>> well, recused himself from this. >> it's amazing -- >> a lot of other things going on. >> there's a priority of ten. >> maybe you get certain issues off the table. >> the whole russia thing is -- we talk about russia all day. had nothing to do with whether there was any contact during the transition or before. it was totally different subject. >> i'll make you a promise. the issueb wi will be back. >> well, maybe you'll find something some day. join us on monday. "squawk on the street" is up next. ♪ good friday morning. welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer, and dave faber of the new york stock exchange. three big stories to watch, syria, the president's meeting with china and now the miss on march jobs. 98,000 is well below estimates of nearly down that. we have you covered on how the market responds. futures are down a bit. mild losses in europe. the yields briefly dipped below 2.3 to the lowest just since --

since after election day. our road map begins with the big jobs number. the monthly job report come in under expectations. what now? and the u.s. launches an air strike on syria. trump and chinese president xi continue to meet at mar-a-lago. we'll take you live there for the latest. weighing in on the payroll number, retailers were a big part of this slashing 30,000 jobs last month in addition to the month before. construction adding the fewest jobs in seven months. we did see an increase in average hourly earnings, jim, but it's the worst two months for retail since december of '09. we can figure out why. >> yeah. this is what you call a secular trend. this is not something that's going to come back. i think that what you had was that you had a weak -- you had a weak holiday season for bricks and mortar. it got weaker. jpmorgan they do incredible analysis of the mall and it's down double digit traffic.

you can't sustain your stores in bad malls anymore. and all of the retailers in the malls are kind of making the same move at once which tells you it's amazon. you can say it's omni channel which is they're defeating themselves, but there's no way that you can maintain your store fleet with amazon doing what it's doing. by the way, i think strantd -- restaurants will be equally as bad because of the stay at home economy. i don't know what the people will do particularly if you lay off checkers if you get that automated pay that i know that debold has. even if amazon can't do it. >> there's a displacement of workers who were there. there's a question of where kids are going to work. mall is where so much of us got our first jobs. >> yeah, i read your tweet this morning. very discouraging about people go to college. there's nothing. i have seen this first hand with having two kids who just graduated from college and see twh ing what they do. and people live at home.

people hang on. people try to get those jobs at the mall. it is a different world from when we -- i graduated in literally in a recession. but there was still jobs. just they weren't great jobs. i mean, this is a tough time for the entry level people. very tough time. >> all right. although there are still jobs being created. >> well, are you a code writer? >> i am not. i am not. yeah. i prefer to write plays but not a big market for that. >> if you can write code and the problem with writing code you have to have schooling from elementary school on. >> you do. and that is starting to be the case. i mean, here we've got a three month trend now given this number of 178,000. it was 187,000 average jobs per month in 2016. >> right. >> and 226,000 in 2015. things are slowing. but more to the point, guys, you know, how rapidly are things starting to slow now? is this going to -- part of the narrative that number on new

cars -- >> remember, that was the single -- lebeau gave us the signal. when he was shocked -- remember that day? it was like oh, man, i don't want to see phil shocked. >> monday, it was this week. >> was that this week? >> i believe it was. >> feels like a lifetime ago. >> auto sales, monday. >> yeah. >> i know, it does feel like a while ago. let's draw this out a little. are things slowing? retail of course. but there are trends in retail that go beyond the economic side. >> can we ditch adp? we decide that adp is not any good? the stock was signaling a lot more than what adp was saying that. that stock has been rolling over. look it's just a question. who's better at doing this? but now steve leishman did correctly point out that the march unemployment rate was most impressive. again, when i look at the categories i have to tell you that construction i find surprising because housing is very strong and commercial.

>> christin: -- construction is very good. >> it goes 59 in february. march, 6. >> there's not positive -- >> you believe that's weather? >> i believe it's weather. the really great ceos always just say i don't want to hear about weather. but that number has to be weather related. just because you can't have that level drop off. i mean, i don't care how bad repeal and replace was. i think repeal and replace did create a kind of a more negative view, but the stay at home economy. you know, netflix -- netflix, amazon. activism, blizzard, domino pizza, what della, corona economy. >> that's not bad if we get back to the number that's more along the lines of what's expected for next month. this could be forgotten about. >> well, we have easter -- >> inflation data can go away. we can start to see the bond yields trend up again. >> all right. do you really keep raising interest rates if you're the fed? you say, hey, listen --

>> i think you do for now, right? >> i think that people are going to start talking about flat yield curve. talking about recession. the narrative is going to change. come on, the ten year. >> 3% on the ten year, is it ever going to happen? >> we have tech anythings now say -- technicians saying you can -- if that breaks 175, do you believe that? >> then the -- then we'll start to hear sub prime loan dewhen? sy -- dlin? sys coming in. this is the new narrative. >> to say that -- >> i think it is. remember, what are the retailers that are doing well, what does start getting better in april and may? home. remember what christmas is for home depot, it's coming up. they're the strongest retailer other than costco. nice note from telsey about walmart. >> yeah. upgrading. >> the walmart grim reapers is

as savage as the amazon grim reaper. >> walmart is reasserting itself and might not be as opposed to some sort of border adjustment tax as you might otherwise have thought it could take out a lot of commissipetition. it can withstand -- >> the centers from wall marmar- >> i think we have a lot to learn about that. and of course what the administration's proposal will be in any way involving tax reform and whether it will include either a v.a.t. or b.a.t. and what the rate would be. >> call a national regressive sales tax if you ask me. >> that's not going to help the jobs. >> self-styled academic, einstein, speaker of the house, no one smarter because he said it, is very much in favor. remember he says he has the mou house plan. but the white house doesn't have it together. yeah. you know what i mean? >> yeah, i do.

well, we haven't seen a plan. >> not yet. >> the other big mix today is syria. the u.s. fires 59 tomahawk missiles at a syrian air base. our michelle caruso-cabrera has the latest. >> yeah. the missiles were directed at the airfield that the u.s. government believes was used to launch a chemical weapons attack earlier this week that killed more than 100 people including children. the airfield al shea yayrat is in the country and used by bashar al assad as he fights against an insurgency trying to oust him. russia supports assad militarily and a drone video was released. it shows the aftermath of the attack and that its effectiveness was quote low. their list of the damage -- six mig 23s in a repair hangar. they said that the airway and runway and parking areas of the syrian air force they claim were

not damaged. syrian government put out a statement from the office of the president calling the attack reckless, irresponsible and not based on true facts. surrounding that chemical weapons attack earlier this week. but the syrian and russian's governments claims the banned chemical weapons were in fact controlled by terrorists fighting in the country and not the syrian government. the u.s. government says they have evidence to the contrary. guys, back to you. >> all right. michelle, thank you very much. jim, you did say this morning the pajama traders who sold s&p down 19 stopped following you on twitter. >> yeah. these guys who just sell, they know one thing. which is that we have -- we must take action no matter how reckless and stupid it is. these people are wearing feet pajama when they trade. protocol. jeffrey goldberg who i regard as being the foremost policy writers in the country today said something that i think is synonymous with why the futures went up. this is something that worldwide

about row -- apro base for trump, and why that is i think -- you know, it's been a long time. no one -- no one endorses chemical warfare. you would only endorse it if you're an international criminal. and if anybody wants to go read what happened in world war ii, what happened in world war ii and after syria did it last time, would know if you're pro chemical warfare you're an outlaw that will never be embraced. so trump will have great aprobation. i think that's being reflected in stronger futures than you expect. >> the market doesn't seem to be worried about this being anything other than surgical for the moment. >> well, i mean, look, mattis who is a great general, and the battle for fallujah, all you have to do is read what mattis has done. he knows how to take out everything. if you wanted to take out more, and that is the secretary of defense he can take out more. the russians can show all the movies they want.

