented. but the fact that apple is even acknowledgiing that samsung exists i think is something that in the old steve jobs day would never happen, right? >> no.

you would let the product speak for itself. i feel when apple ran an ad in the paper regarding -- >> oh, this is when they had the start me up, right? windows had the campaign and -- >> and it was just a huge driven lead up and the -- all it said was congratulations but with windows language and the colon. and it was a snarky thing, but it showed that they were cool and hip. >> some of the other apple ads have taken, mentioned their competitors, too. remember the apple guy. >> certainly. where you compare yourself to windows. >> that was on the pc side, so they weren't the incumbent with the iphone. >> i can't believe we're even talking about it. but, anyway -- >> i wonder why they did do the interview. it's been unusual that they did interviews, anyway.

>> i was at that conference with the young people last week. the momentum behind android over apple, it is what it is. in related news, the u.s. international trade commission is delaying a ruling on the patent story. the full itc said it would review the matter. if the full commission reverses the judge's ruling and found that apple is guilty of infringement, the itc could order apple's product banned from the u.s. market. apple had filed complaints against samsung for copying its iphone and ipad. >> andrew is talking about the iphone and ipads, i'm still talking about blackberry. the company reporting one of its

partners placed an order for a million blackberry 10 devices. shipments will begin immediately. blackberry says this is the largest order ever in its history. at this point, i think there's only one carrier here in the united states. is it at&t, i think, and they've had delayed launches for the other carriers. i wonder if the it's that carrier, what's going on. the obama administration is reportedly drawing up plans to give spy agencies the ability to scour american's finances. the white house wants to give spy agencies full access to a massive database that contains financial information on american citizenes and others who bank in this country. the goal is to spot and track down terrorists networkes and crime syndicates by bridging together criminal records, military intelligence and financial reports. it is still likely to trigger

some intense criticism for privacy advocates. >> can i say i'm not bothered. i read this story. >> i'm not already bothered by it, either. >> and the fbi already has access to this information. it's not that they don't. it's actually that the cia and other otherwises didn't. i don't know. >> i am sure there will be .rivacy concerns that are it wasn't all that surprised. >> there's privacy concerns, but there's the idea the cia was never supposed to operate internally. to me that's the bigger publish issue. >> before we didn't think the enemy was from within. >> but that's why it's news worthy, not so much that the data is not accessible otherwise. >> right. in other washington news, a senate committee will be releasing its report on the

jpmorgan what he wile watchers. and bank executives will be gathering on capitol hill tomorrow for a grilling. witnesses include former cio ina drew in her first public appearance since the scandal. she will be there. >> jamie dimon is not on that list. >> jamie dimon no one. mike cavanagh is an interesting one. doug braunstein, currently the injuries chairman was the cfo who boar the brunt of some of the blame at the time. ashley bacon and then peter weiland. finally, treasury secretary jack lew is heading to atlanta to visit a facility and our own steve liesman will be there. there he is standing next to the

next treasury secretary. you can catch all that. that conversation will happen at 4:15 around time. kelly evans is standing by in london. good morning. >> good morning. great to see you guys and is mike san tolly, as well. here is a look at what's been happening in tradover night. the ftse mib is up 1% in italy. we just got word from the bank of italy that those banks that posted a lost, it wants them to reign in bonuses and it's concerned about capital levels. that was in a statement. still in the green, bankintender, wmps. some of the other names have been suspended in trade, including bancopalatea. let's take a look at the

sovereign debt picture. we've seen the italian paper yesterday fall off. so 4.68% versus 4.81% for spain. she did go to auction maybe raising in 1.2 billion ur rowses. it actually in, fael, with 11400 euros. we learned that fourth quarter employment levels, guys, were at their lowest since 2006. so you take population growth into account and the fact that that's, what, six years on, fewer people employed? you can tell this story, even if it's been a positive one for now, is far from over. back to you. >> kelly evans, thank you for that. coming up, we're going to talk about why u.s. regulators

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welcome back, everybody. after yet another record close for the dow, another up day for the s&p 500, you can see that there are some green arrows this morning. dow futures up by about 30 points right now. s&p futures indicated higher by just over 3.5 points. u.s. regulators are examining gold price necessary london and the cftc is trying to determine if the prices are being manipulated. no formal investigation has been opened, but among the issues being discussed is whether the setting of both gold and silver prices is transparent. when they say things like that, guys, i think that's back to libor, eurobor. probably all in question this morning. >> is this a joke? >> i don't think it's a joke. the whole london fixing, it was one of those similar thing. we're taking your word for it. >> and the what regulators have said since this, in europe and here, has been we're not going to take your word. your word is no longer the gold standard. >> that being said, you can sell

gold anywhere in the world. to me, it's a little bit manipulatable over the long-term than, say, libor is, which is a number. >> you can understand why they're skeptical. >> sure. let's get to our national forecast this morning from the weather channel's reynolds wolf. >> aloha. good looking morning in the northeast. >> aloha. i like that. >> it's just mixing it up a little bit. we want hawaiian kind of conditions, don't we? >> yes. bring it on. >> you're going to have some chilly mornings the next couple of days, but spring is on the horizon. we make our way in atlanta. cool morning, but a nice day overall with 55, 66 in tampa. let's work our way to the west. quiet in the nation's mid section. check out dallas. 78 degrees. kansas city with 68 degrees. a few snow showers. >> minneapolis. out to the west we go and we head out to the west. we see rain in parts of the pacific northwest. nice and quiet for you in l.a.

near the staples center and i'll tell you, in terms of travel, it's not going to be is thoin that's going to cause you issues. in atlanta, it's going to be perfect at hartsfield-jackson. could see some backups in chicago and the twin citys all due to the snowflakes. back to you guys. >> is it going to get a lot warmer on the east coast soon? is that what you're giving us hints of? >> pretty much. we should see that early next week. fine ix finally getting into the 90s over the next couple of days. it will be warmer around a good portion of the nation, including the northeast. >> reynolds, thank you. great to see you again. >> thanks, guys. check this out. what about the idea of a ka seenny in the sky? you can get in a few hands of blackjack while flying home from a business meeting. a couple of french companies, air jet design essence are trying to get the airlines to buy into their casino jet lounge. we're not talking blue haired ladies at penny slots here. this is all high end.

the company is telling cnbc that the cost of tricking out a commercial jet starts at about $2 million to $3 million. they will do private planes, but there is one slight glitch in all this. gambling is still banned in usair space. so if you were just to fly over the atlantic a little bit, make a little detour -- >> it would work. that's why they have those cruises that you can go out and gamble for the day. >> it's actually what you do on a cruise ship. i'm surprised it hasn't happened before now, to be honest with you. >> if you're going the lose money on the plane to begin with, you want to pay to get on the plane so you can lose more money? >> yes. all of these casinos, that's the trick with macau and every one of these places. >> i don't know. if you're fought going somewhere -- do i think you're going to go up in the air for fun? >> no. these are probably for trips that would take you out over those areas. >> it's going to take you to vegas and back? you're extending the losses?

how does this work? >> maybe you're flying out by the united states. maybe it's droos ocean trip. >> okay. >> that's what we would guess. when we come back, another day, another record close. jobless claims, inflation data, what's driving today's session? we will ask the experts right after this. thank you orville and wilbur... ...amelia... neil and buzz: for teaching us that you can't create the future... by clinging to the past. and with that: you're history. instead of looking behind... delta is looking beyond. 80 thousand of us investing billions... in everything from the best experiences below... to the finest comforts above. we're not simply saluting history... we're making it.

