gim, our bottom-up approach uses a technology lens to identify long-term winners. from energy... to real estate... to retail. finding such opportunities for alpha is the true value of active investing. and around the world, you have a partner in that pursuit. pgim: the global investment management businesses of prudential. good morning, it's 8:00 a.m. at facebook headquarters "squawk alley" is live ♪ keep spending most our lives living in a ♪ ♪ gangster's paradise, by spendsing most our lives ♪ ♪ living in the gangster's

paradise ♪ ♪ been spending most of lives living in ♪ ♪ the gangster's paradise, been spending most our lives ♪ ♪ living in the gangster's paradise ♪ ♪ look at the situation they go me facing ♪ >> welcome to "squawk alley," i'm carl quintinilla with jon fortt and morgan brennan we'll begin with tech win streak. roger mc'nam namee has a book c "zuk'd" that you have to read. welcome. let's talk about the faangs.

did you see this coming when things were looking ridiculously pessimistic. >> carl, i don't pretend to have a crystal ball things were realistically speaking way better than stock prices were more than two months ago so here we are. >> to that point back in the fall you said that you had become more cautious about the markets and that you were buying treasuries at the time has your sentiment shift shenandoed >> to be clear i'm on a book tour so i'm not paying as close attention day to day but what you're looking at here is -- and this is true, the sentiment in the market reflects stock market

thing things if something goes wrong in our trade relationships, that will be a huge issue for tech. >> as i look at the stocks that have gone up the most, some smaller tech stocks, gopro is up more than 40%, fox is up 45, stitch fix 48. these are stocks that got clobbered. roku is up 80% year to date. what is it about sentiment about some of these edge case smaller bets might have turned around? >> jon, i think it's as simple as these are things with much smaller floats.

and if you think about roku, there's a situation there where you have a management team that's built a company over a long period of time has proven the naysayers wrong consistently and if people stop worrying about the macro then companies like roku feel like an a buying opportunity not a selling opportunity. >> speaking of all these ideas of going public, roger, if we get uber, lift post mates, et cetera, at any point this year how do you think they get received do they come in a compressed window and do you think it robs other u.s. equities of oxygen.

the public gets to make its own choice on how to value them and if you think about the most recent quarter, we have numbers on what uber did to me uber is slowly but surely closing the gap and getting closer to something that looks like a viable business but is it worth $100 billion the public market will get to make a choice on that. and if it decides on day one it's worth that, i wouldn't count it holding that point of view forever the markets look at these things and ipos as you know are sold not bought they dress them up nice and pretty and bring them out and look fantastic and after a while you get to look at the comparisons and you realize h, they aren't earning that much mone money. >> interesting, we'll definitely

find out how the public market treats some of those names roger, let's dive into facebook. the social network being labelled as, quote, digital gangsters in this report out of the u.k. parliament saying the company violated both privacy and competition laws and should be regulated immediately echoes obviously what you argue to some degree in your book and yet as you pointed out a few moments ago, we're not seeing the user engagement reflected. why? >> to be clear, at facebook the numbers that you're seeing are based on them loading up news feed with a lot more ads than they used to put in there. i think in many case i'm up fifth or sixth host and that's roughly twice as many ads.

facebook has the best advertising platform money can buy so i don't expect the numbers to melt down who wants to be labelled a digital gangster. so far they've been unwilling to make the substantive changes to me the questions that need to be asked are basic ones like why is it legitimate for credit card processors to sell your credit card transaction data? why is it legitimate for cellular carriers to sell geolocation data. >> roger -- >> go ahead. >> is the heat off, though it seems like months ago there

was much more pressure there was an expectation that zuckerberg was going to show up in legislative hauls around the world and explain himself. it seems like they're tone deaf on the other if you're against them and facebook has continued along its way saying they're open to regulation, bring it. >> john, i think both of those statements can be true at the same time. facebook had the egregious issues with cambridge analytica that caught so much attention in the united kingdom but this is really about a whole economy of companies that includes google it includes the credit card

