the stock market. that does it for this hour of "squawk on the street." i'll send it back downtown for the start of "squawk alley." guys, back over to you. >> all right. thank you very much. good morning. it is 8:00 a.m. at tesla headquarters in palo alto. it's 11:00 a.m. on wall street and "squawk alley" is live. welcome to "squawk alley." market in a tight range despite questions that remain to get answered this weekend particularly in france.

there will be tax reform and an off camera briefing going on in washington at this hour. >> reporter: we're waiting for the treasury secretary who is going to brief reporters on exactly what's in the details of this executive order. let me walk you through what we know as of right now. the first one is an executive order. that's the varsity team. the first one is looking back at tax reform issues from 2016. they are trying to go back and look and see if there are things that are burdensome in there. second one is presidential memorandum on orderly liquidation authority. that is ordering secretary mnuchin to go back and review on a piece of dodd/frank that allows the government to seize failing banks and whether that can result in cost to taxpayers

or excessive risk taking and look at assessing the financial stability oversight council which was a piece of dodd/frank. no immediate action here to come but the treasury secretary yesterday gave an indication of where the trump administration might be heading long-term when it comes to financial regulation. here's what he said. >> you're going to see more to come on ola. it's one of the things that we're working and looking at very carefully. you know, again, there are certain big concerns we have with ola, and we don't want that to be used to support too big to fail. >> reporter:o e president will go across east executive avenue this afternoon over to the treasury building adjacent to the white house here. we'll see that signing ceremony later in the day today, carl. >> all right. thank you very much. the market also watching the news out of france. our michelle caruso-cabrera is live in paris ahead of that election on sunday. hey, michelle.

>> reporter: hey there, carl. we are expecting sometime in the next hour that the paris prosecutor might give us more details on what happened in that terrorist attack last night that happened on the champs-elysees that you see behind me. in the meantime, the markets are focused on who will ultimately become president of this country. she wants to restore france's national currency. now, stop me if you heard this one before. the polls say ultimately she's not going to win. here's the consensus viewpoint on what happens. she and the candidate that is pro-uro, they expect they will get the most votes this sunday and continue to runoff election in two weeks where pollsters say that he will win 65% to 35%. however, there are so many similarities here between france and what we saw in brexit and with trump vote in the united

states, a lot of people think she has a better chance than what those polls say. the rural urban divide is very apparent here. walk around paris, difficult to find anybody who admits they'll vote for le pen. 2 1/2 hours outside of the city, the coal factory shut down years ago, several factories shut down in the last ten years and they are all for le pen and voteded for her in the last election and there's a high percentage of undecided especially when you asked what are you going to do in the second round if your candidate doesn't win? as high as 40% say they don't know. a lot of people think maybe those are people who don't want to admit they'll vote for lep pn because of her controversial stand on immigration and last night's events help her. back to you. >> thank you for that. we'll talk to you throughout the day. for market reaction to today's executive actions and of course to the election on sunday, russ is portfolio manager at

blackrock. russ, good morning to you. >> good morning. >> michelle points out the similarities perhaps between the election this weekend and brexit and our own election. if that's true, don't you want to wait for the dust to settle on monday and buy? >> well, i think this one is a little bit different. not because we should be any more confident about the outcom because if we were to see le pen administration, that would raise the risk, not a certainty but raise the risk of a french discussion about the eu. i don't think that's something the market would shake off were it to actually happen. >> potentially that's why it seems as if there's been an effect in terms of institutional money managers trying to prepare for this potential range of outcomes, it's been to maybe just kind of sit it out a little while. it seems as if people say there's only a small chance of some kind of genuine threat to the currency union but that small threat is big enough in its impact that i don't want to play it.

