Transcripts For CNBC Squawk Box 20140428 : vimarsana.com

To joe with breaking news. Okay, becky. Nbc unioner in value parent comcast struck deals with Charter Communications to invest 3. 9 million subscribers after the deal to buy Time Warner Cable. They Just Announced transactions transfer 1. 4 million Time Warner Cable customers directly to charter for cash. Comcast, meanwhile, will swap about 1. 6 million of its own customers to charter in return for an equal number of charter subscribers. Comcast says that the move will improve the Geographic Presence of both companies and fill in some footprints in areas where both companies wanted to be more efficient. And comcast, while all this is happening, is going to form a new independent publicly traded company being called spinco that will serve approximately 2. 5 million existing comcast customers. When all the deals are concluded, comcast will hold no ownership in spinco or charter and will have no role in managing spinco. And comcast is hoping the move will convince regulators of the deal, but theres other things it does for the company as well. The company says that the value of all the transactions, put them together, thats 20 billion with charters paying comcast, and includes a spinoff. Andrew and becky, a lot of the debt that the company is incuring and buying, time warner will be putting into spinco and well look at what the company is left with after all is said and done with the similar amount of debt it had. The reports are that comcast and time Warner Charter would be able to shore up some of the areas they want to build regional powerhouses for, they would be trading back and forth at the end of the day. Comcast has a lower market share or about the same market share back in 2008. They are trying to get under 30 million, which was the whole point of the exercise. Because the fcc had a rule that said you couldnt go over this. Then that rule was actually overturned by the courts. And then comcast said, we will voluntarily participate under the rule that doesnt exist anyway just to show our love for those regulations. But thats sort of what this is all about. This is just as a comcast shareholder. I would also own part of the new charter because they would be spinning the stock out to the shareholders. The one question i couldnt figure out from the release and maybe you know the answer, does this transaction go forward if the larger comcast Time Warner Cable deal is blocked. My understanding is it is solely based on the idea that time warner goes through. And it wont happen otherwise. Right. If you read it very carefully, at least initially, it tries to, i thought, the suggestion was we are going off to do this. It was to prove to regulators we will do what we told you to do all along and make sure we stay below the threshholds. In what i would imagine is a very smart tax advantage way by our friend who knows how to do this. In cable deals, if you want to figure out what is going on, look at the text implication. John malone, whomever, look at how it is working and where were you, by the way . I know where you said you were, what do you got . I know where you said you were, but who is this . Look at this. Get close right here. The pope. No, right here. Who is that . You know, i was hooting and hollering. Look at the eyebrows. I was in rome. Look at the eyebrows, andrew. We have a guest who also has eyebrows. Look at the wrist, it has your thing on. What is that, your jawbone . Is that not you . And you are wearing a roman collar. Im wearing my roman collar. The eyebrow i have never seen you that excited about something. A jewish guy in a roman collar. I saw that yesterday and said, andrew, he doesnt tell us a lot, becky, but is that yeah, that would catch me by surprise. Look closely. Is that just a guy that looks like you . Not really, but ill take it. I understand. You were not in rome, were you . When in rome put on the collar. We were in vacation in mexico. I never gave you up on that. We were in mexico. We had a great time. We had never been before and went to cabo as they say. And to go there, it was like in that movie where the guy has to provide financials to go to the restaurant. Remember steve martin in l. A. . You had to show you were a. 001 percenter, did you not . I dont know, just a credit card. But they had to check. They had to check that it was going to clear. And we know that it did. Well tell you about another deal this morning. This deal is talking about taxes and being driven by taxes. Pfizer now going after astrazeneca in what could be the industrys largest acquisition ever. Were talking about 100 billion. Pfizer seeking to renew discussions after offering nearly 100 billion to buy astrazeneca. Pfizer approached the company back in january. Now they say the proposal is significantly undervaluing the company. The ad visors are told to take no action on pfizers business. Take a look at the shares right now as you see them down 79 a share. Their bid by the way is 46. 70. Thats in pounds. The date to watch on all this is may 26th. Pfizer either know has to show up with an offer or not. Under the u. K. Rules, they have to come out to announce what they were doing. When i say being driven in part by taxes, whats happening here is pfizer has a lot of money overseas and doesnt want to bring the money back. And thats in large part what is driving them to want to buy astrazeneca. Also they note this morning in their statement, which is fascinating, the way they will structure the deal is they will leave astrazeneca and part of the deal structurally in the u. K. And it sounds like they are going to run a lot of the company through the u. K. So they know more on what they are doing. Not with that, but with General Electric and corporate taxation and striving money we already know, see, thats why i took offense with the article you wrote about corporate taxation. You gave the blend of twin right after the financial crisis, so everybody had writeoffs. And you also, when it is 35 , people deliberately leave stuff over there, which lowers the blended rate, but the run it is so low is because of the taxation. Did the editor assign you or was it your editor . These are my true feelings. Corporations dont get a lot of writeoffs. I know you dont think you think corporations are taxed way too low here in the u. S. Thats basically what is the thrust of your peace. There are a number of loopholes that should be captured for corporations here. The tom one is being interested. I dont know if we have shown the stock, but you can see that trading slightly up, 31. 02 is the number. And germanys british consumer giant ricket is said to be among the final contenders. Mercks cop summer unit is best known for coppertoen sunscreen and claritin. For rickets. For rickets . Yeah. Thank you. I know where you are going with that. Im not going anywhere. I missed you. I i am just glad you are here. Im glad you are not in the seminary here, which would be a shocker. Anyway, that was a big day. We have another big deal. This is a european situation. You go up against the over here we might be a little bit nationalistic about some of our companies, like i didnt want the bacon. And bacon is like 12 a pound now. You dont have to say i was right about that, but we didnt want to sell smith view. Nothing happens with the final say. Its always been that way in france. I know. Im not surprised. This is just like welcome to france, welcome to the world. They didnt want to sell yogurt. Now this is the crown jewel of the industrial do they have anything industrial in france at this point. The french president meeting with ge chief ml today. To discuss the companys power intentions to buy the french government. They are seeking to put the brakes on the 12 million plan and wants to look at alternatives. It will still be a german french european hands. And they would agree to not if you cant do any of the r rationalization. Amaud montbourg is ordering the ousted ceo to the ministry immediately to plain why they were negotiating without the governments knowledge. I am sure that when the ceo was thinking of doing this, they thought, we have to talk about the wind and rain. I have more to say to you. No, its about the New York Times. Now they are performing an asset deal to 14 billion and to merge those to create more companies, one more in energy and one more transportion. Take a look at alstom in europe. And ge traded up almost 11 . I will tell you what i saw over the weekend. Was the absolute reflect to this tom petty guy. When crude man came on here, he said what we were talking about were zombie ideas because he wanted to grab the title quickly. Going back to marxist. I saw Elizabeth Warren has got to run for president in the New York Times. Then i saw a monkey on the cover of the New York Times magazine. Because a lawyer is representing the mown key and suing him against the persons owner. It was a great story. But the New York Times said that that this monkey is suing his owner. You read the whole thing . No, but no one is laughing at it. So i was laughing when i saw it, but then the New York Times told me i cant laugh. So i stopped laughing at it. I just did it for animal cru cruelty. We are joined this morning by one of our esteem ed ceos. Hes the chief economic adviser and member of the international committee. Wonder to feel have you on the set. Theres a lot to talk about. We have not gotten a chance to talk to you since you left pimco. Why did you leave . Very simple. After 14 years there, it was time to do Something Different and to step back and have a different perspective. I went from having a fulltime job to have a serious of personal decisions. It didnt have anything to do with bill gross and clashes and all the things read about. Theres been so much written about pimco. Second of all, they are full of talent and incredible investors. And it was a wonderful opportunity to be there. Im doing a lot of Different Things and learning so much more. I stepped back and now have a much broader perspective of things. I dont know, the weather leads the story. When it comes to bill gross, did you clash . Did you curse and use the sword . No, i dont want to talk about personal action with anybody. As you know, im a pretty private person, but i look back with nothing but incredible admiration and feeling like an almost privilege. I think im going top ask you but i dont know. I dont think hes allowed to say anything, but he has to say it this way. I think what is the bottom says, im running in a dress. I understand that. Can you confirm you were making 100 million a year to me . No, i can confirm that i did not make 100 million a year. Thats way low. Theres so much going on. I have another mat question on this. And i know that you love them and you may. The larger question Going Forward for pimco was bill was on one side and people thought he was a great investor, but they needed me to manage the place or to deal with people because you obviously have more i dont know if you have more or not, but there are do they need more people in that role . They have more people in the role. The secret of pimco is if you go beyond, who is on the bench, morning star had a wonderful comment when scott simon left a few years ago. He used to be the head of the mortgage desk. If you look at scott and he we want anywhere else, he would have been the star investor because he was at pimco and among a team full of talent. Can you speak to this . The cover of business week a month ago had a picture of bill gross with am i a jerk on the cover, what did you think of the piece . I didnt read the piece fully. I understand the reporter spent quite a bit of time with bill. Then most important thing to remember is hes one of the best investors. Thats what matters ultimately for people. 