get a little concerned about is sympathetic he cou something we should watch. and he said the stock market has more room to run. >> and tesla, another record high. 360.50, had its shareholder meeting yesterday, talked about the model-y and serious consideration into building a new plant for that model-y. sounds like a lot of money to be spent by tesla. thanks for watching "power lunch." thank you, becky, for joining us. >> thank you. >> "power lunch" -- "closing bell" starts right now. hi, everybody, on a wednesday. welcome to the "closing bell." i'm kelly evans at the new york stock exchange. >> doesn't feel like wednesday for all of us. >> friday. >> i'm bill griffeth. former fbi director james comey's written testimony for tomorrow has just been released. maybe you've heard some of the spots. we'll wribring you details on w he is intending to read ahead of his much-anticipated appearance before the intelligence committee tomorrow. and we have two wall street heavyweights joining us, howard

lutnick and doug cifu to tell us how the increase in passive investing is impacting their businesses. and macy's is reportedly considering putting a part on the flagship store in new york city. >> we're so desperate for grass, i think people will go anywhere in this city, central park gets a little crowded and 34th, they could use some grass in that area. go up to macy's now, you can find it. >> but is that the thing that's going to get people into the store if they're going up there? anyway, the reason we showed you a picture of daymond john, he's with us today, of course, from "shark tank" and a very, very successful entrepreneur on his own, especially when it comes to branding. and we're going to talk about branding in retail among other areas, coming up with daymond in a little bit. but first, we begin with this decline in oil today. here go the inventory numbers, wreak havoc in the oil markets again. jackie deangelis is at cnbc's commodities desk with that. jackie d.? >> hey, bill.

crude oil breaking through some key technical levels today after a surprise build in inventories and products. about a 5% loss on the day. the close looked like it was just under $46 a barrel, but i don't have an official settle just yet. session low was $45.76, very much in the lower end of the recent range. but it's more than just the weekly data that's troubling traders, okay? think about some other factors. estimates from the eia showing that opec production rose in may. some of the member countries just can't take this kind of revenue. the libyans in particular, have been raising their output. then, of course, u.s. rig count rising 20 weeks in a row. our output is going up, as well. and it's also a falloff in demand. the industry counts on a demand boost this time of year. seasonally, it adds support and it's not materializing. so where do we go from here? well, now at the low end of the 50 plus or minus 5 range, 42 doesn't necessarily seem impossible, some say. opec likes that $50 sweet spot, but what's happening here is that there are factors out of

its control that could hold these prices back just a little while longer. back to you? >> jackie, real quickly, i think the eia also came out with some data, you were showing the u.s. production, 9.3 million barrels. i think they thought it could go over 10 million barrels to a record inenext year and that al reminds us of the opec output numbers. a big sea change. >> that would be a massive record production level here in the united states. we certainly have the capacity for it and the shale drillers want to go for it. but they're also going to have to exercise some restraint, as well. watch where prices go. it's not really good for anybody to flood the market more than it's already flooded and bring those prices too low. so it's going to be touch and go, but, yeah, they could go to ten. >> i don't know. i still enjoy going to the gas station. >> yeah, well, right. you're laughing this up. >> absolutely. >> you want those gasoline inventories is up and those prices down. >> bring those prices down. thank you, jackie. >> sure thing. now to former fbi director james comey, who is due to testify, in case you haven't heard. he's going to testify on capitol

hill tomorrow. actually, his written testimony was just released. eamon javers has all the details from washington. >> the committee is saying that the written testimony was released at the request of former fbi director, jaumes comey, who was fired by president donald trump earlier this year. he goes into a lot of detail here, minute by minute, line by line, of all of his interactions with president trump over the course of the career. there's one dramatic section that stood out to me. i want to bring to you. he talks about his concerns about the fact that the president had shoo eed everybod else out of the office and asked comey to stay behind for a one-on-one meeting. comey then raised an objection with his boss, attorney general jeff sessions, about that, saying it was inappropriate. here's what he writes. "i told the attorney general, that what had just happened, him being asked to leave was inappropriate and should never happen. he did not reply."

that is that jeff sessions didn't say anything at all, according to james comey, to comey when he objected to the way the president was handling all of this. that's an interesting one, given what wae've seen about the tension now between sessions and trump himself, just over the past week. also, earlier today we saw intelligence officials testifying on capitol hill, following up on reports in media organizations that intelligence officials beyond comey had been asked by the president to intervene in some way, in this fbi investigation. the two officials in particular, mike rogers, the head of the nsa, and dan coats, the director of national intelligence, declined to answer questions about what it was that the president told them personally. and i want to bring this to you, because i think it's significant. i just got off the phone with a senior government official, who explained to me the logic behind why it would be that those two officials would not want to say anything today, despite the frustration of the senators. in one case, it's possible that

the reports are simply false. and in that case, the senior government official told me there are a number of times, especially in the intelligence area, where officials do not want to deny something, even though it didn't occur, because they don't want to be in the position of setting a precedent. so that would be why the officials wouldn't have talked today, if, in fact, those reports were false about the president making those calls. now, if those reports were true about making the calls, the official told me that there would be a reason for the intelligence officials not to talk, as well. and that reason was, the officials testifying today felt that it was not appropriate in an open setting, to be discussing confidential discussions with the president, even though executive privilege was not asserted. so, importantly, this senior government official talking to me, a few moments ago, was not implying one way or the other, that either of these scenarios, was, in fact the case, but simply saying whether the reports were true or false, there was a logical reason why those intelligence officials

