around it. >> you're talking -- for political reasons because you're taking entitlement away. >> you're going to get killed. >> and they knew that eight years ago. once it was done, they knew it was done. it was never going away. >> now fix what's wrong with it. because there's a lot of things wrong with it. >> i know. all right, jack welch. >> thanks. >> thank you. you're both here tomorrow. >> i'm not. i'm out. >> all right. make sure you join us tomorrow. "squawk on the street" is next. ♪ good wednesday morning. welcome to "squawk on the street" i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer and david faber at the new york stock exchange. the markets appear to respond finally to the turbulence in washington. the dollar's down, future's down, gold's up to the two week high as we await to the

president's report that he said in a memo to comey to let flynn go. and the fbi director reportedly kept a paper trail that said the president asked him to end the probe into flynn. >> it hasn't happened so far, but will trump's troubles crack this market? the u.s. markets are pointing to a large decline at the open. shares of target jumping in the premarket. the retailer blowing past some earnings expectations. our top story of the morning is trump versus comey. now confirmed by nbc news a memo by fired fbi director comey claiming that the president urged him to drop the investigation into former national security adviser michael flynn. let's get to eamon javers who is outside the white house with the very latest. hey, eamon. >> good morning. marine one has landed on the south lawn to take the president away. he's leaving to go to the coast guard academy where he'll give the commencement address later today and that will give aides a

respite of the intense news flow, starting at about 5:00 last night when "the new york times" broke that story about the flynn memo that's captured the vane of the -- attention of the world. you note that the white house has been unable to moubtsnt a defense to that. aides have been reluctant to talk about it. we have a statement from the white house last night. let me put that up on the screen. let me show you what the white house is saying. while the president has repeatedly expressed his view that general flynn is a decent man who served and protected our country, the president asked -- the president did not ask mr. comey or anyone else to end the investigation including any investigation involving general flynn. so a denial there from the white house that the president did anything inappropriate in terms of asking fbi director at the time james comey to intervene in the investigation into mr. flynn, however, note that denial from the white house was on background. no white house aide put their

name to it, that's a telling sign here that white house aides are wary of this rapid news cycle in which they put out statements in the past and they're turned out to be not true or contradicted by the president in a tweet the next morning. we have been monitoring that donald trump twitter account, and so far, no tweets this morning. meanwhile, the democrats are reacting to this including the ranking member of the house intelligence committee, adam schiff. here's what he had to say about this. >> either way he needs to come back before the congress and i think share with the public what conversations he had with the president that may bear on whether there was any effort to obstruct the investigation or impede it in any way. >> so schiff there saying he wants to hear from former fbi director james comey. we are told there are more memos, more notes from comey on the conversations that he had with the president. memorializing almost every conversation that he had with

the president of the united states. presumably at some point those will come to light. congress set to investigate, the fbi continues its investigation and the white house now struggling to find a response here to all of this. we'll see where things go throughout the day today, carl. >> as chuck todd said this morning, eamon, may well be the summer of comey. we will find out. eamon javers at the white house. vix up 16%. >> right. right. summer of comey. look, no one really cares about my view about what -- i'm not a watergate specialist or any of those things, but i'll tell you this. >> watergate -- are there watergate specialists? >> i hear the guys claim they were. we had a guy on at 5:00, i lived through water gate. i did live through watergate. what matters to me if it's the summer of comey, it won't be a summer of tax reform. if it's a summer of comey it won't be a summer of repatriation and that's what matters to me. if it's the summer of comey you

might have someone on the federal reserve say you know what, we have to wait and see. does it make sense that the banks are down? absolutely. it's also a great excuse to take profits after a nasdaq run that has been yesterday was really the froth day because it was the chinese stocks. they were going crazy. chinese stocks is kind of the last of the ones that can go up because they're probably the least that i would say substantive. you know what? let it come in. because there are people like the pajama traders last night it kind of dawned on them this is around 930 or 10, wow, this is the agenda. we have been saying that the agenda is derailed for ages and now as the rest of the news catches up, you'll have only people who say i have to sell. >> we asked you earlier in the week if you -- >> dead it's dead. >> politico has a story out this morning that says tax reform hopes for the year are largely dead and that right now the hope is you manage to raise the debt

ceiling. you manage to keep the government open and you manage to avoid a foreign policy crisis. is that the bar now? >> yeah, i think that's the narrative. i think there are people who would say with that narrative then why would the fed raise twice? there's -- i deal with the companies. the aggregate data is better -- not as positive as when you speak to the companies. but let's say there's a lot of stuff yesterday, i know -- i don't want to diverge too far, but people weren't in amazon for 20 years. i had a young fellow, i was in amazon all my life. why do i trade it now? well, stock futures are under pressure because of comey. summer of comey says i better sell my apple and that's what apps. after being in this business since 1979, i'm saying why you sold amazon, you woke up and you discovered there might be a memo. that makes you sell it. in other words, that may not be

the -- >> may not be a reason to do that. >> well, you can do it -- >> well, there are no shortage of market participants certainly that i have been speaking to who believe that cash is probably a smart move over these last few months. they have been dead wrong. >> dead wrong. i mean -- >> dead wrong. they have essentially cited a view thatted no -- that not a lot would get done. this week is extraordinary. we're only half over. when you have a guy like greg -- a political analyst writing a note this morning, trump has the votes to survive impeachment for now. >> well, i mean -- >> that's a note that he's sending to clients. >> you know, look, we can -- i mean, maybe this is -- i mean, i saw yesterday andrew johnson has not been talked about in a long time and clinton, andrew johnson, nixon. wait a second. here's what matters with nixon, just so you know it was when barry goldwater broke.

i'm not talking about mccain and lindsey. they hate him. but i'm saying that the focus has to be on the idea that this is how you sold amazon. you have to recognize that if you're going to adopt the buffett attitude you'll run through this and if you adopt an attitude of we all are talking about comey. you're going to sell. and what i'm trying to do is say listen, there's never anything wrong with taking a little gain. because this is not the first day we hear the word impeachment. but i think when you go back and you read those articles it's like oh, god, i sold my amazon, why did i sell it? well, because there was an impeachment vote for clinton. that was 1997. but there was always something. there was a war. there was something that made us feel like you know what, i cannot own amazon. >> so nothing matters? >> no, some stories to use the verb trump what happened. >> right. >> i'm not trying to say to

someone, listen, if you have a 300 point gain in amazon you shouldn't take some. remember why you sold it a few months from now. remember why. >> you did say this morning to people who asked if this was a buying opportunity to wait for a fat pitch. >> yeah. >> which means -- >> could you see the financials, whenever the financials go down and the transports go down you don't have enough on a given day to say -- like my twitter -- we have to buy the opening. no. because like a jpmorgan down a bunch of bucks is going to be intimidating people. people watch jpmorgan as a bellwether. i said, don't be so eager and recognize that there are people with big profits. sell in may, close your firm because the nasdaq has been so unbelievable. let it come in, don't feel like today is the day. >> not to forget that those numbers look fairly large, but percentage wise they're still not. >> today may be the if -- the

first day that we get a half a percent move. >> not big moves. >> i was watching wilf and sara and sara and wilf -- wilf says amazon, but he was saying you know what? looking at the futures, that's only half a point. because it's only half a point that's what makes me say wait a second. let it come in. you have to watch jpmorgan. because -- because jpmorgan is a signal we won't have the rate hikes that make it so we have the quarter or the year of the real bulls but the bears came out in full force today. the bears are saying no rate hike sell. hedge, do this, do that. buy puts. i mean, it's like they're churning and burning. and that may be right if you're a hedge fund. if you're hedge fund, maybe today is the day that you buy and sell and then sell and buy bristol-myers. maybe this is the day that you go in and out and in and out and at the end of the day you go out

and come in tomorrow. you know what? maybe that's not such a good strategy. >> usually not the way we work at home. usually. >> right. >> but you know the hedge fund guys, watch the 13-f. whatever they did on the 13-f is now wrong. right? except for buffett. >> usually irrelevant. >> but i'm just saying in the end -- >> that's not fair sometimes. >> i turn to you, maybe i sell my colgate because colgate is about to get a hundred dollar bid. >> they didn't say that. i but i hear you. churning and burning. you are channeling walt chad frazier. >> i just heard from sara. >> it should be swilf. >> like jennifer and a-rod. >> why can't we continue have fun? >> wilf has not gotten back to me. when we come back, we'll get to target's numbers.

