live from new york where business never sleeps, this is "squawk box." good morning. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. we are live from the nasdaq market site in times square. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and melissa lee. did you camp out overnight? >> all night. camped out under the desk. >> you and that rumor. >> she had the most beautiful dog. >> looks a lot like zara. andrew apparently watched that press conference, he's somewhere in a safe space. my god -- >> cradling himself in the corner? >> so triggered. so triggered, i'm not sure he will be here at next week after that. >> he will. he'll be back on tuesday. >> okay. no one informed me of that. i wish him well to get through this. whoa. okay. >> let's look at the u.s. equity futures. not as rosy of a picture as

we've been seeing. right now the dow is indicated down 58 points. s&p off by 6.5, the nasdaq down by 12. the dow once again yesterday set a new record high. you hate when i say new record high. >> new fresh record all-time high. >> it has been six records in a row for the dow. the s&p 500 and the nasdaq breaking seven-day winning streaks. you are looking at the dow on pace for the best week in more than two months this week. nasdaq and s&p are poised for their fourth straight weekly win in a row. overnight in asia, look and you'll see the nikkei was down by almost 0.6%. weakness in the hang seng and shanghai composite. in the dax down 0.4%. the cac off 0.8%. the ftse is flat. and if you check out crude oil

prices this morning, right now pull back of 38 cents for wti. trading just below $53. among the top corporate stories. toshiba shares plummeting again, and s&p could cut their credit rating by several notches if the firm receives federal aide. the credit is rated as junk right now at triple c plus. any further downgrade would mean toshiba would be charged more for credit. apple will focus on its lower priced iphone se model. its taiwanese partner is setting up a plant in bangalore. apple is tenth in the smartphone market in india but leads the premium market with a 62% share. the company has been in talks with the government on issues like tax concessions. competition in smartphone plans heating up again. at&t announcing changes to the unlimited data plan. the company will offer unlimited

data to customers without requiring them to have directv or u-verse tv service. that matches verizon's latest plan offering four lines for 180 bucks with no tv contracts. >> eamon javers have a s a wrapf the political headlines. there's an even split, hinged and unhinged. >> which category are you in? which category am i in? >> we don't need to get personal. but people are using the word hinged. some people came to the commentators -- >> normally you assume someone is hinged until they demonstrate otherwise. >> but the performance itself had people -- i think a lot of journalists watching got completely unhinged. but that's what i say, there's

two kind of people. cat and dog people. blackberry versus iphone people. >> for those of us who have both. >> you weren't in the room, were you, eamon? >> i was not. i was on the north lawn. i've been in the room earlier this week. >> were you cutting the grass or something? were you landscaping? >> a little trim. >> edging? >> our live camera position is out on the north lawn. i had to be there to react to it. >> did people like -- cnn people walk out pale as a ghost or mad? >> i don't think anybody has seen a presidential news conference like that yesterday. the president feels like attacking the press is core to his appeal, to his political base. he went after the press yesterday, no question about it. said this was all fake news, and that he's being treated unfairly. it was like a presidential airing of grievances yesterday. >> i watched -- i saw it, i paused it. i went out, got some stuff to

eat, came back, watched the rest. >> thought we need a snack for this? >> popcorn, some goobers, rai n raisinettes. i enjoyed a lot of it, i have to say. but i've had grievances for -- i was thinking about how long i thought that things were not exactly fair. >> living vicariously? >> yeah. goes back to reagan. really does. you can see with each succeeding presidency you hate reagan, love clint clinton, hate both bushes, it's the way of the world, to see someone break throulhrough thos shackles. boy, shep is not sure what to do at this point. chuck todd, he's in a safe place right now somewhere. >> well, i think we've got a bite teed up here. one of the key moments in talking about the press. i want to try to move this along

a bit. i think this bite is ready. control room tell me if it's not. this is an interesting moment. the president complained about leaks, said it was outrageous that things had been leaked from his presidency, but insisted the leaks were accurate, but the news based on the news, the reports about the leaks themselves were somehow fake. if we have this bite, go ahead and play it. >> the leaks are real. the news is fake because so much of the news is fake. >> not entirely clear how the news based on the leaks could be fake if the leaks are real. the president extraordinarily upset about leaks coming out of his administration. this is a president who in many ways campaigned on leaks, and said i love wikileaks several times throughout the campaign last year. now that he is the victim of

leaking, he has a totally different opinion about it. this president is frustrated with leaks, people inside his administration, people who he said might be holdovers from the obama administration, and the media yesterday. >> eamon, the thing that is a little bit frightening or disconcerting, still concerns russia. and that is that the president -- as many times as he was asked about contacts between people in his administration and russia, he always finds a way of not directly answering whether he knows for sure. if that does come out later that there's -- i don't know, there's something that wasn't -- if there was dissembling or something that could be a problem. >> he had a couple of opportunities to answer that yesterday. >> he kind of answers it. >> i didn't have any contact, or not that i'm aware of that leaves a lot to of wiggle room.

>> which is why the reporters come back and ask the question again and again, and is frustrating if you want to hear about other things. it's an hour and 17 minutes, but you feel like you're not getting the news you want out of it. >> look at the news last night. robert harward, retired vice admiral, former navy s.e.a.l. turning down the president's apparent offer to be national security adviser to replace mike flynn, who the president fired earlier in the week. harward cited family and financial concerns there. but there are also reports that he was concerned about the way the white house is being run, concerned that he might not be able to appoint the people that he wanted in key positions inside the national security council. that's another point of potential concern for the white house. watch that space in terms of high-profile people that the administration would like to bring on board, resisting coming in i've talked to some in washington who are the types of people that the president might want to bring on board for these

key positions. he's looking for a communications director still. hasn't made an offer to anybody on that. there are people in town who would be qualified, idealogically simp idealogically sympatico who don't want to go into the white house because of the confusion. >> i thought i saw the communications director -- maybe that was fake news i saw. i thought they decided. on the other hand, you look at washington right now, would you want to take any position in an administration -- i can understand how harward maybe just said, you know what? life is good. got my family. making money. >> he's an executive at lockheed martin. getting paid a lot more than he did in the military. >> do i want to go into that vortex, not just trump and the chaos there, but i do want to have the responsibility of that job weighing me -- i don't know.

>> i would say -- i've been surprised at a lot of billionaires who came to washington to run the commerce department. the small business administration. these are people who don't need this kind of a headache. >> but they don't need the money either. >> harward worked 40 years in the navy and is finally out in the private sector and can finally make some money, too. >> i think if andrew were here, he would say those billionaires will really make some money now. >> now you're channeling. >> watch wilbur and the oil markets. the president fired his national security adviser and said the national security adviser had been unfairly treated by the media. it's not clear why you would fire somebody -- >> i thought he was -- i thought that was pretty compelling, he said i would have told him -- he didn't violate that law. he said i would have told him to talk to the russians. >> to speak to the russians.

>> but when asked by vice president pence, that's when he said that's fully -- i thought he gave a -- he said he went back over that again and again and again. that that's what mike flynn was supposed to be doing. if done it, i would told him to do it. >> the weird thing is if that's what he was supposed to be doing, why did flynn lie or mislead the vice president of the united states about that, and there's a question about whether he misled the fbi which would be a legal problem for mike flynn, potentially. if the president said this is fine behavior and he would have ordered it, why would flynn feel like he had to mislead the vice president on it. >> i don't know. flynn was a lightning rod before from both sides of the aisle. any way, all right, eamon. don't go anywhere. >> we'll see you next hour.

>> something could happen today. >> the president has already been tweeting this morning. i have to monitor that. >> with all the other stuff, that's the headline. we'll do something about march. >> early to mid-march on obama care, and obama care comes before tax reform. as you know, joe, healthcare reform in this country has been a quagmire for presidents it takes longer than they think. it's more politically fraught than they think. we've seen president clinton trying to do healthcare reform and that ended up in a quagmirement it's a dangerous area to go first. >> are republicans that tried to do it how many times and didn't have the presidential signature. now they want to do it. and then you had bertolini from aetna saying this is a death spiral.

says it is a death spiral. so if the democrats try to say this is trump care, this is your fault, i don't know. >> the republicans themselves have said they own it at this point. when they were talking and they released more leaks, they were coming from the republicans that were -- >> that's what they're worried about. they're worried about the 20 million people who loses coverage. if one person loses coverage, you'll see that person on a five-part series on how he lost his insurance. but this thing is not viable the way it is. >> they have to do something, the question is what do they do and does it square with what they promised on the campaign trail and how politically palatable is it right now. >> eamon, thank you. >> you bet. the s&p 500 and the nasdaq both snapping a seven-day winning streak as stocks pulled back from the records. but the dow did manage to eke out a small gain to hit another all-time high.

joining us is julian manuel from ubs. and eric knutsen. welcome to both of you. >> great to be here. >> julian, let's talk about once again, yesterday, if you look at the headlines, "wall street journal," new york teams, every one of them has the press conference as the lead. yet the markets came off the lows of the day and managed to stabilize. what does this tell you? >> it is this diverge yence we' had. it was 100 days ago that mr. trump was elected. you have political risks, high here and internationally, and economic perceptions of risk growth which have boosted the markets. up 10% in the s&p, up 17% in the small caps. when we look forward to the next

100 days, it seems like there will be a pretty big turning point on february 28th when the president addresses the joint session of congress. there's an expectation that at least the outlines of a tax reform package are going to be known. and that's really something that, to us, you will need to see a package that can be negotiated going forward in an effective way to keep the markets going higher. >> that press conference was must-see tv. i have never sat around and watched press conferences like i did yesterday. >> it was absorbing. adjectives failed me. >> it was. to eamon's point, i thought the markets would sell off when he started laying down the time frame on how long it would take before we see obamacare repeal, and then the taxes after that. the markets seemed to shake it off. >> this divergence between economic certainty or volatility

and political uncertainty and volatility has been remarkibabl. we have been overweight u.s. equities, switching from treasuries to t.i.p.s., high yields to bank loans, the one expectation that we have not had that has not been fulfilled is an increase in volatility. we could see a 10 handle on the vix. >> that tells me the market is looking at this and it's okay, the reason we're at these valuations, they think it's fair valuati valuations, based on earnings. >> you have had enough fundamental information to provide that level of business confidence, small business confidence, consumer confidence. we have expected some pullback. we think there will be better opportunities in the next six months. >> are you telling people to wait to i vest or buy any way?

