roger mcnamee, co-founder of elevation partners. good morning. dow down about 1 th32. first up, it is a big week for tech earnings. apple and twitter report tomorrow. facebook on wednesday. amazon, linkedin on thursday. that's just to name a few. after disappointing numbers from microsoft and alphabet last week drove techs lower. is there cause for concern in tech? roger, i'm not asking that everything be amd but there aren't very many surprising to the upside. >> again, i think the surprise is the people weren't expecting this. technology is all about product cycles. at the scale of the industry today, in order to really move the needle you have to have something huge like smartphones but now that smartphones are mature, we are between major product cycles and you know, it's my view that this is going

to be a year where in the absence of a compelling product story, stocks are going to be -- they are just not going to do that much. facebook stands out fundamentally because it is in the midst of a very powerful product cycle relative to video and some of the other new features that they have, but for most of the big tech companies, this is a year that they are just going to be trying to build toward whatever comes next. >> while they are building toward whatever comes next, telecom actually just took the top spot year-to-date. telecom is up 10%. do you think this is a shift toward paying a little more attention to the pipes and the value there? >> actually, i think all it really is is, relatively speaking, that has been an out of favor sector and you know, 10% bounce is not enough to -- it's like the first swallow that shows up in capistrano.

you can predict there will be more that come after it. all you can predict from here is companies will put out earnings, investors will overreact one way or the other. some days we will feel bullish and some days we will be bearish and cream them. >> have we been so wrong, by we, i mean the general public, about the way we are viewing tech, that it has a ways to fall before it stabilizes, or is this maybe just a great time to buy because as you said, it's a cycle, now is a lull and if you buy now in the next upswing you will be in a great position. a lot of americans don't own stocks now who did in 2007 because they got spooked in 2008. is now the time to get in while things are relatively quiet? >> i guess at the end of the day, the answer to that question is yes. i just believe there will be a better time sometime in the not very distant future. that is to say, all this is about the time value of money. i don't think 2016 is setting

itself up to be a year where tech investors will do really well. i think this is a year where the market's going to be bouncing back and forth in a range, and there are some really significant macro economic issues outside of tech that give all investors pause. politics in the u.s., the issues relative to nato, some of the stuff going on in china. there's just a lot of things going on that give people an excuse to be cautious and then within the tech sector, the thing that's been driving us which is mobility has hit a level of saturation that it's hard for anything to power through it. we were talking in past things and maybe we will talk tomorrow about apple and the i-watch but a great example is that. the product sold 12 million units and people think it's a failure. i look at this and go seriously. you know, it was never going to move the needle at apple. it was never going to move it. no matter what happened. it could have done ten times as

well and still not mattered. these things are giant. there's nothing going on big enough to move the needle. >> let's get to apple in a little more depth this morning. ongoing concerns obviously of the iphone sales slump. silver lining ahead of earnings tomorrow. the apple watch did mark its first anniversary yesterday. according to the "journal" estimates are for about 12 million in year one and that would significantly outpace the iphone which did about six million in the first year. so what do you keep your eye on and if you're right about being in the lull between product cycles, how do you know when the next one is starting? because all we ever talk about is automated cars and watches and bots. >> well, i guess what i would say is you don't know. the thing about apple, apple's a genuinely cheap stock. it is so big that i think rates of growth from here are going to be modest at best. but it is a brilliantly well

managed company. i think it is almost uniquely customer focused. i think its fight with the fbi over encryption is an example of apple's commitment to customers that will serve it well. to my mind, that is the one stock that i think you can look at today and say is today the day that i buy it or do i buy it sometime in the next few months but you're not buying it because you think the thing's going to double in the next six months. you buy it because it's a well-managed company with a ton of cash. if they go in the car industry, what's the shortest unit of time in the universe? it's the time to buy an apple car if they ever introduce one. >> how long it takes you to buy one. >> okay. how long it takes me to buy one. fair point. at the end of the day, that is the scale of the thing you would have to do to move the needle to get the growth rate back above 10% or 15% for more than a quarter or two. that's okay. >> just got to weigh on this apple watch thing. people call me too pro-apple.

