tv Squawk Alley CNBC May 9, 2016 11:00am-12:01pm EDT
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♪ good monday morning. post nine kicking off. we have tech reporter joining us. good to have you back. a lot to get to. tech stocks looking to bounce back from a rough month. nazi in the green today, down three weeks in a row. entering correction territory on friday. this is the first three week loss for nasdaq since january. if you weren't facebook or amazon, it was a tough quarter. what happened? >> i mean pretty much as you said, every other tech company other than those two had troubles, for different ones, sources were different.
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we saw a number of companies still hit, ibm, intel. and different problems. apple iphone sales have stopped growing. this is kind of a huge question for them going forward, whether to do anything else to boost sales for iphone and for the rest of the company for other product lines. that's the big question for them. >> we will get to apple in a bit. external dynamics outside of tech, the dollar, if you're bullish, reversing course not reflected in q-1. >> there's a counter story going on. let me read a list of stocks that are up almost 50% or more in the past three months. splunk, up 48%, group on up more than 50. these are the dogs of the tech world.
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there was a bubble you could argue in these stocks popped a long time ago. people were focused on top tier. those stocks had a little bit of a rebound. certainly off the february lows. they're holding on to some gains they've had in that period of time. what does that mean exactly for startups? i don't know. what's your take. is there some sense that pessimism of earlier this year was overdone or is that kind of another wave of fear settling in now that some stocks that were rebounding are starting to lose gains. >> i feel like things are slightly less pessimistic than four, five months ago. we have seen more big companies get funded. in general for startups in the valley, the mood now is there are some good ones that will continue to get funding and probably already have a lot of money, may not need funding.
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the ones with any sort of slight question about dynamics, if you're on demand delivery company and there are questions about unit economics, for instance, those kinds of companies are going to face a lot of trouble raising money. the list you mentioned is interesting. i think we're seeing a lot of high highs and low lows. and for some companies kind of that atmosphere may have changed and people think those companies are probably a little too far down. there's a lot of -- still a lot of opportunity for the software service companies, for example. >> we've had i am thinking back, roger mcnamee ankara swisher friday argued we are in a pause moment, innovation, between hardware cycles. in a pause moment with ipos since square and service works. does that make sense to you? >> yeah. especially on the technology front. people don't really know what's
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going to happen next. i think the tech business is always unpredictable, seems slightly more unpredictable now. big companies build new products like apple watch and the kind of don't do well, big companies build off the wall products like amazon echo and people are saying it may be the next big thing. we are in a moment where sure things don't look like sure things and weird things are kind of doing well. it's difficult. >> meanwhile, we have an interesting story from texas. uber and lift plan to shuttle down indefinitely in austin after voters decline to support a proposition shielding drivers from stricter background checks. they say that will hurt drivers. both companies stopped operations in austin, it is unclear whether it is temporary or permanent withdrawal. they think austin and lift are
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made for each other. i want to volunteer long term in church's sunday school, i need to get fingerprinted. i should be able to drive around with young lives in my care? i don't know where the line is for these companies. my wife is out of town taking an uber late at night, i want her on the phone with me. she can get a picture of the guy and car she's riding in, there are a lot of stories as there would be with taxis about safety of this. i wonder whether this tilts cities in the direction of not messing with uber and lift, there are rumblings in north texas and other cities, or if some dig in and say wait a second, people voted. >> what does it mean? >> you have to look at this as a campaign on the part of uber and lift. the big issue, they don't want these kinds of rules spreading.
