good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. our eunice yoon sitting down with apple's ceo tim cook and the head of china mobile earlier today. she's going to join us from beijing with that exclusive conversation in just a few minutes. but first, let's take a look at the markets. we are only nine sessions into 2014. but the s&p posted its best day of the year yesterday. this comes after some pretty disappointing days. if you take a look at equity futures this morning, you're going to see at this point that the indices are indicated higher once again. the dow jones industrial average indicated up by about 26 points. s&p futures are up by 3 points and the nasdaq is up by 12 points. all of this is coming as asian markets picked up ground overnight, too. and the world bank is raising its global growth forecast. we'll talk about that a little more later. on the economic calendar here in the united states today, at 8:30 eastern time, the december producer price index, the headline ppi is seen rising by

0.4%. then this afternoon, we'll get the fed's beige book. as for earnings central, bank of america is expected to post earnings of revenue of $20.2 billion. other corporate headlines for you, general motors, they're going to be paying their first quarterly dividend on its common stock in almost six years. the stock rising on news in extended trading. let's go now from autos if we can to air lines. a japan air boeing 787 now grounded at together yoeps ae airport today. regulators there are demanding checks to see if the aircraft is fit to fly. yesterday, white smoke vented apparently from the plane in a battery shell showing signs of melting. boeing says the problem was discovered during scheduled maintenance. and the good news, no passengers were on board. on wall street, a federal reserve official is going to be

telling lawmakers that regulators expected to write more rules. so all of the big department about goldman sachs carrying aluminum around. the rule could include higher capital requirements for banks engaeged in those markets or perhaps a prohibition on specific risky holdings. the fed's director of bank supervision and regulation will testify before a congressional panel on that and we're going be following that one today. joe, over to you. >> andrew, is that a good depend depend or not are a good dividend for gm? >> i'll take any dividendividen. >> no, normally companies will come back and institute a dif send of 5 cents a quarter, 10 cents a quarter. this comes right in at 30 cents a quarter. that's $1.20 a year on $40 is a 3% yield right out of the box. i'm using your math, but if it's four times 30 is 1.20 divided by

40. so that's what i would v put in at the end of the story is it immediately goes to 3%. to go right to a 1300 yield on as many is amazing. eunice yoon is sitting down with apple's tim cook. she involves satellites and all kinds of stuff. i've got my fingers crossed. are you ready way over there? like you're on the other side of the world, eunice. >> i am. yeah, definitely. and expecting a lot of excitement. i did sit down with both of those two men. there are a lot of good feelings all the way around. the china mobile chairman was going to say now he's going to switch to using an iphone. tim cook apparently gave him his very own iphone that was made for china mobile.

overall, they were saying they were very confident and optimistic about the release of the iphone which is going to hit china no mobile stores this friday. this is what they had to say. it's a watershed day for apple. it's a huge announcement. i'm so honored to be doing business with chairman xi and china mobile. they have the largest network. we're incredible i impressed with them. we have deep respect for them. and have had from the very first discussion that we've had together. we see this as bringing the world's best smartphone to the very largest and now the fastest network in china. last year, we were able to work with the government authorities to be able to launch china at the same time that we launched every other country. and the result of doing that, i'm going to tell you, although we haven't released our total

results, we sold more iphone units last quarter in greater china than ever before. and so we see that momentum and the announcement with china mobile today as just being able to continue -- continuing the momentum that we've really been building for the last three or four years or so in china. it is a very key market for us. >> mr. cook, i see ranges from between 10 million to 30 million in additional new iphones that could be sold because of this deal. just this year. what estimates sounds fair to you? >> look, we play for the long-term. and i see this announcement today as being one of those very key milestones in doing great stuff over the long-term for our customers and our shareholders and our employees. and that is the way i look at it

and don't so i'll let others predict the numbers. >> how competitive is your pricing compared to your rivals of china telecom and china in unicom. >> translator: in today's views, our pricing is a bit more than our competitors, but i still believe it's very attractive. you asked about numbers on tim cook, i condition tell you completely, but since december 11th, when people didn't know pricing, we had 1.2 million preorders. this is very encouraging. >> and we're still waiting for details on the subsidies for china mobile. that's going to determine whether or not people are going to upgrade to the iphone or maybe if thooir they're going to leave china unicome or china telecom in order to come to china mobile for better pricing. but those subsidy numbers are not going to be coming out until the annual results for china mobile in march. guys, china telecom and china unicom in the run up to this cut their prices.

so we're seeing more competition. and tim cook gave you guys a shout out during the interview -- like right after the interview. he said, hey, don't forget, please say hello to becky and andrew and joe. >> there you go. >> okay. >> still sad about my -- >> he did, he dwb he did. >> i didn't get a christmas card. these two god go the christmas cards. >> yes, he sent you one. it got lost in the mail. >> check is in the mail. check is in the mail. >> i believe him. there's no way he would have sent one to two of us and not to all three of us. >> i would think so. you're the blackberry -- you know -- >> no, i got an iphone. >> finally, after i begged you, urged you, changed my alliance. >> i bet i have more apps than you do. >> no way. >> we have two maces, three -- >> we have about -- i have two kids. each one of them both have a mac book and they both have -- >> do i kneed not get to win this game for being with apple first? >> no.

>> no. >> i get nothing? >> no. >> i had it before anybody here. >> it's very helpful when we get stuck on things, helping us fix things. >> and you know what your -- you know what you're helpful for? explaining to me these liberal progressive side of all these issues because if you can explain fete knew taneutrality >> i think it's interesting. >> what was the idea of thinking that was the way to do things in the first place where you can't decide how much to -- >> because it's a utility. >> it would be quicker to drive down prices. >> that's the argument. that's the argument that it's a utility and -- >> but it's ridiculous. -- >> innovation that has taken this -- i would have thought you would be all over this. the innovation that has taken place in this country as a -- >> no, no, that's not why. >> is remarkable.

>> income opportunity, this is like -- this is what the kid in the garage start his little internet company -- >> that's fine, but now this is pure price fixing. read "the wall street journal's" lead editorial. why would you decide how much someone who does this can charge -- that's like says you need to pay the same price for all the cable channels in the world. why shouldn't netflix pay more with all the heavy use that it's using? and this is for comcast to be able to charge. >> look, all i'm going to suggest is in the last decade, the amount of innovation that has taken place -- >> the large part a -- >> hold on. if ten years ago it was possible for a versiizon or a comcast to charge a goggle or a netflix or whomever, it is not clear to me that you would have had the type of innovation because the little guys craving these awesome new

apps wouldn't have been able to afford the prices that the big guys wantsed to charge. this created a huge amount of innovation in this country and jobs. and jobs. come on. i would have thought you would be all over this. >> i am all over this. i just can't believe -- the larger reality is that the internet has succeeded in bringing an entire new world to consumers under the light regulatory model that we colonelcolonel currently have. the biggest objestacle would be- read this entire -- >> but they created the giants in silicone valley. >> they created the giants, but the opposite will happen if you start charging. because guess what happens? the next time i want to create netflix, i now not only have to have the light bulk go off in my head to create this idea, i have to have enough money in the bank to compete against netflix's who is going to be paying some --

>> like net neutrality because it can't charge google more for using more capacity at high speed. this makes no more economic sense than having a cable company charge more even if you have more channels and -- >> back to the idea with the utility, that's kind of the way they set up this with net neutrality, anyway. >> it's in your dna. >> no, there's part of me that says yes. right now, if you use go-go, they'll charge you a certain price for what they call basic internet. if you want super fast, it's like going to a hotel. you would do that. so i get it. by the way, even at home, time warner, you pay more for higher -- >> if you don't want to pay it, then don't pay it. it's all part of market pricing. >> i don't disagree with that. >> why isn't everything a utility if it works better that

way? >> but it's also allowing things to develop and then saying -- >> maybe this works for a while, but at this point it's antiquated and it's the holy grail. >> i used to agree that the -- >> the scc is -- >> why are you on internet taxes? >> i used to think internet retailers shouldn't pay them. now i think they should because -- >> they get to -- >> it's going to say no taxes. >> it should be an equal playing field. if you're going to get rid of them for all, you should get rid of it for them all. it's where the biggest growth is coming. can i ask eunice one more question before she goes ahead? >> is she still here? >> we'll be back with her in the next hour. and we're going to be joined by walter isaacson later. as you know, he was -- >> the biographer of -- >> yeah, he will, but it was a time. it's going to be -- i'm sure you're simpatico in this case.

>> maybe not. i'm not so sure about that. let's talk about the world bank for a second. because they say now global growth is set to accelerate this year. that's the good news as advanced economies turn a corner five years after the global financial crisis. growth projected now to strengthen to 3.2% this year. that's the number. and 3.4% in 2015. the world bank's andrew burns is going to join us with more on all of that coming up at 650 eastern time. in the meantime, let's go across the pond. our good friend ross westgate is standing by in london. ross. >> andrew. very good morning to you. equities here in europe are trading higher at the moment three hours into the trading session. 7 to 3 advancers outpacing decliners at the moment on the dow jones stoxx 600. and we're up near the session high. the ftse yesterday was just up some 9 points. it was down, got turned around by the turn around in u.s. equities. it was currently up another 20. george osborne this morning, the

chancellor has been laying out his ideas about how we need to reform the european union both in terms of its economic competitiveness and its constitution, as well. the uk is facing a referendum sometime in 2017 if this current government is re-elected on whether they should stay in the eu. world bank report helping a bit, as well. break down the sectors this morning. there's only one that's negative and that's food and beverages, off 0.5%. otherwise, very much weighted to the upside. doing fairly well, banks, insurance and resources. that's the impact of the world bank support up 0.9%. it's down from 14%, the world performer in 2013, resources. and burberry posted a 14% rise in its underlying retail revenue. that beats expectations. the company, though, has still warned that at current levels, exchange rates will be a

significant headwind. but right now, burberry stock up some 5%. the last set of results under angela orange. that's where we stand right now in europe. back to you. >> thank you, ross. i said to andrew, this is a -- in your face, i buried you. because president obama made net neutrality one of his key promises in 2008, that proves that it's not pro business or pro free markets. that proves to you beyond any shadow of a doubt just that -- does it not? it buries you. >> it adds to your argument. that's about as far as -- >> in your face, sorkin. >> you care about -- >> did i just not show you? how could it possibly be pro business and not pro market? >> the last thing i thought we

would spend the morning arguing about is net neutrality. coming up -- two against one again. how does that happen? how the national security agency has found its way into a thousand computers around the -- here is one that we're probably not going to agree on, also. you know what? i leave this stuff up to the experts. >> i'm fine with you. >> you are? >> let's talk about it. computers around the world using radio frequencies, putting the place like a mile away from where the computers are. and we'll have a key vote on unionzation at a well known tech -- i have trouble even saying that. first, as we head to break, the national forecast with the weather channel's alex wallace. hey, alex. >> good morning to you. a lot of us in the east waking up to foggy conditions. visibility is down in places like d.c. to an eighth of a mile. it's really tough out there this morning. give yourself extra time and

extra distance. you can see the dense fog advisories extend from the carolinas up into parts of new england. so, again, a slow it down morning. should see that clearing out this morning into the afternoon. meanwhile, snow showers back into the upper midwest. you've got another system diving in. it's like some of the higher totals will be up into the u.p. of michigan. higher, we're talking 5 to 8 inches on the higher end of the scale here. otherwise, a general swap of about 1 to 3 inches of that snow. as we look towards the end of the week, get ready for more cold air to infiltrate the east. with the moisture coming in, end of the weekend could see snow across parts of new england. right now, it doesn't look like it will be a major deal. that's your national forecast. more "squawk box" coming up next. than its german competito. and that is the moment that driving the lexus gs will shift your perception. this is the pursuit of perfection.

