new york where business never sleeps this is squawk box. >> good morning everybody and welcome to squawk box here on cnbc. i'm becky quick with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. welcome to the year of the sheep. most major markets in asia are closed for celebrations today and here's one piece of trivia for you. the lunar new year falls on february 19th in japan and china but it's the year of the goat in japan this year. >> we have a couple of top stories to follow this morning. greece desperately tried to avoid running out of cash so athens asked for a six month extension today to its euro zone loan agreement. it's boosting hopes for a last minute compromise. we'll see where that all goes. unlikely, i think at the moment at least. in the meantime corporate news walmart is set to post quarterly result bfrss before the opening bell.

they're set to earn $1.53 a share. the numbers cover the critically important holiday shopping season. so we'll see those numbers as well. a programming note because you don't want to miss it we have an exclusive interview with walmart ceo at 11:00 eastern time this morning. then on the economic front, employment is front and center. at 8:30 eastern time we'll get weekly jobless claims and later in the month we have to watch for fed numbers and other leading economic indicators. >> couple after stocks to watch this morning, regeneron's eye drug was the top one from rivals in diabetes related vision loss but results show that the effects are strongest in the more severely affected patients. we'll talk to him at 7:30 eastern. been a big winner over the years as we said earlier, up 3,000%

over six years. and marriott also issuing guidance above current forecasts. that's a combination of profits topic estimates but the rental company revenue fell short and sunedison sales failed to meet forecast. solarcity under pressure. the company reporting a wider than expected loss. foot locker shares going higher after they raised the quarterly dividend by 14% and then increased the buy back program. >> let's get a check on the markets this morning. yesterday we did see the stock market down slightly but you're still looking at the dow with -- closing yesterday at above 18,000. you're looking at dow futures down by about 20 points. s&p few turs off by about 4 points and nasdaq down by 2.5 points. yesterday we did see choppiness all through the morning after the fed minutes that came out yesterday afternoon. we continue to see where things

are headed this morning but if you take a look at what's happening in europe and the early trade you see green arrows most of the way. ftse is down but slightly. in asia most of the markets are closed for mayor holidays. the nikkei closed as well. take a look at what's been happening with oil prices. crude oil snapped a three day rally. it settled down to 52.14 and dropped another 3%. it's down $50.33 so this is the first time its giving background in another week or so. take a look at what's happening with the 10 year note. at this point in the bond market yielding 2.068%. the dollar at this point looks like it is unchanged against the euro at 11396 and gold prices yesterday fell below $1,200 for the first time since january.

closed at its second lowest settlement of the year. it's up about $17. >> in washington news the annual council of economic advisors that report to the president is out today. this is the administration's view of the economy. john harwood joins us with the details. john i'd like to know exactly how everyone feels in the administration about it because we hear so many conflicting things. i don't whether we raise rates in june or september or what. but what does it say? >> essentially this is a piece of argumentation for the president's middle class economics, as he calls it program and what it does is this report dissects the phases of the american economy since world war ii. it talks about when we had income growing, productivity growing and people up and down the income scale sharing in that. that was an initial period that

ended in 1973. then we have a period fuelled by the surge of women into the work force which added a tremendous surge of output to the economy and then there's a period in which women kept growing in the economy but productive slowed and that put a drag on incomes and finally the most recent period productive resumed it's growth but we didn't have growth in the labor force. in fact we had people leaving the labor force, including men that have been leaving for a long time for various reasons and we also saw a continued acceleration of the inequality of income. so the administration framed that argument as an advocacy for the policies it proposes to go after inequality by taxing the rich and providing new benefits especially and child care and education to raise the productive of people at the

bottom and immigration to preserve the supply of new labor at a time when so many baby boomers are retiring. what he's trying to do is shape the debate on what washington is going to do. not just in the next two years but for the next president. >> yeah, unfortunately we do a lot of this shape the at the bait but nothing seems to get done on both sides. >> well i mean you're right about that but we do have an economy right now that is producing and throughout 2014 was producing more than a quarter million jobs a month and growth is pretty strong. we're looking at 2.8% growth over the next year or so so there's good positive trends at the moment. the question is how do they get sustained and whose policies are going to drive the next phase. >> all right. okay john. good to see you. welcome back -- no i'm the one

who's back. >> hey, joe -- >> the blue devils. >> duke had a great game last night but did you see, joe, what rudy said about the president? >> no? >> did you see that story? >> no i'm just getting back into all of this stuff. tell me. >> he gave a speech last night on behalf of scott walker and said that he didn't believe president obama loves america. >> really? >> that he said he wasn't raised like you and me. he said to his audience he wasn't brought up to love america and pretty provocative. i think a lot of people will be talking about it today. >> we have scott walker on. >> we do. >> you should ask him about that, actually. >> the post has this weird cover. it's weird because huffington post the headline in huffington post is about all the lives that isis has ruined and the next

story is the outrageous cover of the new york post. i'm not sure -- i don't know they get to argue on both sides of things but a lot of strange things happening. i want to show you something john something that i saw when i was out in california. >> what was it? >> it was something that happened in world war ii. there were four chaplains of all different denominations. reformed jewish chaplain and catholic chaplain and methodist chaplain and one more and the ship was sinking and these guys gave out all the life vests and didn't keep any for themselves and just held each other, you know, had their arms around each other and prayed and sang songs as the ship went down and it was just a different time. i went to a war museum and saw a lot of things i was very moved by and then i look at the world we're in right now and it was in such stark contrast. seeing differ religions all

coming together. i actually have the picture. they were called the dorchester chaplains. i tweeted it out. >> joe -- >> where are these men now adays? what happened? >> i totally relate to what you're talking about because i just got around to reading unbroken over the weekend. the story that evoked some of the same feelings that you're describing and interestingly this relates to the economic re report of the president. do you want to know how i'm going to make the link. >> i kind of wish you wouldn't. i don't see how the two are related but go ahead. >> here's my point. that period that we had after world war ii when the economy surged, when you had people coming into the work force. you had education levels rising. it was also a period in which the country had had a very broad

shared experience of going through war and there was a greater sense of community that had some economic benefits to it that distributed those economic benefits widely because so many people had been through the same thing. now our national security burdens are bore by a tiny number of people. we saw that dramatized in the american sniper movie. it's a tiny amount of the population put thargting their lives on the line. and that diminishes the sense of shared values that had economic ramifications during that post war period. >> i saw it in a different light and that is that as a country we seemed so behind certain things in terms of all being together in it together. >> that's what i'm talking about. >> well i would contrast with the rhetoric that's comes from

the white house over the past six years has been very devicive in my view. i don't think that it's a consequence that we're all at each others throats at this point. >> okay. that's fair enough. but we're talking about a period where the entire society and it's politics are much more divided because we don't have a base of shared experience the way they did after world war ii. >> we've got plenty of shared experiences. but maybe not in -- there was another one john. >> we didn't have a -- the overwhelming bulk of the population engaged in a war effort. >> i remember that 9/11 brought us together too and i hope that's not the kind of thing -- >> very briefly. >> i hope it's not the kind of thing -- we're facing serious issues obviously. anyway i'm glad i did that when i was out there. it's very sobering.

also, john seeing a lot of the plains in the museum and a lot of them signed by the pilots. the name lieutenant colonel, pow five years, p.o.w. seven years. >> incredible things they went through, amazing. >> thank you. duke i don't know. they're okay. i got to start watching because there was -- instead of watching basketball i watched -- you told me to watch gone girl. >> yeah. >> yeah and i watched it. i didn't know he was going to get his throat slit. >> don't give it away. >> i was standing there -- >> don't tell people what is going to happen. >> things are going to well and next thing i know. >> it caught you by surprise. >> it was a good movie. >> it reminded me -- >> i know you and ben afleck are

not -- >> i saw whiplash. >> great movie too. >> really good movie. >> do you know what else the judge. did you see it? >> i've only seen the first half of it. >> robert downey jr., phenomenal. >> we have a live report from our friends at the weather channel. plus in china it's the year of the sheep and while many are celebrating, some are not. we will explain. but it's a special day here on squawk. we're wishing andrew a very happy pirth happy happy birthday. >> don't do that. don't do that at all. >> are you 30? 30 something. ♪

while many are celebrating eunice reports from beijing on who is not celebrating today. >> in china, these fathers and mothers are preparing for parenthood taking a course at a maternity clinic on how to best handle their newborns. but attendance is down according to the instructor. no thanks to the animal sign governing the new lunar year the sheep. >> translator: we have seen an obvious drop in the number of pregnant women coming to our clinic this year she says.

the superstitious idea that the sheep brings bad luck still exists in the chinese community. the sheep is the black sheep of the 12 animals in the chinese zodiac. the domesticated farm animal is seem as timid, weak, decemberstined to be a follower. >> hospitals here are seeing a flock of people trying to avoid having a baby in the year of the sheep. including expecting mothers having c-sections before the new year kicks in. no one is sure how the sheep got it's bad wrap. each zoidac animal comes with it's own virtues. the dragon horse, and tiger are lucky. the sheep compassionate. several leaders were born in the sheep year including bill gates and steve jobs. >> for chinese people it's common sense. they want to have a baby in the

dragon monkey years, so sheep year i think means bad luck. >> meaning when it comes to babies in china, the sheep doesn't seem to stack up. >> as she said common sense, right? >> among the stocks we're watching this morning t-mobile u.s. is out with quarterly numbers. it earned 12 cents a share. that was 7 cents better than expeck asians. revenue well above consensus as they added net subscribers in the quarter. also barrick gold is selling two mines. it will help reduce net debt by $3 million. america is also cutting the number of jobs at the toronto headquaters nearly in half. >> now to today's national forecast and maria joins us from nashville. is it cold there too, maria? >> it is extremely cold for

sure. we are already in the single digits. wind chills down below 0. we're here outside the nashville symphony and you can see the fun dane fountain behind us is symbolic. the flow has been slow. very slow downtown any time of the year usually bustling. basically a ghost town. crews have been stretched thin as well. nashville, the city itself has about 30 trucks at their disposal and the priority yesterday was getting to those secondary streets so people could get out of their houses back to work and back to downtown music city. we also talked to a few country artists feeling the pinch as well because of the weather, not getting the folks into the caves and the restaurants to hear their music, are having to cancel acts all together because they actually cannot get into town. the problem today, of course the temperatures, record lows possible. the record today five. we're getting close to that

right now. believe it or not not getting out of the teens. nashville in the deep freeze since saturday. now word that they're under the winter storm watch. that's set to take effect tomorrow starting as snow as unfortunately more freezing rain possible in the forecast by the time saturday morning rolls around. a tough few days for nashville and many more to come it looks like with the next round of weather. back to you. >> all right maria. the ground hog was right. you say it was because of the lights. >> no. >> hey, look it may be that we created this cold weather by putting the lights on him and forcing him to see his weather. >> we created the cold weather by the warming. >> oh i forgot. >> it is the year of the sheep. >> all of us -- >> just follow along. >> i haven't really looked at why it's happening but i just believe in it. they say it's because of the warming that it's cold. i just believe it. >> it is cold. >> it's cold.

