Transcripts For CNBC Worldwide Exchange 20180124

A warm welcome to Worldwide Exchange on cnbc. Im wilfred frost. Lets get to the market picture. As we said in the open, the nasdaq and s p closing at record alltime highs the nasdaq up 0. 7 the s p up 0. 2 the dow was negative, but fractionally this morning pointing to a higher open for the dow and the s p. Just slightly for the nasdaq we got to the 2. 6 level in terms of yields. Just pulled back the last couple of days from that level, but rising again today 2. 63 the yield on the tenyear holding nicely above the 2. 6 level. Dollar board for you, we lost about 0. 2 yesterday the dollar is sliding significantly today. Steven mnuchin did say on the ground in davos that a weak dollar is good for u. S. Exports. Its partly that, but really just a continuation of the trend of a weak dollar weve seen recently in europe, weve got about a third of a percent move higher for the euro we had some composite pmi numbers that came out, 58. 6 ahead of forecasts of 57. 9 the highest level in 139 months. It was led higher by services this time as opposed by manufacturing. So the euro continues its rally of late. The yen, as you can see, noticeably higher, 0. 6 . The pound also higher. So that weak dollar applies also to the aussie dollar, the swiss franc and the Canadian Dollar. A weak dollar, the pound close to 1. 41. What does this mean for markets . In asia, the nikkei has sold off in light of that stronger yen. Elsewhere we have a bit of green on the screen. Of course it has been a fantastic start to the year for asian markets. Hong kong in particular. European trade for you, surprisingly less effected by that strong euro having said that, we are looking lower, but not as low as we could have expected given how strong the eurohas been. In particular germany, which is near record alltime highs and very much an export economy. The ftse 100 down 0. 4 jay powell officially confirmed by the senate to run the fed. This will make him the 16th chairman of the federal reserve. Powell wont assume his duties until Janet Yellens term expires february 3rd to the World Economic forum in davos, switzerland. Gary cohn outlining the goals of President Trumps trip America First is not america alone. I said in my remarks when we grow, the world grows. When the world grows, we grow. Were part of a world economy. The president believes that. Hes going to talk to World Leaders about making sure we all respect each other, we all abide by the laws, we all have free, fair, open, reciprocal trade among the headlines out of davos, Steven Mnuchin told a News Conference a weaker dollar is good for the united states. He says america is open for business and investment and the government is committed to growth of 3 or higher commerce secretary wilbur ross is also in davos he said nafta talks are reopening. He will join squawk box live at 8 30 a. M. Eastern today among an amazing slew of guests. Joining us from davos this morning, the cochairman of bain capital. Good morning to you. Thank you for joining me, steven, live from davos. Lets start with how gary cohn framed the u. S. Administration saying its America First, not america alone. Do you think thats a fair framing of the actions President Trump has taken so far in office and do you welcome those actions . I feel like its a great gesture, and the more we can send a delegation here and get involved in the Global Economy, the better gary is right. Whats good for the global is good for america and vice versa. Its a great sign that so many people are coming over to hear the world views here in realtime and in davos do you think the president s actions so far have been one of America First or america alone i bring up the point of some tariffs imposed on things like solar panels yesterday that sort of action, does it concern you . Likewise when weve seen negative headlines around nafta in the last year or so, is that something that concerns you Going Forward . The u. S. Economy is actually doing very, very well. I think the president ran on an agenda to try and really bolster the middle of the country, who felt unfairly treated in the economic downturn. So i think what theyve got to do is really emphasize fair trade, but im a globalist and i think free trade is where its at and where we will continue to lift america and lift the world. I think its a good sign that so many are over here and hearing the views of the rest of the world and trying to work it out. The theme of the conference is coming together in a fractured world. The more we come together the better off for all of us in terms of the u. S. , youre positive for the outlook for the economy. What about valuations . Clearly valuations are near historical highs for the listed equity markets are you getting fearful that things are topee at the moment things are at a high level. If you step back and take the Big Tech Companies out of the s p, youre at high multiples but not crazy ones like for the last crisis. In private equity, the industry has evolved, so were building and growing companies, but i think bain capital is disciplined and were looking to do things that we know a lot about, like growing industries, doing acquisitions so its definitely at the high end. Were being disciplined in this market you mentioned exports. The u. S. Dollar, how significant of an impact is that having