holdings it's thursday, 4:18. 4-20 falls on a saturday that's not going to stop us. "squawk box" begins right now. good morning welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc cnbc. live at the nasdaq market site i'm andrew ross sorkin along with joe kernan and melissa lee. becky quick is off take a look at u.s. equity futures. we have a big day ahead of us. the s&p off five points. big ipos coming today. we'll talk about the mueller report as well other things will dominate the news let's show you whats happened overnight in asia in terms of equities right now you're looking again at a reds

picture there with everything down not terribly, but down nonetheless, and european equities a little bit of a marginally better picture a redacted version -- will hold a news conference to discuss a report at 9:30 a.m. eastern time the redacted report is kbpd to be released to congress and the public after that news conference we'll get a live report from washington in just a few moments. an update on trade talks the u.s. and china have set tentative dates for two rounds of face-to-face meetings u.s. frayed representative and traezry secretarystein mnuchin the week of april 229th. china's vice premier will come to washington the week of may 6th.

they have licenses in many different states the companies have been in talks for almost two weeks, and as i understand it, they have signed off on the deal both on the canopy size, acreage side in the wee hours of the morning we have the right tosnoo they made an approach to one other multi-state operator here in the united states to use a structure to acquire a company here.

this is as we understand it right now, there will be a peg that will be announced as well we should get the details later on this morning. the last deal was, for instance, pegged at 65% of canopy growth stock to one share of the potential takeover's stock we'll get that detail. effectively, this will peg acreage holdings stock to canopy's stock once that peg is set and presumably, that will have acreage holdings basically track canopy growth's shares once the deal is announced >> you are like an expert. this is amazing. >> we have -- we. >> we do we have the person here. they've done these they've done roll-ups. is this a new name for a roll-up? this is a roll-up sort of.

>> these two companies have been talking for two weeks. >> canopy has one other multi-state operator they figured this out with a bunch of bankers and lawyers in order to get around the restrictions on a u.s.-listed company to acquire another u.s. company here. >> theoretically, that discount to the canadian equivalent companies will now close

would he have seen the multi-state operators when we first reported this deal last night on "fast money." we've seen them trade higher across the board we know that canopy had been on the search desperately maybe for a target in the united states because they've talked to at least one other company and the deal fell through. that deal fell through at the last minute. here we understand that final sign-off happened at around ten to 5:00 in the morning >> they're on, aren't they >> they said they would be here on set in about 50 minutes time. >> awesome great. have some questions? >> i have some -- >> going to be rolling up some stuff. >> i'm deferring to this person. >> she's, leak, yes, i am. >> that doesn't mean that you use the substance. >> what -- did i say that? i didn't say that.

>> it sounds like the investor demand was there i don't know how many people on wall street are using pinterest, but it sounds like investors have been clambering for these shares while the company was on its road show this week. the virtual bulletin board pricing at $19 each. $2 above the range it had been marketing to investors that means p ks interest will raise $1.4 billion and potentially more if underwriters purchase additional shares

eye stack worth about $981 million at the ipo price shares are set to begin trading in about five hours from now or so at that time we'll have a sense as to whether that $19 per share can bring more investors in the door and give the stock a pop today or whether if pinterest was too aggressive on pricing, and that could translate into a more muted performance today >> the markets tends to have a mind of its own on days like this >> a lot of other things -- what about zoom >> i was going to say. in terms of stealing each other's thunder, it's not often you have two relatively high profile ipos on the same day two different exchanges, but nonetheless, and what does that do in terms of the dynamic >> combined these two companies are selling upwards of $2 billion worth of stock that's a lot of issuance taking place in the market.

>> zoom's last round $is billion. ten times the latest private round. >> how long was it ago >> i don't remember off the top of my head >> it was a while allege >> look at what its peers -- how its peers did after ipo's? >> it is an awesome business and an awesome product >> it is like facetime on steroids where. >> conference -- yeah. >> on steroids >> road show apparently he stayed back there while everybody else went out. >> i know people that literally sit in front of a computer basically all day and just hold meetings from 9:00 to 5:00 from the computer using zoom because it's that -- >> supposedly the ceo of zoom

did most of the road shows by -- >> or the cfo. >> saved him a lot of sleep and travel >> we're talking about this kind of stuff five, teb years ago >> do you remember when cisco was doing the telepresence >> there was all sorts of stuff going on >> you would have thought that literally g mail and g mail hang-outs with the video function would have stolen the function, but the quality of what zoom has been able to do is unbelievable >> you wonder if the security level is different >> they're selling to enterprise customers. >> it's hi-def or something? >> i'm telling you >> you need it blurry? >> i need a blurry filter. the audio is really good what do you mean the quality can you smell people >> we could zoom into the show

>> for eight or nine years now welcomes have been hard to face because we're not with each other. >> we could zoom each other. >> we could facetime each other. >> never take a vacation again because you'll just zoom into the show from hawaii or wrefr >> that wouldic ma you are on life easier. >> i'm getting uncomfortable >> thank you >> talking about technology, by the way, guys, talking about technology, this actually is something to behold. the samsung galaxy fold smartphone, which we talked about briefly on the show before, but this -- >> lasted a day, right >> this one opens fully. it hasn't been released yet officially, but journalists have been receiving early review units in day one it looked very cool on day two it looked a lot less cool this is why. they're not performing well under basically any scrutiny

some reviewers are reporting flickering screens, and others see a visible crease it opens up almost like a tab let, folks a unit given to cnbc is completely unusable. this is after 48 hours of use. in a statement samsung said some problems were caused by reviewers who removed a protective layer of almost plastic. sheathing on it thinking it was disposable some people think it's something you whip off the top to keep it from when you first get it sometimes when you have to get an iphone, you gets that piece of plastic you have to take off. the company said it would thoroughly inspect the malfunctioning review union it's. >> it folds skprgs that reason is gone.

>> 100%. >> i would, like, make sure it worked and test it a couple of times. >> a couple of times you think >> wouldn't you? >> it lasts a day? >> if you remember, this company has had other issues with phones >> like fires in your pocket you tm that. >> this is a lesser version of those problems skbro the actual retail versions have some kind of warning on it that says don't peel this off. this is part of the product. once you peel it off, it ruins the product. >> it looks like it should be peeled off, right? >> right >> that's a flaw, it seems it me >> i will say as just somebody who enjoys progress in the

future, if they can get this right -- >> it would be great >> it would be something >> maybe you got to explain it to me too. >> what's that >> it seems like a lot of people in the media are really mad about this press conference. >> they've been just poubding. i want to ask all these questions. now they're going to have a krns at 9:30 to answer questions. judge stint that good that they're going to be able to ask the questions now? i thought that's what they wanted to do >> we're going to do it after -- you can -- i was just questioning. someone mentioned that i thought that's what everybody wanted >> they want to be able to see the report >> let's see it. >> they're going to do the press conference >> spear spinning it >> then they can deliver one physical copy at 11:00 certain guys gets unredacted combs too. >> it's hard to answer questions after -- >> there will be one afterwards,

right? >> another one >> that would be -- >> you guys are going to go. >> we're not going to have a very good work >> a redacted version. redacted version of the mueller report set to be released later today, but will it matter to the markets? that's the conversation we're going to have, and at the top of the hour, we're going to talk to blackstone ceo steven schwar schwartzman. this year's market rally our biggest on "squawk" this morning. as we head to a break, a look at the biggest premarket winners and losers in the dow.

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welcome back to "squawk box. a live look at washington. capitol hill this morning. a redacted version of the mueller report is going to be released later this morning. it is likely to make headlines one way or the other we are joined by eamon from washington about the details good morning >> yep, good morning we know a little bit about what's not going to be in this report we know from the attorney general, bill barr that robert mueller did not find that the

president or anybody in the trump campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy here we also know that mueller didn't take a stand ultimately, didn't make a traditional presidentialal judgment on obstruction of justice that leaves a number of open questions here as to what exactly we will find in this report a couple of things that people have been following this case very carefully will like to know as the day goes forward. one was why was mueller unable to come to a conclusion about obstruction of justice the attorney general says there's going to be evidence on both sides of that evidence. observers will be eager to see what that evidence is on both sides. >> br arr said that nobody worked directly with russians. did they work with other russian cut-out groups in the course of this election interference also, who directed roger stone's contact with wiki leaks? that's something that's again

hanging out there. >> what did -- a lot of unanswered questions here still as we go forward the question of the day, though, is how is this all going to unfold we know that bob barr will hold a press conference at 9:30 this morning over at the department of justice democrats are saying that's playing politics because he is going to not release the mueller report until 1 1:00 a.m. up to capitol hill it's not clear exactly when in the afternoon the public will be able to see it >> the attorney general appears to be waging a media campaign on behalf of president trump.

>> the attorney general has taken unprecedented steps to spin mueller's nearly two-year investigation. >> so, andrew, this was contentious all the way through. it appears that even the roll-out of the mueller report and the format, that will be contentious as well. >> what we set this segment up before the break, we said, you know, will the headlines that come out of this report today have an impact on the markets? have an impact on investors? speculate for us in terms of just to the ebs tent you think that there are things in there that people could read that could impact the markets one way or the other >> look, i think there's two things that would impact the markets here one is the idea of whether or not this would impact the president's 2020 re-election kpanss if there's some sense here that there's some bombshell that we weren't expecting and that changes the projection for trump 2020, ithink that might impact the markets, and then ultimately if there's something that changes the trajectory in terms of impeachment in the

short-term, democrats are backing away from the impeachment and nancy pelosi, but if there's some bombshell in here that indicates that democrats might suddenly start to ramp up impeachment proceedings, i think that could impact the markets as well >> we'll have to wait and see. we just don't have any idea. the huler team and the department of justice has been almost entirely leak-free throughout this entire process that's why everyone will be so eager to read this report today. >> just in terms of reading the tea leaves, i've seen some of the democratic candidates, the ones that are out there talking for 2020 elections saying we need to move on, which makes me think that they're starting to think that maybe they need to move on. you saw the poll did it change your view of trump? did it make you like him more,

like him less, doesn't care? i think 65% said that it came out and didn't change anything, and it was low numbers on -- the other thing is, you know -- >> hasn't come out yesterday we want to wait and see what happens today. snoo the reason it's hard to prove criminal intent is how do you know when trump was just venting and mad that this thing was going on, which he called a witch hunt all along how do you know it's obstruction, proving criminal intent that he wanted it to stop just not being toeltly po'ed about the whole process because there was nothing there. that's why -- >> it's very difficult

you have to get inside the person's head. with this president it's particularly difficult because so much of what -- >> i know you understood what you just said, though. if he is not blocking it for a reason, i know that you don't need a crime to have obstruction. >> if there's nothing. >> you've been talking about it for two and a half years >> there's no -- zoo still have stormy and everything else bad behavior >> bad behavior. >> i'm just suggesting to you that the headlines -- >> people knew about a lot of bad behavior before the election >> to joe's point, joe is making the point right now, the trump base is not likely to be moved by anything we learned today