because it's warm. >> it's cold because it's warm. >> the planet is warming so it's colder. >> let's tell you about another business story. this business has a hard time in cold weather. electric car battery maker says apple is poaching auto engineers to build a battery division. a-123 is suing the tech giant. the court filing offers more evidence apple may be developing a car. they were developing a dashboard. what are they trying to do? >> i don't know i've seen the prototypes. >> you've seen it. >> if you ever get a car -- >> you're going to want an apple car. >> it looks like an ugly minivan but it's so functional and the carbon footprint is so low. you can do zip cars now. but is it a zip? >> they don't really do zip anymore. >> how do you get around? >> just rent a car. >> just from alamo or whomever. >> do you insist on a hybrid?

i swear this is true. because i flew into san francisco and had a car take me down to monterey -- >> did you get a prius? >> no i didn't get a prius but every car is a prius i swear. i thought i was seeing double. >> the idea of being in one of those small cars when a big car comes by. >> but you do notice in san francisco and northern california, there are prius everywhere. everywhere. and they are all ugly. >> part of it by the way, batteries don't work well in cold weather. a lot of these hybrid electric cars in michigan you never really buy one. the battery only lasts half the time its supposed to last. >> all right. well we'll have chairs. we have a lot to talk about. >> we haven't seen you in a long time. >> i know. >> hard to believe. >> and it's your birthday and we

found out what sign you are. you're a -- >> pices. depends what magazines you read. some say i'm aquarius. >> i think you act like a feces. coming up -- >> it's my birthday. >> i'm sorry my little buddy. that's like the skipper talking to gilligan. that's not good. coming up ceo takes 30 people out to dinner -- oh okay. takes 30 people out to dinner. not unusual. how about a $300,000 check though. not something you see every day. we'll have the details. maybe some of that supreme court justice. first as we head to break here's a look at yesterday's s&p 500 winners and losers.

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and their families is without equal. start investing with as little as fifty dollars. we are in the chairs looking at stories that are interesting this morning. one of them i don't know if you guys recall just a couple of days ago mgm did it's earnings call and on the call they were trying to explain how vegas was back and somebody just spent $300,000 on a dinner.

they didn't say who did it. but it has now been revealed that that person was shane smith that runs vice who had gone to dinner apparently and -- mgm said it was 12 people that went to dinner. there's other people now saying it might have been close to double that. 24 people. but still $300,000 for the dinner. a lot of wine was drunk. apparently in those that figured this out, david carr who is no longer with us sadly put out a tweet at the time about a month ago because he was in vegas for ces and said no brainer quiz what media exec did i watch win $100,000 at black jack last mite, hit, gambling not his only vice. >> he made some money. >> he made some money at the tables and then gave it back. maybe some wine truffles. we think it was in the bellagio.

money still flowing in have a gas. >> it's supposed to stay in vegas. >> the money did but not the story. >> this is close enough because it's the year of the sheep i used to go to the desert a lot. >> when you lived in l.a. >> and every year we would do the same things. but one place we always go is the living desert which is incredible and there should be therapy goats because we always go to the same place and we sit surrounded by goats and they come up to you and they're so gentle and sweet and you understand why people that grow up in farms have a certain serenity. >> i've seen them go after people. >> but not these goats.

they're a different species. one has 54 chromosomes and the other has 60. >> would you have a goat in your house? i know you have dogs. >> they're very sweet and very gentle and we've known some of them for ten or 12 years. >> you recognize them? >> my kids do and remember their names. some are no longer -- they just cost a couple but some of them are still there and then the other place we always two is the air museum in palm springs. >> you were talking to john harang gets harwood about it. >> we went out there and it was all fun and games and you get there and there's so many things. i had tears in my eyes looking at so many different things but one of them i mentioned earlier and it was the chaplains. four of them. all different faiths and they had only been chaplains for less than a year. they were all first lieutenants

and they were on this ship sinking and gave everybody else the lifeboats and they joined arms as they went down with the ship and there was a jewish gentleman, a methodist, a catholic and one other and as it says here they gave their lives to save them. there's a million stories like that if you ever get the chance to go out there but it's not all fun and games and i came back thinking about how different this world seems to be right now. i think it was the same day that people 21 coptic christians in egypt had been be headed or something. >> isis. >> are we moving forward in this world? are we making any progress or are we -- i don't know. it just seems like we have lost our way and maybe not here but at least in certain parts. >> it's add guy reminder and

basic goodness of human kind. >> right. and seeing so many of the heros. i guess it's like a tom brokaw greatest generation. maybe it was the greatest generation. it's amazing. >> cool museum. >> it is. i want to bring up a story i have seen. we talked about the winter weather and the cold that's come through as a result. usa today points out as the snow piles up so does the auto crashes. there was a piece on nightly news last night where jeff rossen pointed out you have to be careful on these roads and first instinct is often the wrong instinct. if you slam on the breaks and turn that's the worst thing you can possibly do so just a reminder to everybody if you get in a situation where you get stuck on ice, what you should do is take your foot off the brake and the gas and try to slowly guide your way out of things. >> did you see the people in boston diving off --

>> that's here too. >> crazy people jumping off the roofs into snow banks. >> are you sure there's nothing -- >> that's the thing. make sure there's not a fire hydrant underneath. >> the major has been telling people to not do this. >> social media spawning event right now. >> what about a spiked fence? remember that guy. >> everybody is doing this and taking videos. >> don't. >> the mayor is telling people not to. >> what if it's all frozen? can you imagine if it's ice inside. what are these? >> are they still doing those videos? are they still making those movies? >> i don't know. these are the guys that someone in their family died right after saying hey watch this. >> hey watch this. >> still to come this morning -- >> there's a lot of college kids involved. >> on her way. >> that's going to be fun. i love animals. anyway, we'll meet the youngest

person on the forbes 30 under 30 list. new person for me to hate. poised to revolutionize how you look at online ads. he's of legal drinking age but just barely and then we'll welcome the legendary investor and also scott walker. this is cool. presidentful hopeful scott walker will be in studio today. hopefully none of our union guys are around. maybe doing union busting in new york. first as we head to break, check out these pictures niagra falls frozen over. squawk box will be right back.

welcome back to squawk box this morning.

our next guest dropped out for college for a start up. he was looking to prevent internet users from ignoring the ads they see online. he's the youngest person on the forbes 30 under 30 list. he's the coo and co-founder of a digital marketing platform focused on post click engagement. that seems like a lot to me. before we go anywhere tell us what does it do. >> yeah absolutely. so it's a new type of digital marketing technology where after you click on an ad we have interactive overlay that asks users questions. >> this is after i click on the ad? sometimes i thought i can just get to a site and something is going to pop up on me and ask me questions. >> yeah, so the idea is that is going to become more effective and i'm going to be more inclined to click on it and not ignore it? what about the annoyance. >> i can't click off of the stuff fast enough to get it go away. what makes me want to engage?

>> part of it is we have this idea of value based exchange. so one of the reasons we all find ads so annoying is quite frequently there's nothing in it for us. it's always the brands demanding something, whether it's our attention or asking us to buy something. so part of the hypothesis and what we have been able to prove is by engaging through the quiz questions and different experiences, if we're offering you something, it doesn't have to be a coupon it could be content, we actually find a higher engagement rate. >> i've seen it on content sites where to get to the content, if you're not a subscriber i can answer these questions and read the article for free. that's what you're talking about. >> exactly. >> and compare that to the experience of the coupon. who is more likely to go through with it before clicking off? trying to get to the content or trying to get to the coupon. >> trying to get to the content. >> the content is more valuable. >> content is more valuable. it's depends by brand. we work with rebok where a $20

off is enticing to certain consumer but with others content is more valuable. >> is it the advertiser that pays you or the content company? the publishing platform. >> our business model goes both ways. we work with advertisers directly and we use us to enhance their digital performance but also a unique solution of a brand like a yahoo! or mit tech review would use. >> how does your mother feel about you dropping out of college. >> both of my parents are in education. so it was a bit of a tough conversation. >> do they think you're going to do this and then go back? what's that conversation like? >> so actually i still take one class at a time over at harvard right now on monday nights but due to the weather in boston we haven't had class yet this semester. >> he was saying that he lives in boston and i said were you jumping off your house to get into the snow and he said his roommates have and they all work for hill.

so i'm very curious about -- because this happens a lot. you hear about the two kids in the dorm room but one becomes the ceo and runs the place and then you have to live with these other guys who are your friends but you're also the boss. how does that actually play itself out inside like your house. >> well it's really special group of guys. i'll say that first. the other thing is i'm not home much very often. >> hopefully they're not either and if you see them at home you should tell them to go back to the office right? >> they're good about it. we don't take it awkward and there's a separation between work and home environment. >> are they friends from school. >> yeah. >> what's the long-term plan for this company? is this a company that goes public? it gets sold to an advertising platform? what's the long-term -- everyone says they want to remain independent but if a ceo is watching this and want to call you up and buy the company you're available? >> this is a big competitive

advantage for certain ad type of technologies so i wouldn't be surprised if there's an acquisition but the opportunity is there. >> other people could try to do this tomorrow if becky and joe. >> the data. we're collecting a ton of really unique data and creating the most effective ways for brands to do this. >> you're collecting it through cookies and things like that. >> and direct questionnaires as well. users are providing data. >> my thought was going to be how should we think about the privacy issues in regard to advertising because one of the things we keep hearing more and more about is how much of our data is getting sucked out while we're doing what we're doing and then either potentially exposes us or not. >> it's all about transparency. so it's all user provided data so they're answering questions and they know that data is going to be used for remarketing purposes. >> do we really know because sometimes we click that thing

and you just say okay because you never really read it? >> our goal with data is not to have it be a privacy issue but simply to help make better recommendations on the products you might be interested in. >> jonathan how did you get interested in the ad space? you're awfully young. seems like a business oriented this like go pro where you were surfing and found it. >> it came from being a college student. we were online watching hulu and we did something that a lot of folk versus done at home which is instantly open a new tab and went to facebook. that kind of experience made us realize that there's an opportunity to create a company around engaging with advertising and really there was an opportunity that we were missing because we were on facebook. >> so do you have another idea after this company? >> we have so big ideas. elon musk is probably my favorite entrepreneur so i'm driven by him to think outside of the box and outside of this

world. >> so you don't make the things -- those little things you put in -- >> the little bit piece? >> no. >> different business. >> i prepared for the total wrong -- i love those little things. >> i thought you were going to ask him about the alligators on the shirt. lacoste. >> you know those that you put in your crocs. >> i'll look into it. >> a differ kind. >> you like them right? >> love them. i love harvard. one night a week though that sounds like my junior year in boulder. >> when will you graduate? >> it's like a nine year program. i have a lot of credits yet. >> nine years of your life. that's like high school. that's good. >> thank you for coming in. congratulations again. >> appreciate it. >> time for the squawk planner. we have weekly jobless claims. walmart will post the latest quarterly results and in washington it's the final day of

the white house summit on countering vieolent extremism and that's today's squawk planner. >> hello. >> when we come back this morning, the politics of trade and the role of the almighty tlar dollar. and then later our guest host is the private equity legend in the process of closing the deal on what could be the biggest, priciest u.s. hotel sale ever. also wisconsin governor scott walker stopping by the set today as he considers a run for the white house. squawk box will be right back. ameriprise asked people a simple question: can you keep your lifestyle in retirement? i don't want to think about the alternative. i don't even know how to answer that. i mean, no one knows how long their money is going to last. i try not to worry but you worry. what happens when your paychecks stop? because everyone has retirement questions. ameriprise created the exclusive confident retirement approach. to get the real

