Skip to main content

tv   Squawk Alley  CNBC  August 15, 2018 11:00am-12:00pm EDT

11:00 am
good morning, it's 8:00 a.m. at twitter headquarters. it's 11:00 a.m. on wall street and "squawk alley" is live what you want, baby i've got
11:01 am
what you need, you know i've got it all i'm asking, fora little respect. >> good wednesday morning. i'm carl quintinilla with morgan brennan. dow's down falls below 25k for the first time since july. our bob pisani has been watching this all day long. joining us from the floor. >> hello, carl really simple. this is a little bit about contagion and maybe a little bit more about slower global growth. let's take a look at two big issues turkey contagion,raised rates. that obviously was to stave off and stop the contagion talk. we had earlier in the week raised rates we had a bit of shock when ten cent, one of the big global tech companies, big one in china, had a drop of about 2% this was partly on concerns about gaming slowdown and crack
11:02 am
down on gaming by regulators it was a shock and our futures moved on that. take a look at what happened in terms of the sector laggards it's about emerging markets and commodities. there's your eem at the top, down another 3%. that's down 10% in the last week metals and mining stocks, energy stocks, materials. these are all commodity based and they've had an ugly time as the dollars risen and there's been slower growth concerns over what's the sector leaders here you can see the growth concerns because buying yields and you have utilities, real estate, consumer stocks holding up fairly well. that's a sign of concerns about slower growth. how about europe slightly different in europe but still sort of the same thing oil stocks are weak. daimler, the cars are weak and we've also seen some other there like total some of them, we don't know all of them, may be lenders over to
11:03 am
turkey we've known how weak the china stocks are jd.com reporting tomorrow. we'll keep an eye on that. here you see tencent revenues. that was where the weakness was. we have jd dot come down 30% tencent down 30% xiaomi down almost 30% alibaba is down another 3% today. finally, these exchange traded funds, country etfs. these tend to be based around commodities like brazil, africa, argentina down 20 to 30% tough week and tough day essentially sitting at the lows. >> thank you for that. for more on the markets let's bring in blackstone's byron wien always a goodvoice to check in with byron, good morning. >> good morning. how are you, carl? >> hanging in there, byron let's sort of place where we are. last couple of weeks obviously the story's been about robust
11:04 am
corporate earnings, strong unemployment now we have em debt. has any of this changed your view >> no, i'm still optimistic. i don't think there's any recession in site. i think the situation in turkey is serious for the moment, but i don't think it represents systemic risk. so i think the market was over bought and overdue for a correction we're having a correction. turkey is the trigger. i think it's going to represent a buying opportunity >> there's some who say the political characteristics of turkey are unique, maybe even throw in argentina in that, but then what about brazil what about ip doe nearby shah? what about russia? what about mexico? what about china how far do you take that narrative? >> well, you know, i don't think it's going to extend to anything
11:05 am
other than the marginal emerging markets. i don't think china will be affected i'm not sure about mexico or brazil but the gorilla in the room is china, and i think the chinese growth is pretty much intact the problem in china is the non-performing loans on the books at the banks and the shadow banks, they're doing something to correct that but i think china growth of 6% or better is pretty much intact. >> byron, i'm watching what tech stocks are doing so far this morning. apple is off less than a percent. qualcomm off less than a percent. things like ibm. facebook, netflix off more in this environment where particularly emerging markets might be a bit more unstable, should investors be a little bit more cautious about stocks that are relying on a growth story to justify their valuations to some
11:06 am
degree >> yeah, well, the valuation is key. i mean, apple is a relatively cheap stock. netflix is a relatively expensive stock. amazon is expensive. so my view is that's where the growth is. those are the exciting stocks, but they may have gotten a little bit ahead of themselves at some point they're a buy, but right now i'd wait and see >> and, byron, to dig into that a little bit more deeply, you mentioned before that you see this as a potential buying opportunity. what would you be buying right now? >> well, i would buy the growth stocks i'm still a growth stock investors. those are the companies with open ended earnings and i think they'll reach a price -- an interim price in this direction that will represent an effective opportunity. >> finally, byron, the president tweets a few moments ago our country was built on tariffs and tariffs are now leading us
11:07 am
