france. >> reporter: thank you, thank you. >> reminding you tomorrow, lloyd blankfein, exclusive guest on cnbc. the goldman sachs chairman with us. a lot of changes in the executive ranks announced today and over the weekend at goldman. thank you for watching "power." >> "closing bell" starts right now. ♪ hi, everybody, welcome to "the closing bell," i'm kelly evan, and, bill, i'm at the conference in new york today. >> imagine that. i'm bill griffeth, and kelly, i'm at the new york stock exchange today where the most exciting thing here is the vix is comfortably below 10. we're all astounded. >> oh, yes, i could imagine. filling you in on what's happening here today. investors give the best ideas

all in the name of raising money for paid yediatric cancer and research. we have a number of speakers joining us live here throughout the next couple hours. there they are. we have nascar champion jeff gordon and cliff robins of bull harbor group, and a unique way to play streaming media, and, yes, involves teletubbies. >> oh, boy, looking forward to that coming up. green light capital statement e einhorn, bringing you all the headlines of what he talks about as soon as we get them, but we begin with apple crossing an important milestone today in terms of value. bertha is at the nasdaq with that side of the story for us. >> reporter: yeah. apple's market cap today crossing $800 billion in market cap. it crossed $700 billion after

blistering 37% gain the prior year. already this year, apple's up more than 32% notwithstanding iphone sale numbers in the most recent quarter. the stock is up $100 a share since tim cook took over as ceo in 2011. a gain of nearly 200%, and apple is a big catalyst behind the nasdaq 100's out performance not just today, but this year, accounting for a third of the gains year to date in terms of the index, and, also, it hit a high today along with the composite. $800 billion, watch for 15444, bill, the 800 billion dollar mark. >> all right. we'll watch that one and on amazon. they are both racing, it would seem, towards the trillion dollar mark at some point. thank you very much. meanwhile, if you saw this this morning, warren buffet joined becky quick this morning following berkshire as meeting

in omaha. one of the topics talked about was investing in stocks versus bonds. listen to what warren said. >> anybody that prefers bonds to stocks makes a big mistake. i said that year after year after year. i won't say that under all circumstances, but it is ridiculous, in my view, for somebody to buy 30-year bond and some countries 50-year bonds and so on at these rates in preference to mining stocks. stocks bounce more, going down 50%, but 30-year bond goes down 50% too at these rates. bonds are a terrible choice against stocks. >> joining us now to discuss that, brian singer pr william brar, stuart grasso, and rick santelli in the closing bell exchange today. brian, you agree with warren buffett. a lot of people do, but what do you recommend investors do about

that? >> absolutely agree. i think the bond situation is one where assets are priced very much above fundamental values. look at equities and look at equities in europe predominantly. central banks normalizing balance sheets means these prices diverge back on values, and you got to look at places like italy, spain, financials all in europe. >> rick, we all know the obituary for the bond bull going on since 1982 has been written over and over and over again. prematurely over and over again. do you agree with warren buffett now at this stage that bonds are not as good an investment as stocks? >> i'd think the simple answer is yes, but, you know, there's a lot of as risks here, bill. last july, record low yields, meaning records high prices on the treasury curve. of course, many of the years, 2012-2014 saw pretty nice gains

with respect to the fixed income market, but, yes, i think he's right. the other note is it all depends. not all investors are the same, you know, a 7'0" basketball player might not like a corvette, but there's a lot of people that do. whether it's insurance companies, mutual funds, diversified portfolio managers, the treasury in the fixed income market, the corporates in the high yield always find a place, but generically for viewers thinking about investments, obviously, timing's important, but, yes, i have to agree with that, especially when we consider the fed's balance sheet, the ecb, the bank of japan, and, certainly, seems as though -- i certainly don't want to be on the other side of what all the central banks own. they have to build an addition to store securities and corporate securities, not a good place to hide right now, i would agree. >> and, steve, you know, all this talk about the stock market comes after we had record highs hit on friday, and so, you know, you can go kind of in a broad

basket like that or strikes me this is a good backdrop to have this sohn conference, about stock picking, ways to make money against a quiet environment. >> yeah. i wonder, though, it's actually a great time to have that type of event, kelly, especially when you're talking about what you just led in with, passive versus acti active management. looking at the etfs that, you know, scattered amongst the landscape here, apple seems to be in every one of those etfs, look at the price, and i believe that equities are just climbing that wall of worry. i'm not sure there's a wall of worry. you had, north korea, that goes by the wayside. you have pro-growth policies that are thoughts, not really end acted just yet, but we're looking back on earnings right now, earnings have been good enough, so you have to be diversified, but equity seems to be wanting to make tremendous gains from all-time highs. >> and brian singer, you know,

turned out to be a nonevent for our market today, but the french elections already priced in here, but you like the european markets at this point, right? >> absolutely. the u.s. market is really been sliding, not going up a wall of worry, but sliding up a hill of complacency right now, and i think it's priced in here, and you have to look elsewhere. french election, which is fine, rest of the year, we see, obviously, italian issues, german election later on, but with central banks normalizing processes, almost every investor in the world talking about pop p populism now and geopolitics, it's behind us now. looking at the fourth quarter as a great investment opportunity and we lead today with a purpose in the place that people don't want to go, italy, spain, financials, also sfranfrance. >> all right. sometimes it can work out.

gentlemen, thank you for the thoughts on today's market action. see you later. kelly? >> well, speaking of the sohn conference, howard hughes moved higher today by 3% after bill ackman revealed they have the best investment advice moments ago. take a listen. >> retained our stake in howard hughes, never sold a share, never talked publicly about the company. the question is, why talk now? the answer is this is the most attractive time in the history of the country to invest. they tried at the widest discrepancies of net asset value with a better understanding of the business and the business has had a huge head start over the last six years. >> well, bill ackman held the stock for years now, already chairman of the board, and scott is here as you have been all day, but you follow this so closely, this -- i mean, do we call it a disappointment? i don't mean -- just -- >> i know what you mean. >> so much anticipation, a couple positions that we don't know about yet, but howard is a

story we know a lot about when it comes to ackman. >> i was expecting, i guess, hoping we'd hear maybe one, two of the new ideas in a portfolio that we don't know. ackman positioned this as new because he had not talked about it publicly, and if ever, and certainly not that often, and, yes, it's been in the portfolio for a long time. he's been so high on the company for a long time. if you recall that forbes cover from 2015, baby buffett with ackman on the story. the cover story was about his hopes and dreams for the howard hughes corporation and some saw it, at least ackman hoped it'd turn into berk sure like cash cow machine for him. the stock's done well. opened it for a long time. you said he's the chairman. if anything, thfrs bill going back to his bread and butter. even though it's not a new investment, it's going back to his roots in real estate. remember, his family was involved in real estate. when he was at the harvard

business school, he bought a stock in alexanders, the department store, because of the real estate assets. general growth properties, the mall reit is one of, if not the greatest hedge fund investment of all time pouring in tens of millions and took out $3.7 billion, so if all the turmoil that bill ackman has been involved in the last few years, this is a guy whose going to his bread and butter and back to the real estate roots. >> bill? >> that was the question i was going to ask, scott. we all sort of expect controversy from bill ackman these days after the whole referee between him and carl icahn, but do we see now, is it more a plan b for him, shying away from controversy or just see real value and real estate these days? >> i think he sees real value in the investment. if you look at the ackman

