2014. welcome to "squawk box" right here on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with andrew ross sorkin and brian sullivan in for joe today. we've been watching the stock market and so far it's been looking to extend its rally into the long weekend. take a look at the u.s. equity futures this morning. green arrows. these are modest advancers. s&p futures up by just over 2 points and the nasdaq up by just over 5. the dow, s&p and nasdaq have closed higher in four out of the last five sessions. small caps outpacing the broader market yesterday. it's been disastrous for the russell 2000 lately. it fell into correction territory last week. since then it has retraced and is now less than 8% from its peak, believe it or not. meantime, volatility falling to the lowest level in more than a year. this suggests a lack of fear in the market. among the reasons for the vix trading at low levels, near record stock prices and low rates. it is a quiet day on the data front today ahead of the holiday weekend. we will be getting new home

sales at 10:00 eastern time. economists are looking for sales to have risen by 9% just over the last month. andrew, back over to you. >> we have corporate news it talk about this morning. hewlett-packard announcing it plans to cut as many as 16,000 more jobs. this is part of meg whitman's plan. the company posted quarterly earnings in line with investors. also, take a look at gap. gap's earnings beating the street by a penny. revenues in line. the retailer is dealing with weak demand for its gap and banana republic apparel brands. they had a bit of a resurgence, nor more questions. aeropostale warning of a better-than-expected loss. i haven't been there in a while. >> i hope not. it's a teen retailer. >> i do remember the days,

abercrombie, american eagle, aeropostale. we should tell you, tivo, which i do have and like by the way, tivo shares getting a boost in extended hours trading. earnings beating the street. total subscribers crossed 500,000 for the first time. that's happening more often than not these days through european cable company partners. that's where they've had a lot of growth recently. >> hp misfired its earnings, released them early during the market open. >> i saw that. >> they weren't complete. >> i saw that. >> hp is a big sophisticated company. >> we've seen it before. remember when disney -- >> disney had a little accident. >> disney also had somebody faking earnings once a couple years ago. >> that's right. that's right. >> there are issues there as well. hp, you don't want to be that person. >> no. meg whitman is like it won't happen again. as soon as that's over, it's like what happened? >> yes. >> someone will be fired.

maybe one of the 16,000. >> that's not a good way to start your summer, not a good way to do anything. let's check in on the markets this morning. the american markets indicated mildly higher. this as we sit 0.3% from that all-time high in the s&p 500 back on may 13th. oil, staying above 103 bucks a barrel today, of course, we kick off the summer vacation season. rumor has it, guys, some people may be driving their cars later today. if you are driving to look at a home, you are thinking about buying, good news, mortgage rates should continue to be favorable. the ten-year yield staying barely above 2.5%. let's get back to the story at hp. joining us now, dan morgan. where do you want to start with this? you have the earnings and the news of the broader restructuring. what's most important? >> the restructuring is

important. the big thing, becky, in regards to if you look at how they perform, we're hoping they would see more strength in terms of enterpri enterprise, more strength in software. i think software was flat year-over-year in the quarter. they had a nice push in notebooks and desktops, pcs group did, 7% year-over-year. that's a 3% operating margin group. i think what i was focusing on, i was looking at the growth segment, the enterprise software to become a larger portion of the overall mix and to show better growth. what we saw was a resurgence in desktops and notebooks. we all know that's the mature growth segment. it's not a great operating segment for them. >> with enterprise, maybe not a huge surprise after two strong back-to-back quarters of ent enterprise for showing growth. it's not always a straight line up. >> no doubt about it. that's where they have to focus

servers, networking. storage, they have to focus on expanding that software group. it's 4 billion in total revenue, 3% of total revenue. they have to get this up to where ibm has it. they're still too stuck in the mud in the older, mature segments. that's the big cloud over hp right now. >> what kind of hope do you give it? what kind of trading are you looking for in this stock over the next 12 months? >> we buy it in the equity income model, stocks that provide dividend income. it's an alternative to bonds, because you have ever increase ing rates with an ever increasing environment. they are protecting $7 billion in free cash flow this year. >> this is improvement over the late latest guidance. >> you're looking at a 6-1, 7-1

ratio in free cash flow versus dividend. it's a turnaround, can meg do it is? can she get this thing back on track? >> what if they take that free cash flow and instead of using the dividend, if they re-invest or to start mergers and acquisitions. >> that would be huge. the last one wasn't so good with autonomy. do they buy their way there or develop it internally? they'll probably have to buy their way there. >> what do they have to buy? >> they have to get into areas that can provide better margin. software for ibm it's a 4 % operating margin. they did 19% operating margin on software. >> list five targets you'd want them to buy. >> what are the hot areas, cloud, big data. those are kind of the segments they'd have to get into. there's plenty of smaller companies out there. they have a history of other

companies kind of buying their way into it. i think that's how they have to do it. >> do you want them out of the consumer business, is that what you're trying to say? >> i don't think so. i think it's a steady cash flow for them. they can use that to leverage themselves to get into the higher growth, higher margin areas. i don't think you abandon what their core is, printing and imaging and pcs. that's their core. it's what they do. you can leverage that to do other things. at this point, like i said, they're stuck in the mud. >> hasn't hp in some way indicated they're giving up on growth? capital spending has been cut. they've jacked up their buy back perhaps more than any other major corporation in the world. >> they have. >> now they're laying off 16,000 employees. >> i think that's more necessity than want. i this i you want to grow yourself out of this. i don't think you want to -- is cutting capital spending the way to grow, increasing a buy back the way to grow?

>> well, no. i think you leverage the cash flow, which is huge, and you go out and buy yourself into some of the more higher growth areas, especially software. that's what i would do if i was meg whitman. >> and dan, real quickly, what is your price target on the stock? >> i'm a portfolio manager, becky. we don't have price targets per se. it's an income stock. something we buy for income investors. i don't have like a $45, $50 target based on a market multiple and earnings estimate. as i said, im50 a portfolio manager. i manage about 500 million. it's different than being an analyst. >> dan, thank you very much for joining us. we appreciate your time. >> thank you, becky. also a programming note for you, folks, don't miss "squawk on the street," hp ceo meg whitman will be on today, coming up at 9:00 eastern time. >> i wonder if activists will show up around this stock? >> listen, my point is, nobody's had a bigger buyback program than hp. when you're doing that it's great for shareholders.

at the same point, you're laying off employees, buying back more stock. the optics around what the company's growth plan might be is not good. >> though you have to imagine as part of the restructuring they'll be moving away from some areas and into others. you don't know when that turns into employees hired. >> that's a good point. a lot of people forget, including myself, hp is still the largest technology company in the world. >> it's been a bloated company for a long time, you could argue. >> dan was talking about the autonomy merger. >> which was a disaster. >> another merger, a computer company called compaq. >> carly fiorina. yes. potentially good news from china. it expects its trade situation to continue to improve this month. imports and exports returning to slight growth in april.

among the catalysts, orders to hear. thailand, stocks fell after the country's military seized power as part of a coup. so far this year, foreigners have sold about $640 million in thai stocks. we will check in with a cnbc reporter on the ground in bangkok in the next half hour to get more on the increasingly tense situation there. and in russia, the country's annual economic forum is taking place in st. petersburg. president vladimir putin is there and will begin speaking soon. a number of ceos are taking part. this is big, guys, geoff cutmore is there. >> what kind of picture with putin is that? it's like he looks like he wants to be the host of a talk show in that picture. that is not a statesman-like picture, can i just say? >> this is a man who rides dolphins. >> i know. >> and unicorns for photo

opportunities. he's frequently shirtless. he scored, what, 16 goals at a hockey game. no one bothered to get within 20 feet of the guy. vladimir putin if he wanted to host a daytime talk show, he could probably do it. what would you call it? that's a good twitter question. if vladimir putin had a talk show, what would be the name? >> that's what that looks like to me right there. who knows. i don't have a great name for it. meantime, let's talk about what's going on in ukraine. not that i don't want to play. i don't have a great -- too early. julia chatterley joins us now from kiev. good morning. >> good morning. thanks very much. crucial presidential elections for the ukrainian country right now. let me talk to you about the current front-runner. he's a self-made billionaire. he's also a politician. he's called petro poroshenko. i sat down with him and asked him two questions. i said, how are you going to solve the ongoing violence in the east of the country? and secondly, what are you going

to do and how are you going to deal with vladimir putin? listen in. >> i'm sure we'll stop the war in a short period of time. we'll find a way how to establish the dialogue with russia. absolutely sure that we don't have a compromise on two questions, very important question, crimean security and european aspiration of ukrainian people. >> he's arguing we need a decisive election victory this weekend in order to start beginning to address the crisis in this country. the bottom line is, he's an oligarch and this is politics. it's raising all the usual questions of whether or not money and politics in this country can be divorced and whether this man, petro poroshenko can be a voice for change in it country. guys, the countdown to the election on sunday continues.

back to you. >> thank you very much. coming up, are we in for a summer pork panic in? we have that story. plus, is uber really a $2 billion company? coming up later, geoff cutmore will host the panel with the talk show host, russian president vladimir putin. what are we calling his show. >> kavetching with putin. >> timely ahead of this weekend's vote in ukraine. the series is 2-1 rangers with the canadiens pulling out an overtime win. the next game is sunday night at the garden. "squawk box" returns in just a second.