96 of similar funds beat him. Do you know any longterm investors that doesnt go through a hard time . In the last five years, hes only beat 56 . Hes in the top half. The Cincinnati Reds they lost to. They have the most exciting player in baseball out in center field. They are living in 14. The mets are going better that the reds, which is i know. Fair is fair, would you look at the bond market and what the fed is doing . So you guys have not develop through all the headlines today in this deal. Theres sanctions coming up. Basically what they explained to you is why we are on the tug of war. Tug of war when it comes to stocks. Yeah. If you put them all together, but the company is increasingly going more comfortable from Central Banks have been enormously supportive. Put that in an economy improving and you have all the pushing stocks higher. However, we did not talk about sanctions. Ukraine is serious. If sanctions go from targeting individuals, which led the country to targeting sectors, you can pick your own section and the stockholders are not going to like that. And we have a fed meeting that is coming up that wont surprise in terms of actions but fundamental transactions going on. And they are increasing uncertainty. So this is a really interesting time and investors have to navigate the tower war. I think it was your paper, maybe in the journal, but putins investments are all presumably under the commodities firm, i forget the name, governor bruno or something, he may be worth 90 billion. And the idea is when we try to mess with him individually, that would be perceived by them as going actually, the word nuclear would be used. So you think we go after putin himself . We should. First of all, i dont think targeting individuals is going to help. If you want to putin is not just any one individual. But if you want to get there, you need to have energy and finance. But theres a reason so many are trading with russia. 40 of russian traders trade with europe. So if we move this to russia, russia will retal we live in the neighborhood, the global neighborhood. And thats why this decision is so hard because what is clear politically is not consistent economically. All right. We are going to take a break, and when we come back, i want to ask you about will you say new normal for me . New normal. The boys from pepco think they are still there, and am i reading this . Go back down. Well take a quick break. When we come back, well have much more from muhammad alerian. Much more right after the break. First day of my life by bright eyes youre not just looking for a house. Youre looking for a place for your life to happen. Game of thrones continues. Doesnt that sound like what is that . Rome . The guy at the beginning, sounds just like him. Do you watch . I do. At the beginning, all the things moving around. Well go back to our special guest, former pimco cio and the chief economic adviser and member of the International Executive committee. I did not see it last night, so lets not talk about it. What year was that when you coined the term, new normal . We coined that in 2009. 2009. And i think at the time you said five years, didnt you . We said three to five years. And it was both a cyclical for verizon next year. And the second horizon in the next three to five years, we are likely to see up usually low growth, persistently high employment. And that basically came through. And at the time you said it, it wasnt due to anything the government was doing, it was due to the ryan heart progolf. And that caused you the make the call, right . The issue was this was deleveraging that you used to do. Now you just said some companies are switching to offense and not defense. And the guy who took some of your people at pimco saying we are coming out of the new normal in cop thats, and you say you are still in the new normal. If you look over the next three to five years, you come into this junction. But it will be nice to hand off to high growth or we grow. I think whats happening right now and its important to differentiate, on a cyclical basis, america looks better and european looks better. But the witness to believe that global fwroet is going to pick up, as long as new jersey opens it full and doesnt contaminate. We have three problems that we have not addressed. The fed has more time. Its about time for the economy to heal and the corporate sector has healed and the Housing Market is healing. So to me its a country as to what the area will look like in the next fee to five years. You were wrong about the stock market. That was not a new normal, it doubled or did much better that you thought. You attributed it to another famous term that the wedge was between the common and asset prices. Now essentials is the wedge being removed . Does the market have a day of reckoning . Heres what we know. We know that the fed is committed, committed to continue to support the asset markets. Not because they like the asset markets, but thats the only way to support an economy. I expect to come this week they will reduce qe by 10 billion. It will go from 55 to 45, and exit qe by the end of the year. You will keep Interest Rates at ze zero. We are not just targeting the whole employment rate but the market. And we worry about inflation being i think it is consensus. Thi as we eye the transition from the regime that was twobased to a regime protective basis. We were told exactly what they were going to do. Now we are told what they are going to do is conditional them the and the fed is targeting Different Things. So did you watch the whole thing last week . Yes. I watch it every morning. You watch cnbc but appear on the competitors and watch us, is that what im getting . Maybe im figured a florida perspective for life . You cant say no and watch us, though, so they send this out to everybody. And what good is it when you lap all over there. Why do you read the New York Times . You know why. He needs to read the enemy. So so the economy in your view rising to asset prices where the fed can hand it off . So short, fundamentals are fun in of themselves. So that in itself, we can have a long discussion, but i think the key issue again is less of a cyclical site. Im going to keep raising this cyclical side, but it remains fuzzy for me. You keep saying the stock market hasnt factored in what you think the bond market has to this point. So there could be a scare, a spoof in the market when the fed actually is clearer about becky, if i had come in five months ago and fold you there was going to be a flat anything of the treasury. In the long end, the wheels will come off. What does that mean for the spot market . A completely different prediction. We still have to recognize whats happening to the stock market. When i see here that im realizing, the more i look into it, g, es move and some of the moves into europe, now everybody wants this company. But that says something, doesnt it . About us pretty much counting on, that could be a multispeed universe, which you always talk about. They could start doing as well as us . I mentioned the u. S. Is going to grow at about 3 . I mentioned europe, which now looks to go one and get this far, which is big in europe. And china stabilizes seven to of these. General electric says this is not up usual at all and knew this was going to happen. They knew this and in ten years have done this deal, du approaches 7,000 employees in france without this deal. And thats more siemens or alstom. What do you think of the whole thomas piscetti thing . I think i have a good idea. Where do you stand on all this . Im going to get joe unexcited. I think this is a serious work based on data. So was the original capital. It raises fundamental questions like wealth, income and opportunities. And the issue with what people assign with this is what undermines Economic Growth. Thats the other thing i read in the New York Times over the weekend. They didnt see this coming either. Now what is coming . Do you rebel rouse or try to get this started . Some this is the street theater of occupy wall street. It is now in the pseudo electrodes. Hes a 42 car park ed you can forget about taxation, but the underlying numbers are interesting to talk about and to possibly address. I dont know how you want to address them, but its at least an issue. Havent you seen this movie before . There have been regions of the world that have tried this. Did you see what finally happened . Only one system. Its only one system that eventually raises everyone and you can argue around the actions. The bank is wonderful to be at. Have you bought it yet . I have bought the book but have not read it. Like everybody else. You will read three pages and then claim to read it. Thank you. Great seeing you. Hope you come back soon. We hope to see you more often. Coming up, monday morning strategy session with mark grant. Well talk to him. And the buzz of the weekend, well talk about this. The Los Angeles Clippers opener Donald Sterling racist comment sending a shockwave through the nba, but what can the league do about it . Well look at it in this mornings executive edge. We are back in just a moment. [ male announcer ] when fixed income experts. Work with equity experts. Who work with regional experts. Who work with Portfolio Management experts, thats when expertise happens. Mfs. Because there is no expertise without collaboration. Mfs. Theyre the days to take care of business. When possibilities become reality. With centurylink as your trusted partner, our visionary Cloud Infrastructure and Global Broadband network free you to focus on what matters. With Custom Communications solutions and responsive, dedicated support, we constantly evolve to meet your needs. Every day of the week. Centurylink® your link to whats next. Good morning. Welcome back to squawk box here on cnbc. Im joe kernan along with becky quick and andrew rosssorkin. Comcast discussed a deal with Charter Communications that it hopes will convince regulators to approve the 45 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable. Not sure thats the rational behind the deal with a lot happening here. The transaction is worth about 20 billion all in. And it involves divesting subscribers to charter or selling them to charter for quite a bit of cash. 7 billion in cash. A new independent publicly trading company, which will be called spinco, and a subscriber swap with charter. There are only tax advantage reasons and reasons to lower comcast debt to back to where it was before the time warmer deal was announced. And also so use some of the cash to these guys were joining us originally and buy back stock with the mark they like. Astro zeneca is a stock to watch as pfizer considers its options after having two takeover bids rejected. S a that zeneaccides a tra zene confident. And a recovery could be stalling. The National Association of realtors is out with its pending home sales report. For march at 10 00 eastern, the measure of home sale contracts signed but not closed fell. 80 in january. Last week when you were out, we were at 14year lows in mortgage rates. But it was also refinancing more than anything. And treasury yields have been on the decline, but then they went back up. I didnt looked at them today. Are we below 2. 70 again . Joining us to discuss his case for yields going even lower is mark brandt, managing director at southwest securities. We have take an couple european victory laps this morning. Everything is fine over there now. Of course everything is, john, theyll tell us and have told us for the Interest Rates there in buying up companies . You dont do that if you think the place is broke so the. No, but whats happened in europe is they are much more aggressive than the fed. The economy is certainly not better, but what it is is that the ecb has lent money at a quarter of 1 to the european banks and prodded them, encouraged them, there are a variety of words you can use. And they have lowered Interest Rates of the countrys in europe so that slovakia, belgium and spain have lowered sovereign dealt yields in the United States of america. That is pretty amazing. Why do you think that yields are not going to rise with the fed presumably at some point becoming less easy and less accommodative. I think they are going to stay very accommodative. The fact that they rending the taper that if you take the entire u. S. Bond market, which is about 38 trillion, the fed op owns 11 of it. If you x out the Corporate Bond market, they own 14 of the bond market. All they have to do is shift around their maturities of what is in the market already and lower the United States interest rat rates. The fed is still going to be in here, and the reason the rates go lower in the u. S. Is because the fed is still in or Economic Growth is still not up to par. Its nothing to do with Economic Growth, which is running at 2. 