good morning, breaking overnight, the country lowers it's growth target to the lowest level in 11 years and i think they actually use the term new normal. media matters, hbo in talks with apple and google to launch a streaming service and new this morning, hilary clinton breaks her silence in a tweet from her personal e-mail. she wants the state department to release all of her e-mails. it's thursday march 5th 2015. squawk box begins right now. ♪

>> live from new york where business never sleeps this is squawk box. >> good morning, everybody. welcome to squawk box here on cnbc. i'm becky quick with joe and andrew. are you a millionaire in the making? if so a new study suggests that you are most likely a woman and you're in your 40s. the survey finds that 68% of emerging investors are female. right now women only make up about 40% of the existing millionaire population. we'll bring you the other common characteristics later this hour. >> but first let's get you through some of the big stories we're watching this morning. as joe just mentioned china lowering it's 2015 growth target. now going down to 7%. that's down from 7.5% last year. asian stocks selling off on that news and our own colleague will be joining us from hong kong with a full story in just a minute. so hang on. in other global headlines brazil

hiking interest rates to a six year high of 12.75%. feels a little bit different than here. policy makers there are trying to fight inflation to stop declines in the currency. this morning turning to europe where they're both meeting a policy announcement around 7:45 eastern time followed by the news conference. they could announce when they will start the bond buying program so we will watch for that. >> in corporate news a big bio tech program is buying phamacyclics for $261.25 a share in cash. exactly. plus some stock. it all comes out to about $21 billion. there have been reports that johnson & johnson was going to buy the company and i don't know i'd like to know -- there must be some way that they got to

that exact price with the 25 cents in there too. on the $260 offer. general dynamics raising it's quarterly dividend by 11% to 69 cents. it's the 18th consecutive annual dividend increase and cost coast is posting better than expected quarterly earnings this morning. it is the country's third largest retailer and we're going to talk to a costco analyst in the next half hour. >> now to this morning's developing story, hilary clinton breaking her silence. in a tweet late last night she writes i want the public to see my e-mail. i asked state to release them. they said they will review them for release as soon as possible. a state department spokeswoman confirms the department will review the correspondence as quickly as possible but it could take awhile because of the volume of the documents. yesterday the house select committee issued subpoenas for some e-mails. they were kept on a private server in clinton's home and not on a secure government server.

>> but are you up to speed on this. >> i am. >> who is eric what's his name? are you seen the controversy? >> yes. >> it's the same guy. did he set up her server? >> i've only seen that stuff on twitter. >> i've seen the conspiracy theory. all she is doing is asking for the release of the e-mail which is have been vetted by her people that have been allowed to go to the state department. nobody is not saying -- what she might need to do at some point, jeb just said here you go. you can see every e-mail that i sent from this account in it's entirety. i think ultimately she -- whereon if she'll have to do that but this is not that so these are still selective e-mails: they have been vetted by her people. it's a whole different situation. >> even you are -- have the

powers that be down the street decided on the alternative candidate that's further left to try to run that might have a better chance. >> he's trying to give us the details to make sure that you understand. >> you don't know yet who -- >> i have not gotten the orders from headquaters yet. >> they're saying there's a lot of nervousness and hope that maybe there could be -- it's hard to believe but an alternative candidate and i see some on the left thinks that they're uncomfortable that this is a done deal. >> and they're not sure it's necessarily the right way for the party to go. i can't believe i'm reading it. it's not elizabeth warren yet. >> i have not gotten word. >> are there people in the room. >> i can't disclose where we

are. >> i can't really say where i am. i know we're kidding. >> a lot of things said in jest. >> okay let's get you caught up on what's going on in the global marks. they're paying attention this morning: markets are paying attention to hilary. susan has the story this morning. >> good morning to you andrew. this is the new normal in china. ahead of cemantics and then the chinese premiere threw in the world around. that has the market thinking this is vague and we might even have got it down lower for gdp. expect a six percent handle when it comes to expansion in 2015. china is looking to increase

their spending by 10%. 2.74 trillion dollars now that is the widest for china. they don't like being in the deficit column. that's the widest since 2009 when they had to guide it during that time. the spending that the white house might be paying the closest attention to would be the military spend because china did confirm once again, this has been the trend for the last few years. they're going to increase by 10% and that pays the dollars amount but if you exclude in this official figure if you exclude the nuclear reactor. they spend 40 to 55% more on their military. >> thank you. again susan lee.

let's get a check on the markets this morning. in the united states you'll see at least at this point if you take a look at the futures, you're looking at green arrows. these are modest advances after a second day of declines. yesterday we saw the markets down with the dow down triple digits. decline of 106 points. the s&p off by over 9 points. s&p futures up by 1.5. in europe and the early trading there you'll see at least right now green arrows across the board for the mayor indices. the dax sitting by similar gains. greece thing versus barely budged. decline by 1.1%. shanghai down by close to 1% and nikkei up by a quarter percent. oil prices which saw choppy trading through much of the day yesterday you'll see are up by

1.5% the ten year note right now on the bond marketing the ten year is yielding 2.129%. >> yesterday the dollar index at a high. the dollar is up across the board. trading right now the euro at 11051. so 110 looks like a new level we have been waiting to see where it heads. and gold prices are down. >> in a couple of hours we'll hear from mario draghi and details on the bond buying program over there but ahead of that and the key jobs data on friday markets were slipping and sliding away from record highs in the last two sessions. they really got out of hand. here now with us is the chief investment officer, crt capital

and also a cnbc contributor and patrick. was it a consequence we got above 5,000 in the nasdaq and then there's a breather? >> i think so. people are gun shy enough. markets are fully valued so you need to see continued positive earnings growth and we're getting mixed signals. i can see why people want to step back and see what's next. >> was a consequence. it's a stair step improvement in the markets which means they need to see incrementally positive news to want to spend more in the markets. markets aren't cheap. at least u.s. markets aren't. >> 200 points on the dow is nothing really. how many percent is that? >> two thing versus been a head wind. the first thing has been the

falling price of oil and that seems to have stabilize so markets are no longer in free fall anxiety over that but there's also the strong dollar and the strong dollar chipped away at corporate earnings abroad and expert competitiveness. the difference between 2% and 3% gdp growth if you look at the 4th quarter number is the widening trade gap. so the dollar is an issue. >> 200 points is 190 at 18,000. >> a little over. >> yeah a little over. i got it. i got it. >> i was thinking we were over 2,000. >> we're not. 18,000 for the snp. >> wow. i still don't understand -- so the s&p 500 has oil companies so

the. >> but all through january it didn't look like oil so people can start basically basing their expectations for first quarter, second quarter on solid ground now. >> if there was no floor that meant there was a global demand or slow down we didn't know about. >> but the other thing about it should be good for a consumer consumer went through a tough environment of having to deleverage so a couple of months of lower oil prices and costs at the fuel pump isn't going to make them spend as quickly. so it needs to be more sustained. >> consumers went through something like 60 or 70 years ago. >> but it's not as if it happened in a month and went away. houses are still undervalued. >> people need to believe this represens a permanent change rather than just a temporary blip. >> we had a market correction. they had a life style change

that takes longer term feeling better about jobs and better about wages and this lower gas price is the reality for a long-term or at least a couple of years. >> to get the retail interest and just cab driver interest you know cocktail party, alibaba, things like that 5,000 on the nasdaq could be the beginning of something where the word starts getting out that you can't just sit there on your computers and iphones all day long. you might have to try to save money some day. you're not going to live forever. >> but 5,000 -- these are the stocks they like. they understand them. like you, the uber and all of these, you know newfangled ways off doing all of these things. maybe that's what starts it and then people from 20 to 40 might start putting money in the stock market. >> well, savings isn't the issue. the issue is whether it goes into risk on or risk off assets

and there's still a lot of concern about growth globally and domestically. so you know -- look all last year basically the s&p 500, the backward looking ratio was between 17 and 18 and that shows we're not going to get growth in the market out of valuation multiples. we're going to get it out of actual earnings performance. >> all right. >> so they're saving but they're in 0% vehicles. they'll learn overtime you need to put money in the stock market. >> but this next generation is coming out of college with pretty poor job prospects. they don't have money to save but some of them are coming out thinking they're going to be the next steve jobs. rather than investing they're going to come up with the next quick business to get rich quick

so they might not have grown up with slowed gradual investing. that has to come with time and also has to come with earnings. >> i hope in wanting to earn success all of these things need to come back into fashion. i think they still are. young people might be better than some beaten down by the capitalist rhetoric of the last six years. maybe it will come back. >> i think it will. i look at my niece is in they are senior year in high school and the amount of work she has to do compared to my senior year. >> talk about good work ethic. >> exactly. >> still have yellen trashing the morally that's pervasive at the banks. >> she's trying to outplay what happened we with heelizabeth

warren. >> spreading from agency to agency. >> part of her role she not just there to set the interest rates. she's a regulator. >> and a stock picker. >> front page of the wall street journal today -- >> she has a dual mandate the fed always had a man date and didn't use it. what you saw today is they basically stripped the authority because they thought they weren't mining the store. >> that speech coming up pretty soon? >> i got to talk -- again, got to go back to headquaters, talk to them. >> yeah, you probably do. >> i'll find out and i'll bring it to you. >> don't you have a hotline this morning. >> in the new studio there's no bad phone. >> all right. thank you. >> you too. >> thanks guys. >> we have a little bit of media and tech news going on this morning. reports saying that hbo now in talks with apple and google and

others as well. the network is looking for a launch partner for its hbo now video streaming service at the over the top service it plans to launch next month. the expectation is they will charge $15 a month going head to head with netflix. that will be about $5 a month more than netflix. question is are they trying to play apple off of google or are they trying to get apple and google. >> maybe both. >> you would think ideally you would want both but i don't know how you can get that going. >> when we come back this morning, the chance to catch up with exxon mobil ceo when he was in town. he talked about oil prices and the impact on the energy giant spending plans. we have that conversation next. but first as we head to a break this morning here's a look back at this date in history.

