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 performers

this year, and coming up, whether now is the time to get back into it. >> tomorrow marks president trump's hundredth day in office, and tom cole says how close congress could be to getting a deal done on both taxes and health care. >> amazon, alphabet, race to $1,000 a share. we are tracking the action. first to you on amazon. >> hey, sara, will. if you are looking at price targets, the streak thinks amazon gets there first. just shy 1500, that's $25 above alphabet's. after the quarterly results yesterday, it is getting closer to the milestone. amazon launched double digit revenue growth, and now heavy investments, and push in the indian market, drone delivery, to the recent nfl deal.

shares surged more than 50% over the last year, and about 25% since january alone. by the way, guys, once shares get $990, jeff besos is the world's richest man of the it's worth noting what spoils the party, and not everyone is on board with the thousand-dollar plus average target. after earnings, pacific press downgraded amazon to sector weight after being overweight for more than two years on price valuation and note the walmart's aggressive push in e-kmert and potential head winds for awf. that, guys, a amazon's most profitable segment. will, sara? >> thank you for that. down to josh lipton on alphabet. josh? >> wilfred, alphabet recorded 29th straight quarter of 20% revenue growth. they say this is unprecedented. especially for a company of this size, and other key positives in the quarter, big growth in

google's search and youtube and stabilization in core google mar gyps. it was not all good news, though, rising tack or payments made to distribution partners for traffic concerns analysts that can pressure margins on the ad business. there's been concern heading into this, specifically about the youtube advertiser boycott. big brands suspended campaigns on youtube because ads appeared next to offensive content. there's new controls, and executives tell me the revenue impact from that controversy was modest, adding, we are taking very seriously all we can do to protect the ecosystem. that same executive says the cloud remains a priority at google. right now, we know it does lag amazon and microsoft, but don't count google out. it's built some of thee most sophisticated data centers in the world to support search in youtube and opening up the same

technology to corporate customers. guys, back to you. >> josh, thank you for the rundown. so we're asking if you could just own one, one of these darlings right now, which would you own? we have got a pair of tech investors weighing in, will and larry. start it off, trip. you have to pick one. i don't know that you can measure against valuation. which do you go with? >> thanks for having me on again today. we love amazon. simply because we love the cash flow it's produced and the optionalty over the long term that that gives us as shareholders. we think they are intelligent allocators, and as they grow, cash flow grows, enter in new fields, areas, and outside of maybe just what the consumer business has been so far. there's a lot of opportunity for amazon due to the free cash flow generated now. >> larry, which is your pick? >> i bet on the other horse,

google. google and its friend, facebook, are taking more than 100% share of the growth in global advertising. they built up very, very solid businesses that are basically in vulnerable to competition. in the last year, google added 4,000 people or so, and they added per employee added, $3 million in revenues. that's a phenomenal sample of american productivity using tech, and i don't see really anything that gets in their way, and in the last quarter, they grew revenue 22%. they converted 30% of the revenue to operating cash flow. google has an advantage over amazon in that largely delivers bits where amazon delivers some bits, but a lot of stuff. amazon only converted 8% of incremental revenue, and basically all cash flow created

in the last quarter was from higher depreciation, rather than running assets to generate cash flow. to me, i'm waiting too long for the cash flow payout. google is generating very, very solid free cash flow at the present time, and only converting 30% of the incremental bit sales. it has a lot more to go on the margin front if it decides to stop investment in some other businesses. plus, it's just destroying the competition in the ad industry. >> trip, your response of that, lack of immediate cash flow, immediate profits of amazon? >> well, i think that -- they are deploying cash flow intelligently, and we think awf grows for them, ahead of the competitors in the space, but much like owning a bmw or mercedes, both are great businesses and do exceptionally well, but we think the free cash

flow opportunity because of the profitability in aws and fact that's probably greater than a $2 trillion opportunity when you look out 10, 15, 20 years, it's a big opportunity for them. that leads them into other areas. we think the business has a lot of opportunity for growth, and they are building out a net worth there to bring out more and more customers to that, so we believe that in the short run, the free cash flow does not look as strong. there's a great long term opportunity with amson. >> amazon is dominant with aws and cloud, larry, but is google a cloud play as well? analysts writing today they see the quarter as somewhat inflection points for some of the other google businesses, including cloud, starting to drive revenue. >> well, when i saw the number, sara, on aws, when they first released them a few quarters ago, asaid, oh, my gosh, this is absolutely one of the best businesses i've ever look at. it grows revenue.

generates free cash flow, and it has rapidly expanding margins, and guess what? other people have figured that out. now, wall street, and i was around during internet bubble, wall street is not good at looking for incremental supply and competition, and if you listen to the conference calls of google and microsoft, they both think the cloud's an atrabtive business. now, if i see companies like google and microsoft getting in the party, it certainly doesn't increase demand for cloud services, and if the laws of economics work, and i've been in the business over 40 years, and most of the time they do, laws of economics work, then the margins fall. look at amazon -- i went to the theater months ago to see an epic uplifting picture called "manchester by the sea" made by amazon. it was a wonderful movie if you like that kind of thing, but i can buy companies that make movies like disney that do a

good job at it at 11 times cash flow. i pay 40 times for jeff bezos to invest in the industry. i'm having trouble with the valuation. i'm having trouble with the competition. i'm having trouble with the free cash flow. >> we'll leave it there. thank you very much. trip miller and larry haverty. >> 50 minutes to go to the closing bell. 50 minutes before the closing bell, and looks like the dow gave back 35 points, s&p down four, and nasdaq is fairing the best pretty much all day, around record territory, if it closes up, just went negative. watching that one with the tech standouts we are talking about. >> it's been a good week either way, though. wall street strategists and traders on the economy, slowest growth rate in three years.

>> and political wrangling heating up over health care and tax reform, representative tom cole gives us his fatake on liky outcomes and what it means for your wallet. you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide. . i mean wish i had time to take care of my portfolio, but.. well, what are you doing tomorrow -10am? staff meeting. noon? eating. 3:45? uh, compliance training. 6:30? sam's baseball practice. 8:30? tai chi. yeah, so sounds relaxing. alright, 9:53? i usually make their lunches then, and i have a little vegan so wow, you are busy. wouldn't it be great if you had investments that worked as hard as you do? yeah. introducing essential portfolios. the automated investing solution that lets you focus on your life.

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8, 7 central. only on abc. earnings and guidance exceeded street estimates, but revenue for the quarter and that key data cementer group did disappoint. intel focusing on the data cementer, creating chips for large computer, shipped away from the declining pc business. not convincing investors today. stock down more than 4%. >> best performance in the tech sector. of course, we talked about the winners with google as the wig one. president trump said being president would have been easier than his previous job. we have highlights from the first 100 days in office, and what lies ahead in the next hundred. eamon. >> reporter: we'll talk about the same things we talked about for the first hundred days. today is day 99 here at the white house, and as they take

stock, a lot of the big agenda items that this president wanted have not been achieved. you did not get obamacare repealed and replaced, barely introduced tax reform, and, of course; has not built the wall talked about on the campaign trail or even able to secure a lot of funding to pay for the wall. those are things not able to do, but when you talk to folks inside the white house, they really say their signature achievement this year is getting neil gorsuch confirmed to the supreme court, a solid conservative on the supreme court is a victory appreciated by the base, appreciated by establishment republicans, and they feel it's going to have a long range impact in history, so that's one to chalk up as a big win and talk about the 30 different executive orders that this president signed including an executive order today on oil and gas leases in the outer continental shelf, rolling back the obama administration regulatory agenda. that, officials here at the white house say, is a big win, and, of course, the other

feature of this administration was the pro-business attitude brought to the white house including bringing in a lot of business folks to the white house. we had ceos coming in and out of the northwest gate here at the white house driveway, and here's some of the ceos here the most, though. start with mark fields of ford. andrew liveress of dow by the president's side time and time again. each of the ceos here at least three times, mario longhi of u.s. steel, and a surprise regular here, mary bara, steve schwartzman has been here a lot, and here three times, they do not release private visits, but we know those folks have been here three times. what's that ceo activity generated here in terms of ideas? well, we asked the white house for a list of proposals that came out of all the meetings. they have not been able to get it to us, but when they do, we'll bring it to you, but, clearly, this is a white house

that wants to listen to those ceos and executives get their perspective on the world, then try to incorporate some ideas into what they are doing here. will, back to you. >> eamon, thank you very much for that. >> 14 ceo meetings. >> 14. i was going to say, one in particular. mr. dimon, over three, not official, but i'd say more than three. meantime, commerce department said the economy grew .7%, weakest growth in three years, resulting in sluggish consumer spending and business stockpiling. >> is today's data a blip? what will it mean for the markets going forward. joining us on closing bell exchange today, we have john from gfi group, steve brasso, and, of course, rick santelli at the cme in chicago. john, have not seen you in a while. >> good to see you.

