for one of these companies, it's narrowing all the time. >> i think it's still the beat, yet the shares are still lower. >> despite this incredible young. it's a great growth story the street is not rubbing over itself. >> they should change their name to apple lizon. i'm number of these great ideas. michael, as always, thank you, see you tomorrow. that's it for closing bell. "fast money" begins right now. >> "fast money" starts right now. live from the nasdaq martz overlooking new york city's time's square, your traders are tim seymour, guy adami and karen finerman, disney is down about 3% near after hours low, that conference call is under way as we speak. it's what the ceo just told julia boorstin that has all the traders talking t. fear game hit one of the lowest levels in history. it has everyone freaking out. its not what you fear, you should fear something else. later, more drama on the tarmac.

this time spirit airlines coming under pressure after a big fight breaks out in florida. we will bring you all the latest details. we have one of the most surprising trades of the month the retail resurgence, retail stocks surging more than 1% today up more than 5% in the last month. check out names like home depot and lowes hitting an all time high. wal-mart at a 52-week high. all this ahead of macy's, j.c. pennies and in order stroms ahead of earnings. is the long national nightmare finally over? what do the performance say about the consumer? guy, what do you think? >> i don't think it's over for macy's or nordstrom's. i think these stores have tremendous head winds, still, you mentioned to start the show, home depot, dan has been all over wal-mart for quite some time. these stocks still make sense, people will knock home depot on valuation. maybe 20 times forward earnings, it's getting a little expensive

kward to lowes at 16. the world continues to set up well for home depot. they continue to look, few want to play retail, mastercard, vis a sa and the resurgence of american express. >> is the consumer okay though, interest rates are relatively low. could it be we threw out the whole basket of retail stocks because we we heard a couple bad data points? >> it could, i don't think the national night ma iris over yet but we have a lot coming up this week. we have macy's and nordstrom's and j.c. penney and a couple others. i think that for some of them, we're still going to see some head winds there. there is some unique head winds to macy's, because, for example, tourism is down in new york. that's still happening. there are mid shifting and are they going to monetize real estate, maybe not as much as they hoped, however, bart is pretty low. i know it's up a little bit.

down 60%, up a little. still makes it down a lot. so i think if you don't come into a disaster, it will probably be fine. i don't own macy's, i do own coor's, that report is a little later in the month. there is strong head winds there. the stock i think reflects a lot of head winds and the kate coach merger is good for them. >> we have this conversation about retail, why shouldn't we be actually saying, yeah, of course they're up 5% in the last month. you basically have taken the border adjustment tax out of the way. this is the shortest sector in the market, sentiment going into earnings season is lower than going into the fourth quarter. everybody knows retail is getting destroyed. so one, don't make a call on the consumer. this is not any measure of the consumer. i think actually the fact that these stocks are trading hire, they should be trading higher. they have very good balance sheets and a number of names. we know the home improvement and amazon trades are alive and

well. and that's not going to change. again it gets back to where there is too much store space and ubique whiwity and e-commer >> look at the xrt. that's the s&p, you know, retail etf here. it's still 10% from its 52-week highs made in december. there are a lot of head winds these guys are talking about, maics a lot of sense. don't forget, wal-mart is expected to do a half a trillion in sales this year him wal-mart or excuse me, amazon is about to do $165 billion. when you add that up, these two companies, it was amazon just a little bit ago when you think of what wal-mart is trying to do with e-commerce. they try to put the e-commerce out of business. to me, it's not just the amazon wrecking baum and you get target to get into the game. so the head winds that you are facing for department stores don't ease up any time soon.

>> i don't think we understand that. does that make the other retailers uninvestable? are they trade at all even at these levels? we can still be destroyed by amazon and wal-mart. >> the anchor stores to me are these stocks have had nice bounce, nordstroms is going from 41-and-a-half to 50 today in a short period of time. to me, that's a short covered rally into earnings this thursday. i think you will get another opportunity to sell it. a little north of 50. i think it goes down again. i think macy's tremendous head winds, valuation don't make sense. the names that tim and karen mentioned, wal-mart specifically seems to have figured it out. you look at target and the problems they're having overlay what wal-mart has been doing. it's clear wal-mart is ahead of the game. >> pbh, cam vin klein, et cetera. this is a game in the apparel space has carved out good numbers. the margins continue to be very good. they have goods momentum. they got over the problems, the

