tv Squawk Box CNBC March 21, 2018 6:00am-9:00am EDT
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it could be 16 inches. "squawk box" begins now. ♪ live from new york where business never sleeps, this is "squawk box. good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc we are live from the nasdaq market site in times square. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and mike santoli. andrew is off today. yesterday ended on an upnote for the markets after seesawing back and forth. this morning things are relatively flat. the nasdaq is under pressure as joe mentioned facebook shares looking like they'll be opening down today this morning the nasdaq is off by 14 points looks like the dow is flat as are the s&p 500 futures. this could move all over the
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place, not only between now and the closing bell but between now and the opening bell overseas, the nikkei ended down by half of a percentage point. stocks in china were off by a quarter percentage point the hang seng down by 0.4% in europe where early trade is already in play, you can see that stocks in france down by 0.3% the ftse is down by half a percentage point and the dax is flat. check out treasury yields today. the fomc meeting, and ahead of that, before we hear from jowl and his first press conference as the new today chair, you can see the ten-year is pushing up against 2.9% sitting at 2.892%. >> breaking news, just on my way in, brand-new. sources tell nbc news that the suspect believed to be the austin bomber is dead following a confrontation with police. they say he detonated a bomb
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inside his car then early this morning the austin police department said they were working on an officer-involved shooting. the department is holding a news conference now we'll bring you details as we get them i don't know, can you be glad? i'm glad you don't need a town gripped with fear like that. >> three weeks people afraid to leave their homes because of the latest device >> someone is monitoring what they're saying, and the police just confirmed the nbc report. looks like at this point if it was just the guy alone, it's over gladly happily. thankfully over. not happy, but thankfully. new developments in the facebook data collection suit. the ceo of cambridge analytica
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claimed his company ran all of the digital operations for the trump campaign, that's according to a report from the united kingdom's channel 4. this new video was posted yesterday. ceo alexander nix was immediately suspended by the company. in a statement cambridge analytica said the comments by nix does not represent the values or operations of the company. cambridge analytica says it is proud of the work it did for the campaign cambridge analytica is at the center of that ongoing dispute over alleged harvesting and use of data from over 50 million facebook users and we'll have stocks to watch, but santoli is here twitter, that's the wilfred
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pronunciation. what was the story with twitter yesterday? >> yesterday it had to do with social media >> social media companies are guilty until proven innocent the scrutiny of it and how they have to scrub it and filter it the chart of twitter went up 35, a crazy short squeeze. yesterday twitter and snap sold off with facebook and alphabet is also struggling here. i put a chart out on f.a.n.g. yesterday, amazon and netflix slanted up to the moon now facebook and alphabet have been stagnant and now going down. it's because the digital ad support, people are concerned whether that whole ecosystem is suspect. >> facebook yesterday just watching it, started down three, four, five, got down -- don't know if it hit ten, but down eight or nine.
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that would have been another 5% or 6% after the day before stocks do that i was doing the math on the market cap losses in billions -- >> $50 billion. >> it closed the day before at 500 billion, it was at 475 billion briefly yesterday. it wasn't down nine, it was only down four and a half or so, but closed at 168, this morning at 164. it will test the lows it hit yesterday. i think it's regulators will look at what's going on, how they protect data. i don't think it's gotten to the point where the whole -- for me, the whole idea that looking at your screen, at vacation pictures, that that's worth making a 777 it's worth twice as much as boeing or the other points i was making yesterday, you add walmart and
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boeing together, it was less than twitter did you see that comcast -- wouldn't you like to own comcast? throw in disney. then just for good measure i'll throw in a netflix all three of them added together were worth less than facebook. >> they touch 2 billion people but the case was always not just that digital advertising is this wonderful new world, it was that the box figures it out on its own. this is a magical network that the advertisers find the eyeballs, it's low touch >> the exact eyeballs they want. >> and it's magic. but that's going away. >> withtwitter they never figured out how to make money out of all these things. but i guess the reason the stock was down this will cut off some avenues that you may have had. >> it won't make it more popular. it won't make it lighter regulated. all the things are moving in the
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direction of lower profit margins if nothing else. >> for me it's like, okay, you can advertise better with google sorry, with facebook walmart decides i have a gazillion stores in every neighborhood of the country. i will sell more of what i do, if i put this advertising on facebook so the distribution of that advertising on facebook is worth more than what they're actually paying for the advertising is worth? >> and making it up on volume. so the appeal to the advertiser was i have a better return on my investment my return per eyeball reached is higher >> is there anything else with facebook you're not telling me do they own web services >> that's the thing. it's a pure model. >> they don't have anything else >> they have things like instagram and oculus >> and whatsapp. >> they have whatsapp, okay.
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but they don't control the cloud. i can always fall back on that with amazon. >> they can't flip the switch off on the internet like amazon can. >> i respect that. >> when i say, god, that has a huge valuation, people go web services there's nothing with it. it's still the va ways picatione on facebook? >> it's a little more than vacation >> everybody else's life is better look at my vacation. i when to the jersey shore they're in tahiti. that's the whole thing should get off this. >> exemployploiting human envy s worth a lot of money >> we're still doing stocks to watch? >> you never started >> salesforce is buying mulesoft for 5.9 billion in cash and stock.
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the deal values mulesoft at $45 a share. a 36% premium to monday's closing price. mulesoft creates applications to allow companies automatically to integrate software devices and data and helps networks run faster mules go very fast from what i understand wouldn't you be race horse -- >> reliable and determined >> thoroughbred soft i don't want to be a mule. donkey soft. nordstrom ended buyout talks with the founding family saying they couldn't get them to raise their offer. earlier nordstrom rejected a $50 a share offer to take the company private. the family members own a third of shares. did you see there's a nordstroms in manhattan now >> really? >> 57th street >> it's going up starting it's there, nordstroms coming. it's the first one, isn't it
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>> i think it's the first. >> there might be one of the nordstrom rack stores somewhere. >> the piano ♪ >> the shoe department they were always better than everyone else because of that. do they still have that? they cut corners >> i walked by one maybe a year ago. it was not playing the piano was there. >> i would have a player piano and have some schmo, bring him off the street you don't need that. fedex expects better-than-expected third quarter results helped by a stronger economy and higher volume and shipping rates, however it was offset because of disruptions because of bad weather. and we will talk to an analyst at the bottom of the hour to talk about those results. the company has been in the news with the package exploding on one of the lines, one of the
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conveyor belts >> i believe that's how they were able to track down the suspect. they got video from a fedex -- >> put some cell phone data and stuff together >> that's how they tracked the suspect. at least according to early reports. back to business, the federal reserve's two-day meeting will wrap up today the market is widely expecting a rate hike. joining us is joe lavorgne and joining us from chicago, jim murio. joe, let's start with you. we are widely expecting basically everybody is expecting a quarter point rate hike and expecting that you'll hear from jo jay powell and he will be tame when it comes to his concerns about inflation. >> right and the fear is that the fed might open the door to four
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hikes. but then also because the fed gets more cautious next year because of the tax cut package and the data has been good the fear is he's more hawkish going forward. >> jim, let's try and play that out from short-term trading perspectives it sounds like there's not much good news that could be coming from this today as far as the markets are concerned. you won't see him be extremely dovish >> well, the good news would be if he doesn't talk much about inflation. remember, it was a month and a half ago with the unemployment numbers, there was the tiniest bit of wage inflation and that began this cascade i'm not saying this corrective phase was the cause of that. but that was the straw that broke the camel's back if they start talking too much about inflation, that could
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scare the market to me it's the psychology of the correction, if the market trades badly today, tomorrow, the rest of the week, below 2690 in the s&p, that's a signal the correction is not over yet for ten-years they've been saying wanting to get some inflation to inflate their way out of problems, if the first sign of it they get scared that would be weird to e. >> the first problem is when jay powell spoke to congress and talked about overheating in the economy. if he said overheating again today, some people said that was a rookie mistake, others say he just is speaking his mind. if he used phrases like that, how would the market react >> we would not like that. the fed said we would be willing to let the economy run a little bit hot to make sure we're out of the woods before we got aggressive with hiking
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that's the rhetoric we want to hear if he talks about inflation and says there's a worry about overheating. this will be a difficult process to get -- a stock market rallying for years based on zero rates -- rallying now based on a real live recovery story, the economy is doing well, but there's a lot of spending coming out of washington. there's tariffs, these things are inflationary if they're worried about it, he conveys that, i would worry. >> that's the market's wish list, but then again -- not you, the other will he be looking at >> i hope he doesn't talk about overheating. that's crazy talk for me the fed has not had a 2% inflation target for years the headline and core pc are running under 2% since '95 i would love if the xweconomy overheated
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i don't think it can by the way, if weget 3% growth this year, it will be in business spending and the deflator in business spending is zero it's noninflationary growth. it would be great if we overheated >> one question when it comes to how many the fed would like to put on the table, how many rate hikes, sometimes phrased as a question of how much are they willing to let the treasury curve flatten. how much are they willing to raise short-term rates that assumes you know how the long end of the treasury curve will react to these rate hikes right now we're under 2.9 for the ten-year the two-year is at 2.35. we're definitely flattening, if they say we're good for three this year, maybe four, what would the ten-year do? >> i don't think it will selloff much we're at the point in the cycle where typically the curve typically flattens
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nobody has higher rates, not italy, not new zealand, not australia. no one to me the ten-year note is anchored the fed has to be careful on not raising rates too much >> jim, you said if we were trading around 2690, if trading was rough today the rest of this week you would think the correction is not over what would make you think it is over if we have good solid moves higher i do think it's probably over now, but i won't bet the farm on that sometimes these corrections are hard to figure out remember the fundamental thing of it from a positioning standpoint is people forget about what risk feels like, then everybody looks at their portfolio and says i was probably overweight in stocks. i should put in an order to rebalance. the question becomes how many waves of that there is there's been two, three of those waves. that's probably enough again, if we start to get weak from here, i'll think it's the
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fourth it's all in the broader upward move and in another month we'll forget about this nightmare. >> jim g , good to see you, joe thank you. we're days away from another potential government shutdown. lawmakers are scrambling to pass a new spending bill by midnight friday to keep the lights on in washington ylan mui has more. >> it's another day and still no deal on funding the government beyond friday at midnight. republican leadership planned to finish negotiations last night, that didn't happen i'm starting to hear rumbling that they may need another to gap spending measure to buy themselves more time or go into another brief shutdown this weekend. mitch mcconnell said yesterday that maek makers will finish thr
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job even if they blow the deadline >> we'll do it this week as long as that takes, that's the time we'll put in to get there. >> the outstanding issues remain funding for the gateway tunnel between new jersey and new york that is important to key lawmakers from both sides of the aisle and money for the border wall democrats are opposed to this, especially without concessions for undocumented immigrants who came to america as children. one aide said there's lots of issues to resolve but there's a resolve to resolve them. wrap your head around that the house will vote on a deal tomorrow afternoon, but it's unclear if that's still the target timeline. we are bracing for the big snowstorm in d.c the federal government announced they're shutting down for the day. so the prospect of reaching a de compromise by friday is getting dimmer >> where is that tunnel supposed
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to be? next to the lincoln? do you know, ylan? the gateway tunnel, where will it be in. >> under the hudson. >> i understand that next to the holland? >> i don't know if it's between the lincoln and the holland or north of the holland >> that would be good for us it's an hour and a half to get in here, it's a mile it's like being in l.a >> we're talking about a train tunnel >> can't they stick in a car lane next to it for a high-speed -- >> buy your way in. >> e-zpass "squawk box" -- >> that's why there's bipartisan support for this the head of the house appropriations committee is from new jersey he wants money for gateway in there. the white house doesn't want it. trump has been opposed to it maybe you couldtalk to him and get him to come around on that >> on the tunnel you can drive your car on to the train
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is there anything like that possible for me? is it still -- can we introduce it what is the joe kernen rider in the omnibus, i'm not sure. >> if they go through the trouble of -- sounds like a big job. >> they've got to dig it >> to go under the entire river, can't they stick a lane for cars in there really no >> i can't say i have experienced that part of the new jersey/new york commute. what i can tell you is that part of the question here is not direct funding for that project but increasing grant programs that the project would be eligible for so this is really sort of an indirect way of funding that project and that's what's up for debate >> it's not like becky and i don't pay enough taxes in new jersey i'm not sure, right? >> mm-hmm. >> especially with those limits on the property taxes. >> south of lincoln. >> but only trains
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if i take a train, i get into the city right away. that's not the problem the problem is trying to drive in here. >> the problem is those tunnels, the existing ones are so bad it's constantly shutting down amtr amtrak, new jersey transit and everyone else. >> all right, just a thought if you see them, bring up the cars, maybe. all right. when we come back this morning, as we have been talking about, the northeast bracing for a fourth winter storm in the last three weeks. we'll get your business travel update after this break. at 6:30 a.m., linkedin will reveal its list of the most attractive places to work. >> don't tell anyone is your company going to be on the list of the top ten? find out in 8 1/2 minutes.
