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good morning it is 8:00 a.m. at tesla headquarters in palo alto, california, it is 11:00 a.m. here on wall street and "squawk alley" is live ♪ ♪ good thursday morning. welcome to "squawk alley." i am morgan brennan. with me at post 9, wilfred frost, mike santoli. carl and jon are on assignment

today. these averages are all low we have been fluctuating between gains and losses, largely losses down 42 for the dow, s&p down 6 points, and nasdaq down on this last trading day of february the numbers for the annual growth hovering near president trump's target the treasury secretary and larry kudlow joined us to discuss thoughts on the current state of the economy. take a listen. >> the fourth quarter was dragged down slightly by the government shutdown. we still had healthy numbers year over year fourth quarter to fourth quarter, over 3%, otherwise slightly under 3%. we have been talking about sustained 3% economic growth and the outlook in the united states still looks very strong. >> not only is 2018 going to be the peak in growth, this growth spurt is going to continue for years to come as long as we hold

the line on our policies, and trust me on that, we will hold that line. >> joining us, brian levitt, senior involvement strategist, brian guard yer from washington research, and steve liesman and john harwood we have quite the panel for you this morning steve, i want to start with you. the q4 number, much better than expected how does it sum up 2018 and how does it take us into 2019? >> pretty good number. you had a little more on the business side, a little at odds with monthly data, we'll square that out over time a big boost from government, big boost from inventory, little drag on trade. nice to see it not weakening as much as expected i see forecasts for first

quarter come down, we'll get more as the day goes by. we're looking for below trend growth in the first quarter. see if people decide they were wrong in the fourth quarter that they'll be a little wrong to the up side in the first quarter that's not the case yet. however you get there, as long as you get to the place you need to go. it was a weakening fourth quarter but strong above trend growth. >> there's different methodologies how people are calculating this, where it stands in terms of the trump administration economic growth numbers thus far versus obama administration and past administrations. how should investors be thinking about that too >> well, i think investors should be thinking about it the way steve was describing it was a stronger than expected fourth quarter number although there does seem to be a little inverse relationship between what came in in the fourth quarter and what we expect from first quarter of 2019 because of inventory levels, but the

political point is that the trump administration ran for office saying that they were going to through tax cuts, deregulation, lift long term economic growth and keep it there to post world war ii average of 3%. they said president obama never achieved it, first modern president, hadn't done it since 2005 with george w. bush the number for 2018 which is going to be the peak year for president trump because it is headed down from here was 2.9. the same level president obama reached. the point is they have not increased on a durable basis economic growth to that post world war ii level and if you look what the cbo and federal reserve are projecting, they see gdp declining in 2019 and long term growth according to both the federal reserve is below 2%.

>> brian levitt, obviously we're arguing about a quarter that began five months ago. i wonder from now what the trajectory is and what your baseline assumption is some nature of slowdown is assumed. what does it mean for investors? >> i think it is good news the economy is moderating. it was going to be very difficult for the u.s. to sustain above 3% growth. you would have had to import a lot of 30-year-olds and make them productive. hard to do that at this point of the cycle. this slow doundown is good for markets. last year it raised interest rates and fed tightening, strong growth, bad policy this year is moderating growth as government spending goes down or drags some but better policy. the fed backed off, rates stabilized, 2.65, 2.70, that's a

good backdrop for equities. >> what could boost this year's gdp growth higher than expected? is china trade the key factor? were you encouraged by larry kudlow's comments on "squawk on the street" earlier? >> i think a deal with china could be beneficial. i think international growth because i think larry was generally correct in that u.s. growth has been better than a lot of parts of the rest of the developed world so if we get a little more of a tail wind internationally i think that helps. i thought larry was a little overly optimistic on the china talks and i think he tried to gloss over the differences that ambassador lighthizer highlighted yesterday in his testimony. i still think there's a big problem with the china talks and i don't think the administration is as close to a deal as larry suggested, but getting a deal on tariffs and goods is certainly a

positive in 2019 in economic terms. >> brian gardner, what does it mean for markets i asked that because we've had so many people on that said they think a certain amount of good news or near term deal or beginnings of a deal is priced in here. >> i think it is pretty good for the markets. i think in some respects the trump administration has done a lot of good things, on regulatory policy, tax policy. i think at other times on trade, they're their own worst enemy and they shoot themselves in the foot to take away dampening effect of the prospects of further trade wars and the other tariff battles they're fighting with the eu and other countries, they can remove that, it is generally a positive for economic growth going forward. certainly it is a positive for markets, maybe more so for the financial markets than the economy overall. >> i would advise investors to watch the dollar because we have

