good morning welcome to "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. i'm sara eisen >> i'm wilfred frost good morning to you from me as well u.s. futures pointing higher on wall street as tensions ease on the north korean peninsula. up 40 points on the dow. first breaking news overnight. two more corporate leaders are stepping down from president trump's american manufacturing council. the ceos of intel and under armour announcing their departures the rez zig anything that signae wake of president trump's handling of a white national rally over the weekend brian krzanich released a blog post saying i resigned from the council to call attention to the serious harm our divided political climate is causing to critical issues. crzanich and plank join the ceo of merck who resigned yesterday. >> these are big statements, coming 12 hours after frazier decided to step down after the response to charlottesville. clearly ceos are struggling to figure out the best course of action here. they don't like to be involved in politics, but because they were dragged into these councils in a sort of pro-business friendly presidency, it's not a clear cut answer i know you had the dimon quote i had denise morrison of campbells soup condemning the violence, the hatred, bigotry, saying we still need to have a voice. so i will stay on this council >> two key things to bring it back to the market the first is a negative tweet from president trump aimed at your country has much less of a negative effect than it did the likes of the boeings and lockheeds earlier in his tenure. and the other thing jim cramer was on the money about yesterday, president trump's relationship with ceos does not matter so much for the stock market, so much for the economy as his relationship with republican leaders in congress on both sides. that's what we need to see improve in order to get tax reform done and in order to get healthcare reform. >> it's a pr issue >> exactly therefore i go back to what you say, you could be slightly surprised that you don't see louder statements from ceos. mr. frazier came out and did it, didn't damage his stock too much >> i would keep a running tally. merck, underarmer, int eunder a before that, elon musk disney's bob iger. travis kalanick of uber. they have all independently decided whether it's for the benefit of customers, employees, public pressure -- >> kevin plank has been in and out of this debate before and had heat for not having done so. >> before he said president trump is an asset, that sort of made athletes angry. >> these departures after president trump did come out and increase the strength of rhetoric against it. slightly surprising they waited until that >> maybe it was the heat under armour stands for -- it doesn't want to get involved in politics maybe they were sick of the questions. the president did take aim at merck again following frazier's departure. he tweeted merck pharma is a lead ner hier in higher and higg prices, taking jobs out of the u.s. and bringing jobs back and lower prices merck had no comment we have more on this from eamon javers coming up later in terms of the political uproar, perhaps, i get that people are still angry that president trump took too long to come out and call it what it is and criticize racism as evil yesterday, but the uproar should be less today than yesterday given that he did come out and make that additional statement lots of criticism out there. you can still net-net be disappointed >> it took him 50 minutes to criticize one of the most high profile african-americans in this country and two days to criticize the kkk. >> i'm aware, but net-net everybody can still make their criticism. but today he has come out and done what people asked of him. >> he tried to quiet it. >> that's fine you can question that, and try if you're a psychoanalyst look at the tone in which he delivered that net-net, things have changed from yesterday north korea is backing off threats of firing missiles into the u.s. territory of guam kim jong-un says he is holding off while he waits to see what the u.s. does next he made those comments after inspecting north korean's plans for a missile attack that has helped markets. >> certainly signs of easing tensions on the korean peninsula pushing stocks higher. u.s. equity futures building on yesterday's gains. this morning futures are up for the dow 38 points. s&p futures are up 3 nasdaq futures are up 15 ten-year treasury note yield, we get retail sales which will be very key for this quarter's gdp number a mixed bag so far in terms of data. the ten-year yield is at 2.24. yields ticking higher. saw the financials shine in yesterday's session on that. >> asian equities, let's look at the board. shanghai comp up 0.5%. japan up a percent or so there was a weaker yen yesterday, but also the prospect of policy being tightened in light of strong gdp. south korea is closed today as is north korea, it is a national holiday for both the only national holiday they both share it is celebrating liberation and intense from victory over japan in world war ii. let's look at markets in europe. the markets that are open are higher not as high as yesterday france and germany gained a percent yesterday. today just slight gains. gdp at 0.6% today, expected at 0 0.7% the cpi for uk, just below the 2% target, 2.6% expected at 2.7% oil prices seem to be stabilizing just below $48 a barrel 47.66. brent remains firm above $50 a barrel moving fractionally as for the currency board. let's show you after a big move higher in the dollar versus the yen, which certainly signals the bigger move on wall street, we can see that continuing this morning. 