Transcripts For CNBC Squawk Box 20170323

We dont need to dits cuscus things. Were on the same page. I need you here some other days, when the other guy is sitting there. He shut off my commuters. Did he do this . This is work from the inside. Ill help you get in. Okay. We will. Steve is with us for the hour. Weve been watching the u. S. Equity futures this morning, after the markets ended on a mixed note yesterday, similar story today. Yesterday we watched the averages slowly, after some weakness at the open, well see things even out. Calm trading throughout the day despite the attacks in the uk and despite concerns about whether or not the healthcare reform bill would get passed. The average closed around the session highs. Right now dow futures are indicated down by two points. S p futures indicated up by one. And the nasdaq up by 1 1 2. Overnight in asia, the nikkei was up by 0. 25 . Slightly higher for the hang seng and shanghai composite. In europe, in the early trade, after everything that we were watching so closely yesterday, the attacks in london, you can see the ftse this morning down by just 0. 1 . Dax is higher by just over 0. 1 . Cac is weaker. This morning crude oil prices, were watching, too. Crude settled down 0. 4 yesterday. That was the lowest level since late november. Picked up a bit of ground this morning. Wti up to 48. 41 a barrel. Fed chair janet yellen will give opening remarks at a conference in washington at 8 45 a. M. Eastern. Minneapolis fed president Neel Kashkari is speaking at that event. Dallas fed president , rob kaplan, is talking about the economy and Monetary Policy at a gathering in chicago this evening. As for data, weekly jobless claims at 8 30 eastern, followed by the february new home sales at 10 00. Antiterrorism officials in the uk have made seven arrests in the investigation to yesterdays terror attack outside parliament. Willem marx joins us with more. Reporter seven arrests, six addresses across the country in london and birmingham and elsewhere were searched by police last night. 29 injured yesterday. 7 of them still being treated in hospital in critical condition. The attacker came across Westminster Bridge behind me in speed in a car mowing down pedestrians. One woman was forced into the river thames behind me. He then proceeded on foot having crashed that vehicle inside the parliamentary estate, the grounds around the palace of westminster where he attacked one Police Officer with a knife that man sadly succumb to his injuries. The attacker shot three times by armed police, at which point the incident parliament was on lockdown for several hours. Last night theresa may speaking publicly saying this was an attack on the center of british democracy. The london mayor here with a defiant tone saying brits will not be cowed by terrorism. Willem, thank you very much. We appreciate that update. We know that youre watching things closely for us. We will continue to check this out this morning. Our thanks to willem. Been there enough times to be very familiar with that area. Walking back and forth across that bridge a lot of times. Right across from big ben, and then you walk up the street eye of london, the museums are there. Really it hits home. Exactly. Our top story in the u. S. , republicans scrambling to secure votes for todays healthcare, a vote late last night the white house reportedly expecting to tweak things. Kayla tausche is down there with more. Mark meadows, his tone was different. All of a sudden it was we want to work together, we want to get somewhere. That i dont know how these negotiations work. Maybe it is really you stake out this position to get what you want, pretend you will never budge and maybe it is a negotiating tactic. Do you think this passes the day given what happened late yesterday . I think its a guess at this point if the white house and house leadership can make the changes you talked about. You referenced the chairman of the House Freedom caucus, the Largest Group of holdouts in this whole situation. The chairman of that group last night at various points, he said they would hopefully get there, he wanted to get to yes. Even at one point that they had an agreement in principle. That is not different from the tone he struck throughout the course of the negotiations. But it is quite different from other members of that caucus that he has differed with. At 11 00 p. M. Last night, which is an eternity in legislative time, the spokesperson for the group tweeted there is no deal yet. Many members still had issues with the text. The white house will keep pitching this. The president and Vice President will meet with the House Freedom caucus at the white house following a meeting with top staff yesterday. As they move to placate this conservative faction more moderate republicans seem to be defecting. Charlie dent of pennsylvania in havent days said he opposed it. If we do Something Different, it is hard to do it right. I will be quite blunt with you, twothirds of this bill is exactly what i think is right. A third has been in negotiation. Thats what you get with a compromise. Thats what you get with a compromise. The market shrugged off a lack of compromise yesterday. But when you look at some of the statements of the 20some republicans that still oppose this bill, they say things like i cannot support this right now, or in its current form, or at present. Its unclear how far the white house can go to actually move to win them over and what the sticking points are. For each member of congress it seems to be Something Different. Were deep in the weeds here. What i gleaned from what you said, while some of the conservative guys want to lore the benefits that are required, are some of the moderates saying they want to keep those in there . Now theyre sounding like some of the senators, who you will have another problem with if it passes here. If you push this bill too far to placate the members of the house, the senate will have a really tough time. Shes talking about in the house there are moderate members. And the other thing, kayla, i dont know why making sort of less requirements in healthcare, i dont know why that violates the byrd rule, its not budgetary or something . I think youre referencing what Chuck Schumer said yesterday. The republicans promised phase two and three. Phase two being what tom price will be doing in terms of making rules, relieving regulatory burdens for the Insurance Companies and other companies that operate in this space. Phase three is what theyre calling the robust legislative process. Senator schumer tried to argue last night because this is a comprehensive program and reconciliation is one part of it, we should treat this in its entirety and that the senate will put up a fight on that. Its unclear whether there are claws to that argument but its something he wanted to put out before the vote. We dont have a cbo score on the change to the bill. It was supposed to come out at some point yesterday, last night. But you could expect criticism if members of the house are expected to vote on something that either has not gotten a fresh cbo score or gets one that comes out right before the vote and they have not really had time to sift through it and figure out what this will cost but have to vote on it any way. One thing i wondered about, it sounds like theres a carrot and stick approach with the white house offering carrots to bring more people on board. Ive been waiting for the sticks and tweets. Is there a point where individual congressmen get pressured from tweets from the white house they may not want to deal with if this doesnt go as planned . I think the stick nature was when the president came to capitol hill on tuesday and threat ened congressman meadows and others who wanted to vote against this saying in essence they would be losing their majority in 20 18 if they chose to vote against this. There are two aspects to this. On one handsome members of the Freedom Caucus say its a loselose situation. We lose the majority if we vote this down or we lose the majority if we vote this in and its not popular and people dont like this. On the other hand republicans are saying good luck for the president getting a border wall or a tax reform which i dont support if they go against me on Something Like this which i cant support idealicall icallo cant support. The president has not been tweeting but found ways to turn the knife. And from what im hearing it hasnt necessarily been working. You know, he certainly likes to win. I cant imagine if this doesnt work out. Not nice to fool mother nature. There will be hell to pay. The twitter storm will start after that. Did cruz have ted cruz supposedly had a fancy way of getting around the byrd rule, didnt he . Getting what conservatives wanted . That would be amazing if ted cruz came in on a white horse to save this deal for the president , wouldnt it . Joe, being on capitol hill yesterday, senator cruz was sprinting back and forth between the two chambers. He was in a meeting in one of the house buildings yesterday with the Freedom Caucus in the afternoon. Some reporters tried to ask limb questions afterwards. No dice there. He has been working both sides of this. Kayla, thank you. Dont go to lunch. Yeah. Be ready. Dont ill order pizza or something. Stare at twhafr whatever you millennials yu s use . Iphone, blackberry no blackberry. What do you snap on . I have a smartphone, not a dumb phone. Its a smartphone. Very good. Thank you. Lets find out how that healthcare bill and trumps other proposed policies could continue playing out in the markets today and beyond. Joining us is vinnay panday from ubs wealth management. Our guest host is steve grasso. Lets talk about this. I was surprised to see how calmly the markets dealt with things yesterday. Do you expect that to continue today . I think first of all, thank you for inviting me here. Fundamentally from an investors point of view, three things matter. First is valuation. Thats supportive of the equity as a plus. Second is policy, which is what were talking about. Being supportive across the world, not just the u. S. The third is risk management. The issue that you just raised is basically straddling those last two points i spoke about. I dont think the markets are as concerned about the healthcare proposal directly as they are about what it means for the implementation for for taxes and beyond. Yes. And i dont think anyone ma imagined that healthcare would be easy. Whether or not he can deliver this in the senate as you were discussing, can he not deliver to his constituents what they need, had is a tax cut . President obama delivered healthcare to 20 Million People. Those were his constituents. I find it hard to imagine that the tax reform or tax cuts wouldnt be forthcoming. I agree. I dont think its about valuation, i think its about rotation. Weve seen so many people loaded into bonds the last eight years. That transition has to take time to unwind the bond mo signaposi move into equity position. That provides support for equities. Absolutely. The question is tax reform. To your point, if they go with healthcare light, it seems to me theyre looking over healthcare now. They want to do it as part of the reconciliation. Get it out of the way. They dont care if its light. The House Freedom caucus does. Thats the problem. They do but its a lot of posturing on both sides. But now youre starting to see the innards of the Republican Party posturing. If we get tax reform and deregulation, this market goes much higher from here. So as long as it passes its okay, even if it doesnt pass and they quickly pivot to tax if you get a healthcare light, are you going get a tax light . Is the Corporate Tax rate going from 35 to 25 instead of 25 20 . Rid 20, and President Trump wanted 15. 20 or 22 , you think the market continues the market continues to go higher. I believe markets dont care about valuation now. Money is moving into the equity market. Thats obvious. Thats an interesting point. So many things seem to be supporting equity prices and not letting them fall below a certain point. Do you agree with that . Yes. I think valuation does matter. The people who act on value have not been investors. The flows in 2016, they remained until the end of the year into bonds and away from equities. And they made a mistake by doing that. If youre still sitting on the sidelines, you missed a lot. You have allt lot of money cash, and you are overinvesting. The spread between Corporate Bonds and equities, the way we reckon it, was in mid year last year 200 basis points higher than on average the last 30 years. The enormous flows that have come from stock buy backs and Corporate Events like m a has more than offset the flows that we expect. So the client base i think is in cash, overinvested in fixed income. To beckys point, if this market continues to move higher, and we see tax reform, those people that are in bonds or cash will have to chase the market regardless of valuation. An important point about the tax cuts, youre saying its in the market. Bottom up eps expectations have not risen at all in the s p since the trump election. Thats to say the bottom up analysts have not yet pencilled in the certainty or near certainty is that is that something that is good news . It means theres more potential upside there or is that because yes. Yes. You think all signs are pointing towards support for the market . That is correct. In response to the horrible events in london, for the market to be so calm in the face of an attack, basically across the street from parliament knowing these arguments, you were sitting there thinking yesterday, wow, this is a market that has much more support than i had even anticipated. It is shrugging off bad news and is embracing the prospect of good news. This goes beyond the u. S. Action. Even President Trump has not tweeted i take credit for the recovery in the world economy. Its fiscal policy, whether its in japan, china, brexit, canada, now the u. S. When you say that, though, when you look at the market and the market rallied on the heels of the election and the market rallied a quick 10 , that was not about the rest of the world. That was a kneejerk reaction to the United States. Agreed. I think gdps have been moving higher, now eventually theyre moving lower. You cant discredit that with donald trump either, right . And anything from here on out, above break even since the leak shun election or down 10 since the win is what prognosticators have said since the election. To their horror, as it went up 14 , they attributed it to global strength, not him, until the first correction. Now, that was donald trump. Ive watched it happen. Its pro growth if you didnt have anything above break even to people that thought the market would crash on donald trump, if we were break even now with his awful presidency and this terrible whackosacko, if w break even that would be a win. Globally, not just the u. S. I understand that. But it moved 14 it moved 14 agreed. But have you seen how many days were up days . How many days were down days . You get 1 down, and suddenly this is not anything trump is doing. Its people in the house that are not look at the performance of emerging markets. Its dramatic this year. That was also a kneejerk reaction. If the u. S. Does better, emerging markets do better, they fear the rising dollar, we didnt see that. They fear rising rates, they didnt see that. Those were a bunch of rebound effects. I would stress strongly its a Global Growth story. Watch out for Global Growth. But Global Growth is coming in a bit now. If thats the case, then the markets maybe dont have a rosy future. What we had for the past eight years, we had qe and zero on Interest Rates. This is in the face of rising rates. Was there a single rate increase during the last eight years of the Obama Administration . Not a single rate increase. Weve already gotten two. Thank you for being with us. Steve will be with us for the rest of the hour. Coming up, Trucking Companies are hoping that trump deregulation will give their industry a boost. Well look at the possible changes and how it could move the companys stocks next. Wanna get away . Now you can with southwest fares as low as 59 dollars oneway. Yes to low fares with nothing to hide. Thats transfarency. The Trucking Industry is one area of the transport economy that is looking for deregulation. Morgan brennan joins us now from the swamps of new jersey. I take issue with that. What are we calling the swamps of new jersey . Were at a truck stop in central new jersey. There are a lot of folks here resting overnight. Thats part of the regulations. Trucking is in focus today with President Trump meeting with ceos and drivers this afternoon to talk healthcare. The industry is the biggest employer in 29 states, including 3. 