"squawk box" begins right now. ♪ >> live from new york where business never sleeps, this is "squawk box. good morning we're live at the nasdaq market site in times square i'm andrew ross sorkin along with joe kernen. melissa lee is in today. becky quick is making her way back from omaha. we are in the red. the dow looking like it would open down 56 points. nasdaq looking to open off as well down by 14 points. if the market opened right now, the s&p would be off about 7.5 points we have new trade data from china. imports grew 21.5% exports grew 13% the trade plus with the u.s. surging to $22 billion to 1$15 billion in march

that will turn into part of our conversation today the white house saying that trade talks between china will resume next week china's top economic official will visit washington and continue discussions with the president's economic team that began last week in beijing. checking markets in europe we have red arrows across the board. the data that came out this morning, german industrial output rose more than expected in march the dax down a half percent. the only index in the green, the ftse 100 looking at the treasury market here, a further flattening of the yield curve. the two-year yields up at 2.505% the ten-year slightly lower, 2.952% looking at crude oil, those prices being driven by this tweet that we got yesterday. we saw not just the crude oil market turn but also the equity markets after president trump

tweeted he would announce his decision on the iran nuclear deal at 2:00 p.m. eastern time we are giving up 70 bucks a barrel on wti. at the top of the today's news, value act taking a 1$1.2 billion stake in citi group. "wall street journal" behind this story reporting that value act built the position over the past four to five months the activist firm has been supportive of citi's ceo, and based on the report it doesn't appear value act is pushing for major changes. the bank wants to boost the size of citi's buyback program to about $50 billion. takeda pharmaceuticals striking a deal to acquire shire for $62 billion. the dill is t shares of takeda and shire are both moving higher on the news

>> big developing story in the media industry, comcast said to be preparing to make an all-cash offer for fox, though it's early stages the offer would disrupt disney's current $52 billion deal to acquire most of fox's assets comcast will make the bid only if the government approves the at&t-time warner deal. we've been talking about the possibility that ifthat deal were to actually happen between at&t and time warner, it would mean the gloves are off, everybody will come in when i say everyone coming in, i don't know about everyone coming in on fox, but it would open up the world for verizon and in all sorts of ways. >> the constraints have been lifted >> that's theoretically the idea >> the one is purely vertical, at&t/time warner this is not, right

>> the view within the industry is that it will open up a period of -- like a honeymoon period for a year or two where the department of justice, fcc will say we lost that it's going to be hard to make a similar argument that's the concept at least. >> would at least get people thinking that these deals are not necessarily really offensive, to be able to have all this pricing, but they're really defensive to try to live in a world with facebook, google, amazon, netflix. all the new media. that's the argument. >> we're not there yet we're like these guys, they control it they don't amazon, facebook, google >> this same argument being made by t-mobile and sprint >> remember sirius xm, really, those two? i'm scared of those two guys

they're like you swim, no, you swim >> that may be different than the sprint deal. >> it is cash? >> we have an analyst to talk about it -- >> we do frank. >> is that comcast is in position to pay cash that it would hurt the disney stock, and disney wouldn't pay cash now, by the way, there's also another argument to this which is that rupert murdoch may want to own a huge chunk of disney. the question is does he want to own a huge chunk of comcast? if it's all-cash deal, he wouldn't >> would one of the sons run disney dad, i want to run disney. >> i think it's clear that james murdoch is not in contention to run disney bob iger has been relatively consistent about that. let's talk to a telecom analyst

from raymond james frank, good morning. >> good morning. >> if the department of justties is -- does lose this at&t/time warner case, do you believe that it opens up the opportunity for everybody to buy everybody >> that's going to depend. the biggest insight they get is how you define the market. how you define the market tells the story in any antitrust case. if they are successful in how they view media, and how they view the market, that could give comcast insight about how the courts will look at this this is the biggest antitrust case in three decades. it will give insight for how the court might view these sorts of mergers. >> strategically for the purposes of comcast, does it make sense to you for them to own the majority of the fox assets we should probably describe

which assets are part of it and which are not. >> yeah. so they're looking to acquire more the movie studios and cable networks, not the broadcast assets that would be more of a competitive situation. probably also the sky assets in europe what this does for them is give them more content. they have already proven to be successful operators, to take content when they brought nbc universal, how they married that, being innovative and creating value there they're going to make the case it's increasingly competitive world for content. if you look at the market on a broad basis, then there's not nearly as much market concentration and overlap. as you were commenting earlier, this is different than what looks like a vertical merger with at&t/time warner. the insight in how the court defines this will give a lot of idea of how they can proceed >> strategically, from what we understand, comcast would make an all-cash offer.

our understanding from sources is that there's been some very early conversations about very large bridge loans with some banks. that's appearing to be the genesis of some of this news the question is could you imagine disney bidding up? how much room do they have to bid and how much room does comcast have to bid and could we get into an overbidding situation? >> i can't answer for disney for comcast, they have an unlevered balance sheet. that will be concerning to a lot of investors off the bat it already has been as they have been making bids for sky they have the room to push the bids up on a temporary basis with an all-cash offer the all-cash offer makes sense, it is kind of what investors

have been talking with us about. that's the biggest concern for investors, a temporary increase in leverage up to a level that many investors wish they din have >> what is that level? at what price do investors get less happy >> investors will not be happy about this to begin with it will push it up closer to four time s leverage they have done this to keep something in the back pocket in case there is something for a transformative deal. they've been managing the balance sheet appropriately. four times beverage is not out of the realm of reason for a strong cash flow business like cable tv company and comcast, but there will be investors that won't like that temporarily, especially in a rising rate environment. >> one reason why frank may not be using the stock and opting to use cash is that performance of

the stock price. it has been weak year to date as well as over the past 12 months. looking longer term, if this deal goes through, where do you see the stock in 12 months and 18 months if the deal goes through? >> if the deal goes through, we could push the valuation up and change the growth profile. this is about diversifying the business and driving more free cash flow. comcast has been a strong free cash flow story for the past ten years. that's what they're focused on they're focused on returning cash to shareholders they would continueto look to do that. this would only improve the free cash flow of the business. i don't have a model with a price target in it we rate comcast shares a strong buy. >> what is the 12-month target on comcast now for you >> $40 >> that includes an acquisition or not >> that does not -- that is our valuation, best case valuation

without the acquisition. if you're selling this deal to investors, are you telling them that in the long run because they'll generate more free cash flow, the dividend yield will go up or more buybacks? is that what you're implying with the return? >> the bull case is to diversify the business right now you have the cable tv business which has some challenges on the distribution side and broadband this would be less cyclical. it would diversify it into cone tent that could have higher growth >> you don't follow disney, but who really -- brian roberts seems like he wants to do this >> hard to say they don't do these things lightly. >> yeah. and no love loss with disney i don't know about too big to

fail i think you do a book on that maybe depending on what happens. >> could be a heck of a deal >> a lot of players here a lot of personalities pretty good. you must be excited, frank >> plenty of harvard business cases written in a lot of research and a lot to talk to investors about. >> market cap of comcast -- almost the same as netflix right now. if you add fox and sky -- seems like all those assets, the market cap of that company seems much higher than where it is now. i don't know how shareholders -- nrl near-term, i understand they sell >> what is the possibility of all of this is part of a grand chess game, a negotiation? we talked about it earlier not today but in previous programs the possibility that effectively comcast ends up working out a transaction with disney and fox for various pieces, the hulu

piece, the sky piece, knowing the pressure is coming not just on the sky piece but now possibly on all of fox, disney says no mas, i'm willing to give you this, this, and this, let's carve it all up. >> they could do that. they may be pushed to do that depending on which side ends up with the transaction and how justice looks at it. if we look at what justice said in the court case with at&t, they wanted some sort of investor comcast could do that and pick that up. >> not a legal argument, just a straight business negotiation. >> right i don't think comcast necessarily -- >> if comcast is coming after your asset and this other asset in europe, maybe you call brian and you say, let's make a deal you know what? there's things you want. there's things i want. we don't actually probably want all of these pieces, but maybe there's some pieces we can give each other >> that's certainly possible comcast usually does -- what

comcast is saying they're going to do is what their intention is i would be surprised if they're going through those chess games. that could be an outcome at the end, but i don't think they would be going after all of these assets if it wasn't something they wanted. they told investors they bid for it before and got outbid clearly that's their intention they don't make these moves lightly. this is probably something they want that said, as a consolation prize, i'm sure there are some assets they would be willing to buy if the deal doesn't go through. >> frank, great to see you thank you. >> thank you >> go with it? >> go with what? >> go with brian >> i'm not against brian brian, if you're listening, i'm not against you or the company >> i know that >> in which we are all shareholders, by the way >> we could still be owned by ge, okay let's look at the bright side. >> you are talking about the stock price? >> yeah. >> that's a fact it's a fact. >> everybody knows comcast owns

comcast universal. >> it's a fact, we're down 19% to date. >> i know. >> i was asking about the bull case >> we're all interested for a lot of reasons it's also a good story very interesting >> it will change the tone of disney on the conference call tonight. disney reports after the bell. it will be interesting to see what they say. among other headlines, eric schneiderman has resigned effective at the close of business today the announcement came hours after the new yorker published allegations that schneiderman was physically violent against two women he dated. schneiderman said he strongly contests the allegations but they prevent him from leading his office's work and he would resign and in political news -- that sounded kind of political

president trump tweeting that he will announce his decision on the iran nuclear deal today at 2:00 p.m. at the white house we took this so soar use eriouse have michelle caruso-cabrera up early and on set >> the consensus in europe and in washington is that the president will withdraw from the deal there's no formal mechanism to withdrawal from the 2015 agreement that iran signed with six other countries including the united states. the mechanism the president would likely use is the u.s. law created as a result of that deal, called the iran nuclear agreement review act of 2015 the mechanism the president would likely use say experts is the u.s. law that was imposed as a result of that 2015 agreement. called the iran nuclear agreement review act of 2015

under this law the president has to frequently decide whether to wave still existing sanctions on iran experts think the most likely outcome is foreign countries reduce or end purchases of iranian cruel ode oil over the t six months, and if they fail to do so those banks will be cut off from the u.s. financial system when the sanctions were at their peak, the iranians produced 2 million barrels of oil per day, now it's up to 3.5 million barrels per day. analysts think if 500,000 barrels come off the market if this decision goes the way many expect today the biggest buyers are china, india, japan and south korea japan and south korea likely to go along with what the u.s. demands. china and india is more questionable even if the u.s. withdraws, european countries probably do not. and they had a full oil embargo