>> juliany was out last night. the communication between barr and the white house ahead of this report, this idea of a rebuttal report that may come out right after it by the way, joe, if it -- if the report, you know, is supposed to make president trump look so great, which the president has said now why would you have this rebuttal report ready to go, just speak to that >> what we do know from the "new york times"'s reporting that the department of justice have engaged in conversation about what's in this report. critics will sooeds on that and say the department of justice is being unfair here because they're letting the white house know in advance and they can prepare the best possible political response i know from my own rorkt with the trump legal steam that they have prepared a rebuttal report. we believe it's somewhere in the

30-page range. they're brpd to release some or all of that today. >> let's stick to no collusion and no obstruction >> don't assume it's going to be all defense either because the offense is going to start coming with we need a grand jury to see how this all started and they're going to go on offense on this >> all right all right. >> thank you >> you bet >> a lot more. you're going to have a busy day, my friend. >> see you in a couple of hours and see what's in this thing >> is it weekend tonight >> i'm going to declare it

i'm off tomorrow a lot of people are off tomorrow i'm going to declare it early. >> first it's your weekend and then 4:20 on saturday, dude. >> i don't know anything about that 4-20 on saturday ask melissa. >> i don't know anything about it >> you know melissa. she'll fill you in she will fill you in >> anyway -- >> i'm dm her. >> thanks. coming up, more privacy problems for facebook the company now admits it uploaded e-mail contacts for 1.5 million users inadvertently. we've got the details next later, blackstone ceo steve schwarzman will talk earnings, trade, and where the company is putting money to work right now. "squawk box" will be right back. [knocking]

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here we go again more data privacy problems for facebook the social media joointd giant said it inadvertently uploaded the e-mail contacts of 1.5 million new users. the issue stemds from a feature that helped users find friends after a redesign the language explaining that feature was removed, but the feature itself was not >> it's in the process of

deleting them. facebook shares not moving much, but this is another black eye for this company, which has been fairly impervious to these sort of incremental -- >> did you read the wire this week 15 months in hell? >> that is actually a worthy read it's a fascinating inside look at what's gone on in that company in the last year and a half >> the stock barely moved. in another time period it might have moved a lot >> coming up, ipo countdown. pinterest set to debut today there's another public debut that's different from the big unicorns going public this year. this year is profitable. details next as we head to break. yesterday's s&p 50000 winners and losers this is my headquarters.

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good morning welcome back to "squawk box. take a look at u.s. equity futures at this hour we are in the red at the moment. nasdaq off ten points. s&p 500 off about three points don't know if that's a great sign, a bad sign, a good sign for how people are going to be thinking about all these ipo's you don't want to have to start the day and then -- >> 1%. >> all-time highs, and we're down 34 points >> i know. i'm just saying i want the smallest things. if you are going to have a big ipo day, you'll want the wind at your back. >> it's -- >> pinterest, it's -- >> hopefully, that's what i'm saying >> on the dow. >> hopefully things will move around.

a net loss of $63 million last year and revenues of $750 million, $600 million. it's expected to trade under the ticker symbol pins, and the ceo will be on squawk alley once those shares begin trading revenue. it's going to happen around 11:00 today. >> revenue is certain. their loss was down -- cut in half >> they're unlike lyft and we'll see what happens with uber they economically at least are in -- >> zoom is profitable, right >> zoom is profitable. the other big ipo of the morning, video conference company zoom we were talking about it earlier. we should do the whole show over zoom pricing at $36 a share already above the increased

range of $2 to $32 values it at $9.2 billion. about nine times its last private valuation in 2017. i worry there may be too much enthusiasm about zoom. >> why >> you don't want people -- you try to -- the whole thing it s about managing expectations. zoom, that will trade at the nasdaq under the ticker zm is bucking the trend of recent tech ipo's and that it is profitable. reporting net income of just under $7.6 million on sales of 330.5 million dollars. we should tell you the ceo will also be on squawk on the street later today as well. that is a company that will begin trading right here on the nasdaq >> he was convinced somebody was going to buy that company before the ipo, meaning one of the big tech giants.

>> now they'll have to pay more. >> take them out of the -- >> it's like when you do your taxes, it's a meaningful -- >> getting money back or sending money in it depends on a few line items, right? it is profitable you just wonder, the margins are slim you think like it's $14 million next time, and then -- or does it go back to profitable or unprofitable >> are they underway >> you know, because we haven't really had a chance to talk to the ceo, we will see you at 11:00 when he speaks >> okay. good snoo that's the whole point of zoom you can zoom another person. >> at 9:30 10:00 a.m. >> i'm definitely out of that.

i don't want any part of that. >> we have a segment called what's working, and at the same time if we know what's working, we'll find out what's not working. >> never mind. it never was on -- never was the on the apprentice. it's a what's working segment. let's start with individual sectors and then we'll go to the market you think semiconductors are working. >> the big thing that's working the markets right now is semiconductors i mean, they are making all-time highs despite the fact that the month over month or year over year sales of semiconductors are still slowing. one interesting thing, actually, maybe that's not working, is if you look at the ratio of semiconductor performance of energy performance energy typically should follow semiconductors because it's a risk on trade. it's a global economy trade.

energy is actually lagging one of the questions we have to ask is which one of the sectors is right here, which one is wrong? i think semiconductors are right. this global economy is recovering, and energy has got some catching up to do lowests do -- this time the expectations are down 7.2% that's double the typical 3.5% or 4% cut to earnings revisions. >> the bar organ energy is set exceptionally low, and, in fact, the average energy stock is pricing in oil price of around $50 a barrel the strip is about $61 the 12-0 strip there's definitely some value to be had there

>> energy is being priced at about the same valuation metrics as it was when crude oil was trading $26 a barrel i think the stocks are cheap my dad that was a portfolio manager used to tell me good things tend to happen to cheap stocks >> old tech too, right >> it it's done very well since the late december low that we identified following our october 2nd trade or sell signal >> you have not been shy about being bullish?

>> you if think it's going down, be bullish if you think it's going down, bb be bearish but make a call. there are people that talk out of both sides of their mouth, no matter what the equity markets do, they can say, see, i told you that was going to happen if you make calls, you're going to be wrong. the trick is to be wrong quickly for a small loss of capital. >> 3,000 near-term on the s&p. most people say -- some of the people you are talking about, but they say 2,900, probably seeing the best levels then it goes to 3,000, and they'll say 3,000 probably here and then 3,100 3,100 is nar fair. thaes what we see. skbro they weren't listening to the message in the market, and that clearly flashed a sell signal

longer term, secular bull markets last 15 plus years we'll call it ten years into it. this thing ought to have another five to seven years. >> do you have a target like that >> we do have a 3,000 tarkt on the s&p. i think on the up side, there's up side risk to it more so than the down side risk the reason being is that the same thing that really made the market reaction so pronounced back in december to the down side, the same thing could actually drive it here to the up side if you look at the average hedge fund positioning, it's still low.

>> fundamental investors will be forced to step in as wrshl. >> what do you think will work for what's not working, and how the worst performing sector on the s&p 500 just went negative for the year in yesterday's session. within health care, you've identified a subsector that you like >> that's right. probably one of the most promising, one of the most compelling trends within health care at the moment is this new -- is this area of gene therapy. this is the potential to cure previously uncurable diseases. not just having the life-long treatment. we're talking about things like sickle cell disease, and certain cell therapies can actually treat and successfully cure a cancer yesterday, for example, the health care sector was selling off. some of the gene therapy, biotech names that we monitor have more selling off as well. i think that is very much overdone.

kploe honeywell at $2 a share. revenue also beating wall street forecasts. the company raising its full year outlook good news for the industrials here up 1.9%. ure watching "squawk box" on cnbc

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today is the big day for elan musk and the s.e.c. a judge gave the two parties two weeks to work out their dispute. phil lebeau joins us now with more >> joe, i wonder if they put on their reasonableness pants that's what the judge told them to do two weeks ago. i thought that was quite a quote from the judge she also said work it out. here's what's going on between the s.e.c. and the attorneys for elan musk. at least as much as we know because we haven't seen an

updated filing with the court in the last two weeks remember, it was two weeks ago that we were at federal court in manhattan. we saw elan musk walk into before his hearing he didn't have a whole lot to say. a lot of people were yelling, hey, what do you think of the s.e.c., an "what do you think of the s.e.c." you knew he wanted to say something but he didn't. the judge said, you have two weeks for the two sides to spend at least an hour together. see if you can come up with some way to work out the communication rules in terms of what elon musk is allowed to communicate, whether it's via twitter, other social media platforms when it comes to the financials of tesla. here is what elon said when he left court two weeks ago >> very impressed with the judge. judge nathan is an outstanding representative of the judiciary system >> do you think you can work this out with the fcc over the next two weeks >> most likely. >> most likely well, we still haven't seen a filing, so we'll see something i

would suspect by the end of the day, guys. so, this is a busy week for elon musk the s.e.c. contempt case deadline comes today, whether or not he works out a final agreement, that remains to be seen then on monday, tesla holds an autonomous day with analysts and large investors out in california and wednesday after the bell, tesla will report its first quarter earnings take a look at shares of tesla, report out today that one of the larger institutional shareholders of tesla has cut its position in the company. we'll get more details on that, guys take a look at how much they have cut back. there you see shares of tesla. we say this is bad news, this stock will be under pressure, it hits that 268 range and then it comes right back. >> all right, you're right, phil thanks we'll watch it all day. coming up, a shakeup at jp morgan we'll tell you about the new potential candidates to replace jamie diamond when he eventually steps down