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welcome back everybody, exxon mobil announcing plans to trim it's capital expenditures in 2015 to about $34 billion. that's a 12% decline. capex is expected to be less than that in 2015 and 2017.

the ceo spoke exclusively about the plan to raise production while cutting the capital spending spending. >> we expect to capture costs out of this item. marly here in north america we're drilling a lot of the wells. so we expect our people will carry out some level of activity activity. it leads tous believe we'll see little in north america. it's funding significant development projects which span multiple years and involve billions of dollars. they were tested against a broad range of pricing. so we're confident with those invest lts and we're going to

proceed and take those to conclusion. the part of the program we would adjust and can adjust is really reactive to the prices but the cost vuk tour is also very reactive to the prices. >> i know that capital expenditures is a long-term gain. this is something we're talking about years down the road too. is it fair for an investor to question it three or four or five times down the road? >> i think one of the messages today was there's no change for us. we live in a commodity world. we have been through cycles before and what has always driven our investment decision making is unchanged by whether the price is $40 or the price is $100. we're not smart enough to know what it will be so our question is how robust is this investment and what can it with stand and what can our people do in

response to preserve the value in that investment. >> you know there has been a lot of pressure on the stock prices for oil, natural gas companies and i just wonder if you're looking around thinking i'm going to cut capex and see when the prices come down and get aggressive with activity. >> well those are not mutually exclusive in terms of our capital investment programs and being able to take advantage of the environment. because the strength of the balance sheet itself we have a large holding with you are the treasury shares. we have been buying them back for years. we have a lot of capacity to get something done without having to in some way change our on going capital investment programs. >> you're looking at places in the united states. you have been not interested in adding more canadian stuff to the portfolio.

>> there's a lot of things that could be interesting and you know these conditions are putting them in a position where they want to do something different. it's a debt they have taken some. some feel they have gotten all the value they can. time to make a change. for us it's always about value and is this an opportunity that we see the ability to add some value to it. we're not portfolio investors. we don't feel compelled to have anything. we already hold the largest resource base of anyone in the world. 92 million barrels but we are always looking at how do we make that stronger and better? so something comes to the door we'll have a conversation. >> he may be leaving that door open but i spoke to one analyst yesterday, he the is talking

about how that might not happen. he says you may have to wait six months or so because they haven't peaked yet in terms of prices. so a lot of people waiting for bargain basement prices. >> haven't what? >> puked yet. he thinks exxon is going to wait for that. >> that's a horrible word. >> i said puked. >> is it possible he's going to have missed the bottom. >> i don't know. he's been doing this awhile and if you look at how people like them are positioning things they seem to think you're not going to see things change any time soon. not looking at stuff this year. maybe next year we'll see beyond that. we will have much more including thoughts on supply and demand. the global energy market and warren buffet's decision to sell exxon mobil shares. >> coming up a snapshot of the

millionaire in the making. plus before you watch another movie, you're going to want to hear our next story. turns out that the type of movie you watch can determine how fat you'll get. >> what? >> yeah. but first as we head to break, here's a look at yesterday's s&p 500 winners and losers. the real question that needs to be asked is "what is it that we can do that is impactful?" what the cloud enables is computing to empower cancer researchers. it used to take two weeks to sequence and analyze a genome; with the microsoft cloud we can analyze 100 per day.

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to school. it's really that first step that allows them to get out of poverty and most importantly have money left over to plan for the future they want.

something we arrive at a lot are discussions on drug pricing. even with inversions one of your points was that ceos here get to sort of benefit from our open markets for drug prices and if they want to move to europe where they have all of these price controls think about that before you move because you're lucky here that the government doesn't use pricing. >> right. >> people if you were to go on the street and ask people look at what this prescription drug cost should we have price controls. i bet you could get a plurality -- but in this news from china let's say that you

were going to design an experiment to test where the price controls work. it's the size of the population and many are aging in china right now so they have a huge taunting task to try to bring drugs. in part of what they said yesterday is they're going to now lift price controls from the pharmaceuticals market because they've had a tight reign on prices. a lot of people want to make sure that everybody could afford the drugs. but what happeneds? if the manufacturers cannot price the drugs using market forces they don't have enough of them so then it becomes black markets or it becomes -- >> does china -- i mean do you even pay for your drugs in china? >> >>. someone pays. >> that's lifting the prices.

>> but that's besides the point. they say this principle we will lift pricing over all goods and services. the government will stop setting prices for most pharmaceuticals. >> the reason i ask is the government paying the bill is because if you look at what happens if the government is paying it they end upsetting their own prices anyway. that's what happened here. >> it's part of a broader government effort to create lower drug prices by allowing the market to set prices. >> lower drug prices. >> it's going to eventually be lower by removing the price controls that keep them low. >> you have more of them and by selling in mass -- >> because right now it says that a lot of the companies that make the drug price versus put cut corners. but china discovering the way to do this is to let the market control. >> one comment, it's not that i

want price controls in the united states at all. i don't want price controls elsewhere because what happens is we end up subsidizing the rest of the world because they have price controls in other countries and we have to make it up on our end. i would love free market around the world but because you have other people it makes it complicated for everybody else. >> it's for lower drug prices through free competition and at this point there's bribery with hospitals and doctors and if you don't allow things to price where they should there's shortages and black market and everything else. even china can figure this out. >> china is a company mass car masceradiing as a company. >> you just want price controls on the internet. >> i don't want them at all.

it's way too much. >> you see netflix is saying we didn't know this was going to happen. they went too far. >> i'm not in tune with headquaters on this. >> do they know that? >> i don't know, now they do. let me tell you about another story that's a little bit fun for us though not good for anybody that's a big movie watcher. if you watch sad films according to a new report you're going to get fat. sad films make you fat. apparently research shows we eat 55% for when we're watching a weepy film than a happy, funny film. if you know you're going into a sad film. >> you're going to take the popcorn and candy. >> avoid that stuff. >> have you tried -- you saw whiplash. >> i have. >> have you ever put rasinets in

the popcorn. >> it was appealing to me. >> is that a weepy movie sno. >> no it's an uplifting incredible ending. >> don't tell me. i haven't seen it. >> great movie. but i think 2,000 calories in a bucket. i bring salt with me. >> bring it with you? >> i put it in a napkin and i put more on because it runs out. >> i thought you were the guy that runs to the restaurant and takes -- >> i'm not opposed to the sugar though. mcdonald's or wendy's or something. >> yeah. >> there are some questions being raised about the legality of marijuana in california. the questions are being raised by the sheriffs that say all of this illegal pot is now being

transported across state lines and it's creating massive problems for them. they're asking the federal government to get involved and want a federal court to strike it down which will be a very interesting test because to this point the obama administration done a hands off let the people speak and we'll see what happens. it's still a violation of federal law. you could see them striking this potentially. they want this to be brought against colorado's governor. they're seeking to close the state's more than 330 licensed marijuana stores. >> i guess there's more but there was never pot in nebraska or kansas. >> just the trafficking back and forth. if you have an artificial border essentially saying it's legal on one side and not on the other. >> you're not allowed to. >> you're not going through border controls. >> exactly. >> state lines. >> i don't think we have border controls anywhere now do we? with new policies and executive

orders? >> >> coming up redefining higher education. how one graduate says how you can replace traditional business school with learning centers at a fraction of the cost. the start up is called general assembly. he'll join us next.

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>> are you a millionaire in the making? they look to characterize the investors. it finds 68% are women. only 40% are female. 25% are nonwhite. that means 75% are white. the average age of the millionaire in the making is 40. millionaires right now the ones who are already there, right now they average 62. other characteristics, 48% use a financial advisor and 43% own individual domestic stocks. >> business schools in a race to compete with the next generation education start ups like general assembly. the company offering classes in high demand. subjects like coding digital marketing and mobile development with big corporate clients including american express and walmart boast over 90% of students placed in jobs within 90 days and about 99% within a year. they are also number one on this year's fast company list of most innovative companies in

education. here to tell us more about the next gen education solution is the general assembly ceo. you are trying to put them out of business kind of sort of we're trying to create a whole spectrum of alternatives to the insty institution. >> you came up with this idea because you thought your own business education was a time suck. >> well a lot of the concept comes from my 20s before business school in that sort of -- its now a very cliche story. i graduated from college with a degree thinking that because it was in latin it was like a harry potter spell and it was going to open any door itted to and got out there and found that i didn't have a ton of skills and i spent a lot of years being lost and lonely in the world of work looking for purpose and direction and onramp to an

opportunity so i eventually went back to business school in my late 20s to get back on the onramp and when i was there i said it's a shame i spent all of my 20s looking for this onramp and it would be way better if there were opportunities for people to get on that trajection. >> let me ask you a question general assembly teaches specific skills. my question is when you went to business school do you believe that it was the skills of business school that actually created the onramp that created this company or do you think it was the environment, the education, the network, if you will that inspired you to create this company? >> i would say that the value proposition of college and graduate school is a combination of things right now. you're going to learn these frame works that have been built

will you history. you'll build a network of peers that's going to be of value to you throughout your career. we want to have that same value proposition just at a much more cost effective and shorter time frame. in a way that makes it a lot more flexible for today's modern life and when they want to go get the skills. >> it's all digital. >> no, we're old school that way. we have campuses all over the world. everywhere from new york to san francisco to l.a. >> but you do a lot of digital stuff. >> we train on digital. we have online courses and programs as well. we have an incredible program for teaching digital marketing nor executives and managers inside of fortune 500 companies. >> what's the cost. >> our off line programs range from 3,000 dollars to $11,000 for a full time immersive program.

that's 24-7 where you learn basically to be a junior web developer, junior product manager. >> when you say you have campuses, part of the problem with higher education is they have massive campuses. what's a campus for you? >> a campus for us is a cluster of classrooms. typically in you know in a nice environment. we build them out with a ton of design perspective. but it's nice furniture. it's a few classrooms. usually in an urban center like sidney and hong kong. >> i think they're an awesome company too and super interesting and part of the same trend of asking questions about what makes an educational institution, useful special, worth the money. so they're amazing. they're focused on disrupting

this idea of an elite undergraduate education and that's a huge opportunity. i think undergraduate education is going to go through a lot of changes in the coming years but it's going to be a very slow process. we're focused on people after college college. people that are wondering if it's worth it or not. instead of many years and hundreds of thousands of dollars for three months you can come and get skills and build a network. we have over 1,000 alumni already in our network and start your career that way as opposed to investing so much time and money. >> thank you for being here. >> thank you for being here. >> i'm glad to be here. >> we're happy to have you here. >> thank us for being here too. we enjoy being here. so thank you. >> seems like fun. thanks a lot guys. >> when we come back this morning, costco's latest earnings topic estimates.

shares up over 25% in the last year. we'll get reaction from the street after this. but first, check out some of the most clicked on stories on cnbc.com. ameriprise asked people a simple question: in retirement, will you have enough money to live life on your terms? i sure hope so. with healthcare costs, who knows. umm... everyone has retirement questions. so ameriprise created the exclusive confident retirement approach. now you and your ameripise advisor.... can get the real answers you need. start building your confident retirement today.

