this hour europe is down a little bit. we're giving back just a little bit today after another great session but descent session yesterday. you can see if you're not listening on the radio, we're down about 40 points on the dow jones. the nasdaq is going to benefit from the great numbers from google. it benefitted earlier this week by netflix and has -- i wouldn't say diverged from the other averages but certainly been much stronger than a relative basis. s&p is down less than a point. in europe, there were green arrows after what has been a pretty good week and since last week when the feeling that this would be resolved favorably in terms of greece started and seeped into the markets. france. the only index at this point up but upright at a fifth of a point. asia this morning is better with japan higher. the hang seng higher. and what we're watching closely is shanghai up sharply. up 3.5% in a snap back. crude continues to be on the weak side. now down under 51. next stop potentially under 50. we'll see after the iran deal was at least okayed and now you don't need that many democrats really to keep that. that could be a few defections and it's impossible for republicans to stop. we'll see, every day i get another thing on twitter that says retweet this if you want to let chuck schumer know this is a bad deal. he's sensitive to it. he does hold a lot of sway. he hasn't -- he's still looking at it he says. >> it's not going to end the sanctions on u.s. companies doing business there because there are still sanctions in place from 1995 that prohibit u.s. businesses from going in there. so all the companies that think this is game on not so for u.s. companies. european companies that's a different story. >> let's check out the dollar this morning which was weaker. not the dollar the euro was weaker today which some people think is a negative for our markets. we're right in the middle of earnings season. we'll see how ge was affected by the stronger dollar this morning and we'll get some more multinationals and industrials next week and then finally gold down another $1.70 and 11:47. interesting to see if that finally gets under the 1100 mark this time around. >> there's new data out that suggests that american investors are staying close to home. data shows that u.s. based nondomestic funds posted $3.7 billion in out flows in the last week. in the meantime u.s. based domestic focus stock funds attracted $2.9 billion. >> on today's agenda a couple of notable companies. i just referenced general electric. we will be looking at and see how that company is fairing in it's divestment of what used to be thought of as key assets but not anymore. we'll see whether that's helping. stock did run up on that news but it came all the way back down to around 27 and honeywell also before the bell and we've seen very cos pif comments about it. it was early in the morning. >> you have to earn the right to be a conglomerant. >> ge is offering concessions to buy alstom's power unit. it's not making the details public but submitted a proposal. on the economic front today the consumer price index is due at 8:30 eastern. economists are looking for the headline number to rise .3% and june housing stocks and later this morning we'll get consumer spending. >> let's talk about earnings. this is part of the stocks to watch this morning. google topping estimates for the first time in six quarters. getting a boost from strong advertising revenue. also a thumbs up about discipline spending. that was pretty key and we'll talk to an analyst about this in a few minutes. also matel topping estimates. the driver for this was stronger demand for its fisher price toys and also lower costs but barbie sales were still weak. they dropped 11%. mattel announcing it renewed his partnership with disney for the toy story films. we will talk to a toy analyst coming up in the next half hour. schlumberger earnings topping consensus. they're cutting costs and helped offset the impact of reduced drilling activity. the north american rig count may now be touching the bottom. and shares of hertz today. the stock got a bump in after hours trading. they increased the annual cost savings target and expects 2015 growth between .5% and 1.5%. >> conoco phillips plans to cut spending citing low crude oil prices. they already cut capital spending twice. it's raising it's quarterly dividend by a penny to 74 cents a share. in news out of washington the sec is ready to reject $3.3 billion of auction discounts requested by dish network entities. in the $45 billion box earlier this year. officials decided that the companies didn't qualify for small business discounts but i figured how these guys worked -- he's not stupid. >> but if you read through that story -- >> yeah. >> they say other companies have done this in the past but what you had was these companies driving up the bids, if that was based on the fact they were going to get a discount that means everybody else paid a higher price because they wouldn't have had to bid to these levels. >> they were aligned. >> collaborating. the three of them were playing together and as a result those three companies, the two small ones in dish they took 27% of the wireless bids. >> you got to try. if it was at&t or something i would be furious. >> pretend your a small company but you're aligned together. >> i'm on tom wheeler's side on this one. >> the enemy of my enemy. >> i think it was the right call. let's get back to google looking to be a big winner today. victory anthony is a director and senior research analyst. thank you for being here today. >> thank you. >> so this was a big number. first time in six quarters that they beat expectations and the biggest take away is the tough talk. >> that's one of it. this quarter was a catalyst to get the stock going because it was stuck in a range for the past 18 month. >> before or after the numbers? >> after the numbers revenue growth accelerated. and expense growth that's probably the key to getting the knock to work because now you have a chase that could be made that google could continue to beat earnings estimates over the next year or two. >> how much of this -- of your upgraded stock how much of the expenses being held back and how much is just the advertising was stronger than expected too? >> yeah. revenue growth accelerated. that was driven by mobile as well as youtube. so on the search side you saw cpcs, it's how much is paid every single time you click a link. the cost of mobile accelerated, the growth accelerated in the quarter. not just a mobile but that was a key for the stock. revenue growth is accelerating and expenses are coming down. >> do you have a price target in mind? >> yeah i took it up to 850. >> from the stock at 672 even after the gains we saw last night. >> you end 2016. so look at a return of 18% from where the stock was raiding in the after hours. >> if you have any concerns what would they be. >> that continues to linger as a risk on stock. you still have competition from gook. that's the biggest competitor within the space but the space is big enough to accommodate big nails. >> when you talk to big advertisers themselves when they're looking at digital they're probably spending more and more on digital. the two big players are facebook and google and then it drops off a cliff. you don't see massive amounts of money being allocated to other players in the industry. do you think that's going to kang? >> facebook and google will continue to dominate online advertising space. but listen i think there's a lot taken out by verizon. yahoo! has a small piece they can improve at the time. i think google and facebook are in a prime position to dominate that shift that's taking place right now. >> what's your rating on facebook? >> do have a buy but if i were to pick one of the two i think facebook would be the better buy because the significant catalyst for facebook hasn't really made it's way into consensus numbers. >> like what? >> video advertising that's starting to amp up. instagram ads starting to ramp up. what's app they haven't started to monetize yet. they'll do that in 2016 as well as messenger. >> thank you for coming in today. >> four marines are dead in tennessee after a lone gunman opened opened fire at two u.s. military facilities in chattanooga yesterday after what is being linked to possible terrorism. the latest on the victims and what we know about the gunman dave. >> this is an active crime scene. this is the place where the four marines were ki it's a sad morning in chattanooga. four families are grieving and the community as a whole is grieving as well. 30 minutes of terror at two military centers. the question this morning that investigators are trying to answer here was it an act of terrorism? chattanooga police will tell you if you look at some of the pictures from the crime scenes they responded very very quick quickly. they maintained they saved a hot of lives. four marines were killed and a number of other people were injured. they believe they saved lives. if you look at some of the photo from the crime scene there the number of bullets that hit the building particularly at the recruiting center there which is about seven miles from this location here you see all of those bullets in the windows there so a very dangerous scene there and it was amazing that more people were not injured. i can tell you that chattanooga is a growing community here in tennessee. the people are proud that a lot of larger businesses are moving into this community. they see a lot of business moving in. they don't see this type of crime. we did hear from the president last night. he spoke about this and talked about how the country, the community is grieving. >> it is a heartbreaking circumstance for these individuals that served our country with great voir dire lor to be killed in this fashion and although the families are still in the process of being contacted i want them to know that i speak for the american people in expressing our deepest condolences and knowing they have our full support as they try to overcome the grief. >> and that was president obama speaking yesterday. the 24-year-old gunman lived with his parents north of this area here close to chattanooga. his dad is a city employee. the gunman was not on any terrorist watch list but there's a high school yearbook entry which is haunting at this point. it says my name causes national security alerts. what does yours? and that's the latest we're learning right now. they're very tight lipped as investigators continue to search these two active crime scenes. back to you. >> dave thank you. that's dave from nbc. when we come back we'll have more of the day's top stories including more of the key vote on the greek bailout today plus how choosing the right car color could save you money. plus take a look at this date back in history. the mercedes-benz summer event is 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client's income there's massively lowering the amount of taxes owed and that's the return he files with the irs. but don't think he's doing his clients any favors. his clients never see the smaller return. they believe they owe taxes on their actual income. >> he would convince them that they should pay their taxes directly to a client trust account as he referred to it and he told them that he would pay their taxes for them on their own behalf the checks directly to this account but in truth the client trust account wasn't a real trust account. it was his own personal piggy bank. >> good scam if you can figure out something like that but when the fed comes after him he plots to murder those that know too much. it's an exciting all new american greed tonight at 10:00 a.m. eastern time and pacific. >> wow. >> yeah. not all american greed guys -- >> are this bad. >> taking matters into his own hands. a story in the usa today suggests that picking the right car color can save you money. it turns out black, white, and silver vehicles stand a better chance of returning a little more at resale. you understand this. >> other considerations lighter colored cars are less likely to show dirt and scratches. they get hotter. cars get hotter in the summer. one study suggests that white cars are less likely to be in accidents. the car colors don't appear to effect any insurance rates. >> unless it's a cherry red, right? >> i've learned lessons over the years about car color. i once got a --. it does during the gas crisis and i had a beautiful white firebird. i told my father it was like 1978 or something and i said gas prices are never going back down. oil prices are never going back down. i'm going to trade in my va and get a 4 cylinder mustang and it had a plaid interior. it had a stick shift and it was so embarrassing. it was orange and by the time i sold that i was driving around in this orange piece of crap really. >> did your father ever say i told you so? >> he never did but he was right about that and the other thing we once bought one of those cadillac -- >> the purple cadillac that you bought right? >> yes. it was a cross over thing and we were -- once we were somewhere and we parked it where we weren't supposed to park and it said will the owner of the purple cadillac please come. and i looked at my wife and we thought purple cadillac who would have -- and we went that's us. so don't buy purple and -- >> was it eggplant? >> it was a purple car. >> i'm on the silver train too. silver and black. >> sometimes you think i want to get something a little bit different but then you get sick of it. >> right and they end up driving these cars for a long time so it takes a while n. chairs today taking a look at stories that caught our attention. you know moefrores law. >> the opposite of murphy's law. >> yes this is that things will get better and better over time. this is gordon moore. he issued this rule that said the chip makers would squeeze twice as many transistors on to the same area every year or so. moore's law seems to be slowing down a little bit and inobstetricalintel is the latest to tell us. every two years they could squeeze twice as much on to it and now wednesday they said for the second time in two years they think it's going to take 2.5 years to get to that point. >> i remember about a year ago we did something in chairs similar to this that's new stuff. >> you know there's physical restraints and other materials you can use. i remember them saying they were extended to 2008 and could keep going on track. i don't know whether there this is the thing that finally -- >> catches up? >> i don't know. everything else keeps moving forward. >> there could be a time where chips you figure are -- at this point d. >> ben white joining us in a few minutes. >> using single molecules is as important as moving along to do these things. >> it's hard. this is hard work. >> it's hard work and you have to decide. you have to be a decider. >> you do it well. >> i do. coming up, this morning's top stories plus quarterly results from dow component general he lek -- electric. but first a look at yesterday's s&p 500 winners and losers. ♪ i built my business with passion. but i keep it growing by making every dollar count. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one. i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy for my studio. ♪ and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business... that's huge for my bottom line. what's in your wallet? hello. i am technology that is changing investing forever. i am a fully automated investment advisory service. i can help you choose the right portfolio. monitor it. and even rebalance it. i've been called innovative. revolutionary. and just plain smart. i'd blush at the compliment if i could. but i can't. so. i won't. say hello at intelligent.schwab.com >> good morning and welcome back to squawk box here on cnbc. andrew is off today. today's top story, germany is voting on that bailout for greece. german chancellor angela merkel speaking earlier this morning. she said trust has been lost in greece. but argued germany wants to keep greece in the euro zone despite it's political differences. merkel argues that there can't be a hair cut in the euro zone. the german parliament is debating the reform for aid package for greece now and is expected to vote within the next hour or so. >> in other headlines this morning the imf head is reiterating her relief that the country needs some sort of debt relief. the ecb has increased liquidity assistance to greek banks and they're expected to reopen on monday. meantime in athens prime minister tsipras is expected to reshuffle his cabinet. there was a rebellion over the vote to improve measures. even the imf is saying does it matter whether you call it a restructuring or reformulation or hair cut? it's the all the same thing if you extend and pretend. as expected the new york times has slowly but surely been talking about germany and thrusting austerity on people. it's a great piece today. german tone grows sharper. now people -- i think they actually do say something like they're just now being perceived. mean spirited people. >> selfish. >> germans are selfish. they have a lot of nerve. general electric is hitting wires. 31 cents a share looks like the number to compare to a 28 cent estimate. >> but also the revenue was better than expected. >> 32. 75. i'm look agent the press we lease where i see other numbers. there must be other numbers before and after some assets are spun off. maybe this is industrial revenues that i see it's tough to say. ge had a good quarter with strong growth. the environment remains one of slow growth and volatility particular hi in what were growth markets. the u.s. is gradually improving. our industrial businesses had another good quarter. strong eps growth of 18% with orders up 8%. we continue to execute on our plans and they're on track for closing 100 billion in 2015 an they're raising the low end of the industrial operating guidance to $113. >> if you look at the oil and gas profits they're down 12%. >> take out the dollar. take out the dollar and it's being received positively. it's up 1.15%. joining us now is jack he's the chief investment officer at harvard advisory. are you up to speed on what's happening there? there's more concessions being made right? >> yeah the eu is concerned about a no nopmonopoly position? >> does it finally get done or is there a problem? >> i think there's a problem joe. to get it done concessions are going to have to be pretty deep and ge has to think hard about the level of concessions they're making is the irr still going to be above the hurdle rate? . they want to have the service business. it's half of what ge generates in the rest of the world and they can create a great annuity strain. >> as far as the rest of the report, ge is becoming more and more obviously in industrial companies so that's why they are increasingly breaking out the industrial performance. in the world we're living in right now do you think they're out performing or in line in terms of the operation? >> joe, this report shows they're outperforming the industrials in this environment. organic revenue growth is at the top of their goals which were set early in the year. so i think that's pretty impressive. many of the other industrials, organic revenue is closer to zero. so for order growth to be plus 8% and to raise a lower end of the earnings expectations is pretty impressive in this environment. >> do you think the oil and gas business even actually pays off? do you see the irony you get out of a lot of businesses right until the oil prices come down? that might be a better time to add to that segment? >> i do see the irony and this would be a good time. it's already 15% of revenues. you have to say how much concentration do you want. i think it would be a good business going forward. even with alloy at $100. however you have to be concerned about your concentration risk and with revenues down 14% in the latest period do you want greater exposure to that? my guess would be no. >> what do you want the company to do as it continues to dievest and has available cash. do you want reinvestment or the return to shareholder? >> well their answer to that question to date has been a balance of both. i'd rather see a reduction in shares outstanding. when we get to the end of this two year period where they restructured ge capital and they have shed some of the lower growing industrial businesses that stock will trade better. i'd rather have a reduction in shares between now and then. >> there's about 10 billion shares outstanding. >> that's correct. and they're targeting 8 to 8.5 billion by the end of the transition period by 2018. >> still 3.4% yield. when do you expect the dividend to be hiked? they do it on a consistent basis when? >> they have done it in december the last few years but this year they'll take a holiday and wait until next year. >> all right. thank you as always. >> thanks for having me joe. >> you're welcome. >> when we come back this morning, a toy story. forget about barbie. demand for fisher price toys sending mattel to a surprise profit. the view from the street right after this. ♪ in the us, three in ten college students drop out. but how can you spot who's at risk? the one who lives far from campus? the one who works the night shift? the one with new responsibilities? one thing can't tell you, but the right combination can. universities are using ibm analytics to understand pressures in and out of the classroom- some expect to cut dropout rates by twenty-five percent. ibm analytics is working to make education smarter every day. can a business have a mind? a subconscious. a knack for predicting the future. reflexes faster than the speed of thought. can a business have a spirit? can a business have a soul? can a business be...alive? welcome back. let's check the equity futures. the nasdaq has been doing well today. up about 25 points premarket. huge today. yesterday also nasdaq better than the dow. the dow is down 34 points and the s&p 500 off fractionally. off.44 points making headlines russia and opec secretary general will discuss oil markets and the situation in iran and moscow on july 30th. this is according to the russian energy and 50.82. $50.82. that's basically unchanged. so we'll see what the next stop is. whether it's below 50 or rebound. >> we have seen levels we haven't seen in the past six weeks. 54-55. >> still a little additional pressure. hulu is exploring an ad free option to its service. this could launch as early as the fall and would be priced at around $12 to $14 a month. users that paid $7.99 a month for the subscription service had to sit through advertising breaks. they're jointly owned by 21st century fox and disney and comcast. >> mattel swinging to a profit during the first full quarter under the new ceo. the world's largest toy maker attributing results to a rise in demand for fisher price toys while barbie continues to struggle. down about 35% and doing much better you can see is hasbro. joining us with insight into the toy industry stephanie who covers mattel. i don't know if you cover hasbro. would you sell hasbro and buy mattel to be safe? >> it depends on your time horizon. stepping back and looking at the next several years hasbro has the advantage but these companies have started to look very different. hasbro taking a lean toward content driven properties where mattel really wants to own brands and bring those brands directly to the market. >> just the idea of kids still playing with things that aren't on electronic computer screens. it just -- it seems like not a great bet to make. i'm thinking back to tom hanks an how he was able to think like a kid. and they made those buildings that turned into bugs or something and he was like woman standing would want to play -- what makes sense physically for a kid to play with now? obviously not barbie. >> it's a fantastic observation. age compression. that's how we think about the industry being encroached upon by other mediums of play has been a topic we have been talking about for several decades. first it was video games when it came into the household we thought what are little boys going to play with in terms of toys. but we notice it didn't change the dynamics of the industry. it created more of an opportunity for them to converge and to figure out ways to create more engaging play and you're seeing that with respect to content. some of the biggest properties in the toy industry are tied to media content. whether that's motion pictures or animated series or video games. >> do you think barbie cannot make a comeback? >> well it raises some questions around barbie's brand equity and the perception of barbie in the marketplace. moms have concerns around barbie with body image and portrayal of vanity and mattel is doing intriguing things to try to very verse that negative. the doll industry is an important industry and category for mattel. it's part of their profit and they have a direct manufacturing capability and they need to get the dohl business right. barbie is the biggest piece of that. there's changes in language around how they're talking about barbie and even though the wholesale numbers were down substantially, the pos meaning their retail sell through to the consumer is actually positive. so we're starting to see the consumer pull through be a bit improved. >> do they have ceo barbie yet or neurosurgeon barbie. pantsuit barbie? run for president or something like that? >> fair point. they don't. however they do have a super hero barbie and this is the year of super heros so we have been talking about marvel and anticipating the star wars premiere in december and they're going to play into that big theme. if older brother is running around the room playing with his flying super hero little sister might want that same behavior so they're providing that under the barbie barbie brand. they have multiethnic barbies or many different looks to the barbie collection. not just a single individual barbie but many different ethnicities as well as style preferences so this range of barbies, this is a new trend. to think about barbie not as a single character but as a collection of branded dolls. >> but to your point about body image are they going to change the dimensions of the doll? >> there's been more changes. more subtle. particularly in the new dolls. so i think they are listening to consumers, particularly moms millennial moms and taking into acounty what some of those concerns might be. >> i just -- i can't imagine trying to design things in today's world. i guess -- i mean god forbid you introduce some type of gun -- i mean nobody sells toy guns anymore, do they? >> yeah they do. >> they still do. is there a vegan barbie. she shouldn't be eating gmo foods. i wouldn't know what to try to sell to millennials or their children. nothing would be enough? you have a tough job. >> there is a new line coming from a competitor of mattel that is built around the stem curriculum. science technology engineering and math which is a new buzz word in the educational arenas. there's a new doll line coming tied to that proposition and i think it's going to surprise the marketplace. >> really. okay. i don't think i can go any further here. remember those bratz dolls. what were those? >> horrible. >> horrible. >> they were the antibarbie certainly, right. >> that's why i'm saying. i'm going to end it right here. thank you. appreciate it on monday. on monday on squawk we'll be joined by hasbro ceo. media companies and food companies. because, you know someone will tweet something about it and the next thing you know they'll be