supply. >> marvin -- with j.c. penney. >> good report on you, good job. >> thank you. so maybe we go around the room. i guess we can let the press go, right? thank you all very much. >> that is the president flanked by retail ceo, a big -- from talking about this border tax plan, which they art will welcome. you heard the president talk about what he called a massive tax plan coming along really well. we'll see in the not-too-distant future.

good morning, ayman. >>. >> a lot of tense issues. including the fact this is a president who has been willing to tweet very critical, including nordstrom's and the decide to put from that outlet. that's been a controversy. the retailers here didn't want to talk about that this morning, and you heard the reporters there at the end try to get an answer from the president on this issue of russian espionage contacts by his campaign which was reported in "new york times" this morning. the president clearly didn't want to talk about that. he wanted to focus on the jobs report, the stock market. as well as what he's cattle the

job crazy efforts. all those to beics here front of mind for this president. >> we'll come back to you in the not-too-distant future. anchts we are waiting for the retail cos to make that you are way over to the capitol hill after they wrap up the meeting. here is a full list of we're expecting, from the heads of autozone, tractor supply, joann fabrication, gap, j.c. penney, with several lawmakers, including kevin brady, the powerful chairman of the house ways and means committee, one of the biggest supporters of border adjustments. they are worried that price foss

consumers could rise if the tax is implemented. and retailers say their margins are already so thin they would be force to do raise prizes or cut costs. japan raised its sales tax. and retailer says it's a hidden sales take. >> thanks, ylan. for more on all of this let's talk to joseph la voigna.

it's good to see both of you. calling this hugely regressive. do you agree? >> no. >> the way you get the economy moving is to lower taxes. the border adjustment raises money and would allow you to cut corporate taxes toward where speaker ryan wants them. economically to me it makes sentence. >> do you agree? i'm trying to -- consumers see prices go up for the price they buy, and they're told corporate taxes got cut, aren't you happy? >> i think it is a challenge. i understand why there is concern. it's anythinging the costs of imports, if there's a scenario where they have tight margins,

they will likely want to pass on that. you will see some inflationary there had be enough of an offset and that helps the retailersing, but i think it is a risk taker. >> you also had a pretty hot cpi inflation number as well. so what would they tax measure do? what kind of an economy would it be applied to now when you have consumer spending and maybe inflation on the upswing. >> i would argue it's -- but under a border tax, you would get in principal a one-off as prices readjusted after the tax is factors in, but there would be an offset. economists will say it's almost one for one.

s i would art that they haven't been particularly robust. then certainly -- i see that really more as a late 17, 18 story. i'm going to treat it today more as a within-off. the head does that winds would beat things like trait, make a more hawkish fed. is that dynamic still in place? >> i think it is very much still in place. at this point there's still a lot of question marks out there. we heard there would be a tax reform plan that will help

support business investment, that would provide a pretty nice headwind, so i think you have this is scenarios where things could go quite frankly, but at the other end you could have weakness given policies. >> joe, all this talk about jobs, the president has ceos in the on the floor office bringing in jobs. it's unclear houf of that will be additive what do the republicans have to do to give consumers something that shows, okay, you are getting a benefits out of the these changes? >> i would say really, it has to come through stronger wage growth, so that's why i've been a proponent or written about this, you need to cut tax rates.

you're going to cut tax rates across the board, and give households a quick after-tax boost. that's true, but sentiment is very important, and that's the one thing i would art we haven't had in a while are the animal spirits of the corporate structure. if you cut taxes, giving households a tax increase, you're incentivizing businesses with the right plans to maybe invest, maybe more on-shore, increase product activity longer term and go ahead meanance wages higher. i think that's the ultimate goal. >> joe, how much room is there to cut tax rarity to people who live paycheck to paycheck. >> that's not where the tax burt lies, but you want to live that after-tax income and grow the economy, michael, not at a 2% rate, but maybe 3%, 4%, run the

economy hot, as yellen has even talked about. >> despite her comments in the last day or two, that waiting endangers that whole scenario? waiting too long? >> yeah, the fed always said that, they have hiked rates twice in the last seven years. so i would take what he says with a bit after grain of salt. >> that does lead us to what she's say on the house side today. steve liesman is watching that dynamic in front of financial services today. >> a rather entertaining one, we're see a microco. of the debate in america. is dodd/frank holding back the economy? the democrats arguing no, the republicans arguing yet. is the economy really awful? the republicans say yoke, in a very inspired people by representative meeks who reminded the republicans of the economy that president obama inherited, and then of course some other questioning -- it's not really questioning, but much

