>> others and curiously, and i believe unfairly many of the ones kicked out have been yellow color. >> maze and lemon yellow among them. >> we need a color called locomotive. >> thank you for watching "power lunch." >> "closing bell" starts right now. ♪ hi, everybody, i'm kelly evans. >> this is the last hour of the first quarter of 2017. for those at home keeping score, tech and health care are the big winners so far this quarter, and financials which were once among the best are now the laggards rs as a matter of fa , as a matter of fact. how to portion yourself. >> president trump expected to sign two new executive orders on trade. what to expect coming up.

rivalry breaking out on twitter between wendy's and mcdonald's, and it's getting ugly, folks, details what it means for the stocks coming up, but let's begin with the action in washington. ylan and john harwood in d.c. with the story. you have executive orders on trade. >> reporter: that's right. we expect the president to sign executive orders if just about half hour here, and both of them are geared at with what the administration believes to be trade abuses. first one reviews the relationship with every country in which we have a trade deficit. china is a a big one, but that excludes countries, and second executive order strengthens the ability to collect fines already imposed on countries that dump products in our markets. wilbur ross will be at the signing ceremony. he was on earlier today saying measures are needed because america is already in a trade

war. today meeting with manufacturerings, president trump said the u.s. got a bad deal. >> the field has not been a level field, jobs have been leaving our country going to china and mexico and lottings of other places. >> reporter: the manufacturers is divided over the best way to approach trade deals, but they've been encouraged to roll back regulations, cut taxes, and build infrastructure. 93% of companies surveyed by the national manufacturers association say they are feeling good about the outlooks so far, and, guys, that's a record high. >> yes. which the president remined us off. thank you. now to the roadblocks in the agenda. let's get more from john. >> kelly, we know the trump agenda faced trouble all across the board. travel ban held off, health care bill failed, approval rating down 40% and dogged by an fbi and senate investigation into

contact with russia. that subject dominated the white house briefing today incoming discussion of the president's tweet that flynn asks for mimety. spicer said he should testify fully, but you've also goat out there the issue of tax reform which the president said is the next priority, but as our colleague pointed out in this country to zone spicer, it's point schedule. >> i think that we are working on engaging key stake holders, and when we feel it's appropriate, we'll put out the appropriate outline and processes that we envision, but at this time, that discussion is ongoing. >> reporter: that was a lot of words to say they're not ready. the house of representatives, though, is ready with a plan, and the question that's now emerging is is the white house going to come up with something

different than what the house laid out, that they coordinated with the president on during last fall's campaign, and how quickly could that agenda move? the secretary treasury has said as members of congress have, that by the august recess, they'll get that done. there's virtually no chance that's going to happen, guys. >> all right, john harwood there in washington. thank you very much. we'll have coverage of the president signing executive orders on trade coming up in roughly 30 minutes. see if he has comments to say about that at that time. let's get to the closing bell, the first one. here we are, end of the quarter, not a bad one for stocks. the dow up roughly 4.5%. nasdaq up 10% for this quarter.

do you think that can continue into the second quarter? >> i do. yes, this market has performed, had a great first quarter, but no head winds to it at this point. i think getting it to the second quarter, economic data boosts the markets. before we know it, we rom right back in earnings season. interestingly enough, the ipo calendar is robust to bring companies to market, companies have been on the sidelines waiting for the right time. the more they see, the more it will come. there's investment sentiment too. there's a nice tick in that, and that money that's been waiting to come into the market will see clear signals there. as always, d.c. has been dictating our marketings chrks way we move, up or down. interesting to see the push and pull in d.c. talking about health care, hags reform.

>> everything gearings back to washington, but financials, industrials in there, emerging markets. do you think this is where investors should stay? >> a good entry point. the u.s. market has been robust for the past several years, and emerging markets and international markets are paced year today. the markets are effective, and at this point, i think the u.s. market is really driven by the noise out of this administration, so things don't happen the way we think they will or a timely basis, there could be a heart break here. >> john, this is a quarter when fed raise the rates, the yields down in the treasuries, and dollar stalled out, not anticipat anticipated. what's going on there? what happens in the second quarter? >> likely, they have a downside buy in the month of april. over the last ten aprils back to

20072007 they fell by an average of 14 points. there's little to drive or change fed policy in the near term. next year, they suggested the most important number is the hourly average earnings hour. the fete is with an increase, but they have a bias to the upside and little reason for the fed to hurry up and/sore to change what the margts billing in we think consumers want to watch oil. the prices may start to see inflation back away this morning, so keep an eye on oil, but not going far in the near term. >> oil, and there's also that weak consumer spending number this morning dropping the first quarter of gdp figures a lot, and economists, said, all right,

second quarter. what do you think? >> looking at the economic data, there's mixed signals from washington. the fed said they will be data dependent. it gives investors and the fed the ability to step back a little bit and try to forecast a better quarter moving forward or trar transparent, but gives time to really pause and use that data to their advantage, whether they flip the switch on interest rates sooner or later. >> what would you do with energy? i mean, it, you know, that's a sector con founded a lot of investors, do we go lower? do we go higher here? either way depending on cuts from opec and u.s. kochts to produce here, one of the worst performing sectors, what do you do with it? >> i still like the sector. i think this administration has

