do anything with a dividend. how many shares they buy back. that's what i'm interested in. >> alphabet and amazon approaching $1,000, how about price line approaching $2,000. >> wow. $1,850. report earnings the day after. keep an eye. >> i'm going to name my own price. $2,000. >> that does it for us on "the halftime report." see you on "power lunch." it begins now. we will see you, melissa, thank you. here is what is on your friday. front and center on wall street three things, earnings, they are earnings, and they are more earnings. now the latest numbers may play out in this market. president trump's first 100 days. today he signed an executive order to fuel the energy business speaking at the nra in atlanta this hour. we're going to look ahead to his economic agenda for the next 100 days. and one of our stocks draft teams is already taking an early lead. choosing amazon as their first-round pick. amazon rockets higher on solid earnings. i'm brian sullivan. a friday "power lunch" starts

right now. >> indeed it does, everybody. welcome to "power lunch." i'm tyler mathisen. glad you could join us on a beautiful spring afternoon in the new york area. the three major averages struggling for gains this hour. as you see right there the dow down 36. the nasdaq basically gnat. still, the dow on course for its best weekly gain of 2017. and the s&p and the nasdaq both on track to close out their best week since the beginning of the year. let's check out major movers on earnings right now. colgate under pressure. mixed results there. you people have to brush your teeth more. that's the only problem. goodyear tire up about 3%. royal caribbean hitting new all-time highs up about 9% today. the company's ceo will join us later in this program. a lot to drill down on over the next hour, two hours basically. but we have an hour with mario

gabelli, our guest host for this first hour of "power" we'll get his take on the stocks he likes now. he has been following all the earnings, and he's going to share his insights with us. first, though, the earnings parade front and center. amazon, alphabet popping on the back of their results, big oil also reporting numbers today, chevron and exxon mobil. and you see gains there. bob pisani has the numbers. breaking it down for us at the nyse, bob. >> reporter: hello, tyler. it's about tech and energy, and that's what's moving the markets. the sectors that are up today, tech and energy, and lagging are most of the rest of the sectors, materials and banks, for example. tech earnings, let's start with alphabet. huge revenue, better than expected earnings. the stock is up as you heard there. amazon, big earnings beat. revenue edged past expectations. both are up. microsoft better than expected earnings. maybe a miss on revenue slightly and that's why it's down. intel not sure why it's down.

boosted their qforecast for 201. take a look at energy. now big oil coming in. exxon and mobile good numbers. exxon more than doubled its earnings and the revenues went up 30%. it's a very simple reason why. look at the price of oil in the first quarter of last year. it was $31 on average. last quarter it was $51. that's a huge difference and that's why they did better. here is the bad news. exxon's price is down 10% this year. they're all terrible performers because the price of oil has been trending down even with opec trying to cooperate. that fire hose of shale oil production keeping a lid on the price of oil. capital expenditures are down, production is down a little bit for them as well. that's a major problem overall here. so here is the bottom line, take a look at the misery of the energy stocks this year. the main energy index down 10%. oil services are down 15%. oil and gas exploration. what's going on here is the street itself is starting to take earnings estimates down for the full year because oil and natural gas aren't exactly

cooperating. great news for consumers, not great news for energy investors. guys, back to you. >> we have those oil rig numbers out. we'll get to those in a second. let's get back to your top stock story, amazon and alphabet/google and both earnings beats. aaron kessler covers both for raymond james. he has an outperform on alphabet. just raised his price target to $1,020 from $950. welcome to the program, aaron. what is it going to take for you to raise your rating on amazon? >> so we just lowered our rating this week on amazon. >> i know. >> the results came in fairly as expected. beats on operating income. operating income was flat year over year. we want to see greater operating leverage. we expect that in the second half of the year. it's a $450 billion market cap. we think investors will demand to see higher income.

we think we're a ways away from that. we need to see greater increase in income before we get more positive at these levels. >> so last night's numbers were not enough, in other words, for you to revisit the ratings change. you just made a few days ago. >> correct. and if you looked at the q-2 operating guidance as we expected they got it bloep the street for q-2. so i think that continues to be a concern. investment cycle is longer than investors expected. we do think shares are fairly valued. you see more competition, growth was in line with expectations but we are seeing a deceleration and operating margin was down about two points from q-4. if you listen to google's call, good strength on the cloud as well. do you think it's getting more competitive on the margin there. >> we've got mario gabelli for the next half hour to an hour. don't go anywhere. mar mario, i know you own just a smidge of amazon stock.

are you thinking about adding more? do you regret not having added more? >> you think of history, the model 2 ford changed manufacturing. jeff bozos adds to pro-dk tift in this country. we look at what jeff does and his annual report. the empowerment. he's very good. but on the other side of the coin as we talked about we have a company with half a trillion dollar market cap. we take apple, google, or alphabet. amazon and one other company, you have $2.5 trillion of market value. >> how do you think of these companies? amazon is a retailer, a cloud company, a media company. apple is a manufacturer, a cloud company, a services company and also a media company. >> all of the above.

dupont tried to put a number on that. is it an environmental company. >> does it matter? >> well, at some point it will because if you go back to other dynamics, there may be 400 portfolio managers and i go to a meeting for x, y, z and the same business, maybe there's four. so we look for bargains and stocks that are not necessarily well covered and followed. so you cover your four big ones that are $2.5 trillion. the stock market is only like 30% of the global market of $70 trillion. it's wonderful to do. it's nice to talk about. >> aaron, let's go back to you and alphabet/google. so hard to call them alphabet. the stock is up more than 4%. you've been right on the call. what's the next growth step for

google? can they continue to exist just really primarily still on add words ad words, the ad platform? are one of these google moon shots going to pay off big time anytime soon? >> i think your two big initiatives are mobile search being the key driver as well as advertising and programatic advertising. you have youtube continuing to grow at strong rates. after that we think it's the google cloud program as well as hardware. still relatively early phases but both could be tens of billion dollar businesses over the next several years. >> aaron kessler, raymond james, we'll leave it there. thank you very much. appreciate that. the oil rig counts are in and they're up again. in fact, baker hughes reporting that nine more oil land drilling rigs added in the past week. we've doubled the number of oil land drilling rigs year over year. we needed five to hit that doubling mark. we got nine.

