good morning, it's 8:00 a.m. at disney headquarters in california and it's 11:00 a.m. on wall street "squawk alley" live. ♪ ♪ >> good thursday morning welcome to "squawk alley." i'm carl quintanilla, morgan brennan, jon fortt we did hit the highest levels of april. s&p trying to push through a three-day intra-day high

the trade dispute with china, listen to what the president's top economic adviser, larry kudlow told us on "closing bell." >> president trump regards himself as a free trader i've heard it from him many, many times but he's correct -- i mean, china is the problem, not trump. trump has said, look, we can't have free trade if you're going to steal our technology and decrcreate barriers and market closings so we've got to clean that up. the rest of the world agrees with us. agrees with us i call it a trade coalition of the willing. >> trade coalition of the willing. that's a phrase that larry has repeated a couple of times if, in fact, the world at large trading partners at large can express to china collectively that their practices are out of line. >> yeah. we haven't yet seen, though, that coalition of the willing, speaking in one voice. i think the question remains, will it cease to seem like the u.s. is stepping out from this

on its own or will there be a kumbaya moment >> you can argue about the u.s. on the world stage the u.s. is taking a strong stance whether you agree with it or not we'll see whether our allies step in. one area we've truly seen issues around intellectual property theft is aerospace and defense you want to talk about a lightning rod industry where there have been issues with china, that's it i don't think our allies would disagree on that. >> the world trade organization is at center of this china and the u.s. have both filed complaints with the wto. the president has called them out by name. now a new warning out, signaling that a breakdown in regulations could derail the global economy. with growing fears of a trade war, joining us is the wto's director general mr. robert azevedo. have y you do have some remarks that

you're making public what you're saying is quite positive but not factoring in the possibility of a dramatic escalation in trade restrictions. >> that's quite right. we had, in 2017, a very healthy rate of growth in trade, about 4.7% this year we're expecting 4.4% next year, around 4% so, that's a pretty good run, the best, definitely, since before the crisis. >> when larry kudlow talks about a trade coalition of the willing, do you see one coalescing to express displeasure with chinese trade >> i think in several instances, i've heard wto members voicing their concerns about the need to upgrade the system, about the need to get the rules of the wto to reflect better the practices

and the business environment that we see out there today in the 21st century these rules are about 20 years old, mostly. so, there's definitely a will and a willingness to talk about reforms, to talk about upgrading the system now how exactly that is done, what one country wants, what another one does, that's a different conversation we're not quite there yet. >> director general, i want to dig into that a little bit more in terms of updating in light of president trump's recent tweet, sort of questioning whether china should be treated as a developing country, i realize that's a self proclaimed identification by china based on wto rules, but given the fact that china is the second biggest economy in the world, given the vast sort of sweeping socioeconomic changes we've seen take place over the last two decades, do you think that developing country status makes sense?

>> the question here in the wto is how to handle that. it's clear that some developing countries are more advanced than others, particularly the situation of the emerging economies, big economies at the same time, they do have some challenges that are common to developing companies but they're very heterogenus they're very different the response to this question is to try to get a new classification and, therefore, something very objective this is a developing, this is not a developing country, et cetera, et cetera. or whether we should be more pragmatic and ensure that countries participate in the rules according to their potentialities about their capacity to contribute. >> so, director general, how do you do that? it seems to me you're in a tough position right now the trump administration, the united states, perhaps some other countries, are trying to react and act based on today's

reality, not necessarily today's wto rules, which a lot of people would argue are outdated so, as you consider the actions that countries are taking now based on the realities and you have the need to perhaps adjust some rules, how are you going to a adjudicate that? >> it's not that difficult, frankly. and we've been doing this. for example, we signed a few years ago in 2013 the trade facilitation agreement it's a very pragmatic agreement. developing countries in general, each one of them would undertake different commitments. some would immediately implement, others would take a few years. others would ask even for technical assistance so there are tools there we can, in fact, be pragmatic. we can find ways of differentiating the commitments of members and we are testing that we've been doing that more

recently so, it's not rocket science really it's doable. >> director general, i went back through 2001 press releases, looking at china and the negotiations to allow a secession into the wto i could point to auto tariffs, which has been a big focus i'm going to point to insurance. life insurers, within three years of china's acssescion finally they're going to make moves to make these concessions a reality. why almost 17 years later we haven't seen the stuff that was negotiated in 2001 put in place to china seems to me they're violating wto standards here.

