Record. And in corporate news, comcast is buying the rest of nbcuniversal from general election for 16. 7 billion. Its wednesday, february 13, 2013. Squawk box begins right now. Good morning, everyone, welcome to squawk box on cnbc. Im becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. We are following major stories. After yesterdays close on wall street, u. S. Equity futures this morning, well, you see they are fight a little bit higher. They are fight a little bit higher. After gains yesterday, the dow up more than 45 points yesterday. Our guest host is westwood capitals len bloom. The next hour, famed investor and billionaire real estate tycoon, sam zell. Topranked money manager don yakman. His fund have seen annual returns of 10 over the last five years. Well also talk about how Business Leaders and investors are reacting to president obamas state of the Union Address. Among the topics high talked about last night, jobs and the economy. Even mentioning some companies by name. Jobs for ten years, manufacturers have added 500,000 jobs over the past three. Caterpillar is bringing jobs back from japan. Ford is bringing jobs back from mexico. And this year, apple will start making macs in america again. We will be speaking with the ceo of one of those companies. Caterpillars Doug Olberhelman at 8 00 eastern. Well talk about where the jobs are coming back and what washington could be doing to promote more job growth. Well talk about washingtons looming debt threat with aetna boss Mark Bertolini. And as far corporate news, the story hits close to home. Comcast securing full control of nbcuniversal in a 16. 7 billion deal. The nations largest cable operator unveiling plans to buy out General Electrics venture. Comcast chairman and ceo Brian Roberts will join us live at 7 15 a. M. Eastern. Before all of that, andrew has the other top stories. An through and. Thank you. That is a huge story. In other news, the International Energy agency is now cautioning expectations that higher Oil Demand Growth this year could be overly optimistic. The Watchdog Group is warning that recent signs of the recovery could be the result of one off factors and not a sustained trend of improvement. So the iea is cutting its Oil Demand Growth forecast for the coming year by a marginal 90,000 barrels a day. Also in the news, j cpenney increasing Borrowing Capacity under a Bank Credit Facility by 00 million. Up now to 100 million. Now to 1. 9 billion. The retailer expanding an option to buy more at a later date. The news said to be raising concerns among analysts as the retailer works on that turnaround. And conditions on a disabled Carnival Cruise ship in the gulf of mexico, theyre in dispute. The company says its making passenger passengers stranded aboard as comfortable as possible with Running Water, working bathrooms. This contradicts accounts of some passengers who told relatives about filthy, hot conditions, and limited access to food. I saw a report yesterday that in somebody calling in from one of the boats. Did not sound like everybody was too comfortable. I saw that. Onion sandwiches that took three hours to get. Whats wrong with onion sandwiches . That wasnt the bad part. The bad part was the 3,000 people and five bathrooms. Sleeping in the hallways, couldnt stay in their cabin because the toilets were overflowing i overflowing. Our friend tom did a report on the today show about. This he said one of the things they were offered was a fiveday cruise at another point, hopefully at another time with power. Any takers . Unclear. President obama calling on congress to pass fiscal battles. Chief washington correspondent john harwood with the highlights from the state of the union. John . Reporter hey, joe. This was government activism that president obama offered for an age of limited resources. The biggest new initiative he offered was an increase in the minimum wage over three years from 7. 25 to 9 an hour. The burden for that would be placed, of course, on employers. He offered a laundry list of proposals domestically on education, on energy, on infrastructure, but he made the point to members of congress that none of them would add to the deficit because they were all going to be paid for by offsetting spending cuts. Of course, hes not reached agreement with the congress. On heres the president last night. Nothing im proposed tonight should increase our deficit by a single dime. It is not a bigger government we need but a smart or government that sets priorities and invests in broadbased growth. Lets set Party Interests aside and work to pass a budget that replaces reckless cuts with smart savings and Wise Investments in our future. Lets do it without the brinksmanship that stresses consumers and scares off investors. [ applause ] the greatest nation on earth the greatest nation on earth cannot keep conducting its business by drifting from one manufactured crisis to the next. [ applause ] we. We cant do it. Now joe, the underlying philosophy behind what the president is trying to do, many proposals repackaged from last years state of the union and previous ones. Part of the proposals to jumpstart the economy during the campaign, his judged that he campaigned on these ideas, he won the election and hes going to press them. Many are not new, but hes trying to keep the pressure on republicans to break down their resistan resistance. He had success with the debt limit. Republicans moving his way on immigration. The question is going to be on the domestic spending initiatives. Can he get them to go his way at the same time theyre trying to do deficit reduction . Not going to be easy. What did you pick up on some of the other provisions of the big deal that didnt get done, john . The enticements or tax reform entitlements or tax reform or otherwise. Was there much attention paid to that . Well, some. He