nucor has pay incentive program that works all the way down to the production line.om the white house increase purchasing of american steel have direct impact on lives of workers. >> the more we produce, greater the bonus. so it is, it makes a huge deal to me. reporter: we should clarify, david, the company, u.s. steel took a big hit after posting a bad quarter but these mini mills that nucor is, they are showing consistent profits. they got a big ump around election time. so far they are hanging on to it. david. david: our commerce secretary wilbur ross knows about revamping steel mills. he knows some of that himself. he knows whereof he speaks. mike tobin, thank you very much. reporter: you got it. lauren: business experience in the white house. president trump trying to give a boost to the energy sector, signing an executive order that could lead expansion of drilling in the arctic and atlantic ocean and reverse president obama's arctic leasing ban and create great jobs and our health. he set a record for executive orders since world war ii. david: he has, a lot o

however, nucor steel is considered a mini mill, largely held their ground. >> the many mill has doneuite well from a financial standpoin standpoint. earnings are up 50%, 60%, 100% compared to a year ago. >> in kenosha, wisconsin, president trump promised to prioritize american-made steel amid complaints that foreign governments were subsidizing their steel manufacturing and dumping cheap steel into the market. president trump invaded the heads of the steel industry to the white house. he launched a trade probe into china and other exporters of cheap steel. he launched an investigation into the dependence of foreign steel for defense. >> this investigation will look at how steel imports are impacting the united states security, taking into account foreign practices such as steel dumping, dumping is a tremendous problem in this country pit they are dumping vast amount of steel in our company -- in our country, and they are really hurting, not only our country, but our companies. >> the ceo at nucor's has all the steel manufacturers want is a level playing field to compete against count

we're going to speak with the former chairman of nucor. >>> plus a a busy hour coming up.onghi from u.s. steel and a lot more. >>> good morning, here is your cnbc news update. you united nations envoy describing the syrian attack on e evacuees being trial timed outside aleppo last week as horrific. >> one of the main issues which was raised was this horrific atok on the 15th of april, that explosion that came up to 130 people killed. among which 57 children, perhaps 200 wounded. >> a joint training exercise was held today. 100 aircraft can including war planes and south korean jets took part. the exercise is run until april 28th. >>> hotels group which includes the holiday inn says more than 1200 hotels were intected with a debit or credit card breach. it had originally said it thought only a dozen properties were infected. that's the news update this hour. back down to "squawk alley." >> sue, thank you very much. >>> markets close iing in the u and across europe just now. let's get back to hq. >> stocks ob track for their second straight day of gains. that includes a pair

nucor is considered a minimill and they are showing healthy profit. see their stock prices drop but nothing like they were pre-election. the ceo of the company says they spent a lot of energy investing in the company. he says he will make more steel. fox news. >>> a nearly 20 hour police standoff in the east bay is over after a man wanted for murder dropped his gun out the window and surrendered to authorities. the dramatic end as officers shoot out the back window of the suspect's car and the man gets out with his hands off -- hands up. >> this started with a deadly shooting of a woman near the lindsay while -- wildlife museum. the suspect took off. police tracked him to martinez where the standoff lasted for nearly 20 hours. really is and martinez and tells us how the standoff finally came to an end a couple of hours ago. >> reporter: traffic is now flowing behind me on the corner of howell and pine in martinez. it took 19 hours but police finally got their man peacefully without any shots fired. take a look at video from a couple of hours ago. just

take a 'look at ak steel and nucore, steel dynamics in the after hours trade on relatively heavier volumeor this time in the afternoon. we will learn more by u.s. steel when they come to a conference satcom. >> that happens tomorrow morning. u.s. steel one of those big beneficiaries on that infrastructure trade on the heels of the election. it peaked out around mid--late february. it has been trending lower ever since. this isn't hurting matters. back over to you. >> there is some interesting inter-day action on this along with the other steel makers around 11:00 today. a big dip in the shares in u.s. steel. so i don't know what was going on. maybe they got a live of what happens happening tonight. what do we do? >> i don't think you buy it in the after hours. you have to wait, here's the thing, they did talk about an improving environment for steel. so what really cost? it sounds like an operational thing. for me, bk, he has to have more information on this, i don't think you have to buy there as all. >> this is another one the ceo was out, mario longy talking about buying american the p

