good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. our top story today, comcast is set to buy time warner cable. david faber reports that the all-stock transaction is worth roughly $159 a share. that's about $44 billion. the tie-up would create the largest cable provider in the nation with more than 33 million subscribers. although i think they were looking at divesting some of those so that he would wind up close to 30 million subscribers at the end. the deal is expected to face a tough review from the federal communications commission, potentially from the justice department, as well. >> i'm of two minds about this. >> i was an anti-trust voyeur and i've given you grief in the past. i want to see you step up to the plate here and investigate these. really? >> i'm happy to talk about it. >> in this case, you don't think this one is a little less --

>> i think we should give full disclosier first. >> comcast is the parent of our company, cnbc. by the way, the ceos of both companies, they were be joining david faber right here on "squawk box" coming up at 7:00 eastern time. >> i've already had -- i was walking and thinking i'm going to leave this show with neither rain nor sleet nor dark of night. and i saw that was written into the prompter and i thought for a second, whose motto is that? >> the post office. >> who wants to compare comcast to the post office? no one wants to be compared to the post office. >> i get my mail every day. you once talked about how effective they were and then we talked about they lose $8 billion a quarter. >> i want the post office toen continue. >> and i certainly don't want to make any postal workers mad. >> should we talk about this? >> i think we should talk about

it now. >> it's worth talking about. >> it has a lot of ramifications. did we just pull the rug out from under them? >> i think charter -- >> eped it to be done, right? he wanted someone to do it. >> the problem was charter was close her to $132. time warner wanted $160. >> comcast -- >> oh, look at this. he looks mad there. >> and michael, the cfo, had been negotiating last week with charter to take pieces of -- >> that's what i heard. >> did this come as a huge surprise? >> and there were big fights. michael left the meeting in a big hough, threatened to say if you guys can't get your act together, we're going to do it ourselves. i don't think charter believed that was what was going to happen. we can talk to brian. he can tell us more about that piece of on it. here is the thing. i'm a time warner cable customer.

as a customer, i am thrilled about this. i apologize. we're going to have the ceo on. they're done a lousy job on a relative basis. >> comcast is about -- >> the speed isn't as good, the service isn't as good. they have not spent the same type of money comcast has. now, if you're a content creator, not so good, okay? because all of a sudden the cable company has a lot more power on that. the net neutrality discussion is getting raised again. if you're a netflix, unclear where you would stand in this. >> comcast offers netflix. >> they do. but there's a question of whether there's a new competitor of netflix. if i decided i wanted to start netflix, could comcast take me on or would they charge me more for certain pipes. >> you've seen how much the economies of scale makes sense here. >> huge. >> and that's what malone's point was, this has to get

bigger because there's so much money to be saved in this. now, is he happy as a b benevolent -- >> is he happy that the industry is going to be much more nimble and all these people won't be? >> yeah. well -- >> and he will get some. >> he will get something from this. he's not getting nothing. >> on a scale of one to ten -- >> lower than five? >> we can talk to david faber. >> we want to do that. >> if they knew that comcast was going to come in with this offer -- >> i don't think he was ready to go through these numbers. the numbers make sense for comcast in a way they might not make sense for charter. >> well, for comcast, there's no overlap here. if you're looking at the regulators, the argument is we're not overlapping, we're simply picking up where time

warner cable existed. >> you're not taking a competitor out. you're your point is you're replane placing the competitor with a different competitor. you're not taking out competition in those markets. the question you raise about the content issues and what that means down the road -- >> it's a longer term story of what the issue looks like. >> but the regulators signed off on nbc universal, it's hard to think that this is a different bar unless you look at it fr from -- >> people thought that might be -- >> how about the upside? they're going to be able to spend upgrades. >> it's expensive. >> they're going to have to bring the cost down on a per home basis. by the way, they might be able to bring the cost down across the industry, so that could be a benefit. >> if you look at it from a time warner cable's customer's perspective, they're going to be lining up rallying for this to

happen. >> wi-fi access, comcast and time warner has been installing wi-fi access across cities across the east coast. if they put that together, you could see a whole creation of a massive wi-fiing network. so there are real technological benefits. >> you are an owner of comcast, as well. >> and i am. i'm a customer, i'm an owner, i'm an employee. >> but my point is, you own shares. you own these shares. >> i do. and they're going up. >> well, they're going up, but this is a huge dilution for your ownership stake in comcast. the way the money is being spent, your money, your shares which are being diluted, are you satisfied as a shareholder? >> yes. as a shareholder, i am over the moon. >> you are? >> i'm doing back flips. >> but this is not affecting your view on the anti-trust -- >> i'm trying to -- that's why i just gave you all the downside. i'm with you. >> seeing if you -- because i'm trying to figure out how i feel based on how you feel.

and i don't know whether i'm going to be the opposite of what you say or the -- i haven't decided yet. i have a pretty good idea that i might come out in favorite of this deal. >> you think so? >> i think -- i haven't looked at everything, but yeah, like i'm not going to be looking at that. what is that "h" thing that you always add up? >> the way to do the formula. some other news deal to talk about, dow jones reporting that the merck's could sell part of its business. it includes well known brands such as coppertone sunscreen and merck officials will reportedly begin meeting with buyers next week. good news for m&a land, by the way, if you're in the banking business. berkshire hathway is

considering acquiring part of graham holdings. berkshire holds 1 is.7 million shares of graham. and it said in an s.e.c. filing that it is in talk toes exchange its stake for some of graham's assets. graham owns cap lynn education, fixed television stations, the online magazine slate and several others. >> slate? >> jacob weisberg, slate. >> you love slate. >> i love jacob. in our corporate news, cisco posting better th-than-expected earnin earnings. cisco raising its quarterly dividend from 2 cents to 19 cents a share. indicating its growth slowdown may be easing. the ceo john chambers cautioning that they continue to face issues. cisco now forecast ago 6% to 8% drop in revenue in quarter.

keep an eye on that as hardware spending sags. the outlook is about in line with consensus. we're talking to an analyst who covers the company and we're going to do that in just about 20 minutes. >> all right. back to the cable deal -- no. we may mention this again at some point. a number of other stocks on the move in extended hours, including cbs, earnings and revenue beat the street and the network announced a 1.5 billion stock buyback program. that stock, that's pretty amazing, i've got to say. what was the low, do you remember? >> cbs? >> yeah. remember? >> no. what was the number? >> well, i'm just saying you would have been -- it would have been a good move to buy it at the height of the financial crisis, andrew. that's my only point. it was -- so you don't have this institutional memory. $4.16. that's neither here nor there. shares under foods coming up

pressure. it's cutting its 2014 sales forecast for the second time in three months saying competition is eating into its growth. and co-ceo walter rob is going to be on "squawk on the street" to talk about the quarter at 9:15 eastern. and another name hit hard in after hours trading, net cap. earnings of the provider of data storage disappointed the streets at 16 cent net cap. >> net cap? >> no, net app. >> oh, there is only one t. it's net-tap for me. >> netapp. >> chipmaker -- nvidia. >> why is it two syllables if it's -- nvidia? why four syllables? i don't know. chipmaker nvidia getting a boost after fourth quarter earnings.

that's not bad. >> yeah. earnings and revenue top consensus results were helped by the chipmaker's pc gaming components. angie's list, shares of a local services review site dropped sharply following its report of weaker than expected earnings and disappointing current quarter revenue and dpiedance. have you ever used that? >> i have no. >> craigslist? >> years ago. i sold furniture when we moved. it was a little creepy. >> that bothers me a little. >> i also bought something. i went to somebody else's place and bought some furniture years ago. >> used furniture? >> yes. >> that's weird. >> it wasn't a mattress, was it? >> no. it was a -- an ethan allen armoire. >> i feel like talking about crabs again. i used to rent furniture. >> you did? >> yeah. that's even weirder. >> from a rental center?

>> yeah. that's so depressing. >> i rented a tv and a stereo when i lived in london. >> and then it gets re -- >> let's talk about today's economic agenda. weekly jobless claims and january retail sales. economists say the weather is a key factor to watch in both reports. headlines reports are expected to decline by 0.1% last month. coming up at 10:00 eastern we'll get december business inventories. you saw the nasdaq picking up. this morning, the futures are under pressure. in fact but dow futures are down by about 67 points below fair value, s&p is off by over 7.5 points and the nasdaq is down by 18. oil prices picked up yesterday by about 43 cents. that was its highest settlement

since mid october. this morning, they're pulling back to 99.72. the ten-year note at this point is yielding at 2.756%. that is just below the yield of yesterday. but that yield of yesterday was at the highest level in over two weeks. the dollar is looking like it's down across the board. the yen -- the dollar/yen is at 101.93. the euro is at 1.3662. and gold prices this morning are looking like they're down just barely, down by about $3. $1,291.90 an ounce. and federal reserve chair janet yellen was scheduled to head back to capitol hill today, but the senate banking committee has now postponed that hearing due to weather. the washington area expecting a significant snowstorm. we've got no word yet on new data. when we get that, we'll bring it to you. speaking of the weather, we should get the latest weather forecast. it was bad out there this morning for those in the new york areas. another winter storm slamming many states today. keith gartman joins us now from the weather channel.

when is it over? >> you try to pick your question there. when is it over is a good question. in new york, not until late tonight, early tomorrow morning, but we will be changing over to rain. that will make it a little better. we have winter weather alerts up and down the eastern seaboard. winter storm warnings in effect, winter weather advisories in the light blue. this track is a little bit to the west. that allows that warm air in. you can see already the rain/snow line moving in to parts of maryland, washington, d.c. it walg something snow there earlier. 3 inches an hour. that's this right here lifting into pennsylvania. new york is on the fringe of it. so it's not a question of whether or not new york will change over to rain. it will. it's the timing on of it as this warm air continues to rock on in from the ocean. basically, to the east of the 95 corridor, it doesn't mean

there's not a great deal of snow. showing you the system, moving into new york, boston, probably changing over to rain later this afternoon. it's raining in new york around 7:30 tonight. this gets tricky because on the backside, you'll probably get enough cold air to wrap in to give aus last shot of snow early tomorrow morning in new york and then around rush hour in the boston area. generally speaking, though, these back end snow spots don't put that much snow down. probably another inch or just just adding insult to injury there. what are we talking about? some pretty big totals. this is largely to the west of 95. but our purple is 8 to 12 inches. then we have a big area of 12 to 18, as well. we're thinking interior parts of massachusetts will see the most snow. by the way, becky, i don't think it's weird to buy used furniture. it's the whole shabby chic thing.

