-- i think it's going to be -- i mean hopefully we will be able to do it. i think we will -- it will i think, be great for people. >> looks awesome. as a new yorker i hope it works. appreciate what you've done for the high line and all of than thank you for being here coming in. see you next week. >> or not. >> sure. >> but you have to travel to where i am. very far away. >> we can arrange that. >> we can arrange that. >> that's it for us today. join us tomorrow. time for "squawk on the street." good thursday morning. welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer david faber at new york stock exchange. we're down four straight days. talk about whipsaw action this morning, as the swiss national bank abandons its cap against the euro cuts rates. more on what that means. citi and b of a under whelming bank earnings. ppi came in cool.

we'll be discussing this much of the morning. oil back with a five-handle after the rally. first time oil's been above 50 since january 6th. road map begins with surprise surge in the swiss franc after the national bank scraps the currency floor set in 2011. in turn volatility jumps and markets around the world. >> bank of america shares down in the premarket with profits and revenues both coming in below expectations. >> and target best buy moving dramatically in premarket but opposite directions. we'll explain why in a moment. first up surprising news out of switzerland, the swiss national bank scrapping exchange rate. it was the end of a currency floor set back in 2011 to head off deflation and in response, swiss franc surges against the euro major currencies. the swiss markets down 9%. people wondering trying to get out of the way of draghi next week. >> well, i guess so. i mean this is a puzzling move because typically you don't do

something that you know is going to hurt your country don't do something without prep you don't wake up one morning and basically destroy your competitiveness. i think it's going to puzzle people. i also think what it's going to do is make the people who are so aware of what's happening in europe say wow, it's even scarier than i thought. and i don't want to be a pollyanna but i have to ask, what does this have to do with the price to earnings ratio of bristol-myers? >> virtually nothing, but it could have something to do with price-to-earnings ratio of novartis. >> which is up big. nestle must be getting killed. >> no other way around. all of those are up. >> other than the cuckoo clock, third man, we can overweight switzerland in our minds because switzerland has played a big role historically. but this is something that i think is going to traumatize people and it is truly shakespeare. full of sound and fury signifying nothing. >> people argue this morning

this was not well communicated at all. in fact, flies in the face of what they've said in the past few months. >> yes. >> we'll talk more about the swiss in a moment. >> inconsistent as best buy. >> breaking news regarding cuba today. michelle caruso-cabrera is in new york. >> we have been waiting for the actual regulations that were going to be put out by treasury when it comes to announcement by obama in december about re-establishment of relations because a lot of financial changes that were going to happen. they have come out this morning. they go into effect tomorrow. i believe that means tomorrow will be the first time since 2004 that cuban cigars will be permitted into the united states. only $100 worth, won't buy you many. significant changes, most what we saw before howeverer more explicit about the telecom equipment allowed into the country. they've included software. some people who read that suggest that because of all of the issues with secrecy, et cetera perhaps considering

taking cuba off the state sponsor of terrorism list. they've said that cuban exiles traveling back bring as much as $10,000 worth of cash provided going to humanitarian purposes private endev ofavors as well. questions raised by congress whether or not violation of the embargo because will that be indirect financing to cuban government expressly prohibited under law. there's also what's called third country effects. doing business outside the united states, things have and gotten easier if you're a bank who wants to do business with cuban national outside cuba that's controversial, as well. from what i can tell those are the most significant announcements there nothing on certified claims. remember, u.s. companies have registered claims with the u.s. treasury where they're owed roughly what would be $7 billion worth from the cuban government which was seized by -- due to property seize back in the '60s no clarity whether or not anything related to that nor on all of the sovereign debt that

cuba has defaulted on as well. many hedge funds in london own a lot of the debt because they expect some point they're going to have to do some kind of negotiation related to that. for those travelers there right now, traveling back tomorrow carl, maybe we'll see cuban cigars arriving legally to miami. we know they've been arriving illegally for a long time. >> policy's changing quickly. i'm sure not the last we'll hear from you. michelle caruso-cabrera at squawk set in new york. regarding all of that foreign currency stuff, steve liesman's exclusive interview with head of the imf, christine lagarde, this afternoon at 12:15 p.m. eastern time. >> oil going down talking about .9% increase in global gdp, kind of drowned out by negatives. i hope she doesn't change her mind because oil's up today. >> moving on to bank earnings bank of america, 25 cents a share a miss. revenues below consensus. hurt by fixed income trading. citi missing as well quarterly numbers on legal charges.

lowest eps since the fourth quarter of '09, lowest revenues in a year jim. >> very disappointing. bank of america, very disappointing. you know, first of all, it's confusing, hard to couldn'tunderstand, noninterest income down 9% mortgage banking, book 14.4 ing looking for relief from the government, maybe you get. didn't pick on the government. not talking about five to six regulators coming after them. this is not the quarter i wanted to see from bank of america. i felt this would be the quarter where you saw the loan demand like wells fargo and didn't have this kind of feel that it's really gunslinger and that now they're not going to like the temple, but that's okay you have the term that you use, the trading desk the merrill trading profits, i don't want to hear about it why i'm going circle back and say wells fargo when we look at the quarter, put all of the numbers together wells fargo's going to go higher, not lower, because that

conference call that quarter, was good. >> jpmorgan's not particularly good. comments from jamie dimon on the call with journalists caught the most headlines. >> when you curse, you get headlines. >> i suppose. funny, i listened to it i thought, well all right. >> x-rated conference call. >> he did. yeah. stepping in dog stuff, yeah. >> i guess, i guess. but, more to the point, jpmorgan didn't do particularly well yesterday, as a result of unexpected charges associated with litigation boa has had more than its share. citi this morning, you know i'm curious, as to the continued reviews on the leadership of mr. corbett. >> disappointed citi mike corbett had really given you clarity that maybe the charges were almost done. obviously there's this kind of a bifurcation in this cart quarter. wells fargo no legal, wells

fargo reversal of bad loans, wells fargo ate through the bad loans of the companies they bought. citi, i'm trying -- mike corbett was not responsible for what citi did, i thought that they would start -- that we'd see the end. mike's forthcoming guy. i expected a better quarter there, too. but when we saw, i guess, those salary -- the cuts we should have realized. i'm a believer in corvette. i think the moynihan i've got to tell you, the bank stay away from financials and you'll do fine. financials are 18% of s & p. >> a difficult time, not only citi, but bank of america, in terms of fixed income trading. numbers, horrific numbers from jeffrey's which prestaged. one wonders what we'll see from the like of goldman sachs and morgan stanley the personally advisory business is so important but they do trade at these firms.

