that's why you work with watson. i analyzed thousands of contracts and detected a discrepancy. it works with procurement systems you already use to help speed up distribution without slowing down your team. frank, tell fred full force on those french fenders. fine. fine. fantastic. for ai that knows your industry, choose watson. hello! the best ai for the job. good monday morning. welcome to "squawk alley." carl quintanilla with morgan brennan at post 9 of new york stock exchange jon fortt in san francisco at our bureau one market. we begin with the markets indeed, major indexes rallying

to kickoff the month following the 90 day trade truce between the president and president xi at the g20 today's trade the start of a year end rally or will december be more of the same. well off session highs mike santoli is looking at some of the levels we're watching dow session high was plus 442. >> yeah. >> now some 200. >> above 500 in premarket. it was a bit of emotional response context matters. if we didn't have the news about u.s., china trade, i think we would have come into the week saying market was up 5%, that's a great snap back rally, maybe we're overbought, maybe time for a rest that's what we're i think sorting out is how defensive were people going into the weekend after a 5% run in the s&p. also the conclusion it doesn't change the overall picture, removes the potential immediate negative but leaves you with a sense of what are the credit markets telling us, how will growth shape up next year.

>> cramer's point, it opens the door for potential bullish headlines. >> right. >> china agrees to order x number of excavators from caterpillar. >> i agree with that the 90 day would seem to work more to the advantage of the u.s. being able to say, we'll slap the tariffs on in 90 days i think it will be a lot of back and forth on that. i think it diminishes trade as an immediate catalyst. we can put that aside for the moment, say see what we're left with half of stocks down in october, november you would think there's a bit of a dry powder there to have some kind of rally attempt. >> which begs the question what are the next catalysts in the final weeks of 2018. i'm sure back to all eyes on the fed. >> and before that, the jobs number and what does it mean do we want to have the fed get

excuses to become more dovish? maybe not. you want to see the economy ahead of steam ism was certainly not in the category of things that would make the fed go slower >> or things to worry about if you were worried about a slowdown do you expect analysts to start upping numbers, pushing back impact of potential tariffs? >> it is funny, i don't know what what degree they were lower. that's the give and take i think something like apple where the stock was down 23, 25% in a straight line, and wasn't really because of china, wasn't really because of specific stuff except for concerns on volumes that's where you could say maybe we overshot and take some of that back. >> all right thanks >> got me queasy when there's talk about external factors, trade, the fed, like that's going to move thing. what about fundamentals. it is q4, an important season for getting revenue. at some point does that need to

take over the story perhaps in january though >> no, i think you're right, jon. it certainly could be in december i think one of the things the market was trying to figure out was how much things overshot on the big cap nasdaq names and are we unwinding positioning or was it more about fundamentals that's why i think it is going to matter in december, before we get to january just a question of what data points are we going to seize on. >> all right thank you, mike. mike santoli. and a closer look at tech, the nasdaq is out of correction territory, coming off the best week since 2011. faang names are green across the board, off their highs victor anthony joins us now. good morning great to have you. >> good morning. >> taking a look at how some of the stocks, semiconductor stocks

are higher this morning on the trade news there was an odd part of this, around qualcomm and nxp, apparently the chinese are like get it together now, like the groom's parents breaking up the wedding and three months later both moved to different cities, yeah, you can get married now. and then no, we moved on why is that stock in particular, both of them, popping? is that more about semis, or investors hoping there's some play for each of them? >> that's one of the most fascinating analogies i've heard. thank you for that the reason the stocks are moving up is one, broader semiconductor markets are moving giving some uplift it is helping the smart phone names. this opens up potential for more to happen, maybe it is not qualcomm the potential more m and a, that