12 million in the first year, it's good but not impressive. they are supposed to do better in the first year with a watch than they did with the phone. the watch is essentially a phone accessory. the phone allowed them to build out this bigger distribution network of physical stores, this marketing machine that lets them sell watches. let's see where we are in year three or four with the watch compared to the phone. does it spike and fall off like the ipad did, or does it become a phenomenon? that's more the question. >> well, i think that's a product question. the reality was a little bit underpowered, it didn't have its own gps, it truly was a peripheral to the iphone. if you read customer reviews, if the product stood alone better, it would have been much more successful. all apple has to do is make it more of a stand-alone product i think to fix those issues. whether they do or don't, who knows. there is an opportunity. when you sell 12 million of

anything, that costs $500, it's not a failure. it may not move the needle at apple but it's not a failure. the product itself is less impressive than i wish it were but they can fix that. >> there's a product question and then there's a market question of how big the addressable market really is or ever was for a watch that costs you $1,000. steve wozniak wasn't impressed by that. certainly more people owned cars than would own watches. do you think apple should spend its time on bigger total adre addressable markets? >> one of the points i made when the product came out is i believe the value in the apple watch relates to the larger ecosystem. products like apple pay where, when you are in a store, if you can put your watch up to the reader, that's a pretty attractive feature. it's incredibly secure because as seldom as people lose smartphones, they lose watches far less often than they do phones.

so the idea that it could be a fundamental building block of the largest apple ecosystem i think is well within reach. the challenge is you have to get the product right. to john's point, it wasn't the killer product that the iphone 1.0 was but they did sell 12 million units and they are apple. i do think they get to keep playing with it. but at the end of the day, it's never going to move the needle on its own. not on revenues. there's no way to sell enough watches at $500 to matter. but i don't think that's the point. i think the point is making apple pay work. if apple pay works, that sets apple up in a category that is essentially unlimited in scale. for anyone who has ever used apple pay, it's a miraculous product. compared to the lack of security in credit cards, it just makes you feel a million times better every time you use it. >> we will see if it continues to go down that road. finally, sign of the times for

the music business. beyonce releasing her highly anticipated album "lemonade" exclusively on title over the weekend along with the one-hor companion film on hbo. as of this morning, fans can access it on apple itunes and as of a few moments ago, it's now available on amazon, both digit and physical versions of the album. those still exist. how does that move the needle in terms of music, and property ownership for artists? >> i truly hope it moves the needle for beyonce. i really applaud the creativity that went into this project and a real attempt to -- the problem in the music business is for 35 years, there has been no innovation other than mp3. mp3 was in a scienense a step backwards. it was very convenient but not something that makes the music more impressive. what she's trying to do here, i really hope it works. i think it's probably too little, too late for the industry as a whole but i bet

it's not too little, too late for beyonce. >> i have hope. >> me, too. but i'm just saying i hope she nails it. i hope it's so successful that everybody goes oh, my gosh, we should have been doing this all along. the answer is of course you should have been doing this all along and thank goodness s nesn stepped up -- >> doing what? >> the notion she's trying to create a new kind of product, something that demands attention. this integration with hbo, the very visual nature of what she's doing. the last time the music industry did anything creative with video was when mtv first started back in 1980. i mean, that was a long time ago. >> you know what i think is brilliant? what i think is brilliant, she's selling this album on itunes right now, it's number one for what is it, more than $18, around $18, and she's trying to create scarcity, i think. i knew this was on hbo. i'm busy over the weekend with the kids, whatever, i get the

hbo go app last night, right before bed, i watch it, that's kind of cool. woke up this morning, let me watch some more, it's gone. where did it go? i have to look around like i'm going to tower records to try to find it. oh, it's on itunes now and i can buy it for $18. oh, by the way, it's on amazon. this is what prince was talking about when he didn't just release his music, put it everywhere, being able to control distribution. to me, scarcity, controlling supply versus demand, is kind of the new trick in music and artists like beyonce, adele also, taylor swift, maybe before she got deeper in with apple, are maybe showing the way. >> i hope that's true. i think the reality is for most artists, it's too late. now that spotify is out there, most artists are capped at subsistence wages but if this works well enough for beyonce, for a few of the other huge artists, that may actually take some of the pressure off. that would be a blessing, in my opinion.

