>> 12. >> we have a bet. you're over, you're under. i'm under a foot of snow. you? >> where are you? >> under. 10 1/4 inches. >> all right. >> we'll see. thanks for watching "power lunch." >> got to stick with "closing bell." cbo on the health care bill. "closing bell" starts right now. ♪ ♪ welcome to the "closing bell", everybody. i'll kelly evans at the new york stock exchange. marky mark wahlberg who you're hearing from making a big deal on at&t. more after the bell. >> i'm pill frwill fred frost. intel making a big move into the self driving car space. $15 billion with mobile eye. drop more than 2%. we'll look at what the company needs to do to convince investors that it's a good move.

>> intel's weakness, one of the reasons the dow's down 19 points. return of the bank tax. dave camp, he'll join us exclusively coming up to talk about whether his controversial bank tax plan could return to washington as part of tax reform. no good vibrations there. >> president trump meeting with his cabinet as we await the congressional budget office score of the gop. kayla tausche is at the white house. >> will fred, it is the first meeting. the thing about this meeting is that there will be four empty chairs. four positions that have yet to be confirmed by the senate. the secretary of agriculture, the director of national int intelligen intelligence, labor secretary and u.s. trade representative. the hearing for that post is delayed so the chair of the relevant senate committee can

head to his home of tennessee to stump for the health care bill. the white house hosted participants in the exchanges on the affordable care act who have been negatively affected. the purpose of this meeting being to highlight the personal stories behind what has become an incredibly politicized sight. here's one attendee from colorado. >> our rates are three times what they were before obamacare started. we have one provider in our county. we have very little options for what we can and cannot do. we're a small business owner. we can't afford our equipment if we're paying these rates year after year after year. >> reporter: now the emotional appeal of this morning will likely give way to criticism this afternoon as we await a score from the congressional budget office on exactly how much this new bill will cost the

government and exactly how many people will be expected to lose insurance compared to the previous law. we are expecting that to come today. not exactly sure when, but we will get that to you when we have it. in the meantime the president is still expecting to hit the road to talk up this bill later in tennessee. now we're getting word that he'll head to kentucky as well. >> kayla, thank you very much for that. as you say, we await the score from the congressional budget solves. let's talk more about the impact of this bill. >> joining us is rich meade along with m.i.t. professor and architect of obamacare, jonathan gruber. welcome to you both. rich, do you have any expectations from the cbo scoring and how that's going to affect passage of this bill? >> yeah, i expect that this score will probably come in showing that the costs of the bill will be probably in the hundreds of billions of dollars increasing the deficit. having said that though, these

cbo numbers are not rock solid in that if you google cbo fan chart you'll see a chart in congressional testimony from the congressional budget office where they show a wide variation of the potential outcomes from the scores. this is sort of the middle ground of what it could be. the congress will take this under advisement and consideration as they craft this bill. they may consider future changes. they could say we think we've got this wrong and proceed with their own analysis of the bill. >> jonathan, is there a set of numbers that could come out of the cbo this afternoon that would make you supportive of this republican bill? >> no, quite frankly not. as paul cruise mkrugman, this i obamacare 2.5. so i guess if you are very rich you might support this, but for pretty much every other group in society this is a bad deal.

i think the cbo is going to say the coverage is going to go down. i know it's going to say there's going to be redistribution from the poor to the rich and i don't see the point of it. >> rich, do you want to respond to any of that? >> like i said, the numbers from cbo are not exactly rock solid, number one. number two, one of the frustrations with cbo is they don't understand how the states can be more dynamic in administering the medicaid programs and do a lot of wonderful things. seema who we expect to be confirmed helped many other states design fabulous programs. i suspect under her leadership states will be doing much, much more under this new medicaid system to provide new, more efficient and cost effective care to the citizens of those states. >> rich, we know the balancing the budget is important for many republican members of the congress. how important are the cbo

numbers if they make or break it or are they willing to support the repeal of obamacare? >> the scores are important. there are many members of the republican conference in the house and senate who care very much about the deficit and debt and so to the extent that this shows this will increase the deficits and debt, that may cause a little bit of a kerfuffle amongst republicans. they'll have to sort through that. what the leadership will have to decide whether they make changes or convince the members that we think cbo is wrong. we think this will lead to savings and efficiencies. cbo first scored the affordable care act, they got a lot of things wrong in terms of the number of people who would buy insurance policies in the exchanges. that was off by 120% and when they evaluated it they thought there would be 50 states participating and with 31 states they've overshot that by $7 billion.

so -- i'm sorry, by 7 million people. so there's a lot of uncertainty that comes with these cbo scores. >> jonathan, we have to go. the journal pointed out if you're a 35-year-old making $56,000 whether you're urban or rural, you could save $3,000 on this plan. is that not something you can support? >> basically that is true, but at the same time if you're elderly, 50 to 64-year-old by the year 2024 you'll spend $10,000 more a year on average. i don't understand why we should be distributing away from the old poor and sick to help certain individuals, middle class and mostly of60% of the t cuts go to people over $1 million. >> thank you for joining us. jonathan and rich meade. we'll await that scoring. mount sinai ceo dr. ken davis weighs in in the next hour of the show. he'll join us after the bell. don't miss it. let's get to our closing bell exchange.

sandy pomeroy, kenny pulcari and rick santelli checks in from the cme in chicago. kenny, first to you. another day here where it feels like we're waiting for a bunch of key events to come later this week. >> that's exactly what we are doing. we're waiting for the fed and three or four other central banks. central bank, swiss bank. there will be a lot of bank news that's coming out wednesday and thursday of this week. the market's waiting patiently for that. it's also waiting patiently today. no eco data. tomorrow ppi. wednesday cpi. empire state manufacturing. that's going to start impacting. today feels like volume is low. it feels like a day of waiting, right? no reason to make any major move one way or the other so, therefore, we don't. the market's traded very tight. plus or minus $1.50 on the s&p all day long. there's not a whole lot going on. that's not necessarily bad, that's just kind of the market in waiting. >> kenny, there's also the bank of norway.

i can't believe you left that off the list. rick, i want to come to you in terms of kenny saying the market is waiting. is the dollar not going to move either way? by that i mean have we already priced in this rate hike and it's very hard for the fed to surprise on the bullish for the dollar side? >> well, you went right to the exact market i think most viewers should pay attention to. march in my opinion and all the people i bump into every day and watching markets is baked in the cake and we're ready to slice it and eat it. now do we get more information in the statement regarding the other two that may be priced in a bit if you believe percentages with regard to things like fed fund futures? that potentially can impact the dollar. but the issue to put the two together, kenny, spot on. the tightness in the market translates into treasuries and the dollar as well. what do i mean by that? whether it was bank of england, then the employment data, we are at the top of a range. when you look at tens we're

comping december of last year or all the way back to september of '14 because of this 260 to 262. 102.20 is key for the dollar and it can't get over it, but all that can change. we could see some real volatility and pop above these key levels with some momentum. so i don't know the answer, but i do know one thing, that the rate for this speedweek built into the dollar index and it isn't jumping over a key level so we're going to have to think about what the market perceives on back tax, current logistics of positions and maybe two more tightenings this year to really get the final analysis. >> all of that said, sandy, your attention is focused a little bit somewhere else on the russell 1,000 growth. >> we run an equity index fund. it does impact the way dividend paying stocks behave. i agree with kenny, rick and also with will. a lot of this has already been priced in. i think that's the key. dividend stocks have been priced

in. that's the opportunity. if you look back to past rate cycles the key has been investing. once the fed starts raising rates. that's when these stocks do well. the most important thing to focus in on is dividend growth. that's where we're focused in our fund. >> sandy, just to be clear. even though this is your focus, are you saying there's an area of the market that you expect to do better once the fed starts hiking rates? >> i think you have to be balanced. the key here is that the range of outcomes is pretty wide and if by having some defensively positioned stocks that are going to do well, if people are disappointed with the rate of change of that fed move and also some cyclical stocks that are going to do well if the fed is raising rates, this is where we think that you're in the sweet spot. that's where we're invested and positioned in our fund. >> kenny, we've seen gold fall for nine days in a row. good day to buy it? >> no, you know what, i actually think it's going to test the 11.80 level before it really moves up again. look, we're testing. we're just hitting our head once