110.39 reclaiming key levels there. up almost 0.75%. that a sign of weaker tensions on the korean peninsula. the dollar is stronger against the euro below 1.18 gold prices are backing off. not as much need for safe haven. bitcoin is way preferred cold prices down three quarters of a percent this morning. art hogan joins us this morning. >> good morning. >> what is the price action this morning and yesterday telling us got overdone on the selling last week >> i think it's much more of a sigh of relief we are hoping that calmer heads prevail and economic and diplomatic solutions can calm things down in north korea and certainly feels like the rhetoric has calmed down sabre rattling is more quiet i think we're getting new information, china is talking about taking steps in the first week of september in terms of cushing some imports that they bring in from north korea as they step towards that direction. i think it's a bit of a step back, and we get a chance to exhale here a bit and think about the fundamentals for a while. it was a good reminder, though, that geopolitical events can move this market 1.5% in a day especially at the elevated levels we're at here, 18 times forward earnings on the s&p 500, we have the opportunity for another event of that ilk to move us around what about those actual sizes of the moves, irrelevant whether up or down. we had decent moves last week and this week. does that concern you that it's pointing to a fact that we're near the top of the market do you think it's a simple fact that it's august volumes and light moves exaggerated? >> i think it's much more the latter i think that manifested itself if you look -- it was very orderly, if you will, 1% in the dow, 1.5% in the nasdaq and the s&p. but if you look under the hood, look at the small caps, mid caps, russell 2000, s&p maul sm caps and mid caps moved about 3% that's reflective of your point. it's august. low volumes can move the markets around in general it's not -- it's not so much the loft evaluations we're at, i certainly think it's the timing of this move and the fact that we just don't have the muscle memory for volatility it's been a long time since we've seen the market have a significant pull back. >> so what's your sense of the u.s. consumer? we'll get retail sales today and start to get a big rollout of retail earnings. thursday for walmart, but we'll get tj maxx, home depot. where are we in terms of consumer strength and what that means for the economy? >> it's interesting. heading into this second quarter, second quarter will be better for the consumer than the first quarter was. a lot of publicly traded names will do better they're coming in pretty reasonably valued. obviously the death of the american consumer has been playing out over the last 12 months everybody is getting amazon, everybody needs an omni channel presence and the ability to compete with amazon across the board. expectations are low i think we've got a reasonable set of opportunities here to see some surprises to the upside i would focus much more on the earnings than i would the retail sales report today i would look at a company like tj maxx, i think they have the ability to have some upside here as i do for the consumer discretionary names across the board. that's one of the groups, if you look at the groups thrown out with the -- not participating in the rally, it's been energy. it's been financials, certainly the consumer discretionary names. this could be an important week. >> art, thank you very much for joining us art hogan of wunderlich securities shares of pandora are getting a pop after the company just named a new ceo landon dowdy has the details and the name pandora tapping a video streaming guru to be the new chief. the music company naming robert lynch as ceo effective september 15th he was ceo of sling tv and led the company to being the leading on demand service. michael lynton also named to the board. the company struggling to compete with spotify and apple music. active users stand at 80 million, a far cry from spotify's 140 million. pandora shares hit a low of $6.60 a share in june. the stock is getting a bounce this morning of 3% in early trading. back over to you >> thank you very much. benchmark capital is threatening to block any attempts to sell uber shares to other investors. sources tell cnbc the firm wants to cap uber's board of eight people, eliminating three board seats created last summer including one still occupied by travis kalanick. this after the board was approached by three different investment proposals benchmark controls 20% of voting shares benchmark capital published an open letter to uber employees explaining the lawsuit against kalanick they warn that kalanick appears to have undermined the search for a new ceo, adding that it fears he is plotting his return to power at the ride-hailing campaign. several pieces of economic data to watch today. july retail sales. import prices are out at 8:30 a a.m. eastern 10:00 a.m., june business inventories, and the national association of home builders home depot, coach, tjx before the bell after the close, more retail, urban outfitters will be reporting. still ahead, xhchina blastig the u.s. over a trade crackdown. and president trump wants to e g t 'srica move again. thbibehe making on infrastructure when "worldwide exchange" comes right back your finances, your future. how do you solve this? you don't. you partner with a firm that advises