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good friday morning. welcome to "squawk alley." i'm carl quintanilla along with morgan brennan and jon fortt amazon shares hit an all-time high after stunning the street, the stock move announcing a hike in its prime membership from $99 to $119. why they chose to raise prices now, here is the ceo. >> it's nothing more than looking at the state of the program, high benefits it's delivering i mentioned that four years ago when we last increased the price of prime, if you had 20 million products within two days, today you get over 100 million products within two days and many, many, many products within one day. same day or two hours.

so, there's all kinds of new features that we've continually added to the prime program it's much different than it was in 2014. this is a reflection of that a bitter reflection of the cost value of the program. >> results from microsoft and intell initially sent those stocks higher. mark muhaney joins us along with mike santoli guys, good to see you both amazon is holding. >> it is. >> intel and microsoft, s&p has not. >> pretty good test of selling the news instinct. it wouldn't surprise me if they held that gain if intel and microsoft got a look at the numbers. when it comes to the faang stocks, this is brilliant numbers you kind of paid for, the market is saying amazon has doubled since the

beginning of last year they're giving you what the market, in a sense, anticipated. it's stunning that you're seeing top line growth for companies of this scale i think that's what the market sort of figured out along the way. it does tell you that we're kind of stuck a little macronoise today is not helping with the dollar up and all the rest of it but, yeah, this is a show-me market right now and it's a friday. we've gotten used to that, too. >> where do you stand on this amazon report. what's more impressive the continuing cloud momentum or this new detail that we've got on the advertising business and the potential it has to generate profit, given the many different fly wheels inside amazon that's being driven by that ad business >> jon, i think that's the second i think that's the real new news today. you have an inflection story with amazon, just like with netflix. we knew prime was going to do that and aws is leading the cloud industry new news here is that margins

really gapped up for reasons we think are sustainable. first, advertising revenue, high margins, like aws, the cloud business that's starting to become material for the business. robotics are starting to have an impact now on fulfillment efficiencies at the company. third is just general scale. this is a heavy fixed cost business revenue accelerates, that drops to the bottom line these factors are sustainable. you just reached the tipping point in terms of operating margins. oh, yeah and you put forward a $20 price increase on 100 million subscribers, 2 billion in incremental revenue, cash flow knowing amazon, they won't allow it to drop down. if you're going to invest it, invest it in something it's great profit potential. >> mark, a number of faang earnings this week, including alphabet early on in the week we have scott galloway on. you're seeing an amazon effect begin to taper on these big tech companies and he argued that's fueling the big spending we're seeing in alphabet, especially

when you see growth in things like advertising and amazon. do you think that's the case >> yeah. one thing i want to give scott credit for, he thought amazon could get to a trillion market cap this year. i was pretty dismissive of that. there's a decent shot they can get there. our price target presumes they'll get relatively close to there. they're all secular growth winners. not all of them but the faang names, facebook and google are the two ways to play advertise ing. they're gaining share. i don't see anything that will stop that. netflix has this sector to itself that's consumer home entertainment, where entertainment is going, which is streaming. amazon gives you cloud, retail and then they'll play off advertising and it may be shipping and logistics and probably business and supplies they got more market opportunities. four very good management teams. these stocks you want to buy and hold our favorite is facebook of that group. that's the best valuation play.

>> i want to go back to the point you were making earlier and how far along we weare in te cycle right now. to what could possibly be wrong and chipping away at it. we saw that with caterpillar, union pacific, defense contractors this week. but now, to your point, we're seeing it with tech companies today. how much does that speak to the jitters in the broader market? >> with the industrial markets you mentioned it's very linear our earnings model show you what costs will do. employment costs going up, reminding us wages are going up, too. with regard to these tech companies, i don't think anyone is saying this is the peak for absolute earnings growth exactly how many more years can you expect 40% top line? probably a while but, again, the market got there. facebook, it's interesting 93% of analysts have buys on it

right now. in other words you didn't get that washout when people walk add way from facebook, even, with all its troubles and said oh, the story's really changed i think you have to maybe get -- i don't think you have to get that. >> when you say it's a show me market. >> yeah. >> $1 billion. >> got shown. >> $1 billion, right >> absolutely. i get it it's much more of a general effect of people in january, three months ago, felt incredibly burned for how exposed they were to equities when they turned down. and i don't think you've seen that impulse to rebuild equity positions at this time, just because you have so many more push/pull factors out there, whether it's rates or the dollar or something else. and when it comes to the big tech stocks, again, the big five are 14% of the s&p 500 they're much bigger as economic entities than they were in 1999. do you know microsoft in 1999, when it was $800 billion, inflation adjusted, was not in the top 50 of the fortune 500?