so the number is up year over year. this is the 15th week in a row that we have seen gains, perhaps very good for jobs, perhaps not as good for production and prices. quickly, demario, back to you. you referenced oil. are you a believer in the u.s. shale story? >> i've been a believer for 15 years. america has to have their own independence. we probably can produce over 50%. we had a strategic reserve. american technology and capabilities in that area are important to our fundamental being. it cuts down on the amount of net imports which helps our balance of payments. secondly it's important for with regards to our technology and it works. >> it's also important in terms of national security, it would seem to me. >> look, i'm dreaming about the guys from m.i.t. i know are working on fusion. just think about it, 1859 the whales were saved. >> you're talking about coal

fusion creating energy, from energy no net loss. they've been in the works for that for 30 years. >> so? so? somewhere, somehow technology will develop to create a new way that we don't have to worry about a carbon footprint. that's what you should be praying for, brian. >> i remember seeing you on a panel about eight years ago and the question of fracking and shale. i've rarely seen you as excited about anything as i saw you that day. >> that's interesting. if the knicks were able to win. >> that would make you excited. i remember it distinctly, you were on with one other guy and both of you saw that as transformative. >> it was and it will continue to be. you obviously have to be concerned about certain fragile ecosystems. you have to learn about the technology that is migrating to the north. and what we like to do is own the land on which who owns the leases, and so we have companies that do that and so on. who else makes the equipment. >> you mentioned fusion. random side note, you'll like

th this, 1994 i wrote a novel about the guy who discovered coal fusion and was murdered by the energy industry. it was terrible. >> did you wake up from that nightmare? >> no. didn't go anywhere. >> you didn't publish it? >> no, it was a piece of crap. >> you were afraid of the dark hands of the coal industry? >> let me go. >> boy, talk about bad news. >> the beardstown ladies made a pick in our draft yesterday. they have scored very nicely in one day's time. they chose amazon.com with i believe it was their first pick and facebook with their second pick in the stock draft. joining us for a quick update is buff if i tilott-pratt, one of the beardstown ladies. buffy, welcome. congratulations on a good pick. you could -- it could have gone either way. amazon came out with its earnings yesterday. they were very nice. you did well.

it could have gone the other way, right? >> yes, we know it could have gone either way and we were happy yesterday afternoon when we heard they beat their earnings estimate. >> do you follow these companies and those earnings reports as close closely as, for example, mario may? in other words you're really watching them. >> well, actually we follow them but none of us can quit our day jobs to do this, so we don't follow them as closely as you do. >> so what would you like to get out of your investment? obviously our contest will run for nine months to the day before the super bowl next year. what kind of returns would you like to get? you have, what, about 5% in amazon already. >> no, well, as of now we have just short of 2% in amazon. facebook we have a little over 2%. i think we get to combine both stocks for the total return.

we're really happy. we represent the man on the street investor -- or should i say the woman on the street investor. we're doing this, we're studying. we don't have as complicated ways of analyzing companies as you do but we're also looking at the product and how as you mentioned earlier amazon is changing the way people buy. >> it goes back, hashirkens in way that you buy what you know. i'm sure that lots of you folks use, as many of us do, amazon. you understand it. and facebook you understand it. we have your hats here for amazon and facebook. we have the mailing pact ready to go. expect your hats, buffy till t tillitt-pratt. you're going to look good. >> sounds good. >> their average return, because we have a spread sheet, 2.05%.

up next mr. wonderful at just 0.4%. they're up. >> one day, we'd like to quit now after one day. we know we have to go the long run. >> hopefully the stock slayer. thank you very much. we appreciate you being with us. >> thank you. >> let's turn back to our guest host, mario gabelli, chairman and ceo. what do you think of the market right now? a nice run so far this year. >> well, the market started right after the election when capitalism with all of its ugly forms were brought back and as a result of that organizations around the world said the united states even with the rule of law, the free market system and merit okay's was the best place to invest and so the dynamics of reg reform, tax reform, everything is in process. and it'll take a while. 2018 is good or not. so the market itself, to me, has no margin of safety but it's okay. earnings are okay.

better in 2017-'18. because of currency changes being less of a negleative and, tyler, in addition the only negative is the multiple because interest rates are going up. how do we solve that concern? on may 10th, on may 10th, 2010, the market had a real crash and that was a tiny sample of what can occur in the 2350u tour because of the untested etfs, the untested trading, the untested absence of a buffer known as specialist both upstairs and downstairs so it goes back to what happened in 1987 and that is leyland o'brien reuben steen was selling portfolio insurance. if the market is down 10% we get you out. the market dropped from 2700 to 1700. you're going to have one of those pockets. i can't tell you when or what triggers it but that's why you

have to be prepared. >> etfs could have a big affect on the market in the next year or so. >> what happened in 1987 was not economic. we made a lot of money because we figured out it was kind of the mechanics of the market. the same thing on may 10, 2010. it was in 30-odd minutes you had stocks go from 70 to 40. stocks i followed went from $90 to a dime. how do we invest the pro- -- protect the investor? you make 5% or 7%. >> and we'll come back and talk about the places you're pinding values because you're known as a guy who looks for values in underreported pockets. >> it's everywhere. come on. i'll give you what i recommended in barron's and you double your money.

>> we'll be back in just a minute. president donald trump signing an executive order to help u.s. farmers compete globally. tom vilsack, governor of a state in the agriculture belt, now president of the u.s. dairy export council will weigh in on the president's trade policies and much more with investor mario gabelli all coming up here on "power lunch." most etfs only track a benchmark. flexshares etfs are built around the way investors think. with objectives like building capital for thfuture, managing portfolio risk and liquidity and generating income. that's real etf innovation. flexshar. built by iesrs,for in. before investing consider e fund's investment objectives, ris, charges and expenses. go to flexshares.com for a prospectus containing this information. read it carefully.

anything worth pursuing hard work and a plan. at baird, we approach your wealth management strategy the same way to create a financial plan from generation to genation. we'll listen. we'll talk. we'll plan. baird.

when it comes to trade talks and nafta, believe it or not milk has become a rather, well, sour issue between the u.s., canada, and mexico. yesterday several members of congress sent a letter to the president urging action against canada's protectionist dairy policies. they argue are hurting american exports. bring in tom vilsack, president and ceo of the u.s. dairy and former secretary of agriculture under president obama. mr. vilsack, thanks for joining us. before we get into sort of the details can you explain to our audience in layman's terms what exactly canada has done that is creating this outrage which for most people i would imagine kind of came out of nowhere. >> canada limits the amount of milk that can be produced and processed and has a control on pricing for dairy products and they have reduced the cost or the price for milk powder which has created an opportunity for canadian milk powder to be dumped on to the global market which will impact, in effect,

american producers and producers around the world. they have a very close system, not market driven but government driven and it conflicts with open markets. >> i thought when i heard this, this might be a small gift to wisconsin from the president because it's one of the states that turned to help get the president elected. i didn't realize mexico a far bigger market at over $1 billion a year up more than 500% since the passage of nafta, you used to work for obama. do you agree with what this republican president is doing? >> well, yes and no. i certainly agree with the strong language the president directed towards canada. i'm concerned about the uncertainty he's created with his nafta discussions in mexico. it supports 30,000 jobs here in the united states for dairy. it's the number one market for u.s. dairy. we want to preserve and streng them the relationship in mexico and open up the markets in canada.