ubiq ubiquewitty issue, they're better down the road. >> i was talking to an analyst a couple minutess ago, i would, meaning him, would want to be quote/unquote in the retail space for giving the product to distributors, not the macy's, the coach and the coor's, ralph lauren, the investors the content so to speak. >> the content. and there we seen them disintermediate the department stores, perhaps they consider they want to have less wholesale exposure and under the price, i think one thing that's interesting to me, i'm very curious to see what happens with deckert. to see if anybody wants to buy them. they have strong brands, a very strong brand, to see whether there actually is any private equity or corporate interest in them. >> that to me sort of gives me a hint about how retailers view their own landscape going forward. one thing we need to talk about,

w wayfair the stock was up huge on a nice revenue beat. that was good. it's along the line osf a home depot and lowes, more than apparel. apparel is taking it on the chin. >> i think it comes down to competition. under armour is another name direct to consumers. under armour is not doing it in the same way. they are going through a painful transition from going to this upstart high company to a global brand that frankly can't keep up with its sales, i mean, i think the valuation cannot be. they've had major management in this company. this is not a company that will turn themselves around overtime t. competitive landscape in the footwear and atmosphere athleisure is under pressure. >> if other side, tjx does so well, when you go to tj maxx. >> they get under armour and nike on the cheap. >> you boo i the run-in? >> the ones you have to borrow

over the weekend? >> i bring it down to 16, i think the stock rallies. >> anything to invest before and/or amazon? >> and costco, too. the department stores, there are way too many of them. when you think of the big guys, intermediateing department stores, selling mass bulk. it seems i would stay away from all. i would call them dead cat balance on the at the present time stores. stick to your tj maxx. most different times it does really well. one point, with oil going lower, okay. i'm not sure this is an actual boone for the consumer. when you think of how many jobs we lost, when oil got cut in half over the last few years. then you think about the tax cuts and what's going on with health care, it's not exactly great for the low end consumer when you think about it. for me, i see more head winds for the consumer. >> in other words the reason oil

prices are lower, the same reason why i think apparel is lower. technology is making a major disintermediatiation bringing a lot of things to market that couldn't come to market. i think to say the consumer i think is getting a benefit, which is your first point. you say not. we have been talking about this story two years, i think you get to a place where the consumer, the benefit to cheaper prices and apparel, they don't have the same wage growth t. reality is they still spend as they have been, but i don't think that that changes any time soon. >> you are a long-time investor to macy's. now you are not. >> yes. >> is there anything macmacy's do. >> >> in my own head, sometimes you want to walk away. i wouldn't be shocked if the trade is up a little bit. if they do, they do a very material real estate deal maybe be i'd rather be in something like children's place, which has been hitting on all slinders.

they have a good mark, a great product. they trade at a multiple very different than some of like a macy's for sure. but i do think, though the shift of consumer dollars, the consumer is very wealthy away from afarrell to other things is absolutely happening. we see it on live nation the other day. >> experiencing restaurants, et cetera. >> ferraris, tiffany, lgmh, are you seeing it. coming up, check out shares of disney, the after hour session lows, bob eiger speaking on a conference call right now. we are bring you the latest comments on the quarter. another viral video hitting airline stocks today, the rest is surging. could this nightmare pr be creating buying opportunity and snap gearing up since going public back in march. if history is any indication, you might want to sell right now. we got those details, much more "fast money" still ahead. still. there's a denture adhesive that holds strong until evening.

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the shlike a bald penguin. how do i look? [ laughing ] show me the billboard music awards. show me top artist. show me the top hot 100 artist. they give awards for being hot and 100 years old? we'll take 2! [ laughing ] xfinity x1 gives you exclusive access to the best of the billboard music awards just by using your voice. the billboard music awards. sunday, may 21st eight seven central only on abc. welcome back to "fast money" the tale of two travel stocks, trip adviser and priceline, the stock is headed in different directs

