good morning it's 8:00 a.m. at disney headquarters in burbank, california it's 11:00 a.m. on wall street and "squawk alley" is live ♪ ♪ >> good monday morning welcome to "squawk alley." i'm carl quintanilla with morgan brennan and jon fortt at the new

york stock exchange. very monday morning and it's going to be a very busy week we're going to start with some talk about technology and antitrust. our next guest's latest column says, are we finally getting serious about big tech monopolies is it too late cnbc contributor kara swisher joins us this morning. good morning, kara good to see you. >> hi. good to see you. >> you ask, are we finally getting serious about mo monopolies and then you go on to say, you're not holding your breath and no one in silicon valley is holding their breath >> no, we're not there's been so much suggestion about the ftc and the justice department, i just wanted to point out some information for them about how much of a cheap date consumers have been to these tech companies and whether we need morecompetition. it's something i've been talking about the idea that we should have a new social network, that we should be able to have a new search engine and have some choice and there's very little choice in many, many -- too many sectors. and so what is the government going to do about that, at some

point? and so since there's been a lot of talk about this happening, i want to just kind of review the idea >> kara, it's a weird time, to me, because at once, we have these potential monopolistic giants with amazing power, but then we've got them competing with each other, as never before and one of the big challenges is, how do you define a market, right? because if the market is social networking, then facebook is absolutely dominant. ifit's targeted digital advertising, well, then you've got facebook and google and a few others and then the market suddenly looks very different i'm not sure regulators or even the public at large knows how to define what the market is, so we can get to determining whether somebody has got monopoly power. >> well, i don't think they're competing that much. in terms of maybe cloud computing, certainly, there's several players in that case but in social networks, there's just one literally, if you look at the numbers -- >> but is social networks even -- is it a market

>> of course, it is. of course, it is >> it doesn't make its money from social networks, it makes it from targeted advertising, which google also does, on multiple fronts. >> it's totally different. i think the point -- the point being, like, google right now has 88% of the search market that is a large amount of the market and therefore, no one is going to create one. same thing with social networks. but my point was that there hasn't been a new one in these areas for many, many years and we have to think about what that means. i did a really good interview with steve huffman, the ceo of reddit and they're small in dealing with all of their various problems, very similar to other social networks and he and other companies are looking forward to being able to be more kpre competitive, where they have more ability to break into the market and i think that we all feel that it's a very different time and the law has to catch up with what's happened. i think we're work on laws that are quite old and have not changed since these companies have come into being >> kara, i'm glad you just

brought up that interview with huffman, because in your article, you also noted that he said that the size of many of the big tech companies doesn't necessarily help them combat things like hate speech, as well that got my attention, because it's so opposite what we've heard from those big tech companies. >> what else are those big companies going to say they're struggling at reddit they've done some significant changes. it's not perfect at reddit, but they quarantined the donald area because it had become violent, they think about throwing it off. they have a much bigger staff and are figuring out ways to deal with it i think more competition brings more ability for companies to innovate on major problems, and that's just one of them. hate speech is one of them disinformation, fake news, not a lack of privacy. what if there was a search engine that focused only on privacy? there is one called duck, duck go, but it has a very, very small percentage of the market, given how big google is. so more competition comes from the ability of companies to get

around these larger companies. i mean, this is not new. this is not a fresh idea >> so the fact that you do raise this question of whether it's too late in terms of regulatory action, how would we know there it is or not >> well, i don't think it is too late i don't think it's too late at all. it took forever. i was just this week up at microsoft. and i remember how long it took between when people realized there was an issue with microsoft and until there was some government action and i think most people, including the microsoft people can agree that a lot of what happened to them during those years made them a better company. you know, it's being run beautifully by sasha nadella right now and i think a lot of those lessons they learned then are part of its success today. >> something else. who would have thought we would be saying that, but indeed, we are. moving on, disney flexing its muscle at the box office yet again, setting some records for the performance of a film studio our julia boorstin has more on that from los angeles. julia? >> well, john, this weekend,

