year. we've got an analyst who says it is a no-touch under any circumstances. >> we'll see if he's thinking outside the box. >> all right, kelly! i'll take it. >> that's all i've got. >> "fast money" starts right now. live from the nasdaq market site, overlooking new york city's times square. i'm melissa lee. our traders are dan grasso, and starbucks shares rallying on the back of earnings. the conference call starting right now. we'll bring you the latest comments from ceo howard schultz throughout the hour. but first, the return of the rally. the s&p is now positive for the year, after the european central bank announced new bond-buying program this morning. the s&p is now less than 2% from its all-time high. financials, leading the way today with bank of america up more than 4% on the day. is the ecb move an all-clear sign for stocks? guy, what do you say? >> well, it's a madness sign for the world. but an all-clear for stocks? i don't know, let's see what happens tomorrow. but for a day at least, things worked out pretty well. we had some interesting price action in the morning. i thought the movement of the

bond market today was really interesting. it had a flush before the market opened. subsequent rally, subsequent sell-off, that's interesting. all-clear? i'm not sure. but you know what? the banks rallied today, and we talked about it the other day. we made fun of goldman sachs about their -- what'd you call it, the blob buy list for bac. >> but you look at the way it traded today, and we talk about the ranges for bac. it's held 15 a number of times. the upper end of the range is 18 1/2. we had a strong move today. >> karen? >> so obviously very strong bank rally, but to me that was just making back some of what has been an awful two weeks for them. i don't think if you didn't own it going into today, that you've missed it, it's over. i mean, we're really only back to where we were a few days ago. the volatility on the options has come in a lot, which we talked about with keith. but i like them all here, still, lady. i do. >> nice! >> hey, listen, my view last week was, yesterday got oversold on news. and i'll tell you what the tell was, the european stock started to put a bottom in as our earnings still came out and they

weren't great and our banks weren't trading great. and what have they done? it's rallied, euro bank stock index has rallied 12% into this event. so if you were sitting around pressing shorts into a central bank action that you knew was going to come, that's not part of the playbook, people. we've seen this over the last few years, you don't short stocks into these sorts of events. >> and your playbook was to -- >> short it -- and you know, so if you're a trader, you start taking some stuff in. it's kind of like what these guys were talking about when bank of america went from 18 in late december to 15 just the other day. that's when you either cover the shorts or take a shot at the long side. zbl >> you have to take a look at the s&p levels. these are key levels. we closed right below -- let's say we didn't close right at the level from january 9th. this is an important level to look for, but the biggest revel to look for is the left shoulder if you're looking for a decline in the s&p, 20.79, that comes back from the december level. that would be the right shoulder if we fail there, and that means we would roll aloft and come in. we've talked about this being a

zero sum game. if european stocks start to garner attention, it's at the expense of u.s. equities. >> aren't they already garnering attention they're outperforming. there's a relative trade -- >> european stocks are basically 10% from the recent lows. the u.s. equities are up 2%. so does that continue or do you see that now exacerbate or pull off? >> i'm confused about the zero sum game part. because to me, it doesn't need to be a zero sum game, if you have money that's been sitting on the sidelines. let's say you have a lot of european money sitting on the sidelines, that is ready to go into equities there, because they feel a little bit more comfortable, with some sort of floor. why, then, does that necessarily, by definition, need to take away -- >> because there's a lot of money that's already in the u.s. markets. do you think there's a lot -- the bigger question for that is, with is there a lot of powder in the u.s. markets that's been sitting on the sidelines. >>ion where it is? it's in the bond market. here's the thing. this is the trade right here. you can see money come out of u.s. treasuries and into equities worldwide. that's the thing. the u.s. treasury has been this

safe haven asset. so it would make sense. the meeting after next week, we're not going to see too many changes in next week's meeting, but if we continue to see better jobs data in any wage inflation with inflation, the talk will be going to raising rates. and if that's the case, you'll see the money flow out of the bond equities. >> we can talk raising rates all we want. the reality is, i don't think we see it anytime soon. and the bond market has basically been telling you that. and draghi said today, and i thought this was pretty unbelievable, this asset purchase, don't consider bonds with negative yields. that's pretty remarkable. when you start to think about what's going on in the world, it's crazy stuff. i mean, it is madness. you talk about leveraging the system. there's no more leverage in the system? well, guess what, you have $5 trillion balance sheet from the fed, sitting on top of about $60 billion worth of cash. that's about 80-to-1 leverage. >> i know we all sound negative on this desk to a certain point. it's hard for me to imagine the market to continue rallying when