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i suspect this is opening and we will see what happens in austin. the real message to other cities, they don't want san francisco and new york and l.a. passing these kinds of rules. i don't know if it is these rules specifically or the idea of stricter rules generally and worry this might be some domino issue. they want to play hard ball here. they don't want these costs to escalate. seems like fingerprinting doesn't seem like an onerous restriction. >> not like these are a bunch of bureaucrats that decided this is what we want you to do. this is a popular vote. majority of people that voted said yeah, we think you need to be regulated. love you but get fingerprinted. why won't they do it, draw the line there. are we in an age tech companies feel like we are the government,
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we make the rules. we will push back on anything that seeks to limit us. i have a feeling that could back fire. apple, fbi, or -- >> i think everybody gets your point on that. check out apple. after closing friday at the lowest level since june of 2014, apple is close to 14% down in the past month. farhad, saying they need to try more moonshots. the slow search for precision and perfection may no longer be in apple's best interest. did this get anywhere zooing in the company? >> i don't know if it got anywhere in the company. i think what they need to do now, it is a slow process of changing culture slightly. i don't think they need to do anything radical but i think they should be faster in terms of getting new stuff out there. and they should be a little more experimental. we know they're working on
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moonshots in secret, building a car somewhere. they're working on some tv service that if it works could be a huge change. but they have been slow on some basic things that could change how we use our phones. it is crazy siri doesn't work better than it does already. the stuff they put out, if it is not great at the start, they take a long time to fix it. i think they should be a little faster. >> let me push back on you. which of google's moonshots, real moonshots worked out. youtube bought for 1.3 billion when video wasn't huge, turned it into a juggernaut. android they did well with. apple bought pa semi, now designing chips in their phones. a huge margin booster for them. if you look at the economic value of that, it would be pretty big. and maps, all the companies they bought and percentage of ios
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that use apple maps instead of google maps, even though it started a disaster, you could argue that's the equivalent. maybe apple is just a better steward of capital in some ways than google is. >> one of the difficulties here, you're right, is we compare kind of the companies like google experiment in the open, we compare them to apple which experiments in secret. we have a tendency to call google more innovative as a result. i think what you get with that approach, more free wheeling approach, i would say amazon is a better example, you get off the wall stuff. you get things like amazon web services which i don't think people imagined would be as big a business as it would be, but it came out of nowhere. and it is probably going to be bigger than the retail store. those innovations you get as a result of doing things faster
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and with a little less persnickety perfection. it is difficult for apple. people make a big deal when something doesn't work well. it is part of their brand to be perfect. that's the difficulty. >> that's the great delineation. bezos and amazon are willing to fail in public and that's tough for apple. won't you agree historically? >> i agree. i think apple's surprise trick worked better when it was smaller. before it was making tens of millions of devices practically per week. once i get to that scale and that number of suppliers, it is hard to keep a secret, that marketing trick doesn't work as well. >> that's why we get the specs before the actual introduction. farhad, good to see you as always. come back. >> thanks very much. >> and we want to check on the markets, trading lower. the dow down around 39 points.
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s and p are flat lining. nasdaq up 30%. tyson foods, the company saying it was pleased with results and what is typically the most challenging quarter of the year. meantime a little under 20 minutes, sumner redstone's competency hearing. julia boorstin has more on that. >> reporter: good morning, john. in a couple of minutes, the judge will update the court on deliberations over the weekend on whether or not to dismiss this case against redstone filed by former girlfriend. after hearing testimony that he hated her, calling her derogatory expletives and he was happy with his daughter sherry managing his health care, the judge said he would consider dismissing the case asking both sides to submit briefs. they write in the interests of
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his privacy, dignity, legacy and family, mr. redstone respectfully renews his request that the court dismiss the petition, and allow him to live out his remaining days in peace. heirer's attorney doing what is necessary and to understand why he said in his testimony. >> of course it is not over. why is he saying this. how was he brainwashed. what happened to him in six months since he made the decision, did he have mental defect when he did. think it is clear he did, but at minimum we get a trial. >> reporter: we will be back as soon as we hear the judge's ruling. it would be very unusual for a judge to dismiss this kind of case after one day of trial and three witnesses. but then again, it is a very unusual case. guys, back to you. >> thank you very much, julia boorstin. when we come back with apple shares down close to 15% in a
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month, time to be buying or selling? we talk to two top analysts. and donald trump leaving the door open to tax increases on the wealthy. look at what he said. check out lending club hurting after the ceo resigns, the board decided he violated company business practices. 65% off the offered price. 82% off. worst day ever. ♪ ♪ [engine revving] the all-new audi a4 is here.