governments and the fortune 500, and, can deliver insight person to person, on what matters to you. morgan stanley. or a little internet machine? it makes you wonder: shouldn't we get our phones and internet from the same company? that's why xfinity mobile comes with your internet. you get up to 5 lines of talk and text at no extra cost, so all you pay for is data. see how much you can save. choose by the gig or unlimited. xfinity mobile. a new kind of network designed to save you money. call, visit, or go to xfinitymobile.com. welcome back to "worldwide exchange." good morning to you. let's look at the futures action pointing higher once again by 0.2% the main reason for gains yesterday and again for today is ongoing easing of tensions between the u.s. and north korea. that led to a decent bounce yesterday. continuing with a little less steam today. yesterday we did get 0.6% gain for the dow. about 1% for the s&p 1.4% for the nasdaq. within the s&p, 10 out of 11 sectors were positive. the only negative sector was energy why? oil prices slipped yesterday today pretty much flat slightly in the red earlier. they've jumped a bit to 0.2% of gains for wti crude at 47.7. >> couldn't help the gains keep going. president trump set to sign an executive order today to speed up federal review of the environmental impact of infrastructure projects. the white house says the goal is to peare down the process on whether the project can proceed to one decision. he will take part onin a discussion on infrastructure this afternoon it's a signal that despite the noise, despite the investigations, despite the counsel and response to charlotteville, he's continuing his mission to get taxes on the table for the senate and house, and for infrastructure spending, all before the end of year it's an ambitious one, they have to figure out the debt ceiling and keeping the government from shutting down. >> the attention and agenda is there, but there's a big hurdle to get it done yesterday president trump signed an executive memo authorizing his top trade investigator to investigate china into theft of intellectual property let's go to eunice yoon in beijing with all the details for us >> reporter: the chinese government is taking a tough position of its own. the chinese commerce ministry responded to trump's trade directive today saying the u.s. should observe trade promises and not become a destroyer of multilateralism. the ministry warned the u.s. it should act cautiously on the trade investigation and said that beijing would absolutely take measures to defend its rights if the u.s. harms bilateral ties the chinese state media has been threatening retaliation, and today xinhua said the probe would have lose-lose prospects and called it a unilateralists bearing of fangs that would hurt both countries >> eunice, thank you very much for that. up next, warren buffett made a big bold move on general elek thic electric what he did when we come back. ♪ ♪ ♪ one laugh, and hello sensitive bladder. ring a bell? then you have to try always discreet. i didn't think protection this thin could work. but the super absorbent core turns liquid to gel. for incredible protection... snap! so it's out of sight... ...and out of mind. always discreet. for bladder leaks. i've discovered incredible bladder leak underwear that hugs every curve. can't tell i'm wearing it, can you? always discreet underwear. for bladder leaks. let's get you up to speed on the market action. the currency market, a calmer tone strength in the dollar versus the yen. that's what people look for in terms of risk ap tide. t appetite. the pair was moving the other way last week. that jives with what we've seen on wall street, 0.75% higher for the u.s. dollar against the yen. indicating a strong open here. >> indeed. some big name investors making bold stock moves last quarter. leslie picker hat detas the det. >> reporter: hedge funds paring back in banks. it appears the trump trade is fading appalossa took huge positions in pharmaceuticals during the fourth quarter and in the second quarter david tepper eliminated mylan, teva and pfizer john also exited stakes in the pharma and bio tech companies it held starboard and third point sold shares in baxter banks were unloved by hedge funs during the second quarter. soros sold out of goldman sachs and moore capital eliminated morgan stanley third point dissolved its stake in jpmorgan and duquesne got rid of bank of america on the flip side, berkshire hathaway disclosed a stake in synchrony financial. he sold out of ge during the quarter. we saw a lot of hedge funs take money off the table in f.a.n.g.s, es ppecially in amazn tiger pared back their holdings in f.a.n.g jana took a stake in blue apron. there was snap jana, third point, appalossa and moore sold out of snap in the quarter. >> this move in banks is fascinating. the bigger pullback they experienced was end of q1, start of q2. the timing of when this happened is the secret we want to know the answer to, as to whether they decide to go back in again. >> that's the question with these things they're delayed information, as of june 30th you have to think of the move in the three months prior to june 30th as to what they were thinking during that time. it's interesting, as we pored through the different filings, there were certain winners and losers more people interested in b of a, and jpmorgan. appalossa took a big stake in wells fargo, one of the more beaten down banks. it's clear sentiment has shifted with the banks that is something that i think lasts longer >> what about