finished at the top of the leader board 8 under. it's friday april 10th 2015 and squawk box begins right now. good morning and welcome to squawk box on cnbc. becky will be back on monday. we have a big day in media. netflix launching it's new series and it's called daredevil based on the comic book series of course. this is part of the package deal with marvel for four different shows as we have been talking about this is a huge play by netflix to compete with the hbo new stand alone streaming subscription service which also launched this week. a bit later this hour we'll take a look inside netflix's war room to see how they take a release live around the world all at one time and then tracks how many people get to watch it. and it's also a big day of fans

of the force. starting today you can watch all six films in digital hd through itunes amazon and google play. we'll talk about all the media stories with legendary tv producer tom werner is going to join us at the top of the next hour but in the meantime let's get you you to speed. here's how the markets look. dow up about 17 points higher. nasdaq up about 3 points and the s&p 500 a little over two points. what are you looking at me like that for? >> i mean -- >> do i sound -- >> this is how people felt with me here last week. do you know what you look like? do you remember pig pen when he would walk all the stuff -- it was dirt. with you it's like -- >> i feel fine. >> you have mucus. >> a little froggy in the

throat. >> that's how it sounds to you? >> how does it sound to you. >> like i want to lean way over here. is this a drug resistant -- you brought this from the other side of the world. >> it's a cold. that's all it is. >> and i'm supposed to sit here and not be scared. >> how did you do last week? >> how did it sound. let me read this. >> how many tish queues did you have. >> have these. >> a couple of boxes. >> i do it through the nose. i was doing all of that stuff. outside i do the -- i don't need a kleenex outside. >> i remember once having to read the prompter and it was starting to come down a little bit and i didn't know if i should stop or not because the viewer sees a little bit of -- >> that's fine -- do you

remember the greatest actor of all time and why he was the greatest actor of all time. >> who was that. >> brando. if you feel something do it. if you blow your nose just go with it. don't be afraid. people are people. they'll like you more. >> i'm afraid of you. here are the big stories that we're watching. two economic reports of note. march import export prices at 8:30 eastern and then this afternoon an update on the federal jujt.budget. european stocks are hitting the highest level since 2000. a lot of people are saying that's where you should be. people on our side of the pond are taking a note. u.s. investors poured 1.5 billion into funds that specialize in european shares. that's the most in several weeks. make sure that your head is against currency risk. president obama is in panama for

the summit of the americas today. while no former meeting is planned he could talk to you can president castro on the sidelines of that gathering. he went to the bob marly -- i would like to go to the bob marley museum. >> that could be a cool thing. >> i can only imagine what's there. that's interesting, right? >> i he know curse words and all kiensd of stuff. >> the buzz story of the morning we'll get to the apple watch. as of today you can try it on in stores with an appointment or order online. seema mody joins us from london where apple fans are already excited and five hours a head of us. >> that's right.

it's the strategic location that highlights the push into the market. this is a high end department store with all the top brands. you name it they've got it. in fact andrew inside the apple watch is being displayed steps away from rowlex, tag and other high end watches. this is the attempt to make it a luxury fashion piece as opposed to a tech product. will it be able to play a meaningful role in this tech market? there are three collections. starts at $349. $549 and the high end one at $10,000 which can go up to $17,000. we have been getting reaction from different customers on what they think about the apple watch. so far mixed reviews. >> i was impressed with the quality. looks like it's jewelry rather than being just a smart watch that can do exactly what your phone can do. >> i have a fit bit now that i wear and i think that would replace that with the apple

watch. >> do you wear a luxury watch right now? >> i do. but this is different. that's why i'm not sure. this comes from a grandpa so it's a sentimental watch so it's a big step. >> now jeffrey expects 300,000 apple watches to be preorders over the weekend. in terms of sales analysts expecting $3.4 million in sales. that number is expected to increase to about $8 billion in 2016. i'll just mention there are reports right now that the apple watch, some versions are sold out online but so far no confirmation from apple. back to you. >> seema, thank you for that. we should also tell you some fake apple watches are popping up guess where, in china, in the he electronic district in southern china's city. you can get what hooks to be an apple watch for only $55. despite being fakes they promise messaging, phone calls and video. but unlike the real deal these

phones can't download the new apps and the authentic apple watches don't hit shelves in china until april 24th. in the meantime a very new apple macbook laptop. christina warren is senior tech analyst and brought with her a new macbook to show off. >> yes. >> you asked the question joe, is that an ipad. it looks like an ipad. >> it looks like an ipad -- i have one with a keyboard hooked up into it. >> it's about the same size and thickness. a little bit bigger screen. >> but this is not the exciting thing that people he are going to apple stores this weekend for. >> some people are. this has been getting a lot of excitement but the big thing is the watch. >> are you wearing one or no? >> no they wouldn't give me one. but i have used it. >> better or worse than you thought. >> better. >> i've used a lot of different smart watches. you know i wore pebble for a

long time. i've gone through the various wear devices. it's the first one that actually feels like jewelry and like a real watch. >> so would you go out and get the first edition or do you wait until 2 or 3.0. >> this is the tough thing. if you're an early adopter and somebody that hasn't used the devices and you like the feel of the watch it's not a bad product. if you have the gist of what the wearables are like the next version will be better looking. probably thinner and less expensive. >> better. i'm thinking i want to wait for 2.0. you're going to get 1.0 for the kids or no. >> yes. >> but not for yourself. >> no. >> because. >> hard to imagine as big an early adopter as i am i'm looking at getting one of these things for the blackberry at some point. apparently you can send messages like the people and get business information and stuff.

i heard samsung makes a phone now. and it has the hemorrhoid operating system. what is it? go ahead. please go ahead. >> i can't go on. >> you know have to be nice to you today. you are so -- you're very vulnerable. he is. i'm glad you're here. he's like a buffer. >> no and i'm now going to get all the germs. >> you are. >> picked a great day for this too. >> the watch has a price point of down $359 all the way to $17,000. >> right. >> how many 17,000 do you hi they sale? >> in the united states maybe to the kardashians. that's about it. but overseas in china, dubai, people in really high growth markets, you might be surprised. i mean you look at what the luxury market in china is like it's really really big. they might do pretty well. >> is this a high margin product for them? >> yeah. >> but at $359 how much does it

cost to make the thing? do we know? >> no we don't know what the come poenlt component is. the 349 is not the huge margin items but then you look at the accessories. >> is it where you buy the watch and then buy multiple bands. >> yes. that's what they're hoping to do. you can imagine they might partner with some designers and come out with their bands down the line. >> so the thing i want to buy is the thing that's right here. tell us about what this is. i have a macbook air. a lot of people do. >> a lot of people have macbook airs. this is a new version. >> it's a macbook but similar to what the macbook air was like. it's the thinnest lightest laptop you can get. it has no fans. totally silent. it weighs 2 pounds. at its thickest point it's half an inch thick. >> but it has no plugs. >> one plug. >> that's the one down side.

it has one plug, usbc. >> do you know about that joe? >> have no idea what that is. there's a cream for it isn't there? >> there is a cream for it. if you're always connected to wireless and have your documents and things in the cloud maybe you don't use thing as often. this plug will work to go to your monitor. >> battery is all i care about. >> ten hours. >> a whole day. you can get through a whole day of work on this. >> how about the keys. i love apple keys normally. >> the keyboard is bigger but there's very little travel meaning there's little space. it takes a little getting kwuzused to. it's almost like tapping on an ipad. >> you brought this as a presen for me today. >> i wish. >> if the apple store is too busy for you today there's another retail location getting some attention. sprint is going to open more

than 1400 new sprint radioshack locations around the country today more than doubling it's footprint in retail. they'll exclusively sell sprint noble devices. radioshack filed for bankruptcy in february. amazon winning approval from federal regulators to test the delivery drone outdoors. last month the faa gave the green light to an amazon prototype but blasted them for being so slow. the company waited more than six months for the agency's permission and amazon must keep test flights at an at tuldltitude of no more than 400 feet. >> pretty cool. among today's stocks to watch check out gap with stronger than expected march sales but cautioning the early timing of easter month results and hurt

april sales. also citrix warning it will fall short of efforts and baker hughes is suspending it's online publication. it will continue to watch it's weekly rig county. >> andrew coming up the dow and the s&p are -- you've never had any acting classes at all. >> no at this point someone once told me in fact it was the late great -- nina do you remember her? i read for her and she told me my emotional instrument was clogged. >> and do you think my emotional instrument is clogged today. >> you're definitely more clogged than normal but in general i think your emotional instrument is clogged. too guarded. >> i think because i might be physically clogged that maybe emotionally i might open up more. >> maybe that will.

>> be free to be me this morning. >> never heard of them. generational thing. >> no it's not generational. these are famous. >> famous people. >> anyway coming up the dow but this is what you feel the experiences in life let them come through. >> coming up the dow and s&p are looking for their first back to back weekly gains since february. we'll talk markets next but first here is a look back at this date in history. i'm not sure what day it s. april. is it april? >> it's april. ♪ well, sir. after some serious consideration i'd like to put in my 15-year notice. you're quitting!? technically retiring, sir. with a little help from my state farm agent i plan to retire in 15 years. wow! you're totally blindsiding me here. who's gonna manage your accounts? this is a devastating blow i was not prepared for. well, i'm gonna finish packing my things. 15 years will really sneak up on you. jennifer with do your exit interview and

adam made you a cake. red velvet. oh, thank you. i made this. take charge of your retirement. talk to a state farm agent today.

check on the markets this morning. the futures so far were okay yesterday. session went on and on and kind of moved around and finally had a pretty descent close today. we're looking up a little on the open. dow jones up 28 points and s&p up just under 3 and the nasdaq up just under 5. we'll take a quick look at around the world. see if we can get an indication. although green now in france and on the ftse and germany's dax. greece is up a full percent. here are the asian marks which

were mixed. $50.42 can be on crude. it's a little above. this should be fascinating to watch. the dollar is going to be fascinating. people saying we're still going to par. you just saw the ten year and here we are 106 today so we're testing the lows. got down to 105 at one point euro dollar. stocks are on track to turn in a positive week. they have been up four out of the last pooif sessions. joining us now with more on the markets, ed from quantitative management associations.

you're sticking to your long-term outlook but you point out things that weren't quite as positive as in the past. >> for the u.s. market earnings growth looks like it will be zero and we have a drop in earnings this year. i still like u.s. stocks. we will see an earnings rebound eventually but there's better opportunities as they're trying to find the best opportunities in the world and european stocks represents a better place to be for your money right now. >> you go as far as to say that this is a highly unusual market cycle and at the very end you point out, you know growth is slow but that's not necessarily the worst backdrop for stocks. rates stay low. you get what you get with the earnings per share growth. it's not the worst thing in the world but maybe not as good as the last six years. >> the good thing is that we really haven't had the excesses build up. the high leverage of great risk

taking that leads to the end of an economic cycle. people are still cautious. we'll probably have an extended cycle for economic growth and the market. we'll not see the returns in the next five years as in the last five or six years but you can get positive returns out of your stock portfolio and despite low interest rates might get positive returns out of your bond portfolio as well. >> slow and steady probably. >> that's correct. >> do you agree with that? everybody says europe and now i see flows into europe. do you feel the same way about europe and the u. s.? >> small cap european stocks right now, i'm not sure currency hedging is the way to do it because there will be weakness around the us. dollar as we maybe take a step back from fed

policy intervention sooner than prooef warehousely thought. that's something to consider when investing in europe but over the longer term we're kind of more happy to be in u. s. equities and we think we're going to continue to climb walls of worry. >> you think there's going to be a pause in the tightening. you have to start something before you pause. >> no a pause in the pair tightening. >> when will they go up? >> september. >> so even when they start they'll go slow. >> slow at this point. could we get down to the dollar in parity that's a possibility. there's been a huge influx of money into european assets that are hedged. you might want to switch out of that into something that's european. >> then just stay with -- buy european stocks in euros and take your chances. >> is that right. >> do you have something to say pig pen. >> no i have nothing to say. i'm trying to save my voice.