on the economy . Secretary mnuchin mentioning that the weak dollar helps the u. S. Economy and u. S. Exports. Is that something you think is key to continue the Economic Growth that weve seen in the u. S. The last year or so well, i think that the u. S. Dollar has an impact on the companies that we have that can export we have several of those i think in general the company has to make graeat products, currencies have always come up and down and power through that. Thats our philosophy at bain capital, to back management teams. In terms of the tax bill, is that something youre positive of in terms of the impact that will have in the years ahead on the u. S. Economy the tax bill has two good things for the u. S. Economy. The first is theres so much trapped cash overseas, a lot of that is coming back now, given the normalization of those tax rates. Apple is increasing employment that will cause cash to come back and be used in the u. S. Rather than trapped overseas and secondly more Consumer Spending thats good for the u. S. Economy as well. So the big issue is longterm, how do we pay for that im concerned that the National Debt which has crossed 20 trillion now, thats a large National Debt. We have to look at that problem over the long haul were you pleased and surprised to see your industry kept its provision for carried interest being taxed in terms of Capital Gains taxes as opposed to an income tax we honestly dont pay much attention to thachlthat weve been in business for 30 years, our primary focus is to have great returns for our partners we started out with six people in 1984, were 1,000 people now, we can live under any tax regime in terms of the Global Economic picture, strong pmi data out of europe this morning. Last year there was a big tailwind for the u. S. And Global Economy from Global Growth picking up can that continue this year or is it already priced in . I think it can continue when you step back, the crash of 2008 was a large crash its taken a long time to come back from that most recessions take 6, 8 years to come back from that were in the eighth year coming back from that our companys results are good the Market Forecast earnings are good so 2018 looks to be a good year. The question is what happens beyond that. We have to be careful we dont count on rising multiples to make returns for investors when we price deals we are looking at exit multiples that are the same or less than bought in so we have to improve, grow, transform those countries and make them bigger and better for the future so you dont want to pay high multiples as those multiples come down. Thank you for joining me this morning. Back in the u. S. , earnings are once again front and center. Abbott labs, comcast, General Electric and United Technologies report before the opening bell ford is out today after the close. Staying on the earnings theme, shares of United Airlines slipping following its Quarterly Report landon dowdy has more on those details. United airlines posting Fourth Quarter earnings that beat the streets estimates, but shares tanked after analysts seemed unconvinced after oscar munoz laid out the strategy for adding seats united has struggled to increase revenue for each seat it flies per mile add to that airlines facing higher jet fuel costs as the price of oil climbs in q4. Uniteds fuel costs rose 18 from the Previous Year the airlines has unveiled other initiatives like its nofrilled basic economy class, and introduced a premium economy class, which offers a larger seat, more leg room and other perks. Shares have risen more than 15 this year thanks to a sunnier forecast in january. Shares are off about 7 this morning. Delta and american off about 5 as well. Back over to you thank you very much for that. Still ahead on Worldwide Exchange, baidu hinting at deals to bring netflix content to china first a check in on u. S. Equity futures. All three in the green the nasdaq just ticking higher having been in the red moments ago. Coming off record closes for the nasdaq and the s p yesterday back in a couple minutes you know whats awesome . Gigspeed internet. You know whats not awesome . When only certain people can get it. Lets fix that. Lets give this guy gig really . And these kids, and these guys, him, ah. Oh hello. That lady, these houses yes, yes and yes. And dont forget about them. Uh huh, sure. Still yes xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. Now you can get it, too. Welcome to the party. Welcome back to Worldwide Exchange. Oil prices this morning, as you can see, just a little higher for wti. Coming off a decent gain yesterday, 1. 4 . 64. 