"squawk box" begins right now. good morning and welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm andrew ross sorkin along with joe kernen. becky is out this morning. we hope she's going to feel better and hope to see her later this week. ceo mary barra is heading to capitol hill to testify before the energy and commerce committee about last month's recall for an ignition switch. that's scheduled to start at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. among what she's going to say is the following, as soon as i learned about the following, we equity acted without letation. we told the world we had a problem that needed to be fixed. whatever mistakes were made in the past, we will not shirk from our responsibilities now and in the future.

gm said it expects to take a charge up to $750 million in the first quarter, mostly related to the costs of recall repairs. shares of gm, they've come off their highs of about $42 million a share, now trading at about $34 a share. we will see what happens to that stock today at she begins to speak at gm. in just a few minutes, we've got represent michael burgess. he's going to give us a preview of today's hearing. i still don't know if this is theater or what you can get from something like this. >> it's -- hearing her, the first thing i thought of was it's good for her to be able to say that, but talking about an entity, we're not talking about an individual. but it does help when the individual is sort of new and wasn't here for that. you can sort of say from now on, gm will be like this. and this is the past. i'm here now. no longer going to be like this. so that is an advantage. and i thought, how many more

heads up for this? >> you figure -- >> not hers, but -- >> we'll see. 750 million, i thought, wow, for gm, that's a lot of money. and then i thought, think about the pain and all of the stuff that 32 deaths, whatever it is, 750 million, and then you think about what does a whale cost a company? >> 6 billion. >> and how much for regulatory issues? >> over 23 billion. >> that's what i mean. so can you believe that a recall of millions of carls that resulted in deaths and fault city ignitions, 750 sounds like a lot, but you have to be in financial services to really -- >> to really pay the fines? >> to really get hurt. >> what i don't know is that 750, what is that going to cover? they haven't set up a trust yet. >> i think that covers the recall, doesn't it? >> that covers the recall. the question is how they're going to handle that. >> but still, we have a big top story. i thought it was about the circus or something when we were

starting out. but we will -- burgess is in charge of this. and then we're going to look at the markets now. i would say not march went out like a -- it's supposed to come in like a lion, went out like a lamb. i would say the market went out like a lamb because yellen got very dovish. a lion is more like a hawk. but if you're hawkish for the fed -- >> the animal -- >> no, it's how easy you're going to be with money. and she indicated yesterday she is velamish, very dovish. >> easy peasey. >> that's right. >> it is april fools' day today. >> they've already played an april fools' day on me in makeup. they said my make yumup person was moving. and i took it very well.

they said -- that gayle is going to start doing my makeup, your makeup person. and i said, great, i can look like ronald mcdonald every day, too. not you, but when she does me, i look -- they all want to be in the show, too. >> i know. i know. you indulge me. today is a special day in the sorkin household. >> is it someone's birthday? >> it is. my mother, ellen sorkin. happy mother's day. not on really mother's day, but happy birthday. >> april fools'. someone else has a birthday today. >> i think becky's mother may be tomorrow. >> no kidding. >> i don't know. >> jeff sonnenfeld's birthday today. >> sonnenfeld. hoikd i forget that? let's look at the markets. happy birthday mama -- is her name sorkin? >> mama sorkin. >> yao dad at least got her to take his name. >> she did, yeah.

>> but you didn't -- >> oh, yes, yes, my wife -- >> whatever anyone does is fine. i'm not even going there. my wife kept her last name as her -- >> that's what my wife did. >> oh, yeah? >> yeah. her last name is her middle name. >> you're not frank sinatra's son, though. >> isn't that -- >> that's what he said. he's a great -- he tweets great. the futures are trading higher this hour following yesterday's triple digit surge. wow. up another 25 points. the s&p is 1872. i was figuring it out. for the quarter, it got about 23 points on 18.50. what is that? 23 points on 1850 is about -- that's 1.5% or so. it's not great for the quarter. but you know what? after last year, it's not down for the quarter.

the dow finished the quarter down 1.7%. look. i almost got it right. the s&p finished the quarter off 1.3%. and the nasdaq added 0.5%. both of those index are now up for five straight quarters. later today, the markets are going to get a fresh read on national manufacturing activity with the ism report plus the latest manufacturing numbers are going to come, as well. caterpillar avoided paying $2.4 billion in taxes. the subcommittee on investigations says the company shifted $8 billion in profits doing an offshore switch too void those taxes. the subcommittee chairman, your friend, senator carl levin. he says caterpillar is, quote, an american success story that produces phenomenal industrial

machines, but it is also a member of the corporate profit shifting club, that it shifted billions to avoid paying taxes. >> it's not the law's fault, it's caterpillar's fault. >> taking up shares in caterpillar to 98.59. >> they're not trying to pay as much as they can possibly pay in taxes, you know? when you have incentives to do that in items of, you know, for whatever reason -- >> look, we're competing globally. we want our companies to do as good as they possibly can. >> we're talking about this guy, we're not talking about you. >> i'm sure you're on my side on this issue. >> no, no, i'm saying -- >> well, how could you not be? >> i don't blame anyone for

taking advantage of the tax laws the way they are. >> remember how apple got hammered? >> absolutely. and who pays more taxes in the u.s. than anyone else? >> apple. >> with the double irish whiskey something? what is the thing -- they do something in ireland where they run all the money through -- >> yeah, yeah, yeah. >> beautiful, though. >> we should change the laws to make it -- >> no kidding. we're not going to do that. we're going to hammer the degreedy republicans on not raising the minimum wage. we're not going to actually do anything. are you kidding me? we're trying to get through 2014. we don't want to do anything for the country. are you kidding? >> i love -- >> am i right or aim right? right. >> skepticism or cynicism, it's just so beginin. >> yeah, yeah. it's a -- i watch what happens, what's happening right now and it makes me very cynical about -- >> and you should be. >> we have a story about marissa

mayer this morning. yahoo! she apparently goes shopping on. listen to this, yahoo! is now in preliminary talks to acquire the online video service news distribution network for $300 million. the deal could serve as a competitive threat to google's youtube. not really. but that's okay, i guess. take a look at their stock, $35.90. everybody in the dow is on an acquisiti acquisition. >> youtube, is it making money now, do you know? >> yahoo!? >> youtube. >> youtube is possibly one of the greatest yielding -- >> is it making money, though? >> they are. $1.5 billion is what they spent on that company. reasonable in total a money sinkhole and now it's become -- you know -- >> can i say something i've been meaning to tell you? >> please. >> about the future having no

one -- the future having no one watching commercials any more because you dvr it and them you fast forward through the commercials and we're never going to be able to charge again? >> yeah, but if you're on youtube, you can skip the ads -- >> that's where i'm getting right now. with on demand and xfinity, you can watch whatever you want. i think fewer and fewer people are remembering to set the dvr machine. like why would you? we watch this two hours -- like this guy killed his wife, i'm telling you, they go back and forth. you cannot fast forward on demand. >> i know. >> i've never watched more commercial necessary my life than i watched watching that night and i sat through every one of them. it's like the dawn of a new age, andrew. it's like better than it ever was. even when you have normal tv on, you might leave the room and then come back and then fast

forward. i watched every commercial. it's wonderful. i mean, because we're in this business so we better get paid somehow. but i was shocked to see that that did not come to the pass. the analog dollars, the digitals -- >> on demand, i didn't realize that. >> and you can't fast forward through them. and i can watch any date line i want. i can watch all these different nbc shows. but, you know, it costs money to -- it costs money to produce content. i don't mind watching to see what sponsors have to say. >> without hammering to our parent company, i had the same experience. i just watched every commercial because i wanted to get to the other side of -- they did the such a good job of teasing to the end. >> do you know who is on today? >> the profit. >> the profit. anyway, time for the global markets report. ross westgate, i've already seen him. i've already checked out his -- today because he was -- you were

interviewing someone, ross, and i was thinking, wow, i would not like to be interviewed by -- because in a two shot, no one looks as good as -- you're got to not look as good as you. i don't want this. look, exactly half green and red behind you, exactly, i'm looking at right now, split down the middle. >> yeah. these are the bottom three lowers and you can't see the other seven going up above me. >> so it's mixed? >> it's the trick of the shot. yeah. exactly. so we actually are weighted to the upside. if we pull the camera out, you'll see. there we go. thanks very much. more green than red. there we go. sorry about that. 7/3 advancers outpacing declinesers at the moment, joe. yesterday, the ftse 100 was down

some 17 points. this morning, lows ahead of the u.s. open up some 26 points, a third of a percent higher. that's the data out today. weaker than we thought. manufacturing pmi, this is your ism manufacturing number. down with an eight-month low. 55.3 is expected around 56.7. it is still a very strong number. it's just now that the uk economy is doing pretty well as opposed to be scorching haas which it was a few months ago. the prices paid prior to that down more than expect egz pressure. employment held up, as well. we had pmis coming out in the eurozone. we had the flash number a couple of weeks ago. what we did see was actually better numbers again in france, italy and spain. so that recovery gathering momentum. slightly weaker number in germany, still very much in expansion territory.

we did see the manufacturing pmi come in at 53. the flash was 52. at 5227 in february. the apple prices index 49.3, still slightly negative. the breakdown effect, even in sectors weighted to the upside, also doing fairley well. construction material, banks, weakness in food and beverage, health care and telecoms. we're really looking to see whether the ecb responds to the very weak inflation we had out yesterday, albeit the pmi we had out yesterday are okay. back to you. >> all right. are you back for good, ross? is that the -- what is with the glasses? some days you -- what, do you have pink eye like bob costas or something? on and off? >> no. i just had a little eye infection. >> owes, my god, that's the -- you see? i was right. that's what happens during the olympics unfortunately.

all right. thank you. >> yeah. >> see you, ross. when gm's mary barra heads to capitol hill today, she will be questioned by michael burgess, vice chairman of the oversight and investigation subcommittee that's holding the gvm hearings. thanks, thanks for joining us. she said just in herr comments, you're able to say this gm is different. it gives them sort of -- not plausibility deniability, but being a new ceo, they can have a line of demarcation between what happens when she was there and before she is there. >> it helps the company, but it may help our investigation, as well. some of the stories i've read indicate that the new ceo intend toes be much more forthcoming. obviously, we'll have a chance a little bit later today to see if that is accurate or not.

