Transcripts For CNBC Squawk Box 20140311

Which sounds totally crazy, but there have been so many wrong reports and but its hard to say anything. This one, the latest that i had read on this, this gentleman, was seeking asylum, they thought, in germany. They didnt think he had linked to terrorist activities. But again, all of these stories are changing quickly. He had the stolen passport and supposedly the second guy with the stolen passports, they bought their tickets one right after the history. Were going to have a gentleman who knows from bbs. Right. Everyone says the 777 is one of the greatest planes ever designed. And they dont thats why they are not willing to write off any foul play. Right. Whether that be pilot error, hijacking, terrorism. Theres 50,000 flights a day in this country, i think. And typically, you know, they dont just disappear out of thin air without a single warning sign. It looks like this plane may have been turning around. They picked up military radar. They cant figure out why it wasnt on the radar or at least Malaysia Airlines hasnt given more information on that. But on military radar, picked up is and showed that it may have been turning around. So now theyve switched the area that theyre searching. But no why they being able to radio back in, i dont know. Again, there are a lot of questions that still have to be answered on this. Just about everything is what we dont know. This gm thing is seems to be the journal devoted a large section. Congress is set to investigate the response by gm and by safety regulators. The complaints about faulty ignition switches that led to 13 deaths. Theyre recalling 1. 6 million cars. Yes. House Committee Panel chair fred upton says vehicles were recalled and weighed down by a key ring to turn off the the car answers engine and electrical system, which affects the air bags and and you couldnt turn the wheel and the thing is, you hit 13 and then you wonder what it you know, the people that lost you think why didnt you do this after two, three, four, five, sex, seven, you wonder whether you could have changed the outcome for some families. The people within General Motors knew about this for a decade. Apparently it never rose all the way to the top. But the idea that people somewhere in the company would know and that it wouldnt rise to the top is stunning. And so many times you want to you know, you worry about how much its going to cost for the recall. You balance that out with safety concerns and its a tough line, but, you know, this is not turning out that well so far. Gm is going to fully cooperate with the committee and has launched its own internal investigation. It was a really tough one for the new ceo. Yeah. Although he has said better to come in now and clean it up rather than shes within with the company for a long time. The questions are was she involved . She has said categorically no. Weve heard from other people, too, higher up who said no, they did not know about any of this. But she has said theyre going to launch this huge investigation and sthept to find out the truth. They dont care where the truth takes them, theyre going to follow where the actual facts fall down on this. And dow component dupont is blaming the weather for a challenging First Quarter. The Worlds Largest Chemical Companies blame storms and low temperatures delayed the start of the planting season this year and that impacted the companys chemical business. The political unrest in ukraine has delayed seed deliveries. Really . Anything else . Dupont runs a factory in a simple part of that country that produces a variety of seasonal no kidding. Crazy. However, dupont is sticking by its 2014 earnings forecast of 420 to 445 a share. Take a look at due pond. I just wouldnt think that during earnings season were going to hear a lot about ukraine. Right. But especially if you have a plant there. When i first read it, i guess more skeptical. Problems in ukraine . Maybe this time theyre not lying. I think we believe this. Thats what i was trying to say. Didnt is that . Not exactly. When i said this time theyre not lying, that was a poor choice of words. Thats right. Okay. Lets get a check on stocks this morning. You see this morning, futures are indicated lower not by a lot. Dow futures down by about 12. 5 points below fair value. S p futures off by 1. 5 points. If youre watching oil prices this morning pb youll see right now theyre up slightly, up about 31 cents. We did see a significant decline. It was a drop better than 1 . 101. 46 is the late trade for wti. The tenyear note, yesterday we watched the yield around 2. 8 . This morning, the yield is at 2. 788 . And the dollar today, looks like it is indicated up across the board. Its up against through, rating at 1. 38, 1. 385. Its up against the pound, up against the yen. Dollar yen is at 1103. 29. And gold prices are up about 6. 70. Its been a steady climb for gold, right now, 1,348. 20. Back to the story of the Malaysian Airlines flight, again, a lot of speculation about whats been happening. There has been some new details. And sri joins us now with more. Sri. Thank you for that. The new details are that the holders of the two stolen passports that boarded the plane in question, flight mh370, one of them has been identified by Malaysian Police a 19yearold iranian man. Now, whats important here is that they have ruled him out as a terror suspect as someone who is affiliated or connected to a terror group. And the reasoning here is that he was probably just trying to migrate to germany to frankfurt was his final destination. And in an extraordinary twist to this story, apparently his mother was waiting for him at the airport. And she also confirmed that he was using a stolen passport. She has been cooperating with the malaysian authorities. But there still remains this outstanding question of the second holer of a stolen passport, stolen italian passport, i might add. His nationality, his name and identity basically have yet to be revealed. Were working on that investigation. There was a lot of excitement amongst the passport when the immigration director general held up a photograph of the man in question and they basically amobed to this podium behind me fixated on this area of the stolen passports. While it is an important and legitimate area of inquiry here, its very important to stress not to lose sight of the fact that the Search Operations that are going on in the western peninsula, malaysia, and the in the eastern peninsula of malaysia are still ongoing and they have yet to really turn up any tangible material trace of mh370. This is very important because the authorities need to reconstruct the aircraft from the debris to determine what the last moments of this flight could have been. And until they find the evidence, this would leave no hard and fast material to determine what exactly went wrong here. Back to you now. Lets say it was in the sea there, sri. Is there some shallow water, some really deep water . If it was in the deep part, can you do that . You cant go down and get stuff at 10,000 feet, can you . Well, what i understand is that its not relatively deep. Were talking about depths of around 300 feet, i believe, some are saying even more shallow than that. The analogy that people are drawing, the parallel that people are drawing, aviation experts, etcetera, is with the crash of air france 447 in 2009 when it went down over the atlantic. The smaller debris fields, joe, took about a week to discover. The larger the debris fields, the bulk of the aircraft took about two years to discover. But some people are saying it could be months if not years before the full extent of the debris is recovered. It could be a very protracted area here. Depth aside, we are talking about vast expanses of water here, just one of the search zones designated into a grid the size of spain. So that gives you a sense of perspective how challenging this task is, despite the fact that we have nothing short of the Multi National naval force out there coupling d. C. For any evidence of this missing aircraft. No. We just joe and becky. You dont know when its that high, where the pieces are. Have we had one come apart at 35,000 feet . How big would the field be . Theres far more questions than answers at this stage. That gives perspective, the idea that one of the search areas is the size of spain. Also, we should point out theres a statement just out from Malaysian Airlines. There had been a lot of early stories, early reports, some of those had been untrue. One of the reports was that there were five passengers who checked in and never boarded this flight. Malaysian Airlines Says thats no longer true. There were four passengers never showed up for the flight so there was no need to offload bags that they had checked in. It tells you about these stories, they start early, the story changes as we hear more and Malaysia Airlines putting out this statement. Well check back in with sri later in the program. Now another story weve been talking about, the ousted ukrainian president yanukovych speaking in russia today saying hes still the president. We had another guy in moscow with the constitution behind him, snowden, talking about human rights and stuff and the violation of human rights in the u. S. From russia. It was so strange, jim. Anyway, thats a different story. Lets talk about yanukovych. Yes, a very different story, though a very similar date line, i guess youd say. Yanukovych made his first appearance in a couple of weeks. He is definitely still in russia. He didnt take any questions this time, joe, but he once again declared that he remains the legitimate president of ukraine because he was ousted by an unstaushl coup. He warns that right now in the streets of kiev, the ultra nationalists there are firing Security Officials, Army Officers, mass gunmen are patrolling the streets. He said he never fled the country. That was a big question mark, one of the reasons why the parliament took over. He said he never fled ukraine, he was in ukraine the whole time of the socalled coup. He called the may 25th electrics completely illegal and illegitimate and says crimea is breaking away. As far as he is concerned, it was happening, breaking away from ukraine and he blames what he called the hunta in kiev for this tragic series of events. Russia, of course, backs yanukovych. We wouldnt be spending so much time talking about someone who could be considered completely irrelevant now. But it is the fact that russia does still see yanukovych as the legitimate leader of ukraine. And as a starting point for an attempt to come back to that february 21st agreement and then somehow work out a deal. This has been a nonstarter for the west, but it certainly still is in Vladimir Putins thinking. Meanwhile, in crimea today, very tense with just five days before the referendum there. The Russian Parliament there is preparing legislation to allow russians an exing of crimea. Meanwhile, youve got the russian or pro russian sources using overwhelming numbers now since theyve tape over just about every ukrainian base, including missile base owes that peninsula, sometimes firing, intimidating shots. Miraculously, no one has been wounded at this point. There are increasing reports, as well. This is very disturbing of pro ukrainian journalistes and activists being beaten or kidnapped, not just in crimea, but in kiev. In answer b to that, twice, the nato military exercises that started nearby today with several Eastern European nations, running wardrobes with the United States by sea, by air, youve got awak surveillance planes. This is all getting very ugly and very, very tense as we approach sundays vote. Back to you guys. So much irony in so many things, jim. So the russians are very concerned about the rule of law being followed and yanukovychs duly affected leader here and the an ex. About their an ex, the best part of ukraine in keeping for themselves. Its very selective in terms of what rule of law theyre deciding to Pay Attention to, no . Yes, indeed. And that is what makes the covering of this story particularly complex and particularly entertaining sometimes. But they do consistently go back to the point that yanukovych was elected freely and fairley and that, according to the ukrainian constitution, to change any law at all or the constitution, you need to have the president sign off as well as the parliament. So far, every single law thats come out, this is every single law thats come out of kiev since february 28th is illegal. But after he was elected, he drastically changed the powers of the president and took away a lot of liberties that other people were watching, too. Youre right, its a very complicated and complex story. Youre absolutely right, it is. The fact that hes come out and said crimea has been will be russian is interesting, as well, because on the one hand, he is supported by the government here, by the kremlin. But on the other hand, he doesnt want to look like hes pro russia non punish he wants to look lye a leader of ukraine. All very tricking. All right, jim, thank you. Obviously, this story is going to continue and we will check back in with jim maceda again soon. Meantime, another story weve been talking about for some time, bill ackman is expected to unveil details about you you herbalife issues in china. Hes been calling it a pyramid scheme for quite a while now. A claim that herbalife has vehemently denied. Ackman seder ba life failed to address a number of questions, including those about its sales practices and remuneration. Billionaire investor ackman has taken a short position against herbalife, but the story yesterday in the New York Times raised questions about how hes been lobbying washington and whether that is because he sees problems there or because he is trying to prove a point or trying to move a stock price. Payback. The n should be before the m. Remuneration. Youre talking about numbers. Yeah. I had anything that pops up in the prompter, rural. Coming up, Airlines Point to the weather for First Quarter woes. Thats next. Plus, the executive edge combined with the squawk ceo call. Bee Aerospace Founder armand curry is our special guest. This Company Makes a lot of stuff inside the plane. Were going to talk to him about that and see his taking on whats in the news. As we head to break, check out the price of crude this morning. And a 27point inspection. And everything looked great. Actually, could you leave those in . Sure. Want me to run him through the car wash for you, too . No, no, i cant. Get a dexos 1, syntheticblend oil change, tire rotation, and inspection for just 39. 