again on resistance now. i don't think it's going to succeed. i think it's going to back off before it goes up and through. >> what about bitcoin, kenny? we're not getting the etfs. >> i haven't begun to look at bitco bitcoin. i'm 55 years old. that's a young man's name. >> questionably intelligent or not a young man's game. tell us what you think, kenny. >> kenny polcari, sandy and rick santelli. dow is down 19 points. s&p is barely higher. transports down 36. nasdaq is actually up by by 1/4 of a percent. small cap russells up 1/3 of a percent. >> one of the reasons the dow is down is because of intel. on the other side of that mobile eye is surging as intel's deal to buy the self-driving tech. $15 billion was discussed. we'll discuss whether the buyout will spark a mergers and

autonomous boom. former house and weighs means chair dave camp gives us his view on if the market falls. we'll tell you more about it. you're watching cnbc first in business worldwide. uh, yeah. it's over, larry. what is? the whole wheelie thing. what do you mean? i just got this baby to get around the plant floor. right, but now ge technology monitors every machine. yeah, it brings massive amounts of information right to you. so you don't need that. well, it makes me look young and uh..."with it." time to move on. oh i'll move on... right into the future. ...backwards. you're going backwards. the future's all around us! not just on your little tablet, my friend.

mobile eye for $15.3 billion. reactions in the market hasn't exactly been positive as shares have been lower on the news. intel was in squawk alley. here's what he had to say about convincing investors it's a good deal. >> what investors will have to see and we'll have to spend some more time. it's a big deal. people are trying to figure out how this fits into our strategy. we need to spend more time with the investment community showing them how this plays out. >> will mobileeye be a game changer? william stein and robinson

humphrey. will, let me begin with you since you're looking at this from the intel perspective here. you know, does it make sense? they've got a lot of challengers. there ace a ton of competitors in all sorts of different markets. does moving into autonomous driving make sense? >> stocks on mobileeye and intel, this deal establishes intel assuming it's closed as the clear leader in the autonomous driving and advanced driver assistance market. it's one of the most attractive markets in the semiconductor industry. it's growing very quickly. i think it could be potentially a very good deal. >> and also, will, is this a good deal for mobileeye. >> the two have been partnering on several projects. the most notable are with delphi on the one hand and with what's

called level 4 autonomy. >> phil, in terms of various autonomous drive companies like mobileeye, we're going to see similar takeovers from other big name tech companies like intel or big name automakers? >> there are a few that bring to the table what mobile eye brings to the table which is why it has been an industry leader which is why intel said, look, this is worth over $15 billion to acquire this company. they are clearly the leader in terms of the vision of autonomous drive vehicles. as you heard from the ceo of intel earlier today, they want to partner with these guys to say they're going to be the eyes, we'll be the brains when we put all of our technology together. that's a pretty attractive proposition for automakers. you saw that graphic right there. this technology is coming along so quickly, will, that's why intel said we could spend a lot of years and billions of dollars trying to create this technology to take on mobileye or we could

acquire them and put ourselves in the driver's seat. >> what ripple effect, phil, do you expect this to have as the rest of the car industry tries to figure out who the major players are going to be in this space? >> take a look at delphi, dlph, why? it's doing a lot of work when it comes to driver assist technology. it's slightly different than what you're seeing with mobileye. it speaks to the growing area where i think you're going to see the tech firms in addition to automakers look around and say what makes the most sense in terms of somebody to acquire in the future? do we think we'll see deals as big as this one with mobileye? probably not. but you are likely going to see some more acquisitions in the future because so many of these companies, especially suppliers and tech firms, they're developing expertise in certain areas. >> will, you mentioned before this deal coming into it you had a neutral rating on intel. what's your rating on the stock? >> i haven't updated my ratings

since then. it's clear you could take either side. the markets taking a more muted view. intel's larger ak which visicque not panned out. the way it could be different is the way they let mobileye operate independently. >> is that in intel's dna? >> i think historically not. >> this will be more of a challenge for them. if they want to buy mobileye but let the company operate autonomously within the company so as not to water down any growth prospects. >> that's what they said they would do. the money they would have developed for what would have been a competitive project, that they're putting those assets in jerusalem with mobileye at their head. >> this is a $15 billion cash deal as i understand. the risks to intel include share loss to amd and video which

we've discussed in the past and server and desktop among many other things. would that $15 billion be better spent on one of the challenges the company is dealing with? >> i think this is a reasonable use of cash. for this transaction going after a very attractive end market that's growing very quickly and they're immediately by far the biggest player in that market. mobileye has 60% share in the market as they ramp with vw. i think this is a pretty good place to spend their money. >> is it going to hurt intel's gross market? they watch it like a hawk? >> mobileye has pretty robust gross margins. it's sort of like a software company so i don't think that's going to be the effect. certainly there's the question did they need to spend this much? i think this gets them where they want to be in autonomous driving much quicker. >> phil, in terms of buying mobileye and so far they're doing well, having deals with lots of various automakers.

>> right. >> being bought by a big company, whether it's tech or autos, does it hinder their ability to do various deals of licensing their software out to lots of different names? >> that will be interesting to see. they've already said that the ceo of mobileye will be running that division. as will mentioned, will they have the autonomy to develop some of the projects they've developed so far? in terms of the auto industry all of the major automakers have said this is the technology we want in our vehicles. that doesn't mean mobileye or intel with mobileye won't be able to strike bigger deals. you've seen big ones take place. the question now is who can they take business away in the future, whether it's them taking business away from nvidia or qualcomm that's also in the mix here go to a lesser extent. so these are all things that qualcomm and nxp. these are all things that need to be pointed out. >> gentlemen. now let's get to president trump just meeting with his cabinet at

the white house. we can listen in. >> i want to begin by updating the public on the severe weather situation. i've been receiving the latest information on the blizzard forecast and i think we're in very good shape. we're prepared. everybody in government is fully prepared and ready and the entire northeast it seems is under a very severe winter storm warning so let's hope it's not going to be as bad as some people are predicting. usually it isn't. chancellor merkel and i have just spoken and she's going to be postponing the trip until friday. she'll be coming on friday. and we look forward to that. that will be a very good visit. i've spoken with my homeland security adviser who has spoken with the acting fema administrator and instructed him to make certain that the federal government is ready to provide

assistance to the states that need federal help. fema and the federal government are ready to assist. they are literally waiting by the phones and ready to go. everyone should listen to their state or local officials who will be providing regular storm updates. take that advice very seriously. this cabinet is here to serve and protect the american people. that's what we're doing. even more so than anybody would understand. folks in this room have done an amazing job, whether it's security or anything else. i want to thank general mattis. i want to thank -- who's now secretary mattis. i want to thank general kelly who is now secretary kelly. they have done outstanding work. you see what's happening. all you have to do is just watch. big difference. unfortunately not all of our cabinet members could join us. we have four empty seats, which

is a terrible thing because the senate democrats are continuing to obstruct the confirmation of our nominees for the department of labor, the department of agricultu agriculture, the director of national intelligence and the united states trade representative. somebody i want very badly in the midst of getting going, wilbur, and they won't approve somebody who's highly qualified and everybody understands that. the main victim of this very partisan obstruction is the m h american public. glet spite of this we've instilled a great team and made historic progress. we're rolling back job crushing regulations at a faster clip than ever before by far. and we're seeing companies like exxon, walmart, intel, ford, chrysler, so many others announcing that they will keep

and create tens of thousands of jobs in the united states. many, many companies are not moving now, which normally they would have been out of here a long time ago. they're not moving because they understand there are going to be consequences if they move. that's fine, but there will be consequences. not going to be so easy. not going to fire our people and move and think they're going to ship their jobs back here and we won't be doing anything about it. first two job reports that have come out since my inauguration, we've already added nearly half a million new jobs. right after this meeting we will be signing a new executive order to begin the process of reorganizing the executive branch to make it less wasteful and more productive. we're also working closely with the house and senate republicans to repeal and replace obamacare. obamacare all of a sudden the last couple of weeks is getting a false wrap that maybe it's okay.

