Worst down by 1 the nasdaq off by. 6 . The s p down by. 50 lets take a look at treasuries now. You can see at this point the tenyear yield at 4. 68 yesterday on that data that we got at 8 30, the twoyear moved above 5 we have the pce number today squawk planner two reports before the opening bell chevron and exxonmobil in the next 90 minutes. You see two big interviews after those reports. Darren woods will join us at 7 30 eastern time this morning chevrons c, o mike wirth will be on at 9 45. Po we will get key Economic Data at 8 30. Core pce is expected to rise without food and energy. That is down from the february reading of 2. 8 . U. S. Secretary of state Antony Blinken meeting with xi jinping. He told xi there has been progress since the meeting with President Biden back in november there are still many issues that need to be resolved. The meeting comes as u. S. Officials have been raising concerns about chinas economic assistance to russia earlier in the day, secretary blinken met for more than three hours with the China Foreign minister. An update on the rising tension from protests on College Campuses usc will not hold the may graduation event that was expected to draw 65,000 attendees. They cited s d Safety Measures in place more than 90 people have been arrested there last night at ohio state, state police and patrol moved in after 10 00 ap. M. And asked the crowd to leave or would be charged with trespassing dozens were removed and arrested several protests popped up around the country yesterday this was the scene at northwestern in illinois this is the protest as George Washington university and protests at America University there. You can run through a list of other campuses things building here shares of snapchats parent snap soared to 1. 2 billion by improvements in the ad platform. Ad revenue accounted for that total activity daily active users improving guidance for the quarter above the estimates. This stock has been a volatile one. Good news is it is up 23 . Getting back to where it was a couple of months ago. Shares of intel are falling. First Quarter Sales missed estimates. The Current Quarter forecast came in weaker than expected Ceo Pat Gelsinger did speak to jon fortt yesterday about the forecast. We delivered a solid q1 we met revenue we beat on eps we gave an outlook for first half to second half. A much stronger second half outlook as we saw with growth across every business forecast for the second half. Somewhat like the market indicates and maybe a little bit of market weakness in the first half of the year we are working through that. Well talk more about this with the analyst in the intel performance later in the hour. Year to date down 35 . Mining giant Anglo American has rejected the takeover bid from bhp bhp said it made an all stock offer that valued anglo at 38. Billion you see anglo shares are off and bhp shares as well down less than 1 . The bank of japan keeping rates unchanged. This comes after flainflation in tokyo came in lower than expected the bank of japan will continue buying bonds at same pace as previous months. Coming up, more tech movers and dividends announced by companies that have never done it before. Phet and microsoft make those moves. Well show you those next. Were coming right back. [sfx wind, rain and rolling thunder] nobodys born with grit. British announcer rose is really struggling. Its something you build over time. American announcer thats 21 missed cuts in a row. [car trunk slammed shut] for 88 years, Morgan Stanley has offered clients determination and forward thinking to create the future. Crowd stop it . Only you can see. American announcer rose, back in the winners circle. [crowd cheers] [music out] youve got xfinity wifi at home. Take it on the go with Xfinity Mobile. Customers now get exclusive access to wifi speed up to a gig in millions of locations. Plus, buy one unlimited line and get one free. Thats like getting two unlimited lines for twenty dollars a month each for a year. So, ditch the other guys and switch today. Buy one line of unlimited, get one free for a year with Xfinity Mobile plus, save even more and get an eligible 5g phone on us visit xfinitymobile. Com today. Alphabet and microsoft reporting yesterday. Both Beat Estimates on the top and bottom line. Alphabet announced the first ever dividend. Joining us is paul meeks mixed feeling like everyone about dividends. This is good in this case. It doesnt mean the end of the growth period, does it, paul you know, im a fan of that company for other reasons. I have covered tech for a long time usually when Tech Companies, particularly if they have been around a while, announce a dividend, you start to wonder wow. Dont they have anything else to do with the Free Cash Flow will this impinge the r d spending there is upside with the growth drivers, but the way i look at this particular dividend is maybe they check a box for some Institutional Investors that need to check the box with dividend paying stocks this is no draw for me. Why do you think the stock is up on something earning this or because yeah. I think there were some people, particularly after metas checkered result the day before that were a little worried about the results here they had to climb a wall of worry. In the meantime, the core ad business was very strong and the google Cloud Business was very strong and it looks like they are now doing all the right things, at least in the long term to build a. I. Product suite. I think theyre in pretty good shape. How about microsoft i like it, too. Microsoft will be up a bit today. The only thing i worry about microsoft is ive always felt they have to show evidence that copilot is actually going to be a thing. When i say be a thing, it has to show its a money maker. Im worried they still talk about