good morning, it is 8:00 a.m. at twitter headquarters in san francisco, 11:00 a.m. on wall street and "squawk alley" is live. ♪ ♪ ♪

>> good morning and welcome to "squawk alley" for a wednesday, carl is out today, but here for the hour is david faber. great to have you. >> good to be here. >> jon fortt sheer as well. we have a lot to discussion in terms of the markets and tech news, we are awaiting president obama, any moment he's expected to speak in the rose garden. announcing the u.s. and cuba have reached an agreement to restore diplomatic ties, including the reopening of embassies in both countries. we'll get you there live as soon as the president starts speaking. let's start with the market. stocks are in the green as greek officials are trying to appeal to their eurozone partners. but stocks are off their highs after the greek prime minister spoke in the last hour. michelle caruso-cabrera is live in the athens with the latest. >> anticlimactic, there was lots of speculation that he might say something like he was calling off the referendum or he was going to say that greeks should vote yes instead as some kind of

concession to the creditors, that did not happen. he came out and reiterated his position, he said we're going to hold the referendum. i want you to vote no. it's not about staying in the euro, don't let them tell you that. if you vote no and the no vote wins i'll be in a stronger negotiating position. he's holding his position at this point. this means that we're going to go on with the referendum on sunday and now the creditors are saying we want to see the outcome of the referendum as well and we want to hear from the greek people. we do think that this is a vote on whether or not they're going to stay in the euro. there are two events we're waiting for today. what does the euro group do? that's when the finance ministers get together and look at the letter that alexis tsipras sent last night that appears to make a lot of concessions. why sent it is not clear. but they're going to address it and we assume it's going to be a short meeting when the finance ministers convene. we're waiting to hear from the european central bank to see

what they decide about the liquidity to the greek banks, which means with the capital controls that are in place, the greek banks are shut. pensioners were allowed to go get 120 euros, they were originally told they would be able to get all the cash from their pensions, it's actually a very limited amount. emblematic that the country is running out of cash. the government can still deposit checks because apparently it still has enough money to do that. but cash in and of itself, which you need from the ecb is in short supply. >> we will get some news out of the conference call momentarily. we'll get it to you when we have it for now, thanks. let's bring in jon steinberg, ceo of the "daily mail" in north america. >> today is officially jack dorsey's first day taking over as interim ceo. and dick costolo reflecting on his tenure at the social network

and an exit interview with the guardian. saying you always want to get focused on the long-term vision, euro on a 90-day cadence and there's a very public voting machine of the stock price that accelerate the short-term thinking. when asked about his exit costolo said it's the right time, great leaders and great are resilient and self-aware. jon steinberg what did you make of this interview? >> i think dick is getting a lot of the credit that he deserves, a lot of shoutouts on twitter and jeff wiener on linkedin saying what tenure he had. you've got so many of these silicon valley ceos, wall street doesn't get us, 90-day cadence. i know it's incredibly hard to be a public company. you have to lean into it, you have to talk to the hedge funds, talk to the mutual funds, you can't just say it's stupid i'm not going to deal with it, which is a lot of the attitude you see on silicon valley. >> really he says here, dealing

with the landscape, the geopolitical landscape will be the big challenge for the next ceo, the next way in which countries think about the value of open exchange of information. what about shipping good products more consistently? what about growing users? i know they don't like to talk about that, but in terms of big challenges, to me it seems like those might stand out a little bit more than dealing with geopolitical headwinds on free speech. >> i think it speaks to a lot of lack of sophistication thaw see in these new tech executives, vis-a-vis the ones from the old-line media companies. a lot of guys think i'll only going to talk to the mutual funds, they don't realize that the mutual funds are the first once to dump their stock the minute they have a bad quarter. there's a lot of amateur behavior going on. >> you're saying faber only talks to the -- >> no, but he gets a lot of pros on like the malones and stuff. >> more established people. but it's interesting to note that twit certificate not a controlled company. to the extent that google wants

to do it can do whatever it wants and pay the price for that. so perhaps it facebook is a controlled company and in this case, twitter not. i don't know to what extent that also impacted his inability to feel like he could do whatever he wanted. so to speak for the long-term. do you hear it all the time. you hear it as you know from companies that choose not to go public this constant refrain, well we can do so much better in private hands raising more and more money and therefore avoiding all the problems of the public markets so to speak. >> we heard that same chorus from spencer raskoff of zillo, trying to avoid the drumbeat of the 90-day cadence. dick costolo did elaborate on the comments of public companies being forced into short-term thinking. he responded to another tweet by saying i was less trying to say you were poresed into it, but more you have to be diligent of pushing back against that current.