qualcomm ramping up the legal dispute with apple. taking aim at the manufacturers. we'll fill you in. take another look at the premarket. dow looks to go negative for the month today. down 5 of 6. back in a minute. i'm here at the td ameritrade trader offices. steve, other than making me move stuff, what are you working on? let me show you. okay.

our thinkorswim trading platform aggregates all the options data you need in one place and lets you visualize that information for any options series. okay, cool. hang on a second. you can even see the anticipated range of a stock expecting earnings. impressive... what's up, tim. see options data like never before. with thinkorswim only at td ameritrade.

target's up pretty handily in the premarket after beating estimates with earnings. and revenue is above consensus. that 1.3% decline in comps is smaller than expected. the retailer saud improvement in march after a slow start to the quarter. electronic sales the best in three years, thank you nintendo. >> yeah. that's driving nvidia and they'll have a reversal today. switch was great. interesting, they had good apparel. you'll hear from urban outfitters, but almost had no good apparel. they have a good cmo now. they haven't figured out food. apparel, it was swim. some of that was victoria's secret getting out of there. the smaller format stores is doing well. that's a small group of stores but i think that they -- they

did guide down. so now they're beating the guide down. but i want to point out that macy's guided down and then didn't beat the guide down. digital was plus 22 which is really great. remember, traffic is still down but this stock suffered as if it were macy's. it's clearly not macy's. it's better. better than macy's. >> although you were not particularly pleased last quarter. >> well, you know, tell you what came up. >> neither were investors but you were -- >> but electronics was minus 9 last time. electronics in a big swing. electronics was a bad area of the store. food is a tough area of the store. drug, tough. cvs is down off of amazon. cvs runs their drug, but i think what's significant, apparel is much better than i thought. some of the children's apparel was very good so they have made some improvements. i don't want to go nuts. but you want to distinguish between some of these retailers

that did better and some of them that did worse. target did a little bit better. >> urban of course misses and comps were worse than expected. another big retail story who has a scoop ear amazon taking so some -- about amazon taking steps to get into the pharmacy business. >> should you sell cvs off of that? people have been selling cvs off of anything. my charitable trust has a small part of walgreens. >> on the rite aid deal. >> yeah. how many people sold home depot hearing that amazon would get aggressive in tools and turns out that amazon did not get aggressive. professionals were the guys who landed at home depot. they went down at the end of the day. there was a feeling that today is a bad day because of chatter about washington. but home depot's quarter was beautiful.

you can start that whole reel up again, next quarter. i don't want to play that game. i think that the drugstore companies have a lot of firepower that people don't realize. but every time you ever hear amazon is going in against something -- let's say amazon, you know, we woke up and said they're going in against faber. >> we had this discussion yesterday with depot. and gardening, remember? >> well, i'll be at home depot this weekend. and now, gardening was not that strong which surprised me. some of that was weather. gardening underperformed. appliances outperformed. there it may be sears as a donor again. because people are concerned base of the media that you might not be able to return things to sears because of the media. i emphasize that because eddie lampert said the media. tools were very, very good. stanley black & decker there. but i think that in the end, you can't amazon plants. i don't think you can -- you can amazon some drugs. i mean, i get some supplements from amazon already.

it's great, they come every month. >> yeah. >> people are working on theories of how would they do this? some have posited it would be through a robotic supermarket. the kind we talked about in theory anyway, lately. >> look, amazon is whatever they tackle, look, they try a lot of different things. it doesn't mean they do a lot of different things. >> no. sometimes it takes them a little while. sometimes you may forget they were working on something and then they become competitive in it. you may have lost sight of it. they are a juggernaut, we know that. >> but here i deal with in my fabulous twitter account, well, wait a second. if walgreens can't buy rite aid, then amazon are buy rite aid. like i read that. i say -- >> no. >> wow, twitter is amazing they come up with incredible statements. >> back to target. the fact they didn't update their fiscal year guidance does that give you any pause? >> yeah. look, they don't want people to

get ahead of themselves. look, our traffic not up, please don't go crazy. don't go crazy when it was up four. does it deserve to be up one or two? yeah. we haven't figured out food. we haven't figured out like a huge percentage of our business yet so if you think we have, please, we figured out -- we got lucky with nintendo. it's better than macy's. urban outfitters was saying, listen, we're budgeting down numbers for as far as the eye can see in the stores. stores. >> wow. >> it's the mall retailers. by the way, said that the shopping mall companies -- >> really. >> do not speak of anymore? >> no. no. rent's coming down. >> we're going to get cramer's "mad dash." a lot of movers we have not gotten to. biz stone coming back to twitter. a downgrade at disney. a lot more still to come. their experience is coveted.

their leadership is instinctive. they're experts in things you haven't heard of. researchers of technologies that one day you will. some call them the best of the best. some call them veterans. we call them our team.

welcome to holiday inn! ♪ ♪ whether for big meetings or little getaways, there are always smiles ahead at holiday inn. will you be ready when the moment turns romantic? cialis for daily use treats ed and the urinary symptoms of bph. tell your doctor about your medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, or adempas® for pulmonary hypertension, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. to avoid long-term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have a sudden decrease or loss of hearing or vision, or an allergic reaction, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis.

as you can see turmoil in washington, at least starting to have a bit of an effect on the broader market as we approach the opening bell seven minutes from now. percentage wise remember where we are. the numbers looked big there. but they're still really not. let's get to a "mad dash" this morning. talk about a stock that's going to be up rather nicely. >> a lot of people don't know jack -- jack in the box. they have a division qdoba and they were doing better when chipotle was sidelined. now that it's falling -- the

same-store sales were down 5%, jack in the box wants to spin it off to bring up value and raise the p/e multiple. a lot of the stories today, saying this could be worth $125. now, jack in the pox didn't do that well either, but burgers are back. we had red robin -- gourmet do well. only shake shack -- wendy's has done well with burgers, and mcdonald's. restaurant brands has done well with burgers so be aware that jack separate from qdoba could have a legitimate, positive story. they were not talking up the stock up on the conference call. people are just excited about the breakup. >> and are you excited about the breakup? >> i think you should have broken it up when you had good numbers for qdoba, not bad. i love breakups. management wants to bring out value and there was a time when i would have been far more excited and that was when chipotle was having minus 20% same-store sales. i am not anymore. because chipotle is beginning to have some great sales. >> right. all right.

another shrink to grow. we'll see how that stock does when we open with trading in a few minutes from now. a lot of other stocks to keep an eye on. stay with us right here on "squawk on the street."

♪ predictable. the comfort in knowing where things are headed. because as we live longer... and markets continue to rise and fall... predictable is one thing you need in retirement to help protect what you've earned and ensure it lasts. introducing brighthouse financial. a new company established by metlife to specialize in annuities & life insurance. talk to your advisor about a brighter financial future.

the opening bell is brought to you by brighthouse financial. established by metlife. >> you're watching cnbc "squawk on the street." the opening bell in just about two minutes. political turmoil out of d.c. making its way to the markets today. the futures are lower, the dollar has lost nearly alof the -- all of the gains since election day. the gold at a two week high. and we know from past experience warnings like this can turn into green by afternoon. >> right. the one thing i was talking with jack welch this morning when jack welch -- we both admit, i mean, remember a lot of our companies have had to guide down numbers because of the dollar. so when you see a weak dollar, you should not just say, oh, no. because it was the strong dollar that was the problem. so when you think about apple, apple there's a couple notes out today saying things are good. i know we'll get to faber report

in a moment. maybe they don't have to guide down. coca-cola. they have hedged against the euro, but i'm saying the big international companies, they have been waiting for the dollar to roll over. so when you hear the dollar rolling over, don't panic. now, the one thing that's been broken is that we used to say with a weak dollar oil should go up. oil is holding in. but that's a supply issue. you know, i'm trying to find a place to put oil. if you have a place to put it, there's no place. natural gas -- >> our house is off limits. david's is too. >> you can't fill your basement with oil? >> i prefer not to. >> beware that a weak dollar it's kind of what these guys wanted. now, i know. everyone sees the market for sale. that's not revelatory. >> what i don't understand -- we'll talk about it on the other side. >> by the way, happy birthday to the new york stock exchange. 225 years old. today.

