good morning. no deal. honeywell and utx hold merger talks, but utx pulls out, citing anti-trust worries. >> big techs, big fight. new this morning, bill gates breaking with silicon valley. we'll tell you why he's backing the u.s. government in its fight with apple. >> not so healthy. shares of fitbit getting slammed right now after quarterly results fall far sohort of estimates. it's tuesday, february 23rd. "worldwide exchange" begins right now. good morning. welcome to "worldwide exchange" here on cnbc. i'm sara eisen. >> and i'm wilfred frost.

a lot of corporate news this morning. first, let's get a check of the bigger market picture. u.s. equities closed out of correction territory yesterday. a good rally we've seen over the last ten days or two weeks. sparked, perhaps, some say, when jamie dimon stepped in and bought some shares. the dow called to open down by about 110 points. the nasdaq by 34. let's have a look at european trade, where we are seeing some red there as well across the board. the ftse 100 is in the red today. it's down 0.7%, led lower by standard chartered, which reported a full-year loss for the first time since 1989. asia also showing some red today. nothing too pronounced. 0.8% declined for shanghai. >> there are still concerns

lingering about china, about the state of global growth, about the state of earnings, which hasn't been all too bright. we'll see what the guidance looks like on the consumer names. in other words, the fundamental problems that have been with us since the beginning of year are not completely solved, even though sentiment has been better. >> right, exactly. and we've shifted sort of first few weeks it was china, then oil, then european banks. all those issues still there. the market is just not focusing as much on each of them right now. a great must read coming up later in the show on china and its currency. >> all right. you mentioned oil. oil continues to be a major mover. yesterday up 6%. today giving some of it back. wti crude down about 2.25%. 32.64, really surging yesterday on the back of an iea report suggesting lower production this year and next. brent, the international benchmark, down 2%. we're following that major energy industry conference in houston this week. among today's future speakers, this is a biggie, perhaps the most powerful figure in the oil markets, the saudi oil minister

ali al-naimi. yesterday, the opec secretary general, he might be the most powerful figure, suggesting oil producers could take, quote, other steps to tackle the global glut if a proposed supply freeze is successful. >> powerful, sara, only if you believe opec can still achieve anything at all. >> clearly the market does. ever since they put that production freeze, we have seen oil stay above $30 a barrel. there have been hopes there's going to be some agreement. wasn't this move sparked very originally by saudi arabia saying enough? we're going to keep production pumping high. we're going to squeeze out those shale players in the u.s. >> i agree. i think that deal, russia's involvement, made a big difference. i was being facetious, of course. >> maybe losing the influence. >> there we go. we've agreed. let's get to corporate news this morning. united technologies confirms it's held talks with honeywell. in a statement after the close yesterday, utx says it did not

explore options further due to, quote, significant regulatory obstacles, customer concerns, and valuation issues. david faber first reported details on talks yesterday. "the wall street journal" says the bid was worth $108 per utx share with $42 of the offer in cash. utx shareholders would have earned 40% of the combined company. bill gates is breaking ranks with silicon valley in the fight between apple and the fbi over encryption. the microsoft cofounder telling "the financial times," tech companies should be forced to cooperate with authorities in terrorism cases. gates taking issue with tim cook's characterization of the government's order that apple help open the san bernardino shooter's iphone as a demand for a, quote, back door. gates says, quote, this is a specific case where the government is asking for access to information. he says, quote, they're not asking for some general thing, they are asking for a particular case.

gates says that there are benefits that the government needs to be able to stop crime and investigate terrorism, but there must be rules on when information can be accessed. cnbc's tonya brieer spoke to melinda gates last night. she echoed her husband's comments. listen. >> i think that's a delicate balancing act between privacy but also what the government needs to keep us safe. i think that'll get worked out in the courts in the next few weeks, but i think it's an important debate all societies need to have. >> obviously this debate continues, rages, with both sides offering comments. tim cook in a letter yesterday to employees. fbi director comey writing an op-ed. very interesting to have a major technology leader like bill gates actually siding against silicon valley. >> particularly because silicon valley has been so united so far on this particular point. echoing what you just said in terms of the fbi director coming out, he made a similar point to what bill gates was saying, saying this was a one-off issue. we're not trying to open up a