>> when i was in college, i bought i my junior year. it was used at that point and i kept it until a few years ago. >> when i think about it, my entire house is used furniture. >> the second you buy it, right? >> no. they're called antiques. i just realized that. everything in my house is -- yeah, someone else owned this thing like hundreds of years ago. old used furniture, which is even stupider. >> what does it have to be, 25 years old to be an antique? >> well, what am i, them? well, all of us. >> you're a great antique. >> i'm a beader meyer. >> do you know what that is? >> yes. >> you do? so it's weird, the snow, they're even giving roads. if you're west of 287 you're going to -- it's weird the way they're doing it. >> and then there's another one

coming tuesday. yeah. >> oh, tuesday? >> yeah. >> no. >> oh, can we get him back? we need him back. >> is he still there? >> tuesday again? >> must be flying back. >> and then by 2100 dwb it's going to be 80 degrees everywhere. so we could get him back for that forecast, too. >> we'll talk to keith next time and get a better jut update on this. when we come back, more about the acquisition of the day. we are going to talk to an analyst who predicted comcast would make this prediction. also at 7:00, we have brian roberts and robert marcus, both our guests. more squawk right after this.

cisco's results are out. scott, last time he -- they definitely talked about emerging markets and they even alluded to nsa type backlash and -- but they said it wasn't material. in this latest one, what is the real fly in the ointment here for the forecast? can you tell? >> there's several things.

what we have is a company that has technology changing behind this business. we had the snowden effect is what it's affectionately called now. having an impact on the business in china and asia and we're starting to see signs in other areas, as well. so i think this is a business that is under a bit of pressure from several fronts. they are doing a -- an effective job at working to try to offset some of that pressure. but i think it's going to take time before we see -- before we see them come out on from under this. >> the snowden effect is reminding me of the weather almost. anybody can use it, right? you can't really put a finger on it. you can just sort of -- it's like this nebulous number. it's the snowden effect, too. a lot of companies would be envious of 11 billion in revenue and a quarter, though. this is still a pretty successful company, no? >> it's still a very viable company. this is a company that not more than about a decade ago, the

golden child of the internet. it's still a strong and growing company. the internet is going to have to re engineengineer their productp up with it. >> scientific atlanta, they've made more acquisitions than any company in the world almost. what do they need to do now? that's what got him to where they are now. what else do they need to do? >> it is cloud related. what we're seeing out there is a pretty aggressive shift in the cloud and it's probably just beginning. the ceo is likely to be a year where you look back and see a big change taking place in the industry. when you shift the cloud, the architecture needed there and the platforms to do that is a different style of equipment than cisco is used to producing

directly. so they're shifting their product strategy. they're shifting to work more with things. >> if any company can get traction with this stuff, it's going to be very good at sales. >> i'm going to start asking about the internet of things. so eventually everything is going to be tied together. sensors. there's going to be an internet of on everything tied together. is that what you mean by that? >> think about where we are today versus two dwreers ago. everyone has a tablet today. most people have a phone, if not two. even the coffee shot down the

street is connected wirelessly. we're connected to the internet in ways we haven't been before. it's going to require some changes in the way we build out that internet as a result. this encompasses lots of different areas, as well. we'll see changes to moves in wireless networks in medicine, we're going toitz in connected cars. we're going to see it in more wireless devices that we use every day. you've got smart watches, lots of things that are going to be coming out. all this load, all this data that's going to be coming out of the internet is going to need to be handled in a more scalable manner. that's where cisco is headed next. it's going to take a little bit of change, a little bit of adoption in new brothers, but they'll get there in time. >> what actual product are you -- is cisco involved in the software of this or they're involved in the hardware for the

actual backbone of this whole network? >> that's a good question. they're involved in the hardware, mostly. there is a software in that. cisco is going to strive for a higher margin business. but at the same time, they've been known to sell the hardware. and it's -- we wonder why -- i could apply to cisco, you know what i mean? for a job. and they would say what are your skills here to help us do what we're -- you see, people need to go to higher education in this world. what you just described to me, i wouldn't know where to -- i don't know. we need to get people -- we've got a lot of transitioning to do with our workforce, too, scott. >> by the way, can comcast skills, that might inspire more

sales. >> thanks, scott. coming one we're got a report from where the weather is nice. carl quintanilla is going to give us his olympic sized update from sochi along with an updated medal count. but first, media analyst rich greenfield made the call that time warner should have some patience and that comcast would snag this deal. he said it first. we're going to talk to him in a moment. snap thinking up game-changing ideas, like this: dozens of tax free zones across new york state. move here. expand here. or start a new business here... and pay no taxes for 10 years. with new jobs, new opportunities and a new tax free plan. there's only one way for your business to go. up. find out if your business can qualify at start-upny.com

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. good morning. welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm joe kernen along with becky

quick and andrew ross sorkin. among the stories that we're following today, the deadly storm that slammed the see the yesterday now making its way north. hundreds of thousands of people in georgia and the carolinas have lost power. and the national weather service has warned that storms down there could be of historic proportions. accumulations up to 12 inches are possible in the new york city area, even more in the suburbs. more than 4,500 flights scheduled for today have been canceled and the weather has postponed federal reserve chair janet yellen's congressional testimony that have been set for today. which i saw the entire. watching syracuse at the buzzer. he had -- they had, i think, six seconds, he ran down, threw it up and they had to look at it on the tape and see it.

>> march madness. >> it went to zero and it went through. >> guys, we have some breaking news. it's announced, the deal that we've been talking about all morning. the deal of the day is now officially announced, buying time warner cable in an all-stock deal. joining us now to break it down on the squawk news line, rich greenfield, good morning to you, rich. you called this early. a lot of people didn't think this was going to happen, that it would go charter's way. let's talk about from the investor perspective for a second. if you were john malone this morning, what do you think? >> i think sometimes the student in industry schools the teacher. i think this is a case where brian roberts did a major one upping of what is seen as the dean of the cable industry. but i think what you have to

keep in mind here is that time warner cable, having new york and l.a., you know, several million subscribers in the two most important cities in the country, this was a -- this is an unumbrellaed unique asset that was never going to come available for sale again. so this was kind of a once in a lifetime shot for brian. and comcast to get control of those two markets. and remember, brian roberts not only controls nbc, but he also is really focused on driving interactive advertising. hard to do that if you don't have new york and l.a. so it always made sense to us that they were going to want to make a run at this. they had the balance sheet. they had the wherewithal. unless they were worried about the regulatory, this is a deal they just had to have. >> let's talk about that for a second. and you're right about the national advertising form. some investers haven't focused on yet at all. one of the reasons na john malone may have thought he had this in the bag or didn't have competition was because of the

regulators. walk us through the issues as you see it in terms of how the regulators are going to look at this. >> well, you have to look at the growing competitive landscape, which is you've got national providers like, you know, directv and dish that have a national reach. you have increasingly national competitors in other industries. look at the wireless business. verizon is buying verizon wireless. verizon wireless has a national reach essentially for their video services. while those are not the same today as what cable delivers, those lines are blurring quickly as the business moves into broadband. you know, i think the reality is how you define the market is changing and remember, time warner doesn't compete with comcast in any single city. if anything, this makes -- you know, this will make time warner a better competitor to the other players like verizon. >> rich, as you know, i'm a

customer of time warner cable. >> so am i. >> so we will be beneficiaries of this. if you're a content company, though, you have to be crying in your soup this morning, no? >> look, this is going to create the largest multi channel provider, even if they have to sell a few subscribers, even if they agree to consent decree rules lake they did in the nbc deal. there's to doubt a 30 million subscriber company versus 20 million subscriber company is going to end up with better deals pup heard les moondez last night talking about retrend necessary 2020. you have to think about everybody who has been talking about what they could squeeze out of mvpds. this chax the tra jchanges the trajectories of those companies. >> do you think they ultimately get a pass from regulators? >> look, i think everyone will

take a very hard look at this. they think they can obviously get this done by tend of the year. >> where are you? handicap the regulators here. >> i think this has a very, very high chance of getting through. i think brian will simply have to agree to a long-term extension, meaning years and years extensions to consent decree issues that they had to do in the nbc deal. but at the end of the day, these are not companies that compete with each other unless you're going to tell directv that they can't surpass a certain number of subscribers. very importantly for your viewers, there was a 0% cap that used to be on the cable industry. that was taken down by the courts twice. there is no 30% cap. even if there is a mythical 30% cap, there is a multi channel households in the u.s. right now. it would be very easy for 30 million to sell a few subscribers. rich, if i'm reed hastings of

netflix or if i'm tim cook who supposedly wanted to get into the tv business or i'm a kid in the garage who thinks that they have the next big content business, what do they think? >> you know, the reality is you may fear net neutrality abuses. the reality is there's a lot in the guts of the internet that is preventing you from getting the best quality experience. fearing an internet connection or a few issues that wheeler has identified as being very significant -- the experience that you realize when you're watching netflix at home in the evenings, the experience you get is driven by how the companies like comcast, how time warner -- >> i'm with time warner cable, so the experience is awful. but that's a separate issue. >> it's how those companies deal with all the interconnections that occur within the interpret. i know you don't personally care

about that, but it's what drives your ultimate experience. those peering and internet connections is really the issue that has to get worked out. that's an issue for comcast, that's an issue for time warner. in fact, based on recent netflix data, you get a better experience with time warner than you do with comcast on average. that may be hard to believe, but that's the truth. >> oh, don't tell me that. rich, thank you for your perspective this morning. we appreciate you being on the program. hopefully we'll talk to you about this again soon. coming up at the top of the hours, we've got comcast chief brian roberts and time warner chief rob marcus. they're both going to join us as special guests to talk about this transition. still to come this morning, we get a snapshot of the global markets after the u.s. equity markets put the brakes on that recent winning streak yesterday anterior at least mixed markets. nasdaq did okay yesterday. today is a day to just stay home and watching "squawk box" all morning long. look at that snow. you don't want to go out there. that can wait. we've got big deals, big

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welcome back, everybody. you can see right now futures are indicated down by about 70 points fout dow futures. s&p off by about 8 points below fair value. joining uts right now to talk more about the markets is daniel morris. he is tia press managing director and global investment strategist. and dan, you look at what's been happening with the markets, there was a lot of concern and things kind of came back.

