live from new york where business never sleeps, this is "squawk box." good morning well co welcome to "squawk box." i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. we will start with the markets february was a pretty tough month for stocks the dow and s&p 500 both snapping ten months straight of gains. leading into this month had been the longest winning streak since 1959 for the month of february, the dow was down by more than 4% the s&p dropped by 3.9%. the nasdaq was down by just under 2% a lot of that exacerbated by losses that picked up yesterday afternoon. yesterday the dow was down by 1.5% decline of 380 points. s&p off by 1.1%. nasdaq down by three quarters of a percent.

this morning in the first trading day of march, for the early hours, a mixed picture dow indicated down by 51 points. s&p off by 4 the nasdaq is in positive territory, up by 2 points. overnight in asia, you can see the nikkei was down by 1.5%. stocks were positive the hang seng up by 0.6% the shanghai up by close to half a percent. in europe where there is already some early trading that's taking place, you can see there are some pressure points the dax off by 1.4%. the cac down by 1% the ftse off by a half percent a quick look at treasury yields. sorry. ten-year sitting at 2.842% >> okay. a couple of headlines to talk about this morning a developing story in the cryptocurrency market. the "wall street journal" reporting federal regulators launched a -- sor wry we're havn

our own joke here. the "wall street journal" saying the s.e.c. handed down dozens of subpoenas to dozens of tech companies and others involved in the digital currency market. those subpoenas reportedly include requests for structuring of icos. >> it's known as that, icos? >> yeah. >> oh, my go >> that's what they're called. >> a hot ico market. >> best buy planning to close all 250 of its small format mobile phone stores. the stores are almost exclusively located within shopping malls we'll hear more about that decision when best buy reports fourth quarter results later this morning that release will be at 7:00 a.m. big news in the music world. spotify announcing plans to go public the music streaming service

filed for direct listing of shares on the new york stock exchange they will be able to list existing shares without capital and won't need a wall street bank or broker to underwrite the offer. walmart is raising the minimum age to buy a gun to 21 the company said it reviewed the gun sales policy after the shooting in parkland, florida. walmart already stopped selling assault weapons back in 2015 the company will also remove items from its website that look like assault rivals including toys and non-lethal air soft guns yesterday president trump called for comprehensive gun control legislation including expanding background checks, keeping guns from mentally ill people, securing schools, and restricting gun sales for some young adults he suggested that lawmakers have

a discussion befoabout a possibe ban on assault weapons he said something to senator feinstein who is having rer own issues out in california she's not left enough for the party at this point. there's a piece in the "journal" about that it's so bifurcated that even feinstein -- the bernie sanders wing is so powerful she can even necessarily count on being able to run there he said maybe we'll include your stuff, which is the ban on assault weapons. becky and i were talking before the show trump says things a lot of times that we all sort of feel but we realize it's probably not practical. like running into the school without a weapon if we were there, we'd all want to do that probably to try to do something, but when you think about it, are you going in there with -- now he says in terms of taking guns from people you go

ahead and take them first, then go to the court second you understand why he's saying that with this shooter down in florida, by the time the courts decide that you have a case in due process to take his gun, he's already done the crime. so you would like to take them first and go through the due process. but it's not practical to do tha that >> you're afraid of the nra he said >> the huffington post, warnings come true. a president wants to unilaterally disarm americans. so they nail him for doing something they probably wanted to do. later, another article, like immigration, he won't follow through. >> two things. first, i give him credit -- >> give trump credit

>> for taking a stand. >> taking on the nra >> you sometimes think this is one side of the aisle or the other. i think this is actually a good first step the other thing i will say is i would make the argument the market in a way moved on this before washington did and actually created -- but created this environment where he could actually do this when an airline moves to ticket airline passengers, that's not gun control. >> what walmart is doing -- >> i know, going to 21 >> it's about the public sentiment. we often talk -- normally we would say the market may be for efficient than congress. the market may move. the good news in this whole situation is the market was able to act and give an allowance for

people who may not have been there. the president wasn't there a week ago >> the canary in the coal mine analogy for ceos they will be the most sensitive of all -- you know, instead of thinking they're socially responsible. all they are is petrified because their customer -- >> sure. >> walmart, think of all the rednecks that are mad at walmart now. but on the other hand, if they also have these people worried about their kids going to school what does a ceo do >> but that suggests if they're making it -- >> they're trying to do both >> even if you want to say it's not socially sporesponsible, it just a business decision which is how a lot of these folks should approach it, a business decision, it suggests their reading of the tea leaves is such that they believe the market has moved that line >> but with the business

decisions you're going to -- there's going to be -- net-net you don't know how is the business decision for delta if they lose tax breaks in georgia? was that a good move because customers like it? a bad move because the whole georgia legislature -- >> the new york governor said he could move here. >> you could see boycotts on both sides >> it's the first time you're seeing challenges to the powerful nra >> i've been talking to a lot -- >> the nra is only powerful because so much of the public supports the nra >> the -- i've been doing a lot of reporting about what blackrock may or may not do in terms of what their role can be in this. >> that's not average company. >> by the way, between blackrock and state street which also has come out in favor -- >> i wouldn't use blackrock.

>> they own 30%, 40% of these companies. their view is from a business perspective, not what is socially responsible necessarily in the grand scheme of it, they're saying they may go into these companies and say we think long-term because of the regulatory environment or because of customer sentiment, we think you need to be more progressive about making smart guns implementing voluntary screening for those at a higher threshold. >> could you use a different word other than progressive? that's so loaded >> if they were to do that, that would be better for their business long-term by the way, you could make the argument maybe it wouldn't be better >> if you can do the fingerprint -- >> i've always thought that technology could solve a lot of these problems >> right >> but it's interesting. >> nikolas cruz's guns would

have had his fingerprints. that wiouldn't have helped. >> when you think about the 11,000 suicides that take place every year with handguns, if you could reduce that number by one, i would take that. >> let's get to some other news out of washington today. the white house announcing late yesterday that hope hicks is leaving her post as communications director. eamon javers has the details >> reporter: good morning. another dramatic and emotional day at the white house yesterday with the departure of hope hicks. the "new york times" breaking the story late in the afternoon. there were emotional scenes yesterday of staffers hugging each other, stunned by the news. hope hicks is seen as somebody as close to the president as anybody, including members of his family one of the originals from the campaign days still working in

the white house. here's what the house is saying about this they're saying that hicks tendered her resignation to president trump on wednesday morning, and the departure has nothing to do with the eight or nine-hour testimony she gave on capitol hill she said the resignation has been in the works for weeks, and that hicks was considering leaving several weeks ago and waited until some developments occurred in the white house and thinks this is the right time. that the president was not unhappy with her hope hicks saying there are no words to adequately express my gratitude to president trump i wish the president and his administration the very best as he continues to lead our country. hope hicks was the communications director in the white house. she was the fourth person to hold that title in a year's time the mooch in there for just 11

days hope hicks came in to stabilize that communications department last summer and has been there since. her role was more than a communications director. she was sort of an emotional sounding board, legislative souning boasoun i sounding board for the president of the united states >> we have to go quickly i have a couple things to get your input on. on another network that sometimes has actually news that actually turns out to be true, but i don't always trust everything, they were saying that the president berated hope hicks for coming to the white lies is that true have you heard scuttlebutt that that's part of the equation? >> i don't know that hope hicks was front and center in the rob porter scandal. she was dating rob porter and involved in drafting the statements around him.

>> you don't know if the white lies made president trump really angry that she -- i saw that it said president trump berated her. i don't know you don't know >> i don't have reporting on that i can tell you hope hicks has been deeply emotionally invested in the white house at the height of the rob porter thing last month i saw her in tears in the west wing responding to the stress of being the focal point of that scandal. this has been a tough ride for her. >> the spin from the white house that this was longcoming was in overdrive, it's that washington was hell, she wanted to get out for a long time. it got worse more recently all that stuff has gotten worse. here's my other question i watched yesterday, someone leaked, i think to our parent, that mueller's asking a lot of questions about julian assange,

wikileaks, roger stone, what did president trump know about the podesta e-mails. when he said that, when he asked russia to fine the 30,000 -- did he know in a vance someone from mueller leaked to nbc that this was an area of interest does that mean mueller knows something? is this fishing or is there some evidence i start ed watching the market then if there is fire where this smoke is, that there was pre-existing knowledge about that or coordination about when to release them -- that's what it was implying. then i watched the market go down 400 points. i don't flknow if it was correlated that would be serious if that turned out to be true. >> let me unpack that. so, for that report to come out, it doesn't necessarily have to

be a leak from hul mueller's ofe it could be a conversation from one of the people interviewed by mueller's office they say here's what he was asking me. it doesn't mean mueller knows something specific if he's asking those general questions those are the obvious questions since the campaign of 2016, when the president stood up and said russia, if you're listening, i would like those e-mails >> that seemed like a joke >> the campaign said it was a joke >> that's what it seemed like. >> but the question is that plus the podesta hack and the dnc hack, the question has always been did the trump campaign know anything about any of that in advance? that's why mueller's office was created. it's natural and expected that he would be asking those questions. doesn't indicate he knows anything but he's trying to find out. >> wild yesterday. you saw the pictures of sessions and rosenstein

having dinner last night being seen as sending a message. that was a dramatic moment when the president called his own attorney because he wasn't aggressive enough in this fisa matter the president wants to direct investigations of the department of justice in a political way and is frustrated his attorney general won't. then a remarkable statement from jeff sessions saying he will pursue all of his activities with integrity and honor by implication suggesting that the president doesn't want him to have integrity and honor. a dramatic standoff. at the same time his closest aid is leaving the mueller investigation is firing >> president trump wants his own version of an eric holder. a wing man

you described eric holder. thanks >> you bet >> let's talk about the markets now as we enter a new month. it seems like february was even shorter than other months. >> amazing it must have been because there was so much happening, right >> doesn't it seem like there were fewer days? >> fewer days, fewer nights. >> here with us is ed keon new chief investment strategist at qma new? >> just recently >> how recent? >> just putting a name on what i've done for a long time. >> was there more money involved >> no, not really. >> not really? >> no. no. >> some? >> just something that evolved >> prestige? corner office? anything >> i'm just hoping they'll play hail to the chief when i walk in the room hoping for that. >> and ben axler from spruce

point capital management let's start with you, ben. up 750 points on friday and monday down 600 plus, almost 700. this is on tuesday is this the new normal at this point? >> we think it is. clearly we've been in a low interest rate environment for a long period of time. rates normalizing. and investors need to get accommodated to the new market nov norm volatility is back investors are becoming more discrimina discriminating they need to play defense and make sure they understand what they own at evaluations. if you are a short-term or intermediate term, the minute you think this correction is over, we've almost made it all back, now we're back to thinking maybe the lows are not in. maybe we have to retest them who does the head fakes?

is it algos or the smart money or the market itself that shakes your confidence and whatever you believe on any given day >> it's a deep research question who is buying. passive index money, pensions that need to put capital to work we're very forensic fundamentally focused in our investment approach. so we look specifically at the companies, at the quality of the earnings we're less focused on the day-to-day gyrations of the market positions less relevant to what we're doing on a day-to-day basis. it's concerning that volatility is picking up. the fundamentals are slow to catch up with share prices >> ed, it looks like it's correlated to the bond market. inversely correlated to yields, correlated with yields going up a couple ticks, markets come down markets go down, yields go up. is it that simple?