back in 2012 and 2013 which leakly brought theleak likely brought the iranians to the table. they won't do that this time not nearly as much pressure. >> you saw bojo -- >> boris johnson >> pompeo and pence. >> yes >> is there any possibility that he made any headway to stay in the deal or if they do leave, to delay sanctions? >> all those permutations you mentioned are one of many. those are all possible one argument is that pompeo could make a procedural argument which is i just got the job as secretary of state we're in the middle of setting up the north korean meeting, do you want to do this right now? just give me six months. >> do you think north korea is watching this? >> you will hear establishment think says the following, how could you back out of the iran deal while you're negotiating with north korea it will look like bad faith? why would they trust us? the administration pushes back,

nikki haley the other night said she thinks it's just the opposite if we pull out of the iran deal it will make clear to the north koreans we won't do a bad deal we won't do a deal we don't like, we will walk away, and she thinks it puts more pressure on the north koreans to come to the table. in terms of the estimate of 500,000 barrels of i'll coming o -- of oil coming off the market is that just from iran or from saudi arabia and others? >> i think what you're suggesting is oil is fungible. if japan and south korea say we're not going to buy it, other countries could buy it, especially if iran cuts prices to pick up demand. what i think is very clear is it's not going to be nearly as effective reducing the amount of oil produced in iran compared to 2012 when the europeans were fully on board >> you expect comcast and disney

to carve up the fox -- as long as you're here how do you see that? that wasn't one of your follow-up questions, was it? >> it wasn't >> schneiderman? >> couldn't happen to -- never mind >> wow >> wow >> i wasn't going to say it. i really wasn't. for years he's got the magnetic business card. >> remember, he got involved in the weinstein deal >> coming up, berkshire hathaway's warren buffett talked to us yesterday. listen to what he had to say >> had a choice of owning treasury bills, long-term treasuries, or common equities, i would buy common equities. if i was going to keep it for 0 years, 20 years, i would do it in a second. >> more portfolio strategy after the break. u.s. equity futures at this hour are in the red "squawk box" returns in a moment

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let's bring in mark campbell and michael tyler. good morning to you both you still think that we should be maintaining an overweight in terms of equity allocations in our portfolios, why? >> i think so. we had pulled back from a more -- >> is it a harder case to make as the days go by? >> no. i think this is -- we've been in a -- we've had our first correction in a long period of time i think we're still going to be in a period of churn, and we may have a summer of discontent, this is not the end of the bull market i think when we get into the fall, we will move decisively higher again i think we wind up having a decent year in equities. >> michael, you say stocks can recover to new highs if the inflation data remains relatively calm.

does that imply you need a fed basically to remain on the sidelines or at least a go according to a plan in terms of rate hikes >> i think that will happen. i see the cpi tomorrow and the producer prices. i think there's not that much pressure on inflation now. i don't anticipate there will be one key is oil i think that as the oil price has risen, u.s. production has begun to rise as well. the saudis have said they want $80 oil. i don't think that's within their control. they don't have enough global capacity to control that i think as u.s. production picks up, that reduces the pressure and keeps u.s. inflation in check. we're not looking at a lot of serious inflation. i think that gives the u.s. markets a chance to rise higher and it also means the fed is

likely to exercise restraint >> inflation at the headline level remains tame is there a point where you get concerned about the u.s. consumer facing rising gas prices, rising oil prices, as well as rising short-term borrowing costs. we have home equity lines of credit going higher, but also it provides competition for stocks. >> yeah. >> we have pretty strong labor market we have the unemployment rate down to 3.9. we have the benefit of -- >> little wage growth, though. >> wage growth is moving higher. as we saw in the latest number from the payroll reported, it's contained. we are through most of the

reporting season now year over year earnings growth is likely to come in at 26%. so that's something that is supporting the market as well. >> michael, not concerned about the consumer at this point >> i think the consumer is fine. first of all, the wage growth is only 2.5, but total compensation is higher because of non-wage compensation like bonuses and commissions, which is increasing across a wider group of americans. that's helping i think the consumer is doing just fine. >> okay. >> another thing in support of the consumer that we've seen in the post crisis environment is the improvement in consumer balance sheets financial obligations ratio is low. while we've seen corporations taking on debt, the consumer has been rebuilding the balance sheet. >> our thanks to you coming up, squawk viewers know steve joyce is the ceo of choice hotels, but is now working to get dime brands back

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you're watching "squawk box" live from the nasdaq market site in times square. >> welcome back to "squawk box." look at u.s. equity futures at this hour. we have a little bit of red to show you the dow opening off about 50 points nasdaq off about 12 points s&p 500 off about 7 points want to recanp the big dole buz. comcast apparently lining up about $60 billion all-cash bid for 21st century fox it would rival disney's offer. 21st century shares are moving higher in the premarket. none of this will happen, we should say, and it is all very dependent on the outcome of that case between the department of justice and time warner/at&t if that deal is blocked, there will be no offer

if that case -- if that deal is allowed to go forward and depending on how it's allowed to go forward, a lot will depend on the language, you could see comcast make such an offer >> the other thing is the comcast -- what we understand of what comcast intends to do is consolidate 100% ownership of sky. the uk takeover panel ruled if disney gets the assets of fox, it has to make a bid for the remaining percentage of sky. >> they'll continue to fight that >> they'll fight having to make the bid for the rest of it >> i think so. >> yeah. >> i think so. >> i guess that could be a determining factor as well >> after a bumpy 2017, dime brands global looks to be improving. stock is up nearly 50% since the beginning of the year and has risen during rebranding efforts for both restaurants in its portfolio. both of them, ihop and

applebee's joined in joining us is steve joyce, old friend of "squawk box. used to be choice hotels, i talked to you about some of those nice suites. if you don't go to a big city, you stay in one of these, you get the free breakfast >> absolutely. >> you were never able to provide us any of product. it was a hotel chain but you were able to today is it coming in now? >> absolutely. >> they keep it warm and the product really great for 45 minutes. >> do you see it out there are they late? >> they're a little late they'll be here. >> ihop i-hop, if you decide yon to do that, it's one of the great things >> no one says i like i-hop. everyone says i love i-hop i don't go, because i don't let myself if i let myself i would be there for -- >> there's a great series of

choicesment we hav me choices. >> we have other great products. >> like what >> omelets >> he means like an egg white omelet with avocado. >> we can do that. >> i need pigs in a blanket. >> always good >> link sausages you say get over easy eggs and i dip the french fries -- this is years ago. not recently does it look like i do this now? >> i don't know. no comment >> wow wow. >> he said himself >> still mad about the comcast thing. you joined last year >> september >> you left choice and joined. >> i did >> you immediately started doing what rebranding >> yeah. we just brought it back to what both brands were they're the number one brands in both their categories. we had sort of forgotten what our core customer expected from

us in terms of value, now we're providing that they're coming back in droves. there's an under cover boss where i would like to apply, that job, to check out -- i'll check out all your i-hops. you going to do that again you should do that >> i think i retired that. >> you did that at choice hotels >> that was a great costume. >> how is choice hotels doing since you left >> still in great shape. they're at all-time highs. 22% total shareholder return over a ten-year period >> so you see consumers are confident now. minimum wage issues. >> in the restaurants we have labor issues that are important. costs are coming up, but we're working on food costs. food costs have been relatively flat that's been helpful. the other big thing is we've been doing really great work on the advertising front, the product front. we have people coming back in

big numbers. applebee's posted the biggest number they've had quarter-wise since 2011 in a decade. >> comps are up 1.3% casual dining was flat >> was flat. we're beating the competition. >> is it more -- did you change the menu what happened at applebee's? >> we did some fun things. when i came in in september, we have been doing a lot of work. restaurants are really better run. noticeably different to the customers. the other things we're doing is some really fun food product offerings with some fun drink promotions so in october we did the dollar-rita, which went crazy. >> what is that? >> we sold margaritas for a dollar >> this is at applebee's >> at applebee's >> yeah? >> in january we did one of the biggest promotions we had, all-you-can-eat riblets, tenders

and french fries with a $2 blue moon there was not a riblet left in the country. >> what do you mean by that? >>gins do you get on that? i actually don't know. >> can i ask an employment question >> sure. >> applebee's, you guys doing ipads on tables now? >> we have to order product on the tables, we are working on mobile technology to do the same thing. we're working on things so you don't wait on line >> i imagine it reduces employment costs >> the whole idea is providing better service to the customer quicker, in and out based on your timetable at the same time provide the same -- people come to applebee's and i-hop because they want to be there. we're the oasis in the storm our customers tell us this

we unite communities over memorable dining experiences people come, we are accept them who they are, how they are, they like being in that restaurant. it's a break for them. there's so much going on outside those restaurants, people go i just want to go in >> it's not really a competitor, remember mcdonald's lost its way. >> brought in the new guy, all he did was get fresher, faster, do exactly what we do, make it easier to order. >> we're not doing anything different. we've gone back to -- >> mine has lines still. >> now we have an app where you can create a reservation for yourself so you don't have to wait in the lines. >> especially on a sunday. >> yeah. >> no, we can't even go there. there's people not going because they can't >> but we are creating -- that's a friction people don't like waiting too long for breakfast i-hop on the weekends, it's pretty full. >> yeah. what we have is an app now where

you can go in and say i'm going to go there at 11:00 your table will be ready at 1:00 we're f 11:00 people love both experiences we're doing some fun things at applebee applebee's we're doing things on the technology front to make the guest experience easier, less friction we won the cio award from forbes >> what kind of technology costs are i having >> we are investing a lot in technology ourselves, but franchisees are investing with us >> are you having to do that in-house do you hire a team >> we have a whole team. we are also bringing in the best folks from outside >> are you having more fun now >> i always have fun >> have you put on any pounds? >> i just spent 11 days in the middle east. i ate i-hop and applebee's twice

a day. >> what is your favorite menu item >> i love omelets on i-hop and applebee's, i love the burgers. >> i need bigger portions. >> the dollar-rita >> all right thank you. >> thanks. coming up, new data on the health of small business we'll bring you the optimism index next. and at the top of the hour, our guest host will be arthur brooks you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc there's nothing small about your business. with dell small business technology advisors you get the one-on-one partnership you need to grow your business. the dell vostro 15 laptop. contact a dell advisor today.