been in this environment where the dollar has been relatively stable since the beginning of 2016 what's key to the environment now is that chinese growth begins to stabilize, we're seeing that a little in new orders numbers that came out in purchasing managers' index, chinese policy makers are working -- it will be good for multinational companies, very good for emerging market growth and emerging market capital flow into the emerging market to me that's the big issue if you get a bad outcome in trade, that will disrupt that. we'll be back talking about concerns about recession if you get some agreement that keeps the dollar relatively stable then this cycle should go on far longer. >> how are investors positioned? is cash level high or low? >> higher than we have seen in a

while. in december we saw significant money come out of equity mutual funds and etfs something like $53 million. saw more in money markets since 2009 investors are pretty cautious and they're also overweight, the united states. some of it is the united states has run up and haven't rebalanced, some is the united states has done well, will continue to do well. to me the big story is united states slowing towards trend, china stabilizing towards trend, should help lower valued regions of the world which in part of the emerging market. >> steve liesman, when you look at some of the data we have gotten in the u.s., you heard the comments from brian levitt that maybe we're at a bottom in terms of the slow dounlz in chinese economic growth, how does that potentially shape the fed policy we have more coming on talking

about potential for a cut second half of the year when you look at the data or comments, seems like it could be the opposite. >> if china rebounded strongly, that would have a positive effect on the u.s. you would want to bring europe along to change the trajectory i think the fed is on hold and would take a lot to cut or hike. it may be that you have growth come in above potential. i want to get back to that and what brian and others were saying investors should watch. i would watch potential growth john made an important part on this, that's the whole gain. has there or has there not been upward shift in potential growth if there has, it changes the outlook. how do you watch something you can't see, watch the equipment spending numbers, intangible numbers in those reports and see if businesses are indeed investing. if they are, you've got prospect

for greater productivity growth. if you get that, then you have potential. the feds will watch that, care deeply what it stimgestimates t economy to be. that will guide fed policy over the next year and beyond >> john, finally as we talk about political implications of what's happening with the economy, who gets credit and the inputs, if the fed is presumably on hold, we get some china deal, the tax law passed, are we seeing here what we are going to get in terms of what the trump economy is going to look like? >> i think so. i think that if in fact we do get more business investment and get a china trade deal, that's good news for the administration whether it is baked into the markets, i don't know. the most important point is the one that brian levitt made a few minutes ago, what con strains

the long term economic growth is rate of productivity growth which is sluggish and rate of labor supply, and labor supply is dwindling as baby boomers retire that's why we refer to trend as brian said and larry kudlow said in that clip a moment ago, we're going to sustain these levels indefinitely there's no evidence to back up that claim right now >> yeah. at some point we're going to have a longer discussion about that, brian levitt i'm not convinced. >> this country is a lot of older 20-year-olds and older 50-year-olds. >> morgan, had the head of the cbo on, said one of the problems with labor supply are millennials not working in the percentage of baby boomers get back to work, morgan call up your friends. >> i'm pulling my fair share as

the resident millennial. >> we're going to leave this conversation thank you all. when we return, shares of tesla rising, up more than 5% since monday after a tease of some tesla news this afternoon that was from ceo elon musk. rebekkah: opioids has taken everything and everyone i've ever loved away from me. everything. i blew my ankle out and i got prescribed pain pills by my doctor. if making my detox public is gonna help somebody i'm all for it. i just wish i would've had a warning.

shares of tesla getting a bump after elon musk vaguely tweeted some news is coming this afternoon. as he continues to exchange barbs with the sec, to explain why he shouldn't be held in contempt of court. the stock down 9% since the 4-20 post weighing in, analyst at bernstein. tony, do you have any inkling was we may hear from tesla in terms of news this afternoon >> my best guess is an announcement around financing partner for the new china plant which is something that is a key

requirement. that would be my best guess. wouldn't be sensible for tesla to make a product announcement, they're trying to ramp model 3, talking more about model y may cannibalize sales. i don't think they're far in terms of the semi. if they unveil a pickup, it would be in a formal announcement when you think about what this could be, it is probably something more like having secured local financing for the china facility. >> if that's the case, that's a positive but not terribly material in terms of direct outlook for production and fundamentals for the stock what do you think would be material what's important for investors now as the stock stays around that $300 mark, a little above, that it crossed so many times the last couple years in terms of demand and production for this year. >> i think the big investment controversy around tesla now is