more speech-making, but one interesting line of questioning, which does raise a couple questions from patrick mchenry from north carolina, asking yellen, should there be oversight by congress of some of the interis national agreements that the fed enters into over at basel, and then a bit of it discussion about the balance sheet, and here's what she said earlier. >> to shrinking or balance sheet, but consider it best from the standpoint of sustaining the pa recovery to do that in a gradual and orderly way -- >> and i am not -- >> the federal committee in the coming meetings will be discussing reinvestment policy in greater detail. >> guys, what you just missed there is republican testify capuano from massachusetts sort of asking her does she have any banking stocks?

are there any flects at the fed in contrasting that with the president? i don't know how to put this, but maybe having a bit of fun there at the hearing this morning, carl. >> thank you very much, steve, and joseph lavorgna and michelle are still with us. just what yellen has had to say about sort of defending the state of the economy and how though translates into her plans for the remainder are the year? she's been pretty balanced. the economy is progressing, we're klee to full employment, starting toss -- and the policy prescription there is to hike interest rates. however, she continues to note that there's a good reason behind keeping that hiking cycle gradual and shallow. i think another theme out of

today's testimony is obviously regulation, but another one of rules versus discretion-based policy. and that's becoming a hot topic, the able to argue that needs to be judgment, not just a rules-based approach. >> joe, are the vice president perhaps overstating -- that dodd/frank has been so bad? from what yellen has saying, things are not that bad, just not great. do you -- i get the sense that they are trying to make the case for big action, but i wonder if there's some down side to that in that there may be not representing the reality of the mediocre so-so economy we've got. >> obviously people say i have my own ax to grind, but i think dodd will frank was a disaster. the pendulum swung way too far the other way, and definitely

hurt lending -- >> and so what fed chair yellen says to that, you say? >> i saw fed chair yellen talk about bond liquidity is good? i would disagree with that. i know peopler in the market and they say the opposite. on the economy site, they've been making the case for stagnation. that's hardly a strong economy. i'm an optimist and like to believe we can do better than 2% gdp growth. i'm saying i think we can do at least 3. if we should do 3% growth for a period of time with the right policies, and that's why i got much more bullish since the election. at least i see an emphasis on getting the economy moving. the issue will be for how long it can sustain 3% growth. >> and the political turmoil make you less certain this week? >> no, there is a lot of noise, certainly some growing pains.

we need to see state of the union, have more faith that stuff is going to get done properly. no, it doesn't change it. the drama we're seeing, not this one. >> we might like to ignore if, but it's influential in dictating economic growth. we have to pay attention to it. mea view is that 3% is a challenge. i think it will be hard torts 3% growth this year we've dealt with low product activity growth. there is potential for cyclical improvement, but that could bring you to a mid-2% pace. i think it's hard to generate that above-3%, growth at this point in the cycle where we do have structural challenges. policy matters, of course. the regulatory environment

changes, perhaps you can see the acceleration, but i think it's a high hurdle. yeah, burden of proof pretty high. joe, thanks for being here. when we come back, we'll talk to michael gould on this morning's retail negotiation with the president. big bets on apple after hitting all-time high. why warren buffett things the stock could go higher. dow is working on the longest win streak of the year. s&p up seven would be the longest streak in more than three years. we're back in a minute.

dow's almost up 100 points here, at 20k is about 600 points ago. retailers including ceos meeting at the white house right now. this is tape from a few moments ago. executives expected to be making their case again a proposed border tax, president promising a massive tax plan which will le released very soon. here's the president a few moments ago. >> there's a lot of confidence in our economy right now, a great confidence level. you've been seeing that in the stock market, seeing that in businesses, and you've been seeing that in every chart. evidence also by the jobs report that just came out for january,

