rhode island "squawk alley" is live ♪ good monday morning, welcome to "squawk alley." joining us this morning from one market in san francisco is recode's executive editor kara swisher. good to see you, kara. the stock to watch tonight is going to be alphabet the parent company of google is set to announce first quarter earnings after the close, as data privacy of course has taken center stage in recent weeks, kara i wonder if you think, whether it's alphabet tonight or facebook later in the week, twitter, whatever, if this is a

quarter in which we see any fallout on engagement from all those concerns >> well, i think it's too soon to tell on that. these hearings just happened i don't think there's going to be a discernible impact on user growth i don't know if there's going to be any i've been thinking, it was so big last week or two weeks ago and now it feels like nobody is talking about that as we move on to other things in the news cycle. it's a question of what's going to happen with legislation or regulation but in this quarter, i doubt there will be any big fallout from it. >> kara, google is changing a few things about the way they report results, i should say "alphabet" but i still say "google. we could see uber show up in a big way. >> yeah. >> why is that perhaps important? >> they made a small investment in uber many years ago, i think

it was a couple of hundred million dollars. it's worth $3 billion, $4 billion now. it will be interesting to see how they're valuing these non-google assets or non-alphabet assets that they're investing in it will be interesting to see what the other google bets are worth, nest and things like that, it will be interesting they're changing the way they're reporting some advertising revenue to be more accurate to their growth i think the uber thing will be interesting to see i think everybody knows it's about $3 billion or if you just pencil it out. but it will be on the sheet there. and we'll be able to see it. >> and sort of looking at how it's changing its metrics for the advertising business and how it reports from that, the shift from clicks to depressions, what does that actually mean? >> it's a better cost per click, just a better reflection of the growth and how it's doing. i think google is still a juggernaut it's just a better description,

better piece of data for wall street google's never been too open with a lot of its data, it's been pretty parsimonious under ruth parat, she's locking things down and it feels like that's what they've been doing with a bunch of these things so you clearly see what their assets are and how they're doing and what the growth is >> if it's too early to see concrete fallout, if there's no meaningful impact on the business so far, as zuckerberg likes to say, when does that happen, when does this wave begin it crest, kara >> i don't think there's going to be any. people are concerned about privacy. it's a question whether it impacts people using the services i would suspect of all of them, facebook would be the one most affected in terms of how people feel about privacy and using it and the not posting as much. it's anecdotal, people are

talking about how it's not as active, the news feed isn't as robust as it's been. we don't know. i think that will be clear in the next quarter, maybe, if at all, if at all we'll see. >> it sounds like you think it might actually all get forgotten to some degree >> that's what i'm thinking. >> they'll continue to grow as they were before >> i don't know about that it's enormous. they're biggest issue, look, these privacy violations are appalling, we all know that. look at uber, everybody was appalled at uber's behavior and it's growing it's a question of whether the service is innovative, people like what they're getting, and as they make changes around privacy, that's always a good thing. i'm not so sure that that's the decisionmaking by people who use the service. i wish it was but it may not be. >> as far as i can recall, google never really gave any third parties any data they never had this grandiose idea about a platform where more sharing is good so we're going

to show other people what you're searching for through apps that will be built on our platform. they've always kept that kind of close. they've been gathering a lot of information in ways that people don't understand through android, through multiple services so the issues are a little different for them, aren't they? >> well, a little bit. i know mark kept saying we can't sell your data but let's just word play. they use the data to make money. they use your data to make money, however they do it. they don't actually sell it but they are actually doing a version of selling it by packaging it or giving insights to the people on the service they sell the audience, not the data itself, how about that? all these things are predicated on an advertising business whether people like or not and whether they can do it in a more responsible way is the question. >> kara, this "wall street journal" report out this morning sort of looking at how alphabet

collects all of that data and what actually actually looks like, it's eye opening a lot of consumers don't understand the line that jumped out to me, google analytics is far and away the web's most dominant analytics platform, it's used on the sites of half of the biggest companies of the u.s., it tracks you whether or not you are logged in. i think folks that maybe don't even use the internet very much, and if they are still out there, would be very surprised to realize how much data is actually being gathered on them as well. >> right, absolutely if you're using the internet, you're being tracked that is just the way it is and if you're using a phone or any other apps or things like that, they know what you're doing and where you're going that's their business, their business is selling advertising or insights into your behavior that's what they're doing. i mean, i don't know what -- you know, i think that's really pretty clear and, you know, the question is will there be regulation related to it, will they be stymied in