had been the big catalyst in 2016 and 2017. >> victor, there had been -- it is interesting, amazon us up still 4.5% this morning, hasn't come off the highs as much as some others. there had been more news out of aws, still end of last week, over the weekend do you think this move and the strength of it relative to other stocks has more to do with aws news or something broader about trade that is going to perhaps effect amazon in an outsized way? >> i think it is all of the above. i think with the easing of the macro pressures optically from what we see, you should see a rally for the faang names, not all of them, for amazon in particular and given that these stocks tend to overindex on the down side in periods of market volatility for amazon in particular, aws i

think is somewhat of a powerhouse in the cloud service business, growing top line 40%, margins expanding. investors were concerned about the e-commerce business for amazon and whether it is slowing. amazon confirmed spend per prime member continues to increase and number of prime memberships grow in the u.s. and as well as outside the u.s., the runway for that is long and wide. fundamentals for amazon hasn't been altered or changed over the past several months, given market volatility. as far as advertising, investors have come to realize amazon is a significant play in the hand margin i think all of these is probably what you see as well as easing of macro pressures, that's what you're seeing for the stock. i think amazon rallies >> does the cease-fire between the u.s. and china do anything to effect big software internet names, especially when you look

at other risks plaguing stocks, part of the reason they're selling off potential regulation, regulatory risk, the need for facebook to spend more on information that's on the site, et cetera. does any of that change? >> well, nothing really changes dramatically i think as far as trade wars, i think somewhat on the e-commerce side for amazon, there may be pressure there if we have a hike in january very big, strong platform, high valuation, burns cash at a significant rate i don't see that effecting until early 2022 alphabet, google, youtube goes strong, cloud service business is solid good solid management teams. strong cash flow generator as well same for facebook. 2019 is a peak year. significant earnings growth. they don't get the credit for

being a strong cash flow generator as well. trade, if that eases, i think you see a rally into next year as well. >> amit, hp is a name higher this morning, 3% how much should investors look at who is moving this morning and getting a gauge of maybe what the fears were around tariffs as i'm sure we're going to get more headlines as we do in the next the 90 days. >> i think hp, you look at -- the fact that they're off the table, it is logical to be a stock doing well

>> thanks. morgan >> thank you the dow, s&p, nasdaq are soaring, off their highs, hit earlier in the day dow up 211 points. s&p up 21 points the nasdaq is the outperformer, 92 pointer ten trader art cashin joins us after the break place, the xfinity xfi gateway.

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alley. major indexes rallying off the back of a trade truce between president trump and president xi they'll leave tariffs unchanged for 90 days. the dow is now up a little over 200 points joining us, ubs director of floor flagsoperations, art cashn >> thank you good to be here. the market is at a critical area i think world events kind of creep into this. the president out of respect for the late president bush has limited his tweeting and commentary and said he was not going to tell people highway great the deal he struck was until after the funeral. so we're lacking some pieces of information, and we're also not getting a lot of clarity on the

chinese side they're not being forth wit either this partly short coming and partly changing risk profile you could see friday an unchanged official was quoted by reuters saying some progress was made, off we went to the races. >> it is almost a kicking of the can in terms of tariffs increasing to 25%. yes, it buys more time do you think it is digestion of the fact there's going to be uncertainty as talks continue to happen and that's what's being absorbed in the markets now? >> yeah, i think the markets are beginning to reflect it. and the other thing is that while he has signed the theoretical success of the nafta, the european negotiations are not going well at all, there's no comment out of there. so you've got two large trading

areas that things are wide open. some of that rethinking is showing up in the market. >> trying to process powell, over the weekend, said the notion of a powell put is not a good way to think about how the central bank operates now. >> i'm sure they don't want anybody quoting that or saying that, and nevertheless, mr. powell was very plain spoken i think he came out and wanted to tell people look, we're data dependent. i am not going to tell you one this year and none next year, i don't know that. but powell did bring up things like global trade, what the impact on the economy could be i wouldn't call it a powell put, but not far away from that

