rose above street forecast, but we are looking for a higher open. >> yes. >> and a actually more defensive. looking at europe, a mixed picture, and you can see it on the continent there, but a lot of green on the map. start with our own road map starting with day one of the fed meeting as the market swings over almost any mention on the word of the word taper. president obama hints that ben bernanke could be on his way out. scott? >> and david, here is sony activist dan loeb asking for a second time to spin off the entertainment arm. the firm is third arm staking that company, david. >> well, the battle over wire, and the battle over sprint or maybe not. sprint is filing a lawsuit over dish, and we will try to sort it out for you. and the protesters are feeling the pressure of biggest cities of brazil, with rising prices being the root of the demonstration, and we have the details and the amazing video of what is happening in brazil, guys. >> today is the day for the federal reserve policy makers to kick off the two-day meeting. the investors are bracing about the bond buying back program and if it is going to be scaled back, and if it will be scaled back, and what they had for lunch. and meanwhile, president obama had some interesting comments about chairman of the fed ben bernanke on the "charlie rose show." >> i think that ben bernanke has done an outstanding job. he is like bob mueller of the fbi in that he stayed a lot longer than he wanted or was supposed to. >> this morning the white house spokesman said that the president's comments reflected admiration for bernanke's service, and comment on personnel, and no comment on personnel decisions until the president has made one. and bernanke's chairmanship will expire in june and expectation is that he will be leaving, and the question is who will replace him? >> well, again, president obama, i don't think that he was trying to signal anything, and didn't real realize. the same with tapering, and we know that there is a tapering eventually, and we know that the fed chairman is going to leave e eventually, because these are things that do not last forever, and it is like, well, they have been, and they are both long in the tooth. >> right. >> so those who are not expecting the tapering any time soon don't understand that there has to be one, and those who are thinking that bernanke will never leave, well, you know, he is human and he does have a life, and i do believe he will be followed by someone with a similar orientation which is not the guys who come on the air all of time and say, why are we trying to help the economy, because that is the stub text, and if they had listened to them, we would be like sweden, and they would have been nationalized a long time ago, because they would have failed. >> what about janet yellin? >> well, she is a rigorous individual, and you want the people of 1937 the recession amongst the depression. and in 1937, everything is better, the senate, and the house and the federal reserve, and they all agreed to raise the taxes and balance the budget and then a deep recession. >> yes, a deep recession which was a depression within the depression like you said. >> and there is some historical work that said that the war is the only thing that got us out. obviously, that would not be what we would want to end a taper here. >> no, that would not be. and it is funny, because the president may have communicated something that he didn't mean to, and in a sense, we are dealing constantly with what may be miscommunication or the misreadings of the communications when it comes to the of all idea of tapering or taking your foot off of the gas and forget about putting on the brake, and there i'm talking about e moving qe. >> and too much transparency, such a good thing? something that people were closed out? >> looking at the market yesterday, scott, and we are foc focused to be tweets from an f.t. reporter. and this guy harding. >> well, that is the same as chief justice roberts in terms of the level of certainty, a tweet from a reporter? >> well, what the heck is going on? >> that is the world we live in? >> this is not a great world. it is not a rigorous world, but a farcical one. it is when we get killed by tapering, we buy it. and that is like the faux discussion on taper iing. >> and you brought it up, harding with the ft, and the fed likely to signal tapering and the move is close, and the market was upset by that, and pulled off of the highs, and mr. harding was on the 5:00 show last evening right here on cnbc, and we have a sound bite from him responding to how the market reacted to what he said. let's listen to that and then talk about it. >> the market was reacting as if there is some secret bat signal coded here, and that is not the case here. there is useful information and people ought to read it carefully and react to it. as i said, i have done extensive reporting on which it is based but to gyrate like this, it says to me that people are taking a signal from the existence of the article and not what it says. >> you find it happen s a lot. i find that as well. >> i have problems with how rational he was, because this is an opportunity to distinguish himself as someone who wants to move the markets, and instead, he was rational and measured. why? >> and that is the case in fact that you can report whatever it is and spend a lot of time doing it, but perception is reality of those who read and or watch or whatever it is and decide on their own what it means to them. >> this is furiously sounding like, buy nothing. go back to the board and not the cr board which is cheap if we do get a taper. >> well, jim, it leads to the question that becky asked you and the chat in the "squawk box" is tapering tightening and the market cannot get off to the fact that to it, tapering if it goes from 85 to 65 or 70 or whatever the number is, if it is not 85, the market is going to lose its you know what? >> well, we had a dry run. i was kind of shocked at how shocked people were particularly in the bond funds, and listen, this qe3 lasts forever, and it is like the cruise to nowhere. i was really shocked at how people were reacting like, oh, my, you know, we are not going the have a permanent situation where we print the money around the clock. >> and when people get the june statements and watch the bond funds or the muni funds or whatever it is going to be, it is going to be painful. we have talked about that and showed you the charts, and of course, you will see the 10-year. >> right, 221 this morning. >> right. that has been the other side of this. we have talked