like i say, it would be enough if this just works for beyonce because i think she's been incredibly creative around it. my fingers are crossed it's a monster success. >> we can't wait for -- >> we are doing a really good job on scarcity. you can't find ourselves anywhere. >> listen, guys, i think the music industry is still looking for a clue here but i do think there are artists like beyonce who do have their finger on the pulse and i wish them totally the best of luck. it would help to have something work. >> see you next time. thanks so much. >> take care. meanwhile, saudi arabia outlining a broad economic reform plan. of course this comes as the world's top oil producing country looks to diversify beyond what the deputy crown prince has called an addiction to oil. hadley gamble is in riyadh with more.

>> reporter: it would be difficult to downplay the level of excitement in the kingdom after eight decades or so of very very slow movement, movement at a glacial pace, we have had so many different announcements just in the last few weeks alone. of course the deputy crown prince speaking earlier today, saying he doesn't expect oil to fall below $30 a barrel because that's essentially what they have based their plan for the kingdom's future on. they say essentially what we know right now is they will create a sovereign wealth fund valued between $2.5 trillion and $3 trillion, we also know of course that they have now said that company could be valued as much as $2.5 trillion or even $3 trillion and even above $3 trillion. a lot of announcements coming outside of the kingdom today. also interesting to note he's planning on diversify the defense industry. this country has been spending billions of dollars on u.s. weapons systems and weapons systems from other countries, including those from europe and the uk for years now.

they say they will up the ante and create their own defense industry. they also said they are going to tax people really for the first time. talking about a value added tax, about a land tax, so a lot of changes inside the kingdom. one note of course is something that didn't come out of the announcements today. a lot of speculation over the last several days as to whether or not women were going to be allowed to drive in this country. still no progress on that so far but he did have this to say. he said women are half of the population of this country, they are a huge part of the work force and will play a bigger role in the kingdom going forward. lot of news out of saudi arabia. >> thank you so much, hadley gamble in riyadh. a lot more on apple's earnings. tomorrow is the recent pc weakness, canary in the coal mine for their results. cruz and kasich teaming up ahead of the big day of voting tomorrow. more on the campaigns next. consolidation in the newspaper business. when "squawk alley" continues. i came courtesy of james and patricia thompson.

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five states are voting tomorrow as the primaries enter their final stretch. our chief washington correspondent john harwood is in d.c. with the latest. john? >> reporter: pennsylvania's the biggest of those five states voting on a northeastern flavored primary day. the polling suggests that

outcomes similar to what happened in new york last week. take a look at these nbc/marist numbers. on the democratic side, hillary clinton with a comfortable double digit lead over bernie sanders who is trailing her badly in delegates. on the republican side, donald trump with a very substantial lead over john kasich and ted cruz and at least one republican donor, heavyweight donor, charles cook, is not pleased by the state of the republican race. >> so is it possible another clinton could be better than another republican? >> it's possible. it's possible. >> you couldn't see yourself supporting hillary clinton, could you? >> well, we would have to believe her actions would be quite different than her rhetoric. let me put it that way. some of the republican candidates before we could support them, we would have to believe their actions would be quite different than the rhetoric we have heard so far. >> if you look at these delegate totals, you can see why ted cruz and john kasich have teamed up

to try to deny donald trump the 1237 he needs for first ballot victory. donald trump is about 300 delegates ahead of ted cruz. john kasich is way behind. on the democratic side, hillary clinton is drawing ever closer to the 2300 delegates she needs to be dnominated. bernie sanders is increasingly taking on the tone of a candidate who recognizes what an uphill fight he's got for the democratic nomination. >> thanks, john harwood. going to be a busy week up and down the eastern seaboard. up next, more on expectations for apple as the company is set to report its earnings tomorrow. stocks down close to 1%. "squawk alley" will be right back. ♪