>> i think it's a lot to do about the fed. this is a normal year. this is the way the storm normally behaves if you had gone away on new year's eve and come back, you would say up 2%, right in line with our 10% expectation for the year this is what the stock market looks like the fear is because we're in ce fed will go too far. we're watching productivity closely. that's the key to containing inflation. >> how would we have better-than-expected productivity is that on the shoulders of corporations to make long-term investments? >> yes there's four factors that kept productivity town. there's some chance those will start to turn from headwinds to tailwinds. the first is capital deepening we already saw a tick up in

capital spending it's reasonable to expect more of that with the new tax law the others are demographics, which had been a headwind, which might turn into a tailwind over the next couple of years >> you said 10%. that's what you're looking for by the end of the year the zn s s&p 500 is where >> line with organic growth. >> multiple stays where it is. >> multiple probably stays where it is. certainly at risk of contraction, but comes down to knowing what you own, being comfortable with what you own at current levels >> jentgentlemen, thanks. qma's chief head honcho top bana banana, right? >> when we return, the land grab for sky. comcast battling fox to buy the

british broadcaster, to say nothing of where bob iger is in the middle of this don't rule out a bid from disney itself we'll sort out the buyers after the break. still to come, underarmer ceo kevin plank sounding off on "mad money" last night >> are you focussed from there's nothing, no place i would rather be than right here right now at this moment >> we'll tell you how analysts are reacting to hicoens mmts, and what the fourth quarter comeback was the real deal or a false start. at fidelity, trades are now just $4.95.

we cut the price of trades to give investors even more value. and at $4.95, you can trade with a clear advantage. fidelity, where smarter investors will always be.

this week comcast announcing plans to outbid fox for british broadcaster sky. last night steve burke outlined the strategy behind the bid. sky is a great business in its own right. it has a very, very large market share in the uk, a good business in italy and germany we also think that the combination of sky and comcast, nbc universal is interesting in some ways we look at sky the same way as we look at nbc universal. we have proven that content and distribution can work well

togethe together >> so we've all been trying to game out what will happen here >> right >> let's start with the basics are you a fan of this deal for comcast? does it make sense to you? >> i think it does you can look at the strategic justification in terms of scale which has been talked about a lot and also international diversification. comcast would go from about 9% of rev fews from international markets to about a quarter, which would put it close to where its peers are. the u.s.media market is facing competition from tredirect to consumer platform. >> steve compared this type of transaction to the purchase of nbc universal. the distinction i would contend is that there is two pieces to sky. one is the satellite business. the other is the content

business there have been questions about both is the content business more attractive then the satellite business >> i think sky this year will spend almost $9 billion in content. we see a company very unique, well positioned in the market. that's what i think is part of the attraction here. this is not coincidence that they signed their premiere league extension a couple weeks ago at a 14% discount for the next three years when the sports rights are escalating. prior to that they renewed at a 73% premium. so i think sky shareholders are wanting some of that action. sky is a force in content and over the top >> where does this all go? do you think rupert murdoch makes a move and says i can't let this go, how much -- >> may not be his call

>> and how much influence does bob iger have on the decision? >> all of a sudden it's become more complicated four-way dance. it's clear the proposal that fox had from december of 2016 is a nonstarter now you got a situation where the set of shareholders in sky are agitating for a higher premium. comcast swoops in, 16% premium over the original offer that fox had on the table, we think a bidding war could erupt. as far as disney, investors can breathe easy i would not rule out disney could make a play for sky alone. >> separately. >> separately, which would complicate the whole scenario. >> is there some situation where these players who are not very friendly at the moment could get together and say you take this, i'll take that, we'll all walk away with something? >> that's an ideal scenario. i don't see that happening

because i think what i'm seeing now is a winner take all, zero sum mentality. so you got a set of assets that have already been carved out as part of the disney proposal for fox, so i think you kind of -- when you get into crowding out and seeing this person taking this and that, it raises valuation complications. >> real quick on valuation if you look at the stock prices, what has taken place with comcast, sky, 21st century fox and disney, how do you see it? do you look at comcast which is now at 36.55, is that a fair price? investors have given it a bhit of a hard time, i think there's some questions that relate to it sky has moved up materially. that requires everybody to bid higher, then what happened to walt disney and 21st century fox. >> we have strong buy on disney and buy recommendations on comcast and fox.

not because it's your parent company but it's hard to conceive a scenario where -- no matter what happens each of these companies, comcast and disney are well positioned in this landscape our recommendation on comcast is not dependent on whether they're able to pull off that transaction or not there's also the at&t time warner scenario, the litigation is starting this month so i think the outcome of that litigation could potentially create a regulatory scenario where we think comcast could make a run for assets for fox which they had only been spurned. >> if they do that, do they drop the bid for sky? they can just pick off the 40%, or do they do both >> i think they could potentially -- remember, the deal disney has includes sky >> right >> they could drop that and bid for the entire asset >> you think iger is a disciplined acquirer

remember when he bought pixar, people thought he was out of his mind at the time it seems like he's crazy. but in hind sigsight they were right moves. what about become close to the end of his ten year. how does that play out with these legacy moves >> i think he wants to leave a bold imprint >> this could be a big bidding deal >> it's pixar, lucas film. investors can agree all of those transactions have been home runs >> but before he did it, it's like are you nuts for doing that >> that's right. hypedsight hindsight is always 20/20. >> when we come back, under armour is coming off a brutal year of 2017, the stock bouncing back more than 25% in the last three months what the ceo, kevin plank, told

jim cramer last night about his focus and we will talk to o twan lists w s analysts who disagh the company's future ♪ ♪ run your business at cloud speed. and do more with systems you have in place. the ibm cloud.

the cloud for smarter business. the ibm cloud. whilnothing comparesnary modeto the real thing.d... experience the command performance sales event for yourself, now through april 2. experience amazing at your lexus dealer.

sometimes, they just drop in. obvious. cme group can help you navigate risks and capture opportunities. we enable you to reach global markets and drive forward with broader possibilities. cme group - how the world advances. ♪

welcome back you're watching "squawk box" live from the nasdaq market site in times square. good morning welcome back to "squawk box" on cnbc look at u.s. equity futures at this hour. we'll show you what's going on ahead of the market open the dow is off about 56 points nasdaq down about 5 points s&p down about 5 points as well. under armour's ceo speaking out after the company's rough

year here's what he told jim cramer on on "mad money" last night. >> i want my team to feel we have the balance of our plan the strategy we put in place let them take root let us become excellent and become that loud brand and that quiet company that knows how to run. you'll watch a successful company. it just takes time >> look me in the eye, are you the focused kevin plank? are you focused? >> nothing and no place i would rather be than right now at this moment joining us is sam poser, and also eric tracy. sam has a sell rating on under armour and eric is neutral on the stock. let's talk about the performance

last night and what you thought. eric, what did you think about what he had to say and what do you think the prospects are this year >> yeah. i think kevin demonstrated what we believe is a return on management's part to really focusing on operational execution. this has been a hyper growth company for many years that masked operational inefficiencies in the business that got exposed last year i think what he was trying to convey is a much more focused management team that is looking to stabilize revenues over the near-term, but really get into the execution side of the business and drive improved profitability over time. >> sam, how about you. you're more pessimistic on the outlook. >> i agree with the intent of the comments by kevin last night, but from an operational perspective, they do need to

improve. i believe they're working the right direction, part of that is also protecting this house as they put it. when you moved too quickly into moderate distribution and trying to build the brand at the lower end because higher-end retailers have gone away, that's a difficult nut to crack >> you're talking about under armour going into sale with kohl's -- >> some other moderate companies. >> so what happened? once you're in that, those distribution channels what does that do to the brand >> they went in there without a segmented product assortment the product there is that it's hard to evolve your way out of that while transition and making retailers like dick's or model

modell's >> what does the segment line look like? >> you have to understand the product you're getting at kohl's is different than the product you're getting at dick's >> la to has to be a lesser proa kohl's and higher-end at dick's? >> a few years ago they started charge cotton, that's still around but it's not at the forefront of the underarmor business these days. so give charged cotton to the moderate channel, so then there's a delineation. but they don't have the breadth of other companies so adidas does not go near kohl's the shoes may look similar but the branding is distinctive and the consumer understands that.

>> when you're david and goliath with nike and little david, you can do double, triple, you can grow quickly once you're on nike's radar, this got much harder for under armour in the last year and a half plank always said we went through the financial crisis, none of that stuff affects us. we want to win every day so they go great through the financial crisis, now growth is picking up around the world and they're floundering now. it's weird they pretechrend they capretecn do it in any climate >> yes, because you lost sports authority, you lost gander mountain you lost major accounts. to continue to be a growth company they sacrifice to some degree the brand for sales or

for -- >> nike is too big to grow, i would think. but it's not, is it? they're doing much better than under armour, even at their size >> yeah. we had the chance to host investors out to nike headquarters to meet with management they are as pushing forward on accelerating their innovation pipeline as i've seen in my pen plus years of covering them. so that's both a potential positive and negative. in the case of the positive, it actually gets back to a performance-led market which is what under armour's ethos is on the flip side you have a more focused larger come testimony ponyy focused larger come testimony ponyy competitor to go against again the squeeze on the quarter, shares up 25%, the near-term risk reward, we're more constructive longer term we need a pull back in the

shares or better visibility that the initiatives are gaining traction to get more constructive >> eric, thank you very much sam, i think it takes more than that for you >> that's fair >> where do you think it ends up when would you turn neutral? >> they have to realize the depth of the issues before they can fix them i don't think they're there yet. >> thanks for coming in. >> 12 steps, you have to realize the problem. i was going to say that. >> realizing the problem is number one coming up a big day for retail reports expecting best buy and kohl's at the top of the hour. then jim paulsen will join us, julling us why he expects more adstments in this bull market. you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc oh yeah. no.

at cognizant, we're helping today's leading manufacturers make things that think and do automatically. imagine that, a world of new digital products and services all working together for you. can i borrow the car when it's back? get ready, because we're helping leading companies see it- and see it through-with digital. i'm the one clocking in when you're clocking out. sensing and automatically adjusting to your every move. does your bed do that? i'm the new sleep number 360 smart bed. let's meet at a sleep number store.