and i read somewhere that you want to see why it took so long for this to happen. we can surmise why it took so long for this to happen, can't we? it's costly, it's expensive. you never know necessarily as a company what rises to the level of the recall and, you know, these companies are -- >> correct. >> you know how much pressure they're under. we saw what happened. they need add government bailout. >> and the numbers are small, but the cases were horrific. this is actually more of a question for the federal agencies, the national highway traffic safety administration. it's -- if nondeployment of an air bag is a big deal, and i guess from some of the stuff identify read from them, it is a big deal. why were so many happening within this ten-year time frame

with the atm product that you failed to initiate the investigation? in fact, at one point, they sort of picked up the pieces and said well, let's look at this and then they said, well, never mind. with another car company with the singles on deploymentment in to 212, they said holy cow, we have to get into this. >> this brings up the whole case of how we view government versus the responsibility of the regulators versus the company themselves. it would be great if every company was a perfect citizen, you know, in thinking of, you know, that type of issue first and not necessarily needing oversight. but then again, where was the -- where were government safety regulators on this? aren't they the ones that need to hold a corporation's feet to the fire? you can't expect corporations which have a different -- you know, we know what they're

trying to do. >> it's a very valid question and one which i have, as well. and the printed testimony made available to us from the administration says that, well, gm should have known better. well, wait a minute. yeah, maybe so. but you guys are the watchdogs. so you were supposed to be the ones who were bringing people's attention to the fact that there is a problem here. i mean, in fairness to gm, they have made an enormous volume of material available to us and, in fact, they've spent most of the night going through things that were deposited on my desk just yesterday afternoon late. but all the actions you read about, there's one that stands out, a young woman who charged down a cul-de-sac at a high rate of speed. that air bag might have made a big difference in her case. her fatal injury was a laceration which she impacted the steering wheel and, in fact, broke off the rim of the wheel with her small body.

an air bag might have made a big difference in that particular case. can't say for sure, but my read in the report. that is significant that that did not go off. i think think someone would have paid attention to that, as well. >> were there any fireworks, was there anything in there that somebody suggested you this knew something that they should have known that did go up the chain farther than it's been acknowledged so far? that does appear to be that sense, even going back to 2004 and the memo prepared by the committee that was made public earlier in the week. but you don't know really where up the chain the decision was made and was it simply something that occurred at the level of the engineers or were executives of the company involved? i don't know the answer to that. but suffice on it to say, the numbers were small and, you know, i was here when we did the

toyota investigation in 2009 when many of these were occurring. and those numbers were larger. these numbers were small. but the access were horrific and the loss of life was real. again one ask yourself, what in the heck were they doing? with some of the toyota stuff, it looks like the impact began investigations where at the the end of it all, you feel what were you doing here? this doesn't really -- the electronic throttle control was never the problem. it was a format problem. why did it take you so long to figure that one out? congressman, do you have any plans to call anyone who was involved in the bankruptcy process of gm in front of you on behalf of the government? >> you know, i'm sure that question will come up today. i'm no a bankruptcy attorney and i don't know the ins and outs of this. you do know that gm was a

special deal. mitt romney, in fact, got into a great deal of trouble by suggesting they should have gone through a prepackaged bankruptcy and instead the government was a major stockholder. i don't know whether that changes the equation at all, but it's a reasonable question to ask, what is the government's responsibility now that these individuals who may have been injured in this sequence. >> mr. chairman, we appreciate your time today. we'll be paying close attention. andrew, the thing that -- if you just take it at face value, the narrative of the left or the huffington post or whatever, we know what corporations do. and if you just believe the narrative, that they're degreedy and profit seeking and that they don't take into action, that's why you should just assume that this is going to happen. it has to be the government's responsibility. wouldn't the government immediately -- they know gm, they know the corporate -- >> and you're saying it should be on the government? >> what they say about corporations are true, then they should understand that you need

to keep a very tight reign on these guys. or they're always going to do the wrong thing, right? you know who else's birthday it is? >> who? >> i can't believe you didn't know. i think you may be forgot for a second. >> who? >> rachel maddow. >> part of the nbc family. >> and one of our viewers noticed my ned reyerson. remember him? steven coslowski in "ground hog day." anyway, coming up, we've got a lot more birthdays and other things. facebook's ceo mark zuckerberg is going to feel like his birthday because he just got a payday. that's coming up after the break. break.

windfall battles zuckerberg had a huge tax bill. even though he limited his facebook salary to just $1, it marks the second straight year that zucker berg has realized a huge gain on the holdings that he has accumulated. zuckerberg still owned 426.3

million. facebook is worth an estimated $2577 billion. cheryl sandburg, we should note, she shed more than half her stake in the social net, wog company since its ipo less than two years ago, as well. what do you think of that? >> i was just thinking, you know, a lot of times it's a zero sum game and disrupts the technology takes away from someone else. but it's all good. it's all good. let me ask you a different question. are you -- i'm actually less concerned with mark selling only because he still owns a huge

amount of the company. but cheryl sand berg, who is number two, has now sold half of her stake in the company. >> as a facebook -- >> if you own those shares. >> i think that might -- well, for years, we watch insider selling. and it's not always -- a lot of times they don't know any better than anyone else. >> but then you see this and you say to yourself, what does that mean? >> she's the most nonbossy boss -- >> you want to encourage bossy. >> i don't have a daughter, but if i did, i want want her to be bossy. >> my daughter, believe me, she runs me ragged bossing me around. >> you know who is the boss in my house. >> i do. when we return, the markets keep up the pace heading into

earnings season. we'll talk about that when we return. plus, a candy store with some cavities. can they turn this business into sweet success? it's coming up in the next hour of squawk. take a look at yesterday's winners and losers. we're back in a moment. revolutionizing an industry can be a tough act to follow,

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good morning. welcome back. >> welcome back to "squawk box." whenever we say welcome, it's like, hey, set your alarm earlier because we start at 6:00. i'm joe kernen along with andrew ross sorkin and becky quick. this morning, the nation's auto sales are out with their sales figures. in addition to the stuff happening with gm, this will help trading. according to edmunds.com, ford will see a rise of 1 .6%. gm should see 0.5% increase. toyota is expected to see a 11.1% rise. the biggest increase may belong to chrysler. it's expected double digits, 1 1.1%. and jpmorgan will have to face a securities law from shareholders related to the london whale which we were talking about earlier. a judge ruled that the suit could proceed. it accuses the bank of

misleading shareholders about risks that the banks' chief investment office had been taken. and another shareholder lawsuit, this one involving hewlett packard has been settled and the company will pay $657 million to end the suit over changes in its business strategy in august 2011. we don't have the music any more. and it and it is leo. >> it's like a regulations. never comes off the book. anyway, business services which included the ill fated purchase of british software company autonomy which they subsequently wrote down. >> do you think we get a buzz? >> we get a bell. >> we never -- >> there you go. >> he's wlopg blogging for -- >> he's now writing aon the

business insider's website. >> i think that's like a match made in heaven. those two entities were created for each other. they let anyone write at pen something -- >> you know i'm a fan of -- >> oh, you are so politically correct. >> not on this show. >> why has hampton been? >> i got a chance to see him in the flesh a couple weeks ago. >> this is a little tmi. >> closely looking at the corporate tax structure today in a hearing at 9:00 a.m. the offshore strategy, hampton pearson joins us in the flesh with more on that story. good morning. >> good morning, guys. and thanks for the compliment, i think. back to that report, just released report from the senate subcommittee says caterpillar shifted $8 billion in profits to

an offshore slick affiliate and over a 12-year period avoid paying about $2.4 billion in u.s. taxes. from 2000 to 2012 caterpillar pace more than $2 million to implement a strategy redirecting its profitable taxes from sales of replacement parts. in exchange for a small royalty, caterpillar transferred about 85% of those profits from its international parts and dust biegz business to this facility. in a few hours, carl heavyin will be grilling caterpillar and cooper house about that strategy. levin says they a member of the corporate shifting club that has

shifted billions in profit to avoid paying taxes. caterpillar says it takes seriously its obligation to follow the tax law, pay what it owes, averaging about 29%. one is the highest in the u.s. among manufacturers. price water house cooper says it stands by the work they do for caterpillar. they, too, will have a chance to defend their work. now, there are no caterpillar parts manufacturing warehousing or distribution facilities in switzerland. surprise. and of the 8300 caterpillar parts worldwide, only 65 worked in switzerland. again, according to that report. so, guys, i think i'm going to get a short course in international caterpillar courtesy of chairman levin. >> don't bother to call levin with that 29% number. details, details, details. and you know what, hampton? don't we all know that the

government has much better plans to do with that 2.5 billion in caterpillar. think about it, i'd much rather have them handling it than this corporation. >> and no surprise to you, senator heavyin, of course, has much better plans in the form of inflation that's he's introduced to make it harder for not only caterpillar, but this is one of a series of hearings and he's had apple, hewlett packard and i believe microsoft before the committee on this same overall issue. >> it is. they the don't -- that money would be much better spent. but andrew and i have agreed this year each month to send more to the irs than we owe. just to be good americans. >> just good citizens. >> let's -- we're going to do it monthly. >> oh. >> you didn't agree with me to do that? >> i didn't realize it was going

be a monthly thing. i pay on a quarterly basis. >> i was going to point out that i do think it's always interesting in terms of the washington dna and how the washington year kind of works. we're a couple of weeks away from april 15th tax deadline. somehow, we always get these kinds of stories popping up about, you know, other folks avoiding taxes as some of those stories april 15th. >> i try to always take that into consideration. >> you've needed an extension for years. >> i knew that was coming. i knew that was coming. >> that's the scuttlebutt, sort of under the surface all the time. today -- thanks, hampton. today marks the start of the new quarter. in the flesh. >> what does the market's lackluster performance in the first quarter say about the rest of the year? here with us is darrel cronk. if you married diane swonk and she took your name, it would be

diane swonk cronk. did you ever think about that? and also joining us, jack, is ge reporting? what are you doing here? >> that's in two weeks, joe. >> all right. let me start -- i'm going to start with darrel. is the market rigged? >> no, it's not rigged. >> michael says it's rigged. "60 minutes" told me it was rigged. >> i think that's a dangerous comment to suggest the entire stock market is rigged. >> not dangerous for ratings. >> you're right. it certainly gets the media all hyped up and gets everybody excited. the reality is that's a cross-section between competition, between technology and between regulatory and environment. and i think all three of those have elements that have to come to play here. certainly there's some work that can be done around some of these propry tear feeds and paths versus the public feeds and paths and making sure that information arooiz riefs at the same time. you know, the reality is

appreciate republic preferential -- is still a crime. but speed to that is not. >> it may be a crime depending on what we find out. >> that information is different than what paul are getting to. >> if you could know what someone was going to -- you know, a big entity was going to place a big trade and you could get in front of it more quickly, that would be a pretty good way to do things, wouldn't it? it does seem like it's too good to be true. >> if you're a fast money guy and you clip pennies on both sides of trades all day long on millions of trades, that's what you do. i think there's a lot of -- like clients. for a period where half a penny or a penny on either side of the trade is not right lane going to naert. it's more a problem of adjourn

mining the public and the integrity of the financial markets. which is what i think the comments on "60 minutes" as much as i'm a michael lewis dpan fan, i do think that that was just a bit inflammatory. >> yeah, but if the act itself can be even misconstrued to make it look like it's not rigged, maybe they're doing us a service by making sure we -- even the perception that we level the playing field so we'll get rid of some of these reasons that make it seem like the market is rigged. right? >> i don't know, joe. i would like to see the regulators be -- >> so you don't care about this, you would let it keep going? >> no, i think regulators should take a hard look at this and put as a primary goal protecting the public's confidence and integrity in the capital markets so that they can do their job,

which is to effectively allocate capital for corporations. >> yeah. >> no, i agree. the financial markets true financial innovation has created an even faster, more complex market. so you have to have an underlying structure that can capture that around high frequency trading. the s.e.c. is doing some work around what they call consolidated audit trail, which is a new technology. it allows them to see all the volume, all the price action, all the customer data that they can go back and trace these trades and make sure that they are, in fact, accurate. and they make sense. >> we have to run. we spent a lot of time -- the s&p is up 1% for the quarter. what will it be for the year, darryl? >> i still think we're probably 8 to 9, 8% to 10%. >> jack, what do you think? >> agreed. >> okay. so maybe high single digits or -- okay. gentlemen, we'll keep it short. i appreciate it.

we've got gm news, a lot of stuff going on. coming up, we're going to talk about whether gm is making the right move. and the turn around specialist howie wilson will join us at the top of the hour. but first, marcus lemonis is playing candy man, but will it be a sweet deal for the profit? we'll tell but his latest attempt to save the business from ruin. back in just a moment. in just . (clears throat) hi mister tompkins. todd? you're fired. well, gotta run. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more.