227,000 jobs added. my administration remains very focused on the issues that will encourage economic growth. that's what we're all about. joining us this morning with zone inside, mike gould joining us. mike, good to see you again. thanks. >> good morning. >> what would you be saying this morning if you were at that table? >> well, i think i would be saying a number of things. one, the retail business in department stores and discounters other than t.j. max, burlington, stores like that, i think is different. i this february's start was different. i think everyone's margins are going to be depressed when they come out with the year-end earnings. i think the business is difficult. that being said, here's disney a week or so ago saying the parks were up 6%, the average units

spent and the customers up, but i think it's difficult in the stores right now in what i would call the department stores and discount stores. the president said i want you to tell me why you're going to add more stores, grow and be job creators. this happens at an interesting time, which is are will shrink mode and a pretty tough spot, you think that's going to make them more persuasive in arguing against this tax shock. >> well, i think there's a number of things. i think that takes it to a whole new levels to think that stores are going to add stores. sears and k-mart are reducing stores. the number of stores that have gone out of the business with chapter 11. whatever the right number is, 24

square feet per capita in the united states, 11 per capita in canada for retail, less than single digits in the uk and germany, we're totally over-stored here. the stores are not profitable right now. that's a major problem, and that's compounded by the for a can't that the online business is growing, and i think it's not as profitable, in many casesi not profitable at all and hurting the core business. i mean, just today i thought i saw a report that warren buffett has closed out his holdings of walmart and feeling that retail has been changed forever. i do believe and i've said this many times that people have been going to the market since the time of the greeks the i think people will continue to go to the stores. it has to have an experience. it's a social experience. it isn't just to buy more stuff. on your comment on the border tax, as i understand it, because if you have to raise your prices, you are going to sell

less merchandise. there are enough studies on that from think tanks from all the people who have studied that, to malcolm gladwell who did that on the price of eggs, for cryin' out loud. it's -- [ laughter ] >> seriously it's foolhardy to this i you're going to raise prices and not hurt business. >> economics 101 suggests there will be impact there. a corporate tax cut helps more if you have profits. increasingly it seems this economy that we've got is a service economy. a lot of the jobs are in the services area in retail where maybe they won't benefit as much from a court tax cut, but might be affected by this border adjustment tax. what kind of policy would you think would have the most positive impact on retail right now?

>> 1% of their profits, may 80% of their profits would disappear because of a border tax. the pressure on margins is enormous, as promassality has continued on, even though people say it's a drug and we have to get out of it, we keep on doing it, or the industry keeps on doing it for the most part that hurts of margin, the bigger the online business gets in the department stores and the special stores, that hurts the margin, so the margins will be hurt all right. now you'll have an increase in pricing which will reduce the amount of big you do. then they're going to take support people out of the store, so you're going to have less employment as the stores become less and less viability. it only takes a few percent. i'm not an commission, i don't know the right thing -- i'm sorry? >> your point is well made about staffing the stores.

i think the president and his team wee argue, though it brings some textile business back to the country. if you were ralph lauren, or urban or a & f, do we have the infrastructure to start making our own clothes again? how do you change those away from turkey and sri lanka? >> i think you have to ask the ceo of a big aapparel company if they would say that publicly. we don't have the infrastructure to do it to that degree at the price points we're doing now. to think we'll be able to do that is foolhardy. i think those jobs have disappeared. one of the books i've read lately is "thank you for being late." it's required for anyone thinking about moving this country forward. i mean, these jobs have disappeared from this country. it's how do we develop other kinds of jobs? give people lifelong education in the companies we're already in, but i think the jobs coming

back competing with prices, that ship has long sailed. >> mike, one last thing on the puzzle that nordstrom finds itself in, being called out by the president, what is -- i mean, you talk to your friends, what is the solution out of that trap? >> well, listen, the solution is -- i mean, nordstrom's did what they did. it would baffle me that they didn't do that strictly on sales. when business, as tough as it is right now, can you look at every dollar that you can do. you want it in the store with stock. that brand had stopped selling, or seral not selling to the degree it had been that warranted staying on the shelves. how it got blown up to this degree, i'm not going to get into that conversation, but there's no way in my mind -- i have spoken to a couple friends in other stores who ask my

opinion. my comment is if it's selling, you leave it on the shelves. if it's not selling, you dispin it. i think they did it based on economic reasons. that's my gut feeling. it would have been done on economic reasons. >> mike, good to get your inside today. it was on a day when everyone is trying to figure out retail from all sorts of angles. thanks again. >> my pleasure. >> and still to come, we are continuing to monitor janet yellen on the hill. we'll have the latest. as we track retail's big day in washington, congressman kevin brady. he'll be meeting with the retailers today. chairman of the powerful tax-writing ways and mean committee. that's coming up. we'll be right back. . rade you alize e smartest itide isn't t ve t yoinst with.

