stocks fell yesterday after the release of the fed minutes. the dow dropping about 90 points. you can see right there, 16,040 is the final trade. the s&p 500 traded within a point of a new all-time high before falling 12 points by the end of the day. the futures this morning, at least at this point, is weaker. just barely, though. the dow futures down by 8.5 points. dow futures off by 11.5 points. the consumer price index and the weekly jobless claims report, those will both hit the wires at 8:30 a.m. eastern tim. cpi is expected to rise by 0.2%. first time claims are expected to come in at $335,000. and joe i'll send it over to you. >> all right, beck. tesla shares. >> where is your mike? >> oh, i'm sorry. what? >> never mind. i heard you. >> you threw me all off, beck. can i start over again? >> yeah. take two. >> tesla shares are opening statement rise -- >> action. >> tesla shares are on the rise. reported fourth quarter profit 33 cents a share. tesla shoulder nearly 6900 model s vehicles during the quarter, expects to deliver more than 35,000 this year. i was returning a cart to hertz a couple of days ago and a tesla drove by in the hertz place. >> they're head turners, aren't they? >> like a jaguar. >> i don't know the model that well. when i turn me head -- i know what it looks like, but it always turns my head. >> it's a good looking car, but you remember the -- whenever weird looking cars come out, for a while, if the shape is different or something engregg gra engrained in your mind -- >> investor nelson phelps sent a 30-page letter to pepsico's board. it calls for a split in the snack and beverage business. people have talked about that a while. salty snacks and drinks always made sense to me. peltz whose fund managing about $1.2 billion in pepsi stock. it previously called for such a move. peltz is unsatisfied by plans announced this week by pepsi, which would return more cash to shareholders. for its part, pepsi said its management and its board are united in their opposition. she was in no uncertain terms said that that's not in the cards and it makes sense to do it. >> it seemed incredibly picky to you in the sense of we've got this other story where facebook is paying $19 billion for this app that i don't -- we're going to talk about that, but peltz is arguing to separate soda and chips. >> yeah. >> to me, it just seems like why are we spending time with that? not we, but -- >> and the other story is, you spent a year, you know, getting out the word that the fed wanted, which is don't worry about adding qe, we're going to keep rates low for a long time. they shifted their entire message, that don't worry about as we're winding down qe because we're going to keep rates. they shifted everything. don't worry about that qe stuff because we're going to keep it. the minute they start it's like, you know what? maybe we should raise it. >> did you do this on your porsche on the way in and -- >> no, the terminal pricing is what happened. but here is the other thing i thought. i thought quickly. i think all the time. but maybe it's only a you couple of hawks, number one. .then i was thinking the hawks, over under if collegialitity that bernanke inspired and the consensus, maybe this is a sign and it's hard to keep all these people, herd these cats and this is -- >> this is a conversation that would have happened under bernanke and it didn't happen the last couple of meetings. why this meeting? >> i did not make anything of this. >> i know. >> this was one of my headlines. it was about four or five down in there. here is what i know, okay? before the meeting in the december fomc projections, two guys had rate projections for this year that were greater than 1%. so we already knew that there were two of the fomc hawks that were out there already calling for rate hikes. so that was not news. >> but when they're talking in this room, they know the minutes are going to get reported and they watch what they say as a result. is this something that they wanted to turn it into the minutes? >> yes. it's something they wanted to get into the minutes, it's a shot by the hawks, but as far as i can tell, there is no change in consensus. >> you know what? >> let me just finish the thought, joe. >> no. i think you have no inclination to go with whatsapp instead of -- >> you did. >> were you commenting on the producers for not putting whatsapp at the top or -- >> what's up? >> do you want to play this a lot because we're going to play it a lot. i did it again. >> what's up? >> i turned them down to do it. they asked me upstairs will you do that? i said no, i won't. and then they wros it in the prompter, what's a-a-a-a-a-a-a-p. >> i don't know who thought of it or why they thought of it or why it would sell beer. >> you were out there on the street. >> i have some -- i've got a lot of questions about that, too, and a lot of -- >> so do you want me to read this stuff? >> i want you to do this. >> you do this one. >> walmart is on the earnings calendar. the retail chain expected to roll out quarterly results at 7:00 a.m. eastern time. analysts are expecting profits of $1.59 a share. we'll bring you those results and action as soon as they are released. the other issue walmart is wrestling with is minimum wage. the nation's largest private employer looking at supporting an increase in the federal minimum wage. walmart weighing the impact on its business and currently pays most full time employees above that level but they're interested in whether or not it may mean more revenue for them. >> i just wonder how many employees they have full time, how much they have part-time, how it works out in the split. >> but i think if the minimum wage is raised, they'll pay more either way, but they think they're going to get more in terms of people -- minimum wage and people -- >> there are comments about that, too. >> are you making a list? we'll come back to you. >> we saw terman yesterday and he went to great lengths to explain you may not lose 500,000 jobs. and even the cbo report, which -- the cbo suddenly, the lefty loved it for the obamacare now suddenly it's a bunch of scum bags, i think. >> did he say that? >> i'm not sure. anyway, now they hate them. now the left hates the cbo and they're undercutting everything the cbo says. but that $2 billion of additional net revenue, net income, that he used to promote the whole idea, okay, we lose 500,000 job, but we help -- >> lift out of poverty. >> and the net is 2 billion in additional income or whatever. this is $2 billion. do you know how big the economy is? 16,000 billion. so all this stuff, every time obama speaks with the peopbehinm going and all the time that he's spending with this wedge issue just to may hay for 2014, it would be $2 billion on a $16 trillion economy. >> now, i still go back to -- >> by the way -- >> if you can lift 900,000 people out of poverty -- >> oh, great, so they get a $2 increase and a 500,000 people are making zero dollars an hour. >> or zero or a million. they're not sure. >> obviously, there are offsets. and if it's only $2 billion, let's say you -- >> walmart is looking at this. >> walmart is -- >> they are looking at it seriously. it may help us because some of the money might come back in the door. >> yeah, they haven't had any pr issues in the past. they're not doing this just -- you know they're weighing should we go with this? it's like when exxon goes with the -- >> it's like when the health care companies said yes, we're on board. >> exactly. >> you can't fight city hall. you either go along with it and what's happening or you push back on it and then you're on the cover of the huffington post every single day. what does walmart wad to the? >> this is a divisive issue. >> and we're talking about $2 billion. >> look at the money in terms of the minimum wage. >> 2 billion. 16 central. >> it goes back to families making four times the poverty issues. >> as a teenager, they're making three or four times that. but i said 16,000 billion to make it clear for you. to 16,000. >> did you call andrew and say, andrew, go to california because i need liesman in the seat this morning because i have a lot of things i want to slap him around about? is that what happened? >> i want to play a cadillac commercial that they're playing -- >> the guy with the -- >> yeah, i've seen that. about making money. >> earn success, not about making money. it's not about how -- arthur brooks, god all mighty. it would be hard for me to wish he was back. but you're making me wish that -- >> berkin was here. >> no i listened. happy birthday. you know what was weird? you know my dog, zarah? it was her birthday yesterday. >> you're kidding. >> no. we had a big party. it's german for something. >> zarah? >> yeah. >> the shepherd, right? >> yeah. anyway, facebook has announced the acquisition of whatsapp. y yes, the messaging start-up whatsapp -- >> what's up? >> on news line is bob tech, internet analyst. we haven't talked about -- even done the story and had our comments yet, bob. i don't even know if we need you because i have a lot to say about this. no, here is the thing. in the internet days we were trading 100,000 capses for two auto 50,000 dogs. this is a lot of stock. is it inflated stocks and therefore not a real number we're using with 16 billion or 19 billion or is that real money? >> first of all, thanks for having me. you know, i think we take a step back and just think about massive network effects of this size of scale and 450 million users going to a billion or so are extremely rare. and if you look at it on a valuation perspective, like you're alluding to there, the price you're paying is only about $42 peruser and to put that into perspective, twitter goes for about 150, facebook itself is like 140, linkedin 120. so when you look at the scale they're getting and the reach they're getting and what they're paying for that, it's not a bad deal. >> i know the $40. i saw that. but it's 99 cents a year peruser. >> correct. >> so how does that -- why do you think 42 for -- it's going to take 42 years before you get your money back on a user. >> that's a great question. let's think about facebook for a second because we saw a real world karchl of this. if you go back six quarters ago, zero percent of facebook's revenues were mobile. but they had such a huge scale as they started to develop their product, you saw within just six quarters, now over half their revenue has been driven on mobile. so as this company hits a billion users by the end of the next year, not that far away, there are lots of opportunity for monetization. whether that be on the commerce side of things, discovery, or even some sort of form of native advertising, you can get there pretty quickly. >> bob, does this make valid the argument that the social networking sites need to be afraid of the mobile messaging companies? and if that's the case, there are a lot of companies like this that are out there. is facebook going to have to turn around and buy competitors like this every once in a while? it sounds like you look at this as a real opportunity and not a threat. >> it's funny you say that. in our note, we talk about it being an opportunity or defensive, as well. i completely agree with you on that. if you think about what this app does, you probably think about it as the text messaging services. videos, photos, broadcasting messaging, it's not that much of a stretch to add a profile picture. not only do i think it's a great offensive move by facebook, but i really think it's a great covering your flank defensive employ by the company, as well. >> but that worries me. are you going to have to turn around and buy other companies, too? $19 billion, how many times can you do that? >> good point. there are other companies that come to mind. things like a snap chat, front back, things like that that are maybe good editions. but realize with this company, that it's the largest. it's across that khasm of scale, how many networks do you know that have a billion users? >> why do people say that -- i thought i was able to send instant messages right now. can't i do that using a phone number? >> yeah, but this is free. >> that's the big difference. >> you don't have to pay for texting if you use this. >> i don't have to pay for this texting. >> because the company pays for your phone. >> oh, is that why? >> yeah. you probably pay for a data plan. >> so cnbc is paying for that? then, again, i question you, why would i -- no. so that does -- >> i mean, for consumers, it's a cool thing. it's big in europe. liesman was talking about it, too. >> you buy a data plan, but if you run through that data plan, i had to upgrade my data plan because i have the iphone i pay for myself. i had to upgrade that when i went to davos. and it was 20 bucks. >> my last question, we hear that facebook is not as hip as it used to be. and that, you know, they're in danger of everybody wants these kids that have no money or jobs. i don't know why. maybe some day they will. but doesn't this sort of -- this is not smack of desperation at all that there weren't paid as much to be hip again, to buy something that's sort of at the forefront? is it worth it? >> yeah. i think that's part of it, right? but it's more global, too, so you're getting a global reach on it, as well. and also don't forget, you know, facebook only transitioned to mobile six quarters ago. this product, 450 million people was born on mobile. so that is where the world is going. i think they're skating to where the puck is going 37. >> what about yahoo! messaging? that's different. what about those messaging things? >> yeah. they have messaging platforms. those are free, as well. they're smaller bases. there will be competition in the space. i asked that question on the call last night. but as far as being the market leader with global reach of the demos you were citing, this isn't one down. >> okay. all right. all right. we'll think about it some more. thanks, bob. we're going to talk to media analyst rich greenfield at 7:00 a.m. eastern time. >> let's talk about another big story this morning, the latest on the violence in ukraine. nbc correspondent aman joins us now from london. i'm sorry if i messed up your name. >> it's a stuff one to pronounce. >> go ahead, ayman. >> well, the situation in kiev, obviously, taking a turn for the worst early this morning. and this was following a truce announced late last night between members of the opposition and president yanukovych, the president of ukraine. now, there was some hope that perhaps that truth would allow for the situation in the heart of kiev to calm down and at least for there to be some dialogue that could get the country out of this crisis. european mediators are in the capital to meet with president yanukovych's government. they're trying to find a way to reach consensus to stop the violence on the street. unfortunately, that has not happened this morning. there are varying numbers of death