Welcome to Worldwide Exchange. Im sara eisen im wilfred frost very good morning to you from me as well. Nice to hear coldplay. Im having some sound issues. Thank you for telling me that. Thats probably while they snuck in a wilfred frost choice band you know i wouldnt approve the british band i like coldplay. After a quiet session on wall street yesterday, the dow ended fairly positive. Small moves on the major averages this morning notable strength. Dow futures up 71 points s p up 6 1 2, nasdaq futures are up 20 points well get the minutes from the last fed meeting today after a batch of data in the u. S. Economy yesterday that was pretty decent. As for the tenyear treasury note yield higher yields and a bit of a stronger dollar for a change is what we saw in yesterdays session. 2. 28 is the yield on the tenyear watch the yields and the dollar. The dollar near a threeweek high thats starting to get the attention of wall street maybe a little pressure relief for some european stocks that have been hit by the stronger euro we just had some data internationally. Before we get to that, asian equities are higher. Apart from the nikkei, slightly lower. Shanghai slipping slightly lower. Hong kong and south korea are up nicely a lot of smaller Southeast AsianEconomy Markets are up european boards for you, higher today. They were slightly higher yesterday. Much higher on monday. They extended some of their gains. France up 1 italy up a percent we just had some gdp data come through, 0. 6 in the second quarter. 2. 2 compared to the year over year number. Thats just about in line with forecasts. We had some uk unEmployment Data earlier, which was better than expected, coming in at 4. 4 . Expecting it to be 4. 5 . Across the board, gains for european markets seeing strength in oil prices early this morning api report from the industry showed a big drop in crude supplies well see if that translates into the Government Data today that has helped to strabli istah price of oil wti trading at 47. 82 brent is up further. 51. 17. Mention the currencies keep an eye on the u. S. Dollar lets go to the dollar board especially the dollar versus the yen. Weve seen a big move up in the last few sessions. 110. 91 different story than last week risk aversion, that pair going the other way. This fueled a rise in stocks globally the dollar is also a tad firmer against the euro not much to speak of there 117. 31 the pound is coming become a bit. 1. 2898 big deal the statement around the borders with northern ireland, as far as brexit terms are laid out potentially theres still a long way to go on all sides of that negotiation. The pound is stronger because of that slightly stronger than expected Employment Data bank of england blog posts pointing to risks in lending in the auto market, which is worth pointing out something were feeling here as well ill show you gold quickly as well ge gold has slid this week. Down 0. 3 . Its all about bitcoin well swap that one day instead of gold. We should we should all have bought it at the start of the year. Painful that we didnt how about nine years ago when we first started talking about it maybe not nine years ago. I think theres a good clip of me on a Previous Network ugh stop talking about it. Before anyone heard bitcoin there was no life before cnbc President Trump doubling down on his initial response to charlottesville in an explosive back and forth with reporters yesterday. The president once again said all sides are to blame for saturdays violence in virginia. I do think theres blame. Yes, i think theres blame on both sides you look at both sides, i think theres blame on both sides. I have no doubt about it you dont have any doubt about it either. Only and if you reported it accurately, you would say it yesterdays xhep s comments were a reversal of a carefully crafted statement he made earlier this week regarding the kkk and neonazi groups. A clear sign of where he went off script very much off script garnered huge attention. If you were on twitter after that press conference or during that press conference, this i think theres a lot of outrage any time President Trump speaks, just because hes so different and doesnt speak in the typical washington language. But this one especially. That sort of doubling down on the failure to denounce in the harshest terms possible groups like white supreme cyst suprem kkk surprised a lot of team. He does himself no favors with moments like that whatever his true belief is, clearly theres better ways to go about this. Really doing himself no favors lots of comments, including the comment asked how will you improve Race Relations hes saying all about jobs either way, as you say, its very hard to focus on the agenda thats not what they were meant to be talking about. I wonder what republicans will do in reaction. Weve been monitoring what Business Leaders are doing thats our primary focus of this story from charlottesville the president s comments coming as more Corporate Leaders distance themselves from the white house. Late yesterday the head of the a fsha aflcio, Richard Trumka resigned from trumps Manufacturing Council. In a tweet he said i cannot sit on a council for a president that tolerates d s bigotry and domestic terrorism he joins the ceos of merck, under armour, intel and the head of the alliance for american manufacturing. They all stepped down from the president s council this week. Others like elon musk announced their