shares held by insiders have been subject to company blackout rules until today. so that's the trade there. shares are up about 15% just year-to-date. now back to carl and the gang for the start of "squawk alley." carl, back over to you. >> all right, dom, thank you very much. good morning. it is 8:00 a.m. at expedia headquarters in bellevue, washington, 11:00 a.m. on wall street, and "squawk alley" is live. good morning. welcome to "squawk alley." no tape this morning, but jon fortt, sara eisen and myself here at post 9. market, as sara just said, record highs across the board. dow up 75, awfully close to session highs. we're about an hour away from the president's first face-to-face meeting with japan prime minister shinzo abe at the white house, as the administration deals with the fallout from last night's appeals court decision over that immigration order. a new phone call between the president and the president of china. our eamon javers covering all of this outside the white house today. hey, eamon. >> reporter: good morning, carl. they are ready to go here at the white house. as you can see behind me, the

honor guard, all five branches of the u.s. military in position here to welcome the japanese prime minister, who we're expecting to drive down this driveway here at the white house in just a few moments. the prime minister was at the u.s. chamber of commerce earlier this morning talking about the bilateral relationship and also the importance of trade and emphasizing the fact that he doesn't think it needs to be a zero sum gain. he thinks trade can be a win-win. but he also had a comment here about production of steel by a certain country. see what country he's talking about. >> translator: look at steel. overproduction in a certain country has not seized. and as a consequence, increase in export results in a depressed price for steel worldwide. >> reporter: and carl, we know that the president spoke to the president of china, xi jinping last night. they had a lengthy conversation, we are told in the readout. and so, clearly, there is a very diplomatic dance here going on

between these three countries today as they all figure out what the trade relationship is in the pacific going forward. back over to you guys. >> eamon, any word on who from the white house is going to be inside that meeting? because wilbur ross was supposed to be the point guy on trade. hasn't been confirmed as commerce secretary yet. >> reporter: yeah, we don't know. we are expecting what they call a pools parade. we're told cameras will be allowed inside the meeting for some time. so we'll look at that tape and figure out who's in the room. we're also expecting a press conference at the white house later today with both world leaders in attendance, and we can expect some questions for them on this trade relationship and all of the other security relationship issues that the two countries have as well. >> eamon, thank you so much. for more, former deputy u.s. trade rep ambassador david wolfe and former met patronics ceo bill george. good to see both of you. bill, so much of the news flow over the last couple weeks has

been domestic focused, or at least issues that relate to our own judiciary. how would you recommend or expect the president to relate to abe today? >> well, i'm excited that he's meeting with him. i think he get a big step forward by talking to president xi. america first seems to be today more of a campaign -- he's realizing he needs a relationship with china, going back to the one china policy, very significant. and abe is a key partner for us and we need to have that relationship. he shook him up tremendously. i've talked to the head of the bank of japan in person in june and they were shaken terribly by his comments on nuclear. we are nuclear partners. we don't want the japanese to go back to becoming a nuclear nation. so we need the relationship with their automakers. i saw a report that they employ close to 1.4 million american workers, if you look at their dealers and all their suppliers and everyone. so, he needs those jobs, and we can't exclude them or go against them. so, i think trade relationships, i hope he's going to start

replacing tpp with a series of bilateral relationships, leading with japan, then going to south korea and all of the other asian nations. >> and ambassador, speaking of tpp, japan by some arguments left out in the cold a bit with that falling apart, though we very well may develop more of a one-on-one trade relationship with japan. japan still has to figure out how to deal with all of the other asian nations around it as china tries to assert itself. how do you expect that to play out as the prime minister meets with the president today? >> i think prime minister abe has a very strong interest, which is matched by the interest of the united states in working together to make sure that the vacuum that's been left by the u.s. pulling back from tpp is not filled by china. if china sets the rules, they

will be inadequate, they'll be far short of what the u.s. and japan got done in tpp and would get done bilaterally going forward. so i think this is a key meeting. >> yeah, absolutely, bill. it strikes me that prime minister abe met with some ceos of big american companies at the u.s. chamber of commerce this morning. i mean, is this a new era where it's ceo diplomacy, where the ceos can go directly to these leaders? tim cook is traveling around speaking with theresa may, in the absence of that kind of relationship-building from washington, if we do see a president that stays true to his campaign promises and does take us into america first? can ceos go the opposite way? >> i think they have to. i think they have no choice. jeff immelt said, you know, we make our own deals. well, we'd rather have the u.s. doing that. i'd much rather see tpp go through. but i think the ambassador's right, china will move into that vacuum. and abe is going to have to have a deal with china now and with