got a fossil fuel friendly approach, and so i don't ever see oil hitting levels they did a couple years ago. that's never going to happen. they'll probably stabilize here and there's upsite. there's a lot of break companies in there paying fabulous dividends, and we like to have good cash flow. i would be still looking at the sector, familiarly in the transports area. there's great opportunities there. be selective. but there's opportunities. >> all right, thanks, everybody, for joining us this afternoon. >> thank you. >> thank you, have a nice weekend. >> enjoy the weekend. >> yes. >> opening day is this weekend, as a matter of fact. >> and april fool's day. >> i hate thatthat. >> me too. >> 50 minutes until the close, dow down 50 points. we started coming back this week, but lower now. s&p was positive and now down a point or two.

the russell is up. >> financial stocks ending, what began as a strong quarter, but ending with a wimp, the winners and losers, and what's robbing the mojo from this once red hot sector. that's next. >> wars flairing up on twit r, fight over fresh burgers and which stock feels the heat. that's next here on cnbc. will your business be ready when growth presents itself?

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we'll bring the signing to you when the tape rolls, it's a tape playback for us.

meanwhile, apple has been the best dow performer this quarter back again, and exxon mobil. >> 10%, the first quarter, nasdaq up 20%, india up 11%. strong spots putting up reports we've not seen in some time. >> there it is. >> frost is here to tell us what's behind the dropoff. >> yesterday, kelly, bill, as we discovered late last year and early this quarter when yields rise, so do bank stocks, and in march, the opposite holds through. yields were not falling. in marches, yields fell, and the curve itself flatten. this chart shows the very strong correlation between the ten year

yield and bank's index, both falling this month. also some other factors as well. the failure for republican health care bill played a part based on implications, overstated with the banks because deregulation can be achieved through simply appointments and change of tone opposed to needing legislation. there's also been less of a pickup in m&a than some hoped for. that coming alongside less positive lone growth in two months reduced hopes, and earnings report april 13th. on that note, key things to watch, earnings, fed rate makes, and what it does. there's appointments and the much anticipated provocation of the independent review into the sales practice scandal. .name 4% for march, but up around 1% for the quarter as a hole. >> dealing with shareholder

lawsuits too. it was a widely divergence between them and the rest of the banks, but that's narrowed. >> de >> definitely has. there's a correlation between yields and bank stocks implying it's money centers reacting. look at selloff, it's the investment banks that underperformed to the likes of goldman sachs, down 6, 7%, and the others are less. that talks to the lack of a pickup in m&a. the other point highlighting another reason that sucked capital and money out of u.s. stocks went elsewhere. two big quarter raises in european banks, clearly that attracted attention. look at the performance for the quarter. european banks up 5%. >> wow. >> u.s. banks.name four. >> from different bases, though? >> yeah, ran up significantly,

and then there's profit taking, and others suggest with the raises around the corner allowing valuations. >> even at that, clearly, the u.s. banks underperformed regardsing expectations that many investors have had. as we expect the fed's going to raise rates a couple times this year, but the prevailing thinking is that's good thing for the bank stocks, but it's not been so far. >> absolutely right. we have to point out in the quarter we have had that rate hike, sorry, in this month, we've seen banks pull off, we had a rate hike, but you can frame it saying we got a less hawkish fed than people expected in terms of the number of parts from the rest of the year. ive to say over the last week or two, clearly, a selloff in yields stabilized because of the fed speak, again, highlights there are going to be three, four hikes this year, and that's then switching the focus of the yield curve back to the fed opposed to purely politics. we've just been slipping. >> you mentioned the goldman's and morgans and deal making, but

what about activity down here as well as equities business. is that going to be somewhere to look in the second quarter? cloud arrow. snap. >> the ipo activity is positive, particularly with snap, and excitining factor throughout th year. in terms of ceo equity and busi, they are small per. >> so much smaller. >> that's good the last two quarters, but don't forgets massive difference in comps we had at this time last year. april 13th, wells fargo, jpmorgan, and citi group, that's an important day to watch. >> very good. >> thanks very much. >> thank you so much. >> my pleasure.

>> enjoy the weekend. >> seemed like you were being sarcastic. >> no, why would i? >> i don't know. i thought it was good. >> very, very well done. >> if only you had on the vest. that would have completed the look. >> at least you got it. >> thank you. >> see you later, 40 minutes left in the trading session, we were down 60 at the lows of the session while the dow will be positive for the kwaurtd, we're negative for the month now. expecting rump to sign trade orders shortly. bringing that to you when it happens coming up. up next, two multinational chains air their beef on twitter when we dock back. eyes. sixty to seventy million people are moving to cities every year. at pgim we help investors see the implications of long term megatrends like the prime time of urban expansion, pinpointing opportunities to capture alpha