5 million drivers hauling 10. 5 billion tons of freight a year. This is highly regulated and there are a truckload of rules that carriers would like to see scrapped or tweaked. One example is the epas emissions standards. We had four engine mandates since 2004. Since that time my truck prices have doubled. So the industry has been in a very tough position the last few years from a profitability standpoint because our costs have been rising much faster than what our pricing has been able to rise. So parker and other truck executives would like to see the age requirement to move freight across state lines lowered from 21. They say that would help ease the driver shortage. But all of that said Companies Still wanted a couple pieces of sweeping regulation to stay put including the Electronic Logging Device mandate that goes into effect later this year that tracks hours. I would expect this to come up later today with the president , stricter or better testing methods for Drug Screening of drivers. Thats good to hear. You can understand why they want to push back on some regulations. I was wondering about the hours that drivers drive and some of those regulations, making sure the Drug Screening is there. Makes sense. You will see the rollback of some of these regulations, you can guess. Exactly. Thank you very much for joining us. Morgan, did you come up with that trucking music . Did you suggest that . That was who would have come up with that . Did you come up with that . Your fabulous producers for the show that is squawk box did that. But it is nifty. Im trying not to dance right now. Joes favorite. I would have done something about a truck or i drive my dads truck i would have you know. 18 wheels and a dozen roses . We do an airline theme, we do big old jet airliner. Joe has been here a while. Yeah. Hes heard these before. 18 wheels and a dozen roses. Crude realities. Morgan, thank you. Enjoy the swamps. When we come back, its crunch time for the republican healthcare bill. Leadership scrambling to secure enough votes for passage. An update on the lastminute offer from the white house is next. As we head to break, lets look at the s p 500 winners and losers. it just feels like anything is possible here in upstate new york. at corning, i test smart glass that goes all over the world. But theres no place like home. Theres always Something Different to do like skiing in the winter, jet skiing in the summer. We can do everything. New york state is filled with bright minds like samanthas. To find the companies and talent of tomorrow, search for our page, jobsinnewyorkstate on linkedin. Were drowning in information. Where, in all of this, is the stuff that matters . The stakes are so high, your finances, your future. How do you solve this . You dont. 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. Various shouting heigh ho its off to work we go woman on the gulf coast, new exxonmobil projects are expected to create over 45,000 jobs. And each job created by the Energy Industry supports two others in the community. Altogether, the industry supports over 9 million jobs nationwide. These are jobs that natural gas is helping make happen, all while reducing americas emissions. Energy lives here. Welcome back. Youre watching squawk box live from the Nasdaq Market site in times square. Good morning, everybody. Welcome back to squawk box. Weve been talking about the healthcare plan, whether or not it goes through today and that vote in the house. Also keeping an eye on the u. S. Equity futures which at this point seems to be trading around the flat line. S p futures slightly higher. Dow futures down by 10 points. The nasdaq down by 4 points. Mylan is recalling about 81,000 epipens outside the United States. Following two reports of the allergy shot failing to work in emergencies. The recall affects devices distributed in australia, new zealand, europe and japan. The company says it should not impact those released in the United States. Five below reporting earnings, revenue and samestore sales in line with expectations. The discount retailer will open about 100 new stores this year, including locations in california. That stock up by better than 8. 5 . Pvh beating the street on top and bottom lines. The Parent Company of Tommy Hilfiger and calvin klein offering upbeat guidance and increasing its buyback. A few other stocks to watch this morning. Cintas earnings coming in slightly above expectations. Revenue in line. Cincinnati company, and i was trying to change lanes yesterday i needed to get in a lane. A big cinsat truck, he made it a point to not let me. I got so mad, im like im from cincinnati you you took it personally. In new jersey plates. He didnt know you were from cincinnati. No, he didnt. But i felt personally here this guy was you have that bengal car wrap. Number one, its bengal. Its not bangles, its not a girl band. Maybe they would be better if they were a girl band. You know what . You cant say things like that. Is this you yesterday . Yeah, this is me when the guy wouldnt let me all right all right shares of nintendo rising this morning. We have the real mccoy waiting for us this morning. Blackrock now owns more than 5 of the companys stock. And apples acquiring work flow, an ios app for creating short cuts and automating processes. Apple is keeping the app alive in the app store and is making the app free, it was 2. 99 before the acquisition. Later today, congress will vote on the gop healthcare bill. Joining us now is former new york lieutenant governor, betsy mccoy. From washington, the Vice President of Health Policy at the center for american progress. Betsy, start with you. I mean this is a big day. I believe we have the votes. Thats what i mean. Are you just being optimistic and positive with the company line no, it appears late last night the holdouts in the house appeared to have reached a deal directly with the president. A deal that will lower premiums even more. And let me just point out, since i heard this term so often in the last few days, this bill is not obamacare light. It repeals the individual mandate which provides relief for 8 Million People immediately, repeals the employer mandate which cost millions of people their fulltime jobs or employment in general because employers found it too costly. It reforms medicaid, the nation is facing a tidal wave of red ink because of medicaid and provide relief for people in the individual market who can pick the kind of plan they want. But the specific agreement, this is what the market will watch so closely, will bring them back in because it does two things . It does two things. It removes the one size fits all government designed essential benefit package. So the 30yearold single guy doesnt have to pay for pediatric dental care and it changes the insurance rules to give a break to Healthy People buying in the individual market. The sick will not be forgotten, however. They will be heavily subsidized through section 2202, with taxpayer dollars to make sure they get the care they need affordably as well. We had a democratic congressman on from kentucky yesterday. I knew what his take on this was going to be. When it was all said and done, it was like you guys are kind of democrats are sort of just watching on the outside looking in here. I know will you say this is the worst bill ever, grandma is going over the cliff, everything else. But does it matter . This is in the republicans hands right now, isnt it, whether it goes or not . Democrats are pumped up, but let me address the elephant in the room. Youre having me on with someone who spread lies about death panels in the Affordable Care act politically what a waste of time. It was the lie of the year. And what is ironic is that actually whats true now, is that youre seeing the death panels. And the death panels are the republican committees that are advancing this bill that would throw 4 mi24 Million People off coverage. People could not get the life saving care they need. Thats why every single doctor group, every single nursing group, every single group that cares about patients hates and opposes this Dumpster Fire of a bill. What dribble. Lets go back to the facts. First of all, the American Medical Association opposes this bill, thats only 12 of the doctors in the country. Many, many other doctors organizations are demanding that we pass this reform because obamacare has so name one. Name one. When you go to see a doctor you cant get eye contact anymore. The doctor is spending all his time or her time typing into a computer what the government demands to know about this patient. So this will provide relief for doctors and patients in that office. Get caught out of that office. Pediatricians oppose this bill. Family physicians oppose this bill. Theres not a single Physician Group that does not oppose this bill. Well there are a lot of back when obamacare was written, there were a lot of indian deals made all over the place with different groups. The one thing you cant dispute is that it never got above 42 . After seven years, all the selling and all the you had a president in office that passed it trying to get people to say take your medicine this is good for you. You can look at the chart. Never got a plurality of people that approved it. It turned out it was more unpopular with people who experienced than didnt experience it. You dont think anyone should have been done to fix what obamacare turned into . Right now the polling is favorable for the affordability cair act. Affordable care act. Its always been more unpopular than popular. But now its very unpopular. People dont like it when you try to take something away. That was a smart move by the democrats. Its hard to bring back entitlement. Fox news had a poll that showed 33 , 34 support this republican bill. Thats because they vent heard the truth about it. People disapprove of trumps handling of healthcare. Only 33 approve of trumps handling of healthcare. This is bringing down his aproef approval rating. Let me tell you one thing, americans dont like the fact that their premiums have doubled since the end of 2013. Americans dont like the government forcing them to buy a product or pay a penalty. In this country, if people dont want to buy a product, you improve the product, you dont fine them for not buying it. You dont fine them like the republican bill does when they try to buy insurance. Thats keeping people out of the market. We want people in the market. We want people to have insurance. What the republican bill would do, independent analysts have said this, the cbo, would increase premiums 15 to 20 next year. Only until the obamacare regulations are wiped out. Then premiums go down. Premium increases almost immediately. I dont know why trump is Going Forward it this. Its a total political disaster. The cbo says that people will withdraw from the market once there is no mandate. People will exercise their freedom to choose whether to buy obamacare or not. They will choose not to. Then in 2020 there will be new plans available of all sorts people will exercise their freedom to choose to buy what they want. Yes, the cbo says that 14 Million People who currently are being forced to buy obamacare will choose not to buy it. Thats freedom. Thats the free market. Thats what we stand for in this country. Freedom. Well, youre being misleading. 5 million of those 14 million are on medicaid. Medicate cuts are going to throw them off coverage. Out of the rest, some of those people who are losing coverage is because youre sending the market into a death spiral, youre increasing premiums. Its not about they have the freedom not to have insurance anymore. Youre increasing their premiums. No. The fact is they will still have the subsidies thats what the cbo said. You are incorrect about the cbo report, which i read carefully. Did you read it . Of course i did. The cbo made it clear subsidies will be available. People will not be asked to pay a larger share of income but they will choose not to buy obamacare because it is an ineffective system. When the new plans come in, people will have the right to choose what they want. Theres no reason for a 30yearold single man to pay for maternity care. No reason at all. What they said about the new system is that actually it would price older people out of the market. I know what youre talking about on the cbo. They altered the bill since that scoring. They certainly have. No, we actually did an analysis of the altered bill. Were talking about an additional alteration made last night. Even with the 85 billion reserve fund which is just aastt and found it would still increase costs for older people by 8,000. So thats not a good deal. And the other thing is section 2202. It would water down peoples coverage. It would make you have skimpier coverage. Only if you choose to. Only if you choose to. Only if you choose a lighter policy. No one will be forced into skimpier care. But nobody should have to buy a policy with a lot of bells and whistles they dont want. They should have the freedom to buy affordable short cuts and auto health care. By the way, with these changes, employers, especially in retail, for example, and hospitality and the Food Service Industry who stopped providing coverage for their employees will have the freedom now to go back and provide coverage for those people without a one size fits all government designed plan that was too expensive for employers. How are people going to have the freedom to keep their plans when youre slashing their tax credits . Theres no freedom Kaiser Family foundation found that the average deductibles would increase by 1550, 1 1,500. Trump promised he seems to be unfamiliar with the latest amendments to this bill. This bill is increasing deductibles. Premiums will come way down because of the changes in this bill last night. All right. Betsy, thank you. Tofur, thank you. Thank you. Well know by tomorrow. Still a lot of moving parts. Athere are. This british Prime Minister theresa may is addressing parliament right now. She says the victims of yesterdays terrorist attack included one american along with 12 britonainbritainen s, some f greece. She says the uk will not change its threat level, and that theres no reason to believe that there are further imminent attacks. Only a couple weeks ago when i saw something that said the threat level had never been higher. It is one step below critical, which means a threat is imminent. Its been at that for a while. Its been at that level. She this attacker got fairly close to theresa may. Shouldnt we always be at imminent threat level . Probably. But this heroic policemen. I dont think hes not armed, i dont think. Isnt that a shame . He lost his life because he wasnt armed. He could have shot that right. In this case, you know, the gun is what ended the attack. Still to come, we will talk to republican congressmen on each side of the health k healt debate. Well get an update in the next hour. First several Major Companies pulling their ads from youtube. Whe well tell you why after this. Welcome back. Right now its time for the executive edge. Verizon and at t have suspended Digital Advertising on Googles Youtube after their ads may have run against extremist views. Google has vowed to try to overall its practices. Analysts say the company has to move quickly or risk the companys faith in placing electronic ads. Coming up, the ambassador to germany. Our first name has always been american. At at t, we employ more than 200,000 people with goodpaying jobs. Connecting consumers and budiness through mobile, internet, and entertainment. At t invests more into americas economy than any other public company. Bringing americans more choices, more freedom, and entertainment everywhere. No company is more invested in americas future than at t. The power of a low volatility investing approach. The power of smart beta. Power your clients portfolio with powershares. Before investing, consider the Funds Investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. Call 8009830903 for the prospectus containing this information. Read it carefully. Distributed by invesco distributors inc. On a perfect car, then smash it into a tree. Your Insurance Company raises your rates. Maybe you shouldve done more research on them. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. Liberty mutual insurance. Due to your first accident. Bp developed new, industryleading software to monitor Drilling Operations in realtime, so our engineers can solve problems with the most precise data at their fingertips. Because safety is never being satisfied. And always working to be better. The market. Redict but through good times and bad. At t. Rowe price. Weve helped our investors stay confident for over 75 years. Call us or your advisor. T. Rowe price. Invest with confidence. Wanna get away . Now you can with southwest fares as low as 59 dollars oneway. Yes to low fares with nothing to hide. Thats transfarency. Welcome back, everybody. Our next guest is pushing a plan to create a public bank for the garden state. Lets bring in phil murphy. Hes former u. S. Ambassador to germany. Hes currently a democratic candidate for governor of new jersey. Phil, thank you very much for being with us. Great to be here, thank you. The idea of a public bank, its a little complicated. People arent familiar with it. Where did you come up with it . Its an idea thats been done once in north america, in north dakota, about 99 years ago. Very successful notion. Idea is if youre a city or a county or a state, you collect taxes or fees, put them in the bank until you have to pay your expenses. In new jersey, at least, those moneys sit in big wall street banks. The idea is to bring them back into a bank thats owned by the citizens of new jersey. That bank would then do business entirely in new jersey. Our idea would be Student Loans. It would be Small Business loans and smallscale infrastructure loans. So it would be taking the taxpayer dollars and loaning them out to the benefit of new jersey residents. Correct. And we need all the help we can get. It sounds like a good idea. How come it hasnt been done . Good question. Ive been told the Bank Lobbyists push back on this aggressively, understandably, because it would be taking significant deposits. In new jerseys case, its measured in many billions of dollars a year, that would leave commercial banks and come into this bank. We think its an idea that has a lot of sense for us. When the banks push back, they push back on federal regulators who then say no . I think its more court of public opinion. This bank would be regulated. It would be set up and chartered just like any other bank. The difference would be it would be owned by the citizens of the state of new jersey. The funds would be protected by the fdic. Although, the funds for the fdic are on an individual basis. It would be just like any other bank. Again, the ownership of it would be different because it would be the citizens of the state. The business that it does would be restricted to new jersey. Would the idea be that the loans that youre giving out, Student Loans or business loans, would have a lower than street average of interest coming off of them . Student loan cases, the answer is yes. It would be commercial, but it wouldnt be loan sharking rates. New jerseys littered with examples with kids that are hocked up into the tens of thousands of dollars and are behind this giant eight ball of debt. As it relates to Small Businesses and infrastructure, the bank would work with Small Community banks. New jerseys got a great tradition of community banks, but they have shrunk since the recession. This would sort of put capital through them. I guess my one concern would be who would be in charge of the bank . Would the bank have to answer to elected officials, who often times say, yes, we want the money out, we want the loans out . Would that relax lending standards so you get in trouble like fannie and freddie got into . Fair point. This has to be completely independent, how its chartered, governed, and led. It must be completely independent. It would seem to me you would be incredibly independent unless the next governor came in and said were going to yank our funds if you dont do x, y, and z. We believe you can charter it, govern it in a way that works and remains independent. North dakota is a good example. Its retained that independence. Its a profitable enterprise. By the way, at the end of the year, the notion would be if theres a return, that would be paid back to citizens in a taxfree dividend. Really interesting idea. I know you also are looking at the home foreclosure issue in new jersey. Huge issue. One of the highest in the nation. We lead the nation in home foreclosures. Atlantic county, which is where Atlantic City is located, number one county in the United States in terms of home foreclosures. New jersey is not getting its fair share of the department of justice settlements with the big wall street banks. The notion would be to get our fair share, run that through nonprofits that could repurpose those homes that are foreclosured infore closed into affordable housing. Ambassador murphy, thank you for your time today. And steve, thank you for being here this morning. Its been a pleasure. Id love to do it again. Let me know. Thank you. Coming up, republicans scrambling to secure the votes ahead of todays big vote. Were going to ask congressman ted yoho if hes still planning to vote no. Ok lets call his agent. Im coming over right now. The newly advanced gle can see in your blind spot. [ dinosaur roar ] onboard cameras and radar detect danger all around you. Driver assist systems pull you back into your lane if drifting. Bye chief. Bye bobby. And will even help you brake, if necessary. It makes driving less of a production. Lease the gle350 for 579 a month at your local mercedesbenz dealer. Mercedesbenz. The best or nothing. Whats Critical Thinking like . A basketball costs 14. Whats team spirit worth . cheers whats it worth to talk to your mom . Whats the value of a walk in the woods . The value of capital is to create, not just wealth, but things that matter. Morgan stanley the countdown to the Health Care Vote is on. U. S. Equity futures flat ahead of todays big vote. The latest on the markets just minutes away. New developments overnight on that terrorist attack in london. Seven people have been arrested in antiterror raids. We have the details straight ahead. Plus, the latest on lastminute negotiations for the American Health care act. We will speak to republican ted yoho of florida who says hes voting against the bill. That interview is coming up. The second hour of squawk box begins right now. Live from the beating heart of business, new york city, this is squawk box. Good morning and welcome back to squawk box here on cnbc. Were live from the Nasdaq Market site in times square. This is live . Live. This is live . It is. Whoa. A lot can thats no delay. Wow. Im joe kernen. Someone should have maybe told me this. Along with becky quick in studio. To share his thoughts on politics you got it . Its live. Im ready. Chief investment strategist at strategus research partners. Have you been on before . This is the first time in all these years you took your jacket off. It looks like a new shirt or something. Very crisp and nice. I wanted to show it off. You have the ronny reagan cuff lirnks on. I bought them online. I wish someone gave them to me. That might be good for 1 gdp growth, just wearing those. Futures at this hour are kind of flat. Yesterday kind of impressive after the day before that it managed to come back to just being almost flat on the session as far as the dow goes. Plus had nike to deal with, which was down yesterday. Like 7 or something. But the markets would have been up, the dow, without nike. Heres whats making headlines at this hour. Eight people have now been arrested in connection with yesterdays london attack, which killed four people, injured 40. Prime minister theresa may says one american was among those injured. We have much more on the aftermath of that attack in just a couple minutes. A confirmation hearing is scheduled for today for President Trumps nominee to run the s. E. C. Jay clayton will appear before the Senate Banking committee. Hes a partner at sullivan and cromwell. And sears suppliers are reducing shipments and asking for better payment terms, according to a reuters report. We talked about this yesterday. It follows the retailers annual report in which it expressed doubts about its future after years of losses and declining sales. I think theyre selling assets to just cover pension obligations. But Something Like this where the suppliers are now saying we need better terms, this is the death spiral. Could be the spiral. Companies go away. Hard to imagine one like sears that has a long and storied history. If you go back and look over the years at what was a household name in the past, a lot of them are gone. It happens. Well be watching that closely. Investors overall are watching what happens today in washington. In particular, a key house vote on the American Health care act. The legislation to repeal obamacare. Kayla joins us now with more on the latest in the vote count. Hey, becky. The markets need some legislative progress to justify current stock valuations, and health care for the Trump Administration is the first major test. A vote on the American Health care act, which is slated for tonight still, appears fragile, despite latenight deal making on the hill to reach a deal that appeases the House Freedom caucus. Thats the Largest Group of republican holdouts that could potentially cost this vote. Winning over that caucus could secure more than a dozen votes. Other moderates have been defecting. The wall street journal quoting congressman ryan costello. To those evaluating, nancy pelosi said this yesterday. Giving the biggest transfer of wealth from the middle class to the wealthy, the richest people in our country. Its going to be tattooed to you. This is your vote. And also offering support to those who do not want to vote for this bill. Just last night the koch brothers, americans for prosperity, said it would offer funding and grassroots support for lawmakers who voted against the bill. The house has promised that this full repeal is going to take multiple steps. This first step being the ahca being passed as a budget bill. The second by health and Human Services by where riting new ru. The house has moved two bills on that third point. Its unclear at this point whether theyll get that first phase finished. Joe, we talk about today, but now the reports are saying that the vote is happening as soon as today. This is a selfimposed deadline by republicans. They have a lot they want to get done by the april recess, but well see if it happens today or it gets punted to tomorrow or perhaps even next week. Yes, kayla. I love those koch brothers. Love those guys. If they had their way, wed be trying to stop some Hillary Clinton legislation right about now. Thank you, kayla. Lets get to our round table to discuss the trump agenda and the markets. Bob michael, two first names. What did we finally decide about guys with two first names . Its all good. Hes sitting right next to you. Yeah, we decided thats good. Im glad about that. Head of Global Fixed Income at jpmorgan asset management. O peter, its all about the fed and Central Banks for you. Youre not worried about this legislation or tax reform or deregulation or animal spirits . Its still these central bankers. Of course i am, joe. I cant do my job without being concerned about what the next policy move is or how effective trump policy is going to be or how quickly its implemented. Its not solely about that. I think frankly, the new administration was like the cork on a bottle. People were waiting to put money to work. Where was the liquidity for that coming from . It was coming from global Central Banks. Away from the fed, Global Central Bank Balance Sheets grew almost 2 billion last year. Thats unprecedented without the fed involved. Theyve grown quickly before, but not at 11. 2 without the fed doing anything. In fact, with the fed tightening. That liquidity has been looking for a home. We think were sanguine into mid year. Is it more than just all the free money . I wish it was. Some day id like it to be about economic growth, not engendered by central bankers. Were in that transition. The Central Banks are starting to dial down the level of accommodation. The fed has raised rates three times. I think theyll go three more times this year. Were hearing the ecb talking about dialing down their intervention. So we are in this transition from Monetary Policy to fiscal policy. I do think its important to see what comes out of washington. Weve seen the tenyear treasury in a trading range of 2. 30 to 2. 60 most of this year. Everyones expecting that trump is a deal maker, that hell be able to push through some fiscal stimulus. This is the first real test. Tonights vote is important. Its not essential because were mindful that t. A. R. P. Didnt pass on the first vote. So lets not put too much emphasis on what happens today. I would tend to agree with that. Our firm believes that theres about a 60 chance the bill gets passed today. 60 . 