55 the price of wti at t is embarking on a major ad Campaign Today to pledge support for Net Neutrality the Company Published a letter in several u. S. Papers including the new york tiles and washington post. Stevenson promises at t wont block websites or slow speeds based on content the customers consume. At ts pledge comes a month after the Trump Administration overturned rules requiring internet providers to treat all web traffic equally. The fact that Randall Stephenson is going out of three Big Companies with this links to the fact that he wants some good pr and Public Opinion to get his deal for time warner pushed through. Big deal for the industry. Switching to cryptocurrencies stripe is giving up on bitcoin as a payment method. The company says transaction confirmation time, fluctuations in price and fees are huge drawbacks. Stripes last Bitcoin Transactions will be processed on april 23rd. Stripe one of the big Successful Online startups in the payment space in the last few years. Softbank is reportedly in talks with banks to raise 5 billion in new debt. The tech website, the information, says softbank will use the uk holding arms as collateral softbank has said to be considering how it will use the newly 15 stake in uber to raise additional capital. Baidu is looking to bring netflix to china arjun ka phas more on that i sat down with the president of baidu, he was talking about how baidu would up their own spending on content and there would be more deals around the corner with netflix. We also talked about the investment baidu would be making into the u. S. , and he said they would increase the investment in the u. S. I am concerned, you know, some of the antichina sentiment. Its detrimental to china. Detrimental to u. S and so i actually dont have a specific deal blocked by this, but overall, you know, i believe no borders in technology, talent, or trade there should not be friction cro so, baidu has a big presence in the u. S. Despite some political antichina sentiment out of the u. S zha flshgs zhang said they would continue to make deals with netflix and they have a huge Research Department in the Silicon Valley dedicated to ai. They got hit in 2016 when china clamped down on Online Advertising that hit their revenues and theyre starting to recover, but thats because they shifted into ai, Driverless Cars and content. The company is hoping those will accelerate growth in the next few years. Back to you. Arjun, thank you very much for that still ahead on Worldwide Exchange, the dollar sliding to threeyear lows on broad based weakness well discuss that with paul shard. First here is the National Weather forecast from bill karins the story on the maps is the new storm for the west coast bringing rain and mountain snow, recently this will work its way across the country the problem is that we havent had a lot of snow in the west. We need a couple of these storms to build up the snow pack. Currently the percentage of average, down to the 20 to teen range especially in the mountains of california. Were happy to say were getting snow from this system. We have winter storm warnings, locally 12 to 24 inches, northern portions of the cascades will get significant snow heres the official snow forecast additional snowfall, areas up to a foot in the central portion of california todays forecast, nice throughout the central plains, cold in new england. No travel issues on the east coast. At yr Business Travel forecast more Worldwide Exchange when we come back or even trouble with recall. , thankfully, the breakthrough in prevagen helps your brain and actually improves memory. The secret is an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. The name to remember. Welcome back to Worldwide Exchange. Tracie potts joins us from washington with the big headlines out of the Nations Capital this morning the big headline is the developments in the russia investigation with confirmation that two of the top former and Current Administration officials have been talking with the fbi according to the washington post, that team, Robert Muellers team is ready to talk to the president two sources tell nbc that fired fbi director james comb ey and attorney general Jeff Sessions have already been interviewed by investigators. It suggests that bob muellers team is climbing up the totem pole. Reporter President Trump says he is not worried about what his attorney general may have said. Not at all. Did you talk to him i didnt. Im not concerned. Reporter this as Congress Tries to hash out an idea on the budget and immigration in over two weeks. We have a fresh start today i challenge every one of us to make the most of it. The American People are watching reporter assurances are already falling apart. Minority leader chuck shum ser wi schumer is withdrawing support to fund the wall he made an offer for a wall, i said if we do full dreamers, well give you a deal. He basically agreed. We were close, then he backed out. President trump said if there is no wall there is no daca. The white house says the president will be involved, but its up to congress to get something on his desk to protect undocumented dreamers from being reported and keep the government running past february 8th. Those demonstrations seem to be turning up the heat on lawmakers. Our new poll fines twothirds of americans want to see a solution for the dreamers, and about equal amounts of americans, about 4 in 10 say they blame the president and democrats for that shutdown tracie potts, thank you very much for that. Back out to the annual World Economic forum in davos, switzerland. Joining us is paul shard good morning to you. Good morning. Paul, early this morning the main headline coming out of davos was secretary mnuchin saying a simple line that we all know to be true, its clearly having an effect on the markets, that a weaker dollar is good for the u. S. Economy and good for u. S. Exports how significant do you think it is that he again is saying that, its something that we know President Trump is aware of as well do you think its having an influence on the forex markets