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morgan brennan has our northeast travel update. >> so this is the fourth time this month that travel has been upended in the northeast region. here at laguardia, the snow has not even begun to fall yet yet if you looyou look at this d behind me, there's a row of red. flight aware says so far ahead of this snowstorm we have 3300 flights into, out of and around the u.s. that have been canceled you might be wondering without a flurry outside why are we seeing all these cancellations? experts say the ability to get up and running after a major weather event hinges directly on preparation. and after three events already this month the airlines are getting faster and more proactive about this you think fewer planes and crews stranded at an airport like laguardia, the faster service
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can resume and less cost accrued for the airlines so here at laguardia it's still relatively active. we actually caught up with a number of travelers that are hopeful their early a.m. flights will get out today >> we moved up from 9:30 to 7:30 and are getting out of dodge >> was your original flight canceled >> it was. they canceled the 9:30 flight. >> did you have a hard time finding another flight >> no, they were able to move us up >> we're right on time we were canceled twice yesterday, and today we're right on time. we're excited. >> did you have to rebook your flights? >> twice all afternoon into the night last night >> one flight on stand-by. fingers crossed. >> so flight aware points out that due to all of the proactive cancellations ahead of this event, theflights that are scheduled to get off, the upside
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of those flights there's less strain for de-icing and ground operations and given the fact we've seen airlines wavering change fees days ahead of this event, there will be fewer stranded travelers here at laguardia. that's key because this storm is expected to start later this morning, expecting up to a foot of snow here which would be a record for this time of year operations at laguardia are expected to grind to a halt after that ackccrues on the ground for travelers heading in and out of the northeast region today, other modes of transportation keep an eye on we see service modifications for amtrak including dozens of trains scrapped on that northeast corridor back to you. >> thank you, morgan. coming up, linkedin preparing to unveil the list of the most desirable companies to work for i think "squawk box" should be atthe top. and we'll tell you what
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if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. ♪ welcome back you're watching "squawk box" live from the nasdaq market site in times square. welcome back right now it's time for the squawk planner the fed is the focus on the wall street agenda the central bank will announce its rate decision at 2:00 p.m. eastern time followed by the economic forecast and then jay powell will hold his first news conference as fed
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chairman, that's at 2:30 p.m. eastern time on the economic front, data from the current account and existing home sales as for earnings, tencent, general mills and winnebago before the opening bell. five below is out after the bell us equity futures this morning are mixed. the dow futures are indicated up by 12 points s&p up by 2. the nasdaq down by 10. >> if you are just getting up, the suspect in the bombings in austin, texas is dead. police say the suspect blew himself up with an explosive device earlier this morning. that was after a confrontation with law enforcement officials they traced him to a hotel in roundrock, texas, an austin suburb which i know of because of dell. the bombing attacks killed two people and injured four others over the past few weeks. the suspect's identity has not
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been revealed, but police chief brian manley believes he's responsible for all the recent incidents. president trump just tweeting the austin bombing suspect is dead great job by law enforcement and all concerned. if you're in austin, you are really breathing a sigh of relief, but i think all of us are thankfulbreathing a sigh of relief that this is over switching gears, there's some people waiting for powell and the fed and the decision many, many more about this linkedin survey. am i right >> that's right. >> people knew this was coming out. not coming out until 6:30. will your companying on the list and comcast was. often it seems like america is turning to amazon for just about everything to buy. but breaking news, we all want
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to work there as well. that flies in the face of conventional wisdom. the last thing i read is people were overworked, 16 hours. >> that was in the "new york time times" >> enough said that did not make the list linkedin is unveiling its list of top companies right here. these are the employers most sought after by professionals. dan roth is here how is the methodology working pandora is gone. spotify is on. >> yeah. >> how do you -- what's the methodology? >> this is a list based on actions of professionals we use billions of actions and four buckets we look at. number one is how many people are applying -- how many people are applying to open jobs and viewing these open jobs. these are jobs on linkedin and not on linkedin. we look at the engagement with an employee's company page and any kind of news the company is
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putting out. are you choosing to follow this company. and are people looking at the employees of the company and doing research on who they are these are non-employee views of people of the company. and the last is retention. when they get hired, do they stick around >> a lot of things can happen. i didn't know this about oracle. building a diverse work force. opened a charter school, public charter school on its campus for s.t.e.m.-based education >> for kids of employees >> this is an open school. a public school. it's a high school it's designed to teach people s.t.e.m. skills. >> larry fink -- this, i could get behind in terms of social responsibility instead of the other normal pc stuff these guys decide to do this is good corporate citizenship. >> if you look at the list, so many of the initiatives these companies are doing are designed
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to keep employees engaged. for you some of the other ones might not work for you >> ping-pong tables? >> the ping-pong tables do not play a factor. at amazon, no free lunch that flies in the face of most tech companies. >> literally -- is that an expression or there is no free -- >> no. no there is no -- there is literally no free lunch. >> at the end of the day -- becky said yesterday, at the end of today you're talking about no free lunches. >> no literal free lunches there are vending machines you go and you're expected to be super frugal at amazon, but you take on huge projects. that's what a lot of employees are saying on average they work at these places five years. a bit over five years. then they move on. they want stuff that looks great on their resume, where they take on hard problems, talk about it
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afterwards, and where their parents understand companies that they're working at. >> amazon, alphabet, facebook. this is before >> we end at the end of january. >> salesforce, tesla, apple, comcast -- >> congratulations >> i'm glad it's on there. seven seems low for how great comcast is walt disney. great to be ahead of disney. >> yeah. >> oracle and netflix. those are the top ten. >> tech -- of those top ten, tech are the majority seven or eight if you include net flick >> you're talking about all the data, that's how you come up with it. you look at what people are doing on the network we've been talking about facebook and the social media companies. they've been hit hard because people are suddenly looking at data mining differently. what do you do at linkedin are outside vendors allowed to come in and take that data or is this stuff you're mining
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yourselves >> this is not my area, but we keep it close to the vest. this is data used to help people find jobs, find opportunities, used if you're a recruiter, advertiser, you come and use the data to try to get people and candidates you want to reach >> how many employees does amazon have? >> about 500,000 employees they grew 60% last year. >> how much is management, how much is just the low jegistics f trying to run that place it's all good, people just want to work there. they get some stock or something? >> they get a lot of stock there's a lot of freedom to work on the things you want to work on and management tries to clear any roadblocks to go after the changes or to develop the products you want to develop if you look at their job openings with things like ai, coming up with new pack canalling, food distribution,
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moving robots around warehouses, it's like a candy store for all the different things that you might want to do and skills you could gain >> everything that you were saying about this sort of sense of mission that you want to give these employees, they want to be told they're taking over the world. every other tech company has to foster that idea at amazon it seems literally true i wonder if there's a sweet spot they're in and the hyper growth phase where they can't really make any wrong moves and maybe that will get more complicated down the road if they keep growing at this pace >> we knows there a link between company's brand and the employment brand amazon is a hot brand. so if that changes, could that change for amazon? absolutely but right now their openings are in places where people want to work it feels like amazon is taking over the world or changing the world. you would rather be part of the pane doing that rather than the
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part of the company that's being disrupted by amazon. >> when were these results polled facebook is at number three. i think employees areprobably feeling under siege now. >> 12 months ends at the end of january. >> it's not about how employees feel >> that's right. as an example, uber was number five last year they had a horrible year last year they were still number five on our list and people were trying to get in the door at uber this year they're 12th so there may be a lag on how people see them and the retentions >> not to belabor this point, you can't speak for linkedin, but the whole idea of compiling data and searching it, it may be different for linkedin because people maycruiters to
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find them, but is it a conversation that's taking place? >> i've been at linkedin for seven years now, it's always been a conversation there about that you're trying to get people in front of the right opportunities to give them the news and information they need to be better prepared for what they want to do people on linkedin are there for a purpose. they're trying to connect with the right people, when they're sharing they're sharing about as close as you can get to your -- your professional record so they're careful about what they're saying there's no anonymity what you say, you know your boss is seeing every single thing you say, and your employees, future employees. when they provide their data, insights, pictures, they know what audience is they're reaching it's a different experience than
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elsewhere. >> every time the same people ask me to get on linkedin with them, do they do it again or does it automatically do it? >> i think it's automatic. >> it's like i'm not on. >> i think once a day i try to send you something >> you tried i'm not following you. it won't happen. >> it's going to happen. >> no, i don't think i'll be on there. >> is it free? >> it's free >> but then people bother you. >> you can turn it all off you can say don't bother me. i'm here to talk and share >> sometimes i try to look someone up, all the internet has on them is linkedin. i can't get in to see anything about them so i would be able to do that if i joined >> are you like a creepy stalker? >> yeah. what do you mean we've known each other for 12 years, you know that if you want to see the whole list go to cnbc.com. it goes to 50?
