and then later this morning, ukraine's president set to speak in a televised address with a joint session of congress. we'll get you ready for this historic event it's wednesday, march 16th, 2022 and "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ good morning welcome to "squawk box" right here on cnbc we are live from the nasdaq market site in times square. i'm beck request quick along with joe kernen. andrew is out today. let's take a look at the u.s. equity futures because yesterday we did see some pretty strong moves to the upside. that's continuing up this morning. dow futures up by 277 points s&p by 44, and the nasdaq up by 220. this comes after the dow gained

599 points yesterday that's a little more than a 1% gain the s&p was up by 2% p and the nasdaq gained nearly 3%. check those out. moves on the upsigh. if you've been watching the treasury market, the yields for the 2-year, 5-year, and 10-year is climbing. the 5-year is up at 2.114% if you take a look at crude oil prices, they were down once again, again, closing at the lowest levels we've seen for march, both for wti, brent, and rbob brent this morning at 101.10 in the meantime the london metal exchange halted nickel trading minutes after it started overnight, citing a technical limit.

trading at the limit down price. the exchange said it is investigating issues with the new limit and it will update as soon as possible, but this is just the latest in these series of problems we've seen with the huge movements. >> it worked. >> yeah. >> it's lock limit down. sharp rebound -- same kind of thing here sharp rebound in chinese tech stocks overnight in hong kong. big reversal new signals of support coming from the chinese state media they'll progressing toward a cooperation plan on the u.s. listed chinese stocks. they said regulators should complete it as soon as possible. the crackdown on these internet palace f -- platforms. the hang seng was up by 22%.

take a look at the stocks that were punished over the previous sessions you can see the moves we're talking about. >> 27% for allibabaalibaba we were talk about these were going to shake people out. maybe it's too late for those people. major swings. >> yeah. >> we'll take you live to beijing shortly. the prime ministers of poland, slovenia, and the czech republic arrived last night to europe by train. they offered a broad package of support. zelenskyy is scheduled to deliver a virtual address to members of the united states congress later today and we'll bring you full coverage

throughout the morning of this. in the meantime russian missiles hit more buildings in the capital. kyiv's mayor has imposed a 36-hour curfew near the outskirts of kyiv, two journalists working for fox news were killed and another injured when their veem came under fire near russia positions. president biden plans to travel to meet with leaders. he signed a bill yesterday for over $13.5 billion in ukraine. >> those are three tough hombres that took a train -- >> yes raising the steak stakes significantly. these are heads of state if that were to happen, what would the response be? does it ratchet things up? >> if you're those three guys,

you don't have some type of bubble around you. >> no, yeah. >> you're on a train with everybody else. >> showing support. >> pretty amazing. from those three countries they remember what it was like they don't want to go back there. i don't know whether to believe these things on websites russian could buckle in ten days as ukraine claims to have killed 13,500 troops and destroyed hundreds of tanks and jets putin could have only ten days to win the war in ukraine before his forces buckle and he loses the war. is that -- what's he do then then he does something else. >> that's a more concerning question what does he resort to >> i don't know. the morale probably is bad if they don't have food and supplies and they don't know why they're there. you saw the journalist on tv i don't know what's going to happen to her. no war. >> yeah. no war

look the troops, i don't know if it's 13,500 i don't know if it's closer to 6,000. but it's probably more than we lost in 20 years in both iraq and afghanistan. we saw this coming, i think, yesterday. joe m joe manchin -- joan raskin withdraws as biden's pick for fed vice chair he would have needed someone to flip -- it's not possible a republican would have. >> susan collins. >> she said no >> she said no, and you had other concerns. >> murkowski i don't know her withdrawal could make way for another pick

there's been kind of a hold on those including jay powell has been nominated for a second term to lead the central bank. >> i forgot they put all the nominations together as one and it was a package deal. i'm assuming jay powells with already reconfirmed. probably good he's reconfirmed with what they're facing now. this is my favorite story. >> is it good? >> it is. >> i like fall. >> i hate springing forward. >> i like falling back. >> you never get the hour back. >> you never new yesterday the senate put into legislation a rule on the changing of the clocks they unanimously passed what they're calling the sunshine protection act which would make daylight saving time permanent they decided to switch the clock

hch switching before in 1974 after a widespread discon tenth, they went back to flipping clocks twice a year. we're paying for it. i'm so tired. >> it's been that way for a long time. >> what is it? around agriculture >> farmers. >> which i understand. i don't want kids standing out waiting for buses in the super dark in the morning. there's pros and cons. it would be good if you could switch back and forth. >> it would be good if you extended the light hours in the day, but i don't think we have the power to do that that's kind of up to the sun. >> that's right. there's long days in summer, short days in winter, but they're all 24 hours >> we keep making dinner late at

night because i'm getting fooled. >> that's not good you don't sleep well. >> do you know from personal experience. >> yes, yes. i've got so many personal experiences. i want to be here for you and you for me coming up, raise hike day. we'll get you ready for it there's a crypto crisis right now. [ indiscernible above 40,000 you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc as an independent financial advisor, i stand by these promises: i promise to be a careful steward of the things that matter to you most. i promise to bring you advice that fits your values. i promise our relationship will be one of trust and transparency. as a fiduciary, i promise to put your interests first, always. charles schwab is proud to support the independent financial advisors who are passionately

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only from us... xfinity. the fed concludes its two-day policy meeting and is expected to raise the rate let's speak with the former ceo of tiaa. i feel like i'm doing wordle and former vice chairman of the federal reserve as well as a cnbc contributor how are you doing? >> i'm doing well. nice to see you. thanks for that introduction. >> you're welcome. for a while and i guess as long as anyone talks about the fed, there's always this dynamic, okay, as rates start going up, you worry about perhaps slowing the economy down so here's my question.

we're looking at four, five, six indicated rates. yesterday oil plummeted because of what's happening in china i don't know whether that is a harbinger of global growth, but is it possible that global growth slows so that the fed doesn't have to do as much, or because of supply chain issues it stays high? either one, do they need to do more or do less? which is its >> you make exactly the point, which is the fed is walking on a tightrope where, indeed, conversations around stagflation are starting to emerge you put your finger on, you know, the downside risk, which is a dramatic move in oil prices, china again going into lockdown, which is one of the indices that broke that remains in the world so there are some people who say if the fed's not careful, it could hike too much and

inadvertently throw the u.s. into a recession they are going to signal a move forward. >> it just occurred to me that maybe you do 50 and it shocks people into the notion that you are in a hiking mode, but then the economy slows a little and that's all you have to do. so you're essentially doing two or three increases >> don't do it. >> don't do it >> i hear you. don't do it. certainly on lift-off, they're not going to shock the market. you know, the expectation of 25 basis points was clearly signaled i think it's baked in. there had been a little bit of noise around it. i think the question is what are they going to signal with the so-called dot box. how many hikes are they expecting at this stage? it could be anywhere from five to seven

five, six, like what the market would expect if they suggest maybe seven hikes, that's going to be perceivable. on the hawkish side, joe, with uncertainty, you're going to hear e more and more talks about data dependency and stay away from -- i believe they're on a campaign it's not set it and forget it. they'll mark it up every meeting. >> would that be a little bit of a shift? i think we've been less data-dependent at least that's the perception i've gotten recently we're going to do this, get back there, normalize things. you know, we're not sure exactly how everything is going to play out, but it would take something very significant to knock us off the track. now you see where we're going to hear that again and again. each rate hike doesn't guarantee there's another one coming >> i think you're going to hear a couple of things

one, we're definitely going to hear discussion around uncertainty. i think we're going to hear a discussion, again, to your point that the risk from both sides have gotten larger, and i do think a tendency to say this is meeting by meeting meeting by meeting could be -- i think jay powell indicated this, perhaps some point, 50 perhaps a pause. so i think it's going to be in some sense very hard to predict. but a word i used earlier, prudent. it's up to fed to recognize it's walking a tightrope and it's inching away toward its wide goal. >> hey, roger, when you looked at the numbers yesterday, we had a brief respite. it was still 10% year over year. when you talk to ceos who are on the front lines of making

decisions about wages and other issues, they say, look, inflation is worse than any other point. you have the labor issues, wage issues, trying to find people is there a chance that the fed's going to have to go a whole lot faster and farther than people anticipate >> i think, becky, first, the facts. you know, as you know, one of the times i was on earlier, i talk about a ceo survey that did, indeed suggest that ceos are expecting to raise wages perhaps aly little more than people currently expect. there is the possibility of the fed having to go faster, but recognize of the three sources of inflation, one is oil prices. as you see, that's moving quite dramatically back and forth. we don't know if the war comes to an end, what happens to oil prices but it probably becomes less of an inflationary factor

supply chain issues are, again, back in the news because of the covid. the supply chain will be with us then you get to your third one, which is yours, which is soft growing, unemployment very low, labor enforcement participation rising the message is going to be inflation is a clear and present danger in the context of uncertainty, and the point of our -- perhaps i wouldn't take it off the table right now not this meeting out there at some point t 50 may occur, absolutely. >> it's typically in the past, roger? wouldn't you say there's been asymmetric risk? if they talk about tata dependency, aren't we watching we're not thinking, we're data