>> we have been adding to our positions, but we've been now watching and waiting for a little while, expecting some volatility. we want to buy at better levels, we think 12 months from now earnings will be high. >> is this a fear of missing out mentality here that is gripping the markets? because from what you're saying, it sounds like there's going to be a pullback, better opportunities, yet we're still adding. we're still in this market fully. we're not changing our position. >> sounds to me like you haven't been buying very much for the last month. you missed this entire most recent move. you're still pretending that you're adding to it. you can say we've been adding. but you haven't been. >> not for the last month. we were overweight going into the stretch. >> so you were out early. you were out early. you missed the last move. >> no we've been overweight. but we have been looking to -- looking to add at other levels. in terms of being not -- no in terms of adding --

>> a lot of people the last month have -- in fact, a lot of people thought the first month that we saw after the election, that that was going to be it. we had people in here, goolsbee and others saying it's up for the first month. now what has it done? then this has been another leg. 100 points every day. >> yeah. there's a lot of potential technical support to this. you look at how much money flowed into bonds versus stocks. bond funds versus stock funds. >> we'll have katie stockton on later in the show. you are going to be here? have you taped the show? >> she's in this half hour. you should stick around. she would have told you this would keep going, then you -- >> based on the technical level. >> she'll probably tell you it will keep going to be? >> i'm looking for a pullback here. >> i heard you. you were looking a month ago for a pullback. >> we'll keep looking for opportunities. >> keeps going up. >> looking at the other side of

it, i feel like a lot of investors are saying we're in the market, we don't want to miss the move. we haven't been doing much but we're in there. does that tell you people are so positioned in equities, if there is a whiff of a reason to sell off, that the selloff will be sharp and short? the potential is there. >> feels like the positioning is extreme. >> the options market is telling you it is. upside call options are historically expensive, which talks to the fear of missing out. from our point of view we would rather be selective here. eight years into the bull market, much more focused on valuation. that gets you to financials. that story has been bearish for ten years. which we think works even if the broad market stays here or corrects. health care has been bashed. we think there's a lot of room there despite the tweeting and noise. >> the lead on cnbc.com

competitor today is that not yesterday, but the day before the vix spiked for no reason. the market was up 100 points on wednesday, right? >> it was short-covering. supposedly short-covering by a firm. >> you see? she's the right person. i'm asking you. on "fast money" you saw that. >> in general. yeah. we saw it. >> so you think the traders were saying it was short-covering. other people were saying the political risk is finally coming home to roost. >> it's 100 points. that's a half percent. >> it goes up 100%. but the volatility went up. >> from the 10 and change to 11 and change. >> the vix went up. it was up 3.5%. but it's been historically low. >> really low. >> that's all that positioning. >> they wrote an article on market watch that that was the sign that we're getting topy and that the political risk is coming in. >> you have to write a story

every day. you do. that's the problem. that's the problem. it is. like manufacture news -- the next week -- >> it's called the news hole. >> but the next week you don't recall what you wrote. >> it's a new week, hamster wheel. julian, thank you very much. >> thank god, if you were putting money to work, you would actually see what you said before. coming up, if you're still a blackberry user, you are part of an exclusive club. new numbers on smartphone market share after the prak.

welcome back. you know, there are people who aspire to be part of the 1%. i want to tell you guys, i'm part of the zero percent when it comes to some measurements. blackberry ownership has declined to the point where it is now officially 0.04%. it is 0.04. >> how do you get those things? >> corporate keeps trying to take it away. they don't want to support it.

i didn't realize, by the fourth quarter of 2016, there are more than 432 million smartphones sold. of those, 207,900 were blackberry devices. i'm officially part of the zero percent. >> that's weird. number one, i thought you were talking about -- >> money? >> yeah. >> and where you are since you are so successful. you would round down to zero. the other thing is that -- >> i wish, but no. >> i will get flack for this. >> as opposed to what you say the rest of the day? >> 0.04% happens to be -- happens to be the atmospheric level of co2. >> i stepped into this. >> that's 400 parts per million. >> it's officially zero. >> it's trace.

out of 10,000 people, 4 people are using -- i looked at all these things. >> crazy. >> it's trace. >> i am trace. >> that's illustrative of how low co2 levels go. >> it's been a few years since i had this phone, too. >> i can't believe you're carrying both around. >> why? >> because you are good with your thumbs. >> i'm like a monkey. i can type so fast with my thumbs. i wrote a script this week on this thing for a package. >> i saw the ceo -- the ceo is great. i like him a lot. >> i was so sad when i read this. i have to say, the devices are not great. it is running down my battery all night long, but i'm so addicted to it. they lost it. >> i kept mine. >> you still play? >> no, i don't play. >> case you missed it last night --

>> i can't believe this. >> the westminster dog show rumor made a special appearance on "fast money." >> i stopped in the kitchen. my head almost flipped off my body as i watched that beautiful dog. >> i have a dog, almost a twin. my zara, also a female. and same coloring. but longer hair. >> she almost retired last year. there's my zara. does that look like rumor? >> joe, you have a winner on your hands. >> that's zara. >> i couldn't believe, when you were watching this, the dog was so intently looking at something. >> there's a trainer off to the side with dog treats. >> ah. >> that's the trick. >> you know, people are tired of this, too. broken record about german shepherds. you should see when i talk -- i have never seen intelligence like this in -- >> in a human?

>> in a human. in a co-anchor. when i talk to -- that's zara again. or gunther, her half-brother. when i talk to them, if you think dogs can't count. i get treats out. and if i -- believe me, i give them one, she knows -- she can definitely count. >> wow. >> amazing. german shepherd my favorite. though, my dogs could not have been at the place with other dogs around or people? no, no. they -- you say see the good in everyone, they see -- they are suspicious of just about everyone. i like it that way. i am, too. when we come back, checking in with choice hotels. the stock has been on a roll up 27% since the november election. the ceo, steve joyce, will join us next. right now as we head to break, a look at yesterday's s&p 500 winners and losers.

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at bp, safety is never being satisfied. and always working to be better. welcome back. you're watching "squawk box" live from the nasdaq market site in times square. good morning. we've been watching the u.s. equity futures, after days and days and days in a row of new records, this morning some pullbacks. the dow is indicated down by 53 points. yesterday the dow was up for its

sixth record session in a row. the nasdaq and s&p 500 broke records. the nasdaq is indicated down by 11 points today. no economic data today, but a few notable earnings reports. we'll get results from campbells soup, deere, smuckers, vf corp and bloomin brands. choice hotels offering optimistic guidance for the full year. joining us is is steve joyce, ceo of choice owe hehotels. a lot of uncertainty in the air, what gives you such certainty about great guidance for 2017? >> we were accelerating into the year, business is really good we have done some things within our company over the last several years to put us in position to take advantage of that.

revamped our choice privileges program. signed up almost 5 million members last year, given our franchisees new revenue tools to optimize revenues. all the things we're working on from a technology size has paid off. offering lower rates for all customers part of our privilege program. we think business is good, we think the administration will be good for business. we would like a more balanced approach to travel. our numbers look good. the best part of the business is leisure. we're a big proponent -- what do you mean a more balanced approach? >> promote travel into the country safely and securely. they are not in contrast to each other. you can do both. you want to solve the export/import problem, bring in more travelers. the hotels are built. parks are there. places that these people want to visit are here. people come here and spend

$5,000 a trip. >> you put out a statement about the executive order travel ban. were you impacted? this seems like it would impact a small part of your customers. why would you go out and do that at this point when it's not -- correct me if i'm wrong, if it's not really impacting the people visiting choice ohotels. >> the numbers are not big, it's the message we're sending. after 9/11, we lost a third of our market share. we started gaining it back. that's a good thing for this country. $150 billion in taxes comes from the hotel tourism business. we're looking for the opportunity to grow that. doing it safely, allowing a safe entry for travelers into the country is good for everybody. it creates jobs, creates taxes. >> we had an airline on, we said this a lot because delta reported after it had a month of the election results, they

attributed some of the upside to more consumer confidence, animal spirits. you would concur that even in your business you've seen a more confident consumer? >> yeah. they are more confident and traveling more. we did a survey and it said people will travel three times in 2017 individually and they'll spend $6,000. that is up significantly from last year. like 30%, 40%. we're optimistic based on what we saw at the end of year, what we saw the beginning of the year. and the overall sentiment from our travelers, people are getting jobs back. those are our customers. >> run down your properties again. i'm going on a college tour starting now. and these places are in some weird places. >> we're everywhere, particularly weird places. >> i hit you up for a deal, but i don't need a deal at your places. >> no, and you get free wifi, free breakfast. >> don't i get free breakfast? like sausages and stuff?

>> our largest brand is comfort inn and comfort suites. >> you get little suites, which is good for family. where do you get a suite for 200 bucks. >> on top of that, we entered the upscale space. we have ascend, our boutique collection. >> i haven't seen one of those? afrnl >> a series of independent hotels. and cambria suites. so we have down scale to upper economy. we like to say we represent the 99%. you would be at the upper end of that, but we would like to represent you as well. >> becky is in the zero percent. >> no, of phone users. >> quail over here, double income family. you guys are loaded. rolling in it. >> how do i get the best rate? is it online? >> it's online but on the choice hotels.com. we will tell you we have

rates -- if you're a choice privilege member, if not, join, we have rates lower than anybody else. you will hear from advertisers, that the lowest rates may be on online travel agencies, that's not true. >> he was undercover boss, too. >> i think i saw that one. >> i apologize in advance. >> they would know if you do that again. >> no. >> you don't need to do it again? >> it was great for the company. i got something out of it. >> you should do the white glove test, the black light. >> they had me work the jobs. i forgot how hard those jobs are and how special the people in them are. it was a great experience. >> good answer. >> steve, thank you very much. you're good. coming up, jim paulsen will be our guest host at the top of the hour. he's from minnesota. and america's changing relationship with russia.

we will talk geopolitics with george mitchell. great time to have him on. and president trump reversing obama era regulations in the coal industry. you have seen this guy? remember this guy? robert murray? he's a piece of work. the ceo of america's largest coal company will join us at 8:30 a.m. eastern. he'll be in a really good mood.

welcome back to "squawk box." right now it's time for the executive edge. we will start with a tweet from president trump just moments ago. this is what the president tweeted this morning. he said going to charleston, south carolina in order to spend time with boeing and talk jobs. look forward to it. of course earlier this week workers at boeing's south carolina plant voted to reject union representation. separately president trump keeping his promise to the coal miners who voted for him. he told them in rallies he would bring back coal big league, and he is taking a big step. contessa brewer joins us from ohio with more on that.