would not have wanted to comment on their conversations with the president, kelly. >> this is all very -- this is all very nuanced, now. >> it is. >> just wait for that testimony tomorrow. >> we're getting into it. >> see what comes out of that. >> eamon, thanks very much. good stuff. >> it's going to be a busy day tomorrow. our own bob pisani sat down with citadel's ken griffin earlier today. among the topics they discussed is where mr. griffin sees the stock market heading. >> i think this business cycle has further to go. i think the stock market is going to go with that. but what's worrisome is the firepower that we have to address the next downturn somewhat constrained. that should worry all of us. the growth of regulation has stopped. that trend over the last eight years has ended. and that's really good for american businesses and for american entrepreneurs. they've already changed the course of regulatory burdens in america. no ifs, no ands, no buts. big win for the administration right out of the gate. >> all right, so he's giving us a lot to think about and talk about it, among other things. let's get to our "closing bell"

exchange today with the dow up 37 points right now. oliver portia from brewedman brothers is with us at post 9 sitting next to jonathan corpina from polina equity partners and jack joins us today from chicago, he's with ucx. good to see you all. jonathan, let me point to what the market's expecting. tomorrow we get the comey testimony. and right now we've got written testimony that suggests that there won't be any surprises at least from the written testimony. you values the also have the uk tomorrow and the polls out in the last hour suggest that theresa may will win and the conservatives will maintain a plurality in parliament. so no surprises. what do you think the market's going to do with all of this? if anything. >> right, i mean, you said it right there, no surprises. and i think the market likes no surprises. sticking to what's coming out of washington tomorrow, i think everyone, obviously, is going to be glued to the tv to watch this testimony. we've seen the written statement. but it's really going to come from the q&a. what types of questions, where

are they going to try to walk him down. and what information, additional information, are we going to get out of that? i think that's really what investors, i think what america really wants to see and hear. what happened and how did you feel affected by this? what's coming out of london once again, nothing unexpected. the market's okay with that. i think we're going to continue to see this market trend higher. and we've been supported by very good economic data, at this point. the next panelist is going to be interest rates next week. we've been waiting for that. we kind of know where we're going in that one, too. but it's going to be interesting to see how they play this out, what they expect for the last six months of the year. >> of course, we thought we knew how the brexit vote was going to go last year, too. >> highly confident and highly wrong. oliver, this morning ubs said, why should investors care about the comey hearing, because it suggests that the russian discussion will dominate the policy agenda rather than policy concerns. do you think that's a part of it?

>> a big part of it. at best, it's a distraction. in all probability, it's something that stalls the trump agenda, in terms of passing tax reform, health care reform, and all the other things, which are really what a large part of this market growth has been based on. so if this kind of takes the headline and takes all the wind out of the trump administration's sails in terms of regulatory reform, in terms of tax reform, that's very problematic. because we're not seeing 3% plus gdp growth. we're not seeing strong numbers around the globe. you've got oil that fell today in some additional geopolitical problems that are occurring worldwide. so i think that at this point, investors are better to be cautious. that doesn't mean go to cash, but it means tone down risks. stick with high-quality stocks, stick with dividend payers. avoid some of though high-fliers. >> speaking of which, jack. yesterday we saw gold hit a high for the year, highest since november. the ten-year hit the lowest yield since november. today we're off the boil on both of those, but do we expect those trends to continue or have we

peaked and bottomed here? >> something's happening here. there's a tone in the market right now which tells us that we should be cautious. look, everything that oliver said is absolutely right. we're one bad headline away from watching this market tumble 5 to 7%. remember, june, historically, has been a bad month. 50% of the time over the last century, we've seen june go down, but now you couple that with what i call real serious headline risk. and if we don't get this pro-growth agenda passed through, we're going to have problems. but one of the things that really concerns me is the disinflationary pressure that seems to be out there. and today's market in oil was a classic example of it. and we're seeing that manifested in the ten-year yield. there is soft fear out there. and people that say that these markets can't -- can go up together all the time, that's rubbish. the reality is that the bond market is giving you a clear signal that there is a problem. and maybe it's the leadership. yesterday you were talking about 50/50, well, that's turned into the fabulous five now. it's really, really difficult to

really get bold on this market at this level. >> but if you go back to 1980, the bond market and stock market have basically risen together. the disinflation you're talking about, the drop in oil prices like bill said earlier, is one that's good for consumers and the numbers aren't disinflationary yet. so couldn't this be supportive of the same trends we've seen for the last three decades to keep playing out here, support the stock market? >> kelly, the only time that should happen is when you see the fed easing. when the fed is draining, which they've already announced they're going to do, then we shouldn't see bonds doing what they're douning. remember, the circle bankers don't worry about monsters under their bed at night, they worry about disinflation. that's what they can't fight. and don't look at wages for right now, look at commodity prices. look what copper has done over the course of the year. nothing. look at all -- >> but the wage numbers are what tells you whether those inputs get passed along to the economy and to inflation or not, or whether they're a cost and a drain on the economy. if those prices are going down, wages are holding in there, that's a good combination.