revenue wise they were not nearly at this kind of scale now you have these winner take most companies that are taking most and i think the market kind of gave them the credit already. >> your romantic comedy corr survives. a news alert out of washington this morning. kayla tautsche has that. hey, kayla. >> this is separate from the investigation into china that resulted in potential high-tech tariffs. china remains on the priority watch list official said china is the most egregious violenter of u.s. intellectual property. results from china to date, the report said, have disappointed this official declined to say

how ambassador lightheiser would address that it added two gulf countries, saudi arabia and uae to the watch list and escalated china, only g7 country present to priority watch, saying there's hope that canada addresses ip issues in any way it can, including through talks on nafta, which are ongoing today carl, back to you. >> kayla, thank you for bringing us that, kaylatausche in washington, d.c. we've got a big show ahead on this friday morning still to come, amazon more than doubling its advertising revenue in the last quarter. ceo of the company that handles a big chunk of that business for the e-commerce giant is joining us next. plus cfo of intel on the big earnings beat. more "squawk alley" straight more "squawk alley" straight ahead. your sorry not sorry thing. your out with the old in with the new,

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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. one area of its business gaining traction for amazon, advertising. only generating $2 billion in sales. the company says it's still in the early annex. >> it's now a multibillion dollar program and growing quickly. our main goal is to help customers discover new brands and products we show sponsored products, trying to show people things that maybe they wouldn't have seen otherwise in their normal search results.

>> for more on this, joining us at post nine, chairman and ceo of ipg, one of the largest advertising agencies that counts amazon as one of its many clients. also out with earnings early this morning michael, good to have you on thanks for joining us here. >> it's great to be here thank you. >> taking a look at amazon, the fact that all its different businesses and earnings, the one that grew far and away the most, more than doubling, is this advertising business we talk a lot about facebook and google and the duopoly there is amazon poised to interrupt that in terms of advertising >> you look at the results, it's clear that they are. it's pretty clear that they're growing to be the number three replacement, at least, in terms of the digital ad spend. our job is to help our clients allocate their advertising dollars to where they can get their most best return on investment it's welcome to have additional outlets, if you will, to reach

the consumer that amazon, through its platform, provides for us we welcome as many players as can be so, it helps us be more efficient and reach more consumers. >> when you're talking about amazon, facebook, given the data scandal that's been -- and privacy scandal that's been under way there, when you're talking about google, youtube and the fact that they continue to have issues with videos or advertisements running against extremist videos, where are you telling your clients to put their money right now? >> they need someone to help them navigate through this environment. take facebook, for example we're working very closely with facebook to solve some of the privacy issues and, frankly, i think they will get there. we haven't seen a big pullback in terms of allocating dollars to facebook. nor a big pullback from google

look, part of the google business is a search business. and the privacy part of it isn't affected on the search side of it the youtube, however, where there's placement issues, that, we have to work with our clients very careful to ensure safety. that's where we add value in terms of working with our clients. >> alphabet has done a lot themselves, adding tons of human curation is that helping, do you think? >> yeah. look, both google and facebook are spending money and time to work with us, to ensure that our clients will be protected and, frankly, that's how we allocate the dollars. if they don't solve that problem, then we will allocate -- help them allocate those dollars elsewhere. >> michael, to what degree are amazon ads driving sales on amazon you place ads within amazon properties for clients as well my gut would be it's primarily to drive sales of the products within amazon's network. is that, indeed, what's

happening? >> of course look, again, marketing dollars are spent to reach a consumer. with all the data and analytics and insights we have, we can reach a particular type of consumer that are relevant to the product. in order to compete with the relevant world, brands have to build their value. best place to do that is to put the dollars where the consumers are looking and searching. >> it's more like an end cap than an ad, in a way, within a grocery store or big box retailer >> think of it as additional information to help the consumer make the search relevant to the product they're looking for. that's where the brand recognition and brand value has to come into play. it's the only way to beat the generic products, if you will, that are being sold on the internet. >> i have to get your thoughts on the state of the industry of sir martin sorrel from wpp