how they do it will they have to explain it better those are all questions for legislators. >> kara, you never, in the wake of all this, did anything, deleted a page or stopped posting as much, right did you change your behavior at all? >> no. i don't use facebook that much, i never have >> why not >> i've been pretty active on my settings, i limit them quite a bit. i was always like that, i was always aware they were using them the one i use actively is twitter. it's what it is. you know, i don't know if they have so many insights into me, various stupid personal things, i guess. i don't use the social media except when i'm very aware of what's being shared. i'm unusual, i think, compared to most people i don't think people pay much attention as i do. >> twitter knows who hates us, kara, and why. that's twitter's most deep personal insight into each one of us.

>> nobody hates carl, just me. >> moving on to tencent music, china's largest streaming music company, preparing for what would be one of the biggest tech ipos ever. they have an app which has in excess of 25 billion, although we don't really know where it might be listed. how big a deal is this for tencent and some high profile competitors? >> it's a big deal i think the success of the spotify ipo sort of encouraged these companies to start to think about their own. you know, the cutback in the cryptocurrency thing, regulation, there's not as much. the ipos are now back. you'll see a whole bunch of them i think the success or the relative success of the spotify ipo where it didn't dip dramatically, i think it's around where it started. you know, it's a valuable property it's used all over china they're going to take it public.

it makes a lot of sense right now to do that >> you mentioned spotify, also dropbox. that was a very successful ipo what -- >> i think tencent opens a big stake in spotify there were some stock swaps they had. >> yeah, that's what i'm looking to get, what you think goes public this year or next, the big tech unicorns we've all been watching and waiting for >> airbnb, probably. you would have to watch for uber, 2019, that's when they talked about it. i suspect airbnb will be the next there are several others airbnb will probably be the biggest one you'll see lyft has to go out before the uber ipo things like that, those are the ones that are going to get the most attention next year >> there's an old saying about music that music sells everything except music. and in this case, a lot of these

streaming companies not making money. the business model in selling streaming music itself doesn't necessarily look that great but it's growing platforms, so many different media types are. how should investors think about where the value is in these companies when the core business of selling streaming itself isn't that great >> i don't know. i agree with you i don't understand it myself i mean, they've got to deal with the music companies in some way that makes money their business is selling music, it really is can they move in adjacencies like video that's a crowded space, you run into youtube and everything else and amazon and google and apple half you'll have to wonder how they pull it off over time there has to be a change in the economics of the music industry. music has never been more popular, at the same time it's hard to make money online for

it were you guys at coachella >> yeah, the best coachella i've been to was this year. you didn't see me dancing with beyonce? >> clearly not, i missed that. >> one of these years we're going together, kara >> no, we're not we're never going to together. we're never going to burning man. we're never doing any of that. but enjoy. >> kara swisher enjoying us from one market see you soon >> thanks. and some news in on jetblue. people familiar with the matter tell cnbc that jetblue is planning to sell seats on private jets, that move designed to connect with more high net worth passengers jetblue will announce a co-sharing agreement with jet suite, a private company in which jetblue has invested the airline has already made moves in that direction with its mint premium cabin service it's ride sharing in the air.

in the mainstream airlines seemingly getting involved now shares of apple officially going negative for the year after a 4% drop on friday. we'll discuss the factors concerning investors and take a look at the dow at this hour, trying to break a three-day losing streak, up fractionally more "squawk alley" after this your company is constantly evolving. and the decisions you make have far reaching implications. the right relationship with a corporate bank who understands your industry and your world can help you make well informed choices and stay ahead of opportunities. pnc brings you the resources of one of the nation's largest banks, and a local approach with a focus on customized insights. so you and your company are ready for today.