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will smith. >> getting jiggy with it, i believe. how about news on blood sucking mutant lampries, waking and baking with mary lynch.

this is all stuff we've talked about on the show. go to cnbc.com. check it out. there is a pork shortage out there. the amount of pork in u.s. cold storage warehouses dropped 17% from a year ago. among the biggest reasons, a deadly pork virus forced processors and retailers to pull product from warehouses to make up for a shortage of available fresh pork. you've seen higher feed prices as well. >> nobody is talking about how the chinese have taken our pork. >> that has not happened. >> they bought smithfield foods. >> our pork is in china now. >> it's a much nastier virus. >> it is an awful virus. that is not true. >> i was trying to channel joe. we had our bacon news. he was anti that deal because he

was worried that was going to happen. >> it's my father's business, actually. the only thing about china is that their pork farms are tiny. they produce more hogs than we do but most people have about ten hogs. they don't have giant corporate owned farms like we do in the united states. that disease you referenced -- >> it's a huge, huge issue. >> it's a big deal. >> uber reportedly taking a large group of investor money, raising about $500 million. this investment, if you can believe this, is going to value the startup at more than $12 billion. possible investors are said to include black rock private equity firms general atlantic and technology crossover ventures and hedge fund as well. an app on your phone, just an app, controlling all these cars all over this country and now increasingly the world.

company is worth $12 billion. i can't even get over it. >> there are very few companies that add incrementally to gdp. >> this one is creating jobs. >> this one does. if you talk to guys that drive for companies, you hire from jfk to new york, they often have down time. this is incremental dollars in their pocket. >> the question i wonder is whether this is displacing taxi rides. i use uber x rather than a taxi. it costs 2 or 3 bucks extra. that's traditionally how much more it is. am i adding to -- >> what problem has uber solved economically? what new york city has done with the medallions -- you have to buy a medallion, cost a couple hundred thousand dollars. they've created an artificial shortage of taxis. >> you have undermined the medallion process if you've paid

a couple hundred thousand dollars for this medalliomedall. >> a lot of people i know that take uber, they're not getting into a lot of taxis. >> i bet taxi drivers are not true. >> i'm a taxi guy, not a -- >> i didn't say you. >> i'm just saying. i think a lot of people arbitrage, this is actually the bad part. we arbitrage the wait time on a taxi and the wait time on an uber. i'll press the thing thinking if i get a taxi first, i'll cancel the uber. >> you shouldn't do that. these guys are working hard. >> i'm a subway guy or uber guys. >> if you get a few, they can pan you, too. if you get a few black marks on you, they're not going to answer your calls anymore. >> you cannot downgrade a passenger for cancelling. >> you should be able to for exactly this situation.

>> i stopped taking taxis in new york for an entirely different reason. >> what's that? >> plus i love the subway. don't fit. they've gone to priuss, little cars. it's like flying coach. >> like a clown car for you? >> me and eight friends will get out and start squirting each other in the face. forget it. a lot of headlines about the mcdonald's annual meeting this week. the fast food chain is facing criticism from shareholders who attended the meeting. at issue, the snacks at the meeting. >> they're complaining about the food that's there? >> this is what my wife and i call rpp. >> this would be? >> rich people problems. >> i was going to say royal pains? >> the nanny was late. first class ain't what it used to be. i don't like these cookies at the shareholder meeting. >> the maids didn't finish the

job correctly. >> pay for your breakfast, people. >> what's down with rpp? >> my favorite was hearing, we have an echo in our hallway. >> too much marble. >> that's what i'm talking about. >> rpp, rich people problem. >> america is starting to take whining to entirely new level. >> kavetching with putin. >> shareholder money will pay for that breakfast. >> they're being frugal. when we return, unrest in thailand. a military coup threatening the stability of the region. we'll have a live report from an increasingly tense situation in bangkok. the empire state, new york, trying to move up the list but could it end up costing tax payers in the long run? as we head to break, if you were taking a day off yesterday,

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good morning, everybody. welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc. it is almost memorial day. we're looking at it this weekend. i'm becky quick along with andrew ross sorkin. brian sullivan is here today, in for joe who is out on a long weekend. in our headlines this morning, we'll get a fresh reading on the housing market. the government is out with new home sales, coming up at 10:00 eastern time. economist looks for a jump to 418,000 units, a jump of 8.9%. that would still only reverse march's 14.5% drop. hp will be cutting 16,000 more jobs. that comes on top of the 34,000 that were already part of a planned restructuring. hp also reported quarterly profit of 88 cents a share. revenue was slightly short. you can see what happened to the stock yesterday. hewlett-packard's chief executive meg whitman will be talking about the quarter on "squawk on the street," coming up at 9:00 eastern time. airtran will fly its final

flight on december 28th. its jets and flights will be rebranded under the southwest name. that final flight will be retracing the trip that was taken in 1993 when airtran was first started. infrared depth sensors and advanced software capable of capturing precise three-dimensional images. that's kind of cool to think about a 3-d tablet. it sees you. you're scared? you add that to the glasses. >> you talk about google glasses, making up stories off the cuff about riding bicycles and killing squirrels and it comes back to bite you. >> google glasses still gets me to a weird place. i haven't tried them yet.

it bothers me that people could be walking around videotaping stuff. >> it does have a light, apparently. >> if i sat there and did this to you, if we were having a conversation -- >> stop it, stop it, stop it. >> like how much did you have to drink last night, becky? that's creepy. >> right. weirdo. >> think about when the google glass can capture you in 3-d. >> i am in 3-d. >> no. let me see, come over here. >> my favorite comedian, the late great mitch hedberg. someone said i took a picture of you when you were younger. he said every picture is of you when you were younger. >> that is a good point. in market news, interesting story in today's "wall street journal" about penny stocks.

investors have been on a buying spree, faster than the pace of the late tech boom of the late 1990s. one of the industries seeing over-the-counter activity, medical marijuana. one of the reasons for the interest, record equity levels in valuations and investors chasing for yield and the optimism over the booming bud business. >> i'd still be nervous until the feds weigh in on it. right? you need a federal decision -- >> about pot? you can't use a bank in a pot transaction. >> you have the cash sitting around. >> you can legally purchase pot -- >> people are concerned about whether you could be traveling interstate, from other places where it's not legal. >> good point. let's get a check on the markets this morning. so far, the futures look like there are modest green arrows to start things 0 off. s&p futures up by 1.5. if you've been watching the stocks they've been up for 4 out

of the last 5 sessions. the s&p 500 is back within five points of another record close. take a look at what happened in european markets with some of the early trading there. mixed results, not much movement anywhere across the board. down by 0.3, up by as much as 0.2%. if you watch what happened overnight in asia, you'll see that the nikkei was up by 0.9%. the shanghai up by 0.66%. oil prices, take a look at what's been happening there. oil prices are up by about 6 cents. wti is trading at 103.80. we did see big gains in natural gas, some of the supplies out with the eia yesterday. ten-year note at this point yielding 2.548%. if you're taking a look at the dollar this morning, right now, the dollar is up across the board. yesterday the dollar index was back at its highest level since

early april. gold prices this morning look like they are down by about $3. 1,291.60 cents an ounce. topping international news this morning, military coup in thailand. thailand's military took control of the government on thursday. this after six months of political turmoil in the country. our own sri jegarajah joining us from bangkok with the latest on the crisis. would you be able to leave the country if you could? how tight is the military putting its grasp on thailand? >> well, i'll tell you who can't leave the country. it's more than 100 political activists and political leaders who have had to register with the military authorities today after they were summoned. but let me tell you this, brian, international condemnation of this coup has been swift and it has been strong, led by the u.s. secretary of state john kerry yesterday said there was absolutely no justification for this military takeover. he's called for early elections

and quick restoration of democracy. we also know that the pentagon is reviewing military assistance and military engagement and cooperation with the thais. and there could be some further escalation of that. earlier on today, i put the question as to whether there could be a follow-up on this with sanctions placed against thailand and this is what the u.s. ambassador to thailand had to tell us earlier today. >> you know, i'm not going to rule anything in or out. it kind of depends on how things go today and, again, how this washington review proceeds. >> reporter: all right. the mood over here in the thai capital is fairly tense. there's a bit of an uneasy calm that's descended over the city. life is going on as normal. it's just after 5:30 in the evening here. and the commuters are rushing home, rush hour traffic is that

much more thicker and busier today because a lot of people are trying to beat the curfew. there was a big frenzy yesterday, a big rush to get home. and very crowded scenes. that's where we stand at the moment. an uneasy calm has descended. that's still the risk of sporadic violence, especially from the pro-government redshirt faction, not necessarily just in bangkok but also in the strongholds in the northern and the northeastern provinces. it's important to remind ourselves that the redshirts also have an armed faction. brian, becky, back to you. >> thank you, sri. coming up, russian president vladimir putin speaking at a st. petersburg international economic forum right now. at the top of the hour, geoff cutmore will host a panel with him. we'll bring you that conversation live when it begins. also, as we head to a break, take a quick look at what's happening in european markets as

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welcome back, everybody. we've been watching the u.s. equity futures. this morning they have been indicated slightly higher after a fairly strong week. up four out of the last five days. dow futures are up by less than 12 points at this moment. s&p futures are higher but only by one point. the nasdaq up by 3.5. duke energy agreeing to remove coal ash. the epa will oversee the cleanup and the company will reimburse

the government for future and current costs. brian? all right, let's take a look at stocks to watch ahead of this session on a friday here. gamestop beating estimates by 2 cents with first quarter profit of 59 cents per share. the video game retailer also forecasting a 12% to 19% increase in second quarter comparable sales, thanks in part to the popularity of new game consoles from microsoft and sony. brocade communications matching estimates with second quarter profit of 19 cents per share. more significant, it initiated a dividend of 3.5 cents per share. and tivo reported first quarter profit of 7 cents per share, a penny above estimates. also sought subscriber rolls past the 4.5 million mark in the quarter. will the cost be too much for taxpayers and can this campaign move new york up the best states for business rankings? before we do that, take a look at -- you might need

weekend reading and if you do, how about news on blood sucking, mutant lampreys, we could also talk about dr. oz and the triangle of death. we could also talk about waking and baking with mary jane and the revenge of economic nerds. all in this week's talking "squawk" blog. we talked about all of those topics right here on the show, if you can imagine that. squawk. cnbc.com is the address to get all of that. become in just a second. relax into child's pose.