>> my charitable trust, of all of these, morgan i think he'll deliver a clean one. i think morgan stanley will be clean. wells fargo was clean, let that stock come down. when you read bank of america, these are very hard to understand so you have to do more work than -- i don't mean to be cursory, you have to sit down, talk to people. on the face of it this is just not such a hot quarter for banks. >> no. >> if rates went up we'd be talking positive. >> as earnings season began, s&p bank earnings expected to go up three year on year. now, expecting minus two, due to poor results we've already seen. >> it's eye opening. the lending -- they don't make much on lending because of the curve. they're not making much money on deposits because of the yield curve. they neath need rate relief, a rate hike. i come back to wells fargo, exemplary bank they are exactly what you need. by the way, there's a line with

john stumps is energy positive decline in energy? he says i don't know we have 70 million depositors, they pump gasp is there more to it? >> right. we talk often about the major cap banks here of course. but what about the midrange mid tier banks? we haven't had any consolidation, by the way, for so many years. of course big banks are not going to be able to do anything when it comes to m and a. there is an argument to be made as we finally really get away from the crisis years already having passed we will see more consolidation anoongsmongst that second down tier. perhaps that's where the focus should be. >> new bank that became public. i'm close to suntrust charitable trust owns it they'll have the same problems net interest margin bb&t did not have a good quarter last quarter. maybe get first horizon. very good banks in strong region regions.

expect commercial will transsent but they don't transcend. >> is bb & t, susquehanna type deal replicated and scaled. >> i think they're waiting for the government to go away. >> i don't know that it's going to prevent them prevent them as opposed to jpmorgan wants to do something, that ain't happening. citi wants to do something, that ain't happening. >> talking about big personalities not going to get together. >> not going to get together. >> maybe you need to go down a bit, $15 billion market cap or so maybe in that range. >> look, the old days used to get wells fargo up. old days you get -- you'd wake up and see that the third and fifth largest banks around philadelphia combine. if you look at what wells fargo's saying there are few regional banks of any consequence anymore because of the fact that wells, frankly, took advantage of the great recession and bought everybody they needed to. they're juggernaut. hard to go up against stump.

when you meet stumf it's forbidding thing. first thing he says he doesn't say hi he says who's your banker? i want to do your business. really hi i'm jim cramer. >> sometimes talking about richard sherman, you know? >> right. >> meet him, hard to go up against him. >> i love sherman. love r. sherman. i love him. sent me a signed jersey. >> we all know. >> i know. people hate it. i'm done talking about sherman. >> hands, let me tell you -- >> until he's done winning the super bowl i'm not going to mention sherman. >> when we come back target shares on the rise but a rough morning for best buy. tale of two retailers coming up. markets sold off wednesday, gamestop, one of the big winners on upbeat sales new. ceo what is working for the video game retailer. premarket, 700 points off all-time highs on the dow looking to get some of it back this morning.

more "squawk on the street" in a moment.

♪ ♪ target shares up 4%. exiting canada business after two years, saying it couldn't find a realistic scenario to get

to profitability until at least 2021. target reporting stronger than expected total company sales based on performance during holiday season. people saying good riddance store were never as good as in the states. >> never made money, very important. opened up all at once. i understand that it was actually, you look at numbers, say it's a couple billion dollar loss no $7 billion loss start to finish. equivalent of the bridge too far. this was the -- honest operation market garden, opened at once parachuted into canada. the whole operation wiped out. makes sense. >> talk to you for a second. sometimes in our dialogue reporting can get lost in the shuffle. you mentioned number right now that i don't think i've heard. >> nobody has. >> $7 billion. >> no. >> i assume a function of your reporting. $7 billion in losses jim? >> previous administration of target was travesty.

the idea nordstrom's, go on conference call, opened one store this year in calgary and worried that -- >> how do you lose $7 billion with 133 stores? >> you can't open that many stores the infrastructure you flick a switch? no, built stores everywhere and took existing stores. this was did this -- we'll look back, the biggest blunder in history of retail cornell has -- >> well there's other good ones. >> what, federated/allied. >> ron johnson as ceo. >> this may top that. >> but that said all right -- >> that was the biggest blunder . >> $7 billion in losses from reporting. >> $2 billion -- >> it's a good move. >> great balance sheet, fantastic move. canada's hard to understand. major distraction. target one of the retailers i've been saying has had incredibly good christmas. remember -- >> they had seen q4 u.s. up two, now talking more like three. >> cornell is the tough guy,

he's like eisenhower in '44, enough of this we're not going to do this crazyinesscraziness. this is a very tough business decision by a tough businessman who is going to make target into what we remember target being. great growth. this is why i said retail number, yesterday, made no sense to me because this is the kind of -- this is the beginning of the rerating of target. the stock's up a lot already, but target's going back to being a great retailer. maybe a good retailer. >> shrink to grow. >> he didn't do it. look, last conference call go back, november 19th conference call, canada expecting better fourth quarter, didn't get it. to succeed in canada need a major step change in performance. the fact is giving where performing today we need improved financial performance for every target store in canada they didn't see it so he closed. gutsy call. gutsy call. well done brian cornell. >> best buy shares falling, despite good holiday comps. the best holiday comps since

2009, guide lower on margins for 2015 despite strength in televisions, jim this will get hurt today. >> you know, i went through the release. are they kidding? why didn't they somehow suggest to anyone anyone in the business, that perhaps it was even more promotional, like first line in release, it was promotional. promotional? i mean these guys i'll give them this gigantic online people say amazon's losing share to them or online's bigger than expected. but this was a major dis disappointment. and i think a lot of it had to do with the fact we thought they were having a great christmas. they gave the stuff away. >> phones are going to soften post iphone 6. >> they did. >> there's a note saying you can't buy apple here because next year won't be as good for -- you know trade apple. but i point out ultra-high-def tv positive note on corning, that could spur sales. i mean best buy has to communicate things better

because i -- everyone who followed the company thought this was a breakout quarter. not a breakdown quarter. >> interesting of the use of the word "deflationary." >> yeah. mario draghi and best buy management. >> whether fmoc looking at that. weak demand people not buying extended extended warranties. >> domestic revenue declined 1.5% comp declined. international down 8%. domestic online revenue, 3.2 billion plus 23.5%, people buying online i'm have -- i can buy it online i doesn't have to get all of the -- i don't have to -- the gopro, buy the tv give me a gopro, that's not happening. you're going to the website, they have a gopro. >> this is a company two years ago, which we were talking about as being in desire straits with stock traiting 15 bucks a share or less potential for lbo never

able to get finance to happen. >> right. >> everybody talking about them being amazoned, two years hence, the conversation more positive with not great numbers. >> they're the show room for best buy. because you want the stuff delivered to your door if you company the stuff's heavy. i mean heavy stuff. but, look best buy is not as dis disappointment, it is disappointing versus what we felt was going to happen and that does matter. it's a guidance issue. >> cramer's mad dash count down to opening bell premarket. stocks at lowest since january 6th. back in a moment from post nine.

