"squawk box" begins right now. good morning everybody. walk to "squawk box" on cnbc. andrew is on assignment. also with us this morning we have mike senior columnist at yahoo! finance. a lot of markets to talk. today mark six years since the 2009 market bottom. >> i did know that. friday, march 6th was the fiction sixth anniversary. since then the dow has risen nearly 370%. the s&p added more than 206%. and the nasdaq gained more than 288%. also, on the radar this morning two swiss aviation pioneers begun what could be the first around the world trip in a solar powered plane. the plane took off early this

morning. it's heading east. the pilots will take turns flying day and night. if goes as plan the trip will end in mid june. four u.s. stops are planned. here are the big stories today. apple holding a major press event in san francisco. the company expected to offer details on the watch including a high end model that some say could cost as much as $10,000. we'll talk more about apple and the entry into the dow in a few moments. a new survey finding the fed to raise rates in the second half of the year. 57% of those polled by the national association of business economists say uncertainty over the central bank's plan is no longer slowing the economic recovery. and in europe, it's official. the ecb has begun the $66 million a month bond buying program.

scotland goldman sachs argues that oil prices will reverse the recent gapes with wti. likely dropping all the way down $240 a barrel in the near term. the main reason? global crude inventories are beginning to increase again. we did see that story last week. right. nowhere to put it there's so much in this country. goldman sees brent prices coming under pressure. take it for what it was worth. it was the firm looking for the super spike. >> 2007 or something. 2006. it was before the crash. >> does anyone know really? goldman, you know, god bless you. you do god's work but i don't know about this. gasoline prices have been rising. the average price of unleaded $2.54. that's almost a $lower than a year ago. >> general motors plans to announce a share buy back program as early as today. this move will let the automaker

avoid a proxy fight with harry wilson. as you probably know has been pushing to join the board. no word yet of the exact size of the buy back. it's expected to be less thanned $8 billion that wilson was pushing for. in other corporate news the nation's three biggest credit reporting agencies are planning a massive overhaul. the wall street journal reporting that they will change the way they handle errors and unlisted medical bills. they have to use trained employees to review information that consumers can submit when they believe there is an error. this is set to be announced today and implemented nationally. good news for consumers if you had something bad on the credit report. it should be a faster way to get things changed. let's check on the markets. take a look how futures are shaping up after the rough friday. better than expected jobs

report. the fed was going to raise rates sooner than some people had wanted. the dow with an implied open down 18. s&p with an implied open down 3 and the nasdaq looking lower. look at europe as the bond buying program again begins. stocks are selling off. maybe fed fears creeping into those. it's a down picture in the eurozone. take a look at asia as well. and it's mostly down story as well. shanghai getting a bump of nearly 2%. how about oil? wti at 49.51. brent is down by a little more than 1%. and gas is the big sell-off this morning. 10-year note had been rising. it's 222. that move continues. it's an interesting story watching the move over a short period of time we've seen. i think it's been the biggest five week move in the ten-year

yield. there's the euro which has been sinking as well versus the dollar. >> wow. book your european vacation now, joe. >> i talked to rusty and the daughter's name with the euro vacation? >> oh. >> family vacation european style. >> yeah. take a european vacation over there. rusty and who? >> aweudrey. >> remember that? that was awful! two big events today in europe. today is the first day that the ecb starts buying bonds. so it is the official start of quantitative easing and there's yet another meeting of finance ministers. we have that going for us. that's nice. about whether or not they're going give greece any money. my favorite story today? >> i knew you were going to point it out.

>> front page of the journal about pro business position ofand everybody hates him. >> he has the young. i like the cut of this guy -- >> 37 years old. >> maybe it's not a good idea to tax people 75%. >> he's definitive. it's not a good idea. >> it's amazing. >> anyway. michelle cabrera joins us now. >> i could talk about that. i know, you liked it too? >> i loved it. i like the guy. okay. so let's bring up scott highlighted happening in the european markets. it's worth underlineing remember the guy rations we have gone through to get to the point where the ecb will be able to buy bonds and what are the european markets doing? not a whole lot. i don't know if you agree with me i think ultimately it's the fed that mooufs the entire world. right. regardless.

so bottom line i think what you see in weakness has more to do with the weekend. mario drog thought it would be help to feel get it weaker. >> it's the only way that qe works for them. continuing to weaken the euro. >> it's a perfect mechanism to spread it out throughout europe. it helps given greece. if they stay in the euro. >> the yet another meeting of finance ministers. i would say there were two things that happened over the weekend that were fairly significant as we watch whether or not greece is going to be able to stay. first of all, failed threats about whether or not there's going to be some kind of referendum in greece about what -- it's not going to be about the euro. it's about whether or not we want to stick with the policies they want to dictate to us. you would conclude if you don't

want to stick with the policies it's a referendum of the euro. >> it's so interesting with the elections. they were given a mandate they didn't want the level of austerity. they wanted to stay in the euro. how do you break it down unless you split it into an absolute vote whether or not you want to stay in the euro. >> excellent point. when we listen to the comments whether or not there's going to be a referendum leads you to that exact question. they're focussed on process and mincing words over there. it's difficult to get clarity. it was far more clear over the weekend -- beyond the talk of a referendum the guy in charge of the ben gum central bank said you've got reform. and when i listen to you speak, speaking about greek officials it makes me wonder do you belong in the mechanism. it's the euro. so you have a member of the governing council saying out loud do you -- >> somebody who is not german. >> right. who is not a german or a super

hawk saying maybe the people shouldn't be in the euro. >> you think it's a matter of time with the people you talk to? >> it's hard to say. i can't -- i still don't know at this point. several years ago i would have said okay they need time to reform. once they do things will be better and they'll stay. they don't a lot -- they fight the major reforms that so many -- that would help them in so many ways. >> the flip side of everybody else in the euro not just wanting it at all. it's not about whether greece can move up. the idea if you let one out. what does it mean for the euro. >> if you let them stay and create special deals you create a bad precedent. the irish, the portuguese and spanish said if they want a deal we do too. >> the conversation we had happens behind closed doors today with the finance ministers. you outlined it perfectly.

this is the dilemma everyone faces. where you sit on that side of the question is how that gets decided. >> all right. keep us updated. you know, saint patty's day is thursday. >> this was my friday dress but i forgot to bring -- >> it's so green. >> you know it's coming up. >> yeah i know. i'm not here thursday. >> celebrating early? >> you are celebrating early. it's never too early to celebrate saint patrick's day. >> we should celebrate every day! >> all though i want my hour back. >> it was nice to have it lighter later last night. made it hard to go to sleep but the idea i have a spring in my step today. i'm never going to get it light when go to the morning anyway. if i can get it lighter later. >> the handle on the clock was 3:00 this week it's 2:00. it's getting up to 48 today and

sunny! i'll take that trade any day! >> the temperature is my age. from greece to rate hikes to the decision to add apple to the dow jones stramindustrial average. we can't count on them being completely wrong every time. but pretty close, i think. this is aig, sisco, they know how to top out of stock. they know how. >> the idea if you only have 30 stocks it's an elite group. it has to be an ironclad established company. i guess the threshold saying finally the company arrived. it's up 8,000%. exactly! it's $750 billion. >> that's not what the index is for. >> not only are they topping out apple they're topping out the dow! they're telling us the dow can't go any higher. >> nike a disaster? >> now but aig and citigroup was and hewlett-packard and sisco. >> can you tell we're all down.

>> how are microsoft. >> we're down 30%. >> if you need an indicator of sentiment of just wrong way -- who is it now? the guy with the mustache. i think now it's a guy with a -- no a little bow tie. >> david blitzer. >> anyway, were you going to say something else? >> no. >> tell me it's not a coincidence that the watch is coming out today. and i know it's hard for me to adopt new technology but i don't see -- i don't want this thing at all. but anyway. >> i don't have any commentary about the watch. i wear a finance tracker. >> you do? >> this is no comment about the watch but apple stock overall if you look one of the reasons why these dominos have been lining up for some time. they split seven for one that was going to make them a candidate. i talked to a portfolio trader who said the impetus behind the move to include apple was not anything app toll do at all. it was visa's four for one stock

split. visa is a, quote, unquote technology company. they're a technology company within the s&p. >> who should have been in? they can't because they haven't split. >> apple is hitting the sweet spots. when visa goes four for one. it goes from a near 150% waiting in the dow and 2.5% in the dow. that throws the technology skew off. they were going to put somebody else in there to bring the technical where it is now. they do it with apple. and it gets them to a technology waiting that is pretty much just where it was before apple or visa. >> i was surprised to see at&t kicked out as a result. why not ibm. >> david blitzer, the manager director of indexes said that one of the big concerns they had, it was a tough decision they said. given the size of verizon and given the size of at&t they felt as though they could have verizon and not be too

overweight tell come. >> >> it's the same. >> and at&t is a slightly smaller company than verizon. verizon can be in there. it has a higher waiting because of the share price and maintain the tel come presence without overwhelming it with at&t. that was the conversation. at least that's what he said when they had the decision to be made. >> who is still left to act on bullish feelings about apple. who has not already in that stock? i guess people that have to mirror the index. >> yeah. that's the real issue. people say there's going to be a bump because it's included in an index. there are not that many funds that benchmark the dow. >> i wonder if -- what if apple is not a tree that grows to the sky. they got to 780. where is now? 737? we'll talk about the watch a little bit later. i read the latest on what is in there. it does the same stuff of your phone only it's small. you have to have your phone with

you. it will count your steps and do your heart -- i don't -- what does it do that makes me want to put it on the wrist. >> i was not interested until i read the latest stuff. all of a sudden i thought maybe. >> because my iphone is in my purse if i can check it without digging in my purse. last week i couldn't answer. >> you have to carry a blackberry iphone but any woman has their phone stuck in their purse. it would be easier to put it in a wrist. >> you are making gender references about this. >> the first stories i covered when i joined the network is the release of the samsung watch. i got sent to times square. >> how many did they sell? >> they said go in there and do a minichannel check. how many are going to checking it out. how many people buying? i think we found five or six people within five hours that looked a the watch and none that bought it while i was there at the store. i don't know what the real difference is between the samsung watch product and the

apple other than the cash shea that apple brings. >> did you see the estimates anywhere from 5 million to 15 million. >> i've seen 30 million. >> yeah. i heard five to 30. >> a huge expectations for the watch is necessarily big to apple's market cap now. i think people don't think it is. i don't think people are going to think it's going to work. >> i think sent meant rise. it's going to be a home run or totally suck. >> any way -- is it going to be what does it? >> people are still buying macs aren't they? >> apti want a new one. >> i have the six. >> you can't get a decent workout with a six minute app. you can't get a decent smartphone. >> you can't get -- i'm, like how am i using an iphone 4. what does the 6 do that is different? longer battery. >> the finger thing on it.

