Transcripts For CNBC Squawk Box 20140221 : vimarsana.com

Power to the parliament. An investigation of crimes committed over the past three months of the crisis,. Fourth, the forming of the Coalition Government in ten days. But the three Foreign Ministers who brokered the deal are calling for caution. The polish minister is trying to remind everyone that whats being agreed to isnt initially. Its a draft. Its not a full blown signing and the draft is only a starting point. But that said, it certainly is a positive step forward. Because that means the end of the conflict. Back to you. Jim, what does that mean just in terms of why this quick turn . We didnt expect to see this from the president at this point. We thought maybe backing from putin would give him more resolve to push forward. Do you suspect russia was behind any of this, pushing him to do this . Well, certainly. Certainly the pressure is from first of all, pressure is from the eu and the United States. People have been saying that those sanctions were cosmetic. They werent. Freezing assets, the likes of yanukovych government was very important because many of those people squirrelled away their fortunes in european banks. Also in american banks. So that was very important. But also, it was the situation on the ground. Things that 24 hours ago, people were killing each other, doesz died. Yanukovychs situation was becoming more and more tenuous. And everyone including he knew it. The question in many peoples minds now is the Opposition Leader. The open on sigz is split over the issue of yanukovychs resignation. You notice that theres no mention at all of that resignation in this four or fivepoint deal. And it was a key demand amongst the protesters, especially the extremist right wing, if you will, group called right sector. They are doing much of the fighting yesterday, losing much of the blood on the square. So it looks like this deal is going to keep yanukovych in power for another year. And hard to believe thats going to go down well with the opposition. Its probably why, as we speak, the Opposition Leaders have gone to independent square to lay out the deal, explain it, perhaps discuss it with thousands of protesters who were there at the square. Jim, i dont know, it seems like its harder and harder to be an old style ironman from years ago. You shoot into a crowd of your own people and then the next day theres thousands of people. I mean, in this day and age, you cant do that any more, it seems like. And it seems like this coincided with the olympics. So putin is on the world stage and i can just see them going, you know, drat, because you really cant do what you used to be able to do, it seems like, right . You cannot do that. Well, you cant do it unless youre vladimir put yip, i suppose. He is the worlds most influential leader. So yes, the i think the key thing to remember is while theres this apparent old style battle going on for influence between the west and russia, putin finds thats the most important point. As you speak to ukraine experts, they will tell you thats a false choice. Ukrainians are trying to figure out who they are. Theyre in a situation where the country is economically so unviable that neither russia nor the west could take it in. It is an unintegrateble, if you will, country. Almost a failed state on that level unless there is Major Economic constitutional and political reform in that country. This is, perhaps, now a first step. But youre right, its only a first step. Theres so much so many who need to be won over. Theres so much ill feeling, so much distrust amongst these people who are, after all, ukrainian. The country is so divided, its hard to see this story going away or us losing interest in it and no longer covering it. Its going to away flash point for some time. Back to you guys. Jim maceda, we will check in with him later in the program. We will point out that the Economic Situation is getting more complicated in ukraine, too. This morning, Standard Poors lowering ukraines longterm debt rating from triple c plus to ccc. They believe that this puts the governments capability to meet debt service at increasing risk and raises uncertainty regarding the continued provision of russias continued support over 2014. They say default is more likely. C is pretty bad. Triple c plus is not very good. Weighing into junk. After everything that happened in the middle east and this day in age where everyone has access to the outside world, its just people want certain things in their life. North korea has been one of the few places but putin, its no i dont think its coincidence this is happening during the olympics, either. Hes over there, hes so out every day. The ukrainians decided this is i mean, it also was in terms of things came to a head, but the pressure you can put on putin when hes on the world stage trying to look like this nice guy thats, you know, running the olympics. But people want the same thing. And you wonder how this plays out over the next 20 years in terms of all these places where you cant youre not even allowed to demonstrate without worrying about its not even china. Yeah. Its not even rubber bullets. Sooner or later, people want the same thing and theyve all got smartphones now and theyre all seeing how this i dont know how it all plays out the. In the meantime, lets take a look at the markets. The nikkei rallying overnight. It was up 3 after wall streets lead of strong gains, too. You can see stocks in europe at this point are looking like they are trading. Theyre mixed. Barely changed for most of these markets. You can see the dax is down by about 3 points. The ftse is up by about 15 points. Here in the United States after the gains that we saw yesterday, you do see green arrows once again. Dow futures indicated up by just over 21 points above fair value. S p up by just over 1. 5 points. Its a problem child. The economy is in tatter. So with russia, its like its still ahead. You want to breathe whatever into it, you take them. No, you take them. Hewlett packard, i want to look at like a threemonth chart. 1840. Is this whole year going to get below that . Everything that you lost. Theres the Hewlett Packard chart. On the rise in premarket trading. Back to 30. Its doing already. Reported First Quarter profit at 90 cents a share, beating estimates by 6 cents. People had this company dead and buried. Thats an amazing chart. It is. Hp raised the lower end of its full year forecast. Chief executive meg whitman will join squawk on the street at 9 00 eastern to talk about the latest. They dont sell their products now in like an option. They dont do that, do they . No. She knew how to do something other than just ebay, apparently. Management skills, right . Maybe so. I think were going to have to shes a fine republican that ran on anyway, retailer nordstrom Beat Estimates by 4 cents. Fourth quarter profit of 1. 37 a share. But its full year forecast for 2014 falls below estimates as Profit Margins slipping. Groupon earned 4 cents a share for the Fourth Quarter. Two cents better than analysts had predicted. But the daily deal sight forecasts Current Quarter losses result the big loser after hours. It ran spending on marketing to grow its customer base. We will talk to mark mahaney of rbc capital in a few minutes just to talk about groupons latest results. Hes back by popular demand. Was he on yesterday . He cut his rating on groupon based on these results so we can talk to him about why. And under armour is doubling down on u. S. Speed skating. Cnbc has learned that the sports apparelmaker has extended its exclusive partnership. That the u. S. Speedskating team through 2022. Theyve been making this through the team since 2011. But if youve been following the winter olympics, you know that the Speed Skating Team has come up short in the medal count, generating controversy over yesterday, we spoke with the dutch speed skating coach who said its the suits are important, but only in terms of what the athletes thought mentally. That got a lot of play over in the netherlands. And i dont speak whatever i was looking at the headlines, and theres some word for ek september ri eccentric. This guy is known to be absolute loony tunes. And theyre basically talking about how he basically he intentionally baited he took over they called us a huge news network and that he took it over with his crazy personality. He came to play. The guy knew what i was doing. It was intentionally riling and trying to bait. It was fun. It was fun. It was fun. Weve got nettles across the board in all kinds of different sports. And more than the neitherlands. Not in speed skating. In fact, this coach in particular in this olympics won 21 out of 26 medals the the. But weve had many speedskating medals in the past when football was being playinged. Eric hiden. Hidens sister, dan jantz, apola papoll apollo ono. Ted ligety. I dont know. Theres a lot of when youre the last super power, theres going to be a lot of bitterness in the world about but he got you thinking. Youre still talking about it 24 hours later. Rush limbaugh oh, he talked about it . Yes. Funny. It was fun. Anyway, coming up at 8 15 eastern, under armour what time . No, its 8 15 . 8 15. Really . Let me doublecheck. Can you roll down . Oh, i thought he was doing this on his show. No, hes doing it on our show at 8 15 from 30 rock. Good, good, all right. At 8 15 eastern, were talking to him, too . Yeah. You see, i need i mean, do they make stuff that holds in your junk . Not your junk, but this junk . Do they make things that well, under armour does make maternity wear. Do they make spanx for men . That im not sure about. But they have maternity stuff to try and hold you in place. Men, maternity wear oh, no. Although men do tend to put on weight with their wives. I know. Your husband still hasnt how old is kyle now . Oh, matt looks good, so there. As we talked about yesterday, its in the eyes of the beholder. I think he does not want to be beholden by you, anyway. Lets talk about treasury secretary jack lew of the g20 finance meeting. Oriel morrison joins us right now from sydney. Oriel. Yeah. How did they do in hockey . Good morning, everyone. Clearly what jack lew had to say was very much the focus of attention because he was addressing one of the key issues that weve been facing. Weve been pricing the start of the g20 tomorrow. That is the friction between the emerging markets and the developing markets. Now, he called on the emerging markets essentially to do more to put their own fiscal houses in order. It wasnt just the emerging markets, though, that he was demanding more from. He also talked about japan, the eu and china to essentially do more to boost their own domestic brand. Here is what he had to say about Global Growth overall. Global growth remains uneven and well below official while unemployment remains stubbornly high in many places. The Growth Strategies must be ambitious in substance and address efficiencies in near term demand as long as longer Term Economic challenges. You know, this is particularly important given essentially what were going to see. Tomorrow is Janet Yellens debut on to the world stage. People are calling this essentially a baptism of fire, given the height of the controversy between these two arguments. You know, jack lew wasnt the only one making criticisms. George osborne from the uk, you came out and said, you know, that some of these emerging Market Countries are essentially using the feds tapering as an excuse to cloud over what are essentially problems of their own making. That wasnt the only issue we were following today. The other one is the potential setting of a growth target. We did speak to axl vaber, former head of the bundes bank, he told us Global Growth targets arent likely to work, but what they are talking about at the moment is global stimulus packages. This is particularly interesting because theyre talking about individual countries putting money on the table to support their own growth rates. We have a lot more coming up. Guys, back over to you. Oriel morrison, from sydney, thank you very much. When we come back on squawk box, two stocks, one analyst. Were going to find out what makes those companies tick, right after this. Announcer before you hit the road, here is your travelers check. Heading to europe on business . The average ticket price for flights from the u. S. To europe can vary by more than 250 from the first day its offered to the day of departure. So when is the best time to buy . Find out, next. vo you are a business pro. Seeker of the sublime. You can separate runway ridiculousness. From fashion that flies off the shelves. And you. Rent from national. Because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. And go. And only national is ranked highest in car rental Customer Satisfaction by j. D. Power. natalie ooooh, i like your style. vo so do we, business pro. So do we. Go national. Go like a pro. Announcer when is the best time to score cheap flights from the u. S. To europe . 