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welcome back everybody. the white house is working on a trade agreement enjoyed bipartisan support. however some believe a new bill aimed attackeling currency manipulation by trading partners could derail expansion talks. joining us with unsight is tony the managing director of hamilton place strategies. also is scott paul he is the president of the alliance for american manufacturing and scott, let's start with some of your thoughts on this. you think that currency

manipulation is an issue that does need to be tied to these talks. explain why. >> absolutely i think we erode the benefits of free trade if we let this most of 21st century protectionism continue. we have a history of trying to open markets with our free trade agreements. we've addressed intellectual property and tariffs. but we have some companies gaming the system. china and japan in particular. i think our concern is we're not going to get that level playing field for american workers, for american business unless we deal it. it's not only me. it's paul krugman. it's rob portman the former usdr under the bush administration. so these aren't folks that want to kill a deal. they want to make it work right. >> if you look at currency manipulation, that's in the eye of the beholder. there are people who could look at what our federal reserve has done for last seven or eight years and say we've been engaged in the same currency manipulation. >> sure, they can say that.

they would be wrong. i mean the imf, wto have laid out strict guidelines on what it is. it includes the following tests. you need to have a current account surplus. the united states hasn't had one of those for decades. i'm not sure we ever will. massive holdings of foreign currency reserves. in the case of the united states, we hold a little more than a hundred billion which is a tiny part of our economy. when you take a snapshot of japan and china in comparison to that, you can see a world of difference. so it's a nice talking point but the reality is these are well-established rules. reagan, jim baker back in the 1980s did the plaza accords to get monetary policy right. and we need to do it in the tpp because it's the foundation for trade policy in the 21st century. >> so eurozone manipulates the currency. germany? >> i don't think you could say that. >> germany doesn't? you don't think germany is

benefitting from having countries in the eu that their economies are -- basically the euro is like the drachma. you've got the periphery countries. you saw where the swiss franc went. why wouldn't the deutsche market be there if it wasn't for the euro. that's the same thing. >> you could look at the swiss and say yes there's -- >> they stopped manipulating. but germany still has the benefit of the weak euro to export to the rest of the world. >> but we're not talking about a free trade agreement with europe. we're talking about japan. look, i don't think tpp is going to pass unless you get something done on this. you have chuck schumer. you have jeff sessions. i don't know another thing they agree on. i'm shocked if they agree on anything else. so this thing's not going to pass unless there's currency in

it. >> tony you have the opposite view. you think this thing won't pass if currency manipulation is attached to it. >> actually, there won't be anything to pass if currency manipulation is attached to it. because, honestly any country in its right mind wouldn't sign a trade agreement where the united states gets to unilaterally decide what is manipulation measure it, and then apply -- slap on duties to any other country. in fact, the united states wouldn't agree to a trade agreement where another country gets to sit as judge and jury on these issues. scott mentioned art lapper. take a look at what art lapper said. he said japan wouldn't qualify as a currency manipulator under his test. so it is in the eye of the beholder. brazil would have a very different view on this. by the way, you know people like jeff sessions who is back in this provision, he is the one who accused the fed of trying to

debase the dollar back when it was doing qe. there are a lot of views on this. and the problem is that it's not that -- it's not even really an advantage for a country to do this. if you think about a world with global supply chains and markets. there is no great advantage of trying to manage your currency. but we do know that no country would sign onto t rkspp with these provisions in it. ironically the great winner in that would be china, not our trading partners. because tpp is -- you should see tpp as almost a bullwork against china. this is a regional trade agreement where we're going to set standards on how we trade and across a whole array of industries. there's a reason china's not in this agreement. it's all the other pacific rim countries who are going to be part of this agreement. >> scott, how do you respond to that? >> look. i think tony's right that this

sets the foundation for what's going to happen in the future. i disagree on what should be in the agreement. if we're going to have a 21st century trade agreement, we need currency in it. >> wait a second. what about his idea that the is is laid out so the united states can decide whether your currency will -- >> that's not the way it works at all. >> how does it work right now? >> we're party to the to the imf. there are procedures in place. same with the wto. so it would be inconsistent for an agreement as large as the tpp to not include some currency disciplines. >> who would decide the currency disciplines? by the wto? by the imf? >> it's the same set of criteria -- >> is it right the united states -- >> it's the united states gets to be the judge and jury on it, scott. >> absolutely not. i mean there's two elements to this. one is through our trade laws. we have systems right now where you can bring a trade case.

it's adjudicated. the u.s. has a strong record of upholding its trade law enforcement. >> but it's these kinds of -- >> in the tpp you would have criteria that are internationally agreed to. so this is something that japan has agreed to as pa rt of the imf. you would make it enforceable but teletpp. if japan's not doing it right now, i don't see what it benefits. the benefits of free trade would flow greatly to the united states. >> you said they are doing pipt. >> i think they have a history of it. i think they're disturbing trends. i look at the weak ness of the yen. but we've got to help manufacturing and make sure we have a level playing field for our guys moving forward, absolutely. >> tony, quick last word. >> look. we won't have to have this discussion about how impossible it is to implement this thing because this is intended to kill tpp. it would kill tpp if it succeeds. and it's a wrong policy. it's never good to weaken the

dollar and slap on tariffs. >> thank you both for your time today. coming up we've got barry sternlicht. stay with us. there's nothing more romantic than a spontaneous moment. so why pause to take a pill? and why stop what you're doing to find a bathroom? with cialis for daily use, you don't have to plan around either.

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greece raising the secure financial lifeline requesting extension of its loan agreement. will the rest of europe accept greece's terms and head off a potential grexit? scott walker is one of the standouts in a crowded gop presidential field. he will join us on set to talk labor, immigration. and the rise of re generon. stock up more than 3,000% in six years. the ceo will be here as the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now. ♪

live from the beating heart of business, new york city, this is "squawk box." >> welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc first in business worldwide. i am joe kernen along with becky quick and -- it's your birthday. it's your birthday andrew. andrew, it's your birthday. it's your birthday. happy birthday. >> why did you have to do that. >> it's your birthday. you're 38 years old. your sign as a pisces but you're right in the middle. >> pisces and aquarius. >> i asked if you were a fishes. >> he still uses that joke and thinks it's funny every year. every year. >> i just -- i know. you'll see. our guest host this morning is the ceo of private investment firm starwood capital group with more than $42 billion in assets under management.

barry sternlicht is joining us for the next two hours. always in demand. people love when your on barry. >> they do. it's true. >> we'll get to barry in a minute. but first becky has your morning headlines. >> thank you. among our top stories at this hour, greece is desperately trying to avoid running out of cash within weeks. athens requested a six-month extension to its eurozone loan agreement. that move is boosting hopes for a last-minute compromise between the new greek government and exu leaders. also oil prices plunging once again this morning on a rise and fears of oversupply. in corporate news we are watching shares of t-mobile. the company earning 12 cents a share for the fourth quarter. that was 7 cents better than expected. revenue was well above the consensus as they added 2.1 million subscribers during the quarter. we've got weekly jobless claims hitting the tape at 8:30 eastern time. expecting 290,000 first hief

time fileants. . forecasters calling for a rebound in february following two months of declines. and walmart set to report fourth quarter result. it will give us a read on the holiday season and the decision to spread black friday sales over five days. and later this morning you're not going to want to miss it because carl quintanilla is going to be sitting down with doug mcmillon on "squawk on the street." turning to the race for the white house. sheldon add l son and stanley hubbard. that maybe this guy is just a maichb. maichb. scott walker joins us now. i would have introed you different governor.

we've been together every step of the way on this show since your first election your attempts at that point to -- i don't know to get your state's finances in order. and the say credit cows of the left that you took on. and you earned enemies nationwide. i'm not going to recuse myself. but maybe andrew is here to grill you -- >> happy birthday, by the way. >> thank you. buttering me up early. i'm just going to lob him like this. >> how many elections have you had in the last six years? >> three elections the last four years. >> in the last four years? >> that's right. in the last four years i won three elections. last two i was the number one target. >> nationwide. galvanized. >> nationwide. >> pro-union forces galvanized. >> head of the teachers union afscme, all made me their number one target. we took the power away from the big government special interests and put it in the hands of the taxpayers. >> and your state is so true blue. you did it in wisconsin which

was really the birthplace of the public union wasn't it? >> collective bargaining starts there. afscme started there. although many years before the republican party also started in wisconsin. like the midwest, it's a state where even though there's more democrats than republicans in most polls, in the end they vote the person over the party oftentimes. that's how you decide elections. i took almost unanimous support amongst republicans. i won independents. i think largely in times of crisis they want leadership. >> it would seem if there's an objective person watching the way the governor of illinois approached that state's problems and the way you approached it i would think most reasonable people would say it looks like the way to do this maybe isn't just raising taxes to cover ever-increasing state budget. and maybe you have -- >> i think even the people of illinois -- >> did you win the ideological battle of which way to go?