>> it's also a question of wages catching up a little bit, but understand, if you have producer prices continue to get hit the way they do that. we shouldn't see that happening. again, these are red flags and that's one of the reasons i'm getting very, very worried about the market at these levels. and remember, we also do make these near-term tops around quadruple explanations and around quarter end, which is coming up right around the corner. >> yeah, it is. meanwhile, they are waving a red flag at us to end this. >> i was going to say, i would say it's a giant one. >> they're standing next to a red flag. see y'all later. >> we're heading into the close with 45 minutes to go. the dow's up 31 points. interesting. looks like we moved often little bit since that written testimony from james comey came out. we're up ten points and cheering it on. >> but at least you know what those variables are going to be. now the q&a is a bigger one. the s&p is positive, too. the nasdaq up 15.

the russell just can't hold a -- >> it's turned positive. >> it's barely, barely positive. >> hang on. have faith. meanwhile, the c aes of sse joining us. and later, when tesla's ceo elon musk talks, investors always listen. the electric carmaker stock hitting an all-time high again today. it's at 357 and change. we'll have remarks from him later tonight. you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide. in these turbulent times, do you focus on today's headwinds?

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sandler o'neil global exchange conference in manhattan, where the heads of all global exchanges and trading venues and platforms -- that's a lot. >> it is a lot. >> they're all gathered. >> bob pisani is there and joined by howard lutnick. bob? >> all the big players are here, talking about where the trading business is going. let's talk to two of the big ones, doug cifu, howard lutnick, chair and ceo of bcg partners. gentleman, everybody's talking about volatility. we've got stocks at new highs and yet, volatility's at new lows. and the volume isn't that great. some of the brokerages are having a tough time. doug, what's the issue here or why's it not an issue? why is volatility so low and what's the problem? >> what the experts say, which i can agree, you've got qe, you've got central governments, you've got buying assets left and right. you've got interest rates at all-time highs. there's really not big carry

trade. a lot of cash on the sideline. even when you have a volatility event, that volatility is absorbed very, very quickly. and so, you don't have rippling volatility, continuie ining volatility throughout the day. obviously not a great situation for a market maker. >> howard, is this a problem overall? most cnbc viewers do not complain to me about low volatility. i know it's a problem for the stock trading business and the bond trading business. is there anything we should be worried about? >> no, i don't think it's something you worry about. low interest rates and as doug said, the government's just owning huge amounts of assets here and in europe. that pushes down volatility. if you or i bought something, we'd hedge it. when the government buys it, they just eat it. they just keep eating and eating and eating and eating. so as that ends, what you're going to see is that's going to come back. so the nice thing about it is it's a tail wind coming. meaning the worst is already behind us, as they start to bring down their balance sheets, you're going to see firms like doug's do much better. and that's a nice thing for the

future. it's better to have the bad news behind you. >> well, doing good would be great for you guys, because the volatility being so low, market makers like you, you make money when volatility's higher. you're not making as much money now. there's been a lot of consolidation. you're now buying night capital, one of your competitors, probably would not have been on your radar a few years ago and may not have been on at all with the volatility this low. what's driving these consolidations? >> night's always been on our radar. it's a great company with great customer business. we built virtu for a feast and for a famine. we've got high margins even when volatility is low, because we've really watched our costs and that's how we've constructed the firm. kcg didn't have a revenue problem, had an expense problem. we think we can help solve that. for us, it's an opportunity to bring efficiency and consolidation to the space. >> makes sense. let me move on and talk about interest rates. we debate all the time, dichotomy stocks at new highs, but bond yields going nowhere. howard, is this a problem?

is this a dichotomy? is the bond market telling us something's wrong or how do you view this issue? >> well, really low interest rates mean that other asset classes are going to do better. so, you know, if you can't really buy bonds as an investor, you're going to buy -- what are you going to buy? you're going to buy stocks at highs, buy artwork, right, that's hitting new highs. and what else? real estate. the big asset class in the world that loves low interest rates is real estate. so in 2011, bgc made a big move into real estate. and that has driven tremendous numbers for us, even with the slow volatility, our stocks are at 52-week highs today and yesterday and the day before. >> important thing is, a little news here today, i understand you're planning a spin-off of real estate. real estate's 40% of your revenues. you're planning a spin-off of that unit into an ipo that was just announced today. >> we said we would try to get that done by the end of the year. and the idea is, inside a financial service company, that has a certain lower multiple, is a really fast-growing, really

exciting real estate company, that we trade in a higher multiple. so simply by just taking it public and separating it, i think we're going to paycheck our shareholders a whole lot of money. and that's, last i checked, what my job is. >> quick they can on the markets. any thoughts on where we're going to be for the rest of the year, interest rates, perhaps? any thoughts on the ten-year or any thoughts where you see markets -- >> i don't see a lot of action in interest rates for the remainder of the year. howard's right, you'll probably continue to have a bubble in the stock market. i think the prices will remain high. a lot of it depends on what happens in washington. incredible uncertainty there. will we have a tax deal? are we going to have a trade deal? that will impact a lot of stocks. and that's a big unknown right now. hard to handicap that. >> is there a trump premium in the market right now? is the market trading at a premium under the assumption that there will be tax cuts, there will be less regulation, there will be more infrastructure? and if so, how much of a -- >> i think it was bigger. i think that's come off. but i do think you'll see at