to great new trade deals as opposed to the horrible and unfair trade deals that i inherited as your president. other countries should not be allowed to come in and steal the wealth of our great u.s.a. no longer. how do you process at least the language right now regarding tariffs if not the policy? >> well, i think you have to really segregate it. you have limited trade imbalances with canada and mexico and europe. we have a major trade imbalance with china china is the one country where there are examples of confiscating american technology so i think we're right to be tough on china and i'm hopeful we can resolve some of the issues there i would be more relaxed in trade negotiations with europe and nafta. i would focus our tough stance on china and i'm hopeful we're
11:08 am
going to get somewhere long term i'm a free trade person i think the best tariffs are zero i don't think it makes sense to have those right now the tariffs we have with europe and the united states are holdovers. they're legacy tariffs from the time that europe was recovering from world war ii and china was a developing nation, china's the second largest economy in the world right now. it's no longer an emerging market, and europe has come a long way from its recovery stance in 1945 so my view is that the tariffs that europe has on our goods are too high the tariffs that china has on our goods are too high and they should come down >> certainly the view that we're working on, perhaps bringing those down byron, i appreciate the time i know it's a busy day
11:09 am
we'll talk to you soon. >> enjoy the summer. >> thank you. we're watching shares of tesla today under pressure "the new york times" says tesla's board is in full damage control mode telling the ceo elon musk to stop tweeting joining us today, larry hebo and the house ceo scott griffith a lot to get to today, guys. good to see you both i don't know if we've checked in with you on where you think this has all led us in the past week or so, musk and tesla. >> musk has been very angry at the detractors, the short sellers, as you know the most short sold stock on the market and his way of dealing with this has been a little bit more erratic as time went on. so he, i think, kind of jumped the gun or went out on a limb after meeting with the saudis
11:10 am
and said we were in agreement to take him private seems to be that that's a little more difficult than what he said having said that, what he's done is built the automobile of the future the platform that he has built is really -- it's a computer with four wheels all of the other cars are an assemblage of various components that are electronics, some computers. nobody has a single computer that controls the entire car being an electric car there's also fewer mechanical components you can upgrade the car over the air. the next morning you have a very different vehicle. that platform to me is incredibly valuable, has proven to be very difficult to replicate by the established automobile companies so is there a value in tesla of course there's a lot of value in tesla the question is can he -- can he take it private in the realistic fashion. >> had gene muenster on our
11:11 am
air yesterday who laid out why a deal with saudi arabia would pass through cifius. what you're saying is why i am skeptical. next generation, highly advantaged strategic technology that has a lot of implications. >> i would agree with that the only thing that might mitigate this is that the united states under the trump administration has become really, really close to the saudis we might agree with them that their future is also in electrifying their economy, therefore, by owning a big part of tesla makes sense. >> scott, "the new york times" headline said the board is trying to rein in the ceo but it looks to me like they're trying to protect themselves from the ceo as much as anything. elon musk though is a 20% owner of tesla and not only that, an executive. it reminds me of larry ellison's
11:12 am
legacy position in oracle. do they have any hope of actually reining him in or as an investor do you just pretty much have to accept that this is the elon musk show and you're just along for the ride >> well, that's a great question i think elon has sort of solved that question for the board frajly right now you have a country under stress to perform and a ceo raised his happened and said, i don't want to be the ceo of a public company anymore. i think the board has to address that pretty seriously. there's a good chance this doesn't go private it's a very unconventional suggestion it's been done in an unconventional way they've formed this committee, they were flat footed at first they formed an independent committee. they need a committee that's looking at the -- what happens if we stayed public outcome which is the most likely outcome
11:13 am
right now. right now their ceo, who's also chairman and head of product, has said i don't want to be the ceo of a public company. so i'd get a new independent director on the board quickly and someone who can address that important issue because the most likely that's going to happen or be a public company ceo, he's really opened the door and given he doesn't want to be the ceo in a public setting that's the board's thought. >> why do you think the most likely outlook is that it stays public >> i'm not the only one. if you look at the stock price versus the quoted four twenty doesn't seem like the market believes it either it's an unconventional deal. it looks like a very difficult deal to pull off this is a company with negative cash flows that would have to take on tens of billions of debt it seems unlikely. it's not impossible.