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welcome back. it is time for your squawk planner. gm's mary barra will testify

before a house panel on the automaker's recall crisis. checking the economic calendar, the ism manufacturer's report release dollars at 10:00 a.m. time. we'll bring it to you. and the markets will be absorbing the march construction spending report. that, my friend, is your squawk planner. we are coming back in just a little bit with marcus lemonis. he's the host of "the profit." taking a look at a candy company. was it a sweet deal? we will talk to him more about that when we return. ameriprise asked people a simple question: in retirement, will you outlive your money? uhhh. no, that can't happen. that's the thing, you don't know how long it has to last. everyone has retirement questions. so ameriprise created the exclusive.. confident retirement approach. now you and your ameripise advisor can get the real answers you need.

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welcome back. a new episode of cnbc's hit series "the profit" airs tonight at 10:00 p.m. eastern time. here's a quick preview. >> the reason i came to this resolution, when we were here, all of us, busting our fannies, what did you do? you walked out the front door and handed me your apron. honestly, i don't want to be partners with somebody like that. >> i think it's fair. >> we're moving on. >> right. >> we're moving on. this is the operative agreement. you will be in charge which you want you get what you want. >> and you get what you want. >> i politefully disagree. >> we're not going to stay in this location. we have a financial obligation

to you as the landlord for another 15 months. we signed an agreement. we'll be out of here. we needed you to know that as well. >> the star of the show, the turnaround king himself, marcus lemonis. he's the chairman and ceo of camping world and good sam enterprises. if you haven't seen the show, marcus invests his own money trying to help struggling businesses to make a comeback. it's all your money. >> i was trying to get joe's money last week. >> you said you'd take me. i want a small -- i don't even know if i can do that. >> i don't want your money. >> i can just come and watch you slap people around? >> in that particular clip, were you going to break the lease? >> no. this is actually one of the better episodes of the 14 we've made. this is a partnership gone bad. the guy you saw in the glasses

took advantage of this couple, gave them $2,000 and 50% of their business. >> i want to hear about that. how did you do that? >> i len the the other partners enough money to be able to put a capital call out there, the guy couldn't handle the capital call because he's going through bankruptcy and essentially wiped him out. >> if you are a small business and you run into trouble, and a shark like the guy in the glasses shows up on your door step and says i'm going to pay you $2,000 for 50% of your business. what should you do? how should you be represented? to the extent people are offering cash, the terms are usually not favorable, including some of yours by the way, i assume, too, when you show up? did i just go too far? >> you went too far. >> aye-yi-yi. >> here's the deal. in a situation where you're at the door step and about to face closing you'll have to take whatever money you can get. what you have to hope for is that you'll find somebody that's

more fair and equitable. $2,000 is very different than $200,000. right? in this particular case the guy took advantage of them. i don't think there's a playbook that says how not to get taken advantage of. >> he charges 20% a week and has busted kneecaps? >> no, no, no. >> you've never done that as far as we know. >> no. >> he walks into distress situations and is able to get a bargain. >> i've spent $7 million this year, not 7,000. >> what is this. >> a candy manufacturer. >> was that the retail location of sweet pete's? >> just one. >> what do they sell? >> they make their candy. these people were -- this was the son of peter brook, the largest candy manufacturer in florida, sold their business to private equity in 2008 and they got kicked out. this couple went bankrupt, they lost their home and car. they were living out of their car. they borrowed $1,000 from family and friends and went into a distressed neighborhood and

opened this business. it's really a great story. their product sells. they did $500,000 last year. >> what kind of candy. >> salty caramel, peanut butter meltaways. he hand makes his own lollipops. >> it's fresh. >> it's very fresh. this is why i invested the money. he teaches classes. they get about 150 kids every two days to come in for these classes and you see these 3, 4, 5, 6-year-olds paying $15 a kid. it cost them $2 to put the class on. i bought them a 10,000 square foot building. i'm going after dylan's candy business, by far. all their candy comes from china. >> you're talking about dylan's in new york city. >> yes. >> the daughter of ralph lauren. that's who we're talking about. you are coming off ralph

lauren's daughter? wow. >> that would be something you would do. >> something you would do. good business, though. >> marcus, thank you for joining us this morning. it's a good episode, go watch it, 10:00 p.m., eastern time tonight. right after the latest episode of that other terrific show called "shark tank." >> fantastic show. >> great lead-in. >> thank you. coming up, gm's recall crisis takes center stage in washington. ceo mary barra on the hot seat, just two months into the job. she's like, wow, i didn't sign up for this. is gm making the right moves? so far we'll open up that discussion with a former member of president obama's auto task force. so ally bank has a raise your rate cd

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gm's recall crisis, ceo mary barra about to face a house panel after a little more than two months on the job. is gm making the right moves to resolve this public relations nightmare? going out like a lion, really like a bull. the market surgeon the final trading day of march but will there be an april fool's joke in friday's jobs report? and is there a penthouse glut in new york city? find out why those ultrahigh end glass mannings in the sky may be sitting for a while. "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ so nice to see you. >> so nice to see you. >> what a couple we make. >> it's messy here.

are you okay? >> it's messy. >> we combine a little of both, don't we? >> yes. >> i think we're hybrids more or less. we embody both. collectively we cover the bases. good morning. >> it's a bromance. >> i'm joe kernen along with andrew ross sorkin. becky is out today. we have a call switch. she doesn't use it because she has the wireless mikes. she was coughing all day yesterday. she's not here. hopefully she'll be in tomorrow and feel better. i think it's been lingering with her. >> she's had it for a while. she's been playing injured. >> to her credit. >> futures are up a little bit after a great day yesterday and up another 44 points or so. inned headlines this morning, apple. there's the ten-year at 2.74. apple and samsung will make opening statements in a court in

san jose, california. apple seeking a ban on u.s. sales of several samsung smartphone models including the s3, a galaxy. samsung is claiming apple violated several of its patents and wants to ban sales of the iphone 5. elsewhere, house chairman budget committee paul ryan, he's set to unveil a new budget plan today. republican leaders say the plan is one that would balance over a ten-year period. it's unlikely that the democratically controlled senate, at least for now would pass the bill. >> your people have turned on him like -- i cannot believe the way you people work. >> he's a statistician. >> harry reid says he's been wrong. you guys love this guy. right? can you believe the way the left turns and eats its own? it's unbelievable.

>> he's nonpartisan. >> not anymore. i know that. he's not on the left anymore. it's a way to bolster the credentials. he put a climate guy in there that didn't toe the line. >> i saw that. >> they tell cnbc the probe is still in its early stages, looking into whether it violates any laws. a guy wrote a book and steve croft decided he could get some ratings with this. now every government agency in the world has to jump and check into this now. how can you not be cynical about the world? >> god bless michael lewis. we have another story to bring you this morning. what did we say, the big top story. it's not a circus, though it could turn into one today. gm ceo mary barra will be testifying on the automaker's

recall crisis. good morning, eamon javers. >> mary barra met with some in washington, d.c. last night. she met with 22 family members last night here in d.c., some of them showing pictures of their loved ones who have died as a result of this ignition switch error. clearly an emotional scene last night. we can expect more of the same up on capitol hill today because those family members will be here in washington. they will be making themselves visible and very well known in an effort to demonstrate that gm knew what was going on with these ignitions switches and could have done something about it much earlier than it did. take a look at some of mary barra's prepared testimony for today. here's the line she's going to take. she will say i cannot take it why it took years for a safety defect to be announced in that

program but i can tell you, we will find out. today's gm will do the right thing, that begins with my sincere apologies to everyone affected by this recall, especially to the families and friends of those who lost their lives or were injured. i am deeply sorry. and as you know, these ceo statements are very well thought through in advance, very well crafted by the pr and legal teams of these giant companies when they come here to washington. obviously gm feeling it needs to make a full and direct apology today. that's what we can expect to hear, guys. >> eamon, thank you for that. stick around. we want to bring in somebody who knows a lot about general motors, another voice on this recall. with us on the set is restructuring expert harry wilson, chairman and ceo of the maiava group. he was a major participant if not leader in the bailout of general motors. and we had the seinfeld music. >> why? >> because of maiava.

i'm not a total dope. i'm a little bit of a dope but not a total dope. >> the guy used to get mad when we talked about maiava. 260 million at conoco. he's not mad anymore. >> he can live with it. >> you're not mad. >> i'm going to hold a "squawk" hearing. consider this not a congressional hearing but a squawk hearing. you were a participant in the bailout of gm. tell us on the record right now, did you or anybody during that bailout process know or hear anything about this? >> definitely not. >> two things. had we known about it, we would have done something about it. secondly, we didn't get to that level of detail. it's something gm senior engineers didn't know about. >> i wanted to get that out of the way. do you think that it actually

did rise higher in the organization than thus far has been acknowledged in terms of what people knew and when? >> it's a great question. it certainly should have, obviously. as best we've been able to tell from the chronology that's been pieced together, it seems the decision was made to not issue a new replacement part number at the time the replacement part was made. for whatever reason, someone made that decision, which was highly unusual. i suspect whoever made that decision is where it stopped. that person didn't go higher than that. at least we hope that will be the case. >> remember toyota. now we know the two different narratives on what went on. if there had been a software glitch that caused the cars to accelerate which is what it was implied by even, i think, the transportation secretary. and when it was all said and done was it the floor mat or something? and not only was it maybe the floor mat but it was that people a lot of times, user error, they press the accelerator instead of

the brake. we go through all this, do you ever really know as it's occurri occurring whether there's a recallable issue or not? isn't it always kind of like you're flying blind at the company as to whether it rises to the level of an actual defect and whether it needs to be recalled? i think that's why you didn't know. that's why the government didn't see this. >> that's true sometimes. i think in this case, i went back and re-created from the press reports. >> then there is someone -- there's someone somewhere with a name that didn't pass that along. >> i totally believe that, absolutely. that's what i was saying. somewhere someone made that decision to "a" not pass it along to the superiors and "b," with the issue of the replacement switch, not issue a new part number.

