it is 5:00 a.m. in boston, and here is your top five at five if at first you don't succeed, stocks trying to bounce back after closing down for a third straight day futures, they are mildly higher. breaking news out of europe, russia cutting off natural gas flows to germany through the in order nord stream pipeline. >> warren buffett giveth and taketh away, shares sliding this morning as berkshire hathaway.

former president trump's special request for a master to review documents, seized by the fbi during a raid in mar-a-lago. snap shares sinking as management prepares to lay off a huge number of workers. it is the final day of august 31st, 2022, this is "worldwide exchange. ♪ good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and as always welcome from wherever in the world you may be watching thank you for joining us on this final day of august. amazing how fast the summer has gone let's kick off the hour with a check of the markets and your money. stock futures are slightly higher across the board, this coming off another rough day for stocks with all the major averages down 1% or more and more than 15% on the year. investors are going to be happy to see august hit the rearview mirror it has been one of the ten worst months for the markets in a

number of years, and not to pile on, sorry, but september remember historically the worst month of the yearfor stocks, maybe we just pulled it forward a month, right we shall see bonds, they've also been mostly a bust lately. ten-year yields, they have ticked up a bit in the past couple of weeks. it has been a rough run for treasuries this year a ambulanced balanced portfolios and bonds hasn't done anything for you in 2022. crowd oil is a bit lower, and global demand concerns as china continues to deal harshly with covid outbreaks they've got lockdowns or partial lockdowns in a number of towns all ahead of that communist party meeting on october 16th. natural gas is higher and in crypto bitcoin and e ther higher a little more green on your

screen right now let's get a check on europe on this final day of august trading along with some key headlines there. joe manna ver sech chi is in london. >> one of the key headlines, a big focus is that cpi trends coming in at 9.1% versus 8.9% last month that trend of higher inflation still intact for the euro zone and investors are taking note. the spiraling energy costs are clearly having an impact on a loft these indices, not just today but for the month of august the stock down about four percentage points for the month. ftse 100 down 8/10 of a percentage point it is the relative outperformer as we've been talking about a lot, and i know you follow this closely. the earnings out of these oil and gas companies have helped boost that particular index because a lot of them are domiciled in the uk, but not so good for the rest of the euro zone as i mentioned, a lot of these indices are down four percentage

points also bear in mind that gazprom have announced that they are stopping the nordstream 1 pipeline for the next three days for maintenance. given germany's linkages to to that pipeline there is a lot of worry amongst the business and community there that the flows will not be restored on three days' time in terms of sector breakdown, it's pretty mixed between the green and red. at the bottom utilities down 1.8 percentage point, oil and gas down 2.2 percentage points and then up at the top, tech actually having a good day up 9/10 of a percentage point, brian. >> you manna, thank you very much. stateside including what could be a wave of pink slips at snapchat savanna, good morning.

shares of snaps thinking on a report the company is planning to lay off approximately 20% of its more than 6,400 employees. according to the verge, snap has been planning the move for the past several weeks and will begin handing out pink slips today. one department expected to get hit the hardest, zen lead, the social media mapping app snap bought back in 2017. apple is reportedly losing a key executive. according to bloomberg, the company's chaief privacy office is leaving to begin work at law firm gibson, dunn, and hutcher horvac was hired to formalize apple's privacy practices after the 2011 location gate scandal where iphones were found fob gathering information about users whereabouts without consent. gwarren buffett's berkshire hathaway reduced its stake in

the company in a filing late yesterday, berkshire said it sold 1.3 million shares of byd for about $47 million. it still owns 218.7 million shares, brian. >> yeah, so they still own a ton, they made a bunch of money, but trimming the ev exposure and going very long oil and gas with occidental who'd have thung it. >> exactly. >> appreciate it see you soon back on wall street, stocks a trying to reverse some of yesterday's losses the nasdaq a little worse trying to end the month in the red or not trying to, it might for the fourth time in five months all this investors growing concerned that fed chair jay powell and his team have lost the confidence of the market joining us now is managing director annika triam i read note after note on wall street