53 days before takeoff, according to kayak. We had some great moments this week, even though whats app . We only had three days to do it. Four days. You and i had three days. Exactly. So we really only had three days. Exactly. The show really only had three days to have some great moments. Read about whatsapp. Whatsapp. Plus, michone from the walking dead live on the set. A crazy dutch speedskating coach with a Little American envy who thinks american football sucks, in his words, and why it was not under armour that kept the u. S. From metaling in speedskating. Go to squawk cnbc. Com. Thats squawk cnbc. Com. The one comment my wife made was as i was talking about how bored i was watching a 10,000 meter speed skating and im sorry, if we get rid of football and we do that, you know, like we have eight different matches on sunday to watch, we do it on sunday night speedskating and its kind of like nascar, right . Nothing like nascar. Theres 20 cars, 30 cars. This is people that barely cross theyre not even racing each other. Theyre phenomenal athletes. But penelope liked it . No. He was saying theyve worked really hard to get to that level and to denigrate it in that way is not i know that. I was talking about from a spectators viewpoint, i dont want i mean, i can watch it every four years for a little while, but, you know, thank god for College Hoops and thank god for football and baseball and everything. The one thing that does and im a little bit mad at you because it is the world series, all right . Yes, it is. If they want to try to come over here and play the reds or we dont invite them to our world series. You know what . Its also the world series of economics. But that was john cleich who said that. Only america would come up with something, called it the world series and not invite any other nations. Geez, i wonder why a brit is bitter after leading it up to the 18th century you said it. Lets talk about priceline earnings. They posted better than expected Fourth Quarter earnings in sales. Groupon was a slightly different story. It Beat Estimates at the latest quarter, but forecast an unexpected loss for the Current Quarter. Joining us right now the break it all down is mark mahany. Should we take the good news or the bad news first . You have two ip very different opinions on these stocks. Lets start with the bad news. We downgraded shares of groupon to underperform. This is going to be a long transition in this Business Model if it works. And theres not much valuation for the support for the shares right here. We would not be buyers of groupon today. Lets talk about the Business Model overall. Thats probably the key you mentioned if it works. Whats wrong with the Business Model . Theres nothing wrong with the core local deals Business Model that we all know and loved from the ipo days. I think the challenge is this company is trying to become the focal point for ecommerce. Theyre trying to go into the good segment where amazon, ebay, companies are entrenched. Theyre trying to get into the travel segment. I think thats a mistake on the part of this company. Theyre spending a lot of assets, a lot of marketing dollars, trying to broaden the appeal of groupon. I think thats getting away from where their business focus should be. You think the core itself works . Because ive heard from some businesses who have been involved not just with groupon, but with other companies doing the same thing. But youre giving away something at half price a lot of time. Youre getting customers. If they dont turn into repeat customers, you take a total bath on that deal. The way you pitched that, that model probably doesnt work. But trying to crack the local services market, trying to many coup with more efficient Marketing Tools to stay in front of consumers, theres a huge opportunity there. Nobody has figured it out. This company has a lot of merchants who look to it for fulfilling those services needs. There is an opportunity there. Nobody has won it. But thats the opportunity for this company to go beyond that and try to get into the goods market that we all know is extremely competitive. I think thats a mistake and its a mistake to the margins of this business and its a mistake to the growth of the business, hence the underperform rating. Although they are facing some stiff competition in that local business. Even amazon is coming in with its own local deals. I get information from amazon every day pitching this. I guess this is to try and make sure they have some leg to stand on . Yeah. Maybe its a hedging on some part of the country. And if the valuation stretched, which seems preaggressive here, you dont want to be buying the stock. Lets talk about price line. He said this was an impressive report from priceline. What did you like . It seems like almost every report from priceline is impressive. Ive been a bull on this stock for six years straight. They have done 0 bookings growth, gross profit growth, hotel room night growth for well over a year. Its very consistent reports. Theyve got very prodigy graphic expansion. They have an increasing presence in asia pacific and latin america. And its dramatically gaining shares in the north American Market versus expedia. So whats your price target on that stock . 1,500. This is one of the more reasonable valuation names, too. Thats a rich multiple. But youve got guaranteed not guaranteed. Youve got sustained 25 Earnings Growth at this name. Its the only name in a large cap space where you can do that. Mark, thank you very much for joining us today. Thank you, becky. One thing i could watch, if we get rid of football, is womens hockey. Yeah. You like it . Did you watch yesterday . No, i didnt see it. Oh, god. They are so on good, but it was the gold medal game. We were ahead, 20 with three minutes left and canada tied it up. We went into overtime and our women, for the first three minutes of overtime, had like 30 shots on goal. I mean, it was going to end and them they didnt do it then. There was one time going into the end of regulation where they had pulled the goalie from canada. The puck went all the way down and was going in to make it 31 or 31 and it hit the post. No. From the other side. But the way these canada pulled it out. Anyway, i was looking up netherlands hockey. Do they and i found, it says the netherlands women, they won two years ago. And im like, wait a second, field hockey. So where is your hockey team . They all will be speed skating. Yeah. Even if you had hockey, you might understand. Speed skating is distracting them from being able to play hockey. Well, even if you had hockey, you could see whats compelling to watch. Something thats going for a spectator to coming up, how much will the weather play a factor in the future growth and stock prices . Thats next. And will Michelle Michelle gets langone to say stuff. She gets people to say things that generate controversy. Will she have another coach over there taking spots at American Sports . Theyre all kind of jealous of us, anyway. Medal count live from sochi in the next half hour. As we head to break, a look at yesterdays winners and losers. It was wonderful. Bravo. It was pretty good. There were parts of it that werent very good, though. It could have been a lot better. I didnt really like it. It was bad. It was awful. Boo opportunities arent always obvious. Sometimes they just drop in. Cme group can help you navigate risks and capture opportunities. We enable you to reach Global Markets and drive forward with broader possibilities. Cme group how the world advances. announcer scottrade knows our and invest their own way. With scottrades smart text, i can quickly understand my charts, and spend more time trading. Their quick trade bar lets my account follow me online so i can react in realtime. Plus, my local scottrade office is there to help. Because they know i dont trade like everybody. I trade like me. Im with scottrade. announcer ranked highest in Investor Satisfaction with selfdirected services by j. D. Power and associates. All stations come over to mithis is for real this time. Step seven point two one two. Verify and lock. Command is locked. Five seconds. Three, two, one. Standing by for capture. The most Innovative Software on the planet. Dragon is captured. Is connecting todays leading companies to places beyond it. Siemens. Answers. Good morning. Welcome back to squawk box here on cnbc. Im joe kernen along with becky quick. Andrew is off today. A deal between the government and opposition protesters has been reached in ukraine. Thats followed overnight talks that were joined by representatives from the eu and russia. The deal between the two sides includes constitutional changes as well as our president ial elections early in december. Watching yesterday was surreal on what Brian Williams dozens have been killed and many more injured in the joins surrounding the unrest in ukraine. But seeing troops or they werent troops. They havent called in troops. Theres police, but live am mow into the crowd. Then the crowd regrouped, takes the wounded, then they regroup and come at them again. It was just insane to watch this because theyre not criminals. Theyre citizens. So that whole scene, it seems like its something from the past like in Tiananmen Square or something. 2014, its more recently, you think of the arab spring. But even there, it seems like they exercised a little did it maybe not more restraint. Under armour signed a new eightyear deal with u. S. Speed skating. The governing body for that sport comes following the controversy. Kech is going to join us at 8 15 eastern to talk about this deal. And the questions raised about this. Its hard to imagine that a small area of the back slows you down. Split seconds. But even in the longer races, likely. Right. Remember the what was the controversy at one point that the suits in swimming were making the americans win . Remember, it was the nike suits that had been designed. They said theyre winning only because of these nike suits. I dont know how that would work. The idea that if you either dominate in a sport or you get wiped out, you get shut out in a sport, the idea that you didnt have to look for somebody the blame on the way. Well, people you know, swimming save their entire body. Apparently saber is totally hairless. Still . I dont know. I just made that up just to mention because i just felt like saying saber is totally hairless. Anyway, yet another economic report today in which weather may be cited as a factor. The National Association of realtors is going to be out with january existing home sales at 10 00 eastern. Economist res expecting a 3. 5 3ers drop to an annual rate of 4. 7 million units. Stocks recouping earlier losses. How come you say coup but you say recoup . Some of us say coup. Other people says coup. By the close on the s p 500, finishing less than 0. 5 3ers. Joining us now, a joe for us always auto squawk box, david joy. Peter bookmar, chief market analyst at the Lindsay Group and a cnbc contributor who i have been ribbing recently for being overly bearish. He came in here swaggering, cocky, head held high. Youve got two months under your belt. Weve gone nowhere. Also, im not sure were seeing exit problems yet for the fed, but if things were to continue where were really slow, and yellen thinks this is all on me, maybe it doesnt, maybe its not a smooth exist. Maybe some of the stuff youre talking about comes to past. Where are we . I dont see a scenario for a smooth exit. But the market has stakes, is going to be or they think yellen is going to blink in the light of this soft data. Maybe its not so much weather. But were seen housing data out west. Thats not weather. Even going into the winter, weve seen slow income growth. Weve seen a draw down in the savings rate just to sustain retail sales. Yes, its weather, but not all that weather hopefully the market. Com Manufacturing Index yesterday was a sign that maybe well get some normalization and some snapback. But with respect to the fed, i dont see an easy exit and i dont have the data that the market does that it will be an accident free exit. Not only do you in addition not see an easy exist. What was that story yesterday in the journal . Because you had a few hawks in on the xht committee that talked about raising rates. But these people have 3 plus gdp estimates this year which hopefully well see. But right now, im still closer to 2 . But you dont believe just because this was in the minutes it changes anything from the feds perspective . No. Its still being run by an uber dove being yellen. Dudleys still in uber dove. So i think a majority of the committee is still very dovish. And the last thing theyre thinking about is raising rates. I think theyre crossing their fingers that they can get out of qe without any problems, let alone raising shortterm Interest Rates. For you, david, im going bring up a chart quickly of the s p because we were fortunate enough at the end of the year to close at 1850. So i dont even have to loot it pup. I know its 1850. So theres the close. And we have never gotten back there. So far in january and february. So its easy to remember were still below it. Do you think its possible to draw a line through to december and see all the action beneath there or do you think we go through and trade higher . Well, i think we end up at 1850. But i think we trade higher. And i think this market is basically poised to push higher. I think were going to get close to 3 gain in the second were third, maybe Fourth Quarter of the year. And i think that pushes the market higher. But as we do, youre going to see the Unemployment Rate go way through the threshold that the fed has set for itself at 67. 5. Maybe not into 2014, but maybe into september that the futures market is thinking september 2015. And i think at that point, the market ends up flat on the year. But between now and then, we trade higher. Thats not fair. Because if we get things going our way and the economy does 3 and unemployment comes back and the market doesnt go up based on the economy based on unemployment . No. I think what happens is the market looks around and says, wait a minute, rates are going up. How much of this rally over the last few years was the result of easy Monetary Policy . And maybe i should be taking some profits here and lets just see how it all shapes out. It will not be, in my view, a tidy shift to higher Interest Rates. And i think at that point history tells us that stocks correct. Thats all i think the round trip is pretty flat. We had a great four or five years. So thats ten months. And then after that, after we consolidate this year, do we go to 10,000 or 2100 on the s p in 2015 . Yes, i think so. Okay. If you look at look at the the underlying fundamentals, weve done a lot of repair in this economy and i think that allows us to trade higher. Peter, you think thats probably not going to happen. You think we go back at some point down on the s p. Where do Interest Rates go . Well, i think this taper, if it continues, is going to lead to the 10 to 15 correction that we havent had in multiple years. That will then obviously create, in my opinion, a better opportunity to be buying stocks. Im not in the camp that stocks are inexpensive. I think theyre actually expensive. If you look at multiples outside of just earnings, if you look at price to sales, if you look to earnings price relative to normalized earnings and i define that as the shiller margin adjusted one, to me, the market is expensive. Plus you have margin debt as a percent to gdp, the second higher ever. So theres no room for error. And in my opinion, again, the fed is going to create a greater opportunity for access in the context of an expensive market. To me, thats not necessarily going to be a good combination at some point this year. All right. Opposing, i think, even though david joy is not our anyway, david joy, as ive said, a joy once again. Peter thank you. Thanks for coming in. Youve been right for two months and now youre definitively saying all this stuff now. I can see that youre getting back at me a little bit. My viewpoint would be different if the fed wasnt so entrenched in the marketplace. They really are, in our lives. So deeply into our lives. Its not just zero Interest Rates. Right. And we just think its normal that theyre buying 80 you know, all right. What is it now . 