highs because something's working, something's not. like a team with a lot of injured players and still manages to win or tie. >> i'm trying to think of which team in the playoffs would be the best analogy. the warriors and -- >> there's only two teams in the series ongoing. >> thank you so much. >> see you tomorrow. >> that does it for "closing bell" and "fast money" begins right now. "fast money" starts right now. live from the nasdaq market overlooking new york city's times square. i'm melissa lee. tonight on "fast" famed investor asher edelman who predicted stocks would rally under trump now says there's something fishy happening. you will not want to miss this. plus, another day, another call for an iphone super cycle. has the apple cycle gone too far too fast. deal talk is brewing as constellation brands makes a bid for brown-forman. leslie picker will join us with

the very latest. first we start off with a stealth rally in the so-called safety trades. check out this. consumer staple stocks up 7.5% this year. utilities up 8%. gold up 9%. you know what, throw in bitcoin up a whopping 130%. so this is really the new pro growth world under trump, why are investors snapping up safety trades? uncertain world is this a place to put fresh money to work? guy? >> i think i can explain all four. i'll let b.k. explain bitcoin because he's been all over this story. consumer staples, rising tide lifts all boats. the economy is getting better. job market seems to be getting better. u tiltsz, why they have done so well? because everybody thought rates were going higher. ten year yields have been going down. people have found safety or some form of -- >> income in. >> income in utilities. fair enough. gold is a function of the

dollar. dollar had a big rally. round trip since the trump administration started. dollar has been weak and that leads to strength in the dollar. although they seem incongruous, i think you can explain all four away. that said, and i do believe this, i'm not some raging bull, but the fact that the market stays around the highs, i've said it for a long time, market doesn't give you a long time to buy the lows. in this case, it doesn't give you a long time to sell the highs which is why we continue to grind higher. >> is this a weird, you know, in quotes, action because we're seeing the rallies in these but also technology. >> it's kind of that bar bell approach. instead of necessarily buying a put, you might want to buy some utilities as a safety type of trade. i think guy is 100% right. when you think about the market we talk about passive investors versus active investors. passive investors, maybe they want to have a yield. there is a safety trade going on. bitcoin up 130% of the year. some of that is a safety trade.

you've seen a lot of over seas markets open up. what we've seen is u.s. investors. japanese investors where about 50% of the volume. this week it's u.s. investors, institutions getting into bitcoin. some are using it as a tail risk for the political chaos. >> how do you know it's institutions and not retail investors. >> i know that from talking to people. >> plus, that is a head wind for gold. bitcoin has been a choice. when you look at alternative currencies, you've seen the inverse relationship. to get back to the utilities, people thought that rising rates, they weren't going to be able to pass on those rates. they do. people thought it was a rising rate environment, it's not to that point. staples, to me it's a product of one day you have one sector leading, another is another sector leading. unless you bought materials or reets, you won in the market. financials basically flat. this is the trump rally. when everyone says what's the trump rally, it's the overall market as a whole to me.

>> staples, trading at a current pe of 22. information toechnology is trading at 23. >> looks to me, some of these, are they going to continue to be the safety trade? that's the big question for me. you start looking at some of the valuations and scratch your head a bit. looking at volatility. if you have to have a safety trade on, why wouldn't you want to have put protection. something you know will droeblgtly be able to impact whether it be the russell, the s&p 500, dow stocks, whatever you want that to be. whatever you feel like you need the protection in. i get worried when i see some of these safety trades actually get to levels where you start looking at it and scratching your head and say, wow, these valuations look high. >> why does it have to be safety trades? >> in some cases. i don't think all of these are necessarily safety. there certainly is a migration over some of the names where they're saying, you know what, i'm not as comfortable in this. i don't want to be in amazon or facebook but i would rather be over here. >> safety trade, a move into