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welcome back to "squawk box. who knew we were back on tv. did you know we were back on tv? >> no, i was waiting for you. >> thanks, guys. any way, an executive shuffle at

jp morgan happening. we should talk about the bank putting two women with decades of experience at the top of the list to one day succeed jamie diamond as ceo jennifer piepszak as new chief financial officer as of may 1st. she was running the credit card business might successfully i might add. outgoing cfo-marianne lake will be ceo overseeing auto loans, mortgages and credit cards they were criticized for lack of diversity at the hearing on capitol hill last week marianne lake largely expected, i would say today, to be one of the potential successors for jamie diamond. taking her from the cfo role and operating role puts her more poll position to ultimately run the bank. >> i was going to say, the hearings last week and the issue about diversity, that's not why this whole thing happened. it's probably more because wells

fargo is looking for a ceo and marianne lake might have been a candidate and they wanted to put her in position to take over jamie's role, so they put her in operational role. she didn't have any operational experience. >> jamie diamond and those other ceos were asked whether their successor would be a woman, nobody raised their hand that was not a knock on marianne lake, it was a knock on the question who wants to say publicly who their successor will be. coming up, we are on tv, folks, our squawk maker of the morning, doesn't always feel that way. >> cable with a ticker. >> steve schwarzman, look at him, the big guy, joining us to discuss the latest quarter, china, much more and some big breaking news in just a moment

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joe kernen along with andrew ross sorkin and melissa lee in for becky quick, who i think will be back shortly we're off tomorrow, good friday. u.s. equity futures at this hour are down a little bit, down 41 points on the dow. down 14 on the nasdaq and indicated down 5 on the s&p. here is what's making headlines at this hour dow component travelers just out with its quarterly results adjusted quarterly profit of 283 comes in 9 cents above forecasts. they saw higher gains from underwriting travelers raising its dividend the shares not reacting too much in the market. honeywell, earned 1.92 for the first quarter compared to consensus of $1.83 and beat on the top line, they raised full year forecast and look at the popup 1.9% premarket pinterest was priced at $19 a share above the initially projected range of 15 to 17.

much more on the pinterest ipo coming up. black stone out with its first quarter earnings as well as a major announcement, breaking news literally as we speak and we have the man behind it all, steve schwarzman, ceo and chairman of blackstone right here to tell us all about it we can walk through the earnings, but to me is the transformation structurally what you're announcing this morning the company moving to be a c corp. >> that's true, andrew this is big news for us. we've been a publicly traded parter inship since we went public in 2007 and as part of that, you flowed through all your income, but the people who receive it get something called a k1 statement, for taxes, which is very irksome and disqualifies being able to be owned by a huge number of potential buyers so, for example, right now there are about $12 trillion in mutual

funds and index funds. >> they can't own blackstone at all. >> they can't own it, well, not all of them. we can sell to 4.5 trillion out of 12. >> okay. >> but if we make this change to be a corporation, which is like every other corporation, then we can double the number of people. we still have a few left who can, but i think that will change over time so if you look at the ability to have people buy your stock, double the number and we'll grow to more. that's just in the u.s there are people who are non-u.s., in foreign countries, they can't buy us either and so this kind of change should result in very large increases, i think. >> you long talked about how you felt that you were undervalued, especially from a multiple perspective. >> right. >> how much of that is in the calculus of shifting this structure?

>> i think that's really an important part you know, we've been included by morgan stanley in the top 30 companies in the united states we score way high compared to almost every other company in terms of growth and earnings and we have a multiple that's 30% discount to the s&p. really sort of mystical. makes no sense. >> let's put some context, though, for viewers who don't necessarily understand the difference between a partnership and a c corp. and why you originally wanted to be a partnership. there used to be tax advantages to be a partnership, some of those advantages, i don't want to say gone away, the mix has shifted in large part because of the new tax regime in the past year kkr made the same shift. you were telegraphing and talking about it so a lot of investors understood this was on your mind who was paying attention. >> they were waiting to see what we would do. and in -- when we went public,

we just flowed all our income through. and now we're changing the mix of our income. we already pay a lot of income taxes at the firm on all of our current income, and our current income is going up. >> speak to the true tax costs in terms of how you're projecting what it's going to cost you, how your tax bill, what your tax bill is now and what it becomes as a c corp. >> our tax bill will go up somewhere in the 3, 4, 5% over the next five years and then higher after that. and the reason we're doing, accepting that, is we think that the value for our shareholders of our stock appreciating should be more higher than that loss of current income >> and so you're effective tax rate today is what as a partnership? >> i don't know the exact number frankly. >> i think doing some of the

math that i was looking at it's probably around 7%. >> yeah. >> so your view is you think it's going to go up another 3, 4%, up to 10, 11%? >> yeah. >> just trying to understand the dynamics of some of the math that i imagine. >> right the first few years it's quite low. it's a few percent, whether it's 2, 3, 4, something like that. >> you say the first few year. what happens in the outer years? >> well, it goes up over time where it should be in the low double digits, that's our current thinking >> okay. >> so how's business how's the economy? what's your overall view >> well, our business is pretty amazing. and we just raised $126 billion this year. and that's a huge number in the alternative area we're the largest by far of everybody in that business and we're deploying capital as well and so, you know, the

environment is working surprisingly well for people like us. prices are a little high, but we basically have a chance to fish for deals all over the whole world. >> you have expanded into all sorts of new business lines, and as you said, been raising money. literally the money under management has almost doubled in the past two, three years now? >> yeah. we've increased six times since going public. >> my question to you, i feel like i've known you for a long time, back in the day when you were much smaller you might have said size can be the enemy of performance. how do you feel about that today? >> well, you know, the reason we still perform exceptionally well is that we're not putting all the money in one strategy. that's how you get hurt. we keep inventing new ways to invest, new things to invest in, new places to invest and as you do that, you can keep

every one of your strategies at exactly the right size so our private equity business, our fund will have the largest fund in the world. and that enables us to do deals that most other firms could never think about. >> is there an upper limit, though, for a particular business line? meaning, do you say to yourself in the private equity space, once we get to this number we can't do it. this $100 billion fund, they say, that's going to be tough to make it really work. >> i think that's true, andrew there's a right sizing for the amount of money that you can handle you have to remember, size of some of the funds has grown, but the reason for that is that markets since the global financial crisis have gone up, what, 3, 4 times and so the size of everything is bigger the size of companies that you can buy is bigger. >> so you get initial popup of 4% and just keeps going, looks

like it's headed up to 8%. >> as we're speaking. >> so you probably -- your confident to if president. you probably were a proponent of the tax reform and the deregulation do you attribute some of the positive momentum in the economy to those moves and some of the companies that you own, can you point to concrete examples where either lower taxes or less regulation has improved business for your -- the things that you own? >> well, it's pretty clear this was a stimlative -- >> was it a front-end loaded sugar high >> it was front-end loaded on capital expenditures, but i think a lot of it isn't just the tax aspects, which were done in the corporate area because we were really quite uncompetitive globally but the decreases in regulation

is really what has -- >> you can point concretely to some of your businesses where it's just obvious that helped. >> we're seeing it vis-a-vis the firm itself. you see it everywhere. and that doesn't mean there's some kind of unilateral disarmament going and we're doing irresponsible things. >> has it opened you up to new investments that you might not otherwise have looked at but for the regulation changes >> we're seeing that the cost of expanding into areas is lower. and there is a positive sense in almost everything you do that you're not going to be inhibited for reasons that make no sense you know, part of the things i'm on the hospital board, you know, over the last ten years some of the costs of compliance of the same hospital doing the same thing without any problems have gone up hundreds of millions of

dollars to the extent that you reverse that, you're not impacting medical care but there's more money for nurses. >> look at what's going with health care today though in terms of publicly traded companies. worst performing sector of this year and it's really being dogged by political concerns by medicare for all, et cetera, since you sit on the board of a hospital, is that going to be a cloud over how you serve customers? >> that whole sector is probably the hardest set of problems we're facing in the country. >> steve, you're seeing some organic revenue growth at this point. income inequality, are you optimistic that the current environment that we're in will start to relieve some of the social ills that are now becoming so large that some people think we need to do something or there will be some type of revolution my point is that the wage gap in china is starting to narrow

where we can start make sense to have companies here again. so some of what we've been subjected to for the past 30 years, maybe some of those pressures are starting to lessen and maybe we don't need to start questioning capitalism and start talking about reforming capitalism larry thinks that conscientious -- i thought that was an objector, but he used it as a conscientious capitalism. you've seen the debate where are you on this? >> well, i think the numbers tell the tale. half of our population in the united states in terms of the work force is living paycheck to paycheck they basically don't have savings. and they don't believe, because it's probably true, they don't have the same opportunities that people of my generation had. and unless we solve this

problem, this is not optional to solve. >> right what are the answers, though >> it must be addressed. >> but it's under the -- there's capitalism and then we work tax policy and education and everything under the capitalist umbrella we don't suddenly start thinking that we have the wrong economic system, do we? >> i think this is a governance problem in the united states. >> right. >> what we have is less an issue of income inequality than income insufficiency for the bottom 50% of the society >> but is redistribution the answer or is organic growth? >> there are always answers. what we need is basically a marshall plan for the middle class. and you know, you have to address this in three different areas. one, you have to get more cash to these people. they simply aren't earning enough and you can do that through minimum wage changes that only affects interestingly about 15%

of the population. >> when you say you can do that through minimum wage, through policy as you've seen a number of big companies including amazon have raised their own minimum wages. are you look at blackstone portfolio companies and saying we're going to raise the minimum wage on our own? >> andrew, i look at this as a systemic problem this is not anecdotal, this is like half of our society is v r severely disadvantaged we can't allow that to continue. so that means you need policy solutions. >> you would advocate for higher minimum wage >> i would i think what happens with that you not only address that group, there is a flex on top of it where you have to increase other people i think we should do that. i think secondly, melissa, we've now slipped from number one in primary, secondary education when i was young, back in the

medieval times, and we're now down depending upon who is measuring it number 30 or 35 in the world. our graduates simply aren't competitive on a global economy. you can't do all the tasks you need to do if you're number 30 or 35. and so, that needs to be -- >> we have to figure that out whether it's breaking the teacher's unions. >> do you have a third item? >> yes >> what's the third one? >> we have to figure out how to fix education. >> you have to have some type of technical training for people who don't go to college. and they have great models in germany. there are all kinds of things. one thing you can do is each state could get, you know, some allocation from federal budget and the business communities in those states have to have links with the high schools and start training the people --

