and welcome to "squawk alley." big day for the markets. dow setting all-time interday highs. best day for the dow since may 21st. look who's back from a little vacation out west. jon fortt and john steinberg, the two johns. good to see you both. a lot to get to. let's get a quick check on those markets. dow, new intraday all-time high. s&p, 1978. david costen speaking of the s&p, raising his target for year end to 2050 from 1990 and interesting targets in the years following that. apple also a big story, getting an upgrade ahead of quarterly earnings. we're going to talk to the

analyst, ben reitzes over at barclays later this hour. this is an interesting story. they had it overweight for a very long time. years, in fact. came off of that in february, and it's a bit of a tough reversal here, jon. we'll see what ben says. >> you have to reverse it. it's so interesting. i was looking at a chart this morning that was samsung's strength over two years exactly relative to apple. and it's just about to cross the break-even point. ever since, let's see, april 22nd of 2013, samsung's momentum versus apple just has not been there. so it's really interesting, especially now that apple's a different company than it was when it peaked back in september of 2012. it's got a dividend. it's doing buybacks. we got this broader view of this product strategy. the apis that they opened up at wwdc. it seems like we're finally about to get a watch. who knows what that will do. even without that, samsung, not the unstoppable juggernaut that

everybody used to think it was. >> and big piece in "the times" today. if they have to start cutting prices, what ancillary effect does that have. >> exactly right. samsung says in their release, we executed marketing expenses aggressively to reduce channel inventories. so if samsung is having trouble selling devices, the barclays report makes the argument oh, well, that's good for apple. i don't view it that way. it's always been a rising tide. if samsung is selling more, apple is selling more. ultimately if apple does not come out with a 5.5-inch fablet, you're going to have just the 4.7-inch phone. that i don't think is enough. i think it will be good. >> that cites an analyst -- everyone always says influential analyst, jon. how good of a track record do these analysts have? >> it's terrible. >> is it really? >> it's really not clear that 4.7 won't do the trick. compared to what we've had thus far, 4.7 is a giant. >> apple insight is pretty good.

4.7 inches, the regular galaxy phone is already 5.1 inches. so you're a little smaller already. it's a question whether it's going to be a one, two punch with both sizes or a one, two punch with a delay to get the larger one out. >> this might be muhammad ali. you might not need two punches. one might do the trick especially considering samsung has been outspending apple in marketing for years. the fact they have to spend even more in this season when apple has been relatively strong especial reply after the china mobile launch doesn't bode well for them. >> it's not the rumble in the jungle. it's the rally in the valley. >> oh, that's nice. >> at the same time, possible board revamp on the way. today cramer on "squawk on the street" at 9:00 said tim cook has gone from being an agnostic about the stock to being a zealot. the company possibly putting its ad account into review. >> it might be a little extreme to say he was agnostic about the stock. take a look at what he said on earnings calls for the past

several quarters, couple years he said apple is a good value. they've been putting their money where their mouth is as far as that's concerned also. but now the whole story seems to be coming together for them. now "the new york times" is writing about child labor in samsung factories in china. and the story is sort of reversed. >> he's been obsessed about the stock in the absence of new products. it's been a stopgap. as far as the new agency, that's been a story for a long time. there's been previous articles of that. and that's a classic new ceo-type thing. what's the first thing you do? you change the agency. i'm seeing in the agency landscape now, i can't believe how quickly accounts came over. it used to be the cmos switched a lot. now everybody goes into agency review. and the agencies often come to say help us win and keep this piece of business with an innovative campaign. >> the man behind google glass and google contact lens is leaving the company to join amazon. parviz babak left somewhat of an

esoteric message to his facebook page. speaking of amazon, getting buzz, shedding light on the fraught relationship between book publishers and the tech giant. "the times" hinting at a deal is coming soon. we know amazon has made somewhat of an overture to the authors themselves, but it would be nice to get that done, jon, for everybody's sake. >> it would be. and i found this piece particularly interesting because of the perspective of one of the authors who works closely with amazon who's making six figures off of this, traveling around the world doing quite well. but the piece also makes the point, amazon squeezes prices on everybody who supplies them with everything. and you have to wonder if a bunch of authors finally went to amazon and they became even more of a power, would they squeeze the authors then? would they finally say wait a second, why do we have to pay you so much if your book isn't doing that well? we've got a 12-year-old over here writing vampire stories who's really doing better who's willing to take 5 cents. >> also, you can make the argument about amazon dominance

or monopoly or that's the only place to go. obviously it's a free-flowing-type ecosystem. you can go somewhere else. you can google them. google could put up a front where they do an aggressive advertising campaign. that's what i would do if i was google. let us redirect people through different ad words where they can purchase them. >> but they lock you in. well, you're not locked into google either. once you get the tool bar in there, the services, they know. >> that's what they said about microsoft. every time people get worried about monopoly, by the time it goes through the justice department, the world has ultimately changed. and i think we tend to look back and say why do we break these things up? same thing with the baby bells. i think the government needs to focus on all of these mega mergers happening, all this consolidation that's going on in the broadband and content delivery space. someone will compete with amazon. if they're not giving people the books they want, they're going to go somewhere else. >> amazon back above the 200-day moving average. the stock has had a very nice