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welcome back to squawk this morning. the dow has reached a ninth straight up session. is the market due for a correction? we've been talking about that

for a long time. let's start that discussion. we have a couple of people joining us. gene peroni, senior vice president and portfolio manager at advisers asset management. we have joe kinehan. and on set, david pearson, senior vice president and chief economist at nationwide insurance. do we think a correction is coming? >> you know, there are corrections all the time. as long as the fed keeps monetary policy with pedal to the metal expansion and the economy is growing, then the trend in the stock market should be up. >> i'm going to go to santoli. do you think a correction is coming? >> i thought the ingredients were there. and by the way, what i'm focused on, is we are exactly matching last year's experience. the year to gain this year is precisely where we were last year. and it seems a lot of the things

are in place for that. but that's not enough. you can't just have the precondition and it can't be a matter of what has gone on long enough. it has nothing to do with the nine-day streak, it has to do with how far we've come since november. but right now, we've not had -- people ask for the positioning of a fullback. joe, are you there? >> yeah, i'm here, andrew. >> is this smart thing taking money off the table at this point? >> i think people who have had nice gains do take a little bit off the table right now because that's just good trading the.we've had an amazing year so far. but with that, i think we also are going to go up and test this 1575 level on the s&p 500. you know, as you look at where we're at right now, look at the transports. it's not an exciting sector. nobody wants to really talk about it. you look at stocks like jbhunt, up 60% yesterday, up 20% for the year. those are the stocks that when they're going better and they're going as well as they are, you can certainly continue these

types of rallies. so i would be surprised if we didn't go up and test that area over the next few weeks. you often see us make on wednesday or thursday, so today or tomorrow of that week a bing move one way or the other. so things are set up for us to try that over the next few days. >> gene, the lesson of the tech bubble was that momentum was a bad word. >> that's true. it was because the market was being driven essentially by a microsemester attic factor, in this case, technology. this market is much different. this market is much different than i've seen in my 39-year career. it's not micro-sematic. many sectors are doing well in a balanced way. it's not any one sector that's ahead of the pack. when one sector does move ahead of the pack, there's good sell. money flow is tremendous here. that means that the astute individual investor has been in

this market for a while. more recently, the institutional activity has started to pick up. that's wa you want to see. >> david, but the volume is -- what do you think of that? >> well, i wouldn't really pay too much attention to the volume. i think the more important thing is the stilling of volume. when you still the volume, this market is under accumulation based on that. >> the volumes had been low. the individual investor has only recently gotten it. >> do we think that the individual investor really is back in? do we think that is what's driving this? >> no. the investor has only gotten in for a few weeks this year. that's not what's been driving the market. often, you see that at the top and perhaps that is evidence of a top. but i think once we get into the second quarter, the economic data is going to look a lot weaker as the sequester starts to hit and that may be the motivation for the market to pull back, at least temporarily. >> is that the retail investors that pulls back or is the

institutional investor see through that? right now, everybody around this table is saying there's going to be a pullback in the economy. forget about the market, in the economy. and nobody seems to care. >> well, i think it's likely to be the institutional investor that moves first because the institutional investor moves before the retail investor. >> gene, wa do you think about this weird disconnect? maybe it's not a disconnect. >> no, i think in this case the market has been predictive. it's been positive over a long period of time. it's been able to dodge the negative headlines over the last year and more. i think the most important thing here is interest rates are low and the fed is transparent. you're taking monetary uncertainty off the table. at the same time, you have earnings growing nicely here, beating expectations by the best pace we've seen in about five or six quarters. so the two most important things for the market historically, interest rates and earnings are playing well in the market's

favor. the market is looking to the horizon, not the daily news right pow? >> and it's not been a sorry about economic momentum that is principally the factor driving things. >> one thing about the retail investor i wanted to add, we have the imx we received last week and the retail investor has been more involved over the last six months consecutively. i would say that's mott the full population you want to see of retail investors involved, but i think they're getting smarter about how they are being involved. if i could just mention one thing that so many retail investors watching the show, next monday we're starting called mini options that will be one tenth the size of regular options trading at the exchanges. so that may help some of the retail investors on the sidelines. it will hoe allow them to participate in the stocks because of their price price so many people out of the market for the retail investors. the exchanges are being smart about helping them get more involved. >> joe, gene, david, thank you

for joining us. >> pretty much across the board, we didn't have any bears around. but when you say bull session, sometimes people think of other things. we'll see how it all works out. thanks, guys. >> when we come back, we're going to talk data as we do every morning. there are economic statistics and corporate reports. but there's a booming industry devoted to what's called big data. computers are compiling statistics on everything from how much money you spend to how much you're parked at your local mile. how are companies using this information? why should you care? we'll explain it to you right after this. i'm a conservative investor. but that doesn't mean i don't want to make money. i love making money. i try to be smart with my investments. i also try to keep my costs down. what's your plan? ishares. low cost and tax efficient. find out why nine out of ten large professional investors choose ishares for their etfs.

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this morning, we're taking a look inside the data economy. brian shactman explains. >> the amount of data now generated in the world is staggering. the world creates 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day and that figure is growing at an astounding rate of 50% per year. whether it be phones, gps devices, computers, you name it. cheaper silicone and faster chip ves created a tsunami of data. for just $600, you can buy a disk drive to store all the music in the world. big storage, big correction at incredible speeds make big dey data. some say it is a $100 billion opportunity. it is the challenge of the 21st century. how do you profit from all this

information? >> joining us now is one of the leading analysts of the leading database companies. cash vangon from bank of america merrill lynch global research. we know there's all this information out there, but what are companies doing in terms of mining it? >> there's a lot of comparative intelligence to be gleaned from it. the way you look at big data is if you're not using big data analytical technologies, you're probably a loser. this is one of the biggest deals, biggest revolutions that have happened in the software industry. >> give us an example. >> if you're in oil and gas, geophysical exploration, you collect all the information to where oil could be. to be able to synthesize it and pinpoint with accuracy where am i going to place the drill to ensure a high degree of discuss, that's one example.

>> how recent is this? we know companies have been trying to do stuff like this for a long time, but is it the computer databases haven't been there for a long time? >> we've always had big databases. but what we were missing is the sequence that intk you as a consumer. the data that you generate with your smartphones, that has not been captured the. the front end that leads up to the back end has been able to predict whether you would make a transaction or not, that's what we're talking about. >> so what companies are poised to take advantage of this? i would guess big companies like an ibm. >> who groups of companies. you have your traditional players, oracle, ibm, sac that have had a good back end offering. but there's a whole group of front end companies that have number technology, tipco spot fire, click technology. >> that means nothing to me. what are they?

>> i live in san francisco, right? >> right. >> so a ten-minute walk radius, there's half a dozen of companies that are big data companies. >> what business res doing the most interesting things? i'm not talk, the software. who in the oil and gas world or in the consumer world is taking this data and doing something that's unique? >> look at ge, jeffrey immelt had a presentation at one of the conferences attended. they're talking about how you can use aircraft engines to emit data every so often to proactively make the case for, hey, this engine needs to be serviced. >> oh, wow. >> it's not human innovation. we're talking about machines generating data and is being able to analyze that and proactively say this thing needs fixed before it goes out. >> when you get into the consumer spaces, there are concerns about privacy or have we gotten past those? dm i think it's going to become a big issue. right now, the advantage that people gain that i actually like

that somebody has targeted a specific offer to me that's relevant to me. i kind of like it and i want to be a good consumer as a result. but when it starts to get beyond the privacy issue, i think it's an issue. it's a win-win so far. >> did you read this story? google hastens to show its concern for privacy. this sefkively a story about big data. they settled the suit this week and it's the first time that this company is going to have to actually deal with states on a state by state level to change their business. and they used to -- the model was always, you know, ask questions later, effectively. do you think that's changing? >> well, in my neck of the woods as far as the businesses are concerned, i don't think that they are misusing any proprietary information for their -- in this case, i think it's a win-win. it's a huge booster productivity. it's a huge competitive advantage. the companies that i deal with don't get into the consumer realm that much. >> the smaller companies that you mentioned that are now there for the front end, are these

companies that you think are going to be acquisition targets, some of the bigger companies that they're doing at the back ends? >> the way the cycle plays out is the big guys are watching this field and saying let these small guys duke it out with each other. i think it's still too early to go and make runs at these smaller companies at this point and, again, you think it's fortune 500 companies making this run? >> absolutely. fortune 10, fortune 15. i've listened to chief information officers from all kinds of companies talk about big data. this is a phenomenon that has rapidly accelerated and has dominated consciousness of i.t.makers in the last two years like no other technology has. this has taken off more rap idealy than i expected. >> kash, thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you. hope to see you soon. coming up, an adviser who is changing the world of technology and media has worked with companies include tumbler,

synogramm and among others. we have to talk about black jet. that's what i want to talk to you about. find out what he has up his sleeves now and in the future when squawk returns. >> good morning. >> good morning. it's a new day. if your a man with low testosterone, you should know that axiron is here. the only underarm treatment for low t. that's right, the one you apply to the underarm. axiron is not for use in women or anyone younger than 18. axiron can transfer to others through direct contact. women, especially those who are or who may become pregnant, and children should avoid contact where axiron is applied as unexpected signs of puberty in children or changes in body hair or increased acne in women may occur. report these signs and symptoms to your doctor if they occur.