alluded to getting the Corporate Tax rates down. This is part of the deal he left on the table for the speaker. The key point about that deal is hes not giving up the quest for additional revenue. Thats where republicans so far have drone dra have drawn the line. He repeated again last night hes willing to entertain further cuts in medicare so long, he said, as it doesnt violate what he called the compact for a secure retirement with seniors. And its not going to be easy to do that. Its also not going to be impossible. Well have to see whether or not the Republican Party looking to its future. We saw marco rubio as part of its future. We saw the future of the Republican Party get a drink of water on tv last night. The were going to see whether they decide that its in their interests to make a deal with him and move past that and start looking to future battles beyond the fiscal battles of today. I did notice that when they were trying to sum up what rubio said, i asked everyone yesterday, we all want to help the middle class. Were trying to figure out how to do. We know that most of the jobs need to come from the private sector. Do you think that ceos or private sectororiented people, did they feel like they got, that he put his arm around him more than previously or was it an expansion of or you know, sort of continuing to talk about an expansion of liberal ideas, bigger government . I would think they would not feel that the president put their arm around him necessarily. When you listened to the president talk about im going to take executive action to implement my philosophy on Climate Change for example, youre going to have a lot of people we heard it from joe manchin, senator from west virginia, saying he was disappointed as a guy from a coal state. Hes concerned about what the epa is going to do and what the Obama Administration is going to do. I would think the president rattled some in business by the rhetoric he had. And on your point about rubio. I thought rubio was an effective spokesman for the small government argument. Saw why he was put front and center by the Republican Party. Hes got an as operational story that is the mirror aspirational story that is the mirror image of the one that obama set up in 2008. He set up the contrast well. John, what is the chance that the minimum wage actually is increased . I think it is not great. But upon zero either. A Senior Administration official yesterday talked to me after the brieflying on the proposal. And the analysis was, look, were going to hear that big business doesnt mind this. Youre going to hear objections from the service sector, from the restaurant industry, republicans dont like it, but every once in a while remember, the last time the minimum wage was raised was in 2005. During the bush administration, under pressure from democrats, you could you can see a sort of break in the dike at some point. And you see republicans flooding to that. Again, as with immigration, this is something where it is possible that republicans would sdie its in their interest. I think if you were laying money down tonight, you would say its going nowhere in the house of representatives. Maybe nowhere in the senate either. Its an attempt by the president to try and go on offense at least on some proposals rather than simply recycling the thanks he proposed in the past and had not gotten. The next election, its going to be interesting again. At least we live in interesting times. And it older we get, it goes pretty quick, doesnt it . It does go quick. The president s got 18 months to get something done. Now theres only six months of the election after that 18. Well see. I would be interested in one in your reaction to one proposal the president offered which business might like which is he said that im going to pursue the Transpacific Partnership on trade. Shed he wanted to open a new negotiation, a Transatlantic Partnership with the e. U. Is it your feeling that people are going to look at that and say, okay, at least theres a little part of the business agenda hes pursuing by trying to get down trade barriers . One of the criticisms is there had been no new free trade initiatives in his first administration. You know, they acted on some that were previously proposed. Yeah, obviously that would be something that that businesses would certainly want to sell to the world, this for sure. That larry kudlow was on with us last night and said we dont need a new agreement with the e. U. Weve already got agreements with most of the countries involved. So well see how much value the marketplace puts on that. Okay. All right. John harwood. Beckys got the next story coming up. Just a classic. Its you know, i got to talk to but this. I really lets lets beck dee it. Do you have a new view on Cayman Islands . I know bachus says that mr. Lew paid his taxes that he was supposed to pay. This was fully within the law to do it. To have tax shelters in the caymans. I thought you didnt like those as a rule. I dont like them. Generally speaking. Is this place a house of thieves, this whatever the heck it is down in it is. It still is. Its not a good thing. Its not a good thing. Its not a good thing. I cant imagine that jack lew would becky has the story that she should probably it is going to be something that makes for a very interesting story in washington this morning. The Senate Banking committees going to be grilling president obamas treasury secretary nominee, jack lew, today. Among the issues expected to be raised are a bonus he received from citigroup and, as joe was talking about, Cayman Island investments. Lew is expected to eventually win confirmation. Were going to be speaking to veteran Senate FinanceCommittee MemberCharles Grassley coming up at 8 00 eastern time. Yes, the situation with Cayman Island accounts could make for an