11:14 am
the saudis and others could be the ones to do it if it could happen i would be planning for both outcomes right now looks like right now they're flat footed, planning for the one outcome, which is go private. they better get on the hey, we're going to stay public outlook. >> let's move on to twitter. suspending alex jones for a week following a post by the conspiracy theorist that violated twitter's policies. this follows several days of public backlash for twitter and jack dorsey after their decision not to remove him from the platform earlier jon jones-drew a link and he will be on "nbc nightly news" with lester holt tonight, dorsey is how do you judge what punishment's appropriate for jones or any user on this platform now >> twitter is late to the party on this. he was suspended first by apple, which is kind of interesting.
11:15 am
>> spotify. >> and spotify and google and facebook it's interesting to know that while they have semisuspended him, they have not suspended info wars, the website twitter of all the social networks is the one that's most reluctant to be seen as -- they did suspend him because of inciting violence. they are going to continue it and say all these crazy things they need to say it goes back up to this fundamental issue which is this technology company or are they media companies? if they were a media company, there would be no question that you won't see that kind of talk on cnbc.com or "the new york times".com or any of the real media companies. so they continueto battle over this issue of what are we and they really don't want to be a media company. >> do you suspect they have true sort of libertarian free speech
11:16 am
ideals that they're trying to live by or they want engagement to be as strong as possible. >> i think they do have -- i'm not sure if it's libertarian but they have this issue of -- it's a slippery slope i suspect alec jones because he's really bad, but then where do i go from there who else do you have to spent. the massive number of tweets they have on a daily basis. >> scott, trying to understand what twitter's policy is versus victim me owe and the others twitter seems to be gathering evidence saying, okay, you did a bad thing. we're going to suspend you for seven days you can still look at tweets, you can't make any, and then you can come back but we're watching you, much alex jones do you think that happens with consistency. it's not just alex jones they're
11:17 am
watching info wars account >> i can't imagine other social media platforms thought they would become tools for terrorists or state sponsored election meddling. it is a slippery slope i agree with that. jack changed his position on this he first said i don't think we're going to touch this. we want journalists to investigate and tell us what to do and then he backed off that and said actually we need to police our own platform. we need to do a better job of pushing that out in a distributed way. i thought that pivot on jack's part was excellent leadership. it still raises the question of how do you set guidelines for something that incites harassment or is bullying or offensive. those are very gray areas for us to figure out.
11:18 am
i think it's a real challenge. he needs to figure out what does twitter stand for? he needs to represent that in a much more clear, concise, strong way going forward. >> maybe we'll get some clarity for jack tonight on nbc. >> good to see you. when we return, the unlikely activist who took on silicon valley and won but first a look at where we are in the markets right now. all the major averages are lower. the dow is down about 1% 264 points, but it's back babov 25 k we'll have a look. [phone ringing]
11:19 am
need a change of scenery? the kayak price forecast tool tells you whether to wait or book your flight now. so you can be confident you're getting the best price. giddyup! kayak. search one and done.
11:20 am
thanks, janet. it's welcomemy happy place. store. you can learn how to switch to xfinity mobile, a new wireless network that saves you cash. and you can get 5 lines of talk and text included with your internet. and over here i'm having my birthday party. dj fluffernutter, hit it! ♪ dj fluffernutter simple. easy. awesome. ask how to get $300 back when you sign up for xfinity mobile, and purchase a new samsung phone. visit your local xfinity store today.