>> you are. >> i am. when i have something brilliant to say i will speak. >> there's been days the past couple of years where i wish you had saved your voice so many different times on certain subjects. >> i'm sure. >> but now you are going to. >> if we talk about income inequality or something. >> that might get me excited. >> ceo compensation or monopolies. >> tax day is coming up. >> independence days for you people down the street at the new york times. favorite day of the year. >> by far. >> i don't know why you people don't just send in checks year around. almost like a charity. >> i try. i actually pay quarterly for that reason. >> we should take this on the road. this is pretty good. ed is over there going i'm in sarasota. i could be -- and i came in for this. why are you in sarasota. >> we have a place down here. >> who is we? >> my wife and i.

>> he's part of the problem. >> 1%ers. >> i bet he pays quarterly too just because he enjoys it. >> how much do you think about what he we just talked about? june september quarter here quarter there? that's not even your thing is is it? >> another reason i'm down here is jeffrey lacquer is giving a speech in an hour or so. >> exciting. >> if you look at janet yellen assist last speech a few weeks ago in san francisco she laid out what they're thinking and looking at and my guess is when you net it all out we're looking at sometime in september. the fed really does want to raise rates and get off zero but they'll have to go slow because the market clearing rate of interest in the u.s. and world remains low. there's a great deal of money seeking a safe secure home and interest rates will rise a little bit but i don't think they'll raise a great deal in the u. s. or anywhere around the world over ever over the next year or so. >> how do you characterize this

global environment? yesterday larry sommers was on and he echoed global savings or something that even the pimlico, new normal environment, the reason i ask is people are saying that the fed hasn't orchestrated low rates. the fed just followed where they would be anyway. they kept them here because globally that's where they are and other people say central bankers around the world caused this. just because everybody is doing this doesn't mean that it had to happen. in other words maybe it wouldn't have been like this if the fed and central bankers hadn't been so easy. >> that's an aurlt you can't know for sure. jon williams has a model that suggests that the natural rate is still close to zero. others suggest 1% or higher than that. i think the fed could go up.

but there's a great deal of money looking for a return and in the meantime there's a lot of caution and overhang for the financial crisis that rate of interest is low and will continue for awhile longer. >> because it's so hard to get a return the notion that people have gone out and maybe some people shouldn't have. is that a concern or not. >> it's a systemic concern but if you look at investing today and you look at what we're going to face over the next let's say couple of week which is is maybe a little bit of an earnings season additional u.s. weakness, we think volatility is an asset class at this level. >> that's a weird notion. move m one way or the other here. >> well it looks to be quite attractive into this earnings season. >> anybody that's just i'm going to buy some vicks. >> you should have so vicks. >> you put it on your chest when

you were a kid. >> do you need help with that? you know i'm here. >> i almost said eyes wide shut. >> play some of that music for you while i'm doing that. >> coming up we have a strong dollar likely to be a major theme this earning season. we'll talk to a top earnings strategist and take a look at yesterday's is 500 winners and losers. we're back in a moment with a little bit of vicks rub. ♪

doug, we have the results, but first, we have a very special guest. come on out, flo! [house band playing] you have anything to say to flo? nah, i'll just let the results do the talking. [crowd booing] well, he can do that. we show our progressive direct rate and the rates of our competitors even if progressive isn't the lowest. it looks like progressive is not the lowest! ohhhh! when we return we'll find out whether doug is the father. wait, what? i care deeply about the gulf. i grew up in louisiana. i went to school here. i've been with bp ever since. today, i lead a team that sets our global safety standards.

after the spill we made two commitments. to help the gulf recover and become a safer company. we've worked hard to honor both. bp has spent nearly 28 billion dollars so far to help the gulf economy and environment. and five years of research shows that the gulf is coming back faster than predicted. we've toughened safety standards too. including enhanced training... and 24/7 on shore monitoring of our wells drilling in the gulf. and everyone has the power to stop a job at any time if they consider it unsafe. what happened here five years ago changed us. i'm proud of the progress we've made both in the gulf and inside bp.

we got some breaking news right now. general electric is sharing most of its ge capital assets. they are going to be sold to blackstone and wells fargo. also authorizing a $50 billion buy back. also $36 billion in cash. $6 billion tax bill. david is here to join us on the set and he sat down last night to talk about this deal. >> may not be able to talk now. >> no i can talk. joe he is sharing interesting information along the way with me as well. they're basically getting out of ge capital. the disposition of it is going to take quite sometime given the various businesses there. all the different portfolios of assets but other than the finance companies that go along with the different businesses,

equipment finances and leasing of aircraft those are still and they're still significant but you're talking about a company that's going to transform itself into an industrial company in 2018. we're talking about a company that 90% of its earnings will come from in the industrial businesses. finance will no longer be an porn part of it. i did ask yesterday why and why now. >> ge capital, i mean first question is a simple one, why. why and why now. >> yeah so david i would say the business model certainly changed. we have a fantastic industrial portfolio but we are a large wholesale funded finance company. the wholesale funding model is tougher. we felt like we're disadvantaged versus banks and at the end of the day the way investors view it is starkly different and we

felt from an investor's standpoint that this was the right time to make the move. we've been working this way since the financial crisis and i think two things have happened just recently. one is you really have a perfect market to be selling assets slow gloeth lots of liquidity, people searching for yield and recently the financial oversight board said there's an off ramp for companies that were systemically significant to kind of get off as they shrunk and this is good for the system and regulatory world and investors. that's been more or less recent and now is the time to do it. >> a lot of the proceeds are going to go toward a share buy back. $50 billion. the company talking about returning $90 billion through 2018. that inlewds the current dividend and also includes the

85% that the company owns that will be spun to shareholders. that was a very successful offering from the company from its ge capital business and that $50 billion buy back. those are the key parts of this. >> and it was that transaction. it was the deal that actually inspire. analysts had it pegged at $26 billion. >> it's worth 10 and yes he said the same to me during our interview as well and during conversations with other people involved and trying to get this done. >> the thing you haven't mentioned yet is this whole issue which is part of what they're doing and it's to be out of being an institution. >> which they fully expect will be the case they will no longer be significant in that regard they talk about wholesale funding and the model having changed. >> so you think this is going to

inspire banks and others to do the same. do you think a jp morgan or anybody else looks at what they're doing. >> they get through their finance arm what would they have? >> it's a little different thing. >> i don't think so. >> but you know joe and i have sat with jack welch, so many times and you have as well. why don't you split it up. can't you create values? they have been thinking about this for years. now they feel this is the proper time. >> i'm hearing from people off the record. >> can't speak to it. >> one o of the greatest investors of all time so must be time to buy real estate. >> i don't know if you noticed but they did an auction, no auction, they sold it straight to blackstone. >> now i see that the question i

had when i heard it was going to happen was the whole rational was we finance the sale of all the stuff we make. >> but when you ask why are you holding on to this because not valued has gotten you in trouble in the financial crisis and we want to finance the stuff we make. they can keep those things to finance. but the other thing is they wanted to keep a aaa rating. can they keep the aaa rating to get rid of all of this. >> i don't know the answer to that question. >> do you remember how they always said that? that's why we keep this. >> i do. didn't the aaa go away a long time ago. >> it did. >> i don't believe it's going to change it's. >> so that won't change. >> they didn't need the size.

>> ge capital for a long tomb was an extraordinarily profitable business. >> helped contribute to enormous growth. talk about a company that stock. >> it's black box. >> if you wanted to smooth earnings. >> it was a place where you had the drawers and needed a couple of pennies a share. >> there's a reason the stock traded at 35 tiles earnings in 2001. >> welch got very prickly if you're saying you're managing your earnings. but he said no i'm managing the businesses. >> it gives you a lot of flexibility in terms of -- >> in terms of multiple now what do you think of? honeywell? caterpillar? you think there was an analyst about six months agatha said there should be baby ges. take health care and put it over here and break up the core. >> these are questions certainly that i put to him and we're going to have his answers i think more on this show and certainly throughout the morning. to your point it gets about a

16.5 multiple right now. there's a feeling that there's a diskounlt discounted multiple included in it's finance and that that will change. they think they can be valued more highly. as for whether it belongs together now he says firmly absolutely yes. >> there are cinergies. >> i used to like it but i don't think it compares at this point. keep it and give me symphony. hold on. i would have thought do they think this is worth five of ten dollars in the stock? it's not even worth a dollar yet. it's not going to get back to its 52 week high. how much is -- what did you say the buy back was going to be? >> 50 billion over the next few

years. >> how much for the dividend? >> well the dividend does not move and. >> this is all the proceeds. first of all 12 billion of that is noncash. they have to pay taxes. >> that part is fascinating to me. there's a company that's always been very good about keeping tax rates low. they were going to repatriate the cash. >> that's hurting them and part of the charge taking place right now. >> people are going to wait for tax reform in washington. >> i don't understand that either but it's up 65 cents. >> one would expect i think they certainly expected it to be up more than that. >> today you think? >> i'm just saying i think there's an expectation. this is complex and will take

place over years. we're not talking about it selling these huge portfolios and selling things like their middle market secured lending business. they'll sell certain businesses on a multiple or price to book and then they'll sell portfolios with the real estate deal. >> there's execution risk that they actually can't do it or can't do it as quickly as they want to do it. >> there's people people lined up ready to buy. >> they started to line-up then. >> people saying this is going to be a timing issue. they're going to go back because they love to criticize and then they'll say look at these other buys or real estate before the financial crisis or oil and gas before the drop off in oil and they'll say this is an indication of not a top -- that's what they're saying. >> the sell of cnbc. >> if we get it racked up we can listen to the answers. >> you're going to stick around. >> you're staying.

