markets now, stocks pointing to a higher open on wall street as investors await a key update from the fed. more business leaders distancing themselves from president trump after he doubled down on his response to charlottesville. and wells fargo makes changes to its board that story coming up on "worldwide exchange" on this wednesday, august 16, 2017 ♪ >> good morning.

welcome to "worldwide exchange." i'm sara eisen >> i'm wilfred frost very good morning to you from me as well. nice to hear coldplay. >> i'm having some sound issues. thank you for telling me that. >> that's probably while they snuck in a wilfred frost choice band >> you know i wouldn't approve the british band i like coldplay. after a quiet session on wall street yesterday, the dow ended fairly positive. small moves on the major averages this morning notable strength. dow futures up 71 points s&p up 6 1/2, nasdaq futures are up 20 points we'll get the minutes from the last fed meeting today after a batch of data in the u.s. economy yesterday that was pretty decent. as for the ten-year treasury note yield higher yields and a bit of a stronger dollar for a change is what we saw in yesterday's session. 2.28 is the yield on the

ten-year watch the yields and the dollar. the dollar near a three-week high that's starting to get the attention of wall street maybe a little pressure relief for some european stocks that have been hit by the stronger euro >> we just had some data internationally. before we get to that, asian equities are higher. apart from the nikkei, slightly lower. shanghai slipping slightly lower. hong kong and south korea are up nicely a lot of smaller southeast asian economy markets are up european boards for you, higher today. they were slightly higher yesterday. much higher on monday. they extended some of their gains. france up 1% italy up a percent we just had some gdp data come through, 0.6% in the second quarter. 2.2% compared to the year over year number. that's just about in line with forecasts. we had some uk unemployment data earlier, which was better than

expected, coming in at 4.4%. expecting it to be 4.5%. across the board, gains for european markets seeing strength in oil prices early this morning api report from the industry showed a big drop in crude supplies we'll see if that translates into the government data today that has helped to strabli istah price of oil wti trading at 47.82 brent is up further. 51.17. mention the currencies keep an eye on the u.s. dollar let's go to the dollar board especially the dollar versus the yen. we've seen a big move up in the last few sessions. 110.91 different story than last week risk aversion, that pair going the other way. this fueled a rise in stocks globally the dollar is also a tad firmer against the euro not much to speak of there 117.31

the pound is coming become a bit. 1.2898 big deal the statement around the borders with northern ireland, as far as brexit terms are laid out >> potentially there's still a long way to go on all sides of that negotiation. the pound is stronger because of that slightly stronger than expected employment data bank of england blog posts pointing to risks in lending in the auto market, which is worth pointing out something we're feeling here as well >> i'll show you gold quickly as well ge gold has slid this week. down 0.3%. it's all about bitcoin we'll swap that one day instead of gold. >> we should we should all have bought it at the start of the year. painful that we didn't >> how about nine years ago when we first started talking about it >> maybe not nine years ago. i think there's a good clip of me on a previous network -- >> ugh stop talking about it. >> before anyone heard bitcoin

>> there was no life before cnbc president trump doubling down on his initial response to charlottesville in an explosive back and forth with reporters yesterday. the president once again said all sides are to blame for saturday's violence in virginia. >> i do think there's blame. yes, i think there's blame on both sides you look at both sides, i think there's blame on both sides. i have no doubt about it you don't have any doubt about it either. only -- and if you reported it accurately, you would say it >> yesterday's xhep s comments were a reversal of a carefully crafted statement he made earlier this week regarding the kkk and neo-nazi groups. a clear sign of where he went off script very much off script garnered huge attention. >> if you were on twitter after

that press conference or during that press conference, this -- i think there's a lot of outrage any time president trump speaks, just because he's so different and doesn't speak in the typical washington language. but this one especially. that sort of doubling down on the failure to denounce in the harshest terms possible groups like white supreme cyst suprem kkk surprised a lot of team. >> he does himself no favors with moments like that whatever his true belief is, clearly there's better ways to go about this. really doing himself no favors lots of comments, including the comment asked how will you improve race relations he's saying all about jobs either way, as you say, it's very hard to focus on the agenda that's not what they were meant to be talking about. >> i wonder what republicans will do in reaction. we've been monitoring what business leaders are doing

