michel michelle caruso-cabrera is here.a mess. >> if you were planning to travel in new england, you probably aren't. take a look at the cancellation list. 4300 flights already canceled and those supposed to take off, 6600 delayed. that could be across the country because of the ripple effect that happens when one plane can't leave from one hub to the other. it's going to be pretty tough in you're trying to get out there. being on the roads is going to be pretty difficult as well. >> speaking of air travel, a lot of questions about the potential impact of this impending merger between american airlines and u.s. airways. do we have a sense of what it might be for ticket prices? >> it's debatable. when you have fewer companies providing service, in theory, there's less competition and that could mean higher prices. the reason why that happens is because countries are creating higher prices. they want less supply out there. however, these two companies don't necessarily have a lot of overlapping routes so they wouldn't necessa

let's get to michelle caruso-cabrera in rome.t's the very latest on what's happening on the political scene. michelle. >> reporter: well, it's still incredibly confusing, mandy. we don't have any conclusions yet on whether or not there's going to be a government formed. the situation is so problematic, led to a deep selloff in italian markets and debt. ben bernanke was asked about it because the situation was so problematic. he made clear from his answers he had to spend time figuring out positions of political parties here, which i can tell from experience is a thankless and time consuming thing. he was at least happy about the fact that none of the parties here are endorsing leaving the euro. he reacquainted himself with level of u.s. bank exposure to italian debt in the hypothetical case in some extreme scenario italy couldn't pay it all back, a writedown, doesn't think it will pose systemic risk in the united states. meantime here political theatrics continue. essentially a runoff or tie between three different parties. the l

power rundown with michelle caruso-cabrera and amin.ew york times" reporting chinese military playing, surprise surprise, big role in recent hacking attacks on u.s. companies. how concerned should we be? this feels like a national security threat frankly. >> absolutely. when you talk to security companies in washington, this is a real threat to economic dominance in the world. so much data stolen out of u.s. companies at the ter, terabyte. it was allegedly stolen from their american counter-parts. that's something they need to be worried about. >> i agree with everything he just said. i would add the following. i heard people on tv when the story broke and people on twitter saying, well, the u.s. hacks china as well. this is different. this is the chinese military helping their state-run organizations steal things like blueprints, pricing documents, business plans, manufacturing processes. i do not believe that our u.s. government is helping the likes of ge and 3m and everybody else steal from the chinese. it's not equivalent, asymmetri

cnbc's michelle caruso cabrera is here with what's moving your money.tment says this move could be bad for beer drinkers. >> there's a reason they say that. as you say, the maker of budweiser wants to buy corona. there's only two big beer makers in the united states, the guys who make budweiser and coors. and what the doj found, either one of those companies raises prices, the other tends to follow suit. but not the maker of corona. even though they're a distant third when it comes to market share in the united states. and because of that, the big guys don't tend to raise prices as often. they fear that if one of the big guys gobbles up corona, that pressure to keep prices lower will go away. and remember, one of the most important things about the u.s. economy, which makes it still the biggest in the world and relatively the strongest, even considering a recent weakness, we have intense amounts of competition. our consumers have many, many choices and keeps our prices lower. it's good for us. that's the rationale from department of justice. >> of cours

michelle caruso-cabrera will join us with the latest there. but a strong dollar and the 10-year yield down sharply in terms of getting out of its trading rage. what's going on? >> absolutely. it's all the technicians are talking about. we're in the high 180s right now. i saw 186 briefly. let's put it this way. in the last 22 trading sessions on a closing yield basis we've been closing between 195 and 202. we have now broken through the seven-basis point closing range to the downside. whether you look at the dollar/yen, or dollar index, we have been mostly the beneficiaries even though the yen has benefitted a little today as well. and one issue that's big down here is we've now been able to isolate what impact the eurozone is having on our interest rates. the funding issues that have corrected since july, maybe we're more responsible for the year-end ramp up in rates because now we've isolated and see yields going down. one other thing. commodities. lumber today, five days down. it's one of the biggest five-day reversals in lumber in a year an

