and "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. everybody is here and back together the u.s. equities markets this morning, we have seen strong gains from all of these markets. the dow, the s&p 500 and the nasdaq closing at record highs once again on friday the dow and the s&p have now racked up eight straight weekly gains in a row guys, any ventures as to how many record closes we've seen for the dow so far this year. >> this year in. >> yeah, this year. >> how many days has there been? >> we're getting towards the end of the year. we must be close to 300 days not quite. >> weekdays. >> how many weekdays and how

many trading >> pretty surprisingly large number. >> north of 50 >> 56 for the dow. for the staup it's 51. the number of trading days i'm going to do the math i'll do the math 56 record closes for the dow and 51 for the s&p 500 we are under a little bit of pressure this morning but every so slightly. you're talking about the dow down 20 points why don't we take a look at what happened overnight in asia the nikkei, which has also been on a heck of a run, closed up once again slightly higher up by under 10 points 22,548 this is once again the highest close for the nikkei since june of 1996. hang seng was down by just over 6 points shanghai composite up by half a percentage point this morning in europe with some of the early trading that's already been taking place there. you can see there are red arrows across the board nothing major in terms of declines declines by .2 of a percent.

less than that for the cac and the ftse 100 crude oil prices has been on a steady march that continues this morning. it's up another half a percentage point with wti sitting just below $56 a barrel. 55.95. >> we have a number of big stories taking place this morning that we want to talk to you about. broadcom now reportedly preparing to make an offer for qualcomm as early as today david favor reported over the weekend and i can confirm the bid could be $70 a share in cash and stock. it would be for a total of $103 billion. that tieup would combine two of the largest makers of wireless communication chips creating a roughly $200 billion company the greatest acquisition ever. should note that qualcomm has struggled of late and has come in soft pretty much across the board. plus, there's been a lot of pressure on that company given the fight going on with apple. they have a reason, if you will, to say, no, no, no, talk to the

hand we will see whether a deal, in fact, does manifest itself this morning. there were teams of lawyers that were locked in trying to figure out how and when they were going to push the button on this bid >> this could go from a talk to the hand moment to a coombaya moment >> yeah. >> or not? >> a koom ba yeah moment would only come if they raised the price. >> would everybody be a happy camper >> if they raised the price. qualcomm wouldn't be a happy camper talk to the hand, is that what you're saying? >> no, i don't -- >> important mention though and i don't know how much you talked about it last week because i was sick. >> i hear it in your voice >> you have a huge week. >> i still can't get rid of it >> you saw the broad com news last week when they announced they were coming to the united states trump was very happy about it, excited. >> yes. >> if you really understand what that was all about, that was --

>> make this cynical >> i'm being truthful. it was all about this potential transaction or potential transactions like this the view is you can't go after a big american u.s. crown jewel technology if you were a foreign company. a, you would have had to go through ciffius but the political outcry would have been remarkable if you were going to move back, you might as well go to the president and get some brownfully points there. >> yes. >> he gets a headline. if you understand what's going on here, there's a lot more to it >> they're right they're right, i think, in gauging the political movement. >> that's what's going on. we saw the news last week. a lot of people were asking by the way last week why would you move back? the new tax system hasn't been passed. >> you're not going to be able to make any business with an american company. >> doing more deals in the united states.

>> i still see how the whole environment could be more friendly it allows us to make this acquisiti acquisition. >> you can give the president complete -- he is the guy that's the reason this is happening the reason the american companies are afraid, other companies are afraid to do anything to help american jobs >> absolutely. >> it all ends up benefitting -- we have more jobs, right it would help to have it headquartered here i don't know if after the merger >> that's the second. >> you're thinking it's early, too. wondering what we need to do for you with the dpac, cold, iron? >> i'm taking zinc

i had some zicam. >> you know what helps is sleep. >> diet. are you eating meat? >> you're saying -- >> meat. >> you're saying meat? >> fish. >> you don't want to try kale. >> meat balls. >> when you are sick all you want is soup. >> soup. >> that's all i ate all week. >> raw how old are you? >> you feel better. >> there's more deal news. >> this is not a deal. >> this is fascinating. >> is it >> i think so. >> sprint and t-mobile announced they've ended their merger talks. i ha i've got deja vu this is the latest attempt by the two to combine meantime, soft bank announcing it tends to increase the stake in sprint. sprint and altice announcing a new multi-year agreement altice will sell mobile service on sprint's network. >> can i tell you one -- >> yes. >> there was a dinner on friday

night in tokyo where the whole thing went sideways or down in about ten seconds. it was apparently a terrible dinner that's when they were trying to get this deal across the finish line the second piece is now that they're independent, thus far during this whole at&t/time warner deal they have not said a word they have been very silent about the regulatory pressure. >> they've been looking for their own deal. >> they've been looking for their own deal now that they are not absolutely pursuing their own deal there's a question whether they'll say anything or whether they're too late to say anything >> what happened at dinner. >> >> i don't know at the end of it he said no mas. >> i have to laugh while it was -- it was -- that must have been interesting the dinner was going south >> that's how it was described to me. >> interesting. >> that is kind of interesting anyway, then the other big news over the weekend it was a weekend full of news.

a major purge of power full princes and business men coming over the weekend in saudi arabia the wave of arrests including a very familiar name for investors over the world, the billionaire chairman of saudi arabia's kingdom holdings i had spoken to prince al waleed in riyadh. >> saudi arabia is in the midst of a major overhaul on all fronts, economic, financial, social, entertainment and even political. so really we always heard about the so called arab spring in certain arab countries this is our saudi version of our arab spring. our peaceful arab spring what's happening is not the end of a revolution. this evolution is peaceful >> before we begin this conversation, i've been racking my brain all weekend to try to see if there was anything he

said or did that would have indicated that he had any -- >> to indicate that he had any -- >> i don't think that he did i will say this. we'll show the video later he made a particular point to praise mbs, the crown prince, several times and he also made a particular point of praising president trump multiple times. >> despite your best efforts. >> not only despite what you might describe as my best efforts but despite his history of calling him a disgrace, all of that. >> that was before he won the presidency. >> before he won the presidency. >> by the way, his people have done the same thing for a long time where they were talking about 2030 and this great vision and sounding like they were supportive of it all he has been dissident from the family for quite some time you can sense this and i hadn't appreciated it at the time when i was there. we were only ten minutes from this big conference, right

the biggest face of finance. guess who wasn't at that conference >> who. >> prince al waleed. he had no part in the program. i don't believe he -- >> i didn't realize that. >> -- participated at all. >> i thought he did. >> no, no, no. it was very interesting. i was thinking of that over the weekend in terms of what the relationship is like between him and mbs. >> before we continue this conversation, kingdom holdings -- kingdom holding company was down almost 10% in trading after this. >> right >> it does have a publicly traded arm of it he owns 95% or at least did. >> and we don't know >> and they put out a statement, the kingdom saudi arabia says this in full confidence with kingdom holding company, the ceo who's been talking about this, this vote of confidence. still very confusing to figure out what that means. >> what is arrested? >> means put up at the ritz carlton, right >> put up at the ritz carlton which is where i was staying and where this conference is held. it is ten minutes from the four

seasons where his office and home is. and to help us make sense of it this morning for more on all of this former ambassador to saudi arabia, robert jordan is here. "desert diplomat." good morning. >> good morning. >> understand this, two views of what's happened here one is the genuine stated view of the kingdom and of mbs, which is that he is trying to end corruption the other is that this is a massive power grab what is it >> i think both conditions could actually be true it's a huge story either way it goes saudi arabia has had a corruption problem for yeefrs. i think the population has been very unhappy with princes coming in and grabbing business deals with public funds going to projects that seem to never get built. so there is an issue there, a

grain of truth by far. but i would also say that it's a classic power grab move sometimes to arrest your rivals or potential rivals under the pretexts of corruption we don't know which way this is going to go, but i will tell you this, the saudis are going to have to be transparent about what happens we're going to have to understand why it is that these leaders have been incarcerated this would be like arresting bill gates and warren buffet here in the united states. we've got to figure out what the basis for these charges could be and whether it's simply a power grab or if there's really some meat on the bones. >> in terms of investment, one of the things that's so fascinating to me is literally two weeks ago as we discussed and i was over there, all of these business leaders from all over the world were brought there effectively, invited by the crown prince to show off what they were doing in the country and to pursue this transformation and to get their investment dollars in the

country. there are some people i saw robert diamond, bob diamond over the weekend saying that he thought this actually makes it more hospitable to investment. i talked to another coo of a major financial institution who said, you know what, this is so unsettling, why would i want to put my money in this country >> both conditions are true. if they are trying to clean up the kingdom and eliminate corruption, then in the long run that's a positive event and will help the ipo for aramco and other foreign investment if it's simply a foreign investment and replacing the prince as the head of the saudi national guard, if this is simply a power grab, then i think it's unsettling. it shows disrespect for the rule of law and makes it harder to a tract foreign investment. >> so you mentioned it the saudi aramco ipo, that is pivotal to the transformation of the country. >> that's the lynchpin. >> and when do we know when are we going to know one

way or the other whether this is going to have a meaningful impact, both positively or negatively >> i don't think we even have an answer to that question yet, and it's important for them to be transparent in the process going forward. we have to see that they have a rule of law in saudi arabia. this corruption committee sprang up overnight what real evidence do they have? certainly it may well be a mixed bag. some of these people detained may well be totally corrupt and need to be prosecuted. others may simply be political rivals swept up in the purge i think we've got to understand that it may take a while for this to play out and it could actually delay the ipo, it could delay the interest of foreign investors until they see how this shakes out. >> ambassador, do you ever think we'll have a clear idea? >> i think we'll get a better idea of who the guilty parties are. perhaps some of these who have been detained will be released after interrogation but i think

we're going to have to see some kind of transparency to this in order for the public to be satisfied. it's one thing for the public to simply want to prosecute evil doers, but it's another thing to actually identify who they are and to have solid evidence. >> right ambassador, i don't know if there is some way to connect the dots on the timing of this, but if you recall, saturday morning president trump tweeted out effectively trying to persuade or put pressure depending how you looked at it saudi arabia to list the saudi aramco ipo on the new york stock exchange here in new york there was a call later in the day, he's in asia, of course, and there was a readout of that call that he had communication with the king. no mention at all about what took place there is that unusual? do you think there was communication about any of this this weekend >> i think that's entirely possible remember that jared kushner just returned from a visit to saudi

arabia, so i think they may well have had some type of heads up in terms of broad strokes with coming out with some massive corruption campaign. >> ambassador, we appreciate your time and perspective. thanks so much. coming up, tax savings secrets from the ultra rich were exposed in the so-called paradise papers over the weekend. wilbur ross striking back that he concealed a connection to a company with ties to russia. his comments are next. because, when you really, really want to be there, but you can't.