"the new york times" hasn't declared you a winner, i'll tell you that many up. >> there's a lot of truth to that. there's a major difference. >> how much better is wisconsin doing than it was? >> there's a reason that bruce browner is now the leader of illinois. illinois has one of the worst ratings in the country. the 234u governor proposed major changes there. and their pension system is not fully funded. i this week did another opening for a business a manufacturing company in southeastern wisconsin that came up from illinois. why? because our tax burden is down. the economy is moving up. we've got a stable workforce. we've got all the advantages you want. there's still plenty more work to be done but there is a sharp contrast, no doubt about it. >> we can go right to the election coming up. you are -- have staked out a position, probably to the right of maybe the other person that people talk about the most i guess, because you both have double digits. that's governor jeb bush. you've got -- are you happy to have the koch brothers

associated with your name? because that's another -- there's more philanthropic endeavors named after koch. but you look at how they're pigeon holed by the progressive media, they seem like really bad guys. you want them on your side? >> i'll take anybody and everybody should i choose to be a candidate. and right now we're technically in the exploratory stage. jeb bush is a good friend of mine. i have a great admiration for him. but i think for us to win not just as republicans but ultimately as americans, we need new faces from outside of washington with bold ideas and a track record that could do it. >> i said off camera what about bush/walker. and you said you'd serve with any of these guys. >> just about. i like marco rubio a lot. i know a lot of the governors. we're blessed in the republican party to have a lot of good quality perspective candidates out there. somebody is going to take on

washington. the problems we have in america are largely different. the last state of the union address, what i heard was somebody who said i want to grow the economy in washington. six of the top ten wealthiest counties in america last year were in and around washington, d.c. i think most of us as americans, we want to grow the economy out in the cities and towns and vil anl villages out across the country. i think there's a fundamentalal shift that needs to happen. >> we're watching something -- i think most of us thought went to war in iraq i didn't notice anybody spreading -- iraq wasn't spreading across the entire middle eastern scene. now we have a new guy in libya and they're forming a state with the sole objective to hurt obviously christians jews western democracies and they're telling you what they're doing. and they're beheading people. we've never seen a bad actor like this. what do you think about all the

is? >> it's a worry not just in the middle east. i get a threat assessment from the fbi. and i worry about it not only spreading around the middle east without getting into specific details and violating the confidence of those updates, i worry about it across america. i worry about it in other places around the world. we've seen what's happened in europe. we most noticeably saw what happened in france. it's not if there's an attempt on american soil it's when. i've got two sons 19 and 20. for them and those younger, i want to make sure it never happens on american soil. i think we need to take the fight to them instead of waiting for them to come to us. it's beyond american allies. israel we need to step up with. uniting kingdom, france germany, japan. but i think others. look at jordan, turkey saudi arabia, those who are not traditionally military alleys. >> governor is that an argument for american boots on the ground too? >> i think you should take anything.

if you're serious about it. ronald reagan was arguably one of the best presidents for foreign policy. we had he lowest levels of military engagement in the world. why? because the people around the world particularly our adversaries knew he was serious. when he fired air traffic controllers early in his presidency presidency, they didn't know he wasn't serious. and more importantly in ussr at that time and soviet union and elsewhere, they knew not to mess with us. we need a leader a commander in chief -- >> but to get back to that place, do you need to put boots on the ground given we have gone into countries and withdrawn? >> you shouldn't take it off. >> i'm saying at this point to prove the point that you want to make you think you need to. >> when you say you're going to draw a red line and somebody crosses it you need to act on it. we were talking about this off set. when you're a parent my kids are 19 and 20 but when they were young we never said one thing and had the other parent

back away to it. the kids knew they were going to push the line every time. that's the same thing with foreign policy. you're going to draw a line in the sand. i don't care whether it's in syria or iran or anywhere else around the world. you need to say if you cross this -- now, maybe he shouldn't have made that commitment in the first place. but whether it's special ops or other engagements out there, we've got to do what it takes to keep america safe. >> back to domestic issues. we had john harwood on earlier talking about the economic analysis came out of the white house today. on income inequality income disparity. when we were in davos, larry summers had had sat on a panel that came up with i think, ten ideas. and they're -- most of them are basically the opposite of what you've done in wisconsin. raised taxes on the rich fund more education, embolden unions. embolden unions. raise the minimum wage. is your message and that is you know the republicans did well

in the last election. we have a very short memory in this country. we been swinging back and forth every two years on what we think the right ideological moves are. is union taking on unions going to be something that resonates or is it going to hurt you? >> i think particularly public employee unions most look at what they do. in my state, nbc did an exit pole after my recall election and found 40% of the union households voted for me. a pundit said how could that happen i thought you were anti-union. no i'm pro-worker and pro-taxpayer. a guy who works a second shift at a factory, his wife is a nurse, they say i pay 25% of my health insurance. i match my pension or my 401(k). why is that unreasonable for public sector employees to do the same thing? and we say it's reasonable. we have to pay high property taxes. we pay high taxes. why don't we see our taxes go down and see our neighbor do the

same thing. they think it's a matter of fairness. i think conservatives could win the fairness argument if we put the power back in the hands of the taxpayers. and for income issues. i think we ought to talk about how we lift americans up entirely from growth. >> let me ask you quickly. you were at a dinner last night with rudy giuliani spoke. you were sitting just a few chairs away when he said i do not believe and i know this is a horrible thing but i do not believe that the president loves america. he doesn't love you. and he doesn't love me. he wasn't brought up the way you were brought up and i was brought up with the love of this country. what do you think of those comments? >> the mayor can speak for himself. i'm not going to comment on what the president thinks or not. i'll tell you i love america. there are plenty of people democrat, republican independent, in between who love this country. i think we should talk about ways we love this country and we feel passionately. >> but do you agree with those

comments? were you offended by those comments? what was your reaction when you heard them? >> i'm in new york. i'm used to people saying things that -- >> let me ask you, do you think america is exceptional? >> i'd like to think america is exceptional, yes. >> in the same way belgians think they're exceptional and europeaning think they're exceptional. or is america actually exceptional? >> i'd like to. >> the simple answer would be yes. that would have been a simpler answer than i would like to think it is. right? >> yes now i'm grilled on my birthday. >> there are certain people that might think, you know that may play into that perception. and i'm not going to touch this hot potato either. i'm just telling you -- yeah. so the president has two degrees. i think w had two degrees with didn't he? you have no college degrees. is that a problem? >> no. i left my senior year of college

to work for the american red cross like a lot of people i had a chance for a job out there and took the opportunity. >> how many credits did you have left? >> about year if i went back. and i've got two kids in college. i'm not disparaging college. both my kids with i want them to have a degree. if people say that's a problem like one of my former governor colleagues said the other day -- if you look at apple, facebook all those have similar ceos and founders. >> if i hadn't had that physical biochem course -- >> how important is it that the field narrows quickly? if you look at the last election, there was a period of which there was a cast of thousands all trying to beat each other up and arguably that process was not a good one for the party. >> there were 23 debates. i think reince priebus did a nice job of narrowing it down speeding up the process, getting it done by the spring. >> do you have any team debates?

>> no i think it's about eight or nine total. it narrows it down by two-thirds. it shifts, it starts in the key battle ground states in the midwest and elsewhere. i think in the end it'll be a good process. >> we had george pataki on the show a couple days ago. it just feels like there's just more and more names coming up. >> that's a sign of optimism. to your point about america, i think a lot of people love this country, would like to see it do better. i'd like to see everyone do better. not pit one group versus another. i'd like to see us have a stronger presence in the world to make sure that the things we talked about, the radical islamic terrorists out there causing havoc elsewhere don't come to america. >> governor, thanks. come back. >> will indeed. i like the set here. >> it is. it's very elitist, though isn't it? when we come back we've got a busy hour still to come. we're going to get thoughts from barry sternlicht, his thoughts

on the economy and where he's investing in europe and the u.s. and at 8:30, the ceo of regeneron will join us. then the voice of american greed is going to join us. actress stacy keach will join us. we're back in just a moment. opportunities aren't always obvious. sometimes they just drop in. cme group can help you navigate risks and capture opportunities. we enable you to reach global markets

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welcome back to "squawk box" this morning. our guest host this morning is

barry sternlicht. starwood capital's ceo. we have a lot to talk about. where he's putting his money in europe and here. before we do that since you made your name and your life at starwood and there was a bit of starwood news this week with the ceo being pushed out and a new one coming in i think, i want to get your thoughts. what do you think happened here? fritz van paasschen we're talking about. >> i know who you're talking about. i do pay attention to things like my alma mater. i think starwood had an issue in the market place which i think the board probably kept hearing from shareholders and maybe even hotel owners. which is they're moving slowly. and marriott hilton have done a better job addressing the millennials. they hint a lot on innovating. it was soft innovation. technology. but as far as new product lines like the hilton gardens or

courtyards or some of the things marriott had done starwood got caught with a big international footprint. much bigger than hilton. that turned out not to be the right thing to do. >> because he had moved into china and elsewhere. >> we were the biggest upscale company in china. they did a good job of continuing to grow. in fact, frits' focus on international. with all the travel problems and places like paris, it hurt them. >> is that something you could have seen, you think, a year out? >> it was the right term it was the right strategy. the growth and travel is going to be in asia. it is quite valuable over there. but you know it's hard with a hotel company. you put in short-term -- they don't pay you well. but sometimes those acorns grow into oak trees. >> so would you have pushed him out? was he the right guy? wrong guy? >> i probably shouldn't say that. i think it's very important that a leader in the hotel industry

be both creative and compassionate. you're running a firm with 100,000-plus employees and go to battle for you every day. >> was he those things? >> i don't think that was his greatest strength. b i think he's a very smart guy. his strategies -- his style of management was quite different than mine. >> in what way? >> well i was really in the field. i really like people. so, you know my closest relationships were the housekeepers and the people in the kitchens. and i grew up that way. so for me i think -- and i think that sets an example. it's like tell a hotel person. everybody knows what you're doing. the whole way you behave is really important as a leader. we need a charismatic leader in the industry. at hilton chris is very good at that. i think arnie has done a good job of that at marriott.

i think mark at hyatt has done a good job of that. it's important because this is a team and it's a very inbred industry. everybody went to cornell school. the whole industry. >> is it surprising to you that they are doing the transition seems to be so abrupt? i mean they have an interim ceo opposed to having a plan. >> you heard gurglings about this. i have to say they are hard to do business with. we were a large owner of starwood hotels. starwood capital, our firm, actually we created starwood hotels and they had they name from us. i gave it to them. i think also they don't have a financial strategy. i've been on the board of estee lauder for years. >> what do you think happened? is there a back story we don't know about that you do?