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>> in the u.s. 50. >> if you're 50, are you happy or geez, i'm 50. >> i think you're happy. >> you made the list >> you made the list >> is ge on there? >> ge is not on there. >> shocker thank you. >> thank you when we come back, privacy concerns driving shares of facebook down more than 10%. we'll talk about the company's future with ken auletta from the "new yorker. and then alex azar will join us to talk about trump's new plan to combat opioid addiction. and the fed may announce a rate hike today. we'll ask nathan sheets what to expect, he worked at the federal reserve for nearly two decades you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc tomorrow, it's a day filled with promise and new beginnings, challenges and opportunities.
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officially the chief executive of a real estate start up city storage system kalanick took to twitter saying his investment fund ten-one hundred is buying a controlling interest in the startup for $150 million. they seek to buy distressed real estate, particularly in the area of parking, retail and industrial and repurpose it for the digital era. brian acton, the co-founder of messaging app whatsapp is urging people to delete their facebook accounts following the coverage of the cambridge analytica privacy scandal. acton tweeted it is tim time, #deletefacebook. facebook bought whatsapp in 2016 >> was there a bad ending with that what's the history between those two? >> i think they were a locked in seller, that's why they took so much money and were never part
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of the facebook culture, but definitely interesting other former facebookers are following that hashtag. if you love starbucks unicorn frappuccino, the fut choo ure might hold a sweeter treat the crystal ball frap will be peach tea based with a white chocolate gem drizzle and turquoise sparkles yeah i tried the unicorn one, it was super sweet. >> yeah. did you look at the calorie count on that? >> no i was with the girls i took a sip that was the extent of it. probably 800 >> i'm sure i would like both of those a lot. >> not for 2,000 calories. >> it's 20,000,000 a day >> cue e2,000 is a stretch
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>> is 3,000 more likely? >> you won't hit it if you're drinking many of these >> no. speaking of starbucks, the company is holding its annual meeting today in seattle we will hear from starbuck's president and ceo kevin johnson later this morning on cnbc all right. up next, shares of fedex initially rose after posting an burnings and revenue beat t since pulled back. we'll talk about that with an analyst next 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.
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welcome back, everybody. fed ex shares initially traded up 4% after beating revenue and profit expectations. raising guidance for the year. the stock giving back all of its after hours gains. right now down by half of a percent. joining us is don broughton of broughton capitol. thanks for being here today. >> my pleasure. >> this looked like a pretty spectacular quarter for fed ex what happened with the stock reaction why was it up and then down? >> we've talked about this for
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years. it's one of the most gamd stocks out there going into earnings because no one else is releasing earnings, one. two, they're seen as a bellwether, rightfully so, on what's happening not only in the u.s. but the global economy. going into it every money manager out there, every hedge fund manager says i think they're going to beat, i think they're going to miss and they bet on one side or the other often you see the biggest boost in the stock in the weeks leading up to the print and then again and again they'll get the beat that they were looking for in the stock, it's been up already and priced it in so it's sell on the news >> you know, i bring this up only because it's in all of the headlines that the texas bomber suspect who was caught obviously was caught in part because of some footage that was taken at a fedex location where he was shipping some of those packages. my guess is that doesn't play into any of those stock moves but i'd like to hear your thoughts on it too >> well, you know, you've got to
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understand, i've said this for years about fed ex, really 20 plus years i've said that when you first start looking at this company you say, oh, it's a transportation company, but it's really not it's a technology company disguised as a transportation company. whether you look at the technology they employ to track packages, to monitor what's happening. literally, you know, james barns dl dale was the cio of fed ex and a little kid from illinois came to pitch this idea that you could get all of the fedex terminals all interconnected via this little thing he had developed called a browser the technology roots of this company go back decades and it really is, in essence, a technology company disguised as a transportation company. >> it made an announcement this week that it's going to be bringing its stores into all of walmart stores, 500 walmart stores over time
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couldn't make me -- it made me think of amazon and what amazon is threatening to do in terms of delivery systems maybe fedex is upping its game, too. >> absolutely. you have to have access to their services everywhere. the more places you have access to those services, the more likely you are to use the services this debate goes on about amazon i continue to have the position that amazon is just doing what amazon -- what large retailers do, which is build out part of their infrastructure at first mile, last mile. you have to remember that amazon is still 1/5 the size of walmart. >> sure. >> there's plenty of business out there to be had without amazon taking over everything. >> don, thank you for joining us today. >> always a pleasure. coming up, first on cnbc interview with the secretary of health and human services, alex ar oazn president trump's new push against opioid addiction. that's next.
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wait and see that's the approach of investors ahead of today's big fed decision what to watch is straight ahead. >> facebook fallout. >> mark! >> shares continue to tumble in the wake of that major data collection scandal co-founder of what's app tweeting to delete the social media app. we'll speak to him about the privacy dispute and what regulations could be coming. weather alert. >> big blizzard moving in. >> what blizzard it's a couple of flakes. >> another major snowstorm is bearing down on the northeast. what you need to know before heading out for the day as the second hour of "squawk box"
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begins right now live from the beating heart of business, new york. this is "squawk box. >> good morning, everybody welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc we are live from the nasdaq market site in times square. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen in for andrew is mike santoli. good morning again. >> good morning. >> let's take a look at u.s. equities this hour you're going to see that right now it looks like things are mixed. dow up by 27 points. s&p futures up by 3 and nasdaq down by 13 points. in our headlines at this hour the federal reserve will be out with the latest interest rate decision and policy statement this afternoon that starts at 2:00 p.m. eastern time it's all considered -- it's considered all but certain that a rate hike will be announced.
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that will be followed by jay powell's news force. and then salesforce.com is buying mulesoft. the stock had popped during the day yesterday on reports that a deal was near, but you can see this morning mulesoft up another 4% salesforce down by 2.5%. the founders of nordstrom have ended talks about a possible deal. the discussions had been aimed about taking nordstrom private but the two sides couldn't agree on an acceptable price. >> breaking news, the suspect in this month's series of bomb attacks in austin, texas, is dead according to police chief brian manley he blew himself up with an explosive device followed by a confrontation with law enforcement officials. manley says officials believe the suspect is responsible for all of the recent incidents which killed two people and
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injured four others. the suspect has not been identified yet publicly. you always see a lot of things i'm not sure it's confirmed 24-year-old individual hopefully solely responsible for what happened that i guess at this point -- >> it's been three weeks for that city being terrorized. >> solely responsible? >> we hope it will probably take them some time to track all of this down. >> i know they're not saying that absolutely. >> nah, that's what i mean hopefully it's over. couple of stocks to watch. amazon has now passed google's parent company alphabet to become the world's second most valuable company public company aramco might be -- now only trails apple amazon has a market cap of $768 billion as of yesterday's close. apple's market cap is 889 billion. amazon has added roughly 350 billion in value over the past
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year. >> wow. >> if it does it again it will be the first to a trillion i've always -- maybe apple gets there. maybe apple's already entered a slower growth stage than -- >> what do you think >> apple is working against itself because it's buying up so many of its shares so that doesn't directly mean the stock goes up proportionately. they're almost kind of fighting the rush to a trillion. >> exactly still doing pretty well. u.s. public pension fund calstrs says it's opposed to tesla's proposal for the pay package to elon musk it doesn't include a salary or cash bonus but sets rewards based on tesla's market cap rising to 650 billion over the next decade. that could give musk control of 1/4 of the company. do the math. 100 billion. whenever i intro dom, was he
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named after the champaign? >> we could ask him. >> let's bring on some dom it's a good feeling i always have. >> dom >> because it makes thee think of celebrations and things popping and fizzles. >> dominic. >> i know it's dominic but -- >> dominic. >> dom, you're always smiling. >> i'm going with santoli here my mother would tell me she was going for the dominic approach. >> the guy that made the champaign is probably dominic, too. doesn't mean you can't think good thoughts. >> i appreciate it i get warm and fuzzy every time i'm on this show with you guys on "squawk box" because of the vast amount of love that all of you guys always have for us ♪ tiny bubbles >> tiny bubbles is the ones that are out there. i feel pretty interesting because of my name i've been giving a lot of grief about it or some notoriety a chinese guy with the name
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dominic and i'm catholic. >> can't be pinneddown. >> your march madness skills stand out. what a confounding season. i watch you, you have 44 right or something >> the sunshine's on a dog's you know what once in a while. >> that's not true >> hasn't shined on mine. >> no, i will say this just to set the record straight. i'm very happy about the fact that i'm first place in the tv newser bracket challenge but i and a number of others have villanova going to the final i have villanova winning if everybody else plays perfectly i am not likely to win this because i don't have enough points total >> i still think villanova will win but given the stuff we've seen, anybody can beat anyone on any given day. >> benning allized or retrieverized. >> benning allized my guys i'm going to find out whether marvin lewis went in and gave
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them a pep top i think he gave them some tips. >> i think you're fairly well sourced on all things cincinnati. >> it's cool i take it back >> dom, you want to talk facebook >> yeah, let's talk facebook you threw around some massive market cap numbers in the last couple of minutes with regard to amazon, apple, everything. the social media stocks out there, the biggest one is facebook it was nearly a half trillion dollar company in the last few days we have seen market caps plummet namely with facebook a 9% drop overall through yesterday's close and friday's close have lost about $50 billion worth of market value. you want to rough that out, that's roughly the size of an aig or marriott. we've lost that in terms of market cap twitter, a much smaller social media stock here has lost about 12%. that translates into a $3 billion loss you think of that losing the size of a bed, bath and beyond also snapping smaller than
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twitter at this point here lost maybe $1.2 billion. that's the size of an office depot for reference. so in total the $53 billion lost between friday's close and yesterday's close for facebook, twitter and for snap, inc., around $53 billion total we're talking big numbers for the social media space alone and something a lot of traders will be watching. we did see facebook shares bounce pretty decently from their lows yesterday you wonder whether or not there are folks out there figuring that this is a value it remains to be seen. facebook is still a wild card and the price drop in terms of market cap back over to you >> dom, when you turn around and look at that, you can actually see that, right? that's not like bill murray? not like the weather guys. >> no. look at a screen no this is actually a screen that's not a green screen i can touch it if i want. >> you need to be more talented.