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national federation of independent business is out with the latest report. kate rogers has the results. >> small business optimism increased this month up to

110 4 104.8. improved earnings this month are at the highest level in the index's history due to operating productivity and stronger sales and due in part to the new tax law. capital expenditures increased 3 points showing that small businesses are more willing to invest and inventory satisfaction rose 2 points plans for capital outlays increased by 3 points. more businesses are citing skilled labor as their single most important business problem. this has come in the top spot at 22%. it comes in front of government regulations and red tape as well as taxes as a result of finding skilled labor, plant spending is expected to go towards training and labor saving second nol jtey so maybe more automation like you were talking about with your last guest which is not

something you hear about much, but they are struggling to find the right people to fill these position >> kate, thank you coming up, when we return, finding a market-based solution for some of the world's biggest problems, like inequality. that's the topic of a new book called "radical markets. first a quick check of what's happening in european markets right now. a mixed picture. the ftse in the green. everything else in the red at&t provides edge-to-edge intelligence, covering virtually every part of your manufacturing business. & so this won't happen. because you've made sure this sensor and this machine are integrated. & she can talk to him, & yes... atta, boy. some people assign genders to machines. and you can be sure you won't have any problems. except for the daily theft of your danish. not cool! at&t provides edge to edge intelligence.

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our next guest said alleviating quality is possible through markets. glen while, a researchers at microsoft and princeton. coauthor of "radical market. it's great to have you congratulations on the book. this is an attempt to deal with what might be described as liberal issues, joseph, but maybe not. but i think we all want to deal with inequality. through market forces. but not the same market forces we often talk about here >> yeah. so we argued that freer and fairer markets can reduce inequality, can, you know, bring

back our economy much stronger but only if we reconsider some of your basic institutions >> what do you mean? >> like private property one person, one vote the way we let the tech companies take our data without paying us. our markets are monopolized. we want to break those up if we want a free market >> when you say break up monopolies, how do you do it >> we want to stop companies like vanguard state street, blackrock from owning all of the corporate economy and coordinating it all to raise the prices for consumers and reduced wages for workers. we want to stop companies from merging to hold down wages for workers. >> i don't get the first one vanguard from owning the corporate economy. you mean by being shareholders on behalf of individual investors? >> absolutely. >> which are me and you? >> yes and they own -- you know, vanguard own cvs and walgreens, all the companies that are

supposed to be competing with each other but they don't have an interest in seeing them compete they have an interest to seeing them -- >> hold. >> so collusion, basically of aiding -- >> it's not collusion. they're just working for -- >> hold on let's take one step back joseph and i may actually agree on something for a second here let's take blackrock for a second blackrock owns cvs extensively only in so far as and maybe and i don't know if i have some blackrock funds somewhere, let's just say i do. only inso fares s as i do, black is snot the owner. and they're not controlling the vote and so -- >> they do, actually >> that's what larry has wanted to do lately >> but i'm not raising my hand as a shareholder to say i want it in a different way. >> they have hundreds and

hundreds of people who go out there and do corporate governance >> and you think it is in blackrock's interest for drug prices to go up? >> no question no question. why not? because they effectively are owning a portfolio of the whole economy. they want in general for the stock market to go up. and the stock market goes up at the expense of consumers prices. >> the consumer power is 60% of the economy. >> and that's their customer that's right but they want a larger share of the pie. they can get that by taxing the rest of the economy. >> i initially heard market forces were going to be what's used to try to help things, but i'm hearing that you basically think the profit incentive is a flawed business model. >> not at all. i believe in the profit motive the problem is the system is being clogged up by monopolies >> they're not voting the --

>> they absolutely are voting on those shares they have hundreds of people who do that. >> to not compete with -- all these companies are competing with one another they all want to -- the companies that blackrock own, they want to bury the other companies. >> there's lots of growing evidence from economic studies that when these blackrock, it raises prices for consumers. it raises prices on airline tickets. and they -- >> but just holding the -- that's -- >> but they act in the interest of -- >> i can make an argument around airlines, but the airline ceos think they're competing against each other i'm not sure that's the case given the way the arrangement works. i don't think the ceos are thinking to hell with it my shareholders don't care. you know what i'm saying >> okay. this i think is kind of crazy. what else you got in the book? >> so we've got an idea, you

know, google and facebook, these companies that take our data without compensating us -- >> i like this >> they are using that for ai systems and machine learning which are then going to displace our jobs in the future that are going to have robots come and take our jobs but we're the ones creating the data that's fueling all that if we were actually compensated for that, if we got together and created a real market for our data, then rather than being a threat to our jobs, ai would be an opportunity for all of us >> here's the question in a perfect market, that might be the case, but i would argue the market is so perfect, perhaps, that we've all willi willingly -- that the market deal put in places, i give over my data in exchange for the access to free facebook or instagram or twitter that to a degree there is a market if i thought the facebook product was so lousy, i wouldn't use it right? >> that's basically a futile arrangement. we get access to all these

services we don't get paid for the direct distribution >> but i'm saying if you believe that the market is fair which maybe you think it isn't, but if it is, then i wouldn't use facebook right? >> basically there's one social network that's an effective choice that you have because of all that power they have, they are the ones competing to get your data >> have you taken yourself off facebook >> i'm planning to do it once i'm doing the book tour. >> you're giving your data willingly -- >> he's using facebook that's a monopoly. >> you got a problem with private property >> we've got a better way to set up property, absolutely. because if things were -- >> the book is called "radical market." it is fascinating. twitter is blowing up. thank you for coming in. congratulations. >> pleasure. all right.

coming up, we're going 360 degrees. arthur brooks is coming on whoooo.

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. good morning welcome back to "squawk box" right here on cnbc we're live at the nasdaq market site in times square i'm andrew ross sorkin with joe kernen and melissa lee in for becky. nasdaq off about 22 points s&p 500 off about ten points we'll explain what this is all about in a moment. we are on washington watch this morning. president trump expected to announce a decision to restore sanctions against iran oil exports and exit the nuclear

deal eamon javers has the latest. >> good morning, andrew. we know that is going to happen at 2:00 p.m. that's all we have in terms of concrete facts about the president's decision today the expectation generally in washington if you took a poll is that they are likely to get out in some form possibly with some mitigating circumstances of some kind might min nice some of the damages. some things to watch today as this decision unfolds. again, we're expecting it at 2:00 p.m. in the diplomatic reception room one of the questions is france, germany, and the uk. has their lobbying had impact here on the president making this decision? they've all pushed for the united states to stay in the deal against the president who wants to get out of the deal also what is the impact on the iranians will they move forward if the president gets out of the deal in some fashion today? and then finally, what is the

impact of all this on north korea? kim jong-un is going to be watching today as the president makes this decision. the president wants to make a nuclear deal with north korea, but he wants to get out of a nuclear deal with iran does that have any impact, guys, on north korea's thinking about how it should deal with the united states going forward and how likely the united states is to hold to any deal it agrees to with north korea a lot on the president's plate we'll see at 2:00 p.m. >> thank you, eamon javers cnbc parent company comcast is planning a $60 billion all cash bid for most of 21st century fox's assets this would top the other bid the comcast plan is in the very early stages comcast will make the bid only if the government approves the at&t/time warner deal. it's the end of an era after ten years, american enterprise institute president arthur brooks is going to be leaving the conservative think tank next summer he joins us this morning as our

guest host for the hour. you're like 33 years old what happened? going back to the french horn over in barcelona? >> there's a lot of opportunities out there. but being a french horn player again is not one of them. >> so you're not headed over there. the nra job is taken >> turns out ali north took that job. >> what are you going to do? >> it's a good question. >> why though? this hurts me deeply >> doesn't mean we're going to stop being friends, joe. >> you could be writing for "the new york times." come on. >> now you're trying to hurt joe some more. >> no, no. >> why would you write for -- you know, why would you write for drudge or something? you need people that don't already agree with me. believe me, people at "the new york times" do not agree with you. >> i'm aware i love writing for anybody who will read it but a few years ago, i used to teach at syracuse and i wrote a book that said how long you should be the ceo of a social

enterprise it was clear if you stay more than ten years, you're making a mistake. anybody who stays more than ten years -- >> your voice is so essential. you don't know how many times i'm sitting here wishing that -- do you remember in the woody allen movie where they're arguing and bringing mccloughan over >> yeah, yeah. >> he has no idea about -- i need you here so often to bolster the case for the path to freedom instead of the other millennials are headed down the path to surfdom right now. "the new york timeth"the new yo celebrated carl marx's birthday. >> that is so not true >> and said he was right >> it was a piece on the op-ed page. >> why run it in the first place? a hundred million people died under communism, why run it? >> what the page is trying to do

is create thought experiments. to be provocative. to get people to think about what's going on. >> oh, i thought about it. i'm glad i don't get this newspaper. >> nobody's taking a position one way or the other. >> it's the kind of society we all want it's just been done wrong and 100 million people died. >> the reason i liked that they ran it, it gave me an opportunity to remind people that 100 million people died on the stupid idea that goes against human nature we have to remind every generation of the bad things that happen. you need a stimulus for that >> who's going to take the mantle for you >> it's a year away. >> does joe have a chance? >> throw your hat in the ring. >> i'll be here long after you're gone, my friend >> i will write you the recommendation >> i'm putting in my resume to

come here. zbl >> i'll write you the recommendation >> unbridled would be mother jones if i wasn't here >> your fan club would freak out if you left the show >> that's true so looking around, what is trump? where the hell does trump come into the american enterprise institute way of thinking? >> aei works in the world of ideas which is like climate. weather is like politics politics and weather are the same thing we're climate scientists, not weathermen >> don't tell me that. >> we do better work all the time no matter what. if we get into politics, we wind up doing work we're not best at. but mostly it's policy analysis. we need a better tax policy no matter who's president and that's where we spend our time >> are you optimistic about the next generation after millennials? i'm seeing some signs of life -- >> for sure. i'm completely optimistic. i think we're going to have the

most entrepreneurial generation ever after illennials. why? because you always get a rebound. the millennials are fundamentally impacted about what happened in the financial crisis they couldn't move out of their house. >> and eight years of obama. >> it was very problematic a lot of things compounded mostly the financial crisis. made their opportunities hard to get. we're already seeing signs of life on that i think millennials are going to improve. >> you mentioned taxes are you not satisfied with where the tax regime is today? >> of course not nothing's good enough. there's always ways to improve it the key thing is i would love to see the kind of tax reform we had but also entitlement reform. what's insane is that we actually do this kind of thing and then run up the deficits the way we did but those were the hands dealt to the congress. they did what they felt was the best they could. >> do you think there will be entitlement reform in the next several years? >> i doubt but we'll keep working for it.