>> i think that's right. it's interesting. a bit of a dichotomy going on. s&p 500 is not far from its all-time high. if you look at market action over the past month, you have seen a definite defensive bid. gold is up. defensive parts of the market are doing better. value struggling a bit. the tone of the market is actually indicating a little bit more risk aversion than is evident if you look at the headline number. >> and which camp do you favor? >> well, i think right now the basic economy is sound. the challenge i see in the market are two. if you look at u.s. stocks, valuations are elevated. we see better opportunities outside of the u.s. the second is you do have these lingering political issues whether you talk about the french election, u.s. tax reform that are just very difficult for anyone to handicap. that suggests that volatility should probably be a bit higher than it's been and that does suggest potential for some

downside in the near term. >> you could -- if you're going to set aside policy because it is so emorphous, you can look at auto sales and core cpi and lending standards and put together a bearish argument and you get nestle and visa that comes out and assures you about parts of the american economy, hard to separate. >> it is. this is a really important and somewhat subtle point. the economy is doing all right. certainly we see fewer signs of deflation than was the case in early 2016 so i'm not worried about the health of the economy. what i worry about is will it be as strong as the optimistic view discounted back in late '16. are we going to get the type of fiscal stimulus and growth out of china that's going to allow for that breakout and growth we've been waiting for for so long. if we don't, it's not as if the wheels are coming off. but it means reflation trades which did well in 2016, they may

reverse further in the coming months. >> that reflation trade post-election repositioning was pretty much done by the new year. for two months the s&p 500 has been flat and as you say, it's been defensive sector so now the question is it time for pendulum to start swinging back in recognition of the fact that maybe global gdp is going to be better than 3% according to imf? >> i think you need two things for that to happen. it's certainly possible. here's what i would look to see. one, the hard data needs to catch up to the soft data. in other words, we need to see actual economic activity that confirms all of the optimism we're seeing in the surveys and consumer confidence. second of all, i think you need a catalyst. the most likely catalyst would be tax reform, fiscal spending out of the u.s. that's something we're all waiting to see whether or not it will happen. >> finally, june. odds of a hike have come down a bit. do you think it's still likely? >> we have a decent chance of june. i think more aggressive forecasts that we'll see three,

four hikes this year that's looking less likely unless again we see some acceleration of hard data. we're also waiting to see if that manifests. >> we'll ask stanley fisher about that in just a few moments. we'll get ahead of what's an eventful weekend. thank you so much. when we come back, that exclusive with the vice chair of the federal reserve stanley fischer. dow is down 18. "squawk alley" is back in a minute. at fidelity, trades are now just $4.95. we cut the price of trades to give investors even more value. and at $4.95, you can trade with a clear advantage. fidelity, where smarter investors will always be.

let's get over to sarah in washington with a very special guest. sarah? >> hi again, carl. i'm joined by the vice chairman of the federal reserve, stanley fischer. always a pleasure. >> for me too. >> last time we spoke was actually right after brexit and remarkable to see the market holding up. here we are a few months after the election and the market is doing okay. have you been surprised to see the resilience in the face of these political shocks? >> well, the resilience relates to what the political shocks at

that time were which was tax cuts and declines in troublesome regulation. which would have increased returns to business. natural that that would affect stock prices. >> you say that in the past. do you think that's all less likely now. >> well, things have slowed down relative to expectations. it doesn't mean -- there's time to do a lot and we'll have to wait and see what happens. >> coming into the meetings, there's an upbeat outlook about the economy. do you share the optimism? >> china is doing better. europe is doing better. brexit hasn't turned out to be so far as bad. nothing real has changed in britain's position so that one we have to wait on.

and latin america and parts of africa also doing slightly better so we're seeing positive changes throughout much of the world. >> what about the u.s.? looks like the first quarter is going to be weak. how are you reading the incoming data right now? >> well, we've had weak first quarters the last three years and now parts of four. there's something going on we don't understand in the data. our tendency in the fund is to think that this is a transitory change and that growth will be around the costs in the second quarter and rest of the year. >> even with softer data? >> there's a large weather aspect of the division between february and march data. so there are reasons to think that the first quarter was, again, below what the rest of the year will be.