>> well, uh, members disagree frequently on what is and what is not a violation you may have your opinion, i may have mine. at the end of the day, the situation of whether or not there is a violation is only resolved once it is adjudicated in the wto members have to bring a case, one against the other. then a panel of experts is going to hear the arguments, decide on that the reality is that since 2001 and up to today a lot of things happened and maybe some things need to be revisited. not only from 2001, from 1995 when the wto was created until today. a lot of things happened and i think there is appetite, there is a willingness in the wto membership to talk about that, to take a look at are there asymmetries, are there things that should be revisited? that appetite is there

the willingness is there it's about sitting down and having a conversation. if the u.s. and other major players want to do that, i think it is absolutely something that the other members are going to be in a position to accept, to have this conversation. >> who has the stronger case here is it china, which has just filed a complaint against the u.s. for steel and aluminum tariffs or is it the u.s., complaining about intellectual property theft from china? >> both. both the united states requested consultations to take a look at the intellectual property issues and china also requested consultations to take a look at the section 301. and, in fact, there are other disputes that relate, for example, to the aluminum and steel surcharges members are consulting with each other, both in the committees,

in the committees of the wto and also under the dispute settlement system. so, they are using the system. and i hope, and i'm sure, that the system is going to respond to try to depoliticize this as much as we can. >> speaking of which, as we try to handicap the odds of an escalation in trade restrictions, i wonder, some looked at xi's speech this week and took it as a hopeful sign that it was a concession that it will provide a way for both leaders to walk away with some wins and save face do you think that was naive or not? others argue what he has said, he has said before, didn't mention the u.s. by name and a few other things. >> i think it's a positive sign that members are, and that countries are willing to have a conversation things change from -- basically they change from week to week. and i think it's positive. the worst case scenario would be

to have the other side say oh, this is all unrealistic. this is excessive. i'm not even going to contemplate that they want to talk. they want to sit down. whether or not these talks are going to get us to a solution, whether this is going to be a productive enough so that we have a mutually agreeable understanding, that's a different conversation and that's something that we have to test what we cannot do, i suppose, is to just dismiss overtures and disposition to have a conversation prejudging the outcome of the conversation. >> finally, there's a school of thought that supply chains have reached their limit before this new era of protectionism really began in 2015-16 i wonder if you think this was sort of inevitable absent the

political winds we've seen. >> clearly at some point in time there's a limitation on how much outsourcing one can do but i'm not sure -- the economists here at the wto are working on that. we've not seen the kind of acceleration in outsourcing and global distribution of production that we did see after the year 2000, for example, when the emerging economies were growing so fast. it slowed down somewhat. but it's difficult to tell whether we have reached a plateau or something like that today, trade flows -- about two-thirds of all the trade flow you see in the world is somehow related to global value exchange at one point in time components cross borders at least once. so that's a very significant number

whether that is going to continue to increase or not, it's difficult to tell. >> i don't need to tell you this is obviously top of mind for investors in the united states we sure hope you'll come back and talk more about it as we move on. mr. director general, thank you so much. >> thank you still to come, the people facebook commission to investigate its role in elections will join us how they plan to get answers to the questions lawmakers have been putting to ceo mark zuckerberg the dow up just over 300 points, not far from session highs. 1.25%. s&p and nasdaq almost 1% higher, nasdaq a little over 1%. if the rally holds it will keep that streak going. more "squawk alley" straight ahead. mr. stevens?

