♪ happy birthday dear daddy, happy birthday to you ♪ >> so nice. >> henry and max, thank you, guys. >> good job. >> you guys did a great job. i'll see you soon. thank you, everybody. thank you, guys. >> happy birthday. >> thank you, thank you. >> i'll bring it tomorrow. >> make sure you bring it tomorrow. thanks, henry and max and pilar. "squawk on the street" begins right now. ♪ ♪ everybody move your feet two of the cutest kids on the history of the planet and we have to follow that? good wednesday morning, welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with simon hobbs and david faber at the new york stock exchange and cramer is off this week. we've got a busy morning to get through as the temperatures in the northeast are mild but the effect of winter weather is taking its toll on housing starts, panera earnings and a lot more. ten-year yield we'll be on alert for fed news this afternoon and mixed markets in europe this

morning as the violence in kiev has left at least two dozen dead. the roadmap begins with netflix' you'd over verizon as the prime-time download speeds allegedly slow. and let's make a deal, cigna jewellers agreeing to acquire zale for $21 a share while one wall street firm suggests walmart should pick up family dollar. first up netflix has a bone to pick with verizon this morning and its fios service, according to the "wall street journal," the average prime time speeds fell 14% last month as netflix is rolling out a new season of "house of cards" they've been in dispute with verizon and other broadband providers how much content they'll carry without paying additional fees. it is sort of a story, david, simon, of two companies but with broad ramifications as we see

other deals coming down the pike. >> without a doubt. we know this is only going one way which is up as broadband usage will only continue to increase as more and more people stream. there are statistics that say 30% of the streaming that takes place in prime time in the u.s. is related to netflix. how much capacity you're using and the move to high def by netflix, for example, using more bandwidth, it's going to be a contentious issue and one we're with for some time, who pays the freight? should it be the carriers who have to continue to upgrade their networks to handle the increased capacity or should netflix and others who are providing the content using so much bandwidth chip in as well? >> if you read the article it looks like reed hastings is out on his own. the article says google, microsoft and facebook have already been paying additional fees north for their carriage to be taken. the deal apparently, the implicit deal on the internet is you don't need to pay extra

penalties, extra fees provided as you are shich ipping out as data as you are bringing in and in netflix's case they have not. and the fees potentially should be paid. >> at the same time our parent company comcast, of course, the largest cable company in the country soon to become programs if it is, of course, the deal to acquire time warner cable is approved even larger has agreed to net neutrality under this deal. even though it doesn't have to. because it is such an important issue at this point for the consumer at home who can't suddenly get to watch "breaking bad" or "house of cards" it's simply a frustration. but it's something that's going to play out financially over time and one has to wonder what netflix is going to be able to do to stave that off and/or handle the potential impact of higher feef eer fees. >> which makes some people argue that netflix has more to lose than the providers. you would agree with that, i'm

guessing. >> it would seem in the case of "the journal", it would seem that would be the case. are you going to rip out your broadband provider or simply say, all right, this is not a service working for me? >> let me put it this way saturday night when i was watching "house of cards" it's buffering so frequently that i actually gave up watching it, if i was repeated would i still be a netflix provider? >> you got to go up to the higher speeds, that's all. >> i probably already have that. >> you may. >> do we have a sense of how much it cost to build out the networks the pipes get a little more width? >> it's billions. you are talking about -- >> what they've already spent. >> they already do. listen, it's still a great business, that's why comcast wants to get bigger and once you sign up a new customer after i don't know what the payback time is but then we are talking significant money even without video, of course, that is the larger concern here and this is part of that overall trend that we've also talked about so often, so-called over the top where you only become a

broadband provider because people can get their video options via other avenues. although in this case, if broadband is not able to do that, maybe you keep them as a video customer. you have more reason why as a distributor you perhaps want to crack down or not provide the necessary speeds. >> yeah. turning into a rich soap opera that's far from over, no doubt about that. >> it is indeed. blackberry ceo john chen is sounding off a t-mobile after the wireless carrier e-mailed customers last week pitching them free iphone 5s and calling it a great offer for blackberry customers. in a blog post chen called t-mobile's offer clearly an inappropriate and ill conceived marketing promotion. he also thanked blackberry customers for their loyalty. yes, blackberry is still out there. >> feisty. >> there are a number of investors who are somewhat constructive on it, not that they believe that blackberry as a device has a future but there's a lot of intellectual property at the company and this is a guy who has successful turned around other companies

particularly sybase in the past. i'm hearing positive pitches at least of why you might want to own blackberry. >> we get a disclosure that -- >> that's right, loeb is one of the investors there and a few others. you know, when it comes to t-mobile, they're just being so aggressive that i think you have to look at the larger landscape, all right, they're attacking blackberry, but this is all part of bringing prices down and really we have yet to see the full response from the verizons or the at&ts, we've talked so much about that in terms of what they've been doing and how aggressive t-mobile has been. >> and i wonder, you know, ledger's been aggressive on marketing, on promotion, on smack talk. >> on crashing parties. >> but blackberry might be the first who has nothing to lose by responding in a way that maybe at&t cannot. you know? >> i just wonder what the subs s subsidies are, if you are get an iphone for zero dollars down, switch now, does that mean apple

is giving t-mobile a better deal? how does that work out? >> no. i don't believe so. i don't think that's the case. >> that's a -- >> you are just taking less margin. they're being very aggressive which goes to the larger conversation that we've been having for some time as to whether the fk and the department of justice would allow for current competitors in wireless become three. because we know that softbank which controls sprint would love to do a deal to combine with t-mobile in some fashion, not clear how that would be accomplished, and yet faces considerable potential opposition from regulators. this only increases that. every day we're talking about legere it's working for this guy. >> i agree. and hastings, too, the disrupters are coming into business and we're finally getting some real contact. i mean, in tech especially, it's becoming more and more of a contact sport. >> having said that, t-mobile said it will fast track anybody who wants a blackberry by the end of the week. there was a slight climbdown

there, just a slight one. housing starts dropped 16% in january the biggest drop in three years. we want to bring in andrew berkeley, the managing director of institutional portfolio strategy at oppenheimer, and good morning to both of you. >> good morning. >> let's talk about the housing starts. you look at permits december to january, didn't change much, but starts themselves really did. is it weather? >> yeah. i mean, i think a lot you have to attribute to the weather. we got an interesting data point from the architectural billing point which tends to be a better leading indicator in terms of construction activity. i think we're still generally going through the soft patch in terms of the weather. the data was probably a little stronger a few months ago before the weather inducement and now we are seeing a bit of an echo effect. but i think you can attribute it to weather. >> some economists have brought down their gdp estimates to one. if some of this can be made up later and some of it cannot. how many are we really losing

here macro-wise? >> from the weather? maybe not. 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 percent, it's more than weather. the thing i look at most carefully are the single family permits and those have flattened the last six months and dropped the last two months and those are not affected all that much by weather. there's something more going on than just weather. >> really? what do you think it is? >> well, i think it's probably these obstacles that builders are saying that they can't get credit to build, to develop land and they can't find a good, qualified, trained workforce, so they ra they want to ramp up but they can't and they want to ramp up but they can't build homes. >> that was sort of behind the nahb yesterday, right? the biggest decline in that index ever. >> that's correct. that's what they're saying and i think that's what's showing up in the permits numbers. >> let me just pick that point up. it would seem to people who have watched the unemployment data or

the employment report come through month after month inconceivable that you couldn't have sufficient supply of labor within construction, because construction has really lagged. it's been hugely disappointing. what do you think is going on here? >> well, with labor, i think it's having a trained workforce. we just lost a lot of capital in the last six years because we haven't been building a lot of homes and it's just going to take time to build, to train these workers, to -- >> what happened to all the other -- what happened to all the other construction workers? they didn't retrain as data configurers, did they? >> some of them returned to mexico, some of them went into other trades. but we've lost these skills and it's just going to take time to build them up, one or two years. i was expecting things to take off later this year, but it may take longer than that because of these -- these roadblocks that we're running into. >> interesting. andrew, meantime, we're seven some-odd points from break even

on the year on s&p. we've repaired some of what we lost. is that because people are realizing weather is ephemeral? >> yes. i think it gets back to the idea that the economy isn't growing at the 3.5 and 4, it's the steady trend state and we're coming back to that now. i think interest rates have backed off a little bit and that's helped. every time we've gotten up 3% on the ten year, we know the market has gotten a little fidgety around that and we think we can climb above 1900 and 1950 as the momentum picks back up the volatility will be here as we go through the ebb and flow. >> and we're late cycle, no doubt. >> andrew, patrick, thanks, guys. talk to you later on. at least 25 are dead and hundreds are injured in the increasing violence in the ukraine. jim maceda is in moscow with more. jim, these are extraordinary scenes for many people given where we are. i mean, this is violence in

eastern europe. this isn't north africa. >> reporter: well, that's right, simon. and i'll tell you what looks like an insurrection in kiev's independence square at least overnight and into this morning has now for the time being turned back into a standoff between protesters and riot police. those police are coming out now in larger numbers. they control much of the square, after as you say a full night of extraordinary pictures, of protesters with stun grenades and water cannons being hit by those police. many of the fires that we saw all night longer also still burning tonight as we approach darkness and being used by protesters carrying themselves stones, clubs, and firebombs to hide behind. but under pressure from both the u.s. and european officials and the pope to end the violence and

return to the negotiating table, pro-russian president has remained defiant and warning opposition leaders that they'll need to be careful because they will be treated accordingly if they don't come out publicly and denounce the radicals amongst those protesters who have reportedly killed up to ten policemen by gunshot. there's a lot of talk about a new round of talks between both sides. but it's really hard, simon, to see how either side can find a political compromise given all the vie leolence that we've seed the mistrust. meanwhile with ukraine's economy in free fall, the fear amongst the protesters is that the president has really struck a deal with russian president vladimir putin promising to crack down as he did last night if russia goes ahead with that latest $2 billion bailout installment which, of course, he has done. so, it's now expected that even a pro-russian prime minister

will be named by yanokovich even as vladimir putin here in moscow criticizes the west for meddling in ukraine's internal affairs. we'll see if it's more of the same on the square tonight or if some lessons were learned last night, but we seem to be very far still from any kind of compromise, carl? >> jim, how dangerous is this from your experience? how much will this shape the future, the geography and the relationship between europe, russia, and the united states? you know, how far back does the united states and the u.s. push in penalties here given that you could push the prime minister further towards putin and that open question as to how putin will react once everybody has left the winter games? >> reporter: right. and putin, of course, does seem to be holding the ultimate cards right now. we saw that in the way the

ukrainian government has reacted, the riot police have reacted. just hours after that latest $2 billion tranche was made, that latest bailout was made. putin can come out and criticize the west specifically the european union for meddling in the affairs of ukraine, but at the same time -- but at the same time it's clear that ukraine has run out of options. the problem, of course, is that it's not just an east/west situation. that would be too simplistic. it really is a story about ukrainians figuring out who they are and what ukraine is. that's going to take nothing less than a major compromise between both sides and we just don't see any daylight right now. >> yeah, it's in a very strategic country. >> reporter: too far apart right now. still to come this morning, tesla as you know is sizzling.

the stock at record highs. we'll get you ahead of the curve on the electric carmaker's fortunes after the bell earnings. also ahead taking the pulse of the consumer and economy, a live interview with the ceo of clorox who had interesting comments on currency effects today. another look at futures. a relative weakness here and the nasdaq is going for nine straight, something it's not done since 2010. a lot more "squawk on the street" from post nine in just a moment. ♪ [ male announcer ] we don't just certify our pre-owned vehicles. we inspect, analyze, and recondition each one, until it's nothing short of a genuine certified pre-owned mercedes-benz for the next new owner. [ car alarm chirps ] hurry in to the mercedes-benz certified pre-owned sales event. visit today for exceptional offers. ♪

with shares at all-time highs tesla is due out with quarterly results after the bell. and phil lebeau has what to expect and it's already been a huge week. >> it's been a huge week, the numbers won't be as much behind the news of what happens with the tesla shares over the next 24, 48 hours, when they report earnings it will be for the fourth quarter and all of 2013. the street expecting a profit of 21 cents a share on $677 million in revenue. keep in mind tesla has already preannounced fourth quarter sales and full year sales of the model "d" of more than 22,000, that was greater than expected when they announced it back in january. but the conference call is really going to be the focus after the bell tonight and what elon musk has to say about where this company is and specifically is he going to raise guidance in terms of sales for all of 2014? three catalysts to look for on this conference call, first of

all, will there be some kind of announcement about increasing model "s" production? remember, they already said they planned to be at 800 per week by the end of this year, do they have enough lithium ion batteries to increase that? giga factory time frame, will he give us something more definitive. and china sales estimates they've already begun basically soft sales in china, the first delivery will happen in the next couple of months, is there something more concrete in terms of how strong they expect sales to be in china? take a look at shares of tesla, you said it at the top, this stock has been sizzling at an all-time high right now but there are some out with notes already, carl, saying this stock has gone too far, too fast. there's a note saying it should be more in the $120 to $150 range as opposed to greater than $200, as you know this stock in the past has been extremely volatile and continues to be at this point. >> thank you, phil, we know you're all over it. hear what art cashin is

expecting from today's trading action as we count down to the opening bell. k-cups runneth opens, brian kelley talks about the recent deal with coca-cola. and the implied open is down 36 points. a lot more "squawk on the street" straight ahead. ♪ cme group can help you navigate risks and capture opportunities. we enable you to reach global markets and drive forward with broader possibilities. cme group: how the world advances.

