Transcripts For CNBC Squawk Box 20240622

This hour europe is down a little bit. Were giving back just a little bit today after another great session but descent session yesterday. You can see if youre not listening on the radio, were down about 40 points on the dow jones. The nasdaq is going to benefit from the great numbers from google. It benefitted earlier this week by netflix and has i wouldnt say diverged from the other averages but certainly been much stronger than a relative basis. S p is down less than a point. In europe, there were green arrows after what has been a pretty good week and since last week when the feeling that this would be resolved favorably in terms of greece started and seeped into the markets. France. The only index at this point up but upright at a fifth of a point. Asia this morning is better with japan higher. The hang seng higher. And what were watching closely is shanghai up sharply. Up 3. 5 in a snap back. Crude continues to be on the weak side. Now down under 51. Next stop potentially under 50. Well see after the iran deal was at least okayed and now you dont need that Many Democrats really to keep that. That could be a few defections and its impossible for republicans to stop. Well see, every day i get another thing on twitter that says retweet this if you want to let Chuck Schumer know this is a bad deal. Hes sensitive to it. He does hold a lot of sway. He hasnt hes still looking at it he says. Its not going to end the sanctions on u. S. Companies doing business there because there are still sanctions in place from 1995 that prohibit u. S. Businesses from going in there. So all the companies that think this is game on not so for u. S. Companies. European companies thats a different story. Lets check out the dollar this morning which was weaker. Not the dollar the euro was weaker today which some people think is a negative for our markets. Were right in the middle of earnings season. Well see how ge was affected by the stronger dollar this morning and well get some more multinationals and industrials next week and then finally gold down another 1. 70 and 11 47. Interesting to see if that finally gets under the 1100 mark this time around. Theres new data out that suggests that american investors are staying close to home. Data shows that u. S. Based nondomestic funds posted 3. 7 billion in out flows in the last week. In the meantime u. S. Based domestic focus stock funds attracted 2. 9 billion. On todays agenda a couple of notable companies. I just referenced General Electric. We will be looking at and see how that company is fairing in its divestment of what used to be thought of as key assets but not anymore. Well see whether thats helping. Stock did run up on that news but it came all the way back down to around 27 and honeywell also before the bell and weve seen very cos pif comments about it. It was early in the morning. You have to earn the right to be a conglomerant. Ge is offering concessions to buy alstoms power unit. Its not making the details public but submitted a proposal. On the economic front today the Consumer Price index is due at 8 30 eastern. Economists are looking for the headline number to rise. 3 and june housing stocks and later this morning well get Consumer Spending. Lets talk about earnings. This is part of the stocks to watch this morning. Google topping estimates for the first time in six quarters. Getting a boost from strong advertising revenue. Also a thumbs up about discipline spending. That was pretty key and well talk to an analyst about this in a few minutes. Also matel topping estimates. The driver for this was stronger demand for its fisher price toys and also lower costs but barbie sales were still weak. They dropped 11 . Mattel announcing it renewed his partnership with disney for the toy story films. We will talk to a toy analyst coming up in the next half hour. Schlumberger earnings topping consensus. Theyre cutting costs and helped offset the impact of reduced drilling activity. The north american rig count may now be touching the bottom. And shares of hertz today. The stock got a bump in after hours trading. They increased the annual cost savings target and expects 2015 growth between. 5 and 1. 5 . Conoco phillips plans to cut spending citing low crude oil prices. They already cut Capital Spending twice. Its raising its Quarterly Dividend by a penny to 74 cents a share. In news out of washington the sec is ready to reject 3. 3 billion of auction discounts requested by dish network entities. In the 45 billion box earlier this year. Officials decided that the companies didnt qualify for Small Business discounts but i figured how these guys worked hes not stupid. But if you read through that story yeah. They say other companies have done this in the past but what you had was these companies driving up the bids, if that was based on the fact they were going to get a discount that means everybody else paid a higher price because they wouldnt have had to bid to these levels. They were aligned. Collaborating. The three of them were playing together and as a result those three companies, the two small ones in dish they took 27 of the wireless bids. You got to try. If it was at t or something i would be furious. Pretend your a Small Company but youre aligned together. Im on tom wheelers side on this one. The enemy of my enemy. I think it was the right call. Lets get back to google looking to be a big winner today. Victory anthony is a director and Senior Research analyst. Thank you for being here today. Thank you. So this was a big number. First time in six quarters that they beat expectations and the biggest take away is the tough talk. Thats one of it. This quarter was a catalyst to get the stock going because it was stuck in a range for the past 18 month. Before or after the numbers . After the numbers Revenue Growth accelerated. And Expense Growth thats probably the key to getting the knock to work because now you have a chase that could be made that google could continue to beat earnings estimates over the next year or two. How much of this of your upgraded stock how much of the expenses being held back and how much is just the advertising was stronger than expected too . Yeah. Revenue growth accelerated. That was driven by mobile as well as youtube. So on the search side you saw cpcs, its how much is paid every single time you click a link. The cost of mobile accelerated, the growth accelerated in the quarter. Not just a mobile but that was a key for the stock. Revenue growth is accelerating and expenses are coming down. Do you have a price target in mind . Yeah i took it up to 850. From the stock at 672 even after the gains we saw last night. You end 2016. So look at a return of 18 from where the stock was raiding in the after hours. If you have any concerns what would they be. That continues to linger as a risk on stock. You still have competition from gook. Thats the biggest competitor within the space but the space is big enough to accommodate big nails. When you talk to big advertisers themselves when theyre looking at digital theyre probably spending more and more on digital. The two big players are facebook and google and then it drops off a cliff. You dont see massive amounts of money being allocated to other players in the industry. Do you think thats going to kang . Facebook and google will continue to dominate Online Advertising space. But listen i think theres a lot taken out by verizon. Yahoo has a small piece they can improve at the time. I think google and facebook are in a prime position to dominate that shift thats taking place right now. Whats your rating on facebook . Do have a buy but if i were to pick one of the two i think facebook would be the better buy because the significant catalyst for facebook hasnt really made its way into consensus numbers. Like what . Video advertising thats starting to amp up. Instagram ads starting to ramp up. Whats app they havent started to monetize yet. Theyll do that in 2016 as well as messenger. Thank you for coming in today. Four marines are dead in tennessee after a lone gunman opened opened fire at two u. S. Military facilities in chattanooga yesterday after what is being linked to possible terrorism. The latest on the victims and what we know about the gunman dave. This is an active crime scene. This is the place where the four marines were ki its a sad morning in chattanooga. Four families are grieving and the community as a whole is grieving as well. 30 minutes of terror at two military centers. The question this morning that investigators are trying to answer here was it an act of terrorism . Chattanooga police will tell you if you look at some of the pictures from the crime scenes they responded very very quick quickly. They maintained they saved a hot of lives. Four marines were killed and a number of other people were injured. They believe they saved lives. If you look at some of the photo from the crime scene there the number of bullets that hit the building particularly at the recruiting center there which is about seven miles from this location here you see all of those bullets in the windows there so a very dangerous scene there and it was amazing that more people were not injured. I can tell you that chattanooga is a growing community here in tennessee. The people are proud that a lot of larger businesses are moving into this community. They see a lot of business moving in. They dont see this type of crime. We did hear from the president last night. He spoke about this and talked about how the country, the community is grieving. It is a heartbreaking circumstance for these individuals that served our country with great voir dire lor to be killed in this fashion and although the families are still in the process of being contacted i want them to know that i speak for the American People in expressing our deepest condolences and knowing they have our full support as they try to overcome the grief. And that was president obama speaking yesterday. The 24yearold gunman lived with his parents north of this area here close to chattanooga. His dad is a City Employee. The gunman was not on any terrorist watch list but theres a High School Yearbook entry which is haunting at this point. It says my name causes National Security alerts. What does yours . And thats the latest were learning right now. Theyre very tight lipped as investigators continue to search these two active crime scenes. Back to you. Dave thank you. Thats dave from nbc. When we come back well have more of the days top stories including more of the key vote on the greek bailout today plus how choosing the right car color could save you money. Plus take a look at this date back in history. The mercedesbenz summer event is here. Now get the unmistakable thrill. And the incredible rush of the mercedesbenz youve always wanted. But you better get here fast. Yay, daddys here here you go, honey. Thank you. Because a good thing like this wont last forever. See your authorized dealer for an incredible offer on the exhilarating c300 sport sedan. But hurry, offers end soon. Share your summer moments in your mercedesbenz with us. When you do business everywhere, the challenges of keeping everyone working together can quickly become the only thing you think about. Thats where at t can help. At t has the tools and the network you need to make working as one easier than ever. Virtually anywhere. Leaving you free to focus on what matters most. Welcome back. To want on an all new american greed hes a former irs agent turned accountant accused of running a 13 million fraud. The tax return he files is vastly different from the copy he applies his clients. He simply cuts off the first digit of the clients income theres massively lowering the amount of taxes owed and thats the return he files with the irs. But dont think hes doing his clients any favors. His clients never see the smaller return. They believe they owe taxes on their actual income. He would convince them that they should pay their taxes directly to a Client Trust Account as he referred to it and he told them that he would pay their taxes for them on their own behalf the checks directly to this account but in truth the Client Trust Account wasnt a real trust account. It was his own personal piggy bank. Good scam if you can figure out Something Like that but when the fed comes after him he plots to murder those that know too much. Its an exciting all new american greed tonight at 10 00 a. M. Eastern time and pacific. Wow. Yeah. Not all american greed guys are this bad. Taking matters into his own hands. A story in the usa today suggests that picking the right car color can save you money. It turns out black, white, and silver vehicles stand a better chance of returning a little more at resale. You understand this. Other considerations lighter colored cars are less likely to show dirt and scratches. They get hotter. Cars get hotter in the summer. One Study Suggests that white cars are less likely to be in accidents. The car colors dont appear to effect any insurance rates. Unless its a cherry red, right . Ive learned lessons over the years about car color. I once got a. It does during the gas crisis and i had a beautiful white firebird. I told my father it was like 1978 or something and i said gas prices are never going back down. Oil prices are never going back down. Im going to trade in my va and get a 4 cylinder mustang and it had a plaid interior. It had a stick shift and it was so embarrassing. It was orange and by the time i sold that i was driving around in this orange piece of crap really. Did your father ever say i told you so . He never did but he was right about that and the other thing we once bought one of those cadillac the purple cadillac that you bought right . Yes. It was a cross over thing and we were once we were somewhere and we parked it where we werent supposed to park and it said will the owner of the purple cadillac please come. And i looked at my wife and we thought purple cadillac who would have and we went thats us. So dont buy purple and was it eggplant . It was a purple car. Im on the silver train too. Silver and black. Sometimes you think i want to get something a little bit different but then you get sick of it. Right and they end up driving these cars for a long time so it takes a while n. Chairs today taking a look at stories that caught our attention. You know moefrores law. The opposite of murphys law. Yes this is that things will get better and better over time. This is gordon moore. He issued this rule that said the chip makers would squeeze twice as many transistors on to the same area every year or so. Moores law seems to be slowing down a little bit and inobstetricalintel is the latest to tell us. Every two years they could squeeze twice as much on to it and now wednesday they said for the second time in two years they think its going to take 2. 