>> last cpi report was surprisingly weak and commodity prices have come off along with inflation expectations. has your picture of inflation changed at all lately? >> well, we have to watch it. those things were a surprise. the two surprises were energy prices and then a very large decline in the price of cell phone usage, so it was very large. it actually had an impact on the overall inflation rate. so that is one-time shock, we believe, which will not continue to reduce the inflation rate as we move ahead. >> new fed indicator? >> no. just everything that moves has its chance. >> last time we talked to you you did say about two more rate hikes as the fed predicts seems appropriate. are you still feeling that way? >> yeah. we're feeling that way.

so far i haven't seen anything to change that. we're dependent on what's happening in the economy. we were not tied to four. four became one. one was appropriate. >> you are increasingly talking about balance sheet no normalizati normalization. how should we think about this? a change in monetary conditions? >> well, there's no doubt that as the fed reduces its holdings of debt that it is in effect increasing supply of debt and that generally tends to raise interest rates so there is an element in reducing the size of our balance sheet that will have an impact on interest rates -- i mean on the economy similar to what would happen. >> tightening. >> if we were tightening interest rates, and we take that into account.

it's generally understood. we'll just have to, when the time comes, take -- >> what is the time frame on that these days? >> the minutes of the march meeting said that people expected that we would make the decision by the end of the year. whether we'll start by the end of the year wasn't discussed. we're now in a process in which we'll make those decisions sometime in the next few meetings. and when we have made a decision, we'll announce them. >> the minutes from the march meeting also reveal that some members were a little concerned about above average stock market valuations. were you one of those members? >> i'm not terrific at forecasting the stock market so i can look at values and say they are high without predicting that they are necessarily going to go down next week or next

month. there is a natural -- there's an important factor that's involved. that's the very low interest rates fundamentally what capi l capitalizes the value of earnings. there's some assumption they'll go up. >> there was a report that was cited at a financial conference that janet yellen and central bankers should be terrified when they look at valuations of the stock market right now related to the economy. the impact that easing has had on that. are you particularly terrified? >> well, lots of things terrify me. stock market volatility of the magnitude that we've seen for the last couple of years doesn't. the markets are used to dealing with volatility at that level. of course we'll watch very closely and if we see excess volatility, wonder what is behind it and whether there is structural features that need

fixing or whether it's simply recent events or even policy actions. >> what about the flattening of the yield curve in 2017 at a time where your forecast is for an improving economy and higher interest rates. is that a surprise? >> i don't want to get into the market details of phenomena in the capital markets. there's a famous saying which is men, now he says humans, may not be rationale but they are great rationalizers. you can explain everything afterwards. >> for the market? >> yeah. >> a few years ago you and i spoke when you were running the bank of israel during the european debt crisis and you were concerned about the spillover effect that could have on emerging markets world. now at the fed, are you concerned about the impact on the u.s. economy of potentially

a euro break up headed into the french elections this weekend? >> well, i mean, there are candidates in the french election who say they'll take france out of the euro. considering that the franco/german partnership is the absolute center vital part of the european project, that would be a very big thing, and would be very hard to know how it would work out. one has to think about that possibility and begin to think -- >> is the fed thinking about that possibility? >> we take -- we pay attention to what happens abroad. we think about what impacts it will have on us. we don't plan for every single eventuality that might happen. >> but what would be the chief concern? the banking system? >> well, simply that you're entering a very unknown world in which a key feature of the

european construct is beginning to change and what will that lead to? we don't really know. just as we don't really know about a lot of other things. we know that these disturbances could happen. then you have to sit back and say and then what? >> on the flip side of the euro/dollar relationship, when the president says the dollar is too strong and it's hurting, does that put pressure on you? >> we do not take a particular statement by even the president into account in making our decisions on the interest rate. so we listen to what everyone says. i think the markets know how to price the dollar fairly well, and the dollar has been depreciating lately and that's

of some help, but that wasn't part of our plan. that happened and it's useful for the u.s. economy. it's not essential. if it goes away, well, we'll respond appropriately. >> if the dollar gets too strong, you mean? >> yeah. >> what does that mean? >> it means yes. >> it means the fed is watching? >> that's right. the fed is watching and worrying. >> another thing that you watch carefully is regulation for the financial sector. you are a bank regulator. how do you feel with the white house and the treasury now talking about rolling back big parts of dodd/frank including executive order memoranda to be signed today? >> i want to say something about dodd/frank and about the financial crisis. this is serious business. we had in 2007, 2008, 2009, a