>> it's nice to be here. >> he gets a comp day for coming in here. >> he needs to. i have no voice. dan needs to be here. >> did you see the spread in the green room for him? it's unbelievable. >> i like him here. this way i can talk about the whole thing. >> david right. >> it is. >> look at you guys next to each other again. >> he thinks i look old now. do you know what i say to you, i can't wait until you're my age and you have to get wrinkles and stuff like that. you're young and everything wait until you start falling apart. i'll still be around. >> you're never going anywhere. you're living forever. >> yes i am. >> i have no doubt. >> only the good die young. >> you'll keep going. >> just hang out. you can be like guest host. >> okay. i'll be guest host. >> just hang out here. >> sure. >> at least he comes in here and wears his jacket. his head is -- well, i don't know, anyway.

coming up much more on the big news from general electric. plus the strong dollar likely to be a major theme this earnings season. every single person that sells something abroad you'll hear about it probably. we'll talk to a top currency strategist from bank of america merrill lynch next. and later legendary tv producer tom werner going to be here. he launched unbelievable careers. >> mork and mindy. saw a comedian and said happy days we immediate a spin off. how about an alien. >> do you know who else? cosby. >> oh okay. >> you love the stuff that could make news. >> the stuff that makes news. it's a news show supposedly. >> plus our news maker of the morning, rob manfred will step up at 7:30 and you know what i'm going to ask him about. i saw pete run into ray.

oh hi. welcome back. if you're just waking up this morning, big news out of dow component general electric. ge is selling most of its ge capital assets. assets of ge capital sold to blackstone. also authorizing a $50 billion share buy back. 26.20, to 26.27 but by the end of the day it could be up. >> it moved up yesterday because you had the story on the black stone deal coming out. >> up 75 cents or so.

how many shares are still outstanding. >> they're talking about the buy back shrinking into as little as 8 billion shares. that's important because you're eliminating an important source of profit from the company but you're going to make up for that so your earns per share number will stay largely the same. they're talking about going between 8 and 8.5 billion so that gives you a sense of the size of the buy back. the only $50 billion buy back we've seen is apple. >> this was over half a trillion. this is one of those companies we've talked about. they get bogged down. cisco, microsoft. maybe apple is different. but ge it was about 600 million. >> it had a 45 multiple. >> it did. >> if you did that now you'd be above that. >> joining us on the squawk newsline, ivan feinseth with

with tigress asset management. >> it's named tigress because we're a woman earned firm. >> awesome. tell me viewing this right now is this the time to do it? is this something that will realize shareholder value which i think is something he probably thinks about occasionally? >> well, overall, you know there was a time where you wanted to own ge because of the financial services business and then there was a time where nobody wanted to own ge because of the financial services business. now they're exiting that. now it is important to focus on key core businesses where you have strengths like in power generation airline engines and things like that but a lot of things that in my view he has done i think he sold universal nbc at the bottom. comcast has done phenomenally

well with it. so it's almost looking like a lot of companies like this tend to pull the flowers and water the weeds. if this does move the company to key areas to be in in the future it's piez tif move and then taking the excess cash and returning it to shareholders in increased dividends or stock buy backs is good. >> right. there's been a lot of -- the company is totally different than it was before september 11th wasn't it? the week before september 11th. it's a totally different company at this point. it's been hard to move the stock obviously but is this finally something to say we're going to totally restructure the old ge model built by -- i guess jones did some of this. they're finally saying that we're going to change the model that no longer works in 2015.

>> you want to cancel it in the business of the future. it seems they get out of things at the bottom and into things at the top. >> almost when it's fashionable to do it it shall oil -- i don't know. that's going to be the question here. >> i want to know why everyone is so happy about a buy back for dividend which means they don have anything better to do with the cash? is there nothing they can do with the core business or expand the acquisition by investing in some kind of development? >> that's the case when a company starts to buy back stock. they're saying there's no place to get a greater return in their invested capital than in their own stock. they're not finding things to add on our acquire. you want to see a balance of that but also buy backs and

increased dividends have short-term appeasement and try to lift the stock. the one interesting thing is that there are woman standing key competitors, utx and honeywell are trading at all time historic highs honeywell. yet ge is below. >> we've got to run. coming up the almighty dollar. why the biggest companies are taking note as they prepare to close quarterly results. we're back in just a moment. hello. i am here to offer sophisticated investing strategies. my technology can help you choose the right portfolio. monitor it. and automatically rebalance it. all without charging advisory fees, account service fees or commissions.

that may be hard to compute. but i'm a computer. so trust me. it computes. say hello at intelligent.schwab.com

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the dollar's become a major driver of the broader markets. and here with us on set is david woo, head of global rates and currency research at bank of america merrill lynch global research. we just had a guy on and i've heard it twice in the last week that dollar's seen its run. and europe's going to improve. we're going to go slow on rate increases until you see the dollar rebound. you think we still see parity and this is a long-term move. >> i think so. i think parity with the bull right now. parity is only 5% away. i think the bigger question is whether the dollar has 20% to go. i'm not in that camp. i think 5% is nothing and i think ultimately this is not about dollar strength. it's more about euro weakness. the bottom line is the ecb is going to be embarking on 19

months of qe. while they're driving down bond yields, i think the fact managers around the world say i'm not buying negative yielding bonds. what we're seeing now is reserve allocation away from the euro into the dollar and yen. >> that would make a difference obviously, for whether you buy stocks here, for example. whether you stay domestic whether you go to europe. this is a stiff headwind is it now? >> there's been 70 trading days of which the dollar went up. s&p has gone down. there's no question you look at the correlation of the s&p 500 with the dollar is now falling into negative minus 60% territory. nearly the lowest level in 15 years. it's telling you the u.s. stock market is waking up to the reality a strong dollar is not good for u.s. stocks or the u.s. economy. it's also interesting that meanwhile europe which has the

best performing stock market year to date also has the worst performing currency year to date. what does that tell you? that tells me at least currency war is very much the business today. >> i was going to ask you about -- i was going to -- pretend this is your show. >> really? you want me to participate? >> you're the brains here. >> you could put us anywhere, we could do a show. no matter what. >> now make him feel bad. >> him too. >> come on. >> but this takes me back. have you seen our hair when we were young? >> beautiful hair. >> thank you for being here. coming up ge unveiling a massive -- >> andrew? >> yes, sir. >> take it easy. this is where i get worried about you. i was going to ask him something else. but no. >> we're out of time. we'll have a conversation with mr. immult in just a moment.

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welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc first in business worldwide. i'm andrew ross sorkin with joe kernen. becky quick will be back on monday. here this morning david faber is here. the brain. bringing back the brain and kahuna together again. and he's here in part because there is big news this morning. general electric selling most of its ge capital assets. ge's board also authorizing a $50 billion buyback. david is with us. he spoke with ge's chairman and ceo. put a lot of tough questions to him. and mr. faber is here with more. mr. faber? >> yeah.

we were speaking of course in the last half hour and joe certainly was talking about the change in this company. and when you go back to the 2001 annual report and you look at it and see what was this company then, the appliances are gone. nbc universal is gone. a lot of other businesses are gone. and oil and gas has become a much larger business. power generation water. >> insurance units are gone. >> insurance, capital, a lot of things. of course part of that was spun. >> the point joe made is there's been a mixed record of the sales in terms of the timing of those sales. >> yes. in fact, that is a question i did put to mr. immel in terms of his buying and his selling. >> i think this gives us a chance to give -- reward our investors that are in it far-- better mix. but i go back dave. you know we invest a lot of rnd

every year. we've got good organic growth problems. this is not a company starving itself for lack of growth capital. >> right. but when you make a decision to use the bulk of the proceeds coming up for share repurpose, they could be used for other things. >> again, i think the base plan is to do the buyback. we always look at different things. but i think this is an important message to investors. and the fact the board has authorized a $50 million buyback, that says we're quite serious. >> it's a large number. >> it's a good number. >> i'm still getting the hang of this tv thing. that was his comments on the buyback which is an enormous one. to your question earlier, the idea of hey, you can do other things with that money. why is it the best use of capital to buy your own stock because that's the bulk of their proceeds. >> it's the trend right now across corporate america. >> it is. and apparently in discussing it with their investors, they

decided that is what they want. they want to see an enormous buyback. to your question joe, i did ask it. here's what he said. >> some would say you sold them at the wrong time and bought some other assets at the wrong time. they look back. there's always a critic. you know what? nbc, it makes sense for the sale, but they sold right after the crisis. got a low multiple. look what comcast is doing. they redeployed some of that which has not performed well. >> but i think i'd go for the history, right? we've exited insurance, plastics, nbc universal, appliances financial services. i think our batting average is pretty damn good. when you look at all those transactions over time. i think when you look at nbc in particular, we had a 15% return on the 25 years that we owned it. it did what we needed in that transaction. there's always going to be people that say it was too late it was too early. but that transaction gave

everything our investors needed at that time. on the buy side david, i think we've got a great oil and gas business. we've got a diversified power business. we acquired enron's business for $200 million. it's generated $7 billion of cash since we bought it. >> went on to discuss one of the large deals they did early in his tenure having been a big winner because people criticized back then the price that was paid. >> right. so i haven't followed that closely the -- that would have been with the imaging business. >> the 2003 deal i believe. >> did it end up working out better than the company said? >> mr. immelt said they've got a very strong return despite what e the critics have said. so we can see these things in terms of the e headlines. >> siemens acts like their the king at this point. they contend it's even. i don't know. i haven't looked closely at who

the market leader is at this point. but that was the first big one. when was that? >> 2003 i believe, is when that deal took place. about $9.5 billion if i recall. >> right. let's bring in someone else a senior analyst at bernstein. steven winniker. your take on this? did you have any inkling this was in the works stephenven? >> well the answer is yes but not now. i think the big news here is this is all of it and all at once in terms of the intention. i had buys and sells in the stock over the last seven or so years and had last upgraded it to a buy in august on this point. there are all sorts of things i can criticize about the company. but this is the big point that it's basically less general and more electric. i just didn't think they would go this far this fast.

to really take out the rest of ge capital without -- and leave in the most attractive parts of the industrial business which are the verticals i think is really the right and great strategic choice. and then the question of just how do you get there efficiently for investors. that's a big deal. $50 billion. 20% of the market cap on a buyback program. that's a big deal too. so i think they've really -- i think they're addressing a lot of the criticism they haven't been moving aggressively enough on this. and they're clearly doing so. >> the stock's trading what? 80 cents higher. should it be trading higher than that? >> yes. i mean certainly, i think when you look at the value in the capital business versus the industrial business, you know, my prior valuation has been about $6 or so for ge capital. about $24 or $25 for ge industrials. that's certainly over $30 target

price on a 12-month basis. i think this is not -- that's without consideration of really maximizing value, the way they're doing it today. i think that would put more pressure on the upside on that. >> the question we keep hearing from who made the point, $50 billion, you can do fun stuff with that in terms of anything you're keeping. steven any of the crown jewels that are left at ge. aren't there ways of adding to those businesses that could be done with you know a lot of people would love to get $50 billion and wouldn't use it just to buy back stock. >> you know i think there's always a question of tradeoffs. and they are taking a look at their share price. i'm sure they think my $30 number is way too low. >> right. >> and so i think that they are thinking that the return on that obviously is attractive and it hasn't moved for a very long

period of time. and relative to other opportunities. >> so, okay so you're buying back the stock, obviously. but the flow gets reduced. but you also don't have the additive earnings from the sell as well, right? >> no question about that. it's not like they're going to stop acquisitions. again, you're talking about a very large company that already has spent a significant amount and will have its hands full at least one business unit. you could imagine them adding to several of those businesses over time. i think this is like anything not the only thing they're going to do. this is going to be $50 billion and m&a over the next 20 years. i don't think -- >> now might be the time to be buying. now might be the time you ought to be buying assets with both hands right now. they've been marked down haven't they? now would be the time to probably find -- >> yeah. oil and gas.

you know certainly oil and gas assets are cheap, but you could say they've already got some bit of a scale position. frankly, they've got to prove to investors that their existing m&a is working. right? and there's a lot of skepticism out there about whether alston will be successful. certainly there's a lot of criticism as you guys brought up on the oil and gas, the $14 billion spent on oil and gas leading up to the oil crash and the timing of that. so, you know i think that they're probably trying to prove themselves a little bit on what they've done. i know what mr. immelt said sounded constructive in his interview with you. but i think there's more skepticism. >> what'd you make of the repatriation issue? $36 billion to bring back from abroad $6 billion tax hit in terms of the leakage.

