Last four sessions. At this pointed, the dow is now back in positive territory for the year. Still, if you look at where we stood just a week ago with some of the concerns about what was happening, it looked like things were going to expire, but were headed back there now. Well see what happens as we get through to some of the news coming out today. We do have on our agenda this morning Economic Data and earnings from the Worlds Largest retailer. At 8 30 eastern time, we have two reports. Jobless claims and july import prices. Walmart is set to post Quarterly Results. Thats expected around 7 00 eastern time this morning with all that weve heard from the retailers including macys with numbers not as strong as people had expected. Thats going to have people watching very closely to see what walmart has to say about the consumer. Well be hearing from kohls before the opening bell and then this afternoon we have jcpenney. Weird about europe, is it not . When they finally resession . Well, they finally got with the money how long ago . Theyre way after us, right . We see them entering into this . There are structural problems that they havent fixed. It was not oep obvious to them i mean, were starting to exit, was it obvious to i believe raising rates at one point. Its the german mental. People say how behind the curve on dpetding in opinion its affecting us again, right . Crappy economies. Yeah. Thats why were talking about were not you know. We still have some issues here. You wonder why consumers feel like they still are not confidence spending. Pretty definitively with the major retail sales. And walmart will be here later today. But they have told us their consumer res feeling the pinch. I was outside of that. Mcdonalds made a big point of that saying, look, their consumers are still feeling the pinch. Weve heard that from walmart recently, too. When were on vacation, because we dont always were not always in every minute . No. When wire on vacation, we eat at mcdonalds every other day. We do, too. When youre on the road, its tough not to. And im like jim gaffey, the great comic. I dont order any fries for myself, but theres always some in the bag. Where did that come from . In Corporate News we were there tuesday, actually. You know, i cant believe that maybe this will be in the next one. Anyway, cisco posted betterthanexpected earnings and revenue, but its offering a tepid quarter. The Company Announcing its 6,000 jobs. Another 6,000 jobs i dont think its oh, its 8 . And its not all here, it must be a national company. And i dont know how many are domestic, but when the tech sector in a leading tech company is part of the problem, its not a new tech company, its not like a facebook or a twitter or something that you would hope that cylinder would fire. Not going the other way. 6,000 jobs, thats a big number. The ceo says Global Demand is partly to blame. Partly you would think because of china and partly because of europe, i guess. Also partly because of whats happened with us trying to raise rates. That is affecting the markets in a big way, too. Yeah, it has. We havent tried to raise rates. Qe is still you know, its a net addition. The central bank has been pointed saying what we are doing is affecting the emerging markets at this point. Knowing that eventually it could be you know, if you want to know when in 2015, to get that first increase. Cisco cited sales. Results beat the street driven by sales of its branded division. Some analysts worried the company was losing business to newer flash based technology. And amgen sales hitting the street with a multiple myeloma drug. This was a take overof onyx. Id like to talk to someone about how much of that is based on whether this is going to work. And cellgene, by the way, with a myeloma drug, as well. Earnings missed the market for noodles company. Saying fewer diners are visiting its restaurant. Noodles must be next to the places that sell those containers that i the Container Store . That i had never heard of. I havent seen the noodles, either. Its a nickname for my daughter. Oh, d. C. Its all over d. C. . Apparently. The politicians like it. To democrats like noodles . Liberals like washington. The bellway is all its a very politic town. Oh, please. You dont think of the middle of the country and the beltway as all its not just democrats. Its republicans, too. Republicans down eat its the wealth area of the entire continue vent. Its fought just ukraine. I think the state government, but the total government is doing just fine in terms of employment and size. And size matters. Lets talk about geopolitical news this morning. A russian convoy resuming its travel to Eastern Ukraine today. Russia says the trucks contain humanitarian aid, but kiev is worried moscow is deliver ing d human tear yab aid. Military advisers to extent registration. Still looking at the markets this morning, as we mentioned, the futures look like they are relatively flat at this time. Dow futures up by 14 points. We get jobless numbers and walmart numbers, as well. If you want to take a look at whats happening with oil, oil down by wti by 24 cents to 97. 35. And also whats been happening with the tenyear here, thats what weve been watching for quite a while. 2. 421 . The dollar index continues to rise yesterday, to the highest level since last september. This morning, the do dollar is up against the yen and the dow is down against the euro. Dollar yen is at 102. 44. Gold prices were up yesterday slightly, rising to the highest level in just over three weeks. Up by another 2. 10. 1,216. 60 an ounce. It is a busy day on tap for retail. Walmart, as we mentioned, is set to report in about an hour. Courtney reagan is here with more on what to expect. Watch out for retail. The best in class retail expectations and lower guidance, walmart, jcpenney and kohls could be in trouble. Looking for earnings of 1. 