>> reporter: i'm at the point where ohio meets west virginia. around here coal means dollars and jobs. what you see at this transfer facility is trucks bringing in massive loads of coal from the surrounding hillsides, loading it on to barges and trains. the facilities owned by murray corporation and its ceo, robert murray, was in the room with president trump yesterday when he signed a law that removed an environmental barrier to mining. the stream protection rule was finalized in december. it's an agreement between government agencies to protect ground water and surface water from mining-related pollutions. but the mining industry called it overly broad, burdensome and they say illogical. they say if they're mining thousands of feet below the surface, they're still responsible for the streams far above. trump and the house and senate sunk that rule. >> in eliminating this rule i'm continuing to keep my promise to the american people to get rid

of wasteful regulations that do nothing, absolutely nothing but slow down the economy. >> i want to point out, democratic west virginia senator joe manchin crossed party lines, he was actually also in the room with president trump for that signing. he's like a lot of voters in this area, long-time democrats, but for them coal is trumping politics and trumping years of tradition. times are tough. people are struggling. the employment rate is higher than the national average. i will go out today, we'll talk with the folks around here, see how they're grading president trump now that he's been in office nearly a month. >> don't try to talk them out of it it if they like him. >> i will do no such thing. >> we will have murray on in the show later today. he's a piece of work. a lot of people point to that -- in a microcosm the whole coal

role of it, how it played in the election. that was a sticking point to people. there won't be coal jobs left by the time we're done with that industry. >> she said we'll put them out of work. >> trump also in trying to bring back that contingent, maybe democrats that are in coal country, that resonated and became even a bigger thing than just for coal people. just for coal miners, it became characteristic of the campaign. don't you think? >> and the rust belt. >> in this area, you're looking at people whose grandparents voted democrat, parents voted democrat. when you talk about this generation of coal miners, the industry depends on coal so heavily. when coal falls, other peoples jobs fall. the local hairstylist sees clients coming in and opting for

a basic hair cut instead of the upgrades. it all has an impact. they say they like the environment. they're not against environmental regulation, robert murray the ceo told me right after the election. he said we're not into poisoning the drinking water where our employees will go and give their children water. but it's just blocking our path to success. >> powhatan, that must be southeastern? is that where you are? southeastern ohio? >> right. just right at the border where you're seeing west virginia and pennsylvania and ohio. and it's, by the way, they will want me to say this properly. powhatan point. >> i want you to see it properly, too. god's country. god's country down there. they like some -- they like country music, i think. i was going to say that. i'm from ohio, but southwestern. we -- they are some big

hairstyles down in parts of -- which i like, actually. right? >> it shows. >> the higher the hair, the closer to god. that's what they say. >> we have some here, too. >> and you're from oklahoma. any way -- >> we know big hair. >> thanks, contessa. good to see you. >> yeah, nice to see you. we've been following katie stockton's months and she's been spot on. we'll talk to her, and right now, a look at markets. a mixed bag. this car is traveling over 200 miles per hour. to win, every millisecond matters. both on the track and thousands of miles away. with the help of at&t, red bull racing can share critical information about every

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our next guest correctly called for a market breakout last summer. we've been following her calls for months. this is my favorite type of thing. it's episodic guests. it's not like a single episode type guest. we're going to get updated now on where -- follow the narrative. katie stockton, chief technical strategist for btig. like homeland is different every season, but the episodes are the same. you're like "game of thrones."

this has been going on for a long time. it goes beyond years. you said 2400 a long time ago. where were we when you said 2400 on the s&p? >> we talked about it i believe in july. at the time, the s&p 500 was really trying to push through a resistance level around 2135. >> people thought it was going back below 2,000, as i recall. >> that's human nature, to think it's going to go lower. >> you were saying 2400. >> with a confirmed breakout, which we did see. >> when? >> we finally got that follow through. we saw it in july. we had the corrected phase. >> is this one of the charts you gave us? >> close enough. >> we're going to do yours too. that's what's happened since july. so explain. we're still in an uptrend and momentum is with us? >> that's right. it has been such a momentum driven tape. i think that's what we need to be mindful of. even though it might look like it's sort of long in the tooth, these momentum indicators really just turned positive on a short and long-term basis. i think it's very supportive of

the uptrend. that 2400 level is within reach for the s&p 500. i think once we hit that, a correction or pull back is more likely and maybe the 5% range. >> although, you say 2400 is not a resistance level, it's more of a confirmation level. >> it's an upside target or gauge. this is what happens when we have no resistance left on the charts. we have to go overseas and look at the major indices in europe to gauge upside using resistance. for example, the 600 index has 13% upside to its highs. >> why would a european index be a better gauge of what resistance levels would be as opposed to, let's say, the bond market or something like that? yields, i would think, would be much closer tied because financial trade depends on bonds and financial trade has been a main driver of the s&p. >> it's not aed b bad point. for me, it was like what does have resistance.

certainly european benchmarks do, japanese benchmarks do. it's just trying to gauge globally where we could go. i think that the relative performance has really favored u.s. over the long term, but we're starting to see signs of life globally or at least stabilization in relative terms where we could see inline performance. >> what was the other chart? >> it showed a trading range, the one we completed in july. the way we arrived at 2400 was based simply on the width of that trading range, not to oversimplify the market, of course, but it does tend to have have a trajectory where it maintains that uptrend. with a pullback, we would welcome that as a way to refresh the uptrend, which does appear a bit overextended in the very near term. >> what is the very near term? >> for me, i think we'll see a little pause. maybe a push higher into march

after a pullback. that would be an entry. >> you can't put all your eggs on technicals. you can't put all your eggs on fundamentals. but you can get bogged down on fundamentals, which i see people do all the time that are tying every move to whether there's a delay in the tax deal. or there's political risk here. they talk themselves out of the market. if we get a 5% correction finally at 2400, that's 2275. they've been not buying from 2100 because of the pullback. so when we do finally get the pullback, it's still -- it's above where they didn't get in, in the first place. it's so annoying. and they can stay that way forever. we had guys on today talking about it. oh, no, we're looking for opportunities. they're missing out. >> valuation might be an issue over the long term, but in the near term, we have the momentum. we want to stay on the right

side of these moving averages, the right side of the momentum ind cay to indicators and have a top-down view of the market where any individual company or the stock of that company might not act in line with the fundamentals at certain times. >> and there could always be a black swan of some kind. throw the technicals out and you're down a thousand points. who knows what it could be. it could be tariffs or whatever. that's always a possibility. you can't pick that up with technicals. >> this is true. >> well, thank you. and stop going on other shows. >> hey, hey. >> is that your show? >> she's on "power lunch." >> we found her. >> share, joe. >> no. >> share the wealth. katie, thank you. when withe come back, the market rally. james paulsen will join us.

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markets now. investors gearing up for the opening bell on wall street. two "squawk" regulars are here to help you finish the week strong. fired up. >> the leaks are absolutely real. the news is fake because so much of the news is fake. >> president trump talks everything from russia to regulation to the record rally in a wide ranging news conference. we have the latest out of washington straight ahead. plus, a job innovation investment by accenture, planning to create 15,000 highly skilled jobs in the united states. the ceo is here to talk about the plan and much more as the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now.

live from the beating part of business, new york city, this is "squawk box." good morning. welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc. we're live from the nasdaq market site in times square. i'm melissa lee along with becky quick and joe kernen. let's look at how u.s. futures are pointing at this hour. the dow looking to open lower by about 35 points. this after setting a record on the close in yesterday's trade. s&p and nasdaq also looking to open lower. taking a check at what's going on in the european markets. you see the action there. red arrows mostly across the board except the ftse 100. let's get to our morning headlines. at&t has joined rival verizon in offering unlimited data plans to customers. at&t did have an unlimited plan already in place, but it was only available to subscribers to its directv service. all four national wireless carriers now are offering

unlimited plans. a cross-border deal has been canceled because of security concerns raised by the u.s. government. l.e.d. lighting maker cree cancelling the deal over a concern of a substance that has military applications. they will be paid a termination fee of $12.5 million. >> and earnings just in from heavy equipment maker deere. six cents better than the street was expecting. revenue beating forecasts. deere says it did see soft conditions in the farm and construction equipment sectors. still, you can see that stock is up by $3. new details surrounding the troubles at theranos. the embattled blood diagnostics firm didn't have any material revenue in 2015 or 2016. theranos told investors last month it was down to its last -- i wish i was -- down to its last

$200 million in cash. but i'm not a company. that's roughly a quarter of the money the company raised since it was founded in 2003. "the journal" also reporting theranos -- geez, why would they need this? they had no funds set aside for legal liability. >> and they had no material revenue in the years 2015 and 2016. $200 million left is from the money that it raised from investors. >> and they're being sued for about $240 million. so therein lies the problem. >> you're going to take us to eamon now, but there's another tweet. >> do you want to take us to eamon? be my guest. >> no, i want you to take us to eamon, but eamon has already seen this tweet. thank you for all of the nice statements on the press conference yesterday. rush limbaugh said it was one of the greatest ever. fake media not happy. i had to get that out for jim

paulsen to get him fired up. i'm sure he's unhinged. you're in the unhinged camp from what you say yesterday. >> let's go to eamon. president trump saying he had nothing to do with russia during a fiery and wide-ranging press conference yesterday. eamon javers joins us with more on russia and the president's next pick for national security adviser. eamon? >> yeah, that's right. it was certainly wide ranging, sort of all over the place, this press conference. the president responding to those questions from reporters about his aides and associates' contacts with russian intelligence. also responding to questions from reporters about his firing of general mike flynn earlier nin the week as national security adviser. and we learned that robert harward turned down the white house's approach to be the national security adviser after mike flynn. harward citing financial concerns, family concerns, but there are also reports he was concerned he would not be able to run the national security council the way he wanted to run

it. also concerned about some of the chaos and infighting inside the white house staff. so we'll have to see if we get more reporting on that today as to why he turned down that job. joe, to your point, this was a press conference where the president felt like he needed to attack the press, and he absolutely did that, called them dishonest to their faces. that's something that's going to play well with the trump political base across the country. the question is now, though, how does it play inside the beltway. the president does need some inside the beltway support. he's got a massive electilegisl agenda. >> i wonder what really happened with harward too. i saw jake tapper said he attributed it to the chaos in the white house and said it would be like accepting a shih-tzu sandwich. it's the westminster dog show, so i can say shih-tzu.