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nine, director of floor operations for ubs. still a lot of commentary that we're really flying blind because of the weather, would you agree? >> i wholeheartedly agree. the only hope we got today is three fed speakers and the minutes and the minutes unfortunately will be properly laundered so we won't get inside the room. we'll only hear reflections of somebody reporting out of the room. but the data is so tainted now under the perception of the weather that not only is it difficult for traders to try to guess what's going on with the economy, it's difficult for the fed, too. >> would the economy what would be driving this market, though? shouldn't it be earnings? >> well, earnings -- we've gone through earnings season. >> right. >> it was satisfactory. it was unspectacular. they did better on the revenue line that many people had thought. but i think right now it is the economy, and people are wondering where does the fed stand, will they taper the tapering. the economy shows some signs of weakness. is it all weather related?

and we think, as i said, not only are we flying blind, the fed's flying blind, too. >> one tell today is options expiration. >> yes. >> you've argued bias is mildly to the upside? >> that is correct. when you've got that hint last thursday and friday, you had two up days, that usually precedes a move to the upside. the history of this particular option expiration is also tilted to the upside. but it's always volatility, for example, last night we had $200 million to buy on balance, and somebody used it as an opportunity to sell into the market. so, things aren't always what they appear during option expiration week. meantime, if we're trading around 18 times earnings, broadly where do you think the market is likely to go once we resolve our weather hiatus? >> as i said, i believe that the economy is showing some signs of weakening, so i think it might be a bit of a struggle here. if we get to new highs, that will force some short covering,

but as far as the economy's concerned, i think we've got some headwinds. >> okay. art, good to see you. have a great day. >> thank you. >> art cashin from ubs. with all that in mind the opening bell just a few moments away. "squawk on the street" right back. through sunday, save up to $500 on beautyrest and posturepedic. get a sealy queen set for just $399. even get 3 years interest-free financing on tempur-pedic. but hurry, sleep train's presidents' day sale ends sunday. is this flu shot necessary? it keeps you healthy during flu season. but does it hurt? nah. plus you get a really sweet bandaid! anything else i should know? here's a thought, try scoring more points on the other team.

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you're watching cnbc "squawk on the street," live from the financial capital of the world, the opening bell's going to ring in about a minute. a lot of news to get through. we walked you through some of the macro indicators, housing starts today were no good, panera earnings last night not so hot, although, david faber -- >> yes, sir. >> -- you want to handle this now, the tidbit out of credit suisse regarding walmart? >> we can do it now or -- >> just tease if you want. >> we can do that. it's rare that you see an analyst particularly a well respected one who already has a name come out and talk about a potential deal. coming out with a note this morning that's getting some attention, saying that walmart should consider buying family dollar. the shares were up a bit. there's a lot more history here which i'll get into after the bell. >> yeah. it's interesting to note, and

david will walk us through some of the arguments that credit suisse is making on that front. obviously a huge name too watch. in the meantime, we are, again, looking for the nasdaq to make a nine-day winning streak something it has not done since 2010, sort of belying the volatility we are seeing with some of the other names and the dow continues to remain a laggard for the year. there's the opening bell and the s&p at the top of your screen. down here at the big board, deutsche asset and wealth management and over at the nasdaq, a pharmaceuticals company doing the honors. we'll watch some of these things. how about zales, david? cygnet buying $1.4 million and the stock opening up 40%. >> and signet will be up as well. this is one of the stories of the market at this point when you talk about companies that are overcapitalized, that have been hoarding cash and put it to work to do a deal and they get rewarded and signet agreeing to

acquire zale for 21 bucks a share and cash, that is as carl said a 21% premium to the closing price yesterday and it's immediately accretive, in the high single digits they are talking about hence why signet is up over 12% and it had been up prior to that because of corvex moving into those shares. it's a theme we've talked about. it's a driving force behind the deals that we are seeing although frankly we're still seeing very few of them, though yesterday we saw that very large deal in pharmaceuticals, activists making a move to acquire forest labs, frx. and there the accretion numbers the analysts are still working them, but, again, very significant. it will be impacted by a much lower tax rate, another theme we've seen a lot are the tax inversions we've been talking about. you see it time and again. golden gate is the seller of zales, golden gate, the private equity firm, to a company that

was facing pressure. and golden gate selling eddie bauer to joseph b. banks they are under pressure from activists and men's warehouse. we'll see whether men's warehouse makes a choice and decides to come back at least 65 bucks a share to stop the deal from happening although you do have a $50 million break fee which is a large break fee for a deal of that size, but this has been the rule here. as for another potential deal that we have sort of talked about certainly when jim's here, we've shot it around, that is, family dollar. no secret there that there's been a lot of conversation about consolidation of the dollar stores, main buyer thought to have been dollar general. but this morning as we said, cs comes out with a note. it's well respected analyst michael ickstein and walmart needs to compete for its core customer in the fill-in trip. and we think one of the top

priorities for new ceo doug mcmillan will be to come up with a small store strategy and aggressively pursue it. he says why not family dollar. which it believes is best positioned geographically for walmart should it choose to play. even the idea of this may be enough to at least spark some thoughts on the dollar general side. what i can tell you is at this point at least family dollar has not been in any talks, and when it's talked to its shareholders, many of whom are fairly active, think nelson pellson and a number of others, it's not indicated at this point at least a willingness to potentially doing a deal. it withstood the -- went through what might have been a potential proxy fight last year but nothing says that won't come and you connect by written consent here. will that happen? who knows. but this continued chatter about consolidation in the family dollar space no doubt that's going to continue. some execution issues have been certainly a key when it comes to family dollar and some of its

critics. but we're watching both of those shares. it's rare that you see an analyst come out. used to be they used to come out to try to get something in place so they could participate in the investment banking side. >> i was going to say that. >> but here everybody is lined up already with their advisers. take it for what it is, some analysts coming out saying something interesting. >> if it happens, it will be interesting. >> walmart does not typically do large deals of any kind in the u.s. it has pursued acquisitions of some size internationally but here in the states, as people well know that is grown organically, so this would be out of character were they to even consider it, but, again, it will continue this chatter about consolidation and back to the accretion and spending cash, cash is free kind of theme that we've seen in this market, which will be an overall theme i believe this year as we watch companies work capital. >> even in the past few days obviously you brought us the comcast news last week and

forest labs when you were out yesterday, and today a smaller deal. we are getting a deal with some weight with more regularity. >> a bit more regularity. some would say how cheap money is and the accretion and the fact that the acquirer stocks go up when they announce the deal i'm surprised there aren't more. people have come back to the comcast deal and wondered on the accretion question why comcast is not using some cash. to use more cash or any cash from the time warner cable deal would bring more accretion yet comcast chose to make it a fully stock-based transaction. which while perhaps stronger from a -- from a balance sheet standpoint in terms of not taking leverage up, is not as strong as it might have been had they used some cash. >> a couple other names to watch, keep an eye on garmin up more than 10%. earnings 76 cents did beat by 14 cents but the news really was that almost half of their sales are now coming from nonautomotive products. we know the kinds of competitive

pressures they've been facing in the car market. >> fitness, where basically you don't have a smartphone because, of course, it's the smartphone app that is the are challenging them. >> and la-z-boy, comes in 32 cents, misses by a nickel. they are blaming weather. not just for sales, but production, distribution, logistics, getting their furniture to the retail stores. comps up 36, but that's down from 98 in the previous quarter. that seems to make a little more sense than panera, which also blamed the weather. and potbelly, too, potbelly revenue was a miss as well, but we'll see a lot of this as the tail end of earnings seasons. >> if you can't get the staff into the stores to actually open successfully as we've seen with so many of the retailers there's an argument regardless whether people are actually out buying. there's two sides to that. >> yeah, that's true enough. not sure if pisani is on the floor, is he, guys?

wait until he gets to until we toss to him. >> a weather-related event. >> yes. samsung, a nice piece in "usa today" about samsung unveiling their new smart watch when they go to barcelona for the global world conference which will not use android, instead this new open source system is it called tisen, we'll figure it out relatively soon? >> you're the one we go to for pronunciati pronunciations. >> they launch in europe where they consider it to be the key market arguably more than the united states, much more difficult market with so many different languages to tackle but that's where their focus is for the launch. >> as samsung continues not to get a divorce but maybe a trial separation from google as opposed to being too reliant on android. >> i think there was a talk of a listing here for samsung. >> i'm told pisani is on the floor with the dow down 17. hi, bob. >> good morning, everybody. interest rate stocks on the weak side and utilities and emerging markets are on the weak side,

how much longer are we going to use the weather to give the economy a pass? art cashin has been using the phrase get out of jail free for three weeks now and the question is how long it will go on. overnight we saw five companies, five retailers came out, had somewhat disappointing results and guidance and all the blame, weather. put up list. mattress firm holding. group one automotive, la-z-boy and panera put up the five stocks on the board, all of them came up and said we had disappointing results because of the weather. how much is it hurting? panera got the closest. i was very impressed with what they had to say, weather impacted transactions by tonight with and it was impressive. and group one was vaguer. they had a good point, stores in areas boston, new jersey, new

york, new hampshire, oklahoma, kansas, have seen significant closures that far exceed normal weather conditions. they also said a lot of stores in houston, new orleans, atlanta, that normally never close had to close. all right, that's not a number but that's a good indication of what exactly is going on, the bottom line, have you seen weather? eyes break i it is breaking, we'll not have this excuse for very long. we'll see what the fed has to say, they'll have their minutes out at 2:00 eastern time and maybe they'll talk about the polar vortex. you think housing stocks would be in trouble? but have you watched housing starts, the etf for housing basically it is near the highs it had in december. multiyear highs and housing stock despite the weak data is not falling apart and the markets continue to believe down the road the data will improve.

