steve leisman joins us now with those results. >> good news for a change here.g of bad economic data. we've had our quarterly poll of 800 americans around the country. let's look at their view of the current state of the economy. this is the percentage that says it's excellent and good. 27%. putting together two decent quart ners a row. we had that bump up and for a change, we sustained it. you can see we have to go all the way back to december of 2007 before the recession which was 26%. of course, 28% of the public still thinks the economy is fair or poor. but we're making some headway here. and then also you take a look on the views of the future. will the economy get better. and what you see here we put that together. americans kind of maintain their optimism throughout the recession which was curious to pollsters. we put together two positive quarters in a row. and the reason we do this all the time we look at people's outlooks for your home values and their wage outlook. we do this net number which is the percentage that says it's going to increase minus de

i'm michelle caruso-cabrera along with joe kernen and steve leisman.tock market is closed today for good friday but there will be some trading. equity futures will be open until 9:15 a.m. eastern time and you can change on globe x until 11:15 a.m. brent crude is trading. as for the jobs report forecasters say the economy likely added 248,000 jobs last month. the unemployment rate is seen as holding steady at 5.5% and hourly average earnings expected to rise .2%. so the labor department works on good friday. >> i think a portion does. here are the other stories we're watching at this hour. iran, the u.s. and other world powers reaching a deal on a framework to curb tehran's nuclear program. this comes after eight days of marathon talks in switzerland. details to be worked out and sanctions remain in place until a final deal is reached. more from john harwood in just a minute. in corporate news ibm reportedly hiring investors to deal with restless investor in an attack by funds. looking for help from activists to shake up the tech giant. but are said to

our own rick santelli and steve leisman joining us as well. steve, i'll go with you first. because this was a day full of fed speak and any time that stanley fisher speaks it is news newsworthy newsworthy. it just seems as though today dennis lockhart may have stolen some of his thunder by appearing more dovish than in recent months. i wonder why the stock market maybe didn't react. >> i think the market sort of figured out what the fed is saying right now, scott. that's my take on why there is no reaction. when you don't get a reaction when you look at where the market is -- i don't mean just the equity markets but fixed income markets especially -- where the 10-year is around 1.90, the fed fund is 34 35 basis points. to recap, lockhart who told me the end of march he thought june ton september was the right time frame. kind of stepped up and said things are really murky right now. my take-away from all the fed speakers today there were four of them -- maybe you want to count five because one spoke twice, once to us and once publicly -- is the following. the first quarter

steve leisman joins us now with more.ls are mixed, i'm told. >> they're a little mixed. >> i just read that. >> they're not as mixed as that would have -- >> really? >> look i'll read this thing. >> adp was lousy yesterday. >> the tone has been very weak. not uniformly. there have been a few bright spots. one of those came yesterday with new vehicle sales topping 17 million for the first time since november. almost certainly mike jackson arranged for that to happen on the day he was going to visit "squawk box." oregon otherwise he might not have come. had something to do with the recent growth slowdown consumer sentiment in march. those are the exceptions. here's the list of the rough patch we've been through. most of the fed manufacturing service in march have been lousy. personal spending was down. becky mentioned adp, capital spending. those were all weak. this does not seem to be a repeat of the lousy first quarter from last year with the strong snapback. there's more going on here with the impact of the strong dollar

steve leisman joins us now.end i'm going to steal a bit of thunder, the disappointing jobs report and other weak data the past several weeks, jpmorgan slashing the forecast to 0.6% from 1.5% saying, quote, the unexpectedly soft march labor report raises obvious concerns of growth momentum. still, jpmorgan economists continue to maintain the forecast for the current quarter. the government reporting on friday just 126,000 jobs created in march. well below the forecast of nearly 250,000 jobs. and the reaction of economists ranges from those who see it as an inevitable blip in an unprecedented strength of strong numbers. many blaming the weather for that. as for the fed, reaction also mixed. here's a smattering of the commentary i was reading. pnc actually moving their call for the first rate hike to september from july. goldman saying the risk of their september rate hike is now later because of this report. and everybody chill out. there's two more jobs reports between now and june and those could certainly turn

joining us with more cnbc's steve leisman. and jack who's one of our go-to guys. 's chief investment officer. and strategist at raymond james here. do you want fill in a few, steve? >> real quick on the import prices. consumer goods and autos. you're seeing the impact of the stronger dollar coming through. also lower petroleum prices. they were actually up this time around. everything else was negative. year over year the thing that might feed in does so on a basis. but it's exerts downward pressure. motor vehicle imports down 1.8%. that's the key, joe. you have this modest impact on inflation. it's something the fed is watching. but they say repeatedly is not determining their policy. >> jeff we'll get to you -- >> he was laughing. >> we'll get to you in just second. but jack what are you -- this -- how long have you been a ge shareholder? at least a decade or more i would think, right? >> two, joe. >> what do you think of this today? thumbs up? >> joe, this is the restructuring that the long-suffering ge shareholders like ourselves have been waiting for. this bri