good morning. crude new realities. futures holding strong despite oil threatening to break below $50 a barrel. france front and center. live on the ground in paris with just three days to go before the french presidential election. and the snap that got the sports world buzzing today. it's thursday, april 20, 2017, "worldwide exchange" begins right now. ♪ good morning. welcome to "worldwide exchange." i'm sara eisen. this is a special "worldwide

exchange," joining me today is kayla tausche. coming to you live from washington, d.c. where the world bank and imf are holding their spring meetings. wilfred frost is on the ground in paris ahead of the french election this weekend. we'll get to him in a bit. it's nice to have you. obviously we've chosen our music play list accordingly. >> it's nice to have you in my new city. it's throwback thursday, which is why you may recognize this song from several years ago. a special girl power edition of "worldwide exchange." throwing back to a few months ago when we worked in the same city. >> i will quiz you on washington in a moment. first, let's get to the global market picture. as for u.s. futures, after a more than triple digit slide for the dow yesterday, down 117, ibm accounted for 57 of those down points as we continue to watch earnings. things look firmer this morning. dow futures up 36 1/2 points. s&p up 5.

nasdaq up 16. we'll get to amex earnings in a bit. better than expected. signs of life from the consumer. as for the ten-year treasury note yield, been a driver of the action lately. seeing yields tick back up yesterday. they continued to do so this morning at 223 is your ten-year treasury yield. still hovering near the lowest level since november. >> activity in asia to tell you about. the focus in china is on some tax cuts on the corporate side that the state is talking about. also some easing of capital controls. look at how that simpacti ings shanghai. slightly in the green. hong kong up 1 %. japan, where march export data showed stronger than expected exports, up 12% the past year, japan roughly flat as well. look at what's happening in europe. we'll focus on the french election and what that surprise call for a snap uk election might mean for what the bank of

england does. that's in focus today. a lot of analysts weighing in on that look at how europe is reacting. if we can get those charts up. you can see germany is slightly firmer. france up by 1%. ftse slightly lower. spain is up about 1% as well. >> ftse had a rough few days. been down nearly every day this week. as for the broader market picture, starting with the currency board. and the u.s. dollar -- the action has been in commodities lately. some nice moves in the market. stronger euro, 1.0767. goes with that stronger france. strong dollar against the yen, 109. at that level. stronger british pound at 1.2835 which is partially why you are seating the ftse 100 in the uk down, and down sharply for the

week because of that rise in the british pound. exporters hate the strength of the pound. gold prices, on the flip side of what is a mixed picture for the dollar, gold down about a quarter of a percent. 1,280 an ounce. oil is the big story after yesterday's 3.8% slide, we watched that 50 a barrel level closely. a nice snap back of 1%, not making up for yesterday's slide. brent sits at 53.41, and nat gas getting a pop. >> energy dragged down the s&p yesterday. that's our top story. saudi arabia and kuwait signaling today that opec producers will likely extend a deal with non-opec producers to curb supplies. let's get to jackie deangelis with that story. >> good morning. equity markets very focused on the action in crude yesterday.

a $2 slide it seems like it was testing 50, but perhaps an empty threat because we are getting that bounce from the middle east where you mentioned some big owe pk pl opec players are signaling an extension of the opec supply cut. this has been rumored for quite some time. we won't know more about it until the may meeting, may 25th. some people are saying why would the opec members want to extend this supply cut when shale producers are pumping up? that's part of what drove down the price yesterday. you have the noise out there and the supply/demand fundamentals. when it comes to the noise, it's geopolitics, opec. supply and demand, there's too much crude oil out there. back to you. >> what should we watch for, for the next driver of crude oil as

