after becoming one of the largest broadband companies in the country. after expanding our fiber network coast to coast. these are the places we call home. we are centurylink. we believe in the power of the digital world. the power to connect. and that's what drives us everyday. good thursday morning. welcome to "squawk alley".

we're going to talk to henry in a moment. we're continuing to northern the senate intelligence hearing going on capitol hill right now. already acting fbi director andrew mccabe has been asked if in fact james comey told the president he was not under investigation. mccabe said company not comment. dow is down 104. kayla tausche will keep us up to date. >> reporter: the purpose of today's hearing is an annual hearing was to assess the threats posed to the u.s. from outside from the global stage and in doing so the director of national intelligence sort of did a trip around the globe identifying where he saw the threats and where the intelligence community had identified those threats. he started with north korea, syria, cyber security, isis, iran, russia. and in the questioning portion of this which you were just listening to, despite the fact the chairman of this committee, north carolina senator richard bird said upfront i'll disappoint you the purpose of this hearing is not to talk

about russia or the fbi, did he put that very first question to the acting director of the fbi about whether he had ever heard james comey ever tell the president he was not under investigation. then the floor went to mark warner the senator from virginia who is the vice chair of the committee and he began his time by asking every single one of the witnesses to say on the record whether russia did, in fact, interfere in the 2016 election. unanimously across the board they all said yes. the conversation then turned to fake news whether there's a grand strategy on behalf of the intelligence community, they said no. despite the fact that this is a hearing that was previously scheduled to talk about issues broader than what is going on here in washington, that issue of the fbi tumult that we saw this week in the ongoing russian investigation very clearly still on everybody's minds. >> kayla tausche on capitol hill.

don't go too far. we'll come back to you for developments as they move on later this morning. as we said insider ceo henry blodget joins us to talk about the intricacies of the hearing but how all of this is impacting investing settlement, the mood, expectations for policy. >> i think a few minutes ago we heard the key answer which is are you going to continue the investigation into whether russia colluded or coordinated with the trump campaign. yes, absolutely. the market rallied a little bit there. if that's the case that's good. that should calm fears a little bit. the night comey was fired, will we have a trump stooge running the fbi. are we losing law and order in this country? this performance should help calm immediate fears. >> you think the market want as special prosecutor necessarily? >> no. i think the market wants to know that law and order is stloild in this country. that the president of the united

states is not above the law and people who are loyal to him above everything else. >> he can remove the director of the fbi at his pleasure. >> yes. but the key here is whoever is chosen to run the fbi as one of the guests talked about before is somebody of integrity and independence and whose number one criteria for job selection isn't his loyalty, personal loyalty to the president of the united states. >> have you been surprised to see the resilience of this market, really yesterday and the past few weeks to whatever was thrown at it, whether it was this comey surprise and some of the questions that toledo the trump agenda and everything else going on. >> the market has been extraordinarily resilient since last november. whether you conclude basically the market thinks not too much will happen other than words. folks are tuning out a lot of the rhetoric. much calmer about that. remember when stocks would tank there would be a tweet that

stocks would instantly tank and come back. certainly seems to be weathering this. >> is it resilience or is it complacency, because the vix really low. i think still below ten. if it were resiliency you would think it would tank, low pop back up and then you could say there are people on either side of this. just doesn't seem like the market is reacting much at all, maybe doesn't care about the role of civil society, balance of powers. i don't know. >> i think the market is assuming that the business climate is going to get easier. less regulation. maybe less tax, if we can have reform on that. that's good. but certainly my sentiment indicator would say folks are complacent especially given the valuations which everybody agrees the market as a whole is extremely high in value. >> you bring the call in for us. you bring this up every time. one of these days you will be

right. >> maybe so. >> unless you changed your mind. >> no. unless everything has changed. >> let's move on to snap earnings, the other dynamic affecting tech earnings. follow the senate hearing as developments come at us. in the meantime snap plummeting. julie boorstin talked to executives at snap and is out in l.a. with more. >> reporter: that's right, snap disappointing expectations on revenue and earnings. the company increased its user growth to add 8 million daily active since the last quarter still shy of expectations. the stock dipping to its ipo price among facebook copying snap will squash its growth. >> people will copy your product if you make great stuff. we've seen this happen a lot in technology. when google came along everyone felt they needed a search

