it's tuesday, september 24th, 2024 and "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. we are live from the nasdaq market site in times square. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. let's take a look at the u.s. equity futures at this hour. as joe mentioned, if the dow opens here, it will be at a new high. s&p futures up 8 points. the nasdaq up close to 52. up by 46 or 47 points at this hour. let's take a look also at treasury yields. you will see at this point with the yield higher. ten-year at $3.78.

the two-year is back above 3.6%. there was news from china overnight. the central bank governor holding a rare news conference. the central bank governor did not say when the new policy would take effect, but said it would be in the near term. banks cutting the seven-day repo rate. that is double what the economist had been expecting. the bond yield hit a record low during the speech. the stock markets there took off. very big moves. there's been expectation that the central bank would do a more aggressive move. the market has been waiting for it. it may be sooner than expected. the expectation at this point is that you could actually see china get much closer to the 5% growth they had been hoping for.

as a result, the shanghai up 4%. >> what do mortgage rates pay on the ten-year? the fed can't control the ten-year. we have been moving up steadily ever since the .50 point cut. they don't have control of the long end. the rationale is make the mortgage rates more affordable. we are closer to 4 than we were to 3.5. >> after the cut. >> i'm not sure what it means. >> 6.2% is what we are just showing. >> i'm not sure what it means. i'm not sure it means that the bond market is still weary about inflation. >> we had somebody trying to explain to us the other day. >> don't you worry about inflation? >> especially when you hear the news andrew will talk about right now. boeing sweetening the contract offer to more than 30,000 striking machinists saying it's the best and final

proposal. the labor union criticizing the offer and saying boeing did not negotiate and calling it an attempt to bypass the union. it doubled the ratification bonus to $6,000 and reinstating the machinist bonus and the 401(k) match. the union said that timeframe doesn't give it enough time to give details to members and they refuse to meet for further discussions. the union will survey members about boeing's new offer. i think what you are suggesting is this will turn out to be inflationary. >> look, i think it is not just boeing. sdri strikes are taking place all over. the port is doing it.

the arrow industry saw another strike yesterday. with boeing, i don't know if they can be more ham-handed about all this. >> what's with the, you know, this is our last and if you don't do it by friday, it's off the table and you are back to where we were. >> why? it seems what they are offering. >> in contract negotiations. >> it doesn't matter. >> hell, no. if i don't decide or fold by then, then we're back to, you know, any gains we may have made. back to square one. >> you have not heard anything about management actually sitting down. i understand them not having a lot of faith. >> it's costing them a lot of money. >> the last one they passed on to the membership got 4% of the member to vote in favor of. 96% voting against. i get that. what in the world is that? it's gone from 0 to 150

instantaneously. let's take it or leave it. you're on your own. you don't hear of them sitting down with anybody trying to hammer this out. >> this might be inflationary, too. former president trump threatened john deere with a 200% tariff it moves the factory to mexico. this comes after the announcement it would shift some models to mexico. >> john deere and anybody else that does it is hurting our manufacturing and farming. if you do that, you will have a 200% tariff on the product you make in mexico. they think they will make product cheaper in mexico and sell for the same prices and make a lot of money by getting rid of our labor and our jobs. >> it sounds like industrial policy. the deere spokesperson referred to the web site which is titled

commitment to u.s. manufacturing and on that page, it says, in order to position our u.s. factories to undertake these highly value-added activities, it is sometimes necessary to move less complex operations,as. chapters written and nobel prizes awarded for comparative advantage. >> it goes back to the question is it a free market? >> in many cases, we outsourced a lot of jobs. a lot of times it increases profitability because labor is much cheaper in other parts -- you might be closer to the raw materials. >> i think deere pointed out they spent a couple of billion dollars investing in plants in the united states. >> it is possible the low-tech -- think about even chips. we're not going to make all of the commodity chips here in this

country. there's -- i don't know, are we going to make sneakers? maybe the gold trump sneakers. >> where are the gold trump sneakers made, by the way? >> i don't know if they are made in the nike sweat shops in the far east. >> deere production moves is a flash point as the company has shed expenses amid the weakening farm economy. they trimmed 2,000 hourly workers. >> you do something like this here and something somewhere else and something happens. it's not great. i don't know. it's like so many policies that democrats have. it sounds great on the face. you connect the dots to the unintended consequences. >> it's like autos. we have a lot of automobiles made in mexico. >> we do. it is called comparative advantage and it makes sense at

times. >> there have been changes for china is making in mexico and flooding things in to three out. >> the populous 2.0 mindset is we're protecting american jobs at all costs. if it does cost a little more, we're stul ill going to do it. the whole jd vance "hillbilly elegy" defense. >> that means are jobs coming to the u.s.? >> i don't know. it looks good. it peoplefeels good. 200%. illinois is going to be rocking and rolling again, but something also happens. >> all of it is inflationary. >> yeah. great piece here about what screwed up our manufacturing. all those subsidies. the whole ev market compared to

when the i.r.a. was passed. it is a different demand profile now in timing. a lot of those things were not economically smart. it is not paying off. trump's going to speak today in savannah, georgia. he is expected to make a pitch to foreign companies on why they should move their operations to the united states. a big port city in savannah. huge. a senior trump adviser will highlight a 15% corporate tax for those making products in the u.s. lower energy costs after regulatory, i dguess easing the regulatory lands and strong port infrastructure. that's the carrot. the stick is he will threaten with tariffs when they bring the products in to the u.s.

this is all background on what's going to come out of the actual speech today in savannah. i'll talk to john paulson to get some input. >> you may have more thoughts broadly about the john deere of it all. >> he has defended the industrial tariff policy. >> in his words, when he describes it, he describes it more of a negotiation tactic. the justice department is getting creditready to slap vis a lawsuit. we have eamon javers with more on that. >> reporter: good morning, becky. the justice department lawsuit could come today and allege that visa monopolized the credit card market. the lawsuit wit allege visa took

steps from preventing rivals in the market. allegations that visa made exclusive agreements to stop expansion by competing networks and prevented tech companies from entering the market. we have to wait and see the complaint this afternoon because there could be irony here. one big tech company who made inroads with the credit card company is apple. apple was sued for monopolizing the cell phone market. the justice department had no comment when we asked them about it. >> eamon, thank you. this has been a long time in the making. what will this mean? >> reporter: i think it is fascinating. you were talking about this in the context of the election cycle where we've got two candidates on the ballot in november and you look at this from the perspective of the credit card company and you think, you know, which candidate do you want? do you want harris who is

continuing the biden-harris approach with the antitrust approach or do you want trump, who last week, suggested he would put in a cap on credit card interest rates down to 10%. he said we're not going to allow interest rates to go higher than 10% for consumer debt. now, you know, either way, if you are the credit card industry, you will have income there. how do you tease out which candidate you prefer as an industry? all of that was changing as joe suggested the assumptions of what the parties would do are also shifting here in the election cycle. >> eamon, thank you. good to see you. coming up, jamie dimon is repeating his call for caution. he is a worry wart. we will show you what he said in india. that's next.

later, billionaire hedge fund adviser and trump adviser will join us live to talk about the markets and the 2024 election. we're coming right back. >> announcer: "squawk box" is sponsored by vaneck. (♪♪) (♪♪) what took you so long? i'm sorry, there was a long line at the thai place. you get the sauce i like? of course! you're the man! i wish. the future isn't scary. not investing in it is.

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recent fedspeak giving investors some new reasons to feel bullish, maybe, about the prospects for more rate cuts and the direction of the u.s.

economy. jpmorgan chase ceo jamie dimon is repeating his call for caution. here's what he told our c colleagues on cnbc this morning. >> the stock market and bond markets are pricing in a soft landing. you also look at the stock markets are generally very high and bond spreads are very low. you know, that's goldilocks. i hope that would happy. i give it lower odds than the market does. >> for more on the markets and a couple of stocks he is watching, let's bring in sylvia jablonski. this is the guy who managed through the financial crisis as well as anyone. i think he's just known to be a good risk manager. if you're a risk manager and as the name implies, you are always

looking for risks around the world. maybe this is his default position and it is a little different from yours, siysylvia. it looked to me you were saying keep it simple. rates are coming down. it makes things cheaper. it makes people move from other assets into stocks. there there's a lot of money on the sidelines. that's an easing cycle. we like stocks. >> i like your summary of my thoughts here. with rate cuts comes an optimistic markets. you have a market to spend money and small caps to rally and broadening of the market. you have investors coming off the sidelines with risk assets. if i look at corporate america and what has happened with earnings with conditions

restrictive the last couple years or so, it has been fine. earnings continue to grow. the companies are making money and the consumer holds up and continues to spend. now when it is lighter for corporations, it benefits the stock market. of course, mr. dimon is, you know, the guru here of the financial systems. in 2001 and 2007 with the cut this big, it was a different situation. 2007 was the credit crisis of the banks. we're not in that situation. we're continuing to grow and economy is stable and rates are coming down. keep it simple at least for now. >> you talked about how things have done pretty well in a r restrictive environment. i guess that's where there's wiggle room of how restrictive it was. looking at the environment, the resulting environment that you described, there is no reason to think it was restrictive in

terms of equity prices and corporate profits or gdp. there's nothing there in terms of what we were up 500 basis points to the 5% fed funds. there's nothing there that points to it be restrictive. was it really restrictive and is there a reason to make it easier now? >> fair enough. what i would say is it is more restrictive than it will be tomorrow. so, i think, you know, if you have -- >> it may be the wrong move. it may need to be restrictive if inflation isn't gone for good. >> well, it seems like inflation is going in the right direction. the fed always comes out and says he is data dependent. while he front loaded this cut, i'm sure we're looking month to month at the numbers and inflation data and making the decision to cut at this pace or slowdown. i do think there is a front load

and the wait-and-see approach. i wouldn't expect this to be a flood gates open for rate cuts going forward. the market might expect that. they may be overzealous on what is coming in the future. i think the fed will be patient with this. >> does that make you selective in what you do buy? what are you? what stocks does it make attractive in your view? >> i like the idea of diversifying portfolios always and the idea as we talk about the semiconductor stocks on dips like nvidia. palantir. it's also time to think about the markets pulling back or election risk or worried about, perhaps, we aren't going to get

the soft landing. for vainvestors, you can expand. i'm bullish on the quantum a.i. learning trade. i tend to diversify. i think the smaller cap names will pick up steam. >> great. we'll end it there, sylvia. sylvia jablonski. i like that name and where it's from. "defiance." many times. are you? >> i don't know. not enough. >> you want to be more defiant? >> yes. >> why would that be a trait you want to adopt? >> depends on what you are being defiant about. >> that means you are difficult. >> you don't want to be defiant for defiance sake. >> i have seen that. coming up, the next time you speak to an a.i. chatbot, it may

speak back with a voice of john cena. >> i'm excited about this. >> after the break, you will see this. > tethe break, patrick m mchenry will join us about the gary gensler testimony. pgim inv . shaping tomorrow, today