4 . Up nation, 1. 5 . And totally has to do with the fed. They are going to, in my opinion, follow the european strategy, which has been up credibly successful. 1. 6 trillion in bonds and u. S. Treasuries with maturities of ten years or less. I think they are going to expend the maturities on those and force Interest Rates or lower. Its good for the consumers. Why do you have a beef with it . Sounds like it is good for everybody. I dont have a beef with it. Oh, youre happy. No day of reckoning coming from any of this either . No, i dont believe theres any data reckoning over some longer period of time they might cut back, but thats not going to happen. Is inflation ever going to get back to the feds target range here or is that going to stay low . I think it also stays very low until the Interest Rates are pushed, dan. Say the 2. 25 . And then i think youre going to have some concern, but i think weve got a ways to go to give you this, our ten your is 2. 6 . The french tenure in an economy clearly not as healthy as the United States is 1. 97 . All we have to do is go to that level and we have picked up six more points in appreciation in the tenyear treasury. Wow. I dont know anyone else bullish on bonds, but i like it. Thank you, mark. Youre welcome, joe. See you later. When we return, we have much more on the deals of the day, including Comcast Subscriber shuffle. Rich greenfield will join us at the end of the hour. But first, heres a check on the european markets. E financial noise financial noise financial noise financial noise alright, that should just about do it. Excuse me, what are you doing . Uh, well we are fine tuning these small cells that improve coverage, capacity and quality of the network. It means youll be able t post from the breakroom. Great did it hurt . When you fell from heaven awkward laugh . A little. laughs im sorry, i have to go. At t is building you a better network. What is this place . Where are we . This is where we bring together reliably fast internet and the best in entertainment. We call it the x1 entertainment operating system. It looks like the future we must have encountered a temporal vortex. Further analytics are necessary. Beam us up. Thats my phone. Hey. [ female announcer ] the x1 entertainment operating system. Only from xfinity. Tv and internet together like never before. Welcome back. The u. S. Equity futures if you take look at this hour have indicated to be higher. The dow futures are up by 72 points above fair value. S p futures are up by just over 7 points. And the nasdaq is up by 15. We have a big week. We have a big week this week with the fed with the twoday meeting. Off jobs report coming up on friday and a lot of economic numbers in between. When we return, well have more with our executive edge. Some of the comments made over the weekend with the nba. Well be right back. Honestly, im pouring everything i have into this place. Thats why i got a new windows 2 in 1. It has exactly what i need for half of what i thought id pay. And i dont need to be online for it to work. It runs office, so i can do schedules and budgets and even menu changes. But its fun, too with touch, and tons of great apps for stuff like music, cause a good playlist is good for business. I need the bosss signature for this. Im the boss. Honestly i wanna see you be brave honestly whatswithout the thinking capitathat makes it real . . Whats a vision without the expertise to execute it. And the financing to make it grow . Whatever your goal, it can change more than your business. It can change the future. Thats why, at barclays, our ambition is to always realize yours. Dewhos got twond rhooves and just got ae. Claim status update from geico . This guy, thats who. Sfx bing. And i just got a. Oh no, thats mom. Sorry. Claim status updates. Just a tap away on the geico app. Welcome back, everybody. Right now its time for the executive edge. The buzz story of the weekend, the alleged racist comments made by Los Angeles Clippers own Donald Sterling. What can a league even do about an owners behavior . People who are reut kraoeuzicri. A tough start for silver. He has to figure out what to do. You know the guy who just i defer to him. Thats kevin johnson. Mayor of sacramento since 2008. He was also working with the nba players to do something else. So theyre going to make him more involved with this. He said once the investigation is done we have to find out what we can do and come down hard. That was painful for the players. What do the owners have without the players . He own the team without any players. You cant suspend them. According to sports illustrated, the nba constitution, which is confidential, they can sell without an owners consent. But there is no language to sell a team because of language orem bearsing behavior. It was traditionally meant to be used when circumstances are finances. So the team is in dire straits financially. They say, look, you guys are in too much trouble to do it. The question is whether you can find a way to force the sale and sterling can come back and sue the nba. Its very complicated. It sounds bad. Its a bad story. Because the owners, except for Michael Jordan are mostly white. The majority of players are africanamerican. The whole notion of this guy is bad. Marge schott was suspended. Winters. Does that just look like youre doing something and youre not . Its not going to go away with a suspension. Plus, theres the notion that the nba sort of looked the other way with previous incidents. Theyre not going to honor him anymore. What do you fine him . Hes worth 1. 9 billion bucks. Hes 80 years ago. Thank you. Ill pay that tip. See how he made his money . Personal injury attorney. Enough said right there. I think i would defend morally have to look up how do i feel. I say within three years the company is sold. It takes this guy to defend the personal injury attorney. Steve bomber. Hes wanted to buy it. Hes a motivator too. He could be running around the team. We have deals, deals, and more deals. G. E. Is called to meet with the french president hollande. Resid. True businessgrade internet comes with secure wifi for your business. It also comes with public wifi for your customers. Not so with internet from the phone company. I would email the phone company to inquire as to why they have shortchanged these customers. But that would require wifi. Switch to comcast Business Internet and get two Wifi Networks included. Comcast business built for business. [ banker ] sydney needed some Financial Guidance so she could take her dream to the next level. So we talked about her options. Her valuable assets were staying. And selling her car wouldnt fly. We helped sydney manage her debt and prioritize her goals, so she could really turn up the volume on her dreams today. And tomorrow. So lets see what we can do about that. Remodel. Motorcycle. [ female announcer ] some questions take more than a bank. They take a banker. Make a my financial priorities appointment today. Because when people talk, great things happen. What is this place . Where are we . This is where we bring together reliably fast internet and the best in entertainment. We call it the x1 entertainment operating system. It looks like the future we must have encountered a temporal vortex. Further analytics are necessary. Beam us up. Thats my phone. Hey. [ female announcer ] the x1 entertainment operating system. Only from xfinity. Tv and internet together like never before. Good morning, everybody. Welcome back to squawk box here on cnbc. Im joe kernen purchase no. Im becky quick along with joe kernen and Andrew Ross Sorkin. S p up by 7. 5. Nasdaq by 15. Comcast struck a deal that would divest 3. 9 million subscribers. Much more in a minute. Astrazeneca stock is up 16 . Pfizer is considering options after two bids to buy the british drug maker were rejected. The 100 billion offer is significantly undervalues the company. It says it is confident in its strategy as an independent company. It is telling shareholders not to go after either of these bids. Microsoft is set to unveil plans to create original Television Shows for xbox. The wall street journal reports an announcement is expected this week. The Company Wants to broaden the appeal beyond just video game. Everybody wants to be in the tv business. French president hollande is meeting with jeff emil today. The deal is now up in the air since siemens is entering the picture. The meeting lasted for about an hour this morning. G. E. Ceo jeff immelt meeting with french president hollande for about an hour. Also steve boles from g. E. The meeting was friendly and productive. The meeting comes after siemens made a competing bid and amid a growing course of discontent. A person close to g. E. Says they have to plans to get into a bidding war. It maintains the u. S. Companys bid reported around 12 billion is superior to siemens. Siemens has offered to swap its Transportation Business plus cash in exchange for the power business in a deal reported valued at 14 billion. In a Statement Released earlier, they will make further announcements on wednesday. The 175yearold power business accounts for 70 of its revenue. The remainder makes highspeed trains. If the deal goes through, sources say it will be a significant step in getting the company to its goal of having 70 of its earnings from its industrial businesses and 30 from its financial arm. It would be the largest acquisition the firm has made under immelt who made 50 sense he took over in 2001. It is not a complete surprise s. Still within the last weekend, an earlier bid was rejected. G. E. Is no stranger to france. 10,000 of 300,000 of its employees work there. Its not known if any employees would be cut if g. E. Wins the bid. What does g. E. Have to give . Meaning hollande is standing there. He will have to give some type of concession. The concerns, and i dont know this from anyone. But the concerns are job security for astoms workers. There are concerns about maintain something kind of headquarters in france, having it run from there. And concerns about a National Security because of the Nuclear Business as well. G. E. Points out its got more employees in france. Which i think has 7,000. More than siemens. And a joint venture in france already, saffron. The dialogue was open, friendly and productive, which you said. Our successful track record of investing in france and our longterm commitment to the country. We have understand and value his perspective and we are committed to work together. I like arneaults title. He is the minister of economic minister. Minister of economy, industrial renewal, and the digital economy. Just to show you how important. Was it his idea no emails after 4 00 or weekends . I dont know. I will not comment on that. You could not live without emails after 4 00. On vacation, i couldnt who are you kidding . You like that idea. What would you do . I dont know what i would do. He would be on the phone. Thats all. Theres no way. So i dont know what to think about this. Did they like the germans better than us . They may. The history is interesting. They rejected an offer from siemens before. But they said it would be a European Industrial type. It may look more appealing now than it did. The ministry . There were liberators in history. Occupiers. Maybe im confused. You should call hollande. We should have him on the show. That would be an interview. If we have any updates, of course well let you know. Siemens is meeting with preside president hollande. Does money talk . Remember, allstam approached g. E. On this. They see something that works. Did you see on friday . It would be a good deal. It gets them closer to that 70 30 split theyre working for. It would be a big step in immelts longterm plan for this company. We spent a lot of time on g. E. We got a comcast deal. You are out of here. They dont even own half anymore. But you still own their stock, i bet. In your retirement plan. Its so large. Its a blind trust i think. Comcast striking 20 billion in deals with Charter Communications that will see it divest 3. 