Philly fed survey and the National Association of home builders. Friday, Housing Starts, productivity and cost and consumer sentiment. The equity picture this morning at least ahead of all that not looking too great. Dow futures 77 points below fair value. The s p is off 10. And this is coming after the dow last week was down for the first time in seven weeks, when you look at the major average for what was happening. A little bit of rockiness out there after a long, steady climb higher. In Global Economic news, japans economy grew at a slower than expected rate in the Second Quarter. Gdp coming in at 0. 6 . Also, Capital Expenditures unexpectedly fell for the sixth straight quarter. Economists say that this is a sign that companies are still not boosting spending despite Prime Minister shinzo abes policies. Been working on consumers at least for the very First Quarter that they were looking at some of those things hasnt translated through to business. In corporate news, u. S. Authorities are reportedly considering arresting two former jpmorgan employees for their alleged role in masking the socalled london whale losses. The main target of the investigation is said to be Javier Martin artejo who worked as a direct supervisor. Authorities are also reportedly looking at julian grout who was his junior trader. No word on the timing of the possible arrests which could take place in london. U. S. Authorities plan to extradite the former employees to the united states. Did you see also theres a separate story that says that prosecutors and the fbi plan to maybe bring a case against jpmorgan. So there was the civil case against the firm, but then this was a criminal case against the company. And what i found odd and awkward about that and tell me if im wrong is if you believe that these two employees were acting in some kind of rogue capacity as criminals, its then hard to because they would argue they were being then lied to and Everything Else. Right. And being misled. And being misled, then how can you claim that the company is running as a criminal thing . Right. Its either the company is directing its being directed by rogues or from the top. That was my take on the whole thing, too. I dont understand how you have it both ways. Sorry to interrupt. Pardon the interruption. Thats another network. Sac capital preparing for the exit of outside investors. The journal reports the firms executives are looking at means to streamline the company as it shrinks. On friday federal prosecutors reached a deal to keep the Firm Operating during the legal case, assuring that the firm can continue. And the cftc has subpoenaed a metals warehousing firm. Reuters reporting the commodities regulator wants all of the documents related to the London Metal Exchange since january 2010. This is the latest on that inquiry into complaints about inflated metal prices and lots of questions about whether people are moving metal back and forth inside warehouses. Separately, and this is big news for those of us who have an apple iphone. Ms. Quick. Shes still on the blackberry. Apple expected to launch its newest iphone september 10th at a special event. This coming courtesy of all things d which is reporting the company will also launch a new version of the mac osx operating system in the coming weeks. One quick note for those of you planning to run out on september 10th, there was some question mark as to whether they would just announce the product on that date or make it available. Oftentimes they announce it and then within a week its available. And sometimes within 30 days or 60 days, its available. So big question. But ahead of the christmas season, nonetheless. In other tech news, a u. S. Trade panel ruled in apples favor. That happened late friday. Some older samsung models are facing sales a sales import ban in the u. S. As a result of all this. The trade commission ruled samsung infringes on portions of two apple patents on Digital Mobile devices. The patents cover the detection of headphone jacks and the operation of touch screens. Now, president obama has 60 days to review this decision. If he doesnt veto the order, it will go into effect. And if you remember, he vetoed the order when it came to apple. We will see what happens when it comes to samsung. Becky . We do have more boardroom drama at jc penney today. The wall street journal reports the board met late yesterday afternoon to talk about their next move. The directors are looking at ways to remove bill ackman from the board. The article also notes that its questionable whether ackman has violated his duties as a board member. There may be a de facto board that excludes ackman. Scott, im glad youre here for this discussion because this has gotten weirder and weirder. It has indeed. I thought it was bizarre when we first heard about what was happening. Because as a board member, you wonder if hell be operating from the inside or outside. This is more typical of an outside activist shareholder thing. Charles nelson in this journal article raises questions whether he did anything wrong at all. He says it would be really difficult to remove him. Its funny, the board, i guess, theyre upset at bill ackman for putting out confidential deliberations within the board. I think most of the board learned about it by watching cnbc. That was what i think they were upset about. They probably were. But if they were upset about that, then how are we learning about this most recent thing that happened over the weekend with the board call . That was leaked. To the wall street journal. To the media, right. So the very thing the board was complaining about so now no, im just saying. Im just saying. Right. I disagree. I think when you start putting out press releases under your own name that are pages long, i mean, and these are letters supposedly internal letters that are supposed to be sent around and then describing whats actually happening, you cant do it. Now, i dont think you can kick him out of the board, but i think you can de facto, exclude him. So a targeted leak with no press release is okay . I think either one. Youre talking about a board now in disarray. Look, it would be better if