we have had some weak numbers. >> it's healthy, frankly, that we have pulled back a bit because you couldn't keep the same trajectory. >> but we've retraced most of the losses we've come back. >> right. so i think we look at how things might be over the next several months. i think a lot of this is the adjustment to tapering. it's going to take a while for investors to see what's the impact on the economy, what's the impact on earnings? as it happens, i think we're going to see some volatility. net-net, flattish to up, but not a real sustained trend until we get a better indication of how the economy is going to go. >> and your gut tells you what, this is a head fake or this is a slowdown? >> we don't see it as a slowdown. we think there's not going be a problem with the economy at all. so it's just going to take a while for people to kind of see that in the numbers because there's a lot of uncertainty. >> so he would be telling people to buy on these dips because you

think the markets will be up by the end of the year? >> yes. >> and what kind of gains do you expect this year? we've got 30% gains last. >> probably more likely high single digits. total return i think would be pretty good. >> and as an alternative, what other areas would you tell people to watch? this is the best equity play if you're still looking at it balancing out. >> well, you need to keep an eye on emerging markets. this is the time that you want to be going in because valuations are attractive. but if you the look at the value of the portfolio, i think it will be over the course of this year that people are going to want to reallocate to emerging market equities. and once earnings turn, then it's going to be, i think, a real potential for that market to rally. >> you can't look at the emerging markets as one market, though. these are a lot of individual markets. you think there are some areas that are safer than others? >> well, safety is more difficult to come by these days because of the global

macroeconomics. >> less risky. >> yeah. less risky. very right to turn to the region. it's very important when you talk about valuation. whether that is good or bad, that's another question. so on i think it is a matter of understanding what the dynamics are in the different regions and thinking about what's going to be the driver of earnings growth. would he have this traditional model of it being driven by commodity demand or by exports to the west. you know, is that model still viable? maybe, maybe not. still trying to look at internal domestic demand. but that's in the context of rising interest rates because they have to defend currencies in a lot of cases. >> i've been told repeatedly if you're going to play the emerging markets, you should not only do it at funds directed at the emerging markets because the margin usually for the mutual fund company or the bank that's offering the mutual fund is so much higher than trying to play it through either u.s. multi national or some other form, but the actual funds themselves that's sort of a lousy way to do it. do you agree with that? >> well, i think you always have this debate about if you want to

get exposure to emerging markets, should you do it by buying directly emerging markets. i think people want to think about how -- they want to maximize their exposure but in a way that makes sense with the portfolio. emerging market growth was down with nestle. so it comes down to where you think you're going to be able to tackle and more the drivers of growth more than necessarily what the differences might be in the margins. >> yellen's speech got put off today. we'll hear from her tomorrow in the senate. in the short-term, the market looked at what she said to the house earlier this week and said this is really a dove. she's really going to be there to support us. is that the right view? >> i think that probably wouldn't be the best interpretation. i think what we want to hear and be convinced is the case is we know what the path is going to be like for tapering. they're unlikely to daefate from it. i think what's been difficult about adapting to qe3 is before with one and two, we knew when it was going to stop and it did.

three was infinity. we've now stepped back from infinity and we think an end and i think we want to stay on that path. don't scare the horses. i think that's probably the most important thing the fed can do in terms of communication more than necessarily giving a dovish impression. >> i like that. don't scare the horses. they do scare. >> yeah. we've seen that. >> dan, thank you very much for coming in today. coming up, i'm focused on something we're going to have to talk about. we don't have chairs any more, but you know the hope for man kind has always been harnessing fusion, the power of the sun. and fleischmann and ponds, we thought we had cold fusion for a while, the reaction generated more heat than you put into it. scientists made a huge advance yesterday and got more out than they put in. and you're talking about just putting hydrogen together to make helium. an endless supply of clean energy that you've never -- and

they were successful. it's coming late and there's -- it's hard to do, but they've succeeded. this is -- >> so we're talking about all this other stuff. how about "time" magazine with quantum? >> quantum leap, the tv show? >> no. quantitiup physics. it's a longer story. coming up, the story of the morning, comcast buying time warner cable. comcast chief brian roberts and time warner cable rob marcus will be with us at 7:00. first, carl, is going to tell us what he has coming up from sochi. i have some things for you today, carl, to look at. >> because i've got some things for you. how about that? >> i've always got something for you. you know that. anyway -- >> when we come back, joe, we've made some progress on the on medal count and we'll get you up to speed on that. and an amazing night of snowboarding here in sochi where it is warmer today than most of the continental united states. "squawk box" continues live from

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welcome back, everybody. the dow was down, nasdaq higher. this morning, the nasdaq is down

about 73 points below fair value. s&p futures are off by 8 1/2. >> the snow is coming down, but the weather is spring like in sochi this morning. carl quintanilla joining us now and looking even more gq than looked yesterday. carl, by the way, we should say your video yesterday of the vodka, the hangover, is that done? are you good? >> i'm okay. i managed to ski yesterday, as you know. everything worked out there. people are saying welcome to the sochi summer games. 63 degrees today. it's going to be 65 tomorrow. people have stopped tweeting about the weather here. it elicits anger from you guys on the eastern seaboard where it's obviously very tough. we do market with a gold and women's snowboarding. kaila farington was the half pipe winner, a big surprise.

she didn't even qualify directly for the final. she had to compete in the semis to advance. sdpsh has a great story, guys. she grew up on a ranch in idaho where her family raised cattle. when her family needed money for training, her dad would literally sell part of his live stoke piece by piece, head by head, to support her training. and we asked her about some of the sacrifices that her family has made. >> when i was going -- started coming up and getting in bigger contests, my family would have to sell a cow every time i would need to go somewhere. that's what supported my snowboarding and got me here. >> congratulations to her. the russians, meantime, continued to deliver on some high profile events. i don't know if you saw figure skating last night. in the pairs program, volosozhar and trankov, this is their second gold medals of these games. i love this, to win on their

home ice since 1936 and an incredible reaction there, wow, when they finished. an amazing night for figure skating last night, especially for the russians. metal count is pretty good, guys. we were tied for first until a couple moments ago. norway now has 13. we have 12. canada 10. netherlands 10 and russia has nine. finally tonight we'll get some more good events. slope style skiing, women's cross-country skiing and speed skate after shani davis finished eighth. the first time we haven't had an american on the podium for speedskate since 1988. a lot going on and a big day of hockey still ahead. >> carl, what i have for you is video of me skiing, number one, like about 20 seconds of that. and then i have a picture of one of my dogs that i think i want to set up with zarah.

i want to set her up with lucky. lucky is a boy, right? >> he is. i'm not sure how he's going to perform, shall we say. >> she's a full figured gal. >> okay on. >> i don't know -- we're going to have to approach this delicately. but lucky tries to get it done, right? right? he's a dog. that's all you need to say. >> there might be be any puppies in our future, but i think zarah is going to wear the pants. let's put it that way. >> she doesn't now. but we'll have more on that and some skiing. you can't tell how steep things are on these videos. you've got a monitor, right? >> yeah. i see it. let's go. i'm ready. >> no, we're going to do it in the seven. it's a tease. >> back in the next hour, all right? >> okay. all right. sounds good. >> carl, we'll check in with you in just a little bit. when we come back, pepsi co.is expected to roll out results in a few minutes. hugh johnson will join us in a

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through rain, sleet, snow and dark of night, you cannot stop the deal making. comcast ainquiring time warner cable in a mega deal. we'll talk about this connection, next. the wicked weather has reached our door. after creating havoc in the south, the ice and snow is now hitting the northeast. the ceo of generac will talk to us about keeping lights on. another cnbc first 25 face-off, the contenders, former fed chairman ben bernanke taking

on mario draghi. what will win? we'll let the viewers decide. "squawk box" begins right now. let's get back to our top story, comcast to buy time warner cable in a mega deal. the key players, comcast chairman and ceo brian roberts, time warner cable ceo and chairman robert marcus. and david faber, not ceo of anybody. did he break the story last night. ceo of news breaking. he's been following the cable drama. nice work, buddy. >> we are here at 30 rock in midtown. you've become familiar with this place. we sat down with jeff immel. when i first reported comcast's interest in potentially

acquiring time warner cable, i had the caveat which said it's unlikely because there's concern amongst comcast executives of what the fcc would require comcast to do should it actually pursue a full acquisition. you don't want to sign another consent decree, for example, is what many people had been telling me. why have you chosen to go ahead with this deal, given many people had been telling me you were at least unsure whether, from that perspective, it was the right move for comcast? >> well, david, we wouldn't be doing this if we didn't think we would get it approved. we spent a love of time thinking about it. it's a special transaction for time warner and comcast, for shareholders, employees and mostly our customers. we'll be able to bring better products, faster internet, more channels, on demand, tv everywhere. and a national local platform that's really special. so we're optimistic we can get

this approved. >> when you say pro competitive, what will be the argument you can make on that? >> let's talk first of all, the new products, the xfinitc products have momentum, customers are buying them in our markets. we are able to, we speeded up the internet 12 times in 12 years. we now have over 50,000 shows on demand. it's an x-1 entertainment operating system is in the clouds. the first company in the world to do it. we have the scale to bring those products to new york, los angeles, many other markets. secondly, all of our competitors are national, directv, dish network. cable is an older system that's local. in the new world with business services, a market that's growing and we're the new entrant. we are able to go offer cross-regional fiber connections to businesses in markets where we didn't operate, like, new york if you were coming from north jersey.

there's a lot of benefits. there's things such as the horizontal ownership cap that the fcc used to have of 30%. no multichannel video company had more than 30%. >> no longer exists. >> it was vacated by the courts twice. this transaction, we don't compete. we're not in the same markets or same zip codes with time warner. there's no overlap. there's no reduction of competition. we're just able to bring better products to their markets. but what we've said today is that we're prepared to divest up to 3 million customers, which will bring our new company combined below 30%, even though that 30% was vacated by the courts. ten years ago when we bought at&t, broadband and adelphia, we were at about the same number. in ten years all that intensified video competition and other competition brings us right back to where we were ten years ago. >> i have many questions of

course. i want to get back to my colleagues. >> content companies, if you're les moonves, what are you supposed to think? netflix, how were you supposed to consider this transaction? >> mine cut out. i heard the question, an draw. i'll try to do it. i find this issue of programmers somehow being disadvantaged by the combination to be somewhat ironic given what we as mvpds, multichannel video providers have experienced over the last five it ten years. i don't think we have to worry at all about programmers defending themselves here. >> one of the things this transaction allows is about $1.5 billion worth of synergies. that's mostly because we don't

have any overlap in our markets. we're able to reduce some of the overhead, some of the duplication where we both have to produce guides and network operations. the vast majority of that synergy that makes this deal -- in the first year when you exclude the deal transaction expenses, the vast majority of that is not coming from program savings. >> to andrew's point, though, you know the programmers are going to start to scream why not. it gives them an opportunity. they've won the battle seemingly between cable and con ten or distribution and content. nonetheless -- by the way, i'm interviewing leslie moonves later on cnbc. when they say too much market power, too much market power, too much market power. >> there's going to be a thorough review. i don't think that's the case.