>> that's the big thing. >> good. i use -- i can share that with the criminals the world. >> i use apple whenever i can now. it's so cool. >> your point, joe, is perfect lead into whether they need it to be a home run or not. >> an apple car? >> selling the phones and everything else. does it need to be a home run? >> $18 billion profit in a quarter, how do you do that quarter after quarter to justify 750 -- >> they've done it. >> i don't know. i just don't know. i don't know. i don't know i'm just a -- meanwhile you -- >> yeah. >> when you were on people's court did you ever make $47 million a year? >> judge judy man? >> did you suck at that? why did you leave that to come other here to talk about stocks? >> i thought the court thing was played out. >> that's good. >> i thought it was played out. >> you tell them whether

they're -- you call it like you see it. >> she's 74 years old. >> i thought i was getting -- >> she got a six year deal and 47 was what she used to make. she needed the equity kicker in there. she's great, though. >> she is great. she is great. >> so you to respect your competitors acknowledge them. i think personality. >> i was up there. where is doug? >> you know where doug is. rusty is no longer with us. >> he is dead? >> maybe. >> we don't know for sure. >> dom, are you leaving now? >> this was your first -- >> it was my first -- i got to go. i love -- >> good to have you here. >> i have to go to engelwood cliffs because i'm going to be back with you -- >> you came in to go back out? >> i'm going back. run hurry! traffic should be light right

now. >> are the roads paved after that po dunk? >> our home for 20 years? >> yeah. pretty nice in here. >> it is. >> you'll be here for the next -- >> going to hang out. >> good. good to see you. let's see you go. we played out the music already. we can't do it again. coming up it is the buzz story of the morning. outside the world of business hillary clinton has an event here in new york today. will she discuss her now infamous e-mail account? details are next. first, as we head to break, here is a look back at this date in history. ♪ building aircraft,

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welcome back to "squawk box." it's been one year since the missing flight. the big headline one of the plane's black boxes may not have been sending out an emergency signal underwater because of an expired battery. the report suggests the battery in the emergency beacon should have been replaced in december of 2012 more than a year before that flight took off. despite that crash the leading airline industry body said last year was, by many measures the safest in the history of commercial aviation.

more people died in air accidents in 2014 than the average in recent years, but the number of fatal accidents compared with the total number of flights was a record low. in political news hillary clinton has a public event in new york this morning and supporters and critics both waiting to see if she'll address why she exclusively used a personal e-mail acount as secretary of state. i can't tell whether it's twitter and the new world we live in this time or because -- this is, you know, even the used to be a right wing conspiracy. this is like a left wing conspiracy at this point. weird. and why the e-mails are stored at her home. do you have a server in your home? >> no. >> you? >> i do not. anyway and not at the state department. tracie potts is live on capitol hill with the latest developments. good morning. >> good morning.

she's actually got an event in new york this morning and another chance to address this. a lot of people are hoping that she will as you said democrats and republicans alike at this point pressuring her to get out there and say something beyond that one tweet to the state democrat to department to release the e-mails publicly. now given the fact she's the democrat's best bet for 200616 even they are pressuring her to speak up. it turns out hillary clinton is not the first secretary of state whose e-mails weren't stored by the government. >> i didn't have anything to turn over. i didn't have thousands of pages somewhere in my personal files. >> clinton's e-mails were kept on a server in her home. >> they would have been prime targets for cyber attacks. >> critics investigating the benghazi attack questioned whether anything was missing from the 55,000 pages she turned over. >> it's not up to secretary clinton to didecide what is a

public record. >> she hid the existence until she was caught. >> supporters are wondering for this could hurt a presidential bid. >> she needs to step up and come out and state exactly what the situation is. >> the silence is going to hurt her. >> i think that at the end of the day, people will -- this will be regarded as a light hiccup. a small bump in the row six months from now. >> all democrats aren't feeling that way. they want her to come out little more in detail. a little more forcefully an address this issue. president obama talked about it over the weekend. first, that we've heard from him directly. he said he's glad she tweeted to get the 55,000 pages of e-mails out there in the public so people can read them but again a lot of people are saying what she said so far seems to fall short. >> all right. thank you very much. tracie potts. when we come back this morning investors make decisions every day on wall street recommendations.

you might want to think twice after hearing our next story. disturbing new statistics on accuracy it when it comes to the calls. we'll talk about that next. first, as we head to a break take a look at s&p 500's winners and losers. e financial noise financial noise financial noise financial noise

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welcome back everybody. we're in the chairs this morning checking out the stories that caught our attention this morning. we know it's a little bit of a fool's era to try to predict the market. we know that some of the best investors we speak to on any given point will avoid doing that. i see what you're doing here. hold on. we know the best investors will -- >> he's jealous. that's why. >> that's exactly the job of the major forecasters on wall street. the market strategists. there are 22 that work for the major wall street firms. and you may expect that they're wrong sometimes. in fact the story makes it look worse. if you're following their advice you could be better off not. they talk about how on average the strategists forecasts for off by about 14.7 percentage points per year. they compare it to the blind

forecaster. that guy is not great either. but he's only off by 14.1%. >> that's the guy that every single person we interviewed said 9%. >> they said high single digits. the brainless idiot has been cloned again and again and again. we do have them on. we let them speak, and that's okay. you know, use the information the way you would like to use it. >> exactly. >> a wide range of opinions is not a bad thing. >> we know that jesse liver more the market tries to confound as many experts as it can and the only thing that work is try to go against -- there's not enough money for everyone to get rich. >> mike is here. i wonder what he thought. >> these are -- >> these are all south side guys. i think -- i don't think the

people actually pay for the research care about the s&p forecasts and i don't think the forecasters really relish doing it. i think it's more about -- a parlor game on the side which is make observations where you might or might not want to be. >> if you're playing along at home and you take it as gospel. it's not a great idea. >> you should focus on guys, you know, that have a 20-track record. every one of them will tell you that past performances it's barely an indicator of futures or barely an indicator. look at paulson, one year -- any of them. they have great years. they have average years. >> those guys are great over the long haul if you look at them. >> did you see warren's piece. he put $100 in and now -- >> $1.8 million. he has beat the s&p. in the last five years, he's

lagged the s&p in certain measures. >> and it's the first time it's happened in his career. >> the research analysts still move the market. on individual stocks. >> there are guys that move it- >> no, i mean, on individual stocks. >> there's no, you know, joe granville anymore no one like that. no more joseph cohen. they used to move the whole averages. >> if a research analyst says we're upgrading xyz stock. you'll see it up whatever percent. >> it's like sketchers paying you? >> when you got the call to come down here did you not know we're going to be sitting over here in the shares? >> show him your shoes. >> i don't care. >> those are like the bob craft you know relaxing. like, i get -- >> you have to be confident to pull that off. >> confident, i think you have to be clueless. look, these are -- >> look at those. i mean, really? >> at least they pretend to be

dress shoes. >> they just got off the may flower. >> those have white bottoms. you can't wear a suit with those. >> they're leather. >> are you playing -- what are those? >> i got a game of one on one after this before i go back to the show. >> i like them. >> you do? >> they're nice. >> i think he cool he wore them out here. >> i think he didn't know about the chairs. >> i have forgotten my shoes from time to time and had to wear my snow boots. >> you said it's relaxed. we're relaxed now. we're in the chairs. ? if you're wearing a suit skraktjacket you can get away with it. >> you wear a robe for all those years. >> that was the rule of cnbc no jackets. >> they make exceptions for former judges. >> i had a robe on for all the years. i feel naked. >> it's the only way you can

ding distinguish yourself. lance armstrong said that dopesing we know took place was ignored to shield him. big shocker. >> right. >> big shock by the industry and the governing bodies itself. not a big shocker, right? >> make anyone look good though? >> they did a study and for a long time they found out that the international cycling union their main focus was on growth of the sport. so obviously if you have your most visible person who is making an otherwise not very popular on tv sport especially in the united states more popular, you're going sort of turn a blind eye. >> yeah. worry about money and the way it undermines things right? that's why, you know, you've got to keep -- to this day pete rose is not in the hall of fame. i guess a lot of juice guys aren't going to be in there

either. i think juicing and steroids is much much. i guess you can't bet. >> he didn't bet against his own team. that's the distinction. you don't know. if you keep out -- i think he should be in because his talent is so. >> i think he should too. >> speaking of sports though. just quickly. we love symphony here but number one the rangers overtime? johnson comes back after six months. >> awesome! >> got a baby now and wins. and has more talent. and the masters, you know, is coming up in a couple of weeks. that guy can just hit it over everything basically. both of those guys. >> i was happy to see him win. >> and final four you see koilt kentucky. >> undefeated regular season and wisconsin what they did to ohio state. it's going to be a great -- >> are you picking your brackets? >> i watched northern iowa. i like that.

i'm trying to get an idea. go into it cold. it's hard to watch. >> it's hard to watch during the, you know, regular season. >> yeah. i know i'm probably not -- >> are you going with kentucky to win it all? >> i don't know. because they haven't lost at all but they're so good. wisconsin is pretty good. >> there have been a few undefeated teams that did not win. >> i watched ville nova play and i thought they might lose but they ended up winning. it's tournament week. we're told that our viewers don't like sports that much. >> ting depends on the viewer. it's a big day for apple. will a watch announcement be enough to excite investors? we're going to ask two tech watchers -- >> so to speak. >> exactly! >> it's time. >> it's time for apple. they said that earlier.