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like the guys in jurassic park there were no raptors standing in front of them when they were afraid. >> there weren't >> who wihologram. >> in the control room they're calling it the kernen curse. it's any team you like. >> that might be true. thanks joining us now r.j. gall low, senior portfolio manager and head of the municipal bond investment group at federated. seth carpenter u.s. chief economist at ubs seth, you plotted it out you have your dots is the bias towards adding a couple of dots or subtracting a couple of dots. >> i think today the bias is likely towards adding. we go back in time to when jay powell did his testimony, his fir
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first semi-annual testimony, they thought they were going to do three the news has been the tax cuts will be more front loaded. the spending package is there. and inflation is looking better. that logical sequence necessarily leads you to adding another dot. >> as far as recessions, i also saw in your notes that not likely this year, next, maybe by 2020 it's even odds for 2020 based on does there have to be a reason or just the length of time for the expansion >> it's not the lent of time of the expansion. doesn't necessarily have to be a good reason up front bad things happen to good economies all the time this year things are looking pretty solid the fiscal stimulus should keep things humming along the probability is probably low but over time the probabilities accumulate we don't think there's going to be a disruptive trade war but you can't rule it out.
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there's some probability there by the time you get to 2020 the fed is going to be outright restrictive slowing the economy down and the boost that we're going to get this year and next from the fiscal package is going to start to roll off. >> so that can happen with inflation below 2%, within a year or two we could still be at a point where we get a classic recession where the fed actually puts the brakes on because they're worried about prices that actually could happen from these levels >> no the in my view if inflation stays below 2%. >> is there any other way to cause a recession? could the debt service on 4% ten year all of a sudden we be -- oh, my god, you know we're spending more on just maintaining the debt we have than we are on defense you can break it down and the debt service is more than we're spending on a lot of services. if it doubles, isn't that going to be a shock? >> i completely agree it's remarkable our projections have the deficit as a share of gdp getting up to
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over 5.5% in a couple of years that is absolutely unprecedented when you're not in a recession and so if, and we don't think of this as the base case, but there's always a risk that people can take a look at that, markets can take a look at that and step back. the higher interest rates from people stepping back from treasuries, that could be an adverse shock to the economy. >> r.j., i think you're a little bit more sanguine. no recession in three to five years? what's your view >> we think a recession is unlikely in the next three years. i have to agree that, you know, the fed has a bit of a track record, over tightening followed by recessions within the next 12 to 24 months is something you see often in history your point, joe, about the debt and the debt burdens suggest that the fed faces limits in how high they can go before we see call it some self-correcting mechanisms stocks, corporate performance,
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squeezing financial performance. i don't think we're apt to see the fed turn too aggressive for fear they go too far although the dots are biased higher today, i'm not sure the 2018 median dot is apt to go up. i don't know if the fed wins, if you will, by getting more aggressive right away. i do expect the trajectory of dots in the out years and maybe even the long run dot to shift higher that makes sense for all the reasons you guys discussed the economy is doing bet jefrmt there are a lot of headwinds turning to tailwinds that's what we're expecting. >> you know when they send out, guys, like we had bullard on, we've had torley evans on. they go to great lengths to say we're not doing anything in a hurry. >> i don't know that they send them out. >> maybe they don't. they're in a tighten mode. what they need to say is don't get too nervous. we're not going to do it too quickly. >> they're going to call it gradual if it's every meeting
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raising rates. >> that's right. if you go back to the last hiking cycle i was at the fed then preparing the documents for the committee. 25 basis points eight times a year we thought that was the slowest hiking going up to four hikes that's half the pace of the slowest hiking cycle. >> yesterday, r.j., i was watching the news and i saw some people in puerto rico finally get power. >> they still have 100,000 people who are without power there. >> when you came on i saw muni bonds as your fort you've got to watch it with muni bonds for a lot of reasons, right? do you have any floating rate muni bonds that i can buy that are gos of a state. >> your point on puerto rico, we've been extremely light for many years in that name. it's got many challenges i don't think illinois follows puerto rico's script if you look at the debt to gdp
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in puerto rico before the crisis, before the default and you include pensions, it was over 100% of the size of their economy. in illinois it's like 1/3. is it that low no, but i don't think illinois follows the path of puerto rico. an american state and a commonwealth are very different. credit researching munis are very important there are good stories to be had. generally the media doesn't focus on that. your state, the state of new york's pensions are much better funded than illinois the state where you're broadcasting from. and i think that if you look across the country you'll see there's really -- there's more state-funded pensions at a more healthy level than people would realize. >> right. >> difficult stories that get told. >> new jersey. >> new york is fine but the attitude of people to my state, new jersey is so -- >> new jersey is one of the painful children along with kentucky and illinois. >> the way people feel about new jersey gives me the right to not, you know, be nice to the
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way -- you know, they -- >> you need license. >> andrew thinks new jersey exists for them to ship garbage -- >> i'll make an observation. it's free to drive to new jersey you have to pay to get out i love new jersey. >> that's really -- that's a messed up thing. r.j., thank you. >> let them think what they want. >> i had a ubs account you're going back there. chief economist? >> can you just check and see and look at the asset allocation. >> i will do everything that i have authority to do. >> go back and check, see if i'm okay okay you seem smart if you get a chance, check out my account, see if i'm positioned correctly for what you think is going to happen. >> thank you. when we come back, the founder of what's app telling everyone to delete facebook as regulators swarm over data privacy. we will speak with ken auletta about the fallout after this break. later, the best real estate markets for investments. ah, the music. robert frank brings us a special
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what's app is urging people to delete their facebook accounts he tweeted it is time #deletefacebook. joining us to talk about the social media company that has come under fire is ken auletta new yorker magazine staff writer whose book "frenemies" is out this june. ken, you're chronicaling all of this at the perfect time what do you think the bigger issue, the bigger problem is that this is now kind of being highlighted by >> if you get inside the head of anengineer at google or facebook, what you find is someone who loves data because they see data as unlocking the mysteries. and giving them information. they don't think about privacy a they think about data as virtuous what's happened is the data has gotten them in trouble because they haven't focused on privacy. >> i can understand that, just the wonder and the awe and we're doing these things because we can but i almost think there's a
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bigger problem here. there are supposed to be adults in the room who are managing the company and it seems like they're not even sure what they've done with their own data, which is probably why we're not hearing from them now. that seems like it goes back to good old-fashioned greed we're giving the da to anybody who will give us a dollar. >> for years we said the television business, the audience was not the audience or the viewer, it was the advertiser, and that's what's happened with facebook and google they get so much money from advertising, facebook alone generates more income from advertising than all the newspapers in the united states do that's their business, advertising. and the problem is that now they've gained mistrust from the public and from governments and how do they deal with that they've been very slow, as you suggested earlier, to respond. zuckerberg's been missing in action. >> i can understand while they're still trying to figure out what happened. >> yeah. >> how do they dig their way out of this or can they?
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particularly with the regulatory scrutiny that's coming down. >> not just in the u.s., around the world particularly in the western world where there's privacy laws you feel this tsunami building up here. it's republicans as well as democrats saying, hey, wait a second, what are you doing with that data? who gave you permission not to police it? >> the truth is we did, the users kind of signed our lives away with some of these things i don't think we realized what we were doing at that point. >> and the promise of facebook and for social media in general has always been to make that better match between the eye balls and the publications we did everything to find out who that read was, what the profile was and tell the advertisers we were going to reach this audience. facebook said we know specifically how you can target these people, better return on investment it's the reverse of facebook that's being challenged.
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>> the idea for them works only if they have trust if you trust, if government trusts they don't have too much power and don't abuse it what's happened now is mistrust has become the narrative for facebook and they have to address that >> how steep of a road is this i mean, we're in the middle of -- we've been watching market capitalization they've lost $49 billion over the last two trading days. that tells you what wall street thinks instantaneously that's a near term report card and doesn't tell you about people who really are putting a lot of their information on this and continue to have their social networks. >> i think one of the things that's worth watching is this antitrust trial with at&t because at&t is going into that saying you have to allow us to combine with time warner. >> otherwise we can't compete? >> we can't compete with the facebooks and goingless with their deep pockets if they win that case, that strengthens the argument to do something about the power of a facebook and a google. >> i hadn't thought about how
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this could potentially play into the at&t trial that's taking place. by the way, that's been suspended starting on thursday now because of the snowstorms there. that's a good point. thanks for joining us. coming up, health and human services secretarial leks azar on the opioid crisis stick around time now for today's aflac trivia question. when was the london stock exchange founded the answer when cnbc's "squawk box" continues 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
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♪ ♪ california dreaming on a winter's day good morning, everybody. welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc we are live from the nasdaq market site in times square in the middle of this approaching nor'easter, the fourth out of the last three weeks let's get to some of the stories that are front and center this morning. mortgage applications fell by 1.1% last week that's according to new figures
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from the mortgage bankers association. new purchase applications did rise but that was negated by a drop in refinancing activity mortgage rates were virtually flat for the week. the average 30 year rate is at 4.86%. earnings out from food maker general mills. beating estimates with a quarterly profit by 79 cents a share. the company lowered its full year outlook because of increasing cost pressures. you can see general mills shares are down by more than 6% this morning. germany's bayer has won eu approval to buy mon technicisan. that deal is still under review by u.s. authorities. >> if you loved or even know what starbucks unicorn frappuccino was, the future might hold a sweeter treat they're releasing a crystal ball frappuccino as soon as tomorrow according to intercepted
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instructions the crystal ball frap will be peach tea based and turquoise sparkles starbucks will be holding its annual meeting today in seattle. we'll hear from starbucks president and ceo kevin johnson on "squawk on the street" at 9:30 eastern. as we mentioned, happy spring first day of it. another nor'easter slamming into -- >> second day? >> 21st, isn't it? >> 21st. >> noon yesterday. okay solstice is generally around the 21st of any month. >> i thought so. >> whatever. it is now approaching the new york city area and much beyond that the entire eastern seaboard has been affected by the storms. thousands of flights up and down the east coast have been canceled ahead of that storm morgan brennan joins us with more morgan, it seems like the airlines have gotten better and better about really being proactive and trying to make these cancellations and get the word out well before things actually happen.