kimberly-clark, clorox, that is for growth? >> i think that people just buy the market, they buy risk assets. these are seen as staples. they're being seen as safety trades or defensive, but the truth is as long as you stayed away from those things that i mentioned, your market is up. those all have outperformed the overall market. >> and some of those names actually even though they do trade at a premium valuation, you're starting to see some of the earnings get stronger and stronger. you start looking at the forwards on these not as bad. wow they look really inflated. the reality is they have growth in front of them. because of that, some of that earnings growth doesn't make it look as bad. >> some of the staples get their growth from overseas. guy mentioned weak dollar. that's good for emerging markets of the the way you play that, you go into the staples. >> we have a guest coming. pete talked about colgate a week and a half ago or so. a lot of what's going on in this space, there's some takeover chatter in a lot of these names, colgate is one of those names

that's been bandied about. >> so over all there could be some consolidation? that's another driver. >> we're not the first show that's mentioned that. i think that is clearly in my opinion something that is going on. that is absolutely a driver. >> so are there specifics? pete, you mentioned valuations are a stretch and the dollar growth is moving in their favor. which ones would you take a look at? >> i'm in colgate. i'm in coca-cola off the grid. you start looking around some of these. we all refer to in different ways whether they're safety, starting to look at different names, staples. there is some growth in some of these names and i agree with guy. i think the mna world and we're hearing about it even again today talking about something emg else, we are going to see more and more as we get into the rest of the year. >> maybe technology safety. >> in a sense, right? >> they've got dividends, big caps. >> they have a lot of cash. let's just take apple. a ton of cash.

are they going to pay more of a dividend? what are they going to do if they repay cash? i think there is an element of safety. i wouldn't want to characterize it as a safe type of play. i still like the utilities. utilities in this environment seem good. xlu looks like it wants to make a big, big break out here. >> while staples are considered the classic safety trade, it's really big tech up 18%. most of that rally has come from a handful of names including apple, alphabet, amazon and microsoft. is this a reason to be worried? let's bring in derobco lakos. good to see you. >> thanks for having me. >> is that a reason to doubt the rally, that it's being led by such small leadership? >> i wouldn't doubt the rally. when you look at market breadth and leadership, i think it's better when participation is

greater than when it's driven by a handful of names. for one, we are continuing to see a relatively big rotation. the market from active into passive which is at the same time dislocating certain things underneath. momentum, secular growth names are disproportionately escalating things. you sort of need to look at the broader picture and the underlying flows to sort of get a better understanding. i don't think it's necessarily negative. plus, if you look at leadership of top 10, top 50 stocks in the s&p, the dislocation is below, let's say, 2015 december levels where it was higher. >> right. >> it's below 2007 levels. much, much below 2000 levels. >> just last week you tweaked your levels. your year end target is 2400 which is basically where we are. does that mean -- we were just talking about staples as a group. staples trade out of pe that is higher than the over all s&p 500. anything over the s&p 500, are

they over valued in your view? >> we have a negative view on staples and we've held a negative view on staples basically since july of last year. a lot of it is associated with yields, stretched evaluations and so forth. i think in order for the market to move up the 2400 range participation does need to increase. you do need to see again a little more of the reflation trade. it cannot be driven by staples itself. >> you mentioned the passive versus active. we've talked about that a lot. it seems to be a pretty big driver of the market right now. if and when that reverses, at some point you end up with all the passive investors in. does that mean we're looking for a major correction in the market? is that going to be a rotation and we get into active names? >> it's a little bit of a question of causality. the passive trend comes to a stop. there are structural forces and technological advance and more data becoming available, cheaper. some of it is linked to interest rates are low, growth is lower. i don't know.

this could persist for two, three, four years. what could potentially cause a rotation out of passive into active. i think, yes, could be very likely a future recession, a recession where maybe the internet stocks, the big gainers of the cycle lead the way down. that put a black eye to the passive trade. >> when you look at the 2400 level that's been unsurmountable for the bulls to overcome and you look at to tag along with what brian kelly said, millennials invest more passively than they do active. so this seems to me like a bottom is put into the marketplace and when you said you don't know how long it takes to really unwind or to change direction, to me it looks like a real change, a secular change. >> yes. >> in investing. and when those top names that are bought, there's more etfs than there are single stocks now. so all of this creates multiple buying and i don't want to say false buying, but multiple buying that it's hard for a bear to win. >> yes. i agree. and if you look at even example of for instance 2000 to 2003,