it's not okay, it's a disaster and people understand that. it's failed. and it's imploding, and if we let it go for another year, it will totally implode. in fact, i've told the republicans, why don't you just let it go for another year, that way everybody will really understand how bad it is, but it would be the wrong thing for us to do and for the american people. the house plan will expand choice, lower costs and ensure health care access for all in negotiating with everybody, it's a big, fat, beautiful negotiation and hopefully we'll come up with something that's going to be really terrific. i want to thank paul ryan and everybody, mitch, everybody, they're all working around the clock, and i think ultimately the big beneficiary will be the american people. we'll end up with a really great health care plan. we're also going to send congress a budget request that will include one of the largest increases to defense spending in our history, and

general/secretary mattis is extremely upset about that. and it will be fully paid for, okay? fully paid for. and i saved a lot of money on those jets, didn't i? did i do a good job? more than $725 million. he's very happy with me. in the first full month of my administration following the issuance of my executive orders, illegal immigration on our southern border fell by an unprecedented 40%. i want to congratulate general kelly. at the same time, i've issued a presidential memorandum directing department of state and the department of homeland security to undertake immediate steps to enhance our vetting process. so we're further enhanging our vetting process. we want people in our country who love our country and have the potential to love our country and our people. that's who we want. my administration will work every day to serve and protect our great citizens and we will

not rest until the job is done. so this is our first cabinet meeting. i hope this is going to be historic cabinet meeting, historic in the sense that we're going to do a fantastic job for the american people, for our country and for the future of our country. so thank you all very much. we'll see you later. thank you. >> and that's president trump concluding his first cabinet meeting. an historic cabinet meeting he said there with comments on a number of issues that are in the news right now. will, he addressed the winter storm. talking about some of the preparedness. i emphasized the fact that four seats were empty. the biggest losers are the american people and some of those candidates have not yet been approved. talked about the first two jobs reports, talked about reorganizing the executive branch. he continued to throw his support behind the republican's

plan that although obamacare appears to being close to being done with. he mentioned how he saved a bunch of money on the jets. talked about illegal immigration on the southern border down 40% in his first full month. there you have it. >> again. self-congratulated himself and his team for the first two jobs reports saying they added half a million jobs. mentioning as well just on the storm coming, he did mention as well that chancellor merkel of germany had delayed her meeting until friday and that he looked very much forward to that. overall he did describe it as an historic first cabinet meeting. >> i'm wondering if we're going to get the cbo numbers out. let's get to our news update this hour with sue herera. >> hi, guys. here's what's happening this hour, everyone. secretary of state rex tillerson

ignoring reporter's questions as he met with the foreign minister of greece this morning. later this week tillerson will travel to asia where he will visit japan, south korea and china. egypt's news agency reporting that a cairo prosecutor has ordered the release of former leader hosni mubarak. that was over turned by egypt's top appeals court. as the president mentioned, the northeast is indeed bracing for a huge nor'easter that's expected to dump up to two feet of snow in some places. grocery stores and hardware stores are running out of supplies and everybody is getting a little crazy about this. more than 4,000 flights have already been canceled for tomorrow. the money losing music streaming service pandora telling cnbc it's not for sale and it will be profitable this year. amid rising competition it is bringing on demand song choice to its streaming radio service. pandora premium will let

subscribers choose any song or album for $9.99 a month. that's the news update. back to you. i was in the grocery store early saturday morning because i didn't want the craziness. >> sunday evening, two different grocery stores, no craziness, plenty of inventory. i was shocked. >> so far my experience of two storms is that the hype was a lot bigger than reality. >> i hope -- i hope -- >> i'm not counting my chickens. >> i hope your third experience with the storm is exactly that. >> yeah. >> likewise, sue. thank you very much. >> sure. >> for that we have under half an hour for the bell. we're mixed. essentially flat. the dow and s&p lower. nasdaq slightly higher. the likes of home depot, united health and disney. sector financials, at the bottom although that range is fairly tight. up next former house ways and means chair dave camp discusses whether the controversial bank

tax could return. william cohen gives us his reaction to a new report showing only five countries in nato are meeting the requirement to contribute 2% of their gdp into the alliance. stay with us. and the wolf huffed and puffed... like you do sometimes, grandpa? well, when you have copd, it can be hard to breathe. it can be hard to get air out, which can make it hard to get air i so i talked to my doctor. she said... symbicort could help you breathe better, starting within 5 minutes. symbicort doesn't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. symbicort helps provide significant improvement of your lung function. symbicort is for copd, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. it should not be taken more than twice a day. symbicort contains formoterol. medicines like formoterol increase the risk of

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welcome back. less than half an hour to go until the market closes. let's discuss what happened to with peter kosta. peter, first thing on the agenda today, intel buying mobileye. do you think we'll get more deals like that? >> i think we will. what we'll see you have a lot of very, very large tech companies that have a lot of cash on hand. they're not growing as fast as they used to. and for them to grow their businesses again and build that growth they're going to need to go into other areas. i think this is obvious what they do with mobileye. intel, they felt this was more of a fit for them in the future. i do think there's a lot of other major -- i mean, i'm not going to give any names because we don't comment on rumors, but i do think there are a few others in the offering. >> the other thing we're going to look for is the fed meeting. everyone is expecting the 25 point basis height. they could do more than that. >> they should. this would be the right time to

do it. i highly doubt -- >> 50 basis points? >> to do 50 basis points. they want to have at least 75 basis points from the beginning of these rate rises, they want to have the minimum of 75 possibly a point, maybe a point and a quarter. do it now. let the summer play out, the rest of the quarter play out and then in september you revisit it again and then you can do it. but if they keep doing this it's like a slow death about raising rates. i think the market is in a position where it can afford it. we can see a little bit of a pull back from that. i think the market will rally after that. that would be the point where i would get back in the market. >> peter costa, thank you. thank you. now tax reform remains top of mind for investors, but the one provision causing some backlash is a battle over the border adjustment tax. one idea that has been floated if the bat fails is a tax on financial institutions. it's an idea part of the 2014 tax reform proposal by dave camp

which saw backlash at the time as well. joining us in a cnbc exclusive is former representative dave camp who's a policy advisor for pwc. >> good afternoon, kelly, how are you? >> good. it's been hard to try to figure out the funding part of the corporate tax cut. before we get into that, let me just ask you, what do you think about the border adjustment tax, the bat? >> well, it still is a proposal. we don't have legislation yet so it's hard to evaluate it in detail. it looks like they're moving in the direction of trying to get as much pro growth driving this economy as they can and really trying to even the playing field between us and those countries that have rebating taxes at the border as part of their policy. >> i'm not hearing you say it's a horrible idea which is the very reason we're having this discussion. some people do think it is a horrible idea, a lot of retailers, for example. i think they'd welcome the idea, hey, go tax the financial institutions instead. what would your plan do if it

were to get a second hearing looking for ways to fund corporate tax? >> i think what that approach was way back then was sort of a broader base approach and trying to lower rates through that. what you're doing with the border adjustment like moving to an entirely different structure. so, i mean, that is really a significant debate that they're trying to have and highlight it. until we find out whether that new approach works, i don't think you'll see them move in the direction that i did when i worked on tax reform when i was chairman of the committee. >> one of the reasons that your original financials tax was involved in that is you felt the dodd-frank reformoverly punished the smaller inches c y institutions. with that in mind, dowell come the talk from the new administration? >> many of us come from communities where community lending is critical in order to grow small business, which as we know is the sector that hires