least one bump -- you're definitely going to see a bump in interest rates. i'm not so sure you're going to see two. there's all this talk. we had one bump already. we'll have one maybe this week. and then i think it sort of steadies out, stocks stay high. trump starts to get some stuff done, talks about taxes. you get a little rally there. but i basically think interest rates stay generally low, you know, .75%. for us, we take our money and buy coffee with it. >> that's still pretty significant. we've got to go, but general, always appreciate your thoughts. howard lutnick and doug cifu, appreciate it. wehle be here the rest of the afternoon talking to the traders. >> thank you. bob pisani there. 37 minutes left in the trading session. the dow up about 40 points. pretty narrow day. still, i think, playing it safe ahead of tomorrow's big news. >> up next, what tesla's ceo elon musk said. now, is that elon or "a-long,"

when deliveries of the model-3 would begin. also ahead, hey, "shark tank's" daymond john is with us today. he'll give us his take on retail's branding problem and where to find ceo s who can tur things around, coming up. when you booked this trip, you didn't know we had over 26,000 local activities listed on our app. or that you could book them right from your phone. a few weeks ago, you still didn't know if you were gonna go. now the only thing you don't know, is why it took you so long to come here. expedia. everything in one place, so you can travel the world better.

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[ eerie musthe mummy...t ] has returned. you wish to see... what i have seen? you will... when... i... kill you. [ explosions ] [ intense music ] the mummy. rated pg-13. as kelly mentioned, tesla's hitting an all-time high today. ceo elon musk taking the stage at electric automaker's shareholder meeting late yesterday and said that tesla's

on track to deliver the first model-3 vehicles or at least begin production next month. and he gave this eta for the model-y crossover suv. >> i'm confident that we can drop the capex by a factor of two between model-3 and model-y, which i think is a really big deal, and accelerate its readiness, despite the new technologies. so we're aiming for that, you know, to hit the roads in 2019, approximately. >> by the way, here's a water cooler factoid. tesla has now joined the fortune 500 list for the first time ever. the list is ranked by revenue and tesla raked in $7 billion last year, putting it number at 383. >> you want to know something real interesting? >> what's that? >> ford and general motors are both in the top ten. >> wow. >> and look at the market cap. >> yes, right? >> we know who's winning that

one. >> do you think lstthere's a lie bit of dichotomy there? so let's review, now with the model "y," we have four models. >> s, 3, x, y. >> we can do this visually, if you want. he either didn't or couldn't go with the model "e." >> he couldn't, because ford has a trademark. >> and mercedes has a model "e" as well. >> so now they've got all four. now what happens? what comes after this? >> i don't know. for those of you listening on satellite radio, get a tv. >> be glad. >> yeah. at any rate, those are if four models now that tesla has heading to production. time now for a cnbc news update with sue herrera. >> here's what's happening at this hour. on capitol hill, nsa director mike rogers and director of national intelligence, dan coats, would not directly answer whether they'd been asked by president trump to publicly

state that they never saw any trump campaign collusion with russia. but both testified they'd never felt pressured to do anything they felt was inappropriate. >> in the three plus years that i have been the director of the national security agency, to the best of my recollection, i have never been directed to do anything i believe to be illegal, immoral, unethical, or inappropriate. and to the best of my recollection, during that same period of service, i do not recall ever feeling pressured to do so. >> french president emmanuel macron, holding a special meeting of government members and top security officials today. it's aimed at creating a new counterterrorism unit. that unit will be operational 24 hours a day and under the direct authority of the president. michigan state football player, donny corley and josh king were arraigned this morning on sexual assault charges. a third player, dmeetric vance,

were arraigned yesterday. all three have been dismissed from the team. that is the news update for this hour. i'll see you again in an hour. and bill, i'll see you on "nightly business report" tonight. >> i'll be there. looking forward to it. thank you. >> sue, thank you very much. that's the duo. you'll see them in a few hours. i'm on the floor here with steve grasso from stewart frankel. is this working for you? >> totally. >> we're just -- never mind. let's talk about oil, energy a little bit. you have been saying for a allo time, don't believe the bulls about crude. >> let's look at all the things we should have had that should have been bullish. we should have had the production cuts by opec. we should have had saudi aramco, that every sellside firm wants a piece of that deal. it's going to be the biggest ipo ever in the history of ipos. and all of that is still not a tail wind to crude. in the face of a glut of crude, there's nothing that anyone could do to orchestrate this type of a bullishness when you

have this type of a glut. >> yet u.s. producers still in the permian have a price advantage there, still producing. here's my question to you, energy's taking it a little bit on the chin today, when oil's been dropping. but this is not a story overall for the markets. is it? i know it affects us a little bit during the day, but fundamentally, this is not systemic, right? >> you know, it is sort of telling you something other than -- you know, the bulls would like -- the overall bulls in the equity market would like to think it's just an oversupply issue, it's a production issue. it's not able global growth. but we haven't really seen growth pick up here. we've seen growth sort of start to ratchet up globally, but nothing here to that 3% gdp, which i think we're going to get to, even if it's a transitory event, but there needs to be a bunch of things that happen. >> that gasoline demand drop over memorial day weekend, what -- i mean, it was like a half a million barrels per day. >> it's incredible. >> it's weird. i agree, there's something kind of whacky going on. >> let's look for the markets. if you get a hint of political

tax reform or anything, going to the corner of the trumps, then you're going to see this market take off another 200 points to the upside in the s&p. >> thank you very much, steve. >> thank you. >> bill? >> all right. goinging in into the last half f trade right now with the dow up 45 points. when we come back, "shark tank" star daymond john will be joining us to tell us how brick and mortar retailers can beat back amazon in their branding wars. and president trump making the case for health care reform just a couple of hours ago. we'll tell you how much progress is being made on that issue in the senate, coming up. ♪ to err is human. to anticipate is lexus. experience the lexus rx with advanced safety standard. experience amazing.