♪ ♪ ♪ strike it up i want to i want to♪ >> we've got six minutes before opening bell. quickly back to target before mad dash. >> astonishing. 4.5 billion in canadian dollars, i want to say that 2.5 billion operating losses the parachute in canada 4.5 billion canadian capital just incredible. it does -- ron johnson's got to be saying you know what? i'm feeling pretty good today because he's more stupid than i am. sorry to use stupid how about misinformed? >> positives. merrill lynch, short squeeze going on oil. cash is king for oil. they think brent poised to go to 31. oil's up dramatically.

oil companies have to sell futures constantly they'll weigh on it any time it goes up got to bring cash flow. this note may mark closer to a bottom when you see someone say brent's going to 31 now you have to think maybe we find a place for it to bottom. >> we haven't talked about harold hamm continental the checks he's writing to his wife in the divorce. >> we didn't prepare we are were going there. >> personal low 68.7 million shares. came on mad money, oil at 81 continental, clr, are we in a situation we could see 60 oil? he said no. i asked him again, he goes i don't believe. i think oil back at 90 before you know it. >> we didn't change to clr. they're not listening. >> half right, it went to 45. okay. >> move on. exactly. half right. >> home builders, other day, kb

homes, woe is me home building. lennar delivers a terrific number great. whole group will trade unevenly but he it's true but remember the mortgage numbers, wells fargo came out with yesterday the best in what eight years? so you're going to see a pick up in housing. remember, though in the end, housing remains in recession building, 1 million homes, used to build 2 million homes as 2005, 2006 half as many people in the country. >> more people renting. there's a seminole change in willingness of people to own their home. maybe not a bad thing. 70% of the people don't need to own a home. we've got other dreams. >> other dreams. what dreams to we have. >> so many. >> american dream to own a car? get a raise. that's the american dream. >> happiness, first part. >> dally lamm ma. >> it wasn't opening your home. >> happiness. >> what's that about happiness? >> what's that about?

you're watching cnbc "squawk on the street," live from the financial capital of the world. opening bell in 20 seconds here. it's been a wild morning if you trade for exchange as swiss

national bank abandons its cap against the euro. earnings out of bank of america and citi. retail as well. best buy holiday comps up 3.4. >> i was looking at last year's be be careful, but revenues were up. that's you know i wanted to make the point. positive comps in revenues not negatives. >> opening bell. s&p at top of the screen. here at big board, irsa real estate company in argentina. nasdaq, "fashion queens" on bravo. what's going to set the tone here, jim. >> i think there's a sense, as crazy as it is if oil's up a crisis might be averted, the crisis is, as we go through every single one of the bank earnings, bank of america's exposure to oil, wells fargo mentioned three times you have there is kind of impending doom of oil keep going down and that

gets averted. so people buy stocks. it's not agood reason to buy stocks. you don't buy an airline stock because oil's going higher. anything that takes pressure off and allows oil companies to sell properties or sell futures, is regarded as positive. i would be very careful. what we want buy companies that have good earnings and you let go of the companies that have bad ones. >> gee, that's tough. i mean really that easy? >> kind of. >> sometimes it is what it is. >> look i done like financials but say, financial wells fargo's good blackrock is good. when i look at best buy i see, best buy would have been okay had they targeted things weren't so good but then i go back to target and i think, hey, $7 billion canadian losses never going to show a profit any time soon. maybe i look at nordstrom, had the good sense to move into one calgary store, which looks very nice from the website. >> what a day in retail target

and best buy, journal saying radioshack prompted -- ready to go into bankruptcy protection within a month. >> positive for -- positive for best buy, if radioshack disappears. >> it won't be 7, it will be an 11. it won't be circuit city which was benefit to best buy if radioshack chooses to reorganize. it will be a far smaller company. >> but circuit city when they went under did have major impact on best buy. >> no doubt. >> fabulous. much more comparable. >> no doubt. no doubt. i hesitate to mention blackberry but feel given the move down we should mention move up yesterday on a report that it had been approached or received offer from samsung, quickly refuted not just by blackberry but by samsung. don't often see both companies come out and say, no. that was the case.

it had effect of sending the stock price up sharply, jim. now blackberry's down 16.5%. >> irs responsible story. hard to see how you could be that wrong, both sides deny it, within 45-minute period. >> state of m&a reporting, someone who has done it longer than anyone else it's not what it was. >> raises eyebrows? >> yes. i'll do that. >> i'm in pursuit of happiness. >> curious to hear what reuters is saying after the story, after denied by both sides. but it's down another 15% today. >> it's got a higher -- seem to have a higher base. higher than it was when it started trading yesterday. >> i think people feel where there's smoke there's got to be a lit match somewhere. but this was very discouraging in terms of retail investors trying to figure out a reason to be in our stock market and they like blackberry, you know got 2.7 billion in cash. next thing you know, 13.15,

great credibility, it's reuters. we grew up in a world, reuters, if reuters says x -- >> we're in a world, listen publications well regarded writing things companies are thinking about doing. that is now a story. >> memo from a banker. >> or thinking about it where i make the point, companies, that's what they do they think about well should we do this? doesn't mean they're going to do it. it isn't necessarily news that they're thinking about something. i just refer to others the bar is much lower. >> well put. >> after kbh this week the bloodiness in housing, lennar's not a horror show. >> no. i -- look some of these companies, look remember i said you know, buy the good ones -- what i'm saying we're seeing certain managers buck headwinds, stewart miller buck a headwind. but at the same time he's in etf, his company's in etf in housing. so the etf blasts all of them

down and then you can buy lennar when the smoke clears. but the etfs more powerful than any individual performance. >> all right. meantime clippershipotle was not front of mind but company clarifying the pork supply situation that we talked about yesterday calling it fundamentally animal welfare decision, washington saying if they grow as quickly as they are not the last time they're going to have decisions to make like this. >> i think if you go to the website and look at some of their feature videos that they've done all excellent, they're dragging the whole agricultural complex into making stuff for them. and i can tell you, from happen to be -- i happen to be a vicious competitor of chipotle with my bar san miguel. >> they're shi think. on the call we'll crush cramer. i have to tell you, they have to get farmers to go their way and

doing. a farm woodstock thing going on. my favorite cfo in the world said over and over look we can pull up this industry. we can make moonfarmers go nor natural and organic. >> not sure who passed law that said biotechs can't go down but celgene, amgem up. celgene up 9% year to date. outdone by merck. you mentioned, some reporting, people may miss it, you think may have to do with alzheimer's treatment merck may one day have coming. i will say stocks have been strong to start the year whether biotech or pharma with bristol-myers up 7%. >> bristol-myers rerated a couple of drugs nobody's caulking about. mercking i believe have alzheimer's, they're not talking about it. >> with jpmorgan health care conference concluding today. >> we did some work.

after the conference stocks don't automatically go down. this time they had a big run. i had the arms dealer of the guys buy -- people feel the cube is deal bought a day too soon, the deal will work for merck. look at this thing, i mean this is the company that has -- makes cancer cells commit suicide -- good article in "the new yorker" i had every single day one or two, i got three biotechs today, they are doing things right now in immunotherapy changing death sentences. i'm going to say it changing death sentences. urgency of the fda saying listen, full speed ahead if you can save lives, full speed ahead. >> finally, earlier in the week you mentioned credit suisse upped apple to outperform talking about new return program, upping iphone numbers. today downgrading apple to neutral, downside they say to

mid-80s. they think apple watch sales disappointing and other things too. >> i hesitate. talking to flextronics the other day, wearables will take over. wearables are ways to be -- you have a gauge in your car engine maintenance required. we'll get that for humans. and i think wearable's going to surprise the upside. i understand why someone might say, nothing but buys on apple. there's an apple on wi. but if they do 10 in 2016 the stock goes to 80 is it going to sell eight times earnings with best balance sheet in the world and guy running it who wants the stock higher? i find that fanciful. maybe $10 number is wrong but i think it was an apple christmas and retail sales number did not include. >> meantime dow's down 13 points. bob pisani's on the floor. >> oil is at least not smacking around the stock market, carl. but we have a modest open but