we all want to know you know, the new, new thing. with xfinity's retail stores, you can now see the latest. want to test drive the latest devices? be our guest. want to save on mobile? just ask. want to demo the latest innovations and technology? do it here. come see how we're making things simple, easy, and awesome. plus come in today and ask about xfinity mobile, a new kind of network designed to save you money. visit your local xfinity store today. we'll start with some stocks to watch this morning look at salesforce profits beating forecasts on strength in the cloud business also raising full-year guidance. an interview with jim cramer

marc benioff said the company signed more than million dollar contracts than ever before straight up seven figure deals and box reporting a narrower loss in the latest quarter revenue rose 24%, in line with estimates. the cloud storage company forecasting current quarter revenue below wall street estimates, coming ahead slowing growth of paid customers people watching that because of the potential drop box ipo soon. shares of monster beverage in the red today the energy drink maker reporting higher earnings and revenue. both numbers missed forecasts. when we come back, auto sales figures coming out late their morning. we'll tell you which stocks could be poised for a pop.

still to come, earnings alert. retailers best buy and kohl's set to report. we'll tell you how they performed in the crucial holiday quarter and bring you instan et reaction. "squawk box" will be right back. stay with me, mr. parker. when a critical patient is far from the hospital, the hospital must come to the patient. stay with me, mr. parker. the at&t network is helping first responders connect with medical teams in near real time... stay with me, mr. parker. ...saving time when it matters most. stay with me, mrs. parker. that's the power of and. when it comes to travel, i sweat the details. late checkout... ...down-alternative pillows... ...and of course, price.

tripadvisor helps you book a... ...hotel without breaking a sweat. because we now instantly... ...search over 200 booking sites ...to find you the lowest price... ...on the hotel you want. don't sweat your booking. tripadvisor. the latest reviews. the lowest prices. like you do sometimes, grandpa? and puffed... well, when you have copd, it can be hard to breathe.

it can be hard to get air out, which can make it hard to get air in. so i talked to my doctor. she said... symbicort could help you breathe better, starting within 5 minutes. symbicort doesn't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. symbicort helps provide significant improvement of your lung function. symbicort is for copd, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. it should not be taken more than twice a day. symbicort contains formoterol. medicines like formoterol increase the risk of death from asthma problems. symbicort may increase your risk of lung infections, osteoporosis, and some eye problems. you should tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. symbicort could mean a day with better breathing. watch out, piggies! get symbicort free for up to one year. visit saveonsymbicort.com today to learn more. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help.

>> joining us for a look at greet to expect, michelle krebs, analyst for auto trader. i was wondering, i was going to stop right there, but if you weren't around, phil, i was going to say, why and try to do this without le beau michelle, make sure everything you say is accurate, le beau will be listening. greet are we expecting >> well, we're expecting a lower month, we're expecting sales 4% off from last year that would result in a 16.7 million seasonably adjusted rate, off from last year >> but still at that pretty good levels, though >> yeah. >> whenever we have mike jackson on, that's what we hear, phil,

yeah >> relative to where we see auto sales, this is a decent month. don't get excited one way or another, it is the lowest value of the year. 1 16.7 sure, it's down from there, 16.7 is still fairly strong, relatively strong for this industry i don't think anybody will get too worked up one way or another about these february numbers >> so in terms of the dynamics within the industry right now, greet is it characterized by other three things, michelle, you can tell us in terms of i don't know ford versus gm, versus trucks, suvs, incentives, greet is happening versus pre-owned what's the state of the industry >> first of all, you nailed it, trucks are big this is a big truck year everybody is introducing new

trucks we're seeing a continued shift of the consumer prevg sport utility vehicles, crossovers, over traditional sedans. and incentives, of course, they're a little more aggressive than we anticipated at this point because the pie is shrinking. we're in an off peak era so everybody is vying for a piece of the pie we're seeing a lot of incentives around, trying to keep loyal commerce as well as conquesting the competitors. >> phil, anything you notice here as -- i mean, what's the average age of a car >> it's still pretty old overall, for the united states, it's old it's over 11 years we've just about hit the peek, we might see a trend a little bit lower. not a lot over the next several years. we're also, one interesting thing. i know michelle and i talked about this in the past we're at a point here, where a lot of people have leased or bought a new vehicle over the

last three, four, five years, few go back and look at a vehicle from five years ago, you drive that vehicle, you will realize it does not have a lot of the connectivity the features that people are used to. it brings up the question, are we starting to see the auto industry increasingly move more towards that smartphone mad el where at some point you have an iphone, android, another phone from five years ago, people look at you, man, get together with the times, that is completely outdated. >> we have, my husband drives a ford, one of the big suvs. he got a note to upgrade from one of these dealership, he said, hey, can you pay $1400 a month to get the new one is is that greet people are pay something. >> people are willing to pay that i've had friends gone out and looked for a new modem they readily admitted, i probably don't need a new one,

the one i'm driving, the 2015, 2014 modem it's 99, it does a new job i would like these new features and connectivity that is one way you are seeing the ought makers and dealers drive a higher price point they're able to say to somebody, look, you probably can get by with greet you are driving, but this is greet you are looking for. >> all righty. i guess i'm not going to ask you about whether electric cars, are they surging how's the percentage of electric cars and hybrids are they going up at all, michelle or are people leak, eh, gas is cheap, why do i need that for? >> electrics have risen, but they're still such a tiny part of the market. we have had some new models the chevy bolt has given the egmen a boost, but this last year, it was still 0.6% of the market

so it's still a very tiny part of the market. we talk about it a lit >> i know, you would are you geared up for flying taxis and drones and stuff >> i'm not there yet >> get your expense sheets ready. lebeau is. >> yes >> you will talk to you, right, phil >> if i'm in one of those in the next two years, i will be stunned. >> but the self driving you might be >> oh, self driving vehicles, cars, yes, absolutely him not completely self driving. we're a long ways from that. >> i'm not ready to be more than like a foot off, i'm afraid in a truck that's up high with the shocks, that scares me i'm not going up to 30 feet. thank you. >> thank you coming up, when we return, earnings on deck, we can get results from retailers, best buy and kohl's, the numbers state

ahead. nah. not gonna happen. that's it. i'm calling kohler about their walk-in bath. my name is ken. how may i help you? hi, i'm calling about kohler's walk-in bath. excellent! happy to help. huh? hold one moment please... [ finger snaps ] hmm. the kohler walk-in bath features an extra-wide opening and a low step-in at three inches, which is 25 to 60% lower

than some leading competitors. the bath fills and drains quickly, while the heated seat soothes your back, neck and shoulders. kohler is an expert in bathing, so you can count on a deep soaking experience. are you seeing this? the kohler walk-in bath comes with fully adjustable hydrotherapy jets and our exclusive bubblemassage. everything is installed in as littles a day by a kohler-certified installer. and it's made by kohler- america's leading plumbing brand. we need this bath. yes. yes you do. a kohler walk-in bath provides independence with peace of mind. call for a free kohler nightlight toilet seat with consultation or visit kohlerwalkinbath.com for more info.

breaking overnight, wal-mart is raising the age for gun sales, becoming the latest retailer to enact tougher restrictions following the mass school shooting. new this morning, russian president vladimir putin unveiling nuclear capable weapons that he claims render defenses useless plus, march coming in like a lion as the dow snaps its longest running winning streak in 59 years. the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now live from the beating heart of business, new york city, this is "squawk box." good morning, welcome back to "squawk box" right here on cnbc

we are live at the nasdaq. take a look at u.s. equity features at this hour. the dow looking like it would open off if triple digits at this point about 121 points down. fax 21 points off. s&p 500 down about 11 points we will talk about why that may be the case in just a moment right now, fed chairman jerome powell back on capitol hill this morning. he will be giving testimony on the economy, monetary policy to the senate banking committee you will recall the market sold off after his appearance before, a house panel on tuesday when his upbeat comments sparked fears of a faster pace of interest rate hikes the good news is bad news, music streaming service potfy is filing to go public. it will be trading under the stock ticker spot. >> that could happen before the end of march spotify is a direct listing, which means there will be no new shares offered at all. they will float existing shares,

let the market determine the price. >> that means there is no under writer, no bank, it's a pretty interesting way to approach it it is the busiest day. in 90 minutes, we will be getting january personal income and spending and at 10:00 watch for the ism manufacturing index in construction spending numbers will be out. u.s. auto makers will be releasing february sales physicals throughout the morning as well, which we will bring you as we get them best buy results crossing fourth quarter earnings of $4.42 compared to a consensus estimate of $2.54 best buy also announced 32% dividend hike to 45 cents a share. companies are doing well in spite of not returning my calls, andrew >> maybe because of. >> yes, because of. >> to try to get the geek skwa you had to come. i called the headquarters,

everywhere, i keep saying to the people that answer phone, don't you know who i am? >> yeah. >> i use that line >> greet do they say >> it works out well >> they say no, no, we have no idea who you are no one is going to call you back ever. >> and they were right >> what's the problem? >> i need -- i'm going to do a full makeover of our gaming capabilities >> i see >> video gaming. >> video gaming capabilities for my son you know, we don't have a good handle on the social part of where you can actually be interacting. >> play games with people. yeah. >> which is good yes. >> 9% comps. all right. in corporate news this morning, wal-mart is raising the minimum age to buy a gun in its stores to 21-years-old the company says that it reviewed its gun sales policy after the school shooting in parkland, florida wal-mart, which is the nation's

biggest gun seller already sold assault weapons if 2015. they will remove items from its website that look leak assault rifles, including toys and non-leal that air soft guns, yesterday, president trump called for comprehensive gun control legislation, including expanding background checks, securing school, restricting gun sales for some young adults. he suggested law makers have a discussion on assault weapons. russian president vladimir putin announcing his company developed a new weapon, that includes an intercontinental ballistic missile he says renders missiles useless the nation addressed the president telling lawmakers the icbm has a longer range than any other and can reach almost any target around the world so scary stuff this morning. in other news on russia,

exxonmobile says it's exiting some joint ventures with russia's -- i think these were tillerson deals. >> they were. >> this comes after international sanction against the nation's energying iss sect her -- energy sector stopped the decision exxon says it will formally initiate the withdraw this year. now to the broader marks, investors not feeling the love in february, the dow and the s&p snapped a ten-month winning streak the longest since 1959. they haven't been watching that closely today, mike. but i saw a triple digit move pass by a couple sexdz ago, 400 yesterday. >> a little pressure >> 800 the day before. >> we kind of undid the rally. >> the friday-monday rally >> exactly it's interesting, where it leaves us with the streak ending

is all the strikes went away if february which we'd be okay it's a reminder how unusually strong the market was. exactly. as a matter of fact, it might have been a 15-month win streak for the s&p 500 if you include dividends. last month was basically flat in terms of the index where we are now is stuck in the middle greet i mean by that is exactly halfway between the all time highs in late january and inter-day lows february 9ing, it was a 340 point loss we are off the lows and the highs, basically there, where the market opens today that means the mark is trying to carve out this new range who knows if you have to go closer i think we are at will level people look closely at each tick to see if we are in true recovery mode. probably so thinking fast and slow. here's the check macro backdrop and mind set the top of mind issue is are rates and inflation running ahead of us, do the feds have to