at the moment . I have not seen that comment firsthand and sort of verified it out here in davos, you know, quite a number of things to do other than look at screen. A bit i take a bit of a pass f that is the case, that secretary mnuchin made that comment, its a bit of a shift from the past where the rhetoric was always consistently a strong dollar is more of a positive thing, which is really almost saying a strong u. S. Economy is a good thing if we hear that on a more consistent basis, thats shift in tone. Elsewhere, do you think the dollar is due a turn if we look at Interest Rate cycle or is the fundamental growth justifying the significant weakness weve seen in the dollar so far this year and last year i think i dont read too much myself into the shortterm movements in the dollar or Exchange Rates theyre there the Flexible Exchange rate regime which is the fundamental tenant of the International Monetary system, its job is to absorb the shocks and shifts in sentiment that are thrown at it and make the adjustments from a fundamental perspective, with u. S. Growth, we think it will pick up this year to 2. Pencilling in three more rate hikes. Ecb, bnk ank of japan, bank of england as well, all those banks, though they may start to shift Monetary Policy a bit, theyll all be in easing mode the fed has five hikes under its belt, more coming. So theres nothing to expect the dollar to be weakening but markets will drive that. If you think currency is going in one direction an everyone else agrees, it will probably go in the other direction paul, great stuff. Thank you very much for joining us pleasure. Huge lineup still to come from davos, including three of the big bank ceos. Still to come on Worldwide Exchange, a round up of the Global Markets and todays top corporate stories, including countdown to ge earnings well break dont key things you need to watch ahead of that report. And instagram making changes to its app and its looking a lot like snapchat. Back in a couple minutes some air fresheners are so overwhelming, they can. Send you and your family running. Introducing febreze one for fabric and air. No aerosols. No dyes. No heavy perfumes. It cleans away odors for a pure light freshness. So you can spray and stay. Febreze one, breathe happy. Earnings front and center. The Big Name Companies you need to watch today another blue chip name handing out bonuses. Thousands of disney employees will receive cash on the back of the tax reform bill. And boy bands headed to the super bowl a former n sync member speaking out on rumors that the band could reunite at the big gape. Its january 24, 2018. Youre watching Worldwide Exchange on cnbc. Good morning a warm welcome to Worldwide Exchange. Im wilfred frost. Lets look at the market action. We are aiming higher at the futures board, up a couple points for the nasdaq. The dow up 61. The s p up about 4 points. We did have record closes for the s p and nasdaq yesterday the nasdaq up 0. 7 the dow just fractionally lower. Essentially flat we didnt get a record close there. Tenyear treasury note for you, we have seen yields slip a bit ticking up again today nicely above that 2. 6 level as we have been for all of the week 2. 635 this morning asian equities, the nikkei sold off a bit a strong yen this morning, a weak dollar across the board. Particularly against the yen that hurt the nikkei, down 0. 7 6 the rest of asia higher. Its been a fantastic start to the year for asian equities as a whole. European trade a bit in the red. That weak dollar means strong euro, thats hurting some names there. Germany flat its at and around record alltime highs the rest of europe slightly lower. The ftse 100 down 0. 3 not significantly lower. Lets discuss markets and the Global Economy further bruce kasman from jpmorgan joins us lets start with the picture around the world we have some pmi data out of europe again, resoundingly strong i think thats right. We have a situation where the Global Economy is doing very well here. When we look at this from a broader perspective, theres a powerful feedback loop connecting growth, sentiment, financial conditions we can say it looks like for the first time in almost a decade we have shaken off the effects of the Global Financial crisis another factor for all of these economies is what the currencies are doing interesting to hear Steven Mnuchin this morning say weaker dollar is a good thing for the u. S. Economy well hear from mario draghi tomorrow, at the ecb meeting is he going to be concerned the way the your ro has reuro has re last 12 months i dont think the moves were seeing are enough, i think theyre reflective of the strength of the euro the dollar is falling against everybody. The euros rise against the dollar is masking a much more stable euro on a trade weighted basis. Im sure currency is a factor for the ecb, but it will be viewed against the backdrop of what is a strong euro area and a strong Global Economic outlook bruce, when we consider what Steven Mnuchin said for the u. S. Economy, is that an important factor in your eyes as well . Are you encouraged to see continuing weakness of the dollar after an already weak 2017 does that make you consider upgrading your forecasts for gdp growth i think theres some upside risk to the forecast, i would connect it more broadly to the dollar signal about what we see happening globally