2004 you saw a very, very challenged market where a lot of these beaten up value names on a relative basis sustainably were up from a lot of secular growth names. so, yeah, we could very well see that play out in the coming months. now as far as the millennials, i do get your point, but on the flip side of that, you do have your baby boomers which are also gradually sort of now exiting the market. as they exit they could be applying some retail -- sorry, you could see some retail selling pressure kicking in. that's potentially a head wind. >> thank you for coming by. jpmorgan. >> yeah, i think to his point. as a sports fan, sports analogy, when you're watching a baseball team you want all nine guys in your lineup to be contributing to the team. reality is it's typically two or three that carry the team. the reality is as much as you want all the different sectors to participate, it's only usually a couple that really drive the markets higher and that's what we're seeing now.

what is interesting? if energy were to catch up, interesting day today, trump talking about potentially selling half of the strategic petroleum reser fs. oil was up and we talked about halliburton yesterday with tim. they had a decent day. you might see the up side. >> to me i looked at kre today. i haven't bought it. i mentioned last week i'm waiting for the market to prove itself. part of it is the 2400 level that steven mentioned. he i'm looking for that break of the down trend. the banks seem like they want to do it. at the very least i know the bottom what appears to be the bottom, that has formed over the last month or so, i know that that's my stop now. i'm looking for that breakout and i'll use the recent lows as my stop. >> today i bought a little goldman sachs. i bought the stock and stops. i bought citi on the day that we were down. we saw huge coming down on citi. down day. negative, nobody wants to touch anything. suddenly you see monstrous

paper. 70,000 up side calls were bought that day, the september calls when i looked at citi. so if we get a turn at all in the energies names, if we get a turn at all in the financial names, both actually flat lining or under performing the market, that's going to be the kicker that pushes us past 2500. i know it's the five stocks. take a look at broad com, take a look at all of these various chip names as well. we say tech nothing, only four or five stocks, there are a lot more that have smaller market caps but they are absolutely moving to the up side. you see some of these break outs as well. >> constellation brands making a bid but investors don't see it going through. why? the reporter who broke the story. cnbc's leslie picker will be here with some answers. plus, the apple super cycle is about to swing into full gear. are we witnessing peak super cycle? we'll explain. the man, famed investor asher edelman has a wild theory for what's really behind the

trump rally. he will explain. much more "fast money" coming up next. oh, not so fast, carl. ♪ oh no. schwab, again? index investing for that low? that's three times less than fidelity... ...and four times less than vanguard. what's next, no minimums? ...no minimums. schwab has lowered the cost of investing again. introducing the lowest cost index funds in the industry with no minimums. i bet they're calling about the schwab news. schwab. a modern approach to wealth management.

but we've got the get tdigital tools to help. now with xfinity's my account, you can figure things out easily, so you won't even have to call us. change your wifi password to something you can actually remember, instantly. add that premium channel, and watch the show everyone's talking about, tonight. and the bill you need to pay? do it in seconds. because we should fit into your life, not the other way around. go to xfinity.com/myaccount welcome back to "fast money." spirits company constellation brands and brown-forman reported

that leslie reported that they made an offer to buy jack daniels. >> hey, melissa. that's right. shares of brown-forman closed 6.2% lower that the company rebuffed a takeover approach by constellation brands. constellation brands declined 1.8%. that is according to sources we spoke with earlier today. the brown-forman family says they have unfettered say over approving deals. historically they've been reticent to ink any. even after the initial rejection one source says constellation brands is still interested. we're told that the premium would be quite generous, but at any price it would be the largest ever deal in the distillery industry. i spoke with analysts who said that a big deal like this one could be challenging for constellation brands. the company has about $9 billion in debt on its balance sheet. they expect brown-forman to deliver a bit but using more

stock as a currency is also a possibility for them. even if this deal doesn't come to pass, it's clear that constellation brands is still on the prowl. it doesn't appear that many other distillers moved on the news but analysts said that if they do decide to move away from brown-forman they could get smaller distilleries or smaller wine brands. guys. >> leslie, what is the urgency or the drive for constellation brands to make such a deal in terms of its portfolio? when trump was first elected we saw stz shares, a trade down because of their exposure and the tariffs on mexican beer. in terms of strategically how brown-forman would fit, how would it fit? >> for brands and companies that own a lot of different brands, it doesn't hurt to just keep accumulating those brands and, of course, brown-forman is an ideal asset for them in that respect. in terms of urgency, we haven't seen many plays like this in the mna world because there is so

