this morning. tuesday, january 6th 2015 and "squawk box" begins right now. good morning, everyone. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. it is a very special day, january 6th is the epiphany. it's also joe's birthday. let's get it out of the way early. >> there it is. that's attractive. i don't like that. >> the beautiful birthday cap on. >> you look great. >> oh thank you. thank you. you know, i've been working out. wow. >> keep going. >> you look great for 80. >> thank you. thank you.

it's not -- it's a state of mind. >> it is. >> that's what we keep saying. over and over again. and there's a lot of new -- this is the new -- blah blah blah. i think 15 years is fair. don't you think 15 is fair? >> is fair for what? >> what i am is the new 15 years less. >> do you want to do how old are you now? i can sing it. >> no. >> you know what they say. they say that the beginning of the hours are the most important to hold, to pull in the viewers with the current news. >> nerds, move on. >> exactly. thank you. some of the stories we're watching this morning, the global markets. oil prices extending yesterday's 5% route. the reasons are piling up including dollar strength. jitters about greece flight to safety, but especially what's been happening in the energy sector. check this out. pushing stocks lowers across the

board yet yesterday. the s&p now on its first four-day losing streak in more than a year. wti, below $49. >> unbelievable. >> that is conditioning today. you have to wonder whether that is going to do to stock prices. dow futures are slightly higher up by about 8 points. the s&p and nasdaq futures are slightly lower. if you are looking for proof of flight to safety, check out the treasury. yesterday sitting at 2%. today, that's the big question. mark rand was on yesterday. wool see what happens. already quite a bit of chaos in all these markets. check out what's been happening with currencies. dollar has continued to strengthen. it is up to 119. dollar is down against the yen. dollar index yesterday rallied for the fourth straight session. it ended the day at a nine-year

high. take a look at gold prices as well. gold prices at this point up by $6.70. $1,210.70 an ounce. in europe we have continued to watch some of the pressure there. european markets are slightly weaker. the dax is slightly higher. in asia overnight, there was a sell-off there as well. i think it was the worst day we've seen in about seven weeks for some of those asian markets. nikkei down by about 3%. the hang seng down by 1 is%. the shanghai was flight. let's bring you up to speed on a couple of the day's top corporate stories. aol shares are now soaring on a report that verizon approached the company about a potential purchase of joint venture with multiple offerings. neither company commenting on that story. yahoo! was lobbied to think about a potential deal with aol. one of the potential stories

overnight is a headline. my sources, by the way, they're not waving me completely off the story, but more towards the joint venture/do something with the video, if you will and some of the projects that necessarily buy the company. so i don't think we should necessarily take too much away from that headline just yet. in regard to that we have a couple other headlines. money transfer company zoom sans nearly $31 million was fraudulently transferred to overseas accounts. the company announces its cfo is resigning after just a month on the job. are those things connected? and then coach is set to reportedly buy stuart weitzman. and johnson & johnson starting experimental trials of its ebola vaccine.

>> for whatever reason, what i thought was a company that was just gone at 12 is now 50 something. good for tim armstrong. whatever happens, it's now in a 3.5 billion company. i think it was -- you know when the time warner thing happened it was -- >> and verizon is as well. >> from 12 to 50, i didn't think that was possible. >> it's ended huge dividends. >> and there's nothing left. when we thought about it it was like, remember dialing up and -- trying to get on the -- that seems like -- >> yeah. it was making the transition. >> to a media company to a content company is pretty amazing. >> >>. >> what if my new age is -- i use the age of my hair. >> what? >> i use the age my hair is instead of my age. european fears are front and center once again.

new data is out again adding to those worries. michelle caruso cabrera joins us to explain. when people ask about it there's like -- you need to be an expert on 28 companies, don't you? how do we interpret what's -- >> what was it cypress or some other -- >> tiny little country destabilize the entire -- for two weeks, yeah. >> it's hard right? >> t. >> we've got states bigger than some of those countries. >> and you worried about mish moshing them altogether. >> don't you wonder? >> for sure. fears about the euro are absolutely back. the new data out today is the pni numbers. the new numbers suggest europe

barely resisted growth. data continues to be bad. add to that what to me is remarkable. consensus is that mario draghi is finally going to do quantitative easing in two weeks. there is now no doubt in the markets about that. this they don't do it it's a huge risk right? if anyone believes they're doing it, why isn't that market rallying? >> if you look at the yields the yields are down facially. that part already played out. >> for sure. but there's concerns that eitherite not going to be enough quantitatively and qualitatively is it enough because there are so many things that haven't been done when it comes to reforms. i would add oil is not as helpful to the europeans as it is to the united states for the simple reason they don't drive like we do right? two, all of those governments

loads up loads and lots of taxes on the price of gasoline. you don't necessarily see it transfer to the consumer the way we do here in the united states. also the fear that if one country leaves the whole of the euro will fall away that's not gone away. hollande the president of france yesterday saying it's up to the greeks to decide whether or not they're going to stay in the euro. that's very different than a couple of years ago when they said through is irreversible. >> is this tough talk? you mentioned yesterday the germans were trying to say, look be careful what you cowith these elections? >> right. he's planned to do a showdown with europe about the massive debt that they still have.

germany over the weekend, through weeks and now hollande yesterday suggesting you want to have a showdown? let's have a showdown. you're not going to blackmail us into giving you even more bailout money when you haven't done a lot of reforms, when you still have a government that can't rely on the tax revenue that it got at this point. >> the big dates, the 22nd is the next ecb meeting, the 25th is this election you're looking at a hectic week. >> and in theory one have been very positive and one can be very negative. >> it sounds like there's only the potential for downside left. >> so draghi has in the past shown remarkable ability to surprise the markets or use suasion to bring more to the table than what people were expecting. what tricks does he have in his

hat? >> but i don't understand, that's what the bond buying does, it lowers rates, right? >> right. >> maybe they need to buy s&p futures. >> that could be. >> they can't do this they can't do that. >> there's talk that they buy aaa bonds only. >> how much more can you get out of lower rates? >> the way economists think about it can you get interest rates below the expected rate of inflation? this is really key. fiveng inflation is going down 1% zero% on a bond looks good. right? you're still getting better yields than what your money would have done -- >> they would buy over here wouldn't they? >> they are. >> exactly. >> and that helps. >> exactly with the currency translation rate. >> that inversely helps the dollar. >> our stocks as well. >> and if it slows here the

dollar gets even more -- i don't know. they really need to devalue the euro. >> i'm glad you brought that up. at some point when you talk about greece potentially leaving the euro, at some point the market psychology goes down right? remember, this drags the euro lower. and sometimes the market psychology may shift and say wait, it will get stronger. people have done breakdowns where they say what if every single one of these countries have their own currency 12347 the last analysis i saw, germany would have something more a hundred percent value of the euro. >> will you stay? >> sure. >> you've got nothing else? >> i was going to go to the gym, but -- >> you were? >> yes. >> elga barsch is with us.

i'm just start with you, mark. you were a poor guy for the euro, weren't you? we agreed on that. >> i think so. one of the things we agreed on joe, is the dollar is going to get stronger this year and we're beginning to see a small sense of it today. >> this is our trade -- is it possible to do something like that to get short at 135 and just stay short and make all this money and when it seems to obvious, mark? there has to be -- you know it can't go straight down the euro, can it? >> that's what we see with the dollar and the euro today. the japanese are expanding their balance sheet and the yen today is the strongest currency. today we're trading around 118 1/2. i agree with you markets don't go in a straight line. but i think they're in a strong dollar environment. >> elga can you tell us in your view mark what happens over the next couple of months in the eurozone?

>> i'm one of the people who thought greece was going to stay in the union before and i still think it's going to stay in. i think the kind of comments i think this is posturing, this is negotiating. i don't think blake mail is a helpful concept here. i think it's just hard nail biting negotiations. i think more important than the first thing coming up is on january 14th the european court adjusted is going to make a preliminary ruling on the omt, the original plan draghi had about supporting the european bond markets. and i agree with the idea that the ecb is going to buy asset backed securities as well as sovereign bond. i think the trick, though is rather than the ceb buying them they will stay on the balance sheet and there will be a small program to allow germany to give us the cent to it. i think the eurozone will go

down further. >> and we had one of our guests yes say look the continent is right on the cusp of a nice recovery. and it's always darkest right before the dawn. and whether the ecb does it or not, the surprise will be those recover more quickly than we thought. >> yes, i agree with that. 2015 will likely be the year in which the pace of growth in europe particulars up materially. but, of course there are some enturn at the i and to some extent greece brings back some of the folds which will complicate matters for the ecb when they decide on whether or not and how to embark on a qe program. >> is it going to be sort of the -- where yields are? i mean the economy is with

zero you know money. seem to eventually catch up with it. we had a hard time believing it would work here and it finally did. sits believed that the economies will find a way? >> i think they do. i'm not entirely sure that it's so blindly obvious that we need to at some rate in the game im park of a qe program. the inflation expectation keeps dwindling and given that we have a heavily underutilized economy there is a risk of this inflating into negative second round effects where people are willing to take more wage cuts because they think prices are falling, as well. >> why exactly do you think there will be growth next year in europe? >> this year. >> this year right? >> because we have a very expansionary -- >> this year been next year as

well we hope. the reason is that we have expansionary financial conditions the euro came off, as you said, prices are coming off. we have this massive fall in bond yields. and now after the aqr, it's starting to feed through into lower bank lending rates. and that will set into motion stronger credit growth and with the global economy ticking along nicely, we think that means that europe can recover. >> we'll have to leave it there. mark, thank you. started with you. we're tight on time, as well, but we appreciate it. thanks. coming up when we return we have a live report from the weather channel as much of the country braces for a bitter cold day. plus what does marissa mayer have? we'll talk about that next and a

controversial new book on the yahoo! leader. first, a look back at this day in history.

welcome back to "squawk box." keith carson joins us now from the weather channel. and alex wallace, you know, looks very nice last week too.

i don't know whether you feet off of each other. i don't know where you were. you certainly didn't tell us you weren't going to be around. it's good to see you today, keith. >> i did. i didn't know i had to check in with you guys ahead of time. >> it's nice. you don't have to but -- >> i'll send you a message next time. wallace is a well dressed man. it's becoming a competitive thing. he's dressing all nice. i had to step it up. that's what happened. >> today, washington, d.c. delays and cancellations been light snow moving from philadelphia to new york. most of the heavy snow here over the next couple of days is all lake enhanced stuff. maybe 12 to 18 and most of these spots are spots that are used to seeing know. the bigger story for more people is the cold shot. one across the northern plains.

