Better. Some red arrows in europe as Indias Parliament continues to fight about berlusconi. Our road maam begins with the s p, looking to claw back some ground after yesterdays closing at the low, below 1,700, the longest streak of the year. Jcpenney had been pointing down sharply again on continuing concerns on whether they need to raise capital and just how much. But the stock looking up after the Company Comes out with a release saying, hey, were still seeing progress here on our turn around. Well have the entire story in a moment. 11 billion is what jpmorgan could end up paying to tie up security probes. And jcpenney did fall below 9, getting close to an historic intra day low. The company has a statement out saying theyre pleased with their progress thus far in their turnaround, starting to see greater predictability in its performance across many areas, improved by its purchase conversion, which has been a longtime Sticking Point and anticipates will experience positive comps coming out of the Third Quarter and throughout the Fourth Quarter of 2013. What a week it has been for jcp. Positive comps coming out of the Third Quarter, not into the Third Quarter. Thats their words. Maybe its year over year, do you have some easier comps. Youre comping off the johnson lows. Right. So that may be a little more i continue to think this situation could stabilize if they can raise the cash. When i say the situation, i mean they stay in business. I think one of the things that really hurt them is just they are an Apparel Company with the wrong and expensive home goods. Hope goods is whats selling, apparel is not. Theyre not being hurt by that trend that all retailers are seeing. Jcpenney when you shop there, its not that much different from shopping in the apparel aisle of walmart, it not that much different from shopping from macys. So if macys is doing poorly and the apparel part of walmart not doing that well and target apparel not doing that well. It is the most shorted name in the s p. There is this paradox of trying to raise equity, as reports have suggested. Does that encourage you going into the holiday with a buffer or make you worry about the fact that they need it at this point . Well, i didnt think they did need it because they did raise very successfully a lot of money at goldman, you broke that story. Theres two jcpenneys here. Theres the store and theres the share base. I dont think the share base is saying, you know what, i like asina better than jcpenneys, better than kohls. We had hedge funds who own a position amongst the likes of glen view or perry or soros. But when you talk to people in retail, as we both do, who have been doing it for a long time and talk to them over time, they have pointed out again and again how difficult it is to turn around a company like this. First you are get in there and youre mike ullman, the damage done by mr. Johnson is truly perhaps irreparable. Some saying it was a mortal wound. And the turn around can take years when you talk again to experts. Thats what led me a month or two ago to say, hey, those guys dont know any more out there than the hedge funds. I do wonder about some of the things jcpenney has decided to do. Mike ullman was in town yesterday, meeting with analysts yesterday. He didnt say anything material conceivably but people took different takeaways from their meeting with ullman. Now they come out with the statement. And my final point here as well is they let ackman out, they let vornado out. Maybe they could have kept those guys in and sold shares primarily and then let them out. That would have been more fair. You want to see what the mix is here. Look at bed, bath and beyond. They dont take questions. They sell everything that is selling in this country, its all hard goods, all the products that go into kitchen and bath. Jcpenney did not have the right kitchen and bath because johnson bought the most expensive stuff, which the people at jcpenney, they take the coupon at bed bath. Bed bath does great couponing, i love bed bath and i say, wow, jcpenney had exact wrong mix. Manny is a fantastic apparel guy and theyre having a tough time. Penny has the wrong stuff in every aisle. The housing tailwind, which penney essentially turned around and ran right into. Look, bed bath is a very good company. The analysts have been very wrong on it. The cash flow 25 of the stock in three years. One of great buybacks. You may well be right on that. Theres 30 store growth. They got a lot of room. They typically dont give you that, dont show that much leg. But its palpable. This is the part of walmart thats doing well, jcpenney does not have it. What do do you here . Its a confidence game as well you got to remember with jcpenney. Its not a bank, jim, but it has suppliers, they have to you have to continue to have confidence amongst the ecosystem in which you operate if youre jcp. When you see a stock break below 10 into single digits. How are they going to get the ceo . Who is going to take that job . I dont know. Retail is a very its a very hard business. And no one wants to go in and damage their reputation by not being able to save jcpenney. Judging from the characteristics theyre looking for in a successor. Citi lowers their target from 7 to 11 today . Do you wait to a secondary to prays . This statement that came out this morning says were in good shape. Either way it still seems to say they need to raise capital. They have to do equity because isnt it already the means against the inventory . I know. By the way, most of the stocks held by these four hedge funds at this point, its fascinating. Theres a winner, though, and its my Charitable Trust. Tjx. Tjx has home goods, which is doing incredibly well. Tjx has cash, real cash in the barrel head. When you cant sell your inventory, you dump it at tjx. They dont mind having summer goods, winter goods. They got the goods. The s p