south korea. and so, this is very worrisome that we see -- if we really go america first, we give the world leadership to the chinese. i don't want to see that happen. so, i think trump is realizing some of the reality. he's going to have to back off from this and go back to the -- yes, i think ceos should go directly and have the relationship -- >> i'm wondering if they can actually fill the void. >> they'll try. >> mr. ambassador, your thoughts on that? >> they can't do anything environmental or on labor relations. they can just cut deals. that's all they can do. >> no government is really expert on what should be negotiated without consulting closely with the private sector. ceos from major american companies, ceos in japan, from major japanese companies, have to inform their government of where they can make some real strides, some real advances in having closer relationships, more trade, more jobs.

and i think abe is here to indicate how much japan really already contributes to the u.s. economy and going forward how they can be really partners in creating more employment in both countries. >> mr. ambassador, we're waiting for some arrivals on your screen. we might see the prime minister arrive in a few moments. does japan need to be defensive about qe? do they need to continue to explain that it's a way to get to their inflation target and not an outright attempt to manipulate their currency? >> i think that's right. the japanese economy has been caught in a deflationary spiral for quite some time. lower economic growth than they should have, aging population. the quantitative easing is something they had to do, just as the united states had to do it following the financial crisis, you know, a couple of years back.

so, the yen has been depressed. probably it's 6% below where it should be. but japan doesn't have very many good options, other than to continue to increase the monetary supply. >> bill, i am wondering your take on something that's sort of been troubling me about the implications of the one-on-one diplomacy era that we seem to be moving into, whether we're talking about countries just operating bilaterally or ceos going directly to heads of state, trying to figure out deals. doesn't that leave an environment where it's unclear what the overall rules of the road are when it comes to the environment, when it comes to other things that you can't necessarily negotiate writ large when you're negotiating one on one? individual countries might get skre certain advantages negotiating that way, but the overall rules remain unclear, don't they? >> absolutely, jon.

this is a big concern of mine, and i think one of the great failings of both trump and clinton to not support tpp. thh those rules in it. it was going to help things. it was going to open up a lot of doors for the u.s., as the ambassador knows. it was going to create jobs. global trade's created over 25 million jobs in the u.s., far more than those that have been lost. and you know, i think we need to have those agreements. but in the absence of that, trump is trying to charm abe. he's not just meeting with the white house, he's taking him down to mar-a-lago, playing golf with him, but who's going to do the details? these negotiations take years, people like the ambassador working on them. you can't just throw them together and say, okay, we'll do a few deals. we actually have to have very clear agreements with these countries, and they're going to take years to get done. and what's going to happen in the absence, i think ceos have to fill the void and step up, as they did with the travel ban. >> on the bilateral trade

deals -- i was just going to ask you, mr. ambassador, for a prediction. do you think japan will come first, the uk will come first? where do you think the priority lies? >> well, the uk really isn't free to enter into a trade agreement with the u.s. there can be discussions as to what one would look like eventually, but right now the uk is still part of the european union. even when they give formal notice that they're leaving, there's a two-year period during which they're still members. they don't know what their trade profile is going to look like in terms of border measures. they really can't have a serious negotiation for several years out. so, what are the countries that we can deal with? the administration has already said we're going to renegotiate nafta with mexico and canada. the next largest trading partner's japan. and japan and the united states are going to have to sit down and figure out how to have an agreement amongst themselves that other parties can join,

other countries, like korea, like the countries that were in tpp, like indonesia, malaysia, thailand. a number of countries really want to see a better worldwide trading relationship, better rules, and the only way to get there is in asia with a partnership with japan. i think that's the next step. and you mentioned that we don't have a series of trade negotiators, professional trade negotiators in place yet in the trump administration. that's a high priority for the congress -- for the senate to act. >> we also need a treasury secretary. >> you get no argument from the white house on that one. mr. ambassador, bill, thanks so much for kicking off the hour with us. appreciate it. >> pleasure. >> thank you, carl. good to be on the show. we do want to check the markets here, because another stunning day of record highs for the major averages. check this out.