portfolio and ackman performance, there's two spectacular blowups, one blowup in the last couple years, which he sold out and took a big loss on. herbal life has not traded in the direction he thought it would and lost money on that, but if you look at other stocks in the highly concentrated portfolio, platform specialty, products, howard hughes corporation, it's the performance of the stocks that has helped ackman from march 31st of the 2016 to april of 2017, up 18.5% net of fees. now, most people focus on valeant, the disaster it was, and herbal life, the high profile fight on our show a few years ago, but he's quietly trying to stage a comeback. up 4% in april. up 2.5% year to date, that's

better than being done. >> yeah. >> and as i said, this is over the last, if you want to call it year, he's had a decent go of it. >> i think more competence is the theme here. scott, thank you for sticking around. bill, keep the other guy who you know so well picked a name in telecom, in his competence, more knowledgeable about that sector than anybody. perhaps that's the theme of the day. >> interesting one, century link. >> yeah. >> mostly in the fact that the company's already done a big thing, and that's a deal. with level three. he's not pushing as an activist for the company to do a deal, but it's the next level, get the beth athletes for both companies in the field to make it a success he'll think it'll be. biggest in the s&p. >> thank you, scott, appreciate it. >> wow. all right, guys, thank you. heading to the close with 48 minutes left in the trading session today, dow down 4 points, not ear the market response that we saw in japan overnight after the french

elections. talking more about that coming up. plus, more from the sohn investment conference in new york. the head of the social capital on why he likes tesla convertible bonds, very specific investment there, and nascar champion, jeff gordon, talks to kelly, and cliff robins views himself as a friendly activist investor telling us where he's finding value these days, and then deborah fein on the unique presentation today on under the radar streaming plays. that's still to come here on "closing bell," you're watching cnbc first in business worldwide.

tribune media, local tv stations buying tribune valued in a deal at 3 billion, assuming net debt, ceo called it transformational, and tribune runs 42 tv stations around the country, plus a cable station,

wgn america, and owns 31% stake in the food network. tribune up 5.25%. sinclair down 2.5% today. kelly? >> well, i'm here with chimath from social capital, just invested next idea on stage. i thought you couldn't top amazon, okay, and you come out saying tesla. now, should i say you are long tesla, that you'd buy tesla or are specific that you like a certain piece of the debt here? >> we love the convertible bonds, and the reason we love convertible bonds is that it gives you all exposure, to be precise, 95% of the exposure to the upside that the equity does, but unlike the equity, if the equity somehow gets impacted, if they can't raise the money they need to finance a car, your completely protected. basically, you get a costless five-year call on one of the greatest entrepreneurs. >> what's the price? >> trades at 0 yield.

when we started to buy it, it was yielding 5.5%. which you can imagine tesla now has been paying you to basically go along the ride with them for five years and see if they pull it off. >> what does it convert to? >> in equity, premium of 5% of today's current price. it's incredible, effectively like buying equity, but protection of a bond. >> people say, well, problem with the tesla debt is, you know, maybe that's not serviceable at some point. if that's true, i understand you're calling into question the entire company which seems extreme, but there's plenty of people shorting it, effectively making the same case in some ways it's unsustainable. >> talk about the shorts for a second. you know, anybody that thinks they can mod ill the future in excel lies to themselves and investors. >> with tesla in specific sm. >> true with everything country. if an analyst says short the

company, you -- >> you don't believe financial modelling has any real -- no real basis in it? >> it is valuable after you built a logical model. in the case of innovation, innovation needs to be built on the heels of an understanding of product and technology, and that's very hard to do unless you've done it before. that's why when we start looking at businesses, we start from that perspective and use models to reenforce perspectives, but not to come to it. >> does it bother you at this point, i don't want to drive an electric car because you made the analogy to apple, and iphone is a wonderful product which i couldn't wait to have and can't imagine not having at this point. i'm not sure i personally feel the same way about tesla. the point is, is there a market smaller than apple? >> the market is probably as big, if not bigger. i say that because they've shown unbelievable ability to go down market to create lower and lower price point products to get mass users option. happy to ship my car to you and have you drive it for a month,

and what you'll realize is -- >> i want to find charging stations that have to figure it out, wait in line -- >> that's what is incredible. neither do i. the software does it for you and drives you there automatically and plugs the car in. >> bill has a question. bill? >> i do. warren buffett has been singing the praises of jeff bezos, felt he missed the boat with amazon, but love what he accomplished with retail and cloud space. do you acquaint that with musk and tesla and in other words, if you're going invest in his companies, are you betting the jockey in this case, or are you betting on the business model created for the company that we call tesla right now? >> it's such a fantastic point in question. at the end of the day, when you are making deep methodical investments in technology companies, it is fundamentally first and foremost about the jockeying. and that was the point earlier today, which is that every time

wall street tried to bet against the jockey, for example, with jeff, they have been wrong and shorts got faces ripped off. that was true with facebook. it was true for a period with apple. it was true for a period with google. i think it'll probably be the case with tesla. i think that, absolutely, this is a bet on a guy who is probably the closest thing to thomas edison in our generation. why bet against a guy like this? why would we not want to see his world view? >> well, look, the boring company, i hope it's -- i'd like to scale that, do that across the country, the hyperloop, all that stuff. fantastic. we need that. more of that. i hope they get it going. i want us to talk about something mundane quickly while you're here, that's oracle. you talked about you like net suite. oracle bought them. you are focused on big tech companies working right now. what about the older tech companies there?

anything that you think the markets are looking past? >> so oracle is not a business you can short today, but it's also not a business that's going to win tomorrow. the reason you can't short it is because there's an unbelievable sales and marketing machinery that will figure out how to tax its existing customers in umpteen numbers of ways that are unbelievable and like, unknown to the cfos. >> put ibm in the same category? >> absolutely. they are a services company, they are not building or innovating. >> watson, artificial intelligence you're laughing. >> i mean, watson is -- watson is a a joke. just to be completely honest. >> why do you say that? what do you know to know it's a joke. >> companies advancing in a.i. do not brand it with a name named after sherlock holmes character. what you do when innovating in machine learning and artificial intelligence, you spend time collect iing enormous amounts o

data. >> who do you take seriously? >> google and amazon buy and far ahead of every other company. >> you don't think -- watson is to be a brand for ibm saying we're trying to make these investments, do you think they made end roads there? >> i think what ibm is excellent at is using sales and marketing infrastructure to convince people who have a-less knowledg to pay for something. orac oracle's in the same bucket. can't short them, stock will not go down, but can you fundamentally long these two businesses over the next decade? i think the answer is no. >> all right. well, i want to ask you about the warriors too, but i guess the only thing there is we hope -- well, we, i say -- i like curry, what can i say? >> i love them all. they'll win. >> i'm sure you have to say that. thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you. >> appreciate the time. much more ahead, bill? >> yes, indeed.

a lesson for chi math, tom watson at ibm, where that name came from. down eight and a half points on the dow, but we're still pedal to the metal at the sohn conference, jeff gordon will join us next. and then later, friendly, a self-proclaimed friendly activist investor, cliff robins, and deborah fein on the best investment ideas coming up on "closing bell." even a coupe soup. [woman] so beautiful. [man] beautiful just like you. [woman] oh, why thank you. [burke] and we covered it, november sixth, two-thousand-nine. talk to farmers. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪

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former nascar driver, jeff gord gordon, honored for work with his children's foundation to combat pediatric cancer and other childhood diseases, and he's here on set. chills to say this, you know, that -- and by the way, you do the job better than i could fry to do it. >> i don't know about that. >> you're a pleasure to watch. i know i'm not supposed to say you're a competitor, but how do you feel, you wanted a legacy, are you concerned about that legacy today? >> well, there's been a lot of challenges in the business world, and sports world, and i mean, i just came from talladega

with the biggest crowds, greatest races we've had in a while. there's moments you go, you know, the support's and healthy as it could, and other places, i wonder what we have to do here to get more interest, so i'm also involved with the business side there, and as you almost mentioned, fox and broadcasting, and i don't know, i look at the racing, i look at the products on the track, and it's very, very exciting, and, yeah, dale jr. is retiring. i put it out there. we know it's happening. there's really young talented drivers that are going to take this sport to the next level. >> yes, they have been on the show. the viewers are familiar. this morning, actually, kicked off an interesting wage e first investment idea was to go long with the formula 1 company, and there were subtle digs at look how much better it's, you know, fundamentals are than nascar. granted, they have the global

audience, nighttime races in singapore and whatnot. something they have to do to move in that direction? how do you feel about the viability of nascar? >> nascar's about north america right now. you know, and it has been for a long time. that's where the roots are. i feel like we pretty much control north america when it comes to motor sports issue and it's our type of fans and racing and sponsors, and who relate to is different than formula 1. i think there's two places, you know, for both forms of of motor sports, but formula 1 is global and more recognized outside of north america, especially in the u.s., than nascar. you know, i think nascar's extremely healthy and doing well, but i'm a formula 1 fan. i saw hamilton here in new york last week. >> whether or not you a driver or indy car guy? >> i grew up driving open wheel cars, in indianapolis, didn't work for me, so i went to nascar and that worked out for me, and i love nascar. at one time, i would have loved

to. i never got a chance to race formula 1. >> we had a segment with the last guest giving a presentation about tesla. never been more excitement in the u.s. automotive industry it feels like, about self-driving cars, neither is nascar things, but i've been saying and you said, that why can't you guys race a driverless car? why can't you have a tesla or somebody, the exciting electric cars get in there. does the sport need to meet the auto industry of today? >> well, i think that there's -- there's a line, and i think when we look at nascar, there's a line where technology is evolving in the sport that relates to the car manufacturers, that relates to sponsors. at the same time, we're about entertainment. i mean, nascar racing -- >> i want to see a google mi minivan out there against you guys. >> if we put 800 horsepower under it, i'd be for it. >> would you? >> there might be a place for

it. there's formula e right now, but i love technology and driverless cars are going to be great for transportation. it's a long way away from being a performance driving car in racing. >> one last question to you. it is remarkable, so many of the drivers and drivers are young, very my lphilanthropically acti. do you think that's the culture of nascar? does that continue? >> nascar's an amazing culture. i looked up to the heros in the sport, dale, richard, dale jared and bill elliot. they did amazing work in their communities and outside for great causes. my chief at the time would prefer starting our careers, diagnosed with leukemia, gearing me to help children and families with cancer, and now that's led to cancer research and millions of dollars of funding and making it world of difference.

>> thank you for all the work you've done. >> pleasure to be here, and the sohn conference foundation, to honor me this way and support pediatric cancer research, so thankful. >> michael j. fox introduce you. >> how cool was that? >> thank you for joining us. >> appreciate it. >> jeff gordon, bill? >> the always humble jeff gordon, great driver too over the years, thank you, kelly. news update now with sue, hey, sue. >> here's what's happening at this hour, everyone. somalia officials say eight people were killed, many others injured when a suicide bomber rammed a car laiden with explosives into a cafe. gunfire followed that attack for which el shabob claimed responsibility. reinsating a murder conviction of skakel who was convicted in 2002 of murder in 1975. he was freed on bail in 2013 after a lower court granted him

a new trial because of mistakes from the trial lawyer, but he is expected to return to prison. a federal judge rejected a defrs request to relocate the trial of rahimi charged in the bombing rampage in new jersey and new york in september. the trial is set for september. after a twitter fan asked minaj to pay college tuition, she said yes, if he has perfect grades. other fans posted screen shots of the grades, and she replied to some individually, also agreeing to pay book costs and student loans. good for her. that's the news update this hour. back to you guys. >> thank you, ma'am. cool story. see you next hour. >> you got it. >> still to come from the conference here today including cliff ribbons and deborah fein, sharing best investment ideas for the portfolio coming up, and there's a deal to buy kate spade, it's in the bag, it says, details on who it is buying and

what it means for the affordable luxury category when we come back on "closing bell."

welcome back, shares of investors, just want to get the

ticker right for you, cliff mentioned it on stage at sohn here as a long idea. company owns nearly 10% of isd, short hills, new jersey, speaking with robins in the next hour for more on that, but, apparently, bill, it gels with what's important to him, which is those esg factors, environmental social governance. cliff will elaborate on his long investors bancorp. idea joining us shortly. >> the friendly activist investor. now -- >> is that like a -- a big friendly giant? bfg -- big friendly activist invester. >> you work on that. >> i will. >> kate spade and coach, price tag 2.4 billion. courtney reagan's here. this was probably the worst kept secret on wall street. >> yes. >> negotiations forever, and we have victor luis here, teasing

us on whether he was going to be buying kate spade or not. what took so long? just price, or do you have any other insights on this? >> so it's really interesting. this was very oddly telegraphed in the media for a number of months since just several days after christmas, and i think why you're seeing it here approach higher today is that investors are happy that coach did not overpay, so they paid 1850 a share for kate spade. that's a premium, but a premium only to the amount of the share price back on december 27, so there's relief there. it's interesting. you called a rival, but really, coach says it's complimentary. i spoke to victor on the phone, saying only 10% of the customers overlap between coach and kate spade. are millennials, the hig coveted shoppers. you are awaring shoppers and

another brand, a way to grow. >> okay. so a see a trend here now because they just signed a deal with selena gomez as well and will be doing advertisements for them in the fall. it's all coming together. they going to be lay sor focused on millennial customers to bring them under, is that the idea? >> a good customer to grab right now, and gomez is popular with them, the highest number of instagram followers, and parades around with other folks we talk about a lot. that's an important customer subset to go after. coach, in general, wants to be an american luxury lifestyle house, so they want to be able to serve the customers, but also a customer that's older than a millennial, or, hey, guess what, millennials age at some point, and we're going to want product that's not so bright. kate spade is known for being really fun, fashionable, bright

colors, victor called it very whimsical, very feminine, but not as classic as what you see out of coach, and so they want to make sure they have something for all of those demographics that are important, not just the millennials there. >> got it. very good. by the way, victor, you're welcome to come back on "closing bell" any time. it's safe to come back now. the deal is done. thanks, see you later. >> thank you. >> over to you, hoda. i mean, kelly. >> thank you. green light capital david einhorn is presenting now at the sohn conference, more on his idea after the break, and live to paris where there's unrest in the streets following yesterday's french presidential election, victory by macron. stay with us. online u.s. equity trades...

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how come you don't buy shares of amazon? >> stupidity. i was impressed with jeff early, what's really -- i mean, i thought he could pull off something, but on the scale that was happening, i mean, it's changed, your behavior, you know, and it's changed everybody in the office's behavior.