boycotting your toys. >> well. ben white is here. we'll talk politics and the field of presidential hopefuls and more. but first check out the futures this morning. things are mixed. dow futures down by 31 points but nasdaq up by 25. stay tuned. squawk box will be right back. at ally bank no branches equals great rates. it's a fact. kind of like shopping hungry equals overshopping. a new season brings a new look. a chance to try something different. this summer, challenge your preconceptions and experience a cadillac for yourself. ♪ the 2015 cadillac srx. lease this from around $339 per month, or purchase with 0% apr financing. so you're a small business expert from at&t? yeah, give me a problem and i've got the solution. well, we have 30 years of customer records. our cloud can keep them safe and accessible anywhere. my drivers don't have time to fill out forms. tablets. keep them all digital. we're looking to double our deliveries. our fleet apps will find the fastest route. oh, and your boysenberyy apple scones smell about done. ahh, you're good. i like to bake. with at&t get up to $400 dollars in total savings on tools to manage your business. at ally bank no branches equals great rates. it's a fact. kind of like mute buttons equal danger. ...that sound good? not being on this phone call sounds good. it's not muted. was that you jason? it was geoffrey! it was jason. it could've been brenda. welcome back, everybody. after donald trump announced his bid for the white house, many discounted him right away. but the donald is climbing in the polls and could give the others a run for their money. ben white is a cnbc contributor. thanks for coming in. >> thanks for having me. >> this is the second poll in the course of a week that i've seen where donald trump is in the lead. what is he saying that's catching people's attention? >> i think he taps into a lot of frustration in the republican party with you know careful politicians. he says stuff about immigration, he says stuff about, you know policy towards iran. he's very outspoken, very bombastic. and he connects with people who do not want politics as usual, that want somebody who excites them. >> i don't think he has the staying power to get the nomination. he doesn't have the background. he doesn't have the training one would want to see in a commander in chief. but he's going to be a factor in this race and debate ifs he goes hard after jeb bush in the debates and by all accounts he'll get on the stage and reach that level if he goes after bush on education, immigration. that gives a window for the other candidates not to do that bring down bush a peg. >> if you were to, like design the opposite of donald trump, that's a candidate -- no. but that's a candidate that on the other hand is just as -- probably divisive. never saying anything without putting into the political wind. the world itself now because of social media or whatever there's a lot of people pushing back against the absolute. my god. and i think you assume everyone's a racist until they prove they're not at this point. the slightest thing, people will play the race card. ten years ago where you couldn't live in the world from ten years ago -- you couldn't have the tv shows that were on ten years ago. >> we live in a much more intensely pc culture. >> there are people that tap into trump and say this guy is not afraid. he's not a politician. he's got a job. he's got money. and he doesn't need -- everybody else, ben, that has a job has to apologize immediately. he doesn't have to. >> he's not funded by anybody else. he's spending his own money. there's a frustration in the electorate and in this case the republican primary electorate with wages not going up very much, people feeling like they're not getting ahead. and this guy has made a bunch of money, maybe he knows how to do it. he's talking straight to me. maybe he's got ideas to get the economy moving again. as you say, he's completely outspoken and to a fault. you might want to think longer and harder on the immigration comment zblps christie is saying things. like he's got nothing to lose almost. >> trump has a much higher rating. >> i don't see that. jeb at times has surprised in terms of not taking the easy way out of certain -- >> maybe hillary is more of the -- >> don't -- >> she's very calculated in terms of not getting too out there on wall street reform, or any of her particular policies. >> i believe that calculating was one of the words that was supposed to be not used. there were 10 or 11 you're not supposed to use in terms of secretary clinton. and i think you just violated one of those. there's a fine. i think there might be a fine for that. that calculating -- >> there's plenty of calculating. i will say this. i think trump will be a factor in the race. >> do you think he thinks he might be like a reagan type character? >> that's a million-dollar question whether in his mind this is a real deal to get the nomination. >> i think it's increasingly becoming the possibility. >> it would have to be intoxicating. >> we talked about it. others who vaulted to the front of the polls in 2012 and newt gingrich. and one time newt gingrich in the 2012 campaign was talking about himself in the third person as the nominee. when we get the nomination. like, you can be sort of in this for your own brand, to increase your speaking fees to increase that. but at some point you get to the top of the polls then it becomes real. >> there are choices for me. but there are choices where i would vote for trump rather than other people. >> i believe that. coming up this morning's top stories including general electric stories now up more than 2% after -- can it tell the doctor how long you have to wear this thing? ♪ ♪ can it tell the flight attendant to please not wake me this time? ♪ ♪ the answer is yes, it can. so, the question your customers are really asking is can your business deliver? ♪ if you can't stand the heat, get off the test track. get the mercedes-benz you've been burning for at the summer event, going on now at your authorized mercedes-benz dealer. hurry, before this opportunity cools off. share your summer moments in your mercedes-benz with us. our guest host this hour is jarden's martin franklin. we'll get his read on the economy and consumer spending coming up. amazon prime day sparking criticism and rancor on twitter. but analyst gene munster says the boost in sales and traffic means the holiday will be here for years to come. we'll break down the numbers straight ahead. and bacon news. at least sort of. patented a new strain of seaweed that tastes like bacon. we'll show you what chefs in portland are cooking up as the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ live from the beating heart of business, new york city, this is "squawk box." >> welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc first in business worldwide. i'm joe kernen along with becky quick. andrew is off today. u.s. equity futures are mixed because the dow's down by the nasdaq is sharply higher based on what we're going to see with google today. looking at the market cap of google and at one point it was quite a bit higher than it was now. but it's pushing pretty lofty numbers. got to be in the top five. back above 400 now. $405 billion. >> exxonmobil is down to 346. >> yeah. it's apple and google are both there. amazon is on its way, isn't it? where's amazon. >> amazon 221. >> oh spp it only 221? >> yeah. >> there's wells fargo. that must be -- wells fargo is pretty big. but mostly tech. still mostly tech right? facebook's getting up there, too, isn't it? >> berkshire hathaway is at 354. >> facebook is only 255. anyway, earnings news breaking in the last hour. dow component ge reporting earnings per share of 31 cents. 3 cents above wall street estimates. revenue also beat. and shares of general electric up 54 cents now. among our top global headlines this morning, greek banks are set to reopen monday after the ecb boosted emergency aid. but reuters are reporting that bankers are still waiting for approval from the greek central bank and government there. the banks have been shut since june 29th. prime minister alexis tsipras is expected to reshuffle his cabinet. there was a rebellion over the vote to improve austerity measures. and the german parliament is looking at the aid package right now. a vote is expected at any time. later this hour we'll be talking to david lipton. lagarde continues to say that some sort of debt forgiveness is needed hoo er eded here. >> it might be -- i think that's the way it is. apple, google microsoft now maybe. let me see microsoft. so the big three are all -- >> 377, microsoft. >> yeah. so apple, google, microsoft, exxon, berkshire. >> i think that's right. >> amazing. our guest host for the next two hours is martin franklin founder and executive chairman of jarden. he's on his way you would agree to $400 billion at jarden. >> something to aspire to. >> they acquired waddington for more than $1 billion. we got a bunch of cool stuff here. i love -- i like tents. i like tents. even if you don't go anywhere, you put them in your back yard. >> a lot of people do. absolutely. >> that way you can watch a little on demand or netflix in your house and go out and sleep in the tent. >> favorite thing for kids to do. >> it is right? we're going to do that again. all right. globally with the dollar with greece, with china and all these things, are you -- is it tougher to navigate or just do the same thing? >> you know, look. we have to navigate every day and every environment. and the reality is with a stronger dollar we have to deal with it. so we do the hedging that we can do. but at the end of the day it's a lag because you change pricing to reflect. you move things around. but at the end of the day, it's impacted everybody who reports in dollars. we do about 38% of our sales abroad. the vast majority of our sales are domestic. we deal with it. >> what has been the impact, how did big? >> it's moved our earnings around probably less than 5%. but it's still an impact. >> are these products in general like in this country, do you need a strong economy to have boom times or is it relatively inelastic? >> the way i see it if america is healthy, the rest of the world gets healthy over time. >> and are we healthy? >> i think we are. i think it's a slower development than saying anything that hasn't already been said. but at the end of the day, it's a steady continuing growth. i always see the u.s. economy a bit like a tanker. when it's moving in the right direction, there's not a lot of things politicians can do to kick it off course. at the moment things are pretty good. >> do you have things that people have to buy or things people choose to buy and then don't buy when things are great? >> we have both. we have what we call seasonal staples. when kids come around for baseball season they buy their kid a glove. what we see is the mix is different in good times. and if you look at the mix of things that people are buying today, a lot of rods and reels. what we're seeing are people stepping up feeling pretty good about their purchases. >> we just got retail sales numbers that were pathetic for the last month. what happened? >> well i can't -- you know one month is not a year. at the end of the day, my comments are sort of macro. and there are always pockets of weakness. >> but is that reflective of what you saw too? it makes people wonder. >> we put out our figures yesterday. globally. jarden overall. i don't have it off the top of my number what the organic number would have been just for the u.s. you know i think it's overall -- it could be a lot worse. that's you know how i see it. having said that i'm not sure that there's any hurry to feel that we're out of the woods. so you got a lot of instability in europe obviously. >> so what -- you closed on waddington or announced waddington? >> announced. and it will take -- there's not a lot of competitive overlap. they have a lot of specialty business. for example, if you see the cutlery that looks like silverware, they have the patented technology to make that. at one of our existing businesses before we bought wading ton, we were buying from them. they've got really great products. they've got a great presence in food service. that takes us into the b to b service. all disposal. they have an eco-friendly business that's quite big and growing. fastest organic grower within the business. and they have a solid specialty business. >> better be eco. we were just talking about that with toys and everything else. got to be gender neutral, race neutral barbie. somebody wrote in for the vegan no-gmo barbie. we don't need people aspiring to being razor thin either. >> her dimensions originally would topple over. >> a fracking barbie? >> no fracking barbies. no no no. i don't think so. i don't think that's in the mix. but do you think about things like this? you must. every ceo has to think about -- >> we think about reinventing the wheel all the time. we just came out of our ops review for a week. this is small, but how have you reinvented playing cards. these aren't on the market yet. >> what's different about it? >> if you look at the coating on the top, this is -- >> you can see what the card is. which i like. 10 of hearts. that's good. but only the dealer really wants to play with those, right? >> at the end of the day, the whole idea is to create excitement about a product that's been around for a long time. >> okay. now, you -- is that your water? >> that's my water. >> so tell me about that. why are you drinking out of that? >> only because it was given to me by somebody who works for our company. which i thought was a great idea. >> will people can with that or something? >> people can with the real home canning jars. this is simply a reinvention of a plastic