>> yeah. so, you know this is something that's always been a barrier historically in talking about this. that's a real cost. that's a concern. you know that is just lost value. on the other hand, you know they obviously think that there's a good use of that. i think that's in the clear and negative of the deal. and of our tax policy as a country. in any case they're willing to pay it. >> one question about the cash in terms of buybacks. i'm always criticizing buybacks. but i recognize this investors want the money and they want toe money back in their pocket. if, for example, they announced today that they were going to use some of that money or portion of that money for m&a, how would the market react? >> much more skeptically for them. it would have to be an obvious deal with a great price. that sort of you know low skepticism.

and for that obvious price it wouldn't be that great. so i think this will be more favorably received. >> steven is it going to help get the multiple up? i mean they won't say it outright, but their expectation is when they talk about the portfolio business contributing 90% of eps and they talk about them being high-return businesses, does ge deserve a higher erer multiple than whatever it is? >> well mathematically just yes simply because ge capital which is effectively a bank and trades at a bank lower multiple would be mostly gone. and you're left with all the industrials and verticals. purely on a weighted average basis, yes. now, beyond that does the industrial business get an even higher multiple? i think only with that business actually performing with the m&a working, with their ability to grow. i think that's how that works. so the answer is yes. >> all right. steven we appreciate it.

and, you know, becky's not here michelle's not here today. what time -- what's that other show? >> "squawk on the street." 9:00. so i'm going go and change. >> you're leaving us? >> really? >> it's 7:00. >> you can make it down. >> it's 7:00. >> i'm saying you can make it down after 8:00. >> easily. >> there's only two of us here. >> come on. you guys have been handle it just fine. i am very touched you would at least feign -- >> this is an act. >> you've always been good at that. people don't know you considered acting once. >> they do now because i was talking about his emotional instrument being clogged. he could use a little method actings. when there's snot coming down his nose should he wipe it or act like it's not there? shouldn't he wipe it? >> always wipe. >> method acting. >> remember the godfather, he goes like this. >> i don't think there's any acting. >> people do say i'm just like this.

coming up the wait is over. the appleonians. haven't talked to you about that? do you think it goes up? >> i find that hard to imagine. >> but they added to the dow. anyway, the watch. we're on apple watch. but we're on apple watch watch. >> okay. >> available for preorders. we'll bring you reports from coast to coast -- >> we should just go down the block ourselves to the apple store. >> why don't you go out in the rain with that cold of yours? plus our guest host this morning, david faber. no. tom werner executive of the red sox and producer of shows like "rosanne," "that '70s show." and then rob manfred. it took tennis legend serena williams, fencing champion tim morehouse and the rockettes years to master their craft. but only moments to master paying bills at chase.com.

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welcome back to "squawk box." the apple watch available for preorders this morning. we have reporters covering the launch coast to coast. jon fortt just down the street at the apple store in new york city. but first to josh lipton in palo alto, california, this morning. josh? >> well andrew it is still dark outside this apple store here in palo alto california. no lines of fans just yet.

of course, it's still very early here. i was just e-mailing with piper's gene munster. he thinks they will see 1 million units over the next couple weeks. if you're home and you want to test drive that watch, you can make an appointment or head to your local apple store. of course if you do want to order it you're going to have to do so online. the doors of this store behind me here will open at 10:00 a.m. pacific. and remember this is the store where tim cook often does make a gust appearance. he did so after that iphone 6 launch. so we're going to be here all day and on the lookout for the ceo. jon fortt, over to you in new york. >> thanks josh. you could use some of the moisture we got here over there in california. no line here either but we have seen several people over the last hour or so going up to the doors, asking whether they can go in. getting told no. asking when the doors will hepopen

and they can see the watch. so no line to see the watch. but interesting, if you count back to the iphone 5 and you need at least an iphone 5 to be compatible with the iphone watch, they have sold 50 million units of the iphone since then. if just 1% or half of 1% of those people who already have a phone want a patch, you're talking more than 2 million, up to 4.5 million preorders for the watch now. if you look online since this went live the preorders went live around 3:00 a.m. eastern time, in about half an hour to an hour all of the initial allotment, we don't know how many, sold out. now you're waiting until june or july to get your hands on any of those units. of course, we don't know exactly how many apple had available, but we do know apple wants a gauge on which configurations people want and how that varies by geography. that will give them a sense of how many of these they should

make and where they should plan to ship them. we also know that the stores themselves once the doors open are a key tool for apple to figure out what questions people are asking. these stores report back to headquarters every day. sometimes multiple times during the day. not just about sales, but also about customer feedback. this is a key gauge for apple that comes in hundreds of different configurations. the most complicated product apple has put out logistically. now they get a flavor of what they should make and when they should ship it. back to you. >> jon fortt and josh lipton on two sides of the country. thanks so much for that. you have a big guest. >> i can't believe it. i know. >> can you believe he's here? >> beyond the watch, apple is moving into tv streaming. whap does this say about the new wave of media? i think he's going to school you a bit. >> i'm ready to be schooled. >> we are joined by tom werner, chairman of the boston red sox. where to start here.

and we have manfred on later today. >> a few minutes. >> yeah. you knew opening day was this week. >> yeah i know. red sox playing well right now. >> you noticed. >> playing the yankees tonight. >> oh that's such a -- that's one of the great rivalries, suspect isn't it? >> it is. >> i went to school in boston. it's tough as a reds being in cincinnati. you remember 1975? why does everybody remember this when you lost? why does everybody remember this? like that's the only thing. >> they remember david ortiz now. >> they remember bench and rose and the bottom of the -- i forgot which. it was great. okay. here's where he's going to school you. >> here it comes. >> even though hbo is going, you know whatever it's called. >> over the top. >> and you got all these little -- you think everybody is going to buy some skinny little bundle for like $15. you say hbo, the majority of revenues is going to come from places like comcast. it's going to be carried on

comcast, probably and other operates like that. the world doesn't change that quickly. >> i'm going to talk to andrew. i think there's a lot of -- >> him, right? you've seen him. he does chatter. >> there's been a lot of chatter about this being a revolution. the fact is you can go out now if you're a comcast customer and for $80 a month you get hbo, you get a skinny bundle you get high-speed internet access. and if i'm a consumer sure ki get hbo. but there's always been an hbo over the top. there's always been a group of people who are the cord cutters who don't want subscription television. but if you want to buy a few things and want to be part of the water cooler conversation i think you're going to continue to sign up for your cable company or your satellite company. >> maybe i don't watch like you. he loves oxygen by the way, which you founded. that and lifetime.

basically 50/50. >> oxygen is owned by nbc universal. >> i'm selling it am i not? i'm selling it. you love it. but there are times when maybe i don't use all -- i don't know how many channels. 1500. maybe i don't use them all, but every once in awhile i need tru tv. suddenly during march madness i need it or something i want to see if i want to see it. if i add up the a la carte, it's going to cost more than this. >> i'm with joe. >> for the next ten years, i don't think this world is going to change. but ten years from now, there might be a generation that buy more a la carte. maybe you buy netflix, hbo go and a slim package. then what happens? >> i think the networks are going to be challenged. perhaps if you have un-important on syndicated content. >> i'm not talking about that. i'm talking about real networks.

tbs has some baseball and ncaa. but beyond that -- >> they make so much money compared to a network. >> beyond that they have reruns. >> but in the end it comes back to quality content. if joe wants to see something on tru tv he doesn't want to just have hbo or netflix. i do think, of course the millennials -- everybody talks about the millennials. they are consuming content in a different way. but that's a -- >> do you think as a content creator that you are going to still have -- right now we're in this golden age where you're able to sell it first to the network. then you're able to get the video on demand. then at the same time maybe get the syndication market. do all of those continue to exist in the same way? >> i think the syndication market will be challenged. i think if you're programming a niche network like esquire, for example, it will be challenging. but in the end, quality content

has more opportunity then to find an audience. it's very encouraging to content producers that amazon and netflix are spending the money they are. >> do you think it's going to get better or worse for you over the next ten years? >> i think they'll get better. >> content will be marked up. remember we said that. who was that that was also agreeing with me that was in that day? >> just to say one thing, wearing my sports hat, you can see the explosion of rights fees. the premier league made a deal in the uk 70% higher than the deal just three years ago. the focus is on quality content. >> and you saw mlb's digital presence is up 80% or something. how much was that up? like a sick number. >> my question goes when you create a drama, network tv and/or cable, not premium, that relies on advertising.

at a time when procter & gamble saying they're going to pull back 14%, 15% of their budget. i don't think in the last two or three years i've actually watched a commercial during some form of drama because i watch it on a dvr. what does that do to the economics of that business? >> you know, we're going to have to adjust. but drama is now selling globally. so there are markets now -- the chinese market is going to be an expanding market. >> by the way, just got "better call saul" which is available and i'm paying $25 for the service. >> sometimes on demand the fast forward is paired back or some of the commercials you have to watch. i mentioned during the final four, i saw some of those commercials 30 and 40 times because i hadn't taped any of it. and the streaming in mlb, it's not internet streaming. it's streamed through cable, right? you have to have the cable anyway, don't you? >> i'm sure i was going to talk about in-market streaming.

but you can get your baseball game out of market on your iphone, on your ipad. >> through cable, though right? >> no. you can also get it over the top. >> oh. i thought it was coming through. my point and i know i work for comcast, but the system i have right now. i hit the thing on my yeen ver sall remote. i've got on demand all the channels netflix there, and the internet. i don't know what i'm paying but -- >> one thing, you know i saw -- >> i wouldn't want to change anything. >> over the weekend dish came out with that skinny bundle. there was a lot of pushback from consumers. because bam, for example, is exactly brilliant about technological back of the office getting the information to the consumer. and the consumer was very unhappy because the streaming was bad, the quality wasn't good. you know people want ease of -- they don't -- they're not only worried about cost. they're worried about getting a quality product in an easy way.

