>> good morning simon. 8:00 a.m. in cupertino. 11:00 a.m. here on wall street. and "squawk alley" is live. ♪ and welcome to "squawk alley" on this thursday morning. joining us for the hour this morning, henry blodget, founder editor and ceo at business insider. good to see you this morning. thanks for being here. we start with the big story of the morning. apple ceo tim cook writing he is proud to be gay. he came out publicly in a bloomberg business week op ed

writing he wants to be supportive of those who acknowledge their sexual orientation. i'm proud to be gay and i consider being gay among the greatest gifts god has given me. one of the first crows of a major company to come out. john browne responded what a terrific moment. he'll change the corporate world. joining us kara swisher, co-executive editor of re/code. thanks for joining us. we saw the tweet calling this a significant moment. how much more significant is it given the influence and scale of apple as a company? >> well it's huge. obviously apple has always been at the forefront of gay rights since the '80s really. but saying it out loud is a big

deal. a lot of people knew or thought he was. but him saying it himself in such an eloquent way makes a big difference. a lot has changed in corporations and this says a lot about apple. but it is not just a gay right. as the human right. and tolerance in the workplace and where everybody is tolerated. >> my take kara is there are certain kinds of issues being talked act in silicon valley in ways they weren't before. whether issues around women in the workplace, new mothers in the workplace, diversity in general. what is your take on how that has moved over the past few years? why that is moved? and where it goes from here? >> caller: it's just people are talking about it. i think -- you have a very non diverse workforce, for example that is a really good example. but in talking about it in saying things out loud it makes

a big difference. and corporations, ibm has been at the forefront of gay rights too. when they started doing things like that the in the workplace things changed. and obviously things have changed for gays in the last couple of years. you can still be fired in 29 states for being gay. thank you about that. that's crazy but when tim cook is coming out and saying this it gets the conversation started again and puts a light on inequities that still exist. >> incredible that in 29 states you can still be fired for being gay. important apple for so long has been walking the walk in including tolerant workplaces. but to have a company like that now talking the talk, what do you think that does for its overall profile in corporate america. >> you can't say enough about tim cook. he came in took the hardest act to follow in history. one of the things steve jobs said to him was look.

don't try to be me. do it in your own way. by any account he's done an exceptional job and it's a very big move. in terms of what it does to apple there will probably be some discussion about it. but i think this just helps move the issue along into a place where it ultimately just disappears as an issue. and that is great. >> i wonder what happens to the overall conversation about the business case for diversity. it is something that my sense is, silicon valley and tech ceos still aren't that comfortable talki ing about. we had satya nadella and women's raises and kindle of fumbling a little bit. so i'm curious about what this means, a, for concrete changes that companies should or shouldn't make based on the fact that the workforce is different than it mighten have been 20 or

30 years ago and what kind of leadership is necessary to take us there. >> caller: he quoted robert kennedy in his speech. and he always 1/5 of people are always against something. and the fact that we're having these conversations i think brings light to it. everybody is in the workplace. everybody gets impacted by the workplace. and again that we're talking about it makes a huge difference. because it comes out. you come out and you face what is goings on. and people can discuss it and say very controversial things and we can discuss that. and that is what's important. and i think that does change people's minds and it normalizes it for everybody. and i athink that's what's happened here. oh yeah he's gay. i got a lot of that on twitter. "oh yeah he's gay, so what." it's a big deal. and also at the same time so

what. which is great. >> well, there are all sorts of defining characteristics as him as a person and apple as a company. i watched this morning talkings about his discussions with tim cook and how this essay came to be. he said tim cook actually had written it some time ago and just in recent weeks called josh up and doesed what the best platform for publishing this would be. and kara i'm wondering or henry, if you have a take on this, talk about this moment in time for apple and tim cook and why he felt that now was the right time for him and for the company to put this out there. >> i'd love to hear what kara has to say an that. >> caller: when you come out, and i believe i'm the only one who has here. i think you have enough of it. there is naefr good time to do this. you are constantly. even though people knew around tim, which they did.