>> what is the right version of entitlement reform in your mind? >> to do the easy one first which is social security that's a very easy -- we could figure that out between now and the end of the show. you need to means test that. you need to figure out the inflation rate that's correct. make it sound. the next thing we have to do -- >> what age would you raise it to >> actuarily 67 and then 69. >> only because you can't go where you'd like to go >> which is what >> i think people are living -- >> totally are you going to retire at 62 or something? >> andy rooney, maybe. larry king no never. >> you're going to be the larry king of "squawk box. >> there's so many john mclaughlin was i think 92 and he missed one show on sunday and a funeral on tuesday >> most of us are not breaking rocks. most of us can keep going as long as our brain a working.

>> let me squ you this -- >> and then medicaid and medicare, there are ways to do that we've been talking about this for years at aei >> for individuals you saw the rate come down a bit you saw deduction gs go away. at this point is the tax code for individuals, sit just right? is it too progressive? or not progressive enough? >> i think it's extremely progressive in so far as the bottom half doesn't pay federal income taxes so what we find is the top rates are lower making it less progressive to the europeans but in europe, virtually everybody pays some taxes. they have some skin in the game. so the behavioral problem of the american tax rate is such that we have half the population that doesn't feel like they have any investment in the way things are going. consequently, they don't take any -- >> we've had steny we've had all the democrats on that are trying to -- or many of them we haven't had all of them we're trying i mean, that's our wish.

>> totally. >> the ones we have had on fully intend on raising taxes on the high end if they take it back. >> of course they will >> is that the right move? >> if you're not going to reform entitlements then you've got two choices. raise taxes or raise debt. my choice is not to raise taxes and to not raise debt but reform entitlements and to keep trying to do it. the democrats like john delaney and other business-oriented democrats in the congress should be trying to reform entitlements >> you've seen trump over the years. he's been this, he's been that have you ever seen him -- >> who >> trump going from populist to an entitlement reformer? >> i don't see it. ever >> you don't see it even in dare i say a second term? >> no. what i would -- the only time i would see it is if you got this really weird populist sentiment like we had in the 1980s of reforming entitlements in a way that's fiscally sound. >> assuming you're right that you can't reform entitlements,

then what do you do about the tax or debt issue? then you've got to pick your poison >> what happens is that you get to the point where you're running at -- we're not going to raise taxes that much. we're going to keep raising debt we're going to borrow more and more money when it creates problems, we'll have hard decisions to make. we'll see what creates more pain having a debt crisis or actually reforming entitlements if we have to wait that long, it's a pity. it's a great country and an unforced error >> how's the safety net right now? i'll ask you the same question talking food stamps, disability, whatever you want to -- you've seen when you add them all up, it comes to a good income. there is a disincentive tax to join the workforce. >> the problem with the safety net today is it's not too generous something like 80 overlapping programs there's a lot that we should do to reform that the biggest problem is the safety net over the past 50 years, you

spent $20 trillion and needing poor people in the economy to simply treating them like liabilities. we discriminate against poor people by basically telling them that they're charity cases and we don't need them for anything. that's because we don't have a work-oriented culture and work-oriented safety net >> what's the -- i mean, is that matching skills with training programs training programs don't seem to work when they're federally funded >> because federally fund ed -- of trade schools and apprenticeships and shop class, you name it need that training >> i asked trump about this in davos and said, you know, you built the skating rink in like three months or whatever why don't you headlong tackle the skills gap >> part of the reason is because he's the president of the united states and he runs the federal government people like doug doocy who is trying to do this and

hickenlooper, they're trying to do this. if we actually had a push at the national level to get governors to do this type of things, we'd have experiments that work and in five years we could have something at the federal level >> the states are in more dire straits than -- >> so that's what i was going to ask. what is the role of business in reskilling workers and given that we just had these big tax cuts and given that so much of the money is now going into buybacks and dividends, do you say to yourself -- is there a -- should the market be saying, you know what apple? you know what whomever you should be spending "x" on employees. i should say i think at&t has made a commitment to reskill workers. >> that's how the government says the states should be working on it. in private partnerships where they're creating incentives for the states to do this. instead of saying you lousy ceos, you should be doing more put your money where you mouth is this is the way good companies

work they should be getting together with forward looking companies and putting together skills programs and apprenticeships and with a few proof of concept ideas and local areas we could see stuff that works and have some success >> i don't know where you're going have this type of influence, arthur. you know what i mean don't -- jesus, don't -- i shouldn't curse. don't run for senate god, all you'll do is talk >> you don't think i could win in maryland? >> you could win and then do absolutely nothing like the rest of them. then you'd be -- >> is that on the table? >> no. it's hard to imagine doing that. although my congressman is running for president. >> where can you go and have this type of influence in front of figures other than the aei? >> how do you start a movement the humanistic movement for human dignity and potential. it's based on market and free enterprise there's a lot of ways to do that you're doing that, aren't you? aren't you leading a movement? >> i try but i get a lot of

resistance every day. >> resistance is part of the fun. this is a movement right here. >> right all right. well, i'm going to -- i mean, i think you're not telling us what you're going to do >> i've got a year i'm trying to find a successor >> that's all we know. did you know that andrew >> of course i read the book. books, plural, actually. i know >> thank you, andrew. >> the audience knows that i paid you to read -- i paid him a dollar a page to read your book. >> it's phenomenal >> and he charged me for the index. >> i read the index. i wanted the money for a dollar a page. okay a couple of other corporate headlines for you this morning this is a biggie new york state attorney eric schneiderman resigning after the report where women accused him of abusing him physically and verbally he said he cannot effectively do

his job. within hours he resigned three hours according to mr. brooks toshiba considering new plans to the $18 billion sale of its chip unit to bain capital last year. now the company is growing pessimistic about getting the deal approved. this is just one of a piece of issues between the u.s. and china recently and then valeant pharmaceuticals will get a new name in july. it will be known as vouch health bausch and loam. bausch and lomb. >> i'm getting tweets. guess who went from first to worst. that's continental's slogan. up next, what investors need to know about the state of economy and more

deutsche watch where you're walking especially in the city oh, this is about pedestrian deaths i thought it was about all the people that don't bring their little bags with them. anyway, pedestrian deaths are on the rise despite efforts by automakers to raise the bar on safety technology. and phil lebeau will have details on that. stay tuned you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc one second. barely enough time for this man to take a bite of turkey. but for cyber criminals it's plenty of time to launch thousands of attacks. luckily security analysts and watson are on his side. spotting threats faster and protecting his data with the most securely encrypted main frame in the world. it's a smart way to eat lunch in peace.

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so sophie, i have an xfi password, and it's "daditude". simple. easy. awesome. xfinity. the future of awesome. let's talk markets joining us now on set, david bianco good morning to you. >> good morning. >> i want to talk first up on oil since we're expecting the iran decision at 2:00. does higher oil prices factor into your view of the equity markets at all >> normally it does. but we think that oil prices today basically reflect the expectation there's a high chance that these sanctions are not waved. and at least we start down a clock on the sanctions for others that are trading with iran we'll see what the new terms are for waiving them in thefuture. >> would that cause you to

ratchet down estimates >> absolutely not. these are clear on s&p earnings. >> no concern about the impact on the consumer? >> never >> which is also facing higher borrowing costs -- >> it's the most viable relationship we have when it comes to s&p profits the s&p is much more of a commodity producer than a commodity users. you see the energy sector, materials sector they benefit from higher commodity prices the industrial sectors, supplier to commodity producers the utility sector even technologies benefit. it is the most remarkable and one of the most reliable yet s misunderstood notions about profits. profits go up when commodity prices go up that said, we don't actually think oil prices stay this high. we think there's a $5 to $10 risk premium in the oil price right now. i do think that you're going to have a tougher line taken out of the president on these sanctions. what it takes to have a waiver and we think oil prices over the

course of the year drift back down to low 60s rather than 70 or higher. our s&p earnings estimates 155 to 160 for the year. and we're thinking that oil is 65 bucks on average for this year >> you like banks. when are banks going to start trading on what every single bullish analyst calls great fundamentals versus a flattening yield curve? >> right so the regional banks, the merely big banks rather than the megabanks, the regional banks are trading on what's slow loan growth and a platening curve we think the curve will continue to flatten as the 10-year treasury yield stays sticky at 3% we think roughly 3% is a more normal treasury yield than people realize but big banks make a lot more money off short-term rates they're sensitive to short-term lending and market activity. so we favor big banks over regional banks and we're pretty constructive on global equity markets. we think the u.s. will lead

global equity markets higher this summer. we think may to labor day is actually going to be a bullish time the seasonal pattern is with the flat first quarter but people will internalize stronger earnings >> something happens after the election we went up 40% and now we're in an environment where rates are headed higher. there is trade friction. and we had a big move. i mean, i just wonder whether really the big move is already happened now we've got to justify where we are, i think. >> we had a large move i think 2600 is the trading range for the s&p. >> i wanted you at 3,000 >> we'll get there probably in 2019. >> where are you in. >> the important thing is we're nine years into this expansion and we think there's going to be a tenth. >> katy stockton says that most of the time, the longer it takes, it breaks out and

re-establishes the previous trend. do you believe that? which would be up. >> i believe the trend is up in large part because we think the economy has more -- >> you read her stuff? i mean, you're all -- >> i'm aware of it i don't read it in detail. >> industrials have broken down. >> i know. >> but to your point, those concerns about inflation, about the 10-year treasury yield jumping upward or trade wars, i think -- >> arthur brooks leaving aei >> all of it has come down >> thank you, david. >> pleasure. coming up, a lot more from our guest host arthur brooks and the state of america later, former commerce secretary penny iterprzk talks about the rise of robots we'll talk about it. back in a moment that is, not if they can help prevent damages from happening in the first place. at cognizant, we're turning the industry known for processing claims into one focused on prevention

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coming up, a new report for the highway safety showing staggering numbers phil lebeau hasa preview >> it is becoming more dangerous if you are a pedestrian crossing the street i know that might sound trivial to some people, but the numbers are amazing. l vehose numbers and more when "squawk box" returns mr. elliot, what's your wifi password?

