talk. seems like a lot of carbs. it's wednesday, april 5, 2017. "squawk box" begins ri s right . ♪ live from new york where business never sleeps, this is "squawk box." >> got another brand. good morning. welcome to "squawk box" on cnbc. we are live from the nasdaq market site in times square. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. yesterday markets actually pulled off a rebound. and ended three days of declines with an up day. this morning looks like things are right now a little bit mixed. dow futures up by 17 points. nasdaq slightly positive. the s&p is slightly weaker. overnight in asia, the nikkei was up by a quarter percent. the hang seng was up by a half percent. the shanghai was up by 1.5%. already this morning in europe you are seeing some relatively slight moves.

ftse slightly higher. cac is too. the dax is down by a quarter percentage point. looking at the ten-year note, yesterday the yield stuck at 2.35% this morning trading -- prices are lower. the yield is lightly higher at 2.364%. crude oil prices yesterday, which pushed above $51, this morning are up once again another 1%. >> we have a lot of news to talk about a developing geo lit cpol story. north korea fired a ballistic missile into the sea of japan. this amid joint u.s. and south korea military drills. secretary of state rex tillerson had a terse response saying north korea launched yet another intermediate range ballistic missile. the united states has spoken enough about north korea, we have no further comment. in washington right now, jeff

merkley is currently holding the floor, staging an all-night protest against judge neil gorsu gorsuch's nomination. he says he will continue as long as he is able. the full senate is expected to debate the gorsuch nomination today. on the economic agenda, the adp payrolls report out at 8:15 a.m. eastern. followed by the march ism services index at 10:00, and the fed minutes at 2:00 p.m. dallas fed president rob kaplan speaking this evening. at 8:15 a.m., this morning, don't miss our own exclusive interview with outgoing fed governor dan tarullo. today is his last day in office. he was the architect of so many of the rules and regulations, the stressest estest, post-fin crisis. as for the earnings, monsanto and walgreens report before the opening bell.

bed bath & beyond and yum china out after the close. in that panera deal, jab announcing it will acquire panera for more than $7 billion. jab will pay $315 a share. i went back further on panera, i remember it when it first came out, it was like a $30 stock. even now it's at about $6 billion market cap. 5.8 being acquired. it went from 30 to 315. it's been an unbelievable ten bagger over the last ten years. >> up sharply on rumors of the acquisition yesterday. it's had a phenomenal run since the opening. >> kind of an interesting concept. >> still is. people think they're eating healthier. you mentioned bread and the carbs, but they have soup, salads. you can have different combinations. >> i've been.

they also early on went into the whole ordering online. call up, go in. it's waiting there for you. when you go in, you order from some person, you go to the other end,s it it's there. they have a lot of things you might like. that spinach dip you make where you hollow out the loaf of bread. they make soup -- >> in a bread bowl. >> that's one way to order the soup. >> that's probably not the healthier way. >> with the asia poster, the macrame jeans -- >> "40-year-old version." >> she's just not responding. >> with the soundtrack of coldplay at the same time. >>living -- >> did you used to use this on carl? >> i think i did. >> i think you might have. i wanted to date this situation. >> but now you're 0. >> i love carl. this shows the new andrew -- >> positivity.

>> there he is. chris mart hahn join has joined. >> that's the one. he's in this outfit on this -- you know what you got when you talk about him. all this stuff -- gwyneth. she's been in the news almost every day with some wacky idea. >> she has some interesting, unique ideas. >> some of the stuff -- we'll get to this. some of the stuff in her cookbook, it's got stuff if you cook it the way she says, you'll die of salmonella or something. >> athere are critics. >> you don't get it hot enough. the recipe tells you to get the temperature to a point where you might die. >> do you have celebrity cookbooks? >> very few cookbooks. >> you're in new york. >> order out. >> stocks to watch. mcdonald's. the top u.s. marketer is leaving at mcdonald, leaving as part of

a management shakeup. two other executives will also be leaving. the head of the u.s. menu and the head of u.s. digital. the stock at $130. i always go back to when they had the two back-to-back ceo transitions. $12. it wasn't that long ago. >> right. proxy adviser glass lewis is recommending wells fargo shareholders vote against six directors in protest to those improper sales practices. election of directors on april 24th in an annual meeting. richmond fed president jeffrey lacker announcing his resignation yesterday saying that he broke fed rules by discussing sensitive information with an analyst regarding the central bank's plans regarding economic stimulus. this is a strange story that goes back quite awhile. lacker admitted to speaking to

an analyst at medley global advisers on october 2, 2012. the next day the medley analyst wrote a story including the confidential information. lacker was interviewed by the fed's general counsel later that year and then by the fbi in 2015. on january 10th of this year lacker announced he would be retiring in october. in a statement he said due to the highly confidential and sensitive nature of this information i should have declined to comment and perhaps have ended the phone call. instead i did not refuse or express my inability to comment and the interview continued. in a separate statement last night the fed said it is comm committed to maintaining the security of confidential fomc information. it goes back to 2012. >> so complicated.

a couple things are going on. medley happens to be a private service owned by a news organization. owned by "the financial times." the same story that was in medley happened to be in a john posner story that was leaked out five days earlier. clearly people at the fed had been talking about some of these thing things. >> other people? >> we don't know who. nobody at medley traded, or there's no suggestion that he was being -- that lacker was being paid. >> that's the most interesting part. and he was retiring in september. >> this whole idea of leaking to a news agency versus leaking to an analyst. >> and medley is sort of complicated because it's sort of a news agency, but a high-priced news age signals f s agency for

trying to get news ahead of the market. >> and all ten of those people are constantly blabbing. it's hard to know -- sometimes they want them to massage the market. >> we always thought when the "wall street journal" or other news organizations, they're being guided in a direction -- >> unfortunately his name is lacker. lacker is a leaker. >> for those of us who do the jumble every day. >> i wondered about liesman. liesman had a relationship with lacker. >> liesman has a relationship with lots of them. >> he does. is he happy it's not him or sad because he wasn't close enough for leak toer to get the good leak -- lacker the leaker? >> it may very well have been in a steve liesman story as well that i have not been able to pick up. >> all right. >> you know a lot about medley.

you looked into this yesterday. >> it's such a weird story. >> i wanted to find out more. >> i saw it on southwest or something. just last week liesman referenced lacker for some reason. he was the one -- an outlyer recently. he was more hawkish, was that it? >> i think you're right. joining us is paul hickey, co-founder of be spoke investment group. on the economy, steve rasucitto of mizuho securities. steve, you've been sort of not in the camp of a rip roaring economy for a while even after the election. >> it's true. >> now you have more worries about things, i guess following the obamacare -- sorry, the repeal of owe became ma cair. that makes tax reform tougher. >> it does. but in addition there's problems starting to surface in place like the automobile industry, commercial real estate industry. both of these two areas have

been areas that have been trying to pull up the economy while other areas were not really. i think the failure of obamacare goes directly to the divergence between the soft and the hard data. i still think that the convergence will be to the hard data, not to the soft data. >> that was a freudian slip. the failure of the obamacare replacement. the other thing in knoxville -- one thing that i got a kick out of in your notes was that you said the whole trump deregulation scheme may be in trouble because it's increasingly looking like he's a one-term president? >> that's the critical question. if you are a banker, and you're sitting there with an interpretation of dodd-frank that he wants to roll back, they're not going to change the law -- >> you know why i'm needling you. >> i know what you're saying. >> couldn't we wait for the midterms? how about there's something in georgia, where there's a proxy

for trump -- >> there's a real problem. >> you haven't made it 100 days! it's 70 days! >> huge failures. >> maybe he'll get impeached. maybe that will work out for you. you're worried about a one-perm presidency already? >> if i'm a banker and i have to sit here and say will i follow the change in deregulation -- >> are you sure this is not your -- do you have trump derangements yourself? >> i do not. >> i made a lot of money on the fact that he would win. what did you think the odds were -- >> ask your husband. i had to yell at him on the monday, remember? had to yell at you. he was petrified. >> america was an angry place. >> you said we were going to 1.5% on the ten-year. that there would be a flight to quality. >> not after the election. >> and if he got elected. >> no, i did not. i said if he wound up getting

elected you would have an acceleration in peoples expectations of what would happen. they would rush to judgment and they did. my interpretation is we would get to 3. we stopped at 2.6%. now the question is whether or not we revisit -- we ever get to 3 or go back to 2. >> let's not get the horse before the -- >> the correlation between the hard and soft data. >> the opposite of trump derangement syndrome is std. paul, what do you think, one-perm one one-termer? >> i think question should maybe give it a bit more time. housing remains strong. auto sales was a disappointment this week. but a year ago we saw even a bigger disappointment in auto sales. it was the same worries, incentives, peak autd tos. the economy recovered from that and didn't fall off a cliff. looking at the market, we see a pullback in the market but the

burden of proof is on the bears. with each leg higher over the last year, we have seen new highs expand, and we saw that on march 1st. new highs hit the highest level since 2013, and the cumulative ad line hit a new high. until we see that negative divergence underneath, it's hard to say this time is different. >> you were agnostic in all of your notes about what was happening in the market. steven, you really can't be. it's a difference when you look at whether the prospectses for gdp and growth. it's totally linked with what happens. >> 100% linked with what happens with fiscal policy. if he can't get the fiscal policy done, you have to ask the question will voters be disappointed? i think they will be. a lot of people who voted for trump, voted for a middle class tax cut. mathematically that's looking harder to accomplish.

