Nasdaq up by 10 points. Halfway through the trading month of september, the dow is down by. 3 for the month to date. The s p 500 down by 1. 3 and the nasdaq down by 2. 3 . And treasury yields are pretty important because you do have a fed meeting this week. Right now the ten year is sitting right at 4. 34 . The 2year just above 5 and we will see what the rest of the week brings. Talking about what the rest of the week brings, here it is. Squawk planner for the week. The fed is the big story. Kicking off a twoday meeting starting tomorrow followed by a News Conference which will happen by jay powell. Wednesday expected to hold rates steady but planning to focus on the guidance, both economic and projections and forecasts for the rates at the end of this year. Few earnings of note, were going to hear from General Mills and also get fedex and kb home and darden will announce its earnings on thursday. Right now we want to get to the autoworkers strike, as joe mentioned the uaw not making much progress, rejecting the latest offer from stellantis over the weekend. Phil lebeau joins us right now from toledo with the latest. Phil, good morning. Reporter good morning, becky. Still a big gap between the uaw and the big three when it comes to proposed pay hikes over the next 4. 5 years. As we have been talking about for a couple weeks now, the uaw wants 40 . Theres been some talk about maybe theyll come down into the mid 30 range. Thats nowhere close to where the big three, what theyre offering over the weekend stellantis raised its offer to 21 . Ford is at 21 then you have gm at 20 . For ford, the talks over the weekend were deemed reasonably productive. Not a huge endorsement but thats what the uaw said about talks over the weekend. They are in the process of laying off 600 workers at the Michigan Assembly plant because work cannot be done due to the strike going on there. So as a result, ford says those 600 people we have to lay them off. Similar situation with general motors. It expects to lay off 2,000 workers at its fairfax, kansas plant where they build the malibu, the cadillac ct 4, the gm missouri plant where the uaw is striking, provides stampings that go to the fairfax plant. If theres no work in missouri, theres not going to be much work for much longer at the kansas plant for general motors. So that is expected to happen this week. And finally, as you take a look at shares of stellantis, one interesting issue here is the future of the companys belvedere plant which is just outside of rockford, its been idle since february. Originally they talked about reopening it as part of the negotiation, then they apparently took that back off the table. That raised the ire with the uaw. Guys, this is front and center. The uaw wants guarantees in terms of production and in terms of that plant in particular stellantis. Not a lot of progress here. Theyre still pretty far apart. Phil, when you said that the ford talks were deemed reasonably productive. I mean reporter yes. Same level 21 , what are they willing to give besides pay increases that makes that a different situation than the other talks. Reporter a lot has to do with dropping the wage tiers. Just to explain how the wage tiers work. They were put in effect back after the bankruptcies at gm and at chrysler coming out of 2008 2009. The auto company said, look, we cannot pay everybody who we hire the top rate. We have to adjust it. So you come in at a lower rate and then over a number of years you move up to the top pay rate. Well, the uaw has said, for many years, this is ridiculous. Somebody gets hired in at 18 or 19 an hour, it takes them 8, 9 years to get up to the top pay rate. You shouldnt wait to get to 28, 39 an hour. Whatever the top pay rate may be. So they want those mightily condensed or eliminated all together. The automakers believe that they can make movement there, but thats one of the key areas. Last week gm i think cut the number of years from eight to four in their offer. Is ford willing to cut even more than that . Reporter you know, becky, now youre getting into some details here that are its literally changing by negotiation day by negotiation day. So its hard to say, well, ford is going to do this and gm is going to do this in terms of wage tiers. Not all the wage tiers are exactly the same because not every contract is exactly the same. So, theres some movement within there. Whether or not ford is eliminating it completely or going down to one, i cant tell you because that is shifting day by day. Phil, stick around. We have more to talk about with this. We want to bring in tim higgins, wall street journal reporter and cnbc contributor. In his latest column, tim says that regardless of the strikes outcome, elon musk has already won. And tim, thanks for being here. That may be a little self descriptionary, easy to understand from all of this. Elon musk is not dealing with unions in the same way. He doesnt have any unions. Yeah. Hes not at the table but his presence is looming over. It gets down to the labor costs. The uaw workers at these detroit automakers on average all in about 66 bucks an hour. That includes benefits. At tesla estimated at 45 an hour. So from day one, when they start talks and talking about spending more, elon wins because tesla is cheaper to make cars over there for those electric vehicles. And its not just cheaper, its also theyre working to cut costs even more in the future. They have already talked about slashing manufacturing costs by 50 for the next generation vehicle. So the ua wx would probably say its a race to the bottom, but its a race to make electric vehicles profitable and tesla is doing that. Where as the likes of ford are not. The Biden Administration is going to get involved, tim. Im trying tofigure that out. Calls himself the most prounion president in the last 50 years. How does that when they go in to try to mediate, how does that work . I remember corzin was the governor of new jersey and negotiating with the public unions. And he was giving a speech