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welcome back. among the stories up front and center today dunkin' donuts wants to help you make it through the first workday after daylight savings goes into effect. it's tough. the chain is offering free iced coffee today saying that it will help you spring forward. if you are already leaning forward, this way you can or leaning in, this way you can lean forward. i'm so confused about where i'm going now. the leaning forward, springing forward? leaning in? >> stepping into the spring. >> can't you sit normally without being one way or the

other? >> no. sit up straight at least. the countdown is on. we're a few hours away from apple's next big product unveil. it's widely anticipated to be the apple watch and the spring forward event. will the ratest innovation change our world as much as the things that came before it? joinings now with their expectations is buzz feed news senior writer and jon jonathan geller. thank you for being here today. jonathan what do you think? >> it's apple watch. there's the unexpected potential of a macbook air refresh. and who knows there could be a tv or something else. this is going to be an event about the watch and it's going to break down exactly what we're going to get from it. the price, the release date, how you'll be able to buy it new features showing off developer showcases of, you know, different apps and things like that. it's going to be 85% focus order the watch. >> charlie, what do you think in terms of whether or not they can make watches something we want

need? >> i think, you know, other people have obviously done this the smart watches and it's not exactly new. when apple comes in you have to kind of change all your expectations. i think it's an unprecedented moment for apple. right now we're sitting here. we know what it sort of looks like, and sort of what it does. we have no idea how actually people are going to use it and, you know -- >> i've gone back and forth myself. at first i thought i didn't want one. recently i'm thinking it could be cool if i could use it and not have to have my phone on me. >> that's what it's supposed to be, i think, a way to control your iphone and managenotifications and check different apps and programs. the interface that is going to actually try to help you make you check your phone less. so, you know -- >> maybe a sneakier way to do it if you're in a meeting. >> do you think it will be a big hit? >> i think it will be an enormous thing for apple. looking at it -- forget smart

watches. apple is going into the watch industry. if you look at watch industry. anything $5,000 under gone. forget it. i think it's the big thing for apple. it's not just smart watches. it's not a big category. they're going into the watch. >> they want to be roll ex. >> potentially. >> that's how the headlines are being framed. i think that's what the journal -- >> we don't know. >> they want -- >> apple can't sell the volume at that price. you can't sell a watch made in china for $10,000. it's going to be interesting to see where they price it. my bet is the addition is the driver of revenue and profit for apple. going to make the most money off those and make the least of them. that's going to be the driver. >> you think it's e her jensen of 35% -- >> on the gold one it will be 1200% margin. we talk about $3 or $4 billion a

quarter. it's, you know, $16 billion a year in revenue. it's not bad for apple. >> one question i had what about a refresh cycle. a phone you have the phases every couple of years. watches they're supposed to last forever traditional swiss watches. are they going to go up in value? people hang on to them forever? >> it's interesting thing that is going to happen. maybe some people will say if you buy a $10,000 watch or however expensive you can trade it in and get the new model. it's not a luxury brand thing. you don't trade. >> would you spend $10,000 on the first edition? i don't like buying the first edition of anything. >> if it's a true luxury product it's a status symbol. >> that's a problem. when you trade it in you're not making $10,000 the next time. >> exactly. some people have said there might be -- and i don't think it will be the case a pure upgrade cycle. you pay that upfront and you can trade in and gate new one. there's the issue of how do you

swap out the gold? >> why would you buy the $10,000 if there's going to be a next generation $10,000 watch next year? that's a problem. >> looking from the lifestyle luxuries a spent. you buy a $10,000, you know, boots or a bag. for those types of purchases -- >> i don't. >>well, in that category. >> they're going make their money by selling the $349 version as much as they possibly can. even the psychology when it comes to a watch. who will buy a $300 to $400 watch and two years from now have to trade it in or get a new one? because of new technology or whatever. >> that's a great point. i think that's why the event is so important. it's going to signal their intent and how they'll break it down to consumers. you know, if thinking about cell phones in general, you know, this is a little bit before my time, but everyone was like i don't really need a cell phone back then. you didn't understand the use and the need.

now it's like, you can't live without it. >> apple has done that before. >> what about the apps? it comes down to the apps, too. how long will it take for app developers to get up to speed enough to make it worthwhile to get people to buy these things because there will be the app stores will be full of things to do on the watch. >> right now there's a lot of app developers that have complimentary apps ready to go. and apple had about 100 of them kind of just secret in a way in their labs working on this event to showcase some. we'll see that today. >> thank you for joining us. coming up one of the country's oldest public traded companies wants to rebrand itself. the ceo of dun and brad street joins us next. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 [ male announcer ] your love for trading never stops

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soo

. does business with 90% of the countries in the s&p 500 and checks the pulse of small businesses too. today the company is unveiling a new modernizization effort hoping to harness the massive amounts of data that flows through its business. and wall street seems to like what it sees. a turnaround of the company hoping to boost the shares of the company over the past year. doubled the last five or six years. joining us now is the ceo of dun & bradstreet.

we lived together day in and day out. hundreds of calls year in and year out, they were leads. that's a small part of your business back then. it's even smaller now, isn't it? >> it is. thanks for your business back then. >> thank you. i needed them. and you had to make 500 calls or so to get one client the way it worked out. talk about rejection. anyway, that's something i have to deal with not you. what is the new strategy that you've come up for dun & bradstreet? how do you monetize it? >> we've been doing big data before it was popular. i'm really excited. i've been at the intersection of technology and information for my entire career. we're at a perfect moment at dun & bradstreet. we're helping customers get a competitive advantage at a time when more decisions are being made in businesses through that data-driven lens. what we're focused on.

again, we do business with 90% of the fortune 500. we talk to customers all the time. and thaer trying to find new ways to drive data-driven insights not just here but globally. they want to improve their relationships and drive higher value relationships with customers, with partners with suppliers. and they want to do that through the strategic use of data. they want to be able to look around the corner to predict what's next to figure the most profitable segments. at dun & bradstreet we're focused on helping them and get the competitive advantage. the leads you talk about, you know, over the last century we've amassed a data base of 240 million businesses globally. we say we've mapped the global business landscape. so we provide that with all the analytics that sit on top of the data to help our customers make important business decisions. and we deliver that through modern technology.

through, you know, cloud-based software applications. very different from the dun & bradstreet. through applications, realtime, mobile. so that delivery of best in class data and analytics through modern technology is what we're all about. that's the strategy. >> how does the front end start? how do you get all the information from the companies? do they do surveys? >> this is actually the secret sauce. we have about 35,000 sources of information. about 12,000 of those, we get accounts receivable information. so we get real financial information about these businesses. nobody can touch that. you can't google it. it's very proprietary to us. and the remaining sources are a variety of signal and social data and other sources of data that all combined make a lot of predictiveness to make that stable. all organized in a single integrated view by each

customer. >> so how often do you totally revamp your -- i don't know. how do you analyze all your data? who do you use? is it outsourced? do you have to analyze the data? >> it's our data. >> but whose software to you use to figure it out? >> we've been in business for a long time. we have a lot of systems for this. our data base is updated 5 million times a day. so we have to rely on our data scientists and our data specialists to go through and make sure that it's the most accurate up-to-date and all the sources are contemporary and fresh. our customers are relying on us to make important decisions with this data. >> so who's your like don't go by name but who would it be? a retailer? who would want your information? >> just last week i was with a major retailer with thousands of stores. and they rely on our data to

keep track on all of the vendors that supply products to their shelves. right? because we monitor the health of those vendors. they rely heavily on those companies to deliver on time. manufacturers that have just in time inventory relying on components. we keep a beat on those suppliers. it could be a marketer as well. marketers are figuring who is the best. >> do you have an early read then, on the health of the economy in some respects by virtue of the data you're looking at? >> our data throws off signals about the health of the economy and for sure we have unique insights. >> how does it look? >> you know, the u.s. is looking good. small business is starting to look more promising. better access to capital. we're bullish on the u.s. economy. >> we appreciate it. thanks for bringing us all this info about dun & bradstreet. still get a chill when i hear

that name. thank you. coming back we have more on today's top stories. plus could america be overthrown in its title? there are new set to take the title in the shopping destination. stick around. we'll have the details. can it make a dentist appointment when my teeth are ready? ♪ ♪ can it tell the doctor how long you have to wear this thing? ♪ ♪ can it tell the flight attendant to please not wake me this time?

♪ ♪ the answer is yes, it can. so, the question your customers are really asking is can your business deliver?

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the bulls running for cover. more jobs bring more fears of a rate hike and it may take more than apple and its next gadget to push it higher. plus crude realities? another oil retreat is coming. how low could it go this time? and tweets likes, and clicks. corporate america diving head first into social media. but does it really lead to more

sales or is it just social disruption? the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now. welcome back to "squawk box," everyone. i'm becky quick along with joe kerner and scott wapner. what could prince ali be snapchatting about? does the saudi prince want a piece of this app and its already eye-popping valuation. we'll have more on that later in the show. general motors expected to announce an expanded stock buyback this morning. according to our own phil lebeau, that should avoid a proxy fight with activist investor harry wilson who has been calling on gm to return more cash to shareholders. gasoline prices jumping 21 cents

per gallon over the past two weeks. that's according to the latest lundberg survey. the latest price is at $2.54 per gallon. and mcdonald's set to release its february sales in less than one hour. looking for a global comp store sales drop of .8%. the nation's three biggest credit reporting agencies are planning a massive overhaul. the broadest change in more than a decade. the agreement is set to be announced today with new york's attorney general. "the wall street journal" reports that they will change trained employees to review information the consumers submit when they believe there is an error in the files. i don't know if any of you have ever tried to deal with these people. >> before they didn't have to have a human or they didn't have to have a trained human?

uktd complain that this was a mistake and they didn't have to have anybody that knew what they were talking about? >> when you hear the customer is always right. their customers are people are people that want to screw you. it's not you the consumer. they are the impunity with which they operate with people they're reporting on is maybe -- >> it's criminal. >> it is. >> i'm glad to see the agency involved. >> that's the industry you notice more than any other. you almost say you know elizabeth warren come help me. i think they're training human but mostly obnoxious humans. a call on oil this morning. goldman sachs says the prices will reverse recent gains with wti dropping to nearly $40 in the near term. main reason global inventories are increasing again. it makes many worry if the hedge funds will continue loving all

of the stocks they've been loving recently. also sees brent prices coming under pressure. after the dow tumbling currently the futures this morning are indicating more of the same. at least down just -- what is that? 13 points on the dow. down 3 on the s&p. and the nasdaq once it got over 5,000, kind of scary it was unable to hold it and hasn't been doing well since. here now with us on the set is phil orlando, chief equities analyst and still with us our guest host steve antoli. are you buying this every day? you don't care? >> the jobs report i think, was really strong in terms of how light the february weather was. i think what the expectation is now is the fed is going to take the word patient out and we begin to get the rate hike in

the june meeting. so our view has been that the market would have this sort of negative knee jerk reaction much like the market did with the fed and bernanke in the spring of '13. we've been playing for a bit of a pullback here. maybe 5% or so. our models pulled into at 64% which is probably the lowest it's been in a number of years. we are looking for a little bit of a correction. and with that correction let's call it 5% give or take that's the point we think we're going to put more money to work. >> obviously rates are so low right now, scott made the point earlier, up 30%. it's a big number. >> like five weeks, i think. >> up 30%. >> i know. 30% from nowhere. but still. >> i'm starting to wonder now. i think 3% 5% none of those things in an economy seems like they would hold -- i don't think people would stop borrowing. but what scares me, though and what the market gets scared

about, we're already at 1.08 on the euro and haven't raised at all yet. and you've seen this last reporting period some of the multinationals. that's real money that they don't make at 1.08 because the dollar's so strong. if they're doing qe there and we raise rates, that raises concerns. >> our best guess is that dollar euro is going to parody over this year. the impact we've started to see in terms of currency head winds, currency translation losses et cetera we think is probably going to continue. so at the margin it should begin to have some negative impact on earnings. now, the relationship between stock prices and currency historically is a positive one. as the dollar continues to strengthen, stock prices ought to continue to do okay. and we're right there. >> but mike the domestic consumer becomes even more

important than before if we're not exporting. are they ready to -- >> i actually think they're ready, but i wonder if it's already reflected in terms of the market. >> is she ready? i've adopted that retailers -- they've told us that. in my household, i don't think i've spent money in years. >> i think it makes all kinds of sense for them to continue. but i also think it makes sense for the real economy to outperform the markets for awhile. we've had years of the reverse. i don't think the market can't happened l higher rates but it's been nine years. we simply don't know how much of what we've seen in terms of market appreciation has been because the fed has been unambiguously important. by the time the fed raises rates, it's going to be expected. but on the way there we have honest and smart people arguing about june september. that's where the market is going to be. >> fwrids though is a good example of despite what people say, i don't think the market is at all ready for the realization

that the game becomes a little more difficult once the fed starts raises rates. it's no longer expectations of put money in the market. it's going to go up 30% or 20%. now you have to be more selective in the kinds of stocks you're picking. the overall environment is different. you have to make decisions whether you're here or europe. >> and stocks and bonds down together is the thing that we've seen for the last couple -- that's the thing i don't think people are quite geared up for. they're not used to that idea. >> is there any way that if we were to -- let's say we have two or three of those days on friday. the fed in the past it seemed like they had gotten cold feet. they do watch what happens in the stock market. and the taper tantrum, whatever it was. like, do they have the nerve to follow through on what they need to do even if it gets a little dicey? >> they absolutely have the nerve to follow through. but they also have the justification to move to june or september if they want to. >> they're going to get criticized. "the new york times," please do not raise rates. what are you thinking?