9 million. Rich greenfield media and tech analyst. When you read it, did you immediately understand it exactly . Did you have to make a few phone calls . You need to tell us everything that is important about this. Well, i say first off anything that involves john malone is always complicated. The key thing is about minimizing taxes. He is the driving force behind charter. So this transportation is necessarily complicated. But i think the most important thing for your viewers to understand is that comcast, as part of this transaction, is maintaining the most important market it is acquiring from Time Warner Cable, namely, new york and l. A. The stuff that comcast really wanted when it went to acquire Time Warner Cable, it is keeping assets and not selling them and spinning them off. They will have assets in michigan, minnesota, indiana, alabama, eastern tennessee, kentucky, wisconsin. They are not the key markets they cared about. They want to control the major cities in the United States. Do you center a good feel for what spin co. Does, rich . 2. 5 million assets. Publicly traded. We have lost some of the smaller cable operators. They want to offload a lot of the comcast debt onto this company, right . How does it work . It actually seems like it will be relatively similarly leveraged the way a charter is leveraged. This will be around fivetimes leverage. This seems like a reasonable leverage for a smaller cable operator. Again, the exact level of clustering and how good the systems are they are putting in, its a little hard to tell from slide 10 of the slide deck. What is clear, while theyre in, you know, meaningful cities, none are in major markets. I think this all speaks to why comcast had to come in and buy Time Warner Cable, steal it from charter. Comcast wanted to be in control of what assets it kept and what assets it didnt keep from Time Warner Cable. Im sure if it was charter led and was thinking about spinning assets off to reduce debt, you would never see it give new york and l. A. Rich, a larger issue. Does this put it past the goal line . Actually, i dont really understand why the government would care whether comcast was 33 million subscribers or 29 million subscribers at the end of the day. They dont actually compete against each other. Time warner cable or comcast in eastern tennessee, theres no change in the level of competition. That being said, given all the focus on its broadband prowess, at least until we see greater wireless competition. It was allowed to merge with tmobile or we saw it expand its fiber footprint. I think it will help the speed of this transaction. But we never thought approval was at risk. Rich, on approval, netflix came out against it last week. What does that mean . To the extent that the contract between hbo and amazon is unique and new, does that say anything or speak to the larger issues about broadband over the top . Well, i think netflix has been pretty clear. The call we comoderated last week. This is not a transaction they like. They comcast broadband power is too large. They had no choice but to do a deal with comcast given their side. I think doing a deal with comcast is actually going to force isp like verizon and at t to spend their own capital to upgrade their own systems. I dont think they will allow comcast to have a better performance. While reed is against the transaction, the whole idea is very complex issues. As the fcc said, these are not the same issues at Net Neutrality. They are different issues. On your other point of hbo and amazon, i think the reality is what youre seeing is the Media Companies, the consent owners i should say do not see amazon as an actual branded content competitor where they do see netflix. It is a media brand to hbo. I think you will end up seeing amazon being an interested acquirer, someone of content. At the end of the day, i dont think the Media Companies at least yet worry that amazon threatened rich, do you think this number, 1. 4 million subs that charter is giving comcast 7. 3 billion in cash . Is that in there . I think that number actually, theres a slide that lays out all of this where it talks about the actual where is that for a price . These are nonessential subs. Literally on slide number five, charter acquires 1. 4 million customers, 7. 3 billion in cash. Wow. Okay. Thank you, rich. No problem. It is never too early to talk about decision 2016. Joining us this morning, ben white, politcos chief financial correspondent also known as morning. Do you want to be called that anymore . Or not after last weeks week peace . Ill just go with ben. You have a big piece this morning talking about how you interviewed a lot of people on wall street about how they look at 2016 and how the dark little secret is that many of them may want hillary. Whats going on . They want somebody like jeb bush, chris christie, paul ryan, if they can get him. Somebody who is not of the populus wing of the Republican Party that is rising right now. You have rand paul, ted cruz out there, vocally slamming wall street, the bank, special interests. Wall street doesnt like that obviously. Thinks they are being unfairly targeted. Doesnt want to see it from republicans. Jeb doesnt run. Paul ryan doesnt run. And one of the governors doesnt emerge as a moderate candidate. Some on the fence would say, yeah, hillary is great. Shes not antiwall street. Others more conservative would hold their noses and say if they were to get the nomination, which is a long way from here to there. One of the guys beth the nomination. Wouldnt you think both republicans and potentially hillary would have to know the populus. Meaning they are laying low. They are not playing the antiwall street card. For hillary, it depends on the primary. If she faces a significant challenge from the left. It doesnt look like it will be Elizabeth Warren. She said up and down shes not going to run. Warren says hillary run. So it depends. If she gets challenged from the left, she will have to be outspoken, regulatory reform. And the republicans probably will too to win nationally. Thats the point i want to make. I dont know how long we had for 20 years where the progressives would take over the world. President obama was reelected. Do you see how hard it was to get a 3. 5 , 4 increase on the high end. Vichetti is talking about a wealth tax. The idea what people need to move more populus, is it possible there are maybe parts of this country that arent quite as you know on this Little Island here in manhattan. Did you see what happened in georgia . Do you see whats happening in other places. Broadening out. Yeah. Are you sure paul and cruz are anticapitalism. I think they know good politics when they see it and know it captures the tea party and primary vote stories talk that way. Paul is on record saying he is not in favor of con fisk tore tax rates. Where was hillary . She gave the speech. It was only in the last year. Goldman . Yeah. It was a society tal thing. She talks about the broad societyal responsibility. Wall street hears that, thank god. Somebody said it. This is what we believe. Were not as evil as everybody says. Is this here to stay or flash in the pan . Here to say in the direction of our capitalist society is and whether it awards the weighty too much. I dont think 80 , that will turn people off. Democrats who align too closely are at risk as they talk about the middle encloses khras not doing well. Theres a risk about getting too far down the road. Listen closely. She is the democratic nominee. She doesnt lie. She tells the truth. How about that. Hillary 2016. How about that . We do have a big week or earnings, and the fed. Up next, the exclusive results of the cnbc fed survey. Plus, we will reveal another list of 25 rebels, icons and leaders. Leaders. The fed kicks off a twoday meeting tomorrow. Steve . Good morning, becky. What we find in our survey, economists, strategists, and money managers, wall street turned slightly more hawkish. 95 expect to taper at the meeting this week. 85 expect tapering at all meetings for the rest of the year. Now lets get to our charts here. You can see what im talking about here. This is the projection for the funds rated 2015, average year. Its gone up just a bit from 0. 83 basis points to 1 . This follows the fed. If you notice, the media was 75 to one. Same thing the fed did last time around. Take a look here. The propbgz is for july 2015. Its getting closer. July 2015 is the average date expected. Expectations for the Balance Sheet. Thats based on 4. 2 trillion dollar Balance Sheet. This is a new question the last couple of months. I think its an important one. 51 for 2014, 49 to 50 . Take a look at 15 when it comes to those expecting the fed to be more hawkish or think the risk is there. 39 . A little bit more hawkish risk for 2015 right now. Some of the comments we made. Given giddis saying they will not raise Interest Rates until late 2015. Growth, including jobs, too choppy in the month ahead. The fed should be tapering more quickly. They will liftoff. Just so you know, 60 say the fed should taper at the current pace. The closer we get to normal levels of investment. Guys, im back at 8 30 or so. Honestly, im pouring everything i have into this place. Thats why i got a new windows 2 in 1. It has exactly what i need for half of what i thought id pay. And i dont need to be online for it to work. It runs office, so i can do schedules and budgets and even menu changes. But its fun, too with touch, and tons of great apps for stuff like music, cause a good playlist is good for business. I need the bosss signature for this. Im the boss. Honestly i wanna see you be brave coming up next, this weeks trading block. Gold and oil. Plus, a sneak peek into the cnbc first 25 list. A banking legend now using his time to change the world. I take prilosec otc each morning for my frequent heartburn. Because you cant beat zero heartburn. 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. Frequent heartburn medicine for 8 straight years. Dewhos got twond rhooves and just got ae. Claim status update from geico . This guy, thats who. Sfx bing. And i just got a. Oh no, thats mom. Sorry. Claim status updates. Just a tap away on the geico app. Welcome back to squawk box this morning. We have a couple things going on. Comcast just announcing a series of deals with Charter Communications that will see it divest 3. 