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apple reporting results tomorrow as we enter a busy week for earnings. josh lipton has the pulse from one market. josh? >> reporter: well, if apple

investors are just focused on the company's earnings report tomorrow, then you can't blame them for feeling cautious here. the street is expecting eps of $2 on revenue of $52 billion. now, that would mean a 10% drop on the top line. apple has not reported a quarterly decline in sales since 2003. turning to the product lineup, the street thinks apple will shift 50 million iphones and that would be a year over year drop of 18%. among the reasons for that drop, we know the iphone 6 and 6 plus were big hits. the company is now dealing with tough comps. there is evidence customers are holding on to their iphones for longer. 85% of analysts say apple is a buy, thinking apple can return to growth with the iphone 7 expected this fall. a lot of this news is already priced in, they will argue, with the stock trading at 11 times earnings. rbc thinks apple could raise its dividend by 15% and increase its buy-back authorization by $50 billion. when apple does report tomorrow,

also expect a lot of attention paid to that company's services like apple pay, apple music and itunes. drexel hamilton's brian white expects service's revenue to jump 26% to $6.3 billion. back to you. for more on apple, let's bring in the tech columnist for the "new york times." as josh just alluded to, we will probably hear a lot more from apple tomorrow about services. they trying to shift attention i guess away from the growth decline in the iphone. is there any way that that could work given how big the iphone has been for apple for years and should it work? >> it could work. it could work over time. the long-term story of the future of apple is they are going to need a bunch of different things to kind of fill in the growth gap left by the iphone. the iphone was this juggernaut but it's hard to see how it could kind of match its previous

growth. you have a lot of different kinds of things they are trying. perhaps it will be ipad pros. perhaps it will be smaller macs. perhaps it will be the watch, maybe. then services. services i think is the big one because it's tied to the iphone and you know, for many of us, the more we use our iphones the more we buy and apple sees potentially a good business there from its most loyal customers. >> so who's got the best business model of this era in tech, which roger mcnammee just told us he thinks is at an in-between point. is it facebook because of the information they have for targeting ads and being able to charge a premium, maybe google second to that? >> it's hard to say that apple doesn't have one of the better business models. it's still the most -- >> i mean profitable. not last year when the iphone was growing. >> what we are looking at here is growth rather than actual

profits. it's hard to see how facebook or google could catch up to apple. we will see. i definitely think facebook is well-positioned here because the other thing it has even though it's an ad business and has information, it is best positioned i think to take away tv ads. like if we are counting on kind of the future transformation of the ad business moving away from tv to digital, i think facebook seems better positioned than any other company right now for that business. >> why is there so much schadenfreude for the watch not doing better in year one and do you believe people when they say it's indicative of this new regime's inability to truly launch a new category? >> i think it's both a good sign and a bad sign for apple. like you know, if this were a product from any other company it's done -- it would be kind of an out of the ballpark success. this has sold really well, made a lot of money, so it's doing

well on kind of, on the numbers. the problem is it's a product from apple and people expect products from apple to kind of totally change the game, to kind of change the future of technology, and that's what the watch hasn't done yet. it's not like the iphone where it gives you a picture of new possibilities of the future. also, it's old now. it's a year old and it's unclear that we will have a version 2 that's different in hardware. i think some people are getting a little worried about that. like why are they taking so long and what possibly can the next version do to kind of fix some of its problems. i think this is a marketing and narrative failure and also the device itself i think doesn't -- it wasn't specific enough to a few use cases. it was kind of all over the place. they have a lot to fix here. on the other hand, the sales are pretty good. >> do you think the jury is still out on whether the watch itself was a success or do you think attention is just going to

