Obviously was supposed to stem the shenanigans and the fact that the Justice Department felt compelled at this point and time while everybody is hoping this iran agreement is going to hopefully lift the relationship between iran and the United States forward. And for the United States to improve anymore in their new future. Looking at the Bigger Picture here, i seem to remember the atta attack and it seems to be happening on a global basis back and forth. Does this fit into the overall narrative . Is this the attack and counter attack flow of things or is there Something Different here . This is the beginning of what essential sly the new generatio. Just launched a major attack against south koreas banks. The russians have been engaged in cyber warfare in the last few months against ukraine as well as literally took down the entire internet, structure, last year. The israelis are trying to do what they can to attack the internet sites that Irans Nuclear program had. So this is now this is where we are heading over the next few years. Dealing with cyberattacks on infrastructure. A real problem that were just beginning to get our handles on. Ambassador, its one thing to plug the website of a bank, 46 Financial Institutions in this space. Its another thing of tangible infrastructure. What is your response on how we should safe guard ourselves on that Going Forward . Its a great question. Under the obama administration, the justice and the defense departments have tried to establish a new cyber warfare institute. That is to coordinate the response of the cyberattacks. What did the United States do . Look at the constant attacks despite the visit to the United States last year when president obama appealed to him to stop the cyberattacks against American Private companies that are continuing to this day. The problem is is that unless we fight fire with fire, these countries are going to continue to target American Private companies no matter what the diplomatic agreements may be. An agreement with china has not resulted in the cyberattacks against the United States. Speaking of fighting fire with fire, lets turn to brussels. As the policy suggestions continue to get tossed out, whether its carpet bombing or profiling, are you sensing the tolerance for things like that in america is changing in the wake of the attack . Americans have more reason to be concerned about their security. Whether youre republican, or not, its the battle against isis, its been largely an eye dropper approach to dealing with the situation and its popping up in libya and up in yemen and afghanistan as well and as the former u. S. Ambassador to morocco, let me point out almost all the attackers in paris as well as belgian were morocan origin. It raises the question of how you stem the tide of those that see the attacks as further inspiration to join isis. As we await, this joint response from the eu ministers we are hearing from belgian leaders that are saying this attack was on the liberty upon which the european project was built. What does the eu wide response need to look like . I think every Counter Terrorism official will say the same thing to you. Theres an inadequate sharing of data, biometrics and sharing. Think of the situation where we were 9 11. The cia and fbi were not sharing information when they were discovered by the agent in minnesota. This is the problem in brussels and belgian. The captain of the european experiment. Five bouroughs and thats brussels. Theres even adequate intelligence sharing and talk all they want about this being an attack on liberty and the status of the European Union but until they get control of sharing biometric data and intelligence these attacks are going to continue. Ambassador, turkey deported one of the suicide bombers last june. Warned the neglecttherlands and belgian that he was a foreign fighter. Another one of these attacks was actually renting a house that the paris attackers used under an assumed name. It seems like theres information thats being shared but theres also a real lack of information and intelligence gaggering thats happening here. They didnt know where this guy was. They failed to detain him even after turkey shared information. What do they do about that . He was deported to the netherlands. Made his way back into belgium because he was able to do this. When you look at all the records of each of these attackers they all have criminal records behind them. They may have been in effect warned by turkey but the problem is is that when they arrive in the European Union, the laws are so much laxer in the United States than in britain where as when they have been engaged in an act of terrorism their criminal record is all that stands between them and jail. And thats the real problem. When you look at the laws of the netherlands. When you look at the laws of belgium and france they dont have the capacity within the judicial system to arrest these people merely because of suspicions of wanting to be involved or maybe being involved in a future act of terrorism. Finally on the optics, a lot has been said about not coming back from cuba and tango dancing and feeling that its envolkswagenienvoking a response. The American People want to hear the president talk more authoratative. And its around the edges here about what is necessary to do against isis. And syrian and less territory means Less Authority for isis but unless you have a much more comprehensive program to deal with the outbreak of isis in libya as well as in yemen its like a whackamole game as senator mccain would say. A lot of people can relate to that notion. Thank you so much for your time. Good to be with you. Meanwhile, the major averages are in negative territory today. And a five week streak. The dow is about 30 points above it and Financial Energy and weighing down in terms of sectors and oil down about 3 and thats having an effect on the markets. We did have Capital Spending and