95 or less. Chevy certified service. Welcome back, the Major Airlines feeling the impacts of that harsh winter. Air leans are expecting to feel earnings pinched in the First Quarter. Delta told the jpmorgan Investor Conference this winter that the storms hurt revenue about about 90 million, but really knew would grow slightly. American expected to see a slight rise in revenue, as well. United warned that the weather would impact sales and jet blue says it expects 1 to 2 Revenue Growth in the First Quarter. Southwest expects a 3 rise. Most will see rises in revenue even though they did see particularly harsh weather. Airlines stocks were mixed on monday. Time now for our executive edge. Were joined by the founder and ceo of bee aerospace company. Ayman is here to talk to us about the companys new luxury suites the. First, we should get your thoughts on the missing malaysian airline. I talked to you earlier about what a great aircraft the. 777 is and this is not typical of your experience of what you would by about this. The 777 is a reliable aircraft until they can figure out what actually happened, joe. And like so many things, were hesitant to say anything about it, and then we jud just heard about, you know, a stolen passport and someone who is trying to get out of an area and that is why they were using the stolen it could have nothing to do with seeking asylum in germany. Yeah. What are you talking about, this luxury suite that i just referenced, b e aerospace, is that different parts of no, actually, joe, wher in the middle of what is probably going to be the best cooking order in our industry. And super first will have private passenger compartments with electrical act tu ated doors, dining for two and a late flight bed and a tv, a small refrigerator, a place to hang ones coat. So it is really flying in a luxurious way. Numerous airlines have now adopted this capability. So emirates, qatar, lufthansa, air france, british airways. Numerous planes around the world have begun to install this suite in the aircraft. That sounds phenomenal, but it sounds so opposite of what we normally do. I think flying domestic flights in narrow body aircraft over short distances is very different than flying long distances over very long periods of time in twin aisle wide body aircraft. And the service is totally different, so youre likely to have two meals on board and a couple thousand cups of coffee are served and whines and drinks and so on and so forth. Its a very different kinds of service. Middle classes are being built and passenger traffic the dwooping at a higher rate than in the developed west. You see a growth cycle like this, do you expect it to continue the next two, five, even ten years . I think whats driving growth is the emergence of middle classes in so many of the developed countries of the world. Passenger growth last year was in the order of 5 which is a pretty strong january with almost 8 . And i noted that you had been talking about the airlines having had a difficult period here with the polar voe text and the snowstorms. Airline res in their fifth year of a period of unprecedented profitability. Theyll earn roughly 20 billion this year, up 50 from the prior year. And last years earnings were up some 70 . So theyre having a period of profitabili profitability. There are low factors and yields are as high as theyve ever been. The air kravrts cpi has grown substantially. So the air leans have strong balance sheets, theyre generating lots of cash, theyve been profitable for quite some time and they do expect to have a very strong 2014. And as a result, ordering aircraft have led the rates. Boeing and airbus have the biggest backlogs theyve ever had. They have a 10,000 airplane backlog. Theyre producing and delivering aircraft at a record rate, but theyre barely denting their backlogs which are so long. Subsequently, we have the largest backlog in our history. The outlook for our company over the next several years is for continued strong Revenue Growth and faster Earnings Growth. You have to keep making those skinny seats that you can pack in. If those are the people you are talking about, the middle class, the luxury seats, who can afford that . You know, on united, you can get the 180 degrees, the tv. I dont know if i need a door. It would be nice i wish i could fly in these things all the time so you can get the seat back so when you fall asleep, your head doesnt wow, look at that. Those people can buy their own jets, cant they, that can afford to fly like that . The tickets are about 13,000. That is one of the suites youre look at right there. But you make the other ones for united, the we do. As a matter of fact, we did develop that innovation that is lay flat aircraft business seats. And we have retrofitted all of the United Airlines wide body aircra aircraft. Ayman, i also read you guys were putting in a what is that, a catheter . A diaper . What the hell is that . No. Do you have to aim how do you weve developed something that has been patented. What it does is it permits the placement of an additional up to six additional aircraft seats in a boeing 737. So our lighting. Oxygen systems and psus and lavatories are on the boeing 737. And the way those lavatories are designed, theres actually more functional space and its a much more comfortable and Clean Environment because of the surfaces which have been used in the manufacturing. It does put together a better economic model for the airlines and the addition of up to six seats. Do you guys design the toilets, too, like the actual toilets that go in the lavatories . We designed the toilet for the new lavatories in the boeing 737. I hope it has a deeper my problem is flashback factor. I hope we have a no. I like to flush. A deeper front. I want that flush in my toilet at home. Whoosh. Its like gone, its out of the neighborhood. It sounds like, becky, like you and i may have to talk about this after the program. Seriously, i am going to talk to you about this after the program. Im glad to hear you guys have redesigned this. Maybe the new ones are better. Thats what im thinking. Nice to be with you. Have a great day. Great to see you. You want the flush like that, not one of these that goes youre hoping, go, go, leave. I want the one that theres just no question. You have to get out of the way before you you could lose something. Up next, spring is coming. Home buyers are ready to shake off the winter to find that dream house. The ceo of lending tree gives us his forecast for the lending business. And later, marcus ramonas is ready to get a struggling gym back in shape, but its going to away workout. Well be right back. Be right ba. These days, everything your business does be right ba. Is done on the internet. And tomorrow youll deveno more. Thats what comcast business was built for. Slow dsl from the phone company was built for stuff like this. Sign up for internet and voice and find out how to get four weeks of tomorrow ready internet for free. And youll be ready for tomorrow too. Comcast business. Built for business. [ banker ] sydney needed some Financial Guidance so she could take her dream to the next level. So we talked about her options. Her valuable assets were staying. And selling her car wouldnt fly. We helped sydney manage her debt and prioritize her goals, so she could really turn up the volume on her dreams today. And tomorrow. So lets see what we can do about that. Remodel. Motorcycle. [ female announcer ] some questions take more than a bank. They take a banker. Make a my financial priorities appointment today. Because when people talk, great things happen. Make a my financial priorities appointment today. Save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Ould yep, Everybody Knows that. Well, did you know the ancient pyramids were actually a mistake . Uhoh. Geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Good morning. Welcome back to squawk box. Im joe kernen along with becky quick. Andrew is off. Secretary of state john kerry may be reading with the Russian Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov this week. But the u. S. Says that will only happen if moscow is willing to engage seriously on a diplomatic solution to the situation in ukraine. Ukraine is getting part of the blame, believe it or not, for a First Quarter earnings issue with dupont saying the unrest in ukraine, where dupont has a feed factory is hurting its bottom line. Congresss 30 senators are on the case. Theyre goes to pass legislation against the weather. What was that . Another dow component microsoft also in the news this morning. Its releasing its widely anticipated titan fall game for the xbox 1. Its hoping the game will give xbox sales a boost as it tries to close the gap with sonys playstation 4. Coming up, it is shark tank tuesday followed by the prophet tonight. And were going to have marcus on to tell us about his turn around challenge. It was pretty cool about the meats. Yeah. I wanted to try those. There was quite a yeah. And later, Boone Pickens has plenty to talk about today, including concerns about using oil and natural gas as weapons of war. We might talk a Little Oklahoma state. More squawk next. Welcome back to squawk box, everybody. Lets take a look at the markets this morning. After a little bit of red arrows yesterday, you see that continuing today. Dow futures are down, but only by about 12. 5 points below fair value. S p down by 1. 5 points. Nasdaq is down by less than one point. In europe this morning, in some of the early trades youre going to see at least at this hour, very moderate moves. The cac is down by about 14 points. The ftse in london is off by 26 points. And the dax in germany is off by about 10 points. In asia overnight, up did see a little bit of a rebound, very slight one. Shanghai up only by about 2 points. Hang seng is up, as well. This came after big declines we saw in markets there. That was after concerns about the chinese economy. The nikkei overnight, up by about 0. 7 . When we return, the profit hits the girl. Marcus takes the gloves off to get this back into shape. Will he win this battle . He will join is us right after this break. You want a loan to build a factory in america . You cant do that. Nobody builds factories in the us anymore. You cant do that. Using american Raw Materials makes no sense. You cant do that. You want to hire workers here in the states . Theyre too expensive, you cant do that. Fortunately we didnt listen to the experts. At weathertech we built american factories, we use american Raw Materials and we hire american workers. Weathertech. Com, proudly made in america. Quality like this. You cant do that. Anbe a name and not a number . Tor scottrade. Ron im never alone with scottrade. I can always call or stop by my local office. Theyre nearby and ready to help. So when i have questions, i can talk to someone who knows exactly how i trade. Because i dont trade like everybody. I trade like me. Thats why im with scottrade. Announcer ranked highest in Investor Satisfaction with selfdirected services by j. D. Power and associates. A new episode of cnbcs series the profit hits tonight. Here is a preview. Youre asking for 50 . When im providing all the resources. Im not arguing. Im letting my wife and life partner know what decision youre asking her to make right now. She knows. She can interpret, right . Can i think about it or no, you have to decide right now. You should ask for my two cents now . Youre going to offer it, so go ahead. What do you want, your name on her brownies . I have no problem not having my name on it. Why would your identity be on it . Well, because were partners, thats why. Her identity is not on yours. And your place is partners. Oh, come on. Im not going to get into that. Im not going to get into a pissing match with you. Yes or no . Thats a good youre not even married. Are you married, marcus . Thanks for putting my business out in the street. The turn around king himself joins us right now, marcus lemonis. Marcus invests his own money trying to help struggling businesses make a comeback. But it look like you have to is step in here like a marriage counselor. Thats part of the job, too . It feels like it. Tonights episode is one ive never done before where theres a married couple, happily married couple. This guy is a bit of a character and hes a challenge. No stopping him. Hes a challenge. No, i was asking for but your situation, just for all the someone that might be watching, you have millions of dollars, youre very charismatic. We can all use a little im not going to try and play matchmaker. Hes got a gym. It has his name on it. How does it work . Is it all personal trainers or how is this different . What attracted you to the business sghp curves is one of the Fastest Growing franchises in this country. This is about small Group Personal training. What you find out is that his wife has a product thats more saleable than his product. And so i make an offer to her before i make an offer to him and thats where the fireworks start. That sounds like fun. Go ahead. As far as last week, the take away from which was a great episode because everybody, i think, has well, not everybody has a peter luger stake. But this company, you figured something out about consolidation with this . Stein meat necessary brooklyn, a 50 million business, really struggling. The insolvency that theyre dealing with is about a 3 million hole. And at the end of the day, i stick with them not necessarily in the original investment because i learned some new fax that i didnt know, but i ended up bike the Brooklyn Burger which youll see at the Barclays Center mets stadium and i had dinner with them last night trying to come up with a plan to restructure their business and deal with vendors and deal with banks. It was a more complicated episode than usual, but were going to have a continuation probably in the fall season because theres a lot of work to be done there. So revisit that. We will revisit that because that deal isnt done. And, you know, the episode ends somewhat abruptly. Joe, as you know, these episodes are truly reality. If we dont have the final resolution at the end, we have to tell people where we are right now. But were going to follow up in the fall. You know, if you were to go in and look at herbalife, becky calls it herbalife, so ill defer to her. How quickly would you be able to determine whether theres anything to ackmans accusations versus the business itself . Well, lets just deal with the facts on the table right now. That isnt talking about herbali herbalife. I want to talk about ackmans behavior. This is a continued effort by someone who doesnt just want to be a noisemaker and a disrupter, i have no challenge with challenging the management. But to bet against the company and then to work hard to point out its laws, its troubling for me and its troubling on a lot of levels. We had these issues with jcpenney. Interestingly enough, the business is doing better since hes been gone. Whether herbalife has a Good Business or not, that is up to people to decide. If they want to make the really troubling for me. I go back and forth on this. I cant decide what i think about it. Ill take the other side just for the sake of argument on it. Yes. Hell say, look, there are people being affected. The reason hes had some groups that have helped him out he says they have targeted hispanic groups and some of the people who have taken stuff on and bought some of this the product cant then unload it. I dont know enough about it. Look, becky, i dont mind anybody in this country being a consumer advocate. We need more of them. Consumer advocacy is something hard to find. When it feels like its lined with selfinterest its a problem for me. All of a sudden ackman is concerned about consumer advocacy . It doesnt seem to tie in with his behavior. Thats a fair point, when he has so much selfinterest in it, too. Weigh in on tesla. Texas is not going to give in to their dealers. The company will go and this is a great deal for texas. 