technological back door that will be released to all the world. i think that's a very fair point when you consider it and take a step back. >> though, those that side with apple say once you have the capability to do so, the technology that lets them do that makes the entire system vulnerable, sets a terrible precedent, and will be used again by hackers and maybe the government. both sides have strong arguments. it'll be interesting to see whether it influences public opinion, to have bill gates coming out against apple. >> if they do, i hope they share it with me. i can have all sorts of fun on your twitter account. stocks to watch today. check out shares of standard chartered in europe right now. the financial giant says four-year underlying operating income dropped 4%, citing challenging market conditions. the board is confirming its early decision not to declare a final dividend for 2015. shares down 5% now. they were down at one point just over 10%. a sharp fall and this pretax

loss of 1.5 billion is the first since 1989. a large loan impairment charge being cited as one of the main reasons for the negative surprise. other stocks on the move, shares of fitbit plunging after they forecast current quarter profit way below consensus. that overshadowed strong holiday quarter results. it's off some 17% in premarket trade. ouch. bhp slashing its dividend by 17%. that's the first cut since the late '80s. the miner expected the commodities downturn to continue. boeing electing its ceo as its new board chairman. boeing has won an order from united continental for 25 boeing 737s worth around $2 billion. >> more big movers for you, including valeant

pharmaceuticals. this has to do with accounting errors tied to the drugs related to philidor. fortune brands planning to purchase over $400 million worth of its stock in two years. that's helping its stock. >> today's agenda is full of items focused on housing and the consumer. the s&p/case-shiller home price index is expected. february consumer confidence may have slipped due to the market turmoil earlier this month. a trio of fed officials speak today. minneapolis fed president neel kashkari. home depot and macy's report earnings before the bell. >> a tale of two very different

retailers. jpmorgan chase will take the stage for its investor day in new york city today. shares of the banking giant have fallen around 12% so far this year. today is the one day a year investors get to look into the vault. landon dowdy joins us with three things to watch. >> good morning. ceo jamie dimon and his top executives will pull back the curtain on their businesses and lay out strategy targets today. here's what to watch. first, how the bank will keep costs under control without hurting revenue growth. jpm is not expected to expand cost cutting but is more broadly shedding staff to adjust to leaner profit margins and tougher regulation. second, how the bank is reinvesting in the business. dimon warning in his annual shareholder letter last year that silicon valley is coming with hundreds of start-ups with a lot of brains and money. working on various alternatives to traditional banking. this year, the bank is expected to increase tech spending to around $9.5 billion. the thinker thing to watch, insights on building uncapital

and much they'll have left for dividends. back over to you. >> got it t landon. thank you very much. you mentioned this. could we call it a jamie dimon bottom? since it was announced back on february 11th that he came in, bought half a million shares of jpmorgan's stock, the s&p 500 has gained more than 6%. and guess which group has been the best performer? financials. it helps that they were the worst performer up until that. they're now up more than 8% since that dimon bottom. >> great timing. great you haven't put an apostrophe s in there. >> jamie dimon's bottom. thank you to the graphics department. >> coming up, housing front and center in this morning's trade of the day. details straight ahead. plus, a live report from the mobile world congress, where tech leaders are talking about dealing with a global economic slowdown. first, as we head to break, a pair of business related

birthdays. dell founder and ceo is 61. and daymond john is turning 47 today, the founder and ceo of fubu. the clothing brand is now worth an estimated $6 billion. a very happy birthday to them both. "worldwide exchange" is back in a couple minutes. friends coming over? yeah, so? it stinks in here. you've got to wash this whole room

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exchange." if you're just waking up, a very good morning to you. let's get you up to speed on the overnight market action. asian trade relatively muted. some red across the screen, but nothing too significant. shanghai down 0.8%. let's get to europe. a few more interesting movers there. also in the red. again, not too significant. worth pointing out in germany, we got some disappointing business confidence data. the sharpest drop since 2011. of course, in the light of a very tough start to the year. that's what that's come down to. it's led the euro down a little bit this morning. also led the german index down 0.8%. the ftse 100 is down today, partly because of standard chartered, disappointing earnings from them. that's down about 5% or 6%. what does this mean for u.s. equity futures? we're in the red. yesterday we finished out of correction territory for u.s. equity markets following a strong rally over the last ten trading sessions. today, though, correcting to the downside to the tune of about 100 points for the dow. sara? >> an early earnings alert.