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>> reporter: absolutely, becky and that is what we're seeing with this being the fourth major storm to hit the new york area and the northeast region in general. that is very much what we're seeing here today. so the snow is starting to fall here at laguardia outside as the new york area. many other parts of the northeast brace for what could be a foot or even more of snow today, but as you see behind me on these boards, the departure boards, a lot of the flights here coming out of laguardia are canceled flight aware says that more than 3300 flights have already been scrapped those are flights coming into and out of and across the u.s. today. just to put this in perspective with this being the fourth storm for this month, already for march this is a record number of flight cancellations that's according to flight aware, since they started tracking the data in 2013. more than 10,000 flights have been canceled just for this month alone. it really speaks to how much the weather is ensnarling this key part of the u.s. which is such an economic engine we're seeing that play out
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financially. there's a financial impact planolytics says this will impact retail sales by 3 to $3.5 billion. money that would have been spent, won't be spent. sales in restaurants down 3% this week nationally versus last week apparel, which specifically spring apparel since it is the season and this is how stores are stocked, is also expected to be down 5 to 10% across the u.s. this year versus the same period last year. that is all due to this storm according to planolytics as you can see behind me, last hour still pretty active right now it is very much quieting down. we have some travelers sort of coming in to make one of the handful of flights that have not been canceled. overall as the snow begins to fall and accumulate throughout the day the expectation here at laguardia is that operations are
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really going to grind to a halt. back over to you. >> pretty amazing, morgan, three weeks -- i actually have some questions i have my expert mike santoli here, morgan i don't know whether you can help me. five, ten years ago i was pretty sure everybody told me that my children would not know because of what was going on, they wouldn't know what snow was. it was going to disappear. >> i wouldn't remember that. >> then for a while it would snow and then it would be -- well, that's just weather. now if it's warm in the summer, that's global warming. if it snows -- like if there was no snow all winter long, that would definitely -- >> clearly you never saw the day after tomorrow when everything got cold. >> my question now is just happens to be weather or is this indicating global warming because it's causing snow? do we have it all figured out? >> i don't think each storm:con firms or denies.
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>> there's been a lot of snow. >> not really. frequency of storms. it doesn't mean -- >> we're still going to have snow, we know that see, i just don't know what the current thinking is on -- in the belief system of whether we're now actually saying this is -- indicates this is actually proving global warming or in spite of global warming? do you know whether we've flipped? >> i don't think the suspense builds or goes down day to day based on the storm i think there's a pretty -- >> when i troll these people they get so mad. if i just say i'm not sure it's all figured out, they get so mad. i've been excommunicated. >> that's just squawk. >> i've been excommunicated from the church of climateology. >> i don't know how i get back in i don't think i'm going to be able to. president trump made lowering drug prices, and they write me i go, talk to scott pruitt talk to the head of the epa. he's the guy you need to talk to drug prices have been made one
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of the top priorities for 2018 let's get an update on that initiative and more from alex azar mr. secretary, good to see you. >> good to see you. >> how many -- the plan to really deal with this, and when you look at the statistics and, you know, i grew up worrying about drugs, heroin, all of that stuff, i never thought it would get to this point where, you know, in a lot of communities around the country where every 911 call is someone they need to go to try to resuscitate again how do we make a dent in this? are you seeing any light at the end of the tunnel at this point? >> you're right. it's absolutely devastating. 116 americans are dying every single day from opioid overdose. i was up with the president in manchester, new hampshire, on monday we went to the fire hall there they get so many more calls. hundreds of calls for overdose in a month and maybe one structural fire.
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it's just shocking the impact this is having on our communities. that's why the president laid out a really bold, historic agenda here. he's tackling this with historic investment, very clear metrics on what we have to do to drive this problem down and part of it involves his commitment that within three years we will reduce by 1/3 the legal opioid prescriptions that we have in this country because that's the -- that's the intake of this -- of this addiction cycle that we've got on opioids. >> we also hear that if we're able to stop the influx from our southern borders, that that would be important and it's used to sort of, you know, build the case for the wall, et cetera. those were laid in -- it seems like these are prescription drugs a lot of times or is it coming up from mexico? is the opioid epidemic, how much of it is related to our porous borders on the south
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>> it's important to know how this disease continuum goes. so many people, the vast majority start with a legal opioid they have pain of some kind. they're given a legal opioid they become addicted they then eventually get cut off by their doctor, pharmacy or insurer. they then seek out the cheaper street illegal opioids like black tar heroin coming in from mexico, like this extremely potent and deadly fentanyl that comes in from men countries, including from china, and that's when we see the overdoses happen so much and this cycle that's leading to the death of so many people in our communities. so, yes, it's both the legal side of opioids that get so many people started but then it's how do we stop the in flow of these illegal drugs that people cycle into how do we punish those and how do we punish those and any bad actors in the system >> are those bad actors in the system, would they include some of the drug companies? because pharmaceutical company
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shares took a dive after president trump said he's considering suing some of them you're somebody who has worked in the pharmaceutical industry, one of the top executives at eli lilly. do you think the drug companies played a role in this too? >> i think there's blame all around in getting into this crisis there was a perfect storm that got us into this let me put it this way, between 1999 and today we are prescribing and using three times the number of legal opioids. i do not think that pain in america has tripled in the last two decades. now there have been some already who have been held accountable in the past couple of decades for illegal and unethical conduct in the marketing of legal opioids. we will be vigorous in looking for any other illegal and unethical behavior the justice department filed a statement of interest in some of the state attorney general's actions associated with pharma industries the state attorney generals
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looked into whether there are other civil or criminal charges to be brought in this context. i don't want to prejudge that. just to say if there is any kind of inappropriate conduct, we certainly will go after that to the full extent of the law. >> secretary, is the population, and i hesitate to call them addicts at this point, but the people that are dependent on these already that we have to deal with, how do we figure out a way of not stigmatizing people but trying to get them back to lead, you know, more normal or productive lives i mean, there's people that do say that maybe methadone or something that just is sort of a maintenance of their situation is better than thinking you're going to just cure everyone. and the stigma, you know, we've had a gentleman on whose son unfortunately ended his life because of the stigma and it wasn't really -- i don't think it -- there wasn't a stigma if he had been understood and
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didn't feel so bad about himself i'm not sure it would have happened it's a tough line to walk in this case. >> it is and i'm glad you've raised that. i've been very clear that the people who become addicted, this is not a moral issue these are not individuals who are seeking out to become drug addicts, who are seeking out a high, they are individuals who are getting trapped in a cycle of addiction because of taking legal opioids and then for reasons we do not fully understand, some people do become addicted to them and it becomes a medical issue that should be treated as a medical issue. that's why we are very supportive of, as you said, medication assisted therapy. for some people, they will go on other forms of opioids and opioid receptor blockers that will -- and they'll be able to be weaned off of those they will go back to living their productive lives having conquered their lives. for other individuals, they may
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remain physically dependent on other types of products that may be opioids or opioid like to enable them to live perfectly normal, stable lives that are not the product of addiction but mere continued physical dependence we have to remove the stigma on that because there's evidence based, scientific based ways of treating these that do work. >> we need to talk overall health care and ways to bolster the exchanges, but that's for another time it's worth while to spend all of the time on this, mr. secretary. please come back. >> thank you. >> reminder that next week on march 28th, cnbc will host our first ever health care conference called healthy returns. investing in health care information. we'll feature health care ceos and innovators investors can go to cnbc.com/healthyreturns for tickets and information. when we come back, special
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report on some of the hottest real estate markets around the globe. robert frank joins us with special guests. as we head to break, a look at your day ahead. the fed is the big focus on jay powell will hold his first news conference as fed chairman at 2:30 p.m. cnbc will have full coverage of all of that. also on the economic front today, we're going to get data on the current account and the existing home sale it for that. "squawk box" will be right back. i'm very proud of the fact
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they went through together. welcome guys. life well planned. see what a raymond james financial advisor can do for you. welcome back, everybody. breaking news right now on the spending bill. ylan mui joining us. >> reporter: becky, know foenegs are almost done. the final checks to come out between mid to late morning. a source gave me a rundown of what is in and what is out it includes $1.6 billion for border security. now that money is focused on technology rather than a wall, though it will include 33 miles
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of border fencing. it also includes money for that gateway tunnel between new york and new jersey by increasing funding for amtrak and for some other capital accounts there's also $2.8 billion in there for opioid funding, including treatment. there is no defunding of so-called sanctuary cities i'm also told that leadership of both the republicans and the democrats will be meeting in speaker ryan's office at 9:45 to hash out the final minor details that are remaining of course we will keep you posted on all the latest, guys back over to you. >> ylan, where does this put us in terms of where to be voted on for the senate we're still talking about hitting the deadline of midnight friday, right? >> that's right. the house voted on thursday. having the text out today would allow them to meet the house's deadline for voting on thursday but the senate has a very tight time line. one senator can hold up this process and can cause them to
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miss the midnight deadline on friday when the government runs out of money >> that would never happen, one senator? h'm. rand paul, we're looking at you. ylan, thank you very much. we'll see you soon. coming up, a special rort ep on some of the hottest real estate markets around the globe. "squawk box" will be right back. and to manage this risk, the world turns to cme group. we help farmers lock in future prices, banks manage interest rate changes and airlines hedge fuel costs. all so they can manage their risks and move forward. it's simply a matter of following the signs. they all lead here. cme group - how the world advances.
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robert frank breaks it down. >> real estate giants douglas and knight frank release their global report. howard lor ber is chairman and andrew hey thanks so much for joining us. andy, one of the great things about this report is what were the best performing markets last year, cape town is number two, and aspen number three for someone who wants to invest right now around the world, where should they put their money? >> robert, well, with howard sitting here i've got to say new york >> about time. >> new york. i'll buy something off you tomorrow new york and london, families stay as good bets. but in terms of opportunity, extraordinarily in our frankfurt, berlin and germany. germany is seen as a european safe haven the markets of new zealand is still looking cheap.