joining me now, cnbc chief international correspondent michelle caruso cabrera and laffer. i want to ask you about this whole business. government spending on defense really collapsed and helped bring down yesterday's gdp. >> yes, it did. >> so all the liberals are saying see, we told you so, if you cut spending, you're going to ruin the economy. do you believe that? >> no, not at all. government spending is taxation. milton always said it. the government redistributes resources. you can see it really clearly. two-person world, farmer a and farmer b, if farmer b gets unemployment benefits, who do you think pays for them, farmer a? you know, government spending is taxation. the reason we have the great recession is because of the government spending, not in spite of it. >> follow-up. it would be bullish for economic growth. >> yes, it would. >> but this is the argument i get. it shows up as a negative in the gdp accounts. at least some of it. >> you're right. >> so what do you do? do you just go on ahead and cut government spending? and let the gdp accounts do what they're g

let's get straight to michelle crewsa ka brcrewso /* -- michel caruso-cabrera. >> if you're an italiane for a comedian, media tycoon, professor or career politician. two of the leading candidates have criminal convictions, including silvio buerlusconi. the second contender also with a criminal record is a comedian who traferses the country in a camper and conducts massive rallies. he had 90% people at a rally in milan earlier this week. we are showing you the video of that. this is incred ill. despite the fact he will not be on italian tv. he hates italian journalists. he will not grant them interviews. he is foul-mouthed. when he speaks to the crowd it is laced with obscenities and they love it. he has skyrocketed in the polls. he was in third place. people think he might come in second place. he does grant interviews to foreign media and he did speak with cnbc europe. take a listen to this soundbite. he has a slight accent but he described his movement as u taupic realism. >> it is a movement of civility. in the future. it is a dream a utopic realist. an epidemic. >> it is an epidemi

michelle caruso-cabrera here with the latest. >> the first elections in italy since the first financialt depositly need to do in order to keep the financial system stable. the answer is live next on the le bel live from rome. 's number? bring it up to 90 decatherms. how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online. attention on site, attention on site. now starting unit nine. some of the world's cleanest gas turbines are now powering some of america's biggest cities. siemens. answers. [ male announcer ] to hold a patent that has changed the modern world... would define you as an innovator. to hold more than one patent of this caliber... would define you as a true leader. ♪ to hold over 80,000... well that would make you... the creators of the 2013 mercedes-benz e-class... quite possibly the most advanced luxury sedan ever. see your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for exceptional offers through mercedes-benz financial services. >>> welcome back. mary thompson is stepping in now with some breaking news on that fight between greenlight capital and apple. mary. >> reporter: that's right

we'll get to michelle caruso-cabrera over in italy in a bit.the next government? we'll see but that possibility is what's been pressuring the market. you see the s&p turnaround. the dow only 100 points from an all-time high now negative on the session. nasdaq eking out a gain of almost .2%. there's a look at barnes & noble. their shares are up as a result of barnes & noble's company's board saying it received a notice from the founder, largest shareholder at about 30%. he plans to propose -- again, he hasn't actually made the proposal but he does plan to propose to buy all of the assets of the company's retail business. that would essentially be at stores and barnes&noble.com. >>> moving on to home builders. help rebuilding efforts after super storm sandy. earnings and revenue exceeded expectations. the home retailer's outlook is a bit of a disappointment. the stock kind of doing more of a flat-line at this point. >>> results have been trickling in from italy's elections. i want to get now to what has been moving this market. chief internationa

michelle caruso-cabrera is actually on her way to the gulf as we speak.he will have reaction from passengers all day tomorrow right here on cnbc. >>> it's almost friday, folks. the dow losing ground for the second week running so far this week. the nasdaq, s&p 500 flirting with what could be their first negative weeks of the year. josh lipton is running through today's winners and losers. over to you, josh. >> winners an laggards in today's session starting with the s&p 500. the big winner constellation brands rocketing up, raising a bid to buy the u.s. assets of brewer group modelo and an attempt to apiece regulators for the haush haush/imbey v deal. berkshire hathaway teaming up with 3g capital to buy heinz and in the red today, century link, the land lied provider, cutting its dividend by 26%. whole foods also having a down day. the supermarket chain forecasting weaker sales and margins for the rest of 2013. as for the dow, winners on the day include alcoa and banks like jorg anne which edged higher. the worst per former among the blue chips, general m