what matters is that they could have taken out damascus if they wanted to. remember the golan heights, you can look at damascus, it's pretty close. it's not hard to get to is what i'm saying. you can take out damascus. >> we don't have missiles in the golan heights. >> no, but in terms of where it is, it's a real easy thing to take out. no, it's the israelis. if you look at dadamascus, it's not hard to hit. they didn't go after damascus. >> thankfully, a lot of civilians there. you don't want to do that. >> you go after a place that there's not a lot of civilians and make a statement. this is not 1945. this is -- what are -- we always attribute like it's zukof out there. this is the russia still waiting to get the population back where it was because they had 29 million people die during the war. i mean, come on.

we can all equate russia to the united states. do it all youmen want. but if the united states wanted to take out damascus -- easy. >> yeah. tillerson goes to moscow next week. we'll talk about what that meeting will be like. implications for foreign policy and the markets in the days to come. when we return, a busy morning. the president is holding that second day of meeting with us the chinese president. a lot at stake for their respective companies. look at the premarket. the dow is perfectly flat for the week. see what happens when the opening bell rings in about 18 minutes. the power of a low volatility investing approach. the power of smart beta. power your client's portfolio with powershares. before investing, consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. call 800-983-0903 for the prospectus containing this information. read it carefully. distributed by invesco distributors inc. containing this information. read it carefully. i can't wait for her to have that college experience that i had. the classes,

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we had a long discussion already. and so far i have gotten nothing, absolutely nothing. but we have developed a friendship. i can see that and i think long term we're going to have a very, very great relationship and i look very much forward to it. >> that is the president. some humor from him last night at that din we are the chinese president. both leaders said to engage in the second day of talks at mar-a-lago in florida. trade in north korea among the big issues and an expanded bilateral schedule at 10:30, followed by a working lunch. the president has accepted an invitation to visit china. this relationship is a lot

different than we -- some thought it might have been. >> this is a man who negotiates in private. everybody he's already been on the other side -- i love that guy. have you noticed that he loves that guy? you're looking askance, you're doing that thing. i'm going to talk to carl. ever noticed -- i'll talk to both of you. look, this was a meeting that was similar to the other meetings that he has. but publicly it's all good, in private is he putting the hammer to the guy? he goes back to china, you know what, this isn't going to be so bad. this is a man who is in private a little tougher, but in public lets us get away with good face that matters. >> you're right, the idea of the public perception is important. certainly with the chinese and how you deal with it. we have gone through it many times, we have talked to plenty of experts and we'll see if there's any progress made. humor or not on issues of trade.

>> right. >> and the issue of north korea which are both very, very important. most important -- you know, relationship most likely at this point. >> certainly more than russia. >> yeah. >> russia is oppositional. >> no, it's not. where does their economy rank in the world? >> the russian market is down badly and the ruble could be in trouble. you raise an interesting question on north korea it's very easy for the chinese to say they'll do something and then do nothing. >> yes. it is. >> because they're so cryptic in north korea. how are you going to prove they're doing anything? >> it would be very interesting to see -- again, you don't expect necessarily you're going to get specific -- a specific deal of any kind out of this meeting. this is a process. >> right. but why do -- >> involving the relationship. >> do people think it would deskrovl into -- devolve into khrushchev coming to the worlds fair and burying the united

states? >> no, but after the angela merkel meeting, i know that the president didn't actually give her a bill for nato. but that wasn't seen as having gone particularly well. >> no. i agree with that. i think that in many ways that's globalism versus america first. and i think that, you know, globalism is the enemy for this president. >> what does that mean? >> well, i think that merkel is the leader of globalization. >> yes. >> she feels like obama. free trade, free trade, free trade. i think that one of the things that trump has in common with the chinese is they want to win. okay? merkel is somehow everybody wins from globalization. trump does not think that. trump has to get some concessions from xi. xi should like to have some market here. in other words, these are two people fighting for their country and merkel is fighting for the globe. trump doesn't like that. >> how much are you watching the reports and they're all early and sketchy that trump is having to decide between two sides of

an internal white house battle, between bannon acolytes and kushner acolytes? >> sometimes you have to admit, i don't know the answer to that. i don't know. i defer. >> why would you defer to me? you think i've got the answer to that. >> i'm trying to kick it to you. not -- >> all right. i will pass on that. >> i don't know as much as you. >> we can all try to talk as many people as possible, but really understanding what's going on in the white house -- it's a difficult thing to do. >> it's a little more -- you need more tea leaves watching than i'm used to. i think -- remember the obama administration was classic. we would have someone come on from the labor department or chief economic adviser, years later you would talk to them at a party. listen, i'm sorry i had to be so party line, but that's what i am. i'm party line. you know, you get that post obama. yeah, like, look, we have one voice. >> right. that's not the case here. >> no. that's very different. you have to understand -- >> on the part of those speaking

for the administration sometimes, that can be confusing. >> it is. >> that can be confusing the realm of foreign policy and in economics. >> yeah. >> there's a reason you want to speak with one voice. >> yeah. we don't know. remember when i say china, does he like xi, no. but i think merkel -- look, this special relationship between germany and the united states i am telling you is -- this was -- the air strikes were the first thing that he's done that would possibly please merkel versus everything else that was done. >> yes. certainly it did that. >> yes. >> along with widespread congressional approval as you pointed out. we'll get cramer's "mad dash" and look at the opening bell. more "squawk on the street" from nyse straight ahead. opportunities aren't always obvious. sometimes they just drop in. cme group can help you navigate risks and capture opportunities. we enable you to reach global markets

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all right. we're getting close to a friday trading session beginning about seven minutes from now. you want to talk a little biotech. >> i'm going into your wheelhouse. one of the stocks that did the best when janet yellen that biotechs were too overstretched, this company has so many different formulations. they have deals with bristol and with merck. it was downgraded this week, novartis, astro zenify, do they not have to on on the sites of the weak pipelines? >> i think they do. i think they're all looking for growth.

as you know. this is the way that they typically have been able to get it. even paying very very large numbers don't forget sanofi tried to buy medivation and paying far above what sanofi could get to. but i will also say that what i'm picking up in m&a land is a bit of reluctance when it comes to cross border, certainly on the part of the buyers who want a better sense of the landscape. >> you mean like a trump landscape? >> yes. >> this one is worth $200 on a takeout easily. >> don't forget, repatriation if we get it this year will figure prominently in the pharmaceutical world given how much cash is overseas for so many of the big u.s. companies. >> a great point. >> what they'll do with it. because they aren't necessarily just expecting to come back and buy back stock or increase their dividends. they are expected to deploy that capital for deals. so that starts to figure prominently into names like this

and others in the sector. >> there are a bunch of biotech companies that have pipelines that are so extraordinary. i had a little one the other day, cara therapeutics that has an anti-opioid as a way to stop the pain and the fda new head -- what does he want? he wants to conquer the opio opioopioi opioid -- the epidemic. these companies are all for sale at the right price. >> all right. speaking of things for sale we'll have some stocks that are going to be sold at the open this morning. reaction to the less than expected number on the jobs but we'll if fill you you in on all the markets straight ahead.

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i'm in. 7,000 players. our plays are a little unorthodox. but to beat the big boys, you need smarter ways to save people money. we know what you want from a financial company and we'll stop at... nothing to make sure you get it. one, two... and we mean nothing. ♪ ♪ you're watching cnbc "squawk on the street" live from the financial capital of the world. the opening bell in a couple of minutes. three big stories as we said at the top of the hour. the strikes in syria, the jobs number and the ongoing meeting between the president and the president of china. on the jobs number, got a statement from ways and means and kevin brady says it's clear there's a lot of work to do. it starts with overhauling our uncompetitive tax code. the question is where does tax now fit into the conversation? >> oh, look, it is exhausting to hear that and know that the

weakest part of the economy is retail. because retail is where the layoffs will have to come if you do a border tax. because a lot of the retailers cannot afford to pass through. ma walmart is doing so well because they can pass through any border tax, they have the capabilities and the balance sheet. look at the retailers in the mall. those stocks are going to start going down again if this fellow -- if brady continues to talk. because he's talking about border tax. last night i had rob sands on from the unbelievably well performing constellation brands, modello, tequila, prisoner wine. they're saying the border, tax, no. >> i think it will be a heavy lift for them to get a border tax done as part of tax reform. when you look at the votes in the senate if they even get there. but we'll see.