after hours. for more, let's head back to susan lee. >> melissa, priceline the down in after hours on a mixed quarter for the company the company announced its cfo, he will be retiring, but he will stay on until they find a new cfo to replace him. as to the numbers in the quarter, analysts have been raising it heading into the private miss since 2012 a. pretty good set. on the call, we blamed an extra dapd and a leap year last year, so tough compares, easter holiday this year, many reasons behind their revenue lack. the main track on the shares was the guy in the second quarter, way below estimates. priceline says those seasonal effects which helped them in the first quarter will track in the second quarter. priceline gets more than three-quarters of revenue and cheaper euro is better fitting. meantime, despite a fifth miss from trip adviser, shares are rally income after hours on a beat and their cliff face transaction revenue the

so-called instant feature that trip adviser rolled out over the past year, but they haven't really benefitted from. the company says that strong growth in the u.s. market needs a more review seekers are booking their hotels on trip adviser and monthly visitors increase 14% up from last year. the stock, though, has hit three-year lows this year and you know maybe we've come off bottoms, so there have been a lot of bearish calls heading into the earnings season, travel has been doing well, up 6% him some say the shift is going to experiences, melissa, back to you. >> thank you very much, susan lee. we have to talk about this priceline. do you think last year, there weren't any calendars available to the management scheme and all of a sudden the calendar for 2017 comes down, oh, the calendar is different this year. extra day, leap year. like we didn't know about that. >> that's one of those things i think you sort of leave it alone

type thing. this quarter was fine, gross bookings were up 20% year after year. the second quarter eps guy, it's almost the word should be catastrophically bad. they were looking for close to 15 bucks and got it to $14 for the second quarter. i'm not really sure where that comes from. i'm inclined to give tlaem pass, because it's been dead selling to me, but i don't know where they owe owe. >> catastrophically bad, listen, this is not a stock you have over. it's up 30% of the year, it broke out and rallies 6.5% in the quarter. so they got eps down 9% t. sales guidance was basically a slight miss. at the end of the day, this was maybe sanity, maybe they are using that calendar as an example, maybe they're resetting that expectation. q3 is the massive quarter.

i don't think it's unnatural to see management give it. >> it's up 30% on the year. it's not catastrophic. it's not like this is something starting to snowball in the after hours. we are down 15%. >> some may be tired, they did beat by quite a bit here on this quarter, right so if they're looking a little more than a dollar and change, lower on the guidance for the next quarter, they did beat by over a dollar. >> it's a huge beat on the eps side. >> i guess maybe some of that shift is true, though. i also find it ridiculous, oh, easter, we didn't know when that was going to happen. who could have seen that coming? >> the global trends and the growth of this company exist on the other side as well. trip adviser, by the way, the guidance -- the reaffirmation of 2017 is what matters. there has been no eps see through for investors. that's why the stock under performed. >> the travel space, another day, another glimpse of mad maxon earth, courtesy of the airline industry. there time a brawl between

spirit airlines and passenger and staff offering up yet another black eye for the industry. phil lebeau joins frus denver with the latest. phil, that was quite a fight caught on video. >> bell lisa, i think that's what people are talking about today. this is video, let me show you from ft. lauderdale last fight, spirit canceled i think three flights. something smacked with one of the passengers, somebody said something to somebody else, you had a melee that broke out. three people were arrested after this fight in the airport. here's what the people that were there had to say about it. >> i cried, i'm not going to lie, i'm a cry baby. >> it was a chaotic. fights broke out. lines were two-to-three hours. >> reporter: so what's going on with spirit today? there is an update, a court said the pilots who have been engaged in a highly debatable work shoppage, they say it hasn't been a work stoppage, but there

have been 300 flights canceled. the court said, you can't do that anymore t. pilot's union stated it will honor that ruling. there is another hearing on this matter that is scheduled for may 15th. in the meantime, when you take look at shares of spirit, you might be saying to yourself, look, like all the airlines, they must be down because of all of these incidents. not the case. up 50% this year, mem lisa, we have talked about it time and again the planes are number the profits are up. generally speaking with the exception of some of these very high profile incidents, we're not seeing an impact on the airlines. yes, more shocking video, that is not hitting the bottom line. that's not worrying investors. >> karen, a quick question. >> it seems like people may be seeing these airlines as a bank, if you can get yourself on a video where an employee of the airline does something bad, maybe that's a home run for you. >> yep. >> and there's an incentive to do there. is that how the airlines are