65. Theyre still here. Yep. Thanks, guys. When we come back, russia is showing off to the world. The games in sochi putting the country front and center. But is russia a place you want to invest . That is coming up in just a few minutes. And at 8 15 eastern time, under armours ceo kevin plank is talking to cnbc first about a new pack to stay as official suit provider to the u. S. Speed skating team. More squawk right after this. [ male announcer ] we dont just certify our preowned vehicles. We inspect, analyze, and recondition each one, until its nothing short of a genuine certified preowned mercedesbenz for the next new owner. [ car alarm chirps ] hurry in to the mercedesbenz certified preowned sales event. Visit today for exceptional offers. Like carpools. Polly wants to know if we can pick her up. Yeah, we can make room. Yeah. [ male announcer ]. Office space. Yes, were loving this communal seating. Oh, its great. Yeah. [ male announcer ] the best thing to share . A data plan. New at t mobile share value plans for business. Our best value plans ever. For example, you can get 10 gigs of data to share. And 5 lines would be 175 a month. Plus you can add a line anytime for 15 a month. Sharings never been better for business. Impact wool exports from new zealand, textile production in spain, and the use of medical technology in the u. S. . At t. Rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. Its just one reason over 75 of our mutual funds beat their 10year lipper average. T. Rowe price. Invest with confidence. Request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. Welcome back, everybody. U. S. Equity futures are indicated higher, about 32 points above fair value after big gains from yesterday. Berkshire hathaways Business Wire deciding not to let High Frequency Companies Buy directly from Business Wire. This comes after warren fwuft and new York Attorney general defended itself saying no high frequently traders had an unfair advantage on market news. But a recent wall street journal said there was an advantage by purchasing that information directly from the source. And perhaps getting it within microseconds earlier. Joe. Coming up, were going to have michelle with another european speed skating coach taking shots at American Sports. I know she has the highlights of the womens hockey finals plus the medal count. Will she . I didnt say she will. Will she. Oh, will she. Maybe she will. Well check in with her in sochi, next. Huh, fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Everybody knows that. Well, did you know pinocchio was a bad motivational speaker . I look around this room and i see nothing but untapped potential. You have potential. 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Get our multipoint inspection with a a Synthetic Blend Oil change, tire rotation, Brake Inspection and more for 29. 95 or less. Get a complete vehicle checkup. Only at your ford dealer. Only a few days left in the winter games to sochi. Lets get to Michelle Caruso cabrera who is pushing through to the financial line. Did you yell at that guy after the interview was over yesterday or something . What happens to your voice . I didnt yell at him. I dont know. Ive been here a long time. Its been cold. But were going to try to get through this. Good. Weve got a guess coming up. Camille, were going to talk to him in a second. We have a first, we want to give you the highlights about what happens last night. Lets go to figure skating. The United States and russia have first. The United States and russia have had changes in the last 24 hours. The United States is till in the lead with 25 medals. Figure skating, sotinkova took the gold in figure skating. Everyone expected 15yearold yulia lipnitskaya. She collapsed under the pressure and performed poorly. 2010 Gold Medalist yu na kim tok silver. It carried deep in the third period but just three minutes left to play. It went into overtime. God it was exciting. I was there. I did not cheer. All right. Joining us now is camille dimitriov. You run one of the sovereign wealth funds here. Idea is you convince other sovereign wealth funds to invest in russia and coinvest alongside of them with government money. Have i got that right. Yes. So far we invested 3. 8 billion of which 900 million came from us and the rest from Foreign Investors. Why do you need to coinvest with other sovereign wealth funds . We believe people who invest in russia need a Strong Partner, just as people who invest in china need a Strong Partner in china. Basically we pulled the money to get the same return profile and risk return. Also, its not just providing them with sense of working together but giving them deals, giving them access to our due diligence, et cetera. Is the existence of your fund a mission . Think its worse than reality. Very few people know, for example, gdp per capita was 1 20th of the u. S. , now its onethird. Other countries have set up similar funds. France has just set up a similar fund. Image problem definitely exists. Do you think the leadership realizes it has an aimage problem . Well, russia is a proud country. Its not been very focused on marketing. Theres a sense we do whats right and let the world think about it. I think we just need to communicate positive things about such as middle class tripled in the last five years. Communicating those positive facts has been useful when we talk to different investors. Becky has a question for you. Appreciate you coming on today. I think its more than an image problem that russia has. We talk to a lot of investors here who say they worry about corruption and then they point to things like rule of law and an everchanging rule of law. You can have putin come in and tell gaspron that they have to set certain prices for what they charge like he did with the ukrainian situation recently. That makes investors nervous. What do you tell them . Corruption is a worldwide problem. You just released a report that corruption in europe is 160 billion a year. Its a major, major problem. Definitely needs to be fought with and thats a big issue. Actually, theres a major perception difference between people who actually invested in russia and people who didnt. Survey shows 72 of investors who have actually invested in russia who have been here have a positive view of the investment environment. People who never invested have a Perception Gap and some concern. Definitely real problems do exist. But the perception is greater and real problems need to be fixed. We need to fight corruption more. Be very transparent and frankly, bringing Foreign Investors helps this cause. We want the expertise. Joe has a question. Corruption being widespread globally notwithstanding, how about the implicit backing of a regime that fires bullets into its own citizenry . You dont putin not controlling the strings in this situation . And is it not his attempt to once again in the journals word build a wider russia, maybe even bring ukraine back into it . We should look the other way at this when making investments and hold our nose with what happens in terms of human rights . Well, first of all, id really like to stick to investment questions because this is what my expertise is. The situation is much more complex than what you are describing. Russia wants a peaceful solution in ukraine. It has been pushing forward for a solution. Real people who are angry in ukraine but there are lots of extremists who are angry. Its not clear that the position controls those extremists. Stability in ukraine is paramount. Ukraine has tremendous promise and russia will work towards basically peaceful solution to make sure that ukraine is a stable, growing country, which is in russias interest. Mr. Dimitriev, thanks for coming on. A pleasure to have you. Thank you, michelle, thank you so much. You were at that game. I want to tell you that it reremind ee ee eed me, the last minutes reminded me of the seventh game of a world series, where every ball, every pitch, it was unbelievable to watch that, wasnt it . It was great. What was sad, there were so few americans there last night. It was almost all canadians. And they were just crazy happy and when they were losing, oh, wow. But it was sad to see the women lose but yes, wow, what an exciting, exciting finish. And i just i wonder whether the netherlands is not very good at hockey. Theyre singleminded focus on speed skating, which sucks no, im kidding. That was using his words on football. I will ask him. Its a small country. They have to make choices. Dont pick on them because theyre small. Like us. Like us. Anyway, that was as good as tv in hidef can get. It was. The women play, because i think they dont kill each other, the checking, the strategy, theyre so good. Both teams were so good. Right. It was a killer. But canada, theyre kind of america. Theyre north america, right . They are north america. And theyre our friends. We like them. When we come back, well get an update on the situation in ukraine and frozenomics and real estate. Will the snow and ice force buyers and sellers to wait longer to get connected . What could that mean for an industry so important to the economy . Squawk box will be right back. K youre gonna go when your times all gone . [ male announcer ] live a full life. The new lexus ct hybrid with an epa estimated 42 mpg. The further you go, the more interesting it gets. Lease the 2014 ct 200h for 299 a month for 27 months. See your lexus dealer. See, i knew testosterone could affect sex drive, but not energy or even my mood. Thats when i talked with my doctor. He gave me some blood tests. Showed it was low t. Thats it. It was a number. [ male announcer ] today, men with low t have androgel 1. 62 testosterone gel. The 1 prescribed topical testosterone replacement therapy increases testosterone when used daily. Women and children should avoid contact with application sites. Discontinue androgel and call your doctor if you see unexpected signs of early puberty in a child, or signs in a woman, which may include changes in body hair or a large increase in acne, possibly due to accidental exposure. Men with Breast Cancer or who have or might have prostate cancer, and women who are or may become pregnant or are breastfeeding, should not use androgel. Serious side effects include worsening of an enlarged prostate, possible increased risk of prostate cancer, lower sperm count, swelling of ankles, feet, or body, enlarged or painful breasts, problems breathing during sleep, and blood clots in the legs. Tell your doctor about your medical conditions and medications, especially insulin, corticosteroids, or medicines to decrease blood clotting. In a clinical study, over 80 of treated men had their t levels restored to normal. Talk to your doctor about all your symptoms. Get the blood tests. Change your number. Turn it up. Androgel 1. 62 . Hopes for peace in ukraine. Leaders reaching a tentative agreement to end the violence. We have a live report on this breaking news. Frozenomics and real estate. Will the Winter Weather put a chill into buyers and sellers . How is the turnaround going for hewlettpackard . Its one of todays top stocks to watch as squawk box begins right now. Good morning, everybody. Welcome back to squawk box on cnbc. Im becky quick along with joe kernen. Andrew is off today. The futures have been indicated higher after the gaughans we saw yesterday. Youll see the dow futures up by about 30 points above fair value, nasdaq up by 7 and the s p up by just over 3. The tenyear note is yielding 2. 758 . Hewlettpackard shares are on the rise. The Company Reported quarterly profit of 90 cents a share, 6 cents better than the street was expecting. Hp was helped by improvement in enterprise commuting and networking of equipment. Well be hearing about that from Ceo Meg Whitman who will be appearing on squawk on the street at 9 00 eastern time. The controversy over the u. S. Olympic team speed skating suits has not upset the relationship with under armour. U. S. Speed skating signing a new eightyear deal with under armour. Kevin plank will join us to talk about that deal in the next hour. Groupon, the daily deal site is predicting a surprise loss for the Current Quarter as it increases Marketing Spending to grow its customer base. Talked to an analyst, mark mahaney earlier who cut his ratings based on this. That stock is down 14 . Leaders in ukraine have reached a preliminary deal in an effort to stop the violence that left more than 75 dead and hundreds injured. Just reading, jim maceda doesnt see all of our newspapers over here, a nurse, 21 years old was shot in the neck and tweeted im dying after she was shot in the neck. You cant believe what social media some of its good, some of it brings you right to where jim maceda is right now. He is our nbc guy, our man thats over there now. Hes in moscow with the latest. Its hard for us to read some of this stuff. Hi, joe. Yes. I appreciate that. And its also complicated to grasp how quickly things are moving here from moscow. But were monitoring things as we can. Live streams come in from the various locations. But i think the most important thing right now is this deal. Victor yanukovych issued a statement saying he has signed the deal which he says will bring an end to the violence, the kind of violence weve seen over the past 72 hours and also restore peace to ukraine. He mentions three points in his statement, including early elections. That is in december of this year, returning to the 2004 constitution, which is a constitution that gives much more power to the parliament and takes it away from the president. And the forming of a Coalition Government in ten days. Theres a fourth point listed in the draft of the deal. I had a chance to see the hard copy and as the investigation of all crimes committed during the current crisis, crimes that, of course, youre making reference to. But the three eu Foreign Ministers who brokered the deal are calling for caution. The polish minister saying that what has been agreed to is just a draft. Its not a fullblown signing. He called it a, quote, delicate moment. And just a starting point. Not necessarily the end of the conflict by any means. Joe, back to you. I guess thats the question, is whether, you know, i dont know enough about the four points but will the opposition, will they look at this and say, is the guy stay for another year . Is this going to satisfy them . Wow, thats a great question. The short answer is, its hard to see how and thats playing out right now. As we speak. Opposition leaders want to discuss the deal, they say. Theyre not signing anything yet. Theyre going to Independence Square where several thousand protesters are standing, waiting for them. Theres going to be a discussion, debate. Thats going to severely delay any signing. Heres the problem. As you suggested. This is a compromise deal. In it yanukovych gets some of his powers or loses some of them, he agrees to early elections and a transition government but the tradeoff is, he stays in power for almost another year. That is not going to go down