and the geopolitical risk is back, it is true, syria and the ukraine and venezuela and what's going on in thailand and after watching the overall markets even that is still not impacting the stock market. guys, back to you. >> thanks very much, bob. we'll send it to sheila at the nasdaq. >> we are coming off an eight-day winning streak at the nasdaq but keep in mind for the past eight sessions the nasdaq has gained 6 1/2 percent leading the rebound in the overall markets and the technicians say a breather is not a bad thing especially on the day with upcoming fed movers. garmin moving big time on its earnings after its fourth quarter ruls came in better than expected and guidance was solid and biotech mixed action, and

look at amgen and the nice leader is social media. take a look at facebook, linkedn, groupon, they are up a percent today, but you got to talk about tesla, that's the big one everyone is waiting for, they hit a regard butted to we're trading lower ahead of the earnings and, of course, ahead of what mr. elon musk is going to say himself. >> all right, sheila, thank you very much. let's shift to bloonds and e dollar. rick santelli at the cme. hey, rick. >> we'll get to the dollar. i don't know if what a year is the word i would describe. what a boring year is way i would describe it. let us start with interest rates, the slippage of rates in 2014 there was a bounce, of course, when the equity markets righted themselves but it is having an impact on the curve. the two-year note its yield even though it moves in much smaller increments because eyes only 29

basis points, this is the lowest yield closes since early december. let's move down the curve and five year, if five year was to close it would be the lowest yield close since the 3rd and 4th of february, that was the lowest yield close since the big high yield close we had to finish off last year. ten year let's look at intraday, we are slipping under 270, and even though it doesn't appear to be very busy, these are significant high volume areas. open the chart up, and these are the lowest yield close since the 10th of february. we were talking about foreign exchange and the dollar index. here's a chart from mid-december, the dollar index and i picked mid-december so you can clearly see we are virtually unchanged and on the year and yesterday intraday trading dipped below 80. we settled around 80.03 and we're down on the year. where are most of the gains coming from?

the euro currency, the dollar, the euro, the pound have been doing better against the yen recently that's where the big gains are on the dollar. maybe we've delinked with the japanese markets on the equities side, not true on the interest ra rate side. and back to you, carl. let's send it to the nymex where natural gas is moving. >> good morning, simon, let's start with nat gas, we're near the $6 level mark. traders are telling me in anticipation of the department of energy's weekly storage report tomorrow. they are expecting another drawdown in supplies and while the cold weather does seem to be breaking, it's the impact of the storms we've had and the week's drawdown that is impacting the nat gas trade, and want to switch gears and talk about crude for a moment because we are marching higher. we are seeing west texas

intermediate pushing $103 a barrel and that's ahead of the department of energy inventory report tomorrow delayed because of the holiday. while traders are expecting a build there they are saying increased energy demand and the cold temperatures as well as the impact of a few days of a weaker dollar impacting the oil trade. i want to talk about gold prices hovering around the $13.20 mark, we are looking for the fed minutes and support at the 1313 level, if we break out and breach 1328 we can break out to the upside, carl, back to you. >> thank you so much, jackie. the turmoil at target, an inside look at how executives of the company wrestled from the fallout of the data breach. great piece in "the wall street journal." later on meet the owner of the real-life setting for "downton abbey" which has become big business as you probably know. [ male announcer ] we all think about life insurance.

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the bill is mounting for financial institutions for target's date da breach, the estimated cost $200 million for the banks and then the new article from "the wall street journal" this morning sheds some light on the last-minute decisions made by their executives during those crucial days, and the single decision that ceo gregg steinhafel made that cost target billions of dollars. monica langley is with "the wall street journal" who penned the story on pige one today. monica, it's great to have you back. good morning. >> thank you, good morning. >> walk me through, first, how you got this kind of access. you talk about fly on the wall. you take us there during the critical days over the holiday. >> yes. well, you know, first of all, kudos to becky quick she had the first interview with gregg

steinhafel the ceo and from that i realized, there's a fascinating story here about how this company is handling a crisis that really is threatening its bull's-eye brand and that's what i worked with the executives. i got there. i hung out. and this is the story that's in the paper today. and the ceo, gregg steinhafel, was faced with decisions, day in, day out. and every time he ended up makes these decisions that were costing the company billions, but ultimately what he said to me is target will not be judged on this massive data breach but how we handle it. so, that's why he's making these decisions that are costing so much money for the company. >> right. we mentioned this fateful decision of all the ones he had to make, which was the most fateful? >> the most fateful i think is the one when the company had already disclosed right during the holiday shopping season that 40 million of its customers had their credit or debit card numbers stolen. then a few days later, the secret service informed them

that up to 70 million customers had personal information stolen. now, target would not be required by law to say that, and the personal information could be snippets and some of his executives said we don't need to do this, we don't know how much fraud this would entail, but gregg steinhafel said, no, let's go all out, we just need to say everything. well, what happened is everybody added 70 plus 40 equals 110 million americans, guess what, that's one-third of all americans and that sent target's reputation, the press in the company plummeting. target is doing daily polls on its brand and it's at a record low. >> and then they go on to explain how they were going to give free credit monitoring to everybody and they said how are you going to limit that? and they said, i'm not. this is for all americans. this is the largesse of target. >> that's exactly right. let's give it to anybody. if anybody is scared about their credit, give it to anyone. i mean, other decisions he made,

the call centers were flooded, and people were waiting on there for three hours they were so scared about their credit cards, so gregg steinhafel himself called the call center. he was put on hold for 45 minutes, given the runaround several times. he went into a meeting and said enough. let's -- let's fix this. they said, it will take us three weeks. he said, no, do it in one week. they tripled their resources and the cost, now the wait time was down to eight seconds. >> monica, are you buying it? i mean, the central premise of your piece is as the ceo says, we will be judged more by how we deal with the problem than the problem itself. i think a lot of people watching would say, well, all well and good, you're doing well, but actually you shouldn't have been in this situation and you shouldn't have exposed me as a customer in the first place and for that i have a real issue. >> well, i think that is going to be a key question. and some corporate governance people i spoke with said that have they come out now and assured their customers that

they're putting in pentagon-level security that would keep this from ever happening again. the one thing that target says is they will by early 2015 install chip technology to replace the magnetic strips. that's way ahead of what other retailers and financial institutions are saying. so, that's what they're saying they will do. i mean, the question is, could they have done it -- >> right. >> -- when the secret service testified on the hill, they said this was a highly sophisticated plan, gregg steinhafel said that shows retailers are having trouble with this everywhere. >> finally, is the lesson of all this the next time it happens, because we know it will, does the general counsel's office win, will the companies disclose the bare minimum and nothing more? >> that's a good question. we'll see what happens with target. the fact that they're disclosing -- brand will that bring back traffic to the store? if it doesn't, then i think the general counsel office will win, and only disclose the bare

minimum. if disclosing all this brings back the traffic, then it will be an example. >> right. monica, it's always good to have you. great piece. thanks so much. >> thank you. >> monica langley with "the wall street journal" in washington. when we come back we'll get a live interview with the ceo of opentable, how much has the weather impacted business? and green mountain coffee roasters hoping the company's partnership with coke will heat up some business. we'll get that from boca as "squawk on the street" continues.

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google glass explorers be warned, the tech giant has come out with a list of dos and don'ts for their wearable tech device. it brings us this morning to the squawk on the tweet, naughty google, there are children watching, what's a family friendly term, do we say this out loud, the name for people who wear google glass? that's >> that's the expression they use. >> we can say it. >> we can say it. >> i've said it. >> all right. >> you want to say it -- >> you can read the bottom of our screen. we'll get your responses throughout the morning. i just -- i don't know. i can't bring myself to do it. but it's interesting their memo on what to do, i lining tke the

standing in the corner recording people with google glass is not going to win you any friends. >> no. they clearly know they'll be on the ropes with this amongst a large proportion. there's so many don'ts, don't do this, don't do that. i don't know. i don't know. coming up in the next hour of the show, we have three exclusive interviews for you, first the ceo of clorox donald knauss will join us on ceo and the ceo of opentable has a new vision about the whole restaurant experience and a third interview for you this morning, the it's countess the real owner of where they shoot "downton abbey" will be here to reveal some of the secrets of the british aristocracy.

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then an exclusive interview with the ceo of clorox, who will give us his take on the consumer and the global economy. plus, the ceo of opentable weighs in on the company's big bet on mobile. will it pay off? and later the ceo of green mountain coffee joins us for his first tv interview since the deal with coca-cola. you don't want to miss it. but we start with the situation in the ukraine following the deaths of 25 people overnight. protesters in kiev are prepared to stand and fight again today, they say. nbc's jim maceda has the latest from moscow. >> reporter: that's right, simon, and i'll tell you, what looks like an insurrection in kiev's independence square at least overnight and into this morning has now for the time being turned back into a standoff between protesters and riot police. those police are coming out now in larger numbers. they control much of the square, after, as you say, a full night of extraordinary pictures, of

protesters with stun grenades and water cannons being hit by those police. many of the fires that we saw all night longer also still burning tonight as we approach darkness and being used by protesters carrying themselves stones, clubs, and firebombs to hide behind. but under pressure from both the u.s. and european officials and the pope to end the violence and return to the negotiating table, pro-russian president has remained defiant. he's blaming the protesters for the violence and warning opposition leaders that they'll need to be careful because they will be treated accordingly. if they don't come out publicly and denounce the radicals amongst those protesters who have reportedly killed up to ten policemen by gunshot. there's a lot of talk about a new round of talks between both sides, but it's really hard, simon, to see how either side

can find a political compromise given all the violence that we've seen and the mistrust. meanwhile, with ukraine's economy in free fall, the fear amongst the protesters is that yanukovich has struck a deal with russian president vladimir putin promising to crack down as he did last night if russia goes ahead with that latest $2 billion bailout installment which, of course, he has done. so, it's now expected that even a pro-russia prime minister will be named by yanukovich even as vladimir putin here in moscow criticizes the west for meddling in ukraine's internal affairs. we'll see if it's more of the same on the square tonight or if some lessons were learned last night, but we seem to be very far still from any kind of compromise. carl? >> our jim maceda in moscow, jim, thanks. meantime, the city of detroit is expected to release its restructuring plan in a few

days this as yet another bankruptcy hearing starts as we speak. our scott cohn is live in detroit with the latest on that. >> reporter: good morning, carl, this is many reasons the detroit bankruptcy has implications so far beyond the city of detroit. we're talking about the $4 trillion municipal bond market, cities, municipalities everywhere use the market because it's convenient and cheap. millions of people invest in that market because they perceive it to be safe, but it appears that all of that calculus changes when the municipality in question is broke. part of the city's plans here in detroit is to treat general obligation bondholders, those are bonds that aren't secured by things like the water system and the sewer system, as so-called unsecured creditors just like everyone else, they will take a haircut. wall street is furious about this. the companies that insure the muni bonds have gone to court to try to stop that plan. the emergency manager kevin orr when we spoke to him back in july said he understands the

concerns about the muni bond market. but in essence, it's not his problem. >> i'm the emergency manager of the city of detroit and the statute under which i am appointed doesn't say i'm to figure out a way for the city to proceed in a sustainable fashion taking into account the implication it may have on the municipal bond market. it said i'm to figure that out for the city of detroit. >> reporter: orr said he understands the argument that the bonds are supposed to be backed by the full faith and credit of the city but the city is, in fact, broke, all of this a prelude to the restructuring plan, the so-called plan of adjustment which we expect to now be filed as early as friday or by the end of this week and essentially it's the restructuring plan, the city's details for how they're going to restructure their financing as the bankruptcy goes through. it still requires court approval and it will kick off a whole nother set of battles over the next few months. the reports that the pension plans will get a preference

here, 25 cents on the dollar compared to 22 cents on the dollar for the bondholders a result of the aid package we've been talking about, money from the state and the private donations that will shore up the pension plans and preserve the art collection and also by the end of the week we expect to get the city's detailed plans for its operations and the city and municipalities everywhere already watching. >> these are never short processes but of course many watching this one especially closely, our thanks to scott cohn in detroit. meanwhile, netflix is finding itself in a battle verizon leaving subscribers waiting as their content loads. as more and more people stream movies online, who better to ask than john steinberg the president and ceo of buzzfeed and cnbc contributor and an expert on all things involving the future, the media, et cetera. we've been talking about whether we did or didn't have problems streaming some of our netflix over the weekend, i prefer to blame my cable provider but that

may not be who to blame. >> that's like saying your vase smashed on the floor and your two kids in the room and your dog runs to the other room. this involves mirroring and the transportation of the server hubs way far from your home. and the issue is netflix wants better interconnections from the cable companies and the cable companies don't want to do that, the cable companies say that netflix should have to pay, but ultimately the net customer is paying for broadband in their home, if one-third of the broadband usage is netflix in effect they're already paying for it and you are in a market where they is often only one cable provider so you can't switch if you want to. so the rules here are not necessarily the total free market that exists when that's true competition. >> it appears it's at a stalemate with netflix saying we should be able to do it for free that's what the customer expects and some of the distribution companies say, no, if you are using more, you should pay for it. how does the standoff end? >> the way it stands now the