. individual stocks on the move this morning that you might keep an eye on include joy

global. earnings and revenue missed the mark. mining equipment maker now cutting its full year guidance and speeding up some cost cuts. lower commodity prices mean the company's customers have been cutting back on spending this morning. costco earnings beating the street. revenue was slightly below forecast but same store sales excluding fuel did rise better than expected at 8%. joining us right now on set is john hinbockle. thanks for being here. >> thank you. >> $1.35 is what the company came in with versus $1.18. that was largely because of an adjustment in tax rates. >> the beat was really 5 cents versus our number. i think the bulk of the beat versus our number was margin. >> gas prices. that's one thing to look at closely. you look at u.s. same store sales, it was up 7% if you exclude fuel. if you're looking international,

down 2%. but up 8% when you exclude both fuel and foreign exchange. between fuel prices and foreign exchange. what do you think about the quality of the sales though? >> the quality of the sales are very good. i mean there's no question that costco is one of the best position retailers maybe globally. i think the issue today and one of the reasons we're more cautious is number one, you're going to see operating momentum slow over the next two, three, four quarters. some of that is continuing to be a drag and some of it is a normalization in these gas margins. we've had three quarters in a row of unprecedented gas margins when you think about what happened to wti and brent over the past six months. momentum will slow and you'll have a multiple above where it's been historically. >> what you're talking about is as wti prices fell precipitously, gas prices came down but not quite as quickly as they were getting the benefits. you think they'll get caught on the other end of it when wti

comes back up? >> well it's hard to say. it's already gone back up over the past month or two. >> barely. we're still talking about $52. >> true but i think what's more likely is a normalization margin. if you're -- we look at it cents per gallon. but if you're in the high teens and that goes back to kind of say a low double digit rate that will be a very difficult thing to compare against when you get into the back half of this year. that will hurt earnings august november, february of next year. so to me that's the problem. if earnings momentum is slowing and the multiple is above where it's been historically hard to see the stock out-performing from here. >> what do you think about just the end of the exclusive deal with amex? >> i think there will be a benefit to costco. they typically pass benefits along to their members. you know if they get something that's kind of one time in nature. so i think a lot of that will

flow in some form whether it's pricing or services to their members. it doesn't begin for a year. at the end of the day, i don't think it changes costco's offering in a way to their membership. it could give them a little benefit to the bottom line. >> you have a neutral rating on the stock. what would it take for you to raise your rate in? >> like a lot of things retail stocks general here. they've had a big run in anticipation of the benefit of gas coming down. so some of it would be valuation. quite frankly, a lot of it would be that. if it weren't that i think we'd have to get past this next three or four quarters, not have the worry of a slowdown in momentum ahead of us. nine months from now, we're still sitting at this level, we're not looking a t the slowdown ahead then i think the stock can work again. >> what stocks do you like in the retail sector? >> again, what i would focus on as an alternative to costco dollar general someone we like a

lot. there's no fx issue. there's no gas issue. they are a beneficiary of gas prices coming down because they're low income based and they're in a position here. they hadn't been buying stock for awhile. they thought they were going to buy family dollar and didn't. i think we're set up for a significant buyback over the next 12 months and that is cheaper than costco. that one should out-perform. >> thank you for coming out. >> thank you. >> one more consumer name to tell you about this morning. mcdonald's is what we're talking about because piper jaffrey has a price target there that remains 97 as we come up 6th avenue in the morning i look over and it's like a beacon. the lights are on -- >> you pass the mcdonald's. >> the people are in there serving coffee and breakfast. and then we pass a starbucks -- >> are you sticking your head out the window like -- >> i am. then we pass starbucks and it's

dark and there's tumble weeds going on by starbucks. the pizza places some of them are open. they're there. i'm up. they can't be up? what's with you, shultz? really? >> free market. you can't make anyone up at that hour. >> you can't pay those over-paid baristas. >> over-paid baristas. >> i'm kidding. it would be expensive to open starbucks at 5:00 a.m. based on the amount of business you'd be doing. i wish i could get a 2% no foam venti latte and sprinkle of cinnamon. >> i thought you run on dunkin'. >> i do. are they open? >> someone has to make the doughnuts. when we come back in the next hour more with how the oil giant is doing in global hot spots. when we come back on "squawk box."

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global news driving markets. china slashing its growth target. the ecb's rate decision hitting this hour. and the euro plummeting to an 11-year low. we will tell you how u.s. markets are reacting now. plus our exclusive interview with exxonmobil's ceo mr. tillerson. and hate your job? >> i don't like my job and i don't think i'm going to go anymore. >> looking for something more satisfying? fortune's out with the list of best companies to work for. we'll reveal the list. >> the first rule is show the client a good time. >> let's party.

♪ >> the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ welcome back to "squawk box," everybody. this is cnbc, first in business worldwide. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. among our top stories this morning, some deal news breaking overnight. how do you say this? pharma siclix to bolster its pipeline for oncology drugs. abbvie will pay in cash and stocks, a 13% premium to yesterday's closing price. in political news hillary clinton breaking her silence over the controversy volling ingvolving her use of a personal e-mail account when she was secretary of state.

she's asking to release her e-mails as soon as possible. and a key economic read coming up at 7:30. we'll be getting a read on layoffs with the jobs report. then at 7:45 the ecb's latest decision on rates. and at 8:30 mario draghi begins a news conference. he is expected to provide more details of the stimulus plan that was announced earlier this year. also at 8:30 we have the u.s. jobless claims and productivity numbers. the b.o.e. announcing it's going to hold rates steady at .5%. let's get a check of the markets this morning. as though maybe we're in for a breather. things change quickly. on the dow up a point and a half on the s&p. less tech heavy nasdaq but we all know you must keep in mind at the end of the day all eyes

will be on issues going forward. anyway, and then take a look. i said absolutely nothing, did i, just now? >> you said the exact same thing. >> but we're changing our opinion of that of exact same, i think. >> in some context. >> if it's a penny, it's the same. if it's minted at the same denver mint it's the exact same. it's a clone instead of being two babies. two babies are the same unless they're a clone. then they're exact same. maybe it's not wrong to say exact same. >> going back to exact same? >> i'm giving special -- i think single best idea is wrong. >> right. >> because there's only one. >> and yet we digress. >> did we? i'm sorry. take a look at the euro. hit an 11-year low against the dollar as the ecb prepares for more stimulus and in sharp contrast, the u.s. central bank is expected to raise rates for the first time in nearly a

decade. the u.s. ambassador to south career was injured in a knife attack by a korean nationalist. it happened late yesterday at a forum in seoul to discuss korean reunification. the attacker shouted that north and south career should be united. then he began slashing at ambassador mark lippert. the pictures are frightening. lippert was hospitalized with wounds to his face and his arm. he's in stable condition after surgery at a hospital in seoul. and the attacker is in custody. >> he had 80 stitches to stitch up his wounds. >> that's frightening. we've got a fascinating report from dominic chu now. 2015 kicking off with a surge of buybacks and dividend hikes. dom's been crunching the numbers on which companies are making the big moves. dom? >> what's interesting about this is if you look at last year it was a huge year. the numbers are still rolling in getting counted up. right now howard silverbla the

rks t says we are on pace for 2014 to total about $900 billion worth of combined dividend payments and buybacks. that's big. because the previous record was $846 billion in 2007. a breakneck pace for capital return. if you look at some of the big names that have done it. you look at dividend payers. people raise their dividends often. we talk about them all the time. look at these names here. boeing did -- again, repurchases in 2014 according to s&p, they had about $6 billion. that's up big. it was only $1.8 billion in 2014. look at intel. it paid out about $10.8 billion in terms of share repurchases. it had $2.1 billion the year before that. the biggest one of all is apple, of course. the $45 billion of stock they're buying back versus $26 billion the year before that. if you look at some of these payers, we'll talk about the exact. the ones who have boosted their

dividend and then added a buyback on top of that. some of those big names out there include huge companies. and then there's the trifecta. you look at a company like pepsico. one of a slew of companies that did both. then look at this one. limited brands boosted their dividend. also paid a special dividend. and then announced a buyback. the investor trifecta for shareholder returns. and remember andrew in the month of february companies announced about $104 billion of share repurchase authorizations. a record. so 2015 starts the way 2014 ended. over to you. >> thanks dom. we'll continue part of that conversation right now. mr. kernen? >> thank you, andrew. let's find out if the strategy is going to work long-term for ceos and investors. here now, mike ryan and our guest host this morning bill george. he is a harvard business school

professor. but just to give him some credibility in the real world, he was one of the great ceos of medtronic. how many boards are you on right now? >> only three right now. >> only three. how many have you served over time? had. >> about ten corporate. >> and big ones? >> yeah. novartis, target. >> go on. and now what? >> goldman. exxon. mayo clinic. hope that counts. >> wow. anything you say we're just going to write down and not even question. did you get to talk to him in the greenroom? your career might get a boost. >> it was exciting to meet him. it was also exciting my daughter is here. she's a first year law student. she was excited to meet him as well. >> you see i know you would be with me and they see china as we're moving price controls on pharmaceuticals. china. they've got this huge experiment with all the people that they have.

and trying how do you -- with the aging population how do you get drugs to everyone who need it in china. it makes sense to keep them cheap but then you see what happens. there's not enough. so they have to go to market forces to try to satisfy the demand, the huge demand from the population. >> yeah. but you know my generic drug company, half of them just put water in their drugs. so you've got to be careful. >> that's another problem. >> it's not so much about price control, it's about getting quality control. >> but the price control forces the companies to -- >> be competitive. >> to be overly competitive to try to stay in business they put water in. anyway. where are you on the markets at this point? >> we're still constructive. we just hit both cyclical and all-time highs in certain indices. there's always a concern the market has come too far too fast. but i still see the pace of

earnings growth this year is going to be solid. i think markets have rerated, but i think there's still potential for them to rate a little bit further. although i think the fed is going to embark upon the first step in what's going to be a multi-year process, i don't see it as being over. but i do think it's going to be a year where it's going to be very uneven in terms of winners and losers. >> you wrote a book too. it wasn't just medtronic that got you in terms of corporate governance. you did a great job there, but -- >> got a new edition coming out called "discover your true north." i'm not quite in his league. >> no no. i'm sure. but as you look across is the corporate landscape, andrew has talked about buffett's comments on banking this week. janet yellen got into the discussion as well.