do not raise rates. i think until we get to 2% unemployment. >> buffett himself has said not ready to raise rates. kat caterpillar, don't raise rates. >> these are all guy with skin in the game. >> right. >> the people that worry about it, that worry about the possible dislocations and money going where it shouldn't where it's just too easy it's going too far out the risk curve and we're going to repeat something in the past those cries are getting louder. sooner or later -- >> people are worried about a bubble in the corporate bond market as a result to that. borrowing money at nothing and then doing the financial engineering whether it's buybacks or dividends and whether you're going to have a problem in that part of the market. >> the fed's mind-set right now with the hike i think is very similar to bernanke with the taper back in '13. that he could have easily had justification for moving them to 14. but he wanted to get that ball

rolling while he was still in office. >> he had the deadline of i'm not going to be here. >> absolutely. so i want to get the first one done and let yellen follow through. i think yellen would like the first hike in this june or september. we think it's a quarter point, wait a meeting, see how the market does. >> if the markets drop that's the time to buy because it's going to be awhile? >> exactly. it's not the death nail for the economy or the markets. but the market will probably be down 5% between now and then. that's an opportunity to start to nibble. >> yeah. more concerned with apple going into the dow. up 8,000%. what are the chances it doubles from here? >> why do you need it to double? >> i need it to go up. i mean i need it to go above $507 billion. >> if you run an index about reflecting the market and economy, you don't care -- >> why is cisco in the dow? >> extremely important company. >> $600 billion at one point.

what else got up there? don't name them because it's all bad. every one that you mention. anyway, we'll see. >> forget about citi until you brought that up. >> aig. >> it's the kiss of death. >> it is the kiss of death. >> "sports illustrated" cover. >> it is. >> three years after being added to the dow, microsoft was done 43%. intel down 50%. >> they're infallible. >> apple's going to change that don't you think? >> no. i don't. >> travelers. they had a grasp for a financial and travelers when they -- they've done great since then. >> it has done very well. >> all right. >> thank you, phil. >> thank you. deal news this morning. alcoa buying rti national metals. it's an all-stock transaction. coming up attention mall rats. there's a new set of stores on

track to become the newest megamall. >> with those shoes you can go walk the malls with those shoes with all of your friends. >> absolutely comfortable. be chic in the city. >> but those look like mall wac walkers or you're a nurse's aide. >> that is not what the shoes look like. >> it is. like in "meet the fockers." >> they're black with a white stripe. you missed it check out earlier. scott has different shoes on today. let's see. >> going to work out in the mall. it's getting nice outside. you can walk outside. you don't need those. >> are you finished? >> yeah. that story is next. then i forgot what was next. later the building long known as the sears tower in chicago may have a new owner. the deal on the price tag are still ahead.

e financial noise financial noise financial noise financial noise

now with the xfinity tv go app, you can watch live tv anytime. it's never been easier with so many networks all in one place. get live tv whenever you want. the xfinity tv go app. now with live tv on the go. enjoy over wifi or on verizon wireless 4g lte. plus enjoy special savings when you purchase any new verizon wireless smartphone or tablet from comcast. visit comcast.com/wireless to learn more. welcome back to "squawk box." among the stories front and center, florida's northwestern miami-dade county could soon be a home to the nation's biggest mall. there you go again, scott. you'll be walking that one. the miami herald -- it's warm down there, though. the miami herald reports triple

5 wants to create the mall. they opened the mall of america in 1992. the new mall would be named american dream miami. it's a $4 billion entertainment and shopping complex. among the attractions it will include an artificial ski slope, a lake with submarine rides a legoland park a sea lion show indoor gardens, and miniature golf. >> wow. >> you know what that sounds like with the ski slope thing? is that disaster out by the meadowlands. >> i haven't been out to that thing. >> it's never even opened. >> i forget the name of the place. >> so do i. probably better off that way. the city of miami beach is celebrating its 100th anniversary on march 26. the sencentennial celebration will have gloria estefan, andre bocelli, and many more.

joining us now is miami beach mayor phillip levine. thank you for joining us today. >> thank you. >> a hundred years coming up. getting the city together, the city has changed drastically. what is the city about today? >> i think our city today is more about being a center for creative collaboration. everybody in the world is coming. quality of life tax reasons, and culture and arts. >> we have a lot of guest hosts who are spending some time on real estate in miami. particularly some of the hotels that come through like a barry sternlicht richard lafrac. is that mostly u.s. tourism these days or international tourism? >> it's from all over the world. it's amazing about miami beach. in south america, they're coming. they're coming from new york. we're like the sixth borough of new york. and of course the europeans are coming in droves. >> what does that do with the stronger dollar? has that changed the situation yet just in terms of how attractive this market may be

for somebody coming from overseas? >> we don't experience a difference yet. what's interesting about miami beach is the fact it's location. everybody wants to com. if the europeans feel the euro is weaker we're going to get many more new yorkers. we're in a perfect location. we're attracting everyone in the world for all different reasons. >> i know you were very successful before you were mayor in private industry. you created onboard media which is media for cruise lines that come through. this is a company you eventually sold. >> yes. >> when you come from a business background and you come into city government like that what kind of changes do you want to see? what kind of things can you do? >> it's all about getting it done. and i think we need more people who go into politics leadership who have had a job prior. i think having some experience doing something whether you're a nurse, attorney architect, you've actually have a job. then go into leadership. it's about being effective and getting things down. in miami beach we get things

done. >> like what? go ahead. >> can you quantify yet? maybe it's been long enough from lebron in miami and the beatle-like atmosphere in the city to now not having him. do you quantify the loss of business in any way, shape, or form? >> who is lebron? you mentioned that gentleman, i've heard of him before. miami has a history of doing amazing things bringing amazing people. it's always going to be that way. of course i'm a big heat fan. so i think that one person does not make a city. we have plenty of lebrons. >> it obviously had a big impact. he was a big draw in the city. they went deep into the summer in terms of playing. that was obviously a revenue draw as well. dropoff or no? >> no we've seen nothing whatsoever. as a matter of fact, our city is booming. it's booming on many fronts as you can imagine. we have a phrase getting sand in your shoes. people come to miami beach, they

love it. they either buy a home or continue to visit. >> what are some of the initiatives you've undertaken? >> a few different things. number one, of course is transportation. number two, we are moving forward with a great convention center. we will be renovating it for $500 million. those types of shows are who we're trying to attract. >> you've said in the past you're not interested in being another las vegas. that you don't want to be for these massive conventions. >> we're not orlando. we're not atlanta. we want to maintain our boutique destination. we have an area north beach exploding with great growth. we brought in a fabulous police chief. he trained here for 24 years under bill bratton. we've made remarkable changes. one of the big areas for us is getting involved with sea level rise. we've had some flooding on our streets at certain times of the year. we aggressively attacked it. >> how? putting up higher seawalls? >> that was just one area.

we're putting in pumps across our city. of course it's been very effective. it's important we take a proactive measure on it. >> all right. biggest challenge you're facing right now? >> i think controlled growth and getting ready for our 26th concert. 100 years of miami beach. >> thank you very much. >> going to see trump while you're here? >> i don't think so. >> you didn't like that tournament? he did a lot with doral, didn't he? >> miami beach is separate. not that mr. trump. >> you know jason. >> i do. who doesn't? >> you were in his wedding. >> i was a groomsman. coming up a private equity powerhouse wants a tall piece of chicago. that's next. plus why are these men running with women over their shoulders? an explanation you won't believe but we're going to tell you about it next. can it make a dentist appointment when my teeth are ready? ♪ ♪

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tigers? don't be modest. i see how you've been investing. setting long term goals. diversifying. dip! you got our attention. we did? of course. you're type e* well, i have been researching retirement strategies. well that's what type e*s do. welcome home. taking control of your retirement? e*trade gives you the tools and resources to get it right. are you type e*? welcome back to "squawk box," everyone. "the wall street journal" reports that blackstone is near a deal to buy the former sears tower for $1.5 billion. the purchase of willis tower would set a chicago record. willis is the country's

secondalest skyscraper. i forgot they changed it from sears tower. check this out. an american couple crowned champions at the eighth annual uk wife carrying championship. according to legend the sport comes from a scandinavian tradition where raiders needed to be swift on their feet while stealing women from neighboring villages. >> really trying to create it. the women should be beating them. >> the wife theft is not condoned, it has been welcomed as a purely competitive high jinks. they race over more than 1200 feet. presented to you without comment. why don't you make some kind of joke? >> i'm not saying anything. >> nothing? >> nothing. >> not all wives are created equal, as you know. >> moving on. >> it just might be easier for

certain couples to compete. just a fact of life. but i'm not going to say anything else. >> good idea. >> yeah. done. >> awkward. coming up what was prince ali snapchatting about? we'll find out. and corporate america and celebrities have bought into social media big time. but does it pay off in sales? so tweet all you want. someone is listening. as we head to break, look at futures. how is monday looking? not so great, not so bad either yet. dow jones down about 9 points. nasdaq looks positive. we're back after this.