departures long before the issue vims violence in charlottesville. Travis kalanick did it early on after some immigration policies. This speaks to a new corporate culture, conscious, perhaps, and rer may raise questions for the ceos who stay on board. With a Republican Leadership, you expect business to be involved in that discussion. This is lettening their potential influence there. That said, its important to come back to letting you know the market was basically flat yesterday. Its clearly not derailed the markets this week. And the bottom line, the key thing to watch for the market and the economy is the relationship with republican senators and congressmen thats what will really depend on shape the agendagenda he did have ceo support he had whether it was photoopes, genuine discussion about policy issues, they were on board they were optimistic we would take some of those parades into the house best business administration, sentiment is high, confidence is high they were on board to work on some of these issues the president called them grandstanders, said there are plenty of others, well see. If he appoints other ceos, well see what that looks like and crafting this report walmarts Doug Mcmillan in a letter to employees mcmillan say as we watch the events President Trump over the weekend, we felt the president missed a critica opportunity to bring our country together by rejecting the appalling actions of White SupremacistsLawrence Summers will be on at 10 30 this morning. He was on fire yesterday morning tweeting out some pieces, calling on ceos and their moral conscious to do this, to step away we look forward to that interview. Who else you are looking forward to joining us on squawk on the street today . Andy puzder you missed my point i know, wells fargo joining squawk on the street. Did you forgetthat . Doesnt care either way. A big supporter of President Trump. Was set to join his administration well ask him about whether he can relate to some of the ceos that are stepping down i have a feeling the answer is no well look forward to that. Both of us wilfred frost is the main event of squawk on the street today. Despite the ongoing fallout from this past weekends events, tax reform is still on track heres what gary cohn said yesterday afternoon. We hope we can get taxes down between now and thanksgiving we would like to get infrastructure going as soon as tax comes out of the house and into the senate. Well put infrastructure into the house. He said we have a great skelton for tax reform and he wasnt sure where healthcare would end up. The focus of the white house today is on trade. Robert lighthizer will meet his mexican and canadian counterparts in washington to kick off nafta renegotiations. The white house says the first round will be quite ambitious, it will take a tailored approach to trade deficit with each country. Ful with wells fargo announcing some changes to the board Stephen Sanger will be stepping down by the end of this year former fed governor Elizabeth Duke will be replacing him Cynthia Milligan and Susan Swenson will also be stepping down you spoke to the youll going and incoming chairs last night the main takeaway the first point is the reason for the timing of this announcement, both were adamant it was not a Quick Reaction to the recent declaration from the company that the time frame of the crossselling scandal is being extended nor that they knew the new issues in auto lending the timing is a response to the poor set of votes from the april agm. More interesting is i asked duke whether she was confident that wells fargos recent turmoil was behind the company she says its hard to say. Were finding the better we get at digging, the better we get at Risk Management, the more issues we might identify. Over time the new information revealed will lessen, but its not to say we have found everything i followed up and asked if they are halfway through the troubles she said i dont know. She separately said her own 75 approval vote at the agm was unacceptable and would rise by next year. These changes are happening. Is it all behind them . The new incoming chair lady seems to think not which is interesting and maybe risky. Particularly we have the 10q filing where they announced this new auto lending issue we saw the share price react about 3 down initially. By the end of the day down about a percent. I my personal take is this is at least as significant as that. Tim sloan, the ceo said many times, were past the worst of this were moving forward thats not the view of the incoming chair lady. Does it take some of the political pressure off the board that he resigned i remember Elizabeth Warren and others were still going after this company and this board for some of these practices. I think it does they have now made changes to the board. You could argue theyve been quite slow but, you know, slowly but surely they have made the necessary changes that you would think you would like to see. A lot of the board got poor votes in that agm thing. Thats the share olders view. They replaced three of them. So a couple members who got in the 50 to 60 of votes are still on the board im sure there will be calls for further changes down the line. In their defense, you dont want to change the whole board at once theres ongoing processes that need to be carried out i think thats why theres three changes at the moment. Theres higher yields, higher Interest Rates the big thing