drifts, nothing has melted. we're looking for a lot of snow. it's wednesday, february 12th, 2014. "squawk box" begins right now. >> good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. yes, it is cold out. it's about 2 degrees here. cold places throughout the country. yes, we are sick of snow. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. stocks are now on a four-session winning streak. the major averages closing yesterday at their highest levels in more than two weeks. the dow has now recovered more than half of its recent losses. the nasdaq actually turning positive for the year. among the catalysts yesterday, you had janet yellen, the new fed chair reassuring investors that the central bank could continue improving monetary stimulus to bolster the economy. >> if incoming information broadly supports the committee's expectation of ongoing improvement in labor market conditions and inflation moving

back toward its longer run objective, the committee will likely reduce the peace of asset purchases in further measured steps at future meetings. >> there isn't a big move to the markets this morning, but after those gains, you'll take a look at u.s. equity futures this morning and see green arrows once again. dow futures up by about 16 points. s&p futures up by just over 1 points and the nasdaq futures up by about 3 points. more on the markets still to come. but first, the south is in the middle of snow and ice once again. the weather channel's alex wallace has the forecast for this mega storm that will be at our front door this time tomorrow morning. alex. >> we've got wide reaching impacts. right now, we've got the cold air rushing into northern sections of georgia, the carolina and the moisture all meeting up. that's not a happy marriage for us. we're seeing the reports for us here across north georgia into the carolinas. freezing rain out there. we've got several more hours to go of this. this is going to be an event, no

doubt about it. we'll be talking about for quite some time. snowfall also something that we'll be watching for through tomorrow. you get into the north georgia mountains, there will be some spots picking up, 5208 inches getting into the carolinas. a foot to a foot and a half. wow. and again, on top of that, we've got the icing potential out there, significant icing threat from atlanta to augusta, georgia, into the raleigh area. we're talking about crippling ice situation. that's going to mean travel could be very difficult and power outages. that is also the other concern for us across these areas, as well. it doesn't stop in the south. we're going to be watching this activity spread its way up into the northeast. you can see the zone of purple, generally 5 to 8 inches. places like d.c. into the atlanta area. the western suburb of these spots will be getting close to a foot in some of these locals. this is not a storm to mess with. if you don't have to be out there, stay inside. joe, back to you. >> and i hear maybe next week --

we don't know for on sure, but is there something brewing for next tuesday, too? >> are you serious? >> you know, it's a winter that just won't end. we'll be watching that, too. >> i wonder. thank you, alex. but i wonder, guys, whether -- >> i'm so done with it. >> it's nice. ♪ i'm dreaming of a white february ♪ it's great, people love snow. but i'm wondering, in atlanta now and places like that, now you've got fair warning, will it be a little better this time? will they get a few things ready to go? >> maybe a little bit prosecute. part of the problem they had the last time was they released everybody at 3:00 so it created a giant traffic jam. but they don't have enough plows and salt. >> what do we think this is going to do to the economy, though? at some point, it's got to -- >> three months in a row, you're talking about a quarter the law throw away. >> it will have an impact, but it will be like a one-time -- >> everybody will say one-time. but by the end of the year when you -- >> but when you look at the

numbers of flights that have been canceling, thousands. >> at the end of the year, whenever you think the gdp has to be -- >> but even if there was an actual slowdown going on, you can say no, it's -- >> and you can always say it's the weather and have an excuse to say no, it's not me. i've been managing through it. in corporate headlines, procter & gamble is cutting its full year sales and earnings outlook. the change reflects unfavorable foreign exchange rates in venezuela, so among places and the devaluation of currencies in some of the developing markets that we talked about, which was taper induced for a while. multi nationals, including ford, whirlpool and diageo all cited weakness in a more sober outlook in those once roaring emerging markets. and the earnings reports that they issued last month, it's not the first time they've heard that. and a rare sale of a stake in alibaba values that chinese e-commerce company at around --

>> yep, you saw that right. >> $128 billion. whoa. the company is expected to go public later this year. it will likely be the world's biggest listing since facebook's debut. update me on yahoo! and hali ba ba. >> yahoo! has a huge stake in alibaba. >> any gains that we've seen, we know now where it came from? >> well, if you look love marissa, it was marissa. if you are less than enamored with marissa, it was alibaba. >> but yahoo! is only a $39 billion company. how much stake do they own. >> alibaba? >> i think it's 20%. >> do the math. >> i don't know -- >> no, it was much less. let me give you the exact. i think i might be way over, then. people have suggested that, you know, $20 billion -- like half of the value of yahoo! is

alibaba. >> the other half is the deal they have with cnbc for sharing content, right? >> the content sharing. >> is that worth -- that's worth -- >> close. close to the same amount. and workers at volkswagen's plan -- >> you're right, it's 24% stake. the stock is under valued. >> you remember in the internet days, i'll trade you $200,000 cash for a $200,000 dog. >> the other piece of it is you have to remember they probably won't be able to sell their shares immediately. nobody knows how this is going to work out. >> but it's $128 billion and they get a quarter of it. >> yeah. it's a big deal. >> volkswagen, they're kicking off a three-day election in tennessee about whether they want to become union. phil lebeau is going to have more on this story later in the show. >> a lot going on in washington today. we should talk about.

news from the white house, today is president is signing an executive order to $10.10 for federal contract workers. he signaled his plans last weekend. also today, they're going to release a new analysis laying out an argument for raising the minimum wage. john harwood joins us now. what were you hanging out with the president last night and the president of the france by any chance? did this who will minimum wage thing, is that how we got here? >> no steak dinner for me, pal. i was -- but i was paying attention to the house of representatives, what was raising the debt limits that the markets rb happy about today. >> that's a huge piece. i think we'll be focused more on that ultimately than we will be the minimum wage or is it the other way? >> everybody is making the jokes, too, john, that there was a meeting between the capitalist and a socialist in washington, d.c. and then they always make the capitalist hollande and -- you know, you've heard that one,

right? >> you've heard hollande is going to head to silicone valley today. >> is it? >> yeah. but his approval rating makes that -- the president's approval rating is probably double what hollande's is. hollande has a bump with the new girlfriend, right? >> not yet. >> he's got some problems. >> which one? >> well, they both have problems. >> take it away. sorry. >> john, let's go back on the debt limit and what that ultimately -- what that means to the party and what the republicans have decided to do in all this. >> well, it's a positive for the republican party that john boehner made the decision to simply cut out the game playing and the effort to find some accompaniment. it was simply too complicated. this is something they know they have to do. this is one area where president obama has made a big victory. it's a unique case because it's

something that everybody knows congress has to do. but he said for three years, since 2011 debacle, he's not going to negotiate over that. he hasn't. he's made it stick and republicans finally went along. and it's smart for the republican point of view because they want to focus on other issues as john boehner said yesterday we don't want to make ourselves the story this year. this is the year they want to make obamacare the story. you know, the slow economy, the difficult unemployment situation, they're going to link those two, of course, because of that cbo report. so there's a lot of things that they want to talk about, the debt limit and jittery markets are not one of them. >> what happens to bring tensions down, john? because we didn't hear any of the rhetoric going into this from either side. how did that come about? >> well, i think the dye was cast on that since last fall. you know, we had the shutdown. that was damaging to republicans. it obscured a story that was going to help republicans, which was the difficulty with the health care rollout.

and they just realized that that was counterproductive. so you then had paul ryan striking a deal with patti murray that was an incremental deal. but the idea of calming the fights over money in washington in the near term freed them to make a longer term argument in washington. and the other near term factor was that republicans were not able to pass their own pending bills. what happens was they had dialed the deficit reduction on the discretionary part of the budget so aggressively that their own members weren't willing to vote for the bills because they didn't have enough money for them. there was a theoretical determination to cut short-term spending from that part of the budget, but when it got down to the actual bills that were going to pay for it, like the transportation bill, they weren't willing to vote for it. so they had to find a new way of going forward and now they found it. >> politico is demanding this

story that congress come up with more money to raise the debt ceiling. what does that mean? >> the question for senators now, they're going to pass the debt limit. do they do it fast or do it slow? they can do it fast if they ever unanimous consent for everybody. senate rules give people a lot of ability to string things out. cruz is saying he's going to string things out. we'll see whether that sticks. there's a strong desire by members of the senate to get out of town just like the house is getting out of town. i would expect that it's going to pass today and that cruz will make noise and then ultimately back down. but if he chooses to get, he can string it out. you know, they've got to get 60 votes to bring up the debt limit and then they've got to get 60 votes to move to final passage. it's a matter of peer pressure, really. fellow republicans say, hey, you know, knock it off. and cruz has been fairley impervious to peer pressure in the past.

>> quick question. where do they come up with the 110, the 1010 is number? >> i think it has to do with getting inflation adjusted some benchmark. i think it may have been when ronald reagan came to town. because the value of the minimum wage has eroded with inflation, even though it's been raised a couple of times in the interim. but i think it's to get to a benchmark from a couple decades ago. >> that would make sense, just the nostalgia of trying to get back to the type of economy we had under reagan. i think that's a good symbolic number. >> yeah. you know, they just want to bring back the carter happy days. >> we -- many people have said welcome back carter -- or is it welcome back cotter? it's carter-esque. >> you're baiting someone again. >> no, i'm not baiting anyone. >> you're talking about executive orders and --

>> this is a serious question. was "welcome back cotter" in the '70s or the '80s? i think that was the '80s. >> yeah, it was, but there's shirts they put out that say welcome back carter that have a picture of president obama. it's kind of a joke. i was thinking about -- oh -- >> you're missing john travolta in that role. >> but you can do whatever you want. the president watt at monta monticello. it was the '70s. horshack is dead. >> recently. >> travolta became a huge star like six times back and forth. who else was in there? >> is there anybody else in that show that became super famous? who? no, didn't -- and dave caplan. >> right. >> no, but a lot of people still bring it up. it's weird.

>> it's not a bad theme song. >> no, a pretty good theme song. it was the guy from -- >> who, the theme song? >> yeah. the theme song is a famous guy. >> john, while we deal with '70s pop culture -- >> yeah, john sebastian. >> we will thank you with the report from washington. we will talk to you soon. >> let's get a check on the markets in the meantime. we're now looking at four days in a row of change. >> john sebastian. s&p futures up by 1.5. this is coming after major gains the day before. the dow was up 192 points yesterday. strongest four-day winning streak. since december 2011 for the s&p 500 and the nasdaq. >> here is something that we've talked about a lot in the past.

if you believe that the bull market is still intact and will be higher at some point in the future, the market doesn't really go on sale. we've got 16% off on this merchandise. then it goes to 5.8 and people are like, i'm going to wait for 10 and now all of a sudden we were down 2.8 yesterday. now we're probably down one and change. >> and i'm kicking myself. i put money in the kids' college funds, but i didn't fully max them out. >> so now it could go back down ten. but suddenly, you know, the s&p is back to 18, 19, 1850 is the high. you had a chance at 1750 and no one did. that was my appointment, a lot of times before you known it, the stock -- if you try and time the market, remember, the study that said if you try and time the market, it's a big change.