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facebook's mark zuckerberg wrapping up testimony on capitol hill ap snapping this now viral photo of his notes which included a section on potentially breaking up facebook, its impact on chinese companies. joining us for more on the testimony, u.s. tech editor at the economist and charles duhig, pulitzer prize winning

journalist we've talking about the takeaways, charles what stood out >> what stood out to me is that two things we saw congress arguing for. they're very different democratic senators and house members were saying what if we were to regulate facebook, come in and set up rules, which would frankly give facebook a huge advantage. if there are more regulations in place, facebook can comply with them better than any of its competitors. then senators, particularly from the republican party, saying we don't need regulations normally. if the marketplace works, there's competitors. we saw, in fact, one senator asking mark zuckerberg, who is the facebook competitor? who do you compete with? he was unable to answer that question if, in fact, we see a push for a breakup, greater competition or recognizing facebook as a monopoly, that's pretty bad for the company and not a competitive advantage. >> alexandra, it seemed to me that none of the questioning got to areas that are facebook's

crown jewels nobody was talking about really breaking up facebook's ability to use the like button, to follow logged-in users around the web or to match one category, group, demographic of users against another for advertising purposes there was talk about data protection but europe has already done that what is your takeaway on the likely downside to facebook now, based on what we saw in the testimony? >> and i also think that they let him off the hook he deliberately conflated the ability of users to show and control what status updates and photos they show to friends. so what's public information on their profiles with date faisbook's data collection efforts and claimed he didn't know answers to basic things about whether facebook tracks users, when they've logged off i find it deliberately evasive and the market perceived it as a win. but that's only because the

politicians so failed in their line of questioning. as for what's next, i think that the politicians showed that they're not yet ready to conceive of what a smart regulation or body of regulations would look like for facebook they still don't fundamentally understand its business and the way it collects data and tracks users. i think that the conversation is so insipcipient that i don't sei progressing to complex solutions abouttanitans. >> my team will get back to you, the point alex just made there's a write-up today, pages of my team will get back to you. >> if my wife asked me a hard question i would love to be able to say my team will get back to you. that's the new meme that you use

to a question you're not ready to answer. >> so you really don't understand how facebookworks or, in some cases what my name is, mr. zuckerman. >> but some of them are hard questions, right, and he didn't have an answer or want to answer it because it would have been unpleasant to see that answer for facebook on a public stage. >> you wrote a big piece on google not too long ago. what do you think is being said in the halls of google and apple and amazon and what we saw this week >> i think they're terrified they say there but for the grace of god go i. they're saying thank goodness facebook is in the hot seat for now. >> for now. >> but it could be us and it's going to be us we have now opened the pandora box on tech, seen the maturation of the tech industry it's now a different game. it's about what types of regulations, what types of rules and government action takes place rather than if it's going to happen but when. >> we broke the seal on that

>> absolutely. >> alexandra, we didn't just see zuckerberg in the hot seat and get to know how he is sort of under pressure but the stances of lawmakers how do you think midterm elections will shape that regulatory environment moving forward? >> i think it's really hard in the near term to think that any kind of regulation is likely to get through a relatively benign law, the honest ads act, which simply would require disclosure for digital ads of who has paid for them, hasn't had a hearing yet in congress because republicans don't want to see any type of regulation, whether it's campaign finance, electoral or digital firm regulation so i think in the near term it looks really difficult i think in the medium to long term some kind of regulation is going to happen. the question is, what do we take the cambridge analytica scandal to mean? a lot of people view it as a data breach. i think in the next few years we're likely to see a national

regulation that will require firms to notify users if their data has been obtained illegally. that's one thing and i think that's one piece of the cambridge analytica scandal. the other piece, though, are the abilities of firms to track users and obtain data about them going to be hindered potentially if we take a two to five-year timeline on it i don't see anything happening in the next few months. >> seems like another shoe might have to drop i found particularly frustrating how lawmakers kept asking mark zuckerberg to write the regulation for them and asked if he was familiar with the bills making their way through congress, being angry with him that legislation had not -- as if that's his job. >> that's exactly right. and it's their job it's interest iing. you ask the question about what we're going to see on the campaign trail we're clearly polarized right now. both the left and right talking about is fear of big tech,