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us directly and,000 who provide is services. 42 million jobs? america. we look forward to carly on the conversation with the president and his team as we continue to look to move the interests of our industry, our employees, and most importantly the consumers, the hard-working american consumers that we all serve. we thank you very much. have a great day. >> william rhodes speaking on behalf of the other ceos. interesting conundrum they find themselves in. >> without a doubt. obviously they like the idea of a lower corporate tax rate. that's one thing -- they're most by domestic businesses, all kind

of have high tax rates the this thing, the border adjustment tax is so disruptive potentially. does it strike you they're making such a hard-court press, when most on the sell side don't expect it to be part of the package in the first place. >> i guess it almost seems like such an existential threat you have to be sure. a lot of people believe why do you have to go to the white house? there is that core in the house that feels it's integral to moving forward. >> could be good chess. if there's no way it's going to happen, but president trump has these retail ceos into the white house to tell them please make sure it sdrnlt happen, and then it doesn't happen? >> or better yet, the president says the ceos have spoken, i

think it costs too much, get it done somehow. >> exactly. the ceos said something to me and look what happened. >> of course we should mention the performance of retailers today, home depot up about a percent, one of the better-performing dow components. the run you contribute to -- >> i wouldant say almost exclusively. you did get a spending flush in december and january. just that consumer looks okay here, but i think you had this relief trade that is definitely lifted some of the retailers for sure. dow is up almost 100 points again. seema, talking about how europe is going to close. >> it's not just a u.s. story, but seven straight days of gains, those comments from janet yellen provides a boost, the

gainers including credit agricole, despied a decline in profit and write-down on the value of the french retail banking business. then there's deutsche bank reporting a 23%, and what it says is a stronger capital position. significantly outperforming the broad are stock 600 index. let's talk about the global consumer. we had upbeat results for heineken, as beer sales grew, thanks to strong demand in asia and mexico. in fact, heineken's largest market is mexico, so certainly a business that could be impacted by a border tax. shares up sneerly 4% in today's trade. on the topic of trade, the

eurozone's trade surplus with the rest of the world coming in at 274 billion euros for 2016. that's wider than the 239 billion euro gap we saw in the previous years, and guys, the big catalyst for europe's trade surplus continues to be the rise in german exports, which of course that has been a topic over the past couple weeks. when we come back, after hitting all-time highs why buffett thinking apple has more room to run. we're back in a minute. happenin new alert syemfoever anythinhap. t thrsad you create custoal

hi, everybody. i'm sue herera. defense secretary jim matt is, in hissh in brussels where he again talked about the u.s. commitment to the western pact. >> the alliance remains a fundamental bedrock for the united states and for all the transatlantic community, bonded as we are together, as president trump has stated, he has strong support for nato. malaysian police arresting on woman in connection with the death of the half brother of kim

jong-un. police say the woman was carrying -- young millennial topped the list. triple a reporting that 88% of drivers aged 19 to 24 engaged in at least one risky behavior last month, including texting, running a red light and speeding. there was a guy texting. don't do that. that's the news update this hour, sara, jon, everybody downtown, i'll send it back to you. >> also watching shares of apple, warren buffett showing that it quadrupled it's stake, hitting all-time intraday highs yesterday. our leslie pickers has the details. >> thanks, jon. berkshire had been slowly building up its stake in apple over the last your, but in the

fourth quarter it quadrupled down, building 42 million share position, bringing the total ownership to over 57 million shares, a position that amounts to about $8 billion, making it one of the apple's top ten shareholders. for a guy that once shunned tech, apple is now the sixth largest holding in berkshire hathaway behind american express, ibm and coke colda, apple represents just under 5% of the stock portfolio. berkshire, of course, known for value investing, continued to put money to work in apple, sign that it thinking the stop has room to run. other investors were less optimistic, tiger global management showed in its filing that it dissolved its position in apple, third appointed and it is -- back to you, jon. >> thanks, leslie. for a closer look at apple, we bring in walter price, and

brian white, drexel hamilton, global head of technology, hardware and software. gentlemen, good morning. brian, this planet of the apps show that apple has a trailer out for now, not getting the best reception, but at the same time part of the argument for apple going higher is the services business. i know that this show itself is negligible when it comes to retch prospects, but just in terms of isn'tment and what it says, does it factor in at all for you. >> the most important thing is keeping this ecosystem exciting and together. apple, they knee to do this