6,500 jobs, 500 Million Investment for this gigafactory. Do you think theyre trying to get the state to change the law on the direct selling model . What do you see happening here . Im happy that the state of texas wants to incentivize tesla to build pieces inside their state. What i struggle with is to match up those moneys and get the dealers of texas to modify their plan. Tesla argues the reason they want to go this route is to give the consumer better prices and all these things. The dealer body provides for Free Enterprise. If youre going to buy a car in the state of texas id rather shop four or five different people rather than have a controlled environment where i dont know if the service is right, the margin is right, because i have nothing to compare it to. Not everybody likes auto dealers. I do like auto dealers. In the case of texas i dont see them budging one bit. Looking at the history of the whole industry, im trying to figure out how it actually its more than just an echo system for middle men. Theres a reason there must have been some positive aspects of the dealer system for it to be so pervasive with the auto industry. I cant believe its acronistic. What are the benefits and drawback . They need them to service the customer number one. They need to create a Free Enterprise system. Auto manufacturers are smart. Typical auto dealers are entrepreneurial. Theyre great at advertising and merchandising. Granted, there are some that are not. It allows the prk to be displayed in a creative one. Jim moran, out of florida, he put toyota on the map. When you find these dealers who are willing to put money on the table when an auto manufacturer is new, the hyundais of the world, the kias of the world and put this product on the shelf of hundreds of dealers across the country, you have to understand its free entire prize ferprise that. I love the product and the people. The process of delivering it to the consumer and avoiding this Free Enterprise system doesnt work for me. Marcus, we got it. Thanks. And well see you tonight. Its intoette that anyone whos really into the whole idea of entrepreneurialship, shark tank, the profit, this is a franchise now big time on cnbc. Its going swimmingly, marcus. Its going well. It is. Thank you. Marcus, when are you coming back in studio again . Next week. You are . I am. Finishing up on the today show today. We miss you. Well see you back here next week. Marcus lemonis. See you soon. Oil prices have been gaining ground after losing 1. 2 yesterday. Up 22 cents to 101. 34. The dollar has been up across the board. In fact if you look right now, youll see its up against the euro. Its flat against the yen at this point. Gold prices continue to climb. Up 7 and change. When we return, how concerned should the markets be about growth in china . Also using natural gas and oil supplies as a weapon in ukraine. Legendary tycoon Boone Pickens has seen this happen before. Hell join us on set with his thoughts on the situation between russia and ukraine. Tensions there will get his thoughts about the Keystone Pipeline and much more. Squawk box will be right back. Tomorrow, squawk box on the strip. Andrew on the streets of sin city. Big hotels, big shows and big home improvements. What . Thats right. Home depot is taking over vegas. Ceo frank lake is the squawk headliner, plus, the ceos of home depots major suppliers, masco, mohawk and weber. If thats not enough, superstar celine deon. Take a gamble on squawk box and hit the jackpot, starting 6 00 a. M. Eastern time. What if the plane gets delayed . What if i cant hide my symptoms . What if . But what if the most important question is the one youre not asking . What if the underlying cause of your symptoms is damaging inflammation . For help getting the answers you need, talk to your doctor and visit crohnsandcolitisinfo. Com to get your complimentary q a book, with information from experts on your condition. [ male announcer ] how could a luminous protein in jellyfish, impact Life Expectancy in the u. S. , real estate in hong kong, and the optics industry in germany . At t. Rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, Global Economy. Its just one reason over 75 of our mutual funds beat their 10year lipper average. T. Rowe price. Invest with confidence. Request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. The search widens for missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370. New details emerging about one of the passengers using a stolen passport. The china factor, worries about growth rippling through the markets but can we trust the data, is all the gloom and doom over chinas future overblown. Rising tensions between ukraine and russia. Legendary energy tie con Boone Pickens tells us why using oil and natural gas as a weapon of war is the real danger. Unlike europe we do have a choice. We just fail to make it. Squawk box begins right now. Good morning, everybody. Welcome back to squawk box here on cnbs. Just slightly, the dow futures are down by 5. 5 points. The nasdaq has turned around. If youre watching what the tenyear has been doing, its still trading near 2. 8 . 2. 781 is the yield on the tenyear note. The search for Malaysia Airlines flight 370 is widening. More than three days after the boeing 777 went missing just an hour after a flight where it took off from cakuala lumpur. One man traveling with a stolen passport is believed to be an Iranian National trying to seek asylum. Sri has more. Sri . Reporter the picture does seem to be changing by the minute almost, quite considerably. We are now getting information from interpol. Theyve just wrapped up a press conference at their headquarters. Ronald k. Noble, secretary general of the organization, saying both these men are Iranian Nationals. There seems to be at this juncture contradictory information. The malaysian immigration authorities were saying that these men came in, using stolen passports and left using stolen passports. Interpol says they came in using iranian passports, legitimate ironian passports. Now, the malaysians then said the biometrics matched on the way out and interpol are contradicting this. All this points to a degree of inconsistency. We need to get some greater clarity here on that matter. The other point, though, is that ronald k. Noble did say, very emphatically, that hes inclined to conclude this was not a terrorist incident. Human smuggling issue is how he characterized it, its more likely to be along those lines. Not a terrorist issue. You must appreciate this discussion on the stolen passports dimension is probably a little bit academic by now. For the families of those who had friends and close loved ones on mh370, many here from china are in kl and are awaiting word on the search that is still ongoing for this missing airliner. Let me also stress that ron k. Noble said that that is where the emphasis of his investigation should be, it should be on the search. Lets not get too fixated on what happened to the issue of these two stolen passports and the two men that boarded mh370. The malaysian authorities also told us one of these individuals, the 19yearold iranian man was not linked to any terror group, he was traveling to germany simply to migrate there. And his mother, in fact, in the next ordinary twist was waiting for him at the airport. She was aware, according to the malaysian authorities here, that he was using a stolen passport. Shes been cooperating with the authorities as has iran. So there are a number of different issues here. A number of apparent inconsistencies. The most important point i do want to stress is that the search does continue for any debris, any vestage or remains of this missing aircraft which so far have yet to turn up. Joe, back to you. Sri, hold on a second. Let me make sure i understand this. I know the story continues to change. But three days in, interpol is saying the two gentlemen weve been showing pictures of, saying they were using stolen passports were not using stolen passports . No. What he is saying is that they entered malaysia using iranian passports, legitimate iranian passports but left the country on mh370 using stolen passports, a stolen italian and stolen austrian passport. That is the gist of all this. What it seems to be pointing at is some flaw in the process, in the immigration process over here in malaysia. We have actually been trying to talk to the authorities here to come back to us and clarify exactly what has gone on. They continue to maintain that there were no security lapses by the immigration officials at Kuala Lumpur International airport which we are at. This is where the press briefings have been taking place, an airport hotel. We await that clarity. I must stress, ron k. Noble stressed this, i think for the families here, ait waing any kind of word on the passengers of mh370, this is albeit a legit area of inquiry. The wait is agonizing. Theyve not heard anything about the missing aircraft. Sri, thank you. As agonizing it is for us to figure out whats happening with be i dont you can only imagine how the families are feeling. Ousted ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych insisting hes still in charge of the country that he fled last month. Lets get more details from jim maceda of nbc news in moscow. Good to see you again. Reporter hi, becky, good to see you. This was his first appearance in two weeks time. He didnt take any questions this time but as you suggest, he did klee claire that he remains because hes still alive, he remains the legitimate president of ukraine, because he was ousted by an unconstitutional coup. He also said he remains the commander in chief and he appealed to the current Ukrainian Army commanders to listen to take orders from him and not to take orders from the ultranationalists and neofascists as he calls them in kiev. He says they are firing Security Officials and Army Officers and that masked gunmen are patrolling the streets as we speak. He said he never fled the country of ukraine, an important point. It was the starting point for the whole series of constitutional steps after that. He never left the ukraine. During the socalled coup, as he calls it. He called the may 25th elections completely illegal and illegitimate. He said, this is interesting, that crimea is breaking away from ukraine and will become a part of russia. But he blamed that situation on a, quote, junta in kiev. Russia sees yanukovych as the legitimate leader of ukraine, which is why people are still listening to this otherwise irrelevant character some would suggest. Meanwhile, becky, in crimea today, very tense indeed, just five days before the referendum is to be voted on, taken, you have russian and prorussian forces using their overwhelming numbers, controlling almost all of the ukrainian bases including missile bases on the peninsula. Sometimes firing rounds in the air or at the feet of ukrainian soldiers to intimidate them. This very troubling addition to all of that, pro ukrainian activists are being beaten, kidnapped, not just in crimea but kiev as well. Jim, thank you very much. Jim maceda. The markets ended the day in the red thanks to a softer export funs out of china and amid broader Global Growth concerns. Joining us now is allison deenz. Also david kelly, chief global strategist at jp morgan funds. Id like to ask you what you think is the most important factor for the markets right now, is it geopolitics or earnings of these companies. I think in the short term it could be geopolitics but longer term its a combination of the economy and companies. Companies have been doing relatively well. For us to start seeing more consistent improved returns and better topline growth we need to see the u. S. Economy and some of the other overseas economies start doing a bit better. I expected it to happen earlier this year, i think the weather has pushed out a little bit, much of a big boost in economic growth. How about you . What do you think is the driving factor right now . I think it will be the economy. I think we went into this year with a lot of pent up demand, huge gains in wealth over the last two years, almost 16 trillion. That has been postponed as allison said by bad weather. We are ready to spring forward in terms of Consumer Spending here. I think the next few weeks in terms of the pace of consumer activity, vehicle sales, will be important if we see a pickup in growth. I think that will probably push Interest Rates higher and should help the stock market also. Is there something that happens or is this just an ebb and flow . I think we were set. Whats really helping growth here is the wealth effect. Weve had a huge improvement in home prices so people feel like theyre not under water as much. Theres an enormous gain in stock prices. I think that left us ready to grow. Wages are growing. Weve seen the strongest yearoveryear wage gain since 2010. I think overall