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welcome back to "squawk box." a live shot of 30 rock as the "today" show gets set to launch this morning. we're talking about summer, because it is here and that means big money for the movie business. we're also looking through the papers this morning. there was a story in the "wall street journal" that caught our eye, one about shawshank redemption, one of my favorite movies. your number two favorite movie. >> number two. >> what's your number one. >> the right stuff. >> shawshank redemption. >> it's the number one rated movie of all time by metacritic

which ingaggregates views. godfather is second. >> far and away my favorite movie. >> you watch it every time you come across it. >> it is one of the most successful films of all time. north american ticket sales at the time, $28 million, another $30 million overseas. that's not a lot in this day and age. but then it made $80 million in sales when it came to the video market re market. the great part about this story is not those numbers unto themselves. it is the story of stephen king who wrote a novella which this story is based on, he was paid, there was an option for his little novella. $5,000. that's it for what became "shawshank redemption." he never cashed the check.

he sent it back to the guy who wrote the script with the inscription, in case you ever need bail money, love, steve. i thought it was one of the great little stories of all time. another story that caught my eye. i wanted to talk about this, baseball, everyone thinks i'm not a big sports fan. i am a fan of corporate intrigue. >> you may have found a way to combine corporate intrigue and baseball. >> bud selig is trying to appoint his new successor and there's a whole debate inside the mlb about how this is all taking place. jerry reinsdorf who owns -- >> white sox. >> white sox in chicago, i'm sorry, is in a big fight with him. they've been allies for a long time. he's trying to up-end the whole plan. you should know it's not in this story but who wants to be the commissioner of baseball who's not on the list? do you know? >> i know bob iger's name has been thrown out. >> who really wants it. >> lenny dykstra?

>> no. >> manny ramirez. >> you'll remember this. >> i will remember this. i remember having this conversation. >> the one man who wants this job who may surprise you is ben bernanke. ben bernanke wants to be the commissioner of baseball. he's a huge fan of baseball. and in case the search committee, which apparently there hasn't been a search committee, which is half the problem, is out there. >> i think ben bernanke would be a great commissioner of baseball. >> mike schmidt wrote this piece and apparently calls up -- >> mike schmidt from the phillies? >> no. a writer at the time. >> you can't be a writer writing about baseball if your name is mike schmidt. you have to use a middle initial or something. i assumed it was the great phillies slugger. >> the guy who looks like he's getting the job is ray mansfield. the deputy to bud selig. the quote is what i have to say about rob is none of your business and apparently hangs up on the reporter.

>> if you're ben bernanke and you're the major league baseball commissioner, right, great. eliminate the strikeout. allow 12 strikes. >> if you think about it -- >> keep going until you hit the ball, baby. >> if you're a central banker -- >> he's on his 89th pitch of the count. i'm vin scully. >> you have to keep the personalities and egos in check. that's what a central banker does. you have a whole board. that's what these crazy owners are like. >> get busy living or buy idyin andrew. president obama made a pitch for tourism, visiting the baseball hall of fame yesterday, he held a babe ruth yellow bat in his hand. he also checked out a jersey worn by jackie robinson. and we are now just about one month away from cnbc's annual countdown of america's top states for business. that means that scott cohn is up next and he's up to his neck as well in numbers.

there are claims by all 50 states. does everyone campaign for this? >> everyone does campaign. it doesn't do any good. it's all numbers. i am up to my neck in numbers. it's very busy. we are almost done crunching all the numbers. i'm supposed to have all the data in today. we'll see how that goes. if the current trend hold holds will be interesting. the starting point every year is the claims the states make. lately it's been hard to escape the claims of new york which has been running a national ad campaign reportedly costing $15 million about how business friendly the state has become. >> why is our arizona based company relocating manufacturing to upstate new york? i tell people, it's for the climate. the conditions in new york state are great for business.

>> new york does not have a great track record, though, in our top states rankings. this is last year's numbers. 35th place overall, second most expensive place in the country to do business. 14th ranked in the economy. 42 for infrastructure, work force, 45th. near the middle, 22nd, for quality of life. does come out first for technology. 30th for business friendliness, number two or education. 47th. the fourth highest cost of living in the country. number one for access to capital. >> i always try to figure out where you are. texas, virginia.

>> virginia fell off after the issue. it's so dependent on the federal government. when their credit rating was put on a negative outlook a couple years back, that hurt them. >> what about taxes? that them. >> what about taxes? >> that is cost of doing business. that carries the most weight. that's what all the states are claiming. we're the low cost place and so. so that carries the most points as far as our study. >> in a place like new york, it's a tale of two worlds, upstate versus manhattan. >> that's what the commissioner said. new york skews things. but houston skews taxes. as does dallas. los angeles skews california. every state has its own little quirks. it's one of the weaknesses of the study. it's a state basis. one size fits all. it is a pretty level playing

field. >> does it seem the last five or six years it has gotten more heated in terms of trying to do business. >> they are certainly more public about it. we started in 2007. the first place we go is the state's websites and see what they are pitching as we figure out how to weight the numbers. in 2007, a lot of states did not have web sites. they weren't doing any sort of marketing. now they all do. they are all very, very interested in this. we understand a lot of governors take a personal interest in these rankings, which is not something expected but fun. >> i think rick scott, who brags about the idea, picks up the phone and tries to learn business directly. >> rick perry is going to the states personally. he was just in new york the other day. and he runs radio ads in new york, california, connecticut, places like that, trying to get businesses to move. you know what ken adams in new york said, you know what, that's

good competition. we we're a desirable place. we have a lot of important businesses here. we understand people are gunning for us. but new york does have a lot of issues. >> which is the actual reveal? >> i would be standing somewhere it looks like the week of june 23rd. so just about a month away. >> 1.6 million people left from 2010. goldman sachs, this is up your alley. do you know where the second biggest office is? >> salt lake city. >> new york city is also at risk of losing people. >> they also lose a lot of people to new jersey. it was interesting. we think about the national competition. the toughest competitor tore new york is across -- is here in new jersey. >> especially when you can look right across the river.

thank you. >> we are hosting a panel right now in st. petersburg, russia. we will bring you select comments from the q and a coming up. and on his way to the set this morning in ben white. first, if you are traveling this weekend, pretty much 100% of you are, looking to do a little beach reading. we have a suggestion. news on the blood sucking lamb fridays. dr. oz's "triangle of death". and squawk.cnbc.com.

the performance review. that corporate trial by fire when every slacker gets his due. and yet, there's someone around the office who hasn't had a performance review in a while. someone whose poor performance is slowing down the entire organization. i'm looking at you phone company dsl. check your speed. see how fast your internet can be. switch now and add voice and tv for $34.90. comcast business built for business.

>> welcome back to "squawk box". ahead this hour, measuring the

biggest risk for the markets right now. plus, the impact the fed is having on the housing market. vladimir putin trying to drum up more investment into mother russia. our jeff cutmore is getting a rare opportunity to talk to the russian president about doing business with moscow with tensions rising in the ukraine. and are you headed down the shore this weekend? dr. beach will unveil the top 10 places for sun and sand this summer. don't forget the sunscreen. "squawk box" is red hot, and it begins right now. >> good morning, everybody. welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with andrew ross sorkin. joe is out today. dow futures up 17 points above fair value. s&p up by close to two points.

nasdaq up by just over four. this is all coming as we have been watching this week. stocks have been up four of the last five sessions. 10-year note is yielding above 2.5%. it's 2.55%. hewlett-packard is a stock we are watching. the company is cutting 16,000 more jobs as part of an ongoing restructuring. they planned to cut 34,000 jobs as it resrafpls its operations. meg whitman will appear at 9:00 eastern time. it is partly in response to a closely watched measure of german business confidence. that's heightened expectations that the european central bank will ease policy next month. we'll see what actually happens. and widely reported but not yet announced deal between apple and

beats has reportedly come close to falling apart several times. that is according to tech crunch which says the multibillion dollar deal will go through at some point. it is not after the technology as it is its founders dr. dre. jeff cutmore is hosting a panel at the economic forum held in st. petersburg, russia this morning. putin is delivering a speech. it is a half hour late. we apologize for the lateness we will be getting to. jeff's q and a is about to begin. when it does, we will bring that to you as well. >> and politico's chief economic correspondent, cnbc contributor and he is as far as i'm concerned mr. morning money. you picked up a couple of stories from russia this morning. given that we will have putin on in just a little bit. at least we will take some of the interview. your sense that so many ceos

went to this conference considered davos of russia. they said sorry, we can't be seen there. is that the right direction? >> it is the right decision when you have the white house breathing down your neck on a daily level. another ceo saying you cannot validate vladimir putin by showing up in st. petersburg. what is doing to ukraine is contrary to our foreign policy interests. this is big to show russia is facing west ask now with the china deal, pressing east a little bit. it would be embarrassing if a lot of names showed up with this thing. obviously they want to do a lot of business in russia. they will continue to do that. but they will do it quietly. >> so one of the stories you picked up was you wrote which way for russia's economy. and this was a story by andrew

in the "new york times" talking about russia -- some people calling for russia yesterday to deepen its ties with russia. we talked about it on the set before. is that the right direction to go? >> at least at this point the only direction they can go in terms of current geopolitics. you have sanctions obviously. you have banks that might be less will to deal with them. they are turning to china in this story. and comments at the form up this year that the state will take a bigger roll in banking. people should be looking to their state. but obviously they need to do the china deal which will reap dividends down the road. it will help their economy. it is growing 0.2%. they are very, very slow right now. i think they've got to look east a little bit more.

>> credit suisse had its problems. >> a few. >> a few problems this week. in part because they did business with countries that had sanctions. i heard there was a conversation about this topic yesterday in russia given all the things going on and what's going to happen not to u.s. banks but european banks. >> right. >> is your sense that we are going to see a lot more criminal probes around the transfer of money to countries we don't know about. >> you'll see more of that. definitely. partly because the u.s. the justice department wants to crack down on banks. obviously didn't have a lot of success in going after them. this is seen as an area where there is the ability to make cases based on these illicit transactions that will satisfy public desire to see bankers pay a price for some sort of wrongdoing. you look at this as opposed to stuff you can't bring cases on.