in terms of financial. the fact that some people are holding their noses doesn't matter? >> early stages. >> walter, we heard from 2k3w08d man sax conference talking about a border adjustment tax, how that in his judgment wouldn't be a great idea. we heard similarly from tim cook. does the -- did the border adjust tax possibility factor at all into how you look at a company like apple? >> no, because i think apple is in the same boat as every other cell phone company. i think if you put a tariff on apple phones brought into the country that will apply to every other phone, so it doesn't change their competitive position. >> walter, i wonder also, just in terms of how the stock has

traded around this commentary, it strikes me almost like people talking themselves into why they're willing to pay a somewhat higher multiple right now, even though three quarters of the analysts have a buy on apple, i think the aggregate target price is something like 5% up from here. people seem to have to calm they canselves into why this should be worth more. >> we think the right valuation is something like 15 to 17 times earnings, a slight discount. that gives us a price target of somewhere with 150 and $180 a share. >> brian, does it matter that berkshire has more than doubled down on apple from here? maybe it would have mattered more if they bought apple when they bought ibm, but does it matter one way or the other? >> i think what it tells you is there's still significant up side in apple.

a nice right this year, we bounced off the bottom last year, but when i take a step back, i think we're here in a major sentiment shift in apple, and it traits at ten times or calendar 18 excash. if you look at the companies that they invest in, they trade at 21 times calendar '18. the growth rate has been 4%, apple has grown eps 33%, so i think it tells you a lot how undervalued apple is and how i think the market will reward it going forward. >> a that being the case, he -- much more secure businesses, but trading at higher multiples coca-cola doesn't have a two or three-year product cycle where it could be hit or miss verse expectations, exactsly how hi driven is apple's business? >> i think that's why apple is

trying to get people to focus on the services business. that is a higher-margin business, growing faster than the company. to the extent that becomes a largish part of the profit stream, i think the multiple goes up, because that's a more stable business. that's a business selling off the installed base more than the hit-or-miss product psyched as you term in. >> thank you to brian and to walter. apple hitting new highs. a lot of people didn't think that would happen. don't miss our own becky quick's interview with warren buffett later this month. 6:00 to 9:00 on the east coast. right here on cnbc. we'll continue to monitor fed chair yellen, speaking before the house services committee today. steve liesman is keeping us honest on the headlines out of that. >> not much off monetary side, but robust discussion on what's holding back the economy. yellen not giving any ground.

here's the back-and-forth with mr. high zynga from michigan and the chair. >> isn't it not true if we hoo throw out of the we watch a faster, steepers recovery. >> by dirt -- >> did you use the word unreasonable. >> the time of the gentleman has expired. >> that's what it comes down to, the argument from the republicans that dodd/flank and other regulations, yellen would later agree she is concerned about the regulatory burden just would would not agree as the general theory of the case that it's holding bat the economy. carl? >> hard to tell if it's a testimony or debate. >> yeah, exactly.

it's a bit of both. >> steve, thanks. when we return after a break, the president meeting with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu today, "squawk alley lotion will continue in a moment. e ak a so , yourinances, yo futur w dodo sol this? u d't.utur partner am that and une 500,nts aniver insso to person,n, be ron,e'reuilding erstem veo be? partner am that and une 500,nts wher qlity flor qnty d elli. erchefand fasrkog toake rms thier,

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coming up today on "halftime report", president trump holds a news conference with israel's prime minister. the big question, though, what will the president say about the explosive new reports regarding

contacts hits campaign had with russia in the lead up to the election. and janelle yetten's appear usages, that's happening rye now, and all hitting record highs today. "halftime report" at the top of the hour, carl, see you if about ten minutes or so. scott, sounds good. we're going to pivot to geopolitics, the president will welcome benjamin neddenia rue, a news conference scheduled for noon eastern. ayman? >> reporter: good afternoon, carl, at this point we're waiting for benjamin netanyahu to appear here. they're expected to be greeted by the president over tess south portico, and then get into the news conference here at the white house. so many questions here swirling around this white house today, but you can expect on the agenda today, for this meepgt, there's question about the israelis and

palestinianials, question of the united states' relationship with rouge, and settlements, misthat the trump administration has shifted its add z position with, wyche watch and see how all those sensitive subjects are handle, and whether reporters are able to get a question in regarding the russian espionage issue, sew a whole lot of stake here over the next couple hours. >> ayman, appreciate it. as we head to break, you have the dow up about 69 points, but all the indexes, dow s&p and nasdaq stretching to new highs. for right now, kind of defining the bears for the moment. we'll be right back after this.