i think you get tired of it. like why not? what am i doing? and there doesn't have to be some dramatic moment with your parentsem a thole i certainly had one of those. there has to be a moment that enough this is ridiculous what i'm doing and realize we can do more good than the price he's paying. and he is going to pay a price. it is not going to be as high as others in terrible situations coming out. being thrown out by parents and all kinds of things. but he can make a difference in those people's lives and i think he just said enough. i think that's what happened to me. i was tired of hiding and he's probably tired of hiding. >> kara, john brought this up. but what's your feeling with regard to the gender issue in the valley? this has been very much in the forefront recently. the huge misogyny issues the bro culture. is silicon valley starting to wake up to that? >> caller: they are saying they are. you see gamer gate come out and

you get disheartened. especially when you can't get them to understand what the problem is. they will defend -- it's just -- no it hasn't changed. and i think one of the things that has to happen -- it's not just gender, it's racial issues too. and i think there has to be more and more people. these companies and many of them do this, have to really start making this a priority. so that is the way tim cook has done this with coming out today. he's t got to talk about it almost consistently and actually see real changes. not just talk about them. but see real changes in getting people into the workplace. i was at an event last night with diversity of students and really around racial things and a lot of what was said is really quite tough and it's good. >> we appreciate you coming to the phone to discuss this. >> caller: no problem. >> kara swish of re/code.

for the record tons of apple employees voice support. certainly at some point this will become just another fact of life but of course today it is a big corporate story. >> and a may maizing three years ago don't ask don't tell took over. >> microsoft the latest to jump into wearable technology. the microsoft band goes on sale today. for $200 or just less. a strong emphasis on fitness and designed to wear all day to track heart rate, sleep, exercise patterns, of course. this wearable space is becoming crowded but it should be noted they want to get in before the holidays and before apple. >> i'm excited about this thing. i mean, 48 hours of battery life. all day heart rate tracking. i don't know that i necessarily

need a watch. i don't know they need this thing but for 199, i'm willing to check it out. it works with windows, android and ios. which is a big move for microsoft. >> so far there's been way more hype around wearables than reality. this is one of the applications that has done the best. people find these very useful. there are many out there. apple is going to be in the market. so microsoft wants to jump in. hopefully it is a good product. haven't tried it yet. looks kind of a clunky. like a parole detention bracelet. >> what wearable doesn't look clunky at this point. >> this is true. >> $199 is the price target. 38 hou 48 hours of battery life. but fit bit also roled out. 250 is the price point.

battery life is about five days or that's what's reported. do you think that is the most important. >> battery life is one. flexibility with platforms is another. microsoft is launching this on the app store suggests to me they will be a little friendlier with apple's health application. if you are an ios user you want something that does that. it'ses not clear players like fit bit and jawbone are going embrace that the same way. microsoft used to be all about microsoft and now they are branching out. >> very smart and definitely illustrates that new strategy. >> there have been many different studies that have been canvassing american consumers and consumers worldwide about how many people wear a watch and of those people how many would wear a smart watch. the rough numbers are around half of the population wear watches and of those between half to a third would wear a smart watch. the holidays are obviously the most popular time to give a gift like this.

especially at this price point. if microsoft can't succeed over the holidays, jon, how much time do you think they have to roll this out and really get traction with consumers? when it's already maybe a smaller market than these companies would like to believe. >> i think they got a lot. the fact they got out before the apple watch the a fact that people are still paying attention o watches and wearables next year. they have to be quick. and this has to work. it didn't afford i don't think to have major glitches but this is still early days. >> another rough quarter for samsung. third quarter fell 49% to lowest level in nearly three years as the hand set business continues to slow down. the galaxy s 5 did not sell well. many waiting to by the iphone 6. it was telegraphed well and often by samsung. that led to weakness in shares.