>> you wrote whether credit suisse, whether there was justice. >> right. >> there was a criminal situation. they are pleading guilty to it. he argued because nothing happened to the bank, it's by design, it is all irrelevant. you may have a simple case against it. what is the actual criminal case bring you from a justice perspective. >> yeah. well, you can't put an actual bank to jail. that's sort of hard to do. i take your point there is a reputational hit. >> is there, though? >> of course there is. having pled guilty to criminal charges of money laundering. >> what happens as a result then? >> they lose money. >> do they? >> well, time will tell. >> it might open them up to outside lawsuits. i don't know. off times when you do settle civilly you will say i don't admit wrongdoing. here you are admitting wrongdoing.

also, remember, the university of texas retirement system, which is a huge investor and trader said it will stop doing business with credit suisse. there's going to be waterfall of economic damage also. >> you don't have to say me. >> no, no, no. your point is well taken. nobody is going to jail. if the justice department wants to reverse its well-earned reputation for not putting people away for financial crimes you need to charge individuals and put somebody in jail. this won't change that. from credit suisse's ongoing reputation, ability to conduct some of these transactions, it's going to hurt and it's going to hurt over the long term. it's a significant thing. it's not going to change the justice department's reputation for being weak on financial crime. >> we should bring you updates.

vladimir putin has been speaking. he's been not stepping down in terms of the rhetoric. just a few comments he's been making where he has been saying it will have a boomerang effect. leaders are not being heard. they have been tweeting about some of this. again, we are going to be bring you the interview with geoff cutmore as that begins when the russian president finishes up comments on this. ben white will be with us the rest of the show. we have a lot more to talk about. as we mentioned, all of this will be coming up when we return. we'll also be talking a little bit more with an outspoken voice against the outspoken russia. first, though, the deep concerns that fed officials have about the housing market. what can ease those worries? that discussion is next. "squawk box" will be right back. e

financial noise financial noise financial noise financial noise

welcome back to "squawk box", everyone. again, we have been monitoring russian bred putin at an economic forum held in st. petersburg. this is what we are expecting will be in total about a 20-minute speech before he takes

some questions from our geoff cutmore. we will bring you that q and a as soon as it begins. we can also tell you, though, along with some barbs at the western countries, putin is saying he is calling for closer ties with the eu. it is a little bit of a give and take. we will wait for more on this. >> i think we need to correct on this. we said putin was late. he can't be late. vladimir putin is always on time. he is the check norris of world leaders. it's putin time. >> as we wait for more, in the meantime, we will talk about the u.s. economy. housing is still a big concern for the central bank. among the factors cited, higher home prices, construction bottlenecks from the scarcity of labor, and harsher weather and shortage of available lots. joining us is the ceo of the american bankers association and

the head of global regulatory affairs at cls bank, former fed governor. gentlemen, let me ask you both right off the top what you think the state of the housing market is right now. is this a temporary pushback because of weather, or is there something more? governor, i'll start with you. >> becky, the economy is soft. the labor market is soft. the reality is that one out of three young people 35 or under is living with their parents. whatever we see now developing in terms of construction is generally multifamily rentals. a trillion dollars in student loan debt. and the regulators are cod phiing. we have a slow housing market. >> what about you, dino? >> thanks for the promotion but i was never a fed governor.

but thank you anyway. on housing, we had this hue monk us crisis. it will have an effect. that effect will be lingering. it probably shouldn't surprise us. it might take a little longer for us to recover, again, shouldn't surprise us. some of the symptoms the fed is talking about is a function of that. >> but we have also, gentlemen, been looking at a situation where the labor market is part of the problem. and this is a chicken and egg scenario. it is people in the younger ages, 25 to 35. you haven't seen a resurgence left. what has to happen so those people so they can start buying homes? >> there are broader issues, capital spending and the like. unless incomes rise, it will be hard for that group to participate in housing the way that they have. if you go back 30 years ago to the 1980s, we were asking the same kinds of questions. young people unable to buy housing.

it was a different problem then. interest rates were very high. we go through the cycles. there's no easy answers. >> governor, part of the problem is that group is having a hard time qualifying for loans. the jobs they have aren't up to expectations when they were first looking for jobs. and bank standards have gotten tougher too. what do you think needs to happen for those people to be able to get loans? >> i think it's appropriate to have a job, assets and income to buy a house. you want to make sure people can pay you back. but i think the qualified mortgage ability to repay rule, the debt to income requirement, everybody wants, in the lending business, the banks, to make qualified mortgage loans. so to go and ask your dadded to co-sign a note, that's not a qm. to ask the owner to collateralize the first thousands of dollars, that is not a qualified mortgage loan. so a lot of people are being turned down. the statistics we show are worrisome. when i bought my first house on

the 27, this generation is more like 35 or 36. so 10 years later, and that's not healthy for the economy. because housing makes a big difference in terms of economic growth and jobs. >> governor, dodd/frank was largely a reaction to wall street and the subprime mortgage crisis. but you hear more and more stories about community banks, the smaller banks that normal folks would go to to get a mortgage. one regional bank in virginia had to up its compliance staff by seven fold. literally a seven-fold increase to meet the compliance. mortgage standards have gotten stricter. do we need to revisit some of the goals of these policy objectives and say, okay, what we want to do is prevent wall street and jpmorgan from doing is one thing, but we have to make sure smaller banks who played no role in the financial crisis are able to lend better to the guys who live down is the street from them.

>> some of my european friends are surprise thad basel 3 is applied to all the banks in the united states. higher capital standards to service mortgages, higher capital standards to make first mortgage real estate loans. none of this was intended. these community banks were the lifeblood of communities. why is basel 3 being applied to any of them. they are enamored with it and they're playing all of it, the volcker rule, to the smaller institutions. it hurts the recovery. the small banks make the loans. >> it is noted, govern ohio revised code, many of the smaller banks that might normally be a good outlet community lending are getting out of the business because of the burden some requirements and are moving to commercial, building office buildings, which means in some ways regulation that was to constrict the power of the biggest banks might

actually increase their power by sending more mortgage borrowers to the biggest four or five banks out there. >> like i said, at the outset, they are cod tpaoeug excessive caution. they are told get out of the mortgage servicing business because you have to have so much more capital and they have no source of capital. they're going to get out of the mortgage servicing business. regulation has to be tailored, reasonable. unfortunately, bad facts frequently make bad law. we have done that with some of dodd/frank and all of basel 3. >> we do want younger people to buy houses. we don't want to make bad loans. what's the answer? >> there's no easy answer. i want to emphasize something the governor said. the regulatory effect of some of these rules has been ironic. there has been this attack on some of the largest banks. in housing especially, you have had this concentration into four

or five large institutions. so even though there is this urge to sort of -- if you will, press on some of these large institutions, the impact to be to increase market shares. ironic. >> it is. to what's the answer? >> we have to slide through this. no silver bullets. the housing market will heal. it's about the banks, household, balance sheet. the long time it takes to heal from a balance sheet recession, which is what we had the last cycle. >> i want to thank you very much for come canning in. i know you weren't a former federal reserve governor but you spent 20 years at the federal reserve bank of new york. >> correct. >> thank you for coming in. governor keating, thank you for joining us. we appreciate it. >> thank you, becky. >> steve liesman is going to take a look what, if anything, is left in the federal reserve's toolbox. that's coming up 8:30 eastern

time. but first, russian president putin speaking ahead of elections in ukraine. time for today's aflac trivia question. which song is the most streamed song of all time on spotify? he doesn't look like he's seen a tool in his life. oh, he doesn't know anything about tools. aflac-ac-ac-ac-ac-ac-ac! but when i broke my arm, he lent a hand. he paid my claim in just four days. four days? wow! find out how fast aflac can pay you at aflac.com.

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now the answer to today's aflac trivia question. which song is the most streamed song of all time on spotify? the answer, "make me up" by avici. >> welcome back, everybody. russian president vladimir putin still speaking at the economic forum in st. petersburg. he hopes an agreement can be reached on gas supplies. he thinks russia has to diversify exports away from

energy products. as soon as he finishes speaking, he will be taking questions from cnbc's jeff cutmore. we will bring that as soon as it starts. we'll slip in a quick break. "squawk box" will be right back. passion...

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welcome back to "squawk box" on this friday morning as we get set for the weekend. not a busy morning for earnings but one that has crossed the tape is foot locker. it earned $1.11, beating estimates by 5 cents.

these guys are having so much fun. i don't know what's going on. they saw a 7.6% increase in same store sales. the government is also issuing new home sales figures for april at 10:00 eastern time. watch out for it. consensus forecast calls for 8.9% increase with annual rate of 418,000 units. that would partially reverse the 14.5% drop we saw back in march. and how much is uber worth? how about $12 billion. that's 12 billion with a "b." it is reported talking to fund managers about investments of $500 million or more which would value the company at that level. they want to close a deal over the next few weeks. >> our guest host today is ben white of politico. ben, what do you want to talk about? >> we can talk about uber. i'm amaze said by that number. i'm a complete uber addict.

i saw this interesting tweet the other day. there's a taxi lawsuit against uber. >> i don't understand why that hasn't happened in the past. >> in their lawsuit they say uber is preying parasitically. >> which i disagree with. >> why do they make you pay a few hundred thousand dollars for medallion fees and someone else doesn't have to. >> that's a regulatory issue. >> it's a regulatory issue. >> sure, it's a regulatory issue. but that's not uber's problem. if you can come up with an app that people like that can get you a car quickly. >> you're right, but this is a regulatory program. >> and it gets you around the regulation. you could say it is basically just built. >> or air b&b. >> it just beats the system. >> because you don't have to pay taxes for everything. >> isn't that innovation? >> i agree.

the regulation is if you are going to hail a cab on the side of the street, you have to hail a cab that has the medallion. they check the drivers, there's insurance, all of that. and on uber, you can effectively hail a cap, if you will, this way. >> you don't have to stick your arm up. you're arranging a car on the internet. >> you live in new york. you don't need to get a cab. i've got a long commute from any jersey hotel rooms. >> it costs a fortune. >> the bed begug inn is about $0 a night. they keep an artificially low supply. taxi drivers complained when they put credit card stuff in the cards. i guarantee you they are making more. when you slide your credit card you get this default tip. >> it is hard work to be the guy

who is working as a cab driver out there. they have had to pay a couple thousand dollars. somebody needs to trip that. >> let's wait to see if we get data that uber is hurting the taxi business. my guess is it's not. my guess, it's a new group of travelers. >> a couple of times i have taken it i have taken it instead of a cab. >> i arbitrage cabs and uber as well. that's my right. >> first off, that's just mean, by the way. to un-do the entire argument we have made at the table, apparently medallions in new york city have gone for the most they have ever gone for while this is all taking place. >> gosh. >> there was a winning bid -- >> it doesn't mean it's always right. >> the market is right. because the market is the market.