we key in on this $50 a barrel level? >> you have to watch the headlines. this morning the opec producers have a lot of power. when they speak, people listen. that can move the price up as it has now, just about 1 % here. also watch washington closely. tensions with north korea, actions taking place in syria. these things will move the market as well. >> jackie deangelis, thank you very much for the early check on crude oil. some tough talk on iran late yesterday from secretary of state rex tillerson, tillerson describing the iran deal as a failure and saying the u.s. will conduct a complete review of its current policy towards iran. listen. >> an unchecked iran has the potential to travel the same path as north korea, and take the world along with it. the united states is keen to avoid a second piece of evidence that strategic patience is a

failed approach. a comprehensive iran policy requires that we address all the of the threats posed by iran. it's clear there are many. >> tillerson's comments coming just hours after the state department confirmed that iran was complying with the nuclear deal. clearly a bit of uncertainty on that geopolitics front added into the mix. syria, north korea, now with the administration and iran. >> the president has been critical of the iran deal. he didn't use the same exact language on the campaign trail as dewith trahe did with trade . he never said he wanted to rip it up. he was critical. he was suspicious of it. he called the negotiators incompetent and they are launching a full review. it took years to negotiate. unclear how long the review will make and what it means that iran already has had 1$100 billion i sanctions relief on the front end. >> and they're selling oil. that's the key here.

iran, unlike, for instance, syria, we watch even closer for the oil market because it's a major producer. we are here in d.c. early today covering the imf and world bank spring meetings. we have a big lineup throughout the day. an interview with the former fed chairman, alan greenspan coming at 10:00 a.m. also sitting down with the imf director, christine lagarde, 11:00 a.m. on squawk alley. every time i come into the imf world bank meetings here, spring or fall, it usually comes on the back of a downgrade for world economic growth. it's been so gloomy that the imf ratcheted back their forecast. this time it's the opposite. they took it up to 3.5% growth for this year. nothing exuberant, but it is an upgrade. >> but they didn't increase the growth forecast for the united states. >> true. they did for other countries around the world including the uk by about 2% the u.s. was the

only one they held firm. likely because of a lot of uncertainty in this area. >> they are also warning strongly on rising trade po tech shunnism and what that might do to the global economy. big threat on the horizon could also be a government shutdown. gop leaders appear to be willing to extend the deadline to fund the government beyond next friday. we'll know more when congress reconvenes monday. joining us is the person you wanted to talk to about the budget, stan collander, the budget guy. thank you for waiting patiently and being here early to talk to us. >> of course. aren't you tired of talking about government shutdowns? >> well, you might have thought with republicans in control of all branches of government it might be averted. is that going to happen? >> for next week almost certainly. there's not enough time for them to decide what they can't decide. so the chances are there will be

an exz tensitension for a week this will come down to donald trump. congress is likely to send the president a bill that has nothing that he wants. the question is le figwill he f now and shut down the government, veto the bill, or decide until let's wait until 2018. that fight is three months away. >> we have short-term funding extensions in september, in december, now we're here in april. talking about a week. that's what gop leaders are hoping is all they need. but some analysts out there say we could get to october. this could potentially run up against the debt limit debate. how likely is that. >> the debt limit debate will be a problem not in october but in september. >> but the end of the government's fiscal year, around the end of september. >> around the end of '17, and this fight won't have an impact on the debt ceiling, but in 2018 it will. so they will almost certainly try to wrap that into one big

bill and get it done all at the same time, and maybe go to the quif lenequivalent of a nuclear if they can't get an agreement. >> what will go into the funding bill? >> so currently an extension of the funding bill. >> so the president doesn't get the big defense increase? >> he doesn't, but they'll promise to do that later. >> does he get the border wall? >> no he doesn't get the wall, the planned parenthood defunding or the obama defunding. he almost gets nothing he wants so will he accept that? more importantly, will the freedom caucus accept that. this could be disruptive. >> where are you on healthcare and as it relates to tax reform? as we understand, they'll go back to the drawing board here and try to get them both done again. >> they've been going back to the drawing board since this didn't pass the first time and