>> as long as you say the tzu. >> eamon javers. >> juggling. >> the number two official at the national security council can stay in her position. if you're coming in as the national security adviser, you're going to want to staff that yourself, right. you're going to want to have control over who are the people around you. if there's an indication you're not going to have that kind of operational control, it's going to be tough to convince somebody strong and independent minded to take that job. we'll see who they go to for their third choice for that job. that's going to be tough to find unless they give that person that kind of authority. >> i'm sure it's a combination. you know what, could be a combination of all those things,

eamon. the money, good life now at lockheed, how difficult a job and how much responsibility there is for that. and maybe looking around at what's going on. >> it will be interesting to see what they do. >> harward is a former navy s.e.a.l. not sure the difficulty of the job is a concern to a guy who's been a navy s.e.a.l. workable for his family, professional. i think those are probably both concerns. >> a navy s.e.a.l., i don't think they're always thinking about bureaucratic red tape and everything else. they do things in other ways. they face other adversity. good job, eamon. you hung in there. >> thank, joe. just trying to ride it out. that's all. >> i saw that. that's okay. you going to come back on in the 8:00 again? >> i don't know.

if you want me to, i will. >> to be determined. >> have your people call my people. >> okay. president trump addressing stocks hitting record levels since he took office during the news conference yesterday. check this out. >> the stock market has hit record numbers, as you know. there has been a tremendous surge of optimism in the business world, which to me means something much different than it used to. it used to mean, oh, that's good. now it means that's good for jobs. >> he's been consistent on that. joining us to discuss the trump rally and strength of the equity markets, our guest host is jim paulsen from wells capital management. probably benefitting and enjoying this upward momentum as he closes his eyes about the political environment. but you got to admit you're doing okay. at least smile in spite of everything. then jason trenner on the other side, founder and chief investment strategist at

strategus research partners. you're probably, i don't know, gratified to see some of the policies ma might be put in place by this guy. >> i think for the economic policy agenda it's terrific. the only thing that worries some people now -- >> i think your mike -- we have a problem with your mike. i don't think anyone is censoring you, but i don't know for sure. you never know. so you like the policies, paulsen? >> i do. i'm with jason. i like most of what he says he wants to do. it's just how he goes about doing it. it's mostly entertaining. i keep coming back to i think the bigger thing in the room is amazing economic and earnings momentum across the globe, broadening out. to me, as long as that persists, i think that's the wind under trump's magic carpet. >> jim, we know how long you've

been talking about inflation coming back. you were way early on that. commodities are coming back, the job market is tight. we still didn't get above stall speed ever. now suddenly we are. you see the philly fed yesterday? does that seem normal to you? do they seem like they were just ready to happen? >> i think they were. i think we synchronized economic policies over the last 12 to 18 months across the global, and i think it's working. global economic activity is picking up. >> how about deregulation and tax reform? >> oh, i think that'll help. trump has made a difference. i just don't think he's the biggest difference. >> is your mike working now? >> i think so. i hope so. i would just take a little issue with jim on the confidence side, as someone who runs a small business, 50 people. so many decisions -- and this is true for guys i've talked to

that run large companies too. it's hard to explain, but a lot of decisions are made about how you're feeling on any particular day about how your business was over the last couple of weeks, about whether at the margin you think your life is going to get easier or harder. so i look at the nfib and philly fed index, and to me that's correctly attributable to the new administration and calls for deregulation and lower taxes. i also would say that the market is responding to the fact that earnings -- the earnings recession ended at the end of the second quarter of 2016. so i'm also sympathetic to that idea. the basis for the market moving up -- >> global manufacturing recession, deflation. >> there are other things there, but as far as a small business is concerned, i think there's no -- i mean, in my opinion, it would be hard to point to anything else other than the prospects of trump's economic agenda. >> it seems like the key to what

you're saying is really right now valuations are only partially pricing in any of trump's policies. you're both saying that effectively the fundamentals of the global economy is really what's pushing markets to records. therefore, follow my logic, if tax reform is in jeopardy, then the premium in the market that needs to come out is less than we think. >> i absolutely believe that. and this is i think what worries conservative, people like myself. you hope the president doesn't burn political capital on distractions and just goes for what i think is an extremely solid economic program. >> what do you think are distractions? do you think the press conference yesterday was a distraction? >> i don't think that was a distraction. i don't think it's probably particularly a good idea to kick sand in the face of people that hate you already. my own opinion. >> his supporters like it.

>> but you have to play the ball as it lies. you are in washington. you can't change that culture overnight. >> but anybody who thought he was going to change -- >> he's not going to change. >> he is who he is. >> there's been no variability for 18 months with this guy. i keep talking to people -- i was in london a month ago. some of the investors are trying to put him on a couch. they're asking me what his relationship was with his father. i'm saying, like, you guys are missing it. this is not a complicated -- this guy is going straight down the middle. he's giving you the playbook. you either got to get on board or you're getting run over. >> to me, the biggest impression i have of trump is he's bringing something we celebrated in the private economy in the '80s to washington. creative destruction. when that came in, in the '80s, it was totally uncomfortable, totally unconventional. it challenged all the establishment figures of how we did things, how we managed

labor, how we managed inventories. everything. it created vix and uncertainty and uncomfortableness. but it also, some would say, might have led to the innovative '90s and looking at old problems with new methodology, new ideas. i think that's what he's doing. everyone in establishment is uncomfortable about how he's doing this, but he's letting us look at old problems with new ideas. rather than asking mr. china nicely to please play fairly, maybe we take a more nuclear option, see what happens. >> i don't like the nuclear option part. we have to change that language. >> people are celebrating disruptive technologies. donald trump is a disruptive technology, disruptive person. he's turning over the changing table. he's mixing things up.

>> it's so nondisruptive that the fed basically has beens by brother for -- it's been zero. zero explains everything. you can't live that way. >> i think it's great. i think one of the best things that's happened of late is even the fed is now admitting by their actions that maybe the 2008 crisis is over. i think that's leading to boosting confidence as much as the trump presidency. i think the fed showing in their actions that they're confident enough is giving private sector jobs. >> i see a day -- i don't know. take your pick. you used to spend the day watching fed speak from any one of the 15. now you watch a trump press conference. what would you rather watch? here's our plot chart of fed funds. all that crap. they didn't hit any of their

targets, didn't hit any of the dots they said. we hung on every word. it's more fun now. much more fun. thank you, jason. jim is with us for the rest of the show. coming up, the president of accenture north america julie sweet is here to talk jobs. and later, david wessel will join us to talk the economy and fed and much more. then george mitchell. stay tuned. you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc.

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a huge food industry takeover deal could be in the works. kraft-heinz has confirmed it's made a proposal to unilever. it does add there's no certainty an agreement will, in fact, be reached. interestingly, all the shares are trading higher. >> that would be expensive. you figure that would help. >> well, kraft heinz -- >> shares moving higher. >> unilever is next door to us. meantime, accenture creating 15,000 new high-skilled jobs in the u.s. by 2020.

joining us on set, julie sweet, ceo of accenture north america. thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> are you going to tout with this president trump? >> we're going to tout this with president trump and all the governors of the city wes operate in. we're proud of the jobs we're creating. more importantly, we're proud of the innovation we're bringing. our strategy is to be the innovation partner for all of our clients. we really see the next wave of growth and competitiveness coming from innovation that leverages digital artificial intelligence. that requires us to be much closer to our clients. that's what this investment is about. >> what kinds of jobs are these? what types of people will be hired? >> well, let me explain what an innovation hub is and i'll give you the feeling of it. so we're opening one next week in houston focused on that market. industrial companies, robotics, cyber. you're going to walk in. there's going to be a drone running around, showing how we're doing -- we're monitoring

manufacturing facilities to do predictive maintenance. you'll go to a screen and get a pretend -- like you're a supervisor in a mine, looking at when workers might be subject to accidents. so in this innovation hub, you're going to be sitting down with your clients and collaborating. then you're going to move next door and create prototypes and build and design and help our clients implement it. the successful companies of the future are the ones that are going to be continuously innovating. the jobs we'll create are across the spectrum of the vision of the strategy. what's the new business model, what are the issues, consulting, helping implement it, the technology, artificial intelligence, digital. so it's really across the spectrum of our business to help create this vision of the

successful company of the future, which continuously innovates. >> you were there monday, weren't you? >> i was. >> this would be great for women. more coders. i can't code. but we've got to do that, right? >> absolutely. in fact, we really have been trying to be a leader in advancing women because we think it's important for innovation. so my leadership team is 50/50 men and women. last year we hit our target of 40% of our hires are women. for us, diversity is a business imperative. i think that's what you saw monday, that it's an economic imperative. we're supporting girls who code and a lot of initiatives in our communities to increase the pipeline of women. we think diversity across the board is really important to innovation. >> you were with trump and trudeau. >> yes. >> did both of them seem committed -- president trump,

you were in the same room with him. maybe ivanka is turning the screws, but he's sincere? >> absolutely. both leaders really reinforced their commitment. they brought together an amazing group of women. we had a substantive conversation where we were sharing, you know, our different programs and takes. women entrepreneurs. those are the kinds of things we talked about in this meeting. >> julie, the people you're hiring, do they tend to have business degrees? do they have engineering degrees? what do you need? it sounds like it's more science based than maybe it was 10 or 15 years ago. >> it's really across the spectrum. i actually think of these things always about kind of our people and what it means for them. we hired a homeless veteran that we put through a technology training program and is working in our technology delivery center. we have data scientists who speak a language that none of us

is able to speak. so it will be the spectrum. that's what actually as a ceo is exciting to me. we're creating jobs for a lot of different people. >> you met with trump on monday. you're announcing 15,000 new jobs today. come on! come on, come on. >> look, we're a great company. we're excited to contribute to america. >> come on, it was just a couple days ago. today is friday. monday, friday, 15,000 new jobs. >> it's certainly great timing. >> thank you, julie. time now for today's aflac trivia question. in what year were conversation hearts, candy hearts with messages, first created? the answer when cnbc "squawk box" continues. mr. diaz. cedure, we're just going to make one small incision here, then we're gonna go in and remove your '67 corvette. my vette!? it's just a gall bladder! you don't have.. aflac! paying you cash, so you might have to sell that sweet little muscle machine just to cover your rent.