meaning, it seems odd to me if you just thought the company wasn't doing so hot, you would actually take some time and figure out who the next ceo is. if you cut them off at the knees and put in an interim ceo happened. >> clearly something bubble ld up. i think most people thought they were moving their offices to mumbai after being announced. something happened. what happened, i have no idea. i actually got a phone call from adam aron yesterday and e-mail from frits. i wish him luck. it's like watching your kid grow up. you want them to be competitive and innovative. i think the company has to get back to that spirit of innovation. that's leading, not following. so we'll see. i mean we're launching -- we have a new hotel company in europe that we're launching in london with 70 hotels called the

principal group. we're launching two new brands. just made them up. and it's not -- it hasn't opened. >> how does that happen? >> serendipity. i don't know. i mean with it's emblematic of the wave of foreign capital coming to the united states and, you know you have a jewel box. that is a trophy. that's kind of like even though they'll have a yield on their capital, it could be a good deal for them. i think our record will be passed. >> even with the foreign currency fluctuations with the strong dollar. >> it's fascinating. people are saying my currency is depreciating. so the race is to get out of those currencies so they can see what those governments are doing. it's both. it's more expensive. so the real estate market you've seen the foreign buyers kind of disappear from new york city. and the russians are gone. with the crash in oil, some of the middle eastern money seems to be pulling back. we're being replaced right now

with chinese capital. they're thinking about depreciateing their currency right, so they'll lose purchasing power. also they're being told to diversify. you saul the waldorf sale. i'm sure you'll see three more. yesterday it was announced on buying the chinese insurance company that bought the waldorf just bought an office building in new york. if you think about it you know they're way underweighted here. they have almost no footprint. and there's a number i saw yesterday that they expect chinese capital -- this came from auction.com which is a company i have an interest in that's online selling houses. the amount of chinese interest in that vertical is doubled year over year. so $31 billion in purchases of chinese nationals buying stuff in the u.s. versus 15 last year. that's what they're expecting. it's interesting. >> we've got to press the pause button. we've got barry for the next two hours. thank you for answering those questions about starwood so candidly. we'll come back to you in a sec.

listen to this in the meantime, people in alaska are the happiest people in america. that's according to a new index released by gallup healthways. results are based on interviews and take in physical social and financial well being as well as community pride. hawaii, south dakota wyoming, and monday round out the five happiest states. after the break we will reveal the five most miserable states in america. then the ceo of regeneron will join us on set. one of the company's drugs performing better than competitors in a key test. stick around. we'll be right back. anything? no. you? no. aflac! what are you guys looking for? claims! legend has it these hills are full of 'em. it can take months for an insurance claim to surface. claimin' takes patience. aflac paid my claim in one day. they got some new-fangled kinda one day payin' machine?

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your move wherever you are. and start working on your next big idea. ♪ ♪ welcome back to "squawk box" thonk. among the stories that are front aerocenter germany rejecting greece's application to extend their loan agreement.

also the euro falling on that news. and we should tell you this morning, pinterest in talks to raise in a round of funding. that would double the site's valuation to $11 billion. also samsung buying mobile wallet start-up looppay. and to launch a cell phone pamts service to compete with apple pay. before the break, we told you about a new index that ranks states using several categories including health financial stability, and community pride. alaska was ranked the happiest state in the union. how about the most miserable? that would be west virginia according to this poll. it earned that distinction for the sixth straight year ranking worse in the country in two categories. motivation to achieve goals and physical well being. west virginia was followed by kentucky, indiana, ohio, and mississippi. and coming up the meteoric rise of regeneron pharmaceuticals, it's one of the

best performers in the s&p since the market bottom in 2009. up more than 3,000%. the company's ceo will join us on set next. ♪ ♪ ♪ tigers, both of you. tigers? don't be modest. i see how you've been investing. setting long term goals. diversifying. dip! you got our attention. we did? of course. you're type e* well, i have been researching retirement strategies. well that's what type e*s do. welcome home. taking control of your retirement? e*trade gives yools and resources to get it right. are you type e*?

welcome back to "squawk box." we are talking pharma this morning. meg tirrell joins us with a special guest. hey, meg. >> vision loss associated with diabetes. comparing it directly with two drugs from roche. and it looked like a win for you guys. maybe you can explain the significance of this study. >> sure. the study was what they call a comparative effectiveness study. they wanted to look at the different freedoms for diabetic and see which would come out the

best. before we get into the study, we should remember this is a whole new era in general. the enemy was not each drug. it was the macular adema which causes blindness. up until recently the best treatment was to take a laser and burn out parts of the eye and hope that would save the rest of the eye. you know it had some effect, but if you looked at our data that was our basis for the approval, it's a much better idea to treat with eylea. the question is what is the best anti-agent. if you look at the study, it's certainly in those patients who had poor vision when they started the study 20/80, let's say. you looked at them compared to three drugs. eylea performed the best. >> this is a

government-sponsored study. what they looked at we the drugs are their cost. one is a cancer drug but it's used off label because it's it's 1/500th of the dose of the eye drug. but still, a big difference. and what the new england journal and editorial recommended is for people with worse vision they take your drug worse. but for people who start off with okay vision they should use the cheaper drug. what do you make of that? >> we're happy to hear they recommend our drug to the people who need it most. but it's worth debating what to do in patients who have a little better vision. you're going to miss p on the show i heard, when she won the best in show she didn't win for one thing going for her. she had a lot of things going for her. i think a lot of things were studied in this nih study which was not just the visual outcome. but they studied how much laser therapy you needed to rescue if

you weren't doing well how many injections you needed and how much adema you had in the eye. even the people who had good vision where the outcome was the same eylea performed better. it performed twice as well. >> it's kind of amazing. they're saying use the other because it saves money in the process. if it's your vision you're thinking otherwise. >> cost has been a big issue. so everybody's really focused on this. another thing to ask len about is cb surks came out with a new paper saying the drug wills cost $150 billion a year potentially at peak if they're given to everybody who can't tolerate statins. what do you make of that in you remember? >> it's wrong. i can tell you it's not going to be $150 billion a year. and that's a little bit of i would say, gainsmanship. they're trying to obviously come

in and get the discussion going with a little bit of fear to the system. it's just not true. we're going to come out with a fair price. it's not going to be used by all those millions of people. and i think that it's good debate to have. we need to discuss the problem. it doesn't do us any good to spend all these hard years in the lab for so much time. you know my partner from the beginning has worked and killed himself to invent these drugs. it doesn't do him or us any good if people can't afford them. >> do you worry about the move not just from cvs but also express scripps? about trying to set limits and decide how patients are going to be prescribed drugs and which drugs. do you worry about them in the process? >> they're in the process whether i like it or not. i would prefer they're not, but they are.

so we have to respect the process. on the other hand we have to do it realistically. we have to remember what everybody's incentives are. they're very worried about the course. some of them don't have risk and they're worried about how much of a discount they can get because that's how they earn their keep. at the end of the day, we're still all fighting for the same thing. at least at regeneron we're fighting to make sure we can bring safe and effective drugs to patients and that they can afford to get them. if they can't, then we're going to make sure through our various patient assistance programs they can get it. >> well thank you so much for joining us. >> thanks for having me. coming up when we return the 100th episode of "american greed" premiering tonight on cnbc. the show has profiled 161 criminals representing more than 3,000 years sentenced and drawing attention. actor stacey keach joins us next. you may recognize him as the

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all day today we're celebrating the 100th episode of cnbc's "american greed" by looking back at some of the show's greediest scoundrels. >> a small wall street firm offers to host a public offering of zzzz best stock. there is just one problem. >> once a decision had been made to take the company public barry called me into his office and said i have a confession to make to you. and i said what is it. he goes one of the jobs that you've been trying to hard to raise money for, he goes one of them was a fake. and i was, you know, stunned. >> so who was the dirtiest con? here with us now is the actor stacy keach. he is the voice of "american greed." when you begin speaking people will know immediately. >> thank you. i'm not the dirtiest con. >> but you do have that voice and it is an amazing thing, 100 episodes. who was the dirtiest con in your mind? >> you know, it's a tough one. but i think that tonight's

episode has one of the guys that is probably as prominent as anybody in the realm of scum bags. barry mingo. >> zzzz best. >> zzzz best carpet cleaners. he was a millionaire by the time he was 17 years old. he started when he was 16. the thing about these guys is that so many of them are so charismatic and as an actor, it's a great resource for me. because i get to watch these behaviors, you know these sociopathic behavioral strange -- >> when you were first tapped to do this did you think you were going to do just a couple of these things? >> we didn't know. we had no idea. but, you know, in speaking with our producer chuck schaffer when we first started we had a very short season. i think our first year was six episodes. something like that. and then we got picked up for

another year and another year and another year. now we're at 100. >> no shortage of scoundrels, huh? >> or greed. >> barry mingo, he's out and doing something again, isn't he? >> no. >> is he still in jail? >> yeah. he's still in jail. he got out -- >> then he was trying to teach accountants how to spot fraud or something. >> yeah. he did seven years. then he became a pastor in the church and he scammed all of those people. >> no, he did? >> absolutely. then he started his own fraud organization. yeah. he was consulting. nobody knows fraud better than i do. and he brazenly -- and then he ripped all those people off as well. >> beyond the fact that you've created this dramatic show what do you think it is about greed and these scoundrels that people like to watch? >> well you know i think everybody -- we all have an element of greed in us. we all want more of something. whether, you know, hopefully it's a good thing.

love or chocolate or something. >> hair. >> yeah. >> cross that off your list. not going to happen for you. >> but, you know it's something we can identify with. >> do you ever root for the scoundrel? or always for the cops? >> you don't always root for the cops. and you don't root for the scoundrel, but you're fascinated by the scoundrel. because we all want to trust somebody that we you know that engages our sympathy or our trust. twoept we want to invest money. a lot of people have invested their life savings for their futures and for their kids and for retirement. and they get burned. >> how many people do you think start out, you know not necessarily wanting to end up there and somehow something goes amiss here and they cover it up with a little move here. >> you mean they start out with

a legitimate -- >> not necessarily legitimate. but they have to cover loss and then they get in deeper and deep perp about 50%? >> i wouldn't say quite that much. >> some of them are just bad from the beginning. >> yeah. i think so. but you're right. some people start off and the ponzi scheme develops as a result of necessity. in order to rob peter to pay paul. and they get deeper and deeper. >> horrible. i think that's compelling too. >> you going to do european greed or is this just american greed? >> we've talked about international. >> international greed. >> yeah. we've talked about it. >> i have an acting question. craft of acting question. the voice, i know it's your voice. but do you put it on a little extra when you do it? >> i do. there's a little bit more gravitas with "american greed." >> and was it always that way? >> no, no. >> did it develop over time?

>> it was developed over time. yeah. it's something -- yeah. john houston had this great voice and i had the great privilege and honor of working with him a couple times. and i sort of call him to mind when i "american greed." there's a certain basso quality that -- it's a character. the narrator is a character. it's like you know -- >> you've done a lot of projects. is there one project you wish you had been in over the years? >> oh my gosh. many. many. yeah. that's a tough one. well well, i wrote a book a couple years ago. i talked about i came that close to playing jack nicholson's part in "one flew over the cuckoo's next." >> do you have predictions for this weekend's oscars? >> oh, gosh. it's a tough one. it's a tough race. >> best movie? best actor?

actress? >> very hard. theory of everything was one of my favorite movies this year. but "american sniper" is a great film. "birdman" is a great film. i'm being diplomatic. >> well thank you for coming in and congratulations again on 100 episodes. >> thank you. >> it airs -- we should tell everybody -- tonight on cnbc 10:00 eastern time. >> and here's to the next hundred episodes. coming up guest host barry minkow -- i'm sorry. barry sternlicht. >> not funny. >> weighs in on the health of the real estate market. then the venture capitalist investor who grew up living poor and above a laundromat is now worth a billion dollars.