>> i think it could be the key thing i'm going to keep my eye on now is crude you had a rally on the new agreement between saudi arabia and russia if crude rolls over, begins to sell off again, i think it will change the complexion of what we're looking at crude will be a factor in powell's decision also so i think december hike is locked in. they can't walk away from that, they'll look like they got bullied by the president, but hikes next year, i'm doubtful of them >> art, you mention being concerned if the dow gets too much below 200 after you said that, it dipped down i wonder about your analysis on this somewhat anemic, perhaps in the early hours rally, what does

that say about either what the market is still concerned about or about whether there's more at workthat was holding things back than trade concerns >> it raises several possibilities. one is that it could be for large part short covering. so the short is covered, now nobody is behind him to carry the rally. you always want to see follow-up, you want to see staying power in a rally that's why i said i got worried down around the 200 level. they get around plus 175 or something like that, i think you're going to have people start to question and maybe stake out a different area >> the manufacturing number today, stronger than expected, showed growth. how should we think about some of the data we have been getting and looking forward to what will be another closely watched jobs report friday? >> i think the data has been to

some degree mildly mixed you're right about today's being good i caution viewers to keep an eye on on something we haven't spoken of in a long while, initial plains they have been creeping back up as if they're turning the other way. if they were to creep up again and if you were to see nonfarm payrolls not quite where we are assuming, i think if i were on the fed, that would make me second guess what i want to do >> small caps? they continue to underperform. how closely should we be watching those >> you have to keep your eye on them a lot was taken away by all of the china talk and what's going on, but you can tell with small caps underperforming, it is not an internationalized problem the small caps basically are domestic and stay at home. so i think they're worried that

maybe a booster shot from a second tax change might not be there, that with the house in the hands of the democrats, small businesses may not benefit because you won't get that broad sweep from trump that they were hoping for. >> art, thanks for joining us today. >> my pleasure meantime, the president tweeting china agreed to cut tariffs on cars imported from the u.s. phil lebeau has more on what it means to the auto industry. >> good news for auto investors today. the auto stocks are moving higher here's the tweet from the president he sent out yesterday. not a lot of details but straightforward. china agreed to reduce and remove tariffs on cars coming into china from the u.s., currently the tariff is 40%. start looking at european auto stocks, specifically daimler and bmw. these two companies export most of the suvs sold, that they sell

in china, they're built in alabama and south carolina bringing the tariff down would be huge for both those companies. also, look at shares of tesla. china is the largest electric vehicle market in the world. if you had a tariff of 40%, it would kill efforts to sell tesla in china this theoretically with lower tariff of maybe 15% should help sales for tesla. as you look at the u.s. auto stocks, talking gm, ford, fiat, keep in mind volume of sales in terms of what they build here and export to china is low they don't sell huge volume in terms of what they export there. nonetheless, the entire group, all of the stocks are moving higher welcome news that they might, we might see a lowering of tariffs when it comes to vehicles built here and shipped there guys, back to you. >> looking for them to put meat on the bones of that tweet phil, thank you. when we come back, life and legacy of george herbert walker

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this weekend, top defense and security experts gathered at another event. reagan national defense forum in simi valley in california, china was a big topic there in terms of the military standpoint what trade tensions meant for manufacturing. i sat down with the ceo and president of huntington to discuss the impact of steel tariffs and more take a listen. >> has that been the case in terms of materials as well there's been a lot of focus on tariffs on steel and aluminum. >> all our steel is domestic and i'm not sure that we can say we have seen the impact of what's going to happen in trifz i think that -- i think the

tariff issue is not going to show up in big commodities like steel. it will show up for us in things like fittings, valves, specialty parts, those kinds of things where we might have third or fourth tier suppliers that will be effected by that in a way that we're kind of not able to see yet. so there's going to be a lag effect in there. steel itself i think we're going to be okay >> you haven't seen any kind of impact, not to date? >> not to date i would argue in the long cycle nature of business, it is still early in that cycle. >> i want to get your thoughts on the defense budget. what we have seen, defense stocks are selling off in recent weeks and months seems to be concern out there on wall street that maybe we're peak defense spending. what's your take >> you know, i don't know. we saw what happened in 18 and