much uncertainty with regard to regulation, with regard to companies that have international operations as you mentioned, with regard to tax policy. and so it's interesting that they are looking to move on this, but it could be just a matter of affordability and they feel like they can get in and get a good deal right now. >> leslie, thank you. leslie picker who broke the story earlier today. let's trade this. i mean, the price action really tells the whole story, right? >> i think the price action tells the entire story. goldman sachs upgraded this stock back the beginning, middle of april. if you go back and look constellation brands filed a mixed shelf in the beginning of may. it makes sense. why are they doing such a big deal at this point this the cycle? does it mean growth is slowing? so i think the market interpreted this as, you know what, it could be a credo. but what's behind it? 20 times earnings you have to wonder is the run over? in terms of price action, all time high today. reverse closed on the lows on three times normal volume.

i don't know what tomorrow brings, but that definitely could be a teller over the next few days. >> reminds you of hershey. here we are brown-forman, the brown family owns much of the stock. >> besides such a strategic play, it reminds me of the staples play that we talked about at the top of the slow. guy talked about the growth slowing. you're buying into a staples, buying into a broad family of brands and maybe it is a sign. i'm not sure. we'll see if they sell out. >> grasso? >> price is truth. up 15% basically month to date brown-forman. they're sniffing around. going to continue to sniff around. it rolled over the chart. my guess is this stabilized around the same level recently in the last four days. i would say you probably look at it tomorrow and buy it down 6%. switching gears, the bulls on wall street are searching for apple. an iphone 8 super cycle will

unleash pent up demand for the new phone. more than five other firms in the last six months have made similar calls for a super cycle including rbc, could you juwan. will apple be able to deliver an iphone super cycle or is this peak super cycle, b.k.? >> listen, there is going to be a super cycle, right? everybody that i know and everybody i talk about, they're going to by the iphone 8. that being said, let's take a look at what happened with the apple stock. these aren't the first people to discover that the iphone 8 has been coming out in the fall. we've been talking about it since the beginning of the year. apple was a $90 stock. something drove it up. this is not new news. i would not be buying apple just because all of a sudden analysts have woken up this day saying -- >> it sounds like you think that everything is priced into the stock. >> i think an awful lot is priced into it. i'd still be a buyer on dips in apple until the fall.

let's say it comes august, september, trading at new highs, then i would not be so excited about buying on a dip. >> credit suisse raises for 2017, 2018, 2019. talk about a super cycle. >> they're talking about the idea that they could be 700 million. they're talking about how the retention levels they've got, the average selling price is going to go up significantly. when you add all of those things into it and we always point out, what is apple doing outside of the phone itself? where is the growth? where is the stickiness factor? services. that's going to continue to grow. it's going to build this up, brian. that's when i look at the stock where it is, i think it's pausing. i think we're stuck between 148, 158, something like that for a period of time, maybe the next month or two. then when people see just how much that demand is and you start looking at the over seas markets where they haven't dented -- >> none of that is new information. >> think how many people have missed the boat. think how many people are getting out and this stock is going higher and higher. >> from 90 to 153?

somebody's buying it. >> warren buffet. >> it's not because of warren buffet. come on. >> apple is buying -- apple is sucking up and the money off shore. if we had a hint -- >> i like the way grasso thinks. >> a hint of any of that money coming back permanently, you can't sell it. >> again, this is not new news. stocks move -- >> would you say apple's valuations were ridiculous? >> i would say that people have bought into it and i don't know who the next buyer is going to be. it's not going to be b.k., i know that. >> it is not owned by enough yet in the wall street world. >> a lot of them have it. >> owner owned? >> i did not buy those. >> they did not believe the hype before. >> somebody bought it from 90 up to 150. >> it was all warren buffet. >> come on. >> i have a question. >> i like questions. >> 2400, the more 2400 is a resistance for the overall markets, can apple go much higher? >> you're assuming we're going to stop. i'll play the game with you. >> if it goes up -- >> if we stopped here, one, i'd