strategy. when facebook came along everybody felt they needed a social strategy. with snap, with our company we believe everyone will develop a camera strategy because yahoo! has a search box doesn't mean they are google. >> he defended snap's growth. analysts are mixed. cantor fitzgerald upgraded the valuation. while moffett and nathan son says the growth has hit the ceiling and the business model has problems. the stock dip stinging bobby murphy. they both lost about a billion dollars as that stock declined. back over to you. so, henry, this was the first chance, this was the first public earnings report for snap. wasn't pretty. >> it was not. and given when they went public,

which was the back half of the quarter, one would think expectations could have been managed better than this. very surprising to see it miss like this, a couple of months after an ipo. >> a hot ipo. >> doesn't make sense. stepping back from that, what we have learned from google, facebook, twitter, other companies like this is there are two parts to these companies and they both have to work very well. there's the product part and there is the revenue and business part. and in the case of twitter, twitter's product suffered. they had very strong on the revenue side but ultimately because they didn't have the usage side revenue was capped. google nailed both of them. the jury is still out on snapchat. done very well on the product side and user growth in the market which they want the u.s. market, uk is still growing nicely. but to have a miss like this on the revenue side and see the seasonality that we have certainly as an investor would

be wondering who is running the business. do we have a strong enough team doing that. that's a reasonable question. >> here is write am. this snapchat story doesn't make sense and the reason why they said don't compare us to facebook which means to say take a look at facebook's multiple, i believe it's trading at 11 times expected 2017 revenues. snap is trading at 18 times. they say we don't want international, don't judge us on raw growth, judge us on engagement. their engagement had better be off the charts at some point in the next few quarters if they are not going for the entire world. so you're facebook and you want a facebook valuation and if you're not you deserve a lesser valuation because you won't take over the world. >> the story they can generate a lot of revenue out of the folks who are currently using the service and other folks like them, if they continue to use them more it's a good story. >> it's been their consistent

story. >> very capped relative to everyone in the world will be on snapchat all day long. when you look at the modernization of this platform potentially very different than twitter. this is a highly visual video centric platform. >> not very different than instagram's story. no matter how many times they say daily users doesn't matter n-is agram mimics the snap product. >> people use it differently. it's not a zero sum game. you have to believe that instagram will take some of the market away, spending. say look we can do that too. if nothing else some of the market opportunity is gone. >> that brings us to the point that julia made during the call. he was asked about zuckerberg and if he was afraid of facebook. just because yahoo! has a search box doesn't make it google. in the words of cramer this morning is he callow and

arrogant. >> he's being dismissive. i like he has a lot of confidence. and built an amazing product out of nothing. he's incredibly talented. wouldn't surprise me if behind that he was saying they have in fact copied us very well and used our idea. >> which was the first company to effectively monetize? i forget. this is snap's first earnings report. awfully bold to come out like that. >> especially when it's a miss across the board. >> again that goes back to the expectations of management. i don't know what happened there. normally you can do a much better job than that. >> if they are saying the average user is engaged 30 minutes a day, boy a year from now it better be 45 and than year later it better be an hour and a half, right? if you're not going for scale those engagement numbers better be what you're measuring on. >> 30 minutes a day is a long

time. especially when you have full screen, video, advertising. based on conversations i have with advertisers over the past quarter there was some frustration. folks said we're pulling our money, people are going through our ads too fast. snap can fix that. they can work on that if they have sheryl sandberg running the business. this is what people forget about facebook. there were two folks critical there. mark zuckerberg, sheryl sandberg. if snapchat has a sheryl sandberg, get him or her out. >> i think evan spegle would say his genius is on the advertising side. >> that's a key point. the equity structure at ipo time people who bought the shares know this is a bet on him. not just the company. >> remember, mark zuckerberg