couple of days here. john, good to see you, as always. and google coming up this week. >> ebay this week. let's send it over to dominic chu for a "market flash." >> so a big tech name. riverbed technology. can you see they're trading around 5% just off session lows. this stock is falling after the network equipment maker cut its second quarter sales forecast. this due to lower sales in north america because of a delay in closing some of its larger deals. now, accountivist shareholder elliott management which is trying to buy the company issued a statement which said, quote, it's a clear sign a dramatic change is needed. we reaffirm our cash bid of $21 per share and carl, riverbed will report full second quarter earnings on july 24th. back to you. >> thank you so much. when we come back, he is the co-founder of linkedin, paypal, an investor, author and of course a silicon valley ledge en en nd, and he's up next.

and the incredible rush... of the mercedes-benz you've always wanted. ♪ [ tires screech ] but you better get here fast... [ daughter ] yay, daddy's here! here you go, honey. thank you. [ male announcer ] ...because a good thing like this... phew! [ male announcer ] ...won't last forever. see your authorized dealer for an incredible offer on the exhilarating c250 sport sedan. but hurry, offers end july 31st. share your summer moments in your mercedes-benz with us. but hurry, offers end july 31st. thank ythank you for defendiyour sacrifice. and thank you for your bravery. thank you colonel. thank you daddy. military families are uniquely thankful for many things, the legacy of usaa auto insurance can be one of them. if you're a current or former military member or their family, get an auto insurance quote and see why 92% of our members plan to stay for life.

facebook, twitter, linkedin. billions are following and accepting social requests on social networks. and it could be the old way of doing business, at least when it comes to the job market. aa new book called "the alliance," it calls for a complete overhaul to better meet the needs of this new networked age. here with us at post 9 is the book's co-author, reed hoffman, chairman and co-founder of linkedin. reed, it is great to have you. good morning.

>> thank you for having me. >> you think management has some lessons to learn in terms of how to deal with people. new hires. existing employees. people who want to leave. >> so i think the key thing is everyone knows that lifetime employment has basically gone the way of the dodo bird. the question is now how do you mutually invest in each other. people have careers they need to maintain. so what do you do? you have what we call a tour of duty, which is a fixed admission say two to four years in which you accomplish something real for the company and also something real for the employee. and aligned mission then allows mutual investment and allows both to have, you know, career security and also progress in the company. and that's essentially having an open, honest conversation about this is the thing that we're advocating. >> you don't like the term family which we hear all the time. >> yeah. >> but if you do away with that, how do you get them to commit, emotionally invest in our common mission? >> family unfortunately is misleading because you don't fire your kid for not doing

their homework, et cetera. you want the loyalty of a team. you want the loyalty of we are accomplishing this mission together. we are playing this game together. and we're going to be explicit about it. we're going to talk about it. so there is loyalty. there is commitment. it's just not the misleading term of family in terms of how it operates. >> reid, i wonder if this is the flipside of the start-up of you. your previous book and what you think of netflix's model. we don't talk about netflix's cull tire a lot, but they are very kind of unapologetic and unemotional in how they treat their employees performancewise, kind of market based. but also some would say harsh. where do you stand on that? >> so there can be different cultures and teams. some cultures can be, look, we're actually all -- we have a very high e.q., we're all emotionally connected to each other. we're emotionally involved in the team. it's still a team. it's still a performance. you have to win and perform. or others can be, look, it's just a description. how are your numbers? did it work or not?

that's a range of management and cultural things. but the important thing about the team part of it, and i think netflix publishing its culture deck was an awesome thing. i think it was a gift to industries to think about this. i think the important thing is to think, well, actually, in fact, how do we actually go play this tour of duty together? how do we make this happen? and when you have an explicit conversation which includes like our head of engineering and operations, when he interviews people, first interview, what's the job you want after linkedin? right? because he's showing that employee, i am so committed to the transformation of your career. i am talking about it right now. >> does that make employees feel like losers if they want to stay there for ten years? >> not at all. we've had people stay for ten years. well, year not quite -- we're just over 10 years old. but essentially, you do multiple tours of duty. so for example, part of what we talk about is there's an ethical compact on both sides to say when we do one tour of duty together, we don't just automatically go our separate ways. .