still got a big problem with morality and ethics in the business community? >> no. this is the best group of ceos we've ever had. these guys and gals are really good. there's always outliers. but they get it. the global ceos are doing great. he's right. don't just look at the economic translation, look at the winners and losers. why is pepsico winning and coke is losing. you've got to look at the trends. the trends walmart made the other day. you've got to see who is really winning in the game. >> explain that. so why do you say pepsi is winning and coke is losing? >> she was here a year ago. she stayed with the strategy. she's got healthy foods and beverages. consumers turned away from unhealthy foods. that's why a lot of food companies are struggling right now. and you see everyone is to the outside. people aren't going for the inside packages. they want the outside. fresh meats, fish you know

that's where they're going. that's why whole foods, look at what mackey has done there. it's stun whag he's done. and how they built that up. the companies are ahead of trend, going to continue going up in the market. >> is that what you're talking about with the bifurcation? >> we are. there's another element to it with the healthier approach. we have a whole generation that approaches food consumption differently. this is a healthier generation. they're not shopping in the middle of the food aisles. what you're going to see is that's going to have a big impact on how we look at different types of companies on how they kat tore this next generation. >> exactly. mcdonald's, i feel sorry for the folk there is. but millennials are not going to mcdonald's. they're going to starbucks. >> when you look at that is it trying to be all things to all people? what happened? what went wrong? >> well terms of millennials,

they have a lot of choices. they'd rather go to a specialty restaurant. >> fresh fast food or whatever. >> they don't feel they're getting healthy food there. and it's not served in a nice way. so they got a long way to go. that's a tough call. you know? i mean it really is. because they've maybe passed peak. >> especially that -- >> if you can't appeal to millennials today, you're in trouble. that's why a guy like cornell is trying to transform target. they were losing it for awhile. bringing it back. >> i would argue, too, first of all their notion of ease of use and convenience is very different. convenience for me was a place i could go and take my kids. i didn't have to worry about it. the millennials, it's different. it's about consuming in short time and being able to multitask. the other thing is i think there's still -- again, i don't want to fault the prior generation. but i think there's a greater awareness of what goes into food today than 10 20 30 years ago. >> much greater awareness.

and that trend is moving. you better be fast forward. >> some of it is just fine. some of it is stupid. >> every generation has that joe. >> maybe. you're at ubs. you talk about millennials, stock market potential. whether they're watching cnbc. how do you get millennials to do something with ubs? it's a tough road to hoe. it's about farming. >> it is. i guess we have to make sure we're relevant to the next generation. >> how are you going to do it? maybe ki do it too a new mustache or something? >> the mustache is a little dated. but i think the first thing we need to do is figure out the right way to connect with them. they consume information differently than their parents and my generation. they also view investment different. we view the millennial generation as a generation of risk takers and they are in terms of their own life, in terms of they're more

entrepreneurial, they're willing to do things our generation didn't. from the investment side they're still scarred from the aftermath of the financial crisis. this was the seminal moment in their lives. they tend to be more conservative investors. >> that's what i mean. they're at zero. their savings are at zero. and stocks over time grow at 7%. so you're not doing a good enough job, obviously, getting that message out there. >> it's a message that's a drip. it's not going to happen all at once. it's one we're slowly trying to convert. >> yeah. it's nice to get your return of your assets. but if you get the same amount back and it's ten years later and it's the same amount you haven't done that well. okay. mike, thank you. you know we sort of wonder about people that have two first names. >> you definitely do. >> we do. bill george. >> by we he means him. >> you've got enough on your resume where we'll give you the benefit of the doubt. but in general, it's a little suspect.

okay. did you change it? was george your middle name? >> no. i don't even like my middle name. >> what is it? >> wallace. >> you force him -- he doesn't want to -- >> william wallace. >> i like that. >> wally joe in high school. >> william wallace. that's you. we're going to call you that. >> i always thought you were suspicious of people with three names. >> that too. coming up we've got more of our exclusive interview with rex tillerson. and then later two economic reads this hour. the challenger jobs report. then we'll talk to the ryder cup team winning captain. >> that's a tough one. >> i didn't see it. >> paul mcginley. >> then we're going to be unveiling fortune's list of the top companies to work for in just a minute. here. the problem is some of it's in this lab. some of it is in her head. some of it's in this new journal.

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welcome back, everybody. the economic sanctions that the united states and the eu have placed on russia in the last year could cost exxonmobil up to a billion dollars. that is according to to s.e.c. filings from the company. i spoke to ceo rex tillerson about the investments in russia

nigeria nigeria, and other places where risk might not lead to reward. >> there are multiple elements of rik. the one you're on is the geopolitical risk. and the risk that governments remain stable. that the operating environment remaining secure. and the risk that governments honor the deal and don't try to change the deal. nigeria, angola russia. we've been there for a long time in all those countries, decades. and you build that confidence in the early years. and you build that confidence with your performance. and as long as we're delivering on our commitments to those governments, our experience has been they always deliver on the commitments to us. >> even if you have a trusting relationship with the government in the area where you're going business, let's look at russia. sanctions there could cost you billions of dollars this year. >> let me clarify in russia because we have several operations underway there. the largest of which is our soclin operation in the far east

of russia. our operations there continue to go normally. over the last two or three years. those are exploration ventures. the black sea and to evaluate some of their on-shore west siberian oil. when the sanctions were invoked, we were in the middle of a drilling operation in the arctic. and we petitioned the government to allow us to conclude those operations in an orderly and normal fashion. and they did allow us they granted us a license to let us complete that. and we're very appreciative of that. so we were a i believe to complete those activities withdraw our people withdraw the equipment. we're now essentially at a stand still on those activities. so the billion dollars that we disclosed is we felt we owed it to the investors to let them

know how much had we spent under that which is now the sanctions. we're hopeful this gets resolved. >> for years, exxonmobil had been the largest market capitalization company. but i also got the chance to ask tillerson about apple's market cap these days which is now twice the size of exxonmobil's. exxonmobil was the largest cap market company forever and ever. you watched apple just soar and take off. do you ever think about that about how big they are? >> no i never thought about it when we were the biggest, quite frankly. other people like to make a lot out of that. it's not surprising to me that a product like an apple would come along and race past something that we're a commodity business. we're going to be one of these steady hold safe. you can sleep well at night. you can count on the dividend stocks. >> we'll have much more from rex tillerson coming up in the 8:00

a.m. hour. we'll also get his reaction to warren buffett's decision to sell $4 billion of exxonmobil shares last quarter. of course our guest host today bill george is on the board of exxonmobil. it's a difficult time to try to manage a company that sells something that has been cut in half in terms of price over the last eight months or so. >> exactly. but if anyone can do it it's rex tillerson. this is the most experienced team in the world. they've all been there 25 to 40 years. they've been through so many cycles. i've been on the board ten years. we went through the cycle in 2009 where we went from $140 a barrel down to $47. you know they just continue on. they have a five-year capital plan. they keep moving ahead. they don't overreact. they've got plenty of cash. >> and you don't believe that we are in a new normal. meaning that the world has fundamentally changed. >> might be. you'll never get them to say wla the price is going to be. but they know how to operate the new normal. >> they can do $40, they can do

$100. >> exactly. and they test everything. they test every price level when they're making an investment no matter where it is. so they're not pushing the thresholds up. >> there's got to be a bottom number. which it doesn't work anymore. >> bill did you notice there was a time a couple years ago where there were certain pensions and others criticizing exxon nonstop for not we deployed all their assets into renewables and they had to push back on that. saying we're going to stay in the hydrocarbon business. think if they had folded to the notion that hydrocarbons there's peak oil or it's not going to be gone. they didn't. they kept replacing reserves with drilling, doing what they do best in the face of all this criticism. and hopefully the board was behind them. and it was a pr night more for them. >> but rex handled that well i think. he said we do well joe. they got great technology.

that's why they've been succeeding. that's why the shale gas had been doing well. they knew how to do it all safely. >> didn't put it into solyndra. lucky the white house science adviser wasn't on the board. >> well you can get solyndra in your portfolio, but i don't think they'll put it in yours. >> no thanks. coming up self-driving cars have been hailed as the future. we'll bring you the details on how the technology behind them could generation millions in revenue. that's coming up next. sound good? great. because you're not you you're a whole airline... and it's not a ticket you're upgrading it's your entire operations, from domestic to international... which means you need help from a whole team of advisors. from workforce strategies to tech solutions and a thousand other things. so you call pwc. the right people to get the extraordinary done. ♪ ♪

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welcome back to "squawk box," everybody. here are some of the headlines that we've been watching this morning. apple will delay the start of production on the larger ipad. that setback comes because of delays to the supply of display panels. suppliers have been told to begin production on the bigger ipad in this half of the year. also etsy filing for an ipo. it plans to list on the nasdaq. and costco earnings beating the street. revenue was slightly below forecast. same store sales especially when you exclude fuels, it did rise better than expected 8%. jobs report is just a day away. we get a jobs report on friday but this morning we're getting a read on layoffs ahead of that number. john challenger joins us now with the results. good morning, john. the results -- i'm saying good morning to you, but i don't

think the results are good. >> no they're certainly not good. we saw over 50,000 job cuts announced. that was up 21% february to february. now up 19% for the year. >> so, a large part of this and maybe bill george can speak to this is energy. right? this is the oil patch. >> yeah. no question. the sector of the economy that's cutting jobs. and usually what you have in times of strength is you have most of the job cuts coming from mergers and acquisitions and you just don't need two headquarters. but right now we're seeing in the midst of this expansion, one sector going through the change. and that's energy. 38% of all cuts right now for the first two months of the year have come from that sector. so texas headquartered companies, the southwest is really feeling it. >> but if you look broadly into other categories like retail which should be a beneficiary, what i'm hoping you're going to tell me is whatever losses are taking place within the energy

world, they're being made up for elsewhere. tell me i'm wrong. >> well you're not quite right. the second heaviest area cutting jobs is retail. over 15,000 cuts announced. that's similar to what we saw last year. often when you finish the holiday season you do see cut there is. although retail right now is going through some job cuts, it does look as though the energy crisis -- >> also the theory that as energy prices come down the rest of us are going to be these sort of you know giant beneficiaries is not holding water yet? >> hasn't played out quite yet. i think -- i can hear your doubt, but i do think that's going to happen. when the weather breaks and people have more money in their pockets. but so far retail in this season post-holiday is still cutting jobs. we saw a big bankruptcy that led to a lot of those jobs this month. that was radio shack. and that really in many ways is more about the change and how

the consumer works. >> john we thank you for the numbers, of course. we'll see you next month and i'm hoping at some point this spring the conventional wisdom will play out how it should. paul mcginley is right next to me. he was the winning captain of the european ryder cup team. a dark day in u.s. history. it was a route. is there an irish word for what you did to the u.s. team? >> the same words you use over here. >> and that horrific song. god, i just still hear it. after leading the team to victory, he was selected as the captain at the 2016 olympics in rio. joining us now golf pro paul mcginley. you play with my friend. i saw you over there. it was awesome. when i saw you, i said my god there he is in person. the ryder cup elevated you. you were always a great player but it's a different world after that. >> yeah.