>> what about public schools, steve? how do we fix the public schools? with charter schools with choice? you just tax people more and throw it at federally public school -- >> joe, everybody has different ideas. one thing i think we should do is we should make teachers pay no tax i think teachers is where the key is and we have to address getting the best people -- it's not just money. and you can see from these strikes people don't have enough money. but we also have to make teachers a special class in our society. if we really want to change, we have to advantage them. >> very bold, bold thoughts from steve schwarzman this morning. >> that's very interesting. >> before we let you go, two broad questions. one is about the market itself, which is where are we? where are we are you optimistic are you positive going through the rest of this year? >> i would say we have had a

good run there's no doubt now, what happens -- >> what am i supposed to take away from that >> that's past tense. >> what happened we basically had a fourth quarter, i hate to say it, the media was declaring we were going into a recession we never thought so. i think i said it publicly. >> yep, i remember >> and we didn't so, what happened is we overshot on the way down significantly and when the recession didn't happen, when china didn't fall off a cliff the way people were also saying, now it's popped up. and it's at a pretty good level. the idea that we're going to sort of keep increasing at the same rate doesn't make a lot of sense to me. the economy is good, but it's maybe 2.5, down from where it was in the 3s. >> you were in the turn in china, it sounds like, up tick in data? >> i was in china a few weeks ago and met with the head of the

central bank and he said, look, we've done a lot of interesting things to stimulate the economy. and he said we've basically turned so we're not concerned about that. >> so you guys do have interests obviously in public markets. >> we do >> and your thought is that right now we're already where -- we're as high as we're going >> i think we've had a good year >> a good year it's the spring. >> we're up 16, 17%. >> right. >> the nasdaq is up, what, 20. this is not sort of nothing. >> sounds like you're telling people to take the money. >> oh, i didn't say that you can't -- >> that's why i'm asking you. >> the rate of increase i think has to slow down. >> steve might be more interested in preservation of capital than growing capital i would say. is there some truth to that with 10, 12 billion

we still need to make our 10, 12 billion? >> well -- >> i would be in key bills or muni bonds, but that's just me. >> well, i do a lot of my investing -- we have restrictions on what we can do because we know so much. so i keep a lot of money in index funds and that's been like a very good thing over time. and i'm not selling my index funds. >> starts with black. >> that much i would say. >> you can put some money in that other company that starts with black because their guy thinks it's going to be a melt-up. >> i watched larry the other day. that was a great interview you'll did larry is always very opinionated and very positive. >> that's where i got the conscientious capitalism. >> always has something to say on things. but that was good. >> guess what, there's been a bar sighting apparently just moments ago there was actually a camera

ready when he left his home ahead of this morning's news. >> see through the trees. >> the conference is scheduled -- news conference scheduled at 9:30 a.m. there it is. we briefly left lori loughlin's house and went over to the barr's house and we're stationed outside there now. we'll have live coverage and reaction to that. >> steve schwarzman, all day right here on cnbc >> steve schwarzman, thank you for being here and bringing us the big news we'll watch, as we said, the stock moving materially this morning on this news so good luck. >> okay, thanks. coming up, other stocks to watch this morning, including two highly anticipated ipos, pinterest and zoom set to begin trading today after pricing last night. we'll talk about the ipo rh us with nasdaq president. stay tuned you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc

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"squawk box" futures right now indicated down 33 points on the dow, down 16 1/2 or so on the nasdaq, s&p indicated off about 5 points. coming up, a few names on the move ahead of the opening bell by the way, including blackstone moving big-time after that news that they're going to become a c corp then, later we are expecting

the mueller report to be released later today will it sway the market and president trump's economic agenda we'll discuss that and debate it "squawk" returns after this. >> announcer: time now for today's aflac trivia question. in the show "happy days," what was the kema of fonzie's motorcycle the answer when cnbc "squawk box" continues no. uh uh. is it homeowner's insurance? no... uhuhuhuh! is it duck insurance? nope. ahhh! do they pay me money directly when i get sick or injured? yeah. aflac! you got it. you know aflac! boom! get help with expenses health insurance doesn't cover. get to know us at... aflac dot com. every day, visionaries are creating the future. ♪ so, every day,

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>> announcer: now the answer to today's aflac trivia question. in this show, "happy days," what was the make of fonzie's motorcycle the answer, the triumph trophy t.r. 5 the motorcycle sold last year at auction for $179,000 time for this morning's movers dom joins us with more >> good morning. shares of snap which are parent company of snapchat down around 2% or so right now on roughly 100,000 shares of premarket volume the social media platform was downloaded by analysts to a neutral. it wasn't outperformed they kept the price target at $12.25 they say the run-up in stock recently leaves little room

towards profitability. stabilization of user growth trends are there snap reports earns april 23rd after the closing bell also shares of pepsico fractionally higher than 2,500 shares of volume upgraded by analysts at goldenman sacks to a neutral it was 111 they sited pepsico's better sales growth trends reported in results yesterday and increased confidence that momentum in snacks is likely to continue those shares moving as well. then we'll end with shares of morgan stanley down in the premarket very thin premarket value. it was downgraded from citi at a buy. they sited the outperformance of the stock on earnings day and relative to the industry overall. so those shares ones to watch on the move back over to you. >> dom, thanks still to come on "squawk box," nelson griggs of nasdaq

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american express just out with quarter results adjusted quarterly profit comes to 201 a share. revenue came in slightly below forecasts. they did reiterate full-year forecast for eps as well as revenue. the shares right now are down by 2 1/2% we'll continue tracking this throughout the morning joe? pinterest and zoom set to begin trading today. leslie picker joins us now with more on the ipo rush, two for one. >> two for one, lots to follow today, joe both ipos pricing above the range they had been marketing to investors. pinterest setting its ipo at $19 a share, two bucks higher. zoom going with 36 per share, above. but that range had been boosted earlier in the week. now combined these two companies are offering $2.2 billion today and they will be debuting with similarly sized market caps. while they're both technically tech companies and may attract similar investors, their business models are actually quite different.

pinterest allows users to share various how-tos and other forms of inspiration their revenue is ad based. zoom, on the other hand, generates revenues from subscriptions sold to companies that want its video conference technology because of this distinction, pinterest and zoom have somewhat different financial profiles pinterest's top line growth is about 60% a year zoom's is more than doubling pinterest is still posting losses, although they were cut in half last year. zoom, on the other hand, turned a profit in 2018, posting about 8 million in net income. they're also differing ages, of course, and have different types of private fundraising profiles and so forth. >> leslie, thank you stay with us. joining us now nelson griggs the president of the nasdaq stock exchange nelson, we look at these, we looked at lyft and set this sets the tone for the ipo market. lyft hasn't been doing well. we're getting two other high profiles what should we expected here >> well, i think you look at the two that are going today they have a lot more public

imparables to benchmark against where lyft is doing something very different they're the first company in that sector in that space doing amazing things changing a lot of different parts of the environment they're in so i think you have benchmarks makes zoom comparable to z scaler and class 2016 with the new tane-x, a lot of good benchmarks and zoom has pretty amazing metrics. >> it sounds like the message to the average investor, to any investor out there then is when a company is truly disruptive in an industry that may be labeled as a new one, we don't really know what the valuation is for a while. >> i think that's right. i think you have to look at time frames and what your investor's horizon is and what you're thinking that company may or may not do over the long-term. lyft won the ipo process, thinking about how do i have a great first month and that's why i'm raising $2 billion they're thinking about how to change the world and do things over years we get a lot of us in the press,

everywhere think about the short-term versus long-term sometimes. >> let me ask you a different question then, the investor profile for somebody investing in lyft relative to somebody investing in pinterest or zoom, totally different? should be different? if you're a retail investor and you're watching right now -- >> retail investors owning individual stocks and having be a large part of the portfolio is not the norm by any stretch. usually if you go retail investor into a stock like a new ipo, that will be a very small percent of their portfolio yes, profile will be different. >> mutual fund manager of a growth fund for instance and looking at all these qualifying as growth companies. are you feeling burned from lyft at all are you feeling cautious because of the way lyft traded >> if you look at how many ipos talk out to california pricing for perfection, company wants to maximize the amount of money they raise, they want to give something to investors, that does not happen in a magical formula. it's an art. >> do you look at the lyft ipo

and think there were mistakes made and let me just say where i could posit at least that the critics would say there were mistakes made. they could argue that the underwriters including jp morgan were allocating stock to people who were prepared to sell it on day one. we had keith meister on our set right here literally 48 hours after say, i bought because i was looking at capital flows not because i was looking at the company, but yes i sold effectively on the first day so, a, is that a problem b, there is a view that when you open that book that you might have wondered, this is on the nasdaq, maybe should have waited an hour, let things settle out a little bit because there was a little bit, too much excitement at the very tip pi top in the beginning. i mean, when you do a postmortem on these things, how do you look at it? and i think is it possible to say it worked brilliantly because i think we're standing here having these questions. >> i'm not going to comment about lyft specifically, but if you look at the amount of ipos

price below their offering size about 25%. how many price above their range about 15%. most are in that middle spot somewhere. our part of the process is really to open the stock when the underwriter says to open the stock. they're in control of that process. a lot of companies go through volatility i think the press report obviously on the ones that do things that keep going up and up there's a lot of companies that don't perform from a stock price perspective right out of the gate >> what do you know about short interest because that became also a big topic and debate within the context of the lyft ipo which is to say within the provisions of early investors at the ipo on lyft that they were technically not supposed to be able to short the stock, then you had allegations that morgan stanley was coming in and creating problems and trying to sell some kind of instrument that would allow these investors to do that what do you know about that? and how are you thinking about that relative to these next iteration of ipos. >> there's two topics in there and i'll mention them broadly.