11:21 am
11:22 am
as you guys know, the deal that silicon valley companies have long offered is trade your privacy for free stuff, free apps, free services. that got them a long way for a long time. as people began to understand how much privacy they were actually giving up and how that privacy could be used against them, for example, for donald trump, for example, people got angry about it and they began to have more resistance what you see in california is one of the first serious efforts to place a new privacy regulation on silicon valley and in the same way that the environmental movement started in california with laws there on smog and for car emissions, you can see a similar thing happening where it starts in california, moves across the country. >> that is not cars. it's not like if you do one thing necessarily in california you have to do it everywhere or
quote
11:23 am
is it? i mean, could it be that silicon valley kind of said, california can be a little whacky it's an isolated issue but they're going to be able to hold the line nationally and in other states. >> probably not. here's why the playbook for years for silicon valley is it's too bad for business we can't figure out how to do it it's going to kill the golden goose. now they've agreed to it also in europe as you pointed out. having put this in place for california, it's actually very easy to flip the switch for every other state. in other states makers say, hey, guys, how about us it's hard to say we can't do this eventually i think it probably propels them to washington to look for a national standard to avoid having to fight the battles in every state capital >> did any of the high profile testimony this year indicate that that's in fact where they're going? >> i think it's clear that they're doing that in washington right now. we're seeing some early reports that the tech industry is pushing to get a regulation in washington from republicans who now control the town
11:24 am
i think the idea there is they can probably get a better deal under a trump administration than under a future democratic one. >> the take at the time as we look at mark zuckerberg and his sitdown is that the lawmakers have a long way to go before they get their hands around how this works it's complicated stuff i do think there are people in the legislature, congress who understand these issues. senator warner and thune are pretty on top of it. if there's any will to do a basic privacy law, we haven't gotten one. >> do you think it looks like europe we talk about california and the laws drafted there is that the template for the rest of the u.s. or does it go even further than that in terms of looking at, say, gdpr >> look, i think it's the same issue. having put into place these measures for european consumers,
11:25 am
it's hard to say, we can't do it here >> it creates pressure, it creates a floor. if they're doing it in europe, how come they call couldn't come here they've already said the bar and said, we can do this if we want where perhaps silicon valley is hoping that the gop maintains power when it comes to that? >> that's a great question republicans are focused on things like censorship, diamond and silk it is not a pro regulation party but i do think silicon valley is worried that the presumed censorship is going to spill over into some effort to regulate the companies if you begin to say these companies are actually utilities and public platforms and free speech with a first amendment on them, it's a real full circle for republicans if you do it that way.
11:26 am
>> following the money and influence in washington, a very important story. thank you for being with us. >> good to be here. when we come back, two people very familiar with elon musk a former tesla board member and the co-founder of spacex to discuss what might come next for the embattled ceo. dip buyings. back to 25k. dow is down 230. we're back in a minute so no matter what you trade, or where you trade, you'll only pay $4.95. fidelity. open an account today.
11:27 am
you'll only pay $4.95. tap one little bumper and up go your rates. what good is your insurance if you get punished for using it? news flash: nobody's perfect.
11:28 am
for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. switch and you could save $782 on home and auto insurance. call for a free quote today. liberty mutual insurance. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪
11:29 am
welcome back we've been following the elon musk back and forth to take tesla private. how will this impact tesla's future joining us are two people with close ties to musk jim cantrell is a founding member of spacex also is steve wesley, currently the managing partner of the wesley group gentlemen, thanks for joining us today. >> happy be here.
11:30 am
>> steve, i wanted to start with you. we have a report from "the new york times" that the board is saying to musk, stop tweeting. trying to crack down on the tweeting now as somebody who was a member of that board, is there a scenario in which that actually happens >> well, look, i don't agree with everything elon does, but he's an extraordinary entrepreneur this is someone who has helped create revolutions in three different industries, first with electronic payments at paypal, then with tesla, now spacex. this is an extraordinary person so i think we should be glad he's an american entrepreneur. he's recharting a new history. he's helped create the electric vehicle industry and put it on an entirely new trajectory so i think we should be grateful for what he's doing. do i agree with everything he says not exactly. has he been an extraordinary entrepreneur without a doubt he's a role model for the country and the world. >> jim, you've worked closely with elon musk over at space x.