for wells fargo is their multiple has gone down. They got that big initial hit, and now its just changing around the edges well see if they have anything else to announce, i guess. Turning to todays wall street agenda july Housing Starts and Building Permits out at 8 30 a. M. Eastern at 2 00, minutes from last months fed meeting and on the earnings front, more retailers, target reports before the opening bell after the close we hear from Cisco Systems and l brands as far as yesterdays earnings, interesting reaction tj maxx showed continued strength home depot results were solid. The stock sold off and dragged down the dow which people were wondering about. Some concerns around amazon competition. But still continued weakness and bearish sentiment around some retailers. Coach, one of the turn around stories dropped. Dicks, cant even talk about that one that one in the face of better retail sales pixed picture on the consumer sales. Retail sales drove the dollar higher, but not the equity market manifested in macro moves. I think walmart on thursday will be key. This turned around and has seen strength in ecommerce well see what the spending patterns look like. Still ahead on Worldwide Exchange, a round up of the big stock movers including a double dose of activist activity. Those names next. And as we head to break, a check out on the action in europe were higher across the board. A strong day monday, slightly positive yesterday, strong day this wednesday gdp came in line with expectations, 0. 6 quarteronquarter who knew that phones would start doing everything . Entertaining us, getting us back on track, and finding us dates. Phones really have changed. So why hasnt the way we pay for them . Introducing xfinity mobile. You only pay for data and can easily switch between pay per gig and unlimited. No one else lets you do that. See how much you can save. Choose by the gig or unlimited. Xfinity mobile. A new kind of network designed to save you money. Call, visit or go to xfinitymobile. Com. Good morning welcome back to Worldwide Exchange. Essentially flat across u. S. Markets we were this positive this time yesterday and we didnt end with gains by the close were up by 0. 2 47 points on the dow a quick look at the oil. Soft on monday stabilized yesterday didnt do too much up a bit today the broader dollar index was up, 0. 4 coming away this week because of lesser fears, just coming away from the dollar trend from the last couple weeks. Today the dollar is higher against the yen, flat against the euro the pound is bouncing a bit after decent unEmployment Data the aussie dollar is nicely strong today up 0. 6 signs there that Wage Inflation has bottomed stocks to watch today. Elliott management raising its stake in bhb billiton to 5 . In april they forced bhp to sell all or most of its shale business bhp has declined comment on the latest news. Akzo nobel has reached a truce with elliott management. Akzo nobel will give elliott seats on its board if elliott supports the new ceo and the plan to spin off the Specialty Chemicals business this news comes after elliott tried to push akzo nobel into a deal with ppg. Maersk reporting a loss. The cyberattack that disrupted operations in june will cost between 200 million and 3 300 million. Thats the same one that cost mondelez as well the federal trade commission asked clariant and huntsman for more information on their merger the chemicalmakers are still confident they can close by the end of year. Bristolmyers says its combination drug to treat an advanced form of Kidney Cancer failed to meet a late stage goal it is down 3. 7 this morning Kansas City Southern is raising its Quarterly Dividend from 33 cents to 36 cents a share. The Railroad Operator is launching an 8 800 million stock buyback. Up next, Fiat Chrysler making a big bet on selfdriving cars and looking to a rival for help. First as we head to break, the National Weather forecast from bill karins good wednesday morning to you. Watching this complex of thunderstorms into nebraska. Already reports of flash flooding this will cause problems throughout the day we think this line of storms could produce Severe Weather today near kansas city and towards st. Joseph, maybe even des moines and ames. So. 5 mi so 4. 5 Million People under a slight risk of storms. Damaging wind and hail is the biggest concerns these storms will continue on thursday afternoon, and then that will be in the midwest. By friday afternoon, these storms will get into areas of the northeast, which will cause some travel delays not so much Severe Weather but travel problems. Still hot texas to oklahoma. Typical storms down along the gulf coast tayod more Worldwide Exchange when we come back cascade platinum powers through. Even burnton gravy. Nice. Cascade. They call him the whisperer. The whisperer . Why do they call him the whisperer . 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S p up 6, nasdaq up 17 this after the dow finished higher yesterday just barely, the s p and nasdaq finished lower. Tech was strong in terms of some of the s p sectors utilities were strong as well. Sort of a mixed bag. Better retail sales helped yields and the u. S. Dollar bitco bitcoin, theres so much interest in this crypt ocurrenc. 4143, up more than 300 so far the question is, is it still a trade or a longterm investment have we missed the initial i dont know whats more painful looking at a chart thats risen and youve not been inv