5 years to get to that point. I remember about a year ago we did something in chairs similar to this thats new stuff. You know theres physical restraints and other materials you can use. I remember them saying they were extended to 2008 and could keep going on track. I dont know whether there this is the thing that finally catches up . I dont know. Everything else keeps moving forward. There could be a time where chips you figure are at this point d. Ben white joining us in a few minutes. Using single molecules is as important as moving along to do these things. Its hard. This is hard work. Its hard work and you have to decide. You have to be a decider. You do it well. I do. Coming up, this mornings top stories plus Quarterly Results from dow component general he lek electric. But first a look at yesterdays s p 500 winners and losers. I built my business with passion. But i keep it growing by making every dollar count. Thats why i have the spark cash card from capital one. I earn unlimited 2 cash back on everything i buy for my studio. And that unlimited 2 cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business. Thats huge for my bottom line. Whats in your wallet . Hello. I am technology that is changing investing forever. I am a fully automated Investment Advisory service. I can help you choose the right portfolio. Monitor it. And even rebalance it. Ive been called innovative. Revolutionary. And just plain smart. Id blush at the compliment if i could. But i cant. So. I wont. Say hello at intelligent. Schwab. Com good morning and welcome back to squawk box here on cnbc. Andrew is off today. Todays top story, germany is voting on that bailout for greece. German chancellor Angela Merkel speaking earlier this morning. She said trust has been lost in greece. But argued germany wants to keep greece in the euro zone despite its political differences. Merkel argues that there cant be a hair cut in the euro zone. The German Parliament is debating the reform for aid package for greece now and is expected to vote within the next hour or so. In other headlines this morning the imf head is reiterating her relief that the country needs some sort of debt relief. The ecb has increased liquidity assistance to greek banks and theyre expected to reopen on monday. Meantime in athens Prime Minister tsipras is expected to reshuffle his cabinet. There was a rebellion over the vote to improve measures. Even the imf is saying does it matter whether you call it a restructuring or reformulation or hair cut . Its the all the same thing if you extend and pretend. As expected the New York Times has slowly but surely been talking about germany and thrusting austerity on people. Its a great piece today. German tone grows sharper. Now people i think they actually do say Something Like theyre just now being perceived. Mean spirited people. Selfish. Germans are selfish. They have a lot of nerve. General electric is hitting wires. 31 cents a share looks like the number to compare to a 28 cent estimate. But also the revenue was better than expected. 32. 75. Im look agent the press we lease where i see other numbers. There must be other numbers before and after some assets are spun off. Maybe this is industrial revenues that i see its tough to say. Ge had a good quarter with strong growth. The environment remains one of slow growth and volatility particular hi in what were growth markets. The u. S. Is gradually improving. Our industrial businesses had another good quarter. Strong eps growth of 18 with orders up 8 . We continue to execute on our plans and theyre on track for closing 100 billion in 2015 an theyre raising the low end of the Industrial Operating guidance to 113. If you look at the oil and gas profits theyre down 12 . Take out the dollar. Take out the dollar and its being received positively. Its up 1. 15 . Joining us now is jack hes the chief Investment Officer at harvard advisory. Are you up to speed on whats happening there . Theres more concessions being made right . Yeah the eu is concerned about a no nopmonopoly position . Does it finally get done or is there a problem . I think theres a problem joe. To get it done concessions are going to have to be pretty deep and ge has to think hard about the level of concessions theyre making is the irr still going to be above the hurdle rate . They want to have the service business. Its half of what ge generates in the rest of the world and they can create a great annuity strain. As far as the rest of the report, ge is becoming more and more obviously in Industrial Companies so thats why they are increasingly breaking out the industrial performance. In the world were living in right now do you think theyre out performing or in line in terms of the operation . Joe, this report shows theyre outperforming the industrials in this environment. Organic Revenue Growth is at the top of their goals which were set early in the year. So i think thats pretty impressive. Many of the other industrials, organic revenue is closer to zero. So for order growth to be plus 8 and to raise a lower end of the earnings expectations is pretty impressive in this environment. Do you think the oil and gas business even actually pays off . Do you see the irony you get out of a lot of businesses right until the oil prices come down . That might be a better time to add to that segment . I do see the irony and this would be a good time. Its already 15 of revenues. You have to say how much concentration do you want. I think it would be a Good Business going forward. Even with alloy at 100. However you have to be concerned about your concentration risk and with revenues down 14 in the latest period do you want greater exposure to that . My guess would be no. What do you want the company to do as it continues to dievest and has available cash. Do you want reinvestment or the return to shareholder . Well their answer to that question to date has been a balance of both. Id rather see a reduction in shares outstanding. When we get to the end of this two year period where they restructured ge capital and they have shed some of the lower growing industrial businesses that stock will trade better. Id rather have a reduction in shares between now and then. Theres about 10 billion shares outstanding. Thats correct. And theyre targeting 8 to 8. 5 billion by the end of the transition period by 2018. Still 3. 4 yield. When do you expect the dividend to be hiked . They do it on a consistent basis when . They have done it in december the last few years but this year theyll take a holiday and wait until next year. All right. Thank you as always. Thanks for having me joe. Youre welcome. When we come back this morning, a toy story. Forget about barbie. Demand for fisher price toys sending mattel to a surprise profit. The view from the street right after this. In the us, three in ten College Students drop out. But how can you spot whos at risk . The one who lives far from campus . The one who works the night shift . The one with new responsibilities . One thing cant tell you, but the right combination can. Universities are using ibm analytics to understand pressures in and out of the classroom some expect to cut dropout rates by twentyfive percent. Ibm analytics is working to make education smarter every day. Can a business have a mind . A subconscious. A knack for predicting the future. Reflexes faster than the speed of thought. Can a business have a spirit . Can a business have a soul . Can a business be. Alive . Welcome back. Lets check the equity futures. The nasdaq has been doing well today. Up about 25 points premarket. Huge today. Yesterday also nasdaq better than the dow. The dow is down 34 points and the s p 500 off fractionally. Off. 44 points making headlines russia and opec secretary general will discuss oil markets and the situation in iran and moscow on july 30th. This is according to the Russian Energy and 50. 82. 50. 82. Thats basically unchanged. So well see what the next stop is. Whether its below 50 or rebound. We have seen levels we havent seen in the past six weeks. 5455. Still a little additional pressure. Hulu is exploring an ad free option to its service. This could launch as early as the fall and would be priced at around 12 to 14 a month. Users that paid 7. 99 a month for the Subscription Service had to sit through advertising breaks. Theyre jointly owned by 21st century fox and disney and comcast. Mattel swinging to a profit during the first full quarter under the new ceo. The Worlds Largest toy maker attributing results to a rise in demand for fisher price toys while barbie continues to struggle. Down about 35 and doing much better you can see is hasbro. Joining us with insight into the toy industry stephanie who covers mattel. I dont know if you cover hasbro. Would you sell hasbro and buy mattel to be safe . It depends on your time horizon. Stepping back and looking at the next several years hasbro has the advantage but these companies have started to look very different. Hasbro taking a lean toward content driven properties where mattel really wants to own brands and bring those brands directly to the market. Just the idea of kids still playing with things that arent on electronic computer screens. It just it seems like not a great bet to make. Im thinking back to tom hanks an how he was able to think like a kid. And they made those buildings that turned into bugs or something and he was like woman standing would want to play what makes sense physically for a kid to play with now . Obviously not barbie. Its a fantastic observation. Age compression. Thats how we think about the industry being encroached upon by other mediums of play has been a topic we have been talking about for several decades. First it was video games when it came into the household we thought what are little boys going to play with in terms of toys. But we notice it didnt change the dynamics of the industry. It created more of an opportunity for them to converge and to figure out ways to create more engaging play and youre seeing that with respect to content. Some of the biggest properties in the toy industry are tied to media content. Whether thats Motion Pictures or animated series or video games. Do you think barbie cannot make a comeback . Well it raises some questions around barbies brand equity and the perception of barbie in the marketplace. Moms have concerns around barbie with body image and portrayal of vanity and mattel is doing intriguing things to try to very verse that negative. The doll industry is an important industry and category for mattel. Its part of their profit and they have a direct manufacturing capability and they need to get the dohl business right. Barbie is the biggest piece of that. Theres changes in language around how theyre talking about barbie and even though the wholesale numbers were down substantially, the pos meaning their retail sell through to the consumer is actually positive. So were starting to see the consumer pull through be a bit improved. Do they have ceo barbie yet or neurosurgeon barbie. Pantsuit barbie . Run for president or Something Like that . Fair point. They dont. However they do have a super hero barbie and this is the year of super heros so we have been talking about marvel and anticipating the star wars premiere in december and theyre going to play into that big theme. If older brother is running around the room playing with his flying super hero little sister might want that same behavior so theyre providing that under the Barbie Barbie brand. They have multiethnic barbies or many different looks to the barbie collection. Not just a single individual barbie but many different ethnicities as well as style preferences so this range of barbies, this is a new trend. To think about barbie not as a single character but as a collection of branded dolls. But to your point about body image are they going to change the dimensions of the doll . Theres been more changes. More subtle. Particularly in the new dolls. So i think they are listening to consumers, particularly moms millennial moms and taking into acounty what some of those concerns might be. I just i cant imagine trying to design things in todays world. I guess i mean god forbid you introduce some type of gun i mean nobody sells toy guns anymore, do they . Yeah they do. They still do. Is there a vegan barbie. She shouldnt be eating gmo foods. I wouldnt know what to try to sell to millennials or their children. Nothing would be enough . You have a tough job. There is a new line coming from a competitor of mattel that is built around the stem curriculum. Science Technology Engineering and math which is a new buzz word in the educational arenas. Theres a new doll line coming tied to that proposition and i think its going to surprise the marketplace. Really. Okay. I dont think i can go any further here. Remember those bratz dolls. What were those . Horrible. Horrible. They were the antibarbie certainly, right. Thats why im saying. Im going to end it right here. Thank you. Appreciate it on monday. On monday on squawk well be joined by hasbro ceo. Media companies and food companies. Because, you know someone will tweet something about it and the next thing you know theyll be boycotting your toys. Well. Ben white is here. Well talk politics and the field of president ial hopefuls and more. But first check out the futures this morning. Things are mixed. Dow futures down by 31 points but nasdaq up by 25. Stay tuned. Squawk box will be right back. At ally bank no branches equals great rates. Its a fact. 