you know what's not awesome? gig-speed internet. when only certain people can get it. let's fix that. let's give this guy gig- really? and these kids, and these guys, him, ah. oh hello. that lady, these houses! yes, yes and yes. and don't forget about them. uh huh, sure. still yes! xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. now you can get it, too. welcome to the party. apple moving a half percent higher this morning after the stock took a hit last week

an analyst forecast slower iphone sales, some also predicting the discontinuation of the iphone x, although that seems kind of silly. apple set to announce earnings next week. with us is a raymond james managing director, good morning. >> good morning. >> chris, people get cuissy feelings about apple that don't necessarily have a concrete basis. what's going on this time? >> we did lower our numbers for the june quarter investor expectations are low for june right now, that's generally related to iphone x sales. for the fall, what we see is we still have some concerns with regard to the mix as you go into the fall it really is a question of, you know, the high priced iphones, iphone x in this cycle, we expect a higher priced phone that we'll call iphone x plus with a bigger screen >> what are you calling a mixed

concern? yes, the iphone x starting at $999, very expensive there's also the iphone 8 and 8 plus which are in the category of what used to be high price before margins may still be pretty good on those >> right what we see in the fall, in talking to producers within the supply chain, is another model, you know, kind of in the mid-tier, essentially ravieplacg iphone 8 with a reduced feature set. the pricing is around that iphone 8 pricing side but perhaps fewer features, at least versus the flagship. i think what apple is facing right now is an issue of, you know, the prices of the phone are coming up, partially because they can, but partially because they have to because component prices aren't coming down as quickly as they have in the past therefore in the past, for a $650 price point, you got all the latest and greatest features on iphone. now if you want that latest and

greatest feature, you have to go up to $1,000 or we expect in the case of the larger screen iphone in the fall, $1,150 to $1,300 apple is trying to find the balance, the right price point for the phones that absorbs higher material costs and what people will pay for that phone >> chris, there seems to be the sentiment on the street that apple's going to do a pretty sizable cash return to investors in this next earnings report how much is that already baked in and what happens if they don't? >> right so we do expect that, and they said on the last call that it was $163 billion would be returned as a result of u.s. tax reform what they haven't said is what the mechanism and the timing for it is going to be buyback, dividend because they've given the number and clearly set the expectation.

say you buy back that stock over a three-year period, it takes the multiple of the stock down quite low, so the stock is trading around ten times or so earnings once you take account of that. i think frankly that's the reason why the stock hasn't come in, despite what's been widespread iphone x and overall iphone unit sales issues, because people know that the buyback is coming. what we expect is, once they finally announce that cash return program, you get a bit of the sell the news reaction as people are anticipating it, then all attention returns to what happens to iphone sales going through the fall >> chris caso, thanks, we'll be watching it closely, looking forward to earnings from apple >> thank you still to come, fortnight is taking the world by storm. and taking a look at the major averages, s&p and nasdaq

trying to rise for the first time in three days the dow up about 43 points more "squawk alley" right after this break ♪ 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.

just under ten minutes until the end of the trading day in europe let's get me to seema mody a little earlier today for the european close >> carl, european stocks erasing earlier losses after being under pressure amid concerns of a u.s. ten-year note yield heading back 2 or 3% swells the german bund which has also been higher sectors such as consumer staples are off their lows financials, ubs posting best quarterly results in three years helped by strength in its investment banking business. despite that news, the stock moving lower as investors focus on numbers the number from the company's flagship wealth management business, which did miss forecasts. shares down nearly 3%.

meantime shares of deutsche bank are on the rise. china's h&a insisting it will remain a major investor in the german bank despite cutting its stake in deutsche, as h&a conducts a broader scale back in investments. fir today, european aluminum companies are down sharply on news that the united states has extended the deadlines for companies to wind down business. hyd hyd hydro down 6%. french president macron is set to arrive at the white house for

meetings with president trump. france is outperforming the s&p 500. back to you. >> seema, thank you, seema mody at hq. when we come back, trouble in toy land. shares of hasbro making a come back it's now up to 84.47 the former ceo of toys "r" us will join us first, take a listen to cramer's take on the toy maker's results. >> the ceo told everyone, he went over and over again, warning you about toys "r" us. and there's still people who were shocked and felt that this was something you should buy d?ea i mean, honestly, how stupid can people be?

good morning once again, everybody, i'm sue herera. here is your cnbc news update at this hour. yemen houtis fired missiles at ann aramco plant. the dutch ess of cambridge gave birth to a baby boy a town crier proclaimed the happy news on the steps of the london hospital. a tough commute for dozens of drivers in florida.