defensive posturing. this has been the trend so far in 2015. put up major sectors leading here today. telecom, it's utilities, it's consumer staples, health care. and this has been the trend throughout the year. take a look at what we have been the sector leaders in 2015. this doesn't include the open but you can see we're up 2% utilities are up 1.4% consumer staples up 0.8%. sector laggards in 2015 are, no surprise here energy but also financials which are again lagging today. and industrials which are down 3.6%. the point here is this is a very much defensive posture that we have adopted so far in 2015. let's move on. of course, you've been talking about what's going on with swiss stocks. swiss stock market's down 10% now, as swiss national bank capped its cap on the franc or

ended the cap on the franc. important thing is most swiss stocks trading down 10%. put up the swiss banks that trade here in the united states. in dollar terms they are trading to dwrup side. ubs, credit suisse trading to upside but in dollar terms. swiss francs in switzerland banks are trading down about 10% right now. so this is a very good example of how currency can mess with the way returns are in the stock market. correct way to look at this swiss market down and this is problems for switzerland, they'll have a problem because imports are cheaper but exports are going to be more expensive. that's a problem for them. best buy, simple i know you talked about it great holiday sale but lousy guidance. 2.6% holiday sales. comparable stores online up 13%. should have stopped there. guidance flat to down comparable sales. and lower margins a problem. disappointing. mobile sales seemed to be

strong. home theater sales strong. people hoping this is conservative guidance. target i think the important thing here talked about canada but guidance up 3% versus guidance of 2% for q4. i thought that was great. traffic is stronger. digital sales stronger overall. i thought that was impressive. lennar, much better than expected. better than kb home. they did talk about somewhat slower margins but orders up 22%, selling price up 7%. all of that's pretty good. we didn't have anything near the drop that we had in k.b. home earlier. concerns here is just overall pressures you're going to see on costs 2015 in the home building industry. back to you. >> thanks bob pisani. all right. it's all about over but for the vote, of course. talking about the battle for family dollar going on between dollar general and dollar tree since dollar general chose to jump existing deal with dollar

tree late august august 20th we first heard from dollar general. why? dollar general puts press release out in which it has done nothing to advance its cause why shareholders should vote down on the 22nd of the month the current deal between family dollar and dollar tree making it all about a certainty that, in fact shareholders of family dollar will vote in favor of the transaction and it will become a done deal closing most likely towards end of february or perhaps early march. press release this morning dollar general gives us an update on what's go on with its ftc review. remember, that has been the key hurdle here, the reason why family dollar's board of directors has steadfastly clung to its deal with dollar tree because of the unwillingness of dollar general to go to a hel or high water provision in the merger agreement, whatever number required by the ftc, we will take it on you shareholders will be fine and

we'll get our consideration. in fact they have not done that. arguing all along that the number of investitures would be low, seaing they were willing go to 1500 when we told you earlier, family after speaking to ftc, believes the number could be as much as 4,000 stores for the combined companies. this morning, dollar general says, we're still working with ftc to further refine its analysis. we've concluded step of certifying substantial compliance with ftc's request for further information and to that end, we are still working towards certifying substantial compliance, we won't be done until february 10th. well calendar will tell you, february 10th well after the 22nd of january. and by then of course this deal is going to have been approved by family dollar shareholders. in the release, they go on to say in review of the proposes dollar general family dollar transaction ftc departed from the approach used to analyze

retail mergers over recent years and relied on untested theoretical model for predicting circumstances in which pricing will increase. perhaps covering themselves given their belief all along and antitrust attorneys that the divestitures required would be very low. for dollar general, of course well-run company jim, that is well regarded by shareholders. next thing they have to deal with retirement of the ceo. you may recall, the ceo last june told us he would be stepping down may 2015 if not sooner when replacement was found. he said i will delay that pending what happens here with our pursuit of family dollar and potentially the fact they were going to buy it. one would anticipate, i do not have confirmation from the company, he will revert to his previous statement and be stepping down as of may of 2015. so the board of directors of dollar general going to have one would expect focus on succession the that company for

family dollar of course they didn't get the raise out of dollar tree they might have hoped for. they weren't helped by the nasty earnings the company reported a week or so ago but did well for shareholders, given choices available, given the multiple they are getting. the stock of course is down because a lot of the extra premium coming out 0 of it as a result that dollar general's higher economic offer is not one that shareholders are going to take or in a position to take given risk that came with it. >> you broke a story yesterday, people didn't believe it dollar general's not coming back. now, i found release puzzling because 5,000 stores for 1500 ftc is the arbiters here. >> they are. >> they may disagree the way ftc's doing something. they mentions walmart, for instance. but in the end, there's no -- it's not the united agency of dollar general. i mean you can disagree all you want but in the end the ftc -- >> decides. you can take them to court but

shareholders are not going to sit around with no guarantee a deal's going to close -- >> people have taken ftc to court. >> they have. absolutely. vote's 22nd. dollar tree's going to win. bond pits. rick santelli at cme group in chicago. >> wow lots of volatility. two day of tens couple things jump out at you. of course kind of in a zone but losing it here. the way rates have started to come down here if you're an equity trader i would pay attention todown downside of stocks. dynamic moving treasuries or anticipation of equity volatility to downside. two days of 30s fascinating weep did not get our close, challenging all-time closing low yield of 2.45. but it was very close. and that done mean it's not going to happen. dipping below it again. friday in front of the three-day weekend, tomorrow's close going to be key as if there's more downside in rates. but the reason all of this

volatility obviously the swiss. but markets have to rejigger and this takes a while and it's creating volatility. here's something. 20-year of swiss ten-year rates. low is two base points trading eight basis points and all the way out to their seven year is now negative yields. irayra harris told me in the history of the grorld his perspective modern times doesn't know there's ever a negative seven-year rate until the swiss. and to the best of his knowledge, never a ten-year negative rate. swiss are looking like they'll breach that envelope as well. let's look at a june 2014 dollar versus swiss. because that's last time we'll hear. it's not like ages ago. here's the chart you want to see. the euro versus the swiss for 20 years because that's the chart that's most important. now, let's look at what's going on with swiss on their stock side. here's what's fascinating. if you're in switzerland and you're holding swiss, your stock

portfolio got decimated. if you're in america or in europe, or you're in any other country and in order to buy that dip you have to buy currency and currency is rallied. there's a real issue here with regard to how it affects domestic. the reason i bring this up this really shows how currency manipulation goes unnoticed by the people in the said country. but when you see shocks like this, it's awful enlightening who it penalizes, who it rewards and how adjustment in interest rates is sure to follow. >> rick santelli thanks so much. >> when we return market zuckerberg takes a shot at google glass. what he had to say about wearables when we come back. dow's down 45 after 4 days down. early gains are slipping. back in a moment.

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trade up in premarket. now oil goes down everybody, the futures guys buying sell this is the whipsaw activity. find something you like and own it and buy more if it goes lower but don't trust the market. it just not right. >> stop trading with jim, with the dow down 53, in a minute. constipated? .yea dulcolax tablets can cause cramps but not phillips. it has magnesium and works more naturally than stimulant laxatives. for gentle cramp free relief of occasional constipation that works! mmm mmm live the regular life.