the most people in our country. so i do think it's important to try to even that balance a bit there. but it's an issue congress is working very hard to try to address. >> so the idea of a bank's tax clearly is very much based originally on the route to taxing through corporations. is it a mistake for the administration to be looking to lower corporation tax more broadly? is it something that can still work for the united states? >> it certainly can because as you know from a statutory basis, the highest tax rate in the world, particularly when you add in state taxes as a major economy. so i think there's a real sense that we need to become more competitive as a nation. we need to also be more pro growth and we need to simplify. i think those are a number of things that are important. likewise, we have large amounts of dollars that are stranded overseas. we need to find a way to bring those back so they can be invested and create jobs and help families here at home. >> one of the discussions we had last week involved this idea,

greg raised it again, about increasing tax rate on investors basically on capital gains, on dividends for example. how much would that do to raise revenue? do you think that by itself is a good idea? >> well, i mean, generally i've had the philosophy that i think we ought to try to enhance investment, not penalize investment because investment is so critical to really building out the strength and the infrastructure of an economy and also making sure that people have the opportunity to get jobs and move up the economic ladder. so it's not the first choice but clearly if you're trying to balance all of the pieces of comprehensive tax reform, it's certainly something that you need to look at and be open to discussing. >> you know, the fact that we're having these discussions, it's like you're looking everywherefore somewhere to raise revenue that won't harm the economy. it seems like every rock we look under we don't find it. is there something that's missing? is there some other way out there to do this, to fund these

hoped for cuts? >> well, i think the best way to do it is obviously lowering rates but doing it in a way that cause economic growth. you actually grow revenue over time by having a stronger, more vibrant economy. i think that's the way to deal with it, not necessarily having a ledger that balances out but will in the future these policies enhance the ability of investment and people to hire and businesses to grow and families to do better. i think that's the standard. >> congressman, how many pwc jokes have you gotten over the past couple of weeks? >> we held back but had to ask. >> had to get it in there. >> i couldn't help it. >> thank you. representative dave camp. 18 minutes into the bell here. the dow is down 25 points. some of that centered on a couple of different names. intel being lowered. s&p barely lower. nasdaq up 12 and russell up 4. atlanta fed making history ahead of this week's expected hike in

rates. we're getting the latest on when u.k. prime minister theresa may could be starting the brexit. the date is close, kelly. >> yes, it is. >> we're back in a couple of minutes.

welcome back. let's send it over to seema mody. >> hi, wilford. spiking on a bloomberg report that the company is working with goldman sachs on a possible sales process. it's unclear who the potential bidders would be, but we did see shares spike as high as 10.6%. you can see highs still up 9.8% as we approach the end of trade. kelly. >> seema, thank you. now the federal reserve bank is making some history. the atlanta fed naming econ professor rafael bostic. he becomes the first african-american bank president. he served as assistant secretary of the housing and urban development from '09 to 2012. he was a fed economies from 1999 to 2001. he succeeds dennis lockhart. he retired at the end of february.

>> meantime, some major news out of europe. the u.k. government's brexit bill expected to clear the final stages of the parliamentary process tonight. prime minister theresa may could trigger it tomorrow and start the two-year clock. nicholas sturgeon says elshe'll begin the merger. the final decision must come from theresa may and the u.k. government who are highly unlikely to grant a referendum before the brexit process is complete if at all. finally on wednesday, attention turns to the man who's often referred to as the donald trump of the netherlands with his make the netherlands ours again slogan. he's the populist anti-e.u., anti-immigration and anti-islam candida candidate. they're leading the polls to be the largest party in parliament. that said the diluted nature of the dutch electoral situation

needs a vote. the other candidates are straight behind him also pro e.u. >> staying on this before we get into all of these other things happening. there's a turkish referendum. they were trying to hold rallies in germany. both governments interfered. erdogan a short time ago said shame on you, german chancellor, for backing the netherlands. turkey will definitely retaliate increasing the rhetoric. >> this story has added a bit of fuel to the fire and it's increased mr. vilder's standing in the polls. interestingly on the dutch election, almost certain he'll get the most seats, which is quite a wake-up call, but also certain i won't become prime minister and former governor. he's expected to get 30 out of 150 seats. even if he got 40 that doesn't

really change his impact on the election but it would be a lot more than the polls are saying for another populus candidate. that will wake everyone up for the french election to say, oh, my gosh, these polls could be wrong, something like brexit. the euro could move slightly. >> the scottish referendum a lot of fragmenting. >> important to note on that, we missed a little bit about how it is being reported. it is down to the british government, theresa may, to decide whether to grant it. >> glad he's here to do all of this. ten minutes to go into the bell. dow down 15 points. nasdaq and russell are moving a teensy a bit higher. >> clearly a little bit too slowly according to our producer. up next, why investors may want to look outside of the u.s. for opportunities despite some of the head winds in europe. we're back in a couple of minutes.

we have 700 million to buy on the build today. we're keeping an eye on markets. dow still lower. most of the others remain in positive territory. morgan stanley's european equity team out with a new note saying

that european stock boom could be coming with european banks in particular ready to outperform counterparts in the u.s. >> joining us more we have brent sciutte from northwestern mutual and brian wick from tiaa global asset management. good afternoon to you both. brent, if i start with you, do you buy into this positive take on europe? >> absolutely. look at the european market, the valuations are cheap. there's a lot of political risks priced in. if they don't tip the way of populism it would suggest european stocks have a way to run. the european economy is growing nicely. >> brian, do you agree with that? are you still seeing opportunities here? >> i do. i think the story begins with valuation. you can be talking about valuations for the last three or four years. it hasn't gotten you very far.

the ecb gave us help by saying, yes, they will give us help but they're not going to take their foot off the gas. >> we're over weight france so we think the eleclections are a buying opportunity. there's no question that's one of the reasons why these stock valuations are trading where they're trading. we have a two-stage election coming up in france. it's possible you won't see the decks fully clear with risk premiums back down where they should be by mid may. >> brent, france still feels like an economy dealing with multiple challenges. periods of stagnating growth now. you know, it's falling apart. a lot of these companies are located in companies where the currency might not go down if the euro did break down. if you're concerned about the

eurozone, if germany for example was out of the euro, the deutsch market would be higher. we don't think is the base case. not something we're banking on. it's not going to be just a complete washout if you were a eurozo eurozone. >> if the german market, for example, went up, that's assuming the selloff did more than account for the increase in its new currency. >> right. i mean, yeah. and i don't know that it would. these are known knowns. how many people don't know that there's an election that could tip one way or the other. >> yeah. >> we've had quite a few of these that haven't turned out like people thought they might. >> yeah. >> the eurozone economy is improving. the pmi is at five year highs. earnings are half of what they were pre great recession. it's not a given that they will naturally go back. there is a lot of easing and lifting that can be done if the economy continues to grow. >> brent and brian, thank you both. appreciate it.

>> thank you. just about five minutes to go. we're coming back with the cl e closing countdown.

with e*trade you see things your way. ♪ ♪ you have access to the right information at the right moment. ♪ ♪ and when you filter out the noise, it's easy to turn your vision into action. ♪ ♪ it's your trade. e*trade. start trading today at etrade.com moments to go for the close. the s&p and the nasdaq are fractionally higher. the dow though still in negative territory. down 1/10 of a percent.

very much intel which is the bottom of the stack down a couple of percent. investors not really liking that mobile ideal which was the big talker today. bob pasani joins us. >> you have to tip a hat to mobileye for making that deal. $15 billion, mr. left was a big short. is going to be on. 5:00 talking about that failed short. i think the important thing about today, every time you think the market is down, it comes back. small caps, the russell 2000 doing poorly. that was the market leader. materials. we had a hard time with some of the commodity stocks. that's down. interest rate sector. dow utilities have also bounced. market kind of holds off even on days when it looks a little bit wobbly. big event of course the fed meeting on wednesday. would i and would you like to be a fly on the wall at the merkel meeting with trump on friday? >> on friday. >> i don't care about anything else, i'd rather be at that meeting than the fed meeting just to hear what's happening. >> all sort of trump meetings.

fed, ten years back 2.6%. not really expecting much. >> trying to figure out three or four but the market's clearly comfortable with three. >> there is the bell, bob. the new york stock exchange is being run by volatron and the nasdaq by vistagen. we end slightly down on the dow. kelly evans has the second half. thank you, wilford. welcome to the "closing bell", everybody. i'm kelly evans. markets finishing to some degree in the positive. the dow is down 20 points. a lot of that has to do with a major deal today. we'll tell you about that. intel buying mobileye. its shares going down. that helped turn the dow negative. boeing got a downgrade. that drop of 20 points good for a tenth of a percent decline.