Consumer Spending will pick up over the next few months. Allison, what are companies doing in terms of earnings right now . What do you think were on track to see this year . I have been looking for 6 to 8 Earnings Growth with sluggish, 4 or 5 top line growth hoping in the second half of the year those trends start to pick up and we see closer to 5 to 8 top line growth and 10 Earnings Growth. Companies have been doing well but theyve been sitting on a tremendous amount of cash and not reinvesting in their businesses actively. My sense is, if the things david says come to fruition, which i agree with him, that might give kms more confidence to increase capital spending, acquisition activity and youll start seeing a pickup in core Earnings Growth and top line growth should that happen. You think its still a confidence game and thats whats been Holding Things back . Yes. Washington plays a role in that or doesnt play a role in that . I think wash played a very big role last year. You had the sequester, the threat of the debt ceiling limit. Most of that has gone by the way side and even if there are issues in washington, washington scared itself enough last year that theyll wind up being much better behavior. What you have going into the second half of this year is easier comparables because of all the tough things that were put in place from Government Spending starting with the sequester. The growth comparisons start getting better. If govern behaves well or does far less, i think corporations will feel more comfortable. These guys have too much time on their hands recently. Slumber party, what was i mean, what was i kind of miss the sequester. And the shutdown. Talk about serious stuff instead. Unfortunately we have a horrible geopolitical situation. I think that keeps people a little concerned but it takes the focus off of making a mess of things in washington. Just in terms of the jobs numbers on friday, does that set us up for bigger numbers. We had the most disruptive survey week in 20 years in terms of the employment report. I think the big takeaway from the jobs report is that the fed is off schedule here. If you look at what the fed members themselves say about the federal funds rate, theyre looking at a 2 federal funds rate by 2016. You could have the Unemployment Rate down by 4. 5 by then. You have an Unemployment Rate at 6. 5 . If wages are growing right now, where are they going to be in two or three years . The key thing markets are missing is the fed has the schedule wrong. They are going to have to accelerate the increase in the federal funds rate from whats laid out right now. You think it happens when . I think early to mid2015 well get a First Federal funds rate hike. I think theyll have to raise that at least as fast as they normally do. Theyre not going to have room to maneuver. Youre talking about a quarter point move every meeting essentially. At least that, yes. Thank you both for joining us. Thank you. Thank you. And other headlines, the first month of Legal Marijuana sales in colorado has added more than 2 million to state coffers. It came from taxes and fees on 4 million worth of pot sales. 2 million. Thats okay. A Quarterly Survey by manpower shows that 19 of employers anticipate increasing staff levels during the second quarter. That is the highest that weve seen in six years. Apple is reportedly pushing Record Companies to offer new songs exclusively through its itunes store. Wait a second. The disrupter doesnt want to get disrupted . Yes, i dont do you have spotify . No. Apple executives think the Ondemand Services are hurting download sales. The disrupter doesnt want to get disrupted so theyll try and hold on to what they have. Right. I guess they need to do what they have to do, right . I know but that doesnt always work. No. Next, trusting the data from china. Should the markets be worried about a slowdown in china that we really threw us for a little bit of a loop yesterday with that export number . Well have is that discussion, next. Plus, Boone Pickens back in 2009 said this on russias influence over europe now, get this one. Did you know what happened when russia cut off europes natural gas supplies in the middle of winter . Europe begged russia real nice, please turn it back on. Its cold. Europe even said theyd pay more. Why . They had to. Russia controls europes supply of natural gas. They dont have a choice. Were 70 dependent on foreign oil but unlike europe, we do have a choice. We just fail to make it. Five years later, more problems with russia, boone will join us to talk about using oil and natural gas as a weapon. Thats at 7 30 a. M. Eastern time. Yup. All 5 of you for 175. Our clients need a lot of attention. Theres unlimited talk and text. Were working deals all day. You get 10 gigabytes of data to share. What about expansion potential . Add a line, anytime, for 15 a month. Low dues, great terms. Lets close new at t mobile share value plans our best value plans ever for business. Chinas exports unexpectedly fell 18 in february, causing growth concerns for the Global Economy. Is the drop in exports as bad as it appears to be. Joining us now is John Rutledge of the private Investment Firm of safanad. There was a holiday, a lunar something or other. Was it played forward . They booked a bunch of stuff in the last period . What happened, john, do you know . We should begin by saying i dont know. The reason i dont know, were trying to ask one number to do at least three things. Were trying to get it to tell us whether china is growing, were trying to understand the Lunar New Year effect and trying to understand capital controls. One number can only tell you one thing. What this number tells you, somebody has been fiddling with the export numbers. Who controls the exports . Is it the economies in the countries that are importing the stuff . Or is it china deciding on how much its exporting . Its interest, joe. Of course how much physical goods is exported are controlled by how much people want to buy abroad. And in that case, you think this number would tell you the rest of the world is collapsing, which its not. Imports in china grew 10 . These numbers are yearoveryear numbers. The february export number fell by about half from the january number. Big, big changes. The problem here is that the rmb is not convertible. That means for most businesses and people in china, its not legal to own foreign currencies. What that means is, if you want to get money in or out of china, foreign assets, you have to find another way to do it. The other way to do it is over and under invoicing exports. Its an old game but its been going on big time. Let me tell you how it works. If i want to get money into china, i will im a chinese exporter, i will take my exports for 100 and ill bill it for 200. My customer pays me the 200. 100 for my goods and 100 to invest for him. And so capital flows flow through the export accounts in china because of capital controls. Really whats going on here is the collapse of emerging market assets that started in january. When it became clear, as david said, Interest Rates are rising now. So we saw emergencies in places like argentina, thailand, turkey, egypt and many other places. In china, thats happening, too, but its taking the form of a falling rmb and a plunge in the export numbers as people try and move money out of china now. Rising rates here are causing the people who had built up big positions abroad to close them and bring the money back home. So as i recall, you werent someone that was ready to call china a currency manipulator by keeping the rmb so weak. Are they orchestrating this decline or all along were we wrong in thinking it should be much higher. This is not something the Chinese Government is doing. What they did that matters here, the currency is not convertible. Its not been convertible for a very, very long time. The manipulation were talking about is done by private sellers and private buyers and by the way, u. S. Investors and european investors, who are trying to move money in and out of china, the export account is the only way to do that to avoid the capital controls. This is not a government conspiracy. This is people in businesses and in the Investment Business finding ways to get around capital controls. Its a private game, not a beijing game. So the in summary, youd say its only one number, we shouldnt get too excited and it may have occurred for reasons that arent completely clear and we better before we decide china is slowing we better get some more numbers. Thats true. Incomes in china are fine. Dont get too excited about this one number. Other numbers like auto sales and pmi for nonmanufacturing are actually doing fine. China will grow 7 plus a little bit this year. Trade will end up the year growing about that much, too. So i just take a deep breath and exhale over this number. All right. North korean guy, man, he got 100 , john . You see that . He seems very popular. Very popular in his country with his supreme leader. Anyway, china backs north korea. Im not conflating the two. Its a hard its hard for us to understand. Its still unskirtable, thousands of years we didnt understand what was happening thats why we need you. Within we come back, Boone Pickens will be our special guest. Hes focused on the crisis in ukraine and how it could impact natural gas and oil prices if tensions continue to rise. Later, creating jobs in america with ohio senator rob portman. Well have more squawk right after this. You stand behind what you say. Around here you dont make excuses. You make commitments. And when you cant live up to them, you own up, and make it right. Some people think the kind of accountability that thrives on so many streets in this country has gone missing in the places where its needed most. But i know youll still find it when you know where to look. Sometimes they just drop in. Always obvious. Cme group can help you navigate risks and capture opportunities. We enable you to reach Global Markets and drive forward with broader possibilities. Cme group how the world advances. Next up, using natural gas and oil in a crisis in the ukraine. Boone pickens will be with us. He warned about this back in 2009. Hes here with an update today. Hell jone us on set right after this. Im becomeky quick along with joe kernen. Dow component dupont blaming the weather for a challenging First Quarter. It also says the political unrest in ukraine has delayed seed deliveries. Now, we questioned this earlier but dupont runs a factory in the central part of the country. Thats why its had such a huge impact. It is sticking by the earnings forecast of 4. 20 to 4. 45 a charge. Chobani is looking to sell in a deal that could value the company at 2. 5 billion. It is speaking to Consumer Companies and private equity firms to engage their interest. Chobani previously talked to banks about pursuing an ipo. A scary moment during an nhl game last night in dallas. Dallas stars forward collapsing on the bench during the first period of the game against the columbus blue jackets. He was successfully treated for a cardiac event. The 31yearold missed the start of the season because of a procedure to correct an ig regular heartbeat. They put off the game after this happened. Scary moments but hell be okay. Hes not out of the they talked about putting him back in the game. Are you kidding . There was a discussion on that. He wanted to come back in the game, too. Those guys are tough. They are. Tensions between russia and ukraine continue to escalate. Legendary Energy Tycoon Boone Pickens says the real danger to the world is that oil and natural gas are once again being used as weapons of war. Boone is the founder of bp capital and he joins us right now on set. Boone, its great to have you here. Thank you. You warned about this in 2009. 2008. 2008. Weve been playing clips from the commercial you put out that really said that this was on the horizon. Lets describe the situation as you saw it back then and whats happened since. We just said, you remember that gas the Russian Company cut off natural gas to Eastern Europe back in 2009 is when it was. And we showed the lights going off, gas prong came to visit me in dallas after that. They did . They did. I thought why is gas prong coming to see me . They came and had a meeting early in the morning and they said we dont like that ad. Would you take it off the air . And you said . No, i didnt take it off. So the ad, though, makes the point that europe was dependent on russia for the oil and natural gas. When russia cut them off, they had to go back beg on their knees for help and your point is, that we in america have a choice. We dont have to be dependent for 70 of our oil needs on foreign countries. You know, we started in july of 08 and said get an energy plan for america. We still dont have an energy plan. We have the most dynamic oil and gas industry in the United States than any place else in the world. Our industry going pretty well without a plan. We could do better. Just letting the markets work and money go where its treated best has done pretty well with the shale revolution. The leadership should be, they should come and do the Southern California deal on trash trucks, take the heavyduty trucks to natural gas is what you should do. When you do that, youll cut off 3 Million Barrels a day. That can be opec crude. We import 4 Million Barrels a day of opec crude. Cut 75 of it out with 6 million trucks. Boone, if you were Vladimir Putin and you just knew you could have crimea with all those natural resources, you knew you could have it, is there any way you would keep yourself from taking it . Oh, gosh, that is a difficult question. One, i dont know anything about politics. You know plenty. If that was sitting there sta staring you in the face, its always been russia, you knew no one was going to do anything about it. I have a choice. Wouldnt you back the referendum. I dont think that was the deal that was made back in the 90s. He did sign something with the nuclear stuff. You stick with the deals you make. Im talking about putin. Well, putin is you know, as far as im concerned hes just a young joe stalin, a little smoother, but he runs circles around us. Yes, right, exactly. I cant even imagine if we go in and file a letter of protest or something. For what hes done. I mean, i would ignore it. Id just say we dont need it, even if we do it ourselves, right . You say we would do it ourselves, no. I dont mean that. I mean if we develop our resources here, were not going to have to worry. We could even help europe, couldnt we . Sure we could. Sure we could. You cant get natural gas. I mean, we have some politician on there, were going to just go in and send natural gas to the ukraine and get rid of russia and all this stuff and everything. I dont think you could ship becky wont let us. Number two, we dont have the infrastructure to do it anyway. First l g loads will go out of lake charles, i think, they say in late 15. Ill say sometime in 16. 