dependent because inflation could be higher than we think or the slow down is that's an impossible task. >> it's very, very difficult task ite's challenge the fed has not seen in many, many years the challenge we also know that's been said famously a few times, higher rates are not going to create more silicon chips or opening more quickly. having said that, the fed has got to also keep its eye on something we haven't talked about yet. back when we had it, i think they're running a little hot i'm not unconstrained and i think the most important thing is we've got to keep its eye on what the long-term inflationary

readings are you don't want that to get out of hand. that feeds into wage price spiral a trim kr -- it's something they don't want. >> we'd like growth disinflation poor jay powell. we should talk to him. it's not too late. it's not too late. he's got an chance to talk to mrs. powell. are you sure about this? >> joe, really, we need. this we need this. they need to move on that one. >> right. >> look, we have gone through a long period until recently of rapid growth. >> like a long time. i don't know that we really appreciated it as much as we

should have. distended inflation. pretty good growth with the population we have and productivity. >> understand, labor force participation grows, inflation came down. it was a long, long period of a very good story. right now, fingers crossed, we can get to that ee lewis irv soft landing it will be interesting what they have to say this afternoon and how they walk on the tight rope or thread the needle, i'm not sure of the met for. >> roger ferguson, thank you we've seen you lately more than we need to thanks for coming on appreciate it. >> my pleasure thanks for having me. all right. the kremlin making some comments about a possible compromise with ukraine including one that would allow it to keep its own army. the kremlin saying that it is

discussing the austria, sweden neutrality model as an option for ukraine. the dow futures are up the s&p futures up by 50 the nasdaq up by 252 these are headlines coming from a russian news agency. we heard of things in the past in terms of peace talks, so take it with a grain of salt. but these are the new comments being made right now. ukraine's president is set to address a joint session of cob thachlts's coverage. we'll have that. when we come back, doordash, it won't pass the increased gas hikes on the consumer. we've got the details right next

to it. "squawk box" will be right back the dax up by 3%. >> announcer: this cnbc program sponsored by baird visit bairddifference.com. jooing i'm hard of hearing. ♪♪ oh hey, don't forget about the tense music too. would you say tense? i'd say suspenseful. aren't they the same thing? can we move on guys, please? alexa, turn on the subtitles. and dim the lights. ok, dimming the lights. if you invest in the s&p 500 your portfolio may be too concentrated in big companies. this can leave it imbalanced and exposed when performance varies. invesco's s&p 500 equal weight etf, rsp, is spread equally across the s&p 500,

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. delivery company doordash is taking steps to help drivers offset rising gas prices it says drivers in the united states will be eligible for 10% back on cash through a prepaid visa debit card. that's a different approach from rivals uber and lyft who are passing along the higher costs

to customers if the forms of fuel and surcharges. here's what's interesting. if you're not passing it on to the commerce, you're passing it on to the shareholders the last earnings report reported a loss. there weren't earnings to report there was a loss of 45 cents a share. they've done well post-pandemic in terms of the revenue they're bringing in, but they're not making money if you're going to pass it on to the customers, you're either going to take it out of the restaurant or the shareholders. >> the death of the cab is greatly exaggerated. >> i think so too. >> they charge what they need to charge. >> i don't know if the medallions, the taxi medallions are worth the millions before uber came onto the scene or lyft. >> for uber to get wildly

profitable, nobody can afford it. >> they have trouble finding drivers. you need the drivers to show up. >> you know, i just don't see fat margins ever in that business right? and then you've always got these g g guys in the cab you're able to see one of us read the taxi cab report in the uber, you don't get thachlt it's that it's priceless you could be riding in a cab and all of a sudden you see yourself. >> blegh. >> or becky or andrew. support is growing in the united states for them to cut the gas tags we have a special report next. as we head to break, a look at yesterday's s&p 500, winners

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good morning welcome back to "squawk box. we're live from the nasdaq market site in times square. if you take a look at futures, they're up a neutral ukraine with its own army could be a compromised option we should emphasize, again, could. we will see how things continue with this. right now the dow futures are indicated by being up 365 points s&p futures indicated up by 55 the nasdaq indicated up by 248 we'll bring you full coverage of the ukrainian president's historic address to the joint congress today set to begin at 9:00 a.m. eastern time. meantime support is growing

in several states to cut gas taxes. robert frank joins us with more. hey, robert. >> good morning, joe the florida legislature passion a 30-day gas tax holiday for the month of october the holiday will save motorists an extra 26.5 cents a gallon at the pump with gas prices now nationally over $4.40 a gallon, over a dozen states now have similar proposals. maryland fast tracking a suspension georgia united over a suspension through june even new york and cal considering tax relief at the pump the highest state gas, california, pennsylvania, and washington the lowest taxes are in alaska,

hawaii, and virginia the states have more cash than they can use some are calling for a suspension of the federal gas tax of 18.3 krenlts as gallon. the savings may not actually end up going to consumers and could leave big holes for infrastructure and road construction joe? >> we're getting whipsawed i thought we were going to raise the gas tax to fund a lot of the infrastructure stuff that was going to be a no-brainer that's not a good policy to keep flip-flopping. what do you think? >> right now it's a political no-brainer republicans like it because it's a tax cut.

democrats, remember, they paid the largest share of their income to gas. everyone loves it. it's truly bipartisan. you're right long-term, it's a flip flop. >> when you try to go back up, republicans will say, it's raising taxes. >> all right thanks, robert i love washington. it gives us something to talk about. for a closure look at gas tax holidays let's bring in gerald walczak, vice president of state projects and donna eddedwards the former congressman running again. she wants to go back to congress good to see youing congresswoman. i kidded you about that last time you want to be of service and do well, maybe not for everybody.

what do you think >> i think we should this is about consumers. i know in my state maryland where they're fast-tracking relief, that's 38 cents a gallon if the fed deposs sdeposit, too5 cents. keep in mind this is the current situation we face. it does mean when consumers can save 38 cents, 50 cents a gallon, it means they can go to the grocery store, and child care it doesn't relieve the responsibility to look for long-term solutions around transit, making sure people are driving fewer miles in their cars

we still have an obligation in the long term. but this is a good short terl move to ensure they get some of relief at the pump. >> what is the tax foundation's view on this >> one certainly understands why it's possible. unfortunately is it not only tackling the cost, but but alsot may not pass to the consumer if you server that price link, you're going to see prices go down if there's no gas tax, but maybe not anywhere near the no tax level because that would be the level at which you have shortages.

right now we have really high gas prices because of the conflict in ukraine, but it did not kick off that hike in gas prices that happened before that. we don't know where gas prices will be a few months from now, later this year. we do expect that inflation on all goods will be high so if states are going through the assistance why not provide it for this wes thing when you'd see a knee pro vitd providing a relief. it puts us in a bad position when eventually we do need to raise these taxes begin. >> you bring up something interesting. that is the republicans on board

for this the republicans went absolutely crazy when the president said this is not the biden gas price this is a putin per-gallon gase hike. >> you pointed out it was more than a dollar before but when republicans say,okay, let's do the holiday, aren't they sornlt of action kknowledg this they're playing right into it. this will be over and we can put the gas price back on. >> there's no question the gas price hiked due to putin's invasion there's two different aspects here one of them, we sure hope, may go away in a couple of months or seen the other is not going away immediately. some states have gotten away from this ahead of it.

florida has been talking about it for months. they started last year we're seeing this currently because of currently spiking prices and even if they fast-track this, we're talking may, june, july that's not a problem if they're in crisis today. congresswoman the other part that may cause earlier inflation is emerging from the pandemic, the supply chains, trouble getting workers, but then you also hear that we've fallen behind from where we used to be in terms of domestic production. you made a opponent you don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. you'd like it it to occur faster or yo dow do want to liev it in the front.

>> look, i don't think we're going to get to where we need to be in term os after a transition immediately, so this discussion around the gas tax, i dodge want to overintellectualize this. the realso is if you're a mom and have to go to work and take the kids to day carry and buy groceries, you feel the cost of every nickel and dime when it comes to paying for the fuel in your pump. but we do need to make this transition you can't leave it out of the conversation the other thing i would say, it's also important for us to understand that when there is speculation that gas is going to go higher, whether that gas is in the ground or not, these oil companies don't have any problem raising taxes -- i mean raising prices, so we need to look at as well to make sure the consumers

are protected. >> congresswoman, i do have a problem with all of the produce gouging talk with all of these things that's coming from oil that was negative i am not super surprised to see prices go up at the pump when you see prices of oil go up. there is the case that gasoline prices at the pump have outpaced some of the gains we've seen, but that's also you're paying the people along the way, you have to pay more for transportation, for labor, every one of these steps to say all of this is price gouging and you look at it all, i think it's a red herring >> i'm saying we have to keep an eye out for that those prices go up even if the gas is in the ground already the same argument exists when events affect the praise of barrel today for gas that's

already in the ground. that is all i'm saying, and i think it's important for us to always keep an eye out for that. it doesn't necessarily mean that that is true, but it's important for our regulators and the feds to be on the lookout for it. there's a lot of spike in p prices windfall, that's always a good idea finally they get a cup out ten years they're back greedy bastards. anyway, good luck. we don't need that other person on it's cable. >> thank you so much for having me when we come back, more of

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pfizer and biontech are seeking approval for a fourth vaccine next week. they expect to make this to the biden administration we've heard for some time covid could come back the fall and we should be prepared for it. we shall see. coming up, we'll dig in the rebound. stocks like alibaba and tencent, confused with fitty cent we'll have much more after the break.