on the dollar, its a signal again of whats happening in the broader economy. From the u. S. Perspective, i think we have to realize the u. S. Economy is part of the strong Global Economy now. Its no longer importing disinflation, either in terms of weak foreign demand or a stronger dollar. That does change the equation as to what solid growth will deliver in the u. S. From the inflation point of view and the fed over the next couple of years. When you see those headlines about tariffs being placed on washing machines or solar panels, does that kind of raise a red flag in your mind if we did see more serious protectionist action from the u. S. President i think it does raise a concern. So far weve been seeing incremental action thats what we were expecting and have built into the forecast if we start to go down the road of something far more broad based, retaliation, particularly if we begin to take apart nafta, i do think that can change the macro outlook. Right now its a risk. Its not in place, but its a risk were concerned about bruce, thank you very much for joining me bruce kasman of jpmorgan eu antitrust regulators slapping a 1 1. 2 billion fine on qualcomm for paying ap tople toe its chips. The payments began in 2011 the Commission Says the company illegally shut out rivals in the market for lte wireless chips. Qualcomm in the premarket just moving slightly lower. More on that story to come shares of United Airlines are slipping this morning following its Quarterly Report landon dowdy has more. United airlines posting Fourth Quarter airlines has beat the streets estimates, but shares chatanked after oscar muz laid out the strategy to add more seats to expand margins united has struggled to increase revenue for each seat it flies per mile add to that airlines facing higher jet fuel costs as the price of oil climbs in q4. Uniteds fuel costs rose 18 from the Previous Year the airlines has unveiled other initiatives like its nofrills basic economy class, and introduced a premium economy class, which offers a larger seat, more leg room and other perks. Shares have risen more than 15 this year thanks to a sunnier forecast in january. Shares are off about 7 this morning in early trading as for rivals delta and american off about 5 as well. Back over to you thank you very much for that. Contrasting to how they performed yeartodate, deltas earnings, which kicked off earnings season saw a big gain in share prices. Disney will give a 1,000 bonus to more than 125,000 workers a as result of the new u. S. Tax law the company says full and parttime employees are el scrabble for the bonus disney will also invest 50 million in a new Education Program to cover tuition costs for hourly workers no move in the share price. Texas instruments Fourth Quarter profit missed forecast the Company Posted the slowest Revenue Growth in the past year. Ti saw Strong Demand for chips used by the auto industry, sales of chips for Communications Equipment were soft. Sand ridge energy rejected carl icahns proposal to replace two of the five board members. This after sandridge met privately with icahn icahn had also sought bylaw changes to approve large transactions capital one swung to a Fourth Quarter loss. They took new charges related to the new u. S. Tax law profit and revenue missed forecasts as they set aside more cash to offset credit losses still ahead, the top stories and a round up of the global picture. Well get you ready for ges Quarterly Report due in about an hour. And on squawk box, an allstar lineup. The ceos of citi, jpmorgan and goldman sachs. Mustwatch coming up today on cnbc siren wailing barry murrey when you have a really traumatic injury, we have a short amount of time to get our patient to the hospital with good results. We call that the golden hour. Evaluating patients remotely is where i think we have a potential to make a difference. barry murrey we would save a lot of lives if we could bring the doctor to the patient. Verizon is racing to build the first and most powerful 5g network that will enable things like precision robotic surgery from thousands of miles away. As we get faster wireless connections, itll be possible to be able to operate on a patient in a way that was just not possible before. When i move my hand, the robot on the other side will mimic the movement, with almost no delay. Who knew a scalpel could work thousands of miles away . Welcome back to Worldwide Exchange. Lets get you up to speed on the market action. Futures pointing higher this morning. The nasdaq up 0. 7 the s p up 0. 2 the dow was flat this morning. Currency for you, very weak day for the u. S. Dollar. Looking at about a half percent of declines against all the currencies, including the euro, yen, pound and the Canadian Dollar, swiss franc, the euro is up a third of a percent. 0. 6 declines for the dollar against the yen and pound. Oil prices for you they are up just slightly, 64. 6 the price. General electric set to report earnings before the bell today. Morgan brennan joins me with a look at what to watch. Theres a lot to watch. So when General Electric reports in about 45 minutes, you can expect the results to be messy last week the blue chip warned that for q4 it would take a 6 62 billion charge tied to its insurance business, 3 3. 4 billin charge tied to tax reform. Earnings for fullyear 2017 likely to come in the low range of 1. 