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Was that you jason . It was geoffrey it was jason. It couldve been brenda. Welcome back, everybody. After donald trump announced his bid for the white house, many discounted him right away. But the donald is climbing in the polls and could give the others a run for their money. Ben white is a cnbc contributor. Thanks for coming in. Thanks for having me. This is the second poll in the course of a week that ive seen where donald trump is in the lead. What is he saying thats catching peoples attention . I think he taps into a lot of frustration in the Republican Party with you know careful politicians. He says stuff about immigration, he says stuff about, you know policy towards iran. Hes very outspoken, very bombastic. And he connects with people who do not want politics as usual, that want somebody who excites them. I dont think he has the staying power to get the nomination. He doesnt have the background. He doesnt have the training one would want to see in a commander in chief. But hes going to be a factor in this race and debate ifs he goes hard after jeb bush in the debates and by all accounts hell get on the stage and reach that level if he goes after bush on education, immigration. That gives a window for the other candidates not to do that bring down bush a peg. If you were to, like design the opposite of donald trump, thats a candidate no. But thats a candidate that on the other hand is just as probably divisive. Never saying anything without putting into the political wind. The world itself now because of social media or whatever theres a lot of people pushing back against the absolute. My god. And i think you assume everyones a racist until they prove theyre not at this point. The slightest thing, people will play the race card. Ten years ago where you couldnt live in the world from ten years ago you couldnt have the tv shows that were on ten years ago. We live in a much more intensely pc culture. There are people that tap into trump and say this guy is not afraid. Hes not a politician. Hes got a job. Hes got money. And he doesnt need everybody else, ben, that has a job has to apologize immediately. He doesnt have to. Hes not funded by anybody else. Hes spending his own money. Theres a frustration in the electorate and in this case the republican primary electorate with wages not going up very much, people feeling like theyre not getting ahead. And this guy has made a bunch of money, maybe he knows how to do it. Hes talking straight to me. Maybe hes got ideas to get the economy moving again. As you say, hes completely outspoken and to a fault. You might want to think longer and harder on the immigration comment zblps christie is saying things. Like hes got nothing to lose almost. Trump has a much higher rating. I dont see that. Jeb at times has surprised in terms of not taking the easy way out of certain maybe hillary is more of the dont shes very calculated in terms of not getting too out there on wall street reform, or any of her particular policies. I believe that calculating was one of the words that was supposed to be not used. There were 10 or 11 youre not supposed to use in terms of secretary clinton. And i think you just violated one of those. Theres a fine. I think there might be a fine for that. That calculating theres plenty of calculating. I will say this. I think trump will be a factor in the race. Do you think he thinks he might be like a reagan type character . Thats a milliondollar question whether in his mind this is a real deal to get the nomination. I think its increasingly becoming the possibility. It would have to be intoxicating. We talked about it. Others who vaulted to the front of the polls in 2012 and Newt Gingrich. And one time Newt Gingrich in the 2012 campaign was talking about himself in the third person as the nominee. When we get the nomination. Like, you can be sort of in this for your own brand, to increase your speaking fees to increase that. But at some point you get to the top of the polls then it becomes real. There are choices for me. But there are choices where i would vote for trump rather than other people. I believe that. Coming up this mornings top stories including General Electric stories now up more than 2 after can it tell the doctor how long you have to wear this thing . Can it tell the Flight Attendant to please not wake me this time . The answer is yes, it can. So, the question your customers are really asking is can your business deliver . If you cant stand the heat, get off the test track. Get the mercedesbenz youve been burning for at the summer event, going on now at your authorized mercedesbenz dealer. Hurry, before this opportunity cools off. Share your summer moments in your mercedesbenz with us. Our guest host this hour is jardens Martin Franklin. Well get his read on the economy and Consumer Spending coming up. Amazon prime day sparking criticism and rancor on twitter. But analyst gene munster says the boost in sales and traffic means the holiday will be here for years to come. Well break down the numbers straight ahead. And bacon news. At least sort of. Patented a new strain of seaweed that tastes like bacon. Well show you what chefs in portland are cooking up as the second hour of squawk box begins right now. Live from the beating heart of business, new york city, this is squawk box. Welcome back to squawk box here on cnbc first in business worldwide. Im joe kernen along with becky quick. Andrew is off today. U. S. Equity futures are mixed because the dows down by the nasdaq is sharply higher based on what were going to see with google today. Looking at the market cap of google and at one point it was quite a bit higher than it was now. But its pushing pretty lofty numbers. Got to be in the top five. Back above 400 now. 405 billion. Exxonmobil is down to 346. Yeah. Its apple and google are both there. Amazon is on its way, isnt it . Wheres amazon. Amazon 221. Oh spp it only 221 . Yeah. Theres wells fargo. That must be wells fargo is pretty big. But mostly tech. Still mostly tech right . Facebooks getting up there, too, isnt it . Berkshire hathaway is at 354. Facebook is only 255. Anyway, earnings news breaking in the last hour. Dow component ge reporting earnings per share of 31 cents. 3 cents above wall street estimates. Revenue also beat. And shares of General Electric up 54 cents now. Among our top global headlines this morning, greek banks are set to reopen monday after the ecb boosted emergency aid. But reuters are reporting that bankers are still waiting for approval from the Greek Central Bank and government there. The banks have been shut since june 29th. Prime minister Alexis Tsipras is expected to reshuffle his cabinet. There was a rebellion over the vote to improve austerity measures. And the German Parliament is looking at the aid package right now. A vote is expected at any time. Later this hour well be talking to david lipton. Lagarde continues to say that some sort of Debt Forgiveness is needed hoo er eded here. It might be i think thats the way it is. Apple, Google Microsoft now maybe. Let me see microsoft. So the big three are all 377, microsoft. Yeah. So apple, google, microsoft, exxon, berkshire. I think thats right. Amazing. Our guest host for the next two hours is Martin Franklin founder and executive chairman of jarden. Hes on his way you would agree to 400 billion at jarden. Something to aspire to. They acquired waddington for more than 1 billion. We got a bunch of cool stuff here. I love i like tents. I like tents. Even if you dont go anywhere, you put them in your back yard. A lot of people do. Absolutely. That way you can watch a little on demand or netflix in your house and go out and sleep in the tent. Favorite thing for kids to do. It is right . Were going to do that again. All right. Globally with the dollar with greece, with china and all these things, are you is it tougher to navigate or just do the same thing . You know, look. We have to navigate every day and every environment. And the reality is with a stronger dollar we have to deal with it. So we do the hedging that we can do. But at the end of the day its a lag because you change pricing to reflect. You move things around. But at the end of the day, its impacted everybody who reports in dollars. We do about 38 of our sales abroad. The vast majority of our sales are domestic. We deal with it. What has been the impact, how did big . Its moved our earnings around probably less than 5 . But its still an impact. Are these products in general like in this country, do you need a Strong Economy to have boom times or is it relatively inelastic . The way i see it if america is healthy, the rest of the world gets healthy over time. And are we healthy . I think we are. I think its a Slower Development than saying anything that hasnt already been said. But at the end of the day, its a steady continuing growth. I always see the u. S. Economy a bit like a tanker. When its moving in the right direction, theres not a lot of things politicians can do to kick it off course. At the moment things are pretty good. Do you have things that people have to buy or things People Choose to buy and then dont buy when things are great . We have both. We have what we call seasonal staples. When kids come around for baseball season they buy their kid a glove. What we see is the mix is different in good times. And if you look at the mix of things that people are buying today, a lot of rods and reels. What were seeing are people stepping up feeling pretty good about their purchases. We just got retail Sales Numbers that were pathetic for the last month. What happened . Well i cant you know one month is not a year. At the end of the day, my comments are sort of macro. And there are always pockets of weakness. But is that reflective of what you saw too . It makes people wonder. We put out our figures yesterday. Globally. Jarden overall. I dont have it off the top of my number what the organic number would have been just for the u. S. You know i think its overall it could be a lot worse. Thats you know how i see it. Having said that im not sure that theres any hurry to feel that were out of the woods. So you got a lot of instability in europe obviously. So what you closed on waddington or announced waddington . Announced. And it will take theres not a lot of competitive overlap. They have a lot of specialty business. For example, if you see the cutlery that looks like silverware, they have the patented technology to make that. At one of our existing businesses before we bought wading ton, we were buying from them. Theyve got really great products. Theyve got a great presence in food service. That takes us into the b to b service. All disposal. They have an ecofriendly business thats quite big and growing. Fastest organic grower within the business. And they have a solid specialty business. Better be eco. We were just talking about that with toys and everything else. Got to be gender neutral, race neutral barbie. Somebody wrote in for the vegan nogmo barbie. We dont need people aspiring to being razor thin either. Her dimensions originally would topple over. A fracking barbie . No fracking barbies. No no no. I dont think so. I dont think thats in the mix. But do you think about things like this . You must. Every ceo has to think about we think about reinventing the wheel all the time. We just came out of our ops review for a week. This is small, but how have you reinvented playing cards. These arent on the market yet. Whats different about it . If you look at the coating on the top, this is you can see what the card is. Which i like. 10 of hearts. Thats good. But only the dealer really wants to play with those, right . At the end of the day, the whole idea is to create excitement about a product thats been around for a long time. Okay. Now, you is that your water . Thats my water. So tell me about that. Why are you drinking out of that . Only because it was given to me by somebody who works for our company. Which i thought was a great idea. Will people can with that or something . People can with the real home canning jars. This is simply a reinvention of a plastic jar but made into a mug. If you go out and go to bars and stuff, youll see more and more people using these. Is that moonshine . It could be. Make for an interesting second hour. When youre trying to figure out what am i going to do thats going to be special in 2016 or whatever. Is it Something Like how to work better on the web . Is it another acquisition you dont have yet adding to something . So coming off of a week of Strategic Planning we do this where were not talking a lot about