Rallied on the opec headlines in the last few sessions. Honeywell going into software, tpg buying two cable companies, work day with a cloud deal. And apples ceo on the record. Tim cook commenting on declining iphone sales, succession plans and saying ron johnsons hire was, quote, clearly a screw up. Much more from the Washington Post interview coming you. Clinton victory better for stocks. The cover story of barons today. The numbers behind that. And then, of course, week two of the olympics, we just saw andrew playing some table tennis. That form he just demonstrated is not reflective of his true ability, by the way. Do you think he got it was good. Do you think he was told to wrap and decided to muff that one . Maybe. Were go egetting a lot from an. A good week in rio. Yep. What was the highlight. Seeing what its trying to do for the city of rio and the economy of brazil is going to be i love the way olympics sort of operate on a parallel track to history. Right. We see it in beijing, saw it in sochi and this once again is a truly interesting developing economy story as we even though we Pay Attention to the likes of usain bolt. Was there local enthusiasm for it, magnitude you would expect . Theyre warming to it, would be my argument. Early on a lot of skepticism about the value of hosting these games. I think theyre beginning to get a sense of the party. We were just talking about some of the highlights for us watching on tv, the big star, usain bolt, they put on a show. A lot of the favored gold medalists actually did quite well. Who garnered the most attention, would you say, in your week . You know, if i had to i think the star of the olympics is ledecky, even though phelps numerically is a bigger star, she really reflects where team usa is trying to take the next generation of athletes and shes the biggest Success Story there. A stunning run for team usa. Meantime stocks are on a run of their own hitting record highs in one of the calmest markets in two decades. What should investors make in the collapse in volatilitity which has surprised most of wall street. Mike santoli has a column out on cnbc pro about the volatility vacuum our markets guru peter shack called this the modest melt up. Its been edging higher. Almost any way you measure it, you can do it many ways, one of the calmest markets in decades. Of the last four weeks some say its the tightest trading range, 19 of 21 days, less than a half percent move in the s p 500. Of course the vix is below 12. Thats obviously very low end of its historical rate. A lot of conversation right now as everybody geared up for lots of volatility this year. Buying protection against volatility, crowding into low volatility Consumer Staples and other stocks, dividend yield plays. What does it mean . The kneejerk reaction, too quiet, maybe we have to see a volatility pop, buy some protection. Thats too simplistic. The market can stay calm a long time. Its a result of general agreement that outlook has stabilized, but where is it vulnerable, fed outlook, getting Inflation Numbers this week, jackson hole conference next week, all that stuff can disturb this idea that were in this kind of static, kind of nothing can really upset the market type environment. I do think it makes sense, therefore, to expect volatility to pick up in late august into september, but that doesnt really necessarily have to upend the trend. The trend is there. The credit markets are not giving you a lot of clue, for example, that this is a very vulnerable stock market right now. Because why, because high yield didnt chase oil into the nervous nelly . Look at high yield spreads by sector all are improved. People can say look, its because Central Banks are being generous and all the other reasons, but in general, the tape has been Strong Enough and youve had some of the cyclical sectors come around. One issue treasures have stayed at 1. 5 and the Interest Rate sensitive stocks have managed to hold up even as the groth oriented ones have improved. A lot has gone right to get us to this point. I dont think you can deny that. Interesting to see the record highs come in the week of mixed earnings, mixed Economic Data, hasnt been all good news and continues central bank support. That seems to be the common thread. Joining us with their view, the chief u. S. Market strategist at rbc, jeffrey is the chief investment strategist at raymond james. Good to see both of you. Good morning. Im thinking all of the warnings about how bad august would be at the beginning of the month historically not a kind month, is it too quiet as mike said. No. Mike nailed the story here. The reason that the markets are quiet not because investors have gotten dumb and complacent, its because the economy is in this sweet spot where the Economic Data is coming in slow, steady, very few real big negative surprises, and its the underlying economics and earnings that are really causing this period of kind of steady move higher, rather than investors going to kind of being lulled to sleep on this. Jeffrey, if i see another story that leads with, last august, the chinese devaluation, why is that why are people trying to use last year as a corollary . Because theyre always looking in the Rearview Mirror than forward looking which what is the equity markets are doing and your other two guests have nailed it. I do think that earnings have come in better than the lowered bar expectations. I think that will continue Going Forward. Youve got very easy comparison coming up in the third and Fourth Quarter because last years earnings were terrible. And i do think the market is in a transitional phase from an straight driven bull market to an earnings driven bull market. How do you measure valuations right now, jonathan, now that weve had this record run . Is it still the case that they look pretty decent, relative to bonds and since theres no other alternative you have to go in even if they get more