that advertising conglomerate, there are rumors out there, could be sold for parts. do you think that's the case, a? and b, given that you have rivals of these big tech companies, automation, do you think this marks the end of an era for advertising? >> if you look at our results this quarter, i think we proved the exact opposite the fourth quarter we outperformed and look at our positive results, particularly in the united states we had 4.3% net organic growth i think we've shown that the era of the advertising is alive and well and we do add value to our clients in the marketplace we've been competing with wpp for years, as we compete with all the rest if you look at us on a ten-year basis, we've always outperformed them certainly on total shareholder return so, you know, we view wpp as

another competitor and the issues for wpp, i worry about ipg, not wpp we have competed with them very positively in the last couple of years. their performance was not in the top quarterile of performance. we view it as another opportunity to show that, frankly, we're better than our competitors. >> certainly we heard that from you on the call this morning and saw it in the numbers. >> yes. >> thank you for joining us here at post nine exclusively, michael roth of interpublic group, ipg. >> thank you very much it's good to be here. when we come back, intel on a strong quarter, off its earlier highs. all that, despite its chip security debacle earlier this year you might remember that from january. they obviously shrugged it off bob swan joins us next to discuss. before we head to break, take a look at the nasdaq, an early 1% jump before losing all those gains. more "squawk alley" in just a memont

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we are getting some news on charter. let's get to our julia boorstin in los angeles with that julia? >> jon, charter shares are off almost 15%, the company's worst day in almost seven years. charter reporting its earnings this morning, the company lost 122,000 residential video subscribers in the first quarter, a far bigger loss than analysts had expected and also 22,000 more subscribers than they lost in the year ago quarter. this, raising fundamental questions about charter's video business as well as it's m & a strategy, which has focused on adding video subscribers rather than investing in differentiating content. tom rutledge, charter's ceo, saying in the call moments ago, that the company doesn't need to do more m & a, doesn't need to buy content, saying they can execute their strategy with the assets they v listen to this

sound bite of rutledge dismissing concerns about charter's video business being broken. >> changes in video business are significant and hard to predict, but, you know, we still think there's video growth capable inside our asset base. it's fairly marginally insignificant, though, in the sense -- in this sense there's very little margin in the video business. >> another factor putting pressure on charter shares today, analyst craig moffett arguing that sprint and t-mobile getting closer to a deal dampens hopes that oftbank could buy charter. take a look at that stock. back over to you. >> we've been watching it all morning, julia thanks so much let's get to seema mody at post nine with the european close. >> mostly higher to end the

week ftse 100 extending its winning streak to five, as the pound continues to fall. it's now at a seven-week low on new data that shows that gdp in the uk expanded at its slowest level of growth since late 2012. it also follows a string of disappointing economic reports out of the uk. and, therefore, casting further doubt over the bank of england interest rate hike next month. 137 for the pound. on to earnings key consumer names electrolux missing on its bottom line, hurt by higher raw material costs the company booking hefty restructuring charges in its north american business. that stock down 12%. of course, main political event is chancellor angela merkel's visit to the white house today they went five months without speaking to each other that ended in march. the topic of trade, experts say, merkel will push for eu exemptions but likely to defend

china as well, their top trading partner in 2017 for the second year in a row and a major growth market for the german auto sector guys, back to you. >> thank you, seema. seema mody. the ceo of docusign joins us, as the digital company starts to trade. and we're awaiting chancellor angela merkel's arrival at the white house trade serving as the backdrop to her second visit to this administration we'll bring you that live. we'll bring you that live. stay with us ooh, so close. yes, but also all... night through its entirety. come on, all... the time from sunset to sunrise. right. but you can trade... from, from... from darkness to light.