on shows like this and i'm here in new york with a big partner of ours at the ryder cup on the european tour. from a player to a captain to a vice captain and onwards. >> and it's just a sport and it's a sport where there's gentlemen on both sides and we know that. but i'm reading the commentary and it's so -- it's just a game but it's so nasty. it's just so good we have to talk about it. so i just said to you, so the u.s. picked davis love again. davis is a great guy, but the collapse of his ryder cup team last time was -- it had a lot to do with justin rose obviously. it wasn't a collapse of the u.s. team. but they brought him back. and rory who's unbelievable said the u.s. looks desperate. i love that. that's some talk isn't it? >> part of any business. if you keep losing and we've won

eight of the last ten ryder cups. over the last 21 years, we've won 16. >> why? >> there's a number of reasons. that's why america sat down. a task force started. saying we're losing so often here we're doing something wrong. >> a task force for the ryder cup. >> that's how much it means to them. >> oh. because they've been getting -- i mean obviously we hear about the greatest golfers in the world or supposedly on the tour here. and you guys come over and beat us every year. >> let's put it in terms of a business. if you're a business and you were losing all the time and profits were going down what would you do? you'd sit down maybe clear out the board room and start again and say okay where are we going? what are the fundamentals to get in place to go forward? >> andrew just to involve you -- >> thank you. >> -- just to try to somehow get you to peak your interest a little, he founded a dotcom endeavor that rents golf clubs and they're going to rent $4 million worth of golf clubs this year, right? >> yeah. it's a little business -- >> what's the name?

>> clubs to hire.com. >> how does it work? so i go online -- >> you go online and you just click on and choose -- >> you fedex or u.p.s. me clubs? >> no. you pick them up at the airport. >> is it in the u.s. yet? it's everywhere else. >> we're doing some research hopefully no launch in america. >> what's the cost of renting clubs? >> the highest cost for a premium brand would be 65 euros at home. >> and is that a lot less than i would rent them at the golf club itself? >> oh yeah. that's for a week. >> better clubs? >> you get into premium quality. >> you've got nine rules for success. i don't have davis' e-mail. i was going to forward these to someone on the u.s. communication, team building. how are the teams shaping up in your view for the ryder cup? >> well it's evolved a little

bit, joe. if you look over the last number of years, america were always the favorites coming in. now the last ryder cup we were favorites. that's a double edged sword. it brings expectation as well too. we had six of the top eight players in the world rankings on our team. we were formidable. we were a strong team going against america last year. >> i loved padre. he almost did it. that would have been his first win over here, right? >> yeah. i mean he won match play but hasn't won -- >> he missed by a stroke. >> he did. hit it in the water a few times too. he'll come back again. he's obviously playing well. >> i saw europeans had this free -- like any sports team, somehow you guys are able to unify your team. and the americans are kind of -- they have good golfers. but they're all going in different directions. you know? >> i think that's what the task force was about.

it's also easy when you're winning. and we've had a great bit of momentum over the last number of years. that's the way i saw my job as captain. it was about making it better, enhance it evolve it and roll it out and make it better. we've got a good dynamic behind the scenes. a lot of statistical analysis in order to help me with strategies and put it in place. ultimately more important than anything else we have a strong team. >> all irish captains from now on. you win. >> we're going to take over the world. >> you have taken over the world. >> i think it's all confidence. >> may i ask just one question? what can the americans do to mess with your strategy? >> that's a good question. the thing about golf one of the things about the ryder cup is i didn't see our opponent as american. for me i felt as captain, our opponent was ourselves and the golf course and setting out the

stall to fit to play that examination paper which is the golf course. so golf is not like boxing. you didn't distract what the other guy is doing and you can't hit in golf. but you hit against the golf course. i think that's where we got our strategies right. we had strong pairings based on that. >> game's in great shape. i mean you know rory when he's on it's hard to watch. rickie fowler. is tiger going to win another major? >> well, if you're a betting man now, you wouldn't say so. but you can't rule a guy out who has been proven in the past to be there and know that should he get in contention, there's a good chance he's going to come through. >> how old was darren when he won -- he was old when he won. >> he was in his 40s. it's about bump and run, it's about experience. and tiger's proven himself in that. >> i'm scared of darren clark. he's got heart. he's such a gamer.

i'm worried already. he hasn't even started. anyway, good to see you. thank you. >> thanks for having me on. >> thank you. >> joe, you ought to be the new u.s. captain. they need you. >> he's got phil helping him and somebody else. >> phil was a part of the task force. >> after the watson debacle, whatever you want to call that. it was weird the way it happened. that's sexy too talk about that we didn't. he got a lot of flack. >> he did. he was my hero as a boy growing up. >> i know. he almost won the open at 52 or 53 or was he older? >> he was older. >> hit it over the green on 18. >> and a great shot too. just that one yard too far. >> i know. my god. we could -- you really have to go? all right. we have to go too. thanks. anyway, this morning when we come back, we'll get a key read on the health of europe's economy. we will be back with the ecb's

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i bring the gift of the name your price tool to help you find a price that fits your budget. uh-oh. the name your price tool. she's not to be trusted. kill her. flo: it will save you money! the name your price tool isn't witchcraft! and i didn't turn your daughter into a rooster. she just looks like that. burn the witch! the name your price tool a dangerously progressive idea. we are waiting for the ecb's latest rate decision. it is due any minute. in the meantime we are joined by

boris schlossberg. how important is this decision? >> the decision itself is not going to be that important. what is going to be important is the press conference afterwards. what he's going to say at 8:30. i don't think the market is expecting any difference. it's going to be a shock if they do anything on the interest rates for now. but the really big difference is going to be what they're going to say at the 8:30 press conference. how much qe, how aggressive they're going to be. >> what should we be listening for in that conversation? what's an indication that -- >> one of the interesting things that people are wondering is are they actually going to have enough bonds to buy? it's interesting that people think there isn't 60 billion bonds is a big amount of money especially when they have to distribute across all the other sovereign bonds. so thepg it could be a big disruptive buyer. if that's the case it's going to be interesting to see what he says about it. but bottom line is i think the ecb is going to clearly ease a

aggressive aggressively. >> just to tell everybody, the ecb leaving the rates unchanged probably as unexpected. but as boris mentioned, it's what he has to say coming up at 8:30. >> boris, isn't just letting the rates fall the big stimulus for europe? >> actually i think the whole qe thing is a complete sub tri fuj -- sub did. >> that's what i meant. yeah. does the euro change? >> the exchange rate. >> that's the real stimulus. >> absolutely. it's a far more stimlative effect than anything they try to do as far as loosening credit. i think that's what's happening. you're starting to see the first signs of european activity pick up that sciences show france italy, all the periphery economies are starting to do better. that of course i think is what they're hoping for. that's going to improve move

inflation from a deflationary point of view and give growth. >> all those exports. >> you're right, the euro is right at 110 right now. >> is it? it's a big psychological lovl. i said they're going to want to break that level right now. >> 1.1058. >> that's a 25% change. >> what do you think happens? how much of what you're talking about has been baked into this? >> i think quite a lot. i think the other part of it is in order for the euro to really tumble hard we've got to see really good u.s. data. because the divergent play here is u.s. for sure begins to tighten policy by june. and of course eurozone continues to accommodate. we're not sure about the second component just yet. we talked about just a few minutes ago about the jobs picture. we'll have to see how it comes out tomorrow. more importantly we're going to have to see how the wage growth goes. i think that's going to give the market the confidence to believe that the fed goes june. and in that case the dow has a

couple more hundred to go to the downside. >> thanks for joining us. great to see you. we should mention again mario draghi will be holding that news conference at 8:30 a.m. that's less than 45 minutes away. wail we'll monitor the conference. fortune magazine out with its list of the best companies to work for. the perks and benefits that separate the best from the rest. and wayfair getting a big pop after yesterday's earning report. sharing surging over 40%. more on cnbc in a moment. 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.