there's over four, in many cases five video markets, selling their services. it's a competitive business. time warner had some very public battles and it's a balance that needs to be struck between operators and distributors and content companies to bring consumers what they want. i think this transaction will help speed up the technological innovation, really bring new products. we don't overlap and i think it's under 30%. >> i know joe has a question. >> i'm going to go through you, faber. this is a unique opportunity to ask brian something i'm afraid to ask him. you'll be the one doing the asking. >> of course we're having trouble with the chairman and ceos audio, yes. >> it will be from -- actually i wanted your opinion on this, too, david. did brian rob erts get the bettr

of john malone here? it made sense for the world that there should be cost saving or is he going, foiled again by brian roberts. what do you think he's feeling? >> great question. rob has heard it and is smiling. joe's question is simply, you seem to have bested john malone, somebody you have known for many, many years, of course. what's he feeling today? is he happy because there's consolidation or is he unhappy because, of course, charter and liberty is 27% shareholder wanted to own time warner cable? >> i think you'd have to ask john. but he's built a wonderful company and ultimately we studied many different iterations of what was right for comcast, what was right for time warner. this transaction feels special. will allow our company to go. we'll be able to divest some

customers. we're happy to talk to john or anybody else about that opportunity. but at the same time, ultimately we have to look at what's right for comcast. the thing that compelled me was when you take out the billion and a half synergies, we're paying about 6.6 times cash flow to buy premiere markets and a premiere company. that's because of the synergies. when you look at that, that may be the most attractive acquisition we've done. >> sounds to me like he's getting the better of you. why are you selling it only 6.6 times, rob? >> i spoke to you a couple weeks ago. i've said something i've been saying for months now. my primary objectives have been maximized value for shareholders and put ourselves in a position to deliver great experiences to our customers. this transaction accomplishes both of those objectives. if you're looking at the world through the lens of winners and losers, i think the customers are a big winner here. and time warner cable

shareholders are big winners here's today. >> it was only two weeks ago you unveiled a significant new plan, if you will, for time warner cable to create a great deal of value. what changed in these two weeks since you and i were on our air discussing that plan and 132 from charter was no way sufficient? >> i think i've been consistent on this one. plan "a" like most management teams for us was run the business as best we can, execute on our operating plan and maximize shareholder value by doing that. but always, as stewards of investors capital be open to alternative ways of maximizing shareholder value. i have no doubt this transaction presents a maximization of shareholder opportunity for us. >> you said 160. do you think stock will go up by the way? >> i have no idea. we think for the long term. that's how we built comcast. we've been disciplined.

we are announcing it's our intention at the close of the transaction to ask our board to increase the authorization of $10 million of stock buyback. we're confident we can execute. one of the thing we've done over the years is integrate well, do it in at&t broadband and other cable acquisitions. the opportunity under neil smith's leadership. we added positive subscribers, had one of the best years we've ever had last year in 2013. to build on that momentum, integrate a company is wonderful as time warner cable and really then be able to see where this industry goes and help lead it, this is a very special day for our company. >> brian, though, you talk about the long material. of course you have built this company for that. i'm sure you're thinking many years down the road. some look at the current environment in cable and they see people pulling out video, for example, broadband considered to be the key product. growth has slowed if not stopped

entirely when it comes to video subs. time warner cable lost a number of them over the last year. why do this deal when you could expand internationally, expand in content and conceivably you're putting yourself in a larger position in what seems to be a weakening industry? >> first of all, it is a competitive business. anyone that doesn't realize that, you know, you're absolutely right. it's hard. we're working every day to convince customers to buy our products and you have to improve those products. to find a deal with this kind of synergy that can be accretive in the first year, a majority of them, that's unusual. that's because -- that's why we did a stock for stock deal. we're in the same industry. we just don't operate in the same markets. the business is a wonderful business. yes, video has matured. people want their content on every device, on every platform whenever they want it.

just the olympics, in breadth of context, it's not just one channel anymore as we know. there's real changes. at the same time, broadband, with wi-fi and the fastest broadband connectivities and going to small, medium sized businesses and targeted advertising the smart home of the future, those things more than offset the maturation of the video business and the competitiveness. so as long as you invest in your network, have the best products, we think it's going to be a great business. and in this case, you know, what rob said for his shareholders is also true for the comcast shareholders. we found a way to find a win/win outcome. >> in terms of the calculus in doing this transsactiaction as opposed to another one, what is the breakup fee and how did you think about that issue? >> sure. naturally when you evaluate a transaction you take into account both the transaction itself and the probability it

will in fact be completed. in our estimation here is that this transaction will clear regulatory hurdles and be completed. so when you take that and you couple it with the fact that the value being offered was very close to $160 a share, and we think the long term value creation opportunity is even greater than that, for us this was a clear decision. >> rob, what is the breakup fee? >> there is no breakup fee. >> there's none? wow. >> you guys are going to the mat on this all the way on regulatory, correct? >> well, we have the same closing expectations of every other cable transaction. so we have a -- we'll certainly try to make our case and we think we can make a credible and, i think, constructive case and we're hopeful we can get this deal approved. we wouldn't have done it if we didn't think so. >> i hope i get the same permissions joe kernen has when my cable is not working, brian, given you will now become my provider in new york city.

>> hopefully brian will take as good care of you as we have. >> thank you. >> discount on triple play i've been offered. that was by burke, actually. you're in good shape, faber. >> this is good. >> this could be good. coming up next, that was a fascinating conversation. coming up next -- >> there was no discount. >> the beverage and snack giant rolling out quarterly results just moments ago. we talk to the ceo first on cnbc. keeping the lights on when the weather is wicked. the ceo of generac is going to tell us if business is booming right now. back in a moment. get a leg up on the trading day with the morning "squawk" newsletter. go to squawk.cnbc.com and sign up now. morning "squawk" is a snapshot of the day's top stories, guests and some fun water cooler stories that we'll be xasquawki

about all morning long. sign up and get morning squawk delivered in your inbox every weekday. "squawk box" on cnbc, profit from it. there's a saying around here, you stand behind what you say. around here you don't make excuses. you make commitments. and when you can't live up to them, you own up, and make it right. some people think the kind of accountability that thrives on so many streets in this country has gone missing in the places where it's needed most. but i know you'll still find it when you know where to look.

the dow will open 47 points

down, nasdaq will open down as well. the s&p 500 would open off about 6 points as well. let's recap the deal of the morning. comcast buying time warner cable. the all-stock transaction is worth roughly $159 a share and would make the largest cable network in the nation. pepsico announced a new five-year $5 billion productivity program. joining us right now to talk more about it, from purchase new york, hugh johnston, pepsi's chief financial officer. it's great to have you here this morning. thank you. >> thanks, becky. good morning. great to be here. we're excited to publish results today. >> these are better than expected numbers. what happened that the street wasn't expecting? >> i think it's a variety of things. i think the company is performing really well the portfolio we worked on is

working both from a product and from a geographic perspective. we've become more productive over time. we're driving more cash out of the business. in addition to the strong results, our long-term guidance we announced 2014 in line with and in addition to that, our cash return to shareholders will be up 35% which we're particularly excited about. >> some of the cash returns, lets talk about some of the packages. you also talked about how you'll be doing $5 billion in share repurchases, a 67% increase from the prior year. you're increasing your annualized dividend by 15%. you're able to give more cash back to investors because? >> well, really, if you look at it over the last couple of years, the cash generation of the business has increased pretty substantially. we found ways to use capital expenditures more efficiently and our working capital investment is down. we're convinced it's permanent. as a result of that we thought it was appropriate to deliver that cash to shareholders, both

in the form of dividend and share repurchase. we think that shareholders will receive that very, very well today. >> let's talk about two things. first up that $5 billion productivity program, what is that? >> it really is a continuation of what we've been doing here for a long time. we're actually this year in 2014 just finishing our prior three-year $3 billion program. that was very much the result of a lot of investments that we've made and information technology. we're stepping that up even further as we built capability in the company to look across the organization globally. both in terms of the way we manufacture products and distribute products. we think that we can continue that billion dollar a year program for another five years. so, again, we're becoming more and more efficient while we're driving the top line and we're freeing up money to invest in innovation and invest in our brand. we really have a dynamic cycle working in the company right now which is what makes the performance so heartening. we think it could continue for quite a period of time.

>> one of the things you say, you expect inflation for 2014 to be low single digits for commodities. that's interesting because there are some concerns about what's happening right now, if we could be set for hyperinflation at some point because of what central banks have done. do you think about that at all, worry about it? >> we look at it quite a bit. when you have a portfolio of 200 countries you have the ability to balance these things out quite well. we also have a program where we forward buy on commodities. by the time we get to this point in year, we have line of sight of what to expect from commodities. the good news on that is it gives us the ability to price effectively before we get too far into the year as well. we've done that. >> i know you're a global company but you're somebody who has a good idea of what's been happening in the united states. there have been questions about the economy. what have you seen in terms of what people are purchasing? >> i think for the most part, what we see is a gradual

strengthening in the economy. the good news for us in the u.s. is our businesses run anywhere from value businesses to premium businesses. we've had innovation this year. we've had six $100 million new products launched over the past year. and as the economy strengthens, consumers are willing to pay for those products and innovation. it does give us the ability to launch premium products into the marketplace. >> very quickly, we've spoken with indra in the past, though. she has talked about how pepsi can see things, when the job market is not great, it shows up in terms of whether or not people will buy soda for their lunch. have you seen any of that with the weakness we've seen, the last couple of labor reports? >> we really haven't. what we see right now is a continued gradual strengthening in the economy. emphasis on gradual. we're cautious. we take a conservative posture as we walked into the year. it's a volatile uncertain world. we do see a gradual strengthening in the u.s. economy and we're generally

feeling pretty good. >> thank you very much for joining us. great talking to you. >> thanks. appreciate it. >> coming up, the latest from sochi from skiing to snowboarding, from curling to hockey. from german shepherds to chihuahuas. carl quintanilla will join us to take a look at who's carrying the lead for the quest for gold. when you see lead, it could be lead. what is that called, a homomyn, andrew? and pants and boots and pants♪ ♪and boots and pants... voice-enabled bill pay. just a tap away on the geico app. ♪ huh, 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. yup, everybody knows that. well, did you know that some owls aren't that wise. don't forget about i'm having brunch with meagan tomorrow. who?

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welcome back to "squawk box." take a look at the futures right now. we have red arrows with the dow looking like it's opening down about 48 points. the s&p 500 down about 6 points, nasdaq down 15 points. not great on the day when we have a mega deal. comcast looks like it's up today. >> we are off the weakest levels of the morning. >> true. >> comcast does not look up. comcast looks down 54.40 to 54.98. >> it was looking up 20 minutes ago. >> i told you that it's now

trading lower. you knew i had told you that. >> we'll continue to watch. markets do bounce around. the wicked weather stretching from atlanta to new york. 500,000 people without power. more expected to be at risk before the storm is done. we of generac. he'll talk to us about the business of keeping the lights on when your utility can't. "squawk box" will be right back. ameriprise asked people a simple question: can you keep your lifestyle in retirement? i don't want to think about the alternative. i don't even know how to answer that. i mean, no one knows how long their money is going to last. i try not to worry, but you worry.

