I mean, up or down. Lets just see. The european markets have been open for some time. There we can give you some actual answers. Also, well, largely down other than the ftse in the uk which is up. But no great moves there. Thank you for italy and spain in the control room. I like to see a broader picture other than the big three. As for crude oil which we go to next, 2. 276. Wti back above well above its kind of a stealth move there a little bit. Thats all talk ahead of the opec meeting. Hot air . Yeah. The saudis have cut back by 500,000 barrels because the u. S. Is increasing by that much in if next four months. So interesting. Well talk oil during the show but lets start with retailer. Two are falling sharply. Tiffany with a surprise drop in samestore sales and lowes also missed on its top line. Plus, were awaiting a new outlook from the fed. The u. S. Futures are more or less flat after the longest winning streak is extended. Over in china, a downgrade. Moodys lowers its rating on the country itself for the First Time Since 1989. Tiananmen square back then. Well, shares of lowes are down sharply. You can see over 3 there after it missed with the quarterly revenue and samestore sales and tiffany a bit lower. Actually, much lower than lowes is on the stock basis. First quarter profit was ahead of estimates but revenue was a bit shy of consensus. Weaker than expected sales a surprising decline in comp sales. Not just the flagship that was affected by the trump barricades here in midtown manhattan. Look, i was surprised by the stock has run a lot. So therefore, people kind of felt that something good was happening. Europe minus 3, minus 4. Were hearing from a lot of companies that because of the dollar being weaker, they have gotten more tourism, gotten more dollars in. That did not affect them. So that was disappointing. Lowes, i want to point out and i just want to Say Something positive about lowes first, they did reaffirm guidance but it was not what i expected. You know, missed miss on the bottom line, but the samestore sales, 1. 9. I was looking for 2. 6. This is so difficult from home depot. I think that the thesis here is going to be, home depot f you go back over the quarter and theyre incredibly transparent it was the contractor. And lowes, i think people would always say is much more the regular consumer. Home depot contractor business is very, very strong. In keeping with the whole notion of remodeling which is behind a lot of the spend for homes. Right. A contractor, if youre doing something they go with i think that pickup truck and load up at home depot and all the stuff you use in your home they have right there. Look, lowes they have done a good job and they had a different comparison versus last year. Thats also important. You have to look at whats a two year stack and lowes is not that bad. I feel defensive on lowes if only just because i dont think people should decide lowes is bad, home depot is good. This is the one category thats been good. And if you compare this against a lot of other retailers its not hideous. So im giving lowes the benefit of the doubt. Theyre watching and i think they deserve to be able to say, listen, were number two to home depot. But versus everyone else, come on. Were still a decent spot in the bad neighborhood. But talking about bad neighborhood, tiffany and the mall, do i take anything away from this at always in terms of our ongoing conversation about the decline of the mall . I think you can. Whether thats having an i want pact. I think you can. Go back over footlocker, and that haves a disappointing place. And david, if you have stores in the mall, apropos of you go back to a key Conference Call with howard schultz, okay, and Kevin Johnson on starbucks. Where they said, even their teavanas were bad in the mall. In other words, they bought this chain. Bought this chain. Theyre going to integrate some. But a teavana is so bad, theyre closing stores. The mall can pull down anybody, but i dont understand europe. Europe is strong. Do they have the wrong style because europe high end has been good. I have pvh on tonight, manny tree coe, because hes one of my sources not yours. What he is going to tell me oh, im sorry. Thats okay. I have no intention of trying to take him away from you as you seem to do with all of my sources but thats another conversation for another day. You do not have him, hes showing up in your conference though. Were going to get the definitive word from him. If you have been to the Tommy Hilfiger in europe its the pinnacle pinnacle of like if you go to their madison avenue its a killer store. The people wait outbefore it opens. You know, if you want to get into the social life i did not know that. Lets talk about the broader market. You saw stocks right now at least futures not looking for very much. But youre in the midst of the four day winning streak. We erased all the losses from the selloff last week. One big down day we had. Later today, the fed is due to release minutes of the may policy meeting. Meantime, moodys downgrading chinas Credit Rating for the first time in almost 30 years. It sees the financial strength of the chinas economy eroding some. China and a rise in debt is not a new thesis. Theyre awash in debt in that country. Now they push back vigorously on that. We find a way to actually use the capacity we are creating. We are not just creating idle capacity. They do have good reserves so, you know, always i was watching the sara wilf show. Swilf. And sara said she read a note of a noted adviser, this is another blah blah blah from another blah blah blah downgrade and wilf said this is full grown sarcasm about the downgrade. The reason is that the chinese have a controlled economy. And so its difficult