i said i had two goals. provide my investor with the performance they want and deserve and, second, prove did i fin it tifl definitively they are without merit. the s.e.c. in my opinion has overreacted, and we're anxious to go to court. i'll just read a statement my attorneys put out. mr. cooperman did nothing wrong. we're pleased the court agreed to our request -- >> you know what -- >> the window closed at 1:00. >> technology bites you you know where sometimes. that does it for us. i want to thank lee cooperman for joining us today. over to "power lunch" right now. i'm melissa lee. three big things we're watching this hour. president trump is about to hold a joint news conference with king abdullah of jordan. we are live at the white house straight ahead. we're keeping an eye on the market as stocks rally on a blow-out adp report. traders turning their focus, of course, to the fed, minutes from the last month's meeting, rate hike meeting, are out in less than one hour. and that's a lot of dough.

jab holdings buying panera bread more than $7 billion. i hope you brought your appetite because "power lunch" starts right now. thank you, melissa, and thanks to a big jobs number we have a nice little rally on our hands. the dow posting its biggest one-day gain since early march. the last time i checked just moments ago there was only one dow stock lower. that was cisco systems and it was barely down. oil and energy a big driver as well. crude may be off its highs of the day but it is still back about $51 a barrel. banks and technology also big winners. one notable loser, though, valiant pharmaceuticals, now trading in the single digits down 97% from its highs of two years ago. more now on today's market action, bob pisani live on the floor of the nyse where the good continue to roll. bob? >> reporter: and this is good

times. this is a broad wrally, brian. 29 of 30 dow stocks on the upside. i'll show you how broad it is. put up five of the big dow movers. you have consumer discretionary group, mcdonald's doing well, all the health care stocks up. all the big industrials like caterpillar up. caterpillar has had a great two days. you have the oil stocks moving as oil is moving towards $52. and then you have the tech names, even ibm and goldman sachs is up. 50 dow points, about a third of the dow movers just in these five stocks. you can see what's going on with the ipo business, very succe successful pipeline company today. play on yield, 6% yield, play on oil moving up, and it's a play on stronger market overall. this is a very impressive debut, bodes well for the ipo market. what's the market doing? it's resilient. did you see the action the last three days? every single day in the last three days we've been down in the middle of the day and somehow the market keeps coming

back. it's resilient. people want it lower so they can buy lower not because they think things are going down. leon cooperman, the most important comment he made, conditions that would bring a significant market decline are not present. and, folks, i think that's the way the majority of the traders down here feel right now. back to you. >> all right, bob, thank you very much. good afternoon, everybody. i'm tyler mathisen. you're looking now at a live shot of the white house rose garden where president trump is about to hold a joint news conference with king abdullah of jordan. we will take you there live as soon as it begins. today's meeting comes amid rising tensions around the world and most he especially focused jordan's neighbor syria. north korea, meantime, test firing another ballistic missile into the sea late yesterday. this comes a day ahead of chinese president xi zing pinning's visit. horrific images coming out of syria, a suspected chemical

attack. we need to warn you, these images are quite graphic. at least 83 people have died including 25 children in this attack. president trump condemning the act calling it reprehensible. >> we could hear more about all of those issues, big international stories, when the president's news kvens with the king of jordan gets under way. our eamon javers is in the rose guard wen a previarden with a p. >> reporter: just after the news broke that steve bannon, the president's adviser, has been removed from the national security council. i talked to a senior white house official just a little while ago who is minimizing the significance of that, but you can imagine that it will be on the mind of a lot of reporters here. the white house saying that b n bannon was only on the national security to serve as something of a check on mike flynn who was the previous national security adviser. that raises one question which is why would the president he have a national security adviser he feels he needs to have a check on. but ultimately what the white

house is saying here is this was a situation where receive bannon was in place to help deoperationalize the national security council, to take it out of the day-to-day foreign and military policy decisions of the united states and to ratchet its significance down. now that h.r. mcmaster has been approved the new national security adviser here at the white house they say that was simply unnecessary. so that is one issue that could come up here in the rose garden. of course so many others including that horrific attack in syria that tyler was just talking about, that will be on the minds of officials here and, of course the king of jordan such a key ally for the united states in the region. back over to you guys. >> absolutely. and as we await that event, let's bring in marc ginsberg, former ambassador to morocco. we talk about king abdullah coming to the white house, that we're back to u.s. foreign policy in the middle east the

way it used to be for a very long time. the last time he came, obama department meet with him. he criticized the saudis as free riders. now it feels like things are the way they used to be. mr. ambassador, is that a correct assessment of what we're watching unfold here? >> let's call it the ascend aan of the monarchs. after the summit held in jordan just last week, king abdullah here is coming officially as the leader of that summit to report to the president on a variety of issues. of course they'll talk about syria. they're going to be talking about egypt's recent visit, the egyptian leader's visit to washington a few days ago. they're going to be talking about yemen and will be talking about the horrific attack that assad committed against his own people yesterday. so there's a variety of issues and, yes, it seems that the

rebalancing has occurred in the trump administration back to where it belongs with our best allies in the rehe john. >> and that as we watch secretary of state rex tillerson walking into the rose garden getting ready for this event. we see gary cohn to the right as well. miss kay, let me bring you in. all of these issues, can anything be done on syria? i don't know if you've seen secretary tillerson's statement on syria today, condemns the attack, noticeably, but at the same time says, you know what, this is russia's problem. they and along with iran have to hold assad accountable. what does that mean for the u.s.? >> well, i think that in many ways policy has been changing especially vis-a-vis iran. when it comes to syria we're actually seeing a good amount of continuity, great frustration with the horrific acts of the assad regime and alleged crimes against humanity and especially with this recent attack.

but it's a very, very difficult situation with the russian backing there and it doesn't look like the current administration is any more eager to get into a war there than the previous one was. so while we're going to see a lot of condemnation, rightly so, i think actual u.s. policy will be very difficult to change course. we are likely to see activity in the u.n. that's something the previous administration also attempted. but it will be very difficult to get anywhere without russian and chinese support. so we're in the same dilemma we've been in previously, unfortunately. >> so, dalia, it's very interesting you would not expect to see this administration, the trump administration, president trump, do anything materially different than the prior administration which he was very, very critical of with respect to its posture towards syria. >> well, of course it's always hard to know, but i would say with respect to syria -- i'm not generalizing but with respect to syria it's a tricky situation

with numerous players involved in all sides of the region and a global conflict with no clear solution. i do think there has been some talk of trying to create zones of stability or safe zones. that's something we've heard from outside of government in previous years. they're very, very difficult plans to implement. i think the administration's focus will continue to be on the islamic state in syria. >> a lot of people will be noticing, tyler, that what was so different was that, remember, president obama first said line in the sand, the use of chemical weapons, we're going to do something. >> right. >> that is not being said by this administration. >> on set, jordan is a gas country. what is the strategic importance, however, of jordan with respect to the middle east and our oil and gas producing? >> it's such an important strategic ally. it's a traditional sunni gulf state.