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welcome back. entrepreneurs are gathering at the nasdaq today for the founders conference, a invitation only event for 100 of the world's top tech founders. among the attendees, co-ceo and founder, sharep nefar. now, you just changed your position a little bit. >> yeah. i'm still an adviser. >> so i asked you before you came on how did you get here because i was asking if you used blackjet. you have a huge investment in uber. it's a limb know service, but now it's sort of changed. do we call it a cab service? >> choose between taxis, high end cars, normal cars. >> and then blackjet, which we've talked about before which is basically uber, or private planes, that's how mike got here

this morning. do you have the app? >> no, i don't. >> i actually downloaded the app. do you actually do it a lot? >> i do. we're launching routes right now, so we're in the founding stage. so we just just launched san francisco to vegas for about $900. >> it's not really a private plane because i have to share the the plane with other people. >> it's a private jet but you're sharing the seats on the plane. the model was to actually pay for all the seats on the plane. >> all of them. that's a waste. so we're kind of democratizing and allowing people to fly across the the country on short hops for 900. >> you call it collaborative commerce. >> yeah. >> a lot of these services that put people together, ab&b --

>> to me the greatest risk is that something goes wrong, meaning there's that accident in one of the cars or one of the passengers has a problem or something. and you have this national brand. >> right. >> what do you do about that? >> or, by the way, somebody goes on your couch surfing service and something bad happens in the house. i hope to be the downer. >> ab&b did that. in the early stages they had a couple incidents like that. the powerful thing in uber is the uber rating. very quickly we know if a driver is 4.8, 4.9, 5.0. those are very good ratings. we also have the drivers rate the customers. you basically can see if someone is a 4.5 or 4.4 they're going to be out of the system at some point. >> invested in some of the biggest tech companies or social

media companies. you started a new company. >> sherpa. >> not an incubator, i'm told. >> no. >> so, tell us what it is. >> scott sanford and i from goldman sachs, he led the internet practice there, did facebook and linkdin. we haven't announced all the details, but we're basically trying to build a new kind of investment platform. >> is this a venture firm? >> no. >> this is for individuals. give us a little bit of -- >> a little bit is what we already talked about. there's going to be actual corporate members who are investors. there's going to be actual entrepreneurs who are members. and there's going to be a lot of interesting things happening between them in terms of ideas and assets and resources.

>> i'm still not getting it. you're partnering with big companies. tech companies? you're limited on terms of -- >> i promise i will come back the day we announce. >> there's been big debates about whether venture is a good business. yesterday carlile throwered their threshold to $50,000. >> from 5 million. post bubble people say venture is a horrible business. is venture now a better business than it used to be? is it a good business? should they be trying to get into funds? >> there were a set of pioneers who helped create the venture business not too long, 30, 40

years ago. these were young mavericks. they helped invent a new investment vehicle for fuel start-up growth. it was an incredible contribution and it will be a major part of our economy for a long time. venture business isn't going away. powered by technology and the entrepreneurs themselves and the lowered cost of starting businesses and the ability to scale them really fast on mobile to hundreds of millions of absolutely billions of people. and that creates new form factors. that's where i think there's parallel side by side interesting new types of -- >> where are you on evaluations in the valley now? overhyped? underhyped? just right? >> just right. i think the companies that are growing at historic speed like

uber are when we led that round put $26.5 million into uber, it was only in three or four cities. a lot of people thought that we overpaid. now they're all trying to get into the company. it's, you know, if you can calibrate your analysis right about company on the founding team and when you have special founders like travis and teams like that, you just got to get it right. >> let me ask you a final question. we're going to find out from samsung what this new famous device is tonight. there's a huge debate between apple/android platform. do you have an opinion? >> i think larry page announced activations was something like 750 million activations.

at the end of the day this is the same story between what happened between apple and microsoft. when you have an open model and closed model, open always wins. >> so apple loses? would you own apple? >> i do own apple. >> you do? >> yeah. and i own google as well. >> are you making a bet that it goes back up? >> i owned it when it was much lower. still to come on "squawk," more of the morning's top stories. and jay jordan on the appetite for making moves in the market >> and the hottest game right now. the multibillion dollar story straight ahead. i know what you're thinking...

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how long can the rally run? how long can the rally run? the dow having its first nine-day winning streak since 1996. we take a closer look at what's driving market momentum with guest host jay jordan of the jordan group. from the almighty church to the almighty dollar, have the prayers of currency traders been answered or is the recent move of the dollar a sign of the apocalypse. we hear from joe trevasanni. inside the the world of minecraft. how is this company disrupting online gaming one block at a

time as the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now. good morning and welcome to "squawk box "squawk box". we do have green arrows. dow opening 29 points higher. nasdaq up. washington budget battle escalating today with senate budget committee expected to approve a democratic version drafted by washington senator patty murray. late yesterday the the house budget committee passed a republican plan which takes a completely different approach. we're going to talk about the competing budget plans with steny hoyer in the next hour.

home repossessions fell 29%. they're at the lowest level since 2007. the total was 45,000. that was half than at peak total in march 2010. amr is asking a judge for more time to file its plan to exit bankruptcy. the the current deadline is april 15th. the airline is asking for an extension to may 29th. it needs the extra time to in corporate its merger with us airways. if you haven't been paying any attention the last 24 hours or so, we have a pope. he greeted tens of thousands crowd indeed a rainy st. peter's square yesterday. the former archbishop of buenos aries. cnbc's mary thompson will be

here shortly with more on the new leader of the catholic church. a number of important economic tasks before the bell this morning. weekly jobless claims. february producer price index. and the fourth quarter current account. benefits are seen rising by 10,000 to 350,000. likely increases by 0.7. core component ticked higher by 0.1%. private equity deal maker jay jordan is joining us now, chairman and managing principal of the jordan company. also mike santolli, finance senior columnist. jay, welcome to the set. great to see you again. >> thank you. it's great to be here. all right. private equity had rough years when we were looking at all the troubled markets that were out there. now that we're seeing new highs how does that change things? >> it is pretty robust right

now. still remains very competitive. coming out of 2008-2009 cycle and recovering nicely. so it is a major asset class among investors and will continue to be. right now we're enjoying a pretty good uptick? >> what do you mean? >> it is very, very competitive. we will see fallout on the 2008-2009 meltdown created problems for a number of firms in their ability maybe to raise money. dodd/frank created tremendous barriers to entry. a lot of forms aren't going to be able to afford registration. >> who is going on out of business? >> well, i don't want to name names. >> the the bigger names? >> well, the bigger names are by

directive and legislation not going to be in the business, okay? that's part of the whole volcker situation which hasn't been implemented yet. but a lot of small firms aren't going to be able to comply with dodd/frank. while the competitive environment is still there it's becoming less competitive. >> you have an exit strategy. you can take it back to market and back to an ibo. and you may have less competition for people fighting for the the same kind of deals. >> that is true. we sort of take it out of focus. we consider ours to be a highly competitive world. we tend to enjoy some advantages. as a matter of fact, i'm our firm's chief's compliance officer. >> you are? >> i am. absolutely. i want to make sure we have a gold standard of compliance. the only way to do that is do it

yourself. >> that must eat up a huge amount of your time? >> it has, yes. it is very important that we comply to the 20th decimal point. i want to make sure we do everything right. a lot of wasted time. i think statistics are there's 55 million hours now of time dedicated to complying with dodd/frank across the board. that 55 million hours annually could be used more productively in generating and growing the economy, creating jobs erbgts. >> if i could just get you to talk about the environment right now we're in. so high yield is yielding. it's under 6%. the markets are nagging private equity players to come in and do things. cash flow, you are above that. i'm surprised there hasn't been more deal activity. they are making that adjustment for you. >> you're right. high yield is on fire. it's a very scary thing.

who knows about the timing. you're correct in one of the things we are careful of. we are one of the few who had no defaults in the cycle. no covenant renegotiations. we don't use a lot of ledger. we are not risk averse but we look at the down side. we price and structure deals on the down side. you're starting to see some of the old bad habits. are we building another bubble? we could very well be building another bubble. and we just have to wait and see. but you're right. i think the pace will pick up dramatically if rates stay down. >> in the context of dell, there's been a lot of questions about the dell transaction. you don't need to speak to dell specifically but i would be

curious your views. we had leigh-ann cooperman here last week. the managers know stuff that the public doesn't. and therefore somehow the public is always going to be effectively ripped off. if five years from now this dell transaction works out and it's spectacular public shareholders would say why can't you do that in the public markets and do it for us. >> carl icahn certainly agrees with you. >> that's the the argument. that's the frame of what's happening out here. >> exactly. we have never done a public-to-private transaction. so we don't have experience in that. on paper, you're 100% correct. it doesn't look good. in the dell case you have an entrepreneur who owns -- i don't know how much he opens but he has a lot of skin in the game. the question is is it a fair,

open opportunity for others to step in. with michael dell being the real horse you question that. i don't know. but you could make your argument. you can make a case for what you're saying. again, i don't have direct experience so i'm not going to comment further than that. there is a strong sense that could occur. >> what arenas have you been looking for new potential deals. >> we look theme atticly. there's some pretty common themes globally. health care, energy. we kind of look in those areas wherewith we can see long-term growth. also, the emerging markets are very, very attractive. 85% of the population.