nobody was leaking, but i think that he started the fight. Im sorry. You cant you cant run a company with a guy on the board you cant plan to have meetings knowing that the meetings are going to be to the public every day. Its just impossible. You cant do it. I agree but i think that they are doing the same thing that they are criticizing with this article in the wall street journal. Look, ity i dont know that ackman helped himself or the jc penney board by anything out there. Heres the distinction. And i dont mean to i think the problem is this is now not only a board thats in chaos but a company thats in chaos. And what this article also points out that that you have suppliers who are looking and need to know 18 months in advance whether this is a viable company. The problem here in this particular instance is ackman. Its not the rest of the board. The reason that theyre in chaos now is because ackman decided to release the letter. And as good reporters as everybody is here, i dont believe that ackman released the letter because we were calling him and trying to get the news. To the extent there was an article in the wall street journal this morning is because there were reporters who called multiple Board Members. I think youre slicing it a bit too thin. I think youre looking at it from very inside baseball journalism. There was a board member putting out press releases, and theres another or maybe several who accepted phone calls who maybe gave little morsels. I think you are splitting hairs. I think its bad in both situations, for the best good of the company. You know, were storytellers, so we actually like the leaks. But im not suggesting that the leaks are a great situation for anybody. But i think if you look at sort of how this works, its impossible for him to actually operate on the board. Can they do a de facto board where they just exclude him . Yes. This is a guy who was made in. You cant start creating boards that function within themselves. Thats not really listening to the shareholders vote anyway. Do you want to get into a situation where lets just say youre jc penney. If youre the board, if youre the company, would it be would you rather have ackman just out . Would you rather have him sell all of his stock . Is that going to be good . I dont think so. There is a view. Look, i look at ackman and i think hes been very successful in many instances, in many instances i look at ackman and think hes done a great job at figuring out where theres value. In jc penney, i think he is responsible responsible and i think theres a rewrite of history going on here for why the company is in the problem its in. Not because of the phone call or the emails last week. But who would have known that ron johnson was going to be a dud . Oh, hold on. Theres one thing that know that ron johnson is a dud. Maybe you wouldnt have known he was going to be a dud, but he let it go for a remarkable period of time. The board let it go. They gave him so much rope to hang himself with that he ultimately hung all the shareholders. There is no way to rewrite this any other way. And what i find despicable about whats happening here despicable, im sorry to say that now what are you, Howard Schultz . Put me in the category. I do find it despicable where theres a rewrite of history where you have ackman trying to say that the board is responsible for the companys problem where he personally he has more i dont want to say he has more job losses and trouble on his hands than anybody on that board. And so its very tough to sit here and say that this company is somehow, you know, that this board member has somehow been an improvement to the company. Very difficult. Maybe so, but to lay the whole i mean, the board the whole board is culpable for even even though he was bill ackmans guy, the boards still culpable for ron johnson and ultimately ron johnsons responsible for the mistakes that have led to the company where they are now. He did not live up to the expectations of anybody. No question. Of anybody. No question. And thats his own doing at the end of the day. He did not. He commuted he commuted he was a commuter ceo in a situation where they needed boots on the ground. And his boots were in the air. I do think that mike altman is being blamed. I think hes helped try to right the ship. I think painting him in any of this is ridiculous. What was he going to do in such a short period of time . I feel like hes bearing i think ackman has made him look like a bad guy, and thats not the case. Thats whats wrong with this whole situation. So theres a point at which if youre a board and you see all this going on and you see this one guy whos created a lot of trouble, you say how can i work with this guy . You say do you exclude him . How do you deal with him . You cant continue on this way. Whatevers going on, it cannot be the continued path. Now its come to a head, right . Theyre going to figure out what to do. Theyre going to have to try and remove him from the board which is incredibly difficult and wouldnt even come up for a potential vote until spring of next year, or theyre going to have to work together. Or operate around him. Sounds like a de facto board. Its awfully hard to work around a guy whos got 18 thats what i would guess. Of the company, dont you think . Not to mention if you put well have someone on later who can talk about this specific issue. I think theres the legal issue. Hes a minority shareholder, so its not clear that you have you have to listen to all your shareholders, but its not clear i mean, hes on the board so he should have a role on the board. From a governance perspective. You do have 25 of the stock that is on bill ackmans side, and thats between ackman and perry capital, right . So thats a sizeable stake. It becomes a huge issue, probably cant be ignored, but it does look like this board is at complete odds, and obviously its not the last word well hear on this. Theres going to be more on this. Well discuss it a little later with our guest host coming on in just a little bit. Also, another corporate fight, oh, boy, here we go again, dell. This is the struggle between Ceo Michael Dell and activist investor carl icahn. Its reportedly starting to spook some customer. Dells pc shipments slid 4. 