good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen. andrew is off today. we start this morning with a developing story. the search for malaysia airlines flight 370 is widening three days after the boeing 777 went missing just one hour into the flight. one development overnight, one of the two men traveling with the stolen passport is believed to be an iranian national who was trying to seek asylum. the story has been developing throughout this and we will be checking in in just a little bit. we've been watching to see what happens with this and to this point, again, there are more questions than there are answers. we'll have a report from quala lumpur coming up in just a few minutes. a mystery businessman, mr. ali, who is supposedly iranian and supposedly paid cash for the tickets of both the guys is what is being reported yesterday,

which sounds totally crazy, but -- >> there have been so many wrong reports and -- >> but it's hard to say anything. >> this one, the latest that i had read on this, this gentleman, was seeking asylum, they thought, in germany. they didn't think he had linked to terrorist activities. but again, all of these stories are changing quickly. >> he had the stolen passport and supposedly the second guy with the stolen passports, they bought their tickets one right after the history. we're going to have a gentleman who knows from bbs. >> right. >> everyone says the 777 is one of the greatest planes ever designed. and they don't -- >> that's why they are not willing to write off any foul play. right. >> whether that be pilot error, hijacking, terrorism. >> there's 50,000 flights a day in this country, i think. and typically, you know, they don't just disappear out of thin

air without a single warning sign. >> it looks like this plane may have been turning around. they picked up military radar. they can't figure out why it wasn't on the radar or at least malaysia airlines hasn't given more information on that. but on military radar, picked up is and showed that it may have been turning around. so now they've switched the area that they're searching. >> but no -- >> why they -- >> being able to radio back in, i don't know. again, there are a lot of questions that still have to be answered on this. just about everything is what we don't know. this gm thing is -- seems to be -- the journal devoted a large section. congress is set to investigate the response by gm and by safety regulators. the complaints about faulty ignition switches that led to 13 deaths. they're recalling 1.6 million cars. >> yes.

>> house committee panel chair fred upton says vehicles were recalled and weighed down by a key ring to turn off the the car answers engine and electrical system, which affects the air bags and -- and you couldn't turn the wheel and the thing is, you hit 13 and then you wonder what it -- you know, the people that lost -- you think why didn't you do this after two, three, four, five, sex, seven, you wonder whether you could have changed the outcome for some families. >> the people within general motors knew about this for a decade. apparently it never rose all the way to the top. but the idea that people somewhere in the company would know and that it wouldn't rise to the top is stunning. >> and so many times you want to -- you know, you worry about how much it's going to cost for the recall. you balance that out with safety concerns and it's a tough line, but, you know, this is not

turning out that well so far. gm is going to fully cooperate with the committee and has launched its own internal investigation. >> it was a really tough one for the new ceo. >> yeah. >> although he has said -- >> better to come in now and clean it up rather than -- >> she's within with the company for a long time. the questions are -- >> was she involved? >> she has said categorically no. we've heard from other people, too, higher up who said no, they did not know about any of this. but she has said they're going to launch this huge investigation and sthept to find out the truth. they don't care where the truth takes them, they're going to follow where the actual facts fall down on this. and dow component dupont is blaming the weather for a challenging first quarter. the world's largest chemical companies blame storms and low temperatures delayed the start of the planting season this year and that impacted the company's chemical business. the political unrest in ukraine

has delayed seed deliveries. really? anything else? dupont runs a factory in a simple part of that country that produces a variety of seasonal -- no kidding. crazy. however, dupont is sticking by its 2014 earnings forecast of 420 to 445 a share. take a look at due pond. i just wouldn't think that during earnings season we're going to hear a lot about -- >> ukraine. >> right. >> but especially if you have a plant there. >> when i first read it, i guess -- >> more skeptical. >> problems in ukraine? maybe this time they're not lying. >> i think we believe this. >> that's what i was trying to say. didn't is that? >> not exactly. >> when i said this time they're not lying, that was a poor choice of words. >> that's right. >> okay.

let's get a check on stocks this morning. you see this morning, futures are indicated lower not by a lot. dow futures down by about 12.5 points below fair value. s&p futures off by 1.5 points. if you're watching oil prices this morning pb you'll see right now they're up slightly, up about 31 cents. we did see a significant decline. it was a drop better than 1%. 101.46 is the late trade for wti. the ten-year note, yesterday we watched the yield around 2.8%. this morning, the yield is at 2.788%. and the dollar today, looks like it is indicated up across the board. it's up against through, rating at 1.38, 1.385. it's up against the pound, up against the yen. dollar/yen is at 1103.29. and gold prices are up about 6.70. it's been a steady climb for gold, right now, 1,348.20. back to the story of the malaysian airlines flight, again, a lot of speculation about what's been happening. there has been some new details.

and sri joins us now with more. sri. >> thank you for that. the new details are that the holders of the two stolen passports that boarded the plane in question, flight mh-370, one of them has been identified by malaysian police a 19-year-old iranian man. now, what's important here is that they have ruled him out as a terror suspect as someone who is affiliated or connected to a terror group. and the reasoning here is that he was probably just trying to migrate to germany to frankfurt was his final destination. and in an extraordinary twist to this story, apparently his mother was waiting for him at the airport. and she also confirmed that he was using a stolen passport. she has been cooperating with the malaysian authorities.

but there still remains this outstanding question of the second holer of a stolen passport, stolen italian passport, i might add. his nationality, his name and identity basically have yet to be revealed. we're working on that investigation. there was a lot of excitement amongst the passport when the immigration director general held up a photograph of the man in question and they basically amobed to this podium behind me fixated on this area of the stolen passports. while it is an important and legitimate area of inquiry here, it's very important to stress not to lose sight of the fact that the search operations that are going on in the western peninsula, malaysia, and the in the eastern peninsula of malaysia are still ongoing and they have yet to really turn up any tangible material trace of

mh-370. this is very important because the authorities need to reconstruct the aircraft from the debris to determine what the last moments of this flight could have been. and until they find the evidence, this would leave no hard and fast material to determine what exactly went wrong here. back to you now. >> let's say it was in the sea there, sri. is there some shallow water, some really deep water? if it was in the deep part, can you do that? you can't go down and get stuff at 10,000 feet, can you? >> well, what i understand is that it's not relatively deep. we're talking about depths of around 300 feet, i believe, some are saying even more shallow than that. the analogy that people are

drawing, the parallel that people are drawing, aviation experts, etcetera, is with the crash of air france 447 in 2009 when it went down over the atlantic. the smaller debris fields, joe, took about a week to discover. the larger the debris fields, the bulk of the aircraft took about two years to discover. but some people are saying it could be months if not years before the full extent of the debris is recovered. it could be a very protracted area here. depth aside, we are talking about vast expanses of water here, just one of the search zones designated into a grid the size of spain. so that gives you a sense of perspective how challenging this task is, despite the fact that we have nothing short of the multi national naval force out there coupling d.c. for any evidence of this missing aircraft. >> no.

we just -- >> joe and becky. >> you don't know when it's that high, where the pieces are. have we had one come apart at 35,000 feet? how big would the field be? >> there's far more questions than answers at this stage. >> that gives perspective, the idea that one of the search areas is the size of spain. also, we should point out there's a statement just out from malaysian airlines. there had been a lot of early stories, early reports, some of those had been untrue. one of the reports was that there were five passengers who checked in and never boarded this flight. malaysian airlines says that's no longer true. there were four passengers never showed up for the flight so there was no need to offload bags that they had checked in. it tells you about these stories, they start early, the story changes as we hear more and malaysia airlines putting out this statement. we'll check back in with sri later in the program.

now another story we've been talking about, the ousted ukrainian president yanukovych speaking in russia today saying he's still the president. we had another guy in moscow with the constitution behind him, snowden, talking about human rights and stuff and the violation of human rights in the u.s. from russia. it was so strange, jim. anyway, that's a different story. let's talk about yanukovych. >> yes, a very different story, though a very similar date line, i guess you'd say. yanukovych made his first appearance in a couple of weeks. he is definitely still in russia. he didn't take any questions this time, joe, but he once again declared that he remains the legitimate president of

ukraine because he was ousted by an unstaushl coup. he warns that right now in the streets of kiev, the ultra nationalists there are firing security officials, army officers, mass gunmen are patrolling the streets. he said he never fled the country. that was a big question mark, one of the reasons why the parliament took over. he said he never fled ukraine, he was in ukraine the whole time of the so-called coup. he called the may 25th electrics completely illegal and illegitimate and says crimea is breaking away. as far as he is concerned, it was happening, breaking away from ukraine and he blames what he called the hunta in kiev for this tragic series of events. russia, of course, backs yanukovych. we wouldn't be spending so much time talking about someone who could be considered completely irrelevant now. but it is the fact that russia does still see yanukovych as the legitimate leader of ukraine.

and as a starting point for an attempt to come back to that february 21st agreement and then somehow work out a deal. this has been a nonstarter for the west, but it certainly still is in vladimir putin's thinking. meanwhile, in crimea today, very tense with just five days before the referendum there. the russian parliament there is preparing legislation to allow russians an exing of crimea. meanwhile, you've got the russian or pro russian sources using overwhelming numbers now since they've tape over just about every ukrainian base, including missile base owes that peninsula, sometimes firing, intimidating shots. miraculously, no one has been wounded at this point. there are increasing reports, as well. this is very disturbing of pro ukrainian journalistes and activists being beaten or kidnapped, not just in crimea,

but in kiev. in answer b to that, twice, the nato military exercises that started nearby today with several eastern european nations, running wardrobes with the united states by sea, by air, you've got awak surveillance planes. this is all getting very ugly and very, very tense as we approach sunday's vote. back to you guys. >> so much irony in so many things, jim. so the russians are very concerned about the rule of law being followed and yanukovych's duly affected leader here and -- >> the an ex. >> about their an ex, the best part of ukraine in keeping for themselves. it's very selective in terms of what rule of law they're deciding to pay attention to, no? >> yes, indeed. and that is what makes the covering of this story particularly complex and particularly entertaining sometimes. but they do consistently go back to the point that yanukovych was