so it was just the inevitable. but nonetheless it's no easier to hear. >> sos sominge i samsung's full. innovated with a much bigger phone. they came out with it. people loved it. sales just exploded as a result. but now apple is in the market and they have huge competition and now they are getting squeezed not only at the top by apple but with all folks coming up underneath with cheaper phones. >> they don't have a mote. and they saw this coming. they have a been trying to build ecosystems in apps, in media. it hasn't caught on yet and the fact that people were pushing apple to build cheaper phones and pushing into emerging markets. now you are seeing that strategy play out. the lower end phones don't care about making a the profit on the hardware. they want you do get the hardware and make money that way. they are creaming samsung at at that time low end.

meanwhile the 6 and 6 plus pressuring margins at the high end. this could be another blackberry spiral if samsung can't get out of box. >> that's quite characterization of what's going on. people are saying it is not only margins that are troublesome which have been deteriorating for some time and samsing said we need to spend more on marketing and promote more especially ahead of the holidays now they are saying samsung is losing market share. fall on the about a quarter of all global smart phones from a third a year ago. so there are real effects from this. >> this is the day le nova takes over as well. the names at the low end in china aren't necessarily using google everyone ises because they are in china. and at the high end, apple folks do use google services but not

as extensively as on android. >> are you surprised at how competitive fight for market share has become among all of these providers? >> no. all hardware markets over time have done this. and it's incredible what they are doing. the products out of china are great. one question, and everybody will laugh given where apple is today, is whether samsung was first and apple is next or whether apple can maintain the unbelievable profits and price points relative to the entire industry. and it comes down to the eco system. is it powerful enough people will shell out that much nor a phone. >> and shoummy is the next big company coming out of asia. >> boy are they right. >> a think a lot of people that compete against them are very scared. certainly a lot of moving parts there. samsung feeling the hurt today. we also want to get a check on the markets which are mixed at

this hour. the dow sees outsized gains largely because of the visa. remember that is a price-rated index and visa responsible for most of the games gains on the dow. solar shares are fully rally mode. after hours yesterday one of the reasons why the stock was on fire. visa adding 125 points to the dow right now. shares of dream works slipping. even though earnings topped estimates. it is unclear why the stock is down. maybe because ceo threw cold water on the takeover speculation. especially rumors about of bank coming in. >> two key executives flying the

coop at twitter. why this could be bad news. and shares of f5 networks rallying this morning after revenue topped analyst estimates and the guidance came in line. the ceo joins us in a cnbc exclusive in a moment. and is the fight over apple pay a heating up? or is it already over? more later on. how do you beat the number one seed? you just have to win 70% of your points at net. and keep unforced errors under 10%. on the ibm cloud, the us open analyzes 41 million data points from 8 years of competition to uncover key insights.

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shares of sturm ruger. gun demands slow. down about 10%. dragging it down is smith and wessen. they are down about 6%. and on the --. 2013 marked the peak for domestic guns and ammo and accessory sales. >> f5 reporting 18% rise in revenue year over year for strong demand of security products. the stock is up about 4%. what is next for the company? john mcadam joins us now along with the announcement that he is going to be retiring in 2015. john, first of all, congratulations on the retirement announcement and the

great quarter. you seem to imply on the call last night that your successor will probably come from within. because you have got a strong bench. what are the characteristics based on your conversations thus far with the board that you believe that next leader needs to have? >> well i think the leader needs to be innovative. you need to understand technology trends. we have a pretty open culture. we're very focused in customer satisfaction. you know we don't have a big hierarchy as a company. so i think somebody who fits that culture -- there is a lot of trend happening in technology right now. can navigate that. and build a good team and keep a team. all the obvious stuff you would expect. high integrity is key as well. >> of course. that is always key, indeed. a lot of people might not know fa not only does security but

