tv Squawk on the Street CNBC August 9, 2018 9:00am-11:00am EDT
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the fpginancials have gaine over 6% if the past month. after similar moves, the trend continues with the sector outperforming a month later. well, that was a great show. thank you, michelle. join us tomorrow "squawk on the street" begins right now. ♪ ♪ good thursday morning. welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer and david faber at the new york stock exchange. futures imply another morning of muted intra day ranges for stocks europe's mostly red. 10-year yield down to $2.94 as we get a nice mix of low jobless claims and tame wholesale
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inflation up .2. no revisions to june tribune and right aid. >> what about the idea of a buy jou rega out regarding elon musk. nasdaq is on a long win streak tribune media has terminated its deal with sinclair, filed a suit against the company for breach of contract. this comes weeks after the fcc chairman expressed concerns about that deal. rightal aid cancels a special shareholder meeting today. no break-up fee there but kind of weird to see two big ones go away on the same day >> neither one unexpected and
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for very different reasons, i think important. right ate actually may be up given that there has been opposition to the valuation that was being accorded it as a back-end way for albertson's to be taken public. excuse me. it is down we did know, of course, that sinclair and tribune were in deep trouble given the opposition to the fcc, going to an administrative law judge. a lot of people seemed to know that they still controlled those stations in question apparently not the fcc for a while. the question there is going to be about the lawsuit itself. typically you go to delaware you force your acquirer to actually make good on their promise to buy you. but in this case, the deal's been terminated so we want to see what they're seeking i haven't seen a lawsuit are they seeking the acquisition premium or what is the monetary damages? interesting. but i think the larger issue we
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discussed here a number of times is just how hard it is to get a deal done these days and the oppositions you find, whether it's regulators in china, whether it's from a cfius review here in the united states, or doj or ftc or carl icahn it goes on and on. >> under the obama administration that's what happened -- i'm sorry. i was in a time warp this thing with rite aid is very important because this may be the bridge too far i don't know if you remember, back in 2015 the ftc blocked a deal that was meant to be able to go albertson's to safe way. they made a divestiture of 146 stores to hagan's because that was the way they tried to do the deal hagan's then went bankrupt every since then they've been very mindful you can't do any sort of cure by selling. >> that's what held up rite aid the first time with walgreens. >> right but i am recommending right now, right here, cvs as a buy on this
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because i don't think rite aid has the horses >> they don't have the wherewithal. >> they don't have the horses. >> does that same logic apply to "tribune's" argument that sinclair dragged their feet selling these stations >> sinclair might certainly be more profitable but that's so nasty. the comments that they used in this trying to block they basically sabotaged -- >> "unnecessarily aggressive and protracted negotiations with the go government." >> the only time you ever see that language is china versus trump. >> they tried to defraud the ftc. >> the ftc said they did omit material information >> they did. there it will be interesting to see what exactly they seek and how they go about doing that in delaware >> guys, this is a major change in tone, whether it be cfius,
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whether it be china -- >> which has expanded powers and is expected to be signed in to law by the president very soon, i believe, those new cfius powers which are much broader and will potentially allow what has typically been a review only of a foreign buyer of a u.s. corporation. sort of they can get into a lot of different things now. >> i've got to tell you, this would be a major chill because there's going to be a gigantic amount of mergers this year. it is almost as if the government agencies are saying, whoa, this is not such a good thing to have this power and concentration. the justice department's still going after at&t >> do you expect spreads to widen on announced deals or volume to drop or announcements to drop. >> that's a really good question because of how much money was lost on nxp. nxp, by the way, never really recovered. >> it could be a while listen, what i hear, carl, it's august and so you got a lot of bankers who are getting a little
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nervous because the big deals and perhaps the conversations that have taken place have quieted a bit because of concern on regulatory and don't forget, of course, if you are a global company, there are implications for the current trade skirmishes that are going on for your business stuff that typically doesn't make our headlines every day is still going on at a pretty rapid pace but it is certainly something to keep in mind given how strong m&a has been and what an engine it's been for the stock market over time, as well >> i keep thinking about the big one. i keep thinking about t-mobile/sprint. here's where you got that rubber hits the road. is it great for america to have three competitive 5g versus all the money that china's putting into 5g -- what? >> i agree it's interesting because that deal going through and so many others that were blocked for unexpected reasons, it sort of would fit this narrative which is you just don't know what to expect. >> there are advisors that are close to the white house saying, listen, you got to be very
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careful. the chinese have such a lead with 5g. we have to get back in the game. so i mean if china is this subtle undercurrent of a lot of different things, that deal goes through. >> i know. it's like picking winners and losers to a certain expetent by the white house. >> yes, it is. >> the term "sputnik moment" has come up a lot regarding 5g when we started so ethe russi e russians back in the '60s -- >> we used to have kovis i've always wonder whether that would have been effective. >> i don't believe so. >> hopefully we'll never know. quickly on nxp which we talk about so often because it was such an important thing. i have heard on 5g that the chinese -- it may not just have been about the trade war
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that opposition from the u.s. government to broadcom's acquisition of qualcomm in terms of cfius and their objections being specific to making qualcomm a national champion when it came to 5g, that did not go unnoticed by the chinese. there is a belief that some of their opposition or unwillingness to actually approve the nxp deal was also based on that. quid pro quo even though they let zte live. >> there was no quid pro quo with zte we gave them the store >> they didn't like seeing all that 5g stuff and cfius' objections to the deal >> there hasn't been a coherent policy from the white house on this theoretically if you gave zte this giant equipment company, if you gave them the right to be able to get our things after they, by the way, took our trade secrets and gave them to iran? and we fought that was like, okay, so you fired a couple people there's inconsistency. in terms of the hot buttons, chinese and iran and both of them won in that --
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>> trying to make decisions at the top levels if you are a board and ceo you want consistency, to understand what the road looks like. this is going all over the place not knowing where the opposition's coming from makes it that much more difficult. if elon musk gets something done, that -- >> speaking of big would-en deals, the s.e.c. is now reportedly investigating musk's tweets "the journal" today says regulators want to know whether the tesla ceo was being truthful when he announced he secured funding to take the company private. it follows reports yesterday that they had talked to softbank last year. talks fell apart over control issues a piece in the "times" today, john couffey, well known securities law attorney. >> i think the s.e.c.'s going to
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run into a man who will be able to have a recall of conversations that he didn't write down that were secure i also want to put an end right now to things i heard all morning. the s.e.c. has officially told twitter that they are the equivalent of reuters when it comes to dissemination i don't want to hear again that you can't use them as dissemination. the s.e.c. actually favors twitter as dissemination >> the dissemination in thereg fd is different than saying something that may not be true >> you can't lie on twitter. >> you have secured funding, do you have equipment letters what do you got? highly confident letters did michael milkin write him a letter >> the s.e.c. is licriminal they could refer it to justice but we real lly got to get the story straight about how the
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prosecution works here i'm not saying he is going to get a free ride. this idea -- are they cooperating? is it a formal investigation is it an informal inquiry? stop the juggernaut that this man's going to jail because he tweeted something. >> meanwhile, all these banks are trying to figure out any sort of way they could possibly think to take this company quasi private in some structure. >> deep dives on convertibles in the last 24 hours. >> again, traditional lbo model, yesterday as we said, no way, no how. could you get a sovereign wealth fund to step up for this bunch, and another for that bunch and thereby take most of the company private and he wouldn't have the filing requirements and he wouldn't have the vote -- who knows? >> what's the proxy here is it the bonds? >> i've been using the bonds of course those bonds should go down if they're going to lever not go up. there is a lot of craziness here you know the bonds soared to 91 -- >> i don't get it.
