it is 8:00 a.m. at disney headquarters headquarters 11:00 a.m. in new york and this is "squawk alley." ♪ welcome to "squawk alley" for a tuesday. dow down 109. breaking news to start the hour. this time on ford. phil lebeau is in chicago with that. >> ford in a move expected for months is announcing that it is building a new small car plant in mexico. this plant will be located in the san luis section of mexico an investment of $1.6 billion. it will create 2800 jobs with cars expected to roll off that assembly line in 2018. some of those cars will be sold in the u.s. and sx ported to other countries away the world. no doubt is this a move that will get a lot of attention on the campaign trail from the presidential candidates. just a couple weeks ago, here's what donald trump had it say about ford and its plans to expand around the world. >> companies are leaving our country rapidly. rapidly. whether it's carrier air conditioning whether it's ford whether it's eaton. i was in cleveland and eaton corp they're leaving. so many companies are leaving. and frankly, i'm disgusted with with it and tired of seeing it. and there is no reason for it. it's just gross incompetence at the highest level. we should not allow to happen. >> within the last hour i talked to the president of ford the americas and i asked him that you'll be attacked for expanding in mexico and he points out what you see he on this map here. 36% of the vehicles that ford built around the world are built in the united states. this is its biggest market. they have invested more than $10 billion here since 2011. and joe henrik says despite this announcement which they say they need to do to expand their production in mexico they remain committed to the u.s. but who doubt this is a move that will get a lot of attention in wisconsin on primary day. i can already hear mr. trump saying here we go jobs leaving the u.s. but again, ford is not moving be jobs to mexico it's simply about banding in mexico. >> we'll be listening to his reaction today for sure. thank you so much. meantime disney shares down after it announced ceo widely considered to be the favorite to follow bob iger is leaving the company. they released a statement saying the board of directors will broaden the scope of its succession planning process to identify and evaluate a robust slate of candidates for consideration. for more we turn to bill george senior fellow and professor at harvard business school. bill, welcome bag. good back. in thank you. >> one question that leaps outbag. back. in thank you. >> one question that leaps out we've been led to believe this is iger's hand picked successor, so why isn't the board following his suggestion? >> that's a really good question. clearly they signaled that thags was the successor and is this not a weak board. and i suspect that some of the members of the board said we'd like to look outside for a morethis is not a weak board. and i suspect that some of the members of the board said we'd like to look outside for a more creative person. staggs is a very good executive, but they may have been look for a more creative person. kind of testing the outside waters with the inside and stags oig says i'm not up for that, i thought i was committed for the job. you'll recall this happened with iger whennize izeeisner was there. >> and disney has changed so much under bob iger. you would expect that a ceo who has fundamental lir tranceryly twrans forred a company to this degree would have a number of successors, they pick somebody from the inside and they have more than one option. what does will this signal either about the board which you say is strong or about iger's style and how he handles the tier beneath him that they're needing to look outside for a ceo to potential run disney in the future? >> i think part of it is that they had selected staggs. and that pushed other candidates away. you have the guy who did frozen but alan is up there in years. you have pixar, two great in-vow vags lead innovation leaders of the world. but they're not the person. so i think staggs was so vow innovation leaders of the world. but they're not the person. so i think staggs was sovow innovation leaders of the world. but they're not the person. so i think staggs was so carefully positioned that that's why it's a surprise that the board wants to look outside. frankly, i'm quite surprised by it that as strong as and as great as iger has been, to think take they're now i said going against his choice. he soured on staggs or -- he has two more years. key stay he could stay longer. i'm a little bit perplexed, but more and more boards are doing that these day, they want to compare the outside to the inside and the inside in this case decided he wasn't depositgoing as to stick around. so i think it's a loss. >> the creativity issue is an interesting one because we generally hear createsivity and practicality are mutually exclusive and managers don't have to be creative, they just have to hire creative people underneath them. why does the board feel like creativity is needed for this job and tom staggs without it couldn't do this job? >> there is a manager good at running a business, there is an innovateor who is it all the innovation, but then there is the in-know he vags leader. those are the people that i think they want to lead an organization like take. and that's clearly what iger has proven to p. he's approach to be a great nurturer of