November. Ibm is set to weigh down the dow today. Notching the 20th straight quarter of year over year revenue declines. Plus, a border tax replacement. The white house considering a elimination of state and local deductions needed to pay for tax cuts. Some drama at 21st century fox as advertisers flee. Reports that primetime star bill oreilly is now all but out. It would be the third major departure for the network in the last year. Ibm bills down sharply in the premarket. The miss on the quarterly revenue overshadowing the sales beat. Down for 20 straight quarters. Ibm had an 11 quarter streak of opening lower on earnings. That was broken last summer. Now appears to resume. Yeah. Look, this was a kind of quarter where they actually didnt close certain business anded that they closed and had they closed certain business, you know what, things are on target. The Gross Margins are not done as much as they were. The signings are surprised that they did misit miss it. We accept it for qualcomm, they have all the patents, they monetize them. I dont think down ten, you sell it. Once again, were not able to deliver. The streak about the revenues, theyre trying so hard to get into really into cognitive and into ai, all the things that we really talk about. Thats still going well which makes me say, youg what . You know what. Down nine or ten. I know the institutions want to get out of it. Breaks a little bit lower. Inclined to buy it below 160. This an ongoing narrative from the company for a couple of years which is dont look over here, look over there. Im in the cloud. Our Strategic Imperatives and theyre saying, hey, theyre up 12 . And theyll continue to focus you on the growth dynamics of the portfolio of companies trying to say dont worry about the legacy businesses. Theyll just do what they do and yes it will be done. But i dont know. Do investors really want to keep focusing on that . No, they dont. And you have got to keep the other businesses decline within reason to make it so that when you do the big cognitive stuff it does not its not obscured. It was obscured. What happens if they if they nake if they sign the rest of the business. They have clients that they cant really game. Then i think people will say, you know what, it goes back up to 170. Is it on a yoyo between those two . Until it breaks out, yes. Because the whole the tone of the Conference Call and the tone of the research is, you know what . Enough is enough. And i question whether enough is enough when youre right there. Youre right there if they had done the signings the story would have been okay. Wow. Look, nobody this stock is friendless. I like that. Well, not entirely. B of a does reiterate a buy today. 200 target, particularly attractive opportunity because of the notion as buffett would argue theyre sticky in corporate i. T. Watching the 170 level where buffett is break even. And Martin Schroeder said theyre the heart and the lungs you cant do without them. Thats true. Execution is not good. They did not execute. Im not saying they made the playoffs and they did they needed to execute, they needed to make those signings and they their stock should be punished for that. Im saying that below 160, 170, youre saying theyre never going to come back. I think that those who every time has someone has bought it its been wrong. But any time someone has bought it big on a discount its been right. Big picture always interesting to watch these mammoth companies try to transform themselves while they keep going. Hp is another example. General electric is another General Electric, try to wean yourself off of the businesses that keep growing and in in case, they keep coming back to cloud overall. They include a lot in there. Yes. But when they talk about their 12 month run rate on revenues 14. 6 billion they say that puts them ahead of microsoft. I know. I dont like but its not quite apples to apples. No. As well. Although they do as a company that helps other companies figure out their problems and how to solve them they have a lot of application for using all the data and the cloud that perhaps their competitors dont. I think the salesforce, combination of einstein with watts, a couple of bright guys could matter. A lot of second half. What i thinks interesting people say, you know what . Im done with the second half. Im not playing that game. I wish to some degree that the bank of america guy had thrown in the towel. You want everyone to throw in the towel and give up on this company and thats not there yet. Stock was it was a disaster, they didnt execute. A year ago the stock was 144. Despite what Gross Margins have done. Very good point. Is it still a focus the way it should be . Its interesting that we have companies that are trying to change their stripes in technology and really havent been able to. Its hard. Listen, what do they have 400,000 employees still . A lot of people. Think of theyre number of employees versus market cap versus facebooks number of employees divided by market cap. You make up the content. Look, i was away, i was in oregon. Okay . Whats really incredible is this why do people take their pictures Facebook Facebook facebook. They create all of the ip. Here the ip they labor over it. Sell some of it. They make money. No one believes that they do it other than to be able to pad the earnings. They dont say that about qualcomm. But it is something that is worth discussing because of how hard ginny, right, we have to be thinking, someone is going to be thinking can she pull it off . It will be a key determiner of her tenure. I agree. I think thats a simple thing to say. I have a keen sense for the obvious sometimes. They call you captain obvious. Yes. Thats one of the many things they call me. Speaking of Corporate Leaders going to be a good morning