19 and the way -- in '18 and '19. i don't believe it is enough there's a lot of recovery to go through here we don't know now whether we are seeing a bulge, like a rat and snake thing or do we see us moving to a new sustained level going forward. and i think that's the kpaj for everybo -- challenge for everybody in the industry. >> a big topic throughout the weekend. the media wants to grow the fleet, and they would benefit from that, given that they make nuclear submarines, destroyers, aircraft carriers. but it hinges on future defense budgets. the concern that spending will decrease from here, key reason the sector sold off dramatically the past several months. shares of hunting ton ingalls

are down it was a wide ranging interview. talked about tech and industry consolidation, which we have seen a lot of in the past year we're going to bring some thoughts from this exclusive interview as the day unfolds. >> on a day where the president tweets about an arms race he called uncontrollable, trying to bring those costs under control. he talked as well about expanding defense, space force and all that >> one of the key notes of the weekend was defense secretary mattis who talked about the need to urge congress, urge the white house to continue the spending, to continue efforts to basically restrengthen, rebuild the military that we have seen thus far. in terms of that arms race, i think that to a certain extent was a reference to the imf nuclear arms control treaty with russia that was a topic of discussion over the weekend, issues around nuclear proliferation, whether

russia has violated that treaty. experts say they have. also, what it would look like if we do something similar with china, we don't have a treaty with china and they, too, are developing their own capabilities. >> fascinating a lot of corners to see around in the defense industry. european markets are going to close seema mody has the action. >> strong start to the month of december a temporary cease-fire is fueling not just stocks in the u.s. but asia and europe the german dax is up president trump agreed to lower tariffs on auto imports. beijing has yet to confirm that. mining stocks are up looking at a lot of base metals from steel to copper moving higher some of the technology players like sd micro as well are trading higher as trade concerns

have certainly come off the table for now. in the currency side, the euro is gaining ground at 1.13 against the green back a couple of stocks, gsk is lowe lower. and in the retail space, ted baker, claims of inappropriate behavior against the chief executive ray kelvin comes after employees launch an online petition to end forced hugging in the workplace that stock is down 15% entering the last month of trade for 2018, look at how european stocks are trading in comparison there's a vast discrepancy between global market performance, u.s. stocks vastly outperforming europe so far.

see what happens in the next four weeks back to you. >> thank you. let's get to contessa brewer for a news update. >> hi there, morgan. here is what's happening now president trump is keeping pressure on the congressional democrats over funding for his promised border wall he tweeted this morning we could save billions of dollars if the democrats would give us the vote to build the wall. that's a quote he didn't provide evidence for the savings. attorneys for president trump want a judge to award $340,000 in legal fees for successfully defending him against defamation claims by porn actress stormy daniels. they're due in l.a. federal court today. three astronauts, including one from the united states, blasted off to the international space station in a successful launch that follows october's aborted mission. the soyuz rocket failed two minutes into the flight on february 11th. the giant panda made his first official appearance, one month after returning from the

united states. the male giant panda is 28 years old, equivalent of 98 in human years. examination results show he is in good shape. that's the cnbc news update this hour pandas gets us every time carl >> contessa, thank you very much. we are watching president george herbert walker bush's casket leave on the way to what's known as special mission 41 on the airplane that's known as air force one when the president is on it we'll be looking for members of the president's family and secret service detail as it makes its way to the airport and to washington, d.c busy week obviously, lying in state at the u.s. capitol until wednesday, memorial service at the national cathedral we are going to talk about the week we're about to see, thoughts about his legacy well written over the weekend, past

48 hours or so >> foremost legacy is foreign policy because he successfully managed the end of the cold war, he successfully prosecuted the war to remove iraqi forces from kuwait not as successful on the economic front as we talked about earlier this morning there were some cleanup of the deficit and savings and loan crisis that he didn't get credit for at the time but that did benefit the country. more important than that, the legacy of his life as a member of the greatest generation, somebody born of privilege who nevertheless at age 18 enlisted in the navy, became the youngest aviator in the navy, was shot down at sea, rescued at sea on a mission that two of his plane mates did not survive.