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welcome back. the "new york times" is reporting the nsa has implanted software in around 100 computers around the world. it allow tess u.s. to create a digital highway for launching cyber attacks. the agency has used this technology since at least 2008. the process relies on a covert channel of radio waves that could be transmitted from tiny circuit boards and usb cards inserted into the computers. gentlemen. >> i am okay with this. i can't get that excited about it. the only thing i get excited about or anxious about is actually that now our enemies

know we do this, which i assume they have they must have known. >> i'm leaving this up to the experts because i didn't know we were doing this. but it's been going on for a while. one of our most frequent targets are the chinese army which we know have launched regularly digital probes and attacks on our companies here. >> i think i would be upset if we aren't doing it. >> we are doing it and the chinese have complained that we're doing it to them, but they're already doing it to us because we've complained to them at the presidential level that they're doing it to us. >> but they're doing it to take trade secrets and intellectual property. we're doing it to their army for a defensive posture. we should be doing it for thinks bess, as well. >> no, the nsa has come out and said we're not stealing those secrets and ghifg them over to our corporations. >> are you sure? >> that's what the nsa says.

they say this is like the cat and mouse game that we used to play with the soviets, that this is a similar type of thing. >> isn't it terminal pricing, though? if we can we probably are and we don't know right away, but when you finally find out, we actually were. does that make any sense? >> we're doing it. and i think they say it over there. >> absolutely not. i'm leaving this up to the experts. >> let's transition to the next story. there was a small group of amazon one of its delaware warehouses that will vote today on labor union representation. this could establish the first ever labor union establishment. it's roughly 30 voting workers who are convict technicians and mechanics. a union spokesman says this is

not about wages. the workers are said to want help negotiating for things like promotion policies and the possibility of a safety committee. >> i don't know enough about what goes on. i've read about some of these stories. one of the facilities was too hot. they didn't have enough -- it's very, very challenging work trying to get this done in the amount of time they have to do each one. i don't know enough about whether this is going to help. >> there is a lot in effect, obviously. i wasn't aware that amazon in this country is making workers foil under circumstances that are less than -- >> there were a couple documented cases. >> some guy, in new jersey,

owned by amazon died. you can probably, you know, just bring up one instance. >> my aunt worked at one. it was not an amazon facility. but these warehouses are huge buildings, sometimes very cold in the winter and a lot of hot in the summer. trying to do things and do things quickly is an issue. >> you look at private sector unions over the years. i don't think most places are going to be like mckenzian work environments with 16 hour days and child labor. i don't know. yoj it's that common with service laws and -- but if we had a majority of the employees in this place that want to unionize it, they would unionize it.

that force workers to pay in to support a specific party. >> amazon has always been a good payer. interestingly, in this case, they're not going after higher wages. >> i hope the plumber i call has had some training, some woodwork. >> this is interesting. it was a very small portion of them who are mechanics and some of the people probably doing some heavy lifting around there, too. in the meantime, a court has ruled roughly 60,000 silicone valley workers can move forward with a case accusing major technology companies over an alleged overarching conspiracy

sosa press pay by agreeing fought to hire each other's employees. what the what the situation, gentlemen, with poaching picking up pay and perks and all kinds of things. this is a case where maybe they got together and see -- >> it's against the law. collusion in setting prices or setting salaries. >> wages, yeah. >> but then again, in any large area where there's a lot of different companies working, it probably is knowing what other companies are paying and they know what they can get people for and they know how they can induce people to come over, and they would do just enough to induce -- >> but i'm not going to poach any more of your employees, you stop poaching mine. that is the situation. >> that's the problem and we don't know if that happened. >> and the court has ruled that that case can proceed.

we've talked about that one on the show before. when we come back, why elon musk wants the word "recall" recalled. plus, we're going to talk about investing strategy. first, know, we're going to head to a break but take a look at yesterday's winners and losers.

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there must be a reason. i don't know what it is. good morning and welcome back to squa squawk. welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm joe kernen along with becky quick and andrew ross sorkin. bank of america is expected to post 26 cents a share of revenue. the key in banking yesterday was wells fargo. now it has a higher market capital, apparently it's more profitable and the plan at jpmorgan is the bank -- and, you know, buffett goes, yeah, i likes wells fargo a lot. >> he also owns shares of jp northan personally. >> and others shares of bank of america. >> right. >> and goldman sachs. >> that's right. he does still have -- yeah.

>> but what is it -- >> it's like the financials. >> so they're at 16%. why are they using full year numbers, 21.8 billion for the year because they earn about -- both banks earn about 5 billion in a quarter. some other news for you, tesla's elon musk is speaking out on the recall debate. here is the back story. last friday, the electric carmaker said it was providing customers with a new adapter and software upgrade to prevent overheating of its charging systems. tesla never used the words "recall" or "fire" but yesterday, federal safety regulators class phied the move as a recall. >> this is not a word that makes sense in the 21st century for the model s. i mean, i do -- i think there are cases where a recall, of course, is necessary when there's a mechanical problem with the car and that requires the car to be brought in.

but that's summerly not the case. >> so are we okay with -- no more recalls, we just have upgrades? >> he is correct that the car doesn't have to come back in. as a consumer, when i have a recall that requires me to take the car back into the dealer, that's a frustrating hassle. i still have one with my commander that i haven't taken back yet. >> i've never had one recalled. >> the car i'm driving right now has been recalled. this is a serious thing. if you have to take your car into the shop and you have to set it up, you have to go through an authorized dealer and make the appointment and you still have to get to work and get home to work and do it within the schedule that you have going on, it's a pain. >> if you can't participate in the upgrade, the car was still fine. that's the distinction. >> and i'm still driving my car that's been recalled.

i still haven't taken it in. >> he's complaining between a recall difference and an upgrade. it's a flaw. you have to have it upgraded. >> but in this case, it's a matter of having to turn your car in, that is a massive pain. >> but in this case, the government has classified it as a recall because we haven't come up with a terminology for an upgrade. >> right. they don't have any terminology for -- >> is it 100% not required? >> no recall is ever required. >> well, if your accelerator stays stuck to the floor, it's probably -- this is a -- mine is a lower fire scenario. i don't know. i haven't gotten -- it's on my list of to-do for the last two months. honestly, in my list. >> it's a fire in a grill. >> exactly. >> but it would be bad if the

fire expands beyond the grill. let's talk about the markets this morning as we mentioned. yesterday was a big rebound day or the markets. this morning, futures are indicated higher once again. you're going to see right now, dow futures are up by about 34 points. the nasdaq more than erased all of sunday's steep declines yesterday. the dow snapped a four-day losing streak. the nasdaq had its best day in over three months. the s&p 500 posted its biggest gain in nearly a month. nasdaq futures are up nearly 13 points above fair value. >> where is the s&p right now? >> 38.8el 8. >> 1838.88. >> you confused me with 38.88. i was like, what? >> you're right there. only ten points away. remember yesterday, andrew, you said no, no, this feels -- this is an e-mail with goldman sachs. we're ten points away. so did anyone who was looking for a little bit of a pullback say buy right at 1800 when we

got briefly down near there? i bet no one did. >> we're going to talk to ed. >> yeah, we are. i was looking at what ed was saying. we have ed on a lot, so we can't saying in different every time. he has a lot of nuance in the stuff he wants to tell us today. and it's good. >> yeah, it is. quickly, let's take a look at the european markets this morning. they've been following our lead from yesterday. the dax is up by 1.1% in germany. cac is up by 0.6%. in asia overnight, it was the same story. also taking cues, the nikkei rebounding by 2.5%. that index los lost 3% the day before. the hang seng was slightly higher, too. oil prices, they were up yesterday by about 79 cents. they were still near multi month lows. you can see right now they are still below $93. $92.83. and the ten-year notice at this point, yield is at 2.847%.

so -- >> 2.873. >> what was the bet? 2.874%. back in this situation. you also have the global bank upgrading their forecast for the growth. better strength now in developing neighs that will offset some of the weakness in those -- but strengthened those develop nations. also, watching the dollar this morning, it was stronger overnight. you can see right now it's still up across the board. euro at 1.3622. dollar/yen at 104.27. and gold prices, which yesterday snapped a three-day winning streak are down once again today. $1,238.50. >> yesterday, you saw the -- it was up triple digits, but it wasn't 1.70. so the dow lagged some of the other averages yesterday. the nasdaq was stronger. so was the s&p. it was the best trading day of the year, though, in any case. and joining us now is ed kionne

who for years labored as a domestic stock guy. but now, he's like a global investment asset allocation guru portfolio manager. so we don't just look for you to say up or down on the dow jones industrial average at this point. we want the big picture idea and you're bringing it today. and that is you've got about six reasons for optimism about why the u.s. is in a good place for long-term growth in a bullish stock market. but at the same time, you say that there are things that could at least make it tough and people don't like losing money. so caution is necessary, but long-term you think it looks really good. >> yeah. i was having dinner with a friend this weekend. we're both in the business and we're both talking about all the things that go on. things you hear in this program every day. what happened with europe, what happened in the korean peninsula. we're not completely out of the woods in a lot of different ways. but at the same time, neither one of us are very young any

more. thinking about how strong the longer term potential is over the next several years. >> energy. >> energy has to be near the top of the list. i know we talked about that a lot, but i still think it's underplayed. i don't think we recognize how much the improvement of the energy situation in the united states is going to make us more competitive across the board. >> well, seeing how unhappy a lot of our friends in the middle east are when they talk about fracking and stuff, you can see there's something real going on there because they're unhappy. >> you notice our trade balance is better because energy is -- the production in the united states is going up so much. it makes us more competitive in manufacturing, it makes it less likely we're going to get an oil shock that would hurt the economy. that's a long-term story that's going to take years and years to play out. remember how bad things were, this is a positive that will play out for many years. >> and then the other things like technology is break neck. >> that's right. the improvement in technology is

not linear. hence, they keep happening in a geometric progression. so you get these great leaps forward. we still haven't seen -- i think the most we'll see in things like health care, there hasn't been a lot of innovation that drove costs down. i think that could be the next step down the road. there's a lot of things that i think are painting a brighter, longer term picture, even though we might have a correction from time to time. that's just a natural part of markets. >> all of a sudden, we get 73,000 jobs when people are hoping for 350, it let you know that at any time a bump in the road can come on. >> that's right. i try to look at overall data. that was a bad report. that was a lousy report. but i think you look at the overall mosaic of the data we've seen, it suggests that we finally are getting some genuine traction in the economy and i think we're going to have strong growth gdp as well as earnings in 2013. >> you know, global oil shock, that being something that is less likely is good news. but when you look around the

globe at some of the geopolitical issues, what's happening in syria, what we are looking at with iran, with the middle east, those are some concerning areas. and i just wonder, there's no way to predict what is going to happen, but how much time do you spend worrying about those issues? >> i worry about it a lot. as a professional money manager, you're a professional worrier because your portfolio can be hit overnight in some secure part of the world. at the same time, you can always say that's the case. and i think you need to put that in context of the overall direction. i think the overall direction is going be very positive. it's not just a short-term story. >> and we will be able to grow earnings at double digits. >> i think so. >> every year? >> not every year. but this coming year. growth 6% last year was very low sales growth. this year, i think we're going to get more sales growth and the consensus is for 10% growth. >> and your energy play comes in as the sector because people thought profit margins had peaked. but if input costs on energy,

that could push out how long? >> margins are very high. to come by historic standards. they can stay high. they might expand a little bit in the short run. >> all right. and even these clowns in washington, i mean, in spite of themselves, the federal deficit is -- and growth. so quickly brings down material -- >> that's right. so the first three months of fiscal 2014, which you've already had the deficit is down 40% compared to the same three months a year ago. so already we've made great progress and gone from 1.3 trillion deficit to about 680 billion last year. that's a lot of money back up that. but that's probably going to fall to 4% or so this year. >> what about growth? >> and growth cures a lot of ills. employment will look stronger a year from now and i think this recovery will finally start to feel like a recovery. >> you're still not looking at

2100 on the s&p. you're looking at, what, 1950 or something? >> well, i think this year we'll have some cross counts. last year, basically went straight up without a 5% correction. this year, we will have headwinds, valuations are already up a little bit. they're not really high by historical standards, but they're higher than average. i don't think we should count on it. it's possible. i wouldn't count on much more multiple expansions. >> quantitative management is part of proof? >> still part of proof. >> and 60 billion. >> asset allocation overall is about 100. >> it's not all managed by you. >> no, no, but my team worries about the asset allocation part of the business. >> how is that? >> about 60 billion. >> don't screw this up. that's a lot of money. i worry for you, too. anyway, are you all right? >> i'm fine. >> thank you, ed. >> thank you. see you soon. >> we could take the whole market cap, the stock market is our -- something that we need to

be careful with. >> and it's a weight that -- >> that's trillion for us. when we come back, why a court is putting a hit on the nfl concussion settlement. we'll have the details, right after this. those little things still get you.