they cooperate a lot with us on military exercises, a reliable u.s. ally, on a whole host of issues. but syria obviously is an important event because they're dealing with a tremendous refugee crisis because of syria. their economic resources are vitally strained by this conflict. i do think this is an issue king abdullah will bring up with president trump because from jordan's standpoint there has to be some effort -- >> does he have the power or respect in the region to do anything about it? >> in the case of trump, i don't think he has the propensity to do anything about it. president he obama did draw a red line. he said assad must go. president trump has made none of those pronouncements. it will be russia. we're not going to ask assad to leave. we're not going to put human rights at the top of our agenda for the middle east. it's a very clear change in policy. >> we see melania trump has just walked in and the queen as well. good spotting there, melissa. i didn't see that. >> she slipped right in. >> ambassador ginsberg, do you

want to weigh in? i know you've spent a lot of time trying to figure out the situation -- hold on, sorry. we have to interrupt you because here comes president donald trump and king abdullah of jordan. >> thank you very much. your majesty, thank you for being with us today. very much appreciate it. this is our second meeting since my inauguration but our first at the white house. a very special place, i can tell you that. i've gotten to know it well. long hours, very special. before we begin let me say a few words about recent events. yesterday a chemical attack -- a chemical attack so horrific in

syria against innocent people including women, small children and even beautiful little babies. their deaths was an affront to humanity. these heinous actions by the assad regime cannot be tolerated. the united states stands with our allies across the globe to condemn this horrific attack and all other horrific attacks, for that matter. your majesty, jordanians are known for their legendary hospitali hospitality, and we will do our very best to be equally gracious hosts. they're also known, however -- i have to say this -- for their

fighting ability, and you are a great warrior. and we appreciate it. thank you. the historical ties and close friendship between our two countries dates back three-quarters of a century. in that time the middle east has faced many periods of crisis and unrest, perhaps never like it is today, however. through them all america has looked to jordan as a valued partner and advocate and a source of ability and hope. i am deeply committed to preserving our strong relationship, which i will, and to strengthening america's longstanding support for jordan. and you do have tremendous support within our country, i can tell you that. as we know the middle east and the entire world is faced with one of its gravest threats in

many, many years. since the earliest days of the campaign against isis jordan has been a staunch ally and partner, and we thank you for that. jordanian service members have made tremendous sacrifices in this battle against the enemies of civilization. and i want to thank all of them for their really incredible courage. so many have been lost, and we pay homage. so many. in king abdullah america is blessed with a thoughtful and determined partner. he's a man who has spent years commanding his country's special forces. he really knows what being a soldier is. that i can tell you. and he knows how to fight. the king has been a leader in calling for a plan to defeat isis once and for all, and i'm with you on that. we're both leaders on that, believe me. that's what we speak about today

and that is what we are going to do. and it will be a shorter fight than a lot of people are thinking about, believe me. we've made tremendous strides as we've discussed. as you know we had a very, very fine delegation come over from egypt and also from iraq and they said more has been done in the last six weeks than has been done in years with the previous administration and, believe me, we're going to keep it that way. we will destroy isis and we will protect civilization. we have no choice. we will protect civilization. king abdullah and i also discussed measures to combat the evil and ideology that inspires isis and plagues our planet. in addition we also acknowledge the vital role jordan has played

in hosting refugees from the conflict in syria. we have just announced that the united states will contribute additional funds to jordan for humanitarian assistance. this aid will help countries like jordan host refugees until it is safe for them to return home. the refugees want to return home. i know that from so many other instances. they want to return back to their home. and that's a goal of any responsible refugee policy. finally, as we discussed, to advance the cause of peace in the middle east including peace between the israelis and the palestinians -- and i'm working very, very hard on trying to finally create peace between the palestinians and israel, and i think we'll be successful.

i hope to be successful. i can tell you that. the king has been in a really tireless advocate for a solution. he's going to help me with that and help me at the highest level, and we will be consulting with him very closely in the days ahead. king abdullah, i want to take this opportunity to thank you for your partnership. working together the united states and jordan can help bring peace and stability to the middle east and, in fact, the entire world, and we will do that. thank you very, very much for being with us. [ applause ] >> mr. president, thank you for such a kind and warm welcome to the white house. i fondly remember the meetings we've had many years ago and more recently several months

ago. you've always been a generous host and have always looked after us. we are very delighted with the way the discussions have gone so far. we're delighted to be here in such a wonderful setting on such a beautiful day which i think is a tremendous mark of how we're going to move into the future. we've had a very good round of talks here today, and i'm looking forward to continuing these discussions later on in our meetings after the press conference. what i do want to say is how much we deeply appreciate the close relations we have with the united states, with you, mr. president, and with the american people. this is a strategic partnership that we keep very close to our hearts, and it is a partnership on so many levels with discussions we had today to improve on as we face the challenges of the future. and i am very delighted for your mission, your holistic approach to all the challenges in our region, and to the dedication of your team in being able to

translate your policy to actions successfully hopefully as we move forward. the challenges we face today are many and not exclusive as i've just mentioned. they are global and tparticulary the threats to global security. terrorism has no borders, no nationality, no religion and, will ever, joint action with holistic approach as i had just mentioned, mr. president, is crucial. i am very delighted that you have the vision to be able to move in that direction, and i think the world will be in a very good place as we move with all these challenges ahead. no doubt with all the challenges we face in the world, the role of the u.s. is key to all the issues that we have around the world but it's not just the fact that we should expect the united states to do all the heavy lifting. the heavy lifting has to be done by all of us in the international community to support the united states in being able to translate that vision into the right direction so there's a lot of responsibility for all of us in the international community to

support to bring brighter days to all of us. we are very encouraged with supporting arab and muslim states in the fight against terrorism, but it is not only the fight of terrorism inside of our societies but we as arab muslim states standing behind the international community in being able to defeat this international scourge. in syria we need a political solution that ends the conflict in the country and preserve its unity and territorial integrity. as the president mentioned the issue we discussed with the israeli-palestinian conflict which is essentially the core conflict in our region. and the president's early engagement is beginning and bringing the palestinians and israelis together has been a very encouraging sign for all of us and i think, sir, it was that initiative that allowed us at the arab summit last week to extend through the peace initiative the message of peace to israel which we all hopefully

will work together to make that come about. all arab countries relaunched last week. it offers a historic reconciliation between israel and the palestinians as well as all member states of the arab league. it is the most comprehensive framework for lasting peace and it ensures statehood for the palestinians but also security, acceptance, and normal ties for israel with all arab countries and islamic countries. we appreciate your commit on these issues where others have failed. you'll find a strong ally in jordan in supporting you in all your policies. and if i may just say as you have on syria and the gas attack, unfortunately, as you and i both agree, this is another testament to the failure of the international diplomacy to find a solution to this crisis. i believe under your leadership we will be able to unravel this very complicated situation.

this has been on going for seven years now. parties with dubious agendas. at the end of the day as you pointed out, mr. president, it's the civilians, women and children, that are paying the heaviest price. this is happening on our watch, on our conscience as well as the global community. i know the passion and emotion the president has expressed and how this should not be tolerated whatsoever. and this threshold of inhumanity and savagery crossed every day is something that i know the president will not allow to happen wherever it may be and i fully support and endorse the president on this issue. i want to thank you, sir, because you have the outlook of looking not just at the syrian challenges but that of iraq, israel, palestine and libya. i think your message to all of us is a message of hope and that's what i take away and i thank you for all you have done so far and all that you will do. >> we'll take a few questions.

julie? >> thank you, sir. questions on syria for both leaders but if i could start with you, mr. president, you've condemned the chemical attacks in syria but you appeared in your statement yesterday to pin some of the blame on the obama administration. you are the president now. do you feel like you bear responsibility for responding to the chemical attacks, and does the chemical attack cross a red line for you? >> well, i think the obama administration had a great opportunity to solve this crisis a long time ago when he said the red line in the sand. and when he didn't cross that line after making the threat i think that set us back a lopping ways not only in syria but in many of the parts of the world because it was a blank threat. i think it was something that was not one of our better days as a country. i do feel he that, julie. i feel it very strongly. [ inaudible ]. >> i now have responsibility and

i will have that responsibility and carry it proudly. it is a great opportunity missed. as you know i'll be meeting with the president of china very soon in florida. and that's another responsibility we have and that's called the country of north korea. we have a big problem we have somebody not doing the right thing and that's my responsibility. that responsibility could have been made a lot easier if it was handled years ago. >> can i ask you if the chemical attack crosses a red line for you? >> it crossed a lot of lines for me. when you kill innocent children -- innocent babies -- babies, little babies -- with a chemical gas that is so lethal people were shocked to hear what gas it was, that crosses many

lines, beyond a red line, many, many lines. thank you very much. >> and, your majesty, if i could ask about refugees, your country has born the brunt of the refugee crisis in syria. the president has signed travel bans that would block syrians from coming to the u.s. if that goes into effect, what would the impact on your country and across the region be? >> i think as the president pointed out most, if not all syrian refugees actually want to go back to syria. we're working with the united states and the international community to be able to stabilize the are refugees in our country, give them the tools so that as we're working with the solutions in syria we have the ability to be able to send them back as a positive influence into their economies. and, again, the president and the europeans are being very forward leading in being able to look after a host community. a tremendous burden on our country but, again, tremendous appreciation to the united states and the western countries for being able to help us in dealing with that.