the second one comes in across the eastern seaboard for thursday into friday. you can see all the purple settling in. that is the stuff that is much colder than average. but look at tomorrow morning. 26 below in international falls. 12 below in chicago on thursday morning. down in atlanta, looking for lows in the teens. friday morning, 19 in rally and 23 in atlanta. guys, for sure i see how atlanta reacts when we get into the teens and single digits. that's going to happen here on thursday morning. >> wow. it wasn't supposed to happen any more in atlanta, wasn't it? >> no. i started laughing when you said that. it's like the people that are down there are like what is this? >> people forget like when my parents come visit -- i'm from boston. they come down here in november and they say it's a little

chilly. i'm like it's not the tropics. it's not key west. we are going to talk about yahoo! this morning. marissa mayer, the ceo of that company and a new book that's out called marissa mayer and meyer, mayer, i don't know why it is so complicated. it shouldn't be. nicholas is here from business insider. he is the author of that new book. welcome to the program. >> thanks. >> here is the question. you have this new book out. there was a big chunk of it in the "new york times" magazine just two weeks ago. you paint a relatively awful picture of her and what she's done for the company. i would argue or suggest that you've suggested she should effectively be fired. why such harsh treatment? >> i definitely didn't suggest that. i went into what some

shareholders are thinking about the situation. and there are shareholders that think yahoo! should be bought by aol, even if that means tim armstrong would become the new ceo. i painted the pictures of what is going on. >> but it sounds like an awful picture. yahoo! is in a mess that she go there. she was a good hire in some senses, but -- >> but it sounds like you think she was not the right hire. i've read the book now. i don't think you think she was the right hire. >> so -- >> explain. >> right. >> and especially explain given that the stock has risen and done as well as it has. >> there is a scene towards tend of the book and she said when i got here we have had 12 people working on mobile and now we have hundreds. when i got here it took forever to get a mobile app out and refresh a product and now it's down to weeks or day. that is a fact she has gotten

yahoo! moving much much facilitier. the question is whether ya should should have focused on making products. he nude to have on your mobile phone several apps from yahoo! and yahoo! is going to be your phone appmaker. that is just -- i question that. i think apple was already there. >> who should have been her? >> who should have been the ceo of yahoo! instead? >> the reason i'm asking this is i've watched, the stock has performed. she's only two years into her run. you compared her at one point to steve jobs and she -- >> she compares herself to steve job. >> it certainly took him a couple of years to get his act together and this was a troubled cup to begin with. i'm wondering whether we're making a judgment too quick. >> the story of my book is about the first two years of her run

there. yahoo! owns a big stake in al by baba. right before meyer joins, they did a deal where alibaba had a lot of incentive to go public before the end of 2014. mayer had a unique situation that new ceos never get, that is how does she do getting it ready for the future when no one is looking at the core. is she going to take a lot of costs out of the business? is she going to get revenues growing again? she didn't. >> and you want yahoo! to merge with aol. or you think that's a good idea. >> again, i was just reporting what shareholderses are lobbying for. and right now, mayor is effectively negotiating with shareholders will what's going to happen with this giant stake in alibaba. >> i noticed you tweeted out last night when there was this report out that she would want to buy some of the media

property if that were to happen. my sources say that deal may not happen. >> that verizon deal? right. >> maybe there's a joint venture or some kind of business relationship. >> it's murky to the point it's all over this. >> do you have a take on that? >> she loves tech crunch. here is the problem. i talked about this the last two years where she got a chance to get everything in order. the plan was at the end of the two years, if yahoo! looked great, she was going to get this money from selling alibaba stock. but the fact is that now, two years afterwards, the company is not in super great shape. >> how much is the alibaba deal worth now? sgliets luktating. >> do you know approximately what it's worth? >> i don't have a number. >> but it's like $30 billion or something or more? >> from some of the parts

perspective, you could argue that. >> it's like the entire market cap of yahoo! so the rest of the company is maybe -- >> you can decide. >> it's worth it. so the core of yahoo! is worth somewhere between negative 4 billion and 5 billion. >> just because shareholders are worried she's going to squander that money, they want to -- >> right. they've seen yahoo! go through many acquisitions over the years and they're tired of yahoo! spending the money on what it thinks can -- >> who you would you prefer to be in that spot? >> my job is to tell the story and i think i did that in the book. i'm not here to pick a ceo. >> henry. >> that would be great. that's my bought boss. no, my book tells the story of a troubled time for yoo-hoo. >> do you think it's in more trouble today than it used to be?

>> i think absolutely. yahoo! can have another two years without getting its growth going again. that's what shareholders were expecting and. >> some people thought two years ago it was really up for ded dead. >> she did in certain ways for sure. marissa mayer came in and on the first day she goes in and she has a guy she thinks is the i.t. guy actually -- it's the general counsel, ron bell, she asks him to set up her computer so she can start coding. she grabs this company and says let's move faster. she did get it moving trappeder. but my book also tells the story of how troubled yahoo! was for many, many years. yes, mayer is an effective admirable person who works really hard and was the strategy of hiring her -- >> what are we supposed to take away from the fact that you didn't interview her? >> i can't get into her head and

firth out why they didn't want to work with me. i think she felt like it wasn't worth her time to talk to me perhaps. but she's a very black and white person. if she wasn't going to do a book that she her book i'm not sure she wanted me to do the book. she tells the story about how when she was at google she was in a meeting and larry and sipdy were fighting. after, she's walking out with her you of one of her friends. the friend say to mayer, it was like mom and dad were fighting in there. six months later, marissa mayer is reading the story and they quote it the first thing she does she puts down the story, goes to security and reports her friend. >> i know how hard t to report that but this cyst junt marissa wanting to talk to you. you couldn't even fact check the book. so if you're a reader of the

book, how are you supposed to think about that? >> so i have a long note of sources in the back. the fact is i got plenty of access, just none of it was official. i went to mayer early and often and yahoo! pr early and often. i'd like to interview whoever you want me to interview for this book. they not only said no they also told mayer's friends not to talk to me. mayer's friends did want to talk to me. that meant that i had to protect those people so i ended up use his a lot of anonymous sourceing. we talked about this show last friday, this idea that they need to buy scripts. >> yes. >> my showerses say they don't want to buy scripts. >> i reported during the process when they were looking at what they were going to do with the alibaba stake, they want going to spend it too transform the company. during that process, they looked

at that as one of the things to look at. reality happens and yahoo! is not in a position to spend billions of dollars on those things. >> what do you think happens to marissa and yahoo! five years from now? >> i think the best move forward for ma advice sa mayer is to have one that's a holding company for the asian assets and one that is a much smaller yahoo! maybe a $5 billion, maybe a $10 billion company. it's a reset button, she can go from the there, she has a board of directors that love her and she is going to be there for five years and she'll get a chance to be steve jobs. >> people were happy when she came in. jerry yang how do you think they feel now? >> jerry yang and dan loeb have moved on. they are emotionally invisited in yahoo! but jerry yang is a very successful venture he. and dan loeb is -- >> she bought dan loeb out at $31. >> yeah.

>> who is the sucker there? >> who is the big owner. >> that might have been her best move. >> that's what i'm saying. was was it to get out before -- >> well you know hedge funds have these horizons ta like they need to get out. >> so aol, 3.5 billion. yahoo! 46.5 billion. who has done a better job? you would say marissa mayer. but i think it might be 22% of -- >> you think thankalibaba. >> 22% of alibaba, that's over $50 billion and it's only valued at 46. the rest of it is worth less than -- >> she's in a great position. she could leave this company and say, look what i did with the stock. but you hired me as a software engineer i became a financial engineer. >> but it wasn't just sitting on the alibaba.

>> you don't have to say it to -- >> she managed her job well and she did get yahoo! moving fast and she makes this small company again. some of the smaller revenue negotiate that she can get in tumblr matter from a smaller base. i think that's where she should start. >> the book is called marissa mayer and the fight to save yahoo!. thank you so much. >> thank you. i think if you were story telling rather than reading. story telling. tell the story. don't just -- right? don't wait. just give it to the viewers. an update on the spacex launch it has been described. the next possible launch is friday morning where the weather is forecast for an 80% go for launch. this morning, the nation's biggest companies coming under new policies for prefers drug pricing. "squawk box" comes right back. -2550 open a schwab account, and you could earn tdd# 1-800-345-2550

300 commission-free online trades. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 so if you get a trade idea schwab can help you take it on. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 we're getting a lot of questions tdd# 1-800-345-2550 about organic food stocks. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 [ male announcer ] sharpen your instincts tdd# 1-800-345-2550 with in-depth analysis by schwab experts. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and if you want to run your idea tdd# 1-800-345-2550 by a schwab trading specialist, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 our expertise is just a tap away. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 what's on your mind lisa? tdd# 1-800-345-2550 i'd like to talk about a trade idea. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 let's hear it. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 [ male announcer ] see how schwab can help tdd# 1-800-345-2550 light a way forward. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 so you can make your move, wherever you are tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and start working on your next big idea. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 ♪ ♪ tdd# 1-800-345-2550 open a schwab account and you could earn tdd# 1-800-345-2550 300 commission-free online trades. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 call 1-877-670-3357. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 or visit schwab.com/trading. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 schwab trading services. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 your go-to for trading know-how. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 ♪ ♪

welcome back everybody. cvs caremark fighting back for exclusive access to hepatitis c drugs. the pharmacy announcing its only exclusive partnership for two hep c drugs. this comes just two weeks after expressscripts announced its deal for xpress drugs. steve, thank you for coming back and joining us again today. it's good talking to you. i know a few weeks ago when we talked to you about this move when it fist came out, we were awfully confused about what it meant and had a lot of concerns. it sounds like patients and

doctors won't have as much ability to choose the drugs that they think are right. >> thanks for having me again. this has been a huge move for the industry. we've opened up access for patientes and we're talking about streeting more patients and getting more patients cured. >> i don't understand what that means. again, just on the base of it, it sounds like this is a situation where you can kind of cut deals and say this drug makes the most sense because of the pricing perspective. explain to me how that is good for parentes and good for doctors. >> think about it. you have two drugs that both have 95% cure rates. so these are two outstanding products. so the difference is one you take once a day, one you take about twice a day. the different is $125 a day. would you rather take the less expensive drug and save $120 a day and have to take your medicine twice a day for 84 days or take it once a day for -- >> the simplistic answer -- i

guess what we're saying is less say there's 5% where the side effect profile is different. the doctor realizes this. the doctor would like to prescribe the one with the better side effect profile for his patient litly. as we go down the road as we go forward, the don't won't have the flexibility to do what he thinks is right for his patient. >> there is always medical conceptions. so when the doctor needs a medical exception, they can get it. what we've seen in the past is very rarely is that asked for. the reality is these are two great drugs that are very clean, very low side effects. >> and we're talking about a slippery slope, if this were to be done you keep speaking just to this case and i just -- you know, we're talking about extrapolating it to where it could actually -- where patients might not get the drugs the doctor wanted them to get. >> so we have a lot of experience in this.