they couldn't come up with an agreement. they're not much closer along on tax reform. the problem on healthcare, the longer the debate goes on, the more it will have an impact on tax reform. that is once they start doing the 2018 budget and budget resolution, the 2017 resolution that allowed healthcare to happen will be null and void. so they'll have to figure out a way around it. if there's ever been a time for market uncertainty, this is it. none of the established processes, procedures are likely to be followed or be used the way they've been used in the past. >> you're run of the experts on the budget. there's a debate about whether they can do tax reform, make it revenue neutral through dynamic scoring, economic growth without having a border adjustment tax. how does the math look to you? >> there's almost certainly an increase in the deficit, maybe a substantial increase. unlike 1986, when they did the last tax reform, they started by saying it would be deficit

neutral. this is a -- the border adjustment tax is too controversial for most people. doing away with mortgage interest deduction and charitable deduction is too controversial for most people. you indica you. >> they are banking on sharp tax cuts increasing growths. stan, good to see you. in person what a treat. >> turning to today's agenda. a pair of economic reports are out before the opening bell. weekly jobless claims and the april philly fed survey will be released at 8:30 a.m. eastern. at the same time fed governor jay powell will be speaking in washington about capital markets and growth. travelers, verizon, bank of new york, melon and blackstone report this morning. after the close, visa and mattel, and some kov racoverage

blackstone's business benefiting from trump's policies. swartzman getting trump to change his view on china. we'll see what they say on that front. we have earnings movers to get to, american express did post a better than expected q1 profit. the company's positive results helped in part by higher spending by card members. guidance indicating it was starting to mitigate some impact of those key partnerships last year. most notably the one with cos o costco. the stock is reacting well. up 2.5% premarket. ebay's q2 profit falling short of estimates, this after reva revamping. qualcomm reporting revenue and profit that topped the street's forecast. the positive results easing concerns surrounding the chipmaker's dispute with apple. apple suing qualcomm back in january accusing the company of

overcharging for chips and refusing to pay roughly $1 billion in promised rebates. also having more than a 2% pop. >> a few more stocks to watch. csx posting stronger than expected quarterly results. this quarter marking the railroad operator's first set of earnings under new ceo hunter harrison. stock is up nearly 3%. shares of toshiba ticking higher ahead hopes for its chip business. reports surfacing that foxconn is planning to get the backing of amazon and dell in its effort to win government approval for that possible $28 billion purchase of the firm's semiconductor business. foxconn will have amazon and dell each take a 10% stake in toshiba's chip business and apple would buy a 20% stake. unilever reporting a rise in underlying sales for q1 as it raised prices. results are weighed down by weak performance in the europe and u.s. market.

overseas that stock is flat. in great britain that stock is up about 1.5%. up next, we're going global. wilfred frost just touching down in paris, would he be jealous that he's missing this show with his two favorite people. >> he's in paris, he's flexing his language skills. he likes to prove to me he speaks french fluently. he'll be joining us straight ahead. and we're headed to shanghai. phil lebeau tells us why china could be a big threat to u.s. automakers. "worldwide exchange" returns after this.

hey, i've got the trend analysis. hey. hi. hi. you guys going to the company picnic this weekend? picnics are delightful. oh, wish we could. but we're stuck here catching up on claims. but we just compared historical claims to coverages. but we have those new audits. my natural language api can help us score those by noon. great. see you guys there. we would not miss it. watson, you gotta learn how to take a hint. i love to learn.