numbers. Is that meetings and stuff . How long do they last. Because of the portfolio, four days. Do you do it in a nice place at least . I wouldnt. Atlantic city has some get a great deal in atlantic city. At some large corporations dont do it in a nice place. And then who leads them . Just depends . So all of our businesses present to each other. So everybodys in the room. Everybody gets to share issues. Thats one of the i think thats become inside jarden an interesting place. Theyve got an internal network of people to share ideas with opportunities with issues with. If they want to go sell products in south africa, weve got a shared Service Platform being held there. And they get to network with each other. Our ceo does a great job. Martin is our guest host. Hes going to be with us for the rest of the hour. When we come back well talk about a big hit or big miss. Amazon hosting a black friday type of event in july but did it pay off . Well find out next. And then billionaire investor Noam Gottesman. And then weighing in on the bailout. Squawk box will be right back. Everyone loves the picture i posted of you. At t reminds you it can wait. Welcome back to squawk box. Lets check the futures. Down 36 on the dow. Up 25 on the nasdaq because of google. Honeywell posting better than expected earnings and revenue. The company also raising the low end of its fullyear profit guidance. Getting rewarded with a move to 105 which looks like a pretty good number for honeywell. Has it been there before, becky, do you know . I dont know. Let me look up and see. I dont know. 107 is the alltime high. So were on our way back to that. Amazon being criticized on the internet for overhyping its big prime day. Many were comparing it to an online garage sale with items discounted. But according to piper jav rayffrayjaffray, they will end from the quarter alone. Gene, youre suggesting that amazon gets the last laugh here . Yeah they did. It might have been a garage sale, but a lot of people showed up. 2 is a material day. I mean that actually has something as an investor you should factor into how you think about the september quarter. So adding 2 to unit sales is definitely a win for this prime day. Which for better or worse well probably see again next year. Amazon didnt necessarily need to do this. What drove them to do this . Is july generally a slower time for sales . Well, its a little slower time. I think theres a couple other factors going on. They dont want to do Something Like this closer to the holiday because that can kind of draw and pull in some of the sale. So they can create some organic. The other kind of wild card Conspiracy Theory is that next monday jet. Com is going to launch. And thats going to be more competitive with costco. But also be kind of 100 a year type of an offering with really low prices. Jet was founded by who founded diapers. Com. Which amazon acquired. If youre thinking of amazon as a potential threat you want to steal some of the maybe momentum going into jet. So i think this was very strategically placed. You think this is going to be a big player in this space . I think jet has something. Theyve got a when you buy things it kind of gameifis the process. And they do well with the fast moving stuff for your home. So i think thats something that historically amazon hasnt done as well on. Theyre trying to really tap into the costco type of consumer. What do you mean gameify . As you add Different Things to the cart because of the way their logistics work some of the prices can change. And you can get lower prices by adding more things into it. So it becomes a game. Thats one way to get people to play on your site and throw it in . Exactly. And it actually it shows that this lowering of the prices obviously the consumer can see the price coming down as they add things. And so it gives them more of an incentive to buy more. Do you expect amazon to copy on that if it works . I have a feeling this plays out one of two ways. Either one is that jet isnt successful. I think they will be successful. But more likely i think that Amazon Amazon ultimately buys jet when they become more successful. Wow. In terms of what you think of amazon, whats your rating on the company and do you have a price target too . Were at 520 as our price target. And margins are going to improve. Everyone knows that. But more importantly we think the unit growth is going to be a surprise for people on the upside. And that we think that is going to add further upside to the multiple. Is the unit growth coming from new customers coming on or existing customers who are just buying more and more from amazon . Its the prime growth. Which is the other kind of big part of this story is by adding prime members people spend a lot more. Its typically seven times as much as a nonprime user. Okay. Gene, i want to thank you for your time this morning. Thank you. Coming up dow component General Electric reporting earlier this morning. Well dig through the report with an analyst. Thats next. A key analyst. And then at the top of the hour a squawk news maker you wont want to miss. Monsanto ceo, hugh grant. Jien joining us on the set. Ah aflac . Aflac i thought you said this guy was the best . Oh, hes a horrible stylist. Gah . But hes the best at paying claims fast really. Mmhmm. Paid mine in just one day. One day . Yea. Aaaflaaaac in just one day, we approve and pay. One day pay, only from aflac. 40 of the streetlights in detroit, at one point, did not work. You had some blocks and you had major thoroughfares and corridors that were just totally pitch black. Those things had to change. We wanted to restore our lighting system in the city. You can have the greatest dreams in the world, but unless you can finance those dreams, it doesnt happen. At the time that the bankruptcy filing was done, the Public Lighting Authority had a hard time of finding a bank. Citi did not run away from the table like some other bankers did. Citi had the strength to help us go to the credit markets and raise the money. Its a brighter day in detroit. People can see better when theyre out doing their tasks, young people are moving back in town the kids are feeling safer while they walk to school. And folks are making investments and the community is moving forward. 40 of the lights were out, but theyre not out for long. Theyre coming back. Welcome back to squawk box. We are watching shares of google this morning. The earnings topping estimates for the first time in the last six quarters. Google getting a boost from strong advertising revenue. Investors also giving a thumbs up to comments from the new cfo about disciplined spending. And separately google reporting that a motorist crashed into the companys selfdriving car earlier this month. Its the 14th car accident for googles fleet. But in every other instance other motorists have been at fault. And according to google in the most recent incident the Autonomous Vehicle was stationary when it was rear end ended by a driver at 17 miles per hour. Passengers in both cars suffered minor whiplash. The accidents highlight the dangers of distracted driving. It hasnt been instances where the cars were the selfdriving cars were at fault. It was somebody else ran into them. Right. And no word on whether the person just thought it was so ugly it just wanted to run into it to try to just squash that thing. That is the you know whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Perfect for the future world where that is i mean did you think they deliberately is there anything aerodynamic about it . I have no idea why it looks like that. Ill work at home. I just wont thats a golf cart. I wont even commute at this point. Im embarrassed. Anyway. General electric reporting kwrt Quarterly Results this morning. We have analyst at William Blair with us. Nick, nick nick. Its like war and peace, you and this company, isnt it . How long . 33 years. So youve seen everything. Wheres the company right now with longtime watcher like you . Its coming up for air. It is. Yeah. What is the most positive things in the what would you call it . Sort of a remix of the whole assets the asset composition of the company and you like whats happening. Yeah. Its a reinvention of the company. Theyve found the next big thing, i think. And thats probably ge softwares data analytics. Which could become as important by early midnext decade is ge capital was over the last couple decades. By exiting capital, the big unknown, theyre really shifting back now to become the premier supplier of global base infrastructure power, water, Transportation Oil and gas. Critical needs that are unmet around the world. I havent heard software used very often in reference to General Electric. We visited them since we last talked with you. And its Pretty Amazing what theyre doing. Do tell. Predictive analytics for them is now moving way beyond their 1 trillion installed base of products. And in fact theyre able to through the industrial internet and partners use their predict software to begin to track realtime whats going on all over the world for virtually all industrial equipment. This sounds like the ultimate what was a really hot area. I always say it like tom costello because he was always down on the nasdaq walking the wall. But this sounds like the ultimate b 2 b business. Yeah. We remember when companies way back when were getting involved in digitizing their Business Models in the late 90s. And that you know certainly was a big transformative factor for Industrial Companies. But today, you know just ge honeywell, and rockwell are really involved in data analytics. Thats the next generation of digital aftermarket for Industrial Companies. Predictive. Does that mean you have an idea when theyre going to need to get some new stuff from you . It means you can begin to extract what are likely to be critical trends in the future. Predictive in terms of which way to go the way to guide your business, you mean. Yeah. I mean how much shipping will go through the Northwest Passage and so as a result if youre in the Transportation Business like a railroad what should you do to better optimize your ability to capitalize on that trend . Or where should you put a new hub if youre a Major Airline in north america if all the airlines are going to begin to use more and more narrow bodies flying across the atlantic . These are things that structurally change a customers total return on capital. Not just the return on ges assets that they use. Its very powerful. And its extremely lucrative. You got the developing world that doesnt have any infrastructure or just starting and then youve got the developed world which needs new infrastructure. So that was a conscious decision to just make it an Infrastructure Company too. Yeah. Its definitely the dawn of a new age. All right. Excellent. Very interesting, nick. And if those guys are watching at ge theyre like we love this guy. Nick heymann, thanks. When we come back Noam Gottesman recently partnered with our guest host to take over a major european frozen food player. Hes going to join us on set to talk about it. As we heads to break, look at the u. S. Equity futures. S p slightly higher. Nasdaq 28 points up. Dow down by close to 30. Squawk box will be right back. The spark cash card from capital one. I earn unlimited 2 cash back on everything i buy for my studio. And that unlimited 2 cash back from shousands d ollars each year going back into my business. Thats huge for my bottom line. Whats in your wallet . Hes making this up. No, im not. You are. Welcome back. No, im not. Welcome back to squawk box. On todays watch list inflation data. Today the cpi hits the tape at 8 30 a. M. Eastern. Its a number that could influence the timing of the feds first rate hike. Houseing starts and Building Permits also set to be released at 8 30. And some fed speak on the agenda. Vice chairman Stanley Fischer set to address the congress at 10 00 a. M. Eastern. U. S. Equity futures at this hour. Google getting good results on the nasdaq. And bacon news. Researchers at Oregon State University have patented a new strain of seaweed called duls. They say when its fried it tastes just like bacon. Its an edible variety of red marine algae thats packed with protein and has twice the nutritional value of kale. Mba students at the university are working on a marketing plan for the seaweed. And portland area chefs are already tasting recipes. Are you a buyer . I dont even like turkey bacon. But if you could make this close enough to where you could crush it up and put it in a salad or something, maybe that would work. Bacobits. Maybe that would work. I want to taste it first. Not for blt. Right. I think the texture would be missing. No. You need you know how often do you have a blt . I like just an lt. Sometimes i do it when tomatoes are fresh in the summer. Anyway you need bacon once in awhile. Anything in moderation right . Yes, absolutely. A little heroin. No, no no. No. Not heroin. Youre right. Thats why anything in moderation is not quite true. But i think bacon is. Bacon counts. I would give you that. Mega mergers closing as heinz and kraft look to close. Sales of growth in packaged foods has slowed. Our next guest is making a multibilliondollar bet on frozen foods. Noam gottesman. Thanks so much for coming in today. Thank you. Good morning. Lets talk a little bit about the idea. When were watch inging packaged foods slowing down were talking about the stuff in the middle of the grocery store. Youre focused on the frozen food category. Why dont you explain what youre doing. Its a Loyal Customer base. The business hasnt particularly grown over the past few years. But its very solid and excellent margin business. When martin and i were looking for businesses that we could expand and grow it we looked at packaged food. We looked within that for businesses that had very strong brand names. Very resilient. We ran across a company in europe. With that in spite of it being a low growth business, it had margins better than 20 . It was 2. 