♪ we've seen a big increase in home prices since 2012. and i wouldn't bet on that continuing. home prices are not -- they're at about the right level based on history. so maybe they won't go anywhere in the future. in the near future. >> that was robert shiller on "squawk box" yesterday giving us his take on the future of home prices. our guest host today barry sternlicht is part of tripoint

homes. his point is we've seen an awfully big run very quickly. maybe for the near future there isn't so much gas left in the tank. >> don't agree. >> why? >> i think it's a major asset class that's trailing asset bubbles, the inflation of prices. and we're growing organically. there was an issue on actually labor in places like texas that's going to clear it up as the frackers come off and do wall boarding. not wall boarding but making wall board. but really we were having trouble in houston finding workers. dallas. some of the markets are doing well. seattle, san francisco bay area. apartment rents are super high and keep going up. so the buy/sell alternative is staying in balance longer than people thought. it's cheaper to buy a house and finance it than it is to rent in

many markets. it's one of confidence in the american consumer. he's making short-term decisions. he doesn't trust the government right now. he's concerned. he doesn't understand the impact of his health care programs. and he's confused. it all goes to our national politics. you're just not seeing the consumer. he's buying a car, but he's not making that house expenditure. and he's financing a car at zero. >> from just what happened with the housing bubble bursting? >> i think investors including ourselves through our company, we bought a lot of houses and backed away as the equation fell apart. but that was good business buying houses and renting them. 6% yield which you can't find anywhere today on 17,000 houses we have. so i think the housing sector is going to be a major asset class in the country. i would like to play the american housing market if i could. if i could buy anything why can't i buy a housing read. but it goes back to financing. i think people are nervous about

taking the mortgages. i actually -- you know i was looking at a statistic that jpmorgan's deposits are at an all-time record high and loans were about what they were at the peak of the lehman crisis. deposit has gone straight up loans are flat. banks are sitting and not lending because they've got other things to do. we're just not generating consumer demand. it is the fact that the middle class is not moving up even ats the average family income in shrinking. they don't know -- they're nervous. i mean it's a general -- we own a lot of malls. you see it in the retail sales too. so i think it's all about the same thing. we need a little confidence. >> we're going to have more with barry sternlicht in a minute. he is our guest host for the next hour. >> but coming up we have quarterly results from walmart. plus miss p will be here.

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retail detail. walmart making headlines this morning. we'll break down the news and talk quarterly results. social and capital collide. meet the billionaire disrupter who had some of the biggest start-ups. plus a regal beagle on the set. >> a thorough going over. are all that thorough. am i seeing right? where's she putting her hands now? >> westminster's top dog is here now. >> hate to go out on a date with judge eddy franklin. >> what it takes to win in the dog shows as the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now. live from new york where business never sleeps, this is "squawk box." >> welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc first in business

worldwide. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. joining us in studio this morning is barry sternlicht. he is starwood capital founder and ceo. we're less than 90 minutes away from the opening bell on wall street. been watching the futures this morning. and after a slightly lower close yesterday, you can see red arrows once again today with the dow futures down 27 points. >> here's what's happening right now. germany is rejecting greece's application to extend the terms of the bailout. that news spooking investors worrying that athens could run out of money in the coming weeks. and check out shares of crude prices right now. or rather check out prices of crude. among the catalyst a rise in inventory and worries about over-supply. and walmart expected to earn $1.5. a share. that's on revenues of $132 million. carl's got an interview with

that. >> billion. >> did i say million? billion, you're right. >> good number for a quarter. not so bad. few stocks on the move this morning. t-mobile u.s. on the rise this morning. the mobile operator earned 12 cents a share for its latest quarter. 7 cents above estimates. revenue also above forecast. and marriott reporting quarterly profit of 68 cents a share. the hotel operator also giving some upbeat guidance. from running aol back in 2004 to an expansion, our guest has been a major technology interrupter. he is the founder of the venture capital fund the social capital partnership. he's also one of the owners of the golden state warriors and our guest host to brought him here is barry sternlicht. did we pronounce the name okay? >> you did great. >> i practiced last night.

>> we spelled it four ways to make sure. >> joe told me on the way in he said the only reason he'd come -- he came in early -- >> only reasons i was looking forward to coming in was to watch you practice and mess it up. >> which is what usually happens. >> you did a great job. >> thank you for being here. >> now you got that out of the way. >> you we have to ask questions. okay. so here's the question. the question that i have is actually just about valuations in the valley right now. because it seems like it's gotten completely and utterly crazy. i don't know if i'm right or wrong about that. there was a fortune magazine cover that had a unicorn on it talking about 80 kpaebs that have a billion dollar valuation. we're seeing things line looppay, uber. i mean does this make sense to you? >> it's reminiscent to what happened in 2007, '''08 and '09.

we were funded and we felt like we had won the lottery and felt we did everything right on facebook. unbeknownst to us lehman all this stuff happens that were completely out of our control. the next was at $8 billion from the russians. now we're sitting here crude's falling through the floor. it feels reminiscent to that time. on the one hand i respect these company's abilities to raise investors at whatever price they can. but it does feel like there's a top ticking that's happening at some level. some of these things are priced to such approximate, you're going to have to see absolute flawless execution. you could see a massive recapitulation. >> it's interesting you compared it to 2006 2007 2008 maybe.

not looking at 1999. >> to be honest with you we were building a business. facebook felt at the time just completely the world was our oyster. in many ways these things that were completely out of our control had a massive impact on our ability to both fund raise, recruit talent, and scale. >> you're just standing still. >> not in rounds. >> to barry's point switch the sult nuance here there's not a lot of pricing at early stages. so if you're looking at a's and b's, if you're connected to the deal flow on the ground those are fairly priced. it's when they're e's, f's, that's when you see the $15 billion valuations wrich allhich are

all meant to exploit the missing out. >> so much of the complex of assets are yielding nothing. and the fidelityiesfidelities, all these guys. they have nothing on so much. the markets fall. they can get alpha. but if they go in a round, they're going to put in a million dollars. doesn't matter. if they want to play in this space, they have to go around. there's not at the end of the day that many of these. uber at $40 billion you can put in a billion bucks and if you're right it's $80 billion. but if they can't move this into the space and struggling to find a way to make money. >> that's why there's more money on the mid-stage rounds which dominic chu did a report yesterday that showed that when you see an ipo on these companies, they used to pop 100%

on the first day. now it's 25% because there are so many other investors who get in earlier. >> we were there from the very beginning stages. what was interesting is the last few rounds were well priced fairly priced. when you combine that with a market that's sort of a little bit choppy what we saw was a little bit of trouble on the way out. this is going to be fantastic. but to your point, who won in the box ipo? well the early founders won. i think the early investors were rewarded. to your point, these last few stages can become very awkward in a market that isn't perfectly going up. >> so retail investors who feel like they often get left holding the bag maybe are the one who is that happens to again. >> in many ways actually, if you have these sort of difficult rounds that pierce through the bottom of the last private round, it's actually great for the retail investor. now the retail investor can come in at a better price.

>> but you look at an uber. is uber worth $40 billion? >> absolutely worth that much. >> okay. >> and the vn because that is probably the first company and literally the only company so far in silicon valley that is having a meaningful disruption in the con sujs and spending patterns of consumers. i don't think you can say that about facebook or google or apple. when you're no longer buying a car and you're saving on average i think i saw $10,000, $11,000. that's cash flow that's going to go into the free market to spend on you name it. but the point is it is shifting around how gdp is provisioned. that's a massively powerful service. so from that perspective, it has the potential to be enormous. now, some of these other companies we can debate whether they're worth $10 billion, $15 billion, but uber is a mon trosty. >> it's having some trouble off shore, right?

>> if you assumed it was going to get into china, we can take china off the table now. because the two biggest guys just merged. >> let me ask you briefly about a story in fortune. says that kleiner perkins tried to acquire your company and you said no. what happened? >> i don't think it's -- well first, it was not -- i wouldn't say it was an acquisition. >> you don't have to answer this question. >> okay good. look. one thing i will say is that kleiner perkins as a brand is an unbelievable brand in the valley. and john door unbelievable investor. it's fair to say we have deep respect for them. beyond that i think we're doing all the right things. >> these guys are the second highest ranked in the valley today. they're known as early stage and they're sought after because of the expertise in facebook. talk about just mention a

couple that we talked about visiting you. your views on a company like that and what they're doing and their future. >> so you know you look at companies like workday and for us again we see the public markets get a little discombobulated on how to value that. but take a step back what is it really doing? it's migrated a massive opportunity set which is running the human resources platforms. running the general ledger of companies. these are multitens of billions of dollars. they've migrated it to the cloud. they've done it first. and they have a huge roster of customers. we look at a business like that and people question can it be a $15 billion company, $20 billion company. you say it can completely replace all of s.a.p. and a big chunk of oracle. you look at that business and you think this is the beginning of a massive trend. and so you know to your point a lot of our success over the last few years has been ignoring a lot of the consumer and making

huge massive bets in areas of enterprise that have -- are now just starting to percolate. they're going to create billions in value. >> do you ever short the companies you see getting displaced? >> i think it's fair to say that there's a lot of opportunity to do that. >> very politic. thank you for coming in this morning. come on back. and you know he owns a basketball team too. this is an amazing thing. >> part owner. >> part owner. he'll own the whole thing sooner or later. >> thank you. appreciate it. still to come this morning, wall street will be watching walmart. the dow component is expected to release earnings shortly. we'll bring you the numbers and instant analysis. we are still looking at moderate declines. s&p futures off by 4. nasdaq down by less than .5 point. stick around. "squawk box" will be right back. in this episode of "squawk

box," his park is bigger than his bite. and the streets of new york can be rough. it's a game of man versus dog with a very high price tag. find out how the 4-year-old beagle stole the show this year at westminster. >> my choice for the best in show is the beagle. >> oh! another beagle! >> get a chew toy and stick around. "squawk box" is coming right back. financial noise financial noise financial noise

my choice for the best in show is the beagle. >> the beagle! >> oh! >> miss p, a 4-year-old beagle from canada won the best in show at this year's westminster kennel club dog show. since the big win, she's been to the top of the empire state building. she's starred on broadway. and now probably the top thing she's done she is here on "squawk box." david frye is the communications director for the westminster kennel club. and will alexander was miss p's handler in her star turn. thank you for joining us both of you. we weren't in town this year but we love going to the westminster dog show. my entire family. we used to have three dogs.

we have two now. i can't get her attention worth a darn. and you say, hi like me please. hi. >> you need a piece of bacon. >> there's someone over here that has little treats for her. did you say it's liver or bacon? >> it's bagel. >> and she's so laser focused. i don't know where to start with the question. you told her focus or you said something like that. >> watch, yeah. >> you said watch. how much of it is breeding and how much of it is training to actually win? >> oh it's both. no question. and she had it naturally too. i just had to bring it out of her. when i got her as a youngster, it just took time to give her that star presence. she has it now. >> let's say if i hung out with her for awhile could i finally get her to come up and lick my face. ? would the like me? >> she can differentiate that. >> i'm boring her right now.