>> do they think they'll bring back the jobs from bangladesh and we can't compete against the countries that pay a dollar a day. never. >> there's the opening bell. the s&p at the bottom of your screen, the big board, big brother, big sisters of northern new jersey. and at the nasdaq celebrating the ipo, identify management software in the cloud. >> the cloud. oh, man. you know, there's a battleground now. some people are saying that the cloud is slowing. inconceivable, it's one of the great sectors of the growth stories. the top of the tallest building, it's interesting that the stock hit an all time high after meetings with some very large investors. where it kind of just -- you know, pretty bullish about the cloud. >> i don't know, man. >> what? >> karma on new shiny towers and

stocks at all time highs, not good. >> like a century link thing in terms of stadiums? >> i'm telling you, at least for a while sometimes it just doesn't go that well after you have finished your big -- >> is that karma per share? i'm used -- >> is that the karma multiple? >> eprobably means nothing. >> like the "sports illustrated" jinx? >> when you were on the cover of "sports illustrated" it was a jinx. karma is a boomerang. remember that. >> karma. i don't know what to do. where's tony robbins. with the four agreements the -- >> with four agreements. >> you have to be true to your word. >> biggest s&p gainer, raytheon. >> you know -- >> maker of the tomahawk. >> back in 1981, yes, they make the tomahawks so they'll get what, $100 million in refills of tomahawk. that is a knee jerk move that will -- i think raytheon is an

inexpensive stock. i don't want to say it shouldn't be bought. we saw this a lot, we saw this when iraq invatded kuwait. we struck and the stocks that did well were defense stocks and then two weeks later the best stock was home depot. >> obviously -- >> i mean, they're all good companies. all going to have a lot of orders anyway. so i'm not saying sell them. i'm just saying that this is historically not been a great level. i mean -- every time there's been a tomahawk that's been shot, people paid big for the raytheon. look at the ratio. >> tomahawk to what -- >> tomahawk to raytheon ratio. every time a tomahawk is fired, people buy raytheon. a knee jerk. >> that's -- >> what you're looking for is a joint strike fighter contract.

that's where you make the money. the biggest contracts that have happened this year are boeing and iran. there's a contract that is much more questionable after this. since iran and -- syria is considered to be a proxy state for iran. which general mathis knows all too well. >> yeah. as far as the syria effect last night we did see oil get to $52.70. your eye is still on the bhi rig count at one. >> yeah. i think the people who buy those stocks -- remember, syria, don't presume that what's happen -- you need to see major takeout of capacity of large oil producing countries. and you're not ogoigoing to gett from this. oil has to go up based on the united states not drilling less and i think we're drilling more. the glut is totally connected to what we're able to pull out of the ground. >> someone made the point a strike on syria alone is not a

major interruption of high quality supply. >> not at all. merge perm -- pe more important -- west texas is more important than anything. you buy the oil companies off of the idea that they can make -- whoever can make the most at $50, not because you think this is going to -- the biggest story in oil may have been the venezuelan protest. if you get venezuela off line i think you can get a dip -- venezuela is a country to watch. we don't have good information that much anymore but the protests are becoming more like something can happen and venezuela is a giant producer. although much less than they used to because they don't pay their bills. >> are you surprised the vix barely got above 13? >> i know. >> it's back below. >> i think there's an underlying bid to this mark. the resilience. that doesn't mean it will go up. but we got overbought on the

s&ps of sill lat s&ps of asill later. there are buyers undernooet and they rotate. take a look at a fedex. a mcdonald's. look at the rails. i mean, there's always buyers underneath of these. the industrials, buyers underneath. the banks maybe less. but they come down. buyers come in. >> what is that? is that money coming into the index funds? >> i don't know. >> we had some money come out of it. >> right. but i think the institutions are trying to figure out well, we don't want to fall behind the averages which we're -- which were great during the first quarter. it is amazing to me that there's so much buying power underneath. it's rather bizarre. >> caveat to that. we have outflows for the week ended wednesday. down -- >> yeah. >> i'm looking at the b of a numbers. yeah, for the first time in -- the worst in a long time. >> but think about this. we had syria which is something that was not thought about.

we had a very weak employment number so the fed is less likely theoretically to raise twice. we have a ten year that the interest rate is going down. and the market is -- it's not off 2%. that's the scenario that everything that could go right -- everything could go wrong has gone wrong. and people are in there buying the semiconductors. the semi-conductors being the group that's led this market in a lot of ways. >> there's a school of thought, we're getting closer to full employment. this is not about a real slowing but this is about -- >> so it's secular to retail and other things are pretty good. >> exactly. so it's still inflationary. >> well, six or half dozen. i have to tell you, i'm -- you know, i'm astonished at the strength of what i regard as just being the core technology holdings that i have always seen. yesterday was really incredible. like amazon was down, but a lot of tech was off. f.a.n.g. was down. traditionally. but i just find that when stocks

come in, buyer's right there. whether it be biotech or retail. even retail. like yesterday. retail was so strong. >> today, amd is your second biggest gainer. >> amd, that block that was a 15 yard infraction that goldman sachs, you know what i mean? that's two, that's personal. >> that's an ejection. >> ejection. >> suspension, fine? >> don't you think. the commissioner letter -- there's a fedex commissioner letter to that guy who downgraded advanced micro, to a sell. it will be a $15 fine. right from the commissioner. >> another stock that had a good day and tiny follow through today, comcast. got to mention it on the introduction of the wireless plan. >> did you see "usa today"? >> no. >> the features, the side by side features. it's just much cheaper. >> it is. but there had been concerns that comcast was going to perhaps be even more -- offer even more

concessions in terms -- by the way you have to be a comcast subscriber to take advantage of the mobile virtual network agreement that they have with verizon wireless that gives them access to spectrum and the wi-fi hot spots they're setting up. there was a concern this would be lower and it was a loss leader for this company. >> there was chatter -- >> that it would be even more -- >> that's -- >> more of a chunk out of ebitda. >> maybe that's why the stock is doing better. >> listen, they're building something at comcast for the future when 5-g comes, and the consumption patterns in terms of wireless change dramatically -- >> you're still going with the 5-g in 2020? >> i think it's a ways away. >> i was going to talk about broadcom --

>> but so expensive. do you know how much money will be spent to make 5-g a reality? >> i can give you ten stocks that it's the long term for, 5-g. whether it's juniper or ciena. all the tower companies which are so strong. >> eventually, the autonomous car grid will be run on 5-g. 15 or 20 years from now. >> no, really? you don't think the future is now? >> i do. i think when we'll have all the cars running on their own thing -- the cloud. >> i saw bill gurley had comments yesterday that it's farther off than we -- than we think. widespread mobility autonomy. >> i don't know. i have to tell you when you look at what the blue pill/red pill piece that barclays put out about tesla and jim stewart, tesla's doing autonomous car testing. waymo i told you is way ahead. i don't think it will be that far. but maybe it will be one of the things where it will be

evolving. you kind of -- >> i'm saying when you're going to have the majority of cars -- >> okay. >> and being able the -- you know, all be networked. that's a ways away. >> do you think uber will -- >> i think it's possible. >> i do too. >> certainly going to have a share of autonomous cars on the streets long before 15 years. >> the big issue is the same -- if there's an accident it immediately kind of -- even though there are accidents horrible accidents every day, you have one accident with autonomous -- when i drove in the autonomous when i was -- at waymo at google's headquarters, i was at the edge of the seat when it started. it was one of the worst -- like a disney ride. you know, like apollo's chariot. that's another company. >> let's get to michelle caruso-cabrera, watching the news out of syria. i imagine some other news as well. >> yeah, we are monitoring another possible terrorist attack in europe. this time in sweden, carl. the police in stockholm treating

the situation as a possible terrorist incident. take a look. a truck has driven into a department store in stockholm. we have a still photo of that truck in the department store. the reuters is reporting they have seen bodies on the ground, draped with blankets and that reuters is also reporting that local reports suggest that there are three dead. we have this on ddr 2 this photo, so we can show people? perhaps not. we will monitor this situation but let you know so far i haven't seen a market reaction very strong in either direction. back to you, guys. >> thank you very much for that. at this moment, defense and semiconductors are leading the charge. banks and retail are down. now to bob pisani. >> good morning. we're up, but a very mixed morning. you're right. the market has a more defensive tone. gold has been strong all day. we mentioned this all week. gold is at the highest level since going back to november.