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check out lending club stock, shares hit hard after the company ceo resigned after the board said he violated lending business practices. kind of a complicated issue here. >> it is somewhat complex, seems to come down to a board of directors and whether it trusts the founder, ceo, apparently the answer was no. this is after review of loans. there's renaud laplanche who is no longer the ceo. there was a package of loans being sold that was originated by lending club. it is not a question of the underlying credit quality of loans. simply documentation associated with the $22 million package was not what had been requested by the buyer, which requires
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documentation of a different type. apparently it began because of something that appeared more serious, about 3 million of 22 million in loans also had a change made in the application date for the loan. again, it doesn't seem to get to the underlying credit quality, but what occurred is that was found a change in application day. further review found this documentation differential from what the buyer wanted of the loans. and that led the board, seems to have questions with the ceo, and not to be given what it felt was full disclosure or the ceo not being completely forthcoming with the board. john, talking about a board that includes john mack, former ceo of morgan stanley. mary meeker, and a fairly high level board that simply felt it no longer, if i can put it in my
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words, say trust its ceo. that's often times a move toward dismissal, despite what doesn't appear to be something underlying that speaks to a problem at the company, at least at this point, they'll put off filing the q and not giving this guidance. >> how much comes down to in this environment these days if you're in the finance business, your credibility will get questioned perhaps in court. these things even if not going to credit quality could go to a case that management was not on the ball. >> that's the point. hans morris who is acting in seer yor capacity as a board member on the call, to your point, key principal of the company maintaining highest level of trust with borrowers, investors, shareholders and employees. the financial impact was minimal, but it went to that
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point that you're making given it is a finance company. >> i get it. thank you. >> all right. getting curious reports on impeachment process in brazil. >> those curious reports are pounding the brazilian stock market. the etf, trades in the united states and the real. etf is off more, double whammy. stocks are lower and the realice lower. coming from a reputable newspaper in brazil, somehow the acting leader of lower house anuld the impeachment process against the president. this is not confirmed by the spokesperson for the lower house. initially reaching to people in brazil, there was confusion. in theory, the process moved away from the lower house and to the senate. we will keep watching this. it may be it has to go back to the lower house for another
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vote. the reason the stock exchange and etf move lower, there are reports that the impeachment process was anulled. the vote was supposed to happen wednesday. it looked like a done deal she would be out of office six months during trial. back to you. >> thank you, michelle. up next, recode, our partner has a look or change in strategy. new recode editor dan farmer will join us. and familiar face leaving donald trump's transition team. details in a moment.
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a new announcement from the trump campaign. >> john, we have chris christie, governor of new jersey who endorsed donald trump after losing to him in the primaries, named as head of the transition effort for donald trump, looking ahead. chris christie is valuable to donald trump as an ambassador to the world of government because
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he's new to the world of government. hasn't served in public office before. so chris christie is going to organize that. chris christie is also somebody that's been talked about as a potential running mate for donald trump. we'll see how that plays out. the other thing we have been talking about is the back and forth over donald trump's tax plan. remember he proposed a plan with three rates, 25%, top rate for individuals, 20% for capital gains, 15% for businesses. huge tax cut. when he spoke to andrew sorkin on squawk the other day, said he would negotiate it upward. talked to chuck today on "meet the press" over the weekend and said this. >> the thing i'm going to do is make sure the middle class gets good tax breaks. they have been absolutely shunned. the other thing i am going to fight very hard for business. for the wealthy, i think frankly it is going to go up, and you know what, it really should go
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up. >> that was interpreted as donald trump proposing a tax increase on the wealthy, over the 39.6% top rate now. donald trump was quick this morning to clarify and say no, i meant i would negotiate up from 25 figure in my plan and he is accusing media of being unfair. but donald trump has to take responsibility for this, he needs to speak clearly about what his goals and objectives are. because donald trump doesn't have a deep attachment to ideas and public policy goals, he is subject to being misinterpreted in the way he says he is now being misinterpreted. donald trump, we will wait and see what he says in coming days, will meet with paul ryan thursday, the house speaker who withheld endorsement for donald trump. paul ryan cares about cutting taxes almost more than anything else in public policy as a means of spurring the economy. that's going to be interesting fodder for the conversation between donald trump and paul ryan thursday. >> one of the disciples of jack
