interest rates, a big part of that picture. that's it for "squawk on the street." we'll send it back downtown for the start of "squawk alley." back over to you guys. good morning. it is 11:00 a.m. at ibm headquarters. it is 11:00 a.m. on wall street and "squawk alley" is live. good wednesday morning. welcome to "squawk alley." dow down 22. s&p up 6 as ibm taking a chung

out of the dow. >> shares of ibm falling hard. sales coming in short of street estimates for the first quarter despite gains in the cloud, cybersecurity and watson. it does mark a 20th straight quarter of revenue declines at big blue. company cfo, martin schroeder, on cloegz well. >> we have not been solely focused on the top line headline number of when can we print growth. had we wanted to, we wouldn't have divested $8 billion worth of businesses. we would probably reduce our investments overseas where there is a currency impact. that has not been our focus. >> joining us now is credit suisse analyst who has a rating on the $110 price tag. ibm is trying to transform is self. how far of a setback back is this? >> it fundment falamentally tea

transition they are going through. we see revenue shrinking through 2019. the second thing, we saw some evidence of that in this quarter. the second issue is this transition towards a cloud or initiatives we think is fundamentally gross margin dill lieu tiff. that's why they are reported as the lowest in the last six years and fell through for one year. what that means is you have major underlying profit contraction. in the end, could ibm stabilize its top line. of course, it could. that could be two to three years out from now. >> still, you have some -- cramer said that the shares were friendless today and maybe backed away a bit from that. there is a school of thought they are trying to compete with the amazon web services and the google clouds of the world in a different way because of their ability to attract and be sticky to corporate i.t. is that worth nothing here? >> there is limited evidence to that point. ibm is a very strong competitive

mode with enterprises. they have the ear of ceos absolutely. here is the issue. this is a company now where we are debating whether it can make the earnings when they are supposed to be making $30 of earnings. will they do that, today is the profitability? that's where we have some doubts and we believe long-term that the cash is heading to about $11 per share. >> we talk about this sort of long stretch revenue declines on a quarterly basis. you mentioned it as a problem. investors haven't seemed to mind over the last 12 months. the stock is still up, double digits, about 11%, in the middle of the dow. so what is it now that's a turn for the worse? >> the one thing is, when the stock was $120, it was a very different move. a free cash flow at that point, around about ten times at a dividend yield of 5%. there was a good valuation story. last year, ibm didn't miss eps. however, through a number of

nonoperational means, lower tax rates and growing the income, some of those are beginning to run out. when you start peeling your way and looking at the numbers, for example, last night. i look at the underlying eps, it could have missed estimates by 30% if it wasn't for a positive cap inflow and higher ipo income. as they leave, they are sustainable. investors have to focus on the fundamentals. the reason the stock is reacting the way it is today is a combination that the move is much higher than a year ago. it is now in the free cash flow, 15, 16 times, which is actually a premium to many legacy technology companies and also the underlying fundamentals and the decline of them is actually accelerating. underlying profit from the actual divisions was down 30% year-on-year. a marked acceleration. masking that is becoming increasingly difficult. >> so finally for those who say that that $20 number going back

aways, that $13.80 is a lot more realistic. you sigh thay that is not quite enough. >> i think even that's a challenge. our numbers for this year are $13, well below what the company is gaining. we have made their numbers, second half over first half earnings growth has to be 70%. they have averaged 44%. there are a lot of things we are talking about in terms of a new frame to the global businesses service division. even with all of that, it seems a stretch. there is a legitimate risk building as we go through this year. it will make through nonoperational means, which i would argue a lower quality or a risk of reset coming. >> nang ythank you so much for g us. >> bears take bears, $110 price on the stock. >> getting breaking news out of our nation's capital.

let's get to tkayla to you shi. congressman jason chaffetz says he is making a personal decision, after long consultation with my family and prayer full consideration, i have decided i will not be a candidate for any office in 2018. he is currently serving a fourth term representing utah's third district. there is a lot of coverage about a democratic challenger who has outraised him by 3-1, those donations spiking in march when he made comments that consumers should forg ego buying an iphon to spend money on health care. for those that would speculate, i have no ulterior motives and the full support of speaker ryan to continue as chairman of the oversight and government reform committee. he believes he would continue to be reelected by large margins.