every ipo has a lock-out provision negotiated between the underwriter and the company and that's something that's been around for a long period of time stocks can be shorted after a company goes public. >> right. >> short sales are not disclosed who -- 13 close, loan buyers, we have been advocating at nasdaq to disclose short sale interest. so at this point, not a lot is known about in terms of who might have been shorting and probably won't be known for a long period of time, but trades are marked short, but it's more on the broker deal level. >> how do you feel, though, about the underwriter community, which is also in the trading community, offering these kind of swap products at the open >> i think all of this is pretty early days in terms of the investigation. i think if you look at or not the investigation but the topic. i think lockups are being discussed now quite a bit. >> more broadly, though, you think oh, there's so much optimism and excitement over these unicorns going public. that's great for market sentiment. if they don't trade well, they

could dampen market sentiments how important is pinterest and zoom to not erase but overshadow what's gone on with lyft >> i watch cnbc most of my days when i'm in my office and there's been more talk about zoom and pinterest than i've ever seen you talk about ipos. so there's a lot of attention on these two deals, but at the end of the day, we're going at nasdaq alone have over 90 ipos in the first half of the year. a deal or two deals the market does not make, but they certainly have an impact i think you have to compare them to how the other ones are going to follow them, their comparables will be doing so the next wave of enterprise deals, how well zoom does, there's a gauge there, but they're not going to impact -- pinterest will not impact those if that makes sense. >> what do you think these deals mean for or say about the viability of the private markets? you see pinterest coming out, even though they're pricing above the range, it's still a level below the latest private round two years ago with lyft right now in the public markets it's trading pretty close to the

value it was in the private markets. are we seeing some sort of disconnect that could kind of shake up the viability of the private markets as it relates to these companies looking to go public >> i don't think so. i think fairly well the audience does that the valuations you hear about the private marketplace are not always a like for like because there's different types of class of shares in the private marketplace. >> right. >> we're seeing a very vibrant private market, naz dam private market, all time records of how many transactions are going through that platform. it's still very active i don't think a deal or two changes that you read about is not the valuation on a comparable basis because of the share clauses. >> thanks for having me. be sure to catch zoom ceo today on "squawk alley". all right. we're awaiting the redacted and the superredacted and the partially redacted mueller report i don't know whether super is the word, but one is redacted,

one is less redacted what will the market reaction be we'll discuss. later, breaking news, retail sales due out at 8:30 this morning. "squawk box" will be right back. measure up?

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welcome back to "squawk box. 283 a share coming in 9 cents abovestmen abovestments they saw lower catastrophe losses and higher gains from underwriting travelers raised its dividend and shares up .2% right now. honey well quarterly results earning 1.92 a share first quarter. compared to 1.83 honey well raised its full year forecast those shares up by 1.3%. and american express just out with quarterly numbers adjusted quarterly profit came to 2.01 a share, 2 cents above estimates. mx reiterated full year forecasts shares down 1.2%. coming up, preview of the mueller report what it will do to markets today? we'll show you what's going on ahead of the market open 47 off, the nasdaq off about 17 points big ipo day today. got pinterest and zoom coming to market

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special counsel robert mueller's highly anticipated redacted report expected to be released this morning but not before we have a press conference at 9:30 a.m. with attorney general william barr. eamon javers joins with more you have your tirkts >> they're doing that in an interesting way today. they're only inviting the typical department of justice press corp. over there, the

people with the hard passes to get into the doj everyday to keep out the hordes of reporters who would want to go to that press conference later today of course, they're going to be doing the press conference before the report is released to the public, so the reporters won't really have anything to ask the attorney general questions about. this is an opportunity for the attorney general to sort of put his stamp on this before the report hits the public later this afternoon so, at this point, we know a lot less about what's going to bei the report than we know about what's not going to be in the report take a look at some of the categories here of what we know we won't see today first of all, we're not going to see indictment recommendations or any sealed indictments here being unsealed today from the mueller investigation. the attorney general has said those are not part of this we're also not going to see any allegation of conspiracy or coordination by anyone with the trump campaign with russia or the president himself with russia the attorney general is also ruled out that piece of this we're not going to see robert mueller here taking any kind of formal conclusion on the question of obstruction of

justice. did the president obstruct justice or not what we're told by the ag is that there will be evidence on both sides of that question. also, we'll see a number of redactions, classified material, grand jury secrecy material, material that could impact the reputations of third parties and any information that could impact on going investigations so, expect to see some redactions here and expect to see some questions finally being answered today when we do see that report later on this afternoon, joe >> all right thanks we'll talk more about this now the public will get the redacted version today. the full mueller report as was pointed out, hopefully the i.t. people at the justice department are ready for the downloading onslaught we're going to get following william barr, attorney general, following his presser at 9:30 is when it is. could the full version cause a ripple in the markets? joining us to discuss chuck gabriel and james petakukas.

we hear so much it's not the beginning. it's not the end of the beginning it's the beginning -- i don't know that expression is from here on out, i know the democrats will continue along investigation lines. i think the republicans are now going to use the opportunity to press for a grand jury for how this whole thing got started in the first place, chuck do you think that's going -- be duelling investigations again as we move forward from here. >> yeah. joe, it seems a little bit like, you know, in "game of thrones" with the starks and the lansteres fighting over the iron throne when the socialists knight king bernie sanders is kind of marching towards the wall so, but it's not clear at all that the white house necessarily wants to move beyond this. the president seems to thrive on confrontation and we shall see i think aemon was right when he

said the markets will only care if this seems to materially affect the president's chances next november, and that seems unlikely. >> that's something to be talking about lasting through november of 2020 i mean, that was what previously -- now you're saying does it hurt his chances for re-electi re-election. it used to be does it hurt his chances from finishing the first term that's a switch, isn't it? >> progress. >> do i get to use "game of throne" references, too? >> absolutely. no nudity. no nudity. >> only mild nudity in the show. this will not be a jakaris moment listen, it's my sense that the wall street consensus is that the president is a narrow favorite for re-election it would take startling new evidence i think to change that thesis do we expect to see startling new evidence i don't. i think we'll see how close the collusion stuff got to criminal conspiracy there will probably be some sort of uncomfortable nuggets of

information for the president. but i don't think this is going to change that thesis. again, that would take some pretty big news. we've been given no indication that's what's in this report. >> do either of you get the notion that -- do you get the idea that mueller has been sitting here watching all of this going, i'm ready to explode to set the record straight for what i actually found? or do you think he's been comfortable with the spin and the characterization that the white house and attorney general barr have put on it, chuck >> i doubt he's been comfortable with the spin and characterization, but i'm sure he absolutely doesn't want to touch this it's interesting that nancy pelosi and the democrats very angry about the way this has been pre-briefed to the white house and now barr will pre-brief it and then the white house will spin it just as the congress gets it how she's already called for mueller to testify so, i don't think he's necessarily pleased with that. we've seen some stories to the effect that some of the counsels

who work with him at doj have been upset how barr seemed to soft sell the conclusion. >> do you think it's appropriate? >> do i think it's appropriate, what >> do you think the communications between the white house and the department of justice and barr throughout this process, the rebuttal that's apparently been drafted in advance, do you think that's appropriate? >> yeah. i don't think they're inappropriate, andrew, but on -- >> wrong answer. >> but no, given the way that the white house continues to spin that, you know, they're made to seem that way. they're spinning this as basically the aircraft having landed two weeks ago and we're just basically going to see if it was a bumpy ride now. so unfortunately it has made this to seem so. >> james >> listen, i don't think anything here that's happened has increased public confidence in the attorney general of the united states. that would be great. listen, i think we need to have -- one of the reasons we're such a great economy is public confidence in rule of law,

order, our institutions. that has not gotten better throughout this process. and i think this sort of pre-rebuttal doesn't help that, but ultimately i think if this report more or less is in keeping with what bar said with a little thumb on the scale, then i think we'll move on >> do either of you have a good feel for how -- what's going to happen on the democratic side of things and who is going -- that's another "game of thrones" the over under is 20 biden's guy said everything is on track for him but do you think that bernie can -- will the democratic party allow bernie to be the nominee, james? >> yeah. i remember answering questions will the republican party allow donald trump be the nominee? >> right. >> yeah. that's what's sort of interesting. the bit and ask has widened what republican economics looks like

and democrat economics looks like this is a big election it will be a big i election and bernie sanders is bigger. >> they said trump couldn't win either no, just gave one word answer. no bernie sanders can't win the overall election do you think he can win, chuck >> certainly the markets seem to think so you look at managed care stocks the last few days. the last couple weeks he had a great town hall meeting on all things fox he basically outflanked the president on the trade deal, the u.s. mca trade deal, which is very smart out in those key states where the president needs re-election, so bernie sanders is showing very well to start. >> and i wonder whether the core, the party is more with him than with vice president biden >> i think so. >> you do? >> i don't know about jim. >> those activists, that's where the energy is certainly. >> who is the vp pick for bernie what would be the smartest one,

do you think >> maybe somebody like sanders, i don't know. >> like who? >> jim >> excuse me, like harris. kamala harris. >> i was going to say kamala harris, too. you beat me to it. >> sanders, harris all right, gentlemen thanks take care. coming up, ipo countdown, we'll get you ready for two new tech unicorn days and one is profitable we have the details next. retail sales due at 8:30 a.m. eastern time. thnuere mbs and market reaction is straight ahead. "squawk box" will be right back.

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♪ ipo rush, pinterest and zoom about to go public what investors need to know before pinning some cash on these high-profile names breaking news alert, the market gets a read on the health of the consumer with the march retail sales report. we'll have the intant reaction the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now >> announcer: live from the most powerful city in the world, new york this is "squawk box. good morning and welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc, live from the nasdaq

market site in times square. becky is off today the futures right now, they've improved a little on the dow down just 12 points now. up 14 points i'm looking at the nasdaq down 12 and s&p down 220 treasury yields back below 260 but just looking at that shot we just saw of the nasdaq, this is a great place, times square, for the nasdaq when there's ipos and stuff, you know what i mean? all the visual stuff you see out there and all the advertisements on the day, it's pinterest and zoom times square is perfect for these launches. >> it's exciting. >> isn't it? >> there it is happening, it's all happening right here there we are, i think. you can almost see us. >> wave. meantime, some big news broken on "squawk box" this morning, blackstone shares are jumping, this following the announcement the private equity firm is converting from a partnership to corporate

structure. ceo steve schwarzman broke that news in the last hour and talked about the change. >> if you look at the ability to have people buy your stock, double the number and will grow to more, that's just in the u.s., there are people who are non-u.s., in foreign countries, they can't buy us either and so this kind of change should result in very large increases. >> check out how favorable wall street is reacting to that news. that stock up over 8% just this morning. couple other stocks on the move, dow component travelers out with its quarterly results, quarterly profit of 2.83, 9 cents above estimates. revenue is slightly below wall street forecasts saw higher gains from underwriting travelers also raised its dividend honeywell out with quarterly numbers this morning hon honeywell earned 1.92 a share compared to consensus estimate

of 1.83 and beat on the top line and raised its full year forecast dow component american express earned $2.01 per share 2 cents above estimates. revenue did fall just below analysts forecasts overall profit was down 5% from a year ago the company spending more on its rewards program. pinterest listing on the new york stock exchange just few hour after pricing last night at $19 a share. also zoom kicking off trading right here at the nasdaq after pricing $36 a share. joining us right now to break down what we're calling the ipo rush, kathleen smith is here founder of ren nans capital and mike san toely good morning to both of you. let's speak first about pinterest, actually both of them, they're pricing on the higher side -- at least in pinterest case the higher side of the lowered expectations. how much of that is weighing on all of these ipos going forward

or is that an anomaly. >> i don't think it's an anomaly. lyft is a good example so, it basically sent a message to the market to be conservative about valuation because we don't want broken ipos those have technical disasters they take a while to recover. >> is this a technical disaster looking at lyft on the share, $15 a share? >> it definitely is. at least the marketplace so far is telling us that it wasn't priced correctly relative to what it's valuation should be. and so, i consider this -- it makes investors nervous. >> so let me ask, mike, nelson just made an interesting argument, which he said look, lyft, doesn't really have other comps. there's no other public companies out there that are comparable to what lyft is doing. zoom has comparables you could argue pinterest has comparables. true