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time for cramer and "stop trading trading." >> i like retail that can put up new units and have comparable sales opco out with long-term note about ulta people say, cramer, you love ulta ceo's terrific. poe pension potential potential. generate a lot of cash. this is what growth stock guys want. you want to read why a retailer goes higher read the ulta report. >> "mad" tonight. >> more biotech. by the end of the day, if oil goes up, biotech goes higher. nuts. biomarin, strongest stock, that stock's the great untold orphan

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good thursday morning. welcome back to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with sara eisen, simon hobbs, david faber. crazy day for markets. stocks going for fifth day down. dow's down 89 points. a lot of action in the swiss currency, bank earnings to work with retail news as well. oil's going to drive action currently down one and a third percent. >> to rick santelli at cme with breaking news on philly fed. rick? >> january philly fed, 6.3, not necessarily the 18 they were looking for. below the 24.5. think, right around thanksgiving 40.2 cycle high. 6.3 the weakest number since

negative 2 in february of last year. so just shy of one year if we look at internals, there's wild activity there if you look at employment index, minus 2 versus positive 8.4. if you look at new orders 8.5 versus last look at 13.6. we are getting spat of data that isn't up to the snuff that we were looking for especially as we try to get our arms around what the economy's doing. remember the markets are weird in fixed income because of lack of sustainable consistent growth. this adds into dynamic. simon hobbs, back to you. >> a lot going on. rick. switzerland central bank shocking markets, no longer keep safe haven currency cheap for the sake of its own ex-porters. for three years the swiss national bank intervenes in the market selling francs and buying euros to keep the euro artificially high at 120. under the weight of cash fleeing

russia and the pocket of massive ecb money printing from next week for sovereign qe smb feared that they might lose control of the operation and that floor would break. so today the smb publicly abandoned its target, sparking panic, krautoutcry from ex-porters and sending the swiss franc spiraling higher. andrew berkeley and raymond james' chief economist, scott brown. scott, to parrot back for people investing in the country, what is the most important thing to say, do you think the ecb might be about to embark on sovereign qe? >> if you remember back in october, we had the imf downgrading its global outlook but they also highlighted downside risk particularly to europe. and i think that's what this is all about. you're now in a new dangerous phase, i think, for the eurozone crisis. a couple years ago it was just

about the survive ability of the monetary union. and now it's really about a battle against the possibility of deflation or at least extended period of stagnation. looking at relatively weak growth. but considerable downside risk. the ecb really is the only game in town. i mean first couple policy would likely be very very effective, but it's dead politically. so that means you know ecb can't lower interest rates anymore, have to embark on quantitative easing. >> does that send markets here higher? >> i would -- two months ago before the collapse in oil prices and commodity prices i would have said ecb action the next big seg catalyst for the market. the deflationary forces flowing through with this big drop of commodity prices has trumped than even with ecb action next week i don't think that's the big positive stimulus. i think we're going it have to wait until commodity prices inflation expectations bottom out before we see more of a risk

on environment which means stocks higher. >> i was wondering, you have this idea that everything that's happening is happening over there, whether it's the swiss move, whether the ecb, whether deflation ashe forces. does this make u.s. assets in stocks bonds and currencies more attractive as a safe haven, which has been the trade of 2014 and continues to be supported by fundamentals? >> yeah i think that's the trade of 2015. u.s. fundamentals are bigger but to your point, this deflationary force is not just contained in europe. this is a global phenomena going on now. we're seeing in earnings season you know people are going to be looking for companies with pricing power. that's a big theme. there's not a lot of pricing power out there. >> as a note if you talk strictly about safe haven flows, the swiss franc is it because now they'll let the swiss franc appreciate. you want to make a trade and make money on a currency if you believe the swiss franc is going

higher, that's a big move. a lot of people have made money on swiss assets. >> yes, gold prices picking up as well. so those two go hand in hand. and we've seen you know bond market reashth positively. >> is gold the move? what is protection against all of this? a lot of people say there's a currency war, it's only going to get trickier. the reason the swiss did this is costlier and more expensive. scott, when you hear currency war, when you hear tensions and everything, does that mean you need to own gold? how do you protect yourself? >> well, i think what we're seeing with the swiss, it's the opposite of the currency war. they were trying to keep currency from appreciating. now they've let it go. i would add that you know if you remember a couple years ago when worried about the euro area, a lot of the flight to safety went to germany. so it stayed in euros. you're seeing flight to safety going to swiss. but also to the u.s. so you're looking at a stronger

dollar in the u.s. you're looking at fallen commodity price, that should be beneficial for the u.s. consumer. we'll have some companies obviously that do business in europe seeing slower earnings growth loss in currency translation. there's a possibility of a much bigger risk down the line that you could see some global financial market disruptions if europe spirals out of control. that's not a high probability event but it's there. >> okay. okay. boil down the message each into one sentence, if we may, take away from this morning, andrew? >> from what you see this morning the fight against globing deflation and the fear that central banks have that we're not going to get pricing power, which means fed on hold for longer push expectations way back in 2015 u.s. stocks do well in that environment. >> scott brown? >> you're still looking at global risk soft global economy but u.s. ultimately benefits that mostly from a strong dollar lower commodity

presence. >> thank you both andrew scott. >> a big week for the banks, slew of earnings out of wall street including bank of america and citi. banks trading lower after missing estimates. let's bring in jason goldberg of barclays, talk about the latest two earnings that we got. good morning. >> good morning. looking at b of a, when 393 million in litigation expenses seems low, that tells you the world we're living in. >> fair point. fair point. >> what do you make of that? what do you make of the noninterest expense, lowest since merrill? >> they've done a great job on the expense side as well as on credit quality and building capital capital. on the flip side, new revenues continue to be under pressure with debt interest income down dwight a bit as well as pressure market related income. >> stocks down back to levels around august. are your earnings expectations coming down for the rest of the sector for q4? >> i mean if you look we've had

the four big banks to report so far, if you look at core results, loan growth has been good credit quality continues to be great. i say on the flip side though you've seen market related revenues particularly trading, softer into the end of the year. so perhaps kind of think of market sensitive banks something to keep an eye on. but the core trends not far off of expectations. >> interest rates are very low, jason. looking at ten-year now, 181, this idea of net interest margin, pressuring banks on low interest rates around the world, saw it in bank of america, do you expect it to be a big headwind for banks in 2015 one that could surprise executives that were expecting higher rates? >> net interest margins declines 16 in the last 20 years. not a new phenomenon. until the federal reserve raises short-term interest rates margins go lower. we're at the point in the cycle where the ten year you'd rather see it higher than lower but the

group is still real live remembers to increasing fed funds. look at forecat cast or futures, short-term rates go up in the middle of the year. you can get margin expansion. >> issue of breakups on the citi call at least. kayla tausche reported cfo said we won't say we never considered simplifying business model, i e. breakup but close tonight simplify the model instead. does that tell you anything. >> any company has to look you know, each quarter, each year at strategic options and determine what's best. i giuess we're not surprised, keep the companies doing what they're doing. there's benefits of being big, globaling ability to serve a larger customer base but you've got to take action. last quarter citi took actions in its consumer bank exiting 11 new markets. this quarter today, they came

out with announcement united nations side nonstrategic institutional businesses. re-evaluate each quarter. the talk of the large-scale breakup, not something we foresee. >> you're inclination to lean into the regionals. >> look where valuations are, bigger banks, several multiple points cheaper than regionals. kind of think about 2015 will play out, actually probably bias towards bigger banks. they've been under pressure, the group's under pressure year to date. but as we kind of move forward from here macro concerns around interest rates and oil become better understood. the group should behave better. >> hard to imagine them becoming less understood. we'll see what the year brings, jason. thanks again. >> thank you. >> jason goldberg. >> stick with the banks. karl mentioned head lines out of citi's media call. kayla tausche joins us with highlights. >> speaking of things being less

understood sara main concern for both the bank of america and citi group immediate kramedia calls understanding how volatility that we saw in fourth quarter hit trading the way that it did citi group's revenue in the unit down 16% for trading overall. bank of america down 21%, depending on what metric you're using there was talk about volatility what's good and what's bad. bank of america cfo saying we want good volatility not bad volatility. what we saw in the fourth quarter is good for equities because investors have conviction with certain direction whereas when you see dollar strengthening, see extremely low rates like we saw in q4 that doesn't necessarily encourage trading or activity in any one direction. cfo over at citi group saying the same thing, basically that it doesn't encourage activity and they saw deterioration in the last two weeks of the year. normally you have a couple of months or a couple of weeks to make up for deterioration.