sentiment overall on the broader market and appetite for risk? i feel like we heard a lot of high profile bearish calls is the money backing that up >> absolutely. one thing we heard from ray dalio last week, he advised investors to put 5%, 10% of money in gold. we saw that in the 13-f filing that came out last week. we didn't see the gold exposure, because that's a commodity, becaubut we did see him take exposure in gold etfs. a 20-year bond also etf which indicates skepticism about what's going on geopolitically as well as politically in the market >> funny they're buying all these etfs >> yeah. especially bridgewater it's very popular among macro funds, it's a way for them to get exposure >> i love it you could never tell what their currency positions are we need a bitcoin etf. >> good idea >> they're working on it >> thank you very much for joining us. still ahead, a look at the top stories a and rouand a roun the global market picture. thanks for loading, sweetie. ...oh, burnt-on gravy? ...gotta rinse that. nope. no way. nada. really? dish issues? throw it all in. new cascade platinum powers through... even burnt-on gravy. nice. cascade. rhetoric sending global stocks higher breaking overnight, two more high profile ceos leaving trump's manufacturing council. the reasons and the implications straight ahead. and crowd surfing without leaving your seat. but can snapchat's news feature help lift the stock? it's tuesday, august 15, 2017. you're watching "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. ♪ good morning welcome back to "worldwide exchange" on cnbc. i'm sara eisen >> i'm wilfred frost >> new this morning, north korea backing off threats of firing missiles into the u.s. territory of guam. north korean leader kim jong-un says he is holding off while he wants to see what the u.s. does next he made though comments after inspecting north korea's plans for a missile attack. signs of easing tensions on the korean peninsula are pushing stocks higher. u.s. futures, which gained a percent for the s&p yesterday, more for the nasdaq, less for the dow, they're pointing higher again, in a bit of a muted fashion. 42 points higher for the dow 0.3% for the u.s. markets. ten-year treasury note, last year saw some buying, seeing the opposite happening this week yields above 2.2%. as for asia overnight, saw the strength translate into japanese equities. up 1.1%. shanghai comp closed higher, and hong kong gave a bit back, but rallied strongly the day before. as for the early action in europe, a mixed bag of economic data german gdp was a highlight >> highlight relative to history, the best quarter for the last few years, but below expectations >> german dax up 0.3%. green across the rest of the continent. >> following a strong day as yesterday. broader markets for you. oil prices which were the real standout decliner yesterday, down 2.5%. so energy was the only sector out of 11 in the negative territory. dollar board, across the board deali seeing decent moves. the euro weaker, the pound 0.4% lower. cpi above the 2% target, 2.6%, but below expectations of 2.7% gold prices, good woeek last week, but yesterday slipped 0.8% two more corporate leaders are stepping down from president trump's american manufacturing council. the ceos of intel and under armour announcing their departure. eamon javers is in new york with more i could not figure out whether it was related to charlottesville or what. i think it showed how hard of a decision this is, and how tortured of a pr statement these kinds of statements have to be >> we were reading a bunch of these during the course of the day yesterday. a number of ceos put out statements that seemed to be about charlottesville. the language was so vague, you couldn't make out what they were talking about. that's an indication of how hard and toughly scrubbed some of these statements are by the pr department a number of ceos remained on the manufacturing council saying it's important they have a voice. also a number decided not to remain on that council in the wake of kenneth frazier's decision from merck to depart the council in the wake of the president's handling of the racist violence in charlottesville, virginia over the weekend. last night president trump arrived in manhattan where he will spend the next 48 hours or so at trump tower. he fired off another angry tweet at merck yesterday in the wake of frazier's decision to depart the council. merck pharma is a leader in higher and higher drug prices, at the same time taking jobs out of the u.s last night we saw the decisions of two more ceos to depart that manufacturing council including the ceo of under armour who said i'm appreciative of the opportunity to serve but decided to step down from the council. i love our country and country and will focus on inspiring any person who can do anything through unity, diversity and inclusion. the ceo of intel making a similar decision saying i resigned because i want to make progress, while many in washington seem more concerned about attacking anyone who disagrees with them, we should honor not attack those who stood for equality and other cherished american values. i hope this will change and i remain willing to serve when it does those two statements from intel and under armour we'll wait and see if other ceos on the council put out statements today as many as four have said they will stay on the council, including the chairman of general electric and others, who said it's important for them to have a voice in manufacturing policy in the united states. >> the latest