our national preferred formulary has done this in other classes. we always use external panels of doctors to make sure we're doing the right thing in putting clinical first. it's crucial that you have viets doctors can get the products they need when the patient needs them. but it's crucial to lower the cost and increase access. access is a huge issue in health care. >> doctor could you tell us how this is applicable to other they're pewter areas. when you're talking about something like hepatitis c which could be cured, you can say there are two rates of 95%. but let's talk about multiple sclerosis where there are so many drugs out, but they all have different profiles. can you apply this same idea to something like that? >> yes. last year we actually did it. there are two companies that make a different version of beta theron. they both have identical profile webs yet we can get one cheaper than the other.

we moved an enormous management avenue patiencette to other product and we got no calls from doctors asking for the alternative. so he can get to the alternative and improve access. this is a win for doctors, a win for patients and a win for the country. >> so there are talking about a medicine that is in the same class. but there are others that you wouldn't pair against one another. >> correct. you have to be very careful in doing this. this is why it's crucial to have experts reviewing the data and have an external committee that bless that's when he do. you have to make sure those patients and physicians are well served. >> you know, steve, the future of health care one of the criticisms comments from people that didn't support the

affordable care act was that we seem to be trading in access or at least we're worried that we're broadening the access but that the people that already had it that they are health care is going to be inforor to the way it was supposed to be. i see the fine line you're trying to walk. is this something panel people outside experts of doctors making decisions, this is something we're just going to have to accept for the health care of the future? this is just the way it is because of how much everything costs? >> no no. the reality is do you want the government making these decisions or do you want the market place making these decisions? >> it's one and the same if you're talking about the solutions. if it's medicare saying they're not going to pay for it versus you guys saying they're not going to pay for it. you've said that the doctors, all they have to do is call up and ask for that exemption and

they'll be granted it? >> no. what happened is there are rules to the program. so they have to have a good scientific reason why the patient needs this. so, for instance, if the patient is intolerant to the ingredients, that's a clear pathway to get to the alternative therapy. but if it's just that the doctor did the studies with and they prefer a different product, that's not a sufficient reason to justify changes. >> so are you suggesting some of these drug companies buy off the doctors and that's why they go with these things? >> i don't need to say that. >> this is fighting a drug company getting in on the other end with the doctors doing it versus -- i guess my question just comes back to how complicated is it? f doctor believes this is the best drug and they say that the person has these things while you're going back and forth with the doctor do they get to stay on the old drug or do they have to stay on the new drug until the doctor whips the fight? >> in this particular case

hepatitis progresses slowly. one of the great things about opening up access is we're now allowed to treat everyone with hepatitis tr cancer. do you really want to wait until your liver starts scarring null start treatment? >> i'm sorry, you're allowed to treat everyone? >> remember, prior to doing this, most payors were only paying for patients with advanced liver disease because the drugs were so expensive. because we've opened up access our recommendation is that everyone with hepatitis c be treated. that is what the infectious sdooi disease doctors want to s and so it goes along with the recommendation to doctors. ur want want to wait to be treated if you were thinking about yours. >> that is true. >> maybe you've seen this show

but -- >> i do have concerns. i understand you don't want the drug companies to be able to buy out doctors. i get all of that. but steve, i think it's something we're going to be watching very carefully as it goes through on a case-by-case basis to make sure this is really good for the patients down the road too. >> you are definitely right. we're moving forward cautiously. we know there will be opportunities in other areas like cancer and other things. >> thank you for joining us. >> thank you. . still to come on "squawk box" who needs a show fur when you can own a driverless luxury car? we'll take you inside the mercedes vehicle of the future. phil was -- that was audi but we're looking at mercedes today. stay tuned.

e financial noise financial noise financial noise financial noise

still to come this morning, phil lebeau will take us into the luxury car of the future. he is in the driver's seat one against, but again, he is doing very little of the driving. >> this is the future of getting from point a to point b. but this is not your typical car. it is the vision of the future from mercedes benz. come along for a driver in the f-015 luxury in motion.

yesterday phil lebeau took us on a driverless trip in an audi. today he's giving us a look at a concept car from mercedes-benz. it looks cool from the tease there. >> what they have done is stretch the possibilities for what a car might be in the future. they call it the f-015, luxury in motion. mercedes calls it luxury in motion. the f-015. unlike any car you've ever seen. mercedes believers in the future your car is not simply a place to go from point "a" to point "b," but a chance for you to turn around and talk with others in the car in a way we haven't done in the past. what were you shooting for? >> well our relationship with the automobile is really fundamentally changing. >> this is an electric autonomous drive car with 26 inch wheels and windows coated

with a special pattern to add privacy. it feels open. that was the idea here? >> exactly. another way to think of the luxury. luxury is space and comfort. >> it also has touch screen doors so each person in the car with surf the web, look at what's around their cars thanks to cameras offered 360 degree views. >> i'm seeing what another car up ahead is seeing. i can talk to my friends and say you've got to see this. and he can actually see it. >> and you can see what's around your f-015 even when you're not with it. >> so you're connected to your autonomous car all the time. you park the car, you want to know where it is, you click the 360 degree view and always see where your car is parked or when your car is driving to pick you up, you can see where the car right now is driving.

>> so you can always -- in essence, you can watch your car at all times. >> that's true yes. >> in the future mercedes is considering gesture controls and more connectivity. some of it will likely come from a touch screen table that pops up between seats. >> it's a lounge i'm taking with me opposed to leaving behind. >> i have to say that i've been in a lot of concept cars and most of the time guys you're sitting in there saying this is kind of a science project. i don't think this will ever see the light of day. and true some of this technology is a long ways off. but it's if you thinking and it's real. and some of this technology we'll see incorporated in cars in the near future. probably the next five to seven years. >> you have convinced me in the last two days. i thought this stuff was 10 15 20 years down the road. but you've convinced me this is something in the not too distant future. and i start thinking of things

like car insurance. do you need it or the manufacturer have to buy it? >> we're going to talk later on "squak on the street" and he said look somebody will introduce a fully autonomous car. the question about accidents and who's responsible. sure there's going to be a messy transition there but think back to when cruise control came out. i'm sure people at that time said what happens if your car rear ends another car. now it's standard. and that's what it's going to be when we see autonomous vehicles brought into people's showrooms over the next five years. >> so i have to pay for car insurance even though i'm not driving? >> yes you will. >> thank you for that. bringing us cool images and a great story. when we come back we've got more to talk about. oil stocks plunging as crude prices drop. the energy sector now down 24% from june.

we'll talk about the most battered and bruised names when we return.

crude oil and stocks getting hammered. the reaction in europe and what you should expect from u.s. markets ahead of friday's big jobs report. the new congress today taking over. former house majority leader eric cantor says forget 2016. america's youngest generation needs action now. and automakers releasing strong december numbers. we'll hear from the largest auto retailer. mike jackson is going to join us. the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now.

welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc first in business worldwide. i'm joe kernen along with becky quick and andrew ross sorkin. markets this morning are focused on maybe rebounding early on after these 300-point moves. i mean we talked about it. it's not that big on a percentage basis. get used to it. right off the bat, first week of january hit a 330 down. the dow and s&p coming off their worst session in three months. 331 points is what the dow lost. the s&p fell 37 points. we're looking for at least on the open a rebound of about 70 or 80 in the dow. >> although wti is at $49.17. it was even blow that this morning. joining us dominic chu. what's going on this morning? >> we are trying to find a semblance of footing here for the oil and gas sector overall. oil and gas is the focus for a lot of investors because it was the single worst performing

seconder on a down day like you said. crude oil off by 48% just over the course of the last 12 months here. and you can see here down about 2% so far this session. so again trying to find footing. if you look at the broader energy stocks picture, those particular losses are translating even more so into some of these losses for the energy sector. you can see for the last year down only about 12% for the s&p energy. we're hovering near low levels we haven't seen. and arguably multiple years. so as you look at where the action was in trading yesterday, a lot of the huge moves happened in oil and gas companies here. first of all, petroleum was off by 8% in just yesterday's trading session alone. that's going to a focus for some today. also diamond offshore. off by 9%. also one of the worst performing stocks over the course of the past 12 months in the s&p. and then noble energy down 10%

just yesterday alone. these three companies have been hit hard in this energy selloff since we saw the highs for crude in june. when you look at what happens with the s&p energy sector it's about whether some names have the ability to find some footing here. right now there hasn't been a sign of that. we know there's a correlation. energy stocks typically trade with energy prices. and right now energy prices fall. >> come over and join us for this conversation. we're also going to bring in the executive director at mkm partners. he has a bullish look for the s&p and thanks for joining us. >> pleasure. >> we're only three trading days into this new year and already there's a lot of chaos. oil prices probably the biggest one of those at this point. what do you mean? what do you make of all of this? >> becky, we have a number of factors that are impacting investors right now. we have a situation with oil,

testing the lows we haven't seen since the financial crisis. brent may test the low of $45 a barrel last seen in 2008. we have the ecb where markets are clamoring for full-blown qe. they'll meet january 22. we have a greek vote on whether to possibly bring in what would previously have been an unlikely political party into power with the prospect of their suggestion of moving away from the euro. >> sounds like a lot of chaos. >> that's right. plus situations in the hot spots there. we have uncertainties with russia. how putin may respond to sanctions and the recent decline in prices. >> you think our markets are going to do well as a result of all that chaos or in spite of it? >> i think so in spite of it. a big process of the game is deciding variables.