processors, it includes the cellular companies, people who sell data who do not, if you will, respect the fact that the people whose data is in question should have not only control of what happens to it but in fact may have rights of privacy that preclude the sale of the data in the first place. and to me that is the conversation that needs to happen and if we think about things like smart devices with alexa or google home or ai, those issues become a lot more important and facebook actually becomes a much smaller part of that conversation because they don't play in those categorys the same way they play in social >> roger, in light of these points and key questions you're raising, facebook stock is up 24% since the start of this year are you surprised? >> i think they had a knockout fourth quarter the stock had been beaten down

if that's the worst of it, the stock is absolutely priced properly and may even still be of value here. but if you believe that what the uk is saying is going to lead to changes somewhere as we saw in germany a couple weeks ago where they've attacked the facebook practices relative to tracking people and profiling people, i think we're -- i actually believe we're going to see more regulation but i'm just one voice. we'll see. >> although a powerful voice, roger. appreciate it as always. roger's new book is called zucked, waking up to the facebook catastrophe after the break, walmart out with a big beat. the stock is up about 4% we'll look at why the company's s ivg erce surge idrin s ivg erce surge idrin today's games.

i mean you're still blatantly sucking up to me gary. brilliantly observed, sir. always three steps ahead. six steps ahead. sixteen. so many steps. you done? a million steps ahead. servicenow. works for you. i've done all sorts of research, read earnings reports, looked at chart patterns. i've even built my own historic trading model. and you're still not sure if you want to make the trade? exactly. sounds like a case of analysis paralysis. is there a cure? td ameritrade's trade desk. they can help gut check your strategies and answer all your toughest questions. sounds perfect. see, your stress level was here and i got you down to here, i've done my job. call for a strategy gut check with td ameritrade. ♪

all of you. how you live, what you love. that's what inspired us to create america's most advanced internet. internet that puts you in charge. that protects what's important. it handles everything, and reaches everywhere. this is beyond wifi, this is xfi. simple. easy. awesome. xfinity, the future of awesome. welcome back to "squawk alley. walmart out with a big beat this morning crushing holiday sales estimates boosted by a surge in excommerce up more than 40% in q4 with us to break down the quarter is luke capital's andrew wolf and oler will chen.

andr andrew, 43% increase in e-commerce sales, you said they're taking market share. amazon >> they're aching it from grossers most of that growth coming in after food they're taking it from other general merchandisers. but most of it, the lion's share is coming in in grocery. >> and oliver, obviously this is a company that's spending money to really essentially reinvent itself, really push out in terms of e-commerce sales. how much is this quarter a reflection of the company itself versus the health of u.s. consumers give than really weak retail sales number we got lost week >> yeah, morgan i think it's a combination. walmart is doing a good job aggressively competing in e-commerce what's aggress sieive is curb se

pickup it's about 70% of the u.s. and based on our say say are about 8% to 10% of america uses this so thinking about the future of walmart and retail it is combining physical stores and digital and keep in mind walmart has 90% of the population covered within ten miles of walmart. they're doing a great job executing and specifically online, they're broadening the assortment in terms of adding new brands and giving consumers ways to shop online for pickup towers but you're right we're in a good consumer environmen environment. >> oliver, i feel like too often sometimes we can set it up with amazon -- walmart has to become amazon does walmart have to lead this omni channel revolution and is that store pickup a key part of

that >> store pickup will be huge it's well received, highly satisfied people and it's simple it's saving customers time and money. curb side answer this is and walmart will use its assets. what are its assets? it's these physical stores, also thinking about how tough it is to do grocery in the organic food supply chain. that's an important weapon in this battle versus amazon. we're seeing good customer satisfaction based on our surveys. is we're seeing more and more shoppers stay with walmart and less as amazon when we look at chopper overlap. walmart has been holding its n