elected freely and fairley and that, according to the ukrainian constitution, to change any law at all or the constitution, you need to have the president sign off as well as the parliament. so far, every single law that's come out, this is -- every single law that's come out of kiev since february 28th is illegal. >> but after he was elected, he drastically changed the powers of the president and took away a lot of liberties that other people were watching, too. you're right, it's a very complicated and complex story. >> you're absolutely right, it is. the fact that he's come out and said crimea has been -- will be russian is interesting, as well, because on the one hand, he is supported by the government here, by the kremlin. but on the other hand, he doesn't want to look like he's pro russia non punish he wants

to look lye a leader of ukraine. all very tricking. >> all right, jim, thank you. obviously, this story is going to continue and we will check back in with jim maceda again soon. meantime, another story we've been talking about for some time, bill ackman is expected to unveil details about you you herbalife issues in china. he's been calling it a pyramid scheme for quite a while now. a claim that herbalife has vehemently denied. ackman seder ba life failed to address a number of questions, including those about its sales practices and remuneration. billionaire investor ackman has taken a short position against herbalife, but the story yesterday in the "new york

times" raised questions about how he's been lobbying washington and whether that is because he sees problems there or because he is trying to prove a point or trying to move a stock price. >> payback. the n should be before the m. remuneration. you're talking about numbers. >> yeah. i had -- >> anything that pops up in the prompter, rural. coming up, airlines point to the weather for first quarter woes. that's next. plus, the executive edge combined with the squawk ceo call. bee aerospace founder armand curry is our special guest. this company makes@a lot of stuff inside the plane. we're going to talk to him about

that and see his taking on what's in the news. as we head to break, check out the price of crude this morning. and a 27-point inspection. and everything looked great. actually, could you leave those in? sure. want me to run him through the car wash for you, too? no, no, i can't. get a dexos 1, synthetic-blend oil change, tire rotation, and inspection for just $39.95 or less. chevy certified service.

welcome back, the major airlines feeling the impacts of that harsh winter. air leans are expecting to feel earnings pinched in the first quarter. delta told the jpmorgan investor conference this winter that the

storms hurt revenue about about $90 million, but really knew would grow slightly. american expected to see a slight rise in revenue, as well. united warned that the weather would impact sales and jet blue says it expects 1% to 2% revenue growth in the first quarter. southwest expects a 3% rise. most will see rises in revenue even though they did see particularly harsh weather. airlines stocks were mixed on monday. time now for our executive edge. we're joined by the founder and ceo of bee aerospace company. ayman is here to talk to us about the company's new luxury suites the.first, we should get your thoughts on the missing malaysian airline. i talked to you earlier about what a great aircraft the.777 is and this is not typical of your experience of what you would by

about this. >> the 777 is a reliable aircraft until they can figure out what actually happened, joe. >> and like so many things, we're hesitant to say anything about it, and then we jud just heard about, you know, a stolen passport and someone who is trying to get out of an area and that is why they were using the stolen -- it could have nothing to do with -- >> seeking asylum in germany. >> yeah. what are you talking about, this luxury suite that i just referenced, b/e aerospace, is that different parts of -- >> no, actually, joe, wher in the middle of what is probably going to be the best cooking

order in our industry. and super first -- will have private passenger compartments with electrical act tu ated doors, dining for two and a late flight bed and a tv, a small refrigerator, a place to hang one's coat. so it is really flying in a luxurious way. numerous airlines have now adopted this capability. so -- emirates, qatar, lufthansa, air france, british airways. numerous planes around the world have begun to install this suite in the aircraft. >> that sounds phenomenal, but it sounds so opposite of what we

normally do. >> i think flying domestic flights in narrow body aircraft over short distances is very different than flying long distances over very long periods of time in twin aisle wide body aircraft. and the service is totally different, so you're likely to have two meals on board and a couple thousand cups of coffee are served and whines and drinks and so on and so forth. it's a very different kinds of service. middle classes are being built and passenger traffic the dwooping at a higher rate than in the developed west. >> you see a growth cycle like this, do you expect it to continue the next two, five, even ten years? >> i think what's driving growth is the emergence of middle

classes in so many of the developed countries of the world. passenger growth last year was in the order of 5% which is a pretty strong january with almost 8%. and i noted that you had been talking about the airlines having had a difficult period here with the polar voe text and the snowstorms. airline res in their fifth year of a period of unprecedented profitability. they'll earn roughly $20 billion this year, up 50% from the prior year. and last year's earnings were up some 70%. so they're having a period of profitabili profitability. there are low factors and yields are as high as they've ever been. the air kravrt's cpi has grown substantially. so the air leans have strong balance sheets, they're generating lots of cash, they've been profitable for quite some

time and they do expect to have a very strong 2014. and as a result, ordering aircraft have led the rates. boeing and airbus have the biggest backlogs they've ever had. they have a 10,000 airplane backlog. they're producing and delivering aircraft at a record rate, but they're barely denting their backlogs which are so long. subsequently, we have the largest backlog in our history. the outlook for our company over the next several years is for continued strong revenue growth and faster earnings growth. >> you have to keep making those skinny seats that you can pack in. if those are the people you are talking about, the middle class, the luxury seats, who can afford that? you know, on united, you can get the 180 degrees, the tv. i don't know if i need a door. it would be nice -- i wish i

could fly in these things all the time so you can get the seat back so when you fall asleep, your head doesn't -- wow, look at that. those people can buy their own jets, can't they, that can afford to fly like that? >> the tickets are about $13,000. that is one of the suites you're look at right there. but -- >> you make the other ones for united, the -- >> we do. as a matter of fact, we did develop that innovation that is lay flat aircraft business seats. and we have retrofitted all of the united airlines wide body aircra aircraft. >> ayman, i also read you guys were putting in a --

>> what is that, a catheter? a diaper? what the hell is that? >> no. >> do you have to aim -- >> how do you -- >> we've developed something that has been patented. what it does is it permits the placement of an additional up to six additional aircraft seats in a boeing 737. so our lighting .oxygen systems and psus and lavatories are on the boeing 737. and the way those lavatories are designed, there's actually more functional space and it's a much more comfortable and clean environment because of the surfaces which have been used in the manufacturing. it does put together a better economic model for the airlines

and the addition of up to six seats. >> do you guys design the toilets, too, like the actual toilets that go in the lavatories? we designed the toilet for the new lavatories in the boeing 737. >> i hope it has a deeper -- my problem is -- flashback factor. i hope we have a -- >> no. i like to flush. >> a deeper front. >> i want that flush in my toilet at home. whoosh. it's like gone, it's out of the neighborhood. >> it sounds like, becky, like you and i may have to talk about this after the program. >> seriously, i am going to talk to you about this after the program. i'm glad to hear you guys have redesigned this. maybe the new ones are better. that's what i'm thinking. >> nice to be with you. have a great day. >> great to see you. >> you want the flush like that, not one of these -- that goes -- you're hoping, go, go, leave.

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good morning. welcome back to "squawk box." i'm joe kernen along with becky quick. andrew is off. secretary of state john kerry may be reading with the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov this week. but the u.s. says that will only happen if moscow is willing to engage seriously on a diplomatic solution to the situation in ukraine. ukraine is getting part of the blame, believe it or not, for a first quarter earnings issue with dupont saying the unrest in

ukraine, where dupont has a feed factory is hurting its bottom line. congress's 30 senators are on the case. they're goes to pass legislation against the weather. what was that? another dow component microsoft also in the news this morning. it's releasing its widely anticipated titan fall game for the xbox 1. it's hoping the game will give xbox sales a boost as it tries to close the gap with sony's playstation 4. coming up, it is shark tank tuesday followed by the prophet tonight. and we're going to have marcus on to tell us about his turn around challenge. it was pretty cool about the meats. >> yeah. >> i wanted to try those.

>> there was quite a -- >> yeah. and later, boone pickens has plenty to talk about today, including concerns about using oil and natural gas as weapons of war. we might talk a little oklahoma state. more squawk next.

welcome back to "squawk box," everybody. let's take a look at the markets this morning.

after a little bit of red arrows yesterday, you see that continuing today. dow futures are down, but only by about 12.5 points below fair value. s&p down by 1.5 points. nasdaq is down by less than one point. in europe this morning, in some of the early trades you're going to see at least at this hour, very moderate moves. the cac is down by about 14 points. the ftse in london is off by 26 points. and the dax in germany is off by about 10 points. in asia overnight, up did see a little bit of a rebound, very slight one. shanghai up only by about 2 points. hang seng is up, as well. this came after big declines we saw in markets there. that was after concerns about the chinese economy. the nikkei overnight, up by about 0.7%. when we return, the profit hits the girl. marcus takes the gloves off to get this back into shape. will he win this battle? he will join is us right after this break.

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a new episode of cnbc's series "the profit" hits tonight. here is a preview. >> you're asking for 50%. >> when i'm providing all the resources. >> i'm not arguing. i'm letting my wife and life partner know what decision you're asking her to make right now. >> she knows. she can interpret, right?

>> can i think about it or -- >> no, you have to decide right now. >> you should ask for my two cents now? >> you're going to offer it, so go ahead. >> what do you want, your name on her brownies? >> i have no problem not having my name on it. >> why would your identity be on it? >> well, because we're partners, that's why. >> her identity is not on yours. and your place is partners. >> oh, come on. i'm not going to get into that. i'm not going to get into a pissing match with you. >> yes or no? >> that's a good -- >> you're not even married. are you married, marcus? >> thanks for putting my business out in the street. >> the turn around king himself joins us right now, marcus lemonis. marcus invests his own money trying to help struggling businesses make a comeback. but it look like you have to is step in here like a marriage

counselor. that's part of the job, too? >> it feels like it. tonight's episode is one i've never done before where there's a married couple, happily married couple. this guy is a bit of a character and he's a challenge. no stopping him. he's a challenge. >> no, i was asking for -- but your situation, just for all the -- someone that might be watching, you have millions of dollars, you're very charismatic. we can all use a little -- i'm not going to try and play matchmaker. he's got a gym. it has his name on it. how does it work? is it all personal trainers or how is this different? what attracted you to the business sghp curves is one of the fastest growing franchises in this country. this is about small group personal training. what you find out is that his wife has a product that's more saleable than his product. and so i make an offer to her before i make an offer to him and that's where the fireworks start.

