deals is that they exist for 15 or 20 years and then get undone. history of big industrial companies whether they are in telecom or companies like general electric they decide they don't want to own content. just saying. >> sound like michael wolf. >> thanks for watching. "closing bell" starts right now. hi everybody welcome to "closing bell." i'm kelly evans at the new york stock exchange. >> i'm michael santoli in for bill griffith. stocks of at&t and time warner moving lower on concernathize $85 billion deal may not be approved by regulators. we have every angle covered. fighting words from ceo of t mobile this morning. t mobile up 9% today. another big day td ameritrade is buying scotttrade

financial in a $4 billion deal. ceo will join us in a few minutes. and why the etf market may be getting a bit too hot. >> and after the bell outrage over the pentagon pushing afghanistan and iraq war veterans to pay back enlistment bonuses. we'll have details coming up. we begin with full team coverage of the blockbuster buyout of time warner by at&t. eamon javers is covering regulation. julia boorstin, let's start with you. >> this is a vertical deal through directv and uverse tv services and perhaps more important its 133 million u.s. mobile subscribers. time warner ceo saying all of at&t's data will enable the company to create more content

that consumers want and create ads that work. >> there's going to be basically more effective advertising. it won't be as disruptive. you will have more efficiency. that means more cost of great programming being made on tv can be advertising that is useful to you rather than something you are not interested in. >> reporter: at&t ceo randall stevenson says time warner will enable true innovation of new platforms and video experiences in a way that at&t couldn't when it was just licensing content. >> the world of distribution content is converging and we need to move fast. if we want to-do something truly unique, begin to format content differently for mobile environments this is all about mobility. >> reporter: stephenson says if the vertical strategy works others will follow.

there definitely seems to be advantages of scale in the crowded media landscape. >> i will take it there. stay with us. let's bring in eamon javers from d.c. what kind of regulatory scrutiny does this deal face? >> you heard julia talking about the vertcality of the particular deal. randall stephenson mentioned that this morning. he telegraphed the argument that you are going to be hearing from at&t and from time warner as they go through the regulatory process. here it is. >> it's a vertical integration. it's a big merger. it is a vertical integration. as you think about the areas that have been contentious in our industry and jeff's industry they have been horizontal mergers where the government was concerned about a competitor tlmpt are no competitors being taken out of the market place. we compete nowhere. >> just how concerned will the government be?

we will start to find out as we go through the process that begins with the filings we are expecting to see laying out details of the merger. later on we see possible filings with the fcc if the companies decide to go that route. that is going to be an interesting decision point. i'm told the filings are not imminent. on capitol hill we will see a hearing on the senate side in front of the senate subcommittee on antitrust. that hearing will be in november. that will be a big public platform for the companies to make that argument that there is no competition here being taken out. this is a populist year in terms of the election cycle. there is real skepticism here in washington over whether this merger is a good idea. >> sanders against it, trump against it. now for a look at the ripple effects this could have on the tech landscape and tech companies. >> this is the start of a new wave of media change where

content is at stake. big tech may be the driver. google, amazon and facebook are starting to look like media companies streaming and creating their own content. they are starting to look like getting into the bread and butter distribution business from financing under sea cables to satisfy their own band width needs or offering ultrahigh speed internet as google fiber already does. they are fighting back. this at&t bidding for time warner, verizon smaller deals for yahoo and aol. with tech, telco and media playing in the same sand box they may start competing for the same assets. in a consolidating media landscape you are likely to see big tech giants enter the fray. >> i have just a simple question which is if you go back to the

fact that time warner spun out of time warner cable why does it make sense for time warner to be part of a phone company instead of a cable one if we are talking about distribution? >> i flip that around. i would say time warner spun off time warner cable. time has changed and now what we are looking at changing media landscape where there are so many different ways to get content to your home. i think that one of the challenges right now for media companies is that there are questions about the future of the tv bundle. some of the channels that used to get paid a lot of money for distribution won't be included in some of the packages. if you want to guarantee that you are going to be able to bring content direct to consumers as they do with hbo now and they also are going to figure out ways to innovate and maybe do over the top packages or skinny bundles.

they want to make sure all channels are part of that. i think times have just really changed. time warner is a perfect example of a company that spun off everything extraneous. they got rid of aol and time warner cable. >> this is evidence of that. thanks everybody. appreciate it. there with the latest on this mega deal. >> not to mention the time from time warner. let's get to closing bell exchange. the dow is up about 80 points. david wadell. peter costa of empire executions and holly list from the cme in chicago. kind of a noisy start to things in terms of the rest and kind of a gentle reaction in the market. joaea you have earnings coming in. what is capturing your attention as the market sits here? >> i am paying attention to inflation. i think we have seen a change in

direction. i think inflation is starting to arise around the planet in a good way, in a healthy way and i think that with inflation ticking higher that will be good cover for the fed to raise interest rates in december which would be good for the financials. i think if we add more inflation and more nominal gdp and pricing power and better earnings. i'm pretty bullish as we get past this election which may be a foregone conclusion. i think you are picking up some of the spirits surrounding the view with what we are seeing today. >> what are you watching in the market? >> i have to say i wasn't thinking about inflation that much. after listening to david's point i kind of agree. i think what we are seeing and this is a good thing you starting to see companies put money to work in mergers and acquisitions. i think that is a better strategy than buying back

shares. as a broker you say everyone loves a buy back. i think it is a waste of money. if you -- companies will go out and seek partners or seek trying to eliminate competition. granted that is not what america stands for but the reality is if you want to build your company and you want to grow your company there is really only two strong ways to do it, merge with somebody or buy with somebody or spend more money on research and development. we are not seeing r&d money being spent but we see money being spent on buying competitors. >> a lot of that money is in the form of ocheap debt. when you hear this talk of maybe inflation expectations, there are a lot of reports that the markets are telling governments around the world do more fiscal spending yet we have the fixed income complex out there really sticking in its range. we are not seeing yields balloon higher. what is your read on how that market is set up? >> you are right.

we haven't seen the inflation. i'm not really paying attention to that that much here y. dhoent ig it is a concern for the fed at this point. we are seeing yields in a range bound market here but tending to drift a bit higher. we are seeing that today. i think that could continue to about 1.9% in ten year space. if you look at the inflation numbers such as pce which will be out a week from today it hasn't been above 2% since i believe 2012. even then it was just a small spike. i think what is going to be more on their radar is labor that they really haven't seen it pick up as much as they would like f. you look at where it was a year ago now the unemployment rate is at the same point as where it was a year ago. if you look at pay roll numbers they are declining year over year. in 2014 i believe they were 250. last year i think 2.25.