68 wall, moved into this building in 1903. as a result, at the exchange, having a bunch of people ring the bell. >> you know it's important to note that i plan things -- my daughter emma was born today. i totally planned it around the 225th. i knew when the exchange was born so i decided to have my daughter born the same day. now karen cramer was involved too, but you make things happen. i always remember a birthday because of the exchange. it's funny. >> happy birthday, by the way. at the nasdaq it's blue buffalo, a natural pet food company. all right. so we'll keep our eye on how the markets behave at the open. by the way, the nasdaq's year to date gain is twice the s&p's year to date gain. >> the money started to flow furiously into the nvidia portion of the market. the biotechs in some way. but anything semi-conductor. they have to give some of that

up. i think what you're going to see is people going to say you know what, i have to go on amazon, i'm up so much on broadband, i have to go. that's been the way it's worked. the ones i'm concerned about, i don't want to be glib, the banks. because if the fed does feel that the housing numbers aren't as good, i had taylor morrison homes on last night and they said business is on fire. but if you feel it, amd, that business meeting doesn't matter. i'm going to sell. >> back to the bigger -- the big picture here. why have i not heard the words uncertainty more often? i feel as though during these -- so many stretches the obama administration it was always uncertainty, uncertainty. meanwhile, the stock market kept going up, so maybe i'm answering my own question. but here we have talk of potential obstruction of justice. >> right. >> by the president of the united states. the possibility at least being discussed now by analysts of

impeachment. the certainly danger that his economic plan is going to be derailed to some extent if this continues through the summer and yet, nobody seems to talk about uncertainty. >> today is uncertainty day and i think it's uncertainty, i'll tell you why i think. people are feeling that the press has something. that every time you turn around the press has a new thing. that maybe the press got the comey memo or has someone in the fbi. i mean, it's going to be leak after leak after leak. so every time you try to buy something, you could be hit by a leak. i think that that's the uncertainty. it's like, well, what happened just now? did something happen in the last ten minutes that moved the futures? >> antagonizing the apparatus early in his term as a candidate, not a good thing. >> as mike gerson of "the

washington post" said it's hard to pick fights with people who weaponize words for a living which is what the intelligence community does. doesn't help that the tape bombs have come after the close so there's very little protection. >> a very good people. people went home feeling good about the nasdaq rally. you wake up and you say, wait a second. i watched "homeland" you don't pick a fight with darr. you can't fight with an apparatus, you're so right. that has a lot of news ability. and that people are afraid of. i mean, i'm following united health. one of my favorite stocks and the justice department is looking into some billing issues. suddenly it's like wow, justice. so remember justice is something you've got to have them on your team. because justice has a lot of mouths and they talk. >> right. >> well, he does have justice on his team. i mean his justice department is run by his appointee.

there are? there are people in the fbi and/or the cia. >> they have contacts. they know who they can talk in the media. so maybe you kind of say, all right, let it come in. i'm just saying let it come in. look, is this the right time to go in and buy jpmorgan? what's your edge? what's your edge there? i mean, i would rather buy the defense stocks. some of the domestics that reported good numbers. i'm not in a hurry. >> at this point, you somehow expect all right we're down three quarters of a percent in the s&p and by the end of the day we'll be flat. it feels like that's the way it goes. >> buy a little home depot. >> i don't know if that's true. some people think that pattern will end. but that's been the pattern for a very long time. >> this should be the day that it ends because we don't know what's going to happen later today with the new leak. i mean, the leaks are what bother me because it's like, wow, i just bought something and i just read a headline in "the washington post." i mean, look, is the media out to get him or not, i know they

like getting scoops and every scoop seems to have some sort of gravitas. >> this is the worst day for stocks since march 21st. the gains are lost for may. to your point about bank that's the weakness right now. the banks. >> the fed has said over and over again, they're data dependent. how has the data been? it's been okay. it didn't come back as strong as we thought. >> are you worried about coming into june, fed meeting. is the bond market trying to warn about the dangers of a policy mistake? >> yeah, that's what i'm worried about. like when i see interest rates back to 2.2, that's not the scenario that i wanted. i mean, it's just not. you have to see rates go higher. you have to see that the economy is continuing to grow. otherwise, the fed says you know what, let's just wait a little bit. if they say wait a little bit,

you have to cut the numbers. they rolled over, they have been rolled over for a long time now. >> don't get started on that. that was a big point of contention yesterday on "halftime." did you happen to see that? >> yeah. >> whoa. but you said they rolled over also. just watch out. >> i know. well, yeah. okay. >> so you agree with stephanie link? >> i look at the rollover, but i don't want to get into -- in between. geez, when did i become gandhi? >> you're switzerland. >> you really are. >> there was a heated debate yesterday on another one of the shows about the banks had rolled over. >> i think jefferson would have said -- when i saw "hamilton." i'm not hamilton anymore. hamilton was an angry guy and jefferson was like having wine in france. did you catch that part of the show? >> i contact it all. i heard the soundtrack many times. how about lafayette? >> we're here. >> you guys mentioned jack at

the wall. mcdonald's is now taking delivery, jim, to four cities. l.a., phoenix, chicago, columbus. a thousand restaurants now. >> well, it works. there's a moment on the red robin gourmet where they were talking about the notion of pickup and how good it is and it's working. offering curbside pickup. you can see in numbers of red robin. that's up the motion of any stock, other than the kraft heinz colgate deal that's maybe not a deal. seamless is not how -- this is the ceo saying, seamless is not how i would exactly describe our experience with third party delivery services. he's saying do it yourself, don't use grubhub. i don't know. grubhub has done a good job for people, but mcdonald's they're using uber. easterbrook -- he keeps innovating. everyone says it's just all day breakfast but that stock up --

ask up 50%. this is mcdonald's. does this have a place to go on coney weakness? probably. >> it's interesting because the folks over at starbucks were sort of countering the differential in market cap, waiting for the day when they would exceed the market cap of mcdonald's. it's gone the other way. >> well, that's interesting. that's very interesting. starbucks is biding time. we had howard schultz and kevin johnson on. they said they solved the -- they solved the problem of the mosh pit of the mobile ordering. i like -- my charitable trust owns starbucks. in howard i trust. i believe they have. and the stock acts better after a weaker quarter but you're right. that's an important thing. >> now it's not even a contest. but for a while it wasn't that many billions apart. now have mcdonald's is worth $120 billion and starbucks worth 87. >> management -- look, it isn't like management at starbucks was bad. easterbrook came in with a

million ideas and he's so self-effacing. how many times have i had to tell him, hey, chief, hey, chief, would you get a little bit more upbeat? i chiefed him. you don't want to be chiefed. >> no, you don't want to be chiefed. the media -- listen, this morning everything is down, but i have been keeping a close eye on so many of the media stocks. dish is not down on a story -- >> dish and amazon. >> where did that come from? >> look, you think jeff besozoss going to say that's not true? >> i don't know. the huge speck up from portfolio that the company has and their ability to monetize it in an effective way. let's just say that. but overall, disney's down actually nor than the rest of the group. >> big up. >> well, cbs is having the up fronts today. we had ours at nbc.

>> yes. we'll get a first look at "star trek" according to the cbs people. a spinoff of the big bang theory called young sheldon. >> "star trek"? >> on the digital, all access. >> by the way macquarie's down grade to neutral. and the famous piece about cord cutting a few weeks ago. >> the cord nevers, this and that. the franchise is good. look, i have to go to david. david, i need you to opine. i know it's a gun to your head. and you get to say take the gun away from my head. colgate, kraft heinz. >> lord, you had to go there? all right. colgate's up 3% on a "new york post" story that the ceo was around, ian cook, indicating they were a willing seller. i think there was -- there were some conversations last week with the institutions in which he at least -- again, it's tough

to put these things in context, indicated hey, we would potentially be willing to sell the company at a price. >> fiduciary duty. >> fiduciary duty, a lot of ceos do. that he's towards the end of his tenure at the company. that's no shortage of speculation. remember the morning that kraft heinz made the move on unilever, i talked about colgate. went up that day. never looked back on the prospect that at some point it could be a consolidation candidate for the likes of a kraft heinz or unilever. although that seems unclear. you had polman on recently. even a j&j. you know what? let's give it a little rest. >> look, you know, unfortunately, people will be confused because the slowdown thesis is making feel like i should be in a colgate. i don't want to be -- the people who take the first bite. i said buy home depot if you

want to take the first bite and think this market is done going down for the day. you have the wind at your back. what a great conference call that home depot call was. it was beautiful. i had to see it twice just to get thely brett toe. but those who want to pounce pounce pounce pounce. you have to pounce on something you had good news. because you have so much hot money. some in stocks. wow. salesforce reports tomorrow. is that -- you want to go in after they tell you how they did. >> let's get to bob pisani, disney, goldman and jpmorgan are dragging the dow down. >> good morning. yes, indeed, they are. a wide decline we're seeing. a particular weakness in the financial. look at the sectors. the ten year has been a problem for the banks and been a problem low yields have been a problem for a long time for the banks.