this is coming as a surprise as chaifetz has more than a year left on this term. he will continue serving as the chair of the oversight committee. certainly, making waves in the capitol this morning, guys. >> a definitely difficult time to be a republican out of utah. we will see if other races are in his future. he says he might run sometime in the future. kayla tausche. multiple reports that fox is preparing to cut ties with host, bill o'reilly. a decision reportedly expected in the next several days. julia boorstin is following that story and joins us with the latest. hey, julia. >> the tide seems to be turning against bill o'reilly. the board will discuss the matter tomorrow at a regularly scheduled board meeting and we will likely hear a decision before o'reilly's return from vacation monday. this after over 50 advertisers boycotted his show following reports of sexual harassment and $13 million in payoffs. his attorney issuing a statement

saying, quote, bill o'reilly has been subjected to a brutal campaign of character assassination that is unprecedented in post-mccarthyist america. fox has no comment. their shares are down about 5.5 since april 1st when "the new york times" pri printed the allegations. despite the fact that they are the top rated network over the past 15 years, there is question after departures of gretchen carlson, greta van susteren and megyn kelly. the o'reilly show generated higher revenue than any other show bringing in $325 million in revenue over the last two years. it was also a valuable lead-in for other shows such as tucker carl kr carlson. an attorney representing two of his accusers says she is not

giving up until he is gone. talking about what the impact would be on an o'reilly exit. former cnn president, john klein, now ceo and co-founder of tap tv. good to talk to you again. >> just from a programming perspective, how do you replace the biggest anchor in cable news without dramatically affecting ad revenue. >> fox news is sort of the new england patriots of cable news. they have got a system and they can use their tom brady and still peel off a winning street. this isn't a cataclysmic event but it is a big challenge. last week with o'reilly on vacation, their ratings were down 26% but fox news was still by far the number one network in all of cable tv. not just cable news. so they have got a cushion here. they can start to move around the chairs a little bit without suffering too badly, i think. >> that's on the outside, john. what about on the inside?

what do you think morale is like after roger ailes and now this, the culture of fox news. >> i think that they are banking on the culture being driven by winning. these behaviors that be alleged to have gone on have been around for many, many years and people there were very happy to be working at fox news because they were so dominant. if that dominance continues, they may be able to whistle past whatever morale challenges they may face. >> the fact that -- how do you think ailes would have handled the situation if he were still there? >> well, i guess we'll never know. he is intensely loyal. he will back up his people. at the end of the day, it is always, whether it is ailes in charge or rupert murdoch in charge or the sons in charge. it is always about money. not so much about image or morale. this only came crashing down on them because advertisers pulled their money.

if that had not happened, they wouldn't have cared about the image. they would have gone on business as usual. >> that was the point i was trying to make with jim stewart. i think it took time for the advertisers to make this call. the "new york" magazine is sort of painting this if it does happen and go through as reported as a generational shift. the sons cementing their role at the top of this company. is that how you see it? >> i'm not sure. we don't know to what degree rupert, the dad, is looking at the hard numbers and saying, as a business proposition, this is untenable. they may be simply making a cool, calculating business decision and that's that. >> we made the point in the last hour, you get all these companies, john, uber, fox, who are under pressure for sort of behavioral, cultural norms that some say are now out of practice

and i just wonder how as a manager you try to remedy those, if, in fact, you think your own operations are under some public relations threat or could be in the future? >> the best way, and i think the only way, to counter a morale challenge internally is to get out there among your people and articulate clearly what the values of the company are and then make sure that your senior managers are walking that walk, not just talking the talk. employees need to see results. they need to look you in the eye and know what you believe in and then see that you are living up to the principles that you have articulated. companies that do that have very satisfied employees who never leave. in today's economy, it is more important than ever to make sure you have got a work place that's attractive to everyone of all sorts of backgrounds. you are competing for the best minds out there more than ever.