you see utilities still rally. that's not exactly a risk-on the trade. you can talk about yield. you do what we were just talking about. you start taking some profits in a lot of names you thought you missed the boat on and start making some sales. well, for me, i took a profit on mobile eye -- i'm sorry, i took a -- i sold mobile eye, ahead of the lockup, because god knows i have not listened to you on the lockup basis. i missed the boat on twitter. and the lockup comes at the end of january in mobile eye. i said, you know, i'm going to loosen up here, sell this, and take another look. >> you never want to listen with me. think about it. >> you don't want to listen, don't want to listen. starbucks shares up after hours, reporting earnings in line with estimates. a conference call is underway right now. let's bring in webber security senior security analyst, nick s setyan on the fast line. he's got a buy rating on the stock. looks like a good quarter. what'd you see? >> the expectations were very low. they were in line, they did 5%. i think it's sitting at a big

five relief because of this. and i think if the headwinds were a concern, you ended up rehitting again, the fact we took up the bottom of the range by a penny. >> are these still on track in terms of their goal to increase food sales in the united states? >> yes. we haven't even see the launch yet. once we get that, we'll probably get another 2% contribution from that, as the rollout takes place throughout the rest of the year. >> and you feel comfortable with the valuation at this time. because right now, it is practically at all-time highs. >> well, you know, historically, as you look at the last ten years, for example, we're going to be sitting here 12 months from now if the stock doesn't go anywhere, if it stays here, it will be trading at less than 20 times. so i do think we're going to see some upside ahead. >> nick, the things that got to me, i think they're sandbagging guidance, but the things that got to me were china/asia comps, which were extraordinarily

strong, and their operating margins were really impressive. is that sustainable? >> in the context of coming out and poo-pooing japan and krispy kreme talking about japan and south korea being so horrible, these guys bought japan and now you're seeing comps of 8%, and transactions the entirety of the transactions. so, you know, the momentum is going to continue. we haven't seen anything yet. those guys don't even buy coffee in the morning in china. so once we get, you know, starbucks in there educating, you know, about coffee and the morning day part expands, you have multiple years of transaction tail winds ahead of us. >> nick, we're going to leave it there. thank you so much, nick setyan of web bush. trading opens up here tomorrow morning, this will be a new record high for starbucks. how do you feel about the valuation, dan? >> he made a very good point. on average, it's traded at a 4 p

pe of 21 times. that's great growth year. do you run out and chase it on the opening tomorrow at a new all-time high? i don't think so. but i think this is a name, and i was wrong on this earlier in the year, when it was really underperforming. it's obviously early last year, when it was underperforming the broad market. this is one of those consumer names in the u.s. that has been steadfast and if you're talking about this sort of growth that they could have in places like china, where they're not drinking coffee in the morning, this is the sort of stock that you do want to buy on dips and deserves that premium multiple. >> here's an early show of would you rather for you. >> play with steve! >> i love this game. >> because your terrible at it. >> would you rather -- >> walmart! >> -- starbucks at a new high or mcdonald's which reports tomorrow. >> i think mcdonald's is a great setup. i would rather mcdonald's. >> it's not that hard! >> do we have any music? >> no. slow clap. >> it was going to be starbucks or dunkin. you set me up on that. >> do you agree? >> no. >> you like walmart? >> no, it's funny.

i love steve. >> that was not a choice. >> sorry about that. but mcdonald's has really disappointed. now, three quarters too many more my like. i like starbucks. breaking news here on apple ceo steve cook. don chu has the details. >> we've identified some of the numbers behind steve cook's total compensation in 2014. his total 2014 compensation has risen to $9.2 million. in 2013, it was $4.3 million. so, again, tim cook's 2014 total compensation has more than doubled from the same time in 2013. the notable increase here, his base salary has gone up to $1.75 million. it was $1.4 million. but his nonstock incentive compensation rose dramatically, to $6.7 million. it had been $2.8 million. those drive the bulk of those gains in compensation. so tim cook, again, with a stock, not so far away from

record highs, although it is off of its highs, still showing some signs here that tim cook's compensation has taken a bit of a bump because of apple's performance. >> dom, thanks for that. karen, what do you make of that? >> deserves every penny. and it's probably a penny per share or less. it's really not a lot of money for a very premiere quality executive. yes, it's more than steve jobs, one buck a share. one buck a year, rather. but he is absolutely worth it. that is a huge bargain. >> we'll keep following starbucks throughout this hour. plus, watch how verizon, at&t, and google is looking to shake up the telecom industry. we'll tell you how to trade it. and china's show mailooking to apple. female announcer: get beautyrest, posturepedic,