20,882. s&p 500 up. 2373.5. the nasdaq which was up most of the session today closing about a quarter percent higher to 5875. and the russell 2000 small caps up nearly .4 of a percent. 1370 there. the fourth straight day of gains for that nasdaq. now the cbo, the congressional budget office is set to deliver its scorecard on the republican's american health care act any moment now. coming up, mount sinai ceo dr. kenneth davis will join us with his concerns and what it will mean for hospital's bottom lines. we have cnbc pro columnist michael santoli. dennis berman and nancy tengler from hartland financial. welcome, everybody. we expect a lot of news this hour. mike, we're ready for whatever comes flying at us. the market has been waiting. >> without a doubt. the market has been idling. i've never seen a market sit and wait. that's not to say that there's nothing going on. if you look at the new highs

today, i took a little bit of a surv survey. alphabet, facebook, visa, adobe, texas instruments, it's like fang redox. when the market is not doing anything. this is not a policy dependent market. >> you'll have to add ulta to that mix. >> big growth stocks. it's not policy dependent. maybe the cyclical stocks. >> price line and other names in there trading at all-time highs. the video game companies which continue to do well. nancy, what parts of this market are you interested in while we continue to talk about high prices? interest rates possibly about to keep heading up. >> we still like the old school

technology companies that are not just growing their earnings but paying a hefty dividend. we're still overweight in health care and financials. we've been trimming back the industrials. we've been cutting back on the railroads and some of the other industrial companies. >> is that because of the runups we've seen, nancy? >> yes. we had big gains in many of the stocks. a lot of the financials, mostly the banks are approaching our sell ranges so we've been looking at sort of non-traditional financials to round out our holdings like berkshire hathaway, the b shares. we have to stay true to our discipline. it's usually telling us something. >> i'm impressed you're picking up berkshire b shares after they were up 40% in the past 12 months. >> on a relative price to sales -- we already owned it. we're just adding to the holdings. it's about a 3% holding to us. we've been selling some of the regional banks and jpmorgan,

some of the money centers are approaching our sell ranges. >> okay. dennis, meanwhile, a bunch of deals here to talk about. intel and mobileye, smaller ones, oil field services types of things. it does feel like between the ipo activity and the deal making activity there's definitely more activity in general this year. >> you know, it's such an interesting contrast, kelly. right now you have intel being hit by 2% in the market after the mobileye deal. $15 billion for a company employing only 660 people. the revenues in the last 12 months were only $360 million. it's a big number by any way you stretch it. but if you believe in the view that the market seems to be taking that growth is here, that opportunity is coming, then you have to at least be comfortable with this sort of purchase. i like it. they're supposed to be

unleashed. how do i. the last call from the last five years. it was a bit too high. >> there's also an indication if you look elsewhere in the market that they think deal activities are probably going to continue. if you look at the stock of lizzard, up. the deregulation story as well. they're all in these very strong up trends. deal activity. the selloff in intel is interesting, too. i think you had a lot of money hiding in big old tech for the 3% dividend and not expecting something like a relatively bold cash acquisition for 10%. >> mobileye went public at 25 bucks although barclays was upset because they said they don't know why mobileye was settling at 6 464.14. >> we'll have to see if there was a true all full out auction.

if the market says we want growth and are willing to pay for growth. what i love about this is it forces people to make a choice. do you believe it? are you willing to own the stock? as mike points out, kind of not really at least right now on intel. >> nancy. i agree. i'm sorry, i didn't mean to interrupt. we've been criticizing these companies for buying back their stocks and raising dividends. here we go with a bold move. whether they pay too much or not, in the long term i think we'll say that was a brilliant transaction and it set them up for the next five years which is exactly what intel needs. >> you said they had how many employees, dennis? >> of 660. there are probably that many at cnbc world headquarters and god bless you if they're worth $15 million. >> instagram at 12 employees, they are hiring like by the hundreds, machine learning engineers, mike, from the city -- even though these companies are starting to get valuations when they still have very few people, it does not stay that way by any means. >> no, it doesn't. especially when you're in post

startup mode when your backers say we want you to spend every dollar we give you and therefore the public market wants to see you ratify the idea that you're growing that way. i will say the market value to employee ratio without a doubt in the nasdaq is higher than it's ever been. >> it doesn't mean necessarily much except that it's a different kind of company. winner take all market with the huge platform. >> fair enough. hang on everybody. president trump was meeting with his cabinet. now he's getting ready to sign another executive order. kayla tausche standing by. >> reporter: kelly, this executive order in particular is expected to allow the president a broad review of federal agencies to cut down on spending where possible and to streamline the operations of the executive branch in particular. it comes just a couple days ahead of the white house's release of its proposed budget blueprint, what some are calling a skin any budget for where they plan to extend outlays and pull back government spending. earlier today the washington

post called this an historic cut back in federal spending and sean spicer, the press secretary, was asked about where specifically the government is targeting and whether know have a target number in sight to cut. >> there's no set number that we're driving down to as we review government. sometimes you just walk into an agency and you realize that agency's mission is no longer relevant. or that it's duplicative in three other agencies. you know, or that there are too many people performing a function that no longer exists for a variety of reasons but that's why the mission is critical. >> so we will see if and where the president and his executive branch choose to cut some of that spending, but of course the backdrop of this, kelly, is that we are expecting this afternoon to see the congressional budget office's score for the replacement by republicans for the affordable care act. that could make or break this legislation at a crucial time.

exactly what it will cost the federal government going forward. >> should be any minute. our kayla tausche at the white house. nancy, are you going to take this information about the replacement for obamacare and invest accordingly as you start to see the details come through here? >> well, we're focused on the pharmaceutical and biotech space, kelly. i mean, some of the insurance companies have moved pretty dramatically and are out of our valuation metrics, but i do think the fda commissioner matters, the fast tracking of some drugs and maybe getting competition -- cross border competition on a more level playing field. a lot of the major nations are using our drugs as -- they're piggybacking off of the prices and we're carrying the burden in the u.s. >> yeah. >> we like what we see in this whole thing. the final bill and the scoring

of it doesn't mean so much to us. >> what about the hospitals, nancy? >> yeah, we're out of them. i mean, they had a nice move, too. we are -- that's not something that we're interested in holding at these levels. i think, you know, many people didn't think that the insurance companies or the hospitals would do well after aca passed, so they always figure out a way to make money, but for us we see better places to be focused. >> by the way, those cbo estimates on your screen are starting to come through. we'll bring you more details just as soon as we get them. nancy, real quickly. you mentioned from your point of view the new fda commissioner is just as important through the biotech stocks. what do you think of scott gottlieb? >> i actually don't have a broad understanding of his background. i mean, it was announced erlt er and i'm going to take a close look at it. given what we know about what the president has said and what he also then has done, i think this is going to be bullish for the group. we just have to get through some

of the pricing commentary. >> sure. dennis, you're here. we're starting to get these words -- word out, i should say, cbo says the bill will cut the deficit $337 billion over the decade and that more than 14 million more people would be uninsured. actually, i believe our ylan mui is available with more. out of the cbo this estimate long awaited. >> that's right, kelly. so you were right on those numbers. $337 billion is the amount the deficit is expected to be reduced over a ten-year period. by 2026, however, the cbo estimates that 24 million more people would be uninsured relative to the current law. health care premiums for single policyholders in the non-group market would rise 15 to 20% under the house plan so those are the latest numbers from the cbo. we'll dig through this report and get back to you. >> ylan, thank you. dennis, any early kind of reaction here?

there's a number of different numbers people will look at. there's a bunch of different story lines that we could follow here, but at least, you know, their take is starting to come out. >> well, look, i try to stay out of politics. i want to stay out of politics. i think we can probably begin to -- begin to hear questioning of the cbo and its effectiveness. we've seen that from various presidents, various different presidents. it will come under some scrutiny 23r9 white house. i think it becomes as much of a political story. the country has to make a choice. 24 million uninsured people. the costs are here. in the end, we want to talk numbers because this is cnbc, but i think it really just becomes a political decision more than anything else. that's the way it is. >> understood. rich meade is back with us. he's vice chair of prime policy group. rich, sounds like what you were telling us earlier. what's your reaction here?