2016, before you can ship anything over. . Yes, shenear are working on two trains they think now. They say theyll be ready late 15. Nothing in the oil field ever happens on time. This has changed the conversation in washington, though. Suddenly politicians are saying, okay, maybe we should get a pa more serious plan. Do you think something happens . Or do you think this is a temporary time, will they be all talk and no action . Probably that. I mean, you know, what have we got out of washington the last ten years . Nothing. Just problems. They create more problems for themselves. I dont know how they handle energy. Ive talked to them down there for several years. Ive gotten some things done. I did get finally got where we talk about natural gas, didnt i . I mean, when i first started talking about that, it was like whats natural gas . And you know, a lot of people thought it was gasoline. In the past there were times in your life where you probably were content to let the free market build out infrastructure and do all these things. It would be easier if we could get some help. Then again when you count on the government youll be disappointed probably a lot. Thats right. Thats exactly right. What do you need how can you do it where you let the market sort of dictate whats going on but you get juicing from the people say the government funded the research that started the internet but it wasability out by the private sector. What do you really want from them . We tried in washington to get something done and we then we now are working at state level. Were getting some of the archaic stuff out of there now. Somebodys all at once showed up and they want to sell natural gas on a kilogram basis. What is this all about . We already have converted natural gas, mcf, over to diesel gallons. Its very simple to do. You wonder where some of this stuff comes from. You dont know whether its would you want the government taxing its citizens and funding the infrastructure for natural gas in this country . Oh, no. How do we get them to help, publ Public Private partnerships. Im not asking for the infrastructure. The best thing they could do is mandate, if you buy a heavy duty truck, it will be on natural gas. How are you going to fill it up if theres no stations. The stations are in. They have 100 stations on the interstates now. Thats ready to go. Dont worry about that. If you talk about the government doing the infrastructure, thats a nightmare. That ill with be a huge mistake. Its something the left and right could come together on. The left want to spend money on infrastructure. That would be a way to do it at least well get something out of it. Dont let the government do anything on infrastructure. Let the private tax incentives for private people . Anything the government can do. Where you can give some help is the 12 liter engine, a fabulous piece of equipment, that it costs a little bit more tanks on the trucks are a little more. Give them a tax credit and do a pay for. Let the user pay, just like a toll road. It can be done in an afternoon. These are so small, these steps. You could get bipartisan agreement. Sure you could. You wouldnt have problems with this. Its not a political issue. Baby steps. We should do that. Stick around. Were not going to talk basketball. Why not . I dont think. Im not ready to talk basketball. You know i played back in high school. Because you have a losing record in the big 12 . Your Overall Record is okay. Well fast forward now to the big 12. Were struggling in the big 12. Im excited about that. You could win two games and play iowa state. We could win two games and play kansas again. Yes, yes. Either way it will be good to watch. Both of them are tough. We beat kansas one out of two but we cant beat iowa state. Thats the nicest crowd of people i ever seen in my life, anytime i go to ames, football or basketball, i leave there and scratch a losers ass. Well continue our conversation with Boone Pickens after the break. Ref there and a scratch a losers ass. Im going to use that. I know you are. I want that the expression. Thats like that bill clinton expression, hes happier than a dog with remember that one . Yes, yes. Anyway you know that one . Yes. Its a good one, too. Next hour, senator rob portman joins to us discuss his jobs for america plan. Check out the futures right now. Squawk box is coming right back. Nascar is ab. Out excitement but tracking all the action and hearing everything from our marketing partners, the media and millions of fans on social media can be a challenge. Thats why we partnered with hp to build the new nascar fan and media engagement center. Hps Technology Helps us turn millions of tweets, posts and stories into realtime Business Insights that help nascar win with our fans. So our business can be on at ts network for 175 a month . Yup. All 5 of you for 175. Our clients need a lot of attention. Theres unlimited talk and text. Were working deals all day. You get 10 gigabytes of data to share. What about expansion potential . Add a line, anytime, for 15 a month. Low dues, great terms. Lets close new at t mobile share value plans our best value plans ever for business. Could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. S Everybody Knows that. Well, did you know that when a tree falls in the forest and no ones around, it does make a sound . Ohhh. Ugh. Geico. Little help here. I needthats my geico Digital Insurance id card gots all my pertinents on it and such. Works for me. Turn to the camera. Ah, actually i think my eyes might ha. Next Digital Insurance id cards. Just a tap away on the geico app. Welcome back, everybody. We are back with Boone Pickens, Energy Tycoon. We havent talked about what direction you think Energy Prices are heading from here. Everybody wants to know what you think about oil and natural gas. What you saw with natural gas as a cold winter. We saw city gate process 100 in mcf. Had nothing to do with the price of gas on the pipeline. But anyway, we have plenty of natural gas but sometimes its not in the right place. Consequence thely the price goes sky high. Look at what will happen now. Because of a cold winter weve drawn down storage to where well be under a trillion in storage and thats the first time thats ever happened to us. What does it mean . It means we still have a lot of natural gas. We had almost 4 trillion in storage. We pulled down and were under 1 trillion coming out of storage. That will end at the end of march. Youll go into the fill season in april. Whats going to happen, i think, youre going to see a strong price for natural gas through the summer because youre going to have to put back in 4 trillion. If thats the case, its not going to be easy to do. At the same time, you have plenty of natural gas. Its just not easy to get it back into storage. Whats a strong price . You say you think it will be a strong price through the summer. What range . I think you could see 5 fill price. Thats strong. I mean, you know, two years ago we were down in the twos. And so its come back. But another place to watch since 1800 rigs operating in the United States today. You have about 350 of them on natural gas. The rest of them are on oil. As the price of gas goes up, move the rigs back over. No. Theyre doing just fine on 100 oil. Theyre not going to be in any rush to go back to the gas patch and start drilling. So its going to be a very, very interesting year. If we have any kind of winter, were not going to have a winter like we had almost year. I dont think that will happen. Its interesting we ask you about Energy Prices and we spent three or four minutes talking about natural gas. We usually only talk about oil with you. Oil . Thats all we used to talk about. Natural gas is coming back into the picture. I know. Big time. We asked about energy price and we talk natural gas. What about oil . Oils strong. I mean like its worth 100 always. Well, i tell you what, its if you look i like to look at the saudis because theyre the biggest producer in the world. They export a lot of oil every day. Theyre producing 9 million, 10 Million Barrels of oil a day. They say we have to have 100 a barrel for the oil because we have social commitments. That means their people. Half their people dont work. You have to feed them. Theyre not kidding when they say that. I had a congressman today say they can produce their oil for 5 a barrel. I can tell you, at about 75 a barrel, theyll get overthrown over there. Youll have you a real riot in saudi arabia if the price went down to that. Theyll keep it up and drop supply and take care of it that way. Boone, very quickly, i know where you stand when it comes to the Keystone Pipeline. Do you think it gets done sometime in the next two years . I cant believe that. Six years youve had a Christmas Present on the front porch. A guy knocks on the door and says heres a nice present to are you. You said, well, well think about it. You close the door and leave the guy on the front porch. I mean, its nuts. Here you have oil offered to you. You dont have to have the fifth fleet in the persian gulf. You dont have to have military or anything to protect it. Here it is, you can have it and all for you. And were still sitting here. Some place the canadians are going to get tired. Theyre patient people but up to a point. Were nuts not to take it. I will tell you, you will always be on my list of the top 25 people over the last 25 years who have been most influential. You are not on cnbcs final 100. That surprised me. Does that surprise you . Well, it did but i think, becky, on that, thats a contender deal. And first was were going to vote and then second weve decided well have a committee. Well, they took me out. I think they thought i was dead. I do. I think they thought he cant still be around. And they didnt have George Mitchell in there. He got put on on a writein. They brought george back, resurrected george in the deal. They thought i had done with george. You werent dead. You were just in nebraska. We thought you were dead, too. Thats from the movie unforgiven. I heard that, too. I dont know. Anybody that voted for me, im sorry your vote didnt count. I mean, you got better elections in third world countries than you do at cnbc. It is something that youre on my list, too. If i had to vote on this, i would definitely be on there. What you did with shareholder rights before oil and natural gas, too. Youre our goto guy when it comes to this stuff. I had a bunch of mesa. I forget what the yield was. But i mean it was huge. I know it was. 8 or 9 as i recall. It was. Yes. It was. Mlp was the symbol, wasnt it . It was mlp. Thats right. Mesa limited partnership. We were one of the first ones that did it. I know. I owned it. I was with you back then. Youre still on my list. I wish i would have looked at how rich kinder did it. He was so much smarter than i was. I got 2 . What did he get. 50 after a certain point. Wow. Of distribution. Nothing wrong with that. Shareholders loved it. Boone, i want to thank you very much for being here. I hope you come back very soon. And thank you for joining us. Thank you. Its always fun for me. Great to see you. When we come back, senator rob portman and his plan for jobs in america. And later, the president and ceo of the newly formed Pipeline Company end link midstream, a combination of cross tech and Energy Pipeline businesses. Hell be talking about the future of Energy Independence. Stick around. Squawk will be right back. No two people have the same financial goals. Pnc investments works with you to understand yours and helps plan for your retirement. Talk to a pnc investments Financial Advisor today. Lets take a look at some stocks to watch this morning. Dicks Sporting Goods reported Fourth Quarter profit of 1. 11 a share, meeting estimates. Revenue slightly above consensus. The Sporting Goods retailer raised its Fourth Quarter estimate. They have everything. Next stock of next Generation Power providers are continuing their recent rally. Theyre lowpriced stocks. This comes after one of them fuel cell energy, reported a narrower Fourth Quarter loss and surge in revenue. Fuel cell more than tripled this year. Plug power is up nearly eightfold since january 1st and ballard power is up fivefold. Activist Investor Elliott Associates has taken a stake in boyd gaming. Elliott says the stock is undervalued and represents an attractive investment opportunity. Jcpenney was upgraded to buy from neutral at citi which says it believes a retailer can continue to deliver positive samestore sales growth, thanks to an updated merchandise mix as well as some other changes. Coming up, a check on the markets and what investors will be focused on in todays trading session. Then, you just heard from Boone Pickens about our nations pipelines. Well have the ceo of pipeline giant end link midstream. If you havent heard of it, its because it used to be cross techs and part of devon. And senator rob portman reveals his jobs across america plan. Squawk box is back right after this break. Latte or au lait . Sunny or bubbly . Cozy or cool . Meow or woof . Wheels or wheeeels . Everything exactly the way you want it. Until boom, its bedtime. Your mattress isnt bliss its a battleground of thwarted desire. Enter the allnew sleep number classic series. Designed to let couples sleep together in individualized comfort. Starting at just 699. 99 for a queen mattress. Hes the softy his sleep number setting is 35. Youre the rock your setting is 60. That works. Hes the night owl. His sides up while youre in dreamland. Youre the early bird. Up and at em. No problem, because youre in it together. Keeping the love alive. And by the way snoring . Sleep numbers even got an adjustment for that. Crazy . Only if sleeping peacefully with your soulmate is crazy. 