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>> germany, australia, new zealand. you think the next one to three years they'll see price gains? >> yes if you want to go for growth, yeah if you want to go for safety, new york, london. >> now this report said of all the cities in the world, the favorite city among the rich is new york city. howard, we have rising interest rates. we have this tax with salt deductions being eliminated and we have concerns about volatile stock markets which affect new york what is your biggest worry about new york city and sustaining the strength especially at the high end in real estate >> interestingly, enough very high end is the strongest market right now. >> what do you define -- >> let's say over 20, 25 million. traditionally it was 8 to 20 million, but those buyers still worry about things they worry how their business is going to do if they're in business they worry about bonus if they're a banker they worry about performance of their fund if they're a fund manager. they worry before they buy.
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>> the bottom end is doing well, the 1 to $2 million starter apartment, a little more accessible that's doing well. the very top, you're saying that middle to 5 to 20, 10 to 20 range is the weakest >> if someone is looking for a 50 million, $890 million apartment. they're not worried about anything, they see it, like it, buy it at the very low end they're buying for a need. if it's a foreigner coming in under the eb-5 program, they're going to buy, 1 million to $2 million apartment. >> andy, the most expensive real estate per square inch, $1 million buys you 130 square feet but if you look at italy, france, there are vineyards with chateaus for less money than it costs to buy a one bedroom in new york 2 million bucks, 1.55 buys you a beautiful chateau and vineyard in italy why are they so cheap if europe is doing so well >> europe has become fragmented. there's a lot of uncertainty
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the markets have fallen in the last three years yes, there is fantastic value to be had with the elections out recently in italy and the sharp lurch to the right. no one is quite sure about the lifestyle there. if you are looking for emotion and attachment -- >> are there americans buying that >> there's always been a few rome, valencia, they're there. it's across the board. we dealt with over 17 nationalities in those two markets last year. >> when you move there, how long before you come crawling back? i mean, what do you think? >> i already get to go there as part of my job why would i move there >> i'm trying to think it sounds great, a chateau i'd be over there and eventually you'd be like -- >> miss those 3:30 to 7:00 a.m. calls. >> there is a time and place in life where you might want to do that >> yes, it's an aspirational thing. >> people who aren't buying it
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for their primary home >> they would have a collection of four or five homes around the world. >> so when you get sick of that you can go to -- >> be back like channel surfing. >> assuming they have television. >> satellite thing watch "ncis. >> "law and order. >> oh, well, gentlemen, want to thank you very much for being with us today. we really appreciate it. robert, always great to see you. >> thank you. >> when we come back, jay powell's first fomc rate decision what you can expect this afternoon when that announcement happens and what it means for investors. that's all straight ahead. plus, check out the futures at this hour yesterday we actually saw green arrows for the market. this morning, mixed numbers. that is going to happen when we hear from the fmoc we'll beig bk. rhtac it's all yours. wow! record time.
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plus, in like a lion and out like one, too. calendar says it's spring but tell that to the 70 million americans in the path of yet another massive nor'easter today. the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now ♪ ♪ live from the most powerful city in the world, new york. this is "squawk box. good morning good morning, welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc live from the nasdaq market in times square what >> it's snowing. >> it's snowing. not sticking yet really supposed to start about noon and then go for like 12 hours. >> yeah. >> uh-huh. >> 1 to 3 inches an hour that adds up i'm joe kernen along with becky quick and mike santoli do you live in the city, santoli? >> i do. >> you don't even notice.
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>> underground, mile and a half, no problem. >> you should come out to the heartland where trees are down, roads are closed, power's out. >> got some exposure to that in different places. >> you like it at the met or the moma >> no, what's that >> i love this exhibit anyway, futures right now are indicated up a little. actually, down up, down up, down less than a point on the dow, down 15 on the nasdaq. s&p up a half a point. let's see where facebook which has been the story, improved, 165.50 to 165.69 so it closed at 168. down maybe another 2.5 points this morning. >> after losing $49 billion in market capitalization. >> in the last two sessions. yeah, almost 10% take a look at treasury yields big meeting today. big meeting. big. powell and all of his buddies.
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up 2.9% now on the ten year. let's get you caught up in what's making headlines this morning. congress racing to beat a midnight friday deadline to avoid another government shutdown ylan mui tells us that spending negotiations are nearly done her source tells her that that deal includes $1.6 billion for border security. funding for the gateway tunnel in new york, $380 million for election technology security and $2.8 billion for opioid treatment. the final text is expected later this morning that would be potentially what the house could vote on but then it comes down to when the senate could actually vote. there's the countdown for you to that shutdown. as joe mentioned, facebook shares are under pressure this morning amid questions of data privacy and what the company does with all of that data axios is reporting that ceo mark zuckerberg plans to speak out in the next 24 hours. you can see the stock right now down by about 1.5% this morning, 1 165.70
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the european commission releasing details of a tax plan that would penalize companies like amazon, google and facebook the eu would tax companies where they generate their business rather than where they're headquartered. that would increase the amount some companies have to pay in taxes. the eu's commissioner said it was an update of preinternet rules. >> joe >> yes, becky. new fed chairman jay powell will run his first policy setting meeting and then face the media for the first time senior economics reporter steve liesman joins us now with a look at primmer actually on how it should handle the annoying onslaught of the media, of which you are one, steve. >> yes >> one of the annoying -- >> no, not one of the a -- no, i'm saying you can help him. >> that's right. you know, he was five years a governor, joe, now he's heading his first meeting as the new
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chairman of the federal reserve. the big question is from the press, folks like me, what will be the 28th. we tried to count out this morning, the 28th fed chair press conference here are some of the challenges he faces we'll be looking for three or four rate hikes. thinking about what he says about the impact of tax cuts and stronger growth on the outlook for policy he's got this deficit issue out there and then inflation just how hawkish is he pegged this new fed chairman as a predator has this gone too far? powell said in testimony that he's more confident inflation is going to head back towards the 2% target. he's also sounded pretty dovish about wage growth. >> we see wages by a couple of measures trending up a little bit, but most of them continuing to grow at about 2.5% so nothing in that suggests to me that wage inflation is at a point of acceleration and so i would expect that some continued strengthening in the labor
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market can take place without causing inflation. >> little historical note here markets were convinced yellen was a dove but she ended up being the first fed chair to hike rates in ten years. she started the process of unwinding the balance sheets you go in, joe, with your ideas ahead of time. you have to be available for what may be different from what your prior thoughts were. >> did you just really say that hiking for the first time in ten years indicates that she's not a dove because she finally hiked after -- someone finally hiked after ten years, liesman someone had to do it that doesn't make her a hawk. >> didn't make her a hawk but it didn't make her quite the dove -- >> she didn't go 15 years? >> she hiked -- she hiked five times, joe and she also started the process of unwinding the balance sheet. >> i know. i know i know they're all kind of dovish, i think. maybe with good reason maybe with good reason. >> i think of central bankers the other way.
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i know you have nathan there i don't think anybody gets to be a central banker without having a primary concern about inflation. when you look at the results of what happened inflation wise, joe, that the course of policy under yellen was not the wrong course and now powell faces the same dilemma of strong growth and -- >> i have concern about inflation but i can understand you can have concern about inflation being too high i understand deflation and how horrible that is i don't know whether the -- you know, just the single-minded focus on getting back to 2% makes sense when you should be able to predict that 4% unemployment or whatever you ought to be anticipating, not reacting, you know, to a global synchronous -- >> do you have that model, joe, that tells you what's going to happen in the future nobody does. >> no, just the weather. i know how that's going to be in 2100, steve. pretty darn certain of it. that's all i'm sure of joining us now pgim fixed income economy nathan sheets
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i couldn't tell. you were listening to steve and -- >> yes. >> can you respond what do you think? should they be worried about inflation one way or the other or just one way? >> so my sense is that after more than a decade the federal reserve finally has an economy that is moving along a path consistent with the dual mandate. we've got solid growth, we've got a strong labor market and in addition i think the fed can plausibly say that inflation is moving toward 2% over the next year or so and i think the key challenge for jay powell is as he goes into this press conference in particular is not to do anything that disrupts where the economy is and specifically over the last few months we've seen a significant upward move in the ten year treasury yield. it's now trading around 2.9%
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i don't think the if he had needs a ten year treasury at 3% or higher. i think that will be a metric. i think he'll try to balance this. >> forget about looking at equity, he'll be watching the ten year. >> i think that is far more important than -- >> greenspan said that was what he watched. >> he's going to try to thread the needle he's not going to want to sound like a hawk and he's not going to want to sound like a dove he's going to want to sound like he's responding to the economy he realizes the unemployment rate is low and as a result of that there are inflationary pressures. i think he's going to balance that by saying we've been below 2% and we can allow inflation to run somewhat above 2%. >> when he spoke before congress and talked about the potential overheating of the economy, that word over heating is what spooked the markets. you think he'll stay away from that sort of phraseology >> i do. i think that was shorthand he was saying we recognize the unemployment rate as well with a low unemployment rate there are
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pressures on resources inflation could rise the other side of the equation is that inflation is still below the 2% as i said, i think it's on a trajectory to get there. they can absorb 2.2, 2.3% inflation for a while without any risks to overall economic activity >> just ties out that beacon of it. hawk i shallness sounds like more rate hikes in the near term
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.9% doesn't seem like it's a crazy idea to be there the risk would be at the up side, not the down side. >> i think a 2.9% treasury as you say is reasonable. we've seen a 40 or 50% basis point. the way the economy is is likely to proceed >> let's say that you paint the worst case scenario from blowing out the balance sheet and not being able to get it under control and having things go up too quickly, suddenly we can't handle the debt service. is there a worst case scenario for the fed got us into this and it's not easy to get out or have they already proven it's doable? >> so i think that the fed is going to be able to manage its balance sheet but the added debt
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that will be issued this year as a result of the fiscal easing creates some pressures on the treasury market. that's another source of upward pressure on the ten year treasury yield i think that could create some risk for us in the near term as the treasury market absorbs and then over the longer run as we manage these higher levels of debt. >> but the long sort of -- the global economy and the doldrums that we've been in for the past eight years or so, the amount of qe and stimulus that the fed and other central bankers orchestrated, that was appropriate? they didn't over shoot on that and there was so much lack of demand that we needed that you think that they were right to do it >> yes. >> even qe4, whatever we got >> yes i think that is broadly accurate and now i see the global economy at a place where it's starting to accelerate.