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welcome back to "squawk box." 7:30 on the east coast. nbc universal parent comcast buying time warner cable in a 45.2 billion dollar stock deal worth just under $159 per share. the deal coming after months of a long battle in which cable operator charter communications had been trying to buy time warner cable. we spoke to comcast ceo brian roberts just moments ago. >> it's a really special transaction for both time warner cable and for comcast, its employees, and customers. we'll bring more channels, on

demand, tv everywhere on a local/national platform that's really special. >> take a look at where those shares are atrading ahead of the market open, comcast, 53.75. take a quick look at time warner cable. that's gone up, obviously $148. i will also say the big surprise for me in that interview, no breakup fee is unbelievable. it is almost as if comcast has a free option to buy this company. i find that remarkable. if you're a comcast shareholder you have to be thrilled about that. i don't understand why time warner -- >> why is the stock down? don't use google quotes. you have it right here. >> that is correct. the broad market is down, you could talk about the dilusion

issue. >> it was up $3 or $4 when we first talked about it. in the morning it was up that much. it did close higher that day. >> comcast stuck has run, even in the past two days, back up. >> it's up from 24 a couple years ago. >> right. let's talk about the snow and the freezing rain. it's been crippling travel. grounding flights and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of people. let's get the latest from david malakhov and the weather channel. he joins us with more from atlanta. david? >> becky, this will be the iconic destruction of this ice storm here in atlanta. the historic craigie house in the piedmont park area is gone. let me step out of the way so we can see the destruction by the ice that built up on top of the roof last night. it came down and the whole building crumbled, almost like a bomb went off inside the building, the owner said. this is a building from 1911.

it's been here for a century. and it has been the home for the daughters the american revolution. it has survived a big tree that fell on it in '80s. it survived the wrecking ballast year when the owner bought it. now it is gone. the iconic destruction right here tells the of you how much ice came down in metro atlanta last night. throughout the entire region here in the south, we have 500,000 people, more than that, 560,000 people without power. power crews going down the street right now to put up those power lines and cut down the trees that have been accumulated with all of the ice. this storm, now moves up towards washington, d.c. where it is dumping snow and shutting down parts of the federal government today right here in atlanta. the state government and the local government, the schools, everything is closed right now.

a lot of people stayed home and took a snow day, joe. >> all right, david, the power's out, you said in quite a few homes. i don't -- we're going to go to generac which makes these natural gas generators that turn on automatically. i was going to say there hasn't been much power at this point on the east coast. the last two years. we had irene. we had sandy. >> weeks at a time. >> i don't know if our guest aaron, do you think he knew the whole country was going to be ripe for -- i don't think he knew atlanta was going to need generators. aaron jagdfeld, the ceo of generac. they reported earnings $1.11 a share. the stock is up, it's indicated, aaron, up about $4. 49. 89 is the close. indicated 53.50.

tell us about the quarter that just ended but also comment on, is suddenly the entire country ripe for a generac generator? now atlanta needs generac generators because we're going to have snow down there? >> it's been a tough winter. there's a lot of people that could use our product in the southeast today. for us for the fourth quarter we came in stronger, actually our home standby business was the driver there. it's been a remarkable product category, really just -- it's frankly pretty new over the last decade. people are finding that the grid is unreliable and they need a product like that. >> who knows why the grid will be unreliable. i don't want to be a fear monger but people wish us ill. they like to attack target. i mean, i'm sure they're thinking about attacking the grid at some point, too. i don't know what's going to cause the power to go down but if you can afford it, you don't want to stand in line for gasoline for one of those generators that run for six hours, right? >> yes. you bring up a good point.

we've always talked about mother nature driving what we do on the residential side. last april in california there was a high voltage substation that was knocked out by, people are calling it a terrorist attack. >> they snuck in. they didn't catch any of them. >> yes, they snuck in. they cut the communications. they took basically i think 100 rounds of shots at 19 transformers over a 20-minute period and this is a transformer that feeds silicon valley. stuff like that, they think maybe that was a dry run for something bigger. hopefully not but that's the kind of stuff you have to have a backup plan. that's where a product like this comes in handy. >> what has happened with sales, aaron? we know in this area because of what happened with sandy, power being out for over a week for a lot of people that that did promote sales here but what about the rest of the country? >> yes, actually we've seen increases in every single region of the country. we look back at 2013. again, i think that speaks to the fact that this is a product category that has 3% penetration

of homes. you're not talking about moving the needle a whole lot to have a big impact. every region of the country, there's 250,000 people every day in this country without power. you get the big events leak a sandy, the ice storms and what not that cause widespread grid damage but it's the every day kind of garden variety outages that i think are what people are concerned about, as the grid ages, basically it's failing. there's a lot of that testics that show this and power outages are on the rise. they have been for the last 20 years. that's federal government data that you can see on that. and we think we're in the right place at the right time with the product category we're in. >> hurricanes knocked down power, too. it doesn't have to be snow obviously. who's your competitor here? someone told me about another -- is it a kohler? what's the advantage to yours, to kohler?

>> our products are -- there's a couple advantages. first of all we have a lot of different options for people. when you look at different buildings, a business or a home, not every building or structure has the same backup type of need. the breadth of our product line gives us a huge advantage. we have pricing advantages but it's our support network. we have over 5,000 dealers servicing the product. that's what you want. if you're a homeowner and spend the money on a product like this, you want to make sure if you need service you have someone available. that's a key advantage. >> i didn't bring up the possibility of a zombie apocalypse, obviously. that's always in the back of my mind. >> gee, i wonder why. >> have you made -- i've asked i don't you in the past, are you working on quieter generators? nothing is going to attract zombies quicker than a loud generator. are you making progress there? >> yes. you asked about this before, joe. we introduced a new product.

at the international builders show just last week we introduced the quietest generator in the marketplace. >> it has to be really quiet. >> you can have a conversation like we're having over the top of that generator. it's extremely quiet. >> all right. aaron, thanks for playing along. i appreciate it. don't miss the talking dead this sunday. >> sunday night. >> sunday night. >> 10:00 p.m. and time, is that right? >> yes. >> 10:00 p.m. -- >> no, "walking dead" 9:00 p.m. "talking dead" is at 10:00 p.m. >> i'm promoting you. >> promote me, thank you. >> 10:00 p.m. eastern time with our friend, chris. >> on that other network. we have more to bring you. an update from sochi and two cnbc contenders, two financial meltdowns, two central bankers, two different monetary policies. ben bernanke faces off against mario draghi, we have that when

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that's my biggest nightmare. we're going high def on monday. >> i wonder if carl was hoping for high def? it was created for carl. carl quintanilla joins us from the games. >> i'm terrified. >> the mere make-up is going to change, joe. it's going to be a new world for you. the last hour we told you about ka katelyn farrington winning gold. we have the gold medalist from salt lake 2002. kelly clark is the most olympic decorated ski boarder. she fell on the 720 but came back and pulled a more complicated move, the 1080.

we asked her how she was so bold to do that? >> i knew i could land that run. first run in the contest, to come back, last competitor, come back to make it to the podium is a huge victory for me. >> match of the day is definitely going to be men's hockey, guys, the first look at the men's team versus slovakia. slovakia has zacharo. he is so big, guys, as he walks around olympic park people are taking their photo with him as if he's andre the giant. he's like a spectacle here in sochi. the men's hockey team for the u.s., they're staying in the olympic village, something the nba players did not do in london. they stayed at a special hotel. not the case with the hockey

guys. >> okay, carl, we'll have different make-up. i don't need make-up, i need a surgeon fob high def. bob eubanks got work done. >> who does your haircut? you get your haircut in the green room, right? you might ask them if they have a scalpel. >> here's how we're going to look on monday all of us. >> put up that shot. >> that looks good. that's what i was saying. >> going back to your ski tape yesterday, when you fell, i complimented you. i thought you looked pretty good. had you already drank the four shot when you fell? >> no. they weren't related but it's funny you bring that up. i happen to have some video of my own. there's me, yes, obviously in sochi yesterday. but i have some video of you, joe, falling as well. i have video of andrew falling, too. i don't know why i didn't have

this ready yesterday. >> i fall big-time here. it hurts. my knee. >> that hurts a lot more -- >> is that you, sorkin? >> there's me. >> oh, my god. >> you fell and you went oh, my gosh. my leg. >> pretty much. >> because you look like that hurts. >> carl. >> check out my actual skiing, though. you con see your slope looked flat. you cannot tell. this is the women's world cup run. and you cannot tell how steep that is there. that doesn't look that bad, does it? t. looks like he took a shot of the double black diamonds and then went on a green. >> no, no, no, no, no. that is the downhill course at beaver creek. >> that's pretty good. you're cutting into the mountain there, joe. >> i had to cut into it and pilot my ski. that's what my instructor told

me. don't be a passenger. >> when you're on the bunny slope. he takes a picture next to that and then he goes on the bunny slope. >> that was the actual slope right there. >> i got a lot of grief for not wearing a helmet. we didn't have time to get one. you should wear one, yes. >> you can't tell. >> it was an argument to get you to wear a helmet, too. >> you have to wear a helmet. >> i look dorky in a hat. might as well wear a helmet. >> as joe likes to do, becky, stir the pot. >> that's what it's all about, right? >> i've been known to do that. i'm going to stir it with lucky next time we get a chance. lucky and zahra sitting in a tree k-i-s-s-i-n-g. we'll pull that all together. >> put them together and see what comes out.

what kind of mutant freak dog would that be? >> didn't they have a super bowl commercial about this? >> they did. we get a stepladder involved. she's a lot of woman, carl. there's my bitch, right there. >> talk about skiering the pot. carl, we'll see you in just a little bit. >> back from the brink. which central banker did a better job at saving the respective economies? >> do you know what you get when you cross a bulldog and a shih tzu? >> yes, some bs. a top 25 face-off, right after this. airlines battling tough weather conditions, will it hit the stock? plus, neel kashkari will join us for a special interview.

cnbc compiling a list of the 25 greatest influencers in business over the past quarter century. who should make the list? we've been batting that around this table for the past week or two now. today though we have a face-off for you. the battle of the central banking big wigs, sara eisen

will be making the case for mario draghi and steve liesman to argue for ben bernanke. kick it off. >> it's always easy to argue with steve. draghi is a hero. he single handedly saved wrurp from imploding, before he came on the scene and took a number of steps to fight the crisis. here's what did he, he dug deep in his tool kit, innovated and moved quickly, cutting interest rates. remember the money he infused to the banks. and the real genius moment came with the omt, it's a lot of alphabet soup. it was a program in which the ecb could buy bonds in an unlimited amount, countries could sign up for this. here's the kicker. they had to accept conditions, strict fiscal rules that was the key psychology from the markets. he never had to use it. the mere idea of it was enough to calm. the fact that the ecb was going to be a backstop in the markets.