went on to an extraordinary career in business and in politics transitional figure between the old republican party that he grew up in that his father, prescott bush, raised him in to the new reagan influenced republican party of today he would not recognize and rejected the donald trump republican party that ended up defeating his son in the 2016 presidential race, but just an extraordinary legacy of a person who was both extremely accomplished but also exceedingly kind and humane on a personal level anyone that interacted with him can tell you that, friend and foe alike. tough politician as an individual, he was a family man, a patriot, and somebody who was just an exceptionally gracious person, carl >> john, we are showing images

of ellington field in houston while we await the body of president bush and the ceremony that will take place before it is loaded onto air force one or what is now being renamed in honor of the special mission 41. in terms of the next several days and what we can expect in terms of ceremony, in terms of honor of the 41st president, how will this play out >> first of all, he will lie in state at the u.s. capitol. this is a president who served four years in congress, was elected in 1966 from a district in houston, reelected, then ran unsuccessfully for the senate. there's going to be tremendous wistfulness as he lies in state at the capitol he represented a style of

politics no longer in practice in the united states he had friends on both sides of the aisle. he had friends that had the capacity to change his mind on big issues as he did on civil rights, having opposed the civil rights act of 1964, but supported the open housing, fair housing act of 1968 to the ch chagrin of constituents. but that ability to work with people on the other side which he showed as president when he cooperated with a democratic congress on big initiatives, things like reauthorization of the clean air act, americans with disabilities act, a deficit reduction bill very difficult negotiations in 1990 at andrews air force base nevertheless, they got that done people are going to look at

george h.w. bush and wonder whether we can ever get back that style of politics that doesn't mean it is going to happen, because they see him, but certainly everybody will have that on their mind. we have the state funeral wednesday, which will be extraordinary because president trump who openly mocked president george h.w. bush, even as he was ill in his 94th year, marked him for the thousand points of light, repeatedly mocked his past accomplishments, things like nafta, said it was the worst deal ever made that was negotiated under george h.w. bush he is going to be there alongside members of the bush family and other former presidents and the dynamics will be interesting to watch. >> as we await his arrival at the airfield, stick with us. joining us this morning, someone that knew the president personally very well, walker

stapleton, second cousin to the late president and current treasurer of colorado. ed rogers is back with us as well gentlemen, appreciate your time. thank you for joining us and talking about the president today. walker, to john's point about president trump, politico has a piece up saying that the president wanted president trump there. they quote saying if anybody anytime knew anything about the 41st president of the u.s., they would understand he would welcome the current occupant 100% this is the way the country says good-bye to presidents i wonder what you make of that >> absolutely. the man i was able to know for 44 years as uncle george was always somebody inclusive. he was inclusive of all people, even people he disagreed with. he was unfailingly kind. i think the country will use the next couple of days to reflect on his humility, he always put

family and his faith at the center of everything he is somebody that could tell you could be having a meeting with brent skcowcroft and be on the deck and switch between the two quickly, start talking about what happened in the red sox game the night before. i think hopefully as a country we can reflect on his humanity, on his spirit of bringing people together, despite political dirchlss he would want us all to be above the ranker and bickering and be bigger than that use this time to honor service to country, service to others above self that's what he would want. >> ed, a lot has been made about the legacy of president bush and this idea that maybe this is the end of an era with his passing what are your thoughts >> well, again bush was a transformative figure in a lot of ways. i hope it is not an end of an era in terms of what's good

about public service, what can be good about campaigns and politics and just like walker said, george bush would consider it unthinkable that the incumbent president would somehow be excluded from the service associated with a funeral for a sitting president. i would think in george bush's mind, in he have itability of his funeral -- in he have itability his funeral, that it would bring democrats and republicans together it would bring world leaders, wouldn't just be selfish about him but about character issues that are universal, character issues that guided this country to where it has gotten us today. i would think again his funeral is partly a selfless act and