30 vehicles experienced flat tires in palm beach county after steel rods fell off a semi truck. troopers assisted all of the affected drivers not a good way to start your day. check out this shot. cleveland cavaliers guard j.r. smith pulling it up to drill an incredible buzzer beater against the indiana pacers cavs won the game to tie their nba playoff season at two games each there you go that's the news update this hour back downtown to "squawk alley," morgan, back to you. >> thanks, sue sue herera at hq hasbro now positive after sharp declines in early trading, the company citing the toys "r" us bankruptcy. mattel also reversing an early drop joining us former toys "r" us ceo, jerry, thanks for joining us today >> glad to be here >> starting with mattel, they

changed their ceo, fourth time in as many years how much of this is the toys "r" us ripple effect and how much of this is just the broader retail landscape and the pain we're seeing from companies like amazon >> those are two very different companies. i'm not worried at all about hasbro brian golder is brilliant. mattel is another story. frankly, in a time like this when the market is contracting, it's going to hurt the weaker players and mattel is the weaker player right now the demise of toys "r" us will shrink the toy market certainly in the short term and probably for a while. >> given the fact that there is a new ceo coming in at mattel, we've heard about it on and off, the speculation for years. mattel and hasbro merger, hazmat as it's known on wall street >> hasbro is a consolidation

the new ceo at mattel, i don't know him personally, people who know him say he's a brilliant guy, an expert on intellectual property maybe there is something going on here. maybe pieces you could sell off parts as well all that is speculation. meanwhile i'm sure they're trying to fix their business >> you mentioned ip. is it not the most important thing in a toy executive >> it's everything it's a fashion business. you saw the big shift in market share that happened when hasbro took a big chunk of the disney business away from mattel. brian has been on this for decades. they do movies with marvel, he had a television network at one point. he got hammered originally for

investing intellectual property. you have to have good licenses or things you create yourself. >> i hear the amazon excuse all the time toys are things that kids like to get down on the floor with. kids still like playing with toys the types of toys perhaps change, but intellectual property they've had plenty of time to course correct >> i haven't been at toys "r" us for five years we generated $15 billion in ebitda when i was at the company. the issue was always that the company was very highly leveraged. the company is still worth something. i believe the bonds are in the hands now of a group of investors who are very short term focused and they believe it's worth more dead than alive. >> why don't we have somebody starting a new toy company >> you never know.

one company, rarely mentioned, called five below, it's a $4 billion market cap much of what they sell is toys and they sell a lot of products for kids in those stores one of the things about toys "r" us, it's a place to take your kids, it's a community, it's like disney land in des moines there was always a reason for its existence. with that gone, the toy market will shrink. there could be room for somebody else it may simply be absorbed by amazon kohl's has a toy business. >> given what we've seen in the bankruptcy proceedings, do you believe the toys "r" us brand will continue? >> we saw just the other day that -- or just the last year that f.a.o. schwarz came back, i call them phoenixes when they

come back. someone will do that, and say toys "r" us is back. obviously it won't be the same toys "r" us it was before. but it would be an opportunity to start from scratch and design a fantastic store. >> how complicated do you think tariffs or trade or even rising commodity prices make this business >> most of it still comes from asia, hong kong is the center of the toy industry, period having said that, that would happen for every supplier, every manufacturer it would be a level playing field. i don't think, given the low cost of toys in someone's budget, it doesn't make much of a difference at all. >> looking out five years, ten years from now, what do you think the toy retailing business looks like do you think people are just doing everything on e-commerce, do you think it's grocery stores, which is being floated now? >> the all-channel model is the dominant model, there will be a

lot of internet growth right now it's probably a little under 20% of the toy market. it will be more as you look to the future the majority will still be done in physical stores but all these physical stores will have internet arms. i don't even know how to count it when you order something online and go to pick it up in the stores >> who is the best, what's the best retail concept for toys maybe it's a boutique, something that you've seen that could be the future, maybe the apple store of toys. >> well, you know, it depends on what you're really asking about. there are some strong players still. smiths in europe has done a remarkable job ireland, they did a great job in the uk they've bought up toys "r" us assets in central europe they're more efficient, they operate a very low cost model. i think they do an excellent job. there are toy stores, to answer your past questions, elsewhere notice wor

