♪ it is 5:00 a.m. and here is your top five at 5 major trade news, china and the u.s. reportedly close to striking a big new trade deal. what are the two sides willing to give? and what are they trying to get? details ahead. markets everywhere rallying on the back of that news snow on the ground here. but plenty of green on your screen president trump taking another pot shot at the fed, this time about the dollar fire up the lawyers. chinese telecom giant huawei reportedly planning to sue the united states government and flight delays are mounting up and down the east coast. last night's storm snarling commutes and flights we'll give you more on what you

need to know about travel. all these big stories coming up on this monday, march 4th as "worldwide exchange" begins right now. ♪ y. well, good morning, good evening or good afternoon where forever in the world you may be watching stocks are rising to begin the week, optimism abounding that the u.s. and china may be close to signing a major trade deal and trump removing some or maybe all of the chinese goods the markets like the news. dow futures up 68 points right now. nasdaq futures and s&p also higher by the way, here is a stat to wake you up on this monday the nasdaq is now up 10 weeks in a row, my friends. that is the longest winning streak since 1999. a 20-year record tide right now. well, that news also pushing asian stocks this morning.

china closing near a nine. month high japan squeaking out just above 1% gain as well. and we are also seeing some green across the screen all across europe, not quite the same size gains. germany barely up, but hey, see this, lot of green on the screen let's get more on the details of what is moving markets and the optimistic talk of a trade deal. eunice is live in beijing. where do we stand right now? >> reporter: well, brian, a source familiar with the deal told me to expect big purchase targets and also "the wall street journal" fleshed out all the details saying that the u.s. would step up its u.s. purchases including 18 billion lng deal, china would drop tariffs on farm, chemical and auto imports and the two are working on enforcement mechanism the u.s. can reimpose tariffs and in return the u.s. would lift most of the sanctions

trade deal would be formalized in a trade summit likely around march 27th, according to "the wall street journal. and also it would probably be at mar-a-lago before then, though, president xi is going to be preoccupied with an event here in beijing. it's called the national people's congress. and the beijing leadership is expected to acknowledge what we already know that the economy is slowing down the premier tomorrow during his work report is going to unveil an annual growth target likely to be somewhere between 6 to 6.5%, inflation targets also going to be released people are also going to be watching to see the budget, the fiscal budget and what beijing does to try to stabilize the economy. now, over the next ten days, there will be a lot of top brass coming out with briefings, but the one thing that you really should know as an american investor, an american company, is that china is going to be preposing and likely passing a new foreign investment law

that will be voted on with chinese characteristics on march 15th and that law, brian, is important because it meant to level the playing field and a way beijing is trying to address u.s. concerns when it comes to the trade war. >> what exactly is in that chinese investment law what's the meat of that? >> reporter: yeah. well, from the chinese perspective, this is a very meaty draft. a very meaty law so they are saying that this will end the three joint venture laws so no more joint ventures. it will bar forced technology transfers, prevent the state from illegally setting market access and intervening in foreign operations and it will also allow foreign firms to help set product standards and procurement. and these have been issues that foreign companies have been fighting for for quite some time

however, there's a catch there's always a catch and the catch is that a lot of people, businesses here, are worried about the implementation so, for example, when the law says no more jvs, actually there's another law that regulates foreign companies called a negative's list there will still be restrictions and jv requirements in certain sectors. so also the chinese still don't acknowledge what forced technology transfer actually means. there's another point that people are worried about and that is there's language that includes a national security review that is unclear. foreign companies want more detail and finally, there's a status, the current status of jvs that exist. a lot of american companies have jvs already and they're wondering what this is going to mean for their jvs brian? >> eunice yoon, great analysis we'll see you soon. now let's welcome in a cnbc