well with many of the protesters, especially the more hard core Extremist Group called right sector which have been doing so much of the fighting on the front line. The situation very fluid. We understand the German Foreign minister is on his way for another round of talks with the leaders of both the opposition and the protesters. And the polish Prime Minister has just indicated we saw this in the wires before i got on the balcony here. Hes indicated that according to him, the opposition may not sign at all. So, really, its fluid. Back to you. You know, the more that the protesters and the opposition the more bloodshed they put in, i would think that they would think weve come this far and you know, if this is half measures, after what they sacrificed, you just wonder, you know, jim . Absolutely. These particular this particular group, right sector, has said if and only if yanukovych resigns will the bloodshed stop. Theyve already admitted that they are armed. They are there. Not only to prepare to use weapons but they have used weapons. The indication clear based on what that statement yesterday, the blood shed will increase, it will not decrease. Theyll continue doing what theyre doing until he is out of power. I cannot imagine them in any way, them signing on, those hardcore folks, signing on to this deal. Thanks, jim. Well check back with jim one more time in this show anyway at 8 00 a. M. Eastern. Lets get right to our guest host for the next two hours, Charles Campbell, executive director at mkm partners. Also here with us, mr. Timmers. We have yellen now. We heard her first testimony. We got the minutes and now weve got the journal made a big deal out of a possible rate increase sooner than people thought. The bond market hasnt done anything, though. The bond market hasnt, joe. The reason is, in the fed minutes they said a few members thought there could be a rate rise sooner than previously thought. The Federal Reserve policy not set by a few members. Its set by the majority of members. Its a whole new regime. What we do know is the markets view the possible contractionary effects of the fed taper. The Federal Reserve is sensitive to that. They will offset that with strong Forward Guidance that is explicit. I think what well see Going Forward is not only a move a shift away from the evans rule of the 6. 5 threshold but will couple that with other Economic Indicators and also we will keep rates lower with zero or lower bond, well into 2016. I think that will be clear. The minority view that was referenced recently in the paper, will be drowned out by the majority. Hows the economy, is it weather or flowing . I wish we knew. We really wont know probably till the spring. I know youll have someone in a few minutes on frozenomics. You know . Let me look. Thank you. We really wont know. You wont have clean data for a couple of months because everyone takes two weeks off there. Last years rally was built on fed liquidity and the fed liq d liquidity is diminishing. Now we have to know if escape velocity is happening. If its not, you have to wonder how much of the multiple expansion was justified. You think it is, though . Its hard to tell. You look at the retail sales, they were weak but november and december were revised downward. Do you think the market thinks it is . Were back at these levels. Is this the market thinking yes, this is weather, well get through this . Or is this the market thinking, if it turns out things are better than we think, well push a lot higher. The s p rallied 101 points in seven days off the low about a week or two ago. It seems like were in an all news is good news mode again like we were from 09 to 2011, during this inflationary period, if we dont get escape velocity we get a dovish fed. The dollar was down the last couple of weeks. Yields were down, stocks were up and gold and silver break out. Thats the reflation trade. The market seems to not care right now. I would counter to that by saying the market is expecting better Economic Data and theyre also discounting the weather. Leading indicators like initial claims, conference boards survey of present situations like the nfib, hiring plants index, those two metrics are at new cycle highs. If the economy is worse than we think, if its not just the weather, the market doesnt deserve to be at these levels . Thats correct. I think the mark set aware of the indicators, aware of the strong correlation between claims and financial metrics and valuations. They are expecting that the data will turn and will in fact improve. In support of that, if you look at credit spreads over the last couple of months, they really havent budged very much. Even as the s p declined 6 , credit spreads remained very well behalfed. Theyre not disturbed at all. No. That would be an indicator that things are still okay. Last year, earnings rose 5 and the market rose 32 . That was a big expansion. We started at a 14 multiple and ended at a 16. Either one of you think about washington anymore and the wrangling that goes on there . Or did we put that behind us . Every day and never. What are we going to do . I like this latest thing in the journal. Apparently the president s budget will not have olive branches for republicans. Hes taking a hard line, which we havent seen that. The reason is senior white house Officials Say that the shift is a result of the republican refusal to compromise with mr. Obama despite the repeated previous attempts for him to work with them. And all the previous social events, gop favored policy positions that he has proposed. You buying . I ask you that because i know how you feel. Read that again. I read it and ive had to read it a few times. Are they joking . No, the administration is not joking. Is the journal joking . I dont think theyre joking either. I think from the administration standpoint its hard to start out from a hard position. Theyre always so conciliatory. Youll be with us for the rest of the show. When we come back, we get a report card on hewlettpackard and their turnaround plan. Plus, will the Real Estate Market thaw out from the spring selling season . Thats coming up, right here on squawk box. Going the distance and saving at the pump you want it all. Get our multipoint inspection with a a Synthetic Blend Oil change, tire rotation, Brake Inspection and more for 29. 95 or less. Get a complete vehicle checkup. Only at your ford dealer. Ameriprise asked people a simple question in retirement, will you outlive your money . Uhhh. No, that cant happen. Thats the thing, you dont know how long it has to last. Everyone has retirement questions. So ameriprise created the exclusive. Confident retirement approach. Now you and your ameripise advisor can get the real answers you need. Well, knowing gives you confidence. Start building your confident retirement today. Welcome back, everybody. We did have great moments this week. Whatsapp . This weeks talking squawk blog you can read all about whatsapp. Plus, a scene from the walking dead live right here on the set and a speed skating coach that thinks football sucks. Read more about it, go to squawk. Cnbc. Com. That is squawk. Cnbc. Com. When we come back, will the weather delay home sales . Will it be slower to get to the spring selling season . What does that mean if theres a glut of houses on the market when spring finally arrives . Well talk about that right after this. A quick programming note. On monday, ron baron will be our special guest with stock names he likes right now. That is monday right here on squawk. Yeah. [ male announcer ]. Office space. Yes, were loving this communal seating. Oh, its great. Yeah. [ male announcer ] the best thing to share . A data plan. New at t mobile share value plans for business. Our best value plans ever. For example, you can get 10 gigs of data to share. And 5 lines would be 175 a month. Plus you can add a line anytime for 15 a month. Sharings never been better for business. Sharings never been better for business. Sometimes they just drop in. Always obvious. Cme group can help you navigate risks and capture opportunities. We enable you to reach Global Markets and drive forward with broader possibilities. Cme group how the world advances. Where you think youre gonna go when your times all gone . [ male announcer ] live a full life. The new lexus ct hybrid with an epa estimated 42 mpg. The further you go, the more interesting it gets. Lease the 2014 ct 200h for 299 a month for 27 months. See your lexus dealer. Welcome back, everybody. The Winter Weather having a Chilling Effect on home buyers and sellers. Diana olick joins us right now with talk on frozenomics. Thats why this is turning into an epic bull bear debate on whether the weather is really to blame for the slowdown in the housing recovery or if it has something to do with something more serious which is weakened afordability. Home prices shot way up in 2013, so did Mortgage Rates which together are making housing far more expensive. How much more . 21 according to a new report from realty track. They looked at the average Monthly Payment on the median priced home with a 20 down and 30year fixed mortgage, a 10 rise in home prices and rates going from 3. 5 to 7. 5, that payment goes from 714 a month to 865. Also michigan and nevada are seeing jumps. Weve seen home sales nationwide down for four straight months. The good news is, price gains are are easing a bit and inventory is rising. Thats what the bulls are harping on when they blame the weather. The bears say the weaker affordability is why california is seeing such a huge drop in sales, down nearly 14 in january from a year ago. We get the national existing home Sales Numbers for january out in just under three hours. They will, of course, only add to this debate, im sure, guys. Diana, stay with us. We want to continue talking about this. Joining us right now with more is jed kolko, the chief economist at trulia. Jed, what do you think . Is this a case of the weather or is there something much bigger going on . Good morning, becky. I think the weather hurts construction and Sales Activity but by much less than people think. Given what happened in the polar vortex in january, the weather probably knocked construction and sales in january down by 1 or 2 . Now, that sounds small. The reason for that is, it actually wasnt the coldest january ever. It wasnt even the coldest january for the past decade in the northeast or the midwest. It was dry and most Construction Activity is in the south and west. That had a better january than the northeast and midwest did. So its not mostly about the weather. Diana just laid out this huge argument about affordability. Is that whats kicking in . Affordability is definitely part of the story. Cost 20 more to buy a home now than it did about a year ago, even more than that in the west. Theres also uncertainty on the mortgage side. Lots of uncertainty about whats happening with rates and the new mortgage rules may be at least temporarily slowing down some of the mortgage activity. Were seeing continued shift toward all cash purchases. All these things are affecting the market at the same time. When you see rates go up, prices go up, a lot of times that will lead to a temporary pause but then consumers come back when they realize they need a house and things arent going to get better over the case of many months, things arent going to get cheaper. Is that what happens here . Both with the rates and mortgage rules, were in a period of adjustment. I think thats temporary. Well see Mortgage Rates continue to rise. But what also matters is whats happening on the rental side. A lot of this pent up Housing Demand weve been waiting for is going to show up on the rental side, not on the for sale side. When young people start moving out of their parents homes theyre not going to buy. First theyre going to rent. Builders are responding to that. We saw in 2013 apartment construction hit a 15year high, even though Single Family construction is still lagging. Right. Charles . Jed, its Charles Campbell here. Arent these problems good problems to have . The supply and the construction level is at a million, the demographics are 1. 4 million per year. And the negative equity has gone from 22 a year ago Federal Reserve data shows, to 13 recently. The home buyer is healing, the Housing Market is recovering, consumer net worth is improving. Isnt this a natural consequence of those dynamics . Much of this is that natural consequence of those dynamics but there are things that are lagging worse than they should be. The situation for young people, their employment rate is still closer to the worst point at the recession. Than to their normal level. It means that the recovery that we see this year in the market is not going to be first time home buyers. Affordability makes it harder for firsttime home buyers. It also turns off investors but it makes more room for repeat buyers who benefit from the rise in prices on the home theyre selling even though the home theyre buying is also more expensive. Well see more repeat buyers in the market trading up, down or across. This is not going to be the year of the firsttime home buyer. Diana . I talked to a lot of Real Estate Agents and brokers every day. The word that keeps coming up is demand or lack thereof. Theyre just not seeing the kind of demand they want to see going into the spring market. Were coming to the end of february right now. President s day weekend, thats supposed to be the start. Theyre just not seeing it. With the investors pulling back, investors were such a huge part of this market in 2013, with them pulling back their buying well start to see whether or not that real organic buyer is coming back in. If we dont see the demand really in the next five weeks as we come up to the season for mortgage politics, people getting ready to buy, that will be the real teller for this season. Diana, jed, thank you both for joining us today. Thank you. Coming up, highlights and a medal couldnt the from sochi. And whats going on with hewlettpackard . We check out the stock, which is back at 30 when we return. Welcome back to squawk box, everyone. In our headlines, we are watching two stocks that are heading different directions. Price line is higher, groupon is moving lower. Both came out with earnings after the bell last night. Both companies Beat Estimates. Groupon warned of a Current Quarter loss. Because of a higher acquisition cost. Mark mahaney said he was pleased with the priceline numbers but disappointed with groupon. Jpmorgan chase reached a deal with activist shareholders that should make its annual meeting less controversial. The agreement avoids a repeat of last years battle over whether the roles of chairman and chief executive officer should be split. Among the details, more information from jpmorgan over Risk Mitigation practices. Elsewhere in banking, citigroups Ceo Michael Corbat earned 14. 