welcome back to "worldwide exchange." the countdown is on. just three days to go until the first round of the french presidential election. the race couldn't be tighter. wilfred frost just landed in paris. he joins us with more. you're missing the party in washington with me and kayla. >> i can't believe you got to choose your own throwback thursday theme. that's not fair, very anti-wilf. the other thing i want to clear up is that i never claimed to speech french fluently [ speaking french ] so three days to go until the election. four polling around the 20% level. let's look at who is leakly to win the most votes this sunday. the answer is very clear, marine

le pen odds-on favorite at 4/5. the leader of the far-right, anti-euro. none of those candidates likely to win more than 50%. that means we'll go to a second-round runoff two weeks later between the top two candidates in the first round. let's look at who is likely to come out of this process as france's next president. le pen slips two places to third place. the third to be president. emanuel macron the centrist independent. why is it that marine le pen slips in between those two rounds? it's thought in the second round in french politics, voters will unite against the outsider and favor the centrist candidate and come together to make sure that an outsider doesn't get in. of course we looked at odds before over the course of 2016 with the brexit vote, the u.s. presidential election. it's been wrong before. so could it be wrong again here? i interviewed the head of research at pre-data yesterday,

aaron times. he focuses on attraction of campaigns as opposed to traditional methods, i asked whether it's possible that the chances of marine le pen coming out of this as the next french president were being underestimated. >> our modeling of the digital campaign today suggests that le pen is in with a much better shot of winning the second round should she qualify for it. we're not seeing the overwhelmingly negative picture that meerms fr emerges from the. >> i also asked him if they had done the same analysis going into brexit and the u.s. election. >> we didn't do it for brexit. we did do it for the u.s. election. we monitored the digital campaign in the 12 battleground states. the signals that we built around that accurately captured the

fact that the battleground states swung behind donald trump. it's a mode of analysis with a track record, though every election is different. >> the bottom line is with just three days to go, this is historically divided and historically close and why markets have priced in the downside risks. >> wilf, the risk is the official polls having very different results from the straw polls, when you talk to people walking around, you know, in the back of your live shot there. what are the people on the ground in paris saying? how polarizing is this election to them compared to other elections you mentioned? >> well, just literally i touched down. tomorrow we'll have much more details of people on the street, but the risk is whether in the second round that traditional belief that people will unite around a centrist candidate doesn't carry out.

the fact that there are four in with a chance of winning it increases the chances that that's not the case. traditionally this was a two-party system. the presidents of the last 40 years have been from the two main parties, socialist and republican and for the last 60 years they reached the final stage, one of them has it is looking possible that neither will this time. that raises uncertainty and the possibility that we get a surprise result. >> we'll see you later in the show good to have you there. >> look forward to it. >> wilfred frost in paris. up next on "worldwide exchange," could a trade war with china bring u.s. car sales to a screeching halt? we'll have that story live from shanghai. you're watching "worldwide exchange" on cnbc.

welcome back. we head to asia where auto sales have been in the drive, but new concerns about trade have some questioning whether or not this upward trend can continue. phil lebeau is live from the gm cadillac plant in shanghai, where the cars behind you are rolling right off the assembly line. >> reporter: this is the second newest plant that general motors has in china. it's interesting when you walk around here compared to other plants in north america or elsewhere, it's quieter, far more advanced, the most advanced plant that general motors has. this plant biuilds the ctx

plug-in hybrid, a vehicle that will be exported to the united states and sold in the discussion. there has been a lot of discussion since the election on what might happen if there's a trade war between the u.s. and china. a lot of people believe there are a ton of vehicles imported into the united states, but those vehicles built in china, a little over 20,000, by comparison u.s. manufacturing plants export more than 250,000 vehicles to china. at this plant here, the reason this plant was built is the same reason that general motors has ten other plants in the country. you build where you sell. as a result for general motors, china has become critically important earning more than 2$20 million. people worry could a trade war break out and hurt sales for global manufacturers?

