We have a number of stocks to watch this morning. All names that reported after the opening bell. Amazon posted a quarterly loss nearly double wall streets consensus. The results were hurt as the Company Continues a rapid pace of investment. Amazons cfo says the company is spending more than 100 million on original video content in the third quarter. Were going to be talking to an amazon analyst coming. Up lets say that again. Amazon analyst coming up in the next half hour. Visa posted betterthanexpected earnings and revenue. Thats mostly because of growth and cross border transactions than been slowing amid a stronger dollar. And starbucks earnings amid the street. Stronger than expected and take a look, that stock still down by about 2. 5 . Andrew, well send it over to you and the big question is, did you get picked for jury duty yesterday . I did not get picked for jury duty yesterday. I have one more day to go. Supposedly you do two days max if you dont get picked. Im hoping its a summer friday and they could let us out by lunchtime. I do not know. But we have a number of amazing squawk viewers who are panelists with me. So i got to have many conversations, many of them are watching us this morning and hopefully i thought these were the people that were actually being led around in the orange suits. So they were the possible jurors, not the actual perpetrators of all the right . We might have some viewers who are definitely. Well take them where we can get them. We will, we will. Do they have cable in racars. American greed. There they all watch themselves on american greed. They do, they do. Let me tell you about a couple other stocks to watch this morning. Pandora shares are coming under a bit of pressure. The companys quarter shares came under pressure after the forecast falls short. Down 9 . Baidu now gets 30 of its revenue from mobile services, up from about 20 previously. Then, the news of the morning, mr. Kernen had referenced earlier, this is media tech news. Britains bskyb paying 8. 3 billion in cash to buy Rupert Murdochs pay tv assets in germany and italy. Murdochs 21st century fox is also the top shareholders in bskyb. As a result, its going to have a cash infusion which may allow it to take the proceeds from that partial exit from europe and take it and put it you know where. Into his bid for time warner. Its happening over the next i heard that. Usually you say when you put it you know where, you know where to stick it. And what country is bskyb in . Bskyb is in britain. And this is in germany. Heres was going to happen. Speaking of white collar criminals, Rupert Murdoch, why didnt out put that in there . I didnt think of that, joe. You know where your mind is. Over the next few weeks, were getting Earnings Report from time warner. Youre getting Earnings Reports from news corp. , but its really 21st century fox. Depending on where those news reports check out, youll see the month of august to be a jockeying effort in terms of where shareholders are going to land on all this. I imagine time warner privately has been working on a plan to show the public probably for early september, depending on sort of where things stand with shareholders and how much pressure there is is to show what they can do independently. So i think this whole sort of game, it is a game, is going to begin in earnest. So youre suggesting both companies are going to try to make those numbers look as strong as possible . Everyone is going to try to look as strong as possible in the next two weeks. Then well have a an august behind the scenes jockeying with shareholders to decide who is winning. And then time warner may or may not come out with a public presentation about how well they can do independently. And then after all that, thats when and if you may see a new bid by mr. Murdoch in using some of this cash. And then the question becomes how high he can go. I imagine theres two bids in this. I imagine you raise and 96, 98, and then as they say, some bankers look to say on wall street, with one final bid, you get over like 102 or something and hope that puts it over the top. Andrew, in toerchls what time warner did earlier this week with changing some of the bylaws, where you cant call a meeting earlier, what does that do in terms of it makes it much more complicated and difficult to actually announce a meaningful proxy test or for the shareholders to win out in terms of being able to throw over the board. 100 true. Having said that, im of the view that that does not necessarily stop Rupert Murdoch from coming forward with a new bid and that unto itself can continue to put pressure on the company. We will see. Lets check on the markets this morning. Take a quick look at the futures. After a data kind of felt summery yesterday in terms of you know, theres a lot of results coming out. So it would be a time where people that have positions would be moving around. You can see it in individual issues, but the overall markets are feeling a little bit not dollar based quite yet. What is it, july something . 25th today, right . Yeah. The dog days are in august, usually, arent they . Yeah. I think youve the still got a few weeks. People do spread out. Well, youre leaving. Im leaving. Is that today . Today is your last day, right . I didnt even realize vacation you didnt realize vacation was after friday . No. Ive been worried about andrew. He gets manhattan affective disorder when he doesnt get his dose of jersey sunshine. Poor andrew. And how nice the people are out here and, you know, you didnt i know you miss it. Did you visit it temporarily at all yesterday or you were jersey free yesterday and today . I was jersey free yesterday. I may the urge, it could pull me over the bridge later today because i havent id be at least 24 hours out of the space. Thats like a fourday weekend for you. You should just drive part way across the George Washington bridge and then if anyone is following you, pull a uturn. Remember how they do that . You should do that just to get a quick little dose. I should. A lot of people do call it a dose when they come if you get halfway across the bridge, is that technically jersey . Technically jersey. In the lincoln tunnel, theres the line. Thats true. We could probably do it in the tunnel, but its probably more complicated to do the big swerve. Well, i dont think you can do it on the gw bridge any more. Joe, i may stop by to see your place in the afternoon just to give a hug before you take this vacation. You know, that would be fine. Stop by this afternoon. Were leaving at 11 00. So come on by. Were really not leaving at 11 00. You can stop by. Lets look at the oil markets today. 