realized i'm not the world's best ad global scaling person. he found her. she built this incredible business. google did the same thing. brought in tim armstrong. built this amazing business. who is it at snapchat? >> you think they are getting the message? is this a story where it's a maturity thing? >> possibly. we'll see. i and inway it's structured and this only comes into play now, but you remember they were saying look i don't mean to rain on the parade but this is a situation where one person has total control. no one can say anything. no voting pressure you can bring to bear. the answer to that question, evan speegle bummed this morning? >> he has a billion dollars. the stock by the way is off the loss. not as low as the ipo price. >> this is one quarter to value this company. you got to go out five, ten years. it's the trajectory. the only thing this tells us is

what that trajectory is. it is like that which everybody thought or is it like this? we don't know. >> thank you. when we come back we'll take you back to washington. more q and a from senate intelligence. we're hearing from acting director andrew mccabe. take a look at shares of macy's one of the worst stocks on the s&p down almost 14%. comps dropping for the ninth quarter in a row. below 26. hasn't done that since 2011. back in a minute. a used car,

did you know slow internet tr can actually hold your business back? say goodbye to slow downloads, slow backups, slow everything. comcast business offers blazing fast and reliable internet that's over 6 times faster than slow internet from the phone company. say hello to internet speeds up to 250 mbps. and add phone and tv for only $34.90 more a month. call today. comcast business. built for business.

we continue to monitor testimony from act being fbi director andrew mccabe before the senate intel committee. when that testimony addresses koem overwhelm or the russia investigation we'll try to get back there as soon as possible. in the meantime ninds of a moderate selloff, dow is down 80. mike santoli made his way back as well as bob pisani. people are looking at the retail mess we got this morning. some inflationary pressure. missed technical level 2300. >> retail was a bit of an issue. slight move to safety but not big. yen strengthening against the dollar. there's your classic safety move. gold moves up. ten year yields move up a little bit. i think that's kind of interesting. if you look at the s&p, we're getting more amplitude. we've been talking about how ago

nicingly small. usually the nasdaq will move 12 to 16 points a day. today it's about 15 points. normal. we're going what's going on. that's the big thing. >> let's get back to d.c. >> it might never come out. with all the recent talk in recent weeks about whether there is evidence of collusion, i fear some colleagues forgotten that donald trump urged the russians to hack his opponents. he also said repeatedly that he loved wikileaks. so the question is not whether donald trump actively encouraged the russians and wikileaks to attack our democracy, he did. that is an established fact. the only question is whether he or someone associated with him coordinated with the russians. now, mr. mccabe, the president's

letter to director comey asserted that on three separate occasions the director informed him that he was not under investigation. would it have been wrong for the director to inform him he was not under investigation? yes or no? >> sir, i'm not going comment on any conversations that the director may have had. >> i didn't ask that. it would have been wrong for the director to inform him he was not under investigation? that's not about conversation. that's yes or no answer. >> as you know, senator, we typically do not answer. >> will you refrain from these alleged updates to the president or anyone else in the white house? >> i will. >> director pompeo, why the president didn't fire michael

flynn after acting attorney general yates warned the white house that company be blackmailed by the russians. director pompeo did you know about the acting attorney general's warnings to the white house or were you award of the concerns behind the warning? >> i don't have any comment on that. >> were you aware of the concerns behind the warning? i mean, this is a global threat. this is a global threat question. this is a global threat hearing. were you aware. >> sir, tell me what global threat you're concerned with. him not to sure i understand the question. >> the possibility of blackmail. i mean blackmail by an influential military official. that has real ramifications for the global threat. this is not about a policy implication, this is about the national security adviser being vulnerable to blackmail by the russians. the american people deserve to know whether in these

extraordinary circumstances the cia kept them safe. >> yes, sir, the cia kept america safe. and the people at the central intelligence agency are committed to that. and will remain committed to that. we will do that in the face of -- >> you won't tans question. >> we'll do that in the face of political dhals coming from any direction. >> but you won't answer the question of whether or not you were aware of the concerns behind the yates warning? >> sir, i don't know exactly what you're referring to with the yates warning. i wasn't part of any of those conversations. >> the yates warning was -- >> senator, i have no firsthand information with respect to the warning that was given. she didn't make that warning to me. i can't answer that question as much as i would like to. >> okay. director coats, how concerned are you that a russian government oil company run by a putin crony could end up owning