do something because it's running hot. in the recent past the economic data softened up you had housing shortfalls, durable goods miss >> that has allowed the treasury yields to come off the highs the market has been weak, treasury yields have sat there and done nothing, receded off the highs. march is a pretty good month maybe this year shows we're back to those old seasonal patterns and programs working aglen >> picking up at the end of the first quarter where you have from this -- >> march and april last year none of that worked. right. anything that said this is typically a weak month never panned out we'll see, february is often a back slide month we'll see how that plays out >> let's talk more about what march can bring for the markets. joining us is jim paulsen and rj gallow head of the municipal bond investment group of

federated. jim, stuck in the middle, which way do you think is going to be the ultimate pull? >> well, i think ultimately, becky, that i think it really depends you know for the market inflation stop is going up and have yield stock going up. i think the answers to both of those is no i think as long as they both head higher here prior to the balance this year, i think it will be a struggle for the mark it might be, we break to new lows yet this year, have a more of an exciting capitulation or it could just be that we just kind of trend sideways this year, mark times, earnings catch up to valuations near term, i think next friday's wage number is probably going to be a big one and i think that might set the tone here in the next several weeks about whether we go up an challenge highs or whether we go back down and challenge these lows if that's a hot wage number, we

probably challenge those lows. if it backs off or revised down previous months, we might go up and set those highs we set if january. >> jim, i understand your concerns on a short-term basis, really, if you are looking at what's happening, you would expect inflation to rise, if we have a strong economy, like we have been getting these data points that show that. greet is different about this that actually concerns you about some of those data points? >> well, i think, becky, we're going to break through here wage inflation above 3. we will head cpi towards 3 and i think it's, you know, it really has been over the last 25 years, we've hardly ever had a lot of instances like that. we've given birth to a generation of investors that expect a 2% mind set on inflation. that's a big adjustment. the problem is the multiples in the stockmarket, 22 times trailing earnings right now i just don't think are sustainable if the ten year is headed to 3.5

and wages up in that region as well, if we can get a multiple on a trail basis down to 17 times, i think that could be more sustainable i just think we're too highly valuable given where inflation and rates are headed right now. >> rj, greet does all of this mean for the bond market if you are seeing inflation, if you are seeing higher rates? >> well, i think the inflation story is unfolding in the manner the fedex pecked the risk is that it gets a little too hot it is that risk that's caused risk assets, the equity markets to stumble thus far at times during 2018. our view is that inflation is rising for all the right reasons. the economy is expanding we're seeing some resource constraints set in in the low 4% range. the average hourly earnings figure that jim just mentioned is, in fact, a major focus for the mark it certainly got the market

going both bonsd and stocks in their down seek him the last time argue, though, it's the pace and the destination matter we don't think we're hitting 350 this year. we think we are hilting higher, not that high. >> mike, how much of this is simply coming from the new fed chair using the words overheated >> i think there was an element of it. we will see today if he feels as if he wants to avoid that word i think that very kind of forthright, by kind of linear way of thinking and how he's going to kind of consider the next few decisions for the fed was leak refreshing, at the same the market said, well, he really had some option there to be more dovish he just didn't take them i don't think we should take too much necessary >> i thought tefs he was just saying that. >> not to knock it back on its heels, the recent volatility did not change their intentions, you know, that was another thing you can argue was trying to give some tough love to the market.

on the other hand, i doubt he would use those words if it was february 9th that he was saying it >> real quick, rj, i don't think i will ask paulsen, rj, i'm hearing like that how crazy it is to stimulate the, you know, the economy at full -- it's already running at that top state and that cutting corporate taxes, why wouldn't we do that like we're supposed to wait to do 30-year tax reform because it's not -- you finally got a chance to do it. we shouldn't have done it, the economy is -- we should wait until the next recession to do corporate tax reform does that make any sense to you? paulsen is from minnesota. he grew up loving hubert humphrey and walter mon dame, i'm sure he hates the tax cuts what about you >> i guess i would take a slightly different spin. i don't think it's a mistake to rationalize america's corporate tax structure. it has become uncompetitive globally creating all kind of undesirable affects.

i think it might have been more opt ma'am given the staging, the demographics the trajectory of deficits to make the corporate tax ruts u cuts a a revenue neutral by design like the '86 -- >> i got paulsen from minnesota, are you from colombia. i tried to lead the witnesses as you can see. anyway andrew >> an ad mission >> yeah. >> all right, by the way, i think paulsen might be from iowa am i right about that, j im? >> i am originally from iowa yeah i moved to a higher tax state, though >> you adopted, you talk like a minnesotan now you might as well be >> everybody from iowa, everybody from minnesota, if you like to send inure hate mail >> i was number one state for quall of living, quality health care yeah >> they were one and two, joe. on the u.s. world report

>> all right then. okay then. thanks to you both. coming up, the battle between brits versus clicks. we run through best buy's quarterly results and talk retail then at 7:30 this morning, tech inzor alan patricof will be here. future regulation and what firms like his got out of the tex bell as we head to break, here's yesterday's s&p 500 winners and losers

patricof. welcome back to "squawk box," everybody, shares of newell brands after icon carl acon bought a stake. star board value also has a stake in newell. you can see that stock is up by almost 4%. carl achan has an exclusive victory after herbalife surge and see greet carl acican has t

say. comparable store sells are above forecast here on the "squawk" news line alan rifkin analyst at btig. this is not the first time best buy out performed if recent months management, it's been a few years now, definitely has gotten their act together alan and the stock reflects that up in the 70s now. right? >> yes around we certainly think the stock will be quite strong today. their comp performance of 9% was the best comp they reported in over a decade in earnings growth of 25% or well above not only who the company guided as well as our still, really anybody's expectations >> twraft about three or four years ago, since you could get everything online, it was a show

room you could order it. how did they overcome it, was it back support when you buy things the geek squad, is it service that helped them thrive and i guess they also do their own online business as well and prices are competitive now >> right so best buy and the consumer electron effects industry was really one of the first industrys to come into the crosshairs of amazon greet best buy did, because the kane was teetering about five or six years ago, was as you said, focus on services and align themselves with the vendor community. have unique in-store experiences and they got their prices in kilter and they're now competitive with amazon and best buy is now a very, very formidable competitor to amazon, delivering things that amazon, quite frankly, isn't capable of doing. >> it's like an omni channel model for eb else? >> yes it is an omni channel model for

everyone else, i think everyone can take a page out of the bev buy playbook it's a terrific harvard study. this company is focusing on smart home we just got confirmation amazon believes as well by their acquisition yesterday. >> i'm there all time still. >> are you >> of course head phones, wires, and -- >> amazon, they send it to you in the mail. >> greet do you get, you are taking a side here amazon versus best buy you are talking me out of going to best buy? >> i just don't go to the store. >> it's different here have chinese food delivered here >> i know. i know >> there are advantages. i have trees i have grass i have, you know, i can have a dog. i can have a bar-b-que i can have a swimming pool >> there are some advantages >> you know alan, you are out

there. >> absolutely. >> we get bagels together. >> get a bagel for you and head over to best buy it's a terrific sunday morning >> i got my pick at best buys. >> i got the one if union and where is the other one right next to home depot there, right? >> on route 22, there is also one. >> another one >> all right there you go >> coming up >> let's go sometime together. >> bagels for you. >> right >> and then becky -- >> elephant guy is only on the trip >> becky is bergen county sitting home on sundays. none of the stores are opened. >> thank you see u, allen >> go to bed bath & beyond you got the heavy duvet yet? >> i want the most important thing, the super heavy duvet. >> i want things heavy on me. coming up, hope hicks resigning as president trump's communications director.

we will tell you why wall street should take notice next. take a deeeep breath in... and... exhale... aflac! and a gentle wave-like motion... liberate your spine... aflac! and reach, toes blossoming... not that great at yoga ya but when i slipped a disc, he paid my claim in just one day. so he had your back? yup in just one day, we process, approve and pay. one day pay. only from aflac hey, what are you guys doing here? we're voya. we stay with you to and through retirement. so you'll still be here to help me make smart choices? well, with your finances that is. we had nothing to do with that tie. voya. helping you to and through retirement.

like you do sometimes, grandpa? and puffed... well, when you have copd, it can be hard to breathe. it can be hard to get air out, which can make it hard to get air in. so i talked to my doctor. she said... symbicort could help you breathe better, starting within 5 minutes. symbicort doesn't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. symbicort helps provide significant improvement of your lung function. symbicort is for copd, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema.

it should not be taken more than twice a day. symbicort contains formoterol. medicines like formoterol increase the risk of death from asthma problems. symbicort may increase your risk of lung infections, osteoporosis, and some eye problems. you should tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. symbicort could mean a day with better breathing. watch out, piggies! get symbicort free for up to one year. visit saveonsymbicort.com today to learn more. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. we cut the price of trades to give investors even more value. and at $4.95, you can trade with a clear advantage. fidelity, where smarter investors will always be.

now the answer to today's aflac trivia question. what was a blue chip stock named after in the phrase blue chip stock came from poker games, where blue kims would have the highest value. -- blue chips would have the highest value. sales force profits beating forecast on the company's cloud business it is raising its full year guidance in an interview with jim cramer on "mad money" said they signed more million dollar contracts tan ever before. >> europe is huge for us, you can see that in these spectacular customers in europe. if you have been to adidas.com and bought your 13ri69350s, it's

force. if you go into an adidas store and talk to a sales rep in person, that sales force were billing a single view of the customer for adidas. >> benioff's goal of reaching a revenue run rate of 20 million by 2022 got realistic. >> 85 billion him that's - >> up 3.4% >> again, 1999 is when they started the company. i looked it up yesterday yeah less than 20 years. >> amazing, isn't it >> it is amazing >> probably better with that kind of money, kind of thinking maybe you should get a beggar place, you know greet i mean >> to accommodate more people, do you think >> good luck trying to find that >> it's a velvet rope, though, an inducement.