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a sharp rebound in chinese technology stocks overnight in hong kong. and when we say sharp we mean it the state media said chinese and u.s. regulators are progressing toward a cooperation plan on u.s. listed chinese stocks that state media article also said that regulators should complete as soon as possible the crack down on internet platform companies. as a result the hang seng rose by 9%. these are stocks that have been punished pretty horrificry after the last three segs. these are some really big gains and a real turn around we were asking yesterday, joe, is there a point the chinese

government you don't anticipate they're going to care about the stock market eunice poined out they do when it gets to the point they could potentially layoff people at these companies that employ tens of thousands of people in china. it affects the economy >> they're walking a fine line, too. you're a communist country it's really where you are then world because of market forces kind of capitalism but you just aren't comfortable with it completely >> but they have lifted millions and people out of poverty by using the capital system >> before we started worrying about all this other stuff we were watching xi try to gain control of a lot of the private companies he thought had grown too big for their breeiches over there. >> joining us right now to talk

about the biggest movers we're watching st. stephanie link. and stephanie, all these moves we're watching, do you think this is, okay, enough pain we don't want to do so much damage that we actually hurt the economy? >> yeah, good morning. this is one of the reasons i don't invest in chinese pure plays. you can focus on valuations and how cheap these stocks are, and some of them are, but it doesn't matter because you wake up one day and the government decides to intervene whether on the positive side or negative side can these moves are really incredible today, but these stocks were down, like jd was down 34% year to date. baba down 35%, tencent down 17%. the moves are amazing today but you haven't made any money with

the moves today on the up side >> yeah, you're right. it's just maybe no more pain, and i hear your point. it doesn't matter what analysis you do on this, there are things going to be totally out of your control or anyone els. >> i would simply say how much does the regulation, how much does that impact their total revenues and their investment spend? tencent and baba collectively have 120 billion in cash, so they can invest, but are they going to be allowed to or will they have to do more you just don't know. there's too many questions sewe move along and find other companies to invest in >> there has been an argument not to the same degree that u.s. companies have been doing that to companies like a facebook and an apple but those are two names you've been adding recently >> i think facebook has been hit

so hard, and eventually they will get it right. and we have to wait for reels and for them to monetize that. and it's going to take at least six months for them to do so they still have 2 to $3 billion in active users and monthly active users and still have 10 million advertisers. apple i think is more defensive and i like it mainly because i think they're going to have this capital allocation plan come april, and i think they can buy 2 to 3% of their shares outstanding for the next several years actually >> okay, you like american express. is that a play on people just getting back out and traveling, people spending more, consumers being pretty flush right now >> yeah, i still believe the consumer is in very good shape and by the way american express has an lsz day today

i do think you're seeing leisure, travel and spend improve much more so than 2019 and the stock is now trading at 16 times levels. i like that one for the long-term especially given the valuation. >> you've been buying shares and i like krichristian peck the ceo >> i have four pets right so this is a great story in terms of the total addressable markets, enormous. these guys are a leader in the

industry the only problem with this one, becky, it is a little expensive, so i like to buy it down 20% year to date, i like to buy it here at these levels and any weakness i tone -- by the way, their margins also have been very resilient throughout covid. >> i want to look at a longer term chart year to date down 22%. is that because it spikes during the pandemic because everyone was getting covid pets >> i think it's that but i also think the market doesn't want why multiple stocks right now. they don't want nonearners and high multiple stocks i think this company can grow in the low teens for the foreseeable future, and as i mentioned margins are quite strong so you get that operating margin on the bottom line. >> stephanie, thank you.

always love talking through the bare bones of everything and why. really useful. >> it is just before 7:00 on the east coast, and you are watching "squawk box" right here on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen andrew is off today. we've got a big line upcoming in the next two hours for you we're going to be hearing from leon cooperman to talk about market volatility to the fed i beyond we'll talk about what stocks he's seeing right now and by the way a little concerned this is not going to be a great time for the indexes. we'll tell you why when we see him. plus president zelenskyy set to deliver a historic address to congress today the futures this morning are indicated higher dow futures right now up by 372 points and comes after a gain almost 600 points yesterday. s&p was up 2% yesterday and the nasdaq which was up by almost 3%

yesterday up by 241. >> and the fed is wrapping up its two-day policy meeting and expected to hike rates by a quarter point. it happened today. steve liesman joins us now with the latest steve? >> here, we are, joe the fed starting to deliver that rate hike criticized by many being too little and too late if it's to both removing the stimulus from the pandemic and now that battle with inflation threatening growth and already delivering a huge price surge. markets ahead of the meeting pricing in six rate hikes this year which would boost the funds rate by the end of the year with the question being is that enough well, former treasury secretary, he doesn't think so. in an op-ed in "the washington post" summers said the fed may have to hike the real or

adjusted fundsrate to 5% i believe the fed has not internalized the magnitude of its errors over the past year, is operating with an inappropriate and dangerous framework and needs to take far stronger actions the fed also publishing its new forecast today, and most fed observers believe the average number of hikes will be boosted to five or six this year according to fed officials the main question is whether some begin to side with this summers idea in forecasting rates have to rise above neutral to slow the economy and get inflation under control. it seems likely fed chair powell suggests a 50 basis point hike is a possibility but in future meetings joe? >> he's still really mad he didn't get to be fed chair, i think. >> who larry >> yeah, larry earlier we were saying we were talking to roger ferguson about how touch the job is, and then

we remembered sarah bloom raskin, they were holding everyone else up it's not official yet. we're telling, jay, think about it, talk to mrs. powell. who needs this it's rough, right? this is a very difficult time. why would someone want to do it? steve, do you have a good reason >> well, that would not be a very good look to abandon your post at this particular moment, joe. >> abandon your post >> you're suggesting it's a sinking ship >> i'm just giving him a way out. you know, spring is coming -- >> il'll tell you what, though, we need him. >> there was a time summers definitely did want that as the most powerful man in this universe, maybe not the meta verse. don't you think, steve >> joe, i do but if you go away from the kind of personal and read larry's piece, the battle here is one of ideas and framework.

and notice that larry's main point and the one i quoted there is his criticism of the fed's framework. powell has a framework he thinks you have the supply side go away, a rebalance how many goods we're buying versus services and you have an increase of oil production this is before the whole war idea came into the picture along with fed tightening and that brings down inflation it's worth pointing out, joe, powell has been successful in two areas. one is this quarter point is so baked in, so is the next quarter point, so is the next. look at the two-year it's up 145 basis points since its pivot back in november there's tight 'ing in the market, both in the stock market and fixed income market. you talk to some ceos and they tell you, look, we went out to look for financing but didn't like the way it was priced actually powell wants to hear

that because it tells you the world -- >> it's just the ideas thing you've read an alan blinder op-ed, pick someone on the other side and i can remember summers at the beginning of the trump presidency remember the market was surging after everyone said it was going to go down. he said it was a sugar high was going to last three months it was a three-year sugar high i don't think it always is just ideas, steve >> joe, you know, i agree with you on that, but what i'm saying you can get involved in the personality thing and i think that's a good way of analyzing, but what i'm saying is who's got the better framework here? summers' framework is this, you're going to have to really step on the economy, raise real rates above zero to some kind of restrictive area ford to control inflation. that is not powell's framework

all i'm doing is judging the different frameworks, and i want to hear powell today how and why does inflation come down you can judge things and get to a good place >> summers has been very critical recently of this administration >> but it all ties back to the -- no, he doesn't think the fed is moving fast enough and inflation is the bigger problem. by the way, you can talk to other people who will tell you the same thing because they're seeing it. >> i'm not sure who's right, though >> i don't either. but i think it's a valid viewpoint. he may signal today that a 50 basis point hike could come at a meeting soon that means he's still with this idea of signaling the market not surprising the market. and there's a lot of people oo who think surprising the market even if it's 50 basis points is

something that will keep you on your toes and you don't get lulled into the sense you get spoon-fed every move like we were today anticipated with this 25 base points >> becky, i think in raising my kids i yelled at them once when one of them went into the street after a ball. there was only one ever reason to yell at my kids and that was to surprise and shock them on that score and i'm not saying powell thinks of the markets as kids, but i do think if you're going to surprise the market you have to do it for some purpose or effect, a lasting effect the market has behaved in the way powell wants it to the market is doing powell's bidding and doing it in a way he wants. >> there's going to be a point where there's a temper tantrum because you're going to have to

raise it faster. >> and you're more on top of the issue of smaller kids these days than i am, i will grant that but here's the thing powell i think if he does do 50 he's going to signal the possibility of 50. there's no reason to shock the market powell's whole modus operandi i to tell the market leon cooperman, get his take on the russia-ukraine situation, the fed, elizabeth warren and more stayun quk box" will be right back.