the dow's up about 70 points, s&p up 5 1/2, nasdaq up 14. we are building on triple-record closes yesterday. we're also watching shares of apple, within just a few points of its own all-time high set back in may of 2015. company ceo tim cook speaking to "good morning britain" today, sounding bullish on the uk post brexit. listen. >> we are very optimistic about the uk's future, and we are all in. we're double downing on a headquarters in the batter sea area that you probably heard about, and we are leaving significant space there to expand. and so, we're a big believer in the uk. the people will be just fine. >> this is what i was talking about, the ceo diplomacy. he's going to india. he's been in china, making

deals, going directly, talking to lawmakers there about the politics. >> well, the eu and the european commission hasn't exactly been kind to apple, either. so, doing some of that one-on-one diplomacy works out pretty well for him as well. >> good point. >> have nice market share figures on the watch, though. 80% of the category in q-4, right? >> yeah, with fitbit doing what it's doing, though, you wonder 80% of what? >> still, it has been amazing to watch this stock come back, what, more than 40% since it was below $100 a share? $95 to near a record high on, jon, what's sort of been mixed results for iphone. >> i thought innovation was over at apple, isn't it? >> exactly. >> peter thiel calling. when we come back, kellyanne conway in hot water over the comments she made regarding ivanka trump's fashion line. congressman deutsch says taxpayer dollars should not pay for trump family commercials. he joins us next. a cryptic message from expedia, why the iranian-born executive isn't holding back when it comes to the president.

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and president trump as questions continue to swirl around what the future of trade in asia will be. and the white house feud, meanwhile, with nordstrom continues. special adviser to the president kellyanne conway under fire after promoting ivanka trump's clothing line yesterday during an interview. >> go by ivanka's stuff is what i would tell you. i hate shopping. i'm going to go get some myself today. it's a great line. i'm going to give a free commercial here. go buy it today, everybody. you can find it online. >> i'm going to give a free commercial here, she says. her comments prompting conflict of interest concerns as many in congress are now pushing for an official review by the office of government ethics. for more, let's bring in congressman ted deutsch, florida executive and ranking member of the house committee on ethics. congressman, thanks for being with us. of course, the house ethics committee has jurisdiction over the ethics of congressional

officials, not the white house, but what exactly do you intend to do about the behaviors in the executive branch that are prompting some concern? of course, it's not just this. there are questions around president trump's own business interests and how those may or may not be relevant to his job as the president. >> right. well, thanks for having me on. and it's not just this instance. there's been a lot of discussion this morning about whether kellyanne conway was joking or not. it's not a question of just what she did. it's the fact that on issue after issue, it looks like the president of the united states is continuing to put the importance of his brand, the trump brand, ahead of the american brand. kellyanne conway can't use the white house to advance for personal gain, or in this case, for the gain of the president. but if you take a step back, the president of the united states tweeted about his daughter's business line on his official

twitter account, something else that just can't be done. it raises questions about where his attention is. it violates -- it clearly violates the law with respect to kellyanne conway, and i hope the office of government ethics will give their opinion as to whether it went too far from the president as well. there's no question in my mind that it has. >> you say can't, but my question is, to what degree is your opposition to this going to be about political point-scoring? and i'm sure there's some of that to be done because there are people who are not fans of the president who will get riled up by that, and how much is it going to be about somehow clarifying or changing an ethical standard so, indeed, he can't do this? because right now it's not clear to me that there's going to be much impact from it. >> well, it's not -- this isn't about political point-scoring. the fact is, we hear every day from people who can't believe that some of these conflict of

interest issues continue to exist. the president had a press conference right after the election. he told us that he was going to separate the family business from his job as president. we haven't seen evidence of that. with respect to the international deals that he has and how those might influence him, that's not just a question of whether or not he should be doing it, that's a constitutional violation. and whether you voted for the president or not, nobody expected that when he took office he was going to be in violation of those constitutional requirements. so, i think what we're trying to do here is, is to shine a light on a serious problem, a violation of the constitution that raises ethical issues about the focus of this president. and then when you look at how it plays out, he's now going on twitter and tweeting about individual companies and how their decisions impact his family's business. that's absurd. there's nobody who looks at that and thinks that this is

something the president of the united states should be doing. >> a couple things. one is that, obviously, spicer yesterday said conway was counseled. so, there's a good chance this will not happen again, at least the way it happened this time. but the other is the president's defenders argue he is still a father, still has the right to stand up for members of his family, even if it's in untraditional ways. is something wrong with that? >> no, i'm also a father, and i also stand up for my children, but that doesn't mean that you've got the right to use the office of the president of the united states, the most important office in the world, to go on a twitter rant in support of your daughter's business, which ultimately, as we both know, is a family business. it's a family business empire. it's the trump name. this wasn't just about defaming his daughter, this was about his business interests, and that's where the concern rightly lies. >> so, what i'm wondering,