carriers can interconnect to cogent with upgraded hardware and netflix said they are stalling on doing that right now or netflix has built out their own content distribution network which they can plug into as well. the carriers are saying we don't want to do it without payment and they are not deliberately throttling, they are just not being helpful in terms of upgrading so it makes it a little bit gray and the ultimate consumer will say i can't watch netflix because it's buffering and they will switch providers if they can or blame the cable provider. >> they won't blame netflix? >> the first thing they say is it's got to be my cable company and ultimately it is. if netflix is delivering one-third of the usage what is the broadband selling? >> if i drive an 18-wheeler on the highway, not that i typically do that, i'm paying more at the tolls than a regular car. >> for if i make a telephone call or if i use more gas or electricity i pay more. >> you are paying for the calls to come in, right? why are you paying that phone line if not to be able to get the phone calls and that's why

phone calls are flat rate pricing. >> netflix should pay more because they are making the call to me. >> no, if i call you one time and carl calls you ten times you may enjoy your phone service because you're talking to me a lot but you are not paying me more. or you pay for a bundle of minutes. >> on the issue of using band width is only going to increase, of course, as everybody starts -- >> absolutely. >> we know that, it's increasing every day practically. where do you believe this ends up in terms of somebody paying? >> i mean, i think the issue, this goes back to the undergraduate education this is the problem with deregulation in markets that aren't competitive, if there's one provider of broadband which will happen with this merger, and if people are unhappy with their service, we have sta get net neutrality back. >> why aren't people saying my netflix is slow i'm unsubscribing? >> they may, in fact, do that because there's no choice because they can't switch cable providers but if they could and there was clarity they might be able to do that. >> you don't see this a's a

threat to subs on netflix? >> i don't think it is. >> you think it's more of the consumer service surveys. >> people could become so frustrated with netflix that they would turn off of it but i think ultimately people will buffer a little bit, people are not going to watch "house of cards" and they'll blame their cable provider, the best thing will be when they upgrade to the higher cable packages and the speed doesn't increase, if you are going to pay for ten megabits, you should get that. the carriers shouldn't even be selling higher broadband packages if they can't deliver it. >> maybe google can bring us one gig to the house. >> or we can go to the red envelopes. >> or red box. dominick chu said he went to red box, they worked well. >> he might be the only one still going to there, but that's okay. i don't want to let you go without asking about one more company, linkedin where anyone can post content to the site. they have a surprising uptake on their influencers platform. >> this is huge. and i love the title that they

used on the blog post announcing it, the definitive professional publishing platform that's what they called it right now. the influencer platform where jack welsh and people like that have blogged has massively driven engagement and page views are up 1 billion page viewers and you sneak visitors up 34%, they are basically t tumblr now. >> and i'm sure we'll be hearing it on the next quarterly earnings call. >> thank you for being with us. >> and pay more to co-gent to do it. up next we're live at the winter games with sochi with one of the most legendary sportscasters in television. nbc's al michaels will join us live when "squawk on the street" returns. can pick her up. yeah, we can make room. yeah. [ male announcer ] ...office space. yes, we're loving this communal seating. oh, it's great. yeah. [ male announcer ] the best thing to share? a data plan. ♪ new at&t mobile share value plans for business. our best value plans ever. for example, you can get 10 gigs of data to share.

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the excitement at the winter games in sochi just keeps coming our chief international correspondent michelle caruso cabrera is live in sochi with nbc's al michaels. hey, mi >> reporter: hey there, carl, we're thrilled to have al michaels here, eight olympics, eight super bowls, eight world series. >> crazy eights. >> reporter: we've just finished watching, russia losing and i'm kind of disappointed because that means in hockey we'll not see a u.s./russia face-off. >> correct. >> reporter: how do you feel the russians are feeling? it's sinful to lose in hockey. >> you have been here long enough if the russians only one

gold medal, it had to be hockey. don't even get into the semifinals. it is a gigantic disappointment. i mean, putin is the guy who, you know, this was the most important thing to him. people were laughing about the fact he's telling his coach who played in the 1980 team in lake placid, you know, who do you use on the penalty kill, that was probably a little overstated. but this was gigantic. this is an incredible disappointment for a country on its home ice and a team that has 11 guys who play in the national hockey league and a lot of superstars and out they go against the fins today. >> pretty amazing. >> yeah. >> reporter: you talked about the nhl, they are talking about not helping out in the next olympics in career. is that a good idea? >> the deal with them, i love the national hockey league. i love hockey. i've been a kings season ticketholder for over 20 years. grew up in new york, and loved the rangers. i thought it was great when the nhl allowed the players in 1998

go to nagano and it was a weird year and the guys go the in trouble but they cleaned it up, by 2002 everything was rolling again. i thought the hockey in 2010 in vancouver was the best quality of hockey. the quality of hockey here is phenomenal. i think the nhl is out of its mind if they pull out of the olympics. i really do. i understand what the problem is here, too, because they haven't been treated the way they want to be treated, some of the muckety-mucks, number one, and number two, some of the owners feel we don't want to shut the league down for three weeks and lose that revenue. but i think the olympics do more for the national hockey league than anything! it's a different thing, it puts these guys on display, and i think they're out of their mind if they don't come to the olympics in 2018 and beyond. >> reporter: 1980, miracle on ice, those were amateurs those americans. >> right. >> reporter: facing off against what were professional soviet players. >> right. and the guys were amateurs. >> reporter: do this day are we still getting dividends from that game? >> there's no question about it. i got to interview the other day on sunday on nbc the torchbearer

lighting the cauldron of the opening ceremony, that's how important he was. three gold medals for the hockey team. lost in lake placid, they yanked him out of the game. kind of a wild scene in all of that, what took place there. but he said to me, the other day, he said that team was able to inspire a lot of american kids to play hockey, and, you know, they are what they are today because what he called them those boys did in 1980. and jeremy roy who played in the nhl for 20 years, one of our analysts, he told me, he said he's completely inspired by what happened in lake placid, that made him want to play hockey. and a lot of nhl players have told me they remember that as kids, they went, wow, look at that, look what happened there. and that's why they decided to play hockey and that's why america is so good now in hockey. >> reporter: i remember the miracle on ice, it still makes me cry as a child, it was scary.

al, thank you so much. it was really great having you on. >> can we get in a plug for "fast money" or something? >> reporter: carl, don't take it wrong, his favorite show is "fast money." >> i need to say one thing, carl, who was it that said we have to buy in full blocks on "fast money"? i know it wasn't carol and pete, but i went out and bought it and i wake up one morning here and it's down 45%, explain it to me. >> we'll track it down, al. >> explain it to me. >> don't you worry. >> reporter: carl, i walked down the hall, i said, hey, al, good morning, he said the futures are down. >> but the dow's up about, what, 60 right now? i'm on top of it. >> al, you're the best. michelle, thanks for bringing him to us. we'll see you guys later on. >> good stuff right there. meanwhile up next another exclusive interview this time with the ceo of clorox, he weighs in on the state of the consumer and the company's efforts overseas. "squawk on the street" will be right back.

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we're up 85 on the dow, and facebook is also rising. now it's $68.03 to an all-time high in the wake of those strong results. meanwhile from weather concerns to worrying about your wallet, there are many questions surrounding the health of the consumer. sara is getting some answers and at the consumer analysts of new york conference and interestingly it's in boca raton, florida, which looks

nicer than new york but she's got the ceo of clorox's don knauss. take it away. >> weather is top of mind when it comes to consumer company challenges don knauss great to see you. >> sara. >> we call it frozenomics the impact on the consumer because of the deep freeze of the weather. are you seeing it? >> we're seeing a little bit of an impact. we haven't quantified it yet. it may be a point of impact, we don't know yet, but typically the weather events tend to even out over the course of the year. recall last year we had the coldest march in a long time. it affected the charcoal category in particular, but so far we are not seeing a major impact. it's more of low jess ticks and getting trucks on the road and supplies to retailers. >> it might be helpful for some of your cleaning products and the bleach products especially with the increased flu season we're seeing. >> we definitely saw an all-time record on clorox disinfecting

wipes in the october, november, december quarter, so any of those products that disinfect, you're right, we're seeing a big surge in those products and as people stay home more because of the weather, our products tend to do better. >> between the weather and the headwinds in seasonal factors it's hard to get a gauge on what the consumer is feeling right now. >> yeah. >> you own a number of categories in the consumer market, how would you categorize the state of the american consumer right now? >> the consumer is pretty fragile. we play in a broad range of categories from burt's bees to charcoal and -- >> soy sauce. >> people don't know that about clorox. we are a pretty good canary in the coal mine in terms of what's going on with the consumer. if you look at all the categories, the last six months they were up a point which is kind of what historical trends have been. the last three months have been flat. things have flattened out as retailers are discounting more to get traffic into the stores. >> you get 78% of your business in the u.s. market. >> that's right.

>> you have a great handle on america. does it protect you and insulate you from some of the problems your competitors are facing in the emerging markets? >> i think being american-centric company helps particularly with all the kunkssy issues we're seeing in the developing markets, it does help in some ways and, of course, the economy in the u.s. is a little bit more robust. i mean, we are going 2% to 2.5% gdp and it's been fairly stable the last few years, so that does help. >> you mentioned the broad range of categories everything from cat litter to charcoal to cleaning supplies. what segment are you most excited about in terms of growth for 2014? >> it's interesting the oldest product we have is our bleach, it's 100 years old and what's interesting that category had been basically flat and declining 2% until the last 18 months, that category was up 14% in july, august, september. >> is it the increased health care? >> no. it's really -- do you know what happened is we compacted that bleach. we took a 96-ounce bottle and squeezed it down to 64 ounces, same number of servings if you

will, just like laundry detergent if they will, and we've seen the consumers radically shift to bigger bottles and they are paying more for the bigger bottles. >> have you trained your consumers to do their laundry with the more concentrated bleach. >> the old bleach took three-quarters of a cup, so we've adjusted to the new hd machines that don't require as much bleach, but people are using more and more to clean and disinfect. want to get your thoughts on competition, it's always been an issue private label versus clorox, where are you feeling it the most right now among the categories? >> the toughest competition we've had the last year it's been in bleach and wipes, clorox disinfecting wipes and both of those products had about a 60 share so we're fairly, you know, a strong leadership position in both those categories but we've seen not only branded it's more private label competition as people look at opening price points and getting more value on the shelf, that's been the toughest issue, but we're starting to see bleach shares come back, for example. >> don, my colleague david faber

has a question for you back at the stock exchange. >> hi, david. >> hi, don, how you doing? i know it's 2 1/2 years ago that you successfully fended off carl icahn, but back then, of course, activism was certainly something on a lot of ceos' radar and now it's front and center. >> right. >> do you have a piece of advice given a successful defense against a guy who has only gotten a lot more active in the 2 1/2 years he came after clorox? >> right. you know, david, i think the key thing that we did, and i really stressed this with my folks when we were dealing with carl, let's treat carl as our largest shareholder and not an activist. what it did is it made us much more responsive to his questions, you know, his concerns, his comments, his thoughts about the business, so we were very open and transparent with carl. and i think when you treat people like carl as your largest shareholder instead of an activist who you are looking at as a negative, i think it really changes the mentality inside the company on how you deal with im.