we see consumer staple stocks on the upside as well. health care on the upside. you'd think energy would be up more when oil is close to $53 but we're below $52 so it's not as strong as you might expect. industrials have been strong as carl mentioned that's very simply because the defense stocks are all up. you can see raytheon, lockheed martin, boeing, general dynamics all on the upside. caterpillar and honeywell are on the upside as well. where's the risk right now in the market? i think the important thing is to note given the developments overnight, geopolitical risk is definitely back on the radar for traders. however, other market risks i think still rank higher. any risks to the trump agenda, any risks from the fed getting more aggressive than traders already anticipate. and now risk to the economy as well. look at the dow movements that we saw this week. you can see how the market reacted. this morning, the dow dropped 60 points. this was prior to the open on the disappointing jobs report. 100 points on the gee jopolitic

risk and 200 points after the fed said they'd reduce their balance sheet and ryan said tax reform can take longer than health care. you can see risk to the trump agenda is really top of the mind for most traders. banks today, down again. this is becoming a little bit of a problem. we're about 10% off of the highs we saw recently here so wells fargo, should be wells fargo there to the downside as well. a lot is supposed to go right for banks. this is a little bit of a problem. let me recap what we're expecting for earnings coming up. expecting 15% earnings growth in the financials and that's mostly banks that's a lot to ask from them. the rates run. i mean, we were at 1.75 a year ago and we're at 2.3 now. they've been trending down recently. that problem was not expected three months ago. long growth was supposed to be better. it's generally weaker than expected. those are the two big factors. rates and loan growth. now credit is starting to show up. it's not a big issue yesterday. i don't want to make more of it.

but we talked about the cracks in auto credit recently. look at the bank etf. this is what everybody watches. this is where the volume is. we're down 10% from the recent highs but look at that election in november. we're still up 20% above the numbers since before the election. so people have priced in -- i don't care if it's down 10% they're pricing in big numbers from the first quarter overall. finally let me point out, fund flows this week. very interesting developments. for the first time in a while, rather notable outflows from domestic funds. i'm mining them here, but that's the biggest it's been in a while. not an enormous number. only 0.3% of the assets but we haven't seen a number that big in a long, long time. inflows all this year. interestingly international funds are getting in flows continuing. there's a bit of a love affair going on with europe now. investors are shifting some money over there. you can see this, here's the ezu. the ishares european etf.

you can buy it as a single etf. that's had notal inflows in the last several weeks as investors start to get interested in europe. right now the dow up five points. carl, back to you. >> bob, thank you very much. let's get to the bond pits as well. rick santelli at the cme in chicago. good morning. >> good morning. listen, i'm a market guy. all the things that go on do affect markets and to that end let's have a little bit of fun. talk to some, the political spectrum in this country is going down the tubes. we just had a big geopolitical issue with regard to twhaesinwh going on in syria, we had a rotten jobs number. things are horrible. we're down eight now on the week for tens and we're down five on the week for 30s but we're unchanged on twos and only down

several basis points for the tens and 30s. if you think of the issues all kidding aside, the markets don't seem to -- the biggest issue for tens this year is that it hit 263 and went back down in my opinion. look at one week of twos. one week of tens. now let's get into the fun stuff. the real key area you should start most of your charts on in my opinion beginning in december of 2015. if you do it for tens you see that the right side -- i'm not buying the neckline stuff. it looks like more like a consolidation pattern goes on steroids. you can really see that. in the boon charts starting from the same time. go to the dollar index and look at one week, it's up about a third to half a cent right now. this chart right now is starting to maybe look a limit better to me. now remember when we looked at tens back -- i don't think it's a neckline issue so much. it's where you sit relative to the end of '15.

the dollar inup ddex makes more sense. look at the left and the right, the same basic thing. instead of 227, the line comes in at 100. the dollar index might be a good market to watch if you think we're going to hold the bottom of the range at tens. then you should be looking for that dollar index to start making a more flamboyant move to the upside. carl, jim, david, the band is back. back to you. >> thank you so much, rick santelli. we want to touch on the oil prices here obviously after last night. jackie's at hq. >> good morning to you, carl. well, you can see there was a knee jerk reaction overnight. crude getting close to $53 a barrel. but giving back a lot of the gains and actually now trading just under $52. so far this year, the conversation about oil prices has really been about supply, did man demand, rebalance, et cetera. we haven't focused on geopolitics but because of the air strikes last night that's back on the take and traders get concerned about issues like that. in the case of syria not necessarily because it's an oil

producer, but because of destabilization in the region and longer term people will look at the russian response to this as well. russia, a big oil producer. so right now it's a fluid situation but the market remaining measured. back to you. >> jackie deangelis. we'll come back to you later on. when we return, richard haas, we'll get his reaction to the issues this morning. tug of war, banks are down, semis on the upside.

the u.s. launching the missile strike on syria last night, joining us with the latest is matt bradley who is live in beirut. hey, matt. >> reporter: hi, thanks for this. we just wanted to bring you a -- you up on the latest on what's going on. the reaction has been flowing in from around the region, not just from within syria. the government has called this very irresponsible, but of course those elements within syria who are fighting against the government are offering

fulsom praise for donald trump, a man who said he wasn't going to be intervening in syria and he called out bashar al assad as a potential partner in the fight against global terrorism. now elements like ahrar al sham, a far right islamist group very much opposed to assad praising any american intervention they can go. turkey, israel, they're all praising this move. of course we are getting protests from russia. from iran. and from the syrian government itself and they have all calmed this -- called this irresponsible and a violation of international law. all of this accumulated goodwill behind donald trump it can remain with him, this very popular and isolated move, as long as he keeps it that way. it will be a very difficult, delicate diplomatic dance for donald trump as he moves forward. if he puts himself further into this morass, he can find the

countries falling out of line with the move and saying he should be butting out of syria and shouldn't be antagonizing the syrian regime. back to you. >> matt, thank you for that. the market is obviously hyper focused on everything you just said. matt bradley of nbc news in beirut. the dow is down 12. i'm vern, the orange money retirement rabbit, from voya. i'm the money you save for retirement. who's he? he's green money, for spending today. makes it easy to tell you apart. that, and i am better looking. i heard that. when it's time to get organized for retirement, it's time to get voya.

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time for "stop trading." >> a lot of the firms on wall street are getting very positive on the pipeline companies which makes a lot of sense. because there's going to be consolidation, but most importantly they're the ones that are green lighted and when you see what's going on in the pipeline industry, i come back to williams and williams partners, wpz. they are doing what sunoco did yesterday. they're delevying and selling assets. when you do that, at least in the cash flow is not that strong, they can bridgette. t deregulation which is forgotten about is working so quickly in this area that these companies are doing fabulously. a lot of wealthy individuals are there because these are master limited partnerships. i think they're very attractive. i think people should be thinking about those.

not the oil companies when it comes to deregulation. you know, you can drill all you want off the coast, may not be anything there. be but if you're putting pipeline down from the utica go down to the gulf, you have a winning performer. >> who's on "mad" tonight? >> there's so many cloud integrators. i try to get the ceos on because it's a place you can still go even if a lot of things are slowing down. so we have that. wow, this was the longest week in history, guys. baseball. i have a minor league team playing against all the major league teams, it's not right. >> see you at 6:00 p.m. eastern time. when we come back, a lot more on the weaker than expected jobs number, on the missile taattackn syria and the president's meeting with china's president. the dow is down 46. at the right moment.