>> first quarter gdp, knew it would be weak, below 1% as expected. was there anything in the report that led you to believe that we might not see quite the rebound everyone's expecting in the second quarter? >> yeah. i think historically, it's been week the first quarter, so some people blame lehman back to the financial crisis for being weak in the first quarter, oil and gas, north dakota, south dakota, people laid off, and comes back in the summer. personal consumption weaker. if you're not making a paycheck in the winter, no oil and gas, you're not spending money. we don't know what it is, but steve said it was expected, atlanta fed was bang on, .7%. inventories down, and that should bode well in the second quarter. now consensus is, you know, 2, 2.5% for the second quarter. >> rick, what's the take on the data today, but what's it mean for the new range that we're looking at for bond yields, particularly the ten year?

>> you know, there's no way under the most ideal circumstances that quarter to quarter gdp is going to ramp up super quickly. when we look at .7, yes, three years, the first quarter of 2014 we have min newsus.2. a year ago, it was .8. look at the 40 quarter of '15, it was .9. what jumps out to me is the notion we've had sub par growth for a very long time. the baseline is not changing much. i think interest rates, we're offsides a bit in the 260s. i think we could make a good case that hovering 14 basis points below where they settled 2015 makes sense. the odd man's out is the equity run. to me, we could talk about the equity run until we are blue in the face, but, to me, if you're a quantitative person, it's hard to frame the equity run purely in the form of donald trump. i mean, policy, you heard eamon.

there's things he's done and wishes he had done or had accomplished or legislated that have not come, but here stocks are, pretty much sitting close to the highs. to me, the issue continues to be what positive things can come in future markets, should any of this legislation get done, and i also think that when everybody looks at europe and sayst it's just great, i still see minus 72 basis two year, negative interest rates out to 7 to eight years, and i just don't know how that's good in the context of next week's fed meeting and ecb meeting. >> what was mentioned, corporate earnings, getting it done, at least for the stock market, and that has been the story, at least of this week, the past few weeks, right? >> forecasts had been for basically up 8.5%, 10% on the earnings reports, sara, and now you look at the companies that have reported roughly around 12%, maybe, you know, upside

11-12%. that's huge. rick just touched on it. what happens if we see any of the pro-growth policy pass? we have seen the market run 12.5% roughly, the market is hulled in. where the trump rally stopped or has lost a lot of traction or maybe think, maybe it's got to come back in, maybe it's overshot a little. we had earnings now pick up the torch. start running with that. if we see these policies actually -- >> that's another leg up, you think? >> -- pass, then you are looking at 2400 as a huge battleground for the s&p cash. if we take out that level, you're talking about 2500, 2600, 2700 s&p. >> take that, in the first round. >> trump delivers in the market and goes home. >> you have to look at the history, right? basically, we're looking at, you know, 10-15% in a republican sweep. s&p's up 6. we, obviously, nasdaq up 12, but

we have quite a ways to go, another 6% to make up, and we're only in april. i expect, really, another acceleration into april. probably a pause from june to july, and then that last boost of energy will come from july to year end given the fact that regulations are rolled off, there's a tax policy, whether it's reform or cuts, and, you know, starting to be bake in the case, and, also, obviously, earnings are also now starting to pick up. you know, look at the stocks today, all the stocks are through the roof, counting gdp wrong, are we counting wrong? tesla over, amazon, missing something in the data? could that be? we don't know -- >> good point. >> until back ward looking data is revised. >> we have to be -- it's -- the administration has to be a show-me policy. >> i think we're getting to that show-me state, and that's why i've been lightening up. i have core holdings, a longer term investing strategy, stay

long in the market, but the market is ripe for that selloff, give a little back to go a little further. >> gentlemen, thank you very much, john, rick as well, time for that -- we call this segment what? closing bell exchange. >> i knew it had exchange in it. >> closing bell exchange. >> gentlemen, thank you very much for that. we have 40 minutes to go, under 40 minutes, and it's a soft end to a a positive weak sectors, leading the chart today is energy, bottom of the pact, financials and materials. we are higher, below slightly the index. >> dow's best week of 2017. s&p's best since january. up next, highlights from starbucks' ceo and executive chairman interviews after disappointing revenue numbers took the stock down today. hear the message they painted when we come right back on "cloelting bell. .

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welcome back, starbucks reported earnings after the bell yesterday, same store sells fell to meet estimates for the second quarter in a row. starbuck's new ceo, executive chairman, tried to reensure investors today on "squawk on the street." >> you're already seeing the impact of the actions we've

taken around mobile order and pay and throughput in peak in the stores leading to the acceleration we saw in the u.s. comps in this last quarter. >> i think we've. here many times in our 25-year history of cyclical changes in the business, and as kevin said, we have great sight line on the second half of the year. >> remaining skeptical given quarters of the deceleration. credit swisse analysts wrote today perhaps same store sales turned a corner, but we're not ready to make that yet. >> bullish maintains calls, an they actually took comfort in the fact it looks better in march, april, generating social buzz, able to appeal to millennials, the dragon -- >> have you tried one? >> no. too sweet. >> you're sweet enough is what you should have said. >> thank you. a half hour to go before the closing bell. what stocks are doing.

the quiet end to a very strong week across the board. if nasdaq goes positive in a half hour, that would be a record close. 1% decline today, notable on the russell 2,000. >> the view from main street. two retail investors talk about if they are dizzy from stocks hitting all-time highs. back in a couple minutes. ♪ whoa that's amazing... hey, i'm the internet! i know a bunch of people who would love that. the internet loves what y're doing... ...so build a better website in under an hour with... ...gocentral from godaddy. type in your idea. select from designs tailored just for you and publish your site with just a few clicks-even from your... the internet is waiting start for free today at godaddy. the internet is waiting with e*trade's poweul trading tools, right at your fingertips, you have access to in-depth analysis, level 2 data,