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all right. cnbc ink kicked off the iconic tour where top leaders are talking about entrepreneurship, small business, and innovation. and joining us right now to talk about branding and the state of retail is the king of branding himself, "shark tank's" own daymond john. daymond, good to see you, buddy. welcome back. thanks for joining us. >> thank you for having me. thank you. >> clearly, we have seen a problem with retail this year. stores are closing here and there, all over the place. people are losing their jobs. is it a branding problem? what's going on here? >> you know, it's a branding problem, you know, people are

getting more impatient with time. you've got where we can only sell people time and if they can get it at their house, why would they get it where you're at? and it is a branding problem. people want to go somewhere where there's a lifestyle and people will feel a different way. if not, i can have the product shipped to myself and i don't have to go the store. >> daymond, one of the things i always wonder when i'm watching you on "shark tank," how do you manage all of these different investments. how do you prioritize them and when is your plate too full? what's it look for you these days? >> it's always about having a great team. the first two or three years, i lost money on "shark tank" because i didn't put the team around me that i really needed. after that, you look at your companies that aren't doing as well and you can't put as much time. and look at the companies that are doing really great and have great ceos. if i stick my nose in there, with i'll probably ruin the business. so i try to concentrate the ones that are really on the edge of succeeding or need some help.

those are the ones that we have to do, just like running a company, you have to spend a good amount of time on offense, but a little bit of time on defense. >> you've created this company, blueprint and co, which is a work space, not for start-ups, those are very hot right now, but yours is for the more seasoned executive, bringing some of these companies together that you've invested in? >> yeah, after all the companies i've spoken for or consulted, they always want to talk about innovation. but innovation starts when you need to understand, no matter how old you are or mature you are or advanced you are, you still need to learn. and i think the co-working share space is amazing for start-ups. but where do fellow sharks go to learn? they're 50 years old and need to know about social media conversion, some of the government policies changing and financing and the way that people on their level are doing business. that's why i created blueprint & co in new york city on 39th street.

and that's our first one. hopefully we'll open up all over the uncountcountry, all over th. >> your fellow shark, mark cuban, owns the dallas mavericks. have you ever had any interest in getting involved in sports? >> a little interest in getting involved in sports, but it's really helping some of the players, 65% of them, after three years out of the league, they're bankrupt. i think these could be leaders in the community and they don't have business intelligence. other than that, i let mark cuban do his thing and own his teams and get upset every single day whether they're winning or losing on the side of the sport. but i'll leave the sports up to him. he's an amazing guy. >> fair enough. by the way, he also just said bit coins in a bubble. do you get involved with any of these cryptocurrencies or have a view on them, get asked about him? >> i'm a simple guy, i make a t-shirt for $10, sell it for

$20. i don't know anything about that. i leave that up to the tech guys like the mark cubans of the world. >> yeah. >> let me go back to branding before we let you go. and i think, specifically, let's talk about a company like macy's. you know, they're suffering right now. their sales have gone down. and just today, we learned, they're talking about opening a park on the roof of their flagship store there on 34th in manhattan. i mean, i know branding is in some ways about connecting with your customer. is that a way to connect? i mean, what -- are they grasping at straws? what's going on there, do you think? >> first of all, they have one of the most iconic names in the world. and i think they are in one of the most iconic places in the world. and i think they can come up and be a disneyland of who they are, because of their location and because their name is globally recognized. and i think this is one of the things, they're creating a lifestyle. and now it's going to be about, how are they going to go and tell people that they are the

new brand? i mean, we've seen many characters in our days, such as bugs bunny and this guy, but why do we love mickey mouse so much? because they created a global brand. and now macy's can become the disney world of retailers if they're willing to just change the game. and all the other brands would support them. >> that's fascinating to think about, how they would become the disney world of retail. >> what would they have to do to become the disney world? how do they fight against amazon? >> how do they -- well, first of all, you have a physical location, that body's going to be there. then content has to be produced out of that location, about how people are having the most amazing time in the world in that location. that has to be spread all over the globe. then you have to be able to upsell people on being a member of that location, even if they're in japan or taiwan or india. and you want that to be a destination. and then when they get there, they're going to get things there that they can't see anyplace in the world. and then you'll have a different version of that to sell to people through social media and through product integration and

things of that nature. movies should be shot there p. >> i'll give you $150,000 for 20% of that idea. >> i'll take it! because i have a whole punch of th them. >> we got a deal. thanks, daymond, good to see you. daymond john, of course, from "shark tank," among many brands out there. let's head to the close with 20 minutes left in the tradingsatitrade ining session, the dow up 21 points. president trump taking to the road today, pushing the gop replacement for obamacare. we have details on that, coming up. and politics taking center stage across the atlantic, as well, with the uk general election. we'll talk to some barstool experts about what to expect tomorrow. stay with us. think again. this is the new new york.