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kemp. thank you so much. recode is getting a redesign, relaunching their website. the new editor and chief joins us this morning. great to have you. congratulations. it is not just the logo, there's more to it. you want to talk about the evolution? >> recode joined box media about a year ago. this week we pushed the brand new relaunch, completely redesigned. new branding by the guy who did the logo for oculus. remove the slash from the name and we are embarking on a broader focus, too. >> you talk about websites used to cover technology as a thing. >> right. >> now it sort of bleeds through everything we do. >> everything. watch cnbc all day, it is mostly about tech now. it puts us in unique position as tech experts to cover more of the business world with tech as
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a lens. we launched a transportation section. tech completely transformed transportation, with uber, and changed the way people get around cities, look at tesla, hyper loop someday. those are tech stories. imagine how we cover future verticals and other topics like that, i think we find similar ways to do it. >> recode started as text. now podcast, audio, video, still have live events, including a big conference coming in a few weeks. what percentage of what you do is text and strategically, how much growth comes from writing versus other media? >> i would say journalists spend most time on text. that's a big part of the brand. a few events a year. if i have to makeup a number, 95 of the% of the time thinking
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text. video is the future for brands like us. there's a lot we can do with video we can't do as efficiently or creatively in text, showing things visually with charts or showing emotion through interviews, that's something the conference business does tremendously well. we transferred that to podcasts. video is a natural growth point for us as well. >> do you see yourself moving toward a wired audience where people are already locked into issues, or more of the layman, they appreciate tech, even though they can't tell you how a circuit would work. >> the core audience probably started in silicon valley. we want to please that core audience every day. growth comes from consumers with some business or tech interest. at the least, we want to be sure everything we write can be understood, makes sense, has meaning to the people, to everyone. we don't want to be exclusionary. tech and business sites use jargon.
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that's not what we want to do at recode. >> in terms of revenue, in the programic era, you make more off live events, video, if you can sell it in a different way, right? >> the answer is we sell all of it. you're not just selling one thing or another. video is a delightful advertising market. we would love to tap into it on recode. >> if you need help, we are right here. >> excellent. appreciate it. >> we should mention that nbc universal and comcast are investors. simon is back. >> we have a bit of a follow through from the action on wall street for europe. we sold into that, stocks are down and italian banks have fallen. there's a focus on politics. brussels has an emergency meeting of finance ministers where the greek hope to vote
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through belt tightening on tax reform, that they'll get that bailout cash. imf and germans are pushing for 2% tightening. word going in from the germans and dutch, if it won't be forthcoming at the meeting, it is important. politics of greece are on the knife edge and they could be forced to call general election. in the u.k., six weeks from the referendum to leave the european union. david cameron gave an address, whether there will be peace in europe, the balance can conflicts from the clinton era. bore is johnson is ridiculing david cameron, saying he doesn't believe cameron believes what he is saying. european union is an old regime,
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and fighting it is a liberal project. quote. i find it offensive, insulting, irrelevant and positively kret innous to be told sometimes by people who can barely speak a foreign language that i belong to a group of small minded xenophobes. there's a survey out showings almost half, survey eight countries outside the u.k., almost half those around the european union would want their own referendum. if you look in italy or france, the proportion of people that would like to leave the european union as well is high. that cuts both ways. one hand, shows why the vote could be systemic for the european union. also demonstrates why the u.k. won't be allowed if they exit to have a decent trade relationship
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with the union. they have to keep a lead on it to prevent other member states from leaving as well. guys, back to you. when we come back, apple shares down about 15% in the last month. how low could it go? two top analysts will join us. don't go away. trader group, they work all the time. sup jj, working hard? working 24/7 on mobile trader, rated #1 trading app on the app store. it lets you trade stocks, options, futures... even advanced orders. and it offers more charts than a lot of other competitors do on desktop. you work so late. i guess you don't see your family very much? i see them all the time. did you finish your derivatives pricing model, honey? td ameritrade.