congressman, does all of this distract democrats and make it less likely that we'll see major policies, like infrastructure spending, something the democrats have been pushing for for years, and we finally have a republican president that wants it and republicans that want it, and it looks like a major opportunity that could be squandered by all of these fights and battles, whether justified or not, like kellyanne conway. >> it's a really important question because it's not just democrats. the fact is that by having to respond to all of these president's tweets, not just on these issues, but when the president attacks john mccain as he did yesterday, when the president goes after foreign leaders, when the president goes after the independents in the judiciary, democrats and republicans alike, who should be working together to advance a major infrastructure bill, something that i do support, something that i do look forward to working with the president on -- instead of having those discussions, we're all getting side-tracked. the best thing that could happen

is to stop violating the ethics requirements. but beyond that, the biggest piece of advice i would have if we want to be serious about advancing these interests that are shared, democrats and republicans, is for the president to stop tweeting. that would be an initial step forward that might actually benefit the country as a whole, and it would ensure that he doesn't behave in a way that's beneath the office of the presidency. >> all right. i'm sure it's a story that will keep on giving. thank you, congressman ted -- i am sorry, i missed his last name. ted deutch. >> i appreciate it. thanks for having me. >> yes. when we come back, hopefully, we will all be alive at the end of next year. that's the message from the ceo of expedia. the details on that cryptic comment, next. but first, check out shares of nvidia, pairing some earlier

gains after an impressive quarter, down nearly 2%. "squawk alley's" back right after this. ♪ ♪ heigh ho! ♪ heigh ho! ♪ heigh ho! heigh ho! ♪ ♪ heigh ho! heigh ho! it's off to work we go ♪ ♪ heigh ho! heigh ho! ♪ heigh ho! ♪ heigh ho! ♪ heigh ho! heigh ho! it's off to work we go ♪ ♪ heigh ho! heigh ho! hey, what's up man? here's to all 180 million of you early risers, go-getters, and should-be sleepers. from 80 thousand of us at delta... because the ones who truly change the world are the ones who can't wait to get out in it. ♪

expedia out with earnings after the close last night, a mixed quarter. profited forecast did miss estimates, but it was comments from the company's ceo that has some people talking this morning. >> are there any closing thoughts? >> just a big thank you to our global employee base for an improved 2016 and certainly an improved end to the year, and hopefully, we will all be alive to see the end of next year. >> "hopefully, we'll all be alive to see the end of next year." bookings fell short, but ending the call on that sort of put a lot of metrics to the wayside. >> not the kind of guidance that we're used to hearing. >> no. >> on the call about hopefully being alive. but worth noting, mr. khosrasahi is an immigrant from iran and is

the ceo of a travel company. so, you know, barriers to travel, particularly of the sort that the trump administration has put up, he might not be such a fan of. also a tech company, and tech companies -- >> well, not just that, he also threw his name supporting a lawsuit that challenged the immigration order, of course miles per ho. and we've had him on the show before to talk about how he wasn't a fan of then candidate trump. i think it also speaks to the extremes we're seeing across corporate america, either really bullish ceos on the business agenda or some with questions on some of the principles. >> we'll ask him about it the next time he's on. >> absolutely. still to come here on "squawk alley," we are still waiting the arrival of japanese prime minister shinzo abe at the white house, coming within the hour. trade and economic ties are topping today's agenda. check this out. japan has more than $400 billion of foreign direct investment into u.s. businesses, projects, assets, you name it. one of the top foreign investors in this country.

the ceo of oneweb, which closed $1 billion in funding from softbank, a japanese firm, in december joins us next. also later, as snapchat prepares to go public, why a certain supermodel is accusing facebook of stealing snap's best ideas. we'll be right back. hey gary, what'd you got here? this bad boy is a mobile trading desk so that i can take my trading platform wherever i go. you know that thinkorswim seamlessly syncs across all your devices, right? oh, so my custom studies will go with me? anywhere you want to go! the market's hot! sync your platform on any device with thinkorswim. only at td ameritrade

good morning once again, everybody. i'm sue herera. here's your "cnbc news update" at this hour.