>> i thought about what becky is doing which was putting money into the kids -- >> you remember last year, you put it all in at the beginning of the year. and i thought, oh, i wish i had done that. >> you have so much compounding that you can do, you can have millions of dollars. >> but i just missed out on the 5.8%. >> you've got like 30 years of impounding. fl very powerful. >> i'm still stuck in the mutual funds world. time for the global markets report where ross westgate is standing by in london. it's dif lent to how much main or snow you get. >> wait a second. why are you wearing glasses. >> because i had an eye issue this morning. >> oh, you do.

>> yeah. just to -- take that precaution, you know. we've had the wettest winter, joe. in the last 150 years. >> interesting. >> since 250 years. >> oh, 250 years. >> which means it's been very, very wet. >> yes. california is a very dry situation. >> last week when we went. >> and we got 16 degrees and sochi has 60 degrees. it's weird. it's like the climate is different all around the world. it's weird. and snow in atlanta right now. >> and we've got five foot drifts. nothing has melted, either. >> amazing. that's why it's called winter, i think. and the ice boats are still suck

in antarctica. actually, they're not. >> thanks for that, joe. look, we are higher on the ftse by around 81 points. the big focus right now has been the bank of england anticipates quarterly inflation report. they've had forward guidance similar to the fed with an unemployment threshold of around 7%. we're only just a little bit above that. they'd to change their tune a little bit this morning. downgraded the inflation forecast, as well. earl 2017, 2% is their 2% to 3% target range. base of stronger growth, there is a chance rates could go up in 2014. as a result, sterling picked up quite a bit against the dollar, up well over to 1.65 on that. but he's gone out of his way to

say wait, maybe the equilibrium rate for the unemployment is between 6% and 6.5%. so this is an example of what happens when a central bank issued a forward guidance and gets to the target earlier than it thought. they've also said they will keep hold of the stocks until they raise rates. essentially, growth is better, inflation lower than we thought. a quick mode about italy and spain, by the way, they're at the lowest yields since we've had since 2006. no one is really worried about any kind of peripheral risk at the moment.

that's where we stand here in europe. back to you. thank you for that. coming up, we have highlights from sochi this morning and then a major favorite doesn't make it to the podium. you can guess who that is. you see him right there. we're going to have the updated medal count in the next half hour. but first, find out what happens with hedge funds ray dalio, dr. oz and chef mary burtalio. what do they do? >> meditation. >> no, they mediate. >> they can mediate their meditation. >> also, we should say there is a sales tax on lap dances if you did not know. one well known club has found out the hard way and we will talk about that when we return, as well. ♪ ♪ where you think you're gonna go ♪ ♪ when your time's all gone? [ male announcer ] live a full life. the new lexus ct hybrid

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welcome back, everybody opinion it is time to pay up for backs taxes on lap dances. the judge says the club aloveng the city's west point highway owes over $2 million. she argues the state lap dances don't qualify on dramatic musical performances. she says this is a sexual fantasy, not a musical performance. >> who? >> a judge who is ruling that

they have to go ahead and -- >> why is that a choreographic dance? >> she says it's sexual in nature. >> do you know how hard it is to learn how to do that on a pole? have you ever tried it? >> no. have you? >> a little bit. not the fancy moves, but it's really hard to -- >> i would imagine. >> why would this be different if you were a performer in "the lion king." >> we're not showing a lap dance here? >> no. >> because i'm not familiar with the term. >> never heard of that? >> what? >> they don't let cameras in the champagne room. >> what is a stripper? what's a girl? >> you wouldn't know about that. >> what's an attorney? >> well, the club's attorney counters that the state anticipa's tax is unconstitutional. >> it's a hustler clup club.

there aren't any magazines left, are there? and isn't everything free -- you tell me everything is free on the internet. >> i don't know what you're talking about. >> i just think it would be hard to run a girly mag at this point. >> i'm going to have to meditate after this segment. >> or mediate. >> the big question this morning, i don't know if it is but we'll say it is, what do ray dalio, dr. oz and mary batelli all have in common? you i caught up with all three to talk about something impacting their business, which is the art of meditation. >> the stress is a -- actually, it comes from the animal part of your brain. if you calm and realize that's what reality brings you, it brings you things you want and things you don't want the and you have to deal with that

reality. the acceptance of reality is something that's much easier with meditation. >> if you just sit down for a while and be quiet, it really does work. prayer, it probably works if you can get into that centered place. i have always found permanently that dm helps guidemy in a direction that's more reproducible. like most people, i struggle with it. i struggle to get into the mind-set to do it and then i struggle to do it. >> it's not like, oh, man, i need a stiff shot of on meditation. it puts you in the place where you don't necessarily -- there's still a shot, a time in the day when i need a stiff shot of gin or vodka. but i would say it's because -- as bob was saying, it's cumulative. and the more you do it, the more you feel different and not different like oh, my god, i'm interior. it's like, i'm more in charge of

my destiny right now. i'm less likely to feel disappoint object anger or anguish. >> i've been trying to do meditation. and i always thought it was a classic thing. and then you start talking to some really interesting people who are all into it and are into it and think they've fundamentally changed their life. and the whole thing seems crazy. >> if you do it through prayer, through a quiet moment for yourself, there's a lot of drnt ways you can find some -- >> it goes back thousands of years. trying with the sound of clapping. have you been successful? >> i think i have. i've been doing it over the past year and a half. >> how do you know when you get to that place? >> i do something called tm, which is transdental meditation. that is 20 minutes twice a day. >> 20 minutes? >> you have to do it 20 minutes twice a day. i would argue that when you can actually do it, it really does -- you get into that place. >> on that panel?

>> oh, no, you missed it. it was a separate panel we did with arianna and a whole host of doctors -- >> the idea of finding 40 minutes in my day, not happening. nobody with young kids. >> no, no, they were talking about how they had young kids. some of the women that were on the other panel, one note on ray dalio, he talked about how they have this brutal honesty where they'll sit in these meetings and tell each other how stupid each other are or if they're, you know, decision is no good. and he says it's because of the meditation that they're all able to have these -- >> without killing each other? >> that they're able to have these honest conversations. >> if you had 20 minutes, is it better -- but 20 minute power nap, is it better than a tm -- >> and the answer from all those we talked to last night was yes. i said look, if i had 40 minutes a day to sleep, to go to the gym, to hang out with my kids,

when would you prefer to do? >> so if you give yourself five hours of sleep instead of six, do you think that's the trade? because they're showing eight hours of sleep. there's no way i'm ever getting eight hours of sleep. >> i'm just telling you what the scientists are doing. there is scientific evidence that tm actually changes your sort of brain -- >> we have people who have enough -- >> i'm just putting it out there. >> perfect for you. thank you. >> but i think there are people who are never going to have time. >> i don't do yoga. i can't touch my toes. >> do you still do that downward dog, by the way? >> mario claims he meditates while he's driving his vespa on the street. >> did you look at downward dog in the dictionary? >> i will now. when we come back, have worries about a correction left the market? we'll have that discussion right after this. [ male announcer ] the new new york is open.

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fed chair yellen stay the course during her first congressional testimony sparking a rally for stocks. joining us on set is rich steinberg with signberg global investment management. john lonski, moody's capital market group chief economist. thanks for being here this morning. rich, we did see the markets take off yesterday. we're back to levels close to where we ended the year. what do you think happens now? >> inge everybody has to take a deep breath back.

the markets try to be binary, right? and it's not that simple. so i think now investors have to take a test back to their kind of risk levels and say how did i feel in january? i think we're going to -- >> do you think the declines that we saw at the beginning of the year were the head fake or do you think this is the head fake coming back up? >> i think the decline was a necessary head fake. and i think now we're going to get back up to our head above water. we're still sticking with the premise that we can see 1930 in the s&p by the end of the year. but it's going to be lumpy. >> 1930 by the end of the year, that's not a target in terms of gains from tend of last year. >> no, but 8% or 9% for where in the high net worth space with clients that have a 4% to 5% spend rate is a decent year after the year we came up last year. for me, it would be a win. >> john, in terms of what yellen

said yesterday, it wasn't necessarily that they see great things in the economy as much as they sound like she is going be dovish. it's telling the markets the fed will be there to support it. >> she's telling the market she's going to be very sensitive to signs of economic weakness. if it turns out the labor market softens considerably, the fed won't be shy about temporarily haltding its program. i'd like to add, too, on the credit front, we're doing pretty good. our high yield default for the states fell 1.9% in month of january. that's the lowest for the current recovery. if corporate credit is in good shape, profits are growing, i think that provides you with a sound underpinning for equities, although the equity market is not cheap. >> it's pretty amazing that we didn't know -- we know yet -- what was new that we found out about yellen yesterday? you just said that she'll be very sensitive to weakness in the economy. that's hurry whole -- that's what we think of her right now. we think she might be more

dovish than bernanke, right? >> yeah. >> what did we find out yesterday that we didn't already know about -- >> no question about that. it's hard to understand why the market responded to positively to that testimony. sometimes it's like earnings, when something is left alert, people are waiting to see if there was be some shock factor in the testimony when there wasn't. the natural trend was to put money work because there's no other place to put money to work right now. even at 2.7% ten year is not the same, people are losing money in the fixed income. >> if you talk to some ceos, they'll say, hey, there are some problems. things are slowing down. other ceos, no way, very went seen any slowdown. >> moderate growth. i think those are the edges you want to apply to the economy this year. i don't think this economy is robust, i don't think it's

growing briskly. i think this modest growth is going to continue. the gains by payrolls will probably come in less than the 200,000 new jobs per month predicted by the consensus unless there's a surprising pick up in business sales. of late, business sales and in the fourth quarter we're getting results to that have not exactly been going through the roof. we're seeing sales growth of 4%. and that tells me if companies want to continue to grow profits, they have to control costs. if they have to control costs, that means they have to proceed cautiously. with hiring and capital spending. >> so we're getting close to 6.5%. is that a fake unless, a false number? >> it's a false number. we're looking at a year to year decline by the unemployment rate of more than a percentage point. when this happened in the past, we would be looking at real

actors, real consumer spending growth of 4%. instead, we're looking at real actor tax income growth of 2%. >> so this is people who have dropped out of the markets and aren't looking for jobs in part because they're discouraged? >> that's the primary driver of the latest unemployment rate on a year to year basis, yes. >> john, rich, thank you both for coming in. on coming up, we're going to talk more about the markets at 7:00 a.m. eastern. we'll see whether this market can continue this way. but first, let's find out what michelle caruso cabrera has coming up for us from sochi. >> good morning. >> hey there, andrew. this next olympics report may feel more like a weather report because i don't mean to brag, but it's beyond warm. it's almost hot here, approaching 60 degrees. actually, it's over 60 degrees and that's impacting the sports up on the mountain. we'll tell you all about it, and the effect of the halfpipe, as

well, the downhill. take a look. it's green as far as the eye can see here at sea level. we're on the winter olympics after this break on cnbc. ♪ [ male announcer ] right now, love is in the air with the adt valentine's day sale. get adt pulse -- installation starting at only $49 -- and show your loved ones just how much you care with the gift of home security

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welcome back to "squawk box." let's get to michelle caruso cabrera in sochi with the medal count including one we didn't get that we all expected. >> poor shaun white. we'll get to that in a second. let's show you the medal count. right now, norway and canada at the very top. 1 1 for norway.