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north carolina governor is going to court to limit protections for lesbian, gay, transgender people. he is leading a lawsuit against the justice department who said that violated civil rights of transgender people. he will have a news conference at 1:00 p.m. eastern. emergency crews are battling a massive wildfire going through alberta, canada. choppers, air tankers are dropping load after load on the blaze. cooler temperatures, light rain have officials optimistic they may have reached a turning point controlling that fire. seoul winner of $29.6 million powerball jackpot to come forward. it was sold at a 7-eleven in trenton, new jersey. cashing in at 284 million. and he will resign as president at the court of
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arbitration for sport, they cut his sanctions from four years to six. he held that since 2007. you're up to date. that's the news update. back downtown to squawk alley. john, over to you. >> thank you, sue. apple moving higher, it is a rough ride for the stock, hitting levels it hasn't seen since summer of 2014. josh lip ton is in san francisco with that. >> john, the best days for apple are behind it, that's one criticism we hear of the tech giant, after the last earnings report where sales slid first time in 13 years. the stock dropped 11% this year. some 25% in the past 12 months, returning to technicals, newton of newton advisers says 92 is the critical level, the stock likely pulls back to 85 before any serious low is in place. list of new worries includes china, where the ceo tim cook is
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headed to beijing, following decision by government officials there. >> i want to interrupt you quickly. we are getting breaking news from reuters. a tentative ruling says a judge is dismissing the mental competence lawsuit against sumner redstone, the media mogul. julia boorstin has been covering this, along with testimony on friday as well. julia, what do we know? >> reporter: we know the court just reconvened and handed a tentative ruling from judge david cohen saying he has a tentative motion to dismiss the petition. that means what's probably going to happen next, he is going to explain his position and what he has been thinking about over the weekend, his deliberations over the weekend to the court. i hear from the producer who is inside that the courtroom is packed. there are more attorneys in there now than there were friday. most likely he will take that tentative ruling and make it official, once court is in session and he can explain it.
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we will likely hear again from herzer's attorneys. o'donnell has been speaking out on this. he is likely to go forward and make a tentative ruling official because of his testimony friday. saying he wanted herrous of his life, calling her nasty expletive laced names. the judge said to the attorneys friday, it will take a lot to convince me we shouldn't let him have his way, let him say that he does not want her in his life. pierce o'donnell who is representing her says they should not take redstone's testimony at face value, that an interpreter may have misinterpreted what he wanted to say. so herzer's attorneys are not happy with what the judge is leaning toward.
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it seems like this case will be dismissed. going to read you from the tentative ruling, the judge says no good cause for further judicial involvement where the court has heard directly from redstone that he lost trust in her, doesn't want her in his life and wants his daughter sherry to look after him if necessary. i have to say it is unusual for a trial to be dismissed after one day in court and three witnesses testifying. again, this is a very unusual case. guys? >> julia, it seems to me as an observer, tell me where i am wrong, a big piece of this case was the argument that redstone was a living ghost. does this come down to ghosts can't drop f bombs and colorful language he used on top of everything else he said convinces one that he still has control of some key parts of his faculties? >> reporter: yes. i think you are to a certain extent right on that, john.