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welcome back to "squawk box," everyone. in sports news, a judge has declined to endorse the national football league's $764 million consuggestion settlement with retired players. the court is concerned that the amount might not be enough to cover all potential recipients. thousands of former players have sued of concussion related

issues. three quarters of a billion dollars. >> do all the math in it. >> yeah. >> it's a really -- this is a tough one. roger goodell, how long has he been commissioner? and these things happened over the course of football for years and years and years. >> and science is changing rapidly. >> but you probably always knew. that's why you try to get the best equipment you can. >> but they say you can't improve the equipment at this point because it's your brain rattling around in your skull. >> and some of the equipment has allowed people to hit people harder and that's made it worse. >> but, you know, i see 50-year-old guys that have trouble walking and their joints and it's -- i mean, a lot of people that played football now say i wouldn't let me kid play. >> that's what we thought. we've had the conversation, too. it's a -- >> it's a dangerous game. >> it's a tough one, but to point fingers and to say, hey, i just -- the entire nfl --

>> but how do you come up with that money to -- >> i know. and they've done well with these guys as lawyers. but then again, these guys want to -- do you know how much guys wanted to make it into the nfl growing up? >> you didn't know the risks associated with it. >> but these days, parent are now -- if you're playing hockey or football, you do this baseline, you can baseline your brain so they can then measure if there's a problem, if you have a concussion. >> but you're talking about brain injuries. >> right. >> any of this. coming up, we're going to talk about some other risks. these are the biggest risks facing the global economy. the world bank will provide their outlook right after the break. we got adt because i walked in on a burglary once.

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welcome back, everybody. take a look. again, after a massive rebound yesterday for the markets, you do see some continued green arrows. dow futures up by 34 points. s&p futures up by better than 4 points. and the nasdaq which closed yesterday at another 13-year high is up another 13 points above fair value. a lot of this is affecting how european and asian markets have been trading, too. the european markets are indicated higher. the biggest winner there is the

dax in germany which is up by better than 1.1%. in asia overnight you also saw continued gains. the nikkei rebounding as well, up by 2.5%. the hang seng up by 0.5%. we're watching all of these things today. also watching oil which yesterday had started to rebound but was still sitting near multi-month lows. right now you can see it's up about 50 cents to 93.09. we are going to go across the pond. the world bank says that the global economy is at a turning point. joining us now is andrew burns, he's the global process group manager at the world bank. good morning, andrew. >> good morning. how are you? >> i'm good, thank you. i heard we had some hookup problems, but we're glad to have you. let's go through the numbers. global gdp over the next three years, what are the numbers? >> well, we're looking at an acceleration in growth in the global economy, up from about 2.2% going up to 3.2%, 3.4% over the next couple of years. that's being led by an

acceleration of growth in the high-income countries. we're seeing u.s. going from 1.8% to 2.8% this year. euro area going from minus 0.4% last year to 1.1%. developing countries also accelerating, going from 4.8% to 5.3%. so generally a positive story for the global economy. good news, after five years of really weak growth in the high-income world. >> how much are you worried about the emerging markets as the taper begins in earnest? you know, if you remember last summer when there was talk of the taper, the emerging markets took the dive first. >> well, that's exactly right. and it's one of the central themes of this year's report. what we're doing is we're looking at how that went in the summer and how it might go going forward. we saw a sharp increase in yields in the u.s. last year that resulted in significant depreciation of many currencies, losses in the values of stock markets. but when we look at what's happened since december, markets have been broadly calm. and that gives us some

confidence that we might see a much more smoother process going forward. our estimates are capital flows to developing countries could decline from 4.6% of their gdp last year to about 4.0% in 2016. something that should be able to be absorbed, especially as exports are going to be growing more quickly now that high-income countries are growing as well. >> andrew, thank you for joining us this morning. appreciate it. hope to talk to you again very soon. >> my pleasure. when we return, bank of america's on the clock. we'll have the numbers and the instant reaction right after this. ♪

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welcome to "squawk box." earnings central comes alive. bank of america is next on the list.

the instant reaction next. apple connects with china mobile. >> i see this announcement today as being one of those very key milestones. >> more of ceo tim cook's interview about the mega deal. national security during a time of noilabundance. two former military reports unveil a new report. conquer the morning. conquer the day. "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ shining like a diamond ♪ rolling with the dice ♪ standing on a ledge and show the wind how to fly ♪ ♪ when the world gets in my face ♪ ♪ i say have a nice day good morning and welcome to "squawk box" right here on cnbc. i'm andrew ross sorkin. we do have headlines crossing as we speak on bank of america's earnin earnings. let's take a quick look at the futures. >> 29 cents, 3 cents, that

stock's already up to 17.06 after a 16.77 close. revenue estimate was 21.238. and that came in at 21.49. so that is a little bit above expectations. the number yesterday we saw a couple of $5 billion quarters with wells fargo and jpmorgan. this is $3.44 billion is what the company is able to earn on revenue of 21 -- we'll call it $21.5 million. then all these different metrics, tier one is 11.19. global banking revenue, $4.31 billion. provision for credit losses, $336 million, and net chargeoffs, $1.58 billion. i don't see -- how do we -- what's the number that gives us what they brought back in, you know, from those reserves? that's what everyone wants to look at. how much they're bringing back. >> and the adjustment of $.6 billion. >> so 600 million they brought back. >> because of tightening of the company's credit spreads.

>> i don't know that that's the same thing. we'll see how much they brought back in. bank of america now obviously a lot of the results are able to generate come from merrill lynch which people at the time thought, you know, it was unclear whether that would pan out. and now it's really one of the bright spots at bank of america at this point. that is a new high that we're seeing now. and i don't know when the last time that the stock traded up here. >> they have made a lot of improvements on the balance sheet, too. the cfo, bruce thompson, says we enter this year with one of the strongest balance sheets in our country's history. capital and liquidity are at record levels. credit losses are at historic lows. our cost-savings initiatives are on track and yielding significant savings and our businesses are seeing good momentum. z >> this is almost as high as it's been since pre-financial crisis. but it got to almost 18 back in 2010. april of 2010. but if it gets up to 20, that will be the highest level it's

been since the financial crisis. as you can see from that chart right there. >> one of the things we talked about yesterday with jpmorgan was what had been happening -- i'm sorry, with wells fargo -- what had been happening with the residential mortgages. they say -- bank of america says that they funded 13.5 billion in residential home loans and home equity loans during the fourth quarter. i don't see how that matches up. it does not say how that matches up with the quarter before. a lot of these banks had seen lower numbers in the fourth quarter because of interest rates. >> what is the latest? it went up to almost 17 in 2010. by the end of 2011, it was back down to 4 bucks again. it was all the way back down to 4. >> when did buffett make his investment? i think it probably was -- i don't want to say 2010. >> well, 17 -- $17 feels really good for anyone who is long. >> he reported last summer he had made $5.3 billion in profit on that investment. >> on bank of america. >> yeah.

>> he invested $5 billion in bank of america, august. >> august of '11. >> what was the price then? >> in august of 2011, you're down around -- >> brilliant, right? put that chart on the screen. >> it was $6. between $6 and $8 back then. >> he also had the preferred shares. >> 6% on that. >> on the preferred. >> that's a nice way to live. now let's get to the interview of the morning. cnbc's eunice eun joins us with some of the highlights. eunice? >> reporter: hey, guys. well, tim cook said that this was a watershed moment and a watershed day for apple. both companies after a very long time were finally able to work out this deal, and so now apple will have access to china mobile's 750 million subscrib subscribers. he basically told me that this is just a way for the company to

build on the momentum that they have here in china. and he didn't seem very concerned about some of the low-cost hand sset makers that have been cropping up here. >> you know, for us, for apple, it's always been about making the best products. not making the most. and so we want people to have incredible -- have an incredible user experience with our products to empower them to do things they couldn't do before. this is what's important for us. if you look at last quarter, i saw these numbers just in the last few days. in the december quarter, and these are be ins coming from a third party, 57% of the mobile browsing traffic in china was on an ios device. and so i think you can see from this, regardless of what you might hear about unit market share, our products are being used a lot more.

>> mr. shi, will you now use an iphone? >> translator: good question. before china mobile and apple joined hands, i used a cell phone of another brand. now i've decided to switch to an iphone. i'm very thankful to tim cook that this morning he gave me one of the first iphones made for china mobile. and it's gold, the most popular color amongst youngsters. >> reporter: and china mobile's pricing still not too impressive. there are a lot of people here who were complaining that the iphone is still going to be just as expensive as it has been for china telecom and china unikom, but actually now those companies have dropped their prices for the iphone just days ahead of the sale of the iphone at china mobile. and, guys, i know we were talking in the past hour that tim cook had a special message for you. well, here it is. >> tell becky and andrew and joe i said hello. >> reporter: i will. i will for sure. >> well, we say hello as well.

>> reporter: see, joe, he said becky, andrew as well as joe. >> last, which is if you ran out of -- if you had had two christmas cards left, you would send it to -- >> i cannot believe you're still hung up on this. >> bitter betty. >> oh, you think since my name was last. >> eunice, in the last hour when we talked with you about this, one of them had said -- i think it was tim cook said that since december 3rd, they've had millions of preorders that have already come in. what were the analysts expecting? how does that match up to expectations, or is it too close to call because those numbers are all in the same realm? >> reporter: well, the numbers were all over the place. i mean, i was seeing numbers that were ranging from 10 to $30 million for the year, or for the quarter, maybe it's going to be 3 million additional iphones that you would see sold just because of this china mobile deal. but as of right now, saying is the preorders are in the millions.

