i'm melissa lee in for scott wapner. josh brown is with us, pete najarian, and joe terranova, and mike murphy, and let's get straight to the markets and stocks bouncing back today after the s&p and dow hit lowest levels since may, but the blight to safety is still on. treasury yields are near multiyear lows. what is going on here? and how are you trading it? the fact that yields are so low on treasury, the ten-year paying 1.095% to be in those things and investors are actually choosing that over being in equities. pete? >> yn idea of the fear in the marketplace. people don't want to put it in various areas of the market. look what's going on, mel, over the last couple of week, sold out over the last week, the financials. the financials, really look at the last three months or so, look at the finances, xlf, great example, pulling to the up side. then move down. leadership, system a huge impact on what the rest of the markets are looking at. then look today. as we were el selling off early, first thing in the green, financ

. >> what does scott wapner cook? mix. >> very meticulous, attentive to detail. >> what is a chef? somebody who puts ingredients together. it's a lot like what he does here. >> i've dreamed about having a cooking show or being in a cooking magazine, doing something. you want what you're going to turn out whether it's on tv, at cnbc, or in the kitchen, to please and be enticing and come off in an exciting way. i want to eat good food and the best challenge of all is trying to sort of live up to my own expectations. >> wants to be spicy, too, from time to time. >> i want to eat good food, too. >> thanks for the invite. >> favorite food? >> italian. >> italian? >> i knew i liked you. >> you're a gastronomic portfolio manager. >> there you go. >> red wine. >> you have to come over for dinner we'll have a little fun. >> i'm in. >> tomorrow, we find out what steve weiss does when he's not trading. can't wait for that one. yeah. >> coming up, a few minutes ago the team at biogen nominated cnbc for the ice bucket challenge to

so we brought in scott wapner. who else? it's friday, august 15th, 2014, the 45th anniversary of woodstock. "squawk box" begins right now. >>> good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. happy friday. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and scott wapner in today. andrew ross sorkin is on vacation. we're going to have a lot of cuts throughout the show. first let's get to the morning's top stories. wall street waking up to green arrows this morning after stocks closed at august highs yesterday. u.s. equity future at this hour look like they are indicated quite a bit higher. dow futures futures up more than 52 points above fair value. we're going to check out today's docket. we'll be getting july's producer price index. we'll have august empire state survey. geopolitics once again dominating global market headlines. here is the latest on the situation in ukraine. ukrainian officials are inspecting a russian aid convoy parked just beyond its border. the developments suggest easing of tensions over the shipme

let's get straight to scott wapner. what have you got? to give you a little bit more of this report from earlier by dow jones. at the s.e.c., apparently investigating valeant and pershing square in its bid for allergan. earlier i told you the s.e.c. had declined to comment. pershing square has put out a statement which i do have here. but i can tell you that i just got off the phone with bill ackman himself. he confirmed that neither pershing square or valeant took any steps towards a tinder offer before buying allergan stock. that would be prohibited under the law. you could not propose a tinder offer or take any steps whatsoever towards a tinder offer and then acquire the stock. so he tells me neither pershing square or valeant took a tinder offer before buying the stock. it was only after allergan rejected our three offers that we decided to launch an exchange offer. ackman speaking with me, confirming what this statement from pershing square says. now, valeant has made a comment saying, we are confident the trading was completely lawf

andrew ross sorkin, and -- >> michael wapner. >> not scott judge wapner. >> they do always call me judge. they do. >> and making -- if scott was going to read this, he would do. make one -- >> would you read it with the -- >> i don't know if i -- that's hairsy. >> i give you permission. >> making headlines this morning, consumer reports has a complain or two for tesla. last year, it gave the model s like its highest mark ever, top marks. but now it says the electric car is -- it owns has had, quote, in its words wsh r, more than its share of problems. now, i think it is helping me. >> when you're the judge, you -- >> you have to know who's who. >> only judge judy. i think she makes $50 million a year. >> that syndicated show does phenomenally well. >> i don't think judge wapner did that well. >> no. consumer reports, though, back to that, says that the car has impressed its staff and has nearly traveled 16,000 miles. but it warns that there have been many quirks that might dampen consumers' experiences. among the issues, the center screen went blank and the automatic retracting door hand

so we brought in scott wapner. who else?friday, august 15th, 2014, the 45th anniversary of woodstock. "squawk box" begins right now. >>> good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. happy friday. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and scott wapner in today. andrew ross sorkin is on vacation. we're going to have a lot of cuts throughout the show. first let's get to the morning's top stories. wall street waking up to green arrows this morning after stocks closed at august highs yesterday. u.s. equity future at this hour look like they are indicated quite a bit higher. dow futures futures up more than 52 points above fair value. we're going to check