let's get to michelle caruso cabrera from rome. get the u.s. copy elections italian style. it's hilarious. i love the comedian who got twice as many votes@as monti. monti wanted austerity. we don't like it here, either. then berlusconi, 76 years old, they're saying it's not necessarily that he's alive. it's maybe he's undead. they have a great piece with a lot of key points, but thank god we sent you over there, even though, you know, you like going over there, anyway, but it's nice that you're there for this, michelle. what can you tell us? >> yeah. what we have this morning is complete and total gridlock, stalemate, there was 130e6d to away clear outcome from this election. there were numerous reports out this morning highlighting what happened here. let me give you one example of what citi wrote, for example. shock waves across the market. this is what happens when the worst case comes through. high political uncertainty is negative for investments in italy. so this is quite bad. remember, this is a parliamentary system. so even though someone yesterday got the most vote

art hogan, michelle caruso-cabre caruso-cabrera, along with mr. shactman. let me go to art. bullish or bearish? there's a debate. some people think the sequester will be terrible for the market, others think it would be good. >> spending cuts are spending cuts. whether we decide to make surgical spending cuts and actually start cut beiting spen or whether it's forced on us, it's a positive. no two ways around it. either way you slice it, it won't be bullish while we watch the gldrama going on in washington. but at the end of the day, we'll cut spending. >> $85 billion is the number for 2013. $3.8 trillion is the size of expected spending in 2013. why is that such a big deal? >> i asked the very same question. we spend $100 billion more per month than we bring in and they're talking about cutting spending of $85 billion over the next 11 months? that's a big deal? it's not at all. i would argue it's not big enough. if it were even bigger, it would be better for the markets. >> i was at a cocktail party a week ago with a very distinguished republican senator and i was urging th

michelle caruso-cabrera is on location to tell us what's happening. al cruise lines confirming to reporters that one of the buses that they hired to move passengers from mobile to new orleans broke down on the way and they had some stranded passengers until they got a new motor coach. they had to hire 100 of them to move the passengers. they didn't want them to spend the night in mobile. the last update, they moved the ship. we're now over in the dry dock area where the repairs are going to begin. this is the shipyard where they will do a lot of work on the ship to try to get it back float. we assume they cancelled 14 cruises thus far. let's see if there will be any more beyond that. one of the reasons that cnbc is covering this not just because carnival has publicly traded but cruise is a huge business. if i show you some numbers. the number of people in north america taking cruises back in 2008 was only 7.2 million. in 2013 they expect that to be 17.6 million. that is more than double in five years. north americans, in other words americans and canad

let's go to italy for the latest on the ground from our own michelle caruso-cabrera. michelle? >> reporter: we saw similar turnaround in the euro, in the italian stock market and also in the italian ten-year as well. when the numbers first came out when the polls were closing it looked like this election was going to go exactly as the markets expected with the center left leading. then about an hour into the process, all of that washed away. tudly it looked like silvio berlusconi was resurging with the central right party and as a result the markets got very nervous. it looks like we could have a hung parliament. it's now gotten to the point where one leading member of the left says that in fact italians may have to vote again this election could be that inconclusive. that is problematic. the markets here wanted stability. when people went to the polls yesterday and today it was a very serious choice that everyone was making. but clearly this country is very divided. but what the markets want is a team in place that's likely going to be around for a while and that can push thro