canada has 9 right now. netherlan netherlands, u.s. and russia, 8, 7 and 7 respectively. speaking of gold, we didn't get, as you were referring to, andrew, shaun white, the best known athlete in snowboarding, failed to medal last night in the halfpipe event. he had a very bad first run, better second run. but it wasn't good enough. he came in fourth. the halfpipe course extremely controversial this year. when they arrived, they came right away about the vertical grade, saying it wasn't ride. when you see all the errors, including one from shaun white, you can see how many of the athletes continually misjudged where to land. they complained that the bottom, which is supposed to be super smooth was a little more mogul like. part of the issue is the weather. temperatures are forecast to rise even more later this week. it's 61 degrees down here.

practice on the women's downhill run was canceled yesterday to preserve the peace. the track was mushy for the nordic event. they brought in some snow stored from last year. it was said it's not even slushy, it's just mushy. there's no structure to the snow at all. the sochi olympics chief says there's still no need to use a lot of the emergency snow reserves at the venues. they do have 25,000 cubic feet of snow from previous winters still in storage under thermal blankets. plus that backup snow making equipment which right now is being used on the nod nordic track. they thought this was a possibility, guys, and it is happening. the question is can they really answer it with all that saved up snow and -- they claim it's going to snow this weekend, as well. back to you. >> hey, michelle, how unusual is this. >> terms of the weather patterns

there? >> well, when the ioc team was asked about it today they dismissed the concerns about it. they said, actually, it was just as bad in vancouver and some of the low level events had issues with snow, as well, there. but this is a subtropical place. sochi, there are palm trees here. palm tree res so common here that some of the cell towers are decorated as palm trees to blend in. >> so in the evening, you know, does the temperature get cold enough so if they're try to make snow they can? >> yeah. it gets in the 30s or in the 20s, as well. they said they haven't had to do a lot of snow making yet. but today is going to be the day. this is hot. i don't mean to brag, but it's hot. >> one quick question on shaun white, now that he's lost -- how much more events does he have and what does this do to his prospects in terms of endorsement deals? >> well, you know, he's still

extremely well known, right? there was one comment from one of his teammates, maybe a little snide, they said it's good that people know in the world that there are other snowboarders besides shaun white. i think this contest is going to be very controversial. i'm not sure everybody is going to look at it like it was a fair fight because it was disastrous on the snow last night. speaking of another kind of sad situation, bob costas had done 157 straight olympic broadcasts. and had to sit it out last night because of the conjunctive i'dis in his eyes. he had to have matt lauer fill in. he tried to ease the pain by drinking some vodka on the set on other night, but not good enough. you had to sit out out. >> i attribute bob costas's problem to climate change. i do. i think it all seems related to

me. it is too bad, though, with -- when in that golf tournament i played, the wind was so great, it was like the half pipe for me. conditions weren't normal. i would have done much -- >> you go with that. >> i'm going with that. >> michelle, thank you. see you later, guys. >> everybody is facing the same -- that's the hard thing to get around is everybody is facing the same conditions. we have plenty of snow to ship over in my yard if they -- there are five foot drifts. nothing has melted from the last ten storms. coming up, the world's best are about to face off in sochi. we're going to talk about hockey and hall of famer ken dreiden. did you know he was the color commentator for the miracle on ice team. you know who the other guy was that was so unbelievable to be there with this miracle on ice who does our sunday night football, al michaels. but ken will join us next.

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a signature winter olympic event kicking off the day. the best of the nhl will represent their countries in hockey. joining us now is ken dryden, nhl hall of fame goalie and former general manager of the maple leafs. also the color commentator with

al michaels in the historic 1980s miracle on ice game. somehow my 14-year-old daughter who really hasn't done much is playing hockey. she's learning now to skate backwards, which seems important to me. she says, well, i don't have to play defense. so i haven't really been that good. it all goes back to that moment, ken. and i don't even know if you realized it at the time, but we watched kurt russell over and over again playing herb brooks in this fantastic movie. that was such a singular moment in americana that it really we'll never forget it, and we want to watch every olympics to see how our team does in hockey now. >> well, i mean, the u.s. doesn't -- isn't the underdog a lot. and certainly not an underdog to the extent that it was. and then as the opponent being the soviet national team, i mean, it was just -- it was unbelievable. i mean, it really was something

that was not possible to happen. and it happened. >> you know, the players and brooks, and we lost him too early. jimmy craig and eruzione. anyway, here we are today. and it doesn't matter that they're not, like, college kids and non -- i mean, we still love this because we should have the very best guys playing to represent their country, right? so that's fine, right? that it's nhl guys? >> oh, absolutely. and i think that -- i think they will be at their best. each country now prepares itself very well leading up to the games. even if the players are involved in their nhl seasons, that they have summer camps. they are involved with the coaches, the general managers speak. so they're pretty much ready to go. and then with this larger ice surface and it being in russia,

i think we'll see finally the russian team being at its best, which it really hasn't been for the last 20 years or so. >> so anybody -- you figure the u.s. has got a shot. russia's got a shot. canada has a shot. and then we always think of sweden and finland as well. so anybody can win. >> i think so. i think so. you know, they're all good enough to win. they're all beatable as well. and it's very unlikely this time that the czech republic, who has always been a contender, they seem to have fallen back. but of those other five, it could happen for any one of them. >> you know, we're not talking about the women's teams, but i think, you know, they can skate as well as and better than men sometimes. you don't think of women necessarily checking, but they do that, too. and hockey's just, you know, now that we've got these big tvs with the high def, it's changed the whole game, i think. >> yeah. and as you're talking about the

women's game, i mean, there is not technically body-checking in women's hockey. >> it happens, though. >> that's right. i mean, men's hockey is a collision game. women's hockey is a contact game. and the level of play just gets better and better and better all the time. it's really quite terrific, how well they can play. >> hey, ken, really quickly, we struggle with pronunciations sometimes around here. and i just wonder, how did you and al michaels how to pronounce all the soviets' names when you were calling that game? >> it was actually fairly easy for us, and for me, i was familiar with the soviet players, having played against them during the 1970s. the hardest was when we were, you know, doing a game with romania. and the names that we had never heard before or seen before or had heard pronunciations of before. and you don't have much time in terms of preparation. the good news is that nobody listening knows the right pronunciation either.

>> just settle on a name and just go with it. >> you played since you were a kid. i'm a cornellian. i didn't play, but i had season tickets. in 1969. would you have your kids play these days? >> that's a very good question. yes, i would like them -- if i knew that conditions for playing were going to improve, then i would encourage my son or daughter to play hockey. if things stay as they are, i'm not sure. but this game can be played in a way that is just as exciting and challenging without the kind of risk that is currently present. >> great meeting you, ken. thank you. we appreciate your time. >> thank you. nice to meet all of you. >> go big red. >> cornellian. when we come back, more from the olympics in sochi. jpmorgan's chief equity strategist. he is all business when it comes

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the bulls take the street by storm. stocks jump after fed chair yellen speaks, and congress puts the debt ceiling to a vote. does that mean the markets will dodge a correction? 1,000 days until decision 2016. there is a long time between now and then, but the big issues are not going away. job growth, immigration, tax reform, debt threats. which topics should be front and center for america right now? another big storm slamming the south. it's being called catastrophic. we're going to have an update. "squawk box" begins right now. ♪

good morning, everybody. welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. the futures are indicated higher. this comes after four days in a row of gains. actually, i take that back. we see some red arrows. dow futures down only by about 15. that's a reversal of a gain of 15 points earlier. you've seen a move of about 30 points over the course of the morning. s&p futures are lower, down by 1.7 right now. and the nasdaq off by just over 3 points. the ten-year note is yielding right now 2.744%. so that yield has moved up. it had been below 2.7% for the last several days. if you look at some of our headlines this morning, we do have another winter storm on the way as well. the southeast will be getting hit particularly hard with the winter storm warning in effect for alabama, georgia and the carolinas. plenty of snow and ice in the northeast is on the way as well. we'll have an update from the

weather channel's dave malkoff it just a few minutes. no shortage of china-related news this morning. first up, better than expected trade numbers out of china helped global markets sentiment this morning. import growth at six-month high. those numbers were much better than expected. both the import and the export numbers. and ford is reporting a 53% increase in auto sales in china last month. that comes after a 35% increase in december and a 47% jump in november. big, big numbers that keep getting put up on the board. also, ibm chief executive is reported in china trying to mend fences. reuters reports that she is meeting with government officials in what's being termed a trust-building exercise. she's trying to reverse slumping sales in that country stemming from distrust over claims of u.s. spying. andrew, this is what you've been pointing out, issues for companies overseas. >> makes it a little harder. >> ibm downloaded all our crappy assets to chinese companies, aren't they? >> lenovo. >> lenovo's figured out how to

do it. >> i said she'd be happy that she was able to offload the stuff they didn't want and get a decent price for it. >> still has as well. >> that's another one. do we know how to say her name? >> rometty. >> rometty. okay. also, the house -- >> she's a watcher. >> what? >> she's a watcher. she'll let us know. >> okay, good. >> don't start. the house passed a bill to raise the debt limit without any conditions. it passed by a 221-201 margin. republicans had considered attaching a repeal to cuts to military pensions. the that the is likely to consider the measure today. one of my favorite topics, it's now being hit by attacks from unknown computer hackers who are apparently sending mutated lines of code into the program that runs the virtual currency. >> are you kidding me? i thought that was supposed to be the thing. >> supposed to be hackproof. they've made that point. we'll see. the bitcoin foundation saying the attacks are responsible for problems experienced by two

bitcoin exchanges that caused them to temporarily halt withdrawals by customers. the halt causing bitcoin values to drop sharply in recent days. i don't really understand how the malicious code works, but there's all sorts of people -- >> i thought it was a denial of service attack. >> that was i think on the exchanges. then there were these huge -- i don't know if you saw the story in iceland. people are building these massive computer vaults, basically, that are mining this stuff. so you know how you need all this computational power. and so now they're building anywhere it's cold so you don't have to -- >> to cool the servers? >> because you need massive servers to mine the -- digitally mine. a couple other bitcoin pieces of news. new york's financial regulator revealing new details on how the state plans to govern virtual currencies. he expects to adopt consumer disloescher rules, capital requirements and a framework for permissible investments with consumer money. the rules could make new york the first state to regulate bitcoin. >> and i would think that would be very good nude for bitcoin.

because on the one side, you've got attacks coming in. but if you have regulators who come in, that gives it legitimacy to some extent. >> folks like jpmorgan and others. >> i think it's weird our dynamic with bitcoin. you're fascinated. >> i don't have any, but i'm fascinated. >> you had a chance. maybe that's why. but i should be the one that is, like, rooting for it, i think. >> singulairity? >> no. because you don't -- because the federal reserve can't damage the dollar is sort of under assault because we have to assume the federal reserve will be prudent in managing the dollar. once you go off the gold standard, you have to hope that there's sensible people in charge -- >> but you don't know who's in charge. >> libertarians want bitcoin because it's not tied to an irresponsible government. >> but you don't know who's running it. >> it's new technology like the things you wear on your wrist and it's uber.