now we're talking about things like a value added tax that was being discussed yesterday. that will not sell well. >> the white house distanced itself from that. >> it has, but the problem is trump is not the leader of the republican party. paul ryan thought he was. he fell on his sword. now we don't know who the leader of the republican party is, which is a party fracturing in every possible way. >> the democrats are fracturing in every possible way as well. the only thing you're united in is stopping trump. >> isn't jar reed the leader ofe republican party? >> he's abroad right now. >> i know. >> the tax reform, i don't think the markets priced a lot of that in. i think what the market priced in is what we weren't going to have the next four years, rather than an adversarial relationship, a working relationship between washington and business. less regulation, you don't need congress for that.

there's an overall tone, hence the small business optimism, red tape immediately in six months dropped, sentiment dropped to a six-month low. >> we are so divided. yesterday, you know, i watched our friend from the new york stock exchange come out of the meeting. he was on our air -- might have been somebody else. it was our air. they get so excited when they meet for a couple hours. a lot of the ceos that were there. wow. business. we're partners. >> we were running a lot of this live. chuck phillips had questions. >> he was there. when i said that to larry summers, how great -- he said you will gauge how well an administration is doing based on whether ceos like it? yeah. i didn't know i was so naive to say that might be a good thing. >> can i say one other thing about that. it's very difficult to come on television -- >> and say something nasty?

>> especially when you're invited to the meeting and say, no, no -- >> tom farley, there was a bounce. he had this big smile. >> i understand. >> he has some pretty white teeth. he's -- >> very handsome man. >> yeah. >> he is. coming up, thank you, gentlemen. when we return, educating the american work force. that issue discussed at president trump's meeting yesterday with business leaders. charles phillips was there. he will join us next. we'll talk about the meeting and more when "squawk box" returns. ♪

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so you'rhow nice.a party? i'll be right there. and the butchery begins. what am i gonna wear? this party is super fancy. let's go. i'm ready. are you my uber? [ horn honks ] [ tires screech ] hold on. [ upbeat music ] the biggest week in tv is back. [ doorbell rings ] who's that? show me watchathon. xfinity watchathon week! now until april 9. get unlimited access to all of netflix and more, free with xfinity on demand. welcome back to "squawk box." president trump hosting a ceo town hall in washington on tuesday. his daughter ivanka said we need to better train students

entering the work force. >> in the private sector because of the need there are over a half million jobs that can't be filled because the students graduating don't have the skills rel vachbt fevant for those pos. we want to bridge that gap, take these programs and grow them. >> our next guest attended that forum. charles phillips is the co of software form infour who works to recruit and train young talent. this is one of the great success stories of the last five years. unsung private company that has grown like a weed in a good way. former morgan stanley man and oracle. thank you for coming in. what did you think of the meeting? >> always helpful to get the details so you can plan. more consensus on some things, infrastructure spending, tax reform. i was encouraged by it. >> you walked out of the meeting thinking some of these things would happen because -- >> because the democrats seem like they want tax reform. not personal tax reform,

corporate tax reform. the infrastructure spending, they always wanted that. the president wants that. now it's a question of timing. they sent him a bill for infrastructure spending two months ago. they're waiting for him to respond. >> i've been surprised at how controversial even infrastructure has become when you talk about what it will be used for. you to you pay for it, what rules will go along with it that include union pay. i was amazed. something that seemed so bipartisan -- >> gets down to the details. and repatriation, 10% tax rate. things like that, but people are talking about it which is a good thing. >> anything you're doing or seeing your peers and colleagues doing in the business in anticipation of some of these policy changes? if what trump said was that he wanted to restrict the funds to people who had shovel-ready programs that would be ready in 90 days, then we want to know

who have the shovel ready projects. >> you have don't planning, the question is -- they're gnot goig to buy into this in terms of subscribing into services like yours until the policies are in place. >> it takes a lot of time to get state and local aapproval, so wo has done the work already. >> in terms of tax policy changes, how will that impact your business? you are hiring more people? >>. >> we're growing and highing any way. we hire several thousand people a year. people think tacks a taxes are down, projects are starting earlier. >> you saw the news come out yesterday and the white house quickly deny it, which is a v.a.t., conversations about --

>> that did not go over well. >> is that something you heard about yesterday? >> yes. >> what context? >> a couple people mentioned it. we met with legislators afterwards as well. no one was for it. >> no one was for the car done tax or the v.a.t. tax? >> it was described as a consumption tax, which is broader than a v.a.t. tax. it was okay, slow down on that one. >> where do you stand on border adjustment tax? >> bad for business, bad for reta retailers. there's other ways to raise taxes. >> what are the other ways? what do you think is the right way to go about that? >> according to at least leader pelosi, former leader pelosi, half the deductions businesses get are so specific, unique, things that came up with over the years are not leaded by lobbyists. if you get rid of that -- >> we can do it by eliminating

loopholes? >> loopholes. >> that gets us to a 28% rate? >> 20% to 25% is what people were discussing yesterday. >> what would that mean if we could get 25%, just being less optimistic on things. what would that mean in terms of what it does to growth overall? >> business confidence would increase. it's hard to translate that to gdp growth. people start new products if they're confident about the future. it's discretionary in the short-term. they have to have confidence in the next two, three years. that's what you look for. >> charles, thank you for coming in. >> thank you. >> if you're a betting man, you think we get tax reform by august? >> that seems fast to me. maybe some tax reform. i don't know if it's done by august. >> in this calendar year? >> if i had to bet, yes. something. >> appreciate it. >> thank you very much. when we come back, betting

big on atlantic city. we'll talk to the team that bought the trump taj mahal from carl icahn and is turning it into a hard rock casino. and jobs in america, new hiring data from linkedin first on cnbc. first, a look at yesterday's s&p 500 winners and losers.

♪ welcome back. you're watching "squawk box" live from the nasdaq market site in times square. good morning. welcome back to "squawk box." look at u.s. equity futures at this hour. as we show you what's going on. dow looks like it would open up about 12 points higher. s&p opening off marginally. same thing with the nasdaq. recapping deal news that just crossed the wires. jab announcing they will be acquiring panera bread for more than $7 million. they will pay $315 per share. panera has been a successful investment even before this buyout. up about five fold over the past ten years. jab is the owner of caribou coffee and green mountain

coffee. payless shoe source has filed for chapter 11. they have the latest retailer to fall victim to declining mall traffic. consumers opt to shop more online, payless which has 4,400 stores in more than 30 states, wee reaching a deal with most lenders to cut its debt by 50%. they will shut 400 underperforming stores. chemchina is winning u.s. antitrust approval to buy syngenta. they will divest three pesticides. lockheed martin scoring pentagon approval for a $27 billion helicopter program. the company will begin production of 200 new heavy cargo helicopters for u.s. marines with an average cost of $87 million each. that's a nice helicopter. >> yeah. very fancy. six months ago atlantic city's trump taj mahal casino closed its doors for good.