1 million last year, a pay raise of about 23 over 2012. It included about 3. 8 million in deferred stock. That total was about the same as bank of america chief brian moynihan. Behind jpmorgans Morgan Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs ceo lloyd blankfein. Hwe have brian white, Canto Fitzgerald global head of Technology Hardware and software. What has meg whitman been able to do over the past year that has confounded people who said she couldnt do it and its back to 30. Whats different . One thing is shes done a good job of marketing the story. I went back to october 2012 and the street consensus was 4. 1 for fiscal 13. They about 356, yet the stock doubled. The real brilliance behind meg whitman is she took down numbers for this fiscal 13, set the barlow and she was able to meet expectations. Thats been the real story. Sales are down 10 consecutive quarters yearoveryear. You sound like you are a doubter. You dont think the stock should be at these levels. We cover a broad range of i. T. Vendors and it is very, very competitive. Theres a lot of technology under the hood at great, great companies, that hp really doesnt have. They have a lot of commodity businesses like pcs, lake printers. I think this is, you know, its been good for shareholders. Shes done a great job telling the story, theyre lucky to have her but fundamentally, longer term, it will be difficult, especially without a software platform. Do you have a sell on it. We have a hold rating. You had a hold rating at the low 20s, too. Correct. People that listen to you are holding Something Else at that point. Where i see opportunity is some of the smaller Software Names or some of the better positioned big i. T. Names. If it goes to 40 will you ever become more positive . Or its impossible to go to 40 . Can you tell me its impossible to go to 40 . I think if we felt like they have something out there thats going to change with this move to new i. T. , whether its in the cloud or big data, i think if theyd capitalize on that wed change our opinion. Is she in a position to seize on that . Is she going to do anything with the underperforming assets . Does she need to to win you over . I dont think they need to be in pc. We know whos going to win there. Lenovo is number one. I see the asian competitors becoming more competitive. Didnt she decide to keep it. She cant go back on that decision. You can always go back. That was, whatever, 18 months ago. I see no reason in a couple of years why they wouldnt want to be out of that. Ibm is selling their serving business to la nenovlenovo. The shift to cloud architecture is extremely disruptive. Yes. How does that impact hewlett, who wins, who loses . Everyone is making this transition. Your Bigger Company it takes longer, right . But i dont see hp one thing you need to have is a Good Software platform. Ibm has 26 billion in Software Revenue and theyre number two or three in the world. Hp has a 4 billion portfolio in software. Software is very, very important. This trend towards Software Defined data center, right . Thats about cloud. Thats about big data. They just dont have the resources, i think, to capitalize on that. If you look at multiples today you can buy apple at a similar multiple, you can buy ibm at a similar multiple. It has by big data platform. Thats more interesting than hewlettpackard. Ibm has underperformed when you look at the way hewlett has performed. Right now you could put on a spread, short hewlett and go long ibm in your view . I like ibm because i think under the hood theres a great, great big data platform. Better than hewletts . Much better. Much better. Whos better than ibm, anybody . Ibm has a lot of great smaller competitors. Who are hewletts competitors that are better, apple and cisco and ibm . Emc is also a good kpet per. Im not going to say better but good. No one has the breadth of ibm. Youre all trying to be ibm with the endtoend solutions. Ibm is different in that they have most of the pieces to the puzzle. Now Software Companies are acquiring hardware companies, right . Cisco got into the server market. Emc will expand their presence. They wand this endtoend solution. I think ibm has a good, good fundamental portfolio underneath whats happening in i. T. Hewlett tried to do the endtoend thing. They were unsuccessful in some of their acquisitions. They bought autonomy for 10 billion. They bought the wrong company or . They paid ten times revenue. 10 billion was that was not her, though . No, it wasnt. I think they have some of the pieces, i just dont think theyre strong in their markets. Servers are a commodity. The odms are getting involved in this. The whole landscape is changing. Youve got to think three to five years out, whos going to capitalize on this . Everyone is going through a transition. I dont think hewlettpackard will do well in this new environment. All right, brian. Above 30, this will be easy to remember. Whether we buy it or youre going to hold him to his hold. Hold you to the hold. You should go to a sell if you really feel this way you should go to sell. Are you his boss . You knew the boss that was his boss . Yes. You can go all the way up to howard, right . If one had to they could. All right, all right. Thanks. By the way, chief executive of hp, meg whitman will be joining squawk on the street at 9 00 to talk about the last quarter. The u. S. Speed skating team only has two more shots to get a podium seat. Kevin plank, under armours ceo will join us in the next hour. Stick around for that. Squawk box will be right back. Because when it comes to feeling safe behind the wheel, going the distance and saving at the pump you want it all. Get our multipoint inspection with a a Synthetic Blend Oil change, tire rotation, Brake Inspection and more for 29. 95 or less. Get a complete vehicle checkup. Only at your ford dealer. Tdd 1888648602121 tjust waiting to be found. Ties tdd 18886486021 at schwab, were here to help tdd 18886486021 bring what inspires you tdd 18886486021 out there. In here. 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The First Technology of its kind. Mom and dad, i have great news. Is now providing answers families need. Siemens. Answers. voseeker of the sublime. Ro. You can separate runway ridiculousness. From fashion that flies off the shelves. And you. Rent from national. Because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. And go. And only national is ranked highest in car rental Customer Satisfaction by j. D. Power. natalie ooooh, i like your style. vo so do we, business pro. So do we. Go national. Go like a pro. Welcome back, everybody. Take a look at the futures this morning. Yesterday stocks ended up at the high of the day, a little bit of a mini rally closing with the dow up 29 points, shaking off early losses. The green arrows continue. Dow futures indicated up about 30 points above fair value, the s p futures up by 3. 5. Time for an update from the sochi winter olympics. Hes there. He has an athletes mentality and attitude. Hes Brian Sullivan. Hes in sochi. Athlete in the 76 games, perhaps, joe, but i appreciate it nonetheless. Thank you very much, guys. I want to get to hockey in a second. Lets start with figure skating because the russian who was the superstar and all the weight of russia was on did not perform we well. In fact, yulia lipnitskaya, Adelina Sotnikova ended up getting the gold. It was the 15yearold who all the eyes were on. Still, russia takes the gold. In free skate, womens hockey, obviously very, very difficult defeat for the u. S. Womens team. They were up 20 with two minutes left to go. Canada pulled their goalie. A shot, hit the pole, missed. Canada scores in overtime and takes the gold medal. A bit of a heartbreaking loss for u. S. Womens hmo ockey. News generally, guys, tends to be on the negative side. Earlier today we were interviewing four of the members of the u. S. Womens team and speaking with julie chu. In the middle of the interview, literally were tapped on the shoulder and the u. S. Olympic Committee Told us they had chosen chu to carry the American Flag during the closing ceremony. This is exactly what happened. Watch this. Youve just been asked to be the flag bearer for the closing ceremony. Yay i didnt really expect that here. Thats awesome. Speechless. Literally, we just got that news. How do you feel . Speechless. Because this team, its about our team, this whole time. Its weird to think i wasnt even thinking about this. Im just going to bumble along right now. Do wrist curls, something, get ready for the flag. I dont know what to say. What an honor. So that was really cool, guys. She had no idea that it was coming. There were more hugs all around once the cameras stopped rolling. Obviously its small comfort not getting the gold medal but they were very happy with the silver. That was a nice moment there with julie chu. Speaking of medals, the u. S. Extended its lead in the overall medal count, now up to 25 medals. We have speed skating coming up. Obviously mens hockey semifinal tonight against canada. You have finland and sweden playing right now. Were at 25, russia with 23. Canada with 22. One of those, joe, one of those russian medals, in fact, the gold medal is actually an american guy who became a russian citizen just a couple years ago because the u. S. Pulled back on its alpine snowboarding program. Through marriage or something. I saw that. You didnt see the hockey game, did you, brian . Im still thinking about that game. I guess the refs when it came right down to it evened everything out. In overtime there was a power play that the u. S. Had and they did a makeup call on they called it you could see it wasnt. That power play, i think that would have ended it right there. So many ways the americans could have won, even when the goalie was pulled, it hit the post from the other side of the ice. I dont know how i could i dont think i could accept it as well as those girls played, i dont think i could accept it, you know . I was there actually. We were on air and the stadium here is about 100 yards to our left. I ran in, came back, did some of street signs and ran back. I caught what you were talking about. Heres the other thing. I dont know if this came through on television, it was an extremely procanada crowd. There were a lot of canadians there. It did seem like most of the home crowd, russians, were cheering for canada as well. Kind of as the underdog country. Whenever canada would have the puck, they would chant skyba, skyba. She said it means puck and it translates to score, score, score it was very much the sort of every time canada had it, it was score, score it was a very procanada crowd in there. The u. S. Is up against a number of different things. I know. Theyre ahead 20 with like three or four minutes left. I was watching. I was like but what great drama, bri. Every shot. Sometimes i dont know, the finesse of the women without checking, theyre so good at handling the puck. You could really see it. It was an amazing game to watch. Im not over it. Im not over it yet. It was tough. They handled it with grace and dignity. They did. During the rest of the interview which well show later today, they were happy to get the silver. W we wanted the gold but were a great team. They said all the right things. You could see there was disappointment. Why not . The skill was spectacular. It was tough. It was a game and you wonder if if will provide extra motivation for the u. S. Men toon. Brian, when are you coming home . Hopefully tomorrow. Your biggest takeaway from the time youve spent there . Biggest takeaway is that i think russia has proven the doubters wrong. You look around and i know theres a lot made about the cost, about some of the maybe hea heavyhanded tactics that may have been introduced to get the games going. All that stuff aside, the reality is this, the facilities, im sure carl told you have been first rate. You have the mountain village, the coastal village where we are. The people are happy. The events have gone off without a hitch. The athletes ive spoken to, not just from america, canada and other nations, they have been happy. A lot of this stuff will stick around for years and decades past the olympics. I think its unfair to say its 70 billion just for the games. If youve skied and youve been to vale or whistler, they effectively built vale about an hour from here. They have formula one track, they have the world cup of soccer coming here in a year or so. They pulled it off and they pulled it off well. Thats my biggest takeaway. And nbc, could another network i dont know. That is an undertaking that you better be pretty good at what you do to show the way its been done, everything, camera placement. My friend from college, Gerald Jefferson has been running things for nbc in terms of the video they bring back and digitize. Really cool. We built basically a city of our own here. We have a couple thousand employees here across all the different properties. I mean, it feels like youre at 30 Rockefeller Center and these people have been here for weeks, some of them for months. Theyve left their families theyre a long way from home and theyve tried their best to make it as american as possible. They cook for you, they do all this stuff, they have laundry services. But youre not at home. They have wives, kids, husbands. It has been mind blowing the effort put into these games by nbc. Its spectacular. Im honored to be here. Its expensive. And whenever a new deal is signed, when people are bidding on it, its like youre kidding me. Its priceless programming. You cannot put a price on it. I dont know if its possible. I guess it is. Its always possible to overpay and not make money but it is priceless programming. You can dvr it. You want to watch it live and dvr it. Thanks, brian. Thank you. When we come back, under armours founder and ceo kevin plank speaks out about the olympic speed skating suit and the companys new deal with the olympic team. Squawk box will be right back. Announcer where can an investor be a name and not a number . Scottrade. Ron im never alone with scottrade. I can always call or stop by my local office. Theyre nearby and ready to help. So when i have questions, i can talk to someone who knows exactly how i trade. Because i dont trade like everybody. I trade like me. Thats why im with scottrade. Announcer ranked highest in Investor Satisfaction with selfdirected services by j. D. Power and associates. Lets get back to our guest host, Charles Campbell, executive director at mkm partners. See, im not sure youve been pronouncing your first name correctly over the years. Because there is a j there. Theres a way you can say it where you say jurrien. Im not going to say j. Im going to say jurrien. Thats your apology. Jurrien timmer, global of fidelity Global Management funds at fidelity investments. Do both of you gentlemen think the tenyear is definitely headed to 3. 