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the missile strike in syria, the jobs number, the chinese president at mar-a-lago. all of that feeding into markets right now. dow started with a gain. now down 43 points. >> our road map for the hour begins with the jobs market for march. the u.s. creating 98,000 jobs. that was well below consensus but on the upside the unemployment level fell to the lowest level in ten years. the u.s. launches 59 tomahawk missiles at a syrian airfield. we react shion from around the world. and gold's touching a five month high. we'll get you caught up on the latest market news. but first, the u.s. adding 98,000 jobs well below economists expectations. steve leishman has more with how we should read that number. >> it is just 98, sara? >> just 98. >> not missing a digit there. this is highly disappointing but contradictory job report and it

raises a lot of questions about fiscal and monetary policy and the data itself and of course the real strength of the jobs market. 98,000 versus the payroll estimate of 175. revision's downward of 38,000 for the prior two months. unemployment hit the ten year low of 4.5% versus an estimate of 4.7. the broader gauge of slack falling down to 8.9%. an average of the hourly earnings, a modest gain. how does it fall to the near ten year low amid a weak job growth and the answer is two different surveys. they usually track together but sometimes they come apart. one survey says 98,000 found jobs the household survey tells a 472,000 finding jobs. and the number of unemployed declining by get this, 326,000. over at jefferies they say this data suggests the labor market is in far better shape than what is implied by the establishment survey and probably gives us a

more accurate look. let's look at where the jobs weren't. we usually look where they are. but retail, down by 30,000. big declean ine in the sector t. and the service usually does 155,000, just 61,000. construction, leisure and hospitality affected by the weather in the month of march including stella. is there a bounce back from the weather this month and it's worth considering that employees were spooked by the failure of the health care bill and raising concerns about the tax cuts in the trump administration. and that 4% locks in a june rate hike by the fed. >> how should you interpret the news, what does it mean for the stock market? diane swonk, founder of ceo of ds economics and david kelly, chief global strategist for

jpmorgan. good morning to you both. how much of this big miss on the headline that 98,000 jobs added in march can we blame on the weather? >> we can blame a lot of it on the weather. at least 80,000 on the weather alone. so that's the good news. it's wacky weather and we're now sort of going to see a bounce back in that. it's important to look at the household as steve mentioned versus the establishment survey. they actually come together in a year over year basis. what was showing up in the household survey especially on the unemployment report is showing up, and the big gains we saw in march helped us to get more in line with the establishment survey. and really underscores what we already knew. that is the labor market continues to heal. that improvement in the u-6, dipping below 9% that is important. it's still not as low as we'd like it, but it was improvement across the board. the number of unemployed fell. the number of people accepting part-time for full-time fell. the unemployed fell overall.

so it's moving in the right direction and i agree it's a june lock on the next fed rate hike. i think it's important to note that wages remain strong. sort of caveats in the numbers were where we didn't and where we are getting jobs. that secular shift in retail. hit by the weather but also this is a sector where bricks to clicks, that movement out of in store shopping to online shopping. not really know whack to do wit. we know there are store closings in the pipeline and why hire up when you close a bunch of stores in april or the second quarter. >> worst two months since back to the financial crisis, david. diane laid it out pretty nicely. do you see this as a set back for the strong momentum that we had been seeing in the labor market? >> not really. i mean, i think it's not so much this was weaker than report -- than expected. this really is tighter than expected. we have our own statistical way of estimating whether -- we believe that the weather cost us

43,000 jobs in the month of march. so the payroll finumbers would look weak, but there's a lot of statistical area here. you can see the huge shifts and the government has a hard time of measuring how the seasonal factors remain over time. i like the fact that temporary employment continued to grow. a good psyccyclical sign. i know diane looks at this too, the unemployment rate among those who didn't finish high school fell by more than a percentage point so employers are really looking everywhere they can to find workers here. what this tells me is this is a tight labor market. the unemployment rate is below the fed's long term target. you know, i wouldn't say it's necessarily a lock on june but that's only because june is a ways away here in terms of rate hike. if the fed were meeting tomorrow, i would say this should push them to raise rates. we're at full employment. >> you know, diane, i think

david zers by -- we had him on yesterday, i'm curious for your thoughts. rather than a seemingly knee jerk reaction on the market, he thinks that full employment is close at hand and that's the reason that we're seeing these numbers. give me your take. >> yes, i do think we're at close to full employment. one of the things i'm concerned about in -- and jamie dimon laid it out as well, the number of people that are still not par t participating, prime age men in particular. we have seen a huge increase, 57% of the ten million he argued that could be brought back into the labor force are actually on disability. less than 1% on disability ever rejoin the labor force. i'm concerned that although i would love them to rejoin the labor force and many people who use disability, more than usual, used it as as a safety net this time around, they'd be gainfully employed and i'm sure they would be too.

it's hard once you get on disability to leave it, because of the benefits that go with it. we can't re-engage as many workers as we want. i'm encouraged as david noted we are starting to dip into the deeper pool of workers and we are seeing job training coming back which is really important. that's a sign of a tight labor market. the next move i want to see is when we see the labor market tighten, employers try to work harder to bring workers up to speed. they're still not providing day care and that's something that will bring women who plateaued into the participation of the labor force -- many older women tend to take care of their relatives to help the family save money. that would be a sign of a real improvement and really help household income. >> a huge and very important part. the other missing component here if we're talking about a new full labor market, a tight labor market is wage growth. 2.7% from last year. that does not suggest that the labor -- i mean, if the labor

market is tight and companies are having trouble finding workers why aren't they paying them more? >> it is a bit of a puzzle. when you bring in more low income workers and people who don't have much education, that will tend to depress the average a little bit. so there may be some of that affect there. but maybe a secular change by which employers are much better at telling workers we're not going to pay you anymore. take it or leave it. equally with that the collapse of the trade union movement. workers may just be less willing to argue for wage increases but i have to believe as this year goes on, it becomes more and more evident to find good workers. there's churn in the labor market and people quitting and going to better jobs and so forth that should push the wages up faster. but it's puzzling they haven't moved more by now. >> to add on to the wage issue, we have been growing at about 2.8%. this is not significantly different from that. we had weird composition this

month, we had a lot of professional full-time hires, college grads, that's very good for the college grad market. but a lot of things are going on in the labor market it's moved out of the 2% rut we were stuck in for so long. also we're hiring millennials that are getting paid less and replacing retiring baby boomers and that could be suppressing wages. wa wage gains a little bit. that's something to take into account as well. >> very quickly, david, i wanted to ask you about the reaction to syria. we had such a positive brightened outlook for the global economy and the u.s. economy lately reflected in the stock market. do the added unpredictability and uncertainties cloud that at all? >> they do to some et cetera tent but in this -- extent but in this particular case you can see why this would be a response to a particular atrocity in syria without necessarily follow on impacts. if it doesn't involve us getting into the actual land war in syria or some actual conflict with iran, if it's just one and

done more or less then i don't think it has a long term repercussion for the global economy. >> we'll leave it there. thank you both for joining us. dia diane swonk and david kelly. when we return, global and market reaction to the air strike in syria and we'll talk to richard haass and colonel jack jacobs. more "squawk on the street" continues after a break. (dog barking) whoever threw it has to go get it. not me! somebody will get it... ♪ (dog barking) anyone can dream. making it a reality is the hard part. from the b-2 to the upcoming b-21, northrop grumman stealth bombers give america an advantage in a turbulent world. and we're looking for a few dreamers to join us.