jar but made into a mug. if you go out and go to bars and stuff, you'll see more and more people using these. >> is that moonshine? >> it could be. make for an interesting second hour. >> when you're trying to figure out what am i going to do that's going to be special in 2016 or whatever. is it something -- like how to work better on the web? is it another acquisition you don't have yet adding to something? >> so coming off of a week of strategic planning we do this where we're not talking a lot about numbers. >> is that meetings and stuff? how long do they last. >> because of the portfolio, four days. >> do you do it in a nice place at least? i wouldn't. atlantic city has some -- get a great deal in atlantic city. >> at some large corporations -- >> don't do it in a nice place. and then who leads them? just depends? >> so all of our businesses present to each other. so everybody's in the room. everybody gets to share issues. that's one of the -- i think that's become inside jarden an interesting place. they've got an internal network of people to share ideas with opportunities with issues with. if they want to go sell products in south africa, we've got a shared service platform being held there. and they get to network with each other. our ceo does a great job. >> martin is our guest host. he's going to be with us for the rest of the hour. when we come back we'll talk about a big hit or big miss. amazon hosting a black friday type of event in july but did it pay off? we'll find out next. and then billionaire investor noam gottesman. and then weighing in on the bailout. "squawk box" will be right back. everyone loves the picture i posted of you. at&t reminds you it can wait. welcome back to "squawk box." let's check the futures. down 36 on the dow. up 25 on the nasdaq because of google. honeywell posting better than expected earnings and revenue. the company also raising the low end of its full-year profit guidance. getting rewarded with a move to 105 which looks like a pretty good number for honeywell. has it been there before, becky, do you know? >> i don't know. let me look up and see. >> i don't know. 107 is the all-time high. so we're on our way back to that. amazon being criticized on the internet for overhyping its big prime day. many were comparing it to an online garage sale with items discounted. but according to piper jav rayffrayjaffray, they will end from the quarter alone. gene, you're suggesting that amazon gets the last laugh here? >> yeah they did. it might have been a garage sale, but a lot of people showed up. 2% is a material day. i mean that actually has something as an investor you should factor into how you think about the september quarter. so adding 2% to unit sales is definitely a win for this prime day. which for better or worse we'll probably see again next year. >> amazon didn't necessarily need to do this. what drove them to do this? is july generally a slower time for sales? >> well, it's a little slower time. i think there's a couple other factors going on. they don't want to do something like this closer to the holiday because that can kind of draw and pull in some of the sale. so they can create some organic. the other kind of wild card conspiracy theory is that next monday jet.com is going to launch. and that's going to be more competitive with costco. but also be kind of $100 a year type of an offering with really low prices. jet was founded by who founded diapers.com. which amazon acquired. if you're thinking of amazon as a potential threat you want to steal some of the maybe momentum going into jet. so i think this was very strategically placed. >> you think this is going to be a big player in this space? >> i think jet has something. they've got a -- when you buy things it kind of gameifis the process. and they do well with the fast moving stuff for your home. so i think that's something that historically amazon hasn't done as well on. they're trying to really tap into the costco type of consumer. >> what do you mean gameify? >> as you add different things to the cart because of the way their logistics work some of the prices can change. and you can get lower prices by adding more things into it. so it becomes a game. >> that's one way to get people to play on your site and throw it in? >> exactly. and it actually -- it shows that this lowering of the prices obviously the consumer can see the price coming down as they add things. and so it gives them more of an incentive to buy more. do you expect amazon to copy on that if it works? >> i have a feeling this plays out one of two ways. either one is that jet isn't successful. i think they will be successful. but more likely i think that amazon amazon ultimately buys jet when they become more successful. >> wow. in terms of what you think of amazon, what's your rating on the company and do you have a price target too? >> we're at 520 as our price target. and margins are going to improve. everyone knows that. but more importantly we think the unit growth is going to be a surprise for people on the upside. and that we think that is going to add further upside to the multiple. >> is the unit growth coming from new customers coming on or existing customers who are just buying more and more from amazon? >> it's the prime growth. which is the other kind of big part of this story is by adding prime members people spend a lot more. it's typically seven times as much as a non-prime user. >> okay. gene, i want to thank you for your time this morning. >> thank you. coming up dow component general electric reporting earlier this morning. we'll dig through the report with an analyst. that's next. a key analyst. and then at the top of the hour a "squawk" news maker you won't want to miss. monsanto ceo, hugh grant. jien joining us on the set. ah! aflac? aflac! i thought you said this guy was the best? oh, he's a horrible stylist. gah? but he's the best at paying claims fast! really... mmhmm. paid mine in just one day. one day? yea. aaaflaaaac! in just one day, we approve and pay. one day pay, only from aflac. 40% of the streetlights in detroit, at one point, did not work. you had some blocks and you had major thoroughfares and corridors that were just totally pitch black. those things had to change. we wanted to restore our lighting system in the city. you can have the greatest dreams in the world, but unless you can finance those dreams, it doesn't happen. at the time that the bankruptcy filing was done, the public lighting authority had a hard time of finding a bank. citi did not run away from the table like some other bankers did. citi had the strength to help us go to the credit markets and raise the money. it's a brighter day in detroit. people can see better when they're out doing their tasks, young people are moving back in town the kids are feeling safer while they walk to school. and folks are making investments and the community is moving forward. 40% of the lights were out, but they're not out for long.they're coming back. welcome back to "squawk box." we are watching shares of google this morning. the earnings topping estimates for the first time in the last six quarters. google getting a boost from strong advertising revenue. investors also giving a thumbs up to comments from the new cfo about disciplined spending. and separately google reporting that a motorist crashed into the company's self-driving car earlier this month. it's the 14th car accident for google's fleet. but in every other instance other motorists have been at fault. and according to google in the most recent incident the autonomous vehicle was stationary when it was rear end ended by a driver at 17 miles per hour. passengers in both cars suffered minor whiplash. the accidents highlight the dangers of distracted driving. >> it hasn't been instances where the cars were -- the self-driving cars were at fault. it was somebody else ran into them. >> right. and no word on whether the person just thought it was so ugly it just wanted to run into it to try to just squash that thing. that is the -- you know whatever. yeah. yeah. okay. perfect for the future world where -- that is -- i mean did you think they deliberately -- is there anything aerodynamic about it? >> i have no idea why it looks like that. >> i'll work at home. i just won't -- >> that's a golf cart. >> i won't even commute at this point. i'm embarrassed. anyway. general electric reporting kwrt quarterly results this morning. we have analyst at william blair with us. nick, nick nick. it's like war and peace, you and this company, isn't it? how long? >> 33 years. >> so you've seen everything. where's the company right now with longtime watcher like you? >> it's coming up for air. >> it is. >> yeah. >> what is the most positive things in the -- what would you call it? sort of a remix of the whole assets -- the asset composition of the company and you like what's happening. >> yeah. it's a reinvention of the company. they've found the next big thing, i think. and that's probably ge software's data analytics. which could become as important by early mid-next decade is ge capital was over the last couple decades. by exiting capital, the big unknown, they're really shifting back now to become the premier supplier of global base infrastructure power, water, transportation oil and gas. critical needs that are unmet around the world. >> i haven't heard software used very often in reference to general electric. >> we visited them since we last talked with you. and it's pretty amazing what they're doing. >> do tell. >> predictive analytics for them is now moving way beyond their 1 trillion installed base of products. and in fact they're able to through the industrial internet and partners use their predict software to begin to track realtime what's going on all over the world for virtually all industrial equipment. >> this sounds like the ultimate -- what was a really hot area. i always say it like tom costello because he was always down on the nasdaq walking the wall. but this sounds like the ultimate b 2 b business. >> yeah. we remember when companies way back when were getting involved in digitizing their business models in the late '90s. and that you know certainly was a big transformative factor for industrial companies. but today, you know just ge honeywell, and rockwell are really involved in data analytics. that's the next generation of digital aftermarket for industrial companies. >> predictive. does that mean you have an idea when they're going to need to get some new stuff from you? >> it means you can begin to extract what are likely to be critical trends in the future. >> predictive in terms of which way to go the way to guide your business, you mean. >> yeah. i mean how much shipping will go through the northwest passage and so as a result if you're in the transportation business like a railroad what should you do to better optimize your ability to capitalize on that trend? or where should you put a new hub if you're a major airline in north america if all the airlines are going to begin to use more and more narrow bodies flying across the atlantic? these are things that structurally change a customer's total return on capital. not just the return on ge's assets that they use. it's very powerful. and it's extremely lucrative. >> you got the developing world that doesn't have any infrastructure or just starting and then you've got the developed world which needs new infrastructure. so that was a conscious decision to just make it an infrastructure company too. >> yeah. it's definitely the dawn of a new age. >> all right. excellent. very interesting, nick. and if those guys are watching at ge they're like we love this guy. nick heymann, thanks. when we come back noam gottesman recently partnered with our guest host to take over a major european frozen food player. he's going to join us on set to talk about it. as we heads to break, look at the u.s. equity futures. s&p slightly higher. nasdaq 28 points up. dow down by close to 30. "squawk box" will be right back. the spark cash card from capital one. i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy for my studio. ♪ and that unlimited 2% cash back from shousands d ollars each year going back into my business... that's huge for my bottom line. what's in your wallet? ♪ he's making this up. >> no, i'm not. >> you are. >> welcome back. no, i'm not. welcome back to "squawk box." on today's watch list inflation data. today the cpi hits the tape at 8:30 a.m. eastern. it's a number that could influence the timing of the fed's first rate hike. houseing starts and building permits also set to be released at 8:30. and some fed speak on the agenda. vice chairman stanley fischer set to address the congress at 10:00 a.m. eastern. u.s. equity futures at this hour. google getting good results on the nasdaq. and bacon news. researchers at oregon state university have patented a new strain of seaweed called duls. they say when it's fried it tastes just like bacon. it's an edible variety of red marine algae that's packed with protein and has twice the nutritional value of kale. mba students at the university are working on a marketing plan for the seaweed. and portland area chefs are already tasting recipes. >> are you a buyer? >> i don't even like turkey bacon. but if you could make this close enough to where you could crush it up and put it in a salad or something, maybe that would work. >> baco-bits. >> maybe that would work. >> i want to taste it first. >> not for blt. >> right. i think the texture would be missing. >> no. you need -- you know how often do you have a blt? >> i like just an lt. sometimes i do it when tomatoes are fresh in the summer. >> anyway you need bacon once in awhile. anything in moderation right? >> yes, absolutely. >> a little heroin. >> no, no no. >> no. not heroin. you're right. that's why anything in moderation