05 to 1. 10. Heres what the street will be interested n the fin, the future current guidance, 1 to 1. 07 for Earnings Bank of america thinks the stock could be lower if the pain in the powering segment worsened. The conference is at 8 30 a. M. Eastern. There could be a break up of the Core Industrial businesses especially since a number of analysts argue that the parts valuation does not support a full breakup investors will be looking for other divestiturdivestiture, in lighting and looking for any updates on the board, which is shrinking to 12 directors from 18 ahead of the results, the stock closed up 4 yesterday, that was after breaking below 16 on monday to a multiyear low theres been a lot of volatility in the stock most of it to the down side. Sleerly we clearly were looking for all sorts of headlines the breakup potential, were not looking for plans on that yet. No given theflannery and the company, theyll be looking for more hin hin hints and strategyt morgan, thank you very much some other stocks to watch crees Second Quarter profit more than doubled thanks to a tax benefit. The lighting manufacturers earnings fell shy of forecast. Revenues did beat. The Third Quarter outlook is in line with estimates. Valero is raising its Quarterly Dividend by 14 to 18 cents per share. They are also launching a 2 2. 5 billion stock buyback program. Its up 1. 3 novartis reported Fourth Quarter results that beat forecasts. The company says sales of new drugs including a treatment for psoriasis will fuel its operating profit this year its up 3 time for the top trending stories. Landon joins me. I can say all of those words psoriasis its like papa johns and squawk box, thats for joe thats a pronunciation thing. I was trying to give you the credit psoriasis its tough thats a tough one that silent p. Its the rest of the world as well all sorts of vowels mixed up so many letters well switch to trending. You know whats trending boy bands. Are you so excited this is your favorite topic. I know what the punch line is can i just do it . Bad news for boy band fans it looks like the band is not getting back to better joey fatone shutting down rumors of the boy band reunion at the super bowl half time fatone telling, it mz that if they were performing he would be in rehearsal now i dont see this as an outright shutdown. You think theres going to be a surprise if they were going to do it, they would want to surprise everyone thats true they should have been rehearsing have you seen them get back on stage and try to keep up with the moves in. Hes 40 its still doable. You think he can do the dance move i havent seen them all, but i dont think its 100 shutdown either way, we get timberlake. Instagram is testing a feature that will tell you when someone is recorded or screen grabbed your story the feature will notify users when someone has taken a picture or Screen Recording of their insta story. I love going back and rewatching half the time you miss what it says answbsolutely. Facebook la has so many featurei was starting to annoy you, instagram was so simple, now theres all these notifications, they get annoying. They will to copy snapchat, thats delivered them huge growth in numbers initially, but i wonder whether the copying can go too far you need a bit of differentiation. Google assistant can match your voice to your netflix profile as long as youre using voice matching this should make handsfree netflix control easier basically youll be able to tell your google home resume playing, and it will know to return to where you left off on the crown. I like this good feature im surprised it was not already there. Would think that Voice Recognition would be something these devices pride themselves on it needs to know which profile its going to. Useful feature. Toys r us is shutting down about a fifth of its u. S. Stores the closures will start early next month the toy retailer did note some closings may be avoided if it can negotiate more favorable lease terms. Still ahead, futures pointing to a positive open on wall street. The key things you need to watch coming up. Later on squawk box, an allstar lineup from the World Economic forum in davos, switzerland. Welcome back to Worldwide Exchange. Lets get up to speed on the market action. Futures are pointing higher. They were red earlier. Expecting a positive open. All three indices, the dow higher by 63 points. The nasdaq higher yesterday 0. 7 dollar for you, it has been the big mover of the morning dollar weaker across the board not just the euro, yen and the pound, but the aussie dollar, swiss franc and the Canadian Dollar 0. 6 , 0. 7 for the move of the dollar south against the yen the euro is higher by 0. 3 ecb meeting tomorrow the european pmis this morning were strong. Tenyear treasury note slipped a bit in terms of yield. Its moving higher again today 2. 