102. 11. Up 4 cents. 2. 5 on the tenyear. Take a quick look at the dollar. 1. 34. Thats almost time, sorkin, almost time. 1. 34. What are you waiting for . 1. 30. Im not paying 22 for a croissant. I cant. Youd rather pay 18. Yeah. And a little smidgenon of coffee. They call that coffee. What is that . And there is gold which is now below 1,300. Unfortunately, the geopolitical did you see russia . Yes. Is this for real . Thats what i was wondering. The story in the wall street journal today is that russia is firing on ukraine. Its not separatists. No. Theyre firing from russias borders, theyre saying. At ukrainian troops . Thats right. That this is now happening when does it become a Ukraine Russia war . This is the first step of us accusing them. Yeah, right. Lets talk about the other news out there, the gaza death toll has now passed 800. U. S. Secretary of state john kerry is pressing mediators. Martin fletcher joins us this morning from tel aviv. Martin, what can you tell us at this point . Becky, this seems to be building up into make or break days. John kerry, the secretary of state, is leaving cairo earlier in the afternoon to return to washington. Now, hes leaving behind a ceasefire proposal, which has been leaked. Not sure exactly what the details are, but from israeli leaks, it appears to be that hes proposing a oneweek ceasefire beginning sunday during which the the various sides will deal with the key issues remaining, most on israel will is side that they want to continue dealing with the tunnels and destroy those Tunnel Networks from the political sides. They want the siege in gaza lifted. But its not clear what will happen now. The Israeli Cabinet has delayed a meeting by a couple of hours this afternoon. It appears theyre waiting for the First Response to that ceasefire proposal from hamas. If he agrees to the proposal, if hamas agrees, it appears that israel will also agree and then well hopefully have a week of silence during which they can work out all the remaining issues. So thats the stage where we are now in the ceasefire proposals looking good. But the fighting is intensifying. But theres a shifting in the focus today to the west bank. Last night, there were demonstrations in the west bank, a calamity of the crossing from close to jerusalem. Between 10,000 and 20,000 palestinians at nighttime marched across the borders. They were met with israelis who stopped them. There were gunfire, rubber bullets, tear gas, a real melee. Today were waiting to see wal happen after friday prayers, which is the main prayer of the week. Hamas has called for an on the west bank calling on west Bank Palestinians to rally to begin another uprising in israel to coincide with their fight in gaza. So israel, of course, is very concerned about that happening. So were looking at two things today in particular. The potential of a ceasefire agreement and potential of the opposite, the fighting spreading to the west bank. Becky. That sounds like a fairley a lot of material trying to adjust. If youre sitting in the situation where hamas is calling on the west bank to start an uprising like this, how serious can we take this idea of a ceasefire . Well, its a matter of what comes first. The ceasefire, if there was one, would presumably water down the cause on the west bank farther. Where you have an uprising, it is peace and quiet in gaza. But it does seem to be an either or choice at the moment. If theres a ceasefire, looking good on both sides. If theres not a ceasefire, looking bad on both sides. Now to the interview that were all talking about this morning, Steve Liesman sitting down with president obama late yesterday, all the way out on the west coast. Among the topics, discuss taxes. What im saying is that companies flock to the United States in part because they benefit from the best University System in the world, the best infrastructure, although id like to see it be a little better on production. Infrastructure. There are a whole range of benefits that help to create value, create profits. For you to continue to benefit from that entire architecture that helps you thrive, but move your technical address simply to avoid paying taxes is neither fair nor is it something thats going to be good for the country over the longterm. And this is basically taking advantage of tax provisions that are technically legal, but i think most people would say if youre doing business here, if youre basically still an American Company, then youre simply changing your Mailing Address in order to avoid paying taxes, then youre really not doing right by the country and by the American People. You said a bunch of times that getting the wealthy to pay a little bit more, and weve succeeded in raising that top tax rate to 39 or rolling back, is there a limit there . Is there a limit to how much you believe the government should take from an individual in terms of a top tax rate . You know, i dont have a particular number in mind. But if you look at our history, we are still well below what, you know, the marginal tax rates were under Dwight Eisenhower or all the way up through Ronald Reagan. Tax