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tv   Squawk Box  CNBC  May 25, 2016 6:00am-9:01am EDT

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now. ♪ the heat is on >> announcer: live from new york where business never sleeps, this is "squawk box." good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with joe kernin and andrew ross sorkin. check out equity futures. dow futures indicated up by 85 points this comes after a big rally yesterday for stocks. s&p up by 11.5. and the nasdaq up by 28 points above fair value. check out what happened overnight in asia. again, all of this started kind of yesterday with the european markets that really took off. you can see it followed up in japan with the nikkei up by 1.5%. the hang seng was up by 2.7%. it was just the shanghai composite with a decline of a quarter percentage point. in europe, once again, you'll see plenty of green arrows. the dax in germany up by 1.45%.
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the cac in france up by better than 1%. ftse higher as well, 0.7%. crude oil prices raiding near seven-month highs. check this out up another 1% to 49.07. getting back to $50 a barrel. the gains that came yesterday, showed that u.s. crude stocks dropped by 5.1 million barrels. double than what was expected. we'll get the eia figures later today. let's get you to other big stories. st. louis fed president jim bullard saying june rate hike isn't set in stone. arguing that labor data suggests it's time to pull the trigger. >> obviously, we've tried to be dat data-dependent. i don't think there's any reason to prejudge the june meeting. we can wait until we get to the meeting and judge the data
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there. i think on the issue of press conferences we have made many moves over the years without press conferences so i think we could make a move without a press conference in it this circumstance. >> as for the risk of brexit and the chance that the uk could vote -- the uk vote could give the fed some pause, bullard says he doesn't consider it quite the global financial market that some are saying. but he does note that his views to be an outlier. we're going to hear from philly fed patrick harker and kashkari and fed president from dallas speaking today. and hewlett packard will merge with computer sciences in an $8.5 billion transaction. shares of both of those companies are up sharply on that news. hp up by $1000.
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h hewlett-packard enterprise will meg whitman on the company's conference call talk about it. >> the remaining hewlett-packard enterprise, this transaction increases significant value by unlocking higher margin and strong free cash flow business. hpe will have $33 billion in annual refusal knew will focus on secure, next generation, software that leverages a world class portfolio of storage, networks and helium cloud platform and software assets. >> meg whitman is joining david faber on "squawk on the street" later on this morning. >> it opens up and two little ones come out. >> it's the fed yesterday in the day, they actually, definitely handled something? >> perhaps. look at the rally.
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if you look at the rally, maybe the market is not worried. >> we're just getting back to where we were. >> nothing has changed. are they actually definitely handling this? >> that's what i say. but have they definitely handled the tightening cycle for the last year? they've gone another? maybe that is handling it, at least hold on to -- it will orchestrated gains. protests at a donald trump rally turn violent in albuquerque, new mexico last night anti-trump protesters squared off with police throwing rocks and bottles, approaching campaign signs and officers used pepper spray and smoke bombs. meantime, inside the convention center, trump's speech was interrupted several times by protesters. >> and you know, we wrote down -- is everything good over there? yes! yes! i'm on a certain show, and the -- oh, no, not another one.
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where is you? >> in a speech, trump fired back at hillary clinton over her criticism over his comments about the housing market defending a prior at the same time that he had hoped for a bubble burst. >> i mean, i'm a businessman. so when the housing market goes down, i guess, what she'd like to do, you see, if she did it, she'd want to buy at the top. i like if it goes down, it goes down. hey, i feel badly for everybody. what am i going to do? i'm in business, okay. never thought i was going to run for office. >> trump now heads california for an event in anaheim. wouldn't be the first time we heard a market analyst say stocks get cheaper, better for me. i think buffett has said that in the past, if they do get cheaper -- i'd rather buy them cheaper. democratic presidential candidate bernie sanders who would probably like to outlaw
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the stock market, seeking a recount in kentucky. clinton won that state. sanders is requesting a full check and recount of all voting machines and absentee ballots now from every precinct in the state. >> he's not going to go quietly. >> right. they're asking him nicely, the clinton machine, i know that sounds like an oxymoron, asking nicely, they're saying, what do you want? stop. >> when you look at the counts he has no way of winning he's going to make his point every step of the way. i heard him saying yesterday that the california is the biggest and most important and that's going to be dictating where things should end. >> he's california, is he? it's going to be in the platform? >> that is his hope to take his points and force them there. >> that will be good for -- >> hillary clinton at this point has said, no, that she's not going to do that. >> but people on the platform --
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let's talk about some stocks to watch today, monsanto rejecting bayer's $62 billion bid offer saying that the bid was too low but open to further discussions. bayerization it's confident that the two firms can address financing matters. hearing from the ceo earlier this week he felt confident with it. you can see monsanto shares up by 3.25%. bayer shares up by 0.33. sanify. and mitsubishi motors is restating its financial results from last year to reflect a special loss of nearly $175 million. that correction is related to the scandal of its manipulation of fuel efficiency numbers.
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also new this morning -- microsoft is conduct 1,850 jobs in its smartphone unit. most of those position, in finland. this is coming as sales. device continue to decline. the tech giant acquired the device from nokia a year ago. let get back to the broader markets as we showed you. futures higher. dow futures indicated up by 80%. s&p up by 10. nasdaq up by 26. both the nasdaq and the s&p are now positive for the month of may. the dow was down still, only by 67 points. if you see the gains hold on this morning you will see the dow go positive for the month of may as well. check out what's been happening with the ten-year. prices were under pressure yesterday. yields continue to decline. the ten-year at 1.86%. in terms of foreign exchange, the dollar looks like down against the you're owe at
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1.1142. up against the yen at 1 10.17. and a showing on wall street, the best trading day since march. joining us in ed campbell, and thomas forester, portfolio manager at forester valued fund. do you think the fed handles this increase, or people now saying they told us about june i don't think they're going to do it, so i'm okay. >> well, i don't think they're going in june. >> do you think the market is going to rally? >> i think the minutes did what the fed wanted them to do which is increase the probability of a rate hiking in june or july. >> in june or july? >> in june or july. the market probabilities for june are still below 50%.
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the history of the fed is they don't like to surprise the market with a rate hike. i think ultimately if you go into july, but it is coming. >> let's say something happens in the next couple weeks that puts it up to 50% or 60% for june. does it go back down? are we ready for it or is the market rallying because they don't think it's june? >> i think the data we got yesterday in terms of new home sales, the blowout number, that argues more for you that the economy can take the rate hike that is -- >> it's already written that says that the fed is jonesing to raise rate right now. >> and the brexit polls seem to be indicating -- >> right, the brexit polls seem to be breaking in the right direction. >> in the right direction for the fed to move. >> in the right direction for the fed to move, exactly. >> if they're going to move, they've got to move pretty quick, right? they've got an election coming up in in november.
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if they're going to move, they've probably got to move in june or july. they probably don't want to get mixed up in a brexit but you're right. >> do you think traders or investors need to be collared? >> well, the fed has been doing this for six years now of coddling. you do what you know. >> so the numbers that you've seen, in the last two months, good economic numbers? >> well, you've got a mixed bag, right? so, you look at some of the more leading indicators like inventory to sales, those are awful. you look at auto inventory to sales, those are back at recession levels. you look at earnings, earnings are down year over year for five quarters now. we'd suggest that actually things are soft. but you've got mixed home sales in there. strong numbers out there. on an earnings front, we think that the market is driven by, and gdp growth. and earnings growth has been, quite frankly, flat for quite some time.
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we also think that china is a big issue still. china did a trillion dollars of new lending in the first quarter. that got everybody excited and bumped back up. dollar went down so the emerging markets did a lot better. now, all of that stuff is starting to come off a little bit. we actually think the market could get soft over the next few months. >> so this could be reflected in stocks. stockings aren't necessarily -- they will trade depending on the underlying economy? >> we think so, yeah. buffett said in the short run, kind of emotions. in the long run, it's fundamentals. >> we're not big bulls on stocks either. >> but the economy? >> well, i think the economy's chugging along, right? the economy's chugging along at about a 2% rate. you know, we're still stuck in this table low-growth equilibrium that we've been in since the crisis. but i do think there's low krivg
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risk of recession. in terms of stocks, you know, i agree with the view that tom expressed. i think they've got a tepid year. better off in risk assets like high yield which are up 7% year to date. versus the s&p return last friday only up 1.5%. >> we actually think that the fed is really just trying to get ammo for the next recession. think about it, whatever the fed funds were 7.5. 750 basic points to cut. '07, they were 5.5. a lot of room to cut. right now, 25, 50 basis points? you've got no room now if you do start heading into a recession. so, we think they want to try to get some ammo in there. because there are some analysts that only look at retail sales. some of the econocompanies that out, gap, macy's, they missed.
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>> and goldman says no reason to be in stocks. is it possible to be up 10%. is it possible to do that with the fed in the tightening zone? >> i think it's possible. we need to see improvement on the earnings front. we do think that's going to happen on the margin. q1 was the low point in terms of earnings per share. we're going to see that improve sequentially over the next quarters. the things that take a bite out of the dollar are dissipating. and we still think for the calendar year not going to get earnings growth for the calendar year. >> but people forget the tightening cycle indicates a better economy. in the past, stock markets have gone up in tightening cycles. people don't realize that.