>> now, of course, warren buffett talking to becky quick this morning, and while he's not in amson, it's a popular stock for retail investors these days, in fact, amazon a net buy among clients last month, and joining me for more on that is jj. so, i mean, it's a rare admi admittance by warren. >> he doesn't miss many. >> up 19% since the election, setting records, were your investors buy it here? >> one of the thicks he said in there was interesting. it's a product that everybody uses every day. it was really interesting in our imx, you know, measuring our client's behavior last month, amazon, facebook, apple. three of the top five stocks, but not only overall, millennials, it did not matter the generation you want to talk about. the really interesting part, bill, amazon was the number one

purchased stock last month, you know, apple or facebook usually takes that crown, so for amazon to be a stock as you mentioned, you know, near -- setting 52-week highs, and such a high price stock. now, so the average that's obviously lower, but we saw it bought at 1.4 times the amount apple. bought it. >> i here the contraryians now on wall street vette raps, oh, the public's into the high price stocks right now. it must be too late. >> well, bill, one of the things is, that this index measures our clients who interact with the market at least once a month. >> right. >> if you are planning vacation longer than retirement, you may not be making good decisions, but one of the things seen in our imx is clients interacting with the market on a regular basis are making pretty good decisions overall, and i, you know, it's wait to be seen, we did see them take a little less exposure than in the past in the market, but overall, they want to be exposed to the market as we continue higher. >> those three, i get, apple,

amazon, and facebook, but at&t is on the list as well. that's my grandmother's favorite stock, right? >> at&t and verizon, your grandmother's chasing yield because we have a ten-year rate that's 2.3%. >> right. >> we see people, at&t, verizon, and those were stocks that actually were falling last month, so i think people said, as the stocks are falling, i think they are going to flatten, why don't i buy them there, and return yield in the process. as you know, if you look into what happened, we had a fed that didn't do anything. there's a 72% probability you'll lose next month, but with that, where's the ten-year rate? >> right. >> they are getting capital and appreciation along the way. >> what did they sell? you sold, your clients sold whole foods, american express, starbucks, and walmart. there's a spectrum right there. >> right. interesting one to start is

walmart because there's earnings this month. so what it goes back to is people say, you know, aren't people afraid, et cetera? what it chose with walmart, a stock of 52-week highs, coming into earnings, and so what the clients did is say, let's kind of lessen exposure to a stock that's unknown. as you know, you talked about regularly, retail sales of the traditional brick and mortar companies are coming out over the next few weeks. that's a tough market to be in. they are trying to figure out the business models. >> always instructive to see what your clients are doing. we appreciate you coming to tell us about it. >> always a pleasure, bill. thank you. >> heading to the close with 13 minutes left in the trading session. not a very volatile day, a 47 point swing top to bottom for the dow today, now down 18 points. up next, david einhorn with a big idea at the sohn conference now, unveiling what it is when we come back. mom gets breakfast in bed...

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welcome back. one of the most anticipated presentations of the day here at the sohn conference is green light capital david einhorn, unveiling the financial crisis, what's today? well, we are still sort of

trying to figure that out. leslie picker has highlights. leslie? >> hey, kelly, that's right. david einhorn presented with green light. he talked about his position in core laboratory saying that he sees the fair value of that stock as $62, about 45% below the price of that stock before he started talking, and you can see here the stock has declined quite significantly today as his presentation went on. now, i want to be clear. he has not specified his exact position in how he is trading laboratorie laboratories, but clear he's bearish on the company. outlook for its exposure internationally, the outlook for oil as well as the management team in charge. he even showed a picture of kanye and showed -- tried to explain that's a management team that loves itself as kanye west loves himself. a lot of break heart tunes in the presentation. watch that stock price as it

continues today. kelly? >> yeah, and, leslie, viewers see that green blip. when he first started talking about the company, wait, long, short, and it became clear as the presentation went on, but this fits with his sort of long-running thesis now of being bearish on u.s. fracking right? people feel opposite, they like of the production boom, not the oil prices, but david feels differently here, doesn't he? >> exactly. if you remember two years ago, the year that david talked about the mother cracker, his bearish call against the fracking industry, and the bullishness that goes with fracking, and talked about cap x and core labs as well, and how a lot of the expense requires for these types of companies don't always pay off, especially when oil prices don't go in the upward tra junior college try, and as seen in recent years, that has not been the case, so it's interesting to see what happens

with this one. >> yeah, and one of the few high profile short ideas we've had here, wouldn't you say, leslie, they have been long stories, smaller ones this morning, being the exception. >> absolutely. we've seen a ton of long positions, a ton of tech long positions, and the only short suggestions that we've seen is from david coppley, the next wave presenter suggesting three different shorts in terms of china, that bubble bursting, affecting the australian and new zealand markets. there's been a lot of bullishness on u.s. equities, and speaking with chimath, his pick was tesla, bullish, but protecting the downside with the convertible bonds security. >> yeah. like, whether it's ctl, howard hu hughes. guys are happy to give you picks

that there's value in. check back with you later, leslie. see you in a bit. thanks. thanks, kelly. heading into the close with seven minutes left in the trading session,down down 7 points, closing countdown, and after the bell, more from the sohn conference, a one-on-one with renowned investor cliff robbins, and there's earnings as well. stick around. you're watching cnbc, first in business words wide. think again.

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coming up on the last three minutes of trade for monday. we were at dinner last night, and we looked to see what the results were of the french election. when we saw that macron won, i looked to see what the japanese stock market was doing. at that moment, it was up more than 3%, came back from those levels by the close, but that was one market that showed real big response to the french elections because you didn't get much in europe, in fact, the cac was done for the day, so they bought into the rumor and sold the fact. our market, today, the dow, has been very narrowly traded today. mike sanotolli has comments on that, we have a half point gain right now. could be negative any moment

here. the yield on the ten-year comets to create ever higher, very slowly. now up to 2.38% on the ten-year. we'll see if we hit back to 240 any time soon, and look at the vix. the volatility index, in fact, bringing bob pasani in here. i was looking at historical numbers here. you have to go way back to find any comparable here. >> 2006, i think. >> whether this is complacency or the market feels like it figured things out? >> think about it -- >> not a care in the world here. >> no fiber factors here. economy's better globely in the u.s., earnings better globally and in the u.s. geopolitical risk is lower. the french election. the feds not a big issue. we all believed it was going to be two rate hikes, and tax cuts in play. look, it's never 100% safe, but this is as good as it gets in terms of risk factor. >> the market thinks has it figured out.

>> crude bouncing a bit, but still $46 right now, at 46.42 right now, and latest gasoline figures, the stocks are still high, the price of gasoline down 5 cents on the national average in the last two weeks here, and that's all because of the decline in crude oil we're seeing here. >> wish it was helping oil stocks more, but it's not. >> leading the way today, though. that was one of the what was going on here. finally, earnings after the bell tonight as we continue from the sohn conference. we'll be watching for numbers from amc entertainment, pandora, marriott, and google. a cross section of the economic stocks here. >> retailers later in the week, jcpenney, macy's thursday. there's stocks in the space hitting highs, coach on the kate spade deal doing well, and ulta, home depot, and lowe's also at a 52-week high. at the same time, all the shopping center reits, new lows,

a lot of concern out there about the class a malls even having trouble, and, of course, they are scrambling to fill those empty spaces. >> all right, bob, thank you. we've got la-z-boy ringing the bell here, and digital at the nasdaq. stay tuned now for the second hour of "the closing bell." hi, everybody, welcome to closing bell, i'm kelly evans hosting from the sohn investment conference at lincoln center and manhattan. a number of people here giving presentations about long ideas and stocks they see as good values in the environment, even as we're seeing, look at this, the s&p and nasdaq set record intra-day highs, dow closing 21,000 today, just barely, fighting to get there. the nasdaq at 6102. slight positives on the session.

the s&p and russell slight negatives. so, you know, just a mixed bag here. again, as mentioned, but a lot of differentiated ideas. we'll continue to share with you. coming up, cliff robbins making a bing his bet here. new jersey regional bank, talking consolidation for banks and outlook for financial sectors broadly. plus, since the bell has rung, more earnings are coming our way, amc, pandora, marriott, and hertz set to report. we'll bring them you soonas soo we get them. interested in hertz. joining us on the panel, michael santolli, louis with us, and citi private global chief investment strategist, and, one bill griffeth sticking around here as well. michael, first of all, i want

your thoughts on this market on a day where i know the indexes are quiet, but it was a big day for apple in particular. >> it was. a big day for apple. the other very large, you know, big stocks in the nasdaq 100 like amazon and facebook, participated in the upside, but it was a good actual ill lugs strags of the rule that apple is not a broad market bell weather. it does its own thing, captiv e captivated by the positive buffett comments, but market as a whole, i feel it's hovering near the highs in the absence of a known short term cat list, this market just hangs in there. there's a broad degree of km comfort, but there's not high conviction it goes violently in one direction or the other. there you have it. big round numbers talked about on friday. >> speaking of which, louis, quietly, another new all-time high, up just a point right now, and at the same time, as we highlighted the vix, at record lows, below ten right now. do those two things make sense happening at the same time?