that's our primary focus of this story from charlottesville the president's comments coming as more corporate leaders distance themselves from the white house. late yesterday the head of the a fsha aflcio, richard trumka resigned from trump's manufacturing council. in a tweet he said i cannot sit on a council for a president that tolerates d s bigotry and domestic terrorism he joins the ceos of merck, under armour, intel and the head of the alliance for american manufacturing. they all stepped down from the president's council this week. others like elon musk announced their departures long before the issue vims violence in charlottesville. travis kalanick did it early on after some immigration policies. this speaks to a new corporate culture, conscious, perhaps, and

rer may raise questions for the ceos who stay on board. >> with a republican leadership, you expect business to be involved in that discussion. this is lettening their potential influence there. that said, it's important to come back to letting you know the market was basically flat yesterday. it's clearly not derailed the markets this week. and the bottom line, the key thing to watch for the market and the economy is the relationship with republican senators and congressmen that's what will really depend on -- >> shape the agendagenda >> he did have ceo support he had -- whether it was photo-opes, genuine discussion about policy issues, they were on board they were optimistic we would take some of those parades into the house best business administration, sentiment is high, confidence is high they were on board to work on some of these issues the president called them

grandstanders, said there are plenty of others, we'll see. if he appoints other ceos, we'll see what that looks like and crafting this report walmart's doug mcmillan in a letter to employees mcmillan say as we watch the events president trump over the weekend, we felt the president missed a critica opportunity to bring our country together by rejecting the appalling actions of white supremacists lawrence summers will be on at 10:30 this morning. he was on fire yesterday morning tweeting out some pieces, calling on ceos and their moral conscious to do this, to step

away >> we look forward to that interview. who else you are looking forward to joining us on "squawk on the street" today? >> andy puzder -- >> you missed my point >> i know, wells fargo joining "squawk on the street. >> did you forgetthat? doesn't care either way. >> a big supporter of president trump. was set to join his administration we'll ask him about whether he can relate to some of the ceos that are stepping down i have a feeling the answer is no >> we'll look forward to that. both of us >> wilfred frost is the main event of "squawk on the street" today. >> despite the ongoing fallout from this past weekend's events, tax reform is still on track here's what gary cohn said yesterday afternoon. >> we hope we can get taxes down between now and thanksgiving we would like to get

infrastructure going as soon as tax comes out of the house and into the senate. we'll put infrastructure into the house. >> he said we have a great skelton for tax reform and he wasn't sure where healthcare would end up. the focus of the white house today is on trade. robert lighthizer will meet his mexican and canadian counterparts in washington to kick off nafta renegotiations. the white house says the first round will be quite ambitious, it will take a tailored approach to trade deficit with each country. ful with wells fargo announcing some changes to the board stephen sanger will be stepping down by the end of this year former fed governor elizabeth duke will be replacing him cynthia milligan and susan swenson will also be stepping

down you spoke to the you'll going and incoming chairs last night >> the main takeaway -- the first point is the reason for the timing of this announcement, both were adamant it was not a quick reaction to the recent declaration from the company that the time frame of the cross-selling scandal is being extended nor that they knew the new issues in auto lending the timing is a response to the poor set of votes from the april agm. more interesting is i asked duke whether she was confident that wells fargo's recent turmoil was behind the company she says it's hard to say. we're finding the better we get at digging, the better we get at risk management, the more issues we might identify. over time the new information revealed will lessen, but it's not to say we have found everything i followed up and asked if they

are halfway through the troubles she said i don't know. she separately said her own 75 approval vote at the agm was unacceptable and would rise by next year. these changes are happening. is it all behind them? the new incoming chair lady seems to think not >> which is interesting and maybe risky. >> particularly we have the 10q filing where they announced this new auto lending issue we saw the share price react about 3% down initially. by the end of the day down about a percent. i -- my personal take is this is at least as significant as that. tim sloan, the ceo said many times, we're past the worst of this we're moving forward that's not the view of the incoming chair lady. does it take some of the political pressure off the board that he resigned i remember elizabeth warren and others were still going after this company and this board for some of these practices.