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a slightly soft end to a positive week. joining us to discuss, peter costas from empire execution. starting with google and amazon. >> yes. >> which, in your eyes, you think they are expensive, it sioux expensive? >> amazon is. i think there's a couple reasons for that. i mean, you look at the -- i know that everyone says you don't use pes when you talk about these -- this whole group of stocks, but pes around 170 and change, and it's just, you know, it's a great business model, they are taking over the world. there is competition. i'm a little, you know, i'm a little hesitant on that one. google, i'm not. google's business model, and they still have the smartest people in silicon valley, and i still think they have great management. it's exceptive, but, i mean,

relative to what nay do in their space in this whole entire, you know, world, and i still think they are very important. >> energy's the best performing sector today, but it comes off the back of a weak, where oil has been soft. is that a kind of reassuring bounce, otherwise the oil price softness was a concern. >> well, yeah. it's going to be a concern, and i think we're going to continue to see that concern. i think -- more about oil is about supply and demand, and i think that there's still -- it's been going on for months that this supply and demand have never really figured out which is the right direction to go. we have too much supply. too much demand. you know, look at the gdp numbers this morning, and that's kind of pretends maybe the demand might not be there in the u.s. china's having problems. it's more a demand issue opposed to supply. >> peter, thank you very much have a great weekend. >> my pleasure. >> back to you. >> time now for cnbc news update with sue. hi, sue. >> hi, sara. here's what's happening at this hour, everyone. united airline's ceo, oscar

munoz testifies before a panel. it's after a passenger was forced from a flight earlier this month. executives from other airlines will also testify. palestinians in the west bank clashing with israeli forces. it was a day of rage announced by palestinian political parties in solidarity with prisoners in israeli jails. 1800 of them on a hunger strike. no casualties reported. a man threw a green solution at his face, and says that solution burned his right eye and forced him to go to the hospital. it is the second attack against him in two months. nba legend larry bird steps down as president of the indiana pacers. no reason given. he's been a pacers fixture for most of the past 20 years as either a coach or an executive.

that's the news update this hour. back to you. have a great weekend, guys. >> sue, you too. >> have a lovely weekend. thank you very much for that. the market may be lower today, but stocks have continuously hit new highs as investors hit the buy button over recent weeks. the sentiment survey shows optimism continues to rise. now, the highest level in two months while neutral and bearish sentiment fell. >> so where are retail investors putting money to work? let's ask main street. joining us, our retail round table, jackie today, and wayne smalls. good afternoon, thank you, both, for joining us. >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon. >> jackie, as we've seen stocks run up here to a record high, another strong month of april, thanks, in part, to last week, what have you been doing with your money? >> you know, with the market at a high, i have taken a little off the top. there's several stocks that i own that i have sold a few shares. the old adage of buy low, sell

high. i try to stick by that. there's several positions i have sold off a portion of. if they are great stocks, i hold off in the long term. >> are you concern at the moment about the lack of action approaching trump's 100th day in office tomorrow? >> no, i'm not concerned about that. i'm going to continue -- i continue to maintain a bullish feel in the markets. i have -- i'm holding apple shares. i did sell 25% of the stake recently, but i anticipate buying back into that next week. i'll buy some stm. i feel good. >> what's your reason for holding on to apple or topping off even? >> you know, the new iphone is always exciting and time for apple shareholders, and i see upsides.

the stock is cheap looking at a from a five-year perspective. only slightly above the highs of two, three years ago. there's upside. >> so, jackie, what's the strategy from here? taking chips off the table, looking for good entry points, looking through the earnings reports of specific companies or taking a cue from washington? how do you think about it? >> well, i certainly don't take cues from washington. we know that it does have impacts on the market. again, i sold off a few positions, but i believe that the market is way overdue for a pullback. what i wanted to try to make sure i do is have cash available to buy additional shares i want whenever the market does pull back. being able to take a little bit off the top, it puts me in a much better cash position. i have more tax than i normally would, about 13%, i try to keep it between 5-10%, but i believe there's a buying opportunity coming up in the next few months, at least by the end of the year.

>> wayne, outside of your apple holdings, what is the sort of theme you play most of all within the tech space? >> well, i'm all things internet of things. i believe that we will see increased automation, increased use of sensors, technologies going forward, and a smart investor would clue into that and buy either etfs that track companies in the sector or buy stock in firms like stm, and up to a month ago, i was strong about mobileye, and in march, acquired by intel. that's an example how big companies are looking into buying up small players in that field, and so much is positioned themselves in there in anticipation of that. >> wayne, thank you very much. also, many thanks to jackie. wayne and jackie. >> thank you. under a half hour to go, 24 minutes to be precise, and we are staring at slight losses

today, but, of course, still big gains for the weak, the best weak, in fact, since the start of the year for the dow. we'll be not as good as european markets. the cac in france closes up 4% for the week. president trump has not had much success getting legislation through congress in the first 100 days. tom cole says the probability of tax reform. >> and president trump expanding offshore oil and gas drilling today via executive order. a bull-bear look at the state of the energy sick sore, whether orders like this present a big opportunity. coming up on closing bell. i like rso. his on/off splits are thbest here. yeah, but his offensive win shares didn't even break 4. come on, check out that stop-and-pop! what do you think? my trade-off analytics indicate

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it's been a busy week in washington, and house gop leaders delayed votes on repe repealing obama care until next week. president trump, legislative victory to mark his first 100 days, and this week, the president heads to pennsylvania to rally support for tax reform. got that blueprint on wednesday. >> joining us now for more on the future of the two key issues is a member of the house budget committee, republican tom cole of oklahoma. first and foremost, congressman, happy birthday to you and thank you for joining us. >> hey, thank you! >> great to have you here this afternoon. hitting off with the issues,

what is the likelihood that either or both do actually get passed this year? >> i think on tax reform, it's very, very high. the president put out his basic principles this week. our committee, the ways and means committee under kevin brady, meet this weekend as they craft their version of it, but i think the president moving independently is a good thing. i think it's a small to democrats that, hey, here's my opening position. i'm ready to deal in all directions. health care's trickierment we're close. obviously, the discussions between representative mcarthur and representative meadows moved us in the right direction. we have a lot more people coming on to vote for it, and -- but today, we needed to focus on making sure the government kept running, and we bought our negotiators the time to finish that up next week. today was all about doing first things first. we got that done. we should get an appropriations bill next week, and then we'll look at health care and i think the tax issue, obviously, takes

some time to work its way through legislatively, but i'm on t optimistic about where we'll go. >> what they have to work through is how it's paid for, whether it increases the size of the deficit. congressman, would you vote for this plan if it does increase the size of the deficit and is not revenue neutral? >> well, depends on whether or not i thought within reasonable period it generates enough growth to begin to pay for itself. until you have legislative text in prompt of you and a cbo estimate about the real cost of it, it's hard to commit to anything specific. look, we've been stumbling and bumbling along at 1% and 2% for a while. there's a broad consensus we have to do some things to spark economic growth. i'm certainly prepared to run some risks to get that done. >> congressman, there's consensus that things need to be done, of course, also, no onemented to get as close to a shut down as we did get.

does that worry you about things moving forward, that a republican congress couldn't get things sorted simply and quickly? >> in terms of running the government, we could have done it in november and december, and we were pretty much there then. the decision was made to give the president an opportunity to put his stamp on things. he's going to have victories when we actually pass the bill. he wanted more defense spending. east going to get that. he wanted spending on border security. he's going to get some of that. not everything he wanted, but some, and they'll be other items that the two parties worked on together, and health insurance for minors, for instance, i think that will be in here, so we've used that time pretty productively, but no doubt about it, in my view, should have been done back in november, december, and then we could have addressed other issues with a supplemental appropriation, but, again, leave the appropriation committee alone, it will actually get work done. >> so will it -- isn't it the point there's another week, what

passed today was only hunting this by one week. to avert a government shutdown. >> all the negotiations have been going on since late last year. they were suspended to allow time to focus on health care and get the tax thing off and going, so we're not very far apart. the bills are basically done. there's two, three last minute items to do, and, again, i don't -- i don't believe in gambling with the family jewels, so to speak, so i think we should have done it earlier, but it's going to get done now, and significant victories for the president, but there's a lot of bipartisan compromise, how negotiations work. >> in an interview with reuters, president trump suggested he expected this job to be a little bit easier than it's urn tirped out. what's your take on the first hundred days? >> i'm pretty pleased. honestly. there's a steep learning curve for anybody in the presidency of the united states. there's no other job like it. he had big wins in terms of