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there are two issues the case is about. number one, did he have mental capacity when he pushed her out of the home, and was he unduly influenced, effectively brainwashed, a term that o'donnell used. i want to give you more from the ruling. the judge writes redstone is presumed to have capacity, and theers pert dr. reed that testified friday did not establish that he lacked capacity to change his agent. redstone is free to make this decision for whatever reason even if for poorly thought out or erroneous reason. so he says the doctor hired by her attorneys who examined redstone friday didn't give him reason to think he didn't have some mental capacity. there are interesting exchanges friday. for instance, the attorneys and the doctor talked about how redstone would gamble on sporting events but always won,
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it was sort of fixed by friends and other people interacting to make sure he always won. and the lawyer was in tim ating that he didn't know what was going on. the judge said it is ir, he has a right to say he doesn't want her in charge of his health care and seems to be with it enough to know he wants his daughter sherry in charge. >> julia, one last question for those not following the case inside and out like you have, impact on the company, does it lift any uncertainty for viacom or cbs? >> what's interesting here is the fact they dismissed the case means they're not ruling that redstone, when he was chairman of cbs and viacom, he lacked mental capacity. the fact that he is deemed to have mental capacity of cbs and viacom means we probably won't
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see many shareholder lawsuits, and worth noting that this means that we won't see his voting control in cbs and viacom passed from him to a trust. redstone controls 80% at cbs and viacom, when he dies or is deemed incapacitated, those votes will be pushed to a seven person trust. now it seems there's no pressure for that to happen. it is interesting now that testimony is out from friday. we will see if that prompts people to raise questions about whether or not he should still have controlling stakes in the company. but immediate pressure is gone. i want to read one last quote from the courtroom. the judge saying the court has no business interfering with his prerogatives, furthermore, herzer's own doctor said where there is lack of trust, there's no reason -- the proceeding is
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not reasonably necessary to protect interest of the patient. i think it removes an element of uncertainty. we will see as people go back, reread that testimony, that we all got friday afternoon laced with f bombs as john pointed out, if that raises questions about the role that redstone plays as controlling shareholder in cbs and viacom. >> julia boorstin out west. thank you again. a judge in a tentative ruling dismissing that mental competence lawsuit. we are getting interesting reports about speaker ryan. john? >> reporter: remember last week paul ryan said he wasn't prepared to support donald trump as the presumptive nominee for president. that was notable for two things, one, paul ryan is the most powerful republican in office currently, and secondly he's chair of the convention that will be nominating donald trump, which created tremendous
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potential for awkwardness. after donald trump fired back, paul ryan telling milwaukee journal sentinel if donald trump wants him to step aside as convention chairman, he will do so. that from ryan's point of view puts that ball back in donald trump's court, raises stakes for the meeting thursday between trump, paul ryan and reince priebus, republican party chairman. getting dicier for the party to put it together to compete against hillary clinton this fall. >> john will be watching that. john harwood in washington, d.c. meantime, equities and oil are off the lows. dow down about 48. don't go away. [beekeeper] from bees to business expenses,
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stress in silicon valley, venture capitalist joins us on what's happening with valuations there. john, we will see you budget 10:00. >> looking forward to it. apple shares hit a two year low friday with their developer conference, wwdc as next chance to turn things around. what's the best move toward that. will power is an analyst, steve is an analyst and they join us
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now. start with you. where's the floor on the stock. apple makes a whole lot of money, cash up the wazoo. what do they do with that cash, they pay a dividend. also have debt. and growth out of the biggest product. how do you value the stock. >> that's been the million dollar question. we had a note out this morning we think estimates are too high to the only for q-4 but for 2016. some of the expectations for iphone 7 are too lofty. because of that, we think there's down side risk. but directly to your question, we think about trough multiples, consumer hardwares in the past. think apple should warn to premium. even on street low estimates, get you to $87 to $90 range.
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we think that's the current floor. we tend to think high 80s and 90s is the 20% upside from here at the same time. how do you square that? >> we think there's some near-term caution says we look at estimates needing to come down. that's one of the elements we called out in our note this morning. but longer term, you know, for those that have more than a six-month time horizon, and we look at 12 to 18 months out, we like the stock at these levels. we think, clearly, a lot is priced in here at this point. and as a result, we think the downside is limited from here in longer term. we think, particularly, as we get deeper into iphone 7 and start thinking about iphone 8, you can start to see the stock work better again. >> steve, jim cramer's point has been the street needs to own its skepticism of apple and just downgrade the stock. why did we see so many price target cuts, but no rating cuts? >> well, the stock is still relatively inexpensive, as he was talking about, even on lower