>> your majesty, how does the outcome of the recent arab summit help the u.s. in its policy to advance palestinian/israeli negotiations? >> well, as i've said, the arab peace initiative came out with a resounding resolution to offer peace to the israelis, to make them feel they're accepted into the neighborhood, and to be able to support the president as he brings both parties together and, again, i have to remind people that very early on there was an early engagement by the president and his team to the israelis and the palestinians to be able to see what he could do to bring them together. it is the core conflict for a lot of us in the region. the president knows this. he has his instincts in the right place. and working with his team, our job, as i said, is to do the heavy lifting. the arabs are prepared to do whatever they can to bring israelis and palestinians

together under the leadership of the president. >> thank you. john yang. >> thank you, mr. president. i'd like to follow up on julie's question and press you a little more on syria. how will you distinguish your policy and your actions on syria from the inaction that you criticized the previous administration? you say it's now your responsibility. what should we see -- what should we look for that would be different? and, your majesty, i would like to ask you, what gives you -- this is now your second meeting with the president, what gives you the optimism that mr. trump will succeed in the israeli/palestinian conflict so many others have failed before him to be a broker for peace? >> i like to think of myself as a very flexible person. i don't have to have one specific way, and if the world changes i go the same way.

i don't change. well, i do change and i am flexible, and i'm proud of that flexibility. i will tell you that attack on children yesterday had a big impact on me. a big impact. that was a horrible, horrible thing. and i've been watching it and seeing it and it doesn't get any worse than that. and i have that flexibility and it's very, very possible and i will tell you it's already happened that my attitude toward syria and assad has changed very much. if you look back over the last few weeks there were other attacks using gas. you're now talking about a whole different level. so, as you know, i would love to have never been in the middle east. i would love to have never seen that whole big situation start.

but once it started, we got out the wrong way and isis formed in the vacuum and lots of bad things happened. i will tell you what happened yesterday is unacceptable to me. >> can i follow up, sir? last year you seemed to be reluctant to get involved -- or to intervene in syria directly. is that one thing that's changed after yesterday? >> one of the things i think you've noticed about me is militarily i don't like to say where i'm going and what i'm doing. and i watched past administrations say, we will attack at such and such a day, at such and such an hour, and you being a warrior, you would say, why are they saying that? and i'm sure you sat back in jordan and you said, why are they say iing that? i watched mosul where the past administration was saying we will be attacking in four months. and i said, why are they doing

that? then a month goes by and they say, we will be attacking in three months and then two months and then we will be attacking next week. and i'm saying, why are they doing that? as you know, mosul turned out to be a much harder fight than anyone thought. and a lot of people have been lost in that fight. i'm not saying i'm doing anything one way or the other, but i'm certainly not going to be telling you as much as i respect you, john. thank you. >> sir, i think on behalf of the president, i saw early engagement with all of us in the region about the challenges between the israelis and palestinians. i had the honor of seeing the president and his team again in january where this was discussed. the president understands the nuances and the challenges. i think he has the courage and dedication to be able to do this. like i said before all of us have a responsibility to help

the president push us over the pinnish line, and so his team has been in the region. they've been talking to all the partners. and it is our job to facilitate them to move together and given the support to the president to be able to smooth the edges over between israelis and palestinians to achieve this. and the president understands that if we don't solve this problem how are we going to win the global fight against terrorism which is his number one priority. so this is a core issue that he understand and i think he has the commitment and he has my full support for this as he does from many countries in our region. >> i have to say the world is a mess. i inherited a mess. whether it's the middle east, whether it's north korea, whether it's so many other things, whether it's in our country, horrible trade deals. i inherited a mess. we're going to fix it. we're going to fix it. >> thank you. your majesty, if i asked you to look forward how do you see the

future fighting terrorism post mosul especially the role jordan will play in the eastern part of iraq, and do you believe the real battle will start then? if i may, mr. president, you know very well that the iranian militia and hezbollah has been propping them for a while now. will you go after them? what message will you give them today? will you work with the russians to ground the syrian air force and to establish safe zones? thank you. >> well, the first part is that we are seeing very recently tremendous gains on the ground in raqqah and mosul. again, i think as the president alluded to, it's difficult to put time lines on the issue because the battle space is always very fluid, but i think the war is being won on the ground. having said that, terrorists are on the move. they'll be on the move inside of iraq and inside of syria so that we have to make sure we adapt

our plans acourtingly and they move beyond borders, beyond our region and elsewhere. so as we and the administration have discussed it's this holistic approach, how do we fight them wherever they are, and i think that is the understanding. terrorists have no respect for borders and religious and people. so the seriousness of how we do this holistic approach as i've mentioned several times and what i'm really delighted is the understanding by the president and the administration in how to deal with this globally. and i think you're seeing a move in the right direction because the policy now is being charted out and my discussions with the defense secretary allows us to be then able to decide how we adapt ourselves in the rehe john to be able to come in line with international diplomacy. >> the iran deal made by the previous administration is one of the worst deals i have ever witnessed, and i've witnessed

some beauties. it's one of the worst deals i've ever witnessed. it should never have been made. it was totally one-sided against the united states and, frankly, against much of the middle east. i will do whatever i have to do. they have a deal. it was, some people say, not done properly even in the form of its finalization. there was no vote from congress. there was no real ratification. but i will do what i have to do with respect to the iran deal. as far as isis is concerned, the united states will work with whoever it's appropriate to work with, to totally eradicate isis and other terrorists and, by the way, isis is one group, but others have formed.

frankly, they're all over the place. we will do what we have to do to eradicate terrorism. >> the iranian militias in syria support the regime separate of the nuclear deal, what message do you have? >> you will see. they will have a message. you will see what the message will be. thank you. thank you all very much. thank you. thank you. >> president trump and jordan's king abdullah wrapping up their first joint news conference on a beautiful, sunny day in the white house rose garden. among the topics addressed obviously the syrian gas attack yesterday that killed roughly 85 people, maybe a little more than that. he said, the president of the united states, said that for him this crosses many lines. a question that referenced back to the idea under president obama that use of chemical weapons was, quote, a red line for him that would prompt a

response. president trump saying this action will not be tolerated and that his attitude towards syria and assad has changed after he witnessed the fphotos, the pictures, the images of civilians being killed by this chemical attack. >> when he says that crosses many lines, i still don't get the impression he's ready to take military action. >> he sure isn't saying it. >> he would not say it. he was clear about that. >> absolutely. >> former cia policy and a cyst, what is your take? >> he didn't say what color line it was. basically said a bunch of lines. >> a lot of lines. >> he wouldn't say it was a red line. strong expression of horror. few specifics how that translates into policy action against assad. >> marc ginsberg, i thought one thing that seemed sort of textually to change in terms of

the texture is his attitude towards syria and assad, dalia. he has not been strident about regime change at all. in that reference that my attitude towards syria and assad has changed, do you see an evolution there, a change in his position? >> yeah, i think that was one of the most notable aspects of this conference. definitely strong er rhetoric, just even a few days ago ambassador to the u.n. nikki haley suggested assad was not the focus. i think rhetorically, rhetorically we'll see more similarities to the obama administration towelly in terms of assad must go. de facto, though, i think the policy is likely to continue to be a focus of trying to push the russians to use their leverage with assad to get some kind of political solution. that's what king abdullah is pushing for and many others in the region who were just exhausted from this incredibly destabilizing conflict. so i think, yeah, rhetorically i

think the tone shifted there and that's notable but i'm still doubtful that actual policy will change. you heard so much talk about isis. >> i want to hear from ambassador ginsberg here. what did you hear in that whole impromptu about it crossing many lines. what did that mean to you, ambassador? >> i think that was more of an emotional statement that anyone should have including the president. but when you bounce up against the reality of what's going on in syria there's very little if anything the united states can do. the closest the president and his administration has gone is toying with the idea of creating these zones of immunity that would carve out territory in the south and the north, taking away it territory from the syrians so in order to protect safe havens for refugees. look, the israelis consistently bomb and strafe seyrian bases because they're shipping arms to hezbollah. the united states has engaged in