interesting debate today. Max bachus back in 2008 said that this ugland house that has a lot to do with tax evasion which we know is a felony. But then yesterday weve had treasury secretaries that havent paid their taxes before. Thats not thats not a disqualifying geithners gone its better than average. You dont have to be perfect. Look, you can go to the Cayman Islands or use turbo tax. Its complicated. He used turbo tax. That was the problem. Is that what secretary geithner yeah, it was is that evasion . He didnt pay part of the taxes. He didnt pay it. Then he paid it later. Sounds like a mistake if it was related to turbo text. Something got lost in the computer. Do you want someone running the irs not like he set up his own private partnership in the Cayman Islands. He happened to invest in partnerships when he was at citi, and they happened to be based there. In romneys case he set them up down there . No, he didnt. I was not making i never made the Cayman Islands argument to you ever. Oh about romney . I never did. Go back and check the tapes. Never. I dont think he ever did. I think i dont think he did. In general, just the whole perception. Now al gores got more money, a lot more money than romney, as you know. You think thats in the Cayman Islands . Hes not filthy rich. No, thats somewhere safe, the lea the middle east. As the ocean washes across the country, its safe, probably in gold. In the markets, the futures are fight slightly higher. Yesterday the dow was up by 47 point. The s p up by two. As patty dawn points out, the nasdaq has been the big issue. It was actually down yesterday by five points. It has not closed above the 3,200 level that so many had been watching closely. Some say in order to see the s p 500 and the dow break out to new highs, youre going to have to see Technology Lead the way. Well get clues on this tonight when we hear from cisco. The tech sector yesterday was negative. It was down by 0. 4 . Again, well continue to watch this. Cisco out with earnings after the bell today. If you want to look at oil prices, youll see that they were up at 11 cents, up by nine cents to 97. 62. The tenyear note at this point is yielding 2. 01 . Above 2 . We do have a tenyear note auction at 1 00 p. M. We also have retail sales and import prices out at 1 30 p. M. Eastern. Look at the dollar, youll see in fact the dollar is down against the euro. Its up against the yen. Euro at 1. 3479. And gold prices this morning slightly weaker. Down by 3. 60 to 1,646 an ounce. Andrew . Okay. Time for the Global Markets report. Well see what kelly evans is thinking about this morning. Kelly . Hi, andrew. Always news. Ill get to the currency wars piece in a bit. Over here, there was focus on italy. The country was going to raise at auction three or four different kinds of paper upon one being a 30year bond for the first time in two years. It went off reasonably well. 5. 08 , i think, the level there. We can show you the reaction in the tenyear space across the sovereigns for the most part, if i can bring it up for you. Working not working . No. All right. Well skip that for now. Who needs elements anyway . Basically youre seeing across spain and italy flows into those out of the bund yield and out of the gilt yield which was about up above 2. 1 . Becky, consistent with what were seeing across the u. S. European equity markets for the most part are mixed. And its forex, guys, again, where the real focus is. So absent any weakness in the italian auctions which we didnt see which might have put pressure on the euro. Instead the euro continues to rally against the dollar. And its actually the g20 meeting this weekend in russia thats the focus for a lot of investors. Its the yen in particular. We had the g7 come out and create a little confusion in the market. First with the statement that seemed sort of tacitly say it was okay for japan and some countries to have been talking down their currency to the effect that they did. Then turning around yesterday and trying to say, look, they meant for the statement, the statement out of the g7, to come across as signaling concern about the excessive moves in the yen. Then a canadian official struck much of the same note when asked by press later that evening. The did give up significant ground on that strength strengthened, i should say. The nikkei took a hit. Now the focus turns to the g20. Could be more volatility heading into. That the reason, by the way, that im here at this camera is because were carrying mervyn kings inflation report. On the back of that, he talked about seeing higher inflation rates in the u. K. Sterling at a six hoof month low against the dollar. Back to you. Thank you for that. Lets talk a little about the markets. The context of the state of the union, the dow closing at 146 points from its record high set back in october of 2007. Our guest host this hour, len blum, managing partner at westwood capital. Good morning. Perspective from the markets on last nights speech. Does it matter . You know how do people read it . What happens today . I dont think its going to have a big impact on the market. Historically state of the Union Addresses have, you know, since the 30s have moved the market by maybe 15 basis points the da. Unless theres something meaningful, the markets dont respond. I mean, you probably remember when clinton gave the state of the union in 1998. He said the economys very strong. This is a strong statement. The market was up a point the next day. But this was really nothing in there that is new news or is marketmoving news. If you kind of go through the topics hes covered in the sectors they would affect, the minimum wage, you would think maybe walmart or mcdonalds might trade down because of the news. I think everyone expects that the republicans will block it. Theyll discuss it, it you know, it was just k