>> eamon, you want to jump in? >> a question for mr. wilson, if you could, explain what the bailout did in terms of liability to general motors because famously we went through the process where we had old gm and new gm. to what extent does new gm carry offer the liability for things that were done under old gm? apparently it's an entirely different new company but to what extent can they be held on the hook for stuff the old company did? >> let's separate the legal issues from the consumer issues. on the legal side, it's clear that the bankruptcy claim, the claims again the old company stopped with the old bankruptcy. that's part of the bankruptcy law. true if you're a bond holder or have consumer liability. the real question becomes from a consumer standpoint, what's the right thing for gm to do to rebuild the brand equity. >> they can't sue mary barra's company that she's running today? they can only sue against the pool of old assets that are still out there? >> certainly for incidents that occurred prior to the bankruptcy

they can only sue old gm. for incidents that occurred after the bankruptcy, i haven't spent time on. >> what is old gm? >> i don't know what's left there. there was a collection of cash that was left behind and assets. >> you don't know what the value of that is? >> no. >> in terms of what mary barra should do, there have been some critics that suggested she needs to start a trust fund, immediately announce this is what we'll offer victims. she's trying to get ahead of it. to really get ahead of it by making public offers. does that make sense to you? there are lawyers by the way who says this is a horrible idea. you're basically setting a particular on what your number is and you're going to court anyway. >> there are a number of issues. they need discipline around the process. you're seeing a drip, drip, drip. as a result, the consumers and purchasers don't know what to believe. as a result she needs to create more discipline around the process, number one. part of that discipline is a

clear time line. here's the time line for the investigation, plus or minus. here's a process we'll follow. we do intend to address it in the following way. and i think part of that is compensation for victims. >> what kind of damage do you think this has done? >> i think -- >> in terms of real damage. if you're going this weekend to look for a car, are you going to a gm dealership? >> i this so. they have so far made the argument, they need to make this more clearly, these are product issues that are seven years old. they're not evident in cars being sold today. they need to continue to reinforce that message. if they can do that effectively and do the right thing on cleaning it up, i think it will have a short-term effect. >> marcus was telling us, the market for used car, the value has gone down. that will have a knock-on effect on new cars as well. >> no. not really. residuals will be driven by the value ever the cars coming into the marketplace today. residuals for those recalled

models will come down for sure, although the fix is actually quite simple and cheap. but it won't have an effect, i don't believe, on new cars. >> now, the other thing that's been positive is that these were important cars, because of the gas mileage that the entire fleet, the gas mileage could come up closer to cafe standards that are being enforced more stringently every year. but you don't make any money on them. so for every one of these you sell you have to sell a bunch of suvs. it was important for the company to keep these things on track for -- >> right. >> with the government oversight of trying to get cafe. is there any truth to that. >> they didn't make money, they lost money. they couldn't have manufactured them by giving both their labor groups at the time as well as manufacturing processes. they were making ars they were losing money on. >> losing money on cars that people were unfortunately being hurt and injured with. >> right.

>> another example, you know, here we -- >> another example of the perverse incentives. >> good intentions that end up -- >> okay. >> they're playing us out. thank you for coming in this morning. eamon, thank you for the report. coming up in the next hour, jeff sonnenfeld will grade mary barra's handling of the gm recall crisis thus far. cnbc will have full coverage of mary barra's testimony starting at 2:00 p.m. eastern. >> no diamonds again today, right? all right. harry wilson, he never brings in beautiful stuff. you don't even wear any. >> it's mymother's birthday today. you should have brought -- >> i didn't know that until i was in the car on the way in. >> i know for next year. >> send some over. she has the same berth day as one of my college roommates. >> people are like, what? first quarter finishes strong with this momentum roll into

april and beyond. we put the markets front and center, next. later, it may be easier to find that new york city penthouse this spring. you're not looking, are you? >> always looking, joe. always looking. >> for an investment. >> we'll find out why in the next hour of "squawk box." aflac, aflac, aflac! ♪ [ both sigh ] ♪ ugh! ♪ you told me he was good, dude. yeah he stinks at golf. but he was great at getting my claim paid fast. how fast? mine got paid in 4 days. wow. that's awesome. is that legal? big fat no. [ male announcer ] find out how fast aflac can pay you at aflac.com.

welcome back. checking futures right now, see how the mark set setting itself

up for the day. we'll have the gm news later. the dow looks like it will open up higher, nasdaq up 7 points and the s&p looking like it will open up by 4 points higher as well. joe? markets closing out the first quarter of the year with a bang yesterday. it helped us get up over 1% in the s&p. joining us now is joe quinlan, chief market strategy at u.s. trust, bank of america private management. and our guest host is patricia patterson. take down the ticker. there it is. >> there, there. i got the gator. >> it matches the screen no less, too. >> perfect. aesthetics are important. >> undergrad, university of florida. >> yes. >> you think they'll do it? >> of course. >> really? >> of course. >> she's wearing alligator shoes. >> yes. >> no, you're not.

horrible. let me start with you, joe. everyone now comes in and says it's not going to be like last year. it's going to be a choppy, volatile trading, very difficult to make any headway but all they're doing is parodying what happened in the last quarter. >> i think, joe, it will be decent, all things considered. if europe is growing, i just got back there. we're surprised by the optimism. i think china will settle down in 6%, 7% growth. the global leader is the u.s., the confidence among businesses and consumers. we can tack on 7%, 8%, 10% here from year-end. >> and add dividends in and you might get up to double digits? >> we could. that's not impossible. the u.s. economy is in great shape in an absolute sense. we see money still coming into the u.s., whether it's middle east, china, europe, that's adding more buoyancy to

equities. >> i'd jump on on that. we did see a huge change in the beginning of this year from last year with m & a, not just volumes generally. the first two months of the year we had 36 billion in inbound u.s. m & a versus a little over 40 billion leaving the country all of last year. m & a, generally good for equity sentiment. the u.s. m & a in particular, another positive for the dollar. which does say we need to differentiate between which u.s. stocks we own. overall i think it's a bullish factor for the market. >> will it be because we grow faster than everyone else or will it be because someone yesterday, the tallest smurf in the smurf movie, you know you're not saying the tallest little person. you're not saying anything -- >> the best house in a bad neighborhood. >> that's okay. >> you don't want to put down bad neighborhoods. >> are you insulting smu ining

people? >> is it because we're the best house in a bad neighborhood or because we on an absolute level will hit 3%. >> i think we could hit 3% overall. i think we'll get momentum in this quarter. what we need to see is growth going over consensus of going over 6.2%. >> it's not 4.5%? >> it's the good old days. we're going back to the '80s to get that sort of thing. >> because of reagan? what's the difference? who has changed other than who is in the white house. >> what makes me more cautious is what could come from washington that could add to growth, i.e. immigration, trade, energy policy, infrastructure. we're missing those components. i think we could be closer to 4% in a year if we put the right policies in place. >> that will be wishful thinking in a midterm year that we get positive policy changes. frankly, i think anything

getting passed, especially after may -- we're getting less fiscal tightening. that's less of a negative for growth. the trade deficit is shrinking. the current account deficit in the u.s. is the smallest it's been since 1997. >> you said the potential -- will the u.s. ever grow at 4.5 again? >> it's possible. it's certainly possible. if we get a big productivity boom, technology, something we can imagine. immigration reform, both of those things would make a big difference. right now, foreseeable future, i don't see it. >> it would help, joe, it would help entitlement problems, everything. >> the credit markets will have problems there. >> we'll seize into it. if we could have that as a goal. do we even have it as a goal anymore? we're accepting that we're europe. >> i don't think we're accepting that we're europe. we're competitive globally. i've been talking with chinese and the chinese are saying to

us, how did you do it with the energy? how do you drive earnings or leverage technology? we're in a cat bird seat. if we do good policies, have better prospects overseas and at home, we'll do better in the markets. >> they're doing 7, aren't they. >> they're doing 7.5 for this year. most people think it's quite a bit lower. >> like what. >> get used to 6 in china. >> what would we do for 6? think about how much better we'd all be. anyway, joe, thank you, rebecca will be with us for the rest of the show. >> you're like gargomel. >> i don't know who that is. >> he's like the bad guy who wants to hurt the smurfs. >> he's that scary guy. >> he's human who hates the smurfs. coming up, buffalo wild wings will talk to investors today. will they serve it up hot, medium or mild?

ceo sally smith opens up on today's menu, right here on "squawk box". we'll eat some of these things when we come back. ♪ it doesn't matter if it's boiled or fried ♪ ♪ just eat it just eat it at. well, did you know bad news doesn't always travel fast? (clears throat) hi mister tompkins. todd? you're fired. well, gotta run. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more.

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quick programming note. michael lewis, the author of "flash boys" creating a lot of attention. he'll be appearing on "power lunch" today at 1:00 p.m. eastern time. according to reuters, citi's bantamx unit may have lost tens of millions of. it says it has reported that to regulators. coming up next, you can't smell it at home. you can in the studio. what an aroma. buffalo wild wings, ceo sally smith will join us in the next half hour. did you know march madness, the biggest time of the year for the restaurant chain? a lot more coming up on "squawk" and those wings which i'm going to grab during the commercial break.