innovativetal lebt talent. you don't want a person to try to do it all themselves. look at what tim cook has done. you wouldn't call him the innovator per se but he's done a wonderful job there just like sheryl sandberg has done a wonderful job teaming with mark zuckerberg. so i think they have something in mind here. there may be more that we don't know, that we're not privy to the inside board room discussions. >> overall, bill, you're on some high profile boards. you never want the board to act with this air of conformity, right? i just wonder it may be disruptive now and the stock may be done on it but i wonder if you think there is a hidden value in a board that continues to ask questions even as the time approaches for a change. >> i really don't. i really disagree. no, i don't think so. there are so many shareholders so many people engaged in disney you need to send clear signals. if you have three candidates no problem. one of the people on the board susan arnold maybe she should have been the choice. but you say we have these three candidates but when you designate someone as chief operating officer that's pretty much a signal that the person would will take over. and i don't think did he anything wrong. so i think the board changed its mind. but that's not necessarily a sign of a super stable board. boards i've been organizationaeneen on, when they have designate someone, they pretty much go with it. >> fascinating to watch. bill thanks again. good to see you. just got an announcement that the president will make a statement on corporate tax inversions at 12:15 eastern time. that's in the wake of the treasury's new rules on inversions which could endanger this $160 billion planned merger between pfizer and allergen. we'll bring that to you live. meanwhile we're keeping an eye on the market which is are off of their lows due to is permit nonmanufacturing data coming out this morning. but we are seeing disney the biggest laggard on the dow. nasdaq in the red, as well. as are tesla shares. in a statement tesla blamed its own uberous for stuffing with too much technology making it tough to produce at a high volume. shares down just about half of 1% but carl, that hey continue to may continue to be an issue as it tries to ramp up its production. when we come back twitter beating out amazon and verizon for the life stream of nfl games. what it means for twitter and the nfl. plus starz going mole. the company announcing a new direct to consumer app for apple and android. the qvcceo is here. and home buying inging season is begin to go heat up. is it back to full strength? we're back in a moment. audi pilotless vehicles have conquered highways mountains, and racetracks. and now much of that same advanced technology is found in the new audi a4. with one notable difference... the all-new audi a4, with available traffic jam assist. great time for a shiny floor wax, no? not if you just put the finishing touches on your latest masterpiece. timing's important. comcast business knows that. that's why you can schedule an installation at a time that works for you. even late at night or on the weekend, if that's what you need. because you have enough to worry about. i did not see that coming. don't deal with disruptions. get better internet installed on your schedule. comcast business. built for business. let's get to tick news. joining us is angel investor and founder of inside.com. jason, welcome. >> great to be here. >> we have to start with twitter because the company is beating out amazon and verizon for global rights to stream thursday nift night nfl games. i asked the co-founder about the deal. >> it plays off of the fact that everything -- twitter is all about live. and so to be able to watch the game live within twitter and twitter integrated experience is going to enhance what many people experience already whenever you're watching a live event, she know their tweet is going long side and having that more integrated is an obvious extension. >> also reporting twitter paid less than $10 million for the entire ten game package. that was compared to rival bids higher than $15 million. jason, the challenge here as you just heard talking about this being apintegrating experience, twitter has boasted this two screen phenomenon. and now they will try to get people back on to just one screen? >> yeah, i think what this is target the h.ed at and remember it's not an exclusive deal so cbs, nbc will have these programs, as well. and they control the majority of the ad inventory. so twitter is incremental audience as far as the nfl is concerned and i think this is a community play and the nfl sort of saying hey, we have to get this smartphone generation and millennials to start watching the nfl because they have too many options to go to snap chat or facebook or instagram. and we're losing them because they don't have cable. >> really? jason, it seems like the nfl audience is the one audience that is not getting lost here. the popularity of the sport, of the broadcasts are off the charts. there was competition. is there the possibility that this is going to end up actually being a cost and a loss for twitterness at the dra twitter unless they figure out how to keep the logged out eyeballs that will potentially come to them during the games? they have to monetize them later because it is not exclusive kept as content as you mentioned. people can watch without committing to twitter. >> and only $10 million. a million a game. if at the make back the money with periscope and other revenue, it's well worth it. >> infrastructure costs could be bigger than $10 million couldn't it? >> i think it will be low millions of people that tune this. perhaps they could hit five million or ten million i'm. i think when i can't zhu zhuoo i can't yahoo! did theirs it was 2 or 3 million. so it's incremental and it gets the people who might be slipping away. the nfl by selling the rights three times their network, cbs, nbc and now twitter. and i think verizon also. so the experience will be neat because you will have the video up top and then you will have the tweets below it. and for people would are really into commenting and remixing video, which you see a lot with the warriors games and the best of, this will play into the next generation that don't want to sit there passively. so i think it will be big for twitter. >> two questions. are you arguing that the nfl is the motivated party here and second question, what does it do for maus or time line engagement, any of the metrics that wall street cares about on witnesser? >> twitter? >> it's not a huge silver bullet that solves all of twitter's problems. but it speaks to the fact that the community is extremely valuable to ip owners. everybody talks about whatever we discussed, how they did, they tact fact check us. same thing happens, everybody goes to twitter to see what happened. during a walking dead or game. so it's really integrated into the fabric of the next generation where they want to remix and edit and discuss what is going on on television. so this could be the start of something back for the folks at between thor.e er twitter. if they can get other networks to say let's broadcast over there, let's at that time the adtake the ads and put them over there, this could get them to this other audience that is super engaged. and when you look down at your phone, you don't have to feel bad that you're missing the game. the game is here and the tweets are here in the same location. so this goes back to take that whole interactive tv promise that nobody would shut up about in the nichbtsz. nooits '90s. >> so still waiting to see some of the finer details. moving on to tesla which just days after announcing record pre-orders for the new model 3, the company now announcing that its deliveries for the fourth quarter missed what the company expected. it said delivery delays were a result of supplier shortages and, quote, tesla's uberous in adding far too much new technology. shares down sarply lysharply after hours. is this a short term blip for tesla, can they reramp production for their own models? >> yeah, if you look at the tremendous success of the model 3 launch you're talking about over $10 billion in pre-orders people putting $1,000 down hundreds of thousands of tell ordering in the first three or four days tesla just changed the entire game. it's the largest kick start, large he is pre-order in the high schooler to of the universe. and i think tesla learned a really about lesson with the model x. elon is constantly trying to do things that break new ground and are phenomenal in terms of people's expectations. he's like the opposite of say marissa at yahoo! which is they don't release any products. elon comes up with too many crazy ideas. the falcon doors were completely unnecessary. so maybe they're admitting we did too much with the holgdmodel x and now they're on a jihad to make the $35,000 car easy to produce, quick, and affordable. and the world is responding. this is unprecedented that hundreds of thousands of people would put down $1,000 deposit and gives me hope for humanity. >> but they're these learning these things as a company as they go. and as hopeful that you may be it's a publicly traded company and you have to wonder if they should get out of the business of giving guidance. >> who would have ever given the guidance that they would sell 300,000 or 400,000 pre-orders. this is unprecedented territory. so if you're going to be in a stock like tesla which jim cramer was like sell sell sell, you know -- >> but jason -- >> it's like a black swan. nobody ever anticipated a company could sell 300,000 or 400,000 cars in advance. >> this becomes a problem at a search point, though this execution. they have to execute very nicely very crisply on this gig ga factory for batteries. they have to execute more crisply because the volumes and demand are so high even compared to the x which now they say they stuffed too much technology no to it. experts would say they always have an excuse for why they're missing deadlines and the stakes keep getting higher and right now valuation reflects crisp execution that they still haven't turned in yet. >> keep in mind one thing. i disagree with the crisp execution. yes, the falcon doors at the overreached. but the model s was the highest rated car in the history of consumer reports, it was car of the year. it was phenomenal. we were here five six years ago with everybody saying this is stupidest idea ever consumers don't want electric cars. all of those questions have been answered. so i would argue that we're thousand going to go into the golden era of tesla and when it's obvious that people are lining up you know for days in advance, i think they have tapped into the fact that people believe in global warming. people believe that we need to get off fossil fuels. today's the big message. this