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call, visit or go to xfinitymobile.com. wilbur ross is striking back after the paradise papers accusation eamon javers joins us now with more i don't know, eamon. any claims of illegality here or just it smells bad or does it even smell bad? >> there's no indication of illegality here, but what this is is another massive trove of off shore documents similar to the panama papers from a year and a half ago if you remember that story this, again, a leak of off shore documents. they're calling it the paradise papers to go with the i will literation from panama papers to

paradise papers. let me walk you through what this is and how wilbur ross comes into it. the paradise papers are 7 million documents that were leaked from a bermuda based law firm called appelby. they were sent to a german new hampshire -- newspaper that shared them with the international consortium of investigative journalists. they identified 120 politicians and royal rulers as owning various entities off shore how does wilbur ross come under scrutiny in all of this? nbc news is reporting that wilbur ross shares business interests with vladimir putin's immediate family and ross failed to clearly disclose those interests when being confirmed ross retains an interest in a shipping called navigator holdings navigator has a business relationship with a russian energy firm that is controlled by vladimir putin's son-in-law

on cnbc live from london just within the past hour wilbur ross pushed back on this reporting saying that he has done nothing wrong and calling the reporting simply nonsense. here's what he said. >> a company not under sanction is just like any other company, period it was a normal commercial relationship and one that i had nothing to do with the creation of it. i had nothing to do with the negotiations and do not know the shareholders that were apparently sanked at some later point in time. >> reporter: meanwhile, we're learning about connections between the kremlin and social media companies. follow along here. "the new york times" is reporting that russian billionaire yuri milner received money from russian government backed entities. milner's twitter was backed by vte. investor in milner's facebook

deal received money from gasprom holdings more complexity between all of these entities we'll wait and see what the fallout is in silicon valley from this and of course the big mystery in all of this is who leaked these documents to the german newspaper in the first place. how did they get them? what were they intending to do when they put this out there for the public to see. >> you know, eamon, thinking about how all of this looks and what we hear ow, things do change in terms of what's acceptable and what's not. we've been to davos a lot. there's oligarchs everywhere we knew about ukraine, we knew about putin's adventures and we still knew that they were global players in a lot of different businesses with tentacles everywhere, with a lot of business interests with people in the united states, people in europe not until this whole collusion narrative came along did it

suddenly become almost like you're branded if you've done business with russia when before we had people on all the time. >> sure. >> they would cop to it without even thinking about it knowing there are sanctions but in a globalist world, people are dealing with countries everywhere so it's just weird that it's now -- >> wait a minute, he was doing business in russia with the collusion narrative, suddenly that's got a whole new connotation to it which it didn't have three, four, five years ago. >> i think that's right. people are more their antennae are up more for anything to do with russia. i think the difference you have now under the trump administration is you have a lot of billionaires involved in the administration who have these massive sprawling business interests around the world. >> right >> we haven't had that in american government before, at least not in my lifetime, and usually you have government officials who are doing this who don't have these kinds of

holdings so, therefore, they're not subject to the same kind of scrutiny in terms of conflict of interest are they making decisions inside the united states government to benefit themselves or to benefit the country? when you don't have any holdings, it's very easy to make that determination when you do have those holdings and you retain them while you're in government, then it becomes very, very difficult to parse through and you're inviting scrutiny of all of your different holdings that's why i think people were anxious to go through these documents and see what's in there. my sense is seven million documents released, they have been working on this we're told for months now i think there's more reporting still to come out of these documents. at first blush you can't go through 7 million documents. >> unequivocally i have no interest in business dealings in russia. >> i don't know about you becky. >> sorkin? >> no. >> we fall into the if you don't have anything, it's easy to disclose. >> very difficult. i have very few investments in

the united states. no, but i did go to the russian federation event in davos and i did have -- i think i had like one thing of caviar because -- and vodka. they had a great entertainer, remember, was there. >> i didn't go >> did you disclose the caviar >> just now. >> i went to bed so i'm good. >> i was out >> anyway, thanks. let's bring in nick johnson, whether you've got anything to tell us, nick. >> i'm all in gold >> russian gold? do you know what i mean though suddenly in a globalist world should we be -- should we be surprised? >> eamon had it exactly right. we've never had this many

billionaires and business men in one. we never had a culture where we're finding this out these are private documents from their attorneys who are being shared i think that's what's showing. we're getting a window into things we would never see before we're seeing this window into business men who we never had access to. >> i was there for the days of br breznef and all of these scary guys when the iron curtain came down, we were happy that it was opening up to investment. >> this is very different now. the collusion cloud hangs over everything the relationship that the president had, the administration, there's a cloud over everything. now is mueller going to get the documents and start peeling back the layers it colors all of these relationships. >> what's your take on the wilbur ross situation? >> i think ieamon had it right it adds this uncertainty about it

there's so much smoke and now we have a special counsel, congressional committee looking at this. >> we know about podesta's brother. we know about all of this different stuff. is it a fact republicans have more relationships with russia and more to gain than democrats? >> i think billionaires have more democrat billionaire and you found his attorneys and unlocked all of the briefcases full of his business dealings you'd find relationships all around the globe. >> in terms of the relationship, it's been a nightmare for the trump administration. >> right. >> now it looks like even some of the facebook ads, they weren't all pro trump. >> i think that gets to sort of the sprawling nature of it and it touches everyone. >> should we be like in "casablanca" i'm shocked they're trying to influence our election. >> are you shocked >> i'm not shocked we tried to get netanyahu defeated we tried very difficult -- we tried very hard to get brexit --

>> i think what makes it shocking is we've never seen it sort of so explicitly. we've never had a facebook election like this before. we can actually see -- we can draw a line from the russian government to those crazy facebook ads with hillary clinton and jesus on them. these weird viral things i think we've never seen it as explicitly before, which i think was drawing people in. >> right is there any way to -- where it doesn't happen again i think it's just -- >> i think it's a question for facebook if they can figure it out. they said when we had cheryl sanberg at an axios event, if they're clear and transparent, they can run those things. it's clear, we want to know who's behind it. that's what you'll see the bills on the hill, any as any other political advertisement. >> they put it on television why not? >> so mueller gets this stuff and finds out that there's five years ago, eight years ago there's something that doesn't

look quite right in terms of wilbur ross and russia, is that fair game for what this special prosecutor -- >> everything is fair game for the special prosecutor you're making a huge leap. >> it's already starting. >> that's how a federal investigation works. you start building a case piece by piece by piece. >> not to turn to someone about collusion, even if it's just about their dealings five years ago that wilbur ross did something then, all of a sudden he's in jeopardy. >> federal investigations can -- >> even though it can come back to trump or the election. >> how did clinton get impeached? it wasn't about monica lewinsky, it was about a land deal. >> there was plenty of criticism. >> this is, by the way, also the flip side, the danger of taking some kind of political office, right? the second you get into something -- and at this level we've always talked about why do people at this level not want to be in political office >> right. >> right this is the reason they don't want to go in front of the senate and get yelled at by a bunch of senators.

>> you don't want to go into the press office and get yelled at by a bunch of reporters. body shamed. have a field day with us, right? >> they do on twitter. they do on twitter. >> thank you for being with us. >> absolutely. >> programming note, house ways and means committee kevin brady will join us at 8:30 a.m. eastern. senator rand paul's return to washington may be delayed he suffered five broken ribs during an assault at his kentucky home. his 59-year-old neighbor has been charged with assault. senator paul also had lung contusions local media reports say the senator was mowing his lawn when his neighbor came on to his property and tackled him from behind it's not clear what motivated the altercation. >> but these were much more serious injuries than we had initially been led to believe. >> rand paul's mowing his lawn the landscapers -- was he -- can

you get tackled if you're riding a riding mower i guess or was he doing one of those -- was he walking along mowing his lawn like that? god bless him. >> i think we're going to hear more about this. >> real american. >> it feels good -- you do that for an hour or so, you clear your mind. >> unless you get tackled in the process. >> right done it 50 years >> and in other news -- >> budding story. >> there may soon be a vacancy at the fed fed president bill dudley is preparing to retire earlier than expected dudley could make that announcement as soon as next week and step down next spring once a replacement is named. his departure would probably come after president trump's nominee for fed chair jay powell succeeds janet yellen in february trump has three other spots to fill and four if yellen leaves when her chair ends. when we come back, president trump talking trade in asia. we'll get a live report from kayla tausche in asia. that's straight ahead right here