providing now support to liberate raqqah, so laes u.s. forces on the ground. there may be some opportunity for the president to send a message while we're engaged in these efforts along with the israelis to do something that would show the displeasure of the united states against the seyrian military base. but the final analysis, michelle, is that the syrians and russians are in cahoots with each other. this is the seventh poison gas attack that has been launched by the regime in the last two years. and while we're seeing these horrific pictures in the end the united states does not really have much it can do given the fact russian military is protecting the air bases. and so if we're going to get into a confrontation with syria it likely would involve the russians. >> got it. that would be a big one. all right. dalia, thanks so much. marc, appreciate it. to eamon javers now. he was at that event at the white house. eamon? >> reporter: hi, michelle. as you've been talking about this is as hawkish as i've heard

the president in terms of syria. earlier on he criticized the obama administration and argued they should not get involved in syria. he's also criticized the obama administration, as you heard again today, on the red line comment that the president, the previous president made and didn't follow up on. this sounded very much like a president who is willing to at least consider military action in syria in response to that gas attack that we saw yesterday. clearly it made a very personal impression on him. but i can tell you that sitting here just a few feet away from the president one of the comments that struck me was the comment right at the end when he was asked what his message would be to some of the actors in the region, and the president said you will hear our message. you will see our message. was he teeing up the idea something is to come from the united states here in terms of a mel tear response? that's unclear. in fact, he said expressly he wasn't going to say whether the united states would use the military and where and when that might occur. he felt that was militarily not advantageous. definitely as you have been discussing a hawkish tone from

the president here in the rose garden. back over to you. >> i hear the same thing you hear, eamon. i won't say what i'm going to do, which has been sort of his strategic posture with relation to military force or other things not to tip his hand but it certainly sounded -- he was not taking anything off the table in terms of the potential for a stepped up military response to this, correct? >> reporter: and the other thing, tyler, that he didn't specifically take off the table he was asked by the jordanian press whether or not he's prepared to work with the russians in syria. that has been an object of some curiosity given the russians' role in syria and in the region and also the swirling questions about just how close this administration is to vladimir putin and his regime. the president did not take that off the table. he said i will work with anybody that's appropriate to work with whether or not he considers the russians appropriate to work with he didn't say. >> eamon, thank you. eamon javers at the white house.

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welcome back to "power l lunch." big news on pepsi. the company pulling a controversial ad in which model kendall jenner joins a peace protest and gives a police officer a pepsi. the ad sparking outrage with many say iing it trivialized widespread protests. pepsi saying in a statement in part we missed the mark and we apologize. they also apologized to kendall jenner. we'll have more on the story coming up in the next hour. the big deal of the day is j.a.b. holdings buying panera. panera ceo spoke about the deal earlier today here on cnbc. >> these guys at j.a.b. are wonderful partners for panera. they are long-term investors. they measure their investments in centuries not in decades. they are committed to our

strategy, to our company franchise model, they're committed to our team. they essentially have just a couple of people at the holding company level, less than 12 people. they let management manage. this is a the great place to be. i'm going to be here. >> listen to that. less than 12 people. so one big question surrounding this deal, who exactly is j.a.b. holdings and where does their somewhat mysterious fortune come from? a closer look. >> that's a very good question, brian. j.a.b. was initially created for a prominent german family as secretive as wealthy. they're the direct descendents of ben keys er, a $60 billion consumer conglomerate that owns everything from lysol to air wick. j.a.b. started as a vehicle to manage the wealth of the four

benckiser, a huge part of the american breakfast market with a deal for panera today, one for krispy kreme last year, and keurig the near before that in addition to caribou coffee and einstein noah. j.a.b. has stakes in luxury brands like bali and rather invest in private equity funds which would buy the assets j.a.b. emerged as a massive acquirer in its own right. now that attract add slew of interest from outside investors with the acquisition of panera. j.a.b. also used equity from a new vehicle called j.a.b. consumer fund. it's managed by the same three advisers that run j.a.b. holding but it operates more like a traditional pe firm taking money from other wealthy individuals and sovereign wealth funds all part after growing trend of wealthy families bypassing traditional private equity to get into m&a.

>> by putting this in the fund specifically that implies there's an exit. >> exactly. at some point an exit. now i've asked for the exact structure of this fund and itch not heard back yet in terms of fees and returns and lockups and things like that. >> they're secretive. >> exactly. it is a novel idea this entity would then accept outside money for a new fund. >> think about the fact that 12 people in luxembourg, which has about -- that doubles the population every time they come in for a board meeting -- controls so many known consumer brands in america. keurig, coffee, now panera bread, krispy kreme. look at all those holdings. 12 dudes in luxembourg. >> the thing about j.a.b. which is interesting, they essentially let these companies operate in their own right so they're not actually taking keurig and meshing it with panera. >> i think we need the

lindbergh. >> that's not going to happen. >> they have coffee and bagels so they are sort of trying to use the synergies of the brands. >> they are but not as much as you would expect from a traditional private equity firm that would use some of the capabilities -- >> try to leverage them up, suck out dividends, leave them loaded with debt. maybe that's what they'll do with the new firm. >> they try to distinguish themselves from a 3g known for aggressive cost cutting. >> leslie, thank you. j.a.b.'s offering of $315 a share represents a 30% premium to panera's price. that got us thinking where does the value everyone else in the food space and who could be ripe for the picking? global director of equity research. r.j., great to have you with us. using any multiple you want on this deal can you apply that to any other names in your coverage universe implying they would be undervalued? >> it will be tough in this case

and j.a.b. has a track record of overpaying for things. they have their own aspirations with each one of the brands they paid n. a deal like this, the numbers come out to about 34 times or 2018, about 15 times that's a bit above what we've seen in the space. multiples the last five years in the space have been about 22 times earnings and about 11 times but you make the case a brand like panera that has done a great job, loyalty program, tapping into consumers' evolving views about health and wellness, for those concepts that have those qualities i think you can make a case that names like a starbucks is undervalued, potentially even dunkin might be undervalued. then again, too, you have to factor in what j.a.b. will do with panera. >> i want to ask you about dunkin'. does that imply there was thinking perhaps j.a.b. might have been interested in dunkin' and it's left as a wall flower?

>> they've bought about everything else in the coffee space. the thought was they were on the radar screen. there were whispers about potential m&a. with a brand like panera it's less likely. maybe something down the road that gets less likely they go a dunkin'. that explains the pullback today. >> they have pete of and women as other coffee brands. starbucks seen as a potential acquirer of panera. at this point, is this a threat to starbucks? >> very well could be. what's interesting now is that really with all the other brands jab acquired, really on the defensive, taking time to optimize store portfolios for einsteins, pete's, caribou and off set the cost structure, too. they haven't gone on the offensive. the question, start going more aggressively after the likes of starbucks and could see smaller format. capitalize on the coffee shops you see with einsteins and

pete's and convert smaller paneras or delivery options. another interesting thing, panera most successful mobile programs and on ton of that grocery store channel as well. panera doing a good job there. >> got it a lot of different things. interesting. could be a competitive threat to starbucks. >> r.j., thanks. coming up on "power lunch," could wall street analysts go the way of the cassette tape? signs pointing to that. what's happening that has wall street very, very nervous. and the latest store to go under and how big the bankruptcy list has grown already this year. stick around.

for years the number's wall street analysts has been shrinking. there's concern other firms may follow blackrock's move, if so another round of job cuts or salary cuts or both for wall street analysts.

>> i'm not surprised. minute woe heard about blackrock doing more automation, computer automation with asset management, why do you need research analysts? look at mike may ohmayo's team . more to come of this. >> sure. >> soft dollar payments. wasn't it? >> i don't want to get wonky. something is happening in europe, myfed, 2 required hard payment for research and overflow, a big story. working on a bigger story. >> pay directly for recertain rather than commission of the stock trade paying for the research behind closed doors. >> exactly. >> all right. now i have to read. payless shoe stores. >> i can do that, man. >> payless shoe stores, latest retailer to file for bankruptcy. a growing list of same. courtney reagan joins us with a list how big the list is getting and it is. >> huge. bankruptcy lawyers getting a lot of business from retailers lately. payless filed for bankruptcy tuesday marking ten retailers now filing already this year. one more than all of last year.

five clothing, shoe and accessory retailers in bankruptcy. three sporting goods retailers, two electronics players so far this year. altogether, closing at least 1,683 stores. not all of these names are shuttering completely. at least not yet. in 2009, 18 retailer timed for bankruptcy's in 2011, 11 did. if women's apparel retailer bb files soon like we expect to, we'll get to 11 by the beginning of the second quarter of this year. not only are more sales shifting online and we know consumers are diverting spending from things to experiences, and bigger investments like homes cars and more, more than half of retailers in bankruptcy this year were private equity purchases in leverage buyouts saddles companies with big debt burdens and as rates rise, refinancing debt options are slimmer. claire's and?