technology week, a high beta sector. industrials on the weak side. the dollar is at a new low since the election. that's helping commodities like gold and cruise, but not helping commodity stocks. that's kind of interesting. let's look at the banks. i mentioned really the banks have been going nowhere since the middle of march. jpmorgan see all the names that are down here. the ten year yield around 2.27. the lowest since the middle of april right now. high beta names are weak today. these are names that tend to move when the markets move more. stocks, tech names, freeport, anadarko is weak here. there'sen a etf for that. high beta evident. -- etf. you can see it's a bit on the downside today. stocks that have low volatility, consumer names doing better. so your colgates, kimberly-clarks those kind of stocks to the upside. what's changed in the markets? we talked often about how bigger

risk factors like the earnings in the global economies has been slower and most people have felt that the markets can withstand a trump political drama, but this talk of obstruction of justice or impeachment fight it's a different kind of story that's what the market is reacting to now. is there an underlying bid to the markets? david was mentioning on the down days we get up days at the close. that's the big question overall. i want to mention target a lot better than expected on the numbers. but look at the numbers to the downside for the most part. david, back to you. >> thank you, mr. pisani. as we look at target, a name we haven't mentioned this morning, qualcomm. i want to get to the news this morning. remember of course there is this ongoing litigation that has been added to the huge dispute, nasty between apple and qualcomm of course which supplies a lot of the intellectual property that's used in apple phones not to mention all smartphones around

the globe. previously qualcomm had responded to the apple's lawsuit in the california court. now this morning we get the complaint from qualcomm in which it is also suing the suppliers. interestingly and importantly, it is with those suppliers that qualcomm has the licensing agreements. not with apple itself. but apple has withheld payment to pay the royalties, a key component of the revenue stream and therefore, now qualcomm is responding by suing the same suppliers. we are talking about foxconn and others with whom qualcomm had agreements in place for years. some dating back to 2000 or 2005. they're paying qualcomm for other phones they make, for other companies for the intellectual property but no longer for apple. and are withholding statement not just from last quarter but

continuing on. this is expensive for qualcomm. i spoke to the internal counsel at the company, we went through the decision to sue them and said, we have the rule of law on our side. this is his position, of course. this in his words a strategically designed effort by apple to damage us around the world. remember apple sued them in a different -- a number of different locales around the world and action in south korea. there was action here in terms of the ftc and the ftc of south korea. we didn't start this, but we'll fight back with the tools we have says mr. rosenberg. and that is what they're doing now. where all of this ends of course is a key question. is this a settlement that could take place? hard to imagine in some ways because qualcomm simply wants to be paid what it says it's owed by apple. not is a commercial dispute that apple wants to squeeze the

suppliers as it always does including qualcomm being one of them so it can maintain the incredible margins that lead to have it the largest market cap by far in the world. this is not going to end any time soon but the latest shot fired. finally on the subject of qualcomm which has been taking it from all sides point something out for people to think about in the future. that is the acquisition of nxpi which is still gaining the regulatory approvals it needs to close before the end of this year. it's $110 a share deal reminding people they will -- it's a tender offer. you need at least 80% for the tender to be successful and to close. there's a lot of people, jim, who believe nxpi if it was a single company it would be trading at the 110 price based on the last quarter. and what it's commanding in the marketplace and the strength of the business. simply said they think that qualcomm is getting a good deal. will there be enough of a

withhold vote. some big firm or an elliott that comes out and says, we are leading withhold vote here. withhold to the tender offer here in order to gain a higher price? it's a game of chicken. some people will say they won't tender but of course they will. it's a ways away, but it's certainly something for people to keep in mind here that it's not inconceivable they'll try to get qualcomm to pay a higher price for an nxpi. >> our charitable trust owns the it, and said, don't tender. there could be more ahead. never hold up a situation. always sell. but not this one. i think it's worth a lot more. >> you may hear more of that. >> it's a lot more. >> it's a story we'll be following in the months ahead. for now, let's end it there and send it to the bond pits and rick santelli at the cme group. >> well, those that were on the trading floors sad about lack of volatility today is their day.

one week of two year note yields you can see the deterioration. it isn't just today. there has been deterioration since last week. one week of tens. tens failed to get back above 2.44. closed intraday last week. that's where we settled. bunds are along for the rise. they're following pretty much in lock step but not exactly in lock step. look at the separation between ten year and u.s. yields and ten year bund yields it's narrowest since november. a lot of charts are extreme to november. a lot of charts correlate. our yields are dropping a bit fast even though they're following in our shadow. one week of the dollar index, here is the antagonist that was screaming what's going to happen in the markets. it's been failing. it spent less than four sessions in positive territory and those were in early january. it failed to hold 100. and it's really backing down. we could look at the other side of this and look at the euro end since november. we talked a couple of days ago

112 seems to jump out at you. pound versus the dollar, you know, the uk has their fair share of issues coming up, right? but yet, this chart isn't aggressive but the pound is rising against the dollar. finally even the chinese yuan. we want to pay close attention to 2.27. and the dollar index pivots way up there. carl, jim, david, back to you. >> rick santelli, thank you. a lot more still to come on a rough morning for stocks. the dow is down 175, worst decline since late march. and the dollar and s&p lose their gains for the month of may. ready or not, here i come.ek.)

♪ anyone can dream. making it a reality is the hard part. northrop grumman command and control systems always let you see the complete picture. and we're looking for a few dreamers to join us. parts a and b and want more coverage, guess what? you could apply for a medicare supplement insurance plan whenever you want. no enrollment window. no waiting to apply. that means now may be a great time to shop for an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. medicare doesn't cover everything. and like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, these help cover some of what medicare doesn't pay. so don't wait. call now to request your free decision guide. it could help you find the aarp medicare supplement plan that works for you. these types of plans have

no networks, so you get to choose any doctor who accepts medicare patients. rates are competitive, and they're the only plans of their kind endorsed by aarp. remember - these plans let you apply all year round. so call today. because now's the perfect time to learn more. go long.

obviously some weak breadth to start the morning. the dow is down 187, dragged down lower by the financials. only a couple of 52 week highs, mostly in the tower space. we'll get to "stop trading" with jim. don't go away. ight.

hold on dad... liberty did what? yeah, liberty mutual 24-hour roadside assistance helped him to fix his flat so he could get home safely. my dad says our insurance doesn't have that. don't worry - i know what a lug wrench is, dad. is this a lug wrench? maybe? you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance.

stay with me, mr. parker. when a critical patient is far from the hospital, the hospital must come to the patient. stay with me, mr. parker. the at&t network is helping first responders connect with medical teams in near real time... stay with me, mr. parker. ...saving time when it matters most. stay with me, mrs. parker. that's the power of and.

time for cramer and "stop trading." >> there is so much turmoil in apparel. patrice luvet who was appointed

ceo of ralph lauren, you know, there's going to come a time that we say, you know what, there's a great brand. i know apparel has been very weak. every one of the retailers have said it. but you have a guy who's not going to be butting heads on merchandise with ralph lauren but he knows how to run an operation. i know everything is being thrown away with apparel. i can't wait to hear him speak. very, very accomplished person. >> what's on "mad" tonight? >> home building so strong. i have tripoint, doug bauer. then nex com, they're not getting paid. we have to find out what's going on there. wow. a lot going on. i guess i have to keep -- you know, i hate having to watch washington every minute. so hard to do. >> i don't think we have a choice today, jim. >> no.

no choice. well put. >> see you tonight, "mad money" at 6:00 p.m. eastern time. 1% declines on the dow. on the s&p, russell's down 1.5. back below the 50 day. don't go away.