move on to the next product and say that's something that apple has produced, it will still sell it, but attention will shift now? >> i think they have to worry that the perception might overtake the product, that the perception that this is a bad product might harm it in the long run. kind of like what happened with microsoft zoon or something. even though it's selling well, there's a story out there that it's not a good product. i think they should really kind of try to fix that very soon with software and especially hardware, i think. there is that danger that people might move on to some new big thing. >> indeed. next, there was that settlement reached by uber last week, a pair of class action suits that are going to continue to let uber categorize drivers in california and massachusetts as independent contractors. your thoughts on that implications for that sort of work for hire segment of the

economy in uber's future? >> yeah, this was a big question for uber and for the rest of the on-demand economy, whether these contractor business models were really legal. and i have to think that uber settlement here really sets a good template. the lawsuits aren't over in other places. this is a settlement in california and massachusetts but it really gives the drivers something that a lot of what they wanted some way, some measures of employment job security basically, some people to complain to when things happen, they can now get tips, so a lot of what they were asking for, they got. but uber doesn't have to declare them as employees. so it saves on costs. if this is a model they can replicate in other states they might be out of the woods. there's this cloud hanging over their business model and it might just sort of be starting to dissipate now. >> then there's that $100 million price tag which i'm sure a lot of uber drivers would be

salivating over there. are people on the other side of that. i'm curious whether you think in other states there could be a flurry of lawsuits because they see uber's pockets as being open. >> yeah. i would definitely expect there to be a flurry of lawsuits. these were some of the bigger states so probably uber has priced in how much it might cost them if everyone else does this. but i suspect they see this as a template for kind of a nation-wide end to this and i suspect the drivers do as well. >> this being america, you won't go broke betting there's going to be a flurry of lawsuits about just about anything. farhad, thanks so much. coming up, the "l.a. times" and "chicago tribune" may be changing hands. gannett making a bid for the group. they may want the latest products and services, but they demand the best shopping experiences. they're your customers.

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getting breaking news. back to dom chu. >> we have tom brady, new england patriots quarterback tom brady's suspension is going to be reinstated per a u.s. appeals court ruling. this according to a reuters report. the u.s. appeals court is going to reinstate tom brady's suspension over the deflate-gate issues. the second circuit court of appeals says the nfl commissioner roger goodell has especially broad power to discipline improper conduct and that it also says the second

circuit, it is not its job to second-guess goodell's procedural rulings or if brady schemed to deflate footballs. it's important to note here the appeals court panel did vote in a two to one voting in favor of the nfl in this case here. the dissenting judge here did say goodell exceeded his power by changing the basis for brady's discipline after the hearing concluded. nonetheless, the bottom line is that tom brady's suspension is being upheld by the u.s. circuit court of appeals. back over to you guys. >> thank you very much for that. let's get to sue herera with a news update. >> thanks, carl. here's what's happening at this hour. president obama meeting with european leaders in germany before returning to washington. he sat for roundtable talks with the leaders of france, germany, italy and the uk. he announced more troops would be sent to syria. cleveland reached a $6 million settlement in the lawsuit over the death of

12-year-old tamir rice, a black boy shot by a white police officer while playing with a pellet gun in november 2014. the city will pay out $3 million this year and $3 million next year. according to a radio station in dallas, former browns quarterback johnny manziel has been indicted on an assault charge. manziel is accused of assaulting his ex-girlfriend in a dispute in dallas. prince harry laying a wreath during a dawn service at wellington arch in london. the ceremony commemorates the start of anzac day, honoring the sacrifices of new zealand and australian soldiers in all wars. let's get back downtown to "squawk alley." europe closed about five minutes ago. simon rejoins us at post nine. >> stock markets in negative territory after last week's gains. what's really interesting is the way in which the pound is rallying and continues to rally

above $1.45. it would appear president obama's intervention over the weekend, not least when he suggested it would take ten years to renegotiate a trade deal with the uk if it left the eu, is working. if you look at what the book makers are now suggesting, there's a high probability they say 75% probability the uk will remain within the european union. that's only book makers, not opinion polls. we will wait and see if that actually works its way through. the co-chair of the campaign in the "times" today warning of unquantifiable numbers of migrants that will come through but it doesn't put a lid on sterling. we hit $1.45 just before i came on. slightly off that, as you can see after reports of weakness earlier in the year. if you look at the individual stock action today, edf electricity de france is down on the capital increase, phillips is down because they have not got a trade sale for their lighting unit. they have to float that. the banks have moved down during