>> it certainly is big issue, don knauss, always good to see you. the ceo and head of clorox, you heard it from him the fragile state of the american consumer, i think you'll hear a lot of this from the consumer analyst of new york group conference. >> thank you so much, sara, and we'll continue to go back to you with big name interviews. and we want to get a check on wall street because there's a lot of changes going on especially concerning hiring. and now many millennials are trading up to private equity, technology, or even just some time off, so how did banking become a temp job? we talked to some former analysts to find out. >> at the university of wisconsin, chris martinez was a self-professed investment geek. his first stop after graduation in 2010, goldman sachs. how many all-nighters did you pull? >> i lost track honestly. on an average week i worked between 90 and 100 hours and there were some weeks where i worked 130 hours and there are

only 168 in a week so -- >> martinez guessed 5% of his work saw daylight. graham carroll a former analyst at bank of america merrill lynch had similar frustrations. >> there are times when you are sort of at your low and you've been up all night and you are kind of going what's going on here? i tried to focus on sort of what's the bigger picture here? >> the big picture wall street as a springboard for a new job. new york's tech industry circled wall street to poach its weary. facebook recruiters even using bloomberg terminals to lure bankers here to new york's ace hotel for meet and greets that according to "young money" the new analyst tell all. >> it's no surprise that there's a buzz on campus about the emerging, vibrant start-up community in new york and the technology industry here. part of that interest is driven by the sense of an opportunity to build something. >> at all top business schools the portion of graduates heading to wall street had been shrinking as had the number of people willing to stay on wall

street. carroll stayed for a rare third year but left for business school in 2012. >> there definitely was the culture or the push within my group at b of a to retain talent and one way that they did that was by, you know, coming up with this third year analyst position. there are probably one or two people who are in that position who became associates and are probably still there. >> like surgeons, analysts are always on call. every situation a deal's life or death. more face time than substantive work. a quick search on reddit found misery sure loves company. about 80% of what i do could be done by a monkey. if you enjoy investment banking you are either lying on a complete masochist. we are literally expected to hand over the reins to our life to the bank and, of course, we do. if you are anonymous you can say just about anything. goldman sachs is most visible

about trying to give the reins back and we've got a special report on cnbc.com about the problem with the programs and wall street's concerted efforts to keep a lid on their talent and on "power lunch" we'll talk about the changes afoot and whether they'll work. it's more about compensation these days. is it fun working in a heavily regulated industry? what's the content of the work you are doing? are you buried in a spreadsheet or are you actually meeting with ceos and getting to have your work actually make a difference? thanks for trying to figure out a way to actually make some of those things happen it's easier in theory than in practice most times. >> it was the culture of wall street that you began when you begann at goldman or the investment banks and spent 18 hours a day at work and you slept under your desk, that's what you did for a few years and it was hell but you got great rewards at the end of it. >> as a first-year analyst you get six figures right out of college but the difference if you go to google or facebook or if you could get a job at a private equity firm right out of college, why wouldn't you do that instead of going through the gauntlet of wall street? >> right. >> it's all very well to bite the hand that used to feed you, but the guys are going for the

rewards. you look at what some of these start-ups, i mean, they are going for money. they are going for where they think they can make millions very quickly. it's the same story just the environment is switched. >> some have said they feel like the work they do is more impactful at some of those companies because they're actually creating a product. you are seeing it through and it's something you can hold in your hand or you can view on a website or something like that. >> for sure. >> it's not something that disappears into the dark corner. >> it's a good thing when the rocket scientists develop rockets as opposed to cdos and we're in good shape. >> wall street executives are saying they are getting more finance -- >> creating jobs. >> more finance and economics majors and fewer liberal job majors, but it's an interesting debate. >> talking about the generation that will lead banking for the next 20 or 30 years so you got to listen to what they are telling you. when we come back the owner of the real downton abbey, we'll see what it takes to keep a

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this country's ten million "downton abbey" fans know the story line well, wrestling with a changing world to save the family estate. but what about the real life modern-day business of owning and preserving a downton abbey with us at post nine is the family who owns high claire castle in england where "downton

abbey" is filmed for over 330 years. she's out with a new book "cady katheri katherine, the earl, and the real downton abby." thank you for being here. >> thank you very much. >> people will be fascinated where you own the star of the show. how many rooms does it is have? >> between 200 and 300 rooms. >> the state dining room has a dan vike with a giant portrait of charles i. that's quite a family home to maintain. >> it is, actually, and it has a couple of other van dykes in there as well, we've got a wonderful selection of works of art collected over hundreds of years and then in the cellars we've got an egyptian portrait as well. >> yes, yes. if you look back at your family's history and you've got your third book out and you use the archives to peel away what happened to your ancestors and your husband's ancestors.

do they have similar lives to what we see on the television? is it the same type of story? >> it was actually a bigger house, with more william and thomases, more butlers, more chefs, more guests and more parties. yes. >> that's interesting because england is littered with country estates that have faded. they couldn't even afford the roofing bills let alone the staff to run them. i'm wondering why yours is still in such good shape. did you start out with more money? did you start out with more works of art as a family that you could sell over the years, therefore, you still exist? >> we existed because of a tremendous sale at christie's in 1926 to pay off debt duties and we exist today because i think we end up working quite hard and like any other business it's our diversi diversification. >> you live in a house during the summer, a side house, so that visitors can come and visit? >> yes. >> how else do you monetize what you have? >> we have weddings, private dinners, conferences. visitors coming.

we have country game fairs. we have a lot of different events to try to draw people in. and then there's a culture. we want to try and make people love it. we want to try and make people want to come. and fortunately for us, "downton abbey" has really done that. >> how much does it cost to rent it out? if i wanted to get married at downton abbey, how much would you charge me? >> i don't talk about money because i'm a countess. >> you told me that. >> but i like net margins, i make it especially for you, how about that? >> really? >> yes. >> what's the off season? how much of the year is filming versus events? can you do both at the same time? >> you can do both at the same time. it's a big square house, so it's better not to try to multitask which i think is a very good thing for all of us actually. we're not so good at it. we do one thing at a time and the filming started last week and it's with us on and off until july. so, it's a big part of our diary

and it's broken up by when we open to the public at easter, other private tours and dinners, so we're just like any other business trying to work out how to sustain ourselves and give us a future. >> do you remember when pbs or the production company first came to you and said we'd like to do this, and did you know your life would change as a result? >> if i had, if i could bottle that formula, i would be terribly wealthy, wouldn't i? i didn't. and we just thought we hoped somebody might watch it. it was a tremendous gamble from julian fellows the script writer and a dear friend of ours and actually itv. itv backed "brides head revisited" and that gave where it was shot 30 years so far of visitors. >> other parts of the house that you have to hide? i mean, do you have an elevator that can't be shot? >> we have no elevator or a lift. >> or modern radiators. >> no, no, no. we have old-fashioned radiators. no showers and no air-conditioning. >> and how many televisions? >> we have one television.

>> how can you only have one television? a 200-room house. let me ask you finally, has this sorted out your financial problems now? because even quite recently you were going to -- because i come from your part of england. >> yes. >> you were going to local residences we need planning commission because the roof is leaking, has "downton abbey" saved you or is it a continuing struggle? would you admit if you were still struggling? >> i think if you're not restless and eager to do better as a business, you are going to struggle and what the press put across at that point was not necessarily the whole story. what we did, we looked at all our liabilities for our stewardship and if you open all those brown envelopes on day one, you find it's quite a big number. and over our lifetime you're looking at how you can best support the roof and the asset you're looking after. so, that's what was put in the press in a slightly misreported way, and i hope we will do other

things. >> your grandchildren be there and your great grandchildren in 100 years? >> i don't know. i can only do my best and hope i can pass it on. >> it's been great to meet you. thank you for coming here. >> thank you. thank you. from high tea to coffee, coming up the ceo of green mountain coffee in his first tv interview since the deal with coca-cola will join us live a little later on. "squawk on the street" meanwhile will be right back. in today's market, a lot can happen in a second. with fidelity's guaranteed one-second trade execution, we route your order to up to 75 market centers to look for the best possible price, maybe even better than you expected. it's all part of our goal to execute your trade in one second. i'm derrick chan of fidelity investments. our one-second trade execution is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. call or click to open your fidelity account today.

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welcome back to "squawk on the street." check out shares of garin which are soaring in early trading up 9% after the gps and navigation systems maker posted better-than-expected profit and sales but it wasn't traditional systems that drove the results it was stronger demand for aviation and fitness-related products, garmin like i said up 9% in early trading. back over to you. >> diversification pays off. let's get to the trading floor with rick santelli.

>> thank you very much. there's been a lot of talk about the anniversary of things like the stimulus plan. so, i want to talk about some anniversary remembering here. most of the anxiety that the country started to feel after the credit bubble, started when president bush on october 3rd, 2008, signed t.a.r.p. basically i believe that's when larry kudlow coined bailout nation. bailout was not a happy time. and i will continue to say that, of course, we can't go back and redo things, but all the issues that resulted in t.a.r.p. if we were to go back and look at them, most likely if all those involved would have known five years out the conditions, i'm not sure that the best regulation which in my opinion is failure wouldn't have been a better route, maybe it would have been worse for a year but i think we would have been on the road to recovery, but that was under george w. bush. then you move towards january and there was a variety of bailouts getting penciled in,

we'll gloss over that. february 17th, 2009. the american recovery and reinvestment account known as stimulus, maybe the most unpopular program of all, really split the country, and many still remember, of course, shovel ready which, you know, shovel ready wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. it was put through so quickly and without a lot aforethought, then, boom, february 18th, the next day! homeowner affordability and stability plan. this is when, of course, the talk was, said the government was going to go and fix all these problematic areas. on february 19th i blew a gasket, but basically what was born at that point was the voice of dissension. how do we know that? many, of course, still remember the irs issues. the president said maybe there wasn't a smidgen of negativity there or news there or anything inappropriate there. but it seems like if you look back, it was february of 2009 where all of that started, if you look at some of the irs records, but dissension was

born. but something happened on "morning joe" that really caught my attention. you remember the cbo plan or report yesterday that was released that talked about how the minimum wage would cause half a million people potentially to lose their jobs even though it would bring others out of poverty? we all know the big economic adviser gene sperling on "morning joe" this morning, put it up on the screen, this is what he said regarding the cbo, this is not an area where they have expertise, it seems once again dissenting voices aren't very popular. but this is america. dissenting voices will continue to voice their dissent, because they've read the operating instructions for the united states of america, and it's their right. back to you. >> one of the great things about our country, rick, thanks a lot. when we come back opentable struggling this year. the stock down more than 5% so far, but will the company's big bet on mobile pay off? the ceo will join us live after the break for that exclusive. we'll be right back. scottrade.

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if ceo of the restaurant reservation service open table is laying out a vision of the future in which he hopes will change your whole experience of dining out. most recently, of course, the

recommendation for $17 million. joining us now in an exclusive interview, matthew roberts, the ceo of open table and also our own jon fortt is with us here. matthew, welcome to the show. nice to see you again. >> you, too, simon. >> before we get in the thick of the detail a lot of people will want to know what you're seeing at the moment. you know, with this weather slowdown, you are plugged in in realtime to restaurant reservations. what can you tell us? >> well, obviously i think we're on our 18th named storm of the season. so really tough for our restaurant customers and businesses in general. so, you know, we'll keep an eye on it. there's only so much you can control relative to the weather. but certainly our restaurant customers are feeling the impact. >> matthew, i'm wondering at your plans for growth. you talk in the earnings call about the potential for $100 million falling into to the bottom line if you get penetration throughout north america the way you have it in the san francisco bay area. >> right. >> but it seems like internationally and maybe in a lot of places in north america

rest raurants don't want to pay for fee. how do you get them to want to pay that 200 bucks a month, plus $1 per diner? >> if you look at our customer acquisition costs for restaurant, we are the most effective way to fill seats. and in a fixed cost business, that's all profitability. i feel like our return on investment and our customers do as well. it's just you can't beat it. there's no other marketing vehicle that restaurant can use that has a pay a dollar and get $43 in revenue. >> so are you going to get those res bookist customers, those 2,000 that you acquired to up grate grade to opentable because it sounds from interview wsz some of them that they aren't too eager to do that. >> well, they absolutely can stay on the technology, that's what we said at the time of acquisition. and that's still the case today. >> matthew, let me take you to the broader picture. the grand vision that your now

laying out is impressive. no longer just a transaction company. you have been experiencing company, when people walk into the restaurant, the host will recognize their face. they will know what to order because they've already seen the pictures of the food and the chef's recommendations. when they walk out of the restaurant they won't need to wait to pay the server. how do you get there? that's going to require a lot of engagement, a lot of moving parts. >> well, the great news for us is that we already have the foundation in place where the largest network in the world connecting diners and restaurants. we ended the quarter with over 31,000 restaurants and we've seated over half a billion people through the network today. so we have this really strong business, this really strong connection between diapers and restaurants. now it's really fun to expand from a transaction to an experience company and do the things that you just mentioned. >> but surely that's a long way to go, to get that sort of engagement. i mean, let's just come back, as