>> no. we should appreciate this record low volatility in past years, low volatility often crept in before we had sudden corrections, but i'll be honest with you, the dividend yield is too high out there for us to have a big correction. even if there's a correction, bargain hunters come in to pick up dividend stocks. with 1.95% dividend yield on the s&p, we should be very comfortable right now and just enjoy it. >> you agree, steve? >> well, look, specifically, thinking about nasdaq, you have companies with persistent strong revenue growth, and so in a world with relatively slow growth, proving it might be, these are still stocks that hold in there. some are corrections that are common, and we should expect on that type of a pullback just as you heard, see investors put money to work in equities over bonds globally. >> mike, overthinking this? nothing more than just cheap

money continuing to fuel this market? >> it's, bill, cheap money, but liquidity is not just cheap money, but cheap money added to the willingness to put it at risk, and i think you have both of those things -- >> where else are you going to go? >> well, that's true, but at times in japan, where you went is government bonds brought down to zero, so i think that where else you going to go? when that message resinates, you have all markets priced off of low interest rates, and with a very stable and growing world economy, it doesn't take a great leap to understand why we're here. the vix below ten is an anomaly and shows it's yet another thing showing an overbump over confident market on some level, but not necessarily incompatible with anything else seen in the credit markets or anywhere else, so it's very hard to say this is some decisive break point because the vix is below ten today. >> who thought earnings would be up 15% in the first quarter from a year ago. upcoming considerably better, chance of us having, you know, 6-7% year up 15 in the first,

down a lot. doing better than that barring a slowdown in the u.s. and world economy. >> kelly? >> let me ask louis about this, actually, guys, small that david said today, you know, we just talked about the french elections and jut come there and how it's positive for a risk across europe, but david short guilds because he does not like u.k. fundamentals, long unicredit on nonperforming loans. thoughts how things e e evolve across the pond? >> i think it's compound complex. i mean, remember after brexit, economic growth picked up in britain. that's because the currency got weak, and they exported more, and tourism picked up as well. i think britain's going to make a successful change. there's an election in june they need to make a more decisive change. i don't think we have to worry.

every dip right now is a buying opportunity, and as far as banks and credit, obviously, what we're watching is the auto loans because apparently, automobile sales, not only in the united states, but also in britain peaked. now, a lot of that was special incentives on diesel that were removed, but we have to be careful of the whole auto market globally right now. auto dealers are nervous at this moment. >> all right. bringing in ms. sound bite as we call it, berkshire's ceo sat down on "squawk box," the interview was constructive. giving thoughts why he feels the current market environment could be a win for some investors. listen to what he said. >> most important item over time and in valuation is, obviously, interest rates. i mean, interest rates are

destined to be very low levels, not necessarily as low as they are now, but low compared to hundred year averages or 50 year averages. it makes any stream of earnings from investment worth more money. it's a huge bargain to buy stocks now if you knew interest rates stay at this level. >> so i jumped the gun on my interest rate question, chief money question with mike, but his point, and bill gates also in the interview echoed that, as long as rates are this low, this market looks cheap here. >> that's true. there's an inherent paradox in the statement, though, because warren buffett says there's no reason to buy bonds at this level today, rationally low levels, bonds are expensive. compare stocks to egregiously expensive, stocks look good. does that mean they look good or something that's ugly? that's where there's tension in there and why there's $9 pennsylvan$95

billion in cash. you're seeing a lot of interesting ideas, a lot of reiterations, stuff i already own, and in other words, it doesn't seem as if there's a lot of low hanging fruit in the market. >> by the way, before you get to the question, kelly, i have to point out for the record late buying coming in here, final tabulations, pushing the s&p into record territory as well to go along with the nasdaq, turned out to be a record kind of a day for the stock market after all, kelly. >> yeah. our favorite line is never short a dull market. i was going to pick off up the point that nike made a point you made too saying there was a nice moment today where stan made a self-deprecating comment about how he was here last year and said he was worried about the fed, e he would be short stocks, he would be long gold, and we heard a lot of people in the past saying they would be shorting bonds for the same reason. not a lot of big macro polls this year. kevin touched on a little bit of this, but, you know, steve, i don't know if you want to weigh in on this, but there could be a

degree of acceptance about the level of interest rates i don't remember hearing in quite some time. >> putting together a portfolio, you get 0 yield. if you consider that gins the united states at 2.3%, you get something. i think that interest rates in the united states are too low, even for a slower trend economic outlook, and that's what makes equities look relatively appealing, but you got to look at it in a global context and yields are lowerment i think we're going to be looking more and more for international yield opportunities and emerging yield opportunities, get seven times the sovereign bond yield than you can on european corporate. >> do you sense any opportunities in europe, especially in light of the election results in france yesterday? >> oh, yeah. i mean, europe's got a little problem with their quantitative

easing, their essential bank, and they had this euphoria here, and i think when all the dust settles, everybody's going to decide the dollar's a better currency. higher yield, stronger economy, and europe's done amazingly well considering what they have gone through, and they have to celebrate unity right now, but when all dust settles, i expect the dollar to continue to gain against the euro, simply because we have higher rates and stronger economy. >> would you buy into europe? >> look, equities relative to bonds in europe look like a screaming buy on a relative basis, even more stretched than the differences in the united states. i bear in mind italy's economy is about as large as it was in 2004. the north-south divide in the euro land is going to continue to be a political problem that rears from time to time. >> all right. >> what you saw over the weekend, though, is france was an issue of local french government rather than a

global-political risk for markets. >> very good. steven, louis, always good to see you both. thank you for joining us today. appreciate your thoughts. kelly? >> and coming up, two more big interviews from the sohn conference. up next, activist investor cliff robbins talks about tax reform impas impaskting the market, and weighing in on what she says is the hidden gem of streaming video. fun presentation. you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide. ♪