quart abruptly ended and you didn't see any pick up after that. we'll see whether this year brings more activity. both executeives saying when you see the best type of environment you have predict able rate rises. presumably that will happen this year. it's hurting revenues and it's hurting compensation. that's something that we're going to be hearing been comments that gerbach made about a potential citi breakup, they close to simplify instead. the big question for citi on the back of that capital constraint and potential risk in the business model what citi will be able to do in terms of returning capital to investors. they submitted their plan last week. ccar is priority number one, two, number three. he's confident the bank's process has improves they spent $180 million to hire people and reinforce that process.

but it's up to the fed come march. those are headlines. bank stocks as you've been talking really weak in a rough quarter for the banks. back to you. >> kayla, thank you. two movers in the retail space today, target announcing exiting the canadian market after nearly two years and a lot of investment. best buy reporting rise in holiday sales but lowering outlook. courtney reagan back with more on important stories. >> since target ceo cornell joined, his message focus on profitable growth going forward. this morning the retailer says it's exiting canada after opening stores there just about two years ago under former ceo. in a press release, cornell says he was unable to find a realistic scenario that would get target canada to profitable to at least 2021. november 19th i asked what it would take to exit canada. here what happens he said

then -- >> the next six weeks are criticality important to see how the guests connects with the brand during this important holiday season. i'm going to analyze and assess every single store in canada. but every store has to improve. we're seeing performance improvement but way behind where we should be. a critical holiday season for target and canada. >> target canada has been uphill battle from the start. losses from 133 canadian stores total 2.1 billion. likely more once we get the holiday quarter results. target says it will cost between $500 million and $600 million to discontinue canadian operations which will occur in the 2015 fiscal year or later. increase earnings in fiscal 2015 and cash flow begin in fiscal 2016. another minneapolis retailer announcing holiday sales today. best buy's total comp sales improved by 2.5% up a better 3.4% in the u.s. however, while sales results

were better than expected best buy's warning about flat to slightly negative u.s. comp sales for the first half of the year pulling the stock lower. the retailer says industry pressures like deflationary pricing, weak demand declining extended warranty purchases are to blame. shares down about 15%. back to you. >> as target moves up thank you, for rounding out the big retail movers. lots of news. next jim stewart joins us live at post 9 with the biggest story of the day. his take on the swiss currency bombshell. "squawk on the street" will be right back.

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ends monday. losses now down nine. nothing like a central bank stunner to get markets moving. swiss national bank with a huge surprise. eliminating floor on its currency, the ripple effects felt everywhere including here in the united states. joinings now at post 9, pulitzer prize winning "new york times" columnist and cnbc contributor jim stewart who has been taking on currencies in this week's column anyway. >> exactly. >> did you anticipate the swiss would do this? were you the only one who expected this. >> no, the a surprise to me too. it's interesting that the stresses of the sudden change in

currency valuations is starting to show up in significant action. i mean there's no question, the euro's really low, right now dropped over 5% in the last three months, a huge move. what's interesting by switzerland we've been focused on the unnaturally strong currencies like greece italy, portugal, who need a lower currency, no one's paying attention to currency that should be stronger. i wonder what the germans are thinking today. where do you think the mark would go if it was allowed to trade freely? switzerland obviously made the decision want the currency to go up. they are a big importer. >> i don't know if they want it. maybe it's too costly for them to defend it. >> they didn't have to do this. by the way, it's going to hurt exporters for my column this week i went out to see if i could find -- the flip side those spending in dollars have never had a better time to buy european imports i'm went out looking for a german car, from

french wine, italian suit i'm should have gone looking for a swiss watch as well but there aren't bargains there when the currency goes up. but to my surprise i found there aren't any bargains out there, at least not yet. >> sometimes it taking alagging effect. a debate of the moment that is treasury will tell you, it's in the best interest for the u.s. to have a strong dollar. but those on wall street might disagree. that's 40% of the s&p earnings come from abroad. this is going have an impact. >> nothing is simple so to say strong currency is good well that depends. obviously some point if it's so strong it really did -- does hurt exporters. helps consumers if the cuts get passed on as i found out now given the demand situation, not many cuts are being passed on in in fairness to the strong dollar policy, they were verbally saying that for years when the dollar was getting crushed. >> just a line. >> acorrect -- it is just a line

but haunts us all. as far as carmakers, the german carmakers, the dollar was so long for so many years, they've naturally hedges moved most of the production a lot of the production into the u.s. dollars, have they not, albeit some in south america. >> correct. the porsche, all made in europe germany. a lot of production there. what we're seeing in the luxury german cars not porsche, but in mercedes and bmw, significant incentives coming on. marginens have got. so fat because of the currency change. they have a lot of room for aggressive price cuts if they want to take this opportunity to gain market share. a lot of people think it's starting now we'll see more of that as we head into the coming year. problem is u.s. automakers who still have most of the production here in the u.s. and u.s. dollar costs. >> has today's move by the swiss, whatever the europeans may do next week made you skiddish about stocks in general

because in a central bank driven world you don't know what you'll wake up to. >> when i surveyed people, people were positive about stocks in the long term over the next year maybe, saying in the short term more nervous. people starting to see signs that stocks would be in for volatility or getting ahead of themselves overvalued. you get a surprise of any kind that makes people nervous, all over the place. swiss is a surprise. the sudden you know steep change in exchange rates is a surprise steep fall in oils a surprise. we're getting a lot of surprises right now. what wall street likes are things expected. and so this is just thrown a cloud of uncertainty, which is making people nervous. >> i wonder the common theme to the question for the first time since the financial crisis central banks are diverging, going in different directions, pursueing new policy paths

figuring out risks and what's happening with commodity and have potential to surprise. does it make you concerned about their credibility and the idea this was a a shock. >> there are questions about credibility especially europe. european central bank at some point has to do something instead of just talking about it. so i think the next couple of weeks will be very critical there. we are seeing divergent policy. a lot of people are wondering, do the central banks talk to each other? do they -- it would be reassuring to think maybe they do but you wonder. >> we know they do why the move on the swiss today is important. the swiss have moved to protect themselves and protect their own credibility is an indication kind of they might have said behind closed doors, mario? protect yourself if i were you. >> may be. >> we know the fed talks to european central banks. we went through that with the crisis didn't we? we know that come on. >> coordinated policy action.

what is the danger if policies are not coordinated. >> right. you see divergences now. it's a strange world where yield on italian sovereign debt is lower than united states treasury bonds. something is out of whack here. it's got to move either european rate has to come up or u.s. has to come down. >> the situation so bad, that's where rates should be. >> possible. but also anticipating something from european central bank. if it doesn't coming you know who knows what's going to happen. >> nice to see you. jim stewart from "the times." exclusive interview with coo of gamestop on heels of holiday game numbers which knocked shorts out of the market. how does he plan to battle forward now that he's back in a period of sickness? paul raines next on cnbc.