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welcome back you're watching "squawk box", live from the nasdaq market site in times square. good morning time for the squawk planner. this is for the week ahead a few economic reports of note tomorrow we've got the september consumer credit numbers. then on thursday we get jobless claims and wholesale trade then on friday it's the first read on consumer sentiment for november the heaviest part of earnings season is now over, but there are still 40 companies in the s&p 500 reporting this week and

the list includes michael koors, toyota, marriott, snap, 21st century fox, disney, and jcpenney and we're expecting cvs at the top of the hour today as for fedspeak vice chair randall karls will be speaking tomorrow at a conference in new york u.s. equity futures at this hour are lower but single digits now across the board down 9 on the dow. down three and change on the s&p, 4 and change on the nasdaq. for more on the markets, let's bring in steven white and drew mattis who is chief investment strategist at metlife investment gentleman, welcome to both of you. >> good morning. >> we were talking about dow haa record level i think we've had only 220 days where the markets have been open

for that that's a pretty impressive number when you start looking at this it's hard to argue with that kind of momentum drew, do you expect that to continue >> well, i like risk assets here i think if you think about this economic cycle, the economic cycle is extending, there's really no signs on the horizon that anything is imbalanced so, therefore, you have to think how much longer can it go for? the answer is with a fed that's going very gradually, therefore not at risk of going too fast and making a policy mistake in that direction, that the cycle can continue to extend that would be positive for riskier assets. >> you would say it's riskier to bet against it it sounds like that's what you're saying? >> if you're invested, then you have to be invested. if you have the ability to move into equities -- >> steven? >> record profits, record shares we've been posting really strong earnings this year in the u.s. it looks like the third quarter will be a 7.5%

year to year gain. now that we've had the rebound in the oil price, the big impact from energy, that's in line probably with what we would do next year away from tax cuts in terms of eps gains. >> you mean without tax cuts >> yeah, without tax cuts we would have 6 to 8% eps gains the market is up in the neighborhood of 15%. we've seen strength in small caps recently. i think that shows just i think a larger reliance on the notion that we're going to have corporate tax cuts that are going to boost profits even further next year. more reliance on policy now now that we've gotten up this high. >> you sound like you are a little more hess tent in terms of thinking it can continue. >> fully invested -- >> the tax cuts to pass? >> i think that we're going to get them i think it's not a sure thing but at some point we'll compromise and we'll have corporate tax cuts will be included in the mix. and i think about in terms of investment risks, just look at bonds. in the united states stocks and

bonds seem like full allocations to us, but in terms of risk assets around the world, take a look at german bunds at 30, 40 basis points what it's like to get a zero coupon long duration bond on what can happen to price volatility so we still are over weight equities, under weight fixed income i think that the real value argument though is a little bit more outside the united states the u.s. with tax cuts and easy policies, powering along. >> drew, within the united states if people were looking at stocks, where would you be recommended? >> well, we're more of a fixed income shop at metlife but, you know, i think, you know, you want to be exposed to places where you're going to capture the up side, right and that means in a rising rate environment. so you really -- >> you're talking financials >> well, you know, once again, like we don't really do -- we don't really do sectors but, you know, we like things that are exposed to rising rates and that will move up so like floating rate assets and, you know, when you're

thinking about a rising rate environment, you're thinking people are going to begin to extend the duration of their assets you want to be in things that are growing. >> what about in fixed income is it that you like at this point it's been a little more difficult unless you're talking corporate. >> well, so in our world, right, we're attached to an insurance company. insurance company can have a longer viewpoint, and we do. and so, you know, we don't mind trading a little bit of liquidity for a little better return. >> but for insurance companies, what we've watched over the last seven or eight years has been incredibly painful looking at low returns on a lot of the areas that they would be forced to be putting numbers before i mean, are you expecting that the returns that we've seen in places like fixed income are going to continue over the next several years? do you think that's going to turn as the fed starts to raise rates? >> it may turn as you start to raise rates but then you're going to be reinvesting at a higher yield so it's not always kind of the

easy kind of -- we're not churning things, right so, you know, i think private assets are a great example they're less liquid but they offer you a premium for lesli quit at this therefore, you can look at things like that. >> drew, thank you for coming in steven, great to see you. coming up, we have a full rundown of president trump's trip to asia we'll get a live report from kayla tausche in south korea this more. then we'll talk about the saudi purge from thomas friedman plus we have tax reform. house ways and means chairman kevin brady will bakre it down at 8:30 a.m. eastern "squawk" returns in a moment i can't wait for her to have that college experience that i had. the classes, the friends, the independence.

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welcome back to "squawk box. president trump kicking off his asia tour over the weekend kayla tausche is in south korea. she joins us now from seoul. kayla? >> reporter: andrew, good morning. three days in discussions over stabilizing pyongyang and u.s. trade deficits have dominated

the meetings so far. with president trump taking surgical aim at sales by industry working towards new bilateral deals with each of the first three countries he'll be meeting with and defending one of the first decisions of his presidency, the decision to withdraw from the 12 nation trans-pacific partnership. here's what he said. >> we will have more trade than anybody ever thought of under tpp, that i can tell you tpp was not the right idea probably some of you in this room disagree, but ultimately i'll be proven to be right we will have much bigger trade with the way we're doing it right now and it will be a much less complex situation >> reporter: bilateral talks are happening but until this trip it moved very slowly. japan's lead role in trying to salvage tpp and japan holding out hope that the u.s. would rejoin at a state dinner this evening

president trump called prime minister abe a tough negotiator. over the weekend aboard air force one reporters asked the president whether his negotiating leverage was hurt by the fact that his asian counterparts were coming to the table with higher approval ratings and also recent consolidation of power trump pointed to the stock market, not polls, as his preferred approval rating. he said, quote, we're going in with tremendous strength we're going in with a stock market higher than ever before if you look at the stock markets of all of these countries, korea and japan outpaced the 24% gain in the s&p 500 trump got a laugh at that note earlier this afternoon at a summit when they both presented to reporters and he said, i don't think japan's economy is as strong as the u.s.'s and we're going to keep it that way. guys, back to you. >> all right kayla, thank you joining us now, wilson center asia program director abraham

denmark. up to this -- what's our main goals here, would you think? what is -- what's realistic that we can accomplish, do you think, mr. secretary? >> yeah. president trump's goals really are twofold. first is to secure alliance coordination and cooperation on a hard line approach towards north korea and include china in that effort to make sure china is on board when it comes to north korea. second is trade. to buttress american trade deals with these countries in east asia, to sign deals and to make progress on bilateral trade agreements there's the broader story, though, beneath all of these -- all of these other issues is a burgeoning competition between the united states and china about who drives, who leads regional political architecture and the future of the region's economy. >> so at this point is it, you know, too hot, too cold? how are relationships?

there's a lot of fear that something had happened with china with president trump and yet it doesn't seem like it's got more confrontational it almost seems like the relationship is pretty solid, at least personally between the president, president trump and president xi how do you view that >> with china, the personal relationship between trump and xi is fairly strong ever since xi came to mar-a-lago. they -- both sides have worked to make sure that they have good relationship and the visit to beijing is certain to be very high on pomp and symbolism, but beneath the surface there's a tremendous amount of concern on both sides about an unequal trade relationship, about a very large trade deficit which is a primary concern for president trump but also burgeoning strategic

competition over a wide variety of different issues from specific trade issues but also china's burgeoning ambitions, with taiwan and what beijing refers to as the great rejuvenation of the chinese nation which often means -- translates into china taking more of a leadership role in asia and further circumscribing the role of the west and as some in china hope circumscribing the area as a regional leader. >> it's hard for us to really understand exactly what the dynamics of the north korea situation -- we hear, you know, just reading this morning, the country's surrounded 80,000 troops that we've got we've got warships around. we've got all this yet the olympics, my colleague, you're headed over to the olympics. south korea's stock market is hitting new highs. how does that work, it's just

bluster? we should assume the worst case scenario doesn't happen or if it does happen it's going to be awful anyway how do you read that >> i think it's -- the situation with korea is entering a very dangerous phase. as you mentioned, south korea is one of the most >> in recent months they've made great progress in building both nuclear devices as well as missiles capable of reaching american allies in korea and japan, but also potentially the united states itself the white house has been stating with greater and greater clarity their concern that time is running out, that they would not accept a north korea with the ability to strike the united states with nuclear weapons,ing

and that a preemptive -- or preventive strike on north korea may be in the offing >> i don't know. we'll see. we appreciate your time, abra m abraham. thank you. >> good to talk to you >> when we return, target launching a new product line in conjunction with hgtv stars joanna and chip gaines what will it mean for the holiday season that's after the quick break ray's always been different. last year, he said he was going to dig a hole to china. at&t is working with farmers to improve irrigation techniques. remote moisture sensors use a reliable network to tell them when and where to water. so that farmers like ray can compete in big ways.

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snoo target launching a new line designed in conjunction with jiana and chip gaines. courtney reagan is at a target store in new jersey. she has a look oot what the line means for the target holiday season good morning >> good morning to you, becky. we're here in edgewater, new jersey, and this target store behind us actually isn't open on sundays because of local law, so consumers in this area will actually get their very first chance to shop the hearth and hand collection that was done with the fixer upper couple chip and joanna gaines. the line launched nationwide on november 5th target says day one exceeded its

expectations >> we found about ten items that appear to be sold out when we looked last night, and that's less than 4 hours, but this isn't one of those lines that was designed to do that. hearth and hand isn't one of target's limited time designer collaborations, but, rather, a multi-year partnership with chip and joanna gaines designing these products that are refresh eight times a year that's twice as often as a typical home line refreshes in a target store there's a lot of items that have to do with entertaining and the home the chief merchant says it will drive additional trips and traffic. back to you. >> courtney, thank you >> all right, coming up the saudi purge. we'll get a live report from the kingdom where the powerful were arrested royals as lls sissn. at next.buneme

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>> wilbur ross responds to the paradise paper saying reports that he didn't disclose an investment in a company with ties to russia are wrong details straight ahead a corruption crackdown in saudi arabia billionaire saudi prince has been arrested. a live report from riyadh and how the arrest could affect u.s.-saudi business ties and what about broad comand qualcomm deal or no deal. reportedly we're going to hear about an unsolicited offer for qualcomm shortly your corporate headlines are coming up as the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now.