french antiterrorism forces arrested four people in southern france, including a 16-year-old girl. they uncovered a makeshift laboratory for making bombs. france's top security officials say the raid thwarted an imminent attack. japanese prime minister shinzo abe laying a wreath at the tomb of the unknown shoulder at arlington national cemetery this morning. he will meet with president trump at the white house in just a little bit. ohio governor john kasich has delayed eight executions as a court fight continues over the constitutionality of that state's lethal injection process. the first execution scheduled for next week has been delayed until may. and according to the olympic organizing committee, rio de janeiro still owes creditors about $40 million from the summer games. among the problems, four of those new arenas that they built in the main olympic park have failed to find private-sector sponsorship and management. you're up to date. that's the news update this hour. back downtown to "squawk alley." carl, back to you. >> it's been tough going for

brazil. >> it has. >> sue, thank you so much. sue herera. let's get the close here in uk and across europe, trying to eke out some gains for the week, seema. >> yeah, and that's exactly right. modest moves in europe's session today, but we're on track to close at a gain of around 1% for the week. and it's those miners that are jumping in reaction to that upbeat data on chinese exports, which were really driven by this revival in manufacturing. it's also raised some concerns as to whether president trump may try to increase tariffs to narrow our trade deficit with china. but back to the miners, leading the pack, the world's largest steel maker arcelomittal with its first profit in eight years, aided by a rise in metal prices and cost-cutting. rio tinto and others participating in today's miner rally. let's talk luxury, because kering posting better than expected profits for 2016 helped

by an increase in mainland china. so china helping the mainland corporates today. help from gucci and san loren reducing in kering's strongest sales growth since 2012. sales up about 12.6%. reckitt benckiser also confirming it's agreed to acquire u.s. baby formula maker mead johnson for $16.6 billion. shares slightly off by 3%. the big story this week has been populism and marine le pen's campaign for a frexit. that is, of course, involving france leaving the european union. we saw bond spreads widen, but they've come off that four-year high that we saw earlier this week. gerard i areat, the ambassador to the united states, telling me he hopes france doesn't fall into the trap of populism and protectionism. signs of it, of course, not only in france, but in netherlands,

germany and italy as well. back to you, sara. >> yeah, it's taken a toll on the euro this week as well. seema, thank you. president trump set to meet with prime minister shinzo abe at the white house at the top of the hour here. we have an eye on the white house. topping the agenda today, trade, foreign direct investment in the u.s., and economic ties between the two nations. and for more on that, we're joined by the ceo of oneweb, greg weiler. it's a company that was a recipient of a billion-dollar investment from japanese company softbank back in december. good to have you, greg, welcome. >> thank you for having me on. >> so, we remember that softbank's chief massa san entered trump tower, one of the first foreign ceos to meet with trump. they shook hands, announced jobs and investment. how much of that do you think looms over today's meeting between prime minister abe and president trump? >> that's an interesting question. i think that president trump will be trying to get as much foreign direct investment as possible. he's done quite a bit of work to really bring jobs back and to

get as many people internally in the country to be investing locally and also globally. so, i imagine that's a top part of his agenda. >> and you found yourself in the center of that. i remember one of the promises that came in that announcement was that oneweb would be bringing 8,000 jobs back from overseas. where are you on that? have you made any progress? >> well, that was a combination of sprint and oneweb, and oneweb is making a lot of progress. our new factory is opening this year in the melbourne area, on the space coast. it's an exploration property. we'll build the world's first and only high-production satellite company and we'll be building three satellites per day of these very high-powered satellites to be able to provide internet access globally. >> greg, there's a lot of talk about net neutrality now, especially with the changes afoot at the fcc. it seems to me a big part of the issue for consumers is rather the lack of competition in the availability of broadband at the local level.

what is your stance on the changes that we expect to see in the regulatory environment and how oneweb fits in the consumer picture? >> so, oneweb is really about connecting rural populations, so rural america. so, they're going -- they're right now sitting with zero options. we're not into the issue of in the city or in the suburbs where they have two or three different competitors. so, most of the people, over 50% of america really has no broadband option. there's no way to get the 25 mega bits per second that the fcc deems as broadband. but more so, oneweb's about providing internet access to the 4 billion people who are without access. literally 54% of the world has little to no internet access. so, the net neutrality issues are something, and the fcc's rules don't affect, of course, international issues, but we're sort of aside from all that. we're opening up neutral pipes for everybody to have access. >> as we await the prime minister's arrival, greg, at the white house, i'm just thinking,