then you get in there. >> that's right. coming up when we return, legendary vc investor alan patricof, we will talk tax cuts, ci media's role in the changing world "squawk box" returns in just a moment

good morning, welcome back to "squawk box." we are live in time's square among the stories front and center, best buy stocks are beating the top and bottom lines with comp store sales well above stills, 9% comps is greet they reported it's raising its kwarderly dividends. it's uppy 4.9% look at that run over the last year from just over $40 bucks to 76 another retailer with upbeat results is kohl's, they're

earning $1.99 per share and like best buy same store sales beating expectation, raising the quarterly dividends. >> that stock is up by 2.5% and harley-davidson announced an investment in electric vehicle maker, alta motors other new products as well, harley had already announced plans to launch a new electric motorcycle in 2019 this will be the last comp i expect to see moving to electric vehicles like they like the hum of things. >> they do, earlier, ween queer e we' >> they do, earlier, ween queer e we' -- owen we're adding. i thought of us. because we have the side car, where i, remember we -- >> the side car? >> i'm not sitting in the -- no, we had >> they're little goggleles in

the side car >> you don't know down one, five up >> i don't >> then how am i going to be in the side car if you don't know how to ride a motor psych until. >> autonomous driving cars in. >> that's the only way all along it's been me driving >> you are with me you are younger, new on the show and everything else you are the side car >> you are the six and a half years. >> you are the side car. >> seven.5 years. >> when i was on maternity leave, that's why i know, six and a half years >> you are new, trying to fit i in. white house communications director hope hicks announcing she is stepping down hecks is one of the president's longest serving advisers eamon javers joins us now with more i saw a lot of people yesterday saying journalists, reporters, i don't know greet i am saying this is my contact to try to get through to get interviews or

comments or whatever it is and they're going to be scrambling i was sort of in that position, too, she was always accessible to try to get a comment or to try to get through greet -- do you know who is going to be the replacement? are we going back to mooch, is that possible? >> it might be possible. people are talking about mercedes schlap. they might try to bring somebody from outside, not sure who from the outside would want to take it the question now is the president and how he reacts. he relied on hope hicks for more than communications director she was a daily presence in his life, one of his closest personal aids. somebody described his feelings for her to me yesterday as fatherly love. so this is somebody who is very close to the president and emotionally soothing for the

preside president. >> this is greet the white house is telling us about yesterday, hope hicks tenderred her resignation on wednesday the departure had in ug to do with her testimony to the intelligence committee to capitol hill the day before that, ache or nine hours of grueling testimony they say the resignation has been in the works for weeks and the president is not unhappy in her in any capacity. here's the statement saying she is as smart and thoughtful as they come a truly great person i will miss having herbie my said when she approached me about other opportunities, i uns understood ivanka trump said hope hicks is love and admired by all who know her. it's with a heavy heart, but tremendous gratitude, that i wish her well. the people that held that job, four people now have served as communications director if just over a year, starting with sean

spicer mike dubke was in there and the mooch and hope hicks brought continuity ever since last summer the question is, who wants to be the fifth communications director for this president. >> i don't know if there is chatter about this in washington this morning this front page article about jared kushner and kushner's companies, two meetings as he apparently had one with citigroup and one with apollo in the white house and subsequently kushner properties received loans, greet seemed like out sized loans relative to the type of loans that both of those institutions have provided to others and kushners in the past. greet itself the inside word here >> there is a big story in the "new york times," well worth reading in its entirety. this adds to the pressure on

jared kushner, earlier we had seen his clearance down graded to regular secret clearance. that might impact his ability to do his job the white house insists he can function without access to that top secret information. but there is some reason why jared kushner has been unable get security clearance approval from the fbi and the white house. it's not clear exactly greet that is. but his dealings with foreign persons and investors in his company may have something to do with it. this is why typically white house staffers divest themselves from outside holdings and don't engage in transactions in the white house for exactly this reason it's very damaging in terms of perception to kushner right now. >> we will talk to you more about this also the implications for citigroup and apollo because not only is there the kushner side of it, but there is the implication effectively that apollo and citigroup are bribing

the white house. in the meantime, we have spoken about the fourth quarter profit and revenue both beat for sales force. that ceo mark benioff is around the responsibilities techs have to their users and customers they address that with jim cramer last minute >> the ceos have to take the responsible. it's addictive is it hurting or helping commerce or are they manipulated? this is something ever company and ceo is going to have to do >> joining us with more responsibilities, capitalist and co-founder, i haven't seen you in a while help us with this. benioff has been out there pretty aggressively about uber, about facebook, really taking them on and suggesting if some cases these nicotine companies require serious regulations the

tech industries historically have not been a regulated business what do you think is about to happen here? >> i think the public, there is an outcry it's more about google and facebook than the other companies, ieber is not in the same category. facebook is addictive. gook him is addictive. we have, there are virtual monopoly a lot of people have become sensitive, by the fact that while they are tech companies, they are a part of the commercial system. they are very different to lean off of i think we're csr corporate social responsibilities is something become front and center i think the gun issue brought that up front and center you saw that happen with dig's sporting goods, fedex, you will see companies becoming much more responsible. >> do you think that facebook has been responsive thus far to these issues >> honestly, i think they v. i think it's a very difficult issue and i think, i don't think they're deliberately pushing the

news in one way or another i think it's a natural phenomena when you have literally billions, almost 2 billion if i recall people on this every day. it's tough no matter how good your technology is to police every sing him comment coming up >> as an investor, how is it going to change the way you think about making investments in platform companies if you believe that up matly these companies are going to be regulated or going to have to change the way they operate? >> well, i think we have an unusual element in facebook and google i don't think that's - >> you think google by the way should be broken up? you think facebook should be broken up? >> i think we need to seriously look at greet impact they're having on the whole social system and greet they're crowding out i mean,there is no question, for example, programmatic advertising has totally up ended the whole advertising and how messages are getting out in this country. i mean, and in the process, i don't want to say destroyed but

a lot of companies have been hurt very, very badly. >> have you had any portfolio companies that have been run out of town by one of these companies? sfwlits impossible to be in the venture capital if are you in the media content world, have not had a dramatic impact by those companies. >> did you see martin sorrell, did you see that yesterday >> greet does that have for sales? >> flat, stock was down 12%. a very, very tough year. he's been talking about, you know, making that move, how that is growing, how other things might be slowing down a bit. that's where the growth the going to be. so that's tough navigating for the world's biggest advertiser >> i heard barry diller say who is a free mark person say we've got to really do something about facebook and google and physical out where they're going to fit into the system. yes, you can't avoid the word monopoly >> i assumed you historically

like these companies, you like to sell your business. >> love it love to sell it to them. >> by the way, you don't have any example of a situation where a portfolio company you thought was going to have success effectively was fought able to because facebook or google did something untoward >> i don't know that they deliberately did it towards that company. i think the practice is changing their algorithms, for example, i have had many companies in our portfolio, you will wake up on monday and say goggle changed their algorithm last year. whether it's in the health care business, our traffic has dropped as a result by 25:30% overnight. they have to go rebuild. >> can i hit on the opposite side of this for a second, which is to say, look, larry paige, sergei, eric schbhmidt >> that team built this company. they did it naturally, i think i think it's hard to say they somehow did something untoward along the way, maybe their

examples of it isn't that the way this is supposed to work >> i agree i am not anti--- those companies. >> it doesn't matter greet we are. >> i think it's a prop i think it's a natural outgrowth of their enormous success. we have to physical out as a society how we're going to deal with they own 85% of the market is going to them. that's pretty big concentration. >> you think this was the situation, washington was going to focus >> they are studying the impact? fully around the edges i think they have to look at it. i'm not saying whether it should be broken. something has to come -- >> where do you put jeff besos and amazon in this conversation or not >> well, i'll very excited to hear your results of best buy and kohl's, thank god there are some people surviving. companies are struggling against amazon taking over the world go walk down i hate to be

protearochia parochial, walk down these suburban towns and see the empty stores. >> real quick, spotify, announcing its ipo in an unusual way. meaning no banker, no underwriter, no new shares >> you were talking how old sales force, spot sfie eight-years-old, did 5 billion last year. it's very imaginative. the last time we saw something when bill hambrick had the idea of taking the butch auction partially for google it was a whole new concept of how to bring companies public. it's democratizeing, putting the under writers provide a function of creating balance of buyers and sellers when you match up people at times. i think it's interesting him i'm very intrigued >> we break up facebook and google we should break up the yankees >> you see they're winning they bought the those two guys >> i'm rooting for new york.

>> football. >> no, my son's present nycfc the new football that's who i'm focused. >> i thought you said football >> he's a little british >> british they call it football >> he's an angelophile >> the -- anglophile >> return, a rare look inside the legendary oil man, boone pickens. now secret lives of the super rich taking us where we've never gone before. robert frank >> boone does everything big we're going to take you inside his week ranch, which get this, is over 65,000 acres it's got two mansions a private airport. we will show you the chapel, his mi uafr e eairfavorite cha congp tethbrk. ♪ ♪ fight security threats 60 times faster

with ai that sees threats coming. the ibm cloud. the cloud for smarter business.

the ibm cloud. at holiday inn express, we can't guarantee that you'll be able to contain yourself at our breakfast bar. morning, egg white omelet. sup lady bacon! fruit, there it is! but we can guarantee that you'll get the best price when you book with us. holiday inn express. be the readiest. >> welcome book, everything, cnbc going heempbdz the scenes of a legend and long time "squawk" guest robert frank joins us on somebody we know well. >> our viewer knows him well,

boone pickens, the legend, he's about to turn 90 he closed his hedge fund, sold off his dallas home. now he's selling his most prized personal asset, his weekend retreat the mesa vista ranch, price tag $250 million i sat down with the oracle of oil in his favorite spot a chair by the fire in the ranch's library. is this ranch one that is your proudest >> yeah. you bet. there's only one like it in the united states. you know how people haven't been on it, i'm not going to pay anybody $250 million come and look at it. >> well, they have to have a couple days to do that that's because the ranch is over 100 square miles along the canyon river it's got its own airport, it's own cap em, it's on golf course. dozens of man-made lakes and

bridges, the main house the great lodge is 33,000 square feet witha dining room that seats 40 it has a 30-seat movie theater in the great room. a guest compound and luxury suite that has hosted nancy reagan and dig cheney t-12,000 foot separate lake house, that's like an italian village surrounded by a lake the ranch was built for been's two passions, quayle hunting and golf he has an 11,000 square foot dog kennel that holds his 40 prized bird dogs a series of marshs that has the best quayle hunting in the world, boone's childhood home from oklahoma was trucked in, reassembled on the property and asked boone what it's like to drive past that little house he grew up in, thinking about how far he's come. >> can you believe the success that you've had in this world

>> no new york i can't >> and it just -- incredible guy. >> i can't wait to see this. look, from greet i'm told, he's selling it now because he wants to make sure to pre tv it, no eb splits it up and breaks it up. >> exactly >> he wants immortality. >> i think he wants somebody that loves hunting, fishing the, the great outdoors we got lost driving on that property three times by someone who has been on that property for years. and to be able to get lost and the beautiful mesas, the fishing, the huntble, the wilderness >> to preserve it without splitting it up. >> it's a job. >> i know. >> it's a job. >> he's not really involved with that, it's the boone etf. >> we wish boone all the best. up next the hacking of america

sounds dangerous we will find out how much the businesses should be that's next.