i don't like any change at all, you know. that's why -- but we're on opposite sides. i should be the bitcoin promoter. so we have to -- >> okay. i'm a meeting of the minds on that one. let's bring in our guest host for the next hour, tom lee who we talk about a lot. he's the chief u.s. equity strategist at jpmorgan because hindsight is always so perfect in the market. tom's been unabashedly bullish for four years, but, you know, the market was going up for four years, and anybody could have done that. even though all the people that think they're smart and that during that period, they're all, the entire time, saying oh, well, i don't know. and they never get called on it. you know, we assume that it was easy to do what you did, but we give you kudos because you did stay, when times were dicey, you never did change. >> yeah. >> and how much are we up in four years? more than doubled. >> yeah, probably more than double. >> now, the question now is -- and it's something i've been

kicking around -- if this is going to continue, and we need the economy to cooperate, but if we're in a period where people start generationally coming back to the stock market, this could be a secular bull that we're in. and we may not be in the ninth inning right now. and if that's true, we may never get a 10% correction because stocks don't necessarily go on sale to let people get in, do they? >> joe, i would agree with you. i think in a lot of ways this could only be the middle innings of what could be one of the longest bull markets in history. i mean, obviously, you know, we can't predict how long this is going to last, but i see plenty of reasons why the market could still advance double digits from here. for several years. >> and i'm still getting things like be scared of years that end in 7. and it was '87, 2007, and then if you add another 7, it's 2014. for some reason, the stock market always traces the 1929

pattern. people send in to me all the time, you know, they overlay the recent stock market. is it because markets that go up, you can overlay them on one another, and it always looks like 1929? i'm still getting this stuff. and mark faber says financial assets, there's going to be an 80% haircut for these things. it's good to have all this talk still. you don't see that. >> you know, there have been several fairly well-documented books about sort of what the climate was like in the '20s, late '20s. and we're just not -- there's no parallel yet. you know, we're not in a golden age. >> oh, it's much warmer now, the climate, we know that. >> that's right. we could be building servers in new york city now. >> the weather. >> is it moving up, the warmth, or down? what's atlanta doing? it's weird. it seems to be going -- >> i'm not a weather guy. >> when yellen testified yesterday, was there anything that was surprising that caused the 200 points, or was it just a snapback? and then i've got one more question. >> yeah. i was actually talking to a

trader yesterday. they told us the tone of the market changed since last thursday. and what had happened was there has been a buyers' strike for three weeks. all of a sudden starting thursday, we got the hedge funds coming back in. everyone had been waiting for something. i think everybody felt uncomfortably long. i think yesterday was a reminder that even if we're transitioning to a new central bank, sort of chief, we've got a lot of continuity. and i think that comforted markets. >> continuity in terms of having both the hot and cold water on full bore for accommodation. and then finally, this is the key issue. are we in a year right now that is going to be characterized by what we've seen so far, and that is kind of a consolidation of the last three or four years which might still be healthy. it could take off in 2015 after consolidating all year, or could this end up being a similar year

to 2013? do we need to consolidate? will we go above 1850 on the s&p and stay there, or are we going to be turning around all year? >> you know, when we look back at last year, about half the market had a tough time until march. and may. so, you know, as much as people look back and say the s&p went straight up last year, it was really a year that started off as utilities and defensives led, and then all of a sudden we switched in march to a traditional bull market. >> we were worried about another spring swoon, i think, last year. >> correct. that's right. so maybe this is turning out to be the same way. i'm still very optimistic this is a double-digit year for the s&p. >> double digit. it's much easier to say high single digits. as a person in the business, i would recommend you say that from now on. you might actually go out on a limb and be right, but for job security, it's better to say high single digits. >> maybe i should say triple digits. >> no, i'm still, you know, i

pray for those three years in the mid-'90s that that happens again. and given the attitude by most people, there's still a whole generation that's like this isn't for me. the stock market. and there are others that are never coming back. and then there are other people who have never get in and they'll get in. we'll induce them to get in, but it's going to take a lot more. >> that's right, the psychology will need to change, but there is a lot of firepower to feel this rally. there's a lot of cash on the sidelines. consumers have delevered. >> nothing's better than having money that in three years doubles instead of money that goes up 2% a year. to have your money working for you instead of you working for your money. >> i wonder whether you need two -- >> two generations? >> two of those to get everybody to come back because i think there's a whole generation that saw a nice three-year period. >> if they come back, though, do they get left holding the bag? when you finally come back after three years of gains, is that the wrong time to be jumping in?

>> it depends on what level and where the multiples are. but i think the s&p's going to be much higher three years from now. so i think there's still plenty of time to get in. >> good. all right. tom will be with us for the rest of the show. >> stick around. andrew has a bitcoin story. >> we'll also talk about the weather. weather woes in the south. ice and snow slamming into georgia and the carolinas as we speak. we'll have a live report from atlanta as the storm starts to make its way north. and find out who took home the best in show last night. wasn't that a great movie? what a movie. also as we head to a break, check out the price of crude this morning. "squawk box" will be right back.

turned a little bit the wrong direction but not too bad just yet. the dow looks like it would open down about 40 points. the nasdaq would be off a little more than a point and the s&p 500 almost a point as well. making headlines, deere reporting better than expected quarterly results. ernlings beating the street by 29 cents a share. demand held up, and the company ceo notes that efforts to hold the line also helped results. a fire fox terrier named sky has won best in show at the westminster kennel club dog show in new york. this win makes it the 14th time that a wire fox terrier has won

the competition. that is more than any other breed since westminster started. >> almost unfair to all the other breeds. >> he looks like an old man. you know who he looks looic? >> who? >> like one of the early presidents like garfield or something. are you sure that's a dog? >> a weird looking dog. they are. >> he looks like an old man. >> you know there are dog lovers who hate you for saying that. >> i love dogs. i have three dogs. >> they won't let them in best in show yet. >> it's a weird, you know, the whole idea of a purebred -- >> you get these agitated dogs. >> in general -- >> in breeding? >> purebred humans are bad. >> right. that's what happened with the royals in europe, remember? they all got hemophilia. >> yeah, you don't want to do the purebred. >> he looks like a nice guy. >> it is a good dog, i'm sure. >> yeah. we love the dog show. snow and ice slamming the south this morning. let's get to the weather channel's dave malkoff who is

standing by in atlanta. and in the old day, dave, you'd be standing down there and you wouldn't know what's coming. it's weird to know everything that's going to happen in advance. people are laughing at you if you said there's a bunch of snow and ice coming. >> reporter: yeah, technology, right? and it is changing the weather down here. this is not what you expect in hotlanta. just two weeks ago, you guys, weapon awe were all standing in davos, switzerland, and it was way warmer there than it is here. in the alps, it was warmer. and look what's happening right now. we've got a mix of sleet and rain coming on the roadways here just ten minutes outside of downtown atlanta. and look at that. if you've ever stopped by the 7-eleven and got a slurpee, that's kind of what you got on the roadway right now. but look at this. nobody's out here. this is the middle of the day -- or it would be normally the beginning of the work day.

but since the word got out, everybody has stayed home. that means businesses, that means schools, that means state and local governments, they are all closed today. so it's a huge impact on the business world as well. and truckers are being asked to avoid atlanta. so right now people are staying off the roadways. but as it ices over, it's going to be very, very cold. a lot different here than it was in davos, you guys, right? >> there's nothing like a 16-hour traffic jam where you don't move to teach people. i'm not going out today at all. and it should be different this time. >> how long is that supposed to last? will they be able to go to work tomorrow, or are they looking at a couple of days of staying home? >> reporter: you know what's happening? we've got this storm. then we've got another one coming right after it. so the same thing that's happening overnight tonight is going to happen again tomorrow night. and as this storm pushes up,

we're going to go right through washington, d.c., and all the way up the eastern seaboard. think about ten -- or ten inches to a foot of snow in washington, d.c., maybe. >> you know, dave with that shovel, you know, the people in atlanta, the sanitation department, you may get everybody out of there. so it's all going to work out. nice to see you. >> reporter: here i go. >> nice to see you without the caviar from davos. coming up, the threat of snow not going to slow down fashion week in new york. this is big. nicole miller's co-founder and ceo will give you the pulse of the consumer in this middle of this very deep freeze. i don't know if they do overcoats. we'll talk about that when we come right back. their quick trade bar lets my account follow me online so i can react in real-time. plus, my local scottrade office is there to help. because they know i don't trade like everybody. i trade like me. i'm with scottrade.

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welcome back to "squawk box." new york city fashion week is in full swing, and our next guest runs a retail powerhouse that's right in the middle of all the action. let's get his take on the business of branding the pulse of the consumer in the state of luxury retail at large. joining us is bud conheim, the co-founder and ceo of nicole miller. you're not wearing a nicole miller tie, though. i just want to be clear. >> yes, we make them under license now, but no, i'm not wearing a nicole miller tie

because we actually were so successful in the tie business doing iconoclast ties, things that up the corporation, individual, blah, blah, blah, throw away all the tradition ties. that's why we're so big. we ended up encouraging casual fridays because once they said up the corporation with these crazy ties, then it was up to the corporation with everything else. wear a jacket, sweaters to work. and so we ruined our own tie business. >> look at him. the sweater with the bow tie. that will work for you. it looks better on him. >> let me tell you, this works because it's weird. >> that's weird? >> exactly. you look like a weird in waiting. >> thank you. thank you. maybe not in waiting. maybe not in waiting. state of the luxury buyer right now in the world of retail. >> right. >> is what? >> well, if they have money, they're into luxury. if they don't have money, they're not into luxury. first of all, i don't use those terms, luxury or anything else. people ask me, what's the profile of your customer? i say someone with a credit card

that clears. that's our customer, okay. and everybody puts labels on this thing because it's so easy to think of things when you just have a big label on luxury. a guy that wants to buy something and it's a stretch, it's not a luxury buyer. if it's a stretch, he has to reach to pay for it. but if he's emotional enough and he has to get it and his wife is ragging on him, he goes out and gets it. >> you're not helping the administration along in its efforts -- >> i wasn't going there. >> you really weren't? >> no. >> you hate this income equality. these are bad people buying this stuff. can we just admit that? >> wait, wait, wait. wait. >> i rest my case. >> as far as there are people buying the luxury stuff. what is it that we make that anybody needs? nothing. we've got a country that the poverty level is wealth in 99% of the rest of the world. and so we're talking about how woe is me, woe is us, woe is this.

>> our 99% are the 1% in the rest of the world. >> the figure is even bigger than that. >> i agree. thank you. >> so here we are incredibly wealthy. nobody really -- exactly. and here it is, money is all over the place. and the guy that's making oh, my god, he's making $35,000 a year. why don't you try that out in india or some countries we can't even name, china, anyplace, the guy is wealthy. and so here it's a relative -- it's a luxury. you're throwing around luxury because you're a kid. you're on television and you know, whatever. >> thank you, bud. can you guest host? awesome. >> we invited him on? >> but let me ask you this, though. how is the consumer feeling these days? let's say versus a year ago, versus two. >> okay. i'm worried about one consumer. the person that comes in to buy our stuff. but generally to answer the question seriously, which i think this show is supposed to be -- >> no. >> don't worry about that part.