while energy is intrinsic to what we do it's less than 8% of the s&p. less than a million jobs out of a civilian labor force that's 153 million. >> i heard someone say something like 225 thourkss,000. >> and if one wanted to have a low tax relief for consumers, it's difficult to think of a better relief mechanism than lower gasoline prices. >> so can you explain -- all of these issues are getting conflated. the question i have is given what's going on here -- if you take the europe or greek issue out of it what changed between yesterday and last week? >> there's uncertainty about what is going to be the impact of oil at lower prices on the u.s. economy. >> so you think there's a tipping point at which it becomes negative. >> i think there's the perception of a tipping point. >> do you think there's no tipping point at which it becomes negative? >> i think so. but i don't think it's a

realistic one. >> why did you give us these themes for last year? you nailed it. s&p double digit. inflation will continue to not be an issue. gold will continue to be discredited as a safe haven. shareholder activism will be a big deal in 2014. and so for next year you say not double digits but you're back with the single digits like everybody else. >> maybe low double digits. >> maybe. it's possible. it's hard to say how the american consumer, 70% of the economy, how will they respond to lower prices that are controlled if they're lower? do they respond by increased disposal income? if so then a s&p for 2015 of 140 a share is possible. and, of course by this time or by december or even october of 2015 markets will be looking towards 2016 earnings per share. >> is the fed -- do we care at

all about them anymore? they're responding to what's happening over there. they can stay out because relative to the rest of the world, our yields don't need to go up. they're sort of -- >> not only do they not need to go up but there's reason for them not to go up. if the ecb stays low and boe stays low, that's reason for the fed -- >> i'm worried the fed can't raise. and the box they're in is they can't raise. >> there is some argument to that. but i think markets, if anything will be surprised with how late the fed makes that first move off the zero. >> i would say something here. first of all what i've heard from experts we talk to all the time is there's one thing the american consumer will do it is spend money. . you have gas price savings, they will turn around and not save it but spend it. second of all, the question that

we often get with the oil and gas sector is the jobs which you just addressed here. but it's also this idea of the ancillary effects. the biggest decliner on the dow yesterday was caterpillar. because of the perceived ripple effects of what happens to the metals and mining industry -- the equipment industry. >> it's a strong dollar too. >> maybe then start to feel the impact. so is there -- you say that the tipping point is maybe not realistic. but there's got to be some point when a ge or a caterpillar or these other large industrial companies start to say, hey, the business ain't there. maybe we need to stop spending so much on developing the industry. >> that might be true. but then you could counter to that by saying is it enough to offset the incremental benefits that come from the incremental spending that takes place. >> oil -- people -- everybody that we have on and i watch your

stuff and you're contrarian. we agree on a lot of things. all that stuff, charles. but on the way down were every expert said we're hitting a bottom. and now they're saying we're going right back up. this is just a temporary thing. i'm trying to figure out how they're going to be wrong there. if we do 9 billion barrels a day permanently, that's different in this country. if the growth stays relatively slow, it's not going to go down but couldn't this last a couple of years? we don't go right back? >> that's right. if demand moderates along with gdp, let's assume that for a minute, and we continue to produce at near-record levels we know iraq is producing at multi-year highs. we know russia is producing at multi-year highs. >> right. even if we shut in some if we still do 9 million barrels a day, this might be a new world. >> it begs the question of what was really the dynamic that brought us lower to begin with. i would submit it is a paradigm

shift where there is a new market-clearing mechanism at place. heretofore >> this goes to the issue of not just jobs in the united states, there's the midwest. if you really get into trouble and what happens to russia. but then also all of the investors, some by the way u.s. banks and others who are invested in all this stuff and whether there is some type of massive ripple effect. do you worry about that? >> the item i probably worry about the most is the question of the day. and that is how does policy makers address slower growth and unsustainably high unemployment. particularly youth unemployment in the united states among minorities in the eurozone in the arab gulf world.

how do they address that? and that calls for policy makers to develop in coordination growth mandates and put regulation and retribution for past misdeeds on lower priority. growth is where it's at. >> i'd say that's just not an easy thing to do. >> that's a 10 20 30-year project. >> that's right. >> but along the way there's the transition period of the project and what that means in the interim. >> charles, dom, thank you both. >> thank you. okay. also some news to tell you about. it is official. coach is buying designer footwear brand stuart weitzman. they said that deal valued up in total. birthday boy? >> i keep saying it's a state of mind. i'm sticking with that. it doesn't matter. it's a state of mind. coming up -- you'll see.

enjoy it. because it's wasted on the young. >> happy birthday. >> thank you, thank you. >> no birthday worth looking forward to after you turn 21 anyway. >> can we go 41 at least? see that is just further away from me. see? a seasoned pro on the path for the new congress. former house majority leader -- no way. he's here? >> in the flesh. >> wow. >> leader eric cantor will join us for the rest of the hour. and later, key reads on the auto and real estate sector. new numbers on december car sales and the latest evidence of rising home costs.

the 114th congress convenes today. for the first time during the obama presidency the republicans have control of both chambers of the house. eric cantor has a message for them in his latest op-ed found on cnbc.com. do people -- do they walk around and call you hey leader. are you once a leader always a leader? >> first order of business when i joined the incredible team was it's eric. and that's what i say to becky every time i see her as well. >> why don't you say that to me? you like when i call you leader? >> you're the birthday boy. you can say whatever you want. >> let's get right out into it. the president's interaction with his party right now, it's always

been interesting with republicans, obviously. but even the very first deal where they got mad about -- when elizabeth warren and nancy pelosi got mad. republicans got hammered for trying to shut the government not doing a budget deal. they were ready to stop it this time because of what the credit default swaps -- the president said in your face to those guys. he didn't care. is he going to be willing to alienate the far left with some of these things like fax reform or trade? >> this is the question. the question is will the next two years be spent relitigateing the differences that had been well defined over the last six years. right? we know that republicans don't agree with obama on his health care bill or unilateral moves on immigration. we also know that democrats don't agree with republicans on tax reform and, entitlement reform

and the rest. so will we see congress relitigating that or are we going get something done? i think there are two things in the near future that we can look to to be a telltale sign to see whether this is going to be a productive congress. the first is on the president's side is what is he going to do on trade? you know he's got an opportunity really to do a pro-growth -- implement a pro-growth policy if he'd get behind and put his shoulder to the wheel on trade promotion authority. >> i think it is to two really important constituencies. the environmental lobby. it's an effort on both of them. >> interestingly you've got elizabeth warren who has come out against already saying that these trade deals were done in back rooms without the light of day. and that she's worried about undoing dodd-frank and the rest and these trade deals. will the president stand up to

her and others. and similarly on the republican side. the republican side is very shortly we're going to see 42 house i think move to deal with this question of funding of the department of homeland security. that's where the hangup became on this question of unilateral moves by the president on immigration. and the question is yes, everyone will have their opportunity to cast their vote and be against the president's unilateral move. but are they going to be able to dispense what the difference is once the president vetoes that bill and then get on with the business of real security issues at airports, real security issues on the border and then get on with the business according to the last discussion about growing this economy for working middle class people. >> what do you think? you know these people. what happens? >> i think the leadership -- i know that john boehner and the rest of the team as well as mitch mcconnell in the senate are desirers of wanting to see real progress to show there's not just this short-term

attitude about exacting some flesh and scoring some political points. but trying to get something done for the people of this country. they deserve pit. >> the leadership wanting to do one thing and able to is different. >> this is the question though. and it's similar to what joe's point was. the president's got to be able to stand up to his side. and some would allege the extremes on his side. and the republican leadership as well is going to have to deal with some of those who want to employ tactics that are somewhat extreme they could lead to a government shutdown and both have said no shutdowns. we're not having any brinksmanship. i think if you're going to grade and see what this congress is about, that's sort of the low expectation mark. let's just not have any brinksmanship. >> brinkmanship. >> brinksmanship is when there's multiple -- >> no no no. it's always brinkmanship.

>> eric, you wandered into this debate. we all say brinksmanship. it's in the dictionary. >> it sums up everything. brinkmanship. and it's not the exact same thing. >> it sounds silly. >> it's my single best idea. all right. i don't know what -- you know keystone i'm almost ready to not even talk. he has postured in a way where he's going to veto that. >> absolutely. we expect republicans and there's bipartisan support in congress. >> do they have to get -- they'll get 60 to bring it up. but they don't have 67 to get it done. >> overriding veto is a big deal, yes. i think there are other issues you may see. i think this question of iran sanctions, it is not inconceivable to think the senate is going to come up with a veto override on that. because you'll see, i believe, a congress become much more assertive in the area of foreign policy now given what's gone on in russia what's going on with

this pending sort of meeting with iran again. what's obviously going on with cuba and the latest unilateral move with the president, i think you'll see an emboldened congress on these issues. >> i don't know if you do pr for the gop anymore -- >> i'm with moelis and company now. >> taking on the economy and the interest rays and the oil boom taking credit for all of that. did you think about saying maybe the sequester wasn't the end of the world. have you thought about taking joint credit like they did when gingrich was in? >> that is for -- >> let me ask one other question. when the president says you know, i haven't pulled out the veto pen very often -- when harry reid never sent a bill to him in the first six years and he had nothing to veto, i mean is that -- do we believe him when he says i can use it now

when i never used it? >> that is hard to take credit for it. >> what about when he takes credit for the oil boom? >> i've always said this. this -- >> politics is such a dirty business. but go ahead and finish it. >> this notion of a national energy policy. i think the administration has been for years on a path of hostility. >> and it happened anyway. >> but i think the broader question for this congress -- >> so nice now. >> -- is about working middle class people. are we going to be focused on wage increases for working middle class people? because you can look at the macro indicators all you want but the problem is working middle class people haven't seen this upward tick in wages in well over a decade. which means real impact to people when they're sending their kids to school they're dealing with -- >> but you were against minimum wage, right? >> that's not for the middle class. >> but arguably it's about getting people out of the lower

class. and there's so many people we've discussed that aren't -- it's not just about teenagers on minimum wage jobs now. >> and, andrew i am. i think the government saying here's what you must pay is simple economics when you -- >> wage price control. >> you have a small business person struggling to grow a business, keep it open and say it's going to cost you "x" more to go and do that. i think it's -- >> when you see imempirical studies, do you write those off as ideologically flawed studies? >> i think in the totality of the studies, and again i don't know which one you're referring to, but you probably have an equal number that says if it costs more to have something and to get less of it. if you want jobs why are you putting added costs on the small businesses which are the job

generators. >> each side says the other side studies are wrong. but we continue to have -- >> it's a holy war on that issue. >> very powerful political issue. and you're going to see on the state ballot question you're going to see that rise more and more. >> it'd be nice to create a bunch of jobs. >> eric is staying with us for the rest of the hour. when we come back if you want to make sure your television will work with streaming services guess what netflix wants to help. we'll have details after this. ep breath in... and... exhale... aflac! and a gentle wavelike motion... ahhh-ahhhhhh. liberate your spine... ahhh-ahhhhhh...aflac! and reach, toes blossoming... not that great at yoga. yeah, but when i slipped a disk he paid my claim in just four days. ahh!

four days? yep. see why speed matters, at aflac.com.

welcome back to "squawk box." netflix is launching an evaluation program that will base smart tvs based on how well they interact with programs like netflix. also based on how quickly they

power on how fast they launch apps and video playback without a delay. recommended models will carry a netflix recommended tv logo. so check that out at best buy or wherever you're buying your tv next time. >> i bought about five of them. but netflix is pretty good. >> what about buffering? >> no. and it comes up on the tv automatically and it's one of the apps. "sons of anarchy," you seen that yet? >> yes. >> you know samcro. >> yeah. i'll tell you at the commercial break. as gas prices plummeted, autonation's mike jackson is going to join us with december's numbers from the largest auto retailers. take a look at u.s. equity futures. [container door opening] ♪

what makes it an suv is what you can get into it. ♪ [container door closing] what makes it an nx is what you can get out of it. ♪ introducing the first-ever lexus nx turbo and hybrid. once you go beyond utility there's no going back.

welcome back to "squawk box," everybody.

sony's ceo is praising his movie studio's employees and partners for standing up to hackers. twitter says it has fully fixed an issue with delays appearing on timelines. twitter faced a slowdown of 25 to 45 minutes late yesterday. and the world's fifth largest automaker hyundai promised to expand capacity building new headquarters and developing new vehicles. hyundai and kia motors announced new factories in mexico and china. check this out. gm says its onstar program could help you get a break on car insurance. the communications system will grade a car owner's driving record for 90 days and measure things such as how fast you accelerate and how hard you brake. you get a good score, you could choose to have it sent to progressive insurance for possible discount. story is raising concerns about data and privacy. >> if you get a bad score, do they send it? >> apparently they don't.