. >>> scott wapner has a market alert. >> some big activity in the options market today around herbalife, has some traders wondering whether bill ackman is pressing his short and upping his bearish view once again. back in january of this year, someone believed by people i've spoken with to be ackman bought a boatload of bearish put options with a $50 price strike. those were set to expire in january 2015. not that long from now. that means he was betting the stock was going to fall into at least the low 40s by then. the clock has obviously been ticking and clicking on that trade. so it appears that today ackman might have just bought himself more time, according to the experts i've been speaking with. it seems that whoever made that trade back in january -- and again i'm told by options experts that only one person could be that person, just rolled out their bearish bets for another full year. even committed a lot more capital, around $50 million to that view. this person clearly seems to be only increasing their conviction that herbalife is going to fall and fall significantly over the

scott wapner taking the ice bucket challenge to raise money to fight a.l.s.ch. >> 3, 2, 1 -- whoo! >> you know what? >> i hope that was all right. it wasn't as bad as i expected. >> my friend scott is a brave, brave man. he is now in the newsroom, a little drier with a big update. >> you know, ty, the spirit of this movement, which it really has become a movement, is to do it yourself and then call somebody else out or pass it on to others. so i called out, knowing this has become a social media, dib costolo, and mark zuckerberg, and it took five minutes for costolo to accept the challenge. there it is. he says dick costolo has already accepted our challenge. i hope zuck does as well. this has become a social media spur the something that we think about, unfortunately more often than we'd like to. >> it's a wonderful cause, and i think all reporters should engage in it and have their producer deliver ice over their heads. how does that -- >> that sounds good. i'm out. i'm done. i still have to change my shirt. >> and meg tirrell did it. >> and that's how it a

and scott wapner. becky and andrew are off today.re indicated up a little bit. up 33 points after you'd have to call it a stabilizing week last week. i did some math and it was less than 5%. >> that's what the corrections or whatever you want to call it have been. >> what if it's not over? >> yeah. might -- that's right. in the middle you don't know whether it is. but it's stabilized so far. the ten-year, 2.43. i thought at one point it did go up a little. >> it did. the gdp number came out. >> and right back down into the 230s. let's get to scott though for this morning's corporate headlines. >> thank you, joe. general motors has lost a bid to dismiss a lawsuit related to its faulty ignition switches. this particular suit was brought by the family of a woman who died in 2010 in an accident while driving her chevrolet cobolt. the family had sued gm in 2011 and settled that case last year but the new suit accuses gm of concealing evidence. >>> federal reserve vice chairman stanley fischer says the economic recoveries in the u.s. and e

. >> i'm scott wapner in again for bill griffeth. the stock market taking a breather after making history with s&p 2,000 yesterday. there's still a lot of news on this late august wednesday, like the continued strength of the u.s. dollar and what that could mean for earnings for american companies, and it might not be a good thing for the bottom line. we're going to take a

. >> and i'm scott wapner in today for bill griffeth.he market was waiting for janet yellen's big speech, waiting for mario draghi's big speech, and you get the feeling as though the market is still trying to figure out what they said and what it means, because we're not really moving all that much. i don't know what your take is here, but i think people were looking for a little bit more. >> steven stanley i thought nailed it when he said this speech -- referring to janet yellen's -- was far less about making a full-throate