transcends people's economic interests. you could buy a cheaper gas powered car and we're at all time record lows for oil. how is it possible that they broke all sales records in the history of the universe for a pre-order of any product in the takes of face of the chooeps gas we've seen in a decade? there is something very important happening here. >> we know that we will have you back and hear more of your thoughts before late 2017 when we actually start seeing the pre-orders. but always appreciate getting to talk to you. >> great to be here. >> meanwhile breaking news on viacom. julia boorstin is in los angeles. julia. >> hello. dow jones reporting that representatives are in settlement talks in the mental competency case filed guy zach's girlfriend. the headlines saying that the deposition of vie com ceo which had been scheduled for today has been suspended and that red account accountstone's team is discussing settlement. this has been a long drawn out case having implications for both viacom and cbs. and it would not be surprising if there is a settlement in this 11th hour ahead of the big deposition scheduled for today. back over to you. and up next it's not just the nfl with streaming news. chris albrecht the ceo of starz will join us as the company announce as standalone streaming app. live shot of the w40ushite house. the president said to make a statement on tax inversions in about 45 minutes. when we come back, starz is going mobile. today they announced a direct to consumer app for apple and an stroid droid droid. the ceo will be here. don't go anywhere. android. the ceo will be here. don't go anywhere. good morning. here is your cnbc news update. an obama administration official says iran will not be given access to the u.s. financial system as part of the sanctions relief granted under the land mark nuclear deal. u.s. under secretary of state thom as thomas shannon making that comment earlier this morning. donald trump getting in some last minute campaigning in wisconsin working a milwaukee area diner. trump telling people that he plans to do well in today's state primary. french riot police using shields and batons to contain protesters. the government says reforms will encourage hiring but students and unions say it erodes hard-fought worker protections. and take a look at this, amazing new images released this morning from nasa give a spectacular view of earth as seen from the international space station. the space station has been occupied continuously since november of 2000. visited by 222 people from some 18 countries. that is the cnbc news update this hour. back downtown to "squawk alley." thank you very much. let's get to simon hobbs and see how europe will close out today. a lot of red. >> this is a much worse performance in europe than in the united states. a number of fanlgmajor factors. data is poor. not gets traction from the eurozone economy. the pmi was revised down. german factory orders go negative month on month, although it has to be said it's a volatile index and at the same time january was revised up. into the fray, we're really watching what is happening with the bond market. the rally continues at the core of europe on sovereign debt as the ecb now buys 08 million euros of bonds each month. this means the yield on the ten year has crossed through lows for the year. this is a two year chart at the now ten basis points. below we had april of last year was five bhafs pointasis points. do you have deutsche bank says there is not enough issuance to buy. so that will be a big story when that happens. into this you then have a report from reuters that the european central bank according to the italian banks is coming close to setting some of the deadlines to sell off the nonperforming loans. the problem the italian banks have is that they can't get decent prices for the nonperforming loans because the judicial system is so slow taking seven year none ever the secondary buyers are willing to pay a decent price because the durations are so long. so you see that the banks just like in february italian banks are coming down into negative territory and other big eurozone banks or just banks around europe are also beginning to fall and they have move since the reuters story came out at 7:30 this morning. you often see when the market the is done easy trades. miners moved today, they're in negative territory. a joint venture in brazil is heavily indebted and therefore some of the steel comes down with the usually suspects. and automotives are also down today. profit targets have disappointed. and you can see other major exporters are in negative territory. of course the euro although not necessarily shifting higher is much higher than arguably it should be with the ecb doing all that it is. back to you. >> thank you very much. premium television network starz launching a standalone streaming app today. for $8.99 a month, customers will getting a access to thousands of movies and original series and they can download to devices. with us onset, chris albrecht and joining us in los angeles is julia boorstin. chris, good morning. part of ongoing evolution of your distribution right? >> yes, we have a great business with our long term partner, but a lot of opportunity to access consumers who are more challenged to get premium television on top of the pay tv stack. so this is the direction technology is taking us and we're looking to explore that. >> how