krisht and a man who recently had a high meeting with cabinet men in china are you optimistic a trade deal will be struck >> i am. actually we met the day after you and i talked last time, couple weeks ago and i'm quite sure there will be a trade deal done. it will have many pieces, some easy, some not so easy the markets will not like this deal. >> what's going to be in it? >> going from easy to hard the easiest things of all is to buy a lot of soy beans, announced purchases of all sorts of things. >> we already buy stuff, john. what's so new and interesting about that >> it's not, but it's the easiest thing to give. next easiest thing is tariffs. you can just wipe them out the next easiest thing is intellectual property. the thing that's important there

is china already had a law in play that's being passed that will protect intellectual property more and there's a huge lobby force inside china that wants their intellectual property protected if you think alibaba or huawei or those kind of companies those are easy to do as eunice said the enforcements is the issue, because enforcement of trade of ip law is done at local courts, which are under the influence of majors and vice majors and that's why the chinese government has now put penalties on those local government officials for forcing technology transfers. technology transfer is the next one that's easy to say and hard to police because it happens one at a time inside companies all over china but they're saying the right words here and, of course, they're also going to say they're going to protect the rnb and keep -- stabilize the currency

now, there are some people inside our government that think that china has been pushing the currency down. it has fallen, but they've actually been trying to prop it up it's fallen because foreign investors have pulled their money out of china making it difficult to maintain the currency at its current evel and so announcing a stable currency will encourage people from pulling capital out the economy is very weak they've done all they can do to stimulate it it will take some time before that takes effect. but i think the markets themselves are going to really like the deal. >> i'm going to ask you about the chinese economy in one second it is not all warm and fuzzy here is the problem. there's also a story out today that huawei, who you just referenced, is planning to sue the u.s. federal government for banning agencies from using its

products so, on one hand you've got this warm and fuzzy talk, john. on the other hand, one of the biggest and arguably most important companies in china in technology and ip wants to sue us >> absolutely. well a lot of people sue our government everyday. you know, the huawei story is huge and the reason behind the national security clause in that new investment law eunice referenced is so they can do the same to us and neutralize our influence on that national security issue you know, the one thing we're not going to get on this trade deal is to end chinese industrial policy. the state-owned companies get subsidies from the government because they're huge employers but more importantly chinese government wants to go from being assembler of iphones to a producer of branded, protected ip product for the global economy. >> that's hard to do, john

you know that. you're talking about going from the u.s. in 1920 to the u.s. of 1980 these are not jumps that occur in a couple of years even with a state-owned push also i want to ask you, you said that chinese economy is weak, yet we get the numbers out that they're growing just over 6% >> absolutely. well, it's weaker than that. and manufacturing is especially weak to your point, brian, china had more patents than the u.s. by about double chinese scientists and chinese industries is growing very fast. i wouldn't count them out on the technology front but huawei and zte are the point of the spear on chinese foreign policy, too. it's how they penetrate emerging markets and get access to commodities and other things they need to grow this new technology economy

so, huawei and zte are very important to the chinese government our government has pushed very hard against them, of course i don't know about the korean restrictions, but i do know the security issues they talked about, i haven't seen any real evidence of any sort of security breaches in the telecom equipment and many people around the world question whether that's even true. >> john rut ledge, always a pleasure to get you on the program as well. thank you very much. talk to you soon. the potential good news on trade has not warmed up president trump's attitude toward the federal reserve he took new aim at the fed over the weekend. listen to what trump said while addressing the cpac conference this weekend >> we have a gentleman that likes raising interest rates in the fed. we have a gentleman that loves quantitative tightening in the fed. we have a gentleman who likes a very strong dollar in the fed. can you imagine if we left

interest rates where they were there's no inflation essentially. there's no inflation can you imagine if we left interest rates where they were if we didn't do quantitative tightening >> never has quantitative tightening got so much attention. it wasn't all bad. president trump also said the u.s. economy is indeed doing well corporate news today, ceo of brazilian mining giant is stepping down. investigators step up a sweeping probe into the company's deadly dam collapse earlier this year shares are down more than 4% right now. we are just getting started on "worldwide exchange." up next, we'll go global if you have not been paying attention, some major markets have been on fire this year. we'll show you the big numbers ahead. later on, making history space x hitting a major milestone in outer space 'vgoitomg l story. wee t cinup this is your invitation to exhilaration.