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hello, everyone. i'm sue herera here is your cnbc news update at this hour. at least two people were killed and seven others wounded by a bomb attack in boca haram extremists in nigeria. many of the gun attackers two female suicide attackers were also killed. two former nbc employees have accused long-time anchor tom brokaw of sexual harassment, linda vester telling "variety" that he made unwanted advancements toward her in the '90s brokaw has denied the allegations. another woman speaking in

anonymity said brokaw made advances toward her as well. mike pompeo arriving in brussels for a nato summit to take place in july and the members of the iconic rock group abba say that they have recorded two new songs for the first time in 35 years one is entitled "i still have faith in you." and it will be released in a december tv special. you are up-to-date that's the news update this hour back downtown to "squawk alley." carl i'll send it back to you. >> some people say that's the only news of the day that matters, sue thank you very much. >> i know, right that's really true. >> yes we're getting an opening on docusign, price of shares 29 under the symbol dcu you might have used if you do any transactions in your personal life. it did price in a nice range of

31% gain there we'll speak to the company ceo in a few moments. and amazon continues -- well, that's coming up amazon continuing its record run, so much cloud in this report, investors don't even need to look for a silver lining josh lipton joins us from san francisco with more. josh >> john, jeff bezos couldn't help himself after amazon reported these results, crowing about the success of aws, saying his cloud business has a seven-year head start over rivals and has never slowed down aws generated 5.4 billion in revenue, a surge of 49%. operating profits jumped 57% to $1.4 billion bezos is competition here. check out microsoft ad revenue growth, office 365 commercial revenue growth 42% commercial cloud revenue up $6 billion with expanding gross

margins of 57% a key advantage in this fight. his company has been selling to businesses for decades so, when customers move to the cloud it's a good bet they're going to move from office to office 365 rather than jump to a rival. then there is google analysts estimate it will generate as much as $2.5 billion in sales this year all three companies do boast big customers. so, aws has names like comcast, parent company of this network as well as mcdonald's and netflix. microsoft boasts names like hb, honeywell. paypal and hsbc. there's a caveat there the same company can look for different cloud providers for different needs, turning to aws for storage to microsoft for office 365 for google to data analytics, sales force, to crm, and adobe for digital marketing. bottom line, a ton of money is up for grabs here. global market for cloud services

will grow more than 20% this year to $186 billion, according to gardner guys, back to you. >> josh lipton in san francisco, thank you. another area we're going to have to keep an eye on, guys, government contracts for cloud services, jedi contract, the competition expected to kick off in earnest next month. microsoft expected to compete for that a lot to watch. we're waiting on german chancellor angela merkel's white house arrival. we'll bring you that live. meantime, dow is down 16 points stay with us ♪ 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.

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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. watching shares of disney here as we're getting early box office numbers on "avengers. >> marvel "avengers: infinity

war," bringing in $39 at the u.s. box office, a record for a marvel film and one of the biggest in the top three or four openings ever after the two "star wars" films and "harry potter and the deathly hallows part 2." it has grossed $90 million in its first two days, not even opening in several big markets, such as china and russia this puts "infinity war" on track to gross more than $250 million at the u.s. box office and potentially as much as $500 million globally really big numbers to watch from disney back over to you. >> wow, those are some big, big numbers, julia we keep on seeing it from disney's marvel franchise. thank you very much. thank you, julia boorstin. earnings beat, it was up and then down. now it's up again. take a look at intel stock up more than 1%, the company seeing

growth in data center revenues and the pc business. bob schwann joins us now on the cnbc newsline. good morning. >> good morning, jon how are you? >> i'm doing pretty well i'm looking at the cloud segment performance for you guys it grew 45% in the quarter and you say it surpassed $2 billion in revenue for the first time put that into context for us some investors might be concerned a lot of these cloud companies are mega scale and maybe eventually they'll have some leverage over pricing. how is intel going to keep up margins in that cloud segment? >> that's a great question, jon. first, i would say what we're experiencing is what we characterize as unrelenting demand for performance and the growing need of data, the need to store, analyze and retrieve that data is what's really driving the growth for our data

center business. in the aggregate, cloud was the biggest driver but we also continue to see great progress on our comp services, up 33% and some good growth, 3%, for the enterprise in the aggregate, as long as there's need for demand and compute policy, i think we're well positioned to compete and win in the data center space. >> one thing that seems to have investors concerned is manufacturing headaches. 10 nanometer delays. intel has this tick tock sort of cadence when you would redesign the chip and another one you would improve performance. it's been kind of tick, tick lately you made the point on the call that this is a one-time cycle