>>-j. crew and 15 others, highest since the great recession collectively owning more than $5 billion in debt. this is not the end of what we'll see. >> i wonder what the yields are. wow. >> amazing, right? >> courtney reagan covering the retail graveyard for us. thank you. there's the countdown. the minutes from the fed's last meeting. there's the countdown. minutes from the last meeting at the top of the hour. looking for clues how the fed plans to wind down its balance sheet. that's next. it's off to work we go! woman: on the gulf coast, new exxonmobil projects are expected to create over 45,000 jobs. and each job created by the energy industry supports two others in the community. altogether, the industry supports over 9 million jobs nationwide. these are jobs that natural gas is helping make happen, all while reducing america's emissions. energy lives here. all while reducing america's emissions.

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welcome back to "power lunch." we have the minutes of the recent meeting by the federal reserve and most participant support reducing the balance sheet this year, and doing so in way that would reduce both treasuries and mortgage backed securities together. they had a debate on whether or not they should end the reinvestment policy both either gradually or doing so all at once. the market expects it to be done gradually, but the fed doesn't provide any kind of indication what they believe here. they, one part of the minutes say they prefer to do it gradually. another says no preference for doing it gradually or all at once. certainly a shock to the markets if they decide to do the reinvestment, in the

reinvestment policy all as once. also debated whether or not to make the balance sheet decline time or data bedependent. monetary policy, gradual pace of rate increases was appropriate, but, and the fed would still be accommodative after the recent hike they were discussing at the meeting. several do want a faster face of rate hikes and things that would get to a faster pace of rate hikes include three things. stronger business and consumer spending, because of higher confidence numbers. second, perishably for fiscal expansionary policy and third, more rapid buildup's inflationary pressures. quite a bit of discussion about fiscal policy in the minutes. several don't believe meaningful fiscal stimulus would begin until 2018. pushed it back as well as the staff pushed it back. half of the participants said they have no fiscal policy yet in their growth predictions but most think it providing upside risk to their forecasts. some saw down side risks to the

policies from the riskal side including its economic growth and to the labor force from trade and immigration. policies. other risks include upcoming elections in the eu countries. saying they posed near and locker-term risks. finally on equity prices, some on the fed see equity prices as high relative to standard valuation measures. guys, a head scratcher on issue of reinvestment policy. that means right now when securities on the fed's $4.5 trillion balance sheet mature she end up reinvesting it. stopping that, and the question, whether to stop it all at once or some ending of reinvestment on a monthly basis? back to you. >> steve leishman, stay there. the panel, daniel dimartino, and david nelson, and josh feinman from deutsche bank management. back to the lacquer leak stuff. get to that. the minutes, to me what stuck out. two things.

danielle, tell me what stuck out to you. >> debate actual shrinkage. >> no timeline. >> shrinkage strategy. >> according to our viewers, do you think the stock market comment on stock market valuations? >> it always makes me uncomfortable. never happy when they do. >> shrinkage. >> shrinkage. well, different. >> seinfeldian. >> shrinkage. shrinkage. it tells you that not only are they talking abbott hadding their labor mandate, inflation mandate and also verbally concerned about financial instabilities. the third leg. >> should the -- stock prices? >> u.s. prices rising sharply. not clear how to do the unwind all at once or -- >> look, the market anticipating they're going to be kind, gentle and taper the roloff and only target high, long maturity bonds so that you, so they don't invert the yield curve abruptly. for them to discuss are we going to let the whole thing go? a surprise to the markets.

that should be pushing rates up. >> what do you think, david? >> irration's exuberance. i don't think the fed should comment on stock prices. clearly it's the elephant in the room. for portfolio managers like myself whankts is the elephant in the room? stock prices? what the fed will do? >> no. the balance sheet. has been for some time. how they address that. the runoff is the way to do it. what's the target? get to $3.6 trillion or down to 2? i don't think it's possible. >> according to goldman sachs going all the way to two, but i doubt it. eight caveats followed that terminal -- talking about the size of the terminal balance sheet. >> to put it to danielle's point. think back to the pre, the financial crisis, dealing with less than a trillion dollars. to get to two is a high level. i don't think we can get there. i'm more focused on the ball sheet than interest rates. >> probably way too simple for the both of you, but the reason yields are rising is because it looks like there's going to be a

big seller of treasuries in the market. right? that's what we heard today. >> no, no. it's the absence of a big seller because all they are talking about is allowing reinvestment to cease. that mean as huge buyer is pulling back. >> there's no buyer. >> no buyer. >> central banks also have been net sellers especially long on maturi maturity. two individual entities 3pulled back from the treasury market. >> josh, jump in. >> the value issue is very important and gradual runoff. one of the issues, is this a substitute for hikes in the funds rate or a complement? i think at first they are going to want to kind of let this run in the background and in other words set the balance sheet run offon a little autopilot. decline and take that into account as a factor that's tightening financial conditions and maybe even when they do the announcement, take a pause for a meeting or two on raising the funds rate. see how it sort of plays out and

then resume that process. >> steve leishman, read you, you hit part of it here. i dove through, a word search. i want to read two lines from the minutes which honestly kind of blow my mind and are very important to cnbc viewers. a few participants commented the recent increase at equity prices might in part reflect investors anticipation from a cut in corporate taxes or fiscal policy which might not materialize. also express concern low level of volatility appears inconsistent with considerable uncertain uncertainty. now commenting on why people are buying stocks and what might not happen. >> i disagree with danielle about as much as i possibly could in the sense i think the fed has a job right now and i think she knows that about financial stability and that's a big part of what the fed needs to do. it needs to look at equity prices, make judgments about equity prices. >> that doesn't mean they should step into behavioral economics. >> let me finish. it need to note the prices, make

judgments whether or not there's potential instability there, and whether or not there's policy suggestionive of that is a different thing. right now this issue out there. by the way, you see it not just in the fed's commentary, also in a differential between bond market expectations and stock market expectations, enterprises, a sense whether or not one is ahead of the other in correctly pricesing in the expectations of fiscal policy. >> yes. flattening of the yield curve is advertising as much. i don't think it's necessarily the per view of central bankers to comment on this. >> just supposed to clean it up after it blows up? >> absolutely not. never ends well, especially talking about whether or not congress is going to be able to push through legislation for tax cuts. implicitly what's in the statement. >> move on to the gossipy part? lacquer yesterday. it was astounding? what do you think? >> yeah. pretty surprised by that. i don't even think we're at the bottom. looks like he's part of the problem. who really leaked the

information? >> who leaked it? danielle? >> exactly. >> can you tell us? >> i think that there will be a refocus on janet yellen's pushback, because congressional leaders asked her repeatedly to provide information on this and she's refused to do so. >> for the people who don't know what we're talking about, yesterday lacker resigned, a question who leaked, how big qe was going to be back in -- mts failed to walk away from it implicitly. his silence confirmed -- >> very muddled. >> could this, josh -- in quotes, scandal, be the reason janet yellen steps down, or is asked to step i way? >> no, i don't think so. i think it is some reputational damage to the fed. see how far it goes. i think she'll serve out her term, but might also just behoove folks at the fed to be more cautious about talking to people outside sort of the

normal official channels. you know, it raises questions about -- talking to -- >> steve, you talked to these fed officials privately quite frequently. >> maybe or maybe not, tyler. not sure i should admit that. >> but how do you -- how do you interact with them? and how do you know where the line -- you're trying to get information? just as the medley reporter was. >> honestly, i don't concern myself with their line. that's their line. i'll ask questions that go up to and beyond what i think the line to be, because that's not my issue or my concern whether or not they go over it with me. that's their concern. >> tyler, you highlight a point. there are certain reporters when their story is in the journal or in the paper, people go, oh. they're the voice of the fed. >> right. >> this is a perfect, a lead by the fed. >> has to be a window where you just can't talk to anybody, including steve. >> and i think that foyer requested the pass or yield,

abundance of communication with certain reporters and actually bernanke himself set there's too much of this going on. >> jealous. >> a window. what is it? >> there was a seven-day window. now lengthened to ten days. >> blackout period. >> did this at a couple meetings ago, widened the blackout period for which they will not talk to -- no. pertains to the meetings. >> not the minutes. and before the minutes were released? >> it's ten days before the meeting. >> right. >> comes out. and they won't talk to reporters. or talk publicly during that time. >> i think it will tighten up more. >> appreciate the final comment. thank you all. news alert on ge. don choo? >> melissa, ki according to dow jones portion, waying the possibility of selling its consumer lighting business. yes, that means light bulbs. one of last consumer facing businesses ge has in its roster.