>> live from gt beating heart of business, new york city. this is "squawk box." good morning welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc we are live from the says nasdaq market site in times square. i'm becky quick along with joe kernan and andrew ross sorkin. we've been watching the futures this morning, and we started out a little weaker with the dow down by 20 points. they paired their losses right now the dow is down by three points s&p futures down by just under three. the nasdaq down by less than one. that deal that joe just mentioned is just crossing the wires. it looks like broad comis proposing to acquire qualcomm for cash and stock >> it would be $130 billion. this would be the larnle estlar technology deal in history this is a hostile transaction at the moment we expect, by the way, that qualcomm is not going to accept this price we should say qualcomm stock is on the slide throughout the year

in larnl part because of this apple lawsuit that's been going on back and forth. the argument is that the price, we think, is going to be too low. that's what we imagine they are going to say a couple of things from the ceo. bro broadcom's proposal is compelling for stockholders and stake holders in both companies. they say it provides stockholders with substantial and immediate premium and cash for their shares we should say it's $60 in cash and $10 per share in bro broadcomshares >> qualcomm closed at $61.81 that's almost as much -- >> $103 billion. not 30, right? >> it's interesting. at the top of this they're saying it's $130 billion i don't know if that includes debt if that's what -- >> it would have to. >> it is it's $130 billion on a pro-forma

basis that includes -- >> back that out because the market cap was 91 on qualcomm, and it's $8 above that, so it's the actual market value for what its valuing >> that gives the -- >> $100 billion plus really big >> the net debt is because of qualcomm spending acquisition of nxp. if it continued on its currently disclosed terms is what they're talking about with that. >> we should also say that a number of banks have provided a commitment level of convertible debt financing is part of the transaction. the company looks at this and says that it's a premium 33% on qualcomm what they call unaffected 30-day volume weighted average price, which is about right.

broadcomhas been interested for some time. broadcom, of course, former vago and moved to singapore, and then last week announced with the help of president trump, that it was moving back to the united states in part, we now understand to make acquisitions like this one, make them a little bit more easily given that a transaction like this had been in a foreign company would have a review in other things one thing to note, and i just don't know the history of this, but i don't know if you can just announce that you are moving back to the united states. i don't know if there's -- it takes a period of time is that a year-long process? do you need shareholder vote or do you just pick up stakes and go we will -- >> if you plook at a one-year chart of qualcomm, this explains why qualcomm is not going to be thrilled with this why they have not taken it to

the point. in december of last year it was trading almost at $70. >> it's like pushing a rock up the hill >> that would be -- >> close not quite. >> this is not -- >> this is sipheus >> they've got to be related, right? >> but it is hard. i mean, if you are not, isn't it >> it's the neverending -- >> i'm glad you're here, though, because he was ready to blow me off again. in other dweeal news sprint and t mobile announcing they have ended merger talks saying they couldn't come to mutually degreeable terms meantime, soft bank announcing it intends to increase its stake separately sprint and u.s. cable operator altise reaching a multi-year

agreement. >> q2 operating profits and revenue. the topped estimates off financials came out after the stock closed for the regular trading session. you're looking at that stock now down about 2.5%. a couple of other stocks to watch this morning cvs health and aetna reporting aiming to finalize their more than $70 billion merger as soon as december. reports say a deal likely to value aetna at more than $200 a share with cvs paying cash in stock. brookshire hataway fell 43% hit by insurance losses tied to the u.s. hurricanes and earthquakes in mexico. operating profit which warren buffett says reflects overall performance fell 29% missing analyst forecasts. >>. william dudley is set to retire earlier than planned. our steve liesman reports that dudley is expected to announce this week that he will be retiring next spring or summer

>> amazon is offering discounts. the sellers would still get full price with amazon absorbing the discount as it moves aggressively to try and win more sales. and a rare corporate partnership is in the works. the "wall street journal" reporting that chip making rivals intel and advanced microdevices are timing up on a chip that would combine an intel processor with an amd graphics chip that would normally never happen, but in this case they are teaming up to go against rival offerings from nvidea. a corruption crackdown, at least as it's being billed in saudi arabia, is another story we've been reporting on this morning. billionaire saudi prince was arrested with several other saudi royals and government ministers. again, this was billed as part of a sweeping anti-corruption crackdown by saudi crown prince. joining us right now to talk more about it and how to really read the whole situation is thomas lipman. he is an adjunct scholar

this story was a confusing one with a lot of people trying to figure out is this really a corruption crackdown, or is this just a move to consolidate power? what do you think. >> the kimgds of saudi arabia really have never been he has eliminated with this -- he has eliminated what they call centers of power that might interfere with the absoluteness of his rule once he succeeds his father he is basically now in charge of every important function of the country and all the security operations, including the armed forces >> we had a guest who joined us earlier who said it would take some time to try and figure out if the corruption charges were true, and that it's something the international community, particularly investors, would be watching quite closely

>> this is a country that stayed in enormous lavish international investment conference inviting hedge fund managers and investment counsellors from all over the world to this elaborate show about the new saudi arabia, the modernizing saudi arabia and all that basically the country has staked its future now on foreign investment and international business partnerships. >> i'm want sure how that fits into the picture of an

anti-corruption crackdown. >> it was also interesting to see the heads of some of the media -- or the owners of some of the media companies there also added that list >> well, right including, of course, prince bintalal, a grandson of the founding king of saudi arabia. it's very hard to discern a pattern among the people who were supposedly purged over the weekend. what's their relationship to each other furthermore, you have to understand that off the books money and agreements -- side agreements outside the contracts

have been the lubricant of commerce for generations,ing and it's -- you can't just change that overnight by some showcase arrests like this. >> a couple of questions for you. the first si spoke with a number of people in saudi over the weekend. they take a different position than you do. i have to say, at least the prevailing view internally was that this was a genuine corruption crackdown, if, in fact, also a power grab at the same time. interestingly enough, if you look at the saudi stock market, it only dropped marginally you can look at kingdom holdings and that they did take a big hit. what do you make of the fact that there is a view inside the country, and if you read a lot of the press, not from the country itself, but from those around suggesting that a lot of the people there look at this perhaps as what -- as what mbs says it is

>> first of all, people in saudi arabia are very reluctant to discuss substance or anything with political overtones in a telephone conversation with a random interviewer it's very hard to extract information about popular sentiment. >> i don't mean that there's not a lot of what he with call corruption, but everyone understands what the system is it's a kbe of learning how to benefit from it. >> what's this going for to do did with the relationship between the u.s. and saudi, and it's only appeared to have strengthened since trump became the president of the country obviously, we talked about how kushner was just there two weeks ago. do you have a sense of that? there was communication on

that -- no excellent or at least no commentary about any discussion taking place around these arrests. >> assuming that the country remains stable internally, assuming that, then i don't see any reason why this -- these developments should affect the strategic relationship. >> do you think investors are going to be more or less unsettled about all of this? >> i have never believed that it was possible for saudi aramco to float shares on any regulated exchange in europe or the united states because they can't compete with transparency requirements i think it's much more likely -- and i believe the financial

times even reported it's much more likely that they'll place those shares privately perhaps with some organization in china. i just don't think the aramco ipo is a real live event that we are looking for any time soon. wherever they do it. >> in saudi arabia he is not popular, and he has no -- he had a nasty twitter exchange with donald trump a couple of years ago, but otherwise, he is not -- >> since then he has made some -- since then he has made some -- even within a few weeks ago, he made some statements right here on this program

supporting everything, including vision 2030 and the relationship with president trump >> right and so what actually -- what his fate is going to be, i don't know now, a lot of people who work for him, a lot of money is tied up in his companies. he has investments not just in it partnership with a lot of american companies, including, i understand, citigroup and twitter. this is important to the investment community and his bess partners, and i just don't understand it. >> final question. we hear that many of these folks who have been detained or arrested are at the ritz carlton riyadh where do you think they go from there? how does that work >> well, first of all, there's been no confirmation that i know of from the government that all the people who were purged from their jobs have also been taken into custody i don't know that that's the case the story about the ritz carlton is quite amusing

a hotel who is in a fairly isolated corner of riyadh. easy to keep people couped up there. i notice that the parent company of ritz carlton issued a statement saying that they never comment on their guests which i thought was amusing. if you were taken into custody, that's a place you would like to do it. >> thank you for joining us today. >> my pleasure >> could have been a days inn or something. that might be cruel and unusual. coming up, a new week of trading. we'll talk markets after a break, and then, later, oath launching a board of advisors apprised of some of the most talented entrepreneurs and socially influential leaders around from multiple industries. ceo tim armstrong and the chair of the newly formed board and tennis icon serena williams. they'll join us to discuss the board's purpose and the business of branding whe,er stay tuned. you're watching "squawk box" on