tools coming out according to some as many as 18 people have been killed. in addition to the 26 that we saw yesterday. now, there is growing concern that the european union, including the united states, may sanction the ukrainian government or at least some individuals in the ukrainian government who they deem responsible for these killings. right now, there is no end in sight for the ongoing violence on the ground. back to you. >> thank you very much. for more on the violence in ukraine, we are joined right now by jeff mankov, deputy director for the center for strategic and international studies. jeff, this idea of a truce, how many weigh to you put on that? is this a truce that can hold or are we waiting for the next shoe to drop? >> i think it will be difficult for the troous to hold. in part, because there's not open on sigz for the truce to hold at this point. it's unclear to what extent they speak for the people on the street, the pete people committing the violence. with as many people that have been killed in ukraine, i think it will be tough to put this jeanie back in the bottle. >> so what happens next? >> nothing good. i mean, i think we're probably in for a period of pretty sustained instability in the country. you know, i think it's difficult to envision what a political solution to this would be that stops short of a change in government. there must have been some space for a negotiated outcome that preserved the current structure. >> but do you think they go back and have these sanctions on the country? >> yeah. i think the momentum for impo imposing sanctions in europe has really grown. the problem is, there's a limit to what the eu countries can do. they're talking about travel bans and asset freezes on people who are implicated in the violence. certainly they can do that. i don't think it changes their calculations efficiently simply because i think for yanukovych and a lot of people around him, they think if they're not in power any more, they don't have a future in the country after the kind of things that have happened over the last couple of days. so i'm not quite sure that even the sanctions has much of an effect at this point. >> beyond what's happening in ukraine and the country alone, this is obviously soaking all of these concerns about the return of a cold war. how large will this loom? >> certainly russia looks at it that way. they've been very open from the beginning of this and saying that the protesters are part of a western mraus that they're being trained and funded in the west, that the west is interfering in ukrainian politics. and, of course, that takes a little bit of -- to say that given the support that russia has given to yanukovych and the calls they've made for him to clear out the square and put down the protests. but there is an east-west dynamic that has broken out. that was almost inherent in the beginning because there was a question as to whether the ukraine was going to sign an opposition agreement with russia which many opposed. i think the way it's being seen and manipulated in russia and to some extent in the west, also, it does have that kind of dynamic. >> jeff, thank you very much. good talking to you. >> yeah, thank you. on coming up, we have more on facebook's latest acquisition. first, we're going to check in with caruso cabrera in sochi. i wonder if you've seen the gm ad yet on success. i hope you have a monitor. >> i do. >> have you seen it yet? >> no, i haven't. oh, my god. i can't wait to show it to you. >> okay. so the highlight of -- we're going to play a sound bite from the skating coach. she tried to say explosive when i asked him about the under armour situation with the american speed skaters. and also, ukraine having an impact on these olympics. we'll tul tell but that, too, right after this break. ameriprise asked people a simple question: can you keep your lifestyle in retirement? i don't want to think about the alternative. i don't even know how to answer that. i mean, no one knows how long their money is going to last. i try not to worry, but you worry. what happens when your paychecks stop? because everyone has retirement questions. ameriprise created the exclusive confident retirement approach. to get the real answers you need. start building your confident retirement today. welcome back. michelle caruso cabrera is live in sochi with. >> explosive from the dutch speed indicating coach. michelle. >> hey there, guys. first, the ukraine impact. the ukrainian alpine skier and her coach announced they will refuse to compete any more. we are seeing impacts here. let's show you the medal count. u.s. with 23, russia has 22 because they lost in hockey yesterday. netherlands, 22. 21 of those are speed skating. we'll get to that in a second. let's show you the highlights. americans had ligety won gold in slalom. he won the first alpine gold for the united states here. the americans took silver and bronze in the two-man bobsled. myers became the fifth athlete to win a metal at both the summer and winter games. asia evans and grubel took the bronze. tonight is the second part of the women's figure skating. american gracie gold is in fourth place. now on to speed skating. we interviewed the dutch speed indicating coach this morning because we wanted to know what he thought of the controversy about the under armour suits worn by the americans. keep in mind, he coached his team to 21 medals, a winter olympic record. he said it had nothing to do with the suits. he says they have great suits, too. get this, he blames american football. >> i think that the question about american not winning medals here is more about the system that you have in your country. because you have a lot of attention for foolish sport like american football and you waste a lot of talent, athletic talent in a sport where the men could kill each other, could injure each other and nobody in the world is competing in that field. and when you come one into four years and you think with talent, a few lone wolfs who are skating you can beat the world, no way you can do that. and you won't beat us any -- not in four years, not in eight years any more when you don't change. >> when you criticize american football, you commit blasphemy. that's very injurious and insulting to americans who love football. >> yeah, exactly, that's why i do it. because you're so narrow minded and then you want to compete against the world while you waste a lot of good talent in a sport that sucks. >> in a sport that sucks, he said. i couldn't believe it. we spent a lot of time talking about the suits and everything else, but he said it's the man or the woman in the suit. >> yeah. you know -- >> that is really funny. >> michelle, i was watching some of the long distance speed skating yesterday. and there was someone that had painted part of my house. and i looked over and i saw the paint starting to dry and, you know, i was speed skating long distance here and, you know what? i've settled on the paint, just watching the paint dry. yeah, that guy is right. whew, that's riveting to watch, those people just stepping one skate over the other, on and on and on and on and on. around and around and around and around and around. yeah, he's right. he's right. he's right. >> speed skating which is why we don't win the netherlands. >> hey, you guys have some great -- that's what you do in your spare time? you have sunday night speedskating? around and around and around and around. anyway. he's right. i've been watching the olympics. i want to play this gm commercial. >> hey, michelle, michelle, i think we have an international incident here. i want you to play joe's tape for the guy -- >> do you want to know -- >> let's get a little back and forth going. >> you know to know what sucks, pal? take a step back. anyway, maybe you don't understand football. let's check out this -- play this gm commercial for some of the euros over there, too. check it out from cadillac. >> why do we work so hard? for what? for this? the stuff? other countries, they work, they go home, they stop by the cafe, they take august off. why aren't you like that? why aren't we like that? because we're crazy driven hard working believers, that's why. those other countries think we're nuts. whatever. bill gates, les paul, were we nuts when we pointed to the moop. that's right. we went up there. and you know what we got? ford. car a car tlup and left the keys in it. do you know why? because we're the only ones going back up there, that's why. but i digress. it's pretty simple. you work hard, you create your own luck and you've got to believe anything is possible. as for all the stuff, that's the upside of only taking two weeks off in august. you hadn't seen that yet? >> no. and we don't take those two weeks back to back, by the way. >> no. the only hint of ierpny a irony regret that i had watching that was that it was gm. is the government out of gm entirely? >> i believe it is. >> that's one of the companies that -- yeah, i know, but they had to wait until that happened. that was one of the companies that had to get in bed big time -- >> didn't it bother you that one of the examples the guy had was the moon which was a government project? >> no. that's not what bothered you. >> did that bother you? >> what bothered me was we did get bored up there. i don't think we are going going back. >> the private sector is going to get us back there, yeah. >> but a lot of technology -- i mean, we -- the innovation, steve, you know. >> yeah, no. i love it. i think you're right, they are maybe going to be subject to being criticized for being hypocrites for taking government health, right? which i completely disagreed with. i don't think the government should have helped them. but i get it. pugh research did a study once and they asked americans and germans, how much do you believe you were in charge of your destiny and what happens to you and your life? and the vast majority of americans believed they are in charge of their destiny, what they do with their life is up to them and the vast majority of germans didn't believe that. they believed it was the cap system, who their parents were, were they -- you know, where were they born, that kind of thing. it's a completely different attitude and it's meaningful when you think that you can do it. >> well, we're trying to change that. we're in the process now of, you know, trying to -- >> they never could have made that commercial when they had a government -- >> well, we have a lot of incentive. take some time off and enjoy your environment. short of check out. we are -- we may have speed skating, sunday night speed indicating before too long. we'll see. anyway, thank you. when we come back, we've got earnings, economic data, mega deals. we're going to check out the forces that could drive today's market action. plus, winter is taking a toll on your home and it is pushing back projects. is that going to help or hurt names like home depot and lowes. by the way, check out shares of am this morning. barclay's is cutting it from equal weight to overweight. stick around. 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what if i eat the wrong thing? what if? what if i suddenly have to go? what if? but what if the most important question is the one you're not asking? what if the underlying cause of your symptoms is damaging inflammation? for help getting the answers you need, talk to your doctor and visit crohnsandcolitisadvocates.com to connect with a patient advocate from abbvie for one-to-one support and education. welcome back to "squawk box" this morning. facebook buying mobile messaging app whatsapp for $16 billion in -- why did that sell beer? >> why does any of that stuff sell beer? why do women sell beer? >> remember the frogs and the lizard? >> frogs and the lizard. >> the bud light commercial. >> what about the scorpion. facebook ceo mark zuckerberg says he proposed the deal to this other company on february 9th and wrapped it up in just ten days. we're calling it 16, but there's 3 billion in restricted stock over four years. so the journal has it as 19 billion. whatever it is, it's big. >> 8 bucks a person to make 20% of their money, on that 450 million people. >> it's bigger than twitter. >> and if you go to a billion, four bucks. walmart's earnings are expected at 7:00. expecting $1.59 of revenue of $130.2 billion. $130.2 billion of revenue in a quarter. is that a -- yeah, 130,000 million. and a busy day for economic numbers ahead today. at 8:30 eastern, we're going to get the weekly jobless report on initial jobless claims as well as the consumer price index for january. at 10:00 eastern, the monthly philly fed survey is out along with the conference board index of leading economic indicators. and this next story was basically liesman's fault. >> yeah. stocks selling off wednesday's losses that accelerated following the release of the latest fomc minutes. >> we were up 90. we closed down 90. >> joining us now, mark luchini. he's chief investment strategist at jamie montgomery scott. with us on set, bell delfond. let me start with mark. you know, i have a hard time with this. it reported it yesterday. it was like my fifth bullet item. that some guys talk about a rate increase. it was the first one for the market and for the "wall street journal," which said, you know, rate increases on the cards. what do you make of it, mark? >> steve, i think that's premature. i don't think that janet yellen's federal reserve is likely to be talking about increasing the fed funds rate before certainly the end of this year. in fact, i'm looking for it sometime in the second quarter, perhaps third quarter 2015 simply because i know that obviously the unemployment threshold is something that the fed had established at the point at which they would entertain the notion of raising the fed funds rates. clearly we could be a report or two away from that, but i think that's why inside the minutes they were pulling away from that 6 1/2 threshold that suggested maybe entertaining other quantitative or qualitative factors, the point at which they'll be in their communication about what they're going to be looking at that they ultimately begin to change the fed funds rate. but before 2014 ends, that seems to know be a bit, again, premature. >> bob, when i looked at the ten-year yesterday, i saw a three basis points rise in the ten year, which is chump change in this world today. i saw almost no change at all in the fed funds futures market. so whatever the stock market thought about a coming rate increase, the bond market barely believed it. which market has it right? >> i think the bond market in terms of the rate increase has it right. if you read the note, they're giving themselves even more wiggle room than they have now to keep rates as low as possible. they're going to start looking at inflation, which it gets close to 10% .then they're going to look at probably the lowest reading of inflation to keep it low. i think stocks are probably more concerned about continuing potential weakness in the emerging markets and, you know, potential slowing down in the u.s. >> guys, if you have that chart in the back, i'd love to put it up right now, which is what the fomc projected forecast are. i know between speed skating and paint drying, i think joe picks watching paint dry. the blue is 2015. 