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welcome back to "squawk box," everyone. let's get to some of today's top stories. first up senate majority leader mitch mcconnell says that congress will act in time to raise the nation's debt limit. but he told "face the nation" the process will happen over

several months. goldman sachs says oil will drop to $40 a barrel. two-thirds of economists think the fed will raise rates in the second half of this year. but a report also shows many think the fed will remain on hold until next year. breaking news from gm. let's get more details now from phil lebeau who joins us on the squawk newsline. i hope we got a clear signal. you're in europe huh? >> i am. but i have the news regarding general motors. the company announcing that they have essentially worked out a deal with terry wilson who was vying to become a board of directors. representing a group of investment firms. here's the agreement. $5 billion immediate share repurchase being done by general motors.

at the same time the company is committed to maintaining a cash balance of at least $20 billion and an investment rate balance sheet. all available free cash flow on the future. above $20 billion will be returned to investors. unclear if that will be happening through share repurchase or through a dividend. but that is a commitment from general motors as long as they have $20 billion free cash flow will be returned to investors and continuing targeting a 20% or higher return on invested capital. guys, remember. as part of the push by harry wilson to join the gm board which by the way is part of this agreement, he will no longer be nominating himself for the gm board, initially harry wilson and the investment funds all said we think gm should replace $20 billion -- [ audio breaking up ]

and when you add in the increased dividend that's another $5 billion. so essentially general motors is committing to returning about $10 billion to investors. and the news this morning is the company will immediately begin a $5 billion share repurchase and harry wilson will give up the bid to join the general motors board of directors. guys, back to you. >> okay, phil. you were breaking up a little bit. i don't know how to think about this. we're at 17 18 million cars a year. but with tesla and the future of detroit, i don't think it's necessarily a lock. if you need to get the stock up design some new cars. you know get that impulse buyback. i don't know if it's all about financial engineering. >> what do you do if you show up at the door like this?

>> i don't know. that's where you wonder about the benefit of -- phil remember? ford was the only one that was conservative. >> well, that's true joe. but remember ford had the benefit of leveraging everything before the financial crisis locked up. >> so we learned nothing? >> no. that's good timing. and we know you have to have what they call a fortress balance sheet. general motors believes even in a downturn, when it comes, they've got two things going for them. a commitment to have at least $20 billion of cash on hand. and they are also costwise they can at least break even if the market totally bottoms out. nobody's expecting that to happen. then again, nobody expected that to happen back in 2008. but gm believes that it is strong enough now with an investment grade balance sheet of at least $20 billion in cash

that it can withstand the next downturn. >> okay. all right. where are you, phil? europe's a big place. i know they want us to think of it as just one place now. >> i am in germany. i am in germany, joe. you will hear from me on thursday with an exclusive cnbc interview with the head of volkswagen. you will not want to miss that. >> no. you're right. thanks, phil. today is only monday. he gets these gigs where he's over there, not doing anything until thursday. >> he's working all the time. >> well bang for your buck over there. phil's not stupid. >> you're living large, phil. >> you're getting no chocolates. the countdown is on to apple's spring forward event. josh lipton is already ready for the watch and anything else apple plans to roll out today. josh, what are you thinking so far? >> well today actually right at

this convention center behind me investors expect to hear more about apple watch and whether the tech giant is more bradoadly able to get consumers excited. the base model we know that's going to go for 349 bucks. but other versions including the gold edition, we're still waiting for details. also a battery life is big issue. how often will you have to charge this device? working on features to allow the watch to work on low energy and display just the time. but in addition to the hardware what's really going to make this different than the competition are the apps. apple has a very deep bench of developers. they earn $10 billion in 2014. now you have to see them step up and deliver creative innovative apps. today they could showcase some of those apps for everything from health to e-commerce. of course, apple is going to be competing here in a crowded market for smart watches. you've got rivals from motorola

to lg. but so far consumers haven't shown actually a lot of excitement about this category still expectations high as we kick off this event. investors have sent that stock soaring about 70% in the past 12 months. we're going to be here all day covering the event and bringing you headlines as they cross. back to you. >> okay. josh thanks so much. fed talk is certainly ruling the markets aside from apple. jeffrey lacquer saying june looks like a good time. joining us now is drew mattis with uvs. guest host mike santoli with us as well. welcome. they going to move in june or what? >> ubs thinks they'll move in

june. we've thought that for awhile. >> what's your view? >> my view is they're going to move in june. >> we hold you do it. >> what would push it to semz or later? >> what would push it to september or later would be some sort of disruptive movement something that really gets them scared. >> are they getting a whiff of that? >> they're seeing an orderly adjustment of people's expectations. when you pull forward a rate hike, people are getting nervous, they shouldn't. if the fed's hiking rates, there's a perception that the fed hikes rates to hurt the economy. the fed hikes rates to prolong the economic cycle which is typically good. >> look, i think most people might think, okay fed's here too long. it's about time they get out. a sign the economy can sit on its own two feet.

doing well enough it doesn't need what it is getting at this point. >> balanced against that it's been nine years since a rate hike. and people have muscle memory they can always default that e the fed was going to be there. would be interested to hear there's a line that's building now. within the fed we felt like one of the mistakes was the fed was too predictable in the rate hike cycle. maybe they want to keep the markets once they begin this rate hike program a little bit more offbalance. do you think that's one of their agenda items. >> it might be. but let's think about this. everybody they're targeting trends. if you're going to respond to things that are trending you trend in response. ubs' view and my view is they'll hike on a consistent basis. not necessarily because they want to but everything they're targeting trends. and when rate hikes go up we expect some things will happen. we expect consumer confidence will rise. right? >> why? because we think rate hikes mean that the fed thinks things are great with the economy and we

therefore feel it? >> we talked about the lack of enflags in the u.s. economy. the same thing with cap-x expenditures. you don't make decisions at zero. you know three months from now you can get the same financing you got three months before. you keep waiting for perfect information. our view is that cap-x will expand, consumer spending will expand and the fed will be hiking rates and things will accelerate. >> do you think the stronger dollar rates going up faster than some people are expecting is going to be a negative? and a big negative? i mean it already -- the dollar is having an impact. we all know from earnings. isn't that going to continue? >> i think usually those concerns tend to be overstated. the second point i make is that it doesn't matter if the fed's hiking rates or other central banks are cutting them. in some ways the dollar's going to appreciate most likely.

independent of what the fed does. they're not in total control of the rate differentials there. >> how quickly could we be surprised about wages starting to go up because we miscalculated the slack in the labor force? >> well the problem with wages tend to be that they do nothing, they do nothing, they do nothing, then they jump. >> some people say we're there. >> we're almost there. if you look at it there's a long period of flatness then a straight line up. we're at he intersection of those two lines now. i'm jurysure janet yellen thinks if i wait one meeting too long, we're going to be behind the curve. that raises the question of the balance sheet. >> the dual mandate is crazy enough to think you're smart enough to do both. but once you get to 5.5% i would think i've done what i can do for employment. now i've got to make sure to do

the price stability. that's what's on the horizon. everything's fine. >> the fed's own model show what energy prices have done in the last eight months is this accelerant to the economy. are they waiting for something like that? a big pickup to kick in? >> of course. they're a positive for the u.s. economy. that's been one of the struggles we've had communicating that this is a positive. which is an odd situation to be in. people fought back against it this cycle. the fed's trying to ratchet those expectations to we think this is happening in a normal way. good for the consumer and economy. >> thanks. >> thank you. coming up buying into the social network. does a big digital footprint translate into bigger sales? and fame. we have a member of the audience

ready to make the case. and what does prince ali snapchat about? find out when "squawk box" comes right back.

welcome back to "squawk " everyone. we've been watching the futures this morning. after the big declines we saw on friday, not much bounceback today. just about none. you can look now. things are relatively flat ahead of the open. prince ali al-waleed has been snapchating. the meeting covered topics from economic issues and a potential business cooperation with the holding company. snapchat is in a new round of funding that would value at company at $19 billion. the harvard business review took a look at social media concluding an active presence doesn't necessarily lead to more consumer dollars for those companies. here to tell us why that's wrong is the man behind the curtain. oliver luck is founder of the

audience. it's great to see you. >> thanks for having me. >> who's going to take notes? >> i've been tweeting him since early this morning because i need notes on this. >> is there any way that the eventual promise of monetizing this information is below expectations? >> look i think that there are two things happening. i think there are people that understand the value and are doing enormously well. people in the concert space, people in the music space that have you know really music artists at the end of their rope. so building those direct connections meant something very valuable. >> they had nowhere else to go. >> but they've now generating millions of dollars in ticket sales directly. and i've witnessed it as it's happened. but what happens is when you're coming from other forms of media like television, there's not a respect there. >> did you read the michael wolf

piece last week? >> yes. >> did you disagree with that? >> i disagreed because i'm seeing the data. if you're selling a movie and want to reach millennials, it's not the place to go on tv. >> get your head out of the computer, off of that screen. >> it's on a phone. >> it is. >> it's in their pocket every minute and they're addicted to it. >> i didn't realize how evident this was until a week ago. i've been going back and forth with a football coach who i can't get him to come any other way other than going through direct message on twitter because that's where all of his recruits are. >> that's exactly right so he's being smart because he's on the platform. you fish where the fish are. there's no reason that you should be trying to redirect people to these other platforms when they're sitting there waiting for you to communicate with them. >> although communicating the right way is important too. >> of course.

because you have to provide value to the system. you've got to provide decent content. you can't just be marketing on these platforms. so anyone that goes into these platforms with the agenda that i'm going to market to them and tell them something is cool just give them the content. let memthem be the voice of your brand or whatever you're trying to get them to do. and so companies that do it well embrace it and add value to the system. >> who's the company? it's harder to think of -- the charmin guy is pretty funny on twitter. >> that's where people have fun with the brand and it takes consistency consistency. the brilliance of these platforms is you can create a story or find a story and then match it directly with the people that it matters to. right? i mean right now we just started representing the bitcoin foundation which i think is something relevant to this audience. people don't understand bitcoin at a first level. right? but then they don't understand

that there's an entire economy of people that could be benefitted by this. so you can go into social media right now and say i'd like to find all the people that were born in the philippines that now live in america and tell them a story directly. think about how hard that would be on television or radio. right? but instead i can go and generate a story and then go directly to those people in their feed on their phones on any medium i want to reach them. that's extraordinarily efficient. right? that's extraordinarily efficient. so that's really the heart of the way we look at things right? we sell concert tickets to the people that it matters to. we sell movies to the people that it matters to. i always use this joke. it's like i will never make a conscious decision to buy a woman's feminine hygiene product. but i see those ads every day. >> you have the wrong search set up then. >> but i see those ads on tv i hear them on the radio.