about it, credit so important, and so painful. >> right. >> and but to the extent that we can say, all right, we are going to see what we hear and maybe we won't get anything that is particularly painful or have a summer of stock picking ahead of us then? >> well, stock picking after the futures take a stab, and the futures are clearly in control, and yesterday was interesting with the dow opening up at 150 and then what? up because of japan. well, japan does not open again until we are closed so maybe we should sell off, but then we went down, and then we had a faux tapering story, but then it was real, and then go on "fast money" and it is faux tapering so -- this is insane. you let it come down, and then pick stocks that do well in the environment, because business is good and not affected by the fed. but it may mean not to buy the utilities and the investment real estate trust, and the mlps because they need to finance, and so you do have a dichotomy of the stocks that won't work, because they are entirely bond market equivalents and we don't need them for the bond markets. >> and we can do it with the perception that they do poorly. they are down for the year, and once we see the tapering and we find out that the business does not end, you cycle back to the toll brothers. and last week, we had a statesman guy from there on, and stuart miller from lennar said it won't hurt our business, but you have to let the stocks come down and find out that the business is not hurting and then buy. you can't jump start the cycle. you to have a cycle of pain until you get to where the earnings can come out. >> the psychology of pain. >> yes, the psychology of pain is horrendous. >> talk about the third point the hedge fund run by dan loeb the head of sony has raised its stakes, and they are asking for an opportunity to address the board on the proposal to spin off the entertainment unit. david, this comes in a second letter from the third point to the ceo of sony, and now we will see what happens. >> i have the letter here. >> and the tone in how this whole thing started, it still has a very, what, amicable? >> yes, it does. >> to it all. >> he has to keep it there. and first of all, this is not dan loeb circa 1999, but a guy running $11 billion and $12 billion hedge fund and one of the biggest activist investors and slash investors out there from the hedge fund world, and he has taken the more statesman-like tone, but that is the case in japan and not the u.s. it is different. and i continue to watch this with interest because of that. let's not forget they have yet to seat the new board and the 20th is the shareholder meeting, and thursday, you will get new board members as i have reported in the past. and advisers to morgan stanley and to a lesser extent citigroup, and we won't get in to talk to board until they have a board to talk to, so that process will take some time. there are those who would argue that the value of the entertainment assets are significantly, and significantly undervalued and unlocked by a partial ipo, but there is big pushback that i have heard from the company itself who believes that the subsidiary ipo is simply not the way to go and it is not clear to me what levers mr. loeb has to really push if that in fact ends up to be the message he gets back. >> well, blows it out. >> maybe. >> nice to see you. herbalife, terrific, and i made a couple of bucks, right? it is not like loeb is saying, hey, i'm here and i'm going nowhere. i am here to stay. >> it is stocks working and blows it out and people say, i'm in it because of loeb and discover, holy cow, loeb left, and then start the next thing that loeb comes in. >> well, there are reputational benefits/hindrance from losing something like this, and again, it is not a battle at this point, but more of a conversation. >> how about he tried? what's the matter with that? >> well, it fits in the way that loeb views japan in general, and he is very bull ish on what is taking place in japan from the stimulus efforts there to the arrows approach, and he told me as much with salt, and how bullish he is about what is taking place there. so it is interesting that he has this thing going on in sony at a time when his overall view of what is taking place in that country is incredibly bullish. >> and the wind is at his back. >> and the governance changes that he is hoping to push on as well. >> let me be clear, if he sells, it is honorable, because he has tried. i'm not say sheging he is a sca but if he wins this company is worth a substantial money and much more than it is selling for, and the game plan is a great game plan. >> and he has benefited in part with the investor's perception of the inherent unit regardless of the subsidiary ipo or not. >> if he did what he said, the stock would go up substantially, and the japanese way. >> and no, listen, they did in part with the financing of it, and they did it for different reasons, and as a matter of fact, they want to pull in the financing of it. >> and we have heard the pushback of that ipo, and they will get a bunch of new directors, and they will decide, and what decision they come to with the ceo, and that is go g ing to play out for some time. >> and what about stringer, and they are not an thet cal to e engli english. >> yes, and the guy. sounds like a surfer dude. >> skull kating? oh, nevermind. >> well, we do have much more on the investor activism, don't we? >> how did you know? >> i'm a mind reader like karnak. >> and the investors are paying off, and here is proof, we have the newest member of the golf championship club, the u.s. open winner justin rose will visit us post 9, and i am excited about that. >> we will begin the two-day meeting and the dow has implied open of 33 points after yesterday's triple-digit move, and yet another one for the dow. "squawk on the street" live from post 9 live when we return. i'm in my work van, having lunch, next minute i'm in the back of an ambulance having a heart attack. i was in shape, fit. i did not see it coming. i take bayer aspirin. [ male announcer ] so be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. see your doctor and get checked out. it's easy to follow the progress you're making toward all your financial goals. a quick glance, and you can see if you're on track. when the conversation turns to knowing where you stand, turn to us. wells fargo advisors. welcome back. we want to update the viewers on dell, of course, and we followed it so close here with the july 18th meeting, one month away at this point. and we have also been following closely what it is that carl