9 million subscribers. The move will take place after the deal of its deal with Time Warner Cable. They try to get under 30 million subscribers. Merck selling its Consumer Health care unit for 148 billion. It makes claritin. And a judge approved amr and us airways to merge the Justice Department had bought that deal, you remembering, saying it will result in higher airfares. You claim to have been in mexico. I said i was in mexico. And here i am in rome. But look how happy. So thrilled. And the eyebrows. And that thing on your wrist. My black one. This is the orange one today. This is the black one. The fit bit hes wearing. We didnt catch you in rome. That is not you. I saw that over the weekend. I go, oh, my god. You lied to me. Thats what i thought. Wouldnt be the first time. You said you were staying at least on this continent and you didnt. How are the gold and Energy Markets faring . Joining to us discuss this, frank holmes, ceo and cio of u. S. Global investors. And matt smith from schneider electric. I talked to someone, was it our friend, whats his name . Im slipping a little. Peter schiff was it . Were going to 5,000 because of the fed. I dont see those types of forecasts, joe. I believe 10 in gold is rebalancing each year. When you look at russia, the big issue is oil. Theyre the largest exporter. Biggest source of foreign money is exporting energy to europe. They have been wellknown to play games in the middle east to get the Energy Prices up because it helps their foreign exchange. If all you are going to do, frank, every time you come on, no matter what, own 10 and its about oil, im just going to go to the oil guy. What about the two miners. Why were they trying to get together . Was business that bad . Business is very challenging. They could streamline to a billion dollars a year. To streamline the resource sector. Yeah. You can deliver the alpha. Anyway, dont isnt the fed old news . Arent we on the other side of the peak intervention or is there more to come . You mean for the price of gold . Is there more to come havent we gone past the peak of Central Bank Intervention where you can expect 5,000 goal. Are they starting to pull back at some point . No, joe. New rules are coming out, like this factor over the irs is imposing new costs on the banking world. Youre seeing many countries around the world have been cutting back in foreign reserves as being the dollar. And you have seen more bilateral trade agreements. Every trade was done with u. S. Dollars. Now you are seeing transactions between rubles. Between brazils currency and remembe. An important trade. China was 55 of their reserves were in dollars, they are now down to 33 . It appears to be going to 20. Yeah. It was peter schiff. Last week, did you see that. He interviewed on the peter schiff show. I dont know what it was. He interviewed the bundy dude. The guy out west . Not al bundy. Cliven bundy. He asked him to explain something. I think he basically said the same thing. Anyway, lets get to matt. Matt, you heard frank say its all about oil. Where are we at this point in time with the whole complex . We will find out today. I think they cant really do any wider sanctions than that. Specifically because europe is so concerned any wider sanctions would be detrimentalto their economy. Were just going to continue to see this tight for tat. We start because of this sanctions coming through. So it is thats what it is keying off of. You know the summer driving season is coming up, matt. If we ever have summer. Neither here, joe. Its like monsoon season. What we are seeing on retail is 3. 70 a gallon. We should be peaking any time soon. The reality is we will see prices average . 50 for the rest of the year. But we are coming out of refinery maintenance season. We will be seeing more gasoline produced. Hopefully that will keep it in check. Matt, given the relationship that europe has with russia, is there any way that were even in a position to talk them into what really needs to be done because they are so dependent on energy coming from russia . Thats the deal. Every time we talk about sanctions, joe, we never mention oil and gas sanctions because the relationship is so enter dependent. What we will get is some sort of diplomacy somewhere along the line. It will take a certain amount of escalation for a breaking point for us to get there. They are saying i read both. I read russia is ready and we dont think russia will invade. Flying their jets right in. They turn around and fly back out. Intimidation. They are hoping to provoke and then they give an excuse. I dont know. If it happened, what would oil do then, matt . We would see prices spike if there was some sort of supply issue there. But i really dont think we would get to that point. All right. Gentlemen, thank you. Frank and matt. Thanks, joe. Happy investing. Thanks, frank. When we come back, we will unveil another cnbc 25 first finalist. Here is a hint for you. Former banker turned philanthropist brooklyn. Tomorrow on squawk box, its the unveil of cnbcs first 25. Top rebels, icons and leaders. The people who have had the greatest influence and cause the most disruption in business over the past 25 years. Cnbcs Tyler Mathisen joins joe, becky and andrew for this very special event start agriculture the 7 00 a. M. Eastern time. Squawk box and the first 25 list only on cnbc, the world leader in business news. 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 scottrade proud to be ranked best overall client experience. Mattel started in a garage. Disney started in a garage. Amazon started in a garage. The ramones started in a garage. My point . Some of the most innovative things in the world come out of american garages. Introducing the lighter, faster cadillac cts. 2014 motor trend car of the year. Aint garages great . In a we believe outshining the competition tomorrow quires challenging your Business Inside and out today. At cognizant, we help forwardlooking Companies Run better and run different to give your customers every reason to keep looking for you. So if youre ready to see opportunities and see them through, we say lets get to work. Because the future belongs to those who challenge the present. Peace of mind is important when so we provide it services you bucan rely on. With centurylink as your trusted it partner, youll experience reliable uptime for the network and services you depend on. Multilayered Security Solutions keep your Information Safe, and secure. And responsive dedicated support meets your needs, and eases your mind. Centurylink. Your link to whats next. Welcome back to squawk box. We should tell you tomorrow is our big cnbc 25 unveiled. The most influential business rebels, icons and leaders over the last 25 years. A look at one of the names recognized, sandy wile. Win or lose. Of all the bankers, bankers turned policymakers, and wall street money spinners, Sanford Sandy weill assistance around as a deal maker, epic rule breaker, and game changeer. He was the architect. He was the larger than life figure on wall street for decades. The seminal figure of the modern day wapbanker for a long time. Fire mens fund, commercial correct, travelers, smith barney, shearson, solomon brothers, aetna. Weill, either bought them, sold them or reshaped them on. Sandy was a conscious mat deal maker. He knew how to ring savings out of the office. He did have a vision of what financial supermarkets should look like. Why that would be preferable to a stayed bank or insurance company. And he executed. The deal of this deal makers lifetime, the 1998 76 billion merger of weills group and citigroup. In a basic way when you citi and travelers get together you did away with this law that in its essence prevented banks from underwriting corporate securities, although that was something they had been doing to a certain extent. It changed the landscape. He won a temporary waiver of the law. Then in 1999 helped engineer its repeal. It forced everybody else to try to merge and get into the sort of larger than life business. Maybe too large as it turned out. Although weill left citi as ceo as chairman earlier, when the financial crisis hit in 2008, no bank was hit harder. Its size became its vulnerablity. Take pairs saved it. It was the poster child for too big to fail. When you have an implicit government guarantee that something is not going to fail, youre not subject to the normal constraints of asset flows and everything else. And the whole system, the whole market doesnt become efficient anymore. When you have the government guarantee on deposits, theres an imbedded cushion against failure. So they can sometimes take more risks. In the creation of institutions like the one that sandy may ultimately know what happens. Weill focuses mostly on philanthropy, donating millions to his alma matter, cornell. He is a Senior Adviser on the citigroup. He reversed his opinion on the financial supermarket he helped design. Have banks be deposit tankers. Have banks make commercial loans and real estate loans. Have banks do something thats not going to risk the tax payer dollars thats not going to be too big to fail. Regrets, hes had a few. But the wall street legend did it his way. Tomorrow, well be unveiling the entire list starting 7 00 a. M. Eastern time. On wednesday, sandy will be joining us right here as a guest host as we continue this week long celebration of the cnbc first 25 list. A lot of people had a huge impact, some of which have been controversial. We will be debating those as well. We are just arguing who is on and who is not on the list. We will talk about that in depth tomorrow. Still to come this morning, a check on the markets and investment from who market pros and the charter deal on comcast. Squawk box will be right back. [ grunting ] im taking off, but, uh, dont worry. Im gonna leave the tv on for you. And if anything happens, dont forget about the new xfinity my account app. You can troubleshoot technical issues here. If you make an appointment, you can check out the status here. You can pay the bill, too. But dont worry about that right now. Okay. How do i look . Thanks. [ male announcer ] troubleshoot, manage appointments, and bill pay from your phone. Introducing the xfinity my account app. Our parent comcast has struck a deal to divest 3. 9 billion. On the phone is craig moffett, founder of moffettnathanson. It is 7 49. This happened at 6 00. Im not sure you have had enough time. Have you . Its complicated. We started sharing it over the weekend. It was first reported by the financial times. We had at least a little run up. Im here on the west coast for the cable show. Forgive me if im a little bit bleary at this hour. Just from the details got us a little bit bleary. Can we start by saying charter and comcast get some of the things they wanted here . Yeah. I hate the phrase winwin because its almost never true about a deal. But this may be one of the those rare deals thats a true winwin. Charter wanted scale. They got that. It is roughly dowel their size. Thats a lot of what they wanted to do. And i would suspect now it gives them the clarity of runway to go out and do some other deals as well. And for comcast, they have already raised their synergy target based on higher confidence now that they can cheap all the target they had expected. You will see both stocks react pretty well. I figure you have malone on one side. I dont think you cant put anything over on either side, can you . Thats right. You have two very skilled dealmakers. You have to remember that you are now starting to consolidate operationally in the hands of the two best operators in the business at comcast and rutledge at charter. They dont miss the fact that they reported subscriber reports. They grew video subscribers. Its been a long time since you have had any cable operator growing ub describers. Now you have both saying their video Subscriber Base is getting bigger instead of smaller. In terms of valuation per subscriber they will be getting from charter, is it more or less than effectively what they are paying from time warner . On a sinner any adjusted business, comcast is pleased. They would say they are trading right now at 6. 7 times ebitda and on an adjusted basis, the assets theyre buying from time warner are 6. 