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estimates here. the stock is quite oversold. i would say the downside, as well, is probably around $85. you know, our view is based on optimism from a couple of places. it's going to be tough near-term, but number one, we had a global survey last week of 6,000 consumers, which suggested that interest in the 7 will be better than the current 6s, though not as strong as the 6. though we think there'll be a little bit of growth in the 7 cycle. and we do view apple as a platform company, which gives it optionalty down the road with a billion devices, $800 million users. you've got to have a little bit of faith they'll come up with some profits in the future. the next three to six months are definitely show me, it's going to be tough, but the stock has probably better upside than downside here. >> steve, i guess the -- one thing that gives me pause, especially, with apple's prospects is the idea that the iphone se could be a lot more popular than even apple anticipated. and tim cook intimated that much on the last earnings call. if that happens, even if unit
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sales go up by, say, 25 to 30%, revenues might still be flat to down if the mix of that is significantly iphone se. even in the iphone 7 cycle, how does that fit into your calculus? >> i think the se should be a positive. it's possible that it could cannibalize some larger phones. but i think it's going to be a net positive. remember, there's probably a third of a base on a 4-inch form factor that has not upgraded. apple's biggest problem right now is getting the installed base to upgrade. a third is sitting there with very old phones. the se provides pretty good technology as well as a $400 price point. it will be margin dilutive, but i think in terms of growing gross profit, operating profit dollars, it should be positive over the next 12 to 18 months. >> well, steve, short-term pain, but you're both expecting long-term gain. thanks so much for joining us on a monday morning. >> thank you. >> thanks for having me. >> and when kanye west said he was choosing tidal over spot any or when facebook's rumor mill
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hinted at a news feed change, how did that affect users? our next guest is in the business of gathering data on app downloads. bertrand, thanks for being with us. one of the most interesting things i saw out of your data is, things don't look so bad for tidal. yes, it's kind of spiky, but in a way, these exclusives are driving significant volume for them. put them into context, say, with a pandora, with a spot any, in terms of how users are responding and downloading that app and using it. >> yes, absolutely, definitely. tidal is doing a great job, exclusive to downloads on a regular basis. we have now beyonce and i think it has been very positive for the service. like pandora's, spotify, in
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terms of registered users, but they're making good strides. >> bertrand, we've had this notion of bots come up increasingly frequently here. and there's a large school of thought that says it might have material effects on the creation of apps going forward, as you're able to surf through those things more fluidly. is that true? >> i would say that all bots through apps, if you look at what facebook announced, with facebook, messenger, and bots, i don't think it will have a negative effect, to deliver what is mostly customer service, for some specific use case. >> and bertrand, what are you seeing in terms of facebook's overall dominance. it sure looks like with all of the properties that facebook has picked up or developed, their
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position looks very strong in the mobile era. how much room is there for others to really make headway? >> that's a good question. we are just releasing a report showing that facebook holds a top four spot on most downloaded app on google play platform. we have facebook, facebook imageer, what's app, instagram, and they have been doing a tremendous job driving downloads, but very, very satisfying levels. so 1.5 billion, that's huge numbers. and definitely some other companies are going in the direction, trying to get users, as well. so you can see snapchat. you can see twitter, i saw, moving there. but definitely, facebook, at least in the western world, is the king of messaging. >> bertrand schmidt of app ante, when facebook is able to come in first, second, third, and fourth, thanks for joining us.
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"the new yorker" in partnership with qualcomm releasing a brand-new augmented reality cover with today's issue. so, you see, i just put the ipad in front of it and boom this pops up. that's kind of cool, but, whoa! it's in 3-d. so, see a little city grows. and notice that you can still see the set. i'm getting fancy and put my hand in front of the camera. but that is awesome. the app is called uncover. qualcomm's not the only one working on technology like this. and i'm skeptical about how much penetration they can get by getting people to download an app, but if more popular apps build this in, huge potential. >> certainly, "new york times"
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has had some success, but "the new yorker" has been given credit for making their digital properties look and feel like the print property. and of course, we know how much history is behind that. so we're going to watch that space closely. in the meantime, we'll watch oil and stocks, which are both in the red. let's get over to headquarters. scott wapner and the half. >> thanks so much. that's where we start. welcome to the halftime report. i'm scott wapner. our top trade this hour, hot commodities and what those big events in oil over the weekend mean for your money. with us for the hour today, joe terranova, josh brown. let's kick it off with crude and those two events driving prices this hour, the out of control wildfires in canada and the surprise saudi shuffle, what both mean for where things could go from here. let's bring with our deidra bossa on the ground in edmonton with the late
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