>> yet. that's the concern though. >> before this onstar program, you could get progressive and others to give you a device to put in your cars. and if you don't drive between 11:00 p.m. to 11:00 a.m. to get places. >> they monitor horns. i've worn out horns. >> have you really? >> yeah. do they record -- >> what you say? >> it's all going -- we talked about people are going to wear these fitbits and jawbones and the insurance companies for thundershower own health care are probably going to give you a discount if you do that. >> i mean, i'm sorry. it's a pet peeve that i've resonated with many times. the two-lane -- guy in the left lane -- >> move to the slow lane. >> doesn't know. doesn't known that you're supposed to stay to the right

unless you're passing. has no concept of that. you know you try to tell them and they look at you like what i'm in this lane. i flash -- that's 55. i try to flash what they're -- if i went like that would you know? >> no. >> no? so i think they know. >> they think you're crazy. you're going like this out the window. >> 55. 55. >> that's what it means? >> if they're going 45. >> it looks like fancy hands. >> going to continue with this thing. boosted by falling gas prices and improving economy, 2014 was the best year for auto sales since before the recession. americans bought more than 16 million cars and trucks last year. mike jackson is ceo of autonation the country's largest auto retailer. he's accurately predicted the number of cars sold annually in the country for the last three years. good morning mike. and you -- you're an excellent driver and you go about five

miles over the speed limit, typically. you don't go under. >> joe, good morning. happy birthday. yes, they should put a monitor on your porsche. i think it would be very revealing. >> that would be tough. >> yes, i am a performance-oriented driver. i like cars that go fast. and you've rid, me. i drive very safe. >> i have. >> something has to keep you in place. >> you were right. i also think we could have kmikted the economy. we almost could have predicted the jobless rate. we almost coup predicted the s&p if we knew you were going to be right about 17 million cars or whatever it was. that indicated a lot of things. >> i said $16.5 million for

2014. spot on. i'm forecasting over 17 million for this year. and december ended the year in spectacular fashion for autonation. it was our best year. over 33,000 units up 12%. but also a great month for the industry with the selling rate almost at 17 million up 11%. and of course the big story for last year were that the increases were in truck sales. truck sales up 10%. imagine, becky, suvs last year out-sold sedans. >> no surprise. look at the gas prices. >> people clearly expressed their interest for the sport utility vehicles and with where gasoline prices are going for the month of december trucks were 55% of sales. >> you know your gas tax thing,

it almost makes sense now. i mean i'm not saying -- taxes are just -- i don't know. but your gas tax -- >> did those words just come out of your mouth? almost makes sense. i love it. profiles encourage for senator corker to stand up and say it would be a sensible time to increase the gas tax. >> you'll never get cantor. >> yeah he's not there anymore, by the way. >> don't rub it in. he's here. >> there you go. i think you're right. you're not going to see a gas tax increase out of this congress. i'm not sure it's the smartest thing to do. it's the beginning of a response. but as you indicated, people are buying bigger cars. they are, though as you know the cars are a lot more efficient right now too. so the model of funding long-term for our infrastructure needs needs to be overhauled. and i think --

>> here's the issue, eric that i have with washington. and i think you'll agree with me in many ways. the town is schizophrenic. they sold we must sell fuel efficiency whether the american people want it or not. it's like telling the american people you need to eat your broccoli because it's good for you. when prices are this low people are coming in and saying give me a doughnut with chocolate on it. the industry is spending billions mandated by the government to put fuel efficiency technology in these cars. with gas prices this low, that's not what the american consumer is looking for. we haven't touched the gas tax since 1993. i agree with senator corker. it's a sensible thing to do. repair our infrastructure and send a little message to the american people that gas prices won't be low forever. >> there is a big test on this

coming. i mean we've got -- you'll see at the end of may, there's the expiration of the highway bill. there will have to be some response to the need for a long-term infrastructure for this country. over the last several years there's been inability for congress to come up with a long-term funding mechanism. again, i don't think you're going to see a gas tax increase be part of that but with the current reduction in the deficit, maybe you'll see some solutions come to the floor. but right now there is none and we're looking at five months from now the need for some type of response for long-term construction. >> mike, we've got to have you come in as a -- you know for an extended talk about what oil and gas prices are going to do for the industry. but what a great year. i mean, i know you switched everything under the autonation banner. and wayne, you know he's

probably proud as he can be. $60 stock now up from about -- where was it? $4 $5 in '09? >> $5. >> been a great year for autonation. >> i just took our founder wayne to dinner on december 27th to celebrate his 77th birthday. and he sends his best regards to you. great entrepreneur. >> hundreds of thousands of jobs in the private sector. mike, we'll see you again soon. thanks. >> all right. thank you. coming up next when we return, the real estate market in new york is hotter than ever. i guess that's why we're taking the big show to the big apple. we've got the details on the big move of "squawk box" and the latest on the soaring price of new york apartments right after the break. we'll take a look at u.s. equity futures. we're back in a moment.

welcome back to "squawk box." real estate prices in new york keep going up. robert frank here to take us inside some of those high numbers. >> hit $1.72 million in 2014.

that was a record. apartments now average $1297 per square foot. we also had four closings for more than $40 million in the last quarter alone. 2014 was kind of the year of the stash pad. a lot buying new condo towers. the rising dollar slowing growth overseas can this continue? >> i think it will continue. the product that's being built today is so much superior to what was around before these new developments. so people are willing to pay up for something they have to go in. they don't have to renovate something that's sort of ready to move in. >> you see the pipeline. you know what's coming through the first quarter. what gives you signs of hope for 2015? >> in december alone we sold

four apartments and developments, average price about $40 million. >> four. >> in december. we know we're going to have a good start to the new year. then we'll have closings from units we sold early on in 2014 that will close in '15. and most of those are $3500 a foot. so you'll have those closing in 2015. >> that's almost ten times what it costs to build a house somewhere in the country. a really nice house with good materials. >> what's the tipping point? what are the numbers you look at at which you would say we might be getting here. >> everyone looks at total number of yuntss coming on. >> that's going to double next year. the inventory is going to double but pretty much a historically low number. one thing we do see is no great

surprise. when you have these $70 million apartments penthouses in new buildings averaging $8,000 a foot. there are more $40 million buyers than $80 million. so obviously you adjust to that. people as prices go up per square foot they become less focuses on price per square foot and on total unit price. >> will we see $100 million apartment? we saw trades last year nationally at $100 million or more but nothing yet in new york city. do you think we'll see one in new york city? >> you'll probably have the closing at '15 which was $95 million. that's been reported already. >> what percentage -- if you look at the apartments being sold for that much what percentage are foreign buyers versus american buyers new yorkers, if you will? >> i think a lot of it is locationwise. if you looked at west 57th

street, you're probably 2/3 foreign, 1/3 domestic. >> so will that be an empty building at the end? >> no. but i think 432 park and probably because it's park avenue and doesn't have a hotel, you know, which appeals to other type of people i think that's going to be just the opposite. i think that will be probably 2/3 domestic 1/3 international. >> of the total market though only 15% of the total market of manhattan is foreign buyers. it's very concentrated among a few buildings that are brand new sky rise towers. >> very expensive and in locations around the park. the percentage of the foreign buyers downtown which is realistically the hottest location other than around the park you rarely see foreign buyers. >> whether it's doubling the tax, could that chill this market? >> well of course.

look, i think any one-time tax is not as devastating as an annual tax. even with maintenance costs in buildings, you run into people -- very wealthy people who focus not only on the price but on the monthly carrying cost. >> as they should. >> and i don't think that way, but other people do. and what a lot of times they don't realize is the price reflects the maintenance cost. but it drives them crazy to have a high monthly cost. >> think about it. paying that much for the mortgage and then it's like wait. just to live here is this on top of that? it can be like a normal person' mortgage. >> i know you you look at it. >> we're going to leave the conversation there. howard, thank you. robert, thank you. and we should tell you, talking about new york in part because today marks our last part at our headquarters in new jersey. starting tomorrow "squawk box" is moving to a new home in the heart of new york city. it has a window to the streets

of manhattan, the capital of corporate america. we started to know our digs this weekend. you can check out our facebook page for a time lapse video of the two weeks it took to build that studio. >> that was all outtakes and off air stuff that wasn't supposed to make -- no. i believe i was pointing out where rock center was. and i do have a personal trainer now. and, you know i'm rippling through my -- i'm sorry. wow. did you see the cnbc management was just there. >> yeah. >> did he ask to be in the -- >> probably not. >> sam's running things. that lady right there. >> you will see us there tomorrow bright and early and we should also mention that the big move comes as "squawk box" celebrates our 20th anniversary this year. and we're doing it in style. among our first guests tomorrow bill ackman, and lloyd blankfein.

former nba commissioner david stern is going to join us and barbara corcoran. it all starts tomorrow at 6:00 a.m. eastern. you don't want to miss us from our new digs. we're back in a moment.

the volkswagen golf was just named motor trend's 2015 car of the year. so was the 100% electric e-golf, and the 45 highway mpg tdi clean diesel. and last but not least the high performance gti. looks like we're gonna need a bigger podium. the volkswagen golf family. motor trend's 2015 "cars" of the year.

let's get back to our guest host today eric cantor. we spoke with you at the top of the hour about what is and isn't liking when it comes to washington and congress. but with your new job at moelis