yesterday the president talked about our infrastructure, our physical infrastructure, and how pitiful our trains are, say versus the shinkansen in japan, if you've ever been. >> amazing. >> massa san has repeatedly ridiculed our pipe as it pertains to broadband. i just wonder, how much do you think we are going to try to emulate what japan has built? >> well, they have a very sophisticated infrastructure, for sure, and getting internet access everywhere really should be a priority, because if you don't have internet access in the rural populations, you end up with a rural brain drain. if you don't have internet, you can't build a company, you can't have a college, you can't have a good education, and the kids just leave. so, it really reduces the opportunity set for people in the rural areas. so, getting a high-speed broadband pipe -- and that's what we're building with oneweb. we'll be able to do 100, 200 megabits initially, getting up to a gigabit, to all of the rural areas in america including alaska. for every single home to have

high-speed broadband, to do that will really give a rise to the opportunity sect for americans. >> does it put american manufacturing jobs at risk? >> it improves american manufacturing jobs and opportunities. it also elevates people so that they can create their own companies and create their own small and local manufacturing opportunities. so, i think education and broadband are all good. >> not just robots. we'll leave it there, greg. thank you for joining us. greg wyler, ceo of oneweb. certainly, prime minister abe can point to you and oneweb and say, look, japan helps grow america. it invests in this country. >> one of many places he could point. before we head to break, facebook reportedly pledging to undergo an audit over how it reports usage metrics on the site, according to the "wall street journal." back in september it was discovered that facebook had overestimated some key video metrics for two years. that wasn't the only measurement problem that facebook has copped to. critics have been calling for more independent verification of facebook metrics, and

competitors like snap have been amping up the pressure as well by being a bit more transparent, carl, about how people are using their services. >> although as cramer said this morning, maybe this is because they've got nothing to hide. can you buy on the other side of this? we'll find out later on. straight ahead, forget the winklevoss twins. why one supermodel is accusing facebook of stealing, this time from snapchat. dow's up 60. rick santelli, what are you watching today? >> first of all, i'm watching vol on short end of the market. they're taking a little out, aren't they, for the weekend? figured they would. we've had huge market moves since november, but we've also had very constricted ranges in many ways. that's what we're going it talk about after the break.

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you don't. you partner with a firm that advises governments and the fortune 500, and, can deliver insight person to person, on what matters to you. morgan stanley. i'm scott wapner. coming up today on "the halftime report," with u.s. markets at all-time highs, we talk with a top-ranked money manager who's putting 70% of his money outside of the u.s. we'll find out where. plus, one trader sees opportunity in retail. see which big names he thinks investors should buy right now. and with apple nearing an all-time high, we'll debate other big-moving nasdaq stocks as well, including intel, nvidia and activision. "halftime report" at the top of the hour. see you in 15. >> sounds good, scott, thanks. snapchat prepares to go public at the nyse and supermodel miranda kerr, who is the fiancee of the company's founder and ceo, evan spiegel, calling facebook out on its stories feature. in an interview with "the times

of lolondon," she was appalled facebook's lack of creativity. "i cannot stand facebook. can they not be innovative? do they have to steal all of my partner's ideas? it's a disgrace. how do they sleep at night?" snapchat saw a drop after facebook launched the stories feature. my idea is which supermodel defended her partner best, gisele with tom brady or kerr with evan? >> well, gisele's got a long track record of good defense, so miranda's going to have to step it up. i can tell her how facebook sleeps at night, very, very well, on a pillow of a stock chart that looks fantastic over the last couple years. >> snap also mentioned this as one of the risk factors in its ipo, that is, instagram getting into stories. we've seen the daily active users rate of growth slow down since they've done this, so i think it speaks to a pretty competitive risk. i also think it's interesting that she has 10.5 instagram

followers herself and more than 8 million facebook fans of her page. so. >> of course, we don't know how many followers she has on snapchat because snapchat plays by a different playbook. they're not all about the raw numbers, but something tells me she does pretty well there, too. >> we'll find out more about that in the weeks and months to come as investors try to get acclimated to this. >> maybe she'll be here on the floor. >> snap updates s-1 over gender pay-gap issues. leslie picker is making her "squawk alley" debut this morning with details at hq. hey, leslie! >> hey! thanks for having me. it's a controversy found among many high-profile tech ipos. the filing hits and there's zero or maybe one woman on the board. last week they showed one female director, joanna coles, but snap quickly came under fire because it appeared coles was being paid far less than her male counterparts, millions of dollars less.