is not quite true. but i think bacon is. >> bacon counts. i would give you that. mega mergers closing as heinz and kraft look to close. sales of growth in packaged foods has slowed. our next guest is making a multibillion-dollar bet on frozen foods. noam gottesman. thanks so much for coming in today. >> thank you. good morning. >> let's talk a little bit about the idea. when we're watch inging packaged foods slowing down we're talking about the stuff in the middle of the grocery store. you're focused on the frozen food category. why don't you explain what you're doing. >> it's a loyal customer base. the business hasn't particularly grown over the past few years. but it's very solid and excellent margin business. when martin and i were looking for businesses that we could expand and grow it we looked at packaged food. we looked within that for businesses that had very strong brand names. very resilient. we ran across a company in europe. with that in spite of it being a low growth business, it had margins better than 20%. it was 2.2 times larger than its nearest competitor that most excitingly it accounted for less than 3% of the frozen food market. so a market leader and extraordinary fragmented business provided us with opportunity. >> when you talk about frozen foods, are we talking frozen vegetables? frozen beef stroganoff? what is it? >> the gamut. it's poultry, fish prepared meals. >> what would you put it on par with? like a weight watchers meal? smart ones? give us an example we're familiar with. >> fish sticks. >> fish sticks lasagna. martin and i as part of due diligence had an interesting and fattening day where we tried 40-odd products and it was remarkably good. >> the questions we've been focusing on, there's a change in the united states. there's a serious push for fresh food and things that are healthy. things that are low calorie count and probably less fried foods than ever before. how do you take that and kind of match that up with americans changing tastes? >> so i think there's two tastes. perceptual taste and then then reality. the reality is in terms of wastage and and green issues frozen food is much less wasted. >> i prefer frozen vegetables. that makes sense to me. but the idea of buying a frozen meal is a little bit of a tougher sell. >> it's efficient. it's quick. if you like one part of the meal you take that one part out and cook it and the rest you can keep in the freezer and it doesn't go bad and you don't throw it away. >> so at this point the idea of doing this and building a public company, why? there are a lot of people if you look at just the number of ipos in america, there are companies that we were talking to someone yesterday. it's now more like 11 years before somebody brings a company public. why go public? people complain all the time. >> it's the correct structure to enable us to be the consolidator within a fragmented business. there's obviously a tremendous amount of merger acquisition within the food space. many of these products have become orphaned products during the last few years. as companies tried to streamline and react to activist concerns there's been a lot of opportunity in the sector. and we're finding a tremendous amount of good brands that could use more focus, more innovation that we feel we could do good work with. >> why do this as a separate publicly traded company? i know it's a little different than what jarden does already. >> it's a lot different from what jarden does. jarden's focused on market leading niche market brands and consumer goods. food is a very different space. but the reality is the infrastructure of what jarden can become as a public company, as a long-term, we call it internally the difference between renters and owners. beautiful thing about public companies from an investors standpoint is the capital. so you take a very long view. you know if five years or seven years we're going to have to sell them. how's that going to impact our behavior? so we like the public structure. which is why we partnered up on this one. but the reality is we're doing this for the long-term. good cycles bad cycles. and starting with a market leader in a niche which is where we've started. it's the same kind of model. >> if you're doing this with brands well known in europe, you have to be concerned with what's happening in greece not in terms of just how the votes go but the damage that's already been done to the european economy as a result of this prolonged battle. >> i think that we have almost no business in greece. so on a micro level, we're not concerned. obviously what's happened in greece is akin to water boarding by the germans towards them. so it's been a very ugly situation. i don't think it's going to settle any time soon. but from a market perspective both greece and the issues in china deleveraged the market quite dramatically. so i think on the economy side if things are bad, in europe and the consumers are concerned, they tend to go towards a more economical food choices. and that should be a benefit to our business. >> you know the water boarding comment, you can look at it from two perspectives. one, it's been very harsh measures of austerity that's been put down. but at the same time the germans are asking us to pony up another 86 billion euros which is almost twice what the greeks had even been saying they need. this is the third time they're going for a bailout round. and german voters are saying wait a minute we don't want to foot the bill in imanymore. >> i think that's right. but at the end of the day they have to foot the bill. so the question is whether the damage done to the economic european ethos is worth it. in effect you can look at europe and say in some respects democracy is gone because interest rate policy foreign exchange policy budget control policy is gone. it's no longer in the hands of the elected governments. and so it's a very complex situation. the greeks are going to suffer for awhile. whether it provides sufficient growth, sufficient austerity to enable them to come out of this is very dubious. but they kicked the can down the road. >> what's a union? a union implies all of its members have the same governing rules. it's some loose collection of state ifs you don't do it -- i mean, a union means you have the same stuff. so then either make a union or don't maic a union. if greece doesn't, they should leave then. default on their debt. five years from now people will lend them money again. that's what they should do. >> it's not just greece. every country -- >> the whole experiment was flawed. once they went into it you can't back out. >> in america, every state -- in europe nothing's changed. >> but i don't -- when we subsidize appalachia or when we subsidize a part of the country that is you know unable to take care of itself it's part of the united states. i don't have a problem with that. when you still have greeks and germans and nationalism and different languages, that's why it's not a union. i didn't tell them to try it. but once you did try it you can't go back on it now. >> i think effectively the ability to travel to work has benefitted some countries significantly more than others. they have many of the benefits without losing control. but that also will come up for a referendum. >> right. but they're never going to the currency. >> i would doubt it very much. >> and germany is -- [ overlapping speakers ] >> the worst thing for the germans, they're like the swiss franc. >> either you get a lot more concerted fiscal decisions made or you just don't do it. >> there's a reality in the middle. because at the end of the day both have a lot to lose. >> that's why they've got to do it. they could have left and devalued. they could have done that. we'll give them every possible opportunity to do that. when it came down to that tsipras and the others did not want to do that because austerity would probably be worse. if you had 45 cents on the dollar for every euro. the anarchy would be worse. and who would travel over there? >> it's the lower and middle class in greece that are going to pay the most for this. they're the only ones with money left in the banks. >> at least you can glean from this is that socialism is death for economies and countries. we learned it again yet here we are having this discussion in this country whether we should trend that way. we have a guy who is a socialist giving another democrat a run for the money. isn't that a little bit interesting that that's happening? >> mark twain said history repeats itself and it rhymes. >> exactly. >> noam thank you for joining us. >> thanks. >> appreciate it. coming up big movers to close out the week. your list of stocks to watch is next. and we want to hear from you. what is the story grabbing your attention this morning? do you have questions for our guest host martin franklin? tweet to us @squawkcnbc and use the hash thing, pound sign. at ally bank no branches equals great rates. it's a fact. kind of like shopping hungry equals overshopping. so you're a small business expert from at&t? 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>> yes. >> i am here with imf deputy director david lipton. thank you for joining us this morning. how are you? >> good. >> let's start where people care about this issue. how big an issue do people have on the debt restructuring? the germans have said no writedowns. what's the imf's position on the greek debt? >> let me start at the beginning which is this agreement with greece is important because it charts a way forward. we think it's probably a long and narrow path. the fund's job is to help everybody get down that path successfully. that means greec execute policies that will solve its problems. but it also means that europe has and all the creditors have to provide greece with financing and a debt operation that will make sure that greece is feasible in the median and long-term. and, you know, we've been saying this all along. europe is considering the question. there may be differences of views about how to get there, but i think we all agree that greece needs a financing path that will be feasible. >> all right. but let's get to the question here. what are the parameters of imf involvement in a greek restructuring? does it have to be written down? >> well there are lots of ways to skin a cat. and the important thing is that greece's debt service payments don't cripple the economy. they're consistent with a greece that recovers. so we're open to the idea that the problem can be handled by stretching out the maturity providing long grace periods and low interest rates. we proposed that approach because we know under the european rules, that's much more likely way a go about doing this. >> is a debt restructuring of some kind an absolute condition for involvement in helping grooest? >> the bottom line for us as always is that the debt's made sustainable. and it can be done lots of different ways. yes, we don't go forward is our approach, our policy. because we want our support to be successful. we only go forward when we feel the financing is appropriate. >> david, we got a leaked memo from the imf staff in athens. and i think the upshot of it is not necessarily surprising to you which was difficulty that the imf staff had in getting access to ministers in greece. even it seemed access to the building. why is anything going to be different now between the imf and greece? tsipras even made the condition of another bailout here. but the imf not be involved. >> well it's true that the relationship has been a difficult and complicated one. you're right about that. i think what's changed is that over the weekend everyone stepped up to the edge of the abyss and decided not to jump. everyone decided it's best to make a very firm effort to solve greece's problems and do it within the eurozone. that's a difference. and while there certainly is a need for greece to take stronger ownership than they've done before and i think that goes for the prime minister as well as the government as a whole, i think that the fact that there's a commitment to try to go through solving these problems go down this long path means we're going to do it together they understand full well that the approach that europe takes is that its support requires imf involvement. >> david we were a little surprised by the imf assistance by lagarde's statements coming when they did about how debt relief is a requirement. that is something germany has been opposed to. you understand it because their voters have been up over arms. why the timing on this. it did seem like it could throw a bit of a bomb into the works. >> i think there's some misunderstanding here. we understand that germany's and europe as a whole considers that haircuts, the writing down of principle of debt is not something provided for under european law. but the -- you know having -- deciding what the terms of loans are going to be has always been something where there's flexibility. we have said all along the europeans have known germany -- germany has known there would have to be some way to do this. in fact if you go back we had assurances from germany, from europe in the 2012 program that the debt would be made sustainable. that of course wasn't a specific commitment but it was certainly understood that that might include having to pick the terms of loans including maturities and grace periods in order to make sure that the terms were appropriate for greece's situation. >> david, we're out of time here. in 30 seconds would you mind answering this question? does the imf have a position on greece leaving the eurozone? >> you know it's -- greece has decided to stay in. europe has decided to stay in. they are our members. we're trying to help them. i get that many academics believe that grexit would be better but let's realize that even with grexit and depreciation, what matters are greek policies. if you depreciate and raise wages, you don't have a competitive advantage. i think what matters is greece's policies. >> david, thanks for joining us. david lipton first deputy managing director of the imf. >> thank you. when we come back an interview with monsanto chairman and ceo hugh grant. he will join us on set. and kenneth cole is here to talk fashion and consumer trends. when a moment spontaneously turns romantic why pause to take a pill? and why stop what you're doing to find a bathroom? with cialis for daily use, you don't have to plan around either. it's the only daily tablet approved to treat erectile dysfunction so you can be ready anytime the moment is right. plus cialis treats the frustrating urinary symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently, day or night. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long-term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision or any symptoms of an allergic reaction stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. why pause the moment? ask your doctor about cialis for daily use. for a free 30-tablet trial go to cialis.com can it make a dentist appointment when my teeth are ready? ♪ ♪ can it tell the doctor how long you have to wear this thing? ♪ ♪ can it tell the flight attendant to please not wake me this time? ♪ ♪ the answer is yes, it can. so, the question your customers are really asking is can your business deliver? making a case to buy sengenta. hugh grant talks about the pesticide maker. plus his view on the global economy and what's moving markets around the world. a ceo call is just ahead. is the housing market on firm footing? plus a read on inflation. the numbers and instant analysis straight ahead. and we hit the runway with kenneth cole. he stops by to talk business and fashion. the final hour of "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ live from the most powerful city in the world, new york, this is "squawk box." >> welcome back to "squawk box," everyone. this is cnbc first in business worldwide. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen. andrew has today off. and we are less than 90 minutes away from the opening bell on wall street. we've been watching the futures and it's been a mixed picture all morning long. s&p is slightly positive. dow down about 26 points but the nasdaq up by 28. also look at what's been happening in the markets in europe at this hour. right now you're going to see it looks like the dax is down. just slightly down .2%. word just coming in that the german parliament voted yes on the greek bailout. it came down 439-119. there were 40 abstentions. but again, the vote passing the german parliament. that's big news too. greek banks are ready to reopen on monday but they must first get permission from the government. greek lenders have been shut since june 29th after a flood of withdrawals threatened to collapse the banking system. the ecb decided to lift the cap on emergency funding yesterday. and greece's deputy finance minister said the banks would reopen next week. and that should -- hopefully lines won't be like this. people still go to tellers? hopefully this subsides. >> it's been difficult because there's people that can't use the atms for whatever reason. >> and some of those controls will come off too. 60 euros is -- >> it's not much to live off of. >> you'd have to go back the next day and wait in line again. >> every day. >> it's awful. nothing compared to some of the other stuff that unfortunately will probably be happening. a few stocks on the move this morning. general electric the dow component is at least a winner so far today. up almost 2%. shares rising after the company's quarterly results beat the street. and it raised its full-year outlook at least for -- it raised the lower end of its outlook for its industrial manufacturing businesses. google's earnings beat estimates. shares up strongly. some day for jarden maybe, martin you think. up $71? you can hope for that some day. >> that would be nice. >> that would be nice. honeywell posting better than expected earnings and revenue helped by cost controls. also raising the low end of its full-year profit guidance. monsanto the world's largest seed company has proposed a $45 billion takeover bid of syngenta. if the two sides were actually talking to each other. hugh grant is the chairman and ceo of monsanto. he's sitting down for us this morning for a rare interview. thank you for being here today. >> thank you for the invitation. excited to be here. >> let's talk about this syngenta deal. why them and how long has this been in the works? >> it's been in the works since 2011. this is my third try. it's an exciting time to be in agriculture. global demand has never been greater. the data last week there's a billion new bushels of corn demand in the last year. farmers are hungry for new tools. they're looking for innovations. so we made the serious offer. we offered them a 43% premium. and we're looking for engagement, getting them back to the table. >> it's not a 43% premium today because the market has figured out o lot of this. >> the last two weeks i've been in europe talking to their share owners. i just got back. they're enthusiastic about the deal. they're also impatient so there's both sides of the atlantic there's people that want it done. >> there were some comments this morning from the president and coo of monsanto suggesting that a hostile bid is not the way you want to go. but this sounds like it's already hostile. >> new york there's always this thing on hostile or friendly. there's a lot of band width in there. i like friendly deals. you know we need the collaboration. there's a lot of travel in this one before we would think about hostile. i'd like to talk to a real person across a real table. so we've got work to do. but i'm optimistic. >> what has been the response to date. this is four years and counting. >> the response has been kind of slow. but i'm patient. i think when you look at the value that this could create when you look at the combination of biology and chemistry holding this -- the glue is data science. we did a deal in san francisco. you'd google results there, people left google to set up a company called climate corps. that's where this holds it together. with more precise tools on an acre. so the price is good things are worth waiting on. >> it must be frustrating that as biology and chemistry come together and will open up an incredible horizon or a great future for a lot of different reasons, you probably should spend just as much money on pr to try to explain to people what a gmo is. what are the risks, what aren't the risks. we've talked about in all businesses today you need to be so wary and aware of social media and misconceptions and myths and everything else. but, you know for years it took hundreds of years of breeding to get the right type of strain of a pig or of a seed. now you've got a way of doing it rationally and analytically which can -- for man kind it's going to be huge. but you've got people that dismiss it that know nothing about it. are you working on that? are you getting out information to people so they understand? >> yeah we are. >> is it frustrating? what do you attribute the absolute ignorance and the sort of just knee jerk reaction that you see? >> i mean we live in a world where science is -- you know i think science is really sexy. but i'm kind of in the minority in that. so i think for companies like mine, you just have to take time. we just have to explain it. >> do what you can do and sooner or later hope it becomes more clear to them. >> you know there's -- it isn't as gloomy as you describe. i think there's notes of optimism in there. you talk to young people especially millennials, they're waking up. >> but there's people that won't buy something unless it says gmo-free. they have no idea why they don't want gmos. all they know is they're three letters in the alphabet. >> they don't know what it stands for. when you look this year versus last year 1.2 billion bushels of corn in incremental demand. it's tough in agriculture right now. it's been rainy and wet. but those demands continue. if we're at this table in ten years time, it would be even steeper. nobody understands what they do. but the heart of this is how you explain -- >> let me ask this. i have been able to brush off almost all of the anti-gmo rhetoric. the one that has caught me and concerned me and maybe you can explain this to me is the idea that some seeds are being genetically modified to withstand greater and greater doses of pesticides. which is good news because it keeps the bugs away but the bood news is there's more and more pesticides being dumped on the crops and that's not necessarily something i want to ingest. because i'm not modified to withstand that. is that a valid argument or not? >> it really isn't. if you look at use in pesticide consumptions it's decreased. next year is the 20th an verse pi. 20 years since the first crops were planted in 1996. the use of chemistry has declined during that time. so growers are now applying less. and i think the next -- when you look at this deal the next turn in this the next breakthrough is how you apply less than an acre how you apply it much more precisely. i think the monsanto and syngenta combination redefines it and how we link it much more with the seed. >> you know, in advanced civilization the birthrate slows in fact where it becomes a problem because you don't have enough people to take care of the people that are older. i foresee a day where the world's population probably peaks out and with things like this, we're going to be able to feed probably the terminal population of the world. we're never going to -- the scare tactics will probably never come to pass. with this technology we'll be able to make enough food to feed everybody. >> i believe that's absolutely true. >> i do too. that's not very sexy. it doesn't sell and it's not exciting to talk about. >> it is kind of sexy. >> it is but people want to make it like it's so much sexier to tweet that we're all goners. >> yeah but i will say i'm the exception on the scottish optimist. >> you spend a lot of money too? >> i'd like to spend some money on this deal. that would be a meaningful spend. >> well, not too much. >> to go back to the deal itself, one of the things i never understood is why a company -- it doesn't matter what the size wouldn't want to engage. at the end of the day talk a cheap. >> you're right. >> what is it you say to shareholders to entice coerce is too strong a word. but to entice shareholders that the management or the board should at least at the very least send a representative to have a real conversation? >> i agree with you. i've been in europe two weeks. just got back. met with 75-plus share owners. a very very uniform, very uniform feedback. sometimes you do these things and people say you should go home now. i could have stayed longer. then you get back here and it's the same feedback on this side of the atlantic. i think the consistency feedback on both sides of the atlantic they should be sitting down. they should be engaging. we should be doing this quietly. that doesn't guarantee success, but at least that's how mature business is done. i've got a lot of respect for the board and management. they need to get real and see if we can get this over the line. i don't understand. >> what to you sound like the best reasons for not talking? is it something about regulatory concerns about whether or not a deal would be approved by regulators? >> i feel good about the regulatory. you can never speak for regulars. that's a whole other world. but we've two areas where we think there's a solution set. one we put $2 billion on the table as a reverse breakout fee. switch a mark of confidence. it's $2 billion would be for them. and two, we set heavily on we will sell all of their business. so it completely eliminates the overlap between the two. and the good news is the phones rang off the hook because there's a bunch of people ready and willing to buy those seed properties. so i'm encouraged by that. i'd like to get a move. >> always engagement. >> john paulson, it's reported he has taken a stake in syngenta too. have you spoken to him? >> no. but i've seen the reports. and the good news again, the good news is people are becoming vocal. so i'd say my takeaway from my safari is a lot of encouragement and a lot of impatience. and people are beginning to talk. that's a good thing. >> is there a point where your level of patience has been breached? where do you walk away? >> you know, patience is a finite resource. but as you say, i've been at this since 2011. i think there's still miles to go on this. i really do. and the last few weeks when you get a chance to personally talk to owners in the stock and they say you should get this done. and then you look at the backdrop of these demand curves we're going to hang with this for awhile. >> what's your plan "b" if this doesn't work? >> i tell my team plan "b" is we push plan "a" a lot harder. and we still get a lot of rock to go on this before we think about plan "b." >> in terms of the investors you've met with what shares in the company do they own? >> we'd be past the halfway mark now. well past. and we are now engageing professionals to find the rest of those share owners. so i think it's meaningful work. being able to talk is kind of how we started this conversation. when you talk about the vision when you talk about the long-term opportunity in agriculture. when you talk about hungry planet. this resonates. being able to bring better science where you literally know yard by yard what that crop needs and giving growers who are ultimately the customers, giving them the ability to squeeze another few bushels that are shrinking acres, that ignites a positive sentiment with investors. i've been pleased with that. >> back to this idea of going hostile. i think you've been talking the starts at this point, is there a point where you say we're going to put this up for a proxy vote and how do the rules work when you're dealing with a company based in another country? >> switzerland is -- so i've learned more. switzerland i've learned more about the tender system there is a little bit blind. so you make that bed without due diligence. that's a 45% blind deal. you wouldn't do that. that's now how i would -- >> not for the faint hearted. >> not for the faint hearted. so we need -- i think plan "a" for us is we explain the value and the deal. we explain how much value we unlock. and we've been taking the opportunity because it's ran so long to talk to growers as well. we have a good support there as well. i think this is more of a communication. >> we want to thank you very much for joining us. it's been far too long since we've seen you. but we appreciate your time today. >> thank you. >> and we hope you do for our show what you did for jay leno's show. i don't think he ever looked back after that did he? >> another hugh grant. >> other hugh grant. >> he's the lookalike. >> yes. coming up guest host martin franklin on the state of start-ups and what it takes to be a successful small business. then a read on the housing market. we get the government's latest figures. check out the futures at this hour. particularly the nasdaq because of google. ♪ i built my business with passion. but i keep it growing by making every dollar count. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one. i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy for my studio. ♪ and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business... that's huge for my bottom line. what's in your wallet? welcome back to "squawk box," everyone. take a look at shares of best buy. stock's under pressure this morning. bank of america merrill lynch is downgrading it. that stock looks like it's down by about 3.3%. coming up fashion designer kenneth cole will join us to talk about the state of the industry and the latest trends. he is our special guest later this hour. "squawk box" will be right back. a new season brings a new look. a chance to try something different. this summer, challenge your preconceptions and experience a cadillac for yourself. ♪ the 2015 cadillac srx. lease this from around $339 per month, or purchase with 0% apr financing. when you're not confident you have complete visibility into your business, it can quickly become the only thing you think about. that's where at&t can help. at&t's innovative solutions connect machines and people... to keep your internet of things in-sync, in real-time. leaving you free to focus on what matters most. four marines are dead in tennessee after a lone gunman opened fire at two navy facilities in chattanooga. nbc's dave wagner is in chattanooga with the latest on the victims and what we know about the gunman. >> good morning to you, becky. it is a sad scene here. still an active crime scene. one of two active crime scenes in chattanooga. this is where the four marines were killed. a sad morning for the families of those who died and a community that is grieving right now. it was 30 minutes of terror at two military centers. but what it an act of terrorism? that's what investigators are trying to determine. the 24-year-old gunman mohammad youssuf abdulazeez his father a city employee here in chattanooga. he was not on any kind of terrorist list. but right now they are working to confirm whether a blog maintained by the gunman may have clues. one post said life is short and bitter muslims should not let the opportunity to submit to allah pass you by. we did talk to the fbi special agent in charge in knoxville about this. and why they're approaching this as a case of check in terrorism. >> dave i think some of the questions that come out on this -- terrorism or not -- is the question whether there were links with other people supporting him or he was a lone wolf. the people who have been hurt and killed along the way. >> yeah. and i think they've sort of based upon some of the information they have based upon the fact i can tell you, becky, that the two sites this gunman went to went to a military recruiting site then drove seven miles away to this place which is kind of a non-descript location and then opened fire again on members of the military here. i think under the theory that obviously military was targeted in this. and might this in fact be an act of terrorism, they believe there are signs of this being isis-inspired terrorism. i should point out we've also gotten the name of one of the victims. the first name we have gotten of one of the marines killed. his name is thomas sullivan served two tours in iraq but died right here in chattanooga, tennessee. >> hey, dave it's just -- i'm seeing some of the rhetoric. both of these places are gun-free zones? they're military but they're gun-free? is that -- what dictates that? is it a rule? is an an optional thing? do you know the details on that? >> well they -- i'm hearing a lot of cars and trucks going by so it's difficult to hear but if i understand you correctly, you're wondering about the two places. the place seven miles away from here is a recruiting facility. but this place is a marine corps reserve center. so it is kind of a fairly large complex that is difficult to get to. the gunman would have had to kind of weave around some barricades to get back in there. it's not a place that people go normally, i'm told. >> dave. dave, i was asking -- do you know whether it's gun -- are both of those facilities gun-free? do the military guys, are they not allowed -- are there no guns in the facility? do you know? >> yeah joe, i do not know the answer to that. i really don't. i don't know. what i can tell you is that after having been in many many military recruiting stations over the years, you rarely see anybody with a gun there. there is virtually no security. at this location right here in talking to people i don't get the impression that this is a high security facility. but i also get the impression that it is more difficult to get to. military recruiting stations as you know, anybody can walk in the front door. >> right. all right, dave. yeah. you know from the different -- all of these things it doesn't take long unfortunately, to see things get politicized. in this day and age. and this is getting politicized already from both sides. coming up housing starts and cpi data. then kenneth cole is here. we're going to talk about fashion in just a bit. one of the things that i, you know, have been a complete expert on. as we head to break, take a look at u.s. futures. working 24/7 on mobile trader, rated #1 trading app in the app store. it lets you trade stocks options, futures... even advanced orders. and it offers more charts than a lot of the other competitors do in desktop. you work so late. i guess you don't see your family very much? i see them all the time. did you finish your derivative pricing model, honey? for all the confidence you need. td ameritrade. you got this. t-mobile now extends your coverage beyond the borders at no extra charge. get 4g lte data in mexico and canada just like in the u.s. and call and text as much as you want to and from the united states, mexico, and canada. you heard right! unlimited calls to any phone - even mobile... in mexico and canada for free! it's included with simple choice plans. only t-mobile gives you coverage and calling in three countries for the price of one. switch today. welcome back to "squawk box." a litany of june data coming up. housing starts up close to 10% to an annualized pace of 1.174. if we look at permits, permits were also much better than anticipated. we're looking for 1.15 million. we end up with 1.134 million. close to 7.5%. the exact number might be 7.4%. but keep in mind, this comes at a time where last month was down huge. on starts last month, released down 11%. they were upgraded to down 10.2%. but permanents on a tear both months. 9.6% in may. up 7.4% in june. that's good. cpi, a bit -- well you know many were looking for up .2%. i was looking for up .3%. that's what we ended up with. up .3%. strip away the all important food and energy up .2%. core year every year that's up more than last time. it matches expectations. and of course we still have university of michigan sentiment survey but considering some of the rebounds in equities a lot depends on when the survey was taken, how did all of this move the markets? not very much actually. yields hovering around 235. they eased up from the 240 areas. everybody is trying to monitor conditions mostly in china by the insiders. mostly what's happening with greece by those more inclined to talk about topics that probably have a bit to do with the spreads in europe. but not all encompassing. it's a weekend. we get a better glimpse potentially of where the risk aversion will lie by the end of the session today. joe, becky, and the gang back to you. >> rick, thank you. have a great weekend. we're going to get more reaction to the day in a minute. but right now more breaking news from our own phil lebeau in chicago. this is news that could move boeing shares today. phil? >> and it will becky. look at boeing premarket. the company announcing -- pre-announcing a charge for q2 up $536 million. that works out to 77 cents a share. why are they taking the charge? because of changes and extra work they will have to do on the tanker refueling pra m. remember that's the 767 that's being modified. so they are going to be building 179 of these aircraft refueling tankers for the air force. a 4. billion deal with the air force. they are going to have to modify some of their work. as a result they're going to be a taking a charge of $536 million in their q2 earnings which will be coming out next wednesday. couple of important notes here guys. their cash and revenue guidance unchanged for full year 2015. however, their guidance of earnings per share between 820 and 844, that may change. they will be updating that guidance next wednesday when they report their q2 numbers. again, boeing pre-announcing a charge of $536 million or 77 cents a share. >> thanks. we know when the earnings do come out, we'll have the number with the charge. use that to compare to estimates. steve leisman joins us now with more on the economic data. steve? >> so i want to tell this all in context of yellen yesterday and the housing and cpi data all fit together. the first thing is i think yellen raised the bar a bit for the rates. the question becomes what happens to inflation. we got some inflation today. 0.3% on the headline. driven in part in the turnaround in energy prices. which are running 1.8% year over year. either way it's going to work it way through. what do we have? we're looking at the owner equivalent driven bethe idea the government derives from equivalent rentals. what happens on the rental market? it's full. what's happening in housing? they're building apartments like they're going out of style. if i can quickly segue to the housing numbers, the single family starts actually down on the month. multi multi-family starts up big. the permits, better than expected. we thought the perms were going to go down. they have gone back up. we're gradually making the progress we need. we have the housing market seems to be getting at least in line to be a positive for economic growth. the big odd man out here is the manufacturing sector. >> why would you build more of something if it's going out of style? >> you know joe, for 12 years now you have challenged by rhetoric in ways that have made my language better. you're right. going out of style. >> where does that come from? >> i don't know. they are heavily in style. which is why you would build them like they're going out of style. nobody wants to own a house these days. they all want to rent. why they want to rent i don't know. i'm not sure it's the greatest financial decision on their part, but they want to rent and they want to live in urban cores which is good for our cities. but what's happening is it was a better permit number which tells you this thing has legs when it comes to the building of multi-family homes like they're going to out of style because they're very much in style. >> smurfs are already blue. >> right. >> why does your nose run and your feet smell. steve, stick around. let's bring in mike hanson. he is a senior u.s. -- you're rear? you're right here. >> i'm right here. >> he's already here. he's an economist at. merrill lynch and he joins us on set. i don't know if we believe anything he says now. obviously if it's going out of style. any of the other things that made sense? >> yeah well i mean i think it's true. from the fed's perspective, economy's doing i think well enough. i think it is a low bar. i think it's been a low bar. >> i think she's lowered it the last couple days when she said the economy is at a place where -- close to a place where it not only needs higher rates but can tolerate them. >> yeah. i think the fed has been trying to very gradually move in that direction. what i think is notable about some of the ways she's maybe changed her rhetoric is she's changed the assessment of risks that a premature tightening is something they're concerned with. they're still concerned but i don't think quite as concerned given the improvement in economy. now the risk of if you go too late, you could have to hike more quickly and that could be disruptive. so that very modest edging of the mix of risk is notable. i think september is still very much in play. >> do you think they look at the strengthening of the dollar as being something that is an inhibiting