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>> it iced to be down, and now it's up, and it's now in positive territory every time we said it so far, it was all red. >> tom is here chief u.s. economist at rbc capital markets. brian levitt is also here. senior investment strategist at oppenheimer funds. we've been talking a lot about the number of mergers that are taking place around town, and then this tax issue we're going to be talking about that in the next hour. get a sense of where that stands how does that factor into where you think the market is right now? the other thing we're seeing is you were saying how many days are we now at the -- >> 50 records this year. >> 56 for the dow. 51 for the s&p >> what does that tell you >> more than 200 unless we're talking about slowing, let's leave recession off the table. i don't know why we would have the conversation then about when the market is going to turn down i'm not talking about a little correction i'm talking about an actual outright sort of, you know,

contraction for the year from our perspective, if -- i mean, look, i know everyone is talking about taxes, and that's fine if the tax plan does go through in the current form, it's additive to the s&p. you are talking about the plan in its current form that goes through. even if you don't have that, even if the economy just continues to go along at a 2.5% pace, i don't know why the equity market would slow down in any material way we would look for continued gains. >> you agree with that >> i do. the reality about market highs is you can go back to 1957 when the s&p 500 came out you have a new market high every 16 days. there's nothing learned by knowing that markets are hitting new market highs i agree with tom completely. the reason we're in a low volatility environment with markets pressing higher is because the economy is doing well synchronized expansion around the world for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis, and no real monetary policy volatility we'll watch fiscal policy and, you know, if tom is right, if

you do get -- if you do get the tax cuts, that is a creative to earnings, but then who is this -- it's that most of the leadership and markets has been growth and large caps. that's not a market that is saying this is going to be a big tax -- >> all i'm saying is this a multiple expansion story or a straight economy story >> i mean, from our perspective, it's a combination, right? just remember, if the economy is expanding, just think about what that expansion does every single year just in ermz it of pure dollars, right it's hundreds of billions of dollars from a 2.5% economic growth perspective story i would say on the point of volatility, because, again, i tend to agree with brian as well, i mean, if you want a little bit of vol to be priced in, at least in the near term, i think this back and forth on this tax policy is just going to be fascinating to see what they decide to do just remember something. they've already budgeted for 1.5 trillion, right? if you actually want the state and local tax, which is i think everyone sort of wants this -- a lot of people at least in this

area want to see it go away. that's fine. we and see it go away, but where are you taking it from i think that's really the sort of big point of contention right now. you are going to take it from the child tax credit i would agree with that, joe, 100% >> you can't do it without it. >> where do you go where do you not go? >> i do think there is a lot of money going into passive

strategies, market cap weight, and you do get some overvaluation as money keeps going into the same name where do you go? i think you need to look outside the united states for opportunities. i mean, the emerging markets, if you think about a place in the world where inflation has come down, economies are improving, valuations are reasonable, that is a nice back drop for the emerging markets, and i think in the u.s. it's probably still large cap. >> thank you, guys >> thanks, goo iz. >> thank you >> thank you >> coming up, when we return commerce secretary wilbur ross is responding now to what's being called the paradise papers, and his investment in a company that has ties to russia. we'll show you that in just a little bit as we head to eye break, check out european markets this morning. brian, you want us to go foreign, but look at the red 'rba ia meng wee ckn mont what is the power of pacific? it's life insurance and retirement solutions to help you reach your goals. it's having the confidence to create the future

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good morning, everybody. welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc we are live from the nasdaq market site in times square. among the stories that are front and center this morning, breaking earlier this hour,

broadcom is offering $07 a share in cash and stock for rival chip maker qualcomm qualcomm shareholders would get $60 share in cash and the rest in stock the deal is worth $105 billion qualm comshares picking up 3% on this news, but they are far from that $70 mark. this is a hostile bid. qualcomm shares look like they're trading at $63.95. qualcomm shares, if you go back to december, they were trading at near $70 plsh they have not wanted this offer just yet we'll see what happens to the over and to the potential bid on that price also, michael kors is a stock on the move this morning the luxury goods company earning $1.33 a share for the latest quarter. that is well above estimates of 83 cents same-store sales fell by 1.7%, but that was better than the 4.7% drop that analysts had anticipated. kors also raising its full year earnings forecast. the stock is up by 1.8%. also out with earnings this hour

cvs health quarterly profit came in at $1.50 a share. that was two cents better than the street had expected. revenue also beating forecasts stock up by about 15 cents wilbur ross is striking back after the paradise paper allegations over the weekend said that he tried to conceal an investment in a company with ties to russia cnbc's jeff cutmore joins us now from london where he caught up with secretary ross earlier this morning at the u.s. embassy. jeff, what's -- in a nutshell, what's -- what was his explanation? >> so, joe, the issue at the heart of this is very much about disclosure and whether wilbur ross disclosed the fact that he had a stake in navigator this is a shipping business. and whether he knew that navigator had contracts with a russian oil business called seabore, which has major stake

holdings by several. >> let's have a listen >> i don't know the people that were shareholders in -- it was never a subject to sanctions to this very day. there's nothing wrong with it at all. it's just an example of the press trying to find anything they can however remote or silly to attack the president and somehow link him to russia this is nonsense >> so, joe, flat denials across

the board as far as the commerce secretary is concerned at one point, though, i did say to him even though you may have on your financial disclosure forms made it clear that you had stakes in navigator, did you feel that you should have flagged up any russian involvement between cybor and navigator, and, of course, i think you've had an explanation there that the commerce secretary doesn't feel that he had any obligation and, in fact, says he did not know of the russia connection at this point. clearly, there are some senators, though, says who feel that he needs to go further, including senator bloomenthal, who has already said he felt there should have been more disclosure when the commerce secretary sat down with them back in february for confirmation, but for the time being wilbur ross says i did nothing wrong. i do not feel i should resign, and as far as the story is concerned, i feel it is being

whipped up by the media inappropriately. we'll see where it goes from here, joe. back to you, guys. >> time will tell. thank you. great get there, jeff. thanks okay, jeff also, a major purge. a powerful -- the wave of arrested in saudi arabia including a familiar name for investors around the world prince alwalid the chairman of kingdom holding company, i had spoken to prince alwalid just two weeks ago in riyadh >> saudi arabia is in the midst of a major overhaul and change on all fronts. economic, financial, social, entertainment. even plikts. we all heard about the arab spring this is our saudi version of arab spring. our peaceful arab spring it's not a revolution. this is happening now, but a very peaceful one in saudi arabia

full support of it, yes. >> we'll have a lot more on this developing story at the time top of the hour trying to make sense of what this means to saudi arabia also, what happens to the sade aramco ipo does this make investors more or less unselgsed what's going to happen to prince alwalid? after we had done that interview, i ran into an executive who literally said to us -- he says that they love the interview because the prince can say things that we can't the question is maybe he can't either >> i was thinking back through that entire interview, and it didn't seem like he said anything -- >> no, he was very complimentary. >> of the prince, of the crowned prince, that is. >> of the vision about what they ruled out. >> and to president trump giving some of the really tough commentary that back and forth that they had. >> i don't understand the side of this, because some people are saying that mbs has a lot on his

plate. he has social changes. >> he is seen as one of the more liberal. >> and in terms of bringing investment to the company. >> where was the -- if it's a purely a keep your friends close and enemies closer,ing where was his -- why was prince prince -- why was prince alwalid a threat to -- >> i don't know. look, i think we all have to figure out whether this is a power grab, whether there is corruption, whether it's a combination of both. there are all sorts of -- >> if corruption is -- it's kind of in how business is done there. >> it was never legal before, though >> right to come out and have a corruption panel announced on the same day that you are taking and sweeping up all of these people, i mean, it's not like -- you're changing the way of doing business there, and you are going to take these people out for doing business the way it's

been done for 80 years or lon r longer >> ear evena williams is here. did you see this >> i did >> she has a new role with the branding powerhouse, oath. best tennis player they join us after the break to discuss and the most dominant, for sure in the meantime, check out the futures at this hour "squawk box" will be back after a quick break. isis.

>> oath bringing in high level talent for what the company hopes will be more and more users. joining us now tim armstrong, oath ceo and some of that new high level talent that we mentioned, says 23 times grand slam singles champion serena williams, who will chair a new board of advisors at oath. i guess we have to talk about oath, but i want to know about the australian open. >> oh, my gosh

>>. >> i look forward to taking my time this is a new chapter of my life i don't want to rush it. >> this is not how we planned it, is it? >> this is exactly how we planned it you have a real champion here. this is exactly what she should talk about >> no doubt. >> companies are turning into persona, and they have a social persona, cultural persona, and the reality is having serena partner with me to kind of help design the future of the company is going to be a much more successful broader outcome than us doing it on our own, so the serena plus the other board of advisor members hopefully have a really big imprint on the future of where the company is going

both in terms of the content we're doing, the advertising, but more importantly, really the culture of the company. the boa are generally world class at one thing that you probably know them for, but i would say second of all they're known as great business people, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, people who want to change the world and, you know, i think serena embodies that, but when you look across the rest of the bod of advisesors from russell wilson to carly klaus, all of them are world class at what they do, and

they're going to bring a different dimension and serena is going to be a great leader for that group also just based on her competitiveness and the cultural aspects she loves >> you think of google and facebook that's not a small percentage of what they do i mean, you are third -- are you really gunning for those >> we're gunning for a differentiated company we have a company that, you know, size-wise, we do $2 billion last quarter bigger aspirations than that

how do we help them think about where the next grooet is in a global basis i would say we are happy with where we are right now, but our aspirations and the opportunity is much bigger than where we are -- >> i don't know if you saw martin sorelle was here last week they are struggling, and many of the big advertising agencies, in elizabeth smart parj, because they talk about it is digital pull of dollars. >> the digital economy is growing at -- >> growing between negative 4% and 2% overall for the large holding companies. zplool we're trying to bridge the gap between the growth areas where the agencies need to move to growth and where digital is, and i think that gap of 20%, 30% growth is really where our

opportunities are. martin i think is right to say all the things he is saying. >> there's always going to be issues defensively that we have to play as a business, and you saw that from those companies last week. fortunately, for us right now we're basically looking forward and really excited about how we're going to partner with serena and the team to, you know, move the ball forward. why don't you give your take on oath >> well, you know, for me i love the leadership idea and having an opportunity to be chairwoman and that's something exciting for me you know, in this tech world, it's really about just expanding and, you know, equality.