>> she's tired. >> she's not the only one. people at home are yawning right now. >> she sleeps in bed with me. she was so tired this morning we had a wake her up to get her up. >> was the beagle was it a surprise? when was the last time? >> we had a beagle with inin 2008. miss p's great uncle uno. >> no kidding. and a bit of a surprise because a lot of the big guns we'd been reading about for years in the show but she was the number nine dog overall in the country this year. wasn't a huge surprise. >> in anything we do we follow the money. where's the money involved here? >> in expenses. that's where ethe money is. if you're doing it right, taking care of your dogs doing health checks the expenses will far outweigh. it's a hobby. being as expensive or limiting as you want it to be. >> can she expect endorsements?

>> she already is a purina pro plan dog. the ninth to go best in show. she's got that going for her. but i think she's going to have some puppies and get a lot more attention. we'll find other things for her to do as america's dog for the next year. >> in terms of -- what is it? the bone structure -- are there five most important things ki see? >> it's a combination. she's a very athletic beagle. people always said they haven't seen her athleticism in a long time. she can work all day and never get tired. >> they are working dogs aren't they? beagles? >> she's a scent hound. >> do poodles have an advantage sometimes just from being, what is it? we think of them as an elitist breed. >> i mean they are a great athletic dog. i think sometimes people are thrown off by that hair cut that we see them in in the show ring. but they're a water retrieving dog and smart. they've got a lot of things

going for them. and they are flashy in the show rings. >> that fancy hair cut was done for a reason. >> mine? >> the poodles. protects their vital organs. >> tell me about -- oh. there. >> got her. >> there you go. oh, my gosh she's so cute. i got through to her finally. german shepherds are smart. i finally got a german shepherd and she is unbelievable. anyway thank you. like i said we have two dogs. we lost one. the golden was 13. she was great. >> dogs are great in our lives. >> they are. we come home after a week it was like it's just so -- well it's cliche. unconditional. and you never have to question what the dog's motive is. what are they up to here? never. >> they're spontaneous and have

unconditional love. >> great to see you miss p. becky? joe, thank you. hard to follow that up. but when we come back this morning, dow component walmart expected to release quarterly results in the next few minutes. we'll bring you the numbers as soon as they hit the wires. and make sure to keep it locked here on cnbc. stick around. we'll be right back. ameriprise asked people a simple question: can you keep your lifestyle in retirement? i don't want to think about the alternative. i don't even know how to answer that. i mean, no one knows how long their money is going to last. i try not to worry but you worry. what happens when your paychecks stop? because everyone has retirement questions. ameriprise created the exclusive confident retirement approach. to get the real answers you need. start building your

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welcome back to "squawk box" this morning. a number of stocks on the move. priceline shares are soaring but the outlook is a little light. also t-mobile's results getting a bump there. and watch oil. related stocks today are under pressure as crude prices plunge. our guest host today is barry sternlicht. we've talked about a lot of things but not too much in the oil price moves. how does that affect your business or does it? you mentioned earlier just the oil money coming into real estate and how that's kind of pulled back a little bit. >> yeah. i think the sovereigns of the middle east are reassessing with the current price climate. i think for the american consumer you're going to see things like lodging will do better this summer. people will do more driving, obviously. i think it's bullish for that. will find its way into retail sales. christmas was kind of funny. >> i've been surprised it hasn't

been a little faster. i know it's just a small amount >> unclear what's going on there. we would have expected more than what did show up towards the end of the christmas season. that was bullish. i think in general the developed world which is the world that's easing and printing is going to get a boost from lower oil prices. and i think you get confused. was it the quantitative easing or the oil prices. i'm sure the politicians will take credit. it's interesting, this central bank thing, these governments need to reform the governments. they need structural reforms including the united states and entitlement reform. this is sort of just more morphine in the system which i think fundamentally you need a driving global economy with competitive valuations. it's a seriously scary chapter. i mean you heard it from even the silicon valley guys out there. it's so -- companies go get valued at $2 billion and at six

months later they're $10 billion. but you're hearing this smart investors are really nervous. there's a big dike of the world's economies. and the pliegsoliticians are plugging in holes. >> the opposite our last guest was talking about how things outside of your control impact and cause things to crash. but how often are things outside their control actually lifting and boosting those bubbles too? how much of it was the quantitative easing that led to the valuations? >> being a large real estate and energy player we never see valuations we haven't seen before. i think as a real estate guy, are you breaking your -- i've been doing this almost 30 years. do you -- you have to look at your comp sale pl like more than half the treasuries in the world yield less than 1%. so investors are saying that real estate looks pretty good. certainly chinese are saying that. they own enough of our treasuries. one of the sovereigns over there said that to me. so it's kind of like their mind-set. we're not used to this pl real

estate guys are not used to seeing, we own a property over in new york city. it'll probably sell some 2% yield. and they say that's sort of nuts but the guy's saying the alternative is i'm going to get 30 basis points in the german bunde. >> it's turned the entire investing world on its head. >> this is one big bubble. or is this a bubble or new reality? because governments will not take the hard steps of reforming their labor programs in france and germany. what a mess. is it lower longer forever? is it going to be japan, 15 years of this? and then real estate looks good. >> we'll continue this conversation in just a moment. when we return, we'll have walmart hopefully with earnings and be out with a street reaction. see where the stock is. plus jobless claims which always matter. stick around.

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we're just seconds away from jobless claims. rick santelli is standing by. rick, the numbers, please. >> well we're about 19 seconds

away. but just to -- i thought it might be a good time to look back in time for the next 15 seconds. if you recall around october 10th of last year is when we had our lows cycle for initial claims. 266,000. that takes you back to a comp in the year 2000. so there you go. we're looking for 290. the number is 283,000. so that is a drop from the 304,000. that is unrevised. so down 21,000. and once again, there's a lot of moving parts to this. of course emergency claims were taken off the table. various points in 2014. we continue to see, of course the notion that job growth is improved. the variance in the job numbers are compressed. i think all may be tied together. interest rates, 2.08%. we tested last year's closing levels. the minutes yesterday brought us down from those levels.

and even though there is a bit of a reprieve, the treasury market is acting different than it has in the last month and a half of last year and many traders are taking note of that dynamic. welcome back joe. >> thank you, rick. and thanks for that. what do you think of the currency manipulation? are we currency manipulators too, rick? >> i think it's the funniest thing. it's ironic you mention that. i'm thinking about doing that on the santelli exchange today. we look at china and various countries on manipulation. all countries manipulate their markets in some way. it's just a question of how much. some of those winston churchill quotes. we were just arguing about scale here. yeah, i think we manipulate. we manipulate interest rates. and to point fingers at various countries is really kind of rich when you think about it. by the way, happy anniversary there, big guy. >> for who?

>> for us. >> oh, for -- >> come on. think back six years ago. february 19th about this exact time. short memory joe. >> was that the -- was that when we were talking about throwing some tea in boston harbor or something? >> yeah, yeah i think you kind of nailed it there, exactly. >> is that when it was? it's been six years already. >> today was the day? >> today was the day. you know, everybody who's a part of it should sign some type of document. >> that's so good. the birth of the tea party was on andrew's birthday. >> rick we share this day. >> that just seems fitting. >> that's great. and i think you'll look good in a triangle hat and a red jacket. you never know what happens down the road buddy. >> i think so too. thanks, rick. were we going to look at walmart here? >> i think so. i don't actually have the numbers in front of me because

my computer's frozen up but looking at the screen it looks like they came in with revenue roughly in line. $1.53 billion in line. >> operatings on the dollar. but adjusted it was $1.61. $1.61, take a look and see how that compares to expectations. we said we were looking for $1.53. so that's 8 cents ahead of expectations. continuing operations though are $1.53. it depends on which numbers analysts are looking at. usually we use adjusted. so that would be 8 cents ahead. but who knows. same-store sales up 1.2%. sam's club revenue $14.87 billion. looks like the number they're actually using the most is $1.53. usually we would use adjusted. the underlying eps was the

$1.61. now, the guidance is 95 at this point. 95 to $1.10 for the first quarter. >> is that $1.14 for the first quarter. so that may explain why the stock's down 34 cents. for the comps, walmart's u.s. comp store sales were up 1.4% for the quarter. sam's club comp sales without fuel increased 2% for that same period. >> $4.70 to $5.05 is what they're looking at for next year. $5.15 is the estimate. we have to find out if that's adjusted or not. they also adjusted the dividend. so it's raising it by -- that

looks like it raises it by a penny a quarter. >> same-store sales, though is 1.2%. >> let's get more reaction to walmart's fourth quarter numbers. joining us is paul from deutsche bank. i realize these are early flashes on these numbers, but what's your knee jerk reaction on what you've heard? >> yeah. certainly the earnings guidance for the upcoming year is a bit light. certainly lyly we'll have to find out how much is other margin head winds such as health care and investing back in labor which is something that has been ongoing now for the past few quarters. i also take a step back and look at the u.s. comps up 1.2%. and frankly, that's the best sales growth we've had out of the past few years. >> the company says it plans wage and training investments for its u.s. associates and some

incremental investments for global e-commerce initiatives which will total 26 cents to 29 cents. if we add that back then that gets us up almost to on an operating basis where they were right? >> exactly. >> yeah that's not -- >> they're saying these moves that you just mentioned, they're ensuring that walmart hourly associates will earn at least $1.75 above today's minimum wage starting in april. the following year, current associates will earn at least $10 a year. so while we're still having this minimum wage debate taking place, this is the company getting in front of that. is that big news? >> it's big. >> i think it actually is good news. frankly part of walmart's problem has been concerns around inventories being out of stock. it's been about bad customer service, long lines at the checkout counters. there's been a lot of disgruntled workers.

and frankly this does sound like you know the new ceo, both of the u.s. walmart team and doug mcmillon at the helm taking steps to correct those evils. >> so approximately 500,000 full and part-time associates will get $9 an hour by april. and by february 1st of 2016 they'll earn at least $10 an hour. and this is a big, significant change. going to cost them a lot. cost them 26 cents to 29 cents. >> mcmillion making kmentss. right. mcmillon says they can enjoy a closer relationship with their advisers. associates will have more control over their schedules which speaks to what you said about having disgruntled workers.

maybe trying to address some of the massive problems. to your other point, though what you mentioned in terms of the -- it's funny. wal-mart is 10% of total u.s. retail sales. the largest retailer in the country, largest employer outside of the federal government. but they do mention that they have been dealing with significant head winds from currency exchange like other global companies. so that is a head wind that they've been facing as well. i never think of it that way. you forget how big they are around the globe when you realize how big they are in the united states. >> yeah. 28% of their sales is from outside of the u.s. that's been a growing part of their business. so certainly, you know the walmarts of the world similar to costco and others do have some pressure here. >> what's the biggest country outside of the u.s. is it mexico that they operate in? >> wal-max is very big as well as their uk unit. >> so the mexican peso has been

calm compared to other currencies. they operate in canada? >> absolutely. >> that's 24% drop in a currency. that's tough. >> yeah. paul, what's your rating on the company right now? and with the changes that we've just heard does that change your perspective at all? >> yeah no. we have a whole rating on walmart. $86 price target. we're around that now. like you said, there's certainly a lot of moving pieces here in this print. but more or less once you add back some of these adjustments, i think it will be more or less in line with overall street expectations. but again, i think it is a modest look as we focus on u.s. seam-store sales that did accelerate sequentially. again, it's the biggest comp they've put up in a few years. i think that does speak to a lot of the questions we've had about the consumer and are they benefitting from, you know this environment that includes lower gas prices.