12 guys see it under 1% for that period of time. so that is where we are for 2015. it's only in 2016 when people start to put rates on. that was the december forecast. if things change in a month, that's fine. but i missed it. i don't think it's true. let's talk about the equity markets. seem to be in this sideways trajectory. where do you think we go from here? >> i think it's a matter of the market obviously having had a terrific year last year primarily due to multiple expansion. it is in a validation mode where we've come to a great earnings season, clearly we're seeing earnings on a year on year basis up about 9%. we're seeing revenue growth up a couple of percent on a year over year basis. so that's terrific. earnings story know all about manufacturing. but at the end of the day, with the market multiple, it's certainly full. and what it's going to require is economic validation. meaning that we see the economy accelerate where consensus at the beginning of this year to something that certainly breaches a 3 handle. and as of now, of course, we've seen punkish economic data over the last month and a half or so. obviously, a lot of it attributable to weather distortion. but at the end of the day, what we need to see is teasing out the weather effect and ultimately see economic data that validate aes piece of economic growth that can support the kind of economic growth that will once again re-ignite enthusiasm for equity prices. >> the enthusiasm, this $19 billion deal, you could wake up in the morning and you could say, this is the time when things have gone really weird on me .this is a sign of a top, when you do a deal like this, a $19 billion deal for a company that charges its users like a dollar a year. is that a market top to you? >> i don't know enough about the companies, but i do know that the fed policy has encouraged a lot of speculation as opposed to investment in real assetes and productive growth. and i think that's probably the biggest legacy of not just the fed, but all the central banks around the world is that they're encouraging risk taking and not really encouraging productive growth. and those types of risks are still with us and that could, you know, cause problems at some point down the future and that's why we see this occasional executivishness in the scoskitt the market. >> thanks so much. thanks for joining us this morning. >> thanks, steve. meanwhile, paint dry? >> boston college beats ski syracuse. i didn't even watch it last night. they dodged two bullets recently. they dodged nc state or something. only the shockers. coming up -- unless you were watching around and around. and sometimes they cough. sometimes the speed skaters cough and that's riveting. one goes like this and the other one -- and they go around and around and around. >> joe. >> there is a -- >> the nbc network air these, you know? >> they also air sunday night football. >> they air speed skating. >> sunday nike football, steve. powerball winner and someone just became a millionaire overnight and someone just became a -- this is two weeks, not every week. a billionaire overnight, facebook buying whatsapp. for $16 billion, $19 billion, who is counting? we'll talk to an analyst who was shocked by the surprise tag. more "squawk box" next. the works. because when it comes to feeling safe behind the wheel, going the distance and saving at the pump you want it all. get our multi-point inspection with a a synthetic blend oil change, tire rotation, brake inspection and more for $29.95 or less. get a complete vehicle checkup. only at your ford dealer. ♪ aflac, aflac, aflac! ♪ [ both sigh ] ♪ ugh! ♪ you told me he was good, dude. yeah he stinks at golf. but he was great at getting my claim paid fast. how fast? mine got paid in 4 days. wow. that's awesome. is that legal? big fat no. [ male announcer ] find out how fast aflac can pay you at aflac.com. welcome back, everybody. right now it's time for your "squawk box" planner. where is the music? i was waiting for it. dow component walmart is set to post quarterly results before the bell. the numbers are expected to hit at 7:00 a.m. eastern. that is just about 13 minutes away. among the economic reports slated for this morning, we've got january consumer price index. also weekly jobless reports. and treasury secretary jack lew heads to sydney, australia, for the g-20 meeting. that is your squawk planner minus the squawk planner music. joe, over to you. >> the $425 million powerball lottery pulled a winner last night. the winning ticket sold in california. no word on who purchased the ticket. there had not been a winner since christmas. coming up, will there be a home improvement freeze when the ice and snow finally melts? the way home depot and lowes will be helping homeowners clean up investments. will will investor start to see results? that's next on "squawk box." n yr lifestyle in retirement? i don't want to think about the alternative. i don't even know how to answer that. i mean, no one knows how long their money is going to last. i try not to worry, but you worry. what happens when your paychecks stop? because everyone has retirement questions. ameriprise created the exclusive confident retirement approach. to get the real answers you need. start building your confident retirement today. coach calls her a team player. she's kind of special. she makes the whole team better. he's the kind of player that puts the puck, horsehide, bullet. right where it needs to be. coach calls it logistics. he's a great passer. dependable. a winning team has to have one. somebody you can count on. somebody like my dad. this is my dad. somebody like my mom. my grandfather. i'm very pround of him. her. them. ♪ ♪ where you think you're gonna go ♪ ♪ when your time's all gone? 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[ male announcer ] how could a luminous protein in jellyfish, impact life expectancy in the u.s., real estate in hong kong, and the optics industry in germany? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one reason over 75% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. with investment information, risks, fees and expenses sometimes they just drop in. always obvious. cme group can help you navigate risks and capture opportunities. we enable you to reach global markets and drive forward with broader possibilities. cme group: how the world advances. the winter freeze taking its toll on the housing sector, delaying home construction and home improvement projects. joining us now from new york is brian nagel, oppenheimer and company, senior equity research analyst. we had somebody from the south, the atlanta hub and he says they don't sell much salt down there. can they make up in salt what they lose in construction material? i don't think so. >> probably not in the near term. the way i think about this, both home depot and lowe's will report fourth quarter results next week. i think there will be a weather impact. they sold more cold weather type product but other sales were hurt. the real key for them as we look at the first quarter to the extent weather does get better at some point, that should be a big positive for both chains. >> we talked about it yesterday with the transportation sector. does what you don't get now, do you get all of it down the road or just some of it? >> well, i think the key right now, it all depends on when the weather cracks. if the weather turns warm at a normal pace you'll get the normal type spring sales but you'll also get a lot more repair type product. all these things -- a lot of things were damaged in the cold winter. that will have to be repaired in the next few months or so. >> in the last retail sales report we had a big jump in building supplies and garden. i thought maybe that was a home depot, lowe's thing. do they make money right now with the shovels and the snow blowers and salt or is what they lose in people not coming for other reasons, does that take away too much? >> i think they'll actually make money. it's not a big home improvement season anyway. to the extent they're selling more cold weather type products is actually a positive. >> you're basically saying buy these stocks, right? >> i think so. home depot is the one i have the buy on. >> i'm thinking about the damage to my house that's going to happen from the ice and stuff. >> the new construction market, how much does home depot and lowe's get from professional contractors? >> well, their total pro sales are somewhere between 25% and 30%. that's not the real big home builder. that's the smaller home builder, remodeler. >> new construction, people building houses, even big remodeling jobs are on hold right now, right? >> that's right. that's what we see in the data. >> all right. brian, thank you. >> thanks. >> we'll see you later. >> when we come back, facebook betting big on messaging and texts. mark zuckerberg spending cash and stock. is this a bold move like buying instagram? we'll talk about this. and cnbc first 25 face-off visionaries face off. this time, bill gates and steve jobs. that is a tough one. i'm guessing both of these guys will end up in the top 25. >> two slam dunks. >> that's in the next hour of "squawk box." stick around. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 trading inspires your life. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 life inspires your trading. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 where others see fads... tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 ...you see opportunities. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 at schwab, we're here to help tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 turn inspiration into action. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 we have intuitive platforms tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 to help you discover what's trending. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and seasoned market experts to help sharpen your instincts. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 so you can take charge tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 of your trading. all stations come over to mithis is for real this time. step seven point two one two. verify and lock. command is locked. five seconds. three, two, one. standing by for capture. the most innovative software on the planet... dragon is captured. is connecting today's leading companies to places beyond it. siemens. answers. walmart on the clock. the retail king about to roll out quarterly results. the numbers and instant analysis. >> cnbc top 25 contenders face off. icon versus icon, steve jobs verseeus bill gates. >> facebook says what's app? cnbc's first 25 contender mark zuckerberg striking a mega deal for mobile texting. will this be another instagram moment? "squawk box" begins right now. good morning, everybody. welcome back to "squawk box" on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and steve liesman. andrew is off today. yesterday, the futures are indicated slightly lower. dow futures down by 6.5, s&p off by just over 2 points. the ten-year at least right now is yielding 2.726%. we do have data coming up today. we'll talk about that in just a minute. we have jobless claims at 8:30. in our headlines, facebook is buying mobile message iing app whatsapp for $16 billion. there's $3 billion in potential other shares that will be issued to the company. more about that in just a moment. tesla reporting quarterly profit of 33 cents a share. that beat the street estimates by 12 cents. sales of its model s hit a record during the fourth quarter. we'll talk more about this story in just a moment, too. plus, investor nelson peltz is renewing his call for a split of pepsico's snack and beverages business. he made his late est in a lette to management. it does not sound like this is gaining any traction with pepsi management. pepsi announced new moves designed to return more cash to shareholders. peltz is now saying that's not enough. >> facebook making its biggest acquisition ever. joe? >> yes. >> the name of the company. >> no, i'm not going to do it. i did it already. >> twice. >> whatsapp? >> i'm not doing it. >> get julia to do it. >> $16 billion. what exactly is whatsapp? >> get julia to do it. >> i'll try. >> get her to do it. >> cnbc's julia borston joins us. >> for a company called whatsapp. >> here's the deal. mark zuckerberg says that facebook -- >> go ahead. it's not here yet. >> whatsapp. >> $1.36. from continuing operations it's $1.34. that doesn't make sense compared to wall street is -- actually, it does. are we looking for $1.59 at this point? >> yes, $1.59 is the estimate. >> either cold weather or something is impacting it. it's already down. i have 72 bid. 72.84. >> that's not the full release. >> for the next quarter, they also are talking about 1 it the $10 to $1.20 next year. that's way below the $1.23 we're looking for as well. so they're going to be some explaining to have to do on these numbers here. when is this stock? it hasn't really traded. here are the two numbers, $1.36 is the net number. $1.34 from continuing operations. >> okay. wait a minute. underlying earnings per share $1.60. >> that's a penny ahead. next quarter is definitely below. >> underlying eps for fiscal year -- yes, yes, yes. >> the sno stock is reflecting that at $72.84 bid, 74.44 ask. even on the ask it's down about 40 cents. >> the currency changes, the fluctuations, they negatively impacted net sales by about $5.1 billion. >> they didn't make the revenue number either, becky. 