the course of the session. for some of the mining stocks it's about emerging markets. what's interesting is that there's a german magazine reporting that the conflict deutsch bank's board over the legal cost is now breaking out into the open. the deputy chairman to the magazine criticizing about an overzealous and judicial self-fulfillment in calling for more investigations and more lawyers which arguably goes on in many banks, it just doesn't break out into the open. finally, i want to mention what happened over the weekend in austria, where the far right leader who you see here won the first round of the presidential vote by 35%. this is important because it highlights the trend towards anti-establishment practices or votes within the european union and therefore, at one point may actually threaten the cohe cohesiveness of the european union.

the parties that ran austria for years did not make the run-off for the presidency which is largely a ceremonial role anyway but it is important and it comes back to what i keep saying to you. oftentimes you will get a protest vote in europe for things people don't think really matter. arguably the brexit vote in the uk. >> thank you very much. when we come back, we are joined on set by one of the stars of amc's "turn." first, rick santelli, what are you watching today? >> of course, the week of two major central bank meetings. the bank of japan and the u.s. markets, the fomc. what i'm watching, you can print money and you can spend money and you may be able to price stock markets higher, but you can't price growth higher. we will talk about china after the break and the big number, 237. after the break.

after a brutal week for tech, can earnings for apple, facebook and amazon turn the sector around? one analyst thinks elle is a buy. the scoop on how carl bass is doubling down. see you in less than 20. >> sounds good. see you then. a busy week for earnings continues. payments company first data reporting today the take-away,

revenue up 3% from the prior year. transaction revenue did fall but the company's overall loss narrowed. adjusted earnings were in the black which is different from the company's first quarter as a public company. this of course is its second. in february the company missed estimates big-time, drove the stock to about half its ipo price. it's getting a nice bounce today. it's off the highs but still up close to 4%. management priorities generating cash flow, paying down debt. it's still a debt-heavy company. it said it will pay $1 billion in interest alone this year. that's according to the company today. now, the shares of first data and the value of those shares actually dragged down the value of kkr. that company down 4% today after reporting its earnings. of course, kkr is the buyout firm that took first data private in '07 and public last fall. during a very volatile quarter, kkr's position in first data, the value of that fell by 19%.

that's one of the reasons why kkr's shares are down so sharply today. the company called the quarter volatile, bumpy and said we are in an emotional market right now. not even the smart money at kkr is immune to that. >> definitely numbers to watch today. thank you. let's get over to rick santelli and the cme group. rick? >> thanks, carl. you know, it's just hard to back into growth. central banks can try to act like legislation, where we change the landscape from a fiscal side to something more presentable to business and entrepreneurs, but backing into it, real difficult. think about things we do indirectly. if you have a manual transmission car and it won't start, you can push it, pop the clutch and maybe it will start. that's kind of like what many central banks are doing and that's their strategy regarding the economies at large.

over the weekend the big news, record debt in china. so when it comes to china, the sustainability is the issue. we all know if you have enough money, you can buy stocks, guess what, stocks go up. but if you are betting on the economy just because stocks go up, the economy doesn't necessarily go up. what we learned from china is to stabilize the markets they pump in a lot of dough. it doesn't last long. they pump more in, doesn't last long. but the debt just keeps going up. growth is temporary. debt is permanent. so this weekend, financial times had a great article and i want to put something up on the screen. china's total debt rose to record 237% of gross domestic product in the first quarter. bringing total debt to $163 trillion, $25 trillion u.s. at the end of march including domestic and foreign borrowing. maybe that number's not spot-on. the study in 2015 pegged debt in