ow own. >> walmart is sticking with its fiscal 2020 guidance in terms of that $16 billion flip card acquisition in india, new regulations taking place in that country. >> i want to pick up with walmart being a great driver home delivery is the next growth vehicle and we just need a consumer survey. we saw millennials were not increasing their uptake of home delivery because they don't want to pay the delivery fee. amazon is well positioned because they're doing it through whole foods for free so walmart and kroeger are charging $10 a delivery. as they takes off you'll see earnings delusion increase from that as well flip cart is very die lute lute the indian government recently pulled the government out from

under them on regulating e-commerce by foreign entities meaning walmart which owns flip cart and amazon has a multibillion dollar investment there as well. on their call they said they think thick manage through that but they were equivocal. so we're seeing india. we thought it was not a good corporate governance move but gave them the benefit of the doubt and at least at this juncture we're sorry to say it looks like it's worse than we thoug thought. 106 in november. 104 pressing on now. i mean, a lot of the wood, has it been chopped already. >> we see continued upside here. what we believe here is scale matters and being bigger as well as the global dividend yield and this is a stock that will work in our view through good times

and bad as this concept appeals to all kinds of consumers, walmart being generally a lower beta stock as well the storyhere is also margins. this growth is coming at a cost. so u.s. gross margins were down about 27 basis points as the company continues to invest in price and offer consumers the best value but we like the stock for the long term and as we think about these building blocks for really sustainable competitive advantages we think it's a good value. despite the stock running and the stock having upside today. >> andrew, where do you stand on the stock? do today's results change that for you? >> we're hold with 102 price target the sales were terrific in the u.s. but the u.s. operating margin was -- operating profit was up slightly consolidated operating profit. but this is the cost of going an omni channel e-commerce business i agree with oliver they're a

long term winner in the near term, 2019, they there's not a lot of leverage. there's technology that has to be introduce particularly grocery. walmart said they have 35,000 personal shoppers in their store shopping for people. think about the cost that is adding to walmart's cost structure. so until that is -- becomes more robotically or solved other ways, in store or dedicated facilities it will be a cost burden as they grow out e-commerce. >> meantime, i can't help but think as walmart grows its e-commerce sales, that could be a tail wind for fedex and u.p.s. gentlemen, thank you for joining us oliver chen and andrew wolf. >> thanks. >> as we go to break, look at the worst performing names in the dow this session goldman sachs, jpm and nike as the dow is down 21 points. we're back in a moment

we see harnessing natural gas unleashing the promise of clean energy. at emerson, when issues become inspiration, creating a better world isn't just a result, it's a responsibility. emerson. consider it solved. european markets set to

close momentarily. seema mody joins with us today's action so far. seema? >> john, european markets lower. there are two key earnings reports in focus today the first being hsbc, europe's largest bank reporting a lower-than-expected profit jump in 2018, including weak revenue in the bank's trading and insurance businesses these were the first full-year results for ceo john flint who took over last february. hsbc on its worst pace since february, their figures weighing on the broader european banking industry with results from lloyd banking and barclays due out this week. bhp group also failing to impress. they fell 8%, this as copper

earnings slumped due to a string of global production outages those results come as rival glencore reportedly plans to slash productions at one of its mining operations in congo according to the "wall street journal. elsewhere, two european countries down playing the u.s. warnings about the risks posed by huawei. uk cyber officials saying any risks posed by huawei in the uk telecom projects could be managed while in germany, government officials there are reportedly leaning toward allowing huawei to contribute to the construction of the country's high-speed infrastructure certainly interesting timing given the tenuous relationship between the u.s. and europe. carl, back to you. >> seema, thank you very much. let's get to brian sullivan and get a news update. carl, thanks very much here's your cnbc news update ukraine's president signing a constitutional amendment committing his country to joining nato and the eu.