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welcome back. president trump making some comments on health care reform just a little while ago. kayla tausche has that story for us. kayla? >> it was a last-minute edition to the president's pre-planned infrastructure strip to ohtrip . but he took advantage of the backdrop, in a state where anthem said no longer in 2017 would offer health insurance on the exchanges.

asking whether billions of dollars of the payments to offset those plans would continue to be made by the white house. but president trump for the second day in a row, using the opportunity to ramp up pressure on congress. >> if we gave you the greatest plan in the history of the world, you would have no democratic vote. it's all going to be republicans or bust. and the republicans are working very, very hard on getting a great health care plan. >> all 52 senate republicans meeting multiple times a week. at a lunch yesterday, a powerpoint presentation showed a broad outline of a proposed plan. lawmakers are reportedly sharing sections of the bill with the kon congressional budget office to see exactly how it would be scored. but the question remains, how and when to end medicare expansion? that's still a critical issue. yesterday, majority leader mitch mcconnell saying they're, quote, close to having a proposal to vote on. the question is how they get to 50 votes. several republicans have raised

that question, with at least three gop senators saying they doubt health care can get those votes this year. kelly? >> yeah. i guess the main issue, kayla, is whether there is really movement on this front, you know what i mean? or whether a lot of this is going to end up petering out. >> there certainly is the appearance of movement, kelly. and there are a lot of meetings that are taking place on the hill, especially with the entire republican conference. we've been told that the smaller working group is no longer meeting, but part of the reason that is is because there are so many different issues, that so many different republican senators have to actually iron out in this process. you know, you can make a concession to win over one senator, but you're potentially losing another on the republican side in the process. and that's before you even talk about getting any democratic votes. it's basically deja vu of what we saw on the house side. so although they're talking about being close to having something to vote on, until we actually get that legislative text, it's really too soon to say. >> right. whack-a-mole comes to mind as

they try to put that together. kayla, thank you. kayla tausche. >> we're heading into the close. dow's up 50 points right now. that's close to a session high. we were negative during the middle of the day. same for the s&p 500. the nasdaq is up 0.4% now. and that russell is being stubborn. and brexit looming on the horizon. is this the time to put money to work in the uk? a bull and a bear casts their votes, coming up. ♪ it's not just a car, it's your daily treat. ♪ go ahead, spoil yourself. the es and es hybrid. experience amazing. will you be ready when the moment turns romantic?

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welcome back. voters in the uk head to the polls tomorrow to cast their vote in the country's general elections. in these last few weeks, british prime minister theresa may's conservative party experienced a narrowing lead ahead of jeremy corb corbyn's labor party. but today's poll does show her lead widening once again. >> but with our track record of the polls in the last 12 months -- >> a grain of salt. >> reporte >> we have to be very careful. joining us, christian amani is our bull, collins saszinky is

our bear. the ftse has had a pretty good run the last few years. up 20% since the brexit vote. but you think it has room to grow ear, why? >> well, we think there are opportunities in the uk by -- at a company level. the way we approach this is to focus on individual companies and there are some companies in the uk who are internally focused from their revenue source standpoint, and they are incredibly cheap. a good example is perhaps b.t., travis perkins, dignity. companies that have a really good, stable business profile and valuations are attractive. at the same time, we have companies that are real world-class companies based out of uk. those companies are perennial favorites of ours. >> collin, you feel differently. why? >> yes, i feel that the primary driver of sentiment towards the uk in the last year hasn't been the ftse and uk stocks.

it's been sterling. and when you look at today's market action in particular, people are looking at these positive polls. the model from lord ashcroft suggesting that conservatives could win the 64-seat majority. and what do we have? we have sterling going up and the ftse going down. and it's been, ever since the brexit vote a year ago, we've seen the ftse and the pound generally trading in the opposite direction oaf each other, more like the relationship you see between the yen and the nikkei. so today, for example, we've got sterling up and the ftse down. and i think we could see that continue after the election. if we do see a big win for the conservatives, we could see cable push up through 130. and in the near-term, that could knock the ftse back a little bit. overall, i'm bullish on the uk, but i think you're seeing more of the bullishness play out in the currency rather than in the stocks. >> krishna, i know you're a bottoms-up guy, but the big picture there is the brexit. the impact that brexit will have on the economy in great britain.

and there are those -- you can't find a consensus, clearly. there are those who feel that it could have inflationary impacts on the economy there and then there are those who feel that this could be a great opportunity to invest in this country, as they do pull themselves away from the ball and chain that's been the eu. where do you stand on that? >> well, i think from a really long-term perspective, brexit is not a positive outcome for the uk economy. i think being part of the global production system, they have definitely benefited from that. and it certainly increases the risk for the uk economy. having said that, i think, again, it comes down to companies. it comes down to where the valuations are and whether those valuations are attractive or not. and what's the source of the revenue for those companies? if you look at the uk equity market, you know, the top hundred derive 70% of their

revenues from all over the world. so it's really not just a uk story for uk equities. >> it's a great point. and collin, finally, how much more strength do you really expect to see in sterling from here? waddle you need to see in the economy and so forth for all of that to happen as you mentioned earlier? >> i think that we could see, if the conservatives score a big win, we could see the next resistance levels are around 130, then around 131.50. if we see a weak conservative win or even a small -- if they fall just short of a majority, you could see a drift back maybe towards 128. i think overall, the other thing to watch for in the near-term with uk stocks is no question about it, the ftse 100 are big multi-national companies. that's what sparked the big rally when the sterling collapsed. if the sterling comes back, we could see that get trimmed back a little bit. the other thing to watch for in the coming months is that the uk economy has done spectacularly well for the last year.