you and i have discussed before, the payments pile t lot that you have in san francisco at the moment and in the conference call you acknowledge, you know, how stressed some of the waiters can be, the attendants can be, as to whether they buy into this idea that somebody walking out of the table, out of the restaurant will have paid. that simple communication is still not yet been honed down, has it? >> actually we're doing some fantastic work there. and we have the pilot live right now. and early feedback, i'll stress early feedback is that the experience feels very organic and natural to the service level. and both from a diner perspective and from a restaurant perspective, the team is very excited about the early results. so, yes, it is a challenge but we're really up to that challenge. and because we have the technology in the restaurant already and in the hands of the consumers, we're the ones that are in a position to actually solve this. and it's a really worthwhile pain point to solve. >> okay. so let's say you can raise the

engagement of the restaurants themselves. smor gas board of things they might be able to do as a result. how do you raise the engagement of the diner? the idea is that they will have recommendations from their friends what they should choose, what restaurants, what dishes? is opentable fundamentally a social network? are there different sorts of people wanting different things? >> what's really -- why we're in a unique position is we're focus and dining out and delivering amazing experiences when you're dining out. and what comes with that focus at a local business is really an opportunity to be the experts and to really help people discover that perfect dining experience. because we have the largest network we also have the insights on where people like to go to eat and they can start to follow their friends or follow chefs, where do chefs like to go out to eat. there's a lot of extensions that we have available to us because of all work that we've gotten to build the largest network in the

world. >> i'm i. >> i know that 2014 by any accounts are going to be a building year. matd thousand, keep coming in and keep talking to us. it's a fascinating story. matthew robterts here. meanwhile, google glass explorers being warned. the tech giant has come out with dos and don'ts. i'm sure among them, don't be evil. that brings us to this morning's squawk on the tweet. naughty google. there are children watching. what's a family-friendly term for google glassholes?

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tweet time this morning. google has come out with a list of dos and dons for those of you who use google glass, so we've asked. what is a family-friendly term for those google glasswarers? john writes, more like google i have no friends. mary beth writes, geeking toms. that's my favorite. and eye van writes, google clickheads. but i think kayla said it all when -- the mission continues to be do no evil. that's their point. >> it is. p you're wearing those and no one can see what you're looking at who is to know, who is to police. >> a bit like manufacturing nuclear weapons and saying don't use them. >> you're calling google glass a

nuclear weapon. >> yes, i think so. it's very bad form. i wourchlt have somebody passing the google glasses on. >> you make them take them off? >> yes. and mobile phone is in the corner. >> you can't have that. >> nicely done. >> david, we'll see you later. >> we'll talk hopefully more ukraine in a few minutes. increasingly important story. if you're just joining us this morning here's what you missed earlier on. >> welcome to "squawk on the street." here's what's happened so far. >> there's only three positions one can have in a bull market. really long, pleasantly long, or neutral. sometimes neutrality is not a bad place, but one does not get short. it's still a bull market. >> i think one other big advantage we have in this country is almost 80% of all the software developed in the world is developed right here in the u.s. and that's really going to drive this digital revolution. we've got a big advantage over the rest of the world. >> how much capacity are you using, the move to high def by

net flex, for example, using more bandwidth. it's going to be a contentious issue and one that we are with for some time. who pays the freight? >> i think we're still generally going through the soft patch in terms of the weather. the data was probably stronger a few months ago before the weather and now we're seeing a bit of an echo effect on that. >> the opening bell. >> we saw an all-time record for disinfecting wipe shipments in the october, november, december quarter. any of those products that disinfect, you're right, we're seeing a big surge in those products. >> we have weddings, private dinners, conferences, visitors coming. we have country game fairs, we have a lot of different events to try to draw people in. and then there's a culture. we want to try and make people love it. we want to make people want to come. and fortunately for us, "downton abb abbey" has really done that.

>> good morning. live here at post 9 at the new york stock exchange. we want to get you a check on the markets. an hour and half into trading. right now we're seeing the dow up by 65 points. the s&p is also slightly into the green wall. the nasdaq is slightly into the red. watching shares of zales soaring this morning. $21 a share and cash. timely deal post valentine's day. in total. it's worth $1.4 billion. shares of panera rallying after fourth quarter earnings boo beat estimates. current quarter outlook is below forecast though. the company is saying surprise, bad weather is cutting down on customer visits. carl? >> road map goes like this today. starts with walmart. one wall street firm suggesting the retailer should expand its portfolio by buying family dollar. is that a realistic option for walmart? we'll talk about that. plus, coke's deal with green mountain made headlines last week. we will have the ceo and his

first interview since that deal went down. speaking of coke, what if the next time you went to drink a soda or an energy drink you saw a safety warning label slapped across the bottle? one california lawmaker wants to make that a reality and he'll be here to tell us why. meanwhile, walmart is set to report earnings tomorrow morning. but an analyst note on the retailer is getting a lot of notice today. courtney reagan is back at hq with more on that with us. courtney, an interesting proposition in this one. >> very much so. not everything seems to be working as hoped for for walmart. the retailer has touted the small format stores as the point of success and has announced plans to add 250 more of them this year. walmart has traditionally grown its domestic fifth footprint organically. credit suisse is suggesting they take a different route to accelerate. specifically to buy family door. he says family dollar locations have the least overlap with walmart compared to dollar general or dollar tree stores

which would mean a lower risk of a deal being blocked by regulators, plus 24% of family dollar stores larger in markets in areas where walmart has had a hard time breaking down. buy family dollar, if it wanted to, it could. investors are waiting on new ceo to come up with new strategies to help slipping sales. mkm partners says some investors would like to hear about a slowing of store square footage growth so the retailer can return more cash to shareholders. thursday morning mcmillan will lead the earnings call for the first time. it is taking over at a difficult time, retail in general and for walmart specifically. the retailer already issued a profit warning and noted a strain from a reduction in food stamp benefits as well as weather. joe feldman thinks mcmillan needs to continue to in aggressive pricing. walmart needs to be aggressive commencing them to shop eight at

its stores. john ledger is finding himself in hot watt we're the ceo of blackberry after encouraging subscribers to switch from blackberry to iphones. he responded with this statement. i can assure you that we are outraged, too. what puzzles me more that is that t-mobile did not speak with us before or after they launched this clearly inappropriate and ill-conceived marketing promotion. our own jon fortt joins us at post 9 with more on this. the war of words. >> this is some of the best news from blackberry i've heard in a long time. blackberry customers, the ones sticking with it are outraged they were offered iphones with no money down from t mf moes-t-. maybe a little rodney dangerfield a little reversing here, blackberry getting a little respect. >> it reminds you in these carriers are not operating at a vacuum. what do they owe the device

manufactures? do they owe them that respect? >> only if they're install base is still paying and still passionate and still loyal. so i think it's important that t-mobile is actually responding to some backlash from these diehard blackberry fans. i think if you're still using the blackberry, you're still with it after all this time, you like that keyboard, you don't want to be insulted with a suggestion that you should switch over to iphone. and john chen saying they have an offer, upgrade offer, coming for their loyal customers soon. >> why pick on blash berry at this point? >> he was just incentivizing what's been happening already. you look at blackberry's handset numbers and subskrisher numbers. they've been going down. i think he was trying to accelerate that maybe. keep people on more recent t-mobile phones. ones that seem to be more profitable. >> are you impressed by chen? early days in his stewardship

here. >> i'm impressed operationally with how he reduced the risk on the handset side. i'll have to see if he can able to lock in on the enterprise customers with kus vservices. we haven't seen the numbers on that yet. >> i was going to ask you about the numbers. are they show that people are sticking with the enterprise service with blackberry so far? >> we'll start to get the first real peek at the upcomings earnings announcement. >> thank you, jon fortt here. here's switching gears, does your soda need a warning label. new proposal in california would do just that. requiring warning labels on sugary drinks including soda, energy drinks and fruit juices. labels would warn about obesity, diabetes, and tooth decay. for more let's bring in state senator bill morning. senator, good morning to you. >> good morning. >> what exactly do you have in mind? >> quite simply would require a warning label as you described to provide consumers and

families with notice of the noerngs proven adverse health impacts of sugar-sweetened beverages. we know they represent the leading source of increased caloric intake, particularly among children, leading to preventable diabetes. it has both a staggering economic impact on our state and our nation, but more importantly, effects the quality of life for a lifetime. >> we know you tried unsuccessfully to raise taxes on these beverages last year. we know what mayor bloomberg tried to do here in new york. that didn't happen. now this. are advocates of health and not to say they're not trying to do the right thing, running out of ideas when it comes to sugary drinks? >> no, in fact, i think we're -- all of these are tools in a public health tool chest. we're confident the support we have from the california medical association, minority health organizations.

the public health community is united. these drinks represent the leading threat to public health. it's been described as a public health crisis, as an epidemic. we believe the label warnings will give consumers a very important right to know. consumer right to know. we're not removing choice. we're not taking the products off the shelves. we're just saying, this is an important part of the discussion and should inform the choice of families, particularly who have been using these drinks now more as a staple in the family diet than a weekend treat. >> surely, senator, a lot of parents try and keep these sugary drinks away from their kids. where does this warning originate from? the signatucigarette label come the surgeon general. where does this one come from? >> a panel of scientists and doctors who have worked together nationally to focus in on what we know to be the proven adverse health impacts of consumption of

sugar-sweetened beverages. remember, these beverages have no nutritional value. when the sugar is delivered in the form of liquid, it has a more impact, it goes straight to the pancreas, makes the liver work overtime. and the sugar is converted rapidly to fat. >> if this bill passes, a lot of businesses will have some effects and movie theaters, it will be on the counter, at some restaurants it will be on the menu. how have businesses reacted to some of the discussions around this? >> it's a fair question. we think it has a minimal impact on business, particularly on retail outlets. they would be required to post this warning label on a vending or dispensing machine. that's a one-time action. for the manufacturers and producers, they would be required to put the label warning on the container, on the liter bottle, on the can, on the 20-fluid ounce bottle. these warnings, we think, are a

part of a broader public health strategy to promote conversation and to inform consumers. >> finally, senator, you know, soda consumption is coming down relative to other types of beverages. you could argue that me lennals have a more worldly view of what's healthy for them than other americans. why not let demographics take their course and argue that younger people are going to make smarter choices down the road? >> it's a fire question, but the fact is consumption rates, particularly among children and adolescents, are going up and there isn't good public information. this bill goes to sugar-sweetened beverages that include the sport drinks, the energy drinks. some of those mixed with caffeine which is a more deadly combination, if you will, because the caffeine has addictive properties to move the sugar through the body and to create a dependence and a reliance. what we've seen in some of the

polling is the public isn't aware that a 20 fluid ounce bottle of soda has the equivalent of 16 teaspoons of sugar. that's double the daily recommended allowance of sugar in our diet. >> we'll watch the initiative closely. appreciate our time very much, senator monning of california. the association representing nonalcoholic beverages, those companies in california did issue this statement. we agree that obesity is a serious and complex issues. however, it is misleading to suggest that soft drink consumption is uniquely responsible for weight gain. in fact, only 4% of calories in the average american diet are derived directly from soda. according to government data, foods, not beverages, are the top source of sugars in the american diet. and we are hearing from some viewers saying put a warning label on ice cream, cake, and cookies, as well. >> you could expand this to a lot of different products. certainly that debate will go on. meanwhile, we're also talking coffee. it's been a great year for green

mountain coffee. stock up over 50% in 2014 alone. a lot of those gains coming after coke announced a 10% stake in the company. green mountain coffee ceo brian kel kelley will join us in a moment. but before we do that, rick santelli, what are you watching? >> we're going to be watching four different areas. we're going to be talking about the ppi data this morning under the new strategy and formulation. we're going to talk a bit about housing and weather. we're going to talk about china. we're going to talking about a boon option that didn't quite measure up with andy brenner, bottom of the hour. at cognizant, we help forward-looking companies run better and run different - to give your customers every reason to keep looking for you. so if you're ready to see opportunities and see them through, we say: let's get to work. because the future belongs to those who challenge the present.