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>> i think the general view is that should cause pe ratios to come down. at this point, higher interest rates are signaling a stronger economy. that should be okay for pe issues. >> gentlemen, thanks. we've got another buzz story to talk about this morning. i can confirm after a column i wrote about this very subject saying that paypal co-founder peter thiel was behind the $130 million lawsuit that hulk hogan won over nick denton. people thought that hulk hogan was an independent actor upset over what happened with the sex tape with gawker. in fact, the lawsuit has been funned and financed in part by peter thiel. there's a lawyer, chris harter
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out in california that said expenses have been paid for by a mystery funder. >> it wasn't in your piece yesterday. >> it wasn't in the piece yesterday. the name had been floating about. and there was sort of some real issues about how and if we could actually confirm that his name was the person behind it. peter has had -- i tried to be more responsible. the good news is, the column shook some of the leaves around the whole thing. >> how did peter fund it? >> peter had a long history in 2007 with gawker. peter was outed by gawker. he's been very upset about it. has talked about it publicly in a couple different places. at one point referred to gawker as al qaeda. and has clearly had an issue with this particular company. >> payback. >> you could call it payback or revenge. to some degree. the issue, though, is going to
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raise and already seeing it with different legal scholars and other legal experts all sorts of questions. by the way, there's something called finance litigation. there's a whole industry that actually finances different types of litigation. >> you get a piece of the action -- >> excuse me? >> you can get a piece of the action? >> you can get a piece of the action. i don't know if you remember, the hang greenberg case as an investor. you can actually invest in these cases. it is not illegal. it the it's not necessarily required to disclose it. however in certain cases, in an appeal on this gawker case, there will be a series -- this will feature. >> the reason this is probably a good idea, so that little guys don't constantly get overrun by big guys who have the deep pockets and can squish you. it shouldn't matter who is page
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the legal bills. >> that's one view. and there are other views, and we're seeing it this this morning, this is about big money. in a way it's not necessarily being even driven or motivated by financial gain, if will you, or trying to collect money to pay for damages or pain -- >> at this point, corporations have the upper hand because they can squish smaller people and say forget, you can't come after me. >> hogan doesn't clearly need the money. >> he wasn't doing this for the money. >> a clear playing field. >> i'm just suggesting there are now going to be all sorts of questions in an appeal like this. this was a jury award. there were tactical opinions and what i wrote yesterday that nick gawker had his suspicions about
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this. there are certainly allegations that the hogan team made that were not economically rational things to do. >> not wanting to settle and pushing your case. >> different than that. for example, there was an insurance company, talk about big money, gawker had an insurance company that would have paid for parts of the settlement and parts of the defense, depending on the certain types of claims, when, for example, the hulk hogan side realized which claims were protected by the insurance company -- >> they dropped those claims and went after other ones? >> -- they dropped those claims to remove the insurance company. interestingly most lawyers working contingency would never do that because they're trying to get the money from the insurance company that has the deeper pockets. all i'm saying, there is a sense, depending on how you think about this -- >> i think from a broader perspective. take a step back from the gawker case. from a broader perspective, the
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idea that you can have someone finance your indicate, because far too often, corporations steamroll -- >> then there's a broader conversation about gawker. you want to know who is on the other side of the transaction. >> peter thiel is awesome. libertarian. he says you don't necessarily have to spend all of this money on college. >> i can understand that being ticked off at being outed, and wanting to exact revenge on that. >> he's got as much money that he can say what he wants. when you get to a certain age that you say what you want like your grandparents. or you get to a certain point with money. >> or you're on a show for 25 years -- >> anyway, we will continue to talk about this topic, there's a lot more to it by the way, even
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peter thiel's involvement in -- >> you love this. you got a little too much speech. >> he's on the board of facebook. they're having their own freedom of speech issues. there's lots more to this story. >> boarding on tmi on this. planting a micro shchip in r brain to help prevent memory loss. seems like the stuff of science fiction. but researchers are working on that to help people with traumatic brain injury. meg terrell has gault the details when we return. there's no one road out there. no one surface... no one speed... no one way of driving on each and every road. but there is one car that can conquer them all. the mercedes-benz c-class. five driving modes let you customize the steering,
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the cdc estimates that nearly 1.7 million people suffer a traumatic brain injury in the united states each year. one of the most common side effects is memory loss. a new treatment could counteract some of those effects. meg terrell joins us with a look inside the world of modern medicine. good morning. >> these are protos and exciting news. it's all part of president obama's brain initiative essentially trying to do what a
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human g nome did f. and one of the thing as they're working on is what they call prosthetic memory. take a look. declarative memory is how we store information like facts or events. grocery lists, for example. those memories are formed in a region of the brain honey as the hippocampus. the ram system is aimed to act like prosthetic memory. it would implant electrodes in the hippocampus. they've been wirelessly transmitted externally. it would process information and deliver instructions back if help is needed. stimulating certain newer trons
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formulate and crawl memory. so this is actually a system where they're implanting electrodes into the brain to read the neural signals that are happening forming memories and you could actually have a system to sort of acting as a corrective system this can encourage your memory to work. >> do you think it could work in other pathways as well is it the type of thing that would help lee store pathways to remain emotion and movement, too? >> they're looking at this all across the brain in different ways. helping people feel touch. helping people control robotic arms. these are stories we're rolling out later today, actually, and through the next couple ways. they're trying to figure out the way neurons fire in the brain. and using these computers to help community with your brain. >> it's a step promised for
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decades it's coming to fruition at this point. >> it's pretty blunt force at this point. i mean, memories need to be stored and then they need to be recalled. >> that's true. the different questions here is how do you store all. data. >> is it about increased more connections more transmitters, it's all sort of -- it's early stages? >> yeah. what's amazing, we are storing all of this stuff. they've got huge computers and figuring out how to miniaturize these thing to be worn. >> we all have had weird things happen. memory is where you can tell it's linked to some other memory. you know that spatially, it must be in the same -- >> when i smell orange blossoms -- >> why did i just think of that, when you think of something else. >> association. >> amazing. >> it's amazing to think that memories can be almost like a tangible thing like food. >> yeah.
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and you have to start that neurons or transmitters help you feel heat or see green or, you know, it's just insane. >> it's so cool about this it's the idea that you can actually visualize what those codes are in the brain. what does glean look like. >> yeah. it's probably trillions of connections, at least billions. so when you put that together it's amazing. >> it is pretty amazing. we're at the early stages. >> it's life forms and then there's homing pigeons. and the ants that know what they're doing. which way is east. >> or the butterflies that might go great. >> yeah, exactly. or the sea turtles that leave a spot on the beach and go all the way back and come back to the same point. >> thanks. coming up, the tsa bracing for a surge of summer travelers. delta air lines testing a new
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screening process in atlanta that could streamline the process. phil lebeau has a look. yesterday's winners and losers. ♪
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welcome back to "squawk box" on cnbc first in business worldwide.
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new this morning, eurozone leaders are hailing a breakthrough deal with greece. agreeing release 10.3 billion euros in new funds for greece. in return for fiscal reforms the euro form offering athens debt rerelief. and put this altogether, once again joining the eurozone in the bail jouout of greece. it's a better buy at 60%, i think, but -- what's that? >> i can't believe a two-year note yielding 60%. talking about the executive edge. fireworks expected on the hill this morning when the tsa administrator peter nevffenger takes the hot seat. after airports testing the new
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security system that will hope to move you through the line faster. phil lebeau joining us this morning. good morning. >> reporter: hi, we're going to get a look at the automated screening line opening up we have a sneak peek from tsa as it was open a few hours yesterday testing the system. essentially how it would instead of one person going up and unloading their belongings so it goes through the extra machine and they go through the screening process. five people will be able to do it at once. if you're already done, unloaded all the metal out of your pocket you can put your stuff in hop scotch the person in front of you the idea it will improve the flow 15 to 25%. the tsa, along with delta operating this line, hoping the new security system will end what we're seeing at airports. >> what this is allows tuesday
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to do is make sure we have continuous flow of customers not one or two customers because they're stumbling with their items is going to to be blocking the flow of customers through security. >> in theory, that's how it should work. delta has spent $1 million designing and developing this system out of london. it is already used at heathrow airport at some of the security lines. it will be used initially in two of atlanta's 50 security lines. while delta and tsa are opening up this new snystem in atlanta, the held of tsa will be in atlanta. yes, it's adding staff and adding overtime but hopes to alleviate all of the problems. guys you can bet there will be a lot of furious congressional members roasting him about the management of tsa, everything from staffing and how they operate at various airports. and whether or not they should have anticipated the long lines that we're seeing as we head into the holiday weekend.
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guys, back to you. >> phil, before you go, just so we understand, what's going on in atlanta can't be rolled out by others, does this mean that it's delta and priority? >> right, delta doesn't own it. delta pretty much dominates this market. but you could say it's the delta system. but if it's successful here, you can see it at other airlines. it's not like delta is going to say let's put this at somebody's hub. other people are going to are to make the investment. >> phil, people behind you are moving. but it does look like long lines. what is it like? there a
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>> reporter: it's heard to get a sense of this because this is the precheck line. farther on, the screening process. i would guess people -- how long have you been in line? >> ten minutes. >> reporter: it's not too bad for people this morgue. it's moving here. nothing like o'hare last week. >> phil lebeau in atlanta. thanks. when we return, donald trump is not a traditional republican candidate and that is wreaking marchic on the traditional electorate math. we'll take a look at traditional democratic voters who may be in the front camp in november. right now, as we head to break a check of the markets. green errors in the biggest gainers, the dax in germany up by 1.3%. stick around. the call just came in. she's about to arrive. and with her, a flood of potential patients. a deluge of digital records. x-rays, mris.
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welcome back, everybody. hillary clinton's lead over donald trump slipping in the latest polls. the next guest argues if trump grabs supports from traditionally democratic groups like latinos and labor it could spell more trouble for hillary clinton come november.
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joining us peter navarro. he's co-author of "crouching tiger: what china's militarism means for the world." thanks for being here. every one of the pundits has been wrong to this point as to what donald trump might be able to do. how do you see things creeping up in traditional republican voters and democratic voters? >> everybody was wrong about trump winning the primary. basically what trump can do unlike any republican candidate in 20 years he can get significant portions of the democratic base. black vote. hispanic vote. women vote. the black vote, last eight years has been black on black crime from the white house. the black community is suffering terribly. there's a good chance he'll grab in part of that vote. now the democrats will get over
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90%. >> hillary clinton did very well with the african-american vote in the south. >> four groups that you mentioned, when you say them, latinos no way, women, no way. when you point out, you're counting on 90. and if it was 78, would be beating -- >> exactly. >> latinos, tough. women, tough. even if you performed better than expectation. >> if you look at the reagan formula. and you look at reagan, the rank and file, those are reagan trump new democrats in a big way. you look at the hispanics, everyone thinks the thing is hey, the border stuff. no, the people who have cards in california if they're working landscaping and they figure people are going to cross the border and take their job. there is no group in this
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country that has suffered more from an open border. and the blacks, that's interesting. hillary is going get the women eight vote. it might hit 60% like it one did historically. but reagan was the standard for the male vote. 59%. trump is going to be over 50%. the big difference is turnout. women are not going to turn out for clinton like men are going to turn out for trump. >> that's what's so hard to figure out. you look at the electoral chess board. all trump has to do is hold the red states and sweep the rest. it's done. michigan, ohio, pennsylvania. but he's also bringing into play, new hampshire, small amount of voters, but there is, he brings nevada. florida, he's going to compete tremendously well. you can see not just a close election. but if all goes right it could be a significant win and a restructuring, though.
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and you have the entire republican base which is what the republicans have been wanting for years. >> part of this has to do with bernie sanders voters. do they end up supporting hillary. do some of them support trump because of issues on trade that bernie and trump are sounding similar to. or do they stay home and sit out. >> it is kind of ironic, a couple months ago, trump was going through the same problem internally that clinton and sand serious doing now. interesting, what is clinton going to do with sanders, if she embraces him -- so, it's going to be a really interesting election. it's going to be good for the markets on cnbc, i'm predicting dow 25,000 by the end of 2017 because trump understands that the problems we're suffering from now are not cyclical. they're not things that you can do with keynesian policy that we've been doing for years.
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it's structural. he's going to handle it with tax reform so companies can compete. he's going to handle it with trade reforms to reduce the $2 billion a day deficit which shaves 1.5 gdp points off the growth rate. if we're sitting here announcing our economy grew at 3.5% instead of 2%, you'd be reporting green days every day for a year. >> donald trump has talked about a massive infrastructure spending? >> it's an important part of it. >> but that completely goes against the investment. >> no. no. >> in the short term. here's the thing, you had 1.5% growth rate and you had trillions of dollars over a multiyear period. and we've had discussions about not being abe to pay for social security or infrastructure. see, that's the thing that we don't understand politically in
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the beltway. it's about if you want to solve your deficit problem it's not about taxing and spending. it's about growing the company. it's about growing t ing the ec. >> in terms of trade, donald trump has said it's the-year-old of major tariffs just an opening for negotiation and is more flexible in trying to work out the agreements. i think that's something that makes traditional republican voters who are business-oriented a little nervous from time to time. even talking to larry kudlow and some of of these peoples, they would like to see him change that? >> and he won't and he shouldn't. he must continue to speak on behalf of american manufacturers. american companies can compete with anybody in world if it's a level playing field. but, for example, if you're competing against china and they continue after 15 gleeyears in
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stealing the ip and transfer reducing the expenses using sweat shop, using pollution havens. if you're in cleveland, or to-tt toledo, you can't compete with that. they're defending america from unfair trade practices. that's consistent with other trade practice i teach. the mccardian trade theory is based on floating trade exchange rates. that's not what trump had. >> free markets are meant to throw them off. >> as soon as you manipulate your currency you've got a cut. >> for him to -- for him to appeal to us, do you got a veep in mind?