disney broke its own record for the all-time best annual box office number and it's only july and it's already broken that annual number. now, bolsteredby "lion king," which has now grossed nearly $1 billion worldwide, the studio has set a new record for the biggest studio gross in a year, $7.7 billion now, disney's response for the five biggest films of the year, plus it has a piece of the sixth. sony's "spider-man: far from home." what's most remarkable about this is disney's dominance is expected to continue it has "frozen" 2 coming up in december and "star wars," both expected to hit $1 billion now, while sony's "once upon a time in hollywood" was quentin tarantino's best opening with $40 million at the box office, that is dwarfed by disney's numbers and it's in the rare category that disney does not tackle, the adult drama. the challenge for the movie industry is that the domestic box office is still down nearly

7% year-to-date as the explosion of free or inexpensive content at home from netflix to e-sports raises the bar for how big both brands and budgets need to be to leave their home and go to the movie theater. as for disney's success at the box office this year means for this company, analysts are still focusing on what the coming streaming launch is going to mean for disney moving forward barclays is writing that while they should benefit from the movie cycle, another price increase at parks and carriage negotiations will face tough comps as a result. therefore, we believe the stock could be side waist for some time until the disney plus launch later this year of course, the real question, though, is how disney uses its theatrical success with these megafranchises to drive more subscribers to disney plus and the kind of implications that could have for the digital business down the line guys, back to you. >> there's a lot of buckets to watch on disney.

julia, thank you so much kara, it is the first time that a studio has had the biggest five movies of the year. and it was the weekend of the "fortnite" world cup and that kind of shows the way in which theatrical releases have more competition, kara. >> absolutely. "fortnite," my kids play "fortnite," although they've gone off of it a little bit. maybe it's just the summer but what's really interesting about disney is in terms of hitting on all cylinders here, bob iger really is one of the most talented executives around. and i think what's interesting, we talked about this on pivot last week. scott galloway, who i did that podcast with, before "the lion king" opened, he says, no matter what the reviews are, and the reviews have been mixed, it looks a little creepy, i have not seen it, that people will do well, because people trust in the disney brand and the disney experience so wherever you try a disney product, largely, you're very satisfied with it, especially if you have kids. and you know, i saw all the marvel movies, every single one of them. and they're beautifully executed they've got "star wars."

they've got so many brands and i think it will be interesting to see how they do in this streaming platform, because their history online has been pretty spotty and it so, will be interesting to see if they can take those learnings from previously and use this incredible trove of content and marketing savvy and make it into a success >> kara, i actually think that disney is a good example of the dynamic that we were talking about just a couple of minutes ago. i mean, writ large in digital, in content, nobody is thinking about disney as being a monopolist but if you're in the theater business, with the kind of year that disney is having and the fingers that it has in various spots, you might be getting concerned about its market power, just in that narrow theater market, right? >> yeah, well wich, i haven't th of that. that's very interesting. this is a global business, obviously. so there's competitors all over the world. and there are things like "fortnite" and there are things like mine kraft, there are things like youtube. you know, i just have anecdotal

thing of watching my kids. they spend much more time on youtube that they do at the movie and things like that so it's an interesting time and you're right, in the traditional sense, they really do dominate but in the entertainment market, i don't think you feel or people's time market, i don't know if it's the entertainment market anymore wing they have plenty of competitors and lots of choices they're just making content people love, which is really fascinating. >> just to even dig into that a little bit further, kara, when you look at the five biggest movies of the year that are all disney, four out of five are either remakes or sequels and the fifth is also based on content that started as a comicbook series as well and i think it just begs the question, where is the original content being created and where is it going to skit seems like it's not so much at the box office in terms of what's driving sales there >> well, it's interesting. my kid yesterday, he hasn't seen "lion king," he's 14 years old, he's gone to all the disney

movies when he was growing up and he was like, why can't they think of a new idea? i'm like, what do you mean he said, you know, they made "the lion king" and now they're remaking it. and the same with "aladdin." it was interesting that he wanted more new content from them, which i found that really interesting for him to say that. >> i'm sure they've got plenty in the palestinipeline, as well finally, kara, over the weekend, you followed through on an earlier promise. selling your car you said, i will die before i buy another car. not because you're sick, but because you think this is going to be like owning a horse. >> yeah, i felt so good all weekend getting rid of it. it was incredible. and then i was without a car i sort of needed one a couple of times, but i figured out workarounds and stuff like that. so i'm going to really explore these car-sharing services, not