from the states, from europe, and almost all of them say the same thing does anyone have any confidence left in the federal reserve to fix the problem that it and its qe program and all the easy money of congress and by the way, central banks around the world created in the last number of years, and of course that is inflation. do you have confidence in the american fed >> well, the interesting thing is the good news is that the fed knows that the market has lost confidence so powell and team are trying very, very hard to rebuild that, but they're trying so hard to rebuild confidence, i think the whole market is actually forgetting the basics. it's nonsensical to look at spot cpi prints and see how they are responding to the latest fed hikes. that's just not how it works cpi prints are -- inflation is a consequence of what the financial conditions looked like one or two years ago, and you know, that takes time to work

through. >> it's like you dillydally at home, you've got to be somewhere at a specific time you sort of putz around. all of a sudden you're late so you decide i'm going to drive 100 miles an hour, and i can make up all that time i missed you might make it there, but you also might have a terrible wreck or get a ticket. i mean, there is a major risk to what the federal reserve is doing right now, and they've kind of said they're willing to -- i don't want to say crash the economy, but whack it certainly, right >> absolutely. it was the whole jackson hole was about pain, pain, pain, pain and you're absolutely right, you knows with the analogy you've given. we all know where this inflation has come from. remember this sugar rush around covid of people getting checks sent to their house, more cash than they were earning but not

being able to spend it because the economy was locked up. and to say things like we're going to continue to increase rates until inflation gets closer to our 2% target, we're miles off and the pain that you can inflict that will be visible later on, it's a very scary thing indeed >> we gave away in some cases 700 billion in forgiven ppp money, obviously covid stimulus. and to be fair we didn'tknow a the time what people would or wouldn't need, so they had to react and politicians do what nay do, they over react in certain ways the amount of money thrown into the american economy in two years is going to be more than the gdp of the majority of nations on this planet is there any way to reverse that in a matter of months whether or not the cpi to your point anneka shows a one-month downturn or 0% inflation, wink, wink. i mean, this is going to take -- this could take years.

>> i mean, it's a colossal amount of money that's been sent through, and to your point, it's not just monetary stimulus, it's fiscal stimulus, and the point is it's finally trickled down into the price of goods, into the price of services instead of the arena of the financial assets, and it will take its time, and without major demand destruction for the two to be balanced off is very, very comp wai complicated. >> the fed was fast and loose with money before covid, we got to remember that. >> you are there in the netherlands, b obviously we talk every day on this program about europe's energy crisis, just as a citizen of the netherlands and a business person, what's it like to be there right no? i feel sometimes i fear that i'm joer overstating it i've been to germany, i haven't been to the netherlands frpt what's it like right now and

what's the local media saying about the situation? >> well, brian, it's real and what the local media is saying, i'll give you something anecdotally. the largest energy supplier in the country selling the largest newspaper that they anticipate a tsunami of payment problems ahead on the horizon, one out of three families, you know, in distress situations and not being able to pay. the truth is that energy praises for households are up almost three times since the beginning of 2021. so you told me don't answer it as an industry professional, but if you make the link again to the economy and what's going on and the challenges of the ecb, it's scary stuff >> it is, and we're showing spot natural gas prices traded in the netherlands up once again as the nordstream 1 pipeline cut off by gazprom hopefully just for a couple of days we appreciate that, we appreciate the anecdote.

thank you for coming on the program once gun. one in every three families in the netherlands having trouble paying their heating bills. there is a lot to do on this we wednesday. it has been a wild ride for shares of bed, bath and beyond management there prepping to unveil their strategic turn around plan today. former walmart ceo bill simon said he's not holding his b breath. plus, breaking overnight, russia once again cutting natural gas flows through the nordstream pipeline back to zero citing, quote, maintenance germany cwas just getting ahead of schedule in restoring its winter storage that could now be in jeopardy. royal caribbean, elon musk joining forces to turn the bermuda triangle into a cellular hot spot say what say what we'll tell

remember this? up when we return right after this “we got this, babe.” so go do what you love. thanks for being our superhero. only at vanguard, you're more than just an investor—you're an owner. giving you flexibility to follow your dreams. that's the value of ownership. flu shots at cvs are pretty...flex. schedule one for you... ...or the whole crew. plus, they're free. really? healthier is getting a flu shot on your schedule. cvs. healthier happens together.