>> deep down we are. >> honestly, is there a little bit -- 2013, we were on a roll. we had 11% increase for the year which was kind of surprising because i didn't think it was out there, but it was. and we go into 2014, and all of a sudden somebody pulled the rug out. it's not what it was. it's not -- and we make a product that nobody needs, but it's so emotional. that it doesn't really matter what's going on. we can always be successful because we're making styles. and we're all marginal. the biggest guy, let's say, is ralph lauren with billions or whatever. he's marginal. in the big picture, he's a tiny little percent. >> what do you make of all the discounting going on in the business? and amazon, trying to get into this business. >> 30 seconds. >> of fashion. >> amazon is in this business. amazon is -- read his book, "the everything store." amazon is in every business you can name. they're incredible. they're leading the way to

discounts and they're setting the tone, if anybody pays regular price, they have to be crazy. so what we do is you guys have probably went to business school. you've heard of this thing supply and demand? this kind of a theory. >> we've got to roll. >> we've got to come back. we've got to have you come back. this was awesome. we do love your sweater. next, stormy weather. >> okay. i'm out of here? >> in for washington but not before -- >> oh, look that the. he changed clothes. >> -- not before some business gets done. we'll be right back. ♪

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further analytics are necessary. beam us up. ♪ that's my phone. hey. [ female announcer ] the x1 entertainment operating system, only from xfinity. tv and internet together like never before. welcome back to "squawk box," everyone. in our headlines this morning, mortgage applications fell 2% last week. that's according to the mortgage bankers association. both new home purchase applications and refinancings were down during the week. the average 30-year mortgage rate was virtually unchanged at 4.45%. toyota is recalling 1.9 million of its prius hybrids to deal with a software glitch. the problem could cause the vehicle to stall. 713,000 of the affected cars are

here in north america. no accidents or injuries have been reported related to this problem. the recalled vehicles were manufactured in 2009 and later. >> so you're driving a car that looks like that and it has glitches? whoa! that's cold. i mean, it looks like a cheese wedge and you've got mechanical problems. but you feel good about yourself. you can tell your friends you're green. >> especially when it's stalling. you're not harming the environment either. amazon.com is hiring more than 2500 new full-time workers. the jobs are at fulfillment centers in virginia, kansas, south carolina, washington state and tennessee. the retail giant is expected to make a formal announcement later today. the house has voted to increase the treasury's borrowing authority until march 2015 with the senate expected to consider the debt ceiling today. ed rendell is the former govern esc governor of pennsylvania, jim nussle, thank you both for being here. governor rendell, let's start with you. >> morning. >> what happened yesterday, and

what does this mean in terms of what we can expect in congress and in washington? >> well, john boehner found out fairly clearly that he can't pass a debt ceiling bill with any conditions on it because there are enough republicans in his caucus who will never vote to raise the debt ceiling, period. so he did the only thing he could to avoid a political disaster. what it means going forward is that at least for a while, debt ceiling votes are not going to be controversial anymore. >> is it good news for the republicans, though, that they put this issue behind them? there's been a school of thought among some republicans that this is exactly what they needed to do if they expect to win more seats in the november elections. >> absolutely. i'm astounded that some republican groups are attacking boehner and saying that he should have opposed this and done this and this. it would have been a disaster. the american people spoke pretty clearly last fall. they don't want hijinks with stuff like this. they don't want political games, and boehner avoided a disaster,

particularly when things looked so good for republicans going into the 2014 cycle. i think they dodged a bullet. >> hey, jim, if you look at what this means from the budget perspective, obviously you're not going to get some big changes, but it also means that congress is working, they're willing to sit down. how do you read it? >> well, i would agree with ed that this is good news from the standpoint of avoiding a fiscal meltdown or a debt meltdown right now. but the bad news is that there is not an adult conversation going on about our fiscal policy in this country. whether you're a debt scold, as i've been called, or whether you're somebody who believes that we just could spend ourselves to prosperity, regardless of what side you're on, until both sides come and sit together and figure out how we're going to deal with not only the fact that we're at 74% of gdp right now, debt-to-gdp ratio, but that over the next ten years as the cbo director

yesterday said, it's going up by yet another 10 basis points, we're in a big situation that requires adult decision-makers, people who are willing to do more than just the short-term gain of a midterm election. and while ed and i both have been in politics, we know that that might be unrealistic. what the alternative will be is a crisis that we won't be able to avoid, and it will be an economic meltdown for the country, which will be a disaster that politicians will be held accountable for. >> jim, you are a numbers guy, though. this is argument that's a little tougher to make when you're looking at tax receipts going up, when you're looking at a lot of the problems we thought we were facing a year or two ago, kind of fading into the background. run me through the numbers. what are the real issues here, and what needs to be taken on? >> well, the cbo director did a good job of that yesterday. there's no question that we've made a short-term improvement of our fiscal situation.

deficits have come down by almost half. that's all good news. but if you look in the out years and what's happening particularly in health care, health care spending in the entitlements, medicare, medicaid, those programs are eating us alive from the inside out. and politicians heretofor have not been willing to sit down and make any changes, have any kind of discussion about this. they're avoiding it. and you can avoid it for a while, and you can win a couple of elections, and that's all fine and good, but every day that goes by that you don't address it, the hole gets bigger. and it becomes more difficult to get out of it. and small changes now is what's needed in order to deal with that. and they weren't able to make that yesterday, clearly. >> hey, ed, governor rendell, i always like checking in with you on 2014 and 2016. you know, you stuck with hillary, and i'm not sure that made you the most popular person in the current white house.

i mean, that's going to happen in 2016. who do you think she's going to be running against? >> well, it's really hard to say right now, particularly with governor christie having the problems that are confronting him. i think if jeb bush really had the fire in his belly, he could go for it, and i think he could win. i think he's the type of republican that would be very difficult in a general election because he has great appeal to hispanic voters, and he's shown his ability to work across party lines. i don't know whether jeb really wants to do it and get into the fray. if you eliminate jeb bush and say for the moment that chris christie is not going to be a factor, who is there? it's like going back to the clown show before -- during the 2012 primaries. rand paul, the best he could do was attack bill clinton. is he crazy? attacking the most popular person in america? i mean, once you get by jeb bush and governor christie, it's hard to find a republican who could pose a serious challenge in the

fall. >> don't we have to do it just so that there's another presidential election between a bush and a clinton? i mean, don't we just -- just so that that -- on the ballot. i mean, we've got to do it, don't we? >> well, chelsea said that hillary would be a better president than bill, and maybe jeb would be a better president than george. so it might be the right clinton and the right bush. >> ed, are you worried that hillary is crowding out other people in advance? >> am i worried about it? no, not really. first of all, it's nothing that she is doing. i mean, she's not out there promoting herself. she's doing the right thing, i think. >> nussle's laughing. >> she's doing the right thing or, you know, her allies are doing it. but when you see a poll on democratic voters that 73% for hillary to 12% for the nearest competitor, 61-point edge, it makes it difficult for anybody to mount a campaign. you're going to go to donors and say, well, i'm only 61 points behind.

>> nussle has sort of a -- i don't know what to call you now. someone just wrote in, i don't know, as a middle of the road -- as a new-age republican, do you view that setup as two republicans running against each other compared to what we have now, or do you really think hillary -- would that be -- i mean, it's certainly two people much closer to the center of things than where we are now, don't you think? >> well, ed certainly knows, and i do, too, what it's like to sit on the sidelines and not be running quite yet. oh, yes, this was not about me. hillary is not running yet, and she's not doing anything. oh, of course not. of course, she is. and that's fine. she's doing a great job of clearing the field. but i wouldn't discount christie or jeb bush yet. i think it would be a mistake. i think what chris christie did yesterday was demonstrate how if he can -- and certainly there's some bumps in the road here that are going to have to be cleared before we know for sure. but he did a great job yesterday of framing an issue that

heretofor the democrats have pretty much controlled. and i think you're going to see chris christie continue to emerge as a stronger candidate, together with bush and a whole host of other republicans. >> all right. governor rendell, jim, great to see you both. we'll see you again soon. >> good to see you, becky. still to come, stocks rallying on janet yellen's comments yesterday. guest host lee will tell us what's going to move the markets at the opening bell. up next, an update from the olympics from sochi. michelle caruso-cabrera joins us with a preview. >> shaun white lost last night. that's the bad news. but plenty of good news to report from team usa from sochi. all those details coming up right after the break. [ male announcer ] the new new york is open. open to innovation. open to ambition. open to bold ideas.

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welcome back to "squawk box." take a look at futures after what was a very good day yesterday, things are looking down, not horribly down just yet, dow jones looks like it would open down about 17 points off. nasdaq off about 3.5 points and the s&p 500 off about 2 points. it is day seven of the winter olympics. cnbc chief international correspondent michelle caruso-cabrera joins us live from sochi, russia, with more on

the news and the highlights. michelle, there has been plenty to watch. >> reporter: yeah, there are absolutely, becky. let's get you up to date on the medal count. norway is in the number one spot. they have 11 medals followed by canada with 9, netherlands, 8, u.s. and russia tied for 7. norway and canada both have four golds each. all right, big headline is the big disappointment last night for the most recognizable athlete in snowboarding. maybe the entire winter olympics. shaun white. he wanted to be the first american man to win the same event at three winter games. made several mistakes in his first run last night in the halfpipe. his second run was much better, but it was only good enough to get him to fourth place. instead switzerland's podladtchikov took the gold. a messy event. the majority of the athletes falling. snowboarders have been complaining about the quality of the course, the vertical grade they said wasn't good. mogul-like snow on the bottom. but here's the good news. three-time olympian erin hamlin. new york won the bronze in the singles luge.

it's historic because she becomes the first american man or woman to win an individual olympic luge medal. god, such a scary event. look at that, right? american devin logan of vermont won the silver medal in the women's freestyle skiing slopestyle event. remember all the slopestyle events are new this year at the olympics, requires the athletes to navigate rails and things like that either on skis or snowboards. there look at that. whoo! don't you love watching this stuff. it's just been amazing. we feel lucky when we're here to see all this stuff because we can actually watch it live in our headquarters. big ticket last night, pairs freestyle figure skating was the ticket to get last night. the russians, tatiana volosozhar and maksim trankov completely dominating the event with the highest short program score in olympic history. and this is a huge deal for the russians because listen to this statistic. they won the gold medal in this event at every single olympics.

from 1966 to 2006. then they were completely shut out last time in vancouver. so tonight, the couple performs again in the long program. it's not just about them winning. it's about redemption for the entire country when it comes to this event. which brings us to tonight's highlights beyond the pairs figure skating. four-time olympic medalist shani davis of the u.s. competes in the 100-meter speed skating men's. women's downhill tonight. i don't want to spoil this, if you go on google, you can see the outcome, but there is a very exciting outcome when it comes to the downhill. there's a tie, believe it or not. very rare in olympic history. women's halfpipe in snowboarding. we'll see whether or not the snow conditions are any better there. and then the luge doubles as well. remember, you can watch on cnbc tonight curling, as always, from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. during the winter olympics. lady and gent, back to you. >> how do you get a tie?

don't they time it out to, like, .2 of a second? >> reporter: apparently that's how close they were, exactly, i know. amazing, right? >> yeah. >> reporter: i bet you've already googled it, becky. i know you. >> i haven't. i like to wait. i don't want to get spoiled. i like to wait to see what happens, but that's a good tease to make me watch it. >> reporter: yes, it is. all right, cool. >> thank you. see you again soon. michelle caruso-cabrera. when we come back, where should you put your money to work? tom lee will share his investment ideas. take a look at the futures. right now down about 14 points. we've seen a range of 30 from up 15 to down 15. "squawk box" will be right back. ♪

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only from xfinity. tv and internet together like never before. welcome back. let's get some investment ideas with tom lee, chief u.s. equity strategist at jpmorgan. so if we missed this last little go around, we had a little dip opportunity, what's the strategy now? >> well, you know, i think what everyone needs to keep in mind is the market started the year at a much higher level anyway. so if you're buying today, you're buying it cheaper than it was a month ago, and you're buying stocks still where they were around december. >> we've been talking about emerging markets, and you've argued that things are priced really low. at a discount. >> that's right. i think companies in the u.s. that have emerging markets exposure trade at nearly the largest discount in ten years.