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box," right here on cnbc, first in business worldwide. we have a lot of headlines for you this morning. the next model of the iphone may be moving closer to reality. apple suppliers are ramping up to begin mass production of iphone screens as early as may. that next iphone expected to be launched sometime in the fall. it could feature a larger screen than seen in prior models. i have my fingers crossed. automakers will be out with march sales figures earlier this morning. edmunds.com estimating that chrysler will see the biggest increase compared to a year ago. a little over 11%. we're watching shares of casino operator las vegas sands this morning. it's one of companies in the industry with a strong presence in macao. new figures show casino revenues in macao were up 13% in march compared to a year ago. that was at the high end of analyst forecasts. >> what's brewing in the currency and energy markets? let's start with energy. here's a look at the world's leading energy markets right now.

as you can see, crude and the others. and here's a look at the world's leading currencies right now. with us now is matt smith, commodity analyst at schneider electric and our guest host, rebecca patterson. >> that's still where my heart is. >> and the gators. we'll talk about that in a second. matt, for some reason, oil has been locked in a range where i check it on a daily basis but it's really been years, hasn't it? that it's been between around 90 to 100, no? >> it feels like it's been years, yes. what you've got is markets to move lower when you have a geopolitical tension with russia. you're seeing mixed economic data coming through. we have the chinese pmi out overnight. which was better than expected, so we're not seeing crude moving as low as it could do really,

given that number. we have the u.s. number coming out in a bit. if we see a weak number there, we could see crude sell off again. >> is that the most interesting part of energy? should we be watching natural gas? >> they're all interesting, joe. natural gas is a fascinating story as well, just because storage levels are half what they were last year. and we've come through the coldest winter since the '70s. and so, there's really a situation natural gas we haven't seen for many a year. it's going to be interesting to see if storage refills and so natural gas is an interesting story more than crude at the moment, given that range bound property of crude. >> hey, matt, it's rebecca patterson. >> hey. >> with that storage issue for natural gas, are we going to be able to get the supplies up enough to be ready for the summer season? >> we're going to see storage being refilled a decent clip. just because we'll see production ramping up. we'll see it at record highs as

we move through this spring period. we'll see lower demand because there is not going to be the need for heating demand nor cooling demand. the next couple months will be key to see if we can get more gas into the ground by the time we get to the end of this injection period as we move into next winter. >> all this is viewed through the prism of ukraine and what's happening in russia. how will it all play out do you think? >> in terms of crude it's not really going to have any impact there. just because the -- there's a sim bymbiotic relationship betw russia and oil. oil has been -- it moves on the rhetoric and the saber rattling but it's not going to impact oil specifically there. it may impact natural gas prices in europe, just because it's more skittish.

in fact, russia has ramped up the price of natural gas for ukraine. they've pushed their costs up again. so it's more of an impact on ukraine than it is on european natural gas or on oil, really. >> in this world where we don't really admit whether there's a cold war or not, everybody says the way we need to hurt putin is by supplying europe. it would just -- it's the same thing when we used to say we should drill offshore to help our own needs. it's too far in the future. we're not ready to strategically help europe, are we? >> you're exactly right. it will be an incremental amount, starting next year, 2018, 2019, 2020 when we'd be able to send a solid amount over to them. it's completely a moot point on that respect. >> hey, matt, barron's had a front-page piece calling for $75

oil. do you think that's realistic? could we get down that far? >> no, i don't see it. once prices get down around 85 bucks, i think opec will panic, they'll ramp down production. i think there could be downside, to get to 75 bucks we'd need a global recession. that's what that piece said, i believe. >> matt, will you now interview rebecca about currencies, please? she's here to talk currencies. do you have any questions about how they'll impact the price of crude or natural gas? go ahead. >> okay. well, there is this inverse relationship between crude and the dollar. how do you think we'll see the dollar react in terms of -- >> this is good. >> in terms of manufacturing data and nonfarm friday coming up. >> sure. a lot of the market is looking at yields and expecting that

higher u.s. yields will be one factor that lifts the dollar but a lot of that is priced into the market. i think to see the dollar rally in a meaningful way you need more than u.s. yields inching higher. we talked about the current account deficit shrinking earlier. i think that removes a drag for the dollar which is supportive. we need to see other things kicking in, whether it's the ecb this week, the european central bank easing further, whether it's the bank of japan, they're meeting next week, easing further, relative rate differentials would help the dollar. if the dollar is going up with better u.s. growth, that's a good backdrop for oil. that doesn't necessarily hurt oil. i think the relationship between oil and the dollar depends on the growth yield backdrop as well. it's not just about the dollar itself. >> keep going, matt. >> let's go get some wings. >> you can host the show. >> next question. okay. >> we're not joking. go ahead. >> no, i'm not joking either. how could you -- we're seeing a

relative strength in the euro. it's kind of crazy to me. >> the euro is interesting. there's an oil link with the euro as well. historically when the oil producers were selling more, they're getting dollars. oil is priced in dollars in most countries they get dollars for that. they don't want to hold their oil reserves in dollars, they'll try to sell some of the dollars, buy other currencies to have deverde ve dever deverseifications portfolios. historically when we've had higher oil prices that's benefited the euro. with oil prices in a tight range, as joe mentioned earlier, the euro is not seeing that support. it's not good if it's a supply shock, when you get a flight to safety. people go to the dollar and gold and less oil. >> this is all over my head, frankly but it was very good. >> did we learn something there?

>> we're talking about value. which is de-miminimous. >> the control room said you're from alabama. >> i'm from louisville, kentucky. >> you're fooling all of us today. >> it's the country boy in me coming out. >> what country? >> yes, what country? >> hang by your phone later because you'll be getting a call from ari emanuel, i think. >> fantastic. >> we'll bring him back in the 8:00 show if we're bored. >> i think that's great. >> you can eat some wings. >> that's what we're going to do. >> we got this covered, rebecca. >> we're on it. >> currencies and oils. >> they affect each other. you have to watch them together. >> you may or may not have noticed it was me realizing that would work as an incredible

host. >> that was an amazing insight. >> i still have a role here. rebecca will be with us for the rest of the show. corn futures are on the move. know anything about corn? >> a little bit. >> okay. >> it was a slow start to the planting season. that's part of the problem. a look at that commodity and others after the break. and then buffalo wild wings, ceo sally smith, not related to matt, on how basketball has been driving sales. it's bigger than football for buffalo wild wings. we'll be right back. announcer: where can an investor be a name and not a number? scottrade. ron: i'm never alone with scottrade. i can always call or stop by my local office. they're nearby and ready to help. so when i have questions, i can talk to someone who knows exactly how i trade. because i don't trade like everybody. i trade like me. that's why i'm with scottrade.

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♪ where i come from rain is a good thing ♪ corn, the futures hitting a seven-month high after stockpiles were below market estimates. corn plantings were forecast to fall 4% to just under 90 million acres. when it's misspelled it's complicated. soy beans extending gains as

stockpiles remain tight. new crop prices are weaker after the usda predicted plantings to hit a record 81.5 million acres. this year that would be up 6% from 2013. coming up, "squawk" making a ceo call for wings we'll talk final four, the start of baseball and the business of food with buffalo wild wings ceo sally smith, right after the break. so i c

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march madness is the biggest sales period of the year for buffalo wild wings. they sold 80 million wings during this time last year alone and now that we're down to the final four, how is business going for the restaurant chain? joining us now, sally smith, president and ceo of buffalo wild wings. i remember it was -- when did it start? >> 1982. yes. >> it seemed nichey back then. >> it was a college bar. >> i'm eating. >> were wings at that point thought of to be at all sporting? it's been sort of a -- >> it's grown, it's definitely grown. >> partly because of buffalo wild wings. >> they started in buffalo, new york, a throwaway product. >> these are spicy by the way. they're really spicy. >> it has become now, if you're going to be final four, super bowl or something -- >> you have to have wings. we'd love to have you have wings

at a buffalo wild wings. we have a huge amount of carryout during this time of the year. >> we'll talk about a lot of different things. how much did your -- what's your advertising agency. >> 22 square dot of atlanta. >> how much does that help and how much did buying time for sporting events help. >> we first hit nationally in 2006 and that i think brought us on the map and made people aware. >> what was your first campaign? >> i'm trying to think of what it was. >> when did you do the one when you get the guys to prolong the game. >> the overtime. that ran the last couple of years. >> you can spend money with an advertising company and it can make -- whoa! >> you're falling down. >> it can make a huge difference. can it? >> it really can, yes. it drives people, it reminds people, we have a unique campaign going on now. if you've noticed the game's going that overtime, you'll see the drum roll and overtime

brought to you by buffalo wild wings. >> the other night i was watching, it was arizona/wisconsin which it hurt me deeply. we were all watching, my whole family and i, i go look at that, i noticed immediately. how did you do that? >> because of overtime. we have a -- >> it wouldn't have run if it wasn't overtime. >> it wouldn't. we have a deal, any game that gee goes into overtime -- >> do you pay for that? how does it work? >> it's all in a package. >> i have a piece of chicken stuck in my tooth. >> you must have done research to find out what percentage of games go into overtime. >> we do. >> that's with a big part of deciding on the campaign. >> who thought the game would go into overtime? we did. that keeps guests in the restaurant, all the better. >> where are you internationally at this point? >> we have 14 locations in

canada and 3 in mexico. i just returned from -- we just opened there in this last quarter. monterrey, chihuahua and merida. they look like the buffalo wild wings in the united states. >> you plan to go many more places, right? >> we do. each of those franchisees in mexico are in development. saudi arabia and dubai will open this summer. we're working on the philippines and india as well. >> you used to be a coca-cola place. now you're a pepsi place. >> we were. >> how did that happen? >> we made the change to pepsi at the beginning of this year. the contract was up. what pepsi brings is they understand entertainment from sports to music. their connection with the nfl really resonates with our guests as well as their beverage

platform. that and they have some great product innovation. we just rolled out -- they just rolled out a buffalo wild wings inspired potato chip that you can see and get in grocery stores. >> would the countries you're expanding into, what's the common thread there, philippines, saudi arabia, mexico -- >> sports. >> they like watching american sports. >> they do. both american -- world cup will be huge. they're excited in mexico for the world cup this summer. many people from the middle east have been educated in the united states. they have that favorite basketball team. my guess is they're watching march madness. >> you also can, when i went and picked some up on route 10, route 22. it was a football sunday. the place was packed. they were drinking beer and stuff. >> they were having fun. it's great friendly competition between people in the restaurant, guests in the restaurant. you might be in there with one team. there's someone else cheering

for another team. >> how much is takeout and how much is people bring home and how much is people actually go there and watch the whole game there. >> you have different screens, all the games piped in. >> we do. we like to say any game anywhere. if you're a fan and you're traveling and you can't see your home team, go in a buffalo wild wings and we'll get it on for you. takeout represents 15% to 18% of our total sales. super bowl sunday, takeout represents, my guess, would be 50%. >> the first week of march madness, you have every game. >> we pick a different part of the bar or restaurant. >> you could keep walking around. >> hop around the bar. >> you have pizza, too? >> flat breads. we've invested in a company called pizza rev. we're investing in some small concepts. pizza rev was our first one.

they have pizza. >> what do they do that's different than everybody else's pizza? >> it's a fast pizza. you pick out your ingredients and custom pizza made in three or four minutes. high quality ingredients. >> they put it right in? >> right in. >> do they spend a lot of money on alcohol. >> we have good margins on alcohol. alcohol represents 20% of our total sales, most of it's beer. >> that's good. how much is boneless and how much is bone? >> of our total sales, bone-in wings represent about 20%, boneless represents about 20%. >> how much? >> 20%. 20 and 20. 40% of our total sales come from either traditional wings or boneless. >> i think you'd be a sissy to have the boneless. do people eat the boneless? >> they do. >> i want to try these. >> would you try the boneless. >> i'm not sure what that one

is. this is teriyaki. >> i prefer not the drum stick part but the other. >> the flats. >> is that what they're called. >> they're called the flats. >> the other thing you spend money on innovation, how many sauces do you have now? >> 21 sawses and seasonings. we have a desert heat seasoning, salt and vinegar. this year, we've introduced the b. dub sauce lab. we'll introduce on a limbed time basis seven different sauces. we just finished with sizzlin' siracha. we have a citrus lime coming out this summer. >> can you do a flight of sauces, come into a restaurant and get two wings for each sauce. >> you can. if you want to sample it doctor we're working on that beer pairing. >> how long have you been there, sally. >> at the company almost 20 years, ceo for 18. >> you're the man. you're the woman.