cans say great, so long, see you. or employees say hey, something new came along, i'm gone. both of them say let's have a conversation about the next tour of duty. we call this the right of first conversation. and so you can say look, we will see if we actually work -- end up working there my entire career. that's a prospect. that may even be desirable on both sides. but to do it through a sequence of tours of duty. >> in terms of linkedin specifically, we're at an interesting place in terms of investor expectations for monetization for growth. we've been around the block a couple times this spring in terms of share performance in the sector at large. where's your head right now? >> so we always focus on what company we're building three to five years out. for example, other than the fact that i see it over your shoulder, i don't actually check the stock price every day. and so i think there's a lot of very good prospects in terms of what we're doing, hire, market and sell is what we do as a business. i think all of those businesses have great prospects. >> you've had enormous foresight, building social network that aol bought way

before social networking was a thing. early investor in facebook. built linkedin up, paypal, managing the outward relationships. what is it that you see now? lots of people are talking about wearable technology, talking about health, home automation. is that where we should be focused three to five years from now, or is it something completely different? >> so i think the internet of things is clearly a major transformation that's going to happen over the next three to ten years. and actually i think that almost, you know, every interesting electronic device in your house is interesting to be an internet-connected device. i think that's one that you mentioned. another one that i've been paying a lot of attention to in the last 6 to 12 months has been bitcoin. i think it's an incredible system that's created a ledger that is across -- a distributed ledger across the whole world for it can be money but it can also be other things. i think there's a lot of different things happening. >> are you invested in bitcoin specifically?

>> i bought a few bitcoins myself p and i just recently announced an investment in a company called zappo that is -- we think one of the best. cans in the space. >> if you're not worried about linkedin's price day to day, do you worry about bitcoin? >> i don't think you worry about the price of many things, do you? >> it's more a question of a three to five-year horizon, not a daily time more rhorizon. >> usually it's about bitcoin as a platform, not the value of individual bitcoins. >> yep. >> what do you think the real gift of bitcoin will be? will it be the technology platform and the ledger that you talked about? should people, after they hear you say this, go out and purchase individual bitcoins and cross their fingers? >> well, at this moment, it's so early, i wouldn't have someone buy a bitcoin, put any money into bitcoin unless they were willing to lose their money. it's very early. it's very speculative. but the platform nature of it, you can then begin to express

electronic contracts. can you have bitcoin stand for something that isn't just a bitcoin. it's a tiny part of the bitcoin. it could mean your car. so then your car could be accounted for on a general ledger that is then -- you know, can you do electronic contracts. you could put liens against it. moving it all into the electr electronic age. that's the reason i think the platform layer, the bitcoin as a lidger layer is the most interesting layer. >> you talk about the internet of things, three to ten years. people are spending billions to get in on the ground floor so to speak whether it's google nest or something else. are they paying too much? >> well, given how important it will be, look, i don't know the details on like, you know, like is nest a great buy? yes. is it a great buy at that price? i don't know. but tony fidel is awesome. the notion that the fact the house will be completely connected, there will be a home operating system, that home operating system will be connected to cloud. that will make our lives a lot

better. that is unequivocal. it's not like even making a prediction. it's just like, you know, apples fall off trees. what the shape of it will be. will it be nest extending into smoke alarms, you know, what will the thing be? that's still the game that's in front of us. >> i was just back in silicon valley a couple weeks ago, spent some time at google, spent some time at apple. it had been, i don't know, seven, eight months since i had been there for a period of time. and the thing that struck me, in one way it felt like 1999 when i first got there and that the traffic was huge and that people are very excited. but in another way, a lot of the energy is around these big established companies that are not going to evaporate the way a lot of the companies did in 1999. how should people be thinking about silicon valley now maybe compared to a period earlier, like maybe the mid-'90s or like some other period that you've seen? >> well, between the late '90s

and now, the so-called internet boom, it's much cheaper to run the businesses even though obviously engineer salaries and so forth are high. they have business models. there's advertising business models actually widely established across a number of different sites. and so there's a persistence and an inertia and oomph to these companies that will exist much beyond those. so i think that the -- what you will actually see, though, is there's tons and tons of start-ups. and i think most of the value will accrue to the leaders. you know, the ones that have network effects, the ones that have an established position in critical mass, dropbox, you know, these are actually some of my firm's investments. and we think that they will continue to do well because as you break through the noise, there's a ton of noise at the bottom, a lot of value will accrue, everyone goes we're going to use that one because this is how i share files with you. this is how i travel to paris. you know, this is -- these will be lasting transformations. >> of all the big -- i'm going to try to get you to talk out of school here -- but of twitter, yahoo! aol, is there one you

think is more fascinating than the other? and what do you think's going to happen to them long term? >> which of my friends have more friends? >> yes. >> so look. probably the thing that i'm most -- i think one of the things we do very well in silicon valley is we take the kind of zero to ten years, something that's a garage to something that's a world institution. i'm very interested in how we get from 10 to 100. how do we create institutions that live for a very long time because it requires reinvention. >> you mean start-up tech in general? >> silicon valley companies. >> silicon valley, all right. >> the only way you can do these technology companies, you have to reinvent products. that's the only way. the one product you build this that first ten years is not the product that's 100 years from now. >> how do you avoid becoming detroit? >> yes, exactly. what marisa is doing with yahoo! i'm paying attention to. okay, companies a little long in tooth. lost its way. brought in a really great product leader and saying okay, now we're going to try to reinvent. and we should all root for her because in fact, after she does

this, like how do you create these companies not just into a 10-year or 20-year plan, how do you make it into a 100-year company. >> not every company has a purse like the one she's going to have this summer. >> that's helpful. >> but you think she can put it to good use. >> yes, she's a great product person. she has a very good shot on goal. not with the world cup, i mean who knows? >> reid, congratulations on the book. >> thank you. >> we hope you'll come back. >> i will. >> reid hoffman joining us here at post 9. there's a look at the book "the alliance." when we return, legendary baseball hall of famer cal ripken jr. ahead of tomorrow's all-star game. the dow isn't moving a whole lot. we are at new highs, up 130. back in a minute. at every ford dealership, you'll find the works! it's a complete checkup of the services your vehicle needs.