i'm michelle caruso-cabrera filling in for scott wapner. mike, josh and pete, stephanie with us, and also joining us today is stacey gilbert. the head of derivative strategy at suss xa hana financiwquehann >>> a chance of russian invasions of ukraine on the rise. situation in gaza deteriorating then in the markets, major sell-offs in europe and japan, despite up a that, the rough week for the u.s., stocks rebounding today. seen it over and over again, ladies and gentlemen. stocks move higher in the face of bad geopolitical risks. is this the move along, nothing to see here market? take to the traders. are you surprised by today's action, josh? >> i guess i'm not. look historically at once a military action starts, even a minor one, typically the market exhales and usually a lot of the drama takes place before whatever's going to happen. not that we've nis yate e initi war, when it looked like obama would do something, futures started to move back. >> just before 9:00? >> wouldn't go as far to callful relief. just an exhalation and maybe tha

hitting noontime on the east coast, land toever to the "fast money/half time report," and scott wapnerlive from post nine, starting lineup, josh brown, and stephen weiss, and also jon and pete najarian co-founders with us of option monster. the new highs for stocks. dow set a record intraday high. s&p trying to close above 2,000 for the first time ever. that milestone getting a lot of play in the national papers today. "usa today" asking the question of whether s&p 2000 should be cheered or feared. ev

. >>> as we get closer to noon, bring in scott wapner host of the "fast money halftime report."eresting show yesterday. >> kind of got you roped into something, i guess. >> you did. walk us through how you got involved in this ice bucket challenge? >> our colleague, meg ter rhere were doing the ice bucket challenge, the entire research team. the whole spirit of this movement, which is really has become, you know, carl a movement across the country is to do it yourself, or be challenged by somebody to do it and then to pass it on. pass it forward. pay it forward, if you will. so meg did it up there with their team, live on our show, and then later in the "half time" show passed it on to me, which i obviously accepted, and did it, and i figured, you know, this has become such a social media phenomenon, it only made sense, considering who we are here at cnbc, the fact that it's become a social media phenomenon, why not challenge zuckerberg and costolo to do it as well? and as you know, obviously by now, within ten minutes or so, costolo took on the challenge with one caveat, of cou

let's go to scott wapner with some breaking news on valiance. >> this a developing story now. dow jones is reporting the securities and exchange commission is investigating valiant and pershing square's pursuit of allergan. the s.e.c. probe is said to be in its early stage and may not lead to any enforcement action. many things of interest here. the way that bill ackman and valeant teamed up from the get-go in this bid for allergan was roundly criticized as all of you know who have followed this story, that while at least -- while it may have been perceived to be legal under the current law, that the way that ackman was able to team up with valeant to acquire this big stake in allergan knowing a bid was eventually going to come, many folks have come on cnbc and questioned that entire process. it's also worth noting here that allergan has also filed a lawsuit, you may recall, alleging insider trading against valeant and bill ackman for the way that this was all sorted out. the s.e.c. has declined to comment. the other twist here is that while we're learning here from dow jones

hitting noontime on the east coast, land toever to the "fast money/half time report," and scott wapner. >> welcome. live from post nine, starting lineup, josh brown, and stephen weiss, and also jon and pete najarian co-founders with us of option monster. the new highs for stocks. dow set a record intraday high. s&p trying to close above 2,000 for the first time ever. that milestone getting a lot of play in the national papers today. "usa today" asking the question of whether s&p 2000 should be cheered or feared. steve weiss, you weigh in first. >> embrace it. look, for the people waiting for 5%, 10% correction, since the beginning of 2013, you've missed out on great gains. yeah, there's been choppiness, short-term sell-off, those are the opportunities to get in. i still think the market's going higher. why? because the economy is going to surprise with growth. maybe not 4% but 3.5% and then you've got the european central bank coming to the table again in september with more quantitative easing. should i say first quantitative easing. with the economy improves, more central bank still

i'm michelle caruso-cabrera filling in for scott wapner.osh and pete, stephanie with us, and also joining us today is stacey gilbert. the head of derivative strategy at suss xa hana financiwquehann >>> a chance of russian invasions of ukraine on the rise. situation in gaza deteriorating then in the markets, major sell-offs in europe and japan, despite up a that, the r

send it over scott wapner and team "halftime report." >>> starting lineup, jon najarian, and mike murphyephen weiss, and josh brown, and we begin with a countdown to what could be the market's moment of truth. janet yellen's speech in jackson hole on friday. so will the fed chair be as dovish as investors hope, or is there a surprise lurking in the grand tetons? someone who probably knows. our own steve liesman who is there. steve, will she disappoint the markets or not? >> depends on what the markets want, scott. >> you know what they want, steve. >> you know better than i do. >> you know what they want. >> the