we don't know much more than that. >> okay. eunice yoon. >> big market. big market. >> bank of america, it says the reserve was $1.2 billion versus $900 million in the period. i hope that's right. $1.2 billion. that helps when you bring those back. and we did call that the interview of the morning, but a lot of times we have a lot of interviews of the morning that are tied for the interview of the morning. >> coming up to one right now. >> yeah. i mean, that was an important interview, but some of them are sort of at the same level of importance, walter. they are. he kind of twitched when we said "interview of the morning." >> walter sent you a christmas. i understand how this all works. >> did you? lost in the mail? >> lost in the mail. it was lost in e-mail. you have a spam filter. >> yeah. that would definitely end up there. >> guest host to formerly introduce him is walter

isaacson, president and ceo of the aspen institute, also the author of the best-selling book "steve jobs." on that score, we should probably start with apple. we had a raging debate in the 6:00 hour about net neutrality. i want to get your views on that as well. on apple when you think about china, and you see them move into that market, should we say this is amazing? this is a watershed? or is this just another piece of the pie? >> well, one interesting thing is that steve jobs, in his whole life, never went to china and never wanted to go to china. and obviously, from foxcom to china mobile, there were a lot of reasons to go. tim cook wanted to go to china. and this is one of the big marks that tim is making on this company is this is a big deal. and the fact that he pulled it off is good. >> so what's a bigger deal? getting into china or google earlier this week buying nest? >> i actually think google buying nest because i think this shows an amazingly strong

integrated strategy that google has to connect all of our devices, all of our lives from our car to our navigation system to how our garage door is going to open. and you know, the internet of things has already gotten so much hype that we're about to hear the backlash. but it's actually real. there are these devices we're going to want to have. >> they wrote a piece over the weekend -- it was right after the nest deal. i'm sorry, not over the weekend -- suggesting between nest, the acquisition of those robots, remember we talked about those a couple of weeks ago between google glass, that that company, from an innovation standpoint, either they're innovating or they're buying innovation. when you think about google relative to what apple is doing, how do you think about that right now? >> absolutely i think dick is right in terms of the fact that the greatest innovation in the world right now today is coming from google. and tony fidel was one of the team that created the ipod. he was very deep into the apple culture. that's when apple was so innovative. you didn't expect them to come

out with a music player back then. and boom, because of tony fadell and a few others they did. now he's going to google as part of the nest deal. >> johnny ives was working on some crazy idea that's going to make google glass and nest and everything look like child's play. you got closer to that secret than anybody else, though. >> well, you know, i think steve jobs would have wanted, as the next disruptive thing, to have wearable like watches or tv, the easy tv you could walk into the room and say "put on squawk box," and you didn't have to worry about all of the complexities, or disrupt the digital camera industry or disrupt textbooks or something. steve jobs was a disrupter. i think that now that tim cook has done this big thing in china which was his first year of play. he's got two things to do right now, take over the company,

which will mean in late february, shareholders meeting, they probably have to start thinking about who should be on the board next. this board is all steve jobs people. they aren't exactly the tim cook fan club. secondly, he's got to say, what am i going to disrupt? is it going to be wearable? is it going to be a watch? tv? we ought to see in 2014 apple do something huge. >> does he change the board makeup because he needs to make them people who are closer to his alley? >> no, i'm thinking of people on the board brought in many years ago, i do think tim cook has not fully seized the company yet. the china deal is a good thing, but the two things is make it his company and bring out the products that say oh, yeah, they're just like google. they're innovating. >> is 2030, 2035 just too far out for you? i mean, you know who's at google. i keep telling you this. >> kurzweil. >> kurzweil. >> 2035, the singulairity is

going to happen, walter. i'm sorry. >> do you know that i just went back, because i'm writing a book on this. 1958, everybody said it was 20 years down the road. they had the perceptron, the sing later in which artificially intelligence machines -- >> no, not artificial intelligence, it's when machines have this much -- and i can go back to the big bang. i'm going to have organs. >> you're going to have your mind implanted into a machine. >> by 2040. >> you are. >> i'm taking a lot of vitamins. how old are you? >> i'm 61. >> are you working out every day? >> yeah. >> you want to make it to 2040. that's all i'm saying. and it's going to be a lot better than not having your car keys because it's on your cell phone. this is going to be a lot more upt d disruptive. >> for the past 50 years, it's always been 20 years on the horizon. >> i think it got a lot more with ving what's his face. >> and kurzweil?

>> it got a lot more specific. you've got ten different guys that have done the math, and it all comes out to about 2035, 2040. and even if you don't believe that, in terms of 2030 what we'll know from the human genome and rational drug design, chemistry and all of these things for health care, it's going to be absolutely phenomenal. >> you think it wile reverse the human brain and -- dr. frankenstein. >> i know that we're going to be able to make organs. >> we get to the singularity. we're having the authors of the second machine -- second machine age on tomorrow. >> to your fears. >> if we're all on little hard drives. >> dan marcum who's been writing about this with "the times" has been really looking at that. if you look throughout history, whether it's the invention of the mechanical loom, people say we won't need people. >> that was much worse. >> history shows us that technological advances don't

kill jobs. >> that's what i keep telling you. >> i'm more worried about the board. >> the what? >> the board. >> the industrial revolution in terms of assembly line and all that, that should have been much more disruptive than anything you're talking about now. machines, everybody used to do everything by hand. we made it through that, and it didn't kill things. this is nothing. this is child's play. >> this is the future. >> walter isaacson, we do have to get to our net neutrality debate. >> you worry about how hot the planet's going to be in 2100, but you're not excited about what's going to happen in 2035. >> no, i'm much more excited about -- >> you saw that movie where it's going across -- >> i am not that anxious. i'm not. >> it's going to be like south carolina here. you don't like south carolina and new jersey? coming up -- >> i'll move to canada. >> we'll break down the numbers withen an analyst next. the country is gushing with

oil. how will it impact our national security and foreign policy? hopefully in a good way. we'll have results of a new report coming up at 7:30 eastern. later on "squawk box," chicago mayor rahm emanuel and steve forbes joining forces to reinvent america. they both talk eto "squawk box" at 8:30 a.m. eastern. conquer the morning. conquer the day. [ male announcer ] this is the story of the little room over the pizza place on chestnut street the modest first floor bedroom in tallinn, estonia and the southbound bus barreling down i-95.

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welcome back, everybody. take a look at the futures. they are indicated higher. once again this morning after a big market stay yesterday. the dow looks like it's indicated to open up by about 36 points. the s&p is indicated up by over 4 points, and the nasdaq is indicated up by another 13 points after it had its best day yesterday in over three months and closed at a 13-year high. in our headlines this morning, more u.s. business travelers are expected to hit the road this year. and a report by the global business travel association says that the road warriors are going to be spend are more for airfare, hotel rooms and car rentals. business travel spending is expected to rise by 6.6% in 2014. also this morning, we are watching shares of bank of america after its quarterly results came out with better than expected numbers. that stock right now is indicated up by 2.2%. we're going to talk to an analyst when we come back to get the street's reaction. that's right after this. time now for today's "aflac trivia question." what gift did u.s. secretary of state john kerry give his russian counterpart on monday?

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what gift did u.s. secretary of state john kerry give his russian counterpart on monday? the answer? secretary kerry gave russian foreign minister sergei lavrov two large idaho potatoes. >> aflac. bank of america releasing quarterly results just a short while ago. joining us on the squawk news line, david hilder, banking analyst at drexel hamilton. did you consult with anyone when you named at drexel? did that seem like a good idea at the time? >> i was not involved in that decision. that's a very old philadelphia name. >> it is. i'm kidding. it's a furniture company and a good university and everything else. just joking. but the reserve pulldown, are we right that it was 1.2 billion versus, what, 900 million in the year-ago period?

and does that make this less of a good quarter? >> i think the fundamental is that the credit quality is improving. the charge-off ash yoe was down to 87 basis points versus, gosh, 140 basis points a year ago. fundamentally credit quality is improving. the way the formulas work, you have to bring down the reserves as delinquencies and charge-off rates go down. >> so overall, do you point to merrill lynch? do you point to the commercial banking? what is it that bank of america is either doing well or that you would say added to this being perceived as a good number? >> i think it's largely the investment banking and trading business. in the quarter, their total investment banking fees were over $1.7 billion. that's more than jpmorgan reported yesterday. i think it's the first quarter in which bank of america has actually been the global leader in investment banking fees. their equity and trading revenues were up slightly both

on a quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year basis. i think the overall investment bank, capital markets business is performing very well. also, their capital level is now up to almost 10%. so they're well ahead of where they need to be five years from now. >> that's merrill, too, right? >> i'm sorry? >> the investment banking fees, that is merrill. so they've got all those brokers are investment management and investment banking's going pretty well. anything going well at the old bank of america? >> look, the old bank of america is, by some measures, the largest consumer and commercial bank in the country. >> yeah. >> it's doing fine. but i think if there's a surprise on the revenue side, it's in the investment bank and the capital markets business. >> david -- >> the tax rate was low. it was around 10.5%. so obviously, you know, you can't expect that to go on forever. >> david -- >> it certainly was a strong quarter. >> there's a philosophical

almost existential issue that this quarter for b of a and wells has shown which is when you look at mortgage origination, at wells, it was down 60%, relative to a year ago. bank of america this morning looks like it's down 50%. what does that say about not just the bank but more importantly, the economy? >> well, honestly, i don't think it says very much about the economy except that mortgage rates are higher than they were a year ago or six months ago. refinancing volume had been a huge part of mortgage originations over the past many years. and now that mortgage rates are slightly higher, you have less refinancing activity. that's all it says. >> all right. we've got to end it there, david. appreciate your time today, thanks. >> all right. thanks. >> see you later. when we come back, oil security in 2025. where are national security policies changed with the surge in u.s. crude production, or will more energy independence create more risks? we'll talk about that right after this. it's "shark tank" wednesday

on "squawk box." cohost kevin o'leary sounds off on the challenges facing small business. that's at 8:40 a.m. eastern time. conquer the morning. conquer the day.

welcome back to "squawk box." i'm andrew ross sorkin along with joe kernen and becky wick. morning headlines, the first one being bank of america, they just report aid quarterly profit of 29 cents per share, 3 cents above estimates. revenue was also above consensus. the bank's results were helped by a significant drop in its provisions to cover bad loans. also, mortgage applications rose 11.9% last week. that's according to new figures from the mortgage bankers association. that continues a bounceback from a 13-year low in applications at the end of 2013. and a court has ruled that about 60,000 workers can pursue a lawsuit against apple, google and others as a class action. the workers are accusing the companies of agreeing not to poach each other's workers in order to drive salary levels lower. the trial is set to begin in

late may with the workers claiming the damages could be more than $9 billion. becky. there's a new report today that highlights the impact of the u.s. oil boom on national security and foreign policy. joining us right now is retired u.s. navy admiral dennis blair. he is the former director of national intelligence, also retired marine corps general michael haguey, the co-chairs of the energy and geopolitics commission for the s.a.f.e.o, securing america's future energy, and thank you both are to come here today. we've already spent time talking about the oil and gas boom, how great that's going to be for american business. we have not really spent as much time talking about what that means for our security. what does it mean? >> the -- a lot of fairly loose talk about it enabling us to walk away from the middle east and so on. and general haguey and i would like that to be true because we think that that's had a tough effect on our national security

over the years. but as long as our transportation sector is dependent on oil, as long as oil is a world market, the united states will be concerned with what happens in producing countries like the middle east and in consuming countries like china. and our report has a set of recommendations to try to put more stability and resilience on that oil market over time so it can weather the shocks that have knocked us around in the past. >> i think there's not a magic elixir. and even if we do achieve more energy independence, it doesn't mean we can walk away from those areas, correct? >> that's absolutely correct. and what admiral blair was saying is right on point. i'm from texas. and there are individuals down there -- good friends of mine -- who say hey, we're going to drill our way out of this. and what our report shows is that is, in fact, not correct. as admiral blair mentioned, transportation plays a big part in our infrastructure here, and over 90% of transportation

depends upon fuel, oil. >> there are also some numbers that you point out in this report today. that the united states is going to remain a major consumer of oil in coming decades even if total volumes begin slowly declining by 2025. so this is all good news but maybe not something that is here on the horizon. however, how has the situation changed just over the last three years? what's come about with fracking and different ways of getting the oil and gas out of the ground, that has been a game changer, correct? >> i think all the economic effects are certainly good in terms of american jobs, in terms of putting another supplier on the world market. we are now the second largest supplier of oil surpassing russia just at the end of last year, and that's all good. however, what we think we ought to do is take advantage of this time that we have. estimates say it's about 2020 or so, we're going to begin to taper off. let's take advantage of what we have to put the american economy on a basis that's not so

dependent on things that happen in other parts of the world. we need to diversify our fuels for transportation, natural gas, electricity. we need to use every. d drop of oil. and in these countries with he need to work over the long term for better oil security there, more stability, rule of law, improved governance so that we're not this volatile region over which we have very little control no matter what we do is determining what happens to the american pocketbook, to the american economy. >> what's the easiest way to wean our transportation fleet from dependence on oil? >> if we can get our heavy-lift -- our 18-wheelers and our bus fleets on to natural gas, which is very doable, and if we can make a big dent in electrical cars, then we can take that down. because electricity, natural gas are going to be very -- they're domestically produced. they're going to be stable, low prices for a long time to come. oil we're going to be jacked