>> oath really represents that, i felt, and getting all these people together, and i love philanthropy, so it really kind of works with that, and we have this great platform, like tim was saying, over 1.3 billion people to tell your story. to reach women to reach kids and to have a chance to tell a unique story, build different stories and share it >> you view social media pretty effectively so serena as well. serena is awesome at tennis, but when you get to know her and you see hoe good she is socially with her foundation and at business, that's really what we hope will bring in, and ear evena is coming down to the office today after this, and you might want to talk a few of the things you are going to talk about, eserena, but take it away where. >> yes oh, yeah i'm kpied to do that, by the

way. i think being a part of the board of advisors and having this nice different people, it just really -- it's like a melting pot. just to bring different views. we really know how to optimize that social skills and just bring it together, so i feel like there's so much to talk about. i feel like it's just wonderful ways to present what you want to present. for instance, i have maya tundi price foundation, and it's a resource center that we built in compton. i'm from compton, california we have this great resource center where our kids go that have, unfortunately, been affected by violent crimes this is a perfect opportunity for people that want to talk of their story or bring their story. we can take it to makers or, you know, so many different ways to

tell that. tim and i have been having so many different conversations over the past six months unique contact makers for women. i love tech crunch that's kind of my new thing. i love that. it should be interesting as well we'll talk about that later, though yes. i feel like it's going to be -- it's going to be fun that's what it's all about >> you read it by the time this is over. >> all right we'll have to listen to our advisors >> how will -- serena's foundation, how will this play into -- are you -- there will be dollars accruing to that through this relationship? >> yes the relationships set up with the board of advisors is really along three areas. one is advising the company, just how to become more social, more global overall. the second piece is how do we support their foundations and really put lift in it. we'll be putting investment into serena's foundation both from monetary standpoint as well as for technology and some of the

things that be want to bring to her center in compton. i think for all the things that serena -- that she's doing that's great for the world outside of tennis, we're going to amplify that, and, two, we're going to create new areas for the company to actually work in with serena. tech is an area that obviously serena is very involved in, and ek it crunch is one of the most powerful brands in tech. putting serena together with a tech crunch to see what the possibilities are, you know, that's exactly what we're going to be talking about down at the office

>> how great is it being a mom is it fun? she hasn't got a forehand or back hand yet, does she? has she held a racket? probably not >> no. >> little baby tennis ball maybe. a little baby -- >> >> it's great being a mom >> do you have designs on her being a great tennis player. >> every tennis player is, like, we don't want our kids to be tennis players >> it's too hard five, eight hours, whatever it is a day >> yeah. my fiance insists that she's going to be in tech, in business, stuff like that. >> that's good that's good. >> she might be sitting here one day. >> we want to hear about everything because this is just the beginning.

>> we'll see you in australia. >> trying. when we come back this morning pulitzer prize winning offer thomas friedman will join us we'll talk about saudi arabia's so-called corruption crackdown and try to figure out what it means. we'll hit on the paradise papers and the president's trip to south korea. lots of things to talk about with tom, and it's coming up with him in just a moment. also, later this morning the man who is leading the push for tax reform congressman kevin brady will join us at 8:30 this morning "sawbo wl rhtacquk x"ilbeig bk. because, when you really, really want to be there, but you can't. at cognizant, we're helping today's leading media companies create more immersive ways to experience entertainment with new digital systems and technologies. get ready, because we're helping leading companies see it- and see it through-with digital.

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sniechlt news just out the new york fed officially confirming a report from steve liesman that bill dudley will retire in mid 2018 his early retirement meant to insure a successor is in place before his term ends we'll see how the market reacts to that this morning >> all right let's take a look at a couple of stocks to watch this morning generic drug makerer milan reported quarterly profit of $1 .10, and that was 10 cents below forecast or estimates, anyway. milan's results were hurt by a decline in north america sales stocks up, though. health insure anthem nouned the departure of ceo joe sweden effective november 20th. he will be replaced by gale boudreau, a former executive at united health. coming up, pulitzer prize winning -- will join us for the remainder of the show. a lot to discuss with him. what just took place in saudi

arabia over the weekend and more the futures right now, show you what's going on. dow looks like it would open up five poins s&p 500 off also about close to three points nasdaq up marginally squawk returns after the break this is not a cloud. this is a tomato tracked from farm to table on a blockchain, helping keep shoppers safe. this is a financial transaction secure from hacks and threats others can't see. this is a skyscraper whose elevators use iot data and ai to help thousands get to work safely and efficiently. this is not the cloud you know. this is the ibm cloud. the ibm cloud is the cloud for business. yours. ♪ ♪

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snoo sade crackdown. prince alwe'll odd among those arrested this is weeks after he told us this on "squawk box. >> saudi arabia is in the midst of a major overhaul and change on all fronts, economic, financial, social, entertainment. even political >> live from the most powerful city in the world, new york. this is "squawk box.

>> good morning. welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc live from the nasdaq market site in times square. i'm joe kernan along with becky quick and andrew ross sorkin our guest host this morning, a "new york times" columnist tom friedman his most recent book, thank you for being late he was on time, though it's out in paperback now. we'll hear from him in gist a bit. first, here's a check on the markets. we just saw them a moment ago, and the dow was down it is again down six briefly positive just a little bit. it's been around the flat line for most of the day. the s&p 500 down three, and the nasdaq says really not doing a lot. down .8 of a point >> .08 of a point. there's the ten-year 3.2% >> breaking news the new york fed confirming a report from our very own steve liesman. new york sfed president bill dudley will retire in mid 2018 his early retirement is meant to insure that a successor is in

place well before his term ends. the central bank says that the search for dudley's successor will be nation wooird and include broad, diverse, and qualified candidates. major powd businessmen coming over the weekend in what's being called an anti-corruption probe the wave of arrests included a familiar name for investors around the world prince alwalid, the kingdom holding company chairman

he was on with andrew just two woeks ago. a plan known as vision 2030. our guest host tom proceed marn, tom we are lucky to have you here today because you know the middle east so well, and we've been trying to figure out what this means and why what do you think? >> well, let me start at 30,000 feet if i could. i have interviewed crowned prince a couple of times i think you have to start with the fact that the dominant political ideology in saudi arabia over the last 20 years actually it wasn't islamism or communism. it wasn't i liberalism it was alzheimer's, okay this is a regime that basically was governed for 20 years by one ailing king after the other. so much reform was put off therefore, the first thing i say about the crowned prince is that if he didn't exist, the system would have had to invent him number one and number two, he is much more mckenzie that wahabi he is really driven by a kind of

management consultant mind set jo i think we're seeing a political revolution in another sense. he is taking saudi off a path that it started in 1979. the middle east we know it today was really shaped in 1979 by three eths the iranian revolution, the mecca mosque affair in saudi arabia where fanatics tried to take over the mecca mosque, and what that did is it freaked out the saudi ruling family, and they made a right turn a religious right turn

>> his reform, his opened-mindedness, his liberalism, all those things i associated with him as well, and i thought that he would be a partner in all of this he was supportive both on the record and off why him? co. >> whether it's in the economy, in walid's karks or in the military, in the case of the

abdullah line which controlled the national guard that's been taken away i think the two go together. where the power grab actually stops and the anti-corruption thing starts, unclear. >> for our air, the -- how should investors feel about this did you feel better about things, or should you be very unsettled? >> i think -- what strikes me -- i go back to the point, this had to happen. what scares me is -- >> the anti-corruption piece >> the whole thing the whole change in saudi arabia he is doing these four things at once not just political also economic revolution, and there is a regional revolution going on he is committed to a much more aggressive regional policy against iran let's remember, the day before this happened -- >> in yemen. >> people didn't notice, but he got the prime minister of lebanon to resign in saudi arabia, okay, which was a direct attack on iran >> but here's the thing, so many business leaders -- >> to becky's point, when you got four revolutions going on at once, foreign affairs, political, economic, social -- >> it's a lot.

>> that's a lot to handle in a country that has been, again, ruled by the alzheimer philosophy for 20 years. >> final question. we've got to get to kayla. investors. all of these investors and big executives showed up in saudi just two weeks ago this was supposed to be the rolling out the red carpet to try to get investment into the country. >> yeah. >> alwalid was partners with bill gates if you were a business executive or company thinking about investing in saudi arabia, how is your mind shift changed from friday to monday >> for me, andrew, saudi arabia is a stock it's now a hold. >> the primary focus of the

discussions during this leg of the trip has been on securing the korean peninsula and the -- against nuclear ambitions and as well as bilateral trade. president trump today said japan could secure itself better by buying more u.s. weapons >> the prime minister of japan is going to be purchasing massive amounts of military equipment, as he should, and we make the best military equipment by far he will be purchasing it from the united states. whether it's the f-35 fighter, which is the greatest in the world. total stealth. or whether it's missiles of many different kinds. it's -- it's a lot of jobs for us and a lot of safety for japan. >> that reflects president trump's general philosophy about how to right size the trade deficit, get his asian

counterparts to buy more u.s. goods. earlier today he told a group of business leaders for both countries, he wants japan to buy more u.s. cars that is an argument we are likely to hear again when the president comes to south korea tomorrow his visit will be marked by protests, peaceful protests, both those welcoming his arrival and his intervention with the neighbor to the north, but also those rebuking him for what they say is taking them to thebrink of nuclear war with a very dangerous and volatile leader. talks could get much more contentious when he meets with chinese president xi jing ping, and then early next week with russian president vladimir putin. back to you. >> kayla, thank you very much. again, kayla let's get back to our guest host this morning. "new york times" foreign affairs columnist marcus friedman. his latest book is called "thank you for being late."

it's out in paperback now. let's talk about what kayla was just kind of laying out for us we can bomb or negotiate because no one wants to bomb and no one wants to -- you have to feel we're going to end up negotiating at some point. north korea keeps us incredibly distracted in asia, and it provides a wonderful trade-off on the trade jaebd right when trump is clinching his fist and ready to deliver a knock-out blow to them on trade, the chinese said, but you need our help, remember, mr. trump? >> and they're right >> and they're right so they've been able to use that to blunt basically something i think trump is right about

that's that we have a structural trade problem with china we thought chooirn was going to reform in the open, and china has reformed and closed. that is a problem. that tells me they are not suicidal they are not homicidal they are -- i do think there is potential. >> you're assuming the new guy is the same as the last too. >> you have to at some point yoke i don't think he is out there to bloi up the whole place. i don't have much confidence, but i do believe that. the question is are we ready to settle for a deal that would leave them some nuclear capacity because i think that's the only deal left.