millennials are specially sensitive to this. >> one final question, john. i was going flew some of the wall street research on 2 1st century fox. they are looking for the ability of fox to get the acquisition done by london base sky. notorious strict in the u.k. it needs to be considered fit and proper. do you think that has anything to do with how this will shake out? >> i am sure it does. that then also plays into the money calculus. sky is meaningful to them because bottom line concerns and they have got to make sure that they are able to become and maintain a global presence, which is more important than ever, clearly, a global media economy and they have also got to be thinking about programming-wise, the threat to them from the right posed by over-the-top channels like breitbart and mark levin and all of those. that's the biggest threat, not so much their other cable news

television competitors. >> it's a big story in media circles. also, up for the stock, up 2% earlier in the morning. john, appreciate that. good to see you again. >> you too. >> when we come back, facebook unveiling those new augmented reality tools at its developer's conference out west when actual reality causing the bulk of the problems. later, the reviews are in. what walt mossberg has to say about samsung's latest smartphone when "squawk alley" comes back. ic? can we push the offer online? brian, i just had a quick question. brian? brian... legacy technology can handcuff any company. but "yes" is here. you're saying the new app will go live monday?! yeah. with help from hpe, we can finally work the way we want to.

with the right mix of hybrid it, everything computes. the president is going to sign an executive order designed to hire americans. >> could we get a tax package on the docket before the end of the year? >> if it drags no 2018, it gets harder to get done in an election year. >> the president coming hearsaying we honor grit. we honor making things and saying that american manufacturing is important to our future. we're going to focus on it is important.

facebook ceo mark zuckerberg announcing a new into reality. >> whether you become friends with someone on facebook, your relationship gets stronger. when you join a community online, that physical community gets stronger. augmented reality is going to help us mix the digital and physical in all new ways and make our physical reality better. that's why this is such an important trend. >> in light of this week's tragic events in cleveland, some oi whi of which unfolded on facebook. they need to deal with their actual reality first. let's bring in mitchell green and mark isaac. good morning. good to see you both. >> we heard zuckerberg address

the cleveland episode specifically. how much did it overshadow that fate overall. >> it was probably the worst timing for facebook to go through one of these crises directly before one of the biggest developments of the year. they were tag facebosaying face which to connect with your friends online as well as the real world. they want to blend both of those. you saw a version in a horrible way with the murder that was uploaded to facebook over the weekend. so if you sort of connect those two ends and essentially look at the darkest part of facebook and what can occur on the platform, it was probably the worst timing for the company. >> mitchell, i wanted to ask you about the social v.r., which was one of the big headlines and ideas to come out of yesterday, this idea that you are chatting and gesturing to your friends all through virtual reality. if this came to you as a company

pitch as the way forward for the future, would you be a buyer? it is hard to tell. for us, probably not. we tend to be more later stage investors. the financial metrics are already there. there are a lot of very smart investors looking at augmented reality and virtual reality as potentially the new big platform and snap choat, facebook, all these big companies are trying to figure it out. google glass was not some big success. far from it. i think time will tell. >> we don't mean to minimize what happened in cleveland. stocks back to within a buck of an all-time high. farhat manju, your co-worker at the time says, how underestimating zuckerberg, do it at your own peril. >> i think you are right. the question for me is, it seems

like it was a clear sort of point or tacit admission that they bet on v.r., virtual reality. they bet way too early and thought there was going to be a lot more progress in the space than they are seeing right now. sales of oculus are there. what do you focus on in the near-term specially when companies like apple and google and magic in florida are doing this thing in a.r., that was facebook's bet. we all have smartphone cameras already. why not use that to get us into the space faster. >> mitchell, what are you doing in the space, if anything and what is your take on where it is all heading? >> look. we have not done anything. none of these companies have any substantial revenues at all. my personal view is that and our personal view at lead edge is

that mark and the cheryl and the team at facebook basically made a call auction bet. it didn't cost them much. they believe this potentially could be an enormous platform in the future. they are trying to figure it out. we have had opportunities to look at magic and ali ba ba ba n investor there as well. they are huge ideas. people that get in early could potentially make huge sums of money but they also could be zeros. we tend to focus on more growth stage businesses. >> we are going to watch that. f.a. course continues. it could be the biggest e-commerce deal ever. petsmart agreeing to buy chewy.com at an indisclosed amount. it could be worth some $3.35 billion. that would top walmart's acquisition of jet.com. our colleague, p jim cramer, has called the human zation of pets one of the great investing themes of our time.