but according to are the report and sources familiar there with dow jones, the unit could fetch as much as about half a billion dollars in total. as we talk about the evolution, away from ge from the consumer side of the business we know they got rid of appliances last year. now it looks like at least they're in talks and interviewing investment banks for a possible sale of consumer lighting business. again, a business guys, that traces origins back to the beginnings of ge and tom edison. back to you. >> absolutely. dom, not a great business however part of the history of the company and a watershed moment. a company associated with thomas edison. thanks, dom. in the last hour of "power lunch" we heard from president trump and jordan's king abdullah. a big takeaway of the president's comments on the gas attack. it changed his attitude about syria and crossed a lot of lines but didn't say what, if any, response there would be. on the refugee crisis, president trump saying the goal should be to find way for the refugees to return home. and king abdullah saying arabs

ar prepared to do kwhafr they can to bring israelis and palestinians together. all right. to the bond market we go. rick santelli tracking action it's a the cme. michelle pointed out that rates were up after the minutes came out. >> they were. i mean, we are literally splitting basis points. had tight ranges. everything is close, unchanged. look at interday charts, 2s, 10s, 30s. clearly you can see first popped up, then back on change and heading up particularly noteworthy, 238 level for 10s and holding the 3% level for 30s. dollar index definitely jumped a bit. didn't make new highs, but it has been moving higher even though the long-term pattern has lower lows. quickly, my own personal opinion after talking to many people on the floor, if you do balance sheet, you're probably not doing rating inkras increases. traders on the floor more

nervous about bail and sheet issues than tightening of 25 basis points a pop. michelle, back to you. >> rick, thanks. coming you, are you ready for football on amazon? uh-huh. break down what the retail giant's latest move to stream live sports means for the future of online content. any content. and -- the advertiser exodus from bill o'reilly is picking up steam. pepsi trying to manage the fallout from a controversy new advertisement. all that and much more coming up next on "power lunch." usaa gives me the peace of mind and the security just like the marines did. the process through usaa is so effortless, that you feel like you're a part of the family.

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welcome back. amazon shares setting another all-time high today gept this. the stock up 18% over three months. up a 2300% since the 2008 lows and now the company is making a big bet on football. amazon making its first live move into sports. the streaming ten thursday night games to tens of millions of video subscribers worldwide. pay be $50 million for the games. five time what's twitter paid to stream the same number of games last year. >> and talk more with rob from mkm partners. only offered to prime subscribers already. is it to attract new subscrib s

subscribers? >> first thing is recognize it's a prty small allocation of their programming budget, at least what we expect their programming budget to be in 2017. it was just about $3 billion last year. thinking around $4.5 billion this year. it's a relatively small allocation and to drive the ecosystem value proposition becoming a prime number and keep that big membership number streaming. >> and broadcasting in the five games ay piece along with advertising. paying $50 million to stream this, and also basically airing these ads for free. if i'm a prime subscriber, and i am, i'm not necessarily going to watch football on amazon. there's no advantage of doing that. >> no. for those that are, you know, want not mobile and in front of their televisions in their living rooms. there is a large audience of cable subscribers not necessarily able to tune the

game in where they are. the other part, of course, those that are cord netters or cord cutters as well as the international distribution. still lots of homes to address that are not necessarily tuned in to the live stream. >> will amazon inadvertently, maybe vertantly -- i don't think that's a word, mess up, like -- >> we'll work with it. >> mess up necessary flix by over paying for content jt when they're jacking up the price of everything, netflix and others, is this going to damage their model? >> i think only to the extent that there is one, a shortage of supply of content or, two, that there is, you know, amazon is able to buy it all. i think when things are mispriced in the marketplace it doesn't last long, because there's not a scarcity of content and a number of bidders and not one to monopolize it. >> twitter, only pay $10 million this year they don't have it. what does that say about twitter and where it's come from in the last year? >> yeah.

i think the live strategy around twitter has always been an interesting long-term development. i think pretty nominal in terms of near-term economics. my guess, a couple of tens of millions, perhaps, at most. monetization last year on the nfl deal but shows it's difficult for them to maintain the early momentum they've had getting the live rights. bidders come in and better funders come in. >> a mutual rating on twitter. correct? >> correct. >> rob, great to see you. rob sanderson. mkm. tyler? a major sponsor, jenny craig pulling its ads off the "o'reilly factor" on forks fox news, bringing the total to 27. marketing and branding expert and a principal at 2050 marketing. we'll welcome over here. redroect c nbc and "power

lunch"? >> exactly. going to be an interesting up front for cnbc, coming up in may if fox continues. >> so how does an -- let's set aside what fox does or doesn't do and talk about your area of expertise, and that is, when you have so many of these major brands from -- lexus to -- looking over here, glaxo, to mercedes and so on. they all pull away. don't other advertisers just get real nervous about, whoa, if they're pulling out, maybe we should, too, because we look bad if we stick around and tacitly then give approval to the allegations with which mr. o'reilly has been hit? >> you know, you're exactly right. that's what started, you know, on april fools' day. when word came out from the "new york times" of the harassment allegations. mercedes first to go and a ton

of advocacy groups posting online, advertisers that continue to support fox news and the o'reilly programming and thus you see it's thursday, or wednesday here and you've got 20 advertisers and more on the way. it's a huge challenge that fox news has, because o'reilly is fox news. he generates a couple hundred million dollars in advertising revenue every year. it's a big deal for fox news. >> so let's pretend -- can you hear me? let's pretend you need to help fix the situation with bill o'reilly, or brands and brand management. can anything be done? can he go away for a while? get counseling, do whatever and come back? what's the other side of the equation there? some networks have been known to do that. >> it's -- it's interesting, because, you know, he continues to deny the allegations. has not yet apologized. hasn't really acknowledged he's got high-pro file support coming

from president trump, et cetera. it's only going to continue until they take a step back, look consumers in the eye, make some sort of apology and then deal with the legalities of the situation. at the road they're on, the dialogue will continue every day, and, again, advertisers are very, very skittish. >> tyler's got -- >> skittish and the other thing i'm thinking back to last october when billy bush of nbc news was let go. he wasn't -- charged with anything. but it got so uncomfortable to have him on a program with those national advertisers, and, oh, by the way a program largely had a female audience, that nbc saw no other way than to pay him a lot of money to step aside. >> even though the other guy on the tape said the worst things and he's the president of the united states now. >> and he got elected. >> exactly. >> the world is full of ironies. >> amazing. >> you know -- >> mike?