but easier said and that done, superbly when you can't be a controlled company. >> now that mr. dorsey is running the show, it doesn't appear to be in the running for the ceo job if he doesn't want to give up square, do you have any expectations that things are going to change in a significant way? it didn't seem like that from the one conversation i with as able to have with those two younger guys. >> it seems like not. they're clearly trying to say we're opening this up to do a serious search and the main job of the interim ceo is to make sure those products get out on time that they try stuff and that they execute well. >> he talked in the interview about this project lightning which is the product that's supposed to focus on live events and capitalize on curating some of this content for users who maybe aren't familiar with twitter and he said that his critics are saying why don't you introduce that four years ago? and he said four years ago we were trying to keep the site from staying up or going down. he was like four years ago we were still dalg with fail whales, maybe that's a bigger

problem that we should be talking about. >> on the communication point, the challenge is that nodo is a pro, knows how to talk to wall street, thundershower cfo, jack is less well versed. when you look at a couple company cfo or a ceo, they're very good at operating their companies and they know how to speak to the street. jack doesn't know how to do that. so for nodo to ride roughshod for him is a very difficult way to exert authority and at the same time not have the experience to communicate. >> with that beard it's not to exert authority. what are your expectations in terms of short list, either one? neighbor here? >> i read peck's note. >> they are likely to pick a new ceo. >> i read peck's note. i like ross levinson, i don't think he's in the contender for this i think jack has the inside track on it because the founder sheen in silicon valley is such a big thing. >> the board has made it clear, he'll have to give up square. >> it's possible. think he wants that twitter thing more than anybody on

earth. his mother retweeted a comment we had on stage when i said that jack's the obvious next ceo. she retweeted it. you talk to your mom about what you want to do adam bain is a clear front-runner as well. he loves the company. a great track record. >> the president is speaking live in the rose garden about relations with cuba, let's take you there live. >> more than 54 years ago. the height of the cold war, the united states closed its embassy in havana. today, i can announce the united states has agreed to formally reestablish diplomatic relations with the republic of cuba, reopen embassies in our respective countries. this is an historic step forward in our efforts to normalize relations with the cuban government and people and begin a new chapter with our neighbors in the americas. when the united states shuttered our embassy in 1961, i don't think anyone expected that it would be more than half a century before it reopened. after all our nations are

separated by only 90 miles and there are deep bonds of family and friendship between our people. but there have been very real profound differences between our governments. and sometimes we allow ourselves to be trapped by a certain way of doing things. for the united states that meant clinging to a policy that was not working. instead of supporting democracy and opportunity for the cuban people. our efforts to isolate cuba, had the opposite effect. cementing the sta status quo and isolating the you state if our neighbors in this hemisphere. the progress we mark today is another demonstration we don't have to be impressioned by the past. when something isn't working we can and will change. >> last december i announced the united states and cuba had decided to take steps to normalize our relationship. as part of that effort, president raoul castro and i direct the our teams to renegotiate the establishment of embassies. since then our state department has worked hard with our cuban

counterparts to achieve that goal. later this summer, secretary kerry will travel to havana formally to proudly raise the american flag over our embassy once more. this is not merely symbolic. with this change, we will be able to substantially increase our contacts with the cuban people. we'll have more personnel at our embassy and our diplomats will have the ability to engage more broadly across the island. that will include the cuban government, civil sew side. and ordinary cuban who is are reaching for a better life. on issues of common interest, like counterterrorism. disaster response and development, we will find new ways to cooperate with cuba. i've been clear that we will continue to have some very serious differences. that will include america's enduring support for universal values like freedom of speech and assembly and the ability to access information. and we will not hesitate to speak out when we see actions that contradict those values.