>> thank you. this is a pleasant surprise for republicans on capitol hill to get these numbers back like they did. i think for the republicans in congress, they're probably a little bit more sensitive to the budgetary numbers than the number of uninsured. it's a larger number of uninsured but, again, this budget number is coming back. if they want to go back and remove some bridges in the bill, it will provide more assistance in states, vulnerable populations or to address some other provisions of the bill. perhaps even look at some medicare provisions with these additional funds. they've got some more flexibility to do that. >> mike? >> yeah, it's interesting. i mean, obviously the republicans in congress who are behind this bill have been sort of trying to preempt the cbo decision by saying we may not pay much attention to it because it's probably not going to look good for us. so the results seem on the surface to look better for the bill, at least give more flexibility on that front. it doesn't necessarily mean it

changes the state of play in terms of what they're going to push or how, but i guess in the negotiating process there might be more slack. >> rich, when the bill first came out the first 24 hours were not great. there was a lot of opposition. we continued to hear that from tom cotton over the weekend. the freedom caucus voted for it, they could expect to lose in the mid terms in 2018. do these numbers help the white house make the case that this is the bill, the plan the whole party should support? >> they do help the leadership and white house make the case that this bill is good policy and like i said, with some more flexibility with the reduction in the deficit, they've gotten an opportunity to go back and rethink some provisions like i said. maybe they'll rethink some of the aid to some of the states, maybe they'll rethink some of the levels of subsidies for buying insurance of any kind under this plan. so it gives them some more options. i think it will help them in the negotiations. keep in mind the budget committee will meet on wednesday

to put together the ways and means and energy and commerce committee's products. when they do that they have an opportunity at that time to make it and they may see that as early as wednesday. >> the white house may be open to that. kayla tausche joins us with more reaction. >> reporter: kelly, an important point of the number of people insured specifically, the cbo had done a previous study saying that if you just gutted the previous affordable care act, then about 32 million people would be left without insurance. and that is one of the reasons why republicans started to -- started to really support this idea that a replacement had to be done at the exact same time. that's one of the issues of the house freedom caucus and more conservative wings of the republican party have pushed back. we want a full and wholesale repeal of this law, but obviously the cbo is saying now that 14 million people losing coverage, while that is still a high number in 2018, it's only about half the number of the previous report. so the question is whether that

is enough of a change to passify some of thatservatismconservati. premiums would increase by 15 to 20%. now what is that on top of? because one of the big republican talking points had been that premiums were rising in a lot of states where insurance coverage was already unaffordable. arizona, for instance, is a state that they talk about quite frequently where premiums in the last year rose 116%. so what would that -- what would the base be on which those numbers would change? is that a change that is expected to be absorbed by people who are paying for this insurance? we'll have to see. that number i believe is smaller than some expectations out there. certainly the number of people without insurance immediately is slightly lower than the medium expectation from economists that had been surveyed. >> kayla, thank you. . meanwhile, our ylan mui digging

through this. what more do you find? >> a little more details on that premium figure because it is so important both for actual individuals and politically. so the cbo found that the increase, that 15 to 20% increase will be effective through 2018 and 2019 but it found that by 2026 average premiums for single policyholders would actually fall by 10% compared to where they might be currently. it's also important to note that that 24 million estimate of people that they expect to be uninsured by 2026, that's at the high number. the outside estimates for how many people might lose coverage. so, you know, some big news, a big blow perhaps to republicans are the number who might be uninsured. >> ylan, thank you. joining us on set is dr. kenneth davis who's president and ceo of mount sinai health system. thank you for joining us today. we know the report came out. they're getting familiar with it. what's at stake for your

hospital system here? >> well, hospitals are in a difficult position here. under the affordable care act hospitals have the disproportionate share of payments. that's your bad debt and charity pool. what it meant was since the number of people who are going to be insured would be increasing, the assumption was that their debt would decrease. now what's going to happen here, the cbo report underlines is that 24 million people will wind up without coverage. what that means is more of them will come to our hospital uncompensated. without those disproportionate share payments, bad debt and charity payments, hospitals with a high number of people, particularly on medicaid, are going to wind up finding themselves in very, very difficult circumstances. >> you guys operate new york city and the surrounding area, i'm sure this is a big issue for you. so would the plan be able to address this by bringing those back by any chance? >> no. the plan that is currently before us is going to make it

very hard to not diminish the number of people taking medicaid right now. the medicaid roles -- >> for the hospital point of view, will they be able to bring back those payments? >> no, there is no way to bring those back. >> right now. do you think they would add it? >> i have no idea. that changes the cbo estimate right away on how much it will save over the next 10 years or 15 years. those are not insubstantial payments. >> so what elements of the proposed bill that's out there could be altered? is there anything else in the process of getting this toward law that could mitigate some of these effects? i mean, obviously level of subsidies or some of these things that may be in play. >> there are a number of issues. let me start with one that's little thought about and that is that 20% of people on medicaid have psychiatric illness, addiction or dementias. those people are going to be asked every six months to prove their eligibility again.

what happens inevitably to those people is that they fall through the cracks. they can't get it together to be able to put all the paperwork together. >> so they don't currently have to do this? >> they do it now once a year. >> this would change it to guys a year. >> change it to every six months. there will be more dropouts when that happens. another thing that happens along the way is when those people are signed up, they're retroactive for only 30 days. what they're usually signed up by is the hospital because of the catastrophic condition that cause them to be admitted, which is often more than a 30-day stay. and, in fact, the previous law gave a 90 day retroactive. so what you're going to have is a lot of people will fall off the rolls of medicaid. as we look forward, when medicaid moves to per capita, block grant. >> the proposal is to move this to a block grant. per capita evenly, it's not the way it's currently run? >> right. then we're going to see the rate

of rise not equal what we know is the inflationary rate in medicine. that's another reason why cbo is probably showing this to save money over time. >> the change of the cpi. >> save money at the expense of the medicaid grants which is essential to a lot of people in poverty who have no other alternative. >> let's just say this happens. it becomes law and you're left dealing with this as you've dealt with so many health system changes already. what is the most likely impact already on your hospital system? >> i think you're going to see a lot of the hospitals take care of indigent populations. you'll see medicaid services. you'll see hospitals like ours which are academic services find ways to cut other parts of our program substantially. so it could have a fairly devastating effect. >> one of the sort of talking points from some folks is under this regime if it took effect, that states individually can

somehow kind of experiment with their medicaid. what does that actually mean in practice, if anything? >> well, there are all kinds of different experiments and be a lot of those experiments are based on the ideology. and if your ideology is all around people should be more responsible and they ought to get a job and they ought to -- otherwise we're not going to give them medicaid, those people with addictions, dementias and psychiatric diseases. on the other hand, what's happening in new york state where i'm really concerned with diminishing readmissions changing to population management moving away from fee for service, you can find your system being more efficient. >> rich meade, if you're still with us. i wanted to give you one final comment on this before we leave the topic for the time being. i thought you brought up medicaid saying this experimentation could work out in some cases going forward. >> i did. in indiana what we saw them put

in place was for their program they have very small but very significant co-payments for the covered populations. that co-payment allows them to buy into their health care and hopefully be more responsible and follow the orders from their doctors, take their medications and be more active participation in their care. >> real quickly, do you want to respond to that, dr. davis? >> it's not clear to me how a small co-pay makes you a more responsible person. how a small co-pay will make you fill your prescription. i can tell you what will happen. that is if people's co-pays is way up and they can't afford coverage, they're not going to be able to get preventive care and they're not going to be able to fill their prescriptions. >> dr. davis, thank you for joining us. rich meade, appreciate your time. >> thank you much for having me. >> nancy and dennis, appreciate you joining us. mike, you stick around. we have a lot more coming at us. coming up, bill cohen

weighing in on president trump's plan to increase spending. plus, forget the elevator pitch. julia boorstin has how this company is going to take it to a whole new level. >> i'm about to go into this helicopter to tell you how lockheed martin is going to take people to new heights at south by southwest coming up on "closing bell."