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the u.s. launching missiles

at a syrian airfield in response to the chemical attack on civilians earlier this week. our kayla tausche is in palm beach where the president is and joins us with the latest. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, carl. the news of the air strikes quickly overshadowed a highly anticipated dinner at mar-a-lago just down the road from here between china's president xi jinping, president trump and the respective delegations of each countries. here's president trump addressing those strikes last night. >> tonight i call on all civilized nations to join us in seeking to end this slaughter and bloodshed in syria. >> reporter: the air strikes won initial bipartisan support from congress, republicans called it appropriate. democratic leaders said it was the right thing to do. just this morning nancy pelosi has asked speaker ryan to reconvene the house to vote -- or debate on funding for the authorized use of military

funding and the senate will be doing an all senate briefing this afternoon. even so, one says that the bipartisan support is a much needed win for the president and will make prior transgressions of the administration look like rookie mistakes. he acknowledges there's geopolitical risk, but trump won some badly needed capital. his job approval numbers will rise in the next week. and this has positive implications for his agenda. secretary of state rex tillerson last night told reporters said they shouldn't read into the strikes as a wholesale change of strategy in the middle east and cautioned this was a one off occasion and not something that the u.s. would make a habit of. take a listen. >> the use of these weapons as i indicated earlier, one of the conearn ises we have is -- concerns we have is the more we fail to respond to the use of the weapons, the more we begin to normalize their use. when we begin to normalize their use, we are opening up wider

spread use by others who would use such weapons. >> reporter: those comments made in a briefing that was off camera, but recorded by dan scavino, who is trump's social media strategist. as for additional commentary from the administration today, there are no scheduled briefings. but we'll bring you the latest, carl, when we have it. >> kayla in palm beach, thanks so much. for more, let's bring in u.s. military analyst, jack jacobs and richard haass, author of "a world in disarray." good morning both. >> good morning. >> colonel, to kayla's point, market wants to believe this was efficient. surgical. unexpected. not part of a messy sea change. do you agree? >> yeah, i do agree because you have to take a look at what the objectives were in conducting the strike. one was for domestic political consumption. the president said i draw a line in the sand -- i draw a lot of

lines in the sand. the previous president did. and he didn't do anything about it. i'm going to do something about it. the second objective was to as much as possible influence bashar al assad so that he doesn't use weapons of mass destruction again. i think in both cases he's managed to achieve his objectives. very focused strike on one area. unless there are more chemical weapons to be used by assad, probably never to be repeated. >> richard, we do know -- we suspect at least that there are more chemical weapons. what happens if assad pushes this? >> well, if he were to use chemicals again i expect we take out a few more airfields. it's important to re-establish this norm. because you're sending messages, not just to damascus, but you're sending messages to pyongyang, to the north koreans, to the chinese and to the iranians.

there's a larger audience here. i think the president also though was signaling that he represents something very different from his predecessor. not simply for domestic consumption as jack jacobs pointed out. but also for regional and international consumption. i think he wanted to send the message that the united states is more prepared to act. it is more prepared to stand by its friends. this might help him in a little bit in trying to forge a greater common effort in syria. we're going to be liberating territory there before long from isis. we don't have at the moment forces we can work with to take and hold that territory. and we need to get some sunni forces in the region to work with us and this might help with that as well. >> and that's sort of what investors are trying to figure out today, colonel jacobs. maybe you can help us, how high are the chances now after last night that we're going to see a broader military effort in syria against assad and isis? >> well, i think it's unlikely. there are a lot of moving parts in syria. and we don't control many of

them. it's extremely difficult to put them all together. we need the compliance of others who are in the region but not necessarily in syria. this is a very tough road to hoe. i think it's unlikely there's going to be a concerted effort, multinational effort to do what needs to be done. on top of that, as richard just said, taking the objective is only part of the deal. even once you liberate syria and that's not likely to happen any time soon, you then have to manage it. that takes a lot more work. and a lot more resources. >> richard, moving to another country that i think you said previously is the largest foreign policy challenge for the trump administration, i mean our president is meeting with xi jinping right now, north korea expected to be on the agenda certainly. does this missile strike in any way strengthen his hand or send a message at all there or is it completely coincidence and not really connected? >> i don't think it's coincidence. i do think it's somewhat

strengthens his hand. but we should not kid ourselves. any use of military force in north korea is something qualitatively different than what we just did in syria. but i do think it underscores how seriously we take the risk posed by weapons of mass destruction. particularly the prospect of a north korea who can put nuclear weapons on the u.-- that can reh the u.s. and for the chinese to use the leverage they don't have over north korea but that everybody knows they do have. and hopefully they will return home to beijing a little bit more focused to lean on them than north korean cousins. >> richard, admiral staph rye das said i wouldn't be surprised to see the u.s. and russia bury the hatchet in the back of assad. do you think that's true? >> well, if it is true, it's not going to happen next week. i think it will take a long time

to wean the russians from assad. they have to make sure their interests are protected. they would be seen as a significant player long run in the region. so i don't think that's going to happen any time soon. quite honestly, even if you were to succeed with russia a bigger problem would be weaning iran away from assad. as jack jacobs was saying this was a big, big problem. a lot of moving parts. i think it's more important to see what we have done in the last few hours in a fairly circumstance c-- circumscribed way. this is not the new chapter -- >> the ruble is down a percent by the way on that. >> last question, colonel. does it matter what decisions are made today versus what views were made in 2013 and that's with regard to the president and with regard to all of the congressional leaders who have a different tone obviously. >> yeah. i don't think it does matter. you know, in the topsy-turvy

world with relationships that are changing on a second by second basis it's extremely difficult to hold anybody to anything from some time ago. i think all the players recognized that tomorrow is a new day and anything that happened yesterday is something else again. when today is gone it's gone forever and you can't get it back. people have a tendency to focus on tomorrow. >> gentlemen, appreciate it. really glad we had you both. richard haass, colonel jack jacobs talking syria today. >> thank you. when we come back, we're going to have more on the u.s. air strikes in syria. russia weighing in. we'll go live to moscow. "squawk on the street" will be right back after this break. what powers the digital world? communication.

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with a live person right from the app, so you don't need a comfort pony. oh, so what about my motivational meerkat? in-app chat on thinkorswim. only at td ameritrade. xfini'll get my coat.ek is back. meaning you can catch up on all the moments you might have missed. you seriously can't tell the difference between a bird and a plane? like that time gwen and blake got a little too flirty. that's so inappropriate to talk about us hooking up. xfinity watchathon week ends april 9. the greatest collection of shows free with xfinity on demand. i want to get back to one of the big stories this morning, that is the united states launching that missile strike against syria. our chief international correspondent michelle caruso-cabrera has more. >> reporter: we have competing reports out of the u.s. and the russian government about the effectiveness of the missile attack last night. u.s. military tells the associated press 58 out of 59

tomahawk missiles strike their intended targets in that strike on the syrian air yas -- air base and the initial assessment showed that one malfunctioned. the rest hit targets and destroyed the fuel area. the airfield in the western part of syria was targeted because the u.s. believes the syrian government used it to launch a chemical weapons attack earlier this week that killed more than 100 people including children. airfield is one of six in the country used by the government of bashar al assad as he fights a civil war against an insurgency trying to oust him. russia supports assad militarily and the defense ministry said only 23 of the missiles were effective. look at drone video released. their list of damage -- six mid 23s and a repair hangar, a runway system and they said the parking areas of the circumstancian -- syrian air force were not damaged. the government called the attack reckless, not based on true

facts. sounding -- surrounding the chemical weapons attack but the syrian and russian government claimed that the banned chemical weapons were in fact controlled by terrorists fighting in the country and not the syrian government. but the u.s. government says they have evidence to the contrary. guys, back to you. >> michelle, thank you. michelle caruso-cabrera. when we come back, more reaction to the missile strikes in syria. what comes next? we'll be joined by a former white house middle east adviser and former ambassador to syria. the dow is back at the unchanged line. some notable moves for financials, who are bringing up the rear. s&p also pretty much unchanged. oil still up almost a percent. gold up more than that. we'll be right back.