. >> i'm scott wapner in for bill griffeth. >>> the russian bear bringing out bears today. we're off our lows but reports of more russian forces entering ukraine set the tone for the day. clearly that's one of the stories that's been out there today. some more fighting over in the ukraine. maybe a new front making investors a little bit nervous. but as we said, the market is way off the lows.

send it over scott wapner and team "halftime report." >>> starting lineup, jon najarian, and mike murphy. stephen weiss, and josh brown, and we begin with a countdown to what could be the market's moment of truth. janet yellen's speech in jackson hole on friday. so will the fed chair be as dovish as investors hope, or is there a surprise lurking in the grand tetons? someone who probably knows. our own steve liesman who is there. steve, will she disappoint the markets or not? >> depends on what the markets want, scott. >> you know what they want, steve. >> you know better than i do. >> you know what they want. >> the story, markets expect yellen to be neutral and the cnbc survey prepared for the jackson hole conference here, 63% are looking for yellen to be neutral relative to a prior stances which would be essentially dovish. 31% think she may actually be more dovish than she was before. how dovish does the market think the fed will be? we asked our respondents, 36 of them, scott, to look forward. where will interest rates be in '15, '16 and '17, and where will the fed stop? we plotted i

. >>> when we return, if you've been watching cnbc this week you've seen me, scott wapner, ceo of twitter, dick courtlow, all take the ice bucket challenge for als. so far the association has over $7.5 million in donations. last year, just over $1 million. we'll do our part to keep it going. you'll see the challenge a little bit later right here on "squawk alley." and legere's challenging fellow ceos to give more. just tweeted he'll donate $100,000 trying to get nine other ceos to do the same thing. >>> first up, rick santelli, what are you watching? >> i'm watching gdps, around the globe, but we're going to pick out the important ones. the ones that use a lot of this. we're going to discuss what that means for the united states, because on a relative trailed we all know we're better, but what does it mean for the global economy? and more important, what does it mean for interest rates? all after the break. i'm only in my 60's. i've got a nice long life ahead. big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses, i looked at my options. then i got a medicare supplem

i'm melissa lee in for scott wapner.n is with us, pete najarian, and joe terranova, and mike murphy, and let's get straight to the markets and stocks bouncing back today after the s&p and dow hit lowest levels since may, but the blight to safety is still on. treasury yields are near multiyear lows. what is going on here? and how are you trading it? the fact that yields are so low on

. >> sure do, i'm scott wapner in today for bill griffeth. the dow is above 17,000 once again.t seemingly will not stay down. but will it last? closely followed market technician tom mcclellan is calling for a major market sell-off heading into september. he will be here to tell us exactly why. >>> so much of the stock market has been riding on interes

back to scott wapner and get the "half." >> have a great holiday weekend. >>> welcome to the "half timesh brown, and pete and jon najarian, and jim lebenthal is the president of lebenthal asset management. we do begin with more on this developing story out of the united kingdom today, which this morning took its terror threat level to severe, signaling that an attack, though no imminent, is highly likely. our chief international correspondent michelle caruso-cabrera has

back to scott wapner and get the "half." >> have a great holiday weekend. >>> welcome to the "half time show." josh brown, and pete and jon najarian, and jim lebenthal is the president of lebenthal asset management. we do begin with more on this developing story out of the united kingdom today, which this morning took its terror threat level to severe, signaling that an attack, though no imminent, is highly likely. our chief international correspondent michelle caruso-cabrera has more. >> raiding iraising its threat second highest. due to isis, taken over iraq and the southern part of ceise syri. many carry passports and the uk prime minister david cameron announced how many people living in britain has traveled to fight. >> the first isil inspired terrorist acts on the continent of europe have already taken place. we now believe that at least 500 people have traveled from britain to fight in syria and potentially iraq. >> here in the united states, the white house has just announced we will not follow them in raising the terror threat, and now president obama isic taing heat for a comm

i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and scott wapner. andrew is off today.ng to bounce back from their first down day in three sessions, the volume yesterday was very light. you see green arrows in trading across the board. the dax was the big winner at this point. the major markets in asia closing higher. you'll see right now that the hang seng closed up by 0.8%. the nikkei and the shanghai markets closing higher. among today's areas of focus for the future markets, we have been talking about continuing geopolitical concerns.