some news involving the position where his purchasing square has brought him no shortage of pain. valle ant. mr. ackman is no longer a shareholder of valiant pharmaceutical. it was at one point worth a great deal. it was one of purchasing square's larger holdings. given the incredible decline in the shares, down some 90 plus percent over let's call it the last year or so, it now represented roughly a $300 million position and it has been sold, 27.2 million shares. sources in the market tell me

they believed he was off around 11 although that's not completely clear. the stock is being reoffered between 11.10 and 11.40. you may remember some time back carl icahn has said that he thought pacman was trying to sell a stock but it didn't actually end up happening. this time it has happened. as soon as i said it, it ends what has been a long and largely sad chapter for mr. ackman. remember, of course, he came into valeant as a result of his partnership with the company in its bid to buy allergen. he bought a great deal of allergen stock as part of the group associated with valeant. then they failed ultimately to succeed in acquiring allergen which was eventually bought by active vit activeis to become currently what is still allergen. what did mr. ackman do?

well, he actually turned around and bought a very significant stake in valeant, became very much involved in that company with its former ceo and very much involved in the restructuring of the company. went on the board of which he's now going to be stepping off. was involved in the hiring of joe poppa, the company's current ceo, and this chapter has now come to an end, kelly, for mr. ackman. he received a great deal of attention about it. one might imagine it might be taking up a good deal of his time. as a result of purchasing of his assets given a fall in the stock price, this was not a significant or meaningful position any longer, at least monetarily. >> well, that, mike, helps explain a little bit what we were just looking at which is has the stock even touched 11? >> exactly. done as a block trade. the broker gave him 11 and they're trying to make their little margin on it. as david suggested to me, the one good thing about having a big holding go down 90%.

it becomes a smaller problem. the thesis has changed along the way in terms of why he would have invested in it. the question now is is the stock finally getting washed out or not. >> right. david, at this point, you know, when people read these headlines are they to think of this as this reflects more on valeant or -- >> that's a good question. it was not a good investment for mr. ackman. one of the worst in fact. we can remember a few others. he's had his big share of winners. jcpenney is another one in which he became very involved and which did not do well. this one he got in early. he was teemed up with mike pearson, the former ceo of the company. and then its business model came under attack. the philador relationship became known. a lot of questions asked about that. generally speaking its inability at valeant and its ability to keep that. and a number of other areas.

we find ourselves in the morning talking about valeant. in the last quarter, it's not particularly good. it's going to be money good, let alone whether the equity value. you can service that dent. >> offer us any update on what you had at that front. we'll wait to hear from the company itself. joe poppa, we spoke with him has indicated some assets have been available for sale basically at a good enough price so perhaps the situation becomes -- that price comes down a little bit. the shares of course taking this

negatively down 7%. david, thank you so much for bringing us that news. >> sure thing, kelly. >> our david fabr. president trump firing attorney fareed bhara. the affect this could have on insider trading cases. stay with us.

( ♪ ) it just feels like anything is possible here in upstate new york. ( ♪ ) at corning, i test smart glass that goes all over the world. but there's no place like home. there's always something different to do like skiing in the winter, jet skiing in the summer. we can do everything. new york state is filled with bright minds like samantha's. to find the companies and talent of tomorrow, search for our page, jobsinnewyorkstate on linkedin. . welcome back. we've all heard of the elevator pitch but now defense contractor lockheed martin is taking that

concept to new heights. julia boorstin is 1,000 feet in the air with the details. julia? >> reporter: yes, kelly. this is amazing. i've never before been on live television in a helicopter. lockheed martin's venture capital arm is trying to draw new startups as it looks to invest in more emerging technology. this is called the helopitch. they're opening this up and the ability to pitch to them to companies in the categories of aerospace, space technology, sign be security and virtual reality among other categories. and it's all about them looking for more strategic investments to try to strengthen the parent company. it's a $100 million venture capital fund. they're looking to make two to four investments a year. >> we're looking outside because, you know, in the commercial space things evolve at a very high rate of speed and we want to make sure that whatever products we're creating

for lockheed martin and for our customers have those advanced technologies in them. >> reporter: with more than 40 applications lockheed's two partner companies will invite ten entrepreneurs to come up here and make the pitch. one is called phobe 3d. >> we're here pitching lockheed martin because the defense industry is our number one industry. they were a fantastic partner to help us enter that industry. as far as getting into a helicopter, who wouldn't want be to go up into a helicopter. >> bringing entrepreneurs up here is certainly a costly stunt, and it speaks to the challenge that companies and the funds have from breaking out of the noise of all the pitches and panels and different activations happening down on the ground at south by southwest. it also speaks to corporate vcs increasing interest in investing

in startups. we're seeing growing amount of dollars coming out of corporate vc funds. they look to find the hottest, most innovative startups to help drive their own technology. guys, back over to you. >> julia, you make this look easy. you know, i'm not sure the helopitch is going to stick. not quite sure that has the ring to it that maybe elevator pitch does, enter the jargon. you look like you could do this once pay week. >> reporter: well, look, kelly, it's certainly drawing some attention to what lockheed martin is trying to do and the kinds of companies they're trying to invest in. for that, i think it's working for them. >> julia boorstin 1,000 feet above austin, texas. thank you, julia. president trump set to meet with germany's chancellor later this week. william cohen weighs in on how important the meeting is on the future of our alliance with germany. and fired u.s. attorney preet bharara expected to depart his office. we'll bring that live as it

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welcome back. president trump has full support from nato allies who don't pay their fair share as part of the tee fence alliance. today nato showed some countries

have under their spending by $10 million. only five are meeting the requirement to contribute 2% of their gdp. joining us now is william cohen, chairman and ceo of the cohen group and former secretary of defense. senator and congressman. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> how would you describe the state of play in nato right now? >> well, i think the nato countries are concerned about the statements that have come from the president. i was in munich just a few weeks ago in which we had both the secretary of defense, jim mattis, we had also the vice president pence giving speeches directly to the european community as such. general kelly was also there. and a large delegation from the senate. they were there to persuade the europeans and members of nato that we are still with them, that nato was still relevant. that it's very important to the security not only of europe but to the security of the united states. so i think they're still waiting to hear from the president

because they're not so sure that these individuals no matter how high ranking are really speaking on behalf of the president. >> right. >> i think it's important that this meeting between the chancellor and the president take place soon. >> that all being said, this report does point out some of what the president's criticisms have been of nato, namely that they're not paying their fair share and a lot of it does depends on the u.s. to throw money into the alliance. do you expect them to respond to this by increasing the amount that they kick in or is this going to become a core sticking point for the existence of this alliance? >> no, i think they're going to respond. listen, president trump is doing the right thing by saying that they need to do more. i have -- i urged this when i was secretary of defense, i know bob gates has done so, secretary rumsfeld all have done so to get the european members to contribute more. this is something that has been in long standing. i think the time has come that they recognize now that the united states has been carrying too big of a burden and they

need to do more to participate. we've gone from 50% up to 75% when it's supposed to be 50-50. i think the president is doing the right thing in saying you have to do more. also be careful here. let's not look as if the united states is a mercenary military, that we come if you pay and we don't come if you don't. that's something that we need to avoid at all costs. >> all right. secretary william cohen, thank you so much for joining us. >> pleasure to be with you. >> president meeting of course with angela merkel later this week. and preet bharara out as u.s. attorney in the southern district of new york and he's expected to physically leave his office any moment now. we'll take you there live when we come right back. finally. hey ron! they're finally taking down that schwab billboard. oh, not so fast, carl. ♪ oh no. schwab, again?