2 times larger than its nearest competitor that most excitingly it accounted for less than 3 of the frozen food market. So a Market Leader and extraordinary fragmented business provided us with opportunity. When you talk about frozen foods, are we talking frozen vegetables . Frozen beef stroganoff . What is it . The gamut. Its poultry, fish prepared meals. What would you put it on par with . Like a Weight Watchers meal . Smart ones . Give us an example were familiar with. Fish sticks. Fish sticks lasagna. Martin and i as part of Due Diligence had an interesting and fattening day where we tried 40odd products and it was remarkably good. The questions weve been focusing on, theres a change in the united states. Theres a serious push for fresh food and things that are healthy. Things that are low calorie count and probably less fried foods than ever before. How do you take that and kind of match that up with americans changing tastes . So i think theres two tastes. Perceptual taste and then then reality. The reality is in terms of wastage and and green issues frozen food is much less wasted. I prefer frozen vegetables. That makes sense to me. But the idea of buying a frozen meal is a little bit of a tougher sell. Its efficient. Its quick. If you like one part of the meal you take that one part out and cook it and the rest you can keep in the freezer and it doesnt go bad and you dont throw it away. So at this point the idea of doing this and building a public company, why . There are a lot of people if you look at just the number of ipos in america, there are companies that we were talking to someone yesterday. Its now more like 11 years before somebody brings a company public. Why go public . People complain all the time. Its the correct structure to enable us to be the consolidator within a fragmented business. Theres obviously a tremendous amount of Merger Acquisition within the food space. Many of these products have become orphaned products during the last few years. As companies tried to streamline and react to activist concerns theres been a lot of opportunity in the sector. And were finding a tremendous amount of good brands that could use more focus, more innovation that we feel we could do good work with. Why do this as a separate publicly traded company . I know its a little different than what jarden does already. Its a lot different from what jarden does. Jardens focused on market leading niche Market Brands and consumer goods. Food is a very different space. But the reality is the infrastructure of what jarden can become as a public company, as a longterm, we call it internally the difference between renters and owners. Beautiful thing about Public Companies from an investors standpoint is the capital. So you take a very long view. You know if five years or seven years were going to have to sell them. Hows that going to impact our behavior . So we like the public structure. Which is why we partnered up on this one. But the reality is were doing this for the longterm. Good cycles bad cycles. And starting with a Market Leader in a niche which is where weve started. Its the same kind of model. If youre doing this with brands well known in europe, you have to be concerned with whats happening in greece not in terms of just how the votes go but the damage thats already been done to the european economy as a result of this prolonged battle. I think that we have almost no business in greece. So on a micro level, were not concerned. Obviously whats happened in greece is akin to water boarding by the germans towards them. So its been a very ugly situation. I dont think its going to settle any time soon. But from a market perspective both greece and the issues in china deleveraged the market quite dramatically. So i think on the economy side if things are bad, in europe and the consumers are concerned, they tend to go towards a more economical food choices. And that should be a benefit to our business. You know the water boarding comment, you can look at it from two perspectives. One, its been very harsh measures of austerity thats been put down. But at the same time the germans are asking us to pony up another 86 billion euros which is almost twice what the greeks had even been saying they need. This is the third time theyre going for a bailout round. And german voters are saying wait a minute we dont want to foot the bill in imanymore. I think thats right. But at the end of the day they have to foot the bill. So the question is whether the damage done to the economic european ethos is worth it. In effect you can look at europe and say in some respects democracy is gone because Interest Rate policy Foreign Exchange policy budget control policy is gone. Its no longer in the hands of the elected governments. And so its a very complex situation. The greeks are going to suffer for awhile. Whether it provides sufficient growth, sufficient austerity to enable them to come out of this is very dubious. But they kicked the can down the road. Whats a union . A union implies all of its members have the same governing rules. Its some loose collection of state ifs you dont do it i mean, a union means you have the same stuff. So then either make a union or dont maic a union. If greece doesnt, they should leave then. Default on their debt. Five years from now people will lend them money again. Thats what they should do. Its not just greece. Every country the whole experiment was flawed. Once they went into it you cant back out. In america, every state in europe nothings changed. But i dont when we subsidize appalachia or when we subsidize a part of the country that is you know unable to take care of itself its part of the united states. I dont have a problem with that. When you still have greeks and germans and nationalism and different languages, thats why its not a union. I didnt tell them to try it. But once you did try it you cant go back on it now. I think effectively the ability to travel to work has benefitted some countries significantly more than others. They have many of the benefits without losing control. But that also will come up for a referendum. Right. But theyre never going to the currency. I would doubt it very much. And germany is [ overlapping speakers ] the worst thing for the germans, theyre like the swiss franc. Either you get a lot more concerted fiscal decisions made or you just dont do it. Theres a reality in the middle. Because at the end of the day both have a lot to lose. Thats why theyve got to do it. They could have left and devalued. They could have done that. Well give them every possible opportunity to do that. When it came down to that tsipras and the others did not want to do that because austerity would probably be worse. If you had 45 cents on the dollar for every euro. The anarchy would be worse. And who would travel over there . Its the lower and middle class in greece that are going to pay the most for this. Theyre the only ones with money left in the banks. At least you can glean from this is that socialism is death for economies and countries. We learned it again yet here we are having this discussion in this country whether we should trend that way. We have a guy who is a socialist giving another democrat a run for the money. Isnt that a little bit interesting that thats happening . Mark twain said history repeats itself and it rhymes. Exactly. Noam thank you for joining us. Thanks. Appreciate it. Coming up big movers to close out the week. Your list of stocks to watch is next. And we want to hear from you. What is the story grabbing your attention this morning . Do you have questions for our guest host Martin Franklin . Tweet to us squawkcnbc and use the hash thing, pound sign. At ally bank no branches equals great rates. Its a fact. Kind of like shopping hungry equals overshopping. So youre a Small Business expert from at t . Yeah, give me a problem and ive got the solution. Well, we have 30 years of customer records. Our cloud can keep them safe and accessible anywhere. My drivers dont have time to fill out forms. Tablets. Keep them all digital. Were looking to double our deliveries. Our fleet apps will find the fastest route. Oh, and your boysenberyy apple scones smell about done. Ahh, youre good. I like to bake. With at t get up to 400 dollars in total savings on tools to manage your business. At ally bank no branches equals great rates. Its a fact. Kind of like mute buttons equal danger. That sound good . Not being on this phone call sounds good. Its not muted. Was that you jason . It was geoffrey it was jason. It couldve been brenda. Little shavers. Lets take a look at stocks to watch this morning. Honeywell getting a boost on better than expected earnings and revenue. The company is also raising the low end of its profit guidance. General electric shares up about 2 right now following that companys better than expected Quarterly Results. Good revenue numbers and other metrics and positive comments from ceo. Suntrust banks tops estimates despite a drop of net interest margin. And jm smucker increasing Quarterly Dividend to 60 cents a share from 64 cents. Erickson reporting a 20 drop. But the wireless equipment mak saw broad band in america stabilize. Venture Capital Investment rose to its highest level in nearly 15 years during the Second Quarter. That is according to a new report from coopers released this morning. Second quarterly investment Second Quarter vc investment totaled 17. 5 billion. Thats the highest since the Fourth Quarter of 2000. When we come back this morning, a special interview with one of Christine Lagardes adviser. David lipton will join us. And at the top of the hour monsantos ceo hugh grant will join us on the set. This is an interview you cant afford to miss. Only on squawk box. Tmobile now extends your coverage beyond the borders at no extra charge. Get 4g lte data in mexico and canada just like in the u. S. And call and text as much as you want to and from the united states, mexico, and canada. You heard right unlimited calls to any phone even mobile. In mexico and canada for free its included with simple choice plans. Only tmobile gives you coverage and calling in three countries for the price of one. Switch today. Push your enterprise and you can move the world. But to get from the old way to the new youll need the right it infrastructure. From a partner who knows how to make your enterprise more agile, borderless and secure. Hp helps business move on all the possibilities of today. And stay ready for everything that is still to come. Welcome back, everybody. Germanys Parliament Voting today on whether to start talks on a third greek bailout. Steve leisman joins us with a special guest. Im here with imf Deputy Director david lipton. The number two to christine wont have him on for ten seconds. You want me to repeat that . Yes. I am here with imf Deputy Director david lipton. Thank you for joining us this morning. How are you . Good. Lets start where people care about this issue. How big an issue do people have on the debt restructuring . The germans have said no writedowns. Whats the imfs position on the greek debt . Let me start at the beginning which is this agreement with greece is important because it charts a way forward. We think its probably a long and narrow path. The funds job is to help everybody get down that path successfully. That means greec execute policies that will solve its problems. But it also means that europe has and all the creditors have to provide greece with financing and a debt operation that will make sure that greece is feasible in the median and longterm. And, you know, weve been saying this all along. Europe is considering the question. There may be differences of views about how to get there, but i think we all agree that greece needs a financing path that will be feasible. All right. But lets get to the question here. What are the parameters of imf involvement in a greek restructuring . Does it have to be written down . Well there are lots of ways to skin a cat. And the important thing is that greeces Debt Service Payments dont cripple the economy. Theyre consistent with a greece that recovers. So were open to the idea that the problem can be handled by stretching out the maturity providing long grace periods and low Interest Rates. We proposed that approach because we know under the european rules, thats much more likely way a go about doing this. Is a debt restructuring of some kind an absolute condition for involvement in helping grooest . The bottom line for us as always is that the debts made sustainable. And it can be done lots of different ways. Yes, we dont go forward is our approach, our policy. Because we want our support to be successful. We only go forward when we feel the financing is appropriate. David, we got a leaked memo from the imf staff in athens. And i think the upshot of it is not necessarily surprising to you which was difficulty that the imf staff had in getting access to ministers in greece. Even it seemed access to the building. Why is anything going to be different now between the imf and greece . Tsipras even made the condition of another bailout here. But the imf not be involved. Well its true that the relationship has been a difficult and complicated one. Youre right about that. I think whats changed is that over the weekend everyone stepped up to the edge of the abyss and