>> the latest medallion cost, this is in february 2014, went for $965,000. almost a million dollars. >> clearly uber destroying the taxi business in new york. >> steve is patched in. let's go to the global event in st. petersburg, russia. we're waiting for an interview with geoff cutmore. steve, it's been hard for us to hear the translation. what headlines has vladimir putin made? what has he said that has stuck out to you? >> let me break into a few areas for you. one, he's saying actually there's been a boomerang effect from western sanctions and it's coming back to hurt europe. and u.s. dominance has not worked for the globe. actually, it's ukraine, despite loans to&cheap gas, he is

accusing ukraine. let's just listen in to the translation of what putin just said. >> translator: related to the gas police to the european continent have occurred not to russia. occurred due to the situation in the ukraine, which abuses its position. >> so he's also been talking about ukraine. it has to be said saying the country is in a defacto civil war. he said that early on in a speech to business leaders. from his point of view, saved blanchard rather than created it as well. very interesting talking about where russia goes. their economy is teetering on the brink of recession potentially a half percent at best according to many in 2015 and 2014 as well.

what he has been saying, is they signed a massive $400 billion deal for long-term gas supplies. they are saying by 2020 this will be worth $200 billion a year. that eurasian trade routes will take part of that trade. and for western european gas supplies, which of course 30% come from russia, saying we could become a swing producer between europe and asia as well. very interesting of course. a lot of concerns about the fall of the ruble. the difficulty some companies have found in financing themselves. talking about the use of the yuan and rubles. he made the point they can lend money at inflation at 1%. it is a major issue at the moment. it's coming at 7.3%. what i'm going to do is hand it back to you guys.

because i believe geoff is about to start a few questions to mr. paout discipline steve, thank you very much. we are listening in. geoff cutmore asking questions of the president. >> i want to ask a few questions about ukraine. obviously, ow crain is going into presidential elections in the weekend. an awful lot has been written and an awful lot has been said about your position about ukraine. let's be honest, most of it not by you. a lot of those who have written have said you are nostalgic for a russia of the past. president obama said you are on the wrong side of history. those who have written and spoken widely talk about you rebuilding the past and wanting to create a buffer state between nato and the eu and yourself. can i ask you, what has motivated your actions through this crisis?

>> translator: well, i was planning to talk more about economy. but if that's what you desire, let us talk about this topic. look, what happened. let us make a general overview of what happened. ukraine was supposed to sign an association agreement with the european union. and we, as in dimmic moment, tried to prove that the document on the table was contrary to our interests here in russia. we're referring to the economic ties we have with ukraine. we look at defense industry only to 145 ukrainian enterprises. supply products to russia.

what if we stop procure from them? well, they will have to stop production. because it will not be procuring agents for the eight. no one else in the world needs them we have proved with very specific data that this agreement will be detrimental to the economy. and i want you to understand, i want you to hear me. we suggested they engage in very civilized and open discussion with us to try and find some solution. we are told it is none of our business. i'm not trying to offend anyone, but i haven't seen such a snobbish attitude in years. they just refused to talk.

saying it's not about business. well, it is about business. and we tried to prove to the ukrainian partners that we had the point, asked them to try to calculate implication consequences. i tried to get him to postpone the signing. what happened later was coup d'etat. name it what you may. but rebels were used. who is on what side now? who is in the past? who is in the future? what tools are we using to attain our goals? # one needs to be very careful and cautious when deal with constitutions and any changes of transformations. what happened in ukraine now is chaos. the country is sliding into chaos.

they agreed to do anything, whatever. had it all been done legally we would continue subsidizing them, keep gas prices low. and let us be all grown-ups. we are all smart and educated people. the west supported anti constitutional c d'etat. support in the media using all sorts of tools. and are you blaming us? what we suggested was dialogue. we were denied. when i last came to brussels we read. but that was before the coup d'etat. and now he is a well respected man. he's got market economy way of thinking. he's one of our top economic

experts. so he came to consultations. well, ask him no real discussion ever took place. they were just spitting out muttoes. and now what happens next. coup d'etat took place. they refused to talk about it. so we think that step ukraine is going to take is going to become nato member for the past two decadesment they refused to engage in any dialogue. not to worry. it has nothing to do with you. but tomorrow ukraine might become a nato member. and the day after tomorrow missile defense of nato could be deployed in this country. in the end i would say, refuse to talk to you. it's not a good business. we're sick and tired of discussing in such a way because it's not a real discussion. look, we have concerns. both economic and is security

concerns for that matter. what are we supposed to do? people in the southeast of ukraine, and crimea in particular, were frightened by development. and people of the crimea opted for a referendum. on a session to -- all we did is guaranteed freedom of expression of their will. and the majority of the people in this room, and most people in the world, they understand because no one understood had we not done that in crimea, the situation would have been even worse than odessa. but people were burned alive. no one is trying to give any

explanation or condemn those to plame for such a tragedy. now, you tell me who is stuck in the past and who is acting -- taking into account the reality office today's world? >> -- for you to step up and say something. is there something you can do at this stage or at this point to encourage pro-russian groups in ukraine now to reduce the level of tension and violence to allow the democratic process to go ahead on sunday and perhaps come back to a settlement or a resolution that would be acceptable to you?

>> translator: we believe and we always believed i was remained and committed to the idea. we have been repeating this mantra over and over again. any clashes end up in negotiations eventually, inevitably. so the sooner the better. we always try to push opposing parties to engage in direct contacts. the first contact already took place. through our mediation, the situation is mediated that authorities continue in the southeast of ukraine. military action continues. they are using artillery, armored vehicles, tanks. they shell residential buildings. civilians die. unarmed people die.

we do hope and very in serum so, that these direct contacts that were initiated will eventually yield some positive results. this is my true desire. but a condition for such positive outcome would be putting an end to violence no matter from which side it originates. >> you said we are a room full of adults so let's have a an adult conversation. president obama accused you of untruths which it comes to supporting some of the separatists groups -- >> translator: who is he to judge? who is he to judge? seriously. if he wants to judge people, why doesn't he get a job in court somewhere. i don't think he accused me. it's his point of view. and i have my point of view when it comes to certain things, you

know. what is it that interested you about what he said? >> president putin, you appear to now accept that the election will take place on sunday, at least this is what i read. as i said to you at the beginning, i read an awful lot about what you think, but i don't hear it from you necessarily directly. can i ask you, just to put this on the record for our audience here, do you accept the legitimacy of the election that will take place on sunday in ukraine? >> translator: oh, come on, really? he's a difficult man to deal with. where did you get the guy? we all understand and we all see that people in ukraine want to see it emerge from this crisis.

and we will have respect for the choice that the ukrainian people will make. we will watch very closely what will happen. but it would be wiser to do what president yanukovych and opposition agreed in kiev back on february 21st. and they agreed to all the referendum and the new constitution. and then in accordance with this new constitution, elect parliament and president. imagine election, presidential election take place saying ukraine today. i don't know if you know that but in accordance with today's constitution, that would not be legitimate. because yanukovych remains president. he hasn't been withdrawn from power legitimately. so there are four grounds of either death, although some might have wanted him dead.

illness, euimpeachment. no impeachments took place. and resignation. the president is supposed to ask for resignation from government. none of that happened. so he remains president. so why create new problems that could question the legitimacy of election? wouldn't that be so much easier to hold the referendum first and make sure people in the south and the east are protected. give them guarantees of the protection of legitimate trades. after that, stage elections and get proper mandate and national support to rule the country. but those that are in power in kiev today chose to do it differently. but i want to stress, we will have every respect for the choice the ukrainian people will

make. >> the front-runner at the moment in the voting i'm told is mr. poroshenko. he has told cnbc that he would happily engage with russia if elected. is he a man you could do business with despite his desire for stronger ties to western europe? >> translator: where's the money? where's the money? it's a business forum. let us be very specific. they owe us 3.5 billion. give us our money back. you know, that would create very good environment for further discussions. >> if you'll forgive me, mr. president, if i have one more go

on this before i move you on. i'm not quite clear whether i heard you say you will accept and work with the outcome of the election. >> translator: like i said, i'm not kidding and i'm not being ironic, what we want for ukraine is peace and calm. we want this country to recover from crisis. conditions are to be created for that. and, again, i'm not being ironic. we want to enjoy peace, order. we already have people in the power. of course we will operate with a newly elected head of state. but just to make it clear, i

hope that after the election, national dialogue will begin. imagine just imagine how can one engage in peaceful discussions while they are tanks shelling peaceful civilians or journalists being seized or journalists were detained for three days now. they have been kept somewhere. we don't know where. we were refused access to them. how can you call that proper environment for the election? we all see this is not up to the modern democratic standards. at least the election happens. >> mr. president, can i move you on to the international reaction? i think 2009 we are all very excited to see the reset in relations with the united states. today that reset lies in tatters. what went wrong?

>> translator: well, it's the result of unilateral action. there's some u.s. allies whom you can act with a principal. you're against us. you can create coalitions to justify certain actions. this is not what we do in russia. we believe countries need to agree on certain rules, act in accordance with international law, and take aboard each other's interests. we always were and will always remain a reliable partner. >> so given the level of hostility at least that there seems to be played out in the international media, is there a road back in the relationship with president obama and this current administration?