expensive. Where we are and what the range has been historically. Were at 17 multiple on stocks, the average has been 14. The range has been from 6 to 24. So we are closer to average than we are to anything thats extreme and, you know, you were saying before, stocks are returning stoch capital to shareholders as compared to what a bond is, that investors are just being forced into the equity markets and i think were still, i dont know, third inning, fourth inning of this trade, nowhere near done. Jeff, you mentioned investors look in the Rearview Mirror, harkening back to the shocks of last summer, but doesnt it mean when the market has been as calm as it is, maybe were not as prepared for whatever unknown shot might come and disturb things . You know, you cant really predict black swan events. I can tell you the equity markets dont care about the absolute of good or bad. All the equity markets care about are things Getting Better or worse, and we think things are Getting Better and going to continue to get better. Does that include wage growth, jeffrey . You know, youre looking at openings now outpacing hiring and the jolts data. How close are we to significant wage growth, the kind weve wanted for a year or two . When i was seeing accounts in baltimore and philly and new york last week, i think the ceo of paychecks granted its small companies, but he said their average company wage growth was up 3. 7 year over year. So i do think youre getting a hookup in wages across the country. Did you see the cover of bar barons this weekend, its starting to look like hillarys world was the cover, saying that when it comes to the stock market, hillary would be easily digestible and the bottom line was, status quo. Do you agree with that . Yeah. I probably do agree. I think the market was probably discounting Something Like that even before even before the last couple weeks. But its really clear at least in the polls data that, you know, trumps run for the presidency is looking less likely and hillary is someone who we know better for her policies are more similar to what were experiencing under obama. If that does reverse and he starts to gather steam again, in the next few weeks, or months, i mean theres still time for that to happen, what would that mean for the market . On one hand the cutting of the Corporate Tax rates and there are Certain Industries and barons go through them that benefit from trumps policies. Would that be a net benefit to market . If you look at where trump represents for a lot of folks its a question of uncertainty. Even some of the policies hes espousing hes the first one to say this is a starting point for a larger negotiation and so, therefore, the market is not going to know where things end up, whereas i think that the markets perception of hillary is what were seeing right now in terms of the general world order what is were going to see under a Clinton Presidency. Jeff, does the Election Year pattern, do the way the markets are handicapping this election, resonate in terms of how things have happened in the past . Are we basically writing a new script here . No. I think theyre following the pattern of the past. I actually a week ago yesterday, i was on capitol hill with two insiders, beltway insiders ive known for years since i used to live there and they give a tip of the hat to Hillary Clinton. Whoever wins the white house they think wins the senate as well, so right now, at least the people i ta you clk to, think h wins and the senate flips. And thats okay for markets at this point . They did mention an interesting word, a greek word that means the ruling by the worst possible people and then they added, in a country free of 111 million how can we select these two as the best candidate to run for president . I think the big story here, one thats starting to get some more momentum, is that regardless of who wins we are likely to see more fiscal stimulus on whoever is president next and so this market environment is likely to do a pivot towards cyclicals and banks and materials, once we get much more clarity on whether and what exact type of stims we w e stimulus were going to see. This lead by defensive sectors could change in 17 which would throw, you know, investors on one end a great opportunity want to own banks under a Clinton Presidency . Barons points out shes a supporter of the Consumer Protection bureau and not as friendly as say the trump view of scrapping dodd frank. And like i said were talking about under either president , but i think that what youre looking at is if you see a pickup in demand that is forced that way by fiscal stimulus your why going to see a pickup in Interest Rates that will give relief to banks, better for m a activity which is good for the banks. Not necessarily good from a regulatory perspective but the other issues will be important for a variety of cyclical parts of the economy. Jonathan, jeffery, thank you. Have a great week. Good to see you both. You bet. When we come back tim cook approaching his fifth anniversary as the ceo of apple. We will fill you in on what he told the Washington Post in an eyeopening interview. Take another look at the premarket. As we kick off a busy monday morning. More squawk on the street from post nine at the nyse is straight ahead. Youre here to buy a car. Tim cook approaching five years on the job as apples ceo. In an interview he said running the most valuable company is, quote, sort of a lonely job but added hes not looking for sympathy and expressed optimism about the future of the iphone. Over time im convinced every person in the world will have a smartphone. The greatest market on earth from a Consumer Electronics point of view. That level of performance is going to skyrocket and gets a little more granular on the challenges of the phone cycle. Sure. Namely the Media Attention and demand for something bigger and better every single time. You know, i guess it would be comforting on