just uber and lyft, but car-to-go and things like that it doesn't mean i'm not going to drive a car or in cars, i just feel like car ownership is something of the past. i got a lot of pushback from people from the midwest and in rural areas and i totally get it but many years ago, i did a piece, 25 years ago saying, nobody will have a phone in their house, there will always be mobile phones and i got a lot of pushback from people in rural areas who said, we don't have coverage, we don't have this, we need our land line phones. i'm definitely an urban person and on the cutting edge of these things, but the idea of owning a car, smaller and smaller amounts of people are going to actually own a car versus use a car we'll see how it goes. i don't know >> kara, have you calculated it out? do you have any sort of gauge yet on what is going to be the less expensive option, either owning a car and all the overhead associated with that or using some of these different services >> i don't know. i'm going to try it out. i definitely know i was very happy to get that pile of money for my car, i made a lot of

money. and then i got rid of my insurance and the costs. and it just, you know, i have that -- i added up that amount of money and i'm going compare it and i think write about it to see what i actually spend. and again, i live in an urban area there's lots of choices here in terms of public transportation, walking, and all kinds of things and it's more convenient but i'll find it really interesting to see where the problems are and where they're not. but i'm excited. i was very excited to see that car go and i am not going to be buying another car again as long as i live and i hope a live a really long time i hope i do. >> bill gurley used to come on our show and saying they would send him checks from their car sale, thanking uber essentially. who would you credit for that? >> i don't know. i don't use uber as much carl, i'll thank you thank you, carl. >> you're welcome. anytime, kara. >> i'm not going to thank bill

gurley, for sure i'm definitely not going to be doing that >> it reminds me a bit of tim cook saying that the ipad was the future of the laptop when -- >> oh. >> i think she jumped the gun -- for some people, arguably, the laptop was the future of the ipad >> no, no, no, the phone is. i use my phone, jon. the phone is the future of everything the use of the phone >> ipads are big if you're 10 years old. i can tell you that much kara, really fun we'll see you soon >> i'll be walking home. i'll be walking home >> great up next, sprint and t-mobile are merging, but what does that mean for you boost mobile founder peter adderton joins us next on that and the implications for 5g after the break. don't go anywhere. hobbs & shaw.

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i got your back brother. and me yours. [ laughing ] [ screaming ] welcome back to "squawk alley. the number three and number four american phone carriers, t-mobile and sprint, are one step closer to merging following the doj's approval of the deal on friday. dish acquiring several of sprint's assets as part of the agreement, including boost mobile so what does the new combined company mean for the american consumer and what's next for dish joining us now here at post nine is boost mobile founder peter adderton thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> so stock's down almost another 4% today "a," what does this mean in terms of the assets that dish would be acquiring and "b," can dish actually take those assets and be able to truly build out a successful

fourth carrier in the u.s. >> it's a great way of putting it because there are two distinct issues here. the first issue is, did the doj and the ftc set aside dish in order to execute did they give them enough of the assets that's required to be a true force competitor? my issue is, yes, they did we asked of 95% of what they gave to dish is really what we asked for. if you look at the nbmo agreement that they actually have, if you look at it in detail, is something you've never had here in the u.s. before they truly will act like a network operator they can control that customer base and there's a real incentive for dish to really start building out their own network. because that wholesale deal allows them to switch between the wholesale network, which is the new t-mobile and 5g network and their own networks the economics of an nbo are nowhere near as good as the economics of a network moving those customers and switching those, which is something which i never thought you would get in this country, so i think you've got to give