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after foreign relations and senate? because i thought of some of the other ones, they all have their flaws. each one of them sort of has -- who would you suggest? >> well, we have heard a lot about peggy noonan. not as a v.p. but she had a recent column saying what trump needs as a v.p. is a stability. okay. somebody who has broader task and stability that will anchor to tip it. so, for example, that ruled some folks out. but that's kind of i think where he has to go. really, is this going to be trump/clinton. it doesn't matter who is down there. >> oh, yeah. >> but i didn't say -- >> peggy said -- she said clinton/sanders. i think it's trump/sanders. think about that. >> that will never happen.
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i'd shorten the bet on that. >> they win. they win. they win. >> that pits sanders -- that's a loss. >> i'm thinking out of the box. >> peter, thank you for coming in. >> this whole thing is out of the box. >> you were good, though. coming up, a cargo van built for the super rich. robert franken has an inside look at a tricked-out luxury van. we'll do that after the break. we'll be back in a moment. the e-class has 11 intelligent driver-assist systems.
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. welcome back to "squawk box" this morning. high-end leather, cutting-edge technology and a designer bathroom is not what comes to mind when you think of cargo vans. exactly what you'll find in a jet van. robert frank joins us with more on this kind of amazing story. >> it is amazing. even the rich get stuck in traffic but they do it in style and more comfort. we look at what happens when you cross a gulf stream 5 jet with a mercedes cargo van. if a private business jet had sex with a mercedes cargo van this would be their love child. a $400,000 state-of-the-art luxury transport called the jet van. and for the rich and powerful it's the perfect way to hit the road in style. the bespoked vehicle has been
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fully customized to include six first-class seats, upholstered in the finest austrian leather and designer carpeting and a 30-grand remote controlling everything from the blinds to the door. in the back, a more basic luxury. behind electronic doors, a designer bathroom. the company that makes these, becker automotive, also make custom suvs for the likes of dr. dre who had his stretch cathod escalade loaded with his movie to watch all his favorite films. >> how many are there of these? >> they make dozens a year. they take six and eight months to build. we've come a long way from the shag carpet vans. these are designer, custom leather and custom carpets.
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>> they're owned by individuals? >> individual? why do you need the shades to go down? >> that's an interesting question. a lot of this is not so much about pleasure now, it's about productivity. a lot of the wealthy when stuck in traffic in new york or bangkok or shanghai or l.a., they want to keep working. >> you need a $400,000 van to keep working? >> absolutely. >> sex can be about productivity. >> in a way. yeah. >> it's like medication. it can clear the mind for work later. >> it has other benefits according to drudge this morning. >> traffic is getting worse. >> according to drudge. >> excuse me. >> i can't tell whether it has to be with a partner. >> it's a beautiful van. >> thank you! appreciate that. >> it is. you'll see more of it tonight. >> robert frank, thank you. and as we mentioned, the new
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episode of "secret lives of the super rich" premieres tonight. stay up and watch it. 10:00 p.m. eastern. wow. just going to tell you off -- you're going to have to look. coming up, tech stocks leading the rally in the market with apple, microsoft and alphabet gaining more than 1% in yesterday's session. we'll talk to tech analyst after the break. >> just found it! >> like i said. later, derek jeter announcing his first sponsorship role following his retirement. captain clutch will join us on the "squawk" set at 8:40 a.m. >> i am so skeptical. so i trade with e*trade, where true traders trade on a trademarked trade platform that has all the... get off the computer traitor! i won't. (cannon sound) mobility is very important to me. that's why i use e*trade mobile.
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stocks rallying around the world. futures pointing to a higher open again this morning after a triple-digit gain yesterday. we'll look at market drivers and focus on big cap technology with influential internet analyst mark mahaney straight ahead. passengers facing insane airport lines ahead of the memorial day weekend. tsa under fire. now the agency is trying to spruce up its image ahead of the big travel rush. a live report on how your airport experiences could be changing. we'll look at why paypal co-founder peter thiel is backing the hulk. the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now. live from the beating heart of business, new york city, this is "squawk box." welcome back to "squawk box," here on cnbc. first in business worldwide.
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i'm joe kernen along with rebecca quick and andrew ross sorkin. futures up 70 points after a strong session yesterday. in europe, tough to say whether europe is catching up with yesterday or helping us on its own this morning. europe is all green across the board. oil at this hour might be helping. up above 49. it was. $49.18. up 1%. >> we haven't seen $50 since october. >> guarantee you the media will notice when it hits 50. guarantee you. >> in our headlines. microsoft laying off nearly 1900 workers as it continues to streamline the mobile phone business that it acquired from nokia two years ago. it will take a $950 million charge against earnings for that move. you can see the stock is up by about 22 cents today. fedex has completed its $5 billion acquisition of tnt express. earnings for luxury goods retailer tiffany, profit coming in at 69 cents a share, a penny better than expected. revenue was well short of the
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forecast. tiffany same store sales down 9%. stock is down by more than 4 1/3%. last trade at $61.05. monsanto rejecting the $62 billion takeover offer saying it's too low but saying they're open to further discussions. bayer saying it's confident they can address financing matters. also regulatory issues have not been raised that. the fact that they have not raised that as a major concern thus far suggests they'd be willing -- once you raise the flag on regulatory issues it means you don't want to play. hewlett-packard announces a spinoff of the technology operations to merge with computer sciences in an $8.5 billion deal. shares of both companies up sharply on the news. you are looking at computer sciences up almost 25%, the transaction coming less than a year after the breakup of hewlett-packard. computer sciences was involved
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in a spinoff in the last 12 months. hewlett-packard enterprise shareholders will own shares of hpe and the combined company. you don't want to miss this. meg whitman will talk about that deal a little later this morning on "squawk on the street." st. louis fed president jim bullard says the june rate hike is not set in stone. in an interview with cnbc earlier this morning he argues that labor data suggests it is time to pull the trigger. >> obviously we have tried to be data-dependent. i don't think there is any reason to pre-judge the june meeting at this point. we can wait until we get to the meeting, see what the data say and try to make a good decision there. i think, on the issue of press conferences, we have made many moves over the years without press conferences. so i think you could -- you could make a move without a press conference in this circumstance. >> that was an interview with cnbc asia with martin soon. as for the risk of a brexit and the chance for the u.k. vote, it
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could give the fed pause but bullard says he doesn't consider it the global financial market event that some are saying. he notes, however, that his view could be an outsilier. a number of stocks have hit hard times of late. large cap s&p 500 index 22 have hit 52-week lows in the past month. among those 15 have rallied by 5% for more off the levels. is this the beginning of a fresh bull run? dom chu is here with a closer look. >> i wish i could tell you what the future would hold for a lot of these stocks. if i did, i wouldn't be here. anyway, like you said, we looked at all these members of the s&p 500. we wanted to focus specifically on the ones that have really hit the momentum downside as of late. in the last month those stats that andrew just talked about are the ones that we focused on
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here, which means in the past month just the past month, the stocks that have hit 52-week lows or multi-year lows just then and now gained 5%. again, not that many stocks made it. here is the theme that develops for the ones that did pass the screen. you have a lot of retail names. we have talked about this kwoqu a bit about the weakness in retail stockings. a number of technology companies, one big one that we'll focus on. a lot of biotech and pharma, specifically specialty pharma. as you look at some of these representative stocks that have hit these levels. l-brands. the parent company of victoria's secret, bath and body works. those shares, again, have fallen on hard times but have managed to bounce markedly 5%, 6%. the one to focus on here is apple. big-tech company, big consumer play. those shares have been under a
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lot of pressure but have bounced again since their 52-week lows in the course of the past month. one other one that's indicative of the set of companies. endo-international, a specialty pharmaceutical company that's been hit alongside a lot of the other specialty pharma companies because of what's happened with valeant and some of the other names in the industry. so those names are a sampling of some of the stocks that many traders and investors are looking for to see whether or not they can find some kind of outperformance. two major schools of thought, guys. the whole trend is your friend thing. the downside continues if the downside is in place or vice versa. one of these stocks here could be one of the ones that has a lot of out-sized gains because people have said it's fallen so far so fast that now is the time, an adequate value is represented. that will be a big deal for a lot of investors. >> thank you, dom. our next guest will talk about -- he follows some of the biggest names in tech. mark mahaney is here.
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rbc markets capital tech analyst. you are a big fan of netflix. >> that almost made dom's list. the 52-week low came in february. that's probably the most dislocated of the f.a.n.g. stocks. amazon recovered strongly. facebook is close to all-time highs. google holding in. netflix disappointed people on international subs. we made it our top pick on the >> we found that in france and germany, netflix is now 15% of broad-band house holds. the ramp in france and germany has faster than in the oouu.k., netherlands and scandinavian countries. the value and functionality is universal in appeal and people underappreciate that. >> there is also a question mark about international programming. >> yep.
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>> the cost of adding that type of programming and the ability to scale it in every particular market. not to say they won't get there. i would gamble they will, but how quickly will they be able to do that. >> it's about profitability. we look at what they have done in the u.s. over four years they've gone from 5% gaap operating margins to 20%. they've proven it there. this is a scale business. the more content they get, the more subs they layer on top of it, the higher the margins go. we can't prove it yet in international markets. there is nothing but losses there. we think we'll see the profitability turn next year. you want to buy the stock before the turn comes. >> given where facebook and google is, what do you do? >> we always stick with them. small buys. all-time high stocks. we won't aggressively chase them. we have a major political campaign going on this year. one of the biggest beneficiaries of that is facebook. you'll see a ton of political advertising going to swing-state voters on facebook, the natural
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place to advertise. >> what about amazon. >> there is very little debate. three months ago there was. would there be price wars in clo cloud computing. there weren't. we had accelerating revenue growth. there is very little debate. those are the two consensus longs. we like them. they're small buys. amazon and facebook. >> it's interesting, when you hear the hp enterprise news today. it's almost like a capitulation to the idea that the amazons and the microsofts, the guys who are doing well with cloud, are here to stay and it's going to be a tough market to try to chase. >> this is the single -- probably the single biggest trend in technology today, across entire tech, that is, the move towards cloud computing. it's only maybe 10% adopted. of all the work processes that could be in the cloud. only 10% are there.