>> but i should not go out -- or should i go out and buy a mutual fund that just gives me exposure and focuses on emerging market companies? >> i think that's not a bad way for someone to try to someone t exposure to emerging markets. it's much better than trying to buy single stocks. but what you get if you buy a u.s. company with emerging markets exposure is you get both the kicker of an emerging markets story, but also the weapon f benefit of the u.s. accelerates. >> would you touch europe right now? >> i think europe is improving. i still think the blue chip market is the u.s.. >> also u.s. equity strategist. >> it almost is kremerging from what looked like -- when you have 50% youth unemployment or whatever it was, it's frightening. >> it's hard to tell the

difference if you just look at numbers. >> almost looks like yi merging market. so if they just get back to some semblance of the way it used to be in europe, that might be good, too. why tech? >> i think, one, tech is a bunch of blue chip companies with great balance sheets. a large legacy tech. and i think the investment environment for capital spending will improve and that is a really big tail wind for tech. >> you mean ibm, oracle? >> yes, the traditional -- >> ibm has stumbled recently. do you think they just come back and that they can win back some clients? >> well are and so i won't talk about ibm specifically, but i'll talk about how, you know, hedge funds and port it follow i don't managers look at tech. traditionally when a tech company stumbles, it's almost too late. but in recent years we found many examples of companies reviving.

so i think the play book has changed. >> i'm assuming you don't include names like apple in that? >> it might be because if you look at the multiples, you might actually consider that not part of this whole social media class of stocks that has done very well. >> the social media piece, how do you feel about the social media piece, whether that's overvalued? twitter for example. >> it reminds me of when you look at biotech and phrma. you never really had to say you owned biotech or phrma. you really needed to own both. and the story of biotech has strength th strern strengthened becauseentiation i product. so i think people -- >> what do you think about the recent spade of all the ipos that is coming? does it make sense to you? would you want a piece of that? >> again, i can't talk about specific issues, but --

>> he gives you this look like -- >> i want to hear about financials. you would buy wells fargo, jpmorgan, citigroup? >> of course he would buy jpmorgan. >> i think money center banks again have a real competitive advantage. when you think about sophistication, cleanness of the balance sheet. american money center banks are globally -- >> so you would buy financials? credit card companies? >> yes, all the above. because they have a lot of leverage to an accelerating investment environment in the u.s. which is really one of our backdrops for this year. >> and as rates -- do you think rates are going up? >> i think it's not going to rise in a way that is unconfident about for equities. but i think it makes sense -- >> but does it help banks eventually? >> yes, net interest margins should improve if rates go up. >> but you think -- when will we

get to 3.5% on a ten year? >> our fixed income team believes we'll see that level this year. >> really? >> yeah. >> thank you for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> a great hour. >> it was a lot of fun. he's one of our favorites. >> he is one of our favorites. and i say that genuinely. >> thanks. >> take a look at futures. based on what tom has been saying, i don't know, you can be blamed for this? >> five points? >> it got better. >> plus 15, down 15. >> we started talking, it was down 15, now only down 6. tom, you're doing your job. tom, thank you. dow looks like it would open down 6, nasdaq off 2, s&p 500 off 2, as well. deere reporting better than expected quarterly results. earnings beating the street by 29 cents a share. demand held up and the company ceo notes efforts to hold the line on costs helped results. also a wire fox terrier was

named the best in show at the westminster couple club dog show in new york city. the win makes it the 14th i'm that a wire fox terrier has won. this one is named sky. but more than any other breed since westminster started, it's been this breed. >> why? >> those are the dogs that stand and point so straight. their noses go straight out. they have a very nice backbone. >> i feel bad for the other breeds. >> i feel bad for the mutt sflt. they're not even allowed to com complete. >> maybe they feel slighted. >> i think they know way more than we all expect. >> mutts appreciate when you bring them home. >> i don't think they have designer dogs in there either. labradoodles or things like that. now they cost as much -- >> but they're a mix. a mutt is a mixed breed. >> yeah, but all those breeds

were mixed from things in the past. >> fachncy mut its? >> if you came from a foreign planet and you saw all the different dogs, you would have no idea that they were all dogs. you'd position they were all different animals. did you ever think about that? >> especially the hairless ones. >> hairless chihuahua and 7-foot great dane you and you say those are the same thing. no, they're not. you know carl's dog. >> he has a very cute dog. >> you would think that dog was related to the rat. that's one of the lowest members of the food chain. probably replaced by the rat. >> carl is coming on in a few minutes. but that is much closer to a rodent than my german shepherd. i'm telling you. anyway -- >> thank you, tom. >> i'm egging on carl all the way from sochi, he'll hear that i'm dissing lucky. >> lucky is a sweet dog. >> my dog takes a crap bigger

than carl's dog. >> nice thought. >> coming up, what do you think that 7-foot tall great dane does? that thing you need a caterpillar equipment guy to come in and help with that. >> he has to take the dog out before the ducks come out because if it chases a duck, she complaint stop it. >> i read that. barry knapp and jack ablin will join us and head back to sochi for an update. tall the building is,

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gelling with yellen. >> it will remain contingent on its yut lo outlook for the labor market. >> a break town of yesterday's testimony, market reaction and what investor shoes take away from her first grilling on the hill. >> volkswagen workers voting on whether to let the union in. >> and another winter storm will create chaos today in the south. the northeast bracing for another big storm, as well. jim cantore brings us the lat t

latest. final hour of "squawk box" beginning right now. welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc. you would be with my daughter on channel like 3 on sirius xm. >> in the new york area, i grew up with move on z 100 and i say that unabashed. >> see, i'm the neighborhood. i'm a hoodlum. >> first in business worldwide. >> do you love to wplj? >> no, i have sirius xh. >> john is and tom in the

morning? >> no, i don't listen to deejays. i listen to jazz other than if they're saying please acceptsen money. i'd rather here a commercial. futures down ten. so we'll have to get the stock market open to see what it really wants to do today. a great day yesterday as we opened gelling with yellen. the asian markets are responding probably to what we did yesterday. and we would think the euros are. >> stronger than expected import numbers and stronger than expected export numbers. >> and there is the euro markets. the dax i think did well yesterday, too. up again today. andrew has some corporate news. >> check out shares of deere. getting a boost in early tragd.

earnings beating the street at 29 cents a chair. ceo notes efforts to hold the line on costs also helped results. and take a look at dow chemical. dow chemical rejecting investor downloads call to split the company in two. dow says it has studied the idea and decided it would not be productive. and owens corning topping expectations, the company announcing it plans for pay its first dividend in 14 years. our other top story today, another winter storm is on the way. in fact almost a third of the u.s. population lives in area that is are under some form of winter weather advisory right now. that is about 93 million people. the southeast will be getting hit particularly hard. there is plenty of snow and ice in the northeast that is on the way, as well. flight aware is reporting that more than 2500 cancellations have already happened. we'll be getting an update from jim cantore in just about 20 minutes. >> and no surprises i guess

you'd say about yesterday from janet yellen and her testimony to congress on tuesday. the markets seemed to like that. up about 200 points. surging higher on the day. what could possibly derail this euphoria? joining us is barry knapp at barclays in new york. trying to remember where he is on these markets. and jack abli this. executive haven't chief investment officer at a private bank in chicago. and i would say, ablin, you were a guest host on "squawk box" do you think it was 18 years ago, 15 years ago? you've been around. >> when i just started out. >> you've had a long association with the show. and we look forward to hearing you coming up. barry, last year you kind of got bearish a little too soon. i don't know.

did you come back in by the end of the year to catch the last six months? where were you and where do you stand now? >> we thought that what would happen if growth surprised on the up side is it became clear the middle of the year that it would do, that the fed would react to it and that would slow the advance. on september 19th, a day after they took a pass on tapering, we bumped or price target by a couple hundred points and figured the market would race. >> you switched. you did. unfortunately, only time republicans quote cains. where are you right now? >> we're the at 1900 for the year. and the general trajectory we expected was that period of adjustment to fed normalizing policy this we expected to happen in the fourth quarter of last year we think will happen in the first part of this year. and then we'll end the year strong, probably rallying through the midterm elections.

so we still think that we're in that period of adjustment to policy normalization. i look at yellen's testimony yesterday and say we got a nice rally in the equity market, extending the four day move, which was really off what i suppose you could describe as a very oversold condition when volatility spiked to quite high levels as of a week ago monday. but the thing that really troubled me a little bet about yesterday and epg will continue as worth watching is not the ten year part of the treasury curve, it's the five year part of the curve. and that is the part of the curve if you look at how the market is pricing out fed rate hikes, once they get started, not so much the timing of the first one, but once they get started, market only expects them to go one percent per year. they always go much more fast. so i think that part of the curve is vulnerable. >> s&p closed at 1850. you're looking for 1900. so you're generously giving me a 2.7% return in the stock market,

which if you're right, okay. i'm glad you told me. but that is kind of, i don't know -- that is kind of mealy mouth. what do you think, 2.7% all we're looking at this year? >> i'm still calling for about 7.5% return this year. started the year overvalued. >> what? >> price to sales ratio traded nearly 20 percentage points above its median. doesn't mean it can stay there, but it needs some help. it needs the economy to accelerate. we need revenues and earnings to keep pace with current expectations. and i expected that we would get the acceleration and unfortunately speaking to you from the especially epicenter, the weather has impacted the economy around here. so i'm hopeful as weather warm up, the economy warms up. but we will need helpweather hay around here.

so i'm hopeful as weather warm up, the economy warms up. but we will need helphas impact here. so i'm hopeful as weather warm up, the economy warms up. but we will need help from revenue and earnings to keep the pace going. >> jim paulson said we go first quarter -- or we ended the fourth quarter at a 14% gain in earnings year over year. but it accelerated through the year and your point was that we'll catch up with where the valuations are right now. is that what you think, ablin, that maybe it if things do improve, that the underpinnings to where the market is right now, we got work to do just to get up to where that is and from there maybe we could go higher? >> yeah, we kahn death erded from fundamentals probably mid year last year as everyone became enamored with quantitative easing and for the right reasons. there was a lot of liquidity around. but now as that moves away, we need something to sink our teeth into and it certainly won't be federal liquidity. >> i'm with jack. >> but you're both worry warts.

europe is better, china is coming back, the debt ceiling has been raised, the at the time is still accommodative. all the things you worried about, they have all been sort of settled positively. >> but this is at the core of why the market surged through the second half of last year. jack hit it. >> let me address europe for a second. >> europe is trading at a 15%, 20% discount to the u.s.. a lot of good things happening, but we will need something. our belief in europe and we are investing there and we've moved more there, but it is predicated on some kind of policy action, either aggressive,. >> japan has been gone for 20 years and we even have that

doing it. barry, last word. >> sure. i think that the issue on europe really is just that they will probably get a stronger profit cycle. most of the people i talk to like it for this year, but longer term, agree with your previous guest tom lee that u.s. is still the blue chip market in the world. >> i like that hear that. so we're exceptional. i know people in belgium think they're exceptional. people in france think they're exceptional. i've heard that. i don't like that. but anyway, gentlemen, appreciate it. coming up, the south bracing for another round of bad weather. the northeast in a deep freeze and expecting another round of snow. we'll talk about what that means to the economy. meanwhile, it's the opposite in sochi. carl will have a preview of what is coming up. . >> you yeah, we'll talk about what joe said about my dog for sure. it's cold where you are.