then candidate trump was no longer directly involved in the project. it had been taken over earlier in the year by carl icahn. now there are plans for a fresh start. a new hard rock hotel and casino on the property and a team ready to wade into turbulent waters in the atlantic city casino market. joining us are the partners in that investment, jim allen, chairman of hard rock international. jack morris, president and ceo of new jersey-based edgewood properties. and joe gingoli, ceo of joseph gingoli & son. thank you very much for being here. >> thank you for having us. >> you start thinking about new development in atlantic city, the question becomes how do you do what so many others have failed at? jim, tackle that head on. what do you see in atlantic city? how do you make this work? >> what's interesting is the tax rate in atlantic city is the second most competitive in the united states. it's the second largest gaming

market in the united states. certainly we look at 2016, there was tremendous increase in profitability of all the operators. with the recent enthusiasm from a political standpoint, the town seems to be going back in the right direction. >> so your point is to capitalize on it right now and jump in? >> 100%. the taj mahal is one of the most iconic gaming facilities created. it cost over $1 billion when it was constructed in 1990. it has the newest rooms in atlantic city. >> jack, i should admit before i bring you on, you and i have been friends for a lot of years. tell us about where your involvement is in this project and what you see happening? >> thanks, becky. i believe atlantic city has great potential. with the partner like hard rock international and jim allen, his passion for atlantic city, being jersey boys, i think we can turn

around atlantic city. what will it mean, joe, just in terms of jobs? that's been a big question people have seen. in terms of where you go next, how you create this what it will look like. >> there will be hundreds of construction jobs starting early this summer, carrying through to the summer of '18. then 1,000 casino worker jobs. it's very exciting. >> we've talked about atlantic city and casinos for, like, on the show for years. ten years, with great promise, great properties going in there with great management. it's going to be luxurious. i always said you have the boardwalk. it's this close to new york city. now you have these -- >> the history. >> but it's littered. the landscape is littered with things that don't work out down there. the private sector always thinks it will save atlantic city. can the private sector save atlantic city if atlantic city is not willing to save itself? what does atlantic city -- what's missing there with local

government or with the guys in charge? is it regulation? i don't understand. how do you get a rebirth of that area, which allows the private sector to flourish? >> well, there's state involvement now. >> is that new? >> that's new. that helped us in our decision to invest our resources and our capital in this project. we're from atlantic city. we've been there for over 30 years. we're part of the local community. we think this is the time. >> different this time. >> yeah. >> what's the difference? >> i think the real difference is that it would be an understatement to say atlantic city got itself in serious trouble. when you look at the success and the ebita of casinos in atlanta city, the borgata is one of the

most successful in the world. a lot of companies got yoefsh leveraged, did not reenvest in the product. we are taking 2,000 rooms, completely redoing them. the st. regis in new york city, it's an older building but one of the most iconic hotels in new york. it's been redone the right way. >> so the problem is they let things get too run down? >> yeah. >> it's always been a town where there's challenges with local politics. as jack and joe mentioned, the state stepped in. the concern about bankruptcy is no longer there. the gaming regulatory act has been revised to be more user friendly. this is a time where atlantic city takes a positive step. >> how much of this is reliant on just the town itself kind of refurbishing not just the projects and hotels, but the town itself. when you go to atlantic city, you think, okay. i'm not leaving the casino i'm in. i don't want to walk outside. >> people are coming back it cities.

look at some of the cities, how they're being revitalized. this is a great time for atlantic city. and for us to bring back not only the entertainment, the casinos, but look what's going on. you now have stockton college putting a campus in atlantic city. that's huge. never seen that before. you have south jersey industries moving corp plat heorate headqu there. that's huge. that hasn't happened in over a decade where new buildings are being built. it's not just casinos or just about the entertainment, you're starting to see atlantic city rebirth. it will continue. >> we still have major transportation. you have airports, major infrastructure. you have the ocean and boardwalk. >> you also have increasing competition. there are more and more casinos opening up in other places. how do you fight off that sort of trend that we've seen over the last 15 years? >> the three of us are from new

jersey, and hard rock brand is that catalyst. hard wok rock is one of the mos recognized in the world. we recognize that when we bring the brand to any location globally, there's a tremendous interest in the brand. there's one universal language. that is the language of music. certainly hard rock represents music on a global basis. >> it does. maybe with a younger audience. >> no doubt about it. >> you don't think vegas, i want to see a circus. you stay at the hard rock, hey, howard stern will be here or something. that might do it. i could never figure out -- you got everything going for you. boardwalk. if you're in new york, you can drive -- how far is it? instead of going to vegas. but it's a different feeling when i walk out of a casino in atlantic city compared to vegas. there must be some magic potion to get that going.

>> i think our relationship, you know, in the state is really about saying let's not just fix the taj and turn it into a hard rock. let's become part of the community. if you look at what hard rock has done and what the jingoli family has done with fi philanthropic efforts, working with people, working with trenton saying we're in this together. if we create an isolated condition here t won't be successful for anyone. >> when you model out an investment of this size and scope, how quickly do you model out profit? how long does it take for this, in your models, to be successful? >> we believe the ebita will be positive in the first year. >> the first year? >> the first year. the reality is all the atlantic city casinos now are reebita positive by at least $20 million. >> that's a story you really don't hear. >> how much of them is gaming versus entertainment, given that

so much of the trend in success of the establishments in vegas have shifted in large part, some of them, more towards being more profitable, actually on the entertainment end than on the gaming side. >> the reality is that when las vegas says they are 50% non-gaming revenue, that is true. but when you ask them what the ebita contribution is from the casino versus non-gaming amenities, the casino enindustry is a 60% margin business. food and beverage is 20% on a good day. you have to balance the two. but the reality is atlantic city needs to market to the 30 million people within a two, three-hour drive. >> how important is it that you go -- that somebody who is staying at the borgata goes over to the hard rock and the next hotel, versus going to the hard rock and staying at the hard rock? >> i think there's no doubt there is more than one trip visitation historically in the business. but the database marketing

techniques that most companies use today are so advanced we're not working on a philosophy of splitting a trip. we are looking at theoretical value based on the individual marketing that we create to that guest in a theoretical category. >> gentlemen, thank you very much for your time this morning. you have a busy day. he would look for the opening in summer of 2018. thank you. >> we're excited. >> thanks for having us. coming up, senator pat toomey says republicans may have to tackle regulatory financial reform without the help of democrats. what a shock. and new york real estate mogul bill rudin talks about the climate for business under president trump. he attended the president's meeting with business leaders yesterday that we've been talking about. later, a cnbc exclusive. the exit interview with fed golf for tan tarullo on his last day in office. that's at 8:15 a.m. eastern. stay tuned, you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc.

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welcome back to "squawk box." time for the executive edge. a couple things in the news. amazon will be replacing twitter

as the online home for the nfl's thursday night games. amazon will live stream ten games for prime members this is a difference from twitter which streamed them for free last year. the thursday night game also still be availability on television, split between nbc and cbs. amazon beat out twitter, facebook and youtube and paid about $50 million. five times what twitter paid. but this is the beginning, perhaps, we talk about ott, whether it's getting involved in the sports. i think this may be more meaningful than the twitter deal. last year the "wall street journal" reported that amazon explored creating premium sports packages as an add-on. >> tony romo. >> i heard. >> that's a great move. >> go into tv? >> phil simms, i like him -- >> he's going on with nantz. you have to do that. not in business news, you can stay forever. >> you don't want ceos coming

and taking our jobs? >> or 37-year-olds taking -- but i want someone who won't say bengals anymore. like phil simms. >> how do you say it? >> ben -- >> bengles? not bangles, it's bengals. >> bengals. like a bengal tigers. >> they're saying in my ear, the bungles. >> that's what it should be. that's more accurate. notable comments from double line capital ceo jeffrey gundlach. the bond king. he sees the rally in bonds continuing as the yield on the ten-year is set to head down to the short-term. gundlach says it is unlikely the bench mark will top 3%. he says with inflation falling in the months ahead pressure for higher yields is reduced. gundlach oversees more than 1$10 billion. coming up, new jobs data coming out from linkedin. we have it first on cnbc. trump tweeted about those numbers back in february shortly

after our last report. we'll find out if the march data continued with the strong hiring trend. a quick check of what's happening in the european markets. germany is down, everything else looking in the green. stilt l to come, an intervi with dan tarullo, from banking regulation, the fed and president trump, he joins steve liesman for a special exit interview on his last day in office. that's coming up on "squawk box." ♪ ♪

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it's time to start buying stocks again? linked in. linked in out. linked in out. with its -- that's what it says there. in other words, you're out with your monthly workforce report. and according to the findings, after a red-hot january, seasonally adjusted hiring cooled slightly in february and march. still hiring across the u.s. was 5.8% higher this march compared to march of last year.