decided not to jump. Everyone decided its best to make a very firm effort to solve greeces problems and do it within the eurozone. Thats a difference. And while there certainly is a need for greece to take stronger ownership than theyve done before and i think that goes for the Prime Minister as well as the government as a whole, i think that the fact that theres a commitment to try to go through solving these problems go down this long path means were going to do it together they understand full well that the approach that europe takes is that its support requires imf involvement. David we were a little surprised by the imf assistance by lagardes statements coming when they did about how debt relief is a requirement. That is something germany has been opposed to. You understand it because their voters have been up over arms. Why the timing on this. It did seem like it could throw a bit of a bomb into the works. I think theres some misunderstanding here. We understand that germanys and europe as a whole considers that haircuts, the writing down of principle of debt is not something provided for under european law. But the you know having deciding what the terms of loans are going to be has always been something where theres flexibility. We have said all along the europeans have known germany germany has known there would have to be some way to do this. In fact if you go back we had assurances from germany, from europe in the 2012 program that the debt would be made sustainable. That of course wasnt a specific commitment but it was certainly understood that that might include having to pick the terms of loans including maturities and grace periods in order to make sure that the terms were appropriate for greeces situation. David, were out of time here. In 30 seconds would you mind answering this question . Does the imf have a position on greece leaving the eurozone . You know its greece has decided to stay in. Europe has decided to stay in. They are our members. Were trying to help them. I get that many academics believe that grexit would be better but lets realize that even with grexit and depreciation, what matters are greek policies. If you depreciate and raise wages, you dont have a competitive advantage. I think what matters is greeces policies. David, thanks for joining us. David lipton first deputy managing director of the imf. Thank you. When we come back an interview with monsanto chairman and ceo hugh grant. He will join us on set. And kenneth cole is here to talk fashion and consumer trends. When a moment spontaneously turns romantic why pause to take a pill . And why stop what youre doing to find a bathroom . With cialis for daily use, you dont have to plan around either. Its the only daily tablet approved to treat erectile dysfunction so you can be Ready Anytime the moment is right. 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The answer is yes, it can. So, the question your customers are really asking is can your business deliver . Making a case to buy sengenta. Hugh grant talks about the pesticide maker. Plus his view on the Global Economy and whats moving markets around the world. A ceo call is just ahead. Is the Housing Market on firm footing . Plus a read on inflation. The numbers and instant analysis straight ahead. And we hit the runway with kenneth cole. He stops by to talk business and fashion. The final hour of squawk box begins right now. Live from the most powerful city in the world, new york, this is squawk box. Welcome back to squawk box, everyone. This is cnbc first in business worldwide. Im becky quick along with joe kernen. Andrew has today off. And we are less than 90 minutes away from the opening bell on wall street. Weve been watching the futures and its been a mixed picture all morning long. S p is slightly positive. Dow down about 26 points but the nasdaq up by 28. Also look at whats been happening in the markets in europe at this hour. Right now youre going to see it looks like the dax is down. Just slightly down. 2 . Word just coming in that the German Parliament voted yes on the greek bailout. It came down 439119. There were 40 abstentions. But again, the vote passing the German Parliament. Thats big news too. Greek banks are ready to reopen on monday but they must first get permission from the government. Greek lenders have been shut since june 29th after a flood of withdrawals threatened to collapse the banking system. The ecb decided to lift the cap on emergency funding yesterday. And greeces deputy finance minister said the banks would reopen next week. And that should hopefully lines wont be like this. People still go to tellers . Hopefully this subsides. Its been difficult because theres people that cant use the atms for whatever reason. And some of those controls will come off too. 60 euros is its not much to live off of. Youd have to go back the next day and wait in line again. Every day. Its awful. Nothing compared to some of the other stuff that unfortunately will probably be happening. A few stocks on the move this morning. General electric the dow component is at least a winner so far today. Up almost 2 . Shares rising after the companys Quarterly Results beat the street. And it raised its fullyear outlook at least for it raised the lower end of its outlook for its industrial manufacturing businesses. Googles earnings beat estimates. Shares up strongly. Some day for jarden maybe, martin you think. Up 71 . You can hope for that some day. That would be nice. That would be nice. Honeywell posting better than expected earnings and revenue helped by cost controls. Also raising the low end of its fullyear profit guidance. Monsanto the Worlds Largest seed company has proposed a 45 billion takeover bid of syngenta. If the two sides were actually talking to each other. Hugh grant is the chairman and ceo of monsanto. Hes sitting down for us this morning for a rare interview. Thank you for being here today. Thank you for the invitation. Excited to be here. Lets talk about this syngenta deal. Why them and how long has this been in the works . Its been in the works since 2011. This is my third try. Its an exciting time to be in agriculture. Global demand has never been greater. The data last week theres a billion new bushels of corn demand in the last year. Farmers are hungry for new tools. Theyre looking for innovations. So we made the serious offer. We offered them a 43 premium. And were looking for engagement, getting them back to the table. Its not a 43 premium today because the market has figured out o lot of this. The last two weeks ive been in europe talking to their share owners. I just got back. Theyre enthusiastic about the deal. Theyre also impatient so theres both sides of the atlantic theres people that want it done. There were some comments this morning from the president and coo of monsanto suggesting that a hostile bid is not the way you want to go. But this sounds like its already hostile. New york theres always this thing on hostile or friendly. Theres a lot of band width in there. I like friendly deals. You know we need the collaboration. Theres a lot of travel in this one before we would think about hostile. Id like to talk to a real person across a real table. So weve got work to do. But im optimistic. What has been the response to date. This is four years and counting. The response has been kind of slow. But im patient. I think when you look at the value that this could create when you look at the combination of biology and Chemistry Holding this the glue is data science. We did a deal in san francisco. Youd google results there, people left google to set up a Company Called climate corps. Thats where this holds it together. With more precise tools on an acre. So the price is good things are worth waiting on. It must be frustrating that as biology and chemistry come together and will open up an incredible horizon or a great future for a lot of different reasons, you probably should spend just as much money on pr to try to explain to people what a gmo is. What are the risks, what arent the risks. Weve talked about in all businesses today you need to be so wary and aware of social media and misconceptions and myths and everything else. But, you know for years it took hundreds of years of breeding to get the right type of strain of a pig or of a seed. Now youve got a way of doing it rationally and analytically which can for man kind its going to be huge. But youve got people that dismiss it that know nothing about it. Are you working on that . Are you getting out information to people so they understand . Yeah we are. Is it frustrating . What do you attribute the absolute ignorance and the sort of just knee jerk reaction that you see . I mean we live in a world where science is you know i think science is really sexy. But im kind of in the minority in that. So i think for Companies Like mine, you just have to take time. We just have to explain it. Do what you can do and sooner or later hope it becomes more clear to them. You know theres it isnt as gloomy as you describe. I think theres notes of optimism in there. You talk to young people especially millennials, theyre waking up. But theres people that wont buy something unless it says gmofree. They have no idea why they dont want gmos. All they know is theyre three letters in the alphabet. They dont know what it stands for. When you look this year versus last year 1. 2 billion bushels of corn in incremental demand. Its tough in agriculture right now. Its been rainy and wet. But those demands continue. If were at this table in ten years time, it would be even steeper. Nobody understands what they do. But the heart of this is how you explain let me ask this. I have been able to brush off almost all of the antigmo rhetoric. The one that has caught me and concerned me and maybe you can explain this to me is the idea that some seeds are being genetically modified to withstand greater and greater doses of pesticides. Which is good news because it keeps the bugs away but the bood news is theres more and more pesticides being dumped on the crops and thats not necessarily something i want to ingest. Because im not modified to withstand that. Is that a valid argument or not . It really isnt. If you look at use in pesticide consumptions its decreased. Next year is the 20th an verse pi. 20 years since the first crops were planted in 1996. The use of chemistry has declined during that time. So growers are now applying less. And i think the next when you look at this deal the next turn in this the next breakthrough is how you apply less than an acre how you apply it much more precisely. I think the monsanto and syngenta combination redefines it and how we link it much more with the seed. You know, in advanced civilization the birthrate slows in fact where it becomes a problem because you dont have enough people to take care of the people that are older. I foresee a day where the worlds population probably peaks out and with things like this, were going to be able to feed probably the terminal population of the world. Were never going to the scare tactics will probably never come to pass. With this Technology Well be able to make enough food to feed everybody. I believe thats absolutely true. I do too. Thats not very sexy. It doesnt sell and its not exciting to talk about. It is kind of sexy. It is but people want to make it like its so much sexier to tweet that were all goners. Yeah but i will say im the exception on the scottish optimist. You spend a lot of money too . Id like to spend some money on this deal. That would be a meaningful spend. Well, not too much. To go back to the deal itself, one of the things i never understood is why a company it doesnt matter what the size wouldnt want to engage. At the end of the day talk a cheap. Youre right. What is it you say to shareholders to entice coerce is too strong a word. But to entice shareholders that the management or the board should at least at the very least send a representative to have a real conversation . I agree with you. Ive been in europe two weeks. Just got back. Met with 75plus share owners. A very very uniform, very uniform feedback. Sometimes you do these things and people say you should go home now. I could have stayed longer. Then you get back here and its the same feedback on this side of the atlantic. I think the consistency feedback on both sides of the atlantic they should be sitting down. They should be engaging. We should be doing this quietly. That doesnt guarantee success, but at least thats how mature business is done. Ive got a lot of respect for the board and management. They need to get real and see if we can get this over the line. I dont understand. What to you sound like the best reasons for not talking . Is it something about regulatory concerns about whether or not a deal would be approved by regulators . I feel good about the regulatory. You can never speak for regulars. Thats a whole other world. But weve two areas where we think theres a solution set. One we put 2 billion on the table as a reverse breakout fee. Switch a mark of confidence. Its 2 billion would be for them. And two, we set heavily on we will sell all of their business. So it completely eliminates the overlap between the two. And the good news is the phones rang off the hook because theres a bunch of people ready and willing to buy those seed properties. So im encouraged by that. Id like to get a move. Always engagement. John paulson, its reported he has taken a stake in syngenta too. Have you spoken to him . No. But ive seen the reports. And the good news again, the good news is people are becoming vocal. So id say my takeaway from my safari is a lot of encouragement and a lot of impatience. And