>> right it's very true it's software, it's networks, it's ad-supported it's b 2 b subscription business pinterest or zoom. growth has beat value. tech has beat almost everything else those stocks slot in there now, does it mean there's an overlay of caution about how they're going to be priced and how much they're going to be -- people are going to rush in on the first day and feed some kind of a pop yeah, i agree with that. but lyft is people moving other people around. it's not really a virtual business at all. i do think there's limits to the comparison in terms of overall tenure of the markets it's good that people's first question is this a scary thing? is this bad that these companies are coming out and pricing above their range because that means we're not going to have some kind of a frenzy and build this into a bubble which was otherwise a risk. >> is that a fair market in terms of this idea that today's ipos in pinterest and zoom have these public comps and that's significantly differentiator relative to a lyft or not in

your mind? >> i think it does help to have close public comps pinterest is trying to argue they're not a social network we are comparing them with ad-based social networking companies. and some would argue that maybe zoom doesn't have some really good comps we could look at a broad sector of enterprise software companies. so we have to try to value them the best we can. it is true, ride hailing is new. i think that when uber is trying to come out and say we're a platform we're different. we're not just ride hailing. well, the bottom line is wall street is going to look at lyft. >> what do you think it will do to the uber ipo and the reason i ask is originally there was an expectation that this was going to go out 120 billion dollars valuation. they came out at the latest filing between 90 and 100. by the way, that was after lyft went public, at which time i believe the stock was trading in the 70s still. >> yep. >> does that number come down? does it go up? >> we think the number comes down >> materially? >> well, you could be simple

about it uber has five times the revenue of lyft. so if lyft is being valued at 20 billion then maybe 100 billion for uber as lyft goes down and valued at 15 billion, i think we get a lower number for uber, you have to start to then justify why you would change that growth maybe the wider dominance in the market so there's things to adjust it >> do you buy today or do you say, look, i'm going to let these things settle? do you want them to settle a lot of these times you look at lyft on day one and would have thought the train left the station. >> we manage the ipo the ren nans ipo etf and it will include these large ipos and the index it attracts. it's a benchmark that shows you how enthusiastic investors are in ipos. it's traded very well so far this year.

i think that it makes sense for investors, especially these ipos today zoom is being priced at 30 times trailing sales higher than its enterprise group, maybe for good reason, for high growth. pinterest is now being priced at almost 15 times trailing sales, higher than its group of other digital advertising platforms. it may make sense, even though i think today we're going to see a nice, nice performance in these two companies, but these are going to have to find their way into the marketplace they're going to have to justify with their reports coming up that they, in fact, are worth the premium to their peer groups. >> can you help address the controversy with lyft ipo and these ipos about potential short interest ahead of these things and how these provisions in lockups exist for investors at the ipo, the idea of underwriters or some of the big

banks turning around and offering swap products and other things to hedge funds to short. >> i think some of this may be an issue for the regulator. >> okay. >> but from our standpoint, the more shorting of the market the better we think that the price discovery is a lot better when you have investors that are able to bet on both sides of the market. >> the mechanics of it are fascinating. obviously the ethics of it are also interesting but to me the message is if there is such a demand for a short -- synthetic short interest because there's all this shadow supply based on lockups, that's your issue >> is this a new phenomenon or people trying to short at the ipo for very long? these synthetic instruments existed? >> yeah, well, first of all, it's hard to find the shares, so it's nice to see the willingness to put together a synthetic instrument for example, with the etf, we're able to short all the positions in our portfolio that helps reduce expenses for shareholders in our funds. so, anyone that has -- is

long -- >> sure to lend them out. >> we lend them. offsets costs. so i think it's a question of how -- there are large investors that always shorted ipos because they can obtain -- they're big enough to obtain shares. >> does it really make a difference whether or not these instruments are made available the first day or not eventually there is a full market efficiency when trading this, meaning forces on the short side once the shares are delivered and they're available to be lent out, once the options market comes out with options on these which had gotten sped up in terms of timing of the release of the options in the case of lyft it was only a matter of time before people could find their various instruments to express that view. >> that's right. it only matters if you get a really aggressive opening trade pop, as we did in lyft wow. that's the number i want to sell today. no, but to your point, melissa, if you had the shadow supply, you don't know how it's going to trade on that. facebook bottomed right when the

lockup was loosened up and thought it was going to be down eight months after its ipo. >> kathleen and mike, thank you, guys >> thank you. >> we'll see how these things open up. we believe they will go public probably around 11 is when the expectation is in terms of stock opening. programming note, see pinterest ceo and co-founder with kwauk "squawk on the street." lots of questions for him. the ceo of zoom will be on that program after that open as well. coming up, a judge gave elon musk and the s.e.c. a chance to work out their contempt of court dispute. today is the deadline. phil lebeau has an update next stay tuned you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc

welcome back to "squawk box. the futures right now indicated a little bit better than we've seen all morning, down 7 points now on the dow nasdaq paired its losses to down 7 points also. s&p down a little over a point. here is the other story we're following for you this morning, canadian cannabis is closer to a deal with canopy growth they have been in talks for almost two weeks a deal right now is imminent we are expecting it at any moment we don't have the exact details

of the deal, but according to sources close to the company and according to the template that canopy had used prior to acreage, we understand that the template would likely include a one-time up front cash payment to acreage shareholders, establishing a pay at which acreage shares would trade to canopy shares so effectively the companies would then be linked in terms of the direction of the share price and canopy would be able to trigger the transfer of the montization of the shares at either the point when federal legalization of cannabis happens or at a time later again, that was a template that canopy used when it approached another acquisition target that deal had fallen apart we understand that template is likely to be used again in this deal which involves acreage holding which we understand is imminent and this of course would have huge implications with the rest of the u.s. cannabis market to open up a whole new group of potential acquirers for these companies which had been seen as trading

at a discount to their canadian peers because they lack access to banking we're watching this very carefully. as soon as this deal hits, we'll bring it to you. but for now, that's what we have >> okay. >> what? >> is it going to hit? >> it's imminent it is really imminent. >> really? >> maybe these guys are like, oh, man, should we sign? i don't know okay >> neither of them use cannabis, having talk to these guys. they don't use thc version of cannabis if that's what your implication is. >> not only cbd? >> some cbd but not the thc part. >> might have changed since i last talked to them but i don't think so. >> today is a big day for elon musk and the s.e.c a judge gave the two parties two weeks to work out their dispute. phil lebeau joins? >> we're waiting to see if anything is filed by attorneys for the elon musk and attorneys for the s.e.c. remember, we were at federal court in new york two weeks ago

where the s.e.c. laid out why it believes that elon musk should be held in contempt of court it was clear from the beginning the judge was not going to buy into a contempt ruling that day. and she said, look, you guys have a couple of weeks to work out what the communications policy should be remember, all of this goes back to the agreement that was signed by tesla and elon musk and the s.e.c. late last year following all of the disfut about him saying he wanted to take the company private and ultimately saying, okay, we're going to work this out. you're going to give up being chairman and you're going to have your policy as far as tweets being approved. so when you take a look at tesla, keep in mind there's a couple of important things happening over the next week for elon musk. there is the deadline on the contempt of court filing today then you also have analyst day for autonomous technology on monday for elon musk and tesla and then their earnings next wednesday. that's why we're showing you this chart of tesla. it's been hovering in this 268, i don't know, go up to 275 range

over the last month or so. and really if you go back, guys, over the last couple of years, this stock is generally with the exception of a couple of times that it's spiked up into the 340, 350 range, it really has been stuck in this range since the beginning of 2017 and today, t. roeprice we're seeing the reports that it has cut its position, one of the larger institutional share hoerlds cut its position in tesla. guys, back to you. >> thank you, phil, for that. coming up when we return, we have breaking economic data, the retail sales report is due at 8:30 a.m. eastern time we'll have tseho numbers and instant reaction when "squawk" returns right after this ge fund a mutual fund? an index fund? what should i ask my investment professional? how do i know if they're even legit? edgar? who's edgar? how do i read a 10-k? what about fees? what's an etf? 529 plan? 401(k)? how do we plan for retirement? where do i start?

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programming effort nbc has ever undertaken outside of the network. consumer news and business channel, cnbc. we're well aware that cnbc can only succeed by becoming an important part of your life. we look forward to the challenge. ♪ welcome back to "squawk box" this morning right here on cnbc, take a quick look at futures right now. they have paired their losses in a big way this morning right now dow looks like it would only up 2 points it was way worse than that, not way worse, 35 points this morning? it has come down nasdaq off about 6 points. s&p 500 now almost there we have to talk about this again because just such a crazy story. the samsung galaxy fold phone,

it hasn't been released yet but journalists have received early review units and the reviews aren't good. they aren't performing well under scrutiny or anything basically. some reviewers are reporting flickering screens others see a visible crease along the fold when you open it up and it's supposed to look like a flat tablet there unit given to cnbc, completely unusable after 48 hours. some problems were caused by reviewers. when you blame the reviewers you have a whole other problem going on couple reviewers started removing what was a protective layer of plastic over the display thinking it was disposable sometimes you get a phone or some kind of screen with a clear film you're supposed to peel off. this one you aren't supposed to peel off but it didn't tell you not to the retail version supposedly does cnbc todd hazelton did not make that mistake and broke any way samsung also said it would

thoroughly inspect the malfunctions review units. there's going to be heads rolling somewhere over this. >> yeah. you have one, don't pile the thing off. >> you had one >> yeah. >> supposed to be able to fold it it has one job everything else works except you can't really fold it. coming up, breaking nick news we have the numbers and the instant reaction right after the break. take a quick check on futures ahead of the numbers, dow looking to add 2 1/2, s&p and nasdaq flat. "squawk" will be right back. through the at&t network, edge-to-edge intelligence gives you the power to see every corne of your growing business. from managing inventory... to detecting and preventing threats....