hard to dispute when you get deals like this. >> i think i am uniquely qualified in that my dog is basically my child and most the ac ac significanc acquisitions i focus on are in dog tech. a ur a merger for a dog daycare i used to use in brooklyn that worked really well. i see this potential deal. look at walmart and jet. if you are traditional, you need to move into the online space. people are ordering dog food and pet supplies from the internet, which is something that i do too. go and buy someone who has the supply chain figured out and move online right there. that would be my guess. >> to that point, mitchell, this is a reminder that amazon gets a lot of the air time and the headlines for stealing everybody's lunch in retail. there are some very fast growing

online retailers of their own. chew we chewi, we just showed a few. who else is out there? >> look, we are investing. obviously ali baba has a big business. we are investors in box. it is almost lik a mobile costco and chewy was absolutely crushing it. would i not want to be petsmart and you are really competing with i would not want to be petco. petsmart and amazon are now two real big forces. congrats to the guys at volition capital and green spring, which were early investors in chewy. there are a lot of very interesting companies in the whole pet tech space in general, companies like rover and dog vaca, some of these new food companies selling the dogs.

we have two french bulldogs and four little girls. we tend to try all these. i see pet things regularly in the refrigerator. >> i wonder, increasingly, with retail, we hear immunity to e-commerce disruption as a big plus. i wonder if that is increasingly being heard as part of the pitches that you get that there is no way amazon can come after us. if they do, they are going to have a harder time than they have had so far. >> so look at. if amazon wants to come after you hard, they have an enormous amount of capital. they have a super long-term investor base. look at india. we looked for a long time at snapdeal and flipcard over there. nothing has happened between those two companies yet. it wouldn't surprise me if those two companies merge, because amazon is committing billions upon billions to the region. we were investors, my prior firm at diverse.com where i was a junior analyst.

at one point, amazon decided to focus heavily on diapers.com. the revenues slowed down quite quickly. they focus on another area. they went up again. amazon can sell things at a loss and hurt a business. they weren't able to do that with chewy. i am not surprised that amazon didn't look at this hard either. >> a different rumor every day about whether they may or may not be interested. >> i think the big thing for us is that amazon, if you sell a private label product, you save your own brand and something that is truly defensible or anything super easy for amazon to get or offer an amazing customer experience, you may have a shot. we think it is very, very hard. around the edges, people are going to do it. look at amazon is a force to be reckoned with. that will be much, much bigger

than it is in five years. look, i wouldn't want to be running target or any of these bookstores or any of these businesses that compete with amazon. i think they are in for a world of pain in the next five years. >> mike mitchell, thanks, guys. a lot to talk about today. >> thanks again, guys. appreciate it. >> when we come back, u.k. parliament vote tog give the green light to the proposed snap election. we'll talk about the market implications next as we head to the european close. plus, the reviews are in. hear what walt mossberg has to say about samsung's new flagship smartphone when we come back on "squawk alley." question you ask,tant but one i think with a simple answer. we have this need to peek over our neighbor's fence. and once we do, we see wonder waiting. every step you take, narrows the influence of narrow minds. bridges continents and brings this world one step closer. so, the question you asked me.

what is the key? it's you. everything in one place, so you can travel the world better.

focus increasingly on europe as we go into the weekend. >> stocks actually coming back in europe after yesterday's decline in france ahead of their presidential election four candidates still neck in neck. the ftse 100, still in the red as the pound holds steady. the u.k. parliament voting in favor of prime minister may's plan for a snap election. she won the support for 522 lawmakers. may says the result will strengthen her position when she engages in the brexit talks with the european un yn. sticking with the u.k., a rough day for shares of burberry. slower than expected growth. in asia, higher sales in mainland china were offset by declines in hong kong and south korea. shares down more than 7.5%. on the mna front, they are

fending off ppg's $26 takeover bid. they are outlining their plans to separate the chemicals business within the next 12 months and pay share holders 1.6 in special dividend shares unchanged at the moment. you can see a big move. up more than 30%. european automakers getting a boost as shares on the continent rose almost 11%. chrysler among the top performers with sales more than 18%. volkswagen posting better than expected. you can see a green day for the european automakers. currency, a hot topic. digesting comments from the chief economist. the euro zone is gaining tracks and digesting the latest inflation data, better than expected for the month of march. we are looking at the euro holding on to 107, a three-week high against the u.s. dollar. >> we will stay glued to it.