when you look at the chinese, tpp was seen as the answer, how we're going to get everybody else in the region and working against. he said that's not the right thing. hillary clinton wasn't supportive of tpp either where does that leave us >> i was hugely disappointed in both of them i was a huge tpp fan i'm a believer in free trade the thing about tpp, it was a 12 nation trading alliance built on our interest and our values that was directed at taking down about 18,000 tariffs, potential tariffs, on u.s. goods in 12 countries that control 40% of global gdp imagine if trump were sitting across from xi later this week and saying, mr. xi, let me substance abuse you to my allies, okay our block, which you're not in, by the way, controls 40% of global gdp, and it's based on our interests and our values the chiebz understand one thing.

power and leverage they can measure it from 100 paces. i suspect here going to throw some planes at boeing, and they'll increase some shiny objects for trump to point to, but we have a structural problem with china think about it that needs to be fixed >> how do we fix that in light of what you said about north korea and how we need their help >> i supported trump playing hardball on this i really think we have a problem. >> you supported trump playing hardball, but then -- and i did too, but i also understand when he pulls back because we need their help with north korea, i'm more concerned about it. >> i think we should be concerned about it, but i think in the long-term the imbalance with china is a real problem the fact that an american company to be a player there has doco a 50-50 agreement and transfer technology is going to have long run implications

>> tom, thank you. again, tom is with us for the rest of the show we'll talk more about lots of other issues >> yeah. we have a lot still ahead. up next, the market is getting ready to digest another busy week of earnings although it's november now, isn't it >> yeah, i know. 54 days left until the end of the week that's it. >> if your kbaurt ended in september, and you can't get it done in october -- >> what is wrong with you? >> i mean, it's either too complicated or you are something else okay a lot of retailers >> yeah. >> exactly >> anyway, the republican tax reform bill can kevin brady. we'll talk strategy. also after the break he is the gop's main tax guy house weighs and means chair brady will join us at 8:30 eastern time plus, much more on today's top corporate story, broadcom making an unsolicited $105 billion bid for qualcomm ayunl talk to an analyst next. st ted you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc

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>> welcome to "squawk box. broadcom offering to buy qualcomm for $07 a share cash and stock would be the biggest technology deal if it were to go through >> it's clear that they want to buy this company the ceo usually gets what he wants, and we think ultimately they will strike a deal. >> what's a fair price for qualcomm given the overhang that's been on that stock, in part, because of the apple litigation over the licensing and patent technology and everything else that's been going on >> well, i mean, we have run scenarios up to $80 per share, and if at that price it would

still be highlily -- for broadcom to do it. that could be $25 or higher. >> regulators allow a deal like this we've talked a little bit about the fact that broadcom came back to the united states and they're planning to with the blessing of president trump or with the announcement of president trump last week perhaps in part -- i don't mean to say this cynically, but to sort of set the table for a deal like this given that it might be harder if they had to do it as a foreign company. >> yeah. i mean, i this i that the blessing from president trump was important. if you look at the press release today, there's a comment from broadcom saying that they would not -- they wouldn't have gone through with this offer if they weren't confident that their largest customers would embrace the proposed combination they're talking about apple. if altpple is on board, that's important. >> the press -- in the press release, it says it right up

front. we wouldn't make this offer if we weren't confidenture common global customers would embrace the proposed combination you know, they have to be talking about apple. >> it does require a shareholder vote i that i that it goes into effect with the company -- it could go into effect by the middle of next year. >> okay. thank you. we appreciate your perspective on all of this >> thank you >> you bet >> and in the meantime, we want to get back to the broader markets right now. take a quick look at the futures. we were in the red i think we're actually backing now down to the red all over again. dow looks like it would open off by ten points. s&p 500 looking to open off about three points, and the nasdaq egg every oemg off marginally mkm partners rich bernstein advisors, and our

good friend tom friedman a good investor, actually. you do like the markets. i want to know what you think too. i'm with richard where are we on a monday morning where we're seeing transactions where we're seeing -- what do we say? 60 days up >> 50 records. >> there's nothing to diswade us from that statement. still, i mean, if you are thinking about why are there so many new highs, well, profitability around the world is accelerating. there's a ton of liquidity people are generally quite squared. that's what bull markets are all about. that's what's going on >> are you still a buyer right now? >> i would be. look, it's not march of 2009

let's not get drunk, right i think within reason, yes, i think -- i honestly believe that most investors and by that i mean not just individuals, pensions and foundations are still very. >> washington is one of five reasons the bios is higher we are in a deregulatory reversion wrien. during the trump administration, we had over 20,000 regulations in the first ten months of the trump -- during the obama administration, we had 20,000 new rules. 80,000 pages over each of four years of new regulations under the obama administration under the trump administration 50 executive orders. the largest number of executive orders for this part in the first term since the johnson

administration corporations recognize what's going on markets are efficient. a less friendly regulatory environment encourages -- that results in strategy eenlic m&a that's one of the reasons we're seeing some of the transactions. they're not insignificant transactions these are wholesale change of control transactions the better economic environment. we have a better earnings season than we expected okay in addition, you've got an accommodative fed. you've got a tax plan, which is talking about, you know, of all the features, the salient one is a 20% corporate rate why is that important? if you apply a 17, 18 multiple on what used to be a 145.70 earnings number for next year, that takes you north of 150, which takes you to a 2550 and -- s&p charge >> explain this, and i'm curious if you have confidence that a tax -- some type of tax cut or tax reform takes place at least on the corporate side. the reason i ask is for the first part of the year it comes

to m&a, and we're now starting to see really starting to bare some fruit there was a sense it was coming at the end of the year everybody said, no, we have to figure out what is going to figure out what is happening in washington, and now they're going before something is actually happening in washington >> yes >> well, i think everybody is trying to jump the gun here a little bit i think, look, the cut in the corporate tax rate, to say that that's not good for equities, i this think you have to try to be bearish to say that. we could argue, and i think there's a viable argument. does it create jobs the way it's being advertised and everything elts that's a completely different argument to say that shareholders are not going to benefit, i think you have to try to be bearish about that one the multiplier effects are the question i think the notion that it's going to benefit shareholders is what you are seeing right now. the question is what is going to happen down the road what's the multiplier effect is it a short-term or longer term effect? right now the market just cares about the short-term >> proud of you. proud of you

>> why >> i just am because you kind of -- you know -- you're happy about it, and you can't -- you know, you do have to try hard. i know how it kind of kills you, but -- >> it doesn't kill me one bit. >> okay. >> which is good >> yeah. i'm -- hey >> you are agnostic. >> i'm passionate. >> i like this guy this guy is rubbing it all over him. anyway, when we return, my man, we have included commerce secretary will bir ross's response to allegations of the so-called paradise papers. 'lteayterview of the d wel ll you what he said. wel ll you what he said. "squawk box" will be right back. at cognizant, we're turning the industry known for processing claims into one focused on prevention with predictive analytics, helping them proactively protect the things that matter most.

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buying a home... and not being in debt for it for the rest of our lives. but we're only as strong as our community. who inspires and pushes us to go further than we could ever go alone. sofi. get there sooner. >> welcome back to "squawk box" on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with joe kernan and andrew ross sorkin. our guest host is "new york times" columnist tom freed marn. his most recent book, thank you for being late, is out in paper back now we're going to hear more from tom in just a moment among the stories that are front and center this morning, thor topped the weekend box office. the superhero movie came in with 121 million dollars in north

american ticket sales. that is the fourth best launch this year. the only movies this year that did better in their opening weekends were "beauty and the beast" "guardians of the galaxy, volume 2" and stephen king's "it" two long-time chip making rivals are said to be teaming up intel and advanced microdevices are teaming up on a new graphics chip that is designed to compete with offerings from nvidia the average price of gasoline jumped seven cents over the last fwo weeks. that's according to the latest lundburg survey, that puts the average price at $258 a gallon that's also 32 cents above where prices were a year ago >> so friedman >> go ahead. >> over the weekend, how can they have gas selling for $4.58 a gallon on one block and $$3.r0

on another >> hai have no idea i'll go to exxon, and it's sometimes significantly higher i don't want to put a number on it, because i can't say for sure it's a dollar higher than liberty. some independent -- >> you have been working on the middle east and solving those policies for 30 years. >> i'll keep it to please. solar. >> now to today's top -- >> is this -- >> all in the same day wel well. >> once you do get a review, it's like pushing a rock up the

hill now to today's top -- >> you are watching earlier. >> i watch every morning what do you think? >>. >> broadcom making an unsolicited bid for qualcomm i think faber -- this is old, isn't it like so many things that i have rehashed so many times >> what's old is new again yes. >> you're just old, though you're not -- >> you know what there, fellow, it's not for whom the bell tolls. you know what i'm saying >> this is a lot of money. >> yeah.