trends based on 133 million people in the u.s. with linkedin profiles and 20,000 companies posting jobs. let's bring in dan ross executive editor of linkedin to break it all down. what will benefit our viewers most to know about the report in terms of breaking it down? >> i think probably that this is the fourth straight month where we've seen year over year increases in hiring. after a -- and if you look at what was going on in 2016, kind of a slow year for hiring. but starting in december, everything started picking up. now, this is the first month we've seen two months in a row where month over month hiring is down. but the question is, people are still hiring, things are still very hot. but, are we seeing a slowing, a cooling in the overall hiring market? it seems like that. but i think it's probably another month before we'll show for sure. >> when you say down, is it a plateau or -- >> it's slightly down. 0.9% down month over month. it was down a little bit over 1% last month, month over month. so it's not massively down but

there does seem to be -- it was employers were hiring like crazy. there seemed to be such demand to fill these jobs starting in december. and that was kind of plateauing. >> i mean, it was hot. because i remember, you know, down 1% from what at the time was like really a hyped number. i mean the president was watching, we saw, and tweeted out about it. >> yeah. in january -- >> right. so you're still at a pretty high level. >> absolutely. >> of, you know -- and i don't know if it counts to go down 1% sequentially when you're still up 5.8% year over year. >> these are still big numbers. what's interesting when you start digging into the numbers and you see where -- that the hiring is lumpy. it's happening in certain places and not happening in others. if you look at austin. austin now has this massive skills gap. so way too many people in the tech industry are there and not enough people who are in health care, education, retail jobs, kind of soft skills. >> right. >> and this continuous movement of professionals from new york,

houston, san francisco, to austin. austin moved up to the number two spot in our -- should be number three spot in our biggest hiring skills -- biggest skills gap after san francisco and d.c., and you know, you still see these pockets of places where people want to move, and where there's hiring going on. but it's not everyone's being hired. >> i have a linkedin question in terms of the people that are on linkedin and the industries they're involved in. do you have a lot of people in the manufacturing space signed up on linkedin? or is it much more services oriented? >> it's definitely professionals that are being hired. i think that you'll see -- if you want to look at where the numbers are you're really looking at people in health care, and tech, in -- there are manufacturing areas. 11 of 12 industries we're looking at for this report, of the 12 industries we're looking at for this report 11 of the 12 were down this month. the 12th that is up is aerospace

manufacturing, and autos. >> hmm. >> so there's some on there. but it's not as -- the numbers really looking at where professionals are moving. >> again you've explained this so us. but what exactly does measuring just as people are posting, as the jobs are getting taken, and how many postings? how many people are on this site? >> 133 million in the u.s. and that's what this report is looking at. it's people, and they're changing their jobs. we're looking at when did you get a new job. you go to linkedin, you update where you say you work. you update your city. and those -- that's what we're looking at. >> it's fair to say that this is a job seekers market at this point? >> absolutely. yeah. well job seekers market for certain jobs. and it's, you know, it's much tougher for other jobs. >> here's what i want you to do. i want you to build a confidence algorithm that can read the way people feel based on what they post on linkedin. >> that's a good one. >> and come up with a ranking of how people are feeling every month, based on what they're posting. >> there is definitely a difference -- >> can you do that?

>> i'll start working on that as soon as we're done. but if you look at the -- there's a big difference between the sentiment analysis, what people say versus what they do. the nice part is it's what people are actually doing. >> i know you're on linkedin. >> i am on linkedin. >> i know you are, because i'm not. >> and that's why. that's why you're not? >> there are times when i look up someone and i can't find out anything about them except i see a linkedin profile. >> right. >> that i can't get in. so i've thought about joining just to be able to snoop on people. but knowing you, and i know you already -- >> you're already snooping on people. >> he's snooping on me. >> you don't need it for any other reason. >> i'm on linkedin, too. >> you don't need it. you're not sending your resume out. >> just so you know people you exist. you show people you exist. >> i know both of you. >> linkedin is for stalking business people. >> right. >> and facebook is like for exes. >> high school. >> right. >> for exes from high school. >> if you're going to start, start with linkedin. >> i will. >> thank you, dan.

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the richmond fed president abruptly resigns over his involvement in the leak of market sensitive information. the latest on the fed fallout is straight ahead. data in focus. three key economic reports dominate today's agenda and could move the markets. we'll get the latest outlook from blackrock. and deregulation nation. senator pat toomey talks about getting rid of too big to fail. second hour of "squawk box" begins right now. live from the beating heart of business, new york city. this is "squawk box."

good morning. welcome back to "squawk box" right here on cnbc. we're live at the nasdaq marketsite in times square. aim andrew ross sorkin along with becky quick and joe kernen. futures at this hour, i'll call it, i want to say marginally higher. we just had the s&p 500 go from marginally green to marginally red. dow looks like it will open 16 points higher, nasdaq up by half a point. headlines to bring you this morning, jeffrey lacquer is out officially at the richmond fed president six months before he was scheduled to leave that post in what is a bizarre story. follows his admission that a 2012 conversation he had with an analyst may have disclosed confidential information. lacker had been scheduled to retire in october. he will not have to face any legal charges as a result of all of this. but lots of questions about what happened during that conversation. another outgoing fed official will be a guest right here on "squawk box" in the next hour. fed dorffer dan tarullo will have an exit interview with steve liesman.

he had been a key figure and architect in formulating financial market and bank regulation. lots of views on dodd-frank and the future of the way the banks will deal with capital and the like and we'll talk to him in just a little bit. also we're a little over an hour away from the march adp report. economists looking for 180,000 new private sector jobs. considerably fewer than the 298,000 reported jobs in february. i'm adding one other news item. it was a news item yesterday but if you haven't read it, we'll talk about a second screen. go read the jamie dimon letter. it was really terrific. it is long. it's a good 45 pages so it's not -- if you have -- >> i started going through it. i haven't finished it. >> if you're going to be with us for the next two hours, you can read it, sort of play along. >> or you could wait till after the show. >> but it is -- it's great reading. it is actually to me, this letter, the closest -- and he always has talked about modeling it after what warren buffett's done with his letter. but in terms of just the language, and the sensibility, and the smarts of it, i thought

this letter was particularly buffet-like. >> what jamie does so well is he writes in his own voice. you can hear him saying it as you read it. same thing with warren. that's when you know that the ceo is actually writing the letter himself or herself. when you can hear their voice in it. >> yeah. >> anyway. go check it out. good reading. joseph? >> all this j.a.b. stuff. it's a european firm, andrew. >> j.a.b. which just bought panera. >> they own krispy kreme. >> okay. >> i knew about the -- >> i don't even know what a -- durable, right? now panera, for $7 billion. jab, it's a quiet company supposedly. i mean think about that. krispy kreme, now panera, keurig, and green mountain. on the phone bob derrington, restaurant analyst at chelsea

advisory group. i don't see the linkage between these all these different and varied and sundry companies except they're all pretty well known consumer brands, bob? >> you didn't mention jimmy choo. >> that's the one i forgot. which i know well. they're like jimmy choo are like $400. apiece! bob anyway. >> also calvin klein, cover girl, they own all of -- unbelievable. >> listen, maybe they're going to sell bagels and shoes, you know. i don't know. >> doesn't have to be synergy. just have to buy companies that are well known and maybe can use a little tweaking or something. is that the idea here? >> no. i don't think so, joe. >> what is it? >> in my view, panera bread becomes the crown jewel for this group, j.a.b. holdings. and what panera bread brings is not just the bakery cafe business, but especially a number of attributes that they can use throughout their system, especially their restaurant system, and their coffee business. they've -- i think the real key

piece, the piece that i think many have struggled to put a valuation metric on is what's the technology worth? the panera bread has developed, you know, some of the best -- one of the best digital platforms in the restaurant industry. and they can use that essentially, probably not simplistically, but relatively across the restaurant system that j.a.b. operates. that ties in to the my panera loyalty program. these are attributes that panera has developed proprietary products, proprietary software and technology which ultimately, i think, leaps the j.a.b. holdings group into that realm of digital technology. >> i might have gotten that -- i might have said this earlier. i've seen that, they made a concerted effort, and we actually talked to them i think about it, like five, seven, eight years ago to do that digital thing where you order it online, or on the phone, and you go in, and there it is. and it's waiting, and is that -- is that the digital platform

you're talking about? and why is -- >> absolutely. >> why can't other people do that? doesn't seem that hard. >> well, listen, you know, looking across our restaurant universe there are a number of companies who are trying, through fits and starts, there's a lot of money, time, attention, focused on this, but it's not simple to do. you know, i think if you have starbucks they had some issues with thirst. well the smart thing that i think that panera bread did initially was focus on what they refer to as ops integrity. if you're going to overload the restaurant with a significant amount of influx of orders coming across the digital platform, you better have the back of the restaurant ready for that volume. because if you're not, or if you haven't, you're going to overload the restaurant, which i think, you know, one of the competitors at panera found out not too long ago and it negatively hurt their business. so i think panera has done it right in a lot of ways and i think j.a.b. realizes that, focuses on that and i think they