5 or 4 in the next 12 to 18 months . That was the consensus going into the year. I know. Can you tell me factually that will happen . I think bonds are like oil prices. If they go to 3. 5, it will be selfcorrecting pretty quickly. It will slow the economy like it did back in the spring of last year. They only went to 3 at that point. Even if they go to 3. 5, i dont think theyll go much further. How many false starts, how long can we start for the tenyear to go back up . Five years ago people said it was going up there supposedly. Right, right. We talk about asset bubbles. And people last year when we saw the surprising event of equities, everyone thought s ps were an asset bubble. Very often one of the characteristics of asset bubbles, people arent talking about it being an asset bubble. Treasuries on the other hand had a threedecade run. Last year traded poorly. You know, off double digit percentage. So i would say whats interesting is well go maybe 3. 3 3. 25, 3. 40. It will be because Economic Growth is improving. We may be approaching or getting into a state velocity. It wont be because of inflation. That will probably be because there will still be slack in the labor market. How long do you date this recovery . Im mike darta, our economist, 2017. How old is the recovery now . We it started in what 2009 . 09. Its already five years. Why is it a slam dunk . How long are most recoveries . In the old days before the Great Depression were were in recession every other year, then it became every four years. Since the 50s or 60s its been every ten years. Every ten years. The cycle has gotten longer. That will be 2019 then. I think the big question about rates, has the secular trend declined. Mike has been talking about for a long time. So far, there are no signs of it. Its hard to see a structural secular bear market in rates. Unless velocity picks up. Do you see that coming . Is that something that catches us by surprise every time it happens . If the economy overheats and inflation, if that genie gets out of the bottle and the fed cant put it back in because theyre not going to sell securities and their Balance Sheet has been bloated by 3 trillion or the public loses faith in the fed and money sort of starts getting spined like it does in south american countries, then velocity will pick up and rates will shoot higher. As a primary reserve currency. You dont see rates of 6 , 7 , 8 coming back . I think the economy would crater if that would happen. Not necessarily this year. Lets say out of the next few years. If the inflation genie gets unleashed, which has been a call many people have made over the last couple of years and it hasnt happened, then its not inconceivable. Its hard to imagine rates that high. Most of the Business Cycles ended because of the fed tightening unnecessarily and really too much in retrospect. Thats why this Forward Guidance that theyre now emphasizing is so important. Yes. If you look at the taylor rule, its suggesting fed funds should be 1 to 2 . The fed is staying underneath that. Probably now with janet yellen theyll stay there for a while longer. It really was a shock to the system, the 08, because its just buried inflationary expectations to where we can stay more accommodative than we should be and without paying the piper . Cpi is up 1. 6. If you were to ask most people after 3 trillion of Balance Sheet extension if inflation you guarantee me there wont be a recession between 2019. Im not going to guarantee that. Theres a million things that could cause it. China. We just assume we have all this time and we dont have to worry about a recession. China is the biggest risk. You saw the flash pmi at 48. The credit cycle seems to be coming to an end. The question is how systemic does it get and does anyone care over here about what happens in china . When i say jurrien, they hear jurrien. Im saying jurrien. You were saying jurrien. All the grief you give us. Its like barry knapp. Is it knapp or knapp . What do you have in your ears . Excrement from the air conditioning. Deal reached in ukraine. Details just ahead. And kevin plank joins scott wapner live to talk about hightech speed skating and that suit that is generating so much controversy. Now they signed a new deal with the Speed Skating Team. They should hire that netherland coach and bring him over here. Maybe thats the deal. Im beth. And im michelle. And we own the paper cottage. Its a stationery and gifts store. Anything we purchase for the paper cottage goes on our ink card. So you can manage your business expenses and access them online instantly with the Game Changing app from ink. We didnt get into business to spend time managing receipts, thats why we have ink. We like being in business because we like being creative, we like interacting with people. So you have time to focus on the things you love. Ink from chase. So you can. Like carpools. Polly wants to know if we can pick her up. Yeah, we can make room. Yeah. [ male announcer ]. Office space. Yes, were loving this communal seating. Oh, its great. Yeah. [ male announcer ] the best thing to share . A data plan. New at t mobile share value plans for business. Our best value plans ever. For example, you can get 10 gigs of data to share. And 5 lines would be 175 a month. Plus you can add a line anytime for 15 a month. Sharings never been better for business. Frozenomics in the great lakes. A shipping nightmare after the great lakes freeze over completely. What sectors are being hit and what it means for business. Plus, breaking news. Leaders in ukraine have reached a preliminary deal in an effort to try and stop the violence. An update on the latest developments and a former ambassador sounds off as the final hour of squawk box begins right now. Welcome back to squawk box here on cnbc, first in business worldwide. Im joe kernen along with becky quick. Checking the futures right now after a pretty good session yesterday. The futures are indicated up a little bit today, extending those gains. 4 s p points would put us at 1844, 1850. 6 points below. Still about 6 points below. We could get there today. For everybody who thought wed have a 10 to 15 correction, they didnt get it. It was down 5 to 6 on the lows. Maybe more on the dow. The dow was 7. Lets talk about the headlines. Hewlettpackard shares have been up in the premarket trading. Hp beat expectations by 6 cents a share with its latest quarterly report. Check out the chart. This is covering the period after the stock was removed from the Dow Jones Industrial average. Its been up about 44 since then. Maybe one you wished hadnt come out. The ceo, meg whitman will be joining squawk on the street in the next hour to talk about the quarter. Groupon is forecasting a Current Quarter loss as it spends more to try to expand its customer base. Weve had an analyst, mark mahaney who said hes downgrading the stock as a result. That stock is down by almost 12 right now. We have another economic report out today. This time, weather may be cited as a factor once again. The National Association of realtors will be out with january existing home sales at 10 00 eastern time. Economist are looking for a 3. 5 drop. Ukraines government says a tentative resolution has been reached to the crisis thats brought days of violence in that countrys capital. Nbcs jim maceda joins us once again. Hello, again, jim. Reporter hi, joe. The latest from here, from kiev and neighboring ukraine is that Viktor Yanukovych has signed a draft deal that includes early elections in december of this year, a return to the 2004 constitution, the one that was in effect until yanukovych gutted it and the forming of a Coalition Government in ten days. But even as he announced that, a split within the opposition has surfaced. Party leaders of the opposition accepted a compromise that yanukovych remain in power for at least ten more months. Many protesters are just not buying it. Not they say after dozens of deaths and hundreds of wounded among them at the hands of riot police. And confirming that split just in the last half hour or so. An Opposition Leader said the opposition would sign the deal but that further talks were necessary with protesters. This deal, joe, is looking a lot more like a starting point. By no means the end to the conflict. In fact, one eu official says today theres a risk that the worst case scenario, meaning all bets are off and a return to the barricades could still happen in ukraine. Thats a sobering thought. Back to you. Jim maceda, we appreciate you reporting there this morning for us. Thank you. In the meantime, stocks coming off of a positive session. Investors appearing to discount some of the soft economic numbers weve been getting. Joining us right now is darryl kronk, regional chief Investment Officer at wells fargo. And mr. Hmorrie harris. This is primarily a weather story. Is there something more taking place . Maybe in some sectors. But for the big picture economy this is about the weather. As long as the Consumer Confidence measures hold up as they have, im not that worried about underlying weakness. What about some of the issues with the housing sector . We talked earlier today to an analyst who pointed out that a lot of these things have been coming from price increases. You have price increases on the homes and more expensive mortgages and that that could add up to be something that lasts well beyond just the Winter Weather. Well, youve got two crosscurrents going on in housing. Clearly compared to a year ago, rates are higher, prices are higher, Monthly Payments are higher. Although when you look at affordability indices compared to history, housing isnt as affordable as it was a year ago but historically its relatively affordable. On the positive side, you have lower unemployment now than you had a year ago. Youve got more payroll jobs than you had a year ago. I would say when you look at the spring selling season, im going to have the jobs higher than they were last year. Better Consumer Confidence. I think the net result of all this is well have a pretty good spring selling season. You can take issue with i allot of the numbers. The economic reports were getting, you can say issue with the unemployment numbers, why theyre coming down, whats happening. What do you think is happening from an economic perspective. I agree with maury, becky. I think the weather is creating some of the problems. Weve seen this movie before, the last three years, running that the weather impacts are optically large but tend to be transistorry. 2013 was about multiple expansion in the markets but 2014 needs to be about Earnings Growth and it needs to be about money flow into the markets. Were seeing positive trends on both. Fourth quarter earnings are coming in at 9 Earnings Growth. Were seeing that operating leverage. All we gots with 1 to 2 revenue growth. Its translating straight to the bottom line, especially in industries that have strong operating leverage. You couple that with a nice pickup in cap ex spending which weve been waiting for for quite some time. That bodies well heading into this year. The market where its priced right now, we have the correction of 5 , 6 , 7 , depending on which index youre following. That came back. Are the markets at this point thinking, yes, all of these lousy economic numbers well write this off as weather. Or is the market thinking if we dont get the better numbers are we going to see a dip back down again . I think the turmoil in january and february were an interruption and not Inflection Point in current trend. Okay. When you look at passable markets with be theyre built off of slow, successive, positive surprises. Thats exactly what weve been getting up until the last 30 to 45 days. I think when you look through that into the fundamentals and you say Consumer Confidence and Small Business optimism are at recovery highs, cash is still at record levels for corporate Balance Sheets and for the consumer. You have Central Banks willing to do still whatever it takes in that regard. That does not interrupt a bull market long term. You think well push higher in the stock market, above the closing highs of last year . Yes. I do think youre seeing even with the turmoil youre seeing the u. S. Markets and the Global Equity markets at recovery highs and at current highs. If you lack through into credit spreads, right, high yield spreads and stuff, theyre telling you the stress is not there. Do you see con tatagion risk i think the contagion risk has died down a little bit. Certainly its big in countries that carry those big capital count deficits and the issues they have but the reality is, those are so small. If you add up turkey, argentina, ukraine, it adds up to 1. 5 of global gdp growth. It is significant beyond the headline risk thats associated with it. Maury, what would make you change your mind . How much longer can the weather be the pass that we give for all these lousy economic numbers . It would be very discouraging if in march, assuming we have better weather, if we dont get a strong bounceback in the numbers. Also in march i would like to see the beginnings of an increase in home purchase Mortgage Applications which would be one of my first indicators heading into the housing season. Into the spring housing season. Maury, thank you for joining us. Thanks for coming in. Coming up, under armour ceo kevin plank, the companys suit being worn by the olympians on our Speed Skating Team is under fire in sochi. Well ask him about that. And the new contract. That under armour just signed with the team. As we head to break, check out the squawk box market indicator. Latte or au lait . Cozy or cool meow or woof . Exactly the way you want it. Until boom your mattress a battleground of thwarted desire. Enter the sleep number bed. An innovative design that lets couples sleep together in individualized comfort. Hes the softy his sleep number setting is 35. Youre the rock, at 60. 