i believe the best way for america to support our values is through engagement. that's why we've taken steps to allow for greater travel. people to people and commercial ties between the united states and cuba and we will continue to do so going forward. since december we've seen enormous enthusiasm for this approach. leaders across the americas have expressed support for our change in policy. you heard that expressed by president dilma rousseff yesterday. public support for this engagement. one cuban said i've prepared for this all my life and i've said this is like a shot of oxygen. one cuban teacher put it simply, we are neighbors, now we can be friends. here in the united states we've seen that same enthusiasm. there are american who is want to travel to cuba, american business who is want to invest in cuba, american colleges and

universities that want to partner with cuba. above all, american want to get to know their neighbors to the south. through that engagement we can also help the cuban people improve their own lives. one cuban american looked forward to reuniting families and opening lines of communication. another put it bluntly. you can't hold the future of cuba hostage to what happened in the past. that's what this is about. a choice between the future and the past. americans and cubans alike are ready to move forward. i believe it's time for congress to do the same. i've called on congress to takes steps to lift the embargo that prevents americans from traveling or doing business in cuba. we've seen members from both parties begin that work. why should washington stand in the way of our own people? yes, there are those who want to turn back the clock and double down on a policy of isolation, it's long past time for to us realize that this approach doesn't work. it hasn't worked for 50 years. it shuts america out of cuba's

future and it only makes life worse for the cuban people. so i would ask congress to listen to the cuban people. listen to the american people. listen to the words of a proud cuban american, carlos gutier z gutierrez, who recently came out against the policy of the past saying i wonder if the cubans who have to stand in line for the most basic necessities for hours in the hot havana sun feel that this approach is helpful to them? of course nobody expects cuba to be transformed overnight. but i believe america engagement through our embassies, businesses and people is the best way to advance our interests and support for democracy and human rights. time and again, america han common demonstrated part of our capacity for leadership in the world is our ability to change. a year ago it might have seemed impossible that the united states would once again be raising our flag, the stars and stripes, over an embassy in

havana. this is what change looks like. in january of 1961, the year i was born, when president eisenhower announced the termination of our relations with cuba, he said it is my hope and conviction that it is in the not too distant future it will be possible for the historic friendship between us once again to find its reflection in normal relations of every sort. well it took a while, but i believe that time has come. and a better future lice ahead. thank you very much and i want to thank some of my team who worked diligently to make this happen. they're here, they don't always get acknowledged. we're really proud of them. good work. >> that was the president of the united states announcing that secretary of state john kerry will travel to havana to raise the american flag over an embassy that hasn't been opened in that country since 1961. with more let's get to jon

harwood in washington with reaction. >> you noticed as the president was leaving, he ignored the shouted question about whether he will go to cuba. the white house has indicated that that is not likely. but i would be surprised if he leaves office without going this is the lodge follow-on to the step the president announced in december and the question now is how long will it take for congress to follow his request. on lifting the trade embargo that's going on for 50 years. i wouldn't expect it before he leaves office. it will probably be unfinished business for the new president and it will face resistance then from republicans in congress. marco rubio and other who is think this is an ill-advised move. but this is the president, again trying to cement another aspect of his legacy, a week after the supreme court seemed to vindicate two others, with the ruling legal, making gay

marriage constitutional and standing up for the exchange structure of the affordable care act. >> that's what i want to ask you about, big picture. aren't the political fault lines being redrawn here? i mean relations with cuba used to be something that neither party really wanted to touch because of the impact on florida, presidential politics, et cetera. between the gay marriage ruling from the supreme court and now diplomatic relations, this embassy in cuba, health care reform. how will it impact the 2016 presidential campaign? >> the fault lines are being radically redrawn on cuba because by breaking with an orthodoxy that his own party had embraced and remember, when this embargo went into effect, john f. kennedy was the president of the united states. the president has tried to make a divide between the future and the past. of course in florida, the proportion of latino vote who are are not cuban descendants is

increasing and we know that younger cubans are more interested in thawing relations than their older than their parents and grandparents who fled the cuban revolution. so this is something that democrats have proven they can win the state of florida. this is new wrinkle. and it may be a challenge in 2016 for hillary clinton but i wouldn't expect any democrat to turn back on this after the president has take an step. >> the president calling the news a choice between the future and the past. it seems like it thanks for your time. john harwood in washington. all right coming up. first brazil and then the world, a senior executive from xiaomi tells us about its first new market launch outside of asia. plus in time of crisis are the greeks turning to bitcoin? we'll take a closer look at one company waiving fees for customers buying and selling bitcoin with bureauos. another check of the markets with the dow up triple digits, about 124 points there.