michelle caruso-cabrera. in for sue and tyler. apple ceo tim cook making big headlines. the fight with hedge fund manager david einhorn and cannibalization of the company's product. more on that fallout. >> also mead china factor, las vegas rolling out red carpet for chinese new year tourist, which casino stock stands to win big. >> "sports illustrated" swimsuit edition hits news stands today. i bet you already knew that. supermodel kate upton on the cover for the second year running. she's going to join us live here on "power lunch." we don't want to miss that. >> in the meantime, let's check the markets. we have dow 14,000 and climbing as things stand at the moment, apple is weighing on the tech sector. we'll come to that in a moment. kenny pick ari joins us as -- >> director of relations. >> cnbc contributor. maybe pushing it. what levels are we eyeing now. >> 1525 on the s&p is what they are looking at. you can feel they just want to take it there. >> five points away. >> five points away. actually four points away. not a lot of volume but feel the grind going in fro

michelle caruso-cabrera is covering the story for us and she's live in rome. michelle. >> reporter: deep confusion here in italy, sue. it's led to deep uncertainty in the financial markets across europe. the outcome of the elections were so inconclusive, not a single party got enough votes in order to control a majority and get anything done. this is a problem not just for italy but for all of the continent because now the leadership in brussels and european union has to wonder as they watch more and more populations reject all of the methods they think need to be implemented in order to change the economies of europe, whether or not they are going to be able to get anything done. additionally what's happened is interest rates of problematic companies have started to rise dramatically based on what's happened in italy. italian interest rates raised sharply yesterday and today. this is a problem because italy has so much debt. the country hasn't grown since the mid 1990s. their debt is going up. their revenue is not. their tax revenue is climbing. it's raised qu

we start with michelle caruso-cabrera in rome. >> tyler, the italian election is not turning out as marketticipants had hoped. they expected at this point we would have conclusive results out of the i tal yn election. we do not have conclusive results at this point and it is possible that italians may have to vote again for a new prime minister if we don't get an answer in this round. here's what the markets thought would happen. they thought a guy named louigi berosoni, who most americans haven't heard of, would win. and that silvio burr burr le /*y scony would come in 1ekd. he may not have any seats in the government. the mario monti part is crucial because he was supposed to team up with the first guy, louigi, to form a government. that is not the plan, that not happening. what happened in the next 24 hours is impossible to know. what is truly i amazing about this is silvio, many thought he would never come back, this is the guy with numerous sex scandals, tax evasion, he's been convicted four times. he wants to be in power partly so that he doesn't have to go to prison. take a look at

michelle caruso-cabrera joins us live from mobile. ot some already new rules in place for new ships, more bags or something, that would have prevented this fiasco, right? >> so this ship behind me that you see was built in 1999. there's a new rule that said any ship constructed after july 1st of 2010 must have a redundant, separate electrical system that can power the propulsion system of any cruise ship. so what happened on this ship, in theory, will not happen on future ships. this was put in place by the u.n. organization that oversees safety on the high seas. because they knew that this was going to be increasingly, perhaps, an issue, if you have a fire in the engine room, as we've seen several times now, and it ends up shutting down the entire ship. >> all right. let's go now talk to someone who knows a little bit more on this on the "squawk" news line bob kunkle, president of alternative maritime technologies and technical adviser from midocean tanker company and that sounds like a pretty good idea just hearing it bob it would be

she does have a strut, michelle caruso-cabrera does. i will say that for sure.e nfl says that is not the case, she doesn't cause it. but if there was a power surge and it sucked up energy and then it was gone, maybe there was something to it. but the nfl, as of an hour ago, said she did not have anything to do with it. >> i thought it was beautiful, camera work was just amazing. it was the cam ro work i was paying attention to. sue, help me. >> i'm sure 2 was, ty, absolutely. >> let's talk about clor ox, shall we? strong quarter for that company. stock at historic highs. soundly beating estimates because the severe flu season boosting sales of disinfectant wipes. stock up about 1 1/3 percent. clor ox's ceo will be on here on cnbc. >> and. man behind the broadway hit "the lion king." car running like new? you ask a ford customer. when they tell you that you need your oil changed you got to bring it in. if your tires need to be rotated, you have to get that done as well. jackie, tell me why somebody should bring they're car here to the ford dealership for service