>> they're also announcing training initiatives and low-cost ways to get your ged. and also low-cost ways to get college degrees. that's 40%. it's 40% of the workforce. i don't know how much is domestic but 1.3 million employees and we're talking about 500,000 workers. so spending a billion dollars to give a pay raise to 40% of its 1.3 million employees. so not everybody is -- it's not across the board. >> not at all. thank you very much for joining us today. we appreciate pit. >> thank you for having me. >> also a programming note for you, walmart's ceo doug mcmillon will be joining carl quintanilla. barry sternlicht is looking for a buyer of his hotel. and he's had some offers. he's also looking to front $2 million for each of its 114 rooms and suites. we'll ask him about that and the

hotel empire next. as we head to a break, take one last look at walmart. you're looking at that stock down only morningarginally. "squawk box" returns in just a moment.

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and 3.7 million square feet available, there's a place that's right for your business. see if startup-ny can work for you. go to startup.ny.gov. the bakra hotel in midtown new york already making headlines before its opening day on march 9th. it's in talks to be sold to a

chinese ensuring for a whopping $230 million or a record $2 million a room. so they say per key. if the deal closing, this would make the baccarat the most highly valued hotel in the u.s. our guest is the man behind the deal. barry sternlicht. >> it wouldn't even have existed how many years ago in this hotel chain. >> it just started. we bought the company by accident. and then i decided to take them into the hotel space. yeah, it didn't exist. they've been -- actually baccarat is about to celebrate its anniversary as a goods producer. i thought i could introduce it to the world and make it more relevant and use this as a showroom for the brand. it's epically beautiful. it'll open march 9th. it is spectacular. i think it's the nicest hotel built in new york since the st. regis. i think it will take its place. >> you need pretty high rates. >> we're signing rates at $950 a

night. corporate rates. and transient rates will pass a thousand bucks. it's only 113 rooms. you see it you'll never see anything like it. our party will be april 16th. it is under contract to the chinese. i think the record of just over $2 million, i think it will be passed. >> if it's such a great thing, why are you selling it so fast? >> i'm a fiduciary, i represent them. they decided they'll sell it. actually two offshore investors in our fund. it is fascinating. i mean it is a world of haves and have nots. i think if you're -- not only is it beautiful and epically gorgeous. 17 chandeliers, 2500 baccarat glasses in the lobby. you've got to see it. you've never seen anything like it. but i think the people who have a lot of money, they want to buy things. and they want to buy real things. whether it's a hedge fund

manager buying 40,000 acres of land somewhere. the world is so people are buying real things. and property particularly to the chinese, this is just the beginning. i'm sure he's going to flip this at a profit and i'm going to be embarrassed. i should put a no flip rule in the hotel. you are seeing that. you're seeing deals you saw this blackstone purchase in new york city. they took out all their equity on that trade. he just bought this stuff. he basically doubled his equity rapidly like that. you're seeing -- again, you see this in the cycles. the guys investing for 8% returns and 6% returns. and there are investors in the world today just gobbling up yield. we've bought 25 malls, we just closed a big deal in norway and sweden $1.5 billion transaction. we have no problem placing the capital. i mean it's the sovereign wealths of the world and u.s. institutions are chasing that magic 8% return which they don't get anywhere else. real estate has a funny thing. because, debt is so cheap,

right? you're financing so cheaply that you can produce -- we're producing double digit cash yields on equity. you can't get anywhere else safely. and at that level, if -- probably never goes up in value and you're expecting a 13% yield. which a hedge fund you give them all your money. we can do that. so we just closed a $5.5 billion fund. >> the hotel in miami, what is it per key? >> well we haven't sold it yet. >> what are you thinking it's valued at? >> north of a million a key. >> wow. i don't know why anyone -- what there's no crystal in the lobby? who wants to stay in a hotel with no crystal in the lobby? if there's no crystal in the lobby, i don't want to sleep there. you're starting a hotel down in miami without crystal? i don't see the connection barry. >> it's part of crystal. >> i don't see the connection.

i don't know why i need that in my hotel. >> one is a green "w." >> i feel bad for the chinese. anyway thanks barry. much more from him throughout the show. cnbc's "american greed" celebrating its 100th episode. catch it tonight at 10:00 p.m. eastern. here now is the voice you'll recognize. stacy keach, the voice of "american greed." take us to break if you would. >> all right. up next on "squawk box," from stockbroker to american television personality jim cramer's life is investing and making people money. he joins us next with a look at today's trading session. "squawk box" is coming right back. when the moment's spontaneous, why pause to take a pill? or stop to find a bathroom? cialis for daily use is approved to treat both erectile dysfunction and the urinary symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently, day or night. tell your doctor about all your medical

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welcome back to "squawk box." i'm courtney reagan. update on walmart's earnings. the world's largest retailer for the fourth quarter reporting earnings per share of $1.61 versus estimates $1.53. revenues coming in slightly below wall street's consensus

1.31.5. u.s. same-store sales coming in up 1.5%. that is the best reading in several years by a decent margin. however, the first quarter and full year guidance a bit below wall street's expectations part of what happens pulling down the stock and part of the reason for the lower numbers is because of an announcement that the company made today that has to do with employee training and wages. the company plans to spend a billion dollars on. here's the soundbyte from doug mcmillon on the announcement. >> one of the most immediate changes we'll raise our starting pay and we'll provide opportunities for further raises based on performance. for our current associates we'll start by raising our entry wage to at least $9 an hour in april. and by february of next year all current associates will earn at least $10 an hour. >> so walmart there increasing pay that it gives to most of its

employees. the company has long said only 6,000 or so of the 1.3 million u.s. associates were making that federal minimum wage level and the average rate before today 12.92. >> 49 years of dividend increases, i think, a penny a share, per quarter, four cents a year. now like 2.3% a year. down to new york stock exchange. jim cramer joins us now. you know, it's nice when private companies take initiative then we don't need to argue what they do in congress. >> right. henry ford did. so many people work at walmart it's helped the gdp, as strange as that is. if you x out the fuel it wasn't a bad quarter. forecast is a downer but walmart doing better with gasoline. the stock had had a run. take this with a grain of salt. other retailers are all on fire. these guys could be too, but taking actions that are

important and do lower the earnings. >> while i was briefly out, jim, the market continued to make some new highs again. here we are in 2015. maybe it does turn out to be another year of that high single digits, what everybody said. it's weird when the consensus is right. >> i think europe's turning. i think it's obscured by greece. some of latin america's turning. china not turning. united states strong, i like it. i want to congreatatulate chuck schaffer and stacy keach, 100th episode of "american greed." our signature self-made programming, fantastic. >> it is. fun having him here today, too. >> he's great! he's just great. real deal man. >> all right. see you later. thanks, jim. when we come back we'll have more from barry sternlicht. plus a special birthday present for andrew. stick around "squawk box" will be right back.

it is a special birthday

today. if you haven't figured it out already, andrew's birthday. we have a special guest for you today. >> no! >> come on out, guys. >> i can't believe that! >> oh my gosh. >> hey guys. oh my goodness. >> max, henry, all here to wish you a happy birthday. >> now in new york, this is easy. >> easy for them. >> daddy! >> how are you doing, bud? come here. wow. >> i can't believe -- hey, max, how are you? this is amazing. max can't be seen -- you've got to sit up so everybody can see on the camera. you want to be on tv? everyone can see you, bud. >> look fantastic. >> wearing your suit. i can't believe you're wearing a suit. >> so everybody can see you. >> wearing your suit. >> look fantastic. a big birthday. >> so we don't fall off, is that better. >> unbelievable. how are you doing. >> there you go. nice going, bud. >> i can't believe you did that. >> cupcakes, too? >> happy birthday the whole way through.

>> you are really something. >> who picked out the cupcakes? who was it. >> look. >> you both? you're responsible? you're responsible? >> the pink one. >> give him a mike. >> pink one. how about you? >> henry, want to talk. >> pink one. >> you want -- >> i agree, the best ones. that's kyle's favorite too. crazy. totally get it. >> happy birthday andrew. >> that's very nice of you. i can't believe you did that. >> barry, favorite flavors, i don't know to ask you at the end, all of the favorite flavors? >> leadership in the united states. is that in the box. >> look under the cupcakes. that's your concern, consumer confidence. >> lack of leadership in washington. i think it permeates everything we do. and not play golf. let's fix the world. let's lead. by example. >> barry, we want to thank you for being here today and spending a very special day with us. >> just got back --

>> why so many cupcakes? >> you didn't mean me. >> i meant the guy in d.c. >> all right. >> guys thank you so much. >> a lot of chocolate cupcakes. >> ties both ties? she had to tie both. >> a clip-on. >> you both have clip-ones. that's nice. >> happy birthday. thanks for being here. that does it for us today. join us tomorrow. now it's time for "squawk on the street." good morning. welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm david faber along with jim cramer, live from the new york stock exchange. yes, we are. carl quintanilla is at walmart's headquarters in bentonville, arkansas. the retail giant out with better than expected earnings and announcing a wage hike for workers. this morning, carl will have a live and exclusive interview with walmart ceo, doug mcmillon in the top job for ruffleoughly a year now. futures, as we sta