scott wapner, becky and andrew are off today. has lost a beloved actor, father and comedian. a look at the career, life and legacy of robin williams. >> the death of robin williams left his family, friends and a generation of fans across the world in shock. >> we lost a great, great person today. >> williams was found dead at his home north of san francisco today. an investigation into the death is currently under way. preliminary reports report to asphyxia. according to his publicist, williams had been battling depression in recent weeks, having been this drug

i'm scott wapner with jim cramer live from the new york stock exchange. carl and david are off.oad map starts with the dollar store dual. dollar general offing to guy family dollar for $10 million take on a competing offer from dollar tree. david fab already call in in moments. markets looking to heighten gain as tensions between russia and ukraine ease for this moment. robert schiller is sounding a different alarm. often a critic, rupert murdoch takes a shot. google with harsh tweets about privacy. >>> family dollar at center of a bidding war. dollar general announcing an offer to buy rival discount retailer for 78. 50 a share in cash, total transaction valued $9.7 billion, counters dollar tree's $74.50 a share, cash and stock bid. so much, jim for not everybody working in late august in the summer. somebody's working here. this is interesting. >> this was what we first thought would happen. >> exactly. >> surprised that dollar wasn't involved because it's a better fit. you can tell from the stock's reaction, people agree. i like all-cash bid. lots of overlap in the two, you'll

scott wapner will be interviewing attorney general eric snyderman about the lawsuit on cnbc's halftime report tomorrow at noon. don't miss it. >>> so 45 minutes to go, tyler, and the dow is up 65 and the s&p 500 here is sitting pretty much if it closes at this level, 1987 and change at an all-time high. >> yeah. just about .7 of a point below it. mohammed el erian will give us his reaction to the fed minutes and looking ahead as the policymakers meet out there with steve and the moose in jackson hole if their annual pow-wow. wait until you hear when he thinks the fed will raise interest rates and his take on this suddenly red hot stock market. >>> i would like to see moose out there with steve, by the way. also coming up, auto sales, we know how hot they been but a new report is showing more car and truck owners struggling to make payments. should we be worried about auto loans overheating and what that could be with the economic recovery? >>> and keep it right here for hewlett-packard and l brands. results out after the closing bell. they could set the tone for the markets tomorrow. w

. >> and i'm scott wapner in today for bill griffeth. so, kell, the market was waiting for janet yellen's big speech, waiting for mario draghi's big speech, and you get the feeling as though the market is still trying to figure out what they said and what it means, because we're not really moving all that much. i don't know what your take is here, but i think people were looking for a little bit more. >> steven stanley i thought nailed it when he said this speech -- referring to janet yellen's -- was far less about making a full-throated defense of her personal views and offering a fair and even-handed survey of the issues to be discussed over the weekend about the labor market. >> i heard comments such as wishy-washy, you know, maybe she moved back to the center, it wasn't nearly as dovish as it could have been. >> they don't knoech. >> they're saying it wasn't hawkish either. >> we've seen those before. instant reaction just ahead from pimco's bill gross. we're going to find out what the man they call the bond king makes of today's com

. >> sure do, i'm scott wapner in today for bill griffeth. the dow is above 17,000 once again. market seemingly will not stay down. but will it last? closely followed market technician tom mcclellan is calling for a major market sell-off heading into september. he will be here to tell us exactly why. >>> so much of the stock market has been riding on interest rates. we'll try to get a better gauge on what's next in that department with philly fed president charles plosser. our steve leisman sat down with him live in jackson hole, wyoming. stay tuned for this important interview. >>> was it a well deserved $17 billion fine? or was it extortion? a former bank ceo says bank of america was extorted by the u.s. government to the tune of $17 billion. paying for the sins of merrill lynch and countrywide during the housing crisis. even though it bought those firms to help stave off the economic catastrophe for the u.s. we're going to debate that state with our own friend, larry kudlow, among many others. >>> pretty impressive to watch the dow right now. because it is up 93 points. that