this? this is supersonic wifi from xfinity. healthier is getting a flu shot on your schedule. it's fast. so gaming with your niece has never felt more intense. incoming! hey, what does this button do? no, don't! welcome to the fastest internet on the largest gig speed network. are you crying uncle ed? no! a little. only from xfinity. unbeatable internet made to do anything so you can do anything.

welcome back we've got developing news out of russia gazprom has shut down gas flows to the nord stream pipeline once again. this is a planned three-day halt for maintenance, and of course it follows that ten-day shutdown in july when we were in germany. gazprom is largely seen as doing vladimir putin's bidding is blaming the shut down on this turbine issue.

germany disputing those claims, acceptabl essentially saying they're a lie. nord stream 1 has been running at 20% capacity since july as germany races to fill up gas storage before winter, every piece of flow counts germany and the rest of europe will have to sit and wait on tender hooks the country is better prepared for a nord stream outage as storage is nearly 85% filled remember, storage usually gets drawn down in winter even with continued flows of natural gas into germany so if the nord stream 1 pipeline does not come on in three days or longer, it could drain that storage very quickly let's look at european spot natural gas on this news and theorizie -- they're at 268 euros per megacwatt hour.

the price has come down in recent days, but don't lose sight of the fact that those costs are still more than 800% higher than one year ago let's talk more now about these latest developments with francisco blanch the head of global strategies at bank of america securities in that gazprom nord stream news, gazprom also saying they have cut off flows to a big french utility called ng ore, again, what they're calling payment issues gazprom apparently is not just going after germany. they're also now in some ways going after france how does this play out >> hey, brian, thanks for having me i think the european energy challenge is enormous heading into the winter. remember just to put it into

something i guess people can understand, europe buys or used to buy about 9 million barrels a day from russia or about 30% of its energy with a third of that being mostly natural gas and then of course oil also, oil and petroleum products being a big part of it, europe has actually sanctioned thermal coal out of the equation since the first of august, russian exports of coal are no longer going into europe, so europe's having to source thermal coal from other places russia is looking at also keeping the balances for natural gas very tight, and in some ways, the game is quite simple remember commodity markets are, you know, quite price inelastic meaning that demand is running sensitive to price movements and essentially what they're doing is they're trying to make up in price what you're losing out in

revenue. so they're keeping the market very, very tight, and ironically they're actually collecting more money than they were from the energy markets last year, which unfortunately has continued to help them finance their military operations >> i was shocked this morning, francisco to read in one of the top stories on cnbc.com, looking down at it, at gazprom's shares, which are still trading in russia, rallied by 20% they had what we call a -- that's our term, a bumper profit and new dividend announcement. i don't understand how russia continues to make so much money from gas and oil >> well, because the price of gas is over $500 a barrel. so even if you just sell a little bit of gas, you're making a ton of money not sure gas prices in the summer of 2020 only two years ago dipped down in europe to essentially about a dollar and change per mmbtu, and now they're collecting 80, $90 in

mmbtu. they're collecting 80, 90 times what they were collecting in the summer of 2020 even if they sell a little bit of gas, that's still a fair amount of money. plus of course they're also producing oil and selling it at very high prices, muchhigher than the last couple of years, and of course their coals become very, very vulnealuable in the international market since the europeans stopped taking it. france also has a lot of issues with nuclear reactors at the moment you have half of the park shut down for a number of issues and the wind's been blowing very little, and we have low reservoirs everywhere, right it's not just one single issue there's a lot of issues happening simultaneously, and russia's taking full advantage of that. >> terrible time for mother

nature to not cooperate, river levels low, hurts coal barges, nuclear cooldowns. the wind is not blowing. wind power is great, for wind power you need wind. i want you to repeat something that ux. it's very early here, francisco, a lot of viewers may have thought you misspoke you said $500 barrel per gas if you take the price of nat gas and sort of flip it as if it were oil, are you saying that the price of nat gas in europe is effectively trading like a $500 barrel of oil >> that's the right number it's extremely expensive. >> wow >> and unfortunately electricity bills are also going through the roof because of those shutdowns of nuclear power plants, which nuclear power is now trading over a thousand dollars a barrel so again, we're talking wholesale markets. that's why you hear all these comments from the european politicians trying to figure out a way to limit the pass-through