wifi? wifi's ordinary. basic. do i look basic? nope! which is why i have xfinity xfi. it's super fast and you can control every device in the house. [ child offscreen ] hey! let's basement. and thanks to these xfi pods, the signal reaches down here, too. so sophie, i have an xfi password, and it's "daditude". simple. easy. awesome. xfinity. the future of awesome. good morning and welcome back to "squawk box" here on

cnbc we're live in times square among the stories front and center, dish network shares are falling premarket trade. dish matched forecasts with quarterly earnings of 77 cents a share but revenue fell below estimates. subscribers numbers declined to a year ago hertz global shares also taking a hit this morning the car rental company lost $1.58 a share for its most recent quarter that was wider than the loss that analysts were anticipating. that stock down 7.5% right now small business optimism remains near all-time highs. the monthly index from the national federation of independent business rose by 0.1 in april getting a boost from strong sales and profits. new report out with some staggering numbers of pedestrians killed by motor vehicles this coming as we thought the technology might be helping things phil lebeau has the results. >> i see a lot of people who are distracted as they're trying to walk across the street you would think you would look

both ways. that's not necessarily happening. here are the numbers according to the insurance institute which is out with a report looking at what's behind this and what solutions might be available 5,987 pedestrians hit and killed in 2016. that's the highest number since 1990 16% of all crash fatalities. since 2009 the number of pedestrian deaths is up 41%. so what's behind this? a couple of things, factors that have played into this. which used to be 20 to 25 miles per hour have been bumped up that's a factor. poor lighting at a lot of crosswalks people deciding i'm going to cut through the middle instead of waiting to go at the corner. and distracted driving may be in there. it's thoord quantify what's going on but we have heard those stories and i'm sure you've seen

incidents where people have almost gotten hit either because the driver or pedestrian the distracted what about new technology? is there new technology out there that could prevent this? yes, although it's slow in developing automatic emergency brakes have been implemented for most of the vehicles on the market most of those systems work primarily with stopping a vehicle before it rear ends another vehicle. in terms of working with not hitting a pedestrian, subaru's eyesight system has seen -- led to a big drob in the number of insurance-related claims that have been filed by subaru owners when it comes to pedestrian accidents. but this is one area where you will see regulators pushing the automakers to further develop technology in the future because the numbers keep going at a very high pace. think about this the number of pedestrian deaths up 41% since 2009. the number of overall highway deaths, up 11% since 2009. >> so regulators would push the

car makers to develop technology it sounds like a push to self-driving cars. which may be better at detecting -- >> i'm not necessarily -- melissa, i'm not sure if it's self-driving cars. i think what they want is the driver assist systems which will prevent people from hitting a pedestrian or alert them in some fashion. there's some of that technology that's already on the market but it's rather slow in developing for the broader portfolio of vehicles out there. >> i think this is fodder for the proponents of self-driving technology >> you're right about that they are going to say that's why you need self-driving cars but before we get there, you have to see the automatic emergency braking systems enlarged or made better to detect when pedestrians are in front of a vehicle >> okay. phil lebeau in chicago, thank you. meantime, want to get back to our guest host this morning. aei's arthur brooks. i have a question for you as a

free market guy. the government is pressing automakers to put in new safety features >> right >> is that a good idea or bad idea >> of course it's a good idea. we've got a market failure adam smith said in 1776 the wealth of nations. it's the bible of capitalism effectively. that you should use the free market whenever you can. but when markets fail, it's okay to think about what the government solutions will be that's things like pollution and accidents. it's public goods. it's monopolies. it's crime we actually need the government to take over in those particular cases. >> let me flip it around one of the conversations we had in the 6:00 hour started revolving around blackrock blackrock and a lot of investors are now saying to companies, we want you to take certain types of steps that we think may even be beyond might be the government rules because we think it's good for the world and ultimately good for your

company. i'm now thinking, by the way, climate change might be one of them gun companies might be another what do you think of that? >> it's great. i work in labor markets. look i don't know the specifics of anything they're asking is it may be politically correct nonsense but i hire people. i want certain standards of moral behavior with the people i bring into the organization. it's not that i don't care >> one man's morality is another man's immorality >> i get to decide what's good for us and our business. >> my list of things i want companies to try to affect would be the polar opposite of the things that andrew wants companies to try so what do i do? i only own the stock of companies that are -- that allow me to drink an 18 ounce soft drink? nothing with sugar over six ounces only pro life versus pro choice companies? i mean, that's where we're going ton this

our companies need to get involved with the pro second amendment, anti-second amendment? it's not going to work they're here to provide for shareholder value. for employees and retirement that's what they're here for they're not here to affect politically correct climate change policies. >> yeah. but on the other hand if they want to do something like that because of their management, it's a bad idea they're going to affect their own bottom line >> if they're being forced to do it by journalists and online bullying campaigns and everything else. >> that is always happened >> can i say the reason why -- and it wasn't on purpose that i led into the conversation with him about the safety of vehicles is because you can make the argument if you're going to press for safer cars, you want people to wear seat belts, you know, we talked about the gun industry should companies -- should it be the age of 21 or no bump stocks

or this or that. now you have companies that are taking steps whether it be the retailer themselves or even banks saying i don't want to be -- i don't want to even do business with you unless you're going to do this >> people have an idea about whether -- there are some people who think you can't secure a location like a treasury office building or without having a gun there. other people want to just think that the answer is less guns >> right but all i'm suggesting to you is that right now within that -- within the firearm industry, for example, there's been little technological advance. >> autosafety you're not going to -- one person isn't going to say yeah i don't like seat belts. >> by the way, yes go back though late '70s and early '80s, there was a huge debate in this country about whether people were going to mandate whether you wear a seat belt >> there's objective data that will show that air bags and safety -- >> there's a relatively objective data on firearms

>> like in chicago >> a hundred percent go ahead >> i'm glad you have the answer for the second amendment issues. >> it's not a religious issue. it's not a religious or political issue. it's a straight up numbers empirical issue in the ways you look at safety >> people have totally conflicting numbers on that debate on second -- >> look. here's one of the key things to keep in mind every policy it serves these goals. efficiency, freedom, and fairness when you talk about guns in particular, you're going to have an efficiency argument which andrew's making. you've got a freedom arkt thgumt that joe is making people will say it's more efficient, we've got all this data but it makes me less free. we have to make some compromises understanding the cases. we're not going to understand each other at all as long as we say you're wrong because that's inefficient. that's the conversation we need to have. >> it is

and we are freer than other places >> we are. >> there's no way to toughen up every soft target. you know, there's no way to go to zero. >> you're saying companies are getting bullied into adopting practices they may not otherwise adopt. >> well, unless it's just politically correct. 90% of it is just politically correct drivel >> generally speaking when it's nonsense and it starts to hurt the bottom line, that's when the free market makes a correction that's when you get a backlash >> schneiderman suing all the oil companies and trying to criminalize climate change deniers. >> do you believe in karma many. >> i do. i'm not sure how it works, but i think it's self-fulfilling at times. it was in this case too. >> oh, boy arthur is going to be sticking around we hope he's going to be sticking around. >> schneiderman, i talked about magnetic business cards that

guy's career coming up, forget global trade issues it's all about the rise of robots why penny pritzker thinks technology will kill jobs in the america. she'll join us after the break here are the mkearts at this hour "squawk box" will be right back. n follow an index, but which ones target your goals? it's not about quantity. it's about quality. no trendy stuff. i want etfs backed by research. is it built for the long-term? my reputation depends on it. flexshares etfs are designed and managed around investor objectives. so you can advise with confidence. before investing, consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. go to flexshares.com for a prospectus containing this information. read it carefully.

no one thought much of itm at all.l people said it just made a mess until exxonmobil scientists put it to the test. they thought someday it could become fuel and power our cars wouldn't that be cool? and that's why exxonmobil scientists think it's not small at all. energy lives here.

a recent report by the counsel on foreign relations it's a task force that argues trade is not the biggest problem for the u.s. economy the chairman john engler and pen pen penny prytzger argue over it joining us now penny pritzger and our guest host arthur brooks is still with us i'm still hoping for three people servicing every ai robot so we triple the number of jobs. i guess sooner or later that won't be the case. but you know, we've worried about things since the luddites.

is there really any way to stop it and are we sure these worst case scenarios are coming this time that this time is different? >> i think we're facing a seismic shift where artificial intelligence are affecting the very nature of work. what our report does a offer up a menu of options that can be adopted to help americans adjust and adapt to this changing nature of work we know 75% of americans have real angst about their job today and their future opportunities for their families so what we take an approach not necessarily there won't be jobs. but in the future we've got to have a seismic shift in the way we think about training and education. it's got to be much more linked to jobs. we've got to have greater transparency as to the pathway from where you are today to the

job you want to be in. we need to have better career counseling we need to be able to offer benefits for folks that are working in a contract job or in the economy. we need to make it easier for someone whether you're a displaced worker or a young person trying to figure out how do i get the skills that i need for the jobs that will exist in the future we're not necessarily negative about jobs what we're most focused on is how do we help americans be most competitive? i tend to agree with what arthur said earlier many of the solutions are local. governors have a huge role to play as do business leaders. and that's a fundamental premise of the report. it's a menu of programs that exist today. and ideas that exist that could be scaled to help americans be able to adapt to this massive change that we're experiencing it's a generational change just like when we went from a--a

we need to have a similar type of change in the type of training and educational system that we have >> secretary pritzker, i have a quick question this is arthur from aei. one of the things that bothers me about training we have in america today is that we still have this mentality of college for all. we want to push everybody into college. saying you're going to be a winner if you go to college and something's wrong with you if you don't. that's always bothered me from a classist kind of moral sense ut seems to me it's feeding into what you're talking about too. can you outline what you think is the right kinds of skills training in this country that doesn't involve four-year colleges that could involve more people >> we absolutely recognize and acknowledge that probably 30% of americans ultimately graduate from four-year college we've got to have pathways that allow you to go from where you are today into the career gaining the skills that you need

whether it's for cyber security, machine learning, coding, and other such skills. including skills like taking care of a smart rid. there are pathways that don't necessarily require you to have four years of college. we need to make that easier for americans to attain. we need to make pell grants much more flexible, map grants more flexible so that life-long learning is possible so that the reality of the fact that my children are probably going to have 10 or 15 jobs in their luftime, they can keep adapting and improving themselves to be able without necessarily needing a four-year degree to be able to be marketable in today's economy. >> philosophically, i have wondered about ubi i wonder about whether productivity of ai can be so

effective that many of us wouldn't have to work as hard, maybe. then i think back to arthur brooks and the identity and if lottery winners invariably end up miserable and depressed and the dignity of work and whether you're making, you know, $50,000 or $5 million, that that's something that's essential but then i'm not sure that's true if machines allowed us to prosper and you could travel the world and play golf or something. i don't know that would be that bad. what's the answer? and when is creative destruction really backfired is there any precedent in history where it has backfired rather than actually ending up better down the road >> i think the challenge really comes in these transitions we talk about these traditinsits as if they're simple but they're challenging. if i'm an oil and gas worker and

want to become a petro chemical worker because there are fewer jobs i need to gain additional skills that may mean i'm in training and i'm not earning an income. so i need a social safety net that can help me make that bridge we fundamentally believe in this report in the dignity of work. and then americans want the opportunity to work and to create their own prosperity. and so the challenge is how do we better connect where an individual is today and give them an easier pathway there are interesting tools being created that help you understand where you're at let's say i'm in tenth grade and i want to become a machine learning expert or i want to become someone who can work on a smart grid how do i get there there's a program called journeys that helps you know what's available to you, what's the various pathways it's almost like taking a google

maps for a career pathway. these are the kinds of things that we need to be doing and making more available to more americans so they can have the opportunity to enjoy prosperity. >> madam secretary, thank you. we'll have you back to update us on how this is going it might be the issue of our time, really, when you think about it >> i fundamentally believe it is the issue of our time. >> all right thank you. we're going to wrap up our hour with arthur brooks at aei when we come back in a minute. we'll preview disney's quarterly results and what investors need to watch maybe that comcast bid for fox the futures at this hour "squawk box" returns in just a moment 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