in the world >> ireland invaded the uk, i like that. >> last question for you, given the fact that you're talking about the millenial generation which is so focused on quality, do you think we'll see more toy manufacturing take place here in the u.s. rather than places like china where quality control is an issue >> i don't really think so i don't think it's true that quality control -- with all due respect, that quality control is an issue in asia it's a big wow, what a great job they do. it's the responsibility of the toy retailers and manufacturers to make sure the toys have quality. it's not where they're manufactured, it's whether they're done correctly the u.s. is a great place, wonderful place, love products made in the usa, but at the end of the day the kids will buy the coolest toy that does the most fun things >> gerry, thank you for joining us here. we're getting news on apple today, josh lipton is in san francisco. hey, josh. >> reporter: carl, news breaking here that the european commission has now opened an

in-depth investigation into apple's proposed acquisition of shazam, the commission saying it's concerned that the merger could reduce choice for users of music streaming services they say, carl, that apple would obtain access to commercially sensitive data about customers of its competitors you'll of course recall, carl, that apple made some news in december when it agreed to buy shazam, that music identification app, for an estimated $400 million at the time apple talked about how popular shazam was as an app for ios, talked about the number of customers it had, said that that shazam and apple music were this natural fit but again, the european commission now opening an investigation into that proposed acquisition. i've reached out to apple for comment and i'll bring one if i get it, guys back to you. >> we will watch that one closely. once again, the eu there, josh thank you very much, josh lipton on that apple news out of san

francisco. when we come back, the former president of mexico, vicente fox, will join us to talk about trump and trade take a look at the dow, staying within a moderate band an earlier gain of 73 points for highs of the session and tried to avoid the fstoudaloir fr-y ss since the end of february. need a change of scenery? the kayak price forecast tool tells you whether to wait or book your flight now. so you can be confident you're getting the best price. giddyup! kayak. search one and done.

we're live from the investment conference today, i'm scott wapner we're on the pulse of the markets as always with a look at rates and stocks and what happens if yields keep climbing. "the halftime report" is here at lincoln center at the sohn conference, live at noon carl, forgive me, they're plastiplast i -- blasting the music here. >>see you in a few minutes a new push to reach a quick nafta agreement. the president took to twitter this morning saying that mexico, whose laws on immigration are very tough, must stop people from going through mexico to the u.s. we may make this a new condition of the nafta agreement we must get wall funding tacfast we'll go down to miami, where

our john harwood is joined by former mexico president vicente fox. >> thanks, carl. mr. president, there are three possibilities for nafta. one, we stick with the old nafta, already in effect second, a deal gets struck and the countries ratify, we have a new one. third, there is no deal and president trump rips it up what do you expect to happen >> number one, what a surprise that morning when he was tweeting, we were speaking here at this great conference totally different points of view i'm sure he's trying to impress his base, his electorate, because he's convinced that a better nafta is to the benefit of the united states that will be the result, a better nafta that benefits canada, the united states, and

mexico >> a better nafta for the united states or better nafta for mexico as well >> trading is always to the benefit of the three, canada, united states, and mexico. there is only winners, not zero sum like trump pretends to tell people, that you can only win when others lose that doesn't work in trading >> given the nature of his views on immigration and trade which have been consistent concerns of his for a long time, you think the economic integration of the u.s., mexico, and canada are stronger than a president who is skeptical of them? >> same as i mentioned this morning, technology also is connecting people. that cannot be avoided the stupidity out of the mind of trump, that serves no positive purpose, it's just isolating the

united states from the rest of the world. that wall is only in trump's mind >> let me ask you this you have become a very flamboyant critic of donald trump, making fun of trump, the t-shirts, can't build a wall if your hands are too small why have you chosen that role at this stage of your career? >> well, i have to say, nothing personal, it is just those obsolete ideas, that ignorance that he has about the economy -- >> have you met donald trump >> no, and i hope not, until i apologize to mexico and mexicans then i can go share a taco bowl in his tower in new york but he has to apologize to mexico and mexicans and stop promoting things that don't work for the united states, are not in the benefit of the united states so that has to be changed. >> morgan brennan, jump right in