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>> is that when -- you nose what he does? remember in august, three years ago, when he said he didn't get it i got to make some calls i got to make some calls >> i tried to make calls and i'm still not getting it but i don't get anybody on the other end of the phone that tells me they get it either. >> your guys are the best. if they don't know, they don't know given the volume and range of the last two days, we're grateful to elon at least for giving people something to talk about. >> that's really -- remember, he is a showman, one of the great show men of all time i'm not saying he is p.t. barnum >> if we didn't have elon musk, we'd have to make him up >> who do we have after elon this whole thing with sprint has silenced john legere who's left who has personality? >> but it's bigger than just personality. who pushes our imagination i mean, no offense to john
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legere -- and it is great -- >> what's the old saying, all progress takes place outside of the comfort zone right? >> that's true who brings imagination to life >> that would be ge. when we come back, jack dorsey on defense. why twitter's strategy continues to fall under scrutiny today we'll watch roku, shares are rallying on quarterly results and guidance the streaming device company adds more subs to its platform good guidance there. we'll talk to anthony wood later this morning another look at the premarkets, nasdaq up today would be eight longest since a nine-day streak in september and october of last year back in a moment
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according to ideology or content, period. ef mod every model on the network really looks at behaviors on the network. we take those behaviors as signals. i want to point out these signals involve minute by minute, hourly hour. these are not scarlet permanent letters that people then take on as a badge and will never be ranked high in search or not allowed to trend or ranked high in conversation. so these are models that are looking at behaviors and behaviors of bad faith actors who intend to manipulate, distract, divide a conversation or to unfairly amplify their content which they didn't earn >> dorsey's getting it on both sides. the accusations of shadow banning on the right, anger from the left that they're the last major platform not to deplatform alex jones and info wars >> the anger that i see is the incredible decline in stock price. there is always a question about whether social media's peaked. has it peaked because it is
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becoming less controversial. it's just not as interesting that's a very big theme. i think twitter's trying to go more sports and less trash talk. but i've got to tell you, there has to be a reason why those numbers did not hit -- >> they had so much momentum going into that quarter, too it seemed like i still think when it comes to the stock itself but the business, a lot of people believed, had momentum. then it just -- it's been -- we talked a lot about facebook but percentage wise twitter has suffered more. >> no disagreement been searching and searching for what happened because you had a lot of good sporting events. you got a lot of momentum. i think twitter is very much part of the fabric but there's going to be questions about what happened. snap snap was horrendous! have people stopped it have people just stopped checking i think instagram's been incredibly strong. but snap and twitter indicate that maybe it's a little more --
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little more faddish than we thought. >> snap, twitter, core facebook -- don't know if you saw some nielsen numbers for july >> the consumer package goods guys are going there my work indicates without a doubt that the people who are benefiting -- google, amazon for advertising dollars. amazon advertising is just on fire >> we had this discussion the other day, whether advertising is the new go-to on amazon replacing aws. >> it is another high-margin business for them. we don't talk about with amazon anymore is retail. it's bizarre we do but only in terms of what are they going to move into next >> but they failed to destroy the auto parts, the auto zones of the world cvs's quarter indicates they aren't destroying cvs. amazon advertisers -- do i want
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to tell people 20 short facebook i think that train has kind of left the station two wednesdays ago. i do think there are legitimate questions being raised about whether google, youtube, that that's where -- ever since they cleaned up youtube as opposed to what dorsey is doing numbers were explosive look at the cost of acquisition. went down. >> went down that's a very key thing in the google quarter >> stock was very inexpensive. really clear-cut quarter fantastic job in terms of no longer saying that was a great quarter. carpe diem, my friend. >> not bad we'll get cramer's mad dash, countdown to the opening bell. one more look at the pre-market this thursday. we'll get to some retail names
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prevagen has been shown in clinical trials to improve short-term memory. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. counting down to the start of trading on this thursday right near at the nyse "squawk on the street. time for a mad dash. it is 85 and humid out but you want to talk about winter weather. the. >> the spring wear line of canada goose did quite well. a very big upside surprise 51% of their business was done direct to consumer they are also opening stores,
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opening a store in hong kong, opening a store in china they're opening a store at the shore hills mall down the block from me which will feature a cold room. what i like most about this story, frankly, is that even though they guided conservatively, only up 26% for the year, this is a company that's supposed to do poorly right now. and it didn't. i don't know if you've seen the spring line, it is an exact knock-off of brioni for one-tenth of the price >> very popular in china >> here's some good news canada no trade spat with china. who are they spatting with >> us? >> besides us. saudi arabia canada goose, how much business are they going to lose because of a fight with saudi arabia >> none. >> right anyway, i think this is probably the great new apparel story. i've been saying this for some time it's been a winner and i've got to tell you, when you looked at direct to
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consumer, there's really no one in their category. that's the model that you need in order to be amazon. so i like canada goose i'm not concerned about the -- what people think is an alleged slowing in their growth by that 20% number they're just being very conservative goose lifts. when we come back we'll also talk about a large leverage buyout no, not tesla. we got a lot more for you on "squawk on the street. opening bell a few minutes away. at the marine mammal center, the environment is everything.