application delivery. and where there is so much money from silicon valley going into start-ups and app companies some of that has to be behind the demand of your product. if there is a slow down in 2015 and all this money flowing in and that hits cloud providers who are some of your biggest customers, what is the impact of that going to be? >> well, you know, i don't see the explosion of apps that's happening right now slowing down any time soon. and the thing about the applications now, they can be on mobile device, in the cloud in on-premise data centers. they need secured and delivered and need to be highly available. and that is what we do. so i don't want to dismiss slow downs and macro stuff but in terms of trends like complex security attacks, lte and mobile data, we feel pretty good about the way things are moving in terms of fitting our roadmap and

product portfolio. >> out of the realm of how that slow down effects f5 you do count as customers, a whose who of the biggest companies in technology. i'm wondering what observations you are making about the patterns of spending, whether it actually is in fact slowing down or maybe whether there are some other trends afoot that we should be paying attention to. >> i think it depend. security in particular is one area where we are seeing the budgets being increased. for obvious reasons. all the attacks going on are very complex. so security is one big area. the other big area is mobile traffic. and i don't just mean mobile traffic from smart phones. i'm including that. that is one of the big drivers but vehicle traffic, signals coming from vehicles going across the internet. machine to machine. they are the two big areas that we see where there is more and more spending going on. and i don't see that slowing

down to any tremendous amount over the next year. >> john, service provider is an area you called lumpy on the call. how concerned should we be about that? traditional networking players, when they have had service provider troubles it has caused some growth issues for the likes of cisco, juniper. is that going to iron out in 2015? or is that potentially a problem. >> yeah we do about -- we did 19% of our business in the service provider vertical last quarter. we typically do about 20 to 25. we've been as low as 17 and as high as 27%. every single quarter you ask me about servers and i'll tell you it is lumpy. and the reason is simple. the actual orders we take from that specific vertical tend to be much bigger. a million dollars, five million dollars that. type of size. and you have to look at the projects in the pipeline and

give guidance on the closer you expect to project. so it's always going to be lumpy and that is a part of our business that we live with quite well. >> all right. and the stock has done quite well today. and under your tenure. congratulationes on the retirement. john mcadam from f5. >> up next two twitter executives are leaving the company. that's brought doubts s s a abo the company's vision going forward. we'll break it down when we come back .

? in case you missed it. two twitter execs are leaving the company. jeremy gordon and adam kinny announced their departures. according to sources close to twitter some are concerned the company's product vision isn't clear enough and slowing the process of getting new products

shift shipped. and these departures aren't helping. certainly when they were trying to convince wall street and everybody else they have an they are all excited about and they know what it takes to grow users. >> if there is a vision it is not clear. nobody is articulating what where it goes. i think the problem is people are overestimating what an application like this what the market is for it. we have news addicts and following celebrities. if they are going to break into facebook territory where it is suddenly the family sharing app we haven't seen it yet. >> people are now starting to say maybe these companies are one trick ponies and that is what they should and how they should be valued. but if that's true there should be much more refined vision. >> they are trying to push mo pub now. clearly they aware they need to

build experiences on top of the scaffolding of the real time communication. ephemerality is a feature of the product but you don't want it to be a feature of the workforce. they have that interiorly as well. >> when you spoke to sources and broke the story yesterday, what was the sense of morale at twitter? is it viewed some departures would be necessary? or is it viewed that the people leave t less commitment there is to that vision. >> my sense is that these people chose to leave. and the morale picture is mixed. it is not a story of everybody at twitter is upset. i think there is a continuing power struggle, particularly within engineering. there is not the sense that everybody knows whose in charge and who to march behind, which of course you have with a facebook where the founder the main founder is still in charge and leading and there are no

issues whatsoever about whether he's going continue. >> and let's keep in perspective buying twitter still has a remarkable valuation, it is trading 0 time ining 20 times t revenue. >> 16% you have a market cap this week all things considered. >> lots of people would like to have the problems twitter has. >> thank you. well if you are watching it is almost 11:30 a.m. normally we have the markets closing in europe. all this week cnbc's european close report will be at 12:30 p.m. eastern. you can see the close in an hour from now. it will be back in "squawk alley" at 11:30 next week. but a little spoiler. markets are down led by the banks though u.s. markets have been bucking that trend. this week is two crowd funding projects. cyberghost building a the virtual private network and data