>> i think it does they have now made changes to the board. you could argue they've been quite slow but, you know, slowly but surely they have made the necessary changes that you would think you would like to see. a lot of the board got poor votes in that agm thing. that's the share older's view. they replaced three of them. so a couple members who got in the 50% to 60% of votes are still on the board i'm sure there will be calls for further changes down the line. in their defense, you don't want to change the whole board at once there's ongoing processes that need to be carried out i think that's why there's three changes at the moment. >> there's higher yields, higher interest rates >> the big thing for wells fargo is their multiple has gone down. they got that big initial hit, and now it's just changing around the edges >> we'll see if they have

anything else to announce, i guess. turning to today's wall street agenda july housing starts and building permits out at 8:30 a.m. eastern at 2:00, minutes from last month's fed meeting and on the earnings front, more retailers, target reports before the opening bell after the close we hear from cisco systems and l brands as far as yesterday's earnings, interesting reaction tj maxx showed continued strength home depot results were solid. the stock sold off and dragged down the dow which people were wondering about. some concerns around amazon competition. but still continued weakness and bearish sentiment around some retailers. coach, one of the turn around stories dropped. dick's, can't even talk about that one that one in the face of better retail sales >> pixed picture on the consumer sales. retail sales drove the dollar

higher, but not the equity market manifested in macro moves. >> i think walmart on thursday will be key. this turned around and has seen strength in e-commerce we'll see what the spending patterns look like. still ahead on "worldwide exchange," a round up of the big stock movers including a double dose of activist activity. those names next. and as we head to break, a check out on the action in europe we're higher across the board. a strong day monday, slightly positive yesterday, strong day this wednesday gdp came in line with expectations, 0.6% quarter-on-quarter who knew that phones would start doing everything?

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call, visit or go to xfinitymobile.com. good morning welcome back to "worldwide exchange."essentially flat across u.s. markets we were this positive this time yesterday and we didn't end with gains by the close we're up by 0.2% 47 points on the dow a quick look at the oil. soft on monday stabilized yesterday didn't do too much up a bit today the broader dollar index was up, 0.4% coming away this week because of lesser fears, just coming away from the dollar trend from the last couple weeks.

today the dollar is higher against the yen, flat against the euro the pound is bouncing a bit after decent unemployment data the aussie dollar is nicely strong today up 0.6% signs there that wage inflation has bottomed stocks to watch today. elliott management raising its stake in bhb billiton to 5%. in april they forced bhp to sell all or most of its shale business bhp has declined comment on the latest news. akzo nobel has reached a truce with elliott management. akzo nobel will give elliott seats on its board if elliott supports the new ceo and the plan to spin off the specialty chemicals business this news comes after elliott tried to push akzo nobel into a deal with ppg.

maersk reporting a loss. the cyberattack that disrupted operations in june will cost between 200 million and 3$300 million. that's the same one that cost mondelez as well the federal trade commission asked clariant and huntsman for more information on their merger the chemicalmakers are still confident they can close by the end of year. bristol-myers says its combination drug to treat an advanced form of kidney cancer failed to meet a late stage goal it is down 3.7% this morning kansas city southern is raising its quarterly dividend from 33 cents to 36 cents a share. the railroad operator is launching an 8$800 million stock

buyback. up next, fiat chrysler making a big bet on self-driving cars and looking to a rival for help. first as we head to break, the national weather forecast from bill karins good wednesday morning to you. watching this complex of thunderstorms into nebraska. already reports of flash flooding this will cause problems throughout the day we think this line of storms could produce severe weather today near kansas city and towards st. joseph, maybe even des moines and ames. so.5 mi so 4.5 million people under a slight risk of storms. damaging wind and hail is the biggest concerns these storms will continue on thursday afternoon, and then that will be in the midwest. by friday afternoon, these storms will get into areas of the northeast, which will cause some travel delays not so much severe weather but travel problems. still hot texas to oklahoma. typical storms down along the gulf coast tayod more "worldwide exchange" when we come back

