you can look at the ten-year note at 1.578. welcome back. >> thank you. >> to the east coast. >> it's warmer here. >> what was your score can you give us a brief update >> i maintained -- i stayed in the red. stayed in the red. my pro was even. but it was difficult for me to play >> it's a difficult game. >> difficult game to play well. >> it's hard to get up at 1:00 in the morning, do the show, and go play pebble in front of people they saw some things no one should see we'll talkabout something very serious. we'll get back to that because i want to tell you i saw one of our old friends. >> that's a good tease. >> jay z. >> did you >> i mean justin zuker i played with him and he made the cut. his short game -- he's a competitive person have you noticed that? >> he is competitive. >> that's one thing we may talk about more you know who else is a cnbc contributor? dr. scott gottlieb, how excited are we we get to talk to him again. coronavirus, 910 people are dead that's making the outbreak deadlier than the sars outbreak. more than 40,000 people worldwide are now infected and the ripple effect is across the business landscape as well that's one of the things we cover. factories operated by foxconn, china's largest employer, and a major apple contractor remain closed today after chinese authorities rejected its proposal to resume operations citing fears over the outbreak and ailpylibaba is extending it hollywood and airbnb is suspending bookings. the company says it will refund reservations and kia motors is suspending productions at its south korea plant due to plant shortages linked to the outbreak eunice yoon is monitoring the situation in beijing >> reporter: companies are dealing now with a conflicting tangle of policies that vary from province to province and city to city that for the most part are keeping a lot of factories closed most factories are being required to provide prevention measures and very strict one factories need to quarantine work that come in from other areas, so migrant workers, and source masks and googles for every sickle worker. after they have these restrictions in place they can apply to the local authorities to reopen. some areas are also putting in outright production date delays as late as march 1st and that said, some factories did reopen today i was speaking to the folks over at ford today and they said that their plants have resumed operations though they are not running at full capacity tesla reopened its shanghai factory. the local media had spotted staff going into the facilities in a bus, wearing masks as well as all the security people there. chinese tech names being very cautious most are asking their staff to work from home at least for another week or two. and i think all of this shows the situation here is not going back to normal for quite some time >> thank you just be on the ground there, is there any feeling that we're approaching what people are looking for in terms of the peak and then it starts to subside from there or are we still on an -- there's no way to know, i guess, is there? >> it's really -- it's really difficult to know because it's not as though the situation -- most people are focused on the situation in wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak. the stories coming out of there sound even worse than before and so because the situation is so dire there, a lot of the focus has been on, you know, just how bad the spread is going to be. a lot of the -- over the weekend, a lot of hospitals were sending staff to wuhan to try to get a handle on the situation. there's also been a lot of concern about the communities outside of wuhan there's some smaller cities now that are getting badly infected. there's a lot of talk about lockdowns in these cities and these cities don't have the infrastructure, the health care infrastructure that wuhan has. so, that's really worrying people about the spread of this virus. >> do we know how many people have left wuhan? i saw -- i don't know. i didn't go you into the article itself but a lot of people that have left, that are unaccounted for that may be all over china or in other parts of the world do we know that? >> well, we know what the mayor had said from wuhan. he said he believed 5 million people had left. so this was because of the lunar new year holiday and once they heard about the lockout. we know there are millions of people from wuhan who have been traveling around that's -- again, most are probably in china, but it's something worrying a lot of the people here because it's it's seen as so contagious. >> i was amazed at how recent everything is. we're talking a matter of weeks and it sounds like we've been talking about it for a while you would hope when that 14-day incubation period is up, hopefully there are pockets of wuhan and krz coronavirus or there aren't >> i think what's concerning people here is it looks as though the virus is moving person to person there were reports in europe there could be a reports of a super spreader where -- there's a group of people in europe that looks like they became infected by a british national who was traveling to singapore and that none of them had actually gone to china so, because it seems to be jumping from human to human, we don't really know the extent of the spread in china. that's what people are worried about here, despite the fact that the government says things are largely under control. president xi jinping was featured heavily in the state press tonight traveling around a hospital in beijing to show that china has the situation contained. >> eunice, thank you >> we're going to talk to dr. scott gottlieb if you have any questions, you have any questions or anybody have questions about the coronavirus, tweet them to us now @squawkcnbc. then at 6:50, dr. scott gottlieb will join us on set to answer some of ours and your questions. president trump set to unveil his budget. the white house budget includes dramatic spending cuts and rosy economic forecasts but it still won't be able to eliminate the nation's $1 trillion deficit for another sa years. the budget will officially be released today calling for $4.4 trillion spending dedeductions come from changes to social safety like s.n.a.p., medicaid and housing assistance that is less than the amount the white house made with lawmakers last year and already the administration is facing political blow back. john yarmouth said, quote, congress will stand firm against this president's broken promises and his disregard for the human costs of his destructive policies the white house is also forecasting an average of 