partly an effort to sort of heal the politics that we have in america today. he was aware of it and i think it will to some good >> guys, to walker and ed's point just consider the note that president george h.w. bush left on the desk of the oval office for bill clinton after clinton had defeated him in that 1992 campaign. he was bitterly disappointed not to win a second term he felt he had earned a second term bill clinton had beat him and he left a note for bill clinton saying i'm rooting hard for you, your success is our country's success. he talked about how i hope you feel happy in the work as president. it was an extremely human thing to do, one person bearing responsibility to another, and

that i think supports the idea that as ed just indicated he would hope to do whatever he can in a small way to heal a little bit of what's gone wrong with this country >> and he meant it, carl he was a voracious writer, i am the recipient of dozens of letters that involved topics of bullying in grade school and a kid was picking on me, a letter he wrote when i graduated college, he spoke of my college graduation he always had time for everybody in his family, and he had time to dispense words of wisdom on all sorts of topics from fishing to living your life with grace and dignity and respect for your fellow human beings. there were important letters to presidents and heads of state and then letters to people like me about bullying when a kid was picking on me in grade school. it was his incredible capacity

for love and understanding of people >> i think part of george bush's wisdom is there was no such thing as a permanent enemy in the geopolitical sense from germany and japan to the micro sense. he reconciled with political opponents and people he tangled with, he reconciled with democrats out to defeat him, that were out to block his agenda there was never a permanent enemy with george bush that's a good lesson for everybody. >> ability to pull in his critics, maureen dowd has great examples they brought dana carvey to the white house. the examples are wonderful we watch the motorcade we talked about the various roles he played as a congressman, as an envoy to china, cia, vice was there one he talked about more than the other? naturally you would think it would be the presidency, but

there were so many >> you would really have to really force his hand to talk about himself. he wanted to talk more to you about examples of lessons he learned about how to conduct yourself, how to be respectful of other people in life, how to treat people with kindness, how to carry yourself with humility. those were the lessons he was most interested in impacting one of my earliest memories is going fishing with him the day after ronald reagan asked him to be vice president i had no idea at the time. we came back to the break water shall the coast was lined with reagan, bush signs saying we love you, george, and thank you. and i had no idea what was going on he turned to me and said public service is a noble calling you're a little guy now, you won't always be, you should try it sometime. kind of a hard lesson to forget as a 6-year-old kid. those are the memories him talking about value of

service to others, caring about the little guy, caring about the person picked on he was unfailingly kind and gracious, the kindest human being i have ever known. i am convinced heaven now has the best that earth has to offer. >> guys, one reflection on the ability to reach out and have no permanent enemies, i covered the last two years of his white house and re-election campaign as a reporter for "the wall street journal." as we were covering the campaign he used to go after us somewhat from the podium of his campaign rallies, criticize the coverage. he felt he got unnecessarily negative coverage. but there was a sense of restraint and humanity even about that he had a t-shirt printed up, annoy the media, reelect bush.

he had fun with us, even as he was not too happy with some of the stuff we were writing about him. >> as we watch the motorcade approach on ellington airfield, want to bring in sarah fagan from the george w. bush presidency as well for the white house. sarah, in terms of what americans and american politicians today could learn from the 41st president's public service tenure, how would you wrap it up sm. >> --? >> one of the scenes we have seen from coverage, people that knew george bush well, didn't know him well, from opposite sides of the spectrum all say he conducted himself with grace and dignity. he was somebody that understood the power of the presidency, the importance of how the world sees america, and that we need to leave our partisan squabbles at the american door, so to speak

i think that's something the current political leaders should take heart it is a tragic, sad time for the bush family to have to watch people that love this man so dearly suffer in public. it is part of the presidency but what i find comforting as an american is just to focus on somebody who was a good, decent person, and to have that be the focus of coverage for what will be almost a week i think is a service to the country >> amen. >> well said, sarah. we look at pictures on ellington field as the president makes his way to d.c let's take a quick moment to listen in.