the fact that the u.s. federal subsidies have been cut in half and as best we can tell there's been a sharp decline in demand in the u.s. since the end of last year, and that's in part because the subsidy has been cut, also because tesla had a lot of incentives, was really pushing people to buy new cars before that subsidy was cut. i think the controversy is can tesla ultimately continue to grow robustly and hit its production and delivery targets for this year despite what appears to be a pretty significant initial falloff in demand that's controversy number one. i think controversy number two which is somewhat related to that is can tesla profitably make this car at different price points it's demonstrated the last couple quarters that the model three has reasonably healthy

gross margins, 20% plus. that's because model three prices are $55,000 on average. the second related controversy is can tesla make a $35,000 car and do so profitably going forward. >> tony, the other thing to watch with tesla this week is tomorrow you've got $920 million in convertible senior notes, set to expire at conversion price 359.87, not where the stock is now, it is at 314 now. how does that factor into the cash situation for tesla, especially as it is, i would assume looking to make these investments to offer cars at certain price points, move out other lines in future years. >> yeah, agreed. i think tomorrow the settlement will be done in cash by tesla, so that will be $900 plus

million cash outflow the company has over $3 billion in cash and believes it can continue to generate cash going forward. i'm not sure given its aggressive growth plans it can be self funding. you know, some announcement either tomorrow, excuse me, today or at a future date that they secured local financing in china is helpful because it begins to say hey, look, tesla may not be entirely self funding but they're still generating cash and they're showing that they can attract financing outside of u.s. capital markets. >> tony, quick question on hp from your note that went out last night that it is dead money in the near term given results last night >> it is so hewlett packard inc hq reported it is a printing company, they make personal computers.

printing is the principal business effectively all of the profits of the company are driven by supplies the big news yesterday was that they basically said they're losing share in supplies, that remanufactured supplies are making more traction they built extra inventory they need to draw down, but painted an uncertain picture about the demand profile for supplies going forward and again, that's really the profit stream of the company. given that both the inventory position is uncertain and given that there seems to be an incremental lean to growth, probably need to wait. this is a show me story or we need to be more confident there isn't a bigger build of channel

inventory than the company is acknowledging. >> obviously, reminder, not a lot of growth underlying it. >> thanks for having me. as we head to break, look at the worst performing stocks in today's session. we have a lot more "squawk alley" straight ahead. don't go anywhere. when you look at the critical issues facing our world, what do you see? we see a billion more people breathing free. we see access to fresh food being the global norm, not the exception. we see homes staying cooler, without the planet getting warmer. at emerson, when issues become inspiration, focusing core strengths to create a better world isn't just a result, it's a responsibility. emerson. consider it solved.

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welcome back to "squawk alley. some big movers in tech. square, booking holdings and fit bit are down, despite posting earnings beats across the board. shares of box, on lowering guidance it has been a bloodbath for smaller tech names, given our

momentum in trades. >> a lot of what you're seeing is the theme of down scaling guidance for the following quarters but really stocks that rand with broad market rebounds from the december low going into this, gave up close to half that at this point. it doesn't seem interestingly to be read through to a broad sell tech type trade, at least not now. square holding up okay, the biggest of the group. >> having declined more. seema mody joins us with the action across the pond >> mostly higher across the board, the uk being the exception. strong earnings from online retailers in orlando, increased targets at french supermarket helping lift sentiment gains add to what's been a good start to the year for european

stocks since 2015. slightly underperforming the s&p 500 so far this year german dax up 9%, france up 11 and italy despite on-going budget uncertainty up more than 12%. all three averages on track to post the first back to back monthly gain since late 2017 but there are still a couple of concerning trends, first we weakness in manufacturing, it illustrates the decline in the sector in europe compared to the u.s. where it held up relatively well so far this year. second, more u.s. firms warn of slowdown in europe booking holdings the latest, saying uncertainty around brexit and trade impacts on germany weighed on customer demand, not the only company, bradley jacobs saying they miscalculated weakness in france and the uk