that's totally wasted dollars to me. right? because i can guarantee you if i'm making that decision i'm being told what to buy. >> right. >> how fast are you guys growing? >> we're growing very fast. we now represent over 6,000 artists. so we can literally activate the network and reach over a billion people simultaneously. so it's incredible. >> i've seen statistics that say when you're tweeting something you're only reaching 1% to 2% of your followers. >> that's true. the way to get over that is by connecting the dots. so like this morning we were talking with your producers. i was like why don't i have a call sheet? why don't i know the five guests that would be on this show so i can tweet at them and start a separate conversation and that can carry on past the broadcast? right? and i can be taking content about the companies you're talking about and taking graphics about it. if you remember the amazing graphic during the obama

campaign, it was red and blue about the jobless rate. those keep getting used. we generated that originally and it got republished thousands of times. so that's someone telling their message in their form and putting it out there in the world so other people can use it. so it's really controlling your destiny in that effect. and so that's what we're trying to work with people to understand. and some people really get it. the younger people really get it, right? i mean we represent now as i mentioned over 6,000 of these kids. like take these kids jack and jack. i'm going to be speaking at south by southwest next week and they asked me to bring them on. these kids are a phenomenon. they've sold over a million records. nobody talks about success in the music business. they've sold over a million records directly in six months. they have no record label. they have gone -- they've sold out now 19 cities on a tour. it's completely sold out. if they showed up right now, there'd be a thousand kids out here and they really -- they went on "the view" last week

but they've never been on any other form of media except vine or the internet. but they're real phenomena. you will see a mass riot behind us with them. >> how does twitter grow its monthly active users? >> i see twitter growing, right? in certain segments. i think it's just relevance. twitter is improving its product. vine was a big step in the right direction. it's also getting an ecosystem. right? twitter is smart because the way that they -- they have both direct sales of ads to people. but they also have this product called amplify. if you were talking about something and had a 30-second clip and it had context, let's say it was talking about walmart, right? and so there's a group of people that that matters to. so then on twitter what you can do is any time someone mentions walmart or that specific moment then you can deliver that content to them. a brand pays for that. so what it's doing is it's feeding the ecosystem.

what doesn't work is when people have parasitic behavior where they go into a system and say come to my website and try to haul people back. that's marketing your marketing. so you look at somebody like twitter, they just need more people creating content in the platform with a reward structure around it. and so i'm very bullish on twitter. i'm very bullish on snapchat. it's unbelievable. they can reach 30 million people with the push of a button in a 24-hour period. it's amazing. so being on all of those, we always say you bigu ubiquity is the next exclusivity. >> i need a facebook. >> your audience is on facebook. >> i don't know. >> your audience absolutely is. >> can you hang out for awhile? stay here. i need to talk to you on break. >> thank you. >> thank you. coming up, mcdonald's sales numbers about to cross. check out shares of general motors after the automaker

announced the $5 billion buy buyback. "squawk" back in a moment.

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we want to thank mike santoli. he's been patient enough to be with us the past few hours. we'll see you again soon. when we come back this morning, it will take more than a 300-point sellout to scare jeremy siegel. the master will tell us why he thinks this rally will keep going. and by the way, apple, you know they're getting ready to make a

fashion statement. but will everyone wear an apple watch this summer? we'll talk about that when "squawk box" returns. every day, our teams collaborate around the world to actively uncover, discuss and debate investment opportunities. which leads to better decisions for our clients. it's a uniquely collaborative approach you won't find anywhere else. put our global active management expertise to work for you. mfs. there is no expertise without collaboration. can it make a dentist appointment when my teeth are ready? ♪ ♪ can it tell the doctor how long you have to wear this thing? ♪ ♪ can it tell the flight attendant to please not wake me this time? ♪ ♪ the answer is yes, it can. so, the question your customers are really asking is can your business deliver?

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at ally bank no branches equals great rates. it's a fact. kind of like mute buttons equal danger. ...that sound good? not being on this phone call sounds good. it's not muted. was that you jason? it was geoffrey! it was jason. it could've been brenda. market fears bubbling up. >> bubble bubble boil and trouble.

>> worries about a sooner than expected rate hike strikes fears into the bulls, but not the professor. jeremy siegel tells us why he thinks the bulls will march on. plus order up for mcdonald's. the world's largest fast food chain rolling out february sales. can the big mac turn around the slumping sales trend? and gadget or fashion statement? apple about to spring forward with a watch. will this be another game changer for the soon to be dow component or a major flop? the time is ticking. >> you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc from the best city, new york city. let's go rangers. that was pretty cool.

lundqvist. >> right. >> at least he's not a great goalie and great looking. did you see that guy? >> he probably wears shoes like this. >> no. he wouldn't be caught dead in those things. welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc first in business worldwide. andrew is off today. mcdonald's is down. i saw it trading down in the 94s briefly. but now i see it has rebounded a little. 95.31. it closed at 97.13. hopefully we'll get a chart here. it is down about 1.63%. you wonder if it sold out. you'll have the kitchen sink stuff, though you can't do it with comp store sales. >> you're not throwing anything in. >> this is bad. all right. down 4% in the u.s. and the estimate was down .7%. i think global was down what? 1.7% and the estimate was down -- >> doubled the estimates to the

downside. >> down 0.8%. europe was supposed to be down .1%. let's see. >> europe was down 0.7%. even worse than the 4.1%. >> i see here europe was actually up. >> you're right. i'm sorry. >> up .7%. >> i think the most interesting thing is a comment from mcdonald's. they say consumer needs and preferences have changed. so does that tell you that in their mind they think this a structural issue? >> yes. because they say mcdonald's u.s. began march with a turnaround summit designed to deliver new around the restaurant experience that matters most to customers. relevant high quality food and beverage offerings compelling value and outstanding service. >> its goal is to reassert itself as a modern progressive

burger company. progressive -- >> does it really say that? >> progressive, i guess it's going to be tofu burgers. i think that's the only thing progressive. >> how long is it going to turn that massive ship around? are they saying now they want to be shake shack or smash burger? >> this is interesting. systemwide sales down 8%. up .5% in constant currency. you're talking about 8.5 points based on currency. >> that makes it sound like it's all -- >> no. same store sales. >> they are addressing this. the other thing they say is in apnea that the decline of 4.4% was due to the broad based consumer perception issues in japan which sounds like japan has serious sales problems. >> europe sales down 14.6%. up 3.3% constant currency.

apmea down. the company did say aggressive competitive activity in the united states is why u.s. comp store sales are down 4%. but, look. 95 $95.86 is flat. we'll see where it is at end of the session. >> last week you got -- i don't know what the firm it was. but somebody upgraded mcdonald's last week to a buy. i mean the stock got what? back up to a hundred bucks. you had some people bailing on it then some people defending it because of the obvious brand equity that mcdonald's has. but can they really turn the story around fast enough to make a difference? >> do you remember the unfortunate occurrences in the board room or in the ceo suite back in the '90s? it got to 12. remember it got to 12 when they had a couple of tragic situations?

that was the time obviously to buy it. i don't know what you do with it at $95. it's a very pc world. you saw the kid wrote to michelle obama, you ruined taco tuesdays. did you see that? >> no i didn't see that. >> they had some horrific meal now. but an 8-year-old kid wrote them that. then she sent him something and signed it. and then he was okay with it. bought and paid for now. but it is tough to sell to this whole zeitgeist of mcdonald's food. >> we were on the road yesterday and got a happy meal. i will say, my sun doesn't even like frenkch fries and he went with the yogurt and apple instead of french fries. >> we like mcdonald's. you do? >> yeah. absolutely. the dow is coming off its worst close in more than a month. down almost 300 points on friday after some market concerns about a potential rate hike coming

sooner than expected. joining us to tell if dow 20,000 is still in the cards, jeremy siegel. he is finance professor at wharton's school of business. thank you for joining us today. >> i'm happy to be here, becky. >> all right. you have been positive on stocks for a very long time. you've been right for a very long time. but do you think this trend continues because we are looking at six years to the day off of those low levels that were set at 666. >> yeah. and there's no question that on a historical basis the price earnings ratio is above that historical average. the reason i'm not bearish is that interest rates are so low and even with the fed maybe tightening in june maybe september, they are going to be -- remain well below their average for many many years. and that's a very very important consideration valuation in the market. i think we're within 10% of what

i consider fair market value. and that doesn't mean -- it means it may not get there in ten months. by december it may get there, but i would not just look at the historical pe and say, wow, the market is overvalued. you must value stocks. in fact, all assets relative to interest rates and what else is available in the financial markets. >> jeremy if we were at 20,000 today, what would you be telling people? would that concern you? >> my feeling is is 20,000 is what i call fair market value. now, we're within 10% of that so you could -- you know will it get there by december or not? perhaps. when you're so close, it was easy for me to be bullish in 2009 '10, '101. as we get closer you're not

going to have that certainty. but just taking a look at even with modest earning gains, 4% 5% a dividend yield of 2% i still think at today's levels you're going to get 6% 7% return in the market compared to 0 to 2 in your bank account versus long bonds. that's still a very very attractive margin for investors. so i would not advocate to start tilting away for stocks and moving into alternative assets. i don't see any there that i find more attractive than stocks at the current time. >> maybe it's time just to take a little break. i don't know. you say we're within 10% of dow 20,000. maybe we end up 15% from dow 20,000 or 20% with the fed hikes in june and people aren't ready for it. >> that's right. and when i look at the futures market i don't think they are ready for a hike in june. we're going to have to wait and see on that. so could there be a correction? we haven't had a correction for

so many years. most certainly i mentioned that even at the end of last year that although i thought 2015 was going to be good, i certainly wouldn't be surprised to see a correction in the next three months that brings the market maybe down 5% to 10%. again, it's almost impossible to be certain about when a correction is going to happen. >> but are you forecasting in your own mind that it's coming in june? it sounds like you're hopeful it's september at the earliest. >> oh, absolutely. i personally think it would be premature in june. and i've been talking to some fed officials. i was actually talking with jeff lacker on friday two weeks ago i talked to james board. and across the board, people think that june is the time. i still think that's premature given how poor the gdp is how -- you know how low inflation is.

but nonetheless, you're right. i don't think the market is ready for a june rise. if we're going to get a june rise, there's going to be some ripples in the stock market before this is over. >> aside from the fed potentially raising in june jeremy, what things would change your mind about whether people should still be investing in stocks? what would make other areas more attractive? what would make you really nervous? >> well you know we've had three big hits to earnings. we've had the oil price collapse. that looks like it's stabilizing. we've had tremendous pension charges. because not only lengthening the age at which people are going to live, that's now incorporated in the insurance. we've also had fallen interest rates which capitalizes pension liabilities at a higher ra erer rate. and continuing rise of the dollar and that's going to happen if the fed is going to tighten early. that certainly challenges earnings from abroad 40% of earnings of s&p 500 are coming

from abroad. that'll set those down. these are challenges that the market is going to have to digest. that's why i think it's not going to be a clear path to dow 20,000. >> are you predicting a major correction dr. siegel, if they do hike in june? >> no. i mean i think we could see 5% to 10% off the market if they do hike in june. but then once they get used to the fact this isn't going to go up very much more than that i expect a rally in the second half of the year. timing, of course, is very very difficult in the market. but this would not surprise me. >> jeremy if you were to look for other areas, some of the concerns you just listed potentially things like stronger dollar, if things set up that way, if you grow more concerned, what alternatives would you look to. would you tell people to put things in cash?