i think that is more of a concern for them than the inflation numbers. if you look at the index it is languishing. you can call it a dead cap bounce. >> going back to your point. i'm thinking about when we typically see mega deals it is like the skyscraper index. they tend to happen at the later stages. does that fit with what you talking about? what does it mean for these companies financing these buyouts with incredibly cheap debt? >> if we are in the later stage of the cycle which i think we are which might be the last quarter of this bull market that would be awesome. what happens is you get to the euphoria moment which we haven't seen. i would be very happy. i'm harkining back to the last cycle. i know that is not something we want to talk about. you go back to '05 the market didn't peak until late '07. this could be the beginning of the end. you want to be in the market

mostly in the first and last of the advance. we are not seeing it on the ipo side. so i don't think it is ubiquitous throughout the market. i think you seeing people kind of grasping for growth. just real quickly on the fed. bull rd came out and said we will raise rates once which is december for face saving purposes and sit on the sidelines. i hope that becomes the default view. i think that would reconcile with the last comments. >> just in terms of this lack of skuberance we have had this market sitting here. how do you think the field position looks at this point in terms of which way it breaks? >> what we have seen is you have seen these new highs. we have spoken how you will see the new highs but on lackluster volume. you never see the breakout. i think we are going to that point where we will see that. is it the retail money coming in more? i'm not sure about that because

that theory you would think that would have happened already. i think we will see something at some point. i think we are in the later stages of this bull market. it could be six months or a year and a half but we are at the latest stages of it. >> thank you for joining us here this hour. so much news to get through. we still have 45 minutes to go into the close. the dow is hanging on to a gain. the s&p is up 9. transports are up. nasdaq up 47. >> td ameritrade ceo coming up. and etf death watch. we will discuss the overprouded market and which ones could survive the coming shakeout. you are watching cnbc, first in business world wide.

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let's get comfortable with our food again. mike, you have a new piece about the overcrowded etf market saying there are hundreds on death watch right now. >> i would say etf death watch is a website that does exist. it looks at the number of funds that are vulnerable to closure based on the number of assets they have and the trading volume that they tend to do. that is about 400 funds out of 1,700 in existence. i wouldn't say they are going away tomorrow but it does show you that the successful market with 1,700 funds has grown to a point where it is very crowded, very difficult to get noticed with a new fund. the top ten funds, the largest funds control more than a quarter of etf assets. you are basically reduced to i

think somewhat more highly engineered funds either embodying a strategy. i think for investors it's not so much a terrible thing to have a lot of funds to choose from. they are all cheap and efficient. it is a matter of making sure you don't get cluttered up. >> what happens if you own a fund that is going extink? >> you will get the cash and securities and exchange? it is not that much of a hazard. about 100 funds have gone away. i think you have a smart movement where you are talking about investment strategies or factors that are wrapped into an etf. that will be a big deal and take market share. the problem is not all of them will take off. we talked about low volatility etf. it is almost a victim of its own popularity because it almost itself became very volatile and the stocks became somewhat overvalued. >> on the structure side of it because they have been tested a couple of times does that mean

there is further problem to come? >> i don't know that that is something you can predict. i think they are vulnerable to the liquidity mismatches and funds are more liquid. i think it is much more about a kind of buyer beware situation and know what you own. >> good point. find out more on cnbc pro. td ameritrade looking to acquire scott trade financial. tim hockey jones us here for a first on cnbc interview. >> it has a lot of physical offices where people can walk in off the street. what are you going to do with that real estate and how much of a factor was that? >> that is one of the great things with this deal. we are quite thrilled to combine with the physical presence. largely a scale play. what the founder realized was that he wanted to partner up with a larger firm and take advantage of many investments we made in our technology,

platforms, leading edge tools and products. at the same time we get to accommodate the 500 branches he had, add that to the 100 branches that td ameritrade has. over the course of integration we will consolidate to around 450. we are not going to leave any markets but will make sure that we have the right locations in the right markets to serve both the scotttrade clients. we think of it as high tech. >> this market was already pretty consolidated. you had the big four that you guys become bigger. what does it mean for the customer? what basis are you competing on? there is not a lot of we have cheaper commissions than the other guy. what is it that you are selling? >> a great lead into what we believe what he wanted was an

opportunity to take advantage of the investments. so when you look at the tools that we have, the plat forms, products, services and you compare it against the existing client eveb though the price point is a little bit cheaper, a couple of bucks per trade our retail clients trade about 50% more than the scotttrade clients. the reason for that is we have greater degree of educational offerings. we have more sophisticated platforms. and that provides an enormous value that our clients are more than happy to pay a couple bucks more per trade for. >> you think people might be looking for an atm? >> that does happen every day. >> i'm wondering if you have a platform. 600,000 or so average daily -- >> nearly a trillion in client assets. >> once we see a deal start to

happen about there being four big players, is it done yet? is there a sense of is that enough scale? do you expect deals that might answer to this or that you might further be involved with? >> there was a large scale industry consolidation and then abated for a few years. my predecessor would say we were in at the seventh inning. you can say we are in the eighth or ninth inning now. there does seem to be perhaps a few opportunities for consolidation. i'm here to talk about the scott trade deal today. >> how can you be sure you are in the right place for what might be the next generation of investors? there is a whole mini industry as well as apps for trading for free whether that takes off or not. how do you know you will be able to capture that younger generation? >> nobody ever knows but we are certainly investing to make sure

we do. last quarter we announced the launch. it is going to be called central portfolio. but we are also investing in even more cutting edge technologies whether it be using amazon echo to be able to talk to td ameritrade. we think we will be well positioned to service the millennial client of the future. >> look for renaming to happen? >> there will be rebranding to be the td ameritrade center in st. louis. >> we'll see how st. louis handles that. >> boston has done okay with it. >> tim hockey is ceo of td ameritrade. we have about 37 minutes left before the bell. we have the dow up about 70 points. s&p up not quite half of one percent. everyone is talking about the at&t time warner deal, t mobile deals up nearly 10% on

the back of its earnings. more on what is behind the move higher. be sure to catch our exclusive interview with brian cornell tomorrow right here on "closing bell." you tell your insurance company

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share. it is 4.2% premium. ocean wide is privately held. the chinese investment firm says it will continue to run as stand alone company. the shares falling 8% to 4.79. blackstone group is higher. the investment firm selling roughly 25% stake to china. this time for $6.5 billion or 25 a share. 15% higher than hilton's closing price. the deal sends the stake to about 21%. >> t mobile among biggest gainers today after reporting better than expected quarterly profits. morgan brennan has the details. >> t mobile hiking full year forecast as wireless carrier expected to add more subscribers than anticipated. t mobile has been aggressively slashing prices. in light of one such competitor, at&t's proposal to buy time

warner ceo never one to mince words saying that company is, quote, bleeding but the deal is exciting for t mobile, as well. >> first of all, they already donate 50% of all my customer growth. they are going to be even more distracted and focussed on this within five years i will be a bigger wireless company than they are to begin with. it will accelerate our growth. we are highly profitable moving in this. i own 70 million customers and growing that i manage on the fastest network that i am moving to 5 g. >> another topic in focus, the samsung galaxy note 7 recall saying it had been flying off the shelves before that recall but that samsung is taking appropriate actions and will be fine. if you take a look at shares of t mobile they are up almost 10%. one funny note on the ledger quipping on the call that nevl ray was not wearing pants,

something he apparently vowed to do if the stock hit 50. it crossed 50 today and is trading at multi year highs. >> okay. i have no confirmation. >> it's interesting that this might be used as under pinnings at the at&t deal. verizon results were weak relative to what we expect. look what t mobile and sprint are doing. >> basically a zero sum market. basically a saturated market. they are net winners. also a lot of talk that t mobile could be a player in whatever consolidation happens next. >> and we have seen that with t mobile in past years, too. lord knows they have been adding to their air wave and they are believed to be very actively bidding in the current broadcast option that is taking place. just going back to your point.