the nasdaq also higher. squawk alley will be right back.

xiaomi is brazil bound. the chinese smartphone maker launching its latest device. the red mi ii in the south american country yesterday. this is the company's first smartphone sold outside asia. its first manufactured outside china. joining us now on the phone. xiaomi global vice president g

hugo barra. i think the price for this will be about $160 u.s. considering iphones have a significant mark-up in brazil, how are you able to do this? is it the fact that you're manufacturing them in brazil? and what effect do you expect that price point and the quality of phone that you're making to have on brazil? >> good morning, from brazil. we, we are in fact manufacturing locally, here in brazil, which of course is the way to get you know, the best price given all the tax advantages of doing that and everyone was blown away. we had 1,000 fans showing up for the event yesterday. we had to do a second launch event we couldn't fit everyone into the theaters. the price has hit the sweet spot. >> how does the model chaeng now that you're moving outside of asia if at all. are you going to bring the same kinds of services attached to the phone in brazil?

and if you are can you give a flavor of what sorts of things you're going to be able to tie in to phone experience there. >> we are bringing the same model the same business model and the same user mod toll brazil, it's a very social media driven model for creating buzz, for marketing for sales and so on and so for the we're also just beginning to build some services that are focused on the needs of users in brazil. there's a lot of interesting local services in brazil for example. it's fairly common to hire someone for about an hour to pick up something across town for you they're called moto boys here in brazil. it's basically some guy on a motorcycle that just cruises around the city. given how terrible traffic is in brazil, that's a huge thing. we'll intent grate something like that, directly into the operating system. there's many things that are in the works. it will be a local experience,

if you will. >> other costs in brazil are high, too as john alluded to. you have labor that's more expensive. distribution that's more expensive. energy is more expensive. how long do you have to operate this business at a loss in brazil before it will break even? >> we don't have to operate the business at a loss at all. the secret for us here is to repeat our success in e-commerce direct selling model. makes a huge difference considering how expensive the margins are to sell through normal retail which is typically how smart foeps are sold in brazil. we're coming in and trying to disrupt our approach to market and that's what's going do make our business model fly. >> give us your reactions to apple music which launched yesterday. we expect it to launch on android within the next few months what are you going to do if anything different in music than google is already doing to sort of prevent apple music from beginning the default even across android in the months

ahead? >> we operate our own music service in china. its something we've considered bringing to our international markets in china. it's probably too early to say something in that regard. i think others will respond to what apple has been rolling out. it's a very difficult space to be in. the economics are tricky. users are already using other things, so we'll see. it's a very competitive space. >> how closely are you watching apple music? for instance, beats i radio, might you start a global radio station? how many things are on the table when you look at what xiaomi might do to differentiate itself if you decide to bring that music service outside of china? >> the price points of the music services that exist today including apple are a bit too high for the markets that we focus on. which are markets like brazil or india, indonesia and so on.

so i'm not quite certain that what they're doing will be relevant in those markets. it might require a very different approach because the price point is too high. >> what is the market that you see the company going into beyond brazil, indonesia, in addition to china. have been huge successes, is this still emerging company or do you see yourself going beyond the countries you have expanded to? >> we are still focused on the emerging markets, where our value proposition is strongest. aggressive prices. brazil is for us a stepping stone into the rest of latin america. we're running latin america from brazil. we're staying object brazil before going further that's one of the next logical steps for us. >> and quickly what do you see in the second half of the year in terms of nand in terms in some of the countries where you're operating not just for

phones, but for everything else that xiaomi is interested in? is it growing or stable or falling? >> it's growing and the second half of the year is actually very critical for all of our markets, because of indonesia, the biggest shopping season of the year, you have duvali in india, october/november and christmas across all markets, the second half of the year is typically very strong. we're gearing up for some big numbers. >> all right. hugo barra, global vice president at xiaomi, joining us on the phone from brazil. thanks. still keeping an eye on the markets. the dow in triple digits, this has been the leading indicator of how we trade here and we will have the european close and it's impact on u.s. markets next on "squawk alley." ♪ every auto insurance policy has a number.