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can i find my wifi password? just ask. [ ding ] show me my wifi password. hey now! [ ding ] you can even troubleshoot, learn new voice commands and much more. clean my daughter's room. [ ding ] oh, it won't do that. welp, someone should. just say "teach me more" into your voice remote and see how you can have an even better x1 experience. simple. easy. awesome. welcome back, 5:15 on a snowy monday morning it has been a red hot start to the year for stocks around the world. in fact, it is the fifth best start to a year ever for the u.s. markets how about that but this has been a global phenomenon as well look at some of these moves this year the dow up 11 1/2% you know that. the russell 2,000 small caps surging nearly 18% this year determineny's dax up 10% france a little better at 11%.

china the big winner, up 25% just in 2019, shanghai composite up 21% japan not quite as good, but still pretty solid brazil, not to be outdone up nearly 8%. what a start to 2019 the major question in all these gains is very simple, how much optimism for trade deals, dovish fed or maybe a so called soft brexit are already priced in, if at all perhaps there's a lot more room to run let's find out, joining us now is evan brown, head of strategy at ubs wow, evan. i don't know if even the most bullish of the bulls could have predicted those kinds of gains are they overdone? >> we don't think so we have to remember just how bearish things were at the end of last year really overshot to the downside. and so you have to correct for that and then a lot of the things that you mentioned, dovish fed, moving towards the

trade deal and some of the economic datas showing some green shoot. so i think we are where we should be. >> how much of this is just because many people argue with the change in the fed, we'll get to in a second, december was almost a mistake how much of this is just getting back what we lost versus a new level of optimism that will not only get us back but take us to another level. >> yeah. so part of it is unwinding the maybe overdone hawkishness or miscommunications in december and correcting for that. but what i think is increasingly being priced in is that you have a fed that is not just patient, which we all know the fed as being patient but is now actively seeking to do an inflation overshoot or at least moving in that direction so that suggests that you really need to see significant upside surprises to growth, to inflation for the fed to continue hiking. that's pretty constructive.

>> president trump on a conference this weekend basically we have a fed that loves hiking rates, basically taking a shot at jay powell. who knows if that will influence their decision at all. do you think, evan, maybe the federal reserve will not raise rates this year. >> i think there's a very good chance they don't raise rates this year. we saw new york fed president williams out come out, he said i need to see growth and inflation, surprise my forecast to the upside in order for me to feel justified hiking this here. >> john rutledge, an insider, just gave a private level briefing to the cabinet, he thinks we're going to get a deal and he thinks all the sanctions are going to be removed. if we get that kind of deal, what happens to our markets? >> that matters. we all know a deal is coming but the details matter the most important details are what happens to the existing tariff

those are all taken off, think about how much uncertainty there's been for businesses. >> you remove these tariffs and then all of a sudden we're talking about -- >> left with brexit, you know. fed is off the table trade is off the table suddenly there's one issue brexit that will be resolved by the end of the month, hopefully. >> let's hope so we don't sound too rosy, yes, we deal hopefully with brexit, deal with u.s./china trade, but let's not forget that trade tensions could be pivoting towards europe section 232 investigation on autos. and now that markets have rebounded president trump may feel emboldened to move in that direction. so the coast is not totally clear. >> listen, there's half a foot of snow on the ground up and down the east coast. nothing with being rosy on a morning like this. we appreciate it evan brown, good stuff we appreciate it. >> thanks. it's a big week ahead in d.c. we're on washington watch. we'll take you there live with what you need to focus on. and the rise of the