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of novo nordisk will testify on capitol hill. as we head to break, look at yesterday's s&p 500 winners and losers. bo >> announcer: executive edge is sponsored by at&t business. next level moments need the next level network. but all you did was plug it in, you didn't do anything neither did you exactly exactly exactly exactly impressed? honestly, a little exactly (slurp)

good morning. welcome back to "squawk box" l live from the nasdaq market site in times square. s&p is up 10 points. the nasdaq is up 56 points from the new high. shares of trump media falling to new lows days after donald trump and others were released from the lock-up period that prevented them from selling shares. yesterday's drop comes ahead of the filing deadline for insiders to disclose sales of the shares.

trump has said he will not sell his stake. the company's market cap has now fallen from above $10 billion in march to now below $2.5 billion. the u.s. federal trade commission is expected to approve the chevron purchase of hess as early as this week according to the reuters report. that would leave one hurdle remaining which is the exxon challenge on grounds it has the first right of refusal of the sale of hess. the three-judge arbitration panel is due to review that case in may of next year and the decision is expected in august or september. by the way, the ftc was largely anticipated signing off on this. that is not the sticking point. the thing we have to wait for with the deal coming from exxon and exxon's concern overall this ruling on the arbitration panel is the big issue holding things up.

you see hess shares up 2.7% today. chevron is up .50%. exxonmobil shares up .75%. that may be largely tied to hess is because of oil prices higher and what is happening in the middle east. the potential demand from china being higher, too. the ceo of novo nordisk heading to capitol hill today where he expected to be grilled for the prices of ozempic and wegovy. we have angelica peebles with the latest. >> reporter: that's right. wegovy goes for $1,300 in the u.s. sanders saying it is available for $92 in the uk. we know it is not that stark since there are benefits from pbms. there are people who are feeling that sticker shock.

novo nordisk ceo lars jorgenssen placing the blame on pbms. he calls them powerful middle men. he says novo doesn't control what patients pay for medications. the price of ozempic has come down since launching and wegovy following the similar trajectory. the price of ozempic is expected to make the list next year. becky. >> that's interesting on a couple of levels. first of all, they are saying it is the pbms. there are problems with the pharmacy benefit managers now owned by insurance companies which changed drastically what they used to be which was supposed to be the middle man to bring plerices down. that is not the case and not happening. the second case is don't worry because you will make us bring the prices down soon anyway?

>> it is interesting you bring up both of those points. that came up over and over in 20 pages of testimony that we read yesterday. like you said, he is saying that ultimately they want pbms to cover the drugs. they want them to pay for obesity drugs and it is the pbms who decide what the patients pay at the end. if people are not getting this covered, it's not our fault. blame the pbms. we like people paying out of pocket to not have to do that and like you said, soon enough, government, you will negotiate the price of ozempic anyway. there is nothing you can do. you will be able to come after us soon enough. one thing i did not mention is lots of competition. they have eli lilly on the market and you are seeing all kinds of other companies that might enter the space, too. basically, shifting some of the blame, if you will, to some of the other parties.

>> it's a weird sort of defense. normally if a company or industry is expecting additional regulation to come their way, they do things that are a little more modest around the edges trying to push off the regulation. they figure there's no way to push off the regulation and it is dependent on what happens in the election. >> they do talk about how much they invested in the drugs. they said they invested about $10 billion just to discover glp-1s and they committed $30 billion to manufacture them. they are saying, look, we've done our part. this has taken us decades to do. we should be credited for that. also, we should make a return for all of the work we put into this. again, there's not much more you need to do because, a, the private market will take care of it and also the government will have a role to play here. >> angelica, thank you. coming up after this, escalating violence in the middle east. israel and hezbollah launching

new attacks. will this lead to an all-out war in the region? that is the big question. we will talk to the council on foreign relations president emeritus richard haas about this tense situation next. we're coming back after this.

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welcome back to "squawk box." day two for the u.n. general assembly here in new york city. traffic. that is minor compared to the mid east violence which is at the forefront for president biden and other leaders like benjamin netanyahu. we have richard haas. a senior counselor with center view partners. we are all trying to understand how this escalates and does it escalate? if it does, what ultimately does it mean? >> the short answer is the

question of escalation, andrew, is with hezbollah now. the israeli hs have come in prey hard. little unclear why they are trying to quote/unquote defeat hezbollah. are they trying to hit them hard to soften them up for diplomacy. >> they were trying to push them back on the back heels to get diplomacy? >> that is the likely expla explanation. you pound them and agree to arrangement and move back to lebanon and more back to northern israel. i'm skeptical. hezbollah is so well armed that enormous tracts of israel is vulnerable to the weaponry. >> the question is do these attacks change the psychology of hezbollah? do they say we can't have this anymore or we can't accept the

bom bombings. the other piece of it is does the play into the humanitarian crisis in palestinians because you are seeing people dying and lebanese dying and how it play into the global consciousness, if you will. >> in my experience in the middle east, humiliation, which has happened recently, and visible public attacks do not bring about moderation. it increases grievance no matter what the cost may be. call me skeptical there that this is a prelude to the breakout of peace. look, the region has multiple fault lines. gaza continues. no one's paying attention to the west bank. we are beginning to see where 3 million palestinians live and 500,000 israelis, the gazafication of the west bank.

the challenges in the north. >> what do you mean the gazafication? >> we are seeing the emergence of palestinian-armed my ilmilit. the palestinian authority is sidelines or feckless or whatever you want and increased confrontations. >> how long before you have actual hot stuff coming in from iran and iraq? not just behind the scenes. this has the potential. >> it can start in either direction, becky. you can see the help from the proxies. they still have not retaliated for the assassination at the guest house. at some point, it could go the other way. it is not inconceivable. if you remember al haig, when he was secretary of state, instead of fighting the wars in el

salvador or honduras, he made an argument to go to cuba. i think what you will see are israelis arguing let's go to the source. instead of fighting the proxies, fight iran. >> what does that do? >> that would be war. up to now, if we are talking about gaza and hezbollah and the west bank, these are localized terrible conflicts. if it becomes israel-iran directly, that is a regional wide war and that impacts what you talk about on this program. >> so, let me ask you this, what would you do? if you were netanyahu and you had his ear, what would you tell him? >> well, i would tell him what i had argued with him. israel has to introduce the component to the national security policy. if you try to marginalize hamas, you have to introduce a diplomatic tool. support palestinian political

process so people say put hamas' offering the dead end. here is something that won't get us everything we want, but something. >> what do you do with iran and hezbollah? >> with hezbollah, again, i would try to reach some type of arran arrangement. if you get a cease-fire in gaza, hezbollah said that would calm the situation in the north. the situation that needs to be worked out is reach the agreement and say here is our red line and if you go beyond it, that will cause a conflict. i would be as explicit as i could on that. >> is that red line waving a red flag at them? >> no, they have to stop short of a capability. there has to be a certain warning time between where they are and where they could get. if they were to cross that line and go from a near nuclear weapons state. >> i understand that.

i'm asking if you think that would actually change their behavior? >> at the moment, they would never cross the line. iranians are weary because of the reactions. they wanted to park the nuclear weapons to get the advantages without the cost or risk. i would continue to try to manage this. >> okay. last question. for those investors out there trying to manage quote risk and possibility of war with iran, how would you, i hate to use the word handicap it, because i know you're a golfer -- really -- >> i have a high handicap. >> how would you assess that risk? >> it's growing. it's more than it was. is it the most likely thing to happen? no, because neither side wants it. the odds are still less than even. you can't discount. >> less than even. 50/50? >> less than even. 50/50. >> 40/60?

>> i would say below that. 2 or 3 out of 10. andrew, last april, they had exchanges and they managed them. that's the good thing. the bad news is they got lucky that none of the iranian missiles or brdrones killed people. i think iran is looking to manage it. it's a bigger question whether the israeli government wants to prevent the breakout of war. >> when will they have a bomb? if iran had a bomb right now, the entire calculus changes. iran is going to have a bomb eventually, right? >> i hope not because that would allow them to continue -- that's the argument. the argument -- >> it's climate week and iran and israel with nuclear bombs.

>> we can worry about both. one's in media crisis and one in slow-motion crisis. the idea that iran has the bomb and giving them confidence to act with greater recklessness should keep you up at night. >> whatever. >> richard haas. thank you. when we come back, john uln ll jpasowioin us live this morning to talk about the economy markets and the trump campaign and 2024 election. we're coming right back. something amazing is happening here. students are inspired and engaged. that's because school districts consulted with cdw to design modern classroom solutions with preconfigured hp devices making education immersive, accessible and secure.