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welcome back. we're awaiting president trump signing executive orders on trade there in just a couple minutes. markets mixed in the meantime. there's the nasdaq, up a tenth percent day, but the russell, by the way, up almost half a percent. pharma topping this quarter, and qualcom the biggest loser in the ind index. >> down 11% in the quarter. amazing. meanti meantime, twitter beef, wendy's throwing shade at mcdonald's after they announced yesterday by mid-2018 all quarter pounder

burgers will be cooked with fresh, never frozen beef. shortly after that, wendy's responded on twitter with? so you'll still use frozen beef in most of your burgers in all of your restaurants? asking for a friend. shares of mcdonald's up 6% year to date. wendys a fraction of 1%. they got the best of them on that, but i, you know, i think mcdonald's is behind the curve there. vulnerable. wendy's for years and to some degree five guys proved you can serve fresh never frozen burgers. >> smash burger, and had panera's ceo on, they explored the menu 15 years ago, so mcdonald's is getting on the wagon. >> why only the quarter pounder? >> yeah. you got to start somewhere. >> i guess. >> this is why i love twitter,

by the way, because only because of this could we see the two companies directly -- >> i mean, like the old coke-pepsi wars back in the day. >> there's the fast food stocks since the election. mcdonald's leading the way, and they are doing this competitive survey, if you will, mcdonald's was not losing people to healthier restaurants, but they were losing people to rival fast food restaurants that served burgers that just tasted better and realized we have to go after that. and they did the $5 sirloin beef berger. it was not a big hit. >> i have not forgiven them for getting rid of the beef snack wraps. >> snack wraps were great. >> only make the chicken ones now, but not the beef ones. >> i did not try the beef. interestingly enough, by the way, look at the price point on this burger. they'll let the franchisees determine the price. obviously, after what it's been, the lower the better. >> everything you could possibly

want to know about the burger wars right now. we have 36 minutes left in the trading session with the dowdown 33 points. president trump as we said expected to sign executive orders on trade any minute now. we'll go to the white house coming up. >> two mainstream investors tell us whether the trump agenda is slipping and how to change the strategies if that's the case. stay with us. c'mon in, pop pop! happy birthday! i survived a heart attack. i'm doing all i can to keep from having another one. and i'm taking brilinta.

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welcome back with the dow down 29 points, nasdaq positive. check out the s&p 500 struggling around that flat line today, and look at its performance for the quarter. you're seeing all sectors ranging from best to worst performing, technology up 12% on the s&p, followed by consumer discretionary up 8%, and health care up that much, and the laggards includes financials up 2.5%, and energy is down more than 7%. bill? >> already. we got roughly 30 minutes left in the trading session with the dow down 30 points as we close out q1. with me on the floor of the new york stock exchange. how was your first quarter? >> challenging. >> yes. >> yeah.

>> so what do you expect to do in the second quarter? >> well, actually, i think once we strike the earnings season, i think that if this -- there's a lot of high expectations about the second and third quarter this year. the expectations are picking up. i think that if you have corporate earnings and they meet expectations, it could be a really good quarter, and i'm going to really be in a lot of trouble with my family, but we're not going to see that. ti i think the economy's struggling -- not struggling -- but takes time. >> the expectations is 2.6% right now. that's not bad. >> no, that's not bad, and it is potentially there, but i think we still have to go through the earnings season. i still think that the expectations of earnings are really starting to skyrocket. skyrocket enough that people are, you know, getting ahead of it now. >> what's interesting is even the people who are in the market right now are very skiddish. >> yes. >> it's like everyone is waiting for the proverbial 10% correction now, and people like you not in the market is sitting

there waiting for the same correction so that you can get into the market. >> mine would be more 5-7%. that would be okay. i wouldn't have a problem with getting back in the market at that point. you know, i've been telling you for months, i think the market is way far ahead of itself. i think the earnings this quarter are going to be very important. this will be the most important quarter of the year, and, you know, if they do well, i may have to bite the bullet and get back to the market, but i have a feeling i'll have to forfeit that opportunity. >> hope springs eternal. we'll speak again. >> we will. >> thanks. >> thank you, guys. let's get over for a cnbc news update. >> this is what's happening at this hour. the new york mayor announcing he's developing a plan to close the troubled rikers jail within ten years to be replaced with several smaller jails. to make it work, the jail

population would be cut in half. hillary clinton presented awards for women advancing peace and security. she took a couple swipes at her former rival and now president, donald trump. >> this administration proposes cuts to international health, development, and diplomacy would be a blow to women and children and a grave mistake for our country. >> yesterday, we told you they retired dandelion. they celebrated by announcing the new color will be part of the blue family. the shades not refeeled yet, though. fans are invited to name it this summer. that's the news update this summer. back to you, kelly. >> i have that dandelion crayon, but i liked brick red or that blue. >> i already know what the name of the new crayon should be. i got it. >> what is it? >> and? >> how about dandelion-blue. >> okay.