yesterday, snapchat dropped an amended filing correcting the record. it turns out that she had signed a new contract last month that awarded her more stock. she was one of the earlier board members, so her prior compensation was lower given that the company was private. but since snap decided to go public, they reworked her contract to mirror those of her peers who were brought in closer to the ipo. those directors included scott miller, former vice chairman of hyatt hotels, as well as christopher young, an executive at intel. but even with some equal pay, management experts believe that tech companies have room for improvement when it comes to diversity on boards. studies show that women board members provide benefits, such as higher returns on invested capital and fewer earnings restatements. yet, several consumer-facing tech companies approach their ipos with all-male boards recently. when twitter filed for its ipo, it had no female directors, nor

did fitbit. they've both added them. of course, diversity on the board is no way to predict exactly what snap's shares will do, but it certainly adds to the list of corporate governance concerns. back to you guys. >> interesting, leslie. good stuff. i noticed this morning twitter has the lowest percentage of buy ratings of any big tech firm after seven downgrades today. >> and it's moving lower again. don't think that has to do with the board diversity problem, more to do with the fact that, hey, ad revenue is slowing. let's get to the cme group this morning, check in with rick santelli and get "the santelli exchange." hey, rick. >> hi, carl. you know, every now and again i like to kind of catch up with you, the viewers, on what's going on technically in the market, and i always like to preface that technical analysis is as much art, maybe even more art than science. but trying to handicap the repetitive and predictable nature of human behavior as it affects trading has been something that's followed the market since the markets were

first created. now, let's look at some historical charts, shall we? one of the key levels that i've been looking at for quite some time is right around that 2.60, 2.61 level. and on the next chart that you see, it comes from a mid-september key high. as a matter of fact, a very key high. you can see it on the far left of the chart there. you also see on the far right of the chart, that's about where we've stopped. now, another level i've mentioned often, and it was my pick in october for settlement for the year of 2016. it didn't work, but at the time it was made, we were well below 2%, and i think that it's very hard sometimes to calibrate both time and price, but here's where 2.27 came from. it's the settlement from 2015. and as you see on that chart, it took us a long time to ever get above that. as a matter of fact, what took us above that was the big moves in november. all right, now let's go to the board, okay? if we look at november of '16 in two charts, i want to start out with the 10-year. if you look at what we've seen,

basically, 2.30 to 2.60. that's the range. and this week in particular, we basically held that level. now, with regard to 2.60, i think it's important, can we remain in this range? yes. if you get weekly closes in either direction, i would look for follow-through. the charts seem to say follow-through to this is bigger. any kind of baig close above 2.60, 2.61, and i'm not only saying for the day now. i think when you look at moves like this based on history, i'm talking a weekly close as well as a daily close. next level is easy! 3.03. write that one down. that will always be important. that's from the last trading day of 2013, and it's a huge level. all right, let's go to the dollar index. we've talked about the kissback. well, normally when you get a kissback here, boom, you kiss it back and you go down. i thought this would be a right shoulder, but it may be not developed. maybe we're going to puts around a little bit, make a different right shoulder. but i'll tell you what, the fact that we're now closing so

strongly on the week, pay very close attention to 100. and of course, the easy way to proceed if you were a trader is move your neckline down a bit, use 99.51 as a sell stock if you like the looks of this to the long side. carl, back to you. all right, r very much. rick santelli. as you know we are awaiting the arrival of japanese prime minister shinzo abe at the white house. news conference at 1:00 before a weekend in west palm.

as we await the president's meating with jpmorgan frm shinzo abe, one topic sure to be on the agenda is the japanese auto industry including barriers of jpmorgan to u.s. automakers. phil lebeau is joining us from chicago. >> i don't know if you've been to jpmorgan but if you go there and i've been there you really don't see american automobiles there. it's not a technically closed market but it's really tough for u.s. automakers to sell vehicles in japan for a variety of reasons. and we've heard donald trump talk about that, particularly when he's talking about the number of japanese vehicles

imported into the united states. when you look at all the vehicle sales, last year, $17.5 million in the u.s., 9% of the vehicles were imported from japan. and that's third most after mexico and canada. it's a sizable number. about 1.5, 1.6 million vehicles imported. now, at the same time, the japanese automakers will point out we've got a number of plants in the united states. we employ tens of thousands of people. when you add the suppliers and you add others in terms of dealers, et cetera, it's hundreds of thousands of people who are employed either directly or indirectly by japanese automakers. it will p interesting to see how this topic is broached by president trump when he talks with shinzo abe and we know from reports in advance that prime minister abe plans to come with basically a goody bag of investments that japan or japanese companies will be making in the united states. let's see what they have to say about the jps automakers and