around because it's a world market. >> i know president obama was looking at governor bill ritter and others with ways to get refueling possibilities so that you could get natural gas vehicles on the roads. >> right. >> how do you do that? >> it's a little chicken and egg there. you need the demand to put the refueling and you need the refueling to generate the demand. we think there is a public/private role there that could say, okay, one, two, three. let's put the 350 interstate fueling stations on to natural gas so the big 18-wheelers can be confident they can get a full tank. >> what does that look like? >> it looks like a big tank. >> no, no, no. the public/private partnership in terms of how that works. >> i think it's a combination of tax breaks and incentives plus the private industry actually putting them out there. >> it makes more sense -- i mean, look at some of the other infrastructure that has been priorities for this -- the

high-speed rail between cities that don't necessarily even want high-speed rail between them. you know, renewables. i love renewables. i do. i do. i mean, this might actually work, right? 4 bucks for 1,000 mcf? i mean, this is a public/private partnership. infrastructure that would create jobs that everyone would get behind, right? bipartisan. >> it would take 20% petroleum -- we'd be 20% less gas. >> it makes too much sense. >> it sounds very similar to the pickens plan, try and get the 18-wheelers off and push some of that. he ran into problems every time he went to congress. do you think there is a plan that congress would approve to do something like this, or is this something that the private sector has to pick up on its own? >> i think that the private sector plays a significant role in this. and what we tried to lay out here in the report is a real vision. there are going to be problems, day-to-day problems that you're going to have to address. but unless you have the idea of having this infrastructure here

and you put together this public/private venture and start, we're not going to get there. and we have to start that. >> general hagee, admiral blair, thank you both. we really appreciate it. and we hope this is a report that people pick up and pay close attention to. >> thank you. >> great report. >> wind's boomed quite a bit. >> that was a problem. he got out of wind. >> i know. a renewable. but the problem with that idea. >> i thought you loved renewables. you just said so. >> yeah. i like natural -- i like things that actually the private sector decides works instead of deciding what's going to work because smart people tell you about and then forcing the issue and then spending all kinds of money. central planning versus the private sector. simple. >> one of the things, in my opinion, about this report is that it's based on fact. it's based on data. i know. >> that won't work in washington. whose idea was that? anyway. thank you, gentlemen. coming up, we'll ask walter

isaacson if net neutrality is dead. and whether he's mourning its passing. what this wonky term means to a number of major companies. can you imagine spending hundreds of billions of dollars building pipes and not being able to dictate how they're used? what kind of business model do you have with that? >> like a utility. >> yeah, like a utility. >> sounds like natural gas. later a deal to bring apple to china mobile, a moment walled watershed by tim cook. find out if wall street analysts feel the same way. "squawk box" will be right back. well, did you know auctioneers make bad grocery store clerks? that'll be $23.50. now .75, 23.75, hold 'em. hey now do i hear 23.75? 24! hey 24 dollar, 24 and a quarter, quarter, now half, 24 and a half and .75! 25! now a quarter, hey 26 and a quarter, do you wanna pay now, you wanna do it, 25 and a quarter - sold to the man in the khaki jacket! geico. fifteen minutes could save you... well, you know.

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in our headlines this morning, general motors shares getting a boost in the premarket trading. the automaker will be paying a dividend for the first time in six years. shareholders of record of march 18th will receive a payout of 30 cents a share on march 28th. you're right. the point is they went from 0 to 30 overnight. a lot of people came back. they come back 5 cents at a time. a big rampup. >> 3% yield right away. that's what ford is yielding. time warner cable is still saying no deal. rival cable company charter communications presented its case for a takeover in a conference call tuesday afternoon. time warner cable says that the presentation did nothing to change the fact that the

proposed price is what they call grossly inadequate. and a handful of key economic signposts today for investors following the best day for the s&p in more than two months. the consumer price index is out at 8:30 eastern. economists are expecting an increase of 0.4%. also at 2:00 eastern, the fed will be out with its beige book, a region-by-region assessment of the u.s. economy. a court striking down the fcc's net neutrality rules. our guest host this morning, walter isaacson, president and ceo of the aspen institute. we've been debating this all morning. where do you come out? should there be a free market, and will the free market -- free market allowing, you know, comcast, our parent company, or verizon to charge netflix more? is that better for the country and better for innovation, or is it better to have it as a flat? >> well, there should definitely be a free market, but there

isn't. there's a duopoly. if there were great competition in the pipe industry, meaning between cable companies and telcos and you had four or five choices, it would be fine, but you don't. if you're living here in manhattan, wherever it may be, you at best have two choices. and when it's like that, you don't want the companies -- you have to -- i mean, you know, we're talking about free markets -- let's have a real free market. let's have some policies that allow many companies, including google, which is starting to lay fiber, including, you know, when you auction off the spectrum, say let's have more competitors so you can truly say, let's bundle in, you know, cnbc, let's not. privileged netflix. >> that is a really expensive proposition. >> it is probably expensive, which is why we're stuck where we are now. >> right. that's why you don't have more competitors. it's not just the spectrum. it's also just the pipes. >> you could do a lot more to get spectrum to get

competitiveness, but you're right. it's a natural duopoly or whatever. >> aren't we back to deciding, when you're regulating something, isn't it better for market forces to regulate it than for the government to regulate it? >> that's the difference between free market and pipes. i agree with you. eventually there should be. >> if i were in the process of developing this market and i was running a business and i needed a business model where i'd know what i was going to make next year and the year after and the year after, if i was spending -- is it trillions of dollars? it might be. i don't know what it is that all these guys are spending. and they have no idea what they're going to be able to charge anyone. what kind of business model. >> billions of dollars of investments. >> and they have no idea. >> and you're looking at charter trying to take over time warner cable. trust me, you know, when they're bundling in espn and comcast and everything else, they are making large sums of money. they are not hurting. what you want is competition for them not to be able to say to me you can't have netflix because

we've -- >> not being able to tell someone that sucks up all the bandwidth, how much money are they making? >> why don't you just pay per use? >> that would be fine. >> if you're a heavier user, you should pay more. >> i mean, we don't do that with the phone company. say you can only have these calls and they get to decide which, you know, which phone systems get to come in. i think when you've got something, as becky said, where it's hard to have pure market competition -- and even you said we aren't there yet. we don't have a great competitive market. you've got to say, all right, there's some rules of the road here. >> massive capital expenditure. at&t spends more on capital expenditures than any other company. >> in the world. in the country. >> for the last five years running. >> sure. and google will do it, too. and i think eventually you get to a place -- you need some enlightened policies, but you do not need to get rid of net neutrality now and say, you

know, the cable companies that already decide that you have to get espn if you want to get c-span. >> let me make it more complicated for you. to get to the place you want to get to which is five -- >> choices. >> -- five choices, let's say, in a city or a town. effectively, what will end up happening is the government -- somebody will have to say, hey, comcast, hey, verizon, you have to let third parties run your stuff over your cables. >> that's crazy. >> hold on. this is the only way that would happen. >> not that you can, you have to. >> you're going to have to lease your cables. >> that's different. >> but that's the only way you'd ever get there. >> that's crazy. >> i'm not saying that's the right answer either. i'm saying to get to this sort of holy land where everything is truly fair -- >> when they broke up the bell system, they made them common carriers. >> yeah, but i think there's enough competition where we're not talking about a monopoly. this is not ma bell. >> you're also talking about a free market. >> ryou're right, i have two

choices where i live. >> that's not a big free market. >> but i went to fios, and the competitor has gotten much better since then. >> is that a third choice? >> no, second. fios was only the second. >> this is holding back the buildout. it's like the opposite -- >> i think that you're going to see companies like -- >> did you think sirius and xm was a duopoly? >> i don't think that was as important as getting the internet into your house. >> the best-laid plans. >> do you think net neutrality has created jobs and innovation? >> if you were a small company and you had to pay additional money and had to compete against google, the game would be over. >> andrew just made the best argument. >> the game would be over. >> i allot of companies that shouldn't be in business maybe shouldn't be in business. >> then you're saying that the incumbent, it will always win because they have the bank. >> no, that's not what i'm saying. >> what you should admit is net neutrality has been good for the past few years for allowing flowers to bloom.

and it's a good thing to say anybody who wants to start a company, wants to start a service has a chance to get on that pipe. >> the internet has grown out because it's been very lightly regulated. this is part of this. this is part of the heavy-handed regulation that needs to go at this point. you need to be able to do a business model where you can make -- you can't be constrained. >> i'm not worried about the business model. >> take the bait. >> profits are big enough. coming up next, tim cook in a very exclusive interview with eunice yoon. we'll get street reaction to his comments and the future of apple when "squawk box" returns. coming up in the next hour, chicago mayor rahm emanuel and "forbes" media chairman steve forbes join us with their plan to reinvent america. plus, market-moving data. december's producer price index data is just ahead. and then, a shark invades "squawk box." >> is there a business of taping this back together again? >> "shark tank" host and investor kevin o'leary is hungry

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it's a watershed day for apple. it's a huge announcement. i'm so honored to be doing

business with chairman xi and china mobile. they have the largest network. we are incredibly impressed with them. we have deep respect for them. and have had, from the very first discussion that we've had together. we see this as bringing the world's best smartphone to the very largest and now the fastest network in china. >> that's tim cook talking about the company's deal to sell iphones on china mobile's vast network. and daniel is now joining us. he covers the company for hudson square research. the question i have this morning, and i am an apple user myself, is in china -- and becky basically asked the question, i think, to eunice before -- the type of sales that were expected by analysts like you and the numbers that are actually coming out, are they matching in china? >> a couple things. fir first, at 12 times earning, the market is not giving apple a lot

of credit for potential growth whether it's china or otherwise. to china, i think china will be bigger than you think. it is, however, one arrow in the quiver for this year. but i think it will hit the target, and it will be bigger than you think. >> you think there will be a pricing problem? that's been the critique. >> pricing is absolutely always the biggest critique. however, as you're probably aware, the fastest growing car company in china in the last two years is audi. that's a $40,000 car in china at the low end. and that's the fastest growing car. that's $40,000, an apple iphone is $1,000 unsubsidized, and they already have 40 million people on china mobile that are already using apple iphones that are disabled. they can use them for calling. then they get home to their wi-fi, they can use it. that's a natural install base that people will be able to use the network. cook said this morning or overnight that 57% of mobile browsing was on ios.

so we know that when apple -- and we're seeing the same numbers here when people actually use the devices. the usage and the metrics for developers, for retailers are much, much better with apple. >> what does that say -- you know, i asked walter in the last hour about innovation. what's more important? apple going to china or google buying nest? i think you chose google buying nest. but then i think back to the fact that apple actually, when it comes to people using the devices, it seems to have a much bigger take-up. >> that's correct. i think that they'll say that with nest. and so, you know, google continues to have great data on what apple users do because even though there's other search options, there's other map options people use google devices, google doesn't need to own devices. they spent $12 billion on motorola for the patents, and they haven't won a single case. they could have just continued to have android and be the search engine across apple devices or across. it didn't matter. google is collecting all this

data, and they're able to monetize that. they don't actually need devices. but i think the nest issue is interesting. i said china is one arrow in the quiver. the other big one is for the last two years, cook continues to hint that there are, in the last earnings call, he said there are things that we do that we have expertise in that would lend itself to other categories that we're not in. and so the number one thing that i think investors care about today is what is that new category? most analysts will come on here and say our checks tell you they'll have a two-inch water, an 80-inch television. i don't know. but i do know they have a history of innovation. they have a history of entering new product categories and leading them. they don't necessarily need to be, as cook says, the biggest. audi is not the biggest car company in china. it's fastest. >> cook's been hinting at this great innovative product, whatever it is. >> whatever it is. >> and maybe multiple products for quite a while. >> correct. >> at what point does the investor community say, you know, show me the product or i

just -- >> i had dinner with a page one holder last night, and that was the number one question. is is that going to be this year? i think if we define this year not necessarily this fiscal year which ends in september, let's give them the whole calendar year. but i think that the unanimous answer among apple investors is that this better be the year. because it's only so long that the boy can cry wolf, right? and so this has got to be the year. i don't really care what products that it is. i don't care if it's a watch, a television, a new service. but i really do believe they need to be innovative. and that's why i think the nest thing is interesting. >> but you do care about them hitting it out of the ballpark, right? if they come out with something that looks like a samsung watch, you're not going to be a happy camper. >> that's correct. and so i believe -- i have faith that apple is not going to come out with something that large, that ungamely and that unuseful. when apple does it, i think it will be useful.