feeling? >> well, they won't say that publicly, karen. i can tell you privately, when i have talked with executives at a number of the airlines, they're hearing that, they're hearing that from people like maybe i'll say something and it will be caught on video and then you have to pay me t. airlines are aware of this copycat phenomenon out there. although we have not documented airlines had to pay up because somebody had sort of manufactured an event. >> all right, phil, thank you, phil lebeau joining us from denver. there have been a lot of incidents, the latest comes after a couple of turbulent weeks. >> stay with me. disturbing video for the american airlines flight attendant after snatching a stroller from a mother. also video of two flights, pale passengers brawling on a flight to tokyo. and a pilot suspended after hitting a female passenger trying to break up a fight. of course the viral video of the united passenger forcibly removed from a flight and the most unwatchful of all, kenny

g's impromptu inflight concert. [ music playing ] >> you got to wonder if anybody is complaining. >> they felt a lot better. >> google. horn. >> why is he playing that? you know what that is? >> it's a clarinet maybe. i don't know. >> anyway the airlines had a good day today. >> i agree with karen, this has gotten to the point where social media has a personal victory, saves pull back, it's solely the results. they announced last week those numbers were fine. stocks moved from basically 35 up to 60 and a bullback in the last nine months. so the airlines to pe are very investible right now. in fact, i go for the bargain bins. that's american and delta. >> american had good traffic numbers today. >> yeah, also we saw warren buffet and then at the summit

conference, so airlines are sort of people, navy now think all right, there sort of very cyclical p.e. multiple that airlines are getting, maybe they should get a higher multiple. >> it's been an all time high. spirit airlines real quick, 11 times forward earnings. the numbers were fine, i think but for this incident this stock would have broke $60 was a huge level to break through. it was on the precipice of doing so. >> i'm with dan, a snark about lines. >> one thing about that mon tanl of videos, i think this stuff is always going on. i think that people have their phones in their hands, have you o-to-go back to united. >> has kenny g been playing for years? >> no, that question was a good one, quickly, okay, are people doing copycats? >> a change in poles. that's the best thing. if consumers can feel better about what's going on for the airlines, it's better long term.

>> fighting in the airport? >> i don't think it's the airlines fault. >> still ahead, disney down more than 3%, you will hear what bob eager told investors, first in business world wide, in the meantime, here's what else is coming up on "fost." >> that's what people want to know about the so-called fear index. there is something out there that suggests it's about to surge. we'll tell you what that is. plus, "fast money" is going to -- las vegas. hitting the strip to the hottest trades and talking to the biggest names in sin city. for one crazy night on "fast money". >> that itself this thursday at 5:00 p.m.

>> welcome back to "fast money," the market ending at a record high t. s&p and do you ending slightly lower. here's what's coming up the second half of the show, have no fear, a south volatility remains calm, other asset classes are going absolutely crazy. we'll tell you what it means to the market. later, snap getting ready to release to the public. if fast rivals, twitter and facebook are any indication, the results could send the results into a tailspin, we will explain. disney shares reported a revenue miss. julia spoke with bob eiger

moments ago. >> reporter: disney's call wrapped up. the company says it expects to return to more robust growth in 2018 and announcing a $2 billion share repurchase for the year. ceo telling me when it comes to concerns about espn, that's what weighs on the stock. they got the digital transition under control and digital growth are will eventually compensate for traditional tv declines. >> what we are seeing is, some significant growth of the espn subs and other disney channel subs of disney owned channels. on those platforms but so far, it's not enough to make up for some of the losses and the traditional ones, we believe ultimately we will see that. but these platforms are brands new. >> i canner saying they don't take their espn layoffs lightly. they will check for efficiency. he credited the disney parks for driving the earnings surprise, announcings their new shanghai park has 10 million visitors

ahead of schedule. there are reports that eiger is considering a presidential run when his contract expires in 2019. i asked if he is interested. >> i had one of the greatest jobs in the world i believe for the last 12 years. i got a few years left. we just talked about that. i got a lot to do here still. i want to make sure this company is set up for the future and i'm not spending much time thinking about what i'm going to do next. >> eiger also weighed in on the ideas of offering premium home entertainment debuts for movies close to theaters. it's not a priority, because disney movies are meant for the big screen. over to you. >> i'm curious, i asked you about cbs. did bob eiger say 762,000 subscribers were lost to the cable and satellite industries in the first quarter? >> reporter: well, i asked him about that specifically. because he was talking a lot about the growth of these digital bundles, the new packages, over the top streaming