for james gorman. Morgan stanley is up. The profits are up 74 . Helped by gains in trading. Gorman called it one of the firms strongest quarters in recent years and he gets a double digit roi for the first time in a couple of years and hedging out goldman on some elements. A low bar. What happened to goldman . What happened . I read that Conference Call twice. Twice . Were you looking for a secret code . On the plane ride on the way home. Maybe i was on such a high from being with my daughter in oregon a mental high okay if its the other kind of high. Allowed there. One of the legal states. And i came back and i just said, wow. Talk about not executing. I mean, they just didnt execute on fixed income. Morgan stanley seems to be executing everywhere. By the way, lets not obscure the fact that bank of america had a great quarter. So were leading you know, were getting to the point where i think you can say that goldmans model im working on this thesis is too hedge fund. Too reliant on hedge funds . Yes. Too much like a hedge fund, which . Well, no. Too reliant because i mean when you go over the first i dont know, did you see chavezs comments about how the the new cfo, about the idea that look, we didnt do well. We didnt do well because the Fourth Quarter was great because everyone was so optimistic. Then the First Quarter had no volatility. Stress volatility, volatility, volatili volatility. Thats something only hedge funds talk about. They didnt have the lowest volatility for the oil or and the hedge funds werent trading the way we thought. Now, they dont have the big deposit base. The deposit bases for bank of america extraordinary. But i mean, the language is very different in this Morgan Stanley than Goldman Sachs 1. 7 billion in net revenues. That was up 873 million from a year ago. How do you like that . Strong performance across all regions on improved Market Conditions. You did not see that kind of language improved Market Conditions for goldman the Market Conditions were not good. Now, i dont want to say that goldman therefore is saying, listen, on our side of the street it was raining, on the other side of the street it was not. Goldman needs a different set of conditions now. You dont think it was related to extraordinarily weak comps at Morgan Stanley a year ago . You know what, thats a good point. But investment backing was so good. Sales and trading, equities 2. It was so much excellent. That was an excellent quarter. And you know, they are they can be if you spoke about analys to apples apples to apples theres a degree of that. And goldman came up short. Is this enough to lift the group . We sort no, because of the yield curve. We talk about the yield curve again. That was the other thing i was soul searching about. The yield curve. Really . Did you read the Conference Call on the yield curve . Did you ever read sidney homers the yield curve . Its like the war and peace on the yield curve. Are you saying that the that curve can exist while stock prices are at the levels . Yes. Im saying how much does the possible Government Shutdown, how much is it trump not doing as much as we thought . And the goldman logic about the First Quarter not being as strong as the Fourth Quarter. And all of these pieces, or how much is this a short squeeze . Guys on the wrong side of bonds or how much it is, theres general confusion in this country about taxes, about whats going to happen. Even where our Carrier Groups are. Oh. Yeah. We dont seem to know. Where is carl vinson . The story about the International Fallout from the vinson episode and how the South Koreans are like well, if that isnt true, what do we believe . I dont know. You see you know how narrow thinking i am. When i heard problems with the Carrier Group i was thinking we were talk about the Pacific Crest deal where tmobile is gaining were not talking about the carriers but to carls point no credibility, cuts across the board in a lot of different areas. And when it starts to erode right. Your confidence erodes. Well, i think this is causing people to do a bit of a freeze. We need to see right now Infrastructure Spending. We need to see gary cohn come out double head and say, listen, goldmans numbers are bad because of me and im doing a 500 billion saving Bond Initiative for your ira. Instead of saying im going to cut to the core california and new york by not allowing the deductibility of local and state income taxes . I was in oregon, easy come, easy go. Exactly. Is that a pen in your mouth . What did you bring from oregon . Franklin delano roosevelt, its time. Well get to gary cohn about warming up and fox fallouts. Reports saying that bill oreillys days may be numbered. Look at the premarket. Looks pretty solid. We want to economic in with jim on arconic. More from post 9 in a minute. The power of a low volatility investing approach. The power of smart beta. Power your clients portfolio with powershares. Before investing, consider the Funds Investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. Call 8009830903 for the prospectus containing this information. Read it carefully. Distributed by invesco distributors inc. Containing this information. Read it carefully. Hey youve gotta see this. Cno. N. Alright, see you down there. Mmm, fine. Okay, what do we got . Okay, watch this. Do the thing we talked about. What do we say . Its going to be great. Watch. Remember what we were just saying . Go irish see that . Yes im gonna just go back to doing what i was doing. Find your awesome with the xfinity x1 voice remote. Published reports say fox is preparing to cut ties with bill oreilly and that hes unlikely to return to the primetime talk show as he has been the focus of Sexual Harassment allegations. As a result, Many Companies have pulled advertising from these program. The