issue, a little bit over ambitious as 10 nanometer and seven woebt be as much an issue. what's the potential downside as we get into the long end of this cycle and those 10 nanometer chips aren't ready as soon as they might have been >> first, the most important thing for us, as is we continue deliver an annual cadence of improvement for our customers, whether that's 14 nanometer or 10 nanometer, the most important thing they're looking for is enhanced performance as we've been challenged a bit with 10 nanometer, the yields aren't coming along as fast as we would like. we've been able to continue to get more and more performance through architectural innovations on our 14 nanometer product. so, we're delivering 14 nanometer, increased performance

and then parallel we'll continue to work on the yields for 10 nanometer over time. as long as we have the highest performance products in the market, which we do, and scaling high yield manufacturing processes, we believe we can continue to deliver very strong growth margins for our shareholders while enhancing performance for our customers. >> bob, i want to be sure to get to the second half, which you said will be some deceleration in the server business everybody looking at amd and aggressive targets for these chips that are doing pretty well is that the cause of your caution around second half growth and what do you see as the sort of worst case scenario as far as deceleration there and what intel's answer is going to be? >> yeah. first, we came into the year looking for our data center business looking at growth in the high single digits or more

broadly our collection of data center businesses growing in the midteens 90 days through the year, we've increased our guidance for the full year from the mid teens to the high teens the data center business is obviously the biggest contributor to that. our expectations is that growth will continue into the second quarter. as we go into the second half of the year, you know, we have much tougher comps for our business, after an outstanding second half of 2017. and we also -- you know, the macroeconomic climate, from our vantage point, in the second half is not quite as clear as the strong growth we're anticipating in the second quarter. so what we said yesterday, we feel great about where we are so far this year. we raised our expectations for the full year. but we're still a little bit cautious, as we think about what the second half holds. >> bob, before we let you go,

this is morgan brennan here. you mentioned that macroeconomic environment. quickly, how much of the growth in your business is a reflection of the secular shift toward mortgagization and how much of it is the tailwind of tax reform and what that does to incentivize corporate spending >> most importantly, as i indicated earlier, this demand for performance and growing usage data is the fundamental driver for our business. at the same time, you know, gdp strength, corporate earnings are relatively strong and tax reform does incent people to take advantage of the deductibility of their capital spent we think all those things are benefiting the strong start to the year more importantly for us, it's the increased needs for data in the unrelenting need for higher compute performance.

>> all right bob swan, intel's cfo. thank you so much. the stock up a little more than 40 cents after earnings. >> thank you very much let's get over to melissa lee and see what's coming up on the half hey, melis. >> thanks so much, carl. i'm in for scott wapner today. piling on to the amazon train, hiking prices across the board we'll talk to one of the street's biggest to see where he thinks the stock can go. and in the energy sector, a big turn on intel. d s apologizing to investor anis live. much more "squawk alley" straight ahead you know what's awesome? gig-speed internet.

you know what's not awesome? 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. take you to washington, d.c. here in a minute and look for the arrival of german chancellor merkel as she visits the white house. press conference expected around like 1:50 p.m. eastern time in the wake of macron's visit, as to whether she plays bad co to macron's good cop, whether there's more discussion about the iran deal, or climate or trade. for all of this, we'll turn to eamon javers and rely on you, eamon. >> what a difference there's no honor guard of the united states military there's no 21-gun salute getting ready on the south lawn. they had pipes and drummers on the south lawn, reviewing of the

troops all the razmataz of the state visit for macron none of it today for chancellor merkel they're calling it a working lunch. on the agenda will be nato, climate change and trade, among other things we'll see the two leaders in the oval office having that sitdown in the fireplace, as is traditional. then we'll see a news conference later in the afternoon where they'll take two questions each from the german press corps and from the u.s. press corps. we'll see what news comes from that whether or not angela merkel can get the trade and tariff exemptions she wants from the president. she doesn't have the warmest relationship with the president. that might not matter. we've seen other leaders who do have warm relationships with the president strike out on that front. we'll wait to see what fruit can bear out here on the visit we're expecting that arrival any