perhaps his greatest trick, though, just uttering those magic words. we all remember them. whatever it takes. mario draghi said i will do whatever it takes to save the euro. that was back in july 2012 when everything was chaotic in europe and it looked very, very ugly. those words marked the bottom of the crisis. you see it on the euro, financial markets bottomed out. europe turned a corner. really, another huge major victory for mario draghi comes in the politics. steve will tell you bernanke saved the world, putting in place a number of tools. mario draghi had to deal with 17 different governments, 17 different prime ministers, 17 different par lips, late-night meetings, base fights and angela merkel backed him up. he tamed the politicians and that's perhaps the real skill and grace when it comes to mario

draghi. you're a bright and talented reporter, so i find it hard to understand how you could possibly give the award to the imitator, rather than the originator. it's like you're picking a clone pcmaker over bill gates. there's considerable debate over what ben bernanke did in the face of the deepest financial crisis since the great depression. his lasting effect on the world economy and central banking probably forever. they'll be saying bernanke, not draghi. with markets in free fall, ber behnke created massive free stops. never existed before. he brings the interest rate down to 0 from 5.25%. he got creative again, buying government bonds and mortgages to drive down interest rates. when the economy still didn't generate enough growth, he bought trillions of more bonds

and found a new tool, forward guidance in which he pledged to keep rates low for years. he restored growth, they never meeting his forecast for a robust recovery. he helped bring down the unemployment rate but millions of americans remain un and underemployed. critics complained he bailed out wall street. no one would dispute the fed's $4 trillion balance sheet that he's passed on to his successor. >> he was the -- he set the new standard into basing the currency. it hasn't been to base yet, it still could be. you think it's hard when -- >> that's pd. you think it's hard to open the spigot full bore? what did volcker do? that's what's hard, raising interest rates when you need to slow an economy. just being accommodative and giving everyone all they want? here, take as much -- print as much as we can. >> you get an institution like the fed. >> i'm with you, sara.

i'll take draghi. at least he tried. >> i appreciate that. at least he tried not to beggar thigh neighbor. >> a slam dunk for bernanke. >> you disagree with what bernanke did. >> that's fine. that's fine. >> he set new standrd as in dumping money into the system with his helicopter. >> you're saying he set new standards. >> he gets a rogue award of notoriety. >> this is about who was more influential. i will be with steve that everything after bernanke is derivati derivative. >> that's true. >> that's actually not true. >> hold on. sarah -- >> it's not true. if you look at the monetary policy innovations that draghi put in to calm the markets and satisfy politicians it was brand new playbook. also, mario draghi wears skinny ties. he's way better dressed than ben bernanke. >> he said new standards in

turning money. way to go. thanks. >> thanks. >> pick online, this head-to-head, cnbc.com/25 cast your votes. we'll be right back as we debate this right here. life expectancy in the u.s., real estate in hong kong, and the optics industry in germany? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one reason over 75% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing.

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two major dockets, the forecast and comcast. winter weather is here again. updates, who will get hit the hardest and when the power will be turned back on. and comcast striking a deal to buy time warner. >> you might want to put on a bathing suit because you'll be channel surfing in no time. could this deal spark more consolidation in the secretarier? we'll find out as the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now. >> i don't remember this music. >> this isn't the original.

no. >> no? >> no. i would know what monty hall's music is. this might have been the pilot. >> welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc. >> why are they -- they're going around, "let's make a deal." i see. >> this must have been year one. first in business worldwide i'm joe kernen. along with him. and becky quick. >> there you are. >> people used to come all dressed up in weird things. >> pick me, pick me. >> i don't remember this music. what was the real music? >> it wasn't this. >> it was a remake. >> that doesn't sound anything like it. >> if this isn't taken, we should use it for that other horrible thing we have. >> the elevator music. >> what's the name of that? >> how does it go? >> two major -- >> there it is. >> there you go. >> i'm in pain. >> two major --

♪ >> two major stories we're following this morning. the forecast obviously. and comcast, two casts. the parent company of nbc universal which also owns cnbc reached an agreement to acquire time warner cable in an all-stock transaction that values twc at $159 a share. that's more than $45 billion. the ceos of both companies joined us in the last hour. more on the deal in just a minute. the south and the northeast both getting pounded by another winter storm. hundreds of thousands out of power, major travel delays. 6,700 flights canceled. that's so horrible when it happens to you. another 4,500 already gone. today we'll speak to thomas fanning. we'll get an update on when we'll get the power turned back

on for a lot of these people. he's the ceo for southern company, an electric company in the south. dow jones looks like it would open down now about 57 points ahead of the open. s&p 500 headed also towards the down day, at least a down open off seven points. the nasdaq looking like it would open down 17 points. let's see what happened overnight. the nikkei down there as well. close to off, almost 2%. hang seng down as well as was the shanghai. let's go over to see what's going on in europe right now. ahead of the close there. you're seeing the ftse off, the cac off and the dax is off. a little bit of pressure globally. >> all right. let's get more on the big cable deal of the morning, comcast buying time warner cable for $45.2 billion in stock. comcast ceo brian roberts and time warner cable ceo robert marcus joined us in the last hour. here is mr. roberts. >> this transaction, we don't

compete -- we're not in the same markets, we're not in any of the same zip codes with time warner. there's no overlap, no reduction of competition. we're just able to bring better products to their markets, but what we've said today is that we're prepared to divest up to 3 million customers, which will bring our new company, combined, below 30%. >> all right. joining us now on the "squawk" news line, amy young, vice president at -- securities. can this deal pass musters? >> there's no overlapping regions, so from that perspective there's no competitive issues. >> how about we've been talking about no breakup fee. >> is that crazy, amy? if you're the board of time warner cable, is that the

craziest thing you've ever heard. >> it could be. time warner cable, that company has been on the choppi ishoppin for a few months now. shareholders want them to sell. >> this is a free option now, to the extent they would want to walk away, you know, we've seen this movie before in a couple other instances where there have been clear deals that have regulatory issues. this is going to be something that's examined. why do you think time warner didn't push harder or wasn't able to grab that? >> i think there are other alternatives to look at charter who clearly looks like they were going to prepare to go hostile on time warner cable. i think this is a much more attractive deal for time warner cable shareholders, clearly, given the price. >> interesting point. >> how do you think it played out? for a while it looked like maybe comcast and charter would get together and do it together. do you have any insight into how that fell apart that way and comcast decided to buy the whole

thing? >> i think at the end of the day, time warner cable is the best corporate governance. i think shareholders were maybe concerned about the leverage for time warner cable/charter if that company combined. clearly comcast has the best management team out there. they're the leaders in the space. >> we say that a lot, yes. the stock is called lower today. it ran up, i think, on prospects for this deal. the market initially liked the idea of comcast being able to buy time warner. it was about a month ago when it was first approached. it's down less than a dollar at this point. down 78 cents. >> there's going to be an exchange ratio. a lot of investors could be buying time warner cable as a way to play this optionality on cable m & a. >> two notes by the way. i just got an e-mail about this. one of the reasons time warner's cable board may not have wanted

to breakup fee is to give them the option for charter or somebody else to come up with a higher bid without having to pay that fee. >> why didn't you think about that at the beginning. >> i'm a clever guy, but i'm not that clever on my feet. >> i like what amy said, too, just the idea that charter was about to go hostile. y you want to get involved in hostile. >> given all the cash you have on hand, would you prefer to have a different mix? >> comcast is $50 billion of debt on their balance sheet. from an absolute perspective, that's still a lot of debt, right? i think the other thing is they're buying back 10 billion of stock at the close of the deal, which i think investors clearly welcome. i think expectations were they were only going to buy back 3.5 billion this year. >> okay. amy, we'll end it there. appreciate it. thank you. do you remember mr. roberts? do you remember?

have you seen it? >> thinking mr. smith. >> famous movie. henry fonda and jack lemmon, a classic. >> before my time. >> before my time, 1955, actually. i can't say that about too many things. when i see it, that's the first thing i think of. our other big story, a storm causing major power outages in the south. tom fanning, the chairman and ceo of southern company is joining us. tom, i know this caused some problems. i think you have about 120,000 customers in georgia without power right now. is that correct numbers? >> no. actually they're a bit higher than that. let me tell you, it's pretty remarkable. we predicted there would be 500,000 out with this storm. in fact across the southeast, south of atlanta to augusta we've seen the most outages. half of those, the storm continues right now, you should know, half of those have been restored. >> wow. >> we think we'll finish the

rest of it most likely by friday night, perhaps into the week. >> so what is the actual number right now? >> in georgia we have 230,000 outages right now. that's where they mostly are. there's about 15,000 in alabama. >> what happened, mostly ice getting on the wires, getting on trees and knocking down wires? >> oh, yes. listen, this has been crazy. you know, you have freezing rain, sleet, snow. freezing rain is the thing that's the worst because it t e takes trees down, no matter how robust the wires are, if a tree falls on it you're out. the staging for this has been fantastic, arguably the best preparation we've ever had. the state of georgia for the criticism they had on the snow jam of two weeks ago have been terrific this deal. governor deal, georgia state patrol tells us to clear the highways to access the problem areas, d.o.t., georgia national guard has been terrific. >> we talk about this winter is

never ending. we like to explain about it just from the perspective of dealing with cold, getting in to work, shoveling all the time. how would you rate this? >> yes, so the weather patterns in the southeast have been remarkable. past two years have been some of the mildest years we've ever had. warm winters, cool, mild summers. this january specifically has been a lot colder than normal. some 15% colder than normal. >> how does that weather add up to your bottom line? what does it mean? >> we think sales are up some 15% for the month of january, of course, there's a whole year to do. but significantly higher than what we budgeted. >> okay. tom, we want to thank you very much for joining us this morning. good luck getting all those customers back up and good luck dealing with the storm. >> let me give a shout out to the thousands of guys who have been working through this thing. this has been a 24/7 effort.

they're working through midnight and around the clock getting people back up. >> we appreciate that. >> bone up your security. terrorists want to shut down grids now, tom. so i'm sure you're on top of that big time. right? >> as a matter of fact, i chair something called the electricity sector coordinating committee. it's electric owned utilities with co-op communities working with government to repair for and respond to any cyber, physical threats and natural disasters. i can tell you, this industry is doing a great job. >> that's good. if they knocked it out it could be more than a couple of weeks. that's what scares me. >> i think we're in as good a shape as we can be. we can always be better and we're continuing to be vigilant about it. >> coming up next -- >> jack lemmon won a best supporting actor. >> he did? >> yes. >> did i not know. >> he was first actor to win supporting and lead actor for

"save the tiger" jack lemmon. >> what year. >> 1973 for "save the tiger." he played a character in 1955. 18 years apart. >> senator bob corker will be with us after the break. as we head to the break, check out the "squawk box" market indicator. a little red this a.m. >> mr. roberts. >> good movie to mention. welcome back. how is everything? there's nothing like being your own boss! and my customers are really liking your flat rate shipping. fedex one rate. really makes my life easier. maybe a promotion is in order.