their presence, whether it's expanded any further here in the u.s. >> whether we see more facto factories, phil. some critics of president trump in the economic circles say that he is stuck back in the late '80s, 1989, one at factors that they point so is the succession of the japanese automakers and devaluation of japan's currency. is that a fair criticism. >> it is because it's a far different japanese auto industry in terms of presence in the u.s. now than it was in the late '80s. remember for a while there were restrictions on the number of vehicles that could be imported into the united states. that prompted the japanese automakers starting in the late '80s and through the '90 toss put final assembly plants as well as smaller manufacturing plants here in the united states and that's really where they grew their presence. so what we see in the u.s. now from toyota, honda, and nissan, far different from the late

'80s. >> phil, the states where these toyota plants are, for example, mis, my kentucky, texas, indiana, alabama, west virginia, that is trump country. and those are really good jobs in trump country. i wonder on the reverse, is it hard for u.s. automakers to set up plants in japan if they were to do more of that? might it be easier for them to sell cars there? >> it would be easier if they were to set up a plant in japan but it frankly doesn't make sense financially. look, it's not a growing market relative to china. if you're going to grow overseas right now you put a plant in a market where sales are growing. they're growing in china. they're not really growing in japan. japan is much more of a sat chew rated market, so to speak. i don't think the big three look at japan and say, boy, we would love to have a huge presence there and they're willing to make the investments to fight for that presence. i think it's been so long and

it's generally gone the way it's gone that they're not going to make that big of a stink about it. >> yeah. as we're looking at these pictures, phil, we're told the prime minister is near the gate. we expect an arrival in the next few minutes. remind me, phil, correct me if i'm wrong, toyota just raised their outlook for the year, right? partly on a weaker yen. >> yes. >> and did they not take the mantel for the number one automaker? >> they have relinquished the mantel to volkswagen but at the level where they're at which i think last year was 10.2 million vehicles sold, volkswagen came in at 10.3 million. guess who crossed the 10 million threshold for the very first time ever and nipping at the heals of voelkswagen and toyota? general motors. gm doesn't want to be the most in the world but that gives you perspective of the big three, if you want to look at global auto sales. >> as we're talking let's get to

j eamon javers. >> hi, carl. we're just here on the north lawn of the white house just next to where you see those flags. this is the honor guard here. they've been positioned now for about an hour, i would say, they've got all the flags of the united states of the united states of america and all five branches of the military are also lined up here, army, navy, coast guard, marines, and air force, all here. the flags waving. they are ready for this arrival. we're expecting it momentarily. of course as you know so many h issues on the trade agenda. you saw prime minister abe at the chamber of commerce earlier today talking about the relationship and going back to the clinton era between the united states and japan. and also emphasizing the point that at that time there was this dispute between automakers and whether or not the united states was getting the bulk of those jobs or japan was and there was real tension. he pointed to that era and the resolution of those tensions as maybe a road map here for where

things can go in the future between the u.s. and japan and he also said that nobody in japan felt that they lost their job to the americans even though a lot of japanese automakers started building their cars here in the united states. perhaps a message to the americans that they ought to value global industry and globalization in terms of win-win for both countries, not losing jobs on either side, carl. >> eamon, we talked about the delegati delegation, who is going to be with the prime minister shinzo abe. joined with his foreign minister and deputy prime minister who is also his finance minister, that is aso. we asked you before whether we knew who was going to be in the room at the white house. surely it's important that there is a secretary of state. rex tillerson is there. we've seen him make some diplomatic moves already, not to mention james mattis. >> yeah, that's right. rex tillerson obviously a business veteran himself. so he's somebody who has been in the room for this kind of high-level negotiation on a

business side. now, this will be his first time as secretary of state to be in the room for a high-level nation to nation sit down like we're going to see here today at the white house. we're told that the secretary of state also spoke to the japanese foreign minister as well. a lot of negotiations at various levels of these two governments today. >> with that, eamon, we will toss the baton to the judge over at headquarters as we continue to await the prime minister's arrival. judge? >> carl, thanks so much. in fact, we will pick it up where you left off as we await the japanese delegation to arrive at the white house. prime minister shinzo abe becoming the second foreign leader to visit the trump white house since donald trump became the president of united states. lots on the plate today. trade of course, probably first and foremost. japan is the fourth largest trading partner of the united states. it is second largest trade deficit, by the way, with the united states as well. the second biggest source of foreign jobs