most analysts say it's highly unlikely. >> the reality is that for most global automakers, american ones included, they produce most of their vehicles here in china. so the tariff issue is only for a limited segment of vehicles, high performance luxury vehicles that are really almost immune to pricing. many my view i don't see an all-out trade war coming from all of this discussion. >> as you look at shares of general motors, this is a market where the company earned $2 billion last year. we'll talk with the head of cadillac in china coming up on "squawk box." don't miss what he has to say about the growth cadillac is seeing in the country. double digit growth last year. they'll see strong sales again this year. that's coming up next hour. back to you. >> we'll see you then, phil. good story on whether that is threatened by some trade

tensions with china. when we come back on "worldwide exchange," we'll continue to watch futures pointing higher. can we break the losing streak? we have a few earnings to go over with you from csx to amex. the french stock market up a percent and the euro at a three-week high.

good morning. markets now, crude clawing back from yesterday's losses, but

prices sit close to the key $50 mark. the battle for france. we're on the ground in paris ahead of this weekend's election. we talk potential outcomes and market reaction straight ahead. and o'reilly is out. the top cable news host no longer a factor at fox news. could his ouster cause a financial blow to 21st century fox? it's thursday, april 20, 2017, you're watching "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. ♪ good morning. welcome back to a special edition of "worldwide exchange" from washington, d.c. i'm sara eisen along with kayla tausche. the imf and world bank powers are happening today. all the heavyweights, finance ministers and central bankers are here. we'll talk to a number of key guests. wilfred is in paris. it's good to be here with you with all the news coming out of washington, d.c. >> >> happy to be here.

a lot of news happening in the markets. oil moving very sharply yesterday. recovering some of its losses today on news that potentially saudi arabia expects a new production cut to come into play. >> 1% move in oil helping the tone today. let's check in on the global markets and what futures are doing after seeing stocks down five of the last six sessions. another triple digit selloff yesterday. the dow really being dragged lower yesterday by ibm and those disappointing numbers. dow futures better up 46 1/2 points this morning. s&p up 7. nasdaq futures are up about 19 points. we have more earnings to talk to you about, including amex last night. better numbers. as for overnight action in asia. better numbers when it comes to japanese exports. it's an important sign of global demand, potentially picking up. the nikkei ended the day flat, but hong kong and shanghai rebounded a bit from what has

been a lower week for both markets. hong kong up a percent. shanghai flat. as for the early action in europe, mostly positive, especially in france which we're watching closely ahead of the first round voting on sunday. the cac is leading the charge, up 1%. the ftse 100 in the uk underperforms again on the back of a stronger pound. very interesting to see after the prime minister theresa may surprisingly called that snap election. strong pound hurting the exporters particularly, and the ftse 100, mostly a better tone across asia and europe. >> deutsche bank saying potentially the strength in the uk may lead the bank of england to raise interest rates instead of cut them. let's lock at where the broader markets are now. we mentioned oil. 3.8% drop yesterday. finding a firmer footing this morning on word that saudi arabia is interested in reaching a deal for new production cuts. but as always, we'll see if action follows that talk. the ten-year note has been in focus.

we have seen yields on the ten-year fall 10% so far this year. currently sitting at 2.22. there have been some calls to go to two flat by the end of the year. global growth across the board is a concern as well as forces coming out of washington and out of central banks globally. the dollar did see some movement yesterday after the beige book came out. u.s. central bankers suggesting that maybe growth is not as good here in the u.s. as they may have expected. the ft also published a full transcript of their interview with steve mnuchin who said the president is not trying to talk down the dollar despite the fact last week he said he wanted a weaker dollar to help exports. the dollar then fell. this is what you're seeing in the currency markets now. finally look at gold, where we are right now at this hour. on the back of what's happening in the rates market and in

currencies, you see gold weaker by just about 0.1%. we will have full coverage from the imf meetings, i'll have some exclusive interviews with you, including one with the former federal chairman, also an exclusive sit down with christine lagarde, the host of the meeting. imf just upping the global growth forecast. that's at 11:00 a.m. on squawk alley. we have all our friends in the house, including geoff cutmore from london. good morning. >> good to be here. >> it's an interesting time for you to be here. the imf upgraded its forecast for europe, but we go into such an uncertain election for the eurozone and for europe as a whole. >> there's a contradiction at the heart of the imf story. i was in the action all day