11:31 am
>> yes. >> i realize that the tweets and not just about the whole take private scenario that we're talking about now but even we've seen some tweets about rescuers with the thai cave situation, there were tweets earlier in the summer about bankruptcy that was joking are they crescendoing here or is this -- as an investor, is this just something that is part of musk and the musk brand and you're buying into this? if you're surprised by it, then you haven't been doing your due diligence? >> well, elon is a very dynamic person i agree with the comment that he's one of the greatest entrepreneurs of our time. there's no doubt about it. i've known him since he was in his late 20s and i've watched as he's matured a bit and he was prone to outbursts i wouldn't call them angry outbursts, i would call them passionate outbursts i think what we're seeing today on twitter and in other mediums is really elon being the same
11:32 am
one he was when he was in his late 20s but he's got a much broader audience and he's under a lot bigger microscope, which i know he doesn't really care for. >> steve, could another ceo run tesla with elon musk still involved running technology, i guess still tweeting since nobody can stop him? tesla's had a couple of ceos before do you think another ceo could come in and take that leadership role, spotlight that musk himself doesn't seem to want >> i think it would be very hard for someone else to step in. let me say at the outset, as a rule i don't think it's a good premise to run the country or a company by twitter it's not the way you want to run a large organization having said that, the electric car industry is booming. it is becoming the de facto
11:33 am
vehicle around the world every automaker on the planet is moving to lek tricks it's hard to see anybody who could take the mantle from elon at this point in time. what's really made the difference here is he saw the benefit and the batteries is 1/3 of the cost of the car he was the first to develop in house supply gave him a cost edge on the rest of the industry. he's shown to see around the corner, make the big bets and i don't see anybody able to step into his shoes >> jim sounded leak you have some thoughts on this as well. >> i was going to say, at space x he has a number two, jean shotwell she still runs the company elon is ultimately the best salesman a company can have. if you look at his contribution
11:34 am
to these entrepreneurial startups, both the fact that he sells this vision of tis la, spais x plus he has incredible visions. martin nieberhart was the guy that started tesla, elon came in as an investor and later took over as the ceo. i'm not entirely sure that tesla would be what it is today without elon his influence is very, very fundamental. once it becomes a profitable thing, he'll start another idea. >> jim and. >> stephen:. >> thank you very much >> pleasure. thank you. bye-bye. dow is down 219 this morning. let's get to sue herera for a news update. >> good morning, carl. twitter has restricted the account of right wing media
11:35 am
personality alex jones for violating its policies he will be blocked from posting on twitter for seven days because of a post that linked to a video that violated twitter's policies. >> twitter says he can read other's posts but he can't tweet or retweet jack dorsey is sitting down with lester holds. garth brooks has been dethroned as the highest paid artist in country music history. luke brian earned $12 million over the past few months he earned the rest from endorsement deals and of course his job as a judge on "american idol." speaking of big paychecks, glass door releasing its ranking of the nation's highest paying jobs physicians come out on top with a median base salary of $196,000 a year that is followed by pharmacy
11:36 am
managers, and it excludes executive level jobs. >> bud light is giving out free beer when the cleveland browns timely win a game. the brewer has placed victory fridges in bars across cleveland. they are currently padlocked but they will be opened when the browns break their 17 game losing streak. it has been 599 days since cleveland last won a game. >> hope springs eternal. >> there's a certain bear that's going to be rooting for the browns, i think. >> there you go. >> let's get to seema modi with the european close. >> once again it is turkey and concerns over china that are weighing heavily on european stocks first to turkey which has resisted hiking interest ralgts but it has taken other measures. it's limiting turkish banks from
11:37 am
entering swaps on the foreign market in response the turkish liar ra is frying to respond qatar has pledged $14 billion to turkey perhaps it is getting the additional support it's looking for. turkey this morning increasing tariffs on a range of goods, vehicles, cosmetics and lcohol retaliating for what it has called, quote, economic war. meanwhile, investors keeping a very close eye on fresh concerns around china's economic growth story. those concerns pressuring the mining shocks, the worst performing of the year
quote
11:38 am
glencor, tinto all down 5% this as copper is hitting its lowest level since june of 2017 falling more than 4% today it's worth noting with a dollar on a rise, just a big move we've been seeing in global currencies, across the board you see the turkish lira the ruble inc.ing out another. >> thank you, seema. take a look at tencent the to being is down just over 3.5% next, veteran trader art cashin joining us. the dow is coming back, down 213 points stay with us [music playing]
11:39 am
(vo) progress is in the pursuit. audi will cover your first month's lease payment on select models during summer of audi sales event. ♪ hawaii is in the middle of the pacific ocean. we're the most isolated population on the planet. ♪ hawaii is the first state in the u.s. to have 100% renewable energy goal. we're a very small electric utility. but, if we don't make this move we're going to have changes in our environment, and have a negative impact to hawaii's economy. ♪ verizon provided us a solution using smart sensors on their network that lets us collect near real time data on our power grid. (colton) this technology is helping us integrate rooftop solar, which is a very important element of getting us to our renewable energy goals. ♪
11:40 am
(shelee) if we can create our own energy, we can take care of this beautiful place that i grew up in. ♪
11:41 am
dow session is down. et cetera it's a volatile week. let's bring in art cashin. he joins us at post 9. interesting technical levels today, i guess what struck your curiosity >> well, i think, you know, some of the focus has shifted to china. shanghai was down the equivalent of 500 points on the dow and so we want to see if that begins to heat up. indonesia raised their rate.