2 in the Second Quarter compared to a year earlier. This raises the question of activist investor good or evil . There are a lot of time wheres they can really come in and force a company to focus and then sometimes you wonder if it gets too drawn out and gets to the point where it becomes a problem. And these numbers would seem to point that maybe this has dragged on a little too long at dell. Its not over. Its not over either. In market news, the Pimco Total Return Fund increased its exposure in july to 39 from 38 . Bill grosss fund also decreased its Mortgage Holdings to 35 from 36 in june. The funds performance turned positive in july. Financials are close to regaining the s ps top spot. At their 2007 peak, financial stocks in the s p had a collective net worth of more than 2. 9 trillion, and that was roughly 30 greater than that of technology stocks, but then came the housing bust and the financial crisis. Now the financial index accounts for 16. 6 of the entire s p 500, only about 1 percentage point less than the tech sector. Its funny, people always wonder what happens to the money . Where does it go . Does it just go to money heaven . Its just gone. Lets check on the markets this morning. Take a look how futures are shaping up after the u. S. Averages ended six weeks of gains on friday. Its going to be a lower open, at least thats how its implied right now. The dow would open down by 72. 5 points. Take a look at the commodities space as well. First heres a look at oil. Wtis unchanged. Brents down slightly. Tenyear treasury, were watching i believe its under 2. 6 . Tenyear treasury note. Dollar in focus against a basket of currencies. Well look dollar yen, take a look, 96. 80, euro dollar, almost 1. 33. Gold having a bit of a gain here. Take a look at gold, its up more than 1 this morning, up 14 bucks, 1326. And in goebl news, banks cutting 5500 branches across the European Union last year. What this means is that the region has 20,000 fewer outlets than it had the start of the financial crisis. Its now time for the Global Markets carolin ross is standing by. Do you feel like you have a lot less branches when you walk around the streets of the city . You know what . It definitely feels like it. But is it a surprise to anyone . No, its not. A bit of a consolidation move is what everyone was expecting, and its good for the industry, too, you would argue. Lets look at the european markets because were seeing a bit of a lackluster session. Down by 0. 3 after what was initially a positive start to the trading day. Keep in mind we are closed trading at around twomonth highs, and maybe theres a little profit taking taking place here. I do want to show you the separate indices. Xetra dax down. Also showing some modest declines. Now, the ftse 100 is doing a little better maybe. This, in part, is because prudential, the uk insurance company, has come out with better than expected numbers for the first half of the year, and shares are surging by 2. 7 . Operating profit jumped 22 , hiked its interim dividend by 16 . And its pretty upbeat on its outlook statement. Not too worried about that slowdown in the emerging markets. And finally, i do want to leave you with a look at the major currency crosses. Euro dollar, as you pointed out, now below the 1. 33 handle. Now, there are new reports out in a german magazine that bundesbank is planning a new aid package for greece after the german elections. That did have a bit of an impact on this currency. Speaking of greece, Second Quarter down in annual basis actually fell less than what people had expected. Certainly seeing bottom there. Dollar yen rebounding nicely after some initial weakness after we got the japanese Second Quarter gdp data which was lower than expected. Now, changing hands at 96. 81 and the aussie dollar against the greenback, still close to threeyear lows. But above that 90, 0. 9139. Back over to you. Thank you very much. When we come back, flip this mansion. A new trade in real estate investing. First, congratulations to jason dufner. He won the pga championship yesterday, beating jim furyk, and this is dufners first career major title. The victory comes two years after dufner blew a fourshot lead with four shots to play in the pga championship in atlanta. I bet you were watching yesterday. I was. Yes, i was. It was a good finish. All right. Right now as we head to a break, lets check on the National Forecast with the weather channels alex wallace. Alex, good morning. Good morning to you. Unfortunately, not a great morning for us in the central plains. More rain to deal with in areas that are already waterlogged. You see this cluster of storms making a run for kansas city. Could make that commute this morning a little on the rough side. Its all lining up with this boundary which is in place. It doesnt want to move much at all. This will be with us through the early part of the week. Moisture flowing northward from the gulf of mexico. So for today, showers and storms. Some could be strong to severe. Including wichita to just north of oklahoma city. Damaging winds, hail. Those will be some of the bigger risks, although we cant completely rule out that isolated tornado. Meanwhile in the northeast, quiet today, but cold front is getting closer. And as we head on through this tuesday and wednesday, we could be looking at some strong storms to deal with here. Moisture on the increase here for us. Well see storms increasing today through the interior portions of the northeast. And then by tuesday, everyone along that 95 corridor having to deal with the storms. That includes boston all the way down towards just east of the nations capital. Damaging winds, hail will be the threat with these storms. The good news is behind this front, cooler, more falllike conditions for a lot of the nation. More squawk box coming back at you in just a bit. Golden opportunity sales event and choose from one of five lexus hybrids thats right for you, including the lexus es and ct hybrids. This is the pursuit of perfon. Peace of mind is important when youre running a business. Century link prov