>> all right. we've always got to go. we have commercials. i think people watch our commercials. you know why? >> because we're live. >> and we're going to come back and talk to rob, right? >> yeah. >> he knows how to tease. >> what about rose? you have an opinion? >> pete rose we can ask rob that. it's higher than my pay grade. >> is the all star going back to cincinnati? >> it's in cincinnati this year. >> is that the time you do this? that might be the time you do it. i was at the one in river front in 1970. anyway much more from tom werner. i was at the field, you ever go to the old ones? those are fun. anyway much for still ahead. andrew, what's coming up? >> we already told you. we have more on the ge story and more reaction from the street ahead. talk about that and a lot more when "squawk box" returns.

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♪ . news breaking early this morning. ge unveiling a big restructuring. the announcement including an immediate real estate sale worth $26 billion. a $50 billion share buyback program over the next couple of years. david faber discussing the move with ge chairman and ceo jeff immelt. >> jeff ge capital, the first question is a simple one. why and why now? >> yeah. so david, i would say the business model of financial services has certainly changed. we've got a fantastic industrial

portfolio. but we're a large wholesale funded finance company. you know the wholesale funding model is tougher. we felt like we're disadvantaged versus banks. at the end of the day, the way investors view financial services versus industrial assets is just starkly different. we felt from an investor standpoint this was the right time to make the move. we've been working this way since the financial crisis. and, you know why now? i think two things have happened just recently. you know one is you really have a perfect market to be selling financial service assets. you've got slow growth low interest rates, lots of liquidity. people searching for yield. and i think recently the final oversight board has really said there's an offramp for companies that were systemically different to kind of get off as they shrunk. you know, this is really good

for the system. it's good for the regulatory world. it's good for investors. that's been more or less recent. now is the time to do it. >> and this did happen -- i asked david about this at the time. i don't know whether -- this probably was expected though. going to be a different company. >> different company. >> moody's reacting quickly to the announcement downgrading the company to single a. to a-1 from aa-3. i think that's just one notch, isn't it? >> it is. but i don't think it was a negative. i think they knew this going in. >> i'm sure they did. however, it calls the downsizing of ge capital a positive development and says its rating outlook remains stable. and there's all the other debt unsecured, all that. i don't think moves were made on those. just made on this one. >> got it. i believe that is the case so far. we got some other stories that we're watching this morning.

u.s. officials in cuba held high-level meetings. john kerry met with his cuban counterpart last night. president obama is at a summit in panama. he's expected to cross paths with the cuban president. the two are at least expected to shake hand. amazon winning approval from federal regulators to test a drone outdoors. they blasted saying the drone had already become obsolete while the agency waited more than six months. amazon must keep test flights at an altitude of no more than 400 feet and no faster than 100 miles per hour. i think they also said that you couldn't do it out of eyesight. how are you going to deliver stuff far away from you? it makes no sense. >> we have -- i'm going to break. i don't get to talk to you. i have a lot of questions.

what was that guy with tom hanks on bosom buddies? >> peter scolari. >> what happened? >> he's still acting. >> one becomes tom hanks. >> one is like joe and one is like andrew. >> exactly. won't say which. the other question, what about brian dunkelman. remember that? you remember who he is? >> i don't. >> ryan seacrest is like on top of the world. there were two guys doing "american idol" at the beginning. you don't remember. >> oh yes. that was the first season. >> where's he? he's like peter sotera or whatever his name is scolari. coming up we're bringing you baseball's top ticket for free. red sox chairman tom werner still with us ahead. plus mlb commissioner rob man, manfred. he was on "meet the press" with chuck this weekend. and he'll join us. before heading to break, look at

u.s. ek we fi tuchs. financial noise financial noise financial noise

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there's one big corporate story this morning. ge's financial unit restructuring. we've heard from ceo jack welsh.

and he says -- instead of saying quote again and again, i said he said in his words, i like the package. it looks like a smart move and right for the changing financial landscape. which is pretty nice. >> different world. he's saying it's a different world. >> he is. he's very tactful and almost like a former president which doesn't want to -- presidents don't like to trash current presidents. >> when i talked to immelt last night, he didn't trash jack. i said was it a question to put it all together in the past 20 30 years you were there. he said it was a different market then. it's a different market now. >> summers said yesterday looking at interest rates every 10 to 15 years it can change based on -- now we're in a totally different situation. we may have low interest rates and inflation for years to come. what's coming up? >> coming up we've got an awesome player a tech

innovator. we're talking baseball mlb commissioner rob manfred who's going to join us on the "squawk" set after a quick break.

♪

baseball defining its reputation as an old school game and breaking into the stream online. showed an increase of 60% from last year. 50 million people tuned in via video streams. here to talk about the revival of baseball's brand and focus on streaming content, rob manfred, mlb commissioner. it's great to have you on to meet you, and wish you luck. >> great to be here. >> i was kidding a bit that all the hard stuff has already been decided in baseball. because past commissioners have had some huge issues. obviously to deal with. but i think some things will probably come up with you that maybe you don't know about. >> i suspect that's the case. you know right now i feel great about where the game is. we have great competitive balance which is what we sell at

the end of the day. as you alluded to bob bowman at mlb advanced media has done a great job for us in the tech space. we feel great about our business. >> it's a great -- obviously a lot of the money is local. and you can see it in any place -- like i'm from cincinnati. you can see it there. the whole town bleeds red. i guess everybody bleeds red. but in this case it's a big deal in local markets. if i was there -- i used to listen with my dad to the radio every day. who was the youngest pitcher ever andrew did you know that? he was 15 years old. i'd love to watch every game. an i would watch commercials in the local market. >> it's the biggest change in the last couple of decades how much product we have available locally. you know it used to be only some games were televised. now everything's available on television. and i think it's one thing that confuses people about our business. it's hard to take a sport like

ours that plays every day 162 times in 183 days and say how do you compare to a sport where you play once a week twice a week or three times a week. >> it's different than football. people say football has taken over, but it's different. there's ways of making it great again. but one of them is you guys have to figure out the length. it's a half hour longer than it was just ten years ago. you always want offense. although i love a great pitching duel too. >> we're working hard on the pace of game this year. tom was on a committee that we started last fall. we experimented with some really radical ideas in our arizona fall league but we put in a set of changes at the major league level this year that we feel are important and we're only half a week in but we've had pretty good returns already. >> you're seeing -- like have you averaged how much quicker it is yet? >> we've been about ten minutes down from where we were last year. it's not so much -- 3:02 was

average game time last year. when we talked about it it was not we wanted to go from 3.02 to 2:50 or so it was we wanted the fans to say it moved along at a good pace. and the slow moments of the game were shorter. >> what was the main problems? pitchers are good. >> i think there's a couple of things. i think we had gotten a little sloppy, frankly, about inning breaks. obviously our partners either 2:45 or 2:50. those slipped to the 3s somewhere. if you're a fan watching it on tv or in the ballpark. and player habits are an issue. guys habit of stepping out of the box. it becoming part of their routine. we're doing retraining on that front. >> i noticed the players have really complied with that. i used to say that velcro is one of the biggest enemies of

baseball. players would come out and play with a batting glove. but i noticed in the first few games they really adopted the program. i do think the game is crisper. >> all right. so we could spend the rest of the time talking about this but we can't. i said i saw pete rose run into f fosse. i don't know how to gauge steroids and juice. and guys that are known juicers are not just still in baseball but they're still playing baseball. and yet rose who wasn't the most talented guy. that was pure heart and hustle. and i'm not sure i want him in. i don't know. how are we supposed to think about this? >> here's how i think about it. i think it's a question of notice and rules. the most fundamental rule in baseball is rule 21. it prohibits anybody on the field from betting on baseball or betting on any sport. and in fact the rule is clear

that if you bet on baseball, you will be banished for life. >> we know all that though. isn't there a rule like that with steroids? >> no there isn't. that's the difference. the rule on steroids is -- and it's a rule that was bargained with the players association. it is, you know if you're caught there are penalties. it's now 80 games, one year and then life. and so it's a different -- >> so you think the rules should be as strict as the gambling rule? >> i think that the rule on steroids probably should not be quite as strict. and the reason for that is -- >> steroids should be less strict than it is? >> less strict than the rule on gambling. i think the gambling rule is so fundamental to the integrity of the game that it should stay where it is. >> rob, when you bet on baseball, it takes another step to actually cheat. just because you're betting doesn't mean you're cheating. when you juice, you're cheating the minute you start doing it you're cheating. so there's not even a -- it's --

gambling is a step removed from cheating. >> i think the difficulty with the steroid issue is that there is a continuum of products out there that can cause players problems. you know it's one of those areas that every sport struggles with. i think that commissioner selig did a fantastic job of taking a sport that had a huge problem, working through the collective bargaining agreement and he got to rbemember that. we have a bargaining situation there to get to a program that the world anti-doping agency believes is the best in sports. >> should pete rose be in the hall of fame? >> i can't tell you that. he's applied for reenstatement. he's allowed to do that. >> is there anything different this time? >> look the passage of time if nothing else changes, i think, the situation somewhat. and, you know mr. rose has suggested to me he has things he

wants me to understand about the situation. i'll give him a full opportunity. >> that's the rule you see when you walk into every clubhouse. it sounds like you already answered it. >> look i think that it is important to remember how faculty our gambling policy is to the integrity of the game. >> and you think letting somebody like pete rose in changes that? >> you know it's important to draw a distinction between two issues, in my view. on the one hand my job is to protect the integrity of the game on the field. if you're on the permanently ineligible list, you can't work in the game. whether or not you're eligible for the hall of fame is a product of the hall of fame's decision to follow our ineligibility list. there's two different -- >> you don't have to let him back into baseball to put him in the hall of fame. >> that's right. i don't control the hall of fame rule. the hall of fame is an independent organization. they have their own rules. you know, i'm going to make a

decision about the institution that i'm charged with protecting. >> what's the timeline for that? >> i don't have a timeline. we're talking to mr. rose's representatives about what the process will look like. there's a factual record here. i've been around baseball for a long time i was not involved in that particular incident i need to understand all those facts. and i do need to give mr. rose a chance to come in and do whatever he wants to do. >> so it's not gambling in your view. >> it's not just my view. there's a line in the law. and, you know we understand that line very carefully. you know, before we did the deal with draft kings we looked at all the games on their site. had them analyzed. we think the fantasy space is really, really important to us in terms of engaging young people. >> adam silver in ofin the nba

believes there should be gambling. what do you think? sthast not what he said he said i do agree with a uniformed federal scheme on gambling would be good for the country. it's very difficult when you have different laws on gam lbleing in 50 states. we operate in a lot of them. i think that can be confusing and not really a good policy. >> i'm sure you measured this. in terms of engagement how does fantasy change it? >> fantasy is really important to engagement. and the significance of fantasy particularly daily fantasy is big in the younger demographic that we're focused on. >> you -- i remember some great players in cuba. they probably still have some, don't they? who's how's that going to work? how long will it take. what does it happen? >> there's an interest in signing cuban players. >> $162 million.