& company, i'm sure you have to look at where there are opportunity zblps what we've seen is obviously coming off of a banner year on the m&a side you know well past 2007 pre-crisis levels. and i think there's probably going to be continued momentum although there are some signs out there. obviously internationally, i think you talked about it on this show with some geopolitical events that sort of hang over the markets and certainly allow for some more struggle internationally. but i think that you know it is so imperative that this congress focus on that growth mandate. and focus on creating an environment where you're going to see a commitment to invest for the long-term. >> how do they do that? does that mean deals like infrastructure, a bipartisan deal to do that? >> i think what it means is if you're going to say the growing

economy is priority one. you'll have to commit yourself to incremental progress to move the ball down the field. these big sort of grand goals that each side has have fallen short for the last six years under this president and last congresses. so let's learn from that. and let's hopefully see a congress that will say, okay whab do we believe in common on energy? how can we go forward? keystone we've already said as joe said the president said he's going to veto keystone. so i think congress will pass the bill. but when can you get to work on doing some real infrastructure pipeline permitting. transport of the fines you've got that are stranded right now. >> do you think that -- i mean is there common ground beyond just keystone. do you think there really is

common ground on both sides? >> i do. i think there's common ground in the area of energy and pipeline permitting. i think there's bipartisan agreement on that. i think if you look at some of the broader issues that are facing our country like education, honestly i think both sides would agree. if we can get our education system great from a secondary education level and up through higher ed from affordability to quality -- >> the problem is the two sides have different ideas how to get there. >> the house passed overwhelmingly last congress a charter schools bill that was you saw democratic congressmen and women join with republicans. unfortunately the senate didn't take it up. the senate could take that bill up now, pass it. and we could begin to make some progress in expanding replicating charter school success. those are the kind of things i think just get used to working together, get used to finding where common ground is. hopefully we'll see that in a real commitment to creating an

environment for growth. >> we want to thank you very much for joining us today. >> good luck in your new digs. >> look forward to seeing you in our new digs. when we return we'll have a special guest. why he thinks now is the time to actually bet on the energy sector. and plus we're going to head to vegas. our own julia boorstin caught up with the one and only ryan seacrest. the latest on his controversial iphone keyboard and other tech ventures when "squawk box" returns. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ the evolution of luxury continues. the next generation 2015 escalade.

crude slide hits stocks. former wells fargo ceo is here to help us make sense of oil's dramatic fall and what investors should be doing with their money now. plus peter orsack has a perspective on 2016. and from new year's eve to "american idol" now ryan seacrest is making a splash at the consumer electronics show. the details are just ahead as the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now. ♪

welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc first in business worldwide. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. with us is the former ceo of wells fargo. good to see you today. >> good to be here. >> you were a final-- are a final guest here at englewood cliffs. >> i'm sure you're excited to be moving to new york. >> if you haven't seen it already, we should let everybody know we're moving to new york starting tomorrow. look at the pictures of the set. it is an exciting move. we look forward to being there. we're going to tell you what to expect later in the show. but first before we do that let's get to the morning headlines. >> here's what's making headlines right now. oil prices extending yesterday's 5% route. the reasons they are piling up

including surplus, supply jitters about greece and the flight to safety. a couple of economic releases to watch this morning. snapshots of the services and manufacturing data. and aol shares talking about a potential purchase or venture. neither company commented on that story this morning. we are just 90 minutes away from the opening bell on wall street. we've been watching the futures. after the big selloff yesterday you'll see there are some green arrows. this isn't as strong as we've seen this morning, but again agree arrows. dow futures up 52 points after losing 330 points yesterday. s&p futures up by just over five and a half points. nasdaq up by 12.5 points. if you want to look at europe we did see selloffs earlier there today. things have turned around quite a bit since the last time we checked. the ftse was down about 1.25% earlier in trading. now down by only .3%.

the cac up by close to .4%. few stocks on the move this morning. general electric downgraded to hold from buy at deutsche bank. probably in some way related to the selloff in oil. a lot of acquisitions in recent years have been building up that part of the company's business. and michael kors was downgraded to neutral at credit suisse. under armour upgraded to buy from neutral at citi. and a longer term focus on the supply chain and shares of taser getting a boost this morning on news that the los angeles police department will deploy more than 3,000 of the company's weapons. that's an old squawk sound effect andrew.

>> hurts. >> i think it was one of our guys, right? >> msnbc wasn't it? >> was it rick sanchez? someone volunteered to get tased. >> we should have a taser on the set. >> i suggested that earlier. every time you say marissa mayer mayer. at wits end. the interesting thing is where we're going to connect the taser. >> okay. oil stocks -- i know where he's going with that. >> you don't miss a trick. >> the s&p energy sector now down about 24% from its high in june and the space is putting pressure on the broader market. here to take us inside those numbers now is dominic chu. >> andrew again, the market may be getting tased a little bit in yesterday's trade at the we want to point out like you said people may be buying the dip today. the s&p 500 is down about 2.5%

over the course of the last month. a lot of that happening right here. you can see on the right-hand side of our screen here. if you move to beyond just this month to beyond the santa claus rally. we talked about the santa claus rally. that's the day after christmas trading all the wa i to the second trading day of the year. in that span here we are still down about 3%. that's important here because that was supposed to be the santa claus rally. this is the first time since 2007 the santa claus rally has not occurred. this is also the worst santa claus non-rally, if you will since 1999. third worst since 1969. so maybe not a great start to the new year for the s&p 500. if you're looking for what drove the markets overall, this is a big deal. the energy sector again down 4% just in yesterday's trade. down 12% for the year. a lot of that happening just in the last six, seven months of this year in 2014. that's when we saw those prices drop by about 40% overall for the energy sector. and remember a lot of this is

driven by the fact that we do have this concern about oil prices, the commodity in and of itself. but when you see a four-day slide for the s&p 500, something that hasn't happened since december of 2013 it's got a lot of traders taking notes. back over to you. >> traditionally see a rally in those days. dom, thank you. as dom mentioned, oil's mass i ive slide was the key factor of the lack of a rally. although you could say that maybe santa came earlier this year. our guest host today says crude's collapse is a big opportunity in the oil company. the tomorrow former chairman and ceo of wells fargo. what do you think of these collapses pricing? >> i think the good is that it will improve consumers in the united states. more money to spend. it's going to be good for 70% of our economy as consumers.

that's the good fuse. the bad news is it does affect certain oil jobs et cetera. i think people forget five years ago oil prices were at this level. and this is about the fourth or fifth time in my business career that oil has collapsed. and there's only a million barrels a day of excess capacity. it will cause these things to occur. can be administered. if saudi decides they want to cut production, they do that often by a million a delay. and also you're going to see listening with your show with automobile sales and suvs and so on you're going to see gasoline consumption increase. so i think this is a temporary decrease. and i think we will see $70, $80 a barrel by mid-year. >> you mentioned we were at these prices five years ago.

but five years ago we were facing an incredible downturn in the economy. and it was something that a lot of people hadn't seen in their lifetimes before. this time around it's a little different because it feels like at least in large part it's because of supply. the united states being able to find supply we didn't think we'd be able to get out of the ground. is there a chance we could look at the lower oil prices for some time to come? >> it's possible. everyone says it's going to be different with any kind of a radical change. i want to point out i was playing golf with the ceo of a major oil company this past weekend. he said a million barrels of excess capacity is not a lot to absorb eventually one way or another. >> last time it happened we were in the middle of a financial crisis. right now unemployment is plummeting. we're at 5.8%. we had a 5% print on gdp. new highs in the stock market. i don't know what was different this time. maybe the move from 20 to 100.

people said no it's 100 now. maybe that was the it's different this time. we thought bonds always had to be at 6% or 7%. suddenly it looks like maybe they would be -- don't you think people said the same thing about bonds? now it almost looks like people are starting to believe we're in a 2% world. maybe above six was the aberration. >> also why did we have $120 a barrel. opec can reverse that. >> they haven't. well, if they could. what are they masochists? >> no. i think they're playing this game to see how long it's going to last. they want to punish some of the fracking that's going on. so none of us know. alls i can say is if you really believe that the economy is great, which i don't, then -- >> argues against your case as well. and if china's not great and europe's not great -- >> that's my whole point.

i think what's happening is the international side of the economy is not good. and that's what's -- you've got greece going on and all this kind of stuff. it's having a compounding effect on the market. and markets tend to go up further than they should before they collapse and they go down further than they should. >> what you said even if we averaged 70 or 80 the next three years, that's a lot different from going up to 120 where everyone said we'd be by now. >> i think 70 80 is the sweet spot economically. >> we'd sign onto that for five years, i think. >> that's what i'm saying. i'm not saying we're going back to 120. i'm just saying -- >> remember goldman sachs? >> i just think -- and what it's going to take is the right economic policies. and i think the -- >> that'll happen. >> let me ask you the downside of oil. so we know the good side.

it's about $115 billion a put in the pockets of americans. the downside do you worry about some sort of people who loan these energy companies them going out of business banks that are involved with them? i mean we've seen what happens when prices go lower. you don't have sort of a larger worry that you add that on top of what's going on in europe and then we're in a bad place. >> i think that might well occur. the good point though is three times that, five times that 20 times that is what it does to the consumer side of things which is a lot better. there's always something wrong in the economy. i mean just -- it's always the case. and there are -- the reason you need to be diversified as a financial institution is there are some bad things that are going to happen that you don't expect. and there can be some good things that you don't expect. and it all averages out. >> don't you think that we can't even quantify in terms of

foreign policy. even our posture, how that can change if we don't feel like they've got us in a strangle hold. how many foreign policy moves have we made in the past 20 years have been based on -- the middle east became much more important to us over the past 20 years than maybe it ever should have been. and in russia ukraine, all these things become less important if you're more independent in terms of foreign oil. >> exactly. >> it would be a huge piece dividend. >> i think the country is missing the picture of the oil situation. it is about national defense. we should not be worried about environmental impacts of keystone. the combination of what's going on and what's going on in mexico in terms of them wanted oil companies to come in and take advantage of all the opportunities in the gulf. north america will be energy independent. this is the most important national defense we can have. no longer will we be subject to

rogue states such as iran and so on. we should be taking advantage of this now. and i can't for the life of me understand why people don't understand it's about national defense, a reason we need to be capitalizing on these opportunities. and we won't have to be having trillion-dollar wars to protect the middle east production. >> let me ask you another question. you said you think the economy is pretty lousy when you look at china, europe and other areas. do you think that catches up and drags our economy down as well? >> yes, i think it can. only 15% of our economy is exports, but it's 15%. i don't think -- this is the fourth or fifth time in the past five years where there's been excess in my opinion, optimism on the u.s. economy. and it hasn't come through. i don't think the economy is as strong as 4% and 5% gdp. i think it's more like 2.5%. which is you know it's okay.

but it's not going to have a significant impact on the job participation rate which is still at an all-time low. and the international side is very, very weak. and so we need to get this economy growing at 3%-plus. and i think it's going to take some political changes to make that happen. i'm more optimistic what's going on politically. we may get people working together in washington. >> dick is with us for the rest of the hour. he's got more ideas on how those policy changes can be enacted and what needs to happen. we'll ta you can to him about that later in the show. coming up next blood on the street to kick off the first week. just the big money selling last year's winners? we've got that after the break.