center that keeps a users identity completely anonymous. battling against secure selfies. a app that locks and unlocks cell phones using facial recognition technology. and tomorrow we'll review the winner. >> i i always like to see what the win is. and up next, the war against retailer between apple and best buy and walmart. are the largest targets in the world, for every hacker, crook and nuisance in the world. but systems policed by hp's cyber security team are constantly monitored for threats. outside and in. that's why hp reports and helps neutralize more intrusions than anyone...

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after several days of what seemed like a war against apple pay, it turns out the retail backed group mcx the group everyone was out to destroy the payment system is -- is the face-off officially over. joining us is karen webster. good to see you. >> thank you for having me. it is a pleasure to be here. fun times in payments. >> very fun times. the debate seems to change an a daily basis. what do you make of the standoff between the retailers and developers like apple trying to bring new emerging payments technology and in some respects are being thwarted by retailers who are say we're not going to be part of this. >> well i think it is a tough position for the retailers,

frankly who are being put in the middle. and this is really something that consumers should have the ability to decide, whether they want to take apple pay and use it or whether they want to take something else and use that. but to put the retailers in a position where they are really bound contractually not to offer something that consumers obviously want to try i think is an unfortunate consequence for the retailer. >> and as the sticky situation too. one has to believe that the contract signed with the current c that basically were non competed were signed years ago before mention of apple pay. so how could they have predicted something like this would come along and what sort of lesson for the business going forward. >> three years ago there was that apple pay. and no idea how much of a presence mobile would be in

store. that is what we're talking about with the rite aid and cvs issues. it is really using the phone as a replacement for a card in store and that is a really hard point of sale integration to do. and things at the point of sale tend to move slowly in payments. i think the lesson here is several fold. first it can't take three years for a product to get to market in an environment that is so dynamic. i think one of the issues that current c has now is not only are they saying to the retailers you can't enable apple pay but we don't really have anything for you to offer as an alternative with the mobile phone. >> that's thing. can you explain what happened here? because i don't understand how a cvs, how a rite aid launch with apple pay and then a couple days later say oops yeah we didn't mean to do that but we're not telling you why.

and then the current c people are saying well we're not saying you can't do apple pay but they are still not doing it. do you know what is actually going on here? >> i think i do. i don't know that rite aid and cvs really said consciously that they were going to do apple pay. but the magic of apple pay was that it leveraged the existing nfc speck that visa and mastercard have in the market. so rite aid and cvs really didn't have to do anything to enable apple pay. they didn't have to say specifically i'm going to do or not do it. the apple pay app just works everybody where there is an nfc terminal and that particular application using that spec can actually function. so i think that is what happened. i think that apple pay went live, their nfc terminals accept that spec.

and consumers were using apple pays in stores and that is how this issue i believe surfaced. >> and remarkably we've been reporting on this very closely. this morning mcx is saying no kpz exclusive. you can't use anything else. so they are doubling back on comments of yesterday. so they really seem confused. but am i right saying this is actually not a war between retailers and apple. it is actually the retailers trying to get some way around the huge credit card fees that they have to pay. and apple pay used the credit card, so you would have to pay the fee. mcx is designed to go directly to your bank account so you don't have to pay 2 to 3% to visa. >> and that was the original idea was to offer a cheaper alternative for the merchants to enable payments in their stores. to create new rail a replacement set of rails for visa, mastercard, discover and american express.

and the thing that i think is so funny, ironic, is okay. so you can't use apple pay. i understand that's a real violation of their contract. because as the mobile payment scheme. yet they can -- their consumers can still use the credit cards that are in those wallets. so it is an od -- it is a really odd situation to take at this point. and i think part of the dilemma that these guys are -- these guys meaning currentc, are trying to sort out is okay, if i say okay to apple pay i have to say okay to every other mobile payment as well. so i think it's mess. >> you probably said it best when you said you can't afford to take three years to bring a product to market when the space is innovating so quickly. we'll have to have you back some time soon. and we appreciate your time.