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j welcome back. more breaking news down in washington. let's get to kayla tausche. >> reporter: we're just getting a statement from the speaker of the house, paul ryan, who has shepherded this health care legislation from the start to where we are. the report from the cbo confirms that the american health care act will lower premiums and improve access to quality affordable care. it says it will provide massive tax relief, dramatically reduce the deficit and make the most fundamental entitlement reform. he does say referring to the number of people that the cbo found would be uninsured, 24 million people by 2026, that i recognize and appreciate concerns about making sure people have access to coverage but then he goes on and

criticizes obamacare further for potentially taking insurance away from other people under that law, referring to some of the terminology that the administration has used and that the republicans have used about how that legislation was a disaster and going to implode anyway. he says as we long said there will be a stable transition and that no one has the rug pulled out from under them. so far as the white house stands on this, they have continually thrown grains of salt in advance of this report about what the cbo would say. we have not gotten a statement from the white house. we have efforted one. we are told the spokespeople are in a meeting right now and we will let you know if we have anything to come back and tell you. >> kayla, thank you. kayla tausche at the white house. the trump administration also firing u.s. attorney preet bharara after refusing to follow an order from the department of justice to step down. leslie picker is outside his office in the city. see if he's actually left the building. leslie? >> reporter: hey, kelly. that's right. we're waiting for preet bharara to exit what is now his former

office here in downtown manhattan. we're told he could leave at any minute. we're expecting employees, staff, prosecutors all to line these steps in celebration of him. we even saw a bagpipe back there to celebration in loyalty to the u.s. attorney -- the former u.s. attorney. he arrived here about four hours ago to say good-bye and thank you to colleagues. now the big question on wall street, of course, is where bharara was known for his string of insider trading cases is what happens next? he filed 111 insider trading charges which led to 89 convictions.cases, however, are still pending. june kim wi-- joon kim will rep him. insider trading will remain a key focus with whoever replaces bharara. the question is to what extent

it will be a focus. >> our leslie pickers staking out preet bharara's office where he is about to depart. let's bring in carrie cohen. she's a partner at morrison and forster along with jesse eisenger. when it comes to wall street, spb no hero. welcome to you both. carrie, first of all, you've worked with him. we've been focusing on the wall street angle. he's also gone after major figures on the new york state assembly, the mayor now under investigation. so where does this leave all of those cases? >> that office has a long tradition of bringing cases, following the facts where they lead without fear or favor. i think you should expect that to continue. the line assistants in that office and the supervisors will continue to pursue their investigations. they will continue to pursue their cases in exactly the same fashion as they always have. so i would not expect a big change in any of the types of

cases that the u.s. attorney's office is bringing or investigating. >> and he's gone after inside trading quite a bit, jesse. is the idea that there's going to be some major sigh of relief now? >> well, i don't think so. i suspect that the office, as i suspect the office will continue. this is something they do well. juries understand they like these cases. they're familiar with them. they find it much more difficult to prosecute banks and top executives. and i expect under trump appointee that they'll have big problems doing that. >> one of the criticisms about the lack of prosecutions of people responsible or involved is that this office, or many offices want a slam-dunk case. it is something that can change? >> i don't think it is a fair criticism. i think the u.s. attorney's offices across the country and

especially new york are not afraid to take on tough cases and indeed have done a lot of very tough cases for the southern district of new york, unpoint to the bank of america case which was a civil case. a very tough case. they won at the trial level. it was reversed by the second circuit. and a criminal case is a much higher standard. so continuing criticism of the u.s. attorneys offices in general. >> do you want to respond? >> i think in fact they did not investigate a lot of the financial crisis cases well. they were so fixated on insider trading. in 2009 and 2010 you didn't see them doing investigations of lehman brothers, for instance, or bank of america when it took over merrill lynch. of course these cases are very difficult did to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. i think systematically they shied away all across the doj.

preet is at the premier office and should have been a leader here but they all shined away because they were scared. they didn't like that they didn't have slam-dunk cases. >> you mentioned the office goes about its business. what is a new u.s. attorney do then by setting the tone? basically, can he or she say we're not going down that road? >> there are existing investigations. cases that are indicted and filed, i would not expect those to change at all. every u.s. attorney comes in with different priorities and different focuses. certainly one of preet's big focuses and priorities was public corruption cases and insider trading but he also did very important terrorism prosecutions and organized crime prosecutions. so i think the priorities can shift but the work of the office will always remain as it has been traditionally across the board on all different crimes. >> do you expect he might make a move to the mayor's race?

the governor's race? he is of somewhat national attention. >> i think i would stay tuned and not opine further. >> thank you. big ackmann. confirming that the investment, it has sold its investment in valley aent pharmaceuticals. at a price of around $11. in the press release, bill ackman will remain on the board until the up coming meeting. also important to point out, they say the investment required disproportionately large amount of time and resources on this news. we're looking at shares, selling off about 9.5%.

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welcome back. we have more details on the ceo score of the health care bill.

>> if you're looking at the winners and losers in the report here, one thing that stands out is that young people are expected to see their premiums decrease by 20 to 25% if you're 21 years old. if you're about 40 years old, it estimates your premium will depreece 8 to 10%. that's made up by the increase expected for older americans. their premiums are expected to go up by 20 to 25%. that's one of the things that the aarp was concerned about and why it came out in opposition to the health care bill. if you are someone who is lower income, the tax credit that you receive thunder legislation are like i to be smaller than the benefits you currently receive. and for those higher income household who's fall below the income cap to receive the tax credits, they could see a benefit of several thousand dollars under this new bill. so low income people perhaps receiving less been if it than

high income households. >> real quickly. this has been so interesting. aarp came out against it because it will allow old people to be charged five times more than younger people. so in this, the cbo is saying while their costs may go up, it will be more than compensated for by the age base tax credits that are included? >> no. what the cbo is estimating the premiums for olders americans will increase. the republicans have been trying to argue that overall, the cost of health care should go down as more young people sign up for these. what we're find spg the actual number of insured people will fall so it is under clear exactly how those overall health saving there's materialize. >> and interesting because the older peep, that's a key voting bloc. it may be clear that for younger people, it drops 20 to 25% but politically, i can't imagine this bill can move forward without the spofrt aarp.

>> remember, older americans supported donald trump by about 52%. so their demographic that was a key base for donald trump and we'll see how they react to these numbers. >> all right. thank you. >> we're going to be debating the impact through the legislatesive process. do you think it will affect trading? >> i think the market has said they don't really think the bill in this form has a tremendous probability of getting through. but on the other hand, hospital stocks have gotten hurt on the possibility something happens here. lower coverage numbers. so i think we'll trade, the cbo report, so to speak. i don't think it will change the lines of the debate. you can interpret this the same as yesterday. >> one thing i wonder is it looks like it may be more politically palatable. does that make had corporate tax cuts the next piece we get to? >> if it makes the process move

faster, perhaps that's the case. i don't know that the cbo report accelerates the process. >> especially when you have enough resistance. see if that breaks down. >> absolutely. it has been very busy. thank you as always. good luck with the storm tomorrow. we'll see everybody tomorrow of that does it for "closing bell." "fast money" begins right now. "fast money" starts now and it looks like the perfect storm could be brewing. the drama in d.c. heating up ahead of president trump's big budget speech and the fed likely to home run raise interest rates. it is dramatic. we broke out the onpera music. what will matter the most to the markets and your money? >> well, i think you stay the course. what matters most is the fed. it will continue to be the fed. it is not just one. it is a series ofwo