>> translator: we never did anything to ruin our relationship. and despite very rhetoric and opposing approaches to some very topical matters, our operation continues. our american partners announced they refuse to operate in military domain. but look, we didn't have any military operation. well, we countered piracy. we are going to continue to do so. and our help is needed. americans are interested in military transit to afghanistan. still are. they say we are suspending military operation. but they're not suspending

transit of military cargoes to afghanistan because this is something they need. we don't refuse. we continue operation on the iranian nuclear program. i just met the iranian president in beijing on an international forum and we spoke about further joint action involving iran and taking on board u.s. position on the iranian nuclear issue. syria remains -- the although our views we are still hopeful will come to some agreement. then we have common agenda. this effort also continues. so we have many points of convergence that are of interest

both for russia and the u.s. we're not trying to fence ourselves out from the world. but you can't force people to like you, as we say in russia. but we hope that common sense, good sense and national interests will push our european and american partners to continue operation in the united states. >> if i could just ask one more question on this situation now with washington. did president obama misunderstand the depth of feeling in russia about ukraine and the situation there, or was the relationship already breaking down over things like the snowden effect? >> translator: well, you know, with regard to mr. snowden i said many times we do not have

any direct relations to this problem. he turned out on our territory because of nonprofessional actions of the americans themselves who tried to catch him. you know, he used to work for special services. why did they scare the entire world? they downed the planes with presidents on board and the plane with snowden on board they could down anywhere. so he arrives in our transit zone. and it turns out that nobody is going to accept him. that's the problem. if they didn't scare anyone, the american special services, he would fly to some other countries. he would be downed in some other countries and he would be sitting in jail someplace. but they scared everyone. he stayed in our transit zone. what are we to do in that situation? russia is not a country that is

ready to extradite fighters for human rights. but in reality, our reaction -- well, thank you for this reaction on the part of the auditorium. mr. snowden considers that he is a champion of human rights. he built his life around it. he's a young man. i don't know how he is going to live further. i am not trying to joke. how is he going to live further? he is sitting in russia now. but he has chosen his fate himself. we gave him a refuge. he is not our agent. he didn't give us any secrets. we gave him a refuge, but he didn't tell us anything.

he tells us something when he wants to publish something. i think this is of vital importance for us. while for the u.s., these issues related to ukraine were so at the technical level. and i was involved personally as many people sitting in this room. because for us it is of vital importance. for the u.s. it is different. but, you know, the general style should be such that we should have a direct dialogue, trusting each other, taking into account each other's interests. we are experts and following international relations. every day in the press. every day we suppressed concern about the expansion of nato to the east. but no one would listen to us at

all. they told us that any country can choose the way of shouldering its security. yes, it is. but why do they deprive us of the opportunity to evaluate this or that set of actions. there are many ways to show your security. the united states may enter into bilateral agreements and friendship and assistance, including military assistance. what is the difference between such an agreement and free nato? no interest. of course you can make members of the alliance to contribute to the general budget of the lines. but they don't do those contributions anyway. then they come out trying to push them but it doesn't work well. the same happens with

anti-missile defense. this is not against you. the president did a lot in order to streamline the realizlationsh the united states. let us sign legal paper which is worth nothing. it is not against us. just confirm what you say orally. but they disagree entirely. what kind of dialogue it is just general words and hot air. if we find our, you know, force to take into account our interests. i'm an opt mist. i'm not losing hope. and i'm not losing confidence that the situation with ukraine will calm down sooner or later and we will find forces to dream

line our relations. >> mr. president, i would like to move on to the economy and i would like to talk about the business conditions in russia and maybe having an impact. i'm pleased we have with us a panel of international business people who work very closely with russian companies and have their own investments here. so i would like to involve them. and i would like them to feel comfortable also asking questions of you. perhaps you can offer some guidance to them as to how they work here in russia. last year, angela merkel sat on this stage with you. she appeared to be against sanctions driven mainly from washington. and yet ultimately the sanctions were imposed. today many companies are wondering how they are going to get funding, what implications it has for the extension of

credit from foreign banks. can i just ask you very briefly just to give us your thoughts on what the immediate impact has been so far on the sanctions that have taken place on the economy. >> translator: you know, i've given you my vision of what was happening in the ukraine. what happened there to a large extent the responsibility is to be borne by our european and u.s. partners who supported this coup d'etat. now they want us to clean up for the mess they created. and this is the purpose of sanctions. but now all the sanctions are to pick up people from my immediate

circle. and as we say, punish them. if i were them i would file a case in court a long time ago, because they don't have any relations to the events in the ukraine or crimea. and there's alwa i am proud of having such friends. they are absolutely patriotic feeling people. their business is oriented towards our country. yes, of course we felt the impact of those sanctions. we should be frank about that. it damaged them. but there entrepreneurs with some experience before the sanctions they moved all their monies to russia.

so don't be worried for them too much. but their business of course is to sustain certain damages. i think this is unfair. and unlawful. because sanctions can be imposed on a country at the decision of the council -- security council of the united nations. there is no such decisions. these sanctions are absolutely illegal, unlawful. and of course they will decrease -- they make our relations worse. we are now hearing about the third package of sanctions. and i have a question in that regard. why? okay. they didn't -- our partners didn't like something about our -- at the certain stage of development at the crisis with crimea. the sanctions were imposed. now they are trying to make us to blame for something else.

they are they are saying the the second package, third package. i don't understand why. not long ago there was an earth quake in thailand. people perished. we are not to blame for that. but in ukraine, civil war is breaking out. but what does that have to do with us? this is an attempt with useless means. of course this destabilizes the situation in our relations with the u.s. and the eu. but in the u.s., we have a turnover of about $28 billion. in europe it is about $400. the difference is huge. and insisting upon sanctions with regard to russia, i think our u.s. friends want just to

get certain competitive advantages in their relations with europe. i don't see any other reasons behind that that would be profound and serious. but i think that common sense will prevail. and no further damage will be made to our trade relations. but we are fulfilling whatever we need to fulfill. if we take the real damage. well, it does exist for the economy as a whole. how is it manifested so that access to the company that says it will be more difficult. it has made a significant systemic am pact on our economy. and i hope it will be the case. >> if i could ask our panelists to join us in this conversation, maybe i can start with you from your perspective. you run effectively an

investment business. what are the challenges now coming to the russian market? not only because of some of the near term sanction issues but maybe some of the longer term structural challenges? >> all right. welcome back, everybody. we're going to take it back here at "squawk box" in the united states. you've been listen to go a live panel interview with our own geoff cutmore cnbc europe and president putin. everybody came to hear what vladimir putin had to say. i don't know. you and i have been chatting about what he said. it's tough with the interpreter. you want the make sure you don't get the interpretation wrong. >> to me one of the most important points is this question whether or not putin will support sunday's election in ukraine. geoff pushed him three different occasions. i never heard him say yes. what he finally conceded with is of course they want peace and

civility in ukraine. but he stopped short of saying he would support whatever happens in sunday's elections. this has been a time and topic that has gotten pushed again and again. geoff covered a wide variety of ground here. part of what they started out talking about was why did russia do what it did in terms of ukraine. and president putin honors and said that with a fairly honest opinion. he said we have economic and security concerns. what were we supposed to do? he said they wanted dialogue. he suggested they got shut out of dialogue. thiss obviously something that as a result. it's been a fairly forthright conversation. >> one of the things that stuck out to me. we just need to qualify everything that we are subject to the interpreter's interpretation of the language. it may not match up. but president obama suggesting vladimir putin had been

untruthful about his response. and putin's response was, who is he to judge? >> geoff cutmore asked what the relationship between united states and russia, if it was already breaking down before the situation in ukraine because of the snowden affair. >> right. >> and putin took that head on as well. he said, look, in the end this was classic putin. he would russia is not ready to extradite fighters for human rights which sent a huge round of applause. >> are you going there? >> i'll go there. >> before you go there, there's one thing you can do before you go there which is on the snowden piece, not where i think you're going. >> you know where i'm going. >> i think i know where you're going. one thing i caught was this comment about whether snowden was an agent of the russians. he said no. and he repeated that many times. but then he said when snowden

needs to publish something. >> he comes to us. >> he comes to us. >> that was interesting. >> which i thought was a very interesting the, if not bizarre, comment to. >> if you're snowden, i don't think you want to hear that. you are subject to putin's dictates on something. >> and when you speak to the media, is he beholden to putin? >> becky, i'm taking you down with me. we're going down together by the way. there was a comment about snowden. we immediately perked up. putin saying something to the effect that/. >> i wrote it down. >> he said something to the effect that the u.s. special

forces, steve liesman speaks russian and heard some of this. they have taken down. they, we assume meaning the u.s., have taken down planes with presidents before. they taken his plane down. >> taken snowden's plane down. >> does that mean a forced landing? >> if what becky, steve and i both heard -- >> what you and i heard was the translation. the interpreter used the word "down." that could be landed. but i said they, meaning the u.s. have downed planes with presidents on them. they should have downed snowden. >> what was that? >> we should have prevented snowden -- >> almost like we should have shot down the plane. >> we could be guessing. >> he said the special forces, u.s. special forces were quote, unquote i thought unprofessional. >> that's what steve -- that's not what the translation said.

>> steve lived in russia for years and speaks russia. he was sort of hedging. >> we're missing the forest for the trees when we go intoed weeds on whether he said the u.s. has downed president's planes before. it sounds like putting neighbors rhetoric. >> yes. >> maybe he respects this vote that's coming up. generally markets believe that that crisis is easing somewhat. and he can say all he wants. tweak us about snowden. is he in these remarks backing off that he could annex more of ukraine. i think that's -- it seems to me that's what he's doing. continuing along those lines. >> although i will say it's very difficult to judge things with putin. he says things one day, acts another way the next day. so it's hard. i would agree with that, but i wouldn't put a lot of eggs in

that basket just yet. >> sure. >> let's bring in another voice to talk about this. joining us with more reaction is hermitage capital management co-tpourpbld and ceo. haoufpl rights activityist after his 2006 investigation into russia's high-level corruption resulted in him being branded a threat to national security. also barred him from entering russia. bill, you have been listening in i assume to what putin has been saying this morning. what do you think? >> well, first of all, as you were saying before, you can't belive a word he says. he has a very long history of saying one thing and doing exactly the other. so i wouldn't invest too much money on the back of putin's statements today. as i watched him, i thought his body language was very interesting. he seemed a bit sort of defensive. he seemed a bit aggressive. he seemed a little bit off balance. and that strikes me that he's kind of -- he's off in an area

where he doesn't know the outcome. we don't know the outcome. this is his first real unscripted public appearance since this whole thing started. so it was quite interesting to watch him sweat and twitch a little bit as he was confronted with real questions. >> bill, it's probably worth pointing out the forum is an economic forum. he is sitting on stage with ceos. this is an important question in russia. what happens with the economy? there are repercussions from the sanctions that have been put in place. russia is reaching towards china to try to make some deals. this has to be an important moment for him. maybe that explains some of what you are looking into with some of the body language there. >> well, you know, he's really in a tough place. because as you tphoerbgs russia has a country full of ol' tkpwargs. they control all the economic

aspects of the country. gone 25% 30% poorer when you add all the effects on their business. they have these guys that are only care about money who are poorer. and he's got to somehow enough eye he is doing it. he doesn't report to those guys. he reports to himself. any one of those guys who in any way becomes disloyal will find themselves poorer and in jail. it's an uncomfortable place for him to be right now. he is effectively trying to create a foreign diversion to empower himself and to create public support. but at the same time he's making everybody poorer. i think they will bite further. >> you probably saw or heard some of the audience reaction. we were joking that he has a 101% approval rating inside russia right now. >> right. >> how big is vladimir putin's

personality? >> these guys in particular are absolute sick fans. the whole wealth is dependent on his goodwill. it is funny to see them watch in unison, making sure the expression on their face is all appropriate. i've been to these forums in davos. you see these guys worth 10, 15, $20 billion acting like small children. they are desperate. their money completely depends on him. his support is real. he stirred up a nationalist frenzy by taking crimea and stirred up a frenzy by going into ukraine. and he's done it on purpose. this is a very specific, very well thought through political strategy. because he was starting to lose support among the regular people at home because of all the

corruption and all the money not going to the people and going to him. he had to do something to get support. he created a foreign enemy, which is the west. and by creating a foreign military invasion. >> bill, and this may be way off base here, but when i was i in sochi, russia, you quietly have discussions with people off to the side. and i had more than one person come up and say when russian money was confiscated in cyprus in spring of 2013, that that changed the game. maybe the west is not our ally either. is there anything to that? >> i'm sure that played a role in it. everybody has a different theory about how this theory works.