4. This deal is a little over seven. They would say they are pleased with the prices theyre getting. Its a little bit higher than they are trading. Charter would say that with the tax benefits they can bring to this deal and the synergy they can get they feel it will be beneficial. Do you think charter at this point is not theyre not upset that the whole time warner didnt go their way. This is in terms of malone getting bigger and bigger. Its a pretty big consolation prize. There are still other fish in the sea that i think now you will see charter probably go after. There are smaller ones like mediacom, sudden link. A reasonably large one in cox. Though there is no reason to think cox would be for sale. Its hard to say individually whether any of the symptoms or operators are for sale. Among that list i think there will be other things. Does it offload debt oregon there other reasons to do it . It is related to taxation. It will start as a separate entity. Charter will be able to up 49 after two years and have to wait another two years before they can buy the rest. All that is related to tax laws. Can someone else come in later and try to buy the whole thing . Yes. In theory, there is no guarantee that charter gets to be the buyer. The board has three from charter, three from comcast and three independents. The independents would have to evaluate. I think you would have to assume is they would have the inside track for this. It obviously isnt a guarantee or else it would be considered a fail. What do you put the comcast deal going through with time warner now . I dont know. It makes it possible for the fcc to move forward with clarity to know with clarity where the symptoms are going. I have gone back in forth. The trust issues raised by this case which from the doj is relatively novel. The fcc looks at this at public interest. Im guessing they will say that their regulatory ambitions are actually better advanced by approving it and applying conditions than they are by rejecting it. Does the Net Neutrality change anything . No, not really. Cam cast came in saying they would agree to Net Neutrality. Theres been quite a dust up from the fcc because it allows for prioritization for what people call the fast lane. I dont see it as big change. All right. You have your own firm now, moffetnathanson. We are one of those Small Businesses that you always talk about what you get excited about. Ill tell you, i wish i had done it sooner. Hester moffett was an anogram. I dont know whether moffettnathan. Im trying to figure it out. Craig, thank you. My partner Michael Nathanson is one of your contributors as well. So he is well healed. He has some scratch. Thank you. See you later when we come back, pfizer making a freshman of astrazeneca. One of the details after this president obama turning up the heat on Vladimir Putin and investors in russia. New sanctions potentially against the country. Squawk box will be right back. Why relocating manufacturingpany to upstate new york . I tell people its for the climate. The conditions in new york state are great for business. New york is ranked 2 in the nation for new private sector job creation. And now its even better because theyve introduced startup new york dozens of taxfree zones where businesses pay no taxes for ten years. Youll get a warm welcome in the new new york. See if your business qualifies at startupny. Com [ banker ] sydney needed some Financial Guidance so she could take her dream to the next level. So we talked about her options. Her valuable assets were staying. And selling her car wouldnt fly. We helped sydney manage her debt and prioritize her goals, so she could really turn up the volume on her dreams today. And tomorrow. So lets see what we can do about that. Remodel. Motorcycle. [ female announcer ] some questions take more than a bank. They take a banker. Make a my financial priorities appointment today. Because when people talk, great things happen. Lets make a deal. Comcast and Charter Communications striking a subscriber agreement. And pfizer in talks with astrazeneca. And g. E. s plan to buy alstrom hits a bump. The fed in focus. A big twoday meeting. How are economists feeling about the taper and state of business . Details just ahead. And were on retail detail. Big box retailers have been bruised and battered. The final hour of squawk box begins right now. I think its going to be all right welcome back to squawk box here on cnbc, first in business worldwide. Im joe kernen along with becky quick and Andrew Ross Sorkin who is back, rested. Thank you. Sun is not good for anyone. Anyone says why arent you tan say because im smart. You got a little bit. I, like my sons, wear those shirts. That and 60 spf. That is ridiculous. Because of your boobs or the sun . The sun. You can buy them so your boobs look good. Do you have a safp snell. What do you mean a satchel . A man purse. Murse. John carries one. Looks like zach galifianakis. He believes in the fanny pack. It connected to you. In the front. Futures up about 91 points. Rough session on friday. In general, we have been trading higher. We got through that little period. We were worried about what the 10year was telling the us. We got back almost out. Did not have a 10 correction. Nbc universal parent comcast struck a deal with Charter Communications to divest 3. 9 million subscribers in its deal to buy Time Warner Cable. Transfer is 1. 4 million customers directly to charter for cash, over 7 million in cash. Comcast said the move will improve the Geographic Presence of both. Fills in holes where both wanted the entire area. Comcast, in the process, is going to form a new independent publicly traded company. It will spin off to shareholders. The new company will be known as spinco. It will serve approximately 2. 5 million comcast customers. When all the deals are concluded it will hold no ownership in spinco or charter. And have no role in managing. Still has to be approved by federal regulators. The company says the value of all is 20 billion. If you put them altogether. Hopefully you dvrd the entire show. Craig moffett, we just spoke to him. Earlier we had rich greenfield on. You should be taping the show today. You should. Both of them seem to think both Companies Come out ahead. Which is not surprising given the guys that put it together. It is possible to do that whuf u these things. Swap things so everybody gets a little something. Right. Lets tell but another deal this morning. Pfizer going after astrazeneca in what could be the largest acquisition ever. Seeking to renew discussions after offering nearly 100 billion to buy astrazeneca. He had approached the company back in january. Astrazeneca said it significantly undervalues the company and advises shareholders to take no action on pfizer. Shares up in a big way. 83. 20 a share at this point. You should know the date to watch is may 26th. Thats the date of which pfizer has to make it known whether they will proceed with some type of bid or not. The company, pfizer that is, coming up with the uk takeover rules. They put a price tag on the company. But also saying that a large part of this is tax driven at some level because they have a lot of money overseas. Pfizer, that is. They want to use it without bringing money back. The structure would be such it would be done through a uk company with lower taxes. Unclear whether or not they would funnel money through that as well. The big issue is this morning. Pfizer went up that day. It is up today. Which is beard. The acquiring company went up both days. Valeant was up a lot. Where are you on that . I read something over the weekend. Terry keenan said it was front running. Legal. But it has to be addressed. From a policy perspective, the idea that you can buy a company before but its hard i dont like it. It doesnt look right to me. You saw what his response was. Youre allowed to use inside information as long as the person giving it to you isnt doing something with their fiduciary responsibilities. Right. What happened if cnbc has an agreement with bill ackman and says tomorrow were going on some news. I went back to david and realize he did absolutely nothing wrong at all. According to berkshire it was their own internal violation. Do you think a stock is cheap . Im buying it. You say i think this is really cheap. They decide to take it over. The distinction is if youre an active shareholder or any investor, you dont know hes behind. Invariably it is a market moving event. Or especially if youre bill ackman and you have a plan. It is a market moving event. The question is how do you deal with that . Change the windows . Perhaps you shouldnt have that 10day window. They have been fighting this for a while. They would like to see the 10day window shrunk into a smaller period of time. The question is, is that good for shareholders or not . Is that good for the markets or not . To the extend that Warren Buffett combines at a price he would struggle, i would imagine. I would imagine make it much more for all of these guys. The question is is it good or bad. Are takeovers good or bad . Thats the larger policy question. So back to pfizer just one second. Yes. When you see redomiciled, would pfizer become a company . I dont think so. Some people are making that point. Remove itself. It would be the largest redomiciling ever and becoming a uk company. A new uk Holding Company that would not subject astrazenecas nonu. S. Profits to u. S. Tax which would be in the best interest of the Campaign Company shareholders. It sounds like pfizer would still be based here. It doesnt suggest pfizer is moving. The question becomes when you have this other Holding Company how do you repatriate. All of it points back to the fact that we have far too complicated a tax code. I was going to tell sorkin, if we lose pfizer to the uk because of our debt code, would that finally cause you to realize we need to fix this . I think so we have to fix it anyway. I do believe we have to fix it. Its not that i dont believe we have to fix it. It matters to me you what believe. The u. S. Plans to slap new sanctions on russia as early as today. That will be targeting people and Companies Inside president putins inner circle. The move aimed at punishing moscow for not living up to its agreement thus far to defuse the situation in ukraine. We asked about how the situation could play out in the global markets. If we do this to russia, russia will retaliate by its own sanctions disrupting the supply of energy to europe. So europe is caught in the crunch on both of these situations. Correct. We live in a global neighborhood. And thats why this decision is so hard. Wh what. U. S. And European Unions posted limited sanctions over moscows an exation of crimea. The european plans to announce sanctions as early as today as well. Tensions between russia and ukraine again sparking market fears. Joining us is allison dean, Senior Adviser at varik asset manager. And Portfolio Manager at the hodges fund and hodges small cap funneled. I would like to ask both of you, any idea why the futures are 90 points up for the dow . Craig, do you have any comments on that . Not specifically. We have two days upstrong and then the opposite. I think its more of the same. The algrithims are deciding which way they go. We are hostage to that on a shortterm basis. If you look at whats happening with earnings season, some numbers have been better than expected. What do you think this early in the season . It looks as if the trend is positive. At least tilting more positively. This merger activity points to kwfdz on the corporate level. We have been looking at corporations doing nothing and sitting on a lot of cash for years. Enough we have over a trillion dollars of merger activity. So to me it points to the fact that ceos are feeling better about the Global Economic in the u. S. That combined with more bodes well except now we have this ukraine issue. There always seems to be some exception. The mma wrrbgs does that tell you where we are in the bull market . Why do you think executives are feeling more confident and what does this tell us about where we are on that trend . My sense is they are at the feeling better about the economic outlook. Mma activity i feel tends to be good in the beginning. The beginning of the cycle seems to be the more creative rationally valued. And it is pointing towards the fact that they seem to be rationale that are created pretty immediately and intend to make sense structurally. Maintaining market share. St continue to sustain growth. We see a lot of positive signs. We have our seven analysts that do about 2,500 company clutches every year. We dont go with any one single data points out there. We see a very optimistic terms. Margins are holding up well. Theres a healthy mix of pessimism. We think we are in a stock pickers market. In the slow growth environments its fairly easy to find the growth. The companies that are growing at a superior