long has it been in the works? in other words, how much work does it take to get to this point and what does the timing tell us about what the rest of tv will do? >> so we watch hbo and showtime and at the same time how much hone they spent and we felt we could do it a different way. so we developed it in-house over a period of about six months for a fraction of the costs. and we have different features, the download feature we think is great. timing is right because the marketplace has been explored. we put our toe in the water with o.t.t. delivery with amazon and that has been successful so far. so we're looking forward to having an opportunity to reach consumers in these other ways. >> julia. >> there have been reports of you being in talks with both lionsgate and cbs, these m&a rumors for years. how important is the success of this app to those potential m and "a"a m&a oig deals? >> we're operating as an tint company thinking that all the things we do our investment in original programming opportunity to bring this app to the marketplace, are all ways that we will be able to strengthen our company independently regardless of what happens. m&a is something that i think is hard to achieve in the entertainment business a lot of incumbents that like their jobs and don't necessarily want to see the ecosystem change. we're always interested in partnerships that make sense to build value to the shareholders but we're not doing anythingly purposely to create any result other than grow the value of our company. >> chris, we're moving from this world of channels arguably into a world of apps. and everybody is trying to charge x amount of money per month for you to have their content. granted you're huge, i believe more than 23 million sin sub subscribers subscribers. but do we reach a point offing a xwra vags that some services start to eat others. forget about 50 or 100 channel, will we have thousands of channels will people doling out monthly fees to thousands of different companies? seems unlikely. >> i think that we're priced to sell. the original programming strategy that we've employed has delivered us a diverse audience that as i said before is probably more challenged. we're svod, we're subscription model, not ad supported so economics are different. i do think that people will probably be able to create their own array of television or entertainment choices whether they buy them individual apps or whether companies that deliver apps that can be a sort virtual. >> but you can't have arrived if he $8.99 price lightly. you had to think about what consumers would pay and what you will have to pay for the content. do you cover your costs? >> sure. obviously we're this businessin business to make money. so we thought this could be successful for us on a lot of different fronts s&pespecially on the profitability front. we think that this is a good opportunity to offer real value to a consumer. as i said before, that complaint access it in the current structure of atv. >> chris, how do you manage the launch of this and the presentation of this app to ensure that it doesn't drive core cutting or are you okay if it does drive core cutting? >> one thing we're doing purposely is to not advertise cross channel on the mdvp plat fors. we're not the looking to swim in their swim lane. we want to hopefully have their business continue to be very profitable and hopefully grow. and through digital marketing, social media, things like that this app as i said before is targeted to an audience that we think previously hasn't been able to access the premium channels. if there is cannibalization, we certainly don't welcome that, but we think from ap agn aggregate point of view starz will he said oig better off and we welcome them to bring more people in. >> so last question. if the goal is this environment of controlled migration, which channel doing what you're doing would mean the game over? i mean is it espn to godoing something similar where you think historic distribution is a wasteland now? >> i think the advertiser supported channels are challenged because they need to keep a large aggregate number of viewers if order on sustain their business model. so i'm not sure espn is the one. i think that if you see more people either abandoning that model or more people going direct, it will be an aggregate number of people that will probably erode. but if that happenses its it's a glacial pace. >> thanks for joining us. up next, shares of allergan tumbling down 15% on new rules on inversions threatening the proposed merger it has with pfizer. we'll have the latest on that story. hi...i'm pamela yellen. you may have read my bestselling book "the bank on yourself revolution". over the last 25 years i've researched more than 450 financial products. i found that one of the best-kept secrets to help you plan for your retirement is the home equity conversion mortgage. it's a line of credit for homeowners age 62 or older. and it's offered by a company you can trust- one reverse 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provisions people are focusing on. these are the third set of rules treasury has put out.three year look back and something called earning stripping. earning stripping thing while some companies find onerous, it basically addresses the ability to shift assets around after doing a deal in order to lower your taxes. it's really the three year look back that folks specifically target the