well, never seen a blue dandelion. >> remembering them that have gone before. >> they are milking this thing as far as i'm concerned. >> it worked. >> the contest. the color. >> brick red. my favorite. >> all right. taking your word on brick red. >> noted. >> thank you, see you later. the president wants to spend a trillion dollars rebuilding america's infrastructure, and partnerships with the private sector are a big part of the plan. kayla joining us now with a look at lessons learned from previous public-private deals. kayla? >> reporter: when they fund the refurbishing of america's infrastructure like this highway behind me, they expect a profit. it's not always a sure thing. investors cite a cautionary tale in particular, the indiana toll road. a spanish and australian joint venture paid $3.8 billion, the most in that time in history,

for a 75-year lease, they planned on traffic increases and raise toll prices, but traffic fell 31%, and taxpayers had a loss of 42%. they declared bankruptcy eight years in and had to be sold to an australian investor. at the time, governor pence said we anticipated this a possibility. of course, that investment stanned the financial crisis, but mike summers of the american investment counsel said volatility of any kind is really bad for the projects. >> what private capital you need, but what private capital needs more than anything else is stability, political stability to show returns at the end of the process. >> reporter: in order to guarantee returns, some are creative. the private equity firm and parent of subway paid $178 million to repair a parkway. they got a cut of the revenue on

cite, but after seven years, they sold that to a you pay infrastructure company. as you can see, kelly, even private companies want to invest for a few years, get the return, and offload it, often times to a foreign investor. we'll see if that sits well with the administration, and what the demand is like for u.s. investment firms to get involved this time around. >> such a beautiful day to do infrastructure. thank you very much for braving those conditions for us. let's go to someone with an idea how new infrastructure projects can be used privately and using reits as a model. >> there's not debate about whether we need new construction in the country. i mean, we've not had a comprehensive infrastructure plan since eisenhower was

president, and many of the assets today were only to be around for 50 years, so we need new roads, new bridges, but infrastructure is a wider challenge than it used to be. it includes water, energy, clean energy, hydrocarbons, and just -- >> yeah, scott, let me just cut to the chase here for a second. infrastructure investment trusts. this is why we make the reit comparison. you propose something that would be a new kind of instrument, right, people can invest in infrastructure, collect the taxes from that or the cash flowing from that, and be tax advanta advantaged, right? >> that's right. like the question of infrastructure is change the dramatically. the way we have to approach funding infrastructure also needs to change dramatically because the bottom line is the tax and spend model to longer works so we have to encourage ways for private capital to enter the infrastructure challenge, and we don't have to look too far to figure out how to do that. look at reits and mlps, the

vehicles are successful in raising for over a trillion dollars to invest in liquid assets, and the big benefit is that politicians can't get accused of selling private equity and wall street. at the end of the day, we can own our own infrastructure through a list of format in the stock market. >> what's the return on this? i mean, if you use the mlp model, there's a tax advantage. use the reit model, there's a dividend paid. if i'm buying into a reit or something that's building a highway. how do i get money back? >> yeah. a great question, so the problem with the reit model as it stands today on the mlp model standing today is they are clumsy as to address the issue. they were never contemplating roads and infrastructure. qualifying assets and the fact you need rent, i mean, what we should be considering is the

structure tackliing the issue. how do you invest for the average investor, make it look like it does to the big guys? that's a passthrough of income that would be tax free, but potentially the passthrough of tax losses. don't forget these infrastructure projects often take many, many years. there's a curve with up front initial investment. if you have a structure to pass on losses that ininvestors set against their personal income, that opens the flood gates for the average investor as well as pension funds to meet the challenge. >> i guess i have a couple other ways to vet my tax losses, bad stocks, a few things. interesting thing, scott, let me strategically try to reduce the tax bill while at the same time investing in infrastructure. one more question. the track record on this is not long and so far not all that great in terms of probability.

why do you expect that to change? >> the example that was just cited minutes ago span the goc for one. for two, a lot of what happens in the private world lacks equity. they should have a maximum leverage point. there's a lot of equity in the deal so that you can survive the ups and downs of the economy. >> all right. >> fascinating. >> i love creative ideas like this. infrastructure investment trust. thank you. >> thank you. >> over to sleeve with a great market flash, what's going on? >> just want to point attention to utility ps, pop performing sector in today's trade, in fact, announcing today that it completed 170 million some access of energy. shares also higher. bill, back to you.

>> all right. good old ewety ti tutilitieutil. 20 minutes left. dow down 20 points, two retail investo investors, shifting strategies with the ups and duns of the trump rally. phone makers or service providers? a debate on which is the better investme investment. stay tuned.

looking at biotech now, tumbling after losing a ruling on four patents for ms drugs. they are preparing an appeal. stock down 22%. biogen rises, though. they win a patent ruling related to a different ms drug. one analyst said the victory saved them from paying forward pharma $300 million in annual royalty payments starting in 2021. they are up 1.75%. >> here's a look at the performance of the major averages year to date with the

dow and nasdaq nearly together up 18% and s&p up 16%. >> wow. >> more on how the trump administration's playing into the market moves. bring in our retail investor round table for this month, and joining us today, our pal from rlj lodging trust in d.c. and trevor, another pal, founder of the millennium view, joining us here at the new york stock exchange. you're high on infrastructure stocks as we get ready for whatever plan, and whatever country, we have to start spending a lot more in. if you look at years, you know, revenue, 18.5 billion, that expands in 2020, $20 billion, and momentum to understand, investors are just overlooking, you know, the political wind, right? the people digging in the investments in the infrastructure plays, one in nine bridges -- you talked about