21. Same stores are expected to be slightly negative again. Walmarts commentary will be paramount particularly as investors try to clear out what is exactly going on with the consumerer. Walma walmarts ceo told me last month, spending is event dependent, making holidays and seasons like back to school now even more important. The loser, jcpenney will report Second Quarter results after the opening bells. Analysts are looking for a loss of 93 Cents Per Share on revenues of 2. 875 billion. Jcpenney has a habit of wildly surprising the street. A 893 loss is something to care about. Koel kohls and nordstrom reporting today. Nordstrom, it struggles to connect with its middle market consumer. Its been struggling and has had a difficult time finding its way. It had some inventory problems, worked through that, but still sales are disappointing. What is really going on . Why does the consumer feel like this . You know, i think its sort of two parts. I think the financial crisis really changed the way that we think about what we buy. We all step back and think subconsciously, do you really need this . How many pairs of shoes do i need . And if i want that part of shoes, im going to make sure its what i really want. I think thats part of it. And i think the other part of it, too, is just the economic perception and perception is reality. Yes, we know the reception ended. A lot of people dont feel like thats the case. Its an asset based Balance Sheet recovery that has helped people that own assets. Nobody at the low end. Nobody has had any rate growth. Walmart, mcdonalds, kohls. Thats why even family you know, ug even below that to try to find a haven. This is where i really do think its the savers have been hurt and all of us that own houses. I do, too. That own houses and have some stock, 401 k , its better. Theres a level of fear now that i didnt see before. Isnt you see the other day that what do average income inflation adjusted over if last ten years, isnt it down 20 . And its a problem. Wage growth is nonexistent. Rather than an mcstate where everybody is investing for the future and getting 3 , 3. 5 , 4 growth, and everybody its been limping along with help from the fed. Right. And it seems that is hurting everyone almost across the board. And you are seeing i guess youre seeing a bump in things like housing and autos, but for a long time you werent. Finally, it becomes a replacement cycle where youre going to have to buy a new vehicle. But i still think the average age of a car on the road is it may be hard for us as consumers to capture why we do what we do, but as its discovering, its good advice. Janice wall and patrick kiefer. You are a rock star at mkm, right . Yeah. A shooting star of immense proportions. I thought about that. Anyway, whats wrong . Five years later, the average guy on the street still doesnt feel confident enough in his house or confident enough in his if he owns a house and confident enough in keeping his job that hes actually a very lackluster consumer still . I mean, all of those things, i think, that you just talked about are key. You know, another thing that i would add 209 mix would be spending on things like smartphones, which has migrated down into walmarts Customer Base in a pretty big way. So on 100, 125 a month smartphone cell phone deal. Thats your plate . Thats taken away from other spending . Yeah. Really . Thats interesting. And then youve got some increased competition, i think, as it relates to walmart. Take a look at kroger which just reported close to a 5 krints from more. Just in general, i think the Grocery Stores have sharpen dollars up with their ability to compete with walmart. We all know that the Dollar Stores are pretty effective force in that area, too. And food and consumer both have been adding fridge rated food, that sort of thing. And thats taken a little bit of sales, you know, that walmart might have gotten. Patrick, whether we hear from Companies Like a mcdonalds b, a walmart, they say its a tougher economic environment, you dont necessarily believe that . Yeah. I mean, the consumer accidents seem to believe it. I believe it. I look at the employment numbers, unemployment, close to an eightyear low. You know, the stock market has done well. Housing is on the mend. Gas prices are pretty benign. Theyre down a little bit from where we were a year ago. Theres more spending power out there. But on paper. But i agree with what you were saying in terms of the consumer just doesnt you know, what courtney was saying in terms of the consumer being pretty from the last recession and being very, she slow to spend. Do you think theyll does that apply to the high end consumer, though, patrick . Luxury is bad. You talk to some of the retailers that cater to them. But macys isnt totally high end, is it . Its kind of Middle America sometimes. But the high end has done well. Has there been weakness there . And theyre the ones really in a financial crisis that saw their assets go down, but they didnt lose their job necessarily as maybe the low end and middle end. Yeah. I mean, the high end does seem to be. As you said, joe, i think its more asset based, right . And so, you know, high end is doing pretty well. The big guys, coach, nordstrom, theyre not doing quite as well as they were doing a few years back, but yeah, theyre doing pretty well. Restaurants are pretty busy, particularly the high end ones pup look at luxury car sales, those have been pretty strong. Ive seen some good numbers out of some of the big european names, for example. But anyway, at the low end, lower middle end income consumers is what we hear from all the of the ceos. I discover the discount space, the Dollar Stores and that sort of thing. A lot of the ceos will tell you that their core customers dont feel like theyve had come out net, despite what the numbers suggest. Oh, okay. I need to say we appreciate it. If you see darda walking to his ivory tower, give him other best. We havent seen him in a while. What is he doing with the hair now, have you seen him recently . I would call it a little more, you know, just conservative. No, its not conservative chic . Believe me, the velvet ropes at the club patrick is no slacker. No, yeah, i like that. You didnt just decide to grow that a week ago. That is maintained at that length, right . Yeah, i think im going on about six months. Im getting to the end of my end of the like, though, i think. No kidding. All right. Thank you. Make sure you shave it now before the end of the summer so you dont wind up with a tan line. Tan lines on your face, no good. Thanks, becky. Speaking of salt speaking of salt . We were talking about french fries. Ten minutes ago. Mcdonalds french fries are really salty. I have never, ever worried about salt. Large International Study out today questions the conventional wisdom that salts are bad for you, suggesting the amount consumed is fine for your health and if you dont consume more than four mielz a day makes die what . Youre talking to a man thoner here. Above 30 of the week running, it increases your risk of heart why . It doesnt say why. The first marathoner died when he got to the understand of the line. 26. 