>> he's 19 years old, isn't he? >> you said you were going to try to do on exhibition in 2016. >> we'd like to play some exhibition games there in 2016. what we're really doing is working closely with the federal government trying to figure exactly how the legal framework is going to change. we want to go when it's consistent, obviously, with federal law and federal policy. but if we could be helpful in term os they have thawing, we'd love to be part of pit. >> i think people want to sell some equipment in cuba too. like the louisville slugger. what's going to happen with the dodgers? >> look the dodgers situation is unfortunate. i mean it -- any time we don't have full distribution of our games in the local market it's a huge problem for us. and it's a terrible problem for major league baseball. because we don't have a seat at the table in those discussions. i'm hopeful that when the merger situation is clarified one way or the other, that there'll be some flexibility created and

they'll get the distribution agreements done. >> montreal. i didn't know they love baseball. >> it's interesting. two years in a row they've played two exhibition games on the weekend before the start of the season. they've drawn about 90,000 -- in excess of 90,000 people for each of the weekends. you know prior to the strike in '94, montreal was a good baseball market. i think with a major league facility, there's a lot of baseball interest up there. it could be a major league market again. >> anywhere else? >> the one that is interesting to me and i think it's a longer term project is mexico. i think it would be great for the game. i think it would help us not only in terms of expanding our international footprint, the internationalization of the game but i think it would be helpful in our engagement with the hispanic market. >> want to start a team down there? >> i think 20 million people live in mexico city.

so what a market. >> would you bid on that team? >> the flights wouldn't even be that different. >> the challenge for us we've done some great things. we've played openers in australia last year. it's great in terms of getting it going in those markets. what we're working hard on in international is sustained activity. more persistent, prolonged activity. and the geographics of a place like mexico works well for us. >> did we finally decide the balls are the same as they've always been? it's got your signature on it. >> it's got a different name on it. same baseball. >> how many takes? >> they came with a stack of index cards that thick. i thought i was back in grammar school. i wanted it to look like my actual signature. >> which one did they pick? >> what actually happens is they take five. and then they actually make five baseballs and they bring them back to you and you get to pick the one that is going to go into

production. it was kind of fun, actually. >> like success tearecretary of the treasury. >> i think it's better. >> it was really the first thing with i got back to the office the next day and it was the first thing they asked me to do. it took me aback a little bit. i wasn't quite ready to undertake it, but worked out okay. >> okay. we've got to go. it's kind of weird because guys that have the steroid rep, they don't get voted into the hall of fame. it's possible they can stay in the game but not in the hall of fame. maybe pete can't get back in the game but can get in the hall of fame. maybe it's the opposite of the guys that are juicers. >> they are separate issues. >> then i always heard from great players that in this day and age, we expect them to go out and do superhuman things that you can't fault them for

trying to get an edge at times. so it's understand bableableunderstandable. >> it's a huge and ongoing temptation. >> great to have you on. >> fun to be here. >> and you have a very envious -- people would kill to be commissioner of baseball or football. anyway, thank you for bringing him on. i don't know what this mean ifs for the red sox. coming up much more on the big news that broke this morning. ge. analysts from the street coming up next.

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breaking news this morning. ge sells most of its ge capital assets. and announcing a $50 billion buyback. how that will transform the conglomerate as it looks to focus on the industrial side of its business. details and reaction just ahead. economic data and earnings in focus. what you need to watch when earnings season kicks into gear next week. apple watch makes its worldwide debut. reaction from the street on the company's latest product and what it could mean for the bottom line as the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now.

welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc first in business worldwide. i'm joe kennen along with andrew ross sorkin. becky will be back on monday. we're less than 90 minutes away from the opening bell on wall street. and the futures have been getting a little better. up almost 50 points on the session today. general electric is obviously going to help the dow today. >> maybe not as much as they wanted. but it should. let's tell everybody the breaking news this morning. ge selling off most of its ge capital assets also announcing a $50 billion buyback. >> i think two things have happened just recently. one is you really have a perfect market for it. so you've got slow growth low interest rates, lots of liquidity, people searching for

yield. and i think recently the financial oversight board has really said there's an offramp for companies that were systemically significant to kind of get off as they shrunk and, you know we think this is good for the system. we think it's good for the regulatory world. it's good for investors. that's been more or less recent. now's the time to do it. >> let's see if now's the time to do it. look at shares of ge this morning. they are up much higher than before. there's a call at 8:30. we should tell you the stock now up almost 9% in the premarket. we'll see after the call at 8:30. >> that's a new high. 52-week high. that's for general electric and much more started slow. word was out. it totally blanketed the development. but premarket is always different than during the day. let's get more reaction to this major announcement. joining us on the news line nick haymann. mary thompson joins us as well.

she's at the nyse. nick, you were the analyst for a long time everyone went to. what was your first reaction? pretty incredible huh? after all these years. >> well they just pushed the fast forward button. this was something that was certainly, you know a long and windy road. now it's a straight and shorter route. you know this gets you to below 10% of the earnings for financial services. their commitment is by the end of 18. and instead of below 25% but the end of '16. >> is that definitely something that andrew mentioned the other concerns off that list and things like that. but do we know for a fact that's a business you don't want to be in anymore? we know the other businesses are going to be valued higher and make more money in the future? >> well conceptually it should be. it make this company a lot cleaner. okay? we're looking at a base infrastructure company instead

of a hybrid. even this year it's 34% of ge's financial services. next year targeted to be down to about 25%. but this really puts financial services all that remain is the commercial aircraft leasing as well as the financing for health care and energy. it's about $90 billion down from $365 billion at the end of december. so it really you know streamlines things for investors to think about. >> they used to defend the model just for that reason. they could have a really good credit rating and then lend all their -- lend at low rates to all their customers buying industrial stuff. that was always the rationale for keeping it intact. >> the world has changed since 2008. obviously today ge would like to terminate its designation. that's quite constraining. you have definitely lower rates. thest a good time to sell large

transactions like this. >> nick what kind of multiple do you put on this new ge if you will. and i start thinking about honeywell and gm and 3x. ge is about 15 times right now. >> you know as you think about 18 as the industrial multiple and 12 as the financial multiple. so you have this hybrid blend. this year a third at 12 and two-thirds at 18. and if you move towards 90.10, the market should give the full multiple. >> i understand the logic of doing this but i do question the real estate selling one buyer no auction. two or three years from now, is blackstone going to make a fortune off of this? we'll say they shouldn't have sold shouldn't have sold so cheap? >> good question. that $16 billion after tax or

$12 billion non-cash $4 billion cash. but the simplest way to think about it is you're going to basically exit what is 16% or about 30 cents of ge's dollar in earnings next year. and in return you've had a commitment by the company to buy back up to about 19% of its current market cap over the next few years in buyback. >> everybody's buying back their stock. and maybe we shouldn't complain about it. would you be happy if they had said we're going to devote some of this money towards either research and development or additional m&a? >> no. i think -- ge's done a lot of m&a. and we're looging to get to the point now where the company will be, if you will a constant portfolio. jeff's made his commitment to basically help bring businesses into the portfolio that will allow two-thirds of the world's population to get into the 21st century. that's what this company is all

about now. it's not about, you know real estate cycles and it's not about consumer finance and bringing that to international customers. it's about really lighting the light for two-thirds of the world. and with this certainly there's going to be a significant capability broadening for ge on the base infrastructure front that should give it a significant market lead. so this is you know like i said a fast forward button. there is a little bit of a tax solution, you know in this. because you're only getting $35 billion from the sub to the parent in return for the $50 billion you'll buy back in the stock. but i think that's a tradeoff that investors are comfortable seeing done. >> mary are you there? >> yes i'm here. >> you're so quiet. >> well you know we were listening to nick. just so add on his point, a number of people are talking about why not do to andrew's

point, use some of that money to do further acquisitions. keep in mind they completed their first ever in alston that is expected to be transformative. it could be payback for disgruntled investors who held this stock for a long time hoping to see it probably not achieve its all-time high of $60 a share but certainly improve. which it has been a source of frustration not only for investors but also for ge which felt it should be valued at a higher multiple. so this obviously,s is one way to get there. again, what i'm hering is surprise at the speed of which they are doing that. a little bit of concern about what -- because of the speed and the timeline laid out, does that mean that maybe they won't sell at prices they could fetch? but that of course remains to be scene. and i do want to add to emphasize the whole idea, that it was an important institution. the regulatory burden that was going to bring to bear to the

company, again, as jeff pointed out earlier is something they didn't want anything to do with. maybe that accelerated the company's decision to go i a head and do this in a very large fashion, in a quick fashion. >> nick? is nick gone? >> yeah still here. >> that makes sense, right? >> right. >> go ahead. >> no this -- think about simplification at accelerated pace. yes, you could have done it over longer period of time and got a little better price, but we don't need to make any more acquisitions. ge is billed on oil and gas. and i really think now what you see is what you get. it's been a long time since we've had that opportunity at ge. >> all right. very good. thank you. we appreciate it. and mary thompson i know you'll be doing this throughout the day. we'll be watching. >> we're also on apple watch. a strong turnout this morning so far for the world's first glimpse of the apple watch. jon fortt joins us from outside

the apple store a couple blocks from here. jon? >> hey. yeah, we got about a half dozen people who are waiting for the store to open at this point in just under an hour. important to keep in mind this isn't a product launch in the sense they've got inventory people are in here looking to buy. this is just a day to look. there are two key things apple wants to establish on a day like this. one is gauge demand. this is the most complicated product apple has ever sold. normally you've got two sizes of iphone and three colors. here you've got different sizes of watch different materials it's made in and all the bands that can be paired with it. apple wants to see by geography and configuration what people want. so they can gauge demand. they hate carrying inventory. they want to figure how to sell this watch. what are the questions people are going to want answered in different locations that actually closed the sale.

once they figured all that out, they'll be ready for a broader rollout which we expect to see in the summer and into the fall. so now is a learning time for apple and apparently for apple's customers. we'll see them come in during the day. back to you. >> okay. thank you, jon fortt. coming up empowering young women in the board room. the key to business success. the numbers and the discussion next. as we head to break, here's a look at general electric stock this morning after announcing a major restructuring. announcing a $50 billion buyback. those shares helping the dow to a nice open theoretically. we'll be back.

recent report by credit suisse said the female boards outperformed the male boards worldwide. we have the author of a new book "eyes wide open." not joe. eyes wide shut. >> you wish. >> she's also a professor at the

university college of london. go out and get the book. but let's talk about it. 26% is the out performance, is that real? >> yes. there's such a strong business case. >> but how's that being measured based on women on the board? >> cumulative excess returns. they looked over nine years credit suisse. and what they compared was companies which had at least one woman on the board versus companies with no women on the board. and in the u.s. they out-performed once with at least one outperformed by 26%. in asia pacific, outperformed by 55%. >> if you're a ceo or board member right now watching the show, you're thinking about how would you change the diversity mix. do you do it as a mondayandatory quota? what do you do? >> in europe there have been quotas imposed in a number of countries.

norway finland, spain, germany. that's one way of doing it. i don't think it's the only way. in the uk what we've been doing is we have a very vocal kind of campaigning group called the 30% club which is a lot of support of high-level chairman and ceos. and just by campaigning, they launched in 2010, they doubled the number of women on boards to 23.6%. so i think quotas is one way. but in the uk the uk government just to bear this in mind. the uk government was very clear. we support this initiative and if companies don't get their act together on this front, you are going to come with regulation. we are going to come and mandate it. >> do you think it'd ever be mandated in the united states? >> no i don't think. but we're going to talk about her book. there is a point of view that a woman makes a better financial institution. you can talk a little bit about how decisions are made.