i'm courtney reagan. here's your cnbc news update at this hour. a truck crashed into the upscale department store in central

stockholm. shoots had been fired at the scene, but that could not be confirmed. everything indicates it was aer the terror attack. and the empty seat could be filled on the supreme court. gorsuch is expected to get the simple majority needed to be confirmed. major electronics retailer bic camera has started to accept payments by bitcoin. consumers will be able to use the virtual currency in two stores in tokyo. the retail giant hopes to entice foreign users of the currency. and a california murder suspect was released from jail on thursday after posting one of the largest bail amounts in u.s. history. 31-year-old tiffany lee raised $4 million in cash and pledged $62 million in property with the help of family and friends with ties to china. she is charged with the killing of a father of her two young children. and that's your cnbc news

update at this hour. sara, back to you. >> weird story, courtney, thank you. the world is reacting to the u.s. launching a missile taatta on syria and that includes russia. bill neely is live from moscow with if very latest. >> reporter: good morning, sara. good morning, everyone. well, russia's response was strong, but actually really rather predictable. vladimir putin the president chairing a meeting today of russia's national security council. afterwards calling the u.s. missile strikes an act of aggression against a sovereign country and against international law. he said it would have negative consequences and would damage u.s./russian relationships. all really fairly predictable. russia's defense ministry also taking a swipe at the u.s., release -- releasing a video of what it said was the damage to the syrian airstrip after the missile hits and claiming that only 23 of the 59 cruise missiles actually hit the base.

and that the main runway was not damaged. and the russian defense ministry saying that the combat effectiveness of this mission is thus very low. slightly more seriously russia is suspending the agreement with the u.s., a deconfliction agreement, which basically helps prevent russian and american planes clashing over syria. but it's just suspending that agreement, it's not canceling it or pulling out altogether. that's very much the tone of this. russia conceding that it was warned before hand of these military strikes. no russian personnel of course killed or injured in those strikes. and in another sign of a fairly muted response to the u.s. missile strikes, russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov said i don't think this will lead to the irreversible situation. so limited air strikes, limited condemnation from russia. strong condemnation but pretty

predictable. sara? >> bill, thank you for that. bill neely talking syria this morning. i appreciate that. for more on the global diplomatic and military implications of all of this, let's bring in former ambassador to syria, ryan crocker and middle east adviser mark ginsberg. good to have you both. thank you so much. ambassador ginsberg, fair to say you think this was long overdue? >> i do. largely because of the fact that this is the fifth chemical attack that assad has engaged in since john kerry boasted that he had reach an agreement the russian -- with the russians to ensure that assad had given up his chemical weapons, number one. number two, listen, the situation in syria is so complicated as my friend ryan will explain better than i can. we have a focus on liberating raqqah from isis and a goal to prevent other extremist groups

from taking hold in syria but the ultimate future of syria is not determined by the united states. it's actually going to be determined by some sort of exhaust that occurs as a result of the civil war and russia and iran are far more likely to control than we are. >> to that point, ambassador crocker, bill neely mentioned the limited nature of the condemnation. the fact that we told them what we were going to do in advance. and yet, tillerson did take a swipe and say that they were either incompetent or complicit in arranging the surrender of the weapons. what's the balance right now? >> i think it's setting up pretty well. i join my friend mark in being pleased that we have -- we finally took some action after years of doing nothing. and the russians have taken note. sergey lavrov can be one tough guy when he wants to. he didn't do that this time so i think there is an opening that secretary tillerson can exploit when he gets out there.

but make no mistake. this is the beginning of a long complex process as senator mccain just said. we have gotten congratulations say from the russians -- from the turks and from the saudis. but what does that really mean? it means they see us as having finally shifted over to attack their primary enemy which is the assad regime. so it's going to be a little tough for us to say this is a one off, we're going to go back to business as usual which is the isis priority. because let's face it, isis is not a priority -- a top priority except for us. so they're going have to thread this needle very carefully. that's only one of the needles. here's another one. if we effectively are saying that we will strike in response to chemical weapon attacks but we won't if he's just using conventional barrel bombs as he has to murder several hundred

thousand of his people, you know, i think that's the area of moral ambiguity. we want to be careful about. and finally let me say this about refugees. i'm on the board of mercy corps international. i speak for myself here. not for the organization. but now that president trump has engaged here, i heard him speak twice as we all did very eloquently with real emotion about the murder of beautiful babies, he might want to take a rethink of his executive orders because those beautiful babies had they survived would have been denied by him the ability to enter this country as refugees. >> which opens up a whole other discussion, ambassador ginsberg. what are the u.s. options from here, especially putting into context the fact there has been an expression of support from key allies in the region like saudi arabia and turkey. >> well, of course but those two

countries are largely involved in -- for their own local reasons inside syria. look, syria is ground zero for the sunni shiite proxy war between iran and saudi arabia. the future of syria's territorial integrity is not really going to be determined by the united states. we have no dog in that fight. what we do have is an increased commitment by the president. there's more troops on the ground to support our kurdish allies to liberate raqqah. there are certainly some pronouncements by president trump that he wants to create zones of immunity for the very refugees and to try to reverse the refugee flow that my friend ryan so eloquently just mentioned. but those of us who have studied syria and see syria for what it is, it's a country ruled by a minority regime, that is mr. assad. overseeing a majority sunni population that has vengeances on its mind in order to get rid

of the regime. that's nothing that we can do. the best we can do is to contain the country's threat to us from the extremist groups that affect our allies including israel. as well as the united states. >> right. >> someone -- ambassador crocker, rolled out the old saying you kill the chicken to scare the monkey and i wonder if it's the element of surprise, the fact that it's something that obama never did, how much this resonates with countries that are not in this particular situation. >> well, again, the president was handed both an opportunity and a challenge. on the opportunity side, again, i'm very pleased with what he ordered yesterday. the challenge of course is trying to wrap all of this together in a way that gets at some of the issues i just mentioned. you -- we clearly have a role here. we have to decide what that role is and how we're going to play

it. but i think it would be a huge mistake for us to simply say been there, done that, that's over. we're going of to snap back to the way we were. because expectations have been raised. one very important point here is that after the previous administration's consistent actions that created the impression among arab sunnis that we're basically part of the tehran, damascus, moscow, washington axis, here's a chance to show we're not. particularly vis-a-vis russia. and something very important with both russia and with iran is paint them publicly for what they are. supporters of a ruthless regime that uses chemical weapons against its own people. russians aren't comfortable with that. the iranians even less. saddam hussein used them against the iranian population in the

iran/iraq war of the '80s. we need to get that theme out there. the people in iran hate it. >> glad you brought up the iran question. iran and russia the two most vocal nations the only one condemning this act. ambassador ginsberg, it brings us to the price of oil which sea we saw -- we saw it move sharply and higher just the idea of an escalation of military action within the middle east. what does it mean for iran? are we going to see a big confrontation, the u.s. versus iran, now that trump has made this move? >> i actually think it's far more important for us to not be too preoccupied with the reaction from moscow. but far more preoccupied with iran's reaction. largely because iran will go to the mat for assad. whereas the russians ultimately will make a very expendable commodity if they need to. the iranians have been harassing american naval forces in the persian gulf for months. the saudi -- the saudis, the

jordanians, the egyptians have come here, and they have met with the president, they have indicated that the extent to which the iranians are engaged in mischief in the middle east particularly drawing us further into the war in yemen, the president has got a real challenge on his hands. it's not just syria. it's the role that iran is playing. the escalating involvement of the united states in the proxy war in yemen, how the saudis and iranians are playing us off. it's challenge and it goes far beyond assad's use of chemical weapons. >> ambassador ryan crocker and mark ginsberg, thank you. when we come back here on "squawk on the street," more on the markets reaction to that and of course today's jobs report. stocks right now barely in positive territory. nasdaq, tech heavy nasdaq in the lead, up a tenth of a percent.