129.7 billion. what were we looking for? over 130. >> the 5.1 billion currency is for full year. >> how big a deal is this one, u.s. same-store sales down 0.4%. >> i don't know what the estimate was. >> that's everyone, too. >> sam's club down 0.4%. what was it? what did you say? i don't know. okay. yes. i don't know what the forecast was, whether they were looking for negative. >> first two weeks of february down due to continued severe winter storms. they are blaming the weather. that's another thing that's out there. let's go back to julia. >> maybe she's been practicing. >> she's had all this time to practice how you say the name of this company that facebook is buying. >> come on, julia. >> the real way or the beer commercial way. >> the beer commercial way? >> whatsapp. >> all right! >> here's the deal with whatsapp. mark zuckerberg says that facebook's $16 billion acquisition of whatsapp is all about connecting more people. now, this app handles nearly the same volume of text messages as the entire telecom industry's $100 billion texting business. whatsapp has 450 million active users. it's growing faster than any other major mobile app or social network, adding 1 million users every day. the app sends text messages, photos and anyone else using the app on any operating system for free without carrier texting fees. it's free for the first year and then charges 99 cents per year. it eliminate the potential threat to mobile apps, facebook is paying $4 billion in cash, $12 billion in stock. plus an additional 3 billion in restricted stock over the next four years. now, zuckerberg said on a conference call, he's focused on growing the service and he does believe people will pay for it. >> we just think that -- the growth rate they have today and the modernization model is early but promising, in place what they have. we're very excited to work together on this. >> the sky high price tag sending the stock lower after hours. analysts explained evaluation in the context. it has nearly twice twitter's monthly users and facebook is paying half of twitter's market cap. whatsapp is 15 times instagram users. it's generating revenue. we'll have to see whether investors think facebook can make money from the service fast enough to justify its valuation. becky? >> julia, thank you very much. we'll see you again very soon. facebook announcing the acquisition of whatsapp, joining us right now on the "squawk" news line is rich greenfield, media and technology analyst at btig. what do you think about the price tag on this? >> i think a part of being a good ceo is knowing when you buy something and build and allocate capital. if you look at facebook, you know, julia was mentioning instagram. i think when you look back over the last few years, facebook has tried to build many other things beyond their service. i think they've struggled. a lot of those products, whether it was the facebook camera app, they've tried to do a facebook app store. they've tried to do a lot of other things. the reality is, facebook is good at being facebook. when they bought instagram, they bought an acquisition that isn't helping the core facebook but is another way of having dominance or increasing their dominance of mobile. i think this is very similar. this really gives facebook a tremendous share of time spent on mobile devices, not just in the u.s. but globally when you tack on facebook plus instagram plus whatsapp. if you want to draw a parallel in the media universe, a ceo that's widely respected by everyone i know in the investing world is bob iger. he's made an impressive statement over the last, call it, ten years, buying things like pixar, like marvel, lucas films. sometimes knowing when to buy to accelerate long-term trajectory is important. >> for disney, i understand that. they need content. they can use it well. is this going to be a situation where these customers stick around on whatsapp or is whatsapp a fad? your decision is, no, these are customers there for the long hall. they're buying customers. they could do this themselves, build what-done, take texting and make it free over the internet. they could build up themselves. they're buying customers. >> i would look at it they're buying time spent. you know, the war right now is for keeping you inside of an ecosystem. it used to be how do we keep you on the desktop. that obviously is now began. now the question is in a mobile world where you don't have the canvas that the desktop web has, how do you look at that app ecosystem, how do you find apps that basically capture more of a consumer's time? i think the three apps we're talking about facebook, instagram and whatsapp command a ridiculous share of global time spent on mobile devices. i'm not sure that this is about winning a customer specifically that's going to then translate into somebody that uses facebook. that might be aspirational. i don't think that's logical. i don't think anyone using instagram today is like oh, my god be, i'm now that much more likely to use facebook. i think it was a stand-alone interesting acquisition that creates long-term opportunities for facebook because you're using one of their applications every single day. that's what this is about. >> is this a good move offensively or defensively because you don't want to lose your customers down the road? i guess when i try and figure it out from that perspective, you can't have a whole lot of $19 billion purchases that you make. is this the right one? >> you know, i think there's very few things where you spend this type of time every single day. time will tell whether this is the right price. i remember literally putting my hand to my head when google bought youtube for 1.3 billion. i'm trying to remember back. we look at that price, i remember everyone on air talking about how instagram was absurd. they had 13 employees and spending a billion dollars effectively at the time. we were talking about how that was illogical. this seems equally crazy when you think about the absolute size. $19 billion feels staggering. on the other hand, we all know we're shifting rapidly from using desktops. >> you kind of wonder whether we'll look back on this in five years and go, oh, my god, how did anyone not want to own this company and own more of time spent on mobile devices? i think the real question is how does facebook going to use this increased time spent across the entire company. how are they going to use this to then build other things. that's going to be critical. how do they use this to build other applications that leverage all of these users. it's not going to be about driving whatsapp to facebook. it's probably going to be about driving whatsapp to facebook for something new they create. >> what would you expect them to need to get out of this on a peruser basis or some sort of dollar flow out of this to make spending this money more worthwhile than putting it in a treasury? >> this is about capturing your time and attention. think about what google does with android. android was created and giving away for free. nobody paid for the android operating system. i think there is a real goal on trying to capture time and attention. and to keep you within an echo syst -- ecosystem. i would say what comcast is trying to do, there is an increase in war for your personal time and attention on a global basis. i don't think there's any financial metric that's going to say, hey, on this metric over the next five years, this deal is going to make economic sense. you're just not going to be able to do that. we're not able to do that. there's nothing that any investor will be able to rationalize this with on a basis like that. we're going to capture your time. we're going to have access to you, meaning rich greenfield and we'll figure out ways to create new forms in applications and monitorization that takes you and captures you. i don't think this is ever going to be, hey, based on the dollar a year they charge, this is going to look like a rationale transaction. >> you sound like a mackenzie consultant, you go and plug in words that they churn out, rich. >> some of it sounds familiar to 1999 when they tried to explain things back then. you can't understand anything based on actual dollar value. we'll see. >> if you don't make big bets, that's what would be the real danger for facebook. >> once again, some people think facebook stock is not exactly cheap. it's $100,000 cat and you're getting two $50,000 dogs. that's one way to look at it. >> one last thing, a lot of big media companies are sitting on a lot of cash and don't spend it. two of the companies that spend it more than anyone else would be the walt disney company, google. and facebook. >> when you say whatsapp, you can't say it without sounding -- >> i'll do it whatsapp. >> whatsapp! >> whatsapp. >> another supercharged stock of the morning, tesla, does the outlook mean you should buy stock? a few more things on walmart. it's really not doing a whole lot. it was a penny ahead of expectations. it's down a little. the company raised its dividend by a penny per quarter. so 4 cents a year. for sales growth next year, they're talking about the low end of 3% to 5%. if you back out -- >> total sales? >> if you back out 4 ex, the same-store sales, they have to address that. that's one of the concerns and obviously the 5 billion in 4 ex. >> the 5.10 to 5.45 is what they're saying for the full year. >> in the first quarter, 1.10 to 1.20. >> they also say they'll be spending more on capital expenditures. >> after people know about the weather, people knew about the dollar. >> it's down 57 cents. we'll talk about these results from the retail join the in just a few minutes. then we'll have more "squawk box" coming up next. >> more "squawk box" coming up next. no, that can't happen. that's the thing, you don't know how long it has to last. everyone has retirement questions. so ameriprise created the exclusive.. confident retirement approach. now you and your ameripise advisor can get the real answers you need. well, knowing gives you confidence. start building your confident retirement today. welcome back wefsh. let's take another look at the futures right now. at this point the futures are down a little bit more than they had been earlier. at this point down by close to 25 points for fair value. part of this is because of what's happening with walmart. we'll keep a close eye on those shares this morning. if you were watching they came in at $1.60. when you exclude a number of the items mentioned, that makes them coming in a penny better than revenue had been expecting. same-store sales excluding fuel fell by 0.4% during the quarter. that is a little bit worse than people had been anticipating, too. you have the weather. walmart did say weather impacted some of this. the company did increase its quarterly dividend by 2.2%. take a look at shares of hormel foods. the company reporting a quarterly profit of 47 cents a share, a penny below what the street expected. hormel is just the latest company to mention weather as a factor in its quarterly results. everybody has talked about this, the street seems to be giving a lot of companies a pass for this. hormel says the cold weather and higher fuel costs are inflating some of the expenses. >> you should eat more chili with cold weather. >> you have to get to the store to buy it. >> in general, if it's cold -- you might not want hormel chili. you might want spam, spambled eggs, spam and pineapple. >> if we get a chance to talk about spam, we just do. >> tesla beat the street yesterday. its guidance for 2014 production helping that stock out. these numbers were much better than had been expected. joining us right now to talk more about it is chris ciaccia. these are great numbers. why was this a surprisingly good quarter? >> we already knew they delivered 6900 model s units. the top and bottom line beat. they surpassed 25%. now the company saying it could surpass 28%. which is good for a luxury auto brand. >> that sounds phenomenal. they also talked about how they're expecting 35,000 to be produced and delivered in this year. is that a realistic goal? >> definitely. we've already seen them surpass 20,000. the company still supply constrained when it comes to batteries. they're going to work towards getting that influx during the second half of 2014. i think 35,000 is a realistic goal. i think there's a good chance tesla beats that. >> does this chase the doubters at this point? if you were short the stock, you got crushed. >> the stock is up 12% or whatever it is in premarket trading. that's a big boost from where it is yesterday. the stock, the high momentum stock, there will always be doubters. they'll be hurting for a little bit. >> the federal and state subsidies for owning this, take it all out. what does the company make? all of that is factored in sort of the green mystique and tax incentives. >> when you take out the zero admission vehicle credit, the gross is over 25%. the company is still profitable. >> that's good. it's $215 stock. i hope it's profitable. there's a huge momentum. >> gross margin of gm? >> not 25%. >> it's still 25 if you take out the zero emission subsidies. >> what's the deal with apple? >> the deal with apple, that got people's attention last week when that report came out. musk talked about it last night. they can't talk about what they talked about, he said. ultimately what happens, i think they partner on this g gigafactory. cell production to meet demand. maybe that's where we see a partnership with apple. >> what is the gigger factory? >> it's a huge factory to get all the lithium ion cell production battery production in the world under one roof. it's an enormous task. musk has proven everyone wrong about what he can and can't do. this is an enormous task. >> do you see a world where apple is the electronics inside a car like tesla? is that a partnership possibility. >> absolutely. tesla runs on linox, an open operating system. they are pushing to making the next connective car. tesla is like driving a computer at 100 miles an hour down the road. i could see a partnership where apple goes in the model s. >> at&t is talking to companies to -- i think ford and other companies doing this. who wins in that battle to take over your car? >> who wins right now is still unknown. everyone is throwing their hat in the game. google's announced an auto alliance with toyota and honda and a couple others. apple is trying to do this. everyone wants to be in the car. that's the next big mobile connected device. chris, thanks for coming in. >> thanks. >> tell joe hormel makes spam. >> yes. >> that's why i wish i wasn't on twitter. you know what i mean? >> maybe he sent it before when you were talking about chili. >> they make hormel chili. 