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ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy willdries congress this morning as lawmakers are still ironning out the details of a bill that will end normal trade relations with russia good morning >> good morning, joe

president zelenskyy is expected to plead with washington to do more to help his country and he's likely to find a sympathetic audience with capitol hill the white house has been under constant pressure from democrats and republicans in congress to go further with its rhetoric, economic sanzs and military aid. the senate passed a bipartisan resolution calling for an investigation of russian war crimes and as you mentioned congress has to act in order for the u.s. to cut off normal trade relationles with russia. >> i feel very strongly that russia's inhumane behavior means that they have forfeited the ability to get the normal benefits of the international trade order. >> now, that trade bill supposed to start moving through congress this week. republicans support the concept, but they also caution that there's a limit to how effective sanctions can be

>> i think it's naive to think that just because we're imposing more economic sanctions on the russian people that putin cares. this is mainly about his megalomania and aspirations to restore the russian empire >> ukraine wants stronger defense systems like the s300 surface-to-air missiles, special drones and polish made fighter jets both the congress and white house are still adamantly opposed to a no-fly zone, which zelenskyy has said is critical to winning the war joe? >> they didn't want to do the oil either initially and were adamantly opposed. do you see any chance, and i've heard people say bring the pilots to poland, put them in the migs, fly them back to ukraine. i i've seen all the different ways that get around the direct

involvement with the united states with the migs i've seen four or five different scen scenarios painted by different people any chance a week from now we're saying they've got the migs? >> what we've seen over and over again so far is that congress has been sort of out in front. they've tested these ideas, putting pressure on the white house but ultimately it's up to the president to act in this case so you see these ideas, see through congress, see republicans, see democrats get onboard together and either provide what is essentially political cover for the president or sort of that pressure to say congress is willing to act or willing to speak on this even if the white house isn't, and then the white house sort of comes along after the fact so you're starting to see democrats get onboard with this idea, maybe the white house will move eventually as well, but

congress has definitely been ahead. >> louder and more bellicose some of what i've heard. this bully, you know, you can't -- we don't, we're so worried what we might do that might him angry that might escalate to war. i'm hearing it, and i'm wondering if that ever makes its way all the way into the oval office where the president says -- and there's also a lot of criticism he's just not standing up strong enough for the united states and for nato and the rest of the world. i don't know it's just starting i'm wondering whether that has an effect down the road. >> senator warren put it very well i know you don't normally agree with her, joe, but she said yesterday, you know, putin can't call all the shots here, but there's also a recognition that the u.s.' hands are tied, right, that the worst-case scenario is

so damaging, so awful that no one even wants to consider it. so that is the tightrope that the administration is walking and, you know, congress is sort of providing the ideas, perhaps, for the administration and potential pathways for the administration to take >> i guess she's got a point there. we have lee cooper coming on, too. >> michael hanlen talks about how in russia there's a phase called escalate to deescalate and a strategy of getting much more vicious in order to bring things down. >> the madman defense is another good one where they're both so crazy neither one of them does anything joining us now is our friend kevin rudd, former prime minister of sauce trailia. he's got a big op-ed in "the wall street journal. do you get paid for that or is that free? don't caught count on china to

mediate war in the ukraine and you know president xi very, very well. tell us what your -- knowing him well what does that tell you what china is likely to do it's the whole country we're talking about whether it's in china's best interest. does it really come down to what's in xi's best interest >> bottom line is china is run by xi jinping not just his name but in reality so the big calls on russia-ukraine are made by xi jinping personally the second point is that xi jinping because of the depth of his personal and the country's strategic relationship with putin and russia is not likely to move anytime soon in terms of taking on the sort of mediating role we see talked about in european capitals in particular in order to bring about a cease-fire or a russian withdrawal in ukraine.

the last point is if you're looking at the world through xi jinping's lens at the moment despite him digging ipwith putin he's under a fair bit of domestic pressure now. there's a critique within his country about china really overreaching and at obvious levels of support for putin's position and joe you spoke this morning about extraordinary chinese intervention in the stock market in hong kong and that's because the growth numbers in china are doing badly. and the last one is moving across the border and now producing lock downs in multiple chinese cities if you're xi jinping i think you're feeling somewhat politically besieged at the moment, but i don't see him changing fundamental calls on the ukraine question >> i don't get it. if you are co'pariah in the global trade situation with

vladimir putin, how do you continue to lift, you know, your people into, really the hundreds of millions that have been successfully brought into the much better standard of living with capitalism and market forces in china. why aren't they going to be -- why doesn't he think their brand is being irreparably damaged by throwing their lot in with this guy, putin >> well, there's a huge debate within the chinese smgs right now on this. in fact elements bubble out for time to time even in the official chinese media are where people are arguing exactly what you just said. but xi jinping is calling the shots, and his strategic view from china's national interest point of view is that the overriding long-term chinese interest is to have a stable relationship with the russians, have a stable border with the russians rather than china asi was for decades strategically

paranoid about a hostile russia to its north and furthermore because xi jinping wants to rewrite the rule of the international system, he has seen the russians as reliable political partners over the last several years in this i don't agree with this logic at all, but you're asking me to explain if putin, by the way, would fall as a kunsquence of his failed russian blitzkrieg in ukraine, it the degree of political difficulty that xi would find ilhimself in domestically in china would be very large indeed. >> we talk about all the time, kevin, that all these companies, u.s. multinationals were able to somehow look the other way with the uyghurs. i mean take your pick of come

human rights violation you want to talk about in china and take the nba and the way the nba acted. so they've been able to sort of fly under the radar and eye taiwan and do all these things without any repercussions, but this seems like a bridge too far for them with what we see happening in ukraine and i think they should have left well enough alone they're getting away with enough in staying in the global community. and now this is just, uh-oh. we lost him. >> don't know what happened. >> the satellite >> it's 7:20 on the nose >> we would do that? >> no, i think that's why they were rushing us along. >> no, they weren't, though. >> yes, they were. we haven't been listening to wrap cues for the last 25 minutes. >> forthe last 25 years. they should be happy

>> wasn't listening. >> they're willing to look the other way all the stuff china has done they'll be forced to make a choice, black rock, all these places that didn't care about the uyghurs, didn't care about tiananmen, didn't care about human rights, didn't care about unfair trade practices because it was such a big lucrative prize over there >> there's not an american company that can do business in this situation >> not with this so that's not going to occur with xi? he needs to cut his losses on this relationship. but kevin rudd if he was still with us he would say he's not going to do that >> he might. look, xi is going to enjoy being the powerbroker. when we come back legendary investor lee cooperman will join us to talk about the fed decision and what it means for stocks join us for investment ideas and

much more. dow futures still up by about 140 points s&p futures up by 49 nasdaq up by 224 and this comes stdar big gains across the board yeery. nasdaq was up by almost 3% yesterday. "squawk box" will be right back. this is the new world of work. each day looks different than the last. but whatever work becomes, the world works with servicenow.

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let's get over to dom chu. he's got a look at this morning's premarket movers >> you guys have spoken a lot this morning so far about the bounce back, the big one we've seen in chinese tech and internet related stocks. that optimism around china and the government may be looking to not herd the growth energy that's been their economy as much had been expected in the past is leading the positivity for the some of the big casino operators that have big operations in the gambling hub in china wynn resorts up 6.5% we'll stick on travel and leisure because some of the highest more volatile market on relative basis names in the s&p 500 as of late have been in travel and leisure names and to that end you see some of the bigger gainers in the premarket trade so far is are some of the airline operators

like american airlines and united and nor weaken cruise lines is up about 2.5%. and a check there on some of the other ones reshaping some of the story around what's happening in the energy markets right now a little bit more of a volatile trade. we are seeing a little bit of relief volley in some of the weakness as of late at least for the last couple here, some of the fractional gains we're seeing with energy a pull back in crude down to $95. oil stocks have gone down along with it. so we'll see if there's any stability coming up in that oil trade especially for big companies like these back over to you >> dom, i can read your signal you start with gaming stocks so i'd ask you about your bracket you knew that would -- you probably don't want to tell me when you're picking, but is it an outlier or are you going with

a really popular name where 10, 15 other people in our tv news pool -- >> you mean to win the whole thing the i would tell you that i would consider the pick that i have probably in the top 15 most popular -- >> don't tell him anything else, dom. he's trying tasteal this idea since you won it in the past >> i did it by picking on autaout liar >> i've told you before i have a soft spot for kentucky >> let's say house do i win if i've got a letter? >> here what i would say i think the number one seeds are number one seeds for a reason i always have them going pretty far, but i don't necessarily have a number one seed winning

the whole thing. >> i have one that i saw, and i saw one guy who's so amazing and he's not one of the big guys so i'm not going to say who that is i'm not going to tell you who mine is either >> that's today the notre dame record >> real quickly and just figured out we can get out of trouble for not stopping when they say wrap we thought they weren't saying rap. >> keep rapping. coming up, a sharp rebound in g -- a sharp rebound after new signals and support from the chinese government we'll get an update from beijing and take a look at names like alibaba and numbers strong and lee cooperman is going to be

talking about them he's smart be with us in a few minutes to talk markets we'll be right back. time now for today's aflac trivia question. on average how many packages did fedsx ground deliver per day in 2021 the answer when cnbc's "squawk box" continues aflac! paul is about to suffer a shelf-inflicted injury. luckily, aflac will help cover his unexpected medical bills. aflac! maybe you could use the money to buy a step stool. i have a step stool. so why are you climbing a shelf? the stool's on top of the shelf, isn't it paul... [shelf crashing] yeah... ♪ aflac! official partner of march madness. this is the new world of work. each day looks different than the last. but whatever work becomes, the world works with servicenow.