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We ask the ceo of Enlink Midstream. The ceo of girl scouts usa gives us an update on how the selling season has been as the final hour of squawk box begins right now. Welcome back to squawk box here on cnbc. Im joe kernen along with becky quick. The futures at this hour, not much happening so far today and continuing with that, although yesterday it looked like it was going to get dicey. They really didnt. We lost a few on the s p and 30 or so points on the dow. Well see what happens today. Were right near recent alltime highs on most averages. Well see. The search for the missing Malaysian Airlines jet liner is intensifying. Its as the search area expands. Sri jegarajah joins us. Whats the latest . Reporter its important to remember theres a security direction here. What i understand from hearing from interpol and the Malaysian Police authorities, its becoming clearer that this investigation seems to be moving further away from the theory of terror, that terror could have been the cause of the disappearance of flight mh370. Let me tell you why. We heard from interpols secretary general ronald k. Noble earlier. He said this, he was inclined to conclude this was not a terrorist incident. It wasnt a terrorist incident. The malaysian authorities seemed to be not ruling that out completely. In fact, they flagged two areas that were a cause for concern still, hijacking and sabotage. Lets leave that aside for one minute. All those issues about stolen passports, et cetera, fast becoming academic for the families that had loved ones on that flight. They want answers and are getting those answers. The search continues, though, as an armada of ships searching for anything that they can trace back to explain why this aircraft went missing. We have no such substantive evidence as of yet. Becky, joe, back to you. Okay, sri, you know, hope that at some point we figure out where it is, obviously for the families. Although its going to be thats not going to ease the pain that much, obviously. Stocks retreating marginally monday on Global Growth concerns. Lets find out what investors should focus on today. Joining us know is joe quinlan. Ed keon is Portfolio Manager at Quantitative Management Associates and i would say its safe to say that both of you gentlemen, ill start with you, ed, see more positive things around the world for equity asset prices than negative things . Even though there will be the bumps in the road. You think well be in a bull market for a few more years . Thats right. Theres plenty of things to worry about. Im a professional worrywart as everyone money manager is. I think the u. S. Economy will pull the rest of the worlds economies higher. Theres plenty of things to worry about, i dont think valuations are near to the point where you start to worry about a bear market. I think earnings will drive the market higher over the next couple of years. Joe, initially i think you wanted to make it clear that joe yes politics is not going to be enough to spell the end of this recent bull market. Thats right, joe. Theres problems in ukraine, turkey, argentina, thailand. The money is coming to the United States, because of these problems. Right now, Foreign Ownership of u. S. Equities are at an alltime high, up 30 from a year ago. I think that will continue. Its good bid for our equities. And im not convinced that domestic the domestic appetite for u. S. Equities is really indicative of how, you know, how bullish people get near the end of a bull. What is it, the bull markets end with a bang, not a whimper. Thats right. They usually end when the fed is tightening. I dont think were anywhere near that just yet. Thats a story for 2015. This is an unloved bull market. That gives it more legs ba s be of that. Either one of you can address this. We maybe had more upside from the fed than we were probably deserved, lets say, based on all the liquidity. Well be in a period of rising Interest Rates which is never great because you just view things competitively on where you can get the best return. Both of those could be headwinds for the next year or so. No, ed . Its possible. If you look historically, the market can tolerate higher Interest Rates as long as youre getting a strong level of growth and low inflation. I think there will be inflationary pressures. We did see wages start to tick up a little bit. Thats not a bad thing, either. I think youll see greater concern on the market over the next year or so that the fed may be behind the curve and that will be a worry well have to get through. I think we can still have good Earnings Growth an a good market even if Interest Rates do rise modestly over the next year or so. One thing in that labor report, joe, the wages, what they rose, 2. 5 or whatever. And people said it was because of the weather. If you factor it out, it still rose more quickly than people thought which some people say that means the labor market might be tighter than we would think where it is and the fed is already behind the curve. Is that possible . I dont know if the fed is behind the curve, joe. One of our clients biggest problems is finding labor, whether its carpenters, roofers, microsoft engineers. Theres a Skilled Labor shortage thats boosting wages. The flip side of that means more consumption. Theres a dynamic where stagnant wages might be behind us. Do you think that anything in technology right now is similar to the late 90s . I mean, a couple theres like i can name five names but i cant name 100 names. Is that something we should take solace . I think we should, joe. I dont think its frothy like we saw in the late 90s. Theres a handful of companies that could be questionable about valuations. I think theres more room to run if europe improves, the dollar weak weakens. I dont think frothyness in tech just yet. We were talking about seth yesterday. What did he mention, tesla and netflix as indicative of speculative environment that means valuations are already extended. And a few names that may be true. For the broad market it clearly is not in my view. Valuations are not cheap anymore. Theyre roughly equal to longterm averages. The next phase of the bull market will be driven by earnings, not valuations going up from here. The returns you get will be somewhat slower. Weve had 25 annualized returns since the bottom. You expect something closer to 10 going forward. Thats still a pretty good return. Joe, you keep saying that money is coming here because were doing so much better. Should we foulfocus not focu multinationals and put more emphasis on Domestic Companies or diversify across the board . I would do the latter, joe, diversify across the board. The u. S. Economy growth does support small cap, midcap investment here in the United States. The sovereign wealth funds like to buy the big cap names, they know them, they feel comfortable owning them. The sovereign wealth funds will buy the large cap u. S. Companies. Diversify, spread it out. More domestic or everywhere . I think everywhere. Its always a good idea. Spreading your bets across the broad board of large cap, small cap, growth in value, i think having an emphasis on developed markets at this point is better and safer than emerging markets. I think that may change before this years over. So far weve emsa sized the u. S. In other developed markets. Youre a big asset allocator now. Would you have 40 in bonds or not . Were underweight bonds in all our portfolios . You too, joe . One area we see interest is timber and farmland. We buy timber out there. Good returns. Thats a place a lot of money is flowing as well. And hard assets. All right. Okay. Thank you. Joe quinlan, thanks. Lets talk about other headlines this morning. Small Business Sentiment dropped in february. The monthly index from the National Federation of independent business fell to 91. 4 from 94. 1 in january. Retail are target is being sued by swatch. Target is accused of selling watches that copy swatch designs. Target wouldnt comment specifically on the suit but says the Company Policy is to respect the intellectual Property Rights of others. Microsoft releases its titanfall game for the xbox today. It is hoping it will give the latest version of the xbox a boost. The game will be made available for older xbox consoles later this month. Coming up, a sevenpoint plan for job ms. America. Senator rob portman says its going to spark an economic recovery. I think skyline franchises might be one of the seven points. Hes our next guest. As we head to break, check out the squawk box market indicator. [ cows moo ] [ sizzling ] more rain. [ thunder rumbles ] [ male announcer ] when the world moves. Futures move first. Learn futures from experienced pros with dedicated chats and daily live webinars. And trade with papermoney to testdrive the market. All on thinkorswim from td ameritrade. Welcome back to squawk box, everybody. Weve been watching the futures. At this point theyre flat lining. Weve seen them weaker but at this point they are down by 2. 5 points, nasdaq indicated up by 3. 3 points and well continue to watch this. They took out the welcome back. I was going to say welcome back. Did you not welcome people back. Welcome back, everyone, we missed you in the two minutes we were away. Desperately. Good morning again. And in the worlds first accounting of the pot business, the recreational pot business colorado brought in we said 2 million. We said now its 3. 5 million. Advocates for legalization point to tax revenue as a major selling pine. Customers bought just over 14 million worth of recreational pot. Taxes from those sales about 2 million. In addition, heres the rest. The state selected around 1. 5 million of tax revenue from medical marijuana. Taylor west is with the National Cannabis industry association. Taking this off of the black market and off of the street and putting it behind a highly regulated counter, we actually create an enormous amount of benefit for the state, for the communities and local economy. The governors Spending Authority for the tax money include youth prevention and Substance Abuse treatment, Police Training and School Rehabilitation throughout the state. I still cant get used to the idea. You know im out next week. In colorado . Yes, were flying there saturday. Uhhuh. When did you decide to make your trip there . Was it just after november . No. We go every year. I know. We happen to be doing to which is funny after reading that story. I still cant get used to the idea as pot as legal and the denver post has a pot critic. At my age, you know what im excited about, they have pizza, avos pizza out there. Maybe the pot might make that a better experience. I dont know. A lot of it is apparently edible pot theyre selling in colorado, too. Did you know that . You dont get the smoke. Yes. Exactly. Anyway, were used to because for years of it having the stigma. Stigma, just talking about it now, we are either laughing or feeling guilty. Theres people at home i dont want to promote this to like my kids or anyone else. Me neither. Thats the thing. Its crazy, the idea your kid could take off and go to colorado and legally be smoking pot . Yes. Anyway, when i went to school i thought it was legal anyway. It seemed legal in boulder. The ceo of Enlink Midstream. Well be right back. Especially if youre thinking of moving an old 401 k to a fidelity ira. It gives you a wide range of investment options. And the free help you need to make sure your investments fit your goals and what youre really investing for. Tap into the full power of your fidelity green line. Call today and well make it easy to move that old 401 k to a fidelity rollover ira. Nascar is ab. Out excitement but tracking all the action and hearing everything from our marketing partners, the media and millions of fans on social media can be a challenge. Thats why we partnered with hp to build the new nascar fan and media engagement center. Hps Technology Helps us turn millions of tweets, posts and stories into realtime Business Insights that help nascar win with our fans. A short word thats a tall order. Up your game. Up the ante. And if you stumble, you get back up. Up isnt easy, and we ought to know. Were in the business of up. Everyday delta flies a quarter of Million People while investing billions improving everything from booking to baggage claim. Were raising the bar on flying and tomorrow we will up it yet again. Welcome back, everybody. Our next guest is rolling out his new jobs for america plan today. Its a sevenpoint plan put forward by Senate Republicans. Joining us right now is senator rob portman. Its good to see you today. Thanks for having me on. Tell us about the plan. Its a blueprint for getting the economy going and bringing back jobs and opportunity. Its a simple concept which is if republicans get the majority well move forward on regulatory relief, on tax reform, on doing something to expand Domestic Energy production to get the economy moving, worker retraining. Expanding exports. All things that can and should be done now. All these issues are ones we should be able to come together on. We havent been able to. The notion is, lets lay out what we would do if we had the ability to control the agenda. Looking around the country, we have seen the Unemployment Rate start to come down, get closer towards 6. 5 . In ohio its 7. 