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good morning and welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc. we're live from the nasdaq market site in times square. among the stories front and center this morning, just one economic report on the calendar for today. the conference board is out with its january index of leading economic indicators. it's expected to rise half a percent, which would match the december performance. the senate is expected to approve president trump's pick as head of the environmental protection agency today. the vote on scott pruitt's nomination is expected to take place around midday. fidelity posted revenue was at a report, but fee revenue took a hit as investors shifted funds to poassive funds. shares of kraft heinz and unilever jumping this morning after kraft's confirmation it has approached the dutch food giant with a takeover proposal. in a statement, kraft heinz says its initial proposal was rejected, but that it looks

forward to working out the terms of a deal. so is this like a bear hug. they're letting it out. >> sounds like they're -- my guess, from reading between the lines, is maybe unilever wants a much higher price. there are deal terms out there. it's going to drive the price up. just beware, we're not going to pay what they want. >> the share structure of unilever, is it only 54 billion, the market cap? >> the market cap is the same for both un and ul. a $54 billion market cap, either one of these stocks. my guess is it's not 108 billion. >> although, kraft heinz is 106 billion. >> that's still betting a big chunk of the company. >> it's still a really big deal. i don't know whether you would call this anything other than what it looks like, rationalization of the two operations. i don't know whether it's a

positive for animal spirits or whether it says for us to survive -- yeah. prurp esident trump is goin be stopping at the boeing plant in charleston today. the president harshly criticized boeing over the high cost of its air force one plane. the company, since making inroads with the president by shrinki shrinking costs for that project. joining us now to talk about president trump's business le s relations,ed fet relations, the fed, and much more is david wessel. thanks for being here today. >> good to be with you. >> we've talked a little about the press conference yesterday. donald trump's assertion that, look, this is a white house that's running like a finely tuned machine, i believe he called it. >> well, i don't think i'd buy

that. i wouldn't want my car to run the way this white house is done. unless the president can find a way to stop appealing only to his base and give the appearance at least of having an organized white house, then a lot of power is going to shift to congress. there are a lot of republicans in congress who resented president obama's expansive view of executive power. i think some of them don't really trust president trump or they'd like to take some power back. one possibility -- we have these very entertaining press conferences, lots of tweets, lots of ceremonial visits. you have to see if republicans in congress can do things like repeal obamacare, do corporate tax reform. >> and part of that is going to be where the leadership is coming from. >> exactly. >> to this point, it's been the paul ryan plan that's been put forth. >> i think the problem is these things are really, really hard

to do. there's winners and losers, factions within the republican party. without strong presidential leadership, it's hard to get them done. if the president is creating distractions, if he's constantly beating up on his enemies, if he's having conversations with foreign leaders that produce headlines that weren't intended, then it's hard for him to spend the time with congress to figure out how to do this. it makes pence really important. there's a possibility trump continues to do his stuff and the vice president is the one who gets the work done. >> it's been interesting watching the tax plan. the president himself has said the cross border tax plan really is confusing as far as he sees it. he didn't make any comments yesterday after meeting with the retailers, but that's a lynch pin for the congressional plan for this. >> you're right. i think it's going to be very hard to get this plan through congress. the business community is

bitterly divided. members of the republican party are divided. the senate doesn't like it as much as the house does. if you don't do the border adjustability, you don't have this revenue to pay for the rate cuts. the question is, can they find some way to either do rate cuts and expensing and not pay for it or pay for it with gimmicks or does the whole thing fall apart. >> where would your money be on that question? >> my guess is we won't get the border adjustability, we will get a business tax cut, but it won't be nearly as big as the people have been hoping for. >> 25%? or is that too much? >> i think 25% is possible, but you have to be willing to do away with a lot of exemptions and deductions and credits. you also have to find some pay fors. are they going to pay for it by blocking medicaid and food stamp, by assuming we get 4% growth? are they not going to worry about paying for it? >> what happens to the markets if we only get 25% cut, no border adjustment, or just some

sort of watered down tax reform or tax rate cut? >> i don't think it'll have that big a negative impact. i think if there's just a simplified tax cut and less regulations, i think the market is fine with this. you talk about trump having to win more of the global base. i'm wondering if he can accomplish that even if he doesn't get done. let's say the economy continues to do okay. maybe he's going to win more even though he doesn't do much. >> i totally agree. the man is skillful and lucky. he's inheriting an economy that has a substantial momentum. i think the markets are underappreciating the risks here. the risks are that he does something that the markets don't like, that he does something on trade, that he inadvertently gets us into some kind of minor shooting war. the thing that's most interesting to me about the last month is every one of these

controversies has been generated internal to the trump administration. he hasn't really had to deal with any external shock. >> you mean unforced errors. >> yeah. there's nothing like a katrina, a terrorist attack, a big market crash where the administration will be tested on their competence. something bad is going to happen somewhere in the world. >> granted they're only a month into this. >> but it's all dealing with controversies he's created. they'll be tested when something happens. that may change people's minds about having a president who says, you know, down on the bureaucracy and the establishment. >> you know, we've been talking about the fed with janet yellen at the hill twice this week. is the fed shifting its opinion, as a lot of market watchers seem to think? are we now getting to the point where we're looking at rate hikes coming faster? >> i think -- maybe. in some sense, this is now back to conventional monetary policy. you have to decide how to calibrate short-term interest

rates. you don't want to do too much too fast. you don't want to do too little. the president of the boston fed said that they might have to do slightly faster rate increases than were in the dots. dennis lockhart, who's kind of a centrist, the atlanta fed president, said the same thing. if the economy continues to do as well as it has, if inflation picks up, if there's some prospect of fiscal stimulus, there's a very real chance they'll do more rate hikes than the markets are expecting. >> you think a rate hike in march is likely? >> i don't think it's likely. i think 40% chance. >> that's higher than the market has been. >> i think three rate hikes this year is still the base case. there's more likely to be more than that than less. >> david, thank you very much. >> you're welcome. >> you're quiet. >> just listening. >> that's a first. >> how long were you at the -- >> 30 years at "the wall street journal." >> was there some big wall between you and the editorial board? >> absolutely, and it had barbed

wire on top. >> as big as the wall trump is going to build? >> we actually had a wall. did you see the thing where the mexicans say they'll build the wall -- >> did the editorial board even talk to you? >> say hello in the men's room. >> then they wouldn't talk but give you some kind of sign language as you walk away. >> no. >> i've told him this before, my badge did not work to get into the editorial board. >> most good newspapers have a brick wall between the staff and editorial board. >> didn't "the new york times" ever try to poach you? >> is this a job interview? >> anyway, thank you. good to see you. coming up, special envoy to the middle east, senator george mitchell joins us. he's way right of david. anyway, check out the futures at this hour.

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we're drowning in information. where, in all of this, is the stuff that matters? the stakes are so high, your finances, your future. how do you solve this? 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. president trump covered a lot of ground in his first solo news conference as commander in

chief. let's get into some of the big topics surrounding the white house with senator george mitchell, former senate majority leader from the state of maine, down east. i figured out what that was. you sail east to get there from the rest of the country. mideast peace envoy, that's what we're going to focus on, during the obama administration. it's great to have you on. when you saw netanyahu and president trump together, you were probably watching closely and listening to what was said. >> yes. >> was that in the realm of a possibility, or did you think there were -- that we're in a territory where it's unproductive in terms of the one state, two state. >> i don't think a one-state solution is viable. i don't think it's a realistic alternative. there simply is no way that israel can absorb several million palestinians and remain both democratic and jewish. so i don't think it's going to

happen. >> what was the rationale for walking back the two state being the only solution? what do you think trump is thinking there? >> the thinking was we've been trying to get it for a half century, it hasn't worked, to we've got to try something new, which is not an unreasonable position. the problem is when you analyze the alternatives, that's why the two-state solution survives because there isn't a credible alternative. i don't think it's the surest way to get back to talk about a two-state solution is to go the one-state route. the ancient hatreds and hostilities are so deep that the two societies i don't think can coexist. the former prime minister of israel has said many times israel should not have to face the choice of either remaining democratic or remaining jewish. i think the only real solution is two states. the configuration of it, all

that is subject to negotiation. >> watching this play out over the obama administration and now the trump administration with netanyahu and everything else -- i know the russians tried to influence our election. i think we tried to influence their election to some extent. netanyahu is a young man. do you expect him to be there for a long time? and if so, does there have to be a different leader on the other side to get -- those two don't seem like anything is ever going to happen? or does netanyahu have to be gone? >> i think you're right about those two. i spent a lot of time with both of them. here's the crux of the problem. netanyahu believes that abbas does not have the political strength or will to enter into and implement an agreement. he's really not interested in getting into a discussion he thinks is doomed to fail because of the other guy. from the other side, abbas believes netanyahu is not serious about it, that he really

doesn't favor a two-state solution, and he cites his evidence as the fact that over the past ten year, netanyahu has been against, for, against, for, now sort of for a two-state solution. so neither is willing to get into the difficult process of negotiating because their societies are split. both societies are split. the most recent poll shows a little more than half of israelis favor two states, a little less than half of palestinians. a leader who makes concessions to get an agreement will confront tremendous hostility internally in his society. so it may take new leadership. netanyahu, i think, doesn't have a real threat, except to the right. that's why he keeps tacking to the right. the only real threat to him comes from that direction. >> there's a lot of trouble spots in the world right now. we don't think right now -- that has not been on the front burner, the palestinian/israeli situation. should we put it on the front burner? should we allow the inertia of

where it is right now to continue, or is it something we should -- >> i think it's a mistake to view the israeli/palestinian conflict in isolation from the region in which it exists. it's a region in turbulence. islam is undergoing a tremendous internal stress and strife, even as it's growing. think about this fact. of the 7.5 billion people in the world today, 1 in 5 is muslim, about a billion and a half. when the world's population approaches 10 billion in about 2060, one in three will be muslim. that internal strife, in a number of areas, will continue. that affects the israeli/palestinian conflict, which in turn affects the regional issue. you have to view it in a region-wide context. i think it's a mistake to think you can just take this into a silo and solve it somehow without thinking about the region. let me give one tangible example. the palestinians have independent authority to act on

all of the issues -- borders, water, right of return, so forth -- except jerusalem. that's a muslim issue. palestinians don't have a free hand. the saudis, the jordanians, the moroccans, the entire muslim world. it's interactive. i think it makes sense to try to get the other arabs involved. we tried that when i was there. the problem is that each side wants the other to do something first before they're willing to take a step. >> senator, there's some news this morning i hope you can comment on as well. we've been watching -- and folks, if you're watching from home, you've seen shares of kraft heinz and unilever all skyrocketing on some news that came out this morning. kraft's confirmation that it has approached the anglo dutch food giant with a takeover proposal. in a statement, kraft heinz says its initial proposal was rejected, but it looks forward to working out the terms of a deal. it goes out of its way to say there's no guarantee a deal will, in fact, be reached.