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♪ ♪ all right. we're just minutes away from retail sales and jobless claims. joining us now ahead of the numbers joe, chief economist at natexas and steve leesman. i remember that one really scary number nothing is going to happen, is it, like that?

>> it was -- you're talking about the december number? >> yeah. >> that was like what happened to christmas >> right. >> where we lost christmas i don't think so in fact, we're looking for a bounceback it's one of the themes right now, joe, that we're battling that the data has come back a little bit if i could show you real quickly our rapid update which is 2.1% yesterday because of the better trade number you reported at 8:30, we popped over 2%, like .4% increase in the median rate, the 12-tracking forecasts we have on the street of which can i introduce the guest, i know that's not my -- >> you mentioned you can bring him into the conversation. >> yeah. >> thank you. >> joe versus the world here because you're a one joe everybody else is a two. >> production was negative and i think there's going to be a large inventory liquidation in the quarter. job growth slowed, unless productivity pops, consensus to

me is too high >> and other than that, what about the consumer, which we have retail sales coming up? december huge disappointment but everybody thinks it will come back now. >> the data are lumpy. consumer spending, is only and 2.5% the inflation retail sector is down shift my guess is consumer spending will be okay unfortunately that's not a very good gauge of where the economy is going i look at cap x being a better gauge, the data looks -- service of overflow looks off. that's not a good sign for the second half. >> talk about interest rates here because i have think you have a cut down this year? >> thank you for the good lead cut in december and early next year largely due, steve, to my view that inflation is going to be lower core pc is going to drift down closer to 1.5 if not below and that will get the fed nervous along with gdp not doing particularly well. >> is it just one cut? >> december and march.

it's a fine tuning similar to what the fed did. >> back down to 2%. >> yeah, or 1.875%. >> do stocks take it on the chin here when economists talk about stocks, they don't necessarily talk about -- i'm putting words in your mouth, tell me if you're wrong, not so interested in the level of the market, except for as a wealth effect thing but more about profitability. >> i went to look at this, you go back to 1984 and go to '86, go to '95 and of course then '07, 3 of the 4 episodes the fed was cutting rates. if this is a fine-tuning move, one to sort of stabilize sentiment, stabilize growth expectations the equity market should do okay >> my question is what happens to profitability yesterday's beige book you think is worthless, i get some information from, we can talk about that later shows rising

input cost and on going discussion between the districts about whether or not those costs can be passed along. retailers i think it was in philly think they can pass it along. >> sure. >> but you had some rising commodity prices you had rising fuel prices the tariff costs increasing and most importantly you have labor costs going up so shouldn't that be coming out of the hides of the profitability of companies >> it could, steve, but to me the liquidity and where rates are and fed easing and global rates lower in europe and elsewhere and ten-year notes move down to 2%, that's going to underpin equities even if margins come down a bit. >> just quickly in terms of the impact on stocks, stocks have the wind at their back because they believe the fed is on the sidelines, but that's different from believing that there are two cuts to come so, i think the question will the markets take that as a sign that there is softening on the horizon or that global softening will or could impact the u.s.? >> here is the thing, melissa, two weeks ago the market was

pricing 30% chance of cut in july and 100% chance of cut in december those probabilities have come down because the data has been better it's been a combination of fed pivot and expectation to give equities a lift. the move recently has been cyclical outperforming. >> let's get to rick santelli. >> all right here we go with retail sales march number up 1.6 how is that for growth, guys 1.6. much better than the 1%. no revision. strip out autos. still strong up 1.2. and we gain .2 from negative .4 to negative .2 on our last look. strip out autos and gas sales, guess what, all you weak thinkers out there, still close to 1%, up .9 the control number, 1%, that's multiples of expectations. this certainly does put a bit of a question mark in those expecting this business hump in

growth philly fed, now this is an april number, it's a little light but still 8.5. we were looking for 11 to 12 13.7 unrevised finally, initial claims, we breached 200,000 last week now we're even moving closer to 190. 192,000. so that's down 5 because last week's 196 moved to 197, strip out 5 you end up at 192. welcome to 1969. finally, continuing claims, move from 1.716 to 1.653 million. these numbers look pretty good i know joe not looking at a big outlook product capital spending i don't know i think there's something called a pause, and i think we'll see a reset to the getter as we move along some of these unresolved issues joe, back to you. >> i'm wondering whether we could have a sequential rise in gdp after the trade data

aren't people at 2% for the first quarter? >> we might go up again. is that your question? >> maybe above the fourth quarter. >> that would not be crazy at this point but i just want to know if when rick said summer of love, is that what he's talking about, rick i guess it's the 50th anniversary, right, of the summer of love >> reporter: well, i'll tell you what it really is quite amazing to watch the initial claims. >> it's unbelievable. >> joe, get depressed down now because it moved down to 7 million job openings i don't know i think there's a reset coming, but i think many analysts are looking at the wrong outcome to that reset. >> what about the leesman first quarter crappy gdp numbers >> okay. so -- >> if we did above 2, wouldn't that be better than we've done in the last -- >> i would have to go back and look at the numbers. we always do crappy which means it could be higher or they could have fixed some of it. they were working on it as a result of in report our working

on it. we also know, according to mike england from action economics, thank you for this, mike i know we have a call we need to do on this march is supposed to be the bad number and only getting some of the data in for march. this retail number for march is good joe, what's going to happen to consumption. >> consumer spending -- >> let's hear joe's assessment >> the data this morning certainly looks pretty good. >> it looks good. >> but this is more about the rebound, the normal rebound in q2 than it is about what happened in the first quarter. as we were talking offset, we need to look at what the services numbers do. retail sales is only about 20, 25% of total consumption, so there's a big piece we still don't know a lot about the momentum looks good for a much better q2 compared to q1. >> what's happening to your 1% for the first quarter? are you still good on that

>> 1-1 i'm just teasing i have to go back and look at the data as i said earlier, gdp is a measure of production. the spending numbers is where the allocation goes, so it's very possible we have better consumer spending but larger inventory draw-down or imports could be stronger. i don't want to make a judgment that all of a sudden the quarter will be great. >> everybody is focussed on barr, mueller report and pinterest, the market may be focussed on this issue of the rebound in growth from the soft patch -- remember, let's not forget the apocalypse was coming in december, right >> right. >> we were down 20% on stocks. a recession was like a gim megi. it was like a done deal now coming back 2%. >> the markets were already focussed on it. >> i don't know how much they focussed on it. >> we're a percent away from all-time highs. >> maybe we would be above it now. >> but we also still have the idea that this year is going to reflect a slow-down from last year. >> i think that's right. >> is the over/under --

>> i still think that's right. >> rick, is it 2 1/2 now would you say the over/under for a full year gdp for this year, would you say that's the over/under >> i would say that's the over, but i think we'll be way over the over. >> you do? that's my question. >> just think about this, think about this, joe, harken back to october, november when all the brain yaks were saying, oh my god, 20% correction, bear market territory, it was one of the greatest buy signals for a first quarter of historic proportions. i don't think we're making the same mistake this time >> hold on, rick. >> that was not the brainiacs. that was the traders. >> it was a buy signal it was not the traders it wasn't the traders. >> it's not happening. not the brainiacs. >> economists were saying -- >> they were not saying it they were saying the market was wrongs, rick the economists were giving us the buy signal the traders were the ones with

their tails between their legs underneath rocks. >> joe, what do you think? >> these guys seem to have made some purchases that showed up in retail sales with all the money they make along in november. >> look, to me it was just the fact that the feds told you it was going to be hiking. >> everything is the fed maybe it was just deleveraging. >> the head pivoted and that was a huge shift hedge funds hadn't had a lot of exposure a lot of money was in cash >> there's a whole world of business out there outside the fed. >> what, rick? >> i said there's a whole world to observe outside the fed truly. okay what we need is to pay less attention to the fed fed screwed up the economy everybody is making fun of herman cain. i'm not saying i'm for or against him but it certainly would be nice to get a different voice to think outside the box that box is so small it's amazing they can even fit any new fed governors in there.

>> right as we head into the longest expansion in the history of the united states, the fed has so terribly screwed up the economy we still have the world reserve currency, 2.4% feds fund rate overnight. 3.8% unemployment, inflation down below 2% and the fed has royally screwed up the economy >> they shifted. >> what do you want, rick? what do you want the shortest expansion in history? >> i want the economy to be able to breathe you know what, first of all, why are recessions considered the end of all times as we know it it's like an animal for the economy and sometimes it's a good thing >> you want the recession to be worse back in '08. >> if it wasn't for green span to teach the economy the economy can't purge every eight or nine years, maybe we wouldn't have had such big booms and busts >> why be so angry -- >> hold on, when did green span

teach everybody this >> he didn't teach anybody that. >> he only taught everybody that by putting us into this situation. >> right >> you know what the biggest sin would be, rick, the biggest sin would be to be living through great times and not know it. you're 1% below the dow. record low unemployment. >> what did you call it? >> stable inflation. you have the ten-year at 2.5. >> stable inflation. these are good terms >> what are you so angry about >> the pillar says stable prices, which means take your little group of fed people and go to disney world for a while. >> i agree i think they've agreed to go to disney world i think that's -- >> they're there and they extended their trip. >> go to universal universal. >> i didn't see it in the minutes, but -- >> did you make a really strong case for trump's re-election in 2020. >> he made a big case for trump's re-election. you didn't know you were saying

things were great. >> either way. but you just painted a really good picture >> i wouldn't make a case for socialism. >> good. this is not the end of democracy right now. things are not as bad as everyone is saying. >> i don't think what i talked about with the economy has anything to do with what's going on with our democracy. >> with those nasty tweets. >> things are really good for you right now, you think that's all okay that's all. >> i think the handoff was really good, too, right? >> yeah. >> there wasn't any growth under obama. i forgot there was no growth. >> that was terrible, too. it's been terrible >> terrible now. >> all right >> wow >> it is it's all terrible. just terrible. >> you caught yourself saying all those good things. i hated to point that out. when we come back, we will get jim cramer's perspective on all of this and hopefully he'll also weigh in on the big ipos of the morning, pinterest and zoom going public plus, what's ahead for the markets as we count down to the

opening bell and first trades for those stocks "squawk" returns in just a moment i like to make my life easy.