so prepare your car for any road trip by taking it to an expert ford technician. because no matter your destination good maintenance helps you save at the pump. get our multi-point inspection with a synthetic blend oil change, tire rotation, brake inspection and more for $29.95 or less. get a complete vehicle checkup only at your ford dealer. and cialis for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment is right. cialis is also the only daily ed tablet approved to treat symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, or any allergic reactions like rash, hives, swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, or difficulty breathing or swallowing,

stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a free 30-tablet trial. just want to say, i bundled home and auto with state farm, saved 760 bucks. love this guy. so sorry. okay, does it bother anybody else that the mime is talking? frrreeeeaky! [ male announcer ] savings worth talking about. state farm. frrreeeeaky! in a we believe outshining the competition tomorrow requires challenging your business inside and out today. at cognizant, we help forward-looking companies run better and run different - to give your customers every reason to keep looking for you. so if you're ready to see opportunities and see them through, we say: let's get to work. because the future belongs to those who challenge the present.

pretty nice start to the week for the bulls. one of the best days since may or so. in large part on a plethora of m&a activity and then of course the citi earnings which came in a little better than people were expected. as major league baseball prepares to celebrate its best

players of the year at tomorrow's all-star game, few, if any, will be able to top our next guest known as baseball's iron man, played in 2,632 done second tif games, clocked in 19 consecutive all-star appearances. joining us, hall of famer, overall baseball legend cal ripken jr. who's in the twin cities to help the league honor teachers from around the country. cal, good morning to you. great to see you. >> yeah, good morning. thanks for having me on. >> walk us through the involvement between you and education. and baseball and education because there's so many different avenues you could take charity. but what is so special about teachers and especially this year? >> well, i mean, i'm here on behalf of target. and target partnered with "people" magazine and mlb to help celebrate teachers from all over the country. and this program is pretty cool because they found the one, the best teacher for each of the markets. so each teacher represents a team. and so there's 30 teams here. and part of my job is to kind of help, you know, make everyone

understand that coaches have an impact in your life, but probably if you think about it, teachers have more of an impact of who you become and how you're successful. so it's all about celebrating the teachers in this program. >> definitely agree with you there. my mom was a teacher. my wife taught for years. i've got a question for you also just about the structure of jobs and how we think about jobs including teachers' jobs these days. i believe you had 21 seasons with the orioles. the same team. we were just talking with a guest before about how the nature of work seems to have changed where we can't expect to be part of a family anymore, necessarily stay with an employer for a long time. do you see that happening, and is that a good thing? >> hmm. i don't know if i can speak to the rest of the country. i mean, i certainly can speak to my own experiences. i think every player would like to play for the same team. but as things change, management changes inside or directions change within any company,

sometimes you're not on the inside of that change. you know, i was lucky to be able to endure and have value to one team, but i certainly can see how things do change, and changes are made, you know, for the moment and the success of the business. >> and cal, you know, the intersection between your involvement or baseball's involvement in education, there's also the added wrinkle of baseball contracts, basketball contracts, being a professional paid athlete in this country in this lifetime of ours. it sort of makes education seem not as rewarding when you're talking about earning tens, hundreds of millions of dollars before you're 40er yoo e years . what do you tell youth when it comes to that? >> well, my son just got drafted by the nationals, so you have to -- there's nothing like education that you have to fall back on. whether you put all your energy into being a professional baseball player, which starts really, really early in life, or not, there's no guarantees.

education is the backdrop that will serve you for your whole life. and again, i'm happy that we're celebrating teachers here with target for that reason. that's the message that you want to get to the kids. it's a dream to be a pro baseball player and make that kind of money. but this many of us have a chance to actually achieve that dream. education serves all. >> yes, indeed. and speaking of education, what was some of the best financial advice that you got during your playing days that maybe has helped you now? >> keep your lifestyle as low as you can for as long as you can. i think i got an allowance each and every two weeks just to maintain what my normal expenses were. so yeah, keep your lifestyle as low as you can for as long as you can. >> finally, we're all going to be watching the game obviously. but you've got to mention jeter and just what a celebration it's been all season long. when people ask you how he's done it and how you've done it, is there one single answer?