a significant percentage of u.s. oil refining capacity and what are you advising the committee on foreign investment in the united states about this? >> i don't have specific information relative to that. i think that's something that potentially we could provide intelligence on in terms of what situation might be. but -- >> i would like you to furnish that in writing. let me get one other question in. there have been mountains of press stories with allegations about financial connections between russia and trump and his associations. the matters are directly relevant to the fbi and my question is when it comes to illicit russian money, and in particular potential to be laundered on its way to the

united states, what should the committee be most concerned about? we hear stories about deutsche bank, bank of cypress, shell companies in moldova, british virgin islands. i would like to get your sense because i'm over my time director mccabe. what should we be most concerned about? >> certainly, sir, as you know i am not in a position to be able to speak about specific investigations. certainly not in this set. however, i'll confirm with you those are issues that concern us greatly. they have traditionally and they do even more so today. as it becomes easier to conceal the origin and the track and the destination purpose of illicit money flows as the exchange of information becomes more cloud in encryption and it becomes harder and harder to get to the bottom of those investigations that would shed light on those

investigations. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. gentlemen, the purpose of this hearing as the chairman expressed is to give the american people some insight into what we all do, which they don't see pretty much at all. and so i think what i want to do, is i want to make an observation and then i want to get your take on it, anybody who wants to volunteer and i'll start with you, director coats to volunteer. i have been on this committee all the time i've been here identify been in the senate and through the last administration. i've been greatly impressed by the current administration's hitting the ground running during the first 100 days as far as their engagement on intelligence matters and their engagement with foreign countries. the national media here is

focused on domestic issues which is of great interest to the american people, be it health care, be it personnel issues in the government and they don't -- >> we'll watch the q and a develop here at the senate intelligence and bring in our john harwood in washington. john, we led into this hearing with a discussion of how we often don't learn a lot during these kinds of hearings. anything different about this one? >> reporter: no, i don't think so. we saw the democrat from oregon a moment ago try to press andrew mccabe on whether or not, in fact, as president trump asserted in a public letter that fbi director comey now fired had assured him on three separate occasions that he was not under investigation. what andrew mccabe, after initially declined to comment said we typically don't respond to whether somebody is under investigation. when pressed he committed to not

answering that question to trump personally or white house officials. so ron widen was trying to cast doubt upon the accuracy of president trump's letter that was issued when he fired james comey and we've seen in some reporting in newspapers like "the washington post" that associates of comey had said, in fact, that he did not tell president trump that he was not under investigation. so that's what ron widen was trying to get to. that's only a march about inial advance over what we knew about before. >> our colleague at nbc news holt has just arrived at the twhous interview the president. that will be on "nightly news" this evening, john, if not before in a special report. what do you think are the most important questions for the president that one could ask today? >> reporter: the most important things i would see, carl, is all of the reporting has indicated since james comey was fired that

president trump has been alarmed, angry, maybe concerned and correspond about the fbi investigation and so i think the questions would go to his motivation in firing james comey. there's no question that he has the legal and constitutional authority to have done that. the question is what was the motivation. and was he doing froit teit to himself in which some people may interpret it to obstruct justice or was it done for other reasons. i expect lester to press the president on that point and people will read his words and his body language. >> we'll be looking for that sound. waiting anxiously this afternoon. john, thank you for that. john harwood in washington keeping us honest on the intelligence committee hearing. henry blodget made a point a few minutes tying there a tied between what's happening in the

market and the hearing. the market crease snafls law and order, ruffle law, stability. whether or not that's a special prosecutor is a totally different discussion. >> want to know the system is not broken in any fundamental way. i think it's not that surprising that the markets did not kind of rush to some kind of big reflex move on the firing of comey. the market is not in the business of prieng to project down three or four squares down the chess board and say this is where it's leading to. right now it's pretty much status quo. doesn't change your assessment of the white house' orientation or policy hopes. >> remember we've been talking about the five big macro economic risks, earnings strong. and growing not only in the united states but in europe as well. we've seen the u.s. economic picture improve and the global economic picture. the fed is still largely not a major factor. we're all expecting two rate

hikes in the year. and global risks, particularly in the french elections are lower. this came out of nowhere. a little bit of a surprise. you see it's not affecting the other issues. to the extent it may affect tax cuts that's an issue pop the expect it may affect business confidence that might be an issue down the road. but so far the market is saying it's not a major issue right now. i think we have to watch the business confidence. >> if you have hiccups on the business tleem. mark carney came out and sunk the pound saying we're in for -- it will be hard for consumers and for house to holds. actually, you know what we'll interrupt you and take you back to the hearing. >> earlier this week the president where he writes while i greatly appreciate you informing me on three separate occasions that i'm not under investigation -- and i'll trying to figure out why that would even make knit to a dismissal letter. let me go to smothering direct.