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welcome back to "squawk on the street." pilgrim's pride, stock moving higher to 6.5% after the company, nation's number two chicken processor declared special cash dividend of 1.5 billion, that's 5.77 per share.

pilgrim's pride lost out last year in effort to buy jimmy dean parent hill shyer last spring lost to tyson. those shares up 6%. >> a lot more on the surprising news out of switzerland today, what that means for markets at home. back after a quick break as the dow back to the flatline. [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.

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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! nat gas on a rally at nymex.

i'm bertha coombs. energy information agency reporting withdrawing of 236 billion cubic feet that was above the range of what number of traders were looking for here. nat gas extend what was a massive short squeeze yesterday and it's moving higher with forecast for next week seeing a lot more cold weather on tap for much of the country moving here to the east coast. the biggest withdrawal last week here in the east coast with 127 billion cubic feet. so get ready to warm up your heaters, guys. back to you. >> it is freezing. thank you. by the way, dow and s&p both now in positive territory, after declining ellier this morning. the swiss central bank shocking the currency markets rattling swiss exporters and currency traders alike. what does this mean for your investments? joining us kathie lee managing

director of xfx strategy. how low can the euro go now that a key buyer of euros the swiss cent trap bankral bank is out of the market. >> parody. >> europe redollar. >> a long target from here. it's in the a one-way trajectory lower. now that we've touched 115 handle there's a good possibility we could dip as far as 110 in near term. s&p's decision shows they believe quantitative easing is imminent. i'd be surprised if they did not confer with mario draghi to mange sure this was coming. as a result markets rights in the direction that is euro's headed lower. >> what can we expect from ecb, we know now that the swiss national bank has front ran the ecb ahead of the action? >> i think the weakness of the euro puts pressure off of the ecb i think announcement of quantitative easing is imminent and the reason because it does

create stimulative environment. at the end of the day, i think the quechlt.e's coming, the question is the size. the 500 billion is the likely starting point. that message is what the market's focusing on. >> the fact if i'm the ceo of general motors or general electric or major multinational u.s. company, how worried about do i need to be about what just happened this morning and potential pillout spillout effect. >> first and foremost the possibility of additional euro weakness but more importantly, taste of the volatility that could come this year. this is just the beginning of many certain events the leexs of europe. you could see more deleveraging. a lot of people lost money in oil, copper, probably euro swiss as well. looking to take profits like stocks and that could mean volatility in other markets. >> i don't understand why the

euro doesn't move as rapidly to parody. people, big voices clever people calling for parody for some time. it doesn't seem to move as rapidly as oil does for example. let's put that one side. what is the possibility ecb disappoints next nurse? it's an open-ended promise. it's a promise that's worked. i can't see how you physically could follow through with 100% promise in physical actions. given all of the problems that we know of at the very least. >> absolutely right. how much does the market expect? bare minimum, expect to preannounce an action. they might come up with a size and say we've got some details hashes out. whether or not that's going to satisfy the market is another question. i think there's a lot of short euro -- >> that's the question. please, please, don't dance around it. what happens if they don't say enough thursday? does the euro rally. >> of course. >> how strongly. >> i think minimum 118, 117. and it could rally before that as we see profit taking on

wednesday and thursday of next week. so, it's just going to be more volatility. we could have wild swings. i am looking for a bounce going into the ecb rate decision because some people ask questions, you're asking me now -- >> say they disappoint and continue to disappoint. what happens then? >> so the trade leer i think, is that if you think they disappoint, and the euro say bounces to 118, 120, i look at that as more greater opportunity to sell euros at a higher level because all of these pressures in the eurozone including movement in commodities isn't going away anytime soon. it's a matter of timing when they get details hashed out. whether the trade on now, take profits before the ecb or afterwards to see a bounce it's still going lower. >> but to be clear, there are a lot of people waiting for the ecb announcement somebody suggested like shoppers waiting to enter a floor on black friday, waiting to get in there, once the perception buying has

happened you fall back to idea this isn't going to work it it isn't going to boost the eurozone. does that become hugely negative. is pair parody a forgone clone clugs. done clugs. >> qe worked for many countries, done a good job in the uk japan debatable. i think, you know -- >> hasn't worked in japan. gdp still falling. >> that's why i say it's debatable. >> if ever a central banker cried wolf it's draghi. why is he truly in a corner this time? go because he's set the market expectations so high and you know, truly, you know running out of options. that's why, you know he has to follow through. >> whether in a currency war or unchartered territories this was clearly a big surprise. what other central banks could come up with a surprise? we didn't mention the fact that india cut rates overnight and that was a surprise. >> central banks around the world are forced into action and all of this is because of the

growing deflation, disinflation risk, weak growth. >> who moves next? >> in terms of watching the boj, very good possibility they come up with additional action. like simon said nonexistent growth now. their efforts haven't been effective. >> historic day for central banking and currency market. thank you, kathy for coming in on a moment's notice bk asset management. ahead, four tech companies banding together to battle cybercrime. ceos of palo alto semantic general manager of security for intel, join "squawk alley" live to discuss their cyberthreat alliance. we'll be right back.

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take a look at gold sector's up sharply. dom chu's up with more. >> big day for gold stocks. subsector of the material stocks in the s&p 500 moving higher on

the back of rising gold prices which hit four-month high. new month mining gold corp yamana in the green. new mont the only stock in the s&p 500 overall. >> yep, following commodity higher. over and talk about rates with rick santelli at cme group and the santelli exchange. quite a morning, rick. >> quite a morning. i would need like an hour with my guest. peter, thank you for taking time on this swiss thursday. all right. you know peter, i'm going to be candid. you sent a wonderful e-mail out to everybody kind of telling us your ideas. one of the points that you made is one of the benefits to what's going on the gold market. the gold market moved up a bit more but percentage wise the gold market move doesn't match up with fx but neither does live in switzerland. nigh portfolio of stock worth 10% less flp europe and u.s. wue

can't take advantage. so is too simplestistic to think if i was a swiss sit accidentcitizen i'd buy as many dollar commodities that haven't moved up to try to get equity money back? does that make sense? >> it does. seeing that in populations around the world people trying to diversify assets outside of home currency. one interesting thing about the swiss, after quintupling balance sheets since 2008 they cried mercy. they said we can't continue to play this game of printing money and trying to keep up with other central bankers have done. it's a cry uncle from the new monetary regime. >> for viewers that aren't kind of into it as deep as some are maybe you have i included in that subset it's really a difficult issue. but you know central banks, in

treasuries, in currency manipulation that's usually slow and steady and over large periods of time can work out in a negative way. but we're all frogs in boiling ator and don't notice. today is an enlightening experience, wouldn't you say? >> it brings home attention to gold investors what's going on with all of the central bankers are trying to accomplish and not everybody can weaken their currency at the same time of course, since it's a relative game. i view gold as another currency. it's not a commodity. and most important thing in gold is we know it's rallying against all of the nondollar currencies but it's stopped going down against the u.s. dollar in 2014 and now rallying against the u.s. dollar in 2015. and that's a message that the dollar is a currency like everything else and gold is not. >> all right. let's move towards exactly why the french did this.