the doj a pat on the back for that because a lot of the conditions that they got, that dish got, are things that you've never had in this country before, and it's things that really do allow them to be able to compete. so you separate that and the other point that they brought up is this the network, or the company that can take those assets and create that force competitor and to me, if i look at what dish has done in the past, they've started. they started with three guys in a shop, you know, literally in one storefront and built a very large video distribution company. the argument is that they have been able to build things before but we're in a very, very different space now. so i think what's going to demonstrate to me is how do they get out there and demonstrate over the next period of probably two to three weeks, i'm sure that masa and john legere over there have got lockjaw from smiling all weekend. this is an incredible deal for them they got to set up who their third competitor was >> dish hasn't exactly taken over the world when it comes to tv so now they're going to get into the wireless phone business? that's the part that gets to me,

executing in this business is incredibly hard, the marketing is expensive, the backend systems to manage the kind of growth they would need to see for customer onboarding, this is tough for anybody to do. but what a sweetheart deal if this goes through. >> and i think that's the part that we were obviously frustrated about we obviously wanted a bidding process. because we gave them everything they need to be successful, but only gave it to one person so did they choose the right person i guess time will tell >> that's a key point you made you have come on our show in the past several months and said you were interested. in coming out and putting a bid in for these assets and certainly, you've seen other parties that were interested, as well are you saying that there was ant bidding process? and if so, does that mean the government basically chose the winners and losers in this >> i think t-mobile and sprint chose the winners and losers in this because i think it was for them to go away and set up the fourth competitor if you listen to what's being said, the doj pretty much said to them, unless there's a fourth competitor, t-mobile, you're not going to get this merger

through. they left it to the person who's going to compete against them to create that. i would love to set up my own competitor i would love to choose who that was. but i think all eyes need to be put back on dish now i think you've got to let sprint and t-mobile go away now they've done their deal and are off doing what they need to do i think the pressure needs to be on dish, to see what dish does in the short-term, to raise that point that you raised, which is, how do they overcome that and show that they are serious about this and this is not just another step to them trying to get out of their issues with the fcc. >> i'm curious to hear you talk about doj, what they did here. and i'm wondering if any of this is obstructive to how they may view large cap tech as opposed to just telecom. >> that's the interesting point. i will tell you, that was a very odd merger process the fact that the fcc came out first, the fact that the ag's, you know, sued to block, and are still continuing to sue to block, even though the doj has come out we're in very, very strange times right now when it comes to

this so i think it's very, very hard for anyone, and anyone who is following this merger, as you guys were and every other media outlet, this took 11 turns to sunday the next variant we'll see from the doj, we're in very unique times and in unchartered water here when it comes to what the doj will do with big tech. >> on basic questions, right >> basic questions you would play out the merger, the ending would not be anything like what we've seen and we have not seen the ending yet, we're like three quarters of the way through so we'll still wait to see where the ending goes. and i think it's on dish to prove that they're serious about this and i think that, you know, based on their pedigree, they have, let's bo honest, they have built a successful company >> amazon, google, and facebook money is probably going to factor into this somehow or people will expect it to. because phones are an area where all three of these megacompanies have failed to some degree facebook, phone, didn't really happen amazon fire phone went nowhere google has only got a tiny market share with its phone. do you expect them to kick in to

help dish or whomever else to actually fund the marketing for this network >> well, i think they should i think if you're smart, you would come in and say, listen, here's a player that needs help. let us come in and let's be able to help them but they've got their own issues with who they're dealing with, so they'll make sure they're careful when it comes to the doj. these guys do like to control things they're not good at minority shareholders they like to control and own things i think that's one of the dilemmas i like to face, you're now working with dish as a partner as opposed to owning and operating it >> peter adderton, thanks for joining us at post nine. thank you very much. >> as we head to break, tech continues to soar to all-time highs with the nasdaq coming off its tenth record close of 2019 here are the names leading that index in today's session, mylan, nxp and fiserv we're back after a quick break (soft music)