to get a real read on what how impoverished they are. I look at the alibaba quarter. The ten cent quarter, the jd quarter. The wee bow quarter. They have companies that are doing unbelievably extremely well. They though in the Financial Sector have companies that are not particularly transparent. Im thinking of on baun the one that disappeared . Chairman wu, they sell a lot of the they sell a lot of the products that have a high return, a death benefit, can be shorter duration. Then theyre buying Long Duration assets. Are you serious, do you know who did that . Some of the major corporations here. When you talk about china it depends on who youre talking to and theyre those who are worried will focus on the proliferation of the Wealth Management products through the banks. A lot unregulated or at the very least, not quantified fully. I come back to the middle class classification of china and how tim cook from apple and many of the auto market, how ford mark fields did not have in the Fastest Growing market he did not have good exposure versus general motors. Gm a hedge fund is trying to do something, i dont know what. Coming up for a vote. China is an enigma. Others have said that. If we dont if we actually laugh and scoff at the debt situation thats when you know it will come back to bite us. Im glad you brought it up. Because theyre spending fortunes to try to keep their government in. Yes. And they do spend a lot more in infrastructure as a percentage of gdp than we do. They have to. They have close to a Million People dying every year of respiratory illness thats not a thing that the communist Party Leadership can afford. Thats why theyre out front in a lot of things involving the environment. Including solar that downgrade did nothing to the equity markets but its worth noting. As for bringing it back here home, jim, what were now cussed focused on this morning, we got the Budget Proposal yesterday. The president continues to be abroad, meeting with the pope and others. The pope gave him a book on climate change. What are the chances are that hell read that . I dont know. Thats i dont know. Its on his reading list right now. Could be anything. Maybe the art of the deal. Rereading that. His budget was the beginning, that was the opening of the deal. Opening deal. Yeah. Kind of like heres my deal. Nothing. Im surprised he didnt make the senators pay the casino license. Yeah. Hes still talking deals, certainly one between the israels and the palestinians was one yesterday. Back to here. Washington figures so prominently in the way that people are thinking about things. In the conversations i have had with a number of Investment Managers over the last day, they seem to just kind of be moving along, things are going to be okay here. Paul ryan said im not looking for tax reform anymore but well be fine on earnings. It seems to be more of the same. The only thing that im thinking about with taxes was that incredible number from intuit. That is their quickbooks. They are an amazing company. Brad smith using Artificial Intelligence, largely from sales force, has crushed the competition. Theyre using einstein 33 billion company. Its going to be up today. Theyre using einstein, h r block is using watson. Right now einstein is killing watson. Although Artificial Intelligence, the game of go was won by a computer versus the champion. Ai power did win. Because they learned while its massive computing power. A lot of computer power david, theyre learning faster than we are. Well talk about ai and how long we have to survive as a civilization and species, but first to jeff bezos. Hell make sure hell survive. Hes the guy who created things what an incredible outfit hes got. Hes got another message for amazon shareholders after a record setting year for the stock. Well show you amazons new store. Yes, a store front here in new york. Take another look at the futures. We have a lot more squawk on the street from post 9 after this. Are you ok . What happened . Dad kinda walked into my swing. Huh . Dont you mean dad kind of ruined our hawaii fund . I thud go to the thothpital. There goes the airfair. I dont think Health Insurance will cover all. Of that. Buth my fathe without that cash from aflac we might have to choose between hawaii or your face. Hawaii what . Haha. Hawaii you might have less coverage than you think. Visit aflac. Com and keep your lifestyle healthy. Aflac i cant wait for her to have that College Experience that i had. The classes, the friends, the independence. And since we planned for it, that student debt is the one experience, im glad shell miss when you have the right financial advisor, life can be brilliant. Ameriprise amazon shareholders have many reasons to smile. The stock has hit record highs and risen 38 just over the last 12 months, but at the annual meeting yesterday, jeff bezos cautioned against complacency. He said we cant rest on our laurels and noting that amazon has seen four president s during the existence as a company and that under all of them, customers have liked low prices, fast delivery and vast selection. Vast selection has only gotten delivery. The delivery has only gotten faster, but im not sure the prices have gotten lower. No. Those who have prime feel like they have gotten in. Something i bought some on prime, and some heads at the Department Stores have said you know ours are lower . Just to do a little plug for them, that credit card offer you get 5 off on everything you buy on amazon. Some people call it am azin. Theyre opening a bookstore at the time warner center. Dont you think the irony after wiping out the bookstores. By the way, in a space that borders hat. I went to the home of the great turn around, turn around artist whos now running ford. Okay . Because remember he turned around that Athletic Program who was just huge, harbaugh, i think its important to point out, he turned around the michigan program. By the way, at the bookstore he wiped out borders. I remember speaking to borders, they had a bookstore at the university of michigan where the guy from ford turned around the program and that guy joseph, the guy who ran it and said, amazon cannot wipe us out, because people want to go to the temple of learning. They want to go to the bookstore. Well, amazon was ultimately right. It was not borders bookstore theyre going to. And the temple of learning is on your phone to a certain extent. But its interesting. Its in some ways it sounds like a wine store. Everything will have reviews under it. Tell you more about what amazon like parker ratings . Now this gets a 98 from david faber. Thats right. But they theyre basing it much more on the algorithm. Right. If you like this. Then here are 400 other books youll like. I guess some people buy books. You did that great special. I mean, do they do this as for irony or doing it to be able to say, look, heres a human sample. Were going to match that against the algorithm . I think data is so important for this company. This is not something to make money in itself the store itself. But its something they can do i think that they think will be beneficial to the brand and beneficial to their ever increasing need to take in data and see how it goes. We have talked about the possibility of other store fronts for amazon and other areas. Dont forget that cashless thing lets go full circle. Shouldnt walmart have an edge with all of the stores and the 100 million shoppers, shouldnt they have an edge over amazon in that walmart has the best fleet of stores in the world. Walmart was well ahead when it came to technology. Remember data. I remember from the first from my first documentary that strawberry poptarts, when a hurricane is coming they notice a they know to stock up on the strawberry poptarts in the stores because people like them. They were well ahead of it. And Jerry Seinfeld said he thought the poptart was the greatest he said that was a breakout in his house. Seinfeld im talking about the wrapper. The pack of poptarts. Did you know that hackett turned around the university of michigan Athletic Program. Do you know how big that is versus ford . This morning, moving on actually to other things that are not quite as jolly, this morning we are remembering our good friend mark haines. He passed away six years ago today. Mark of course the founding anchor of squawk box and a coanchor of squawk on the street. We remember mark for his knowledge, his wit, for being a champion of the small investor and his steady hand of course during the dotcom bubble. 9 11. The financial crisis as well. He called the stock market bottom of 2009 and we call it here as the haines thought. Our thoughts are with his wife and his daughter on a sad day for us all. I love how usaa gives me the peace of mind and the security just like the marines did. At one point, i did change to a Different Company with car insurance, and i was not happy with the customer service. We have switched back over and we feel like were back home now. The process through usaa is so effortless, that you feel like youre a part of the family. I love that i can pass the membership to my children, and that they can be protected. Were the williams family, and were usaa members for life. Call usaa today to talk about your insurance needs. That was some video from Vistra Energy which is coming public here i believe is it coming public, vst, here at the nyse. Lets get to the mad dash as we count down to the opening bell. You have mentioned it very briefly, but its worth getting into it a bit more. Absolutely. Heres another thing that you stress that is not talked enough on the network or anywhere else. We dont talk about the gig economy. Well, brad smith, the ceo of intuit says the gig economy is behind a lot of their growth. Thats 34 of people who are selfemployed. What does he bring up . Who are the kind of tax returns theyre doing . The people who work at uber, lyft, doordash. Task rapid. 60 Million People coming through quickbooks and this gig econgoing to 43 is who theyre picking up. And you know the actual tax return business is flat. But what i find amazing this is the shift economy is what i call it. We have at bar san miguel, they want to work 6 00 to 8 00, thats all they want. Or drive a cab a fantastic book by adam he shinsky, about uber. These are the people who are looking for some sort of way to keep their taxes. And theyre not traditional taxpayers. Again, revenue is up 10 to 2. 541 billion. The quote from brad smith this was another Strong Quarter for intuit with a hard fought tax season. What does that mean . Because the government is trying to crack down on the people who submit your return, to get your money, thats how they find out its you, not someone scamming you. Salesforce. Com set up the Artificial Intelligence stuff thats made it so that they have this step up. H r block is struggling everyone is struggling versus intuit. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, gig economy, in other words, were nothing. Were nothing. By the way on all of those fronts with well talk more about the vision fund and nvidia when we come back. You also saw brad smith who will join us in the next hour. He is . Hes so cool. Hes really great. How did you get him . Thats one of my guys. Who took him . I dont know. He always comes on mad money. Hard fought hes can thats outrageous. But we have three guests tonight. Maybe i couldnt fit brad. Got the opening bell a few minutes away. 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