verizon, a key metric that those numbers were disappointing. and at&t when they reported the earnings over the weekend also reporting that subscriber losses. when you see the strong numbers with t mobile you see where it is going. >> we'll see if he can be bigger in the next couple of years. >> what happens if the stock gets to 100? >> i don't want to know. morgan, thank you. we have time for a cnbc news update. >> here is what is happening. a new study finds doctors are prescribing the wrong kinds of antibiotics for science infections and sore throats. for the first time egypt and the russians are holding joint military drills on egyptian soil. analysts say moscow is keen to open an air base in egypt a year

after a russian passenger jet was downed on its way back to st. petersburg possibly by a bomb. and does nothing phase joey logano. there it is right there on the side. speeds up to 150 miles per hour. he won the race. no word on whether the jack came off. girl scout cookie fans you will be able to eat your favorite cookies in breakfast form. girl scouts of america and general mills teaming up to create girl scouts cookie ser l cereal. >> do they still have cookie crisp. >> they do. i pass it every day. >> you just walk past. >> my kids don't need that much sugar. they love it. it's delicious but i walk right

past it. put the blinders on as you go down the cereal aisle. >> i think it is more about a snack. do you put it with a little yogurt and a little ice cream, those thin mints would pair pretty well in the evening. thank you. >> see you in an hour. less than a half hour left before the bell. we have the nasdaq still the lead on the day up 45 points. dow up 71. a leading trader will tell us what he is watching coming up next. we will speak with former commissioner about whether the mega merger could get regulatory approval still ahead on "closing bell." stay with us.

welcome back. kimberly-clark is in the red on heels of disappointing earnings. shares dropping. the 52-week low the consumer products company says it is confronting a challenging economic and competitive environment. kimberly-clark trimming to $6.05 a share from $6.15.

with less than a half hour to go here with steve grasso to talk about the walk into the close. a lot of deal chatter and excitement before the bell. kind of a tame rally. not as if we are buying everything with both hands. >> i think the market has been this way for quite a long time. we are looking forward to the fed. we saw the chances of a rate hike are up to 70% now. so there is the same things we have been saying but different. >> we think we know what the fed is going to do and what the election will be. >> people don't want to short stocks because they are afraid that money is cheap. companies can be bought out like we have seen three to four high profile takeouts. so they are afraid to get in front of the train. janet yellen mentioned she might see it warranted to buy equities in the last couple of weeks. so i totally get it. when people say why hasn't the market -- there is a host of reasons. >> when janet yellen says things

like that it has to be taken seriously. we all joked around. maybe it will exist. >> i doubt it. >> there is a host of reasons. >> we'll talk about it another time. >> thank you guys. at&t and time warner stocks both down today about 2% or 3% on news they will buy for $85.4 billion. the size has consumers wondering if they are about to get clobbered. the next guest says it may not face that much regulatory scrutiny. joining us now is president and ceo of the wireless infrastructure association. welcome. >> thank you. >> see you don't think this is going to be blocked? >> you know, in the end i think it probably gets done but i don't think it will be pretty. there has been a lot of plitization of this. you have trump coming out against it and people who normally oppose the deals are making noise that people hear from usual public interest

groups. on the bottom line is it is not that strong of anti-trust case for doj. the question is does politics overcome what it would normally be fairly normal review process. >> let's go to the point raised by bernie sanders who said this would raise cost for consumers and be a bad deal. does he have a point? >> i don't think costs really are the issue that regulators will look at. the question is whether or not they can somehow use their position in an anti'competitive fashion. given the amount of competition in wireless and broadband, the fact that at&t doesn't dominate there it is hard to see whether they have a dominant position to use it given the vast amount of information and data that is available that the time warner content isn't overwhelming from a sort of market competition

analysis. if you are going to do a real market analysis as opposed to politicizing this. it gets tougher when it is media merger and gets a lot more scrutiny. >> the ceos of both companies trying to persuade investors that this is a brilliant idea, that there are ways to leverage these businesses together in a somewhat unique way. do regulators listen and try to figure out exactly how the assets could be deployed in such a way that gives the company an advantage over competitors in. >> they certainly do. they are looking at whether or not those synergies are anti-competitive. take a look at advertising, that is not something that is of concern to regulators that they come up with innovative new ways. it might be of concern to some in the public community or others but not a competitive threat. the kinds of things they are talking about aren't really anti-competitive. >> jonathan, it was interesting

the way that politico played this which was this is going to be so great for d.c. because they will spend millions and millions of dollars on lobbying. reportedly the deal was supposed to not be announced until after the election. it is here and now everybody knows about it and it can become a political football and possibly beyond. is the amount of money spent on lobbying going to have a direct effect on the outcome here? >> look at comcast time warner. they spent an enormous amount of money investing for years on this process of working with public interest groups and investing and they end up getting denied. there will be a huge political food fight over this. i think that trump coming out against it just contributes to that. in the end what is doj going to do? the most important question is does the fcc get involved. they have much broader authority. i don't think they will get involved. i think that is why the deal stands a good chance.

there are only a handful of licenses that the fcc can dispute. they can just not take those through the merger process and go around entirely and then facing doj. so we have a lot of fighting, a lot of noise but in the end the substance of it is hard to oppose for doj. >> thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. 19 minutes left before the closing bell. we have the dow still building on mid day low. we have it up about 84 points. nasdaq still the leader with the tech stocks in the lead. reliability, that is what car buyers want most. we will tell you which auto makers top the list. >> and the pentagon under fire after reports it is forcing service men and women to repay enlistment bonuses. you might shake your head when you hear the details and they are still coming up.