costs to the consumer. of course consumers can't afford these ridiculously high prices and neither can corporates corms are waiting for the government to fix the problem because the other alternative is to shut down, right, or some of them in some cases we have seen a number of corporations, a number of factories trying to switch over to diesel, which it's very expensive. >> it's like -- it's like 1957 horse-drawn carriages feel like they're next francisco, and i mean i don't want to get into the all the energy transition stuff because it ends up politicizing everything. here's the reality, the reality is that there are going to be companies that have already shut down, and there's going to be industries that are probably going to have to shut down, right? we talked yesterday about british pubs, okay, where you are. locally owned businesses having their power costs go up 800%

that's a local business. what about car makers, aluminum makers, fertilizer companies i mean, i don't see how they continue to operate. >> they can't, and you're seeing it, you're seeing it at the moment essentially the highest intensity energy businesses in europe like aluminum or fertilizer companies have been shutting down, ammonium, so all of these companies -- and by the way, this is part of the plan in europe to be able to keep people warm at home during the winter is to shut down these factories and import all those raw materials from the middle east or north america so what's essentially happening is european energy prices are moving up to very, very high levels so all the molecules of energy available around the world for trade, they come to europe and fill the huge russian gap left by this conflict, right? it's essentially 30% plus of european energy came from russia directly

that's a huge, huge gap to fill if you're trying to avoid russia in the market. >> and in a weird way, you got to hope for china's continued lockdowns because they're able to sell some of their lng on the spot market back to europe, which has helped germany and other nations refill their storage, if china starts buying aggressively again, that gas may simply not be available. francisco blanch, b of a securities, we appreciate it thank you very much. still on deck, going to the dogs your morning mystery chart revealed we got to show it to you there it is. all right, do you know who that is consumer demand destruction hitting the company's outlook, going to the dogs. i'll take retailers that deal with pets for 400, alex. we're back after this

welcome back to "worldwide exchange." there are new revelations from the justice department's investigation into former president donald trump a flurry of major headlines emerged from the doj's midnight filing in response to mr. trump's request for a special master in the mar-a-lago search. the doj argues such a move would harm national security the 36-page filing also suggests that classified documents removed and concealed amid the retrieval attempts, an effort, quote likely to obstruct the government's investigation the doj included a picture of documents seized during the fbi

search of the former president's florida estate, several of which are clearly marked top secret. the filing says over 100 unique classified documents were seized in total, some so sensitive fbi agents and doj attorneys needed additional security clearances to review them we also got a better look at what happened inside during the search of mar-a-lago the filing says the fib recovered twice as many classified documents than what was turned over by the trump team casting doubt over their claim that there had been a diligent search following the grand jury subpoena back in may. agents also found three classified files in mr. trump's office as opposed to the storage room the summing up the argument, the doj said that a special master would be unnecessary since the government review teams have already finished their work and a third party reviewing the documents would only impede its ongoing criminal investigation over the weekend, the trump appointed district judge overseeing this case said that she was inclined to grant the

former president's request we could soon find out if this filing changes her mind. the hearing in the case is scheduled for tomorrow that will also mark the first appearance of the newest addition to mr. trump's legal team nbc news reports that he has hired a former florida solicitor general, chris keis who has won four cases before the supreme court. and finally, nasa officials say they are targeting saturday for the artemis 1 moon mission monday's attempt was scrubbed due to a technical issue with an engine >> hoping second time is a better shot because that would just be amazing to watch, and we will be watching thank you very much. >> you got it. still ahead here on weex, netflix take ago page ahead of snap, stock futures turning negative sorry. we're back with more right after this

with xfinity internet, you get advanced security that helps protect you at home and on the go. you feel so safe, it's as if... i don't know... evander holyfield has your back. i wouldn't click on that. hey, thanks! we got a muffin for ed! all right! you don't need those calories. can we at least split it? nope. advanced security that helps protect your devices in and out of the home. i mean, can i have a bite? only from xfinity. nah. unbeatable internet. made to do anything so you can do anything.