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welcome back to "fast money." we want to bring you some more details on apple. that same regulatory filing that we just told you about tim cook's compensation also showed that current apple board member mickey drexler shows his intention to retire from the apple board. mickey drexler is, remember, the current ceo and chairman of retailer and apparel maker j. crew. he has been a part of the apple

board since 1999, viewed by many, including our own jon fortt, as the retail confidant for apple's board and its ceo. so mickey drexler, again, stepping down, or plans to retire from apple's board. more details as we comb through more of these filings from apple, guys. back over to you. >> thanks for nap. big day for the airlines. southwest beating estimates on top and bottom line. the stock soaring on this beat. and united continental missing on earnings. united saying thes benefiting from declining oil prices and could soon restart its buyback program. and the nyse index hitting its highest level since 2002. >> we almost won, too. >> not really. >> no, it wasn't close. >> i will mention that tim and his bull debate was talking about that and i think the domestics are the place to be.

jetblue had a massive day today, it was up 7% and breaking out to multi-year highs. but here's the thing. someone like united, it seems like southwest is very good with the whole hedging thing. united less so. and who knows where oil goes from here. they both shed their hedges going forward. but i'll just say, at one point, i could see the guys like united, who are more dependent on these international routes, getting hit by the impact of a stronger dollar. and obviously, that doesn't affect southwest or jetblue nearly as much. so i prefer the domestics over the international. >> i will go to your counterpart on the bear team. >> was it fun? >> it was fun. alaska, jetblue. >> jetblue up 80% today. to my point about domestics, it's finally catching up to the rest of the space. we're clearly wrong for a couple days. we might be wrong for a long time, in terms of being bearish in the view. but i think you'll see a pullback, especially if crude oil stabilizes at these levels, which it shows no sign of doing, by the way. but, listen, if you've enjoyed the ride, there's nothing wrong

with take some money off the table, especially with a name like jetblue. >> you were not here for that epic tag team battle. which side would you be inclined to take? the bull or the bear? >> i'll take the winning side. i think that it's getting real long -- i'm actually surprised that there's still some tail winds, as far as lower energy costs. so i am shocked. i would believe that it's sort of topping out, at this point. next up, a big day of gains for union pacific, the largest railroad in the u.s., beating the street on both the top and bottom line. shares soaring on the back of that strong report. karen? >> it was a great earnings, a big beat. although i think there was a lot of anticipation going into these earnings. so, it was really strong in the face of that probably higher whisper number. but the thing that was more interesting to me, and maybe this touched to the airlines is how they talked about, even on the heels of a really great 2014, they're still optimistic about the economy. and are not as concerned about what the effects of maybe less crude oil being shipped would be. so, that was interesting to me. the broader tail on the economy,

i think they should have a very good insight, into what is happening in the u.s. >> yeah. guy, what do you think? >> i think union pacific has to get above $1.23. they made a push today and got close. if it needs to make the next move of this bull rally, it needs to close above 123. and something interesting going on. if you're looking for a stock that tangentially plays the role, rail might get you done. it's had a huge move from 50 down to 25, seemingly bottomed out. if you look at a chart, this is where we've held previously. and if you're looking for a risk award that sets up nice, trn might be it. >> verizon earnings coming in. revenues matching thanks to increased wireless and broadband connections and big news out of google. the tech company is reportedly planning to become a wireless carrier, launching low-cost mobile phone plans using sprint and t-mobile networks. gra sow?

>> well, verizon missed on profits, because of pricing pressures. i think the bigger story here sb though, is on the telecoms, t-mobile sets up technically the best. that's the one i'm currently long. if you look at google, that's the bigger story. it's been in the headlines from everything, from spacex to a wireless provider. i think that's the true play here. i think you'll pick sprint or t-mobile and t-mobile looks a heck of a lot better than sprint. i would say that that is not the play. that they're -- it's almost like -- i don't want to say death by a thousand paper cuts, but they're spending little bits here and little bits there. yes, they can afford it -- >> everyone talks about them being as search provider as a one-trim pony. they're trying to dabble in a bunch of different things -- >> they're trying to subsidize wireless data to get people searching. that's how they get paid. in some ways, it's actually kind of brilliant. they're not going to buy sprint or t-mobile, because those are debt ridden and poorly run companies. >> you know, last year was not a