be very surprised. we've been here for seemingly the last two and a half months. if we were to stop here and roll over, i don't think it's going to cascade apple to the down side. i thought it was going to stop at 134. that goes to show what i know. >> you have to sell those. if we roll over from 24 down to ultimately the test of the 200, which is what i think is healthy for this overall market, i think that dip is worth buying. of course, all the ones that got us here will be taken out to the wood shed. still ahead, fox shares sinking this week as ratings of the network are on the decline and president trump could be to blame. we've got a special report. i'm melissa lee. you're watching "fast money" on cnbc first in business worldwide. in the meantime, here's what else is coming up on "fast." >> the illusion has become real and the more real it becomes, the more desperate they want it. capitalism at its finest. >> but the real life inspiration for gordon gecko and one-time trump supporter says it's not

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welcome back to "fast money." live at the nasdaq markets. here's what's coming up. asher edelman says something

isn't right in the trump rally. he'll be here in just a moment to tell us what that is. plus, fox shares sinking as the ratings plummet. with the trump administration under continued scrutiny, could the media giant be in for even more trouble? we'll have a special report. first, after the trump administration presented a crisp one-page document detailing tax reform back in april, americans haven't heard much since until now. john harwood spoke with treasury secretary steven mnuchin. hi, john. >> reporter: hi, melissa. the question has been ever since steve mnuchin came on cnbc in november and said that the trump tax plan would have no tax cut for people at the top, it would be focused on people in the middle, people have been wondering whether or not he and the trump team are going to keep that pledge. when i interviewed him on stage at the peterson fiscal summit, he would not commit to that. >> the president's objective is to create a middle income tax

cut. we're going to be working closely but, again, that's our intent. i can't pledge what the results will be since the results are going to be a combined effort of the administration, the house and the senate. >> reporter: of course, considering that the administration has proposed eliminating the estate tax, cutting the capital gains tax for high end taxpayers, cutting the top personal rate, there's a very good chance that that plan is going to end up with a substantial cut for people at the top. one other question, of course, is going to be timing. originally the plan was for republicans to get something on the president's desk by the august congressional recess. that is not going to happen. he acknowledged that today. he said he hopes it can still happen in 2017. some republicans in congress are talking about 2018, melissa. >> john, thank you. john harwood in washington with his interview with secretary mnuchin. 2018, isn't that what wall street is expecting? >> i think wall street is expecting that. if you look at the markets, the markets have not been taken off track by any of this.

this was something that i got wrong. i thought that if they couldn't get tax reform, if they couldn't get health care reform the market was going to collapse in. we've all see that the market was focused on something other. maybe no new regulation is enough to keep the market on track. >> just a week ago we were talking about possible impeachment of the president and here we are five points away from record highs. >> i wonder what a week has done, right? i said this the other night, nothing has changed. i don't mean that nothing has changed in a good way or bad way, we have this massive political chaos. nothing really got resolved that caused a 300 point down day in the dow and here we are again. to me what i mean, you have to look at all of these things. are any of these events going to cause a recession? is it going to cause people to cancel their netflix subscription? or prescriptions for some people. is it going to cause them not to buy the apple iphone 8? i don't think so. i think that's what the market is looking at saying unless there's an economic event, these are not economic events. tax reform would have been a

positive economic event. not having it is not necessarily negative. many believe proposed tax and regulatory reforms have been the catalyst. our next guest says something else. ash eer edelman said a trump wi would be good for stocks. asher, good to see you again. welcome back to the show. what you're going to say i guarantee everybody out there is going to blow up the internet. so why do you think stocks are still higher here close to record highs? >> first, you have to give me a break here. every time i come on and you say i'm a past supporter of donald trump. it ain't the case. >> okay. >> now i'll tell you what i think. there is a system in place which was put in place by ronald regan in 1988 and the purpose of this group or this plan was to insulate markets from crises like we had in 1987.