>> so what would you do to make sure there's a fair and level playing ground like we've talked about with lumber, like we'll talk about with dry wall in the future, with dairy. what do we need to do? >> we need to look at some of the tariffs that currently canada has and create a system and structure where they can't change the rules in the middle of the game to ben fit their produ producers at the expense of the world's producers. if we had more consistency, more transparency and more stability, we'd be able to have a market opportunity in canada we don't have today. it is contrary to wto, to nafta, to uruguay agreements. it's an opportunity now with renegotiation of nafta to open up that market and have a fairer system for everyone. and canadian consumers will benefit most of all because it will bring the cost of their products down. >> we were speaking with a dairy farmer a couple days ago, and he talked about how much milk there is on the market. i gather we've not seen this

level of production of milk ever. why? >> we're certainly more productive and efficient and innovative. no question about that. not just in the united states but the world. that's why export markets are so incredibly important to the u.s. dairy consumption in this k country continues to go up but not at the rate that we produce milk, so we have to look for other opportunities and there are tremendous opportunities in asia, southeast asia, and china just got back from a trip convinced there are opportunities there. terrific opportunities to continue to grow consumption in mexico. hopefully transitioning from soda to dairy products in that country, opening up the market in canada creates tremendous opportunity. >> mr. vilsack, thank you very much. we appreciate your time today. >> thank you. >> as we move to the second 100 days of the trump administration, what should the president prioritize to get his economic agenda through congress? we're talking to former press secretary ari fleischer on translating campaign rhetoric to legislative success. go to protect your vehicle?

i'm on it. ♪ ♪ ♪ weathertech. made right, in america welcome back to "power lunch." president trump promises to boost defense spending. now the etf that tracks those stocks, the ita, is up about 3% just this month. outperforming the broader market, american outdoors, all up double digits in april. keep an eye on these stocks as trump plans to address to really the nation, also the national

rifle association convention later on today. all of those things potential catalysts, brian. back over to you. >> dom, thank you very much. the campaign is over. the white house staff has settled in in order to get their call and how to find the printer paper. now the real work begins. find out what is next for the white house. former press secretary ari fleischer on the challenges for the trump agenda in the next 100 days.

hi, everybody. i'm sue herera. here is your cnbc news update. congress approving legislation to extend funding for the federal government by one week. it gives lawmakers until may 5th to settle on a spending bill to fund the government through the rest of the fiscal year. attorney general jeff sessions taking his anti-gang message to new york this morning. the visit comes as law enforcement tries to bring an end to the rash of violent murders linked to foreign gangs like the central american street gank mms-13. >> made substantial progress against ms-13.

we've seen that in other united states attorneys that i've talked to. felt like hammered these organizations. but they've come back. so we know we can hammer them again. former president george h.w. bush was discharged from houston methodist after being treated for a mild case of pneumonia and chronic bronchitis. he was admitted on april 14th. and we wish him the very best. that's the news update this hour. tomorrow marks president trump's 100th day in office. this hour he is getting ready to speak to the nra in atlanta, the first time in 34 years a sittinging president has addressed that group's annual convention. the last was ronald reagan in 1983. so far the markets have rallied over the first 100 days or 99, just to be precise. the dow up more than 6%. the s&p more than 5%. and the nasdaq higher by 9% or better. wall street on track for the third best performance during a

u.s. president's first 100 days since world war ii. so what can we expect in the future? insights now from former white house press secretary ari fleischer. ari, welcome back. you know, many in the media have been critical of president trump for not accomplish enough and not doing enough but i would argue that the one thing that may trump, literally, all of those other shortcomings, if you want to call them that, is the change in the business climate, the change that says to american business you are welcome here, we're not going to get in your way. in fact, we're going to try to get out of your way. and if this president and the administration does nothing but that it sets up for a nice time for business in the markets. >> no question about it but that has to spread to the broader population. all the ingredients economically speaking are there for donald trum top have a successful presidency. when you look at how the markets are up since election day, right

track, wrong track, economic confidence is up, business manufacturing index is up. all of that gives reason to believe trump can be successful. regulatory approach is healthy. he needs legislation and he also needs to send an infusion to the general public, working class blue collar americans that things are getting better and wages are rising. that can carry a presidency. >> ari, mario gabelli. wouldn't you then take the mantle and run with it to say we should have an earned income credit for everybody that's w k working in this country and pay it to people making a certain wage that's below? >> it's great to see you. i can't tell you how great you look. >> i'd give you a kiss but i have a cold. >> it's all right. >> a virtual one. >> but, look, i think that's a very good point to be made and that should be participate of broader tax reform. earned income tax credit has proved to be one of the most successful for getting low-income people to take jobs

otherwise they may not because their ben it fits are too great and you want people to get less public benefits and take jobs, $15, $16, $17 an hour without losing government benefits. that's what the earned income tax credit does and it's really important for people in washington to see the economy through the eyes of those who struggle and that program, i think, should be on the table for part of what tax reform should be. >> i agree. and eliminate carried interest. we're marching to the same drummer, harry. thank you. >> what, ari, do you think is the most important unfinished item on the president's agenda for these first 100 days? is it the health care? in other words that was really key. the building of the wall was certainly a key part of his campaign. which of the ones that still are sort of lying out there as unfinished business do you rate highest in importance? >> first of all, having worked

in the white house, my measuring stick is 500 days. i think you need to wait until into next year and you can have a gauge of what's working, what's not working, what is trump's fault, what is not his fault, what did he inherit, what did he make better or worse. 500 days. and the key ingredient here is congress. and if he has a do-nothing congress, if republicans cannot unify, if republicans don't realize tremendous damage they did to themselves and to the nation by failing to repeal and replace obamacare, it sends a question mark through everybody can congress get anything done if republicans in the house cannot unify among themselves? that, to me, is the biggest question mark for the trump presidency. donald trump deserves some of the blame for that. frankly, i blame much more of the internal operations of house republicans. the fact conservatives and moderates don't realize that they must work together because if they don't and they try to blame one another for the repeal failure, republicans will never be trusted again to go into public office. what's the good of having them

in control if they don't use that control to do things for the good of the american people? that, to me, is the key thing trump has to figure out, congress has to figure it out. >> so looking ahead to the next 100 days or 400 days if you want to peg it as the important marker here, what were the lessons learned from the initial effort to repeal and replace the aca? i'm sure that they're doing a post mmortem if they haven't already to get the legislative agenda accomplished. >> well, when something fails like that and there was a failure from both the white house, the house leadership, speaker ryan, down through the grassroots. what you have to do in the house is let the grassroots figure it out. pressure are from the top won't get it over the finish line. you've got to let the grassroots moderate faction get together and if they haven't realized they cannot unite nothing good is going to happen for this country. they've got to realize the

burden and the responsibility of governing is on their shoulder. what i fear the most is that really house republicans have not had the governance since 2006, the last time they had the majority with a republican in the white house. and so many of the instincts and abilities of house republicans are to oppose nancy pelosi and barack obama. that was great. i'm glad they did it. now they'd better learn how to govern and that's the job. >> you're a sports guy. you know this. if you are the last place team in baseball, there's no pressure on you. and if you win, great. if you lose, nah. now you're the first place team. now everybody expects you to win. do you believe paul ryan and the republican leadership know how to win? >> i think paul ryan does. i think paul ryan is a serious man who wants to bring people together. i think the problem here is, frankly, the moderates and the conservatives at the grassroots level. they'd better realize they're on the same team.