copilot, a. I. Assistant, in the grantd pr terms that don show results they are investing heavily in a. I. They have a 49 ownership of openai the core business seems to be accelerating or in pretty good shape. I think both of the jumps in the stocks premarket are justified. The macro environment got more complicated yesterday we will see about today. Maybe it gets more complicated the action in both tech stocks, this doesnt look like worries about stagflation or rates not coming down or rates going up. The economy slowing. This is purely based on the individual Companies Just did or said will that continue or should tech investors be wary of the macro environment . Joe, that is an interesting question they should be wary. The biggest thing with the valuation or any stock is the level of rates i think what is happening here is confirmation in the core business with the Quarterly Results. Excitement about future a. I. Growth, but we have finally come around as a consensus view that the fed will not necessarily lower rates quickly or steeply and that had been a concern that cause a caused a little bit of a tech wreck. It is now baked in what does that mean for your feelings on the nasdaq for the rest of the year i think the nasdaq will out perform the s p, but i dont think it will be one size fits all. You have to be very carefully looking at the tech names. As we have seen and were not through the entire quarterly reporting season yet with some Companies Like overnight in the teaser with intel which had bad news stock will be down a lot theres some with good news. It is not a shotgun shooters market you have to be precise and rifle shoot with specific tech names every one of the companies talked about a. I. And what they will spend and what it will do for them at this point, that is still a positive win when you hear about a. I. Plans does that ever pivot were getting into streaming disney goes and then a year later, we have streaming joe, we are around with the hoopla around dotcom. The turn of the century. Here is what i think i think theres too much expected in the near and intermediate term. Im talking about a couple of years how the a. I. Products will be monetized i dont know if they will ever be monetized to the way people think. In the meantime, the infrastructure building and that Nuclear Arms Race continues with the capital expense announcements with the tech majors who does that benefit . The same old same old. The guys applying the picks and shovels with nvidia and amd and broadcom and marvell i dont know if the apps at the end of the day will be a real driver financially i stick with the guys building the large language homodels im not betting on the a. I. Apps at this point, companies are not punished for big spending on a. I. Build outs . You think that could happen . I think theres always going to be over time as we go longer and longer in the phase and people say whats the return of the investments. You think about it and the capital expense numbers are insane in this space, the strong will get stronger because they can spend. Im just going with the guys that are assisting in that a. I. Infrastructure bill. Not the guys making the products all right paul meeks from harvest. Are you a harvest guy or harvest moon guy youre a harvest moon person, right . Harvest was an entire album. A song. Harvest moon i like joe, im a jersey guy im Bruce Springsteen 24 7 365 born in the usa. Thats right. Thunder road. Thank you, paul. Chevron out with the Quarterly Results. Profit came in at 2. 93 a share on adjusted eps. That is better than the 2. 87 the street was expecting revenue was 48. 7 billion. That is below 50. 6 billion the street was looking for here. The instant reaction is for the stock to be off. 4 . Downstream earnings were down to 783 million that compares to 1. 8 billion before upstream earnings up 5. 23 billion from 5. 16 billion in the quarter before i spoke with mike wirth of chevron about the numbers and point of pride for the company is the increase in production. It was up 12 worldwide for the quarter over a year ago and it was up 35 in the United States. The biggest part of the increase of production in the United States was the acquisition of pce energy the Permian Basin actually up by 12 . Wirth tells me chevron is on track to 1 Million Barrels per day. Wirth says chevron is under valued compared to the s p he points to the dividend yield. If you look at this, this is chevron against the s p 500 over the year up 10 over that time. Chevron has under performed exxonmobil during that time. Chevron up 18. 5 year to date. We will continue to take a along look at some of the things wirth says they plan to grow 4 to 7 this year. Wirth says despite the weak gdp print yesterday and weaker than expected manufacturing report this week, Global Demand for oil is strong. By the way, he thinks u. S. Gdp will be stronger than 1. 6 in the first read at the First Quarter yesterday. Wirth was meeting with treasury secretary janet yellen and janet gran granholm. Demand is strong the market is balanced if there is any disruption in the middle east or europe, the risk is to the upside. Thats what the administration is concerned about as for the other big question, happens with the hess acquisition. They expect approval from the ftc to come within a few weeks there is arbitration with exxonmobil that concerns hess 30 stake in the guyana project. Exxon filed for arbitration to resolve if it could preempt the asset and offer a competing bid. Guyana is the reason recchevrona willing to pay for hess. Wirth says we think that sounds reasonable exxonmobil ceo darren woods is joining us this morning. We will ask him about the guyana oil property that stock down. 40 when we come back, a new report says former President Trumps allies are working on a proposal