yesterday. i caught up with the nigerian finance minister, the brazilian minister, green lights, right, after five years of austerity in major economies, we're finally back to fiscal neutrality, ultimately the potential is that we could see good growth from here. that's what the imf is saying. yet when you talk to people here they feel nervy, uneasy, and clearly the markets are not reflecting that better tone from the imf. so something doesn't quite add up at the moment. >> the imf is taking a harsher tone on the u.s. they're warning about the debt binge that u.s. companies went on and this risk of protectionism. now christine lagarde started this feud with wilbur ross, the commerce secretary, and called her claims rubbish, that protectionism will hurt our economy. >> there's a problem. the problem is that nobody understands what donald trump's

presidency means yet. we may be talking about 100 days, but when you walk around and talk to people in the imf and ask do you think this government has a credible policy for fiscal stimulus, for the other policy platforms that the government laid out, there's a big question mark. they don't know. the problem is, i think, because they don't know, they're putting in lots of ifs, buts and maybes. that came out of the financial stability report really. the suggestion that a lot of companies have taken on leverage now. they bought back shares, raised money to do that, rather than investing in capex or hiring staff. that raises just some interesting questions about if life is so great fsh, if we are escape velocity, why aren't companies investing in themselves more. >> you know this well having covered this meeting for years. it's always an opportunity for global central bankers and finance ministers to get together and talk about the

biggest concerns what are the risks? whether it's the european debt crisis, the debt bubble, there's always a topic du jour. what could you say that is? >> i think it's france. that's the thing. i'm here. you sent wilfred to paris. i think that's where the story is. >> i dispatched him. >> we could have switched. i could have gone to paris, he could have stayed here, we would have saved on the air miles. the point is this, we know france was an anchor member of the eu. an anchor member of the eurozone. if we end up with a president in france anti-eurozone, anti eu, does the whole thing unravel? if it unravels the consequences would be enormous. that's the fear. so, while we're all here in washington, it will be interesting to hear what christine lagarde says to you later. it's her home, france, that is the key challenge for markets in the near-term. >> it's interesting to see the cac up a percent and the euro as a three-week high. with the polls barely budging,

is it complacency or do investors know something the rest of us don't? >> the interesting thing about the markets recently, they are insensitive to crisis, it seems. whether it's china excess leverage in the shadow banking system, whether it's north america, whether it's what we heard from secretary tillerson about iran. the markets are able to look through the near-term risk, it seems to me. i would describe it as complacency. but let's see. macron has a reasonable count in the polls. he would be the safe pair of hands if not fillon, but if it's melenchon or le pen, we need to rethink the direction for markets quickly. a lot of assumptions about what happens next that could be very negative for european growth. >> they seem to be in a wait and see mode. >> geoff, thanks for racking up those air miles. >> great to be here. nice to see you. best of luck with christine

lagarde later. >> geoff cutmore in town. when we come back, we go to wilfred in paris. what do you have coming up? >> absolutely right. as geoff said we spent the air miles and we'll make the most of it and we'll add color about how the french press are framing the final three days of campaigning ahead of the all-important vote on sunday when "worldwide exchange" returns from washington and paris.

welcome back to a special "worldwide exchange" live in washington, d.c. to cover today's imf world bank spring meetings and live in paris where wilfred landed ahead of the french election. we turn to you. you do the front pages, wilfred. >> great stuff. let's look first of all at liberation, a left-wing newspaper. the headline, the battle for the working class vote. on the front, far-right marine le pen, far-left jean-luc melenchon. unlikely a runoff, but certainly a big question mark. the story of the last three weeks was the rise of the far-left jean-luc melenchon. the more right-wing party goes fillon second tour? he says i will qualify for the

second round. that's been the story the last three days, the republican candidate, the party of mr. sarkozy just caught back up again and is now second favorite. that's something markets welcome. they would like to see him make the second round. if we see the euro versus the yen, it paints that picture nicely. over the last three months, down, but ticking up a bit the last day or two. so markets taking their foot off the worry a little bit. >> wilfred, when we touched down i remember right before brexit we heard a speech, i think on bbc, from boris johnson appealing to last-minute voters to vote out. that was the emotional take. we painted it as rational versus emotional. the same thing with donald trump eliciting an emotional response is that dynamic at work in france? >> it definitely is.