last quarter mike, we focus on china exposure but interesting to note that impact >> it has been a strong theme this quarter thank you very much. let's get to sue herera for a cnbc news update >> hi, mike. hello, everyone. here is what's happening president trump is heading home following the breakdown of his second summit with north korean leader kim jong-un the meeting between the two ended abruptly after no agreement was able to be reached. michael cohen back on capitol hill a third straight day of testimony this morning a closed door hearing with the house intelligence committee the appearance a day after a scathing public testimony before the house oversight committee. israel's attorney general announcing his office has indicted prime minister benjamin netanyahu on corruption charges. the prime minister faces one count of bribery, two counts of fraud and breach of trust. it is td first time a sitting israeli prime minister has been

charged with a crime. a governor's highway safety association says some 6200 pedestrians were killed in 2018, the highest number in 30 years the reason more people are walking at night, more distracted drivers pedestrians accounted for 16% of all traffic deaths in 2018 you're up to date. that's the news update this hour back downtown to you, morgan >> u ysue herera, thanks. the art of the deal, is a similar outcome coming for the president with trade carla hills joins us to break it down the trend tracker live data board, brought to you by the cme group. servicenow put our workflows in the cloud.

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treasury secretary steven mnuchin joined us last hour with the latest on u.s. china trade talks. take a listen. >> this will be a real agreement, this has to be real structural changes, dealing with everything from intellectual property to technology transfer to financial services,

nonfinancial services, currency, and spent a lot of time on enforcement provisions the deal is not done but we've made a lot of progress >> joining us for more, steven roach, and former trade representative carla hills good morning to you both ambassador, if i start with you, i wanted to ask about the ending of the talks in north korea and to what extent that was a show of strength from the president or not and if these are all linked with talks with china >> we don't know what the chinese have done with respect to the north korean talks. i don't think anyone is applauding the fact they didn't make progress. they didn't leave in a huff and they committed to continue to work so let's hope that happens it's something that we need to get done >> ambassador, on the topic of the china talks, clearly there's

been a lot of positive commentary, whether from secretary mnuchin or larry kudlow or others the last couple of weeks that the two sides are getting closer, but from your experience of leading these sorts of negotiations, how hard is getting over that line, the final leg of the negotiations if you will >> it's always difficult to wind up an agreement. what i hear is that they have six memoranda of understanding, that they're focusing on critical issues, and we all wish that they have great success >> steven, what's your take on the progress we've seen of late with the china talks do you think both sides are ready to make a deal now >> well, wilfred, we heard a lot of i think political spin on your network this morning ex-toelg the virtues of the greatest deal in history threes structural issues as the ambassador alluded to are

difficult to reach agreement on. how are we dealing with intellectual property, how are we dealing with forced technology transfer. why do we have an mou on currency this is not into this, they brought it in for reasons that aren't clear chinese currency is up 50% since 2004, so it is not being manipulated at all if anything, it is creating problem for china. there's a lot of questions that remain to be resolved. hopefully we'll get to the finish line in a constructive way. >> stephen, do those issues you describe there represent impediments to the chinese side actually coming any nearer the big question is not whether at this point there's a proposed agreement from the united states on the table but whether those structural issues can win commitments from the chinese

side >> look, i think the chinese and the u.s. both want to reach agreement but you have to step back and look at what the issues mean for china's overall growth and development strategy if you're looking for china to sign an agreement that changes the economic model, forces china to abandon its push for indigenous innovation and growth aspirations they have between now and 2050, i think you're going to be disappointed china is very committed to its strategic efforts to keep pushing ahead in the economy, transitions that it is making, and recognizes that certainly it needs to make some concessions to temper the push back from the united states, but the core premise of china strategy i think will survive this and most other efforts to unwind it from

china's trading partners >> ambassador hill, one of the key points of this is going to be enforcement and what that mechanism looks like starting to get more reports in the last 24 hours about how that could potentially take shape, the idea of the u.s. bringing complaints to china and then working through it with them, talking to them about it, sort of this idea that tariffs could be a key piece of leverage that could be reimplemented, depending how china reacts is that the right tact here? >> in my view the right path would be to join with our allies and to go with representing 85% of the global economy and urging and finding ways to encourage china to change but i would say that today the ustr talked about having a trio of enforcement

measures from the working level to the deputy level to the cabinet level and i do absolutely agree that frequent meetings, talking about the differences is very, very helpful. i don't think you can let things simmer for a year and not have a meeting to talk about the substantive issues >> stephen, what's your take on the strength of china's economy at the moment? clearly some signs of slowing, felt like it was perhaps stabilizing, but pmi data this morning was lowest in three years. >> well, wilfred, i think there's no question the chinese economy has slowed a lot but i think the strength is more short term and they've done a lot of policy stimulus over the past year with cutting their reserve ratios five times. credit numbers are picking up. if you look at the pmi report that came out this morning, the