1 . Why is ohio struggling more than the rest of the country. Ohio is doing better. Our rate just went down. We created jobs in ohio since the recession. We havent created jobs in the country. Almost a million jobs down. The becky, the numbers i look at are the number of people who are working, in other words, the Work Force Participation rate which as you know is back to the 1970stoall americans. For men its at historic lows. In other words, there are fewer men participating the work force. Weve seen since the 1940s. I also look at the longterm unemployed number. The job numbers last month were 175,000 jobs but there were more people, over 230,000 people who joined the ranks of the longterm unemployed. As you know, the previous two months were the worst in three years in terms of job growth. Were not out of the woods. We have to do something to get the economy moving. The mark set doing well. I see it may be up again today. That really is not a reflection of whats going on in the lives of the people i represent. We did a Teletown Hall meeting last night, had 25,000 people on the call. Was asked whats the top issue . It always comes back, its the jobs and how do you bring back the jobs . People are telling me their stories. A guy whose work was out of work for a year and a half applied to dozens of places. Thats the reality, people are having a tough time having work. Senator ben white has a story out this morning that the legislative agenda is done for the rest of this year. Do you think that is a realistic view of washington right now . I hope not. Theres lots to be done. One reason were laying out this agenda now is to say we cant wait until 2017 which a lot of people are saying. Some people are saying nothing will happen as long as president obama is in the white house and we have divided government. I think well keep the house majority. We could keep the senate majority. We have to move forward on these issues. I think the country is in trouble on the company but also the debt and deficit. He would veto stuff. You dont have to enough to override his veto of the things you wanted. You look tired. Were you up all night at that pajama party . Were you there last night . No. They didnt invite me. I would have been happy to be there. I follow co2 closely. I detected a rise of co2 levels coming out of that meeting. A little hot air . Yes. How tone deaf are these 30 guys . I mean, isnt it jobs . Couldnt this he have an all nighter talking about jobs . Instead of talking about stuff that might hurt jobs . Well, a lost the stuff will hurt jobs because the way we regulate hurts jobs, particularly on some of the epa regulations. In my state of ohio but around the country were losing jobs because of it. Instead of going through a cost benefit analysis and determining whats the least costly way to achieve an objective, the regulations unfortunately are resulting in a lot fewer jobs. Theres better ways to do it. Joe, back to your earlier point about will the president veto this stuff . I could lay out what these 7 principles are but more importantly, over 40 bills that have passed the house of representatives, that have some bipartisan support that actually fit under these issues. Regulatory relief. The regulatory accountability act has passed the house. Its bipartisan in the house. Its bipartisan in the senate. If we took that bill up as part of this agenda, i think it would pass the house easily. What would the president do . Second, i think he would sign some of this stuff. If we got a senate majority, we not only could be able to have an agenda working with the house thats progrowth, i think some of these very specific bills like the regulatory accountability act would get the president s signature. Dont you only need 51 now since they changed that for stuff . Well, thats for nominations at this point. Just for nominations. Yes. Thats where harry reid and the democrats have changed the rules. You can change it when you get in, too. Well, go for it. I hope we go back to the constitution and the Founding Fathers and figure out those guys, that was a long time ago. Things have changed. Come on. Senator, we just had Boone Pickens on. He was talking about how he thinks that we need a Better Energy plan in america. Largely because of he was pointing out whats happening in ukraine right now. He had been talking for a long time how russia controls the natural gas. As a result europe is really beholdened to them on a lot of levels. I know youre on the energy committee. What do you think we could or should see in some of the National Energy policy here . I think Boone Pickens is exactly right. By the way, i think probably close to 40 of the jobs that have been created in the last few years have probably been related to energy from the data ive seen. Without the energy boone, without this revolution in being able to access the shale gas and oil, wed be in a lot worse shape than we are. We can do more offshore on the outer continental shelf, much more on public land and much more on speeding up permitting. Thats one of the things we want to do with the Senate Republican jobs plan, to speed up permitting to get more Energy Projects going. That includes Natural Energy and gas. I think hes right. Specifically on exporting l g, that would help. Its taking these amazing resources we have, one country in the world thats expanding our production in oil, gas and probably have the largest reserves of natural gas in the world now thats accessible. I think that makes sense. The other thing about the ukraine thats interesting, since you raised it, about 50 of their electricity comes from the nuclear side. They get enriched uranium from russia. One thing we do have in this country is the ability to enrich uranium and provide that to the ukraines so they are not depend enept on russia. Thats something im pushing. So its not just natural gas for ukraine. It has to do with ensuring they have a source of fuel. 50 of their power comes from nuclear . Yes. Wow. I didnt realize that. The europeans have backed off on that, which is one reason the europeans are more and more dependent, particularly the germans, on the russians. The United States can play a role in helping to provide some of the energy that helps to defuse some of the crises like ukraine but also helps to keep the price of energy down and helps grow the Global Economy which helps us here in america. The markets have written off crimea. They think its an end game at this point, that thats gone. Do you think thats an accurate perception. Gosh, i hope not. I think the International Community needs to stand up and isolate russia for what is a military invasion of a sovereign country. I dont think we ought to give up. Before we go, real quickly, i saw an article about a new breed of republicans with be not the tea party but these are guys, i guess theyre libertarian socially and theyve got their mind in the right place. Free enterprise, capitalism, jobs, thats what it should be. Whats going to happen in this next election, whos going to take over . Rand paul wins the cpac thing. Are we moving right or to where the government gets out of everybodys life and just controls prosperity rather than peoples morality . Can the republicans get it together . That sounds like the joe kernen party. I think that could be pretty popular. Its there. Its ready to happen. You might actually win some elections that way. Yes. Look, i think jobs and the economy and the fiscal issues are the top issues by far. We do the polls every month with the Teletown Hall. It always comes out that way. The National Polls show that. Were a party that believe in Free Enterprise, smaller government, lower taxes. Get out of the bedroom. Thats the stuff thats going to help us win elections and move this country forward to bring back the prosperity and the hope. Thanks, senator. Good to be on with you. Appreciate it. Up next, the ceo of enlink talks pipeline profits and the future of energy. Squawk box will be right back. Salesperson 1 the real deals the passat tdi clean diesel gets up to 795 highway miles per tank. Salesperson 2 actually, were throwing in a 1,000 fuel reward card. Weve never done that. Thats why theres never been a better time to buy a passat tdi clean diesel. Husband so its like two deals in one . Avo during the salesperson 2 first ever exactly. Volkswagen tdi clean diesel event, get a great deal on a passat tdi, that gets up to 795 highway miles per tank. And get a 1000 dollar fuel reward card. Its like two deals in one. Hurry in and get a 1,000 fuel reward card and 0. 9 apr for 60 months on tdi models. Welcome back to squawk box, everyone. Retailers, Urban Outfitters reporting a Fourth Quarter profit of 59 cents a share. 5 cents better than the street was expecting. The clothing retailer also issued a cautious outlook for the current quarter. The stock is down by 4 this morning. Dicks Sporting Goods earning 1. 11 a share for the Fourth Quarter. Dicks had raised its Fourth Quarter guidance in february, february 10th based on improving sales trends, stock is up slightly, less than 1 . Jcpenney upgraded from a buy to neutral. That stock, wow, check that out, up by 7 this morning. Cross techs energy, enlk for the general partner, Enlink Midstream and enlc for the Master Limited partnership, Enlink Midstream partners, both began trading yesterday. The deal combines pipelines and Gas Processing in areas rich in shale oil. Joining us now is barry davis, president and ceo of Enlink Midstream, former president of cross techs energy. For everybody at home, midstream stuff as i understand, you have upstream. Thats exploration. You have downstream. Thats refining. This is gathering natural gas type stuff and then transporting it and treating it. Yes. In the Midstream Energy business basically what we do, we connect Energy Production to energy consumpti consumption. That linking is what Enlink Midstream does. That would entail it would even be ports and barges and pipelines and also turning the gas into liquid . Thats correct. Pipeline. There are Many Services that have to be provided from the point of production where gas can have contaminants or need to be upgraded into productions that are useable. Thats what we do in the Midstream Energy business and enlink does across the country. Five years ago you were in a Good Business. Then the last five years suddenly its like youre in the sweet spot of where everybody in the entire world is talking about the revolution here and youre right there, ready to take advantage. Absolutely. These are exciting times, joe, in the Energy Industry in total as we have said were right in the middle of a new era. By a combination of cross techs energy. Talk about how you did it. Devin used to be a big customer. They had some too, they had midstream assets as well. They finally figured lets combine all of the midstream assets together. Joe, back in 2006 we had a unique opportunity to acquire some assets with devin. They acquired the upstream assets in the barnett sale. We acquired the midstream assets. Since then, theyve been our largest customer. Some have asked how long did it take for this transition to happen . My answer has been it took seven years and three tries but finally we were able to find the right timing and through the great relationship weve had with devin weve had an opportunity to come together. You have a lot of tail winds. Youre in a great place in a great industry with a lot of things happening. What is the biggest head wind, regulation, something im not thinking about . What is the thing you struggle with the most . This is an extraordinary time. If you look at the number of projects that are involved in repiping of america to essentially bring the shell resources to the existing markets what weve got is tremendous surge in projects that need to be done across the country. So the challenge really is to manage the regulatory process, the permitting process, so that we can truly pursue that Energy Independence that we think is visible today in the market. So what can you do i mean there are tax reasons to do this . That will be accretive for devin and the new company. Its a complicated structure because its mlp, right . Theres two of them. Can you explain the transaction to us and how it work for shareholders . You bet. As youve seen the markets respond to it, its a win win transaction. We had a great platform of a Master Limited partnership with a pure general partner sequel. What devin wanted to do is access the capital. They announced in fact an intent to do an ipo of midstream business. We approached them with what we thought was a better idea. As you can see with the stock responding the way it has with about 100 appreciation for our general partner and about 60 for our Master Limited partnership, the market likes it. The great news is, we can continue to see growth as we go forward. Weve communicated we think well see 8 to 10 growth for our partnership. Greater than 20 growth to the dividends. It freed up i read it took devins midstream assets and put a market valuation on them. They werent valued at that point. They were part of devin. No one put a fair valuation on them. Did it free up money to build out more assets . Well, so devin actually contributed those assets with a valuation of about 5 billion. Today the value because of the increase in value of their shares that they own, the value today to them would be about 9 billion. Importantly, what they did also was they accessed mlp capital so they can continue to fund the infrastructure bill that is required along with their enp business. Theyll do that through us, either directly as we would build the facilities or possibly transferring to us. Who figured out who to do this . The structure around the mlp from a tax standpoint is tremendous. As youve seen, the great majority of projects in the rebuilding of the infrastructure is being done by Master Limited partnerships. The way you look at it, we have all this natural gas. We want to get from here to there. Were wondering do Public Private, limited, do we get the government involved . Will they do it . The private sector will find a way to do it that is tax advantaged, that will put all the synergies together and have all these cost efficiencies. Youre saving money, too, how much in overlap . Theres 100 million or something . Joe, what you refer to is the efficiency that we see in the marketplace today. We need that. We need the efficiency across the capital markets, across the regulatory bodies. In order to take advantage of the opportunity we have today for the energy surge in america. One of the things that we are very cognizant of is the moving back of manufacturing to the United States. Because of the low cost of Energy Products in the United States were second only to the middle east right now. Really . In the low cost of products. It counteracts the labor advantage all these other countries have. We can pay our guys more money over here but because of the input costs we can afford to do it and keep it here. Because of the shale revolution, we are seeing jobs come back to america. Enlink is strategically positioned to participate in that. Were excited about that moving forward. Keystone pipeline would help as well. Were talking hydrocarbons. Thats the problem. We have guys meeting and staying up all night to try to hurt hydrocarbon, the hydrocarbon is being used as an energy outlet. Thats what were dealing with. Whats difficult is to see who is really in charge. We need clarity of policy so we can see projects like keystone be approved. Its one of many projects. We used to celebrate when we got commercial contracting for a project. We dont have that celebration anymore until we get the permits. Its become so difficult with the backlog. I feel for the people that are making that happen. Theyre seeing tenfold increase in the number of projects theyre having to approve. They have lack of Resources Available to do