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i will. no. make that the password: "you_stillóhave_toóvisit_us." that's a good one. [ chuckles ] download the xfinity my account app and set a password you can easily remember. one more way comcast is working to fit into your life, not the other way around. still with us, arthur brooks and dignity. the dignity of work is a real thing. i've read your books and it's a -- takes up a large part -- probably the first third of it >> look, the research is really clear. but it's written on your heart as well. there are really four secrets to your happiness the part you can control comes from your faith, family, friendships, and the dignity of your ordinary sanctified work. circumstances get in the way of those things the real problem we have is when

the government makes it harder for people to worship and practice their faith, when it fragments their families, when it creates disincentives for people to work or tell them their work is dead end jobs and not worth anything it denigrates their meaning, their purpose, their happiness that's where we are today. that's what the president of the united states, every day he should get up in the morning and say what am i going to do to make it easier to worship, form families, and work >> the last one is going to be the one that the government -- a lot of the prior things -- the first three, the government just needs to protect -- >> needs to get out of the way >> but the last one we do need to try and match up the skills >> for sure. >> you've seen that -- how long it used to take for major things to happen. thousands of years then it was hundreds of years. now it's literally happening in two and three-year periods of things like carrying a spare computer in your pocket in the form of an iphone. >> it's amazing. >> things are moving fast.

it's unprecedented >> penny pritzker is making some points a lot of people watching us today is at the cutting edge of what the economy is going to do. the biggest mistake we're making today in my view is we're talking about how tech and innovation is going to enhance the productivity of the top 5% of the income distribution i don't know about you guys but i am tapped out. we need the bottom 30% to be more productive. only the poor will save america. >> i got to get out of here at 9:00 and go home maybe not all of us are tapped out. i don't know maybe i'll do "closing bell" one of these days. >> you're welcome on "fast money" any time, joe >> you've told me that is that at 5:00? >> 5:00 p.m. >> i'm in bed. arthur brooks, i don't know where you're going but you're coming back here a lot coming up, median focus. comcast possibly making a play for fox if that at&t/time warner deal goes through. how will disney respond?

we're going to find out after the break. speaking of disney, the house of mouse reporting after the bell today. preview of what investors need to watch "squawk" returns in a moment whoooo.

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i cleared my inbox! holiday inn express, be the readiest. breaking deal news

comcast throws a wrench in disney's plans to buy fox. we'll explain. a big decision from the white house just hours away. president trump set to unveil his plan for the iran deal as prices dip below 70 bucks a barrel and new york's attorney general is out after leading lawsuits against harvey weinstein, eric schneiderman resigns following sexual assault allegations. the full story is coming up as the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now live from the most powerful city in the world, new york, this is "squawk box. >> good morning and welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc live from the nasdaq market site in times square. i'm joe kernen along with andrew and melissa lee. it's like madonna.

i'm here with andrew >> love it >> cher. >> and becky is making her way back from omaha. porter is here >> he doesn't need a last name at all >> doesn't the futures right now, they were worse off awhile ago now down about 62. haven't been too much worse than that do that down eight on the s&p. nasdaq down 22 treasury yields inching back up to 3% on the 10-year 2.95%. and oil prices, not sure what to make of that it has some sell on the news, perhaps, as i saw the latest did you see that pompeo on friday told some allies to expect a withdrawal. so we'll see what happens. what time is that? 2:00 >> 2:00 today. there's a reason oil has already moved from $50 to $70.

maybe some of this is already in the price. today's top corporate story of the morning, comcast reportedly preparing to make an all-cash offer for fox it's only in the early stages and would only take place if, in fact, the doj case against the at&t/time warner deal were to get upended by the judge the offer would disrupt disney's current deal to acquire most of fox's assets this, of course, will change the tone of didisney's earnings call we want to get to julia boorstin who has more on this story >> good morning. the bidding war with comcast now looms over disnedisney's results will grow 13% while revenues expected to grow 6%. now one big question is what ceo bob eicher says about cnbc that

comcast is considering an all-cash bid for fox plus the entirety of sky now, the cash offer would top disney's all-cash offer of $52 billion. no comment on this report from disney or fox. meanwhile, disney's results are expected to be bolstered by "black panther" as well as disney's ongoing investment in its theme parks. last quarter the company said that reservations and rates are higher and analysts have ongoing concerns about disney's biggest division media networks including espn which suffered from cord cutting. how the new direct to consumer app is fairing so far. we may also hear about the disney branded app in the works and how fox's assets could better help compete. >> thank you, julia. a lot more on this joining us now is porter bibb from media capital partners.

how do you see this thing playing itself out >> well, this is disney/comcast the sequel this whole combat started in february where disney in december put in an offer of $52 million for all of the fox assets except the broadcast networks comcast countered with a $60 billion offer. it's the same thing. it's the sequel. and what the real signal is that this offer by comcast which is probably never going to go anywhere, it's all cash versus a stock deal that rupert murdoch and estate planning has set up his interest, his legacy is going to be the largest shareholder in disney. going forward he doesn't want -- >> hold on put a fine point on it you believe that the murdochs would prefer to own pieces of disney rather than take all cash >> they've already indicated that they would because of the

previous offer that comcast -- >> that was in large part because of the antitrust issue at least that's what they said >> that's what they said the good news here for randall stephenson and jeff bewkes is it signals they think the at&t/time warner deal is going to get passed >> let's just be clear a bid has not been made. the only thing that we understand that has happened and the reason we're even seeing these stories is there's been some conversation between comcast and a number of the banks around a bridge loan if, in fact, the opportunity were arise. >> another signal benchmark too. comcast yesterday filed with the eu to buy sky which is part of the plan disney wants sky as well. >> are you a fan strategically of the idea of comcast owning fox? >> it's not going to happen. >> why >> because they've already got all the content that they need

diss kn disney -- >> who has all the content they need >> disney. >> clearly to the extent that fox wants -- there's a view that maybe we don't have enough >> and it's a higher bid and it's cash. >> it is high. >> so it comes back? >> the earlier offer included stock which murdochs did not want why don't they want cash they could do what they want with the cash. >> they can't. for the rest of the shareholders. >> it becomes very, very complicated legally. >> legally there is that issue it's similar to what's going on right now with cbs and viacom where les moonves won't pay more but the shareholders are going to demand it so it will happen no what is interesting here is the first in this imbroglio is sky

rupert and murdochs own 39%. they want to buy the remaining controlling interest and hand it over to disney it's part of the disney/fox deal comcast wants sky too. they have filed with the eu yesterday to buy all of it >> what is the chance and we talked about this that all of this gets carved up? that with the offer for sky and the pressure potentially of comcast coming in with a higher bid, that bob iger makes a phone call to brian or somehow something happens where they say, you know what we'll give you hulu because we know you want that we'll give you this piece. and everybody divvies it up. >> it could happen, but it's unlikely i think what's going to happen is disney will up its bid. tax free favorable stock for stock with murdoch and disney. comcast is testing the waters. >> what do you think of the valuation right now of the big players? at&t has come down one of the things that has not

been commented probably enough upon is the idea that if, in fact, the at&t/time warner deal is allowed to go through given how much at&t has come down, frankly, the time warner deal doesn't look nearly as attractive as it used to 18 months ago. >> well, the market is really not looking at the future. and it's the future that at&t/time warner or building for. it's the future why disney needs the assets next year they're launching their netflix competitor >> how much does comcast need to do something by the way, in fairness, should note the stock is off materially the high of comcast was $44. what are we at $32 now? >> $31 >> comcast is sitting in the driver's seat. they are the largest internet provider they don't need any more media if they don't want it. >> so the pressure on this stock is what right now? is it just an expectation that

somehow -- >> $60 billion worth of debt that they're trying to raise to put in an offer. >> it was down 17% over the last year prior to this raised bid. >> that's right. >> what accounts for that number >> disney's stock is doing the same thing goes two steps forward, two steps backward they're not getting benefit for the huge landscape change that's going on in the media industry right now. legacy media is over. >> let me separate one last question for you the idea if this at&t/time warner deal is allowed to go through, there may be conditions related to it as well. >> that's right. >> do all -- is -- do the gloves come off and everybody jumps into the pool? what does verizon do does everyone say, okay, there's no restrictions now. we can just do whatever we want. >> it's going to happen. i think it's inevitable. >> but walk through the permutations of that does verizon pick off

cbs/viacom >> i think that inevitable >> you think that's inevitable >> yeah. they're going to be acquired by verizon once together. i think netflix is going to be acquired by microsoft. >> by microsoft? >> which doesn't have any content right now. >> have we all been saying viacom wrong all these years >> viacom? >> yeah. have we said it wrong. >> you're calling it viacom. have we been saying it wrong >> why do you think microsoft would get netflix? >> because they don't have any content and they want into the business they don't have direct to the consumer content >> via what the xbox >> absolutely. >> final question, i promise sprint/t-moblie. what do you think is going to happen there >> it'll happen. >> you're making a face it will happen >> yeah. i think it will. the argument we need four

competitors. sprint especially is debt laden. it's got no place to go. its only home in t-moblie. >> okay. great to see you, sir. a lot of provocative ideas this morning. >> it's good to be covering that -- this industry right now, porter now to oil where there are a number of story lines happening at the same time including the big decision on the iran deal. due from the president at 2:00 p.m. eastern let's get to brian sullivan. you know him as the worldwide exchange host. senior national correspondent. very tall man. his five things to watch in the oil market how are you doing? >> i'm good. thanks very many up. listen there's a lot happening in oil let's try to clear it up and break down the five fingers of oil. number one as joe mentioned, today's 2:00 announcement of the fate of u.s. participation in the iran nuclear deal. that could certainly move the market oil up about 10% since the

president suggested the eu may withdraw from the deal the cartel seems like it's sticking but of course opec famous for cheating. number three, will the saudis get the $80 oil that everybody says they are reportedly looking for? the saudis want higher prices to help fund their ambitious modernization plans. so far it looks like it's working. but that saudi move is being countered by number four that is what else? the continued american oil boom. fracking has pushed u.s. oil production to a record 10.5 million barrels per day. there are whispers out there among people i talked to that we could hit 11 million barrels a day by year's end. we have never done that. here's the big wild card on that it comes down to sand and water. specifically frac sand and waste water for the fracked wells. both of them are in short supplies both of them are needed. prices are going up.