60 degrees once again here in sochi. we'll talk about what that is doing to conditions on the mountain. and what shaun white is saying about whether he'll compete in south korea in 2018 when "squawk box" continues live from sochi. ♪ [ male announcer ] we don't just certify our pre-owned vehicles. we inspect, analyze, and recondition each one, until it's nothing short of a genuine certified pre-owned mercedes-benz for the next new owner. [ car alarm chirps ] hurry in to the mercedes-benz certified pre-owned sales event. visit today for exceptional offers. ♪

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welcome back to "squawk box". futures are looking a little lower. dow would open off about 6, nasdaq a little over a point and s&p 500 off about a point and a half. we're talking about big coin aga bitcoin being hit by a tax for sending mutated lines of code into the program that runs the virtual currency. the bitcoin foundation says problems experienced caused them to temporarily halt withdrawals by customers. the halt causing bitcoin values to drop sharply. you can see that chart. >> you had a chance at what price? >> $5. >> i didn't know. i was having dinner with a guy. he said you know about this thing called bitcoin? >> did he offer you you some?

>> no, he said he just bought some. he said i'll sell you some of mine. >> you thought he was selling you you -- >> i thought the whole thing was craziness. i didn't understand what was happening. >> like $1,000 worth? how much would it be worth now, like millions? >> no, not millions. >> we were just looking at it, 533. >> $5 to $1200 would be a return of 200 times. all right. let's get to sochi for an update on the winter olympics. carl quintanilla joining us. but for our entire relationship, we have gone back and forth about lucky. the handsome chihuahua. i have a little dog, i have a maltapoo in addition to a better man shepherd. and watching that dynamic, i don't know what would help there, although they're both

actually its at this point. but small dogs are much smarter normally than big dogs. i love that you have a dog in the city. you didn't cop out. >> he's trying to make nice. >> andrew didn't have anything. a cat is like having a plant. >> it's funny, you made that comment, joe, before the break. and now people are tweeting back to the show pictures of, quote, real dogs. so you need to defend the small dog because you're a fan of them, as well. >> i am. i am. i just said if you came from a different planet, karl, and you looked at westminster dog show, an alien would say look at all these different animals. and if you said they're all dogs, a guy would say you need new names. >> people say there is a conspiracy against terriers. >> i think he looks like a former president.

the beard and everything else. >> did you fall ski something why would you fall skiing since you went to school with me in -- >> we'll talk about how icy the snow is a little later on this morning. i'll show you some pictures in a minute. but i know michelle has brought you you up to speed on shaun white's disappointment from last night. probably the best known athlete at lease olympic games a least on team usa. he does finish fourth in the half pipe. fails to medal. this morning on the "today" show, matt lauer asked him if he thought he might compete in south korea in 2018. and he said i think so. so maybe the game is not over for shaun white. but clearly a let down for team usa. does make you you would der about some of the other events on the feel like bode miller. he finishes eighth in the men's down hill, but he's not done. he had the fastest training run in the super combined. of course he's the defending gold medalist in that event. that is coming up for him on friday and he is going for a

record sixth alpine medal. the big story today, a marquee match up in women's hockey, can that today versus u.s.. both are guaranteed spots in the semi, butt winner gets a higher seed on monday. canada of course the defending gold medalist there vancouver. although they do -- they're riding a four straight losing streak to the u.s.. medal count goes like this. norway is on fire again with 12 medals. canada 9. netherlands 8 chlt u.s. and russia with 7. germany has six, but five of those are gold, guys. so keep that in mind. finally, we always like to try to keep it stock specific on this show. so i thought we could talk a little pepsi. i did not know this, they're not an official sponsor of the games. that is coke. but outside, they are everywhere. pepsi is the biggest food and beverage company in russia, $5 billion in sales per year. russia is their second large ers market after united states. so i brought you guys, these are

carrier flavored lays potato chips. these are crab. crab flavored lays. which one should i try? >> caviar. >> i was afraid you were going to say that. >> the groesest one. >> we saw these at a market over the weekend. >> get a shot of vodka next to you just in case. >> he'll need some vodka. >> how is it going? >> give us a little flavor. >> you have to eat four like you you did four shots the other day. >> you did the "today" show taste test there. he does that really well. >> did you spit that out? you spit it out. >> wi heard you you might have tried to compete in one of the

downhill events yesterday? >> exactly. there has been so much discussion about the snow, and it's so warm. so we decided to go up to the mountain where there is public skiing. a lot of europeans, not that many americans, and joe, you know as an expert skier yourself, when it's icy, it is tough. so we made our way down some pretty intermediate runs. i'm from colorado, not a great skier. obviously i have pretty bad form there. but, yeah, i think this is where -- ♪ wipe out >> i have so much to talk about that here. watching that, the only htime i've gotten air ever close to that was when i was on the chair lift. but i saw what you did there.

and the thing that shocks me with these guys on these slopes like that, they're per pep dick cuellar. and the feeling of staying perpendicular and over your skis, it's impobl. because you're falling. which you have to. >> okay, we get it, i fell. >> but you did this, you agreed to do this in front of cameras. >> he didn't know that was going to happen. >> but that's pretty amazing. >> you could tell from how far you went after the fall, that was a sleep slope you were on. you want to be the pilot or the passenger on your skis. and you turn into the passenger just temporarily. >> who was your cameraman on that? because that was pretty good to be able to do that. >> bill angiluchi had a camera hand held, was skiing backward, putting it between his legs.

he was better going backwards than i was going forwards. >> like the guy with the g parachutes. >> beautiful day. so you need some had sharp edges, too, on that. but i thought you looked pretty good, carl. and we both are boulder grads. so i'll do a little next month. next month at the greatest -- you can have sochi, just give e mme beaver creek. you know that. >> i know. >> and you get the pizza and frisco on the way up. >> carl, they are rushing us out. but we have time for you to fry one more chip. >> gosh, i think actually i heard a wrap. >> try the crab. >> pepsi better love me for this by the way. >> does it come with one of

those little combs? >> you can handle four vodka, but not a crab chip. we'll check back in with carl a little later. when we on back, an update on where the storm will hit and how it could affect your travel. those little things still get you.

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coming up, tensions are rising in chattanooga as volkswagen voters get ready to vote on whether they want to be represented by the uaw. ♪

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take a look at stocks in the news this morning. deere one of our pre-market winners. reported fourth quarter earnings of $1.81 a share. also saw better than expected revenue in a weak market. owens corning earning 17 cents above estimates. it was helped by return to profitability for its insulation business and also announced first quarterly dividend in 14 years. and then there is dr. pepper, snap he will also beating estimates. it earned 97 cents per share.he estimates. it earned 97 cents per share. says it's benefitting from wider

distribution of its products. sorry, we were laughing during the break. >> we were? >> i just need to breathe. >> we were laughing and we were afraid. what could happen with your eyebrows. >> i have to get myself a comb. tensions are rising in chattanooga, tennessee as vo workers have voting whether they want to be represented by a union. >> it's bad weather in chat new gao, but the vote is slowly watched. about 1500 workers at the voks w volkswagen plant will be casting votes. we found a couple to explain why they will be voting to be represented by the uaw. >> we will have an opportunity to voice our concerns and the

continuings that we hope to improve the company. and i think that will work better for us and the current system. >> right now as the way i understand it is we don't have a seat at the global works table. and we need to have chattanooga there. we need to be there to raise our happened and say, hey, we need another car here, bring to chattanooga, we're ready. >> house significant would it be if the uaw were to organize this plant? the high for uaw membership back in 1979 at 1.5 million. the low as plants in north america were closed down by the big three dropped as low as 355,000. it has come back a little bit over the last couple of years. keep in mind the uaw has not organized a nonbig three plant since the 1970s. that mean there is have been 14 plants opened by foreign automakers since then, most in the south. the last foreign brand uaw plant was a volkswagen plant in pennsylvania, closed down in

1987. opponents of whether or not this plant is organized say it's pretty clear they think that unionization at this plant would be a step in the wrong direction. >> i believe it will be beat. it can be beaten. the challenge is of course that obama is in chattanooga. because his nlrb appointees are the ones setting the rules which disenfranchise the workers of chattanoo chattanooga. >> take a look at shares of volkswagen versus general motors and ford over the last year. just pointing this out, guy. and i understand we're talking about global automakers. it's not a reflection of sales or production here only because clearly volkswagen only has one plant here in the u.s.. coming up later today on the closin "closing bell," an interview with bob king, president of the united autoworkers, on a day which begins a very low men tuesday election for the uaw.

14 foreign automakers have opened plants since the early 1980s here in the u.s. and for the first time since that has started, the uaw has a chance to organize one of those plants. >> joining us now to talk about this is a labor professor at the university of california berkeley. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> so help us understand this. let's start with this. do you believe the uaw in its modern incarnation, let's say the last 10, 20 years, has been helpful or hurtful not to the automakers, but actually to the employees? >> i think it's been very helpful to both, i think the uaw has south to build more competitive companies, and also to benefit its members. and in fact it's that combination that resulted in a period of real groelt and economic success and the growth of the middle class after world war ii. >> so i get that argument p

until about 20 years ago. i have tougher time with that argument given gm needed our help because they had taken on way too much in terms of benefits that had been pushed on, in part because of the power of the unions. >> i think the power of the union was very much overstated in terms of gm's collapse, chrysler'se to the tott aring. ford made $6 billion in the last four years of the 1990s. a lot of money in that period. with the same union, the same benefit package, et cetera. it had the market gauged correctly. so a lot of things wepts into the bankruptcy. and there has been a tendency to demonize the unions and i think that is overstated. >> professor, i understand trade unions and the uaw say net positive probably overall for definitely for the people that are in the union. maybe not so much to people that

would be willing to work that aren't in the union. sometimes i think that is not great. i just wondered about your feeling on public unions and whether you think that -- for a long time thereweren't public unions and even liberals said that should they ever happen because there is no one really there protecting the taxpayer. public union raises money, laegts tlaeg elects the people they want to control who pace them and it seems incestuous. you think it's a net positive for public union sths. >> i do. some have a pro upattitude, shall critical, but unions are a vital part of any democratic society. and to exclude unions in the public sector in effect equates us with communist poland at a time when all unions were bad with the notion that everything was opened by the public sector. so i think to have unions as the corner stone of a democratic

society, which in fact they are, george schultz, former secretary of state and secretary of labor, was very clear about that when he said the checks and balances of democracy, ups play a very vital role. >> i want to bring phil into the conversation, but on the public union side, and we're going a little off topic, but should public unions also be able to donate for politicians? >> i do. because again that is part of democracy. does it get messy sometimes? yes. but i think on balance it gives us the checks and balances. we have a huge upsurge of corporate funding into politics given the citizens united decision. we have to say is that nondistorting? and if that is distorting, you want a bit of balance in the political -- >> let's get to phil. i assume you're against citizens united decision. becomes an interesting debate. phil, jump in.