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♪ since there's no place to go let it snow let it snow let it snow ♪ the full faith and credit of the united states is in good standing after the debt ceiling extension was passed by the senate. joining us now, senator bob corker, member of the banking committee. i don't know, just senator extraordinaire, explains all this stuff. he's nice. people like him on both sides of the aisle. did you see "the wall street journal" today, senator? >> i did, yes, sir. >> they're so mad at ted cruz. it does look like a boneheaded move. he did the procedural thing that made -- instead of just doing it where it was going to get done anyway, a bunch of his colleagues had to walk the plank

and look bad so they can be called on. do you agree with that? what was the point of this again? all about you and mr. smith goes to washington crap. >> so i was one of those that -- >> had to walk the plank. >> needed to do what i needed to do. we have 45 republican senators. okay? 43 of those republican senators knew what had to be done yesterday. 12 were willing to make it happen. we have two senators, let's face it, that are really upset that they weren't able to use this to raise a lot of money for their pacts and campaigns. that's what this was all about. everyone understood that. there was no game plan. i asked before we went out to vote, okay, we blocked closure. we put the country in economic turmoil, we traded tremendous distress for the next several weeks. what is the end game? there was no end game. look, it's unfortunate that

things are the way they are but i'm glad we got done what we needed to get done. look, joe, i hope this is joe. i can't hear that well. >> it's me. >> yes, look, we do need to put fiscal reforms in place. we do. there's no one that's been more adamant about that. but candidly, the shenanigans of this fall are what took us off that topic and kept us from being able to move ahead with fiscal reforms while we had this side show under way that had nothing to do with fiscal issues. but anyway, something good happened yesterday. it was unfortunate it happened the way that it did. let's move on and deal with some of the bigger issues our nation has to deal with. >> definitely. >> which include fiscal reform. >> before you move on, senator corker, who was the other senator? ted cruz you were referring to who was hoping they could make money for their pacts on this. who was the other senator being difficult? >> i didn't mention any names. you all are mentioning names. i said there are two senators

that i know are very disappointed. >> a clever man. >> they're not able to use the next two weeks to raise money to try to defeat other republicans. >> rand paul. >> there's a third senator that can probably raise money off of this, harry reid. this is exactly what harry wanted. >> yes. i didn't look over at harry during the time we were doing what we needed to do but i'm sure he was rubbing his hands together hoping we would, you know, do what -- not do what needed to be done. anyway. >> all right. well, i don't know whether you've noticed the stock market ended last year pretty well and we're turning around this year. can we now safely say we're not, for the next at least 6 to 9 months that we're not going to get blindsided by some problems in washington and we can just trade on our own economic fundamentals at this point? are you on the back burner and out of the way? >> yes. i really do think, joe, from the

standpoint of congress, you know, doing damage to the economy over the next nine, ten months, i don't think that's going to happen. i will say on the other hand, this election coming up in november should be about which party responsibly can put our country on stronger fiscal footing. and hopefully it's those kinds of issues now that we'll be debating and not the shenanigans of shutting government down to benefit one or two people in congress who may want to serve another position. >> we should point out, i don't want to speak for you, but i was saying that maybe congress won't be getting in the way. the white house will still have all of its ability to continue to obstruct probably the private sector. we should point that out as well. i'm not saying that's on the back burner. at least you guys. the guilt goes both ways for what we've seen the last couple of years. >> i will say, look, let's face it. i do think the health care bill,

they will continue to do things that candidly, i don't know how you do without legislation but they're doing anyway. i do think they'll continue to try to cause the health care bill not to do as much damage as it ordinarily would. it's doing damage to our economy now. the one thing i think we could do, which won't happen, would be to try to rectify those problems. i think we're in the state we're going to be between now and november. and the american people cannot -- won't worry now when congress is in washington over the next ten months. i'm back in tennessee now. but, again, there are a lot of big stakes coming up. our country still, as you know, still as i've said already has tremendous fiscal issues that need to be dealt with and hopefully that will happen after this next election and hopefully that's what it's going to be about. >> when do you think -- will we hear about keystone before november? >> i don't know. i wrote a letter with john hovan

the other day, being the ranking member on foreign relations and knowing that the state department has to make this decision. it's obviously everyone knows it's in our national interest to do it. that's what the state department is to look at. environmental reports show this should happen. this really is now solely a political issue and will john kerry step forward and recommend what he knows has to happen? will the president do what's right for the country? i know they're trying to navigate their base, joe. they're trying to figure out, you know, do we try to help out a few senators like mary landrieu and others? do we upset our base? when do we do this? i mean, everything that's done at this white house is based on politics and so, i think they'll make a decision based on what they think is best for them. unfortunately not what is best for the country. >> i'm still stuck on the blind item. will you pull your ear if i

guess right? is it mike lee. >> i'm sorry. >> who's the second senator? >> again, i don't -- we have a couple senators that i'm sure -- >> you don >> you own a snow blower? >> hundreds of thousands of dollars being raised. >> who's shoveling your driveway? >> what? >> who's shoveling your driveway? >> i have a four-wheel drive. i don't have any power. i had to go to my office building to get ready for this outstanding program. i thank you. always great being with you. >> we appreciate what you did yesterday, too. thank you. >> we have to get him a scarf. coming up, we'll talk to an executive change at jcpenney. we'll have the details when we return. that could be a question of blood flow. cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready.

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guys, you're looking at a shot of times square. yes, the snow is picking up here. it's hitting a lot of areas in the country between this and the ice. we're looking at total flight delays of 4,885. i'm sorry, those are cancellations. 4,885 cancellations. things are not looking good out there. if you're planning on traveling today, make sure you call the airport first. welcome back to "squawk box,"

everyone. jcpenney will have a new chief financial officer. the retailer has named ed record as its new cfo effective march 24th. he'll be replacing ken hannah who will stay on through that date to ensure a smooth transacti transaction. cnbc posted a profit 2 cents better than the street was expecting. it also announced a stock buyback program. david faber will interview les moonves during today's "squawk on the street." find out the numbers and get market reaction, next. well, did you know that old macdonald was a really bad speller? your word is...cow. cow. cow. c...o...w...

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welcome back to "squawk box," everybody. we are just a few seconds away from jobless claims and retail sales. jobless claims is the big number people will be watching. the estimate, steve liesman informs me is 330,000 versus the 331,000 we saw last week. they're looking for retail sales to be down 0.1%. versus -- if you look ex auto, that will be up by 0.1%.

we saw the futures. things are looking weaker. the dow futures are down by more than 75 points below fair value or right at 75 points below fair value. s&p 500 futures are now down by 9. the nasdaq is off by close to 20 points. rick santelli standing by at the cme, steve liesman is in studio. rick, over to you. >> january advanced retail sales, not out yet. wonder if the weather is affecting these high frequency servers that are super glued to the data sites. don't see jobless claims yet. >> steve has the jobs. >> jobs at 339, rick. >> all right. 339. was there any recession to 331, steve? >> unchanged 331, ridesing to 339. >> all right. >> i have the four-week here at 336. the prior was 333. right in line, not a big deal. >> continuing at 2.95 or 2.96.

>> what was your number, rick? >> i don't see it but i'm guessing around 2.96. >> it's 2.953, my friend. you were off by 0.007. >> do i want a signed tote bag? come on, steve. >> we hold you to an exact standard, rick. we don't want i don't you to report the ten-year at 3.7 or 3.6. we go to the third decimal point. i don't have retail either by the way. >> i like the conversation that we're having this morning, mr. roberts reminded me of that great movie. i guess i can play enson pulver. >> you forgot the two most important people, joe, you forgot cagney and the thin 34ma >> i know. >> what did you get, steve. >> i just had it. there it is. minus 0.4.

big miss here. big miss this morning. >> minus 2.4. what about ex autos? >> i'm looking. i don't have my dplass on. >> unchanged ex auto. that was a little bit closer. i wonder where it missed. as soon as i get my table i'll inform you. >> i'm getting data trickling in. i'm showing down 0.4 month over month on retail sales. >> that's what i had. >> ex autos unchanged. these are good numbers, though. keep in mind, last month, it was considered good, not because we were up 0.2. t. was revised down. >> we had up 7 on ex auto. that was cut in half to up 3, this time unchanged. it's trickling and it's a group effort. >> these are being posted online. these numbers are being posted online because the snowstorm in washington has shut down u.s. federal offices. >> let me go to the website and see if i can find it there. rick is right. this revision to minus 0.1 from

plus 0.2 from december, we've been whittling down that gdp for fourth quarter. last time i checked was 2.6. >> oh, god. >> we probably will get another downward revision. >> every effort will be made to post the figures on the agency's websites around 8:30 a.m. today. >> here we are. >> they could have told us they were going to do that. >> did you see liesman talk about bernanke earlier, how effective he was at opening the spigots, almost in heroic fashion? would you say the entire exercise, trying to pick draghi versus bernanke, is that like the leper with the most fingers, rick? >> i think it's kind of a draw, you know. i think when we have central bankers, you know, going head to head, there definitely has to be a curve here that we grade on. i really think, maybe if we considered them firemen, that they would get a pluses because

nobody wielded fire hoses better than those two, although, you know, i don't know -- draghi. >> where do you put greenspan in this by the way. >> i was a big, big, big greenspan fan until about -- two points i didn't agree with. before y2k i thought it was a bad idea to make so much liquidity and around '03 when he significantly pointed out on numerous oaks two big issues, the demographic time bomb that harry denton accurately forecast in his 1994 book how we'll have big problems with entitlements, demograph demographics, who's working. >> he's doing that thing with his hands again, rick. he's going like this with his hands again. you did, too, didn't you? >> i'm like a tattletale, aren't i? >> the other problem i have with greenspan, they don't want to be

in the bubble popping business. >> he's going like this, rick. >> i want to give the numbers. i enjoy what rick is saying. motor vehicle, big miss, minus 2.1. furniture down 0.6. electronics up a little bit. building materials and garden supplies -- i'll get to that in a second. another miss here. clothing and accessories down 0.9. sporting goods. it looks like in january the consumer took a break. >> that could mean it's weather related. >> it could be a weather related thing. >> across the board. >> be neutral about this. we don't know. there are lots of things that you wouldn't go out and shop for in the cold weather and the snow. cars. >> there may be a lot of things you do shop for, though. >> that's true, rick. but how do you get there? i heard stuff the delivery companies are doing well. >> here's what did well. >> what have you got? >> building material, garden and supplies. >> that could be salt and shovels that. >> could be the people who are