welcome back to worldwide exchange, everybody, good wednesday morning or evening if you're on the other side of the planet a check on the markets and your money right now. stock futures heading into break, they've kind of reversed course let's be clear, extremely thin volume on the stock futures at this hour on a normal day, but own august 31st when pretty much half of wall street is down at the beach or wherever they are,

it's going to move a lot more with every bid or ask or buy/sell that comes in dow futures down 57, nasdaq futures up slightly, but again, futures i'd like to say they matter a lot right now they probably don't. we'll see how the day ends out now to this morning's top stories and one financial firm revamping its covid guidelines as it looks to get more workers back to the office and that financial firm, by the way, is not just one financial firm, it is the 100 pound heavy weight of financial firms and that is goldman sachs. >> that's right, brian, goldman sachs says they will lift all covid restrictions in most of its offices starting next week according to a memo obtained by cnbc, the move by the bank stems from new federal health guidelines on the virus. goldman says it will no longer require its workers to be vaccinated to enter its offices or to test or wear face coverings. the policy will apply to most offices with the exception of those in new york city and lima,

peru netflix hiring two executives from snap to leave the buildout of its advertising initiative on its platform the streaming giant poaching jeremy gor mman and peter nailer from the platform. they will oversee efforts to create an ad-backed tier of its service. royal caribbean is partnering with spacex's starlink satellite network to offer internet on board its ships. the move is aimed at combatting traditionally bad internet service when cruise ships are out to sea royal caribbean expects to have the service fully deployed across its fleet by the first quarter of next year, brian. >> you know, goldman's saying they're going to lift all restrictions, fancy language basically saying ending all restrictions get your butts back to the office, despite the fact that nationwide covid cases are the same as they were last october when everybody was talking about the winter surge thank you. >> you got it, brian

>> back to the office. a lot of new york vendors are happy about this. now to one of this morning's big stock stories, we're watching shares of bed, bath and beyond as it prepares to lay out its turn around strategy today it has been a rocky few months for the troubled retailer. what will it take to win back the confidence of investors and shopers and also employees let's bring in bill simon. good to have you back on i would imagine one big step is to get rid of the interim ceo title and either make the interim ceo the full-time ceo or appoint somebody new because when you got a backup quarterback or an interim head coach, i'm not sure the fans are going to have a lot of confidence in the team >> yeah, exactly, good morning, brian. yeah, that's probably job number one. if you're going to lead a retail turn around or really a turn around in any business, you've got to have a leader everybody has to be bought into the leader i'm not saying they don't have leadership there

just by the very nature of having a temporary boss, it's going to be very difficult to begin the engineering of a turn around that'd be one of the things i'd be looking for today >> do you expect to get that >> it's hard to tell it's hard to tell, honestly, you know, we're in this phase of retail that's kind of like retail darwinism, you know, the survival of the fittest and these guys are not particularly fit right now. so they've got a lot of other things to address as well. hopefully they'll come out with a new leadership structure, some, you know, some plan to finance their turn around plan because right now they're struggling with -- struggling to pay bills, struggling to pay vendors. if you don't have any money, you can't have any inventory we're on the edge of the holiday season so it's a pretty crucial time. i think everybody's anxiously awaiting what they're going to talk about today >> yeah, and you know, we talk about bed, bath and beyond as a meme stock and it's up and it's down, and i want people out there to remember. i live not that far from bed,

bath and beyond's headquarters in central new jersey. i actually know somebody who works in the corporate offices there. there's a lot of employees, not just in corporate hq but in stores around the united states. i mean, as we talk about this meme stock and it's up and it's down and reddit and all this other stuff, this is a company with thousands of human beings who rely on it to pay their bills. do you think the corporate offices, i mean, they've got to know this, right, bill but do you think they're getting distracted by all this up and down stock stuff. >> yeah, this is not a game. >> it's not a game to them, you're right >> this meme stock phenomenon is interesting to watch when you're on the sideline, but when you're in it, it's a roller coaster, and you know, engineering a turn around is extremely heavy lifting in the best of circumstances, but when you're

doing it in the public eye in a meme stock with headlines every day and major fluctuations in the value of your company, 20%, 30%, 40% swings in a day, it messes with so many different dynamics, not only the psyche of, you know, the people who have to engineer the turn around but simple things like insurance. do you have the right level of insurance, you know on your inventory because your valuation of your company fluctuates by a billion dollars in a day >> you know, you're bringing up such a key point, bill, we've got to go but a lot of people forget that weird side of the business, which is insurance if insurers start to cut you off or don't think you can manke the payment, to your point you have a whole world of problems that are probably too wonky to talk about. we're glad you brought it upment a lot of people are relying and i don't mean traders bill simon, thank you.