people are beginning to talk. Thats a good thing. Is there a point where your level of patience has been breached . Where do you walk away . You know, patience is a finite resource. But as you say, ive been at this since 2011. I think theres still miles to go on this. I really do. And the last few weeks when you get a chance to personally talk to owners in the stock and they say you should get this done. And then you look at the backdrop of these demand curves were going to hang with this for awhile. Whats your plan b if this doesnt work . I tell my team plan b is we push plan a a lot harder. And we still get a lot of rock to go on this before we think about plan b. In terms of the investors youve met with what shares in the company do they own . Wed be past the halfway mark now. Well past. And we are now engageing professionals to find the rest of those share owners. So i think its meaningful work. Being able to talk is kind of how we started this conversation. When you talk about the vision when you talk about the longterm opportunity in agriculture. When you talk about hungry planet. This resonates. Being able to bring better science where you literally know yard by yard what that crop needs and giving growers who are ultimately the customers, giving them the ability to squeeze another few bushels that are shrinking acres, that ignites a positive sentiment with investors. Ive been pleased with that. Back to this idea of going hostile. I think youve been talking the starts at this point, is there a point where you say were going to put this up for a proxy vote and how do the rules work when youre dealing with a Company Based in another country . Switzerland is so ive learned more. Switzerland ive learned more about the tender system there is a little bit blind. So you make that bed without Due Diligence. Thats a 45 blind deal. You wouldnt do that. Thats now how i would not for the faint hearted. Not for the faint hearted. So we need i think plan a for us is we explain the value and the deal. We explain how much value we unlock. And weve been taking the opportunity because its ran so long to talk to growers as well. We have a good support there as well. I think this is more of a communication. We want to thank you very much for joining us. Its been far too long since weve seen you. But we appreciate your time today. Thank you. And we hope you do for our show what you did for jay lenos show. I dont think he ever looked back after that did he . Another hugh grant. Other hugh grant. Hes the lookalike. Yes. Coming up guest host Martin Franklin on the state of startups and what it takes to be a successful Small Business. Then a read on the Housing Market. We get the governments latest figures. Check out the futures at this hour. Particularly the nasdaq because of google. I built my business with passion. But i keep it growing by making every dollar count. Thats why i have the spark cash card from capital one. I earn unlimited 2 cash back on everything i buy for my studio. And that unlimited 2 cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business. Thats huge for my bottom line. Whats in your wallet . Welcome back to squawk box, everyone. Take a look at shares of best buy. Stocks under pressure this morning. Bank of America Merrill lynch is downgrading it. That stock looks like its down by about 3. 3 . Coming up Fashion Designer kenneth cole will join us to talk about the state of the industry and the latest trends. He is our special guest later this hour. Squawk box will be right back. A new season brings a new look. A chance to try something different. This summer, challenge your preconceptions and experience a cadillac for yourself. The 2015 cadillac srx. Lease this from around 339 per month, or purchase with 0 apr financing. When youre not confident you have complete visibility into your business, it can quickly become the only thing you think about. Thats where at t can help. At ts Innovative Solutions connect machines and people. To keep your internet of things insync, in realtime. Leaving you free to focus on what matters most. Four marines are dead in tennessee after a lone gunman opened fire at two Navy Facilities in chattanooga. Nbcs dave wagner is in chattanooga with the latest on the victims and what we know about the gunman. Good morning to you, becky. It is a sad scene here. Still an active crime scene. One of two active crime scenes in chattanooga. This is where the four marines were killed. A sad morning for the families of those who died and a community that is grieving right now. It was 30 minutes of terror at two military centers. But what it an act of terrorism . Thats what investigators are trying to determine. The 24yearold gunman Mohammad Youssuf abdulazeez his father a City Employee here in chattanooga. He was not on any kind of terrorist list. But right now they are working to confirm whether a blog maintained by the gunman may have clues. One post said life is short and bitter muslims should not let the opportunity to submit to allah pass you by. We did talk to the fbi special agent in charge in knoxville about this. And why theyre approaching this as a case of check in terrorism. Dave i think some of the questions that come out on this terrorism or not is the question whether there were links with other people supporting him or he was a lone wolf. The people who have been hurt and killed along the way. Yeah. And i think theyve sort of based upon some of the information they have based upon the fact i can tell you, becky, that the two sites this gunman went to went to a military recruiting site then drove seven miles away to this place which is kind of a nondescript location and then opened fire again on members of the military here. I think under the theory that obviously military was targeted in this. And might this in fact be an act of terrorism, they believe there are signs of this being isisinspired terrorism. I should point out weve also gotten the name of one of the victims. The first name we have gotten of one of the marines killed. His name is Thomas Sullivan served two tours in iraq but died right here in chattanooga, tennessee. Hey, dave its just im seeing some of the rhetoric. Both of these places are gunfree zones . Theyre military but theyre gunfree . Is that what dictates that . Is it a rule . Is an an optional thing . Do you know the details on that . Well they im hearing a lot of cars and trucks going by so its difficult to hear but if i understand you correctly, youre wondering about the two places. The place seven miles away from here is a recruiting facility. But this place is a Marine Corps Reserve center. So it is kind of a fairly large complex that is difficult to get to. The gunman would have had to kind of weave around some barricades to get back in there. Its not a place that people go normally, im told. Dave. Dave, i was asking do you know whether its gun are both of those facilities gunfree . Do the military guys, are they not allowed are there no guns in the facility . Do you know . Yeah joe, i do not know the answer to that. I really dont. I dont know. What i can tell you is that after having been in many many military recruiting stations over the years, you rarely see anybody with a gun there. There is virtually no security. At this location right here in talking to people i dont get the impression that this is a high security facility. But i also get the impression that it is more difficult to get to. Military recruiting stations as you know, anybody can walk in the front door. Right. All right, dave. Yeah. You know from the different all of these things it doesnt take long unfortunately, to see things get politicized. In this day and age. And this is getting politicized already from both sides. Coming up Housing Starts and cpi data. Then kenneth cole is here. Were going to talk about fashion in just a bit. One of the things that i, you know, have been a complete expert on. As we head to break, take a look at u. S. Futures. Working 24 7 on mobile trader, rated 1 trading app in the app store. It lets you trade stocks options, futures. Even advanced orders. And it offers more charts than a lot of the other competitors do in desktop. You work so late. I guess you dont see your family very much . I see them all the time. Did you finish your derivative pricing model, honey . For all the confidence you need. Td ameritrade. You got this. Tmobile now extends your coverage beyond the borders at no extra charge. Get 4g lte data in mexico and canada just like in the u. S. And call and text as much as you want to and from the united states, mexico, and canada. You heard right unlimited calls to any phone even mobile. In mexico and canada for free its included with simple choice plans. Only tmobile gives you coverage and calling in three countries for the price of one. Switch today. Welcome back to squawk box. A litany of june data coming up. Housing starts up close to 10 to an annualized pace of 1. 174. If we look at permits, permits were also much better than anticipated. Were looking for 1. 15 million. We end up with 1. 134 million. Close to 7. 5 . The exact number might be 7. 4 . But keep in mind, this comes at a time where last month was down huge. On starts last month, released down 11 . They were upgraded to down 10. 2 . But permanents on a tear both months. 9. 6 in may. Up 7. 4 in june. Thats good. Cpi, a bit well you know many were looking for up. 2 . I was looking for up. 3 . Thats what we ended up with. Up. 3 . Strip away the all important food and energy up. 2 . Core year every year thats up more than last time. It matches expectations. And of course we still have university of Michigan Sentiment survey but considering some of the rebounds in equities a lot depends on when the survey was taken, how did all of this move the markets . Not very much actually. Yields hovering around 235. They eased up from the 240 areas. Everybody is trying to monitor conditions mostly in china by the insiders. Mostly whats happening with greece by those more inclined to talk about topics that probably have a bit to do with the spreads in europe. But not all encompassing. Its a weekend. We get a better glimpse potentially of where the risk aversion will lie by the end of the session today. Joe, becky, and the gang back to you. Rick, thank you. Have a great weekend. Were going to get more reaction to the day in a minute. But right now more breaking news from our own phil lebeau in chicago. This is news that could move boeing shares today. Phil . And it will becky. Look at boeing premarket. The Company Announcing preannouncing a charge for q2 up 536 million. That works out to 77 cents a share. Why are they taking the charge . Because of changes and extra work they will have to do on the tanker refueling pra m. Remember thats the 767 thats being modified. So they are going to be building 179 of these aircraft refueling tankers for the air force. A 4. Billion deal with the air force. They are going to have to modify some of their work. As a result theyre going to be a taking a charge of 536 million in their q2 earnings which will be coming out next wednesday. Couple of important notes here guys. Their cash and revenue Guidance Unchanged for full year 2015. However, their guidance of earnings per share between 820 and 844, that may change. They will be updating that guidance next wednesday when they report their q2 numbers. Again, boeing preannouncing a charge of 536 million or 77 cents a share. Thanks. We know when the earnings do come out, well have the number with the charge. Use that to compare to estimates. Steve leisman joins us now with more on the economic data. Steve . So i want to tell this all in context of yellen yesterday and the housing and cpi data all fit together. The first thing is i think yellen raised the bar a bit for the rates. The question becomes what happens to inflation. We got some inflation today. 0. 3 on the headline. Driven in part in the turnaround in energy prices. Which are running 1. 