moment now, carl >> thank you especially as president trump was contrasting the relationship with france with the relationship with the eu at large. you wonder if the german chancellor ends up representing the eu at large. let's bring in kayla tausche who has more inside washington as well kayla? >> reporter: jon, angela merkel has specific things she's going to be looking for. number one, as eamon mentioned, the deadline for the steel tariff exemptions. it's being led by secretary wilbur ross at the department of commerce president trump has the final say on that. german official told the ft they're prepared for anything, including having those tariffs go into effect next tuesday even as some people are scratching their head as to whether that process could be finished by tuesday or whether it would need to be extended then there's this problem of russian sanctions on rusol,

major aluminum producer, especially a produce german automakers rely on heavily. they extended the effective date of those but angela merkel wants clear data of what they're looking for. it could send germany into a recession and dramatically decrease the output of the german manufacturing sector, something she does not want to see happen, especially under her watch, which has significantly weakened since the last time she was in washington, meeting with the president. >> kayla, thank you for that kayla tausche, helping us set up chancellor merkel's arrival, which we do expect momentarily madam ambassador, good to talk to you this morning. >> good morning. >> help us understand the dynamics between angela merkel

and president macron. >> there is a difference in the personal relationship, but the french president didn't get an assurance with respect to threatened tariffs on steel and. and i worry that we'll move forward on it, not because i'm concerned about the eu so much as i am concerned about the united states. >> in what sense >> the tariffs that we would impose are imposed under the rubric of national security. and the european union is one of our closest allies, so it's tough to see that that makes much sense but if you look at it just economically, when we have imposed tariffs on steel in the past, we have lost twice as many jobs by imposing those tariffs than we gain by trying to protect the steel industry and in addition, the revenues

that we lost were much, much higher than the tariffs that we collected. so this is not a good national program. >> and is that why you believe some of those tariffs were removed earlier than planned >> well, the last time that we -- using national security as a trade device is very rare. and the steal tariffs that i alluded to were imposed by george w. bush, bush jr. and they had such an adverse effect on our economy that they were withdrawn early we should have learned from that lesson >> as we're listening to you, madam ambassador, a picture of the president at the white house, awaiting merkel joining us as well this morning, john harwood, kayla tausche, eamon javers helping us set up this visit as we look for the chancellor here. john, we should point out, eu, u.s., german, u.s. trade

relations not the only story here we have mnuchin, navarro, there's the chancellor kudlow, and lighthizer all going to china next week >> that's right, and we'll see what they can come up with with respect to trade with china, but as ambassador hills can tell you, this is a far different approach on trade than recent administrations have taken for the reason that both democratic and republican administrations have decided that it was counterproductive for the united states to engage in protectionism. donald trump has a different view robert lighthizer has a different view and we're seeing that play out in real time, so we have the question of these tariffs. we also have the question of the iran nuclear deal. and emanuel macron gave it his best shot to try to persuade president trump to stay in the deal, at least until something else can be negotiated

we'll see whether angela merkel can add her voice to that and have any impact in moving the needle on president trump. macron, when he left washington, said he was pessimistic. he thought the president was going to pull out.javers, we jue chancellor angela merkel greet the president. they didn't seem to shake hands. did seem to be a congenial greeting as they walked into the white house. what are you seeing there from the white house lawn >> well, look. so much attention paid to the body language between these two leaders because of the moment last year where it appeared angela merkel wanted to have a handshake with the president and he either missed it or ignored her. a lot of interpretation was he was being rude the white house said no, he just missed the moment. i saw her limo pass about five feet from where i'm standing and i caught a glimpse of her in the window very stone faced german leader here on the way into the white house. then you saw as she knot out of the limo, all smiles from both

the president and from angela merkel for the cameras the president there going in for that european style double cheek kiss so maybe he picked up something from emanuel macron earlier in the week in terms of a greeting style, but so an effort here clearly on the part of the president to make a warm welcome for angela merkel even though they're not doing all the razzmatazz of the official state visitt >> finally, ambassador hills, north korea is obviously a big story today. to what degree do you think that colors trade, either with china or around the globe? does it move the needle either way? >> well, it's a strategic issue of enormous import, as you point out. we're looking to our allies to work with us if we could get some harmony in asia, it would make a lot of difference economically, so it is important and i hope that we can capitalize on the first steps and move ahead when the president meets with the north