if they try to take the blame off themselves to put it on the moderates and vice versa, they're not one team. if house republicans cannot operate as one team, then they don't deserve to have the majority. >> aren't they one party? i mean, we seem to be circling here. the idea there are two parties within the party. >> there's two wings within the party. the history of the republican party, and it's not new, they figure it out. they get together for the greater good. they compromise and that's what they'd better do here. >> it's not the first time we've had that. the southern democrats and the northern democrats were divided on lots of things in the '50s, '60s and going way back. ari fleischer, thanks very much. >> thank you. >> well, infrastructure, of course, a big part of president trump's agenda. so mario here owns a few names in this category. mario, i'm just curious, is that an investable thesis? >> it's more than investable.

we housed a meeting every year, the american society of civil engineers every four years comes out with a report. what's going on in our infrastructure. they just rated our country -- our country b-plus. a major uptick. imagine if you said i got a d-plus up from a d-minus? >> i would be disowned. >> i would have a party. >> good luck. inland waterway, the electric grid, fortunately some it have like the electric grid is being handled by private/public partnerships so we need that. now what do i want to own? i want to own, as an example, melissa, december 15, 2015, they passed an act that said fix transportation. you had a great deal of visibility for five years for stocks like gencor doubled. we like everyone that has this ecosystem. now who do i like?

a $10 stock will go to $20. they're in construction equipment. you saw what happened to cat and deere. anything to do with water i like. new ceo. a work in progress. and there's a whole bunch of companies like that. and then the electric grid needs to be reinforced. we buy some utility companies, water companies. so that's it. >> why is there skepticism? the average infrastructure stock is up 23%. this year the average infrastructure stock is down 1% as a group average. >> whatever you want. >> what i'm saying -- i just worry. did all the run come already? >> no. you're not even beginning. come on. look at laguardia airport. stop. have you ever been there or do you fly private? the airport is simple. you go there and you see how bad it is. i just landed at l.a.x.

>> i'm the guy that complains about airports every day. >> it's been bad for years and years and years. >> what changes now -- >> do you believe the trump administration will get something done? >> did you look at waldman in manhattan? some of the golf courses like the one in the bronx? where are we going to do it, get the money, how do we put public and private together as a country. i'm tired of potholes. i have cars that benefit. >> do you own goodyear? >> you're hedged on that. >> what's good for the farmer may not be good for the parade and so as a result of that we want -- the last thing is you want another bridge to collapse like in atlanta, georgia, and this time with a lot of people on it because we're saying, hey, we're not fixing it. we'll find the money. we have to do it and it enhances productivity. the amount of time you spend on the cross bronx, whatever expressway you're on, just to go over the bridges in new york it's not worth it. >> definitely. >> infrastructure is important because it helps fiscal

stimulation. it offsets monetary policy. it helps the jobs in the middle of the country. it helps everyone. >> you were kidding about laguardia. you do watch "power lunch" religiously. i complain every single week. >> wear your bulletproof vests when i'm around. all right, down to the bond report, rick santelli, rescue us, rick santelli. >> reporter: thanks, sully. basically unchanged on the day, maybe up a basis point. up five on the week. starting out with the ten it closed out lags month at 2.29. last year at 2.44. still close. bunds down one basis point. hyg, this hinge is finishing up strong and many look at it to give us kind of a barometer of what's going on. the equity markets are probably well behaved and the spreads are rather well behaved all exactly

true. and finally the dollar index odd man out. it's down a penny on the week and close to a penny and a half up month to date. melissa lee, back to you. >> thank you, rick san it telly. coming up, the 411 on a powerhouse hitting the market. we'll tell you which grammy-award winner is selling her new jersey mansion straight ahead. most etfs only track a benchmark. flexshares etfs are built around the way investors think. with objectives like building capital for the future, managing portfolio risk and liquidity and generating income. that's real etf innovation. flexshares. built by investors, for investors. before investing consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. go to flexshares.com for a prospectus containing this information. read it carefully.

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also a synergy target. >> a 15% gain. piper jaffray raises targets. price line's biggest market in europe likely had a strong first quarter. by the way, europe is more than 50% of price line's revenue. they say the company can capture more market share. they see the potential for earnings upside. the earnings are out on price line may 9. not a whole lot of upside but another bullish call. >> the third stock here is starbucks. after reporting what some are saying is a disappointing quarter the shortfall the stock is pulling back. bmo meantime reiterating outperform rating raising the price target to $67 a share saying, look, focus on the p

positive things. china, same store sales up. that was about 29% of transactions so capitalize on this near-term weakness in the shares. >> you drink coffee in the morning, maybe beer at night. your final stock, susquehanna upgraded to a positive from a neutral. they boost the target. that's 25% upside from here. the analyst says that despite a, quote, awful first quarter, the stock seems to have found a bottom at $140 a share and call it compelling. a number of signs point to improving trends. the stock is up 3% today but they see a lot more upside at susquehanna. >> over to you, tyler. >> i'll try to help them this weekend. time now for your powerhouse of the week giving you rare looks into the homes of celebrities and ceos. this week grammy award winning hip-hop soul singer mary j. blige. >> this 13,000-square-foot

chateau is the home of mary j. blige. walk inside the front door of the diva's estate and you'll find a foyer that leads no not one but two massive living rooms. this one with its animal accents has its own private bar. pass the formal dining room with seating for eight and private library with its own fireplace, a traditional gourmet chef's kitchen. even more upstairs like the master suite with its private sitting area, king-sized bed, and very own espresso machine. there's also a marble covered his and her bath. take the elevator to the lower level and you'll find a walk-in wine cellar as well as a personal gym that overlooks an indoor basketball court. grb some popcorn with five of your friends inside the mega mansion's home theater. out back is a private swimming pool and pool house. this estate is nestled in saddle river, new jersey, just 25 miles from new york city. make the diva's digs your own

for just under $9 million. >> let's take a look at these numbers. she bought this place for $12.3 million in 2008. of course the housing crash, took a big hit, never quite rebounded in saddle river. it was listed for $13 million and now it's down to $8.8 million. she would be taking a loss if she sold at the list of about $3 million. >> that doesn't even include the taxes she's likely paid which in saddle river she's probably paying $50,000 to $100,000. >> easy. >> should she be allowed to takes a tax deduction for that loss? >> not under the trump plan. >> forget the trump plan. on anybody's plan. >> under capital gains she would take a loss. >> if you sell at a profit you pay a tax. if you sell at a loss do you get a tax deduction? independent of all of that -- >> that's not how the government works. >> i think she has a brand-new album. i think she'll be okay. >> i'm not worried about mary j.

blige. not at all. >> like cnbc. robert, you'll be joining us to discuss a competition that's gotten a lot tighter over the past couple of days. >> over the past couple of minutes. >> the past couple of minutes. $3 billion. >> real time on cn >> the world's richest person, that contest getting closer. straight ahead mario will give us a look at some of his top picks. he's got investing pieces around one guy, this one guy may be the key to making you rich. "power lunch" back at 2:00. online u.s. equity trades...