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strategist bob doll is bullish on stocks but he thinks the market could slip in the weeks ahead. find out how and how much. more "squawk on the street" coming up. ray's always been different. last year, he said he was going to dig a hole to china. at&t is working with farmers to improve irrigation techniques. remote moisture sensors use a reliable network

to tell them when and where to water. so that farmers like ray can compete in big ways. china. oh ... he got there. that's the power of and. getting back to today's jobs report, 98,000 jobs were added in march. that was a sharp slowdown from the previous two months and the unemployment rate did fall to 4.5%. the lowest level since may of 2007. prior to the financial see crisis. here joining us at post 9 is jim stewart. retail, jim, continues to get hit here when it comes to jobs. i know it's something you have been reporting on as well. >> well, obviously there's huge problems in the sector. it looked like construction high hiring went down, probably weather related. i think that's bad sign, the retail sector is in turmoil but

i think there's a silver lining here. i think a lot of investors like the idea of slightly slower growth here. you see the unemployment number very low. what traditionally is considered full employment. i think there's nervousness about inflation figures, and i don't think they want to see aggressive rate hikes from the fed. i think the most foreseeable is when the interest rates get to the point that it starts to curb growth. that's what people are worried about. >> nobody seems to be moving to the idea that the fed is not going to raise it a couple of times this year, based on the 98,000 number. we're still averaging 178,000 for the three months of this year. >> i don't think there's anything in this report to cause the fed to change its thinking. they have been murmuring and the more from aggressive rate hikes. at least it won't cause them to

ramp up even more. i think that's what a really strong employment number might have scared people about. >> you know, the political i think aal -- angle here, we were wondering if the trump bump we had seen at the confidence at the ceo and the business level were translating into the harder data, actual hiring. we did see that in january and february, whether it was confidence related or not. are you a buyer of that, that that's going to trickle into stronger economic growth? investment and hiring. >> i am, and i personally think it's a mistake to invest on political themes that may or may not happen due to events totally out of our control because of what's going on in congress. i just don't -- i don't feel confident about that. but i think what you can feel confident about is when you see some of these growth trends that are now in place, steady economic growth, very low unemployment, the strength in commodity prices, indicating again a stronger and healthier economy. these are all things that are happening without trump having

launched his infrastructure thing. so yes, it got that extra boost and people thought oh we'll get additional growth. but we're getting growth even without that. so i think that is positive for the market. i mean, we're getting to valuation levels here that are pretty stretched. i mean, i think a healthy thing would be not a crash or a huge correction, but a slowdown so that earnings can start to catch up. we get valuations and a slightly healthier range. life doesn't usually unfold like that. but i agree. i think we're in a pretty sweet spot with the economy right now. >> your piece is about tesla. big story this week. >> well, there is a valuation case for you. i mean, i talked this week about so-called storied stocks, a rareried group where none of the numbers matter. just forget the traditional metrics and tesla may be the ultimate storied stock of all time. it has multiple stories going.

every time people get a little fatigued with one of them, oh, an electric car, oh, environmentally friendly, elon musk is a genius, he leaps to the next story. the safest car we'll see on the road. it will disrupt uber because they'll be cruising around and picking up passengers, it will replace the battery industry. i named four great stories right there. >> how do these stories typically end, jim, in your experience? >> well, in general they end badly. i mean, there's a lot of research about these. and if you take a group of them, they typically underperform 25 to 30% of the general market. of course there's always the one. you know, amazon is kind of the one that people point to. look at how well amazon investors have done and they -- these valuations stay in the stratosphere for many, many years. if the story is good enough. i think the tesla story is

really good. >> and back to our original conversation, despite in a week where we did not get news on sales on autos on monday. >> no a cyclical with tesla but when you compare tesla trades at 7ish multiple of sales, it passed ford's market capitalization this week. ford trades at .3. i mean, that's just throwing in the towel on traditional automakers. >> that's multiple disparity as we say. jim, thank you. want to send it over to jon for a look at what's coming up on "squawk alley." >> we have barry mccaffrey to talk about the impact of last night's syria strikes and we'll continue to watch the markets despite that disappointing jobs report and those strikes. we're just about at break even on all of the major indices and

also continuing to watch china. president xi's visit will generate headlines throughout the weekend. all that and more coming up on "squawk alley." i joined the army in july of '98. our 18 year old was in an accident. when i call usaa it was that voice asking me, "is your daughter ok?" that's where i felt relief. we're the rivera family, and we will be with usaa for life.

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want to get more on the development out of sweden this

morning. >> it's being investigated as a terrorist attack. the latest from reuters. they think three people were killed when a truck drove into a crowd on a shopping street and crashed into a department store in central stockholm. the prime minister says everything indicates the crash was a terrorist attack. part of central stockholm is now cordoned off. the area has been evacuated. we're showing you live pictures from swedish television. large numbers of police and emergency services as you can see are at the scene. the swedish prime minister issuing a statement saying sweden has been attacked. everything i understand ka everything indicates this is a terrorist attack. this reminds everyone of several attacks that we have seen where trucks or cars have driven into crowds that have taken place in the past year and in fact back in 2010 al qaeda urged followers to use trucks as weapons. march 22nd in london where we saw that on westminster bridge

killing four people and not to mention what happened in france last july where 86 people were killed celebrating bastille day. that's what we know at this hour. back to you. >> using autos as weapons. an unfortunate trend. >> market is down 13 points. walmart is leading the dow right now. in terms of s&p, strength in telecom and real estate. some notable weakness in financials and consumer discretionary. financials really moving on those yields, which are lower. the safe haven trade is working. gold is up more than a percent. japanese yen is much stronger as well. we'll be right back with "squawk alley."

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kevin, how's your mom? life well planned. see what a raymond james financial advisor can do for you. welcome back. defense stocks popping in early trade today. they are being led higher by the maker of tomahawk missiles that were used to carry out the strike in syria last night. you can see shares are up 1%. the tomahawk is a long-range subsonic cruise missile launched from navy ships or submarines up to 1,000 miles away from the intended target. it can fly low altitudes at over 500 miles an hour and dodge threats and it has a very high

accuracy rate. this graphic as you can see here shows really close to scale just how big these missiles are. it gives you an idea. each costs upwards of a million dollars with 59 missiles being launched last night and that really means the expectation here part of the reason the stock is trading higher is that the defense department will likely buy more now to replenish its stockpile. as you can see, that's propelling shares but also the launch boosters for these tactical missiles shares up 1% as well. other defense names also higher including military ship builderer huntington ingalls. all up but off highs from earlier today. analysts do warn this rally could be short lived because this was a targeted solitairy strike for now. bigger issue is getting funding for defense given the fact the

government is operating under a continuing resolution. with that, i'll send it back downtown for the start of "squawk alley." guys? >> morgan, thank you very much. breaking news this morning. a busy morning on wall street and around the world. at this hour, the president leading an expanded bilateral meeting with president xi at mar-a-lago as the u.s. launches an air strike in syria. the u.s. added 98,000 jobs in march. well short of estimates. dow is down about 12 points. i'm carl quintanilla at post nine. we have team coverage this morning of all of the top headlines. kayla tausche is in palm beach just north of the president's mar-a-lago result. michelle caruso-cabrera is back at hq. kaleyl kayla, the president now meeting with china's xi jinping. >> they're holding a bilateral meeting that include top milita military, diplomatic and economic officials. we expect to get some commentary or at least an image from that meeting