60 chance it gets passed today. Having said that, if it doesnt get done, i dont i really feel very strongly that actually the consensus is more behind the other reforms that the Trump Administration is talking about. So the market shrugs this off . You might have a little bit of a pullback, but the administration could easily transition or move over to tax cuts, to financial and energy deregulation, to all the other things that the market would be much more would discount much more, in my opinion. Those are the positive things that we want to see the administration and congress focus on. Where are the tax cuts . Wheres the deregulation . Wheres the mechanism to get the fiscal spend into the economy . Thats what we should be looking at. This helps, to do this first. These guys, you think about what the purists are talking about here. Theyre living last year, the year before, the year before that where obamacare is very unpopular. They think they can just repeal it. They think b but is that realy feasible given the current political environment . Youre going to see every single individual that loses insurance you cant pull back an entitlement. But every one of these congressional members answers to their own constituencies. The Freedom Caucus members may come from areas you go back to gerrymandering. This is exactly how they feel. Theyre not going to vote against their constituents. All theyre worried about is whether they get elected two years from now. But theyve never had a president who could sign a bill for them. These guys all get elected. Now theyre willing to go against this guy. I agree with you, but i can understand how they come here to think its their mandate to repeal. I would say some of them think their mandate is this alone. Then in the back of their mind, they must think theres a plan b. Theres no way these guys want to scuttle the rest of the legislation thats coming with the trump presidency. This is a sequence thats been agreed upon. It would seem to be an exercise in selfflajlation. I cant even envision that. Never mind. Im sorry. Im confused. Geez, keep it clean here, will you . Its a morning show. It seems like it would be selfdestructive, i should say. Thats better. Youre turning red. I havent had my cup of coffee yet. I told you it was live. Then you come out wiout with th. It is pretty amazing. Its either Central Banks or legislation. I just wish it was, you know, job creation and investing for the future, innovation. Its there though. If we get out of way some day. Im not so sure. Every economy is growing above trend now. The u. S. Is, europe is, japan is, china is doing well. Were going to go 1 this year. Thats above trend . Youre stied with that . Its going to pick up to above 1 . Real wages were growing at 3 in the beginning of 2015. Theyre now negative. Real spending has collapsed along with it. I actually see a big divergence. When you look at the survey data, it looks like we should be seeing real growth. In fact, were not. You dont agree. Well, wage gains are up 2. 8 year over year. Thats not bad. Theyre nominal. Real wages are not growing. In order to get real spending and consumption, you need real wage growth. All right. Either one of you guys, dont go selfflagellation on the way out. Thank you, both. Jason will be with us, maybe, for the rest of the show. Hope so. Depending on whether he chooses to stay or not. Coming up, still to come, arrests overnight following yesterdays attack in london. We have the latest and the reax ju reaction just ahead. And later, florida congressman ted yoho joins us. Hes one of several republicans saying theyll vote against the plan. Well see if he still feels this way after the latenight negotiations from last night. Also, later in the program, the ceo of the american Health Policy institute is our guest. Stay tuned. Youre watching squawk box right here on cnbc. Wanna get away . Now you can with southwest fares as low as 59 dollars oneway. Yes to low fares with nothing to hide. Thats transfarency. Eight people have now been arrested in connection with yesterdays london attack. Prime minister theresa may says that one american is among those that were injured. British authorities believe that the attacker acted alone and was inspired by international terrorism. The former Principal Deputy undersecretary for intelligence with the department of Homeland Security, now a senior fellow with the Foreign Policy Research Student joins us. Jack, thank you for being here. Thanks, becky. Obviously theres still a lot of details that are being uncovered, still a lot of investigation to take place. The british authorities saying they believe he acted alone. One confusing thing this morning has been talking about these other arrests. Eight other arrests. If he acted alone, why do we have other people arrested . Sure, well, it seems he was the only perpetrator at the scene. What british authorities are trying to do right now is to ascertain whether he had any support mechanism. Thats why you see these seven other people arrested, both in london and in birmingham. What theyre trying to do now is theyre trying to use some forensics, looking at possibly his cell phone, looking at his laptop, if they have that, just to harvest information to see who he was talking to. Often you find that in cases like this, there is often a support mechanism and a terrorist doesnt usually act totally as a lone wolf. It may not be an organized cell, but certainly other people that are empathetic and may help him along his way is the point. Absolutely. Individuals that might provide financial backing, might provide a truck he had an suv or any other type of support he would need to do this. Thats what theyre looking at right now. When you look at the situation yesterday, these are the types of things that are so terrifying because it seems like theyre so hard to prevent when its such a limited number of people who may have known about what was happening. You cant screen out someone driving a truck and carrying a gun. Its very hard to track any of those things. He didnt have a gun. He didnt have a bomb. He didnt have any of those things. Youre talking about anything that cant be screened thats being used. In a free society, is there any way effectively to really eliminate these things . Its really difficult. In a free society, only we value our freedom. Certainly if you start putting restraints on peoples lives, its problematic. At the same time, the best thing you can do is really, i think, get good intelligence and try and keep a constant monitor on those individuals who might be predisposed to do this. In this case, this individual, his name has not yet been released, he apparently was someone known to the british police. He may have been someone that had been selfradicalized. He may have been posting things on a social media site. We dont know that yet. Those are the kind of things that will be unveiled in the next 24 to 48 hours as this Investigation Continues to grow. What about here in america . How confident should we feel in our ability to be able to have that kind of intelligence on people here . Weve seen similar attacks that have taken place here on our soil. Sure. Its really a catandmouse game. The Intelligence Community, the Law Enforcement Community Around the country, and i was part of the Intelligence Community at dhs were constantly monitoring, looking for red flags and markers, where someone might be a potential terrorist or potential operational actor. Its a game that never stops. Youre always doing it. Youre always looking for new people. People are always coming into the queue, so to speak. You have to sift out whos the real actors and maybe who are the aspirational actors. Its unfortunately a game were in now, and its probably something were not going to see the end of in the near future. I know hes british born, obviously, but the bigger issue on immigration, i mean, should a country welcome individuals that may never assimilate, that dont have the same values . Is there a way to screen for people that are eventually going to embrace our way of life here . Should we be trying to do that, or should it just be that, you know, well do our best to assimilate these people, but if they dont, then well deal with the consequences . That seems to be the in london, i think thats what the mayor said. This is going to happen. In a city, things like this are going to happen because were an open and welcoming city. What should we do . Its really a tough question. Its really a political question. Its a question, i think, that goes to the values of a society. In our society in the United States, weve always been an open society, welcoming immigrants. The statue of liberty. My grandparents came over through ellis island. They assimilated. We try to do the best we can to assimilate, i think, american citizens and americans that come to this country. The europeans have had a tougher time doing that. Their societies have been a little bit more, say, difficult to penetrate for an immigrant. So its a real tough call. Its a call obviously that now is a call that reaches into washington. Its part of the debate. At the end of the day, were always trying to just again, look for those markers. 90 of the people many, many thousands and millions of people assimilate fine and become part of the mainstream of this country. Youre always looking for those that dont. Of course, theres always the homegrowns too. There are people that may have been born and bred here and have lineage going back to the revolutionary war and theyve decided to selfradicalize. So its not just an immigrant issue. Jack, thank you very much for joining us. We appreciate it. Coming up, honing in on health care. A house vote is expected today on the repeal and replace of obamacare. Republican congressman ted yoho is voting against the bill. Well find out why in just a bit. Plus, former state Department Official annemarie slau slaughter talks geopolitics and cybersecurity. Squawk box will be right back. Time now for todays aflac trivia question. Which player scored the most points in a march madness game . The answer when cnbc squawk box continues. Small incision here,t going te then were gonna go in and remove your 67 corvette. My vette . Its just a gall bladder you dont have. Aflac paying you cash, so you might have to sell that sweet little muscle machine just to cover your rent. More funny juice. 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Mylan is recalling about 81,000 epipens, outside the u. S. In this case. It follows two reports of the allergy shot failing to work in emergencies. The recall affects devices distributed in australia, new zealand, europe, and japan. Five below is reporting earnings and revenues and same store sales, all in line with expectations. The discount retailer plans to open about a hundred new stores this year, including locations in california. Pvh beating the street on top and bottom lines, parent of Tommy Hilfiger and calvin klein. Its funny to see pvh, a supplier for a retailer, both trading up by 6 and 8 respectively. Such low pgs whiches on retail heading into this. If you have any positive news, people are like, wow. Are we in that environment again . Thats always an environment you see in a slow economy. With five below, i think its a little more immune from amazon and the dotcom. Whats five below mean . Five bucks and below. If youre looking for those price points, it doesnt pay to pay for shipping on any of these items. Five below and five guys arent no, theyre not related. The five guy burger never came. Compare that to shake shack, which immediately responded. Five guys isnt publicly traded. They may not be watching. Not going to forget that. When we come back, republican congressman ted yoho explaining why he is voting against the Gop Health Care bill. Stay right here. Opportunities arent always obvious. Sometimes they just drop in. 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. Excuse me, are you aware of whats happening right now . Were facing 20 billion security events every day. Ddos campaigns, ransomware, malware attacks. Actually, we just handled all the priority threats. You did that . We did that. Really. We analyzed millions of articles and reports. We can identify threats 50 faster. You can do that . We can do that. Then do that. Can we do that . We can do that. Good morning, everybody. Welcome back to squawk box here on cnbc. We are lives from the Nasdaq Market site in times square. Among the stories that are front and center this morning, two economic reports on todays calendar. About an hour from now, well be getting the labor departments weekly look at initial jobless claims. At 10 00 eastern time, the government is out with february new home sales. About 17,000 at t workers are on strike. They say the company is illegally giving work assignments to low you aer sala workers that should be performed by more experienced technicians. At t says it continues to talk with the union to try and resolve its grievances. Fed chair janet yellen will be speaking at a washington, d. C. , conference a little over an hour from now. That speech is not expected to focus on Monetary Policy, but we will be monitoring her comments and bringing them to you as soon as theyre out. U. S. House members getting ready to vote on the gops obamacare replacement today, but some republicans are still on the fence. Joining us now, Freedom Caucus member, congressman ted yoho. Congressman, thanks for joining us today. Sure. Appreciate you having me on. If i were to sum up your thinking, and everybodys got different reasons, obviously, is this part of a negotiation with you to get something that is more palatable and thats what youre waiting for, or you want the good is the enemy of the perfect, you want a clean repeal or nothing. What is it with you . I would prefer to see a clean repeal is what were fighting for. Every republican in the house ran to repeal and replace the Affordable Care act, as is donald trump. If we dont deliver on that, the American People are going to look back at us at this time and say we had an opportunity to do that, we could have, we should have, and i wish we would have, or we can say im glad i did. If we dont repeal this, were going to be left with a skeleton of the Affordable Care act. You have the refundable tax credits. You have the mandates of the Affordable Care act and the essential Health Benefits where i have to buy maternity insurance. No, i know. Congressman, thats why i alluded to the good being an enemy of the perfect because, you know, this battle that has been raging for eight years, and believe me, i remember the way it was handled and the way that it was done, but now in hindsight, i realize how crafty it was because, you know, when you give an entitlement, you cant really take it back at that point. So they knew exactly what they were doing, but now youre falling into a trap where if you just repeal it, youre going to see out of 24 Million People or however many lose obamacare, every one of those are going to be on nightly news. Every person that cant go to the hospital, every person that might die or have some horrible disease, youre going to see that, and theyre going to be pointing at you, congressman, saying youre the reason they dont have health care. Once its already done, dont you think that you should just try and improve it instead of pulling the rug out from people that have insurance . Well, lets look at that. I think id ask Something Different. Go back to 1970s when jimmy carter was president. He started the department of education. Ronald reagan ran on getting rid of that. He missed that mark, and look, were spending more on education per student and our scores are going down. You want to make that same mistake again . Look at fdr. Fdr introduced social security, medicare, all this. Then a republican president came on, immediately didnt try to get rid of any of those things because its impossible. You cant. Youll have no