service, even when you account for the growth of those the whole industry still lost half a million paid tv subscribers in the first quarter. he said they expect the numbers to eventually catch up. he said disney is included in all the bundles, skin my bundles and the streaming bundles and because of that, he does expects them them to grow and he expects the traditional growth to compensate for the digital decline. they do expect to see it do under the line. >> julia, thank you on disney earnings. what would you do with the stock here? >> i don't think you need to do anything. if you are waiting for 2018 growth, i think you have a couple quarters to see them settle in. the good news is media is doing just fine. parks and media, they're more than the media networks at 5.9. are you getting there compensation, after that run, i'd do nothing. >> i agree, there is a little

seismic change. i don't think the stock has a seismic valuation discount, it's great property, so i think you do nothing. >> last week we said devastation, they're down 10% on the week, okay. so they had two days down 7.5% crest. disney showed really relative good strength t. guy is sitting there. the call is out. he is talking in a pretty succinct poised fax about what the challenges are to this business. he has been doing that since august of 2015 when the stock was at an all time high. i think the fact that he extended this contract. he did it to fix the media contract. no doubt about it, he did not want to lead. >> did you know digital mobile. >> he told us we are seeing good growth. he said they will be offered direct to consumer at some point. i believe they will deliver on that promise.

they have that other deal. maybe it's like you say. >> subscribers have a different possibility. >> back to your point, though, when he was growing, trading at 23, foretimes. >> it's close to 20%. so the point is, would you need to get that to get to a 23, 24 times multiple. >> is that the multiple at its peak august 2015? >> my point i don't think can you get back based on that. >> the business has changed. >> completely changed. i know they talk about espn. the reality is, the businesses that do well for espn, those costs continue to go higher and higher, so that's where they're making their money on the ad spend, but the content costs continue to go up. sort of in a little of a pick him with espn. i think they're trying to clean that up to make an acquisition. >> i agree. what about the other way around, do you think who is the largest

shareholder? lorraine powell jobs, fourth largest, when you think of apple, 800 billion, repatriateing at some point close to $200 billion. they have a lot of debt. you think about where they lack in services, it is contact. >> so far away from the history of disney and their acquisitions, right? the biggest one we saw up until this point? smr in the history of apple? >> yes, right to go off into a tangential business like that, if i were an apple shareholder, that would give me some concern. there is a huge level of risk. >> you don't think jobs is a part of the picture? >> i don't know. >> do they have to make a strategic investment? >> i don't know. i don't think you have to suggest this i we heard it again and again. >> they got to do something with that cash. if you think of what's going forward, they have a billion installed base of ios devices, they got to figure out >> disney can sell to anybody.

>> espn is going to be direct to consumer. so think about apple. they don't have a digital strategy. they lag behind spotify in paid streaming sub, whatever. >> i think you need content. >> i do. >> i have we heard from a lot of people throughout the apple to buy disney. i hear what these guys are saying. but you can make an architect. listen, who does, disney is crushing it in china, apparently. apple not so much t. synergies that could be created overseas could be interesting with apple. >> it's ludicrous. >> why? >> think about it. they have a billion ios devices around the world. they're in people's hands, the device is in the head. they are attached to youtube. why not give them something to bu buy? >> i mean they have 200 on their

balance sheet. >> not more attractive if you bought disney. >> at what price? what is disney going to sell? at what price? this is the most iconic brand in the world. more people know disney than apple. more people care about disney than apple. >> apple, that pristine balance sheet gone. all that gone. >> i mean, eb needs content, dan. >> dan together. >> dan. >> it's noise dan brings up provocative thoughts. >> it's not provocative. i think it's more provocative to buy disney. >> that is a closer business model to me. >> again, i think. >> except for the fact i don't think disney would do that. why do you pay for that conduit? >> they can lay down something that you are really missing, tim. the fact of the matter. >> talk to me.

>> a become of these around the world. they want another couple hundred million in emerging market. okay. when you think about the content, that is the service, that is what's going to be sold in the future. >> the amazon model. >> it is in a way. >> what have they been saying about apple services? >> it's not going to get anywhere. >> you are making the point. >> your point is -- it will become meaningless, they will become a services company. which is so contrary to the point you have been making for a long time. services are not even on the map. >> i don't leak what they're dock right now. they don't have a streaming video strategy. they don't have a good music strategy. they're not doing a good job. services is a bigger revenue business than last year. >> i get it. >> it's starting to.