63 the yield on the tenyear to the World Economic forum in davos, President Trump heading a large american delegation gary cohn outlining the goals of the trip. America first is not america alone. I said in my remarks when we grow, the world grows. When the world grows, we grow. Were part of a world economy. The president believes that. Hes going to talk to World Leaders about making sure we all respect each other, we all abide by the laws, we all have free, fair, open, reciprocal trade among the headlines out of davos, Steven Mnuchin told a News Conference a weaker dollar is good for the united states. He says america is open for business and investment and the government is committed to growth of 3 or higher commerce secretary wilbur ross is also in davos he told reporters that nafta talks are reopening. He will join squawk box live at 8 30 a. M. Eastern today lets bring in mike holland, chairman of holland and company. Good morning to you. Good morning. Lets talk about these comments we heard this morning first from Steven Mnuchin, that the weaker dollar is good for the economy. How significant is that statement . Do you think its something that keeps the dollar weak if the administration is targeting that sort of thing . Is it just a passing comment and not really relevant for the direction of the u. S. Dollar its certainly relevant the fact that he said it, thats unusual. But he did say it. Also it means u. S. Companies have an advantage with the dollar weaker. That will mean a bit of a push for gdp in the u. S economists make so much of the movements and forces moving curren currency its very simple and straightforward. Central banks are key to this. Central banks outside are more aggressive than the u. S. So Interest Rates will be higher so the currencies will be stronger thats going on around the world. Look at the pound. What about the comments from gary cohn saying its America First, not america alone wou when you consider some of the havent actions from the Trump Administration, is that a fair summation of reality or is there a more a tone of america alone certainly more america alone. This is ironic the time when poland is doing what its doing, other countries around the orld. So were talking about davos today, which is a global lets all get together and do things smart, but people are fractioning the economy around the world. Do you think growth will continue to surprise this year to the upside . Yes thats its a force newtons law of motion you saw the numbers this morning for employment in the uk, which surprised. We have wage growth of 2. 4 . No one expected that so this is supposed to be part of a potential basket case this is going on around the world. The numbers out of china remain strong the u. S. Numbers, we have over 80 of Companies Reporting so far, they have exceeded estimates. The wind is at the back. So the bears are having a problem now. When you consider china, clearly youre well known for your invest 789 ments there, aru continuing to invest at the moment or are you concerned about the run up in the market hong kong particularly strong last year, strong again this year markets are strong here, but in hong kong amazingly strong spectacular im happy to have made some money there once again to take some off the table might make sense the Companies Continue to report to us, investors, strong things. So the underlying numbers its like Johnson Johnson yesterday. Very good numbers, but its a high valuation i expect at any point in china and in hong kong to get hammered very interesting. In terms of stateside, earnings season a third or so a way through. Numbers continue to Beat Estimates for the main part, but are they beating sufficiently, given not just the Market Performance last year but the start this year which took the s p close to many peoples fullyear targets. I know. So when we hear these cautionary voices out of davos, we will hear more today. The economists and central bankers telling us this. We have a cacophony of sound of people telling us to watch out, watch out, meanwhile the market keeps going up confounding people i think we will have a major kind of downward move at some point. I dont know when it is, how much it will be, it will be scary when it happens. I think the underlying economics and fundamentals are sound great stuff thank you very much. Mike holland of holland and company. Of course, as mike mentioned, a lot to come from davos today, particularly on squawk box. An extraordinary lineup. Among the newsmakers, citis ceo, jpmorgans ceo, goldman sachs, blackrock, saudi aramco and that kicks off with mike corbat at about 6 00 a. M lets have a quick look at the futures. Pointing higher after yesterdays record close for the s p and the nasdaq thats it for Worldwide Exchange. Thank you very much for joining us the team for squawk box will pick things up live from davos on the other side. Good morning welcome to squawk box. Futures are on the move pointing to a higher opening as major earnings reports roll in a full market rundown is straight ahead im joe kernen becky quick is here as well. We have an incredible lineup this morning including michael corvat, we have james quincey, ginni rometty, and jamie dimon, also lloyd blankfein. United Airlines Shares are getting crushed. Well tell you about the comment on the Conference Call that sent that stock sharply lower. And big newsmakers at the World Economic forum theyll tell you what treasury secretary mnuchin said that is moving the dollar. Have you ever seen this before, a treasury secretary saying he likes a weaker dollar . Ive never seen that wednesday, january 24, 2018 day two in davos squawk box begins right now. Good morning welcome to day two in davos, switzerland. Another beautiful day. Sun is out things are bright. Warm. So bright, it feels like were staring at the sun sitting here t