director, has anyone in the white house spoken to you directly about the russia investigation? >> no, sir. >> let me -- when did you last meet with the president, director mccabe? >> i don't think -- i don't think -- >> was it earlier this week. >> i have met with the president this week but i don't want to go into the details that. >> but russia did not come up the >> that's correct, it did not. >> we've heard in the news that claims that director comey had, had lost the confidence of rank and file fbi employees. you've been there for 21 years.

in your opinion, is it accurate that the rank-and-file no longer supported director comey? >> no, sir. that is not accurate. i can tell you, sir, that i worked very, very closely with director comey from the moment he started at the fbi, i was his executive assistant director of national security at that time and worked for him running the washington field office and of course i served as deputy for the last year. i can tell you i hold director comey in the absolute highest regard. i have the highest respect for his considerable abilities and his integrity and it has been the greatest privilege and honor of my professional life to work with him. i can tell you also that director comey enjoyed broad support within the fbi. and still does to this day. we are a large organization.

we are 36,500 people across this country, across this globe. we have a diversity of opinions about many things. but i can confidently tell you that the majority, the vast majority of fbi employees enjoyed a deep positive connection to director comey. >> thank you for your candor. do you feel like you have the adequate resources for the existing investigations that the bureau is invested in right now to follow them wherever they may lead? >> sir, if you're referring to the russia investigation, i do. i believe we have the adequate resources to do it and i know that we have resourced that investigation adequately. you're referring to the many constantly multipling counter intelligence threats we face across spectrum they get bigger

and more challenging every day and resources become an issue over time. in terms of that investigation, sir, i can assure you, we are covered. >> thank you. director coats, welcome back. would you agree that it is a national security risk to provide classified information to an individual who has been compromised by a foreign government? as a broad matter. >> as a broad matter, yes. >> if the attorney general came to you and said one of your employees was compromised, what sort of action would you take? >> i would take the action as prescribed in our procedures relative to how we report this, and how it is processed. it's a serious issue. i would be consulting with our

legal counsel and consulting with our inspector general and others as to how best to brode this but obviously we would take action. >> would one of the options be dismissal, obviously? >> that potentially could be dismissal, yes. >> thank you, director. >> senator collins. >> thank you mr. vice chairman. mr. mccabe, is the agent who is in charge of this very important investigation into russian attempts to influence our elections last fall still in charge? >> we had many agents involved in the investigation at many levels. i'm not sure. >> the lead agent overseeing the investigation. >> certainly almost all of thing agents involved in the investigation are still in their positions. >> so, has there been any

curtailment of the fbi's activities in this important investigation since director comey was fired? >> ma'am, we don't curtail our activities. as you know, our people experiencing questions and are reacting to the developments this week. absolutely. does that get in the way of our ability to pursue this or any other investigation? no, ma'am. we continue to focus on our mission and get that job done. >> i want to follow up on a question of resources that senator heinrich asked your opinion on. press reports yesterday indicated that director comey requested additional resources from the justice department for the bureau's ongoing investigation into russia's active measure. are you aware of that request? can you confirm that that

request was, in fact, made? >> i cannot confirm that request was made. as you know, ma'am, when we need resources we make those requests here. so i don't -- i'm not aware of that request and it's not consistent with my understanding of how we request additional resources. that said, we don't typically request resources for an individual case and as i mentioned, i electronstrongly b the russian investigation was adequately resourced. >> you also have been asked a question about target letters. now, it's my understanding that when an individual is the target of an investigation, at some point a letter is sent out notifying that individual that he is a target. is that correct? >> no, ma'am, i don't believe that's correct. >> so, before there's going to