cryptojacking is on the rise, hackers stealing computer power from the public cloud to mind crypto currency, red lock revoeld te rerevealed tesla's pack, the ceo and co-founder of red lock

good morning to you. help us understand greet this is for those uninitiated. >> good morning, sure. so my parents used to always tell me money doesn't grow on trees. in fact, it does today with crypto currencys, greet we are facing is ultimately this is a combination of intense mathematical xur xuetaticome pes that -- comp ycomputations they are trying to find cheap resources to use to complete these transactions and effectively, it's becoming an arms race because the first to validate wins. so that means effectively the one with the most compute resources wins >> how does that happen? i'm thinking a cryptocurrency

miner uses a farm. they are said to take over other people's server farms of sorts, harvest to mind a coin i'm told just in a day or two they can get about $1,000 of crypto currency by doing this, are we talking about getting into my own computer or into an amazon or a google cloud kind of system >> so it's both. so we have been seeing wiring attacks against end users, effectively, you could be browsing a website and if that website is hosting malware, it can now use your laptop resources to do this greet we are talking about today what we found in tesla's case, attackers are going after trying to break into your cloud computer environment that havefy might resources in tesla they gained access ander with not sure greet the financial impact to tesla was but we have seen cases where within a couple of days that i

can rack up to a quarter million compute bills for the examiners and effectively, yes, they can get away with thousands of dollars of crypto currencies environment. >> it's hundreds of thousands of xuth bills for a couple thousand dollars of crypto currencies >> correct. >> which is why typically the math doesn't make sense, if you own your own resource, pushing the attackers to find environments to break into >> real quick. we got 30 seconds. how do we stop this or identify that it's happened in. >> unimportantly, cloud security program is very immature today i think it takes getting mature quickly, cloud securing monitoring controls to make sure you are understanding who is getting 82 your environment from where and greet exactly they are doing. >> we will leave the conversation there thanks >> my pleasure >> when we return, greet the markets want to hear from fed

chair. "squawk" returns. you kn what they say about the early bird... he gets the best deal on the perfect hotel by using tripadvisor! that's because tripadvisor lets you start your trip on the right foot... by comparing prices from over 200 booking sites to find the right hotel for you at the lowest price. saving you up to 30%! you'll be bathing in savings!

tripadvisor. check the latest reviews and lowest prices. like you do sometimes, grandpa? and puffed... well, when you have copd, it can be hard to breathe. it can be hard to get air out, which can make it hard to get air in. so i talked to my doctor. she said... symbicort could help you breathe better, starting within 5 minutes. symbicort doesn't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. symbicort helps provide significant improvement of your lung function. symbicort is for copd, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. it should not be taken more than twice a day. symbicort contains formoterol. medicines like formoterol increase the risk of death from asthma problems. symbicort may increase your risk of lung infections, osteoporosis, and some eye problems. you should tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. symbicort could mean a day with better breathing. watch out, piggies! get symbicort free for up to one year.

visit saveonsymbicort.com today to learn more. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help.

first trading day of the month future is under pressure after the worst day for stocks in 2009 powell round two, the few fed chair heads back to the hill, this time to field questions from the senate. beth buy and kohl's both top expectations the stock expectation ahead as the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now ♪ >> announcer: 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 market nasdaq site in time's square. let's get a check on the marnls. they have been all over the place. the futures this morning indicated to open lower off of tear worst levels of the morning, also well off their best levels when they were

actually positive down 86 now on the dow, we've given back crazily, gains were over 700 points increasingly, we were up. >> the davos pop or the low in volatility. >> the davos peak. >> i can't say anything. that was the answer to everybody we talk to >> every year they nail it treasury yields this morning 283, we were we were 295 when the market gets dicey, it seems like people get back into the tenure. >> all though, santelli pointed out, we said every time the tenure broke out the stocks dipped lower it's broken the last couple days >> the stocks broke first, then

the yields him so i don't know >> let's get you caught up on some of the morning's earnings report best buy, being both the top and bottom line, same store sales came in above the street's forecast 9% the retailer upping its full year outlook, raising its quarterly dividend from 45 cents to 34 cents. >> that stock is up by 5 and a quarter percent. kohl's revenue and same store sales, rohl's raising the dividend to 51 cents per share from 51 to 51. they are up by one and a third percent and sotheby's quarterly earnings, revenue beating forecasts and the company calling 2017 a good year says that 2018 would be even better we will speak to sotheby's's ceo tad smith. that's tomorrow at 7:40 a.m. eastern time after the bell today, you can

look at quarterly results from gap around nordstrom's. wal-mart is raising the minimum age of buying a gun to 21 they reviewed its policies since parkland shooting. they stopped selling assault weapons back if 2015 the company will also remove items from its website that look like assault rifles, including toys and non-lethal air soft guns and qualcomm's board of directors is out with a statement about an offer, it remains unanimous in its view that offer materially under values the company, that it remains ready to engage with broadcom but broadcom refuses to if its words engage in good faith they have offered to buy qualcomm for $79 a share. well, february a tough month

for stocks the dow and s&p snapped ten-straight months of gains the longest winning streak we seen since 1959, which i think back on that year, it was day after day that the dow fell more than 4% the s&p dropped 3.9% the nasdaq lost under two percent the young whipper snappers a month away from the next fomc meeting, newly appointed fed chair powell will be back testifying in front of the senate banking committee joining us former council chairman austin goldsby and economic policies studies director michael strainan, in the past strain is able to stay relati relatively sense he's not going to counter

your blatant partisan propaganda you become armed with, can you try to keep it about the economy and say,well, yeah, it's the obama economy. >> he remains neutral and i remain accurate. hey, austin. >> i go for the truth. that's my side in the past, austin, your record is never getting to excited about the employment in it was sort of you always wereing, you know, you didn't -- you know you didn't get quite as optimism from coming on. >> that's true i appreciate you remember that at this point are you more opt mick about the future and greet does that mean the feds should

do at this point >> look, i'm still optimism e mic-- as chairman powell was in his testimony. i want everyone to remember the fed has for then years been telling us that the economy is about to be on the cusp of greatness, that we're going to massively grow and we are in danger of imminent inflation and for nine straight years, that hasn't been true, so let's be more sircouple spec the feds can raise nine times a year and we're off to the race. >> i wonder if inflation and xi, in terms of how strong the economy is, are they still really linked? does a higher economy mean -- have we done so much, can we have a stronger economy and not worry about the old models for inflation? >> maybe

that's an interesting point you might have seen, i have my own research that i did with a guy at stamford about the role of the internet and the inflation rate for the same stuff online is some 200 basis points plus less inflation than what's in the cpi. so you might be on to something -- >> didn't you publish a paper on that that's where i'm getting all this i read up on things. >> that was on there yeah, i'm i pressed joe. >> excellent work -- i'm lying no, i came up with that on my own. >> so, michael, anything, in terms of just greet you just heard from sauce tin, is the economy is it an uptick a half o percent? is that greet leishman tells me all the tile, maybe 2 but 3-and-a-half. >> austin is committed to the

truth. i admire that. here are some truths we know we have a massive physical i fiscalim lus -- fi--, stimulus we know that greet used to be a head wind, which is global growth as chairman powell mentioned in his testimony has become something of a tail wind. and so i think it's completely reasonable and we saw some evidence in the last jobs report that we might see an acceleration in wage growth, especially when you combine greet we saw in the jobs report with the eci report that came out a bit earlier. so i think there is some reason to say, hey, maybe we have shifted into a higher gear you see it across a broad away of indicators. i don't think anybody is talking about raising five times as austin mentioned i think the question is, should we raise four times rather than

three? reasonable question and, you know, i think, look at inflation expectations and looking at the excellent jobs report to see if wage growth is starting to look like a trend rather than a one-month thing. i think there could be of the next month's report a strong argument made for four increases rather than three. >> austin, are we in terms of the labor mark, are we at full employment or is there a par tisbation rate up tick or are we hyped because we don't have workers trained for the jobs that are available will that eventually mean wage increases good and bad, i guess? >> probably all of those are true i think we're for conventionally skilled workers, we're probably close to full employment i think the labor participation is a key factor and if really

pressed, you will likely see a lot of private sector people getting out, trying to train some of those, bring some of those out of the labor force people back if look, greet michael said, i agree with, that if you take the best indicators, the best indicators look good, though there are some negative indicators and some of the forecasts for the next quarter for the q1 gdp are fought that impressive so i wanted to come out in a positive way and if it does, we can just proceed to raise in the way they're forecasting. i just hope that they're a little more, express a little more data diplomacy than they have thus far. >> separate question and michael can weigh if on this as well, i talked yesterday in the context to paul groupen, just the idea of the size of the buy-backs that we're seeing and how we should think of the money going into wages or the.going into

capital investments or even rescaling workers. >> you are asking me >> i'm asking you, austin. >> i told you on this program, this is exactly greet i told you when we argued about the tax cut. i said, look, the question for whether that will be stimulative for growth is are they going to actually use the money for capital investment and wages or are they just going to have shared buy-backs, pay out dividends and that sort of thing? and you promised me, joe promised me. >> oh, please. >> no, no, they're going to us it for investment. >> austin agrees with paul crudman. ask michael. >> i agree, due to this. this is greet i predicted, joe i'm in the agreeing with him. >> separated at birth. >> put paul aside, "wall street journal," same story >> greet this does, you promised us this wasn't going to happen yet it did

>> you don't see good things happening. >> ki say -- >> michael >> go ahead. >> a good thing that's happening is that we have increased the after tax reward for business investment >> that will increase wages. we should not expect to see it increase wages this quarter because it takes longer than a couple of monthss to add in the capital stock in a way that actually increases productivity and wages. so this whole conversation needs tore a longer-term focus did some companies have a pr move oral truism or generosity sure, of course. >> is that greet it is >> and buy back your own shares. >> now they said it was a pr move >> there are some buy backs, for sure >> that's what's happening >> my.is the that the theory of how a corporate tax cut will

increase wages plays out over a long time. having a longer term horizon on this, so both the people that say it won't happen are wrong the people who are saying it's happened are wrong >> did your president in chicago, did he go against your advice on letting conservatives speak there? did you try to talk -- can i come there >> i'm the guy who has to debate steve bannon have you followed this they have free speech. i will be there. >> thank god for the university of chicago i figured you'd try to talk them out of that it's a paradigm >> thank you, michael. are you a he. >> reporter: thanks, we'll see you. a busy hour still ahead, first drop box now spotify filing public, are the uniform flood gates opened we will talk to that firm, investor and spotify that's all coming up.

at 8:30 a.m. eastern time, data-poluzza we will bring those numbers and action and quarrcarl ichan afte and definitive victory for him as herbalife surging and building a stake in newell brands, that and more tune in at 12:30 eastern time back in a moment finally. hey ron! they're finally taking down that schwab billboard. oh, not so fast, carl. ♪ oh no. schwab, again? index investing for that low? that's three times less than fidelity... ...and four times less than vanguard. what's next, no minimums? ...no minimums. schwab has lowered the cost of investing again. introducing the lowest cost index funds in the industry with no minimums. i bet they're calling about the schwab news.