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you see a moderate rally helped by news including this one aircraft interiors maker soaring.

the company agreed to be bought by rockwell collins which makes aircraft components. deal with worth about $6.4 billion. rockwell collins trading lower. >> this is going to involve improving media systems available on aircraft. >> exactly. internet connected seats. you can applaud that. consumer reports unveiling rankings of the most reliable cars and brands. phil lebeau, who is on top? >> this is a benchmark study buzz because it is based on responses of millions of people. the top three brands and this is note worthy not for who is number one and number two because we typically see lexus and toyota in the top three. it is number three, buick, the first time we have seen a domestic brand ranked in the top three by consumer reports in more than 35 years. buick has been steadily improving quality and this year they broke through to the top three.

who were the worst of the auto brands ranked by consumer reports. this is not a good day for fiat chrysler. it dominated the bottom of the list with ram rated worse right behind fiat and chrysler right behind dodge. one other note it is ranking individual vehicles, as well. sort of the subsets. what they have to say about the tesla model x was not encouraging. the model x rates as the sixth least reliable vehicle overall and lowest rated vehicle in terms of mid sized luxury suvs. those doors right there a main complaint and that is why the model x did not do well. we should point out that the model s which got poor marks last year actually moved up. we have tesla reporting third quarter earnings after the bell on wednesday. that's always one of those earnings reports that a lot of people like to tune in for not

just for the number but for the commentary from elon musk. >> i guess tesla might say first generation of this model we have a high degree in here. grade us on a curve maybe. >> they don't grade on a curve at consumer reports. that is what tesla is going to say. we reached out for a comment. they had no comment or we haven't heard back from them. we should say that elon musk has said too much complexity. we perhaps bit off a little too much. that is showing with teething problems they are having. >> is it normal for buick to do this well? >> it's normal lately for them to be near the top but the first time ever that we have seen any domestic brand in the top three. >> that's something we are celebrating. thanks, we'll see you later. rally today. 77 points higher on the dow and 47 higher on the nasdaq above

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welcome back. heading into the close we have

the dow holding on to most gains up to 77. >> 400 million for art cashin. >> joining us now talking more about the markets we have susan hunt from alpine funds. how is earnings season going in terms of things that you look for? >> for industrial standpoint having trouble with earnings. one of the stocks we like make tools for the industrial industry. the industrials are struggling in the top line which i think you have seen in other industries right now. >> where else are you looking in terms of good opportunities? >> we like timber reits. it's just under 4% yield. it's very interesting. that is also a consolidation story and divesting assets.

you need something with underlying story because everyone is struggling with top line. we are looking for companies that have some sort of way to increase earnings and dividends. >> what about the wave that we have seen evidence of today? does it filter into your process? >> it did today because we own be. that was also a company that had gotten knocked down when they got rid of the distribution business everybody thought there might be a deal then. the stock sort of suffered for a little while. that was picked up today. that is helpful for us. >> talking timber for a second. you get the income. you are producing assets. we have had that inflation issue raised before. is that on your mind? >> it would be helpful but i'm not backing that in. we are looking at housing recovery. you are starting to see lumber prices. osb prices are getting better.

so it is also a little bit of recovery in the housing market. you have the trade issue with canada. u.s. price kz go up a little bit and that will help them, as well. it is just a very big asset play. i'm not counting on inflation. >> haven't mentioned financials or banks. is that something that looks interesting at all. >> i find it a bit of a challenge given the fact that most central banks are not clear on whether or not interest policy will change. the ecb is talking about it but so far the change hasn't occurred. it is difficult for banks to make money in an environment with negative or flat rate curves. i think that is difficult on the business model standpoint. >> bill miller said it was super cheap. >> subprime consumer area which is good for the economy. >> thank you. good to see you. we'll have the closing count down. after the bell we will get earnings from visa today. many others coming in, too.

that is a bid to focus on. we will bring you numbers and instant analysis. keep it here. you are watching cnbc, first in business world wide.

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>> we had a pretty narrow trading range for the dow and s&p 500. we have been higher for the first time in several sessions. that is nice. the deal perhaps in the markets not enough to pull us out of the narrow range. volatility remains low and volume. >> the vix index, volatility index down to about 13. it is right in the middle of this range we have been in for a while. earnings seem to be coming in roughly as anticipated. >> exactly. so we have about 24% of the s&p 500 that reported. 78% beat analyst estimates for earnings much better than long term average of 64%. surprise factor is pretty high about double what we normally see. revenue not as strong. tomorrow is a huge day. we have caterpillar, p&g. apple at the end of the day. that is a really big one.

>> you did have the transports up today. it seems like these days either cyclical stuff works well or vice versa. that is keeping us in the zone. >> today is a little bit of risk on. we have the technology names moving us higher. telecom lower. we saw that movement from at&t on the back of the deal which has been a really big talker. t mobile had a nice move today. >> and sprint, as well. it is interesting because at&t had not so great earnings but then the big deal. td ameritrade not so great earnings. seems like you have a give and take. >> it is nice to see movement. hopefully investors are positioned nicely to make money in these days where we are still seeing low volatility. >> without a doubt. i did mention transports doing well. oil didn't do much of anything kind of just hanging in there. >> kind of similar to what we saw friday after an active day

on thursday. that mark seems to be the resistance level that we are hanging on to. >> energy stocks have been a leader year to date. i guess the question is has the market already had everything figured out? the fed, election, earnings. what is going to get us out of this range. >> i think we saw about a 70% chance or so that we are getting that break in december. scarier and crazier things have happened i guess to markets in recent months. >> financial stocks we should take a look at. they did get a bit of a bid. still not up to the 1.8 level. you is to wonder if we are in for some kind of boom the investment banks probably should make a little money. >> and had a pretty strong morning, as well. perhaps that sort of gave us some lead in to this morning. >> tomorrow it is all about the big earnings names.

i appreciate it. as we head into the close here at the stock exchange we have pim co realty celebrating anniversary and at the nasdaq the national cyber security alliance. and the second hour of "closing bell" is coming up. over to you, kelly. thank you, mike. welcome to "closing bell." i'm kelly evans. quite a rally here on wall street to kick off the week. merger monday. it's earnings galore. there is a ton of stuff going on. all said and done the dow up 75 points today. the same amount of increase for s&p 500 gaining half percent or nearly ten points and the nasdaq easily the strongest today up 1%. 52 points to close around 5309.