michelle caruso-cabrera is in rome with the latest details on that story. michelle? still political gridlock in italy, and that drove the country's interest rates even higher, pushing the ten-year yield above 5%. that was exacerbated with moody's saying the country is at risk of a downgrade because of the uncertain elections on monday and a comedian candidate saying he won't form a coalition with the other party and went on to insult another candidate calling him a political stalker making indecent proposal and that he's among the talking debt and a diplomatic row in europe over the situation here. a german candidate called two of the candidates here clowns, and even saying that former prime minister berlusconi was the clown with the boost of testosterone. that did not sit well with italian leadership. guys, back to you. >> thanks, michelle. >> so, it's a bit of a mess, but yet it's having no impact whatsoever today, as art cashin passed us some information as we head on the close imbalances. looks like a buy imball. >> not much. >> very small to the high side. >> se

. >>> time for business before the bell with michelle caruso-cabrera. ng standard & poor's, mika, for a lot of these products that they rated back during the bubble saying that when s&p said a lot of these products had subprime mortgages in them, they weren't being objective about it. they were rating them because they wanted a better market share. they were doing it for profitability reasons and not necessarily for the core of what they are supposed to do, which is to tell you whether or not something is a good investment or not. s&p says it's absolutely not true. they've wrapped themselves in the first amendment. this is going to be interesting. they've only gone after s&p. even though there were other companies that rated those same products with the same aaa ratings. >> really? >> yeah. a lot of people are wondering if it's because standard & poor's downgraded the united states so they are first to downgrade the credit rating of the u.s. >> elevator music. it's called musak, but maybe not for long? >> muzak. they are changing the name of the company

michelle caruso-cabrera is on her way to the gulf coast as we speak. she will have reaction from passengers all day tomorrow right here on cnbc. >> meanwhile, we're in the final stretch of trading, 35 minutes before the closing bell sounds. a market that's trying to come back here. nasdaq and s&p positive. dow jones industrial average looks like it's about to go positive. down just about a point and a half. >> we will see. meantime, pepsi reporting strong earnings today, but arch rival coke has been losing some fizz lately. when we come back we'll tell you which stock may be the better bet to win the soda wars. >> speaking of sodas, first new york mayor michael bloomberg banned super-sized sugary drink and now he wants to do the same with styrofoam cups, the cups you drink soda out of. that and a lot more next. you ready? we wanna be our brother's keeper. what's number two we wanna do? bring it up to 90 decatherms. how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online. attention on site, attention on site. now starting unit nine. some of the world's cle

we want to go to rome now where we find our own michelle caruso-cabrera.porter: because they owe the world so much money, carl. italy's the third most indebted country in the world after the u.s. and japan. 1.9 trillion euros to banks, to investors everywhere. and this election could be so inconclusive that the reforms here could stall. that worries investors that maybe they're not going to generate enough tax revenue over the coming years in order to pay back those debts. let's show you why this is so inconclusive. there are four candidates here in italy. two of them have criminal convictions. we put them on the screen in a particular order. luigi bersani is in first place. if you're a union member in italy, he is your guy. second place, the incomparable silvio berlusconi making an incredible comeback, even though he's faced convictions, sex scandals, et cetera. but he's still an incredibly deft politician and much loved by a certain part of the italian population. in third place, beppe grillo. and mario monti, the current premier, he is in fourth place e

michelle caruso cabrera will be joining us from rome. wheat find out why this election matters to the global markets. michelle. >> hey there, andrew. yes, two of the leading candidates are convicted criminals. only in italy. it makes the u.s. congress look like a bunch of boy scouts and girl scouts. why it matters to investors, coming up right after the break. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro. executor of efficiency. you can spot an amateur from a mile away... while going shoeless and metal-free in seconds. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle...and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. now this...will work. [ male announcer ] just like you, business pro. just like you. go national. go like a pro. >>> back now with your traveler's check. the number one business travel must-have inspect free wie fee. two-thirds of those surveyed would like to see free wi-fi become standard this year. >>> welcome back, everybody. take a look. the u.s. equit