. >> i'm scott wapner in for bill griffeth. >>> the russian bear bringing out bears today. we're off our lows but reports of more russian forces entering ukraine set the tone for the day. clearly that's one of the stories that's been out there today. some more fighting over in the ukraine. maybe a new front making investors a little bit nervous. but as we said, the market is way off the lows. >> as art cashin's put in a note earlier, there's somewhat of a credibility problem coming from ukrai ukraine. there is a lot of back and forth between these two companies. he'll join us at the end of the hour. >> wouldn't want to minimize clearly what's happening over there but certainly at this point at least it's had a minimal effect on the market. even though it has made investors nervous, it has had an overwhelming effect. people, quite frankly, aren't here. they're heading on to vacation. >>> do you know how your funding is doing this year against its benchmark? any one who's given fund managers their money. we'll have details. >>> on september 9th, and the invites are out and th

i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and scott wapner. andrew is off today. looking to bounce back from their first down day in three sessions, the volume yesterday was very light. you see green arrows in trading across the board. the dax was the big winner at this point. the major markets in asia closing higher. you'll see right now that the hang seng closed up by 0.8%. the nikkei and the shanghai markets closing higher. among today's areas of focus for the future markets, we have been talking about continuing geopolitical concerns. the international community is warning russia the mission should not be using as a predecks for an invasion. kiev says it won't let the vehicles cross on to its territory. meantime in iraq, the obama administration is sending 130 military advisers to northern part of iraq to advise those on the ground. we'll have a live report in just a few minutes. among the other tests for the u.s. markets today, we have earnings and economic numbers. at 8:30 eastern time, we get july retail sales. we'll be talking more about the economy in the

. >> i'm scott wapner in again for bill griffeth. the stock market taking a breather after making history with s&p 2,000 yesterday. there's still a lot of news on this late august wednesday, like the continued strength of the u.s. dollar and what that could mean for earnings for american companies, and it might not be a good thing for the bottom line. we're going to take a closer look. >>> and the inversion debate raging on in the wake of burger king's purchase of canada's tim hortons. we'll speak with two freshmen congressm congressmen, one democratic, one republican, about what washington is prepared to do about it, or if all this rhetoric is now just election-year politics. >>> is bigger better? apple seems to think so. a bigger iphone coming and maybe a bigger ipad as well. could this be the tablet that finally allows you to throw out your laptop? i hope not, mine's kind of new. as apple stock climbs above 100 bucks, we'll investigate what apple might have up its sleeve. >> i'm rather attached to mine as well. i'm with you. in th

he got called by by scott wapner and governor christie. now he in turn is challenging bill gates, cheryl hastings and if you're wondering if the social media craze is working, donations are up by 1,000% to als. >> was there ice in there? >> i'll take his word that it was cold. >> that could have been like just -- knowing a guy that's worth $60 billion -- >> look at this. >> oh, there was ice in there. i heard it. >> are you sure? >> yeah. >> because i figured he had perfectly cooked -- >> i heard the ice. listen one more time. >> one of 24 hours to -- >> because if i know him, it would be perfect temperature. >> listen. >> i don't know. >> i heard it. >> no, it looks like he was just perfectly -- >> no, the poor guy, he dumps -- >> poor guy? >> cold water on -- >> don't ever call someone with even a billion dollars -- i mean, i'll go down to 10 million even. >> it was really icy water, i think. >>> fears of european contagion are not weighing down european equities. joining us now, anthony chan. you're not worth $1 billion, are you? >> not

i'm scott wapner with jim cramer live from the new york stock exchange. carl and david are off. dollar general offing to guy family dollar for $10 million take on a competing offer from dollar tree. david fab already call in in moments. markets looking to heighten gain as tensions between russia and ukraine ease for this moment. robert