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as the eurozone finance ministers begin their conference call, simon hobbs is here to tell us how the markets are closing in europe. >> you can't argue with the price action. those are the strong gains you've had in europe. gains of 2% in the belief from the beginning of the session that the greeks would blink or were willing to accept. the greek prime minister sending that letter 679 it doesn't seem to have mattered that during the course of the day it's asking for a watering down of concessions, pension cuts, tax hikes, they're asking for $29 billion of loan and debt service which the rest of europe is not about to say yes to however, the rally is there the banks have done well. there's been some selling into the stronger gains that we had on the banks earlier today. many of those big guys are higher and also a lot of the exporting stocks did well today. led by the autos, i'm not sure if that's a projection on where we might go with the single currency. nonetheless in response to the

letter in an emergency summit in an emergency session of the german parliament. angela merkel said nothing was possible, no deal would get done until after the greek referendum on sunday and europe must not seek compromise at any cost. the advantages must outweigh the disadvantages. the future of europe is not at risk and subsequently you have within the last hour the live television address by the greek prime minister himself saying they will push ahead with sunday's referendum and he will vote no. he's asking the country to vote no as an opposition to austerity. rest of europe says that no vote will be a vote to exit the european union or the eurozone. he's saying that the pensions and salaries and bank deposits will be not be lost. that's true if they're not going to exit the eurozone. but if it leads to an exit of the eurozone, that statement may not be true. it's an interesting that the the rest of europe may be split, the

financial times is reporting some comment from the french president hollande? leon saying they should reach an agreement. let's do it now before the referendum. there is some discussion, you have the eurozone finance ministers on a teleconference to consider the greek proposal which they have to do playing it by the book, seeing what they come up with. thanks, simon. >> when we come back, a good day for the markets, after strong economic data and optimism out of greece, that are where we are on the bipoll ar swing. art cashin will join us next. when i started at the shelter, i noticed benny right away. i just had to adopt him. he's older so he needs my help all day. when my back pain flared up we both felt it i took tylenol at first but i had to take 6 pills to get through the day. then my friend said "try aleve".

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here's your cnbc news update. italian authorities say they have arrested ten people suspected of supporting isis operations. they were nabbed in three cities? an unnamed location of albania. some were suspected of helping italian islamists get to syria. donald trump has been fired -- again. macy's is severing all business ties with the real estate mogul for negative comments he made about latinos during his presidential announcement two weeks ago. trump responded by saying he's discontinuing his relationship with macy's, so there. starting today, amazon will pay

self-published e book authors in its kindle library programs, by the number of pages that consumers read. not by the number of times a book is checked out. amazon said the move is in response to some of its authors. for the first time in 40 years you can take pictures on white house tours. visitors are even being encouraged to share their experience on social media. first lady michelle obama making the announcement in an instagram video. no selfie sticks and no videos at the white house. that's our cnbc news update at this hour. back to "squawk alley." welcome back to "squawk alley." markets are higher as investor recent main optimistic perhaps that there will be some sort of a deal involving greece, joining us is art cashin, ubs. where do you see things going

from here in greece? >> i think the market believes that tsipras is out of bullets, they think he badly overplayed his hand. and once the banks begin to close and the atms ran out of money. there's enough pain in greece, the people are starting to maybe turn against him and i think that's why merkel and the others are so obdurate. you want a referendum you're going to get one. they think there's so much pain they may get a yes vote and the as a result of that they get rid of the uncooperative mr. tsipras. >> it's interesting we head into this this is a sunday vote. we don't have trading on friday and we've got an employment number coming tomorrow which is not unimportant for 9 way our markets move. >> for now the international case is bearing up. i think once we get greece resolved and i think we may actually do that after the recommended up, or put it on a back burner, cooler hids