toll brothers, earnings in line with estimates, beating the street. q-1 contracts up double digits, 24%. and backlog up 34%. shares are reacting positively here in the premarket, up by more than 3%. we'll continue to dig into that one and offer more. today's trade of the day is related to housing. it is time for that. the monthly existing home sales number is out. it's a closely watched economic indicator. our data team crunched the numbers to find out how investors can trade the numbers using history as a guide. so the firm found that when existing home sales beat by 100,000, names like salesforce.com, corvo, and lennar are top. when the number misses consensus, new core among the worst performers. for more, go to cnbc.com. >> right now to the mobile world's biggest event of the year, mobile world congress has developed a reputation as tech's premier deal making conference.

john fort joins us live from barcelona with the big headlines. what are you watching today? >> reporter: well, today i'm looking at what's next in mobile. everybody knows that smartphone growth has at least sort of topped out a little bit, especially at the high end. so what are the technologies, what are the ideas people are looking at for what might come next? behind me, of course, we have cars. here we've got a booth on security. people are thinking about what happens with the data that we all have on our phones now. of course, this dove tails with some of the stuff we've been talking about with apple versus the fbi, the very fact that people have so much information about thundershower commune cauti -- communications and contacts on their phone. of course, 360-degree and virtual reality, exciting possibilities. mark zuckerberg of facebook was talking about that. samsung, htc as well. other companies hoping that if they can get a little something going in vr, that'll entice people to buy their new phone. then you've got a really

interesting companying taking a version of android and in a sense hacking it differently than google is. they have something called mods that's going to allow you to interact with different apps and services more directly through the operating system than you could before. microsoft is backing them, hoping to get their services front and center in the phone experience. so that's a bit of what i'm tracking here today. as we move past the first day and the zuckerberg keynote and the initial messages the companies themselves wanted to get out there. >> meantime, the apple versus fbi debate is raging. i know you were talking about it yesterday. new this morning, bill gates backing the fbi. i'm curious what your react is and whether there's any reaction there. >> reporter: i think a lot of people here aren't as clued in to the sort of minute-by-minute movements of that story. i just talked to the ceo of a.r.m. they're a company that has the

designs behind a lot of the chips, pretty much all the chips in the mobile industry. the ones apple designs themselves, they're built on a.r.m. cores. the ceo says they think people's data in general belongs to them, but there are cases where the government needs insight into that. it's interesting. gates' comment, he was talking about what exactly the government is asking for and not asking for. he seemed to be drawing a distinction between the request to get into this one phone and how much apple would be giving up if it actually wrote the software for it. i'm not clear on exactly how deeply he's looked into, a, the issues of what it means that apple would be writing, a version of the operating system to hack the first version. and b, how many law enforcement jurisdictions have basically come out and said, yes, if the fbi gets this, we're going to ask for it too. >> good point, john. thank you. we'll see a lot more of you

today. john fortt reporting from barcelona at the mobile world tech conference. coming up, your money, your vote. it's caucus day in nevada for the gop presidential hopefuls. the race getting closer by the minute. >> and as we head to break, here's today's forecast from the weather channel's kelly cass. >> good morning. we've got quite a slate of weather for today. a lot of colors on the map. the red is where we could have severe storms today. damaging winds, large hail, and even the possibility of tornadoes. so be on alert from texas all the way through the lower mississippi valley. atlanta may see storms today. check ahead for possible delays at the busiest airport. new york city, you start off with a wintry mix before going over to rain. we're not expecting much in the way of accumulation. in fact, we get up to 41 degrees. a lot of wind energy coming with this system as well. eventually we could see quite the snowstorm developing, especially here in the eastern great lakes. 44 for chicago. 52, dallas. 67 degrees in atlanta. still warm in florida. that's a look at your national