rate. Lets talk about companies that you like. Which would jump out at you . A couple areas. We like the energy area. We see some things. One of my favorites stocks there is Hercules Offshore trading at a very low multiple. We also like in link. Midstream business. We should see a 20 grow there for the next five years, plus dividends. And theres a lot of industrial names. Trinity industries, eagle materials, which trade at very low multiples and have we think peak earnings the next couple of years. Below 10 times earnings. Theres a lot of opportunities. Its not obvious. But when youre doing the Underlying Research out there, there are names to look at. All right. Want to thank you both for joining us today. Pleasure. Okay. All right. Another big story were following today, french president hollande meeting with jeff immelt. Immelt said the meeting was open, friendly and productive. The french government is seek to go put the brakes on g. E. s proposed 12 million plan and has asked siemens to come in and look at alternatives, keeping it a euro centric company. They warn g. E. , a potential deal could face sanctions. He recorded alstrom ceo to the ministry immediately. To explain why the company wife a company would negotiate without talking to him first about selling some of its assets. Now a when in paris, if you have to go things are going so well with their private economy. Siemens is proposing a cash deal and assets swap. Siemens values it 14 billion to 15 billion. It would contribute part of its rail and other Transportation Businesses with alstom. Then there would be two companies, one in energy and one in transportation. Shares of alstom and shares on g. E. Up. France and its lack of free markets, think about this g. E. , a free market u. S. Based Company Wants to buy a french company. And by the way, live with all of these restrictions. So we keep talking about taxes going this way. We already have 10,000 employees there for General Electric. Sorkin, do you know how much money g. E. Has on the Balance Sheet . 87 billion. 85 billion. Shoufp ovhow much is oversea . 55 billion. This is all screwed up because of the way things are right now. And also europe is improving. You know what i have visions of and a bad taste in my mouth . Alliedsignal, honeywell and everything else. I dont like dealing with them. That was the eu. Yeah, well, mario, monty, hes italian. Seems european to me. In the last 10 years, though, g. E. Has done 50 deals that have been approved by the eu with a total value of 25 to 150 billion. They have joint ventures already in france. They are clearly willing to hold their nose on french politics. They are. They are. The deal in this country is probably not as bad as in france. Coming up, president obama set to announce sanctions against russia. [ indistinct shouting ] [ indistinct shouting ] [ male announcer ] time and sales data. Splitsecond stats. [ indistinct shouting ] its so close to the options floor. [ indistinct shouting, bell dinging ]. Youll bust your brain box. All on thinkorswim from td ameritrade. What is this place . Where are we . This is where we bring together reliably fast internet and the best in entertainment. We call it the x1 entertainment operating system. It looks like the future we must have encountered a temporal vortex. Further analytics are necessary. Beam us up. Thats my phone. Hey. [ female announcer ] the x1 entertainment operating system. Only from xfinity. Tv and internet together like never before. President obama will levy new sanctions on russian individuals and companies. Joining us is founder and ceo of Investment Advisory firm. I thought this was yours. I thought so too. No, no, no. Because i love you so much. No. I would like to bequeath ill show you how its done. Since i know, im giving it to you. Youre closer. This is airing our dirty laundry. This is not something we should do. Thank you for coming in. I hesitate to say, tagteam you on this . Im a hot potato here. Nobody wants to touch me. You of all people know how they do business. Is this Going Nuclear . The only way to get him to stop doing what hes doing is to go after him and his money. All these little efforts to go after the guys around him are you saying we may go after you eventually . We dont have the fortitude to do that. What everyone understands, putin doesnt keep a lot of money in his own name. Theres trustees that hold his money for him. The one sanctioned recently was gun vor. Maybe more than 20. People who are on the rich list but not as rich as you think because they are holding Vladimir Putins money. How does he react, though . Here you have a guy who has invaded ukraine. In the modern day he has invaded ukraine. We want him to stop. How do you get a guy to stop who has invaded a foreign country in this day in age . We could send troops down. I dont think anyone hosni intentionsis of doing that. What are your other options . Wide trade sanctions, which you dont have to do with russia. Because all the money is being held by putin and about 1,000 guys around him. If they care about money, thats an effective way of stopping them. How easy or hard is that to do . Well, its not that easy. None of the stuff is registered in putins names. You dont know how much is theirs and how much is his. How much are in banks we would have access to . Any time there is a dollar payment from one russian crook to another russian crook it hits the us Banking System for a second. It goes through the u. S. Clearing bank. So the u. S. Authorities, u. S. Intelligence knows where every dollar payment has ever gone. Now, have they actually started to investigate this stuff . I think they just started getting excited about the idea of sanctioning putin. The u. S. Is like a super tanker. It takes 100 miles to change the course of the super tanker. But they are changing the course right now and going after putin and his money. If they do this and this was money stolen again, what is there to stop him from stealing nothing is stopping them. Theyre just going to steal and steal and steal. Thats the whole point. If this guy is all about stealing this is different than the era of breshnev. He wasnt keeping it in the south of france and swiss banks. So we now have a an angry government of russia doing all this stuff. But we have advantage because he seeps his money in the west. How much money is leaving russia . The official numbers are 50 billion in the first couple months of this year. I think its probably a multiple of that. And so what i would say is anybody who hosni money in russia, westerner or oligarg, if theyre smart, they would be getting their money out now. He wants everyone to go green, as you know, but where do you think they will go . In the next six months, as putin invades ukraine, ukraine has a relatively weaker army than russia. Whats their leverage . The pipeline. Which means gas supplies could easily be disrupted. Thank you. When we come back, stocks on the move this morning, including a gold deal gone bad. Right now as we head to break, take a look at futures. Dow futures up almost by triple digits. Ntury link provides rele it Services Like multilayered Security Solution to keep your Information Safe secure. Century link. Your link with whats next. With all the opinions about stocks out there, how do you know which ones to follow . The equity summary score consolidates the ratings of up to 10 independent Research Providers into a single score thats weighted based on how accurate theyve been in the past. Im Howard Spielberg of fidelity investments. The equity summary score is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. Call or click to open your fidelity account today. At your ford dealer think . They think about tires. And what theyve been through lately. Polar vortexes, road construction, and gaping potholes. So with all that behind you, you might want to make sure youre safe and in control. Ford technicians are ready to find the right tires for your vehicle. Get up to 120 in mailin rebates on four select tires when you use the Ford Service Credit card at the big tire event. See what the ford experts think about your tires. At your ford dealer. Time to take care of business with century links Global Broadband network and Cloud Infrastructure. We constantly evolve to meet your needs every day of the week. Still to come, the latest cnbc ruts. And why investors should be kicking the tires of avis. Take a look at the u. S. Equity futures. Dow futures up by 92. 5 points above fair value. S p up by nine. Nasdaq up by 16. Squawk box will be right back. . We could save you a boatload foghorn sounds loudly whats seattles favorite noise . The puget sound foghorn sounds loudly all right, never mind doesnt matter. This is a classic. What does an alien seamstress sew with . A space needle foghorn sounds loudly continuously oh come off it captain geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Welcome back to squawk box, everybody. Lets take a look at the stocks to watch this this mornings trading. Astrazeneca one of the mornings big gainers. The bid undervalues it and it is confident as an independent company. That stock up 16 this morning. Forest labs is buying north carolinabased furiex. It comes as forest is itself is being acquired. Forest says the deal will have no impact on the timing of the transaction. If you think there is a lot of m and a, there is. It puts us on scale for 3 billion on the year. Lab corp. Profits 1. 51 a share. Results were impacted significantly by severe weather. Roper industries was 11 cents better than the street expected. Revenue beating the streets forecast. Stock, though, down by 1. 8 . Rival Newmont Mining informed them it has decided to terminate merger discussions. Barrick gold up a half a percentage. Remember mr. Roper . Yeah. Who was that guy . The guy from then mr. Ferley came in with the ascot. Norman fell. No one told me. Did you see this dude . Yes. Physical therapist. Not a doctor. Not a doctor. 4. 1 million salary. Do they have that many hours in the day to do that physical therapy . Its all in brooklyn. Brooklyn is happening. 4. 1 million. Did the ropers have their own show . They did. I dont think it lasted very long, though. No, unfortunately. Just like hey larry didnt either. After Threes Company they went to twos a crowd. Do you remember that . No. That didnt succeed either. John ritter, he was phenomenal. We lost him way too early. Sling blade. Love him. The eye thing. He had it also. Did he . Yeah. I met him years ago. Cnbc latest fed survey. He joins us now. Steve . Good morning and thank you. We have our first grades for janet yellen. See all the scribbling in here. We will come back. We graded four or five categories. Leadership, bernanke gets an a. Transparency, both get bs. Communication, yellen a little bit below bernanke because of the flub she made in her first press conference. Overall, Monetary Policy, b versus b plus. And the final grade here, b versus b minus. Yellen got a few more as than bernanke ever got. However, she got a few ds as well. Is the fed clear . 64 say fed Monetary Policy is clear and prevalent. It has remained in the 60s right there. We will watch to see if this decline is a trend. 36 not clear and credible. Some of the commentary. You know the notes that come along when your kid gets his report card. Here are some of them. Going forward, the fed needs to articulate a what if strategy. What do we do if it falls short . Bob brusca said the fed needs to make its inflation target a real promise. Finally, the exit strategy could be more difficult than the fixit strategy. Coming up at 10 00, the feds views im sorry, the fed sraeur on ts survey. For a good time call andrew. Its signed j. K. I dont know what could could mean. Did you make that up . No. It says it right there. Im not making it up. Are there phone numbers . 