getting judge gorsuch confirmed in the supreme court. passed eed 29 pieces of legisl, more than any other opening term since 1949, and some of that is really significant from a business standpoint. deregulatory, saving american consumers and businesses over 67 billion dollars. that's just what congress has done through congressional review acts. the president's done more on top of that through executive orders. timely, he's put together a really excellent national security team that, i think, even his critics acknowledge is probably as good as any new president ever presented to the american people. the one big disappointment was health care, and to be fair to the president, that was not his fault. that -- republican conference has to take responsibility for that, not our leadership, our members simply were not able to put aside differences and come together. i think we made progress on that, but we still got a ways to go. >> one more specific one since you are on the appropriations committee in charge of partly

this funding issue. you know, the white house said it would fund obamacare payments to insurers in the near term, but we don't know what happens in the long term. the president called it a bailout. you've said you find the money. what happens here? >> they're going to be certainly in the immediate future funded. look, the republican bill, which has not yet passed, still calls for those subsidies to be paid over a two to three year period in the position. the president himself, speaker both said they did not want to pull the rug out from under people, but, again, they've been plagued without going through the appropriations process, so this decision was made, a good one, look, our members do not support obamacare. we do not ask the vote to sustain it, but we are going to work with the president, make sure the companies are not penalized for operating in good faith, and make sure that people that have insurance don't lose it. >> congressman, thank you very much for joining us, and have a very lovely birthday weekend. >> i will, thank you very much.

>> happy birthday. all right. we've got a little less than 15 minutes to go before the closing bell. oil is moving a limit lower. it's higher, just above the $49 a barrel mark. the dow down 48 points. nasdaq -- >> just slipped into the red. >> i was going to say, almost on flat. >> almost. >> your favorite expression. >> one of many. growing the economy is on david's mind this week, demonstrating next with his market acronym of the week. back in a a couple minutes. d two in the rers. our 18 year olwas in an accident. whes ur daughter ok that ice as me, that'sre felt reli it aually help to know that someby else ced and wantedake surethat was . it authat was ry eat.w that someby else ced 'rthe riraamily, it autand we wilbeat.w that usaaor life.ced aa. know what it means to serve. call tay to tabo your insurce nds. the power of

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of billboard music awards moments simply by using your voice. and thank you so much. the billboard music awards. sunday, may 21st. 8, 7 central. only on abc. ten minutes from closing bell, endsing on a soft note on a strong week. joining us is inexcellent investment consultant with the acronym of the week. take it away, david. >> well, it's got to be growth. the best week thus far this year for the stock market. g standards for geopolitical issues we're all aware of. if something bad happens, it's time to buy and add. have cash should something happen. the r is robust earnings. that's been a big driver this week and last week. robust earnings. the o is oil.

slipping. that could continue to be under pressure here. the w is you want to watch france. may 7th, a week from sunday, may 7th. may 5th is this deadline that's been extended for the washington possible shutdown, continuing appropriations. >> although we heard from tom cole, they'll get it done. >> good. t, speaking of which, sara, the tax plan. it is a plan, a one-page memo, a lot of things to happen, a lot of pushing and shoving to happen on that, and the h, is healthcare, the fate of the healthcare. this coming week, wilfred, ism manufacturing, nonmanufacturing, personal income, personal consumption, and the jobs report next friday. that's what we have to look for. buy europe. >> i want to pick you up on the g and w. buy the dips and watch france. if we get a le pen victory, buy off of that? >> do that.

france is at -- europe is at a 40-year low, as you know, valuation disperty between the u.s., the banks are doing better there, the financials, and if she won, that would create a nice selloff, and you would want to add there. you want to add because of valuations. the stocks are happy here. this is a warren buffet continent now, europe is. >> you mentioned earnings, the r, for robust, and we have seen that from some of the big cap tech darlings, ever popular stocks. which pockets of the market are you looking for for buying on earnings? >> you know, i -- the interest rates went down from 264 to 221. they are up about 233 today. so if rates start to rise, if we do get a -- the wave of rising rates, you want to go back into the financials. the oils and oil service, you can stay away with from right now, with oil still under pressure. i think you can continue to own,

continue to own these multinationals. they are consumer products and tech stocks, but beware, they are high. they are at lofty valuations. >> david, do you realize growth was your acronym on the day that gdp growth disappointed. you're not concerned about that? >> i think it's a passing thing. it's a first quarter thing. i think you're going to see a pickup in growth coming ahead. i think once the market is in anticipating the month of may, is a good month for the stock market, and they have a saying, hooray, the month of may, the outdoor picnic starts today. the market's going to have a feast, have a feast, go higher, and we are late in the game. this is -- this is is a bullish short term view, and a cautious, but constructive view longer term. >> we'll see you outside for a picn

picnic. >> okay, thank you. >> david, always a pleasure. >> cnbc, first in business worldwide. >> there you go. 5:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. >> do you have a may acronym for sell in may? >> and go away. time for that want time for that, thank you. >> good to see you. have a great weekend. when we come back, it is the closing countdown, my favorite bill segment of the show, no pressure. >> it's going to be your favori favorite wilfred segment of the show. after the bell, talk of washington and wall street this week was tax reformat. we have the behind the scenes story how the plan came about with larry kudlow. first in business, worldwide. stay with me, mr. parker. when a critical patient is far from the hospital, the hospital must come to the patient. stay with me, mr. parker. the at&t network is helping first responders connect with medical teams in near real time... stay with me, mr. parker.

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it's your trade. ♪ ♪ e*trade. ♪ ♪ start trading today at etrade.com wac back, a great week, soft performance, nasdaq dipping into negative territory, a quick look at the banks because they had enjoyed a good week, and suffering today as you can see on that performance, also, a quick look at oil prices for the week. they have been bouncing today, and quick look at the two different tech performers today, intel down 4%. alphabet up 4%. that means the tech sector's not

really outperforming today despite big beats, amazon as well as alphabet yesterday. bob's story of the week, the day, what are you looking at? >> the earnings picture held up. we came in nervous. stocks were high priced, 18.5 times forward earnings. if the earnings not only did not come in in line with expectations, but the guidance for the year was not sufficient, the market was going to be in trouble, and that has not happened, particularly on the guidance; the banks came in okay. industrials started reporting. they are generally the guidance, above expectations for the full year, and now we're getting kmep comments from the big tech companies and by and large numbers are good. this is why the market is only ten points from a historic high on the s&p 500. less tension with the french elections you enably covered, great job there. we have the tax agenda going forward, and now earnings are coming in, and the guidance a little bit better than expected, and put them together, and you got a market.

that's just near historic highs. >> how important was it to seek decent numbers from the likes of exxon chevr today? oil prices were a concern in the face of corporate earnings. >> good news is numbers came in find. remember, last year, first quarter, oil was $30. this year, it's $50. that is good news. they made a lot more money. the bad news is the trend for oil has been slightly on the downside for the last month, that's going to impact them. a lot the models around oil at $60. earnings are high for these companies, and a lot is predicated on oil closer to 60 than 45. if we're at $45 in november on oil, weaver not going to get anywhere close to the expectation, and that's the one weak part. energy stocks down. they are sitting near the lows of the year because people don't believe that these numbers are going to see estimates drreal i oil is at $45. >> bob, great stuff. have a great weekend. close to running the bell, just ending down a couple tenths

percent, ringing the bell at the nasdaq in a moment, nts multiringing the well, at the nyse, jpmori gain's global head of fund sales, last closing bell of the day, of the week, and of the month. sara will pick things up, and i'll join her in just a minute. >> welcome to "closing bell," i'm sara eisen again for kelly evans. let's see how we are finishing up the day on wall street. the week and month as wilfred said, down a bit, russell down 1.2%. nasdaq outperformed all day, did not quite manage to reach a closing high. the story, though, of the week, of the day, too, and of the month, information knowledge, best performing s&p sector today, the week, and the month.