prevailing. we're going to have our focus then shift to china. we've seen some of it we got a nice bounce back. the other day when the chinese government prevailed upon the public pension funds to go in and buy. we had it down 5% yesterday. i think you see some of that reflected in the oil market. we had bad inventory number. but i think the steech decline is half about china and half about the inventory number. >> what do we call stability in china at this point? because it's been such a whipsaw that it's hard to know whether stability is here to stay or whether it's going to change again tomorrow. >> you have to remember one thing, if it hadn't been for that kind of enforced buying the other day, we've been down four days in a row in what looks like margin selling. and that's the key concern it's not whether the market looks adequate or not. when things, we can all remember from back in 2008.

when things run out of control, when you can't sell what you want to sell, you sell whatever you can. and that spill back over here. >> so if we get greece wrapped up and i think it's a good possibility. that will happen then we'll begin to hear people talk about puerto rico, i think worry a lot more about china. >> we look forward to this referendum on sunday. how should investors be thinking about playing it. are the markets looking for a yes vote on that referendum, which is different from a certainty? different from a yes vote? >> i think the presumption will be interest the bullish standpoint that you're going to get a yes vote and get rid of the uncooperative mr. tsipras. conversely, if i'm wrong and if there's not enough pain and we get a no no vote. they always have the ability to turn off the monetary taps a little bit further and inflict a little more pain until the patient comes around. so it's difficult to see a true

negative coming outs of the vote. >> art, we could still get an employment number that changes the conversation entirely. let's say it's a really strong number and suddenly we're starting to hear they could have two moves, september and december. i don't want to make two little of tomorrow's number. it's important. >> it is, and there's always a possibility could you get a number above 300,000, which would be riveting, obviously. i think with things going on around the world. the fed is going to remain a little more dovish. i think they involved at the last meeting a party line. you'll notice all of them come out, dove, hawk, whatever, and say september is still there. it's not off the board and i think that's the the behest of vice chair fisher who wans to keep a little uncertainty going in the market. but you know with the imf and the world bank and offer eh others calling upon them to wait, very tough to fly in the face of that. >> you think the greece situation only ratchets up the pressure to wait? >> absolutely.

i think the international situation, the destabilization in other markets cause as problem. >> they don't want to get accused of causing a lehman like moment. >> thanks, art. >> my pleasure. >> up next, some optimism overseas along with strong economic data helping markets out this morning. as well as the stability from china which you just heard about from art. rick santelli, you got to be paying close attention to this today. >> always paying close attention. i agree a lot about what's going on in greece with art cashin. art is always the man. we're going to talk not only about greece, we're going to talk about today's adp and ism. is it true that if we have less in the economy we're going to have more fed? i don't think so. tune in after the break. >>

. coming up, a big jump for stocks to open the second half of the year, we're all over the markets every move with our team of experts here and in athens, a new leader in our competition for trader of the year, we reveal who is now in first place and what the others plan to do about it. why one top analyst says apple is the shake shack of tech. is america's most-loved stock ready for a second-half takeoff? we'll answer that and more 15 minutes from now. now to rick sandali and the santelli exchange. >> yes, tomorrow is going to be

the last trading day of the week and of course we have managed with the closure on the 3rd to group everything in a tighter proximity. adp today, bureau of labor statistics, big employment report today. we also had ism before i discuss the data, the implications for how the markets have responded, reacted. traded. momentum traded, based on greece, we'll discuss that as well. but before we get to any of that. look at the two-day chart of 10s, maybe it addresses some of the issues, the low yield was intraday in the low 230s, today we're hovering around 2.40. we've been a bit higher if you oip the chart up to the beginning of june, you should see the spike on the 10th we had all the high-yield closes and in 10s in particular it was a 2.48 yield close. why is that important? because we keep coming back to it. now to get back to greece, do we know the outcome? no, do we know they're painted into a corner to some extent?