right? if i'm running in a district where i know i have trump voters and anti-trump voters, what can i say to unify them all behind me talk about facebook and it's dangerous. we need another shoe to drop one thing we know about technology, that shoe is probably going to drop it's probably going to drop in the next year rather than waiting the next five years. >> references diamond and silk, which ended up being the focus of the whole discussion. >> everyone finds something to be angry about that's a signal of how big and powerful facebook really is. if there's one thing the government doesn't like, it doesn't like a competitor to be big and powerful. >> alexandra, charles, thank you, guys. what a week it's been watching zuckerberg on capitol hill see you next time. did disney just unveil a service that sports-loving cord cutters have been waiting for? details of its brand new product are coming up. as we head to break, taking a look at the major averages

dow up 321 points. more "squawk alley" straight ahead.

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disney is launching its first big move outside the tv bundle today director consumer app espn plus, perhaps getting aggressive with the content offerings, julia boorstin joins us with the details. >> launching for $5 a month, part of the redesigned espn app, which has free news, scores and highlights for tv subscribers, access to the streaming tv channel subscription ervice, espn plus will include 10,000 live spo sporting events in the first year, plus original documenta documentaries and shows, including one from kobe bryant subscribers will get games not on tv, including mlb and nhl games and thousands of sporting events president jimmy pitaro says this is just a starting point.

>> we're going to examine the data daily and make changes on the product and content side, see what's working, what's not, what's resonating, what's not, and go out there and try to secure additional right. >> disney's driirect to consume businesses division says it will be profitable in the not too distant future and president pitaro says he doesn't expect it to cannibalize its core business but rather helping it compete. >> we're looking at it as giving us some oppositionality, where things are changing not just monthly, and weekly, but daily we like the fact that espn plus will give us that oppositionality. >> people's expectations for the apps impact initially should be modest right now the service is a supplement to espn for sports fanatics but does say it could

evolve into something more, a foundation to bring all of espen the tv channel, direct to the consumer outside the bundle. certainly will be interesting to see how this evolves. >> we appreciate you bringing us the details. interesting. julia boorstin on espn stocks mostly higher today, shrugging off some geopolitics eurozone, big miss, 2.9 versus 3.8. iag considering a bid for the discount carrier, a stake in nor ween wegian and buffeting the shares over the last couple of days, vw

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stands by syria. turkish president erdogan has spoken to president trump and plans to speak to russian president putin about the alleged chemical attack. addresses supporters in ankara, he is deeply disturbed by some countries who rely on their military might to turn syria into a virtual wrestling ground. president xi attended a massive fleet review in the south china sea, 48 ships, 76 helicopters, fighter jets and bombers and more than 10,000 personnel. a national transportation safety board report says part of the blame for the catastrophic bridge collapse in atlanta last year goes to that state's department of transportation it's due to its decision to store construction materials underneath the bridge, which caught fire. of course, that weakened the structure. that is the news update this hour back downtown to "squawk alley."

jon, back to you. >> thank you, sue. mark zuckerberg concluded his congressional hearings yesterday. here is zuckerberg's response to the senate on the issue. >> as long as there are people sitting in russia whose job it is to try to interfere with elections around the world, this is going to be an ongoing conflict what i can commit is that we're going to invest significantly, because this is a top priority, to make sure that people aren't spreading misinformation or trying to interfere in elections on facebook. >> and, in a first for the company, on monday facebook announced it will share data with scholars doing independent research into how the platform impacts electrics and democracy. it will come from seven not-for-profit organizations joining us now are presidents of two of them. former publisher of the miami

herald, former board member of the worldwide web information among others welcome to both of you alberto, i'll start with you facebook is going to sharing data with researchers. a lot of people are going to think of cambridge analytica what sort of process is there going to be for sharing that data what has facebook said perhaps even differently over the past few days and weeks as the controversy over data sharing has heated up? >> larry can talk to you more about what the specific things that scholars will do than i can. but the main thing is that these are academic scholars. these are not guns for higher. these are people whose reputation is effectively on the line by doing this this will only work if the scholars are genuinely independent and if facebook is really transparent. >> before we continue the conversation, let me briefly interrupt. speaker ryan, holding his weekly