be an indictment there is not a target letter sent by the justice department? >> not that i'm aware of. >> that's contrary to my understanding, but let me ask you the reverse. >> again, i'm looking at from the perspective of the investigators, so it's not part of our normal case investigative practice. >> that would be the justice department, though? the justice department -- >> i see. >> i'm asking you isn't it standard practice when someone is the target of an investigation and is perhaps on the verge of being indicted that the justice department sends that individual what is known as a target letter? >> ma'am, i'll have to defer that question to the department of justice. >> let me ask you the flip side of that. and perhaps you don't know the answer to this question. but is it standard practice for

the fbi to inform someone that they are not a target of an investigation? >> it is not. >> so, it would be unusual and not standard practice for there to have been a notification from the fbi director to president trump or anyone else involved in this investigation, informing him or her that that individual is not a target, is that correct? >> again, ma'am, i'm not going to comment on what director comey may or may not have done. >> i'm not asking you to comment on the facts of the case. i'm just trying to find out what's standard practice and what's not. >> yes, ma'am. i'm not aware of that standard of practice. >> admiral rogers, i want to talk about the attempted

interference in the french election. some researchers, including the cyber intelligence firm flash point claimed that apt-28 is the group that was behind the stealing of and the leaking of the information about the president-elect of france. the fbi and dhs have publicly tied apt-28 to russian intelligence services in the joint analysis report last year after the group's involvement in stealing data that was leaked in the run up to the u.s. elections in november. is the ic in a position to attribute stealing and the leaking that took place prior to the french election to be the result of activities by this group which is linked to russian cyber activity?

>> again, ma'am, right now i don't think i have a complete picture of all the activity associated with france. as i said publicly both today and previously we're aware of specific russian activity against the french election cycle particularly in the last few weeks to the point where we felt it was important enough to reach out to our french counter parts to make sure they were aware of what we were aware of. >> thank you. >> senator kaine. >> mr. mccabe, thank you for being here today under somewhat difficult circumstance. we appreciate your candor and your testimony. on march 20th, director comey then director comey testified to the house of representatives identify been authorized by the department of justice to confirm that the fbi as part of our counter intelligence mission is investigating russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and that includes getting the nature of any links between individuals

associated with the trump campaign and the russian government. and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and russian efforts as with any counter intelligence investigation this would include an assessment of whether any crimes were committed. is that statement still accurate? >> yes, sir, it is. >> and how many agents are assigned to this project? how many or personnel generally within the fbi, roughly? >> yes, sir. i can't really answer those sorts of questions in this forum. >> well, yesterday a white house press spokesman said that this is one of the smallest things on the plate of the fbi. is that an accurate statement? >> well -- >> is it a small investigation >> we consider it to be a highly important investigation. >> it's not a small investigation. >> no.

>> let me change the subject briefly. we've been talking about russia and their involvement in this election. one of the issues of concern to me and perhaps i can direct this to -- well i'll direct it to anybody on financial. retaliation of russian involvement in our electoral systems. is that an issue that is of concerner and what do we know about that and is that being followed up by this investigation? mr. mccabe, is that part of your investigation? i'm not talking about the presidential election i'm talking about state level election infrastructure. >> yes, sir. obviously not discussing any specific investigation in detail, but tissue of russian interference in the u.s. democratic process is one that causes us great concern and quite frankly it's something we've spent a lot of time working on over the past several months.

and i think to reflect comments that were made in response to an earlier question that director coates handled, i think part of that process is to understand the inclinations of our foreign adversaries to interfere in those areas. so we've seen this once. we're better positioned to see at any time next time. we're able to improve not only our coordination with primarily through the department of homeland security and their expansive network into the state and local election infrastructure, but to interact with those folks to put them in a better position to defend against whether it's cyber attacks or any sort of influence driven interaction. >> thank you. that's a very important part of this issue. admiral rogers, yesterday a camera crew from tass was loud

into the oval office. no american press was allowed in. was there any risk in terms of some kind of cyber penetration or communications in that incident? >> no. >> your agency wasn't consulted in any way? >> not that i'm aware of. i wouldn't expect that to be automatically the case. >> did that raise any concerns that those cameramen and crew were in the oval office? >> to be honest i wasn't aware where the images came from. >> thank you. mr. coates, director coates, you lead the intelligence community. were you consulted at all with regard to the firing of director comey? >> i was not. >> so there were no discussions with you even though the fbi is an important part of the intelligence zmunt -- community? >> there were no discussions.