kraft heinz is the result of a recent combination with kraft and heinz merging back in 2015. this is backed by brazil's 3g and warren buffett's berkshire hathaway. as you can see, kraft heinz shares up by 5.4%. unilever shares up by 11% in one case, 12% in another. this is the biggest one-day jump since 1987 for those shares. if you look at shares of mondolez, that had been mentioned as another potential target for kraft heinz for the next deal they'd be doing. those shares are down. i think buffett is kind of demured from some of those suggestions that others have brought up in the past. senator mitchell, you were on the board at unilever a while back. >> yes, an advisory board. >> explain a little bit about what you think, just having been on the inner workings of this. >> i don't know anything about

this offer. i do know yuunilever is a terric company. they compete vigorously here, of course. they're very strong in international markets and particularly where there's tremendous population growth. we have to keep in mind the population is rising steadily. the rate of increase has declined, but the absolute numbers are growing. the numbers are greatest in africa, asia, the middle east. unilever is very strong in those territories. >> a deal like this, would that make sense from the company's perspective to be getting bigger? >> i'm so far away from it, i would berelucta reluctant to gi advice. >> unilever in particular, just last week they announced 2016 sales that were week. kraft heinz said they would have to continue to cut costs in order to fight off slowing sales. a lot of these consumer staple

companies, while their stock prices had been bid up in the marketplace, seen as a safe haven, the underlying business has been challenged here. a little more detail out of the release. according to uk merger law, they have until march 17th to announce either a firm intention or a number nonintention to make a deal for unilever. so they have no later than 5:00 p.m. london time march 17th of this year. so they have a month here to decide whether or not they go for it. >> i do know paul, the ceo of unilever. a terrific person individually, and i think a very good executive. i feel safe in entrusting him in the decision. >> how about the democratic party? do you have any contacts with the democratic party left? who's the current de facto head of the democratic party right now? who do you wish it was? is it elizabeth warren? >> no, i think chuck schumer, nancy pelosi by virtue of their

positions. >> they're not going run for president. >> no, but there are plenty of people who might be running for president. >> would you offer any advice to the democratic party? move left or move right? >> stay steady, economic growth and job creation are the most important elements. the democratic party is responsible for most of the reduction of barriers to growth and jobs in its history, opening doors of opportunity for all people. stick to that and we'll do well. >> okay. >> thanks, joe. >> thanks, senator. coming up, stocks you need to watch ahead of the opening bell. stay tuned. that means you can take a universe of data - in your case literally - and turn it into medical discoveries, diagnostic breakthroughs... ...proof that black holes collapse into one singularity. i don't know what that is. but yes. innovation runs on supercomputers... ...and supercomputers run on intel. you are super smart. and super busy.

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hi grandma! and the fastest internet. [ girl screaming ] [ laughter ] stick around, folks. when we come back today, president trump will stop at the boeing plant in south carolina. he's going to be delivering remarks at the reveal of the dreamliner today. our phil lebeau is there. he'll have details of what to expect. then, tech stocks to buy right now. rbc capital markets analyst mark mahaney with what's working. and here are the futures. after six record sessions for the dow, you're going to see futures are under some pressure. "squawk box" will be right back.

trump heads down south. the president visiting a boeing plant to talk jobs and manufacturing. a live report from south carolina is straight ahead. the tech sector is on a tear. snapchat prepares for its wall street debut. three portfolio picks that could make you money right now. plus, coal country applauding president trump. >> i am continuing to keep my promise to the american people

to get rid of wasteful regulations that do nothing, absolutely nothing, but slow down the economy. >> we'll talk to a ceo who was in the room for the president's rollback of coal regulations. the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now. live from the most powerful city in the world, new york, this is "squawk box." good morning and welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc live from the nasdaq market site in times square. i'm joe kernen with becky quick and melissa lee. this morning jim paulsen, who is chief investment strategist at wells capital management. let's get a check on the futures. i don't know. this merger is so -- such a huge deal we're talking about. it is not helping with market

sentiment, but remember the dow hit six straight all-time highs. dow is indicated to pullback about 44 points this morning. the s&p is indicating down somewhere around five points. nasdaq indicated down nine. the ten year was about 2.5 yesterday. that has moderated. the yield is now down to 2.41. europe and asia were down. we're kind of responding to the overseas markets to some extent. as joe was alluding to, our top corporate story this morning is a huge food industry takeover that could be in the works. kraft heinz has revealed it has made a proposal to unilever about combining the two companies. it goes out of its way to say there's no certainty an agreement is going to be reached here but that's not stopping the market. you can see kraft heinz shares are up on this by 4%. unilever shares are traded both

in the netherlands and in london. those shares are up 10% and 11% respectively on this. we've been talking a little bit about all of these issues. there's some big players behind all of these different ones. 3g and warren buffett's berkshire hathaway are behind kraft heinz. they just put that company together a couple years ago by combining those two. unilever has -- the other thing we're watching are people had been anticipating that maybe mondolez would have been the next target. if you look at shares, they've been down. this morning they're down by over 5.3%. in the past, warren buffett has told us on cnbc that mondolez would not be a deal they'd be doing any time soon. back in 2015 he said they'd just taken on a huge bite by trying to put these two companies together and they wouldn't be doing any big deals for some time. obviously it's been a couple years. they are looking for a big deal,

but it's not the one people had been anticipating. >> let's bring in an analyst. how much time have you had to look at this, jonathan? >> about 18 minutes, give or take. >> so is it kraft heinz offering a premium for unilever? is it a merger fee? do you know what the price -- did they talk about the price being offered? what does it value unilever at versus the current market cap of unilever? >> so nothing's been disclosed. all that's happened is a report this morning and a follow-up confirmation from kraft, not a statement or anything detailed, but a confirmation from kraft that a proposal to combine the two groups has been made and unilever has declined that proposal.

that's all we know for sure other than the underlines margin and margin opportunity of unilever. >> sounds like a bear hug. they got rebuffed then went public. is that what happened? >> well, it certainly sounds that way. it certainly sounds like a typical opening salvo of a merger approach. it's hard to tell at this point what's friendly and unfriendly. oftentimes it's standard procedure to decline a first proposal. we'll have to see. we haven't seen a formal response, at least i haven't, from either unilever or kraft. a white paper or anything like that. i'd expect to see things like that in the coming days. >> you put these two guysing , together, and the economies of scale would be incredible. that's why kraft is up, i guess, even if they did have to pay a premium. >> you know, the way i look at it is a lot like the anheuser

busch/s.a.b. miller transaction. what this does is a lot more than margin opportunity. you get kraft heinz into long-term growth opportunity structurally in developing markets that are very, very attractive. we've thought they've been very attractive for a long time. it's a short-term/long-term thing. you spend a lot of time trying to make money and develop markets in things like packaged food, but in my view, the real structural growth opportunity is building those adoption rates of high-margin products all around the world. that's where the money has been made in consumer staples in the past 50 years. there's going to be more so in the next 50. i think that's what this transaction signals. >> what do you think unilever would want in terms of -- i'm looking at a long-term chart here. we're almost at new high territory now, i guess. how much would they want to go friendly, do you think? >> it's really hard to say.

it's really hard to say that. our target price has been $49 for a long time before knowing anything about this and them wanting to barter the potential synergies kraft has. i've looked at the ebitda margin at proctor and gamble, which is a caomparable company. so $49 is probably a starting point. it just depends on how much opportunity they see. and of course what equity participation there is, if any, here. this is a very, very big deal. we'll have to see -- we don't know the details on how kraft sbe intends to finance this. this has more ebitda than kraft heinz. >> the market cap is $106 billion. so this deal itself, even with

the premium, is going to be larger than the market cap. does kraft need to do the deal? how much of a factor is the fact that unilever is an overseas company and kraft heinz is taking advantage of a stronger dollar, weaker pound? >> i think that is a factor. the currency piece of it. certainly tax rates and having overhead in europe used to be a disadvantage and now becoming somewhat of an advantage relatively speaking with the dollar having appreciated so much. i think that plays into it. and does kraft need to do the deal? no, they don't need to do anything. they have a 20% to 30% return on net tangible assets. they can wait. they want to do the deal they want that gives them the most long-term opportunity. this is the best idea i've heard in a while, but they can always walk. i just think this is the best idea. it's a bold idea. it's one that's going to require some creative financing. >> so much for political risk and brexit and the dissolution

of the euro. not scaring kraft heinz. >> doesn't seem to be. in shampoo we trust. >> going to keep using that whether they're using euros or not, i guess. is this animal spirits? this is not a defensive, this is an offensive deal. the way you described it, it's offensive, not defensive. >> absolutely. yesterday there were a couple comments. obviously kraft heinz reported yesterday. i think a lot of comments about whether they were going to be in the deal market. they can take their time. they have a great business. they're obviously tremendous con sol d sconsolidators. i think this caught everybody by surprise because of the boldness and size of it.

>> not me. actually, i wasn't thinking either way about it. didn't catch me by surprise. one more thing. if kraft was look for a market check to see how people were going to like it, it's up $4. if that was a -- if that was to see how this would be taken, people love this so far. >> yeah, listen, any time you've had the track record this particular management team has had, combined with the margin opportunity, plus the road map that s.a.b. miller showed you and the better growth, that would be argue for better combined multiple for the company than kraft heinz could sustainably achieve on their own. >> i wonder, too, if just the rate structure in the world is starting to move up. if they need to finance this -- >> do it fast. >> it's sort of forcing them to do this and get it in before rates go up more. >> a lot of that financing was

from berkshire and hathaway, which has tens of billions of dollars sitting around. if that's the financing structure behind it, 3g plows in some, berkshire would plow in some. if it's based on what they did with kraft heinz. then they'd have the equity. >> jonathan, is mondolez a buy on this selloff? it's trading like it's a wa wallflour wal wallflower at the dance right now. >> the structural opportunity that mondolez represents versus its food peers remains. if kraft heinz doesn't want to be the one to do that now or ever, certainly a proposal with unilever makes their shopping list bigger, but it doesn't necessarily take it off that shoppi shopping list. i think there's enough structural growth opportunity selling high-margin chocolate and gum to developing market consumers that makes mondolez somewhat attractive in its own right. now, certainly there's a time

function of this and the credibility -- potential credibility of 3g management. i think that structural opportunity remains for mondolez. it's not a never necessarily. >> so that's like an independent -- i know you, i think, john. where were you before? >> great memory. i have my own firm for a couple years and i combined with a guy who's had a tremendous amount of success and whsomewhat of a menr for me in beverages. >> you know a lot. good to have you on. i haven't heard of the firm. how old is consumer edge? >> seven years. >> is it already? okay. that i was surprised. thank you, jonathan. we appreciate it. i feel like i know a little bit more about what's happening.