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invest and volunteer in communities like yours. because the changes we make today... can you hear me? ...shape the possibilities of tomorrow. u.s. bank the power of possible. you're watching cnbc "squawk on the street. live from the financial capital of the world opening bell in less than two minutes on this thursday morning. we've been over some of the m&a dynamics today ppi up .2. unchanged, actually, looking up .2.
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>> when i saw that, i thought that we would immediately fly up but i know people are more concerned with the cpi tomorrow and how much is passed on. but this is a constant reminder that those who say inflation is pain have facts on their side. this is a tame number. and that does matter if you're the fed, it makes you feel like, okay, we can do two we don't need to do three say. but you would start thinking maybe the banks are going to start going down because the banks have been a leader in this particular part of the rally let's watch jpmorgan, see what it does. >> right what if we do see a meaningful decline in yields, and in oil at $67 today. >> that's the algorithms that immediately go into sell mode. that's something that the buybacks and s&p 500 futures, meaning money that comes in, can't really compete with it that's something to watch. that's one of my worries hedge funds coming in and blasting on an algorithmic basis
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all going down and interest rates just going down. >> let's get to the opening bell on this thursday [ opening bell ] >> a non-profit encouraging business professionals to mentor students in new york city. supportingmen veterans and fostering community engagement you guys covered goose at the board. >> you've got bath and body works with a double-digit gain victoria's secret back on target i think that i've been rooting for these guys only just because i think the mall's good. i'm surprised it is only up 16 cents. i bleemelieve it should have ben more only because this thing's been so down and out and the big worry's the dividend
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these were not good numbers. i cannot guarantee any dividend. that's up to the report but these were surprising. wow. it is a reminder that the mall is not dead. it is not dead, david. it's dead to you >> was it ever alive >> no. >> lb is the worse s&p stock for the year, on the loser board >> they're getting it together now? they finally are >> same-story sales are a good precursor for better numbers, always a reliable indicator of what could be going on i've felt that the company -- research on wall street is so negative about these guys that it is just shocking and i think that this could be -- victoria's secret, a lot of people wrote that off bath and body works has always been a stalwart in the mall. then it dropped off. these two pillars have been good this is a change so let's watch
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i know it is not a crucial quarter. that's the only problem. you see costco down with really good same-store sales. limited, l brands, it's all about expectations the same way norwegian cruise lines are up expectations were low. frank del rio doing a super job as ceo i visited one of their cruise lines. i said to my wife i very much want to go on one of their cruises. she said how about an eight-person cruise in the mediterranean? >> is that what's going to happen >> she doesn't know i have a 9:00 show yet. if she gets up at 7:00, i'll be in so much trouble i'll be dead to her. >> carl's checking how many years we've been together. every day is such a joy. >> our tenth anniversary she's probably going to tune in. we mentioned or teased, so to speak, dunham bradstreet.
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agreed to an old-fashioned buyout where a number of groups get together -- cc capital, thomas h. lee, two others, they are taking this company private. it is $145 a share, all cash deal of course company that is $1.5 billion of debt which they'll take on and net pension obligations. $6.9 billion total, taken down by $1.5 billion. still very large a large equity check and financing being raidsed from b of a, citi and rbc and they get it done. given the history of d&b, all those years, they did back in february saying they were conducting a strategic review. they are calling it a 30% premium above the unaffected stock price from then. there is a 45-day go shop where they'll go out and look -- potentially -- though they've
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been out there for a while so it is hard to believe anybody else hasn't had a chance to come in they'll come in now. but these are typical arrangements >> mr. kerrigan was let go on february 17th of this year a lot of people felt that's because the results had been sub par. but this is a pristine asset this is a data driven company. you know how much everybody loves data data's i think overvalued in the marketplace. but wow. this is a storied name anybody who's trying to figure out who's creditworthy still goes to them >> also worth mentioning, cc capital is the name of a new firm but chinh chu has one heck of an apt on the east side >> trump tower >> one of them, yeah not the one in midtown though. the one over the views are amazing. but first big deal they're doing i think. it is a large one. >> it's huge >> we don't typically see more
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than $5 billion lbos i can't remember too many recently >> i'm glad you mentioned it when i read it, i said, holy cow. this happens to be very close to where i live i remember in 1985 telling everyone at goldman this was going to get a takeover bid. how right was i? >> you nailed it >> you didn't tell them when >> it was open-ended >> it was a much larger company many years ago it was gartner group it was all sorts of stuff there with d&b >> that was before anybody had data people didn't even know what data was >> how about an 8% jump in viacom, guys $118 beats by 11 cents sg and a slower. >> i have been telling david dw - and he has squawked at me. david, strong advertising up front, strong gains year over
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year, evidence of a strong turnaround >> you think they're mentioning this turnaround at all i don't know look at presentation "turnaround. >> paramount is making a major turn >> paramount has had a good run. the new management there's only getting started in terms of the slate. they're really only talking about '19 and '20. "mission impossible. >> i'm a believe >> paramount revitalized >> this domestic performance is quite a chart. >> i haven't had a chance to check in on it stock was not up as much in premarket. >> when you think of my viacom/cvs -- cbs thing. >> they eventually got to a
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ratio that they both felt comfortable with 5.6135, cbs. none of that matters anymore given what's going on, lawsuits, sexual misconduct charges. i mean -- oh, my god but it is worth remembering, they did agree to a deal on at least the basics of it in terms of economics nothing else >> i think this changes the dynamic for both companies >> you do. >> yes, i do >> no idea whether redstone would ever entertain the thought, whether he ever had the desire to put the two together >> david alludes to the situation at cbs which i will describe as fluid. fluid. >> yeah. the board now taking over the investigation of cbs news and
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folding it in to what they're doing regarding moonves. roku we mentioned earlier. break even looking for a 15-cent loss revenue was ahead. they guide above we'll talk to anthony wood later on today >> that's the best -- you had 47% revenue growth users up 48% 22 million actives now gross profit up 107% a quote from the release excellent. our thesis is that all tv original equipment makers will switched to a licensed operating system just like all phone companies, phone markets, either licensed, android or apple a lot of people were short this betting that amazon would come after them this is still one more situation where amazon did not get its man. they even have a very nice advertising revenue stream it is loved. >> it must be. >> it is >> to be able to compete effectively in that margin >> is that incredible? the release is a joy i have to tell you the conference call, i am calling it