>> exactly. i think there are three real reasons why it makes sense to have women on boards. the first is as you say, groups that are more diverse make smarter decisions as a vast body of research that supports that. which makes sense. if you're different, you bring different points of view different experiences. >> i'm going to throw a counterexample at you which is a strange one. >> okay. >> silicon valley obviously the diversity is very very low. look at apple. under steve jobs was basically a bunch of white guys for a very long time. huge success. would they have had more success with women? >> imagine how much more successful apple perhaps could have been. perhaps could have been. now, i'm on the board of warner music group. and you see the dynamics in a board room. do you change when there are women in the room? when it comes to governance not

only do women attend board meetings more regularly but men are more likely to attend if they know there are women directors. it's more fun. >> you heard that the financial crisis wouldn't have happened. they've actually -- i don't know. we don't know. there are some differences in the sexes. >> my wife is always right. so that's pretty much -- >> that's what i mean. i know how my house is run. i know it's run very well and i know i have nothing to do with it. i'm okay with it. >> wouldn't it be more fun if there were more women at the table? >> i don't know how to answer any of these things. i find out these things they're taping -- even though it's live it lasts forever, isn't it weird that way? >> the other thing that's fascinating is that if you want to future proof your business i have a company that focuses on 13 to 25-year-olds generation k. this generation is absolutely

passionate about equality. and the thing that worries the most more than terrorism, more than getting a job, more than even being liked is inequality. so if you want to future proof your business -- >> inequality meaning the sort of financial inequality or in terms of diversity. >> diversity. it's fascinating. >> from the female side or the male side? >> both. both. it's fascinating. this new generation they really care about this. if you want to think about your employees, if you want to think about your consumers, you need to be thinking about about diversity. >> question for you. red sox. you have a board of directors. >> we do. >> do you have women on the board? >> we don't. >> you don't? >> and i think we should move towards that. but our board of directors is made up of partners more or less, who are investors. but, you know it's clear that if 50% of our customers are women, you must listen to them. you must attract them.

and we have to adjust to that. >> is 50% of baseball women? >> not quite, but certainly our focus on families and our focus on youth, we do have to expand our base of it. it is gender neutral. >> you just won one. thank you. the book is "eyes wide open." check it out. when we return, is there too much technology in our lives? tom werner will answer that. and the apple watch available for preorder. we'll speak to an analyst about what it could mean for the company's bottom line. will it be enough? could it be more than enough? "squawk box" will return.

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i don't think there's any question. are we addicted to technology. let's hear from tom werner. cofounder of carsey-werner and chairman of the boston red sox. at times when my kids are at home messaging nonstop. they are missing a lot of what i'm trying to talk to them about. it's ubiquitous and constant. >> and as i've noticed. even though television viewing is flat people are watching five hours a day. more and more are watching with a second screen. they're watching a sporting event or drama. >> binge watching on an ipad. >> they're communicating

socially at the same time. so it's part of -- >> what's going to happen? >> well you know what? as a consumer i think that there is hopefully going to be some point where you say, you know what? maybe we should put this down and have a conversation. but you have to be impressed that the line continues to grow and more and more people are using their mobile phone. that's now the most important device. i was talking to a millennial who was getting a new apartment and i said are you going to get a 60 or 70 inch screen tv. she said no i don't need to. i'm just going to watch on my iphone. >> that i don't understand. >> just a different way. you have to be impressed that that's the habit. >> my needs are i don't see how they can get any better. got the 75 inch the high def. got this infinity whatever it is. like the masters today. or a hockey game. you watch on a 75 inch.

>> on the other hand the iwatch will be very interesting. because it's another way of consumering information. >> small screen isn't it? >> i understand "the new york times" is working with apple to have one sentence news bites you'll be able to see on your watch. >> going to be hard to slant the news in their direction with one sentence. >> soccer. should we talk about soccer? is it really ever going to make it? >> a global phenomenon. >> is it going to come in the u.s.? >> it is. comcast has done a remarkable job televising these matches. people are getting up at 7:00 8:00 in the morning to watch it. i expect we're going to go into a new negotiation with america networks. i expect the rights to continue to increase. >> i have a tough question for you. i don't know if it's tough but i want to know. bill cosby. what do you think? what do you know? >> i have so say, i was working

with him on a project as you know when this all unravelled. i feel badly for all of the women who may have had this experience. i don't know the facts. haven't asked bill about that. i can just attest to the fact that in the nine years i worked with him, he was the most professional, the most talented the most kind actor i've ever worked with. i can only attest to my own experience. >> i mean even when you're talking about it you know you need to say you obviously want to express a lot of empathy. there's a lot of women that have stepped up. but then again, other than his own experiences with bill cosby -- so i have even less. i never met him. >> professionally do you think it's over? is there a way for him to -- >> i can't answer that. >> i'm glad you're here. >> why? >> i'm just glad you're here.

i'm afraid to -- you know. >> i'm curious. >> it's so uncomfortable. >> inquiring minds want to know. >> i know you do. you're good at this. >> it's been great to have you. >> are you leaving? >> he is. >> going back to boston. >> he's got stuff to do. >> all right. >> thank you for being here. >> great to have you here. "squawk"'s coming back in a moment. e financial noise financial noise financial noise financial noise z

this is jim iuorio for "squawk box" from the floor of the cme. we have breaking data on import prices. they come out as down .3%. so it was in the range of what was expected. last time prevised from plus .4% to plus .2%. the fed twice in recent months has talked about the dollars strength. they're going to watch this keenly. export prices are plus .1% versus last time of negative .2%.

last month was revised from negative 9.4% to negative 9.7%. the stocks came in up 3%. they're up 2.5% now. we're not a real big market effect, but this is something that should be watched over time. back to you, joe. >> thank you, jim. joining us with more cnbc's steve leisman. and jack who's one of our go-to guys. he's harvard's chief investment officer. and strategist at raymond james here. do you want fill in a few, steve? >> real quick on the import prices. consumer goods and autos. you're seeing the impact of the stronger dollar coming through. also lower petroleum prices. they were actually up this time around. everything else was negative. year over year the thing that might feed in does so on a basis. but it's exerts downward pressure.

motor vehicle imports down 1.8%. that's the key, joe. you have this modest impact on inflation. it's something the fed is watching. but they say repeatedly is not determining their policy. >> jeff we'll get to you -- >> he was laughing. >> we'll get to you in just second. but jack what are you -- this -- how long have you been a ge shareholder? at least a decade or more i would think, right? >> two, joe. >> what do you think of this today? thumbs up? >> joe, this is the restructuring that the long-suffering ge shareholders like ourselves have been waiting for. this brings ge back to being an industrial who is simply there to finance the purchase of their products. which they're in great position to do. >> so that won't -- that's always been the rationale for ge capital. but you're implying at some point it existed for its own

sake as a profit center not to just help finance the industrial sale. >> well, it did, joe. and you remember the cash was coming in over the transform in the '90s. they decided to put a lot of it to work in financial assets. the real estate they're proposing to sell to blackstone and wells fargo, those are assets that they own just because they had cash they needed to put to work and they looked attractive at the time. >> we had jeff long before the g e! news. so i want to ask jeff. you'll let us know your bullish stance. reading some of the stuff, it looks like you're saying expect more volatility but stay long. is that basically it? >> yeah joe. i think that secular bull markets tend to last 14 or 15 years. we're 6 years into this one. you will get pullbacks but it's

within the uptrend of the market according to dow theory. if you compound forward at the 16% per year you're talking about 4200-plus in something like 2023 or 2024. >> in 2013 ge was designated a sifi. ge capital the lending now is going to be sold to non. >> correct. >> is this a good development of regulation in that you've had essentially a big company that's going to be partialed out so it's not all under one umbrella. >> yes. >> so the company is less big to fail. >> yes. >> on the other hand what's regulated lending is now going to underregulated lending. >> yes. but in the real estate business for example goes to blackstone. blackstone has become a big business. >> but these asset managers are not -- >> correct.

the larger question i have is actually whether this development portends other transactions. >> so de-sifi-fication. >> yes. you're looking at metlife is suing the government -- >> do get out. >> i want to know what you mean by you think it's a good decision. you're talking about some nebulous -- no. . a world where too big to fail is still a concern, you're saying this is a good development for regulators to where now less worried about a systemic failure. is that what you're saying? >> you asked that question. >> and you're only too willing to -- >> i'm suggesting that deversification -- >> is this good for income inequality? >> i don't know it's related. >> what about for ceo compensation? >> i worry about one thing. i worry about the idea we create too much regulation in the regulated part and we shove this

stuff outside of the system to a place where it's less regulated and less overseen. however, the idea it's less concentrated is potentially a positive. but there's definitely a process here by which we are bolstering the shadow banking world through dodd-frank. >> absolutely. i don't think i disagree with that. it's true. the question is are we going to see the same kind of concentration and then that's not going to be regulated. >> see, for people that maybe think regulation is already overshot too much -- >> look. i'm also the same person to tell you i don't think jpmorgan is too big. >> even steve is not monolithic in his love of all things government. >> in a lot of ways i think dodd-frank did a lot of good raising capital standards and liquidity standards. they could raise dividends is like -- >> jack de gan, do you have more? at this point, the ultimate, what kind of bang for your buck

do you ultimately get from this? you get 35 40 eventually? become a more nimble company that starts to set a series of new highs? >> well i think that's right. i think you -- >> when you got these companies break themselves apart. you're going to see this in the banking complex as well. they've been regulated out and a lot of the holding companies, i think, are going to spin out. maybe asset management or credit card divisions. they're going to get x times in the market. rather than in the holding. so i think ge is doing the exact right thing. i think it's going to enhance. >> sorry, jack, you go ahead and answer now. >> sorry, jeff. didn't mean to step on you. yeah. i think this will bring the stock to new near term highs. our target was 28 to 30. we're pretty much there.