have a great day. >> see you, brian. >> these companies that's a good point. they're not just numbers on a screen these are people that are going to work. more of your morning's big money movers shares of chewy, that is your mystery chart getting hit hard on the back. consumers curbing spending habits over higher prices. hopefully they still -- still feed your dogs by the way. chewy offering a disappointing forecast for the full year similar story for pvh also taking a hit the apparel company's earnings did top estimates, revenue and guidance falling short, cutting 10% of their work force in their global offices hb shares falling on disappointing revenue numbers, the company's ceo telling jim cramer he is seeing signs commercial customers are spending over the macroeconomic uncertainty. back in a moment because you've got the next generation in global secure networking from comcast business. with fully integrated security solutions

all in one place. so you're covered. on-premise and in the cloud. you can run things the way you want - your team, ours or a mix of both. with the nation's largest ip converged network. from the most innovative company. bring on today with comcast business. powering possibilities. it's time for the biggest sale of the year, on the sleep number 360® smart bed. it senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. our smart sleepers get 28 minutes more restful sleep per night. don't miss our labor day weekend special. save 50% on (woman vo) sailing a great river sleep number 360® limited edition smart bed. ends labor day. past extraordinary landscapes into the heart of iconic cities is a journey for the curious traveler, one that many have yet to discover. exploring with viking brings you closer to the world, to the history, the culture, the flavors, a serene river voyage on an elegant viking longship.

learn more at viking.com ♪♪ it was my dream to be an entrepreneur based upon the examples that i had growing up. and that was important for me because you can't be what you can't see. the ey entrepreneurs access network has a tremendous impact on my business and other african american and latino entrepreneurs across this country because they give access to networks, business opportunities and capital.

today's rbi should be called random but important, particularly for all of our viewers and friends in new england because something dropped very quietly this week which needs to be heard loudly, and that is the operator new england's power grid has issued a sharp warning that the region may be at risk of not having adequate power going forward unless regulator accept the reality of needing natural gas this even as new england tries to move toward more alternative energy sources in a draft document released monday, the electric grid

operator known as iso new england, the independent systems operator said this, quote, for the clean energy transition to be successful, the region must continue to have reliable supplies of gas for home heating and electricity. without adequate gas, the region may not be able to meet the demand for home heating and electricity and reliability suffers, the clean energy transition suffers they continue, quote, we have seen that story play out in europe, australia and choslosero home in california and texas in some it is critical to the region's decarbonization goals that the lights and the heat stay on in new england and for the foreseeable future that requires gas end quote. this comes from a document released on monday ahead of a key meeting about the issue on september 8th and is very clearly meant to be a stark warning to regulators and politicians in new england about the seriousness of the issue,

what seems to be a real warning that unless there is a steady and stable supply of natural gas there could be a day when the lights or the heat simply don't come on in boston, concord, bangor, portsmouth, you name it. much of it has to do with making sure new england's only liq liquefied natural gas import plant in everett, massachusetts, continues to operate past 2024 because the grid operator notes that the gas that comes through everett helps maintain pipeline pressure on high demand days the document also respectfully slams politicians in a way, by saying that the current regulatory path and the reliability of the electric grid are, quote, not fully compatible in other words, what politicians may keep saying and what the actual reality is may be very, very different we're going to end with this from the document, quote, the current lack of a regional plan to ensure energy adequacy

including the absence of a state or federal regulatory solution, endangers the reliability of the electric power system. let that sink in, endangers the reliability of the electric power system could new england become what's happened to old england, the uk. let's hope not because they now have been warned remarkable, a little scary, and hopefully interesting. all right, the strongest global storm of the year appears to be moving across the east china sea threateningjapan and risking strong winds along china's east coast the super typhoon is currently packing sustained winds of about 160 miles an hour, holy mackerel but closer to home things appear to be much more quiet. the area of the atlantic ocean known as hurricane alley is on pace for its quiet est august in