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john paulson toeyoming up, california's state atrn general, rob bonta, will join us to lay out their case. "squawk box" will be right back.

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(kevin) now our businesses get fast and reliable internet from the same network that powers our phones. (aaron) so whatever's next... we're cooking with fire. (vo) switch to the partner businesses rely on. the state of california filing a lawsuit against exxonmobil on monday alleging the oil giant misled the public about the recycling products. joining us, attorney general, rob bonta. >> the state of california is suing exxonmobil for a decade's long campaign of deception in which they tried to convince the

world, including california, that the recycling of plastic products, including single use plastics is sustainable, and that's a lie, and 95% goes to landfill or to the environment, oceans, rivers or is incinerated. the idea behind it was if the public was convinced that the single single-use plastic was part of the liveable, it would drive their -- >> i have had a hard time getting my head around this. exxonmobil says for decades california officials failed to act and now seek to blame

others. instead of suing us they could have worked with us to keep plastic out of landfills, and their first step would be to look at what their counterparts now. we're bringing real solutions, recycling plastic waste that couldn't be recycled by traditional methods. i am trying to understand where the breakdown was. you said 5% of recycled stuff gets recycled and the rest of it winds up in other places, and exxon says 8%, and the rest breaks down into fuels and raw materials they could use to remake plastic. explain where the problem is. there has been a problem with

recycling. what did exxon do? >> it's straightforward. exxon lied. they lied to the world. they had a particular image makeover challenge with respect to the fact that their plastics, they wanted to sell more and more was being found in waterways, and they needed to fix that. they lied and said these items are being recycled and tried to place the blame on the consumer, and -- >> it's not just the consumer. even if you put it in the blue bin, there are lots of breakdowns starting from that moment on. if you have not washed the plastics, they can't be recycled, and there's a lot of breakdowns. is it your point plastic should not be made?

>> if exxonmobil knew that they should not have said it could not have been recycled -- >> their plan is recycling -- >> no, it's not. it's not advanced nor recycling. it's a new version of an old lie. i don't hear in the statement a denial about perpetuating the myth of recycling, and i do hear complete deflection to others. let me be clear about this. this case is to hold exxon for their actions. they have hurt california and californians, billions of dollars in damage to our people, and their finger is to -- their point is to point their finger at california. they are heating up the plastic waste. most of it turns into

transportation fuels that are burned once, and it's emitted to the air -- >> that's not plastic going into landfills. if you are recycling it and using it in other ways. is your point they shouldn't use plastic? >> they shouldn't lie. >> the department of energy says they think it's only 5% because there's no demand for the recycled plastic. they can produce it if there's not demand for it and people that want to use it, so what do you do with that? >> they said the opposite -- >> they are being recycled. >> they are not -- >> they are pbbeing burned and t in other uses -- >> a plastic bottle goes to the

recycling system and comes back as a plastic bottle or another plastic product, and they don't say it turns into jet fuel -- >> again, your point is we should not have plastics? >> my point is exxonmobil should not lie. they should not lie so people can make their own decisions -- >> they are not -- if your point is they are not turning it down and it's not going into turtle's noses, but if the recycling plant is burning it down, they are not dumping them in landfills. is that what you are arguing? >> let's talk about it. 99% doesn't go through advanced recycling. it does go to landfills and incinerators and our environment. it's a tiny amount of what they are doing, and they are not

actually recycling. they only turned 8% through advanced recycling into a recycled plastic, and they need to add version plastic into turn it into something useful again. >> if it goes into jet fuel, that doesn't count for anything for you, or it does? >> in the percentages you are provide something, that's what we are talking. i realize you are saying 1% this, or 90% of something, and you are saying the 90% is showing up in landfills or are you saying if it shows up in jet fuel or some other kind of recycled way you are discounting that? >> by the way, you could say, look, i wish they could say it was going to jet fuel instead of being recycled into bottles. >> yeah, they are lying in different ways.

they are saying 100% plastic could be recycled, and -- >> it can be. >> it has not been. advanced recycling, their wonder recycling approach only recycles 1% of the plastic -- >> into other plastics and then you need diversion plastics. i understand that. >> no, no, not that. of all the plastics exxon prau tka tka produces, only one person goes into recycling plastic, and advanced recycling doesn't touch that. >> advanced recycling sounds like a better thing than -- >> turning things into jet fuel that is emitted into the air -- >> so your point is we shouldn't have jet fuel? >> my point is you --

>> you flew here, though, right. >> we travelled. >> where is the 90 -- you are saying the 99% is going to jet fuel or going to the ground? >> 99% of what exxonmobil produces in plastic is not touched by recycling. >> either you are going to say is jet fuel, which, by the way, i think people would find that acceptable if they said it that way, and if you are saying it ends up in landfill and that's a lie -- >> a lot of percentages. i am sorry. 95% of the 99% goes into the landfill or incinerated --

>> so most is going into a landfill? >> yes. >> and their reliance, most of it turns into jet fuel. >> 95% of the plastics they make, exxon themselves doesn't go back into recycling? >> 99% isn't touched by advanced recycling, and of that 99%, 95 is never recycled. they are operating on the fringes of the margins, and they don't have a solution. it's a new version of an old lie. most all plastics in the united states continue to go to insin ration, our environment or landfill. >> okay. attorney general bonta, thank you. >> thank you. it's just after 7:00 a.m. on the east coast. you are watching "squawk box." i am andrew ross sorkin along

with joe kernen and becky quick. we have a lot going on this morning. one boeing employee or union member describing -- or i should say the company describing it as its best and final, but the company's employees saying it's a lack of respect meant to divide striking union workers. boeing said it would reinstate a performance bonus and double the bonus to $6,000 should workers a accept the terms, which seems unlikely. novo only keeps a fraction of the list prices and the rest going to employers and insurers. we will have more on that story later on this hour with dr. scott gottlieb.

speaking at a rally in pennsylvania last week, he said he would hit deere. and deere saying the strategic moves to mexico tends to free up space for newer models and equipment. let's get to the futures -- actually, they are negative, dom. i am not blaming you for that, but we have had green. 50 and 60-point gains. dom chu is going to join us with key analyst calls this morning. >> i would say, joe, becky, andrew, we are coming off record highs. maybe i will take some of the blame for it. i'm just saying record highs.

we will start off with a check on starbucks which is down 1.5% and the price target lowered from 76 to 80. the execution will be challenged because of culture, value, perception and technology takes time to fix. meanwhile, at&t shares down just roughly about half a percent or so and this despite goldman sachs naming it its top pick of the year. the analysts there are seeing positive commentary on market growth and competition as well as pricing in the city.

and oppenheimer raised lowe's. they are predicting demand trends improving, and lending rates moderating as part of the equation. it's a more neutral. for more on those and other top analyst calls of the day, head over to cnbc.com/pro. when we come back, senator chris coons will join us on the harris/walz plan. and dennis lockhart will join us to talk interest rates and the fed. "squawk box" will be right back. ♪

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presidential candidate harris is set to introduce more details of the economic agenda this week. joining us now is delaware senator, chris coons, the cochair of the harris for president campaign. he's here to fill us in on the most minute details. you are not -- maybe you are sure but don't want to steal the

thunder for the vice president. >> they are giving speeches to fill in the detail about the overall objective to strengthen the economic opportunity for the middle class. as she made clear from the first sentence of the presidential debate against donald trump, vice president harris is committed to helping americans afford health care and housing. the theme she's running on is creating an opportunity economy and the next speech will be about creating wealth in the country for the middle class. >> being as close as you are to president biden, i think you would argue that we have had -- he's orchestrated a very good economic rebound and good economy. one of the things people wonder is why is it necessary to chart

a new path forward and to turn the page for vice president harris? why not embrace -- i would imagine it's because americans recently still don't feel like it's a great economy and they prefer trump -- maybe it's narrowing a little, but they prefer trump. >> you are right, it's narrowing, by half. part of it is americans, when you ask the question are you better off today than you were four years ago, many americans misremembering how bad the economy was four years ago and how strong our recovery from the pandemic has been. next year the biggest fight will be over taxes. lots of folks don't remember the details of the tax cut and job act fight of 2017. a lot of the provisions expire

next year so early next year congress and the president will have to sit down and hammer out what it's going to look like for the next five years and what are we going to do in terms of the tax code. joe biden vowed he would not raise taxes on anybody less than $400,000. he has kept that. and donald trump is going to impose a tariff, a national sales tax -- >> go back to 2017 for a second. has anybody in your camp or in the biden camp ever thought that perhaps 2017 act is partly responsible for the highs in the stock market and the record corporate profits, and what the administration brag about every day, it occurred under the tax regime put in place in 2017?