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minutes. seema mody has that. seema? >> hello, jon. european stocks are mostly higher, led by the uk stock market, up about 2% and it's really being driven by currencies investors closely watching the uk pound, hitting its lowest level since march of 2017 after the new prime minister, boris johnson, hardened his stance on a possible no-brexit deal. that's just three months until the uk's departure from the european union we're seeing a fresh two-year low for the uk currency. let's also talk beer a big earnings disappointment from heineken. the company blaming bad weather in europe and higher costs related to aluminum cans as well as ongoing currency headwinds. shares of heineken are on pace for its worst day in four years in netherlands the stock down 4.5%. although, for the year, shares of heineken have had nice run-up, about 24%, but trailing its peer, anheuser-busch, which has risen 50%. all right, meantime, busy week for central banks it's not just the fed, we had

the bank of japan decision coming out tomorrow and the bank of england meeting on thursday no policy change expected at those two meetings, but the growth forecast for those two companies will be watched very closely, given the larger focus on trade tensions and brexit on the economy. carl, sending it back to you >> all right, seema, thank you very much, seema mody. let's get to sue herrera across the room over there and get a news update. sue? >> good morning, carl. good morning, everyone here's what's happening at this hour president trump lashing out at the reverend al sharpton, calling him a con man and a troublemaker who hates whites and cops in baltimore, sharpton fired back >> he attacks everybody. i know donald trump, he's not mature enough to take criticism. he can't help it he's like a child. somebody say something, he reacts he's thin skinned and not really matured that well. the utility blamed for a serious of gas explosions in massachusetts last september has settled all class action lawsuits for $143 million.

columbia gas of massachusetts and its parent nysors announcing the settlement this morning. and taco seasoning sold at walmart is being recalled due to possible salmonella contamination. the 1.25 ounce heb brand reduced social media mix being voluntarily recalled by williams food both have best by dates of all-2021, so check your cupboards. that's the news update this hour back downtown to "squawk alley." morgan, back to you. >> sue herrera, thank. when we return, between the president's charges over twitter and tomorrow's earnings, a lot to talk about with apple what should investors expect this quarter find outft a aer quick break dow's near session highs of 77 points

apple earnings expected tomorrow after the bell. and that's against the backdrop of the president saying he's not going to offer apple relief on tariffs for parts for its mac pro that are made in china, while saying he expects apple to build a manufacturing plant in texas instead. joining us now to discuss is evercorps's apple analyst, amit darnayani. good morning >> good morning. >> first of all, the mac pro is a really expensive low-volume computer that in the grand scheme of things doesn't particularly matter to apple's earnings so let's get that out of the

way. but these trump tariffs and china do, especially when it comes to the iphone and the upcoming launch. do you expect to hear much about apple's thinking on that in this upcoming call? how much hinges on it? >> yeah, you know, i would say, broadly, china, china tariffs is one of these things that could help expand the stocks what's happening from a trade basis impacts apple, but the levels it's at right now, most apple products have been exempt from tariffs so far. the debate will be when list goes active, what happens to apple at that point. so so far, they have kind of skirted all the tariffs. list four is the big one to watch for. so far, there's no update on that, but that's the one you worry about for apple. >> and last quarter, when tim cook talked about what went right, he talked about kind of trade tensions easing up and that improving, from what i recall, the conditions on the ground in china.

then right after that, things god bad again. how much is that going to factor in >> yeah, when things get bad, they got a little better and now kind of back to square one with the tariff issues. our sense from the data we have seen on a monthly basis, one, on services, there's been a pretty big acceleration of services and aeps a apps and revenues out of china on the iphone unit data itself, the months of april and may were fairly decent. and the month of june got rewarded back. so i think units, it's a bit more of a mix commentary on services, china will be a big positive tail wind for them. >> i realize the services story continues to grow or has been growing in recent quarters, even as iphone sales have lagged. still, the iphone is still such a big part of revenue, how important is this next upgrade cycle to the company >> yeah, you're being generous by saying lag, by the way. it's been an outright decline,

close to double digits so far. so i appreciate "lagged. so you know, iphone is mad and there's no way around it the bigger excitement will be not the iphone that comes out this fall, but the 5g iphone and what that could do to the model. i think in the next iphone, iphone 11, the debate will be, units will be down a little, i think that's exactly but what can apple do have a pricing perspective or a marketing perspective? i think that will be a focus but our expect, iphone revenues will be down 4 to 5% with the next iphone launch as well >> are you saying we could be talk about, instead of a $1,000 phone, like a $1,500 phone >> no, i think iphones -- the price points will be the same. in terms of pricing, my take was, do they up the promotional activity more aggressively, apple itself, and give you better rebates on it but i think this a price point basis, these phones will be the same price as the iphone xs were