this is the fifth gain for the dow and s&p out of the last six months. six months in a row. hot for the nasdaq, and while amazon and alphabet hit new highs today, we're ready for another big week for tech earnings next week. names like apple, square, and facebook all reporting after the bell. previewing the results, whether you should keep buying the tech tear coming up. let's talk about this market, joining today's panel, cnbc senior markets commentator and pro-column list mike santolli. evan newmark, and research president, jim bianca. welcome, gentlemen. tech is the standout performer in an otherwise decent week for stocks. >> it has been, sara. nasdaq is the leader coming in, maintained leadership throughout the week, and earnings just confirmed what the market already sniffed out. i think more broadly, too, you know, the s&p 500, 10:00 a.m. new york time on tuesday, traded at 23.90.

we spent the rest of the week doing almost nothing going sidewayinside wa ways, digesting the move, and surrounding the highs and unimpressive gdp numbers, not a surprise to the market, because it's been privileging growth stocks, tech stocks, and taking bond yields lower in the last couple months. >> evan, are you impressed with the earnings front? >> it's okay. i mean, it's good. it needs to be good to justify the valuations, so it's -- they are coming in a little better than expected, but not -- we're not talking about stellar earnings. for me, the story still is what is the next catalyst? what is it that's going to get the market to either go higher, break records, or to come in more. it's not clear what the catalyst is going to be. >> earnings? >> no, i don't think so. i don't think the market -- the narrowing -- you have a number of tech companies increasingly making up any of the gains. apple, alphabet, amazon, the

only reason the s&p 500 is up this year by any stretch is because of the large tech stocks. unless you get a breakout in energy, or a breakout in industrials, i don't think you get this going higher. >> jim, let's talk about the other both earnings factor of the day, but also worrying factor of the week, which is energy and oil prices. are you on the optimistic or pessimistic side of that. i think there's too much optimism, and day after day, higher oil prices, positioned long. prices under $50. we're five months past the old tech original agreement, lower than that agreement. i think that the ship sailed for higher prices. it's probably going to be lower prices, and if you want a fundamental story, technology in the oil field, technology in your cars is going to reduce demand, it's going to make supply cheaper, and they just going to pump more of it and prices head lower. >> had not heard the technology

link before. the ten-year yield, jim, just below 228, so not quite sharing the same enthusiasm as the record high stock prices. >> yeah. there's been a disconnect between the stock and bond markets for a couple months now. that the stock market has been much more enthusiastic about the economy than what the bond market sees. i suspect that's going to continue, and i think that the bond market is not necessarily going to see the path to immediately higher rates, maybe next year. we could have higher rates, but it's going to be a slog at this 220 and back at 215 range which we were at two weeks ago. >> you did a back and forth with yourself in your market notes for me, thank you. i couldn't read it well enough yesterday. bull and bear case, good arguments, and how are you thinking? >> this is not bull and bear as it is does the market go up a ton this moment from here or does the market break down hard from here? it's about, is there enough already strength summoned up to get the market appreciated to a

new high because we are so close right now. the issue is the pullback of 3% we had was not one of those moves that really flushed out a lot of the weak and got the slingshot energy to shoot the market higher, which we often have to do. get the market stretching downside to get higher. on the other hand, it's been broad enough. the point about a few stocks working, the average stock's done okay. the market's been broad enough. you had 200 new highs the other day, nine new lows on the new york stock exchange. that's fine. i just think it's not nosily clear that we have a catalyst, that we have a fund mal cat clis when you have now the kinds of stocks working best are the ones from 2015 when the story was lower rates for longer, in an economy that was never going to accelerate. i think that's the argument the market's having. >> the issue is a disproportion gnat amount of the gains come from a few of the big tech stocks. if you look at -- you take the top five companies, they are all tech stocks. they have 2.8 billion in market

cap. you're roughly more than 10% to the overall market cap, of the overall market just in ten stocks. any stock takes a big hit, you need gains, a lot of other stocks to make up for. >> the s&p is up 5.5% year to date. nothing to do with where the market cap is. percentage-wise, the market is feeling okay. >> looking at this week specifically, mike, the catalyst, clearly, was the french election. we would be looking at declines for this week. >> potentially, but that day and a half of gains you had globally, monday into tuesday, it was all about the removal of that potential negative. i think the question is, just how much further can the removal of a potential negative get you, and maybe the answer for the remainder of the week is not far immediately. >> we came into the week, jim, thinking we were going to have noise around the possible government shutdown, get a tax proposal on wednesday from the administration, maybe a health care vote, and none of that seemed to move the needle for stocks. >> well, i somewhat disagree

with that. i thought that, you know, if you go back before the french election to last thursday, a week ago thursday, dow up 175 points, and the idea that trump floated that, he was going to have a tax proposal this week. what you had in terms of the political backdrop this week was, well, the popular movement might be there because they are popular, one's a moderate, the other is right, that you didn't have the exit of the euro come to pass, and ten days ago, we thought tax reform was dead. it's back on the table. those, together, have been positive for the stock market. >> so you do argue that the tax reform has been a positive. i don't know, mike, a lot of what i read, analysts knows, economist notes, skeptical about the lack of detail, skeptical on the 3% growth. it's good they lay out principles, but there's a long process to follow. >> the market came into the year with hopes high, and i think that's completely mod rated. if you look at the stocks that

would be a approximaty for a near term cut in the corporate tax rate, they are not real outperforming now. i think it's in the back of the investors mind to think something that will be net positive comes eventually, but it's not as if we're trading day-to-day, i don't think anymore based on probabilities. >> say, for a moment, get more perspective from dom. dow rallied 6% in the first 100 days. dom looks at what history says investors should expect, dom? >> i was just listening to the conversation you guys had. first of all, there are a lot of great points brought up. look at the stock market. it is and could be one of the calmest 100 days, first 100 days all the way back to the jfk administration, showing you how really, really calm and settled things are right now despite the fact there are so many variables out there. remember, as we talk about the overall picture, we are entering what some call a shorter medium

term seasonally weak part of the overall markets, at least if history repeats itself. this is what we are talking about. according to the data partners, look at the last 20 years for the s&p 500 between the end of this month and the end of the summer, august 31st, the s&p 500 averages a 1% decline on average during that time stpan, and it' only been, again, a negative trade 55% of the time, so more than half the time slightly. it's a down trade. it gets a little bit better looking longer term between, say, the end of the month and end of the year, take a look at this, because if you look between april 30th and the end of the year, over the last 20 years, it's an average 3% move higher for the s&p and gets more positive, about 65% of the time, by, again, as we bring up discussions about what's going on, remember, it seem as though the path of least resistance was the upside of the market. the fact we don't have clarity on the policies and markets are still half percent away from record highs may speak a little

bit of something, although, i keep in mind, guys, today, it could be one of the lowest trading volume days of the year. i watched s&p 500 etf, and it will be the lowest traded day of the year forward heavily trafficked etf out there. back to you. >> that disappointing performance, historically, from about now to the end of the summer, is that just a typical annual seasonal thing, or is it a particular factor after we had a president's first 100 days? >> it's not tied to just the president. we generally see thissed why of selling in may and go. we talked about that for a while. most people typically peg that to the memorial day holiday when wall street reps take time out of. kids go away for the summer vacations, so trading volumes dry up a little. there's seasonal weakness, but it's hard to say whether or not after we've seen a run, this staug staggering, remember, guys, trajectory of the stock market from the election to record highs, 12% higher for the

z s&p 500, and since march 1st, a half a percent lower in a tight trading range. we stabilized. some call it consolidation, a breather, whatever you call it, tra junior college ri is not as robust. >> thank you very much for that, sell in may, go away, how you say it in america. in the u.k., it's sell in may, come back on st. ledger's day. so you know. >> when's that? >> october. it's a horse race. >> it originated -- >> i checked on it, but it does. that was the original phrase. >> sell in may, go away works in a strengthing economy? >> you know, it works spotedly in general. it's been a tendency that the best returns to the market, in fact, the majority of them have come from object 31st through april, but it's one of the things that's not reliable like clock work every year, so it's not about whether the economy's growing or not, but it's about