but the main thing is he cannot step down like george bush or tony blair and give speeches off into the sunset. he has no exit strategy. if he were to step down, he would be indicted and put in jail for corruption. he knows that. we know that. the russian people know that. the only thing that he can do is try to stay in power. and the only way that he can stay in power when his approval ratings are starting to decline is to come up with a new strategy for doing that. so i would argue that there are a million different reasons why they have pointed to like crimean history and so. like cyprus. but when it comes down to it, it's about his fear of losing power and trying to come up with a way to stay in power. >> there is a fundamental tension between his desire to stay in power through these nationalistic ratcheting up of

rhetoric and actions in ukraine. it is undermining his desire to grow the russian economy there at this low growth rate. he has to be successful in improving his approval ratings through aggressive actions or will oligarchs. which of those two ultimately wins out? >> you're exactly right. that is a tension. it's not as though he will allow a liberal free market economy to emerge to stay in power. that's not what he is going to do. the way i predict this thing plays out, the economy continues to shrink. the sanctions will continue to shrink it. and his reaction will be to become more fashionistic and more aggressive to keep feeding the mouth of this nationalist frenzy. that's his only choice. i think you will see the economy

continuing to decline. this is a pipe dream. the chinese aren't going to give the russians any gifts whatsoever. you will see capital flight, capital controls and putin becoming more aggressive to try to distract people as that happens. >> we want to thank you very much for joining us today. always great talking to you. >> thank you. >> we should point out what we were talking about with the plane before. someone pointed this out. there was a bolivian presidential plane forced down in july because there was a rumor that edward snowden was on board. several different countries wouldn't allow the plane to refuel. it eventually landed in austria as a result. >> that may be what he's referring to. at the same time if you're talking about a plane that has taken off and you're saying you should have brought the plane down, force it to land? >> forcing it to land. >> that was the bolivian plane.

>> right. >> i'll be generous in my interpretation. i'm not the interpreter. >> that would be my guess that's what he was referring to. >> let's hope. i hope so. coming up, a big travel weekend. in fact, the biggest of the year. that means gassing up the car and hitting the road. you'll be stuck in traffic. we'll talk about the biggest travel weekends since 2000. we'll check out the price of gas. we'll be heading to break right now. the futures indicating a slight live higher open. s&p 5000.3% off. we'll hopefully interview the interpreter at some pointment cars are driven by people. they're why we innovate. they're who we protect. they're why we make life less complicated.

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. aa is forecasting this memorial day weekend the second most travelers on the road and in the skies since 2000 and maybe as high as since the recession. representing stores that account for three quart, of all the gas sold in the u.s.

jeff, it's going to be an extremely busy weekend. what are you guys anticipate something. >> we found the same thing aa found. the big determiner is the weather. when you talk to retailers, they say it's weather number one, gas prices number two, and concerns about the economy number three. if it's nice weather, you're going to see an awful lot of traffic on the roads. >> define an awful lot of traffic. here in new jersey, he day is an awful lot of traffic on the roads. how bad? we should wait until saturday morning kind of thing? >> summer drive started last night. you could see it here around d.c. but the busiest weekend -- aaa will say the same thing -- are actually in august. we see a peak command in august. august is the hottest month. it's also the busiest month for travel. so while this is busy, june is busier than may. july is busier than june many august is the busiest. and then it comes down after

that. >> are your constituents complaining about the price of gas? surprised it hasn't gone up more? it was something like for every quarter per increase price we are gallon of gas, it takes 50 bucks out of his average customer's pocket. where do we stand right now? >> gas prices are in line with where they were e last year. you look at wti. things look fine in terms of oil prices. the last segment with mr. putin, if things get worse in ukraine, that could put pressure on oil prices. if things get worse in nigeria, it could put pressure on oil prices. if the hurricane season, which starts next week, is particularly active and they are saying it's not, that could put pressure on oil prices and/or refining prices. but insides that, things are fairly calm with things that effect gas prices. and that's good news. the winter was miserable. if the summer is good, a lot of

things go away. >> who makes a better hot sub? >> i can't say. first off, they're hoagies there. >> depends on where you are. >> hoagies, grinders. >> where is it, connecticut, boston? >> there's a difference of excellence. that's what i would say. >> you are good, jeff. i hope you have a wonderful memorial day weekend. may your wrap be filled with chicken. >> why, thank you. >> appreciate it. >> i'm on record as well. you use the -- >> i'm a sheets guy. >> i can honestly say i have no experience with sheets but i love going to wawa with the interface. you don't have to talk to anybody. they make your sandwich perfectly. >> it rolls into a lot of discussions about wages. >> no, it doesn't. >> try the sheets.

try it. they have the doo, doo, doo thing too. >> you can see them from space. the sheets's. the one in winchester, virginia, has 700 gas pump stations. >> coming up, we'll talk more about the job cuts at hp. plus, we've been talking vladimir putin. geoff cutmore leading the discussion. what it could mean for the weekend's elections in ukraine. that and a lot more in just a moment. ♪

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welcome back to "squawk box", everybody. we have been watching the futures this morning. if you check it out right now, you will see the green arrows are continuing. dow futures up 16 points above fair value. four of the last five sessions you have seen them close higher. they are up one and a half. keep an eye on shares of hp. the company may cut 16,000 additional jobs. the ceomeg whitman said the company remains on track. some have questioned whether this signals a worsening outlook. after the news came out, you saw the stock trade down. this morning it's tradely slightly higher meg whitman will be on the show later this morning. slamming western powers during a question and answer question with cnbc geoff cutmore.

steve liesman is our resident expert. he will be joining us with what he thinks the highlights were. stick around. "squawk box" will be right back. (v o) watching. waiting. for that moment, where right place meets right time. and when i find it- i go for it. (announcer) at scottrade, we share your passion for trading. that's why we give you the edge, with innovative charting and trading features, plus powerful mobile apps so you're always connected, wherever you are. because at scottrade, our passion is to power yours.

>> translator: at the moment it is apparent even to those who still continue trying to work in the system that does not exist anymore. they are trying to retain the monopoly to try to dictate policy trade and finance as well as in culture and behavior. >> that was russian president vladimir putin speaking about the united states. he sat down with cnbc's geoff cutmore. the international economic forum is being held in st. petersburg. steve lies was watching. steve, this was interesting because putin doesn't take questions like this. >> he wasn't happy about the questions either. >> there's a great back story about what geoff told them he was going to do and what he

actually ended up doing. so my hat is off to him in a big way. >> he acted like a boss. >> he kept at it. putin made a comment. and i think russian custom makes it so it's very difficult for putin to stop answering the questions at that point. it would have been incredibly rude. but geoff just kept at it. i wonder, though, if there was an opening. i want to give you a little back drop. when he says stuff about obama and he says stuff about pity the poor journalists in ukraine. there's a guy his country has a terrible record what has happened. and bemoaning the tanks in the streets which he brought them in. cast the "alice in wonderland" that he lives in. we can debate what he said.

i thought on second rebound, second recall. >> he was asked three times. >> he said we will honor the election the we will see. >> he said we want peace and stability. i didn't necessarily hear him say, yes, i promise to stand by whatever the elections results are. >> there's a number of o headlines picked up that he would. ecb. reuters as well picking that up. >> throw that out there. we will wait to see if it is defined in kremlin comments. two, he said, look, we just -- just talk to me. he said there's an opening here for dialogue to resolve these things. and the third thing was it's been out there for a while. but i thought he said it in stronger terms. what we really want is we don't want nato on our doorstep. >> yes. i heard that too. >> can ukraine fashion a constitution or some deal behind

the scenes whereby the whole situation is deescalated in a back room deal that does not become part of nato. while not infringing -- >> i circled that commentary as well. missile defense system of nato. he said that specifically. and we have economic and security concerns. what are we supposed to do? that seemed the most straightforward point. >> obama has to look past these obvious insults out there and say, okay, that's what he has to do to get there. there's a long history, by the way. in fact, i know it's still intact on back channel negotiations. i think the two countries realized they have a lot of things where they have to actually do business around the world. one thing about this china/russia thing. don't get fooled by this. >> what do you mean? >> 1996, the first foreign reporter on a presidential plane

where boris yeltsin was there. this has been out there forever. every time russia gets in trouble with the west, it looks to china. that's been a 50-year or 60-year thing that's going on. it doesn't work. it is not in kind that's interest to align itself with russia. you want to talk? sure, we'll do a deal. it doesn't mean there's alignment. it's a bit of a head fake. russia thoughs it. china knows it. >> it is there amidst all the usual rhetoric of the west is evil and the united states is doing all these bad things. we have edward snowden. a lot of sticking the knife in on snowden. yes, i believe probably recognize the election results. you see the realization that the sanctions will bite and the economy will be very slow. the china deal will not bear fruit for a long time, if ever, in terms of revenues coming in.