20 years. we used to have on the old "squawk box," we had 1,000 things of spam. >> i know. coming up, street reaction to walmart earnings. the company reporting a short time ago. "squawk box" will be right back. an expert ford technician knows your car's health depends on a full, complete checkup. the works. because when it comes to feeling safe behind the wheel, going the distance and saving at the pump you want it all. get our multi-point inspection with a a synthetic blend oil change, tire rotation, brake inspection and more for $29.95 or less. get a complete vehicle checkup. only at your ford dealer. sometimes they just drop in. always obvious. cme group can help you navigate risks and capture opportunities. we enable you to reach global markets and drive forward with broader possibilities. cme group: how the world advances. like carpools... polly wants to know if we can pick her up. yeah, we can make room. yeah. [ male announcer ] ...office space. yes, we're loving this communal seating. oh, it's great. yeah. [ male announcer ] the best thing to share? a data plan. ♪ new at&t mobile share value plans for business. our best value plans ever. for example, you can get 10 gigs of data to share. and 5 lines would be $175 a month. plus you can add a line anytime for $15 a month. sharing's never been better for business. ♪ coming up, today's cnbc first 25 face-off. steve jobs versus bill gates. we'll spark off the debate of which icon had the most influence on changing the world. another cnbc first 25 contender, mark zuckerberg striking a major deal but will this bold move pay off? "squawk box" returns in just a moment. the first technology of its kind... mom and dad, i have great news. is now providing answers families need. siemens. answers. cozy or cool "meow" or "woof"? exactly the way you want it ... until boom! your mattress a battleground of thwarted desire. enter the sleep number bed. an innovative design that lets couples sleep together in individualized comfort. he's the softy: his sleep number setting is 35. you're the rock, at 60. as your needs change, you can adjust your sleep number bed, so you can sleep better together. visit one of our 425 stores for the the largest closeout event of the year with 50% savings on innovation limited edition beds. know better sleep with sleep number. welcome back to "squawk box," everybody. first in business worldwide. i'm becky quick. let's get to your morning headlines. facebook is buying mobile messaging app company whatsapp for $16 billion in cash and stock. facebook ceo mark zuckerberg said it took just ten days to strike this deal. google which has expressed interest in the past, actually offered $10 billion for whatsapp but that deal didn't come together. we're also watching shares of tesla. tesla beat estimates with its latest earnings and sold a record number of the model s vehicles during the fourth quarter. walmart reported fourth quarter profit of $1.60 a share, excluding certain items, a penny better than the street was expecting. its full-year earnings outlook for this year is below as well. people are trying to figure out what to make of it. >> this year is over. >> this current year we're in right now. >> that was the fourth quarter. for next year -- >> this year that we're in today. >> right. but the way it was written, they guided lower in the first quarter and 2014. i read the way it was written. >> the current year we're in, february to february. >> this was the -- it ended last year. >> they have a crazy calendar that ends in january. >> this was fiscal '14. next year is fiscal '15. joining us is joe feldman, telsey advisory group. what do you think of what walmart just said? >> as you were mentioning, i think the guidance they just gave, the 5.10 positive 5.45 is a wide range for one. two, it's below where the street is. that will be the focus for today. people will be concerned, why is it slower? they're blaming macro pressures, higher health care costs. they are stepping up their investment in the small store format which is a good thing to see. it does show they feel good about where they're headed with that. and look, the quarter itself was about what they said they were going to do. you know, essentially in line. i don't think that people will react too negatively to the news. it's typical walmart. they tended to do a decent job through the year and usually hit the number they'll give, probably closer to the high end is what we would think. >> even if you hit the high end at 4.85, that is 9 cents below what the expect was -- street was expecting. what happened here? >> the economic pressure is on the lower end consumer. walmart is taking the opportunity to use this pressure to re-invest in the business and say, look, we're strong, we generate strong free cash flow, very high returns. they continue to buy back stock and pay a nice dividend. if that investment can continue, that will just position them well as the consumer does rebound a little bit. >> walmart is considering raising its own minimum wage, going along backing the plan to raise the minimum wage. if it did that, how do you think that would impact business for them? how would it impact their earnings? >> they claim that in most states that they -- they are already above minimum wage. obviously it would have a bit of an impact. they do a very good job of re-investing, maybe there would be less price reinvestment to the consumer. maybe that who offset. >> a little bit of price re-investment to the consumer meaning? >> the roll backs they like to talk about. maybe they would be less -- >> maybe prices would rise slightly in the store and that's how they would make up for it? >> exactly. exactly. if you look at the same-store sales in the quarter, traffic was down. the ticket which is drove it, we saw from safeway yesterday, it was ticket. prices generally on the grocery side get passed through. maybe some of it could be that way. >> couldn't it hurt -- couldn't they squeeze their competitors? wouldn't smaller competitors be hurt even more? they can handle it more than their competitors, couldn't they? >> absolutely. absolutely. >> they don't do anything because they're nice. not that they're a bad company. but they're in business. that's the way it's supposed to work. >> if the prices rise to the exact level you have to raise, you've had no movement at all. the real income has not changed your standard of living at all. if this is how it shakes out, there's no benefit to the low-income worker. >> we know what we have to do in this country. it's not working around the wedge issues like this. >> is traffic down because the shoppers are going elsewhere or people at the low end are shopping less, going to the store less frequently? >> i think that's what they're doing to say when they host their conference call in a little bit, it was people buying more while they're in the store but shopping less frequently, plus the weather was an impact. there were periods they had a couple hundred stores closed through the quarter. >> i saw a bunch of stores closed in brazil and china. does that number concern you, alarm you or is that normal given how many stores they have there. >> they've been telegraphing saying they want to trench a little bit, solidify the business in both of those countries and move forward with investment again. and i think that that's really just a sign of that. it's consistent with what they've talked about before. they are actually having their international analyst day down in mexico city next week, monday, tuesday, they'll probably talk more about where they're headed with that. >> can you put that 0.4% same-store sales decline in some kind of context? was that worse than expected, was that a weather related number? >> we were actually -- we modeled down a half percent. it's basically where we were. i think some of it was weather. i think a lot of that was pressure on the low end consumer, beyond just the weather, though. they've mentioned, you know, tax pressure, snap pressure, if you recall, the cut and snap really did dig into the walmart consumer this past quarter. i think that that had an impact, too. >> all right. joe, thank you for joining us. >> you're welcome. >> my pleasure. >> you, too, joe. >> you're welcome. coming up, gold medals on the line today in sochi, including ladies free skating, ice hockey and curling. the latest from the olympics. and then tech titans collide, a face-off between bill gates and steve jobs. two key cnbc first 25 contenders, both shoo-ins. help us decide who will move on to the next round by voting for the one you think played a bigger role in silicon valley. "squawk box" will be right back. could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.s everybody knows that. well, did you know that when a tree falls in the forest and no one's around, it does make a sound? ohhh...ugh. geico. little help here. i need>>that's my geico digital insurance id card - gots all my pertinents on it and such. works for me. turn to the camera. >>ah, actually i think my eyes might ha... next! digital insurance id cards. just a tap away on the geico app. welcome back to "squawk box." we're worse here, down 28 now. i feel like it was worse this morning. >> this morning was it down 5 to 8. >> it's gotten worse since walmart maybe? interesting. 11 on the nasdaq, 5 on the s&p. the u.s. getting geared up for canada in ice hockey and plenty of finals happening today in sochi. cnbc's chief international correspondent, michelle caruso-cabrera joins us now. >> both the men and women lining up for hockey against canada when it comes to the americans. let's show you the medal couldn't the. u.s. in number one spot with 23 medals and 7 golds, number one in golds. russia 22 medals because they lost in hockey last night and were eliminated. netherlands with 22, 21 from speed skating. american ted ligety won gold in giant slalom. he becomes the first man to win two year olympic gold medals in alpine skiing. ligety won the first alpine gold medal in this games for the united states. the american women took silver and bronze in the two-man bobsled, elana meyers and lauryn williams came in second. meyers is now the fifth athlete to win a medal at winter and summer games. american gracie gold came in fourth place in the first half of the women's figure skating last night. she's close enough with score, she could still medal tonight when they conclude the long form program. she could even rise higher than just the bronze if things go her way. the russians had two disappointments, the huge loss in hockey and then last night, 15-year-old yulia lipnitskaya, who many thought would win the gold in women's figure skating, she fell. she cried during the interviews afterwards. she's still in fifth place. a lot of things will have to go right for her to even medal at all. women's hockey, thes plays canada for the gold. tonight here's what some of you can see when it comes to the highlights. lots of gold medal rounds still to come. >> ligety was awesome. i don't know if you saw how straight his line was. it was amazing to watch him. it gave me -- my hair stood up on the back. then we got -- who wins a medal in both the summer and winter olympics? >> there are now five people. >> that is cool. >> ever, ever. >> that is really, really cool. >> a tremendous athlete. >> i'm thinking about the euro and the coach from the netherlands. >> he's mad, michelle, you set him off. >> bitter, party of one with all the stuff that's happened in the united states, this poor soul still -- what do they have in holland, hans brinker, 1865. nothing has happened in 150 years in the netherlands. nothing has happened. nothing. they still have -- we have hans brinker, speed skating and you like your stupid football, football. really? hans brinker, 150 years ago. >> if people are at wear of what you're talking about, joe, last hour we played sound from the dutch speed skating coach where he explained why he did so much than the americans, the whole under armour controversy. he went on to say we focus too much on american football, a sport that he thinks sucks. we'll play more of that at 10:00 on "squawk on the street." >> we're in talks right now for sunday night speed skating, monday night speed skating and thursday night speed skating and speed skating all day on sunday. and college speed skating. we'll have a rose bowl with guys going around and around and around and around and -- >> there's the crossover, joe. the exciting crossover. >> i forgot about that. >> they cross over each other somewhere in the middle. >> we can play it again. >> i don't know if they have it. >> bitter party of one. >> i think that the question about american not winning medals here is more about the system that you have in your country. because you have a lot of attention for a foolish sport like american football and you waste a lot of talent, athletic talent in a sport that's men the to kill each other, to injure each other. nobody in the world is competing with you at that field. when you come once in four years and you think with talent with a few lone wolves who are skating you can beat the world. there's no way you can do that. and you won't beat -- not in four years, not in eight years anymore when you don't change. >> when you criticize american football you commit blasphemy. that's injurious and insulting to americans. we love football. >> that's why i do it, because you're so narrow-minded and then you want to compete against the world. you waste a lot of good talent in a sport that sucks. >> whatsapp! >> like i said last time, i was watching it yesterday, but we had a painter over at the house. he painted the wall. i look over at the wall and the paint was drying and i had a choice, big screen, speed skate. i was fixated on the wall as the paint dried with the speed skating. around and around and around. maybe the short track, apolo ohno, i get that. along the 5,000 meters, whatever, watching those people just -- oh, yeah. >> this is one of the original since the first games in 1924, this was one of the original -- speed skating was in there from the very beginning. in that time, the dutch wonned 82 medals, the americans have won 28 gold medals. they have won pretty repeatedly in this, too. >> that's true. >> can few find that guy and get him on live so i can talk to him or not? >> you want me to try to get him on tomorrow? i can try, yes. >> sure. that would be fun. >> okay. let's see. >> has the guy ever seen a football game? he told me he watched the super bowl. >> i think he was intentionally being controversial. >> i was warned in advance that he likes to -- >> was it not american -- we talked about this off camera. wasn't it ameri-envy? >> they think we go in there with this very arrogant attitude. we don't much care. that's the thing. they care desperately. >> because we're better. >> we have a few more things going for us. >> should we be sending drones over the netherlands right now? do we have an international incident on our hands? michelle you ought to take care of this. >> by inflaming it, bringing it on tomorrow. >> some of joe's commentary about -- >> sunday night speed skating coming up. >> did you paint your house orange. >> there's no grass growing so we were painting it red, white and blue. >> usa, usa! >> we'll see michelle possibly back here tomorrow morning with the dutch speed skating coach. the contenders are steve jobs versus bill gates in the cnbc 25 face-off. they are currently running neck and neck in our voting. we'll bring you the debate, right after this. our pre-owned. we inspect, analyze, and recondition each one, until it's nothing short of a genuine certified pre-owned mercedes-benz for the next new owner. 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>> there's no way both of these guys won't be on the list. >> you have to make the nice guy argument for bill gates. we'll see. make sure to vote -- >> $38 billion? $38 billion? he's a nice guy? no. in the end, it may be what he and his wife are doing are bigger. >> bill and me linda gates may bring an end to malaria. that is something, too. >> head to cnbc.com/25 to cast your vote. >> do you have anything about jobs on the charity side? >> he did a lot of charity. his widow, lorraine powell continues to do that. >> what about total technological impact. jane makes a very good case, john, on the 90% number. 