exactly how strong that prior period's been and how much to give back. >> do you think, we need a seasonal pullback or pullback of any sortings? >> a catalyst, gdp numbers today and economic growth numbers, if the u.s. economy is growing sub 2%, stock prices are not going to go higher. simple as that. i know mike tends to have a different view than that, but the reality is, you can't have a stock trade north of 20 and with point growth and expect to make a lot of money in stocks. >> the earnings revision momentum is higher, and the management guidance is firmer. >> yep. >> some of the estimates are going up. >> not questioning, but you need -- you need underlining economic growth to grow profits. >> final word, are we getting the economic growth to drive the market higher? >> i don't think we are. i mean, coming down with evan's

side. take out energy companies. earnings is 6.5% growth, and stalled out in the third quarter of last year. we're not really seeing anything other than a rebound in oil prices helping to push earnings higher. 6.5% is okay, but we're up 6% in the market this year year to date, so that leaves little room. i agree with evan. we need a new catalyst. one is not apparent right now. >> jim, thank you for joining us. tomorrow marks president trump's first 100 days in office. he's still lacking a major victory on tax and healthcare reform. up next, discussing whether they can be right around the corner or harder to come by than president trump hopes. plus, honeywell shares higher after activist investor dan lobe said the industrial conglomerate should spin off the aerospace unit. the details on this new activist play when we return. you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide.

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it's not a competition, but if it was i won. xfinity x1 lets you access the greatest library of billboard music awards moments simply by using your voice. and thank you so much. the billboard music awards. sunday, may 21st. 8, 7 central. only on abc. honeywell shares higher after becoming the target of an activist investor: we are joined at post nine with the story. >> first later, lobe urged honeywell to spin off the aerospace unit into a separate company. he thinks that could increase hopnywell's valuation by $20

billion. allowing it to trade closer to a multiple of the industrial peers, which don't have much aerospace exposure. they trade an average forward price to earnings ratio of 23 times, said lobe, comparing with honeywell's forward multiple of 18 times. aerospace has been a drag on honeywell's valuation, lobe said, seeing declining revenue in the first quarter and remitted 37% of the company's net sales and told by sources at the company's new ceo, adamczyk, looks for ways to rebalance the portfolio. there's a team of bankers studying effects of a potential spinoff and not opposed to the idea at this time. he's pleased by the, quote, track record, communication to shareholders, and personal interactions, an honeywell said, quote, we intend to take time necessary to ensure a comprehensive, informed, and

octoberive review of the potential separation of the a o aerospace business. in the early stages, guys, talks between lobe and adamczyk are polite. >> have they been an under performer? >> not really. it's been a good performer, considered to be well managed, which the nature of the approach does tell you that. >> not less likely -- >> a better way to structure the business to maximize valuation. >> when he says "underperforming," he compares to the peers, looking at peers specifically without the aerospace exposure. put in that exposure, there's a lower multiple, and that's why honeywell is experiencing an activist stop. >> industrials hot since the election. le leslie, thank you for the story in person. energy sector is down nearly 9% in the first 100 days. coming up, debating whether now is the time to swoop in and buy

energy stocks. they had a good day today. >> they did. plus, hollywood is on high alert because of looming writer's strike. when it could happen, how it could impact your favorite shows and media investments coming up later on "closing bell," and we're back in a couple minutes.

tomorrow marks president trump's first 100 days in office. trump in the washington post

today looking back resolutions and then reversals. >> diving into the first 100 days, senior contributor, larry kudlow, reporting to the article, a key player in the push forward of the tax reform plan, and former national economic counsel director, under president obama, gene specialing, good afternoon to you both. larry, let's start with you, in terms of the tax plan development this week, talk us through it in terms of influence, and is it a tax plan or campaign pledge? >> it's a good tax plan, but it also is a campaign -- >> you had a lot to do with it, didn't you? >> yes. the president decided to go with the campaign tax cut plan i worked on and steve moore worked on and steve mnuchin and steve miller and so forth. worry he would not, but it had in the head he wanted to take action, and it's really aiming directly, a chunk of it, the most important chunk, is the business tax cuts with expensing and repatriation. large and small companies, i think, exactly what the doctor

ordered. it will help the economy with respect to the lack of business investments, lack of capital formation. just what we need. it's a very bold stroke. glad, you know, you're in the business a while, you win a few, lose a few, and i won one. >> absolutely. >> i'm better. >> berlin, tuesday evening. >> yeah. you're reading too much. much too much in the washington -- gene sperling knows about that. >> you were there. there was an urgency to get it out. what did you tell them? >> i just encouraged them, go for it, you know, a lot of this started with the op-ed piece in the "new york times" that the president read, that may have moved him along. we didn't do the policy. he made the decision for heaven's sakes, but it was in his head. if we pushed it, all the better. i think it's a great pro-growth plan, and it's going to be terrific timing, by the way, to evidence of pessimistic stock market. it listen turn it around.

>> larry, there's no policy yet. it was a short press conference. >> hold the thought. >> when do we see it? >> you'll see negotiations, not overnight, several months. it will, when passed, be retroactive to january 1st, 2017, and i think, you know, let's just watch it go through the legislative process. that's what happens. >> gene, bringing you in as well, does it come through the je legislative process and hit 15%? >> what an impressive plan, one-page description, no details that costs $6 trillion, with no vision of how you'd get that done. i don't think anybody allows debt to be increased, 4, 5 trillion dollars, no hard choices, no sense that the senate or the house is working on this, and most importantly, you know, for donald trump, who tried to pretend as he ran, that he was somehow a different type

of republican, my successor, gary cohen, talks about helping lower and middle class voters. that's right. it was a larry kudlow special, and i love larry. we talked together for years, but larry, this is a cut taxes for the top 1% supply side trickle down -- i mean, look at some of the measures. the 15% rate would not just apply to corporations, and i don't know that the public is going to support a $2 trillion tax cut for the biggest companies, but applies to corporate lawyers, hedge fund investors, lobbyists. do you think that's what the voters who came over to trump were voting for? something that was so excessive, not just the top 1%, but .1%. what he could have done, do a plan that only helped the middle class, have a corporate plan that was revenue neutral where the repatriation one-time funding went seoully to infrastructure.

that would have actually given you a chance to at least open a conversation with democrats, and i think a lot of people who voted for him would have thought, well, he was a different kind of republican. now we've seen a one-pager in which the only clarity is, man, if you are really, really doing well, if you are one of those people who's benefitting the most, you're going to benefit even more by hundreds of because, millions of dollars. i really -- i don't know or understand politically or economically why donald trump and the team thought this was the right plan. >> i see i have more work to do with my friend, gene. >> just a little. just a little. >> civil, i've known gene many years, he's a smart guy. i have to respond to the criticism. first of all, with respect to the class warfare income stuff, i want to make it clear. studies show, including a cbo study, that 70% of any reduction in corporate taxes will go to middle income and lower middle income wage earners, okay?

that work started by kevin hasset, going into trump's cea, done by the cbo, they are not always right, but on this one, i agree with them, they are right. second point, i think cutting tax rates for large and small businesses is the vital plan. there's about 24 million small businesses in this country, and we can separate business income from personal income. it's been done before. it will be done very carefully here. with respect to the debt and deficits, if i were gene and worked in the obama administration, i would not hark on deficits and debt, but argue this. we are going to go right into the slow part of the economy, as i said earlier, capital formation and business investment, and that, i believe, will get the productivity to get us back to the historical 3%-plus economic growth rate. when that happens, the revenues will come flooding in, probably as much as $4 trillion of added revenues, the difference between