really see that as the real piece that brings it all together for them. >> bob, should we see this as the beginning of a trend in terms of deals for the fast casual space? you looking at others in terms of speculating about other takeovers potentially? >> you know, there's a possibility of that. but i think if you rook at the transactions that have taken place in recent times, there have been specifics associated with those for the strategic buyer that has made a lot of sense. darden acquiring cheddars. in my view that makes an awful lot of sense from hr, accounting the assimilation of all those responsibilities, the growth potential of that brand. makes a lot of sense for darden. this for j.a.b. makes a lot of sense. could there be other acquisitions? yeah, there could be. but you know, in the big scheme of things, i look at ron shake and think of the song the gambler, kenny rogers. joe you remember that one. you know when to hold them -- >> i remember that one. i had that one on a 45, too. >> pardon me? >> i had that one on a 45, too. >> you know what i'd say, ron

shake is a really sharp guy. a really, and i think he understands the business and i think he understands, you know, what he has built and i think he's probably ready to, you know, maybe cash in some chips. >> all right, bob. there's a big resurgence to that song, was it a geico add where you got kenny rogers. playing poker, and the other guys are there and he's saying you got to know when to hold -- >> i didn't recognize kenny rogers in it originally. >> and the other guys are like god almighty -- >> living off that song for 45 years. >> there's been a resurgence. >> i resemble that remark that i would be the one here that remembered -- >> that's why i said i had that, too. >> i recognize that, joe. >> definition of character. anyway, thanks. thanks, bob. in a programming note, panera ceo ron shaich will join squawk on the street at 9:00 eastern. i was racking my brain trying to think of another restaurant chain that is like a year or two ago that -- >> tried -- who was he talking about? i remember starbucks getting into it. but who was he talking about

that failed? >> they reported results, and the future, it was going to be -- it was going to be a huge amount of money spend and i was like, really? you're going to spend all that money, it makes that much difference and they were hot to trot on making sure they got the digital side of things. very important to be able to do that. >> i remember that, too. >> he says that's the rationale for this whole -- for this whole deal. >> technology is not easy. you get it right, you're good. our next guest says that investors need to prepare for low returns across asset classes for the next five years. joining us right now is kate moore. she is chief equity strategist at blackrock. she's going to be our guest host for the next hour. kate, you still are looking for gains in a lot of these markets. but what are you talking about lower returns for the next five years? >> let's think about this in the time period. we think we're going to have some pretty strong returns from risk assets as we go through this reflationary cycle for the next few years. we think about the five year period there's very likely going to be a section of that with lower returns. >> but you're thinking full speed ahead at least for the moment? >> relatively full speed ahead.

one of the things we tell asset allocators is you better really lower your return expectations across asset classes. the starting points where we are today, both in the cycle in terms of the earnings cycle, the business cycle, the economic cycle, as well as the multiples on many different asset classes make it hard to say we're going to return to kind of a high single digit or low double digit trend return streaming. >> i looked at your notes and i would have -- >> that's not what i took away -- >> at all. i looked that you said the reflation trade is not dead. and after the aca or whatever it was called, after that dropped off, everybody has put a -- has sort of buried the reflation trade because nothing's going to happen fiscally again. and this is blackrock's main investment thesis for equities, right, is that the reflation trade is going to continue, and that -- because it makes no sense. suddenly bond yields are going back down. there's going to be gdp is going to still stay stuck under 2%. so i mean, that's a call. saying the reflation trade is

still intact, and going to continue. >> yeah, let's be clear. the reflation trade is not about trump and the election. >> it's globally you said. >> yeah. what we saw really in terms of the pickup in reflation trade started to happen in the middle part of 2016. we were seeing, you know, very good numbers from companies reporting a little bit of inflation. the growth momentum we saw was really picking up, sentiment data was what really led our call on reflation. and that's broadened out across many different countries and regions of the world at this point. and we actually see it helped by, but not entirely driven by what's happening in terms of the u.s. political and policy landscape. >> you do have some parameters that you stick with. one of them is the assumption that the fed's going to raise rates but at a gradual pace. >> yeah, gradual pace is really important. but we do think the economy is strong enough for the fed to continue normalizing. how many more times we actually get those moves in 2017, we think it should be a few, not just one more time. but the actual labor market, as well as kind of broad growth is

supportive enough of a higher rate environment. >> kate, one of the things that kind of struck me recently is there are so many risks that are out there now. we've seen things in washington not go exactly the way a lot of people had planned after the failure of health care, the question is can you still get tax reform? can you do any of these grand ambitious goals that this administration has? the other being north korea. >> right. >> which is shooting off missiles, again, no coincidence, with chinese president xi's visit here. what should we look at? i mean the market has shaken off all of these concerns but is there a point that you start to think, okay, this is something we need to pay a little more attention to? >> when i think about the u.s. election and then the policy expectations that were built up immediately following that. it was incredibly bland those expectations and you saw participation in the u.s. equity market really peak a month out, and the long dollar positions peak a month out. and some of that has faded. i think right now, what we are trying to do, like everyone else, is understand the time line for policy priorities. you know, if we were unable to

get the repeal and replace through, does that stay on the -- as the number one policy priority for congress? and does the white house share that view? >> it doesn't seem like it. i mean it looks like they're trying to move on to tax reform while keeping health care kind of sitting around, as something they may work on when they can fine point the agreement. >> i would argue that tax reform is more important and has to be done right and we need to have coordination not just amongst the many different factions republicans but also with the democrats. this has to be a real bipartisan effort to get something that is very forward looking. >> needs to be bipartisan in order to be transformative enough or needs to be bipartisan in order that it doesn't go through reconciliation and sticks around for longer than ten years? >> i think that it is a more permanent fixture. i think what we need is that companies feel like this is not a temporary measure so that they can really readjust the way that they're spending money and allocating capital, you know, over the long term. but it's going to be bumpy. and i think this is what we're seeing a little bit in the market. is kind of a pause to say you know, how many of these policy

driven themes should really be investing in. how much of this should we really be focused kind of more on fundamentals and more on the secular themes in the near term. so we feel like we're going to get progress that d.c. needs a win. the white house needs a win. especially after what happened over the last few weeks. >> your health care is one of these big -- one of these big areas, and i don't, you know what's going to happen? they're meeting again. supposedly, you know i heard that the freedom caucus guys, the big donors are p.o.'d, and livid. >> the freedom caucus -- >> and went back to where they're from and they heard from those guys. so suddenly they're coming back and pence is saying we might have something. you see the club for growth which was against the last one. >> yep. >> so with health care i don't know how you say it's dead or on life support or being alive again. and it makes a difference. >> i just spent the last 2 1/2 days in d.c. with a number of my colleagues from blackrock meeting with policymakers. and everyone in between and got back last night. i have to say we got many

different messages about where health care falls in the priority list. so, i don't feel like i have a great sense -- >> i don't know if anybody does. >> really depends on where you're sitting and what you told your constituents and how important it is to your specific programs. but it's definitely not off the table. but i just truly believe that tax reform is the most important test and has the most broad rapging implications for how companies spend and invest. >> so we're stuck at 28 instead of 20 if you do obamacare repeal you can get to 20. >> and the case point if you go through reconciliation this is not permanent. it's not permanent, and it's really hard for companies to plan. i mean that's what they've been so bedeviled by over the last eight years. >> ten years sounds pretty permanent to me. >> not permanent but i mean that's the foreseeable future. >> not if you're investing billions of dollars on projects that take years to complete. >> how long has it been since world war ii? ten years is a long time. >> corporate culture has really changed over the last years. >> corporate culture has changed to be more long-term or

short-term? >> very short-term. and companies have been reluctant to offer guidance. they've been really concerned about allocating capital. they want to make sure their cash buffer is always -- >> you talk to any ceo the one thing they say is just give me certainty. whatever the rules are give me certainty so i can plan accordingly. >> they're always whining. for making $35 million a year they're always whining about uncertainty. that's why they're making the $35 million a year. they got to anticipate something, andrew. is that right? >> you can manage around anything just give me the rules of the road. >> yes! >> god almighty -- >> nobody talks about uncertainty anymore. >> why would you get paid $30 million if you knew -- when is there certainty? >> no explain this to me. >> never. >> with the obama administration everybody talked about uncertainty. during the trump administration they never talk about uncertainty even though many of them would suggest it feels potentially more uncertain. >> here's our song. kate's going to be with us for the rest of the hour. >> coming up, senator pat toomey talks about rolling back do

dodd-fra dodd-frank, china and tax reform. we might ask about gorsuch. that's happening this week. you're watching "squawk box." tomorrow on "squawk box," it's machine over man at blackrock. >> the terminator. >> it is nice to meet you. >> i've been trying to teach him to blend in. i know it needs work. >> the largest asset manager overhauls its stock picking business with robots. blackrock's ceo larry fink responds to the story that sparked debate in the corporate world. first on cnbc. plus, we'll get his take on the markets and the trump economy. starting tomorrow at 6:30 a.m. eastern only on "squawk box." once there was a little pig