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♪ a live ak at 30 rockefeller center there is snow on the ground. they did a great job cleaning it but i'm telling you the roads a little sketchy got to be careful out there, although i think a lot of

parents in new york might be wondering why the schools are closed today by the way, better safe than sorry, i suppose in political news, president trump's approval rating seeing a slight up tick as he heads into a busy week. tracie potts braving the elements joining us. >> we're braving the elements but inside this morning, brian at the capitol, it is going to be a busy week because not only is the fbi wrapping up this russia information but here on capitol hill, congress is launching its own investigation. several of them expected to ramp up this week everything from the president's task returns to that skyscraper's economy he was trying to get approval for in russia while he was running for office six house committees are investigating president trump. three are taking action this week >> we've seen abuses of power

and obstruction of justice, threats to the mueller investigation, threats to witnesses. >> i think congressman nadler decided to impeach the president the day he won te election. >> reporter: today nadler's judiciary committee will subpoena documents from 60 people including the chief financial officer and donald trump jr. and the deadline today the oversight committee wants documents explaining why the white house bypassed concerns about jared kushner's background check and authorized security clearance for the president's son-in-law plus, on wednesday, the intelligence committee will hear more private testimony from former trump lawyer michael cohen. >> he has credibility problems and we are right to demand corroboration. >> reporter: they're looking into the trump tower deal cohen was pursuing in russia during the 2016 campaign. >> it was a deal where he was pursuing help from the kremlin, from putin himself, at a time when putin was seeking relief from sanctions.

>> there's not one bit of evidence to show any type of coordination, collusion, conspiracy, whatsoever between the trump campaign and russia. >> reporter: the president tweets these investigations are, quote, harassment by crazed democrats and abuse of power and that he's an innocent man being persecuted now, there are a couple of committees that are looking specifically at the president's finances, but i got to tell you, one of them that has the power to get their hands on the president's tax returns, they're going slow, trying to build a case and have not yet indicated when or whether they'll go after those returns. >> tracie potts, always a pleasure thank you. let's get a check on this morning's other top headlines. francis rivera in new york with those. >> good monday morning deadly devastation across the south, tornadoes tore through eastern alabama killing at least 23 people and injuring dozens more the worst of the destruction is

near the town of burogard. they declared a statewide emergency amid fears that as the sunrises so will the death toll. more people are still unaccounted for and that the search will ramp up this morning. winter weather is reeking havoc from the midwest to maine. the snowstorm buried st. louis before burling the northeast, blanketing millions across the region in pennsylvania overnight a car crash killed two teens and injured a third just north of philadelphia police believe weather played a role in that accident. now to the frightening scene in missouri a gas line pipeline exploded fortunately no one was killed or injured happening near a stretch of highway that's under construction the blast damaged the roads. this morning, crews confirm that pipeline has been shut off and the fire is out. those are your headlines for a monday morning. >> thank you very much

up next here on "worldwide exchange," deal or no deal it's looking like deal why a major u.s./china trade breakthrough could be on the horizon and stocks are rising this morning. and president trump doubling down on his criticism of the fed. hear what he said to j. powell probably i'tsn going to like that's next.

♪ breaking news that is moving markets. the u.s. and china closing in on a sweeping new trade deal, but

could one thing scuttle the whole thing? blasting the fed president trump taking new aim at j. powell plus, the can't-miss video that's got everybody flipping out this morning the robots are coming. the robots are coming. "worldwide exchange" rolls on right now. ♪ we just keep on dreaming ♪ arguably blondie's best song welcome back, thanks for being with us here on cnbc, i'm brian sullivan so glad to have you with us on this monday morning. the nasdaq if you have not been paying attention is now up ten weeks in a row that is its longest winning streak since all the way back in the hay days of 1999 by the way, the way futures look right now we could make it 11. still futures are powering higher, dow futures up 75 points on new reports the u.s. and china may be close to signing a major trade deals. stocks in asia also rallying on

the back of that news. china's market closing in on a near nine-month high, up 25% just this year it's all on this, your top story. suggesting the u.s. and china are close on signing a new trade deal good morning, ryan the u.s. and china are in the final stages of talks that could result in a wideranging trade deal by the end of the month that's according to three sources i spoke with who are familiar with this situation the two sides are now trading text various trade agreements with spaces where agreement still needs to be reached. president trump according to three sources close to the situation communicated his desire for a deal by the end of this month and meeting with his trade team today to chart a path forward with the impact of the abrupt ends talks with north korea in focus, one senior administration official says the white house wants to pivot to a positive message on trade and get a deal another says the stalemate emboldens president trump and