>> that sounds like fun. >> go ahead. >> as far as last week, the take away from -- which was a great episode because everybody, i think, has -- well, not everybody has a peter luger stake. but this company, you figured something out about consolidation with this? >> stein meat necessary brooklyn, a $50 million business, really struggling. the insolvency that they're dealing with is about a $3 million hole. and at the end of the day, i stick with them not necessarily in the original investment because i learned some new fax that i didn't know, but i ended up bike the brooklyn burger which you'll see at the barclay's center mets stadium and i had dinner with them last night trying to come up with a plan to restructure their business and deal with vendors and deal with banks. it was a more complicated episode than usual, but we're going to have a continuation probably in the fall season because there's a lot of work to be done there. >> so revisit that. >> we will revisit that because

that deal isn't done. and, you know, the episode ends somewhat abruptly. joe, as you know, these episodes are truly reality. if we don't have the final resolution at the end, we have to tell people where we are right now. but we're going to follow up in the fall. >> you know, if you were to go in and look at herbalife, becky calls it herbalife, so i'll defer to her. how quickly would you be able to determine whether there's anything to ackman's accusations versus the business itself? >> well, let's just deal with the facts on the table right now. that isn't talking about herbali herbalife. i want to talk about ackman's behavior. this is a continued effort by someone who doesn't just want to be a noisemaker and a disrupter, i have no challenge with challenging the management. but to bet against the company and then to work hard to point out its laws, it's troubling for me and it's troubling on a lot

of levels. we had these issues with jcpenney. interestingly enough, the business is doing better since he's been gone. whether herbalife has a good business or not, that is up to people to decide. if they want to make the really troubling for me. >> i go back and forth on this. i can't decide what i think about it. i'll take the other side just for the sake of argument on it. >> yes. >> he'll say, look, there are people being affected. the reason he's had some groups that have helped him out he says they have targeted hispanic groups and some of the people who have taken stuff on and bought some of this -- the product can't then unload it. i don't know enough about it. >> look, becky, i don't mind anybody in this country being a consumer advocate. we need more of them. consumer advocacy is something hard to find. when it feels like it's lined with self-interest it's a problem for me. all of a sudden ackman is

concerned about consumer advocacy? it doesn't seem to tie in with his behavior. >> that's a fair point, when he has so much self-interest in it, too. >> weigh in on tesla. texas is not going to give in to their dealers. the company will go and -- this is a great deal for texas. 6,500 jobs, $500 million investment for this gigafactory. do you think they're trying to get the state to change the law on the direct selling model? what do you see happening here? >> i'm happy that the state of texas wants to incentivize tesla to build pieces inside their state. what i struggle with is to match up those moneys and get the dealers of texas to modify their plan. tesla argues the reason they want to go this route is to give the consumer better prices and all these things. the dealer body provides for free enterprise. if you're going to buy a car in the state of texas i'd rather

shop four or five different people rather than have a controlled environment where i don't know if the service is right, the margin is right, because i have nothing to compare it to. not everybody likes auto dealers. i do like auto dealers. in the case of texas i don't see them budging one bit. >> looking at the history of the whole industry, i'm trying to figure out how it actually -- it's more than just an echo system for middle men. there's a reason -- there must have been some positive aspects of the dealer system for it to be so pervasive with the auto industry. i can't believe it's acronistic. what are the benefits and drawback? >> they need them to service the customer number one. they need to create a free enterprise system. auto manufacturers are smart. typical auto dealers are entrepreneurial. they're great at advertising and

merchandising. granted, there are some that are not. it allows the prk to be displayed in a creative one. jim moran, out of florida, he put toyota on the map. when you find these dealers who are willing to put money on the table when an auto manufacturer is new, the hyundais of the world, the kias of the world and put this product on the shelf of hundreds of dealers across the country, you have to understand it's free entire prize ferprise that. i love the product and the people. the process of delivering it to the consumer and avoiding this free enterprise system doesn't work for me. >> marcus, we got it. thanks. and we'll see you tonight. it's intoette that -- anyone who's really into the whole idea of entrepreneurialship, "shark tank," "the profit," this is a franchise now big time on cnbc. it's going swimmingly, marcus. >> it's going well. >> it is. thank you. >> marcus, when are you coming

back in studio again? >> next week. >> you are? >> i am. finishing up on the "today" show today. >> we miss you. we'll see you back here next week. marcus lemonis. see you soon. oil prices have been gaining ground after losing 1.2% yesterday. up 22 cents to $101.34. the dollar has been up across the board. in fact if you look right now, you'll see it's up against the euro. it's flat against the yen at this point. gold prices continue to climb. up 7 and change. when we return, how concerned should the markets be about growth in china? also using natural gas and oil supplies as a weapon in ukraine. legendary tycoon boone pickens has seen this happen before. he'll join us on set with his thoughts on the situation between russia and ukraine. tensions there will get his thoughts about the keystone pipeline and much more.

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the search widens for missing malaysia airlines flight 370. new details emerging about one of the passengers using a stolen

passport. the china factor, worries about growth rippling through the markets but can we trust the data, is all the gloom and doom over china's future overblown. rising tensions between ukraine and russia. legendary energy tie con boone pickens tells us why using oil and natural gas as a weapon of war is the real danger. >> unlike europe we do have a choice. we just fail to make it. >> "squawk box" begins right now. good morning, everybody. welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbs. >> just slightly, the dow futures are down by 5.5 points. the nasdaq has turned around. if you're watching what the ten-year has been doing, it's

still trading near 2.8%. 2.781% is the yield on the ten-year note. >> the search for malaysia airlines flight 370 is widening. more than three days after the boeing 777 went missing just an hour after a flight where it took off from cakuala lumpur. one man traveling with a stolen passport is believed to be an iranian national trying to seek asylum. sri has more. sri? >> reporter: the picture does seem to be changing by the minute almost, quite considerably. we are now getting information from interpol. they've just wrapped up a press conference at their headquarters. ronald k. noble, secretary general of the organization,

saying both these men are iranian nationals. there seems to be at this juncture contradictory information. the malaysian immigration authorities were saying that these men came in, using stolen passports and left using stolen passports. interpol says they came in using iranian passports, legitimate ironian passports. now, the malaysians then said the biometrics matched on the way out and interpol are contradicting this. all this points to a degree of inconsistency. we need to get some greater clarity here on that matter. the other point, though, is that ronald k. noble did say, very emphatically, that he's inclined to conclude this was not a terrorist incident.

human smuggling issue is how he characterized it, it's more likely to be along those lines. not a terrorist issue. you must appreciate this discussion on the stolen passports dimension is probably a little bit academic by now. for the families of those who had friends and close loved ones on mh-370, many here from china are in kl and are awaiting word on the search that is still ongoing for this missing airliner. let me also stress that ron k. noble said that that is where the emphasis of his investigation should be, it should be on the search. let's not get too fixated on what happened to the issue of these two stolen passports and the two men that boarded mh-370. the malaysian authorities also told us one of these individuals, the 19-year-old iranian man was not linked to any terror group, he was

traveling to germany simply to migrate there. and his mother, in fact, in the next ordinary twist was waiting for him at the airport. she was aware, according to the malaysian authorities here, that he was using a stolen passport. she's been cooperating with the authorities as has iran. so there are a number of different issues here. a number of apparent inconsistencies. the most important point i do want to stress is that the search does continue for any debris, any vestage or remains of this missing aircraft which so far have yet to turn up. joe, back to you. >> sri, hold on a second. let me make sure i understand this. i know the story continues to change. but three days in, interpol is saying the two gentlemen we've been showing pictures of, saying they were using stolen passports were not using stolen passports? >> no. what he is saying is that they

entered malaysia using iranian passports, legitimate iranian passports but left the country on mh-370 using stolen passports, a stolen italian and stolen austrian passport. that is the gist of all this. what it seems to be pointing at is some flaw in the process, in the immigration process over here in malaysia. we have actually been trying to talk to the authorities here to come back to us and clarify exactly what has gone on. they continue to maintain that there were no security lapses by the immigration officials at kuala lumpur international airport which we are at. this is where the press briefings have been taking place, an airport hotel. we await that clarity. i must stress, ron k. noble stressed this, i think for the families here, ait waing any kind of word on the passengers of mh-370, this is albeit a

legit area of inquiry. the wait is agonizing. they've not heard anything about the missing aircraft. >> sri, thank you. as agonizing it is for us to figure out what's happening with be i don't you can only imagine how the families are feeling. ousted ukrainian president viktor yanukovych insisting he's still in charge of the country that he fled last month. let's get more details from jim maceda of nbc news in moscow. good to see you again. >> reporter: hi, becky, good to see you. this was his first appearance in two weeks time. he didn't take any questions this time but as you suggest, he did klee claire that he remains because he's still alive, he remains the legitimate president of ukraine, because he was ousted by an unconstitutional coup. he also said he remains the commander in chief and he

appealed to the current ukrainian army commanders to listen to take orders from him and not to take orders from the ultranationalists and neofascists as he calls them in kiev. he says they are firing security officials and army officers and that masked gunmen are patrolling the streets as we speak. he said he never fled the country of ukraine, an important point. it was the starting point for the whole series of constitutional steps after that. he never left the ukraine. during the so-called coup, as he calls it. he called the may 25th elections completely illegal and illegitimate. he said, this is interesting, that crimea is breaking away from ukraine and will become a part of russia. but he blamed that situation on a, quote, junta in kiev.