8 year over year. Either way its going to work it way through. What do we have . Were looking at the owner equivalent driven bethe idea the government derives from equivalent rentals. What happens on the rental market . Its full. Whats happening in housing . Theyre building apartments like theyre going out of style. If i can quickly segue to the housing numbers, the Single Family starts actually down on the month. Multi multifamily starts up big. The permits, better than expected. We thought the perms were going to go down. They have gone back up. Were gradually making the progress we need. We have the Housing Market seems to be getting at least in line to be a positive for economic growth. The big odd man out here is the manufacturing sector. Why would you build more of something if its going out of style . You know joe, for 12 years now you have challenged by rhetoric in ways that have made my language better. Youre right. Going out of style. Where does that come from . I dont know. They are heavily in style. Which is why you would build them like theyre going out of style. Nobody wants to own a house these days. They all want to rent. Why they want to rent i dont know. Im not sure its the greatest financial decision on their part, but they want to rent and they want to live in urban cores which is good for our cities. But whats happening is it was a better permit number which tells you this thing has legs when it comes to the building of multifamily homes like theyre going to out of style because theyre very much in style. Smurfs are already blue. Right. Why does your nose run and your feet smell. Steve, stick around. Lets bring in mike hanson. He is a senior u. S. Youre rear . Youre right here. Im right here. Hes already here. Hes an economist at. Merrill lynch and he joins us on set. I dont know if we believe anything he says now. Obviously if its going out of style. Any of the other things that made sense . Yeah well i mean i think its true. From the feds perspective, economys doing i think well enough. I think it is a low bar. I think its been a low bar. I think shes lowered it the last couple days when she said the economy is at a place where close to a place where it not only needs higher rates but can tolerate them. Yeah. I think the fed has been trying to very gradually move in that direction. What i think is notable about some of the ways shes maybe changed her rhetoric is shes changed the assessment of risks that a premature tightening is something theyre concerned with. Theyre still concerned but i dont think quite as concerned given the improvement in economy. Now the risk of if you go too late, you could have to hike more quickly and that could be disruptive. So that very modest edging of the mix of risk is notable. I think september is still very much in play. Do you think they look at the strengthening of the dollar as being something that is an inhibiting factor . They do. Yellen was asked that yesterday and did mention if thats something theyre keeping an eye on. There was a blog post this morning on what the drag might potentially be. Her conclusion and i think its one that most economists agree with that a strengthening dollar is second order effect. Its going to have some drag but isnt going to fundamentally upset. You import a lot from overseas. Does it hurt you . Of course i have an agenda. I think at the end of the day strengthening the dollar with the strengthening dollar raising rates only further strengthens the dollar which is going to impact overall exports which i dont think america wants. So whatever they do has to be very measured. Has to be very modest. And thats one of the key messages. Theyre going to take their time time. Thats how the fed is viewing it. I dont think unless you have a really substantial and aggressive appreciation of the dollar i dont see that as fundamentally changing the path of policy. But it is clearly something theyre going to take into account. If it turns out that exports get hit harder if theres a deflationary impact it could well slow them down. Thats a fair point. They were worried that they dont want to have to come back down if they raise too early. If theyre not sure that were above stall speed. I look at that the other way. Id like to have some dry powder if there was a weak patch in the future. I would hope on that 1 . Thats fair. But at the same time you dont want to hike rates for the purpose of cutting them. But someone the other day said if you were to look at 2. 5 , youd think it was crazy to raise rates. Yeah. 2. 5 with 5 unemployment. Especially heres the thing. They would look at that and say thats too low. [ overlapping speakers ] we see it in our business. The fed is mostly interested in what the potential of the economy is. If the potential is 1. 5 and were running at 1. 5 then the fed should not be at zero. Thats clear. If the potential is 5 and were running at 3 the fed can be lower. Still dont want to be at zero. I think thats the big debate. I would think much more with what youre saying that youre sort of shifting a little. That raises her profile in my eyes. I told you, joe, back in 96 she was a hawk and went up against greenspan on raising rates. I think this idea of first of all when somebody gets into a position like this their colors change because theyre the leader. What they were before is not all that relevant. And she has a history in time when it was needed. She ended up being wrong then but she was in favor of raising rates. Hope she does it in september. Thank you. When we come back this morning, kenneth cole has been walking the walk since 1982. The Fashion Designer has more than 90 retail and Outlet Stores not to mention a huge online presence. Kenneth cole is our special guest right after this. And dont forget you still have time to tell us what has you buzzing this morning. We will share your stories in a bit. Tweet us and use the keepsquawking. Being a keen observer of the world has gotten you far but what if you could see more of what you wanted to know . With fidelitys new active trader pro investing platform, the information thats important to you is all in one place, so finding more insight is easier. Its your idea powered by active trader pro. Another way fidelity gives you a more powerful investing experience. Call our specialists today to get up and running. Welcome back, everybody. We are joined right now by kenneth cole. He is the founder and chief creative officer of kenneth cole fashion. Kenneth, thanks so much for being here. What a treat. Happy to be here. Its good to have you. You are a little larger than life. I was going through youre somebody whos been talking about social activism and walking the walk for a long time. Right now we look around and we see some ceos who are coming out and maybe pushing their points a little bit more in terms of marriage equality. But this is something youve been doing on a broad array of different issues for a long time. What do you think is really happening now . You know weve been doing it for a long time maybe for different reasons. Many reasons in many ways maybe because we could. And i dont think i did it to help the business. I did it because it didnt negative impact the business. At the end of the day, i didnt think it helped the business but it was able to marry all my personal and the brands sentiments together in our messaging. And so weve dont be ite it throughout this process. Today its almost a part of the way people do business social responsibility. But weve been very lucky and weve been able to connect the people not just what they stand in and stand for. But not just what they look like on the outside but who they are on the inside. And its elevated our brand and relationship with the customer. We stayed on that course. It has to have a backlash at times, too, though. Not necessarily every customer is going to agree with a lot of your viewpoints. It does, but where have you got the most pushback . Today with social its hard to be less spontaneous. Youre essentially speaking to everybody. Everything is viral and immediate and realtime. But also very powerful platform. And if you understand it and im not sure i know i dont, but im forever learning it seems. And its forever growing. But its an extraordinary way to become a Global Business and have a global relevance and voice. And you have to be thoughtful about it. I guess its different when youre putting up something on a highway. A billboard a Certain Group will see, maybe on a bus. But when you put it on twitter, and its everybody around the globe. Maybe not everybody around the globe agree with the message. Most are not political messages. Social messages and human messages. Im really very thoughtful not to use the corporate platform to go beyond that although sometimes those lines are blurred, granted. And maybe and ive made a couple of missteps earlier on with twitter. Like what . Oh i forgot. Lets not go over those. But you learn. And i think people dont always read things the way theyre intended. Sometimes where theyre written isnt always the way theyre meant or the way theyre interpreted isnt the way theyre meant. Whats the most Important Message or the key message you think. If you look back over the years thats really resonated with your core Customer Base . I think that today that that what you stand for is more important than what you stand in. I think that today its sustainable and it is and it connects with people in a more meaningful way. In the past what we did, the goal was to connect with people. Today theres accountability. And today the goal is to you know, theres a real science to it. Its impact and how many people youre speaking to and how enganled are they and is it sustainable. Is it relevant . And does it make sense today and make sense tomorrow . It continues to be a big part of the business. We went private a couple years ago. Ive been fortunate to have martin as a mentor and friend and a board member when we were public for a long time. Dont even have a board anymore. Isnt that nice . So now you can build a business without having to deal with the quarterly demands, the shortterm needs of the marketplace. Which probably doesnt help squawk box as much. Is your plan to eventually go public again . Or you think you can maintain a private company and still grow . My plan is not to be public if i can help it. I mean i think today you can speak to people i mean you can accomplish you can be so much more strategic and make meaningful investments if you can think longer term. You can take a step back to take two forward. Its hard to do that in the public markets. You guys know better than anybody. So i loved not being public. And id tell you about it, but its private. We dont have an ax to grind. Youre here talking about it. Were fine with that. You want to be private, youre welcome here any time to talk about it. What you guys do is great. You give a platform for people to tell were not jonesing. We try to book during earnings season. Were not here waiting for earnings season. Its like oh no jpmorgan week. Thats very exciting. I was thinking in the waiting room as i was watching this i was thinking the person that loves our brand has probably changed the channel after they saw the monsanto presentation. But only in the sense that because it wasnt interesting or because it was progmo . No its just the message. The brand message and positioning. Very different. But i love what they do. And i love what you do. This is a necessary platform for people to tell an important story at an important time. And that time isnt the same for everybody. The only thing with me with social, i want to make sure i like it when the ceo and i have the same opinion on the social thing. And if you go the other way and if i think its a wrongminded issue, that does bother me. Thats like stay out of it. As a customer. Like, your things ive been behind 100 . But the way you described it you said that its like almost a theres ways you can decide which issues are going to be longlasting and are net positives. There are others that are more controversial that i dont think you should be involved with. You have to be thoughtful and today you really have to be thoughtful, and twitter is a very powerful platform for adversarial feedback and you hear often what i often say and believe today is that i used to believe my job was to sell my brand to as many people as i could in as meaningful of a way as i could. Today thats not the case. Today everybody is their own brand. Everybody curuating their brand on their social media pages and they even curuate their audience and decide who can have access and then they look to merge brand. My job, i believe is to convince you to allow me to be a part of your brand. And then when you want your brand to look a certain way, youll come and buy what you want. I also think everybody is in the Media Business to your point a minute ago, everybody is an audience. In the past it was only the few. The merger brand . Whats that brand where you want to merge with someone . Whats that called . Are you thinking of the dating site . You mean merging. I couldnt come up with it. Whats the name of that thing . Where you swipe right or left . Whats the name of that . Both of these guys are acting like they dont know. Thank you so much for joining us today. It was a pleasure to see you. Thank you. When we come back today, it is time to keep squawking. The stories that have our viewers buzzing today. 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Black, white and silver vehicles stand a chance of getting more at resale. Thats fine if its a gt but if its a four cylinder its different. When we return well wrap things up with Martin Franklin. The futures at this hour continue to be a little bit weaker for the dow an s p. S p is now positive and now is the nasdaq. Well be right back. This is a great place to work. Not because they have yoga meetings and a juice bar. Because theyre getting comcast business internet. Comcast business offers convenient installation appointments that work around your schedule. And it takes done. About an hour. Get reliable internet thats up to five times faster than dsl from the phone company. Call 8005016000 to switch today. Perks are nice. But the best thing you can give your business is comcast business. Comcast business. Built for business. Everyone loves the picture i posted of you. At t reminds you it can wait. Host. Its been great having you in here. Are you still in an inquisitive mode, would you say . Yes. As well as as long as rates are low. The really good assets wait until the market turns around. Theres good things out there so were still out there. I like all the stuff you make. Does that go into your thinking . I try to gravitate toward businesses that give people good experiences. Camping, fishing, apparel. Feelgood products. I try to stay away from guns and things like that. But politics aside, its just more issues to have to deal with that i dont want to deal with. Have a great weekend, everybody. Right now its time for squawk on the street. Welcome to squawk on the street. Im Carl Quintanilla with sara eisen, simon hobbs and david faber. A remarkable week. The best for the nasdaq since october on the back of the earnings from netflix and now google which will have a monster opening. Watch bonds. Housing starts were strong. Stan fisher talks today and oil