90% market share. it means what, nine out of ten computers are running something bill gates did. not something steve jobs did. >> you have windows on this but you have apple on these. >> something bill gates did is arguable. certainly he popularized it. i think xerox gets credit for the interface in general. apple gets credit for commercializing that and bill gates and windows did come in and figure out a way to spread it more broadly. there were a lot of legal issues there in between. we'll let the lawyers sort it out. but talking impact, this is certainly quite a matchup. >> i think one key difference was microsoft chose to be open to other developers. it could be -- it was device agnostic in a sense. that was one reason why, perhaps an inferior operating system was able to get so much real estate so quickly. >> hey, john, what about the whatsapp? can't even say it anymore. >> whatsapp? >> whatsapp? >> thank you very much. >> what are your thoughts on that acquisition, $19 billion seems like an awful lot of money for some users who send messages. >> mind blown. the way i look at it, you have to make the terminator argument i think if you're facebook here. maybe this is going back and getting john connor before he grows into a threat. the scale of whatsapp was the only platform capable of potentially taking down facebook in the sense that it's so big it connected people and operated on -- it still operates on a nonadvertising strategy. but at the same time, i mean, it's hard to make a financial argument for this. this is the largest silicon valley based acquisition ever. it's like 50 people. >> can i ask you guys about the terminator? i came up with a problem the other day, the original one. right? he goes back, john connor sends somebody back to make sure that he's safe. but the guy he sends back is his father. you can't send your father back to re-create and change time. that's not possible. >> part of the whole thing. >> it's not possible. >> unless he sent his father back. the rest of them i have no problem with. >> it's always been like that. that's sort of the thing at the end. it's not the same when marty mcfly was doing it. he wasn't sending his father back. any time travel -- >> what's that? >> he was -- marty mcfly was attracted to his own mother. >> that was creepy. >> no, it doesn't. when he sent him back, he was at a point when he hadn't had relations with linda what's her face. >> he hadn't had relations with her anyway. >> how can john connors get his father back. >> you have to have parallel realities to are that to work when you have multiple -- >> i don't know why it took me this long. >> becky, i said why did tyrese, he stopped for diapers and milk to put on baby judith. >> he had the diaper bag, i assumed. >> they're running out of the prison getting fired at. then they said to me, you believe all the zombies? >> yes, the zombie stuff is fine. i don't think he'd remember diapers and milk. >> the milk, i thought that's going to be spilled. >> did you notice the rabbits were all cut up? >> yes. >> later -- >> can we thank jane and john for joining us this morning. >> zuckerberg, he's not own 30 yet. he's a shoo-in already, too. he's a shoo-in into the 25. more on this big acquisition by facebook. did it overpay? we'll talk about this all day long. we'll have mark mahaney, the tech analyst after this break. i'm beth... and i'm michelle. and we own the paper cottage. it's a stationery and gifts store. anything we purchase for the paper cottage goes on our ink card. so you can manage your business expenses and access them online instantly with the game changing app from ink. we didn't get into business to spend time managing receipts, that's why we have ink. we like being in business because we like being creative, we like interacting with people. so you have time to focus on the things you love. ink from chase. so you can. coach calls her a team player. she's kind of special. she makes the whole team better. he's the kind of player that puts the puck, horsehide, bullet. right where it needs to be. coach calls it logistics. he's a great passer. dependable. a winning team has to have one. somebody you can count on. somebody like my dad. this is my dad. somebody like my mom. my grandfather. i'm very pround of him. her. them. facebook buying -- >> whatsapp. >> whatsapp. >> whatsapp. >> but did the social media giant overpay? we'll ask tech analyst mark mahaney. >> under the hood of tesla, the automaker shocks investors and the stock soars. an update on where shares may make their next pit stop. >> inflation data and jobless claims. where the jobs are in the final hour of "squawk box" as it begins right now. ♪ welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc, first in business worldwide. i'm joe kernen along with becky quick and steve liesman. we're 30 minutes away from the cpi and the jobless claims numbers this morning. futures are not doing much. a lot of the action was yesterday. i was surprised when he checked the scene, we were up 90 points. then later it was down, even though, steve, you have said that the significance of the minutes in terms of getting people worried about a rate rise is probably overplayed. it doesn't take much to do 180 points in this market, obviously. >> it could have been complimented by a decline in rates i would have been more interested in this number. >> nobody is tieing rates to the fed anymore. the rates are being tied to whether we're in a global recovery or whether we're somehow stalling or whether it was cold weather or what it is. >> we haven't talked about the chinese pmi which was weaker. it was 28 and change. >> the fed is not moving the bond market. >> that's not what rick says. rick says the whole market is artificial. you agreed with him. >> no, no, no. >> you don't agree with that? >> i said even after the taper the rates in the ten-year would go lower, even after the taper. i've been saying that all along. >> because it has nothing to do with the fed. >> yes. in the headlines, facebook is buying mobile messaging app company -- joe? >> whatsapp! >> the question analysts are asking did facebook overpay? they bought it for $16 billion in cash and stocks. walmart reported $1.60 per share, revenue coming in below as does its current quarter and fiscal 2015 forecast. as joe mentioned, a busy day on the economic front at the bottom of the hour. we get reports on initial jobless claims and the january consumer price index. then at 10:00 a.m. eastern, the latest philly fed survey, which joe would rather watch than speed skating. and global markets watching the situation in the ukraine very closely this morning. richard engel joins us from kiev. richard? >> reporter: so quite dramatic developments this morning. i am now in an area just beyond independence square that has been the center of this protest movement. last night, 12 hours or so ago, there was talk that a deal had been reached between the opposition and the government. in which the riot police would be pulled back and the government would promise not to invade once again this protest camp. and this morning, just after sunrise here, it looked like that deal was going to be implemented. buss arrived, the riot police started to get on to them. as they pulled back and created distance between themselves and the protesters, the protesters began to attack them, attack the retreating forces. then the riot police responded with, what some might say, excessive force, including live ammunition and there were several hours of intense fighting here. i saw at least three people killed, medical officials say seven people in all, two of them police officers, have been killed so far. now, the things where they are right now and where i'm standing at the moment, is the police have pulled back and the protesters have moved out of their camp and are setting up new positions. i'm watching people hand bricks in human chains hand-over-hand as they build new barricades and expand their presence in the center of kiev. >> richard, does that mean that the protesters have just lost the moral high ground? >> reporter: well, they think that this was a victory. they took casualties today. they say that the government started it and that it was the government that used snipers and used automatic ammunition. automatic weapons. what we saw was the -- we witnessed this. it happened right in front of us, was the government troops coming back and then being attacked, not with weapons but with some stones and maybe some malatov cocktails as well. who do you blame and who has the moral high ground ready, that's really a judgment call. >> richard, what is your sense of the extent to which russia will abide this kind of chaos on its borders and what kind of options -- what concerns are there about how russia might respond to what's happening there? >> reporter: that's the largest context here. you have these demonstrators who are anti-government. they want the ukrainian president to be overthrown. the ukrainian president is a close ally of russia and russia this morning was encouraging ukraine, quote, not to be a door mat. that was a quote from a russian official. russia clearly wants the ukrainian government to take a harder line, not to pull back, maybe even suggesting they send the tanks in here and clear this place out just definitively. if that were to happen, i could tell you that would be a great deal of violence, more than we've seen in this three-month crisis. >> do you estimate that there are things that might be happening now that russia might be doing that the ukrainian government might be doing if not for the olympics such that next week is a more decisive week? >> there's been talk about the sochi factor in this, that they don't -- russia doesn't want to do anything too hideous while so many eyes are focused on the figure skating, ski jumping in sochi. it's possible. i don't know. i don't know if that is coming. certainly the protesters think it might be. that's why they are in front of me now building their barricade. it's almost like a medieval force they're constructing. handing paver stones, handing them hand over hand. it's dramatic where i am right now. i'm looking at bonfires burning, blackening the sky. they are stacking up crushed stones, tires, that could keep these fires burning. they are guarding themselves in case russia encourages the ukraine to come and invade. >> richard, stay safe. thanks for your great report this morning. >> my pleasure. facebook announcing the acquisition of the messaging app whatsapp. we had one of your peers on, mark. he made a good case that you can't really use -- i heard a lot of it in the late '90s. he made a case, not normal metrics for how you value something. about keeping people in the ecosystem, the mackenzie-esque. >> it's a sizable bet. the numbers go like this. you've done a deal that's 8% dilutive. can they offset that? if they can get to 500 million users, 70% using on a daily basis. could they get more than a billion users and maybe the bigger interesting question is could you generate more than a buck peruser per year? if the service is successful they should be able to get well above that. this is a case that this is a nice financially acreedive deal long term. >> this was like a terminator situation where they went back and decided to buy john connor before he grew up to challenge the machines. could this have been -- we wanted an excuse to play that. is this like preempting some competition, competitive threat for facebook in the future from the company? >> possibly. this is how we think about it. there's a series of utilities, very few series of utilities on the internet. they're shopping, google, social sharing is facebook. these are utilities that are hard to replace, hard to see somebody undermining those, defeating those. there's this communications utility. there's an ip telephony company, that's skype. if you juice whatsapp with facebook user base, they should be able to materially increase the overall whatsapp user base. what facebook has done is doubled its utility value going from a social sharing network to a communications network. at least that's the pitch behind this deal. >> and they don't have to do advertising. all the advertisements are already done. >> what does this mean for at&t and companies that charge you for texting, if all a sudden you have a billion users avoiding paying for texting. >> uh-oh. great question. wasn't blackberry up this morning? don't they have a messaging system that's apparently seem to have value. >> got me. >> he's gone. >> he's just gone. san francisco, technology. blackberry up a little bit. i think that's a sympathetic thing with what's happening overnight. we have to look into that a little more. >> there are a lot of companies that aren't publicly traded yet, too, that do similar things, which is why i wondered about the valuation. >> isn't it writing some code? they have the users. >> they have the users. >> this is a big story. michelle has tracked down the netherlands coach. we have him coming up. he's going to answer questions from joe about the round and the round and the round and the crossover. when it comes to tesla stock soaring to an all-time high after hours following an earnings beat and boost in guidance. is the stock still a buy at current levels? "squawk box" coming right back, after going round and round. t te alternative. i don't even know how to answer that. i mean, no one knows how long their money is going to last. i try not to worry, but you worry. what happens when your paychecks stop? because everyone has retirement questions. ameriprise created the exclusive confident retirement approach. to get the real answers you need. start building your confident retirement today. [ man ] i don't know if this is gonna be a first or second, but this is gonna be a medal! [ man #2 ] and it looks like we could have another one of those photos! [ female announcer ] every minute. every medal. every screen. the nbc sports live extra app gives you unprecedented access to every moment of nbc universal's coverage of the sochi olympics, now on your tv. the x1 entertainment operating system, only from xfinity. welcome back, everybody. walmart reported its fourth quarter earnings earlier this morning. joining us right now is bud gugach. how do you add this all up? >> i think that's the issue, becky. the issue is guidance for the full year is 510 to 545. it's a wide range of guidance, the guidance from 1.10 to 1.20 is a 10 cent wide range. i don't think we should be too surprised by that. there are head winds facing the whole climate, which we didn't factor in. i think that's the issue for walmart right now, is the year guidance. there were exciting things released this morning in terms of additional plans