because it was 30 restaurants. they were in ohio, right? >> pretty much in ohio. >> this is you. how much is the stock up. >> we went public ten years ago. >> you must be up 100 fieold or something. it's up a lot. >> 1,000%. >> you have options? >> i have a great team. >> there was something else i needed. you got the sauce. >> how many much your customers, what percentage are men? i want to go back. >> chicken prices, aren't they up a lot? isn't that hurt. >> i'll answer your question first. as we look at our research, 55% men, 45% women. a lot of families. we're a very family friendly. when the big game isn't on if you have kids in sports, you come, you're at a game, we have locations everywhere. we can accommodate big groups. the whole teams will come in after the game or between games. >> can i ask you a sheryl

sandberg lean-in question? what do your management ranks look like. >> we're about 50/50. chief financial officer is a woman. our head of strategy and business development. >> it's cooking. >> yes. >> oh. >> i've heard that before. >> have you really? >> i have. >> i was setting myself up as a jerk. which is easy for me to do. chicken prices. >> aren't they up a lot? >> haven't you had to raise? >> 2013 was a very high priced d chicken year. >> have you come down. >> we changed how we served our wings, what does that mean, one less wing? >> we had a double problem. the chickens were getting larger, so the wings were getting larger. we used to sell by the piece. now i was getting 6 to the

pound. i could only get one order. now we order by a small -- >> the wings are getting larger? what's happening here? >> the chickens have gotten larger. >> are they not organic. >> there's a longer processing time. >> we can do a lot now. would a six-wing chicken help? >> that would be -- >> from chernobyl farms? >> you have not laughed at one of my jokes. wow, that was a bad joke. must have been lame. >> do you try to hedge chicken or feed prices at all? >> look at her trying to ask serious questions. unbelievable. >> traditional style chicken wings. >> they're leaning into each other. >> traditional style chicken wings, we float with the market and we h h h h our boneless chicken and other chicken, other meat products are potatoes are all hedged. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> enjoy the wings. >> we appreciate it.

>> one of our viewers would like you to wear a crown. >> all right, all right. >> coming up, general motors ceo mary barra is in the hot seat on capitol hill. and we talk to jeff sonnenfield after the break. tdd#: 1-888-648-6021 there are trading opportunities

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lawmakers go under the hood of general motors. ceo mary barra plans to tell the hill her company plans to do the right thing. checking in with marriott international. ritz-carlton is expanding in the midst of a travel boom to the midst of africa. and a new jobs index that gauges the state of small business. the ceo of paychex will be here to unveil the results first here on cnbc as the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now ♪ working for a living ♪ working for a living ♪ i'm taking what they're giving because i'm working for a

living ♪ >> welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc, first in business worldwide. sally's gone. >> you consider this working by the way? are you working for a living? >> became public at 17. split. it's at 148. 8.50 to 148. i'm joe kernen. >> we need more women ceos. clearly. >> wow, wow, wow. i'm here with andrew ross sorkin and -- you're big tile. you're doing it all. >> i'm very happy and lucky. >> that guy that keeps following you around here, if he's a problem -- have you ever seen this? one of our reporters follows her around like robert frank. >> almost like we're married or something. >> i didn't know that. i was like, robert, not for nothing but we have an hr department. you're stalking her. let's check the futures this morning. futures are up about 42 points on the dow. we closed the s&p, andrew, at

1872. last year 1848. so we're up about 1.3% so far. it's been tough going. a lot of overhead stuff to get through. >> for clarity sake, robert frank is actually married to rebecca. >> yes, they are currently married. >> yes, long time, happily. >> everything is going well. >> it's not an april fool's joke. >> yeah, right. >> let's get you through some of the headlines this morning. another recall for general motors. gm is recalling more than 1.3 million vehicles for a possible power steering issue. this is unrelated to the controversial recall involving ignition switches. more on all of this in just a moment. and starboard, they're ramping up their case against the planned spinoff of red lobster by darden restaurants. starboard says the red lobster

separation could destroy substantial shareholder value. two key economic reports out later this morning, at 10:00 eastern time, investors will be looking at isms. congress looking there for a march reading of 53.9. that would be up from 53.2 in february. those are the numbers to beat. at the same time, the government will be out with february construction spending. as we said earlier, gm's ceo mary barra is getting ready to be grilled by a house subcommittee on the car manufacturer's recall of over 2.5 million cars. cnbc eamon javers joins us now with more an what to expect. >> it was an emotional scene in washington as gm ceo mary barra met with family members of those who had been killed in accidents related to that gm ignition switch issue. we're told she met with 22 different people. it was an emotional scene, tears were shed. some of the family members brought pictures of their loved ones who had died and that gives

youen indication of how dramatic today's testimony on capitol hill is going to be for mary barra. we have excerpts of what she's expected to say in her initial presentation. here's what she'll say. she'll say i cannot tell you why it took years for a safety defect to be announced in that program but i can tell you, that we will find out. she's also going to say today's gm will do the right thing. that begins with my sincere apologies to everyone who has been affected by this recall, especially to the families and friends of those who lost their lives or were injured. i am deeply sorry. those are the words from the new ceo of general motors and, guys, you can expect there's going to be very tough questions and answers asked by this committee today. they're going to want to know exactly what happened here. mary barra, however, will have a little bit of the upper hand in the sense she wasn't the ceo at the time that this happened. that might help her with the committee today. all of it unfolding this afternoon. we'll have to watch to see how

she handles it and what it means for gm. >> eamon, stick around. we want to bring in jeff sonnenfeld. you have been a fan of what mary has done thus far. what do you need to hear from her today to truly put this past them or is this something they'll have to live with for the foreseeable future. >> i think she's showing remarkable way to actually genuine concern and contrition. many times these ceos get overlawyered or overprotected. she's right out there, which i think was fantastic. this time last year we were talking about where is mickey aereson. we don't hear from him about any of the carnival disasters. so often we see that's a standard problem of stonewalling the media orvillefying the victims, the way, sadly, toyota

did initially, trying to blame the victims. there's complexity there. in this case, she's not trying to suggest that maybe any of these terrible deaths were not their fault. maybe some were not by the way. we don't always have air bags deployed because of the speed we're traveling, this or that. rather than fine tuning and nuances, she's saying we're really sorry, this shouldn't have happened. the authenticity, she's the real deal, having grown up inside the company. her dad there for 40 years as a tool and dye maker. she's not a finance guy, an internal accountant. she's a clean break of the engineering heritage of gm. there's a wonderful opportunity she's seized her. she also put her whole top management team on this to show the seriousness. >> should she announce a trust fund for victims? should she pro-actively try to get ahead of this more than she has thus far and set aside a

certain amount of money and say here's what's on offer right now to try to put this behind? or would that not be the prudent course? you talked about the lawyers. there are lawyers that say that is not the right way to go. you set a floor for what the legal case ultimately becomes. >> her job is to make sure this doesn't happen again. she's running a new company, the new gm going forward. in terms of the legal responsibility for the liability for the personal injuries in the past, i think under the bankruptcy resolution that's under the old gm. and her -- >> that's part of the question in a way. do you think she should take on the liability currently, even though she may not technically be responsible for it, should she say it's on us, we will deal with it. >> i'm not sure legally how she could. how could she make new owners responsible for something they weren't there for? it's a different company, different ownership. she has to show who's

accountable. >>fy was a victim, i'm aur is the least one of the families is going to say, this is not a new company at all, it's not a different company. not only do i want money from the old company, i want money from the new company. >> get it from the old company. there's a lot of accountability to unravel within there's delphi, which had not been part of general motors for decades as an independent company that made the parts. if these parts weren't assigned new numbers -- >> i'm suinging them, too. >> the companies and vendors involved. her job is to figure out how do we repair this so this doesn't happen again? we're going for atonement, fixing, correcting, building a new relationship. there's a way to re-establish a relationship with the old friends with the customers they've lost. i think that's her job. she's running a different company going forward. i think that there's -- there will be plenty of investigation to figure out if anything was concealed. it looks like there were stupid

decisions made. we'll see who made the decisions. right now i don't see any reason to unravel the other company that's responsible for any league damage. >> jeff, do heads need to roll? >> if they're still employed there. i think all of her top team were happily dispatched elsewhere and were not involved in the product decisions. it would be curious to see who is accountable, if there's anybody still in there, of course, heads would have to roll. we're trying to get the facts out. this is a company which has done remarkably well, despite volatility. i've been critical about the leadership transitions in the recent past. somehow this company has been producing fantastic vehicles despite the drama we love to talk about. >> jeff -- >> the impala, cts. >> eamon wants to jump in. >> it's eamon javers in washington for jeff. you're talking about the legal strategy, a public relations strategy here.