let's send it out to sue herera with the news update. >> good morning, sarah, good morning everyone. here is what is happening this hour. vice-president pence joined by commerce secretary, wilbur ross meeting with leaders in tokyo to discuss a new u.s./japan dialogue intended to take the place of the trans pacific trade partnership. well wishes poring in for former president george h.w. bush recovering from pneumonia in a houston hospital. he is said to be in good spirits more than three years after malaysia flight 370 vanished, that airline has become the first to sign up for a service which will track its entire fleet with satellites. it will ensure the airlines has access to space tracking data for every minute of a flight's journey. the faith community in fresno coming together to honor the victims of a series of

shootings earlier in the day. three candles were set for the three victims. police say the gunman yelled out, god is great in arabic, after he was arrested. >> they are still calling it, however, a hate crime. that is the news update at this hour. back downtown to you guys. sarah? >> thank you. >> straight ahead, some are calling it the future of smart phones. while others say it has some issues. some users might find annoying. here what walt mossberg has to say about the new samsung galaxy s8 when "squawk alley" returns.

walt mossberg tackling the samsung. i have never before held a phone that delivered so much screen in such a comfortable, beautiful way. while mossberg is the executive editor of the verge and joins us this morning. walled, it is good to talk to you again. >> great to talk to you, carl. >> we had a conversation yesterday. he argued that samsung's quality issues from the last couple years basically bought apple a year's time. they continue to innovate on the phone. it sounds like you agree. >> yes. but i have some reservations. one big innovation on this. i think everything else about it is either the same or kind of half baked. the big innovation is important. that is what you just read from

my column. they basically have taken the design, the overall physical design of the phone. they have made it narrower and taller and that has allowed them -- and then they have used this curved glass. that has allowed them to do a phone that has a 5.8 inch screen in really a body that you are used to seeing much smaller screens in. it is a very nice achievement in the overall design. i don't think the software, the various other features, the cameras or any of that other stuff is anything new to write home about. >> you say you are totally unimpressed with bics bxby, at t for now. there is a lot of hype about this going in. what didn't you like? >> first of all, the voice

activated aspect of it hasn't even shipped. so i couldn't test it. as i said in the column, maybe when they ship it, everyone will say, wait, this is way better than amazon and google's and apples. we don't know. what they have now is not very interesting or in any way different than anyone else. i think there is a key problem or issue for samsung here. i'm not talking about exploding phones or quality. it remains an issue, by the way. i have no reason to think this phone is going to explode. i want to be clear. which also have to acknowledge that they have had serious quality problems. not only in the galaxy note last year but in their washing machines. there is a culture there that needs fixing. the other problem i wanted to note is they keep trying to be a platform, the way apple is a platform, the way google is a

platform. the problem is, they don't have their own operating system, at least they don't have an operating system good enough to run a phone of this quality. this is $750 high-end phone. without that, they are running android. android and google's suite of apps that comes with this phone and does all these things, they are just duplicating them with a bunch of samsung software. i think there is confusion about whether they can be a platform company. >> are we back to that conversation where the phones are come paparable but it is go to be things that keep users from defecting to another brand like the operating system. >> i don't think samsung has an ecosystem. >> i was talking more about apple. >> yeah. that's the point. apple has an ecosystem. android, of course, has an

ecosystem that samsung is part of but in terms of samsung standing alone and saying, hey, this is a samsung ecosystem, it doesn't exist. so they can't compete against apple on that broader platform ecosystem sense. people are not writing apps for samsung. they are writing apps for an droitd a android and they run on samsung. they also run on 500 other brands of android devices. samsung wants to stand out and have a platform. i look at this phone. everything i said i stand by. it is gorgeous. they have squeezed a ton of screen, a beautiful screen, by the way, into something you can hold comfortably. but when you drill down into the features in the software, i would just rather wipe all the samsung stuff away and use android. just plain android on it. >> who do you think is the consume her here, walt?