for walmart u.s. and their e-commerce initiative. the guidance right now for the stock is probably the issue. >> is this a walmart issue or is this a broader economy issue? is this something we need to start re-evaluating how the whole economy's going to look? >> i think you have your finger on the pulse of it. i think it is a much broader issue. i think we've seen the weather issue has been an issue that, quite frankly, is difficult to figure out for investors to what it means. where there hasn't been terribly extraordinary weather business has been good. when there's been extraordinary weather where you are, for example, it's been pretty tough for people to shop. and that's helped a little bit of the e-commerce world but still, customers can't get out of the doors and shop the stores. >> is this an economy issue or just an actual story because of the weather? it sounded to me like they were pointing -- they definitely blame the weather for part of it. they're looking at a tough macro economic environment. that sounds like a bigger problem. >> you're exactly right. there's about a $330 million headwind that they're facing from increased health care costs which has a little bit of walmart related issue to it and inflation in the aca, the affordable care act issue. there are head winds all over the economy that will be very hard to figure out. >> $330 million, that's the number. okay. budd, thank you. go ahead, sir. >> thank you very much, becky. >> tesla shares soaring to an all-time high after hours yesterday on an earnings beat and a boost in guidance. phil lebeau has that story from chicago. even the big-time bulls on tesla had to be surprised by the numbers. >> let's run down the fourth quarter numbers. tesla beat the street on the earnings side by 12 cents a share, earning 33 cents a share. revenue ex items also comes in stronger than expected at 761 million. it's the guidance that's pushing the stock higher. tesla is raising its production guidance for all of 2014, saying it now expects to deliver at least 35,000 model s vehicles this year including boosting model s production to 1,000 per week by year end. >> to get to the height, the thousand plus production rate we do need sort of a new final assembly line which we're in the process of constructing. and then we'll transition the final assembly to that hopefully around the end of the third quarter, there abouts. >> here's a number getting a lot of attention as well on wall street. tesla's automotive gross margins topped 25% in the fourth quarter. that is what was forecasted, expected to go up close to 28% by the end of this year. the pricing on the model s is driving this. much richer mix. there's the model x, the next vehicle coming up from first deliveries early next year. elon musk said model x sales will exceed model s. >> even though there's zero marketing for the model x, it's like if you're going fishing, it's like the fish are jumping in the boat. we're not actually trying to sell the model x at all but demand seems to be remarkably high. >> extremely bullish comments from elon musk regarding the model x as well as the forecast for the model s. we're seeing the analysts upgraded this morning. jpmorgan is revising guidance for model s earnings this year as well as price targets. it will be interesting to see if the shorts are going to run for the hills after this. there were a lot of people shorting the stock. >> 35,000 cars in a year. that's the number. >> that's the target. >> volkswagen sells 23,000 cars in a month. >> okay. >> right. i just want to put that in context. it's a small company. >> absolutely it is a small company. look at their growth margin, gross auto margins as well as their potential. that's what people are betting on here, steve. people aren't coming in saying i'm looking for a company that's making money, because on a nongap basis they're still not making money. they're still losing money. that's not what people are betting on here. they're betting on the growth potential for tesla. >> all right, phil, stick around. let's bring in paul ingrassia, editing manager at reuters. i always come back to a couple things, paul, to keep it simple because i am simple. get rid of all the assistance on making it easier to buy tesla and then get it to the point where i'm just not concerned about running out of -- you know, i see a gas station, i can always fill up. i feel like i'm going to get stuck somewhere until they get it together where i can go as far as i want and fill up quickly. those are the two issues, aren't they? >> they are. look, phil had the right word when he said betting on the stock. it is a bet on the future. the only way the stocks makes any sense if you're looking three years out when tesla is supposed to introduce sort of an every man's car if you will, an electric car that has a change of 250 miles between charges but priced about $40,000. i mean, about $35,000, $40,000, half the price of the entry price of the model s now. if that can happen, that's a big game changer. toyota is basically said that we don't think battery operated electrics are the wave of the unite. they're putting all their r & d might behind hydrogen fuel cell electrics. they were the ones right with the prius. a lot of things have to go right for this company. >> yes. at this point, do you think that the technology in terms of the idea that the entire bottom of the car is covered with batteries, they'll be able to eventually allay any fears that that makes this less safe. how will this probe go when it's all said and done, paul, what do you think? >> well, i'm not an engineer but anytime you have -- you've seen this with the boeing 787 dreamliner. batteries have occasional issues. but the batteries really haven't disrupted that plane and i don't think they'll disrupt the tesla car. there's a lot more -- these cars, there's thousands of them in use every day. people like them. i don't think the safety issue is a big issue, frankly. >> phil, do you agree with what paul has been saying. >> i would agree with him. at this point there are four or five fires. there's been a federal investigation but there's been no indication that there will be a recall at this point. until that happens, elon musk took a big shot at the media saying we are the ones who are fanning the flames so to speak, not the play on words when it comes to the safety concerns of the model s. it's social media that has told the truth there. the bottom line is this, the safety concerns so far seem to be -- >> from 35,000, how many units do they have to be selling here to be a big profitable company here. what kind of unit are we talking about? >> well, i don't know the exact number. but clearly it's a lot more. it's remarkable, the company's market capitalization is almost half that of general motors. these guys sell 35,000 cars in a year and what gm sells 9 million or 10 million cars in a year. >> they have 28% operating margins. >> the margins are huge. >> the margins are good. >> it's a big bet on the future, a bet they'll be able to produce a mass market premium car, not a luxury car that really works. >> paul, good to see you. bill, thanks a lot. >> good to be with you. >> we have a winner, someone on the west coast is very rich this morning. details after the break. the $425 million powerball lottery pulled a winner last night. this was the sixth largest prize in u.s. history. no word on who purchased the ticket. there had not been a winner since christmas. >> that's why there was such a big pot, so to speak. when we come back, get this, we have tracked down the speed skating coach for the netherlands. we'll ask him about his football comments he made earlier. he's getting ready. >> joe will insult the entire country of the netherlands. >> yes, yes. >> an entire people will be insulted. we get a quick read on the inflation markets. equity futures are weaker today, dow futures down by about 35 points, part that is because of walmart with lowered guidance. that's impacted that stock. that's a dow component. that's what's happening. we'll be right back. ♪ pulls you back into your lane... ♪ even brakes all by itself. it's almost like it couldn't crash... even if it tried. the 2014 m-class. see your authorized dealer for exceptional offers through mercedes-benz financial services. ♪ [ indistinct shouting ] [ male announcer ] time and sales data. split-second stats. 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[ indistinct shouting, bell dinging ] ...you'll bust your brain box. ♪ all on thinkorswim from td ameritrade. ♪ from td ameritrade. in a we believe outshining the competition tomorrow requires challenging your business inside and out today. at cognizant, we help forward-looking companies run better and run different - to give your customers every reason to keep looking for you. so if you're ready to see opportunities and see them through, we say: let's get to work. because the future belongs to those who challenge the present. welcome back to "squawk box." we're minutes away from jobless claims and cpi in january. rick santelli is standing by. joining us is also an economist. what are the numbers, please? >> the numbers say january cpi increase at a rate of 0.1%, exactly as expected. strip off the all-important food and energy, you're still left with up 0.1%. and these are exactly as expected. it's usual to get any major revisions because december's headlines cpi, originally reduced to 0.3 was taken down to 0.2. year-over-year headline, up 1.6. year-over-year core up 1.6. they're exactly the same. one is actually higher on headline. the core is a little bit lower than 1.7. 336,000 an initial jobless claims. that's down 3,000 from an unrevised 339,000. creeping up towards 3 million on continuing claims and 2.98. yields, here we sit right now at 2.73. the high yield close has been 2.76. the big retracements, 2.57. it it's a push. yesterday after the minutes came out we basically got close to 2.75. you know you're offsides on this. the equities being down should be an interesting driver today as we pay attention to the equity markets. back to you. >> hey, rick, i want to point out, there's a lot of negative signs on this cpi resort, apparel negative on the month. these are prices i'm talking about. transportation, new and used vehicles, gasoline, commodities and airline fares all fell. you did this 0.1 with, by the way, a 0.6% increase in energy. and i can't find transportation. there it is. housing fuels up 2%. so i don't know if that's deflation. i think that will bring in jeff cleveland on this. >> good morning, steve. for us, after yesterday's fomc minutes, there's this battle going on between the two groups in the fomc, one says look at the unemployment rate, the u3 unemployment rate, that's what matters. the other says look at broader measures of unemployment. i don't know how we settle that dispute in the near term, steve. it seems to me we have to look to the cpi data and other inflation data to do that. if the folks who focus on the u3 unemployment rate, inflation should be ticking up here. we should see upward pressure on wages. i haven't been able to dig into the details of the report. as you suggest -- >> there is none. >> we're not seeing that. >> 1.6 year on year for core is below the target, of course. it's been hovering for eight of the last ten months. something seems to be more than transistor transitory. there's broader weakness in the economy, in the labor market than people, maybe the more hawkish members of the fomc believe. >> hey, rick -- >> yes. >> rick, i don't think the fed men to the signal it was going to be raising rates any time sooner. i know the stock market got up upset by this. when i look at how the fixed income market reacted, i don't think they thought there was going to be imminent rise in rates. what's your take on how the fixed income markets reacted to the minutes yesterday? >> all right. let's split it in half, let's not talk about whether they should raise rates or the minutes. let's look at the markets. you look at the coupon curve, 10s and 30s. then you switch gears and look to the building blocks. let's look at the euro dollar futures and see how the considers in 2015 and 2016 are stacking up. even though they're selling off a little bit today, if they sell off that would validate this, especially the relationship between the coupon and terms structure. didn't happen yesterday. basically let's simplify. the yields moved up a bit, a couple of basis points. really from the banking perspective, all the pieces that stack up on 90-day, 3-month rates, that didn't follow. so to me, when i see that i normally think i wouldn't put a lot of faith in the notion that we're going to see a driving force pushing up rates, driven by anything on the fed side. but you know, whether they should raise rates, that's another discussion. >> we'll have that conversation tomorrow, rick, me and you. that will be fine. >> come on out here! >> i'm talking about the mark markets, we have similar conclusions about what the market was seeing yesterday. i didn't see it in the minutes yesterday. i don't think it was a big deal. that's not for me to say. >> what you see and don't see we can agree on. it's like when it comes to things like inflation and commodity volatility that everybody goes off the rails. >> all right. thank you, rick santelli. we're all in olympics mode. and the guy from peyton and regal, too. let's get to michelle caruso-cabrera. she has a special guest that may have sparked an international incident. it's olympic time and the world is already in competition and them's fighting words, michelle. you want to reprise what happened? >> yes. we're sitting here with yillard inuma. >> yes. >> your team has won more medals in a single sport in a single olympics, 21 medals. a single team, single sport, single winter olympics. there's all this controversy about the under armour suit that the american long track was wearing, whether or not that was a cause. do you think that that was one of the reasons the americans didn't do well, the suit? >> the suit was one of the reasons, not because it is bad. it is because they believed it was bad. americans always believe they're right, always believe they're the best. that's not true. when you look at the rest of the world, you can stay inside in your own country, you can make your own game, like american football, do it your own, think you're the best of the world. no way. when you play soccer, man, you're not half. you don't belong to the top 30 of the world. so quit when you come every four years, you come to olympic stadium and you want to fight the rest of the world you know your place. you got zero medals, zero, man. >> coach, thanks for coming on. number one, i have two words for you, eric heiden from wisconsin. all right? number one. he was good in short track and he was good in -- here's number two. >> i can tell you something else. shani davis is, i think, the best skater