25 years we've only had two other stormless augusts in more than 70 years of recordkeeping, one in 1961, and the other in 1997 i hope for goodness sakes we did not just give it the broadcaster's jinx joining us now is accuweather chief video meteorologist bernie, i appreciate you getting up early i debated doing this segment because i didn't want to jinx it now if something happens, they're going to say, well, you talked about it. we hear so much about bad weather and there is a lot around the world, in pakistan, this typhoon, but it's pretty remarkable there has not been one named storm in august, is it not? >> yeah, i mean, typically when you get to mid-august and mid-september, brian, i call that the tropical wet zone of the hurricane season where you get a sharp increase, and most of our biggest storms -- and you can look at history. i know you're a history buff with this, we have a lot of damaging storms during the month of august. as you mentioned, since 1961,

we've only had two years where we haven't had any named august storms that happened in 1961 and also in 1997 and get this, there's another interesting stat for the first time since 1941 in world war ii, we haven't had a named storm from july 3rd through august 30th. but remember, it's going to change there's no question about it, but the problem is, brian, why are we having all this -- less storms in the atlantic it's a complicated question, i could really put it down into two main reasons it's all on the water vapor loop here dry air, which covers much of the atlantic basin, which we typically don't see this late in august and certainly in september, and also a strong jet stream producing wind shear, winds in the upper part of the atmosphere, brian, that are strong, and that tends to rip storms apart that is still prevalent in the

atlantic basin, and here we are on august 31st that is a little unusual >> yeah, it's good news. let's be clear you've been through a lot of storms i've been down there in galveston where there's four feet of water on the ground, and people are driving around in boats. it's terrifying. i've become an accuweather junky as of late following this. there does look like there is some stuff that could potentially develop in the atlantic off the coast of africa is there not so the point is we want people to not be complacent because the peak of hurricane season is still to come. >> here's what we can say. there's an area we're watching around 50 degrees west i think that's going to be our next storm, so i think the named storm drought ends this weekend, but i think this system will head out to sea. you mentioned the tropical waves coming off africa. there are two that are coming off, one already off africa, another one coming off africa tomorrow both of those systems by the

way, talking about the wind shear, they're going to be steered to the north you can kind of see this upper level low. you see this this is going to steer those systems to the north and west. what does that mean? unless we get home grown development, that is development near the united states in the next week, i don't see any u.s. impacts from a named storm through at least next weekend. but here's the warning shot, there is a tropical wave, i think, that's coming off of africa on monday this coming monday that's the one that we're going to have to watch and i suspect we'll be talking about that one in the few coming days >> but for now we got to go back to what you said, bernie, quickly, 1941? >> 1941, the last time that we did not have a named storm between july 3rd and august 30th it's unusual >> we are blessed, let's hope it continues. bernie rayno, remarkable stuff really appreciate that think about that

wow, i don't want to jinx it, folks. the calmest hurricane season in the atlantic since 1941. on deck, lee baker our ie iba wh e e stock he says you got to own right now. stick around power e*trade's award-winning trading app makes trading easier. with its customizable options chain, easy-to-use tools, and paper trading to help sharpen your skills, you can stay on top of the market from wherever you are. power e*trade's easy-to-use tools make complex trading less complicated.

custom scans help you find new trading opportunities. while an earnings tool helps you plan your trades and stay on top of the market.

it's august 31st let's put august in the rearview mirror from a stock perspective, it has been a rough go let's talk about it with lee baker, owner and president of apex financial we just talked about the lack of hurricanes, lee. it hasn't been that in the stock market it's been a rough couple of weeks. september the worst month for stocks what are you advising your clients to do right now? >> broadly speaking, i'm advising clients to kind of hold steady you know, we're working with clients and making adjustments in our portfolios all the time so that there's no need to make any sort of drastic change right now. you know, in the way of looking and saying, hey, what do we find interesting. one thing that happens every