sends a strong message to beijing. but the ball is currently in beijing's court. the national people's congress is expected to pass new foreign investment laws as part of the forthcoming deal and a sign off from president xi is required for this deal. as talks proceed, president trump tweeted his request that china immediately remove all tariffs on u.s. agricultural products since the white house held off on friday on raising its tariffs. senior administration official tells me the chinese haven't offered anything formal in terms of a detaunt in response to that, brian. you can expect there will be a major de-escalation of tariffs on both sides. >> last week on cnbc, larry kidlow said china had to, quote, come around on a certain number of issues. is there an indication that they have come around >> well, those are some issues, brian, we could see percolating during this national people's congress over in china it kicks off tomorrow. it lasts for about two weeks and a bunch of these issues are

expected to come up. notably i mentioned that china is expected to pass a new foreign investment law that at the very least is expected to soften these equity ownership caps for foreign companies doing business in china, but it could also deal with foreign technology transfers or subsidies to state-owned enterprises that the u.s. has argued those subsidies give chinese companies an unfair advantage when they're competing on the world stage this law could have a lighter touch on those issues and the u.s. administration has been trying to get china to actually say, yes, this is what we have been doing yes, this is state sponsored, and, yes, we are willing to back down from this policy that has been a major piece of the chinese economy for the last few decades. so far i'm not getting indications they have done that. >> kayla, all this good news out there but at the same time we have another story this morning that huawei is going to sue or plans to sue the united states government over its banning of using its products for federal agencies is this one black swan risk that

could scuttle all this >> potentially but remember brian, also, canada said it would move forward with the extradition at the u.s.'s request of the huawei cfo currently being held in canada so there is a lot on the geopolitical front that certainly is in focus for these trade deal watchers. that being said, i'm told by sources that the president is expected to discuss huawei if and when he meets with president xi that would be something that would be a bridge that wouldn't be crossed until the very end of this deal, of course, law enforcement agencies and the national economic council, state department no one wants to get involved in that it's a law enforcement issue specifically but i'm told the president is expected to discuss this with president xi if and when the two leaders meet. >> kayla, always a pleasure. thank you very much. >> sure. in the meantime, the president taking some new aim at the fed and in particular fed

chairman j. powell over the weekend. steve leashman joining us now with more. president will not lay off. >> yeah, i guess its full employment for federal reserve reporter he continues to bash the fed and hand picked chairman jerome powell the conservative political action conference on saturday, president trump didn't mention him by name but you know who he's talking with. >> with all of that we're doing great. can you imagine if we left interest rates where they were there's no inflation essentially. there's no inflation can you imagine if we left interest rates where they were, if we didn't do quantitative tightening taking money out of the market if we didn't do quantitative targeting. and this would lead to a little bit lower dollar, little bit i want a strong dollar but i want a dollar that's going to be great for our country. >>ed for record, there's 2%

annual inflation it was a two-hour plus speech the president cursed and had harsh words for his critics. president trump has commented more publicly on the fed than at least the prior three presidents combined over a 24-year period the president clearly setting up powell and the fed to take the blame should the u.s. economy falter and many do see a slow-down this year. some of the president's own policies help strengthen the dollar he complained about meanwhile, four of the five fed governors are trump nominees so it's just a little bit other worldly, brian the president talked about his fed chairman as some, quote, unknown gentleman. >> you know, steve, here is the thing, i know you talk to fed insiders both on and off the record is there any indication from your reporting that this kind of criticism is in any way getting to them, altering their