buying for the snow. >> this doesn't have a specific weak link to it. >> we should summarize. few viewers and listeners, down 0.4 on the headline, unchanged ex autos which is significant. down 0.2 ex auto and gas. the new thing everybody likes because they want an easy number, the control number is down 0.3 versus up 0.7, reviced to only 0.3 last time. not only do i think the revision of fourth quarter gdp, steve, is going to be well below 3, i think most estimates for first quarter will be well below three. >> what you're saying might very well be reflective in the futures. the dow futures are down triple digits, the weakest of the morning. you might be able to give it a pass for the weather. it doesn't look like the market on a knee jerk reaction will give it that pass. >> yields are down, this is significant, the biggest fundamental for interest rates for 2014 without a doubt is the

barometer of nervousness in the equity markets. yesterday, we basically closed right on a big 38% retracement of both 5s and 10s. it was too close to call on a closing basis yesterday. we're below both of those levels right now. as a matter of fact, the five-year, the yield curve is five basis points below the significant level. if you want to know what's going on, watch the five-year and kind of wrap it in the net change of the equity markets. >> rick, we could talk about this economic data and how the market moves with it but what i've been noticing recently is the kind of return to a period we had a while ago where it looks like stocks and the dollar euro are joined at the hip. i don't know if you've been following that at all, seems like the euro is straining just a little bit, not huge. that coincides with the market falling off. that will happen a couple days ago when the market seemed to reverse from its doldrums. it happened with the dollar

strengthening against the euro. >> it's way more the yen, though, all throw of the major currencies are getting pounded today against the yen. when that carry trade even on an isolated one-day basis moves in that direction, it's like stocks trying to fly over the alps with an anvil, you know in. >> when it and, it ain't. whatever is happening with the currencies has been leading the market. there was a period about a year ago when all you had to do is know what the currencies were doing and stocks were doing the opposite. >> i know we can always have the asterisk of weather and forever the rest of my life i'll have a giant asterisk in terms of central banks. in the end, the sustainability of the economy, even when there's no doubt at least for most people of any type of recession, it just -- it seems as though it's constantly like the old marcus welby, it's the heartbeat, dink, dink, dink.

>> i'm not concerned yet. >> we got the numbers in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. it seems as though there's no sustainability here. i'll tell you what, more and more, i think it's going to be a health care issue. i think nothing demonstrates that when you don't have a rule-based system, nothing demonstrates that more than kind of the discretion. >> very quick answer, rick, which is what we expected, some kind of weakening that came out of the strength of the third and fourth quarter. perfectly normal. i looked at that kind of strong quarters we had, some kind of decline in the first quarter would have been perfectly norm up to a percentage point. there is no, you know, there's plenty of volatility inside the gdp. so i think you could tell a good story that says you had that weakening you expected, inventory drawdown and weather on top of it and not get too concerned about the economy. i understand what you're saying,

rick. >> this is the short answer? >> yes, you're right. it went on a little bit. >> i have more to say. >> can you at least -- >> say what? >> volcker and bernanke -- no. giving people everything they want, not denying them anything, for short-term gains, it's so easy to do versus giving something, tough nemedicine whi someone needs to end up down the road in a better position. >> that's magically understated. >> did you see that story on argentina in "the journal" where the store shelves are empty? i find it fascinating that there's people who love these countries, i can't figure out. >> you don't understand what it takes to do things that have never been done before. >> let me keep printing. we'll never have any pain.

give the markets more heroin. >> you have to debase the currency, never happen. tons of people will tell him he's forever going to be wrong. >> he agrees with us now, joe. >> forever wrong until what? >> for a decade. >> forever long. i'm right there. >> every game has to have a time period. >> race to the bottom, just because everybody else is. >> i don't know, i think you underestimate what it took. "squawk box" heading to gold mines. rio tinto's earnings are out. we will discuss those results and the gold market. as we head to the break, take a look at gold prices. you can see that on the screen. we're coming right back in a moment.

welcome back to "squawk box," everyone. the futures again have taken a turn for the worst. those numbers we just got, the retail sales were worse than had been anticipated. retail sales declined by 0.4%. the street was expecting a drop of 0.1%. based on that you can see the market had moved beyond triple digit losses. the dow futures are down by 86 points, we saw a low of 108 points after the numbers first hit. the decline of down 90 is worse than what we saw before we got those numbers. let's key crecap some of the morning's top stories. comcast is buying time warner cable for $45.2 billion in stock. the ceo told us he is confident

regulators will approve the transaction. take a look at the shares right now. comcast down by 2.5%. time warner up by 8.5%. rio tinto just out this morning, reporting better than expected profits. let's talk gold prices and the state of that business with rio tinto's ceo sam walsh. you've turned this business around in a big way, sam. in large part they're cost cutting. the big question, i think, in the market is, are we gown to the bone? are we cutting into mussel? what's going on next? >> good morning. this morning we announced results for 2013. so% increase -- 10% increase in 10% dividend increase. cost production, we really just got started. we committed to a further billion dollars of cost savings that will take our run rate to

$3 billion compared to 201. >> you've been trying to shed assets you don't love. one of those has been the iron ore business you have in canada. a lot of people looked like they were circling but they dropped like flies this morning you said you don't need to sell it. is that a function of the fact that you can't sell it or a function of the fact you don't want to sell it anymore? >> it's a function of value. and i've said all along, i'm about delivering shareholder value. this is not about a fire sale or market day at the bazaar. we didn't get value, quite frankly, as we go forward, we don't need to make a major divestment. that doesn't drive us. >> give us a quick sense of where you think the value of gold is going. we're at the highest level since november. there still remains speculation that we could see a plunge below 1,000 bucks if you're not a gold bug.

>> yes, i've given up speculating on commodity prices. i have a team of experts that help me there. all it shows me is you're going to be wrong. importantly when you look at the medium and long-term, you look at our products, demand is robust. demand is strong as the global developing world continues to develop. you can't build infrastructure. you can't urbanize without the commodities that we supply. >> geopolitical question for you. what is your take on what china is doing in terms of the commodity space? is this a good thing for the world or a bad thing? >> i think that china will try and ensure that it achieves resource security. they're looking at the same things in relation to food, water and certainly air quality. i think that in the scheme of things we've seen other countries, certainly the u.s.

but we've already seen japan and korea and others ensure they had resource security. it's a natural reaction. and the market is actually big enough for everybody. >> sam, this is a different type of mining question this morning. you know, a lot of people think that gold is related to bitcoin or that bitcoin is sort of a version of gold. do you have a view on bitcoin these days? >> yes. if you're taking me to one of our mining operations, i'll be able to help you. bitcoin, that's a little bit off the mark for me. >> thank you for joining us this morning. congratulations on the results. it is quite a turnaround story. >> great to be on. thank you very much. >> coming up, we head back to sochi, russia and the 2014 winter olympics for an update. we'll find out where the u.s. stands on metdals and what the competitors think of bitcoin.

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welcome back to "squawk box." the futures are indicated lower. we've been through a lot this morning. you can see the dow is off 85 points and the s&p futures off by ten. these are not the worst levels of the morning which we saw after the report of retail sales from the government at 8:30, and the dow was down by triple digits because retail sales were down. raises a lot of questions about the economy and you can see that playing out in the market. the 2014 summer olympics -- no, no, it's actually winter olympics, certainly winter here, are under way in sochi, russia, it's easy to make the mistake because it's much warmer there than here and we should have known because it's the only way you go anywhere, if it's not puerto rico or greece. did you call and say what's the weather forecast and they said

60 and you said, okay, i'm coming? >> reporter: you know me so well, joe. absolutely. yeah. some of the competitors were competing in t-shirts today, believe it or not. look, we have a little bit of bad news to tell you about first and we want to let you know. nbc news has confirmed that a track worker was hit by a bobsled today prior to a training according to hospital workers. the individual is still alive. we don't know the severity of the condition. when we have more details about the individual, we will let you know. getting back to the sports stuff, the medal count keeps rising. let's show you who is number one, norway with 13 total medals. usa second by the way with 12 at this point. and canada and netherlands tied with ten and russia's got nine. the american highlight last night absolutely the women's half pipe. idaho native caitlin farrington, dazzling the judges, shock the other three former gold medalists in the field. she took gold. the usa finished first, third,

and fourth, get this of the nine medals the u.s. has won so far across all events four of them have come from snowboarding including all three u.s. gold medals. men's speed skating, not a highlight. shawnee davis' quest at history did not work out. the two-time olympic gold medalists finished eighth in the 100 meter. he looked so glum when he finished. he's the second american man in two days to fall short of a hoped-for three-peat so still no american man has won the same event at three consecutive wh t winter games and shaun white finished fourth in the half pipe. he was so bummed out. all right, the russian highlight. the russian pair figure skate ing once again putting in an impeccable performance. winning gold easily in front of the home crowd.

remember, this is so important for the russians because they won the gold medal in this event every single year from 1966 to 2010. then they lost in vancouver so this was a big, important comeback for them when it comes to pride. speaking of pride in curling the u.s. men picked up their first win beating denmark. then the evening the danish men pulled off an upset over the defending world champion sweden. don't forget you can see women's curling tonight on nbc between 5:00 and 8:00 p.m. eastern time and you can see team usa face off against japan. other highlights men's hockey starts today, men's figure skating. freestyle skiing slope style holy smokes, crazy, crazy stuff. we went up there this morning. the stuff they do on skis is unbelievable. women's speed skating and the skeleton as well and the snow's melting up there. we were sweating. it's just so crazy to see the weather here compared to what you guys are going through back there. >> michelle, the reaction from the russian skaters last night,

i didn't see it live? was that reaction finishing knowing they did great, that was before they knew they won the gold, right? >> reporter: yes, absolutely. there's a lot of talk about just how the russian respond to a lot of these things, a lot more stoic compared to other groups out there or ethnic groups, articles in the paper about how they don't like to rub things in other people's faces. oh, god, weren't they just beautiful last night? >> you, yeah. wow. okay. michelle, thank you. coming up, the stock of the day. can you guess what it is? make sure you know what it is. make sure you stay tuned also to "squawk on the street" because -- david 15er will be interviewing cnbc chief executive less moonves who probably has something to say about the deal. reporting profits two cents above estimates and announced a $1.2 billion stock buyback

program.

stocks of the day, comcast and time warner cable, comcast buying twc for under $159 a

share, comcast and time warner told us this morning they were confident that the deal will be approved by regulators. so, you're satisfied with the explanation on the no break-up fee now? that makes sense? >> it makes a little more sense. i still think comcast got the better of uwc. make sure you join us tomorrow. "squawk on the street" begins right now. and an historic day in cable as comcast agrees to buy time warner cable. good morning and welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm david 15er along with jim cramer. we are live from the new york stock exchange on a snowy day here in new york city. carl is in sochi where it doesn't snow. we're going to hear from him later in the hour. let's take a look at futures this morning, of course, we are looking for a down open as you can see. a fairly significant down o