yes, for those who believe that people should have a say-so in how they're governed, even those who elect a government that may do things that are popular or unpopular? i personally think the referendum is needed. people have a right to vote about their future. even if it's somewhat like chicago and illinois's decision to make. it's hard to break contractual agreements and promises especially with pensioners, but the money has to come from somewhere and basically for most governments whether it's chicago, illinois or greece, a lot of times it's supposed to come from a taxpayer. in the instance of greece, it's coming from other countries' taxpayers to some extent and so the problem goes. but i still bring it back to the notion of how buoyant the varat have been. let's forget the games, and look at facts, adp was released today, better than expected.

if you look at january through june, we had six months adb, the average is 2,000. last six months of last years, 248,000. take ism first six months of this year, average 52.6. last six months of last year, 56.8. i don't like isms, think they're important, but they're squishy and tomorrow's payroll number will be significant. no matter how you slice it, whether you blame it on rain or snow. we are not looking at the same economy we were looking at even at the end of last year so when it comes from the fed, let's being more objective, is it about the data or trying to decide what's an undecided mind. the latter is kind of ridiculous. back to you, jon. >> coming up in this time of economic crisis, are the greeks turning to bitcoin? we'll talk to one company already waiving fees for customers buying and selling bitcoin with euros. coming up next on "squawk alley."

my name is peter tran. i'm a gas service representative. i've been with pg&e nine years. as an employee of pg&e you always put your best foot

forward to provide reliable and safe service and be able to help the community. we always have the safety of our customers and the community in mind. my family is in oakland, my wife's family is in oakland so this is home to us. being able to work in the community that i grew up in, customers feel like friends, neighbors and it makes it a little bit more specl. together, we're building a better california. the historic drought continues in california. but believe it or not, there's some winners here. at least in technology. jane wells is live in l.a. with the details. jane? >> jon, we start with shocking news, i allegedly use 50% more water than my neighbors, that's according to be a app that dozens of california water agencies are using to try to guilt us into cutting back. i question the data. >> so we have a lot.

people think i couldn't possibly use this and often they could have a leaky toilet they could have had for years, or a leak in the irrigation system. >> kevin tilden is with california american water. and my area is under orders to cut usage by 32%. so the they contracted with a start-up called water smart, which uses all kinds of data to tell customers how they measure up against each other. the result, water smart says on average they see a 5% reduction within one year. >> you've done a good thing in mulching, it's very helpful. retains the moisture. but these guys, they do not need to be watered every day. >> okay. water smart's robin assessed my usage. he won't give exact revenues for the 4-year-old company, only saying they're doing hundreds of thousands of dollars a month. business has tripled every year for the last two years, expanding into florida and massachusetts where there is no drought. >> fundamentally this is a problem of growth, not a drought. so more and more people,

actuly ld to a situation where even in relatively supply-rich environments there are good reasons to be looking very carefully at how water is being used. >> now, he says that the 20th century was all about energy. the 21st will be all about water and late oern "power lunch," people who depend on growing, selling and mowing your lawn -- they're hurting. back to you. >> jane, a water hog. i am shocked. i blame the dog if i was you. saying he's taking long showers. >> that's the dog's fault. he drinks too much. >> that's what you do. i drink too much, too. >>. with banks still closed in greece and withdrawals limited to 60 euros a day, could greeks be turning to crypto currencies looking for a solution? our next guest is waiving fees for the next week for customers buying and selling bitcoins with euros. brian armstrong is the founder and ceo of coin base, thanks for joining us. looking at coin base it looks

like bitcoin has been creeping up over the past month. how much does it have to do with what's going on over in europe? the situation in greece has sparked an interest across the eurozone and people wanting to learn more about bitcoin and we've seen a 300% increase in people buying bitcoin across the eurozone in just the last 48 hours or so. >> what is the breakdown of people buying bitcoin from greece versus the other eurozone countries? i can see why if you're a greek national you're worried that there's going to be hair cut or your deposits are going to be tapped at some point. what about the other eurozone countries. >> yeah, so the numbers out of greece are relatively small. and the banks there are already closed. in some ways it's very difficult to get bitcoin there now. but what it really has done has sparked an interest not only in greece but across the rest of the eurozone. and to be honest, investors worldwide. people are looking at bitcoin as