>> would you like apple more if it bought disney, if it were combined? >> no way they owe owe i have no idea t. pros and the cons are typically something so outside their norm it doesn't make sense. >> bizarre. >> something that's happened to apple, guys the stock went straight up. it's five days. it's getting $35 billion market cap. >> what pressure? >> it's not just apple. it's big cap tech. >> apple is up 70%. it's happening around the world. >> interesting. still ahead, snapchat gearing up for its first earnings report since going public. results give investors the confidence they need to snap up shares on the ipo. our traders weigh in, it has been quiet in stock land. some call it deserted. a number of other asset classes

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>> hear that? >> no. >> that's what it was for investors in stock land today. b bob pisani has more on this. >> reporter: the vix is a methodology, it's not a stock for judgeing short-term volatility that can be applied to many different asset classes and in recent years that's exactly what happened. they applied the same vix methodsology to cdoe, instead of the s&p 500, they measured vol estimate for other asset classes, here's a vix on ten-year treasury notes. that's down recently as the prices have been dropping and the yields generally have been rising. there is also a vix for a lot of different commodities, even a gold vix which has been declining as gold has been rallying, although, recently, it's been up as gold has dropped a little bit. there is a crude oil vix which

is at the high for the year. this is telling us, traders are expecting oil to bounce around in the next 30 days. i think that's an important one to watch. there is a volatility index for several currencies the eurodollar the dollar yen, a dollar a british pound. you can see the euro volatility index drop notably in april. that was on the french elections. by the way, in recent years, there have been volatility indexes for sing him stocks, not many, only five, amazon, apple, goldman sachs, google and ibm have their own vexs. believe it or not, it's quite volatile in march and moved up lately, in late march when it moved out of the trading range. remember something, you can move up or down when buying a lot of puts and calls as well. now, there is two points i want to make. first, these indexes measure different asset classes. so you can see, they're not necessarily correlated to each other. second the big kahuna is the s&p

500 vix. it has the most valuable of all of them. >> thank you, so the kwep here is can your stocks we main calm in the face of other asset classes moving around? what do you guys think? what do you think? >> i tot the vix was going to primpbt single digits. it makes sense. i'm not some theorist, i don't know how it's constructed. in the world we live in today the vix is startling to me. what i think is happening is, people that have been correctly buying protection, karen talks about it all the time. pete does as well, watching it expire worthless, the market basically just goes occupy, finally said, why should i bother? the markets are going higher. that's what scares me t. level of complacency is what that is measure zblk we have breaking news from president trump. seema mody has the details in the newsroom. >> reporter: president donald trump informing fbi director steve comey he has been terminated and removed from office. he acted based on the clear

recommendations of the deputy attorney general and attorney general jeff sessions, this press release says the fbi is one of our nation's most cherished and respected institutions and today we gin our crown jewel of law enforcement, that's president trump, a search for a new permanent fbi director will gin immediately. the headline here, james comey is out. back to you. >> all right, thank you very much. this has happened one other time in history, william sexes who had been the fbi director was appointed by ronald reagan but was fired by president bill clinton in 1993. it has happened before t. news reported by nbc news, president trump removed fbi director james comey. maybe it was not a surprise after the testimony. i don't know, how do you take that? >> well, it's not a surprise that there has certainly been disagreement that people have challenged both the authority of the office and whether actually mr. comey was acting in the best

faith of the country. i mean, to me, this is a guy that's, if you think of the elected process this guy at one point looked leak he was working against the clinton campaign and then slowly he has been at times pushing the trump administration. what seems to me as if there were conflicts worth pursuing. that to me in big bold blunt terms is encouraging and something that i think we should be getting out of the fbi, which is not showing any partiality. >> this comes after reports that the fbi had notified congress that comey misstated two findings involving the hillary clinton e-mail investigation. >> that was all last night. >> get him on a technicality or on something. >> right. karen. >> i don't know. it's sort of troubling actually if you think about sessions and, you know, the controversy surrounding sessions, sort of, you have to wonder whether you can't help but look at this as