>> mr. chairman, thank you. >> senator lankford. >> let me run through some quick questions. here's some things i heard already. you have the resources you need for the russian investigation, is that right? >> sir, we believe it's -- >> there's not limitations of resources, you have what you need? the actions about james comey and his release has not cure tailed the investigation from the fbi, it's still moving forward. >> the investigation will move forward, absolutely. >> noing agents have been removed that are the ongoing career folks that are doing the investigation? >> no, sir. >> it is your impression at this point that the fbi is unable to complete the investigation in a fair and experiod die show us way because of the removal of james comey >> it's my opinion and belief that fbi will continue to pursue this investigation vigorously and completely. >> do you need somebody to take this way from you and somebody

do it? >> no, sir. >> as i go through the report and tracking through the worldwide threats that was put out, that director coates put out there's a section on there on narcotics and there's a section about tens of thousands of illegal pharmacies online at this point distributing narcotics. you have been listening to the senate intelligence committee. john harwood is with us. thought it was interesting he refuted the white house comment that james comey was losing confidence within the fbi but also refuted some press reports that they need more resources to carry out this investigation. >> reporter: that's right. he did seem to back up the white house point that comey had not requested more resources. however, the last little ambiguity there. what he said was, we have not, i'm not aware of a request for more resource. if we make a request for

resources, we come to you, meaning the congress. but then in addition to that he said we don't request resource for individual cases. that leaves open the possibility that james comey had talked about shifting around manpower or agents as opposed to a budgetary request. don't really know how to parse his meaning. but as you said in terms of comey's popularity he refuted the white house. on the case of the resources he backed up the white house. >> john, how significant is it that he so strongly went against the white house line. president trump said director comey wasn't doing a good job. the acting director went straight against that and talked about the high regard in which he holds the director. he also called it a highly significant investigation and said that the fbi has spent a lot of time working on it over the past several months where the white house is saying it's

time for the fbi to drop it. how is that likely to develop from here? >> look. andrew mccabe is a respected official who clearly a high respect for james comey, the man president trump just fired. so when he's on-the-spot in this moment, of course, he's going to defend his colleague, james comey, and defend the integrity of his agency and so, of course, that can have self-fulfilling proif he isis. if you have professionals at the fbi who all of a sudden feel their independence under threat that can stiffen their resolve to get to the bottom of the investigation. and that's what andrew mccabe said they were going to do. >> right. we continue to watch the hearing. thank you, john harwood. more "squawk alley" coming right up.

welcome back. shares of snap slammed after a disappointing first earnings report showing slowing growth in daily active users even as compensation for its executives was quite high, but let's not forget about twitter, facebook and linkedin all disappointed wall street after their reports as well. so will snap go the way of twitter or the way of facebook? oppenheimer's internet analyst joins us now. welcome to both of you. jason, let's start with you. so how did this report change your outlook on snap? has the balance shifted toward

engagement and maybe away from user growth and where they need to get in order to reach your expectations? >> so i think the first quarter, any company reports is very important and this is not smooth. the bottom line is they missed the headline number. 12 of the 26 brokers who cover the stock it looked like did not take into account the lack in the prospectus. a, they have a new ad business and b, it is heavily weighted to brand advertising and brand advertising is seasonally weaker in the first quarter. so if you took that into account it was okay relative to your first numbers but the bottom line, it was a miss relative to the overall consensus estimate both for revenues and daily active users. >> mark, what does snap have to do in order to make this a facebook-like situation? what should the next quarter show? >> well, facebook's fundamentals

deteriorated for about a year post its ip and the stock corrected accordingly. what they need to do is what facebook did. come up with a way to have upgrowth in the business both in terms of users and revenue growth. so the improvements they're making to the android platform, one of these quarters we should start seeing daus rise on a year over year basis. if that happens the stock starts moving back up. that's the bet that you have to make on the stock. >> john, you actually upgraded this stock after earnings at a time where some investors are seeing a hard time finding confidence in the future of this company after what was shown and some of the tone of the earnings call. >> when we initiated, the stock was about $23 and we felt we could justify up to 26 and that just wasn't enough. again, that was -- we're big believers in the business but we do have to assign financial metrics. and the reality -- and we were