thinking, altering their actions? >> i think, brian, we'll talk a lot about that quarter point hike in december whether or not the fed might have not done it had the president not criticized the federal reserve. i think they would have probably still done it any way, but it was probably a close call. and one that the fed would have taken a lot of criticism to knuckling under to political reality or political talk if they had not done it, so i think it's an important issue. i think there's a reason why over a 24-year period and probably longer a lot of presidents thought it would lead to the best monetary policy, the best economic outcomes, not to criticize the fed. but brian, i think at a point we might be here where we're sort of normalizing this. it doesn't really freak anybody out. the president will make these comments and i think the fed ultimately is going to ignore it. the trouble is you whip up your base, you start getting all kinds of negative comments on twitter and places like that i think people are human at the fed and any place and it's going to have an effect somehow.

>> yeah. but you're like a wise owl with a graduation cap on. you know history very well, steve. everyone says, well, the president shouldn't politicize the fed. fed chairmans have been politicized many times in the past you have to go back a ways. >> you know, brian, i got to tell you, that kind of talk of history nothing compares to this you can find other presidents who have criticized the fed. i don't think in its totality if you go back and look at the six, seven, eight, nine times the president commented on the fed, i don't think anything any other president has done is even remotely compared to this. >> it's a sha nad o'conner market nothing compares to you, steve. >> thank you, brian. now bring in larry mcdonald, ed tort of the bear traps report and cnbc contributor you're in there, what do you think of trump's criticism of j. powell, whether he named him or not? >> well, you know, the thing about america and american economists and trump and the fed

is that this is huge group of economists that we're lit lirm back in the '70s or '80s all you had to do was worry about the u.s. economy so when you were coming up with your economic policy path for the fed, you just looked at the u.s. economy today, it's totally different world. these guys are clueless, absolutely clueless. china is driving everything. so last year when the dollar ripped because of a hawkish fed policy path going forward all year, they were talking up 2 to 3 rate hikes this year, quantitative tightening. so of course the dollar ripped guess what, the global economy practically imploded shipping rates, copper, every type of economic indicator globally imploded. so, that caused trump, to i think, in a wise way, say what are you guys doing the fed is looking at the u.s. economy -- >> larry, i'm going to push back

my friend in a respectful way because i feel like calling them clueless is a little bit harsh it's like 1915 and you're an auto mechanic. it's a nation industry nobody really knows. we're kind of figuring it out. we've never been this global in our economic sort of koe le sense as it pertains to the economy. so how could anybody really know what to do when this is all new? >> well, the only reason i say clueless and i know it's harsh, remember in 2016 the same thing happened they promised us eight rate hikes in 2016 they delivered us two because the dollar ripped and the global economy imploded. now here we are, been through this twice, twice since 2016 that's just embarrassing for u.s. economists. remember, 62 trillion of gdp outside the united states. 18 inside. so now let's focus on the road ahead. at the end of the day, china and this trade deal, this stimulus,

another tax cut has been leaked, announced this morning out of china, so you could get this mini reflation because china was panicking heading into the trade deal they did a massive stimulus. now the fed lowered expectations so far and guess what, we might be going back the other way. >> the president said there's almost no inflation. steve leesman said it's 2% anybody out there in america will tell you in many ways in their life there's a lot of inflation. health care, education, et cetera is there inflation and what should the federal reserve do this year with rates? cut, raise or stay the same? >> okay. so in the united states, there's definitely some more inflation globally inflation expectations are plunging at the fastest rate in decades, especially in europe so that's the balance. net net we've gone from say a

month ago markets were looking for a rate cut this year i think we're going to have a hike because of all this juicy stimulus but net net the dollar i think bottom line is the -- we're going to go back to a more globally balanced situation. i think trump is going to talk down the dollar. some extremely bearish dollar here because what china is doing here with this massive stomach lus you get a trade deal that will help the global economy that will help other g8 countries be more hawkish. so that's very, very weak for the dollar so i'm a dollar bear pounding the table dollar bear here. >> i love it, larry mcdonald, appreciate you coming on as always great analysis see you soon. coming up,pla blasting off. spacex and the details are ahead. you will not believe the size of an alligator found near a georgia lake no bge going to need aigr cae. ♪ ) of course you don't because you didn't!