are you sure that was not good for the economy and needs to be reversed? >> there's part of the balance that i believe vice president harris and -- the stock market just hit an all-time high under biden. i think it's remarkable innovation. we need to fix the immigration system so we continue to attract the best and brightest and hardest working from around the world and have a tax environment. >> do you think the american public voters, many of whom, by the way, have an opportunity to vote right now, literally -- >> yes, early voting has already started in key states. >> do you believe they deserve to know specific details about her economic plan? should you know what your tax rate is going to be or at least what she believes your tax rate should be before you go to the polls? should you know what the regulatory sort of regime in her

perfected world would look like? i think these are singular important questions, and you could say maybe you are not supposed to know these things and that's what people want to understand? >> she laid out a broad vision on what are her priorities and the average american voters got a look at the chaos of the former president and a vice president that says, to your point, we will keep a lot of the same agendas and the first thing she came up with a proposal for a capital gains rate and it was lower than what president biden was looking for. she's focusing on how do we build more housing and removing regulatory barriers and incentives and how to build more middle class wealth? >> we have heard about the capital gains, and building more

housing supply and offering $25,000 to folks who are first-time buyers. we heard about no tax on tips. those are the five specifics that i can give you. >> what do you know about donald trump's tax plan? >> there's maybe five or ten other specifics most people would want to know. >> what about salt? >> what? >> salt. >> it was an intentional slap at blue states that tend to be high-property stakes where that ended up last time, and i suspect you will see a salt fix next year, and often we end up with divided government and that makes each side's proposal hard to achieve. fplt i think taxes on unrealized gains is a big one and won't affect me or anybody at the table, but it's a big change. you could talk about numbers and

argue back and forth and say we are going to do capital gains at this number and that number and those are all numbers not taking us into a new world, and i do worry down the road it would be extended. it's a new way of looking at things to say we are going to tax what you don't have. that's a sore point and big deal. is that something you think she firmly believes in? >> i think it's part of the proposals of the campaign, which is to find to find some way to get at the system of buy, borrow, die, that allows the very wealthiest americans to be taxed on the unrealized gains -- >> senator, if she would come on this show, just like you do, and hopefully president trump would come on -- former president trump, and if she would come on, we could get answers. as a surrogate, there's an effort to rope-a-dope the thing

right until the election. i don't have to take my shoes off to count on my fingers and toes how many interviews she's done with governor walz. it looks like a deliberate effort to not face the questions. i think andrew was getting at that in another way, we would like to see questions asked and answers provided for these things and we may never get that and have 40 days left. >> we just had harris say, yes, let's do another presidential debate and donald trump said no, and you have to agree that a hour-long debate televised nationally could get answers --

>> but so could have interview. >> many have questions about the reliability of the united states and our relationships with core allies. that's one of the key factors i also hope voters will take into account is that donald trump promised he would be an unconventional -- >> so she's too busy. that would be number one for me, what my plans are if i was elected presidents. >> if you watch one of the dozens of interviews with donald trump and j.d. vance, i have a hard time tracking the line because it goes all over the place. >> that's fine. at least you know. what you are learning about harris is she's thoughtful and responsible and not just throwing out ideas.

>> there's a political calculous on her side right now about how much to be out there or not. the focus is -- appears to be almost a local kind of campaign, right? seven states and -- >> we have seven states that will decide the next presidency. >> i would say her campaign seems to approach it that way, we care about those seven states and nothing else. >> you know it's not at all true they care about nothing else, but in terms of answering media questions, if you are one of the seven states, yes, she did a interview with the public radio in wisconsin and not doing interviews in new york city. i wouldn't recommend she goes to new york city, but i would recommend answering questions. i thought the presidential debate was going to be a good way to do it. >> to do something like oprah

who is a surrogate along with all the actors that go with it, and maybe i am old and cranky, but i feel like i know less about the candidates than -- >> you would vote in favor of the two-year campaign than the six-week style? >> yeah. >> let's agree, the speech she's giving this week is a great step? >> how great do you think we will get on the details? >> i'm looking forward to it. >> senator, thank you. >> thanks, joe. thanks, becky, andrew. on the other side of this, nielsen streaming viewership. then congressman patrick mchenry will join us.

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welcome back to "squawk box." a new report out from nielsen this morning with details on what and where people are watching. nielsen's ceo joining us. it's fascinating what is going on, but give us your biggest headline when you look at the study and try the understand what people really are watching in this streaming age. >> thanks, andrew. thanks for having me. yeah, the biggest headline is we have seen in three months we have seen three different leaders on the maximum time spent. this month it's nbcu.

what is interesting about this month is about how there's a real leverage across broadcast forums, and we are talking about broadcast and streaming. it's exciting to see across platform as a way to engage audiences? >> we are not just doing this because nbc is at the top of the list. i wanted to ask you about the nbc side, the nbcu side, how much do you think is a function of the olympics, for example? i want to get into youtube. i think the youtube piece of this is fascinating and trying to understand how much of the youtube piece is youtube tv versus what we might describe as classic youtube. >> a couple things. for nbcu, it was all three, it was broadcast which was up close to 60%. it was cable also up and streaming.

peacock was up almost 40% in august. so it was across the board, and the olympics makes a big difference with over 5,000 hours of content and promoted. >> if you take the olympics out, what would happen to the chart? >> i think it would still be pretty large, and the olympics is a big driver of what is going on, yes. >> how should we think about the youtube piece? is that youtube, just folks on the traditional app or site, or does that include youtube tv? >> yeah, it's very important. youtube, call it regular youtube, is a big driver. obviously in july, which is a big summer month, you see a lot of kids watching youtube as they are off. july, obviously youtube was number one and that changed again in august. it depends on the season. it depends on what people are

doing, and most importantly it depends on how promotion and marketing unfolds across the media. that's the exciting thing about what happened in august. >> i am looking at this and thinking, amazon is only 3.2% lower than warner brothers and everybody else. does that change if we go a month out because of football and things like that? >> yeah, absolutely. with the way sports rights have moved into different areas, we will see shifts on a monthly basis that will make a big difference. thursday night football is big for amazon, but there's lot of things going on with amazon as well that will make a difference for sure. >> finally, you look at paramount and warner brothers in there and there's talk of them merging in the future. what is driving that and does that change again in relation to sports as we get into the fall?

>> two things. this is obviously the season beginning across the board. it's not just on sports, but it's across all scripted and unscripted program, so there's a chance it will unfold over the next few months because the season just begun. what is interesting, even though two companies have an opportunity for a cross platform, so they have streaming assets and broadcast and a lot of cable net and so there's opportunity to figure out how to leverage cable programming and the audiences that are different precipitation way to leverage the nbc story, it's interesting, broadcast, 61, and for cable 50 and streaming 41, as you would expect. it's about how you leverage them across the demos and how to attract the audience there, so it will be interesting over the rest of fall. >> thank you for joining us.

appreciate it. can't wait to see what happens next month. >> appreciate it, andrew. thank you for having me. when we come back, a couple stocks to watch today. and futures are higher across the board. right now, dow up about by 32. the nasdaq indicated up by 26 and the s&p by 4. and the s&p by 4. "squawk box" will be right back. let our expertise round out yours. khrr

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recent fed speak giving investors new reasons to feel bullish about the prospects of more rate cuts coming in the direction of the u.s. economy at the same time, but ceo, jamie dimon, did not join that crowd. here's what he said earlier this morning. >> i think the stock markets and bond markets are pricing in a soft landing, and -- but you also look, the stock markets are generally very high and bond spreads are very low, and that's

goldilocks. that may happen, and i just give it lower odds than the market does. >> we want to bring in a professor with georgia tech, dennis lockhart. thank you for joining us this morning. i think this is a situation where a lot of us who have been watching for a long time are very confused about and it comes with chairman powell's description last week at the news conference. he talked about how great the economy is and how strong the jobs market is, and then the explanation for why cutting 50 basis points at this moment. if things are great, why cut aggressively? how much more should we expect? what is your expectation from somebody who has been in the room? >> i think they shifted from fighting inflation and being a little bit nervous about the employment situation to really protective mode.

i think if we saw the status quo, both growth, employment and inflation just persist for some period of time, they would be pretty happy with that picture. i think it was austin goolsbee that used the word, demarcation, and this was a phase with a different emphasis to the phase today that is protecting what they have got. the 50 basis point move is a little catchup from july, jay powell said in the press conference that he could have moved in july had he known the data incoming just after the meeting. it could be a little bit of a catchup and a down payment for the beginning of the protective

mode. >> jamie dimon is always pretty caution and it's his business line as a banker, but does he have a point that maybe the markets are priced to perfection and his odds of that perfection happening are less than you see in the markets? >> i would never totally second guess jamie dimon because he's very astute, but i think what he may be reflect something there are rose-colored glasses on the markets today, and he bought into the idea that there could be a soft landing. the soft landing is underway, so a fair amount of it has already been achieved. that could set you up for disappointment if there's a development of one thing or another that throws the economy off. i think it's a -- perhaps a

judicious posture to say, look, things look good now but could go south for us. >> maybe that's fair. rose colored glasses could be thinking everything is going to be well and it could also be thinking there's a fed put and if things go south they could react aggressively. what do you think will happen the rest of this year and the first half of next year? >> i will take the fed speak of yesterday as a good indication, particularly kneel kashkari's comment of more basis point moves, and i think there's going to be basis cut series for the next several meetings. if you look at 2025, the median in the dots is, i think, for

about seven total cuts from where we are today, and that suggests not every meeting next year but several meetings next year. i think that's a base case. it's always a base case. they really don't know because it truly is meeting by meeting and they will make a decision based on the incoming data. but as an out look from today, i would say six or seven more cuts of 25 basis points. i don't completely dismiss the idea that they'll go heavy in the beginning and maybe put in another 50 basis point move that could be very much simply the preference of the core group that are at the core of the committee if they decide that's the way they want to unfold that rate cutting regime. >> thank you, sir. >> thank you.

thank you very much. coming up, cnbc's robert frank adds up president trump's tax cuts, and then later hedge fund billionaire and trump adviser, john paulson will join us for a wide ranging interview. don't go anywhere. "squawk box" continues after this.