>> well you know bonds don't look good. cash is zero. but if you're going to have a correction in bonds, it's not the worst in the short run. real estate is very expensive now. commodities have come down but they're still expensive. now, i still think europe now with the euro down is more -- it's quite attractive. and i still think emerging markets which have been hit on their currencies and their markets are also attractive. and maybe i would tilt a little bit more towards emerging markets and maybe even now on the euro than i would on the u.s. markets. especially export based firms that are facing the dollar challenge. >> professor siegel thanks. >> something to think about. it's the first time i've been more cautious in quite a while. and, again, i'm going to emphasize how difficult it is to

do the short run. no one's going to be right there. even most of the time. but we are very close to fair market. and that leaves the market open to more volatility in the short run. >> when you heard apple going into the dow, didn't you say oh god? that was not a yes from me. that was an oh no from me. how about you? >> what is apple selling at? 16 17 times earnings. >> it's gone up 8,000%. >> i know. but profits have gone up 10,000%. >> is it going to double again? >> you think it's at the end of the cycle. you think it's too late to get in at that particular time. i still think the technology sector you know we talk about nasdaq going at 5,000. but all of us know technology sector is cheap relative to history. >> yeah.

and it's not -- >> i am not worried about apple. >> it's not at a new high adjusted for inflation. i don't know. $780 billion when it was at its high. so we'll see. it could go to a trillion. i guess it could go to 2 trillion. >> when was the last time you were cautious? do you remember? >> yeah. mie i mean, i was -- i missed the financial down. i was extremely cautious 1999 and 2000. we're nowhere near there. >> great to see you. thank you. coming up another squawk market master. this time steven roche is going to tackle the strong dollar and the euro. time for that next on "squawk box."

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purchase any new verizon wireless smartphone or tablet from comcast. visit comcast.com/wireless to learn more. welcome back to "squawk box." among today's big corporate stories, general motors announcing a $5 billion stock buyback plan. the automaker will also put forward a new capital allocation plan. this is all part of gm's deal with an investor group. harry wilson is going to drop his effort to get a seat on the board. when is harry coming on? he comes on all the time. i can't imagine he's not. he is running, you know wilson

jewelers. obviously he's got -- >> maeva investors. it's from his daughter's name. >> he's not behind the sporting goods company? >> which one is that? >> no. wilson. >> no. harry winston. isn't it harry winston? >> yeah. >> who's this guy's name harry wilson. that's awful close. confusing. don't try to hit him up for -- you got an anniversary coming up? i do. this month. >> oh yeah? >> yeah. >> big one? >> not huge. >> it's not a round number. >> it's not a round number. but it's a big number. >> you better go to winston. >> i know. i got to do something. i'm going to check out -- i hope it's like -- you use the old or the new? >> the new, more expensive. >> it's not going to be like ceramics or something? >> there's the apple watch, my

man. the gold one. coming up mcdonald's looking for a big mac boost. but will investors have to wait longer at the drive-thru? up next stephen roach with the moves on the currencies. "squawk box" returns in a moment. hey mom, you want to live by the

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welcome back to "squawk box." the big story in currencies.

the big driver of the move in euro, the ecb's quantitative easing program. take a look right now. 1.086 is where the euro/dollar is right now. check out some of the stocks with big currency exposure dom chu. wow. he's already back. that's incredible. >> the traffic was light. it's the magic of television. whatever you want to call it. >> both. >> it is both. but going back to the conversation that you, i, joe, becky, and mike had before with euro at 1.08 take the vacation if you haven't planned for it. this is going to help out. the reason we're looking at some of these companies is a lot of multinational companies have cited foreign exchange head winds as being a real issue for them going forward especially in 2015. we decided to look at a handful of companies out there that may have issues with foreign exchange. they generate a lot of their sales outside the u.s. borders. one of them for instance big

blue ibm gets half of its sales outside the u.s. makes sense. pfizer, the same kind of thing. drug giant not just here in the u.s. 62% of their revenues outside of the united states. then winn resorts. a lot of that gaming comes from macau, places outside of the united states. applied materials, the company that makes the stuff that makes computer chips gets 78%. and philip morris international, that's the international brand of the splitup. about 99% of their total revenues come from outside the u.s. this is a handful of these companies here. but remember a slew of these big names have already made reference to the fact that translating those profits abroad into what's going to be reported here in the u.s. is going to take a hit because of foreign exchange. it's something to keep an eye on. one quick thing. for those people who want to play the more domestic view a lot of pundits out there, a lot

of analysts say the way they do it is to look at the small caps. we already know the russell index is near its record highs here. it's pulled back a little bit. but small cap stocks one way some investors are looking to play the strong u.s. dollar trade. over to you. >> thank you very much. let's jump right into the currency story with stephen roach, one of our squawk market masters. he is the former chairman of morgan stanley asia. now he's with yale university. >> good to see you. >> jeremy siegel said he's more cautious now than late 1999. >> i've never even seen jeremy spell the word cautious. >> one of the concerns is 42 ever-strengthening dollar that he thinks will continue when the fed raises rates. what do you think about this and how does it play out? >> look the currency bogey has been a big source of instability

in the world. qe was negative for currencies. it was negative for the dollar. now for the yen and the euro. that's pushing on a broad base sis against all the major currencies. up maybe 12% to 13% over the last four years. which is not inconsequential but not as dramatic as these unadjusted indexes on your screens. but if we are going to be raising rates while this easing is taking place everywhere else how does that eventually hurt us or does it? >> well again, the dollar is an important relative price for the earnings that go to s&p 500 companies overseas. in a sluggish global climate, the relative price change

together with activity is a head wind. >> mr. bearish u.s. consumer. you are mr. bearish -- you used to be. >> you remember. >> so if that's the only -- if we're not exporting, then they become even more important as the dollar strengthens and you've been -- why aren't you just incredibly bearish right now? >> the consumer has picked up a little bit. lower oil prices has boosted consumption in the last couple quarters is that sustainable in what is still a relatively weak labor environment despite the big pickup of employment growth. >> that should change. you've got to let us know when you become less cautious on the u.s. consumer. you've got oil and you've got hiring that's getting better. and haven't they paid down a lot of their debt? >> the debt ratios have come down but they're still well above the sustainable amount. >> you're not willing to put a buy out on the consumers yet? >> no. consumers are growing now on

average over the last seven years, joe, by still 1.5%. the trend in the last two quarters has been three times that. but that's two quarters relative to 28 quarters. the savings rate has come up a little bit, but it's still low. the debt ratio has come down but it's still high. we've got to do more than that to jump start the consumer. >> you think we get to parity euro/dollar by the summer? and question two, in this global currency war we seem to be in the midst of where does china factor in in that conversation? >> i don't know if we get to parity, scott. i really don't. i think the momentum trade says you can easily do that. you're not that far away from it right now. one thing i would say about this move in the euro though is it really favors disproportionately

those that need it the least, germany and france. collective they they've accounted for almost 45% of all the export growth in europe over the last five years. the so-called pigs. they're less than half that. so if you really want to help those that need the help maybe the currency is not the option to do it. >> but doesn't the two cars with the biggest and most powerful engines thus pull others along with it if they remain the most strong as a result of the weakest euro? >> again, germany and france have been growing their exports reasonably well over the last five years. last time i checked they're not even coupled with those weak economies. they need a lot more help than a weaker currency i think. and about your china question there are rumors about china switching policy to depreciation. i think those are unfounded. the currency is down a little bit this year but it's not in their best interest to reverse

the policy at this point in their reform campaign. >> why? >> to go to a weaker currency would undermine the purchasing power of chinese consumers. it would inflame sentiment in the u.s. which is always anti-china. and it would intensify the wars becky. it's a race to the bottom. >> the currency wars you mean? >> exactly. china learned a really important lesson. everybody was cutting their currencies the chinese were rumored to be next. they didn't do it. that backstopped the crisis and it really led them to emerge as the leader of the economy. i think they remember that experience extremely well. >> i want to thank you for coming in today. good to see you. >> thanks, stephen. coming up next a fashion statement that can only be made by apple. a watch which also 17 years is a watch? >> it's furniture or watch or

shells. >> i might be covered. a fresh part of the apple ecosystem but will consumers want to hear it? will the apple cool factor be enough for this new gadget. and as we head to break, take a look at u.s. equity futures. the futures are up. 23. 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. they'll help with the hassle by guiding you through the whole process step by step. and they'll even call your old provider. it's easy. even she could do it. whatever, janet. for all the confidence you need td ameritrade. you got this. progressive insurance here and i'm a box who thrives on the unexpected. ha-ha! shall we dine? [ chuckle ] you wouldn't expect an insurance company to show you their rates and their competitors' rates

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welcome back to "squawk box," everyone. here's what's in our headlines this morning. gasoline prices have risen 21 cents a gallon over the last two weeks. the latest lundberg survey puts the average at $2.54. the delta jet that skidded off the run way at la guardia last week may have had issues with its brakes. that suspicion comes from black box data. and paypal will buy cyber security company cyactive for $60 million. synchronize your watches.

as old and boring as they may be. we're counting down to apple's so-called spring forward event at 1:00 p.m. eastern. that's when the company is expected to roll out the device. the device could turn the fashion industry upside down. joining us is deputy managing editor of women's wear daily. and jon fortt is here. for a minute i thought maybe boy genius, this guy that was in with the $10,000 gold apple watch, that might be where they make money maybe. then i thought you only buy it onces. then if you trade it in for an upgrade, you're not making 10 grand each time. will this get app toll a trillion dollars? >> i think certainly if the apple watch if they can get that next new category, if they can build that out. >> is there a category there?

>> that's the question. >> do you know, fortt? >> i don't know. maybe the second or third version. i think wearable technology is something everybody's kind of been trying to figure out. google had google glass. this is almost undoubtedly going to be the best selling piece of wearable technology ever. if they sell just 10 million units, that's a disappointment. >> really? what are the numbers? >> i saw a note being passed this morning with a question of can they sell a billion? >> you did really? >> i did. >> wow. >> not that they will, but can they. i don't think anybody has an idea. >> apple doesn't know. apple didn't know what was going to happen with the ipad. was it going to be like iphone and how much people wanted it. more like the ipod and be cyclical. it's turned out to be more like

the ipod. i think the watch is more likely to be like the ipod too. it's an accessory to the iphone. at least at first it's going the rely on the iphone to do a lot of what it can do. but people are going to want it. >> i wonder are you looking at this as something that is a gadget or watch. and who does it disrupt? anybody who's selling a watch for under a thousand dollars. >> i think it disrupts everyone in the space. swatch was a company early on that was staying their ground in the analog world. now they're looking towards rolling out a smart watch too. i think looking at the consumer reaction in the fall when they had the event where they introduced the watch on the suspicion they would sell it there were lines around the store for three days. i agree with jon in this is the moment for wearables. this is apple's arriving. and we'll see what they can do.