we tend to look out 10 years. we're long-term players. our senior team has been investing together for 20 years. so we haven't lost anybody. so we can afford to take -- it's not a revolving door at our firm. we look at these long term -- health care and pan-asian is interesting. we have a big operation in china. so these are the kind of themes we look at. high value add manufacturing. it always stayed in the united states. the value ed component in the u.s. has always been fairly strong. we love it. we come out predominantly balance is probably 60/40 services or other. but back when i started out it was probably 80% phfrgz and 20% other. so our world has shifted and our tphrof any has shifted as well. >> jay and mike are guest hosts.

they will be with us the rest of the program. disruptors thursday. coming up next, invite-only conference taking place at the nasdaq. we're going to speak to the former ceo of huffington post. and if you have kids, probably have heard of minecraft. think of it as computer legos. they take changing the gaming world one block at a time. we have the cea coming up right after the break. eak. he he i you i [ female announcer ] you're the boss of your life. in charge of long weekends and longer retirements.

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. here . here we go again. another another record close for the dow yesterday and its longest consecutive winning streak, nine sessions in a row, the longest it has seen in 16 years, you can see green arrows once again. dow futures up 31 points. s&p up over 4.75 points. the legal battle over new york city's ban of large sugary drinks is set to continue in june. a ruling struck down the the the

new law hours after. the ban, which has been set -- just set to take effect -- was set to take effect, i apologize, this past thursday. would have barred restaurants, movie theaters from selling larger than 16 ounces. that's a small cup you have there. i don't think that would have counted. this morning we are highlighting some of the great entrepreneurs and disruptors. invite-only gathering of the 150 top tech company founders. joining us now on the set is eric kippo. former ceo of huffington post. also former ceo of ziff davis. what are the biggest ones? >> maker bots.

my prescription is a little more complicated. >> they won't do it i have one question for you. you obviously ran the company. it sold to aol for a lot of money. people thought it was a great deal. all the reports say you didn't want to sell. given where the markets are today and given all the confidence, do you wish you would have stuck with that? >> first of all, all of us are very happy we sold the company for the the price we sold it. but i was on the record to say i thought if we had stayed the course we could have taken the company public. with huffington post we were able to build the brand that defined digital news on the web. breakaway brand, very successful company. it was profitable when we sold out. we knew exactly what to do wit.

we could have taken it public. >> what do you think it would have been valued at now? >> a billion. >> a billion now? two years later? >> yeah. >> that's incredible. >> talk to us a little bit about buzz feed, social media, where you think all of this is going. >> there is a huge revolution in terms of marketing and the way that brands go to market. that's revolution fueled entirely by social media. brands today have become publishers. they are constantly publishing their message. it's all going in real-time. and the amount of content and the amount of publishing and the amount of expressing their voice and message has gone tremendously up. so platforms help the brands manage this real-time publishing. >> can we care that so much news is reverse engineered? when you look at buzz feed and

one of the things they're doing is looking at what's popular online. what is the big issue of the moment. then they write about it. traditionally news write about what's newsy and then it becomes popular. >> certainly that was the root of the company. as you know, they have hired a large professional journalistic team led by ben smith, who was at politico. they are reporting on politics, current affairs and entertainment. >> where are you on facebook as a social media platform for the future? does it work? does it not work? is it gaining steam? losing steam? >> i think it's gaining steam. the redesign of the news feed that mark zucker berg just announced will make it even more attractive. a lot of people spend a lot of time on facebook.

>> will will google ever get there? google plus or whatever it is, does that ever make it? >> google has the resources and long-term vision. i would say they'll have a place. >> where is twitter on this? >> twitter is fantastic. it's my social network of choice. i find it incredibly useful for professional reasons as well as personal reasons. but it's where the news iss breaking. i'm constantly on twitter. so are hundreds of millions other people. it's very popular. >> who is going to buy twitter, by the way? >> twitter will go public. >> how much do you think it's worth? >> i think the last valuation was $10 billion. >> the early markets, we saw this with what happened in facebook, the early investors, the premarket before the market, is that messing up the idea of a technology ipo being a successful takeoff again? >> i don't think so. of course everyone goes back to

the facebook fiasco, although it's getting steam again. for every facebook you have a bunch of companies that has done very well. linkdin had a good high yesterday. >> do you have a question? >> go ahead. >> all of this in terms of how brands are marketing themselves and utilizing social media, is it all additive to the overall marketing pie or just a different form of what we're already getting in other forms? >> it's a completely new form. never before have markets been able to have this one-on-one conversation with people all at once. so it's a brand-new form of marketing. is it additive? yes and no. at the same time they are shuffling some of the money available for marketing. >> real quick, new york. you actually do your business in new york. a lot of disruptors are from the

valley. is there a shift happening. is it really here now? >> absolutely. new york is booming. here to stay as a tech center. it's big in the valley. i don't think they are trying to replicate what's going on in the valley. commerce, media, publishing, enterprise, marketplaces. all the thing that new york has a whole history. >> it's still the second city when it comes to technology. >> out pacing everybody else, including boston and austin. will it be big in the silicon valley? i'm not sure that's the kind of race you want to be in. the fact is it's traps forming the economy of new yorkment that's the important part. >> thank you, eric, for coming in this morning. appreciate it very much. coming up, the best-selling xbox live arcade game ever.

if you haven't heard of mo jane you have definitely heard of minecraft. [ man ] i've been out there most of my life. you name it...i've hooked it. but there's one... one that's always eluded me. thought i had it in the blizzard of '93. ha! never even came close. sometimes, i actually think it's mocking me. [ engine revs ] what?! quattro!!!!! ♪ ♪ [ indistinct shouting ] [ male announcer ] time and sales data. split-second stats. [ indistinct shouting ] ♪ it's so close to the options floor... [ indistinct shouting, bell dinging ] ...you'll bust your brain box.

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>> welcome welcome back, everybody. fans of the tv series veronica mars, the series creator rob thomas launched yesterday to try and fund a big screen version. well, the campaign reached its $2 million goal less than four and a half hours after it was posted. at last count more than 33,000 contributors pledged $2.1 million. the movie is now expected to come out in the summer of 2014. big screen of "squawk box". maybe we will post ourselves for that >> when we come back, sending warm wishes to pope francis. what's ahead for the new leader of the catholic church. from the almighty church to the almighty dollar. we'll take a closer look at what it says about the state of the global economy right now as we head to break. here's a look at currency this

is hour. squawk will be back after a quick break. (music throughout) why turbo? trust us. it's just better to be in front.

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welcome back welcome back to "squawk box" on this thursday morning. in the headlines, we're about an hour away from a flood of economic data. 8:30 a.m. eastern time. february producer price index, fourth quarter and weekly jobless report on initial jobless claims, all those. plus, walt disney is delaying the launch of its newest video game infinity. it originally planned to launch in june but it wants to take advantage of more favorable retail season. infinity allows users to put disney and pixar characters into different video games. and samsung beat out apple as the top seller of smartphones in 2012. phil schiller is blasting samsung and google's operating system in advance of the event. he said the the system is fragmented and that the new phone will debut with year-old of wear. so the battle is on.

argentine more way bergoglio the first pope from the americas and the first from outside europe in over a millennium. a look at what's ahead for the new pope. who was that and where were they? >> 741 i believe the year was. it was gregory iii. he hailed from syria. but this time of course the concave elected the archbishop of buenos aries after five votes. a reformer in the 1200s who lived a life in simplicity and service to the poor. his election latin america's importance of the church. archbishop advocated calling latin america the the most unequal region of the world.