big cap tech names doing quite well. we are also waiting on visa ahead of earnings which we expect. and we will bring you those results as soon as they are out. and big banks including bank of america, chase, wells, morgue skpn citi are teaming up to take on money transfer apps like pay pal. those details are coming up. first on today's panel mr. cnbc senior markets commentator michael santoli joins me. rob cox is here and so is guy adami. it is great to see everybody. mike, how much is because of the deal news today? can you draw a line between the two? >> the actual companies involved in the deals did fought go up across the board. at&t and time warner, some related companies did. it seems if this was a market in search for a reason to get excited this would have been a good excuse. $100 billion worth of mergers

announced before the open. i would say it is partially responsible for the fact that the market held in there, did have modest gains. i do find it interesting that it was the large nasdaq 100 tech names thrks platform companies along with visa on the new york which basically they have the kind of scale and the kind of digital foot print that so many mergers are going after. >> it feels a little bit like fame. some of the all-time highs are out there including google, facebook, microsoft, adobe, pay pal and mastercard. >> the winners are doing well. the losers you look at at&t. this deal has taken a couple of points off of at&t. somehow we still go up. i think you are right. people are excited about the enthusiasm but only if you are in the right names. if you are one of the guys basically eating the lunches of the at&ts then you doing fine. if you are on the other side of

the trade it is a bummer. >> i want to bring up a point from brian reynold whose says stocks are still so cheap relative to credit which hung in quite well whether you look at at&t's bonds itself or other parts of the market, high yield they really held in there lately. everybody in the equity markets is generally bearish and credit tends to be the opposite. if the gap starts to close and means stocks are moving higher and people start bidding up companies because ceos feel they need to move what kind of environment can we be talking about? >> an environment where the s&p despite what to your point the nay sayers and i include myself as one think it will continue to grind higher. i would agree the market probably in terms of credit is cheap. you look at we have talked about it before if you look at it in terms of regular gap earnings it's not all that cheap. it is probably closer to 25

times forward earnings. companies are probably as levered. mike can probably push back a little bit. there are a lot of companies that are probably -- those are levels we last saw probably '07-'08. does the market continue on? absolutely as you go up for the right reasons that is what you are to ask yourself. does it matter despite the fact that there is no volume, nobody cares. the market goes up you make money regardless of the reasons why. >> it is 25 times trailing earnings. we did reach that level a couple of months ago and kind of remains there. on a forward basis because of the liability of estimates it is more like 16.5 to 17. it is roughly where it was when we were at the highs in may of 2015. the bet if you are a bull is we don't have four or five quarters of earnings.

>> a couple of interesting points about dead levels when we talk later about at&t talking at $170 billion like its own country. this is something warned about you look at the charts where because regulators capped the multiples like six times everything seems to be -- funny how that works. it is still pretty high. if this keeps going what does that mean? >> maybe you have to move the thing higher. maybe regulators and fed will decide you can go. i think basically you will hit a wall. so many companies it's not -- it's really hard to get excited about the earnings profile of at&t anytime in the next year or two quarters. five years seems like the most desperate deal where they don't know what the future looks like. let's grab on to something here. i don't see how that's -- >> i want to show shares of

visa. those earnings are starting to cross the bottom line number is about a five cent beat. as we mentioned earlier mastercard trading at all-time highs. visa had a ton of news changing the ceo and even talking about a bit coin or that kind of technology. >> which a lot of people say is -- i have read where people compare it to electricity. a lot of people think it is ground breaking. visa traded within a whisper probably within 20 cents. what is the point? the point is people look at the multiple and say visa and mastercard traded 25 times forward earnings. that has been the argument against the companies for the last five years. if you look and see what they have done you will realize that that is really not the argument to make. they probably have 19%, 20%eps

growth. they are in the space that everybody is dying to be in. if you juxtapose american express against visa and mastercard you understand why they are such valuable properties. >> if you look at the five year chart gone from 22 to 83 almost -- it did not have a lot of dramatic breaks. do you keep bidding up the toll booth. that is the question for growth stocks that are considered to be stable and in the way of a lot of economic activity. >> we will talk later this hour but they watch something called erica which is a bot that tries to nudge you towards making better decisions as a consumer like you can put another couple hundred dollars in this credit card or investment account. you have visa and pay pal working together. you have different kinds of players trying to get into the

payments market. >> does it create accounts for you without you knowing? >> hopefully not. >> what is funny about visa they lost their ceo. this guy who was at jp morgan and i believe the stock is up since then. it is kind of amazing that there is no blip. the ceo left for personal reasons. it shows you there seems to be momentum. >> there are certain businesses that it isn't exactly about the guy in charge. it is just kind of a steward of a very good business. let's get more on visa's results. >> the net revenue growth for the company is coming in at 16% to 18% versus street expectations of 20%. those numbers are lower. we are trying to track total payment volume. stock at the moment is up 0.97

following as you mentioned the news of the leadership changes last week and will be combing through the numbers more and will get back to you on any other highlights. >> thank you. guy, again, a lot of stuff here doesn't look like it is that different from what the market was expecting. anything you can add? >> i think it is good enough. i think that is exactly it. you talk about slow and steady wins the race. mike just spoke to this and asked how much longer can the market bid up names like this. my answer is the environment that we find ourselves in i think for quite sometime. they do everything right. the payments of moving away from cash to plastic to digital and they don't have credit risk. so they are the best ones out there along with mastercard. >> we will keep an eye on visa shares. can we talk twitter? shares down more than 20% over the past month. earlier today lmn ceo sharing

his thoughts on twitter and how he would change its business model. >> twitter needs a full time ceo. it is insane to have jack dorsey be part time ceo. if part time ceo makes sense then so does part time cfo that makes no sense whatsoever. that is one impediment. not that jack is not a great entrepreneur, he is. for twitter there are so many different ways to think about it. all these companies, many companies are running customer service on twitter. what are they paying for that? zero. they are using the platform for free. if twitter did a netflix and said we are going to change the business model netflix lost 10% of subscribers. if twitter charged $1 a month to everybody signed up and on twitter if they lost a third of their subscribers that would

still be $200 million a month of free cash flow. >> and bill who owned the shares has been saying this for some time. one piece i thought was so interesting is talking about running customer service on the platform. we have been talking a lot about this with phil and the airlines and how they have to look to social media. if they start investing there is a lot to be said to being on social media. >> as a transparent medium i think it is very hard to go from free to a dollar. it is much harder to go from free to a dollar. >> if you are charging the companies and not the customers. >> do you want to be the equivalent of the company that charged. is that a great dazzling business? is that a business you get a wonderful multiple? if it is not a great advertising platform, what is it? i think there is a real struggle to figure out. is it just like pure media almost like public utility or something that does match up?

>> this conversation took place years ago over facebook, too. occasionally there is a facebook scare that facebook is going to charge. nobody -- >> does nothing but go up. >> the other thing is you think of the argument that if you only lost a third. actually, i question whether that 200 million is -- how many of those are real accounts and deplorable or whatever out there. it's the idea that you can turn it into a subscription business is difficult. you can find a way to charge big companies, consumer products companies to use that sming in some enhanced way. he is right. you need a full-time ceo to figure that out. >> what do you think of that? >> it makes sense. i agree with both guys. it becomes an echo chamber. it is very difficult to go from free to a dollar to five dollars to 50 cents. people just push back against

that. so to rob's point 300 million users. what happens if they charge a dollar to everybody and the 300 million number went down to 25 million? think about the devastation it would do to the brand. you have to be careful what you wish for here. >> it looks like they are scheduling a time of results to premarket october 27. just one more thing. if they are able to offer a suite of tools to companies to say if you want to sign up for $5 a month service we will give you the history of people who tweeted you, what other companies have they tweeted and the history of your interactions with them? i can see that being -- >> i think that is much different. i think that is a much different model and a model that might make sense. i'm not certain -- would a few companies sign up? i think yes. once a few did others would act in kind. to charge individuals i think is

a really slippery slope. i think that is the important and relevant distinction. >> google has been doing this. you don't pay to use google. somebody pays google to figure out who is looking for them. >> it could work. you don't know. thanks for joining us. >> see you later. have a good show. much more coming up next hour. by the way, we mentioned this last hour. there are nearly 2,000 etfs in the market. kevin o'leary has three most important rules to buying a perfect one. he will reveal those top of the next hour. at&t's acquisition of time warner highlighting a big day of mergers and acquisitions. up next one analyst who downgraded at&t today and says this may not be a great move for the telecom giant. two weeks away from the presidential election. former national economic council director tells us how he thinks each candidate's policy proposals could effect the economy.