schwab. a modern approach to wealth management. i thwell wait. what did you meetthink about her? it's definitely a new idea, but there's no business track record. well, have you seen her work? no. is it good? good? at cognizant, we're helping today's leading banks make better lending decisions with new sources of data- so, multiply that by her followers, speaking engagements, work experience... credit history. that more accurately assess a business' chances of success. this is a good investment. she's a good investment. get ready, because we're helping leading companies see it- and see it through-with digital. big thinking in the finger lakes is pushing the new new york forward. we're the number one dairy and apple producers in the eastern united states supported by innovative packaging that extends the shelf life of foods and infrastructure upgrades that help us share our produce with the world. all across new york state, we're building the new new york. to grow your business with us in new york state,

visit esd.ny.gov

welcome back to "squawk box," president trump could announce tariffs on steel and alluminum. it's characterized as an energy mrnlths, executives have been calling for, later this morning the president tweeted about fair trade. it does not mention specifically tariffs. it says, quote, our steel and alluminum industries have been decimated from policies around the world. we must not let our country's, companies and workers be taken advantage of any longer, we want

free, fair and smart trade. the "new york times" is reporting jared kushner's family real estate business received sizable loans from citigroup and apollo group management. an ad advisor was said to have met with apollo founder joshua harris and the white house multiple times possibly talked about an offer to work in the white house, by the way, and then there were these loans, so lots of questions both about the role that jared kushner had in this, also really an implication of bribery to some degree arouno we will have to watch this >> obviously, the loan from apollo was the largest, about three times they normally give citigroup they said the same thing, it was not even with the kushner group. a third party.

even though it's fraud, there are ethics reasons, it might be difficult to tie it direct >> all of this is fascinating. we never lived in this kind-of-world where we had these situations spotify going public on the new york stock exchange, planning to a direct listing as explained in its if-1ing theer spot joining us is one of spotify's early investors a partner at lead edge capital. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> for those who don't fully get it, this ipo process, it's not really an ipo rocess it's so very different just give us a little of the lay of the land and how it will impact investors >> yeah. so most traditional ipos companies raise money, so the issue you share, they might raise a billion dollars and hire investment bankers spotify is not issuing any few shares and i actually think it

signals strength by the company and management, they decide, hey, they don't need to raise more money so greet they're going to do is just list the existing shares on their capitalization table and shareholders will be able sell on die one, so our understanding is there isn't going to be a lockup and that you know shareholders will be able to sell their shares to new investors on day one without new shares being created >> so when we see it first trade, how should we think about the price, given there won't be a lockup one of the reasons there isn't usually or there is a lockup is to kind of hold the line on the price. >> right yeah >> so the, in the month leading up to this listing, spotify's secondary mark has been pretty active so we have been seeing a number of shared trades happening in the 20 $22 billion range so we think that will be a proxy for where share trades might begin and obviously given how a

lot of these tech ipos perform, we think it's going to trade meaningfully about that on the first day. >> is your expectation that if this is a successful approach that we're going to see the ub ers of the world the lyfts of the world, airbnbs of the world in a similar fashion >> the fact that they're a brand, it's similar to netflix, paid sub skrichlgs people soon it before the fact that they don't need money they have a strong balance shoot more than a billion-and-a-half in the balance sheet the business is cash flow positive i think tore this spec case, spotify doesn't need to go an raise new money. in the case -- >> go ahead. i was going to say, asen early investor, are you happy they approach it this way, is it better or worse for you? >> we will own more, typically we take a 10% diminution, if

they need to straighten their balance heet, who wants to buy billions of autonomous cars, they need the raise monies in an ipo. if they don't need to do that, maybe they pursue a direct listing and put the shares out there. >> we will leave the conversation there we appreciate it thanks so much. >> thanks. >> talk to you soon. still to come, why under armor ceo says this year will be the most important in the company's history. we'll tell you what he told m ji cramer that's right after this. most etfs only track a benchmark. flexshares etfs are built around the way investors think. with objectives like building capital for the future, managing portfolio risk and liquidity and generating income. that's real etf innovation. flexshares. built by investors, for investors. before investing consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses.

go to flexshares.com for a prospectus containing this information. read it carefully.

>> take a look at the futures, dow futures indicated down by triple digits, decline of 103.that comes after a down couple of days for the markets subpoena p is down by 7, nasdaq off by 8 kevin plank says 2017 was a transformative year. they embarked on closing stores and selling toenco seoulers and its own brand stores plank spoke with jim cramer last night on "mad money" he says 2018 will be one of the most important can'ters in under

armor's history. >> we want to be sure my team is the first and important thing i want tour team we have the balance the three things we attack for ourselves as a company in 2017, let them take route, let us become that really loud brand if that quiet company that knows how to run, infinitely go to market. you are watching a successful company. it takes time. >> let's look at shares of under arm or right now up about 8 cents. jim cramer went into this in november he questioned whether they were focused. he asked him again last night. we will talk to jim in a bit to see if he was convinced. when we come back a full slate of economic data jobs will claims and spending. we will get into those numbers triple digits decline for the dow right now. "squawk box" will be right back. in 76 years.

but today, you're ready to try something new. son: "dad?" son: "mom would be proud." with blue apron, any night is a chance to see what cooking can do.

with pg&e in the sierras. and i'm an arborist

since the onset of the drought, more than 129 million trees have died in california. pg&e prunes and removes over a million trees every year to ensure that hazardous trees can't impact power lines. and since the onset of the drought we've doubled our efforts. i grew up in the forests out in this area and honestly it's heartbreaking to see all these trees dying. what guides me is ensuring that the public is going to be safer and that these forests can be sustained and enjoyed by the community in the future. we're just seconds away from jobless claims personal income, consumer spending futureing exactly triple

digitings, now not 97 on the dow down 7 you can see on the s&p and the nasdaq giving back nine and ten years, moderated in the yield. 282. some of the lowest yields we've seen for the day rick santelli standing by at the cme in chicago leishman is telling economist jokes, they're lil' hilarious. >> all you have to do is say the word economist we giggle in chicago dropless claims, they dropped 10,000 from 220 to 210 last week it was 222 originally. so there was a slight change from 222 to 220. now 210. continuous claims moved to 1.93. now let's get to the january personal income and spending income up .4 it's a decent number spending half up to .2, butals as expected and last month,

remained at .4 so the double .4 stays 4 and 2 in terms of this month not too bad. on the spending side, real spending down .1 >> that follows up .2. the personal consumption expenditure deflator month up is over .4. core and month over month up .3. year over year cover up 1.5. none of those seem threatening all right. let's take a step back, gentleman, you said the only thing that matters interest rates are moderating a bit after all the "oh my god the sky is falling," the new chairman says it's good. got to sell treasuries, having said that, some of the recent data hasn't been exceptional gdp we lost last fourth quarter. greet we are looking at this quarter has definitely been chopped up a bit durable goods, whether you

looked at seasonally adjusted or not seasonally adjusted, pretty darn weak. we've had good numbers like today. to see interest rates moving down when the stockmarket moves down, data isn't at the top of the pyramid anymore makes sense actually becky. back to you. >> rick, thank you very much everybody here is running through those numbers, rick was able to spout those off so quickly. steve, you were looking through some of the finer details, greet did you find smr just year over year the fed looks at the pricing index, this is the preferred inflation indicator, 1.7 year over year unchanged from december, unchanged from november. core pce unchanged from september, unchanged from november. >> greet does that tell us, maybe this overheating is not showing up yet >> it's not showing up yet you had a nice pop of wages in december it did not create consumer based inflation. i have to look into the details

as to where the pce is different from the cpi, less housing, is that right medical i this i is treated differently as well, so there are some key things. medical did go up in the cpi it's a detail i can go into later. i like by the way, the savings rate ticking back up it had come down in december now it's 3.2%. that was the result of greet rick said. you had income up 04 wages up 0.5 which is rather nice, spending 0.2. one place it goes is savings that could be a quick reaction from households, or it could be the data is noisy and it goes up and down >> it would be weird if it was that quebec of a reaction. >> it had come down consequentially. you can imagine it going back up the beginning of the year a start of the year effect. >> steve, let me point out, the futures look, they were down

triple digits, now dow 75 points for the dow. if you had to point to one thing, you would say inflation was not stronger than anticipated, meaning all of these people prognosticating thinking we will get rate hikes, that was premature >> i think so. on tuesday, powell said he will follow the data, the committee will follow the data it won't be a mystery as to how this plays out i think that we're waiting there is two risc here one is the risk of actual inflation of the data. the second is we don't know how powell is going to react to all this he's spoken a very different way. on the same day that powell talked, right, people praised the plainness of how he spoke. yellen and bernanke were talking. they were deep into wage fakers and the philips curves if ways that powell will never talk about. >> powell is not an economist

the way they are this tuesday. >> it was tuesday the same day yeah >> i remember bullard was on this show. this is greet he was saying. >> bullard has an idea arc different idea >> on friday it was up woints. >> bullard was saying wait >> jim wants to be in this regime idea. we're in this low inflation regime where the current fed policy is okay the curve fed rate is congress with that regime that we're in he doesn't see us going up. >> you are looking at the same idea >> same closet >> you know i told you what i was wearing this morning, joe. >> yeah. >> did we ever pull your segment lease mania? >> we could. i have a quick full screen here to look at i like my pun here, which is the powell play. greet is the powell play >> never enough economists >> does he double down on his hawkishness? is he a bit more dovish?

i want to point out the fed never minds a mark defrothing is that a word the idea of taking the froth off the top of the coffee the fed never minds that if greet you are doing is easing back, so you reduce the probability of a shock when the mark has to reset. always good to the fed cramto td chairman. >> kevin, your take on what we've seen from these numbers? >> the one thing, the core pc, waller came if line with our expectation of .3 on the month it adds that inflation is perking up a bit >> how so? >> you look back early last year, you are annualizing at a rate of 1% the second half of last year, at the start of this year, you are probably closer to

2-and-a-half to 3%. >> if it came in be inpicturationinpictur inexpectations this would be within youring pecked range >> i think in the immediate future the data that will come out on inflation, the next couple weeks, next cuping months, that inflation is starting to peck up. >> you would expect that in an economy that continues to improve, we're looking at additional jobless claims down near 200,000 those are all the things that happen in the economies. >> the labor market is screaming right now, 210,000 that's lowest level. you have to go back to the early '70s. >> 1969. >> wow. >> that's what i get >> the percentage of those employed has to be at or near an all time level >> the job mark is much becker now. i like the discussion earlier, kevin, that joe is having about can we bring more people back into the work force?

will rages rise to that point? we had a guest, greet, we have to train them. is there a scope >> it's surprising, we're continuously marking down naru, basically the level of the unemployment rate without any sort of inflationary pressure. so you, years ago, it was 6%, it went to 5-and-a-half now 4-and-a-half percent the fed latest in december was 4.6 right now 4.1. we have seen a little evidence that wages are at least moving in the right direction as your last guest stated productivity is so key for wages. if we get strong productivity growth we should be able to see further evidence of wages. >> what are you in the 3 hike catch or the 4 hike camp >> we have four hikes this year.

it sounds like powell is starting to lean towards that direction. whether or not the dopla in march goes from 3 right now. the fed's expectation for this year 2.4 in march, it's debatable we will see over the next couple weeks how the data evolve. i think he certainly put the market on notice that it's going to be probably either in march or june if things play out and expectations move higher he noted the economy is stronger, fiscal policy, more stimulative. the goebel drop is better. >> i know the 3 or 4 rate hike debate is job security for both you and me right? but let's just do a little reality check. how much does it matter? how will you change your outlook on the economy on your view of the value of stocks if the fed goes 100 basis more rather than