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When we come back, under armour ceo kevin plank and a first on cnbc interview. Well talk speed xading and the companys latest deal. Tdd 18003452550. You see opportunities. Tdd 18003452550 at schwab, were here to help tdd 18003452550 turn inspiration into action. Tdd 18003452550 we have intuitive platforms tdd 18003452550 to help you discover whats trending. Tdd 18003452550 and seasoned market experts to help sharpen your instincts. Tdd 18003452550 so you can take charge tdd 18003452550 of your trading. voseeker of the sublime. Ro. You can separate runway ridiculousness. From fashion that flies off the shelves. And you. Rent from national. Because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. And go. And only national is ranked highest in car rental Customer Satisfaction by j. D. Power. natalie ooooh, i like your style. vo so do we, business pro. So do we. Go national. Go like a pro. Lets get to scott wapner in new york. He has a special guest with him. Scott . Thank you very much. Here with us, ceo of under armour, kevin plank. Word is youve signed a new contract with u. S. Speed skating, in your words, doubling down. Yes. Weve had a lot happening over the last week or so, quieting the noise and telling people everyone from speed skating to our brand that got a bit unfairly beat up last week, you know, got knocked down. Theres no greater story than probably the comeback either. What we want to do is make sure about this one particular sport that were going to dust ourselves up, get up and come back bigger and stronger than weve been before. The timing of this new deal seems peculiar to me. Yes. Why now . Is this happening . Is this to make the controversy go away . Did you get good terms on this deal because youre coming out now . We want we dont want the story going any longer. We want to come back to the story in four years. Our athletes are still skating. We have Team Pursuits over the weekend also. The u. S. Still has a great shot at hitting the podium. Regardless, we want to make sure our message is there, this isnt just one and done. There are speculation of how we are going to react to it. I want people to be clear, we will stand up and come back. Thats nothing more american than that story. Wait till you see us in 2018. The coaching philosophy is, continuity is one approach coaches may take and also shuffling the deck. When the u. S. Speed skating team came out, didnt have the results they wanted, i think the decision came down to what could it be . Frankly by the time youre in the middle of competition, theres only so many variables that you have the ability to change. They went from a brand new suit that we put all the innovation and technology in the world to a suit that we had a lot of technology and innovation in prior. They were both under armour suits. Come on, they went back to the other suits and they didnt perform any better. Yes. Did you feel vindicated at that point . No, no. I think, listen, we are patriots first. We remain im sitting there watches these races and thinking there could be no better platform for our company than winning gold in under armour suits. So in no way, you know, you cant do that in sports. When you find yourself if you ever found yourself rooting against an athlete youre in the wrong business. What has the last week been like for you . Youre not just the ceo, youre the face, the founder, for all intents and purposes, this is your baby. Its hard. People are taking shots at your company and theres nothing you can do about it. You called it a witch hunt. There was definitely people looking for answers. The witch wound up being the suit and it became i thought there was a lot of hype built around it, especially in todays world of social media and how fast stories can move. It became emphatic that the suit was a problem. We knew mathematically that we had empirical evidence that we felt the suit was strong. Our job is to outfit you, put you in the best advantage way we can with the best products in the world an let athletes go perform. When that doesnt happen we usually have alternatives. We had a plan a and plan b. Lessons learned from this, i wish we had a plan c as well. There were things we didnt think it would get to this level, that crescendo it seems to have come to. What was your reaction when you first heard . Like anything, weve had people working on these suits for the last two years, delivering prototypes, hand in hand with the athletes, delivering the final suits january 1st. All the suits delivered by january 13th. These athletes and the teams and the coaches, you no know, they were in the suits. They had time to get comfortable with them but hadnt competed on a national level. I wish that the athletes had actually had a chance to wear them in competition. We had this suit was incredibly hyped. You had the best engineers in the world from Lockheed Martin helping to build it. Hopefully that was the hype and that was the emphasis that would have given them the ability to win. See you in south korea in 18. Did you get a better deal as a result of all this . We doubled down literally our deal. I didnt want it to come down to a negotiation. Our current deal, well put so much money, this will be a no brainer for you. The reason for that, again, it wasnt a pr play as much as it was a cultural play of the way we approach it from a company. Which i think is a very american philosophy. When you challenge us, were not going to run away. The colors dont run. So were going to stand here, come back and come back stronger and hopefully the world sees that, including the dutch team as well. I know there was something animated about that. There was. Becky has a question in a second. This was supposed to be your Big International coming out party. Yes. You have made, you have dominated the north American Market as a large portion of your sales. Yes. This was supposed to be the thing that was going to launch you internationally. Is there lasting damage to your brand and your plans . Not at all. As a brand, a company, i think youre never weak enough to put everything on one thing. This was a piece of it. The olympics are a global stage. Were also very proud number one that the United States has 25 medals to date, under armour has ten medals to date, including twoman bobsled with Steve Holcomb winning the bronze, coming back with the fourman bobsled, the defending olympic champion, the women in the skeleton. Weve had a lot of success. This is one part of the story but this is certainly not the story. Its a bit more of the side show than the main event. Becky . Hey, kevin, hey, scott. Thanks for being with us today. You did just mention the dutch coach of speed skating. We had him on with us yesterday. He was rubbing in that they won 21 medals we havent won any. We asked him about the suits. If it was the suits . He said yes because only because the athletes think its the suits. What do you think of that . Theres so many variables, from an equipment standpoint, we have the ability to eliminate some. We can control a lot of those but there are some we cant control. The hype created around the suits has given the athletes the idea that these were the fastest things in the world. Some of the press was about the hearsay or conjecture saying i overheard one of the dutch coaches saying they thought it was the suit as well. Its the International Trash Talk going, of course its the suit. Once you have an athlete believing that they cant win, they are never going to win. Belief, look at our company, our campaign. Its called under armour i will. That mentality is something which is very much a part of who we are. Its very much a part of sport, belief, belief, belief. Thats the power of under armour. That is the thing that hurt the most. That being under attack, theres a little kid out there, if they put on an under armour clothing or shoe, they were scared. This is not just something that we made up. With under armour, you should be confident you can do these things. Its not the suit, its not the athlete. I dont know what that leaves. Maybe it is the athlete. The dutch coach said its footballs fault. One thing that is true, netherlands, that dominate speed skating, grow up playing it, not everyone over here decides theyre going to speed skate. You look at norway with crosscountry skiing. Some people they live, the first thing they think about in the morning is cross country. Those countries in a niche sport, maybe they have an advantage because thats what they do. And you know, all this hammering and soul searching, were good at all these different sports. I dont know if we can compete with norway in cross country. Look how we compete with the new sort of the x sports like snowboarding. Were dominating on those. Theyre fun at least. Im not convinced i want to crosscountry ski. I dont want to do that eight hours a day. I also dont want to speed skate that much. Right. All this happy its just crazy, all the conjecture were going through. I dont pity the position youre in right now. I think thats why doubling down with this eightyear deal, this isnt us being naive in doing that. The one thing the coach did say, i caught the interview yesterday, it was animated to say the least. He said shani davis is without question the best speed skater in the world. Yes, he did. That didnt translate. When you look at the dutch, though, our European Headquarters was in amster back. Our office is in the Olympic Stadium. I was there two weeks ago and i had my family with me. So it was myself and 10yearold son. They took over Olympic Stadium, put an olympic speed skating oval in the middle of Olympic Stadium and there were probably 10,000 dutch amsterdamians out there skating the oval. I got to rent the big long skates. Its like a national passion. Its football, baseball, basketball, wrapped up all into one. Youre going of course theyre going to excellent at it. This is who they are and their pride is built around it. But we are america. Right . I think that we have some of the greatest athletes in the world. And so when we get them and i think we get them in the right position and the leadership at usoc and the leadership at speed skating with mike plant, mikes been there nine months. Well put a new plant in place and cot back in four years and eight years and america will hopefully be on the podium where it rightfully belongs. Three weeks ago you were sitting here with so much momentum with earnings that blew the doors off of wall street. Do you feel some of that momentum is lost . You dont get a choice of when to lead. 18 years doing this. Weve had some great highs, right . Weve had places where weve been over our skis, arrogant, weve gotten knocked down. Weve had pretty big lows. We demonstrated our ability that were a good street fighter. You know, its not one thing thats going to take this company out. Were looking forward, were proud of our results. We have great anticipation of how were expecting 2014 to turn out as well. We dont think this has anything to do with the story of under armour. Thanks for being here. Awesome. Thank you so much, scott. Appreciate it. Always great to see you, my friend. Back to you. Thank you both. When we come back, a former ambassador to ukraine on the compromise reached to stop the violence in kiev. Also, the great lakes are more frozen than theyve been in 20 years and that is causing a major shipping problem. Well talk frozenomics in just a bit. I dont want to think about the alternative. I dont even know how to answer that. I mean, no one knows how long their money is going to last. I try not to worry, but you worry. What happens when your paychecks stop . Because everyone has retirement questions. Ameriprise created the exclusive confident retirement approach. To get the real answers you need. Start building your confident retirement today. Like carpools. Polly wants to know if we can pick her up. Yeah, we can make room. Yeah. [ male announcer ]. Office space. Yes, were loving this communal seating. Oh, its great. Yeah. [ male announcer ] the best thing to share . A data plan. New at t mobile share value plans for business. Our best value plans ever. For example, you can get 10 gigs of data to share. And 5 lines would be 175 a month. Plus you can add a line anytime for 15 a month. Sharings never been better for business. Welcome back. Waiting for history. Steve liesman joins us from washington, d. C. With the details. Whats going on, steve. Any day now, Federal Reserve should be releasing the transcripts of the 2008 meetings. This time last year they did it around january. They did the 07 transcripts. These are on a fiveyear delay. You remember 2008, dont you, becky . I do. I remember it well. A few things happened. The fed made a couple decisions. They put out the minutes and we get whats said by individuals at the meeting. And one of them just left office, ben bernanke, one of them left office a little while ago, tim geithner was at the table, kevin wurst was at the table there. Take a look at the highlights there were several unscheduled meetings well be looking for. This was early january when the economy was almost a year later declared to have been in recession. The Federal Reserve began cutting rates relatively aggressively. What were they thinking back then . They cut it to 3 . They eventually would go to zero by the end of the year. Back in june of that year, they held at 2 . Thats a meeting well be looking for. Obviously there are meetings that are bracketed by bear stearns in march when jpmorgan bought bear stearns. There was a meeting in the middle of that whole kerfuffle there. Well get probably a pretty important piece of it in the next several days we think when we hear about it. When we get the minutes released, thats just the highlights of it. This is the actual transcript of everything that was said around the table . Exactly. Its discussion that has names attached to the discussion, which is why theres a big debate about the extent to which these should remain on a fiveyear delay or should they come out sooner . One of the reasons they want to have a delay so theres not politics and guys arent making decisions at the table because of how they make look tomorrow in the newspaper. Weve spoken with a fed president who was telling us that before they knew they were being taped in these meetings, for a while, greenspan was doing it and wasnt telling people they were being recorded. When the fed governors found out, they all of a sudden started saying a lot less. When you realize theres a camera rolling, youre much more careful with what you saw, although i wonder those unscheduled meetings in particular. You have to have the explanation for why youre having them and i guess its good stuff. I think youre right, becky, in had the sense that these unscheduled meetings will show true character of people when they were in the middle of the crisis. And im interested, you know weve developed this hawkish dovish thing much more starkly than we have in the past, i think, if you go back before the crisis, the lines were not so clearly drawn. This will be the genesis of that. Im interested in how guys were charlie ploser, how were they thinking thing . Looking at the whole pattern, how it developed back then will be significant. Steve, thank you. Looking forward to it. Joining us now with more on the situation in ukraine, john herps is a former ambassador and currently director of the National Defense University Center for complex operations. Mr. Ambassador, great