to challenge the fed independence if trump wins a second term. We havehave details after this. On may 4th, Warren Buffett will answer questions at the annuaan annual meeting if you have a question, send to us and we will look through and ask questions during the meeting. Squawk box will be right back. Why not . Did you forget something . My protein shake. The future isnt scary, not investing in it is. Youre so dramatic amelia. Bye jen. 100 innovative companies, one etf. Before investing, carefully read and consider Fund Investment objectives, risks, charges expenses and more prospectus at invesco. Com. marci so, how long have you lived here . And how are the restaurants around here . D more are they good, bad, meh . luke marci, weve gotta go. marci im sorry. luke weve got seventeen thousand more parks to visit. [marci screams] luke we bring you the best neighborhood info. marci ding dong luke homesdotcom. Welcome back to squawk box. New this morning, a report is breath taking in so many ways. The talk of the town on wall street and elsewhere the journal reporting that Donald Trumps allies are drafting proposals to that tempt to erode the Federal Reserve independence if the former president wins a second term now arguing he should be consulted on try rate decisions. The fed regulations subject to the white house review and the president should be more forcefully use the Treasury Department on the check on the central bank if trump wins the second term, he should have the ability to oust jay powell before the term begins it wasnt clear if trump was aware of the proposals and some former trump economic aides were not aware of it. A spokesperson for Trumps Campaign saying if it is not coming from us, dont take it as official not denying it either. I have to say as somebody who lives in this world, if you are in the world of finance and you think the president is going to do this, there is always some level of implicit pressure points and things and we heard trump publicly make comments about the fed. H. W. Bush made comments i remember talking to paul volcker before he passed away. He had conversations with james baker on behalf of reagan back in the day this is very different some of the former president s advisers requiring that candidates for the fed chair privately agree to consult with trump on the central bank decisions. Others made the case that trump could sit on the fed board of governors on an actsing basis. People described this as far fetched. Nonetheless, for those in the finance world who said, okay, i like the tax policies or im okay with this or that this is different if the Federal Reserve no names attached to it no names attached to it. The people that were asked dont know anything about it i like to know who are the people Peter Navarro . Not to disparage him i dont know about the sources, but which allies of trump, if trump doesnt know about it, which it says, he may or may not. We dont know. Thats what im saying. Who is this . How crazy . What constitutes an tally or a confidante we all think this is a crazy situation to have a president sit on the board it is crazy and insane. I dont know who the allies are here it is running at the top of the web site right now theyre citing multiple people who claim they are close to the president. I believe people close to the president that may be like this that i would dispute you would dispute. I know a couple of them by the way, a story like this, to me, unto itself, undermines the credit bbility o the future fed under trump i would imagine it would make it harder to find a credible individual to run the Federal Reserve because now this story has been published, and the president , by the way, hasnt said this is crazy we do not agree with this. The spokesperson did not do. Lets say you name your next Federal Reserve chair. What is the first question kthat everybody is asking . Have you made a secret deal with the president . Were aware his allies are working on a secret deal i would say did you have any agreement with the president before hand to consult with him . Othe otherwise, you could say i didnt have a secret deal. The public will sit around as we are this second and say there is something untoward going on here. After what happened to jay powell and all through the first term god forbid all through trumps administration, who would want the job given the daily tonguelashing jay powell got. A lot of people would like the job. They would be taking it eyes wide open to what to expect from what we saw with the jaw boning on jay powell daily. We already saw how relentless trump was with lower rates as a real estate guy. I dont know there was any scenario and most president s are like that. They want lower rates. This he they want to have a strong economy. This very concept that there are people close to the president , former president , talking about these things and want to approach it in such a coordinated way undermines the credibility of whoever that person would be if they would ever to get the job just by default. You will look at that person and say are you a puppet of the president . You would need to see more about this actually with the voracity of it being a serious proposal and who were talking about that is proposing it before your hair totally is gone from being on fire i want to know is it really a possibility . Think of the people that advised trump on other matters correct thats why my hairs on fire my hair is on fire for a reason. Rudy giuliani. Look at the people around him. Thats not saying something to you, i dont know what is. Thats the point. Thats saying something. Thats the point. Okay. The people advising the current guy on myriads of subjects i dont have any hair either you look like youre doing pretty well up there i pay a lot for that. A conflicted