great year for google. i think it's such a compelling valley. you call it a one-trick pony. that's a hell of a pony at this price. >> i'm long it. even when you come off of 70%, 68%, 66% is still a hell of a lot right there. the nearest competitor is way, way digits lower. >> i would rather, though. i self-rathered. i would rather that they didn't -- i didn't get in hoping they would buy $1 billion worth of spacex. that wasn't really, or any of the other stuff they'd do. driver's license cars, maybe. maybe. there's something there. but, it's still compelling here. >> to dan's point, if you're buying into spacex, you're increasing search. it's wi-fi. it's providing wi-fi. it was the balloons, and now you've got satellites, low-flying satellites. well, low-orbiting satellites, like putting your monkey in orbit, right? so if you have a balloon, i would rather have the wi-fi with the low-flying satellite. so all of it is building on

their base. >> on fire over here! h-bombs all over the place! >> it's the shirts. >> new shirts! >> would you rather this one or the other? >> i would not. >> coming up next swb xiaomi taking a clear shot at apple, this time with a frying pan. the details and much more of that video after the break. plus, the ecb decision is over, but what about when the greeks go to the polls in the snap election this weekend. a look at what it could mean for our markets. that's ahead. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 [ male announcer ] your love for trading never stops,

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the chinese smartphone may remember xiaomi, coming out with an ad directly targeting apple for its protruding camera on the iphone 6. is this just the beginning of the battle between apple and xiaomi. joining us now, alex ghana. thanks for being with us. >> thanks so much. >> at what point should apple investors be concerned about xiaomi. >> i think it's a bit early to be overly concerned about xiaomi. you've got to be paying attention to it. it's gone from nowhere on the smartphone leader boards two years ago to number one in china today. growing at a hyperrate of speed today. putting out great products. so apple definitely needs to pay attention to what xiaomi is doing. >> it would be a stretch to think that xiaomi could actually compete with apple domestically here in the united states, but overseas, particularly in emerging markets, perhaps, does xiaomi have an advantage because it's a private company and it can sell phones at i don't know what cost with practically no margins. >> melissa, in china, xiaomi definitely has some home field advantages, but i don't think

it's necessarily a stretch to think that xiaomi couldn't compete with apple on the international stage. xiaomi has a very good chance of becoming the next samsung in smartphones. it's got some great manufacturing advantages. it's showing some incredible marketing savvy. so i wouldn't put them out of the running on a global sense by any measure. >> alex, it used to be a kind of two-horse race at the high end between samsung and apple and a lot of people thought for a while that samsung was leading in terms of innovation and sizing and cameras and all that stuff. now all of a sudden, these guys are coming out, on design, actually, and this is something that apple is very close to home with them. do you think when we get the iphone 6s next year, will apple have trimmed that camera. will they make it slick? will they start responding to this sort of stuff? >> what i like about what xiaomi did, it put the focus on that attention to detail, which is so critical for apple, because it has that premium reputation, and it is one of the few smartphone makers that earns a reasonable margin on its devices. so the bar is very high for

apple, and that's where i think xiaomi got it right, in their rather amusing advertisement. what samsung does with the s6 remains to be determined. but one of the two advantages that both xiaomi and samsung is they're basing their smartphones on samsung technology. xiaomi coming out on the snapdragon 8.10. they've got that horizontal approach that leverages other technology industrious and that could give them an advantage down the road. >> you know, it's funny, because we talk about the smartphone wars as if somebody has to beat apple. it's going to be apple or the iphone killer. when, actually, alex, it just has to take away incremental units in order to sort of change the story a little bit. at the fringes, it could take away some sales. so at what point do you start looking for that and why isn't apple, or do you think maybe apple could be responding with maybe a patent lawsuit of some sort? >> well, at present, i think apple is doing just fine. there's another supplier, like qualcomm, called skyworks, that just put up a blowout quarter

after the close here today, growing 56% year over year. and that's with samsung headwinds. so we think for apple, it's really still a good news story, this holiday season. there's room for both xiaomi and apple to win in the short run. there's no evidence here to date that xiaomi is copying apple innovations. it can be a rising tide for both of them for now. but down the road, you have to be careful that we don't see margin erosion, that we don't run out of unit volume headwind growth, and that apple is still doing enough with enough attention to perfection, that it continues to grow at a reasonable wait. >> all right. alex, we'll leave it there. thanks so much for your time. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> alex guana. alex mentioned sky works, and it hit a new 52-week high in toion. that's a good, perhaps, leading indicator into apple's quarter. guy, what do you think? >> could be. but did they report after the bell? i'm looking at now, it's nowhere near now in the aftermarket. and these are levels we last saw -- i mean, we're approaching levels we last saw 15 years ago.