i can speak with some authority there, because when times are tough at nucor, my salary was reduced by have no doubt you speak with authority on this. i want to you touch on two other things before we let you go on which could you also speak with a lot of authority. one is auto production. two-year low today as we get these industrial production numbers. and then iron ore down 30% since late february. can you just talk about what you think is going on in those two markets? >> yes, with the automobile situation, listen, it's been a hot industry for some time now, right? nice strong recovery, and there's always going to be a lull in these things. so that's part of it. the other part of it is the economy is really not as good as you folks on wall street think. the real economy is still growing at an anemic rate of less than 2%. i'm not even sure it's going to make 1%. so that's part of the problem. eventually it catches up to you. as far as iron ore, to be quite honest with you, you know, global steel making capacity is still running somewhere around 60% to 70%, except in china, where the

steel dynamics and nucor rounding out the industry. many sectors on the s&p gave this market such a lift t was a. let me skip to another corporate earnings report. this is a bit of a disappointment. mattel reporting wider than expected first-quarter loss. overall sales for mattel worse than expected 15% led by barbie. back to you. david: thank you. cheryl. cheryl: switch gears here. something happening down south that is incredible. violent clashes happening in venezuela between police and protesters calling for the ouster of president nicolas maduro as the country's economic crisis deepens. in the midst of it all, american automotive titan, general motors leaving the country entirely. jeff flock standing by in chicago with the latest on the decision by general motors. let's take you behind it, jeff. reporter: because they seized the plant. just the latest seizure bit socialist government of mr. maduro. it came yesterday, what was considered the mother of all protest, street protests in venezuela. three people were killed. there is rep

steam, nucor, aks, all these companies getting a huge pat on the back are not getting it. we raised tax on octg products, which is basically in the steel space, the company that drops pipes and things in our country t. koreans didn't do enough to raise the tariffs, look what happened. i think it's a big deal. >> your point is well taken. if you look at what happened last summer. i was talking to somebody at our desk, hrc in china versus the uz. >> hrc, hot rolls. >> right. you look at price of steel in the u.s. versus china right now, the spread is incredibly wide. what's going to happen? have you buyers basically on strike saying we will wait. there is no reason to pay these prices the buyers ultimately win. will you see prices correct, or at least that spread can track to a point where it's much lower. >> the interesting thing, we didn't talk about it yet. sooner or later, the gold the buying for a long period of time, and that trade sort of had gone away and now suddenly it seems like every day we are seeing another move, another move, another move. >> does that make yo

materials lagging nucor, martin march prieta and vulcan are the worst in the s&p materials.y every component is negative with the exception of monsanto, which is up about .5. material, still up about 4% for the year so far something to track and watch that materials sector etf, the xlv trading with relatively heavy volume. that does it for "squawk on the street." let's send it back downtown for the start of quack alley. >>> it is 10:00 a.m. in chicago and 11:00 a.m. on wall street and "squawk alley" is live.

>> yeah, if you're alcoa, you thought the companies would benefit, nucor, you're thinking this is theraditional globalist president, go back to procter & gamble we want to sell a lot of prell, right? back in if sell prell to china mode. >> nothing wrong with selling prell in china. >> no, but we're supposed -- >>er otide. -- or tide. >> we're supposed to be tough on china. we scratch their back -- >> it's not bad thing. global trade, all the tariff worries. >> long before trump i thought -- i felt that the chinese were unfair traders and i don't want to see him back slide. long before trump i have always felt that there's no fairness between south korea -- >> you have been a big critic of nafta. >> nafta? >> and that also -- >> he's wavering on nafta. 4-1 when they put in nafta and now it's 18-1. they have the big currency advantage. no pollution controls. they have no health care benefits. and how do we compete? but i guess that's okay too. >> well, i thought there were supposed to be parts of nafta that actually addressed some of the things. >> just the currencies, when we passed --

learn more at esd.ny.gov >>> nucor spiked over 3% on thursday and that trend continues. york stock exchange where jim cramer is joining us. jim, earnings all week long, that's what we do. that's what moves stocks but yesterday it was mnuchin. didn't you read it that way or did you think it was oil or -- >> yeah, he just said, look, forget health care we'll get this done. but geez, these industrials are good. honeywell is terrific. ge's fine. stanley works -- stanley black & decker much better than expected. we're seeing very, very good numbers and those do matter. so obviously if you get -- i had snap-on tool where the president had been earlier this week. if you get some tax reforms, snap-on tool, a highest taxpayer, you would see the numbers go through the roof. because the companies are delivering in the atmosphere where mnuchin gave you a pretty good heads up that things could happen. so there was a lot of momentum yesterday. maybe can carry through to today. >> jim, why do you believe it? >> why do you believe it? >> yeah. >> why do you believe the numbers? >> no, t