>> no, i don't think so. i'm really happy that he has a chance to say good-bye, and i'm really happy that the fans get a chance to say good-bye to him. many times the decision will be made really abruptly and at the end of the season. and everyone feels that they haven't had a chance to say good-bye. he made that decision early in the off-season. and it's going to be an emotional run for him. it's going to be harder for him to concentrate on playing baseball. as he goes through this run. but i think it's the right thing. he's been such an important part of a lot of people's lives in baseball for a long, long time. i'm really happy that he gets a chance to say good-bye on his terms and the fans get the chance to say good-bye to him. >> the game will be different without him as it was without you, cal. have fun tomorrow. thanks for stopping by. >> thank you. it's my pleasure. thank you. >> cal ripken, one of baseball's greats joining us from minneapolis. markets about to close in both the uk and continental europe. beginning the week in the green.

shire said it's ready to recommend the takeover offered by shareholders. meanwhile, adidas has struck a deal to become manchester united's primary shirt and kit provider beginning in the 2015/'16 season. man u's longtime sponsor, nike, pulled out of the bidding war with adidas earlier this month. when we come back, apple's had quite a rally since barclays downgraded the stock back in march, late february. is ben reitzes just late to the game? we'll talk to him about his call today after the break. with all the opinions about stocks out there, how do you know which ones to follow? the equity summary score consolidates the ratings of up to 10 independent research providers into a single score that's weighted based on how accurate they've been in the past. i'm howard spielberg of fidelity investments.

the equity summary score is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. call or click to open your fidelity account today. in india we have 400 million people who don't have electricity and i just figured that it's time i do something about it. what we're doing right now, along with ibm, is to actually transfer data through a satellite from our wind farms directly onto the cloud. i think we could create a far more efficient system across the whole network where we could actually draw down

different kinds of energy based on when it's needed by the consumer. a smarter energy system is made with the ibm cloud. the ibm cloud is the cloud for business.

barclays upgrading apple this morning to overweight from equal raising, raising from 95 to 110 after they downgraded the stock back in february. ben reitzes wrote the note. ben, good morning to you. great to see you. >> great to see you, carl. >> when you downgraded, it was historic in its own way and now the reversal. why? >> well, you know, we messed up. that happens from time to time. but to be honest, the story did start to change quite a bit right on the conference call. i mean, tim was really behind the stock. he completely righted a lot of the mistakes i thought were made on the january call. and then it really just got going.

we started hearing about him retaining more talent. we really liked the beats deal. and then we're hearing a lot about iphone momentum. and then samsung is really -- i don't think anybody knew in january or february about how much share samsung might be able to give apple here, and it's quite a buffer. we're really upbeat about the product cycle. if you look at other stocks -- and i'll get to that probably later in the interview -- you could be just in the middle of a run. so sometimes in my job, you've got to say, hey, we messed up. we've got to get on board and be constructive and make your clients money, and this is one of those examples. >> yeah, sometimes in our jobs, too. some things haven't changed, though, since then. you talked about the maturing smartphone market. it's still maturing. you talked about the new categories that apple's opening up, seeming to just support the iphone. that still seems to be the case. so what fundamentally makes you more excited besides, you know, maybe a little bit more leverage

versus samsung, maybe a little bit more momentum than you saw before, maybe better tone from tim cook. there's got to be something else, right? >> well, i mean, doing the checks on the quarter and the out quarters, and everything is bigger. and if there's four or five million extra iphone units like last quarter there were 6 or 7 million more than most people thought, and then you extrapolate that going forward, those come to be pretty big numbers. i mean, we're talking a guy who downgraded the stock, me. in february thinking iphones could grow only in the single digits. maybe low single digits. and now it's looking like midteens growth for maybe many quarters in a row. that's a huge change. that's enough to put a midteens multiple on this thing. and you've got to acknowledge that. but also, look. their strategy with ios and the way they're catering to developers has been on the margin better than expected. the way they're expanding in emerging markets over the last four months only is better than expected. and then the samsung. so it's a big deal.

it's not just a little change here. people's model's inflected. >> bep, i'm thinking back to the downgrade. i remember the thinking was at the time, even if iphone 6 new products come out no matter what, the company's too large now to move the needle. it's not like the company's gotten any smaller. >> no, it sure hasn't. i mean, people were floored. i mean, there was a reason the stock was up, i don't know, 50 bucks on that conference call. because nobody knew about it. we basically saw a lot more demand globally for the iphone in non-chinese markets, eastern europe. and it's bigger. and there's a window. but i'd also say that when you hear about the builds and you look and you do your survey work over the last four months, you know, frankly ever since we made that call, just everything has gotten a little bit better. and the market feels a little bigger. and the iwatch, to be honest, when we made that call, seemed like it would be, you know, just

a smaller product. but the rumblings and the way that product is getting going, you know, i don't know if i'd underestimate that. there could be years of internet of things, opportunities for apple. you know, that's how we see it right now. >> does it matter to you if this -- if either an iwatch or an iphone, a larger iphone, happens this fall, early next year? i mean, we're beginning to get conflicting reports about the timing. >> yeah. you know, we always had those really small in this calendar year. and actually, the 4.7-inch product builds are fantastic. and the indications for demand. and actually, for the stock, it might be better if more of the 5 1/2 and iwatch products push into march and june just to smat thi smooth things out. it's a little unhealthy to have this big december quarter and then have a drought in march. there's an opportunity here now for the company to have many quarters in a row and manage this cycle and also manage to maintain margins.