all right. phoners, you have to use them sometimes. >> he's seen this for 18 minutes. that's some quick analysis. >> phil lebeau. president trump is heading down south today. tweeting this morning. we know where he's going because he tweeted. going to charleston, south carolina. great place. >> sometimes you got to use that phoner, joe. that's where you have me down here in charleston. >> we got you too. have you seen this picture we got of you? wow. that is -- wow. >> is it still the one from "the incredibles" where i'm wedged into the car? >> that's a good one. >> the secret service is doing the sweep of all the camera gear. for now we do not have use of our camera. we'll have it later on this morning. that's when president trump comes down here to the boeing plant. this is his first visit down to south carolina since he was down here before the primary. this is friendly territory.

he carried south carolina. it's a blue-collar area. he's going to be talking with workers in the boeing plant. they're rolling out the latest version of the dreamliner, the longest or the stretch version. what's he going to be talking about today? certainly won't be as exciting as yesterday during his press conference. manufacturing growth, which is a theme he's been hitting hard for some time, job kree yarcreation there's some speculation that perhaps he makes a comment about the funding of the export/import bank. during the primaries and presidential race, there was a lot of discussion about whether or not donald trump would support funding of the import/export bank. well, he's made it pretty clear that eventually he thinks it should be funded, which is crucial for boeing. for the ceo of boeing, this is his third time seeing donald trump since donald trump was elected. there was once at trump tower, once at mar-a-lago when they

discussed the payment for the air force one plane, then today. he'll be getting another dose of president trump. again, we expect him, as you look at shares of boeing, we expect the president to be down here at about 12:30. his comments will start shortly before 1:00. not as exciting as yesterday, we don't think. certainly we'll be here, and it'll be interesting to see what he has to say, especially if he touches on the export/import bank. >> all right, phil. you watch the press conference? >> oh, i did. who didn't? >> good time to be in cable news, isn't it? middle of the day, people were like watching "days of our lives" and like, whoa. just no comparison. >> absolutely. must-see tv. >> and everybody's sharing in that. it's a love/hate thing with the media. that's for sure. anyway, thank you, phil lebeau. let's talk more about the state of labor in the united states and president trump's new

pick to lead the labor department. the former chair of the national labor relations board during the obama administration, the second woman to run the organization, joins us. thank you. i think we're having problems. oh, can you hear us? >> i can hear you, yes. >> perfect. now we see you. thank you very much. sorry for the technical problems with that. let's talk a little bit about where you see labor headed these days. we were just speaking with phil lebeau, who's at a boeing plant in south carolina where they just this week voted not to go into organized labor. what do you think about the state of labor right now in the united states? >> i think the state of labor is uncertain. it's a troubling time, but one thing is clear. i believe over the last few years, we've seen a lot of signs of worker discontent, an

emerging reaction to years of stagnant wages, growing inequality, long-term unemployment, not being heard, being ignored. we've seen this over the last few years with the emerging fact for 15 low wage workers movement. we saw it with the surprising and long-standing support for both bernie sanders and donald trump. so i think this emerging worker activism is a positive sign for workers. what's more unclear is the direction of the trump administration on worker issues. donald trump certainly campaigned as a populist pro worker candidate, but it remains to be seen, really, what the nature of his appointments and what the nature of his policies with respect to workers is going to be. >> let's talk about the appointments. you had andy puzder removing

himself from the running. the new appointment named by mr. trump, alexander acosta. you know him personally. >> i do. we served for about nine months together at the beginning of the bush administration. he was one of three republican appointees. i was a democrat on the board remaining from the clinton years. so we had about nine months. by the time he was appointed, he had about nine months left on his term. while i think he wanted reappointment, the administration put him in another position in the justice department. so we had a good working relationship. i found mr. acosta to be highly intelligent, to be very open minded, very willing to listen and sit and discuss issues. i found he had a real interest in the law. he was a student of the law. certainly interested in enforcing the law. he's not anti-regulation or anti-government by any means. >> and that leads you to believe

what if he's actually confirmed for this position? >> well, i think that remains to be seen. i haven't actually worked with mr. acosta in over a decade. but i think for sure based on my experience working with him that he will be open minded, he will be intelligent in the way he looks at the issues, he'll be independent at the way he looks at the issues. he's not someone like mr. puzder, who comes out of the corporate world. he doesn't come out of the world of finance. his professional career is a combination of public service. he held several positions in government. for the last several years, he's been the dean of a law school in florida. so his position is academia and public service. >> chair liebman, did you raise any eyebrows over the past eight years in some of the actions of the nlrb, any of that stuff give you pause or you were 100% behind the activist nlrb of the

last administration? >> well, i guess i wouldn't use the word activist. i would use the word active. i think the nlrb was enforcing the statute. it was rigorously enforcing the law, trying to keep the law current with a very dynamic and changing economy. the law really hasn't been changed since 1947. needless to say, a lot has happened in the world since then. i think it was a dynamic board. i wouldn't say it was radical by any means. there's no way that an nlrb can be radical under this statute because the statute has been unchanged for so long. >> if you don't give one side enough time to even respond to a unionization and suddenly they only have like two weeks and it's sprung upon them -- i mean, there are a lot of people that would take great issue with what you just said about whether it was activist or not. >> i realize that. the labor law has always been a

subject of deep divisions, deeply held views. >> at least the country is much more united now. >> oh, yeah. right. >> chair liebman, thank you for your time. quick headlines out of unilever. they released a statement saying it's a $50 a share offer. the deal is worth $143 billion. this again according to unilever. the firm is right now rejecting the deal because it undervalues the company. we'll have much more after this break. >> is it stock cash? >> i'm going to continue reading. it's an 18% premium to yesterday's close. dear predictable, there's no other way to say this. it's over. i've found a permanent escape from monotony. together, we are perfectly balanced, our senses awake, our hearts racing as one. i know this is sudden,

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welcome back to "squawk box." president trump just tweeting, general keith kehlillogg, who i known for a long time, is very much in play for nsa, as are three others. this coming basically hours after harward pulled himself

from the position. meantime, tech on a tear, hitting a new high dating back to 2000. it's up almost 9% year to date. joining us now with his top picks, mark mahaney. your top three are the obvious ones. netflix, facebook, as well as amazon. you just hold your nose and buy what's working right now? >> i wouldn't say that netflix is obvious. i think although it's at an all-time high, i think it's one of the most controversial names in large-cap tech. there are enough people concerned about competitive risk, their ability to manage the spiraling content costs. the other ones, google, facebook, amazon, if you look at those names, they're now three of the six largest names. we think the fundamental trends are very much intact. google has gone 28 straight quarters of 20% year over year revenue growth. that's almost unheard of, especially for a company of that

scale. what's new this year is that this is a major investment year. amazon, google, facebook, they've all talked about margins down this year. that's the new wrinkle. >> do any of these stocks, facebook in particular, get any valuation lift or depression based on snapchat's valuation? >> huh, i won't comment on snapchat, but facebook, that's possible. what i find so interesting -- >> which is possible, a valuation lift or depression? >> in the case of facebook, i think -- i've been saying this for about three to six months. this is about the first time since the ipo you could make money on a rerating in the stock. i think that's going to happen because of fundamentals more than anything else. it depends on how senanapchat g priced. you don't normally get that kind

of dislocation valuation. it's one of the major reasons it's our number two pick in this space. >> does facebook need to get into china in order to support a future valuation that's higher than where it is now? >> no, i don't think so. i think the chances of facebook having any material success in china is very small, even if they were to get in, there's very well-established social networks in those markets. it maybe adds a couple tens of millions of subs. they already have 1.8 billion monthly average users. they're fine by themselves. they have two of the largest messaging platforms in the world. that's good enough. >> so on to amazon, if there was a border adjustment tax, what sort of impact could that have on amazon, or does it matter because amazon could use its leverage to force the supply chain to sort of eat the costs? >> i don't know if they could do that. i think it would be a negative. quantifying it is almost impossible. it's much less for a retailer than a manufacturer. amazon, like every other retailer, would be negatively impacted by a border adjusted

tax. so it's an issue. they do deal with this issue in europe and a lot of international market where is they collect b.a.t.s. it would change their competitive dynamics -- it would change their unit economics in the u.s. for that matter, it would be a negative. >> mark, great to see you. >> thank you. so the unilever -- it's $50, as you said. $30.23 a share in cash payable in u.s. dollars and 0.222 new enlarged entity shares per existing unilever share, $143 billion total, $50 a share. coming up, today's top stories, including what we were just talking about. stay tuned. we'll be right back.

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welcome back to "squawk box," everybody. our top corporate story this morning, a huge food industry takeover deal could be in the works. kraft heinz has confirmed it has made a proposal to unilever about combining the two companies. check out the shares today. unilever shares, both those traded in the netherlands and those traded in london, are up

around 10% or a little better. kraft heinz shares also up on this potential news, up 4.5%. now, unilever is just out with a statement that says the offer is at $50 a share. they're saying that undervalues the company. that's a premium of 18% from where the shares were trading yesterday. it's a total value of $43 billion. >> $143 billion. >> yeah, sorry. $143 billion. they say -- kraft says it's looking forward to coming to terms on a deal. there's all kinds of weird rules. >> it's a cross-border merger. according to london -- or uk takeover laws, kraft has a month, until 5:00 london time on march 17th to come out with a formal offer or decide they're going to walk away. meantime, rich peterson at s&p global is saying this would rank as the third largest deal ever in the consumer staples sector, the largest ever cross-border deal. you got to think that a stronger

dollar, weaker sterling, weaker euro plays a big role in the deal coming together at this time. >> on sale. like a discount. >> yeah. like your european vacation. >> buy in bulk. that's a lot. >> $143 billion. >> warren could just -- >> write a check. >> they usually have 40 to 60 billion in cash lying around. >> i'm talking about him. hy him and bill. >> all right. let's look at stocks on the move this morning. shares of vf corporation falling in premarket trade. the parent of northface, wrangler, and other apparel brands did match estimates with earnings of 97 cents a share, but revenue was slightly short of forecasts. web md meantime rallying this morning. the medical website operator said it was considering strategic alternatives, including a possible sale. huge jump we're watching for of true car. the buying service reported a

smaller than expected loss for its latest quarter. true car also gave an upbeat outlook for the current quarter. that's a jump of 14.25%. and hertz was downgraded on worries about weak volume growth and flat pricing. when we return, a big win for big coal. president trump signs a repeal of obama era regulations. we'll talk to a man who was in the room, murray energy ceo robert murray. "squawk box" will be right back.