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one company dominates and has 80% market share. it's amazon. amazon, as we know, has a reputation for cut-throat margins and pricing. it's hard to see them losing share. it could happen. if you bet on an already declared winner. it's unlikely to change. >> where do you stand on snapchat? >> of the emerging private companies -- this is surprising me. the survey work we do both with consumers and especially with advertisers shows increasing interest in the name and some of the other names. pinterest, decreasing interest. something has happened at snapchat. they're starting to see a material shifts to budgets. they've gone beyond experimentation with snapchat. we have to pay more attention to snapchat. >> what about uber? we had the coo a couple weeks ago. >> nobody wants to go public. it's a major mistake. you have equity markets looking
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for growth. people want growth. the public markets -- there is a perception amongst the privates that public markets are not willing to take long-term risks. they are. i cover netflix. people are willing to discount future cash flows. same thing with amazon. >> what about apple which has watched its stock -- >> no growth. it's a product cycle company. people aren't going to pay up for that. they will pay for growth. there are very few growth names in the space now. the public markets would embrace those kinds of offerings. the trick is the valuation. >> okay. you have a view on peter thiel? >> big fan of peter thiel. that's it. >> that's all you want to say? okay. coming up, the u.s. preparing for a zika outbreak as researchers continue to work on a vaccine to stop the virus. we'll speak to a former ebola
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czar. a showdown looming over proxy access with exxon. we'll tell you what to expect. close to a 52-week high for exxon. can a toothpaste do everything well? this clean was like - pow. it felt like i had just gone to the dentist. my teeth are glowing. they are so white. 6x cleaning*, 6x whiteningá in the certain spots that i get very sensitive... ...i really notice a difference. and at two weeks superior sensitivity relief to sensodyne i actually really like the two steps! step 1 cleans and relieves sensitivity, step 2 whitens. it's the whole package. no one's done this. crest - healthy, beautiful smiles for life.
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mosquito season is practically upon us. experts saying we're woefully behind in the fight against
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zika. joining us with his thoughts former u.s. ebola coordinator ron klain. you pose the question, ron, what's different here between this and ebola. i guess it's obvious. to the average person, unless you are pregnant, you don't think of it as a fatal type disease. where ebola struck such fear in people because it was like catching the flu and dying. but, as you point out, there could be -- for years to come, there could be babies that are affected growing up almost like thalidomide babies. the threat is just as urgent. >> exactly. i think the thalidomide comparison is a powerful one. i think and a fitting one. look, yes, so far all we know is the substantial impact on pregnant women and their babies. but you know, there are literally thousands of people, pregnant women in the area, where this disease is likely hitting the united states particularly hard. the mosquito region around
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texas, louisiana, mississippi, alabama, georgia, and florida. and these women, from all walks of life, all socioeconomic groups. this will be a big public health consequence for us unless we step up and take action and get the mosquitos under control, make more investments in diagnostics and in vaccine development. >> the president asked congress to do something. at this point it's moving forward, but it's not as much as he asked for, and how far away are we from both bills being -- it actually getting through both houses of congress and signed? >> i mean, we have three problems with what's going on in congress. the most important is nothing is yet passed. the house has passed a bill, the senate has passed a bill. they're in conference committee. the mosquitos will not wait for the conference committee. summer is coming. mosquito populations get active in the southern united states. while they're debating on capitol hill, the mosquitos are not waiting.
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they've substantially under-funded the president's request. and part of the funding in the house bill comes from cutting other disease prevention programs. that's really putting us at more risk of other infectious diseases to fight this one. the single most important thing, though, is getting the wrangling over in washington, getting some kind of bill passed from the house and the senate and not cutting other disease programs, funding that robustly so we can get out and do the mosquito control and accelerate the vaccine research. we have the premier infectious disease research facility in the world at nih. they're making promising progress on a vaccine. we have to accelerate that research and get that vaccine through development into the marketplace. not for this summer. that won't happen, but maybe before next summer. >> let me ask you one question. i hear from the -- the chattering -- the political class. you hear all kinds of stuff in this day and age. could we have eradicated more
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mosquitos? is it politically incorrect to use certain pesticides for maybe reasons that are not completely clear and we could have taken care of this in a much more efficacious fashion if we weren't sort of afraid to pull the trigger on that? >> well, i think -- we have to break it into two parts. could we have eradicated mosquitos? yes. in fact, most of the kinds of mosquitos we are talking about were largely under control in our country 20, 30 years ago and have come back. that's less about the debate about which pesticides are legal or not. you could use all the pesticides that are currently legal and safe. you don't have to get into the debate about what to spray, if we stepped up the efforts. we have had cutbacks in mosquito control in most states, cutbacks on spending and cutbacks in what the federal government does to help with this. i don't think this is a question about which mosquito control things we're spraying but the fact that we are not spraying enough. a lot of local jurisdictions mosquito control is done part-time by the guys who take
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out the trash and other things. there is a real risk to public health from these mosquitos. i will say it, we should wipe them out. this species is invasive. it's not natural in the united states. it needs to be gotten under control. >> ron, you said you don't think it's a question of if there are babies with microsefkreflly but when. we heard the continental united states cases are likely to happen in the next month. do you think this is a wake-up call that will come sooner rather than later to washington, d.c.? >> i certainly hope it comes sooner rather than later. we already have as of two weeks ago 300 pregnant women who have tested positive for zika in the mainland supplement au.s. and p. if we updated it today it would probably be much higher. as mosquito season comes and the
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mosquitos become active in the southern united states again we'll have local transmission of the disease. the disease being spread here in the u.s., which will create these outbreaks and potentially epidemics in parts of our own country. we won't just be talking about people coming back from brazil with the virus. we'll talk about spreading it here in the united states. we can prevent that and avoid the tragedy of these babies being born with this horrible disease if we take action now. >> all right. ron klain, thank you. if you're near a tv, dr. fauci will be on at 8:00. i'm sure i don't have to tell you that. at 8:00 he'll be on. >> great. coming up, peter thiel teaming up with hulk hogan against gawker. we have the details straight ahead about that story. plus, the tsa looking to shave line times at airports across the country. tsa's chief, peter neffenger,
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heading back to capitol hill today to explain what they'll do about it. in the next hour, future hall of famer and former new york yankee shortstop derek jeter will join us on the set here at 8:40 eastern time. don't miss it. "squawk" returns in a moment.
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. welcome back to "squawk box" this morning. the buzz story of the morning, peter thiel, co-founder of paypal, the man behind -- mystery man behind, nobody knew it, behind the hulk hogan case. he ended up funding the $140 million lawsuit that hulk hogan won against gawker founder nick denton and that company. not immediately clear how this all happened, but we've talked about it in the last hour. nick denton had some suspicions
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that something was going on, that hulk hogan was not acting independently. there were particular strategic decisions throughout this legal case that hogan made that were not necessarily economically rational if you were just trying to win money, perhaps trying to inflict pain or embarrassment to some degree on the company. and it's now emerged that peter thiel has been behind this. a little history. peter thiel has a history with gawker. it outed the peter thiel in 2007 before he outed himself. peter thiel has talked about this publicly, has also talked about the fact that he thinks gawker is like al qaeda, has referred to it as a terrorist organization. we hope at some point that we get the opportunity to hear from peter thiel. of course, it does raise all sorts of questions about financing of litigation. we talked about that issue earlier. big money in these cases and what it means and whether we'll
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see more cases that will ultimately be funded by other people, third parties and the disclosure issue. the view is not that this is going to change the outcome of this case, though it could feature -- you imagine gawker will use this in its appeal of the case. given that it was a jury award and given that some of it played, of course, on the heart-strings of that jury, having said that, the jury may say it doesn't matter who is behind it. it doesn't matter who is financing. >> it doesn't change whether you're guilty or not. >> before this, if you had said, okay, what do peter thiel and hulk hogan had in common, the two names would have probably never been together? >> yep. >> how many degrees of separation would you need? probably six or seven degrees of separation -- >> i would say four. >> now you don't need any but -- >> i would have said even before. government. >> when you say he was outed. he is gay. >> he is gay. >> you can say that. >> he is gay --
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>> and he's what? >> he's publicly said he's gay. >> outed is a word that always means guy? >> because i have outed myself as a jerk or -- there are a lot of things you can out yourself as. >> we do that every day. >> we out ourselves every day. when we come back, exxon holding its annual shareholder meeting. we'll talk to the new york city controller right after this. you won't see these folks at the post office. they have businesses to run.
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welcome back, everybody. among the stories front and center today, get ready for more and bigger ads in google searches. they plan to expand ads on the google map services. greece and eurozone lenders struck a breakthrough agreement to help grease deal with its debts. eu finance ministers approved $11 million in new funds and agreed to offer debt relief in the future if certain criteria are met. u.s. regulators are
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investigating anheuser-busch over new incentives for independent distributors. craft brewers complain the incentives discourage competition and tilt the scales in favor of busch's own beer brands. toyota hailing a ride now with uber, the auto maker investing an unspecified amount in the company. reports saying it's about $100 million. toyota will offer drivers vehicles. companies will share information on research and technology. a number of big companies now getting into the space trying to align themselves, if you will, with some of the sharing economy car companies. >> someone confirmed for me that your lousy rating might be due to the kid throwing -- your son throwing up. >> you never want to blame -- blame your son. >> i know. >> right. >> but throwup in an uber car pretty much will get you one of the lowest ratings. nobody wants to come -- they
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think probably that you're like a drunk or something, or that you'll throw up all the time. >> not when you're 5. >> they don't put that. they put someone threw up. if you are an uber driver and you saw -- throwup. >> they don't say throw-up. they ding you on the stars. we cleaned it up, by the way. i said to the driver, i said -- do you have -- he had a paper towel. paper towels and soap and we sat there doing it. by the way, they can actually bill you. i don't know if you know this. they added $200 or $300, cleaning charge, to the uber -- shows up on your credit card. >> you're still dealing with it. you still have a crappy rating. >> they charge you and give you a terrible rating. >> i was telling someone that it couldn't be it. it's probably you. not being nice to the driver. they said, no, if there was throwup involved it's the throwup. >> blaming the 5-year-olds. >> they backed you up. tsa, speaking of moving
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around, transportation stuff, tsa showing off new passenger screening lines at one of the worldest busiest airports to speed up a security system many say is outdated and unsu unsufferable. phil lebeau joins us with more. >> we'll get a peek at the automated security screening process later today. here is an early sense of the process. the tsa shot a couple clips yesterday. essentially comes down to this. when you go up to where you unload your bags and take the metal out of your pockets, instead of waiting one at a time to go through, five people will go up to the line. if you are done, you don't have to wait for the slow poek ke in front of you. you can put your bin on and walk through the machine. the idea is to improve the flow of the people going through the security screening process. all of this is the hope here in atlanta, at least delta is
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hoping this will end some of the long lines they've seen here and we've seen at other airports around the country as well. keep in mind the tsa has deployed rapid response teams that will target delays or problems at certain airports around the country. the idea is these changes, not only the ones made by the tsa as well as the new automated screening process will improve the flow of security at parents. >> if this is successful, given what we have experienced with security check lanes, if this is successful as we believe it is, i think airports around the country will be looking for this technology very quickly. >> separate from that. today on capitol hill, peter neffenger, the head of the tsa, will be grilled by congressional members who will ask about the management of the tsa, the release of the head of security earlier this week, all of the problems that we have seen with the tsa, whether it's how they staffed the airports, the anticipation, or lack of anticipation for the long lines
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that we're seeing right now, becky. we will hear a lot of very harsh comments today about 10:00 a.m. on capitol hill when peter neffenger testifies in front of a congressional subcommittee regarding the state of the tsa. we'll get a peek at the new screening line here in atlanta today. we'll see how much of an improvement it makes. >> it will be a big test heading into the memorial day weekend and all the travel heading through it. so we'll watch closely. thank you. exxon mobile holding its annual shareholders meeting today. a showdown looming for the largest publicly traded company over proxy access. right now let's bring in new york city controller scott stringer. he is the leading -- leading the campaign that challenges exxon as well as 73 other companies to try to adopt or improve proxy access. scott, thank you for being here. proxy access is a fancy sounding
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name. even people who figure they follow some of the stuff don't understand it. >> bottom line a share owners, people with investments want meaningful interactions with corporate boards. they need to have elections and give shareholders the right to run independent directors at the companies. we initiated the proxy access campaign a year ago. the results have been amazing. we've won at 200 companies our resolutions. today is a big day at exxon because we almost won last year 49% of the vote. all eyes are on exxon today as we try to give share owners meaningful say in what happens in these big companies that we invest in. >> let's talk about what exxon has fought back. the board has not supported this. here is why. they agree with the underlying objective of maintaining a qualified and independent board, however, they're concerned that proxy access could instead increase the influence of special interest groups and undermine a business model
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that's long served the interests of the shareholders as well. why do you say? >> we're concerned about their business model. we're trying to figure out if it's antiquated given the historic paris peace accord, 175 countries committed to grappling with issues of climate change. this is a time for the board to be more transparent and let more people in the room to have a discussion about the future of exxon. investors have concerns. this is not a radical approach that we are talking about. that's why so many companies have adopted proxy access. you have to own 3% of the company for three years. 3% for three years. that's very hard, even with our big pension fund. we own maybe .5% of a large company. so we're not trying to turn upside-down these companies. we are actually trying to increase their value in the long term for our investors. the retirees i represent, 700,000 retirees. the cfa institute says if we had universal proxy access in all our companies we would increase value up to $140 billion or 1%.