it might actually turn out to be okay. but we always had the 5 1/2 and the iwatch, having some yield issues and then really coming-of-age next calendar year. >> so ben, apple's huge. so if there's upside for them, there's got to be a lot of downside for some other people. besides samsung, who else are you more bearish on now that you see that apple has so much upside potential? >> well, you know, i don't want to get out of my coverage universe here, but in terms of what's going on is we never thought that, for example, you know, the amount of downside at samsung would be to this level, to this sustained. and it's just made the tam a long bigger for apple in particular. but i don't know if i'd say i'm more bearish. i mean, the funny part is, i'm making this call without being bullish on ipads. we've been recommending a lot of pc stocks. and i still see them doing okay because tablets are petering out. this is really a lot of iphone,

a lot of iwatch. and them moving into more recurring services model, all those better than expected for the next six to nine months and got to get on board. >> maybe apple is the new microsoft. it's just microsoft doing a lot better than you thought. >> i want to make this clear. obviously that was a little bit of -- it was funny, i was on this show and we all know what happened. the analogy also could be google of 2012 into 2013. you know, there was a time where everybody hated google. and they beat numbers and started to get their act together and reaccelerated. the thing re-rated, and it just was a skyrocket. this feels more like that. you know, if that's true, we're only midway through it. >> well, you're getting some props on twitter, ben, for the mea culpa, but we certainly appreciate you coming on. >> it's always good. it's a humbling business. tell cramer i'm going to get him in a headlock later if he doesn't go easy on me. all right, thanks. >> ben reitzes, thanks so much. when we come back, the

founder of paul mitchell hair products and patron spirits, john paul dejoria will join us on set. first, rick santelli, what's coming up? >> reporter: of course, janet yellen talking to both sides of the aisle this week, i think we they'd to discuss some of janet yellen's comments of late, maybe an upcoming article in a magazine that we have some excerpts from, and decide, should the central bank of the united states of america be more like a baseball umpire? should policy and social policy be in their vocabulary? when you go to your accountant on april 14th, do you want him to be talking about social issues or just kind of deadpan look at the numbers and tell me the facts? we're going to discuss this after the break. i make a lot of purchases for my business. and i get a lot in return with ink plus from chase. like 50,000 bonus points when i spent $5,000 in the first 3 months after i opened my account.

and i earn 5 times the rewards on internet, phone services and at office supply stores. with ink plus i can choose how to redeem my points. travel, gift cards, even cash back. and my rewards points won't expire. so you can make owning a business even more rewarding. ink from chase. so you can. veggies you're cool... reworking the menu. mayo, corn dogs...you are so out of here! ahh... the complete balanced nutrition of great tasting ensure. 24 vitamins and minerals. 9 grams of protein... with 30% less sugars than before.

ensure, your #1 dr. recommended brand now introduces ensure active. muscle health. clear protein drink and high protein. targeted nutrition to feed your active life. ensure. take life in. you can't always see them. but it's our job to find them. the answers. the solutions. the innovations. all waiting to help us build something better. something more amazing. a safer, cleaner, brighter future. at boeing, that's what building something better is all about. ♪

coming up at the top of the hour, is the fed behind the curve? we've got liesman and santelli on deck about the fed's impact on the markets. then five-star value fund manager bill nygren says you've got it all wrong. some of the traders aren't buying it, so will you? if you really believe it's what's on the inside that counts, then this new type of speed dating might be right for you. you have to see it to believe it. it's our worst trade of the day.

and carl, it's straight ahead. we'll see you in a bit. >> i can only imagine. thanks, scott. let's check in with rick santelli this morning. hey, rick. all right. no mike for rick. i'm sure we're going to try that again. in the meantime, markets cooled off just a bit. dow's down about 129. s&p, 1978. action in the early going, jon, was pretty good in large part because of financials and all the m&a deals that have happened. largely absent tech, i would argue today. >> yeah. >> a lot of old-school, you know, health care and so forth. waiting for tech to catch up to this game. >> yeah, i saw gopro was actually down quite a bit after that very strong first week. of course, i was out last week, so i might be a little late to the game there. but, you know, as i take a look at what's really moving this morning techwise, let me see. >> well, the nasdaq 100 did post a new 14-year high.