last year. >> why do you have an outperform rating on this stock why are you establibullish on te right now? >> one, services continues to be underappreciated that business will keep accelerating second, gross margins will keep inflecting higher from services. and the fact that commodity prices are coming down and there's leverage in the model. you know, the thought is that apple does have tiny bit of cash, $163 billion on the balance sheet, and that gives you a lot of protection. >> but does the margin story concern you if, indeed, they do get, whether you want to call it promotional, more aggressive on their trade-ins, trying to accelerate the upgrade cycle, white that offset the benefit that they would get from services margins >> you know, it's a great question and i really do think that what the stock does on this earnings call and beyond may just hinge on that answer or what happens, really our gut, you have two big tail wind services and commodities

and prices coming down dramatically those can help you buy 130 to 150 basis points on the gross margin line. the headwind is exactly what you said it is the promotional activity and also fx going a little bit against them right now but i think how those four things play out is what's going to drive it. our take, marginal expand, in the 38 to 38.5% range in the next few quarters. >> all right, amitt daryanani, thanks >> when we come back, the results of the first-ever "fortnite" cup dow's up 71. rick santelli, what are you watching today >> i'm watching the fact that the dow is up 71 and our president is complaining about the federal reserve. certainly seems we're doing better than many companies that are following policies the president ulli twod kehe fed to follow more closely. we'll talk about that after the break. hof your investments. key portfolio events.

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i'm melissa leen today for scott wapner here's a look at what's coming up on the "halftime report" at the top of the hour. a big week for investors earnings, the economy, and the fed all on deck. will a rate cut fuel stocks to new record highs and boeing backlash. a major warning from one airline ceo about the 737 max groundings, the risks that might still be out there and the one and only jim cramer will join us for the entire hour to weigh in on all of that, as well as look ahead to apple's earnings tomorrow. that's all at noon on the half back to you, carl. >> all right melissa, thanks. we'll see you in a bit

let's get to the cme group in the meantime and get the santelli exchange. >> good morning, carl. it depressed me to hear so many strange things coming from the president regarding the fed. and it isn't that i shouldn't expect this from politicians and even though this president didn't start out a politician, he's certainly a quick study and the flip-flopping is something wrong, then all politicians should be banned from existence, because flip-flopping and the longer a politician is in the limelight just something they do and if you don't believe me, just pick five or six of your favorite politicians that have been in the game more than a handful of years and just look at what their thoughts on immigration or a variety of issues, social issues were ten years ago versus where they are today. and there's tapes out, but it doesn't matter politicians change their mind and it highly correlates to election cycles. but this president, with regard to the fed, makes the least sense to me, because the better

my neighbor mentality that exists in the world to some extent today was nothing like it was in the 30s, during the depression, where every country would try to do just about everything to alleviate some of the issues that the depression brought upon their domestic economy. at the same time, some of those policies hurt other countries, hence the term but ultimately, the deal now with regard to currency manipulation or whether policies of big central banks are designed purely to help their domestic economy through better exporting, well, it's hard to prove. is it something that's a prescription for their economy or a covert manipulation and since it's hard to prove, maybe the best proof is always in the numbers and if you look at the central banks that have really confirmed the notion that they believe that more is better, whether it's low interest rates, negative interest rates, policies to buy not only securities, not only government securities, but corporate

securities, equities, etfs, ultimately, the countries doing the most seem to have numbers that don't particularly line up very well with the u.s so, it seems really incongruent to me that putting politics and the president aside, that the federal reserve on their own seems to be choosing to go down the same road that is traveled by the likes of japan, the ecb, the uk you know, when i look at switzerland, just to try to keep their currency in a relationship with the euro, not to have it get too strong, the things they've done, they now have negative interest rates from twos out to 30s, top to bottom this isn't good. and we can argue, there's a lot of research papers being done to confirm negative interest rates aren't the bain of the financial system but they're writing these papers to try to convince us of our lying eyes taking in false details. in the end, we're the best for one reason, sound policies the president should let the fed try to implement them and the