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this is where it gets the best signal from the cell tower! i've tried everywhere else in the house! there's always a new excuse. well if we got xfinity you wouldn't have to mess around with the connection. therapy's tough, huh? -mmm. it's like a lot about me. [laughs] a home router should never be a home wrecker. oo this is a good book title. former president trump has announced several different tax cuts on the campaign trail from possibly repealing the salt cap to eliminating taxes on social security and tip income and robert frank, you know, had to go and add everything up on trump's great tax giveaway. and it does, you know, add a trillion here, a trillion there. >> it starts to add up. former president trump started his campaign with a plan to extend the 2017 tax cut.

that's estimated to cost the government about $4.6 trillion over ten years. then he started adding more. he called for ending taxes on tips, becky's favorite. that could cost up to $200 billion. he promised to end taxes on social security. that's another $1.6 trillion. he said he would end taxes on overtime. this is a pig one. that costs another $1.8 trillion. he wants to lower the corporate tax rate for domestic manufacturers. he will talk a lot more about that. that would go from 21 to 15%, add another $700 billion or so. and last week in new york, to joe's delight, he called forgetting salt back, presumably repealing the $10,000 cap on state and local deductions. that would be another $1.2 trillion handout. add it all together, trump has now proposed tax giveaways totaling nearly $10 trillion over ten years. now, he said he would pay for the tax cuts with tariffs and

maybe cutting some of the previous spending programs. analysts say those tariffs would raise about $2.8 trillion at best, which means his current tax plans would add about $7 trillion to the deficit over the next decade. >> i do have a good idea. >> what's that? >> since we are, at this point, a uniparty, trump should propose an unrealized frickin' capital gains tax, or trump should propose a wealth tax of 3% on billionaires. couldn't we pay for it if we did 3% every year? >> 3% on unrealized gains? a wealth tax? >> yes! yes! why not! seriously, this is so insane right now, on both sides, you know what, as ridiculous as what i'm saying is, as a uniparty, they're both doing the same ridiculous thing. >> a great giveaway. >> why don't we -- >> becky called it the oprah tax policy where you get a tax cut -- >> to be fair, i stole from somebody else. >> there is a suspicion what trump wants to do and some of his advisers, this is a sneaky

way, one tax cut at a time, of actually eliminating the income tax system, going toward a flat tax and some kind of value-added tax or consumption tax, which tariffs are more like europe. and some people say, actually, give him another couple of weeks and he'll probably get rid of the entire -- there are not many categories left that are not exemptive from taxes. >> we're talking price caps on credit cards. it's a uniparty. >> and we haven't talked about that. the price caps on the credit cards. >> i know -- >> that's a trump plan -- >> are you with me on this? if we're going to $50 trillion, if we're headed there, green this, we're going to do this, we're going to do this, we're throwing it everywhere. give me my salt. for $50 trillion -- >> it's the only thing that's not going to come back. everything else -- >> i agree. i agree. >> i don't want to do it, but -- >> it's ridiculous. >> we're so profligate with just

throwing it against the wall, i figure, i might as well ask for something. >> we've never seen a campaign where both candidates are just giving tax breaks along the way, after the campaign's -- previously, it was very well thought out. here's my tax plan. and now it's like, depending on -- i'm in new york, let's get rid of salt. i'm in nevada, let's get rid of tips. >> none of their surrogates can come in and explain what the plans are on either side. they're all like, not sure, i haven't checked in in the last five minutes. >> or to joe's point, well, it's not going to pass congress anyway, so we shouldn't pay attention to either side, but this is their plan! >> but we're going to keep spending whether it's that 25 for houses or businesses or $1 trillion on the debt that we're spending right now. >> that part's not going away. no matter what you say, that part we can't get to go away. >> we should also -- you know what, tiers. we're all --

>> the more likely scenario is we have some kind of divided government, and next year when we renegotiate these tax extensions for 2017, basically, the entire 2017 tax cut expires, or at least large parts of it. >> at least we've got the fed back on board, headed to zero again. >> i thought the advantage of social media was going to be that these politicians couldn't blatantly lie and not get caught and picked up in other places. they just don't care. they'll say anything they want to in front of places. >> because the voters really don't care about the deficit. >> that's the point. >> we do, because we like numbers and we care about math. and eventually that math will catch up with us. but right now, not so much. >> live and learn. >> very smart wr, robert. >> robert, thank you. when we come back, the ceo of novo nordisk faces a senate hearing on weight loss drug pricing. that hearing could get pretty heated. we'll discuss that and much more. "squawk box" will be right back.

it is just before 8:00 a.m. on the east coast, and you're watching "squawk box" right here on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with joe kernan and andrew ross soccer yin and among today's top stories, we're looking at jpmorgan ceo

jamie dimon expressing some caution about the economy and markets, in an interview with cbc tv 18 in india. in the long-term, dimon said he's an optimist, but in the short run, he said he's exclusively of everyone saying everything will great. the justice department planning to target visa for allegedly monopolizing the u.s. debit card market, that is according to a bloomberg report that says that a lawsuit should come or could come as soon as today. it says the doj will allege visa kept a lid on competing debit card networks with exclusive agreements and also worked to keep tech companies out of the debit card market. and asian stocks getting a huge boost today, from new stimulus measures rolled out by the central bank in china. the country's central bank announcing efforts to lower borrowing costs and inject funds into the economy. it's been widely anticipated, but maybe coming a little sooner than had been expected. most of most of those markets in

china up by 14%. >> novo nordisk, the ceo, set to testify before a senate committee about the price of popular weight loss drugs. joining us now with more is dr. scott gottlieb, former fda commissioner and a cnbc contributor. and it's good to see you, doctor. and. we just had a previous discussion. i'm slowly becoming just open to anything. now i'm starting to be open to drug price controls. i don't know anymore what's right and what's wrong. if it's -- bernie makes the point, it costs "x," ozempic here in the united states, whatever it was. it was -- 1,400 or something, supposedly. >> less than that. about 750. >> but we're saying -- you know, we want touse the highest up with we can find to make the argument. so, the undiscounted price is $1,400, right? in parts of -- across the pond, it's $90 a month.

are consumers do deserve less of a disparity? i'm starting to see that. how do we do it? how do we not hurt innovation here? who's screwing us? the pbms? the drug companies? where does it lie? >> these companies have come down substantially, 40, 50%, and continue to fall. novo nordisk missed their estimates last quarter because analysts didn't anticipate the net price productions that were happening in the market place. i think you'll see continued price reductions. there's no question that a lot of these drugs cost less overseas at the list level, but if you look at the pricing with all the discounts baked in, in many cases consumers in programs like part "d" are getting a better deal than the pricing in europe. the european prices advertise a list price. here, you don't see all the rebating that's happening in the marketplace. that said, these drugs still are cheaper, at least the sem semiglutide drugs are cheaper

overseas than they are here in the u.s. and in some countries. and that's the bugaboo right now on kmil. and this hearing that senator sanders is having is a prelude to these drugs being price negotiated next year by medicaid. remember, the semiglutide drugs, re rebelisus, and ozempic were developed a year ago. this is to get medicaid to be more draconian in how they ultimately set those prices. one final point, novo got this drug approved before the end of the year, about seven years ago. i think many drug companies are looking at year-end approvals now, are going to stoart to pus those approvals into the subsequent year, because it buys them a whole another year from these price controls. >> it does, and you're not talking about patent protection. >> so they come up for price negotiations once they've been on the market for seven years, so why with on the market for seven years and one month if you

can be in the market for six years and 11 months. >> you'll see a lot of november, december, november drug approvals get pushed into the following year by the drugmakers. >> how much of this is novo nordisk is european company and they're going to come at this a little differently than an american company would item. >> i think that's some of it. lily probably has more relationships on capitol hill to keep david ricks out of the crosshairs here. but i think more of this is because congress knows this drug will be subject to price regulation, under the ira next year. and they're trying to put some advanced pressure on medicare to do a little bit more in terms of trying to bring that cost down. so that's what i think this is about. >> when you see senator sanders say that this pill costs $2 to make, why don't you sell it for $2, does he really believe that? do they know better? because these people lie. senator warren, when she comes on, she talks about kroger's profits. she knows full well that she

wasn't comparing apples and apples. and they demagogue it. they do it on purpose. >> he my really believe that. i think most people understand that you're pricing these drugs to recoup the is investment and the high cost of capital in this industry. when they say to me when i talk to them privately is the margins are still very high. this is still a very wealthy industry. we think you can lower the prices, reduce the margins, and you'll still have an incentive to invest in r&d. if you're running a multi-venture capital firm and look across your portfolio, in many cases, the returns look better in some of the other sectors. and that capital is very fluid and can get allocated away very quickly. you see what happened in med tech. venture capital has largely pulled out of medical device innovation, because the returns weren't there, the pricing was driven down. the approvals got harder. and that capital shifted into other markets. >> let me ask you about glp-1s more generally, which is it's possible that in success with these drugs, that they're going

t actually eliminate other drugs. people will not be talking statins the way -- >> everything. >> everything! alzheimer's drugs. >> diabetes. >> i say this because of the cascade effect on the rest of the pharmaceutical industry, in terms of their profits and other component parts. the question is, how soon -- you know, how much do you think of these drugs as super drugs? do you actually think that's true. and what is the risk -- by the way, a lot of people that are watching our broadcast -- i get e-mails all the time, should i be taking this stuff? what's going on? is there a risk of thyroid cancer people talk about. can you just speak more broadly about these things? >> look, there are risks in the labels, but these drugs have been on the market, these compounds have been on the market for a very long time. this is as old as the iphone. it was first introduced when the iphone was introduced. we understand the profile very well. at the higher doses over a prolonged period of times, we have less experience. those are the doses that are being achieved to experience the weight loss. but if you're properly indicated for these drugs, if you have a

high bmi and you have other comorbidities, these drugs are providing a substantial benefit in terms of cardiovascular risk reduction. >> what about the upper east side crowd, if you will, that if you know, if you look at the conversation of where these drugs are being sold, there's a huge concentration there. and i would actually imagine the bmis on the upper east side are actually lower than the rest of the country. >> i think you're perhaps overinfluenced by the microcosm in which you're circulating. i think the excessive utilization or the inappropriate utilization in the margin is truly on the margin. if you look at the average bmi when novo or lily reports of patients who are on those drugs, it's quite high. a lot of the excessive utilization is probably with the compounding drugs, which i have really concerns around. i don't think they're properly form formulated, you gain more of the risks and less of the benefits. but in terms of the branded drugs, while there is inappropriate utilization on the margin and i hear about and you hear about it, i think that's a

small portion of the overall market. >> the compounded, though, the fake ones of these drugs, that's a huge issue. and that's a risk, particularly for the people who are probably taking them. >> i think the fda is making a very big mistake allowing this to happen right now, probably because of the economic pressure on the agency to do that. because it's going to be very hard for them to go back now and revisit their compounding policy more broadly and crack down in the future on other drugs. but these drugs are carefully formulated to deliver a very constant dose of the active ingredient. that's why you derive the benefit, the weight loss benefit. you're not getting peaks and troughs, you're getting a constant exposure. i'm very skeptical that these compounders are developing these drugs in a way to deliver that constant exposure. people using those drugs are probably getting peaks and troughs, which means they're getting less of the benefits and more of the side effects, because they're getting high pulses of the drug when they take it and it's quick ly dissipating, not providing that level of exposure over a long period of time. >> thank you, appreciate it. great to see you, doctor. when we come back,

billionaire hedge fund titan and donald trump campaign adviser john paulson joins us for an extended interview on the menu markets, the fed, and the course of the 2024 election. stay tuned. you're watching "squawk box" and this is cnbc.