goods orders coming in week on february on jobless claims. When we come back, yahoo s board, and a deep dive on who is being nominated by starboard and whether yahoo has a governance problem. Plus iphone preorders again today. What it means for products and margins and why buying a home is getting further and further out of reach for Many Americans when squawk alley comes back in a moment. Starboard is launching a full proxy fight over board members. Jeffrey smith wrote, quote, we believe the board clearly lacks the leadership, on apologetic activity and perspective needed to make decisions in the best interests of shareholders. For a deep dive on nominees. And thanks for being with us this morning. So, i want to start with you. This struck me as an unusually deep board of directors for an activist to put up. This can be yahoo s board currently as far as the depth of experience they have. What do you think that reflects about investors . Well, the investors are clearly frustrated this thing has gone nowhere. Its a wasting asset and the longer the board doddels with getting a strategic act together the less its going to be worse. And i believe its to place them and trying to replace the whole board to get some action and change the strategy. But i cant tell from the letter we only got 1. 7 ownership. Its not much. How serious he is. And to see them spin off and dismantle the whole company and the business to verizon if i read between the lines and then failure to act for a long period of time way back to the days. I feel sorry for Marissa Meyer but you cant just have an asset going downhill. Jeff, do you think, she has a lot of critics out there that say she has wasted money on acquisition, shes wasted time not cutting back the employee head count sooner, what grade do you give her and the overall board at this point . I give this board a b plus. I disagree with bill moore. I usually agree with him 100 on these activist campaigns. I feel sorry for Marissa Mayer but i feel sorry for you. Bill a little more homework needs to be done here if youll forgive me. You have total shareholder return up almost 150 since she has been there. She has Strong Revenue streams coming in from her business and her mobile business video stuff that wasnt there before. She has monthly active users. Crowd over alibaba and if you look over alibab itself theres issues that makes alibaba have uncertainties. And theres tremendous unlock underlying value here and this board has done a great job with the longterm plans and shortterm plans. Here you have the improving performances and they have cut head count further on the payroll. Its 42 . A half a billion dollars and thats pretty noteworthy. Certainly most noteworthy than any other company we talk about but it takes awhile to fix this but this is a big company to move around and also its complex space thats moving as fluid and who do they have on the board . You say its a deep board . I dont see any digital expertise. Digital media expertise coming in on this board. Theres a noteworthy player in the Digital Space and richard hill had his ups and downs. Well, bill, i mean bill, go ahead. Well let you respond first. Jeff, was going to say, the next day going to sell the whole company and put it up for sale and they declare that so to me the board, i have a lot of respect for lee scott that came on the board but when are they going to make up their mind what theyre going to do . Is marissa trying to rebuild another google or what is she doing . Its a longterm deal here and they cant wait on these strategic issues. They have a board that has very Strong Financial confidence and just brought them on and the m a titans they have brought on. The starboard supports. And this is the deal with some of the ownership. This is like nelson. Its the dupont board. These guys dont even have 2 . Let them put their money where their mouth is. Its an 8 billion company. Yahoo is a 32 billion company so the size and the scale of what theyre trying to do is different here but to my point not really, look at the starwood fiasco. They had 42 . They forced a fire sale auction of starwood to marriott and now they realize they werent so smart. They saw tremendous value there and there the other activist got up to 42 . A company much bigger than both of those put together. What are the rules of engagement with the shareholder that does have less than 2 stake and seemed to be throwing every idea but the kitchen sink out there. They wanted the company to spin off the alibaba stake and wanted them to reverse that and sell the core business which yahoo appointed a committee to do. At what point do you ignore what the activists are saying. I think its the board that really forced them to act. And i think they just need to sell those shares. Its an independent company and theyre not going to then decide could they get more value from a verizon or a buyer of the core business and then they can materialize internally and how long will it take. Its like and im afraid their asset is going to continue to decline. Bill, you could say the same thing about their investment right now before. One day theyre going to emerge rather with office depot and staples. One day theyre going to and the next day theyre not. Its because the antitrust indicators were negative on the deal. We get a ruling in a month on that but you have the regulatory interference. They wanted to sell it. The irs came out with a negative assessment to theyre trying to unralph that. And as you would know with the major telethon companies. As aol was delivered beautifully to verizon. And theyre looking at it very seriously. And theres the auction prices. Well, gentlemen, more spirited couple of debaters, and would not find yale versus harvard. Always good to see. Thank you, have a good weekend. Thanks a lot. Coming up, speaking of activism, another company, United Continental facing an activist investor and a proxy fight. That activist is coming up today at 12 30 eastern time on halftime. Plus stocks came into the week with five straight weeks of gains but that streak is about to be broken. Is it a pause, a change in sentiment . Well have more on the markets after this break. Theres a lot of places you never want to see 7. 