and well above expectations, really benefited from the lower sterling. but as we move into the summer, we're going to start lapping tougher hurdles, tougher bars, tougher comparables. and so we think we could see some of the earnings growth level off in the near-term. but long-term, i'm quite bullish on the uk. i think brexit will be good for the uk. i think they have a lot of opportunities to make their own way with the u.s. and other commonwealth countries. it's a big world out there, and i think the uk has a really good opportunity to grow here. >> i think art bear just became a bull. collin, krishna, thank you both for joining us. thank you very much. we'll come back with the dow up 36 points with the closing countdown in just a moment. >> and after the bell, apple holding its shareholder meeting today, that stock up 27% this year. but one shareholder is not happy. he'll tell us why in the next hour. you're watch, cnbc, first in business worldwide.

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and a team of experienced traders ready to help you if you need it. ♪ ♪ it's like having the power of a trading floor, wherever you are. it's your trade. ♪ ♪ e*trade. ♪ ♪ start trading today at etrade.com inside the two-minute mark, as we head to the close with the dow up 29 points, the market of the day has to be oil. seema mody is with me here. a huge decline, the inventory data wreaking havoc again, down 5%. $45 and change now. >> add to that the regional dispute in the middle east with the qatar versus saudi arabia. that something that traders are also trying to get their head around.

what do you get when you have a uk election, ecb meeting with, and the former fbi director testifying? everyone's calling it super thursday. and that's what so many people are keeping an eye on. >> so the markets have been playing it safe up to that point. gold hit that high yesterday. today, off of that high, down a fraction, but we're at 1289 and change. and the ten-year hit the yields low for the year, going back to the election time -- >> coming back a little today. >> at 217. >> and that helped the banks as well. they've seen as big beneficiaries of trump's pro-business policies. i think that's why comey's testifying tomorrow will be important. keep an eye on the banks. if there's any education of russia's ties with trump, does that cloud his legislative agenda? and does that benefit banks? >> what about the european markets as they get ready for the uk election? >> they're already up 7%. will the uk election confirm that the political risk around europe is receding?

and will mario draghi scale back on monetary stimulus? >> a big day tomorrow. >> it's going to be big. >> meantime, the dow up 37 points in what has been a pretty narrow day. stay tuned for the second hour of "closing bell." i'm on "nbr" tonight. here's the second hour of the "closing bell" with you later, . >> thank you, bill. welcome to the "closing bell," everybody. i'm kelly evans. looks like we're going out with gains across the board hear for the major averages. not major ones, but the dow up 21. as for the nasdaq, it led the way up more than a third of 1% today, and the russell 2000 managed to eke out a 1.5 gain on the bell to put that at 1396. we'll have more about the big mauve lower in oil today that did way to some extent.

by the way, the dow transports were up about 59 points today. i'll have much more on this in just a moment. and despite the stock's record run, alphabet has faced some unhappy shareholders at its annual meeting today. we'll speak with an adviser to some of the company's biggest shareholders about what changes they want to see at alphabet, parent of google. that's coming up. joining me today is cnbc's senior markets commentator. and from bell rock capital, she's president and chief investment officer, checking in there, as well. michael, you know, oil is the biggest mover, but as you mentioned, it does look like we kind of turned positive and moved up a little bit once we got that written memo about what comey might see tomorrow. >> there was a little bit of tension released. this market has been waiting around, low volume, modest moves. that was the rule this morning and the rule all day. it did seem that when we got the written testimony, it just relieved a little bit of that suspense. and i don't necessarily think the market is viewing that as a

huge swing factor, the testimony of the q&a tomorrow for the next six months of action, but it could decide whether people have to reassess the very short-term. sitting at all-time highs. the up trend is in tact. do you have the energy to take it higher. >> i like this stat that you had out there. we had 44% of the tech stocks, making new 52-week highs on monday. only the third time they've ever done that. the previous two times is 95 and 97. >> this is from tony dewire, who basically points out that that very high momentum tight move in the tech sector, it doesn't end right there. if you look back at those other times, it tacked on 5 to 7% in the next few weeks after that, but then we had a pretty significant correction in the tech sector after that. i wouldn't say to statistically significant sampling, but it's worth noting you're pretty

stretched. >> juim, what's your read on things? >> i think the oil price should be closer to $40 than $50. and the reason i say that is the technology of extraction, the fact that there won't be a real constraint on u.s. onshore production, and the technology allows them to get the oil out of the ground probably at $40 a barrel. >> so if you believe that, does that mean you don't invest in the energy sector? >> i think you have to be very selective, people that are dependent on volume, rather than on price. >> headlines might be okay. >> pipelines are okay. you know, some of the new production companies might be okay. but i don't think you want to be in integrated oils, because the oil price will continue to go down. but the dow transports actually that you mentioned shows that somebody benefits from lower oil. >> which is different, because in the past, when we go back to last year, the oil prices collapsing, the transports were collapsing, too, and there was this worry, hey, this is one of the strong parts of the economy and maybe everybody suffers and they move a lot of commodities.