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woman: vote yes on prop 55 keeping the power lines clear,my job to protect public safety, while also protecting the environment. the natural world is a beautiful thing, the work that we do helps us protect it. public education is definitely a big part of our job, to teach our customers about the best type of trees to plant around the power lines. we want to keep the power on for our customers. we want to keep our community safe. this is our community, this is where we live. we need to make sure that we have a beautiful place for our children to live. together, we're building a better california. shares of at&t and time warner closing lower after the two announced a mega deal over the weekend in which at&t will

pay $85 billion in cash and stock for time warner. time warner ceo said they were both on squawk box this morning and spoke about the deal. >> we realize that if we had ourselves together that we could create more innovations for consumers so they can have more choices of package. they can end up with more competition therefore lower prices. >> this is a pure vertical integration. while regulators will often times have concerns with vertical integrations those are always remedied by conditions imposed. >> joining us now is colby who downgraded at&t today saying the deal creates new concerns for the company. welcome. >> how are you? >> you downgraded them on this deal. why specifically? which piece of it is the most concerning to you? >> there are three reasons to why we downgraded it. number one is the leverage.

at&t is going to be taking leverage to get the deal done. that compares to 32.3 turns right now. the second issue is that it is difficult to see it value. you will not see time warner -- so what they talked about is trying to consolidate video supply chain from creation all the way to distribution. it's not clear how we will monetize that. and then the last reason was really does this deal get approval? based on historical precedent because it is vertical merger you would get approval. this is a heightened political situation. presidential election in just three weeks and you have had donald trump say if he was to become president he would deny the deal. if hillary was to win and house

was to fall to democrats which is 20% possibility of happening that becomes somewhat of an issue who is going to be making the decisions. >> what would be the main down side if as at&t and time warner say this is one company buying one supplier looking for ways where it makes sense to do more in the way of distribution and also having the data and analytics on usage that can inform advertisers and inform content decisions? >> the deal itself as it relates to at&t and investors isn't the risk. what is the risk is what happens from financial perspective and what happens to the leverage and can they continue to pay that down? one thing they did mention is they expect to get to 2.5 turns of leverage. they only promised 1 billion cost synergies. it is difficult from a modeling perspective to see how they get down to the 2.5 turns.

it is important to the credit agencies for them to get there. that could become a risk. >> they didn't really spell that out. this doesn't look like a synergy deal. remember when comcast bought this there were no synergies. there were other synergies. this deal doesn't stack up financially or from an industrial perspective. i think the deal is terrible. it is a transferred value to time warner shareholders. i think the other part -- this looks like empire building of old fashioned sort of telecom world variety. >> for us it's i can see where they want to go. at&t has to do something. that is something we have been stating. the directv deal we thought made a lot of sense. when you look at the time warner transaction it is difficult to figure out if they are not going to make hbo proprietary then

what proprietary content are they referring to and how do they turn that into a platform and make money? that is difficult to see. even if it does happen it won't happen in 2018. it is more of a three-year look forward. most investors aren't looking three years out. >> most investors or many of them buying at&t really don't care necessarily about the content strategy. they thought dividend yield and see safe stock. it's not something they expected this company to make this bold stroke. >> it's a great point that at&t has about 5.3% dividend yield. that has been 5% to 6%. if you want to compare that to verizon it has been trading 4% to 5%. when you think of at&t they have been thought of as safe havens because if you want to have home phone service they had the wires. you not going to get rid of that

regardless of the economy. that has changed but they had wireless. wireless was a great growth opportunity for them. the issue now is that neither of those are the growth opportunities that they once were. by them taking the leverage up it makes it a much more risk oriented stock and you have to question why you are in that stock. >> thank you for joining us. up next, former national economic council director will look at how hillary clinton and donald trump could impact the economy and how media coverage oflt campaign can play a role. and the nation's largest banks are teaming up to create a new rival. are they getting into the crowded field too late. that is straight ahead on "closing bell."

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shares of sonic, earnings of 45ents can adjusted. revenue missing wall street's forecast $162 million in the fourth quarter. same store sales down 2% this quarter. it doesn't see that improving forecasting weak 2017 comp guidance. in the press release the company citing aggressive promotional and pricing environment expecting to continue to pressure sales and earnings in fiscal year 2017. we are looking at the stock down more than 10%.

>> thank you. that's a pretty big muchb. >> big move in a stock that was weak. this isn't coming off a high level. looking like a two-year low. pretty tough and all value dr driven. >> tough to find somebody not effected. >> are you cooking? >> people are. i hear. >> one is. with two weeks left until the presidential election donald trump is accusing democrats of manufacturing phony polls. one poll has clinton 12 points ahead and another has the candidates in a tie. joining us now is lawrence lindsay, former director of the national economic council, now ceo. welcome, sir. >> thanks for having me. >> so are there polls in particular that you think are kind of bogus and need to be thrown out there? we know that they are not all the same and some are better than others, right? >> the thing we have to keep in

mind is polling today isn't the way we learned it was supposed to be back in school. the polls are not random. what happens is they get the results and then they reweight them based on their assumption of what the lielectorate is goi to look like. the assumptions drive the poll results. a lot of the ones with the bigger clinton lead reflect an optimistic view about how many more democrats vote than republicans. they have a wider spread than 2012. i think that is unlikely but you never know. that is what is driving the difference. >> i heard a lot of republicans basically just kind of throwing in the towel and bracing themselves to see how bad it is going to be. >> so you have the other polls that have the election tied. they have a republican/democrat difference of about four. the ones with clinton ahead have a lead of nine.