having seen great growth while reducing misery the least. the 76-year-old pope a surprise choice. many expected the church to opt for a younger leader to take on its many challenges. among then the ongoing sexual abuse scandal, a declining flock. and reforming the in effective curia and cleaning up the mess known as the vatican bank. those familiar with francis say the administrative skills will seven him well in rome. catholics hoping for a change on the social front will likely be disappointed. the first jesuit to saebd to the papacy he resisted changes championed by the more aggressive wing of that ready on, sticking closely to the church doctrine while still

speaking of the importance of respecting gays. and he accused fellows. >> coming up, paul ryan's plan for budget trickery. according to steny hoyer it is. and checking the futures right now, green arrows across the board. squawk is coming back right after this. next, if you've never heard of minecraft, don't worry, your kids have. we'll talk to the ceo behind the viral computer game. his company famously rejected a partnership offer from shawn parker. revolutionizing an industry can be a tough act to follow,

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welcome welcome back to sidewalk. nasdaq up eight points. nine days straight. >> the last time you had a rain

like this was -- >> 1996. >> it was a longer run. it wasn't just nine days. it's still the longest run. >> let's talk about some other headlines. a company where the markets are pretty important. citadel selling its entire stake in e trade. this is when things get better for them. >> all the asset managers to me amendmented the fact that the public is going to get more excited about the markets. he trade was a restructuring story. citadel came in and gave some capital. it's a successful exit but it wasn't a straight line path. >> a lot of people think there

are underpinnings to this. you have concerns about the jobs number, one of the strongest points. >> right. i'm one of the ney sayers that believe these are somewhat a sham. 7.7%. if you look back and you use the same participation rate a year ago -- or if you use that for today's comparison, done employment 18.5%. >> janet yelin's point has been until we see the unemployment rate improve without the participation rate being a factor the fed is not going to take its foot off the gas. >> when obama became president to today, unemployment would be

10%. when i got in the business it was 4% unemployment. those that didn't want to work and those that couldn't work. if those migrate up to 6%, 7%, we have real problems. i tend to think that full employment rate is not 4.5%. it's going to be 6.5%, maybe as high as 7%. >> that's the new normal theory? >> that's a real issue for this country. real issue. >> we don't know how much of that decline in the participation rate is going to see like a demographics. we just don't know how much of that is a part of it. >> steve tkpwhraoes man has done a little bit of work on it. he's under the the impression heights half. >> and the other half is a sick cal, slow uptake. to me my biggest concern is we were looking at three-month average of jobs created per month, 240,000. that's what we made last year.

then it ebbed from there. you have something going on. seasonally in the winter we have tail winds. i don't think we're in the same point of another real double dip watch necessarily. but we have to be cognizant that the market rally to me has not been about the economy is booming and we're just going to ride it. if that were the case, alcoa and caterpillar would not be the worst stocks. >> if you look around the globe, the china issue and the potential slowdown there. >> starting with zero interest rates going to 6% high yield. that's all we're doing. >> i happen to believe also this qe3 plays a big role in risk in

the market. when the fed stops printing money we could be in for a roller coaster ride. my judgment, and i'm obviously not in the stock trading business, but you see how it has affected the markets. >> no argument that the fed has had a massive, massive -- has been a massive part of the reason this has been happening. but you do look at consumers consumer numbers have been good. retail sales number were better than expected. jim cramer has been pounding the table on this. you look at a lot of numbers, people are feeling better. consumer confidence is up. maybe that's what the fed has been doing all this time, has had a real impact. >> a lot of the consumer spending is coming from releveraging. are we going to build another bubble? nobody knows.

we really haven't figured it out. i'm not a big fan of what the food is doing myself. >> where do you think we would be? you said you're not a fan. >> well, i'm not a fan of basically stealing from the investors. i'm not a fan of defacing the currency. let me read you something and you tell me who this quote came from. by this means fractional reserve government, may secretly and unobserved confiscate the wealth of the people. not one man in a million will detect the theft. that's what's going on now. now, who do you think made that statement? >> i'd say -- >> canes. >> john maynard canes. >> good for you. >> that's a good question. but long term this is not healthy. nobody has deledgered a central bank balance sheet with 3

trillion dollars plus. what's going to happen when that starts? >> i grant that. i do think that's -- the devil will know which is preferable. the balance sheet was a trillion dollars before we started this mess. did we have have any idea it was too big, too small? in the early 90s the fed was doing a similar thing by keeping the curb steep. they did it with interest rates and not with putting money in. >> have you heard of a company called minecraft before you were here this morning? >> no. i'm not a big computer guy. >> you will be an addict. >> it's because you don't have kids between the ages of 5 and 15 right now. those of us who do have children that age know exactly what this is and know it all too well. it struck gold when it came up with the game minecraft. 56 million registered users.

privately held company is said to be valued at more than a billion dollars. but its greatest success is also its greatest challenge. joining us right now from stockholm is the co-founder and ceo. thank you very much for joining us this morning. >> thank you for having me. >> it sounds like we have a little bit of delay. but you are a rock star. in fact, one of my daughters natalie asked if i could get your autograph today. i had to explain that you were overseas and wouldn't be able to do that. in our household and many, many millions other households minecraft is the number one pastime for kids when they start going to look for any sort of thing to do they run to minecraft. tell a little bit about how this works. >> sure. minecraft is a sand box game. where players are able to place

blocks. they are one by one by one meter usually. and basically you can create anything you put your mind to. it's a very creative game. you can play it two different modes, either creative mode or survival mode. survival mode is like it sounds. you have to battle to survive against different mobs et cetera. it's basically a tool where you can create anything you can imagine. >> you know, the game has taken off. when i saw it the graphics looked old school. the kids love it for the imagination they get to put into it and the creativity. but it has created a little bit of controversy. some people say it is an educational tool. some schools required their students to play it. do you have any research that shows this is actually something

that helps with the child's education versus something for entertainment and creative purposes? >> we don't have any research on it. i think we're more than 500,000 students worldwide using minecraft as a tool in education. but it's still early. and, you know, what we do know is it's very engaging for the students and they really enjoy using mine craft in school. >> but the kids do like using it. >> how did you stumble into this? how do you think it took off? >> i didn't come up with the the game. my friend and colleague marcus person, he made the game. i actually hired him in my previous start-up. and he started making minecraft in his spare time. when things took off, him and a

friend jacob porser asked if i knew anyone who could help build a business around the game and i sort of pointed towards myself. they thought that was a good idea too. so we started the company in 2010 in october. and it's really been flying from there. >> coming up, with a game like this that is so incredibly popular, that is really difficult to do. shawn parker came to you and was interested in buying the the company, making an investment in the company. and you told him no. why was that? >> well, when we started the company we put together strategies and a vision for the company. one of them was we want to create the work environment and the company that we would want to work for. and we believe that that requires our independence and we can do whatever we want.

we don't want external influence. so basically we turned down every single offer from different firms and gaming companies, investors. and sean 35rbg parker was one of them. it's not every day you get an offer like that. but in our world it was pretty natural and an easy decision. >> so how do you follow up on the success of minecraft? what's your plan for what comes next? >> i think it would be very hard to follow up another game with the same kind of reach as minecraft. but we are constantly developing mine craft in different ways. we're taking it to new platforms. we just announced a new server service which is sort of an ec online line hookup for players online.

minecraft is constantly evolving and we're doing that together with the community. minecraft sort of has its live on its own. we just try to make the most of it. >> carl, i guess your end game plan is eventually to take the company public. is that the game plan? if so, when do you expect that to happen? >> no, we're not taking it public. >> ever? >> i don't think so. right now we're just enjoying the ride that we're on. and we're really happy with the position. and we think that, you know, this is the best for the company at this time to stay independent and don't go public or take investments. >> okay. carl, we want to thank you very much. again, this is our rock star moment of the morning, at least as far as my kids are concerned.

thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> up next, the the dollar close to seven-month highs. positive data on the u.s. economy continues to score optimism. we'll talk about the the dollar and how you can profit from it right after this. at the top of the hour, we welcome the head of u.s. trading at bank of america, merrill lynch. and the minority whip steny hoyer. 8:40, big east commissioners on the future of the conference and much more. "squawk box" will be right back. ♪

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welcome, back, everybody. the dollar getting a boost after surprising strong retail numbers. the yen falling under pressure. the chief market strategist at worldwide markets. joe, surprising this morning actually saw the euro back under 1.29. did that catch you by surprise? >> not really. the u.s. economy looks good. we'll see if it plays out over the remainder of the year. you get good figures the beginning of the year and then it fades. >> it still has the fed.