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a top ten conference call for this quarter i loved it >> you keep coming back to this idea, amazon not getting its man. it's almost always in hardware >> yes you think that bezos can say maybe he's got some sort of achilles heel? what are they really developing in their web services -- whenever you hear talk about web services, oracle the other day -- larry ellison, who is combative guy, amazon can't stop with our system. well, look, it is not as important as data center at this very moment in terms of growth or advertising it is consistent business, amazon it is one of the greatest. but i was shocked -- the people who were short roku were short it specifically because amazon was supposed to wipe them out. did not happen guys, tesla shares are down 2.5% was able to sort of make a couple of calls even during our breaks but lot of people have been
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speculating what investment banks, are there any involved, has he hired anybody i have not been able to ascertain that's the case at all. people have been throwing names around jpmorgan, no goldman sachs, no. at least as far as i'm aware -- i think i can say with some confidence at this point goldman was involved previously in a number of different things in terms of selling equities and/or debt for the company previously but apparently at this point nobody's been hired specifically for this effort to somehow take this company private in some way. even more important, at least tried to understand was there something from the kingdom of saudi arabia, was there something at softbank, did massa -- nobody seems to be aware of any conversations in terms of funding for such a deal you have to go to huge pools of capital like that. so where the money would be coming from, who the advisors
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are, all very much a mystery at this point then of course, many people highly skeptical in terms of structure. >> wow >> but -- but, we'll see that says a lot, i guess we'll see. >> i have to tell you, i keep coming back to the notion that the man is a bit of a near cmir worker around it is entirely possible some entity did come to him. >> in the middle of the night? in his dreams? he doesn't really sleep. was it a -- >> i don't sleep i'm a simulation of him though i don't know i think it was a great -- you put a $420 price target out at chu? >> maybe some guy from mars came down and said $420 >> he's the first guy to go to mars remember he says he's going to beat boeing to mars that's a protracted -- >> that's true
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>> look. what are they going to find? what are they going to do? put him in the journalism jail in what are they going to do to him? >> no. >> no. they're not going to refer it to justice. give me a break. >> okay. all right. we should get on the record, yelp, up 20% ahead of the pre-market trade. better than expected growth in paying advertising accounts. >> you still have to use it -- as someone who owns a bar, they've made a lot of good changes. geez, advertising has come -- local advertising is very strong on the web and both advising very strong with yelp. hats off to them it was a remarkable quarter. they hung in against a lot of people who really felt they were another outfit that was going to fall by the wayside. remember when google decided there was no place for yelp?
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all the longs were yelping now the shorts are yelping >> howthere is a mexican restaun across the street from us that basically said we had the worst guac and our guac was processed and our margis were store bout i had to get that removed. it was wrong i kept calling and calling and calling. then the mexican place went out of business. >> i'm told bar san miguel has four star reviews. >> we got some good management there. see? it's about management. all about execution. >> it is all from the top. >> yes, it is. that's very nice dow's up about two points, three points here. thursday in august let's get to bob pisani. >> thursday in august is the way to look at it. it is a mixed open we've been very narrow trading range the last couple days look at the sectors. we've got energy, modest move up
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at the open in techs banks down a little bit at the open there was some weakness in the 10-year yield as the ppi numbers were a little weaker than expected it is the second week of august but the markets are very tightly wound. take a look at where we are at positioning is a little lopsided in a lot of the sectors. we are essentially at record highs on the markets the stock market volatility near lows for the year on the vix. the whole vix curve's been flattening recently. treasuries, a lot of shorts out in treasuries right now and the dollar, there's a lot of bulls out there. there is a lot of lopsided positioning. my point is, it seems a little boring at the moment but this could move very, very quickly if we could get some events as for where we are, i have been saying united states is the place to be for a very simple reason -- the earnings picture i want to show you the gloebal
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earnings situation for the quarter. 24% in u.s. versus 9% in europe and 9% in japan. take out the tax cuts, u.s. earnings growth would be about 15%, still much better than europe, still much better than japan without the tax cuts the revenue picture is the same. it is improved all over the world but the u.s. far and away the better number here 9% growth in the united states from revenues. 4% over in europe. these are revenues put up the revenue numbers 6% up 6% overall for japan. those are second quarter revenue numbers, as you can see there. the important thing is what's moving the markets is the u.s. is the place to be. that's why our markets have been outperforming the rest of the world. we have the strong earnings story. the gdp growth the tidal wave of buybacks and dividends. unlimited tariff impact and the sector rotation that's been going on as something falls down, like tech had in the last month, they don't sell out and get away from
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the markets, they go in and buy other things we've seen that rotation in the value. that's largely played out. if you look at the trading patterns in the last five days, tech has made a modest comeback. some of the big names -- microsoft, lam research, alphabet, intel. in the last week they have sold off into the end of july and beginning of august. they're now marginally higher. the sector that had done really well, consumer staples became a sort of proxy for value stocks that had all risen at the end of july and beginning of august generally they're down generally. kimberly-clark, general mills. these are the ones that had the big, big run-ups we're seeing here a rotation back into the old leadership group of technology with no dramatic drops in the consumer staples. they're sort of now sideways after having risen rather dramatically, up about 10% since the month of june. it is that sector rotation that keeps the market so strong right now the dow is flat, down seven points
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>> let's get to the bond pits as well, rick santelli at the cme >> good morning, carl. it is an interesting morning if you are a fixed income trader or fed watcher, or just a market strategist in general. we had the first two inflation data points in the form of july ppi. we'll let the markets speak for themselves a 2-careyear, short up gave up ground 10-year gave up some ground. overseas i'd pick bunds but i did it over a week because the move is more subtle. but if you look on a weekly basis, it did dip out of the range that had been established even though the range had been downward aiming. it seemed as though we'd make a beeline a month ago for 50, 55 basis points we end up now back in the mid 30s plus on bund yields. if you look at what's going on in the foreign exchange market, the dollar index virtually did not notice what was going on with respect to ppi. maybe it will pay more attention tomorrow to cpi. maybe none of this changes the
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perceived path of the federal reserve. wasn't that ppi was sold the year over year was still pretty warm. it just wasn't hot, hot, hot as you see the dollar index is really holding its own and it is still relatively speaking in a neighborhood of a 13-month high, give or take about .25 cent. the euro versus the dollar the pattern is almost identical except for that one thing, may 29 there are a couple of above the thomas on that chart now that starts in june. where it is still perceived to be a range and maybe the dollar index is just a bit ahead of itself that's is going to be the question, is it the dollar currency in range or is the dollar breaking out to the up side that's the call here now the dollar/yen, that's going the other way. this is july 1st of the dollar/yen you can see we are very, very close to a one-month low against that currency. just not quite there yet carl, jim, david, back to you.