some are now suggesting that a shortage of those along with the shortage of truck drivers. literally truck driver shortages in texas could cap the american oil boom all the phi things that are going right now in oil and gas there are more to happen in the weeks and months ahead it's kind of an opec versus shale fight right ynow. >> okay, brian thank you for that in the meantime, we want to tell you what else is happening this hour president trump says he will talk to china's president xi this morning the president tweeting, quote, i will be speaking to my friend president xi of china this morning at 8:30. primary topic will be trade where good things will happen and north korea where relationship and trust are building secondly we're getting a video of a meeting between kim jong-un and china's xi the meeting was yesterday. xi is said to have expressed

support from the strategies to shift focus. >> guy is a traveler all of a sudden >> remember the whole debate about whether his plane could go that far >> apparently it can >> and we don't know if he's borrowing a plane. new york, eric schneiderman has resigned effective at the close of business today. that announcement coming just hours last night after the new yorker published allegations that he was physically violent with four women he dated they accused him of repeatedly hitting them during the course of their relationships and never with their consent he strongly contests the allegations but they prevent him from leading his office's work and he would resign. district attorney has opened an investigation into the allegations. and of course mr. schneiderman has been considered sort of the top cop for banks in wall street issues like climate change and other things but has made business a focus of his. >> criminalizing denial.

i'm feeling a little -- i'm looking over my shoulder not quite as much. the chief executive of 1-800-flowers is ringing the opening bell but first he'll join us. great we brought flowers but didn't get pcas.anke but thank you. stay tuned you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc okay, well let's see you get up from the couch. i'm sorry, what? grandpa come. at cognizant, we're uniting doctors, insurers and patients on a collaborative care platform, making it easier to do what's best for everyone's health, every step of the way. you may need more physical therapy. ugh... am i covered for that? yep. look. grandpa catch! grandpa duck! woah! ha! there you go grandpa. keep doing that. get ready, because we're helping leading companies see it- and see it through-with digital.

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♪ mother's day, big business for 1-800-flowers. joining us now chris mccann, the ceo. he's going to ring the opening bell at the nasdaq this morning. welcome. is mother's day the number one >> it's the number one holiday for the flowers business it's a very important holiday for us moms are an important business we have to make sure moms get the recognition they deserve for the role they play in society. >> every year there's a mother's day but things change. what's different this year what's envogue >> i think from a product standpoint, product point of view -- whoops

from a product point of view, i think that plants are very hot this year. especially succulents. we always see things like these perfectly pink petals. always envogue because it stands for grace, elegance, love, compassion exactly how you describe your mom. it takes mixed bright blooms that really pop the colors of spring we're finding those for the younger mom are really special those are the trends we stay on top of that help us to accelerate the growth of our company. >> you're harry & david too. that's where you said in terms of big holiday for the floral side of things, this is it now, what can you control? i guess technology and the way people order is -- >> really what goes into planning a holiday is tremendous we start from the day after the holiday planning for next year so controlling everything. product development, working with our growers, our suppliers,

bringing in the supply chain to make sure everything gets where it needs to get to and then delivery of it. then making sure our customers can access us anywhere they want we're a very innovative company in how we use technology to embrace consumer change. >> where do most of these flowers come from? i ask because i feel they come from south of our border some place. and does nafta throw a wrench in things in the future if we abandon that agreement >> i think nafta could throw a wrench in things depending what changes. if you look at domestic product in the united states, about 25% to 30% now is grown domestically which is up from where it used to be ten years ago which is very nice. most of that grown in california then the vast majority will come from south america, colombia or ecuador. it's extremely efficient process. so we'll see how trade agreements can always cause hiccups in business. there's usually ways to supply

chains figure that out >> why don't we know about rose futures? we know about oj and live hogs can we follow commodities of flower prices? are they expensive do they fluctuate based on dema demand >> we see that at holidays like at valentine's day. >> i see that trying to buy them as an end user it can be, like, what's that called pulse pricing or whatever it is. surge pricing. but in general, it's pretty consistent >> pretty consistent there's so much supply on the market that you really don't get squeezed so it's a good -- it's a very effective market >> i have a very practical flower buying question which is, what kind of flowers last the longest >> there's all sorts of flowers. our flowers all come with a seven-day freshness guarantee, first of all but i would stay away from the plastic flowers. >> they last the longest

>> but i think roses the way we've been able to breed roses over the years, we get a nice long life out of them the ones i like best, carnations carnations are a flower -- >> they get a bad wrap though. you give a car carnations and you're like you got that from the corner deli. >> i'm a fan of carnations again, it's being on top of trends like this that help us to accelerate our growth rate >> that was a personal -- andrew, you have a lot of those. so it kills you when you blow a lot and then it's dead in two days i know >> three or four dies. >> i know. >> and the whole thing is dead >> we all have that feeling. >> when the head gets too heavy, it droops. >> it could happen >> how about when the roses are closed and they never open, and they end up -- >> you try to buy the ones that are a little closed hoping they'll last longer and it doesn't work out that way. you know >> i know what you're saying >> if you buy from us, it comes

with the seven-day guarantee so we'll take care of it >> last practical question is the last-minute deadline for ordering flowers to get there on mother's day >> i don't like if customers wait until the last-minute deadline especially for mom plan ahead of time but we'll be taking orders up until mother's day morning in many locations >> was jim your dad? >> jim is my brother >> okay. what happened to him i always thought he would be there with 1-800-flowers >> he's still there. he's executive chairman. i'm ceo. we work closely together >> he's the older brother? grooming the younger brother you've got more hair >> yes, thank god. >> still love the harry & david pears. greatest thing in the world. >> you've got a popcorn family but what's wolferman's >> it's baked goods. we have mousse munch coming out of the harry & david brand

>> you know who used to own harry & david? the late bruce wasterstein i used to talk to him about the pears. thank you. coming up, when we return we'll be joined on the set in the next half hour to talk market strategy. we have a lot coming up in just a moment

coming up, strategist sara malik is here. she'll join us after this break. and as we head to break, look at how u.s. equity futures are fairing an hour before the open of u.s. trade. we're looking at lower opens across the board 43t e oking to lose ath open "squawk box" will be right back. at the marine mammal center, the environment is everything.

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♪ good morning welcome back to "squawk box. we're live at the nasdaq market site i'm andrew ross sorkin here with joe kernen and melissa lee becky's making her way back from omaha this morning let's look at stocks to watch. sea world 5 cents smaller than the street anticipated park attendance grew a bit better than expected

15%. shares of valeant pharmaceuticals are higher this morning. reported better than expected revenue for the first quarter including its first organic revenue growth since 2015. valeant also announced it will be changing its name to bausch health in july i imagine mr. ackman may be watching this. who knows. joseph papa will be appearing on "mad money" tonight with our good friend jim cramer you don'twant to miss that then carl icahn and deason are opposed to the deal that xerox has to sell controlling stake to japan's fuji film. also take a look at this officials in hawaii warning that the activity from a kauai volcano.

geologists warn more fissures could open up at any time. lava has been burning at least 35 structures and toxic sulfur dioxide fumes remain a major concern. residents will be allowed to return during daylight hours as long as conditions allow time now for our what's working segment. warren buffett talking about the right time to buy equities on "squawk box" yesterday >> you don't have to buy at exactly the right time you have to avoid buying at the single wrong time. buy a cross section of america and it's best to buy over time if the first ten years of your working life you just save and that's for that period of time it doesn't have to be the right time >> our next guest says volatility for buying growth stocks with repeatable business stocks joining us is saira malik.

welcome to the show. good morning to you. you have three stock picks i want to get straight to them crm, salesforce.com. that is the sustainable. they've got a subscription based model. >> we love that model. a lot of opportunity left for them international revenues less than 30%. still a lot of opportunity outside of the u.s we also love the cross sell issing opportunity only 50% of their customers use more than one product. a lot of cross selling they can do think they can grow revenues over 20% really the key people need to use when transforming to the cloud. >> who are their closest competitors? >> yeah. i mean, there's a whole variet of competitors for salesforce. look from oracle to other companies. but we think salesforce is a dominant space >> resources is your next pick in the energy space. energy has had a difficult time because for a long time energy

equities didn't respond to what oil prices have been doing more recently that relationship has been reignited what did you see here? >> we think the energy sector is in a sweet spot. even if it causes volatility and downside, would use that as a buying opportunity bigger picture, inventory drawdowns are in place, demand is strong. that's all positive for oil prices buying rsp so the upside of that is potentially $2 billion in synergies. overall like the energy sector from here and concho we think is a great play. >> how do you think of the possible pullout of the iranian deal and the impact on oil prices >> we think if we pull out of the deal over an extended period of time, it will cause downside in the prices. if we were to pull out immediately, oil prices could go up from here but either way we think the range we're in is pretty stable with bias to the upside.