factor? >> they do. yellen was asked that yesterday and did mention if that's something they're keeping an eye on. there was a blog post this morning on what the drag might potentially be. her conclusion and i think it's one that most economists agree with that a strengthening dollar is second order effect. it's going to have some drag but isn't going to fundamentally upset. >> you import a lot from overseas. does it hurt you? >> of course i have an agenda. i think at the end of the day strengthening the dollar -- with the strengthening dollar raising rates only further strengthens the dollar which is going to impact overall exports which i don't think america wants. so whatever they do has to be very measured. has to be very modest. >> and that's one of the key messages. they're going to take their time time. that's how the fed is viewing it. i don't think -- unless you have a really substantial and aggressive appreciation of the dollar i don't see that as fundamentally changing the path of policy. but it is clearly something they're going to take into account. if it turns out that exports get hit harder if there's a deflationary impact it could well slow them down. that's a fair point. >> they were worried that they don't want to have to come back down if they raise too early. if they're not sure that we're above stall speed. i look at that the other way. i'd like to have some dry powder if there was a weak patch in the future. i would hope on that 1%. >> that's fair. but at the same time you don't want to hike rates for the purpose of cutting them. >> but someone the other day said if you were to look at 2.5%, you'd think it was crazy to raise rates. >> yeah. >> 2.5% with 5% unemployment. >> especially -- here's the thing. >> they would look at that and say that's too low. [ overlapping speakers ] >> we see it in our business. >> the fed is mostly interested in what the potential of the economy is. if the potential is 1.5% and we're running at 1.5% then the fed should not be at zero. that's clear. if the potential is 5% and we're running at 3% the fed can be lower. >> still don't want to be at zero. >> i think that's the big debate. >> i would think much more with what you're saying that you're sort of shifting a little. that raises her profile in my eyes. >> i told you, joe, back in '96 she was a hawk and went up against greenspan on raising rates. i think this idea of first of all when somebody gets into a position like this their colors change because they're the leader. what they were before is not all that relevant. and she has a history in time when it was needed. she ended up being wrong then but she was in favor of raising rates. >> hope she does it in september. thank you. when we come back this morning, kenneth cole has been walking the walk since 1982. the fashion designer has more than 90 retail and outlet stores not to mention a huge online presence. kenneth cole is our special guest right after this. and don't forget you still have time to tell us what has you buzzing this morning. we will share your stories in a bit. tweet us and use the #keepsquawking. being a keen observer of the world has gotten you far but what if you could see more of what you wanted to know? with fidelity's new active trader pro investing platform, the information that's important to you is all in one place, so finding more insight is easier. it's your idea powered by active trader pro. another way fidelity gives you a more powerful investing experience. call our specialists today to get up and running. welcome back, everybody. we are joined right now by kenneth cole. he is the founder and chief creative officer of kenneth cole fashion. kenneth, thanks so much for being here. >> what a treat. happy to be here. >> it's good to have you. you are a little larger than life. i was going through -- you're somebody who's been talking about social activism and walking the walk for a long time. right now we look around and we see some ceos who are coming out and maybe pushing their points a little bit more in terms of marriage equality. but this is something you've been doing on a broad array of different issues for a long time. what do you think is really happening now? >> you know we've been doing it for a long time maybe for different reasons. many reasons -- in many ways maybe because we could. and i don't think i did it to help the business. i did it because it didn't negative impact the business. at the end of the day, i didn't think it helped the business but it was able to marry all my personal and the brand's sentiments together in our messaging. and so we've don't be ite it throughout this process. today it's almost a part of the way people do business social responsibility. but we've been very lucky and we've been able to connect the people not just what they stand in and stand for. but not just what they look like on the outside but who they are on the inside. and it's elevated our brand and relationship with the customer. we stayed on that course. >> it has to have a backlash at times, too, though. not necessarily every customer is going to agree with a lot of your viewpoints. >> it does, but -- >> where have you got the most pushback? >> today with social it's hard to be less spontaneous. you're essentially speaking to everybody. everything is viral and immediate and realtime. but also very powerful platform. and if you understand it and i'm not sure -- i know i don't, but i'm forever learning it seems. and it's forever growing. but it's an extraordinary way to become a global business and have a global relevance and voice. and you have to be thoughtful about it. >> i guess it's different when you're putting up something on a highway. a billboard a certain group will see, maybe on a bus. but when you put it on twitter, and it's everybody around the globe. maybe not everybody around the globe agree with the message. >> most are not political messages. social messages and human messages. i'm really very thoughtful not to use the corporate platform to go beyond that although sometimes those lines are blurred, granted. and maybe -- and i've made a couple of missteps earlier on with twitter. >> like what? >> oh i forgot. >> let's not go over those. >> but you learn. and i think people don't always read things the way they're intended. sometimes where they're written isn't always the way they're meant or the way they're interpreted isn't the way they're meant. >> what's the most important message or the key message you think. if you look back over the years that's really resonated with your core customer base? >> i think that today that that what you stand for is more important than what you stand in. i think that today it's sustainable and it is -- and it connects with people in a more meaningful way. in the past what we did, the goal was to connect with people. today there's accountability. and today the goal is to -- you know, there's a real science to it. its impact and how many people you're speaking to and how enganled are they and is it sustainable. is it relevant? and does it make sense today and make sense tomorrow? it continues to be a big part of the business. we went private a couple years ago. i've been fortunate to have martin as a mentor and friend and a board member when we were public for a long time. >> don't even have a board anymore. >> isn't that nice? so now you can build a business without having to deal with the quarterly demands, the short-term needs of the marketplace. which probably doesn't help "squawk box" as much. >> is your plan to eventually go public again? or you think you can maintain a private company and still grow? >> my plan is not to be public if i can help it. i mean i think today you can speak to people -- i mean you can accomplish -- you can be so much more strategic and make meaningful investments if you can think longer term. you can take a step back to take two forward. it's hard to do that in the public markets. you guys know better than anybody. so i loved not being public. and i'd tell you about it, but it's private. >> we don't have an ax to grind. you're here talking about it. we're fine with that. you want to be private, you're welcome here any time to talk about it. >> what you guys do is great. you give a platform for people to tell -- >> we're not jonesing. we try to book during earnings season. we're not here waiting for earnings season. it's like oh no jpmorgan week. >> that's very exciting. i was thinking in the waiting room as i was watching this i was thinking the person that loves our brand has probably changed the channel after they saw the monsanto presentation. but only in the sense that -- >> because it wasn't interesting or because it was pro-gmo? >> no it's just the message. the brand message and positioning. >> very different. >> but i love what they do. and i love what you do. this is a necessary platform for people to tell an important story at an important time. and that time isn't the same for everybody. >> the only thing with me with social, i want to make sure -- i like it when the ceo and i have the same opinion on the social thing. and if you go the other way and if i think it's a wrong-minded issue, that does bother me. that's like stay out of it. as a customer. like, your things i've been behind 100%. but the way you described it you said that it's like almost a -- there's ways you can decide which issues are going to be long-lasting and are net positives. there are others that are more controversial that i don't think you should be involved with. >> you have to be thoughtful and today you really have to be thoughtful, and twitter is a very powerful platform for adversarial feedback and you hear often -- what i often say and believe today is that i used to believe my job was to sell my brand to as many people as i could in as meaningful of a way as i could. today that's not the case. today everybody is their own brand. everybody curuating their brand on their social media pages and they even curuate their audience and decide who can have access and then they look to merge brand. my job, i believe is to convince you to allow me to be a part of your brand. and then when you want your brand to look a certain way, you'll come and buy what you want. i also think everybody is in the media business to your point a minute ago, everybody is an audience. in the past it was only the few. >> the merger brand? what's that brand where you want to merge with someone? what's that called? >> are you thinking of the dating site? >> you mean merging. i couldn't come up with it. what's the name of that thing? >> where you swipe right or left? >> what's the name of that? both of these guys are acting like they don't know. >> thank you so much for joining us today. it was a pleasure to see you. >> thank you. >> when we come back today, it is time to keep squawking. the stories that have our viewers buzzing today. "squawk box" will be back after a quick break. a crime scene they could have little to go on. a vague description. a single piece of evidence. a partial plate number. with an app from ibm officers can now access over a billion police documents to find hidden connections and identify potential suspects. ibm analytics helps one hundred thousand officers work smarter every day. two streetlights. the only difference: that little blue thingy. you see it? that's a sensor. using ge software, the light can react to its environment- getting brighter only when it's needed. in a night it saves a little energy. but, in a year it saves a lot. and the other street? it's been burning energy all night. for frank. frank's a cat. now, two things that are exactly the same have never been more different. ge software. get connected. get insights. get optimized. this morning -- the responses. first up we told you about a story in the usa today that suggests picking the right color car can save you money. black, white and silver vehicles stand a chance of getting more at resale. >> that's fine if it's a gt but if it's a four cylinder it's different. >> when we return we'll wrap things up with martin franklin. the futures at this hour continue to be a little bit weaker for the dow an s&p. s&p is now positive and now is the nasdaq. we'll be right back. this is a great place to work. not because they have yoga meetings and a juice bar. because they're getting comcast business internet. comcast business offers convenient installation appointments that work around your schedule. and it takes- done. - about an hour. get reliable internet that's up to five times faster than dsl from the phone company. call 800-501-6000 to switch today. perks are nice. but the best thing you can give your business is comcast business. comcast business. built for business. everyone loves the picture i posted of you. at&t reminds you it can wait. host. it's been great having you in here. are you still in an inquisitive mode, would you say? >> yes. as well as as long as rates are low. the really good assets wait until the market turns around. there's good things out there so we're still out there. >> i like all the stuff you make. does that go into your thinking? >> i try to gravitate toward businesses that give people good experiences. >> camping, fishing, apparel. >> feel-good products. i try to stay away from guns and things like that. but politics aside, it's just more issues to have to deal with that i don't want to deal with. >> have a great weekend, everybody. right now it's time for "squawk on the street." >> welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with sara eisen, simon hobbs and david faber. a remarkable week. the best for the nasdaq since october on the back of the earnings from netflix and now google which will have a monster opening. watch bonds. housing starts were strong. stan fisher talks today and oil

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