republicans in congress in 2018. If you look at the Affordable Care act right now, theres people that cant get insurance or have insurance or cant use it because they cant afford the deductibility. I understand. Ive got people on the other side saying this is terrible and we hear it over and over again. So whatever the outcome is, theres going to be people on either side. I want to make sure we get rid of growing entitlements. Thats like damn the torpedos, were going to do it. Not only this, congressman. You have this president. The last eight times you passed this i think this, you didnt have a president to sign it. So now you got this guy who comes in here, wins. Anybody that backed him, they rode his tailwinds in on it. Senators that didnt back him are at the u. N. Or something now. So now you have a guy who will sign something, and youre looking that gift horse in the mouth. If you mess this up for him and he ends up theyre going to call him a loser in his first big test. Then all the other stuff you want to do doesnt get done. Thats one of the narratives out there its not just a narrative. How is that just a narrative . I can also say were saving him from signing a bill that keeps the Affordable Care act skeleton in place. This country will pay for the rest of its life. Its an entitlement that will never go away. Ronald reagan said that. Some people do need help getting health care. It was an intractable problem eight years ago. The democrats didnt do it the right way, obviously. There are a lot of flaws. But back then, if republicans had designed something, there might have been some component that was an entitlement because otherwise people arent going to have it. Even a skeleton, if you put the republican you know, put a lot of free market and competition and things like that, maybe you can work within that structure. Otherwise, i dont know, it just seems like back to the good damning the good for the sake of the perfect. I disagree with that. If you leave the skeleton, youre saying that the federal government should provide Health Insurance for people. We already do that with the va, medicare, and medicaid. I would ask you, how are those programs running . Theyre unsustainable. Our goal is to get people where they have access to care, but its quality care and the price of insurance goes down. This bill, the American Health care act, it doesnt hit that. It leaves the skeleton in there. The price of insurance, were already saying its going to go up. Its because the essential Health Benefits are there. Insurance companies today cant draft policies and start offering policies for the free market until 2020. So this is something that we need to have that right now. Thats one of the things that would get us closer to yes. I introduced a bill called hold harmless, where Insurance Companies could start drafting bills now and not be held accountable to the essential Health Benefits. That would drive down costs immediately. Congressman, your views are views that are not embraced by the mainstream of your party. It will be an even more difficult sell when it comes to the senate. Are you going to vote no . Is this a situation where if you dont get the legislation youre talking about right now, you will vote no today . Right now, yes. Again, were at a point in time in history, theyre going to look back at this, that we had an opportunity to remove an entitlement thats going to affect americans from now on. It goes back to our basic principles of the constitution. But your views are extreme looking at the rest of your party. Is compromise a dirty word . I dont feel theyre extreme. But you dont have a lot of support, i should say. If youre talking about the 22 members who are in the same position, you dont have widespread support throughout the rest of the party. Is it your way or the highway no the mar matter what . It kind of goes down to what mark twain said. There was a quote. In the going of a change, the patriot is often a scorned, sworn at, disliked individual. But at his cause succeeds, the timid join his cause because then theres no price for p patriotism. Thats where we are. Its a constitutional principle. We need to stand and uphold it. If we dont, were saying the government should have a role in your health care, tell you what kind of Health Insurance, what kind of coverage you have to have. Thats an assault on our individual freedoms. Our goal is to make sure people have access to health care, its a Quality Health care, and its Affordable Health care. Let the free market thrive. This hampers the free market. So representative, if this fails, if you get your druthers and this doesnt go through, for those of us interested in the other parts of the president s economic agenda, what would be your next step . What do you do tomorrow . I dont feel this is going to fail. Were in the negotiation phase. I got a message last night that mark med do mark meadows had a meeting with donald trump and were getting closer. Let this thing work out and play out. I got to give kudos to our leadership. They have worked tirelessly to get a bill that we can all get on. Were getting close. I have the utmost confidence in leadership that well come out with a bill that the president will sign, that the American People will thank us for. That sounds better. Hopefully i hope its all a way of getting a better bill that comes out. I honestly dont think a clean repeal would pass now. So if youre going to hold out for that, youll never get that through the senate. Youll be standing on principle. Democrats are going to jump all over republicans because when they got the chance to govern, they werent able to govern. Thats whats going to happen. All these other important things that might happen, tax reform and everything else, its not going to happen. Were aware of that. But why did the American People put us in charge . Repeal, replace obamacare. If we dont do that, were not going to be in charge. Just get the best bill you can. I just dont want to see if trump starts tweeting about you, everybody is going to know you. I just im trying to save you from that. I appreciate that. Thats the price of politics. Hell come up with something. Lying ted. Something bad will happen on twitter. Itll be good. Were going to make this successful. Its going to be huge. Were going to make America Great again. Thank you, congressman. God bless. All right. You too. When we come back, some new developments out of london and yesterdays deadly terrorist attack. Well get reaction and talk national security. Also, President Trumps Foreign Policy efforts. What the president and ceo of new america. And later, President Trumps lastminute efforts to get republicans on board with the American Health care act. You heard how difficult that process is going to be. The vote is expected later today. The ceo of american Health Policy institute will join us next. Squawk box will be right back. Various shouting heigh ho its off to work we go woman on the gulf coast, new exxonmobil projects are expected to create over 45,000 jobs. And each job created by the Energy Industry supports two others in the community. Altogether, the industry supports over 9 million jobs nationwide. These are jobs that natural gas is helping make happen, all while reducing americas emissions. Energy lives here. Your insurance on time. Tap one little bumper, and up go your rates. What good is having insurance if you get punished for using it . News flash nobodys perfect. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. And if you do have an accident, our claims centers are available to assist you 24 7. Call for a free quote today. Liberty stands with you™ Liberty Mutual insurance the tragic scene outside of the Uk Parliament in london yesterday underscoring the danger of terrorist attacks. Were joined by annemarie slaughter, author of the book the schesz boa the chess board and the web. Thank you very much for being here today. My pleasure. Your strategy seems to fit right into what we have seen just overnight in london and whats happened there. This is a different kind of attack, a different way of having to view the world and the threats posed to us. Thats exactly right. I woke up this morning thinking one of the reasons we have not had nearly as many of these attacks as we could have is because we have a Global Network of cities. The new york counterterrorism people are completely in touch with the london people who are in touch with the jakarta people. Thats a very different kind of Foreign Policy than sitting in the state department negotiating government to government. You have to create the network, and you have to design it in a particular way to the information goes out like that and the assistance goes out like that and you have teams who can actually do something on the ground. Why dont we talk about the positions of strength that we have when it comes to this, then maybe some of the weaknesses. Well, so where we are fairly strong is we do have city networks. Where were weaker is resilience among populations. So just think about things like our power grids or any of our critical infrastructure. We have to make sure that you dont take out one or two nodes and the whole thing comes down. So thats a kind of network, if you just think about the internet. You have five or six huge places you go. If you took those out, everything would come down. You have to design a much what i call a mesh network, a much broader, sort of like a fishing net. Weve seen examples of this. One of nodes in california was taken out at one point. They keep these things secret on purpose, but sometimes its stored in the back of a parking lot or parking garage. Exactly. What we have are networks that have just grown up the way all of us live all the time. Think about your facebook group. Now we have to be strategic about what do you want to do with the network. Do you want to protect the network. Do you want the network to take action. Or do you want scale. And what is the actual structure that you need. Whos in charge of coming up with the plan . Who should be . Department of Homeland Security obviously. Weve got folks in government who are thinking about this, but whats equally important, this is for business and civic groups. If youre talking cybersecurity, theres no way to do this only with the government. But the business in general, if youre thinking about a Global Supply chain, how do you design it for a specific purpose. Are there any risks to sovereignty in this . Because it seems like ive heard this talk about how the nation state is going to be obsolete. By the same token, it seems like the whole world is going the other way. People are more focused on selfdetermination now than ever before. I mean, the elites are focused on Global Network. Average people are not as enthusiastic about it. And the growth of populism. Thats exactly why the book is called the chess board and the web. The chess board is the world of nation states. Its still very much with us. It is crazy to think that it isnt. If youre talking us and russia, us and china, absolutely britain is pulling out of the european union. So you still want to think state to state. But you have to think in terms of the web at the same time. It isnt an either or. Even if you britain can pull out of the eu, but brittons are still going to be connected to lots of people in europe. You have to think about how do you design policy at that chess board level but also the web. We used to think there were certain rules of the road of what you would and wouldnt do when it came to cyber terrorism, cyber espionage. I think the blinders have been pulled back over the last several years in terms of what we know the chinese have done at corporate levels, what the russians have done at a state level. This one is where id actually go back to the chess board. The russians hacked our election. We needed a stronger response than expelling diplomats and a few sanctions. On some level, you really have to say to the russians, you do this again, well expose all these secrets of yours and actually do it. That is more back to the cold war and nuclear deterrence. Youve got to say to them, you do this, and there is a serious threat. Is it too late for us to do that, to have a response like that at this point . Thats a very well, im not sure this administration is the one to do it, but the last administration was not the one to do it either. You know, its funny. We just had a full day on sort of cybersecurity. Most of the experts i know think we should do it. Yes, we would probably do it now. We know they destabilized our election. That cannot happen again. And look at all of europe. Now worried. There has to be a punishment, and it has to be in kind. If not, not only do you encourage the russians for further interference down the road, you encourage every other nation that wants to somehow have a say in our election. Exactly. For those folks who remember the cold war, this is what we did the whole time. It was nuclear deterrence. If you do this, we do this. Weve got to think that way at the statetostate level in cyber. But then again, for protection purposes, youve got to have networks that involve business, civic groups, utilities, anywhere that can be hacked. You think that the russians, they kind of look at us and think, oh, we didnt try to influence netanyahu, we didnt try to influence brexit. Radiofree europe, the propaganda. They think thats the right system that they have, and we fund all these pamphlets and everything. We dont do the same thing . I definitely think they think that. Look, theyre not wrong. Putin thought that we had organized demonstrations against him in 201137 thats why he was so opposed to secretary clinton. So yes. And yes, our cia has been out there in various ways, but theres a level of actually stealing and its closer to what we might have done during the cold war, where we were really trying to destabilize or take out a government. We dont do that now. This level between us and your argument is we should. No, my argument is we should push back on russia and say, not expelli expelling diplomats, but you do this and we reveal your secrets that seriously hurts you. Its deterrence. Maybe the answer is maybe we both do it, but maybe we both have to stop. Anne momarie, thank you for joining us today. Thank you. Coming up, stocks to watch ahead of the opening bell. Futures right now have been trading in the green for most of the session. Just fractionally. But all three indices we follow all up a little. As we head to break, check out the dows biggest losers in yesterdays sessions and how it contributed to the actually, it was only a sixpoint loss. The rest of the dow was actually up if you factor out those two. Well be right back. Wanna get away . Now you can with southwest fares as low as 59 dollars oneway. Yes to low fares with nothing to hide. Thats transfarency. Stocks to watch this morning. Supermarket operators getting attention from wall street today. Comes from rbc upgrading both kroger and super valu to outperform. Previously it was sector perform. It points to improved macro conditions for supermarkets in general and also mentions super valus real estate holdings. Whole foods is also the subject of an analyst call. Ubs began coverage of whole foods with a sell rating. It says that the days of doubledigit sales and Earnings Growth are over in its view, and the stock price doesnt reflect that yet. All right, jason trennart is our guest. If we had more time i heard the same thing. What did you hear . You sort of wondered do the russians really no, from congressman yoho. No, from annemarie, that they absolutely hacked our election. I mean, im certainly i think they definitely tried to influence. Im trying to figure out how that would possibly be any different than any other time. Was there anything circulated about Hillary Clinton or john podesta or anyone that wasnt just shining the light on something that was actually true . Okay. So we know now. I guess we dont believe Julian Assange that it wasnt from the russians. Thats the assumption shes working on. So by showing that, it shows that Bernie Sanders didnt really have a chance, and it shows there was collusion with whatever. So these are the things thats not a fullon hack. Thats not voting machines. Thats not stuffing ballot boxes. No, but its trying to influence. If you have secrets on both sides. I think it misses the broader point, which is the fact that most ordinary people feel that theres a Political Class in the west that doesnt care about them at all. Thats what happened with brexit last year. Thats what happened with trump last year. Thats why you had j. D. Vance on yesterday. Its the left behind. They didnt hack the midterms two years ago. They didnt lose the governorships. Its just the broader question. Cybersecurity is obviously very, very important, and we should do our best to focus on it, but i just oh, i dont think its to suggest the election would have gone differently if the russians werent trying to influence. I wouldnt say that. I think the votes played out the way they did for a very specific reason, and youre right, it is the left behind. It is the left behind. I dont think its over. As far as youre concerned, we got another couple bites of the apple in the next year with france, germany, and italy. We do. You saw le pen is going to russia. And, you know, who knows. Theres developments still happening in europe. I dont know if we just say absolutely that she doesnt have a chance. Well see. When we comb bae back, more todays Big Health Care act vote. Tevi troy will join us to talk about it. The futures this morning have been mixed ahead of this vote. Actually, things have turned around. All the market averages are indicated slightly higher. Squawk box will be right back. Of 32 brand new ships t with advanced technology, so we can make sure oil and gas get where they need to go safely. Because safety is never being satisfied. And always working to be better. A developing story. 11th hour negotiations in washington as the house prepares to vote on the bill to repeal and replace obamacare. New this morning, multiple arrests overnight in antiterror raids following yesterdays Uk Parliament terror attack. A live report from london straight ahead. Plus, it was one of the Biggest Bank Robberies of modern times. Now were learning north korea may have been involved. The details coming up as the final hour of squawk box begins right now. Live from the most powerful city in the world, new york, this is squawk box. Good morning. Welcome back to squawk box here on cnbc, live from the Nasdaq Market site in times square. Im joe kernen along with becky quick. Our guest host this morning, jason trennart. Futures have been up for most of the session. Single digits, barely double digits on the dow. Three on the s p. Three on the nasdaq. Treasury yields have been sort of surprising in recent sessions as theyve come back down from 2. 6. Looked like the tenyear was going to go under 2. 4 yesterday. It did briefly. Among todays top stories, two economic reports of note. At 8 30 eastern time, we get the weekly jobless claims. Then at 10 00 eastern, the government is out with february new home sales. Fed chair janet yellen will be speaking at a washington, d. C. , conference later this hour. The speech is not expected to focus on Monetary Policy, but well be monitoring her comments and bring them to you as soon as theyre out. And were watching oil prices this morning. The levels it hit yesterday were the lowest wed seen in many, many months. This morning crude is up, but only by about 11 cents. And a couple stocks to watch this morning. A lot of these today. A lot of stocks to watch today. Con agra brands is expected to deliver fullyear profit at or slightly above the high end of its expected range, though its sales will fall at or slightly below the low end, impacted by a soft retail environment. Accenture beating the street. Scholastic reporting a larger than expected loss due to decreased club sales. Ppg industries is reportedly not ruling out making a hostile bid for dutch rival paint maker akzo nobel. Two prior bids have been rejected. And fireeye upgraded to buy from sell. Thats a twonotch upgrade. Goldman says the firm the recurring revenue is growing faster than expected. See, i think when you name that, you got to somehow just not put it in all capitals. I think our boards force it into all caps. They dont do it in all caps. It would be a capital second e. They should have a space between the two. You see what im saying . I do. You do . I do. No y, you dont. I do. Okay. And sears suppliers are reportedly reducing shipments and asking for better payment terms. That follows the retailers statement that had doubts about its ability to continue as a going concern. Thats the worst thing you can ever read in any corporate document. You understand why the suppliers are reacting immediately. Still a lot of equity. Isnt it . Must be more to it. You still have underlying real estate. Youve got some debt probably. Market cap is now under a billion dollars, which is shocking. 855 million. A developing story out of the United Kingdom this morning. Eight people have been arrested in connection with yesterdays london attack. Our villa marks joins us from london with more. Reporter yeah, so weve been getting these reports that overnight British Armed police connected a number of raids, both here in london and birmingham, arresting eight people at six different addresses. The british Prime Minister not wanting to name the suspect involved in the attack here yesterday outside the british parliament. However, speaking with the house of commons this morning, she said brits would not be cowered by terrorism. She also said that following these arrests, they did not see any greater threat following on from the attack yesterday. Lets have a listen to what she said. The threat level to the uk has been set at severe, meaning attack is highly likely for some time. This is the second highest threat level. The highest level, critical, means there is specific intelligence that an attack is imminent. As there is no such intelligence, the independent joint Terrorism Analysis Center has decided that the threat level will not change in the light of yesterdays attack. So the Prime Minister there saying that theres no imminent threat linked to yesterdays attack. However, she would not name the suspect. She did say she was british born and historically has been investigated by britains domestic security services. However, because its an ongoing investigation, she will not be naming the suspect. Police will continue with their investigation. Willem, thank you very much. Again, willem marx. Back here in the United States, the house getting ready to vote on the American Health care act. Joining us now is former health and Human Services deputy secretary under president george w. Bush, tevi troy. Hes now the president of the american Health Policy institute. I know that there are a lot of moving pieces here. This bill is continuing to be negotiated. We dont understand exactly whats in it or whether or not it will be passed, but what do you think about this bill as you understand it at this point . I think youre right. And thanks for having me on. To say its influx. We also know its going to change, should it make it to the United States senate. But the overall framework of this bill is the start of a threestep process to change away from the obamacare, the aca trajectory and also to lower taxes, lower spending, reduce the deficit, reform medicaid, and maintain the major Building Block of the Health Care System which is employer sponsored care, which covers about 177 million americans. Your concerns, if initiation about wh if any, about what youve seen so far. Theres a lot of concerns. We just dont know if its going to be able to pass the house. I think its likely it does. Then the question is what happens in the senate, where its a more difficult situation. They have less margin for error. On the policy side, the question is really of coverage. We all know about the cbo report that said that a lot fewer people will be covered under it. I think that also assumes that the aca or obamacare is stable and remains in place. Im not sure thats a safe assumption. I think what were trying to do is to try and get to a place where we can lower the overall cost of health care by incentivizing more people to purchase it, rather than the aca approach, which was to mandate it and then subsidize some people but not all. Tevi, you mentioned the politic political risks here. We know the negotiations are taking place right now to try and bring in the Freedom Caucus and get them on board with some of these issues, but every time the bill is changed to placate that wing of the party, moderate republicans say that theyre a little less likely to vote for it. Again, this is before we even get to the senate, where they said a lot of these things were dead on arrival as far as they were concerned. How does this work out if you get one bill that passes the house, another that passes the senate, then you wind up in the joint conference. What happens . How do you see this playing out . It is a bit like a game of jenga, where you remove one piece and the whole structure is threatened. I think the focus needs to be on getting this to pass the house. If it doesnt pass the house, theres no question of it passing the senate. Its got to pass the house in order to get to the senate. There are intentionally things theyre not putting in the bill so it has what are known as reconciliation protections, meaning it can pass with fewer than 60 votes. There are certain things that some people on the conservative side want to put in that would be socalled fatal to reconciliation. So i think like what . What are some of those things . Well, some of the things that are in the socalled third bucket, like changing the essential Health Benefits or Association Health plans or purchase across state lines, t. O. R. T. Reform. All those things could not pass the Senate Without 60 votes and also could not necessarily make it in with reconciliation protections. Once its in the senate, once it gets from the house to the senate, then the senate folks can try to put things in and each individual provision would be measured by the Senate Parliamentarian. Right now if the house puts one of those things in, that would be fatal, it could kill the whole bill as opposed to just an individual provision. So the Senate Parliamentary is ted cruz, is it not . Well, he has been weighing in on this issue, but no, the Senate Parliamentarian is someone whos appointed, i believe, by the majority leader and makes decisions based on precedent and what the rules are. So its a very, very important position. Even the person is not that well known. Mr. Troy, you mentioned the cbo estimates before. I would say that doesnt it strike you as a little bit of a fools errand to rely on cbo estimates or government estimates, things Like Health Care . 1965 under linden johnson, the great society, the best and the brightest, they made a projection of what medicare would cost 25 years later in 1990. Their projection in 65 was that it would cost about 9 billion. In 1990, it cost 98 billion. Thats not even close enough for government work. Thats a big whiff. Thats about right. So it seems Like Health Care is a very difficult thing to forecast. Im someone in the forecast business. I know how difficult it is in general. How reliable can you really are these estimates . Look, i call them guesstimates. The guesses are important because they determine whether something is reconcilable, for example. Congress has to rely on them, but i do agree that the cbo approach looks at who is subsidized, meaning whos getting a check from the government to determine who gets coverage rather thank looking at, oh, if we reduce the cost of health care, will more people purchase it. So i dont necessarily buy the cbo numbers that 24 million will be 24 million fewer would be covered under this law. It still is what the house has to work with right now to get through. Again, flaws with the projections, but it is the projection that they have. Jason, youre our market specialist and our market expert today, kind of weighing everything that tevi is telling you. Everything youve heard to this moment this morning, how do you sort all that out and figure out how it impacts the market . I dont want to be blind to the risks involved if this doesnt pass. This certainly seems like it would be a problem for the markets, at lee for a short period of time. The question is if it doesnt pass is how quickly the administration might shift to the other, i would say, more important, at least from the markets point of view, parts of the economic agenda, which i think are, as you can see in the market since the election, its very clear the investors are very friendly towards the idea of energy and financial deregulation and lower taxes and all the rest of it. So i think thats the big question to me. Does the administration get money hung up on this or can they shift quickly to other parts of their agenda that would be much more market friendly. Tevi, i know your expertise is in the health care area, but youve been in government. What would you expect the response to be if this does not pass the house today . If this doesnt pass the house today, i think its a bad sign for the ability of the administration to be able to get its tax reform through, its infrastructure plans through. It means that kind of like president obama, who started to re rely mostly on the Administrative State to get things done and executive orders, they would have to look in that direction. I think its too soon to write off the legislative process. I suspect this does pass the house. Then well see what happens in the senate. Great. Tevi, thanks for your time today. Thank you. Zplmpbl coming up, could north korea have stolen 81 million from an account at the new york fed . U. S. Officials seem to think so. Those details next. Stay tuned. Youre watching squawk box on cnbc. upstate new york is a good place to pursue your dreams. At vicarious visions, i get to be creative, work with awesome people, and we get to make great games. what i like about the area, feels like Everybody Knows each other. And i can go to my local coffee shop and they know who i am. Its really cool. New york state is filled with bright minds like lisas. To find the companies and talent of tomorrow, search for our page, jobsinnewyorkstate on linkedin. Search for our page, so i can take my Trading Platform wherever i go. You know that thinkorswim seamlessly syncs across all your devices. The markets hot. Sync your platform on any device with thinkorswim. Only at td ameritrade. At crowne plaza we know Business Travel isnt just business. Theres this. a bit of this. Why not . Your hotel should make it easy to do all the things you do. Which is what we do. Crowne plaza. Were all business, mostly. Welcome back to squawk box. Futures right now are indicated up on the session. 