new orders component was up for the first time in several months the headline, production based number was down. you have to be careful looking at these figures on a superficial basis. i think the chinese economy will stabilize and begin to improve by the middle of this year and conversely, i think the u.s. economy is coming off its sugar high and you can raise some real questions about u.s. growth in 2019 and i think the long term fundamentals of the two economies are very different china's got much more of a rester -- reservoir, i think that will serve china well for years to come and we're going the other way with our big budget deficits. >> professor roach, i have to dig into the comment you made a little more. what data, signs, signals are

out there that you see as contributing to this viewpoint that the u.s. economy is going to slow further? >> housing market is weak, jobless claims are up, i think the gdp while it came in slightly stronger than expected in the fourth quarter of 2018 will be little changed in the first quarter this year. the fiscal impetus that supported growth is now going the other way. i think there's question marks no question we had a lot of momentum last year but that's ancient history. we've got to look at what the fuel in the tank is like over the course of this year, and i think there's some legitimate questions that can now be raised >> quickly, b ambassador hill,

we get some sort of deal, what are the next steps in the u.s. is this something that will be in front of lawmakers and congress the way you see usmca or something the executive branch can move forward with unilaterally. >> depends how we move forward if you move forward on the memorandum of understanding where china is making changes, the executive branch can carry those out. if we're trying to have difference made in the tariff schedules, then you need congressional approval let me say that i think we're at a very good moment in trying to work with china. steve has said it is stronger than it appears, but there are a lot of reformers in china who believe that the funneling of credit to state owned enterprises that are losing money is actually not a good policy and that changes that we are urging are in china's best

interest that is, there is an opportunity for win-win outcomes >> we will leave it there, guys. thank you both very much >> thank you >> thank you. turning to the impact those talks will have on the markets, bru bring in art cashin. good to see you. hard to tease out in this moment what the market baked in, what the sensitivity of the market is on a day-to-day basis. yesterday, the headlines from lighthizer's testimony seemed like it gave investors a little bit of pause, now we're back up here what do you think? >> the thing he said that was a problem, he said the deal might be difficult because the structure of the chinese economy is the way it is, and that they may have to restructure certain things that makes it more difficult what we're sorting through today is there were segments of the market and traders that thought the president was looking for

victory at any cost and if something looked like it was there, he would grab it. now, he pretty much cancelled that with his statement in which he said we had memos written here i have things i can sign here. he made a strong point about this deal was not good enough, i'm walking away that immediately sends your attention over to the china talks and there was some feel there again he might looking for a victory take something that was less than powerful, that didn't have anything to do with intellectual property and things of that type just meant more soybeans, more dollar amount, more juan coming in if they stick to the current plan, which is to have president xi come to mar-a-lago, that's difficult to walk away from. they're going to have to have

something in hand because it would be embarrassing to xi to come and have to walk away, why travel that far with no deal that's what the market is pondering here, that's what it's trying to sort through. >> how do you feel the way the month shaped up flat this week, a little negative today, but decent returns for the month of february. >> no. you had two pretty good month to month, historically, however, that next month to two months are up only about 30% of the time, so historically a jump start isn't necessarily followed by a really good move. the other thing, wilfred, that i'm concerned about, we're right up against technical resistance on the charts. for example, in the s&p, 2815 to 2845 that's got some real resistance here 2800 on a psychological level, on a technical level, if they

get through those, you could get another leg up the market could suddenly be encouraged i'm not so sure we're ready to do that yet. keep your eye on today's activity we have been testing and retesting. we made a couple of inter day lower lows you want to stay away from that and need the afternoon to be a little better. >> small cap stocks, russell 2000, best performer since start of the year, right now they're the worst. they are off this week how should we think about moves there? >> i think they were the best performer because they are most domestic, not at risk of international trade. now i think we're taking a look at the u.s. economy, how will it be effected by what's going on in places like europe, even germany with auto tariffs can be

a bit of a problem i think the next week or so is going to be critical to how the markets trade. >> turn of the month art, thank you very much art cashin. we have much more on this morning's market movers straight ahead. first, rick santelli, what are you watching today >> you know, i'm watching 30-year bonds and 10-year notes stay steep, steepest since the end of '17 some of the big data points actually show improvement. i think the question of the day is, is the pause meant to be paused think fed, all after the break that we just hit the motherlode of soft-serve ice cream? i got cones, anybody wants one! oh, yeah! get ya some! no, i can't believe how easy it was to save hundreds of dollars on my car insurance with geico. ed! ed! we struck sprinkles! [cheers]