>> so, mr. president, and john, thank you for joining us today i know we're sitting here talking about rust poliu.s. pol. i want to get your thoughts on mexican politics there is increasing concern about the presidency how about you? >> we were worried until yesterday. yesterday, on the national d-day, every single mexican showed the lack of capacity of lopez to be president of mexico. mexico is a country that is way, way ahead, modern thinking, technological thinking, look at the future and lopitos is looking way behind, a hundred years ago. no to lopitos and yes to anaya >> all right

president fox, let me ask you, you said at the conference a few minutes ago that you thought americans had only seen the tip of the iceberg of donald trump's agenda what do you mean by that, what have we not seen yet that you expect us to see >> the on the ground agenda is this so-called back to nation states >> the steve bannon vision >> exactly government that controls people and that doesn't let people think on their own they oppose behavior, they oppose the conscience. the world should not accept them we are free, we have innovation, we have activity, as individuals. it's citizens that can do the job for this 21st century. >> does the fact that the president got rid of steve bannon tell you he's turned away

from that agenda >> no, no. he's right there everything, every time he opens his mouth, his big mouth, same thing. back to the past, back to a nation state, back to the grandeur of america. america has been great always and will be great forever. it doesn't need trump. >> president fox, thank you so much guys, back to you. >> john, thank you for bringing that to us, our john harwood with vicente fox in miami. let's get to the cme, rick santelli and "the santelli exchange." >> jim bianco, you're the perfect guy here i'm glad i was on vacation, i come back, we still haven't pierced the veil of 3% but we're getting close today. when i look back at last week, the inflation data was before that, it wasn't threatening. so what exactly has pushed this market into the zone where we are now contending with what we thought we would contend with in january, a breach of 3%?

>> i think it is the expectation that things break even, and a lot of other measures have moved higher the market is worrying that inflation might be stirring. let me interpret that for you. the market is worried about quantitative tightening. we had quantitative easing for nine years that was a tailwind for the market when we see inflation coming back, maybe we say it's good for the economy, the market hears, you're going to take away my drug of easy money, and we start to see turbulence. we saw that late last week too >> there was a period at the end of last year and beginning of this year, when the stock market still had no major corrections and the whole concept of rates moving higher seemed more palatable to most investors. what happened to that? >> jay paul happened to that what happened was when we had that little burst off of the tax cuts in december and january and the market was moving higher, we

weren't completely bought into the idea there would be three or four rate hikes this year, another three next year. now we've started to realize, we could be staring at six more >> let's keep it real simple we have data dependent for a long time as the operative phrase now we have somebody in there viewed as a pragmatic market guy who has a goal of where he wants the normalized overnight rate to be the notion is he's going to march there and not necessarily have all the things in his peripheral vision that janet yellen and ben bernanke may have had. >> the big thing that's in his peripheral vision that he's not worried is the stock market. we've already had a 10% correction there's been no movement as far as the fed weakening prior to january, any time the market wobbled, that's it, the right hikes are off. now they don't care. we might need a 15 or 20% correction in the stock market to call off the rate hikes >> we have a couple of interesting charts you have been at the forefront of pointing out, we're still

over $16 trillion of central bank activity which may still be underpinning global equities but central banks are now producing tighter conditions explain. >> yeah, the first chart you showed shows the weighted average of all the central bank policy and the bottom panel basically shows for the first time since the financial crisis collectively they're moving to tightening mode. the second chart shows a balance sheet projection for all the global balance sheets by next summer, summer of '19, they're supposed to be in contractionary mode for the first time. >> in a cumulative way >> no more stimulus. >> if we wanted to cut through all the foliage and get an easy answer for our viewers, we still can make a good argument that the run-up in rates again towards 3% is because of this ongoing notion that the punch bowl is more important and the economic growth we once thought was here may not be as large as

anticipated. >> absolutely, the punch bowl matters more earnings are expected to be 19% year over year and we're unchanged on the year. >> jim bianco, thank you as always jon fortt, back to you >> thank you, rick to you >> still to come, fortnite from epic games is giving the gaming community a run r foits money. we'll tell you which companies are cashing in and which companies are taking a hit real-time analytics,'s you'll get clear, actionable alerts about potential investment opportunities in real time. fidelity. open an account today. anyone can get you ready, holiday inn express gets you the readiest. because ready gives a pep talk. showtime! but the readiest gives a pep rally. i cleared my inbox! holiday inn express, be the readiest. ♪

whether it's a big thing, small thing, or something unexpected, pnc will be right there when you need us. because when it comes to your finances, if you focus on today, tomorrow has a way of working itself out.