12 and change on the dow. Up three or so on the s p. Nasdaq indicated up almost the same as the dow, up about three. Were also watching yields today. Check out whats been happening with treasuries. Tenyear today still yielding below 2. 5 at 2. 418 , bouncing a little higher than what wed see on the lows yesterday. Joining us now is the chief fixed income strategist. Tell us what you think about treasury yields. It has been a bit of a conundrum this week. Good morning. Thanks for having me on. This is actually the third time in this sort of somewhat stunted or slowmoving rate hike. I think what that really reflects is the irony that the faster we raise shortterm Interest Rates, the sooner we get to that next rate cut at some point down the road, whether thats 2018, 2019. Were looking past that first move. The sooner the longterm rates come down. Thats weird. What is that, though . Is that just a reflection of the Global Market and how low rates are everywhere else . Not really. I think its a reflection that the more the fed fights inflation, the lower inflation risk comes down. And part of the move weve been seeing in the last week and a half, two weeks or so has been that Inflation Expectations on the long end of the yield curve have come in. As the fed seeks to fight inflation by raising shortterm Interest Rates, perhaps even fighting it too hard, longterm rates, which are more sensitive to that inflation component, come down, albeit relatively modestly so far. Were talking about 20 basis points. Its not like a large secular move or anything in that respect. I would just ask you, guy, the yield curve has flattened some. I find that personally somewhat surprising because even though the Economic Data hasnt been particularly good, it certainly seems the market is anticipating stronger Economic Data. There are other parts of the Economic Data that have been quite strong. So is there a sense maybe from your standpoint that the fed is it at risk of going too quickly . Its taken them a long time to be this accommodative. Theyre certainly too easy now, but its hard to get back to a neutral fed funds rate all at once. How do you see it . The markets are pricing in 2 1 2 or so additional rate hikes in 2017, which ginn soven of the broader Economic Issues such as slower population growth and productivity, its pretty aggressive, considering were sill sub2 on the inflation metrics. I think for the first time in a couple years, theres a greater chance that the fed exceeds its own expectations for rate hikes rather than fall short. If you take a look at the dot plot, the refreshed one that was released last week, the 2017 dot, meaning where the fed expects overnight Interest Rates to be at the end of this year, is essentially right on top of what the markets expect. Previously, if you look at dots released in 2016, 2015, et cetera, the fed expected a much higher path, the markets expected a lower path. The fed came down to the markets path. That seems obviously less likely to happen right now. Guy, ultimately, where do you think we can see yields by the end of this year . Yields for the ten year. Well, our forecast for the year on ten year is about a 2. 35 or so, which would be roughly unchanged on the full year. Obviously down a couple basis points from where we are right now. I think more important is the trading range. I think its reasonable to expect we see the vast majority of the year somewhere between 2. 20 and 2. 80 or so. We havent quite tested the top end of that range, but it would take a break north of 2. 80 for me to be concerned about more of a true bear market. Okay. Guy, thanks for joining us today. Thank you. Coming up, breaking economic news. A key read on jobs still to come. Plus, leave the plastic at home. How withdrawing money from an atm could be as easy as a swipe of your phone. Plus puppies. Theyre not puppies. They are big dogs. Good boys though. And good girls. Stay tuned. Youre watching squawk box on cnbc. Wanna get away . Now you can with southwest fares as low as 59 dollars oneway. Yes to low fares with nothing to hide. Thats transfarency. Its been over 100 years since the first stock index was created, as a benchmark for average. Yet a lot of people still build portfolios with strategies that just track the benchmarks. But investing isnt about achieving average. Its about achieving goals. And invesco believes doing that today requires the art and expertise of highconviction investing. Translation . Why invest in average . Welcome back to squawk box, everyone. Weve been watching the futures as we await washingtons take on the new Health Care Reform act, whether that passes tonight or not. You can see the futures have been slightly positive all morning. Right now the dow futures up by about ten points. S p futures up by three. The north ameriasdaq up by four. Making headlines, amazon has reportedly struck a deal to buy what the hell is that . Souq. What is that . Why do you name it that . Im glad its getting bought. Maybe they wont call it that anymore. Souq. Com, one of the top joen line shopping sites in the middle east. It means target . Oh, its what they call a market, a souq. That would be nice to know how to pronounce. Okay. The site, which is based in dubai, sells consumer electronics, passion household items, and other goods. The price of the deal is unclear. This is really weird because weve talked about how its hard to see a q without a u. The u is before the q here. Its even harder. So souq has raised 24 million since it was founded in 2005. I bet it doesnt look like that in arabic. Reportedly valued at 1 billion after its latest funding round announced last year. Wells fargo rolling out cardless withdrawal. Starting on monday, depositors can withdraw money using a smartphone at any wells fargo branded a, tm. The Smartphone Technology being applied to all of its 13,000 cash machines after piloting the idea in select locations across the United States. And we have some visitors on set. Theyre good boys. We got my pal hank over here. And gordon. Hi, gordon. They are sweethearts. Both of them. Im going to get in trouble when i go home because i smell a little bit. Have some of their smell. Your dogs are not going to take kindly. No. Actually, she said you should let your dogs know that there could be some competition. That way they can appreciate you. You have both adopted these guys, right . We volunteer with amsterdog rescue. Gordon was just adopted by christina. By the way, the reason youre here today is youre ringing the opening bell right here at the nasdaq. We get to have the dogs, the puppies on National Puppy day, here to ring the opening bell. And theyre brothers. Any idea how old . Gordon is 7. So you do know. Yeah. You say theyre brothers . Well, theyre foster brothers. I adopted gordon. I got like a million expressions about dog. What was the expression . The only thing in the world that loves their master more than the master loves himself. As much as we love ourselves, they actually love us more. All go to heaven, right. All dogs go to heaven. They can never do anything wrong. Also, if you dont think dogs can count, get a couple of treats out and hold them in different hands. See if they dont know that you have another one left. They can absolutely count. I read more you know, you read more on twitter every day about theyre so close to humans. The part that isnt human is the part that i wish wasnt human in most humans anyway. All of our good traits. Kind of like our children. Yeah, kind of like our children, right. Anyway, you guys, thank you for being here. Good luck ringing the opening bell. Good boy. Its okay, baby. When we come back, we do have some breaking economic news. Weekly jobless claims are straight ahead. Stay tuned. Youre watching squawk box right here on cnbc. You always pay your insurance on time. Tap one little bumper, and up go your rates. What good is having insurance if you get punished for using it . News flash nobodys perfect. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. And if you do have an accident, our claims centers are available to assist you 24 7. Call for a free quote today. Liberty stands with you™ Liberty Mutual insurance bell chimes nice work brother dominic. Now we just need 500 more. Translated into 35 languages, personalized oh and shared across the 7 continents. other languages spoken look abbot, i got it. Its a miracle. Good morning, everybody. Welcome back to squawk box here on cnbc. We are live from the Nasdaq Market site in times square. Among the stories front and center this morning, were just a few minutes away from comments by fed chair janet yellen. Shes going to be speaking at a washington, d. C. , conference. That conference will also feature an appearance by minneapolis fed president Neil Kashkari later in the day. The doggies are here. Lots of them. They dont like kashkari. This is just hitting the wire. Islamic state claims responsibility, says that the london attacks were carried out by one of its soldiers, by the terror groups media arm. That probably, in reading into it, the london authorities have said that this was isis inspired. The media arm is the group, the part of ayes isis thats trying inspire other people around the globe to follow its wishes. In keeping what weve already heard from the uk authorities, that this was in the direct contact from isis, but certainly inspired by the propaganda that isis has put out. We will continue to watch whats happening with that. In the meantime, Rick Santelli is standing by at the cme in chicago. Take it away. Initial jobless claims jump 15,000 from a 2,000 upwardly revised 243. Last thursday i brought out 241. That moved to 243 on the revision. Now were at 258,000. Continuing claims moved from just a whisker under 2. 4 to 2 million right on the nose. Thats highly unusual. Of course, that operates on a bit of a different delayed timeline. But we do see that dropped a bit. Yields hovering at 2. 41. Even though many looked at yesterdays 2. 39 close, theres market people and then theres people that cover markets. Many stopped the trade in the cash markets here right around 3 00. It really isnt the way its supposed to be, if you follow the cash market to the end. It still held the 2. 40 handle. Where did it stop . 262. 6. Level technicians have been talking about it for a very long time. Dollar index is up a bit. I dont know. Dont agree the dollar index moving politics. The euro and yen are guns hot because their Central Banks are in hot water. Becky, joe, back to you. Rick, before you go, talk to us about what you think may or may not happen in washington and how the markets going to be reading any of those things today as well with the Health Care Reform bill. You know, i was lucky enough to be on meet the press a couple times. I was the only person surrounded by political pundits who said something is definitely going to pass, and its going to pass in a sausage factory way, the way that the original framers of the constitution wanted it to be. A little messy. Yes, something is definitely going to pass. Whatever that is, pass the senate . Probably not until they tinker with it. Thats the process. I think were going to end up with something thats not the Affordable Care act. Of course t will have to morph into maybe what the Freedom Caucus wants it to look like more. But i do believe something is definitely going to pass, and i also believe if you believe in less government, its a step in the right direction. Perfection is a great thing to strive for. Holding on to the ability to make better changes ahead may be a bigger banner to hang your hat on. And from the markets perspective, if anything passes oh, i think the market yes. And thats the other point. If you take the dollar index off the list of what its directly responding to and you look at equities, even at their low point yesterday, the dow had only a 17 correction from its 21,100 high to where the low level close was the day before yesterday, on the big down day. A what percent . 17 from 21,100 to where it went down. What was it, 20,600. Something in that area. 17 . What do you mean . From the high. So if you look at the fact that we had 2800 points since the election and you factor in what the biggest retracement has been from the high oh, okay. I see. Yeah, no, i understand theres many ways to do it. I was thinking up days have probably been 90 or something. I used the dow, maybe you used s p. I got 14 . But the great thing is all of the people that said the market was going to go down or have travel with trump, theyve hated every percentage point as its gone up. Theyve hated it and actually said, well, its really because Global Growth was improving anyway. Until it got up until it went down a percent. Then it was trump. 14 , well, Global Growth had already been engendered by the previous administration. Killed them to even acknowledge it. Then when it came down a point, its like, hey, live by the sword, die by the sword. If youre taking credit for this, this is your one percentage point loss too. Thats just the way its going to be for four years or eight or whatever it is. Absolutely. I still am in the camp that the biggest part of the rally weve had since the election isnt because of who was elected, its because of who wasnt elected. Rick, can i just tell you a headline moving on reuters right now. They say the House Democratic whit, steny hoyer, says the republicans clearly do not yet have the votes to pass the health care bill. You think that this is just going to be some of the maneuvering ahead of time and that there will be a deal reached today. But that was a great headline. Democratic whip hoyer tells msnbc that. So you got the double whammy. Again, you think by the end of today there will be some deal, some sort of reach down from the house and it gets passed. Absolutely. Absolutely. Once again, i dont look at it as a negative that this stuff changes and gets morphed. I have no problem with the Freedom Caucus slash t tea part. Thats the process. This group pulls it this way, that group pulls it that way. Thats america. The market, i dont think, is set up for a failure. I think thats part of why i think it would be, you know, it would have people questioning whether the president was wounded, whether his future agenda is all the sudden, you know, you cant get a win. And listen, as much as i dont like all the political insertion into my marketplace, not mine, but the marketplace i love, i do believe in the binary aspects of that issue completely. I look at it as you cant make things better if you dont have the currency to do it. Passing this bill will hold on to the currency to make it better. You cant start out perfect. And rick, just an enemy of your enemy analysis, steny hoyer, do you know how much steny and the democrats do not want this to pass . Do you have any idea . The Freedom Caucus and some of these other guys well, let me think. For what reasons . For what reasons, joe . They understand a passage here shows a cohesiveness to be able to do something constructive with the power the people have Given Congress and the president. It really isnt about the Affordable Health care act. We had a guy on earlier. They think theyre patrick henry. He was giving me these quotes from the past that were so high and mighty, but really, if you do, you know, give steny a win here, that would probably not be a that would enter into my mind if i were one of those guys. It really would. Joe, come on. Lets cut it all away and really get