>> harley, a quick question. assuming the uaw is successful in organizing and representing this plant in chattanooga, tennessee, there are a lot of people who are saying this is the foothold from here, they will be able to organize the other southern auto plants represented by the foreign automakers. do you actually think that will happen or is it more likely that this is a one off, they will be successful here, but we shouldn't expect to happen at the nissan or toyota plants south of the mason dixon line? >> i think this is going to be a very important model. there is a lot of attention on it. and what's at stake here isn't simply a unionized plant, but a new way for u.s. firms to compete in the global economy with works councils and a union as part of the competitive success not in spite of the union or the works council. so in that sense i think we could women see a successful k

volkswagen and if that's the case, i think you'd look at other automakers in the south perhaps moving down in road. >> then i think about the decline in private sector union and nothing happens in a vacuum obviously. but civil service laws, i don't -- no one really compares our working conditions to dickens at this point for public or private employees. if it was so essential, why have so many people chosen not to join up, why has it dropped if it was so essential some. >> it's about 6.6% of the private sector -- >> down from 40, right?some. >> it's about 6.6% of the private sector -- >> down from 40, right?ome. >> it's about 6.6% of the private sector -- >> down from 40, right?me. >> it's about 6.6% of the private sector -- >> down from 40, right?e. >> it's about 6.6% of the private sector -- >> down from 40, right?. >> it's about 6.6% of the private sector -- >> down from 40, right? >> down from 35%. so a huge drop over the last 50 or 60 years. but in part that reflect a lot of pressures well i don't understand the control of unions. the global economy. very fierce employer opposition that has gloen over the years.

and laws that have tilted the playing field to make it very difficult to organize in practice. we have the right on the books, the national labor relations act passed in the mid 1930s, but to actually exercise that right effectively in most cases becomes very, very difficult. so i think it's those pressures that have been part of the decline of unions. >> okay. professor, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> an interesting conversation. becky. the markets gelling with yellen yesterday. her first testimony taken in stride by investors. but what did we really learn about the new fed chair? steve liesman has that story. and yellen will be back again tomorrow speaking to the other of congress. [ bagpipes play ]

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sfwloon kre mental cuts will continue. for more on what we learned, we're joined by steve liesman. yesterday didn't seem to say anything that profound, but the markets obviously liked it. between she say anything in a that that people think it would take less weakness to stop the tapering? >> double negatives in there. less weakness -- >> that the numbers wouldn't need to be so incredibly -- like

a lot of people say it would take a high bar to stop taper. >> that was the impression i got. >> so she didn't lower the bar at all. >> i don't feel like the bar was lowered. if we were sitting there on monday and i asked you is there a sense of some risk in the market right now that tomorrow, tuesday, yellen is going to blow it or show herself to be weak or dramatically change policy? because one explanation for why the market good well yesterday is that risk came off the table. but do you think people felt the risk on monday? >> i don't think people believe she would err by making a hawkish err. >> they shothought she was more dovish. >> i think if there was anything that would indicate she would be less accommodative than bernanke, that would scare the markets. they love this money. >> can i tell you that our cnbc survey we did october, december,

january, each time we've asked our participants, their sense of how dovish yellen is has come down relative to bernanke. >> is that good or bad for the markets? >> you tell me. they think now she's more like bernanke than they thought back in october. but she made three decisions yesterday. one she decided the first time the fed chair has spoken that the emerging market blowup was no big deal. second thing she decided is she's unconcerned about the softness in the data and she has time to wait. and then the third thing she decided was what joe started talking about, this notion of what would it take to pause the tapering and gave us as bit of a -- a change in the markets. i threw it out on twitter. most people thought it was neutral. so i don't think that metric has changed. i have to go with xt plan thath

explanation i came up with yesterday, there was a risk yellen would be different. that risk went away and the market was ready to buy into this thing. yellen said there is a green light, let's go and do it. explaining why you you had a 192 point move on what i think joe correctly says was not a whole lot of news. >> historically when a new fed chair comes in, they say the market has sort of uncertain rough patch within six months. do you think we just had that patch? traditionally does it happen at the beginning, six months later? anybody know? >> as much as i say she made three decisions, she really hasn't made anything big. that was the 4% of what happened yesterday or the 10%. the 90% was the same decisions that had already been made by bernanke. that may come true when there is a substantial change in the drought lo outlook or something changes on the ground. or the market tests yellen. there is a change, the market

moves in a certain way, wants to see how the chairman will react and then you have the big move. going to be fun. >> it is. >> people want some tape of me skiing to compare to carl's. so would you say that again? i was looking through here to try to pick out a -- >> that's okay, joe. you can go back and -- >> i'll watch it when we get home. >> you can fall like that? >> no, i didn't fall, but you this is on the women's downhill course at beaver creek. i'm going to get dean to cut this and we'll do them both tomorrow. >> put them on the same slope. >> carl was definitely on a sle steep slope, too. >> coming up, the latest on another winter storm gripping the south. jim cantore will join us next. he's the guy you go to. like cramer almost. cramer on what investors will be watching as we head toward the opening bell. an expert ford technician knows

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welcome back. up on 18 inches of snow headed to the northeast. the south dealing with that deep freeze. right now we have someone on the ground right there, jim cantore,

the one and only from augusta this morning. the knees have been on the ground. and speaking of on the ground we've got sleet falling right now which is a great thing because what we don't want is this the freezing rain that came later about a quarter to a half inch. that accumulates on the trees. that's the major cause of power loss. that and the wind which is supposed to follow this could be, of course, catastrophic for this area. you look at these hollies here are seeing all this ice accumulate on them. but once the sleet comes it starts bouncing off. so if we can stay all sleet in augusta that's a good thing. we use up most of our moisture here because the models were predicting 2 inches of liquid and what we were looking at yesterday suggested it would we all freezing rain. and cold air is more dense, doesn't get forecast as well and so we're into the sleet. that's a good thing. right here river walk in

augusta, you can see the savannah river across, the savannah river, of course, is south carolina. one thinking in eight weeks we'll half this wonderful little golf tournament out here called the masters but what's interesting a lot of people have been asking me, jim, what's the deal if they start losing trees and trees start coming down all over the place? they are so self-sustained at augusta national they can literally go in and replace a 100-year-old magnolia tree in 24 hours. you went know if it's missing if there's certainly a tournament. don't be worried at all about augusta national. you can see the sleet accumulating on the river walk. it's the same case out on the streets in augusta. the freezing rain earlier did its job on the flag. even though we have breezes in the background, the flag not moving at all due to the fact that it's frozen to the pole in through here. augusta shut down because of freezing rain. many areas across the south atlanta all the way to columbia, south carolina, dealing with snow and sleet at the present time. but this is a good thing, the deeper the cold air gets and the

more sleet and snow element we get the less in terms of power outages that we'll get because earlier they were talking about maybe 500,000 to a million people without power, with this sleet that may not be the case. let's cross our fingers, guys, back to you. >> jim cantore at augusta. >> i thought he was at augusta, but then he referenced it anyway. no one's out there today anyway, i'm sure of that. anyway, let's get down to the new york stock exchange and jim cramer joins us now. all right, jim, yesterday i remember you said -- i didn't know about monday, finally ending up seven i thought it put a pretty good stand in and my question was has it already -- has the market already said if you didn't buy at down 57 we ain't letting you in, we're not letting you buy stocks on sale and all of a sudden we're up 200 points. do you think you'll get another chance at some point? >> some remarkable things happened in the last 24 hours. we talked about yellen staring the course, a lot of people liked that, a lot of people

including me were worried about the debt ceiling. last weekend i was on a chat with david gregory and he asked whether wall street was being too cavalier given the fact this could happen. you get the debt ceiling which is remarkable the lack of discord between republicans and democrats and yellen saying a lot of things that make people feel good and suddenly you get interpretations of quarters like dr pepper, people love it. owens corning, it's a pretty good quarter, and people are crazy for it. and people say yellen's good and we're not going to have a government shutdown, 24 hours an amalez izele numbe l amazeing things happen. >> is it a year where we get up here and we go or is it going to be we get through the close from last year and then we actually start making, you know, even if it's choppy, if it's above 1850, i wonder if that's where we spend the year or whether we spend it just trying to consolidate last year?

>> you had david darst on yesterday and he was amazing, he basically said the next level will be dependent on china. if china comes back strong, if the baltic freight goes up from 1,000 to 1,200 and we get it to 1,500, if we start seeing the chinese market the last three days, we'll blow through because china is the key market. not talking about turkey or argentina, we are talking about turkey from the point of view well, do you know what, maybe that wasn't so bad. italian bond rates ten year, 3.66. you think our rates are going to go through china. italian market third biggest bend market. a lot of things have happened but if china gets better we'll have a hard time staying down. >> we can't watch you this week, can we? >> what, for "mad money"? >> yeah. >> no. no. we got -- sports. >> we got to watch you on "squawk on the street" and right now. but i know that you -- you're not feeling bad because curling is -- i mean, it's only two

weeks, right, or whatever it is? it's pretty cool to watch, isn't it on cnbc? are you gladly giving up your time? >> i love the olympics. >> i know. >> i've always loved the olympics. i've been riveted to the olympics since the 1964 summer olympics which, remember, was, you know, carlos. it was the, you know, the racial protest. >> yeah. >> which was amazing as someone who was a 4.40 runner and it is was a great speak-out for people who have been disenfranchised, but, no, i love the olympics, so i don't know. >> you're torn. >> plus carl is there. michelle's there. carl's there. and so, i'm seeing carl because the stuff he's seeing is so eye opening it's a joy and i think the fact that the games are in russia. i remember when jimmy carter canceled the olympics. >> i remember that. >> did he do anything right? >> it was about afghanistan. at least that's all squared away and settled now what goes on in that country. anyway, thanks, jim. >> thank you. >> see you later. oh, up next --

>> you. >> -- do you know there's a sales tax? you know, this is where the public has to rise up and take a stand here. but there's a sales tax -- thanks. sales tax on lap dances. once well known -- wow. the hustler club has found out the hard way. more "squawk box" next.

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i'm going to play this straight i decided. >> go for it. go for it. >> a judge has a message for new york's famed hustler club. >> what's that? >> it's time to pay up for back taxes on back taxes. >> what's hustler club? >> it's a club along new york's west side highway. it's kind of like -- >> what do they do there? >> it's kind of like on "the soprano's" it's the bada-bing place. it's $2.1 million because the judge argues the strip club that lap dances don't qualify for a sales tax exemption on what is called dramatic choreographic or musical performances so basically saying -- >> you need to pay taxes. >> they are not choreographic. >> it's in the eye of the beholder so to speak. >> what happens if they

choreograph in advance? >> she calls it a sexual fantasy, not a -- so it doesn't -- and the club's attorneys counter that the state's tax law is unconstitutional because it's based on the content of the performances. none of us like treating women as objects. >> thank you, guys. it's time for "squawk on the street." ♪ good morning. and welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm david faber with jim cramer. we are live from the new york stock exchange. carl, of course, continues to report from sochi. we're going to hear from him later in the hour. all right, let's start you off with a look at futures, of course, after yesterday's very big move up a good day if you were long the market certainly making up a lot of the losses that we saw earlier in 2014. you