you know what's not awesome? gig-speed internet. if you focus on today, when only certain people can get it. let's fix that. let's give this guy gig- really? and these kids, and these guys, him, ah. oh hello. that lady, these houses! yes, yes and yes. and don't forget about them. uh huh, sure. still yes! xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. now you can get it, too. welcome to the party. welcome back to "squawk

alley. fortnite has become a worldwide gaming phenomenon. there are plenty of companies profiting, and also some that are losing out because of its success. julia boorstin joins us now with more >> to give you an idea of just how big of a phenomenon fortnite is, a four-day event drew 400,000 concurrent viewers on twitch the game is on track to surpass the $126 million it generated through in app purchases in february, according to super data research, to put that in context, its closest rival brought in just $103 million in the same time period here's a look at what's driving the success of fortnite battle royale and the impact. >> fortnite is free to play, and accessible across consoles, pcs, and ios mobile devices you can play with your friends, as many as 100 players can participate in the battle royale mode plus in addition to traditional

first person shooter game features, players can pay for fun add-ons like ostumes and dance moves. fortnite's success benefits epic games of which chinese tencent owns 10% disney also owned a part of epic, akiering epic in its start-up accelerator last year twitch saw its traffic surge 40% thanks to fortnite, the most watched game in twitch history all the time and money spent playing fortnite are expected to eat into earnings results when they report next month key bank lowered its vision based on the growth of fortnite, saying a survey they conducted found act vision's call of duty and grand auto are the two games most at risk from fortnite's growth back over to you >> thank you, julia. as you guys might remember, back in march, the game ninja tyler

blevins joined us on "squawk alley. we asked how he makes half a million a month streaming his fortnite games on twitch >> a lot of income is definitely coming from the amazon and twitch prime subscribes. we hit 5 million subscribers on youtube as well, and i'm almost there on twitter, and just the combination of all those things is really where the collective revenue is coming from and i mean, this deal that amazon prime and twitch prime have together is incredible. twitch prime allows people to claim loot and collect loot with specific games and they recently did a deal with fortnite, which is the hottest game right now, and that actually is one of the main reasons of influx of subscribers currently to my stream >> big platforms cashing in. to watch that interview, go to cnbc.com, and we'll tweet out a link at "squawk alley" as well speaking of the popularity of gaming, that's the most popular video on our site this year, one

of the most viewed of all time >> all time? >> yeah, everybody is cashing in on fortnite, we are, too, apparently twitch is owned by amazon. so one more way. >> they need to license my evenings, like fortt nights. >> maybe i can cash in, too. >> when we come back, tesla got a much needed endorsement over the weekend. we'll fill you in after the break.

kanye west taking to twitter over the weekend to tell elon musk and the world how much lee loves his tesla. he thanked elon. the feeling is mutual. in march, musk was asked who inspiring him. he said kanye west, obviously. so we'll see how far that goes not the worst publicity. >> he's only been back on twitter for about ten days now >> he's been back on twitter he's been tweeting up a storm. i have to say. >> we would expect no less >> this goes back to a conversation last week the idea that people who own teslas really seem to love their cars >> jason certainly does.

no doubt about that. as for twitter, earnings coming wednesday. but in front of that, google tonight, alphabet, as jon reminds us, and tomorrow is going to be kind of insane between cat, 3m, coke, lilley, lockheed, and more >> a lot of good numbers coming. >> yes, wapner at the conference let's get to the half. the chimes are going off that means the sohn conference is ready to begin. welcome to a special edition of "the halftime report." i'm scott wapner we're live today from lincoln center at the sohn investment conference in new york city where some of the biggest money managers in theworld are pitching their best ideas all for a great cause, to try to end childhood cancers. we will be hearing from the bond king, jeffrey gund lock today, jamal is here, bill gurley in the house, larry robins, a whole lot more throughout the day. we'll bring you all of the headlines as