so i think you're absolutely right that there was the usual putin fantasy world on display that he creates. at the same time, a sort of moving away from the very pugnacious rhetoric towards crimea. he's got what he wants. he's not going to march over the border and take the rest of it. at least to me. >> it's tongue tpin cheek, but we care about russia economically? it manners to the west because of gas. 1% of gdp is exports to europe. >> you're right about that. first of all, it's the fifth, sixth biggest economy in the world. it matters in the sense that we are limited in the kinds of sanctions that we can do. i think we've learned that we do know how to do sanctions. we know how to do sanctions against iran and north korea. we completely cut them off from

the dollar economy. that's what works. what obama administration has done is very, very short of that. if cutting off the dollar economy is 100, i think we're on death con 3 or 4 maybe. 17 guys around putin. a couple of companies. we are way short of that. the answer to your question, brian, is russia is so big and critical in the total dollar flow in the global economy, i don't think we can do that. i don't think we can cut them off from the sanctions that really matter. >> coming out of the conference in california a few weeks ago, i had a conversation with mike from guggenheim. he thought if a military escalation. the west had to back up a little bit more. and he wasn't advocating this. he said it could be good for the u.s. gdp growth could be gained or pushed by remilitarization of

the united states or, if anything, a none cut of a defense budget if we sense there's a graeter global threat than small terrorists growth than if there is a reescalation. >> good for gdp but bad for the budget. >> i don't want to go there. >> is this too short-term? >> if somebody wants to cut defense spending by 5%. >> can't do it. >> are urb that, by the way, we have this. we can't afford to cut defense spending by 5%. it was if we don't cut defense, that can be a beneficial. >> right. which then blows our deficit out again. >> the trouble with building tanks economically is not using them. >> right. >> because it's a dead-end g. it doesn't wear out. it goes obsolete over a period of time.

as a short-term economic boost, yes, that's true. the long term, is maybe -- >> the only point to some of the people we talked to is we assume that it is a move toward aggression would be a bad move economically. some suggest maybe it was not for that reason. >> just one point. what are the reasons why you have incredible multiples in the '90s is the world was getting bigger. you could put crazy multiples on country because you don't know what the ultimate end demand is. anything that makes it bigger is better for us economically. >> are you saying bigger is better? >> bigger is better. >> i like your style. >> the pizza pie is really ultimately one size, though. >> that's not true. >> you can get it larger. depending on the cheese and crust. >> there is no fundamental

limit. >> this is the cheese and the crust of the global economy right here, russia. >> it's all about your of oven. >> it's not the size of the pie, it's the size of the offense. >> jane wells is at the grill. jane? >> becky, putin schmootin. this is the real deal. you're going to get grilled this summer. we'll have ta story right after the break.

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welcome back on "squawk box". the futures right now. things are looking up on this friday as we get ahead of the three-day weekend. dow looks like it opens 12 points higher. nasdaq three points. s&p 500 a little over a point. making headlines this morning neighbor i to all of mr. putin's comments in the past hour, shares of aeropostale getting slammed. worried of a bigger hand expected loss for the current quarter. barbecue season is in session as well. >> and barbecues across the nation will be firing up this weekend. it will cost you more this year. jane wells that h the grill going. she is in the grilling capital of the world, burbank, california. >> you can see i'm not the

expert at this. this is usually hubinator's job. beef prices are at record highs. a green acres meat market northwest of l.a., simi valley, he said in his 60 years in the business he has never seen anything like it. >> the last load of beef i got in was just about the same cuts and the same quantity as i did before. and the last load of beef i got was 6,000 more than the delivery before. >> holy cow! feed cattle futures, cattle fattened up and ready for slaughter, closing in on $200. it is smaller than it has been in decades. ranchers have stopped raising cattle. ground beef averages 4.23. up 11% in a year. choice sir loin, up 7% to $7.36. it's not just beef. a virus killing pigs has pork chop prices up to over $4 a pound. bacon up 17% to $5.70.

a lot more expensive out here. whole fresh chicken up 6% to $1.53. >> i think beef prices are going to remain historically inflated. we may get some relief this summer despite production following a 21-year low. but i think that consumers are pushing back on inflated beef price. they are looking for alternative proteins. and i think chicken will probably be the big winner. >> the usda released new numbers. cold meat in storage, in freezers is down 17% from a year ago. that is the largest drop in six years. beef in freezers down 21%. still with beef prices high, feed so low, everybody will want to raise cattle again. it takes two years to ramp up. back to you. >> chicken -- how long is chicken? >> chicken is like a month. >> seven weeks. >> here's my question.

the average fryer is eliminated? what's the proper word. >> eaten. >> killed at seven weeks. >> why? >> you can say killed. >> why is the fed not doing more to fight beef price inflation, cattle inflation. they should be raising interest rates to fight that peeve inflation. very dangerous. to national security? >> national security. >> jane; that grill cooking? >> it's cooking. like i said, i'm not the grill master. this is not even my grill. this is the producer's house. this is the cleanest house i have ever seen. look at his garage. cleanest house i have ever seen. everything is perfectly in place. >> he will never be on a&e's hoarders. >> i'm soiling this place just stay here. >> don't eat the burger to the

right. yeah. don't eat that one yet. it's not done. >> the other one looks a little better. >> don't eat anything i cook. >> i don't know if that's a well-ventilated area. >> it's outside. >> i can't even tell. >> if jane says kiss my grits. >> kiss my grits. >> with the burger. >> there you go. >> early grilling. >> thank you, jane. >> it's like 4:00 in the morning. >> who is grilling a ham berger at 4:00 in the morning? cnbc. >> the new york stock exchange. jim cramer's radar heading into the holiday weekend. we have a lot more coming up on squawk. just take a closer look. it works how you want to work. with a fidelity investment professional... or managing your investments on your own. helping you find new ways to plan for retirement. and save on taxes where you can. so you can invest in the life that you want today.

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welcome back to "squawk box." take a look at futures and see how things are setting themselves up ahead of the three-day weekend. s&p up over a point and the nasdaq up over three points. to the new york stock exchange and jim cramer getting ready for a three-day weekend as well, jim. we could talk about a lot of things. i don't know if you have views on what putin had to say or views about what meg whitman may say on your show in just a couple minutes. >> i'm more qualified to speaks to the latter, of course.

and what i see here is hewlett-packard is an extension of a lot of companies that reported in the last 24 hours, not as bad as we thought. initial reaction for hewlett-packard which is the release comes out, people start trading on the release and don't understand this is not a release story. meg whitman tells a better story and back channel than in the headlines and in the end these analyst analysts just trying to figure out thou model their quarter. the company has operating cash flow, not as bad as it used to be. to inspire buyers in this market yes. >> we had an investor talking about hewlett-packard and one of the suggestions he made he thinks they'll take whatever cash can be saved and perhaps not increase the dividend further but use it for acquisitions. is there something you want to see hp actually buy? >> first i have to tell you that they just categorically denied that. >> i know.

but i would say yes. i would like them to go and buy a company that is -- i know if they do something radically different it would be bad but they are not relevant, okay. they need to go buy -- put together -- say they buy concur technologies and decide they want to own the travel and entertainment vertical, it would be brilliant. that's what they need to do. change the direction and get into software as a service that, therefore, makes them relevant and back in the enterprise. the enterprise numbers aren't so good. >> any other cloud? the other thing we talked about was cloud. just anything cloud. >> concur tech i regard as maybe a fantastic cloud company. it would be a big change of direction for meg. but you know what, meg when you have good cash flow and balance sheets there's a lot of things that can happen. don't rule her out. >> jim, we look forward to seeing you in a couple minutes as well as mr. faber who will have miss whitman on the program. >> when we come back, russian president vladimir putin says

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>> that was an interpreter relaying russian president vladimir putin this morning responding to a question from our jeff cutmore about restoring relations with ukraine. it would take them paying back the $3.5 billion that they owe, maybe that would be a good start. let's get back to ben white. ben, i have to say, i was -- i learned more in this putin interview than i ever suspected to. >> the fact that he took questions in this forum and had to be reactive to things he didn't want to be asked was interesting. we got insights into his views on ukraine and what he's going to do and the sanctions are biting on him and he has to react to that. >> let's switch topics from the international field back to the united states. you have a piece in politico this morning that lays out why you think liberals are driven crazy by timothy geithner. >> you see it now he's on tour for the book talking about the bailout era and why he did what he did. regenerated a big debate around

the actions taken and whether they were purely to help wall street and bail out bankers and nowhere near enough was done to help homeowners and main street. he rejects this stuff. but it matters not just to relit gait the history of the bailout era but informs our politics now. it's going to be something that democrats will have to deal with in 2014 but i think more importantly in 2016. you already see hillary clinton giving speeches about economic inequality, about the 1%, the 0.1%. that's all because of the stuff that happened during the bailout, the left really unhappiness with how it was handled and her association with it. she's associated with bill clinton's white house, ruben summers. she has to move away from that. >> do you think that geithner could have ever successfully persuaded the far left or even just the left period, that what he did was right? >> probably not. but i think the argument you could make there are two or three things he could have done during this period that would have at least eased the anger and that is at least fire ken

lewis, not nationalize a bank but take more punitive actions against bankers, put more strings attached, done more on housing or actively engaged on housing. >> one question, had he done those things. >> yeah. >>nd at economy was still in the same place it is still today same unemployment rate all of that, do you think the outcome would have been different? >> i think the perception of him would be a little bit different. >> about the perception of him, not about -- >> i don't think the outcome would necessarily -- the outcome of -- >> the economy. >> any better? >> i don't know. i'm not qualified to answer that. he would argue if he did the things i'm talking about you would have crashed the economy further, more runs, more bank nurse and that could be a compelling argument and some of it is the rhetoric refused to use in talking about the arsonists who got news the problem. he talks about them as arsonists now. he didn't do it then. he earned a reputation as being the guy who will always help out banks and wall street and less concerned about main street and that whether fair or not impacts politics to this day in the

democratic party and will in 2014 and 2016. >> history will look at him how? >> positively in that he did help avoid a greater cry sus but possibly could have done more and articulate wlads he did in a different way. >> thank you for joining us. brian, thank you for joining us. check out "street signs" at 2:00 p.m. on tuesday. mandy is here. i'm talking off. thank you. good morning. and kwm to "squawk on the street." i'm david faber with jim cramer live from the new york stock exchange. carl quintanilla taking an early start to the weekend. we are live with an interview with hewlett-packard. futures as we end the week we are looking for what might be a slightly, slightly higher opening there. for the ten-year note yield,