we might have santelli's audio back. rick, you there? >> reporter: i am here. good, good. because we have an important day today. we're going to discuss janet yellen's upcoming performances. but before we do that, everybody down here, the hot topic around the water cooler is everybody running to get a copy of "the new yorker" magazine where janet yellen gives us some glimpses and insights into what makes her tick. and i'd like to put on one line that i found interesting. i come from an intellectual tradition where public policy is important. it can make a positive contribution. it's our social obligation to do this. of course, that's from the online version of this article. listen, i understand how everybody has their opinion. but like umpires in baseball, if they believe that the pitchers aren't getting a good deal, it's not up to them to change the strike zone. it's up to the true engineers and the commissioner of baseball to get together to change the rules. i don't know when an entity that really isn't elected that's

supposed to be apolitical, boy, support that true anymore. they need to be like the accountant i visitor you visit when you have your taxes done. yes, he has his own opinions about various things. maybe he believes you should do different things with your money. but in the end, you want a money agnostic approach to your taxes. that's the way many of us want an approach to the head of the biggest central bank, especially when their balance sheet is so many multiples where it's ever been. does janet yellen's social commitment to running the federal reserve, i mean, what social commitment? make sure we have the lowest unemployment rate possible, and make sure that inflation and price pressures of disinflation and lack thereof are taken care of. beyond that, this whole garbage can called macro prudential is engineering. when it comes home to roost, personally kwlo lly i don't thi very good idea. and when she talks in this

article she's for easing money long after things get better. and i've said all along, you know what the biggest risk is? it isn't right now. i don't see the big corrections because there is no alternative. where's the correction going to come from? who has the money sense to begin that process, to pull out the stick under the pile to make it all fall down? no. i think that the true issue is is that easy money hasn't really done what it's supposed to for the following reasons. if you talk to any people that trade and really follow the markets, they think it's a combination of these things that are creating a headwind in the economy. the affordable care act. we talked about part-time and full-time today. tax policy, corporate and personal. dodd/frank overregulation and structural job issues. 58 million americans have the ability to work that aren't working. that isn't going to be carin care care of by easy money. what happens when the economy hits its stride, then all the

easy money's going to be a cumulative explosion that the fed will never be nimble enough to address. it's not working for a reason. and that should be important in the policy moving forward. carl, back to you. >> all right, rick santelli, busy day for you today. thanks a lot. our next guest knows hair products. he knows tequila. what about music streaming? the founder of patron spirits will be on set to discuss his next big bet in just a minute. so now we've turned her toffee into a business. my goal was to take an idea and make it happen. i'm janet long and i formed my toffee company through legalzoom. i never really thought i would make money doing what i love. we created legalzoom to help people start their business and launch their dreams. go to legalzoom.com today and make your business dream a reality. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side. at every ford dealership, you'll find the works! it's a complete checkup

of the services your vehicle needs. so prepare your car for any road trip by taking it to an expert ford technician. because no matter your destination good maintenance helps you save at the pump. get our multi-point inspection with a synthetic blend oil change, tire rotation, brake inspection and more for $29.95 or less. get a complete vehicle checkup only at your ford dealer. that's why i always choose the fastest intern.r slow. the fastest printer.

the fastest lunch. turkey club. the fastest pencil sharpener. the fastest elevator. the fastest speed dial. the fastest office plant. so why wouldn't i choose the fastest wifi? i would. switch to comcast business internet and get the fastest wifi included. comcast business. built for business.

it appears atlantic city, new jersey, is about to lose another casino. trump plaza says it's in the midst of a review of its operations. it says it does expect to terminate operations on or shortly after september 16th. and that warning notices have been sent to employees. meantime, it's hard to hit the jackpot once let alone twice. our next guest has built two world-famous brands. will he hit gold a third time, this time hoping to disrupt the streaming music park. john paul dejoria joins us this morning at post 9. it's great to have you back. >> good morning, guys. always cool to be here. >> you never sit still. you could do whatever you want, and now you want to disrupt this business. why? >> it's not disrupt it, it's add to it. when you take a look at rock mobile, okay, what rock mobile is, it's enhancing the industry, not upsetting it. my son told me to be sure to say dad, write this down because the best thing is you have access to unlimited downloads from one of the world's largest music

databases, but be sure to tell everybody for all of your devices. in other words, for $49.99 a month, you get all the downloading you want, and then onto all of your devices. in addition to that, you get all the telephone calls, all the texting you could do, unlimited data, all of it for $49. but the real great thing i think about it is there are no contracts. there's no additional cost in there. and if you're a music lover, you're going to really love this one. >> but isn't even music streaming becoming somewhat of a commodity? i mean, t-mobile had this announcement a couple weeks ago. >> sure. >> saying they're going to allow all these streaming services for free over their network. >> sure. >> so in that environment where t-mobile is pushing the other carriers to do exactly the same thing. >> sure. >> how do you win? >> well, very simple. we are one of the largest mobile, needless to say, music databases to all of your devices. not just to your telephone, to all of it. and on our app, let's say you'd

like a particular artist. you want to hear their mellow music. you can set it up for only their mellow music or hot music. let's say you want the genres but another artist to follow it. it's all there. you can be your own radio station. and i don't believe the others have that. another thing we're doing, too, is we're aligning immediately with a percentage to a lot of charities. where even before i start making money, it's our culture at paul mitchell where you give back. even before we start making money with many of these charities, i'm taking 4% of our gross if you can imagine that and giving it to charities for many, many months to come. so this whole thing's got a good vibe about it. and on this planet when you start a good business and you take care of everybody and have a giving heart, it really, really works. >> speaking of which, one of your partners has a history with beats, right? that goes back a ways. >> oh, yes, my god, noah lee was the one that invented the technology for beats for those incredible earphones. noah is now our partner. we're going to have rock monster headphones, but it's the new generation of headphones. the brand-new one.