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♪ welcome back to "squawk box." president trump signing a repeal of an obama era regulation called the stream protection rule. the measure prohibited surface mining within 100 feet of a stream. it tightened requirements for conducting environmental studies and cleaning up mines. president trump commenting on his promise to coal country. >> this rule will eliminate --

it's a major threat to your jobs, and we're going to get rid of that threat immediately. we're going to fight for you like i promised i would in the campaign. you were very good to me, and i'm going to be even better to you. i promise you that. >> our next guest was in the white house for the signing. joining us now is robert murray, founder, president, and ceo of murray energy. good to see you again, mr. murr murray. i know you were there yesterday. i think scott pruitt is today. if you look how he got out of committee, he had three or four democrats, so that's going to happen. they're not going to need vice president pence on pruitt, which is kind of surprising because the left really had -- this guy really had a bull's eye on his back. once he's in, what else needs to be done? this is just the beginning of the coal industry. what about co2 being classified as a pollutant? is that going to change? >> yes, it will, and good morning, joe. this was a great victory for not

only the coal miners yesterday to be there at the bill signing by president trump. i worry about the couple who's got a nest egg trying to balance their budget after working their entire lifetimes, and they're paying out 22% of what they make for energy right now. that woman that's trying to raise children on one income, that manufacturer of a product. this regulation from the obama administration had no environmental ben fiefit at all. it was a deliberate attempt by the radical people in the obama administration to eliminate underground coal mining. the most environmentally acceptable way to mine coal. we're down there a thousand feet, joe. they don't even know we're down there. but this rule illegally took a '77 law that applied only to surface mining and stopped underground mining a thousand feet down. folks don't even know we're down

there, joe. so what we have done now, the house and the senate used a continuing resolution act, second time ever since the law was passed in 1996, to get rid of this radical rule that had no environmental benefit but destroyed the lives of our coal miners. >> robert, all you got to do is look at -- i mean, obviously when energy prices came down, a lot of stress was put on the coal industry, but there was a concerted effort, some would say, by the administration to just shrink the entire coal industry for climate change concerns. same with leaving the oil in the ground up in the tar sands, even though it wouldn't have stayed in the ground. it was either going south or west, one or the other. but these are all sort of ideological decisions being made based on leaving hydrocarbons in the ground.

there was really no economic analysis on why this stuff was done. >> there's no scientific analysis either. i have 4,000 scientists that tell me global warming is a hoax. the earth has cooled for 20 years. what we have, joe, is an energy poverty problem in this country. coal is four cents a kilowatt hour. warren buffett, who you quoted this morning, said they don't make sense, windmills, but i make a lot of money off the tax credits. it's 26 cents from you, the taxpayer. it's a front. it has nothing to do with the environment. it was all about money. mr. trump sees this. he sees the jobs that have been destroyed. he sees that lives have been destroyed. yes, joe, this signing of this bill yesterday is just the beginning of what he must do to get back low-cost reliable electricity. >> what can he do --

>> eliminate the four cent a kilowatt hour for solar panels. get it back to a level playing field so all types of energy, gas, oil, coal, can compete on a level playing field. get the government out of picking winners and losers, as obama and the democrats have done for the last eight years. secondly, overturn the clean power plan. murray energy corporation got a stay february 9th last year before the u.s. epa. that's my stay. now that plan has to be overturned. that closes 53,000 megawatts of electricity. that's four cents a kilowatt hour. we need to preserve the coal industry. it is one-sixth the cost of windmills and solar panels. and we knead need to get back te we allow all forms of energy to compete on a level playing

field, get the government out of it. you give me the ball, and i'll compete against natural gas all day long. and god bless my coal miners who were there yesterday. >> even if everybody has two teslas in their garage, we had someone talking about how much of the grid, how much of the electricity used by that household -- it would be like 50% of the house would use electricity just to charge up the teslas. even if we go green in terms of electrical cars, we need need energy for the grid. correct me if i'm wrong, india and china still use coal. we're going to pay 26 cents and they're going to get 4 cents and that makes sense to people. >> the electric power load on a plant is up and down every day, morning and night, and through the seasons. natural gas is finite. you can't put more gas in. windmills and solar panels are not reliable because they only

work if the wind blows and the sun shines. so you need coal. you need coal to put into that boiler as the loads go up and down. otherwise, people are going to freeze in the dark, people are going to die on the operating table if we don't keep 30% coal in the mix in this country to have a reliable electric power grid. that's what president obama sees, and he took the first step yesterday. i gave him three pages of what he needs to do yet, but he's made a wonderful start. >> you mean president trump. >> yes. >> that was a freudian slip if there ever was one. >> obama's been on my mind for eight years. it's been a nightmare. i apologize. president trump. >> all right. robert murray. i think pruitt is today, isn't it. >> he'll get nominated today. number two and number three are already lined up. >> all right. we'll see. something is coming next week, the president said yesterday. i don't know whether that -- i

mean, we're going to see a lot of stuff once pruitt is in. it's going to be interesting. there's going to be pushback, so get ready. thank you. we appreciate your time. >> thank you, joe. coming up, what's old is new again. the hottest new trend among millennials, pen and paper. we'll tell you which company is leading the way. ♪

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every step you take, narrows the influence of narrow minds. bridges continents and brings this world one step closer. so, the question you asked me. what is the key? it's you. everything in one place, so you can travel the world better. welcome back to "squawk box." shares of kraft heinz and unilever still trading higher, this despite a statement by

unilever that it sees no merit in the takeover proposal by kraft and there's no basis for further talks. kraft had said earlier that it was looking forward to working out the terms of a deal. kraft's offer valued unilever at $143 billion. that's about an 18% premium from yesterday's closing price. again, s&p global's rich peterson said this would be the third biggest deal ever, largest ever in the consumer staples sector, largest ever cross-border deal. >> we'll continue to watch it through the morning. when we return, putting pen to paper. we will tell you why good old-fashioned notebooks are giving digital planning apps a run for their money. that story is next. "squawk box" will be right back.

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♪ so the oil sands, not tar sands. people in canada are watching. thank you for watching. welcome back to "squawk box." pen and paper is making a comeback in a big way. when did it go out of style, jane? i guess, boy, some of us -- tell us, i've got one here and some paper here too. use it every day.

>> wow. see, you are on the cutting edge again, joe kernen, because the hottest new organizational app is this. yes, pen and paper. millennials are boosting sales of notebooks and turning them into decorative art. they call it bullet journaling on pinterest and instagram. and the guy who coined that phrase has created a how-to video. >> we keep track of things, the things we've done, the things we need to do, the things we aspire to. there's a lot to keep track of. >> now brooklyn app designer says by physically writing things down you might be more likely to get them done. and the notebook he's created has more flexibility than any app. >> i designed it to be able to capture whatever you needed to throw at it. so it can be illustrations or lists or calendars. it has the flexibility to capture those kinds of things, but also provides you with many different methods to organize your thoughts later.

>> this is this week -- >> so, does it make a difference? molly craven is in marketing and says taking the time to write down her schedule is not replacing her google calendar, but it does make her better track her habits and prioritize. >> i like that it is in one place and that your list from the day before and the day before and the day before are still all there, so you can go back and see, oh, i still have to do that. i didn't get that done yet. >> so this is moleskin based in italy publicly traded in europe. sales in the u.s. of these jumped 12% here. the writer prefers a 1917, guys, who knew kids could still write. >> probably test their finger strength, jane. >> i keep a notebook. >> i do too. i keep it right here every day. >> i keep mine for calendar because i have to look a month

at a time to see if i'm overbooking myself. need it open on the page. >> we're so hip, jane. we're all so hip. >> i know. i actually still prefer writing it down in my iphone, so that way when i don't accomplish it i can erase it and there's no evidence that i failed. >> now, that sounds millennial. jane, thank you. >> you got it. >> jane wells. up next, parting shots from our guest host jim paulsen. stay tuned, you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc.

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a florida man has been arrested and charged with allegedly plotting to blow up several target stores on the east coast in a bizarre attempt to tank the company's stock. authorities say mark barnett offered an unidentified person $10,000 to put explosives disguised as food items on the shelves of stores in new york, florida and virginia. that person then turned him in. prosecutors say barnett believed target's stock price would plunge after the explosions allowing him to buy it cheaply before it eventually rebounded. that's about the stupidest idea i've ever heard. >> yeah, there's a mental issue happening there. our guest host this morning is jim paulsen, chief investment strategist at wells capital management.

jim, we've been talking so much about this rally in stock prices. you've been watching how that correlates with the bond market. why is that important? >> in my mind is at what level does the ten-year yield bite. i think what i'm watching is a correlation between stocks and bonds to help me determine that because right now yields rising is a confidence builder. it's looked at as a good thing moving further away from deflation. i think at some point we'll start to look at rising yields as a negative of rising inflation. and at that point i think the stock market will struggle. i think it's going to be from higher levels but the correlation has been positive most of the last ten, 15 years, but it's turned negative three times, becky. once in late '99, once in late '06 and '07. >> by putting straight into

the -- >> it was suggested at that point people worried about inflation for negative for stocks and every time stock markets struggled. right now that correlation is still positive, but i think it might go negative before the year is out. >> there's a big weight on the bond market, and that has been just international bond prices. they've been low or negative or zero and that is a result really act as gravity on our rates as well. >> i think they'll come up with our rates as well. might not be as high, but i think they're going to continue to climb. >> are you worried the bond market might give you a false level? latest cftc data show late short positions in bonds i don't want to say at a record high but

multi-year high. a lot of people are short the bond market. so when there's that covering going on it could give you the wrong signal. >> i think you're right, melissa, there's a risk because we've artificially pegged yields for so long coming out of that now we might have a different movement in the past. indeed that's one of the reasons i think stocks can go quite a bit higher even with yields rising because we're coming from such artificially low levels to begin with. i think people will be surprised how much the economy and the market can handle higher yields for a while. >> when you say quite a bit higher for stocks, do you have any price targets or any rough ranges? >> a guess. you know, i think we might run ahead to as high as 2600 this year and the bond yield -- >> 2600? >> yes. the bond yield might back up to 3.25, 3.5, and then we might crack. this year's a little to me like 1987 where you had animal spirits for the first time in the reagan recovery showed up, optimism took stocks and bond yields -- >> you picked 1987 to compare? thank you. were you around for that? >> i absolutely was, yes.

>> you know what happened? >> yeah. biggest one day -- i don't think we're going to have that magnitude of boom, joe. >> that's good. >> but that's what we're going through. >> all right. >> we'll see. >> thanks so much. >> thanks for having me. it's always fun. >> thanks, jim. make sure you join us on tuesday. monday's a holiday. >> good to be here. "squawk on the street" is coming up right now. ♪ good friday morning. welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with david faber, sara eisen, mike san tolltoll e -- santoli. cramer has the day off. more retail downgrades, the president goes to boeing for the new dreamliner unveiling, futures are red, so is europe on a very weak retail sales number. ten-year's back to 2.41. roadmap begit