it is highlighted by that front page i showed you, the first one. the battle of the working class being framed as either a far-left or far-right. there's some similarities there on how this has broken down traditional political divides. there's an emotional tone, a nationalistic one, both because of unemployment which is 10% in france, 23.5% is the youth unemployment rate. people say we want our jobs back because they're going elsewhere. and the other big, big issue in the last three, four years in france which has been the terror attacks and the way that some have tried to link that with the issue of immigration across europe. those are emotional issues, harder for people to necessarily vote along traditional party lines. >> good point. wilfred, thank you. we know you have to go out and do some reporting. you'll have a lot more for us from paris tomorrow and all weekend long. see you then. >> now to our must-read stories catching our attention.

my pick is in the "wall street journal" titled do you want reagan's economy or obama's? budget and economic data over the seven post-war decades proved american exceptionalism flourishes when supported by policies supporting freedom and opportunity and disappear when suppressed. but the cbo's methods do not recognize that truth. no single part of the obama program was ever scored in advance by the cbo. no single reagan action was ever scored by the cbo producing the equivalent of 2.9 trillion in new revenues. we heard the likes of jim nestle, who was george bush's former budget director saying i remember using dynamic scoring

arguments because i tried to use them to make my case back in the day. but they sometimes have fallacies themselves. the cbo, nonpartisan, middle of the road organization, you need an organization like that to be an arbitrator of these policies. you don't know -- >> but if you don't like what they say, you can just undermine their credibility call them a bunch of policy hawks. >> they say they're good at numbers but bad at humans. making headlines also, we should mention this story, fox news parting ways with bill o'reilly. 21st century fox releasing a statement saying the agreement was reached after a "thorough and careful review of sexual harassment allegations." o'reilly calling the move incredibly disheartening. the star host coming under fire after an article by the "new york times" revealed 21st century fox paid a total of $13 million to settle harassment claims against him. since then more than 50

advertisers abandoned his show. the o'reilly factor brought in an estimated 1$111 million in a revenue this year. so material impact. let's show you what's happening with shares. shares pretty much unchanged. we saw this action as rumors started to heat up yesterday it will be a stock story and a business story when the top-rated host on the top-rated cable network will be out. >> because now there are multiple data cpoints in the category. >> we're approaching the top of the tour. the team is getting ready for "squawk box." becky quick joins us from new york. >> i like the girl power down there this morning. sara, how did you get down to d.c.? >> i took the delta shuttle. very efficient. no delays. h 45 minutes. >> i figured it was a 50/50 shot if you took the shuttle or acela. that's the way we usually get down there. it's always a sure shot on the

shuttle that you get down there. joining us is wick moran, the ceo of amtrak. we will talk to him about infrastructure in america, what needs to happen, where we should be spending more, where we could be doing a better job of things. we will also talk to senator pat toomey from pennsylvania. he will join us today to talk about everything that's been going on with trumponomics. that's a topic a lot of people have been paying attention to. for a half hour today we'll sit down with robert rubin, former treasury secretary of the united states, 70th treasury secretary. former goldman sachs executive as well. he's going to talk about what he sees happening right now, what's important when it comes to all of these financial issues happening not only here in america but around the globe. his view of what's been

happening with trump nonomics a well. >> that's huge. >> he'll be with us for a half hour. and we'll go back to wilf. i feel like wilf is a member of the show these days. we'll get an update from him as well. >> he's shown us he has a very, very well-developed french accent. >> he's proud of that. >> we'll test that out with him today. kayla, great to see you on set this morning. >> great to see you. >> we have a throwback thursday girl song. >> all right. back to you. >> see you soon. still ahead, the dous posting another big loss yesterday. will slide continue today? we'll get you ready for the trading day just ahead. jack caffrey will join us. "worldwide exchange" will be right back. is the new new york. we are building new airports all across the state.w york. new roads and bridges. new mass transit.