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welcome back u.s. futures pointing to a higher start for wall street dow futures up 61 points this is a different week than last week. s&p up 6, nasdaq up 17 this after the dow finished higher yesterday just barely, the s&p and nasdaq finished lower. tech was strong in terms of some

of the s&p sectors utilities were strong as well. sort of a mixed bag. better retail sales helped yields and the u.s. dollar bitco bitcoin, there's so much interest in this crypt ocurrenc. 4143, up more than 300% so far >> the question is, is it still a trade or a long-term investment have we missed the initial -- i don't know what's more painful looking at a chart that's risen and you've not been involved with, or looking at one and it's falling and you've been involved in it. >> probably falling. last week investors were wringing their hands over north korea, that was the excuse to sell stocks. yesterday after that lengthy

press con frepress conference b president trump, not a single question about north korea >> corporate news, fiat chrysler is getting into the self-driving car business with help from one of its rivals. it's joining forces with bmw and intel to start developing autonomous vehicles. the fiat ceo has said car companies have wasted billions trying to build self-driving cars on their own. coming up, corporate reaction to president trump's fiery news conference yesterday. and we'll bring you the new most liked tweet ever when "worldwide exchange" returns ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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the fallout grows. more business leaders distance themselves from president trump. stocks push higher as investors await news from the fed today. your trading day setup straight ahead. and a bright spot in retail. the one teen store rocking it. it's weapons august 16, 20127, you're watching "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. good morning welcome to "worldwide exchange."

welcome back, i should say i'm sara eisen >> i'm wilfred frost very good morning to you let's check in on the global market picture futures at this moment pointing higher by 0.2% or 40 points, up a bit more now, 66 points. s&p 6, nasdaq 20 points higher yesterday broadly flat across those three main equity indexes. yields have ticked up this week. we closed last friday at 2.18%, sitting at 2.28 now. earlier in the week that was as koreans tensions eased, yesterday because of stronger data that small move higher in yields has helped risk sentiment this week for equity markets and the dollar >> some of the rebound in commodity prices we're seeing this morning helping miners and producers overseas hong kong closed higher by 0.8%. strong comeback for hong kong.

the nikkei closed lower fractionally same with shanghai comp and korean equities continue to rebound from last week's sharp slide. sam shung,sung finished lower lt week as for europe and the early action there, let's show you what we're seeing. strength across the board. further rebound from what we saw in yesterday's session france up a full percent full percent gains in italy and the dax. >> europe was down more than the u.s. last week the getting more of a rebound in light of that. oil prices slipped on monday they were broadly flat yesterday. rebounding a bit today 47.9 for wti dollar board for you, dollar was a decent mover yesterday in light of better retail sales this morning you have a bit of dollar strength against the yen. flat against the euro. soft against the pound

the aussie dollar is up a half percent against the u.s. dollar. gold prices for you which gained last week in the risk-adverse sentiment are losing this week 0.3% in particular today 12.75 the price of gold. president trump doubling down on his initial response to charlottesville during an explosive back and forth with reporters. eamon javers joins us from new york this morning. we're following the corporate reaction here, but i think you can't believe out tleave out re some of your fellow reporters, some republicans and the rest of the world. even for president trump thi was a big deal >> it was a dramatic reversal. the president switching back to his rhetoric on saturday after having been forced to come out and issue more moderate statements earlier in the week the president went back to blame on many sides here his comments were nearly universally condemned by