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♪ let's find out what else you'll be talking about today. a man who used to live in that city, chicago. best big sni america sorry, new york. >> whoa. that's a bold statement just across the bridge. >> i just said it. >> you'll have problems later today. we'll move on. our first story out of this world literally excuse the pun, nasa is calling this a historic achievement. spaces there x is the first

company to build, launch and dock at the international space station. crew dragon docked yet the success of the mission means that manned space flight could be returning to the u.s. sooner than later nasa's last shuttle carrying humans was grounded in the summer of 2011 elon musk said for half million people will move to mars in the foreseeable future. >> yeah, but why would they want to >> return ticket is free. >> very sad story taking place on mars. well, m.i.t. is at it again. this is not sad. debuting the back flipping four legged robot called mini cheetah. mini cheetah is the first to achieve this feat. having a really cool name and looking cool, the ability to d a back flip is the demonstration

of the robot's superior agility. all this back flipping is cool but doesn't do much. >> not yet >> watch out check this out scandal. >> this is the weirdest story i ever heard. >> this is strange. >> i saw this over the weekend i thought is this fake news. >> this is real news a lance armstrong like controversy rocking the bridge world. yes, we're talking about the card game of bridge, the world's number one bridge player has been suspended for, doping yeah, doping >> why >> the norwegian man tested positive for synthetic testostero testosterone. >> is there any chance he was taking the testosterone because he's a dude getting older. does it help him how does it help >> i'm not at that phase in life i don't know i'm not yet there yet, brian >> we're getting there. also trending today, check out this massive alligator it was found in irrigation ditch in

georgia. the animal measures over 13 feet long get this, it weighs over 700 pounds >> apparently -- >> i like that we throw in a gator story. >> it's not the biggest gator ever found in georgia. it had a bunch of old bullets in it other people found it, tried to kill it. they had to put it down because it was so big. my question when i saw that gator was very simple, what's it eat? >> anything it wants you if you try to catch it and miss one of those shots. i watched those tv shows where guys jump in and wrestle the gator. insane all it has to do is roll over, get you and you drown. forget about the bite. so many ways to go. >> frank, thank you very much. up next, your wall street run down the key things you need to watch for as we kick off a new week. don't look now, prices at the pump a little on the rise. we'll let you know how much it orwi ehae"etnsto fill it up when "wlddexcng rur ♪ plaque psoriasis can be relentless.

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welcome back prices at the gas pump creeping higher as oil rallies. a month ago the national average was 2.26 now it's 2.43 wall street gearing up for a big week ahead here is what's on your docket. today the national people's congress in china gets under way. it's a big meeting it will set china's economic policy going forward tomorrow earnings from both target and kohl's. wednesday, the beige book, more exciting than the name implies, thursday fed friday, the monthly jobs number drops. let's tie it together with a bow. all this, of course, may be clouded or overshadowed in some good news by the news, michael that the u.s. and china are close to making a big deal on trade. what's the most important thing for our audience to know this week >> i think probably the big news

is still china, brian. good morning nice to be with you again always china i think what the president has been doing in china is actually pretty important. and we're seeing that reaction in the chinese stock market. the chinese stock market up over 1% today tells you that they are dependent on this trade deal, too. so somehow the president really does seem to be making progress here we haven't made progress in a long time. that's encouraging to wall street that's encouraging to the global economy. it levels the playing field. it will aid commerce bob lighthizer, i've known him for years he's a very good guy he tells us it's a good deal, you can take that to the bank. >> if all the subsidies are removed that would be another leg up for equities. >> i think your point there is well taken how much is already in there i don't think all of it.