it's called the plunge protection group and the plunge protection group was put in place to stabilize and keep markets normalized and has been used many times along the way, including 2008, 2009 when we had these drastic downturns in the market. the plunge protection plan is run by -- it reports only to the president, neems. it's run by the head of the sec, the head of the commodities trading group, the secretary of the treasury and the head of the fed. and they have an unlimited -- and they work with banks. typically it has been in the past jpmorgan, morgan stanley, goldman sachs. and they execute orders on all exchanges when they feel the market is not behaving as it might or as they would like it to behave. in the past it really has been an insulator against major downturns taking more of an effect than might be helpful

about politically and economically. we have seen the most extraordinary, i'm sorry you don't have a chart. i should have sent you one. we have seen the most extraordinary lack of volatility in the vix since trump has been in office. it's interesting because the night he was elected may recall that the futures came down about 4 or 600 points. you may recall by the next morning they were even again, and that, to me, watching this plunge protection plan for the last ten years in effect would -- i was pretty certain that that's what happened. now we have everybody complaining that there's no volatility in this market but there's amazing volatility in the political cycle. if you're a tape watcher, you see every time the market declines 100, 200 points sort of by the end of the day there are

certain dow stocks or s&p stocks -- >> right. >> -- that are the less liquid ones that kind of get some backing. and by the end of the day maybe it's down 20 bucks or it's up $3 and it's a very odd kind of action. and i think you see it almost every day in the market. and i wonder if this market is being manipulated by the plunge protection group. >> i think we all have so many questions here i don't even know where to begin. >> you all the know where to begin. >> is the plunge protection team politically motivated? if so, what was the purpose of the plunge protection team going in the night that trump was elected? because he wasn't sworn into office yet. >> well, i mean, you certainly -- if you have a market down 4 to 600 points and people wake up to it, you certainly can have somewhat of a catastrophe after that. the purpose whether it was an obama or any other decent government in power was to make sure you didn't destroy the united states marketplace just because trump was elected.

>> do you think this team is putting a floor on the markets? do you think that they're active on a fairly regular basis or is it just steep drawdowns in which they will step in? >> i'm not a trader anymore but i watched the market for 40 years pretty carefully. i would say the tape reflects an urge to keep things cool and looking good. and i don't think that comes from nowhere. you can't hire goldman sachs to do that. you need taxpayer money. >> i'm curious, is there -- the plunge protection team, president's working group has been used to stabilize the market. >> that was the purpose. >> that's what you were saying. it sounds to me you're saying there's a marked change here. are we looking at something where they're more aggressively buying the market, donald trump himself has said uses the stock market as a scorecard. if it's going up is it more aggressive now pushing it higher as kind of a feedback loop for him? >> i would say it acts more as an insulator when it tends to go down rather than trying to push

it up. >> you said as little as 200 points. these are not big drawdowns. >> it's pushing it up from a drawdown as opposed to pushing it up -- >> even on a day when the dow is down you think the team goes in? >> i think so. it's a small percentage move. >> it's not a small percentage move. if you let it happen until the next day -- >> are you a buyer on the market on every dip? if that's the case, all of your money if you're so concerned about this, all of your money should be right now in the stock market on every dip. and is it something that will run its course or does this last the whole four years? >> i don't know. will trump last the whole four years is the first question? i don't really have a clue and i don't want to be in the market because i don't know when the plug gets pulled. i like my markets better. >> if they only report to the president, who is going to pull the plug? >> who knows. i mean, who knows who rebells in this group. certainly the fed is not excited about dysfunction. >> so you said -- we've all

heard of this -- >> i'm not sure. you know, this is my -- my observation. >> i don't think any of us are discounting anything you're saying, but i'll ask you this question. where are these positions held? and have they ever been audited? if not, is there an agency or an independent group out there that should audit this group? >> that, of course, is what i preach. it is very specific in the ragan order that no minutes be kept and no records of the transactions be made public. >> so they're somewhere only known to the folks within the group. >> to the firms. >> exactly. >> and the banks. >> and a couple of banks. and one wonders also what influence this has on the bank trading because it's certainly something to know that other people don't know. >> all right. asher, it's always good to hear from you. >> there you go. >> asher edelman. >> thank you. >> the founder of edelman arts and legendary investor. pete? >> that was the most interesting thing i've heard in a really long time from asher. >> but do you believe it? >> i'll tell you what --