very, very bad economy, which could have turned much, much worse had the fed not acted as courageously as it did. i wasn't there then. i can say courageously. and we seem to have forgotten that we had a financial crisis, which was caused by behavior in the banking and other parts of the financial system, and it did enormous damage to this economy. millions of people lost their jobs. millions of people lost their houses. this is not a small time regular recession. this was huge. it affected the rest of the world. it affected to some extent our standing in the world as well. we should not forget that. the strength of the financial system is absolutely essential

to the ability of the economy to continue to grow at a reasonable rate, and taking actions, which remove the changes that were made to strengthen the structure of the financial system is very dangerous. >> so the president said he wants to do a number on dodd/frank. you think that would undermine the system? >> i'm not sure precisely what the president said and what a number is but there are aspects of dodd/frank which if they were taken away would have very serious potential consequences for the economy. not immediately but when times get tough. >> do you think it's appropriate that it is being redrafted by ex-bankers and current bankers advising them? >> i don't -- >> as a bank regulator? >> look, the people who know about the banking system tend to be bankers and some academics. you need exports.

i know there's a fashion that experts are out of style, but you need them. and that's where you're going to find them. so that's all right as long as they take a very cold hard look at the changes they're making and bearing in mind what history says about the importance of a strong financial system. >> is there provisions specifically that you want to mention to warn about when it comes to rolling back the regulation that you would advise against? >> well, there are concerns. i think it is very important that big banks be subject to the discipline of the possibility of going bankrupt. it is also very important that that discipline extends to not making those changes, bankruptcy of a big bank, a huge shock and a source of crisis or damage to the overall economy.

so we need the resolution mechanisms put in place, which will allow the authorities and the markets to wind up a big bank. we have living wills to help that process along. we need to retain that capacity. it's very, very important. >> which relates to the order that they are looking at today. your message was heard loud and clear. stan fischer, always a pleasure. thank you. >> thank you. >> vice chairman of the federal reserve. we'll send it back to you guys at post nine. >> we've been listening carefully to that as the market as as well. interesting. covered a lot of ground. a lot of focus on why q1 data coming in soft. looks at one-time impact like wireless surface deflation saying we're not tied to three hikes this year just like we were not tied to four hikes last

year. it became one. one was appropriate. >> so obviously leaving options open. definitely not trying to extrapolate first quarter softness to say it changes the feds overall posture on things. a slight bump in the 2-year yield. also acknowledging, of course, that any reduction of the fed's balance sheet would be equivalent to a tightening increase in supply of debt raising rates on the margin and could affect the economy. i also liked there was weaker u.s. dollar recently has helpful to the u.s. economy but not essential. in other words, the outlook that it do okay. strong words on bank regulation. >> bank regulation, dodd/frank and on stock prices on these reports that argument that stock prices should terrify janet yellen. i could look at values and say they're high without predicting they'll go down next week or

fe next month. >> right now the stock market has been no volatility. within the past couple years we had serious stuff. >> we'll watch that and see how that gets absorbed. oil as mike and i have been noticing dropped below 50. down 50 cents in the last few minutes. when we come back, forget tesla, spacex and solar city. elon musk's new adventure is mind control. dow is up 11.

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welcome back to "squawk alley." i'm seema mody. markets closing in europe. take a look at financials. french banks continuing to rally after lifting on thursday to the best one-day performance since march 1st. as for bonds, let's take a look at the spread between french and

german 10-year yields narrowing a bit ahead of the vote on sunday. on the economic front, french business activity helping to drive pmi to a six-year high in the month of april. the euro holding steady against the dollar around a three-week high. meanwhile, new data showing uk retail sales posting their biggest quarterly decline since 2010. as you can see, the pound up about 2% for the week after uk prime minister theresa may won parliament's backing for a snap election in june. now back to carl at the new york stock exchange. >> seema, thank you very much for that. we mentioned oil's losses a few moments ago. fifth consecutive decline for crude oil and we're watching some pretty interesting levels here on crude. the lowest level of the month. you have to go back to march 30 when it hit 4,927. this is below 50-day once again. >> had a big three-week run into the mid 50s and it's been