>> thank you. >> karen webster of market platform dynamics from boston. >> we're going to be talking about this for a while. hp announced a if major move into the world of 3-d printing yesterday but what did it actually look like? we'll show you in a moment. first rick santelli, what are you watching today? >> down here every time you get a new gdp number it is a big event like a jobs report. of course today we're going to talk about today's 3 1/2 percent gdp jump. better than expected. how good really? and what does it say about the next q 4 look for gdp? after the break. (receptionist) gunderman group. gunderman group is growing. getting in a groove. growth is gratifying. goal is to grow. gotta get greater growth.

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coming up. the easy money aftermath. what to do now the fed is ending qe. and starbuck's and more t trades you need to make before the numbers hit. and the halloween eve, blood bath stocks. the worst performers this month and how to play them down. jon we'll see you in about 15 minutes. >> absolutely. i'll approximabe there. throwback thursday. hp unveiling the new multijet fusion. it can print products 10 times faster than current conventional approaches and the move comes 30

years after 3-d system's co-founder charles hull created the first 3-d print ner 1984. look at that. >> look at that tiny screen next to the apparatus. wow. >> and the printer is small. i was expecting a full room. that's what usually all hardware stuff is massive. >> like that air brush kit i had in 6th grade. >> and after that another prototype of the 3-d print tore make its way into scientists hands. but yeah in 30 years. that is an industry that's come a long way. very interesting stuff. all right let's get to the cme group and rick santelli. >> thank you kayla. gdp made me think of that old wimpy line, gladly pay you tuesday for a hamburger today. and believe me. we could debate forever as to

whether fed policy, political issues, have added horsepower to the economy or is the economy just had to overcome all of that. so is it despite of or because of -- off to the side. we have seen improvement. a lot of time has past since the recession and if we look at the recession, it was what, '07 to '09. here we are at 3 1/2 gdp. exactly 2% average if you look at the first three quarters of the year. that number many will extend it back to get it up. i'm just looking at the last three kwurs quarters. one thing for sure is that we did borrow a bit. so if you look j.p. morgan or any of the research floating on the floors, you will arrive at the conclusion that the better than expected q three first look was because of several factors.

government spending, specifically defense, inventory issues. trade issue, ramp up in exports and when i look at europe and the rest of the gloib i think the export may be temporary. defense spending is choppy. a lot of these are causing the likes of j.p. morgan to lower fourth quarter estimates from 3 1/2 to 3%. but a bigger issue looms. if i look at the last several recession, 90 to 91, 01. what i arrive at -- and i pick the one in 1981 -- we have come out of the chute so much more aggressive than in past recessions. and more test tubing we seem to do the more creative central banks getting. starting in many ways with a mr. green span trying to smooth out the recession bumps. we come out of the chute slower and slower. but look how envious we ought to

be. the 81, 82 recession. look what happens right after it ended. q one look at eight quarters. 5.3, 5.4, 9.1, 8.2. you get the picture. and every recession has come out much stronger but a little less aggressive. it is starting to catch up. at the end of the day it is good news but exactly how good? we might have to way three months one quarter from today. >> thanks rick. we want to get a check on the markets because we are at session highs at least on dow. currently up 142. visa are responsible for at least 130 of that have. announcing a the five billion dollar stock buyback. and because the dow is a price weighted index that is why you

can see that. is temperature roughly unchanged. >> outleadership founders todd sears joings us after the break. twhat do i do?. you need to catch the 4:10 huh? the equipment tracking system will get you to the loading dock. ♪ there should be a truck leaving now. i got it. now jump off the bridge. what? in 3...2...1... are you kidding me? go. right on time. right now, over 20,000 trains are running reliably. we call that predictable. thrillingly predictable. ok, if you're up there, i coulsmart sarah.elp. seeking guidance. just like with your investments. that sets you apart. it does? it does. you're type e*. and seeking another perspective is what type e*s do.