speaking in parliament, petro poroshenko says he sees the moves as strategic mission a suicide bombing killing three and injuring three in cairo. streets were cordoned off after the attack the attack comes after a security crackdown under egypt's president. french president emmanuel macron condemning an upsurge of anti-semitism in france saying it is the duty of the french republic of the jewish community came on the day citizens across the political spectrum geared up to march and rally against anti-semitism. and iconic fashion designer karl lagerfeld has died. the german designer was the creative director for chanel and fendi. chairman and ceo of ldmh which owns fendi called him a creative genius he was 85. that's your cnbc news update let's get back to "squawk

alley." >> may he rest in peace. when we return, life after the iphone what apple's executive shakeup means for the future of the country. kara swisher joins us with her take dow is down 27 points. dow is down 27 points. stay with us ♪ ♪ lerom plans... to full-blown production. ♪ ♪ let's go from being on-call... ♪ ♪ to being on-line. american express can help move your business forward with loans, vendor payments and buying power. chat with one of our 4000 specialists and let's make it happen. the powerful backing of american express. don't do business without it.

your daily dashboard from fidelity. a visual snapshot of your investments. key portfolio events. all in one place. because when it's decision time... you need decision tech. only from fidelity. you need decision tech. we segetting to patientscines in record time. at emerson, when issues become inspiration, creating a better world isn't just a result, it's a responsibility. emerson. consider it solved.

the blow back of amazon pulling out of new york continuing this morning. our next guest warning that new yorkers who expected better brought into the myth that tech companies are more than self-interested businesses "new york times" contributor and recode co-founder kara swisher is with us now good morning, cara. >> how are you doing >> as always, a great and thought provoking read i wonder how you contrast where amazon is today with where apple is you and i have watched apple expand these retail presences around the world, doing these development deals with cities. are they different >> no, they're here to make money. a lot of times they talk about

these ideas of being better than other companies but amazon wants to expand for itself and it wants to create a great place to do business and if in the process cities get help, that's great but at the same time, they didn't offer anything to necessarily help the city or to do something or work with it and most companies are not as civically minded, internet companies are not as civically minded as, say, previous companies, as say bank of america in san francisco many years ago or wells fargo and in the end, it's an important part of their job but i think mostly they're focused on shareholder value and that's what they've been focused on they pretend they're changing the world in a lot of ways. >> kara, to that point, you could say business goes to the path of least resistance there was a lot of resistance in new york city. the deal they were offered was offered by lawmakers both on the state and city level, you could make arguments that maybe that deal shouldn't have been made in the first place.

amazon agreed to the deal that was put in front of them we're not seeing the same type of blowback in virginia or nashville. why do you think that is >> it depends on what the givebacks were and what was happening. in new york, new york is a very different market it's got heavy media presence, it's got heavy people with a lot of opinions the issues around the subway there, alexandria ocasio-cortez who represents the community, they got caught up in local politics in a way they didn't want to deal with and moved out quickly, didn't want to spend their time doing that but that makes sense from an amazon point of view but it underscores they want to have the path of least resistance and open their warehouses in place that make sense for them >> kara, what does it say to you

about amazon's government affairs unit don't companies that are sophisticated expect a bit of a hazing when they come to a city like new york? >> well, they should they should but i think amazon has choices, right so why should they bother? that's what bill de blasio was saying he was for the deal until he was against it, which is very funny to watch that go on. the whole line i had, they're not tough enough for new york. amazon is plenty tough, they just don't want to be tough here and they don't want to be part of it. i'm not surprised they pulled out. they don't want the headache or need the headache. >> that's the part i don't get, kara according to the polls, they had new york as a whole, they had queens behind them if they wanted to be in new y k

york, why didn't they suck it up and work with the community? >> i don't know. it's like new york, forget about it so i don't know why they didn't. they just didn't and it's a heavy media saturated ar area they have high profile figures like ocasio-cortez and de blasio and cuomo. i think the people at amazon thought this would be trouble and no one would be satisfied. maybe they thought it would be -- everybody would welcome them with open arms. and they're not opening another second headquarters so as you know i called it a circus a million times, finding the