one level to hear cook say to investors, look, the iphone has a tremendously bright future, its the platform that were going to be relying on for a long time but a little bit of misgivings about the fact that he doesnt have something else, you know, so to speak in his pocket or at least thinks that it has to be some revolutionary quantum leap next. They asked him specifically what about the next big thing. He said were not saying were not going to be doing anything else, but yes, the iphone is still an unbelievable product category to be on. I thought it was notable what he said about Corporate Taxes and the fact that apple gets called out for stashing all of its cash overseas. Why cant you bring it back and the fact that some members of congress have gone after him. He says its not a matter of being patriotic. It doesnt go that the more you pay in taxes the more patriotic you are. We dont have a competitive tax rate and i thought that was notable because that is a hot button issue on the campaign trail, something that donald trump wants to do is lower the Corporate Tax rate from in the 30s to 15 . Yeah. And then on that retail person where he said i hired the wrong person for retail talking about former nixon john brawit initially bringing that in the fact that he admitted that. Post tries to pin him down on other big projects namely a car. He said we always viewed that people love surprises. We dont have enough anymore in our lives. Look at how movie trailers are previewed in a year in advance. We generally know whats going to happen when a movie comes out and that is going back to the jobs culture of 15 years ago where they held their cards so close to the vest. Although becoming harder. Yeah. I mean, there have been so many leaks on the iphone 7 coming up. The nikkei last week saying its going to be an all glass iphone. I guess thats the next year iphone, tenyear anniversary. With iphone 6 about april, close to half a year before the launch, the reports were basically accurate about what it was going to have. Clearly not going to be a surprise with regard to the iphone 7 necessarily but whats interesting about cooks stance that the world loves surprises and Just Trust Us in a sense is, you know, i guess the question is, has he kind of has the company continued to earn that sense that we know youre working on something great. Actually doing pretty well and participating in this rally after record highs since the earnings report, whether its in anticipation of the September Iphone new release or the fact that it was a better quarter for apple and there has been this rotation, mike, into technology in general. Exactly. Once the market got a little bit of comfort with the idea that theyve seen the worst of the iphone cycle which would seem to be what last quarters report said, then were fine. Financially speaking its an amazingly defensible stock to own. Obviously with the buybacks, cash, low valuation. Got advice from warren buffet on the shareholder return which was interesting. My favorite market stat of the morning, guess how many consecutive losses meaning backtoback losses the nasdaq has had since the end of june. Not many. Zero. None. Okay. No two days in a row. Since june 25th. Thats crazy. Its been seven straight up weeks which is the longest stretch since i think in years. Yeah. Four years. Four years. 2012. And for the s p its been six weeks out of the last seven. Higher. When we come back we will talk to art cashin on what he is expecting from todays trade and the week ahead as we count you down to the opening bell. Futures here looks like were going to start this week on a high note. Dow up 41, s p futures up more than 4 points. Nasdaq futures to carls point up 7. More squawk on the street from the nyse straight ahead. Your Business Needs a lot of speed. But getting it doesnt have to break the bank. Introducing the comcast business Summer Savings event. Now you can get a lot for a little. As little as a cup of coffee and donut a day. Fast Internet Speed to drive performance, plus cutting edge wifi for your employees and customers, and voice mobility so your calls find you wherever you are. Get some of our most advanced products at a great price with over 500 in savings. To art cashin on what he is more squawk on the street from to get these savings w plus a 250 prepaid card. Comcast business. Built for business. [announcer] is it a force of nature . Or a sales event . The summer of audi sales event is here. Get up to a 5,000 bonus on select audi models. Minutes before the opening bell. Art cashin director of floor operations with ubs. Im noticing Wti Crude Oil is trading above 45 a barrel, probably has your attention. Yeah. It has and its important that it begins to or continues to have that positive effect. The market is at a very interesting area, trend line resistance in the s p at 2191 to 2194. And it seems to have restrained the market and as much as it sounds silly we made a trifecta brand new high, there is some risk that were approaching stall speed here. That they did it in such an incremental fashion that really hasnt swept up everybodys attention. So they need to following crude here and they need crude to give them enough energy to push through that level. Is it any more stubborn resistance level than 2100 was . Not really. But i think the fact that it is, you know, you can reach up, we havent been there before, seems to be providing some resistance. I think if they get through it, then 2200 be becomes almost a given. So this is i think a rather key important key and important area for them. And if its a given we get, you know, lets say to 2200, does that act the way 2100 did. In other words it kind of was defined the upper end of the range for more than a year . It could well. I think the market is gbeginnin dig down through things. What will the impact of brexit be now. It looks like thats going to be postponed into 2019. In the next couple weeks wer