fragile since then it seems. >> we'll see what impact that has on sentiment in the afternoon session. quick news update back at hq with sue herrera. >> here's your news update at this hour. james mad ttis announcing that syria possesses banned weapons. the transfer of thousands of syrians stalled after a massive explosion last week killed dozens. vice president mike pence arriving in australia today. it's part of his ten-day tour through the asia pacific region. pence will meet with australia's prime minister and other top officials to discuss national security, trade and economic development. a judge ordering volkswagen today to pay a criminal penalty of $2.8 billion in connection with the u.s. diesel emission scandal. it comes six weeks after the german automaker pled guilty to conspiracy and obstruction of

justice. tropical storm arlene weakening in the north atlantic. the national hurricane center says it's expected to dissipate later today. what makes arlene particularly notable, well, she arrived weeks before the 2017 hurricane season's official kickoff, which is june 1st. we'll see whether that portends an active season. that's the news update this hour. more "squawk alley" after a quick break. the baby's room won't build itself. and her paw won't heal on its own. we're all working forward to something. synchrony financial can help your customers make it happen sooner. so she can plug into her dreams... and they'll have a new addition for their new addition. whatever you're working forward to, even if it's chasing squirrels, synchrony financial can help you get there. even if it's chasing squirrels, it's your tv, take it with you. with directv now and at&t, get the ultimate in entertainment plus unlimited data.

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tesla's elon musk starting out on his latest startup working to connect the human brain directly with a computer interface. musk says that in about four years there will be a product to market that can help with certain severe brain injuries adding that in about ten years he expects one can connect two human brains. if you have two brain interfaces you could actually do an uncompressed direct consensual communication with another person. for more on this, we're joined by business insider ceo and ryan smith. it's good to see you both. thanks for being with us on this friday. all right. so you're running a giant car electric grid company. you are taking us to mars. is this too much? >> look, the first two were too much as far as i was concerned but if anyone can do two huge three visionary companies, i suppose it's elon musk. he's great at making things that

people don't think could ever happen. people are actually building hyperloops because he talked about the idea. so if we can -- if this can be done, he can probably orchestrate it. >> i guess my question would be and, ryan, maybe weigh in on this. what would comprised getting something done or doing something in this area? is it just to kind of back some of the ongoing deep research into the area? he's talking about an actual product at some point. what's the relative need for this any time soon? >> so first of all, i think this is what we all wanted. i think that to watch entrepreneurs or technologists go over and tackle these moon shots with these aggressive funds and a lot of experience in getting stuff done, that's what we have all been hoping for. you've seen it with sean parker who has done a lot in cancer. you've seen brian johnson work on something. we don't know a lot about our brains. you see this with nfl studies. we don't know.

we all have one. we're all worried about productivity. not to mention all of the health care benefits that are going come out of this. this is awesome. i wish more people were doing this. >> is this a difficult thing to raise money to do, henry? are we reaching a point where pitches get so outlandish that investors are nervous about committing? >> i don't know where they are with neuro link. there is a lot of money that goes into biotech research with ten-year payouts and investors that know how to do that. you stage it all of the way along. you don't commit 500 million on day one. there are ways to invest in this that make sense. i'm sure that they can follow that it they'll have to show progress along the way. >> i get why a lot of these cutting edge companies and entrepreneurs are thinking in this way because i think you can easily kind of view a day where the fact that we're kind of staring at this small thing in our hand and that you have to kind of communicate in this written form and it slows the process down, we're falling

behind the actual capabilities of technology but then again, apple gets rid of an ear phone jack and people freak out. how ready are we? >> look, it's all about the experience. we live in an experience world. we're in a new economy. and if the experience is good, people love it. if the experience is bad, consumers are ruthless. we've seen this in the last month. if we have a great experience, it will go viral. everyone will jump on it. >> it sort of ties in with some of the things we heard this weekend. questions of whether you can type with your mind. >> facebook is talking about its own moon shots and this is a direct brain interface so obviously lots of folks out there are thinking about it. facebook's example people made fun of twitter. facebook is talking about mind and computer melds and so forth. this is what you can do when you make as much money as facebook is with its core product. you can invest money in moon