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political news today. nevada holding its republican caucus with jeb bush out of the race. the competition is tightening up. nbc's tracie potts joins us live from washington with the latest. >> reporter: hi, wilfred. good morning, everyone. there are 30 delegates up for stake in nevada. this is the first contest for the republicans in a state that involves a large latino

population. >> the men and women in this room have a national bully pulpit. >> reporter: a final late-night push to win nevada. >> this guy is sick. there's something wrong with this guy. >> reporter: the latest poll shows donald trump with a 16-point lead over ted cruz. >> the establishment party is waking up to the fact that in a couple weeks, donald trump could be unstoppable. >> i think he's turning this whole thing into a kir sus. >> reporter: fresh off his second place finish in south carolina, marco rubio is hoping to score here. >> we can win it. if we nominate someone that half the republican party hates. >> i don't know what makes anyone believe that donald trump supporters are going to peel off of a him and go to someone else. >> reporter: john kasich is seeing protests after signing off to defund planned parenthood in ohio. >> i found his comments today to be completely deplorable and

very offensive. >> those attacks tell me that somebody is listening out there. >> reporter: he and ben carson round out the five republicans left in this race. in terms of turnout historically, it hasn't been strong in nevada for the republicans. about 33,000 last time. to put that in perspective, there were 184,000, so about five times as many, this time in iowa. we'll see if the momentum that we've seen in some of the early states hits nevada later today. >> you mentioned marco rubio. "new york times" angle digs into rubio's childhood, which he spent a few years in las vegas, in nevada. what can you tell us about the polling of rubio in nevada, and does he have a shot at winning it? >> reporter: well, he's polling third, but he was also polling third in south carolina, and he pulled out that second place win. when you average all of the polls in these states, there's not as much polling in nevada because as we've talked about,

often in caucus states, it's much more difficult to determine how people will eventually vote because the whole purpose of a caucus is to go and be convinced by your neighbors otherwise. so a lot of times, the polling in advance doesn't necessarily reflect what happens on caucus night. >> tracie, as ever, thank you very much. >> meantime, two house democrats are introducing a bill today aimed at corporate tax inversions. the bill addresses earnings stripping and would limit tax deductions for american companies that move their headquarters abroad in mergers to save taxes at home. the treasury announced rules to curb inversions back in november, but did not specifically address earnings stripping. it did little to shut down recent mergers with inversions. pfizer's merger was just announced days after the treasury's proposal. >> i thought you were going to tease our twitter question. was that my role? i missed it. >> it was related to nevada. we asked you today on twitter, tweet us @cnbcwex. who needs it the most? we gave you three options.

trump, cruz, rubio. the three front runners. increasingl increasingly, this looks like a three-man race. >> it's basically not trump. the other two need it the most. do get in touch with us on that topic. let's move on to sports news. it was just another night at the office for the golden state warriors. the defending nba champs were on the road taking on the atlanta hawks on monday night. golden state led by as much as 23 points. atlanta closed the gap, but the game was never in doubt. the warriors win 102-92, becoming the fastest team to reach 50 victories in a season. steph curry even got to show off his dancing skills during the game after hitting a three-pointer late in the fourth quarter. steph did a shoulder shimmy in front of the hawks' bench. he finished with 36 points. once again, won the heart of miss sara eisen. >> he's the best player in the nba. it's not just me. and he's modest. he said he's looking ahead. they've got to be the best team

in the nba, right? have you ever seen anything like it? >> i haven't, but i'm not an nba expert. other big sportings going tonight. arsenal versus barcelona in the champions league. i'll be watching there. >> when we come back, bill gates breaking from silicon valley in the encryption fight. plus, attention road warriors. how airlines are attempting to raise fares for the fifth time this year. stay tuned. you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide.

good morning. global market alert. stocks are under pressure as oil prices pull back. >> new this morning, bill gates breaks with silicon valley. why he's backing the u.s. government in its fight with apple. >> and today's top trending stories. is smog making you fat? details of a brand new survey straight ahead. it's tuesday, february 23rd, 2016. you're watching "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. good morning. a very warm welcome to "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. i'm wilfred frost. >> and i'm sara eisen. let's check on the global markets this morning. we told you about a pullback. take a look at u.s. equity futures off the lows of the session. still heading south. dow futures down 121. s&p futures down 14. nasdaq futures down 37. this came after yesterday's pretty strong rally, where the dow closed up 229.