>> the other issue is how big does it have to be for apple? you've got all this other stuff going on. >> in terms of how well does it have to sell? >> yeah. it doesn't have to be a home run. >> it doesn't. if there is one that could afford to have a slow burn on this, it's apple. still performing well despite the rumors it had run out of steam. so they can afford to have this billed over a couple years. they can afford to put out a $10,000 watch if they decide to that they only sell a hundred of to make it aspirational. they can afford to reconfigure, spend a lot of money, hundreds of millions of dollars to reconfigure their retail stores to make room for this new type of device they haven't had before. >> but that's how you get to $800 billion. that's how you get to $18 billion in profits in a single quarter. and i am not the one -- i don't even want to listen to myself.

i had no idea what the iphone was going to be capable of. when they were introducing it. it was like it's a phone. now i see it wasn't a phone. it was like a mobile computer that changes your life and does everything. but i would just think that everybody is converging on the smartphone market and prices as everybody gets involved they're going to get driven down. you're not going to count on the iphone being the leader forever, are you? >> here's what's happening. the middle of the smartphone market is getting hollowed out. there's all this competition at the low end where you're getting some really nice smart phones now for less than $200. motorola just came out with one owned by lenovo. people are trying to make fun on the phones and the certificates you attach to it. now apple is clobbered samsung. and the question now is can samsung come back? apple has not been dragged down by this low price thing that's

happening at the low people. >> when i think of it evan there are two stories about apple. the one i just heard is they've got is many things they don't need anything new. then the other story is what is their next act going to be? is it a car, tv watch? half the people say they don't need anything else. and the other half say it's crucial to come up with something else. >> i think they absolutely need something new. if you -- especially in technology. >> you just told me they didn't. you told me they didn't need anything new. >> they don't need anything new right now. they don't need for this to be a huge hit immediately. >> i agree with that. they need to keep finding the next category. >> do you think apple stock doubles any time in the future? >> i wouldn't guess on apple's stock. >> you don't have to say when. ten years, will it? >> i still want to guess on -- wouldn't guess on apple's stock? >> you? will it ever double?

>> i'll say this. >> anything? >> you know eventually -- >> sooner or later it will hit a trillion. >> a lot of people would say there's no way to double from here. >> $750 billion market cap. >> where is apple trading now? >> $750 billion market cap. >> 127.98. >> that's what i'm talking about. when apple was half -- trading half where it is right now and i think -- >> only 3 hurkss billion. cisco's been to 600. >> but at $300 billion people were saying this is enormous. look at all the cash they have. >> now it is enormous. i think the question is can they break into an entirely new market? can they make services attached to it? certainly it could.

>> it doesn't have to double. will it get to a trillion dollar market cap? that's nothing. what is that? 30% or 40% from here? i think if they hit this right and this also with the apple watch makes them potentially as they inch towards fashion gives them more of the cadence of a luxury company in certain regards. they're very design driven. they've got the logo. the pricing -- with the pricing with this rose gold and yellow gold watches depending how that turns out to be if it creates that halo they really -- they could become a luxury tech company. that's a powerful combination if you can put those two together. >> that's what the most optimistic people on the stock think it is. a luxury company. but different than mercedes or whatever. that's how the icons put it in their thesis. >> apple was trading at 450 bucks -- >> what was the market cap at? >> i don't know. but that's where karl icahn was

having arguments about whether it could go higher and people thought, no apple's tapped out. it doubled from there. >> you can add up the market caps of the companies apple has put out of business and you can get to 750. >> what side of the argument are you taking? >> in robocop there's really just sort of one company left. and i'm wondering if everything will be apple 30 years from now. they'll make luxury goods, cars tvs. everybody apple. >> you think they'll take google out? >> right now i would not buy apple, i would buy google. i know nothing. i'm going to admit it. thank you, evan. good to see you. and thank you. >> always good to see you. >> off camera you were saying you know everything. what are you saying? just kidding. >> i think do. actually i know i don't. coming up mcdonald's needs to flip more burgers. the giant rolling out february sales. what will turn the numbers around? new products less products or a

fresh face in command? and henrik lundqvist skoerg one for charity. we'll check out these masks that are going up for auction when "squawk" return zblps hi. i'm henrik lundqvist from the new york rangers and you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc. financial noise financial noise financial noise boy: once upon a time, there was a nice house that lived with a family. one day, it started to rain and rain. water got inside and ruined everybody's everythings. the house thought she let the family down. but the family just didn't think a flood could ever happen.

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♪ ♪ the answer is yes, it can. so, the question your customers are really asking is can your business deliver? welcome back to "squawk box," everyone. shares of casino operator pinnacle entertainment jumping in the premarket training. gaming and leisure prospects is

offering to acquire the real estate assets in a deal it says is worth $36 per pinnacle share. mcdonald's global same store sales falling 4% in february. nicole miller reagan is with us now. she covers mcdonald's for piper jaffray. welcome. i was just reading a note you literally put out a couple moments ago. you're sticking with your neutral call. but you are talking about risks of a longer than expected recovery. i guess these numbers would make that story more likely than not. >> yeah, i think the shares are just going to remain rangebound. and we see these results really kind of giving some volatility to the stock to the downside and then there's just a lot of hope of the u.s. recovery that gives volatility like we saw last week to the upside. >> so i want to find out sort of what's the story here. what's the bigger issue problem? when i read comments from

mcdonald's itself that says the goal is to reassert itself as a modern progressive burger company. consumer needs and preferences have changed. it sounds to some respects like mcdonald's isn't even sure exactly what it is now and what it really needs to be. or how to even get there. >> i think that's what worries me a little bit. and that's why we did take the opportunity last week to go to neutral. frankly, we want to see evolution, not a revolution. and those words seem a little stark in contrast to what we would be looking for. for example, technology. we think that should be first and foremost. it's not overshadowed by the ease of menu marketing and frankly for the last 50 years they built a mote around this business. that's why it should be a revolution. there's not a close second player here. >> for mcdonald's to say the consumer needs and preferences have changed, that's code word for saying people like to go to

smashburger and shake shack and chipotle, perhaps. more structural issues that maybe mcdonald's itself is feeling is hurting the business. is that how you see it? >> i do think that's what they're telegraphing. there's obviously a truth to that, but i don't think that should shape or define their business fundamentals or strategies. we would like to see that tabled and focused, we'd like to see it simple. get with the franchisees. really they do know best what should happen next. work with them. zploi the technology. we think, again, just protect this global franchise. >> and the interesting thing is without all the noise around mcdonald's for the last many months if not longer the stock relatively speaking has been able to hold up well. it was back until we had market turmoil related to fears about the fed. >> i know it's a little technical, but it's really

priced on an ebita basis. one can give you $8 or $9 but to your point of holding up it speaks to the 3% dividend yield which is probably double in the market. that tends to put a base in a stock from time to time. >> thanks so much. be well. we'll see you soon. >> where'd you get the pollo loco? out on the west coast? >> i don't know if i've had it. >> god, it's awesome. >> is it? >> awesome. i wish they were here. i really do. >> i heard you mm when he said that. >> i did. >> involuntary. >> they get the beautiful white meat and put it on a tortilla with hot sauce with some refried beans or something. it's clean, it's amazing. amazing. >> sounds delicious. >> it is. >> wish we had some right now. >> i do too.

i know. i am homer. i'm homer. new york rangers goalie henrik lundqvist hosting an exhibit called the mask collection. six goalie collection. six goalie masks designed by some the lundqvist celebrity friends like mario batali michael j. fox, and jeff gordon will be going up for auction. the proceeds are going to the henrik lundqvist foundation, and the garden of dremams foundation. there is also a lundqvist crystal hockey mask with 17,000 swarovsky crystals. >> we did five masks with five celebrities. and then the final mask number six, i went to fire department of new york, i sat down and talked to them about being a firefighter in new york and to hear their stories a little bit. that was very interesting as well. so i think that mask is going to mean a lot to a lot of people i

hope. it definitely means a lot to me and i'm excited to show them. >> the masks will be auctioned off at the hlundqvistfoundation.com. his mask can be seen on the msg network, and i think they're -- it wasn't a fluke last year the rangers. it was not. >> no, the rangers are for real. >> last night, all the way to overtime. in 75-inch high def tvs, hockey is really really -- >> i the not want to hear you saying it, because every team you like has taken a turn. >> that's not true. i gave up on the bengals. >> not for real. >> i did for real. i totally did for real. next the world according to cramer. apple watch. apple headed to the dow. but is apple headed to a trillion-dollar market cap, or will it double? it will have to get to 1.5

trillion. it's already up 8,000%. jim cramer will be talking stocks.

let's get down to the new york stock exchange.

jim cramer joins us now. we've had existential questions. we're not asking about whether apple exists. just asking, can it double again in the future jim? >> the law of large numbers would say that it can't, unless the rest of the market were to start going higher. i mean i think that you need to see -- you can't have this one island out there, but i like the idea of the watch, if the apps are good. we keep looking at the watch as static. we keep saying okay here's what it has. if it has certain health initiatives that we all know that make it less likely to have a heart attack or it can detect cancer. and that's where we're going. >> and it reports to your oncologist or cardiologist. >> that's what they want. that's the holy grail. we all know that stanford med is working on a blood pressure one that would literally signal to your cardiologist you've got to get in. they don't have it yet. but if they get it what's 300 bucks? what's 500 bucks? nothing. >> if it feels you're reaching

for a cinnabun it zaps you like that, right? >> i'm probably going to reach for a cinnabun tonight at 10:00. >> so it can do it if the market keeps going. we won't talk about a trillion like it's crazy. and also the apple watch, it's not static. i'm going to take away those two things, jim. >> your old team has to do something. free agency or else. >> you guys have any good players left in philly? >> we've got some 40-year-old. em emmett smith is coming back. >> got some cold cuts. i want to bring him back. that can't hurt. anyway thanks jim. >> thank you. >> congratulations, jim. ten years. when we come back we're going to talk about some stocks on the move this morning. job cuts on tap, this time for tesla, but not in the united states. that story and more. right after this.

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the shares of exxon mobil. the firm says the oil majors among the few that will generate positive. the same time that they were negative on crude. but they are positive on exxon. totally different investments. >> thanks so much for being here. >> blowing up my fashion sense with the shoes. appreciate it. >> that does it for us. we'll see you tomorrow. right now it's time for "squawk on the street." good morning and welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm david faber along with jim cramer. we are live from the new york stock exchange. carl is on assignment on this monday morning, but we're awfully happy to be here with you. taking a look at futures. a poor day for the markets, at least if you're along on friday. you can see we are looking perhaps up a bit. crude oil continues to be an important part of our overall story. where are we on wti? we're below 50. and the ten-year note yield