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that's a lot of money and a lot of value that could be added with the ability to give us the right to run independent directors. >> if this were to pass you in combination with other shareholders would be able to put up your own choices for the board of directors rather than vote up or down the names the company puts forward. >> that's right. we would only do that in the extreme where we're concerned about issues related to climate change, excess sea oat compensation. we're concerned about corporate board diversity. we believe boards with more women and people of color make better decisions in the long term. the fiduciary of the fourth largest pension fund in the united states i want companies and directors to think about the long-term value of companies. i think this is a historic moment for exxon in light of the paris accord and a proxy resolution that could possibly pass today. >> can i ask you a philosophical question about the idea of more democracy in the board room. we have gone on a journey over
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the last decade and a half towards more democracy in the board room. some would say it's given rise to activism and situations where shareholders have gotten about threw, by the way, shareholders in some cases are just as add as anybody else, if not worse. so you have had people pursuing different financial engineering efforts, buy-backs and other things, frankly, to avoid activists and others coming in rather than investing in the long term. what do you make of the flip side of all of this? >> the unintended consequence. >> people have legitimate concerns. i am not here to talk as an ideologue. i am here to talk about my fiduciary responsibility, which is to create value for our pension fund. how do we do that? we try to create balance on corporate boards. i believe enron and worldcom, part of the economic disasters at the board level is because no one was watching the store within the company. so we run an independent
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director, that's not going to happen a lot. you know what will happen? the specter of a democratic election, just the notion that the ceo has to be just a little more aware of share owner concerns -- >> that's a very soft approach. and no one would disagree with that. exxon is in the business of producing and exploring for hydrocarbons. that's like putting a green activist on a coal company's board. we know what the result of the efforts have done to the coal companies. so i can see how exxon would chafe at the idea of having a climate change alarmist on the board of the company. what would they suggest exxon do? start making solar panels? >> i think there are a lot of issues related to exxon and drilling in light of a historic paris agreement with 175 countries. let me just finish. we are looking at perhaps new regulations that could leave us with many stranded assets there. so this is the time for exxon,
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in addition to supporting proxy access, to talk about what their plan is in light of the paris accord. >> we all drive a lot of cars still in the country. it's one of the most valuable companies in the world, based on exploring for and developing hydrocarbons. if you're going to fly in a jet or drive a car, you better hope exxon keeps replacing its reserves and continues to do the job it's done. >> which is why we have a billion dollar investment in the company as a pension fund. we think it will be a different model in the next 100 years. coming up, coming home from war can be very tough for soldiers trying to fit back into society. and it's also socially economically fascinating. the new book "telling the story through the experience of a soldier returning home," the author our special guest. you don't want to miss this. an openering higher dow.
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back in a moment. i take prilosec otc each morning for my frequent heartburn
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because you can't beat zero heartburn! ahhh the sweet taste of victory! prilosec otc. one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. welcome back to "squawk box." check out the shares of drug maker sarepta. the fd as delayed a decision -- i feel for the families. this is a bummer.
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the company's duchenne muscular dystrophy drug had been due tomorrow -- it's helping the stock. maybe this means a delay but not an outright not going to happen. there was skepticism about the drug's immediate approval prospects. it's up. there is nothing else for these families. nothing else for some of these kids. the most heart-breaking thing is sometimes there are two kids in the family. one is in the control group and the other one is getting the drug and one of them it still out of a wheelchair playing sports and the other one is, you know -- so it's very, very tough. we'll switch topics now. the burdens facing american veterans returning from military service. sebastian younger is here, author and journalist. reported from conflict zones. a great book out called "tribe on homecoming and belonging." good morning to you.
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thank you for coming in. >> thank you. >> congratulations on the book. help us with this. you say pstd which we often think is related to combat is less related to -- >> ptsd. >> -- than the return, the transition of actually coming back here. >> yeah. i mean the interesting thing about the book is i get to vets at the end because they're one example of many difficult adaptations to modern society. benjamin franklin wrote an amazing letter to a friend in the 1700s saying there are thousands of people from the colonies that have fled to live with the indians but not one indian has fled to live in civilized society. why is civilization unappealing to people. in afghanistan a lot of the soldiers actually didn't want to come home. it reminded me of what franklin had written. i started looking at what maybe the psychological difficulty that soldiers have when they come back is not actually due to
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trauma on the battlefield. we're wired as a species to deal with difficulty and trauma. but maybe the problem is coming back to an alienating society. and it's hard an everybody. they are a particularly vulnerable group. >> i read you said we have over valorized people who have come back. >> i talked about the risks of doing that, actually. so when -- when soldiers come back, they have often done something incredibly heroic. but at some point you have to say, thank you, and now it's time to join the rest of us in the hard work of living every day in this great country. >> if they're over-valorized and six months later it starts to fade. >> yeah. >> what are you going to do at this point? you can't -- >> right. you don't want to create -- you want to honor their service. >> right. >> but you don't want to create a special population that is sort of exempt from for --
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forever in their lives from participating in normal life. psychologically, if we want to reintegrate them we have to figure out how to both honor them and say, look, you're just another person in the country as well. >> it's different than prison populations. guys can't leave prison either. a lot of guys need the order and the three meals and the security. it's different than that, i would think, but society is tough for a lot of people that have a -- >> yeah. a lot of veterans that i know have talked about this. saying, look, thank you for your service. that's lovely. but at some point you have to consider us another person in the country. >> over-valor is one situation. another is not getting access to things like v.a. treatments. >> totally. totally. >> getting a job. >> complete different things. absolutely. >> how many guys -- sorry. how many guys -- suicide? someone told me about suicides her day. i said it has to be wrong. >> the suicide statistics are complicated.
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22 a day has come under a lot of scrutiny. they're all tragic but most are vietnam era veterans. >> how about homeless? >> i don't know the stats on homeless. interestingly, about suicide, it's not connected to combat. if you deploy, you are actually less likely -- statistically -- if you deploy you're less likely to commit suicide afterwards. it's interesting. >> what kind of response have you gotten from veterans to this view? >> my book just came out yesterday and people are starting to read it. they are loving it. the idea that the problem is us not them, you know, obviously is like really heartening to them. i think they knew that, you know. i mean, they're encountering a psychologically healthy situation, ironically in combat because they are living in a platoon. 30, 40 people. we evolved as a species to live that way, in small groups. they're experiencing that and liking it. it's psychologically healthy. then they come back to -- there is no place lonelier than the american suburb. they come back and struggle. and they know it's us, not them.
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>> what do we need to do on our end? in terms of changing the transition process. >> one of the very healthiest things a person can do is to be necessary. and of course, soldiers are very necessary in combat. when they come home, the world war ii generation came home and was immediately put to work, right. very low levels of disability. they immediately got to work. the nation needed to be rebuilt. the whole generation came back, and i know people -- i was born in 1962. i remember those guys, right. i think what's psychologically complicated is to bring these veterans home and sort of somehow create a special case for them where they are not participating in society. that's psychologically really -- hire them. put them to work. >> if you could wave a magic wand is there a system you'd want to build that doesn't exist for the private sector to on-board all these people? >> i think well-meaning people
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in the private sector will hire veterans because they appreciate them, as they should. people will also hire the best qualified people. you can't create -- but yeah. i think the nation wants to do the right thing. i don't think you can create a government programs that insists on that. >> the private programs jpmorgan and others who have hired them say they have quite qualifications. >> exactly. i went to college. i wasn't in the military. i am looking at these guys and comparing them to the guys i went to college with. i am like, my god, the platoon, i would go with those guys over the guys i graduated college with any day, right. they're amazing guys. it's a real asset when you come back to society when you've got to say, now it's not over, the next phase begins. >> sebastian, thank you for coming in. congratulations on the book. everyone should get your book. we should all figure out more ways to hire veterans. the little blue box crushed this morning after quarterly earnings fall at tiffany.
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detail and stocks to watch after the break. counting down to el captain. derek jeter will be joining us live. stick around. "squawk box" will be right back. we are the world's connectivity company. we are business & entertainment & innovation. we are at&t. we're mobilizing the world like never before.
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that's the power of &. earnings fall at tiffany.
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take a look at stocks to watch this morning. tiffany under pressure with comparable store sales falling 9%. 9% for its latest quarter. that was twice as much as analysts had expected.
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it is being hurt, according to analysts, by the strong dollar. needed an analyst to figure that out. which they tell me -- it says here -- did you know this? discourages buying. overseas tourists. apparel retailer express earned 25 cents a share. is that -- that's what the old -- >> limited. >> right. anyway, that stock is also lower. reported earnings two cents below expectations. the company's full-year forecast well below consensus. the overall market for apparel retailers is challenging. into the quarterly earnings and revenue beat analysts estimates in the maker of tub bo tax and quickbooks. raises forecasts on strong sales for the products. insurance brokerage gallagher replaces coca-cola enterprises to form a company head quartered
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in europe. apple may be giving siri -- getter siri help. a new report by tech news site, the information saying the company will open up the voice assistant to third-party apps. the software kit could be available as soon as the developers' conference next month. apple working on a siri-powered speaker for the home to compete with polapple's echo. google announced a google home device which will be similar. it will be fun, guys. we'll all talk to speakers all the time and they'll talk back to us. mcdonald's holding its annual shareholder meeting today. the company turning around the business after years of declines. at 8:40 eastern time derek jeter teaming up with american family, the future hall of fame yankee shortstop joining us on the set. "squawk box" returns in a moment.