8675309. Joe and andrew, together forever. Thats andrews phone number, 8675309. Jenny, jenny. Andrew, who can i great song. Tommy tutone. Whats his name . I think it is tutone. Jenny, jenny, who can i turn to what was the real point of this song . That number was dialed again and again in cities all over the world. People had to change that number. Two minutes left. Do you have anything else . Its a baseline number. Early days yet to grade yellen. Should we do it now or not . Pretty good number. Pretty good numbers. Do they give a woman lower grades in general . I think we want to watch for that. I think bernanke could have gotten lower grades than at the beginning of his tenure. I also think lynn reaser makes a good point. What yellen has to do is as hard as what bernanke had to do. Bernanke had to in vent. But yellen has to i dont think we will fulfill your worst fears that were in zero. No. It paid. Are you bullish from here . No. I havent been bullish for five years on bonds. Bonds, i get a lot of emails that bonds are outperforming stocks. They are this year. Were supposed to do bac. What happened . 11. 9. Revised first quarter. I dont know what any of that means. But well check it out. Well go to break and come back. Lets check out bac. Its down 2. 3 . We will investigate. Investigate before we invest. We should investigate before we invest. That is a good strategy. Okay. Im going to go see what it says on the wall. Details right after the break. And you know the story. Our next guest takes a similar approach. Not too big. Not too small. Midcap stocks and what our next guest is buying after this. U. S. Futures slightly higher. Dow futures up by 73. 5 points above fair family. S p up 6. 5. Nasdaq up 12. Why relocating manufacturingpany to upstate new york . I tell people its for the climate. The conditions in new york state are great for business. New york is ranked 2 in the nation for new private sector job creation. And now its even better because theyve introduced startup new york dozens of taxfree zones where businesses pay no taxes for ten years. Youll get a warm welcome in the new new york. See if your business qualifies at startupny. Com at your ford dealer think . They think about tires. And what theyve been through lately. Polar vortexes, road construction, and gaping potholes. So with all that behind you, you might want to make sure youre safe and in control. Ford technicians are ready to find the right tires for your vehicle. Get up to 120 in mailin rebates on four select tires when you use the Ford Service Credit card at the big tire event. See what the ford experts think about your tires. At your ford dealer. 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 scottrade. Voted best Investment Services company. So bank of america is now down a little. Down 30 cents or so. They are lowering some of the ratios that they gave based on they miscalculated Merrill Lynch structured products during that takeover. As a result, the ratios they gave arent as positive as they have been. They have to not do some of the capital stuff. They are suspended 2014 capital actions, including the 4 billion common stock patch authorization and the planned increase in the Quarterly Dividend from one cent to five cents. They are suspending the stock buyback and the increase in dividend. The company will expeditiously resubmit the data templates. They have to resubmit the new numbers and give them to the Federal Reserve and make sure they can go ahead and do what they said they would be doing. Thats why you see the stock down a little bit. They dont have to change their Balance Sheet or any of that stuff. The fed said no to a couple. Because they put it back in the citi category. I dont know if its material or because what they gave to the fed was not accurate that they are unable to do it and they dont feel confident. We have to ask permission based on the new numbers. Right. And theyre not going to get a lot the fed is not going to be happy whether it was a mistake. Im not arguing it was intentional. People will suggest control issues. Thats why it becomes a little more complicated i think. All right. Squawk box platinum is expanding with a mid cap investor who limits holdings to 30 companies. Co Portfolio Manager of the four store hennessey cornerstone mid cap. The fund has 4. 8 billion under management. Good morning, brian. How many are you giving . Are you giving us three . Thats what you have to do to be a platinum portfolio person. What three are you looking at right now . I think the three we are looking at today is avis, huntington, ingalls and alaska airlines. Really. Okay. Lets start with avis. I understand they try harder. Really smart acquisitions with payless and zip car. They are managing the business really well. North american volumes are up. Global volumes are up. Revenue per day is up in north america and across the truck business. Where we really find the opportunity is with that zip car acquisition. If they can roll out the sharing to a global platform, we think they have really great opportunities going down the line. You have done that, havent you . Zip car . No. I love zip car. I havent done it. I dont do it enough to make it worth while. You do uber. I do do uber. You just said do do. Whats your next one . Huntington ingalls is a ship builder. Doing a nice job. There is some concern. We think the ship building side will be cushioned. Theyre doing a great job managing the underline business. Doubled their purchase agreements. I think they are managing the business with a shareholder in mind. We really Like Companies that put that shareholder first. Thats right. Have you owned it all year . Yes. Really . Whats the third . Alaska airlines. Six years jp power award for service in a row. Delta will move into their hub in seattle. They are refocusing on some other routes. But we really like the company. Theyve got their pensions paid off. Theyre fully debt free. Going down the line, they will be an Even Stronger company. Are they satisfied with their footprint right now . I always wondered about that. Like hawaiian air. I think they are managing routes. To look into potentially places that they can see revenue and cutting out on the ones that dont make anymore sense. They have paired back in some of their markets and increasing in others. Delta will move in and take some of their share. They need to be profitable and expand their business. They have begun to do that. I think this will ultimately make them a stronger company. Is neil your boss . Yes, hes my boss. Is he a benevolent boss . He is the greatest boss that you could ever possibly imagine. Now hes ruined me for any other company. Hes taking lessons from you, joe. He also does the dr. Phil show. He does that. Oprah hasnt had him on in a while. We are trying to push to get him back there. Brian, thank you. Thanks a lot, guys. Have a great day. Is there someone said in my ear that you use zipcopter . Its a new company. Im invested because i own it. Its almost like net jets. Coming up, jim cramer. A wakeup call. Find out what he will be watching when wall street opens for business. Well be right back. Tomorrow on squawk box, its the unveil of cncs first 25. Top rebels, icons and leaders. The people who have the greatest influence and cause the most disruption in business over the past 25 years. Cnbcs tyler maths isen joins joe, becky and andrew for this very special event starting at 7 00 a. M. Eastern time. Squawk box and the first 25 list only on cnbc, the world leader in business deals. Care for you. Today, you can come to Cleveland Clinic for anything, everything or just to get that thing checked out. Big, small, and yes, the best heart care in the nation. Its here everyday, for everyone. Thats the power the power, thats the power of today. Cleveland clinic. Call today, for an appointment today. Welcome back. We have breaking news that has come out from the white house. It is in fact putting on adition al sanctions on russian individuals in response to what they are calling russias continued illegal intervention in ukraine. They say that this is russias involvement is in disputable. There will be additional sanctions taken on two members of putins circle. Who are these other people . Maybe, but they did say that they will get close to him to show him that some day they may go after him. It doesnt say who the individuals are. Maybe they are going through the banks doing what they are talking about. Jim cramer joins us now. Comcast General Electric pfizer. He is our m and a guy. Jim, where do you start with this . For some of these deals, it is tax motivated. They have so much money oversees. Big international companies. They are doing these deals. And i know that pfizer has a lot of franchises that are coming off pa tent. They love these biy euyers wheny buy. Is favor there today . Yeah, i saw david. I am told that there is an as tra seneca release that would make pfizer dom syled iciled in . Well, at least they didnt pick ireland. All every congressman and senator. Everything that they are trying to do is being from it terre ii. They are saying that it is a Holding Company but we are hearing on the other side that it may be the entire thing. That has been the pattern. David and i want to go to ireland and see what do they have that they can get around our taxes. Ass txastra seneca is not a company but a good tax regime. Do you think that ge prevails . I dont know. It is a good deal if ge can get that power business. Which is a fantastic gem. All right jim. Well see you in a couple minutes. Up next we do a little retail detail. Many of the names down for the year. Lets find out if we should be adding names like walmart and target. That is coming up around 9 30. Stay with us. [ banker ] sydney needed some Financial Guidance so she could take her dream to the next level. So we talked about her options. Her valuable assets were staying. And selling her car wouldnt fly. We helped sydney manage her debt and prioritize her goals, so she could really turn up the volume on her dreams today. And tomorrow. So lets see what we can do about that. Remodel. Motorcycle. [ female announcer ] some questions take more than a bank. They take a banker. Make a my financial priorities appointment today. Because when people talk, great things happen. Make it happen with fidelity active trader pro. Its one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. Call or click to open your fidelity account today. Welcome back. Checking in on the retail sector. They are all over the map over the last year. Walmart is flat. Target is down about 13 with the troubles that they had there. Macys continues to be a bright spot. Joining us right now. Now the ceo of jay rogers and you look at this and you figure it real matters. Performance matters how you run things. They are the only National Department store. They own the space and they have run the game. They are the only one out there that can do from the store to the store mobil you name it. Walmart is doing the same by the way. They are moving quickly to do that as well. Target is not moving fast into that. They are going to continue to lose ground. I think they focus too much on their grocery program. I think it is going to be hard unless you are tied to the fall. The traffic is not happening. What about the consumer overall . Do you have to break it down . February and march are awful. April has been great good. They rereport in may they will say it is a tough wraer. The first two weeks in may will be good. We have dpi rising an employment rising. I think we have a winner. Phizer acknowledged that a combination would redom syl tic combined combineded group. That is actually mason. You know what pfizer makes too. It is the most important drug that people need to get to a certain age. Lipitor. The blue pills. When you were running what . When i was running finance at a leading rehe tailor. Pfizer one of our best. It is a uk company. That is astonishing. Thank you for coming in. Make sure you join us tomorrow squawk on the street is next. Good monday morning welcome to squawk on the street. Three sessions left during the month of april. Futures are showing a little bit of umph. Well see pending home numbers in an hour. Europe is behaving pretty