♪ good wednesday morning. welcome back to "squawk on the street." i'm carl quintanilla with sara eisen, david faber at the new york stock exchange. the dow is down 230. 1% declines on the s&p. russell off 1.5. got gold at a two week high, the vix is higher, the dollar is lower. the president will speak at the u.s. coast guard academy later today. our road map begins with the battle between president trump and former fbi director comey. comey memo reportedly claiming trump urged him to drop the investigation into former national security adviser michael flynn. clearly as carl mentioned the markets are spooked by the news. we'll have the latest on washington and wall street. >> and target has shares that are higher. and amazon considering getting into the multibillion dollar pharmacy market. plus, four new fire tablets wake

their way to the -- make their way to the lineup. details straight ahead. first up, the big story, nbc news is confirming that fired fbi director comey wrote an internal memo saying the president asked him to drop an investigation into former national security adviser flynn. our eamon javers is outside the white house with the latest. good morning again, eamon. >> good morning, carl. i have been talking to white house officials here this morning and texting with them over the night, and they say their strategy is to hunker down and do the work. they have put out this statement, the background statement denying that the president pressured james comey to stop the flynn investigation. that i said that's going to be it. sean spicer will gaggle on the plane, because the plane has left the white house this morning. he's headed to the coast guard academy in connecticut where he'll be giving the commencement address. they say that the president -- it is possible could speak to reporters on the plane, but that is not expected as of right now. they say they're simply going to try to focus on the business at hand here in terms of the

budget. tax cuts, the other agenda items that this president wants to accomplish. that's going to be difficult with all of this swirling around them. senator john thune said that this white house is simply on the wrong track. here's what he said. >> we want to make sure we get this train back on the track. the president is the person best positioned to do that and he needs to keep his focus on the things that the american people elected him to do. >> so this white house is dealing with two simultaneous scandals. one over whether or not the president pressured the fbi director to drop that flynn investigation as we were just discussing. the other one is whether or not the president inadvertently put out intelligence -- sensitive intelligence in his conversation with the russians last week here in the oval office. the white house has been struggling to explain that story as well. an unhelpful development from this white house's perspective. the president of russia, vladimir putin, has made an offer to assist donald trump

politically. he said we are ready to submit a transcript of lavrov, the russian foreign minister's talk, if of course the administration would want this. here is vladimir putin the president of russia offering to assist the trump administration with an explanation of what intelligence the president did or did not give over to the russians during their meeting at the oval office. it suggests that he has a recording or a transcript of what happened last week. you can imagine that this white house will be unlikely to seek the support of vladimir putin in all of this. this is not something that they would see as helpful. of course, would be viewed with skepticism because any transcript that the russians put out of the meeting could be doctored or edited. but nonetheless, the white house said they're focused on the business at hand and trying to get through the day today. >> a lot of reporting going on inside the white house. memos and tapes. what is your assessment at this point? i know we heard from senator

thune. republican defections as the white house tries to battle the dueling controversies? >> well, so far we'll monitor paul ryan who's speaking on capitol hill momentarily. so we'll keep on eye on what he has to say because he'll be a linchpin, but we have heard some criticisms of the president from the usual suspects and some grumbling publicly from the republicans this is not the direction they want to head in. i think a lot of republicans on capitol hill want to see the full explanation from the white house for all of this and see where all of this goes. but sara, you hit on an important point. how much the news about this presidency hinges on who recorded what in the oval office. the president hinting that he might have tapes of comey in a tweet last week that was designed to implicitly threaten james comey to stay silent and comey having apparently kept memos of each of his interactions with the president and now vladimir putin saying he's got transcripts or notes of what happened in an oval office

meeting as well. that's an astonishing element to all of this thing. >> eamon javers at the white house. we'll come back to you later on this morning. the speaker as our seema mody is saying he is trying to focus on the markets. and the markets remaining in a tight range for 15 days. art cashin is with us, along with mike santoli. guys, good morning. art, to eamon's point about deflections on the republican side that's what the markets are focussed on. >> absolutely. that's the critical factor here. they expected the democrats to make hay as much as they could, but if he begins to suffer a sizable defection among the republicans that's a problem. you're all too young to remember it, but back in the watergate days howard baker stepped across the line and that's when nixon knew he was in trouble and he

began to see republican deflections and that would remind everybody. that's why the market is so sensitive this morning. you had mccain speaking out. that's not a great surprise, but if there are others it could be a problem. >> is the concern -- ironically today is the day in '73 where watergate hearings began is the market concerned about that turmoil or just the fact that tax reform and infrastructure get delayed or put off the table completely? >> well, primary concern is much of the agenda would disappear. it would certainly be tied up with -- you'd have this acrimonious back and forth going on. there's a perverse positive not for the president but for the agenda in that people are saying if mr. trump were to leave office, pence can work much better with congress. and so there might be some sense of reward there. so i think we want to get passed the constitutional crisis first before we think about that.

>> that's a few steps ahead of time. mike, we sit here day after day and wonder what is the status of tax reform, the pro growth agenda, how will they get it done? another distraction, another controversy. and the markets haven't moved. they have been remarkably resilient. what makes today different? >> sure, i think the market has been finding other things to pin bullishness to. so whether it is the earnings rebound, whether it is that kind of global growth story. those big growth tech stocks that have been dominating. i mean, basically it's kind of found its way -- even if we're in the lower growth, high liquidity environment just as it did a year ago or two years ago to find things that can support it, i think what's different today i have been saying this is not a market that has gone in search of excuses to sell. but this is an excuse that's presented right up front. not just about those legislative items you mentioned, sara. but now we're talking about the ten year yield going down to 2.25. repricing what the fed is going to do that because of this. that was part of the bull story

and coming at a time when the market made a very hesitant, unconvincing return to its old highs, you know, with half the stocks participating yesterday and the day before. so all of this comes together and says, let's take a step back and an obvious place to pull back. of course the two weeks of compression that we have had in this market i think now that you have a 1% move, you take away everybody who is sticking around because hey, you can't get them down. >> is that -- is this a repricing of the fed moves, art? there is a widespread bid for safety, buying of the yen, buying of gold, up the fifth day in a row. and treasuries go into that as well. >> it's clearly signs of a flight to safety moving in. what i'm going to look for later today and into tomorrow, you can't tell yet, but how much of this selling is coming from off shore. is it a nervous europe? that has moved into this? there are some hints that may be. but i wouldn't want to mislead the viewers. it's too early to tell.

you have to do a little bit more detective work here. >> the weakness in the dollar is the big back drop too. a little throwing in of the towel of this idea that the united states was going to be a growth leader which i think has been happening -- >> and people argue that the dollar is moved by a number of factors including the economic data, but if you look at the size of the weakness just in the last 48 hours it has really picked up against europe which the political back drop there is stabilizing. and going the other way. against the yen, which is considered a safe haven as an early tell. do you agree? >> i totally agree. that's one of the things that makes me think that some of the equity selling itself may be european based. and as i say, it will take us probably 48 hours to take down into that. >> some people are curious to recall or be reminded about how markets did react in '73 going into october of '73 and eventually spring of '74. are there any analogs, anything

comparable between then and now? >> we certainly hope not. >> but other dynamics, economy, earnings, inflation. >> no, you're seeing some of that as we said a -- as we began this. the key is what happens within his own party. if you get credible defections and particularly people who have some standing and begin to move away from him, that would change things i think rather drastically. but we're here celebrating the 225th anniversary of the exchange and we have been through it all. don't want to see some of it again, but we have been through it all. >> happy birthday to the exchange. the speaker is talking. taking some questions. >> [ indiscernible ]. >> look, there's been a lot of reporting lately. i think that requires close examination. let me tell you what i told our members this morning. we need the facts. it is obvious there are some

people out there who want to harm the president. but we have an obligation to carry out our oversight regardless of which party is in the white house and that means before rushing to judgment we get all of the pertinent information. the house oversight government and reform committee has requested this memo and i'm sure we're going to hear from mr. comey, why didn't he take action at the time? so there are a lot of unanswered questions. what i told our members is now is the time to gather all the pertinent information. our job is to be responsible, sober and focus only on gathering the facts. that is what congress does in conducting oversight of the executive branch. >> -- comey testifies in open hearings? >> i'll leave it up to the committees doing the investigations. there's an investigation occurring at the fbi. that's an investigation in the house and there's an investigation in the senate. so we have flee investigations going of on and i'm not going to armchair quarterback investigations. but the point is this.