if the stock has the make the next leg up, it's got to get above 80 and hold there. apple, here at 12, is it interesting, i guess it is. qualcomm in earnings next week, is now very interesting, because qualcomm, for whatever reason, can't get out of its own way. >> if you believe the market is top, apple is a by-product of that. 112 is the 50-day moving average. it's got to stay above that. we're really right there, 112.40 is where the market went out. i'm stay long. >> i feel like apple is sort of its own thing. it's really going to be on the earnings, regardless of what the market does. i feel like in the last couple of years, it's totally decoupled from the market. >> i don't necessarily disagree, but it decouples when the market is sort of in that middle ground, when we've already sold off. but i think if it tails off when we're at highs here in the s&p, i think it will have an effect. >> starbucks trading higher in the after-hours session. a conference call officially halfway through. the latest headlines from ceo

howard schultz is next. and later, we're awaiting the cloud company if box at any moment. why recent backers might be getting it wrong on this one. stay tuned.

what is that song? hold on a second. >> what? >> i love "wave." >> geez. >> somebody told him in his ear, by the way. still ahead on "fast money," starbucks shares getting a pop on the back of earnings. see what ceo howard schultz has the to say. and michelle caruso-cabrera is in the middle of the action in athens. and box, the tech company with some all-star investors is about to price its public offering. but we've got someone who says to stay away from this company. find out why. let's kick it off with starbucks. the conference call well underway. let's get to dom chu who's within listening in. >> still going on right now, but let's break away and bring you up to speed on what's happening here. first of all, you should know that the earnings numbers and sales numbers both came in line with expectations here.

the company earned 80 cents per share on an adjusted basis. $4.8 million in shares. they did come out with full year earnings per share guidance as well as current quarter earnings per share guidance, that fell short of some analyst estimates. they said global comp store sales, up 5%. they also made some interesting notes with regard to what's happening in growth markets. they did say that there are more starbucks stores in shanghai than any other city out there. also, that china has become the number one growth market or the biggest market for starbucks outside of the united states. they also talked a little bit about what drove some of the performance this past quarter. a lot of it has to do with holiday sales. specifically, those sought-after gift cards. take a listen. >> this holiday, one in seven american adults received a starbucks gift card. up from 1 in 8 last year. roughly 2.6 million starbucks cards were activated on december 23rd alone and $1.6 billion was loaded on cards in the u.s. and canada in q1, up 17% over last

year. >> we should also point out, melissa, gang, that per a regulatory filing, we also know that starbucks has a new president and chief operating officer, that man is current board member, kevin johnson, a longtime ibm and microsoft veteran. also at one time, the ceo of juniper networks, currently on the board, will replace troy alstead, who you may recall earlier this month, went on an extended leave. so kevin johnson, the new president and coo of starbucks. and don't miss an exclusive interview with starbucks chairman and ceo, howard schultz. that's going to be tomorrow, 10:00 a.m., "squawk on the street." donate want to miss it, guys. >> thanks so much, dom chu. at this point, guy, do we look at starbucks as an international play? >> that's the way you buy it. look at the comps in asia. we talked about china and asia pacific. that's the way we break it down. they were fantastic. and their margins are improving.

which to me makes their valuation, i think it's actually sort of cheap. >> what could there be a reed through for. remember last holiday season, howard schultz made it clear that the traffic in the malls were down. people just weren't going there. they weren't going to starbucks, they weren't buying coffees. seems like it's better this way. >> karen's been on this call with these gas station coffee places, that have been so strong with gas coming in. i have to assume that this is also one of those kind of small items that people will do more of on a daily basis if they're saving 20 bucks a week at the pump. maybe they buy five lattes. >> time now for pops and drops. big movers. did you say lay-tays? dollar general up 4%. >> it's all these family dollar stores. accepted a bid from dollar tree. they pushed away a higher bid from dollar gen. it was more likely to get past that way. i would rather go another way. i like the combined company over this one. >> discover down 6%. guy? >> the you sort of look at the