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>> i'm apparently trying to get hold of my manager, jake, get that last yelp review! it's killing me. jake, help >> i wondered why you told about that when we come back, walter isaacson on the challenges facing social media, including jack dorsey defending twitter from criticism on both sides of the political spectrum dow's down 20 points and the s&p down about half a point. back in a moment the digital divide is splitting this country. we have parents who are trying to get their kids off of too much social media and computers, and then we have parents who would only hope their children have access. middle school is a really key transition point, right.
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the stakes start changing. students begin to really start thinking about their futures. what i like about verizon's approach is that it's not limited to just giving kids new tools, it's really about empowering educators to teach in different ways, and exposing kids to more active forms of learning. giving technology is not a total solution. teaching technology, now that is.
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it gives you super fast speeds for all your devices, provides the most wifi coverage for your home, and lets you control your network with the xfi app. it's the ultimate wifi experience. xfinity xfi, simple, easy, awesome. let's get to jim and "stop trading. >> a lot of positives, but one really clear negative we haven't talked about is the decline in oil permit the oil part of texas is just crushing the bottom line look at oxy. management's been doing good they own a lot of permian, your
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costs are adding up and you're not getting a good price for your oil because there's not enough getting on the market you see apache down this morning. >> what's on "mad" tonight >> we have magna, and cyberark, when you leave your company, that's when the hacking starts the ceo has done a remarkable job. but i think the chinese have stepped up their cyber-terrorism and that's going to be what i want to talk about. >> cyber what? >> terrorism >> where >> taiwan semi >> taiwan semi >> yeah, they don't like them. maybe you should tune in i have a show.
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my wife doesn't know about the morning show this is my 14th year >> i am fully aware. and i watch you as much as i possibly can >> you're swimming. >> when i'm getting out of the pool, if it's on, i watch. >> i have one criticism, he spends too much time with his family >> 6:00, "mad money" at 6:00 and when we come back, anthony wood, roku's ceo joins us to talk about their guidance. dow's up 2
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welcome back to "squawk on the street." some breaking news our final june read on wholesale inventories is up 110, that replaces the unchanged and on the trade side, june number is down .1. so the sales is definitely on the weak side. we're looking for a number closer to .2 the market, especially treasury rates are starting to dip. and that's shocking because we did not have hot headline gpi data at the end of the month
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which are at the low end of the range, but this 293 should we settle here, would be the lowest close since that point carl, back to you. >> good morning, everybody, welcome back to "squawk on the street." we're here at post nine of the new york stock exchange. big day for data, but also claims, gti, roku, and some dealings are now not happening >> our road map starts with the two massive failed mergers rite aid and tribute both calling off their prospective deals. shares of roku up 14%, showing a boost in revenue and a number of active accounts. we'll talk exclusively to anthonywood. >> and altice telecom, the ceo will join us for an interview.
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and technology goes for eight days of gains, that would be the longest winning streak of the year, as apple continues to trick abo tick above the trillion dollar mark joining us at post nine, what a winding road it has been for tech you had the trillion dollar valuation, and now we have this surge of growth over value >> you look at the names today, you have some very strong names, netflix has done well, google has done well, even facebook with its correction is still down where it was in may or so what's interesting about is that the valuation in the sector haven't changed that much. they have just adjusted to the new reports profile. now all of that together is setting up a very robust ipo
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market we talked a little bit about this off camera. if you talk about tech, y ipo, have the most ipos since 2015. >> is there a sense of urgency among these players, do they think there's a window in which we have to get this done >> i don't see it as urgency, it's just that the markets are accepting. and if you talk about the number of publicly investable names, just a lack of investable ideas. and there are big themes taking place, whether it be a.i., ride sharing, autonomous, these are big names are getting expose to. >> what about the big names, like uber, or air bnb,
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especially when you see more valuations coming into the market >> and i think the ruling yesterday was relatively unfortunate for a couple of reasons. one was, i look at it from a consumer point of view because of that ruling, there will be higher prices, longer wait times and when it comes to ride sharing, a driver doesn't equal a driver equal a driver. some are operating four hours a day, eight hours a week, some are operating eight hours a day, 12 hours a day i think the investor very much wants these other names to come, because they are these large investable ideas they can participate in finally >> i have to ask you about tesla, you're a banker, you have
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been one for a while you're in that world is there any avenue you can go down that gets you to a stru structure that achieves tesla going private? >> i can point to a couple of things one, you have seen so many structures rumored in the past, using spvs, et cetera. you have seen these large pockets of capital outside the u.s. that could be utilized as well there's a lot of things that could be done when you talk about taking companies private, but i can't comment directly on tesla. >> it would be a very complicated, still very large transaction. the ipo idea, you can throw that out. but you can imagine some structures that could be explored. >> there are some scenarios out there, and if they're looking to do that, i'm sure they're exploring very closely >> do you think the guidance is legit? >> there's a lot of capital in