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welcome back. you know, i had time to work on it, but i still -- bfai -- we'll explain in a minute. friendly activist, and sohn presented his big idea, cliff robbins. i was joking, the big friendly giant, you're the big friendly invest investor, but there's not the ring to it. >> no. >> no. talk about investors bancorp then. more consolidation going forward than seen so far? >> i think there will be more consolidation, part of the

thesis here, will be at some point, a good acquisition candidate, but this is unique to this company because it's trading at a significant discount to its intrinsic value, and importantly, sitting on a billion dollars of excess capital. there's a lot of stoke to deploy the capital in acquisitions, buybacks, dividends, growing the core, and they can divert access capital to core capital, the stocks going up significantly. >> where do you live? can i ask? >> i live in connecticut, but -- >> because this is a short hills, new jersey company, and i know if this is a case where you expected -- >> funny you mention, i grew up in short hills, new jersey. that's where i from, live in connecticut now, but this bank's located in short hills, principally oeshperates in new jersey, pennsylvania, and new york. >> how did you find it? >> a partner with a lot of experience in the financial services found the company. what was unique about it going through a second step conversion, converting from a old format to a stock format, and that often is an interesting

point. >> you're not a traditional value investor where you might find a company, think it's attractive, buy shares here, looking to agitate change, right? >> agitation, but three criteria for investing. one is the company's trading at a big discount, and, two, we have specific things. this is where you're going with it. specific things we want the company to do, and in this case, it's to deploy access capital, and, three, we like the management team. in this case, again, the company's run by executives who have done well, good honest people, and it's only big stake of the company themselves, we think are ascending into the value. >> big picture. what can this bank potentially do to return capital that maybe some of the bigger banks cannot do? >> a variety of things. i think they open new branchs, whether growing market share and this banking environment they are in is a good banki ining ma to be in in terms of small businesses, deposits, opening new branchs and growing business, buy back stock, trading at a big discount to

intrinsic value. increasing dividends. may make acquisitions themselves. >> is this is purely microplay or so many people came and said we like the financials from the moment donald trump was elected all through that rally that had bank of america up 60%. does -- you know, is this a call also on the big picture? >> yes. i think, also, this company will benefit from a lot of things that could happen. it's a pull taxpayer as 36% rate. we get tax reform from trump, which we'll get tax reform. >> getting it this year? >> yes. >> does it matter? >> medic goes up, also burdened by regulatory expenses, and that will be a good positive for them. also, rates go up. if rates go up, that's also good for banks. >> warren buffett said this morning, rates are not going anywhere. >> i'm not sure it's going up. we'll get tax relief and some regulatory relief. those are, like, pluses for this investment, but the main event is this company's growing

because they are good companies, trading at a big discount, and lots of ways to deploy excess billion dollars in capital. >> people agree with you, tax reform happens, and this, and so you'd still say that does not mean you can buy the whole sector? >> right. >> investing in this bank and bank alone, owning 30 million shares, only invested in this bank, unique assets, and to piers, with lots of ways to create value. >> last time we spoke was web md. one of the only financials you own? what do you consider the core company? >> in addition to this company, we have happen to have a small team and another financial. web md, we own that company, which i think is an exciting company. we invest in a lot of industries, you know, obviously, health care, i.t., and financial services, and web md and investor bancorp are about. a wide portfolio. >> why bring that today rather than talking about web md? >> because i just think that

bancorp is unique in risk and reward. you talk about upside, and there's 30-60% upside, but tremendous downside protection. there's a company sitting on a billion dollars, biggest discount to peers, and what's unique is not just the upside but the downside. that's why i only pick one. if i could have picked two, i would have picked web md, but i could only pick one. web md is interesting, convergence of digital commerce on one hand and, of course, health and wellness, on the other hand. unique business with upside as well. >> when people who, you know, suc want to talk about valuation of the stock market overall, they shake their heads, doesn't make sense, too high, can't go up. does that enter your thinking at all, or do you just look, say, hey, i'm trying to find the attractive company? >> both. we're investing with a two-three year lens and call companies

we're investing in. i'm confident we'll make more money two, three years than they are making today. growing, good companies, and we have special ideas for them as we unlock value. definitely investing with a three-year lens. having said that, i also feel this is a surprise to the market. it will be to the upside. i think that the economy is healing. i think the market's pricing in some good things, but i think we'll get good thipngs, tax reform, repatriation, good for the market. >> if the market does go upside, is that harder for you? >> always hard -- >> you benefit, but does it -- >> always hard to find value in the markets. you have to look harder for it, but we're not finding any trouble finding new ideas. >> that's perfect place to leave it. cliff, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. glad to be with you. >> appreciate it. >> thank you. >> cliff robbins, the ceo of blue harper group, bill? >> great stuff. let's catch you up on earnings of the reports out. first with amc entertainment. julia, how do they look? >> amc beating on the top and

bottom line. earnings of 7 cents a share. beating expectations of 5 cents of share, and revenues beat by a hair at 1.28 billion versus estimates of 1.25 billion. the theater owner said ahc is off to a tremendous start of the year, and saying they are just beginning to unlock growth potential of the company's recent accusations, and they are now moving to make what they expect to be highly lucrative investments in powered recliner seats, enhanced food, and beverage offerings and it's 3% on the news up, and more fancy theaters, be ready. back to you. >> i'll take it. thanks, julia. let's get to hertz earnings out. susan lee? >> bill, third straight miss for hertz global. quickly going through the numbers, eps, a loss of a buck 61. much worse than expected. revenues missing as well. 1.92 billion for hertz global,

and this is a company that is 35% owned by carl icahn. it goes back to use the car prices falling twice as much as expected, really hurting some say the value and their credit worthiness, and some say there could be a credit downgrade. stock down 46%. add declines, down 50% since the election and losing 30 percent this year. back to you. >> all right. thank you. ouch. wow. >> 90% in the last two and a half years. obviously, structurally challenged business, not with a great balance sheet. in the wrong spot right there. despite all -- >> a special situation or -- >> no, i mean -- >> a pedigree of stuff there. >> car agencies in general have trouble, but, also, demand is not there and pricing is not there either. people talk about how uber eats into their business at airports. >> wow. so amc beats, and they are up 3%.

hertz misses again, down 13%. france elected a new president over the weekend, and eu supporter macron came out on top over the far right nationalist marie le pen. it's not all smooth sailing from here. we'll have live in paris with more on that coming up, and then two cable giants including the parent of our company agreeing to work together in the wireless industry. could that be the start of consolidation in that business? talk about that when we come back. k we should do that meeting tomorrow. well wait. what did you think about her? it's definitely a new idea, but there's no business track record. well, have you seen her work? no. is it good? good? at cognizant, we're helping today's leading banks make better lending decisions with new sources of data- so, multiply that by her followers, speaking engagements, work experience... credit history. that more accurately assess a business' chances of success. this is a good investment. she's a good investment. get ready, because we're helping leading companies lead with digital.

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landslide victory in france as voters elected the central candidate macron over le pen. michelle caruso-cabrera is live in paris with a look at where france goes from here. now, first of all, michelle, tremendous surprise after the brexit vote last summer, tremendous surprise in our country after the election in november. what about in france today? >> reporter: no surprise. the only surprise was that macron got a bigger percentage of the vote than priedicted by the polls, bus but he was forecasted to win. what i caution everybody is that the number of people who actually turned out to vote and the number of people who physically got to the voting booth and abstained was extremely high, so, ultimately, he only got 43% of the voting population. hardly a mandate. why? look at the economic program.

not necessarily popular with a lot of france where they loved the welfare state. they want to reduce the strict labor laws, pair back regulation, simplify taxes and pension, and also reduce the role of government within the economy here. that doesn't go over well with a lot of people. 50% of the country still wants even more state intervention into the economy. he has hurdles. this is on the plate the next couple weeks and months. becoming president a week from today. he's already said his very first trip is going to be to germany to meet with angela merkel to begin stronger e.u. integration. in the meantime, his spokesperson told me this morning, executive orders will be done in order to ease constraints listen the labor market, but if there's going to be real changes, he's got to do that in parliament, and hi formed the party a year ago, bill, this is a man without a party. the elections for the parliament are in june. those are crucial.