>> i go back ten years ago. i was head of marketing for gm when that whole don imus rutgers women's basketball team and cbs moved very, very quickly and fired don imus from cbs radio within a week's period of time. the longer this thing lingers with the advocacy groups able to speak via social media, fox news is going to have to effectively address this challenge, and again, the up fronts are just around the corner in may. it's going to be interesting to see how advertisers react. >> speaking of social media, i want to ask about this pepsi ad. were you on earlier on "squawk on the street" and i saw what you said about a professepsi ad controversial. pulled by pepsi the last scene a model kind of takes, appropriatates kendall jenner, from a black lives matter protest. critical of that. what struck me when i watched the whole commercial, if you watch it from the beginning, not

just the ending, pretty awful, mike, but the beginning, to me, looks like it's anti-trump. i mean, the whole thing is so political, from beginning to end. i'm shocked pepsi would actually wade into this in any way like this. >> well, not just shocked that they would wade into it, shocked they didn't really understand where their brand represents what these millennial consumers. you know, authenticity and relevance kind of rules in advertising. and pepsi unfortunately one of the great advertisers of all-time, i mean, they've really lost their way, because not only did they, you know, publish, or publish the ad, they defended it, you know, profusely yesterday. and then as 80% of the comments on the internet were negative, they still -- still dug their heels in and ultimately -- >> until they didn't. >> an hour ago. >> mike jackson, thanks very much. >> thank you.

>> you bet. coming up, the good, the bad and the ugly in today's trades and talking taxes. the b.a.t., still alive along with the v.a.t. and the carbon tax? are they doa? what will the trump tax plan actually look like? we weigh in, next. if you have medicare parts a and b and want more coverage, guess what? you could apply for a medicare supplement insurance plan whenever you want. no enrollment window. no waiting to apply.

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hi, everybody. i'm sue herera. here's your cnbc news update this hour. in an interview with the "new york times" president trump says he thinks former national security adviser susan rice may have committed a crime by seeking the identities of trump associates who were mentioned on intercepted communications. he said other obama administration officials may have also been involved. u.s. ambassador to the u.n. nikki haley condemning the syrian government's kchemical attack laying the blame squarely on the russians. >> we need to see them use it. we need to see them put an end to these horrific acts. how many more children have to

die before russia cares? >> and air national guard fighter jet, crashed during a routine training mission about six miles from andrews air force base. video shot from a car that was close to the crash site, you can see that plume of smoke, black smoke, coming from the crash scene. the pilot, though, here's the good news. he managed to eject from the plane. that's the news update this hour. melissa, back to you. >> thank you very much, sue harare. just 90 minutes away from the closing bell. just a couple points off session highs, not too much reaction. dow higher, a group of stocks pushing that higher. mcdonald's, 3m among the gainers. and closing trades from jackie deangelis at the commodity desk. >> good afternoon. after a strong morning this morning for the crude trade seeing a little tepid gains here at the close. just over $51 a barrel.

session high $51.88. for the week, crude up more than 3%. what happened today, department of energy number. a build of 1.6 million barrels in stead of a drawdown. last few weeks seeing the draws. seemed that seasonal pattern was established. this threw a wrench in everything today. still you can see crude is supported at these levels. back to you. >> jackie, thank you very much. president trump meeting today with the king of jordan, but an even bigger state visit comes tomorrow when china's president visits mar-a-lago. many important issues are on the table including job, trade and north korea. for the past few years global markets and your money ben bitted from one big trend. investments in china around the world. capital limits to containing that. a lawyer and chairman of the global equity practice, long time friend, mark, welcome to the program. you're headed to china in a couple days meeting with some of the biggest companies in china. what is china so worried about they're starting to contradict

capital? >> thanks for having me. always a pleasure to be here. i think there's not a worry from china's perspective and not an overall restriction on capital. there's a, a differentiation between who's moving capital offshore from china and the identity of that buyer and what assets they're going to be looking at. >> when you meet with the ceos or an american ceo, you're in the deal practice, that wants to do a deal with the japanese company, do you advise them to not take the call? don't pick up the phone? >> absolutely not. the real question, what is the transaction and best interest of the particular shareholders of that company? once you get past that, the question is, the chinese government is still promoting international parade in outwere bound m & a. there's a focus on one belt one road policy. countries that are located along the former road and industries in energy, infrastructure,

manufacturing, are all energy policies promoted for outbound -- >> an energy deal, going to be probably more in favor of the chinese government? >> and depend who's doing the energy deal. right? if it's an energy company and a large soe, state owned enterprise, here and looking to make an investment core with its strategy, that's probably going to be okay from the chinese regulatory perspective. if it's a travel and leisure company looking to make an outbound investment in an energy business, it's likely the chinese regulators will say no. >> viewers hear about the trade deficit. the president talks about a trade deficit. there's inverse when it comes to investment. a lot of our viewers say why do i care what china did doing on outbound m & a? how much does the chinese dollar mattered to global markets in the past few years? >> a couple issues in there. the chinese outbound investment

dollar mattered a great deal as chinese buyers have been on global acquisition spree. the rate of change has been exponential and oftentimes willing to pay very high prices to consummate those acquisitions. from a trade deficit type point of view, you've got to keep this in historical context. since china liberalized its economy and allowed foreign direct investment, into china, trillions have gone invested. most economists look at a maturing economy and say as a country grows wealthier you have to narrow that trade, that deficit of inbound foreign investment and replace it with outbound foreign investment. even though we're likely foe soo soo -- to see a slowdown, corporate buyer on outbound deals is a part of the international -- >> quick comment on dealmaking globally. we've had a strong start so far to 2017. a lot of populist stuff going

on. right? le pen could win in france. brexit triggered. what you talked about in china. any slowdown in the deal book so far? >> 2017 is still a little too early to tell. just finished the first quarter. private equity remains very hot. cross-border strategic deals slowing down. chinese trade is slowing down, we talked about. i don't think it's going to slow down markedly. still lots of liquidity around the world. private equity on the balance sheets of strategic investors around the world and i think you're going to continue to see robust m & a markets. >> talk to you soon. mark. >> pleasure. >> thank you. president trump meeting with chinese president xi jinping. will it improve relations between the two companies? bring in larry kudlow. listening to mark, struck mere, talking about all of these chinese investments into the united states, but u.s. companies don't have the same rights in china. very frustrating for u.s. companies.

>> actually, you're right. they don't. it's one of the problems with china. not currently manipulation, not true factually. this issue. ate of china trade protectism. >> you heard it. mark told us. does the government decide whether or not they can do the same? >> going the wrong way. actually. >> right. >> the other issue, if an american company wants to build something in china, make an investment in infrastructure, factory, whatever, you have to put up now these local provincial regulations fairly new and that has to be discussed in the talks. i don't think the issue is currency manipulation or the trade deficit, per se. the fellow from caterpillar, bill lane i don't know him, hit the nail on the head. the united states government has to persuade china to lower its tariffs and its non-tariff barriers. that's the pro growth way to do it. if we can focus on that it's been a long time since they ent

others the wto. time to look at the terms under the first agreement, 25 years already. >> in which a lot of critics say they violate all the time and we don't do much about it. talking taxes. larry's sticking around. we got to get to the biggest issue from the markets. corporate tax reform, the plan to simplify -- >> larry wants to talk about taxes? >> loves it. of course. talk about the plan for simple plaifying the tax code. it just keeps getting more complimented. talking to larry. also, grover norquist, about what's going to happen. don't move.

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a check what we are seeing on the markets. reaction off the back of the minutes. at least in the dow. almost 100 points off our highs made previously in the session's up by almost 97 points now. s&p right here. about five or six points off session highs now. 2369 level up by 9.a. nasdaq up by 17. seeing reaction notably in the treasury market. two-year yield and 30-year yield hitting session highs on the back of those minutes. tax reform front and center in washington. still with lots of different proposals floating around.