and qe infinity. >> they announced they're going to do this forever. once you do it forever it stops changing the levels of trading. and the euro of course you have a little bit of politics. the euro problem as it always would. the elites are never going to give up on their plan for the euro. now you have political problems in italy. you have a lot of drags in the euro. plus, european growth is terrible. and european unemployment is terrible. we can only be glad we don't have that kind of problem here. >> when you look at the yen, and the bank of japan strategy, there's good strategy? is it going to work? >> it will work if they do it. i don't mean to be factious on

that. the markets have move on what the boj have said they are going to do. they expect that they will. they haven't done anything yet. this is a history going back 15 years of japanese bank intervention in the yen. if they do it in coordination with people it's usually successful. when they do it on their own it's not successful. this time they're trying to be successful because it's important on their own. that means they're really going to have to come in and move the markets with actual intervention. we haven't seen that yet. the market is in a pause right now. i really think they have to come in. >> do you think there could be a really quick turn around and the yen could strengthen if they don't see these immediately. >> yes. >> there was a story that said this would happen before april. if we don't see some moves in the next couple of weeks. >> the japanese have to know this. they've been through this before. a lot of institutional memory about intervention in the currency markets. so i think they will have to do

this. they have staked a line and they have seen the swiss national bank be successful. so i think they will. and if they don't it will then the market will wait a few weeks and then start the other direction. >> if they do, we have already seen the low force these. >> i think you could get -- especially if they surprise the market with more than expected as i think they should do, move to 100, 102. i think that's what they're aiming for. >> if you although at what you expect to have happening i'm guessing you think it strengthens from here. >> i think it does strengthen. as i said earlier, the u.s. has has looked good in the beginning part of the past three years and then it has faded. that could detract from some of that. the italians could not put an anti european government. the fear has to be there. so there's possibilities.

>> one of the things we have seen is obviously the firming with u.s. equities performing well. have we had a disengagement where you needed it. >> the equities to my mind are trading mostly on central bank policy. it's not tremendous economic news. it's relatively good. is that enough to drive to historical levels? i have my doubts. it seems more that there's fed involvement there. so if you take that out then you do have a disconnect. and i think we're going to continue to see that. >> joe, thank you. >> my pleasure. >> coming up next, more on dow's fine-day rally. and minority whip steny hoyer calling the budget plan trickery. the next hour to explain.

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>> will uncertainty in washington over debt reduction halt the rally? we'll ask house minority whip steny hoyer what it will take to get a deal. weekly jobless claims and the price index for february due 8:30 a.m. eastern time. the third hour of "squawk box" begins right now. welcome back to "squawk box" on cnbc. joe is off today. still skiing. we're going to see him back next week. chairman of the jordan company and the chairman of the university of notre dame's endowment. the senior columnist at yahoo! finance. more from them in just a minute. first becky has your morning headlines. thank you, andrew. the dow is now on a nine-day

winning streak. by the way, that is the longest consecutive run since november 1996. the dow transports closing at another record high. the broader s&p index is within striking distance of the all time closing high of 1565. that is just 11 points away at this point. u.s. equity futures higher. up 32 points. s&p up just over five points. overseas and asia, big gains with the nikkei. in europe, you see some additional green arrows. da x-up 0.8%. ahead of that event rival apple going on the defensive. the marketing chief attacked samsung and google's android software calling it fragmented.

in housing news, a sharp drop in u.s. homes lost to foreclosure last month. efforts by some states to buy owners more time in order to try to avoid losing their homes. foreclosure listing firm reality track said it fell 11%. foreclosures at their lowest level since september 2007. the treasury secretary will make his first official trip today. steve liesman will be there. you can catch that at 4:15 eastern today. the dow managing to succeed another day of gains in choppy trading. here is the the america's head of cash equity sales and trading execution at bank of america/merrill lynch.

your name is tough to pronounce. is your mother happy with that? >> singing your praises. >> and managing director and chief u.s. economist. gentlemen, welcome. dean, you said march 10th if the fed does not withdraw quickly enough, there's a risk of overshooting. how far away from overshooting if we haven't already? >> we think inflation is not an imminent threat. not as though inflation will be up 5%. this is a risk if the the fed doesn't withdraw in a quick enough fashion. >> a few years. >> we're not at the point where things are going to go haywire immediately. >> where are you on that? >> don't fight the fed. the fed has stimulated the economy and has pushed rates to where they are. when you look at the equity markets and what he's trying to

accomplish, money is starting to gravitate back in. once again the key point is they don't do anything quickly, dramatically. it's gradual in its progress over a longer extended period of time. and i think that's what markets want to see. they don't want to see any dislocations. they want to see things done over a duration of time. >> do we want to say this is ream work something it's clearly working in the stock market. again, you go back to -- we talked about this in the last hour. what happens if we didn't do this? where would you go with that? >> we have all these reserves sitting at the fed that have not migrated into the market and what happens when they do. what they're not doing is locking in these long-term rates

30-year rates. right now we're paying 300 billion a year. what happens when it goes to a trade? game, set, match. it's over with. and we have to pay a trillion dollars a year interest. why isn't the fed trading out on these 30 years. why aren't they selling the 30 years? so they lock in the rates for the the ultimate. >> when the treasury is issuing debt they're not focused on maximizing their profits. they're trying to provide what the market needs. what the fed is doing is trying to keep rates low to get to full employment. so they're not -- neither the treasury nor the fed will strategyize to make profits in that way. >> nobody will buy anyway.

>> i'm just talking about the long-term deficit and the long-term debt we have ultimately is going to bankrupt us. these are the cheapest rates we have had since world war ii? is that correct or wrong? i don't know why they don't develop a strategy to lock in the rates so we don't have a trillion dollars in interest. >> you said don't fight the fed. you said in one of your notes that investors and sentiment is bullish but we're not positioned to be bullish. what does that mean? >> historically when we said investors sentiment was bullish, everyone is in. they're bullish. they're in the marketplace. so i think a little bit of difference is that folks say they're bullish but i don't think we have positioned themselves bullish in a way. so that quite frankly is that's going on in the marketplace

right now. it's the buy-in in the marketplace. i think people think they're bullish but the positioning is not where it is. money flows gravitated to fixed until. it's just now starting to gravitate back. that's a different scenario than the usual, we're all bullish. >> mike had an interesting point. this year could look like last year. >> it's not really a catalyst. we know what it's going to be. at exactly the same year-to-date gain. the exact same week. volatility is down. the treasury yield up the same amount. what's going to stop us from basically having this april top and have a little bit more of a rocky summer? >> i think that's a great point. one of the things that has changed in the marketplace is in equities, fundamentals are starting to trump macro.

correlations have gone lower. the the ability for equity portfolio managers to create out sized returns by picking the right stocks and not loaning the wrong stocks. i think it's healthy in the equity markets as opposed to in years past it was macro. we watched the greek votes and equity went up or down. >> on twitter you guys signed like the bernie madoff breakfast club. don't question bernie. who cares. just go with it. i mean, is there something to be said about that? >> i think there's a concern perhaps being raised. my concern is when the fed is looking at the cycles, those are normal markets we should try to reach again. they were fueled by asset

levels. the the fear would be if we try to get to that labor market again we may need certainly very strong evaluations and perhaps even a bubble to get there. >> you need a bubble to get there? >> i think that is immediate concern with this whole approach. >> jay, if your you're worried about what happens, if you think this is a sugar-induced rally, does that mean your outlook isn't that great either? if the market tanks it probably makes it a lot tougher. >> i have been doing this for 40 years. this is my fifth cycle. we thrive in times that are rough. i'm not concerned about our business. we still have one of the best asset classes in terms of yielding asset encloses among all portfolio. and there is some cyclicality.

>> have you been smart enough to buy in the last two years? >> i don't know if it's being smart but we have bought in the last two years. >> in the retail community we talk about m and a. people are buying businesses now. they should have been buying two or three years ago. >> we took time off. we couldn't figure out what was happening. we made some pretty good deals. >> he said how do you explain investors fighting the fed by shorting treasuries? >> you can explain it because everyone can do the math. there's been a treasury bubble that's been too popular in a sense. >> a lot of them have option trades just as a hedge against

inflation. that's perfectly legitimate. i don't know if it's mainstream investment. >> if one looks at the long run, it is running at 4%. they say, well, that's just not right. our view is that the in the long run that's correct. that doesn't mean yields have to go up a lot right now. >> where does the market end this year? >> look, i think the markets -- the trend is going to continue. the market is going to continue higher. we'll have on some ups and downs along the way. but, 1575, 1600 are some of the price targets. >> better than saying you're cautiously optimistic. thank you both for coming in. scott and dean, you guys will be

sticking around for the jobless claims report at 8:30. when we come back, more about the debt threat. congress weighing competing budgets in the house and senate. but is there any hope for a compromised deal? we'll ask house minority whip steny hoyer >> and mike arersco is in charge of a dying conference. the future of his conference. ♪ [ cows moo ] [ sizzling ] more rain... [ thunder rumbles ] ♪ [ male announcer ] when the world moves... futures move first. learn futures from experienced pros with dedicated chats and daily live webinars. and trade with papermoney to test-drive the market. ♪ all on thinkorswim. from td ameritrade.