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you...smells fine, but yourin your passengers smell this bell dinging new febreze car with odorclear technology cleans away odors... ...for up to 30 days smells nice... breathe happy, with new febreze. welcome back to "worldwide exchange." futures looking positive at this hour. dow futures up 41. s&p up 6, this after five down

days in the last six sessions. pretty much heading for a down month for the month of april. joining us is jack cafferty from jpmorgan private bank. jack, it's early, how would you assess the earnings picture now? do investors have reason to worry? ifrmt think it >> i think it's unfolding better than expected. posting an acceleration from year-ago levels. we will see a bit of fade. normally you get the good news early. but the news is good. we used to hear that the markets were rising and stocks are rising. the commentary from ceos has not necessarily been that negative. how do you read it? >> i think you look at what ceos are going to try to point to. they'll look at -- i think they'll try to keep their tone and emphases on their own businesses. if i were to echo some comments that you saw yesterday in the

beige book, moderate to modest. moderate to modest. and with that, that's more within the control of a ceo. policy changes may happen. they will probably take longer to come to bear than people might have hoped in two months ago or four months ago. that's where people come back to let's keep expectations reasonable. let's keep them deliverable. let's keep them beatable over time. if you can have that modest expectations, modest upside surprise, and from that i think you can continue to lay the foundation under which you can get a rising market. you don't have to make the case necessarily of higher evaluations if the earnings come through. >> jack, we have had high-profile misses. i guess they've been big dow draggers like goldman sachs, johnson & johnson, ibm, taking down the markets. talk to me about groups or names of where you see the strength looking ahead? >> well, i think certainly when you talk about -- you've had big down droppers. you know, if you look through

within, there were beats within some of those comments. there were some positive guidance, but i think some people were hearing things that point to it was not necessarily as clear an evolution in terms of what analysts were hoping to hear from those companies versus where the companies were able to give that. where you're seeing strength has been certainly from a market perspective back more in the secular growth stories. parts of healthcare, parts of technology have done well. that's markets looking away saying we're back to moderate and modest. i do think we talked about energy trying to find some stability this morning. i think an investor who has a disciplined process has to go back to what's getting cheap? what are investors walking away from and coming back to there's opportunities where people are walking away and giving you things. >> jack, thank you for helping us with the wall street setup of jpmorgan private bank. what are you watching? >> ceos at the white house.

u.s. steel is at the white house. stock is down. >> join us tomorrow back in washington. so our engineers can solve problems with the most precise data at their fingertips. because safety is never being satisfied. and always working to be better.

good morning. crude prices are rebounding after yesterday's selloff, and equity futures are ticking higher. a market rundown straight ahead. the earnings parade rolls on. two more dow components set to report before the opening bell. we'll tell you what to expect from travelers and verizon. and shake up at fox news. bill o'reilly is out. will investors punish the stock because of that? he was a big part of that news organization's success. it's thursday, april 20, 2017. "squawk box" begins right now. ♪

live from new york where business never sleeps, this is "squawk box." good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" on cnbc. we are live from the nasdaq market site in times square. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. joining us is steve grasso, director of institutional sales at stewart frankel. welcome. >> great to be here. >> it's not dick grasso? >> steve. >> uncle richard. >> i prepared for the wrong show -- again. >> different hairstyle. different look. different height. and -- and different money. >> didn't competition. >> that's what i was prepared for. well -- welcome. we like you. >> thank you.