headquarters i think that think set themselves up for failure by making it a circus and the circus isn't always as pretty behind the scenes as it might seem initially. >> kara, moving on to apple the "journal" out with a piece tying the company's recent executive moves to a pivot away from its reliance on the iphone you asked a few weeks ago if this is the end of the age of apple. i wonder if you see these recent moves as more of a shakeup or as s this just regular orderly succession the likes of which we've seen out of tim cook >> well, you don't see movement from apple, a couple companies you don't see movement in, you did see a lot in facebook until you did but apple has been a very stable management structure for well before steve jobs died, too, before that, these are the same executives in place so a lot of the same ones i think scott forestal was the

last big one so they were in cars and then they pulled back on that they is -- services are going to be very important and they're making investments there in media and other areas and that's a high growth area with a high potential for making money and obviously the iphone like i said could be the cycle that's ending unless they come up with a whole new device that is as exciting as the iphone. i think it will be extraordinarily hard it makes sense for them to do that and focus on services and not areas that aren't as promising and i don't -- that makes sense. it makes sense to me >> kara, just to digging into that further, looking at the changes within the leadership, where some of that investment and that spending is actually being geared towards, what would you expect apple to look like five years from now, ten years from now how do you think it's positioning itself >> i think devices will be at the center everybody has their thing. amazon has its commerce, goolg has its search, facebook has social apple will have devices at the

center of business for a long time to come i don't think that will change but i think the things that hang off it that they need to focus on more heavily, everybody complains about their software, whether it's itunes or the maps or anything else and they've let other businesses build businesses around their devices and probably they have to be focusing on things like music and mapping and things where they can do well which i think they haven't i think most people love the apple devices and don't love their software quite as much but they're improving. their music service is better than it was and other things are improving and you want to stay in that ecosystem if you can if you have just as good services and in media, again, they've let other businesses have businesses off of the iphone so why not grab a piece of that for themselves it makes sense. >> finally, care, a you interviewed chairman barry diller on the latest episode of

your recode/decode podcast diller used to run paramount studios and fox telling you that, quote, hollywood is now irrelevant saying netflix has won the game, they've got so many subscribers others can't catch up do you buy that? it's barry diller, he certainly has a very authoritative opinion what but what are the implications >> he has that smart opinions. he owns the biggest dating service, he's big in travel with expedia so he knows what he's talking about in that area he's not a retired hollywood mogul but i think it was an interesting question of how hollywood doesn't have the platforms that the others have and i think he felt like netflix married the perfect marriage of platform, credit card, contest and was doing an amazing job and i think he was impressed i think everyone has been impressed by the content deals so if you're like barry diller

and you see -- he was talking about disney and streaming content. but he was talking about the contraction of studios and that studios don't have the platforms necessary. it was just a fascinating conversation about where it could go and it felt like netflix it was sweet spot of all of those things that was handling it well and he meant they're going to be played over the pipes, they're not going to matter in terms of what gets created and where the real power is. >> this is a discussion that i think is even more heightened right now because it's oscars week you've got the studio chief of amazon saying that they're planning to unveil up to 30 movies a year and then you have this "new york times" article from over the weekend focused on netflix and how it's been campaigning for roma with that best picture

so if you were to see netflix win that how would it change the game in terms of hollywood. that's a wonderful thing i love when people leave me alone. but i think it's a really interesting thing that they'd manage to remake hollywood and they pull away from heavy star systems. so you know i think roma has a very good shot at winning. that said, there's always going to be giant blockbuster like "black panther" and everything else i don't think that's going away but who holds the power and where does talent go to?