shots that may or may not amount to anything. >> we'll switch gears -- go ahead. >> you have founders with the ability to stay in and go after these moon shots and that's a piece that we have to consider when you have zuckerberg and you have founders with a long runway, they can do great things. when they have a short runway, it's tough for them to get stuff done. >> explains a lot about how equity structures have changed. samsung's new phone, the galaxy s8 available today. some complaining that the screen has a red hue. they are not defects but can be adjusted in setting. the last thing samsung needs is questions about its quality. we don't know this is the case yet. raises questions. >> that's right. hopefully it is a setting. maybe it's a night reading setting. you see that with other phones and computer screens. the initial reviews of the phone were excellent and having held

it, it is great. a bigger screen. that's what people want. they have had a bigger screen without increasing the size of the phone itself. it's great. >> ryan, does this fit into a worrisome narrative for samsung on the manufacturing side, research side or just something that may be a quirk? >> i don't know. i haven't seen it yet. i think in general we're seeing a larger trend that i mentioned before around the experience economy and if the experience is good and companies cannot underestimate the size of the gap between what they think is working well and what the consumer is experiencing and a lot of that comes from operational data as opposed to the experience data. companies are realizing that if they do not have a deep depth of experience data before they launch a product or before they go to market or with their employees on the employee experience side, it will take their entire brand down. we're just not that tolerant of it as consumers. >> we certainly know how to push

back if recent episodes are any guide. good to see you. thanks, guys. >> thanks. straight ahead, semiconductors on track for their best week since january and leading the charge, lam research and the ceo will join us next.

the rally versus the red flags. who is sounding the alarm on valuation and why ahead. and a bullish case for one retailer saying it is amazon proof but should this store stock in your shopping cart and people get ready. the busiest week of earnings is on deck with more than a third of the s&p reporting next week. we'll give you the top names that you need to be watching. all that is coming up at the top of the hour. carl, back to you. >> all right. thank you so much. when we come back, tracking this rally in the semis with ceo of the company leading the charge right there. back after this. the comfort in knowing where things are headed. because as we live longer... and markets continue to rise and fall... predictable is one thing you need in retirement to help protect what you've earned and ensure it lasts. introducing brighthouse financial. a new company established by metlife to specialize in annuities & life insurance.

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lam research sales surged. we'll look at where the stock is trading today. hit a 52-week high tacking onto those gains this morning. joining us now is the ceo. martin, thank you for being with us. >> thank you. it's a pleasure. >> obviously you guys seem like you're in a sweet spot of the cycle. the whole industry doing well. you guys as well leading that charge on the equipment side of things. describe where you are. you had a good guidance for the remainder of the year. street was assured by that. how much more life is left in this buildo out cycle? >> the story for lam research while there's a short-term story that you just touched on, this is year six in a multi-year

performance for the company and technology road maps of our customers run for many, many more years. i think we're right on the cusp of one of the most exciting periods in the technology industry and semiconductor road mapindustry, the silicon device and industry of capital equipment and land research specifically is right at the center of making that b possible. there are always up and downs on the surge in this industry, but we're super excited about where we are today, where we've come from and the opportunity in front of us. >> well, describe a little bit about what's happening in the end markets and why you might have escape d nor a while? because there was talk of perhaps a shortage in your, chips a year ago. is that not being rectified? why is it runni inning so long? >> this is now a consolidated industry in many respects and the investments of our customers are strategic and from the per

specktive that we have globally, very disciplined and so, there really is a secular demand story, the world of wu bik wiitous connectivity, the world of storage, the cloud agendas. and advanced computation that make everything possible in world of tech innovation. we'll talk b about neural computing, iot road raps, smart infrastructure, smart agriculture, predictive medicine. that entire applications world is made possible by a silicon road map. and we're sitting right in the center and we've worked really hard to build a product and services portfolio that's more enabling and critical to the success of our customers than ever before. that's been showing up in the financial statements and has been true for some time. >> we've seen some chip makers are a player wants to hop into a new category through m&a. does that transfer to capital

equipment as well. >> absolutely. to the earlier points that i made, the silicon road map and our industry in turn sits right at the center and is the foundation ultimately for the sustain babablilitlility for te innovati innovation. whether it's an m&a catalyst or organic investment, the sustainability is defined by the performance of smart interconnect and computation and storage and that's the world we live in and we're really excited about those trends. >> martin, just to touch on policy stuff, you have a fair amount of cash on then balance sheet, mostly held overseas. anything in terms of a sense of you are general to bring that b some tax relief? >> that's a great question. we have on the balance sheet, 0 $20 of net cash per share. a greater proportion is offshore currently and cash load is about