it earlier, you have a serious infrastructure problem in the country, so when can we digest as investors and say we have to start pulling money into the companies? that's the biggest push a lot of the time. >> it's a great question. i just wanted to talk to you about snap. you are a buyer of snapchat here? >> yeah, yes, i did. to this day, i said i never do tech, but i got into snapchat at 24.50, and it's not gone back up that way, so i'm waiting for it, hoping for it, crossing fingers, and i'm not really optimistic, but i have to hold. >> was there a fundamental reason for this? like you said, you just got caught up in it? >> caught up in it. i have a couple teenagers who i listen to sometime, and they talked me into it, and right before i was going to sell it, they talked me into keeping it. i'll keep it, hold it and sees what happens. they'll have to pay me back. >> could be a facebook or

google, stutter step, then took off after that. >> right. >> you never know. you wait and see. >> yeah. >> are you in tech still? >> yeah, yeah, apple and tesla are my biggest ones. you have hope on snapchat. the experience, the user interface is going to differentiate the tech movement going forward, right. facebook has a snapchat method. none of the peers i have use it because they know going to a different ecosystem is not going to provide the same thing, even though facebook tried hard. snapchat differentiated the culture and infrastructure in tech companies we see today. it's that experience that i think a lot of companies are missing, and it's really starting to show with the older tech companies that they reinvent the wheel on experience. >> you are thoughtful and focused on financials. talk about tesla. what do you see there? is this about -- take musk out of it, would you invest in tesla? >> it would be a risk for me,

but i think that you have to look at the demographic of automobiles today, right? 8-11 years on average is driving cars at 8-11 years old, millennials in the pique season, and they are buying cars, out of student debt, and tesla did it the right way. they made a car so beautiful from the top down. they went really expensive, really luxury, and now all the young people, like, oh, i've been in the model s. this is an amazing experience. they are taking the experience back to the apple at their store, but bringing it to the tesla store, the car, auto pilot, and transforming the automobile industry. it's incredible. >> okay. i have to go, but two stocks, which do you want to talk about? therapeutics or five below? not very hot sector right now. >> you're right. therapeutics were picked because

pharmaceuticals with the rollbacks coming with donald trump's agenda, that it would free up the government and free up drug trade. the medicines that are going to cancer victims such as my daughter, they get the treatment sooner than later so rather than a five-year plan, they can be more on a one month, six month plan. i see pharmaceutical sector actually taking off. this is just one of companies that i have securities in. >> all right. well, we certainly wish you well. i know you're supposed to invest in what you know, and we wish you didn't know about that. >> right. >> good to see you both. >> you too. >> thanks for joining us this afternoon. >> 12 minutes into the close, and we have to mention year to date, nasdaq up 10%, over the past year up 18% like showed earlier. but now down 30 points on the dow, lower on the s&p, and

nasdaq and russell are higher. >> we can't live without mobile phones, especially a blackberry, but if you could only have one mobile stock, a phone maker or service provider, which would be it be? two market pros take the debate coming up.

blackberry boosted today up 12% after beating expectations this morning. when it comes to the phone market play, is it better to buy the phone makers themselves, apple or samsung, or the service providers like verizons and at&ts? >> joining us now to discuss it, gene, why do you think the phone makers are the way to go here? >> well, i think if you look at apple as a blue chip text stop, the key is here is their ability to differentiate and hold customers, and just to take maybe an offensive jab at the services side is that that, to me, is a commodity, that network provider. in the case of apple in particular, i think it's a great opportunity because there's three big catalysts ahead of it. acceleratie ining growth.

bigger buyback, a lot of hype built into their services businesses, and so that's why i think these are a better play. samsung, obviously, you can't have easier comps and psychological comps than around the phone. >> right. okay, so, mike, he made the case with the hand set makers jabbing the service providers, which you like. what do you say? >> everyone is jabbing the service providers, and to be fair, the market is very, very competitive: we're seeing, you know, new promotions, new offers, saw free iphone 7 promotions last quarter, rolling into this year, more of that, and thigh are trying to make telecom great again, will be important for the likes of at&t and verizon. the m&a landscape, a lot of discussion of sprint and tmobile getting to the. good for the industry to have a structured industry that's probably going to beless competitive and certainly looking more for a return on

capital. >> michael, why isn't this a commodity market, though? >> to the point we're looking at with respect to the plans, and there is some degree of this, obviously, look at the four line plans, the carriers are stacking up, doing various things. i say there's still some differentiation on networks. that's what we see the noncommodity part of it. sprint has a ways to go. t-mobile is fixing their problems in the rural markets, and at&t and verizon have an advantage, but network matters. >> gene, are their hand set makers you would not buy? >> some down the chain outside of samsung, and i would say this, too, the whole theme of when is the great time to own it. there's just going to be a powerful opportunity in both apple and samsung over the next 158 days. i do think when the next iphone comes out in middle of september, the stock trades off

for a period after that, and so i don't have ones we don't like right now. blackberry is a phone manufacturer now. keep them out of the equation. >> will you stand for that? >> that's why i was asking. >> 168 days? >> counting the days here. >> september 15th, counting the days. >> okay, okay, got it. all right. very good. likes apple and samsung. gene, michael, thank you both for joining us. >> thank you. >> i learned something, my wife's birthday is in 167 days. happy birthday, dear. coming back to the closing countdown. >> that doesn't count, though. >> yeah, i know. >> final four weekend starts today in phoenix as college basketball's best vie for the national championship, and guess what? we have a version of march madness. the final four of stocks coached by two sports stars turned market pros. you're watching cnbc first in business worldwide. a low volatility investing approach.