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♪ listening to the navy hymn along with "hail to the chief" as you see president george w. bush, former first lady laura bush, neil bush there watching his casket get loaded on to special mission 41 we continue to cover the transfer of the president's casket to washington, d.c. with john harwood, walker stapleton, sara fagon. it's hard not to think of the president's early military service watching these members of the armed services, and i wonder how you think his early days as one of the youngest fighter pilots in the history of

the u.s. navy later colored his view of the commander in chief role >> well, i think if you listen to some of the remarks general powell has shared, he had extreme respect for the military and he wanted to make sure before we got ourselves in a conflict that he was cautious and he was prudent in his words about how to put people in harm's way and one of the things that we'll be celebrating over the next couple of days, i'm leaving for washington in a couple hours to be with my family, is that he asked all the veterans of the panama invasion involving general noriega and desert shield which turned into desert storm be around during the remembrances, not so much to honor him but to honor their service and to put them in the spotlight which was all george bush was about he was always about shining a light on the other guy, the other person who had served this country. and he had a deep and abiding respect for the military throughout his life and

especially a soft spot for the navy i'm proudly wearing a tie from the commissioning of his naval aircraft carrier, the last of the nimitz carriers. i was able to be there when the ship was christened with him and he just had such love for the armed forces and such love for the people who serve our country each and every day >> i'll put the same question to you especially given the approach he took, what many described as prudent toward the end of the cold war, also the persian gulf and iraq's invasion of kuwait and how that was handled. >> i think it's important to remember that george bush was the last american president that actually saw combat. he was in a war. he was shot at he was shot down he was in harm's way himself, and i think that gave him a perspective and appreciation for what a soldier and a soldier's

family really went through that has been lacking since that time it obviously was a big event in his life and it's been celebrated but at the personal level i think he knew the terror he knew the consequences he knew in a way subsequent presidents have not known. i think it's important >> by the way, anyone who is interested should follow on twitter, the president's spokesperson who has tweeted even the socks that the 41st president is wearing, navy socks, navy fighter pilot socks that sort of cemented his own legacy in that role. sara, i'm curious, among those eulogizing him on wednesday include former canadian prime minister brian mulroney and that sort of reminds you as well the ties he built in creating nafta and other things regarding international trade and our partners

>> he sure did he was very much somebody who saw the value of strong world relationships not only for the united states economy, he was pro-free trade, but also as has been talked about here, the important role he played in international diplomacy and in the takedown of the soviet union. and i saw angela merkel's comments earlier over the weekend where she really credited him in part for german reunification, the role he played in that this is a person who played a big role certainly in our economy, as you pointed out, relative to nafta. the reunification of germany, the fall of the soviet union, you know, it's been such a noisy political climate the last few years. it's nice to see president bush get the due he's deserved for the role he's played, such an

important role in our world today and the alliances our country has today as we fight new challenges >> carl, one quick post script on the military angle, not only is he, as ed said, the last american president who fought in combat, he was also a veteran of a conflict that was universal. every american neighborhood had people who had fought in world war ii, almost every house had people who had fought in world war ii that made it easier to bring the country together at big political moments, one of the things we've lost. the burden falls on a very small group of people. the rest of the people are distant from it. >> all right thank you all for joining us in this conversation as we have

just seen the koss taecasket lon to air force one, which has been named for this mission special mission 41 as it now begins the process to washington, d.c., where the president will lie in state at the u.s. capitol beginning tonight at 7:30 p.m. >> walker stapleton, john harwood, sara, thank you so much for your time today that will do it for "squawk alley." let's get over to "the half. all right, carl, thanks so much we appreciate your coverage. we'll continue to follow the day's developments as the nation mourns and celebrates the life and legacy of the former president george herbert walker bush the body heading to washington, d.c., in a matter of moments it's good to have you with us as we follow the fallout from the g20 in buenos aires. the market is having a big reaction to the developments there, a little bit off the