two resignations, they came after president trump's updated response to the weekend events what was your take on exactly what he said did he go far enough in terms of what critics wanted to hear? does it surprise you they dec e decided to resign after president trump went further >> i think it's significant they did decide to do that after the president did a political do-over yesterday. he had the opportunity to address the country about this on saturday. was criticized for not specifically calling out the white nationalists, the kkk, neo-nazis and other hate groups and saying there was vims provopr violence provoked on both sides. the president on monday doing that over again. in that statement he did name those groups specifically, calling them out that seems to be sort of what his critics were asking him to do his critics were complaining it was just several days too late for the president to do that interesting that the ceos would make their resignation after the president cleaned up the political mess >> question on the counsel councils, from your reporting, does the president listen to them or is it a photo op >> the president of the afl-cio said they have not even had a meeting yet. a lot of these councils were developed early in the year when there was hope and optimism for a manufacturer infrastructure program, and that the ceos would have input on that that's a valuable opportunity for any corporate ceo to be at the president's side offering ideas and suggestions. but this is a president who likes to be around ceos. he likes his fellow chief executives he likes those big events in the east room where he's surrounded by big, powerful corporate folks. but it's not clear they're getting the opportunity to have their message heard and have the input they want. >> maybe it's issue by issue it feels like there's a lot of people working on the economic team that talk to these ceos about whether it's infrastructure or tax. >> eamon, more importantly for things like tax reform, did yesterday's extended statement from the president placate some of the disappointment republican senators had expressed >> the loud republican senators point to the statement and say the president did what we finally asked him to do. a lot criticized him over the weekend. senators orrin hatch coming out with critical statements that's a problem politically for the white house as they go into the fall you mentioned tax reform they have a lot of things they want to accomplish at this white house over the next couple of months they'll need those republican senators the president has been feuding with mitch mcconnell, the republican leader in the senate. that's difficult for the president going into an era where he will need a lot of republican votes >> thank you very much >> you bet now back to the markets. the summer has been anything but ret h red hot for consumer stayples many of these stocks have big international exposure, so as tensions rise with north korea, could these stocks with a risky bet? let's get to landon dowdy. >> we continue looking at consumer staples these are the global products that everyone uses like food, beverages and household items. these companies created global brands but recent geopolitical concerns like tensions between the u.s. and north korea have shaken the markets and could be a risk to companies with strong sales in the region firms with the most exposure, kimberly clark gets 20% of its revenue from the asia pacific region colgate-palmolive have 20% estee lauder 8% reven18% revenu exposure outside the u.s kroger, cvs health have 100% exposure in the u.s., but these stocks are more likely the flight to safety in an uncertain global environment back to you. >> also right for deal making, some of these companies. taylor swift won her widely buzzed about trial against a colorado radio deejay. a jury found the former deejay assaulted and battered the pop star awarding swift the $1 in damages she was looking for t swift said my hope was to help those voices who should also be heard. swift said she will donate to organizations that will help sexual assault victims help themselves >> had she sought more than a dollar, would that have made it harder for her to get the verdict in her direction i doubt it would have done you would hope guilty or not guilty is a black and white things a opposed to related to the funds. interesting she only went for $1 she was trying to prove the point rather than get the money. the mooch making his late night debut last night anthony scaramucci sat down with stephen colbert to talk reeprie and bannon he said bannon is behind the leaks in the white house >> who is leaking now? is it steve bannon >> well, i've said that. >> say it now. say it to these people is steve bannon a leaker >> i said he was obviously i got caught tape saying he was. i have no problem saying that. >> he will be gone in a week >> that's up to the president. >> what does the mooch think if it was up to me, he would be gone >> i should have said according to the mooch, he says steve bannon is behind the leaks >> really leaning in there to talk to him. >> he was. when he came out, he got a mooch reception as if he's become a character. he's -- >> he's really milking it. started instagram last week. tweeting up a storm. went on stephanopoulos's show on sunday he's still out there >> very much so. sfwroo produ producers of "the walking dead" are suing the network amc saying they have been holding back a significant amount of money that would have been given to top producers potential damages