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♪ for decades, investors have used a 60/40 stock and bond model, with little in alternatives. yet alternatives can tap opportunities that traditional assets can't. and even though they're called alternatives, they're actually designed to help meet very traditional goals. that's why invesco believes people should look past conventional models
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and make alternatives a core part of their portfolios. translation? goodbye 60/40, hello 50/30/20.
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global markets rising around the world. u.s. futures pointing to a positive open. decision 2016. donald trump looking to bring in
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some republican heavy-hitters to back his economic plans. club for growth founder steve moore is among the group. he will make the pitch spratrai ahead. derek jeter joins us in the studio to talk business, baseball and life after the pinstripes. the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ >> live from the most powerful city in the world, new york, this is "squawk box." painful. painful. welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc, first in business worldwide. i'm joe kernen along with rebecca quick and her suit, andrew ross sorkin. less than 90 minutes away -- know what that means? >> the what? >> her suit. from the opening bell on wall street. the futures up about 70 points. 68.95. you are a word maven. you know her suit?
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>> oil prices right now are indicated up 38 cents now at 49. >> speak for yourself. >> hirsuite. >> you have hair -- >> we have hair everywhere. >> we were talking about ways of fixing -- microsoft cutting nearly 1900 jobs in hits smartphone unit. the company streamlining the mobile phone business it acquired from nokia two years ago. it will take a $950 million charge against earnings for that move. >> hewlett-packard spinning off most of the technology operations to merge with computer sciences in an $8.5 billion deal. meg whitman joins david faber on squawk on the street. mortgage applications rising 2.3% in the last week. home buying not refinancing
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driving activity this time around. applications are now nearly 24% higher than they were a year ago. in fed-speak again, a focus for the markets. jim bullard says a june rate hike is not set in stone but argued labor data suggests it's time to pull the trigger. >> obviously we have tried to be data dependent, and i don't think there is any reason to prejudge the june meeting at this point. we can wait until we get to the meeting, see what the data say and try to make a good decision there. i think on the issue of press conferences, we have made many moves over the years without press conferences. so i think you could make a move without a press conference in this circumstance. the labor market data, as i said, if you just took your signal from that, we would definitely move i think. >> more fed-speak on today's agenda. philly fed president and minneapolis president and dallas fed president all speaking throughout the day.
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did these five minutes ago. stocks to watch this morning. ti tiny tiffany falling short of estimates. retailer express at -- you didn't hear this already? also missing the mark on top and bottom lines. the forecast is also weak. the company notes a challenging environment for apparel sellers. intuit posting better than expected results raising the full-year forecast. benefiting from strong growth for turbo tax and quickbooks. as well as the sale of several of its businesses. and monsanto rejecting bayer's $62 billion takeover offer saying the bid was too low. firm says it's open to further deals. bayer says it is confident the two firms can address financing matters. diecom industries, better than expected results in an upbeat fourth quarter outlook. a change in the s&p 500. arthur gallagher will replace
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coca-cola enterprises? why? because it's merging with a company, as you know, from abroad that -- and it's going to be headquartered over there now. the national institute of health issuing a statement saying the united states needs forceful preparation against the zika virus. the agency expects the virus to hit the states in the next month or so as warmer weather brings along the mosquitos. joining us with more is dr. anthony fauci, the director of the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases. he has been heading up our efforts to try to fight zika here. dr. fauci, thank you for being with us. we know the latest numbers that we have seen have over 500 people in the united states with zika but these are all travel-related cases or sexual transmission from people who have travelled. you caught a lot of headlines this week when you pointed out you wouldn't be surprised in the next month or so to see actual transmission cases in the continental united states. could you tell us where we stand right now and what the risk is.
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>> well, historically in the past, when we have dealt with infections that were similar to zika, infections like dengue and chikungunya, that are transmitted by exactly the same mosquito that transmits zika, we have ultimately, particularly during the robust mosquito season, have seen local transmitted cases. that's the reason i said and others have said that we're fairly certain -- you can never be 100%, but we're fairly certain that, as we get more mosquito activity, particularly in the southeastern part of the country along the gulf coast, florida and texas, that have had local outbreaks of dengue and chikungunya, that we will start to see locally-transmitted cases of zika in the continental united states. hopefully we will be able to contain them so that they don't become sustained and disseminated. you can do that by very vigorous mosquito vector control. >> you must be a little
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frustrated to see congress still debating dual bills to figure out how much funding to grant. i know you have taken some money -- >> it is a bit frustrating. >> i know you've taken some money from ebola funding and moved things around. how do you think we stand in terms of preparedness? >> well, we are doing what we need to do now, but we can't sustain that for a longer period of time. much longer than literally a few weeks to a month. because what we have done both here at the n.i.h. and at the c.d.c. is taken money from other accounts, money that would be spent on other important areas and moved them so that we can get started and not just wait to move on zika. when you are dealing with an outbreak, if you have to wait for the designated funding, you'll be behind the eight-ball right away. that's the reason we started it but we'll very soon run out of capability to do that. that's the reason why we really do need the money that the president has asked for. >> in terms of the preparedness
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that we've already taken -- we spoke earlier today with ran clain, the former white house czar in charge of ebola and heading up those efforts. he says you were the right man for this job but is also concerned that we have not done enough in terms of mosquito eradication and testing to find out when and if there are cases of transmission here in the united states. what do you say to that? >> i say that we have actually done a lot. but ron klain, who was amazingly helpful with us in the ebola outbreak, you know, is monitoring this carefully. he is as concerned as we are that, if we don't get the resources that we need, we are going to fall behind. and we can't fall behind when you're dealing with an emerging outbreak. >> what should pregnant women be doing? we talked yesterday about consumer reports and the effectiveness that they have found in terms of different pesticides and different mosquito repellants. how concerned should they be, first of all, if they are in the
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southern parts of the united states, and then if they're in the remaining parts of the united states as far north as san francisco or new york city where some of these mosquitos reside? >> well, first of all, the important thing to emphasize is that women who are pregnant should not travel to areas in which there are outbreak of zika such as in south america, the caribbean, central america, puerto rico. however, women who are in the united states right now, there is no local transmission. so women in the united states who are pregnant who want to be pregnant, should not be concerned. however, given the fact that it is likely we may see some small amount of local transmission, women need to do what is necessary to protect themselves from mosquitos. and there are several ways to do that, to the extent possible, when you have a lot of mosquito activity in the warm weather, stay in air-conditioned rooms. have -- make sure that screens are intact and don't allow mosquitos in. and don't be afraid to use
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insect repellant, even if you are pregnant. insect repellant with deet, up to 30%, is safe in pregnant women and often pregnant women are reluctant, understandably, to put chemicals like insect repellant on them, but they should do that because the ones that are approved are in fact safe. >> and dr. fauci, if you had a message for cloongress, what wod it be right now? >> please move and get us the money that we need to attack this particular problem right now. >> dr. fauci, thank you for your time today. >> thank you. coming up when we return, investors loving mcdonald's stock. shares up 25% just in the last year. but the minimum wage debate may take center stage at tomorrow's annual meeting. we'll talk about an analyst about it all in just a moment. ♪ welcome to opportunity's knocking, where self-proclaimed financial superstars pitch you investment opportunities.
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lepe's foods is a locally owned here in santa rosa. as a small business, we're always looking to save money, and pg&e was able to help us. i help the small businesses save money and energy. it feels great. we looked at their lighting, their refrigeration system, and with just those two small measures, they were able to save a good amount of money. i was shocked. i couldn't believe that i could save $1,500 a month. with the savings that we get from pg&e, we're able to pass it on to our customers.
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it's pretty awesome. learn how your business can save at pge.com/businessenergycheckup. together, we're building a better california. . welcome back to "squawk box," everyone. take a look at the futures this morning. they have been higher all morning long. this comes after big gains in the markets yesterday. you can see right now that the dow futures are indicated up about 73 points. s&p up close to 10. the nasdaq up by 23. by the way, the s&p and the
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nasdaq are already positive for the month of may. if we hold on to the gains today the dow will be as well. if you check out energy prices, they're up as well above $49 at $49.05 for wti. >> 72 in the morning. what are the chances we see up 100? >> by the end of the day? at some point? i saw a statistic earlier about how compressed trading ranges have become. there was a move in the s&p of 0.1% the other day. apparently that's happening 20% of the time recently whereas over the last ten years it was only 11% of the time. >> it's less volatile? >> yes. which is weird. >> okay. what are my odds that we see up over 100? >> i'm not betting against you on that. >> two to one. >> three to one. >> you'll take three to one? >> no. it's a bad bet. global news. we're watching the situation in france. i guess we're watching a situation in france because we have no idea what situation we're talking about here.
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i'll tell you. french oil industry federation says the country has been forced to tap oil reserves. a labor dispute grounded many of france's oil refineries to a halt. did you know that? i'm telling you. demonstrators continue to blockade refineries across the country and thousands of petrol stations have run dry. those are gas stations, i think. >> they are. >> we use the euro name. >> petrol. >> i feel kind of cosmopolitan after saying that. >> continental. right? that's what you think of when you think of me, isn't it? >> cosmopolitan. mcdonald's big meeting. the union backed fight for 15 campaign begins its two days of protests against the fast food giant. concerns over wages don't seem to be having an impact on mcdonald's business. the giant is seeing soaring sales and the stock on a fair,
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up 25%. joining us is morningstar's global director of consumer equity research. the real question, r.j., at this point is not how well they've done but how well they can do, which is to say is the stock price for perfection or is there more to go? >> yeah. i think that's absolutely the key question. we have had a great run particularly in its international lead and its u.s. markets the last couple quarters. the question is whether or not it's sustainabling. i don't think we'll see the level of same-store sales as we saw the last couple of kwarquar. i expect moderation. still in positive territory dealing with some of the food improvements and speed of service type things they have done. those are all positives but the market should be baking in at deceleration and top-line trends for the rest of the year. >> therefore? in terms of what do you do with the stock? >> this stock, i think it's
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still one you hold. it's still a compelling capital allocation story. 3% dividend yield as well as share buy-back programs going on. frankly, i think right now yum is the better way. what turned mcdonald's around and sent the stock soaring last year, a turn-around in the core asset in the u.s. business, cap allocation and a commitment to re-franchising. that's the same story we have with yum this year. a turn around in that story. a cap allocation play and a commitment to being a more franchise model. mcdonald's, if i am a holder, i continue to hold but wouldn't put new money into it right now. >> the lead story on the drudge report, joseph is actually looking at it right now. >> mcdonald's robot staff. cheaper than workers. i don't know which former ceo this is. but a former mcdonald's ceo says that at this point, if it's -- if minimum wage goes up too much, is warning robots will take over jobs because it's
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cheaper than employing humans. highly skilled robotics will be much cheaper and the huge job losses are imminent with the minimum wage issues. is that happening? >> i don't know -- yeah, i don't know if we'll go that far. certainly there is room for robotics to improve operations behind the scenes, back of the counter situations. but i don't think they'll ever replace workers. there will always be a need for that. i don't think massive job losses are imminent. certainly there is room to bridge the gap and maybe integrate technology within the restaurant. i think that's probably a bit overblown at this point. >> the robots are overblown? what about the larger question to the question it's become a question now. we set up the segment with the idea of these protesters of the minimum wage going to 15 and what that does to the business. do you think that's even a possibility? >> it's certainly moving towards higher wages. the thing to remember with mcdonald's, too, is that more directly impacts the franchisees. in the u.s. 90% of the store base is franchised.