saying were going to get you a great deal. So thats the perp thson trying protect new jersey taxpayers dollars from being from giving too much, too many concessions to the public unions. He was also the governor negotiating. Reminds me of the same thing. What line will the Biden Administration walk in this . Are they going to twist the arms of the big three . Well, its definitely a challenging position for the president politically, a, a long, self described car guy, labor pro, but the president is frankly frustrated with the Biden Administration, feeling like the Biden Administration has been pushing these automakers towards electrification of the automobile, putting money to incentivize that and yet worried that the worker is going to lose out. Estimates of 40 less labor needed for electric vehicles. This isnt just a concern for detroit. This is a concern for all automakers around the world. When youre talking about electric vehicles its less complex motors and less complex building thats needed. So, where do they sit in that new world order . Phil, lets talk just a little bit about phil is still here. Oh, youre going to talk to phil. We have tim. Tim and phil are both here. Thats confusing. Phil, lets go through again just the idea of what happens gosh now i lost my train of thought. Its our fault. What happens in a scenario. We spoke with harry wilson last week. He was at the table back during the auto crisis back in 2008. And was negotiating with them to give up a lot of things that the uaw is now trying to win back. Phils point was that, hey, this all makes sense if they want to get much higher raises. He thought the offers from the automakers were incendiary when they started out with the offer of 7 and 8 increases that they should get something closer to 30 but all the other things, pension benefits and some of the other issues that the uaw is trying to put back in, 32 hour workweek, he thought that was a nogo. Reporter yeah. Is that sort of frame of mind something thats there . I asked if they called harry to get back to the table because what he was talking about made sense from the longer term perspective of what was lost, what they should be getting and what would be so bad that it would put the automakers out of business. Reporter well, the 32hour workweek is one that the automakers will fight tooth and nail because their feeling is, look, you want to talk about pay increase, lets say youre going to increase the pay and im just throwing out a random here, ultimately settle at 25 . You want to cut the workweek down by 20 , thats another 20 raise on top of that 25 . And in addition to that, you take a plant like kentucky truck plant for ford. Its not going 24 7, but its pretty darn close over the course of the week. You move that down to 32 hours a week for the workers there, they will have to hire more people in order to continue production at the rate where they are right now. Thats the most profitable plant within the ford system. So, if you are ford, you dont want to hire more people. Youre in the process of trying to become leaner and more efficient. Thats the rub there when you talk about the 32hour workweek. I dont know, either tim or phil can answer this. Im curious if its a function of the stock. This actually goes back to tesla, talking about tesla being the winner in all this. For quite some time there was a period of time, at least, where it looked like tesla employees and those working in the factory floor were actually making more on an hourly basis than the unionized workers at gm and other places. This clearly appeared to be true two years ago and almost one year ago. May not be true today and has become a talking point. Have you heard this . And i assume this is a function of the stock price of tesla not being what it was a year and a half, two years ago . You know, its an element of the upside. Traditionally the uaw wants to in essence guarantee what theyre going to be getting. They have been persuaded to go with contracts that have bonuses tied to the profitability of the car company. But in the past, we have seen reluctance to go with Stock Options that are perhaps more spectacle, speculative in nature. They want to be tied to the dollars and cents of the company. A tesla is more like a startup. Thats how workers at the company from white collars to the Assembly Line have largely been compensated. And thats kind of the Silicon Valley mindset. Tim, my question were going to have someone used to be at the nlrb on later. You need to understand the economics of the unions proposals that they gave in 2007, they accepted a lot of concessions to sort of pitch in. She goes on to say now that profits are booming, they want a share. And how long do you think profits are going to be booming . Here is the New York Times today. They were talking about biden cracking down not necessarily on car emissions but just the overall industrial emissions. But theres going to be all kinds of emission standards, transition to ev. Do you expect profits to continue booming for the next couple of years for the big three . Well, thats really reporter joe youre hitting at this idea of the cost of evs for these companies is a real headache for these executives. In some ways they are funding that development from the profitability of their suvs and their trucks. If you look at that mountain of money that theyre doing from those vehicles, it has to pay a lot of mouths, right . That development of evs but also workers. Go on, phil. Making all your money with the big gas guzzlers, thats going away to the make the evs. Reporter it is going away eventually, joe. It is going away eventually. The question is when, joe. Right now the average transaction price for each of the big three, somewhere around 51,000. Gm is at the highest. Over 51,000 per vehicle. The thing to focus on here, north america. You know, i hear people say all the time, well, how much are they making in china or how much is ford making in latin america or with their pro division in europe. Thats