plus peter orszag with his take on the economy. and we are going into the world of ryan seacrest. and later, cramer's take on the market. "squawk box" returns in a moment. is rolled over into a td ameritrade ira. yes! so no set up fees! wooh! yeah! so i get help from rollover consultants? wooh! yes! no rollover hassle. great. woah oh, we're spiking things, robbie. for all the confidence you need. that's better! td ameritrade. you got this.

have you heard of the new dialing procedure for for the 415 and 628 area codes? no what is it? starting february 21, 2015 if you have a 415 or 628 number you'll need to dial... 1 plus the area code plus the phone number for all calls. okay, but what if i have a 415 number, and i'm calling a 415 number? you'll still need to dial... 1 plus the area code plus the phone number. so when in doubt, dial it out!

the dow and the s&p 500 both having their biggest one-day declines in three months. yesterday jim paulsen told us stocks are still the way to go eventually. but it could be time to look abroad. >> where are you going to go? you going to go to bonds at 2% or cash at 0%? i'd say overweight. but what i would do is diversify in ways i haven't until now. one of those ways is i would minimize my exposure to the united states stock market. i would go overseas. i like europe. i like japan. i like the emerging world. >> all right. let's get into that discussion now with chief investment strategist at strategis. i don't think we've spoken in awhile. you're positive on overall on 2015. do you have any of the concerns jim paulsen has? >> not really jim -- not

really joe. i respect jim quite a bit, but i have to say that the other side of that equation is that people in europe and people in other parts of the world by my experience they generally start with the idea of the currency and then they move into the asset class and then the security. and from that regard it gets really hard to fade u.s. equities. you have other people looking to get u.s. exposure because of what is likely to be a continuation of weakness in both the euro and the yen. >> are you buying the energy sector yet, jason? >> i would say you have to be a little careful still, but frankly we're underweight officially at our firm but i'm a little bit more interested now than i was. because i think the u.s. economy particularly which is the largest engine for growth in the world is quite strong. i also think somewhat lower energy prices are going to provide a boom to the rest of the world.

going to give some opportunities for other central bankers to ease more aggressively. and i have a feeling -- i don't want to put in -- i don't want to call the low right now, but i have a feeling the price of crude and brent will be higher at the end of the year than they are right now. >> well that could be $52. >> right. but it certainly would be something where it's a tail wind but also it's not going to be the -- i guess, the death now for the economy that some people are looking at it to be. >> i don't believe anything anybody says about where oil is going. at $80 they said it would be higher at the end of the year. and the market's wrong and i'm right the entire way down. so all bets are off. no one saw this. no one could have predicted it. no one would have said that all of a sudden -- and it was weird. when we talked to a lot of people in the business, we said what about fracking. they said that's a big global market and we're doing a little

here. >> as you know the cure for higher oil prices are higher oil prices. >> we had 20 years of high oil prices and never got cured. >> this is something where you're seeing energy companies -- i don't want to call the low in the energy market. but by the same token with you're seeing a lot changing capital spending plans. that's going to work through for the commodity. >> it took 20 years for the value of $100 oil to get us to make more. who knows how long it takes to work the other way. what about europe? better than people think this year or not? >> only because of the currency joe. i think -- listen. draghi is in a situation now where i'm telling you, if the ecb doesn't ease later this month, it's going to be a bad day all the way around. i don't think there's much of a choice. by the same token, i don't think it's particularly good policy. you know, i don't know mario, but i'm somewhat sympathetic to him. i'm sure from his point of view

it's what do you want. five year german bunds are negative. it's hard to imagine quantitative easing being some sort of panacea without real supply side fiscal reforms. by the same token, marty said don't fight the fed. i don't like fighting central banks. to me it's just -- it's a toughy. i would be somewhat bullish on europe and japanese equities as a result. >> maybe it's not the low interest rates in europe we get from qe. maybe it's they devalue the euro just down to par. then it would be bullish that it would work that way instead of just lower rates. >> we're basically close to the ipo price of the euro when it first came out. as you remember it went down to -- i'm getting this wrong. went down to something like 83 cents at one point. so it's -- i think a lot of people were wondering when the euro is finally going to weaken. it weakened in a hurry and i

have a feeling there's more to go. >> greece may opt out. >> i think there's a couple of -- you and i have talked about it. the euro skeptic movement in europe is growing. there's no two ways about it. >> feeling pretty proud of themselves. >> you're going to have a lot of elections this year where you'll see populous movements make a determination. this has always been driven by the elites. >> the dollar should be the universal currency everywhere. >> it has been and there's nothing against -- >> they should just make it official. i hope there's people watching over there with steam. >> good luck this year. good luck at the new studio. >> thank you. >> we'll see you there in person. when we come back this morning, a pill that tricks your body into thinking you've just eaten a huge meal. could it be the taste of the future in weight loss?

that story is next. and then market pressure geopolitical risks, and the state of the global economy. what will drive markets in 2015? we'll ask citi's vice chair peter orszag. "squawk box" will be right back. out of 42 vehicles... based on 6 different criteria... why did a panel of 11 automotive experts... ... name the volkswagen golf motor trend's 2015 car of the year? we'll give you four good reasons the all-new volkswagen golf starting at $17,995. there's an award winning golf for everyone. hi. pete and jon najarian here in new york city outside of the nasdaq,

where we bring you live daily market updates. and today, we have a very special free gift for you. so many viewers e-mail us wanting to know our secrets on how we trade options. so we put our secrets into a new book. and if you're one of the first 250 people to call in right now and just cover shipping and handling we'll send you a copy for free. look at the rate of return we've made on some of our recent options trades versus what we would have made had we just bought the stock. there's no comparison. to make the best returns in today's market, you have to learn how to trade options. and our book will show you how to do it for free. jon has been trading options for more than 30 years. pete is one of the top 100 traders in the country. and our book will teach you how to trade options for free. so call now. [ male announcer ] call the number on your screen now for your free copy of jon and pete's new book. that's... (see the number on your screen) call now.

what if there was a pill you could take that would trick your body into thinking it consumed a huge amount of calories?

a scientist has developed a pill that creates an imaginary meal. tough inflate it once you swallow it. no. in early tests on mice it halted weight gain. so we're going to have a bunch of thin mice running around. lowered cholesterol and reduced the level of unhealthy white fat. it sent out the same tigales that normally happens when you eat a lot of food. but there's no calories that you're ingesting. so no change in appetite. similar diet drugs have been developed but they affect similar organs and have unwanted side effects. they say this is different because it never reaches the blood stream. doesn't sound that different than getting the permanent lap thing, right? >> you know what? any time that i've eaten too much, it's not because i think i'm hungry. it's because i'm eating stuff that just tastes good. >> really? >> does this stop you from doing stuff like that? >> if you're full. you were so full you don't want to eat. >> so full you're going to throw

up? >> i hope not. because you've already said you ride in a car backwards, you throw up. you ride in a plane you throw up. i worry about here. >> hey, i didn't throw up on you nine months of being pregnant. >> i know. that's true. >> you lucked out. >> i did keep my distance though. >> yes, you did. you tried your best. >> i worry about it all. >> you got lucky. when we come back this morning, the return of an '80s icon. it will help personalize your music experience. we have the answer straight ahead. but first peter orszag on washington and wall street.

♪

you might as well take advantage of it. go out and go ice skating. >> those people were having a nice skating lesson there. >> let's look at the stocks on the move today. el pollo loco upgraded. pharmacy serving 14% at walgreens. and a smaller cap looks to be a loser at this hour. xoom says nearly $31 million was fraudulently transferred to overseas accounts. the cfo is resigning a month on the job. >> and moving overseas where the money is? >> i don't know. >> good deal. one month. no probably not what happened.

gm says its onstar program may help you get a break on car insurance. oh, boy. it will grade a car owner's driving record for 90 days. i do not want this. measures things such as how fast your accelerate. oh boy. how hard you brake if you ever do. and if you get a good score, you can choose to have your information sent to progressive insurance for a possible discount. the story is raising some concerns about driving data and privacy. you've been in my car too. >> i have. very scared. >> we have video of that. >> my wife the other day with the kids in the car, i did something. she says every time i get in here i say i'm never going to ride with you again. i said we're married! you're never going to ride with me? >> obviously she knows you well. >> never going to get in this car again. in the meantime, let's talk oil, the election and more. joining us is peter orszag.

vice chairman at citi group. our guest host dick kovacevich is also here this morning. we haven't gotten your take on what you think of the slide and oil prices. >> i think we're seeing a bit of an overreaction. but i would say it's not right to say no one called this. not quite the extent. but ed morris has been saying for a significant period of time that we were going to see lower oil prices for, you know that basically $100 a barrel is over. and our predictions are for $60 to $70 especially on wti for, you know as far as the eye can see. >> we could have used that on the show. >> it was public. >> well i know. but we'll have him on. we obviously didn't call him and you didn't call us peter. >> sorry about that. >> you think it's bouncing back

and bouncing back quickly? >> i don't know how quickly. we think on average during 2015 more $60 to $70 than $50 to $60. we'll see. >> you talking years down the road? >> years down the road. the supply revolution especially from u.s. mexico north america is massive. >> and you don't worry about the demand? we've been talking about this demand issue as well. >> the demand is playing a role also, but i believe the bulk of what's happened here is supply driven. >> and what's your take on greece right now. >> it's a concern. i think ultimately there will be some deal that's worked out in which debt is renegotiated to some degree. >> for investors waking up this morning and thinking the sky is falling from yesterday, is it -- you imagine it's going to continue to fall? you don't want to conflate those issues? >> don't conflate stock prices and the economy. i'm more bullish on the real

economy than dick is. i think we will see 3% growth. we have been for the past three quarters now. and into early 2015. stock market is going to go up and down. the oil price decline is still a net positive for the u.s. economy. greece is a concern. but let's hope it gets worked out awkwardly. >> what did your oil guy, what did he see? he didn't see it from the demand perspective? he saw it from the supply perspective? technically it was at $90 or $95. and we heard about fracking. but it was stuck there but it never went up on any of the geopolitical stuff in iraq and isis and all this stuff was happening. things were getting shut down. >> another thing is obviously there's -- it's more complicated. >> the fed was exiting. >> not only that but there is the different types of crude.

and refining and what have you. and so you have to go kind of well by well. >> he could see it didn't make sense. pretty amazing. >> so go to washington with us for a minute. keystone. in the context of the politics of the moment. do you think the president does? >> i actually -- i mean i heard you all saying the reporting is -- i have no inside information. >> you have no inside line on that. we have a better idea than you do about what they're going to do. should have never said that. >> let me ask you an election question. let's go 2016 for a second. >> yes. >> democratic party. do you think hillary's the presumptive nominee, but do you think elizabeth will show up? >> no. i think hillary clinton is the only person who can bridge the divide within the left and centrist but there's going to be

a war over -- >> does she get forced to move farther over and what does that do to her likability if you will, from those in the center? >> a bit. i think this is the classic tension between a primary and general election. you get pulled during the primary. you have to make sure you don't get pull too far to the extrooemextreme. >> do you think it's her time or that it's too late? in your heart of hearts in the general. >> i think she would be a great president. >> you think b she can get elected? >> yes, i do think she can get elected. that being said -- >> popularity has come down a lot. >> this is not like a -- >> no book sales. >> the country is effectively split 50/50. so every presidential election -- >> do you think it will be bush/clinton? we don't need to print up new forms. >> if it is bush versus clinton, what's interesting about that is

since dwight hooizeisenhower got elected that was expected to be president at some point. it was all very much kind of from nowhere or seen as a lightweight. >> or people were so sick of the last person we had that they'll take anything. >> we also have to realize in that today's media and with the press scrutiny and twitter and what have you, we build everyone up. every president is going to disappoint. it doesn't matter. >> i mean they always disappoint the other party. >> dick is jeb your presumptive nominee on the republican side? >> yes. >> you'd take him over christie? >> i would. but in my opinion, it's going to be a battle. we're going to have the primaries versus the general election. but i think he is at the moment the most electable for a president. but he's going to be a battle.