1.8% baseline and 3% baseline. it's done the math. you know, we -- look, it is time for a change, okay? we tried the big spending programs. they ran up the debt. it did not work. the economy's mired at 2% growth. let's try something different. go back to the jfk and rapid reagan tax cuts that worked. >> do you think, gene, cutting the tax rate to 15% spurs growth to the tune of 3%? >> so, couple points, number one, just for the record, while president obama inherited a 10% deficit and left under 3%, so he cut it dramatically. let's see if donald trump cuts the deficit dramatically. second of all, i support tax relief for small businesses, we talked about a temporary payroll tax cut for businesses. this is not just small business, but anybody who has any partnership income, goes

overwhelmingly to the top 1%. and, third, you know, talk about good growth. people like larry, they just love to talk about 4% growth. the last time we had administration with 4% growth was bill clinton, and listen to this, if you just look at private sector growth, take out the government, bill clinton's economy grew 4.3% in private sectors, both the first and second term, and that was following a tax increase on the top 1%. this mythologist passed on that you simply are going to cut taxes for the most well-off d y defied by recent reality and defied by their own goals of having 4% growth. >> let me just say -- >> everything i said is without dispute, factually correct. >> i applaud most of the economy, by the way, i have for many years.

i think he was ronald reagan's third term. he raise the income tax. i think that was a mistake. he cut the capital gains tax. i think that helped the boom. as did welfare reform as did nafta, and reagan launched that boom. no problem with that 4% stuff. 4, 5, 6, 7% growth in the reagan years after the tax cuts. what i'm suggesting is this. these are across the board, comprehensive tax reform plan. no -- counter to what gene, i think, is implying, upper end people are going to get a small tax cut in revenue terms. >> especially living in new york. >> right. rate drops from 40 to 35, reductions are to 10% and 20%. the other point is right. trump is going to end a lot of deductions and loopholes including the state and local deduction. that's bold. it's brave. it's good policy. it's what we want in overall tax reform. in that respect, it's extremely balanced. >> larry, we are out of time. does the tax bill pass, if so, when? >> passes in calendar 2017. i believe it will be retro

active to january 1st, 2017. i think it was a bold stroke by the president. i think it's reigniting can have already. >> gene, your view, does it pass? >> i think, if anything passes, it will be far smaller than this. i am -- not retro active and has to be a temporary ten-year plan because they will be out to do it without democrats contrary to what was said, i think the tax cut at the very top will be massive, and 15% will be the top individual rate, and i want to make clear, i support corporate tax reform. we can have a lower rate, we can have greater investment, but we don't need to give a $2 trillion corporate tax cut -- i'm going to have you on the radio show, we'll talk, bringing you along, and jason thurman was on, he wants corporate tax

reform, maybe we have commonground. i'm searching for it. >> in a calf my in berlin. >> that was gold dust, we'd tune in. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> a civil debate. now it's time for a cnbc news update with sue. >> hi, guys. here's what's happening this hour, everyone. president trump taking the stage at the nra's annual meeting in atlanta, first sitting president in more than 30 years to address the powerful gun lobby. >> the eight year assault on your second amendment freedoms has come to a crashing end. you have a true friend and champion in the white house. no longer will federal agencies be coming after law-abiding gun owners. >> alex acosta sworn in as the 25th labor secretary as vice president pence administered the oath of office. they confirmed, son of cuban imgrants, a vote of 60-38

thursday. arnold schwarzenegger meets with the mayor of paris to sign a cooperation agreement to protect the environment and reduce climate change and made the visit as the founding chair of the r20 environmental group. that is the news update, back downtown to you. >> sue, thank you very much for that, sue, with the news update. right, moving on. amazon and alphabet at new highs reporting strong earnings. keep tech flying high? releasing earnings next week, previewing those. it's been a rough ride for energy investors since president trump took office. coming up, debate whether this year's worst sector can have a rebound. ♪ whether you're after supreme performance... ...advanced intelligence... ...or breathtaking style...

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welcome back, how the dow finished on wall street, down, and nasdaq outperforming her, but just dipping into red territory, so not ending on another record high. the russell underperformed significantly, down 1.2%. s&p in terms of sector performance, tech was the best, up about one-third of 1%. health care, energy, the other two positives. telco's down 1%, and financials

and materials close behind. as we mentioned, tech having a runup this week with the nasdaq hilting new record highs, and much more on tap next week with earnings from apple, facebook, fitbit, square and many others. >> to see how far the run goes, tech research owning shares of apple, and max from 55 capital. lou, the setup for apple is pretty bullish. year to date, the number one performer on the dow, up 24%, though, that did not stop amazon and google from delivering solid results. what do you think from apple next week? >> look, gone from rotten apple to candy apple from last december. shares negative, under $110, and since that time, i mean, span of three, four months, ablists totally did a u-turn, raised guidance, price targets, now have wonderfully high expectations for the upgrade cycle. at the end of the year, so i think the setup is great for apple. they just got to keep momentum going, keep the narrative

pointing to the end of the year and upgrade cycle, yet, the knock will be apple still all the about the iphone, but so what. google's still all about ad revenue, and amazon's about all on line retail, so, again, it's the main driver. it's of the business, and it's looking solid, and a great setup into the end of the year. it's a long term stock to own. >> max, have alphabet really upped the ante in terms of advertising performance for facebook ahead of numbers next week? >> somewhat, yeah. they really have shown they pivot effectively from mobile to desk top and left a lot of competition behind. how they do that is lower rates, you have to serve a lot more ads, and, clearly, they beat on revenue, beat the profit, show the discipline that a lot of people were afraid they would not have to cut more exciting moon shot projects that lower cost basis, and continue to serve more and more ads on globely dominant android systems. they raced the bar, threw the gauntlet, and apple with google,

facebook, are big beneficiaries of the repatriation tax break because they are the largest holders of offshore cash, and well poised because they are expensive, but growing, and a lot of the market is expensive and not growing, and so they have a lot going for them and little against against them, and this equity risk hungry market we seem to live in these days. >> man, lou, you know, that exact kind of setup that max put out there about these companies, where there's a good fundamental story and stocks have been rolling for a while gets you to a point where investors have to figure out if the great company that's been a great stock turns into the great company that for at least a little while is a tougher stock to own because occasional bouts of doubt that hit the market, so how are you navigating that, i guess, in this environment where the nasdaq is such an outperformer? >> look, you have to be crazy to fight this tape right now. momentum for the nasdaq is squarely in tech's favor. heading into the week, we couldn't have a better setup.

read-through from alphabet's report, 50% increase is super positive for facebook. we know those are the two dominant players there. you know, facebook projections for about 45% groewth, and twitter rallied, and declining revenues. if facebook knocks the cover off the ball like amazon and alphabet did, i think that's setting us up the rest of the week here for strong rallies. risks, yes, there's pullbacks. we had it with apple, seems like sentiment sways. predicting that tom and bottom is a fool as ere rand. i'm not doing it. look at the long term trends and use any dips as accumulation points. >> is there any scenario, this is what i guess -- is there any scenario in which we sit here six months from now, and people go, oh, yeah, we didn't see this coming. i mean, whenever you have analysts on who are all the time going, you know, the trees, they grow to the sky and everything's setting up perfectly, i mean,

it -- it always -- you know, you now have the five largest market cap companies all tech or tech-related companies, i mean, if you go back to look at the top ten companies, top five companies, 20, thirty years ago, they are not in the top ten anymore. is that too much a good thing? when does it stop? >> great question, on a relative basis, i'm not worried. this market has gone crazy, and there's a situation where there's a good chance that we get slapped here because two things happened, right? the sort of most aggressive risk on money in the room is all the money in the room, the cautious money got redeemed out of existence or joined the band wagon late, meaning a lot of directionality here. relative basis, tech is the one place where the united states or one of the few places where the

global outperformed by a wide margin and one of the few places where the growth is so good that the pes are not blowing out, although the prices are. on a refive basis, i like it, absolute basis, it's hard on evaluation prompts not to think the market is potentially egregiously overbought if we start caring about historical valuations again. that's a big if. >> gentlemen, leaving it there, thank you very much for joining us, lou and max. >> thank you. all right, it could be reruns for some of the favorite tv shows if the writers guild of america goes on strike, and that could cause networks millions of dollars in advertising. coming up, the high stakes in the media, the potential wryers strike this weekend. >> first, also, draining earnings, this is the president's signing an executive order, is it time to get into that sector, a bull-bear debate next. love how usaa gives me the peace of mind and the security just like the marines did. at one point, i did change to a different company