we can't deal with speculation and innuendo and there's clearly a lot of politics being played. our job is to get the facts and to be sober about doing that. >> -- level of confidence in the president? >> [ indiscernible ]. to worry about the drip drip drip or the controversies having an impact -- >> i don't worry about things that are outside my control. that is whether or not we do which we're elected to do which is to solve people's problems that's the other thing i'd like to make. i think people in america turn on the tv and they think this is all we're doing and this is all we're diskuging. that's not the case. we're busy hard at work and fixing problems. you heard we're moving down the path of getting comprehensive

tax reform done. the point i want to make here is is you have heard me say this before, we're going to walk and chew gum at the same time. we'll keep doing our jobs, we'll keep passing our bills, keep advancing our reforms that we were elected to advance while we do the forethings that are within our -- do the other things that are within our responsibility. that's what we'll be judged on in 2018, did we make peoples' lives better and did we confront things in their lives? that is how we'll be judged. >> have you considered or even identified -- [ indiscernible ]. unsustainable to trying to actually getting things done? >> look, i want to get the facts. that is our job to be sober, to be dispassionate and to get the facts and to do our jobs and follow the facts wherever they may lead. craig, did you have one? i want to give it to the wisconsin guy. >> [ indiscernible ]. >> we have two investigations in

congress going on right now with all things being russia. we have another committee, the oversight and government reform committee just now requesting the documents so there is plenty of oversight being done. we don't try to meet the facts within a 24 hour news cycle. we dispassionately do our jobs and make sure that the investigations follow the facts wherever they may lead and that obviously takes some time. i'll just say one more thing. that's an fbi investigation going on with all things related to russia. done by the career professionals at the fbi. who are going to continue to be career professionals and the acting director just said the other day that no one has tried to impede that investigation. so a lot of work is being done. that's the proper role of the legislative branch in conducting oversight of the executive branch and we're not trying to play to the crowd. or try to meet time lines. we're going to do it the right way and follow the facts wherever they may lead. thank you. >> mr. speaker -- >> that is the speaker taking some questions. arguing that the legislative

agenda remains intact despite all of the distractions that we're getting out of washington. >> he said they're not going to deal in speculation and innuendo and their job is to get the facts which is fair. given what we have seen so far is a number of reporting and speculation and so i think it will be really interesting to see if the memo exists and if it does surface as john harwood told us earlier this morning it should very soon. we'll follow that and then a bright spot among the retail wreck today. target reporting earnings, beating on both the top and bottom lines. the stock is up more than 3.5%. plus, betting big on american infrastructure. there's a big announcement to share. the dow is down 23. much more on "squawk on the street." stay with us.

stocks are taking the worst tumble since the end of march, they have gone negative for the month of may. at least the dow and the s&p and the nasdaq which has been the star performer still remains positive, though it's down the most this morning. more than 1%. we'll continue to follow this market move. target shares though are up this morning. after blowing past wall street estimates. beating on both the top and bottom line growth. target's beat following home depot yesterday. for more, let's bring in oliver chen from cowen and the

president of sw retail advisers. oliver, yes, it was a beat better than feared but we're still talking about negative same-store sales. traffic. and declining overall revenues. how deeptss was this -- decent was this quarter for target? >> thanks for having me, sara. good morning. so the comps were down 1.3. that's beat relative to negative 3 in what we were looking for, better than feared and the gross margins were better. negative 40 basis points, we were looking for a deeper cut in gross margins but you're right. there are many challenges ahead. most critically store traffic. a few key points on target. firstly, that expect more pay less line we're also familiar with customers are not really realizing target has such great value. so they're not coming to the stores. secondly, every day essentials such as getting your essential food item, household items, customers are skipping the trip. thirdly, supply chain.

it's a lot about improving the supply chaining, improving customer satisfaction. those are big topics and we can't deny the power of amazon. 80% of americans over 50 million amazon prime members so it's a big war. we prefer walmart versus targets. >> which reports earnings tomorrow. stacy, any reason to buy target? investors are finding one, up 4%. it's been beaten down hard this year. are you a buyer? >> as oliver said, expectations were incredibly low here. so the comp was less bad and traffic is still down. and other people's pain has been target's gain. what was working for them, certainly bathing suits were working. lb brands has exited the category. electronics is working. hgg has closed plenty of stores. once we lap that, we have to look at the core business and walmart has been going after target with pricing.

the one take away i want to leave everybody with, the concept of price wars can get worse here and they will. target has signalled that walmart has signalled it. >> so it sounds like you're not a buyer. >> yeah. >> walmart is higher -- go ahead, oliver. >> i would echo this. the target at the core of -- they're very good hmerchants. you think of target, a lot of excitement in the store. they're on the road to building 12 new brands within the next few years. they have the victoria beckham, they're improving customer satisfaction. they're also driving experiential into online. so they're not resting. they all have their head in the sand, it's a lot about really thinking about this new customer. and also driving experiences because we all know that millennials and gen x know they care about shopping, but it's a

bit of a journey. i'm excited about what can be possible. >> so you see an opportunity here with the stock? >> well, we have a market perform rating. i'm watching it. but i think they it was credit for being her chants in the past. why do we like walmart better? they have tighter inventory management, the customer satisfaction scores that we measure are going up as well as their intense focus on value. what stacy said is very correct. at the end of the day, everybody wants a great price. so it's coming back to offering consumers the best price in the marketplace and that factors into how i'm thinking about stocks. i think you have to own stocks which offer consumers deep value such as tj maxx, ross, walmart. >> stacy, i know amazon may not be specifically in your universe, but what is the process now for evaluating whether they're serious about a new category? we have a report out today talking about taking steps to get into pharma. >> yeah.

i think amazon is in everybody's universe these days. and yes, they are looking at pharma. and certainly again, let's think about who is in the cross fire here of pharma. it's walgreens, cvs, cvs bought walgreens and it's a traffic driver. as amazon goes into each category there's no hiding. certainly you look at companies as oliver was saying and everybody is trying to do the best they can. they're trying to execute. but that doesn't mean investors want to be on the journey of this execution trip if prices and margins are going to be the battle here. >> oliver, do you cover ralph lauren? >> we do. we do. i'm -- >> i wanted to get your quick thoughts -- i wanted to get your quick thoughts on the new ceo. they took a 25 year veteran of procter & gamble who last ran the beauty brand and the shaving brand. not doing much to help the stock today or the past year.

>> yeah. i think what's happening in retails, this radical transformation. you're looking for leaders that understand the consumer around consumer insights. kind of reinventing the companies whether that's merchandise or supply chain. reinventing to be on target with the consumers. retail is under disruption there are many opportunities. it is frankly hard to tell who's going to win, who's going to lose. because the skills you had in the past do not necessarily matter for the kind of environment we are facing. on that topic of amazon, grocery is a big deal. so the future of america in terms of buying groceries online, car pickup, that's a real battle ground because it's not yet done. so we'll see. we like walmart's car pickup function. the real key for retail in general is to link clicks and for retailers to drive convenience for the customers because customers actually still like stores despite all of these

headlines. customers enjoy going to stores so it's really up to retailers to answer this across ralph lauren, across target. across tiffany. >> yeah. we have to leave it there. big changes. i still like the store. i still like the mall. oliv oliver chen, thank you and stacy, thank you. when we come back, scott rechler is with us. the dow is down 225. which is the worst performance since september 13th. we're back in a minute. [vo] when it comes to investing, looking from a fresh perspective can make all the difference. it can provide what we call an unlock: a realization that often reveals a better path forward. at wells fargo, it's our expertise in finding this kind of insight that has lead us to become one of the largest investment and wealth management firms in the country.

discover how we can help find your unlock. i've got a nice long life ahead. big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses, i looked at my options. then i got a medicare supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if you're eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. call now and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, it helps pick up some of what medicare doesn't pay. and could save you in out-of-pocket medical costs. to me, relationships matter. i've been with my doctor for 12 years. now i know i'll be able to stick with him. [ male announcer ] with these types of plans, you'll be able to visit any doctor or hospital

that accepts medicare patients. plus, there are no networks, and virtually no referrals needed. so don't wait. call now and request this free decision guide to help you better understand medicare... and which aarp medicare supplement plan might be best for you. there's a wide range to choose from. we love to travel - and there's so much more to see. so we found a plan that can travel with us. anywhere in the country. [ male announcer ] join the millions of people who have already enrolled in the only medicare supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp, an organization serving the needs of people 50 and over for generations. remember, all medicare supplement insurance plans help cover what medicare doesn't pay. and could save you in out-of-pocket medical costs. call now to request your free decision guide. and learn more about the kinds of plans that will be here for you now - and down the road.