republicans and democrats yesterday after a fiery press conference in the lobby of trump tower yesterday. he went into a discussion about who attended the neo-nazi rally. at one point he brought up robert e. lee and george washington appearing to link them in a change of moral responsibility it's not something we have seen from an american president in my lifetime or forever. here's what the president said about george washington and robert e. lee yesterday. >> george washington was a slave owner. was george washington a slooif o slave owner? will we take down -- excuse me are we going to take down statues to george washington how about thomas jefferson what do you think of thomas jefferson? do you like him? good he was a major slave owner

are we going to take down his statue you know what? it's fine. you're changing history. you're changing culture, you had people -- i'm not talking about the neo-nazis and the white nationalists, they should be condemned, but you had many people in that group other than neo-nazis and white nationalists, okay wand the press has treated them absolutely unfairly. >> so the president coming to the political defense of the people marching alongside the neonazis and white nationalists saying some of them were fine people on both sides of the rally, including the folks on the alt-left and the folks on the alt-right. the president seeming to suggest the violence was the responsibility of people on both sides. this was the very specific thing the president was criticized for in riz his remarks on saturday. yesterday he doubled, tripled down, whatever you want to call it. >> i think there's blame on both

sides. you look at both sides, i think there's blame on both sides. i have no doubt about it you don't have any doubt about it either. and -- and if you reported it accurately, you would say it >> an emotional president trump there at that press conference also sparking a response from the republican leaders across the board including this tweet from paul ryan who said we must be clear, white supremacy is repulsive. this bigotry is counter to all this country stands for. there can be no moral ambiguity. reset the clock to just before that press conference yesterday, here's where the president was he was in a moment where ceos on his manufacturing council were backing away from him. a number had withdrawn from that manufacturing council. we had the ceo of walmart issuing a statement that is, in my recollection,

unprecedented ac krshgceo to isa press release criticizing the president over the violence over the weekend. after that, the president held a news conference where he went back to his initial statements and did it much more i tenntensy yesterday. it was an astonishing political moment i don't think we can overstate the political significance for the president. >> this time yesterday we were discussing whether that stem of resignations would pause given the conference he did on monday. he dialed back his rhetoric. clearly picking up the rhetoric once again in that statement from walmart is a sign of more to come from corporate leaders? how much does this hurt them is this just little photo-op of these corporate leaders in the past or will this really hurt his presidency >> that's a question for the corporate leaders, not me.

what was telling on monday is that the president did his walk back and in a statement do over if you will. after that we saw two ceos also resign the president yesterday referred to the ceos who will leave the council suggesting that he had some indication that there are others considering leaving the council. the president said they were failing to do their jobs for the united states. he called them in a tweet grandstanders for leaving the council. but this president is putting these corporate leaders in a difficult position by aligning himself or appearing to come to the defense politically of people marching alongside white supreme cysts and neo-nazis. that puts corporate leaders in a place where they don't want to we'll have to watch throughout the course today where they come down a number of them sit on this council who didn't make any comment whatsoever one way or

the other. some said they were staying on the council, others said they were leaving a bigger group didn't issue statements or respond to our request for comments >> i agree all these people have hundreds if not thousands of employees working for them that are looking to them as the role model. as the leader. they have to say something whether they're going to step away from the council or not republicans have put up a lot with this president in terms of what is contrary to their traditional establishment, beliefs, practices, policies will this be too much or not >> politically the president has taken the republican party into a place where he is relitigating the civil war itself talking about robert e. lee, talking about some of the founding fathers it's not clear to me that's a place where the republican party wants to be. mainstream republicans want to be in a position talking about

smaller government, lower taxes. strong military. the traditional things that have held the republican party together over the years. they don't want to be talking about robert e. lee, fine people war muchin marching alongside white nationalists what they do about it is a question to watch today. we saw some statements, one republican leader said i don't understand what's so hard about this saying that neo-nazis are bad is simple and straightforward why is it taking the president four days to get to that place he did condemn the neo-nazis and the white supreme zersisupremiss he has put the republican party in a challenging place >> i don't know how you can say fine people in the same sentence >> there were people brandishing