>> daniel, thank you for joining us. coming up, reinventing america. we've got chicago mayor rahm emanuel teaming up with steve forbes, and they're sharing their plan to get america growing. they join us in the next hour right here on "squawk box." check out the futures ahead of key market-moving data. december producer price index coming at 8:30 eastern time. we're coming right back. mine was earned orbiting the moon in 1971.

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reinventing america. chicago mayor rahm emanuel informs media chairman steve forbes joining fours ining for good of the country. a summit to discuss job creation. we get their ideas on getting america back to work. markets rebound. can good economic news keep the markets moving higher? today's producer price index will be a test for investors. the numbers and the market reaction are just ahead. plus, a shark is circling. "shark tank" host kevin o'leary on what he says is the true indicator of the state of the economy. as the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc, first in business worldwide. i'm joe kernen along with becky quick and andrew ross sorkin.

in studio sharing his thoughts, walter isaacson of the aspen institute. the futures at this hour, after a nice session yesterday where the nasdaq and the s&p both outperformed the dow, looking good again this morning. we'll see what happens. it's still early. you know, we had seven days, seven bad days and one really good day yesterday. so all bets are off on what kind of year we'll have. >> we'll see if we can keep it up. bank of america keeping it up this morning. reporting better than expected quarterly earnings. revenue results were helped by a significant drop in its provisions to cover bad loans. and b.a.c. shares are up in the premarket, a little over 3%. also, china mobile, they're going to start selling iphones in china this friday. apple's ceo, tim cook, speaking exclusively to cnbc earlier today. >> last year we were able to work with the government authorities to be able to launch china at the same time that we launched every other country.

and the result of doing that, i'm pleased to tell you, although we haven't released our total results, as we expected, we sold more iphone units last quarter in greater china than ever before. and so we see that momentum and the announcement with china mobile today as just being able to, you know, continue -- continuing the momentum. we've really been building for the last three or four years or so in china. it is a very key market for us. >> we'll have more from eunice yoon in beijing in about 15 minutes. general motors will be paying their first quarterly dividend on its common stock in almost six years. automaker announcing a quarterly dividend of 30 cents a share. that stock rising. you can see it off just marginally this morning. let's get to the markets now. after stocks bounced back in yesterday's trading session, joining us from new york is

brian singer, head of dynamic allocations strategies at william blair. and our guest host is walter isaacson. he's, of course, with us. i don't know if we're going to get your s&p target for the end of 2014. he's come up with a good one. we're at 1838. >> okay. the math. >> brian, don't give us anything that's not dynamic. i'm just warning you right now. if you give us up 10% or high single digits, cautiously optimistic, we want something dynamic. what do you think's going to happen this year? >> if you want dynamic, i think the only thing dynamic in the united states these days is probably the government. and that's a bad thing. so you've got to look elsewhere. and i would say probably the best place to look these days is, oddly enough, europe and many of the currency markets around the world. >> really? so we've had hpeople saying tha things are uniquely set up in this country for some gains. you don't necessarily think so

because we're being held back by washington? >> the common refrain for the last year has been the u.s. is the only source of growth and stability in the world. therefore you have to own u.s. equities. i think that's pretty much priced in. and what isn't necessarily fully appreciated is the continual dysfunction that washington seems to want to put in front of every single business trying to function here in the u.s. >> so you would buy stocks in europe? what did you mean about currencies? what are your plays there? >> well, you're right in terms of europe. and the point of europe isn't necessarily that there's a lot less dysfunction there. the problem -- or the opportunity there is that i don't believe that it has been the kind of calm that is beginning to come over that market is fully priced in. the european market is just astoundingly cheap, given everything they've been through over the last few years. with currencies, you've got four big central banks. the federal reserve, the ecb,

bank of england, bank of japan all blowing out their balance sheets. and it's really time to begin to think, as you look forward, at opportunities in other currencies. other than those markets. >> really? so they're all -- it's those four, but there's other, like i don't know, the average investor is not going to go by the thai bot or something, are they? >> it's one of the reasons it may be an opportunity, although the thai bot is not one we're really looking at. >> what are you looking at? >> the indian rupee is a great opportunity. it's been weak or well over a year. actually, longer than that. it's depreciated quite significantly, but the head of the central bank there is doing a lot of great things. and that's happening with the cheap currency. but there are a lot of other cheaper currencies, the indonesian. the australian dollar, the new zealand kiwi, things like that.

>> i like the kiwi. i like saying kiwi. >> i do, too. i do, too. i kind of like that one. >> yeah, they're cute. you talk about what's in front of us here, the headwinds from the government. how would we remove those headwinds? what would you like if you were king for a day? >> oh, if i were king for a day, i think i'd -- term limits might help. if it weren't a career job in washington, we might be a lot better off. i'm not an anarchist, and i think regulation is a good thing. it's like a christmas tree and you hang a gu ornaments on it, it's a good thing. what washington is doing now is backing up the truck and dumping truckloads of ornaments all over the tree. and at this point it's overburdened by what's going on. dodd/frank is a great example, the affordable care act. businesses don't know the environment they're functioning in. the policy of uncertainty is so astoundingly great, it's very difficult to allocate resources, and that's very, very hard to create wealth in that environment.

>> kevin o'leary's going to be on, right, becky? >> yes. >> talking about how the real, you know, what we need is entrepreneurship and small businesses, and they're the ones that are affected by a lot of this. and you can see it, part of the sluggishness in the overall economy is exactly what you're talking about right there. you're not even talking about corporate taxation or the territoriality that causes companies to build abroad and all that. you didn't even mention that. >> oh, that was the first -- that was the first truckload of ornaments that dumped onto the christmas tree. we're on top of that now over and over and over again. i mean, you've got rahm emanuel coming on now. look at illinois, the highest corporate tax rate in the world basically is illinois. we're fleeing -- that's where i live. is in chicago. and it's a difficult environment there. it's not a place that you necessarily are jumping up and down to do business unless you get some special tax break to locate there. and that's not really what helps small businesses. it's not small businesses that get the tax breaks.

>> brian, we appreciate it. that was pretty dynamic. appreciate it. >> thank you very much. i appreciate it. >> okay. see you later. >> bye-bye, now. when we come back, cnbc's exclusive interview with apple's tim cook and the head of china mobile. we'll head to beijing and hear more about what cook is calling a watershed moment for the company. and later, rahm emanuel and steve jobs teaming up on a summit with elected officials to talk about the strength of america's economy. we'll speak to both of them in just a minute. "squawk box" will be right back. with fidelity's options platform, we've completely integrated every step of the process, making it easier to try filters and strategies... to get a list of equity options... evaluate them with our p&l calculator... and execute faster with our more intuitive trade ticket.

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welcome back. our guest host is walter isaacson. author of the best-selling book "steve jobs." walter, we've talked about a lot of things, but i'm surprised we haven't gotten to washington yet. we haven't gotten to what's been happening there. >> brian was talking about how the economy in the united states has been a bit sluggish or nervous or skittish because of the dysfunction in washington. i think an underplayed story is that in the past few weeks, washington's gotten its act together. passing a very sensible spending bill, getting back to a regular order of business, not having these shutdowns and closedowns. that's pretty good. >> that's basically just getting out of the way, though. this was not a grand bargain.

>> hey, getting out of the way is a big deal. >> that's enough is what you're saying. >> it wasn't a grand bargain, but it's a bargain that says here's what we're going to spend this year. you know, it kept spending pretty low. but it raised it above the onerous levels of the sequestration. and so i think it's a sensible deal. and now we're not going to have this uncertainty. plus i think it allows government to move on to the more, you know, sensible agenda. you're going to hear rahm talking about it which is how do you deal with long-term unemployment, infrastructure spending that joe and others talked about is a bipartisan thing we would want. i think that you're going to see the president be able to set an agenda this year that's a sensible agenda because we're not going to be in this cross fire of ideological sniping by the government. >> i think brian was laying it on an act of congress and an active white house. he talked about the aca

specifically, dodd/frank specifically, not about what hasn't -- talked about regulations. >> he talked about regulations. and i don't think that this administration, believe it or not, has been any more regulatory or onerous. it cut back regulations. >> have they been any less pro-business than other administrations? >> i think that you're going to see a push, as you were talking about, brian talked about, for small business, entrepreneurship and helping. i think it's a bum rap on this administration to say they're appe anti-business. >> i can't read this without irony. french president hollande trumpeted a pro-business agenda of tax and spending cuts to revive the economy. even france and hollande has come around before our guy. >> wait, they had -- >> we're talking about 90%. >> relative. even in france. even in france, they figured it out even in france, maybe the

private sector is the way to go. >> on the front page of "the washington post," they have a picture of his love affair treatment. >> he's got a couple of things going on. he's distracting and a lot of money to play with. >> the first lady -- they're not even married, on is there really a first lady? >> you see, things are really good in washington when suddenly you're turning to france. >> he's not married to her. he's allowed to date other people, isn't he? >> the problem becomes is she is the first lady, and she has the office, and she as all the things that goes along with it. she's in the hospital right now. >> it's inskrutable for me. a lot of things in france are unscrutable. i love it there, but you can't understand it. >> enjoy it. >> just go with it. >> enjoy paris. we're also going to talk about another cnbc exclusive interview, this one in china. apple's tim cook calling the deal with china mobile a watershed moment for the company. and eunice yoon joins with us a lot more on that interview. eunice. >> reporter: hey, guys. well, it was a very long

courtship, but today we saw that tim cook and the chairman of china mobile were feeling really good about themselves. they finally were able to seal this deal. and we saw quite a bit of joking and also them both saying that they were very confident and optimistic about the release of the iphone at the china mobile stores, which is going to happen on friday. this is what the two of them had to say. >> it's a watershed for apple. it's a huge announcement. i'm so honored to be doing business with chairman xi and china mobile. they have the largest network. we're incredibly impressed with them. we have deep respect for them and have had from the very first discussion that we've had had together. we see this as bringing the world's best smartphone to the very largest and now the fastest network in china. last year we were able to work

with the government authorities to be able to launch china at the same time that we launched every other country. and the result of doing that, i'm pleased to tell you, although we haven't released our total results, we sold more iphone units last quarter in greater china than ever before. and so we see that momentum and the announcement with china mobile today is just being able to, you know, continue -- continuing the momentum that we've really been building for the last three or four years or so in china. it is a very key market for us. >> reporter: mr. cook, i've seen ranges from between 10 million to 30 million in additional new iphones that could be sold because of this deal just this year. what estimate sounds fair to you? >> i look -- we play for the long term.

and i see this announcement today as being one of those very key milestones in doing great stuff over the long term for our customers and our shareholders and our employees. and that's the way i look at it. so i'll let others predict the numbers. >> how competitive is your pricing compared to your rivals like china telecom and china unikom? >> translator: the deal is now, so our pricing is a bit more expensive than our competitors, but still believe it's very attractive. you asked a very important question to tim cook on numbers. i cannot tell you completely, of course, but since december 23rd, when people didn't know the pricing, we had millions of preorders. this is very encouraging. >> reporter: guys, the big question we have now is what will the subsidies look like at china mobile? so far the company is staying mum on that and they're not going to be announcing any type of price breakdown until their

annual results in march. >> all right. eunice yoon, thank you. she's been with us three times. >> three hours. >> she's been there on time. >> thank you, eunice. great interview. >> it was. with walter isaacson, the interview of the morning. >> yep. >> okay. they're tied. investors have been focused on economic data this week after friday's dismal jobs report. so far it hasn't disappointed. today, that could move markets. the december ppi, plus a read into business conditions in new york when we get the empire state manufacturing index. as we head to break, a look at the "squawk box" realtime market indicator. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] this is the story of the little room over the pizza place on chestnut street the modest first floor bedroom in tallinn, estonia