i have a lifetime of experience. so i know how important that is. we have a sell-off on our hands after the long period of low volatility. until today, s&p had not moved more than half a percent in either direction in 15 trading days. that was the longest streak since 1969. also point out the ten year now below 2.24. bringing pain from the banks. >> thanks. it's infrastructure week in washington, d.c. the chamber of commerce, the national association of realtors

teaming up to highlight critical infrastructure issues at the same time of course we're still awaiting official details from president trump on his said to be trillion dollar infrastructure plan. joining us now the chairman and ceo, rechler. he's on the planning commission for the region. let's start on the infrastructure. you're a huge proponent of it. there's been some talk that you would be part of the president's advisory team on it. you didn't end up being part of that but i know you feel like that not enough is being done. why? >> it's no secret that relying on 20th century and even 19th century infrastructure is like playing russian roulette. it will blow up at some point. the only two questions is when and how severe the damage is. so, you know, you would think president trump with his background in real estate would appreciate that more than most. in my conversations with him, both in september, you know, he laid out this ambitious trillion

dollar plan during the transition team. very focused on this plan. actually, even thinking beyond which was the traditional republican politics in terms of approaches to it. so i went in somewhat optimistic. unfortunately the rhetoric hasn't really produced the reality. >> are you pessimistic now? we have heard about tax reform a bit. we haven't gotten a plan yet. the aca repeal and replace is a priority, but infrastructure, we haven't heard much at all. >> i think it was a mistake to start with health care. obviously because of the passion, that deals with people's well-being. when we talk about tax reform, there's winners and losers. and with infrastructure there's only winners because everyone wins, right? it's about being able to get to work on time and see your kids before they go to sleep, knowing you're drinking clean water. this is essential for the vitality of our nation. that's where i wish he would have started.

>> when i look at you and i think of your real estate business, you'd be one of the beneficiaries of a 15% tax rate on pass throughs and llcs. are you supportive of the president's tax plan? >> listen, i think we need tax reform, but i would forego personally and for our business taking tax breaks and i'd rather see that money invested the in infrastructure. when you invest in infrastructure, you invest in our future. investing in tax breaks isn't investing in the future, but sort of a short term gain. i think we as business leaders we need to start leading. we can't rely on washington, that's become clear. we need to go out there and guide washington to realize that it's not about our parochial interests of the short term but the long term vitality of the country. >> i know that plenty of business leaders agree with you. but when you look at -- listen, look at the market right now. we're finally down for first time in some time. reacting to the possibility of sort of nothing going on in washington. and that nothing includes not a lot of action on infrastructure. >> that's right. again, doing nothing means going

backwards. i mean, if you put this in perspective n this region, for example, there was the gateway tunnel that was supposed to be a new tunnel under the hudson river. even trump said it was the most important infrastructure project in this country, it's critical to our vitality and it's off the table because the budget took away the program that would fund it. it was supposed to start this year, who knows when it will start. it takes a lot of years to get the things up and running again. >> gary cohn has talked about public/private partnerships is that still not viable? >> i'm a big believer in public/private partnerships and we need do reinvent how was invest in infrastructure. we spend too much money to start infrastructure and they're dumping more and more money into black holes and not seeing the results. the public private partnership gives us a chance to transfer risk to the private sector. that otherwise wouldn't happen

to the extent we as a country can use more of it, the better. we have not done a lot of it. we looked at the rest of the world, they have relied on it. one of the reasons is our agencies and our government agencies think that we have 4% money we can borrow. but that sounds cheap until you have 200 to $300 million of overruns. >> in the brief time we have left, let's talk real estate here. you have had great success. you obviously sold a previous company to sl green some time back. you built rxr into the formidable company yourself. are you more of a seller than a buyer? >> i think we're in a little bit of a pause moment. because of all the things happening around the world people are trying to re-evaluate what's the appropriate pricing. so we're one of the most active investors for the last five years. last year, we underwrote $40 billion of transactions and did zero. that doesn't mean that we're not going to be active again this

year. >> finally on retail, we focused so much on it lately in the broader markets. you own a lot of retail space although not in the mall but here on the streets of manhattan. are you concerned? >> retail like all real estate is going through the adjustment of technology and what users expect. people don't go to malls anymore, retail stores to shop to buy goods. they go for experiences. so if you own real estate, in good locations, you can offer that type of experience you'll bring the customer. if you don't own that, you're going to have competitively obsolete product that you have to figure out what to do with. >> we could be there. >> yeah. >> scott, thank you for your time. >> thank you. i appreciate it. >> scott rechler, rxr. >> thank you. let's get over to sue herera for a news update. >> good morning. here's what's happening at this hour. gop senator thom tillis of north carolina collapsed during a washington, d.c. race this morning. he was conscious when taken away by ambulance and then he released a video from the hospital saying he was okay.

he was just overheated and he's looking forward to getting back to work. we wish him the best. overseas, gunmen stormed the local headquarters of afghanistan's state media setting off flashes that killed at least one attacker and injured 14 others. the attack began with an explosion followed by a gun battle with afghan security forces. a dozen people were injured during a protest at the turkish ambassador's washington, d.c., place on sunday. it erupted after president trump and the turkey's president met at the white house. at least two were taken to the hospital. the number of memorial day travelers this year is expected to hit a 12-year high. according to aaa. due to spikes in consumer confidence and personal income, aaa is forecasting 39.3 million people will hit the road. 1 million more than last year. might be good reason to stay home. that's the cnbc news update this hour. carl, back downtown to you. do a staycation. >> thanks, sue.

when we come back the ceo of aecom is with us as his company makes a big announcement. stocks are down 243 even as oil recovers on some inventory numbers. back after a break. stay with me, mr. parker. when a critical patient is far from the hospital, the hospital must come to the patient. stay with me, mr. parker. the at&t network is helping first responders connect with medical teams in near real time... stay with me, mr. parker. ...saving time when it matters most. stay with me, mrs. parker. that's the power of and. with e*trade you see things your way.

you have access to the right information at the right moment. and when you filter out the noise, it's easy to turn your vision into action. it's your trade. e*trade.

nbc news confirming fired fbi director comey wrote a memo stating that the president asked him to drop an investigation into former national security adviser michael flynn. john harwood has reaction from capitol hill. good morning. >> good morning. we have been building to this moment through a series of cascading events over the last week or so. first, president trump fired fbi director comey. then in an interview with our colleague lester holt he acknowledged that he was considering the russia investigation when he fired jim comey. now we have the news, broke been i "the new york times" yesterday since confirmed by nbc and others that if former fbi

director kept contemporaneous notes with president trump and he said in a february meeting with the president the president asked him to drop the matter involving mike flynn which of course is part of the broader investigation of president trump's own campaign and his associates and their ties with russians who interfered with the election. now, the white house put out a statement last night saying that while the president had indicated that general flynn was a good guy, that he had not asked jim comey to end that investigation or any other investigation. but immediately it prompted a different reaction from congressional republicans including jason chaffetz, he said i want to get that memo and other relevant documents and this morning, speaker paul ryan told the press at a news conference a few minutes ago that they're going to follow the

facts where they lead. >> we need the facts. it is obvious that there are some people who want to harm the president but we have an obligation to carry out our oversight regardless of which party's in the white house. that means before rushing to judgment we get all the pertinent information. >> now, other republicans are going much further. we saw john mccain last night saying this is reaching watergate level proportions, pressure is building for potentially an independent counsel or outside commission and president trump's problem of course is that in a he said/he said argument with jim comey, his credibility is a lot weaker than comey's, guys. >> still no tweets from the president this morning, john. although we'll see what his commencement address says at the academy. despite the controversies surrounding the white house, the companies still have to plan for the policies coming out of the

white house including tax reform. aecom is set to announce a big investment in u.s. jobs and joining us exclusively is aecom ceo michael burke. good to have you back on the show. good morning to you. >> good morning. thank you for having me. >> i want to get to news of your investment, but just popping off of john's point how much do you worry about things that seem to have been on the agenda like infrastructure now being derailed? >> well, listen, we're still optimistic that an infrastructure plan will take place this year. with discussions with members of the administration, as well as legislators it's become clear there's broad bipartisan support for infrastructure. now, will it be a delayed until later in the year, probably so. we're hearing in the next week or two weeks we'll be seeing some principals coming out of the white house to get the two parties together, to start discussing it. but we are seeing broad, bipartisan support for it. so we're optimistic. >> right. roughly 40 working days left before the august recess. i assume your view is nothing