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pockets. we all know softbank and how they're currently focused on the saudi money and all that you saw recently by snapchat, you saw prince that is taking these big funds. >> and of course he talks about doing another one. it has huge implications on investing in general, right? >> you see these step up on valuation or look a little longer term, if you're seeing pricing increasing a little bit. they're not talking about valuation near term, they're talking about these big opportunities, looking five, ten years down the road. ent >> on that point about tams, people are pointing out the split on what's happening with
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fang, and with albibaba and tencent. >> the ecosystem of tencent, whether it's obviously e commerce, media, they have so many tentacles in so many different areas there's a lot of opportunities for growth there and that's why investors want to buy their stocks. >> my question is why those shares have not kept up with fang >> some of these ideas we're talking about are a little longer term. they're not going to impact this year >> before we let you go, you mentioned snap before, obviously we got disappointing earnings there, disappointing from
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facebook, twitter. are we at peak social? especially when you see snap having the best day in a while >> there's some issues that facebook has talked about publicly what i think is interesting is there are other routes of monetization, and they're just introducing a huge monetizatiomn but i think you're seeing them take a lot of responsibility making sure they're protecting the data, make sure they're providing the best consumer experience and worry about modernization when that has been perfected. >> hope we get to talk to you in the fall and beyond. >> thank you we have two failed mergers to get to this more, we can start with tribune they are very different in nature but tribune, the court action between the two parties, not
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necessarily a surprise that this deal has also ended, given the sec's investment was making to actually meet their approval in terms of the ownership of stations and as tribune would argue, rather than taking a more certain and expeditious route to gain approval as required, tribune decided earlier this year to take a high risk approach, that involved ties to sinclaire would effectively control all aspects of station operations including advertising sales, negotiation of retrans, satellite operators. that was the fcc's objection,
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why they sent it to an administrative law judge, and that is why tribune is now saying you owe us a billion dollars in damages they're citing that as a reason of lost premium to tribune stockholders and traditional damages in an amount to be proven at trial, as they say here, seeking to recover all losses incurred and they're calling that loss $1 billion in damages. and this points to what many are saying are the continued concerns when it comes to regulatory objections, whether they be in the form of fcc here, and these stations that were not really sold, they would argue, wore whether it's in china, in terms of antitrust our own doj here, or our own federal trade commission, which recently had some issues with divestitures, so it's not always easy to get a deal done and
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perhaps more difficult these days >> and you guys talked about this in the last hour, about how feisty some of the language was in this suit with tribune and the way they really came out very strongly about the termination of this merger, seemed unusual to me. >> the two parties are going at it now and you're right, it is strong language and much of this complaint in terms of what at least tribune was saying was a complete breach on the part of tribune to actually execute what they should have under the merger agreement and that was invest in these deals. and they need to get a shareholder deal of course and cigna's potential deal, carl icahn opposing that another deal that's fallen apart. albertson's merger with rite
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aid. because th . >> this one not so act christ-- abandoning their deal, the shareholder advisory firms also came out against it last month albertson's privately held by server's capital said it was not really able to boost it's ff but rite aid chairman and ceo john stanley defended the deal in a letter to shareholders saying while we believed in the merits of the combination with albertson albertson's, we have heard from our stockholders and are moving forward as a company rite aid has a much smaller store count. they can now sell off benefit
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rx you know those controversial price discounts. cvs and express scripts says they're passing on 98% of rebates to clients and rebates account for just about 3% of its revenues and express scripts revenues only about for about 4% of top line this comes as david mentioned, carl icahn suggesting an objection to the cigna deal. both cigna and express scripts top holders, is dodge and cox stock fund and that fund would not comment on their support for the deal david, it a little bit different in this case in that you have a shareholder that's in both stocks and could likely support
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the deal >> cross ownership is important in cigna and express script as you point out because they potentially will be favorable. i think t. rowe price will go against it but it's an uphill battle for icahn. and iss which we are expecting tomorrow along with the other bloc proxy advisory services. many think they'll be able to squeak by in terms of the vote >> they did put out that aka outlining the merits of this deal in this case, this is the way the industry is going, people are looking for more integrated of benefits of both medical benefits and the pharmaceutical benefits and also looking for them to break out and cut out some of that middle men fee to
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make it a little more efficient. >> exactly they were coming out in part i guess to address that rebate question that iss may have even been raising in relation to the cost of express. donna, thank you when we come back, a lot of big earnings reports to get through. adidas and roku are reporting today. we'll check in with anthony wood the ceo in a moment as the dow is up 4. don't go away. hi i'm joan lunden.
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taking a look at shares of roku right now, the company reported an earnings beat on add supported content. anthony wood is the ceo of roku and is here right now. anthony, great to speak with you. so we focus on apple to basically double down on growth services it looks like you have a very similar is strategy in place at roku in terms of your products >> yeah, i mean our basic strategy is to be the streaming platform for television which is america's number one streaming service. we're up 26% to $22 million and monetization of those active accounts primarily through advertising.