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things are feeling better than they did a year ago, and i think there were some headwinds on the economy. i'm not exactly sure what they were maybe it was bank -- bank lending in the united states and elsewhere. maybe it was animal spirits amongst the corporate sector that was weighing on investment and hence productivity i think there were some intense headwinds and central bank policies broadly offset those headwinds. but as the global economy, the u.s. economy performs better, it's very important now that policy pivot to a more normal stance that's the process we're talking about in the united states it's how rapidly that should proceed. >> you don't think it's sort of an anti-private sector administration for two terms explains why corporations were less hesitant to take the baton from the fed >> the -- one of the strengths i
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think of the trump administration is i think that their narrative is one that's more appealing to the business sector, and i'm hopeful that over the next few years we're going to see more investment, partially because of the tax cut, partially because there's more pressure in the labor market and it's maybe easier now to invest than to hire and also because of a more pro business focus, more pro business narrative. but at this stage those are hopes. we haven't seen the sustained expansion in investment. we'll see what happens. >> we can only see it a quarter the a time. >> that's right. >> we're seeing it so far. >> the forecasting is particularly hard when you're looking at the future. >> that's exactly right. i think -- >> i'm really good through the rear-view mirror. >> prediction's much harder about the future >> yeah. >> thank you
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yeah yogi, he couldn't have said all of those things, could he? >> he was pretty good. >> that was the name of his book, i didn't say all of the things i said. >> credit for a lot. >> yeah. >> some of them really are good ones, too. >> definitely said, that place is too crowded nobody goes there anymore. >> way too crowded, nobody goes there anymore. that's a good one. >> the logic >> yeah. >> nathan, thank you. >> pleasure. when we come back, the president and the crown prince we will talk about the high stakes of this week's u.s. visit by mbs and saudi delegation. and then if you are waking up on the east coast this spring morning, you probably have snow on your mind 70 million people are in the path of this nor'easter. we'll have the impact on businesses and consumers that's still aadhe stay tuned, you are watching "squawk box" on cnbc
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>> three minutes. >> i'm not going to troll anyone. >> ever or just at this particular -- >> they're so easy it's so -- >> i'd like to see you contain your trolling. >> i am. >> did i say the global warming is really coming down now? no, i did not say that. >> troll everyone. >> they're going to say it's not weather. it's not climate change unless it's hot in the summer this is not. >> keep a bridge over you. billy goat's gruff. >> welcome back to "squawk box." futures right now -- let's see, indicated down 13 on the dow nasdaq indicated down 17 and the s&p just down .6 just kidding just getting a rise out of you. >> like to stir things up. >> tarred and feathered. is there the death penalty forex pressing -- not yet. >> not yet >> okay. president trump met with saudi crown prince muhammad bin
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salmad at the white house yesterday. he urged mbs to continue to buy american weapons pushed strengthening ties between the united states and saudi arabia. >> saudi arabia is a very wealthy nation and they're going to give the united states some of that wealth in the form of jobs, in the form of the purchase of some of the finest military equipment. >> joining us is joseph westful. he's a senior global fellow. ambassador, thank you for being here today. >> glad to be with you, becky and joe. >> let's talk a little bit about what this means, this relationship to the united states and to saudi arabia what does each side need from the relationship >> well, the united states wants a stable -- essentially a stable and balanced nation in saudi arabia it's the largest nation in the middle east, 28 million people or more. it is critical for the united states to have that relationship
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in order to offset the incursions into the region by russia and certainly by iran and other countries. so i think it's a very important relationship and it's moving in the right direction in many ways, but there's a lot more work to be done and i think the prince's visit is -- you know, has a couple of goals in mind which we can talk about. one of them i think is that he wants to create an image back home that he is, in fact, a leader taken seriously by the united states. he meets with the president. meets with the congressional leadership meets with business leaders, key business leaders across the country. and works hard to bring u.s. investment into saudi arabia i don't know howhe might have reacted yesterday to the president's boasting about all of the weapon sales and all the money that the united states is going to gain saudi arabia saudi a airbus is more
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interested in u.s. and foreign investment in its own country. >> tlef' had some struggles with that recently particularly with what happened on mbs going on a corruption crackdown, locking up some of the prince's and others in the ritz carlton for that extended period of time. that has created a bit of a paul in terms of what had been to that point some excitement on the parts of the foreign investors in terms of being able to invest there. how does this play out >> well, it doesn't -- it doesn't play out all that well, i think, and one of the things that i advocated with the crown prince when i was ambassador and with president obama, and we were making some real efforts in this direction, is that if a u.s. ambassador wants to work investments into saudi arabia with partners in saudi arabia, there needs to be some sense of confidence and security in their legal system, in their rule of
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law system the idea that somehow you're going to -- you're going to invest in a country where you're not sure that you have all the protections, the legal protections that you might have, for example, in the united states or in other countries in europe is daunting for american companies or for any company for that matter. >> what should we -- go ahead. >> well, they need to -- i think with our help they need to reform their judicial system they need to create under law they need to provide that confidence for investors that ought to be a top priority of the crown prince. i think we were heading in that direction. >> their decision to go ahead and list saudi aramco on their own exchange instead of on an international exchange at this point, is that something of a recognition that, hey, we do things our way here right now. we're not quite ready to be held to the same standards that we would have been other places >> no, i don't think so. i think that that's a necessary
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domestic -- essential domestic move for them, but i think on the larger scale, both an ipo in the united states or one in london, in england, have some risks for them and they've got a ton of lawyers advising them, some of which say, you know, an ipo listing in new york or in england will have its risks, legal risks and so i think they're trying to figure that out. they've done all the due diligence. this he have' done all the assessments they've had to do to satisfy potential investors and shareholders i think where they need to go now is whether these investments will be safe and whether this ipo will be safe now they -- they're desperate for the resources that would come from this because they've been running deficit budgets. >> sure. >> something that they don't want to continue to do they still have a fairly
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sizeable wealth fund. >> right. >> to carry them over, but oil prices don't seem to be going up so they need the resources one way to do it is to bring foreign investment. >> ambassador, thank you for your time today. we appreciate it. >> okay. coming up, linked-in's new list of the nation's most attractive employers
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coming up, what happens when you add a body suit. the world's fastest zip line where the heck is spring racing for another nor'easter. thousands of flights canceled. tens of millions of people in the storm's path i hope it's last time, more than we thought i hope this time it's less than we thought we'll have a live report when we return driving specific sectors of out performance. where a rising middle class powers a booming auto industry. a leap into the digital era draws youthful populations to mobile banking and e-commerce. trade and travel surge between emerging markets. everyday our 1,100 investment professionals around the world search out opportunities for alpha. partner with pgim, the global investment management businesses of prudential.
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good morning, everybody. welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc we are live from the nasdaq market site in times square. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and mike santoli. we are taking a look check this out got some live pictures of a winter wonder land outside the white house right now. all of this coming down the east coast facing the fourth nor'easter in the last three weeks. pretty pictures though we've got a lot more coming up on today's nor'easter including a live report from new york's laguardia airport. we'll get to that in a moment. first, here are some stocks to watch this morning recreational vehicle maker
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winnebago falling one cent short. the revenue beat the forecast. the company also says that sales growth market share and profit margins all increased during the quarter so looks like right now the stock is up by about 30 cents. >> match group was downgraded to neutral from buy at guggenheim the parent of tinder and other dating services reached premium levels after the stock nearly tripled over the last year that stock is off by 1 1/3%. then there's office furniture maker steel case it beat expectations by 8 cents with quarterly earnings of 24 cents a share. revenue also above forecasts then some news on a stock that will start trading later this week drop box has increased the expected price range for the initial ipo. it sees a range of $18 to $24 a share. up from the prior range of 16 to $18. that's according to an sec filing. earlier this morning on "squawk box" linked-in unveiled
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its list of the most attractive u.s. employers amazon takes the top spot unseating reining champ google facebook, sales force and tesla among the driving forces benefits, perks, and flexibility including robust parental leave programs, mentorship opportunities and community service initiatives. among the companies making the list for the first time, spotify, ibm and goldman sachs if you want to check out the other names on the list, feel free to go to cnbc.com. >> comcast. also, check this out, everybody. a british man setting the world record for the fastest speed in a body controlled jet engine body suit. richard browning sped down the world's fastest zip line and the longest in europe reaching a speed of 32 miles an hour. attention, darwin awards and more than 70 million
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people are in the path of another nor'easter it is the fourth major storm to take aim at the region in less than three weeks i still have huge drifts i can't believe it can't get to the garage still. more than 3600 flights have already been canceled, but that means a lot of dogs are going to live another nearly 4800 planes have been delayed morgan brennan -- >> how quickly that rolled through our news cycle >> yeah, it did. i feel bad now did you see i think united no longer has a -- they've just said, you know what, we're not going to do this -- >> the cargo >> the cargo part. >> they're right >> i don't know, there was overheating in one of the areas. don't talk to me, you know i love my dogs more -- you know, they're family. >> right >> these guys have to figure it out. >> pay for a seat. >> i know. you take pongo with you. >> strap it to the top of the car and drive. >> vacation, grandma >> morgan brennan joins us live
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from new york's laguardia airport. if i were you, i'd like -- as soon as you finish this, gek the heck out of there, morgan, and go home. are you going to be there all day? >> reporter: i am planning to be here all day we'll see. it's supposed to accelerate here by the middle of the day with snowfall coming down 1 to 3 inches an hour some of the forecasts i've seen. we'll see, knock on wood, whether i get home or not, but speaking of the snowstorm that's coming in, the snow is lightly falling here at laguardia. it's not really sticking yet nonetheless, this airline, american, has already said that it's going to suspend its flight operations here at laguardia starting at 11:00 a.m. eastern there's already a vast majority of flights at laguardia that have been canceled according to flight aware, there are more than 3400 flights coming into and out of and around the u.s. today that have already been canceled ahead of the snowstorm. if you take a look at the three airports that are most impacted, all of them new york metro area
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airports laguardia's number two, but newark liberty in new jersey just a little ways from here is number one that airport has said that 70% of its flights have already been canceled a lot of this very pro actively done by the airlines experts say that with all of these storms back to back the airlines are becoming much more proactive. they are waiving ticket change fees days ahead of these storms. they're canceling flights. this is something we saw a lot of these cancellations happen yesterday ahead of the storm the reason is because the airlines ability to get up and running again after a major weather event like this is really directly tied to their preparation. so if you have fewer planes and crews that are stranded, that means you can get service resuming much more quickly and it also means potentially that you have less people coming here to the airport and getting stranded and getting really mad with these carriers but, guys, it's not just people that are potentially stranded with this nor'easter either. it is also freight
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the new york new jersey port complex has already said that it is shutting down today it is the third largest in the country so this is note annual it -- notable it is the second time it's done that in two weeks due to winter weather. they are putting contingency plans in place including u.p.s. and fedex. there might be service disruptions there as well. power, we've seen a lot of power outages this month utilities are bracing for broad based power outages again. >> morgan, you got everybody's attention. wait a minute, our amazon packages may not arrive in time? now we're listening. thank you, morgan. >> reporter: ah. >> good luck later hope you're not stuck there all night. we'll see you in a little bit. >> reporter: me, too. when we come back, washington wants answers congress calling on cambridge analytica and the whistle-blower on what facebook data it got, what happened with it, how all
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of this works. and the ranking member of house intelligence committee adam schiff is going to talk to us about the privacy of your information right here on "squawk box. 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.