2. That is insane. I think you put your body and joins through its awful. Im very impressed. I will never do it. But im very impressed. Sea salt doesnt have iodine in it. Sea salt is the big problem. Egd the taste, no guyo dine. More than 250,000 russians, tracks packed with tons and tons of food and water are headed for Eastern Ukraine on what it calls a humanitarian mission. But could it spark a war . Right now, at this point, dow futures are up about 22 points. S p off by just over 3. 5. Squawk box will be right back. Having to fork out a lot of money up front was risky. You can launch a feature really quick, and if the feature doesnt work, we havent lost anything and we can have something up and running in days. And this would not be possible without the cloud. We are now supporting over 25 million users each month. Ideas can be tried and tried again on the ibm cloud. The ibm cloud is the cloud for business. Joining us right now to talk about russias next move is david yuzenik. David, what do you think is going to happen here . Is this a legitimate humanitarian aid mission . What will happen next . Well, its hard to call it a legitimate mission when putin wont say exactly where the convoy is heading. One of the Big Questions right now is are they going to a Border Crossing covered by the government or are they going to try to push that aid through in an area controlled by the rebels. Theres a lot of risk. Will it do something just in terms of stirring up those people who are pro russian on that side . Is this an effective pr ploy . I dont know how much its to stir up the people. Putin doesnt have a lot of popular support. Its being beaten back day after day by the ukrainian military. I think putin is looking for some way to hopefully force some kind of mistake on the ukrainians to have them engage in some kind of provocation that might give him a pretense to invade with regular russian forces. What do you make of putin at this point . Well, i think its important to realize that he doesnt really see threats from washington or the european capitals as having any credibility. There would be serious consequences he did it. He was warned not to start a conflict in Eastern Ukraine. He did it. He was warned not to interfere with the mh17 investigation after his proxy shot down the airliner and he did it. Hes willing to keep escalating because hes invested on this. On the front, he has people like this, right . Yeah. He has amazing control of the media. There are fringe areas where you can expect publications and he controls television, feeds a steady diet of propaganda, reminiscent of soviet days. That would never happen here. Its not like that at all. Nobody is feeding our media anything. Anyway, but i digress. No, no, we have channels of every ideal logical stripe. When is the last reporter that challenged the president here . You know, i think if you look at the daily press conferences, they want to know why are you invading they challenge him from the left. You know, sometimes theyll call on a fox news reporter. The media shows one side of things, but when you talk about comparing it to the situation in putins russia, we dont have journalists to fear for their lives. Yeah. They just fear they get audited. You are having problems keeping up. Yeah. And ill handle my audit, which is happening. David, what can the west do if the sanctions aerchbt working . Whats the next step . Well, one thing we should be looking at is, of course, military aid to ukraine. What the Obama Administration has done is okayed nonlethal aid. Its defensive nonweapon components. Body armor, spare parts, tires. And the ukrainians do need that. Its been very slow getting out the door. It should have moved much more quickly. They need to finish off the Russian Separatist Movement so putin no longer has a pretext for interfering. That may include giving the russians more to fight with. Those are all good moves. But when you put it in the broader context and see everything thats happening in syria, in the middle east, do we need russian help on those issues . Im not sure how much help they were offering before, and if you look again at what putin feeds his own domestic audience, its about an epic conflict with the west, with enemies, with fassists, and hes not willing to step in and do more in the middlist. But that situation hasnt changed and hes still backing assad. Its really about the european allies and others willing to come to the table and help. Do you think putin is the biggest threat that we have facing us . Not china or the middle east . They each prevent different kinds of threats. Isis is a threat. If they can consolidate territory, they may well launch terrorist attacks on the homeland here in the United States. Thats not something putin is going to do. But he could spark a dangerous conflict in europe. You have a lot of potential, david. I see you are visiting selloff. So theyre checking you out a little bit. So just know that. If he asks to stay for good, you have to move a little bit. Hes a mccain guy. Im mott sure what mccain went back and forth a few times. But i see great potential. Didnt you write about reagans attempts to improve things in terms of International Trade and things . Focus on his efforts to bring democratic governments to a number of places.