russia sees yanukovych as the legitimate leader of ukraine, which is why people are still listening to this otherwise irrelevant character some would suggest. meanwhile, becky, in crimea today, very tense indeed, just five days before the referendum is to be voted on, taken, you have russian and pro-russian forces using their overwhelming numbers, controlling almost all of the ukrainian bases including missile bases on the peninsula. sometimes firing rounds in the air or at the feet of ukrainian soldiers to intimidate them. this very troubling addition to all of that, pro ukrainian activists are being beaten, kidnapped, not just in crimea but kiev as well. >> jim, thank you very much. jim maceda. the markets ended the day in the red thanks to a softer export funs out of china and amid

broader global growth concerns. joining us now is allison deenz. also david kelly, chief global strategist at jp morgan funds. i'd like to ask you what you think is the most important factor for the markets right now, is it geopolitics or earnings of these companies. >> i think in the short term it could be geopolitics but longer term it's a combination of the economy and companies. companies have been doing relatively well. for us to start seeing more consistent improved returns and better top-line growth we need to see the u.s. economy and some of the other overseas economies start doing a bit better. i expected it to happen earlier this year, i think the weather has pushed out a little bit, much of a big boost in economic growth. >> how about you? what do you think is the driving factor right now? >> i think it will be the economy. i think we went into this year with a lot of pent up demand,

huge gains in wealth over the last two years, almost $16 trillion. that has been postponed as allison said by bad weather. we are ready to spring forward in terms of consumer spending here. i think the next few weeks in terms of the pace of consumer activity, vehicle sales, will be important if we see a pickup in growth. i think that will probably push interest rates higher and should help the stock market also. >> is there something that happens or is this just an ebb and flow? >> i think we were set. what's really helping growth here is the wealth effect. we've had a huge improvement in home prices so people feel like they're not under water as much. there's an enormous gain in stock prices. i think that left us ready to grow. wages are growing. we've seen the strongest year-over-year wage gain since 2010. i think overall consumer spending will pick up over the next few months. >> allison, what are companies

doing in terms of earnings right now? what do you think we're on track to see this year? >> i have been looking for 6% to 8% earnings growth with sluggish, 4% or 5% top line growth hoping in the second half of the year those trends start to pick up and we see closer to 5% to 8% top line growth and 10% earnings growth. companies have been doing well but they've been sitting on a tremendous amount of cash and not re-investing in their businesses actively. my sense is, if the things david says come to fruition, which i agree with him, that might give kms more confidence to increase capital spending, acquisition activity and you'll start seeing a pickup in core earnings growth and top line growth should that happen. >> you think it's still a confidence game and that's what's been holding things back? >> yes. >> washington plays a role in that or doesn't play a role in that? >> i think wash played a very big role last year. you had the sequester, the threat of the debt ceiling limit. most of that has gone by the way side and even if there are

issues in washington, washington scared itself enough last year that they'll wind up being much better behavior. what you have going into the second half of this year is easier comparables because of all the tough things that were put in place from government spending starting with the sequester. the growth comparisons start getting better. if govern behaves well or does far less, i think corporations will feel more comfortable. >> these guys have too much time on their hands recently. slumber party, what was -- i mean, what was -- i kind of miss the sequester. and the shutdown. >> talk about serious stuff instead. >> unfortunately we have a horrible geopolitical situation. i think that keeps people a little concerned but it takes the focus off of making a mess of things in washington. >> just in terms of the jobs

numbers on friday, does that set us up for bigger numbers. >> we had the most disruptive survey week in 20 years in terms of the employment report. i think the big takeaway from the jobs report is that the fed is off schedule here. if you look at what the fed -- members themselves say about the federal funds rate, they're looking at a 2% federal funds rate by 2016. you could have the unemployment rate down by 4.5% by then. you have an unemployment rate at 6.5%. if wages are growing right now, where are they going to be in two or three years? the key thing markets are missing is the fed has the schedule wrong. they are going to have to accelerate the increase in the federal funds rate from what's laid out right now. >> you think it happens when? >> i think early to mid-2015 we'll get a first federal funds rate hike. i think they'll have to raise

that at least as fast as they normally do. they're not going to have room to maneuver. >> you're talking about a quarter point move every meeting essentially. >> at least that, yes. >> thank you both for joining us. >> thank you. >> thank you. and other headlines, the first month of legal marijuana sales in colorado has added more than $2 million to state coffers. it came from taxes and fees on $4 million worth of pot sales. 2 million. that's okay. a quarterly survey by manpower shows that 19% of employers anticipate increasing staff levels during the second quarter. that is the highest that we've seen in six years. apple is reportedly pushing record companies to offer new songs exclusively through its itunes store.

>> wait a second. the disrupter doesn't want to get disrupted? >> yes, i don't -- do you have spotify? >> no. >> apple executives think the on-demand services are hurting download sales. >> the disrupter doesn't want to get disrupted so they'll try and hold on to what they have. >> right. i guess they need to do what they have to do, right? >> i know but that doesn't always work. >> no. next, trusting the data from china. should the markets be worried about a slowdown in china that we really threw us for a little bit of a loop yesterday with that export number? we'll have is that discussion, next. plus, boone pickens back in 2009 said this on russia's influence over europe -- >> now, get this one. did you know what happened when russia cut off europe's natural gas supplies in the middle of winter? europe begged russia real nice, please turn it back on. it's cold. europe even said they'd pay more. why? they had to.

russia controls europe's supply of natural gas. they don't have a choice. we're 70% dependent on foreign oil but unlike europe, we do have a choice. we just fail to make it. >> five years later, more problems with russia, boone will join us to talk about using oil and natural gas as a weapon. that's at 7:30 a.m. eastern time. yup. all 5 of you for $175. our clients need a lot of attention. there's unlimited talk and text. we're working deals all day. you get 10 gigabytes of data to share. what about expansion potential? add a line, anytime, for $15 a month. low dues, great terms. let's close! new at&t mobile share value plans our best value plans ever for business.

china's exports unexpectedly fell 18% in february, causing growth concerns for the global economy. is the drop in exports as bad as it appears to be. joining us now is john rutledge of the private investment firm of safanad. there was a holiday, a lunar something or other. was it played forward? they booked a bunch of stuff in the last period? what happened, john, do you know? >> we should begin by saying i don't know. the reason i don't know, we're trying to ask one number to do at least three things. we're trying to get it to tell us whether china is growing, we're trying to understand the lunar new year effect and trying to understand capital controls. one number can only tell you one thing. what this number tells you, somebody has been fiddling with the export numbers. >> who controls the exports?

is it the economies in the countries that are importing the stuff? or is it china deciding on how much it's exporting? >> it's interest, joe. of course how much physical goods is exported are controlled by how much people want to buy abroad. and in that case, you think this number would tell you the rest of the world is collapsing, which it's not. imports in china grew 10%. these numbers are year-over-year numbers. the february export number fell by about half from the january number. big, big changes. the problem here is that the rmb is not convertible. that means for most businesses and people in china, it's not legal to own foreign currencies. what that means is, if you want to get money in or out of china, foreign assets, you have to find another way to do it. the other way to do it is over and under invoicing exports. it's an old game but it's been going on big time.

let me tell you how it works. if i want to get money into china, i will -- i'm a chinese exporter, i will take my exports for $100 and i'll bill it for $200. my customer pays me the 200. 100 for my goods and 100 to invest for him. and so capital flows flow through the export accounts in china because of capital controls. really what's going on here is the collapse of emerging market assets that started in january. when it became clear, as david said, interest rates are rising now. so we saw emergencies in places like argentina, thailand, turkey, egypt and many other places. in china, that's happening, too, but it's taking the form of a falling rmb and a plunge in the export numbers as people try and move money out of china now. rising rates here are causing the people who had built up big

positions abroad to close them and bring the money back home. >> so as i recall, you weren't someone that was ready to call china a currency manipulator by keeping the rmb so weak. are they orchestrating this decline or all along were we wrong in thinking it should be much higher. >> this is not something the chinese government is doing. what they did that matters here, the currency is not convertible. it's not been convertible for a very, very long time. the manipulation we're talking about is done by private sellers and private buyers and by the way, u.s. investors and european investors, who are trying to move money in and out of china, the export account is the only way to do that to avoid the capital controls. this is not a government conspiracy. this is people in businesses and

in the investment business finding ways to get around capital controls. it's a private game, not a beijing game. >> so the -- in summary, you'd say it's only one number, we shouldn't get too excited and it may have occurred for reasons that aren't completely clear and we better -- before we decide china is slowing we better get some more numbers. >> that's true. incomes in china are fine. don't get too excited about this one number. other numbers like auto sales and pmi for nonmanufacturing are actually doing fine. china will grow 7 plus a little bit this year. trade will end up the year growing about that much, too. so i just take a deep breath and exhale over this number. >> all right. north korean guy, man, he got 100%, john? you see that? he seems very popular. very popular in his country with his supreme leader.

anyway, china backs north korea. i'm not conflating the two. it's a hard -- it's hard for us to understand. it's still unskirtable, thousands of years we didn't understand what was happening that's why we need you. within we come back, boone pickens will be our special guest. he's focused on the crisis in ukraine and how it could impact natural gas and oil prices if tensions continue to rise. later, creating jobs in america with ohio senator rob portman. we'll have more "squawk" right after this. you stand behind what you say. around here you don't make excuses. you make commitments. and when you can't live up to them, you own up, and make it right. some people think the kind of accountability that thrives on so many streets in this country has gone missing in the places where it's needed most. but i know you'll still find it when you know where to look.

sometimes they just drop in. always obvious. 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.

next up, using natural gas and oil in a crisis in the ukraine. boone pickens will be with us. he warned about this back in 2009. he's here with an update today. he'll jone us on set right after this.

i'm becomeky quick along with joe kernen. dow component dupont blaming the weather for a challenging first quarter. it also says the political unrest in ukraine has delayed seed deliveries. now, we questioned this earlier but dupont runs a factory in the central part of the country. that's why it's had such a huge impact. it is sticking by the earnings forecast of $4.20 to $4.45 a charge. chobani is looking to sell in a deal that could value the

company at $2.5 billion. it is speaking to consumer companies and private equity firms to engage their interest. chobani previously talked to banks about pursuing an ipo. a scary moment during an nhl game last night in dallas. dallas stars forward collapsing on the bench during the first period of the game against the columbus blue jackets. he was successfully treated for a cardiac event. the 31-year-old missed the start of the season because of a procedure to correct an ig regular heartbeat. they put off the game after this happened. >> scary moments but he'll be okay. >> he's not out of the -- >> they talked about putting him back in the game. >> are you kidding? >> there was a discussion on that. >> he wanted to come back in the game, too. >> those guys are tough. they are. >> tensions between russia and

ukraine continue to escalate. legendary energy tycoon boone pickens says the real danger to the world is that oil and natural gas are once again being used as weapons of war. boone is the founder of bp capital and he joins us right now on set. boone, it's great to have you here. >> thank you. >> you warned about this in 2009. >> 2008. >> 2008. we've been playing clips from the commercial you put out that really said that this was on the horizon. let's describe the situation as you saw it back then and what's happened since. >> we just said, you remember that gas -- the russian company cut off natural gas to eastern europe back in 2009 is when it was. and we showed the lights going off, gas prong came to visit me in dallas after that. >> they did? >> they did. i thought why is gas prong coming to see me? they came and had a meeting early in the morning and they said we don't like that ad.

would you take it off the air? >> and you said? >> no, i didn't take it off. >> so the ad, though, makes the point that europe was dependent on russia for the oil and natural gas. when russia cut them off, they had to go back beg on their knees for help and your point is, that we in america have a choice. we don't have to be dependent for 70% of our oil needs on foreign countries. >> you know, we started in july of '08 and said get an energy plan for america. we still don't have an energy plan. we have the most dynamic oil and gas industry in the united states than any place else in the world. our industry -- >> going pretty well without a plan. we could do better. just letting the markets work and money go where it's treated best has done pretty well with the shale revolution. >> the leadership should be, they should come and do the southern california deal on trash trucks, take the

heavy-duty trucks to natural gas is what you should do. when you do that, you'll cut off 3 million barrels a day. that can be opec crude. we import 4 million barrels a day of opec crude. cut 75% of it out with 6 million trucks. >> boone, if you were vladimir putin and you just knew you could have crimea with all those natural resources, you knew you could have it, is there any way you would keep yourself from taking it? >> oh, gosh, that is a difficult question. one, i don't know anything about politics. >> you know plenty. if that was sitting there sta staring you in the face, it's always been russia, you knew no one was going to do anything about it. i have a choice. wouldn't you back the referendum. >> i don't think that was the deal that was made back in the '90s. >> he did sign something with the nuclear stuff.