how much danl wmage was done by previous exploding phone? did they win samsung fans back? are they taking market share from apple and others? who ends up buying it? >> the audience is -- there has always been an audience for people that prefer android and who like the hardware build of samsung. there is some audience for the samsung software i have just finished trashing. so you have to count those folks. there is an audience for this. your other two questions, i think we can't answer. how much damage was done to their brand. we all assume there was significant damage done to their brand. this is their first big new product since that damaged occurred. even though you have heard rumors and they are probably true that initial orders are strong. those are the loyalists who do the initial preorders. it will be a while before we

know whether there has been some dropoff because of the explosion damage. then, the question is, are they taking share from apple? you don't know. remember, apple will have at least one and there are reports that there could be three new iphones in the fall. so there is a little bit of a different schedule here that makes comparisons hard. >> one last thing while we have you. some reflexes on day one of f-8. i remember when facebook live first came out. you had some initial mild skepticism about whether or not we would all be willing to watch or produce live. i wonder what you made of spacebook spaces. are we all going to be doing "avatar" and v.r.? >> i still have skepticism about facebook live. here is what i think.

it's not v.r., by the way. it is a.r., as you have noted. >> true. >> i think a.r. is long-term, if we are talking or even medium term, we are talking ten years, seven years, whatever it is. then, forward. i think a.r. is a much bigger deal than v.r. not that v.r. is nothing. but v.r. will be over here with certain verticals gaming and some other things. a.r. has a very broad future and a very bright future. it is very hard to do. i think it is fascinating p i think, actually, mark, who, after all, owns oculus, which is v.r. i think mark essentially said that at f-8 yesterday, that a.r. is likely the bigger deal in the long-term. so i think what they are starting with is crude and kind of cartoony. there will be people that will like it and use it. i don't think we are all going to be liking it and using it,

carl. maybe you and i will meet up in some cartoon room. i don't know. i think they are getting into it. particularly the fact that we know they are developing hardware, new hardware, none of which was shown. they have regina duggan, who is super smart running their hardware efforts. i think when you combine that with this new devotion to a.r. it means they are going to be in the game. we know from -- we don't know but there are lots of rumors that apple is doing very, very serious investment in a.r. google is doing investment in a.r. and i think what we basically learned yesterday was facebook is going to be in that game too. >> a brave new world. they continue to reinvent. walt, great. we covered a lot of ground. appreciate it. walt mossberg talking samsung and fa today. the tech companies that have the most to lose from the president's planned rollback of

the h-1b visa program. rick santelli, what are you watching? >> once again, there is nothing like watching a busy pit with humans. we are watching the two-year note and the dollar index. those two contracts may be giving you big clues to the next big move. we'll talk about it after the break.

i'm melissa lee in for scott

walker on the halftime report. another ding for the dow as ibm tech false. are we about to see a major shift to the consumer and reestate sectors? jon najarian tracking unusual activity in retail stock that's been beaten down since christmas. pointing to a pop in the stock. we'll name names. in the meantime, carl, back over to you. >> melissa, thank you very much. let's get to the cme group, rick santelli and the santelli ex chap change. >> why do traders monitor so many different specific markets for their strategy? >> because they want to make money and they believe there is certain sentinel type qualities to various markets. in a very macro sense, one of the markets that may be giving you big clues about what's going to happen with equities is interest rates generically and

globally. i think investors have the fortitude to look ahead regarding issues of legislation under the current administration. having the possibility to do positive things from an economic vantage point, forget politics and just looking at positive things for the marketplace itself. offers hope. versus an administration that will be less inclined to move in the areas that might be more mark market friendly. we have seen some pretty good moves. we know central banks are fed in a gun's hot mode regarding balance sheet and/or interest rate increases to remove accommodations. interest rates have moved down. it seems a bit counterintuitive. we have seen the dollar index move down. one unique aspect to the front end of the curve, it is a tight relationship with the fed. even a fed that has managed markets and market signals not what they used to be in flattening curves might not mean big recessions.