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welcome back to "squawk box." tesla's elon musk speaking out with the oral debate. here is the back story on that. last friday the electric carmaker said that it was providing customers with a new adapter and software upgrade to try and prevent overheating of its charging systems. tesla never used the words "recall" or "fire," but yesterday federal safety

regulators classified this move as a recall. here's elon musk on "the closing bell." >> it makes sense in the 21st century toward the model "s." i think there are cases where a recall, of course, is necessary when there's a mechanical problem with the car that requires the car to be brought in, but that's simply not the case. >> that, again, was elon musk talking about that. we've had discussion around the table here what actually is a recall, what does it take to get that word on it. to me if you have to bring the car back in, that's something that qualifies more as it. walter, do you have any thoughts on that? >> yeah, but i think elon musk is right. you don't want to go slapping the word "recall." language and words have meaning, and they matter. and so when you start using a word in a way that scares people and make things worse, if you just have to get an upgrade in the system, that shouldn't be called a recall. we shouldn't use words in ways that hurt our economy. >> plus it's a disincentive for tesla or another automaker to come out with things that they

think is improving things. >> you also have to worry -- you know, battery technology is going to cause the need for upgrades and everything else. we don't want to scare people in the society into thinking that we shouldn't be doing things. there's so much good happening. elon musk is amongst the people driving it of, you know, everything from transportation to innovation. and when you use words like this and do things like this, it could be almost as bad as regulation is and stopping great innovation. >> the car is almost a computer. look how many upgrade applications you get every day. i don't even know what they are. >> it's why google is going to own your car, not just the navigation system. >> there have been privacy concerns that have been brought up. because nest knows when you're home, all of your prerferences. nowing goole has all your information. i saw people complaining on twitter about that. >> privacy issues. that's fine. they should learn how to do their settings. those of us that want innovation say you know what? let's not stop innovation because the word "privacy" is a word like "recall."

it's a little bit more loaded than it needs to be. and if you start saying oh, our privacy issues, i don't want google to be able to do certain things, then you should just go figure out how to open up your settings and turn it off. >> randall stevens said we're eventually only going to have a smartphone. we won't have car keys. and we won't have a wallet. and then i was thinking, if i drop my phone in the water down a toilet or something, i won't be able to drive anywhere. i won't be able to buy anything. i won't be able to call anyone. you'd be totally screwed. that's an awful important thing, isn't it? >> yeah, but it's also kind of ridiculous that if you're shopping at target, you're still using some plastic that somebody can take. there should be smart chips in everything from cell phones to credit cards so that we're not stuck in this old way. and privacy or recall and all these words keep us sometimes from innovating the way we should. >> i have a quick elon musk question. i've compared him, at least in my mind, to steve jobs. others say he's closer to a

delorean. 20 years from now, will you be writing a book about elon musk? >> i hope so. i hope somebody's pushing the envelope thinking of all new ways to do things. i don't know elon musk, but i respect him from having watched him. i think that he's a person with a whole bunch of new ideas. >> a quick question for you. this is an ethical question. so we were talking during a break before. matthew martoma of s.a.c. who is in this case, criminal case of insider trading. i don't know if you saw the news. >> yeah. >> he recently, it was discovered -- was unveiled that he had forged some of his transcript at harvard law school and got kicked out. he later changed his name and somehow got into stanford business school. do you think that that piece of information should be presented to a jury in his insider trading case? his defense attorneys say totally irrelevant. >> and the judge ruled that it

could be put in. >> at the moment. >> it's a character issue. >> but i consider you my sort of great ethicist, if you will, at the table. >> it does seem it goes to character, but there's a larger issue as becky was saying on privacy which is in this day and age, you don't control your delete button anymore. you will have a picture of you, you know, or your kid will on facebook doing something bad. that 22 years from now could be entered into trial. so i'm not as worried about the privacy issues. but i do believe we should have a right to have some -- to delete some things or at least not be in a world where everything that you've ever posted or tweeted can be used. >> snapchat. >> everything you've ever posted or tweeted, every dumb thing you've ever said online is different than creating a new identity. >> i agree. i think it goes to character. i think the judge's ruling was right. >> okay. >> okay. when we come back, december ppi and the empire state manufacturing survey. we'll bring you the market reaction to both those numbers. and then a special interview with chicago mayor rahm emanuel

and steve forbes. the two of them are teaming up for a special summit. we'll get the details in just a couple of minutes. [ indistinct shouting ] ♪ [ 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. ♪ all on thinkorswim from td ameritrade. ♪ mine was earned orbiting the moon in 1971.

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welcome back to "squawk box." we are joous seconds away from december ppi. rick santelli standing by at the cme. rick. >> reporter: we're seconds away from the january number, more importantly, we're going to be checking out the inflation front, ppi, and the survey says for december ppi, up 0.4, which is hot, but hot was expected. that's what we were looking for. let's look at the all-important food and energy, what's known as core. this is a lot hotter than what we were looking for. up 0.3. let's look at year over year. headline, up 1.2. core, ex-food and energy, ex-food and energy, up 1.4. so pretty much across the board, this is hotter. the year over year, let's look back, get a little perspective. not necessarily what we were expecting, but what we've seen in the rearview mirror. last look on headline year over year was 0.7. 1.2, we've almost doubled it. on core, it was 1.3, so we added

a tenth. empire, january manufacturing in the gotham city and surrounding area, 12.51. that's pretty strong. and last look, a whisker under 1 was revised. 12.51, i'll have to go back a ways to find a stronger number than that. it looks like may of 2012, we had a stronger number. we see that rates have popped up a bit. if there's one lesson we've learned, managed or not, fed programs or not, the fact that they probably want out of qe and there's no not in that one, they do. the reality of the matter is, the soft data on friday may be negated some by retail sales but not entirely has pushed rates lower. it has knocked kind of the foundation under equities for the first part of the year. of course, notwithstanding yesterday. we'll have to see how this adjustment process between the markets, the fed and the data reconcile with investors in the equity markets. back to you.

>> thank you, rick. we'll bring steve liesman in. he's got a little bit of reaction on the numbers. >> i'm just trying to see where the miss was. rick is absolutely right, the core was hotter. i'm not quite sure how much to be concerned about it. it looks like there was a big tobacco bump, 3.6%, maybe taxes taking effect at the beginning of the year or the end of the year. there's two stages here for inflation that we're going to watch. we're going to watch the kind of end of disinflation and a neutral phase until we get to a rising inflation. there is a little bit of pipeline pressure. i think that's going to be remarked on as we go up the stage to crude goods. a little bit of pressure up there. a lot of petroleum. we'll watch it. tomorrow we'll watch consumer prices more carefully. i'll have a special report on global inflation which i'll show you how inflation is falling throughout the world, not just in the united states. empire state very quickly, there is a debate raging in the markets right now. with the real economic indicator please stand up. is it the jobs report, the weak

one? or is it the other indicators? empire state comes along with the other indicators. that 12 is stronger than expected. and look. we're not going to definitively answer it probably till the next jobs report. the market is so cued into it, we'll catch it carefully and other indicators that lead up to jobs. but right now, yesterday after i got off set, we did the calculation. fourth quarter growth, the one that was going to be one handle on it when it was first forecast, now has a three handle on it. so it was 1.2 on the low. it's now running at 3.4. but third quarter and fourth quarter together. the best two quarters together average, second best two quarters, since the recession in 2008. so you had a pickup in the second half. you did one and change in it the first half. you're going to do three and change in the second half. and the debate in markets, does the momentum continue. consumer looked like they did pretty well. nrf out with 3.8% spending in for holiday sales. that's the story. >> okay. steve liesman, thank you for

that. >> my pleasure. our next guest wants to address the challenges of a discouraged work force. they're announcing the reinventing america summit which will be held in chicago. joining us now, chicago mayor rahm emanuel and steve forbes, "forbes" media chairman and editor in chief. and i see that they're in a split screen. and i'm told that they're doing this together. i tried to think of how i would characterize it. it's almost like the tea party getting together with bill de blasio and finding some common ground. is there -- is that about right? you guys have found some common ground on how to do this? >> well, i think both of us want better business and what this conference is about is that there are big technology changes taking place. no small part thanks to a cheap energy and the prospect of future cheap energy. so we're bringing people together like harold hamm, bill ford, david cody of honeywell, pointing out the things that are happening and will be happening. and we thought it would be very

appropriate to do it in chicago. i think mid-america will have a real renaissance, and chicago is the center of it. so we think it's going to be an exciting thing about -- especially with the cheap energy. manufacturing's coming back in ways that we can barely anticipate in terms of old manufacturing and new manufacturing. >> mr. mayor, i tried to come with the farrest apart that i could possibly get with de blasio and tea party. >> let me just say, just so you know, i wouldn't refer to this as a shotgun wedding, but i'm happy that forbes is hosting in america's heartland a conference about the reinvention of america. and i agree with steve on this. the energy revolution in america is upending a lot of old assumptions. and one of the things i'm trying to do as mayor, as manufacturing is coming back to the united states, we have a school of part of our community colleges and part of our closing the skills gap totally dedicated towards training for advanced manufacturing.

because cheap energy, the revolution that's going on in america's heartland on energy is making sure that america now has a manufacturing renaissance. the city of chicago has the fastest growing central business district in america by like a factor of 2-3 across the country. it is the capital both for services as well as corporate headquarters as well as innovation that's going on. and it's the right time to have a conference that brings people from all parts of america here to america's heartland, the most american of american cities to talk about how to harness that innovation, to create more jobs and economic growth. and we look to partnering together because whether you come from the democratic or republican party, left or right, it's about economic growth and job creation which is the best social and political policy. >> mr. mayor, i look forward to having you on just so i could ask you one sort of philosophical question, and a lot of public servants, you know, they work in congress. maybe in some other branch of government. they become mayor, they become

governor, and they always make the point that, wow! the buck really is stopping here in terms of money and budgets and everything else. you've been in politics a while. now you're the mayor. that's like being the ceo or a governor or even a president. have you had any change of heart about the overall approach to what government can and can't do and what the private sector can and can't do? why are you laughing? >> i'm only laughing because actually, i think there's a lot of mistakes at the national level about debates. in this sense, a lot of people say oh, business is against governance. the fact is business relies on government, and i'll give you an example. for the certainty and the capacity to move. the city of chicago has two great strengths, which is why it's constantly being reported like by "the economist" as well as other ibm as one of the best economically competitive cities in north america as let alone the world. we have o'hare airport. you can get anywhere in the world, anywhere in the country directly. that's essential.