2007 in china at $7 trillion and they pegged the debt several trillion more. what's a couple trillion among friends? but it doesn't really matter how sharp your pencil is on the number. this is big time. how many times are you going to keep pushing that car, popping the clutch and it doesn't stay running? there's obviously something else wrong. central bankers just don't have the time to think about it because like the beginning of the year in january, if there's a pause and the markets move down, then all of a sudden, it's like shining a big light on all the cracks, crevices and fragmentations within economies. so just because there's a nice presence, just because the front of the house has a beautiful facade, doesn't mean when you open the door you will find the rest of the house in such good shape. back to you. >> rick santelli, thanks so much. when we come back, amc's turn has one of the most affluent audiences of any show on television. we will be joined by one of its stars to talk about the strategy

behind reaching that audience when "squawk alley" continues. you shouldn't have to go far

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man 1:man 2: i am. woman: ex-military? man 2: four tours. woman: you worked with computers? man 2: that's classified, ma'am. man 1: but you're job was network security? man 2: that's classified, sir. woman: let's cut to the chase, here... man 1: what's you're assessment of our security? man 2: [ gasps ] porous. woman: porous? man 2: the old solutions aren't working. man 2: the world has changed. man 1: meaning? man 2: it's not just security. it's defense. it's not just security. it's defense. bae systems. even if they wanted to -- >> or that you would be wise to accept a payment. >> for god's sake, why not? >> to support the war, they continued to print currency. they can buy weekly tablets. the result is dollar has devalued to the point i fear we will not be able to finance

another campaign. >> that is a brief look at the new third season of the revolutionary war drama "turn" which premieres on amc tonight. it draws on affluent viewers but in an audience increasingly transitioning to streaming, how do these shows compete? joining us is general george washington himself. great to have you. welcome. >> great to be here with you guys. >> amc's developed this reputation for basically doing the best product of anything on television. would you agree? >> i would. i think amc has been so successful in its market because what they focused all of their attention on is the quality of their content because in this changing world, the content is key and the content is king. if we look at what amc has done with critical acclaim of winning so many emmy awards and also with their popular acclaim, one of the most popular networks on cable television, it's a great

roster to be on. >> we were talking during the break about the first two seasons on netflix. does it matter to you if a consumer binges on this or has to wait week to week? >> it's one of the great advantages, binge watching is an advantage for networks as well because we look back at "breaking bad," i don't know if you were all fans, for me, i didn't really watch it until gus was killed. then all of a sudden, it became part of the american experience and everyone was talking about "breaking bad." i was like i got to go check out this show. as an actor, fellow actors are like if you're not watching it, you're doing it wrong. i got to check it out. >> do you think this fascination with government spies doesn't matter whether it's hundreds of years ago or now, government secrets, is this new or has it always been something that people are interested in? how do you approach it with your character? >> from my perspective, if we look at america now and we look at our show, one of the great things about our show is you actually see the creation of our

country. this was no foregone conclusion. we were a penny stock going up against ibm, the british government. we didn't have much of a chance. yet over the course of time, with the help of these spies, general george washington led the army and we created this country but it didn't just show up. this country -- i'm sorry, popped out, this country was earned. we can actually see this country being born and on the show and it was the spycraft of abraham woodhall that led us to this success. >> how do you create that suspense for a viewer who says i know how the war ended? >> excellent question. when it comes to art and film, television or theater, it's not necessarily what happens next. it's watching how it happened. in season three, what we are watching is benedict arnold. our whole lives growing up, the worst thing you could be called as a young person was you are a

real benedict arnold, you're a traitor. nobody understood or knows, certainly i didn't, how did this man happen, how did this turn happen? what we see is benedict arnold and general george washington were the best of friends. the scene you showed was a scene between arnold and washington. they were working together. over the course of season three you will see how benedict arnold went from being the greatest general in the continental army to the turncoat that he is today. >> you talk about penny stock or maybe we can say apple going up against ibm with what would become the united states going up against the british empire. what about content creators in this era going up against the internet? how do you view as an artist what we see happening now? certainly there's a lot of great contentcreated but there's a lot of questions about the business model. >> i'm an actor so i can't give you the same kind of answers as other people. what i can tell you is when we are talking about content and creating content and what amc