julia joins us from milan and michelle caruso cabrera joins us from rome. it's great to see you. great to see you, as well. first out to rome, michelle, because i love this quote from paul donovan. is says ancient rome may have managed its voting in the. and in the modern day it takes two days of polling. >> there's so little clarity about what the outcome is going to be at what is one of the most important times in the history of italy because of the weakness in the economy, the worst since world war ii. so two days of elections already the markets are extremely nervo nervous. they may be rallying today, but the lead headline in the major business paper is the fact that the markets in milan fell dramatically yesterday, nervousness about what the outcome is going to be. you have two candidates who have criminal convictions. i think that says a lot about the state of italian politics in general. you know all about sylvia berlusconi and the underage prostitute, etcetera, etcetera and grilliot who julia has done a wonderful job of profiling who has this man slaughter conviction from

i'm joe kernen along with andrew ross sorkin and michelle caruso cabrera. becky quick is off today.on set for the next hour, "squawk" market master mario gabelli. we need a new picture, mario. maybe we can bring that up. want to show you the picture we were showing of you. looked like you just ate something like a bad oyster. chairman, ceo, and chief investment officer of gamco investors. that was not intentional. . that was kind of the look. mario is going to give us some investment ideas in a couple of minutes. we're going to talk to coca-cola chairman and ceo -- that's a great picture. muhtar kent. plus irving piccard and his attorney the men tasked with tracking down the money from bernie madoff's ponzi scheme. good luck. first michelle -- oh, okay. so you went over -- i thought you were -- >> i'm in the newsroom. >> okay. >> this is part of the art fis of television. we move around. get the shots. among the stories that we're following north korea drawing a threat of new sanctions after conducting a third nuclear test overnight. president obama calls the test, quote, a highly p

michelle caruso cabrera joins us now from the best place in the world, rome, italy. >> it is the bestn the world. it's rainey today, and yet i wouldn't want to be anywhere else. 2 1/2 hours to go until italians have to stop voting. the polls close at 3:00 local time. that's 9:00 a.m. east coast local time. we'll start getting early exit polls. it's really confusing. the first numbers will be difficult. we have with us today amato gerardi. he's an american, he lives in philadelphia, but he's a member of the italian parliament because the italian parliament has representatives from all over the world who represent people of italian desent living overseas. you are on the berlusconi ticket. >> yes. >> you know berlusconi actually quite well. he could possibly win in this election. looks like he may come in second. can you explain the phenomenon of berlusconi to americans? we find it quite amazing that somewhere who had so much trouble with the laup law, yet italians have put him into power three times. >> if he wins, this will be the fourth comeback. we are comfortable that he's going to

michelle caruso-cabrera is in rome with the analysis now. >> unlike the u.s.ropean markets have not recovered at all from the complete political paralysis and stalemate we have in italy as a result of last night's election. look at the mid, as we call it, the millan index. here's the one-day chart. it got hammered right at the open as it became clear that right now the country is ungovernable at this point. if we show you the one-week chart of the mid, stock market actually rallied when the first numbers came out yesterday. that turned out to be wrong. in two days, almost a 9% move to the italian stock market. the market that most global investors care about is the interest rates for italy. what are they paying. they're having to pay a lot more. their interest rates, if you look at the ten-year yield has risen today. it also rose yesterday. we care about this, because italy owes the world more than $3 trillion. third largest debt in the world. we got an example of how important that is today, because they have to borrow money. they have to roll over 300 billio

the story is very much from over and that's why caruso-cabrera is in rome with the very latest developments for us. good evening, michellen is so concerning to global investors that even ben bernanke was asked about the situation in italy when he testified in front of congress today, and his response made clear he had spent some time trying to figure out complicated political situation he here. >> i'm not an expert in italian politics, but i don't think any of the candidates have outright rejected either saying in the euro or maintaining the policies that are being required of italy in order to continue receiving, you know, in order to be in the eurozone. >> the reason that bernanke or anybody would care about italian elections is because the country rowes owes the world so much money. it's the third most indebted country in the world. they owe investors more than $3 trillion and right now their economy isn't growing fast enough to pay back that money. can it ever grow fast enough? they need new leadership here in italy to make changes to the economy so that it can grow again and every single day that you can go without