just yesterday a company moved their corporate headquarters from iowa to chicago because they can get clients anywhere. the private sector can't put an airport like that. the private sector can't do the type of job training, universities we're doing. what we can do and what we also have to be sensitive from the business side is not just overreach, we have to give them certainty in the public sector and the leadership so they have the confidence to make that investment. and we often, sometime in the public sector, overreach, create uncertainty and that's not a reassuring quality for the private sector. >> you're not going to mention any names here. >> no. my comment is -- yeah, but my comment to you is, on both sides, my comment is there's a misnomer that business is against government. they know that government has a proper role and an investment role that creates a platform for them to succeed. and there's also a misnomer on the government side in the sense of what private sector can and can't do and what they need that participateship for. partnership for. i think there's a proper role

for both of them. what i see government do is -- >> a good example is the skills gap which is going to grow as this reindustrialization takes place and community colleges do have a key role to play in it. my hometown area, they are working with the local businesses and trying to design courses that will be of real relevance to graduates. you'll see it online. harold hamm, for example, took courses throughout his life in geology and other things to bring up his skill level as he needed more skills. and thanks to the internet, you're going to have the flexibility to do that on a constant basis. so i think you're going to see this whole paradigm change very positively. and education's going to be a constant thing, not just something you do grade through 12 or college and that's it. >> we have taken our community colleges, each school is aligned with a major industry seconder to make sure that we have a work force that goes all the way from our top business schools to our community colleges so we can give corporate interests that want to invest, expand here in

the city of chicago, create jobs, the absolute labor certainty, they'll have every skill that they're looking for. and that's what the public sector should do and can do to help private sector succeed. >> mr. mayor, it's walt isaacson. and you were talking at the aspen institute not too long ago with jamie dimon, jpmorgan chase and melody barnes on other way to close that skills gap. how do you think that's going to help resurgence of manufacturing in america? >> well, steve noted -- and i 100% agree -- washington's not talking about this. the biggest revolution equal to the internet is the energy independence of the united states. the cheap natural gas is going to allow us to basically reshore manufacturing. one of the challenges in manufacturing today is the work force is getting older, and they don't see younger people coming in with the skills they need. it's not just kind of making widgets anymore. you've got to know computer science and engineering to work on the shop floor. at the richard daley school,

it's manufacturing, 100 different parts of the chicagoland area helped develop the curriculum, the training, put the equipment in there to guarantee that there's a work force as older workers retire that are really skill trained for the advanced manufacturing revolution that's coming back to america. and i want to make sure we have the work force because every company now is chasing skills and training of a work force. and i want to make sure we have an institution totally focused on manufacturing to bring those jobs to the chicago area. >> and you're going to see it on the internet. it's going to provide flexibility that we just can't even imagine today in terms of particular skills or particular times. and it's going to be, you know, in the old days, you graduated, and that was it. you worked for a company and that was it. and now i think people realize it's going to be an ongoing thing almost like sports teams where you change it every couple of years. but it's going to be a very fluid thing. and we tend to think of technology as coastal. east coast/west coast. but a lot of technology, huge technology revolution's going to

take place right in the chicago area, middle america. and it's just beginning to emerge. and we want to be at the forefront of it. >> rahm, if you were chief of staff, you'd push through keystone, then, wouldn't you? >> i would. >> you would? >> i appreciate that. what i would say and what is happening is there is an energy revolution in the united states. it has impact that will be felt -- we're in the early one-year stage of a 30-year revoluti revolution. >> this is a yes, it sounds like. >> actually, i think you're missing the debate which we have things it -- keystone -- there's things going on in the united states that are bigger. and one of the things i would say and why i'm happy that "forbes" magazine is going to host it in chicago. the cell phone was developed and tested here in the city of chicago. nuclear fusion, tested here and first developed here in the city of chicago. the first skyscraper. it is the right place to have a conference on innovation and development that can change america. here in the heartland in the capital of the heartland.

>> it's a great place. >> in chicago. and i appreciate that "forbes" sees that and brings people from around the world to america's heartland where the revolution's going to create jobs. >> and the problems of the president, but there's a fantastic future, and we think people need to learn about it. great stuff coming up. >> by the way, you're going to still own the magazine at the time that you have this conference? the magazine is up for sale, right? >> we're in the middle of the process of it. it's going very well. and we'll know more about it in the weeks ahead, and we'll be sure to keep you informed as the thing unfolds. >> all right. >> how o's that? >> it was worth a try. >> i was clearer about keystone in that answer. >> you were. >> i learn from the master, mr. mayor. >> i'm working on it. >> congratulations, steve. >> i'm going to get 2 out of 3 emanuels in the republican party. i'm working on two of them. >> not going to happen. >> zeke. >> not going to happen. >> can we leave the lights on for you, rahm? >> you'd better wait till something happens to my parents because that is not going to happen. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> we'll work on them together.

still to come, "shark tank" host kevin o'leary is going to talk about the state of small business and entrepreneurship. plus, comments on the bank of america conference call about the state of business. kayla tausche has the details when "squawk" returns. open to ambition. open to bold ideas. that's why new york has a new plan -- dozens of tax free zones all across the state. move here, expand here, or start a new business here and pay no taxes for ten years... we're new york. if there's something that creates more jobs, and grows more businesses... we're open to it. start a tax-free business at startup-ny.com. to appreciate our powerful, easy-to-use platform. no, thank you. we know you're always looking for the best fill price. and walk limit automatically tries to find it for you. just set your start and end price. and let it do its thing. wow, more fan mail.

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sharks, i have an instant proposal. >> it's picture perfect. >> i have an offer for you. >> hold on. it's a group deal. you're all in. >> i don't want to do business with kevin. >> it doesn't matter what you want. it's not your business. >> shark fight! shark fight! >> "shark tank" tuesdays, back-to-back episodes on cnbc. >> whoa! >> this is one smart man. welcome back to "squawk box." i'm kayla tausche in the newsroom. just off a conference call with bank of america's cfo bruce thompson, and reporters in an overall good quarter where loans

rose, deposits rose and overall business and many of the units rose. the source of many questions was a $2.3 billion litigation expense in the quarter. bruce thompson said most of that legal expense is going to rmbs litigation. you'll recall in october the bank disclosed it was facing several impending lawsuits from the mortgage fraud working group. and there were some questions about whether there are any comparisons to be drawn between jpmorgan's settlement last year and bank of america's. thompson said that the bank faced its highest legal hurdles in 2011 when it socked away $20 billion in reserves and that luckily the bank was, quote, early in our challenges there. now, on the specific business units, thompson said that the taper announcement in december spurred year-end investment banking activity both in underwriting and in trading that the mortgage business was challenging in the quarter, but it should normalize to more purchasing power in the spring selling season. he says he feels good about the foundation overall that the bank is built for its businesses and that they also are building up capital levels beyond the

necessary basal 3 levels. they had a lot of reserves overall in 2013. he says credit was dramatically improving. but as those start to knock up in 2014, there will be less left to release there. but overall, becky, a great quarter for bank of america and that stock up 2.5% right now. >> kayla, thank you very much. still to come this morning on "squawk," "shark tank's" kevin o'leary is back. business conditions and what he's looking for when it comes to the future and future investments. "squawk box" will be right back. d one-second trade execution, we route your order to up to 75 market centers to look for the best possible price, maybe even better than you expected. it's all part of our goal to execute your trade in one second. i'm derrick chan of fidelity investments. our one-second trade execution is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. call or click to open your fidelity account today.

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let's get down to the new york stock exchange where we join jim cramer. we did, you know, wells and jp yesterday. i think we need to mention bank of america. i want to show, jimmie, that the merrill thing is going well in terms of investment banking and wealth management but also they want to emphasize the commercial bank is the biggest in the country, right? or the most branches or something. >> this is the best of the three. a couple things really stand out. the interest margin is terrific. we should stop talking about mortgages. not that great a business. every time they turn the lights on this company is making a ton of money. the investment banking is very good what you said about merrill. i'm blown away how much money

they can make and how they have great expense control. i'm not worried about litigation. i think it's a short-term peak i don't expect anything big in 2014 when it comes to that. this company is hitting on all cylinders, when will the federal allow them to give the dividend back the way it used to be north of $2. i think it will take too long. i don't think people should be in it for that but the earnings leverage. >> did you think gm would come back to a 3% yielder, then? >> i know that michael jackson's comments are moving it down autonation on the amount of supply. i don't think gm would have put through the dividend if they were worried about supply. gm is a global company. this is an absolutely terrific thing they did, they are spewing off cash and they also have a better pension benefit now that rates have gone up a bit. >> it was mike jackson. general motors themselves, did they say anything about guidance, do you know? >> not at all. not at all. i think they look good. can i inject some skepticism, i've been early on the energy

revolution and renaissance, only four manufacturers are taking advantage of it so far. a lot of people talking about it. the federal government and the president in particular not endorsed it. it has not produced very many jobs in terms of mobility, it's a real feel-good story, it would be even better if it were happening. >> we tried to figure out ways to put a public/private partnership together, but the public not on board. >> the federal government wants electric, not natural gas. the trucking companies they'd like to do natural gas no credit. you could say, listen, they should do it anyway. but let's put it aside for a second the biggest employer is cheniere. they are exporting natural gas because our country hasn't endorsed it. i'm sick and tired to hear how good it is, if other companies would endorse it i would be a believer, but i'm not. even though it makes a lot of sense. the military came out and military has not endorsed it whatsoever.

the president said it's an even hand and we like nuclear and coal and it's not a lie. it ain't happening. it should happen. but let's stop it already! >> very much, jim. by the way, good to see you. congratulations on the book which you had a little party last evening. coming up "shark tank" host kevin oo'leary. and duncan niedraure we'll join us later. approved to treat symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long-term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, or any allergic reactions like rash, hives,

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welcome back, everybody. didn't catch "shark tank" on cnbc last night now is your chance to get advice from one of the sharks. joining us right now from los angeles is kevin o'leary, he's the co-host of "shark tank." it's great to see you today. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> you know, i was hoping we could pick up where we left off last week. you were concerned about what's been happening to small business in terms of the regulatory perspective of the united states right now. jim cramer was just talking about how the energy boom that we keep talking about hasn't really panned out yet either. what do you think the state of the economy is right now for american business? >> well, we're all trying to solve two questions. we're dogged by the 7% unemployment rate and an anemic gdp growth which is rather

remarkable, usually you come out of a recession and bounce back to 5% or 6%. we didn't do it this time. we've got the wrong canary in the coal mine or the litmus test. the earnings on s&p 500 were record earnings, thank you, i'm an investor there. but that's not what's wrong with america. reason we don't get job growth in my opinion is the small business leader no longer has the leverage he used to have or she used to have to build out a business because they've been crushed by all kind of regulations and so why don't we look at them as the litmus test. why don't we find out what's holding them back. we don't. they have no lobbyist group. let's face it a company on the s&p 500 that is dogged by regulation in california, quietly moves its operations to mexico. it can afford to do so. it can afford to have a lobbyist both in the state and at the federal government level. a small business guy can't do that. and that's what's wrong with us right now. we have set up a horrible environment for small business. and they have no champion, no leader, nobody cares about them. that's the problem.

>> is that what you hear from the small business owners that you talk to all the time? >> absolutely. and, you know, we spend our time and certainly you do, becky, and the rest of your team interviewing the leaders of the ceos and the leadership of the s&p 500 and so you should. why don't you start listening to somebody with 15 employees doing $2 million in business in california. who's just been buried and almost crushed out of existence. nobody's listening to him or her. and that is where our problem lies. the president wants to talk to business? talk to small business. that's where we'll create jobs here. 50% of our jobs could come from there, but it's not happening now. >> yeah, i got a question for you, because that makes a lot of sense. but leaving aside the affordable care act, give me three of four regulations you'd pull right off right now. >> first of all, the threat of a new minimum wage is holding back everybody that's under $5 million in sales. >> that's not a regulation. >> well, what is it?

it's a form of taxation, okay? it's an uncertainty and it is not helping. so, why don't we just bring that dialogue to the head one way or the other and get it out of this market. that's a huge problem. >> hey, kevin -- >> environmental regulations in states like california are brutal. they're absolutely brutal. you wouldn't open a business there today from scratch. >> kevin, thank you. we're going to have you back next week. we'll finish this conversation. we appreciate it. >> all right. >> we want to thank walter isaacson for spending his morning with us. thank you for joining us. "squawk on the street" starts right now. ♪ i got to have faith i got to have faith because i got to have faith faith, faith ♪ >> wednesday morning, welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer who referenced that song last night. david faber at the new york stock exchange. big morning four the biggest companies in the united states, gm, bank of america, apple and we'll walk you through everything and hear from tim cook in a me