presser. take a listen. >> because they have the authority to do that right now as to syria itself, bashish assad and his enablers in tehran and moscow have committed another mass atrocity on people in syria i think the u.s. has an obligation to lead an international response to hold people accountable for that. i won't get ahead of the president. he is taking a very tlibt and careful response and approach to this we have discussed this and i don't want to get ahead of what he is going to plan on doing. only to say that i think it's important for us to help lead the international community to making sure that people are held accountable for these mass atrocities [ inaudible >> i guess you are going to. [ inaudible >> he does why not do a new emf i understand the question. >> no, what is the authority to do

that is the question he seems to be dithering about what to do and, therefore -- >> i think you're wrong to suggest that he is dithering he is being deliberate and he is going through all the options and consulting our allies. that's what you want presidents to do in moments like this so he's not dithering. with respect to authorities existing amuf gives him the authority to do what he needs to do or may or may not do. rachel >> a small group of house republicans are starting to suggest that it might be better for the majority if you step aside now and let a successor take over in terms of fund-raising if that does, are you prepared to do that >> i said all along, my plan is to stay here and run for the tape you say a small group. i've talked to a lot of members, a lot of members, who think it's in all of our best interest for leadership to stay in place and run for the tape steve scalise said he thinks after the election that kevin

mccarthy ought to be the person to replace me after the elections. i think that's encouraging it shows you that we have an intact leadership team that supports each other, that's all headed in the right direction. with respect to fund-raising, look, you all know that i came into this job as a policy guy, not a political guy, not a fund-raiser. i have shattered every fund-raising record any speaker has ever set i came into this job with a speaker, with a goal of speaker to raise $20 million i doubled it to $40 million. not only did i hit that goal, i hit it eight months early. so, there is nobody who has come close to being able to raise the kinds of funds i have and still can raise for this majority. so, it's obviously in our interest to keeping our majority that every player is on the field fighting for this majority and it makes no sense to take the biggest fund-raiser off the

field and all our members see that that way as well. >> mr. speaker, do you plan to use something with daca before you retire if so, what would that be? >> i certainly would like to as you may or may not know, we offered the democrats a daca solution we offered them a solution to daca, in addition to pairing it with a solution for the border. >> speaker ryan's presser continues. we'll continue to monitor that we expect to hear from the president shortly. is he on the tape already making comments about syria and a meeting about that decisions he says will come some time soon and adding a meeting with kim being set up. meanwhile we want to continue this conversation with larry kramer, and alberto imbarguen about facebook's

efforts to wrap its arms on its impacts around elections what sort of timeframe, what sort of methods do you expect to employ how soon will we have some kind of concrete idea of how facebook and others are influencing the way people vote? >> i think that as soon as possible is the most accurate answer we'll get going right away we started to put together the committee. scholars themselves are making those decisions about who will work with them we'll start working with facebook right away, put iting t the research as we can there's low-hanging fruit. i expect some things to get going within a couple of months and the process will continue after that. >> alberto, i have an anthropology degree. i realize it's all about collecting the research, coming to an understanding of social media's impact and technology's

impact within democracy, within political elections, depending on those results, then what? are you going to propose solutions? >> i think that's possible i think that's really the right way to understand it and your anthropology professors would be very proud of you for starting out with the basis. you would look at it, come up with solutions now data resides in these unregulated industries i think that's what yesterday and the day before's hearings were about, setting up for what kind of regulation congress thinks it needs to have. it is not regulated. it is not available. the data is there. facebook is interested in having independent, impartial, if you will, scholars talk a look at it they're going to check it

against their own analyses they'll do whatever they do. the scholars will then have the opportunity to consider what they can publish and then what next we don't know what we're going to find. this will happen as soon as possible this data hasn't been seen before this is quite remarkable. >> meantime, what happens to publ publisher's willingness to do with this until it gets cleaned up >> in my view, since i'm no longer a publisher, i think they'll continue to work with them because they have to. >> you believe if the herald or another paper were to launch a new service through their machine, that people would sign up >> it would be so small that it would be ineffective at this point, again, this is one of the things that the hearings were about yesterday. they were about free speech. yes. they were about privacy. yes. but they really were about power. they were about power. we have this unregulated