fed shouldn't follow the leader with countries that aren't leading. morgan, back to you. >> rick santelli, with thank beyond meat set to reports after the bell coming off a week that saw the stock surge more than 30%, but it is a little lower today. aditi roy is in san francisco with more. >> reporter: hey, morgan beyond meat's shares are up more than 800% since their ipo, making it the best-performing ipo this year. they're lower right now going into print right now the company has been racking up a host of partnerships with major restaurant chains recently, which will no doubt contribute towards its top line growth this quarter alone, beyond has launched partnerships with dunkin' donuts and tim horton's, but beyond meat has plenty of competition, especially from impossible foods, which counts burger king, little cesars and white castle as a few of its partners and beyond meat says they'll start selling their ground beef

in the fall. and then tyson food has unveiled its own plant-based and blended products that are now on store shelves. there's a lot of market share up for grabs, with the global meat industry worth $140 billion. barclay's recent global food report says it believes that alternative meat can reach a market share of 10% of that industry, von though it currently owns less than 1% of the worldwide market now as far as who's winning, kellogg owned morning star is largest player in the space with 40% of the frozen/refrigerated meat category, followed by conagra owned gardean, and then beyond meat and kraft/heinz owned boca foods rounding out the top five. that's just the refrigerated/frozen food segments, not restaurant sales the bear's case, not everyone is on the bandwagon last week, chipotle's ceo told cnbc imitation meat products are

just too processed for its menu. morgan >> certainly get a lot of attention with those comments, aditi. when you talk about market share, how concentrated are companies like beyond meat in the u.s. versus the rest of the world? what are the opportunities for international expansion? >> there's a big opportunity for international expansion. right now, for instance, they're saying that that same barclay's report is that the alternative protein market has about 5% in the u.s. and less than 1% internationally. so, there is, i know, impossible foods, for instance, they're in asia right now and they definitely count that international segment as an important opportunity. >> aditi roy, thank you. after the break, the start-up partnering with walmart for self-driving deliveries. the founder and ceo of gadit joins us next. stay with us but perhaps this year, a more exhilarating endeavor awaits.

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welcome back to "squawk alley. walmart partnering with self-driving company gadik launching a pilot program in arkansas for deliveries between its main warehouse and several stores in the area for now, the vehicles still employ a human safety driver behind the wheel joining us now is gotham narang. gotham, thanks for joining us today. >> thank you so much for having me >> let's talk about this pilot program, what it entails and what the long-term opportunity could potentially be for gadik >> definitely. our partnership with walmart is a huge validation that commercialization and scaleability of autonomous

vehicles will happen in the b-to-b space that's what we focus on and both companies are very excited for us it's focused on scaling and commercialization of the autonomous vehicle technology. e talking about business-to-business short haul logistics. when it comes to automated vehicles we hear about long haul, tractor trailers that are self-driving we also hear about the last mile to consumer's door steps why are you focusing on this specific part of the market? >> definitely. that's the perfect application so think filling the gap, we call it the middle mile. it's hugely unserved and huge business opportunity for us and we believe that while operating the vehicles back and north on routes we can overoperationalize this is a much more constant environment and the promise of autonomy can be realized sooner than delivery applications or other applications of autonomous

driving technology >> gautham what is walmart doing here they're working with ing witingd youdelve is this a competition to see how can optimize the fastest and when is the next stage >> definitely. we are the first company that is working with walmart for this particular use case. what that means is we are not delivering anything to the end consumers. our vehicles are moving goods for walmart from one of their dock stores to their markets in arkansas with some of the other companies that walmart is working with, the focus is more on b to c deliveries to move goods between businesses in an urban environment. the whole idea is it's not trying to change end consumer behavior let's try to bring autonomous vehicles to businesses and help them save on operating cost in the near term future