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i told bill if they move my desk one more time that i'm quitting. i'm going to quit. and i told dom, too, because they've moved my desk four times already this year. and i used to be over by the window and i could see the squirrels and they were merry. >> i love that. >> so here's the question. do you hate your job? there are people who do. we happen to love our jobs. but if you're looking for something a bit more satisfying then you may want to pay attention. "fortune" magazine out with its annual list of the top 100 companies to work for. here with us on the set, just walks down the stairs to come down.

allen murray the editor of "fortune" magazine. also with us still on set, bill george. >> eni like my job too. >> i like my job. i don't like your job at "the new york times." am i allowed to not like somebody else's job? >> we could do this letterman style and go from ten to one or just go straight to one. >> let's go straight to one. it's been there for six of the last eight years. and that's google. i don't think that surprises anybody that much. you know cool culture, free food, foosball tables, gym, all of that. but what i find interesting about the list is it's not just the googles and the twitters both of which are on the list but it's a company like marriott. been there for 18 years. this is -- i mean these are -- the number one job at marriott is housekeeper but these people love their workplace, love the company they work for, love their jobs. >> what's marriott doing for these guys? >> it's -- it really gets down

to the somewhat issue of culture. you talk about marriott and they talk about the company like it's family. you think about it and it's particularly true of young people. awful lot of ties in society have dissolved, right? people don't have strong religious affiliations decreasingly, anyway. strong political affiliations particularly among young people. families are smaller, more dispersed. for many people the place they work is the most important institutional affiliation in their life. and so being able to feel good about it to enjoy it to feel they're doing something that has meaning is the number one thing. >> certainly where you spend most of your time regardless. >> absolutely. the relationships you form. >> if you look at the company's analysts, they have great cultures. whole foods, general mills. these companies have great

cultures. they really are great places to work. i tell you, companies are competing. the executives are very competitive to get on your list. you know why? because we're shifting from huge unemployment to work for talent. and to get the people to go to a facebook are extremely competitive. >> i talk about the fight to get on your list. meaning, for years there's a competitor of yours -- >> there is? there are no competitors i can think of. >> there's another business magazine that has a thing for business schools. and everyone's always trying to jockey to get on the list. give us a little -- what goes on behind the scenes for companies in hr departments to even -- >> i think this is a rigorous methodology that great place to work uses to come up with this. intensive employee surveys. >> anonymous. >> that's right. so there's not that much you can do to gain the list. it's a pretty solid process.

i'll tell you something else. the performance of these companies is phenomenal. i mean if you look at the 18 years of the list they have outperformed the s&p by about two to one. so culture matters. >> i can't convince the market of this. the market doesn't understand that if you're a long-term investor, the culture of the company determines the motivation of the employee. why do people treat you well when they walk into whole foods? because they have a great culture. >> in the last 18 years if you bought and sold the companies we put on this list you would have earned over 11% when the s&p was 6.5%. it's an important -- i'm not saying it's a cause. it doesn't mean, you know, give great benefits to your employees and you become a great company, but it's an indicator. >> what kind of questions do they ask employees? happiness scale? >> no it's a -- you know they look at training and benefits. did they develop -- does your company develop you professionally?

you know do you feel like they're taking good care of you. it's a host of -- and perks matter. but again, perks are more an indicator of the overall culture than they are the cause. >> i actually don't think that. but you look at a firm like goldman even through the most difficult times, employees love working there. >> we got to run, but has anybody fallen off the list that was a surprise? someone who was on and then disappeared. >> yeah we lost a couple of companies this year. ll bean came back after being gone for 16 years. >> all right. alan thank you for being here. bill, stick around. coming up the ceo of potbelly will be joining us. plus more from exxon ceo rex tillerson. his take on oil price pressures and how global growth affects the price of growth.

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you won't find anywhere else. put our global active management expertise to work for you. mfs. there is no expertise without collaboration. wall street on europe watch right now waiting for mario draghi's news conference. focused on retail results.

is the consumer hibernating or braving this brutal winter weather? plus the crude crumble. is oil set to drop below $40 a barrel? exxonmobil ceo rex tillerson gives us his take. and we're pigging out with potbelly. the sandwich shop now pushing breakfast. is this the recipe to get the stock to rebound? the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now. live from the most powerful city in the world, new york, this is "squawk box." >> welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc, first in business worldwide. i'm joe kernen along with becky quick and bill george now a co-anchor. it became clear to many people at home it just wasn't working out and you were doing so well

that as you can see, he's right here. sitting next to becky. >> stop. andrew is on assignment on a big important assignment right now. >> so this is not permanent? >> no but we love having bill here. >> look how you work both sides. andrew's coming back but we love bill. you can't please all the people all the time. >> you can't insult all the people all the time either. >> yes, i can. you've seen me. andrew will be back. we're less than 90 minutes away -- but he is out three days next week. all right. got that going. >> you busy? >> you're a renaissance man. you've always got jobs. anyway. the opening bell will happen in about an hour and a half. the futures have improved since the last we looked. dow up 43. nasdaq will rebound a little. 50/50 is what we're looking for around there to get to an all-time high on the nasdaq. we're going have a party when it

hits a new high. the ecb keeping its rate unchanged. mario draghi will hold a news conference in about 30 minutes. here's what's happening in europe. greece seems to go down every day. and there is the euro. whoa. 1 1.10. good time to visit europe. >> they're letting it fall for good reason. that's the best stimulus they can have to their economy. they can export cars to the u.s. you know? >> yeah. i wonder -- >> fancy bags, perfume. >> is an espresso and croissant in europe less than $30 yet? for me it is. if you haven't seen it yet, a special google noodle doodle this morning honoring the inventor of the instant noodle. >> what kind of noodles are

those? >> let me slowly read this gentleman's name. momofuku ando is founder of the food products which every college student is familiar with. he would have been 105 today. while his name might not be a household staple his products are. from dorm rooms to cupboards. top ramen noodles. >> i like them. >> what's the powder you put on? michelle obama said it's not food. >> it's yummyness. >> okay. anyway momofuko ando? thanks for putting that in there as my career flashes before my eyes. anyway -- >> shows you not to read ahead.

>> i did. i looked at it on google. also in our headlines this hour, china lowering the growth target to 7%. thap is down from 7.5% last year. it's also the lowest level in 11 years. a new survey this morning is finding employers cut more than 50,000 jobs last month. the energy sector was the hardest hit. the government's monthly employment report will be released tomorrow. and in deal news abbvie is buying pharmacyclics. about $21 billion in all. there had been reports that johnson & johnson was going to be buying the company. but we'll talk to a biotech analyst in the next half hour. sorry. let's check out oil prices this morning. you'll see wti i think has been up. it's up by about 45 cents right now to 51.98. u.s. refiners and striking workers are digging in for a battle that could last through the spring. that strike affects about 20% of

u.s. capacity along with high inventories that have widened this trend between wti and brent crude. i spoke with exxonmobil ceo rex tillerson. >> the immediate effect for everyone will be the cash flow. you're getting less money for the same volume. i do think, though that people should be prepared for some more volatility in this market. as i made a comment to someone about the storage volumes when they were building a couple months ago, i said you know what goes into storage must come out of storage. and so i think there is the potential for there to be further pressure on the market for a period of time. and i think people kind of need to settle in for what is likely to be a bit of a volatile time. >> if you have to look out and try to figure out what really is going to impact prices do you think it is this additional production that we've seen in the united states and canada?

do you think it is saudi arabia and the decision they decide to cut production or not? what to you is the biggest determinate? >> it's a combination of those. what set this off is fundamental supply and demand. and the market's realization that was happening. all the market participants of which we are one as this north american phenomena has occurred over the last three or four years have been surprised at how robust and resilient this has been. and year after year there's another million barrels a day plus. it just keeps coming regardless of whether there's a real demand or not. in terms of what happens to changing next given where we are now, clearly the north america producers and developers have taken actions to reduce the number of rigs they're running, cut back on expenditures. but that will have a long tail on it. so it's going to be some time before the effect of that is evident to the market. what is really needed is we need a pickup in market demand.

and if you look at the performance of the u.s. economy, it's okay. but it's not robust. europe is still struggling with declining demand. and china has slowed its rate of energy demand growth. >> i know it's really hard to put your finger on it or to kind of predict where prices are going. i know you've said volatile. i know you said we could live with lower prices. wall street is all over the map when you start asking them where you think it's going to be. i'd say you have better shot at a prediction than anybody else. just your gut, rex. you've been doing this a long time. >> i never pick a number. you know me. first because i would be incorrect and second because i don't want to attract any attention. in this $40 to $50 kind of environment, the remain scope for things to go below that for a period of time. largely with these inventory numbers that you have already highlighted. there's a scope for it to go higher to the extent that there

are disruptions of supply elsewhere in the world. now, there's also scope for a lot of pressure down because of those disruptions. if things calm down in libya. if things calm down in iraq. if a deal gets done with iran. there's a lot of developed capacity that's not in the market today that will quickly want to come to the market. >> well, let's talk more about crude supply. bill george is a member of the exxonmobil board. carl, first of all, what do you think about those comments just in terms of how you could see even additional pressure coming on prices? do you agree with that? >> well you know when we talk about pressure coming to the markets, he's talking about iraq, iran libya. history tells us that those just don't get solved quickly or easily. i don't see doubter pressure from them coming back online. i see upward pressure in that area. when we talk about the u.s. economy, we're forecasting 3% this year. we've added 3 million jobs last

year. on pace to add another 3 million this year. i think there's a lot or pressure to the upside than there is a downside. >> although carl one of the things we talked about with him was the supply -- everything that's been there at cushing, all the storage has been filled up. that means more producers are going to have to start selling directly to the market. a that means additional supply from that. does that matter? >> it does matter with margins, but this is seasonality. we've seen crude stocks build this time of year. this happened in 2014 and 2013. and 2013 when we hit 51 million barrels in cushing, we dropped down to 32 in a matter of months. that was when gdp and unemployment was still pretty high. i think that number is going to drop pretty significantly and quickly and shock the market coming at the end of the year. >> so carl among the producers, isn't there going to be a sharp split here among those with strong balance sheets?

there's a lot of distress out there among energy explorers and, you know wildcatters that they just don't have the balance sheet to stay with it do they? >> they don't. what we will see is see crude stay where it's at. but we won't see the exponential growth we've seen over the years. if you go back to 2011 to 2014, increased production almost double. but that's not going to happen anymore. the production in the u.s. will probably stay where it's at. same with global growth. we're not going to see any kind of incremental growth there. canada is looking for one of their lowest in crude oil production. i think that's a record for them. >> bill, one of the things that rex said was that he didn't want to try and speculate on prices because in part he didn't want regulators thinking he was trying to influence one direction or the other. but you can look at what he's doing in terms of cap x and what he's preparing the company for and draw out from that that he's not necessarily looking for any

gains any time soon. >> this is where you appreciate a strong balance sheet. exxon can play at any level. frankly they're opportunistic. they're going to play -- they're a long-term player. by the way, that's a big capital budget. $34 billion. anything with a three in front of it is huge. they're smart. >> i tried. it didn't work. carl, thank you for joining us today. bill will be with us for the rest of the program. >> there's something in the water. >> what? >> carl larry, bill george. this is two first name day. >> we'll have to book a whole show around it next time. by the way, if you want more insight and exclusive analysis on how traders are betting against oil with a record amount of short positions, check out cnbc pro on cnbc.com. will rtall right. the nation's biggest retailers

are rolling out today. courtney reagan will tell us because there's a lot of them out there. aren't there? you go through and tell us which names we need to pay attention to. >> yeah. we used to get 20-some retail is services. still over february comparable sales. february typically the least significant month of the year for retail holiday clearance sales and spring merchandise begins to hit the shelves. this year west coast port slowdowns and snowy, cold weather and storms hit much of the nation from texas to maine for a large portion for the month of february. plus the strong dollar could prove a continued drag on results. costco reporting full earnings. this time $1.35 beating the street by a very wide margin thanks to wide robust gasoline margins. slightly missing consensus though.