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that's really going well as advertisers foll advertisers going to streaming >> some samsung tvs, given the fact that it's an ever increasing landscape, more details on a direct consumer offerings from disney. how are you differentiating that and how are consumers reacting to that? >> the roku channel has been doing great. on roku today, it's already a top five reach channel and the basic thesis of the roku channel is that, you can watch whatever you want on demand, and also it costs less money as c they like free content
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the free long content area is under served in streaming. most all platforms are focusing on subscription services, they're all paid the roku channel is focused on long-term content, entertainment content that's free ad supported. and of course we make the vast majority of our growth profit from streaming advertising that so that's another way for us as a business to generate ad inventory. we started on the roku channel but we are trying it out on other platformless -- platforms >> this offplatform viewing product, you say it won't generate significant revenue at 18, but how big could it about long-term? >> streaming, i mean the whole world is moving to streaming our business is a streaming platform and roku is one aspect
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of that. and it's a huge business, we think 22 million active accounts is just the beginning, there's 100,000 active -- it's a big community and we're very well positioned >> when you look at the past week alone, cbs and their comments about all access, their projections on subs, obviously disney, flix, hulu, does it feel like it's getting crowded? or is that corridor anywhere nearby >> it really feels like the big media companies are streaming the way they never have before there's a lot of acquisitions and mergers so they can compete with companies like netflix and amazon, but the traditional media companies are moving full force into streaming that's bringing more content to streaming, that's excellent to our business because it brings
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more customers to our platform, and it creates more advertising inventory for us to sell ads into it's just great, it just means that the world is moving to streaming. a really interesting stat, is that today, if you're an advertiser and you want to reach a key demographic of 18 to 39-year-olds only 10% of those viewers are advertising on roku. so advertisers are following their viewers to stream. >> also on these wireless tv speakers that you just launched a few weeks ago, how has the early reception been >> i'm very excited about this some asked why are you making wireless speakers, and that's because we're a tv platform, we have a great tv platform and we want to make it better and one of the things that people like to do is to add
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audio to their systems to make it sound better. other systems are often expensive and hard to connect. we want to make it so that you can get a low cost, great quality speaker, that can wirelessly connect to your tv and now you got better sound on your tv and it's super easy and to us that's what our wireless speakers are about, it's about making roku viewers like their tv more and enhance their experience >> all the data that you're taking in on your viewers' habits, how do you inform yourselves in terms of decision making of the company? >> of course we take privacy very seriously, and we make sure that data doesn't seep out we use it in a lot of ways, in the streaming world, our ad
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platform, every ad served on our platform is a one to one targeted ad based on the data that we have, which is completely different than in the traditional linear world that you have advertising in a show we use it in content recommendations and we use data a lot to make sure that the quality of the products is good. we're always looking at what the features customers use, is the system working well. this sort of roundtrip usage what you get, you can make great products and we're focusing on that as well >> what do you think about time spent, is it continuing to increase >> yeah. streaming hours, we're up 57% in the quarter, active accounts are up to 50%. our average revenue per user is up, that's because monetization
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capability is up as well but what we're seeing, as more content comes to streaming, viewers are spending more and more of their tv viewing time streaming versus watching traditional tv our expectation is over time, every hour watched on television will be streamed. >> obviously we're focusing on a lot on streaming and that advern is becoming a majority of your business but the devices, the tvs, the speakers, still a big base of your revenue what is your holiday season prediction >> well, the majority of our quarter to the point where the majority of our revenue comes from the platform business we do -- we obviously sell players, and our goal in selling
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players is -- we use all the tools available to us. that's why we're in the hardware business and, you know, the streaming business is doing well i expect that to keep continuing even through the holidays. >> have you seen any kind of impact from the advent in fortnite or time spent playing video games? >> we don't see that i'm sure that these days consumers have lots of options on how they're going to spend their time, including gaming but really what's driving our business is this really dramatic shift from traditional linear tv to streaming and that shift just, you know, floods any other sort of impact that's happening in the market >> anthony wood, ceo of row
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we'll use trade tariffs and we'll force somebody to do something, that can escalate and so, you know, we could end up with a lot of tariffs and all the plans people have made about assuming their global supply chains will work and they're able to do exports and imports that alone will be quite a burden on economic growth and therefore for job creation certainly these trade issues are scary, in that if you get people turning in raises enough
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tariffs, the global economy is not going to do as well. there's huge benefits to trade >> microsoft co-founder bill gates talking about trade, obviously, tariffs and the prospect of a trade war. i'm told this morning that kudlow told the marketplace that the pain of minimus as of now but it shows you that it weighs on the tech in china >> with trades hitting new highs every day, it's kind of amazing that those comments from chinese media that apple could become, quote, a bargaining chip, in trade war and trade rhetoric there as been more internalized within the market. but it goes back to this very point. the fact that small businesses here in the u.s. are getting impacted at this point good morning, everyone, here's what's happening at this hour the kremlin has denounced new
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u.s. sanctions against russia due to the poisoning of an ex-russian spy calling it a breach of international law, and it says it's working on retaliatory measures the indonesian island of lombok was struck by an earthquake for the third time this week. the death toll from sunday's quake had risen to 319 warplanes have struck dozens of targets in the the gaza strip while the israeli military -- the flare up comes as egypt tries to broker a peace treaty for both sides a fire in valencia,
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and tracking of weather patterns. and we use this information in partnership with first responders and california's emergency response systems. to learn more about the community wildfire safety program and how you can help keep your home and community safe, visit pge.com/wildfiresafety altice usa, one of the largest cable and internet providers in the united states it has brands like optimum and light speed. the company is pushing its streaming and device to alt 1. the stock has struggled since the company went public.
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it's down 17% since june of 17 joining us for an exclusive, is altice ceo i talked about the company of course going public. it's funny, i was a skeptic early on when you and patrick bought the cable company and you argued that you could take the bond margins up substantially and you have done that your adjustments on the margin was 42.5%, versus 40.7% from a year ago it keeps moving in the right direction, but it doesn't. you did what you said you would do, but the stock is down 45% this year? >> it's a whole host of factors, most of which we don't control which is technical factors, the split of the company from europe this year.