3% gdp growth over the next 15 years. there are no new economic proposals in this budget but there is a $1.4 trillion placeholder for tax cuts 2.0. >> thank you for that. we have a lot more on the budget in the 8:00 hour with acting omb russell voigt. history was made at the oscars, because i actually saw an hour of that before i retired early. i'm going to tell you about this and then make it all about me. south korea's "parasite" took top honor. first time a non-english film claimed the award. they also won best director, best screenplay and international film i was unable to do draft kings out in california. when i got back -- >> betting on the oscars. >> i bet on the oscars with my son's advice i was unable to figure out a parlay he wanted me to do best original screenplay and he wanted me to do -- everything he told me to down, including my bet on "parasites" for best picture >> you won. >> i won 3 to 1 odds. if you but $25 on brad pitt winning best actor, guess how much you won 25 cents it's not a good bet. i did win 3 to 1 >> now you're going to get into the oscars, membermys -- >> if you can bet on it, i'll get into it. i'll even put up with the speeches about cow insemination, whatever i have some comments about this. netflix went into the night with the most nominations with 24 and won only two trophies. laura dern won for "marriage story" and american factory w won -- that has something to do with the obamas. >> it was fascinating. >> disney, cgi won four trophies i saw "the irishman" in the theaters and i wanted to see those four guys. i liked it for 3 1/2 hours i liked it i thought it was good. now it's on netflix. i said, you know what, i'm going -- it's a saturday, i think i'm going to watch it again. i watch about a half hour and i said, i can't do this. >> it's a tough commitment. >> so, it came with a lot of fanfare, it's going to win everything by the time we got to the oscars, people -- it wasn't even in the running for best picture. >> it was too long. >> it's as long as a football game and people watch nothing -- >> i knew nothing was going to happen even when i wait till the end. >> we know it's bad for net flis fliction but on a net basis all the u.s. studios got blanked because "parasite" was not u.s. distributed. >> have you seen "parasite"? >> no. >> i have seen it. it is bonkers. it is. but did you -- while you were watching it, didn't you think, i didn't expect this >> absolutely. >> this is crazy >> 100%. >> violent and knives -- it's nutso. >> i'm not crying for netflix. >> don't cry for argentina. >> don't cry for netflix. >> people are still holding it against them, though. >> people are less interesting -- fortunately or unfortunately in the oscars than they have ever been in their whole life >> it might have something to do with a bunch of high school dropouts lecturing us on crap they know nothing about might be one of the problems. >> i think it's about the movies anyway, let's check out this ad, though, that aired during last night's oscars the first look at samsung's new foldable fold phone. it appears to have a small screen on the exterior for things like notifications and a dual lens camera system. samsung expected to reveal more details at a product event tomorrow even has -- i don't know if you saw the little writing about it is fold because there will always be a crease in the glass, which is not a problem, they say. but if you remember, was a problem for the flip phone the -- the flip tablet they used to have. more coming up we have l brands nearing a deal to sell flagship victoria's secret brand our big interview of the morning coming up at 8:00 a.m. it's an exclusive with wework chairman his first interview about all the headlines about wework and soft bank. do you have questions about the coronavirus outbreak but don't know who to ask? twit them to us right now @squawkcnbc. and dr. scott gottlieb will answer them later this hour. when it comes to your business internet, which is more important? ♪ ♪ okay, i wish i didn't have to choose. like the more i think about it, the more i want to jump to each room. what if i said you can have it all? ♪ ♪ comcast business gives you connectivity that goes beyond. that's what we want! that's speed, reliability, and security, all from one provider. touchdown! get started with internet and voice for an amazing price. call today. comcast business. beyond fast. welcome back l brands nearing a deal to sell victoria's secret to sycamore partners people close to the deal tell cnbc it could be announced this week wexner has been under mounting pressure because of his ties with jeff hi epstein and accused of creating a culture of misogyny and wlamed for the performance of the flagship brand and their transition -- or miss on the transition in terms of what would be appealing to their audience they're going through that transition right now what do you think? can victoria's secret be victoria's of yore >> by definition -- >> it was so massively -- the execution was terrible at the company. >> the bigger point if it's mysogynistic it's a different world you go become to the history of victoria's secret and it looks like it doesn't fit in 2020. >> but it was so mismanaged. >> the stock is a different story. but miss universe pageant and everything else we look at with a different viewpoint at this point. >> i understand that but as an investor, there's a lot of money to be made. >> let's talk about that stephanie link owns -- you own shares of l brand. what did you buy >> i bought it a couple weeks ago. this stock was $100 stock in 2015 it was $61 in the beginning of 2018 it's lost a major amount of value because it's been mismanaged i bought it because i thought there were a couple ways you could win. either the management executes better or you have an activist in there, barrington, they would stir up the pot. they could do asset sales, split up this company. i have sumtive parts analysis that gets this to $32. from here i think it can still neighboring money. there's a lot of thibs they can do that will have this stock win over the look term. >> don't you think there's a perception it's like a blockbuster or gamestop? it's in a business -- i mean, are you still going to buy things -- maybe you will if they sell victoria's secret, they still have bath & body works, which is the gem -- >> do they need to get a price for victoria's secret? >> i don't think so. the price gets you a $3 stock. >> which is super cheap. >> it's at a point to be a public company do ul think that will survive as a public instrument? >> they could. they've done a good job in