so often as they are today, those things are in conflict. as mary barra sits there and answers questions from members of congress up on capitol hill today, which should be most important in her mind, the public relations strategy of saying hey, we're going to do everything we can to fix it, it's our fault we're sorry or the legal strategy of trying to limit the financial exposure and damage? as she answers each one of those questions, which should be more important in her mind. >> there's often a conflict that's created between the communications people, the public relations and attorneys. the truth should prevail. what she's in the business of doing is building trust, answering the questions directly. she should not be overprotected legally. she should answer every question to the best of her ability. tony heyward, remember him, disstainfully sneering at congress from bp. toyota was

toyota, toyoda was reluctant to go. they send lieutenants to go before congress. they themselves don't want to go. they want to be the good guys. in this case, they're out there, saying i'm going to answer these questions. >> a lot of lawyers would say don't go out there apologizing until we know what the facts are. >> we see there is a direct apology in her statement today. the lawyers might advise against that. >> they often would advise against that. i think that her contrition is great. if you look at bob eckerd at mattel, who had a series of recalls because of product safety issues in china. he was correcting it. they've had to increase the

recall numbers and extend them into other areas. does that hurt her credibility? no. mattel proved as long as we're communicating with the public, we're not vilifying, we're not stonewalling, that you can build a relationship that shows that we're going to share what we know as we learn it. that's what johnson & johnson, tylenol, the gold standard here. >> how much weight have you lost? >> i've lost more pounds than i am old. >> you've lost your age. >> happy birthday to andrew's mother, too. >> happy birthday, jeff. >> the hard part is april fool's day. you hear from everybody. every old girlfriend, every coach, every practical joke. >> justice alito and rachel maddow. >> will rogers said about practical jokes on this day, the problem with practical jokers, many get elected. >> i'm going to buy you new

clothes, though, not for nothing. you're swimming around. >> the vertical stripes started to get bowed, that's when i knew we had a problem. >> we'll see you throughout the day. cnbc will have the full coverage of today's hearing starting at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. >> the camera was on me. i'll come over and sit on your lap. we can do the dummy thing, you know. >> that could be exciting. >> for both of us. coming up -- >> doing these cutaway shots. i don't know where your head is at. >> exactly. we'll be with the ceo of marriott when we come back. nciae financial noise

financial noise

today marriott has become the largest hotel company in africa. completing its acquisition of protea hospitality group. we talked about this last time

you were on, arne sorenson. i'm not old but i don't remember everything we talked about last time. i'm sure a lot of our viewers don't either. would you mind going over it again? >> we closed last night at midnight for the acquisition of protea, for 116 hotels all in sub saharan africa. we're buying the brand and the hospitality business. this is a deal we started in november of 2012. we're thrilled to close it because we see in sub -saharan africa a huge growth in middle class, 40% increase in travel spending since 2009. you look at the decades to come and we think travel in sub-saharan africa will be great. we'll be thrilled to be part of it. >> you better know your stuff, too, arne. that is a true frontier market or is it not anymore? do we think of it wrong and the

risks involved for you? >> it's obviously a riskier place than the united states would be. you look at when we evaluate the deal, we use different cap rates and the difference in some of the markets. the first time since independence swept across sub-saharan africa, really 50 years ago, we're seeing many countries with sustained good governments, where they're seeing their economies growing, focused on their economy. we should see gdp growth of twice the global average this year. that's a really powerful sign that things are working. >> i just remember reading an article. i think it was kfc, i'm not sure which, but getting a supply of chicken, currency translations from where they were buying the chicken and quality control, it was like a nightmare. it was twice as hard to do business as it is in the developed countries. >> well, it varies obviously

mark tote market. about 80 of the hotels we're acquiring are in south africa itself. south africa is reasonably stable and good supply chains and the rest of it. there are markets like ka galca rwanda. we've been working there with training programs with some girls schools to move some of those women from rwanda to open hotels we have in places like d dubai, get them trained, be in a position to bring them back and be great leaders in that hotel. you do have to invest in the community in a way that's a little bit different. there's also great reward in that. you're impacting a place which is in a profound way compared to some of the markets in the world. >> will you do anything, andrew, he's been to africa. he went to a place that was right next to a wildlife reserve where -- it was like a

ritz-carlton in -- will you do luxury where someone like that can go? >> oh, absolutely. we'd love to welcome andrew to some of the game reserve properties in south africa. >> you will do a ritz-carlton in africa? is there one now? >> there is not. there is not. one of the great things about this deal is weill we have a pipeline of maybe 20 hotels or so on the marriott side that have already been under way, we're not open yet and we really don't have the team of leaders in sub-saharan africa with local expertise and the relationship with our development partners that this deal will bring us. this will not only give us 116 hotels and give us expertise to open some of the stuff under development, it will be growth as well. you'll have tented camps which are stunning places to vacation. >> there's other areas that you're look at as well for

growth, too, right? >> all around the world. >> all around the world. in closing i'll tell you, i've seen you at some of your properties and andrew just asked me about skiing. one of the greatest weeks of my life just spent at batzer gulch. the best managed hotel i ever stayed in. >> glad to have you there. the skiing was phenomenal. >> you know abdullah, me and this guy. >> we had him on once. >> we did. he was in studio. >> what a -- granted you're outdoors, the kids, the fresh air. there's something to be said sipping on a drink and not doing anything. >> nothing like afternoon skiing when you have to worry more about a suntan than you do about getting a cold. >> every day it was like that. >> arne, please come back. we focused mainly on africa. >> i'm excited.

i hope he's got to buy singita next. >> he knows what i'm talking about. >> beautiful market. >> coming up, thank you, arne. we'll see you very soon. coming up, we talk about gauging the fed and the markets reacting positively to janet yellen's comments yesterday. we'll find out if the momentum can last. later, a new read on jobs of small businesses. the ceo of payroll provider paychex will join to us unveil that data, right here on "squawk" within we come back. in today's market, a lot can happen in a second. with fidelity's guaranteed one-second trade execution,

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take a look at the future, see how the -- the s&p 500 up close to 5. chrysler's best march sales since 2007, there's also slightly above street estimates. good news all around. coming up, manhattan apartments, some of the most expensive in the world, even for the rich. and new report out this morning, why prices are so high. cnbc's robert frank, a guy you know very well, he's going to be here in just a moment. >> no way! he's here today? he hasn't been on in weeks and now he's here. >> back in just a moment. they think about tires.

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i'm taking off, but, uh, don't worry. i'm gonna leave the tv on for you. and if anything happens, don't forget about the new xfinity my account app. you can troubleshoot technical issues here. if you make an appointment, you can check out the status here. you can pay the bill, too. but don't worry about that right now. okay. how do i look? ♪ thanks. [ male announcer ] troubleshoot, manage appointments, and bill pay from your phone. introducing the xfinity my account app. welcome back to "squawk box" this morning. i'm sorry we're talking off air. let's take a look at stocks moving this morning in the premarket trading.

several casino stocks are on the rise, following the news that gaming revenues in macao were up from a year earlier. mining giants and b hxt php billit billiton, investors appear encouraged by the news. i wonder if they're suggesting splitoffs or spinoffs or who knows what. drugmaker medicines company are under pressure after a ruling in a case involving haspira. their drug, angiomax are valid medicines. >> this is the perfect story for you. the patent going swimmingly, too. going swimmingly. >> 14 years. >> they only brought wings.

they didn't bring beer, did they? >> they did bring very complicated medical terms without pronunciation keys and given my challenges with the teleprompter. >> how did you say chattanooga the other day? i saw someone write in about that. >> haspira i've seen advertised on "nightly news." it causes like 80 different things. did you ever watch these things at night? it's unbelievable what you have to disclose. triple digit gain for the markets yesterday, fed chair janet yellen had something to do with that. steve liesman is here with more. we're back to, you know, did your eye twitch or something? >> no, no, no. it was more explicit than an eye twitch. >> remember two weeks ago, the six-month thing. she took it back, now we're -- >> it was a bit of a walk-back. i think we told people if you thought yellen was trying to make you think the fed was going

to be tighter than you thought previously, you were wrong. she sounded dovish about monetary policy saying the fed's extraordinary commitment to low rates will still be needed for some time, those views are widely shared on the fed. it seemed at least in part an effort to soften the effects of the press conference, saying the fed could raise rates six months after qe ends. she spent time discussing slack in the labor market, why she thinks the fed has more to do. she's watching the 7.1 million americans working part time because they can't find full-time work. this has come down from a peak of 9 million. it's fallen more slowly than the unemployment rate. they're about 2.7 million more workers in this category than before the recession. it's unclear how much extra work they could provide, making it hard to gauge slack. they provide five hours more, ten hours or 20 hours? but not using their labor, if you use the 20-hour equivalent, it's about the same as adding a

percentage point to the unemployment rate. so we're going to get stuff that's going to help gauge slack in the labor market in the data as well as some of the first bounce-back from the harsh winter weather. today, ism is being seen up, construction spending up 0.1. that's february data. that vehicle sales number at 15.8 million, we're watching that. do people not go to the showrooms during february, are they back again in march? adt, the jobs data on wednesday, thursday claims deficit, that's february data. ism manufacturing also looking for a snap back and then it's payroll week, guys. 200,000 expected on friday, the unemployment rate ticking down to 6.6%. inside that, guys, we'll get part time for economic reasons. we'll get some of the long-term unemployment rate yellen is looking at. all of this stuff, drew maatta says he doesn't see the long-term unemployed coming back to work, as did alan krueger

sitting in that chair last week. >> whether they come back or not affects unemployment rate but it also affects wages. if people don't come back, you could see wages rise faster. >> marty feldstein saying the fed ought to provide more explicit statements about what the fed would do if inflation were above 2%. >> drunkenstein, feldstein. >> they played something when they said frankenstein. >> the horse. >> steve, stick around. with us now, chief u.s. equity strategist at deutsche bank. rebecca patterson is with us, too, ceo at bessemer trust. well, well, well, thanks for coming in, david. s&p 500 year-end target? >> flat for the year. >> it's 1876 right now.

>> my target is 1850 for the end of the year. >> thank you very little. >> that's down from where we are now. who invited you on? >> you did. thank you. appreciate it. >> we needed a party pooper. that's why we invited you. it's the january rule. we decided january was lousy. here he is. >> i remember you as, you could have fallen into the camp of permeable at one time. this is different for you. i'll give you cred here if you're right. >> i lake to be bullish when i don't see strong upside. >> why don't you see strong upside. >> we're jie defendanting gains from last year and wrestling with two important issues, one, what are normalized interest rates. a lot of what steve said is on a lot of investors' minds. we of dovish comments out of yellen. as she has said herself, there's a committee, it's data depe

dependent. we have 275,000 jobs for payrolls on friday. as the u.s. economy accelerates, what do we see yields do? we need the economy to accelerate without yields spiking. that's key. also, we expect asia, emerging markets economies to slow down a bit. that's the goldilocks they're looking for. >> what will be the high be so far this year? >> you see 2004, 2005 and 2006. one it's the good year, key issues are being debated like this. if it turns out to be a good year, it's usually the second half. i think we could do something in the 1900s by the very end of the year if we get that acceleration. >> 1850 is what i consider to be my probability way to target. i think there's upside on that target that's been building, two big surprises year to date, oil higher than we initially expected. long-term interest rates. >> what's your target, 1850 or

1900. >> 1850 and there's risk to the upside. i think we do go lower before we go materially higher as we have to watch interest rates reset to higher levels and internalize the slowdown. >> the own think thing it sounds like you're saying is we played it forward last year. >> that's exactly right. >> the fundamentals all seem to be i indicating we should be going up if we hadn't gotten rewarded last year. >> right. this is why i like to think of myself as constructive on the equity market. i think we have several years. >> that's like kissing your sister from 1850 to 2000. 19 months from now? >> it probably is the most attractive upside you can get. >> 1850 it to 2000. >> i get more than that in a junk bonned. >> is all the ak asell ration and growth priced into the market, this unemployment rate comes down and all of that is

already priced into the earnings that companies are going to make? >> i think the likely acceleration is priced into the equity market. we believe it will curve but it's priced in. the risk is the market is becoming too dependent on interest rates staying low. >> if you're right, what am i supposed to do? >> where else do you go? >> for investors that don't want to trade a 5% to 10% dip may not be trying to trade. you can grit your teeth and tolerate it. for those who just want to take positions that do well over the long term, we point out big cap tech, big banks and mega cap stocks in general. >> what are you doing? >> reducing equity allocation. >> leaving it in cash. >> yes, i'm waiting for a better opportunity. >> did you see the video of janet yellen? >> which video. >> the welder in chief. >> no. >> did you see that? >> do you have a clip for us. >> i wanted to make sure you saw janet yellen, woman of the people is the best way to say it. she was at a vocational training facility yesterday.