down to the common denominator. Im afraid to do that. The common denominator is, if this doesnt pass, the platform for the 2018 election will be framed in and the French Resistance will be jealous at how little the democrats go forward in anything, on anything. Thats the way i see it. And it isnt a political statement. Its a statement about how i have to think about things to try to divine to our wonderful viewers how the market is going to respond. All right. Thank you. Thanks, rick. Joining us now, congressman messer of indiana, serving as a Republican Policy Committee chairman. Did you want to, like were you like, i got to talk, i got to ta to talk you were able to hear all . I was. I agree with all that analysis. Today is an exciting today. Democracy is working. We promised for seven years we would repeal obamacare, replace it with something better. We have a chance sometime this evening to get this done. Listen, its a messy process. Im not saying its going to be easy, even yet today, but i just belief in my colleagues and believe were going to keep that promise. I believe that were going to keep it because the American People have demanded this change. Do you youre in indiana. You must know some Freedom Caucus guys. Are they your friends . Do you know them . Yeah, of course. Many of them are my friends. Many of them came in with me. I was just elected to congress five years ago. I think the complaint theyre trying to deal with now, which is how do you drop these mandates so that you can really get at premiums. Any of you guys ever have drinks together . Yeah. Okay. So youve been with these guys. Do they whisper to you what really is going are they posturing . Are they ready to hold out for a clean repeal, which i think would to some extent never happen because you wont get it through the senate, but it would kind of be cutting off your nose to spite your face. I know thats what they wanted and you passed the other ones and obama wouldnt sign them. I understand that. But were in a different period right now. Do they really want that, or do they want to play . Listen, these guys love their country and theyre trying to make it better. What theyre worried about is premiums. What they understand is if you dont drop these mandates, youre not going to drop premiums. They understand that the filibuster requires 60 votes and that were not going to get eight of my democratic colleagues to vote with us to completely repeal obamacare. So weve got to get done what we can get done. Let me give you an example. In my district, people i talk to talk about how their premiums have gone from 400 a month to 1500 a month with a 12,000 deductible. Now people are 30,000 out of pocket before they even get to their insurance. Thats not affordable for most americans. Its why people are outraged. These people want to get that fixed. If thats the compromise that happens when we come together were probably 25 minutes away from the conference coming together at 9 00. I think we got a bill thats going to pass. Were going to keep this process moving, as your last commentator talked about, so we can make it even better. Congressman, as somebody who runs my own business, i hear people like zeke emanuel tell me, you know, youre going to believe your lying eyes or what im telling you. What you just said is exactly what happened in my company of 60 people. Premiums have gone up, and the deductibles are sky high. I think we could argue about why thats the case. Weve seen it in our insurance too. It didnt exist before. I have a process question though, which is to say lets say this passes the house. Then gets thrown over to the senate. Can the house take up other elements of the administrations economic agenda at the same time . Can it then start focusing on tax cuts, can it then focus on regulatory reforms, some of the other things that from a very parochial view would be very good for the markets . Yeah, we can get started on the hearings and debates. If you buy the premise that we cant count on our democratic colleagues, well have to do it through reconciliation. You cant get to the second reconciliation until the first passes. Thats why tax cuts are likely to come this summer. We are able, though, to work on some of the other regulatory relief, like competition across state lines or association plans, which would help with competition as well. Its important to acknowledge, there were people that benefitted under obamacare. Particularly folks with preexisting conditions. But the problem is millions of other people were hurt. Thats why theres been such an outrage. I think we can get this done and get headed in the right direction. You know, thats really what the American People sent us here to do. Does butler play tonight . I dont know if its tonight or tomorrow, but well be rooting for both butler and purdue. Unfortunately, the hoosiers are already out in the n. I. T. Theres some exciting basketball coming in indiana. There is. And ohio. And ohio. Xavier plays arizona. I think it is tonight. 9 00 or 10 00. Its late. So annoying. Anyway, yeah, im glad you got a couple teams in there. I dont know what happened to were sad about the hoosiers. My 9yearold sons Favorite Team is butler. So were rooting hard. My parents both went to purdue. Before i was conceived. All right, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Id rather be really focusing on that, but this is interesting though. If this gets messed up, i dont know what that says. Failure is not an option. No. All right. Thank you. Thanks. All right. Some breaking news thats just in, involving mf global. The bankrupt firm and auditor Price Waterhouse coopers have settled their malpractice case. The terms were not disclosed, but both say it was settled to the mutual satisfaction of the parties. They had claimed bad accounting advice contributed to the 2011 collapse that had been an ongoing case. Again, that settlement has now been resolved. Terms not being disclosed. When we return today, the timeline of the trump rally. The stories that sparked enthusiasm on wall street. Plus, the big question, can the climb continue . First though, as we head to a break, check out the dollar index. Stay tuned. You are watching squawk box on cnbc. Know you have a dedicated advisor and team who understand where you come from ow you can craft an Investment Plan as strong as your values know that together, you can establish a meaningful legacy with the guidance and support of your dedicated pnc wealth management® team. Welcome back to squawk box, everybody. Take a look at the futures this morning. Been watching this close toly. After the markets ended mixed yesterday, you can see once again the indices are right around the flat line level. Theyve been slightly positive all morning long with dow futures just bouncing slightly negative at this point. A lot of this is waiting to see what happens in washington. Maybe nobody wanting to make a big bet before they see how this is all going to play out. Been a lot of talking points back and forth from the different sides. By the different sides, i mean within the Republican Party. Well wait to see how this vote count looks to shape up for the health care act. In the meantime, take a look at the treasury market. Weve continued to see these lower yields with the tenyear this morning sitting at 2. 4 . It bounced a little higher this morning. 2. 400 right now. I know i talked about basketball, march madness, but fed chair janet yellen is giving a keynote speech at the Federal Reserve System Community Development Research conference. So thats going to be on. Whos in her final four . Thats a good question. I wonder. This is live right now. Can we watch it on a web broadcast somewhere . Do you know whether people can were going to monitor for them. If they so choose, can watch this. You should watch us because well tell you whats important. I wanted to watch that xavier game. Anyway, we even know whats in this speech. No significant pronouncements on economic policy. It focuses on ways to build a foundation for economic success for young people. Before we go to dom, speaking of young people, i forgot to Say Something when he was here yesterday. He just had a baby girl. Hes number one in our pool, our march madness poobl. Youre thinking basketball. Im thinking baby. He and his wife had a baby two weeks ago, and shes beautiful. Dom, i said that to you yesterday. Wow, i know congratulations are in order. You went, well i go, number one in the pool. Number one in the bracket. Yeah, you go. No, i knew you had thats great. Shes beautiful. Anyway, youre bufreautiful. Thank you. I appreciate that. Everybody at cnbc has been so supportive of both my daughter being born and of course my bracket standing right now. Elizabeth, right . Elizabeth. Get a picture ready. I know you have them on your iphone. I have them on my iphone. I will show you photos. Big baby too, right . Eight pounds, seven ounces. Pretty big. She was 20 inches long. Pretty decent sized child. I feel bad for my wife. She was the one who did all the heavy lifting, so to speak. And dont you forget that. Im not. Shes not letting me forget it either. Megan, if youre watching, im not forgetting at all that you did all the heavy lifting. Having the baby was the easy part. Think about what she had to do previous to that with you. This is very true. Think about that. I do. There was quite a bit of work that megan had to put into making this whole thing come to fruition. I played a very small role. She had to do a lot of, you know, perhaps work that she didnt necessarily want to do. Youre missing what im talking about, dom. She had soto have sex with you. Do i need to spell it out . I was trying not to go that route. I was trying to be subtle. If you want to go there, yes, there had to be certain things. Dom, how about the markets . Yes. Okay, lets talk about it. Becky talked about it before. The markets are Holding Steady right now. That big anticipated vote on Obamacare Repeal and replace. There are a lot of traders, investors using this first step in the process as a barometer, a thermometer for just how long President Trumps coat tails are. As of late, weve seen some of the unwinding of of a possible Trump Administration here. Banks weve talked about most obvious, the sectors been the worst performer in the s p 500 this week. Profit taking, you have Banks Like Bank of america the biggest loser in the s p 500 weektodate. Also wells fargo, j. P. Morgan part of that story. Regional banks like zions, huntington bank, keycorp, also having to do with the flattening yield curve. The smaller difference between long term rates and short term rates, the harder it is for banks to make money on traditional lending activities if things start to go down like you see there. We had seen a nice run up on trump optimism. Players have seen the momentum waning as well. If you look at construction aggregates companies, vulcan materials, martin marietta, they make concrete, asphalt, shares up between 10 and 15 just since late january. Of course you mentioned the hospital stocks, health insurers, other Health Care Related stocks will be a huge focus today. But remember one of the biggest gains that weve seen in the Trump Administration march 1st after his address to congress, all the optimism there, people thought he could get a lot of these policy initiatives pushed through. This is going to be that first sign for whether or not a lot of people think he has the ability and influence to make legislation happen, guys. All right, domino. You know what, if i didnt have a twitter feed these people egg me on. Ha, ha, ha, makes my morning, lol, go, joe, go. I mean, should i do it . You have kentucky, right . I do have kentucky winning the whole thing. Right. Well see what happens. All right. By the way, joe was like this long before twitter existed. Yeah, maybe thats true. Dom, next time we want to see pictures. I got photos, becky. Oh, god, i dont want to see of the baby. When we come back, jim cramer will join us live from the new york stock exchange. Stay tuned, squawk box will be right back. Yes . Please repeat the objective. Thrivent mutual funds. Managed by humans, not robots. Before investing, refully read and consider fund objectives, risks, charges and expees in the prospectus at thriventfunds. Com. When the Energy Sector drops over 5 in the first quarter, as its on track to, the Top Energy Stocks the following quarter are southwestern lets get down to the new york stock exchange. Jim cramer joins us now. Jim, i might be wrong. I kind of thought that the market sort of acting okay. Does that mean that passage is likely, do you think . Or the market is set up for something finally getting hammered out . If it didnt if it went down, do you think the market would take that in stride . I think that if it went down you might possibly have a minit. A. R. P. Situation where they didnt succeed the first time, people realized how bad it was and then they will succeed later. I cant believe look, i think it could be a winwin. If they dont succeed, we go down a little bit, then they tick up taxes. And that would be much better. But i personally think theyve got to come to some conclusion on this thing because as weve seen the big hmos are all pulling out. I mean, you know, i dont know what youre going to have if you dont have something. If humana pulls out, united pulls out, i dont know where there would be any competition in the big states. So i think the Congress People have to recognize it is kind of falling apart. Yeah. Yeah, look at that. I did see you can see which ceos of companies, you look at what their stocks been doing to see if you like it or not. Yeah. I saw the guy at molina, the Huffington Post touting, and had analyst on should go speak to centene. The ones up the most i think were down a lot because people felt they were going to be punished by the antitrust that they try to merge. Once the mergers were off, the stocks took off. But i think its really important to watch humana. Humanas pulling out. And humana was the biggest commitment. All right. Jim, thank you. Thank you. Well see you in a couple minutes. Yep. And later this morning on squawk on the street, dont miss former hh secretary kathleen sebelius. Well find out what she makes of todays Health Care Vote. I have a pretty good idea. Thats at 10 30 eastern. Stay tuned. Well be right back. Wanna get away . Now you can with southwest fares as low as 59 dollars oneway. Yes to low fares with nothing to hide. Thats transfarency. Kevin, meet yourkeviner. Kevin Kevin Kevin Kevin Kevin Kevin Kevin kevin kevin trusted advice for life. Kevin, hows your mom . Life well planned. See what a Raymond James Financial Advisor can do for you. 17 seconds, jason. Just long enough to thank you for being with us. Appreciate it. By tomorrow well know. Well know. Maybe. Well have an idea. Maybe. We hope. Jason, thank you. Well see you soon. That does it for us today. Make sure you join us tomorrow. Right now its time for squawk on the street. Good thursday morning. Welcome to squawk on the street. Im Carl Quintanilla with jim cramer at the new york stock exchange. David fabers off. Got some stability in the premarket on what is expected to be a big day on capitol hill. Still no timing on a house Health Care Vote, but lawmakers expressing more optimism about passage today. London is steady, parliaments back to work as the city responds to yesterdays terror attack. Bonds once again 2. 4, claims back above 250. Roadmap begins with a vote on health car