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the s&p up a little more than that, and the nasdaq was the real standout with a gain of roughly 10%. this is the sixth consecutive quarter that the s&p has been higher. that has not happened in a decade. so overall, first quarter, good numbers there. oil, real tug of war, opec cutting production, u.s. producers producing, and the ring count today from baker showed an increase of 15 rigs coming back online here in the u.s., and we saw the price of oil drop from around $56 a barrel at the beginning of the year, got down to $45 and change. $50 right now. we'll see how it does going into the second quarter. same thing for the ten year note. as expected, the fed raised rates in march, but the yields have gone lower here, and while we were at 260 for a brief period, we're down to 240 or thereabouts, and, bob, look at the evacuativix, a three year p

talk about sideways action. >> in february, we hit a ten-year low in the vix, and after a brief spike up, it's come back down again. >> look at that, like an economic. >> half from 12. >> that's true. >> here's what's record, the world wanted stocks. the s&p 500 had great inflows. we had europe with emerging markets, but within the united states, energy's down 7. bill, you don't get a 20-point spread in one quarter often. there were winners and losers, and this points to the value of the portfolio if you ask me. >> by the way, congratulations on the recipient of the lifetime achievement award last night right here. >> thank you.

hope to be with them many, many more. >> congratulations, well done. going out with 55 points. the new york's bravest, fdny, ringing the closing bell at the new york stock exchange, celebrating good deeds day at the nasdaq. stay tuned now for the second hour of "closing bell" with kelly evans and company. have a good weekend, kelly? >> thank you, bill. welcome to "closing bell", everybody. i'm kelly evans, finishing up the day, the week, the month, and the quarter. the dow dropping 66 points on the bell, pretty much near the lows of the session, down a third percent today, and, again, a drop from 66, the blue chips, the s&p 500 down a quarter of 1%, turning a little bit lower there just into the close, down about five points. nasdaq, unfortunately, turning lower because if it had closed higher above 59.14, that's another record high for the

index that absolutely led the way in the first quarter with a gain of 10% in the first tree months of the year. the russell 2,000 today managed to close higher, quarter percent gauge of 1385 for the blue chips. record closing highs now, all reported on march 1 so all the gapes came in the first two months of the year. what do amazon, bank of america, nike, and deny's have in common? they have stationed with teams in the ncaa final four tournament. coming up, the news and basketball teams that could be on top. joining me on the panel was our senior markets congressmen nater and columnist, michael, and evan, and now we kick things off, mike, but overall, what do you think of today and the quarter? >> i think, really, the smoothness of the ride stands out. all the upside in the books.

5%, 5.5% total return, and it is good. take that pace any time. i think that there's been a made to order pullback in the last few weeks. when it's been so calm, temptation to say, what makes it more dramatic? what shakes things up? >> here's something now. the president's speaking as he signs executive orders on trade at the white house. >> unfair trade policies, probably one of the major reasons i'm here today. trade. nobody's ever made bad trade deals like our country has made. i saw the shuttered factories and spent time with the laid off factory workers. i heard their stories, and i promised them action, and i promised them a solution, and all over america you're already seeing that solution start to take place. take a look at what's going on in michigan, with ford, general motors, fiat-chrysler, and so

many more. the jobs and wealth have been stripped from our country. year after year, decade after decade, trade deficit upon trade deficit we'ving $750 billion last year alone and lots of jobs. thousands of factories stolen from our country. these voiceless americans now have a voice in the white house. under my administration, the theft of american prosperity will end. we're going to defend our industry and create a level playing field for the american worker, finally. today, i'm signing two executive orders that send this message loud and clear. that sets the stage for a great revival of american manufacturing. you saw that today. you saw what happened. you saw the numbers we have.

the survey showed 93% of factors and are optimistic about the future. a record high, and that's up from about 56% just a couple months ago. we're going to build on that tremendous momentum. we'll bring in manufacturing and jobs back to our country. first i'm signing an executive order to ensure that we fully collect all duties imposed on foreign importers that cheat, they're cheaters. from now on those who break the hues will face the consequence, and they'll be severe consequences. second, i'm ordering the first ever expensive review of american's trade deficits and all violations of trait runs that harm the united states and workers of the kits, just as i promised during my campaign.