there ever was. it's an american. but they are just addicted -- they are addicted to the movement. when you go over the ice 50k an hour through the corners, you live up to that action and you want to perfectionize that movement. then you get addicted. they're lone wolves. they're addicted and they don't get -- >> hold on. >> no, i'm not holding on. >> you already had your say. you already had your say. >> because you're asking the rotten questions. >> just listen to my premise. listen to me. i watched a 10,000 meter case yesterday. two people, not even racing each other around and around and around for 13 minutes. every once in a while trade cross over and go around. i think watching paint dry is more fun. i want my 13 minutes back. of my life. i want that time back that i spent. are you actually comparing -- are you actually comparing the spectator experience of speed skating with american football? >> no, sir. what i'm comparing is that the emotion that's in force when two guys are heading for the win and going as fast as they can on a very honest sport, there's no tricks involved. it's just about who is the best in the world -- >> eric heiden. >> you are not any more interested in being the best of the world, well, stay in your country, do your own sport, don't compete with the rest of the world but don't ask the question why you didn't win medals. because you didn't. that's why i'm here in the studio to talk to you and to explain to you why you didn't win any medals. >> the other thing, i hear euro envy here again. from the njerlands, your entire economy is $770 billion. we're 16 trillion. that's no reason to be better. that was a great book in 1865 about hans brinker. >> am i allowed to tell you anything about our country? >> yes. >> when we sell our companies to the world, we all be billionaires. when we sell the shell -- >> oil company. >> oil company. when we sell unilever, when we sell all our companies, man, you're broke when you want to buy them. so you just sit quiet because they're doing very well. our economy doesn't spend a lot of money because we are just -- >> you don't like american football as a sport. >> no, no, no. >> you said they kill each other. >> i liked your commercials very much. there was a lot of humor involved. i love the seahawks win. >> now it's coming out. you do like it. >> no big deal. no big deal. >> all right. what's your advice? >> you have a sport and a lot of your talent is wasted in that sport because you kill each other in american football. it's so rough and because you like it and you've got all the money into that sport, there's not a lot of money in the other sports. and just nobody in the world wants to compete in that sport with you. >> you're saying all our best athletes are going to that sport rather than the other sports like speed skating. >> exactly. there's so much money involved in american football. the money that's involved in that is not into speed skating. when you see in our country, we have all teams fighting each other, survival of the fittest. >> like the basketball. >> like basketball. you don't ask the question why you win in the summer olympics always with your dream team. you now come and ask how come you win so much medals? speed skating. >> you're saying speed skating is the netherlands is like our basketball. >> it's competitive. yes. >> they go to the summer olympics and beat everybody. >> exactly. >> i love basketball. when we're in the states we always go to basketball games. >> who's your favorite team and basketball player. >> they're all new. of course we go to the milwaukee bucks, salt lake, utah jazz. we see the teams and we favor the utah jazz. >> joe, he held you off pretty good. >> wait a minute. football, basketball -- >> you can't stand losing. you must be an american, man. >> 21 medals out of 22, all you do is speed skate, that's it? life is about variety and diversificati diversification. you do one thing? seriously that's all you got, speed skating? around and around and around and around. come on! >> well, i think that the gold medal in speed skating is just as valuable as a gold medal in basketball. >> you call me when you win at something else, anything else. >> you will never win 22 in basketball, man. >> anything else, tulip bulbs, anything else you're good at, you let us know. >> you're just envious, man, for our medals. that's what you do. you're just envious. no big deal. no big deal. you're flying. you don't hit the ground anymore. you're in the clouds. >> he said how come only the americans could come up with something called the world series and not invite any other country. that's a fair point, coach. >> exactly. >> thank you. >> you get the bronze in this. >> you're an idiot. >> wasn't even close. >> he's like eight laps ahead of you. >> holland is way more -- highly capitalist country. >> eric heiden was american. what sport did he win? >> royal dutch shell. >> the coach said shani davis, too. he said he's the best skater. >> eric heiden. >> he's a nice person, too. very nice man. >> coach, thank you. michelle, thank you. >> tulip mania. >> thanks for coming on. >> facebook's acquisition of -- play the audio, guys. >> whatsapp! >> thank you. "squawk box" is back after a quick break. because when it comes to feeling safe behind the wheel, going the distance and saving at the pump you want it all. get our multi-point inspection with a a synthetic blend oil change, tire rotation, brake inspection and more for $29.95 or less. get a complete vehicle checkup. only at your ford dealer. sometimes they just drop in. always obvious. cme group can help you navigate risks and capture opportunities. we enable you to reach global markets and drive forward with broader possibilities. cme group: how the world advances. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 life inspires your trading. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 where others see fads... tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 ...you see opportunities. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 at schwab, we're here to help tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 turn inspiration into action. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 we have intuitive platforms tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 to help you discover what's trending. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and seasoned market experts to help sharpen your instincts. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 so you can take charge tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 of your trading. we've been watching the futures this morning. after a down day yesterday for the markets, we've seen more red arrows this morning. the dow futures down by 21.5 points. not bad. s&p 500 futures are off by just over 3 points. the opening bell coming up. up next, the former ambassador to ukraine on the unrest there. tune in to "squawk box" tomorrow, stock picking value investor mario gabelli will share his stock picking tips. we'll be right back. ♪ [ male announcer ] how did edward jones become one of the biggest financial services companies in the country? hey. yours? not anymore. come on in. [ male announcer ] by meeting you more than halfway. it's how edward jones makes sense of investing. welcome back to "squawk box," everyone, the futures this morning under a little bit of pressure. actually they've been rebounding, down only 12 1/2 points, 13 1/2 points right now, this coming after we heard from walmart today, we'll talk more about it in a minute. but it was the guidance that concerned people and it's a dow component and that put additional pressures on the dow futures. only down 14 1/2 and s&p futures down 2 1/2. hormel shares are up this morning, they missed estimates with a penny with quarterly profit of 57 cents a share and they said cold weather and higher fuel prices pushing up its expenses, however, its earnings improved from the purchase of skippy peanut butter brand and people are still eating bacon. right now hormel shares up by about 89 cents. let's get another quick check on share of walmart, it earned $1.60 a penny better than expected but the revenue number was shy of consensus and its forecast for fiscal 2015 is well below what is expected and the stock down 2%. returning back now to the latest on the situation in ukraine, joining us is william taylor former u.s. ambassador to the ukraine. thank you for joining us, mr. ambassador. how seriously do you judge the situation on the ground there this morning? >> very serious. when you have another 19 people killed, after 25 people killed yesterday that's clearly serious. in particular serious in a country like ukraine that is not a violent country. it is not a violent society and when this kind of chaos and this kind of conflict you see in a beautiful capital of kiev, it's a sad story. >> you know, we were watching the pictures this morning and becky also remarking, it looks like the protesters are out of control this morning and certainly i don't know about -- >> richard engel said there was a point where it looked like they were going to be a truce, they were loading up the police and putting them on buses and when they pulled back, he said, because he was watching right there, the protesters came forward and start attacking and shooting and he saw three people get killed in front of him. does that take the moral high ground away from the protesters at this point? >> well, what damages the protesters is the resort to firearms. and indeed violence. the protesters have been remarkably organized. remarkably disciplined up until now. and i think the bulk of the protesters are still organized, disciplined and going in the right direction. there is -- there are fringes, there are elements in both sides, on both sides, who are willing to take the kind of violent actions that we saw this morning. so, i think it does damage the moral clarity of this. but i don't think it obscures the fact that the government maintains the responsibility for the problem here. the government needs to move back to the truce that you mentioned a minute ago, and be able to sit down with both sides and have a discussion and work it out. >> mr. ambassador, having spent some time in that part of the world as of you, i look at those pictures and i worried about how russia would react. how much do you think they'll abide that kind of violence on what they consider to be their border? >> well, ukraine is on the border of europe as well. europe has a big stake in this and the foreign ministers, three of the big european countries, are there. the russians do not need to involve themselves. ukraine is not part of the russian empire any longer. ukraine is an independent country. >> you say that but you know that's not the way the russians think about it. >> i'm not saying how the russians think about it, i'm saying what's true and what the ukrainians think about it and indeed what the europeans think about it. ukrainians are the most important actors in this situation and think of themselves as sovereign and have for 22 years. >> although, this is another point that richard engel made, this is not like tahrir square, he thinks it's a 60/40 split and 40% of them think of sticking with russia and 60% would like to be closer to the european union. >> that's right. but in independence square, in the madon and kiev, it is very clear what the capital -- what the people in the capital want, it's very clear what the people in the west want and it's also very clear what a lot of people, not all, maybe not even a majority, people in the east want. they want a sovereign, independent country. the other thing to look at where the oligarchs, where the big business people are, and their future they know is with europe and not russia. >> we were kind of talking about it and speculating what might be happening with putin at this point. maybe he doesn't want anything to happen during the sochi olympics but is there the threat that this becomes much more heated once the olympics are over? >> putin and the russians have clearly been urging the ukrainian government to take action and to take violent -- to take military action to end this problem. that's not constructive. that's not constructive. what we don't need is the military, the armed forces, involved. what's been involved so far are the police and the security forces. the military has stayed aside. indeed we've seen the replacement of the head of the military because apparently he didn't want to use the military in this civil problem. >> wow. mr. ambassador, thanks for joining us this morning. we hope to stay in contact with you while events unfold there. coming up, the stock of the day is coming up and it's not facebook but make sure you stay tuned to "squawk on the street" on get the latest on its big deal for free texting coming up. when you order the works you want everything. an expert ford technician knows your car's health depends on a full, complete checkup. the works. because when it comes to feeling safe behind the wheel, going the distance and saving at the pump you want it all. get our multi-point inspection with a a synthetic blend oil change, tire rotation, brake inspection and more for $29.95 or less. get a complete vehicle checkup. only at your ford dealer. stock of the day is tesla the automaker jumping in premarket trading after beating estimates with its latest earnings and posting record sales of its model "s" during the fourth quarter. >> wow. >> speed skating done? >> do you know how influential the dutch were? the color of the knickerbockers are from the dutch flag. the dutch may have made this country what it is, joe. >> we've got 30 or 40 sports here that are more fun to watch than the -- >> his point that american football is tough, it's got nothing on rugby. >> and the dutch have great companies. royal dutch-shell. >> did you notice -- >> unilever. >> they got three. did you also notice he started by -- he stuck soccer in instead of speed skating. we weren't talking about soccer. we were talking about speed skating. >> he was a good debater -- >> because he kept -- >> changing the -- changing the -- >> his basic premise is completely indefensible. >> it's not done. the men's team pursuit quarterfinal is february 21st. i don't know what that is. >> the one point made that's kind of scary it's not the uniforms, they thought the uniforms -- >> a lot of things are legal over there, joe, that aren't legal here. >> that does it for us. thank you, steve, nfor joining us, "squawk on the street" begins right now. ♪ good thursday morning. welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with simon hobbs, and david faber at the new york stock exchange. cramer is off this week. what a morning. not just the earnings from walmart and tesla but wall street sounding off on facebook's purchase of what's app, the biggest start-up acquisition in the history of silicon valley. futures are up