year along with the peak hurricane season is it's time for new iphones to come out. and so if you're looking for an opportunity and wondering about, hey, what might look good over the course of the next 6, 12 months, i like apple the u.s. consumer has a lot of fondness for iphones, i expect apple to do quite well over the next 6 to 12 months. >> yeah, and maybe the next 6 to 12 years, right? i don't know what you use. if you use a samsung phone or apple phone, i don't know anybody that uses android or icloud that is going to switch anytime soon,right once you're locked into that ecosystem, they got you. >> you're in it's like the hotel california you're never going to leave. so we're in the family, everybody's got iphones and ipads and mac books and that whole thing. they just do a great job apple's a great company, they've

been that away for a while, you know, in spite of the year that we have had, apple relatively speaking has actually done pretty well, and i expect that to continue. >> in the macro market perspective, we've got the jobs numbers coming out everybody's watching consumer price, the cpi for inflation, although, you know, month over month changes don't matter that much what are you most closely watching going forward from a macro perspective? >> from a macro perspective, one of the things that i've been paying more attention to is gbi as opposed to gdp. sure, we've had a couple of quarters of contraction on the gdp, but gross domestic income has shown that things are slowing down, not necessarily contracting, and i think that's what has given us this femaelin of like hey, listen, i know we've had these contracting quarters but it really doesn't feel like a recession for a lot of people. there's some people, particularly at the lower end of

the wage scale, it is absolutely recession time but if you talk to a lot of your neighbors and folk at church, that sort of thing that were very aggravated earlier in the year with the higher gas praices but that's come down now and they're actually doing okay. >> yeah, consumer spending does appear to be strong, so the consumer to you is the most important macro data point, if we're hearing you right? >> absolutely. absolutely particularly here in the u.s the consumer is strong they represent a tremendous amount of what's going on in our economy, and so as long as the bulk of the american consumer is doing well, i'm not terribly worried. now, we talk about storms, you know, some months ago i said winter is coming i still think that i anticipate there will be a genuine recession, but i still think that's probably going to

happen next year >> okay. next year 2023 because right now the consumer everywhere i go does still appear to be vibrant, but you wonder how much that is ju just running out our running on credit cards apple is a good bet nonetheless. we appreciate you getting up and coming on, have great day. >> happy to be on with you, brian. >> thank you very much, sir, appreciate that. before we go here on with the worldwide exchange," a little bit of a programming note, i'm going to be helping out with the 1:00 p.m. eastern time show, which is called "the exchange" while kelly is out on maternity leave. i will be missing you as host for most mornings. still hope to come in with the rbi and insider buying segments most days and weeks when we can. i will look forward to coming back with you in a bit, and we will also see you at 1:00 p.m. watch any show that has exchange in the title that will start tuesday. i'm off until then see you then "squawk x"s xtbo ine only nature's bounty does.

with immune 24 hour plus... you get longer-lasting vitamin c... plus herbal and other immune superstars. get more with nature's bounty. this? this is supersonic wifi from xfinity. plus herbal and other immune superstars. it's fast. so gaming with your niece has never felt more intense. incoming! hey, what does this button do? no, don't! welcome to the fastest internet on the largest gig speed network. are you crying uncle ed? no! a little. only from xfinity. unbeatable internet made to do anything so you can do anything.

good morning, futures mixed as we're looking at the start of the premarket session here three straight days of declines. definitely deteriorated yesterday more than most people thought. i'm going to show you where the major indexes stand as we prepare to close out the month of august. pipeline shut down gazprom halting the flow of gas to germany. the impact on the european energy market straight ahead. plus, snap reportedly set to begin laying off 20% of its work force today. the stock tumbling on that report wednesday, august 31st, 2022, "squawk box" begins right now.

good morning, and welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. we're live from the nasdaq market site in times square. i'm melissa lee along with joe kernen three straight days of losses and we do see a mixed open with the nasdaq looking to eke out a 30-point gain at the open here the s&p looking to be off by about three points, dow looking to be down by 54 the s&p and nasdaq each fell by about a percent yesterday. here's where markets stand for the month of august. today is august 31st >> i showed you how to do that. >> which i didn't know >> january, february, march, april, may, june, july and the knuckles have 31, and then you go back and you'll be able to do that you've said you memorized it how long can it take you to do that >> over the course of a lifetime, joe. >> you do?