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now the answer to today's aflac trivia question. on average how many packages did fedex ground deliver per day in 2021 the answer, 12 million welcome back if you're just waking up you've got to check this out. stocks in asia on a tear overnight with hong kong's hhsi surging overnight. if you look at some of the beaten down names like alibaba, jd.com and more sharply higher jd.com up by 35% you're talking about some of the biggest days on record through

t tencent. eunice yoon joins us right now she's in beijing and what a difference a day makes. >> absolutely. investors really took heart to the comments of the vice premier, chaired a special meeting on financial policy planning and in that meeting he addressed a lot of the issues that had been weighing on investors minds and pledged beijing's support. so he said that beijing would actively promote favorable market policies while prudently unveiling policies that could potentially do harm. he said that china would back overseas ipos and was making positive progress with the u.s. on audits. on the internet firms he said that china would rectify its online economy as soon as possible, but at the same time would offer support. so he called this a red light, green light scheme which essentially means regulatethos

intranet giants but allow them to continue to grow and expand he said china would coordinate more closely with hong kong and rollout policies, to quote, invigorate the economy in the first quarter and also support the shaky profit sector. a chinese regulator echoed some of the comments out of the vice premier saying they were working closely with the sec to try to come up with an audit deal as soon as possible the regulator also said it was going to be encouraging companies to buy back shares and also to get funds to invest more so the fact that the statement and the coordination between the different parts of the government was just so broad, people here have been reading that to me in that beijing is concerned about the sell-off and that they want to make sure that investors know that the priority here is stability. becky? >> eunice, we talked about this

yesterday, what would be the point that would be too much pain for them. and if these companies are in a position laying people off and effects directly, then that's a problem for the party. >> absolutely. and we're hearing even more rumors that companies like alibaba and tencent are talking about laying off workers these are numbers that don't necessarily get affected by the unemployment rate. just because wecopy hearing about all these issues of not enough -- of workers not being able to get enough work, that this is something the authorities here would be derned about. >> eunice, thank you still to come, this morning, a wide ranging interview with omegafamily offices lee cooperman. that's next. plus it's a big day in washington the fed wrapping up its two day meeting today where it's expected to rate hikes for the

first time since 2018. also ukrainian president zelenskyy set to address congress virtually this morning. we'll get you up to speed on everything youeed nto know. stay tuned you're watching "squawk box" and this is cnbc each day looks different than the last. but whatever work becomes, the world works with servicenow. i promise - as an independent advisor - to put the financial but well-being of youomes, and your family first. i promise to serve, not sell. i promise our relationship will be one of partnership and trust. i am a fiduciary, not just some of the time, but all of the time. charles schwab is proud to support the independent financial advisors

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on top of wild swings in the energy markets volatile stock market movements and soaring geopolitical tensions investors are waiting to hear from the federal reserve chairman jay powell as the fed wraps up its pivotal two day meeting. joining us right now to take make sense of all of it is legendary investor lee cooperman, it's good to see you this morning there's a lot of on the table. >> yep, yep. nice to be with you. >> so what -- what are you thinking right now the last time we talked to you you were talking about how you were a fully invested bear has your situation changed at this point are you more pest pessimistic or more optimistic? >> i would say pest misic. i'm less than fully investedmism i think the ukraine situation is serious. i can't handicap it.

we've got a madman running russia and i think -- again, i have no particular expertise here so i want to be careful i think putin is a dead man, he knows it and the question really is does he go quietly or try to take the rest of the world with him when he goes, and i don't know the answer to it he's got nuclear capability which is troublesome, and i think that complicates the situation. but i really -- when i was more optimistic i said that i was long-term bearish because i really felt that the nation was following very inappropriate fiscal mopitary policies i said this on your program last time i said if powell is right on inflation i'd tip my hat to him. 54% of the typical business course is labor. labor's not going down and the commodity inflation, every executive i talk to just tells me about how their guests

are out of sight that's more than twice what the fed's target is. so we've had very inappropriate monetary policies and fiscal policies think about the debt buildup in the country. the station was founded in 1776. we had no national debt. in 2017 that's 241 years later we had national debt of $20 trillion from 2017 to 2021 we've got from 20 trillion to $30 trillion in four years that's a growth rate in debt far in excess of the growth rate of the economy. i'm worried about fiscal, monetary policy. interest rates are far too low with what's going on in the economy. i remember over the course of my career i used to get a real

return in bonds. if you set the inflation rate is 28% and ten year is a little over 2%, it's a negative return and i think that's got to change and we're facing a regime of rising interest rates, rising taxes and a fiscal situation is out of wack and continued high inflation. and i'd come down to question myself what is the appropriate multiple of the market and in my view it's about 18 times, and 18 times to 25 whatever the number is in the s&p earnings is basically about 4,000 and we're a little bit above that. we're not undervalued. and i think conditions are going to deteriorate to some degree. >> you think we've already seen the highs for the year with the stock markets? >> i'd say at least 50%

probable a lot of paper trading ends, but i would say that, yes, i think that the highs are in for the year and ifwe go to a new high it would be aggressively selling. i'm not a bear i'm not short many things. and i say on the plus side i think we're in the land of the blind and i'm king i'm not keen about investing a lot in china i think europe's proximity to russia i'd say they're not going to be a favorite place to invest and there's plenty of cheap stocks in the united states. i do think stocks represent the best game in town, maybe the best asset in the neighborhood >> let's talk specifically about those in just a moment, but if if you are underinvested that means you have money sitting

aside in cash? is that for an opportunity because if it's high inflation like that, you don't want cash either >> well, you know, sometimes the most painful asset is the right asset to hold. i don't mind having some cash. again, i'm not competing with the s&p 500. i run my own money my goal in life is to make money for two reasons. one if i make money it validates my views, and i have a certain amount of pride and arrogance like everyone else i want to be right i don't want to be wrong and number two, i've earmarked all my money for charity and i'd like to give away more money so if i'm right i have more money to give away, and that's kind of my mantra. >> lee, how much do you have in cash right now that makes you comfortable? what percent >> i would say about 10% i've been very lucky i have more money than i need.

i would say it doesn't bother me i find things to do, but i'm limed by my consideration of macro picture and i don't care about the s&p 500. i care about absolute dollars. >> you've been looking at energy and investing in energy for a while. >> i came into last year a little nervous at the moment because when i came into last year we had very overweighted energy position that turned out to be right. i think most of the stocks we're involved in discount about $65 oil and currently about 95 and discounting about $3 gas current lay gas is about $4.75 they generate enormous cash flow

and i don't see the administration doing the right thing. it used to be drill, drill, drill. and now they want to lower the gas tax which i guess stimulates consumption. they're not capitalist i have a lot of things that bother me. i don't like the leadership of washington on both sides you know, we have the leadership in a crisis environment, and right now we're not in a crisis. we're moving towards one labor seems to be getting the upper hand, which is a change. fixed income seems totally mispriced. i don't think the 25 basis points are the issue today the issue is where is the dialogue going to be from powell and he's been very wrong and seems to have elevated societal issues relative to inflation as a concern, and we'll see if changes the dialogue i think he should. i think larry summers is a brilliant economist. he's on the right track. i happen to agree with larry

>> what's your best idea of all the things you're looking -- >> life is funny it's very complicated. legato owns about 35 megahertz of spectrum. shows you how paralyzed the government is. they've spent ten years trying to get this licensed and all of a sudden the department of defense bogusly raised some issues about peck trm interfered with needs -- >> you're talking about 5g >> 5g amongst other things the fcc stuldied this issue for five years and concluded by a 5-0 bipartisan vote the department of fed said no case you're going to get 31 points of interest, 24 points of capital appreciation, so going to make about 55 points and the question

you have to ask is what the asset worth? i think the asset is worth materially in excess of value of the bonds. and i think the asset they have is probably worth 12, 14, 15, 16 trillion, billion dollars. it's orphaned, and we tend to go off the beaten track i like a couple companies in canada one i particularly like is run by one of the smartest guys in canada, michael rose and then the other one runs paramount resources. it's like a 25, $26 stock. they have an energy portfolio of $4 a share in nonincome producing energy stocks. they'll be out of debt by the third quarter this year. they're generating about 4, $500 million in excess cash beyond their dividends and cap x is

covered. and he's got a lot of skin in the game the riddell family owns half the company about a $2 billion investment a smart guy. i have plenty of things to do. i'm more old economy oriented, but i spoke with the manager they're buying back a lot of stock, earnings are growing, decent balance sheet i have to say i have a conservative view of the world, and i think bonds are totally mispriced. i have no interest in bonds and legato is more an equity nothing is a layup in the wurl we live in but as close to a layup i know >> you usually are talking about names a little off the beaten

track, but two of your big holdings are in commonly held stocks, technology flames, google and microsoft >> i would say i'm not a technology expert but i think google and microsoft are great windows in technology. they're reasonably priced. they're not -- they're higher valued than they were four or five years ago but they're not excessively valued you go back to periods of excess 1972, nifty 50 i don't think, you know, 25, 30 multiples are high back in 1972 the two year government was 6.5%, and fed funds was i think about 4 or 5%. you know, we're talking about fed funds maybe getting to 200 basis points over the next year and the ten-year government is going to go up but they're not expensive

relative to interest rates and they're a window into technology so one of my biggest positions is google followed by microsoft, and treated me well and paid taxes and i'm not going to sell them i think leadership in the market is changing. but, i don't know, i would say it's -- i think we're in a market of stocks rather than the stock market if i had to guess the analogy i'd use -- i'd use two analogies. one i talk about the fapharaoh. the pharaoh if you follow the bible had a dream. his dream was determined by joseph in the bible. i'm not making a seven-year forecast, but i think we've pulled the man forward with inefficient fiscal and we have to address it. i got my mba january 1, 1967,