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social media type stuff. we'll start with shares of snap. the parent company of snapchat, that social media platform down 3 or 4% at this stage, over 350 shares premarket value this after the company was downgraded by analysts at wed bush to a neutral. they kept 12.25% price target they say the run up in the stock recently leaves room for upside despite progress towards profitability and stabilizing user growth trends snap reports earnings next tuesday april 23rd after the closing bell shares of yelp also moving up a percent or so on relatively thin premarket trading. analysts starting coverage of the company with an outperform rating and a $45 price target they view the recent pull back in the stock and creates an attractive entry point despite low expectation on achieving medium tirm financial targets. shars of j.p. hunt likely to add to losses since its earning

releases a couple days ago down to 3% right now, 3,000 shares roughly premarket negative helping to propel things the price target got cut to $83. it was 125 they said they're shifting trends in trns poration seen as hurting business model and so those shares off by another 3% today. back over to you. >> thank you, dom chu. less than an hour before the opening bell, joining us now is christian, chief investment officer ahead of fix income at oppenheimer funds. great to have you with us. >> thank you. >> where are we? we were just having this robust debate about where we are economically but for the markets we are 1% away from record highs at this point. >> yes and i think the key things to remember in this regard is the fact that we are talking about a soft landing rather than joe's scenario of it being sub par growth so we're talking about slightly north of 2%.

>> joe lavornia, the guest before me. >> yes. >> and the fed is extraordinarily support i have every central bank is supportive real global economy standpoint china is turning around. that is really the ace in the hole for the markets and if that happens, we are going to see much higher levels than we have seen so far. >> so, we have just watched the semiconductors here hit record highs on the smh highly, highly cyclical, we see the turn, as you mentioned in china data how do you invest in that environment where it looks like things are pointing to a pickup in growth? >> well, so, that's really a good question because i think it's about cyclicals it's about companies that can do really well in the growing economy. it's not about value stocks per se so it's about technology it's about housing those are the sectors that i would be focussed on rather than sectors like banks where it's the ultimate value trap that is out there. >> although it's odd because banks are typically viewed as cyclic

cyclical yet, here we are, they are, you know, undervalued on many metrics, according to many investors and you think they're traps. >> indeed. i think they're overall businesses are not going anywhere so, from a loan growth standpoint we don't see significant pickup in loan growth because investments are not picking up at the pace that we would like. it's a consumption-driven cyclical up tick rather than investment during cyclical up tick. >> if you do believe in up tick in growth overall, do you invest in china do you invest in europe, for instance, which according to bank of america merrill lynch latest fund manager survey is viewed as one of the most crowded shorts out there >> indeed. if emerging market growth picks up on the back of chinese growth, then the outlook for europe improves meaningfully the delta for european outlook is far more dependent on china than any other large market. if we see the pickup, european stocks are going to do really well in that environment >> okay.

what other cyclical areas here we had industrials, for instance. >> yes, industrials valuations are very attractive. i think that's a very interesting sector as well i think what i wouldn't be focussed on are things that did really well earlier which is on the back of the rates going down because i think we have seen the highs of the rates and the lows of the rates as well so things like utilities and rates probably don't do as well in the current environment >> how much more upside is there to the rest of the year? what is your risk reward at this point? i mean, i understand that you believe that growth is going to pick up, but as an investor in se, for instance, s&p 500 etf or index, mutual fund, many people are out there, you think to yourself, pretty good so far this year. maybe that's it? >> it's pretty good so far this year, if you forget last year. so, if you kind of put -- compartment the two, it really isn't that much of an up tick. i think there's decent upside to the market it's not a lot, but if you had to put a number out there --

>> put a number. >> 3,100 rather than 2,900. >> do you think that's more optimistic than steve schwarzman. >> probably. >> larry's point is an important one. if you look at the participation of retail investors into this rally, there really hasn't been much actually cash has been sitting out. that's the most important part of trying to time all of this that is people pulled out of the market never got in and the markets ran up 20% that's very unfortunate. >> that december correction was very effective. >> yes, indeed i think there's a lot of cash -- >> across the board. with anyone, with economists, with analysts across the board it had everyone worried it was over and still not ready to embrace this. >> so in november, december we came out with our five more years and the whole point was it wasn't going to end any time soon please stay invested and that's how things are

playing out. >> krishna, thank you. >> thank you. look forward to talking to jim. new york stock exchange, jim cramer joins us on this very funny show today, jim. but the retail sales number got certain individuals talking about how great things actually are right now. things are pretty good and -- >> february was very weak month. >> yeah. >> february was very weak month and lot of stuff got moved to march. i don't want to wade into the shark-infested water of retail sales. usually not that controversial but you know, the fed did it right. the fed did it wrong and fed's book was good. the fed's book was bad there we go. now i covered all bases. what does matter is that the country's march is very strong and i think april is very strong so far that's the difference from what the base book said, by the beige book, i don't understand how they can downgrade the economy just when it finally started to get strong and got over the december blowup that was caused by the fed so, i think things are okay.

your last guest there i told -- thought told a good story. i don't buy the meltup because if you didn't melt up if you owned thermal fisher yesterday yesterday was good day for the today could be, too, if uri gives a good number, a classic industrial i like it. pinterest is not bad zoom is valued at 100 times. just kidding >> do you want to buy this afternoon? >> do i want to buy ahead of good friday? >> pinterest or zoom today >> i like apple or water wtr, the secondary of a very conservative stock that i think is already popping i don't know i've got to see the opening, too. what happens if i say it's going to be this, on twitter all weekend my wife is going to say, geez, these guys don't know anything but they're bugging the heck out of my. >> blackstone, did you see what steve schwartz said? >> i've been recommending

blackstone since 24. i always felt schwartzman, not just because he went to the neighboring school district but i think he's a real smart guy. i never understood why that one and goldman sachs, two places where everybody wants to work in the east, stocks have been great. people still want to work at these places, don't they, andrew >> they do if you're going to be in finance, those are probably the two -- harvard and yale of the operation. >> correct think about it. they all want to go to stanford, huh? they all want to go to -- facebook does really well on glass door, by the way look at this zuckerberg just released some more names to the communist party. are we done with that story yet? aren't you tired of that story is it going to be mentioned in the mueller transcripts? everybody is tired of the facebook thing. >> the question becomes, should it not be covered? what do we do? investors don't care i agree. >> no, but why can't we just --

can't they just say, okay, look, we compromised everybody let's move ahead so then we can say they said they compromised you go on the "today" show and say we screwed everybody then when anybody says anything you say, we said that. we told hoda on the same day she had another kid. we told hoda then you don't have to worry about it anymore it's done. come on. that's what you do you say everybody was compromised and then say we admit everybody was compromised. instagram is doing great. >> what happens to the cannabis space today, jim >> i don't know because you have bruce litton, one of the best bookings everybody congratulatie you, melissa, because you broke that story in so many states with all their stores you have both of them, right >> we will that's our understanding. >> the best interview of the

day. >> imminently, so we hope to be able to bring that to you. we're getting these deals done as jim -- >> you crushed it. i like to promote talent for my friend. >> we appreciate that. >> because acreage is going to be fantastic congratulations on breaking the biggest cannabis story there is. bruce litton is ready to play. >> set up somewhere maybe upstairs thank you. >> thank you, guys thanks for the extra time. love it. >> we'll see you in a few minutes. squa "squawk on the street" minutes away "squawk box" will be right back. the ai i need? it's gotta scale across my business. starting here, in procurement, helping us find the right suppliers. then here in logistic, to avoid disruptions! here in sales.

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two women with decades of experience at the top of the list to one day succeed jamie dimon as ceo, jennifer piepszak

incoming cfo, she had been running the credit card business with lots of success and outgoing cfo, marianne lake, will become ceo of consumer lending after jp morgan and other banks were criticized for lack of diversity at their leadership levels at that hearing on capitol hill last week more importantly, i think these are moves to try to put both of those women but marianne lake especially, in an operating position now to eventually succeeding jamie dimon jamie dimon says he plans to be there the next five years. >> very young. >> still a young man. >> very young, andrew. very young. >> are you older or younger than jamie dimon? >> same age.

>> you're the same age as jamie dimon? >> i think he may be younger than you. >> basically you're saying jamie dimon looks younger than joe. >> i don't comment on it. >> you just did. >> how old do you think he is? >> 63 years old. >> how old do you think i am >> 45. >> 38. >> andy rooney, i don't want to scare you, but andy rooney, john mclaughlin was 91 and he missed one show. >> amazing. >> yeah. he was still, you know -- there's a lot of people that go well into their 80s. >> what are you trying to suggest? >> i'm just saying in business it's different than -- it's all about propecia. >> keeping the hair? >> keeping the hair. >> what do you think >> yeah. >> let's tell you about what's going on with amazon. >> when may we get -- the pot may be next? >> i know i've been saying that

for a long time. >> the kettle black. >> we know the deal will be announced -- >> is imminent. >> -- very shortly. >> it's more imminent than it was an hour ago. >> or even a second ago, right it's closer. >> right. >> at least i can poke fun at myself amazon is shutting down its domestic marketplace in china, facing stiff competition from alibaba. in a statement, they said they will allow customers to buy items from the united states, germany, japan and the uk. amazon's cloud business will continue to operate in china not much of a reaction here. we did see reactions in jd as well as baba yesterday. >> final tip, about half a minute left before we'll hand it over to "squawk on the street. turn around strong economic data up 2.3 on the s&p 500, nasdaq down 3

market opens the same time that the press conference starts, i think. doesn't it >> yes. >> yes right at 9:30 a.m. is newsy a word? it's going to be a newsy day. >> very newsy day. ipos, pot stuff, barr stuff. >> join us on monday "squawk on the street" is next i did it >> good thursday morning welcome to "squawk on street." i'm carl quintanilla along with jim cramer, david fabian press conference in about half hour futures have gone positive europe is higher despite little improvement in their pmis, but awfully good data here best numbers