>> is there a dark horse on either side you think emerges that we're not thinking about or talking about? >> i think on the democratic side if hillary wins it's going to be hard for a dark horse. i think jeb is probably the most forceful of kind of electable republican. but there are going to be others who enter. so it's a little different in the two parties. >> here's a wall street question for you -- actually for both of you. this goes to sort of the elizabeth warren issue which is she's always wanted to break up the banks. do you think that that is going to be a conversation that's going to come back during the elections? i don't know if you saw it. there was a report out just talking about the valuations of and benefits of possibly breaking up jp mohr prks morpmorganjpmorgan. do you think that's something we'll be talking about as the election season begins? >> i doubt it. some people have said with the new republican congress we'll see rolling back a lot of parts of financial legislation. i also don't think that's likely. i think there will be perhaps some rhetoric.

>> what do you think of the valuation the goldman sachs is saying there's 25% upside in breaking up an institution like jpmorgan given what they're doing with capital requirements with that bank. >> i think that could be the case in the short-term. i think it's a huge mistake. if there's one thing we should know about what causes banks to fail, it's concentration of risk. you have to be diversified. and i can't think of anything worse than having four businesses that are very concentrated in their space. that is a recipe for failure. >> did you ever meet gruber? >> yes. >> what'd you think of him? >> i thought he was a m.i.t. professor who knew a lot about health care. and obviously -- >> how many times did you meet with him? >> no no. like, i co-authored a paper with john gruber. >> do you think i'm stupid too? not me but -- i know you think i'm stupid.

let me ask -- >> well, you -- >> by definition as a conservative i must be stupid. >> not only here but on the show. >> i must be stupid by definition. you have talked about the cost curve being bent even though i don't really think that was the affordable care act's main -- there was more access. some people argued it's because we've had a slow economy, there's been underutilization. others talk about key dates coming up in the future where we will see some of critics' concerns coming to roost. >> first, everyone agrees health care costs have slowed down dramatically. that's a great thing. fact one. fact two, the economy is playing some role in that slowdown. >> when do we see -- will premiums skyrocket? >> here's the thing. the reason i think something big structural is going on there's

no evidence that medicare is affected by the economy at all. and medicare has slowed down dramatically. last year in 2014 real medicare spending when beneficiary declined. >> is that because of the new people that went into it? >> no. even if you control for demographics, no. there is something significant going on and -- >> the cause and effect is because of obamacare? or we don't know why? >> i think there are multiple things that directionally the law helped. but it's driven by digitization. it's driven by the reality and the perception that we're moving away -- here's what needs to happen at this point. many hospital administerers are worried they have one foot on the vote and the-- boat and the dock. we need to go to paying for value. what the administration needs to do sooner rather than later is say lay out the time path.

we are going to hit, you know, 50 % of payments by this date 75% by this date. this is how we'll get there. right now there's this blob out there. we don't know how and when we're going to get there. >> thank you. >> and good luck in your new digs. >> thank you. >> you'll be in more then. >> we'll see. up next seacrest in. our julia boorstin catching up with this generation's dick clark on all his ventures. plus the return of a tech icon. it helped transform sony into an electronics powerhouse. and now the walkman -- what do you mean coming back? i still use it. the walkman is making a comeback.

now you can lose inches off your waistline. effortlessly. thanks to the new super walkman from sony. >> oh how the times have changed. sony making a splash with its new walkman. aside from the iconic brand name, the new zx-2 boasts on board storage and a touch screen display. it also improves on the original walkman by connecting to the internet and not being the size of a book. but the real focus will be on high end audio.

supporting all of this latest audio files, big difference between b the original walkman and the new walkman. also the price tag. the original one about $200. this new one just about $1200. >> wow. >> 1200 bucks. get an iphone or something. >> you are the ryan seacrest of business. >> we're all trying. >> ryan seacrest can't stop working. "american idol," "new year's rocking eve." the "today" show a clothing line. and now the consumer electronics show our julia boorstin caught up with him to talk about his controversial keyboard and much more. julia? >> that's right, joe. ryan seacrest is here to promote the typo 2. it's a keyboard that slides over your iphone or ipad. soon after it was introduced last year the company was sued by blackberry.

seacrest wouldn't comment on the pending litigation but he says this device is a game changer for how he works. >> i like the feeling of those keys. and so for me when i first started typing on a virtual keyboard i thought, my gosh i'm going to lose a job. because i can't reply to everything and i'm saying things i don't mean to say in my replies. and i still sometimes say things i don't mean to say, but i do less of that. >> now, seacrest says he does not invest much in the stock market, but he invested in and cofounded typo because he wanted the product himself. part of a strategy of investing in what he understands. >> i try to think about something that i can add value to. not just you know capital, but where i can add some value as well. and think strategically about it. this i knew was right for me because i needed it myself.

>> i also asked seacrest who has produced dozens of shows from "keeping up with the kardashians" to "dick clark's new year's eve" if he was concerned about cord cutting. he says he's betting big on the power of live events. >> i believe that live events are probably more valuable than they used to be. i believe that we now are incorporating better integration into live events so there can be more ad dollars there. not that it's reinventing the wheel, but we've come a long way in terms of integration. >> what he means is product integration, a whole new way to do advertising. he says he thinks there's never been a better time to be a content producer. and he doesn't care where people watch his content as long as they're watching. >> julia, thank you. do you have one of those, by the way? >> oh, yeah. i had the original one last year. and i just got the new one yesterday from ryan. we did a little typing test to

see who was faster. if he was faster with the keyboard or i was faster without it. i have to say, i am really fast on my iphone because i where a lot of scripts on it. but it makes a big difference. you can type a lot faster on this. especially if you're originally a blackberry user. >> i want one. >> i really like it. >> all right, julia. thank you. up next we'll be talking to jim cramer on what investors should be doing today after yesterday's big selloff. check out the futures right now. you're going to see that at this point it looks like the futures are up by about 30 points for the dow. up by about three points for the s&p 500. "squawk" will be right back.

let's get down to the new york stock exchange. jim cramer joins us. the market was worried about the

falling oil prices yesterday and greek exit. you have looked at this as the really good positive news. is this just short-term we have to get through before we get the benefits of lower oil prices? >> yes. there are 16 states indirectly affected. six states directly affected. if you take a look it's about 28 million people versus 317 all together. i'm listening to my hero dick. his common sense approach is the way you've got to go. >> he's been talking about there are buying opportunities. do you see those, too? >> yesterday someone downgraded wells fargo. what's the point? you want to get in ahead of a net interest margin number that might not be that great? buy it back at $52? that's what i'm seeing from analysts. i don't want to play that way. i want to be involved in the great resurgency of the united states. oil is coming down. i want to own wells fargo. it's almost insulting when i see

these downgrades. >> jim, thanks so much. we'll see more of you in a couple of minutes. >> okay. when we return the final block of "squawk box" on this set. in new jersey a look at our new home located in midtown manhattan. we wrap things up. financial noise financial noise financial noise

say you're a finance guy. a farmer. a researcher. you used to depend on experience. the internet. your gut. today you can use ibm watson analytics.

it can make sense of all kinds of data. uncover hidden correlations and new opportunities. and give recommendations with more confidence on who will buy. what to make. where to plant. which helps you make smarter decisions. there's a new way to work and it's made with ibm.

dick you were talking about you think these lower oil prices create a buying opportunity. >> i'm invested in the stock market. i think the market is fully valued at the moment. i think you need to keep about 10% or 15% in cash to buy fallen angels. i would oil stocks as that. you've got chevron close to $100 paying 4% dividend. you've got exxon when it gets in the mid $80s paying 3%. you get paid to wait. i'm not saying it's the bottom. i can't pick the bottom nor the top. getting paid to wait at these prices are good. then the corrections in the market. buy on corrections. at the moment i'm fairly fully invested except for the 10%. a lot of that is dividend stocks

as a replacement for bonds. banks are paying good dividends. utilities, pharmaceuticals, et cetera. i've been buying lately because those prices have been high. i did get in the oil prices the last month when you see what's happening there. >> anything else you've been watching in the market? anything else that concerns you either in the economies or the market? >> well what concerns me -- let me put the positives out. i think if we can get our political parties working together. they should be motivated to do that. republicans didn't win the last election. they have to have a positive agenda if they are going to keep the senate in 2016 and win the presidency. obama has a legacy problem in terms of the worst recovery that happened. i think there is room to get together and do the right thing for the american people for a change. if that happens, i think we can have 3% plus growth. that's going to be great for the

bond markets, great for employment. see if it happens. >> thank you for being here today. >> tomorrow we are going to kick off a new beginning for "squawk box." we are moving to new york to the city where business never sleeps. same team same off the charts access probably more. just a little closer to the action. one of the longest-running shows in business television will call midtown manhattan home. we'll be across the street from the famed radio city music hall. we were there over the weekend checking out the new digs getting ready for the go tomorrow. check out the lineup for our first show. lloyd blankfein. bill ackman. can he do it again? can he do it the way he did it again? he can, right? the law has not been changed. >> yes. he made $12 million a day or

something. david stern. check it out "squawk box live" here on cnbc. now it's time for "squawk on the street". happy birthday to joe fuhrman. so far free market all that encouraging. downgrades at work including ge. oil is down. we hit $48.47 earlier in the morning. just above that level. yields at record lows around the globe. u.s. ten years below