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i'm ricardo, a sales and service consultant here at the xfinity store in bellevue, washington. here at the store, we offer internet, tv, phone, customer service, home security. every situation is a little different. it could be about billing, simple questions like changing the phone number. sometimes, they want to upgrade, downgrade, but at the end of the day, you want to take care of the customer.

one of the great things about comcast, there's always room to move up. of course, it depends on you, how hard you work. ♪ president trump has started the path to rolling back regulation on banks and in a letter to treasury secretary mnuchin a group of senators are urging an end to too big to fail policies. one of those senators joins us this morning. pennsylvania senator pat toomey. he sits on the finance budget and banking committees. god almighty. were you up all night listening to that who was talking all night, senator? jimmy stewart, who was it? it was mr. smith goes to washington. do these guys have delusions of

grandeur when they do that? do they think they're in a movie. >> believe it or not, joe, i missed part of that. >> you did? >> yeah, i know. >> did he start reading the cat in the hat or something? what went on? you don't even know. >> i don't even know. >> that was what cruz did. >> i know. i'm just talking about these guys that love to, you know, got to point out that republicans do it, too? >> i was just -- it -- >> it's still going. there we go. he's oregon, right? >> i think he might be oregon. >> i don't know. we wonder -- you wonder why this keeps happening. you wonder why we get cynical about what's going on down in the beltway, senator. >> yeah, i get it. i get it. but we've got a great man, neil gorsuch is imminently qualified. chuck schumer developed a whole new rule some years ago to use the filibuster to block judges that he didn't like, and he's going to attempt to use it to prevent us from confirming neil gorsuch, and we're not going to let him do that. i should point out, senator schumer has made the statement

that there is no one that donald trump could pick that republicans would support that he would ever support. now, it is not acceptable in my view that we leave a vacancy, or maybe perhaps multiple vacancies, for the entire president trump administration. that's senator schumer's view. it's completely unreasonable. >> senator, i also heard that, you know, this was like in one of our headlines, stop the presses, the republicans may have to do some of the stuff without democratic support. >> yeah. >> they said. is there anything you're not going to have to do, is there anything that you will have democratic support for, honestly, in the near future in your view? >> well, it's not entirely clear. but there are a couple of things that will require democratic support at some point. funding the government, for instance. the current funding expires at the end of this month. and i'm not aware of any way around getting to 60 votes to get, you know, the replacement lendl slags, whether to continue the funding at current levels or to pass a new appropriation

bill. so there are some things that we're simply going to have to have a bipartisan vote on. but there's a lot of things where we've got to acknowledge that our democratic colleagues are not really interested in working with us, and we've got to find a way to do it without them if we have to. >> we were supposed to be talking about too big to fail policies, and ending those, and andrew would probably love to talk about. let me just ask you one more thing. yesterday we had corker on, senator corker. >> yeah. >> he said everything's coming to a halt, grinding to a halt because of the russia investigation, and it's really affecting what's happening in the senate. and he's just -- won't even listen to the house intelligence, the guys investigating there, i guess because of nunes buys into the whole that the guy's been bought and paid for by the white house or something, i don't know. will only listen to the senate now. but you've got a republican sort of enabling the democrats to claim that we can't get anything done as long as there's russia hanging over everything.

>> i think it's overstraiting what he said. >> that's what he said yesterday. >> well, let me just say, we have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. and i have real confidence, richard burr and mark warner are the lead senators on the intel committee. they have both separately and together indicated their confidence and their ability to do this. i have confidence in them. >> but not the house anymore? not the house? you don't have -- >> let me finish. >> okay, go ahead. >> i'm just saying. i don't know what it is that devon nun es saw. i'm under the impression that when the democratic ranking member saw the same things he was a whole lot less critical. so i'm not drawing any conclusions about that. >> okay. >> but i am confident about the senate. and by the way, we can't do nothing while that unfolds. who knows how long it will take. who knows what we'll learn. we've got work to do. we've got to repeal regulations. we've got to get tax reform done. we do have to do health care. we made a promise to the american people, we have to get that one done. >> the issue, i've got to get to

too big to fail. but to make a fine point on this particular issue, the russian investigation, the susan rice piece of it, however you want to think about it, the question was put, is it creating a cloud or any distraction or making it more difficult to pursue some of the policies that you've talked about just now. and i think the answer that bob corker -- senator bob corker provided yesterday was yes, that is no doubt it makes it more difficult. >> but it wasn't that -- it wasn't the democrats obsession perhaps with the issue. it was that trump's behavior during the -- you know -- >> look. i think we're in a difficult spot. right? the obvious thing is that all the energy on the democratic party is on the far left, and the energy is with people who do not want to -- who do not want democrats to cooperate with president trump and republican senators. and the question is whether there's a sufficient number of democrats who will overcome that pressure and look to find common ground. so far we haven't been very fortunate in that department.

but, you know, the jury's still out. >> certainly good excuse to tie every bit of obstruction to is, well we can't -- this russia thing. anyway, take over. >> senator >> too big to fail. he quote a big book on too big to fail. >> do you believe that dodd-frank as currently constructed prevents too big to fail? >> no, i don't think so. i mean, look, as currently implemented, right, there's this massive, massive wave of regulation and rules and guidance that follows from the law itself. and you take the whole combination, and what have you got? you've got massive new liquidity requirements. massive new capital requirements. and a regulator looking over the shoulder of just about every single bank employee in america. you put all that together. is someone going to fail tomorrow? i think not. but, we're paying a huge price in terms of compliance with this regulation in lack of innovation, in the costs and lack of availability of capital

so -- and i do think eventually the regulators will get it wrong, and there is a federal bailout fund sitting out there waiting for tax paris to have to cough up some money. i want to change that. >> all right. if they send the senate some kind of bill on health care, you think -- you think everybody's too moderate there on the republican side senator to do anything the freedom caucus -- >> no, i think -- >> we'll have you back. >> we'll find common ground. >> okay, great, senator thank you. 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, but they say: if you love something... set it free. see you around, giulia ♪ what powers the digital world? communication. like centurylink's broadband network that gives

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welcome back to "squawk box" right here on cnbc. we're live at the nasdaq marketsite in times square. among the stories front and center at this hour a couple things going on. panera shares they are surging in premarket trading. the bakery trading agreed to be bought by j.a.b. they own jimmy choos, cover girl, durex. the price tag $315 per share. more than $7 billion. panera shares are up more than five fold from ten years ago and almost ten fold if you bought it back at its 2008 lows. a couple people happy this

morning. panera ceo ron shaich is going to be hanging out with the squawk on the street gang at 9:00 a.m. eastern time. also wells fargo firing at least two dozen employees at its credit card processing unit. according to "the wall street journal." coming after the bank discovered abuses that included pushing small firms into contracts that they didn't understand. the abuses were uncovered as part of the investigation that followed the bank's sales practices scandal. also, amazon signing a deal to livestream thursday night football during the coming season. amazon prime members will have exclusive rights to view ten thursday night games online. reports say amazon paid $50 million for those rights. that's about five times what twitter had paid to stream games this past season. >> you guys think that the online streaming, has cut into the nfl's viewing numbers -- >> well that was one of the big questions. >> last year, to have this now on thursday nights, do you think that that makes the traditional television rights less valuable? is it chipping away at it? >> the question has been whether

they're slising the baloney -- whether there's too much product. >> if there's too many ways to get to it. >> i don't know what happened last year. you alluded to it with baseball. that the same thing happened. something happened with football. i'm not sure. you know, people won't say it's colin kaepernick. they won't give any credence to any of that. but something happened to ratings. and maybe it's too much product. maybe they've already -- >> or maybe it's just generation. but this goes to a whole generation of how people are watching. >> concussion. >> i'm not -- >> we used to say it was going to be over because of that. >> people are still watching. they're going through different ways and i wonder if that makes what you're paying for all of these things look a little expensive at some point. anyway, when we come back, steve liesman on the lacker leak. that story is next. and then bill rudin meeting with president trump yesterday in washington at the ceo summit. he will join us to talk jobs, education, rebuilding america, and much more. "squawk box" will be right back. so you're having a party?