>> this will get you excited >> it's a big one. it's been a long time since we've seen a hostile that's really what this is, joe, of this kind and this size, and this importance. of course, this morning broad commaking official what we gave details on yesterday and what was reported in part on friday they siepd up for financing, but they have the highly confidents letters to take you way back to another time most importantly, of course, it sets up a real confrontation with qualcomm. that company this morning just says, yeah, we got the letter. son took, of course, will be an expected rejection of this offer. qualcomm expected to do so both on price $70 a share. yes, it's a premium to where the stock price was. as you well know, qualcomm has been depressed in terms of the share price because of the

ongoing nasty fight with apple they say they're simply frying to take advantage of that particular situation, which has pressured the stock price, and then there will be aerpt trust, which one side says is going to be a profound and lengthy review, and the other side says, no, we've spent a lot of time thinking about this. a key point will be whether or not broadcom chooses to file proxies and nominate directors for the march annual meeting of qualcomm at least it's scheduled for march right now.

really they would rather have no deal at all, and certainly not a deal at a far higher price, which may be a possibility because nxp shareholders have higher expectations. >> do you believe apple is supporting this deal as some kind of deal behind the scenes that if they buy them, they'll end this plit relegation, given that sentence and the release that suggests that somehow their partners are on board with this? >> yeah. you got the key -- one of the key points, of course, andrew, as i expected you would. >> there's a belief that they would be constructive. i don't know the answer to your question, andrew, in terms of whether there is truly some sort of an agreement. i doubt that to some extend. at the same time, it does appear to me based on reporting that there have been outreach and there is at least some sense that they will be supportive, that being apple, both on the lawsuit front, but also,

remember, the largest customer. >> tom friedman is here. have you written on ageism >> i have not. there is experience that comes with -- >> this is how i got them through this before, right, this whole thing. it's ep hadful there's actually some benefit to getting old. very little. >> thanks for that joining us, david -- we talked about the memory thing anyway, weighs and means we're going to begin the mark-up today. the republicans stock bill joining us now weighs and means chairman kevin brady and chairman, it's good to see you

you have been forewarned you know who is here friedman is here >> congress would start action, and tom friedman knows we can't compete with that around the world and replacing with a p more pro growth simpler code just the fact that we're starting this here in just a few hours, it tells you how serious we are about this. >> i liked it more before i saw the details on the permanent side of things, mr. chairman >> when it comes to personal, there's hey lot of things that will go away, and some will stick around that bother ple it's not about that. >> everybody shouldn't be hurt,

but why did we keep the whole issue of carried interest in why did that stay in. >> we may change that. in fact, in the original base bill it should have been a longer holding period for carried interest it puts it back to its original intent, which is to reward over long-term holdings, those who put in skin in the game and then work to make the skin in the game better -- that's the approach we're taking. >> i'm sorry i'm confused by that it may change, did you say >> yes >> it's the industrial parks or -- the venture capitalist long-term as well. >> it would also capture all the private equity firms >> so those will continue as long as they're holding these

for longer periods we'll be allowed to continue to use it, yes. >> that are you ready to go -- absolutely go to the mat for the 20%? what about the state and local and getting rid of that? is that -- >> absolutely going to survive >> so what i'm going for, we want to dramatically more pro growth tax code where, one, our companies, whether they're local or global, can compete anywhere in the world, including here at home eliminating the dozens of deductions and exclusions and lobbyist loopholes is about flattening the tax code, making it understandable and fair, and, yeah, we are challenging the status quo here. we are taking out a lot of these provisions because we really dream of the day and the reason yes we talk about this postcard style approach is can you

imagine the tax code where every one of us nsz what each other's deductions are because we use exactly the same one yes, we are proposing to keep mortgage interests, charitable deductions, and the property tax deductions up to $10,000 we are eliminating the income tax deduction and using those taxes tax on all americans it is an improvement on the horrible code we have today. >> i support tax reform, but i would like to see revenue neutral tax reform the fact that we're raising the prospect of a $1.5 trillion addition to the national debt over the next decade at a time, you know, in twailt your caucus did not support any deaf stit spending to bail us outs now we're at the time when our economy is incredibly hot. we're talking on probably more debt possibly throwing out our spare tire and our bumper in the event

that some event hams that we're going to need it how do you justify that switch >> well, what i do know is while our economy has improved recently, economists still predict, you know, 2% and in some cases sub-2% growth for the next decade. i think the way you keep -- you want to keep really high deficits and more debt just keep the economy the way it is stick with the status quo. i guarantee you we'll pile on more debts we're taking a different approach we know tax reform done right can grow the economy in a big way, but that alone won't get us back to just what you said, getting us back to a balanced budget you have to eliminate dozens if not hundreds of provisions out of the code to lower the rates and move us backing to a balanced budget. growth alone, i acknowledge, won't get us back there. eliminating a lot of these so we can lower the rates and move forward. you have to do both. >> chairman, if the goal is to grow the economy, if the goal is to create jobs, and the goal is not to add debt to the extent

that you can avoid it, how do you think about the staes tax, that is worth several hundred billions dollars over the next ten kbreerz, and how do you justify the pass-through approach which also is going to really be helping people at the top end, not the lowest end? >> i respectfully disagree on both the estate tax isn't paid by the super wealthy. that is pat snook, who is a farmer in livingston, texas, who she's on her third death tax loan from the bank just to keep her own family farm. this is double and triple taxati taxation it creates 140,000 new jobs here in america i think it is the worst tax provision in the code. it is time for it to go, and on the small businesses in the past, as you know, small businesses were left behind. all the rate cuts were on the

corporate side we know since the ratings reform -- reagan reforms, most of our businesses are classified as pass through. we're not leaving them behind. >> thanks. we know you got to run we always appreciate you coming on "squawk box." we'll see you again soon, hopefully. >> thank you >> you bet >> coming up next, we're going to get back to our guest host tom friedman a lot to talk to him about the alleged shake-up and other news that is just crossing the wire reuters now reporting that banks in saudi arabia have begun freezing accounts of those in the anti-corruption probe. wl obin that when we return energy is changing fast and we're changing with it. building a smarter grid, investing in new technologies, that's aep's road to the future. and the international brotherhood

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>> when we return, west coast cramer, jim cramer will join us live from san francisco next here's the futures as they're trading right now indicated mostly flat. a little bit of red ink there. down two points on the dow jones and s&p. we'll be rightac bk.

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wow, i really -- cramer is here let's get over to cnbc, jim cramer joins us now. i really think your ship might be coming in i can't believe it but i think it's happening is it? >> yeah, look, we're 8-1 and we look so great yesterday against an allegedly good defense. even tom freedman probably realizes we could go to the super bowl

i don't know >> i'm a vikings guy >> are you really? >> oh, my god, well good the super bowl is in minnesota you can join us. >> the redskins game next sunday. >> yeah. >> it will be the only one in fedex field rooting for the vikings. >> stay away from my -- >> i like the vikings, good defense. >> 2004, i forgot about this the eagles made it but they have never won, have they >> no, we never won the super bowl we won the championship before the afc and nfc in 1960. >> god almighty, can't believe it thanks jim no -- qualcomm >> i'm not as negative about the idea -- i think this could occur. i know that steve mullen kof who rather have his own company blown up before doing the deal there are board of directors and

independent directors. i'm not ruling it out and stocks are not ruling it out. broadcom in particular would be down today i'm not as negative as many others. >> 1980, dick vermeil beat the cowboys for the championship but then lost to the raiders in -- >> raiders, that was heartbreaking. then when i went down to jacksonville to see us lose to the patriots one of the many teams to lose to the patriots. >> you've been here the whole time >> my father and i season tickets for a long, long time. >> you deserve it. >> have fun today. we'll be watching. >> thank you very much >> up next we'll wrap up a special hour with our guest host and vikings phantom freedman stay tuned you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc of th

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our guest host this morning, tom freedman, most recent book is out in paperback now, maybe we'll have a couple of minutes at the end but while i have you here, the story of the day is this what's happening in the middle east in saudi arabia and i'm wondering during andrew's interview, prince al-waleed said

this is our version of the arab spring, which would be -- for ruling class in these countries, they wish this would be the way it works will they accomplish it with these social reforms i don't understand a year from now where prince al-waleed is? will he be back doing what he's doing? or is this -- >> joe, we're in a place we've never been before with saudi arabia, never seen this much radical reform by a 32-year-old member of one family all at once the other thing going on, he's pursuing an incredible aggressive regional policy to confront iran. we saw the prime minister of lebanon, hairri resign his post from saudi arabia, a dual citizen. what happens to the future of lebanon in all of this, the balance there between saudi arabia and iran and balance inside syria and the houthis the

iranian back ehouthis from yemen launch a rocket. to manage all of these balls at ones is what worries me. >> the lebanese prime minister resigned because he was afraid for his life his father was assassinated? >> i think he was told to resign i think even the statement he read was written by saudis in the saudi dialect and hezbollah was projecting too much power and i go back to -- there's one fundamental truth. the only peace process -- the peace process we need in the middle east is between iran and saudi arabia and goes back to how the lebanese civil war was resolved in 1989. it was on the basis of what was called the agreement and no victor, no van gish. if the iranians think they can control the arab world alone, they are fools if the saudis think they can

push back the iranians and not have their influence anywhere, they are fools until they come together, the whole region will be destabilized. >> nbs have the unequivocal backing of the military? >> the defense minister controls the military. >> never be any chance they are not on board with this >> i don't think so. >> head of the former national guard. >> and these decisions final. >> he's eliminated all rival power centers. >> want to switch gears we have two minutes and you had an interesting take on what's happening in the u.s. economy and you mention in your book. >> i think in addition to all things we were talking about, deregulation and tax reform, i think something is going on in the world of business. five things have come together with the combination of ai and big data every company now can analyze, that is, they can find needles in the haystack through the data, as the norm, not the extension. they can optimism.

i took a flight across the country on an airline that i'm sure was being told by ge what altitude to fly to get the best efficiency out of engines. >> both planes >> you've seen ibm -- >> you've seen ibm here to fix the elevator it will be in six weeks. so they can predict maintenance analytics and customize just for you someone a brown eye and blue eye. every company can do that and must do that and those five things are cursing through every company in the economy. >> that's staying relevant. >> that's right. what i said, whatever can be done will be done, will it be done by you or to you? every company staying relevant is doing those fives things, it's a secret hidden driver of the whole economy. >> tom, we love having you here.

please come back soon. >> next time, the golf not the persian gulf, okay >> fair enough >> keep us updated on your travels too. >> will do >> thank you. >> you're going to shoot your age. >> i'm getting there but i'm a little ways away. >> just an age. >> tom friedman, always great to see you. >> make sure you join us tomorrow right now it's time for "squawk on the street. >> good monday morning, welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla, jim cramer is at one market in san francisco for the dream force conference this week a lot to get to with jim president in tokyo and ways and means begins the markup, 45 more s&p earnings this week yield curve is the flattest in a decade today oil is at a two-year high on this political turmoil i