11:42 am
didn't move their currency move. we still haven't resolved the contagion factor the key today was that the s&p held above 2800. that's what allowed the dow to turn back and move from down over 300 points to just 200 points the war is not over yet. you might wind up seeing some new pressure coming in i'm a little concerned that west texas intermediate is looking to break below 25 points. if it conclusively breaks below that, then we might see further weakness in oil. the energy stocks could dessert us luckily it's not panic selling it was -- a lot of it was selling into a vacuum. the bids were -- you couldn't find a bidder around with a gun but we seem to have calmed down now. i think the viewers want to watch throughout the afternoon do they start to put pressure on them again
11:43 am
the key factor will be can the s&p hold. >> are you back to your bearish call on ten-year yield. >> on yield, yes very. >> yeah. >> no, i think the fed might have to start rethinking what its policy is and what we begin about is, you know, the deficit has increased and we are going to have more bonds issued. and so you've got the fed on one side deciding what they want to do, but you're going to get upward pressure on rates simply by the large volume of bonds that we're going to be issuing so they've got to take that consideration. i think the central banks around the world are watching very carefully here to see what's going to happen, to see what's going to go. a lot of geopolitical undercurrents here you're talking about turkey's in nato
11:44 am
turkey's trying to make an alliance with russia. >> qatar's committing investment. >> absolutely. so there's more ad work here rather than economics. >> even if we don't get contagions from the turkish lira, there's weaker buying from emerging market customers. take a look at apple, oracle, any of a number of bigger companies that rely on over seas revenue. >> yeah, no, that's going to be critical and you will see it coming up again and again. i think that's a little bit of what happened today. as i said, the chinese markets got whacked and people said, wait a minute, maybe this trade war thing is a little bigger than we thought and it might provide for some kind of a slowdown that's why you're seeing some of the activity that we see today. >> just to dig into the
11:45 am
contagion debate and the fears around that a little bit more. we've had a number of experts on our air in the past couple of days who have said turkey is a very specific situation. it would potentially be more contained than kurns see cries sies if you see turkey move away from the alliance in nato and it becomes a much bigger geopolitical situation, is that something that could royal the markets more >> i think so. you would begin to see whether certain relationships away from trade begin to fray around the edge and where is it going to be the market is not a big fan of uncertainty and you could move from trade uncertainty to as we say defense uncertainty also turkey's talking about buying a surveillance system from russia.
11:46 am
they're also looking to get some f-35s from the united states. >> yes, they are. >> that would present a unique opportunity for russia to observe the f-35s and see if there are any weaknesses as if they owned them themselves. >> yeah. >> so that's why the nato relationship is rather fringed >> absolutely. they are one of the founding investment partners in f-35s they've invested more than a billion dollars. it's been a hot button topic. >> we'll see you soon. >> i hope not too soon. >> who notion. >> thanks, art cashin. let's get to dom chu for market flash. >> a lot of chinese internet stocks at the middle of a lot of action today the catalysts have noted tencent after it reported the slowest sales rate since 2015 and a move by chinese regulator that's tencent adding steel to the fire alibaba considered to be the
11:47 am
blue chip of the chinese internet names is now in what some traders call bear market territory, 21% xia xiaomi tencent, 25% below j.d..com and huya, almost 45%. this is the ishares, china large cap etf down 4% on pace for its worse day since early february morgan, those shares are off by about 1/4. they've lost 1/4 of their values since the highs that we bought in january back over to you. >> dom, thank you. take a look at shares of macy's as well, down big this morning despite raised guidance. petter than expected same store sales. stock having the worst day since may of 2017.