>> do you believe it is the question? >> first of all, i have been a big believer in my own thoughts in terms of when i see changes if it's in the right stocks that create opportunity. now i think the interesting tradeoff of this would be if asher is correct on this whole thing, the banks certainly are a part of it in some way, shape, or form no matter how narrow that might be. i think then that would also mean is there one plunge protection team or are there multiple? >> you don't know. >> but if there's one, that moons -- and goldman sachs, morgan stanley are involved -- >> there's not a -- wouldn't have wanted to. there's no way. this is political politics and ideology, trump everything in this country. there's no way that that plunge protection team -- >> do you buy it? do you buy what asher is selling? >> i don't sell it. listen, i do think -- this is what i do know, is that

president trump uses the stock market as a scorecard and he is a guy who is not going to let the stock market down. whether there is actual buying in there, i have no way to prove. if we get some kind of down turn, there will be a tweet, there will be an executive order, something. >> you're a man who has questioned whether or not we've actually landed oen the moon. >> no, that's not true. >> i go to you quickly for your thoughts on this. >> well, let's put it this way, the group is not fictitious. it exists. you draw whatever conclusion you want from that, but it's not like the group does not exist. i'll leave it at that. still ahead, the ceo of one of the largest asset management groups says there's something that will change the way you invest. bright spot on media? they're saying it could be a buying opportunity for one name in particular. we'll tell you what that is when "fast money" returns. ♪

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plot from the 25 to 55-year-old demographic behind msnbc and cnn. the first time since 2000. this as cnn and msnbc led gains. no inow it's not just fox. the channel's primetime lineup has changed entirely. they say the ratings drop could be due to a less critical approach of the trump administration. fox news says so far this month fox news channel is on top in both total viewers in the 25 to 50-year-old demographic. on top of that fox news retracted a story published last week that sparked conspiracy theories about the murders of a democratic national staffer this after shawn hannity devoted multiple segments to the issue. it says it was not, quote, initially subjected to the high degree of scrutiny we require.

21st century fox says shares are declining 2% for a total of 13% decline over the past month and another potential risk here, st. clair broadcast group bought the media to give it more reach to create a rifle conservative channel for fox news. melissa? >> thank you, julia. in all fairness we should note it's not just fox that's taken a hit. disney is down 6%. viacom is down 20%. so the whole group is taking a hit. in terms of these troubles, they're obviously recasting their whole primetime lineup. that's a lot of turmoil here. >> a lot of turmoil. my sense is you're going to see more folks leave the network. i don't know if that means anything necessarily. in interprets of the stock as julia just mentioned, 32 to 26 in pretty much a straight line. if you're looking for levels, i think the level you have to hone in on is the $24 level which it bounced from late last year. 12.5 times forward earnings,

it's not crazy expensive. none of these stocks are all that expensive. you have to wonder if valuation is really even a metric you have to work with. >> to me, it's just disruption. i'd rather buy the disrupter. facebook is taking it. the one that i actually want to buy closer to 17, the twitter. i think they're finally starting to get things on track there. >> interesting. fox isn't the only media stock taking a hit. disney has sunk 6% in the last month but is a selloff actually a buying opportunity. mike ko joins us with the "options action." hi. >> hi there. we saw three times as many calls as puts trading in disney today. much of that was the result in the big trade july 110115 call spread for 90 cents. implied volatility is low in disney. this is a trade that would profit if it's up 3.5 to 7% by july expiration. that math warkd for me. >> check out the full show friday. still ahead, the ceo of one

of the largest asset management firms says there's a new rule designed to help investors. be here to tell us what that's all about. you're watching "fast money" on cnbc, first in business worldwide. 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. 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,