and i had a national defense student loans repaid, no money in the bank so by definition i was broke. i couldn't afford a vacation i went to work the next day, in my 25-year career of goldman sachs in 1982 it was 1,000 i think the market is fully value. and joe, you're speaking the things that push the market up are changing we had a very accommodative fed. they're changing the pace of change is the issue. we have an on coming -- we have more concern about the economy given what's going on in russia and inflation, i think there's more concern about the economy and my heart goes out to the people in ukraine, they're fighting a heroic fight, but, you know, it's crazy what's going on it's a genocide. he should not be allowed to get

away with this >> hey, lee, we had roger ferguson on. just the word stagflation, which i guess, sort of stagnation and inflation at the same time that's like the worst, and it's kind of the converse of what is so great and what we sort of had for a while which is low interest rates and pretty solid growth so you remember 74 you remember some of these periods in the past where it uzjust horrible to be in financial assets >> the market has been somewhat disciplined, joe someone sent me a list and i don't even know the names of these companies. clo down 93%, roo down 92% the markets has been very disciplined and i said on your program i think a year and a half ago i said we're really not in one market but in several markets. we have the faang market, and

the real ones they're not expensive relative to interest rates. then we have the robin hood market, and said that's crazy. i think the exact words it's going to end in tears. i look at the robin hood stock index, 86% and the very next day regrettably some young man basically committed suicide over his losses it's -- then you have the rest of the market which is the market i traffic in. and i don't get too worried about things that -- single digit multiples. >> leon, it's always a pleasure to see you thank you for your time. >> my pleasure and stay healthy and let's try to help people that need help coming up we're on washington watch this morning. ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy will address congress.

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it is 8:00 a.m. in new york, and you are watching "squawk box. we're live from the nasdaq market site in times square. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen the futures at this hour are indicated sharply higher okay this is coming after big gains yesterday. but check this out, dow futures now indicated up by 400 points that's the highest level we've seen since the show started two hours ago. yesterday the dow was up by 599 points so you're talking about a gape

of 1,000 points. and the nasdaq which was up by almost 3% yesterday is indicated up another 251 points this morning. ukraine's president is set to address a joint session of congress around 9:00 a.m. this morning, and we'll have full coverage throughout the morning leading up to that we also have breaking news from starbucks this is important. ceo kevin johnson is retiring. he's going to be transitioning from his role on april 4th the company announcing this ahead of its annual shareholder meeting taking place later today. and starbucks founder howard schultz will become the interim ceo until the company names a successor. joining us now is the chair melanie hobson, and good morning. this is some really, really big news >> good morning. >> so what happened? why is kevin standing down i think that comes as a huge

surprise to investors, to anybody who's been watching the company. >> it's not a surprise to the board. over a year ago kevin signaled to us that he was starting to think about his future and starting to think about retiring and he told us he thought the waning days of the pandemic might be the perfect book end to his now five-year career as ceo. the board wants to respect that decision he's done a great job for us at starbucks and really wants to move onto do something else now. and then we have this mvp on the bench and so the board called him up we thought at this moment he's the perfect person, certainly the perfect culture carrier, so he'll help us transition and we get all of that for a dollar he's going to be doing it for free >> he's going to be doing this

froo free, a donation of a dollar to do it. under howard schultz the stock u was up 110,000%. >> i yie troolook at the chart and i'm so old, but i remember this this is like deja vu all over again because there was a time when starbucks had lost its way a little bit and howard came back and probably 15 years or something. >> 2008. >> it just ignited we won't be able to see it because we probably need to do a log chart or something to actually see it, but it had really not done well for a while and he came back in and that was all it took and it was right back on the growth track after

>> there it is >> and then if just came right back so i've seen this movie before >> well, you know, howard brings a certain kind of energy to anything that he does. it's infectious. he certainly has an entrepreneurial spirit that is so deep, but this company never stands still he has infected us with that idea of moving forward he'll be here for an interim period and we fully expect to have new ceo here in the fall, but in the meantime we're going to take advantage of those ideas. he'll help us reaffirm, recommit, reconnect to our culture in a way that will be useful and a great transition to our next leader. >> melanie, if you knew a year ago kevin was going to be stepping down, why not start the search for a new ceo already, or is this a situation where you thought we want to have howard back in the chair? >> elwell, we had no date certan

first of all the howard idea did not come up last year. it was very recent and i would say that, remember, we're looking for a ceo during a pandemic we started to step up our process in thinking about succession planning. we put together a working committee. we spent a great deal of time thinking about whu do we want the next leader to be, what kind of characteristics should he or she have so there's been a lot, but we're not going to hire a ceo over zoom we have board members who are all over the world there's a lot, and there have been fits and starts, but we've been on a path and this is not news to us we've been very deliberate, thoughtful and considered all of our options in this process. >> if you're anticipating you'll have a new ceo by the fall how will howard's role be beyond that will he be spending time training them, showing them the

ropes, teaching them the culture? >> certainly that's something we want and asked him to do, and he said yes, which is great he'll join our board again and be a voice, i think, which will be very, very helpful. we want to lean on all of howard's expertise and all of his brilliance and again, he said yes and we want a leader that wants to tap into that. we have a great slate of candidates people want this job and we're fully confident we'll have a new leader in the fall >> he's a baby three years anyway >> he's not going to stay for three years, i can tell you that we get him until the fall, full stop he's not going to do it. he's got a lot to do you know, howard never stops dreaming and thinking and wanting to change the world, and which that is what makes him so special and so great and everything that he believes is possible i i believe is

possible knowing him so i know he has lots of things he wants to do he's been very active philanthropically and the things he can do to impact and effect change for many people and that's how starbucks was born it's the connection to our people and our partners that he put so front and center, and i know he'll do amazing things >> he's doing it you mentioned it for a dollar, so he's basically donating his time for all this he's still a big shareholder >> yes, he's a shareholder and he's doing it for his love of the company, and we're really grateful >> what areas does he plan to focus on first and i ask this because yesterday we talked about this shareholder group. they're a small shareholder group. i think they only have about $1.2 billion in stock, but they brought up this idea they'd like to see starbucks work differently with the unions. it's been an issue recently but

starbucks has a long history of having employees who really love working there. you all did things first under howard's leadership just in terms of paying for college for not just full time but part time workers, for bringing in health care plans it's got teeg booey different relationship right now given some of the union issues what do you say and how do you deal with this new investor group? >> first of all every investor matters. you know i'm an investor i run aerial investors as coceo. all stakeholder voices are important and it's our job to manage that. at the same time you've been very clear the union conversation is one front and center it is one where we acknowledge it has been a hard time in the world. it has been a hard time in our industry and has been a difficult time in our country, in our company but i want to tell you right now we're not hanging on covid as an excuse we made some mistakes here, we didn't listen and we need to do that we are bargaining with the and

negotiating with the union right now. we want a constructive relationship and howard of course will be about that. really when you think about, again, why we're leaning on howard in this moment, it's that connection with our people and where we think he is singularly capable of engaging with our people in a way that i think will make a difference >> well, he's a high-minded guy as well. and it is -- there are tough decisions to be made right now you have a huge market in china, and the chinese people deserve to have lattes, there's nedoubt about it but then you see some of the actions of the regime and especially now with what we're seeing whether they continue to back putin and everything else so howard's going to have to decide do we -- is it okay to satisfy a billion people with their coffee needs, or do we take a stand and say, look, you can't do this there anymore? >> well, this is what i would say to you

i think this company has navigated a lot of issues over the years. we're 50 years old we've had issues one of my favorite lines is from warren buffet, champions adapt and we've always adapted we've never set still. we love building the business there and have had a great relationship there, and we believe we'll continue to do so. the world doesn't have to be so binary and black and white, and i think that would lead to us -- >> your consumer -- there are some businesses where i, you know, if you're funding china, there's a difference between serving the consumers in china as opposed to enabling the regime, if you will, an evil regime so i don't -- i see it's a tough thing to thread, but you're right chinese people love lattes, give them lattes >> we don't want to give them lattes we're serving coffee

>> melanie, china was 12% of starbucks revenue for full year 2021 we're seeing major lock downs now. has that impacted business >> well, we're watching the situation very, very closely we're in our board meeting yesterday, and we heard from our china team, and so we're ebbing and flowing with the situation as we've done throughout the pandemic the one thing we can say consistently is after these lock downs we see demand return, and so we will just, you know, keep ebbing and flowing with the situation as it plays out. the there's nothing we can do other than that. >> we're also dealing with inflation everywhere you've got the fed meeting today trying to figure out what to do next we're expecting the first rate hike since 2019. how is starbucks handling inflation, and where are the biggest issues is it labor or some commodity? >> well, i would tell you that like all companies right now this is -- there's no manual

this is the first in 40 years that we've seen this kind of inflation. you know this all too well you report on it every day there's a lot of scenario planning but certainly we are looking at all of our options we made the biggest investment in our company's history in the last year in wage, and it's been scaled in. it's starting last year and into this year. it was the best investment we believe we can make. whenever we invest in our people it really does pay off so we think that makes a lot of sense. we also understand that our partners are feeling the effects of inflation it's hitting their pocketbooks and we have to respond in some way to be able to help them with that so we're doing the right thing, and we will manage through it. we always have >> and is it safe to assume that the new ceo, or the one you plan to have in place by the fall will be coming from outside the company? >> we are looking at all possibilities, so we just want the best player, and we will

leave no stone unturned, but as i suggested we have a really good slate of potential candidates >> i want to thank you for being with us this morning this is huge news. kevin johnson retiring, something he told the board about a year ago, but the market is responding right now to the idea that howard schultz is coming back as the interim ceo that stock up by about 5%. and thank you very much. the chair of the board there thank you. >> thank you coming up, we're expecting the latest retail sales data at 8:30 the future ahead of those numbers just under 400 points on the dow. nasdaq is strong plus the brookings institution's michael ohanlon will join us. stay tuned