>> a lot of what's been argued over the past couple years is that the real efficiencies on autonomy are on highway driving. is that no longer the case, to morgan's question, how much more effort do you have to put into, when dealing with traffic, corners, municipalities and that kind of thing? >> yes gatik is focusing on the middle mile and when i say the middle mile, it's filling the gap between long haul trucking and the smaller sidewalk delivery robots the middle mile is the most underserved segment of the whole supply chain it is the most expensive part of the whole supply chain so for us, the reason to focus on this middle mile is to help our customers with their businesses help them save a lot on the operating costs, in addition to that, there is a huge shortage of drivers in the segment that with our solution, our customers can help fulfill so that's why i know for us it's a huge validation. >> how much are you talking

about in terms of cost savings, especially given the fact that there is still a driver behind the wheel? >> yes, so right now, all the testing all the deployment with the safety driver the aim of the company is to take the driver off, scale the solution and commercialize this technology. at scale, we are talking about saving up to 50% for our customers. yes. >> so it seems to me like on a corporate campus would be the easiest place to deploy complete driverless also to map out the environment to deal with safety issues do you expect your technology, even maybe within a warehouse to have its first broader deployment >> that's definitely one use case that we can target for us the focus is to operate the vehicles on loads. when you talk about operating these vehicles between businesses that we can

introduce, for example very famously fedex and ups trucks take right turns because it's more fuel efficient. if we have something similar for our solution, what that means is we don't have to worry about changi changing lanes, don't have to wipe out solving a tricky situation in our space that is left turns as a company, as the solution, we have a clear go-to market strategy by installing or introducing some of these constraints and not taking left turns is just one example. even though the technology can handle left turns, lane change, intersection, traffic light navigation today >> lastly, gautham, how many years do you think we're out from fully autonomous vehicles on the roads for supply chains quickly. >> what i can share with that application we are focusing on introducing the vehicles without safety delivers for a transportation application

>> gautham narong thanks for joining us >> thank you >> dow session high was up 83. we're not too far away, despite the fact the s&p and nasdaq have not been green all day we're back in less than three minutes. or you're in a military family, please stand. i will tell you this, southern new hampshire university can change the whole trajectory of your life.

the first ever fortnite world cup taking place over the weekend with the winners taking home a cool $3 million josh lipton is back in san francisco with the results josh >> john, the best fortnite player on the planet, that distinction now officially belongs to kyle giersdorf, aka bugha. a 16-year-old from pennsylvania won the first ever fortnite world cup, his prize $3 million. that is the largest single payout in esports history. the event taking place at the arthur ashe stadium in new york city we know 59,000 tickets were sold, and a whole lot more watched online, nearly 10 million views on youtube on the final day of competition the event really does speak to the powerhouse that is fortnite. the game boasts more than250

million players and nearly $4 billion in estimated revenue it also showcases the popularity of esports more generally. yes, people really do like watching other people play video games for big prize pools. 454 million people will watch esports this year, that would be a jump of 15%, and revenue is going to grow nearly 30% to more than $1 billion, mostly from media rights, advertising, and sponsorships so who is watching esports well, more than 80% of the audience is male according to nielsen, the average age they say is 25, with an annual household income of $70,000. guys, back to you. >> that's a pretty sweet demo. a lot of advertisers would love to get their hands on that audien audience incredible he's right, people like to watch this stuff, don't need to necessarily be playing >> fortnite came out less than two years ago, september 2017, and a 16-year-old wins millions

of dollars for being the best. >> just to put it in perspective it's an opportunity for real estate developers building some stadiums stocks are mixed dow is up 70, s&p is down 4. we have a big week with lots of data, lots of earnings, and of course the fed >> that's right. get ready for that big hour is coming up. let's get to melissa and "the half." >> thank you, carl i'm melissa lee in for scott wapner trade talks, the fed rate decision, the jobs report, and the busiest week of earnings, it is noon, and this is "the halftime report. >> announcer: the fed getting ready to cut rates for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis will it be a green light for this record-breaking alley to keep going a big warning for boeing over the handling of the 737 max groundings the risks still facing the company, and airlines. apple leading the earnings avalanche. the stock up more than 30%hi