>> if oil prices go higher because iranian oil taken off the market, could that present an opportunity for other oil players to replace those barrels of oil that are missing from the market >> we think that's less likely to happen because we think some of the other countries are actually more pro-keeping prices stable from here >> and your third pick is state street yes. we do like state street. higher expenses in the first quarter but they have commitments of $1.6 trillion to install and that gives us a lot of visibility. it will do better in a higher rate environment but also performs well in volatile environments due to their foreign exchange trading great financial company that is not only reliant on the cycle that has a lot of ability. >> we are in late sale we haven't seen the performance of state street so far this year. >> we think that's an interesting company to look at right now. because it does have enough of its own levers to pull going forward. it's less dependent just on the

cycle. >> are you disappointed at the lack of response and financials in general to what is seen as a better environment for them? >> we think financials have priced in a lot of the upside already. they're taking more of a breather that's also why we're looking for those financial companies that have their own structural fundamentals moving forward that can drive the stocks >> all right thanks for stopping by >> thanks. uber holding its second annual uber elevate summit the ride share company hopes to get flying cars off the ground in the very near future. really >> cool things they're doing i got to tell you. >> flying cars >> they are. when you say close by, it's cool they say they are going to roll this out to customers like you and i in five years. right here is what a passenger cabin would look like in a flying taxi. uber just unveiled this concept for its uber air

you can see the row tars on the wings here this allows vertical takeoffs and landings let's walk you through exactly how this whole service would work how we would call a service like this is you would go on your uber app just like you call a car. and then you would call instead the uber air flight. then you would head to your nearest sky port this is either a stand alone building or existing building like the top of a shopping center then they do landings and takeoffs from those sky ports. eventually they will manage 200 takeoffs and landings per hour the flying car travels 1,000 to 2,000 feet off the ground. it's all electric power. the company says at the beginning, it'll be piloted, however, eventually the company hopes that it will be fully aton mouse as well. uber faces some stiff competition in the skies which is backed by alphabet cofounder larry page they've all released prototypes and they are autonomous.

when uber's air fleet is up and running, they say an uber air flight will cost about the same as an uber x-drive over the same distance pretty cool stuff. back to you. >> i the l tell you on the autonomous front, i've spoken to senior guys doing this work who say it might be quicker, might be easier to do autonomous flying than it is autonomous driving. >> except that you have to -- >> that's what they tell us because -- >> tough get to the sky port no, no >> get to the sky port then take the flight. >> in terms of the technology, we may get to autonomous flying far before we get to true level five autonomous car driving. given how -- >> well, it's interesting because what they told us -- what they told us was when you and i take a commercial flight, most of that flight is autonomous anyway. and there's less traffic in the sky. so that's what they say.

that it's a little bit easier to make planes -- >> too much gravity. >> joe's not buying it >> too much gravity. too much gravity i think elon musk talks about even on the ground you're going to be watching for stuff falling out of the sky like chicken little only you're not going to be chicken little. you're going to be chicken big >> are you afraid these things are going to fall out of the sky? >> ooi'm afraid of everything there are currents coming down from things up there >> these things are supposed to be safer than helicopters. >> not good. >> no, no, no. they have like eight rotors. >> lots of backups >> i don't know. i hope so. given traffic. but seems like a stretch, aditi. jetsons. maybe they got to make the little sounds too. you know what i mean worked for them. up next -- thanks aditi. why growth and cloud computing is giving one company

a boost. take a look at futures 34 on the dow. 5.5 on the s&p i'm afraid if you'd have told me three years ago... that we'd be downloading in seconds, what used to take... minutes. that guests would compliment our wifi. that we could video conference... and do it like that. (snaps) if you'd have told me that i could afford... a gig-speed. a gig-speed network. it's like 20 times faster than what most people have. i'd of said... i'd of said you're dreaming. dreaming! definitely dreaming. then again, dreaming is how i got this far. now more businesses in more places can afford to dream gig. comcast, building america's largest gig-speed network. now more businesses in more places can afford to dream gig. a few problems actually. we've got aging roadways, aging power grids, ...aging everything. we also have the age-old problem of bias in the workplace. really... never heard of it.

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welcome back to "squawk box. a look at the futures again. right where they were last time before we went to break. down 35 now on the dow the s&p down just under six. nasdaq down just under 12. oil is down which is a little bit surprising, maybe, given we're going to hear about what happens with that iran deal at 2:00 p.m. from president trump down about 5/8 of a point. may be making a major market comeback benefitting from robust growth in cloud computing. joining us now, gary wojtaszek he is ceo and president of cyrusone a data center company that counts nearly every cloud provider as a customer cloud reits. who knew >> hey, joe. how are you?

>> i'm great so how old is this whole industry five years >> we ipo'd five years ago and focused to cloud about three years ago. that's a third of our business and that's growing tremendously on the back of all the growth you talked aboutwhere basicall building the factories of the future for those companies that house all their applications in our facilities >> we just think, you know, i don't think we have considered what it takes to manage and do all the things that we're able to do now. and it takes data centers and it takes servers and equipment and maintenance and infrastructure and everything else. we're not really aware of that what type of growth rates do we still need to keep things going with -- i mean, we keep getting faster and bigger with everything we do >> yeah. >> well, it's really pretty much

unbridled. if you look at what's happening with microsoft this last quarter, they grew in the cloud business 33% amazon at 49%. our growth is right along side that this last quarter we grew about 32%. we came off one of the strongest sales booking quarter in our history. we're set up really well >> why doesn't your stock price reflect that growth, gary? i mean, you name all these cloud providers expanding data centers and their stock prices are up at least twice yours year to date >> it's a great question it's unfortunate we're structured as a real estate investment trust. we trade inversely with interest rates. as interest rates started taking up this year, we got caught up in that downdraft. as you see the fundamental performance of the company, we'll continue to power through that the average reit grows 5% a year we're growing six times faster

than that. i expect over the course of the year we're going to grow more. >> what's the dynamic in china what do you see that opportunity as how do you see it affecting that and also the partnerships and privacy issues that china has relative to what we're doing >> sure. so, you know, when you look at the cloud, i mean, there's basically two countries that are dominating it. so whether it's alibaba, tencent, baidu, the world is broken up between those two countries. i think eventually, you know, the trade issues will work its way out. i don't think it really impacts our business we're predominantly a real estate company building specialized officials that house all these different applications i expect over time both of those countries and those companies in those countries are going to do swell. >> you count alibaba and tencent as clients, right? >> we don't talk specifically

about customers, but we do a lot of work with the largest cloud companies in the world >> says here that rising rates for the big players will be good the small players will get forced out but we haven't seen that happen yet necessarily in the stock price, right >> that's true i mean, what you have seen in the stock price, though, is we ipo'd five years ago we've been top five best performing reit in the country i expect that will continue to keep that -- >> over the past five years, you're underperforming the iyr and your yield is also lower than the iyr >> sure. that's only been the first couple months out of this year if you look over the last five years, we've way out-performed all the indexes you look at on the real estate side we ipo'd at $19. we're almost trip thal now >> all right, gary thank you. >> thanks a lot for having me on have a great week. >> okay. when we return, we're counting down to the opening

bell on wall street. we'll see what jim cramer is watching and thinking about that he's going to join us live from the new york stock exchange in just a moment. back in a moment i'm dianne feinstein and i approve this message.

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get to the new york stock exchange where jim cramer joins us now were you up late did you watch last night are you a fair weather 76ers fan or a real one? >> early game and then philadelphia phillies game 11-0 shut out. they are a half game back. we have not been in it this late in the season for many years. >> it's unbelievable it's like a growth stock in sports and philadelphia right now between villanova, the eagles, the, you know, tomorrow night. tomorrow night is big. all right, jim. >> the first team that comes back from the 0-3 deficit. >> fingers crossed. >> i used to like the celtics.

if the facts change -- >> exactly. >> i got to change. >> can we talk comcast >> yeah. let's talk comcast what do you think? >> which is based in philly. >> a lot of debt huge amount of debt. got to love debt disney is going to have to pay more definitely it's a complicating factor for disney, i would say. >> we were talking about that. can rupert say -- i want to own a lot of disney. can he say that? >> i think he already did that once i think that's probably what this is about. and, jeez, they're taking a lot of debt. kind of a neutral view but because we do work for them but they're spending a lot of money. if they get it, it would be unbelievable it would become a international company withdomestic assets. i think disney will come back

with pay more. it's going to be a bid war. >> is there an opportunity to use this as a leverage in a sort of -- >> exactly. >> to carve up whatever you think, you know, when you talk about hulu -- >> andrew. i think that's what it's about and that makes a lot of sense to me. >> you know jim, these guys i know we work for them, but they know how to operate, too either comcast got nbcu for a tale or started running it twice as as well as it had been run. >> it's a combination. >> whatever happens the stock goes higher. i've been saying it for awhile this is david east's territory i'm focussed on why hans is down i think andrew is right. >> you got pop on tonight. >> yeah. >> i have joe papa.

>> all right, jim. who knows. we'll see you in a couple of minutes. >> thank you tomorrow our guest host will be investor glenn hutchins. >> board member of adt, by the way. >> 8:00 a.m. eastern we'll be right back. i am an independent financial advisor. when i meet a new client, i start by asking questions like: did you understand all the fees you were paying? was your broker a fiduciary? were you satisfied with the attention you were getting? then i explain that being independent gives our firm more freedom to act in their best interests. independence lets us do that. charles schwab is proud to support more independent financial advisors and their clients than anyone else.

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the tech sector jumped in the past week. the trend tends to continue with the group outpacing the nse. a couple of big headlines to bring you. $1.2 billion taking citigroup. valuefact has been supportive of the ceo of citi. simply seeking to boost the buy back program valueact disemployeesed kkr last year this is not hostile right now, it is until it isn't.

>> it is until it isn't. morgan stanley and nxr, they were passive snapchat's parent snap said the cfo is leaving the company to pursue other opportunities. he's being replaced by long time amazon executive tim stone the company's integration of whole foods may be a signal there that he wants to wrap things up a little bit and then shares of hertz are lower today. elon musk is expanding his own stake in tesla it shows that musk bought another 33,000 shares. worth just under $10 million his largest purchase since march of last year increasing his stake about 20% last week musk promised to burn those betting against tesla which hasn't turned a profit in the 15-year history.

>> as bad as we thought the conference call was, and we were sitting on set the morning after the call excoriating him it's back to preearnings call levels 300 level. >> were you in a costume last night, joe >> clebs coming out in full force for the annual met gala. the fundraising event. this year's theme heavenly bodies, fashion, and the catholic imagination elon musk was there with his girlfriend and george an amal clooney katy perry and rihanna was there. her ensemble stole the show, as usual. and the whole event underwritten, in large part, by steve schwartz. >> we just played some, actually interesting. >> apparently she made a joke about ai

elon musk made the same joke and they connected the rest is history. >> new world. >> swipe left. swipe right. who knew. >> yeah. who knew. >> anyway. thank you for hanging out. >> my pleasure. >> becky will be back from omaha tomorrow morning in the meantime, make sure you join us tomorrow "squawk on the street" begins now ♪ >> good tuesday morning. welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer and david faber we get the white house decision on the iran deal at 2:00 the first multistate primary day of the year. a lot to watch in media. europe is just below the flat line oil appears to be ready to settle on the news of monday comcast versus disney. cnbc's parent considering