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welcome back to "fast money." controversial obama era rule is back in the forefront. alexander acosta wrote that the fiduciary rules implementation

could no longer be delayed and would partially take effect in june as planned. kayla tausche is in d.c. with more. kayla? >> reporter: melissa, that op ed by alexander acosta surprising the broker industry acknowledging the trump administration does not support the current fiduciary rule requiring investment advisors to work in their client's best interests. the rule will take place next month. we have carefully considered the record in this case and have found no principled basis not to change it in june. they delayed an april line and has signaled its plan to rule it back largely because of the compliance cost which is roughly $2 billion a year. while analysts of steven chewback said it's on the way, he downgraded three investors. chewback cutting its price target by 15% to $51 a share.

some individual financial advisors have told cnbc they've already stream lined their portfolios to comply because there's been so little clarity. they say undoing that compliance will be costly, too. melissa? >> kayla tausche. the idea is to protect investors. our next guest warns that it could hurt the same people it's supposed to help. elliott weissbuth is the ceo of hightower. elliott, welcome to the show. >> thanks for having me. >> how can it hurt the individual investor? >> well, we shouldn't monkey around with something that works. the fiduciary duty is a very simple and elegant concept that says financial advisors should put the client's interests first and what the department of labor is doing and what the industry is that's trying to sell products do is to abrogate or water down a simple concept. all that's going to do is create confusion because people think they're going to have a

fiduciary when in fact they're going to have a salesperson following a gussied up fiduciary duty when it's not a fiduciary duty. >> kayla, our reporter, outlined how wall street is dealing with this. does this imply that the cost of compliance will be passed onto the individual investor so they will pay higher fees? >> right. so there's a lot of embedded costs that the industry is claiming that they're going to have to spend to comply with the new rule. the reality is if your business is set up to discharge a fiduciary duty and you're not making money multiple ways, then you don't have to engage in a lot of spending to compensate for the new rule. firms like ours, we have to spend money to comply with the new rules is not going to change the standard of care for the client. you spend money but you're not providing any real benefit in addition to the fiduciary duty to the client and that doesn't make any sense. >> elliott, quick question. this is going to be very self serving but i'm going to ask it.

does this make independent houses like yourself more attractive than the historical wire house model? >> absolutely. and thanks for that question. when you're in the business of doing the right thing, you don't need the department of labor to come in and tell you to do the right thing. when you're in the business of charging multiple layers of fees and now you have to con tort yourself to comply with the new rule and you're complaining about how much it costs you, that doesn't make any sense because what you're basically doing is trying to find a way to go around the rules that are supposed to protect the individual investor. and to your question which obviously i appreciate, in our case we're already doing the right thing. we're already discharging a fiduciary duty. we don't get paid multiple ways. we don't have an embedded conflict of interest. anybody looking for a true fiduciary should come talk to a firm that's following the rule. >> thank you. appreciate it. you've got to know what you're buying. you have to know what service you're buying. >> if you think about morgan

stanley, pete's talking about this for a long time, one of the real growth interests for morgan stanley has been the asset management. they probably have close to 12 to 15,000 advisers out there, but if this rule becomes onerous and folks start going from the wire house model to the independent model, you wonder, it's not this quarter, not next quarter but does it have a tangible effect on the earnings of a morgan stanley? that's the real question which is why some of these numbers should be taken down. >> is that a concern? that would be a concern for a morgan stanley. then you start to wonder goldman sachs, the model they have, that's why you might prefer a goldman sachs with morgan. everybody compares the two. that would push you more towards a goldman sachs for sure. >> right. the bottom line is you have to know in terms of getting financial advice who you're getting advice from and how they're being paid. >> right. that's key, right? in terms of the trade, morgan stanley has benefitted from having the advisers. goldman sachs looking forward might actually be the one to go

with. up next, pete says there's one big bank you want to bet on right now. the name when we come back.

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time for the final trade. pete? >> financials. goldman sachs is going to get you done. big call. giddy and up. >> pete and i might disagree on apple. we agree on banks. go regional. >> grasso? >> k.b. homes, don't worry about

the macro. >> wells fargo, downgrade, mel. >> i'm melissa lee. thanks for watching. we'll see you back here tomorrow night at 5:00 for "fast money." don't go anywhere. "mad money" with jim cramer starts right now. 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'm just trying to make you some money. my job is not just to entertain, but to educate you and teach you. if you think for one minute that this economy is easy to figure out, i'm telling you, you're a dreamer. i think we're at a moment where