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welcome welcome back, everyone. the budget battle in washington wages on. we have heard leaders on both sides of the aisle. right now joining us is our next guest who has been hearing on the hill and seeing what he thinks will take it. leader hoyer, thank you very much for being here today. >> good morning. thanks a lot. good to be with you. >> we've been going back and forth and taking a look at these two proposals. the one thing i can say is probably both proposals are dead

on arrival when it tries to get the other house of congress to go along with it. where do we stand right now? what do you think it will take to get some sort of agreement on the two sides? >> well, obviously it will take compromise. we have had a very difficult time getting to that. the ryan budget say rehash of last year's budget and the budget before that. frankly it's an eye dee logically pipe dream masquerading as policy. there are huge holes in it. seeks to repeal the affordable care act. doesn't offer an alternative to it. it leaves about a 5 to 7 trillion dollar hole in revenues to try to balance the budget, which mr. ryan said we will fix by some method of reducing reference items, tax expenditures if you will but doesn't say which ones or how. to that extent it's much like

the campaign that roplry and ryan participated in. >> the senate finance committee their version of their budget did not lay out which tax breaks they would be taking over and attacking. it is different in that it has cuts to spending and higher revenues. >> every by patterson group that has met, that is a fiscally sustainable path said it has to be a balanced package of revenues and entitlement restraints and cuts in spending. i think that's accurate. as you know, i have said that all along. we need to follow that formula. >> you have been behind that plan. >> and the ryan budget does not

follow that. >> i would agree with that. but what we have done the last three or four months made it difficult to get a grand compromise, including raising rates on the wealthiest americans put the republicans in a position where they feel they have given already. and it was not the approach -- if you're looking at what has actually been proposed they were talking about lowering rates and covering a lot of loopholes. >> becky, you and i both know it came to raise about $2 trillion in revenues. >> it did. >> and 600 billion, which is what we did the last time. very frankly, probably we made a mistake when i say we democrats not going over the cliff and negotiating from that point of view. we need to address all items of spending across the board. it will be difficult on both

sides of the aisle. if you take it in decrementally it is better. i like this, i don't like that. but this is a compromise and that's what democracy is about. >> that's what i was really trying to get to. if there was a do-over, is there a way to do it now? >> certainly there is a way to do it. but it requires compromise on both sides. as you know very well from watching us, it's difficult to get compromise particularly in the house of representatives. farm bill, violence against women act, than it has been for the house. you have very hard lined thinking. i would say particularly on the republican side a lot of people elected. they have a specific objective. and they came to realize that objective without realistic.

a lot of people who don't agree and you have to come to compromise. >> leader, and i hate to be pessimistic, it doesn't seem a grand bargain is in the off something we don't want this to be a ground game. we would like one great pass into the end zone. are there little pieces where you think there's agreement that could be reached? even little tiny pieces? given where we are, it may be the only way to do it. >> you know, i think becky is right. each little piece you get, the side that thinks they have one wants one little piece more and one little piece more. they wanted to get to a bar gone. i think he couldn't sell it on his side. there are other views on that i know. but i think that's why it went

down. but the genius is everybody is going to have to take something they don't like in return for something they do like. if you do it in little pieces the little pieces are something that one side or the other doesn't like. >> the reason i'm raising the little pieces idea, i'm trying to find some common ground where at least the conversation can start. is there one piece, anything you have read in the ryan plan that you would agree with? anything in your plan you think they would agree with? just to get the conversation at least moving. maybe then you can move to a grand bar ban ultimately. >> we have reduced spending by a trillion dollars over the next 10 years in the budget control act. i voted for that. many democrats and republicans voted for that. we then adopted a super

committee to try to get greater reduction and spending. my view would be in a balanced way. they the super committee failed. very bad irrational policy. but we really need to move forward. so, yes, we agree there needed to be reduced reduction in spending. but the balance to that is we need to be increases in revenues. we did a little bit of that. not enough. and certainly when the ryan plan says we need to do more, we agree with that. but there is no plan in the ryan plan. there is no specificity. clearly it's easy for both sides to talk in generalities. >> right. >> it's when you get to the specifics. >> i understand. when you raise the age of medicare eligibility? >> i think you have heard me say over and over again everything

needs to be on the table. but i'm not going to adopt individual items because i think the way you goat being able to do everything on the table is to both sides just as tip o'neill and ronald reagan set the stage. tip owe need said we need to make social security viable. ronald reagan said, yes, but we need to cut the expenditures. we need to reduce benefits. so we raised the age. in effect, each side got something. they came out together and said, look, we may not like each one of these elements but together this gets to us a place we need to be. america needs to get on a fiscally sustainable path. we have a formula set forth by three or five different organizations, commissions, committees, senators, and frankly house members who have said this is a path to get there. that's what we need to do. >> leader hoyer, i agree with

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welcome back to squawk. seconds away from jobless claims. rick, you have the numbers, sir. >> and the survey says, spot on with estimates. up 0.7 on top line ppi. if you strip out the all important food and energy, you're up 0.2. if you look year-over-year headline, 1.7. year-over-year core 1.7. jobless claims dropped an even 10 you to thou from upwardly revised 332,000. 342 to 332. continuing claims a bit lower on the revision from 3.12 to 3.024

million. if you want to put a sharp pencil on it. take a step back, look at the world. i like strong dollar. i guess it's a debate whether it is weak foreign currencisis on the relative trade. interest rates, should they close where they're at right now? a new high yield close going back to april. it does mark something. we closed last year at 176. we are now up even 30 basis points. back to you. >> stay where you are. more on this data. collarly's chief economist. what do you make of this? >> let's look at year. the one thing we worried is the increase in gas prices would

hurt the consumer. green light. but not fast enough pace to take the fed out of it. in light of a huge rally since november. every time someone talks about a correction, it has been bad for business. i know that firsthand. a lot of people on the sidelines people just looking to invest. to me one more push higher in the stack market just from people sick to death of the pullback that never comes. >> steve lies mman is preparing for a big interview he has. this really confirms a downward shift. do you agree this is a pretty big number? >> you know, what i know that it's important to many people. i don't want to dismiss the idea. i would like to see it correlate with a stronger job market.

i think anything under 350 is splitting hairs. moving lower, i don't see that it changes the argument or even helps define it. from 1992 to 2,000, 252,000 jobs the a month. that's when you had a significantly higher proportion of the eligible labor force actually working. i think this inflation number is as important as well. not because i think the market will sell off dramatically or it will be linear at this point in time. but they definitely sold off on that headline. >> you know, i can't believe i'm going to let him do this. liesman wants to argue over e-mail even though he's not on set. he said this is a big deal. he said we have broken out of

our range. >> i always respect steve's opinion. just consider he's interviewing jack lew. would i switch places with him? not on your life! >> whose side do you want to talk on this? >> i think the labor market improvement we have been seeing are important. they have been giving fuel to consumers. but i think the other data we received, the inflation data do suggest there is a purchasing power hit coming to consumers. more specifically come we expect a 0.7 rise as well in february. >> this is not faster than we thought. when you came on in the beginning i said to you, when are they going to have to pull the punch bowl. >> this isn't broad based inflation at this point. consumers are going through a lot right now. we just had the tax increases. they are facing large gas line

price increases. while they have been so strong are likely to soften a bit over the next few months. >> can we get back to the labor market? you said this number doesn't change any debate. of course it doesn't. but it's a process. we have been looking at this for the last two and a half. now, we look at bad rate policy and bad economic policy. yeah, you can find an awful argument out there. there's a record number of people on the food stumps. there is a wealth effect. things do appear to be getting better over time. you don't agree with that? >> of course i agree with it. i agree we had no government, no fed, nothing, do you think we wouldn't heal over time? >> we would heal quicker over time. the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. the hope is that the rich get rich enough to start employing

350e people. >> we walk around the city, bump into people not in this business. now excited do you think the general public is regarding this run equities? >> it's different. we live in illinois. it is hopefully a little different than the rest of the country. but i agree with you on that. >> why? >> we have higher taxes, worse employment rates. the picture in until until doesn't look as good. >> the government needs more money to get more debt and push it on to uncle sam. >> i don't see a lot of buzz in equities. and i think there's a reason for that. and the reason is -- >> on the sidelines. >> i think without that excitement it's very telling. we have a two, three, four-speed economy, four-speed investment community. a lot of people camped out. in their various interests.

but i don't see anything really changing the categories. >> i mentioned before there comes a point you see a big flush of money come in. we're on the precipice of that. but i agree with you people look at the stock market and say ho hum because they're on the sideline. >> it is a great debate. we'll continue it on many i days. thank you for sticking around. appreciate it very much. becky? up next, a new era in college sports. the end of the big east conference as we know it. march madness and the future about what happens to big east athletics. and michelle obama wanted send a mental to american kids about health on sesame street. today is gonna be an important day for us. you ready?