where do they move to? and as talent moves to these platforms you'll see great results. especially these there's money spent on this stuff. there's always kinds of exciting things happening in hollywood. >> if that's true, then disney would be making an epic mistake pulling its content off of netflix. even though it's got avengers end game coming out. all this pow er. >> at the same time disney missed the turn. the turn was to be part of a platform, to have a platform play and they've tried various things you don't -- there's so many disney efforts in this space that i just forgot about them all if you remember. >> disney interactive. >> whatever, they just went on and on and on. >> i remember. >> and so a lot of these hollywood companies missed the turns not to have the platforms so you cannot miss turns like this as not just young people,

you watch movies on your phone, you watch movies on these platforms. you get them over netflix and when you have that relationship you go where you go. like, you don't watch network television, you watch netflix. everybody does that so the question is can these companies become relevant in a way that harrys platform with content and really great content. >> before we let you go. you interviewed twitter ceo jack dorsey. >> yeah, that one. >> on twitter last week. somehow this seemed to lead to twitter realizing for the first time that threads don't work perfectly well that was clear to the rest of us. >> yeah, that was a nice cat rodeo, wasn't it some people think he knew that would be the case and he's spurring product people on but we managed to organize the interview after we moved pieces around but obviously it was a

disastrous way and what i was trying to get out of him was specifics and if he wasn't going to get into specifics, i wanted to show he doesn't give specifics so everybody can see the frustration when you try to interview some of these people like give me a specific thing. give me a specific and i kept doing caps and i used gifts and all kinds of things so i had a good time but i think there wasn't a whole lot of illumination except he likes elon musk as his favorite twitter celebrity. they need to make a product where you can have conversations because part of the motto of twitter is making conversations easier this was, like, you know, as peter kafka wrote, this is like eating soup with a fork. that's what it felt like. >> at least you had the hashtag, was it kara jack >> it's like a wedding

we're not getting married. stop that one. >> don't start rumors, care kara. coming up. don't miss the council of kming advisers chairman kevin hassett when he sits down with a crew on "power lunch" to discuss the latest on u.s. china trade talks. that begins at 2:00 p.m. eastern today. but before the break, rick santelli, what will you watching >> i'm watching stocks i'm watching the bond market but there's one issue i'm paying close attention to, maybe you can guess what it is i'll give you a hint it's up more than 20% in 2019. what tell you after the break

your daily dashboard from fidelity. a visual snapshot of your investments. key portfolio events. all in one place. because when it's decision time... you need decision tech. only from fidelity. you need decision tech. wewithout the planet cooler getting warmer. at emerson, when issues become inspiration, creating a better world isn't just a result, it's a responsibility. emerson. consider it solved.

servicenow put our this changes everything. you're right sir... everything. well not everything, i mean you're still blatantly sucking up to me gary. ahhh... stop it. servicenow. works for you. takes more mathan just investment advice. from insurance to savings to retirement, it takes someone with experience and knowledge who can help me build a complete plan. brian, my certified financial planner™ professional, is committed to working in my best interest. i call it my "comfortable future plan," and it's all possible with a cfp® professional.

find your certified financial planner™ professional at letsmakeaplan.org. i'm brian sul plan for scott. on the half time report, is it safe right now to put your money into this stock market plus, walmart's jump after reporting earnings that beat nearly every estimate. so if walmart did well, who else should you be watching in retail and why one analyst got so darn bullish on mcdonald's that's coming up in the half time report which starts at the top of the hour. carl >> sully, see you in a few brian sullivan let's get to cme and santelli exchange hey, rick. >> good morning, carl. well, let's get back to my hint. up over 20% for 2019 what it is the amount of negative yielding securities worldwide yes, up over 20% for this young