how nice. i'll be right there. and the butchery begins. what am i gonna wear? this party is super fancy. let's go. i'm ready. are you my uber? [ horn honks ] [ tires screech ] hold on. [ upbeat music ] the biggest week in tv is back. [ doorbell rings ] who's that? show me watchathon. xfinity watchathon week! now until april 9. get unlimited access to all of netflix and more, free with xfinity on demand. richmond fed jeffrey lacker

announcing his departure from his post effectively immediately. steve liesman has more on the sudden turn of events. how did it make it to you yesterday, steve? i saw it, and i don't know why, but i guess i hear fed and i think of you. we had been talking about lacker. where were you? did you get a phone call or see it? >> i got an e-mail. in fact i don't remember who it was from but it was the e-mail with the jeff lacker statement. >> and what was -- didn't you go holy moley or something? >> well, my initial reaction was this is something that's come up over time, and i panicked immediately that i wasn't familiar enough with the details of the case, and i remember it at the time, when it first came out, when we first learned of the investigation. and i remember when the initial information came out, i didn't think very much of it. but i want to just talk for a second, joe, about some of the reactions that are coming in this morning. >> sure. >> to the resignation yesterday of lacker. and he admitted, by the way, what we're talking about, in case you didn't follow it.

he admitted his involvement in disclosing confidential information in a 2012 discussion with a financial analyst. here's lacker's statement. quote, i regret that in this instance i crossed the line to confirming information that should have remained confidential. lacker spent 134 years as president of the richmond fed. and he's been at the bank in total for near three decades. he was scheduled to retire in october but he resigned effectively immediately yesterday. former atlanta fed president dennis lockhart he responded to the news surrounding his former colleague in an interview this morning with cnbc europe. >> the leak involved disclosing information in advance of the minutes, which is, of course, a no-no. and, you know, jeff has been a, for me, a very valued colleague for many years. so i just think this is a regrettable set of circumstances. >> and barclays out with a note this morning on the affair saying quote we view the main effects of today's announcement

as a significant loss of fed credibility. which will give ammunition to those who think fed decisions need greater scrutiny, end quote. now significant questions remain unanswered. lacker says he only inadvertently confirmed what the analyst already had. so guys, it remains possible that we still don't know who the original leaker of the information is. and, it's a question i'll put to dan tarullo, fed governor who is leaving today. not if he was the original leaker, but if he knows anything more about this and his reaction to it. i thought you might pick up on that becky. >> steve -- >> 8:15 this morning. >> and we're looking forward to that, steve. the other thing we're trying to understand is there was an article, we're talking about in "the wall street journal" about five days prior to this leak. >> right. >> that seemed to have a lot of the same kind of information in it. and how do we think about a news publication like "the wall street journal" -- >> right. >> versus this organization called medley. we call this person who made the phone call an analyst. but medley is, to some degree, perhaps even journalistic in

that it's owned by the "financial times," and provides research reports, or almost news-style articles at a premium price. >> you giegs are asking good questions this morning, andrew, is all i can tell you. i went back this morning and looked up some notes of mine from back then. i don't remember being terribly surprised or interested in the medley revelation at the time. which tells me that both the jnl had had it, maybe i had some of it, and the key point here is the idea that the federal reserve was talking about a potential threshold for assuring the market it wasn't going to raise interest rates to 6.5% unemployment and 2.5% inflation. i remember that idea being around in a bubble up from medley. i know i didn't run on air when that medley thing came out. so i think you're on to something here that the "journal" had it earlier and whether or not -- remember the big thing that lacker did here, by the way, is he failed to tell

his superiors or the general -- or the inspector general that the analyst he spoke with had confidential information. it's sort of a technicality that he's being kind of a rung up on here. >> so it's okay to leak you just got to fess up when you leak? >> well, you got to read the e-mail here, becky. because what he's saying is, he confirmed information that the financial analyst already had. >> right. >> he's not saying he's the source of it. >> exactly. >> and so what he got in trouble for was not telling the general council that the analyst had the information. so with everything with the fed it's always a little bit more confusing than you thought it would be. >> steve, thank you. we'll see you a little later. >> see you in a little bit, yeah. >> when we return, president trump holding a ceo town hall yesterday with dozens of high profile business leaders to talk about the current economic and business environment. one of the men in the room was bill rudin. he is the president of rudin management. he'll join us after the break to talk about that experience and jobs and the economy. "squawk box" will be right back. ,

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welcome back to "squawk box." yesterday donald trump renewing his pledge to improve u.s. infrastructure.

>> we have to build roads. we have to build highways. we're talking about a very major infrastructure bill. of a trillion dollars, perhaps even more. >> let's bring in bill rudin. he's co-chairman and ceo of rudin management company who attended yesterday's ceo town hall. what did you make of the meeting? >> i thought it was very interesting. it was actually a full day of meetings. we were not only at the white house, we were on capitol hill. and we were there to talk about sustaining growth, creating jobs, continue making new york the global financial capital of the world, which it is. and to talk about infrastructure and other important things to create jobs, jobs, jobs. that's what it's all about. >> so, bill, what was your big takeaway? >> i think the takeaway was in terms of infrastructure, the president and gary cohn and others talked about trying to make the time line much shorter to get projects started, and

completed. now it takes seven to ten or twelve years. they're trying to move that down to a much shorter time line so that the bridges and the tunnels, the infrastructure can get done and help create jobs and grow our economy. so that was very important. also, air traffic control. there was a lot of discussion about modernizing it, making it global satellite, versus radar. which the canadians already do. that will save fuel, save time, and again, create jobs, and grow the economy. >> you walk away from a meeting both with the president, and i imagine legislators on both sides of the aisle and you say to yourself, i'm more confident? i think that we're going to get tax reform. we're going to get all these infrastructure things. the faa thing which you just talked about has been on the table, dare i say for probably a decade at this point. but you walk away thinking this is going to happen now? >> yes, i think, obviously some things will get done. other things won't get done. but there was definitely bipartisan support for infrastructure. there was no question about that. that was a very important takeaway that we felt confident

that people were focused on that and trying to get that done. we met with senator -- schumer and others -- >> could you see the white house pivot to infrastructure before they even take on the tax reform issue? >> well, it sounded like they were moving that forward sooner rather than later. and then tax reform will follow afterwards. but i think there was also a sense that tax reform will be much more thought through in terms of how to, you know, politically navigate the waters in a, i think a better way. and also, you know, there was some discussion maybe not doing personal income tax and focused on the corporate side. so i think there's a lot of different ideas floating around there. but there was a general sense that this administration and i think capitol hill that people are focused on job creation. which is very, very important for new york. and frankly for the rest of the country, and this whole sense of urbanism. >> i'm hearing two new things from you just now. one is that you do think that --

in terms of the ordering of events that you think an infrastructure plan is going to come forward before we get to tax reform? is that right? because i think previously the view had been that we were -- they were going to effort to repeal obamacare which obviously hasn't happened yet. then they'd move to tax. then they'd move to infrastructure in that order. you think it's different? >> well, sounds like from the president and gary cohn that very shortly an infrastructure plan will be announced where you have, you know, joe's friend richard lefrack and steve roth on a commission working on infrastructure and as i mentioned before, making that time line much shorter to get projects moving forward. so i think, yes, i think infrastructure will be moving a little bit faster, than tax reform. it's less controversial, and so i think there was, you know, a general sense to move that forward sooner rather than later. >> and then on the tax piece your takeaway was less of a larger comprehensive tax reform policy that includes personal and corporate and just to do a corporate piece?

>> well, that, you know, again when you're in washington you hear a lot of different ideas and concepts from both sides of the aisle. so there was, you know, there was definitely discussion on both personal income tax and corporate tax. but there was also discussion on shifting just to focus on corporate tax. so i think it's still in play on which direction it's going to go. but there was definitely a positive mood in terms of the economy, and people i think feeling confident. we're seeing it in new york city. we're seeing infrastructure already happening in new york city. tappan zee bridge, lagaraguardi airport. we're doing a project at the brooklyn navy yard which is owned by the city where we leased the land along with our partners boston properties, and we work as the base tenant. a great example of the public/private partnership that was discussed yesterday. it's a 700,000 foot building. as i mentioned, we work as the major tenant and it's all about

creating the environment for the jobs of the future. there was a lot of discussion about workforce development yesterday, education, how do we train, the people who've lost their jobs. how do we train the young people coming out of high school and college, vocationally. and you know, making sure they have the skills that are important to fill the really the millions of jobs that are vacant with people who understand what it is to have, you know, have those skills to fill those needs. >> okay, bill. we love having you on. hope to see you in person next time. >> i will be happy -- i can't wait to come back home and be with my family and see you guys again. i'll be back tonight. so, thanks for having me on. >> you got a deal. thanks, bill. coming up next, when we return, blackrock's second quarter outlook. we're going to ask kate moore what she's expecting. take a quick look at the futures as we head to a break. tomorrow on "squawk box," it's machine over man, at blackrock.