total same store sales up 1%. l brands the parent of victoria's secret and bath & body works, more than a prt better than expected. much of that due to strength from victoria's secret. we're up 7%. of course a lot of lingerie bought for valentine's day. and swim wear push really punctuated by the first-ever swim suit tv special. gap will report after the bell. the street expecting to improve 1.4%. strength continuing to come from that old navy brand though the name sake brand is still going to be a drag on the results. becky? >> all right. courtney, thank you very much. let's get a check quickly on the euro. as we mentioned, the ecb leaving rates unchanged. but we are minutes away from mario draghi's news conference. right now the european markets at least look like they are tradeing up the major indexes.

the ftse in london up by .5%. you can see the euro at this point 1.1068. up next we are going to sample a couple of potbelly sandwiches. it says we're going to pig out here. how the sandwich -- becky doesn't pig out. >> no, i don't. >> no. i can't speak for myself. how the sandwich shops are pushing into breakfast as they expand. and still to come mario draghi's comments on the ecb's rate decision. also the market reaction. the ceo of wayfair is going to talk furniture sales with the consumer. plus more from exxonmobil ceo rex tillerson. he reacts to warren buffett who got out of exxon, about $4 billion worth. "squawk box" will be right back. hey, girl. is it crazy that your soccer trophy is talking to you right now? it kinda is. it's as crazy as you not rolling over your old 401k. cue the horns... just harness the confidence it took you to win me and call td ameritrade's rollover consultants. ie

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. wow. i'm tongue tied. potbelly went public. the sandwich shop in 2013. today they are expanding globally and trying to bring in business beyond lunchtime. alwin lewis is ceo of the potbelly corporation. and we're not worthy. what did we do?

wow. thank you. thank you. i don't even have any questions. >> you can just eat. i can watch y'all eat. >> so it does make sense, right in there's three meals a day. so this is something that had to happen, probably with breakfast? >> we're in breakfast in about a hundred units. we continue to do breakfast opportunistically 60% of our business is at lunch. we're bullish on our ability to continue to grow lunch. what we're looking to also do is expand our off-premise business. we play in it. we have a goal to double that business in the next two to three years. and then menu innovation is something we continue to do. we're a neighborhood sandwich shop. our marketing is word of mouth with our customers. we don't have a leaky bucket. this year we're going to try to

get into the digital, mobile and social realm. if we can use those ways to message oud the four walls with our expeernts and high frequency customers, then that we believe can really drive traffic. >> there have been questions with the chain. very recently just last month your cfo resigned. and piper jaffrey raised questions about it. she said the ceo was the glue behind what happened. how do you explain that? the stock was down about 8%. >> felt like after last quarter with our performance, we were on our way. and it's unfortunately. charlie's a great cfo. i never in my career had ever seen a cfo left and you got dinged. he left for a great opportunity. we got a lot of love for charlie, but we'll replace him. made it seem like he was the brains of the house. >> that's what piper jaffrey said. >> and that's unfortunate. our strategy is set. charlie and i were here yesterday at an investor conference and he's here through the month.

and we'll hire someone to replace him. it's a very important role but operations are very important. marketing's very important. the ceo is a little important too. so i was a little puzzle led by that. but with us with the stock, performance trumps everything. and we stumbled last year. got in the penalty box. came out of it with a strong fourth quarter. we feel very strongly about the year. you got products like this when you got the experience we have. the new shops we're building are great. we're going into neighborhoods. you know we'll break the 400 unit barrier this year in north america. we have a lot of white space. so the fundamentals of this business is very strong. i've worked in a lot of big companies. i'm here at potbelly because i think this brand has no weaknesses. it is a great brand. our formula, our great products you see. i was not a sandwich person when i started. i'm from chicken, pizza, burgers, tacos.

our sandwiches are just awesome. >> i'm going to try one now. >> i'm going to try one too. >> we have great people. we do cookies on a straw. we have live music at lunch, hand dipped ice cream. >> we had cinnabon on. and one of the reasons the person we were interviewing said they've done so well is they admit what they are. and, you know no one's going to say it's not 880 calories per cinnabon. do you worry about being politically correct and serving kale salads or something? i mean, this looks like something i want to eat here. >> we have salads and soups. but you can customize sandwiches. our calorie counts are on the menu at every shot in north america. we did that four years ago. you can come in and be indulgent. our meat ball is indulgent. but you can still get turkey with no cheese on a thin cut bread. and that's less than 400 calories. >> how many is this? i'm eating the sausage muffin.

>> that's probably about 450. >> i got to look at -- i got to pick one and pick wisely. because i'm only going to have one. maybe. >> but to your point, this year we've got to be cleaner. we're taking out some preservatives and coloring that really doesn't matter. the big one for us is the elimination of sosodium. so we're going to work hard to eliminate the sodium in our meat and cheese products. >> bellwell, come back. we'll definitely have you back. >> thanks for having me. >> you're welcome. thank you. coming up breaking economic data on the jobs front. then the ceo of wayfair talks online home furnishings. maybe brought us some couches. i don't know. that company popped 16% yesterday after releasing quarterly results. then it's draghi time. the ecb president on the state of the eurozone qe plans, and more. we break down the headlines and what it means for you with the markets when we return.

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few stocks to watch that are on the move this morning. joy global's earnings and revenue falling short. also cut full year guidance and is speeding up cost cutting plans. you can see it's going to be a big loser. dunkin' brands upgraded to buy from neutral at goldman sachs.

you were involved in this specifically weren't you? >> no. they don't come to me. >> bill didn't know that was going to happen. firm's cites increasing sales and the new coffee distribution deal. and simon property is considering a bid for rival mall owner macerich. it has 3.6% in that company. when we come back we'll focus on jobs and the economy. plus the ceo of wayfair will join us. getting a nice pop after better than expected results. the stock still down some 20% since its ipo. wayfair's ceo will join us next. right now, though as we head to a break, take a look at u.s. equity futures. things have turned around. s&p futures up by 5 and the nasdaq up by 13. stick around. "squawk box" will be right back.

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welcome back to "squawk box," everyone. let's take a look at a live shot of cypress. that's where mario draghi is getting ready to talk about interest rates. we will be monitoring that news conference when it begins. we will bring up reaction. you will see right now the dollar is still up against the euro at 1.1060. been fluctuating around that level. it will key off of what draghi has to say. this came out overnight. it is a deal on drug maker abbvie buying pharmacyclics.

they will pay a 13% premium to yesterday's closing price. and david toung joins us to discuss the deal. any word of this? does this make sense? can you explain why it makes sense for abbvie? >> i did see this deal coming. quite a bit of news flow about it last week. but the news was that johnson & johnson was going to be the bidder for pharmacyclics. it did catch me with vise. now, it is a high price. you know $21 billion. but i think pharmacyclics is a unique asset. it has the one drug it's got

forindication. it's being stutded with other drugs for other cancers, tumors. so there's a lot there beyond just what's already been approved for. >> there must be i guess. what is the run rate for that drug right now annually? >> they had $548 million in sales in 2014. i can easily see that doubling in 2015. and when you add the multiple indications, you know it really -- those sales really can start to multiply. i think this is really important for abbvie because as you know they're running into some competition for humera coming up in 2016 2018 time frame. they've got to fill that pipeline. i think all the studies they can

do i think will help fill that pipeline. >> joe, i don't think this is a surprise. they went after shire, they didn't get it. they don't really have a great capacity to discover so they've got to go out and buy. everyone wants to get in the new generation cancer drugs. it's going to change the game. but some of them are discovering like novartis and merck and others are out of buying. i see pfizer back in that too. they've got to do something. as david was saying, the pipelines are being depleted. >> we've got to go. how does the drug work? leukemia and other blood cancers? lymphoma? do you know what it does? just out of curiosity. >> basically it suppresses the ability of the cancer to multiply. and this mechanism can work across other cancers. >> solid tumors even? >> they are studying solid

tumors as well as blood cancers. i think they -- the solid tumor is further down the road. but they've gotten multiple studies going on. one other thing i want to point out is that there's a possibility that it can be studied with abt-199 which is a drug already under development at abbvie. a combination could work very well. i think that also makes it attractive to abbvie. >> okay. great. all right, david. thanks for coming on and giving us your analysis. >> you're welcome. let's tell you about mario draghi and what he's been saying in comments. he says the bond buying program will start on march 9th. a specific date. that's when the bonds will start being bought. also let's look at what's been happening in the euro since that time. it was 1.1060. now it's 1.1080 right now.

which might not be what was anticipated. he's continuing to talk. but that reaction tells you a little bit the market knew this was coming. so far no big surprises. we'll continue to monitor his discussions and his talk at this point and bring you additional headlines as they happen. >> in the meantime shares of wayfair the largest online furnishing retailer soaring after topping the top and bottom line. joining us now is the ceo, cofounder, o co-chairman of way wayfair. thanks for being leerhere. >> thanks becky. >> you had a lot of new shoppers coming in. when people take a longer look at the stock, i think you've traded as high as almost $40 and as low as $16 since going public. so there are some people still trying to figure out what to make. what happened is you spent a lot on advertising. you think it's been worth it?