this review will be led by secretary wilbur ross, who is joining us here today. wilbur is an outstanding success story. an unbelievable businessman. a great, but very, very fair negotiator, and on wall street, he's simply known as wilbur and everybody knows him, and now we have him on our side, so i thank you, wilbur, going to be a fantastic job. we're going to investigate all frad abuses, and based on those findings, we'll take necessary and lawful action to end those many abuses. i'm not beholden to any political or financial interests. i don't care. i'm here to do a job. i'm doing a job for the american worker. i really don't care. i'm not thinking about my

business or anybody's business, wilbur is not, peter is not. we're all doing a job. an and for our companies where the american workers are employed. i work for the american people, whether you're a democrat or republican or belong to no party at all, you are an american and i'm here to represent you and your family. going to get this straightened out, get the bad trade deals straightened out, right, peter? it's time. you've been looking at it for years, right, wilbur? this combination over here? can't be beaten. that's why i befred the special interests and followed through on the pledge to withdraw immediately from the transpacific partnership, and that's why i'm take iing these

historic steps today. the well being of the american worker is my north star. these orders point to our nation and point to everybody, point to the world, next week, as you know, in florida, the southern white house, we're having the president of china, and a large group from china and its representatives to get down to serious business. we look forward to it. spoken numerous times on the phone, and look very much forward to it, but it's been very bad what's happening to our country in terms of our companies, in terms of our jobs, so we're going to turn it around and fast. it's not going to take a long time. it's going to go fast. i just wanted to end by saying that we have a team that's

second to none. when everybody's assembled and fully in gear after the two orders, i think it's going to be something very special. i want wilbur to say a few words, peter, and then we're set. my vice president, i think i'm speaking for both, but i'm not 100% sure. i will tell you one thing, he has one hell of a good marriage going. >> that's president trump there, did not sign at the ceremony, but signed after leaving the oval office there. referring to the vice president's marriage there too. in any case, let's get to the recap of the executive orders on trade. >> yeah, hi. two executive orders. one is a report on trade practices around the world, anything considered unfair to the united states, and the other is an effort to beat up election of balances into the united states, so that's what

specifically the president's doing. string craft we saw the president in the oval office, not signing orders as seen in the past, but the last time hi did one of these, he was in a desk and complained the desk was too small. he was standing. maybe a different format. the president more comfortable with that. >> thank you. turning back here, guys, for some reaction. we knew they were coming, michael. what do you think the significance 16 them being implechlted if. >> we did. when we talked about the health care bill, it seemed most obvious in the immediate term get something out there on the record on trade. seems lieke it resinated with te message he wants. it's a matter of -- not gestures, but individual deals and product groups that try to tighten up some of the terms and trade. i don't think this is any kind of big protectionist move that

the markets are going to be rattled by. >> art was saying today people are frustrated by the fact that flynn's saga dominates issues wednesday, and then shifts to the fight to get yooel approached to the court, and a loss on all of this on what happens with tax. >> yeah. i think as a state, as investors, viewers, do it week by week. press conference things, be a lousy investor if you try to follow what's going on. >> can you afford to ignore it? >> totally. friday, the health bill, you know, much to do about nothing. >> yes. >> turned out to be much ado about nothing. >> unless you're a hospital. >> it's a glass half full stock market right now, and unless something bad happens, and by bad, i'm a real trade war, not these oval office gestures.

if something bad happens, the market will ignore it until tax reform actually happens. just ignore it for the time. >> let's get to bertha the performance of amazon and apple, the list goes on. you know, you could argue that maybe has nothing to do with policy. >> it's interesting, kelly. you know, i've been talking to animal miss this weekend, and i said, health care is doing well, but others are looking at the prospect of tax reform, helping the company's poll dome line. up 12%, putting in its best quarter since the first quarter of 2012, and it's no coincidence that it was also apple's best quarter. they really were in sync, apple roaring back here in the first quarter to new nominal all-time highs, market cap topping $750 billion. getting back up to the record

territory accounting for a quarter of all the gains we saw in terms of the nasdaq 1 urks. as you mentioned, amazon a high. microsoft hitting a high as well. amazon and facebook accounted for another quarter percent. three companies accounted for half the gains seen in the nasdaq 100, but it was really concentrated in tech. ships up 12% year to date. micron a big gainer there. the other surprising factor was the big bounce back in biotech. they capped here as well. outperforming. again, investors sometiming to not be concerned about the prospect of drug pricing, negotiations impacting by phara, near term, went after the stocks hit so hard after the election. if you want to read more, go to cnbc.com and a story about how

and how to breathe part all the oefrss this morning. >> good stuff. thank you. you are partily standing by, and your call on the energy sector, and we have not talked enough how movements in oil moved one way or another. what happens there? good place? >> well, they are going to have the best earnings when the first quarter announcements come in in april, and that's due largely to easier year to date comparisons, but i like the ones in the basin, the energies, the resources, those are a couple my favorite energy stocks, but i'm concentra sen traiting in the b now. >> okay. anything else before we let you go? >> loaded in tech. really loaded in tech. micron, stm. i have a lot of tech right now. >> such a great story.