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dow is up 50 points. energy, one of the best performer on the s&p. dom chu is back at hq with more on that. >> carl, there are big individual stories here. neighbors energy leading the s&p 500 higher. land drilling contractor neighbors is the best performing stock there in that index. this after reporting better than expected fourth quarter earnings on impressive gains from international operations. rounding out the top five in the energy sector you got big names in coal and natgas like consol energy, also diamond offshore and devon energy. devon energy said it will sell liquid rich natural gas assets to canada for 2 attorney $8 billion. so a lot of individual stories, kayla, driving the big action in energy today. back over to you. >> certainly a lot of big moves there.

thanks so much for broinging thm to us. green mountain rose 50% after announcing the partnership with coca-cola. sarah eisen has more with brian kelley in his first television interview since announcing that deal with the soda giant. >> just about two weeks ago they announced the deal, the ceo of green mountain coffee roasters. there is so much excitement about this deal with coca-cola but there are a lot of questions still. for instance, do you have any sense of how big of a market this is going to be, this new category for you? >> i don't know how big it will be. we do know that cold beverages are four to five times the size of hot beverages. we're in the hot beverage business today and we think it's a substantial market. >> do you think it's going to be enough to turn around the trend of soda consumption in north america? >> i certainly wouldn't rest alone on this. i think there's a number of things that can do that. i think this is one of the things that can help as we -- as we get the machine out there and we get the cold machine out

there and consumers get used to using it and see the convenience and see the choice. >> do you you have the actual machine, do you have the technology? >> the way the process works is you do prototypes, make the prototypes. improve the prototypes. we're in that stage now. we've made actual machines. we've made them. they work and now we just keep perfecting it were we launch. >> you're going to launch set for 2015, correct? >> fiscal 2015 we'll launch. >> what is going to be the biggest hurd with getting this out there and getting consumers to start using it? >> i think the biggest hurdle in building a system like this with our -- same with our hot beverages is getting an installed base. so we're in a little more than 18 million households today with our hot beverages. the keurig hot system. it will take us time to develop that installed base with the cold system. we think it will go and wily it this will perhaps faster than the hot system dade because we were brand new. ten years ago there wasn't a keurig in a home. >> can you elaborate what the financial terms of the deal are with coca-cola?

>> we haven't made public those financial terms so i won't talk about them. it's a really good deal for both the combined assets of both companies. >> how do you see the coke bottlers playing into this? >> it's up to coke. they have a terrific bottling system. it's a -- >> you're a veteran of coke. we should say that you were an executive at coke before taking the reins of green mountain. you know that's important. >> it is important. and that -- we'll work out whatever coke wants us to do in terms of the bottling system. that's coke's decision and they'll make that decision wisely. >> in terms of growth, are you planning to desdisrupt the soda, cold drink category like you did for coffee? >> what we've done for coffee is grow the category in an accelerated rate and bring a premium to the coffee category and tea category. we think we can do that to the cold beverage categories as well. and if you look at what the consumer told us, because when we go to homes that have a keurig machine today and we ask them what should we do next? what they tell us is can you make a machine that does a cold beverage.

they wanted a coke, a diet coke, those kinds of brands at home. they want to be empowered to make them on their own. they want to have choice. they want it conveniently. they want to put a pod in, push a button and get a drink. >> how much of a competitive threat is sodastream? >> they've paved the way in the marketplace. they have a terrific product. so we see them as a strong competitor. >> clearly investors are excited about it. kayla mentioned your stock price since announcing the deal two weeks ago. you have some haters out there. david in horn who has aently as january 21st said he was still short green mountain. what do they get wrong about this company? >> you know, it's hard to say. i would just say this, detractors make us better. they make any company better. when you have people looking and constantly challenging your model you get sharper. you get better. and that's what detractors do. >> and one of the continuous issues that they raise on the stock is the competition. competitive landscape,

especially since losing that patent. how do you see that playing out in 2014? >> well, we are in the process of moving and converting to keurig 2.0 and keurig 2.0 offers the consumer a complete new set of benefits. it does everything that current keurig does, in delivering a single cup of coffee with all the brands, but now they will be able to brew a pot of coffee, carafe of coffee, in addition to the single cup. that's the single biggest requests consumers had from us. can you make the keurig machine make a pot of coffee, too. >> i want to ask you about coffee but first, my colleague out in new york has a question for you. >> brian, you mentioned how much respect you have for sodastream and big question on investors' minds who watch this space after the deal was announced was what the deal between coke and green mountain means for pepsi and sodastream, two competitors of yours, respectively. i'm just wondering. you don't know how big the market is but is there room for

two at-home cold beverage products out there and would you rule out doing a deal with pepsi as well? >> well, first, the market, the cold beverage market we do know how big it is. it's very, very large and as we were saying earlier, four to five times the size of hot beverage categories. we know it's large. of course, there's room for more than one machine out there and one brand out there of machines. just like in hot brewers. you know, there's multiple brands of traditional drip coffee machines, of single cup, single serve brewers like keurig. we've been fortunate to do very well. but there's lots of competition out there and we expect there to be lots of competition. >> you mentioned on the conference call that -- >> sorry, sarah. i wanted to ask if the coke deal precluded doing a deal with pepsi as well. >> what we've said is it will be a multi-brand system and it will be a multi-brand system overtime. coke has a series of first mover advantages. and that we think we're

appropriate and so that's really how the system will work. what consumers have told us is that they want a machine that does, for cold beverages, what it did for hot beverages. they want to put a pot in, push a button and get a drink. >> that seems to be where consumer demand is. coffee, that spike in coffee futures yesterday. expecting higher prices here? >> i think there's no question the market has come up and may continue to go up, you know. we're protected and well prot t protected and we'll continue to watch this. the interesting thing is and perhaps the most important thing about coffee pricing is single cup pricing has continued to premiumize the category regardless of what the commodity cost of coffee has done. so we see that continuing. >> great to get your thoughts on the coke deal, the 10% equity stake, and coffee prices, competition. brian kelley, ceo of green mountain coffee roasters out here north consumer analyst group of new york conference. >> great stuff. enjoy boca.

see you soon. when we come back, it was another solid day for team usa at the winter olympics. we'll go live on the ground to sochi for an update when "squawk on the street" comes back. all stations come over to mission a for a final go.

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start building your confident retirement today. welcome back to "squawk on the street." i have bricking news on net neutrality. fcc says it's starting over with the open internet rules. fcc chairman wheeler announcing today he will not try to reclassify broadband as public utility for now though he is keep that option on the table.

the fc krrk says it does not plan to appeal a court's decision on the fcc's lawsuit against verizon which effectively threw out many of the fcc's prior set of net neutrality rules which looked to prevent internet carriers from selectively blocking or slowing web traffic. as the fcc pursues this idea of net neutrality, ensuring that all data is treated equally, it will take public comments and issue new guidelines saying it's looking to focus on transparency and to hold internet service providers like comcast, time warner cable, et cetera, to their promise that thaip they'll honor consumer safeguards. this comes amid controversy about verizon fios, another one of those internet service provider, slowing the speed of netflix streaming. carl? >> quickly becoming maybe the key debate in american business right now, julia. thanks for that. julia boorstin in los angeles. the winter games in sochi are heating up, especially on the ice. our brian sullivan live from olympic park and, brian, it is

all about the russians today. >> yeah, really is, carl. sort of two clouds hanging over the games right now. when we get to sports in a second. want to give you an update on the russian stock market. we are here obviously. the news of what is happening with the protests and the police backlash in kif, ukraine, a country financially and politically supported by russia. has been a topic here. in fact that is the rsx's etf. down 1 1/2% today but look at year to date. down more than 11%. many of the big russian companies have seen their shares go down in the last couple of days. don't forget the russian economy and stock market and the region all very closely intertwined. something to pay attention to. carl, you will appreciate this anecdote and this is our segue to sports. couple of hours ago i went into the tulip hotel next to the broadcast center. there was a group of men watching television during the russia hockey game. i assumed they were watching the game. they weren't. they were actually watching a news feed from kiev about the

protests and then the speech on national television in the ukraine by the ukrainian president. this, of course, during the russia/finland hockey game. it's getting a lot of attention here. speaking of hockey, you can understand the mood, carl. you can understand how important hockey is to russia. they are out. earlier today they lost 3-1 to finland. you could just feel sort of the mood of the entire olympic village deflate. we had thousands of people in the square. the actual circle behind me underneath the flame, watching a big screen tv. they were cheering earlier. the mood turned to desspoponden. a little boy not happy about the finish. a lot of people had tears in their eyes. looked like they were welling up. you know how important, carl, this was to them. it's really deflating, i think, for russia right now obviously. >> unbelievable. to hear michaels with michelle in the last hour talk about if there was one gold they needed to win, this was it.

couple that with what's happening in kiev. the next few days are going to be interesting to just watch the tone that putin tries to set, wouldn't you agree? >> yeah, i think so. listen, you were here for a week. the olympics are more than just about ice hockey but ice hockey, men's hockey in particular, was the sport. that was the hot ticket. you could not get into the game today. it was completely -- i tried to get in and i couldn't even as a member of the media because there was so much media already in there. i was a little bit too late to the door. so this is where all the attention was. of course, united states is about to have their face-off here in a few minutes. there's hope for the united states. obviously we look now to sweden, canada, and the u.s. but you could just feel kind of the mood of the place. you know all the security here, carl. you walk around. you see the guards everywhere. they've been doing their best to put a happy face on. no happy faces tonight at the security desk. i guess the one thing you can look for is this, russia still leads the medal count. right now they are tied with the

netherlands, 22, the u.s. with 21, and norway with 20. leading the medal count but you know as well as i do having been here for a week that men's hockey, that loss is going to be a big blow to russia and to the olympic games in general for the russians. >> interesting to get your take on the ground there, brian, as those results came in because it's been news over here, too. we'll talk to you very soon. brian sullivan tonight in show so chi. meantime, markeds are closing across europe. a mixed session on a day in which the data did show surprise increase in the uk unemployment rate. up a tenth to 72 in the three month to december. the report showed earnings growth rising and a decline in jobless claims. meantime, shares of agri on the rise. plans to pay a dividend for the first time in four years. tough day for european steel pipe makers who do big business in north america. the u.s. commerce department decided not to hit south korea with tariffs on its steel pipes.

a lot going on across the pond but there's also a lot going on here at home in the markets. the dow up 57 points. we'll get a little bit more on that after the break. also, a preview of tesla earnings. what's in store for elon musk after the bell today. all that when "squawk on the street" comes back. usic♪ tony stewart: in my career, i've learned a thing or two about having the right equipment and a great crew. i've also learned how great it is to do the things you love. that's why i'm happy to be part of the bass pro family. because a name you can trust, people who stand behind you, and equipment you can count on (engine starts) mean everything to me. bass pro shops. where commitment, passion and the great outdoors all come together. you want everything.orks

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welcome back. bob pisani on the floor of the new york stock exchange. let's look at the s&p 500. despite disappointing housing data, second day in a row we're getting that s&p continues to

move up 1848. there's your key. that's the historic closing high. we get above that. we're at a new high. let's look at the housing starts numbers. really disappointing housing starts numbers for january. a lot of people would say housing starts are starting to fall off. here's a five-year chart. what's going on here is more of a flattening that's going on. i think some people were more optimistic in the beginning of the year than numbers that we're getting. the bottom line is i wouldn't say falling off a cliff. i would say they're flattening. the housing stocks are continuing to hold up. s there's your itv. that's not a bad chart for a year. interest rates are low. demand is not falling off a cliff even if it's moderating a little bit. blame the weather. five retailers blaming the weather. you will notice not big declines other than format tress and lazy boy. panera, lumber liquidators citing weather for guidance and numbers. three of the five are to the upside. natural gas who have been doing this story for days now.

up 35% year to date. 15% in the last few days. natgas stocks continue day after day to be market leaders overall and if you look at the actual erksz tfs and the indexes around them we're dealing with new highs. look at the xng. this is the historic basket of gas stocks that we have. sng at a new high right now. just a few points away from historic highs in the s&p 500. guys, back to you. >> bob, thanks so much. meantime, the labor department has overhauled the producer price index to include not only the wholesale prices of goods but also services and construction. let's get to rick santelli in chicago with more on that. hey, rick. >> absolutely, carl. it's the talk of the trading floors today. i'd like to welcome our special guest andy brenner. thanks for taking the time to be our guest today on the santelli exchan exchange, andy. >> thanks for having me, rick. >> all right. you know, do you think that the change in ppi is just including more, obviously the service side

of the economy accounts for a lot. it's the bigger swath of the economy. is this going to make the number better or is the timing of this, you know, there's a lot of conspiracy guys on trading floors, andy. what's your thoughts? calculating the old styles saying the headline number would have been three times larger than the 0.2 that we received. >> no question if we had the old way it would have been somewhere around 0.5, 0.6. i think it's going to come back and backfire on them. we see that the short-term unemployment rate is somewhere around 4.2%. that means that there's a lot more workers that are out there that are a lot less workers looking for jobs and we think that's going to turn into higher wage inflation and the very near term. so we think it's eventually going to backfire on them and you're going of see higher inflation. i got to tell you my personal inflation rate is off the charts. cable bill up 40%. restaurants up 20%. you know, it's not even close. you can tell me 0.2 all you want, not even close.