welcome back. as we await the president and israel prime minister. david is a distinguished fellow at the washington institute, director of the project on the middle east peace process. he joins us on the news line today. david, thanks for joining us. >> good to be with you. >> looking back to what the president said in november about the conflict, it's the ultimate deal, as a deal maker i'd like to do the deal that can't be made. is today a step toward that? >> it's a huge step because it's their first really working meeting, and there's an effort here to try to push the reset

button and the u.s. relationship, with all the high points over the last several years on security, it was defined by bruising battles over the iran nuclear issue and the palestinian question. and it's also symbolically important that netanyahu, for him who thought she was in the doghouse a bit for last eight years that he's now the fourth visitor to come to the new washington and sees it as a signature mall of warmth and a chance to really influence the thinking in washington before, you know, the policy is set in concrete. it usually takes a few months. there's flux. so i think this is a chance. if you want to try to see how can we in the united states work with the israelis and the palestinians, we can't maybe hit the home run ball like was tried in the last three efforts to solve the entire conflict but we could hit a solid single. and try to find a way to move forward on coexistence. this is a very important day.

>> when you look at tea leaves, what do you read? is it about their vir various statements on a two-state solution? is it about the lasting power of settlements? is it about where an embassy is locates? what's the best metric right now? >> first of all, the fact that there even is a joint press conference, someone who has followed this closely i don't think there was a joint press conference in eight years at the white house between the leader of the united states and israel. so i think that in some ways that is a message in itself. interestingly, the white house tried, i think, in order not to step on the message of warmth and all the good happy music today, they tried to get the headline out of the way last night and their background on this issue of two-state solution which has become a very hot political potato for netanyahu. and so i don't think they're going to try to emphasize this. journalists might ask, but i think they're going to try to steer it into like a new

beginning and to try to focus on tone. this is what trump tried to do during the campaign for netanyahu who has always felt more comfortable republican leaders. this is the first time in ten years his premiership that he has a republican leader. he had three years of clinton and then eight years closely of obama. so i sense they're going to try to emphasize the positive. no one's expecting big answers from trump today because he doesn't yet have his team staffed up. and so for netanyahu he's going to go through his four key issues, which is the iran nuclear deal, try to think if you're a deal maker on syria, can you -- israel's interest is to keep the iranians away from that israeli border. he's going to want to -- the new factors to get the arab state to get more into the game and provide political cover for the palestinians in a way that they couldn't do so in bilateral talks. so there's a lot of ground to

cover. i assume that settlements, he's going to try to avoid anything that is sensitive in the public comments. even though the journalists will try. no question about that. >> yep. yes, they will. we'll see how effective they are on the two and two questions in just a few moments. david, thanks so much. david makovsky. "squawk alley" continues in just a moment.

live shot of the white house. expecting israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu any moment. that joint news conference in just a couple of minutes, at least on the schedule. meantime dow has come off the highs, up 71. a lot of discussion about rates today. goldman, mike, takes their march expectations from 20 to 30 as the sell side has been dragged kicking and screaming. >> that's just catching up to where the market is right now. i think the bigger question, everyone gets fix hitted on march, yes or no. it's 3 or not three or fewer than three or more than three. if you get started in march, three looks more than likely. >> meaning three highs. >> yes. >> just for those just tuning in. >> speaking in code. >> as we get through the pageantry of the netanyahu visit we are more to come. the retail ceos having met at the white house. go to capitol hill.

then tonight cisco. >> cisco important because it's one of those just main tech stallworths. they sell a lot of equipment. and the global economy has an impact. >> stock has broken out, too, people say. >> there is the president and the first lady. on that note, let's get over to the judge at "the half." >> thanks so much. welcome to the "halftime report." i'm scott wapner. we do begin with breaking news. two developing stories we continue to follow. in just a matter of moments on the left-hand side of your screen, the president of the united states donald trump will greet israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. just a matter of moments to his arrival. they will have a joint news conference. we will go to the white house live for that. on the right-hand side of your screen, we are keeping our eyes on the fed chair who is back on capitol hill today. this time before the house financial services committee. we are watching the markets as well. the s&p 500 now in the midst