11:48 am
currently down 13.5% a check on where we stand in the selloff now. losses being paired. the dow is down about 251 points right now. more "squawk alley" after this
11:49 am
11:50 am
with tripadvisor, finding your perfect hotel at the lowest price... is as easy as dates, deals, done! simply enter your destination and dates... and see all the hotels for your stay! tripadvisor searches over 200 booking sites... to show you the lowest prices... so you can get the best deal on the right hotel for you. dates, deals, done! tripadvisor. visit tripadvisor.com we're diskuz cussing the da dollar's damage. plus, our call of the day is a double upgrade for a high flying tech stock still time to get in
11:51 am
and former sec chair is with us today on what's likely to happen to elon musk after that tweet about going private. all coming up on halftime at noon jon, we're about ten away. see you then >> all right see you then thanks, scott. now to the cme rick santelli has the santelli exchange rick >> thanks, jon we have productivity numbers today. which is why i pick eed this guest. center director. welcome, david >> good to be with you, rick >> all right if we look back over a year, productivity for the second quarter was up 1.3 if we look at it seasonally adjusted annualized on quarterly basis, up 2.9. tell me what you think is going on in productivity and what did you think of today's numbers >> they were really encouraging, but productivity is one of those numbers you should look at through the long end of the telescope. the fact is that despite good numbers in the second quarter, the record over the last several
11:52 am
years has been really disappointing. as you know, rising productivity is everything. the magic elixir of rising living standards and it's been lousy not only since the great recession, but since before. >> productivity is simple. just total output divided by man hour, but in soof your research mostly i'm reading about inflation. why? >> when you try and measure productivity, you don't just add up the dollars we spend on something. you have to add jus for inflation. that turns out, that was once easy it's much harder now how do we deal with the fact the iphone does many different things how do we figure in the amount of money we are saving by buying online say buying airline tickets online so when economists are working
11:53 am
really hard, but i think the government agencies are behind the curve. they're stretched for resources and trying to keep the numbers up with the changing economy >> you know, david, it seems to me and i don't mean to sound cynical, but if we can't get inflation right and it's such an important aspect of trying to get productivity right, are we better to understand and follow trends the way we currently measure, knowing they're imperfect, but we have a history? >> yes, i think the first approximation is we have pret it go good number, but if we are overstating inflation, it means that incomes and wages have been rising a little bit more over the last decade or two or three. than we've been led to believe so it does really matter as we understand what's going on in the economy to get the prices right. i think they come pretty close but what we're trying to do at the center is have them come even closer to what's really
11:54 am
going on >> listen, david frk you had to make a guess outside of the issues we've discussed, precise measurement, new developments in accounting, but at the epd of the day, are there any simple things that you could point out as to why productivity's softer? how it can be improved >> no. i think one of the things that's really frustrating when you talk to economists is some of them are still trying to figure out why did growth slow in 1973. and that's a couple of generations ago. but we know that if you don't have a lot of investment, public investment, business investment, individuals investing their own human capital, it's bound to show up in productivity growth i think we've seen that and it's troubling. >> excellent interesting topic. so important everything from the fed to getting paid adequately thank you again. back to carl >> all right, rick, love seeing
11:55 am
him on here. warren buffett meantime upping his stake in apple by another 5% all these 13s got lost in the tape today hey, leslie. >> hey, carl lost no more berkshire hath wii waway contino build it position in apple an warren buffett has a stake of about 5% of the now trillion dollar company berkshire boosting its stake in teva to hold 6 million shares and firm did some trading around the quarter. berkshire's ownership of goldman jumped 21% and added to its position in bank of moelon and bank corp. in airlines, berkshire sold some of united and delta. each boosted by almost 19%
11:56 am
earlier, they put out a a statement urging investors not to read too much into the trading during the quarter the firm said it wishes to avoid owning 10% or more of an intes vest tees shares and says many are repurchasing shares the firm said it's not necessarily their view on the relative attractiveness between these holdings you know, just one of those kind of portfolio management strategies, guys >> thank you back at hq coming up tonight, do not miss jim cramer's interview with elizabeth warren on mad money. they'll discuss the new bill which could give employees a stronger voice in corporate si making. more "squawk alley" still to come
11:57 am
11:58 am
11:59 am
months after announcing he was leaving facebook, well, not without his wallet jan ko urum has continued to shw up in men low park once a month so his options would take effect his incentive here, stock awards totalling $450 million according to the w"wall street journal." facebook confirmed he is still
12:00 pm
an employee. >> this is interesting because a lot of people thought he was going to leave a lot of money on the table and instead, looks like he's not. facebook is lower today as are the other big tech companies nasdaq, the worth performer. >> still got to work a day a month. >> said don't touch that, bill back for it. >> on thursday >> let's get to the judge an the half >> welcome to the halftime report our top trade is hour, dollar destruction. the greenback's gains onset ling markets around the world stocks down big. big currencies getting hammered. are the worries about turry about to get worse or are they overdone here to debate -- let's begin with the markets where we starteded. stacks lower the dollar moving higher

96 Views

info Stream Only

Uploaded by TV Archive on