quarter as a provision for losses that was embedded there, it wasn't a total disaster. now, mastercard and visa, much better companies, much better stocks. but dfs traded six times normal volume. >> pop for blackberry, up 6%. dan? >> you know that expression, misery loves company. last week, bk was sitting here and long is this stock and it was up 30% and he was a really happy guy and about an hour later, it gave back most of those gains because the samsung approach wasn't a real proch. i bought a long-dated call spread out to june. i think it's a $4.5 enterprise value. some of the parts are probably pretty cheap. and at some point this year, something happens to create some value. >> big drop for lands end, down 17%. karen? >> yeah, gigantic pre-announcement, a miss for them. a few things went down. they didn't sell enough sweaters, which they sort of called that out. but here's a thing that's more important. anytime at all of their in-store sears locations, they're really seeing terrible traffic that's

really hurting their direct retail business. that problem seems to be persistent. but all of that having been said, it is down so much today, that i wouldn't short it, i wouldn't go long either, but i would stay away. >> with the european central bank decision out of the way, attention is now shifting to greece, where a snap election this sunday will determine the election of the company. cnbc's chief international correspondent, michelle caruso-cabrera is live on the ground in athens, and joins us now with all the details. michelle? >> reporter: melissa, thousands of people -- thousands and thousands of gathers were around tonight to talk about alexis -- sorry, we're having a real audio trouble here. thousands of gatherers surrounded alexi tsipras. he is very much against the current bailout program. he wants to renegotiate it, and that is likely to lead do a showdown with the bailout

partners that greece has been dealing with rt if last several years. this rally comes on the same day that the european central bank announced their much-anticipated quantitative easing program, but at the same time, basically said that greece would be secluded until at least july. they said there were no specific rules, you know, the rules were the rules, but when you really look at the rules, they certainly seem designed to keep the ecb from buying any of the greek bonds. remember, greece already has $27 billion euros worth of bonds at the european central bank. the ecb bought them back in 2010 and 2011. in fact, they've held them for so long, greece has some principle repayments due coming in july and august. $6 billion euros worth. so the ecb said, look, they've already hit their quota. by the way, they still need to be in compliance with their program, with they're not. and a lot of greece's bonds were stretched out beyond 30 years. when you put it all together, it certainly looks like they were trying to avoid the purchase,

until they figure out what's going to happen with greece. not just the elections, but what's going to happen with the renegotiation to have the bailout process, which is likely to occur afterwards. guys, back to you. >> all right, michelle caruso-cabrera in athens. thanks so much for that update. guy adami, what are we watching for come monday when the elections are done? >> interest rates. absolutely moving it. if you see a continued move to the downside interest rate, which continues in august for this global deflation trade that we have been talking about for a long time. that clearly has no impact whatsoever, yet, on the stock markets. but if rates continue to go down, and you have german rates, you know, half a percent. you have negative interest rates in parts of asia and in parts of europe. it's madness, which means i think rates continue to go lower here, but that's what i'm watching for. >> gold, up or down? >> absolutely up. and it's had this little stealth rally that know one's talking about. >> dollar up, gold up? >> can't happen. from december, gld is up 30%. and 35-1 that reaction.

so more levered, not lefred, but a more torqued play when you buy the miners. >> we are awaiting pricing for the box ipo, which could come any moment. up next, we talk to an analyst who gives the ipo an "f" rating. he'll tell us why, after the break. you can find a new frontier. there's nothing stopping you, and a lot helping you. technology that's with you always. this is our promise. it's never been better to wander, because wherever you go, you'll find us doing everything we can, so you can.

cloud storage company box expected to price at any moment, ahead of its long-awaited initial public offering tomorrow. ceo aaron levy has been on cnbc a number of times talking about box's growth prospects. >> at box, it's all really about how do we make sure that we get to the fortune 500, that we're verticalizing in ways that make sense, so when we go into retail and financial services and media entertainment, that we have a really strong value proposition for those industries. and you're just going to continue the see us sort of mature and a much bigger platform and set of solutions. >> leive also tweeted a few days ago, amazon says it will start distributing its origin films to movie theaters. they're basically the benjamin button of tech companies. will levie's big personality be enough to whet investor appetite? joining us now, rhett wallace. great to have you with us. >> thank you. >> he does have a great