could reach $1 billion. >> i never got into that show. >> me neither. >> it's done well. >> the "squawk box" gang is weirdly obsessed with it. >> are they? we'll let them have that one we can take "game of thrones." snapchat's new foeature, crowd surf, uses artificial intelligence to get snaps of the event and string them together crowd surf lets users flip through different perspectives while the audio plays seamlessly it's similar to a successful start-up in the uk perhaps snapchat is copying rather than being copied. making the case for trade deficits the must-reads are coming up. as we head out, european stocks trading this morning higher, we're seeing about a third of a percent gain for the orwi ehaax and across the board. "wlddexcnge" will be right back i love you, couch. you give us comfort. and we give you bare feet, backsweat, and gordo's... everything. i love you, but sometimes you stink. soft surfaces trap odors. febreze fabric refresher cleans them away for good. because the things you love the most can stink. and plug in febreze to keep your whole room fresh for up to 45 days. breathe happy with febreze. and i've never seen a better time to refinance your home, than this summer. why? because right now we're seeing our average customer save $20,000. but with the fed already talking about raising rates, this window will not last for long. lendingtree is the only place to compare up to 5 real refinance offers against your current mortgage - for free. are you sure you have the best rate? take 3 minutes and find out right now. because at lendingtree, when banks compete, you win. you myour joints...thing for your heart... or your digestion... so why wouldn't you take something for the most important part of you... your brain. with an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is now the number one selling brain health supplement in drug stores nationwide. prevagen. the name to remember. welcome back to "worldwide exchange." good morning i'm sara eisen here with wilfred frost. time for some must-read stories catching our attention my pick is titled the u.s. trade deficit is a good thing. i picked it because it was penned by the virginia republican senator james langford the united states purchases more goods from mexico, mexican workers become wealthier, which means they will be able to purchase more goods from the united states. a growing economy in mexico means that mexican workers have less reason to immigrate illegally into the u.s while u.s. consumers and businesses buying more cheap goods from mexico, it gives us greater purchasing power to buy more things and reinvest in our own economy. he says free, fair trade is a win-win scenario i picked it because it's a republican from oklahoma the white house would probably say they're all for free trade as well, they just want to make it fairer. it dosdoes highlight a split wii the republican party on how tough they want to be with trading partners like mexico >> i liked this piece. you and i debated about whether a deficit is a good or bad thing. it's a good outline where it can be good and bad. >> it was interesting how he painted it politically, he was talking about illegal immigration, sort of other ideas that the electorate can hang on. >> overall, still worth trying to renegotiate these things. >> modernize >> the rhetoric of always blaming a deficit is the wrong way to go about criticizing them certain details need to be changed, if you end up with a deficit still, it doesn't matter >> my pick is in the "new york times. andrew ross sorkin's piece andrew writes outraged in private, many ceos fear the wrath of the president and he writes it's a fair critique of the president that he didn't condemn the bigoted acts over the weekend, and call them out for what they were while ceos may call out the hate will they have the fortitude to call out the president sums up what we've been discussing all morning in terms of condemnation of the action over the weekend from various ceos and pr departments, but have some gone as far as calling out the president himself. the thing i was going ask andrew this morning, given the extension of what the president said yesterday afternoon, does he change that conclusion? has he heard enough already? or does he think ceos have heard enough to not now call out the president? we'll await that answer coming up on "squawk box. >> and can frazier of merck, who stepped off the council, stepped down in a sharply worded statement, under armour ceo and intel ceo, a little more wishy-washy. they made a strong statement by stepping off the council, more having to do with the fact they didn't want to get embroiled in politics and do right by their companies, and focus on improving american manufacturing. >> andrew is ready for a preview of "squawk box" and to finish this conversation, we did a mention of our must-reads, and picked your article. the question i was going to follow up with, following the president's extension of his rhetoric yesterday, does that change the debate? do you think that will stop ceos -- >> you mean the doubling down on what he said about frazier at the end of the day >> no -- well, both. do you think we'll get more statements from ceos today >> as we've seen historically now, the ceos have taken their time to the degree they'll say anything and they're looking to do this in pairings basically. always better do it as a crowd so i do think it's possible we could see a couple more come off. as i spoke to people yesterday privately, most of them were very fearful of coming out and publicly