despite criticism, the border adjustment tax is still alive. the value added tax, the carbon tax, those came up yesterday. now we're told they're facialof. will we get any? are they dead? tax reform and cnbc senior contributor larry kudlow. larry, apologies. start with grover. where do we stand. >> please, do. >> where do we stand right now? who's in charge? >> well, the house has put together a plan, which is coherent. i think it's fine. always could be improved. also could be badly damaged, if they go in the wrong direction, but it would be a permanent tax reduction. so the question we have to ask is, do you stay within the bounds of what allows you to make it a permanent tax reform, permanent reduction in taxes so that you can do a 51 votes in the senate, otherwise nothing happens. no democrats votes for any tax

increase, anytime in the next 25 years. because at least the next 25 months. so you really want to stay with that 21 and make it permanent. >> grover, my question is the guys in the building behind you, are they still in charge? because the reports coming out of washington are that the white house was frustrated with paul ryan. frustrated with the house and health care reform and in fact will take control of tracksetax >> i'm sure the white house understand without the house and senate republicans, you have nothing. so there's not a question of who's in charge. it's a question of who has the better ideas that can get 218 in the house and 51 in the senate. the proposals -- the key proposals, taking corporate rate from 35 down to at least 20. that's a consensus issue. house, senate, white house. white house may want to go to 15, at least to 20. going and -- the trump people agreed on going back almost a year. taking the seven individual

rates down to three. 33. 2512. that is a consensus item. trump people endorsed that during the campaign. put forward by the house republicans. going to immediate expensing of all business investment. consensus item. the trump campaign endorsed it and the republican blueprint includes it. so getting rid of the death tax, rid of the amt permanently killing them, not reducing but eliminating them. these are all items that are on the table. the house has looked at them. senate says they're fine. the president has endorses them in his campaign and since. that's -- what you're looking at is issues -- >> larry, you wrote this plan. wrote all of those things he's talking about. >> i want this to be as simple as possible. grover's an old froiend but i don't believe you can sell the tax reforms in the current political environment. you can sell a simple straightforward business tax cut. and you might even make it bipartisan.

and the kudlow/moore plan, worked closely with steve ma nugs on this plan. later with steve bannon, steve miller. populist side loves this stuff. you want to raise wages, have better distribution of jobs around the country, cut the corporate tax. it's a wage earners' tax cut and you just have to sell it. hang on. three steps. one, repatriation at 10%. two, 15% corporate tax rate. could do 20 i suppose. 15 is better. three, immediate expensing for new investment. here's when you go bipartisan. you can win this. look at jason fuhrman's piece in the journal, obama's top ecommit. friend of mine. link the repate treeriation to infrastrugs. link it. not freddie mae and freddie mac, link it. >> get democrats onboard? >> delaine of maryland, a

democrat, that's his plan. >> all can you do. in this environment you'll not going to be able to do the whole big bang process, mauchs much as i want to or grover wants to. the wage earner gets a win. trump gets a win, congress gets a win and democrats who play get a win. >> i said on "morning joe" this morning given the fact many democrats want to have, almost all the gop and president wants it if nothing gets done it's missing a game-winning 27-yard field goal 23in the super bowl p that be the greatest failure in american politics given there is bipartisan support for both? >> there is not bipartisan support for both. >> yes, there is. john delany's plan is for infrastructure. i interviewed him about it. >> eight years of the democrats not doing any of that. i've heard all the promises they want to bring rates down. they had complete power the first two years and did none of it. the republicans sat and begged, said we're ready, ready, ready for eight years.

>> grover, you can -- >> nothing. >> look, grover -- >> the democratic party will not endorse the whole thing. >> you could split some democrats. >> in the house, yes. >> eight democratic senators, unless you have eight democratic senators you have nothing. >> go reconciliation. i think the house. get 20 moderate democrats to sign on to this kind of a plan, but, okay. who cares. if you have to force it and jam it through, then you force it and jam it through. it's good economics, good for wages, very populist and good politics. >> and is larry -- is larry right, grover, that -- >> don't let this moment pass. >> can't let it be the enemy of got? in other words, you have to separate individual tax reform from corporate tax reform. >> hold it over. >> jut to get one through? what do you think about that? >> well, there was an effort to do that and the small business community in the united states, which is full of republicans, people who operate through pass-throughs, subchapter s corporations and partnerships, in the present plan, the trump people approved that takes that

rate down to 25%. >> no! no, grover. trump's plan is 15%. that was the house plan. we can do better for the llcs. we can do better for the proprietorships. we wrote the thing with steve a mnuchin. >> no bad. batds out. gone, out, gone. >> grover and larry, thank you, order adjustment tax at least. >> sorry. couldn't help myself. coming up, for millennials, i worry about them all the time. the millennials. >> right. >> millennials thinking about long-term investment strategy. may not always be at the top of the to-do list, but a new study warns it should. millennials, i'm worried about you. >> top of the screen. top of the app screen. >> top of the screen. plus, energy rebounding today. could this be the start of something big? "trading nation" is next.

millennials.

. millennials are probably more worried about paying off student loans and saving for retirement, but failing to put money away now is a mistake they cannot afford to make. that is because these 20 somethings will need more in the bank than their parents.

kate rodgers is here to explain. >> hey there, tyler, that's right. a recent study by nerd wallet suggests millennials may need to save 22% of their annual income to have enough money in retirement. you probably wonder why. for starters we can't rely on social security the way boomers have. if lawmaker don't act the social security trust fund will go broke by 2054 meaning there won't be enough left to pay them their benefits. life expenctancies are getting longer. with those interested in freelancing they probably won't have a part of the 401(k). to be ready to retire by age 67 fidelity recommends 10 times annual salary in savings. to get there at age 30, the one-year sal avenue saved, by four three times and six times by age 50. if you have a 401(k) at work, enroll and save at least the employer match because it is

like getting free money. those contributions also lower your tax bill. if you can, open a roth ira. while you won't get a tax break today, any gains and withdrawals you make in retirement will be tax free and when you get a raise, i like this one, don't spend it. save at least half of it because, guys, you can't miss money you never had. all right. kate rogers, great advice for millennials or as tyler calls them, the millennials! >> thanks. >> a simple question, is the worst over foil in gas stock. dennis, okay, oil is back above 51. we have been here before. do you think it is going to turn around meaningfully, the oil and gas stocks? >> well, i mean the first job i ever had back when i was a millennial was a runner on the floor and i know a lot of guys -- >> you fed the pigeons for them. >> exactly. there are people in the physical trade of crude oil and they can't see reason -- these are

old friends of mine -- for going any higher. technically there's between 48 and 56 seems to be a comfortable spot for crude oil right here, and probably stays in that range. if you put me in a corner i would see it break to the down side going forward. >> okay. boris, dennis says likely break to the down side. what are your thoughts? >> i kind of agree with him. i certainly think it will very much top out to the topside because oil is a story of triumphant of technology over extraction. at this point the frackers have it so well-timed they can operate at $50 a barrel oil and keep flooding the market as long as the price stays at these levels. think oil has a hard time going up from here. >> okay, guys. got to leave it there. we have a busy news today. thank you both. for more trading nation go to our website. >> coming up, lebron james and his good friend warren buffett grants a birthday wish. check please is next. >> and now the latest from trading nation.cnbc.com and a word from our sponsor. >> some traders use buy stock

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. check please. >> all right. warren buffett attending a cleveland cavaliers game last night to watch his fripd lebron james play. at one point on the jumbotron, look at your screen. they showed a woman holding a sign that said, win for my 84th

birthday. then the camera came to show buffet showing his own sign? 84? that's just an intern at berkshire. and the cavs granted her wish beating the orlando magic 122-102. >> wow. charming. >> and now, folks, 32 sponsors have pulled ads from fox's o'reilly factor. i believe five pulled in the course of this program since the show started, pacific life, subaru, legal zoom, eli lilly and car fax out at the factor. >> and the question is do they re-allocate to fox or pull all together. that's the key question here. meantime, we are of course watching stocks right now. we are off session highs, mostly on the back of the fomc minutes. it took a bit but we have reaction here, about 12 points off highs on the s&p 500 specifically. we should note that yields have gone higher, highest level since the beginning of the month. >> and the fed doing what some people probably would, disagreed. the fed commenting on equity

prices. some fed members saying they looked a little high and maybe people were hoping that too much was going to happen with the trump administration. >> yep. interesting to watch the yield curve. it will be sums important. >> and tomorrow we will washington the meeting. fascinating stuff. >> thanks for watching "power lunch." "closing bell" starts right now. ♪ >> hi, everybody. welcome to the "closing bell" at the new york stock exchange. i'm kelly evans. >> i'm bill driveeth. this turned out to be an gresing day in the last hour. stocks initially popped on the back of that strong adp jobs number this morning. now we're off -- and i should point out the dow was up 190 points at its peak today. the nasdaq hit a record intra day but now with the fomc meeting minutes out, showing they're focusing on the balance sheet, talking about stock prices and things, those highs are way