not the concern of the uaw. The concern of the uaw is what are you doing here in the country where we are building vehicles . And profitability has never been stronger in north america. Record profits in north america. Thats why the uaw feels that it has leverage right now. All right, phil, tim, want to thank you both. I get the feeling well be talking to you a lot in the days and weeks to come. Another strike. Keep talking about strikes. Talks between the Writers Guild and Hollywood Studios are set to resume this week. The two sides havent even been at the negotiating table since august 18th. Whats today . September 18th. Yep. A whole month. Drew berry more is backtracking. He announced yesterday that her talk show would not return following blow back from her decision to resume production without writers. And she said shes pausing the shows premiere until the strike is over. And after berrymores announce, including the talk and the Jennifer Hudson show. Wow. Jennifer hudson show. Said they would also postpone their premieres. I thought of drew last week when i saw those aliens down in mexico. They looked just like like e. T. Plaster of paris mexican aliens. Their heads were a little smaller and their bodies werent quite as big. They were e. T. They looked like the whatever Steven Spielberg put together when theyre doing a show board or whatever it is, they stole those, sent them down there and said these are real. Thats what i thought about. She saw them and said, oh my god, those are real. Coming up, yeah, she got in trouble for trying to start up again, right . Is bill maher. Bill is. Hes on. He says hes doing it. Did he start this last week or starting in a week, i think. Hes an enigma, hes an iconiclass. Update unpredictable, isnt he . Which side . Update on the looming Government Shutdown. You like him for all those reasons. I do. I like him more. I like him more. House republicans putting out a new bill to extend the deadline. Details straight ahead. A programming note, dont miss treasury secretary janet yellen today on squawk on the street. I was told she was at a restaurant friday night. Yep. The interview is coming up at 10 00 a. M. Eastern. Youre watching squawk box on cnbc. In real time. jen so we partner with verizon to take our operations to the next level. marquis with a custom private 5g network. ella with verizon business, we get more control of production, efficiencies, and greater agility. marquis so our customers get what they want, when they want it. jen its not just a network. Its enterprise intelligence. vo learn more. Its your vision, its your verizon. You got this. Lets go. Gobble gobble. Ive seen bigger legs on a turkey rude. Who are you . Im an investor in a fund that helps advance innovative sports tech like this Smart Fitness mirror. Im also mr. Leg day. 1989 anyone can become an agent of innovation with invesco qqq, a fund that gives you access to nasdaq100 innovations. I go through a lot of pants. Before investing carefully read and consider Fund Investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses and more in prospectus at invesco. Com. Rich, velvety coffee. Cafe quality espresso. One highpressure system that can do both. Brew to your Hearts Desire with the lor barista system. A masterpiece in taste. Now an update on the looming Government Shutdown, which could happen at the end of the month. House republicans released a bill after two factions, the Freedom Caucus and the main street caucus reached a deal. The bill would keep the government funded through october 31st. Scary, isnt it . Halloween. And includes cuts to domestic spending. Those spending cuts as well as immigration provisions would likely make their bill a nonstarter in the senate. Which is led by the democrats. The compromise, though, the deal could help speaker Kevin Mccarthy pass defense spending bill this week thats been tied off in a standoff between Republican Leadership and the partys right wing. And f words were coming fast and furious, supposedly, from f bombs. From gaetz and Speaker Mccarthy and really . Behind the scenes. Oh, yeah. And i dont think they were f friggen. The full on. Wow. Lets talk about what happened on meet the press yesterday. The new Host Kristen Welker sat down with former President Trump in a wideranging interview. Here is what he said about a potential Government Shutdown. Do you think republican hardliners should abandon their threat to shut down the government over their Spending Priorities now that there is this impeachment inquiry . No. If they dont get a fair deal. We have 35 trillion in debt. We have to save our country. You would support a Government Shutdown . I would shut down the government if they cant make an appropriate deal. Absolutely. Pretty good interview. There was a lot of sort of different pieces to it all. Trending 50,000 trends. She apparently referred to him as mr. President. And that made a lot of people very angry. I saw some other things that just said, so, meet the press, trying to get ratings. S saw fit to interview a rapist, trade ris even to put the guy who is leading i dont know whether its good or bad that hes leading the gop primary. He has like 60 . So its newsworthy to put him on. It almost reminds me of Anderson Cooper who said, i can understand if people never watch cnn ever again after we had donald trump on. So thats but, how does kristen walk the fine line between theres people mad at her for not conceding about something about abortion. To compare that to the situation that happened on cnn is totally different. Its a different situation. You thought he was coddled on cnn. No. Because it was a live format. Is isnt that good . Isnt both of them okay. No, actually no. I think its very hard to fact check him. I think its very hard given who he is and what he says to air him 100 live all the time. By the way, i think thats the policy of nbc news. I think i can say that straight up and down. Am i correct . You think its okay to interview President Biden. Everything hes saying is s