personality, but when you take a look at the financials, what is the conclusion you make? >> there are a couple of things that we think are really interesting about this deal. the first is, you have to give the respect to where it's deal. look at the investors with this thing, a who's who of really good investors. we score companies pretty rigorously and we zoedon't have score for personality. and the scoring system doesn't see in this company what the fancy investors see. so specifically, you know, to answer your question, this is a storage company. so storage just tends to get cheaper over time. so we look at this as the company that's kind of on the wrong side of the law. costs get lower, but your value prop gets lower also. secondly, the financials are really kind of ugly in this company. they spend everything they make acquiring customers. mark cuban said it best, loss is equal to revenue for acquisition is really, really tough. it looked like in the most recent quarter, they might have hit some sort of inflection poison in a reduction of customer acquisition costs, but we being asked to believe that they are going to continue to

reduce their customer acquisition costs, while also growing revenue per customer. that's tough. and then, thirdly, obviously, competitors, right? you know, it's one thing to compete against darlings like dropbox, but when you're up against apple, google, microsoft, ibm, amazon, it's a different story. >> and when you're taking a look at the financials and you're basing it on the information that you got in the s1 filings, you were taking a look at nine months. you were toting that sales and marketing, that was up about 19% year on year, but actually a significant decline over the prior nine months. >> as a percentage of revenue, that's right. >> with the customer acquisition costs dropping significantly as well. >> correct. >> so what is going on, because as this company -- he mention in that sound bite, is verticalizing and is trying to get away from being this commodity storage provider, you would think that it would make sense to amp up spending in sales and marketing and customer acquisition costs, because you need sales rates to go out there and explain what they can do for you. >> you would think, if the company is early in its

development life cycle, they would want to do more, not less, to acquire customers. also, when you cut customer acquisition spending, that usually shows up in research in six months to year's time. so you're being asked to believe they're going to get more eefficient on customer acquisition, and get better at getting narrow customers to spend with them at the same time. >> to be fair, though, the revenue per customer is going up. >> correct. no question. >> so they may not need to spend more, because they can make more money off of the customer base that they have? >> one of the things that's interesting is, the driving penetration into customers also costs money, right? that doesn't happen all on its own. >> so the bottom line, your score is? >> so we have a really low score on this company. it's a 5.6, just for context -- >> out of -- 5.6 out of what? >> we've seen an average of 6.55. no company below 6, except for one, two mogul, has not broken price, eventually. so we don't see what the fancy investors see in the long-term.

on the other hand, the fancy investors are getting this company public -- >> are they selling? >> we'll see. we have to get through the lockups. but, again, this is a success case for early investors, because they're getting this company public. >> rhett, thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> so what do you think? >> listen, you talk about a lot of competitors. you know, amazon's the one, and we talk about it all the time, when they go into a business, especially a low-margin business like this, it's really, really hard to compete. but he's talking about greater revenues per customer, it's a secular shift here. so there's going to be a lot of opportunities, it may be at lower margins. and thinking back to 15 years ago, remember exodus communications, this is --se were some of the first companies to go bust. >> exodus communications. >> yeah, they went bust. they were server farms, for all intents and purposes. so these guys are benefiting from all of these start-ups. if this is late stage in the bull market, these guys will have problems when a lot of their start-up customers are going down. >> i would rather play with amazon. amazon's been popping now, so they're investing more in aws. i think that's where you play it.

he was talking about a commoditized place. e*trade is moving higher on earnings. dom chu's got the details. >> we're watching shares of e*trade. the stock's move in that direction here after the discount brokerage company posted better than expected fourth quarter profits and sales. those shares up by 5%. the company also reported d.a.r.t.s or daily average revenue trades of 168,000. that's an increase of 10% over last quarter, and an increase of 5% over the same time a year ago. so more people are trading, and that's a good sign for these discount brokerage firms. back over to you, melissa. >> thanks so much, dom chu. a lot of these online brokers benefitting from volatility and benefiting from the fact that these are numbers as of end of the year and look good. >> but i'm wondering, do they have any currency exposure? you know, fxcm, where they have traders that have currency exposure. i don't know. maybe they would have had to have announced that. >> mario draghi opened an account this morning.

he thinks ibm is cheap. >> you are the worst. >> i know i'm crazy. there'll be history books written, biggest villains in the 21st century, central bankers. write it down. >> all right. quick programming note here. be sure to tune into "squawk box" tomorrow from davos, 8:15 a.m. eastern for a live interview with u.s. treasury secretary, jack lew. coming up, u.s. steel down more than 15% this year, but one trader is betting we see a turnaround in the stock next week. we break down that trade. that's next. startup-ny.