does look to shake off a fivesession losing streak for the First Time Since december. Futures are on the rise. Jobless claims falling to a new sixyear low. Second quarter gdp remaining steady at two and a half. Lawmakers working on bills to raise the nations debt limit, as well stopgap spending legislation that would avert a shutdown by midnight on monday. S p has only had six im sorry, seven sixday streaks down since 2008. So this doesnt happen very often here, jim. Some argue were a little buiit oversold. Interest rates spike a little bit this morning off the jobless claims. When you see usa today shut down wood chip economy, they give you the numbers, it does take your breath away. It does say that everything you think is going to happen in the Fourth Quarter isnt going to happen. Zandy says its going to shave about 20 basis points. Even if its a couple of days. If it goes for a few weeks, youre talking a point and a half off gdp. Look at hertz. They report a number thats k i quite disappointing and they say its airport rentals. Dea delta, some of the airports say it hurt their number. If you go back to the template, it was travel that got hurt. In terms of a got shutdown . Yes. Because its not essential that people travel in government. Thats what now the airlines doing well. Gasolines coming down. Jet fuel coming down. But thats where if you just go back to 1995, did a lot of work on 95 and 96 and that was the area that really got hurt. What does it say that small caps continue to knock the cover off, the russell again a high again yesterday. Theyre almost entirely biotech. Thats what it is. And biotech has a double advantage. One is that its not economically sensitive. The second is take a look at what eli lilly said today. Theyre having poor results with one of their Breast Cancer treatments. Who has good results . Youre talking about a celldex. Its just incredible. You see these companies that are doing targeted work against cancer. They are the dominant companies in terps of who is responsible for this rally. Dominant. And they keep coming public you got a company come public yesterday thats part of that on the diagnostic side. Yes. You look at celgene. One of the threelegged stools is Breast Cancer. Theyve given away a loft of th up side for Breast Cancer drugs. It is biotech leading this. My friends who are in biotech are saying listen, be careful, some of these companies are public now, they are basically research labs. They wont deliver anything for five, seven years and theyre not going to have enough money. Then again, if you think the economy is slowing, who has the greatest growth year over year . A company who discovers a new drug. Very exciting group. Facebook does look to be trading above 50 in the premarket, jim. It is a long way from 17. Its a long way from that quarter in july where the stock just rocketed. I remember sit hearing asking you is it going to get back to 38 . You said it would be a straight shot. I dont know if even you thought it would go to 50. I like video. I do some work at the street. Com. I founded that. I knew where facebook was going, thats the hot area. This morning theres a lot of people who say another guy raises numbers. Well, jefferies, if you go back, jefferies has the best piece today. Jefferies upgraded stock in may. This is the most credible analyst on the street in jefferies. I got to tell you, brian pitz, i dont know him but when you hear a lot of the upgrades, it tends to the analysts who got it wrong. This guy got it right so i think its a little more meaningful than most of the others. You said you took a little off the table . Facebook cant be your biggest position. Had that trouble with apple. Apple became the biggest position. Then they become the biggest position and then i fire him and thats okay. I always wore a yellow postit on my head if i got it wrong. I made people walk around the block twice, get me a soft pretzel and a diet coke. But i wore the postit myself because i am a forgiving man. You must be a joy to work for. People always loved it. Bargain with the devil. Good for computer monitor sales. I said, boy, my stocks are really holding up. My stocks are holding up. My pc had frozen. You can throw a pc at those windows. They fixed that. I said work for me, you get compensated incredibly well and you will get hit by a water bottle if you got it wrong and i have keyboards to throw at you. Who trained me . Thats the point. When we come back, when carl icahn and tim cook are scheduled to get together over a meal. And coming up, david marcus, president of paypal. And we see if the decent numbers hold when squawk on the street comes back. [ man ] monica had big dreams for her wedding. I want peacocks. Peacocks . Walking the grounds. In tuscany. [ man ] her parents didnt expect her dreams to be so ambitious. Italy . Oh, thats not good. [ man ] by exploring their options, they learned that instead of going to italy, they could use a Home Equity Loan to renovate their yard and have a beautiful wedding right here while possibly increasing the value of their home. You and roger could get married in our backyard. Its robert, dad. [ female announcer ] come in to find the right credit options for your needs. Because when people talk, great things happen. You really love, what would you do . [ woman ] id be a writer. [ man ] id be a baker. [ woman ] i wanna be a pie maker. [ man ] i wanna be a pilot. [ woman ] id be an architect. What if i told you someone could pay you and what if that person were you . When you think about it, isnt that what retirement should be, paying ourselves to do what we love . Remember that tweet heard around the world from carl icahn when he realized by typing less than 140 characters, he could make a stock go up enormously . That was back on the 22nd or so of august i believe it was. We heard from him saying i spoke to tim, he believes in a