dow and s&p erased february's losses and went positive for the month. they also pulled out a correction, which is 10% off the highs. well keep an eye on these losses, monitor them as we go through. part of the reason, weakness in europe. we saw weak german business sentiment index, potentially related to china. a lot of those exporters feeling the pain. >> and just soft markets for the first six weeks of the year. the expectations came in at 98.8. the sharpest drop since 2011. not a huge data point but relevant. asia also showing red today in trade earlier. >> after the chinese adjusted their currency, they went weaker. market hasn't liked that in the past. we saw in shanghai, 0.8% losses. >> let's have a look at other asset classes. oil in the red today. big, big gains yesterday to the tune of about 4%, 5%. 6%, there we go. sara is always here to correct

me when i get statistics slightly wrong. >> i try. >> today we're down 2.28%. i can get that right because i'm just reading it. 32.6 for wti this morning. let's have a look at the bond market as well. the ten-year treasury note currently -- oh, no, currencies first. we have the pound in the red again today, down 0.2%. at one point yesterday t crossed a seven-year low. >> an early 1% move higher in the yen though. that gets your attention. that's sort of the risk-off safe haven buying. >> absolutely right. and gold, up 0.3%. among today's big stories, bill gates is breaking ranks with silicon valley in the fire between apple and the fbi over encryption. the microsoft cofounder tells "the financial times," tech companies should be forced to cooperate with authorities in terrorism cases. gates says, this is a specific case where the government is asking for access to information. he says there are benefits to the government being able to

stop crime, but there must be rules on when information can be accessed. cnbc's tonya brieer spoke to melinda gates in new york on monday, and she echoed her husband's views. >> i think that's a delicate balancing act, both between privacy of information but also what the government needs to keep us safe. i think that'll get worked out in the courts in the next few weeks, but i think it's an important debate that all societies need to have. >> unusual. i mean, interesting to see bill gates. he's the first really heavy weight in technology that's come out against silicon valley. google ceo, twitter ceo, mark zuckerberg have all come to tim cook and apple's defense. >> it's certainly a tricky one. making that clear point this is a specific case, it's not like you're opening this up on all issues moving forward. that's echoing a similar sentiment to what the fbi director was talking about yesterday. >> and on "squawk alley," they talked to the former cto in the

obama administration. also talking about what a slippery slope this would be, to have apple open up that iphone. we talked to daryl issa, also siding with apple. it really is pitting some unusual people. in corporate news, speaking of silicon valley, google is reportedly closing google compare. it's the comparison shopping site for auto insurance, credit cards, and mortgages. this is according to "the wall street journal." the service is only a year old, but google says it just didn't meet expectations. >> remember the london whale? well, now the jpmorgan trader at the center of the firm's major trading loss nearly four years ago is breaking his silence. "the wall street journal" reports that he's taking aim at his former employer in a three-plus page letter sent to a number of publications. he says he was made a scapegoat for trades that were, in his words, initiated, approved, and mandated by senior management. he also blames the media for singling him out.

quite interesting he's finally speaking out on this particular topic. i suppose not an unsurprising tone to his accusations. >> right. and he's cooperating with authorities. he's not being charged. on jpmorgan's investor day, by the way. stocks for you to watch today. start with united technologies, confirming it held preliminary merger talks with honeywell, but the discussions ended over concerns about anti-trust regulations, opposition from customers, and how both firms would be valued. david faber reported monday that honeywell had approached united technologies in the past two weeks with a cash and stock offer. on this news of no deal, both stocks are higher. yesterday we saw a big rise for united technology, helping the dow. fitbit shares are skidding as the company guides first quarter sales below forecast. that overshadows strong fourth quarter results. fitbit says its first global marketing push would likely delay shipment of its new fitness bands to the second quarter. toshiba is scrapping its new wearable device just six weeks after announcing it and a week

before it was supposed to launch. "the wall street journal" reporting the wearable tg1 was designed for factory or warehouse workers who need a hands-free way to look at information, such as inventory lists or workman yu manuals. >> intercontinental hotels plans to return $1.5 billion to shareholders through a special dividend. it's up 1.7%. tenant health care reports a net loss on higher legal reserves and lower patient admissions to its hospitals. it's down 2% in premarket. texas roadhouse saw profit rise 12%. the company says it sees the trend continuing in the first quarter. it's up 5.4%. >> now to today's top trending