rates are still lower for most folks. And what that means is that we probably can make some more headway than closing loopholes that folks take advantage of as opposed to necessarily raising marginal rates. Joining us now on the right or in the right no, it says on the right, republican political strategist joe watkins of former white house aide. I dont have any opinion either way. A former white house aide under president george h. W. Bush. And on the left, someone that really is i dont know. We agree on so much more than we disagree on, zimmy, jimmy williams. Both are cnbc contributors. Jimmy is i think a little bit confused about where he stands on these things. I dont expect much of an argument here. Gentlemen, did you see what . Did you read the whole transcript, jimmy and joe . Oh, yes. I did, i did. All right. I think the president well, let me just say that im tired of dividing and preparing for 20 for november. I saw a couple of things that we could agree on and that is we both want the president , democrats, republicans want the United States to be the best place in business. We want business to come here because its the place they want to be. They dont even want to leave because its the most competitive place to operate in the private sector and then from which all good things come, jobs, tax revenues, building infrastructure. Cant we agree on that, jimmy . No . Absolutely. But i dont think anyone is talking about american businesses leaving. Its simply how much of their profits they store offshore. But there are people that build facilities elsewhere, either theyre delivering thats right. But theyre all delawarebased corporations. So lets not act like theyre leaving the country. Theyre not. Okay. Some of them actually are either doing business over there for a reason because its not i mean, jimmy, you do not think that our corporate rate is too high as it is . I do, i do. And michael steele, who is speaker boehners spokesman said yesterday in the Washington Post that under president obama, the u. S. Has the highest public tax rate in the developed world. Its the same rate that it was in bush and clinton. Im not sure why its president obamas tax rate. Im of the school of thought that its too high. The world has moved i the world agrees. I understand the lap occur. Why you then dont start you know, its not no, no, its not uncompetitive in the last ten years. Gentlemen, the president of the United States set a Corporate Tax bill to the congress four years ago to take it down 28 and what did they do . Nothing. They did nothing with it. The president of the United States is on the record for the corporate rate being 28 . I happen to be of the school of thought that Corporate America shouldnt be of one rate. On the individual side, you pay five rates why cant Corporate America pay five rates. Make it 10, 20, 30, i dont care what it is. Jimmy, what the president is trying to do is hes trying to punish companies. If youre a company and you see an increasing amount of your revenue coming from overseas sources, it makes sense for you to try and maximize profits for your shareholders. It makes sense for you allowing the foreign entity to buy your operations and reincorporate so you dont get hit twice. We have the highest effective Corporate Tax rate in the world. Even our three largest thats not true. It is true. No, its not. Its we lowered ours in the developed world. But at the same time, we ought to be able to compete. And our folks are looking for way toes compete to joe, why is there no agreement that, joe, it sounds like jimmy and joe both want lower rates. Why dont we have lower rates . Jimmy, you just said there was a proposal put forth. Why has that not been accepted . Well, of course, im hoping that this fall when we are able to elect effectively a Republican Senate as well as a returning of Republican House, we might have a chance in the next session to get something done. But isnt here theres a problem with that. Chairman camp of the ways and Means Committee put out a tax bill. Hits entire party pooh poohed it. Thets no, were not sure sure what chairman camp put out. Why . Its a remarkably progressive tax bill. So if the house cant pass their own bill, dont blame if the president cant even get harry reid to do trade initiatives but neither side is doing what the leaders of the the entire city of washington, d. C. Is completely dysfunctional. My point is, the president put it at 28 . The Republican House has done nothing and the Democratic Senate has done nothing. So in the terms of the timing other than oh, really . How much time has he spent on minimum wage versus others things. Thats right. The president has not led on Corporate Tax reform. Thats exactly right. By the way, Howard Schultz will be on your show today at 9 30. The amazon number troubles me. Microsoft laying off 16,000 people troubles. Pe 52 straight months of job growth. Im pretty sure that Corporate America is doing pretty good right now, guys. Is the gdp seem like its doing pretty good, too, jimmy . No, id like for participation. How about a labor force participation, jimmy . And youre exact lit rye. Lowering unemployment number you might be in the stock market feeling flush and a time of people attribute that to the fed and its hurting income inequality and everything else. Are you feeling flush, jimmy inspect do you think you can go out and poll people and say things are going great in this country right now . No, no. I dont feel that. I think many in the country obviously wrong direction, right direction on the economic front. Most people would say its not going that way. But what i can tell you is were not shedding 800,000 jobs a month as we were guys, how do we get Corporate Tax reform . If both sides say theyre for it, what has to happen . I hate to say this and this is going to sound pessimistic at 6 21 in the morning. Until barack obama i