>> you stick with the deals you make. >> i'm talking about putin. >> well, putin is -- you know, as far as i'm concerned he's just a young joe stalin, a little smoother, but he runs circles around us. >> yes, right, exactly. >> i can't even imagine if we go in and file a letter of protest or something. for what he's done. i mean, i would ignore it. i'd just say -- >> we don't need it, even if we do it ourselves, right? >> you say we would do it ourselves, no. >> i don't mean that. i mean if we develop our resources here, we're not going to have to worry. we could even help europe, couldn't we? >> sure we could. sure we could. >> you can't get natural gas. i mean, we have some politician on there, we're going to just go in and send natural gas to the ukraine and get rid of russia and all this stuff and everything. i don't think you could ship -- >> becky won't let us.

number two, we don't have the infrastructure to do it anyway. >> first l & g loads will go out of lake charles, i think, they say in late '15. i'll say sometime in '16. >> 2016, before you can ship anything over. >>? yes, shenear are working on two trains they think now. they say they'll be ready late '15. nothing in the oil field ever happens on time. >> this has changed the conversation in washington, though. suddenly politicians are saying, okay, maybe we should get a pa more serious plan. do you think something happens? or do you think this is a temporary time, will they be all talk and no action? >> probably that. i mean, you know, what have we got out of washington the last ten years? nothing. just problems. they create more problems for themselves. i don't know how they handle

energy. i've talked to them down there for several years. i've gotten some things done. i did get -- finally got where we talk about natural gas, didn't i? i mean, when i first started talking about that, it was like what's natural gas? and you know, a lot of people thought it was gasoline. >> in the past there were times in your life where you probably were content to let the free market build out infrastructure and do all these things. it would be easier if we could get some help. then again when you count on the government you'll be disappointed probably a lot. >> that's right. that's exactly right. >> what do you need -- how can you do it where you let the market sort of dictate what's going on but you get juicing from the -- people say the government funded the research that started the internet but it wasability out by the private sector. what do you really want from them? >> we tried in washington to get

something done and we then -- we now are working at state level. we're getting some of the archaic stuff out of there now. somebody's all at once showed up and they want to sell natural gas on a kilogram basis. what is this all about? we already have converted natural gas, mcf, over to diesel gallons. it's very simple to do. you wonder where some of this stuff comes from. you don't know whether it's -- >> would you want the government taxing its citizens and funding the infrastructure for natural gas in this country? >> oh, no. >> how do we get them to help, publ public/private partnerships. >> i'm not asking for the infrastructure. the best thing they could do is mandate, if you buy a heavy duty truck, it will be on natural gas. >> how are you going to fill it

up if there's no stations. >> the stations are in. they have 100 stations on the interstates now. >> that's ready to go. >> don't worry about that. if you talk about the government doing the infrastructure, that's a nightmare. that ill with be a huge mistake. >> it's something the left and right could come together on. the left want to spend money on infrastructure. that would be a way to do it at least we'll get something out of it. >> don't let the government do anything on infrastructure. let the private -- >> tax incentives for private people? anything the government can do. >> where you can give some help is the 12 liter engine, a fabulous piece of equipment, that it costs a little bit more -- tanks on the trucks are a little more. give them a tax credit and do a pay for. let the user pay, just like a toll road. it can be done in an afternoon. >> these are so small, these steps. you could get bipartisan

agreement. >> sure you could. you wouldn't have problems with this. it's not a political issue. >> baby steps. we should do that. stick around. we're not going to talk basketball. >> why not? >> i don't think. >> i'm not ready to talk basketball. you know i played back in high school. >> because you have a losing record in the big 12? your overall record is okay. >> we'll fast forward now to the big 12. we're struggling in the big 12. >> i'm excited about that. you could win two games and play iowa state. >> we could win two games and play kansas again. >> yes, yes. either way it will be good to watch. >> both of them are tough. we beat kansas one out of two but we can't beat iowa state. that's the nicest crowd of people i ever seen in my life, anytime i go to ames, football or basketball, i leave there and scratch a loser's ass. >> we'll continue our conversation with boone pickens after the break. ref there and a scratch a

loser's ass. i'm going to use that. >> i know you are. i want that the expression. that's like that bill clinton expression, he's happier than a dog with -- remember that one? >> yes, yes. >> anyway -- you know that one? >> yes. >> it's a good one, too. next hour, senator rob portman joins to us discuss his jobs for america plan. check out the futures right now. "squawk box" is coming right back.

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welcome back, everybody. we are back with boone pickens, energy tycoon. we haven't talked about what direction you think energy prices are heading from here. everybody wants to know what you think about oil and natural gas. >> what you saw with natural gas as a cold winter. we saw city gate process $100 in mcf. had nothing to do with the price of gas on the pipeline. but anyway, we have plenty of natural gas but sometimes it's not in the right place.

consequence thely the price goes sky high. look at what will happen now. because of a cold winter we've drawn down storage to where we'll be under a trillion in storage and that's the first time that's ever happened to us. what does it mean? it means we still have a lot of natural gas. we had almost 4 trillion in storage. we pulled down and we're under 1 trillion coming out of storage. that will end at the end of march. you'll go into the fill season in april. what's going to happen, i think, you're going to see a strong price for natural gas through the summer because you're going to have to put back in 4 trillion. if that's the case, it's not going to be easy to do. at the same time, you have plenty of natural gas. it's just not easy to get it back into storage. >> what's a strong price? you say you think it will be a strong price through the summer. what range? >> i think you could see $5 fill

price. that's strong. i mean, you know, two years ago we were down in the twos. and so it's come back. but another place to watch since 1800 rigs operating in the united states today. you have about 350 of them on natural gas. the rest of them are on oil. as the price of gas goes up, move the rigs back over. no. they're doing just fine on $100 oil. they're not going to be in any rush to go back to the gas patch and start drilling. so it's going to be a very, very interesting year. if we have any kind of winter, we're not going to have a winter like we had almost year. i don't think that will happen. >> it's interesting we ask you about energy prices and we spent three or four minutes talking about natural gas. we usually only talk about oil with you. >> oil? >> that's all we used to talk about. >> natural gas is coming back into the picture. >> i know. big time. we asked about energy price and we talk natural gas. what about oil? >> oil's strong.

i mean -- >> like it's worth 100 always. >> well, i tell you what, it's -- if you look -- i like to look at the saudis because they're the biggest producer in the world. they export a lot of oil every day. they're producing 9 million, 10 million barrels of oil a day. they say we have to have $100 a barrel for the oil because we have social commitments. that means their people. half their people don't work. you have to feed them. they're not kidding when they say that. i had a congressman today say they can produce their oil for $5 a barrel. i can tell you, at about $75 a barrel, they'll get overthrown over there. you'll have you a real riot in saudi arabia if the price went down to that. they'll keep it up and drop supply and take care of it that way. >> boone, very quickly, i know where you stand when it comes to

the keystone pipeline. do you think it gets done sometime in the next two years? >> i can't believe that. six years you've had a christmas present on the front porch. a guy knocks on the door and says here's a nice present to are you. you said, well, we'll think about it. you close the door and leave the guy on the front porch. i mean, it's nuts. here you have oil offered to you. you don't have to have the fifth fleet in the persian gulf. you don't have to have military or anything to protect it. here it is, you can have it and all for you. and we're still sitting here. some place the canadians are going to get tired. they're patient people but up to a point. we're nuts not to take it. >> i will tell you, you will always be on my list of the top 25 people over the last 25 years who have been most influential. you are not on cnbc's final 100. that surprised me. does that surprise you? >> well, it did but i think,

becky, on that, that's a contender deal. and first was we're going to vote and then second we've decided we'll have a committee. well, they took me out. i think they thought i was dead. i do. i think they thought he can't still be around. and they didn't have george mitchell in there. >> he got put on on a write-in. >> they brought george back, resurrected george in the deal. they thought i had done with george. >> you weren't dead. you were just in nebraska. we thought you were dead, too. that's from the movie "unforgiven." i heard that, too. >> i don't know. anybody that voted for me, i'm sorry your vote didn't count. i mean, you got better elections in third world countries than you do at cnbc. >> it is something that -- you're on my list, too. if i had to vote on this, i would definitely be on there.

what you did with shareholder rights before oil and natural gas, too. >> you're our go-to guy when it comes to this stuff. >> i had a bunch of mesa. i forget what the yield was. but i mean -- >> it was huge. >> i know it was. 8% or 9% as i recall. >> it was. >> yes. >> it was. >> mlp was the symbol, wasn't it? >> it was mlp. that's right. mesa limited partnership. we were one of the first ones that did it. >> i know. i owned it. i was with you back then. you're still on my list. >> i wish i would have looked at how rich kinder did it. he was so much smarter than i was. i got 2%. >> what did he get. >> 50% after a certain point. >> wow. >> of distribution. nothing wrong with that. shareholders loved it. >> boone, i want to thank you very much for being here.

i hope you come back very soon. and thank you for joining us. >> thank you. it's always fun for me. >> great to see you. when we come back, senator rob portman and his plan for jobs in america. and later, the president and ceo of the newly formed pipeline company end link midstream, a combination of cross tech and energy pipeline businesses. he'll be talking about the future of energy independence. stick around. "squawk" will be right back.