buyback. Theyre doing one now. Were going to talk about the magnitude. That planned meal, which may no longer be a meal, is going to take place on monday. What . On monday todays what, thursday . On monday of next week on the 30th, right at the end of the month of September Tim cook, the ceoapple, and carl icahn, one of the top stockholders, but a lot of stock but not a topten holder, they will be having a meeting. Originally perhaps a dinner but mr. Icahn tends to like to dine on the later side. Carl tends to be a latenight guy, likes to have a couple of martinis with dinner. Mr. Cook im told is more than an early good evening guy. So what do you end up at midnight . No, you end up with a lateday meeting, lunch, brunch, late day. So bloody marys . I dont know. I dont know what the alcohol would be. A lot of times when he does get up early, he watches this show. Does he get up early enough to watch this show . Carl, if youre out there, were kidding to a certain extent. But of course this is taken very seriously by apple and shareholders. While mr. Icahn is not a topten holder, he has a great deal of influen influence, he is a large shareholder, has quite a bit of stock. The question is whether theyre going to increase the buyback. Will they feel a need to perhaps respond to him or is it enough to say, hey, we had a very good week, by the way, carl, with our new phone, did you notice, and we have the largest buyback in place anyway so what do you want with us . The Morgan Stanley note today talks about, givagain, this is new thesis, trouble keeping them in stock. This is the dan hesse sprint notion he put in my head. Another great article in the new york times. The apps that youre using. How much do you love the photo app that it tells you right where you are . The aviary app is one of the best named for 2007. I went to the vineyards last weekend, it had exactly telling you where you took your pictures. Take a look at your photo albums. I did. And it knew i was at the botanical garden. How do they know where i am . Nsa. These are old pictures. You discover a lot of enough things on this phone. Whether its going to be chinese takeout or the martinis or an allnight egg mcmuffin. I know thats driving the stock. But i also think the fundamentals are playing quite a role here. Well see. Perhaps well get some tweets from mr. Icahn. Cramers mad dash is next. S p trying to rebound from five declines in a row. 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New alka seltzer plusd relieves more sinus symptoms than any other behind the counter liquid gel. Oh what a relief it is. Need some money, talking about money all right. We got time for the mad dash. I saw greg mafai yesterday, liberty, liberty controls sirius satellite. Piper came out and talked about sirius 2. 0. This note says theyve got hispanic programming is going to take off and used cars sales. This is one of the great retail comebacks, malone. This is going to 5 and this is a stock really . Going to 5 . I think the fundamentals are rapidly improving. It is an overvalued stock on the basis cable. But in terms of the netflix factor, the tesla factor, this is also a wellloved product where people then go buy the stock. Im saying they may none be so wrong. They believe they can do better in the used car market where people turn it off . Do you even look at your bill . Dont you pay it automatically . I dont actually subscribe to sirius. Huow do you listen to cnbc can i suggest you get the football package . Ive been here 20 years. Its implanted in my head. I want that root canal. Anyway, i think this is going higher and i think people are being rewarded by an Excellent Management Team offering a plethora of programming. And the hispanic entrance, i dont know, sounds like a bright move. He indicated we like the business, we want to stay with it. And him staying with the company is very important. We dont want him to leave. We got the opening bell just a few minutes away. Get ready for another day of trading. Squawk on the street back after this. [ bell ringing, applause ] five tech stocks with more than a 10 . Change in aftermarket trading. All the tech stocks with a market cap. Of at least 50 billion. Are up on the day. 12 lowvolume stocks. Breaking into 52week highs. Six upcoming earnings plays. That recently gapped up. [ male announcer ] now the world is your trading floor. Get realtime market scanning wherever you are with the mobile trader app. From td ameritrade. All right, youre watching cnbc squawk on the street, live from the Financial Capital of the world. The opening bell here in just a few seconds. At the big board, the president of the slovak republic, in new york for the 68th u. N. Assembly. And the made for Africa Foundation and african bank, investing in infrastructure on the continent. Companies moving very big. Ge among them. American tower, they are ugandas tower provider. A lot of money going to africa, a lot of it to prevent the china, block the chinese who are really putting money in africa. Its a big continent. Thats one of the reasons that lucent is able to keep its at t and verizon business. We keep it out because of National Security concerns, which seem to be fairly well founded when it comes to Cyber Espionage and what not. There was a special on it. There was, some time ago. Then it got a lot of attention a long time ago. The chinese very powerful, very powerful. One place where people are not putting as much money apparently, the airport car rent al. Hertz down by 11. Its their biggest business. After posting doubledigit Revenue Growth in july, they took their numbers down from 178 to 188, down 10 cents. Even though theres been tremendous consolidation in that business, its surprising if you do rent a car, the car seems like its 79 a day. By the time you check off the boxes, its 240. Car and gps. Keeping your eye on facebook. Its going to open here above