95. [ beep ] but youll be glad to see it here. Fidelity where smarter investors will always be. If only the signs were as obvious when you trade. Fidelitys active trader pro can help you find smarter entry and exit points and can help protect your potential profits. Fidelity where smarter investors will always be. I have an orcogram we for an owen. E. Thats me. You should hire stacy drew. She wants to change the world with you. She can program jet engines to talk and such. Her biggest weakness is she cares too much. Thank you. My friend really wants a job at ge. Mine too. Im a wise elf from a far off shire. And sanjay patel is who you should hire. Thank you. Seriously though, stacy went to a great school and shes really loyal. You should give her a shot. Sanjays a team player and uh. It begins from the the second were born. Er. Because, healthier doesnt happen all by itself. It needs to be earned every day. Using wellness to keep away illness. And believing a single life can be made better by millions of others. As a Health Services and Innovation Company optum powers modern healthcare by connecting every part of it. So while the world keeps searching for healthier were here to make healthier happen. Wont keep you up at night. N know you have insights from professional investment strategists to help set your mind at ease. Know that planning for retirement can be the least of your worries. With the guidance of a pnc investments financial advisor, know you can get help staying on track for the future youve always wanted. For more on the markets, asset allocations strategist at jp morgan asset management. Normally we would say after five weeks this is a natural pause but given where we have come from, down 10 in february to flat now for the year should we make anything more. Its quarters like which remind us why central bankers as well as investors are so confused. Its on march 24th and a weaker dollar and roughly flat s p and they took 50 . Because of what february 11th. So do you think more is left of the stock rally that it comes from data that are Getting Better from the fed continuing to move and instill confidence that the economy isnt getting worse . So this is what its about. Data dependent are the two words that i use with clients all the time. If the data supports a tightening, they will tighten. What you saw in the beginning of this year with all the activity around emerging markets which were unloved and up 20 from january 20th, if you continue to see the credit spreads, the vix, the Global Equity prices as well as the dollar cooperating thats going to make it into another uncertain season. And spent some near term since this bull market began in march of 2009. Its the lowest amount of equities. And its its exactly what they wanted it to do. Its cash. Nothing wrong with that. Thats not where we want to be. And its the yield without throwing the line on the sand. Had some people been in the tech cycle because they come out early. Both of those outperformed expectations. And talking about the fang trade this year. The fang trade has been an unloved trade. That was one of the most crowded trades coming into this year. Theyre underweight emerging markets, emerging markets outperforming. The dollar has weaken and the fang trade. We look a lot at those technicals for near term performance. Is there any sort of event you think would have the capability to rock equities. The markets had a remarkable resilience and now theres talk about a political response to that whether its in britain or the eu. Europe is a, you know, a percentage point or so away from recession. Theres still very low growth so policy error in squen rahal has always been the black swan event. Whether it be the fed moving too late or too early and in europes response what the sentiment comes out of brexit is you have a fed meeting in june. A week later you the referendum. That may cause them to shift to july and out of this press conference cycle. We will see where it leaves usment come back soon. Thanks guys. And up next, more on yahoo s board and the new slate nominated this morning. Henry blodget is going to join us on the next steps for yahoo coming up. Margaret and tom lee. The championship game ball . That was sebastian diaz. Good guy. And all i had to do was ask for their money and pretend i was investing it. Their life savings is now my lifestyle. Female announcer dont let someone else live the life youre saving for. Find out if youre dealing with a registered investment professional at investor. Gov. Its a great first step toward protecting your money. Before you invest, investor. Gov. And to help you accelerate,ast. Weve created a new company. One totally focused on whats next for your business. A True Partnership where people, technology and ideas push everyone forward. Accelerating innovation. Accelerating transformation. Accelerating next. Hewlett packard enterprise. [alarm beeps] the intelligent, allnew audi a4 is here. Aint got time to make no apologies. Good morning, everyone. Here is your cnbc news update at this hour. The Justice Department charging several hackers in a series of cyberattacks against banks and a small dam north of new york city. Loretta lynch is among the federal officials making that announcement. The former bosnian leader is guilty of crimes against humanity for leading a crime against terror beginning back in 1992. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison. His legal team just said that they will appeal. The Illinois Supreme Court struck down a state law designed to narrow multibillion deficits in chicagos Employee Pension funds. The funds are short and the