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i didn't know my genetic report could tell me i was prone to harmful blood clots. i travel a ton, so this info was kind of life changing. maybe even lifesaving. ♪do you know what the future holds?♪ welcome back to "squawk box. the futures right now are up 393 points, 89 on the dow. i'm going to foe to this one to show you that i can still see, because i look over here once in a while because of the big monitor here

>> that one is very helpful. that's why i look at it. >> but if you want to stay looking forward. >> that's why we look cagey sometimes. >> you're right. you look a little cagey. treasuries 2.6 yesterday it was 2.17. and crude oil i wouldn't like to trade this in arrangement recent sessions we're at 97 and it did cross over 130 just briefly. >> as of last monday it was 130 and change >> ukraine and russia is also due to pay more than $100 million in interest on a pay of sovereign bonds. that doesn't sound like a lot, but if you default they've got a lot of debt. but global economic sanctions have raised questions on whether moskow will be able to do so setting up what would be its first sovereign bond default in

more than 100 years. leslie, i heard a joke the other day and i i've got to say it do you know the difference between a ruble and a dollar is? >> what? >> a dollar. >> or 100, 150 rubles, wherever it's at. we're monitoring this closely as it could be indicative of the nation's first default on external bonds since the take over back in 1917. this is less of a story about russia's economic ability to pay. as you mentioned the country has about half as much debt as general motors and was rated investment grade as recently as last month due to its large reserves and flowing oil but sanctions froze its dollars and other technicalities are likely to prevent the kremlin from servicing its debt as

required under its contracts baying in rubles would still constitute a default >> default is usually about the willingness of someone to pay. certainly in the case of russia they're indicating a willingness to pay but a lack of capacity or capability and that capability september necessarily because they don't have to financial resources. that ability is technically is because it's going to be difficult for them to pay. >> it'll get a 30 day grace period and if it's unable to pay it will trigger a hard default >> when's it due >> it's due today. it's interesting i was calling around the markets to say is there a hard and fast time stamp they must have this in, and my sense is it's that

hard default, that it has to be in on a certain time, but today it's a bit more squishy. however, if you talk to clearinghouse which has sanctions on russia they will say and this is according to people familiar with it matter they have yet to receive anything whether that got stuck in transit remains to be seen it's a very complicated, fluid situation right now but we'll be monitoring it all day. it's in carrier pigeon carrier pigeon is bringing it. when we come back, some breaking retail sales data we'll have the number and the instant reaction, and we are counting down to ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy's address to congress. that is due to begin at 9:00 a.m. eastern time we'll have much more on the conflict and the worldwide economic impact ahead. stay tuned stay tuned "squawk box" will be right flexshares are carefully constructed.

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movers >> starbucks was on there, but you guys just spent so much time talking about it, i felt i had to move onto something else because you guys covered it so well, becky. a lot of executive turn over certainly in that restaurant ranks over the course of the last several weeks and months here but i will start off with an earnings report because we're actually still reporting corporate earnings, and this is coming from a bigger name in the world of contract electronics manufacturing. this is a company that does a lot of the manufacturing, outsource wise for a lot of tech companies. part of apple supply chain as well so jabil circuit up right now. they also upped their full year forecast as well and also check out what's happening right now with crypto currencies and prices continue to drift a bit higher, just shy of around 40,500 at one point we did hit the highest levels in about a week

from bitcoin prices. ethereium up as well, and coin base global and microstrategy up in premarket trade, two of the names being tied and then as we often do in this hour of squawk a check of the most popular tickers on yesterday's full session. maybe no surprise the ten. year treasury note, number one spot there wti crude up about a half of percent was the number two most searched ticker alibaba because of the chinese internet craze right now so that's your top tennish. the rest of the top ten are on my twitter feed feed at the

domino >> maybe i'll tweet you some of the hints along the way. >> big ten, they switch around and then -- i think there's nine i think illinois, indiana. >> i'll tell you what. i have one iteration that has illinois winning the whole thing. >> you do? >> i do. that's not the tv newser one you're talking about right now >> i had one last year and they busted my bracket and i wanted to cry so i probably should do them this year. thanks, dom. >> you got it. >> "squawk box" will brit ba cke gh (vo) verizon business unlimited

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welcome back to "squawk box" on cnbc. we're just a minute away from february retail sales and import price data the futures right now up about 380 points or so, nasdaq strong. the ten-year is up just under 2.2 or so, 2.16 i think this morning. 2.165. and then rick santelli standing by at the cme in chicago commodities, we know they move around and the pendulum swings, but has oil surprised you? make up your mind. >> nobody knows where oil is supposed to be because we don't know where we're going to source

oil or how much it will cost and we don't know what policies ahead will be, and we all know it takes such a long time to get u.s. supply online that why even bother, okay when all those questions get answered i think we'll have a better guess of where energy price and oil would go i certainly hate to go to saudis hat like boris johnson here we go releasing very important data on import prices, month over month for february, up 1.4%, joe that's a bit lighter than expectations, and at least for the moment sequentially follows 2% until it gets revised if you strip out petroleum, wel it gets cut in half. shocking it's up 7% without petroleum and the year over year prices like cpi and ppi is quite important. import prices year over year is

10.9% hotter than the 10.8% last month. but it's definitely down from last year's high level which was 11.8 now let's switch gears to export price. month over month up 3%, more than double. more than double expectations. and if we look at year over year, 16.6%. that's shy the high-water mark for the end of last year which was 18.3, but it's definitely much hotter than we were expecting. on retail sales, well we're up 0.3, close to expectations a very healthy revision from last month from 3.8, up over a percent to 4.9 strip out autos diminishes to 0.2. if you look at ex-autos and gas, it goes negative, also not too shocking minus 0.4.

remember what you paid for gasoline and in the rearview mirror a huge revision from 3.8 up to 5.2%, and finally on the control group we are reversing but revise last month 5.8 for the control group that data gets synthesized and the control number gets inputted into other economic data points well, last month it was up at 4.8, which is really strong. that gets upgraded to 6.7, unbelievably strong. so down 1.2 isn't shocking i would meld the two together. how is the aftermath of all that well, joe, we're still at 2.16 on tens. we still have a very green stock market and of course we're pretty much expecting that jay powell will put us all on a sugar diet by removing a little bit of stimulus by doing no more quantitative easing for now and

looking for a quarter point hike, first time since 2018. and if you do recall in 2018 i thought their hikes were a good thing. the president at the time, most people didn't think they were a good thing i guess when it comes to fed funds and the overnight rate, a lot depends on how much sugar is needed in the system that has really been recalculated and recalibrated for about 13 years. back to you. >> thanks, rick. did you read the germ? you get to read "the wall street journal" today you see this paul tiese, a professor at new york university why u.s. producers are not solving the energy crisis. it's really good i want to get this guy on and talk goes over everything, you know, everything you can possibly -- you could do ben franklin close, why they should, why they

shouldn't. >> i like that like ben franklin it might be rather shocking for people yes, i agree >> it's nuanced. there's a lot of reasons, but we know what some of the biggest reasons are. i mean, obviously. >> believe me, i get it. it's nuanced putin did make a difference, but in the end you can follow obviously as we're discussing a long trail of decisions that got us at this intersection. when the light turns yellow we have all the cars smashing into each other the most recent event is putin but there's a litany of events that preceded it >> yesterday was a big day, rick, because on the wires you got the empire which was higher. thanks, rick steve liesman joins us now with emore. what's going on, steve >> i like empire and higher. >> and wire. >> and wire. this is an interesting forward

obviously we're watching those import prices up but, you know, this revision to january is fascinating because, you know, we may be doing better on first quarter gdp, but it depends on what happens with inflation here almost certainly inflation adjusted retail spending fell because remember you're looking at i think it was a 0.7 monthly gain still it's interesting to see you you have a nice gain in restaurant and food establishments we are seeing a bit of a pivot there. that was up #.5% you still have things up discretionary spending, sporting goods and hobbies and we're trying to figure out do we ever get to a place where the consumer is just tapped out? we've asked them for too much for gasoline, too much for food and they don't have money to spend on other things. we're just not really seeing

that right now if you take these two months together. we'll see if this shock is coming from higher food and oil prices, gets to that point but we've been talking to some cfos, on our cfo council, and that's one of the reasons why inflation is going to come down. we're not seeing it just yet >> no empty seats on a lot of the planes tough to get a hotel people had some money after the pandemic and they're ready to go, but you wonder when that runs into these higher prices, yeah >> and they're getting wage hikes, joe so that's another aspect to it that's been out there, and some of the data shows that the wage hikes have been better at the lower quintile than those on the wage scales. so that's an interesting development. there does seem to be a bit of money out there and nobody knows when it stops. you know the old saying never underestimate the willingness of