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blackrock out with its investment outlook for the second quarter of this year. kate moore has the details. she's the chief equity strategist at blackrock. do you think that if someone is lucky enough to have blackrock advising them on their investments that they can have a medium to high rate of return over the next -- i mean are you stuck with -- with this tepid environment? or can you do better if you use your expertise? >> so let's be clear. the expectations we have as part of our capital markets assumptions for the forward five years are based on just beta returns. and if you want to get, i think, higher returns, and really beat, we think, the average market returns will be for each of these different regions, you need to actually take active risk. and really make a strong -- >> sounds like you need an active mix. someone who can manage your money -- we do see this a lot for people that are in that

business. you can't believe how many times -- in fact, every market we have someone say, you know what? this is no longer just a rising tide. more important than ever for us to be telling you what stocks to buy. they always say that. >> let's be clear. i said take active risk. not just active managers. you need to think about, you know -- >> ever not the case, though, kate? >> you can take active risk with using passive and index vehicles, as well. you're making an active decision to concentrate different risks in your portfolio. >> but the reward is always -- >> it should always be commensurate with risk. >> and it usually is. is that less so now? or more so? >> no we just think that the breadth of opportunities is narrowed. and so you need to be more selective about what you own. and it's not just about owning active managers. it's also about taking active decisions about what sectors and factors you have your portfolio. >> and which scenes are the

right one, are you talking internationally? since this is a global situation? >> when we look at our global equity landscape we're most constructive on the opportunities for returns outside of the u.s. at this point. a lot of it has to do with the starting point for u.s. valuations, and frankly some of the good news has been baked into the price as well as positioning. maybe it wasn't as lofty as before immediately following the election. but u.s. equities tend to be the largest anchor in most people's portfolios. it's not underweight. so we see some real opportunity as this reflation trade has broadened out for other reasons to perform very well. we're probably most constructive on emerging markets. >> which emerging markets? >> e.m. asia specifically. also the majority of the market cap at this point. we're seeing good growth, strong fundamentals. value uses that are not demanding. and from the positioning perspective this is a big thing for e.m. all of the tourists are out of emerging markets so there's a lot of room for people to

reallocate back to the space. >> great. kate we want to thank you for being with us this morning. it's been a pleasure. >> thanks for having me. >> good to see you. when we come back. we do have private payroll data from adp. and then a "squawk box" exclusive. the fed's dan tarullo will be joining us. check out the futures this morning. yesterday the markets were up, breaking three days in a row of losses. this morning you're seeing green arrows once again. dow futures up by about 26 points. s&p futures up just over a point. the nasdaq up 2 1/2. "squawk box" will be right back. ♪

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breaking news. panera bread cooks up a deal j.a.b. buying the bakery chain for $7 billion. >> jobs in america. the adp employment report just minutes away. we will bring you the numbers and what they could tell us about this week's payrolls release. >> plus a "squawk box" newsmaker. outgoing fed governor dan tarullo. that cnbc exclusive interview straight ahead as 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, welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc live from the nasdaq marketsite. i'm joe kernen along with becky quick and andrew ross sorkin. >> there is a financial times square in london. >> the "l.a. times" square. >> "new york times" -- >> i thought we were going with squawk square. >> longacre square. >> futures right now. >> turn green momentarily. we'll take a quick look. i think the s&p -- yep, green across the board now. had been lower. the s&p and now indicated up 1.6 points. the dow jones indicated up about 28. and the nasdaq indicated up around two treasury yields have risen a little bit. it was as low as almost under 2.3 yesterday on the ten-year. 2.36 basically today on the ten-year. >> knock our top stories this morning, the company that owns crispy people and keurig green mountain is adding panera bread to the mix. j.a.b. is that company.

it's acquiring the bakery chain for more than $7 billion. and paying $315 a share for the company. the stock is up again today. started jumping pretty significantly yesterday on rumors of this. this morning you can see stock is up by $37.51 to $311.51 a share. panera's ceo ron shaich will be on squawk on the street at 9:00 a.m. eastern time. this is a cnbc exclusive interview. on the economic agenda the march adp employment report is due in just a few minutes. private sector payrolls are expected to rise by 180,000. then coming up at 2:00 p.m. eastern time the fed will be releasing the minutes from its most recent policy meeting. and a programming note, don't miss our exclusive interslew with outgoing fed governor dan tarullo. it's his last day on the job. that interview is on "squawk box" at 8:15. >> in other fed news jeffrey lacker out as richmond fed president. a fascinating and bizarre story. this is six months before his planned retirement. comes after an admission that a

2012 conversation he had had with an analyst may have disclosed confidential information. lacker had been scheduled to retire in october. he will not face charges in this instance. but it does raise the question of how often these fed governors are taking calls from analysts and others on wall street, and how much information is leaking out into the system. how open they are. >> right. >> and you know we were talking with kate moore in the last hour and i think it was off camera some of the questions, it was her understanding that the fed presidents tried to stay back from that. obviously their policy guys who are out there interacting a lot with the street constantly. >> right. research team, et cetera. >> but the idea that -- that a research analyst is making a call to a fed governor, and they're just taking the phone call. >> talk tofsh and they love to talk. every week we say who's going to talk. eleven guys. they love to talk. they love the attention. >> it's one thing to give a speech, to come on the air, to give an interview. >> where everyone has access. >> this stuff wasn't that

compelling or interesting. that he told this guy. >> steve liesman said he didn't even remember -- >> he had the same stuff and didn't even realize. at this point none of it is interesting. >> steve said the reason he got in trouble is he didn't tell the general council and didn't say to them yes that i had this conversation. >> they do too much. i want to go back to not knowing what's going on. green fan's going to tell us like every three months what's going on. we won't understand a word he says anyway. wasn't that the good old days? no? they weren't in our life quite as much. we didn't get to play the john williams music whenever he talks. >> and greenspan you will try and figure out what he's going to say based on his briefcase indicator. >> but we know -- did you ever, back then, i remember volcker, i could not tell you one other person that was on the fed back then. not one other person in the history -- could you? >> i probably couldn't. >> now we know 13. we know loretta. we know wyle, we know every

single one of them. why? >> you're right. >> well we have a congressman, though. >> i like him. now to the -- >> talk to. >> politics and the road to tax reform house ways and means committee chairman kevin brady says that under the republican blueprint we can expect better than reagan reform to grow the economy. >> we have better than reagan reforms to grow the economy. americans the top three places on the planet for the next new job and it breaks even in the budget all which we think are important to conservatives, and we think perhaps some democrats as well. >> joining us now congressman patrick meehan, member of the house ways and means committee. congressman, thanks for joining us this morning. i can tell you about ten things that we talk about all the time now with tax reform. you want to hear them? >> i'm sure start with your top three. >> will there be border adjustment? and what does the white house really think since congressman

brady, chairman brady thinks it's so important? that's one. two, did the failure of the obamacare repeal and replace, did that really number one make it harder and number two, sort of put us at 28%? on corporate taxes because we don't have that trillion dollars. that's the second thing that we worry about. and three, there's some people saying we're going no personal reform. just corporate reform that we're talking about now. and it just seems like there's a lot of moving parts, and watching what happened with this last attempt, it's one of the reasons i think people are worried. >> yeah, well you asked very, very good questions. let me start with the first. i think your point about the white house is critical. there's a lot of discussion and an issue in which the white house believes it has a lot of expertise. and i think appropriately so. so, the ability for the ways and means committee, the senate finance committee, and the white house to come to agreement on what the basic structure of tax reform before things are put

forward, i think is going to be one key. i think it's realistic to believe there will be conversations. the second point about whether or not we've got a baseline that we can start at that gives us a realistic shot to get where we need to, if we don't have health care reform. well that's still not a certainty that we won't, but let's assume that we don't get there, it makes the job tougher. we may not be able to get the kind of