of course you get different results. frankly, the good thing about democracy is we will not know until november 8 who votes. >> i guess the big question is, aside from these different pollsteres having a different calculation of what the ultimate voting break down might be, what is the incentive to try to cook the books here? >> well, you know, i think there is an effort to get a band wagon effect going here. it is clear what side the major networks are on and their news coverage. i think that is something that should worry markets for after the election. we have two candidates who have a wide amount of targets that one could shoot out. the trouble is the media is only shooting at one target. it's basically not spending much time on mrs. clinton's problems. there was a night about two weeks ago when we just had the

trump tapes come out a few days earlier with billy bush. we had a huge internet dump with lots of scandals from mrs. clinton. collectively the news media spent 23 minutes on trump and 57 seconds on mrs. clinton's problems. why that is important for markets isn't about selection but labor. if she were to be president who will keep an eye on her? who will keep on the kinds of side deals that may be happening, irs, whatever it may be. that is why i think that is an important issue. >> you are suggesting that -- obviously saying there is bias. are you sure it is not just ratings bias? the access hollywood tape was better television. i don't think that was a partisan decision made by anyone in television. let me ask you about that. we have the big deal today. at&t acquiring time warner.

i'm curious whether you think media consolidation is something that should be considered as part of your charge that there is bias in the media. >> well, you know, i'm basically free to choose kind of guy when it comes to industrial organization. the political focus on this merger has just been amazing. i think it highlights the point. if there are antitrust decision they should be left to the experts. when all campaigns are weighing in it shows we have a politicized policy environment and not really an expert-based policy environment. and the reason we have that is because the media is not shining the light on the process and not insisting on good government. they are letting the politicians run the show. >> and do i see here before we go that you are not voting for donald trump? >> i live in a state where i have the luxury of not having to pick between the two evils.

i'm going to vote for gary johnson. the most important -- people are deciding which is the lesser of two evils. the real question people should be asking is which is the most dangerous of the two evils? and that one is easy. the most dangerous evil is the one the press is not focussed on. >> fair enough. thanks for joining us, larry. >> my pleasure. >> larry lindsay with two weeks until the election. it is time for cnbc news update. >> here is what is happening. former pennsylvania attorney general kathleen cane sentenced to 10 to 23 months. she was found guilty of lying to a grand jury. she illegally leaked grand jury records in an attempt to discredit a critic. the ex wife of disgraced former subway pitchmaniar udfoggal is suing the company

that made him famous. his wife said subway knew about his sexual activity with children but failed to act. a man has died and another left dangling from a high rise in florida when the scaffolding collapsed. it happened in hallen dale beach this afternoon. the remains of the scaffolding clearly visible on the ground along with splashes of yellow paint. and imagine being the tsa official in richmond, virginia who found this, a suicide vest tworks guns and an old military manual inside a checked bag. it turns out they are fakes intended to be props in a live action role playing game. no charges filed against the owner. >> live action role playing game? that is about as close as you can get. >> apparently so. i'm not sure what game that was. >> let's get rid of it. thank you. look out, a new online

payment system was announced and this has the backing of the nation's largest banks. what that means to the future of the fast-growing industry next. why is the pentagon ordering thousands of soldiers to repay enlistment bonuses. details on the outrage story of the day later on "closing bell."

let's take a look at how we finished on wall street. the dow was up 77 points on the bell. the s&p 500 up nearly half a percent and the nasdaq up 1% to close at 5,309. the country's largest banks including jp morgan, bank of america and wells fargo are taking on with a new payment network called zel. are these banks a little late to this already crowded space? joining us is janel mar ta from the "washington post." great to see you. so talk a little bit about zel. it sounds like it is the final presentation of something in the works for some time. >> that's right. we have had a lot of speculation about when the banks are going to roll this out.

they have made it official today. we know that early next year at least 19 banks including the major u.s. banks are getting together and making it possible for people to send money to their friends and family at other banks instantly. that's something that really hasn't been available yet. >> i guess what does a consumer have to know in choosing among what the options are? what are the difference business tween this service. are there merits? >> first of all, we should note that people have had to be patient when it comes to sending money to their friends and family. even as square cash and others came into the market you had to wait at least a day for the money to show up in your actual bank account. so people have had to -- we are used to being patient. now the banks are saying we are going to let you send money to one another instantly.

and it's going to become available next year. that's going to really be the main difference here and the advantage that zelle will have which is that it will become available instantly to that other person's bank account for the participating banks. right now with venmo or square cash you have to wait at least a day or be willing to pay a fee. we will see that next year venmo and pay pal will be speeding up services, too. it will be interesting to see what consumers decide if they want to stick with what they have been using venmo is pretty much a verb at this point or if they are hesitant to use a third party whether they will prefer to stick with their bank and check out what their bank has to offer. >> i always that the banks were going to win the space. they seem to have all the

advantages. there are regulatory advantage. i should say regulations that advantage those that can handle them. do you think that this is actually going to be sort of the game over? do you think pay pal can come back? is there a way to beat the banks at their own game? >> i think only time will tell. venmo has been growing tremendously. it is on pace this year to transfer $20 billion. that is more than double what it transferred last year. so it is growing but this network that is already in place people are using it now but to send bigger amounts of money. so we'll see. it will depend on what consumers are looking for, if they start to use this new service to send small amounts of cash or if they will prefer to use it for the bigger transactions. it will take time to find out. >> seems to be the fact they are all working together. pick the platform and able to upgrade back systems here. at least it is a viable real

alternative. for people who -- $20 billion isn't that much. >> trillens and trillions. it is one thing to grab the beer money market judging by my college son's bank account. to get to that you are basically replacing check books completely. that is a much bigger deal. >> thank you for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> from the "washington post." $46,000, that's how much one army veteran was forced to pay back to the government after having his reenlistment bonuses and student loan clawed back. why the pentagon is demanding some vets pay up. apple reports earnings with the first look at iphone 7 sales. will the tech giant be able to reverse two straight quarters of declining numbers? that's coming up. alpha seems more elusive today. is it because so many go after it the same way? chasing after short term returns. instead if getting caught up with the crowd,

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nearly 10,000 california national guard soldiers are being forced to repay massive enlisting bonuses a decade after signing up to serve in iraq and afghanistan. the los angeles times reporting the pentagon is trying to recoup tens of thousands of dollars from soldiers. congress is firing back including house majority speaker kevin mccarthy who is calling the situation disgraceful. in a statement the pentagon said we take doing right by our service members very seriously

and senior leadership of the department is looking closely at the matter. there is a formal review process in place. we received a statement from the california national guard. captain will martin telling us many socials acted on good faith resulting from bad information. somehow knowingly committed fraud. joining us now is leoshane who has been covering the story for the military times. >> thanks for having me on. >> so in terms of the scale, the scope of this, how many people from your reporting do you think were misled into claiming these bonuses? and how many intentionally committed something wrong here? >> that is the big question here. the updated numbers from the pentagon is 10,500 veterans guardsman that are affect skpd have gone after for bonuses. we don't know what the break down is.