korean leader. >> president did say today he looks forward to meeting with kim, perhaps in the coming weeks. so we'll watch that. madam ambassador, we always are so appreciative. thanks for your time >> my pleasure to be with you. >> carla hills, former u.s. trade rep. >> and take a look at docusign right now, the stock opening for trading just a few moments ago it's trading up almost 32% dan springer is the ceo of docusign and joins us now. good morning congratulations. >> good morning. thank you very much. >> so what do you do from here it's a very complicated space. adobe is in it there are others, as all sorts of paperwork and contracts go digital. what's your differentiating strategy that's going to link to continued growth >> sure, so if you thing about it, docusign transformed 15 years ago the space. we pioneered the signature, and in that time, we have now had hundreds of millions of users.

who have taken advantage of our technology to really accelerate their business and simplify their lives. the things that we have done to get us here today are very much the things we'll do going forward. we'll continue to innovate on our product, continue to drive customer success, and we're going to continue to make this the best place to work so we have the right employees to drive that growth. >> dan, i'm looking at a line from your perspectus quote, we have a history of operating losses and may not achieve or sustain profitability in the future. why? >> well, there's a major investment needed to build out the infrastructure so we can have the security, we can have the up-time and availability that our enterprise customers need what's interesting about our business is we serve from the smallest customer up to the largest enterprise that was a big part of the investment we made if you look at the most recent year, fiscal year 2018, which just finished in january, we hit over half a billion dollars of revenue, and we are cash flow positive at this point so we feel pretty good about the

profitability of the future. >> dan, tell me about the last few days we had a couple ipos recently that we saw come out, they were raising the range going in, and then they just had some pretty strong debuted it looks like a pretty strong ipo market, but i'm wondering what sorts of color you can give about the questions that investors are asking you as you're heading for that -- i mean, you call it a finish line or a starting block, depending on your perspective of the ipo moment >> we absolutely consider it a starting block that's why i always focus on our team saying it's an initial public offering because it's the beginning. it's a wonderful milestone we celebrated here, and we have had, as you mentioned, a fantastic reception from wall street in terms of the process overall, i think you nailed it. we had an initial pricing range of $24 to $26. you saw a lot of strong demand at the beginning of the road show, so we raised it to $26 to $28, and there was still such

strong demand, we priced at $29, and that quickly moved to $38 at the open we have been very pleased with the strength most of the questions have been around how are we going to maintain the tremendous growth that has built the business to where it is today. >> as we speak to you right now, you have president trump meeting with german chancellor angela merkel trade is expected to bow on top there. you have actually talked about trade and warned about rising trade tensions with china and risked associated with that for doc urshsign how could you be impacted? >> one of the things we think about with our growth internationally is we want to take the technology we have built at docusign and make it applicable across the world. we find it's a huge opportunity for us in international expansion. we have grown from only a few persnlt of our business being outside of the u.s. a few years ago to 17% in the last most recent fiscal year we think the international is an important marketplace, a huge focus area for us, and a

dramatic part of our future growth story >> you're fast out of the starting blocks. dan springer, ceo of docusign, with the stock up 30% in the first few minutes of trade thank you. >> thank you very much >> not the easiest tape to go public in today, as we have been saying all morning long. some of the big cap names that had earning last night were unable to hold the names, although intel, microsoft have done a good job of staying not too far into the red s&p slightly positive. managed a curtain razor for next week you think earnings season is slowing down not quite, mcdonald's, merck, snap, clorox, tesla, cbs, pandora, alibaba, and berkshire will close out the week. >> i'm going to be giving scrutiny to snap twitter was able to come out with a strong quarter. they were in the social media doghouse for a long time you expect snap to be able to come up with something >> i think it's worth noting all the major averages are poised to end the week lower, but still

positive for the month of april. >> yes, with one session left on monday we'll be watching that closely dow down 70, of course, and we'll keep our eye on the white house today. that press conference between the president and merkel around 1:50 p.m let's get over to melissa and the half welcome in to "the halftime report." we start off with amazon the stock up big today after last night's earnings report, which was so strong, it took some of the biggest bulls on the street by surprise with us for the hour today, josh brown, stephanie link, jon najarian, and jj we had every single analyst on amazon, steph, surprised by the upside and the magnitude of the beats across the board >> it was huge absolutely huge. and it came from a couple different places it came from the important places like aws ad