they need 577 people to run for office. they announced that today they are looking for candidates. come join us, they don't have any. that's the hurdles he faces at this point. 50% of them have to be women, bill, but, you know, looking for something else to do, they are looking for people to run the french government. >> the voter turnout, i was stunned when i i heard the numbers on that, i mean -- >> reporter: yeah. >> we all know howdy vi devisivs was in france. i would have thought people turned out in droves for this. just disillusioned with the time two to choose from? >> reporter: yes, absolutely disillusioned. remember, like i said earlier, france and the people of france love their welfare state. they are very, very proud of it. i interviewed several people over the weekend who said that macron was too free market. in our country, bill, he'd be central left, not central right,

and even for the french, he's considered to be too far afield for the way they are accustomed to the role of government in their lives. >> finally, the market spoons. we saw japan just skyrocket overnight. our markets sat here today. the cac was down on the session. what's the feeling over there? just a buy the rumor, sell the fact? what's going on in the marks today? >> reporter: yeah, yes. so remember two weeks ago was the first round of the election, and people were nervous he wouldn't make it to the first round. he did. so you got a 4% move in the cac that day. the next big move came last thursday morning after he survived the debate against le pen. people thought he was a weak debater and she might eat him alive. that didn't happen. he did quite well, and so the next day the market moved as well. this move today priced in already. >> as it was here, we are told in the united states. all right, michelle, great job as always.

i know you're bringing bagguettes back from paris. >> reporter: no problem. >> see you then. time for the news update with sue. sue? >> hi, bill. hi, everybody. the white house says former president obama made it clear to now president trump that he wasn't a fan of michael flynn, but saean spicer wondered why h didn't do anything about it when in office. >> the question is you have to ask is if president obama was concerned about general flynn, why not suspend the security clearance they just reapprove once earlier. >> no bail for arraigned in the hospital bed in boston today, charged with killing that engaged couple, both are doctors. they were in their condo on friday when they were murdered. police found him, he shot at them before police returned fire and shot him. they believe that the suspect

knew the victims. on a much lighter note, oreo created a new limited flavor for the 4th of july called firework oreo containing red and blue specks of popping candies available nationwide beginning today. meanwhile, oreo asked fans to choose the next flavor for a chance to win $500,000. let's get to work, guys. put the brains together. >> i love it. >> get a new oreo flavor. >> popup stores, why not the unicorn, dragon thing, starbucks, a fireworks oreo. >> yep. >> do you have wishes for the next flavor? >> i would think a caramel would be good with the chocolate. >> oh. >> just a thought, kelly. just a thought. >> you're on to something. i'd be first in line. >> you got it. >> see you later, thank you, sue. the wireless wars heat up,

this time it's two cable giants firing. the latest fight, what the parent company, comcast, and charter communications are up to. weighing in on the house's healthcare bill and why it's a massive tax cut for them and other rich americans. stay with us.

just joining us? recap of how we finished on wall street. not volatile at all, the dow saw a trading range of 47 points when all was said and done, but look at the s&p and the nasdaq, both positive enough for record highs for both those indexes. the russell lost five points on the day. we've had a hit and miss, a beat and a miss as far as earnings go so far. hertz global, a big miss, much bigger loss than expected or feared. that stock down 15% right now while amc entertainment beat by a penny, and it also beat on the top line as well. it's up 3% right now. now we've got marriott international. susan lee, how do they look? >> strong report card, bill, for the largest hotel operator, a seventh straight quarter of the beat from marriott. let's quickly go through the

numbers, eps, ahead of estimates, revenues also topping forecasts as well, and revenue per available room, this is the key metric in the industry, at 3.1% in the quarter, and that extends way beyond their own forecast guided for 1-3% revenue for available rooms, and it's a strong report card and more room in the pipeline as well. back to you. >> all right, susan, thank you very much. cable giants comcast and charter communications have been slowly getting deeper into the wireless industry. today, they are teaming up for a joint venture in the increasingly competitive market. david faber is joining us now. intriguing. you know, they are looking to get into this wireless business, and, i mean, how does that fit into their business models there? what's the aim here, do you think? >> well, that's a great question, bill, and a lot of people see this as an announcement itself, but as you know as we approach the wireless companies introducing 5g

services, a ways out, but when we get there, they will be able to bring a broadband signal wirelessly into the home. that's perhaps more a threat to cable companies than currently the case, and we have comcast, our parent company, and charter as well, with the mobile virtual network agreements with verizon put in place a a number of years ago. they think, well, we have to use them, comcast announced not long ago with its intent to start using it, signing up the customers for a wireless service, but they are regional players, and they don't have the bulk in terms of buying hand sets at a discount of any kind, and on the face of it, at least, this deal allows them to think about a national footprint when you put the two companies together in the wireless business, that is, and by hand sets in a more efficient manner, doing a number of other things in a more efficient manner. that appears to be what it's about right now, but, of course, as you know, bill, investors are always focused on, well, what's it really about in the future,

what it have to do with consolidation we hear coming? >> especially for verizon and at&t. take the two big ones, david, do they lose share of any kind of new market? >> they would, and there are already at each other's throats, as you know, adding in sprint and t-mobile, most importantly, t-mobile. it's already a cut throat competitive business wireless, and that's one question why people ask, well, why would comcast want to buy a wireless company or charter? not that they are necessarily going to, kelly, but this deal has at least made people think twice about that, and about the idea of comcast one day buying charter because, if anything, brings the companies closer together. on that, i, however, add regulatory-wise, although charter comprises of time warner systems, it is up likely they are able to pass even m&a very immediate doj environment.

>> yeah, okay. you answered the second question. >> yeah, uh-huh. >> answered the second question first, but first question is why does it have to be joint venture, and second question, is there a regulatory issue involved here? the answer on the second one is yes, right? >> well, i mean, we'll see. this may have to be reviewed in terms of the commercial agreement of this type, but, yeah, those looking at this, saying, is there more to it we do not fully understand? they think, well, does it mean comcast one day could sweep up charter? i'd answer, well, let's wait and see. regulatory-wise, that's tough. the other question is, well, could the two companies combined then go after t-mobile? that's also a difficult thing to imagine, a joint venture buying an enormous company, and the key part of this, i should have added, is neither company is allowed to do anything in the wireless world without the approval of the other for a year. they are locked up for one year. that's not a long time as you know in the way these things go,

but it is significant. >> in dog years and wireless years. it's a long time. >> yes. >> thank you, david. >> t-mobile probably insulated. thank you. >> see you later. >> kelly -- >> i'm just going to -- >> streaming video. >> i feel like i'm playing mystery science theater 3,000 and you're doing the show, bill. >> just keep those comments coming, folks. >> just stream of consciousness over here. speaking of streaming, when you think of streaming video, you probably think of netflix or amazon. the next guest, though, says there's an under the radar streaming player that vinest ves have to pay attention to. deb fine is after this. plus, find out why warren buffett and charlie say the biggest winners from the house health care bill are billionaires like themselves.