stories, starting with an airline price hike. turns out they have raised prices five times so far this year, as many times as the entire year in 2015. that's according to price watcher fair compares. they've upped prices by $22 this year. i guess they lowered prices on the back of falling oil prices. that's been factored in. now they feel they can raise prices again. perhaps it's a sign of better demand, better economy. although, as a consumer, it's not great to hear. >> and oil prices would suggest they don't need to do that. a license plate in hong kong sold for, wait for it, $2.3 million on sunday. the plate has the number 28, which in cantonese sounds similar to the phrase "for easy money." this s this is extraordinary. they auction these off, people choose lucky numbers. >> a hong kong phenomenon.

according to the white house, robots will replace some jobs in the future. breaking it down to the annual economic report to the president, they say there's an 83% chance that a robot will take a job with an hourly wage below $20. just a 4% chance for a job with an hourly wage above $40 an hour. so in other words, the big revelation here for the first time they're quantifying it's the low wage, under $20 an hour jobs, that are vulnerable. >> would you like to have a robot as your co-anchor? >> well, they would get their crude oil statistics right. >> they probably would. but i'm not sure if it would work that well. i hope it wouldn't anyway. >> i would miss the banter. >> now, is smog making you fat? a new study shows breathing polluted air causes weight gain and leads to diseases linked to obesity. the findings from duke university show that air lugs alters the body's metabolism so it stores fat in a different way. researchers say this may help

explain why developing nation, which have undergone rapid industrialization, may be struggling with a obesity crisis. >> how crazy is that? it's the scientific thing where breathing in the smog actually -- >> quick, move to the country side. >> it hurts your ability to break down the fat. when we come back, this morning's must reads, including new york police commissioner bill bratton blasting apple. >> a much more important must read that i've selected on china. as we head to break, we want to hear from you. our twitter question this morning, who needs nevada the most? the gop holding its caucus in the state today. trump, cruz, or rubio? get in touch with us here on "worldwide exchange." we're back in a couple minutes.

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welcome back to "worldwide exchange." if you're just getting up, a very good morning to you. let's get you up to speed with the overnight market action. asian stocks in the red. nothing too pronounced. the nikkei down 0.4%. let's have a look at european trade. disappointing german confidence data weighing on the dax. the ftse 100, which shrugged off brexit fears yesterday, down today. u.s. equities thus pointing into the red as well. the dow expected to open down over 100 points. we have had quite a decent ten

days or so of a rally, which meant that u.s. equities closed out of correction territory. oil prices up sharply yesterday, down today. correcting a little bit. >> a passing in the investment world to tell you about. the chairman of the avtivis hedge fund donald drapkin has died. his firm lobbied for numerous turnarounds, including at the largest u.s. iron ore producer, cliff's natural resources. we wish his family all the best. now to today's must read stories, those that caught our attention this morning. mine is in the "new york times." it's titled "seeking iphone data, through the front door." the authors, william bratton, the new york city police commissioner. john miller is the deputy commissioner for

counterintelligence. they constitute democracy is a front door. how is not solving a murder or not finding a message that might stop the next terrorist attack protecting anyone? i picked it because it speaks to the fact that everyone is feeling like they need to speak up, offer their perspective on this. not a surprise that bratton is backing fbi director james comey on this idea that it is about the investigation into terrorism, potentially other plots, who they knew, what they knew, when they knew it, and not for apple. interesting that bill gates came out on that side as well today. but mostly what you're seeing is a lot in oop-eds is defending apple. >> and saying it's the biggest tech decision in a decade. i think it's going to rumble on. switching to the "financial times." "china's trilemma makes it vulnerable to more shocks." the author writing, china wants

monetary autonomy. something has to give, especially in view of the government's passive attention to rapid credit creation, which surged in january. let's point out the sides of the reserves, which are mentioned in this article. they've fallen from a peak of 3.9 trillion in 2014. they're at 3.2 trillion today. in january, they fell by 100 billion. still a lot to erode in terms of the size, but it's certainly lower than it used to be. i suppose what this article is really pointing out, if the currency is to devalue and help in terms of exports, it's not these half a percent moves we've seen. it needs to be a much bigger fall. but that creates political instability. the article saying something's got to give. china as an issue hasn't really gone away, but it's just the markets aren't focusing on it quite as much. there's a great take on that issue with the currency itself. >> it does feel like the global economy is more vulnerable to the shocks of china as well, not just china itself. >> absolutely. a massive devaluation if we get