>> let's see that again. where was that? >> this is in chicago. she went to a place that helps employers find the employees with the skills they need. it's a welding facility. >> this has been a first. >> i've never seen a fed chief put on a welding mask. >> can we see that again? >> the printing press, she may have to get in there occasion occasionally to fix stuff. >> luke, i'm your father. >> ladies and gentlemen, joe had no idea that video was coming. he made up that joke on the spot. that was really good. darth vader. >> thank you, thank you. >> i didn't think about darth vader. i watched that clip 100 times. >> how does he breathe? >> audio should be able to get that quickly. >> that made me think of stalker. >> sorry. >> we can talk about this. >> we have to go, guys. >> coming up, does new york have a pen the house glut?

there are now more than 240 listings priced over $10 million or more. cnbc's robert frank will be here with a new report on apartment sales in the big apple when "squawk box" returns. these don't look clean.

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welcome back to "squawk box." new york city has some of the most expensive apartments in the world. a new report out this morning showing it may be getting more expensive even for some of the richest people in the world. cnbc's wealth expert robert frank is here with that story this morning. good morning. >> this is amazing .average price of a manhattan apartment just hit an all-time record. it cost 1.7 million, $1300 per square foot, up 13% from the first quarter and 31% for the year. a lot of this is driven by the new condo development. the average price is up 35% year-over-year to 2.4 million. downtown, sorry, andrew, downtown is the place to be. >> my stuff's not going up nearly as much. >> walker tower, one madison. 3,000 per square foot. the number one sale in the quarter was a penthouse at walker tower, 51 million. second place was that 43 million at one madison for new york's most eligible bachelor, rupert murdoch.

downtown jumped 64%. the risk that inventory is rising fast. inventory jumping 20%. new development jumping 55%. there's a two-year supply of apartments priced at $10 million or more. a lot of the risks here are also that the russians are pulling back right now, given the sanctions and the chinese growth slowing there. the big question is with all this new supply, these penthouses, are there enough foreign buyers. >> what's going on in london? the reason i ask -- >> are you thinking moving? >> i'm not. to the extent they may sort of be a path where to where we are going. people think that is where new york is going. >> the brokers hope so. prices in london are about twice the amount that they are in new york. on a per square foot basis, if you look at monaco, hong kong, london, these are markets where people think new york is headed. they think that gap which is twice is going to shrink. you know, the issue with this boom in new york city, it is so geared toward the very wealthy, almost all the new supply,

coming on this year is prices 3 million and up. and london is the case where it's almost all a luxury market now. there is no sort of average apartment in london. and that's where i think we're headed. >> what about the burbs. >> the burbs are still the burbs. >> greenwich, that market has been flat on its back. >> the foreign buyers aren't going to the burbs? >> they're not. the russians are going to long island, some of these places to keep their families but it's shocking, it's stayed in manhattan and a few neighborhoods, downtown, 57th street is exploding. that's where the rich want to be. they don't want to be in the burbs. >> don't short the bedroom communities of new york city. >> those families will get priced out of new york. the price pressure is not there yet. the average price, 1.7 million. >> you know this guy.

you going to ask him a question? >> i did it earlier with matt, our oil guy. >> it's very weird. >> it's pillow talk for them. >> no. >> did you get a restraining order? this guy follows her around at the christmas party. stalkers are in the workplace, there's no -- >> you should cut him some slack. try it once. good for a drink. >> he put a ring on it. >> people at home don't know that. >> they're married. they're married. >> they're also real estate partners. >> we are. we have an investment together. i wanted to ask, though -- >> what do you fight about? >> we don't fight. >> we fight about the chinese economy, whether it will be a soft landing or hard landing. honestly, we do. it's that boring. >> we fight over "the economist" magazine when it arrives on friday nights, who gets to read the hard copy. >> can i ask you a question that

might be uncomfortable. >> on live tv, sure, go ahead. >> i always think he has the superman outfit underneath. has he ever done that to you? >> i did buy him a superman -- >> did you ever run into a phone booth and come out. >> there are no phone booths anymore. >> you have to go to a starbucks to get changed. >> you know this! >> i'm not insulted at all. i'm good. >> okay. coming up, it's a small -- you? >> i'm good. >> okay. it's a small -- 500 feet is what it was. you could be arrested. it's a small business jobs from paychex. they are launching their new index today. find out which small businesses are hiring. "squawk box" will be right back. aflac. ♪ aflac, aflac, aflac! ♪ [ both sigh ]

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welcome back to "squawk box." priceline.com has announced its changing its corporate name, henceforth the company will be known as the priceline group. in addition to its flagship priceline bidding service, they own booking.com, kayak and

rentalcars.com. it's one of these deals where it encompasses more than just priceline. i hope it doesn't change think doesn't he? let's get down -- let's beam down to jim and jim cramer at the new york stock exchange. she's got a gator opinion on here, rebecca does, today, jimbo. did you take them? >> yes, i did. but i feel like that's -- it's such a prevailing wisdom -- >> i know. >> -- situation that it kind of doesn't matter. >> i don't think i can win. even though i have them, i'm too far behind with other things and too many other people have them. that's why i didn't pick kentucky last year or louisville the year before and i got burned both of those years and i went with them. >> it's pyrrhic if florida gets in and it won't put me anywhere near the top and it makes me

rethink everything. i'm going disrupter this next year. not this way. >> we have buffalo wild wings, did you ever get on board with your trust? did you ever own it? >> yes, i'm a huge believer in sally and she's one of my bankable in "get rich carefully." she's a remarkable executive and continually been underestimated by wall street. there's always somebody wanted to short the stock who doesn't believe. the business model is unbelievably good as you pointed out in the interview and i real hill think you heard the great story of which main street understands but wall street continues to diss. >> 8.5 to 148. since it came public. >> yes. >> did you see arnie sorenson, too? if you want to be sort of a ceo that sort of preserves the status quo, you don't buy 50 hotels in sub-saharan, africa, do you? >> no, but passionate for starwood decides he wants a

hotel basically in every city of more than, like, 200,000 people in china which produces thousands of hotels. >> great growth process. >> the hotel guys are trifeing to be where everybody else ability and i respect that. >> it's a frontier market with lots of upside but politically and you just hope that, you know, that things improve for everyone there very quickly so that, you know, then it's a great place to be obviously. >> exactly. >> yeah. >> and these are two very forward-looking ceos. both these people are investable i think it's really sensational. >> anything else? we got to go. >> priceline 19 times earnings with a 19% growth rate, one of the most inexpensive stocks out there. >> priceline group. >> yes. >> all right, jim, we'll see you in a couple minutes. coming up paychex launching a new index that gauges the state of employment for small businesses. could be a good data point to have. the ceo of the company joins us right after the break. [ bagpipes play ]

make it happen with fidelity active trader pro. it's one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. call or click to open your fidelity account today. with 97% of the companies in the united states classified as small businesses, 97%, the pulse of their hiring is a good indicator of economic growth and today payroll firm paychex is teaming up with global information company ihs to

release a new small business jobs index. marty mucci is ceo of paychex and joins us now with the results and we can do apples to apples type thing with adp and the jobs report. tell us how we can use this information. it sounds great. >> yeah, basically, joe, it tracks the same store worker counts year over year for small business. it uses 350,000 of our clients under 50 employees, so it's probably one of the largest sample sets and one of the best most real time measures of small business growth, that's how the index identifies itself. >> be have dunkleberg talking about the nfib sort of the sentiment in the country and it's always very helpful because they really are different than big businesses and maybe more important to the overall unemployment rate because that's where a lot of the net new jobs come from. >> i think it's a great measure. it's something we've been asked

for for a number of years and we decided it was time to put it together and we have a great partner in ihs to really give the commentary on it as well. >> you have actual data for us? >> we do have an index that we put out this morning and it shows basically it's a measure of the growth in small business employment year over year and that growth -- that index number is up. it's positive. and the growth year over year meaning the growth rate has increased over the previous march. >> it's rebecca patterson, how are investors going to access this data? where are you going to release it? >> you can reach it on our website, it will come out the first tuesday before the first friday of every month so it will be updated every month and it will be the most real time we feel index out there. you can reach it on our website and we'll break it down by region as well as state and major metropolitan areas. >> i think that's an important point, joe, because with the first quarter where we had weather in different parts of the country and everyone is trying to figure out what's weather, what's not, having the

regional breakdown i think helps put more light around that. >> 0.33 percent, what is our potential, 12 months 0.33 percent, am i supposed to be happy with that or not? >> it's the increase in the growth rate so the index is really a measure of the growth rate of small business employment and the 0.33 shows an increase in the growth rate. >> what if we actually did some good things for small business, what could we get it to? >> i think it would do nothing but just go up. we've seen a gradual increase since the recession in employment we're kind of an expert in this space with over 570,000 clients. we've seen some growth. it's been a little sluggish on new business start-ups but the growth in checks per payroll has gone up. >> will you be able to shed any light on this part-time debate that we have, obamacare part-time stuff just u-6 type stuff? we need to shed light on that because both sides use it as a political football to make their -- to state their case.

it would be nice if we knew the facts. >> i think we will break the index down more over time after we introduce it here today and we'll be able to give some feedback. i think part-time growth we saw go up and kind of flatten out over the last couple months. it may pick up for seasonal. >> we can do different states. >> you can do different states and the top 20 in metropolitan areas. >> how is illinois doing? >> i think illinois was okay. texas was number one. and had the highest growth and really that mountain area, region, is doing the best. >> how about top cities? >> top cities would be dallas, san francisco, those areas are seeing the best growth rate year over year. >> shale. >> the shale there. i mean -- >> shale and tech. that's a big part of it. >> shale and tech. >> and the city by the bay. if you can find a job there, i would say take it. all right, so you'll help us from time to time, this will be

good, marty, and we'll check back with you once in a while? >> that would be great. i'd love to help you out. >> all right. and we'll pay chex, paychex, paychex whenever we do it and that will help. rebecca, thank you for being with us. >> thank you. >> we'll toss it over to "squawk on the street" right now. ♪ good tuesday morning. welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer, david faber at the new york stock exchange. welcome to q-2 and the month of april historically the strongest of all months at least for the dow. futures are higher as the street does turn its attention to gm's ceo on capitol hill. ten year's right around 274 and we'll see ism manufacturing today as well as auto sales and europe's off to a pretty good start as the pmis were not bad especially in france,