d.o.d. isn't saying they expect most folks to have committed some sort of fraud. we have seen some prosecution in the past related to this but a lot of these are folks who got bonuses, thought they were eligible to receive them, went and paid one of their student loans and now being told you have to give back $10,000, $15,000. >> explain what the bonuses were at the time. >> these were enlistment bonuses. a lot of these came at the height of the iraq and afghanistan wars. this is 2005, 2006. a little later than that. when the army was struggling to get folks in. on the news you saw plenty of the fighting over in iraq and afghanistan. they had trouble meeting quotas. there was a lot of new money flowing in. in this case these folks were offered sums to sign up for a tour that was going to take them to a war zone overseas. >> pretty understandable that

you have had the kind of response from members of congress. what do you think is going to happen now in terms of congress ordering the military to try to figure out exactly who was eligible? or will they say don't try to collect on these? >> i talked to house armed services officials earlier and they said they instructed to start looking into ways to fix this. there is question of whether or not legislation will need to be involved here. we saw similar situation as this back in may military.com had an excellent story about a bomb disposal squad that was overpaid some of these folks owed $100,000. in that case pentagon stepped in after they started to try to claw back money saying this isn't right, let's waive and move on. the mood is we need new legislation. we don't this can we need new legislation. we think doj needs to just find a way to do right by these

troops. >> is there any discussion -- i get the discussion about whether there was crime committed and whether there is something to do to absolve them of debts. is there discussion about maybe the wisdom of putting out the incentives to go to war? >> there has been a lot of discussion in years after but remember at the time was very difficult to get folks to sign up for the army, to get them to willingly go to iraq and afghanistan. at the time there was the idea and the concern that if we don't offer really good incentives we are not going to get the quality of soldier that we want here. as the years have gone on a lot of bonuses have disappeared. there has been folks who targeted other benefits like gi bill saying it is really generous service for folks no longer going into combat. but a lot of that is the monday morning quarterbacking of did we offer too much at the time when we were desperate to get people in the door.

>> sounds like some money has been clawed back. this could get messy and not to mention overwhelming. thanks for joining us. >> absolutely. apple's fourth quarter earnings. two days before an event many expect to be a refresh. we'll get a read on the state of the consumer tomorrow in an exclusive interview with brian cornell here on "closing bell." don't miss it. my business was built with passion... but i keep it growing by making every dollar count. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one. with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on all of my purchasing. and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business... which adds fuel to my bottom line. what's in your wallet?

apple is one of the many companies out with its earnings tomorrow. its fiscal fourth quarter traditionally is the slowest period for the tech giant. josh lipton has a preview now. josh? >> kelly, when apple reports

tomorrow, all eyes, of course, are on that iphone business, and analysts think apple shipped 45 million iphones in the quarter. now that would be, if it's true, the third straight quarter of declines. but bulls are betting this iphone cycle has now bottomed. they think the new iphone 7 is going to return this iphone franchise to growth. investors also seem optimistic. apple is now up nearly 20% in just the past three months. also in focus tomorrow, apple's business in greater china, where, remember, revenue did slip more than 30% in q3. so is that due to slowing economic growth, or has some analysts know, because local chinese brands are now catching up. and finally, apple did reportedly approach time warner about pursuing a combination. analysts just might ask cook about that on the conference call. dawson says cook was smart not to pursue that deal, though. better for apple to partner with

content providers, dawson says, than spend billions acquiring them. back to you. >> thank you, josh. what do you guys think about the fact that apple was possibly interested in this deal, and now they'll be watching from the sidelines? >> i think a player with $160 billion in net cash or whatever apple has, and some kind of ambition to figure out television, you might want to ask the question. i do think that tremendous distance between that and deciding you have to own all these media assets. >> for a company with $160 billion in cash, they have been pretty disciplined, if you think about it. they haven't gone off and done these crazy deals. there is one thing people look at, services. services, you could be -- that's growing, that's kind of -- that could be the area where you might think there's some sort of content base besides music that you could potentially plug into that thing somewhere down the road. but, again, i mean, you don't need to own the looney tunes to sell the looney tunes. >> reminds me of -- i think it was goldman who put out a note

in the last week or two about how they should offer prime, software, and go where the market is. >> that's maybe something you work toward down the road. if i were at apple, i wonder if you would say, look, we're not having a tremendous amount of trouble selling devices at 6, $800. so maybe when we get to that point when we can't do that any more, maybe consider this kind of subscription-based model. that's the trend everywhere right now. everyone wants to be a subscription company, and basically kind of get off that treadmill of having to go through these product cycles. not many companies can do it. >> you could say the moment they start doing things like that, it's -- they're no longer the cell phone or hardware company and that's a bad sign. margins go down. it's almost natural you would have some sort of maturation of their business model and that would be part of it. >> i'm interested in any possible clues we can glean about iphone 7 sales, the headphone jack. are the ear pods or air buds --

which one is the movie -- >> air bud is the dog movie. >> air pods -- visa in a few minutes. we get a check on the stock and what to listen for when we come back. those new glasses? they are. do i look smarter? yeah, a little. you're making money now, are you investing? well, i've been doing some research. let me introduce you to our broker. how much does he charge? i don't know. okay. uh, do you get your fees back if you're not happy?

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welcome back. back to seema for mother market earnings flash. >> hey, kelly, a strong quarter for the semi conductor company, reporting earnings and revenue that topped street expectations. earnings of 16 cents adjusted. that's 3 cents higher than wall street anticipated, due in part to growth in its licensing program, plus a strong support in its security business within the mobile payments segment. as i just looked at the results here. it also, in addition to earnings, announced it's signing a license agreement with xilinx, an ability to collaborate. shares up more than 4% here. in extended trade. >> thank you. that's kind of the other piece of all of the stuff we're talking about, these payments. visa trading lower after reporting its earnings earlier this hour. the conference call starts in a minute or so. what are you looking for? >> obviously, if they have any color, as they often do about

spending trends. new ceo going in, and any hints about what that could mean strategically. >> also still integrating the european acquisition. there is a lot of distract them at a moment when you have so much disruption. so many people coming after the payment space, and as mike said, you've just lost your ceo, has taken off. although they have this guy, has been around for a couple decades. but it still raises the question about whether they're going to be distracted at a really important moment. >> aafter we move through visa, the tech names doing really well in the session today. we mentioned apple tomorrow, but then amazon and others start to flow. >> that's a test. are people hiding in these stocks, because they aren't really cyclical and it seems like they're one-decision stocks and that could mean sub par numbers hurt them at least on a short term basis. >> and discussion about twitter moving its call to thursday morning from thursday afternoon.

>> well, i think there's -- the color is going to be interesting. and given this giant transaction that's happened, which is a response to the dominance these platforms have had. it will be really interesting to hear how people respond and what analysts will ask those questions. >> a busy week. thank you guys for joining us on "closing bell." "fast money" begins now. >> "fast money" starts right now. live from the nasdaq market site overlooking new york's times square. i'm scott wapner. traders on the desk tonight. tim seymour, karen fine he wereman, dan nathan and guy adami. legendary investor bill miller in earlier today saying one stock is right for an activist. and the dollar did something that made dennis gartman excited. and 2000 etfs right