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investors worry about data privacy. down another 1%. where's mark zuckerberg? that's the question that's being asked right now. what is he doing do you really know, julia boorstin, or you're just going to ask that again and speculate? >> reporter: i do have some information, joe, and my information is that facebook is going to have staffers meet this week with six different congressional committees and we will hear from ceo mark zuckerberg sometime in the next day. we'll hear he plans to focus his comments on rebuilding trust for facebook, this after yesterday saying mark, sheryl and their teams are working around the clock to get all of the facts and get this under control the entire company is outraged we were deceived the ftc without commenting on whether it's investigating saying we take any allegations of violations of our consent
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decrees very seriously as we did in 2012 in a privacy case involving google back in 2011 facebook settled a case they are liable to get a fine. cambridge analytica suspended its ceo pending full investigation after channel 4 news ran its first video expose. they ran another one last night. >> many times. >> you have? >> all the data, all the analytics, all the targeting, all the digital campaign, television campaign. and our data informed the strategy >> cambridge analytica responding, ca has never claimed it won the election for president trump. this is patently absurd. we are proud of the work we did on that and have spoken about
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what we consider to be our contribution to the campaign in the latest headline, late last night the co-founder of what's app brian acton tweeted it's time #deletefacebook. while he's no longer at the company, it's still certainly a slap in the face guys, back over to you. >> julia, thank you very much. for more on cambridge analytica and the upcoming testimony of chris wiley, let's bring in adam schiff he is the ranking member of the house committee. thank you for being with us. >> thank you. >> wall street's been a little spooked. facebook shares down 10% over the last two trading sessions. much of that is concern about what regulators might do you are one of the lawmakers who is digging into this we just heard from julia that mark zuckerberg plans to come out and talk in the next 24 hours about rebuilding trust maybe a little soon when we still don't know what's happened
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yet. what are your questions for facebook >> well, we have a lot of questions but our committee is really focused on the russia piece of this, that is, did cambridge analytica have a role in the dissemination of the stolen e-mails did they have a role in terms of providing any data or analytics to the russians? what about this relationship with luke oil? what about this researcher who had a relationship with st. petersburg university? but, of course, we're concerned with the broader issues that the private data of tens of millions of americans looks like it was misappropriated and then used by this data analytics arm of the trump campaign to manipulate voters without their knowledge that they had been using this private data so we have a lot of questions obviously for cambridge analytica and its employees. we're glad the whistle-blower is going to come and testify before us, but we also have a lot of hard questions for facebook. why is cambridge analytica only
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suspended now? what did they learn a the the time what steps did they take to make sure the data was destroyed? what are they doing to protect their user's data today? broader issues what about the degree to which these algorithms are having the effect of dividing americans having us live in information bubbles. these are cross cutting issues that go well beyond just our committee. >> what kind of bipartisan support do you have? and i ask because some of the politics can end up dividing the two sides on this. you're obviously in the minority in congress right now. are there areas where republicans are in agreement with you on any of these issues? >> i think there are in terms of the russia investigation, you know, i think sadly the republicans have walked away from that investigation but in terms of the broader issues of concern, some of the public health issues of our kids being so hard wired into their devices, this issue about how we now get our information as well as the
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privacy of americans' data, those are very bipartisan, nonpartisan issues congress really needs to get in the business of over sight we've done very little over sight in this area it's an odd circumstance that it began with the russia investigation, but other committees need to look into this i think one piece of regulation we're already clear that we need to undertake and that is political advertising on social media have the same disclaimers as is required of other media. beyond that though -- >> but beyond disclaimers, let's talk a little bit about the business model i mean, you're from california obviously this is an issue that's affecting potentially a lot of silicon valley companies. beyond just disclosures, facebook can say, look, we've all agreed to give away all of this information, but it seems that the company doesn't even know what happened with this data and maybe that's why we haven't heard anything from the company from the top leadership at this point. what questions do you specifically have for any of these silicon valley companies
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that are social media companies or search engines that have been offering us services for free with us agreeing to hand over our privacy if they are not good gate keepers of that information, what repercussions should there be? >> i think you're absolutely right. the lowest hanging fruit is the disclaimers in terms of political advertising, but these broader issues we really haven't even done the oversight to determine what kind of regulation might be necessary. the first step ought to be bringing in the ceos to testify before congress, asking them these questions about what they're doing to maintain the privacy of their user's data, whether they recognize there's a problem in terms of how their algorithms may be vulcanizing the public and how their algorithms are also subject to manipulation by foreign bad actors and what's being done about that what is their view in terms of their responsibility to ferret out false information and inauthentic users on their
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platforms. what about, you know, with respect to twitter, for example, foreign amplification of false information for the increasing use of boots which we see in suc concentrated form around elections. what are the companies doing is it enough for them to self-regulate or does congress need to step in? >> congressman, i watch you a lot when you're on and we all have questions about the russia investigation. none of us know anything at this point, but whenever i watch you i always get the feeling that you've seen something or at least have the feeling that there is an impeachable offense there somewhere, and i know that there's conjecture if the republicans lose the house that articles of impeachment are a slam dunk. can you tell me, have i got that right? do you in your heart of hearts think that the president committed an impeachable offense? and would that be -- if you were to regain the house, would that be something that would be taken up at the time
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>> you know, i reserve judgment on the issue of whether the president's conduct rises to that level and i urge my colleagues to do the same. the investigation is still very much yoon goinongoing. we haven't had the report from bob mueller. a lot of the information our committee needs is unlikely to get because they've shut down their work on the committee. but, for example, george papadopoulos was the subject of this approach very early on by the russians they told papadopoulos when the president's few foreign policy advisers they had stolen clinton e-mails, they previewed what they might do with them. who did george papadopoulos share that information did that inform the reason why the president's son-in-law and campaign manager would take that meeting with the russians in trump tower? what was the president's understanding of that meeting or what was his role in the creation of the false statement around that meeting? these are still unanswered questions. i would want the answers before i made any judgment in terms of
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whether something rose to the level of removal from office. >> okay. you don't -- you don't -- you don't cover monrovia, do you locking you out of flintridge? >> yes, i don't go that far east if you've got friends or family in monrovia. >> i like it all but you do have parts of the san gabriel valley, right? >> i sure do >> i was looking that up it's really nice it's great except the traffic. except for the traffic. >> yes, and right now we're on -- sadly on mudslide alert. >> right heavy rains in california. we haven't talked about that. >> do you think -- with all of that -- and it just makes me think, you mentioned all of these things that are still up in the air that's your problem with ending the house investigation. if all that's up in the air, how can you possibly come to that conclusion, then again, i don't know what's going to resolve a lot of those questions if they haven't been resolved yet. i don't know who else you need to talk to to finally figure it
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out? >> well, there are any number of witnesses that we need to talk to like george papadopoulos, like mike flynn, like katie mcfarland, like reince priebus on both the obstruction issue as well as the issue of we have identified these witnesses, we need to bring them in certainly bob mueller is one key thing people need to understand the importance of congress, bob mueller is not charged of telling the country what happens he may speak through indictment. this is what we were able to find out whether it rise to the level of proof beyond a reasonable doubt or clear and convincing evidence. we need to do our work we need to make sure there is bipartisan will to get it done >> you beat your wife at tennis? >> no. she's a much better tennis player than i am >> i am over 70 with my wife at
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tennis but sometimes i win at golf >> we met at a tennis court. >> i was reading between the lines about how good she was you don't say anywhere that she sti consistently beat you. >> you just realize that in this way and every other that i married up >> all right, congressman, i always wonder and glad to be able to commiserate with that. it is not going to happen. i get two games. anyway, thank you. good to see you. when we return, jim cramer live from the new york stock exchange you almost fell off your chair >> i didn't know where you are going. >> here are the futures right now. who wins in tennis, is that a better way to ask? we'll be right back.
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are prepared to how weather may impact their energy. so every single day we're monitoring the weather, and when storm events arise our forecast get crews out ahead of the storm to minimize any outages. during storm season we want our customers to be ready and stay safe. learn how you can be prepared at pge.com/beprepared. together, we're building a better california. let's get down to the new york stock exchange. yesterday about facebook and twitter, is something hanging over social media about how
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privacy data is sort of disseminated or held onto? >> i think to some degree there is the idea of putting this all in front, that's good i mean we actually need susan desmond helman, she's from california, san francisco, she would be good to put out pension a we are looking at this ourselves. we put a community together and we'll get to the bottom of it. that's the play book anything less than the play book is suboptimal. they can go out and hire a special prosecutor type to look into this. that's how you will get pass this and we'll not be talking about this three weeks from now. >> does that mean it everything
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over >> right now they distinguish, if they stick with their current strategy i think you would get an equifax situation that's really extreme target is down 18% on the breach, these are breaches now, of course, i did not acknowledge that was a breach. that was ill-advised they took initially. a target breach or a wells fargo breach, you can stop it but right now they have not gotten in front of it >> if you can own walmart or boeing or facebook or comcast, disney and netflix, would you rather own that or facebook? >> a lot of those could be describe as dead money >> yeah. >> we work for comcast, that
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stock has come down the most a lot of that is decisions being able to fight disney which is another stock that i really like here that's about to become a fantastic company. facebook could be a little dead if they don't do what i said they seem to be enkleincline tot out zuck tnkouorgood >>ha y f your time coming up on "squawk on the street," stay tuned. 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.
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good luck in this snow storm everybody, make sure you join us here tomorrow. right now it is "squawk on the street." ♪ good morning everybody, welcome to "squawk on the street," i am wilfred frost with jim cramer, david is off today later this hour, we'll talk to kevin johnson. lets have a look at the futures right now, the nasdaq is a little bit low all three were higher yesterday. s&p and dow is up a quarter of
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