♪ ...you realize the smartest investing idea, isn't just what you invest in, but who you invest with.

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our time with him is naering an end but we want to get a couple ideas from mario in your pick. what's topping your lust now? >> there's a lot. we covered 1600 companies and we have a lot of the small caps, but in that context who may have made money for share hoerlds over a long period of time. you think about people with mobility, with the mobile devices who's got content and connectivity. the second thing is who drinks what where. so we think about these things.

in the context of connectivity we created a fund as a bass get called media mogul. for example you want to own charter in the able area. finger prints on close to $300 billion worth market cap. if you own everything, maybe about a 14% kager in the last 15 years. >> would you want a cable own to own a telecome for instance? if you're thinking about it in that way right? >> i'm a ceo of a company and the stocks come -- i can't do that. the point is the customer needs to have data, it needs voice, video and who knows what else they want. so how do you get to that customer, not only in the united states but globally? in the united states we only have 330 million people. there's 7 billion around the world who's got that

fingerprint? malone has that. >> and he is the guy that's made more money in more ways over the decades in telecome and cable than anybody including you. >> and land. >> don't ignore content. let's get serious about this. how about sirius. the real estate in automobiles is 100 million cars being produced this year. then i like fox. >> i was just going to ask, is fox the biggest holer? are you worried about all the stuff going on over there? >> they brought back 700 million shares, and you multiply that, they're going to do $9 billion and cap ex at $300 million. this is a cash cow. in addition they got three blue people movies coming out and that's going to come out --

>> come on tyler. >> in addition to that you're looking out. do i worry about everything. i worry about everything. rupert doesn't take it personally if i sue him, i hope he doesn't, and he doesn't know i'm suing but now he does. he's done a good job. malone has done a fabulous job for 40 years. viacom. >> cbs you like. >> i don't ignore come cast. i think steve burke has done a great job. and the whole notion of american content going global, wireless, mobility and data. cwhat is the risk to the capabl companies? >> 5 g. >> 5g is the speed. >> that's why there's this hissing over straight pad because they got licenses and

it's only like $130 times 13 million shares, these guys are going to say this is b-front property. forget your property in new jersey there, how do we own the ability to have the super highways. then how does google get away with not paying a freight bill and next felix for use of the highway? there's a sign, trump pay x, passenger cars, y. these guys with getting the highway for free doesn't make sense. i use too much water i get a bill i cut back on my water. we have heat at 60 and air-conditioning at 80, so we pay less. isn't that what you do tyler? >> my house is cold. >> i warm you up. >> you do every time. >> those are the companies we like. we like the contend, connectivity and the cable guy haves a part of that for the time being. disuponing gdp data,

corporate earnings sent the market soaring this week. which market has the real read on the committee, a closer look. earnings versus gdp, strait ahead. "power lunch." so what else is new? how's your mother?

umm..she's doing good. she needs more care though. she wants to stay in her house. i don't know even where to start with that. first, let's take a look at your financial plan and see what we can do. ok, so we've got... we'll listen. we'll talk. we'll plan. baird.

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welcome to the second hour of "power lunch" i'm melissa lee, two hours until the "closing bell" rings. this is what we're watching this hour, it's been a great start to the stocks especially on nasdaq earnings up 12%. which is right, what does it mean for stocks right now. we're watching shares of star bucs falling today after a shares misrough start with the ceo. and we're watching the race for second place. could jeff bezo become the second richest man in the world behind warren buffet. >> check out some movies, google a few dollars behind amazon. the race to 1,000 bucks a share. not hurting that company too much, earnings and sales betting the street forecast and that company stock up $37 today alone. exxon and chevron moving higher

both reporting unexpected profits. world caribbean proving today. one of the biggest games in the s&p 500 after its earnings and we'll talk to the ceo coming this hour. >> all right overall the markets are down a bit today but it's been a good week. the doe industrial average up 2%. as melissa said, first quarter gdp coming in weak. how account average be strong if the committee is not doing well. steve lease man joining us now from washington, d.c. >> there's a few different things we're talking about. earnings are being helped a bit by decent growth overseas as well. the economy in the u.s. is not as weak as gdp percent. a big part of the weakness came from inventory adjustments, so

forecasters think the committecs going to bounce back after restock in this corner. and of course there's this other court that we talk a lot about, q-1 data has been unusually week for years, the problem is because of the the data crutching not the actual economy. some guys boosted their forecast today, but when you average it out it's still around 2% this quarter and last quarter. the biggest committee is whether the economy could do better. one good side was the investment numbers were double digits. >> we'll bring in ron lowe sohn in this discussion. do you pre we looked through the first quarter.

>> tourism is down, we've had workers leave the country, that may have been a small thing by the tourism have been cut back in the last several months. that may be small not big. >> do you think the business siding is that evidence of animal spirits kicking in? >> it could be. as steve pointed out the demand around the world is picking up. china seems to be rebounding to a certain extent. so with the world more synchronized than it's been in a while we'll see exports get some transaction. >> do you believe in the gdp number? >> i don't know how outdated it is because there's so many components you can put in. there's a lag in the trade numbers, in inventory data's always off. there's always some issues we've had with gdp numbers, but this has been with us the last couple years. >> why don't they fix it steve in. >> allky tell you is that

they're working on it. we think one of weakness is in defense spending who does defense spending? the government. the government seems in capable of counting of what the government is going. among the things -- >> surprise? >> that -- that would be one of the easy ones. we see this, by the way, government jobs, they have trouble counting that as well. there's the thing going on, we're not quite sure. here's the dangers, one of these things it's beginning to come along, the first quarter ears going to be week and people are going to discount it and not get the first signal out there. my work shows, and this has been accepted by the dba that this has gone on for 30 years unnotice requested just last year they try to fix the adjustment problems. >> so not to blow all of steve's segments out of the water, do we ignore the q-1 number?

>> this is the thing -- this is a good question for ron because ron is better at pricing probabilities i'm better at giving them to you. it has been a better better the last year to discount the first quarter and play a second quarter rebound. i can tell you all the forecasters i follow on the street are playing that right now. >> it feels like a sandbag number, the first quarter. >> yeah it does. the only problem went they raise it to 3% the second quarter is missing that number as well. the average is somewhere closer to 2%, that over the last several years. i'm not sure if you want to take second quarter immediately to 3%. private sector government has been robust over the last several years. that depressed the government component of gdp for quite sometime. >> i want to add to that. the fed has been signaling that the employment numbers do a better job with signaling the weakness and strength of the

economy. >> why for us steve, the firms would raise q-1 and 2 growth at this point, what is the data they're using? >> a lot of this is expectations for inventory which i hope people didn't just click their t.v.s off. it's among the most boring, but among the most viletal parts of gdp. some quarters inventory decline more and you almost automatically when you have that build in a build for some companies. companies need stuff on their shelves to sell. when you have small gains like we did in the first quarter it's always a good bet bank on a rebuilding in the second quarter. >> trade is on a delayed basis so that's always revised one way or another when it comes to computing gdp because the trade data lagged by several months, so it's difficult to get a

number of how much trade data is following. >> the bigger anomaly is zero percent rise in consumer spending. it's hard to talk about consumer spender. also this utility component, again, i'm telling you the inner details here, because it was a warmer weather people didn't spend much on utilities. >> that is interesting because the refund comes later. >> i didn't get a refund. >> nor did i. >> and the irs got its money right on time. >> it always does. >> you'll never get an interest on it when they hold it till the following year. >> ron, steve thank you. manufacturing will thank you president trump this week. the national association of manufacturers launching a campaign praising the president for keeping his promise for manufacturing jobs.