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welcome back to "squawk box." boeing making what it called its best and final offer to striking machinists, but those workers offered criticism in response. phil lebeau joins us with the latest. phil? >> andrew, they say it's the best and final offer, but having covered a number of strikes over the last 30 years, we know that it's not always the best and final offer. there's probably another one or two that are out there on the table. here's what boeing sent to the machinist rank and file yesterday. they did not negotiate this with the leadership of the machinists. they sent it directly to the workers. 30% wage hike compared to 25%, which was the first offer. they are now going to restore the annual bonus that wasn't in the first offer, doubling the

signing bonus to 6,000, increasing the 401(k) contribution. and the condition that boeing has put out there is you've got to vote to accept this or reject it by 11:59 pacific time on friday night. well, guess what the leadership of the union said. you didn't negotiate this with us. this doesn't hold any weight with us. they blasted the offer from boeing, issuing a statement, we contacted the company to demand they engage in either direct talks or a mediated discussion. they had mediation last week, by the way. the company has refused to meet for further discussion, therefore, we will not be voting on the 27th. there you go! looks like we have a strike that's going to be extended for a while. and that means there's further pressure on boeing's liquidity. it's already there and it's going to intensify, the longer this strike goes. they ended q2 with $12.6 billion. the key threshold that everybody says that they don't want to go below and the company has sort of alluded to this, $10 billion, which means, will there be a capital raise? more than a few analysts out

with notes today saying, look for them to raise anywhere between $10 billion and $12 billion, the longer this strike goes on. as we take a look at shares of boeing, we're going back against the beginning of the strike. not a surprise that we continue to see it slide a little bit lower. remember, their debt, more than $53 billion, and they are at risk of having to pay more for that debt with a credit rating downgrade, both of the credit rating agencies, fitch and moody's, they came out and said, this continues. we will downgrade them to junk. that's a possibility. so the pressure is there, financially, on boeing. and i do not think, at this stage, guise, i don't think this gets a vote from the machinists, although the leadership of the machinists have not been on the same page with the rank and file. we'll see what happens over the next couple of days. >> phil lebeau -- >> this is such a crazy -- i mean, this is a crazy situation. the new offer has a lot of what they were looking for, but it's not going to have the pension, and that seems like that's going to be the red line that nobody

is going to cross on either side. is that the biggest sticking point, phil? >> i don't think it's the biggest sticking point, becky. look, when i talk with the rank and file members when i've been out there in the puget sound area, the older members who once had the pension and then had it taken away, they want it restored. there's not a company out there in the u.s. that wants to put a pension back in. it's not good for a company. at the end of the day, it's a very cost-heavy thing for you to offer your employees. that's why there are fewer and fewer who do this. i think if they were to get north of 33, 34%, then i think they're in a ballpark where the rank and file might say, okay, we can accept this. >> we don't need boeing and junk. you know what, though, phil. we don't need these jets anymore, anyway, because we're not going to use anymore jet fuel, right? there are people that -- forget these jets, phil. they're just bad for the environment, anyway.

i think we can do without them. >> thank you, phil. let's get back to the broader markets right now. the futures this morning at this point are a little higher. we've bounced around quite a bit. dow futures up by about 50 points. joining right now is steven parker, he is head of specialized strategies at jpmorgan private bank. i've got to ask you about comments from jamie dimon this morning, because that's kind of rattling around in my head. he said the bond markets are priced for perfection. so is the stock market, at these kind of lofty levels. right at a time where we think there's going to be a soft landing. and that's like the cinderella-esque view of things. are you convinced that things are at lofty levels when you look at the stock market? >> we do they valuations are pretty full right now. that being said, we think that the macro environment, we're in an environment where growth is still pretty good, earnings are accelerating, inflation is coming down, and policy is getting easier. that should allow the corporate sector to continue to grow. that being said, we've moderated our expectation for what equity

markets can deliver over the next 12 months. we think there's a little bit of upside, but we've pulled a lot of that forward. we're up over 20% so far this year. but that doesn't mean that you need to take any sort of significant action to de-risk your portfolio. we think you should at normal levels of risk. >> what if things turn down and the fed says, we're only going to do 25. we're only going to do as much as the market as anticipated. we've already started this. >> we actually think that your view is we'll get 25 at each of the next two meetings for the rest of the year. we think that's a positive sign, because it indicates that the fed doesn't see recession on the horizon. >> that's what i mean. if the economy turns weaker, is the anticipation that the fed will fix everything by going as deep as it needs to? >> i think the fed will keep a very close eye, particularly on the labor market. that's their big priority now that inflation has eased. and if we do start seeing a trend where labor is beginning to weaken meaningfully, which we haven't seen yesterday, i think the fed would pivot. i think they will get more aggressive. i think ultimately, you'll get

somewhere to somewhere around 3 to 3.5% on the fed funds rate. >> how pivotal is this election in terms of what you see happening afterwards? is there a divergence, or dho yu think this will be business as usual no matter what the case is? >> i think politics are overrated in terms of their impacts on markets and trying to make any sort of meaningful changes to your portfolio is a really difficult game. you have to predict who's going to win. and you have to predict how markets are going to react. historically, it's been more about policy and not about party. but stocks have gotten up in republican scregimes, in democratic regimes and more importantly, it's an opportunity to stay disciplined, stick to a plan. the biggest risk is for clients who think about making drastic changes to their portfolios because of some anticipation around the election. that historically leads to bad outcomes. >> are you playing this in the traditional playbook of what you would do when the fed is cutting rates? are you looking at those same

stock plays or do you think this time is different? >> we think this time is a little bit different, mostly because of that starting point aren't valuations that you mentioned. a lot of times at the beginnings of a fed easing cycle, you want to own the more speculative names, the companies that aren't earnings profits, the smaller cap names. we think given where we are in the market cycle, given where valuations are, our playbook is more focused on quality, focused on higher-yielding stocks. we think there's an opportunity there, not only because they've lagged some of the more growth-oriented names, but also because that income gives you a little bit of a cushion if we do see some volatility in the near-term. >> steven, thank you. steven parker. coming up, house financial services chairman patrick mchenry is going to join us. and then we're goi tngo speak -- interview of the morning with hedge fund billionaire and trump campaign adviser john paulson. stay tuned. "squawk box" will be right back.

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s.e.c. chair gary genzler scheduled to testify later this morning in front of the house financial services committee. on the agenda could be everything from crypto regulation to climate disclosures. joining us now, republican congressman, patrick mchenry of north carolina. he's a chairman of the financial services committee. and where do you want it to go today, mr. chairman? >> well, the purpose of the hearing is to show what a post-genzler regime can look at the exchange and securities commission. and this is certainly the buildup of four years of mismanagement at the rogue agency, or active bad management at this rogue agency. what we want to do is to provide a clear idea of what it should look like, with a balance more towards capital formation than taking ad hoc action to sue, to sue people, and to make headlines. was to actually provide some level of clarity for investors. that's what we want in a

post-genzler regime. and that's what we hope to highlight in today's hearing. >> when is there going to be a post-genzler regime? >> we're going to find that out. we've got two presidential candidates. and we want to hear from them on these issues of capital formation, both for crypto, for market certainty. we don't know the harris approach. it could be the biden approach, since she is the vice president in this administration. we know the trump approach with the clayton regime was a very solid one at the s.e.c. and markets flourished. so we want to hear from the candidates on -- for their perspective on what the s.e.c. should be. and we have yet to hear that from the harris campaign. >> well, it sounds like it could be a contentious hearing, and it certainly -- this is from your side of the aisle, we're hearing it. i'm sure the other side of the aisle thinks that genzler has

done a phenomenal job. >> well, not all of them. in fact, we've had bipartisan opposition to many of his acts as chair of the s.e.c. we had in fit '21, our market structure bill for crypto, we had 71 democrats vote with all house republicans, two-thirds of the house voting in favor of this regime, which is a lark rebuke of his actions when it comes to crypto. i think it will be interesting to hear from both parties on today's hearing. and to see how that positions. it will be contentious, because we have the full securities and exchange commission. this is the third time that this has happened over the last 30 years, where we've had all five commissioners. so i think we're going to hear a divergence of opinions among these commissioners and hopefully one that balances towards capital formation, not genzler's actions. >> when i was introducing you, i said, it could range all the way to climate disclosure. what do people, what do democrats want the s.e.c. to do

about climate, whatever that means, climate disclosure? >> sure, what genzler proposed was for the s.e.c. to be the world's climate regulator. and to regulate public companies for a societal goal that should be debated on the hills -- on capitol hill, not for disclosures. and since there is not a single climate scientist or scientist over the securities and exchange commission, they proved themselves ill-equipped. i think what we have seen out of genzler, though, is that his actions have left the agency with less power rather than more, because of the arbitrary way that he's gone about it. climate's a great example, where the courts have rebuked the securities and exchange commission's approach and the genzler approach. >> you've heard that he might -- it might be the end of the