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still to come here on "squawk alley," amazon's location issues. why the company's is abandoning its plans to move further into downwn stttoeale we're back after a quick break so, servicenow put your workflows in the cloud, huh? mmhm. your employees must love you. [ chuckles ] thank you. you could say that. i love you. servicenow works for you. uh, well, this will be the kitchen. and we'd like to put a fire pit out there, and a dock with a boat, maybe. why haven't you started building?

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exchange >> good morning. thank you. you know, the big topic about three to eight weeks ago, of course, is the fed the pause, the notion of j powell getting acclimated to signals in the market and then acclimating investors as to his style how to deal with monetary policy, normalization, rates, balance sheet. i think that the biggest issue is that the data itself, the weakening of the data may be pausing. listen, i understand that the end of the year normally back in the day used to be called the turn there was always issues with the turn and many times even going back more than a decade the issue was, economies in countries like china procuring end of the year financing and all the issues that some of the bigger economies and even some of the larger developing economies had to deal with for the next fiscal year when you add in that the u.s. is

like the biggest dance partner in the ballad of global trade, okay, you sit down that key character, you are going to impact the entire ball everything in that room is going to slow as it has. but the problem is, we might have made too much of that granted that a lot of these issues can be resolved and give us a nice tailwind think china. the real issue is basically one retail sales number recently has depressed investors. i said from that moment it was released and we were on the air at the time, that i think it's an adjustment problem. it's a seasonal adjustment problem. and there are problems with seasonal adjustments, especially considering some of the tax reforms and issues of the day. so fast forward. we see a fairly solid gdp that really dances in the face of that weak retail sales we had 304,000 jobs. jolts continues to be at

astronomical levels and chicago pmi is rebounding nicely i understand that all of that isn't going to change everybody's mind, but the problem is, you have to really do your homework we live in a time where it's immediate gratification. every investor would like the fed to tell them where the next move is, but i you need to do your research. doing research means you have to stand up and try to declare what you think is going on, even in the face of conflicting data that's the trick to research and good investing because if you wait for total clarity, you're going to miss the bus of opportunity morgan, back to you. >> rick santelli, thank you. major averages right now largely flat across the board. we've got the dow down 17 points keep in mind though, on pace for all the major averages to finish the month of february up more than 3%. we've got more squawk alley in less than three minutes. ♪ ♪ let's go from plans...

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♪hold on, i'm comin' ♪hold on, i'm comin' ♪hold on don't you worry,♪ ♪i'm comin' ♪here we come, hold on♪ ♪we're about to save you i'm comin', yeah♪ ♪hold on don't you worry,♪ ♪i'm comin' welcome back to "squawk alley. news on amazon to get to this morning announcing it will pull out of plans to lease space in the 27-story tower being built in downtown seattle. the location was at the heart of

seattle's corporate tax debate between the city council and several large companies with amazon threatening to pull out of the building if the tax wasn't repealed which it eventually was amazon now leaving anyway. of course, all of this follows the very public departure of the company at its hq2 from new york city but guys, it's just, this is one to watch because there seems to be a much more specific spotlight on this company in the fallout from that hq2 pullout in new york city. you've got down in what's supposed to be national landing the other hq2 for amazon in virginia you've got some more local officials there and protesters there beginning to raise questions, too >> the focus and the pr they get from these decisions now is intense. >> it is. >> i would say, i don't know if the building was the sole part of their threat last time around or a broaderpart of we won't keep investing in the area they still are investing in the

area on top of that, they're subletting that part of the block. it's not like they've torn up the lease. >> they're not going to occupy it they are building a big addition to their campus elsewhere in seattle. maybe they want less news attached to their real estate. >> stay tuned. if you like what you see here for this hour of "squawk alley," tune backing in at 3:00 p.m. because we will be doing "closing bell." >> i'm scott wapner. is the strong u.s. economy enough to carry stocks to new highs or is the rally from the lows now more vulnerable than ever it's 12:00 noon. this is "the halftime report:. >> better than expected gdp data and the president's top economic adviser says, we could be on the verge of historic trade deal we'll trade the headlines. plus, the new boeing bull. this year's best performing dow stock is getting a big price target boost