joining us now jay tibman, ceo of the national association of manufacturerers. when i was looking at some of the notes, my eyes are going, 93% of your 1400 constituents are now positive on the economy, the highest in 20 years? >> 14,000. >> and at 93%? >> 93%, and that was a 20-year high. and the reason for that is because we do have a promise who's kept his promises to reform the regulatory system, he's done that very well. and the president who has issued the boldest principles and blueprint for tax reform that frankly any president ever has. >> let's be clear, has anything changed from your constituents. trump has signed a number of executive orders, congress though make it is laws? have you soon any of the deregulation impact business? >> absolutely. >> give us an example. >> sure.

some of these regulations were put on the books by executive order. so you think about the pipeline permits for instance, and cutting through the red tape and the stalling of those permits. that's gotten done. we've seen a change in the process. i don't want to deemphasize or i don't want that process to be deemphasized because that is so crucial to businesses when making decisions about where that next dollar is going to be invested, where that next job is going to be created, and we want that toto occur here in the united states. the executive orders that the president have signed gone a long way to creating certainty and confidence in our economy. >> how much do you think regulatory reform will add in percentage terms to the growth rate of manufacturing in united states? >> i'm not an economist so i'll leave that to steve and did you

ran. what i'm hearing from those 14,000 members is a tremendous confidence in reducing the cost of doing business here in the united states. right now it's somewhere between 12 and 24% to manufacturer in the united states than it is among our major trader partners and that's after the cost of labor. that's due to the regulatory regime we live under, the taxi structure he live under, the highest in the world. and have a zero budget, if you will for the regulatory cost going forward is a tremendous boost in confidence -- >> how do you hit the sweet spot jay between excessive regulation and smart regulation? because i know you and your members would say we don't want to be overly regulated -- >> that's exactly. >> we want to have good working conditions for our workers and sometimes let's face it, not just manufacturing companies but

all kinds of companies have not behaved there had ways -- let me put thit way sometimes they invited regulation through their behavior. >> look, i think that modern manufacturers urns the importance of a strong, trans important and common sense regulatory structure. but i want to give you fact that is startling to me, i knew it was a large number but until we quant tied it, we didn't have any idea that manufacturers are subjected to 297,696 regulation. almost 300,000 regulations. that equates to employees per year and employee cost for small medium manufacturer. so if you look at that number you elz, there's got to be efficiencies we can gain from a ber process. >> those regulations may be a negative jay, give an automation

just continued surge do you think we're going to have to have regulation around automation? >> i think you're going to have to have best practices and structure put around it. here's an interesting number as well. >> the cnbc is good we like the numbers. >> 350,000 jobs today are going unfilled because we can't find workers with the right skills. a lot of the skills we need are related to technology and information, artificial intelligence and robotics. so we're looking for workers and very high-paid workers i might add with those skills. so, there will be some structure put around that in the future, but right now we're excited about the opportunities that exist in the workplace in modern manufacturer. >> jay timmons pleasure. keep us informed. thank you. key part of president

trump's packs proposal next week is the elimination of the state tax acts called the death tax. it will be a bloom for wealthy people. it's only wealthy people that pay the state tax anyway. robert what does this mean? >> president trump wants to kill the death tax once and for all, but it's been going away on its own for years. the state tax applies else estates valued at $10.9 million or more for couples. it's only the richest of the rich who actually end up paying it and even they're not paying much anymore. about 5,000 people were paid taxes this year that's out of 2.7 million debts so 1.5 million people paid tax. top .1% paid about a third of it.

revenue from the taxes fell to 19 billion this year. the number of mil areas and billionaires that we grow have groan substantially. that use to account for 8% of the tax revenue now it's about half of 1%. why is it dropping so fast? ex semgss. it's only the rich of the rich that way and wealthy is using effective trust to avoid the tax. we want multigenerational businesses to be passed on from family member to family member. and they highlighted farmers, but only 50 farms and family businesses will they any estate tax this year. >> i have always wondered having encountered the death taxi when my parents passed away, why del was a taxable event. i also wondered why death entitled the in her for to a

step-up in basis. >> there's a fundamental argue and a financial argument, it was put in time when the nation really needed revenues in world war ii and there's a sense we don't want to be -- there's dynasties that control everything. >> so let's talk about an individual who would be subject to the death tax. >> yes. >> in theory. >> more and more every day. >> amazon share soaring just yesterday on the back of that earnings report giving up much of the gains this hour. what do these latest games in amazon mean for jeff bezo, his wealth. how close is me to becoming the richest person in the world? >> well he was sleeping, $3 billion last night. and over the last five years he's added $65 billion to his fortune. he is now within $5 billion of bill gates is somewhere around

$87 billion. my guess is at some point over the the next two to three months -- >> months not years? >> months. >> what does the stock price has to hit? >> 990 is what it has to be. what is it around 9 -- >> 925 and change right now. the session was on amazon. >> but look the last time i was on talking about this a few weeks ago, you know, the stock was up in the high 800s i think, we said maybe this year it will get to 9909 but i think it'll be faster than that. microsoft stock is not moving as fast so bill gates may come down while bezo goes up. >> two guys from seattle. >> yeah something in the water there i guess. >> rob thank you. robert frank. here's what's coming up, which is right the economy or earnings?

and what does it mean for stocks. and the does the ceo of starbucks have a problem on his hand. have he hit peak sports writes fees. we'll talk to the owner from soccer leads and much more. add we head out take a check on the markets, we're sitting at near session lows, as i mentioned amazon hitting lows. "power lunch" back in two. why pause a spontaneous moment? cialis for daily use treats ed and the urinary symptoms of bph. tell your doctor about your medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, or adempas® for pulmonary hypertension, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. to avoid long-term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have a sudden decrease or loss of hearing or vision, or an allergic reaction, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis.