gensler regime and could be a new regime as treasury secretary for gary gensler. have you heard that? >> there's all sorts of rumors about what gensler wants. that's a great parlor game here in d.c. i think that's what a few progressive senators want out of gensler and out of a harris presidency. but we'll see what actually vice president harris says about this. if she says anything about it, which she currently hasn't. >> what do you make of what you're seeing -- we're trying to get some clarity on the economic tax plans from both candidates. i was being a little bit facetious saying that the uniparty might want this. because we are seeing some crossover between both sides. the latest -- i mean, what do you think a credit card interest rate caps. >> let's start with the economic -- i'm not for price setting, no matter who proposes

it. federal government price setting, i think, is not the right approach. but that would have to be voted on capitol hill, and that has not passed. and it's not passed even when democrats had super majorities in the house and the senate. so let's getback to tax policy, though. we know that president trump signed the tax cuts and jobs act and will extend it. we know that with certainty. we also know that president trump, his leadership pre-covid led to the strongest economy of my lifetime. what we don't know from here is what you will do on tax policy. we know two pieces of tax policy that she's proposed. we don't know what she's going to do with rates, at the highest level, the lowest level, or anywhere in between. is she going to extend the tax cuts like vice president biden did when he helped extend the bush tax cuts, in the obama administration? but we don't have any clarity from harris on what she would do. we have to assume that she'll do

what president biden said, and what she said four years ago, but we don't have real clarity on that at all. and i think this is what the american people deserve to know before they go and vote is, what the economic policy is of these two candidates. we know, clearly, what this is with president trump. his performance from the last administration. we know vice president harris and the current performance of the biden administration, which is more spending and inflation. and the american people have rejected that and don't like that. >> mr. chairman, thanks. we'll be -- don't make it too conte contentious. can't we all just get along? we're looking for a kinder, gentler approach. we've got 44 days. w are we going to make it? >> we'll make it, but i don't think it will be less contentious over the next 44 days. >> no, i think you're right. it's twitter's fault, i think. social media. it's somebody's fault. good to have you on today. thank you. >> great to be with you.

>> coming up, inside the amazon of south america. isn't that the amazon river? we're going to be talking about bidding up shares of this company quite a bit this year. and we are just a few minutes away from a big interview with hedge fund adviser john paulson. he's currently working as an adviser to president trump's campaign. stay tuned. much more of "squawk box" still to come. others: ichi, ni, san, shi... (1,2,3,4 . . ) (♪♪) (♪♪) you were made to chase your passions. we were made to put them in a package.

one of the world's largest ecommerce companies is still somewhat under the radar for many u.s. investors, but it's emerging as a top pick on wall street, as some search for tech opportunities beyond the magnificent 7. kate rooney is here with more on mercado libre. that's an interesting name, uh maybe one we'll hear a lot more about, kate. >> it's really not a name we talk about every day, so mercado libre is the argentinian ecommerce giant, sometimes referred to as the amazon or amazon.com of south america, and it's outperforming most of its american megacap tech peers and rivals this year.

mercadolibre is up about 64%. over the past year, you compare that to a roughly 50% rise for amazon and 30% or so for the s&p. sentiment on this name has been overwhelmingly bullish lately. about 90% of analysts who cover the stock have a buy rating. average price target bakes in about 8% upside from where it's trading, at least this week. no sale ratings, and margin expansion has really been the big and consistent theme and reason for a lot of the optimism. the company was founded back in 1999 by its current ceo. now a $100 billion company. it dominates online sales in argentina, brazil, mexico, chile. a lot of other companies, making up roughly half of online sales in south america. that's according to emarketinger. also as the online payment side of the business makes up about half of the business. i did speak to galparin about the opportunity. he said, despite the volatility and investor skepticism over the years, there's still a lot of growth to be nofound in latin.

>> when you look at the penetration of ecommerce in latin america, it's still quite low compared to the u.s. or europe or asia, when you look at the penetration of financial services in the region, roughly after half of the population is unbanked or underbanked. it's an enormous opportunity for us. >> i did also ask about amazon expanding into their turf, especially in mexico. he says that they've been fighting off competition from the early dotcom days. it used to be more from ebay. also noted asian players like shein moving into lat-am. >> this company being around since 1999, that's a pretty long runway that they've had, a long existence, long history. is it wall street just kind of figuring out what's happening there? is it the development of their markets? what held them back initially? was it the market was a lot tougher to develop because of those reasons that he just laid

out, some of the problems there? it took a lot longer. so one of the opportunities for a lot of these tech companies is there's not a lot of existing infrastructure. if you look at new bank, another example, the bank that operates in brazil, they were able to sort of leapfrog some of the existing infrastructure. mercado libre did the same thing starting in argentina. gal prin told me, it took a lot longer to build the infrastructure in the same way that amazon was able to spin up quickly. took longer, but they've seen pretty consistent growth since founding in 1999. one thing that is holding them back would be some of the skepticism, some of the volatility in latin america, that is sort of baked into the stock price. >> okay, ke.at thank you! see you later. okay, coming up right after this, hedge fund billionaire and trump campaign adviser john paulson will join us right after the break. stay tuned. "squawk box" returns after this. , self-detecting, and self-healing.

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(vo) now, every phone can be the new iphone 16 pro at verizon. just trade in any phone in any condition and get the iphone 16 pro, on us. only on verizon. welcome back to "squawk box." our next guest is billionaire hedge fund titan john paulson. he joins us in his first "squawk box" appearance ever. john is the president and founder of paulson companies and an adviser to former president trump's presidential campaign. and we're thrilled to have you on the broadcast this morning. thanks for joining us, john. >> hey, good morning. glad to be ere. >> there's about a million things tube, including the markets and the fed, but i want to start with this election. and i actually want to start with a headline that was made just yesterday by former president trump, because i think we're all trying to understand his plans as they relate to

tariffs. i'm sure you saw that one of the things that he said was that he plans to put a 200% tariff on john deere tractors if, in fact, they were to move them and manufacture them in mexico as opposed to here in the u.s. obviously, he has a broader plan around tariffs, as well. what do you make around -- about this tariff plan? a lot of economists have questioned the level of tariffs that he would put on. i would also say, other business executives have. and i would say just yesterday, mark cuban in reaction to all of this, said that he said thought that the plan was insane, and a good way to destroy a legendary american company. so, as an investor, and somebody who's on trump's side, what do you think of this? >> yeah, i think trump's tariff plans are well founded. when you look at the economists, they like the concept of free trade. but we don't live in a free trade world.

the u.s. has minimal barriers to import into the u.s., but we face substantial, both financial, tariff, and non-tariff barriers when we try to export. so as a result, in 2022, we did $1.2 trillion merchandise trade deficit. we've lost thousands of factories, millions of jobs to foreigners because of the unfair trade competition. so what trump wants to do is create an american manufacturing powerhouse. and using tariffs as a way to level the playing field. so in the case of deere, we've seen -- we now have a merchandise trade deficit of $150 billion, with mexico. many u.s. factories are closing u.s. plants, relocating to mexico, taking advantage of the cheap labor, and importing the goods duty-free back in the u.s. what does that do for america?

so by putting tariffs -- using tariffs strategically, we can strengthen american manufacturing and increase realm wages for american workers. >> but what do you think of deere's, for example, comment last night, which was to point people to the idea that there are certain types of manufacturing that they believe may have even lower value add, and that they want to sort of move up the chain. they want that to happen in the united states. they believe that the other manufacturing should happen elsewhere. and that it would hurt ultimately, the company if they weren't able to do it this way. >> well, when you look at overall, the policies, what you see is a haollowed out american manufacturing base. and we need to protect american jobs and protect american manufacturing. so the policies we have now are not leading to that outcome.

we can't have american producers close american factories and offshoring. july had another record merchandise trade deficit. so trump's plan is to bring jobs back to america, bring manufacturing back to america, create incentives to produce in america, and that will result in more jobs and higher wages for americans. >> and you don't think it turned into a tariff war? i ask, because we've got e-mails from viewers. some farmers in the midwest who have said, look, what they worry about is actually that other countries are going to say, well, we don't want your exports, or we're going to tariff your exports. it so creates this sort of a race either to the bottom or to the top, in terms of cost. >> yeah, that's the problem we have now. they've put in tariffs and non-tariff barriers for us. and we've done nothing about it. it's a one-way street. and we have to make it a two-way

street. and we have to protect american manufacturers, the same way foreigners are protecting their domestic markets. >> we've also talked a lot about taxes on this broadcast, including not taxing tips. and we've had a number of interesting conversations with folks around the table. and i'm curious where you land on that. and one of the things that people say is, you know, what about a teacher or a nurse or somebody who is not paid an extraordinary amount of money, but does not get their pay in the form of tips. and yet, a waiter or a taxi driver or somebody else who would be getting their income in the form of tips, maybe the exact same amount of money, would not be taxed in the same way. >> yeah, i think the trump overall tax plan is to extend the very successful tax cuts he implemented in 2017 and to make them permanent. and his tax policy reduced taxes

for all americans, and he wants to continue with that policy. the proposals that he made today protect those that are having the most trouble meeting expenses and the economy. and his proposals allow the american workers to keep more of their hard-earned earnings. to give an example. under trump, real wages grew 7.7%. under biden, they've declined 2.1%. so the american worker is the most vulnerable. so the tax policies that he arcticlated, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on social security, they benefit the people that need the help the most, to restore their income, so they can meet the higher cost of living today. >> john, what do you think of just the larger issue of debt and deficits, and what some people are describing as a campaign, on both sides, by the