partisan driven. maybe it isn't. maybe that would be the most charitable take on it. but it's hard, that's not my first reaction. >> when he was faced with the decision to either rule, talk about the plain e-mails they found on uma abe dden's server, let's say he sat on it, the election happens the election goes through maybe mrs. clinton wins then he gets charged withholding back evidence. he was in a no-win six once it came. that day was apparently bound to happen. >> the biggest issue is he made a mess on both sides. truly, i don't think there is anyone feeling sorry for the guy right now a. lot of people on the clinton side feel he did make a mess of it. it did shift the election with that report just days be every the lengs election. the flipside, here's another guy

who actually might have an axe to grind. you guys saw sally yates, she did a big number on the republicans. so who knows what comes out of this. they're kind of ranking up enemies here. as if they didn't have enough already. >> specifically in terms of misstatements, it was during testimony on may 3rd, a few days ago, our fbi director comey had said that uma abedin had boarded a far smaller in actuality he stated under testimony under oath. so that was the problem there. this according to sources again, this happened days ago. the latest is president trump has removed fib physical director james comey as the head of the fbi, so an interesting turn of events within just the past few days of the trump administration. in terms of what this could be, are there other you mentioned weeks of partisanship possibly.

>> yeah. >> i think, you know what what another interesting? i think there is little doubt when the trump administration started dropping bombs, i think it took the whole trump-russia thing off the table for a bit. we just hadn't we heard about it. then these hearings came about. you remember it was a big deal. now it just moved on. now it's back on the table. i think that's the issue. >> they didn't bring back russia. >> no doubt about it. >> think about what this is going to do. this has a lot to do with it about the fbi. if you look at yates' testimony yesterday, she said on fume russ occasions she could not comment on ongoing fbi investigations. there were other issues where this investigation started and comey didn't know a lot about what's going on and the way they keep people out of the loop. i think it's fair. >> let's check in with nbc with more details. >> reporter: mel lisa, we have a copy from the attorney general jeff sessions to president trump

recommending the removal of fbi director comey. he wrote in this letter, i have concluded that a fresh start is needed at the leadership of the fbi. it is essential. clearly, we need to reaffirm commitment to long standing principles to ensure the integrity and fairness of investigations and prosecutions t. director must follow his faith prince ply the department of justice, in addition, a copy of the deputy attorney general, in which he writes, he cannot defend director comey's handling of the conclusion offing is clinton's e-mails. le said he does not understand comey's refusal to accept the nearly universal judgment that he was mistaken. so again, these are the letters that were september from the department of justice to president trump recommending that comey be removed. there you have it, melissa. >> thank you very much. for more on this developing story, joining us from the

phones, axios co-founder, jim, what's your take on these developments? >> i have to say, i'm surprised. i don't think there has been much talk about this today. i think the assumption has been that comey would stick arnold. my concerns i think that sessions and other people have had with comey. to be honest, both parties have had issues with comey in this case from ginning to end. he's gone under tremendous scrutiny. i think the "new york times" piece a couple weeks ago delved in. i felt it was a nuance but also the reality of how he handled this investigation in a way that left everybody frustrated. at the end of the day, he's out. >> what do you think was the tipping point? was it the misstatement of facts during testimony in front of the senate? >> it sure seems to be the pool the correct record to date by the way the correct record today. i think they were probably looking for a trigger, like comey a. lot of people didn't want comey in there.

so it will be interesting to see as we sort through this. >> is this going to be the first of several removals or is there any cleaning house of the fbi? >> no, i think it depends on who else they put in there and how deep and wide the trump administration feels the problems of the fbi are. they, obviously, have tremendous issues with him right before the election. other officials at the fbi right before the election. so i think it depends on who session and trump go with and who ends up with in that fbi slot. that person will have to make the decision about who else sticks around, if whether or not they have a problem that goes beyond the leadership of the fbi or whether it was isolated largely to comey. >> jim, how does there event dovedale with the senate investigation that's ongoing? >> i mean it's hard to see how they're not connected. right? you have the testimony, the direction e correction. a little bit, i always look forward to the announcement he