>> you know, it's interesting. the marketing spin has been working. when we went public in october, the topic on the road show was actually about the marketing investment we started making in january of 2014 and how it was working. that's what generated the excitement. i think what happened is shortly after being public folks say there's an internet company losing money. how can that make sense? kind of the short-term kind of mind-set i think hurt us in that set. i think what's happening is the quarters get announcing people say it is working. you kind of go full circle. >> i will give you credit because the jingle's stuck in my head. but i'll also tell you that yesterday we had the former ceo of pets.com and the pet stock that was here. how do you avoid the troubles of what happened? >> it's interesting. i've been involved with the internet space ever since i graduated college. that's about 20 years now. so during the dotcom boom and bust, you know i was certainly in that market. back then the euphoria was around folk who is got traffic

to their website. not necessarily about revenue and unit economics. if you're losing money, what are you losing money for? are the unit economics intact? one of the things we announced yesterday that i think helped folks understand was we tried to break it down for them. if you take television advertising, all the money we spend for repeat customers which is not that much and don't give it credit. just toward new customer acquisition, payback is actually less than a year. so that's burdening that with everything. folks say that's less than we thought. >> meaning you will make back every dollar you spent. >> from the contribution margin. it pays back every single dollar of advertising in less than a year. and then the story's basically that the repeat rate has been rising. we're up to 3.2 million active customers in the u.s. folks start to see it. this makes sense or what have you. there's a lot of runway.

and a revenue growth is the other thing. you say, well all of a sudden the financial math looks appealing. our direct retail business grew 50% year over year. $1.3 billion in sales last year. that grew over 50% year over year. that's obviously faster than the market growth rate nap shows we're taking share. folks get excited. >> so you've got a hot model and it's paying off for you. when do you turn the corner and make money or do you keep spending advertising up to the level of the revenues? what's the plan? >> so what we've seen is we're focused on growing. if you look at the research models on wall street everyone gets us to profitability by the end of next year. if you look at our guidance for q1, it was ebita will be negative 3.5% to negative 4%.

that's up from negative 7% a year ago. it's not quite exactly linear. but you see the ebita is getting closer to break even. it's not sort of like we're going to lose money. one day, boom we make money. you know you can actually see we are letting flow through occur while we're also reinvesting a fair amount. >> you have a controlled plan. how about the furniture stores? the bricks and mortars. are they going to figure this out? they're going to have to compete or are they just going to sit there fat, dumb and happy? >> i wouldn't necessarily characterize them like that. there are a lot of great folks there. >> they are good people. i have some friends in it. if you let them sit there and eat their lunch. >> $95 billion is furniture. and that's dominated by these regional brick and mortar stores. very national folks. >> like a pier one or a target though, you can see playing. >> there are some national

folks. like in new england, the biggest is owned by berkshire hathaway. but that's true in every region. you go to michigan, it's things you haven't heard of unless you live there. and the thing about those folks, their cost structure is all about the brick and mortar. when you talk about the technology in play and how you do merchandising online which is not about picking the 30 bedroom sets but having a huge collection, it ends up being a different business. >> i know that. but best buy is figuring how to do it both ways. how about restoration and people like that? >> the high end of the market i think is restoration, design centers. i live in boston. you go to the design center there are showrooms. we focus on the mass market. and that's the huge opportunity. the mass customer $175,000 household income they've been underserved. the brick and mortar firms you're talking about, they don't

provide great merchandising. if you go to the design center and work with an interior decorator, you get great selection. our customer would love that too. but no one at brick and mortar can provide that because of the costs they have. we have two photo studios. we have 2400 people. and what we do is we provide that experience. that's a function of the supply chain we've built. but that's a challenge. without those things you can't provide that. you do provide that, that's hugely different than what you can get. it's much more compelling. >> and the millennials definitely want your model. so the question is you buy a sofa online. can i return it if i don't like it? >> you can absolute return it. the millennials are actually going to help us grow when they turn 35 and start buying the category. >> they definitely are. >> want to thank you very much for joining us today. great talking to you. when we come back, mario draghi starting his news conference. we'll break down his comments

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must be some significant comments given that music. ecb president mario draghi is speaking at this hour. steve leisman has been monitoring the conference. jim iuorio is watching the reaction. before we talk ecb, rick santelli has some news on productivity day that was out a

couple minutes ago. >> i find this fascinating. if i go back 30 years on my data base on productivity and this final fourth quarter read was minus 2.2% this is like only the fourth time in 30 years we've had a negative fourth quarter. i find that fascinating. we know we're averaging less than half in the last five years as we have over the last 20 with regard to productivity. i wanted to get that out there before we talk about why the euro is not going down and why the dax and the cac are taking a reprieve in the midst of draghi. >> leisman, what have you got? >> hey, joe. you hear me okay? >> we do. let >> let me turn the sound off. announcing march 9th will be the day they begin purchasing bonds. pretty widely expected. they did up their gdp forecast for 2015 up by 1.9%.

saying this is because of the quantitative easing plans they announced in part. also some turnaround in other parts of the economy. continuing to urge structure reform saying none of this is going to work if governments don't turn around and start working on the structural parts of what's wrong with the european economies. >> okay. iuorio, what do you think? >> well okay. if you look at it from the surface you'd say seems like the market's disappointed in his commitment to qe. i don't think that's really it. i think market position is dictating this. there are a lot of people that were short the euro. i'm sure there are those who thought something is bearish to the euro we cover. when we got kind of what was expected which in my mind is plenty -- shows plenty of commitment to the qe. it's funny he now says the gdp estimate is going to be higher because qe has worked so well

around the world. a lot of people short the euro. if the euro pops that means there's going to be a corrective phase. that on balance will probably be way on the stock market. what it means is that the dollar weakens a little bit. the fed will be less worried about exacerbating dollar strength come june and slightly more likely to tighten. i hope that makes sense. >> it does make sense. are you still here santelli? you believe june? >> absolutely. absolutely. i'm like the fed and the ecb and bank of japan. i'm not going anywhere. >> rick how important are our exports to that rise in the gdp they're talking about in europe? >> i don't see much internal buoyancy in the gdp in europe. >> i'll tell you what. my own personal feeling is that the leadup to qe in europe is where all the action was. now we're starting to see maybe what they're goal is. and that of course is how maybe corporate securities that people are going to either flock to

issue or flock to buy with zero coupons, potentially less. i think we have to wait until march 9th and beyond to really see the next level of effects. the markets are locked and loaded. but the questions aren't answered by the data beginning or how much they're going to buy. i think the markets are going to re- re-calibrate. who'd rather hold onto the ferraris than get involved in lesser credits. and also the general idea as we go into this new universe of not only negative rates for sovereigns in europe but negative rates as i said potentially spreading to corporates. what would that do if there's ever a hiccup in the equity world? these are big questions. >> so they'll hold the lines with the greeks? >> pardon? >> is draghi going to hold the line with the greeks? >> you know i don't think anybody's going to be able to hold the line and i don't think actually mario draghi's necessarily in a position. i think the questions ahead are

will the paper be accepted as collateral and how much more they'll get to stay in hotel california when everybody thinks it's disstined for some divorce at some point in time. >> okay. all right. thank you, you three. four if we include bill and steve. where's steve? he's gone. i would be mad. >> he's listening to the comments. >> okay. he went away. call your agent, steve. when we come back this morning, what does exxonmobil ceo rex tillerson think about warren buffett selling nearly $4 billion of his company's stock? take a look at the futures.

welcome back to "squawk box," everybody. an interview with ceo rex tillerson we asked him about warren buffett's decision to sell off $4 billion in exxon mobile shares last quarter. we asked what he thinks that means for the stock and what he would told cautious investors. >> we're for the long-term investor, people who buy our stock, own it for generations, a lot of shareholders are generational owners, handed

down. i appreciate warren's comments he thinks we're a great company and warren's expressed that to me personally as well which i appreciated. i understand he has a portfolio he has to manage. but i think we believe we're still very attractive opportunity for people who want to have a piece of this part of the global economy, which will always be there, in the global economy because there's never not going to be energy demand. >> down to the new york stock exchange for reaction. jim cramer joins us now. jim, obviously what's happened with oil prices you have pointed out time and time again, wall street has no idea where things are headed and it makes it tough to make a bet in this situation. >> i think rex is right. i will tell you that of all of the companies i follow exxon's the only one that may have a 50-year plan. they buy -- they've done these projects, they're gamed out for years and years. rex is so right, you don't own his stock for a trade. you really own it for investment. it's been one of the

longer-term, terrific stocks. but if you are very very negative -- if you listen to rex short term you want to sell oil stocks. but he's so right. exxon's unlike any other company i follow in america. it does not think about the five years or ten years, it thinks further out than that. >> right, jim. i'm on the board and it's got like out to 2040, 2050. the question is what do you think of tailoring your messages to the shareholders you have? if you look at exxon shareholder, they have a very large mix of older people who are depending on dividends and things like that to support them rather than a short-term investor. >> well, you know, it's funny, i think that warren buffett likes ibm for precisely because of the buybacks and the dividend and i was surprised, therefore, he would go against exxon which has that long-term view. one thing i would say about exxon's view is that it's so known by those who own it that i

think there's no surprises. look how that stock's held up. >> yeah. >> look how it's done versus the rest of the group. they're thoughtful, not panicked. to me they're of themselves. it's just a phenomenal company when things are bad. and it's an okay company when things are good. maybe for -- it's a nice balance against other stocks trying to make money short term. >> impressive thing they keep their threshold for investment at a low energy price. when they run their numbers and always run sensitivity analysis up at 110, they are conservative. they lose opportunities but also keep their powder dry for a time like this, too. >> a lot of companies doing equity offering and will save themselves. exxon was savoring some of the deals. if their view is right and we do not get a u-comeback they'll make a lot of money. i'm proud of them. i have been critical when oil was great and didn't try to do

more. we see the greatness of their plan, to say we're not playing this for the next quarter. we're playing it for 50 years. i like that. >> you got it. >> jim, you look good but you are well enough to hear a cold in your voice. >> we'll get over it. i'm going south this weekend. maybe that will help. >> take some zycam. see you in a few. the greatest show on earth making an unprecedented change. lumber liquidators, a company in crisis, stock down 30% in the week. senate democrats calling for a federal probe. what can management do to halt the slide? crisis management take from our guest host when "squawk box" comes right back.

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mfs. there is no expertise without collaboration. we have had ken and nicole and alana of barnum and bailey ringling on the show. elephants now will be phased out of the traveling circus. there's 13 left that are currently traveling with three ringling brother units. by 2013 join the rest of the ringling brother elephants at ringling brother center for elephant conservais in florida.

by 2018. it's an endangered species, asian elephants, and they've had 26 births in florida already. they breed them, take care of them. there's 40 now. 13 will join them and no longer be part of the show. but, you still can have tigers lions, horses dogs and camels will be part of the show. obviously, there's been criticism over the years about you know about elephants. but i think they've been pretty good stewards and now see them doing -- moving them down there things change. >> what's a circus without elephants? >> there you go. >> well still going to be the greatest show on earth. >> thank you so much for joining us today. bill george a pleasure. hope to see you seen. >> join us tomorrow. "squawk on the street" is next. ♪ we will rock you♪

>> good thursday morning. welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer david faber at new york stock exchange. what a morning. the we have the biggest u.s. m&a deal of the year ecb raising gdp forecast for this year and next. solid beats from costco kroger and more. futures have come out of the red this morning. oil climbing above 51, despite inventory numbers yesterday. exxon's rex tillerson on with becky this morning.