unfortunately, he didn't get anything out of the $3.2 billion, but we're going to make sure this man is taken care of. he's a good and smart guy. >> aren't you leery of going up against apple's marketing power? >> no, are you kidding? i'm just a little guy. i'm just coming with love and spreading some more of it. i have no enemies out there. i want them all to do great. we just have something that's really cool and they're going to give us a piece of the market for that. and they love us for it. >> but it's the hardware and the streaming both. >> that is correct. and it goes on any phone, by the way. our streaming goes on any phone whatsoever. you can pick your phone company. we have 50% of the major phone companies already on board with us. you can pick which one you want. >> rock mobile. >> huey lewis sang about "the power of love." >> went live on the fourth of july. >> freedom from contracts. a music lover, you're going to love this. just go to rokmobile.com. >> you've done this before. come back and give us an update

later on? >> you better leave it. i sure will. who just gave rap genius a $40 million check? he's been in the headlines for other reasons this week. we'll talk about that. and marcus, as you may know, behind the distressed cupcake maker crumbs. the star of the profit will join "power lunch" today, 1:00 p.m. eastern time. nobody told us to expect it... intercourse that's painful due to menopausal changes. the problem isn't likely to go away... ...on its own. so it's time we do something about it. and there's help. premarin vaginal cream. a prescription that does what no over-the-counter product was designed to do. it provides estrogens to help rebuild vaginal tissue and make intercourse more comfortable. premarin vaginal cream treats vaginal changes due to menopause and moderate-to-severe painful intercourse caused by these changes. don't use premarin vaginal cream if you've had unusual bleeding, breast or uterine cancer,

blood clots, liver problems, stroke or heart attack, are allergic to any of its ingredients or think you're pregnant. side effects may include headache, pelvic pain, breast pain, vaginal bleeding and vaginitis. estrogen may increase your chances of getting cancer of the uterus, strokes, blood clots or dementia, so use it for the shortest time based on goals and risks. estrogen should not be used to prevent heart disease, heart attack, stroke or dementia. ask your doctor about premarin vaginal cream. and go to premarinvaginalcream.com this is worth talking about. thank ythank you for defendiyour sacrifice. and thank you for your bravery. thank you colonel.

thank you daddy. military families are uniquely thankful for many things, the legacy of usaa auto insurance can be one of them. if you're a current or former military member or their family, get an auto insurance quote and see why 92% of our members plan to stay for life. in a we believe outshining the competition tomorrow requires challenging your business inside and out today. at cognizant, we help forward-looking companies run better and run different - to give your customers every reason to keep looking for you. so if you're ready to see opportunities and see them through, we say: let's get to work. because the future belongs to those who challenge the present.

take a look at the marks. dow is up 135. pretty nice day with minimal volatility. in fact, the range for the past hour has been practically nothing. s&p 1979. gold as well off 30 bucks. that's going to get some people's attention as apparently some risk goes back on rather than off despite the geopolitical picture all around the world. meantime, rap genius getting another round of funding, this time from lebron james's new boss. cavs' owner dan gilbert. the $40 million series "b" brings the company's earnings over $55 million. other backers include andreseen more rewits. >> it's also the community. you know, now we finally have the ground swell of community, power and energy that's going to be able to you drive this and be the biggest site in the world. >> controversial personas, jon,

but succeeding in spite of all of that. >> yeah. lots of success to spread around these days. i'm watching tech earnings this week. as we head into that season. of course, intel preannounced positively. just a quarter ago, a lot of people were queasy going into tech earnings season. how's it going to go? but now there seems to be bullishness across the board whether it's momentum stocks or the bigger established names like your microsofts and intels. lots of 52-week highs. it will be interesting based on those high expectations, see where things land. >> yeah. yahoo! ibm, sandisk. google has been riding a ten-year high. not just old tech. >> not only the business refresh but any potential strength showing up in consumer will be important. remember, they're starting to forecast toward the back end of the year where that tends to show up or not. >> finally, i was impressed and i think viewers were, too, with ben reitzes at barclays having

to make a u-turn to apple saying i messed up. it happens in my business from time to time. >> yeah. in every business, right? class act to show up and talk through his reasoning for changing his point of view. >> yeah. a lot of micro points to consider over the next few days. of course, yellen on the hill both tomorrow and wednesday. tawil be a big macro picture in addition to reading that "new yorker" article, too. with all that, let's hand it over to "the half." wapner back at hq. hey, scott. >> welcome to the "halftime" show. here's our game plan. rumble in the jungle. why one of the most respected value investors says amazon is actual ll lly cheap, yet our tr say that's crazy. a win for shareholders. back on board with apple, barclays giving the stock a big boost today. also saying tim cook has his mojo back. do the traders agree, though? today's starting lineup, josh, murph and steph are on the desk today. and we do begin with what could be the most important question for thrk