get it. i'm not suggesting we will any time soon. massive deflationary pressures across asia in particular and the rest of the world. >> all right. closing in on the top of the hour, which means joe, becky, and andrew are getting ready for "squawk box." andrew joining us with a look at what's coming up. good morning. >> good morning. i wanted to do the papers. i have something in the paper this morning. >> what are you reading? >> i'm reading my on column. you guys were talking about apple. i want to talk about it because i think there's a middle ground here that we're not talking about. i did see the op-ed bratton penned. i think it's an important one because there's a view, and i think it's a right view, that there's a constitutional take here, which is to say that we have a safety issue that has to be dealt with. the problem has been, though, that comey, the head of the fbi, and others who have taken that route and claimed, by the way, that this was going to be a narrow interpretation just for this particular phone, are not in cahoots with people like bratton and others who have

basically said we have 175 of these phones lying around, and we would like them to help us do this too. the bigger question, to me, isn't, you know, what do we do broadly, though we need to figure that out. in instance, is there a way on a very, very narrow basis for both sides to come to the middle? maybe under seal and just try to solve it that way. otherwise, we're not going to get there. >> apple has suggested in that letter tim cook sent that they do public hearings, that they have congressional hearings, that this becomes more of a forum for debate in a way to sort of delay the court order and open it up more broadly for the issue that it is. >> i got to say, though, the more you talk about it, i don't know the more we talk about it the more it's going to help or hurt apple. as you talked about on your show many times, the public policy issues becomes astonishing.

then are we opening up phones everywhere? and what does that mean? >> absolutely. daryl issa mentioning that competitive issue for businesses as one thing that's at stake. andrew, thank you. your ocolumn officially a must read. >> "squawk box" coming up in about 12 minutes' time. coming up, we'll get you caught up on the markets an ready for the day ahead. mike holland joins us live here. lots to talk about, including jpmorgan. do stay tuned. you're watching "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. cathy's gotten used to the smell of lingering garbage...

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let's get straight to the markets discussion. joining uses in studio, mike holland, chairman of holland and company. great to have you with us this morning. we've been talking in the show earlier that yesterday u.s. markets closed out of correction territory. a nice ten trading day rally. at lo lot of people saying what sparked that is jamie dimon stepping in to buy stock.

do you think that melee we saw in bank stocks, is that behind us now? what was the cause of it in the first place? >> first of all, from your lips to gods ears if it's behind us. i think it's probably not. i think sentiment still very precarious right now. i think the china thing you talked about just a second ago is still with us. the european numbers out of germany this morning. there are lots of things people can worry about. liquidity is a coward is an old wall street saying. it runs at the first sign of trouble. we've had these massive moves up and down over the past several months when the fed went off its support mechanism for the several years. having said all that, you end up with a situation right now where the news isn't that good. so i think jamie dimon said, yeah, that's true, except the prices are so darn low, i have to buy this. i think it was very presh yent move on his part. >> well, financials are up 8%

since he did that. what about you? you've been in the stock for a long time. have you made any moves to that and any other positions given you're sounding pretty gloomy? >> i think the economic backdrop, sara, is what it is. gloomy is probably good. we have grudging growth in the u.s. and china. europe, we're not so sure. despite the stuff that's happening in the political sphere in both cases, what's happening in the markets, china's market is as low -- i've been over there investing for 20 years. it's as low as i've ever seen it. jamie dimon's stock is eight times earnings and 3% yield. you don't have to know much more than that. >> are you investing in china at the moment? are there selective areas? >> i think both the u.s. and china, the world's great companies like jpmorgan here and some of the life insurance companies in china are so inexpensive. even with the backdrop of some problems. they're very attractive as