$10 per share as well. so some really nice headlines. that's all about creating the flexibility to invest in the company and to the extent that we have cash to excess, so the world of repatriation, something we're watching, there's a unique proposition for our company should there be some legislation that allows favor bable repat ration and certainly we're watching carefully and you know, the fundamental philosophy is clear. invest in our future and return cash to shareholders and we've been active in terms of capital redistribution and dividend. increasing it over time, that is the theme and the response. >> all right. we'll be watching carefully. thanks so much. martin from land research. >> thank you very much. when we come back, you'll hear what the fed stan fisher said could be dangerous for the

economy with the dow up now 11. listen up, heart disease.) you too, unnecessary er visits. and hey, unmanaged depression, don't get too comfortable. we're talking to you, cost inefficiencies and data without insights. and fragmented care- stop getting in the way of patient recovery and pay attention. every single one of you is on our list. for those who won't rest until the world is healthier, neither will we. optum. how well gets done. briathe customer app willw if be live monday. can we at least analyze customer traffic? can we push the offer online? brian, i just had a quick question. brian? brian... legacy technology can handcuff any company. but "yes" is here. you're saying the new app will go live monday?! yeah.

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fed vice chairman joining us. back to sarah. some of your thought. >> what struck me, carl, was stan fisher, the vice chairman of the federal reserve is always cool and calm. when talking monetary policy. but his tone completely changed and he got really fire d up whe talking about the administration's current plans to roll back financial regular lace. that was put this place in the wake of the financial crisis. the dodd frank reform being targeted to be designed today by president trump. and treasury secretary at the treasury department. when it comes to reviewing those previsions. listen to what the vice chairman of the fed said about it. >> the strength of the financial system is absolutely essential. to the ability of the economy to continue to grow at a reasonable rate. and takie ining axes, which rem the changes that were made to strengthen the structure os the

financial system is very dangerous. fz. >> carl, he went so far as to say we seem to have forgotten we were in a serious financial crisis, just years ago, that cost millions of americans their jobs and really, pushed back against this idea that we need to loosen the regulations to get banks lending and the economy healthy again. his view of the economy should rebound after the first quarter weakness. cited the last three year, which have seen seasonally weak first quarters and says he expects it to be transitory, which is fed speak for temporary in nature and that the fed is still on track as it predicted and he has confirmed. >> you could really see him open up when he got to the dodd frank part when you walked him thro h through1 and rates. you've hatd a couple of days done there. you talk about the tone being

better. >> special sns zwl the improved economic outlook from the imf really set the tone for the week where they now expect the global economy to grow 3.5%, but it is an upgrade. that's something we have not seen in cerecent years here. i would observe the elephant in the room and all of these conversations that you have with these officials is president trump. and the unpredictability of some of his policy. this is an international crowd, whether that represents a threat. what he's going to do when it comes to financial regulation and whether that would make the u.s. banking system more competitive for the rest of the world. those are big question marks and they're trying to read what the president doing based on what has been sort of an unpredict bable 100 days on keeping issues

consistent, especially on trade. there's a lot of relief here that he did not label china a currency manipulator. >> it's something to pay attention to when the treasury secretary and president sometimes have different views. >> who you listen to. >> great stuff. thank you so much. over to headquarters and the half. and welcome to the halftime report. scott walker will be back week. your top trades this hour. the rally versus the red flags. nasdaq at record highs. small caps on pace for their weakest of the year, but another well-known billionaire investor sounding the alarm. with us for the entire hour, josh, stephanie, john and kate, chief ek quity strategist at blackrock as well. the market comments