behemoth not just facebook. go google, which has been very, very quiet, is right up there. in some ways bigger. twitter as well and many others. this is a really interesting anthr anthropological problem. >> thank you for being with us today. >> thank you. >> thank you. more "squawk alley" straight ahead. dow riding closeo ssn tseio highs, up over 300 s&p, 2667. . stevens? this is your new name. this is your new house. and a perfectly inconspicuous suv. you must become invisible. [hero] i'll take my chances.

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you're not gonna say it are you? i was there. i'll be going back as soon as this meeting is over we're looking very, very seriously, very closely at that whole situation. and we'll see what happens, folks. we'll see what happens it's too bad that the world puts us in a position like that but, you know, as i said this morning, we've done a great job with isis. we've absolutely decimated isis. now we have to make some further decisions. they'll be made fairly soon. thank you very much. >> that's the president, giving us a little bit on syria, saying that the meetings scheduled for today, decisions soon in consultation with the defense secretary and an echo, eamon

javers, what he tweeted today, basically the notion that isis has been taken care of but there are other problems now. >> reporter: and that he's not necessarily committed to one specific course on seara that all options are on the table that followed his tweet early in the day yesterday where he seemed to suggest that missiles were on their way to syria and russians had better get ready for that, that they would be smart missiles that the u.s. would be sending it's unclear what the decision will be. we saw the tail end of a larger meeting that had business implications the business there was meeting with agricultural state leaders, political leaders with different states around the country. his message to them is largely that even if the tariffs go into effect with china and china retaliates, which has been threatened against u.s. agriculture producers, they'll have those ag states back with another package with aid specifically designed to go to

agriculture. not specific to what the aid would be but beefing up ag producers in the potential of chinese retaliation. if he puts in place those tariffs he has threatened and if the chinese retaliates, as they've threatened to do. >> eamon, thank you. so many things going on, on the hill eamon javers let's get to rick santelli and the santelli exchange. >> thank you, carl what i can tell from you the trading perspective, technical perspective, is that there's a real floor in this treasury market, especially if you focus on the ten-year note, long and general has been trading treasu treasury's new range seems a lot like the old range 22 sessions in the 280s ended the last part of february and since then, we've spent most of the time in the upper 270s

really not a whole lot of difference but there is a difference. what it really boils down to is growth versus inflation and debt there really is a floor under interest rates with all the anxieties about the path of the fed, the reasons for the path to the fed. inflation, potential wage inflation, debt issuance these are all on one side of the ledger it certainly seems as though the teeter totter, even though it has components on that side, the growth side seems to be winning the battle the problem is that even spotty growth, spotty numbers in europe, we're all in this together, all this policy and most of the fundamentals will end up very fungible, the critical mass, it needs a smoking gun and it's going to have to be something big and obvious for sustainable trade. once that occurs, obviously 3% isn't going to be a problem. the other issue that i want to bring up today is something that

was brought up at a great discussion carl quintanilla had with the wto director general. and carl's question was, you know, all this disruption we might have with regard to supply chains, tariffs and the trade issues, but maybe supply chains have not reached their max in his answers, wto persongues answer was maybe it's the limits of outsourcing. but i will say this, maybe we have reached peak supply chain efficiencies but don't overestimate you can google it. warning systems, disrupt earn hansments. these supply chains are designed for disruption and should we have one it really may not be the end of the world. morgan, back to you. >> rick, you bring up a good point. two words, additive manufacturing, one of the most

disruptive things in the manufacturing world right now. rick santelli, thank you and a million dollar round that company that does background checks for uber and insta mark to maim a few daniel joins us from san francisco. daniel, thanks for joining us. >> hi, thanks for having me. >> so, just a little background on checker just because you're a checker on the background space, what makes you different than some of the background companies that are more established >> yes, so, the industry has been an industry that is co-founded in 2014 because we're, you know, disappointed by the level of the industry, so background checks have been really snow, inaccurate. you know, not efficient process and we brought modern software and technology to really make