valuations. >> how are you doing that? >> in china, you have to have people on the ground. we have people in shanghai, beijing, who are doing that. here i fortunately can do it myself. >> given this sense of kind of gloominess outside of those particular valuation names, what are you buying for protection in the u.s., for example? is it a simple gold and u.s. treasuries type trade, or are there other ways you can protect against the gloominess? >> great question, wilfred. i view cash as a real investment. it wasn't from 2007 to 2014. there was no reason to have a lot of cash because the federal reserve told us they were going to put financial asset prices up, which they did. now with the volatility we have and some of the backdrop, cash as a portion of your assets, it's larger now today for me than it was during those years. >> we're all paying attention to the election. we have the nevada caucus today for the republicans. i wonder as a long-time investor like yourself, do you have to stay away from groups like drug

makers right now as they increasingly are entering the political conversation? banks are also getting pounded. or is it just rhetoric and investors should tune it out? >> i don't think you can ever ignore that stuff, sara, particularly in the case of the health companies. you know, the obamacare thing, a lot of stocks did extremely well. the bio techs led the game. those are still probably vulnerable. on the other hand, the financial stocks, which kind of led the market in the last few days, those stocks have actually been beaten down so bad ly. i think it's almost at a point where that game is almost over in terms of the punishment that those companies were about to take. but health care, yeah, i probably would be very mindful of what's going on in politics. >> bankers have been bashed across the globe in the last five or six years. that kind of continues, as we've just said. what does that focus switch? when does it switch to perhaps silicon valley and tech where payouts are way bigger than in the banking sector right now? but for some reason, it hasn't

had that negative offer? >> i think that's yet to come because the numbers are so huge. the bankers have been pillarie pillariededpillaried ad nauseam. the health care companies will get some of their fair share. i think tech is yet to come. >> maybe this whole apple, fbi debate. a lot of people are saying apple is just defending its own business model and its profits. >> when you get comey and miller and these people jumping on that bandwagon, now bill gates. apple doesn't look so good on the pr basis there. >> what about the value investor part of you right now? some of these stocks have been beaten up so badly, and you're seeing names like ibm actually shining as a good opportunity right now. >> warren buffett would say yes. he continues to buy some, i guess. i'm not a fan of ibm, but i think companies like microsoft,

intel, jpmorgan in financials, exxonmobil yielding nearly -- you've got some great companies selling very low. so for value investors, it's a great time. >> mike, thank you for joining us this morning. great names for our viewers to look into themselves. mike holland there from holland and company. >> we've got less than a minute. let's get to what to watch today. i'm going to be watching macy's, reporting earnings this morning before the bell. the ceo will be on "squawk box" later. this stock has been beaten up badly over the last year. it's been the poster child of department store woes. can they turn it around? they need to turn around this business. at least he comes out and owns it and comes on "squawk box" every quarter. >> absolutely right. positive views from mike on one bank, jpmorgan. i'm watching standard chartered today. it was down as much as 11% after it reported its first annual loss for quite some time. it's now down 5%. that's it for today's "worldwide

exchange." thanks for watching. have a lovely morning. your path to retirement may not always be clear. but at t. rowe price, we can help guide your retirement savings. so wherever your retirement journey takes you, we can help you reach your goals. call us or your advisor t. rowe price. invest with confidence.

good morning. red arrows in the u.s. this morning after yesterday adding to last week's gain. the dow futures are trading lower by triple digits because they closed sharply above fair value yesterday. crude giving back some 50 cents or so after yesterday's gains. bill gates breaking with silicon valley. we'll tell you why he's backing the fbi in its case against apple. he and steve jobs have always been -- remember, they were very friendly. there was never any love lost between microsoft and apple. and no deal. utx confirming it held merger talks with honeywell, but it pulled out, citing anti-trust issues. it is tuesday, february 23rd,

2016, and "squawk box" begins right now. live from new york, where business never sleeps, this is "squawk box." >> good morning. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm andrew ross sorkin along with joe kernen. becky quick is out today. take a look at u.s. futures. things look like they're going to open lower. nasdaq looks to open lower, about 30 points off. s&p looking to open off about tenpoints. take a look at the price of oil. wti now trading at 33.15. that is down marginally this morning but up on a relative basis to where it's been the past couple weeks. among this morning's top stories, bill gates now breaking ranks with silicon valley in that big fight between apple and the fbi over encr