this is always -- the part of the markets i love best, try to get in heads of the swiss bankers were they are doing this. only two reasons. they suspect what mario draghi's going to do or know what marrow draghi's going to do. which one of the two? >> it's probably both. as i said before they gave up. the swiss know they can't play this game. >> yeah but they gave up within a week of the ecb meeting. obviously it's all about that. >> right. absolutely. and the head of the swiss national bank said we're ebb expecting something next week and we think it's priced in. but they know further acceleration in the decline of the euro, swiss are not able to keep that peg. >> now, which is it chicken or the egg? i look at what's going on. first time ever negative rates on seven year instrument in any country, really modern times a couple of basis point as way in switzerland from a negative ten-year rate. and surprised that prices aren't going up in europe? >> right.

exactly. what's happened was, it's the whole experiment of low rates in qe has backfired. created so much excess capacity and supply of so many things that the attempt to generate inflation has actually backfired and caused deflation, again, because of the excess in and all of the supply. >> i don't think anybody could say it better. you've summed it up. we'll end it there. peter, thank you for taking time. "squawk on the street" gang, it's all years. >> best s&p stock of the week is gamestop. soaring on strong holiday sales given the biggest jump in six years. paul rai informnes. christine lagarde, sits down with steve liesman at 12:15. dow's up 19 points.

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welcome back to "squawk on the street." tough day for best buy shares. had better than expected sales during holiday season but warned pricing pressure and sluggish demand will lead to a sales slump in the first half of the year. investors not happy. shares down by 14% near their session low. simon, back over to you. could this week prove a turning point for one of most shorted stocks in the s&p? gamestop rallying over 10% yesterday. some shorts getting knocked out. video game retailer gave a holiday sales read better than expected and ceo paul raines saying the trend will continue. welcome to the program. >> thank you simon. great to be with you. how are you today in. >> i'm good. you've been open about the cancer scare. good to have you back doing interviews. tell me, what happened over the holiday period? >> well simon, you know thank you for that. and you know we thank god, our

good physicians at duke and baylor for all of the great progress. we had, you know i think a couple of things that you have to understand about us. we're not well understood by many. i think we many. i think we got a little oversold coming out of q3. the short interest grew. but finally on our holiday release i think we saw a couple things important. first is software growth. 8.9% in constant currency. that's two months in a row. we've been looking for software growth all year. the ans lists, everyone was trying to decide when it was examining. we're pleased to see that and we expect that to continue through 0 2015. the new initiatives we've done are working. digital up 43%, our technology brands are up 76%, our dividend is yielding 3.5 to 4%. those are good signs for game stop's future. >> clearly a lot of person still concerned on the software sales, you had a tough comps on the hardware because on the hardware

sales, last year you had the release of the new consoles and i think you're down, what is it, 3 2% year on year. you've had a major push on affordability to drive that higher? >> we did. our partner at sony and microsoft they probably sold in this year in the u.s. alone 12 million, 13 million units and plan to sell 10 to 15 million units globally in 2015. those are very strong numbers and, of course, you know we believe we will participate in everything that goes into those consoles, software physical or digital, and so that gives us some optimism around 2015. >> you know this better than anybody else that you are the most shorted stock in the s&p 500, the figures i've just got here is that 48%, almost half of your float, has been sold short with those believing that the stock will fall from here. i see mike hickey over at benchmark suggesting he believes

that within five years, cup sols will -- consoles will have gone completely digital. you've heard that before. how do you reply? what's the latest view on that? >> we have, indeed simon and, of course, there are lots of analysts much more bullish on gamestop than the one you cited. i would say if you go back to 2013 and look at our share price moves, it if you go back our five-year total shareholder return or three-year shareholder return is very strong because a lot of people are predicting the end of physical media and, of course, in our business it's a hybrid business that's physical and digital and we think that's going to take longer. at the same time we're participating in the digital side of the business. we are not quite as bearish as that analyst and we think we've got a great future. >> let me ask you one last question paul having gone out for illness and coming back into the business what did you learn

from sitting on the sidelines and watching that perhaps you could mention to the rest of us? >> that's a great question simon. i think the main thing i learned is that the internal rate of speed has to exceed -- or internal rate of change has to exceed the e ternle rate of change. you will see us more even more aggressively in the future. by the way, we've bought back i think at this point $1.7 billion of our shares at less than 25 bucks so we have a pretty well thought through strategy around digital, mobile and capital allocation. i would say speed is probably the most important thing that i've learned. >> it's a fascinating run. good to have you back. >> great, thank you, simon. thanks for having us on. >> game stop. >> the casino operator caesars entertainment putting its largest unit into bankruptcy. morgan brennan is at the nasdaq with the latest on this long-running saga. >> sara it certainly is a long

running saga. we're finally seeing the filing that the operating unit of caesars entertainment has filed chaps ter 11 bankruptcy in the state of illinois. this is to implement its plan to slash debt by about $10 billion. the casino operator saying it has the support of senior noteholders to move forward with the plan to see the operating unit debt's decline from a reorganization process down to about $8.6 billion. and a big portion of this debt remember is tied to the company's $30 billion leveraged buyout of harrah's entertainment in 2008. it did that with tpg. under the new plan the operating unit will be split into a casino company and a publicly traded real estate investment trust that will hold the properties and collect fees from the casino operator. caesars saying that all of its casinos will remain open and uninterrupted as this reorganization process gets under way.

but investors had been expecting this for some time. caesars has been losing money on this unit every year since 2009. you can see that reflected in the shares. caesars entertainment over the past 12 months alone down about 45%. one particular pain point i'll point out for the company has been atlantic city. we've seen the companies close two casinos there in the past year. it's got three more that do remain open but in light of this news although a long running saga and very much expected we are seeing shares trade down about 4%. back to you. >> yep. and we know you have been all over what happened in atlantic city. thank you, morgan for bringing us that story. watching the markets here flipping back and forth between unchanged line. the dow now flat. let's send it over to jon fortt with a look at what's coming up next on "squawk alley." >> a lot on deck. we will start off with amazon its content strategy new pilots out in the wake of those golden globes wins. a look at where they're headed from here. also, security ceoss with the cyber threat alliance going to

make their first broadcast appearance and talk about the future of security for 2015. palo alto networks and intel among the companies represented there. samsung and blackberry say they're not talking about acquisitions but what does it mean for the mobile strategies of each company that the market got so excited about? we will cover it all and more on "squawk alley" coming up.

now iblgs 20%. >> it is 11:00 a.m. here on wall street. "squawk alley" is live.

♪ ♪ ♪ we will we will rock you ♪ >> welcome to "squawk alley." joining us henry, business insider founder, editor in chief, good to see you. >> great to be here. >> jon fortt and kayla tausche on a crazy morning full of news bank earnings retail news. is best buy getting hammered after the company lowers its outlook for 2015 thanks to slow demand and falling prices. the company did see holiday comps rise about 2.5% with big screen tvs and smartphones offsetting weakness in tablets. internet