i think we were very surprised with the president leaving the table at vietnam that sent a strong message to the negotiations with china that the u.s. is not just here to have sort of their moment in the press and their 15 minutes and to dress this up so trump can have a victory at home that isn't what he did i think we're very serious about that and that's encouraging for something more material to actually happen. in terps of stocks, we're up 11% or so for the year to date in stocks i think you have to continue to be cautious. you want to make sure you own stuff with really good balance sheets i don't think this volatility has left us. >> i don't want to throw water on all our coverage going forward, how much of all that economic data that we just talked about doesn't matter at all until we get a trade deal? >> you know, i think you're right for two reasons. the trade deal is very important. but a lot of the economic data what we'll see in the beige book

and also mentioned target's earnings and kohl's earnings, those are back ward looking earnings about what happened during the retail season we already know that those retail numbers were bad, maybe target or kohl's was able to be the unicorn, but probably not. they're probably not going to be good numbers that was with a consumer worried about a 20% market drop and also worried about a big government shutdown you have a different consumer right now. consumer is still able the consumer is still strong, just having an emotional moment a couple months ago. i think you're right we have to take a look at what happens with china going forward. i think the beige book is important. clearly as long as these unemployment rates stay low, we have a good consumer and economy. >> they have trouble planning because they don't know what the input costs will be because of those tariffs. if they all get removed, doesn't that open it up, let the bulls out of the gate so to speak. >> oh, it will be fabulous i mean, this is one thing where

we have this sort of okay economy that's doing its 2%. and to your point, brian, yes. you get rid of these tariffs you get free trade back on the table. we're better at free trade than any other country in the world yes, that's going to show up in our economy and it's going to be big. >> it is going to be big what's the biggest risk right now, michael it's not always rosy >> well, it's not rosy we've seen for years that you really can't trust the chinese you can't trust the data and any one of these negotiations you know is trust but verify and it's very difficult to verify. it's probably going to take a long time goldman sachs is out this morning saying it's probably going to happen in a three-step process as we go through this and there will be several of them along the way. so i don't think you're goingt see any sort of flag fly to say we're just done and we can go forward. this will take a while, but that we're starting and doing something with the chinese that hasn't been done in decades i think is very important and very

encouraging. >> michael farr, thank you very much always a pleasure. >> thank you time for your morning rbi. given the snowstorm, you may spend time waiting around at airports today the most random and interesting thing you'll hear all day combines two things, air travel and cnbc yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the first f ever flight of the concord supersonic jet. plane was conceived in 196 2 pretty forward thinking at the time another seven years before the first ever commercial flight of the concord which could fly incredible 1,300 miles an hour 14 years from idea to passengers that first flight of the concord went from london to new york it included some boldfaced names like joan collins and a certain british tv host named david frost was on that flight he's a great broadcaster, interview and dad of one guy named will fred frost. pretty cool history that combined supersonic flight and

cnbc, always first in business and maybe air travel worldwide ch"wldde's it for orwi exange." "squawk box" with will coming up next n people, and that for me is what teamwork is all about. you can't do everything yourself. you need someone to guide you and help you make those tough decisions, that's morgan stanley. they're industry leaders, but the most important thing is they want to do it the right way. i'm really excited to be part of the morgan stanley team. i'm justin rose. we are morgan stanley.

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good morning, super sonic lineup coming up today major trade news, china and u.s. reportedly closing in on a trade deal live report from beijing president trump taking knew aim at the fed plus, shakeup at time warner new report says more consolidation and leadership changes are coming as at&t looks to make its mark it is monday, march 4th, 2019. "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ >> announcer: live from new york where business never sleeps,

this is "squawk box. ♪ good morning, everybody, welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc we're live in times square i'm becky quick along with willfred frost. joe and anthony are out today. you'll see the futures that things are in the green. the dow future is close to 70 points the nasdaq up by 27. of course all this comes after gains that we saw on friday as there are these hopes that there will be some sort of a deal that's put together between china and the united states when it comes to trade. these are talks that have been going on for a long time i asked you, mike, how come we're not up more if we think there's a deal being done. >> the potential deal we're now hearing about is in the zone of what the market has been expecting. it's a net positive if it gets done sooner than later and in this general form. i was joking how many times are we going to rally on simil