really can be counted on before then? >> you know, it's a long shot that we'll have something before the august recess, but it appears there may be grounds to come together with both a tax bill and an infrastructure bill. in a lighter format than was originally anticipated. but bringing the two together with an infrastructure bill does have some hope and it has broad bipartisan support. hopefully we'll get something before august. but probably more likely later in the year. >> yeah. talk to me about the new investment 3,000 open positions in the u.s. and canada. >> yes. we announced today that we are expecting to hire 3,000 new employees here in the u.s. and canada over the next six months. we are seeing a broad ramp up in infrastructure progress across the country. and whether or not something happens at the federal level, we are seeing a lot of activity at the state level. just in the past nine months

alone, we've won over $20 billion of new projects around the world. we're seeing states like california last month that signed a $52 billion infrastructure bill. we saw in the november elections states that implemented sales tax measures wholly dedicated for transportation of $200 billion so there's a lot of activity at the state level, at the local municipality level. as well as the private sectors coming into the market with private investment. >> so what we know from the white house on infrastructure, michael, that the plan is said to include $200 billion in federal spending to help fund leverage, $1 trillion of investments over the next ten years. how is this going to look to you? >> so what we're hearing that you used the word leverage. that's a hazard where the federal government steps in and spends money on infrastructure and causes the states to back away from raising their own funds. so they're expecting to use the

infrastructure bill to leverage the federal dollars and leverage it to incent states to put their own money up first and back it up with federal dollars, they're going to use it to leverage private investment through public/private partnerships. so that $200 billion is expected to leverage over $12 trillion of investment across the country. >> but is there a sense that states like california are saying essentially guys, we're on our own. we can't count on federal leverage, federal dollars and we'll start launching projects like the ones you mentioned? >> the states are moving forward quickly. more than half of the states raised their own gas tax to fund their own infrastructures. so the states are moving ahead quickly. whether or not the federal government is there. i think they're ail hoping and expecting that the federal government will be there to leverage those state and local dollars that are coming to the market. but the states are moving out

quickly and moving much more quickly than the federal government is right now. >> okay. finally, is the concentration in roads, bridges, ports, energy, is there any particular section of infrastructure they're working on the most? >> right now the biggest focus has been on transportation. at the federal level they're focused on aviation. they're looking at a restructuring of the faa and the traffic control, and rural broadband is a popular topic here. it's a broad spectrum of infrastructure, but at the state and local level transportation is clearly the focus. >> it's going to be interesting to watch this summer in addition to everything else. michael, good insight. thank you for your time. >> great. thank you for having me. thank you. >> michael burke with aecom. as we head to break here, look at shares of walgreens and cvs this morning. both down to the tune of more than 2%. after that cnbc report, learning that amazon is considering a

move into the pharmacy business. we'll talk more about that. plus, taking a look at the broader market right now. stocks now down 236. s&p 500 is down a full percent so we have broken that 15 day streak of not moving half a percent. we'll continue to follow this market sell-off. but the nasdaq is down 1.3%. this is where i trade andrs. manage my portfolio. since i added futures, i have access to the oil markets and gold markets. okay. i'm plugged into equities- trade confirmed- and i have global access 24/7. meaning i can do what i need to do, then i can focus on what i want to do. visit learnfuturestoday.com

to see what adding futures can do for you. ♪ ♪ welcome to holiday inn! ♪ ♪ thank you! ♪ ♪ wait, i have something for you! ♪ ♪ making every stay a special stay. holiday inn, smiles ahead. whether for big meetings or little getaways, member always save more at holidayinn.com

tech investor dan nile says the market may be due for a big correction. what stocks can hit get. tradingnation.cnbc.com. moor "squawk on the street" coming up.

remember here at ally, nothing stops us from doing right by our customers. who's with me? we're like a sports team here at ally. if a sports team had over 7... i'm in. 7,000 players. our plays are a little unorthodox. but to beat the big boys, you need smarter ways to save people money. we know what you want from a financial company and we'll stop at... nothing to make sure you get it. one, two... and we mean nothing. ♪ ♪ . . . the new york stock exchange celebrating its 225th anniversary. bob pisani joins us from a special location, the location where it was founded. >> reporter: that's right. we are right on the corner of broad and wall street. this is what was signed 225 years ago. this is a copy of the buttonwood

agreement. 24 brokers got together and said, we are going to exchange information, share commissions and we pledge our loyalty to each other. that was the start of the new york stock exchange. the nyc has been very big in technological innovation. olivia is holding a document from 1878 here, two years after the telephone was invented. bell telephone wrote to the nyc and said, how would you like to put telephones on the floor? it was one of the first places where there was a telephone in a public office. four years later, you can see the information came from the new york stock exchange from a fellow named thomas edison who wrote to them and said i've got an improvement opn a stock ticker. i think it is going to help you a lot. this was the main way convention information was conveyed for the next 60 years. the edison stock ticker became very famous. the nyc has always been involved in technological change. we want to bring an update on

the markets. things are moving rather quickly. we bought at 2374. we are just off the lows for the s&p 500. banks are moving down. the dollar is at a new low since the election. it has been helping some commodities. banks have been weak as the yield has been below 2.3%. tech is weak. that's a big, high, beta sector. generally, flight is safe and goals and consumer staples, a bit stronger. whe whe what's changed? improved for risk, global economy. most participants feel that president trump, a little bit of political drama, the markets can handle easily but when you have falk about obstruction of justice or an apiecement fight, that's a different story. that's what the markets are reacting to today. back to you. >> all right, thank you, bob. the markets reacting. they are for the first time in a while. bob pisani outside the new york

stock exchange. let's bring it back in. send it over to john fortt. what's coming up on "squawk alley"? >> we are going to continue to watch these markets, the nasdaq, 1.5%. we are continuing to follow the story about amazon getting into pharmacy and google has its big developer conference today. all this and more coming up on "squawk alley."

we are looking at session louse. the dow down 280 points, the worst one-day spill since back in september. the s&p 500 down 1.3%. biggest losers there, financials and technology and industrials. the nasdaq is down 1.35%. the ten-year yield drops to 2.23. gold is rising. "squawk on the street" will be right back. i love how usaa gives me the peace of mind and the security just like the marines did. at one point, i did change to a different company with car insurance, and i was not happy with the customer service.

we have switched back over and we feel like we're back home now. the process through usaa is so effortless, that you feel like you're a part of the family. i love that i can pass the membership to my children, and that they can be protected. we're the williams family, and we're usaa members for life. call usaa today to talk about your insurance needs. when this bell rings... ...it starts a chain reaction... ...that's heard throughout the connected business world. at&t network security helps protect business, from the largest financial markets to the smallest transactions, by sensing cyber-attacks in near real time and automatically deploying countermeasures. keeping the world of business connected and protected. that's the power of and. so what else is new? humm..she's doing good. she needs more care though. she wants to stay in her house. i don't know even where to start with that. first, let's take a look at your financial plan

and see what we can do. ok, so we've got... we'll listen. we'll talk. we'll plan. baird. ♪ to err is human. to anticipate is lexus. experience the lexus rx with advanced safety standard. experience amazing.

welcome back to "squawk on the street." i'm dominic chu. real estate and utilities, the only sectors green. the regional bank etf, that ticker, kre, down over 3%. you check out shares of citizens

financial, charles schwab, bank of america, plunging more than 4%. financials very much a focus as we talk about today's trade, tech, financials, materials, some of the worst performing sectors today. that does it for "squawk on the street." let's send it downtown for the start of "squawk alley." thank you very much. welcome to "squawk alley." i'm carl quintanilla with john fortt and sara eisen. we are in the midst of a major sell off. only one dow in the green, unh. s&p is down 31 and change. both of them testing the 50-day moving average. gold is up 22, 23. the vix has shot up past 13. the ten-year fighting with 224. we couch all of this with the knowledge we have gone 15 sessions without a move as much as .5 in either direction. >> the context is important but there was just too much turbulence when it comes to the headlines in washington, d.c. if you loo