large swat st swartz stickerstis >> eamon, thank you very much. >> thank you corporate news, wells fargo shake up its board in the wake of the bank's account scandal. former fed governor elizabeth duke is being promoted to chairwoman of the board. she is replacing stephen sanger. two other board members are also stepping down. as i said earlier in a conversation with her last night she said the worst of the tumultuous past year is not behind them yet from. >> maybe hedging a bit >> maybe hedging, new chair penn coming in, wanting to reset

expectations to make it easier to make gains. contrary to what we've heard over the last six months between stephen sanger >> just to keep track of the scandals, there was the fraudulent account scandal, then the auto financing scandal >> which is the -- the new kind of revelation from them. i think the implication is not so much that the ycross-selling scandal is not halfway behind them, but with all these increased risk management practices they're going in for, they're finding other problems if other banks were doing the same level of investigations, they might find problems >> watch wells fargo today and shares of urban outfitters getting a nice pop after an earnings beat last night landon dowdy has more. >> reporter: shares of urban outfitters moving higher after the retailer bucks the trend and

reported better than expected results. they reported 44 cents a share compared to the 36 cents the street forecast. net sales fell at 8$873 million still exceeded estimates the quarter did show some improvement in same-store sales. they did fall 4.9% in the period, but not nearly as bad as the 6.4 hrs dr% drop the street expected richard hanes said he was encouraged by fashion trends the chain focusing on growing internationally, making die ing investments. the stock has plunged near i had 30% year to date due to store closure s and discount hungry consumers. the stop popping almost 18%. >> wow

>> thank you very much today's must-reads coming up. as we head out a check of the early action in europe which looks strong

welcome back to "worldwide exchange." i'm wilfred frost along with sara eisen our top trending stories, former

president obama's response to the violence in charlottesville has become the most liked tweet ever the tweet was posted late sat and was the first in a series of three tweets it reads no one is born hating another person because of his color or his skin or his background or religion under a picture of obama smiling at four children the tweet has garnered 3 million likes. gaining that number of likes quickly. i was surprised given over 300 million twitter users, that the most liked tweet is a percent worth of users i thought maybe 10% or 20%. >> i'm surprised it's not justin bieber >> the most retweeted is from carter wilkerson when he got into a conversation with

wendy's, saying how many retweets do i need to get free nuggets for a year the second most liked was that one from the oscars, the selfie including all those big celebrities. >> with ellen? >> ellen degeneres, bradley cooper, kevin spacey i'm surprised, 1% qualifies as most liked >> it's a reminder, twitter is only 340 million or so time for our must-reads. my pick in the "wall street journal" from the ed board trump and the ceos it is in the "a" section editorial board writing mr. trump's ego won't allow him to concede error and he broods over criticism until he hurts himself as he showed again tuesday by relitigating his response to the charlottesville violence this is how he achieved a 34% approval rating as even allies flee and his presidency shrinks

in on itself it's harsh language, well written, but makes a statement for a paper that has been some what supportive of his policies, of his alliance with american business, takes note it tees off of the idea that the ceos left, but focuses on president trump's reaction to ken frazier attacking him by tweet and the press conference yesterday, had is on the front pages of all the papers. >> i don't think we would call this a crisis outright that could sink his presidency yet we said for the agenda it's more important what republican congressmen and senators are saying what about his own staff if you started to get walk outs from members of his cabinet or advisers, that could spark a big crisis look at the faces of his chief of staff yesterday, his head down >> he was standing next to two

jewish cabinet members >> we have not seen a response from them yet. that's important to watch over the coming days. clearly uproar and disappointment across the board with this. if we started to see those types of people speak out there could be a more ensuing crisis >> they have been loyal to him so far we watch for republican reaction as far as it relates to optimism and hopes around tax reform. this was supposed to be about infrastructure they had the whole list of regulations that they were going to cut back, something that is important on both sides of the aisle. investors waiting for key news from the fed coming up this afternoon. what the markets want to hear coming up.