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of a loading website. don't listen to the naysayer. switch to comcast business today and get 50 megabits per second for $89.95. comcast business. built for business. welcome back. back to the op ed that has the corporate world talking, apple ceo tim cook writing in business week he is a proud gay man.

joining us is the todd sears. thanks for joining us. i want to get to impact here. it is interesting, three years ago -- three years and a month we were still dealing with don't ask don't tell. with some other diversity issue, government has led. but in this case all of a sudden it seems like the corporate world is pushing perhaps even ahead of government. what has triggered this? and where does it go from here. >> i would push back on your premise that government has led. i think corporations have led and the government is following. >> with ethnic diversity in the past. >> absolutely. but lgbt. a amicus brief. 17 wall street banks signed that. it's never happened before. the reason they did it is because lgbt diversity matters to the bottom line, inclusion matters and that's why they are

pushing. >> you want to be able to hire the best people despite other facts you may disagree with. obviously there is a business case for that. for getting the smartest the best and brightest. do you see different approaches from different industries. out leadership represents corporate america broadly. >> globally yeah. >> and i bet you have seen very interesting participation. >> we have. when you look at euro summour summits. new york, hong kong. and our board includes john brown who you heard from earlier. and they are all saying this matters globally. and i think when you look at the impact of tim coming out as the ceo of arguably the world's most valuable company globally. you can't underestimate that impact. 78 countries around the world it is still illegal to be gay and in a third of those countries punishable by death. singapore reiterated they were not going to take away their

antigay law. so now tim cook is openfully visibly out. what are they going to say when he comes? >> what are they going to say? and what happens in those markets. >> i think they are forced to say something at this point. that is the impact. we've had openly gay ceos. i think it's important. we wanted to come out to the business community is send that message that this sul actually is a business issue. >> what happens when they want to sell iphobes in iran? >> they do sell iphones in iran. it is hard to be a homophobe holding an iphone. >> talk about the breakdown of different sectors. i'm wondering if there are other sectors that you think have a long way to go. >> every sector takes marching orders from the client base and

employees. and oil and gas in particular, exxon mobile has been historically terrible. when they merged they took away domestic partner benefits and now with the executive order that obama put through this summer requiring all federal contractors to comply, now they are trying to change their tune and say oh we were really great all along. so i think there are industries that have a long way to go. but increasingly you are on the wrong side of history. chica chick-fil-a. last summer. and i think the tide has very much changed here. >> interesting to see where things go next. clearly has shifted mind sets quickly and corporate america leading the charge, todd. thanks for joining us here. we want to get a check back on the markets with the dow still up triple digits.

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much due to visa. dow up 146. s&p turned positive earlier in the session. nasdaq for its part still negative. jon there are a lot of movers in the tech space bringing the nasdaq down. we haven't seen great earnings from tech even though industrial, oil and gas, utilities space have been performing very well. >> it's been mixed kayla. facebook did have great earnings. f5 also had great earnings. but trulia and zillow down today. gopro ahead of earnings down this afternoon. >> zillow is acquiring it and acquiring it mostly with stock. so that's going to have fallout effects. henry what are you watching today. >> just the market as a whole. we had a very, sort of, woozy plunge a couple of weeks ago. we've come back. here we are moving up again.

things have gotten calmer. >> shaken up? >> yes i was shaken by it. everything is a lot easier when the markets doing well though. >> we appreciate you spending an hour with us today. >> great to be here. >> that's a all for "squawk alley." nearing noontime and with that we send it to the halftime report. welcome to the halftime show. meet our starting lineup for today. josh brown, stephanie link, jon najarian is the co-founder of option monster and --. we begin with the end of qe and what it means to your money. stocks had an incredible run. today