>> i agree. sometimes best use the senses that god gave you. and it just doesn't feel right. i'm with you. another area. today, two different perspectives on the housing data. the fact that starts and permits were both not as expected but the notion that permits being a little less surprising makes sense because, of course, starts are going to be effected by weather. when i looked at starts in the northeast and this isn't me, everybody is talking about it. surging 55, 56%, that dispels some of the weather issues. your thoughts? >> you know, there's no question that the fed is on a path that they want to continue to finish this tapering. they don't believe in qe. there's a lot of talk now about whether effecting numbers, no question it is. but this is one of those cases where, gee, if there really is the weather, how come the northeast and the south are two areas that got hit hardest, showed up numbers where the west didn't. >> let me cut you short on housing because i think you nailed it. here's the biggie. okay? the germans could have sold 5

billion euros of boons in options today. only moved 4 1/3 billion. should we read anything do that? your thoughts. >> rick, you're very low levels of rates in europe, as well as still in the u.s. much more so in germany. i think this is going to be a more of a problem than people anticipate. this is your first failed auction since september '12. >> andy, thank you. we came in on time. thank you for taking the time today. simon, carl, and the gang, back to you. >> i'll take it from there, rick. and acquired skill ending on time. natgas topping $6 for the first time in four years. jackie deangeles has more on that big move at the nymex. >> that's right. we haven't seen these levels fortunate gas since january 7th, 2010. traders coming in this morning scratching their heeds a little bit on the move wave seen in the last two days and that is because the temperatures are actually supposed to get warmer especially here on the east coast. but what they're telling me now is responsible for this is

actually the drawdown in supplies that we've seen over the last few weeks. we are supposed to get another department of energy report tomorrow and they are expecting another big drawdown pop p. the to put it in context for you what we've been seeing, the trend line has been in the range of twice as severe as what we've seen at this time usually normally this year. sorry, on a yearly basis on average. what traders are looking to is that report tomorrow. saying we have options expiration next tuesday. they're saying seven bucks could not be far away. guys, back to you. >> incredible. thank you so much. it's been a great year for tesla. stock is up over 30% in 2014. hit new highs over trading yesterday. what should we expect when we report earnings tonight after the bell? we'll get answers of that after the break. [ bagpipes play ]

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excusive interview with john williams get the view of polity makers before today's minutes come out. and airline rsz flying higher despite the deep freeze but for how long. we check in with the ceo of low-cost carrier spirit. stock is up almost 150% over the past year. and with stocks rallying, is it time to take your money and run? the traders reveal the high-flying names you should be taking profits on. all straight ahead on "the half" at the top of the hour. speaking of high-flying names, tesla is off new highs above 200 it hit yesterday.

still up 30% so far this year. the company due to report results. down what we expect, bring in brian lee i have, senior auto motive senior analyst to talk tesla. stock hit an awe-time yesterday. wall street says this is the make or break quarter for the company. do you believe that? >> i don't think it's make or break for the company but i expected the stock price will move based on what the news is. we already have an indication from the company that they're going to have a very strong quarter in terms of sales. >> it was obviously a very big year for tesla, 2013. someone in every single state bought a tesla, production ramped up significantly despite some of those headline troubles from some of the fires. it was a very big year. but do you think that 2014 will have a similar outlook, that it will be just as bullish looking forward? >> fundamentally it should have an excellent year in 2014.

i think revenues will double. increase the production. demand is pent up there. there are more people who want to buy the tesla than actually can buy it right now due to production. and i think that's one thing is we're going to be looking forward this afternoon in the conference call to hear what the production expectations are for the year. >> what's the number? seems like earnings comes down to production. what's the key number to watch tonight? >> well, we're looking at the number production, you know, they did 6900 last quarter. we expect the sequential production. basically over the year we expect to see constant progress, double again in the u.s. as well as grow internationally. china is an important market for them. >> what did you make of this apple news this week? >> well, i think that was more of a story for the media than it was for the company itself. as far as acquisition, we don't really discuss that. it's the mark and cap, i don't see the strategic value. the more likely thing would be about technological connections,

doing a partnership with that. >> you see tesla revenues growing 466% in 2013. with a company that's growing this fast oftentimes the numbers seem like they're extrapp trap lated. is there a number you would see that would worry you in this report tonight? >> no, because they're really coming from a very small base. they finally got to the mass production last year. i think i indicated before we expect them to -- revenues to approximately double this year and the key is for them to improve their margins so that trails down to the bottom line in the earnings growth. >> all right. efraim, for now, leaving it there. that company reporting today after the break. live fpictures from kiev. you've seen the headline. three-month stalemate in independent square basically being broken. water cannons, molotov cocktail,

armored personnel carriers, hundreds injured and 25 killed at last count. it's going to be a long night in kiev as it was last night. as we get more headlines we will bring them to you as soon as we can. when went come back, it is time for a showdown. who belongs on the list of the most important people in business over the past 25 years? murdoch or malone. ♪ [ indistinct shouting ] [ male announcer ] time and sales data. split-second stats. [ indistinct shouting ] ♪ it's so close to the options floor... [ indistinct shouting, bell dinging ] ...you'll bust your brain box. ♪ all on thinkorswim from td ameritrade. ♪

as part of our 25th

anniversary cnbc is compiling a list of the 25 greatest influencers in business over the past quarter century. and we need your help. who should make the list? today we've got a face-off for you. it's the battle of the media mogals. david is going to start us off. >> all right. although both have plenty of merits. start with john malone who helped create the modern day cable industry before selling the company to at&t in 1989. malone has been at the center of the creation of many of the content companies now in existence. i'm not just talking about the ones, of course, that either controls individually or through liberty media such as discovery and many of its networks but the likes of a cnn or b.e.t. to which he gave distribution and carriage on tci. certainly was important in building that relationship. if capitalism is about building value and delivering returns, malone is tops over the last 25

years. he realized early on that levered equity returns are the key to creating value and, of course, as our own viewers know, he's been focus and tax efficiency. liberty media and many spinoffs has delivered a return to its shareholders of nearly 18% over the last 18 years. now, liberty to go public in 1991. that is according to the company. 18% beats every single media company out there. by the way, beyond all that, malone is the largest individual land owner in the u.s. with much of that land to be preserved for future generations. and he's also doing interesting things on succession and preservation of his own companies for future generations. first, here's julia boorstin in los angeles who will present the case for a man he is familiar with. >> rupert murdoch is the ultimate media mogul building a newspaper business into a international empire with assets

ranging from the music studio to star india and a new sports cable channel. murdoch's launch of the foult network in the 1980s and fox news in 1996 made him a force in television. while his $5 billion plus purchase of dow jones in 2007 gave his publicing business more global power. murdoch has shrugged off major phone hacking scandal and news of the world has been able to grow shares of his two companies since they split last summer. news corp's market cap is $10 billion. 21st century fox' is $70 billion. that makes the murdoch family worth $13.5 billion as of september according to forbes. carl and kayla. >> all right, thanks for that, julia. it's a tough choice and two guys i know our viewers are familiar with. malone was an early investor in cnbc. sirius, xm, barnes and noble, live nation. >> all through liberty. >> what's going to happen at liber

liberty? >> interestingly, we've got news today on john malone and his plans for succession. it's something he menged to me innen interview last may on cnbc, which is how do you preserve the voting shares in some of your companies such as discovery and liberty global, both of which he has essentially what amounts to a controlled stake. it's not more than 50% but his vote is large enough it's a control stake. and this morning in filings we learned that he has or will be granting rights to the ceos of each of those companies. mike freeze of liberty global, david at discovery to buy essentially his voting rights from him at some point in the future. no time soon. malone's 72. he's still chugging along as our viewers well know from the fight, of course, that they lost for time warner cable, or appears they lost. but none the less, this is very interesting. rupert murdoch hasn't even done that for his own kids and yet malone is willing to do it for ceos who he is completely unrelated to, i might add.

a fascinating plan on his part in terms of succession. he is noted leaving this company to his children. >> very interesting. i know a lot of those ceos will be happy to learn that, as far as that race goes. david, thank you for that. julia, when we're thinking about voting on the contenders, you wonder who what extent if if the all viewers will feel that the phone hacking scandal hurt the legacy. we'll see when they vote on cnbc.com. make sure and go there and do that. apple is bringing its itunes festival to the united states for the first time. we'll tell you whether, that's coming up next. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 trading inspires your life. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 life inspires your trading. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 where others see fads... tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 ...you see opportunities. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 at schwab, we're here to help tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 turn inspiration into action. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 we have intuitive platforms tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 to help you discover what's trending. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and seasoned market experts to help sharpen your instincts. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 so you can take charge tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 of your trading.

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apple is bringing its initunes music festival to the united states for the first time. five nights this march apple will be streaming concert live by south by southwest. it will include cold play and imagine dragons among others. jon fortt joining us with more. i saw a nice tweet the other day. said, i like imagine dragons better when they were called cold play. >> funny. and cold play when they were called u2 as people used to say. interesting move in apple here. they've been doing the itunes festival in london for seven years. bringing it to the u.s. moody theater for the first time since sous wide. it's interesting because apple

is now the biggest music retailer around. they have these artists come in and perform at the festival for free. kanye west takes a little issue with that. he said at one of his concerts to tim cook in some indelicate language, you are rich as -- so you shouldn't ask -- >> less indelicate language? >> imagine that. it's good marketing for apple's eco system. probably not bad marketing for the artists because apple will give these tracks away. a lot of times artists can see a boost in their sales. >> artists will be performing live at south by. how do you get it? >> you can get it through itunes on your foep, on your pc, also apple tv and apple has a way of giving these concerts away for free later in the year often. >> keith urban, pit bull, a lot of other artists lined up. sure to be a big event. thanks. >> thanks a lot, jon. one more picture on the kiev finding nightfall upon it. you're basically looking at the

opposition camp which has now been burned as the debate continues as to which way the country is going to go, toward the west or toward russia. big questions for them. no compromise appears to be in sight. we may be in for more trouble overnight tonight in kiev. that does it for us here on "squawk on the street." let's get back to headquarters. >> carl, thanks so much. what do you guys think, before we go here, about what this market has been doing? we're trying to figure out if this whole move back from the lows, carl, of that correction are for real. >> not far from break even, scott. 1848376 is the number to watch. six points. >> certainly a couple of weeks ago you wouldn't have thought we would be here. >> nasdaq is only one positive for the year but looks like it could be that back. we'll see. >> kay larks comen organization you don't want to be greedy here. up eight straight days. what do you want, nine, ten? >> not even housing starts can hurt that. >> all right, guys. have a great on