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let's take a look at some stocks to watch this morning. dick's sporting goods reported fourth quarter profit of $1.11 a share, meeting estimates. revenue slightly above consensus. the sporting goods retailer raised its fourth quarter estimate. >> they have everything. >> next stock of next generation power providers are continuing their recent rally. they're low-priced stocks. this comes after one of them fuel cell energy, reported a narrower fourth quarter loss and surge in revenue. fuel cell more than tripled this year. plug power is up nearly eight-fold since january 1st and ballard power is up five-fold. activist investor elliott associates has taken a stake in boyd gaming. elliott says the stock is

undervalued and represents an attractive investment opportunity. jcpenney was upgraded to buy from neutral at citi which says it believes a retailer can continue to deliver positive same-store sales growth, thanks to an updated merchandise mix as well as some other changes. coming up, a check on the markets and what investors will be focused on in today's trading session. then, you just heard from boone pickens about our nation's pipelines. we'll have the ceo of pipeline giant end link midstream. if you haven't heard of it, it's because it used to be cross techs and part of devon. and senator rob portman reveals his jobs across america plan. "squawk box" is back right after this break. latte or au lait?

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selling season has been as the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now. welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm joe kernen along with becky quick. the futures at this hour, not much happening so far today and continuing with that, although yesterday it looked like it was going to get dicey. they really didn't. we lost a few on the s&p and 30 or so points on the dow. we'll see what happens today. we're right near recent all-time highs on most averages. we'll see. the search for the missing malaysian airlines jet liner is intensifying. it's as the search area expands. sri jegarajah joins us.

what's the latest? >> reporter: it's important to remember there's a security direction here. what i understand from hearing from interpol and the malaysian police authorities, it's becoming clearer that this investigation seems to be moving further away from the theory of terror, that terror could have been the cause of the disappearance of flight mh-370. let me tell you why. we heard from interpol's secretary general ronald k. noble earlier. he said this, he was inclined to conclude this was not a terrorist incident. it wasn't a terrorist incident. the malaysian authorities seemed to be not ruling that out completely. in fact, they flagged two areas that were a cause for concern still, hijacking and sabotage. let's leave that aside for one

minute. all those issues about stolen passports, et cetera, fast becoming academic for the families that had loved ones on that flight. they want answers and are getting those answers. the search continues, though, as an armada of ships searching for anything that they can trace back to explain why this aircraft went missing. we have no such substantive evidence as of yet. becky, joe, back to you. >> okay, sri, you know, hope that at some point we figure out where it is, obviously for the families. although it's going to be -- that's not going to ease the pain that much, obviously. stocks retreating marginally monday on global growth concerns. let's find out what investors should focus on today. joining us know is joe quinlan. ed keon is portfolio manager at

quantitative management associates and i would say it's safe to say that both of you gentlemen, i'll start with you, ed, see more positive things around the world for equity asset prices than negative things? even though there will be the bumps in the road. you think we'll be in a bull market for a few more years? >> that's right. there's plenty of things to worry about. i'm a professional worrywart as everyone money manager is. i think the u.s. economy will pull the rest of the world's economies higher. there's plenty of things to worry about, i don't think valuations are near to the point where you start to worry about a bear market. i think earnings will drive the market higher over the next couple of years. >> joe, initially i think you wanted to make it clear that joe yes politics is not going to be enough to spell the end of this recent bull market. >> that's right, joe. there's problems in ukraine,

turkey, argentina, thailand. the money is coming to the united states, because of these problems. right now, foreign ownership of u.s. equities are at an all-time high, up 30% from a year ago. i think that will continue. it's good bid for our equities. >> and i'm not convinced that domestic -- the domestic appetite for u.s. equities is really indicative of how, you know, how bullish people get near the end of a bull. what is it, the bull markets end with a bang, not a whimper. >> that's right. they usually end when the fed is tightening. i don't think we're anywhere near that just yet. that's a story for 2015. this is an unloved bull market. that gives it more legs ba s be of that. >> either one of you can address this. we maybe had more upside from the fed than we were probably deserved, let's say, based on all the liquidity.

we'll be in a period of rising interest rates which is never great because you just view things competitively on where you can get the best return. both of those could be headwinds for the next year or so. no, ed? >> it's possible. if you look historically, the market can tolerate higher interest rates as long as you're getting a strong level of growth and low inflation. i think there will be inflationary pressures. we did see wages start to tick up a little bit. that's not a bad thing, either. i think you'll see greater concern on the market over the next year or so that the fed may be behind the curve and that will be a worry we'll have to get through. i think we can still have good earnings growth an a good market even if interest rates do rise modestly over the next year or so. >> one thing in that labor report, joe, the wages, what they rose, 2.5% or whatever. and people said it was because of the weather. if you factor it out, it still rose more quickly than people

thought which some people say that means the labor market might be tighter than we would think where it is and the fed is already behind the curve. is that possible? >> i don't know if the fed is behind the curve, joe. one of our clients biggest problems is finding labor, whether it's carpenters, roofers, microsoft engineers. there's a skilled labor shortage that's boosting wages. the flip side of that means more consumption. there's a dynamic where stagnant wages might be behind us. >> do you think that anything in technology right now is similar to the late '90s? i mean, a couple -- there's like -- i can name five names but i can't name 100 names. is that something we should take solace? >> i think we should, joe. i don't think it's frothy like we saw in the late '90s. there's a handful of companies

that could be questionable about valuations. i think there's more room to run if europe improves, the dollar weak weakens. i don't think frothyness in tech just yet. >> we were talking about seth yesterday. what did he mention, tesla and netflix as indicative of speculative environment that means valuations are already extended. >> and a few names that may be true. for the broad market it clearly is not in my view. valuations are not cheap anymore. they're roughly equal to long-term averages. the next phase of the bull market will be driven by earnings, not valuations going up from here. the returns you get will be somewhat slower. we've had 25% annualized returns since the bottom. you expect something closer to 10 going forward. that's still a pretty good return. >> joe, you keep saying that money is coming here because we're doing so much better.

should we foulfocus -- not focu multinationals and put more emphasis on domestic companies or diversify across the board? >> i would do the latter, joe, diversify across the board. the u.s. economy growth does support small cap, midcap investment here in the united states. the sovereign wealth funds like to buy the big cap names, they know them, they feel comfortable owning them. the sovereign wealth funds will buy the large cap u.s. companies. diversify, spread it out. >> more domestic or everywhere? >> i think everywhere. it's always a good idea. spreading your bets across the broad board of large cap, small cap, growth in value, i think having an emphasis on developed markets at this point is better and safer than emerging markets. i think that may change before this year's over. so far we've emsa sized the u.s. in other developed markets. >> you're a big asset allocator

now. would you have 40% in bonds or not? >> we're underweight bonds in all our portfolios? >> you too, joe? >> one area we see interest is timber and farmland. we buy timber out there. good returns. that's a place a lot of money is flowing as well. and hard assets. >> all right. okay. thank you. joe quinlan, thanks. let's talk about other headlines this morning. small business sentiment dropped in february. the monthly index from the national federation of independent business fell to 91.4 from 94.1 in january. retail are target is being sued by swatch. target is accused of selling watches that copy swatch designs. target wouldn't comment specifically on the suit but says the company policy is to respect the intellectual property rights of others. microsoft releases its titanfall game for the xbox today. it is hoping it will give the

latest version of the xbox a boost. the game will be made available for older xbox consoles later this month. coming up, a seven-point plan for job ms. america. senator rob portman says it's going to spark an economic recovery. i think skyline franchises might be one of the seven points. he's our next guest. as we head to break, check out the "squawk box" market indicator. ♪ [ cows moo ] [ sizzling ] more rain... [ thunder rumbles ] ♪ [ male announcer ] when the world moves... futures move first. learn futures from experienced pros with dedicated chats and daily live webinars. and trade with papermoney to test-drive the market. ♪ all on thinkorswim from td ameritrade.

welcome back to "squawk box," everybody. we've been watching the futures. at this point they're flat lining. we've seen them weaker but at this point they are down by 2.5 points, nasdaq indicated up by 3.3 points and we'll continue to watch this. >> they took out the welcome back. i was going to say welcome back. did you not welcome people back. >> welcome back, everyone, we missed you in the two minutes we were away. >> desperately. >> good morning again. >> and in the world's first accounting of the pot business, the recreational pot business

colorado brought in -- we said 2 million. we said -- now it's 3.5 million. advocates for legalization point to tax revenue as a major selling pine. customers bought just over $14 million worth of recreational pot. taxes from those sales about $2 million. in addition, here's the rest. the state selected around $1.5 million of tax revenue from medical marijuana. taylor west is with the national cannabis industry association. >> taking this off of the black market and off of the street and putting it behind a highly regulated counter, we actually create an enormous amount of benefit for the state, for the communities and local economy. >> the governor's spending authority for the tax money include youth prevention and substance abuse treatment, police training and school

rehabilitation throughout the state. >> i still can't get used to the idea. >> you know i'm out next week. >> in colorado? >> yes, we're flying there saturday. >> uh-huh. when did you decide to make your trip there? was it just after november? >> no. we go every year. >> i know. >> we happen to be doing to -- which is funny after reading that story. >> i still can't get used to the idea as pot as legal and the "denver post" has a pot critic. >> at my age, you know what i'm excited about, they have pizza, avos pizza out there. maybe the pot might make that a better experience. i don't know. a lot of it is apparently edible pot they're selling in colorado, too. did you know that? >> you don't get the smoke. >> yes. exactly. anyway, we're used to -- because for years of it having the --

>> stigma. >> stigma, just talking about it now, we are either laughing or feeling guilty. there's people at home -- i don't want to promote this to like my kids or anyone else. >> me neither. that's the thing. it's crazy, the idea your kid could take off and go to colorado and legally be smoking pot? >> yes. anyway, when i went to school i thought it was legal anyway. it seemed legal in boulder. the ceo of enlink midstream. we'll be right back. especially if you're thinking of moving an old 401(k) to a fidelity ira. it gives you a wide range of investment options... and the free help you need to make sure your investments fit your goals -- and what you're really investing for. tap into the full power of your fidelity green line. call today and we'll make it easy to move that old 401(k) to a fidelity rollover ira.