has done, if you look last year, three of the top, the three top premieres in cable television history within the demographic happened last year with this world you are talking about, into the badlands, better call saul and fear the walking dead. amc creates content that breaks all the rules. it's playing at the highest of levels. >> how much credit do you give hamilton, who will be a character soon, to opening up awareness of revolutionary war drama? >> i think what's happening now, what we are trying to do with the show, is sort of how madmen brought back the sexiness of the '50s and '60s, turn washington spies with hamilton, no doubt, is trying to bring back what brought this country, made this country great. look, george washington walking here, i see the statue of washington outside, he didn't just show up. it didn't just happen. it wasn't easy. it was hard. these are people, it wasn't just men standing around in dresses going hey, we are going to work this out, this is going to be easy.

no. we won this country. >> you think demand for period pieces has a lot longer to go? >> you know how much those tickets are going right now? $700? $800 for rear mezzanine. yes. i think that we are tapping into that as well. this excitement about the revolutionary war period. you can watch it every week monday nights at 10:00 p.m. on amc. >> as a working actor more broadly, would you rather do television than any other form right now? >> i would rather play george washington than any other form right now. i love playing george washington. one of the things that it's done for me, it's giving me a deeper understanding of the political system today. i look every day on set, i ask the same question. there's a great responsibility in stepping into the boots of this man. playing one of the great icons. he's by no means perfect, the choices he made that are of his time that are not, when we look at it today, are not perfect. far from perfect. however, he was a man. what it does for me, i asked the question on set what would george washington do. that's the question i ask.

i believe that if our political leaders today in washington asked themselves that question every day when they were making their choices, this country would be a far better place. because they like washington would make choices for the whole rather than just for themselves or political parties. we would be the greatest nation this world has ever known. >> we can't wait to see season three. thank you so much. >> real pleasure. >> the star of "turn washington spies." tonight on amc. a potential deal in newspapers. tomorrow, nike founder phil knight, not too often do you see him on television. that's 10:30 a.m. eastern tomorrow. 98,352 what's that? the number of units we'll make next month to maximize earnings. that's a projection. no, it's a fact. based on hundreds of proprietary and open data sets folded into a real-time, actionable analytics model. nine. eight. three. five. two. you're not gonna round that up? you don't round up facts.

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earlier today, gannett unveiling a bid for the l.a. times and chicago tribunes owner. it's a significant premium on tribune's stock, that stock up 50% or more this morning. quite an interesting road for a company that did an $8.3 billion leveraged buyout, then the company went into bankruptcy, then came out of bankruptcy,

then almost got sold in 2013, split up and now this. >> of course, the partnership between gannett and tribune has been pitched for years but it comes a few days after zell spoke to the journal after the u.s. in his view likely going into recession, mild recession, but he said the economy's in the ninth inning. somebody said wouldn't it be funny if tribune marked a second top a second time. >> these newspapers chains, knight-ridder was one i worked for, god rest its soul, the internet giants of thaeir era. the antitrust was up against them to keep them from working together because of how powerful they were in advertising markets. kind of a cautionary tale to tech investors. this could be facebook in 30, 40 years. if they don't watch themselves. >> speaking of which, on a week when we will get amazon, apple and a few others, the number one name? >> linkedin. >> thursday. >> yeah. it started this big decline in smaller cap tech, maybe if they report something different on the positive side, it could

change people's perceptions. >> depends how much perceptions have already been changed after their last quarter. >> yes, indeed. >> for now the perception is the dow is down 110 as we got some weakness from the get-go. let's get to "the half." welcome to "the halftime report." our top trade this hour, whether facebook, apple and amazon earnings this week can turn around the beaten-down bunch. with us for the hour today, jim leventhal, joe terranova and pete najarian. tech coming off an awful week. the question now is whether the tide is about to turn with some highly anticipated numbers about to hit the tape. steve, is it? >> we are looking at two different techs here. looking at one tech which is capx di