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a very disjointed story versus our european story and our u.s. story. it's very hard to get clarity on operati operating and momentum we're focussed on the stores here in the u.s., we feel very good about our numbers, our momentum if we're focused on at the minimum returning money to our shareholders through share buy backs at a minimum, we think that the stock will take care of itself >> it may over time, and as you point out, you're now a pure play, and it was a confusing situation not that long ago. the concerns still are, people think cable, they think video, they think cord cutting. things seem to be moderating a bit, but what are you seeing on the ground in terms of the video
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subs and what do you expect? >> we have seen in the last three-quarters where we have t gotten better video subscribes.e we continue to execute well. we do have a particular market for altice usa, which is a high penetration of cable video, it is nine live professional sports teams, three rsns, multicultural demographics cable and fios correspondentinuo well in our bundle so we're not seeing any large change on our video trends, and when we had under penetration of video, we think satellite is starting to falter in terms of other alternative. >> satellite has been giving up a lot of subs, between dish and
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direct tv. >> we have the altice one box. we put viacom back on, and that's all done well for the three three-quarters >> some of the businesses you're connected to you mentioned sports teams and rsns there's going to be a huge sale of rsns, when disney completes the fox deal >> that's not really our focus today. we think that content companies arguably with our size should be run separately from us there are some synergies in distribution and content but we don't think that's a good use of our capital. >> and you mentioned viacom going back suddenly. we got viacom earning today, they're talking turn around. what are you seeing in terms of viewing? >> i think that ultimately we
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can't pin point as to why our video rgus are doing better than expected, but our viewer minutes are up year over year, and our bundles are up 10% year over year, some of it has to do with content, some of it has to do with some of the operational decisions we have made and that's all on a strong operational side so we're somewhat optimistic of our video trends overall >> what about the viacom property >> i think john and his team are doing a good job on their turn around very focused on their brand. it seems that their customers like what they're doing, so we will root for them >> some people don't like what they're spending on retransmission of local stations, sinclair as well
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>> we're not close to the details, we just can read what's out there, but we're not a big fan of the retrends operations getting larger, because retrends are the single largest part of our costs that are going up. arguably it's a good thing that the deal -- >> would sinclair try to get even higher rates? >> we have a got relationship with them, we go through regular tussles along contract renegotiation, so, yeah, i'm concern they would have wanted to push for higher rates going forward, with tribune as well. but we'll see if that story ever come s back >> stuff we all used to get for free you mentioned buy backs, you have a leveraged ratio when you
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came back with the cable television deals what kind of buy backs can you conceivably do >> we have a $2 billion authorized program, if you look at kind of what the market thinks are developing over the next couple of years, arguably, we're getting close to four times leverage by the end of 2019 if you want to stay at five times and have ebda numbers that are out in the market, you're probably doing something around the potential of 3 billion to 4 billionish over the next six months >> given your market cap, that's a big number >> that's at today's price levels, but fundamentally, we think we can return a massive a. of our capital to the share holders. >> we haven't talked at all about consolidation, although there was a period when you and patrick were viewed as consolidators. charter even, i reported on us,
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your interest in that, at a point when softbank also seemed to be interested do you think there will come a day when you'll talk about doing another big deal >> we're very focused on our operations from day to day. we're leveraging so quickly. we continue to have great growth initiatives. we have doubled the top growth since we have taken over from what we inherited. we have fiber in the home, with the mobile launch in the beginning of negotiation year. so we're, you know, we're going to be there, should somebody be interested in talking to us at some point, but today it's all about operationally delivering on our project >> is that going to be enough, though so much of the thesis around you is continuing to do dealings that was the altice way for a while. >> consolidations by and large over the next -- i don't know what the time frame is, medium term is inevitable size does matter in these
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businesses we'll see what happens, we would rather do something, team up with something i can't even think about all the different pockssibilities. >> we're going to have a few interviews between now and then. thank you for joining us ceo of altice usa. carl, back to you. as we take a break, we look at shares of viacom today, earnings beat, revenue in line, "squawk on the street" is back after this, dow's up 20.
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ppi thursday >> hey, rick >> i read your numbers that came out at 8:30 eastern, you're just a touch off seven year highs where's all the inflation? it certainly seems counter intuitive especially when you look at employment roles. >> the drop in food prices in particular along with energy help keep a lid on the headline. but we're still seeing a lot of inflation pressures, where trucking prices are up sharply, goods prices x food and energy is running at an annualized rate of 3.5%. and we're only just beginning to see the impact of high tariffs and how it's going to filter through the pipeline it's hard to say there's no
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inflation on the retail level. >> what you're saying is in order to get it into the form where there's no doubt in the fed's mind, we're on that path, we're just not at the right bus stop yet >> the fed core rate is 1.4% almost ten years into this expansion, they still have negative real interest rates. >> got you and that seems like something we can't get away from, you're saying you don't see any trarif implications yet we have been talking about what's going on with soybeans, just like aluminum coming through canada, when sometimes the chinese want to dump or other countries want to dump into the market. and some companies are buying our grain and are using to use the tariffs as a profit margin and then sell to china
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it's hard to get leverage on supply chain issues. >> brazil is going to sell directly to china, a lot of their soybeans, but sell to bra so it is fungible in a sense. i think the difference is at what price. the u.s. farmer was thinking they were going to be selling their soybeans for $10 a bushel. now they are selling it between $8 and $9. they are not going to see a build up in inventory. it is just a difference of price that they have to deal with come october when they harvest the crop. >> do you think pricing pressure issues will create a deflationary commodity environment that can effect pricing numbers? >> certainly on the industrial metals side we have seen that. how it filters through is a good question. at least for the u.s. we will
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see a rise in prices. we have seen a stronger dollar against the one that maybe cushioned it somewhat. i think generally speaking the tariff prices will continue to filter through over the next couple of quarters. >> excellent. thank you very much, peter. >> thank you, rick santelli. now time to send it over to john fortt to see what is coming up on "crosswasquawk alley". can twitter rewrite rules fast 'llogh wel ok into that. "squawk alley" is coming right up.
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iq merger. it is not designed to follow the market. after a deal is announced there is an index into which theype pt the targeted stock. they short either sector etf or market against it. it is lower volatility. it is probably not ideal. you can't use leverage. the hedge funds that used to do this you take leverage and amplify small returns. this fund did own rite aid and express scripts. if you have a deal that breaks typically they suffer a little bit. >> expectations, they must build in the possibility that some of these deals are not going to close. >> they build in in the sense that they try to hedge it a little bit. they don't buy every deal. the people who do this as an active strategy will be reading
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legal documents and try to assess in the case of at&t and time warner does the government have a case. i think that in this case you are fitting it into an index and etf it is not ideal. >> typically they would market the strategies as also a bond substitute. they are not saying we will shoot the lights out. it is not correlated to overall markets but we can give you a steady return that comes from the fact that the market leaves a spread on the table there in a deal. >> really good topic especially on a day like today. >> michael santoli. when we come back tesla reportedly getting inquiries from the s.e.c. the dow works its way back to the flat line.
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today, there are more sensors on our planet than people. we're putting ai into everything, and everything into the cloud. it's all so... smart. but how do you work with it? ask this farmer. he's using satellite data to help increase crop yields. that's smart for the food we eat. at this port, supply chains are becoming more transparent with blockchain. that's smart for millions of shipments. in this lab, researchers are working with watson
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to help them find new treatments. that's smart for medicine. at this bank, the world's most encrypted mainframe is helping prevent cybercrime. that's smart for everyone. and in africa, iot sensors and the ibm cloud are protecting endangered animals. that's smart for rhinos. yeah. rhinos. because smart only really matters, when we put it to work- not just for a few of us, but for all of us. let's put smart to work.
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