way, that is a great giveaway. that every week, we hear about a new plan to cut taxes or things of that nature. but there doesn't seem to be on the other side of it, a plan to pay for it all. >> yeah, i think that when you look at the record, the trump record has been very responsible, under his administration, we only have 1.9% inflation. under biden, it's been 5 point-some percent. the deficit under biden is $2 trillion. i think the trump team does have an effort to bring down the deficit, bring down inflation, and bring down interest rates. i'll give you two examples. one is to reduce spending. and he's been very clear, he wants to eliminate the green new deal. and economists estimate that will cost $1.2 trillion in spending, as it's implemented over future years. he also has been clear, he doesn't want to give any tax --

federal tax benefits to illegal immigrants. that will also save money. and lastly, we can't forget elon musk. he's probably the most brilliant man in america. he's agreed to head an energy efficient commission to bring down the cost of government. those are three ways to bring down spending. on the revenue side, if we had an average 15% tariff strategically placed, that would produce on our $3 trillion of merchandise imports, about $450 billion in annual revenue. on the other side, if we have higher growth, that will also lead to more revenue. >> john, two pieces. one is the green new deal never passed in a meaningful way. >> are you talking about the -- >> i think your talking about what they renamed as the -- without a hint of irony, john, they renamed it the inflation reduction act. is that which one you're talking

about? >> exactly. >> biden and harris did sponsor the bigger green new deal, but that's not what's law right ow. >> as it relates to the tariffs, you talked about strategic using the tariffs, at least our understanding of it, the way these tariffs have been scored by economists is a broad tariff plan, not necessarily one that looks by an industry or industry or item by item. and one of the reasons people say, that could be a tax on the american public is there are industries unfortunately, which we, the american public, are not in manufacturing yet, and so the question is, yes, it would be great to induce more folks to manufacture here, but the time it may take to actually get that to work in a meaningful way is going to have at least a short-term cost, if not a longer-term cost, right? >> yes, so i think the 10% is an average tariff. tariffs will be allocated strategically. first to industries that are essential for our american industrial base and for a

defense industry. we can't buy critical minerals from potential adversaries. second, we have to level the playing field in industry that we haven't had fair competition. and using tariffs will restore a level playing field. >> well, yesterday, you leveled it at john deere, too. that was -- are we going to see one-offs. you're talking about a -- >> that would be an example -- that would be targeted. we want to keep american companies manufacturing in the u.s. and if they're going to close u.s. factories, to relocate abroad, particularly in mexico, take advantage of their cheap labor, fire american workers. that's not a policy that trump wants to support. >> some of it could be inflationary, if it's not done carefully. the other thing, we have so much disagreement on, just in the

economic literature is who pays tariffs. and when that criticism is levied that it's the american consumer, not china or somebody else that's going to pay the $450 billion, and it's going to be through higher prices and that's going to cause inflation, how do you counter that? it's an effective argument they use. they just roll -- there's an entire group of economists and voters who roll their eyes when you think that you can tax other countries instead of just taxing american consumers with tariffs. >> yeah, i would roll the eyes the other way. when you look at what's happening, china is growing maybe three times as fast as we are. they're gaining jobs, their economy is growing, while our economy is stuck in stagnation. and we're losing jobs. so the -- our trade policy has not benefited american workers. >> john, i have a different question, which is, you know,

some people who are watching this broadcast are looking at the policies of former president trump and they're comparing them on paper to the policies of vice president harris. but then there's this other question that looms over boeft those pieces of paper, if you will, and some people say, you shouldn't even look at the policies themselves. look at th themselves. look at the person and look at the character of that person. this is barry diller, i'm sure you know, is on the other side of you on this, as his view of donald trump. he commented on an interview you gave. he said, he, meaning you, went on unsensibly for 25 minutes. he never talked about the character, the person. not a world about that. says a lot of crazy things, but doesn't act crazy. what he actually did and what others do, is they refuse to talk about the character of the person and distance their talk from this person's policies and adjust on policy, not on the character of what is arguably a rotten person.

what do you think of that? >> you know, i don't agree with that. but this is not a race about character. this is not a race about personality. trump, when he was president, we had strong growth, low inflation, real wages grew. and we had peace around the world. i think he's proven to be a very effective leader. i would look at his record and his policies in terms of choosing the candidate. >> in terms of the character, you can go back and look at the long list of people that work with him, who no longer will vote for him. who have called him all sorts of nasty names, including people very high up that have defended this country. i'm curious how you think about that and how you think about the january 6th piece of this. there's ceos right now, who are even planning for what the aftermath of this election looks like, not just for their

businesses, but actually thinking to themselves, you know, what happens if a harris wins and former president trump says it's not a real win and sort of angst and craziness that could ensue. >> yeah. i don't think anyone should have angst. he's already been president for four years. we have a very good track record of what his presidency will look like. i think if president trump is elected and we implement his policies, we'll have an economic boom. we'll have a reburirth of amerin re realization. we'll have a stronger economy that everyone benefits. >> a ceo said to me yesterday, former president trump is, quote, high beta versus low beta. and his argument was that if you look at president trump, he said, it could end up and be very, very goo on one end or

could be absolutely horrific and the end of democracy on the other. this person said, with harris, it might be good to okay or marginally to bad to okay. but those are two distinctive things. one is more risky than the other. do you not see it that way? >> absolutely not. i'll go back to repeating. we had four years under trump. it was a low-risk environment. we had economic growth. rising wages. low inflation, and peace around the world. we've had almost the opposite of that under the biden/harris administration. in terms of democracy, the republicans are asking for voter integrity. they want free and fair elections. so, i think democracy will be very safe under the trump administration. >> what do you say the comments that vice president pence made at the time or has made since?

talking about democracy. talking about the idea that former president wanted to have him hung or didn't want to certify the election. >> i'm not familiar with vice president pence's comments. >> one thing -- i don't know, one thing i might answer, if i went back and literally looked at ten former positions of vice president harris, it absolutely curls your turn -- curls your toes. you can say she is involved in something. but getting rid of i.c.e. making it not a criminal offense to cross the border and stay in the united states without papers, to abolishing i.c.e. completely. go through the list, john. if you want to talk about a possible horrific future, you have four years of trump you know exactly what happened. and then, you have her on record

saying these things that no longer she became the replacement to joe biden. it wouldn't be hard for me to bring up, you know what happened on january 6th, a fight but make it peaceful. now, the narrative is that -- >> i think vice president pence will disagree with you. >> vice president pence. rex tillerson will disagree. >> you brought up mark cuban and barry diller. >> i'm bringing up names of people -- >> i'll bring up john paulson and jay clayton and gary cohn and dozens of others. you can't cherry-pick lifetime democrats that have tds. >> i don't think john cut it off. >> john's like, i'm getting the hell out of here. >> the window was probably 55. >> there were 30 or 40 people who have said -- >> others that didn't.

>> that worked for him, that will not -- >> i'm not saying that. >> you're tds'ing. >> i'm not. >> we understand that. there's half the country that's litigated what you're saying and doesn't agree. >> and half the country that doesn't. if you have a supporter on you have to ask these questions and why they think what they think about him because there's a group of people who look at this and don't understand it. part of what i -- by the way, am trying to do, i want to understand why people think what they think. >> you made that clear when we have someone who supports trump. i understand that. the character issue. you ask, as a human being, how can -- >> we talk to -- >> as a human being, how can you vote for trump? >> i discussed with senator kuhns. if voters are going to the ballot box.

>> to come back to the character issues again and again. we had presidents that may not be the perfect character. we've had bill clinton, for two terms. we had -- go through -- >> but then, there's a question. if -- >> if a lot of it is a mainstream media narrative that you will put forth, as a -- >> if you were a board of directors, the question is, would you hire this person. >> we have plenty of board of directors, more corporate types, secretly would rather have trump because of his policies. >> i think we should find out about that. we should talk to more ceos and whether they will say that publicly. why wouldn't they say that publicly, by the way? that's interesting. if they believed it and they thought this was a good person of good character, they should be out there saying it. >> they have companies -- they are like michael jordan, republicans have secrets, too. you don't want to take -- >> okay. let's get back to john. john, welcome back.

>> i'm still here. >> comment? >> i heard your conversation. i think this is about coming back to american core values we want safe streets and american manufacturing powerhouse we want low energy costs low utility costs. we want growth and prosperity for all americans. and troop has that plan. it's a common-sense plan it's simple. if given the opportunity to implement, i think all americans will be better off >> you're ignoring the whole -- you heard the other side the character, the -- i mean, tds is a short-term word for what it is. >> let me go back to character. trump cares about the average american. he shows up to funerals when

people are killed. he's a warm -- he's humorous. above all, he cares about america and americans. that resonates with a lot of people. i would disagree on how other people view him. i think he would be a great president. and a great president for all americans. >> we only have 30 seconds. i have one market question as an investor. we had an interest rate cut that is expected more cuts. where are you on equities right now in terms of how you're thinking about this marketplace? >> as i said before, it depends on the outcome of the election. if harris is elected and she increases corporate taxes and capital gain taxes and taxes unrealized gains, i would be negative on the outlook for equities. if trump is elected, i think all systems go. we would have a bullish -- >> are you surprised where the

equity markets are right now then? >> not necessarily. i think there's a lot of fluff. if something comes to a change the tax policy or the direction of the economy, i think the markets would be vulnerable. >> john, we very much appreciate your time this morning. we look forward to talking to you again, i hope, very, very soon. thank you very much. we'll talk to you again. make sure you join us tomorrow. "squawk on the street" begins right now. good tuesday morning. i'm david faber with sara eisen and bob pisani. carl is on assignment and jim has a well-earned day off. let's look at futures before we start trading a half-hour from now. we're set up what appears to be a higher open. that gets us to the road