potentially a future currency for the whole world. even though it's small today and in its infancy. investors are excited about it and going out and buying some. >> gotta ask, brian. is the interest in the eurozone higher in areas that are also potentially in some debt trouble in portugal? for instance? in italy, can you break down a little bit by country where you're seeing that interest in europe? >> i would say in spain, italy, portugal, we are seeing quite a bit of interest there. i don't have an exact figure to give you across country by country. but it's, p sparked a broad interest across the entire eurozone and that's what we're seeing in the last couple of weeks here. >> bitcoin or the price of bitcoin had been relatively stable in the last few months in june it's up 13%, but sometimes when we see the spikes, we then see corrections after the fact. i'm wondering if your sense is that bitcoin will city at an elevated price or it could correct as soon as this crisis, if it gets resolved, gets

resolved. >> well my hope is that bitcoin will continue to slowly increase over many years to come. we're at a point where every investor should buy and have at least one bitcoin. the potential downside or the cost of one bitcoin is only a couple hundred dollars, if bitcoin continues to grow like we've seen it do over the last couple of years, the potential upside is 1,000 x or more. >> i don't know, though, brian. i think jon steinberg bought a bitcoin at around $500. now he's out half of his investment there. i'm having a hard time seeing why i should buy a bitcoin. living in the u.s. why? >> bitcoin is the best form of money that's ever been created. is one way to think of it. much like how when the internet first came around, it democra o

democracyized. bitcoin is going to do that for payments, it's going to democratizt, so anybody can participate in a global financial system and it will continue to grow. those are the reasons we're excited about it. that's why i still believe that every investor should go out and buy at least one bitcoin. educate themselves objen this technology. >> best form of money ever created, i guess we'll see, thanks for joining us. reviews were mostly positive for apple's new music service. jon you downloaded it yesterday, what do you think so far? >> been using it for about 23 hours. it reminds me of a lot of good food on a buffet shoved on to

one plate and the oysters are mixing with the ice cream a little bit. which you don't want to happen. beats 1 is great. love the radio station, i like what they've done with the ability to take a song that you hearsay on radio or in another playlist, add it to one of your own eye toouitunes play list. the sound quality is better than pandora. at the same time it feels crowded. it feels like apple is a year behind facebook recognizing that certain piece of an app need to be broken off into their own area. why isn't radio just its own app? declutter the apple music app by breaking out little pieces of things. of course they've still got time to do that. >> when apple's m.o. has been decluttering the initial offering, people are calling it uncharacteristically complicated. yesterday mark zuckerberg of facebook held a q&a session.

arnold schwarzenegger tweeted in, younger generations can probably relate to you more than they can the pope, tell me how you find time to train and what your regimen is like. mark zuckerberg responded staying in shape is important to him. i make sure i work out three times a week and take my dog running wheneverky. which is the added bonus of being hilarious because that's basically like seeing a mop run. >> zuckerberg is in good shape. >> i don't know if you ever sized him up. he's got good posture and he's -- he's gotten ripped a little bit over the past couple of years. >> always hard to tell with the hoodies. he wears the blousy clothing. he's got the t-shirts now. >> i wouldn't want to see him in a swimming race against david faber. >> hopefully i could take him. >> the full steve jobs trailer just debuting online. that's for the movie. that i believe sony was backing off of.

>> take a look. >> just before we go. this is what you're looking at. the steve jobs trailer, a long time coming, backed by universal. there have been a lot of, aot of media about steve jobs, we'll see how this one fares. certainly interesting. that does it for "squawk alley." let's send it to scott wopner and the "halftime report." ♪ ♪ >> welcome to the halftime show, let's meet the starting lineup. stephanie link is here along with jim lebenthal and jon and pete najarian. our game plan, portfolio challenge. halfway through the competition, the leaderboard gets a new top dog. now our experts reveal their game plans for the second half. the apple playbook. is america's most loved stock prime for a takeoff in the months ahead? top analysts steve melanovich joins us, and the first trading day of the second half of the year a good one. stocks rallying all around the