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stay with me, mr. parker. when a critical patient is far from the hospital, the hospital must come to the patient. stay with me, mr. parker. the at&t network is helping first responders connect with medical teams in near real time... stay with me, mr. parker. ...saving time when it matters most. stay with me, mrs. parker. that's the power of and. president trump signing an executive order focused on offshore drilling today. >> reporter: the president, this administration are feeling very much the obama administration overstepped towards the tail end of the administration, beginning in january, with some executive orders, dealing with offshore oil and gas leasing rights, so today's executive order was designed to roll back some of that, and to review, broadly, how much access oil and gas companies should have to those

leasing rights. take a look at the bullet points here of what the executive order actually did today. directs a review of locations available for offshore oil and gas exploration, and it revisits a five-year plan of proposed out and gas development going forward, and reverses president obama's withdrawal of the arctic outer continental shelf planning areas and reconsiders a number of other regulatory measures, all part of the 30 executive orders the president signed, since taking office in january, and the white house very focused on sending instructions into the vast federal buick roreaucracy shift jobs and prosperity, guys. that's the line at the white house. >> 30 executive orders almost in 100 days. eamon thank you. >> reporter: you bet. energy the worst performing sector this year, down more than 10%, but this morning's earnings report was strong from exxon and chevron, coupled with the drilling expansion, you just

heard about, a sign things are turning around? >> let's discuss, joining us now is brian oil and gas analyst at edwards jones, and john, founding partner at again capital. thank you for joining us. how important was last year's energy price weakness for flushing out the overcapacity, and did we see that proved this morning with exxon's number last year? >>. >> we've seen it in the last couple year, it's cause the industry to step tobacco and really focus on efficiency and strategy, where you want to be, days of $90 oil are long gone, and these companies are leaner, meaner, and whether it's a global integrated, and the outlook looks good going forward. >> what's the break even costs of drilling in the arctic. does it make sense to do with the $50 a barrel.

higher than $50, i don't see anything coming from this in the near future, you're going to have litigations, environmental pushback, and pushback and so forth. at the end of the day, i don't see anything coming from the arctic exploration off alaska in terms of what happened today from president trump. >> until today, it's been a soft week and a half oil prices, where do you stand at the moment in terms of optimism or pessimism for the oil price? >> posseessimism, working off t global glut, the glut here in the united states, it's not abated either, and the setup right now is one where refiners are cranking -- have come racing back at maintenance in the biggest ways since november of 2015. we processed a record amount of crude oil last week, and you'd think that would be bullish for crude oil, but, unfortunately, increased production of oil from

the shale keeps coming, and we'll see product markets be swamped with product like last year, so there's another quarter or two of, i think, downward pressure on gasoline and diesel prices, not helping anybody. >> i have a question. negative on the price of oil, last year half, and year and a half ago, and how do you -- how you tell whether the price of oil 25 or $30 like you said a year ago or should be $60. i mean, for people not oil experts like myself, seems like very much a guessing game, opec plays a large part in the guessing game, and it seems like it's stabilized around here. is that a false stability? what drives it lower? >> i think it's very much a false stability. what you try to look at is, of course, you know, we deal mostly in futures contracts, called futures for a good reason, but what's going to happen, what's the response to the crash in oil prices? we saw it in terms of shale

producers in the industry, calling itself, responding in terms of efficiencies, lowering costs remarkably, now down to $40, $50 break even barrel. what's the response? what happened recently in terms ofresponse? in terms of november when opec came together and ainfluenced an unprecedented deal the market gave it the benefit of the doubt. what we are seeing is that benefit of doubt shouldn't have been given. it's fought working. the global supplies aren't coming down. it's proving ineffective and it's going to unravel as the rats bring on more oil, the iranian, they will go back up to a million barrels a day. i don't see the proof in the mudding if you will in terms of balancing. >> we have to leave it there. thank you very much for joining us. julia boorstin has more. >> jack dorsey tweeting he just

bought another 574,000 shares of twitter bringing his purchases to 1 million shares. he bought those shares at $16.62 per share. that's about marketplace. twitter shares were up about 1% on this news, now this follows the company announcing better than expected quarterly results just this past wednesday. sarah. >> all right. julia, thank you very much a. little mini pop here after hours. your thoughts? >> all is equal to net positive. you can see it as scare his other company is up so much. i do think that, look, twitter is definitely a show-me situation. i don't think the stream will jump at these gestures. so all us being equal and positive. >> zoe show me more monthly averages and growth. >> by advertisers. >> it will be a long time before it gets back to 70.

>> have a long road to that number. late night talk shows and numbers could be off the air, negotiation falls through with the writer's union, what it could cost and what is behind the potential walk jut correct. >> i hope not. coming up on "fast money," a top technician says this one tech stock is a screaming buy. the name and why she's so bullish will come up at 5:00 p.m. eastern. you don't want to miss that or the closing part of closing bell which is in just a couple minutes. et iwaiting art for free today at godaddy.

so wt else is new? how's ur mototr? um.she's d. she needs more care though. she wants to stay in her house. i don't know even where to start with that. fiand see what we can do.at ok, so we've got... we'llisten. we'll talk. we'll plan. baird.

five days left before the writers guild of america contract expires.

the strike expected to go on all weekend. julia boorstin to tell us about the likelihood of an cull strike. >> well, sarah, with the writer skills delivering it's formal response, the author writers to start striking on tuesday reportedly about 50-50. hollywood studios are scrambling to stockpile script, hoping to avoid delays and what consumers would notice first, which is a shipped late night shows to improv. they demanded a $535 million increase in pay and health care and pension fee, saying writer salaries decreased. they paid widely depending on the length of the show and the show's bucket. for a half hour, network prime time script, writers are paid a min number $19 million. for a half hour cable show, the

script starts at half of that. on high budget shows, like netflix is the crown the minimum for an hour-long episode is $38,000. for an original screen play for a movie, the fee starts at $71,000. if they aren't willing to up the fees, it could have massive ripple effects. a decade ago, a writer strike cost the california economy over $2.1 billion in lost output. guy, back over to you. >> julia, right on the crown, get $38,000 per episode. >> well, here's the thing you have to remember, writers don't write all the episodes, usually writers will write one or two episodes per season. so and that's just the base for a show on a streaming service with at least 15 million subscribers and for that to be of a certain size budget. so the crown is one of the largest budget shows ever on

netflix. >> that would be the top tier. >> julia, thank you very much. >> wilson's favorite. >> my favorite. maybe i should switch jobs. i don't work for him. sounds great. thank you very much. i can't write, you don't know that, you just think i can. i will prove you wrong now. this week was the record earnings. next week with apple, tesla reporting. what to look for in those numbers coming up next. and her'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 's chasing squirrels, synchrony financial can help you get there.

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that's going to do it for friday "closing bell" we'll be back 5:00 a.m. thank you for being here. you will be back with me as well. "fast money" begins right now. "fast money" starts right now. live from the nasdaq mark, overlooking new york ski's time's square, the traders on the desk. tonight on "fast," it is a wrap for april. if history is any indication, that can be about to change. we will tell you how to protect your portfolio if investors get thingser that way. talking about a problem, oil falling 8% and president trump suggested something that could make it a lot worse. we'll explain. it was