saying anything and many of them still stuck with the argument i'd prefer to have a seat at the table we'll see whether that holds though i will say unlike the paris accord or the immigration ban or any of those issues, which really seem to rile many of them privately, this was at another level. so perhaps we will see more. >> it's a tough balancing act that these ceos have to do on one hand, if they want to affect policy. some of these things are things they've been waiting for for a long time. on the other, how much of a liability is it to stand by the president and implicitly endorse his response to charlottesville and everything else they don't agree with >> to the extent you talk about the liability, on the kevin plank side of things, you could make a commercial case that it was potentially a liability. on the other end, intel less so. i think that was a personal decision merck, i think that was a personal decision. i think most of the ceos i spoke to yesterday who were even thinking about this issue think about it as a personal one rather than a business one >> great stuff >> we'll talk about this and much more on "squawk box." >> the debate will continue on qux sq "squawk box." futures suggest it will be another strong session we'll get yorey r u adfothe trading day ahead when "worldwide exchange" comes right back hey, i've got the trend analysis. hey. hi. hi. you guys going to the company picnic this weekend? picnics are delightful. oh, wish we could. but we're stuck here catching up on claims. but we just compared historical claims to coverages. but we have those new audits. my natural language api can help us score those by noon. great. see you guys there. we would not miss it. watson, you gotta learn how to take a hint. i love to learn. your privacy makes you mytn number 1 place to go number 2. i love you, but sometimes you stink. febreze air effects doesn't just mask, it cleans away odors. because the things you love the most can stink. and try febreze small spaces to clean away odors for up to 30 days. breathe happy with febreze. welcome back to "worldwide exchange." joining us now is michael gapen from barclays. good morning to you. first an international question and what it means for the u.s. economy. great gdp data out of japan recently germany's this morning was the best for a couple years, and a weaker dollar. does that support the case for the u.s. economy but this time because of foreign demand as opposed to domestic? >> it does the dollar used to be a major headwind for the u.s. economy in 2014 and 2015, even into the middle part of last year that is reversing. so from headwind to tailwind, there is the story i think in the second half of the year the weaker dollar should support trade it should support import prices. you're right the really big story has not been so much what's happening in the u.s., but what's happening outside the u.s. it's the better growth story in europe and japan and other areas that is filtering through. the dollar is moving in response >> as for the last two days, and last week of trading off headlines around north korea and heightened rhetoric, what have we learned about the way the market is taking geopolitical risk what gets investors jittery? what gets them relief? >> from my point of view, the volatility around the north korea story is the market doesn't have a lot of worry now. i don't see a tremendous risk that that escalates into something that we should be worried about. the market is just looking for direction and in the absence of any kind of meaningful news, it's trading off rumor and speculation. it will be moving higher i'm not surprised to see it opening stronger again today just from my point of view, not a lot of volume. so the volatility that we saw wasn't on a lot of volume. em was doing well even when we were worried about problems in north korea. i think it's the market looking for direction and noise and headlines. just a late summer story from my point of view. >> 30 seconds left 20 seconds left. key data point for you this week >> we've got some import price data today retail sales nothing major. a lot of data, but nothing major. the key point is the fed minutes. there i just think it's going to be hard for the fed to turn dovish until it starts the balance sheet yrun-up. >> michael gapen, thank you very much that's it for "worldwide ch." thks for joining us. "squawk box" is is nenext researchers of technologies that one day, you will. some call them the best of the best. some call them veterans. we call them our team. back from the brink. north korea's leader delaying a decision on firing missiles towards guam experts warn he could reverse course at any time. back at home, two more ceos are leaving the president's manufacturing council. and retail results, home depot stoet reporet to report we'll bring you the numbers from wall street. it's tuesday august 15 -- the ides of august -- "squawk box" begins right now live from new york where business never sleeps, this is "squawk box. ♪ good morning welcome to "squawk box" on cnbc. i'm andrew ross sorkin along with joe kernen and melissa lee. becky quick is off today look at the equity futures at this hour. the dow would open about 40 points higher. s&p about 4 points higher. the nasdaq a little over 16 points let's look at overnight in asia, a nikkei up over 1%. shanghai composite up as well. hang seng off marginally in european markets, looking at green arrows we should mention markets in greece and italy closed for assumption day i won't make assumptions about that a quic