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>> welcome back, everybody. russian president vladimir putin talking about the importance of physical fitness. he made an appearance with actor steven segal and called for physical fitness, a modernized

for labor and ready defense a system first introduced to the 1930s under stalin. segal rushed into a crowd of children who were trying to pose with putin and he pulled the president out as though he were a bodyguard. as you may or may not remember steven segal, his action films are very popular in russia. >> i used to watch those movies. not just popular in russia. >> used to is the key. >> i wonder if he and depardieu are going to do a movie. >> from russia with love. the big east tournament is under way. cincinnati was able to advance beating providence 61-44. syracuse took cake of seton hall. villanova took care of st. john's. after this season the the big east will never be the same. mike aresco is the commissioner. mike, thank you for being here

this morning. >> thank you, becky. appreciate you having me. >> i have to admit i'm trying to keep track of everything that's happening. you at this point i'm a little confused. football and basketball will never be the same. can you walk us through what happens next. >> we've reached a settlement with the catholic seven group as they have been termed. and they will separate and form their own conference. it will take the name big east. the remaining members of the big east will move on and keep our conference going. and it will have a new name. it will be a dynamic name. it will reflect who we are. you will have two separate conferences next year. and we will have some stability and we will all rebrand and move forward. we wanted this to be a relatively clean break. we felt ultimately both sides

wanted to get on with business. realignment buffeted the college world. not, you can do about it. you have to adapt, play the hand you were dealt. we want to make sure we have substantial futures for our conference and the other conference will be in good shape as well. both groups got what they needed out of this arrangement. it's going to be a different world, a different alignment. but, again, it will be -- we hope that both conferences have very strong futures. and that's what this agreement was designed to accomplish. realignment changed things you dramatically. some will result ultimately in positives down the road. right now we have to all navigate through it. >> there has been a lot of change. it's been chaotic to keep up with it. do you think now that we have seen all these changes take place we are in for a period of

more stability or is this the name of the game and you will see more constant change? >> becky, that's a good question. it's hard to say. you could easily see more alignment coming down the road. we just don't know. that's a question you can't answer. it will be obviously out of our control. conferences have gotten larger. will they now take time to digest to figure out where they are going forward. i don't know if it's on the horizon. none of us do. we will make sure it's the best conference it can be. make sure it has a dynamic name, brand, and logo. we want we want to make sure we have good venues for our championships going forward. we think we have good brands, exposure. a great deal with espn in place. a network deal for basketball to go along. in terms of realignment, nobody can tell. ultimately you can't worry about it. you have to deal with what you

have. >> why did the seven teams split off? why not make one basketball conference? >> they were concerned more and more schools departed the big east. realignment was taking its toll. they felt they had been buffeted by wins. it was all football driven. they are small private schools. they want to go back to their roots, which is playing basketball. obviously we wish they had stayed in the conference. we think there's a way that could have worked. when they felt more comfortable in a league that was devoted to basketball and olympic sports we felt we had to do this in an amicable way. that was the motivating force behind them. less commonality among the membership. syracuse, pitt, west virginia, notre dame was leaving. that was a factor in their thinking. unfortunately, a lot of this had been in the making for a while. when you have basketball only

schools and a significant number of them with schools playing football, basketball and trying to build their program, there is going to be some tension. ultimately this is what happened. now we're trying to figure out, again, what the best path forward is for everyone. >> mike, i think we're beating around the bush here. this is about money, a lot of money. how much money is at stake. why some of these universities felt they would make more money by not being part of the conference. >> i'm not sure that's necessarily true. when you have those schools, plus cincinnati, memphis, uconn, temple and other major basketball brands, it's hard to say what the money would have ultimately been. i think there was a motivating factor. i can't speak for them. they would have to talk themselves. money has been a key factor. none of us are naive. obviously some of the other conferences have their own

networks. they have major tv deals. ours isn't going to be quite as big. it gives us the kind of exposure to build our brand. typically these deals are long term. we think we can grow. we think we can enhance the financials. realignment, money has been a big part of it. as you know, there are some alliances now that don't seem to make much sense. degree gravy figures in. what we try to do is be geographically more coherent. that helps student athletes in terms of travel and other things. but i think in the end, you've got different dynamics than you once had. you had league networks. you had an emesis on football that may not have been there before. >> do you think we should pay players? >> no. i don't think we can. at that point you're not amateur

sports, you're not college sports. in terms of trying to help student athletes in terms of stipends, that's fine. once you do that it becomes a labor situation. it's not what we're about. there's a place for pro sports. but the amateur model can work and does work. i know there's a lot of controversy surrounding it. but in the end once you do that you have crossed the rubicon and college sports isn't what it should be. it developed differently in this country than in europe. i don't see that happening. if it does, i think we're all going to be in serious trouble. >> mike, real quick, does the new league get to keep its automatic bowl bid? >> yes, it does. and it will keep status for the ncaa tournament. >> thank you for joining us. >> my pleasure. thanks for having me. >> up next, we will head to the new york stock exchange. two mad minutes with jim cramer

coming up after this break. tomorrow, legendary investors bill miller will be our guest host. we'll ask him about the market rally and the economic recovery. plus, planning for the fed's exit with special guest allen greenspan. ♪ [ construction sounds ] ♪ [ watch ticking ] [ engine revs ] come in.

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welcome back to "squawk box" this morning. futures looking good. dow opening up 36 points height arer. s&p 500 up about six points. jim cramer at the new york stock exchange. becky had had a nice shout out earlier about some of your comments about the consumer. i saw a little tweeting action going on. >> she said -- it was just another optimist, moronic comment. people say what does he know? he's siding with walmart and costco and home depot. i'm simply listening to the companies. others want to listen to the commerce department, the

gasoline tax. there's a lot of good things happening. thank you for bringing them out even in the face of people who just want to talk about how it is all fed induced and a big joke. man, people making a lot of money on this joke. >> hold on. are we giving bernanke credit then? >> no. i'm giving general mills credit and google credit and companies like -- i'm giving companies like tyco credit for splitting up and creating so much wealth or kraft credit. i'm giving american companies that are making a lot of money credit for what they're doing. we can make a judgment that perhaps dupont is not doing well and we look at another 28 companies that are doing incredibly well. i just want believe how well corporate america is doing. it's not bernanke. but some of these companies are not as stupid as they used to be. >> obviously i believe this

quantitative easing contributes to it. and that it's not all just the companies in terms of the risk-on strategy, the speculative bubble that we may be building again. i don't know. >> what is risk on? does that mean kellogg? is risk on u.s. steel? is that equity? is that a treasury? what's risky? to me a treasury is risky. j&j has a much better balance sheet than any other country in the world. is that risky? i don't know. i'm just a hedge fund manager that's come to tv. i don't know what risky means. >> what stocks are you looking that the morning? >> apple being upgraded by a guy who hated it. amazon downgraded by a guy who loved it. i think those are interesting calls. people saying why is the consumer still buying when the consumer's supposed to be

strapped? i marvel at people who read top-down numbers and shoe-horn the thesis and be wrong about the stock market every day. every day. >> which way do you think amazon's going? >> i don't know. the stock has been a favored stock. there is a possibility that ebay, the third party business, a lot of people defending that today is going to take some share from amazon. i don't want to get in front of amazon because that's getting in front of a juggernaut but i do believe the stock's had a very nice run and it should pause. all happy bull markets are the same. okay? >> that's perfect. jim, we will see you in a few minutes. when we come back our guest host this morning, jay juror done and mike santolli have the

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