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welcome back, everybody. our next guest is rolling out his new jobs for america plan today. it's a seven-point plan put forward by senate republicans. joining us right now is senator rob portman. it's good to see you today. >> thanks for having me on. >> tell us about the plan. >> it's a blueprint for getting the economy going and bringing back jobs and opportunity. it's a simple concept which is if republicans get the majority we'll move forward on regulatory relief, on tax reform, on doing something to expand domestic energy production to get the economy moving, worker retraining. expanding exports. all things that can and should be done now. all these issues are ones we should be able to come together on. we haven't been able to. the notion is, let's lay out

what we would do if we had the ability to control the agenda. >> looking around the country, we have seen the unemployment rate start to come down, get closer towards 6.5%. in ohio it's 7.1%. why is ohio struggling more than the rest of the country. >> ohio is doing better. our rate just went down. we created jobs in ohio since the recession. we haven't created jobs in the country. almost a million jobs down. the becky, the numbers i look at are the number of people who are working, in other words, the work force participation rate which as you know is back to the 1970s-to-all americans. for men it's at historic lows. in other words, there are fewer men participating the work force. we've seen since the 1940s. i also look at the long-term unemployed number. the job numbers last month were 175,000 jobs but there were more people, over 230,000 people who joined the ranks of the long-term unemployed. as you know, the previous two months were the worst in three years in terms of job growth.

we're not out of the woods. we have to do something to get the economy moving. the mark set doing well. i see it may be up again today. that really is not a reflection of what's going on in the lives of the people i represent. we did a teletown hall meeting last night, had 25,000 people on the call. was asked what's the top issue? it always comes back, it's the jobs and how do you bring back the jobs? people are telling me their stories. a guy whose work was out of work for a year and a half applied to dozens of places. that's the reality, people are having a tough time having work. >> senator ben white has a story out this morning that the legislative agenda is done for the rest of this year. do you think that is a realistic view of washington right now? >> i hope not. there's lots to be done. one reason we're laying out this agenda now is to say we can't wait until 2017 which a lot of people are saying. some people are saying nothing

will happen as long as president obama is in the white house and we have divided government. i think we'll keep the house majority. we could keep the senate majority. we have to move forward on these issues. i think the country is in trouble on the company but also the debt and deficit. >> he would veto stuff. you don't have to enough to override his veto of the things you wanted. you look tired. were you up all night at that pajama party? were you there last night? >> no. they didn't invite me. i would have been happy to be there. >> i follow co2 closely. i detected a rise of co2 levels coming out of that meeting. >> a little hot air? >> yes. how tone deaf are these 30 guys? i mean, isn't it jobs? couldn't this he have an all nighter talking about jobs? instead of talking about stuff that might hurt jobs? >> well, a lost the stuff will hurt jobs because the way we regulate hurts jobs, particularly on some of the epa regulations.

in my state of ohio but around the country we're losing jobs because of it. instead of going through a cost benefit analysis and determining what's the least costly way to achieve an objective, the regulations unfortunately are resulting in a lot fewer jobs. there's better ways to do it. joe, back to your earlier point about will the president veto this stuff? i could lay out what these 7 principles are but more importantly, over 40 bills that have passed the house of representatives, that have some bipartisan support that actually fit under these issues. regulatory relief. the regulatory accountability act has passed the house. it's bipartisan in the house. it's bipartisan in the senate. if we took that bill up as part of this agenda, i think it would pass the house easily. what would the president do? second, i think he would sign some of this stuff. if we got a senate majority, we not only could be able to have an agenda working with the house

that's pro-growth, i think some of these very specific bills like the regulatory accountability act would get the president's signature. >> don't you only need 51 now since they changed that for stuff? >> well, that's for nominations at this point. >> just for nominations. >> yes. that's where harry reid and the democrats have changed the rules. >> you can change it when you get in, too. >> well, go for it. >> i hope we go back to the constitution and the founding fathers and figure out -- >> those guys, that was a long time ago. things have changed. come on. >> senator, we just had boone pickens on. he was talking about how he thinks that we need a better energy plan in america. largely because of -- he was pointing out what's happening in ukraine right now. he had been talking for a long time how russia controls the natural gas. as a result europe is really beholdened to them on a lot of levels. i know you're on the energy committee. what do you think we could or should see in some of the

national energy policy here? >> i think boone pickens is exactly right. by the way, i think probably close to 40% of the jobs that have been created in the last few years have probably been related to energy from the data i've seen. without the energy boone, without this revolution in being able to access the shale gas and oil, we'd be in a lot worse shape than we are. we can do more offshore on the outer continental shelf, much more on public land and much more on speeding up permitting. that's one of the things we want to do with the senate republican jobs plan, to speed up permitting to get more energy projects going. that includes natural energy and gas. i think he's right. specifically on exporting l & g, that would help. it's taking these amazing resources we have, one country in the world that's expanding our production in oil, gas and probably have the largest reserves of natural gas in the

world now that's accessible. i think that makes sense. the other thing about the ukraine that's interesting, since you raised it, about 50% of their electricity comes from the nuclear side. they get enriched uranium from russia. one thing we do have in this country is the ability to enrich uranium and provide that to the ukraines so they are not depend enept on russia. that's something i'm pushing. so it's not just natural gas for ukraine. it has to do with ensuring they have a source of fuel. >> 50% of their power comes from nuclear? >> yes. >> wow. i didn't realize that. >> the europeans have backed off on that, which is one reason the europeans are more and more dependent, particularly the germans, on the russians. the united states can play a role in helping to provide some of the energy that helps to defuse some of the crises like ukraine but also helps to keep the price of energy down and helps grow the global economy which helps us here in america. >> the markets have written off crimea. they think it's an end game at this point, that that's gone. do you think that's an accurate

perception. >> gosh, i hope not. i think the international community needs to stand up and isolate russia for what is a military invasion of a sovereign country. i don't think we ought to give up. >> before we go, real quickly, i saw an article about a new breed of republicans with be not the tea party but these are guys, i guess they're libertarian socially and they've got their mind in the right place. free enterprise, capitalism, jobs, that's what it should be. what's going to happen in this next election, who's going to take over? rand paul wins the cpac thing. are we moving right or to where the government gets out of everybody's life and just controls prosperity rather than people's morality? can the republicans get it together? >> that sounds like the joe kernen party. i think that could be pretty popular. >> it's there. it's ready to happen. you might actually win some elections that way. >> yes. look, i think jobs and the economy and the fiscal issues

are the top issues by far. we do the polls every month with the teletown hall. it always comes out that way. the national polls show that. we're a party that believe in free enterprise, smaller government, lower taxes. >> get out of the bedroom. >> that's the stuff that's going to help us win elections and move this country forward to bring back the prosperity and the hope. >> thanks, senator. >> good to be on with you. >> appreciate it. up next, the ceo of enlink talks pipeline profits and the future of energy. "squawk box" will be right back. salesperson #1: the real deal's the passat tdi clean diesel gets up to 795 highway miles per tank. salesperson #2: actually, we're throwing in

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welcome back to "squawk box," everyone. retailers, urban outfitters reporting a fourth quarter profit of 59 cents a share. 5 cents better than the street was expecting. the clothing retailer also issued a cautious outlook for the current quarter. the stock is down by 4% this morning. dick's sporting goods earning $1.11 a share for the fourth quarter. dick's had raised its fourth quarter guidance in february, february 10th based on improving sales trends, stock is up slightly, less than 1%. jcpenney upgraded from a buy to neutral.

that stock, wow, check that out, up by 7% this morning. cross techs energy, enlk for the general partner, enlink midstream and enlc for the master limited partnership, enlink midstream partners, both began trading yesterday. the deal combines pipelines and gas processing in areas rich in shale oil. joining us now is barry davis, president and ceo of enlink midstream, former president of cross techs energy. for everybody at home, midstream stuff as i understand, you have upstream. that's exploration. you have downstream. that's refining. this is gathering natural gas type stuff and then transporting it and treating it. >> yes. in the midstream energy business basically what we do, we connect

energy production to energy consumpti consumption. that linking is what enlink midstream does. >> that would entail -- it would even be ports and barges and pipelines and also turning the gas into liquid? >> that's correct. >> pipeline. >> there are many services that have to be provided from the point of production where gas can have contaminants or need to be upgraded into productions that are useable. that's what we do in the midstream energy business and enlink does across the country. >> five years ago you were in a good business. then the last five years suddenly it's like you're in the sweet spot of where everybody in the entire world is talking about the revolution here and you're right there, ready to take advantage. >> absolutely. these are exciting times, joe, in the energy industry in total as we have said we're right in the middle of a new era. by a combination of cross techs

energy. >> talk about how you did it. devin used to be a big customer. they had some too, they had midstream assets as well. they finally figured let's combine all of the midstream assets together. >> joe, back in 2006 we had a unique opportunity to acquire some assets with devin. they acquired the upstream assets in the barnett sale. we acquired the midstream assets. since then, they've been our largest customer. some have asked how long did it take for this transition to happen? my answer has been it took seven years and three tries but finally we were able to find the right timing and through the great relationship we've had with devin we've had an opportunity to come together. >> you have a lot of tail winds. you're in a great place in a great industry with a lot of things happening. what is the biggest head wind, regulation, something i'm not thinking about? what is the thing you struggle

with the most? >> this is an extraordinary time. if you look at the number of projects that are involved in repiping of america to essentially bring the shell resources to the existing markets what we've got is tremendous surge in projects that need to be done across the country. so the challenge really is to manage the regulatory process, the permitting process, so that we can truly pursue that energy independence that we think is visible today in the market. >> so what can you do -- i mean there are tax reasons to do this? that will be accretive for devin and the new company. it's a complicated structure because it's mlp, right? there's two of them. can you explain the transaction to us and how it work for shareholders? >> you bet. as you've seen the markets respond to it, it's a win/win transaction. we had a great platform of a master limited partnership with a pure general partner sequel.