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u.s. steel shares are down 15% this year, but one trader is betting big money that the stock will soar after reporting earnings next weak. >> today, call volume was really high, three times average daily volume. the company reports on january 27th. the options market is implying about a 5% move in either direction, but the stock's not only down 15% this year alone, it's also down 50% from the september 52-week highs. and the stock is getting really oversold. when you go look at the chart over here, you can see this dramatic move. it had this 50-day moving average, crossing below the 200. and the thing's really, really oversold. today when the stock was 21.82, a trader bought 15,000 of the february 24 calls.

those break even at 24.58. that's up the 12% from the purchase price at $21.82. so when you think about what's going on here, listen, the stock's oversold, is there more downside? who knows, but this trader's defying the risk. this is the chart of implied volatility over the last year. option prices are still very high. implied vol at 55%. it's really a tough way to make a living, making directional bets with really high implied vol, but i kind of like this one here. sentiment is so bad, if we saw oil or other industrial commodities kind of hold in there, and there's any good news, the company has 26% short interest. maybe we see a pop up to $25. that would be a resistance level. >> guy adamny, how you feeling? >> dan just said it. he hit the nail on the head. when everybody loves the stock typically is when you sell it, u.s. steel more than the other. and when everybody hates it is when you get long. if you have tamerity --

>> that's a good word. >> for more options action, check out our live show tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. eastern time. all right, you tweet it, we trade it. let's get some of our tweets to our crew today. this is for karen. are you still in sun edison? >> from last week or ten days ago? yes, i am still in, in for the long-term. really nothing much has happened. it will move with oil, up or down, but the story is very much in tact. i think they have great growth ahead of them i am long still. >> grasso, is facebook a buy before earnings request. >> i'm long facebook. i do think it's still a buy. i think it has room to climb. >> you able to keep going? >> whatever you want. i'm not going to force you to do anything. dan -- although, you wouldn't be wearing that shirt if i could force you -- dan, potential acquirers of twitter -- >> well -- >> do you see interest from content providers like comcast or verizon? >> possibly, but i think the one that makes most sense is go for a couple of reasons. first, they have no social media strategy. they have a realtime search problem, and i think they really need to kind of figure out how

to get this stock going. and i think this twitter would solve a lot of purposes. and you know, karen and i were talking about it. she's a google holder. if they paid $40 billion for twitter, i bet you google stock would go up by $40 million in market cap. >> we agree. >> thank you. >> steve, can we get a close-up on the knot of his tie. pete -- he looks great! >> it's a double windsor! >> tonight on "mad," cramer's got the ceo of united rentals, that stock trading down on oil and gas concerns, but the ceo not having it. >> we do believe that the low price of oil, going into the consumer, our economy is 70% consumer driven. it's a positive effect. it's a positive effect with housing. and that's going to trickle down to multiple industries, including chemicals, which really benefit, hugely, on the fact that oil prices are low. >> stick around for that. and a whole lot more. cramer's got a quadruple shot effects with heart minute, key

copper. karen, you or wi, what'd you do today? >> bought more. every question was about oil. they really tried to talk through what they thought the downside could be. and the rest of their business is doing great. i think the valuation here reflects a disaster in oil. so, we're long, bought more today. >> got your first bid tomorrow when we come right back. stay tuned. you just got a big bump in miles. so this is a great opportunity for an upgrade.

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it's a quadruple, a monster show, as the cees of united rentals all join me. and the ceo of harmon on the future of audio, and efforts to protect your cars from cyberterrorists. "mad money" is next. time now for the final trade. let's go around the horn. steve grasso? >> you know a stock that's immunowhen the overall market sells off? disney? >> dan nathan? >> ecb qe, i think it's great for them. we've had a long run in our own treasuries over here. i think you see a moderation in demand. i'm long a put spread in the tlt out to march. >> karen finerman? >> you or i, i want to add one thing that i thought was interesting. this kevin johnson being named a as the coo when he was ceo of juniper, why do you take on the coo role when you were the ceo. could he be a schultz replacement? >> that's in the fine print. >> hidden in the final trade. >> a twofer.

est esterline technologies. a defense stock we don't talk about. >> the first time you've ever mentioned the stock -- >> a first for everything. like finerman's fine print in the finaltrade. >> "mad money" begins now. my mission is simple. to make you money. i'm here to level the playing field for all investors. there's always a bull market somewhere. and i promise to help you find it. "mad money" starts now. hey, i'm cramer! welcome to "mad money," welcome to cramerica. i'm trying to help you save some money here. my job is not just to entertain but to educate and put in context. call me, 1-800743-cnbc. if you shock them into action, then it's good for stocks, no matter how it's done, or where it's done for that matter. yep, t