welcome back to "worldwide exchange." we're approaching the top of the hour the team is getting ready for "squawk box. andrew ross sorkin has a look at what's coming up i know you'll continue to follow this story about the ceo

departures from the manufacturing council what that will mean. >> we'll cover the markets today. we'll cover energy we have tom fanning coming on. we have the president of the atlanta fed coming on the pratt. we'll talk all sorts of different issues the overall or undertone of the conversations, all of them will be to some degree about leadership and where the ceos stand on what this all means where the market stands on it. what this means for policy i think so many of our viewers at minimum -- i like to think we are all thinking about some of the morality issues of this putting that aside for a moment, when it comes to policy and the economy, therefore the markets, clearly we're all trying to make sense of this. >> the markets are not rattled by these controversies >> nope. if that's the measuring stick, maybe it's -- i don't like to

think it's an irrelevant conversation, but at the moment the markets think it is. >> we look forward to "squawk box" in six, seven minutes time. let's discuss things further. joining us is larry mcdonald head of global -- >> global macro strategy >> there we go editor of the bare traps report. also cnbc contributor. does this worry you the developments in politics over the last four, five days and what it means for the markets? >> the biggest sing is from 2014 to 2016 we are in a dynamic where the street was calling for eight rate hikes at the end of the day global pressures stopped the rate hikes. they vetoed the fed policy path. here it's the policy today most of the street now is calling for no rate hikes over the next year, maybe one or two. the futures over the next 18 months as of yesterday morning were down one hike over the next 18 months.

the complacency on bond yields is low 9 trillion of bonds with negative yields in the world so the european economy is growing fast the global economy, msci global is at highest level in four, five years now the global picture has a chance to potentially push the fed into a more aggressive hiking path. >> is that risky for stocks you've been sort of bearish for a long time. every time the fed does something, there's talk of trimming the balance sheet, it's fair to say you painted that as a risk for the global markets. >> we are pounding the table bullish on meaning market equities in january. so we've been bullish in some areas, mexican equities up 18% i think the biggest point is the amount of people that have a very low bar for what the fed will do, in terms of upsetting the apple cart is the most

crowded i've seen in a long time whenever the street gets bunched up in their view, you know, we pay a lot of money for research. every firm has the same view on rates. and if the global economy is accelerating with commodity prices a little bit faster than people think, next thing you know the fed has do something in jackson hole >> generally thinking, what does that mean for the dollar going forward? >> stronger dollar right now the bearishness on the dollar, if you look at contracts and the commodity exchange, futures, the bearishness is the highest since 2013 and the second highest was a year ago lo and behold a year ago we had a burst of inflation so the chances of an inflation acceleration in the next couple of months compared to expectations, the inflation bar is so low. so if you get a slight upside all of a sudden the street has to shift to three hikes over the next year.

>> we have to leave it there >> sure. >> larry mcdonald. that's it for "worldwide exchange." "squawk box" is next

good morning stocks again pointing to a higher open on wall street as investors await a key update from the fed full market rundown straight ahead. the fallout grows. more business leaders distances themselves from president trump after he doubled down on his response to charlottesville. and earnings alert target expected to report this hour we'll bring you the numbers and reaction on wall street. it's wednesday, august 16, 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" here 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. look at the u.s. equity futures. they are showing sharply higher. dow futures indicated up by 73 points s&p indicated up by 7. the nasdaq indicated up by 23, this after a flat day for the markets yesterday. markets ended mixed but everything around the flat line. we'll see what happens as we get closer to the opening bell if you want to see what happened overnight in asia, you'll see that the nikkei ended down by 0.1% hang seng was up. shanghai was weaker. and in europe, you'll see that at least at this hour th