pfizer/allergan deal. that refers to deals that a foreign company has done over the last three years that account for its size. if you look at allergan's acquisitions for the last couple years, used to be called activists in 2013 if moved its corporate head quarters to ireland. that was its original inversion. then in 2014 bought forest labs and last year bought alaler began. those last two deals would be excluded under these rules.began. those last two deals would be excluded under these rules. and thp 40% to 60% threshold for doing inversions tlef to own 40% of the combined company. if they're a smaller company, they wouldn't be that size. so that's why people are saying the treasury rules specifically target the pfizer/allergan deal and folks saying it probably won't happen anymore. so what are the next steps? a, they could drop the deal and walk away. folks seem to think that could potentially happen. two, maybe they find a way through. they do it under a different structure, maybe 80%/20%. and three, could they sue the government on this. what i'm hearing and i think david faber was reporting, that would be too long and too uncertain of a road. so people think that the deal may be dead. but the companies are still sorting through and we should hear more in the next couple days or weeks. >> you have to imagine there are quite a few pencils on paper right now. we'll see what happens with this, but certainly big moves in the stocks today after those rules came out. meg tir rely in new york. as we mentioned, president obama will make a statement on corporate tax inversions in just about 30 minutes time. we'll bring to you live from the white house. john harwood just spoke with the house ways and means xhilts committee chairman and asked him if stopping tax inversions is exactly what american voters wanted. here's what he had to say. >> company is at a 40% disadvantage for a foreign company buying them and taking them over. they're tired of that. and so rather than more band aids that doesn't solve the yupd lying problem, that's -- >> it stops the allergan/pfizer merger. would that be something thattor con stitatistic events would say, yeah, that's a good thing. >> my constituents believe that we should be creating jobs in america and companies shouldn't be forced to look at those types of options which is what they have today. >> representative grady did acknowledge congress would take no action to stop the treasury action that was put forth yesterday. but certainly it's a work in progress as we await the deals hanging in the balance. >> and the hot political issue. up next spring has sprung and the home buying season is heating up. is the housing market finally back at full strength some we'll have zillow ceo in a moment. more coverage guess what? you could apply for a medicare supplement insurance plan whenever you want. no enrollment window. no waiting to apply. that means now may be a great time to shop for an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. medicare doesn't cover everything. and like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, these help cover some of what medicare doesn't pay. so don't wait. call now to request your free decision guide. it could help you find the aarp medicare supplement plan that works for you. these types of plans have no networks, so you get to choose any doctor who accepts medicare patients. rates are competitive, and they're the only plans of their kind endorsed by aarp. remember - these plans let you apply all year round. so call today. because now's the perfect time to learn more. go long. great time for a shiny floor wax, no? not if you just put the finishing touches on your latest masterpiece. timing's important. comcast business knows that. that's why you can schedule an installation at a time that works for you. even late at night or on the weekend, if that's what you need. because you have enough to worry about. i did not see that coming. don't deal with disruptions. get better internet installed on your schedule. comcast business. built for business. it is april, which means spring housing season is under way, but years after the crash, is the housing market finally getting back to normal? with us from the iconic conference in seattle is spencer rascoff, ceo of zillow. are there any signs that you can see that this pesky supply issue is finally loosening for us? >> supply is finally starting to come online. the story of housing for the last couple years has just been that there's too much demand and not enough supply. finally, apartment building managers and real estate developers are building new apartment inventory and home builders are bringing single family inventory online. zillow data says whereas home values were increasing about 5% we are moderating to 2% to 4% because of new supply coming. >> how much of that help is coming from new construction of new homes being built and how much of that is a demographic shift where older homeowners are starting to downsize and move out of the houses that they have lived in for a long time? >> well what's happening on single family is that people are getting pulled out of negative equity so for so long since the bubble burst, negative equity rates were very high 20% to 30% of all mortgage holders were upside down in their loan. today it's in the teens. so as a result of less negative equity, more fratraditional homeowners can list their homes. so zillow is out with