icahn is or isn't going to do in furtherance of the so-called recapitalization plan that he has put forward with the asset management. and yesterday a letter that did not get a lot of attention that i picked up from icahn capital as part of litigation on behalf of joe rice, the noted strike suit attorney who does a lot of that kind of stuff. rice had asked for a response on where the recap stood. icahn wrote a long letter dated july 17th, and i can share some of it with you which does seem to indicate again his exasperation if you will to try to put together the recap plan. let me share couple of perhaps for you from the letter. and it says that the restricted definition of a superior proposal under the merger agreement together with the express terms of the merger agreement with large termination fees, and matching rights in favor of michael dell, and act as almost impossible barriers for the potential bidder unseating the going private transaction. in particular, how does a potential buyer secure pfinancig for this size deal, in light of the matching right, and the fact that the banks would not be paid anything in the event that the bid is matched or topped? and so perhaps i thought that you would see him step aside, icahn, and that has not occurred, but i wanted to point out the letter, because it is indicative of the challenges that mr. icahn is facing -- >> which you have noted from to get-go, by the way. >> we have. we v. achl. -- we have. and again, scott, it is a interesting belief for companies that if you can line up a company to lever it up for go transaction, and you can lever it up for us, and pay us a huge dividend and that is the icahn plan, but it is not likely to come to fruition, and in fact, the key is this july 18th shareholder deal where you can vote it down and then hope they come back with a proxy fight, icahn and then a new management team, and unseat the board and put in a new recap deal, and then put out another plan where the debt will be taken out by the private dell and mr. dell will control 75% of the new company. >> well, again, both of the scenarios presume that a hewlett packard, and a reig vnvigorated hewlett packard would not be -- let's say impacted. >> yes. >> and then i keep saying that this is financing issues. why are hewlett packards and dells? well, the dells come in to make the deals. if that balance sheet is levered either way, hewlett packard can come in either -- and it is a bad deal. >> don't forget lenovo by the way. >> they come in underneath everybody. >> and they do announce todd brad sli going to step out, and he has been running and printing personal systems, and he is going to assume a new position at the company called executive vice president for strategic growth initiatives. working directly with meg whitman, and he will be focused on enhancing hp's business in china and extending the company's critical partnership relationships around the world, and identifying potential partnership opportunities with the early stage companies. and so bradley is stepping aside a significant unit and personal systems which is going okay. printing is okay. >> and i thought she was happy with printing, so this may be a good shape -- >> printing is going well. but of course, in systems as in pcs not as much. >> read into this guy being leaving? he is a guy who should be familiar, and his face should be to cnbc viewers, because he has been on the network before and it is not just the ceo of that company who has appeared on the network. bradley has been on. >> oh, yes, this is a huge unit as we know it. >> huge. i am confused by this. >> ly try to get some clarity, and difficult while we are on set, but i will make a phone call or two. >> you can do that on air. >> i can try. i have the phone in front. >> and you are going to make calls? what about going on twitter and kind of muse. don't do that, use the twitter and say, it is big news, and then leave it at that. >> and then see what happens. it is kind of like that -- >> and we have a lot of stocks to talk about and we will do some of that on the "mad dash." >> why talk when you can tweet. >> he is going to tweet the "mad dash." >> i am going the tweet that the "mad dash" is up next. the most important signal for investors, and what will the fed signal? steve liesman reports, the fed decision on "street sign cisioi tomorrow on cnbc. is a surprisingly low price -- just $7.95. in fact, fidelity gives you lower trade commissions than schwab, td ameritrade, and etrade. i'm monica santiago of fidelity investments, and low fees and commissions are another reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. now get 200 free trades when you open an account. okay. 5:30 before the opening bell and let's "mad dash" it. >> jack in the box? >> yes, i know jack and you may not know jack, but jack in the box is closing between 10% and 20% of caddo bas, and happen to love them with short lines at the mall, but they say it is great that it is closing, but it is at the high, and they say it is great, because kadoba has underperformed, and they say it is fabulous for chip chip poelt chipotle. >> and why kordoba? >> well, it is not packed and it is not working everywhere. so jack is higher, and chipotle is a company in a dogfight. you talk to the chipotle guys and they will say they are much better versus taco bell, but it is good for everybody in the industry, and chipotle could go higher still. >> and we will be watching those stocks with a lot of thers after five straight days of triple-digit swings on the dow, and not just up, but certainly down. should you -- well, should you get ready for number six? the opening bell is 4:00 away. otherworldly things. but there are some things i've never seen before. this ge jet engine can understand 5,000 data samples per second. which is good for business. because planes use less fuel, spend less time on the ground and more time in the air. suddenly, faraway places don't seem so...far away. ♪ ♪ [ indistinct shouting ] [ male announcer ] time and sales data. split-second stats. [ indistinct shouting ] ♪ it's so close to the options floor... [ indistinct shouting, bell dinging ] ...you'll bust your brain box. ♪ all on thinkorswim from td ameritrade. ♪ you are watching cnbc's "squawk on the street" live from the financial capital of the world where the opening bell is set to ring in one minute and ten seconds. all right. how do you like that? what are we keeping an eye on today in addition to the jack in the box? >> hormel. they are as consistent as any company i have seen, and they are talking about the higher pork pr