the american consumer to spend even though the sentiment numbers have been really bad, they seem to be spending at least at a decent clip if you take these two months together >> let's bring in a top market watcher, gabriela santos, strategist at jp morgan asset management if you had to pick out from like five things, you've got the fed, inflation, geopolitical. i'm going to forget the last two. let's just start with those three, gabriela. it's 33, 33, 33. a third, a third, a third? >> i think if we bucket some of these developments into risks we would put three main risks we're watching as very important to determine where we go from here. the first is the geopolitical conflict and the extend to which it causes a further increase in commodity prices and inflation the second one is what's

happening over in china with its control of covid and whether that ends up impacting supply chains and inflation, and then lastly the start of monetary policy tightening, we expect to see today, and we expect to be a multi-year process whether eventually the fed is forced to step on the brakes to combat higher inflation. so we would say clearly the risks have risen and we're still in a tricky period where we're seeing down grades to economic and earnings growth expectations, the viks is under under 30 so it's signaling we're in a period here of pricing and risks where we can expect to see daily swings in the mrkt of plus or minus 2%. but we do take some comfort from the data you mentioned around retail sales that we did have very strong momentum going into this risk here period, so it still leaves us expecting on a base case the economy will continue growing above trend,

eventually will price in these risks and risk assets will recover as the year comes to a close. >> do you think we ever go into an unfriendly period for stock prices, akin to some we've seen historically where inflation stays relatively high and interest rates continue to keep going up, and growth, that stifles growth growth schbt all it could be either are we past those business cycles because stagflation is the worst thing you can imagine. it's sort of the opposite of where you have high growth with low inflation which is perfect, which is great setting, but we may be going -- could it be a multiyear period where it's not great to be in the stock market or you don't see that? >> so we have been getting tons of questions about the stagflation question and comparisons to the '70s and

'80s, and that was a time period where they were down 2%, a ton of dispersion beneath the surface with things like energy and materials doing well, but other sectors like technology and staples seeing very negative returns. now, for the u.s. specifically we don't think we're going into a stagflationary environment we do have higher inflation that we would like and the fed would like to see, and perhaps we do remain with a period where inflation is above target. but there's also the growth component that's important to take into account. and we do still think growth can remain above trend in the u.s. this year before settling back to normal closer towards the end of the year, and that's because of the strong momentum we have going into this. the retail sales show that as we come out of the pandemic it's also because this was a very particular recession and we're coming out of it with both consumers and corporations with

extremely strong balance sheets. so we don't think we do actually have that stagflation cocktail for the u.s. now, europe, the risk of stag flaegz has risen that's one market where on a tactical basis we're becoming a little bit more cautious but not for the u.s. >> okay, gabriela, thank you we'll know at the end of the day. >> absolutely. >> going forward when we come back we're going to get jim cramer's first take on the trading day ahead. these are all things that drive joe nuts that's why we do them. first, though, recapping the big news starbucks ceo kevin johnson will be retiring at the end of the month. they'reimenting that will last until the fall here's starbucks chair melied hobson who was with us a few

minutes ago speaking about kevin johnson. >> he's done a great job for us at starbucks and really wants to move onto do something else now, and then we have this mvp, one of the greatest players of the game on the bench so the board called him up. we said, howard, would you help us out during this period. and he agreed to do so we thought at this moment he's the perfect person, the perfect culture carrier, and he'll help us transition and onboard a new leader and we get all that for a dollar he's going to do it for free what if you were a major transit system with billions of passengers taking millions of trips every year? you aren't about to let any cyberattacks slow you down. so you partner with ibm to build a security architecture to keep your data, network, and applications protected. now, you can tackle threats

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when we come pack we're going to tell you what to expect, perhaps when the president of ukraine addresses the u.s. congress coming up at the top of the hour. on the right side of your screen is a live shot from the inside the capitol visitor center in the congressional auditorium where the speech will be streamed for lawmakers, and we'll bring you live coverageo that speech. tedun you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc

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let's get down to the new york stock exchange, check in with jim cramer. jim, the futures this morning after the gains we saw in the market yesterday, what's this mean to you? good news? are we through the worst of this is this just a respite while we wait to see what comes next? >> well, look, i think there's a lot of hope all over again, hope in ukraine, china obviously manipulating its market upward there are a couple of reports that are coming, but they should be actually good ones. i do think, by the way, there'll be people coming and selling the futures right after whatever powell says because that's almost like a program, put i

also recognize when there are too many shorts and the market's oversold >> liesman said something this morning that he wouldn't be surprised to say powell say that a 50 basis hike could come in the near future, one of these next meetings. if he does say that, how will the market react >> first of all, i don't know why he would say that because he's a very moderate person. i mean i think it's easy for him to say 25, 50, 0 i think he's data driven if he says 50 is coming up, i think that would be negative because what it would say is, look, we should have done 50 this time, we didn't want to charge the market. i do think he's waiting to see what happens oil has peaked arguably and we've got a lot of elevated inflation right now that could go his way i don't think he needs to say anything i think he could just be jay powell which is so far pretty darn right and people who say he's behind,

oh, jeez, give the guy a break omicron was not as lethal as delta, got information from the cdc and nih, fda all of which was different. there's no central organization asprogo walensky that runs the cdc he didn't have enough information. he made the best decision he dauld, and i think he will again toy. >> jim, thank you. we'll see you in a few minutes "squawk box" will be right back

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welcome back to "squawk box" on cnbc. we're just a few minutes away from the start of the ukrainian president's speech to u.s. lawmakers. ylan mui is here, she joins us with more. hi, ylan. >> hi, jay president zelenskyy has already issued appeals to britain and canada hi thanked president biden for the $13.6 billion aid package that was signed into law he called it the first step toward the full restoration of ukraine, but said point-blank, help ukraine not in words, but in deeds and he said any international businesses that are still operating in russia are sponsors of terror.

congress is still hashing out the details of the bill that would end normal trade relations with russia. i'm told one of the hangups is how much authority the president should have to restore relations if and when this cries ever ends, but his speech today could ramp up the action he posted today 103 children have died, and people are being held hostage in a hospital so it will be difficult to hear those grim details and not be moved to do more. michael ohanlon is a brookings institution senior fellow we kind of know what to anticipate for this. he's going to ask for the know fly zone

>> a no-fly zone, as you know, is not an antiseptic thing to fly around in the sky. you have to go shooting at radar systems on the ground, command systems on the ground where people, russian soldiers are located. so to do this thing safely, you have to kill russians. therefore, it's the united states entering into a war against a nuclear-armed superpower he shouldn't play up that argument too much, because he will lose. i think he'll anger world leaders. i understand why he would. we can't fault him if he's going to do it, he should do light. >> he said some powerful things. think of if someone came in and took down the u.s. flag and put

up a different flag. i mean, that's powerful. that doesn't fly in 2022, and it's flying. you don't think -- you say make is -- i thought we were seeing democrats talk about the migs, it's both sides, isn't it? couldn't the ukraines go to -- i think that's a debate that will continue, especially as putin continues the war. if there isn't meaningful progress, the mig issue, the united states and allies gives planes that the ukrainians line. the no-fly zone requires nato

aircraft you won't beat the russian air force with a few migs you pick up here and there. >> can russia wait out ukraine, or is the morale so bad that you're hearing with the russian troops on the ground that he only has a window of opportunity to get this done until he does something even worse >> it's one of the great you knowables. if we assume the russians will run out of steam, we're basing our strategy on a hope just sitting where they are, they are suddening down the ucontainian economy. i think time is more likely to be on russia's side. so that's why i think we have to push a negotiated solution somehow. >> they were talking morning our of out of a news agency that russia would be open to a goes that looked at the model of using neutrality, but i feel like we've gotten hoodwinked on

these negotiations while they're gearing up. >> we have to be skeptical if there's some way to promote ukrainian security, sovereignty without a nato -- the end is the safety of ukraine. so the nato question can be finessed or rethought, as long as russia will agree to pull its forces out and restore ukraine's sovereignty, but we also need more leverage. >> concerned about the question of nato with ukraine for a long time, if this was in some way leading up to a confrontation like we're seeing now. >> gorbachev warned us about this

promising to bring nato all the way to ukraine and georgia, as we did in 2008, but with no timetable and no interim security guarantee, i think that would go down as a mistake it's putin's crime, but i think it was strategic misjudgment even if it's a defensive alliance as we know nato to be. >> the idea of drones, us given drones, is that something that could be considered? >> i would have to think so. there's no particular reason why getting -- either way we're complicit in killing russians, but not doing it from long range, so the drone is overhead as opposed to being fired on the side of the road i think, yes, we may provide them >> michael, thank you for being with us.

we're awaiting ukrainian president zelenskyy's speech to the joint session of congress. they are in person, awaiting this we know some of what the message is, but against president zelenskyy has been so -- so much someone to watch on all these issues "squawk on the street" is going to pick up the conch right now >> good wednesday morning. carl has the morning off just a few moments from now, president zelenskyy is said to deliver a historic address to the u.s. congress. he's expected to plead for more military aid from the u.s. in the brief time we have, though, let's look at futures, and a setup on the day ahead as well with jim. obviously a bi