>> hinge he koild keep gone. >> yeah, it's already, i think, double or so in the last year or so, pricing ape whatnot. thank you forever joining us. evan, what about you? >> if you step back, depends on what you believe happens in the next year or so. you know, i continue to like overweighting in the energy area only because if it's inflation story or global growth story, then that sector should do well. not saying it will do well. >> this is an investment you can afford to lose. you're not throwing all eggs in one basket. >> we talked about, you know, i think the story of this year and first quarter will be what happens with financials. i'm not been a fan of the financials. it's not because i don't think interest rates move higher.

i think they will. you'll continue to see a trend of commoditization of advance, the big story of the first quarter should be harvard endowment thrown in the tou. going to robot computers, eatsing park saying enough already. this will be the theme which is why i don't love financials. >> we have to go, but can the market move past that? leadership sector? everything else move forward while they bring up the rear? >> you can't rely on tech. it's just taking it it up already. >> already one year, trying again. all right. trump's chief executive roerd aimed at tackling the traed receive sit, is it a bad thing? that's coming up. personal spending cooling off last month as consumer confidence roared higher. what's behind the disconnect and what's it snag about the economy? that's still ahead. you're watching cnbc, first in business world wild. so you're having a party?

how nice. i'll be right there. and the butchery begins. what am i gonna wear? this party is super fancy.

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sales we want through the roof as they wanted nothing more than than to, you guessed it, wander around car.pros. that was not the only time there was a schism in sentiment and sales, back in the mid-'80s, the left of the screen there, consumer spending declined with confidence, and in the middle there, in the only part of this decade, sales confidence was muted. so consumer spending is so important that markets jump on any indicator they can find to give a hint about the direction and competence signals directions in big turning points, but there's far from emotions and spending. the better correlation is with the amount of money in our wallets, kelly?

>> so i was looking it up, asking you too, did president george w. bush at the time say go out and spend, go out and shop. >> he did. >> and that -- because what i'm getting at, there's a presidential aspect of all this. >> there is. >> look back to that point and say, okay, well, he helped cause this jump, and then, steve, look what happened now. the consumer confidence is arguably a trump phenomena too. >> there was another thing, back then, though, remember? auto dealers pushed incentives up. don't tell me they will or won't do something, tell me the price they will or won't do it at. they increased the incentives, cut prices pb. >> if you look at the chart, it's been vertical since the election. >> a coup other ways to slice up the numbers. a lot of talk is out there about the fact that republican confidence is up, democrats down. so, clearly, it's an expression of how you feel about the results, but, more interesting in temples of spending trends is

older americans had the larger jump in consumer confidence based in the confidence board numbers. they have a lower propensity to spend. they are not changing the spending patterns, and higher income people have confidence, similarly, can spend more, are not going to necessarily do so. >> that's why the tax codes, stimulus aim lower income because people need the money. >> a lot starts with what the base is or where the base is. when it comes to cars, for example, you know, detroit had a few very good years in a row. last year, a great year, so it's a big ask to ask all the sudden that people, you know, go out and buy more cars and replace. you know, you're not going to get, from, oh, 17 million in a year -- >> the survey of car buying intentions was a five year high. that can't be true to the point that we are coming off such a high number. >> a high number, and it's weird because it's when autos turn

down, that's a tell that the rest of the economy turns down. >> see if it's true this time. steve, thank you very much. >> have a great weekend. >> you too. >> breaking ipo news now. what's happening. >> hi, kelly. frontier group filed an s1 for initial public offering. we don't have a definite amount or which exchange is going to list on, but we have a ticker for you, frnt. of course, the denver based budget carrier. the underwriters include citi, deutsche bank, evercorp., bank of america, and meryl lynch, and indigo partners. once we have more, kelly, we'll bring them to you. >> wow. i thought it was telecom. >> once upon a time airlines were thee most hated industry group in america, and now everybody loves them. every airline had a bankruptcy, now there's the ipo. that's a contrary --

>> no way, no way. >> the first one is the no the one you run from. the first ipo in the industry, owned by private equity. >> all the ones. >> weird, though. interesting. frontier airlines going public. the controversial founder of occulus out of facebook, what does it mean for the future of reality in facebook? next. the ncaa tournament down to the final four teams this weekend with the south carolina playing gonezaga. coming up, picking the shares of major companies in each team's home state against eh other to see who wins the stock market's final four. stay with us. at baird, we approach your wealth management strategy the same way to create a financial plan built to last from generation to generation. we'll listen. we'll talk. we'll plan. baird. i've got a nice long life ahead. big plans. so when i found out

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get up to $2,500 customer cash on select 2017 models for these terms. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. a check of other stories today. shares of credit suisse falling after raiding offices in london, amsterdam, and paris as part of an investigation spanning five countries, two in the netherlands arrested, and officials questioning dozens more suspected of hiding millions i accounts. there's investigations in australia, germany, u.k., and france. they are cooperating with authorities and launched a probe into the subject. shares down 1.5%. oculus founder out of the post at facebook. unclear if he left on his own or fired. the social media giant issued a statement saying, quote, his spirit helped kick-start the vr

revolution, thank youful formal everything he did, and we witch him the best. facebook bought oculus, and lucky worked there ever since. now president trump signing executive orders on trade ahead of a visit from china's president next week, but larry kudlow said deficits are not a bad thing. explaining why after this. and sports fans are d for march madness. ratings booth means for media companies coming up. [pony neighing] what? hey gary. oh. what's with the dog-sized horse?