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our 18 year old wase army in an accident.'98. when i call usaa it was that voice asking me, "is your daughter ok?" that's where i felt relief. we're the rivera family, and we will be with usaa for life. welcome back. double line capitals was speaking here at the sohn conference, watching everybody as they make their way from just hearing his presentation. leslie picker has highlights, leslie, i said we didn't have that much macro yet, but here's our chance. >> this is your chance for some macro, kelly. lots of interesting details in g the presentation. investors go long etf and short

the s&p 500 through spy, and leverage that one time. he said his investment thesis is based on looking at the flows between active and passive, looking at how the s&p 500 has performed, and he's seen a shift in em, and he's looked at these two charts, juxtaposed against each other and how they compliment each other over history saying now is the time to buy emerging markets as they are set for a nice increase there, and one of the other news things that we learned in this presentation is that on the way over to the sohn conference today in the car ride on the way over, mr. gundlach created a twittering the, over the course of the presentation, in just 15 minutes, he gained hundreds of new followers, and i know the account goes up from there. i also should mention, too, kelly, that after his presentation, david einhorn took to the stage to clarify that his

bearish position in core labs was, indeed, a short position, so lots of new stuff from the conference by the minute. we're staying on top of it. >> yes. it's the clarifications coming wherever they may. thank you, leslie. the next guest here to tell us why investing in children's content is the hidden gem of streaming. joining me now is deb fine, founder and president of fine capital partners. that's a good pun, like, you didn't have to try too hard to get that name, did you? >> just came up with the last name. >> love the presentation this morning. >> thank you. >> made me think, who other than a woman would have gotten up on stage today to say, my best idea now is to go long children's content. >> well, i think men could have said it also, but there's a seat change going on on how people consume video, and the -- all the video content, particularly kids' area, is bid up. instead of just having

broadcasters and kpacable netwo buy it, there's now netflix, hulu, amazon, and stars, and good content reduces tune for netflix and drives ad dollars online for ad supporter distribution. >> so many fun nuggets in this i appreciated. it'll sound bad, but in a way reminded me of valeant, old content, pace cheap prices, race the price and sell in a new environment, which is happening now, but this is not apples to apples, but in terms of a strategy, it's a good one if you are dhx, a canadian company, biggest independent library of children's contempt. kids' content does not age. there's no dialogue to dub when you talk about global appeal. the culture references, you know, doesn't take a lot of work there. >> you are making the case for me. it's awe? . >> no expensive location shots, plus, all the merchandise and

licensing sales and try selling "house of cards" bed sheets. >> right. there's a lot going on here that it does make you wonder, is this an overlooked investment area? >> i think it is an overlooked investment area. think of what comcast paid for dreamworks, 24 times, which goes to show that children's context is valuable. people need it. it drives deals. kids are now 35% of total viewership, used to be 20%. >> wow. >> in the old world, advertising was extremely restricted on broadcast tv. the type of advertising you could put on, the length of advertising you could put on. >> that's not true anymore. >> that's not true anymore. >> could they regulate that? >> i'm not sure. i don't know if they could regulate it. it would be tricky to regulate with a huge diversity an platforms that is coming on now. >> tell us, baa i had not heard about this before, but there may be viewers familiar with it. >> wild brain, they have a

network on youtube where they aggregate highly watched videos like dump trucks and kids unboxing toys, which drives millions and millions of viewers to wild brain, and then once you're on this network, your served dhx content and third party content that then drives ad sales. ad sales on the network are priced higher than the average kids network, and you can buy merchandise directly through the network. it has all sorts of -- >> last question for you. confident that kids going forward will watch shows in the same way we did, or when they get in front of the ipad, they do something else entire ri? >> they are now watching more shows on ipads, on phones, on their computers, i think they are, in fact, watching content differently than we did growing up, in fact, driving the tremendous demand for kids' content. >> you think how much upside? $5.50 canadian dollar.

>> yes. >> could go to 20-30? >> awesome. >> even i can do that math. >> tremendous upside. very excited about it. >> great presentation, deb, thank you so much for joining us. >> great, thank you. >> appreciate it. deb fine of fine capital partners. >> thank you. up next, testimony from former acting attorney general putting donald trump's ties to russia back in the headlines. highlights next. on "fast money" don't miss the exclusive interview with jeffrey gundlach at 5:00 p.m. there's nothing traditional about my small business so when

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russia, those were all words part of acting attorney general sally yates' testimony. >> hi, bill, this was the first opportunity for many americans to even hear the voice of sally yates acting attorney general earlier this year under president trump. a holdover from the obama administration. until she was fired by donald trump for her refusal to carry out his muslim ban. today's hearing, though, focused very much on general mike flynn the national security adviser fired by donald trump earlier this year. sally yates making the case he had a number of concerns about mike flynn and his relationship with russian officials. she said one of the things that concerned her about mike flynn that she alerted the white house to is the fact that apparently mike flynn was not telling the truth to the vice president. here's what she said. >> we began our meeting tell him

that there had been press accounts of statements from the vice president and others that related conduct that mr. flynn had been involved in that we knew not to be the truth. >> the meaning with the white house counsel said the problem with him not telling the truth was that this could expose him to compromise by the russians, who would know what his true und underlying conduct was. this is how she expressed that concern. >> compromise was certainly the number one concern. and the russians can use compromise material, information, in a variety of ways. sometimes overtly, and sometimes subtly. the concern is that you have a very sensitive position, like the national security adviser, and you don't want that person to be in a position where, again, the russians have leverage over him. >> now, bill, this hearing is still going on. we'll monitor it for further

developments. but in general you can see a pattern, democrats looking at the fact that it took 18 days to fire nik flynn after sally yates went to the white house counsel about the concerns about potential russian compromise. republicans are focusing in on the leaking in washington and how the classified material around this whole episode has made its way into the newspapers. both parties there working on a partisan agenda. sally yates testifying for the first time in public. we'll see what else she has to say this afternoon, bill. >> ayman, we'll continue to follow that. thanks very much. up next, some of the underthe radar investments. we'll wrap them up for you and give you what some of the best ideas are. stay with us. ease. you too, unnecessary er visits. and hey, unmanaged depression, don't get too comfortable. we're talking to you, cost inefficiencies and data without insights. and fragmented care- stop getting in the way of patient recovery

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so that farmers like ray can compete in big ways. china. oh ... he got there. that's the power of and. welcome back. you've heard a lot about the big ideas presented this afternoon. before we go, we want to not neglect to mention some of the names that came up this morning. zylynx, and mark moore liked formula one. we talked to jeff gordon about that. another mlp play.

and fever tree, a great thesis about that one taking share in the tonic market from schweb. guys, there is also david copley who told people to short the kiwi. you know, to be worried about dairy debt. and the exposure that the whole -- by the way, the retailer, as amazon made strides down under. >> by the way, downtown josh brown as we know him tweeted out a little while ago, that bobby axelrod as we know the brain child of our colleague andrew sorkin on the tv series billions, made a video appearance at the conference. i don't know if you saw that, kelly. there were no investment ideas there. but he invaded the sohn conference there as well. art imitating life. >> right. exactly.

mike, do you think that china, you know, kind of -- when i hear somebody come on talking about china's credit, it's like, all right, here we go again. but maybe that's the kind of complacency that is problematic. >> that idea, kelly, you start to feel bulletproof because you've been hearing about a bear case and a specific part of the world for so long. at some point i guess that becomes a little bit dangerous when people start to think we've gotten past that, and immune to it. it's interesting to me, a lot of those thing that you ticked off, interesting ideas. a lot got traction today in the markets. but still seeing far afield. you have to go for smaller stocks or different parts of the world. people having a hard time feeling they have an edge for more mainstream investments. >> yeah. bill, there was, you know, i didn't realize that there was so much dairy debt in new zealand. but there is. and that's a consequence of what can happen down under. >> i had no idea tesla had

convertible bonds either. >> i thought you were going to say they had convertible cars. >> pencils down, end of show. kelly, we'll see you tomorrow. that does it for "closing bell." >> thank you so much. >> thanks for joining us, everybody. "fast money" starts right now. see you tomorrow. "fast money" starts right now. at the nasdaq market site overlooking new york city's times square. on fast, apple gone wild. the stock soaring to all-time highs as the market cap passes $800 billion for the first time ever. 30% in 2017 alone. can you still get into the name? the street is on fire with media deals. what could be the next mega merger. the traders make their big predictions. and betting big on one group of stocks. we'll tell you what they are and why they have more room to run. but first with ekick