a report today on what are the hottest apartment rental markets, places where rents are rising very quickly and new apartment supply is coming online very quickly, like seattle, denver portland the bay area, columbus, ohio, number one. thankfully real estate developers are building new inventory. >> more than any time i can recall, i have got friends who kind of got money burning a hole in their pockets, they want to buy something, they feel like now would be a good time to buy, but there just isn't the inventory out there at the price that they are willing to pay. how does this resolve itself? do prices eventually stagnate come down, does more inventory go on to the market and bring prices down? >> it's a seller's market. there's not enough inventory. a lot of the country you see multiple bids for whatever the property is. we have 9% fewer homes for sale today than a year ago. the way it resolves itself apartment management companies and home builders build new inventory and as home values rise, people get pulled out of negative equity that creates more ability to list. it's starting to happen. it's important to remember what we are experiencing now is not like the last housing bubble. the last housing bubble 2005 to 2007 wasn't so much a housing bubble as credit bubble. people got mortgages who weren't supposed to and as a result values got inflated. what we are experiencing now is just regular housing appreciation because you have demand exceeding supply. home values increase more supply comes online as negative equity alleviates and new construction happens. this is a healthy market. this is actually what normal real estate is supposed to be like, this type of market. >> our real estate reporter reported the other day that 60% of u.s. counties are considered unaffordable. we joke that no one really can afford to live in palo alto or brooklyn or manhattan but how can housing become more affordable without geg through a broader housing reset when 60% of counties are priced that high? >> well the problem really is with rents. rents are actually relatively unaffordable as compared with buying. we crunched the data lots of different ways. what we have seen is it is relatively more affordable to buy than to rent right now. again, that situation will be alleviated as more multi-family inventory comes online that will bring rents down. for now, it's rents that are totally unaffordable. >> you are joining us as people can see with the sign in the background from cnbc and ink magazine's iconic conference. we talk a lot about the valley but seattle has a unique perspective with starbucks, amazon microsoft, so much innovation happening. what's the sentiment right now? >> the seattle tech landscape is doing great. some amazing companies that you mentioned are based here. zillow has been the beneficiary of seattle's incredibly vibrant economy for the last decade or so. you finally have bay area tech companies sort of figuring out what we already knew and they are coming here in droves. now you have google facebook uber, snapchat all the companies have seattle engineering offices. they are now fishing in our pond in seattle. the tech landscape feels really vibrant. it's running a company that's headquartered here. it's been a great place to have a company. >> enjoy yourself. come back and see us in new york sometime soon. spencer rascoff. getting more fallout this morning from the panama papers. sue herera has that. >> indeed we are. iceland's prime minister has decided to step down after the panama papers were released. there were protftests calling for him to step down in reykjavik earlier this morning. he tried to dissolve parliament to avoid stepping down. the president of iceland refused to do that. as a result of that and being named in the panama papers iceland's prime minister has stepped down. back to you. >> sue, thank you very much. the president is set to make a statement on corporate tax inversions in just a few moments. when that begins we will take you to the white house live. just strikes me whether it's ford investing more in this mexico plant, iceland panama papers, inversions so many stories just reiterating what a global and free-wheeling global economy we have right now. >> the lengths people will go to to avoid paying taxes seems to be the common thread through all of it. >> yeah. panama papers that did not take long to have some concrete political effect. my favorite line on twitter today is reykjavik, w-r-e-c-k. that's the situation in iceland today. the president speaks in a few moments. that does it for us here on "squawk alley." getting unlimited data for your family is a struggle. other carriers either don't offer it or it's too expensive! not t-mobile! introducing the best data plan ever! get three lines of unlimited 4g lte data for just fifty bucks each, and get a fourth line, free! yup!_we'll give you a fourth line at no extra cost. so tell those other guys you're done worrying about data. get three lines of unlimited data for fifty bucks each, and a fourth line on us. hurry, only at t-mobile. welcome to the halftime report. i'm scott wapner. our top trade at noon the rollover in stocks today and whether it's the beginning of the end for the rally. joe terranova, stephanie link and pete najerian are with us. stocks here at home have been weak throughout the session. there was even more red overseas leading us to wonder whether the six-week surge is about to run