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so hits more directly the franchisees because mcdonald's -- >> i am assuming that if the costs go up to franchisees there will be pressure to raise prices. if you raise prices perhaps people won't -- if you can't sell the dollar meal the way it is, you know, what happens to volume? >> yeah. i think that's absolutely the key question, what happens to pricing. if we see a move towards higher wages across the country, which it certainly seems like is happening, yeah, we will see an increase in prices. what i think is interesting is they've set up -- at least with the plans of the national value platform, the mcpick two, it's set up to be flexible and allow for pricing and still maintain a value proposition. the other question to keep in mind with the franchising story is what level of co-invest the company will make. mcdonald's has historically been a great co-invest partner for equipment and new locations with the franchisees. if we see, you know, wage pressure hit the franchisees i suspect we'll see the company
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becoming a greater co-investment partner to offset the cost pressures on the labor side. >> how long does this all-day breakfast thing continue to have a halo effect? >> i think -- >> is that all they've done? we really look at what's happened over the past year, is it really breakfast? is that what we're talking about? >> it's a big part of it certainly. the first big positive news out of the company in several years. it was a well executed program. i think what got me most excited about the platform is they were able to take it from a test phase to a nationwide rollout in just over six months, something we hadn't seen under the prime management team. steve easterbrook gets a lot of credit. the franchisees, the suppliers and marketing teams on the same page right now. i don't see anything as big as all-day breakfast moving the needle. expect deceleration in comparable same-store sales trends. i don't see other bullets in the -- like all-day breakfast in
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the holster right now. >> r.j., good to see you. get yourself a mcdonald's breakfast. >> good idea for all of us, right? >> hmm. when we come back, google unveiling a new ad strategy and it is taking aim at people on the move. we'll tell you exactly what the web giant is mapping out. that is next. flp
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. a little political news this morning. protest turning violent outside a rally for donald trump in new mexico. demonstrators overturning trash cans, knocking down barricades and throwing bottles. in albuquerque inside the convention center trump was interrupted several times by protesters while his supporters shouted "build that wall." federal investigators are probing possible accounting fraud at a real estate firm. a favorite investment of republican center bob corker. this is interesting. the "wall street journal" reports that authorities are focusing on whether cbl and associates falsified financial statements. the fbi and sec have also asked questions about corker's ties with the company. he is close with senior executives and has made, it says here, millions in investing in cbl stock. the "journal" says corker is not
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accused of any wrong-doing. senator rumored to be on donald trump's short list for vice president. he is a friend of the show. he met with trump when he came out and he said, i have not one iota of information that would indicate that i'm on any vp -- under any consideration for vp. >> that was just this week. >> who you believe. >> in technology news google amping up the ad game. the web giant planning to increase the size of ads running at the top of search results. the company will expand ads on google map with promoted pins on driving routes. ads accounted for 90% of its $75 billion in revenue last year. siri getting a little outside help. a report saying the company will be opening up its voice assistant to third party apps. could be available as soon as the developers' conference.
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working on a siri powered speaker for the home to compete with amazon's echo and google's home. on google it's amazing. this is an awesome commercial that google put together. you wake up in the morning, talk to your thing and it sells you what's on your calendar and you're having a conversation. turn the lights on, wake up your children. >> have you talked to echo versus siri? >> i haven't got myself an echo. >> siri is annoying, you know. >> you use siri. >> i just use the dictation thing. she comes up with some of the dumbest statements. i come up with some dumb ones myself, but she comes up with -- the stuff she hears me say, it's like -- in no universe does that make sense. what i said was so clear -- >> what i don't know -- all of the services are somewhat limited. >> is echo a voice? >> echo is alexa. you say hello, alexa.
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but the issue is that certain -- alexa only does certain limited things. you can order things an amazon and uber. >> i don't understand the gender issues involved here. why am i not speaking to a male? when i am asking for service from something, is it -- >> i agree with you. catering to users. >> is it sub servient? >> i think an siri you can change the voice. maybe on the google one you can. >> that's why you are here. you can't ask me -- >> i believe on some of the services you can change the voice. >> sam instead of siri. you can change it to a male? >> waves you can do a male voice. that's different. >> i am not getting anywhere here. >> who would you prefer to speak with? >> maybe just something where i am not even sure who the hell i am talking about. >> like pat. >> yes! >> you want to talk to pat. >> that's good.
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coming up, blake, kyle, chris. lynn. coming up, donald trump making a bigger push on jobs and the economy. he's getting the backing of some holdout republicans. steven moore from the club for growth joins us. captain clutch is in the "squawk box" screen room. holy cow. he is here early! i thought a guy like him -- we appreciate it. i may head out there. derek jeter will join us in a few minutes to talk life after baseball. i asked my dentist if an electric toothbrush was
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wham back. the energy department releases its latest report on crude inventories two hours from now. the numbers could give oil an additional push towards the $50 mark. crude has not seen those levels since last october. sarepta shares jumping from pre-market trading, which wasn't perhaps what would have been expected since the fda delayed a
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decision on the company's drug to treat duchenne muscular dystrophy. it delayed it but says it will try to complete its review in as timely a manner as possible. the decision had been due tomorrow. but it's up almost 21%. you can see it has been a roller coaster -- >> all fda stuff right now. >> all fda, you know, developments on this -- what's really an important medication for families that are affected by it. we're watching the shares of ali baba. the china-based e-commerce company is the subject of an sec investigation involving some of its accounting issues. it says it's cooperating and providing the requested information. the bank roller revealed. i can confirm reports surfacing that paypal co-founder peter thiel was the man behind the hulk hogan suit, helping to fund
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the $140 million lawsuit that hulk hogan won against gawker founder nick denton. peter has been a guest on the show and has a long history with gawker. they published a piece in 2007 outing him as gay. the silicon valley venture capitalist once described the gawker owned site as the silicon valley equivalent of al qaeda. so he has some motive. there had been lots of questions about how hulk hogan had financed this particular case. gawker has said, nick denton has said they've spent $10 million in expenses already alone on the case. you have to imagine on the other side there was another $10 million, the lawyer doing it on a contingengy basis. there were questions throughout how this was being financed. hulk hogan, of course, as divorced recently and suggested he didn't have a lot of money so there were questions. now we know peter thiel was behind it. of course, raising some questions about disclosure, whether it matters, whether it
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doesn't. lots of insurance companies and other investors have been involved in cases over the years, but whether this changes the dynamic given that it's not as mercenary, if you will, right, the reasons for supporting or backing a case -- >> it levels the playing field a bit and gives guys who don't have a lot of money a little bit of -- look, it -- i understand some disclosure potentials, maybe you want to know who is backing some of these things but i think a jury looks at it and they're not looking at who is backing what. they're more interested in whether there was wrong doing. >> in certain cases, by the way, a judge in certain instances doesn't let a jury even know necessarily whether an insurance company is involved. that's supposed to not -- >> they feel like it's deeper pockets. >> it's not supposed to enter the equation. we talked about it in the last hour. there were interesting issues in this particular case where the hulk hogan side tried to get an insurance company that worked for gawker out of the case so they couldn't settle which was an economically strange thing to
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do if you were trying to get money. in this case not so much. this case is likely -- most legal experts believe the $140 million will be overturned entirely or be reduced in a material way. >> they thought that before before there was a question about peter thiel. >> correct. the additional question. obviously this will be a feature of gawker's appeal to suggest this wasn't a simple case around one individual. >> look, it's a bigger question. if you want to say money should be taken out of the case you should say neither side should be able to pay corporate lawyers to go after the other side and present their case. if you want to take money entirely out of the case that's one thing. that's not the case. gawker spent $10 million. hulk hogan didn't have that much money to be able to spend that kind of thing on it. it's the sides of an arm's race where both sides are leveling up the -- >> you know, we're forgetting about reading about this unbelievable case. if gawker needs to exist for any reason, it was for this
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situation. i mean, bubba the -- what's his name? >> bubba the love sponge. a different kind of sponge, i am told. not a contraceptive sponge in this case. he was -- it was his wife, right? >> right. >> he is talking -- the whole thing. it's like -- why are we here? >> the case is fascinating -- >> now it keeps getting dragged on. we're still talking about this bizarre -- that's the craziest threesome. >> it's about freedom of speech and invasion of privacy. >> gawker was created for this case. >> there is a lot -- no. but there is a lot to it. of course, given the freedom of speech and privacy issues, the disclosure issues. >> how do you not publish that? it's -- you know, a guy who was former governor of -- or was it the other one? >> jesse ventura. >> are they different people? they both wear boas. >> different people. >> i personally disagree most of the time with the news judgment
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of gawker. i have been on the other side -- i have been on the other side of the gawker pen in a terrible way. it's not a fun place to be. having said that, there are larger questions about freedom of speech, what you can and can't say. joseph, if you make comments about certain things over time, not always nice things, should you be allowed to say that? it's a very, you know -- talking about a slippery slope. >> or they're uncomfortable with the bubba the love sponge conversation, so they tell us you need to move on right now. >> becky. i follow the rules. donald trump tweaking his tax plan and bringing in some republican heavy-hitters to zero in on growth and jobs. growth for club founder steve moore is one of those voices helping candidate trump. the super pac had been attacking him at club for growth until a few weeks ago. steve moore joins us, a visiting fellow at the heritage foundation and the author of "fueling freedom, exposing the
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mad war on energy." thanks for joining us. >> to clarify. i haven't been with the club for growth. i started it 12 years ago but haven't been involved for the last eight years. the campaign the club ran against donald trump, i was not about that. >> that's secondary. let's talk first of all about what you see right now with candidate trump. he wasn't your first choice, but you have been advising him along with larry kudlow and talking to him about his tax plans. i wonder what you think of the plan right now and what could help it be maybe a little bit more palatable? >> you guys were talking about $50 oil, first. there is no issue where you'll see a rp shasharper contrast be the two candidates, hillary clinton and donald trump, than on energy. donald trump is giving a major energy speech tomorrow. it will be pro-production. it's going after all of the resources we have. hillary's position is keep it in the ground. that many be a very -- by the way, there is huge growth
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potential by using energy resources. that's one of the things we have advised mr. trump on. on the tax issue -- first of all, let me tell your listeners and viewers that donald trump is not backing off on this tax cut. there were some rumors last week that he had said something like maybe we might have to raise taxes on the rich. what he meant by that is we might not be able to cut the taxes as much as we had hoped in the original plan, but tax rates are coming down for everybody. one thing -- larry kudlow harps on this almost every day on your network, which is we've got to cut the corporate tax rate to bring businesses back. under the trump plan, the corporate rate in the united states would go from the highest in the world, 35%, down to one of the lowest at 15%, and i believe and mr. trump does too that that's going to bring a lot of the jobs and businesses back to the united states. >> steve, he actually made those comments on our show. >> i know. >> let's talk a little bit more about how you get to those
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places. his point was that he is not the single-handed guy who gets to make the policies. whoever is elected still has to work with congress and try to get things passed. do you think a 15% corporate tax plan is likely? how do you see that working out? with the understanding that you have got to work through washington. >> of course. you know, larry kudlow and i both worked with ronald reagan when he passed his major tax cut in 1981. the final product was, you know, different, but the spirit of it was very much the same of what reagan campaigned for. i don't know what the rates are going to end up at, becky, but i think that you'll get a much lower corporate rate. on the individual side, for small businesses, you know, the top rate goes down from under the trump plan from 40% to 25%. now, one of the things that when we went over these numbers with mr. trump and his campaign, you know, larry and i were saying, maybe you won't be able to get it down to 25%, maybe 27% or 28%. but there will be a lot lower top individual income tax rate.