question is what is the effect on fox a which brings in hundreds of millions from that show alone. The fox Network Extremely important to the overall Financial Performance of 21st century fox. Board meeting tomorrow, regularly scheduled. Typically this kind of a thing would not be something that a board would be board business. But certainly when youre dealing with the culture of a company, the board will get involved. And this does go to broadly speaking culture. I think my reporting indicates James Murdoch certainly is very much aware of that. He was very much aware of that when they moved to oust roger ailes. Right. He is management. As ceo, his brother lock lap. But theres a gentleman named rupert who controls it, who is in there every day at fox news running things. Right. It will be fascinating to see where things end up after this Board Meeting where you expect a conversation to take place. More about culture than specific moves although that may be at the table. Full disclosure, im about to mention my law firm. I think when you bring in paul weiss, think about you brought in paul weiss for the nfl and next thing you know brady, four games. You bring in paul weiss to 21st they do an honest they dont care where the chips fall thats the most dangerous thing in the world when youre trying to keep a guy. When you have a official that cant be bought and they cant be bought, they basically are going to tell you whats wrong. When you do an internal investigation, they tell you whats right. Yeah. It would if hes out, how do they replace him . Hes an incredibly talented broadcaster who has an incredibly loyal audience. Theres one other element to this that kind of creeps into my part of the world. You know, they are still getting approvals in the uk for the purchase of what they dont already own of sky. James already had been the chairman of sky, but theres a fit and proper test by off com, the uk versions of the fcc. There are questions about the tumult there in terms of what may or may not become going on at 21st century fox, whether that would affect the fit and proper test. Probably not, but at the margin do you want to take the chance . You certainly want to get that deal done if youre 21st century fox. Can you amal jazz any other talent that can play one individual broadcaster who would be the subject of a board agenda . Yeah. Oprah might have been once. Somewhere. Very good point. A very good point. But this is an institution. An institution the highest rated show on Cable Television. Yes. Just a huge moneymaker and the advertisers look, this book empire that he has, i mean, this guy is a major figure in the firmament. Some people feel like you expected a president. I think you might be a board level discussion some day. Cramer. Board level discussion . Why . Whether by wife is going to be use what kind of board shes going to use in the italian house . That could be the case. What did she go with . She went with some local board. Walnut. Yeah. Well, fox a is going to open up nearly 2 . Well watch that any developments well stay on top of. When we come back, well get cramers mad dash and get the opening bell. A lot more from squawk on the street straight ahead. Say carl, we have a question about your brokerage fees. Fees . What did you have in mind . I dont know. 4. 95 per trade . Uhhh. And i was wondering if your brokerage offers some sort of guarantee . Guarantee . Where we can get our fees and commissions back if were not happy. So can you offer me what schwab is offering . Whats with all the questions . Ask your broker if theyre offering 4. 95 online equity trades and a satisfaction guarantee. If you dont like their answer, ask again at schwab. Tbut with lightning fast shifts instant. And dynamic tracktuned suspension, what the road demands, the gs delivers. Experience High Performance through high technology, in the lexus gs 350 and gs turbo. Experience amazing. We cut the price of trades to give investors even more value. And at 4. 95, you can trade with a clear advantage. Fidelity, where smarter investors will always be. Time for a mad dash on a wednesday. Good to have you back. Well talk a little ko. Im not talking knockout. No, its good to be back, up that. Good to be back with you guys. Cocacola. David, this is a very important call. People should listen up. This is a Credit Suisse hold to buy. Handing the baton off to james quincy in may 1, he is giving him, quincy, a refranchised leaner, meaner, very strong cocacola with a very light Business Model where quincy can now make add on acquisitions to make it a total beverage company. I have to tell you, i think this call is great. Now, whats happened is that people kind of written this company off, just when they finished their theyre so close to finishing what i regard as being this multiyear effort to make it so that the company is growing faster. Its going to work. And the stock is going to go higher. Credit suisse is right on this call. Theyre right because because the Gross Margins are expanding and it will be a slimmed down company because of refranchising. And quincy going to come in hot. Most new ceos are not given a baton the way he has gotten. Mew tar has left him in fabulous shape. Well orchestrated succession. Yeah. Its very important thats one of their key functions. Can we go back i dont know if we go back ten years or take a look. Thats a tougher call. Buffett and ibm American Express which reports tonight. Yeah. Well, candidly sugar, baby, sugar. Cantilever, the issue is what they sell. I own this my Charitable Trust owns this. Pepsico made a big long time move out of just total beverages into what turns out to be the Fastest Growing eating snacks while playing video games or doing virtually reality. While you order a pizza through pizza hut or get frankly if m