hard to tell. the two-year still holds a special importance. as you look at these charts, i want you to concentrate on one simple issue. we have basically three bottoms on a closing basis of 114. one in january, january, two in march, february. the reason they're important and you've heard many times there's no such thing as a triple bottom because once you hit the third time, usual bly go through. now, switch gears to another aspect that may hold clue. dollar index. as you look at these charts, you'll see the bottom at 99 p.17 at the end of march. one of the most common screens on the trading floor, this one in particular, are the forwards. currency forwards, because the interest rate differential, so the dollar is good for a variety of reason, not the least of which is treasury secretaries

and presidents and central banks may be trying push it. if you get two things happen ng the same time periods closes below 114 in a two-year, below 917 in the dollar index and on the same week, you get those daily close below key level, a weekly confirmation, in my opinion, what that means is that the current moves will get bigger. meaning softer rates and potentially softer economy and maybe a slowing fed. those are big strategy changes, are they not? and all you have to really do in simple form is monitor those two markets. carl, back to you. >> all right, rick, good morning. thank you. when we come back, the winners and losers of president trump's plan to roll back the use of hib visas. hear what the cfo had to say about it yesterday. >> we would encourage change to that visa program really to reign it in and use it as we do.

there are some companies that have built an entire business model around the program, which was not the intent. let's go, she's a dog.

[ whimpers ] find ping-pong. find your awesome with the xfinity x1 voice remote. that's amazing!

president trump's plan to roll back the visa program has been a major issue in the board rooms in silicon valley, but which companies have the most to lose and gain? eric is back with some absoluteapss. >> good morning. the visa program is mostly associated with software engineer, but it's important to

note the differences in where these jobs are found around the country. by tapping into data, we know which firms are looking to hire the most foreign workers an even the average salaries offered. amazon, apple, intel, they were among the top 25 american companies in filing these applications last year. each company submitted over 1500 visa requests. other big tech firms include facebook sales force, oracle, qualcomm and ebay. each of them submitted about 1,000 requests. among all, facebook and apple had the highest salary, offering over $140,000 per worker. but it's not just the tech sector. wall street giants, jpmorgan, goldman sachs, bank of america, citigroup were in top 50 companies. each offered about $115,000 on average. outside of these major corporations, the biggest industry looking for these workers were the nation's

universities. even in wyoming and west virginia. schools generally look for foreign assistant professors. the average job paid $75,000 and the jobs are located around the country. top cities, houston, atlanta and chicago. far away from silicon valley. back to you guys. >> that is a nice window into that story. it's clearly not an abstract notion. got to pay attention. thank you very much. more after this. tv, take it wi. with directv now and at&t, get the ultimate in entertainment plus unlimited data. get directv now for $10 a month when you have the new at&t unlimited plus plan.

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obviously, the dow has had various culprits all week long. whether it was goldman earlier in the week or ibm today. that's one reason it's negative while the s&p up. cramer's point this morning, we're large ly getting done wit the banks and going to move on with industrials and tonight, we'll get ebay, csx, qualcomm and amex. we've got 15% reporting so far and two-thirds are beating, but thot by as much as historical averages. >> also the yields story. the bond market move. the vor rashs buying of treasuries yesterday. going the other way, that's making for a firm ir tone for markets, the dollar.

we'll get the beige book later in this afternoon's session. always a good read and good snapshot of this soft data, the confidence and whether the it's really translating into better economic activity. >> you know who might have an pb opinion? >> christine lagarde. >> i'll be heading down to imf world bank ahead of the election, and a better economic outlook for the global economy. >> over to headquarters, melissa and the half. welcome to the halftime report. today, we start with another ding for the dow. yesterday, it was goldman sachs and today, ibm. with us for the hour, steve weiss, jim, josh brown, john and kerry. ceo of orius asset management. shares down more than 5%. this is weighing heavily on the index. 58