75 >> to be honest, at the end of the die, it doesn't matter. >> why do we bring it up not me the stock guys bring it up >> when you do it year after year after year. >> that's one thing. >> i think the bigger question is, when do they eventually stop and when you know right now do they go three or four? it really doesn't matter, obviously the markets and the near terms matter. interest rate markets it does. that's right >> the discussion was literally 12 minutes ago, you don't know who i was having it with, it was goldby and strain you forgot who i was having a talk with. >> who was our guest yesterday yes, we did. >> ken langone >> there you go. >> all of our brains are like ashetrays. we dump themmous every -- >> they're like mush. >> remember what shakespeare said, many a man have more hair than wit. >> ye. >> wait a second never mind >> it's not true in either case

with you >> thank you guys very much. >> when we return, if you are planning a vacation to mexico, listen up, tessa brewer is live in cabo san lucas what do you have coming up >> we are looking at cartel turf wars, spikeing rates, in an area always considered safe so that got the attention of the tourism here 90% of the economy depends on visitors, what they did to stop it in its tracks the remarkable story on "squawk box. i have it coming up. quite a lot of colleges to pay for though. a lot of colleges. you get any financial advice? yeah, but i'm pretty sure it's the same plan they sold me before. well your situation's totally changed now. right, right. how 'bout a plan that works for 5 kids, 2 dogs and jake over here? that would be great. that would be great. that okay with you, jake? get a portfolio that works for you now and as your needs change from td ameritrade investment management.

welcome back, everybody, there could be trouble in the crypto currency space. the "wall street journal" reporting federal regulators have launched a sweeping probe in the trading of the digital currency they say they handed down dozens of subpoenas and advisers in the digital currency market. subpoenas request information about the structure of initial coin offerings or icos the price of bitcoin, you can check out on the march delivery 10,790 >> and i thought about this actually luxury resort towns if mexico, previous untouched by cartel violence, saw record numbers of murder and crime in 2017, the cabo san lucas alone saw a dramatic increase in the

murder rate. this is all bad news, mexico tleevs on tourism from the northern neighborhood. that's where contessa brewer is now. she joins us with more of the financial impact of all the violence hi, contessa >> hi there. you know, 300 murders last year. that's almost a 500% jump in the murder rate in this resort area. we're talking the cartel turf wars, taking a toll, bodies thrown from bridges him gun fights in hotels, public executions on the beaches. >> we were surprised at the same time that united us as a private sector we worked very diligent with the federal government with the state and local government to make sure that our top priority will remain safe. >> well, with almost 4,000 rooms and a billion dollars in home investment coming online in the next couple years, the business community jumped into action partnering with the government

they created a rapid response new york that uses a what's app to report suspicious activity, expanded under surveillance put cameras along highways, a newer marine base brings the navy, a highly regarded military adventure the facility was paid for by $7 million in private investment it was an incredible action. several police on the ground now as well. they've seen a dramatic drop this crime, since the big shootout with the cartel in january. there has only been one murder in the last month-and-a-half, guys >> yeah. you know, you don't have to go to mexico contessa, if are you a tourist, costa rica, or the bahamas, all these places are, it's like fungible it's bad news. it's a great place to visit, the whole cabo area, pv and cancun

few worry about safety, that's paramount. as far as tourism, they got to get a hand him on that. >> reporter: that's why they're taking it seriously, they think they've created a model cancun can follow and tourism officials are look fog cabo how they may implement and the crime that has plagued them interesting, they say the tourists who have decided not to come to cabo are the tourists who have never come here before the marketing research shows the people who have been to cabo before think it's safe and they're going to come anyway 16% by the way, they saw a 16% jump in tourism last year. >> wow, that's big thanks for that report. there we got to go to eamon javers, he has break news from the white house. >> reporter: good morning, joe, a white house official says they have scheduled an announcement

for 11:00 this morning on tariffs, presumably steel and alluminum tariffs. it's not clear greet the specifics have been. it has been speculated the white house has considered steel and alull up in tariffs. they say they have been getting calls on the past 24 hours officials here unably provide specs of greet the announcement will be. they say there is an announcement at 11:00 a day from the president of the occupation. we will wait to see greet that is you look inside the trump white house. you can see a real us the tussl. between senior economic adviser, one representing the more globalist view and one representing the more isolationist view on the economy. it looks like as of today, as of this morning, that the more isolationist view of the economy and apro-tariffs has won out >> thank you for that.

meantime, croaker now officially saying it will stop selling guns to buyers under 21-years-old it currently sells them in alaska, i'd horks oregon and walk those fred meyers stores will stop selling assault rifles in alaska it already stopped in other states. when we return, we are counting down to the opening bell on wall street. we will talk market strategies next wow, thick this out. we were down by triple digits earlier. at this point dow futures down by less than ten points. s&p futures are now in positive territory up by one-and-a-half, the in fact up by 16-and-a-half. it comes after those nick xhbs were strong, no stronger than had been anticipated. >> the inflation. >> not looking like an overheated picture at least as of this point. we'll be right back.

photonics and imaging. fueled by strong university partnerships, providing the world's best talent. and supported with workforce development to create even more opportunities. all across new york state, we're building the new new york. to grow your business with us in new york state, visit esd.ny.gov. to grow your business with us in new york state, i grew up in the projects and so home ownership was not an option for us. i am taking the steps to own a home because i want my children to know it's all so that they can have a better life. oh my gosh. this is amazing. we're so much closer to home ownership. this is amazing. gglobal bonds, and high-dividend strategies. sure, these are investments. but they're not what people really invest in.

what people really invest in, is what they hope to get out of life. but helping them get there takes a pure focus. because when you invest their money without distraction, hidden agenda or competing interests, something wonderful can happen. they might just get what they want out of life, and maybe even more.

welcome back, we're now in positive territory this morning. yesterday was a big down day for the markets. we had been down triple digits for the dow much of this morning. things are in positive territory across the board

slight gains for the s&p futures and dow futures and nasdaq up over 18 points look at the price of crude oil at this point we are waiting -- okay, crude oil down by 38 cents. that's declined .06. for more on the price of oil and how markets are responding, let's bring in tamara essman for nasdaq and managing director of tjm institutional services and cnbc contributor what's been driving oil prices for a long time, this was a story about supply until recently you started to see more of the demand picture. what's happening right now >> constructively the market looks good from a fundamentals perspective, inventory overhang, the supply we've been talking about the last couple of years has largely

di dissipated on a short term basis the market gets hijacked by nonfundamental factors. >> like what >> speculative positioning in the market amounts to 1 billion barrels a day in the market that only consumes 96 million. it's very elevated and it also if you look at where the short positions relative to the long positions the market could go lower. based on completely ago nos tick to the fundamental oil. >> if you look at supply and demand what would that tell you? >> it would tell you the market is tighter and we expect more volatility ahead because the inventory cushion is no longer going to insulate pricesopoliti aren't focusing on right because of these other factors. >> jim, let's talk about what happened with equity futures this morning

we saw things push into positive territory. >> it's the number kind of reminds people what we're dealing with here and that's a market trying to transition from years of chronic underperformance that they needed the crushes of low rates, now to an economy that's doing well, trying to do well and run on its own it can be an ugly process but nothing that's really the fodder for massive down it is turns in the market the corrections take time and the second tier is longer term money who assesses what the risk is and says i probably went into this with a few too many stocks. that's why these things don't correct itself overnight but if you think i'm going to believe we're in for a 25%, 30% move lower off the highs in a situation where the economy is gathering steam not losing it, i would challenge you there. i do think this could last another couple of weeks. >> another couple of weeks >> yeah, sure, why not i mean, corrections go in price

or time -- >> i'm surprised you say only another couple of weeks. >> i thought you meant the other way. >> they think this is the new normal, get used to it, this is what you're around for why do you think it let's up in a couple of weeks? >> i think the earnings have been good. earnings need to catch up at least in the markets eye in the future with multiples but that's going to be -- the market is very forward looking and i think we could really focus on the fact that the tax and regulatory realm is changing and things are going to be good. >> all right, jim, tamara, thank you both. when we come back, please, we have soinrkout on the street. he's got his muscle with him but he'll be out there what did you have in mind? i don't know. $4.95 per trade? uhhh and i was wondering if your brokerage offers some sort of guarantee? guarantee? where we can get our fees and commissions back if we're not happy.

so can you offer me what schwab is offering? what's with all the questions? ask your broker if they're offering $4.95 online equity trades and a satisfaction guarantee. if you don't like their answer, ask again at schwab. you or joints. something for your heart... but do you take something for your brain. with an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is the number one selling brain-health supplement in drug stores nationwide. prevagen. the name to remember. and i recently had hi, ia heart attack. it changed my life. but i'm a survivor. after my heart attack, my doctor prescribed brilinta. it's for people who have been hospitalized for a heart attack. brilinta is taken with a low-dose aspirin. no more than 100 milligrams as it affects how well brilinta works. brilinta helps keep platelets from sticking together and forming a clot. in a clinical study, brilinta worked better than plavix. brilinta reduced the chance of having another heart attack... ...or dying from one. don't stop taking brilinta without talking to your doctor, since stopping it too soon increases your risk of clots in your stent, heart attack, stroke,

and even death. brilinta may cause bruising or bleeding more easily, or serious, sometimes fatal bleeding. don't take brilinta if you have bleeding, like stomach ulcers, a history of bleeding in the brain, or severe liver problems. slow heart rhythm has been reported. tell your doctor about bleeding new or unexpected shortness of breath any planned surgery, and all medicines you take. if you recently had a heart attack, ask your doctor if brilinta is right for you. my heart is worth brilinta. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. i thyou never got the brakes looked at?l... oh yeah. no. at cognizant, we're helping today's leading manufacturers make things that think and do automatically.

imagine that, a world of new digital products and services all working together for you. can i borrow the car when it's back? get ready, because we're helping leading companies see it- and see it through-with digital. how are you feeling about the stock market >> stock market is good, there's no one who doesn't enjoy how it's up since trump was elected. >> we'll bullish on the economy but trying to balance it with valuations and everything like that. >> did you buy on the dip? >> i did a little bit indeed and i think if you just look out for are the long term, you'll probably be okay but for the medium near term, maybe it will

be a little volatile. >> how are you feeling about the economy? >> not confident. >> why i don't know i think it's volatile. i think we've had a lot of highs within the stock market but then you don't know when something happens within the news or something unrelated to the stocks. >> taking a pulse of the people in times square. in the meantime join us tomorrow "squawk on the street" begins right now. >> good thursday morning, i'm carl quint neanilla and david faber. cramer aon assignment. the dow down 4% on the month powell is back on the hill and macro data and futures have improved europe still red 10-year close to a three-year low