2019 thus far. that's where from where it finished 2018 and at the height of negative instruments around the globe, it represents about 25% of all global debt outstanding. i thought for sure harkening back to 2014 when it started to happen that by 2019 the conversation we would be having would be a postmortem on negative interest rates on the notion of hopefully never having used them again. there's so much outstanding debt in europe and the tide is turned surprisingly quick it's not deep, it's not like i'm pointing to recessions and all the countries in southern europe but the slowing is definitely recognized by investors

everywhere now here's the issue first of all, who keeps buying them insurance companies need to have a match for their future liability so they team it up with longer term paper you can't make any money till maturity because you're going to get back less money if you look like there's dozens of articles with traders saying that doesn't mean anything they can be day traded profitably as long as you don't hold it to maturity. so embedded in that statement is the notion that there's somebody dumber than the guy holding it that will buy it for him for a variety of dumb reasons, maybe because the central bank is giving prerch rabbferable loanse of the rejiggering of the treatment and once you buy them you get full accountability with respect to how they're treated as capital reserve requirements.

it's complicated but here's something very important a lot of the models that were run through to end up with this as a strategy, they made one bad assumption that nobody would hold them because they're losing money so they would consume but that's not the case. just think about the about the f older people in europe they have done the exact opposite they are saving like crazy, not making much progress you know what the future cost is going to be, their retirement, never factored in. how are people going to be able to retire? they'll look to the government that's a whole other chapter we'll be talk about down the road back to you. thank you. the commerce department sending a report to president president trump that has the potential to unleash steep tariffs on imported cars and auto parts phil, how concerned is the auto industry about these potential tariffs? >> i'd say moderately concerned. they have seen this play book

before from the trump administration they saw what it did when it came to negotiating canada and mex toe. they know there's a lot of threats and there will be some threats in the future targeted at european auto industry. that's the expectation the japanese auto makers would be target in the future. the concern in the industry is if this actually happens, they believe it will, and the research shows it will hurt sales and auto prices for the entire industry. all the prices would go up and there could be some job cuts having said that, we talked with people in the industry, everybody says the same thing, let's see if it happens. we saw the threats with canada and mex toe.

you might see this get worked out whether it's two months, three mobnth down the road. >> thank you squawk alley continues after a quick break. all in one place. because when it's decision time... you need decision tech. only from fidelity.

you need decision tech. the latest inisn't just a store.ty it's a save more with a new kind of wireless network store. it's a look what your wifi can do now store. a get your questions answered by awesome experts store. it's a now there's one store that connects your life like never before store. the xfinity store is here. and it's simple, easy, awesome. welcome back a new report taking a look at how america's biggest companies perform on gender equity we have which u.s. companies are closing the gender gap

>> they had a mission to shed light on these issues to provide info that employers and investor need to fix some of those problems they have put together their list of top companies with regard to closing the gap with men and women. what you're seeing behind me is the top five on their list starts with gm at number one followed by bank of america, you've got johnson and johnson jpmorgan chase and citigroup as well they look at how balanced the board of directors is. six of gm's 13 directors are female they look at pay parity. gm is less than 3% in terms of gap for wages and pay. they also look at things like the availability of flex time and then policies that promote gender equality as well. another interesting thing is four of the top ten companies in

that list are in the financial sf services business. all state ranked nineth. that's partly because over the years financial sfervices companies have made strides in correcting pay discrepancies they hope they continue to push the trends in the right direction. >> for those people who are looking for the companies that have better gender balance grades because they believe in these companies and they want to invest in them for consumers or investors ii hope they would use this information to make the right choices. >> that's part of the very complex story. take a look at the story right now on cnbc.com. all the other top ten companies and others on the list as well back over to you guys. >> pretty fascinating data dow trying to hang onto some gains. uap is up 6.5. sqwk alley returns in less than three minutes

creating a better world isn't just a result, it's a responsibility. emerson. consider it solved.

we managed to tack on 50

points we'll see. basically how many points? 65 points until 26k. can we get there >> that's the question the smaller tech stocks have quite a lot of support >> walmart is the one that's leading the charge let's get to the half. thank you very much. i'm very brian sullivan in for scott wapner let's begin with a simple question after eight straight weeks of gains and one of the best starts to any year for the stock market ever, is it really still safe to go out and buy equities? it is 12:00 noon and this is the halftime report. just over 10% for the s&p and dow. if stocks keep going higher, who will provide