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by the way, every individual who pays taxes, everybody watching the show, if you pay taxes, you're going to get a tax cut under the trump plan. >> steve, you are not with club for growth anymore. it's been a long time. you're not with the national review. you know all these guys. >> yeah, i do. >> did you ever consider just taking the route of some of the establishment types? >> never, never, never, never. >> can you explain it to me? have you tried to talk to them that principles are great, aren't they? these guys had great principles for the last eight years too. they weren't governing. is it an effective way to do it? elect hillary clinton by standing on principles because trump doesn't adhere of every one of them for you? it's hard for me to understand these guys. >> i don't understand them either. i think the never-trump movement -- by the way, it's dying out, but you do still have some people -- by the way, mitt romney, i mean -- >> what happened there? >> i don't knowed mitt romnunde romney. he has had the worst year of
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anyone in america. he looks foolish and jealous. i'm disappointed in time. show some class, mitt, and get behind the candidate. the big story, i think, over the last three weeks is how rapidly donald trump is consolidating the party. it's happened a lot faster than i thought it would. the nra endorsement helped a lot. i am seeing more and more conservatives saying, you know, especially the ted cruz voters saying, you know what, he is our guy. you asked me about trump six months ago. i saw something in trump that i haven't seen in a lot of politicians in the last number of years on the republican side, which he tapped into this kind of anger and sense of betrayal that republican voters had about the way republicans were governing. trump has a sixth sense about that that is quite effective. he tapped into this before anybody else did with maybe the exception of ted cruz. i think he is a fabulous candidate. i think what he's going to do is
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crack through what we call the blue wall of industrial states that democrats have traditionally won in the last 20 years. trump is going to win in wisconsin. he's going to win in michigan and ohio and pennsylvania. that changes the map completely. >> wonder if the guys at the "wall street journal" are listening. they slowly -- supposedly paul ryan this week. did you hear? there are rumblings of a potential something. you hear about that? >> look, i think paul ryan will come around. i think ryan -- look, paul ryan wants to cut taxes. donald trump wants to cut taxes. i think they're very much on the same page. >> or -- or they can back hillary. it's one or the other. they don't seem to understand that. >> you got it. take care. after an historic 20-season career with the yankees, legendary shortstop derek jeter is signing a new partnership with american family insurance. yankees won six straight. if he does -- if i can talk him into coming out of retirement,
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it will be for the reds. he'll join us along with american family insurance executive melissa yancey after the break.
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great. derek jeter has been busy since his retirement from baseball in 2014. the future hall of famer and five-time world series champion -- that would be weird to wear all those rings. i think that would be too -- you can't do that. anyway, his own media company, the players' tribune plus jeter publishing.
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you're breaking news. you broke news about kobe. turn two foundation as well. you are almost like a magnate already. there is tycoon, magnate. >> mogul. >> he joins us with his first post-retirement partnership. welcome, derek jeter and telisa yancy, cmo of american family insurance. >> thanks for having us. >> pretty nice place here. >> it is. >> so, american family and you have similar views on certain things, on life goals and dreams. is that why this came about? >> true. i have always been very selective in the partners that i have picked throughout my career. this is the first partnership i have had post-retirement. it always sounds funny when i say post-retirement because i feel busier than i was when i played. we share the same values and core beliefs, you know, helping people pursuing their dreams and achieve their dreams.
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that's what stood out with me when we spoke early on. i am looking forward to this partnership growing throughout the years. >> telisa, you can use pretty good likeness to use, i think, in terms of iconic sports guys, where you have to think about some sports guys. you're never sure down the road. with him, i mean, this could last -- i don't know how long. >> don't jinx me, man. >> i can't imagine anything coming out with him. so it made sense for american family insurance. >> it did. absolutely great sense for american family insurance. it's almost a partnership that is made in heaven to some degree as you think about who we are as a brand and our commitment to leveraging insurance to help to give people the comfort and support that they need in order to go out and pursue their dreams, regardless to what walk of life they might be or where they might be in their dreams. i don't call it post-retirement for derek. he is just on to the next set of dreams that he's out to pursue and we look forward to helping to tell his story and leveraging
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the story to inspire and protect our consumers as well. >> walk through this. i assume lots of people come to you with all sorts of different opportunities and you must have a constellation of where you want to be today, five years, ten years from now, what you want to own, what you want to be associated with. what's the sort of thinking? does someone come immediately and you say, yeah, i'm doing that one, or are you taking time to figure it out? >> you take time. you never rush into things. i was well aware of, the dreams platform with jj and kevin durant and, you know -- we have a partnership also, the players' tribune does, with afi. kevin durant actually helped to facilitate that deal. getting the opportunity to learn a little bit more about what afi stood for. like we said before, helping people pursue and achieve their dreams and recognizing people for their work ethic and, you know, that's something that falls -- values -- falls in line with the values and mission statement not only of what i grew up with but also my found
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a -- foundation as well. >> you can leverage some of your foundation's work and all your other interests with this partnership. >> most definitely. they have a foundation as well. so it all falls in line with everything that i grew up -- i have said it time and again, i am a little biased when it comes to my parents and family and the support i got growing up. when you have the opportunity to support others, that's what we stand for, the foundation and the family. and that's what they stand for. >> a news organization that's breaking news. how early is it? you have had a lot of success already. it's the early stages for this whole deal. >> it is. the trib boouplayers' tribune i platform for athletes. we want to equip athletes with the tools to tell their stories in an authentic, unbiased way. when we initially started, some members of the media thought we were trying to elim mate theina.
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we are letting athletes set their own agenda and letting the media follow up. it's early and myself with people that are much smarter than i am. >> do you look at the box scores every day? >> i don't. i don't. >> you know, six straight -- >> i've heard. i just got to new york a couple days ago, so i hear it everywhere i go. >> you have nothing to tell me about the -- next year, the year after, something. >> i don't, actually. >> you were almost drafted by the reds, right? >> i was -- >> what genius decided not to do that? >> there's no need to talk about that. but i'm always going to be a yankee. that's me. but, you know, moving forward i have ownership aspirations. >> would you buy a baseball team, a sports team, you might buy the buffalo bills. >> yeah, i read somewhere i was interested in buying the buffalo bills. one, i don't have the money to
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do it and, two, i don't know enough about football. >> do you want to own a baseball team? >> i do. that's the ultimate goal. like i said, i'm always going to be a yankee. >> so could be other teams besides the yankees. >> well, the other thing i'm interested in is helping the game grow. i think baseball is starting to take somewhat of a backseat to some of the other sports and in my mind i think this is the greatest sport in the world and i'm interested in helping the game grow. so outside of just being a yankee, i'm interested in helping the game of baseball. >> why do you think it's run into troubles? why do you think that is? >> i think some of the other sports are sort of the sexy sports. i think kids nowadays they look at players playing in college and the next year they're in the nfl or nba, baseball you sort of get lost because you have to play in the minor leagues for a little bit. so i think kids of this generation are in instant gratification. >> it is instant. super bowl, instant, four quarters. baseball, 162 games. but there are moments and you
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remember them, i don't know if you remember the '76 world series, whether you watched that one, but every pitch whether it's fouled off or whether -- you just see the guy warming up and he backs off. there's more tension and more that goes on in an important baseball game. it's the best of any sport, i think. in those moments. >> baseball in my opinion mimics life. it's everyday. it's 162 games plus 30 games in spring training plus the post season and there's a lot of work that goes into it. >> we don't have a sports partnership for "squawk box," a likeness we can use "squawk box" with someone next to us -- >> sponsored by afi. >> great idea. >> we got some screen shots of your face. >> you can use her face. >> you watch, you buy stocks, right? do you need any advice with that? >> i need a lot of advice in that. it's been a tough couple years. any advice you have -- >> come back any time. >> thank you.
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>> honored to be here. >> thank you. >> appreciate it. when we come back, jim cramer's going to join us live from the new york stock exchange. he might have some stock advice for derek. we're back in a moment. stephen king, the master of suspense and the macabre. i enjoy keeping people up at night. my analysis shows your stories are actually about human connection, even love. great storytelling needs drama and empathy. my cognitive apis can help any business better connect with its audience. you should try writing a book. find a remote hotel. bring the family. i do not think that is a good idea. this clean was like - pow. everything well? bring the family. it felt like i had just gone to the dentist. my teeth are glowing. they are so white.
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let's get down to the new york stock exchange. jim cramer joins us now. i think someone calls you the el captain. >> no, you had the real guy. you had the guy who's just hall of fame. he's h.o.f. a walk-in. i'm going to vote for him. >> sports guys, a lot of great sports guys, but every once in a while you're like do i want to sponsor johnny manziel? maybe i shouldn't -- with him you know, right? you're good, right? you're good with him. >> yeah. very good. right, there's no -- never in the papers other than for something good. >> i think you're solid. >> yeah. >> so we may put together back-to-back days. i bet becky that if it called up 70 usually you hit triple digits during the second session. >> i didn't take the other side. >> you didn't. i think we go up 100 at some point today?
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>> probably open up 100 and then we have to deal with actual data and companies. i don't know, the tone is being set by hpe, which we're going to have meg whitman, a fantastic deal. >> that's right. all right, jimmy, they tell me we got to go. >> yep. >> see ya. coming up this morning's biggest movers, and you can see meg whitman will be on "squawk on the street." "squawk box" will be right back. hey honey. huh. the good news is my hypertension is gone. so why would you invest without checking brokercheck? check your broker with brokercheck.
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make sure you join us tomorrow. "squawk on the street" begins in four seconds. >> two, one. >> two, one, there. ♪ good wednesday morning. welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer, david faber at the new york stock exchange. premarket is looking to build on yesterday's rally, the best day for the s&p since march 11. setup is constructive in europe as german confidence comes in the strongest since september. watch for more fed speak today. oil within sight of 50 yet again. inventory's at 10:30. and in a few moments hp's meg whitman of the planned spin-off of the enterprise services. we'll begin with the fed. st. louis fed president jim

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