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earnings driving markets today. amazon up, is it still up? >> it's up. >> but lows the major average is how evering near those session lows closing out the month of april. the mark has remained quite resilient so what would the next 100 days look like on wall street. for that we turn to our guests mark and mar gee of wells fargo. what do you think mar gee this is a seasonal weaker time of year, what are you preparing for this time? >> well i think still going to trop around and not make a lot of head way because the first quarter earnings are okay but not enough to drive the markets to the next level.

so we'll trop around and it won't be until lair in the year, maybe say the fourth quarter when we see the positive benefits in the companies. companies spending more, more people going back to work, i think we could have a very strong finish to the year. >> so mar gee says we should look at sort of a trading range, choppiness over the next few months, what do you see? >> it's hard to make an explosive move tyler. the markets put a big downpayment on pulling forward a lot of the proposals that were market friendly under the new administration and mainly tax reform. we got a relief rally out of the president re-election, may not get that again. so it's going to have to be the economy and earnings that are doing the heavy lifting. i expect the economic conditions to remain sturdy. we have a pretty act bishs

profit growth for 2017. i think it can be match pedestrianed -- i think with a fairly positive glow that could help boost equities. i agree with mar gee in terms of them being up in a yearly basis but i don't know if we have to be stuck between a trading range. >> more gee where can i make money over the next month or so? >> a lot of technologies companies that have proven that they have secular growth even in this economy. i think in the healthcare space, the tools and devices will continue to be sturdy, accelerating growth. i think in the defense sector, we'll continue to see the need for more defense investment and we'll see those companies have higher cash flow as well as other industrial companies. i think we're in the beginning of a modest cyclical rebound.

>> all right some good ideas there. mark the same question to you, where can i eke out some gains in the the next six months between now and the end of the year? >> sure. housing related industries to us are very appealing. there's going to be continued home ownership growth and it sits well for new and investing homes, including the do-it-yourself home improvement companies. that should be good for asset managers and custodial banks that make money on short-term moves. we continue to find the european economic story to be very attractive. run by not only growth but accommodate earning positions. evaluations are 30 to 40%

cheaper than u.s. counter parts. >> appreciate your time. >> magazines, t and software. good, bad and the ugly is next. consumer up 10% the year. the gdp says spending is weak, which is correct. "power lunch" will be right back. she can't become a guitar legend just by playing air guitar. the baby's room won't build itself. and her paw won't heal on its own.

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hi serve i'm sue herrera. here's your update tip. president trump signing an executive order rolling back restrictions on offshore oil and gas drill. >> this is a great day for more than workers and families and today we're unleashing the american energy and clearing the way for thousands and thousands of high-paying american energy jobs. british county raided a home today arresting five people. the almost terror attack was not connected to yesterday's arrest

of a 20-year-old man out outside of parliament. and it's a big day from this young boy, who has a rare and uncurable disease. he received his wish by becoming a veteran for one day. we wish trent and his family all the best. he's just so cute. that's the news update this hour. back to you. >> god bless that boy and his family and everybody. >> yep. >> pray for something good to happen. sue thank you very much. >> you got it. we are 90 minutes from the "closing bell" on walmart. pretty good for stocks, nasdaq crossing 6,000 for the first time ever. oil by the way, closing the day, right around $49 a barrel. we have now doubled the land drill rigs year overyear.

>> thanks. first quarter earnings expectations earning review knew. with this 12 first gain it makes dental products including in vis line. the stock is down after the border decided not to sell the company. n nasdaq is down by 19%. it is an ugly day for athena may health. it's punishment appellating. the stock down by 18%. we're also watching decline in shares of star bucs after second quarter sell fell short. what does a company need to do to improve revenue. joining us is bob. great to have you with us. i heard a lot of excuses on that call but what concern me the most and a lot of people on the

street, they cited the rob still with mobile oiling and slower overall customer service. have they said anything to make you believe the worst is boone them on those two fronts? >> what they said about the mobile oil and mobile pay, they're making progress in improving the 1200 plus restaurants that have been negatively affected this past quarter. there's no doubt when you have people who are grumpy coming in for they're first cup of the day who are in a hurry to get to the office informed they don't get tap care of fast enough you're going to have complaints. and it hurt them last quarter. they made progress on that, they're not quite positive yet but they're making substantial improvement. so clearly they're making good end roads at taking care of their customers. >> kevin johnson the ceo says he's confident that numbers have turned the quarter. is that what you signing according to your own research? >> yes. there's no doubt they jump

started the april period. the unicorn frappuccino has been, you know -- disgusting. >> amazing. >> oh sorry that's my first reaction. >> a unicorn frappuccino. >> big pink dom gets them every day. cit's like if fewty pebbles and coffee had a baby, oh my goodness. >> there is a buzz when you bring a product like that to mark, there's a -- this company -- >> i know there's a lot of buzz at starbucks i tell you. >> that aside. if you look at the breath of the consumer who uses the brand, your needs and mind, relative to my 19-year-old daughter and 21-year-old son are very different. their catering to a a broad --

it's not catering to your needs and mind. management gets it, but i think the important thing especially is they're spending to take care of both you and my daughter. they have a broader generational reach with that brand and they have a little higher income level consumer. they're not advertising to the poor and the huddled masses, they're advertising a consumer with a little bit higher house income who's looking for a better quality experience and they're not as concern about the competition -- >> bob what's the next leg up, i remember a number of years ago when everybody says booze was going to be the next big boost for starbucks? where do they substantiate from converting it to a sort of coffee, now light food shop to maybe a full service place? >> well, you know, for example the rosterry that did the

company's testing are clearing higher quality experience, much broader food and drink experience, some of those roasterries are toying with different whines and liqueurs. >> i thought they had that in some places, chicago i think i saw that. >> there are some of those in the stores and that will be a very select number of the restaurant's reserved location, which by the way you need to have a liquor listens to sell those. >> the check on the roasterry is $20 versus $30 in the store. so what's the check on that i would imagine much higher? >> i'd expect it to be materially much higher if you can bring in some beverage, alcohol, margins on those things are terroristic. >> bob great to see you. >> gus and unbuzzed.

by the way we have a shot of the unicorn. >> look at that man. can someone get me one of those? >> i told you fruity pebbles and coffee had a baby there you go. if you still think professional soccer is a little league sport you're living in the past. coming up we're going to speak with the owner of portland tim bers on how big the sport can get.

i wanted to point out the surge we seen in tesla surge. 314.50 is the all-time high for tesla. so with a striking distance of an all-time high. >> what was the contest yesterday? >> todd gordon. i chose his team, that was my overall pick. we'll see. major league soccer off to another strong start. the average club worth $185 million according to forbes ceo of one of those clubs who happen to have more points than the timbers. the last club worth $210 million

according to forbes and he joins us now. merit here's the thing about soccer which is your club is doing more tendons per game on average than everybody basketball team except for the chicago bulls. why do i think america seems to have this issue with, well soccer's this little thing it will never be big, it's already big. how do you tell america that you're big? >> young america knows that. it's a great time to be in the soccer business. i think it was always a matter of when and not if the world's game is going to catch on in the biggest media market and that's happening. by every single metric the growth we've seen has been extreme. things are very very good. so if you don't get it now you're never going to get it. >> you know, and there's no more teams expected to come online and what's amazing to me is we've seen success, orlando are

leading the conference, even if our viewers don't care about soccer. on most sports it takes team a long time -- the jackson jacksonville waiting to be a good team. how is it that a team can be a good tame right away. >> it's a mark brian that i'll admit i was skeptical about. it hasn't been a pro team market but it's knocking it out of the park. that's the wrong sport's metaphor but it's amazing. it's a new city. young atlanta is really taken to atlanta united. that story is more the norm in the exception across the country. >> talk me through, not just in your market of portland but for ml s across the country. segment, the typical attendee of a game? what is their age, they'reth