what devin wanted to do is access the capital. they announced in fact an intent to do an ipo of midstream business. we approached them with what we thought was a better idea. as you can see with the stock responding the way it has with about 100% appreciation for our general partner and about 60% for our master limited partnership, the market likes it. the great news is, we can continue to see growth as we go forward. we've communicated we think we'll see 8 to 10% growth for our partnership. greater than 20% growth to the dividends. >> it freed up -- i read it took devin's midstream assets and put a market valuation on them. they weren't valued at that point. they were part of devin. no one put a fair valuation on them. did it free up money to build out more assets? >> well, so devin actually contributed those assets with a valuation of about $5 billion. today the value because of the increase in value of their

shares that they own, the value today to them would be about $9 billion. importantly, what they did also was they accessed mlp capital so they can continue to fund the infrastructure bill that is required along with their enp business. they'll do that through us, either directly as we would build the facilities or possibly transferring to us. >> who figured out who to do this? >> the structure around the mlp from a tax standpoint is tremendous. as you've seen, the great majority of projects in the rebuilding of the infrastructure is being done by master limited partnerships. >> the way you look at it, we have all this natural gas. we want to get from here to there. we're wondering do public/private, limited, do we get the government involved? will they do it? the private sector will find a way to do it that is tax advantaged, that will put all the synergies together and have

all these cost efficiencies. you're saving money, too, how much in overlap? there's 100 million or something? >> joe, what you refer to is the efficiency that we see in the marketplace today. we need that. we need the efficiency across the capital markets, across the regulatory bodies. in order to take advantage of the opportunity we have today for the energy surge in america. one of the things that we are very cognizant of is the moving back of manufacturing to the united states. because of the low cost of energy products in the united states we're second only to the middle east right now. >> really? >> in the low cost of products. >> it counteracts the labor advantage all these other countries have. we can pay our guys more money over here but because of the input costs we can afford to do it and keep it here. >> because of the shale revolution, we are seeing jobs come back to america. enlink is strategically positioned to participate in that. we're excited about that moving forward. >> keystone pipeline would help as well.

we're talking hydrocarbons. that's the problem. we have guys meeting and staying up all night to try to hurt hydrocarbon, the hydrocarbon is being used as an energy outlet. that's what we're dealing with. >> what's difficult is to see who is really in charge. we need clarity of policy so we can see projects like keystone be approved. it's one of many projects. we used to celebrate when we got commercial contracting for a project. we don't have that celebration anymore until we get the permits. it's become so difficult with the backlog. i feel for the people that are making that happen. they're seeing ten-fold increase in the number of projects they're having to approve. they have lack of resources available to do that. we need to break that free. >> okay. well, thank you. >> you're actually saying spend more on regulators so you have more to approve these things? >> part of the backlog, clearly, becky, we don't have enough

resources to get projects through. >> once we have regulation they never go off the books. that's the problem. we add new ones, thousands every year and we never get rid of the ones from years ago. he appointed some guy that was supposed to go in and update a lot of that. i don't know if anything came of that. >> one of the things we're excited about is by bringing together crosstex and devin, we have over 60 years of experience. we have relationships to get things done. we think we will be successful in doing that. >> you're in texas. you're ahead of the game, too. barry, appreciate it. >> great to be here with you. up next, the search is expanding, looking all over the place for this malaysian jet that went missing. on saturday, we'll get the latest out of southeast asia. we'll be coming right back. get a leg up on the trading day with the morning "squawk" newsletter. go to our show page, squawk.cnbc.com and sign up now.

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welcome back to "squawk box." a former aide to new jersey governor chris christie will appear at a court hearing over

her role in the so-called bridgegate scandal. bridget kelly refused to comply with the subpoena ordering her to turn over documents. she is invoking her fifth amendment rights, claiming that the investigating committee has already prejudged her as guilty. kelly and others are accused of closing lanes at the george washington bridge as political pay back against the mayor of ft. lee. we have this person claiming we have to get to the bottom of these two days worth of lane closures but the whole irs thing, i'm not as interested in getting to the bottom of lois lerner. >> i think both these issues should be looked into. >> to put them on the same level the media does -- >> this is a big deal because it's here locally, so we end up talking about it. there have been accusations back and foreign. you have a man that is likely the republican nominee -- >> not at this point.

>> he was. he still might be. he's the head of the republican national governor's association. >> when you have a government that is potentially using the irs to -- >> i would like to know that as well. >> to deal out punishment or advantages. >> again, in both situations -- >> one is almost -- one turned out bad. but it's almost like a hazing. the other one -- >> in both situations it's someone abusing the power. the question is who was abusing the power, was it an underling or someone in power? >> once reminds me of nixon and dirty tricks. the other one, the mayor went too far. >> he was the most likely contender at that point for the next republican nominee for president. we want to know these things. >> the difference between them taking the fifth, in my mind is

apples and oranges. >> congress should be looking into the tax officials. this is happening on the state level. >> the way certain entities have ignored one situation and devoting 24 hours a day to another situation is ludicrous. i'm not mentioning names. >> authorities look for clues on the western coast of malaysia as the search net expands for the missing malaysia airlines jet. sri jegarajah jones us. the story is changing all the time. what's the latest? >> it is. let me approach this from a security perspective first. one story that's captivated the press corps here is this aspect of the stolen passports. what we learned in the last few hours from the malaysian authorities is at least one of these stolen passport holders, an iranian national. later on in the day, we later

heard from the interpol secretary general, ronald noble. he said both of these passengers that had stolen passports were iranian nationals. what had happened was that they entered malaysia, kuala lumpur on iranian passports that didn't appear to be reported stolen or missing. they left using the stolen passports, the austrian and italian passports. there seems to be an element of confusion and contradictory statements here from the malaysians that don't really stack up. it seems to be pointing to a certain degree of security lapses at klia over here. having said that, the authorities consistently maintain that they were following the right protocols, the international regulations laid out .

they are sticking by that. let's leave that aside. for the people who are really going through emotional agony right now, the families of those passengers on the flight, all of this discussion on the missing passports -- excuse me, the stolen passports seems to be immaterial, academic. they want some news. they want to know what has happened to this aircraft. so far we haven't seen a shred of evidence, despite the fact, joe and becky, that this is very much a 21st century operation, there are very complex military hardware that's being brought to bear to try and find anything, any hint of debris, any clues to determine the final stages, the final moments of mh-370. becky and joe. >> sri, thank you very much. he's been staying on the top of the situation. we we return on "squawk box," encouraging leadership and achievement in girls. the ceo of girl scouts of america will talk about their

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i was going to send it -- hi, when we return, it's that time of year. i hope everyone has ordered their girl scout cookies. we'll get the sales update and talk about the business of scouting with the ceo of girl scouts usa and we'll talk about ban and bossy also. i have a daughter i want her to be a ceo. and we're gearing up for march madness, quicken loans ceo dan

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that's the girl scouts of the usa and leanin.org ringing the closing bell at the nasdaq, they are working on a new campaign to ban bossy encouraging young girls to take on leadership roles and here to explain is anna marie chavez. i have a daughter who i want to be a ceo but i think about the different ramifications, but you are exactly right, if you see a little girl take charge and you say don't be bossy and you are saying don't be a bosom day. we know how many women there are in the population. i think it's, like, 50%. it's not represented in the suites. >> right. >> there's a bunch of different reasons. if this helps, then let's do it. >> you tell them to stop doing that and by the time they are in high school and college they are

not raising their hands. >> the little girls seem to be much more mature and the little boys look clueless -- >> girls mature faster. >> mature faster and they own these little boys! so i don't know when that changes. >> well, it changes actually as early as middle school and, you know, girl scouts we've been working with girls for over a century. what we're trying to do with this campaign, it's a public service campaign done with the girl scouts of the usa and ban bossy and cheryl sandburg and condoleezza rice who is bringing her leadership to the table and the concept is to start talking to adults about the message we're sending to girls as early as 5, 6 years old, so as girls sort of raise their hand or say, you know, i want to do something or i want to lead this troop, how can we encourage them without saying, well, you're being bossy and that's a negative trait for girls. what's interesting we've lawn. the campaign over the last couple of days. we've heard from women and men

from across the country it's resonating and, again, bringing an issue to the kitchen table about how are parents talking to girls differently than to their sons. >> and making a stink about it, too. >> sure. >> so many of these things we do without really -- >> without knowing what we're doing. >> there is a, you can sort of feel the -- and even women in business or in politics. >> sure. >> the same stigma still applies sometimes. and it is pointed out now more frequently by people that say, you know, you'd never say that, you know, you'd never talk about a guy wearing certain type of clothes versus a pantsuit or -- >> absolutely. or when a man stands up and has an opinion he's being confident and taking charge. but when a girl or woman does that, oh, she's being a bit too aggressive or overconfident and we're trying to make the disstindi distinction for girls, own your voice. how a girl sees leadership. many girls want to go out and do

great things and women want to help families, we want to give girls the opportunity. whether they want to be the ceo of a major corporation or the ceo of their home it's up to them but let's send them some positive messages. >> deep down i know that's the right message. there's times when i worry about pc -- the pc-ness. and i read all kinds of people but camille paglia said i think we're living in a world now where they are wimps walking around and that we've let it happen. >> sure. >> i don't want to live in that world either. >> let me be clear, this is not a campaign of boys against girls or men against women. that has nothing to do with that. all we're saying this is 50% of the population. i've watched your program many, many times -- >> you see how she bosses me around. >> but you are talking about really complex economic issues. >> i was kidding about that. i'm worried because i can't joke about it because i have to be pc. >> let's have a conversation about how we embrace different

leadership styles and women may lead a different way but let's give them an opportunity to raise their voices around issues that are going to be very important for all of us and let's stop discouraging girls by middle school because we all see the statistics girls do well in school all the way through high school. >> no kidding. >> whey do we not have, you know, women in leadership roles in this country? >> how did cookie sales do this year? we just got ours here. >> oh, good. i saw boxes as i walked in. the weather had a lot to do with sales especially on the east coast, atlanta had a lot of snow this year and it's not done yet so it's still an opportunity for you to buy cookies across the country, there are booth sales going on and we are hoping that people support and we are really thankful for supporting the amazing business program. >> good. i don't like little boys that are bullies, either. i don't like anybody that is -- >> i don't think we embrace any bullies, right? whether girls or boys. >> you wouldn't ban bully,

wouldn't you? >> we're trying to ban the word bossy when it's connected to girl leadership. >> i understand. >> absolutely. >> perfect. great. thank you. >> it's great to see you. >> great to see you. >> we have some upstairs. that does it for us today, make sure you join us tomorrow. right now it's time for "squawk on the street." ♪ good tuesday morning. welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with simon hobbs and david faber at the new york stock exchange. cramer is off today. market facing some headwinds this morning. sop of the retail earnings were a little soft but there are high profile upgrades. the nasdaq could potentially fall for a fourth straight day today. watch the ten year and the three-year note auction later on. and europe is roughly flat. the nikkei