is out at the fbi so clearly the two are related. so i will say there has been a vic russ debate internally for months inside the white house about comey and whether or not he's the right person for the job, given to how political he's become. it really, he's a household name for a reason. he threw himself in the election, in the middle of this investigation of russia influence in our presidential elections, so he. has become a prominent figure. there has to be a lot of scrutiny now over who donald trump puts in at the fbi. remember, it's the top cop of the united states and there is lots of serious allegations that have been made about that russia influence. now, trump may want to call it, president trump may want to call it fake news, there is a lot of reality to this. there is a lot of strings that people are pulling at that have a lot of questions that need to be answered. so he will be under intense scrutiny and whether or not somebody is there to give donald

trump, people involved in the trump campaign a pass or whether or not it's a serious vigorous leader of an important nature. >> jim, thank you so much for joining in. let's bring in cnbc eamon javers, what's your take? >> melissa, this is a stunning and dramatic developments, as stunning as i can remember in my years in walk. i have just got an copy of the letter from donald trump to director comey. i will read it to you. he lays out his reason for firing the fbi director comey moments ago, dear director comey, i have received the attached letters from the attorney general and deputy attorney general of the united states recommending your dismissal as the federal bureau of investigation. you are haesh terminated from office effective immediately. while i greatly -- --

it is essential we find a director for the fbi to restore confidence in this vital mission. i wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors, donald j. trump. we have pa letter to donald trump from jeff sessions, the attorney general, who says that he is recommending the removal of fbi director comey. he says based on my evaluation and from reasons expressed be i the deputy attorney general in the attached memorandum, i have concluded that a fresh start is needed at the leadership of the fbi. finally, we have gotten the memorandum from the attorney general from the deputy attorney general. it's entitled, restoring public confidence in the fbi and that memorandum begins the federal bureau's investigation has long been regarded as our nations premier investigative agency. over the past year, however the

fbi's reputation and credibility have suffered substantial damage. it has affected the entire department of justice. this is a ranking memorandum. they are laying out the reason to remove fbi director comey. >> it sounds like a lot of window dressing in order to get comey out and make it sound like it's based on a recommendation from jeff sessions. do you think that that is the case and if that's the case, then is there somebody in mind you think that the trump administration has identified as the next head of the fbi? >> well, you think they wouldn't do something as precipitous as this without thinking through something next. you would imagine a short list of candidates. we have to talk about the white house where they are going on this. one of the things they are citing here the reason for this, is that the director's handling of the conclusion of the investigation of secretary hillary clinton's e-mails. they're saying that they do not understand the director's refusal to accept the nearly universal judgment that he was

mistaken in terms of his decision to close that investigation. they're saying almost everyone agrees the director made serious mistakes. it's one of the serious issues that people have a diverse perspective. so this is a backlash to what happened in 2016 and fbi director jim comey has been at the white hot center of political debate ever since the summer of last year in terms of both the hillary clinton investigation and the investigation into the russia situation, which director comey revealed back in march. so this is an astonishing development. we have to physical out where the white house is going from here. >> okay. we will leave it there. thanks for phoning n. eamon javers about this breaking story in the last 15 minutes or so, fbi james comey, the president releasing him. how do you think the markets

will perceive this? >> i think the optics are not great, but it will put pressure on the republican -- not everybody will be happy with it. certainly, you know, in the republican party, so to the extent that there's any fractureing, any further fractureing, because we got the state health care bill coming up in the senate, further fractureing is bad for the trump agenda. it will be far more difficult to get a tax deal done if he doesn't have it. >> that makes perfect sense. it's interesting, the fbi director gets appointed to a ten-year term, it's not supposed to be political. it's supposed to insulate. you said it before it sort of feels, whether it is or not, it definitely has that feel. >> the snippet from the letter. >> if hillary clinton had won, he would have been outdoor, too, le made a lot of mess of things. he was not long for the world. >> again, this is an administration that waited 18 days on michael flynn. so you know it's hard to know what's what and what the

motivation for this firing. agree with karen. it sounds like there is partisanship here. i think markets will care about that. >> we will see tomorrow, guys. thanks for watching, i'm melissa lee. meantime, do not my mission is simple. to make you money. i'm here to level the playing field for all investors. there's always a bull market somewhere. and i promise to help you find it. "mad money" starts now. hey, i'm cramer. welcome to "mad money," welcome to cramerica. some people want to make friends, i want to make you money. i'm not just here to entertain you, i'm here to educate you and teach you. email me or tweet me. have we become too complacent? is that what the