background checks efficient, fast, transparent. and so that was a big reason why the key economy, the customers you mentioned uber, lyft has been able to grow so fast because we've streamlined this process to make the job experience must faster >> talking about uber, that company coming out today saying they're going to do annual background checks. i was surprised to find that wasn't already in place. what kind of opportunity does that represent for your company? i guess what does the ride-sharing and autonomous vehicle market look like from your viewpoint in general? >> yes, for us, it's a huge opportunity. it's a huge driver of employment in the u.s and so, we're really proud to be able to allow the large employers to offer jobs to more and more americans you know, getting a background check done in only a few days and getting a job is very important. we help people getting paid in a matter of days, instead of waiting weeks.

so we're really part of this new job market now, you have the war on talent. there's extremely low unemployment and so all of the companies are really fighting to get those workers, and background check is playing a key roll these days. that's why we've been successful in the key economy, with tech companies and expanding into larger industries like repay or stocking >> when president trump speaks about prison reform and this idea of creating an easier on-ramp for folks coming out of prison to be able to rejoin society and rejoin the workforce, is that an opportunity for you? or is that a potential challenge, in terms of business? >> that's a great opportunity. so, from day one, our mission has been to really improve fairness in the background check process. today, you have 30% of americans have a criminal record so, you know, we don't want background checks to be a barrier to employment and people to get punishments

getting a job is very important. it should be a right for most people that's actually part of what we perceive this as a huge opportunity. even for half of companies who even want to give people a second chance to really make it happen so, we're building the tools to allow background checks to give safety and value to businesses but at the same time, helping people get back into the workforce. so, i think this is fantastic. and we're supportive of this new trend of hiring. >> very quickly, before we let you go, i know you just closed on another round of founding today. but longer term, what's your plan for this company, are you looking to eventually go public? something else >> yeah, again, so our mission to improve the job market and bring fairness in background check is go together take 10, 15, 20 years, we're in it for the long run i want a long-term stand alone company potentially going public in a few years

we're excited about broadbands and rounds that we're announcing today. >> daniel y eye anisse, thank you for joining us >> thank you very much. heading to break we are keeping an eye on the dow. it's up be about 268 points. that's highs up 331 s&p and nasdaq off their highs as well, up less than 1% more "squawk alley" coming up. ♪ feel that? that's the beat of global markets, the rhythm of the world. but to us, it's the pace of tomorrow. with ingenuity, technologies, and markets expertise we create the possible. and when you do that, you don't chase the pace of tomorrow. you set it. nasdaq. rewrite tomorrow.

markets hanging on to session highs as it works its way through some of the presidential headlines hitting the tape over the past, say, half hour or so. talking about syria and the national security council meeting that will happen today saying he decisions he makes to make to be made soon also touching on trade to some degree saying when useful properly, tariffs can get people to the table and appears to suggest, as far as i can see, negotiations are getting closer with the chinese. >> yeah, you actually look at one of the groups rallying the most today, aerospace and defense within the s&p, every single stock within that industry group is higher

even lockheed martin in the middle of deliveries with the pentagon, even with that, that story is high in the headlines >> and meanwhile, hanging above 20 bucks a share quite nicely above where it priced at 14 bucks a share. other stocks, ipos, dropbox, roku wept public and up 4.5% today. >> we're definitely watching tech intel the best performing. micron at 4% is going to get your attention deere up 4% has the white house tox about using this depression-era program to ba backstop farmers with china. and on the back of those hitting

tomorrow, jpmorgan and some of the other next week. that's where it gets interesting with netflix and aveds and ge. >> there's going to be a lot of questions with trade and guidance and how the uncertainty may affect the prompjection. >> bear in mind, 267 has been tough with the bulls let's get over to "the half". welcome to "the halftime report," i'm scott wamer ipner will the numbers live up to it and keep joe terranova, and josh brown and sa rat sethi is here there say look at the dow. 1.25%. s&p strong as well