concerned that the seasonality was not taken into account. i know also the fact the business is early. while they did launch an interface for buying advertising in late january, it wouldn't do enough for the first quarter. so the reality is there was a mismatch in market expectations. i would also say that the rest of world daily active users missed their estimate by 7%. it doesn't matter, they make no money off these people. they talk about focusing business on the u.s. and western europe. i think we need a washout and we just got it. from here we assigned a $23 target and we believe investors should be buying the stock today. >> do you have a similar outperform on facebook? >> we do have an outperform on facebook. >> is it more on snap? >> it's a little more on snap. facebook seems to want to go up every day. we can't reassess the target every day. from here we think snapchat really can work. yes, people are sensitive that

you got close to that $17 level and that's more emotional than anything. if it breaks 17, the ipo price, do people just dump it? but we think street numbers should be beatable and that's the type of situation people want to see from a new ipo. >> mark and jason, thank you. a quick note, nbc universal, our parent company, does have a stake in snap. >> we will have more "squawk alley" in a moment. the dow is down 83. i'm only in my 60's. i've got a nice long life ahead. big plans.

so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses, i looked at my options. then i got a medicare supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if you're eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. call now and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, it helps pick up some of what medicare doesn't pay. and could save you in out-of-pocket medical costs. to me, relationships matter. i've been with my doctor for 12 years. now i know i'll be able to stick with him. [ male announcer ] with these types of plans, you'll be able to visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. plus, there are no networks, and virtually no referrals needed. so don't wait. call now and request this free decision guide to help you better understand medicare...

and which aarp medicare supplement plan might be best for you. there's a wide range to choose from. we love to travel - and there's so much more to see. so we found a plan that can travel with us. anywhere in the country. [ male announcer ] join the millions of people who have already enrolled in the only medicare supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp, an organization serving the needs of people 50 and over for generations. remember, all medicare supplement insurance plans help cover what medicare doesn't pay. and could save you in out-of-pocket medical costs. call now to request your free decision guide. and learn more about the kinds of plans that will be here for you now - and down the road. i have a lifetime of experience. so i know how important that is.

so amid all the action in washington today, treasury secretary steve mnuchin is in italy for the g7 meetings. what can we expect? >> reporter: sara, the secretary arrived here just a few hours ago and went directly to his first bilateral meeting with italian finance minister padwan and lasted about half an hour. the formal meeting will kick off this evening with a dinner in an industrial port town on the southern coast of italy. what officials are telling me is that the most controversial issue, trade, will not be on the formal agenda. officials are very worried of a repeat the last time they met in germany when the u.s. would not agree to commit to language that

would defend the benefits of free trade. so they're going to kick that discussion up to president trump and his g7 counterparts when they meet in italy in about two weeks. we've seen that the u.s. can be a wild card in these discussions and they don't want to take any chances. now, what is on the agenda, officials are telling me they'll talk about international taxation, financial regulation, and also inequality in how to achieve inclusive growth. we'll be following this meeting all day today. we'll keep you posted. >> so much going on in washington. we've got to keep our eye on some of these larger issues like trade and relations. ylan, thank you very much for that. the dow now in a holding pattern, down about 90 points. some of the headlines out of the intelligence committee hearing, according to andrew mccabe, comey has the faith of the rank and fail at the bureau. they have adequate resources to conduct the investigation, that it is not standard practice to notify anyone, answering susan

collins, that you're not the target of an investigation and they do consider the probe to be highly significant. >> he also confirmed that he has been to the white house this week, said he did not discuss this russia investigation. he did start answering. >> the hearing continues. let's get to wapner and the half. welcome to "the halftime report." our top trade this hour, retail reality check. why so many stocks are getting smashed today and what it means for a sector that seemed to be on the rebound. with us for the hour today, joe, pete. we begin with macy's and several other big-name stocks that are absolutely getting hammered today. raises questions about whether gains in the space over the past month. the xrt was up 3% in a week, 4% in a month. people started talking about a bottom havin