that. We need to break that free. Okay. Well, thank you. Youre actually saying spend more on regulators so you have more to approve these things . Part of the backlog, clearly, becky, we dont have enough resources to get projects through. Once we have regulation they never go off the books. Thats the problem. We add new ones, thousands every year and we never get rid of the ones from years ago. He appointed some guy that was supposed to go in and update a lot of that. I dont know if anything came of that. One of the things were excited about is by bringing together crosstex and devin, we have over 60 years of experience. We have relationships to get things done. We think we will be successful in doing that. Youre in texas. Youre ahead of the game, too. Barry, appreciate it. Great to be here with you. Up next, the search is expanding, looking all over the place for this malaysian jet that went missing. On saturday, well get the latest out of southeast asia. Well be coming right back. Get a leg up on the trading day with the morning squawk newsletter. Go to our show page, squawk. Cnbc. Com and sign up now. Morning squawk is a snapshot of the days top stories, guests and fun water cooler stories well be squawking about all morning long. Sign up and get morning squawk delivered in your inbox every weekday. Squawk box on cnbc, profit from it. Lifes an adventure when youre with her. And it always has been. But your erectile dysfunction it could be a question of blood flow. Cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be Ready Anytime the moments right. You can be more confident in your ability to be ready. And the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently. Tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medications, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sexual activity. Do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. Do not drink alcohol in excess with cialis. Side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. To avoid longterm injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than 4 hours. If you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, or if you have any allergic reactions such as rash, hives, swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. Ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a 30tablet free trial. Welcome back to squawk box. A former aide to new Jersey Governor Chris Christie will appear at a Court Hearing over her role in the socalled bridgegate scandal. Bridget kelly refused to comply with the subpoena ordering her to turn over documents. She is invoking her fifth amendment rights, claiming that the investigating committee has already prejudged her as guilty. Kelly and others are accused of closing lanes at the George Washington bridge as political pay back against the mayor of ft. Lee. We have this person claiming we have to get to the bottom of these two days worth of lane closures but the whole irs thing, im not as interested in getting to the bottom of lois lerner. I think both these issues should be looked into. To put them on the same level the media does this is a big deal because its here locally, so we end up talking about it. There have been accusations back and foreign. You have a man that is likely the republican nominee not at this point. He was. He still might be. Hes the head of the Republican National governors association. When you have a government that is potentially using the irs to i would like to know that as well. To deal out punishment or advantages. Again, in both situations one is almost one turned out bad. But its almost like a hazing. The other one in both situations its someone abusing the power. The question is who was abusing the power, was it an underling or someone in power . Once reminds me of nixon and dirty tricks. The other one, the mayor went too far. He was the most likely contender at that point for the next republican nominee for president. We want to know these things. The difference between them taking the fifth, in my mind is apples and oranges. Congress should be looking into the tax officials. This is happening on the state level. The way certain entities have ignored one situation and devoting 24 hours a day to another situation is ludicrous. Im not mentioning names. Authorities look for clues on the western coast of malaysia as the search net expands for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet. Sri jegarajah jones us. The story is changing all the time. Whats the latest . It is. Let me approach this from a security perspective first. One story thats captivated the press corps here is this aspect of the stolen passports. What we learned in the last few hours from the malaysian authorities is at least one of these stolen passport holders, an Iranian National. Later on in the day, we later heard from the interpol secretary general, ronald noble. He said both of these passengers that had stolen passports were Iranian Nationals. What had happened was that they entered malaysia, kuala lumpur on iranian passports that didnt appear to be reported stolen or missing. They left using the stolen passports, the austrian and italian passports. There seems to be an element of confusion and contradictory statements here from the malaysians that dont really stack up. It seems to be pointing to a certain degree of security lapses at klia over here. Having said that, the authorities consistently maintain that they were following the right protocols, the International Regulations laid out. They are sticking by that. Lets leave that aside. For the people who are really going through emotional agony right now, the families of those passengers on the flight, all of this discussion on the missing passports excuse me, the stolen passports seems to be immaterial, academic. They want some news. They want to know what has happened to this aircraft. So far we havent seen a shred of evidence, despite the fact, joe and becky, that this is very much a 21st century operation, there are very complex military hardware thats being brought to bear to try and find anything, any hint of debris, any clues to determine the final stages, the final moments of mh370. Becky and joe. Sri, thank you very much. Hes been staying on the top of the situation. We we return on squawk box, encouraging leadership and achievement in girls. The ceo of girl scouts of america will talk about their new Public Service campaign and of course, girl scout cookie sales. tis the season right now. Squawk box will be right back. Customizable charts, powerful screening tools, and guaranteed onesecond trades. And at the center of it all is a surprisingly low price just 7. 95. In fact, fidelity gives you lower trade commissions than schwab, td ameritrade, and etrade. Im monica santiago of fidelity investments, and low fees and commissions are another reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. Call or click to open your fidelity account today. For tapping into a wealth of experience. For access to one of the top Wealth Management firms in the country. For a team of Financial Professionals who provide customized solutions. For all of your Wealth Management and retirement goals, discover how pnc Wealth Management can help you achieve. Visit pnc. Com wealthsolutions to find out more. I was going to send it hi, when we return, its that time of year. I hope everyone has ordered their girl scout cookies. Well get the sales update and talk about the business of scouting with the ceo of girl scouts usa and well talk about ban and bossy also. I have a daughter i want her to be a ceo. And were gearing up for march madness, quicken loans ceo dan gilbert and Warren Buffett join us in studio for the special launch god i cant wait for this business and final four. Business and march madness its, like, the answer to my dreams. The billion dollar bracket giveaway. Find out what it will take to fill out the perfect bracket. Thats this friday only on squawk box. Squawk box. Theres a saying around here, you stand behind what you say. Around here you dont make excuses. You make commitments. And when you cant live up to them, you own up, and make it right. Some people think the kind of accountability that thrives on so many streets in this country has gone missing in the places where its needed most. But i know youll still find it when you know where to look. So our business can be on at ts network for 175 a month . Yup. All 5 of you for 175. Our clients need a lot of attention. Theres unlimited talk and text. Were working deals all day. You get 10 gigabytes of data to share. What about expansion potential . Add a line, anytime, for 15 a month. Low dues, great terms. Lets close new at t mobile share value plans our best value plans ever for business. Here in philadelphia you can access a philly cheesesteak anytime, day or night. Just like you can access geico anytime, day or night. There is only one way to celebrate this unique similarity. Witness the cheesesteak shuffle. Cheesesteak, cheesesteak its the cheesesteak shuffle huh every day, all day, cheesesteak, cheesesteak every night, all night cheesesteak, cheesesteak 9 a. M. Cheesesteak 2 p. M. Cheesesteak 4 a. M. Cheesesteak any time ruh geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Thats the girl scouts of the usa and leanin. Org ringing the closing bell at the nasdaq, they are working on a new campaign to ban bossy encouraging young girls to take on leadership roles and here to explain is anna marie chavez. I have a daughter who i want to be a ceo but i think about the different ramifications, but you are exactly right, if you see a little girl take charge and you say dont be bossy and you are saying dont be a bosom day. We know how many women there are in the population. I think its, like, 50 . Its not represented in the suites. Right. Theres a bunch of different reasons. If this helps, then lets do it. You tell them to stop doing that and by the time they are in high school and college they are not raising their hands. The little girls seem to be much more mature and the little boys look clueless girls mature faster. Mature faster and they own these little boys so i dont know when that changes. Well, it changes actually as early as middle school and, you know, girl scouts weve been working with girls for over a century. What were trying to do with this campaign, its a Public Service campaign done with the girl scouts of the usa and ban bossy and Cheryl Sandburg and Condoleezza Rice who is bringing her leadership to the table and the concept is to Start Talking to adults about the message were sending to girls as early as 5, 6 years old, so as girls sort of raise their hand or say, you know, i want to do something or i want to lead this troop, how can we encourage them without saying, well, youre being bossy and thats a negative trait for girls. Whats interesting weve lawn. The campaign over the last couple of days. Weve heard from women and men from across the country its resonating and, again, bringing an issue to the Kitchen Table about how are parents talking to girls differently than to their sons. And making a stink about it, too. Sure. So many of these things we do without really without knowing what were doing. There is a, you can sort of feel the and even women in business or in politics. Sure. The same stigma still applies sometimes. And it is pointed out now more frequently by people that say, you know, youd never say that, you know, youd never talk about a guy wearing certain type of clothes versus a pantsuit or absolutely. Or when a man stands up and has an opinion hes being confident and taking charge. But when a girl or woman does that, oh, shes being a bit too aggressive or overconfident and were trying to make the disstindi distinction for girls, own your voice. How a girl sees leadership. Many girls want to go out and do great things and women want to help families, we want to give girls the opportunity. Whether they want to be the ceo of a Major Corporation or the ceo of their home its up to them but lets send them some positive messages. Deep down i know thats the right message. Theres times when i worry about pc the pcness. And i read all kinds of people but Camille Paglia said i think were living in a world now where they are wimps Walking Around and that weve let it happen. Sure. I dont want to live in that world either. Let me be clear, this is not a campaign of boys against girls or men against women. That has nothing to do with that. All were saying this is 50 of the population. Ive watched your program many, many times you see how she bosses me around. But you are talking about really complex economic issues. I was kidding about that. Im worried because i cant joke about it because i have to be pc. Lets have a conversation about how we embrace different leadership styles and women may lead a different way but lets give them an opportunity to raise their voices around issues that are going to be very important for all of us and lets stop discouraging girls by middle school because we all see the statistics girls do well in school all the way through high school. No kidding. Whey do we not have, you know, women in leadership roles in this country . How did cookie sales do this year . We just got ours here. Oh, good. I saw boxes as i walked in. The weather had a lot to do with sales especially on the east coast, atlanta had a lot of snow this year and its not done yet so its still an opportunity for you to buy cookies across the country, there are booth sales going on and we are hoping that people support and we are really thankful for supporting the amazing business program. Good. I dont like little boys that are bullies, either. I dont like anybody that is i dont think we embrace any bullies, right . Whether girls or boys. You wouldnt ban bully, wouldnt you . Were trying to ban the word bossy when its connected to girl leadership. I understand. Absolutely. Perfect. Great. Thank you. Its great to see you. Great to see you. We have some upstairs. That does it for us today, make sure you join us tomorrow. Right now its time for squawk on the street. Good tuesday morning. Welcome to squawk on the street. Im Carl Quintanilla with simon hobbs and david faber at the new york stock exchange. Cramer is off today. Market facing some headwinds this morning. Sop of the retail earnings were a little soft but there are high profile upgrades. The nasdaq could potentially fall for a fourth straight day today. Watch the ten year and the threeyear note auction later on. And europe is roughly flat. The nikkei