the stock is relatively fully valued here on earnings. earnings are going to struggle for awhile where you lose the benefit of the financial earnings. and the industrial earnings grow a little bit slower because of the oil and gas slowdown. so i think the shares are reasonably fully valued. but, joe, one thing i want to say, i want to shout out. back in '08 and '09, he was rolled out and did his deep dive analysis for investors and analysts. gave us confidence that the company would survive liquidity crisis. and i think he was moved over by jeff to run ge capital to come up with a restructuring like this. and i think he's done a great job. i believe he's the unsung hero at ge. >> all right. jack de gan, thank you. steve, you're so good at this we have to thank you twice. like a fine running watch.

and then also jeff saut. when we return the ge parade continues. larry bossidy, we're going to ask him what he thinks of the reorganization announcement. we'll do that when we return. then a strong turnout as shoppers try to get the apple watch. we're going to find out what sales could mean for the bottom line. when "squawk box" returns in just moment. organic food stocks schwab can help. with a trading specialist just a tap away. what's on your mind lisa? i'd like to talk about a trade idea. let's hear it. [ male announcer ] see how schwab can help light a way forward. so you can make your move wherever you are. and start working on your next big idea. ♪ ♪

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financial noise financial noise welcome back to "squawk box." the futures right now indicated

to be up about 40 points on the session. nasdaq indicated up just less than 3. and the s&p just under 4. the top story of the morning is general electric selling most of its ge capital assets. former ceo jack welch seems pleased. he says i like the package. it looks like a smart move and right for the changing financial landscape. and joining us now on the "squawk" news line is honeywell ceo larry bossidy. actually the term larry legend was not first with larry bird. >> this man. >> first in reference to larry bossidy. larry, you remember there have been days and periods in the past. remember itt, you've got to have a conglomerate. then there were days that doesn't work anymore. so times do change. in your view was there a time when it made sense to have a huge financial arm for ge that

doesn't make sense now? >> well you know joe, the news this morning with mixed emotions. i remember all the hard work that went into building a huge risk contained financial colossus. i think subsequently the balance sheet was extended to excess and liability side in terms of too much short-term borrowing. so they were vulnerable to the financial meltdown and as a consequence they took the company to the point of disaster when the commercial paper market became liquid. and then upon survival they were guinn the sifi designation which they found encumbering. i think what they announced today is the right thing to do in these times. whether or not it had to be this way, i'll let historians decide. >> that's an interesting take, larry. so there are some people that are saying look.

you needed the finance arm and the rationale was you finance a lot of the equipment that you make on the industrial side. and then they kind of imply that having all the -- you know they started making some money. not just doing what it was designed to do but by sort of this black box idea of all these different things that the company got and even subprime at some point the company got into. you don't think it got out of control at that sense? you think it's fine for the company to be half industrial half financial. that's not necessarily a bad thing? >> i don't think it's a bad thing necessarily. when welch and i were around we maintained it to a certain percentage of ge's total earnings. so recognizing it had a lower multiple than the rest of the industrial businesses. nonetheless, of the mind there could be a significant contributor if contained and managed appropriately. it worked well for years. it didn't in this decade and so

what they announced today is appropriate for the times, but nonetheless i look at the history with mixed emotion. >> how about the use of the proceeds from it? would you -- you think there are things that as an industrial company that ge should be, you know scouring beating the bushes for things to add to its number one or number two positions in the markets that it wants to be in? or does the buyback -- is that a good thing, do you think, for the future? >> no i mean they've done a lot of acquisitions. the most recent being alston as everybody knows. so they've done enough of that for awhile. they certainly bustered their oil and gas properties. i think doing the buyback in the face of this is the right thing to do. i think it will be beneficial to the ge investor. >> there you have it. he likes the deal. >> like this deal but there's -- read between the lines. larry's saying different things. >> let me ask you a different question larry. long-term do you see the company

breaking up even further? >> no. i think as they have stated i think they want to be an industrial franchise. i wouldn't be surprised if -- >> do you think that health care, for example, do you put health care in that same space? >> i think health care service business is a great business and b it's going to only expand in light of what's happened in the country and around the world. i think they may add another leg some day to the industrial franchise down the road but nonetheless, i think the strategy now is clear that they want to be an industrial company and i think they'll invest to be as good as possible. >> all right, larry. this is big news. we've got to run. but, i mean is spieth going to play like that for three more days you think? >> no he's not. but he played great yesterday. i think justin rose is the guy to put your money on. >> wow. but you know jordan last year had his meltdown at augusta. maybe he learned from last year. that yesterday was like -- i heard nanana from caddy shack.

it almost looked like it was coming from above, didn't it? >> it did. he's very good for a young fellow. very composed. it'll be interesting to see how he does over the weekend. >> and tiger is not bad. it's just watching him grind like that makes me uncomfortable. he seems to have to work a lot harder to shoot the same score some of these young kids are able to do fearlessly. >> when you can't put your driver in the fareway, it makes it tough. >> i wouldn't know about that larry. great having you on. >> okay. when we return apple getting a downgrade on launch day for its watch. among the reasons, the analysts say early reviews on the watch suggest it will fall far short of what he calls the insanely great benchmarks that some other analysts have put on sales. we will talk to another one, a different guy, collin gillis, about what he sees next.

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apple watch available for preorders foxes lining up outside stores around the world joining one on for size. colin gillis, senior technology analyst. we saw a downgrade.

you're not a fan of the watch? >> look let's put in perspective, they're going to sell millions of these out of the gate right? it's going to be a multibillion dollar revenue stream and it's first quarter. so -- >> what happens the problem. >> for any product launch that's a success. but longer term did that's apple, that's the apple phenomenon phenomenon, early adopters. we want to see what's the sustain ability for the watch? >> right. >> three things i point out. one first-generation device, report? by the nature of that there's going to be kinks that have to get worked out. two, unsubsidized device you're paying a hefty price tag. >> what's the margin on the watch? >> it's a nice margin, right? this is what apple's positioning, upscale product. you're going to see margins around 40% or so, it's between the iphone and the ipad. >> 40%, is that on -- that's on the $359. >> of course blended. factor in accessories and extra bands. >> what percentage of people

buying the low end versus the $700 versus the 1200 versus $17,000? &we've got to see that. we'll see that unfold over time. i think the skew may be towards the low end. this is one of the issues with the watch, right? look at it there's 20 different versions of the stainless steel, ten model ofs the sport. there's a lot of various combinations to factor in. all of this right, when you factor in the best case sell 5 million units, $500 a.s.p. $200 billion of revenue on sale in the first quarter, that's 5%. it's all noise. if you're apple investor you have to be more concerned about iphone channel inventory, iphone in china and capital return program, right? we can talk all we want about the watch but it's not going to move the stock, not in thor in material. great for apple to be in wearables but this is not the savior for the income statement. >> all things would be the same that you talked about even if they hadn't introduced the watch? we'd be worried about that. all right. that's a given.

but this watch, i don't know i -- the kids are going to want them, i can tell you that much. it may be initially it's just that the margin -- >> i think there's a hidden story. >> a whole new -- >> the laptop on the 6:00 hour. they're bucking the trend. they are selling more -- >> that was like ipad with a key -- with an attached keyboard inhe stead of the belkin keyboard it's and the same size and light. pretty nice. >> we're saying at the break, it's more relevant news they're gaining share in the pc market than the watch launch today. that's big news. >> think further out, is the big, big news whatever they do in tv in the fall if they do something in the fall? >> so what i like about the television concept is it's a high a.s.p. as well the problem is what you're seeing for most tv solutions. >> a.s.p. >> average selling price. >> if you're to buy a high-end 4k screen you can sell a product for a couple of thousand of dollars, right?

but most tv solutions that have come out now, training the consumer to expect them to be $99 or below, right? chrome cast rokus below $100 price point. >> the business for them in all 0 the content that we're buy, the third of everything that tear taking and the icloud apple -- where are you on apple pay? >> it's a great feature to help sell the phone, right? but it's not a revenue driver. 15 bips. i like the feature. >> why do you think the company -- the company's very big on the watch and excited about. they are going to do that on any rollout? they seem to think it's more of a big deal than you do. >> well i think wearables is a big category. will they own that? >> i point out they're not breaking out watch. >> right. >> they're rolling it into you know the other -- >> are you buying the stock or no. >> no. i'd see it -- it's

underperforming in the s&p since mid-february. >> price target? >> 115. looking for a pullback. >> we will watch for that. colin, thanks for joining us. >> large numbers, too. >> pete rose looking for baseball reinstatement. the new baseball commissioner weighed in on the controversial ballplayer earlier on squax"squawk box" and generating buzz on twitter. highlights when we return.

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regulators want you to wash your car, message coming from the national highway traffic safety administration, just closed five-year investigation into rusty brake lines. that's why. agency blamed that problem on road salt and lack of washing. so it can be a safety issue. their message if you live in cold weather states which obviously you get fewer and fewer as time goes by they get the undercarriage of your car washed several times during and after winter if we still have winter. it is one of the most controversial stories in baseball and it's been go on for more than 25 years. pete rose banned from the sport after allegations that he gambled on baseball games while playing for and managing the cincinnati reds. that makes him ineligible for

the hall of fame. he's applied for reinstatement from new commissioner rob manfred. we asked the commissioner about it in the last hour. >> the rule is clear, if you bet on baseball, you will be banished for life. i think gambling rule is so fundamental to the integrity of the game that it should always stay where it is. what i can tell you about pete rose is that he's applied for reinstatement. he has right to do that. i'm going to take a full and fresh look. >> anything different this time around? >> well look time the passage of time if nothing else changes, i think, the situation somewhat. you know mr. rose has suggested to me he has things that he wants me to understand about the situation. i'll give him a full opportunity. >> this is going on for a while. you have an opinion on pete rose because it's controversial. >> no, my sense is i -- >> it's the steroid thing. that threw a wrench in. every current statistic, every

current record is tainted by -- his 4300 whatever it was, that's -- we know that's not tainted by juice. >> but i also want to -- it's a line in the sanden i think there should be a better line on steroids. >> i want to see you gambling while broadcasting. thank you for indulgeing my voice. >> get rid of that other stuff from bangkok, too, that you got. >> join us on monday. squawk on street begins right now. ♪ ♪ come on show me what you got♪ >> live shot of the apple store in new york city as preorders for the watch go live online. customers can try them on at least in stores. we'll gauge the response both in the united states and overseas. good friday morning. welcome to "squawk on the street," i'm carl quintanilla with david faber sara eisen, simon hobbs. cramer is off. futures in a tight range. chatter around ge's move to