to have you. Where to start on this. The world is watching very closely right now. And i wonder, given the reaction to what weve seen so far, is it possible to just put down these demonstrations at this point, which is probably what he wanted to do initially, but is that still a viable option for the power thats in power right now . There was always a question whether mr. Yanukovych had control of Security Forces enough to sweep the streets of kiev clean. I think weve seen over the past two or three days he does not have that power. He has control over certain number of police certain number of the elite unit but not enough to push people off the streets, enough to murder them, use sniper fire to murder them, to use live fire to murder them but not enough to restore order. Would you think somewhere right now Vladimir Putin is like gritting his teeth and going, wow, the olympics, im thwarted here. Because they need i dont know, will the opposition accept half measures . I think mr. Putin wants mr. Yanukovych to restore order by any means possible. Putins point man for ukraine has said that publicly last week. Putin does not control yanukovych, though he does have some influence. As for the outcome, i think were seeing today the outline of a deal. Mr. Yanukovych has said hes willing to have constitutional reform, which will reduce his powers. Hes willing to have early elections. The strange thing is, theyre talking about having ukraines Parliament Vote on those constitutional reforms in september. I dont understand why they need to wait. Im sure the demonstrators will not accept that delay. If they were to establish the reform right away and if the leaders of the opposition, one of them became Prime Minister, in addition to mr. Yanukovych, i think theyd be able to resolve this. Mr. Putin, has he ever gotten the short end of the stick like that . We let him walk all over us. I dont know if we let him walk all over us. Mr. Putin tried very hard to mr. Make sure mr. Yanukovych became president at that time, via a fraudulent election. He lost bigtime in ukraine at that time. Looks like he will lose again today, today meaning in this crisis. That sounds good. I dont know if you saw the journal editorial today. Did he have designs on bringing ukraine back into a greater russia . Well, i dont know about that. But his policy has been to ensure ukraine does not have a close economic relationship with europe, that ukraine becomes part of mr. Putins euroasian economic. The policies that mr. Putin are not in ukraines interest. For ma matter, the policies are not in their best interest. Is there so much widespread unrest in the ukraine that the only sustainable solution has to come from within the country, from its citizenry and from a change in the legal system and the voting and the laws and not from the eu, not from russia and not from the United States . Whats happening in ukraine is overwhelmingly a ukrainian affair. This crisis was brought on, not so much by yanukovychs decision to back away from the agreement with the eu, this crisis was brought on by 3. 5, 4 years of growing repression in ukraine since yanukovych became president in 2010. The walk away from the eu deal in november by yanukovych was simply the straw that broke the camels back. And if you look back, the first demonstrations against that decision only involve tens of thousands of ukrainians. But when yanukovych tried to push those demonstrators off the streets, he suddenly had hundreds of thousands of demonstrators. So this is all about internal domestic internal politics in ukraine. And the ukrainian people speaking against the repression of the last several years. I saw somewhere, i think it was the Financial Times the new cold war is between us and china and theres military things going on. I mean, should we be equally afraid . Who should we fear more, russia or china at this point, as persons . I dont think we should fear either. We remain the strongest power of the world by any measure. Okay. We should have prudent policies visavis both of them. I think we do. All right, mr. Ambassador, thank you. I feel a little better. He hasnt walked all over us. He stole that ring from bob kraft. Yes. Hes done some stuff. Anyway, still to come. Rupert murdoch gets a new bachelor pad. Details off the break. Squawk box will be right back. Tony stewart in my career, ive learned a thing or two about having the right equipment and a great crew. Ive also learned how great it is to do the things you love. Thats why im happy to be part of the bass pro family. 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Tdd 18886282419 all with no trade minimum. And only 8. 95 a trade. Tdd 18886282419 open an account and earn 300 commissionfree online trades. Call 18886282419 to learn more. Tdd 18886282419 so you can take charge of your trading. [ man ] i dont know if this is gonna be a first or second, but this is gonna be a medal [ man 2 ] and it looks like we could have another one of those photos [ female announcer ] every minute. Every medal. Every screen. The nbc sports live extra app gives you unprecedented access to every moment of nbc universals coverage of the sochi olympics, now on your tv. The x1 entertainment operating system, only from xfinity. Welcome back, everybody. More frozenomics for you this morning. The great lakes are frozen with more ice than weve seen in 20 years. That is creating major problems for great lakes shipping. Some problems that could trickle into the rest of the economy. Its up to the u. S. Coast guard to clear a path for billions of dollars in commerce. Scott cohn is live aboard a coast guard cutter in michigan. Whats it look like there, scott . We are just going through some ice on the st. Claire river which connects ult matsly connects lake huron and erie. It turns out that the process of spri live pictures from a coast guard cutter is somewhat tricky. The st. Claire river which drains out of lake huron, flows into lake st. Claire, then the Detroit River and into lake erie. This is critical. Its called operation coal shovel. That is the main cargo thats going on at this time of year. Theres also things like iron ore, fuel oil and all of that that flows, even in the wintertime. Ill show you some of the pictures we shot out here yesterday as we were clearing this same path and ultimately were escorting a canadian tanker from lake st. Claire up to port huron here in michigan. It is easier said than done clearing all of this ice. In many places its up to two feet thick. Its a very complicated operation because they have to judge the patterns of the ice and so on. They focus on choke points like this one. Theyre out here basically every day because there is just so much ice. As you know, were having a very harsh winter. Were seeing ice at historical levels, in areas we dont normally see them. Our coast guard fleet has been working hard to do our best to keep the waterways open. Traffic does get slowed down. By the end of the deed we try to get them moving through to their destination. It gets slowed down quite a bit according to industry sources. Its taking as much as a week to do what would normally be a one huff day trip because they have to to get through this ice. They cant go very fast, and even this coast guard cutter as strong as it is, it takes some sometimes you have to make multiple runs to get through this ice which we hope to show you a little bit of later today. One of the big issues that theyre starting to look at now more which comes up from Lake Superior down through the great lakes and to the steel mills in places like lake erie, there already are spot shortages in terms of what they like to stockpile. That could ultimately if this persists lead to production delays in terms of steel. The industry is watching that. And, you know, the great lakes spring shipping season begins in less than a month. And theyre a little bit concerned that thats going to be delayed or its going to be a rough start. And you can see the Economic Impact that would flow from that, guys . Scott, thank you very much. It definitely looks like some rough sledding and well be watching later today for more of those pictures, again, that is scott cohn. When we come back, well wrap up the week with an update from the olympics with Brian Sullivan and get more thoughts from our guest host. The dow futures are up, but only 11 points of fair value. [ male announcer ] nearly 7 million clients. How did edward jones get so big . Let me just put this away. Could you teach our kids that trick . [ male announcer ] by not acting that way. Its how edward jones makes sense of investing. I takbecause you cant beatrning for my frzero heartburn. N. Woo hoo [ male announcer ] prilosec otc is the number one doctor recommended frequent heartburn medicine for 8 straight years. One pill each morning. 24 hours. Zero heartburn. Coach calls her a team player. Shes kind of special. She makes the whole team better. Hes the kind of player that puts the puck, horsehide, bullet. Right where it needs to be. Coach calls it logistics. Hes a great passer. Dependable. A winning team has to have one. Somebody you can count on. Somebody like my dad. This is my dad. Somebody like my mom. My grandfather. Im very pround of him. Her. Them. Oh, okay, i get it. This is the squawk closing ceremony. Lets get our final update from sochi. Brian sullivan joins us now. Hes winging his way back, you know, if i were you, id tell these guys, look, im here, im staying for the closing ceremony unless you want to come back, but if you want to stay, you go ahead and stay. Its okay with me. I appreciate it. I would love to stay, joe, but i want to get back and see you in person. Every day away is torture, physical and emotional. I wasnt taking into account our personal thing. Anyway, you got a package . Reporter i do. I do, actually. Because, listen, if youre like me, right, you probably watched curling on cnbc and thought, why is this in the olympics, how hard could it be, got the gold medal game on cnbc tonight. I thought, this is kind of an easy thing. Then i went and tried it for myself. Watch and learn. Curling is sometimes called chess on ice. It was thought to have begun in 16th century scotland. Debuted at the nagano winter games and really came into its own in Salt Lake City and now its an olympic blockbuster. You go, rock. Where are my sweepers . So, how does it work . Well, two teams of four different people take turns pushing that 42pound block of granite known as delivering the rock, sweeping the stone. Down 146 feet of ice. Scoring in curling is a lot like bocci, you want to get the rocks inside the target, what they call the house. The center of the target right here is known as the button. And for each of your stones or rocks that you get closer to the button than your opponent, you get a point. So, for this go, yellow would get two. Red would get none. On the ice, the rocks tend to curve or curl. Often on purpose for strategic advantage. All this frantic sweeping creates heat which helps propel the stone down the ice. Theres a lot of calories burned, believe me, and the university of ottawa says your heart rate can go up as much as 200 beats a minute because you are doing this a bunch of times, my heart rate is right around 160 and ive only done this a couple of times. Come on, baby. That is a good throw. So, guys, you got the gold medal game on tonight. Youve got canada versus great britain. The canadian women, by the way, winning the gold medal last night, going undefeated, the first time it ever happened. The way i look at it, curling is kind of like darts, it is easy to do, its exceptionally to do well over and over and over again. So, i had a lot of fun. Thankfully my producer cut out the part where i did a complete header onto my back. So, i appreciate that. Thank you. All right, brain. Thanks. And, you know, i figured it out. Canadians are really good at things that on ice, i mean, its yeah. Right . Oits cold. Including putting them into a cocktail glass. Ive seen that here at the olympics, too. All right. We know the best at that arethe thesy siberians. Well see you monday and well reconnect and it will be a joyous thing for us, so well see you then. Lets get back to our guest host. See . Well, done. Theres a reason theres a j there and Charles Campbell. What should we take away from all of this . Someone wrote did i say happy hs . Did i say that earlier . Yeah, i did about all the surrounding suit stuff and the football stuff and all that. I didnt even catch it. Yeah, i did. Someone wrote in. I dont know what that stands for. But, anyway, what should we take away from your appearance today . What do you want us to remember about you . What i will say is the economy will continue to expand 3 , 3. 5 . Were coming out of the effects of the weatherrelated distortions we saw that with claims with year over year data. American goods and Services Continue to be demanded by overseas businesses and consumers whether its apple, whether its boeing, whether its google. Okay, good. All right. Having a trading range for a couple of months wouldnt be the worst thing in the world after last years big run. Thats interesting. We wont get clean data for a couple of months with the weather, you know, the market went ahead of earnings last year and maybe a few months of sideways movements would be a nice consolidation, and were seeing more volatility. Currencies are kind of running the show right here, especially dollar yen and maybe we just need the markets to sort of digest everything for a few months. Thank you very much, its been great having you guys here. Before we kick it over to squawk on the street, though, we do have an announcement, theres a new little squawker who has just arrived, our producer meredith tironi gave birth to a beautiful little girl, meredith tteresa. Yay shes out, this is a good reason for her to be out, guess. Shes really good at by the way, shes been here all the way through. When ann is out, you know what it means, more greco. Yay. I mean, hopefully its worth it. I hope she enjoys this little baby she has now. Thats joes way of saying he misses you. The rest of us pay. Have a great weekend, everybody, that does it for us. Right now its time for squawk on the street. Good friday, morning, welcome to dsquawk on the street. Cramer is back on monday. Big interview coming up this morning. Hewlettpackard chief meg whitman fresh from betterthanexpected earnings last night. Well get an exclusive update on hps turnaround plan which, david, appears to be going pretty well here along with the stock. The stock has certainly been a very strong performer. Plenty of doubters when you read the notes, carl, from the sell side. I would not say they have the wind at their back to a certain extent in terms of the longer turnarounds and whether