necessarisy where do they come from? are they rich or poor, what? >> we index really high with millennials in young america. i think espn's did a study not too long ago that age 10 to 20 their favorite sport beyond the nfl is soccer. young america we index very high. portland's start of the young hit downtown urban deal. when it's hot and cool everybody wants to be a part of it. identify got friends in their 60s who know every detail and stat and follow the game like you wouldn't believe it really does know no bounds but we index high with young america. >> it was a tough day in media world in espn's a lot of people getting laid off, the industry concern about overpaying for

rights, does it worry you in any way that ml s may have peaked in terms of the t.v. side? >> not at all. first of all, with respect to espn's i'd say two things, number one they've been a great partner of ml s, and number two they're still by any metric the leader in sport's broadcasting and i think will be the leader in sport's broadcasting for the foreseeable future. but, when you look at the history of sport's distribution ranks it's very much been a revolution whether it was a birth of espn's in the late '90s to fox in the early '90s. in terms of the internet there's been a lot of change and evolution, but there's been one can substantiate, that's the game content that's appreciated. it's grown leaps and bounds and that's going to continue to happen. it's a lot going on with distribution, mls itself have

two individuals games it's putting on facebook right now. you got the nfl game night, they were on twitter last year. that's all a good and healthy dynamic. it's a great spot to be if your a live sports content holder and we are very much that. >> i tried to get the team out but no takers so far. thank you very much for joining us. >> any time. consumer discretionary, how's that for a transition, the best sector in the s&p 500 this month. the d again says the consumer spending is weak. again the economy is a drop coming, "trading nation" is next. ♪

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anyone can dream. making it a reality is the hard part. northrop grumman command and control systems always let you see the complete picture. and we're looking for a few dreamers to join us. yet another kind of say-what kind of moment. today's gdp moment show consumer spending has been week. but consumer discretion fair sector of stock market is best performer. let's bring in mat medicaller. you buy stocks now because you anticipate better stuff later, i

hope. that's the idea anyway. does the mark at s&p global anticipate, things were soft in q-1 that they're going to get better in the discretion fair? >> yeah i see this as a forward issue versus the past. even though we've seen q-1 estimates and soft gdp numbers, q-1 has gone -- so not only do we see a better q-1 but we see better for the rest of the year and that's why consumers are willing to spend on the consumer discretionaries. >> so you see earnings going up down the road? >> yeah quarter two, three and four is very positive and also net earnings. >> matt you're also a skeptic. do you agree? >> it's going to be important if it does, because the xly kps the

consumer discretion of etf it's up over more than 50% which is much better than any other groups chld the key i'd will looking at is the real wage growth. hourly earnings have been coming down in the last two years but in march they bounced nicely. if that continue it should go very well for consumer spending. watch for real wage growth as we move -- get those april and may numbers. if they're positive it's going to be positive for the group and mark as well. >> watch in the yxl, it should get better. both aaron and matt thank you very much. go to trading nation daut cnbc.com. tyler. the company's going to buy back i think $500 million worth of -- >> ship?

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shares of royal caribbean catching waves today. new all-time highs on the back of the earnings beat and announcement of a share buyback. stock up 6% now, up more than 30% this year. what's ahead for the cruise operator? joining us as he does, we are grateful, richard, chairman and ceo of royal caribbean. good to have you with us. >> thank you, thank you for having me back. >> why buy back stock when it's an all-time high? what's the reason for it? >> well, i think we are generating a large amount of free cash flow, and, you know,

it is my job description to push it to get the value higher, and higherment we have more to go. i'll keep trying to get there. >> business has been really good, and you're raising estimates for full year earnings as i understand it. which of the various brands powers best? where do you see the greatest growth? >> well, i'm happy to say we are all doing extraordinarily well. we had a brand power out with the new ships, harmony of the seas, symphony of the seas, a new ship next year for celebrity which is going gang buster, and just throughout the brand, they seem to be responsive to what the public wants and our preference ratings go up. >> how is the non-american part of your business? >> it's not often i say every business we have around the world is doing well.

the u.s. market is doing well. canadian market is doing well, europe is doing very nicely. china has been a terrific success for us. in fact, throughout asia, we are seeing australia, all of asia, just going very well, so there really is, in fact, i can't remember a time when so many markets all seemed to be lining up and away. >> i'm running out of questions because everything is going well. what is your favorite cruise? where do you like to cruise most? >> well, you know, i never answer that because we have 400 different cruises. >> yeah. >> i will tell you one of the things that was very exciting to me is an announcement, not just the one we made today where we basically said we're doing what we said we were going to do, and it's continuing to work well, but made an announcement yesterday that i was just tickled pink about. that is, that we've teamed up with the mulala foundation to support education for young

girls, and so happy to be teamed up with them, and, in fact, will be the godmother of the next celebrity ship coming out next year. >> wow. >> congratulations on that. >> really exciting to be able to work with somebody so special, and reflection of all the people at royal caribbean that work so hard, the foundation relates to them just made me feel so energiz energized. it's coming on the heals of 2.0, a good time for us. >> i have to ask you, you said to tyler that you're seeing strength pretty much around the world, analysts hone in on weakness in china, and said, perhaps impact of ban on travel. what are you seeing in terms of demand? >> well, the chinese demand has been excellent.

unfortunately, they have a dispute with the united states and korea over the missile defense program, and so they symptomed chinese from going to korea, forcing them, and that's painful, hurting us, and we had something remarkable similar three years ago when china got into a dispute with japan over the three small islands off the coast. same sort of thing happened. it required us to reposition ships. >> i imagine china three years ago was not as big part of business or driver of growth as it is today. concern this dispute could last much longer and impact results for a longer amount of time? >> yeah. there's no question. we don't know how long it lasts. certainly, the government doesn't give us any hint of that. we hope it turns around. no, we're not counting on it turning around.

we have to reposition ships. that is, of course, one advantage of being in the cruise business. we can move our ships around. we can go to different itineraries, go to japan instead of korea, that sort of thing, but, yeah, if it continues as it is this year, it'll be the one negative note on otherwise nice business. >> thank you for coming up. >> thanks for having me. with e*trade's powerful trading tools, right at your fingertips, you have access to in-depth analysis, level 2 data, and a team of experienced traders ready to help you if you need it. ♪ ♪ it's like having the power of a trading floor, wherever you are. it's your trade. ♪ ♪ e*trade. ♪ ♪ start trading today at etrade.com

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global conference monday and tuesday. that's our guest. >> a handsome man. >> he's going to be milking it. >> no comment. thank you for watching. >> closing bell starts now. welcome to a special edition of the closing bell, i'm sara eisen in for kelly evans. >> i'm scott in for bill griffeth. stocks approaching the thousand dollar level, which one is the better buy? hear from both sides of the debate. >> better than expected earnings, but worst