terms of products innovation there's a lot in terms of inventory management that can help grow the earnings and you have the products, you have the top line >> you've been -- we've never gone there, right? >> to? >> a bath & body works. >> not in a long time, no. >> can you get everything there they have -- totally different. >> totally different. >> we should check it out? >> check it out. >> on a rainy saturday. >> they have good candles, i think. >> a lot of candles. a lot of sniff, skin care, creams. >> i like that stuff. >> the gen z, they like that we have candles all over the place at my house. >> candles and moisturizer. >> gen z, white house that now >> they're teenager. >> actually, we need skin cream. >> they're doing facials and all that - >> that's all they do. they don't care about cosmetics. they care more about skin care which is why estee lauder posted a -- >> youth is wasted on the young, have you heard that? >> you've heard me say it. >> i have. >> i'm not bitter. stephanie, thank you coming up, we'll talk to the reporter who made the call that soft bank was ready for an investor before -- before that was made public. woman: what gives me confidence about investment decisions? rigorous fundamental research. with portfolio managers focused on the long term. who look beyond the spreadsheets to understand companies, from breakroom to boardroom. who know the only way to get a 360 view is to go around the world to get it. can i rely on deep research to help make quality investment decisions? with capital group, i can. talk to your advisor or consultant for investment risks and information. talk to your advisor or consultant our retirement plan with voya gives us confidence. so we can spend a bit today, knowing we're prepared for tomorrow. wow, do you think you overdid it maybe? overdid what? well planned, well invested, well protected. voya. be confident to and through retirement. ♪ ♪ i got that vibe, got that vibe ♪ ♪ got that vibe, yeah, i ain't petty, ♪ ♪ looking fly, looking fly, ♪ ♪ looking fly, yeah, they ain't ready. ♪ ♪ i can shine, i can shine, ♪ ♪ i can shine. ♪ i'mma do what i'm made to do. ♪ ♪ i'mma do what i'm made to do. ♪ built for excellence. you start from the foundation up. the excellence is reaching dreams and chasing them at the same time. ♪ welcome back to "squawk box. reuters reporter penned this piece -- wanted, bold activist to take on masayoshi son joining us is that very reporter who called for all of this and called it right. liam proud has every reason to be proud reporter for reuters breaking view good morning. >> thank you very much >> walk us through your thinking i'm even more curious about after you penned the piece if you got a call from anybody at elliott. >> basically there's two reasons i thought this was likely to happen the first is governance. softbank is run essentially by one person, masayoshi son. he has a big stake in the company. he tends to make investment decisions on gut he likes to feel the force like jedi in star wars. that's not a typical thing activists like to see. you like to see accountability and the next thing was the valuation. this thing is worth $200 billion, $300 billion depending on how you count it but the stock market thinks it's worth $90 billion. >> did anybody at elliott call you after you wrote this piece >> i mean, i'm not supposed to talk about who i've spoken to on various on record or off record. we're constantly in conversation around this. >> sounds like somebody did call him. walk us through what do you think happens next in terms of the process, if there is one, and what can really happen here. >> i think the process has already started. my information is they've been having conversations for some months before this came public they've actually been quite friendly conversations if you look at the two things that elliott is calling for, it's a big stock buyback masayoshi son has done that in the past and governance changes it's about being more clear, more transparent in the vision fund, how are you valuing that stuff, how do you get to those conclusions. i think you could probably come to an agreement on those basic principles. >> let's talk about the vision fund let's talk about the second vision fund because new reports out that that fund is more troubled than ever may even come in as half the price that they were even looking for and most of that money would come from softbank >> yeah. you know, they put out this statement around the middle of last year saying they were looking for $108 billion sequel to the first vision fund details about how they would get there were scarce. we tried to run the numbers a few times based on they've known this bank, how much could they afford to give up. we couldn't get anywhere near the big numbers. it's not all together surprising but it doesn't make it any less embarrassing they don't seem like they're going to close that scale of fund. >> what's the relationship right now between masayoshi son and mbs given it's so much of the money? >> that's hard to tell you can speak to people in both companies and see how they're thinking about it but it's two powerful guys. you can say -- lots of reports come out saying people close to the public investment fund, the saudi fund, but ultimately mbs could just turn around and change on a dime this is the kind of power these people have. it's very hard to get a read unless you're in the room with those two people. >> we have to go do you think founders and other startups are going to still take softbank money i don't know if you saw over the weekend, chamath went on a twitter tear about the mormon church money he thinks that foubders will have a whole new morality about money and who they take the money from and why they take money. we started this conversation -- it started with the saudis, frankly, but it felt like we're at a tipping point where this might actually move somewhere. >> i think they'll be okay it doesn't look like they have any more saudi money at the moment they spent most of the saudi money. to an extent that was going to be a problem it might be less of a problem. second of all, this he have the biggest fund in the world. i mean, if you're a startup founder and you think this is going to be a kind of winner takes all market you're in, if you have more money, you can outspend your competitor at the end of the day, that's the edge as long as they have loads of cash, they should be able to find targeting >> liam, thank you appreciate it. also, programming note, we're going to talk to the coo of softbank and executive chairman at wework in an ex