there was a concern about that broadly, but not here. >> the oil price was going down on fears of demand. that's not the issue now. it's all supply issue. and supply is plentiful, which is go ahead for every other sector. so i still am pretty optimistic about u.s. equities. and 18 times earnings on the s&p is not a bad number. 5 1/2% earnings yield. i quite rike thlike that. >> what about the tech names? we are make ming comparisons toe '90s. when you have these companies going up 30 to 35% a year and some of the biggest tech companies out there, what do you think about that? >> yok they'i don't think they' 1999 level when you expect to see a collapse. i wouldn't be chasing it up. you're quogoing to see continue cycling between different

sectors and different stocks. the big problem last year, the reason active management was so bad last year was the cross-sectional correlation in the market was very high. it's not so high now. you have the run-up in banks and the run back down again. i would think that this is a healthy environment in which to be a stock picker, in which to be buying stocks on setbacks. >> cassandra, you're a stock picker. you still have delphi as one of your holdings, but before we get into that, what do you think about valuations at these levels? and are you concerned at all about what we might hear from comey tomorrow or the outcome of the uk elections, and so forth? >> yeah, kelly,er with concern ed and for the first time in a while, we're starting to take some money off the table. because i think it's beyond macro valuations in the market. i think, you know, jim is right. they're not bad, but we've seen some really large run-ups in stocks where they're hitting our 12-month price targets in, you know, six months.

and we have to stay disciplined and say, i can't justify beyond those targets. and so, we are starting to take some money off the table. use some call strategies in order to protect some of our profits, because i think we really are overdue for a 3 to 5% correction here, which is healthy. but it's the first time we've actually really said, we think all of this noise is going to start to catch up with the actual market. >> so let's talk about del fivp for a moment. they're going all in about the excitement on autonomous driving and mobility. so why do you think that's a good pick against that backdrop? >> well, i think they're heavily involved in ai and in the whole automated driving. and it's kind of quiet, in any way. this is a stock that's quietly

crept up. and when we look at valuations, they are not stretched at all in this company. in fact, we think there's probably another 40 points to the upside in this stock over the next 12 months. and a lot of that is driven by, we think, a future earnings growth, not opposed to a trailing earnings growth. so we think the earnings growth is actually going to pick up, because of what they're doing in ai technology, which is something that it's difficult to find pure plays in that area, but this is one where we can kind of see a more straight line to the ultimate upside in the stock. we think there's a lot ahead of it. >> well, speaking of disruption, in case you missed it earlier, today's citadel's ken griffin joined us here on cnbc. he weighed in on some of the disruption we're seeing in retail in particular, but tech in general. take a listen. >> where there's disruptive change, there's an opportunity for investors.

we're seeing incredible disruptive change in retail. just unbelievable what's happening today, the rise of ecommerce, the tech space in the united states is just awash in change. and this is an area where the u.s. leads the world. if you think about, who are the stories of the global superpowers in commerce today, it's the googles, it's the facebooks. these companies are really an interesting force for change around the world. >> yeah, these are the new platform companies. by the way, jim, sears is closing another, i think, 66 stores, it has announced today. >> yeah, and ken is right. there is an enormous pace of disruption, which is accelerated. i think that affects not only retail and tech, but also affects the overall level of the market and the bond market. tech is a very deflationary phenomenon. prices come down, things get more efficient. i think that's one of the reasons why i'm not surprised to see the bond yield down around

215. and i'm not worried, either. i actually think in the next two or three years, we'll think of a 10% ten-year as high, not low. >> i think we already feel that. >> we touched it briefly in 2013. 3%, almost exactly on the news. >> that's right, and it peaked out at 260 in february. when people thought, hey, it's trending up. but it wasn't. that was the peak in the yield. that was the end of a bear market. >> and i think ken griffin is basically articulating the market's implicit message for a while now. so you have these huge dominant tech growth companies that are beneficiaries and drivers of a deflationary boom in the areas that they touch. and not only that, but these enormous companies, the market is saying are kind of more stable, predictable than governments around the world that can't seem to get their act together. >> that is a sbvery interesting point. by the way, you made a little chart of what's been happening with interest rates. >> of the yield curve, which, to

your point, why it's not a big economic concern. if you look back where we are, between the two-year note and the ten-year note, we last hit that trending down in 2005, was the level of rates was much higher. >> this goes back to the point you were making, look how long the curve was flattening, from basically 2004, 2005, all the way -- three years it was going on. >> three years of that process with the market is saying, the fed's getting closer to being done, but it's not done yet. two years out from a recession. >> we'll see that flattening phenomenon happen again. maybe next week, we'll see 25 basis points from fed funds. maybe there'll be another one or two later this year. but you know, that can be accommodating within the current ten-year yield. i think we're in for a bit more flattening over the next couple of years. >> we have to go. but i wanted to briefly show, the fortune 500 list out today. we've been talking so much about market cap. the big ones don't surprise you,

walmart, berkshire, apple, but number five is mckesson, which i think reflects its distribution, of course. and take a look at six through ten, united health, cvs, general motors, okay, at&t, and ford. so gm and ford, two of the top ten in this country by revenue. >> sure. autos are the biggest manufacturing and retail sector of the united states economy. you don't think of it that much. question is, does that mean their value -- some weight portfolios on revenue, not on market cap. or is that how much in the way of sales can be poached. >> deflated. and the top five are all tech markets. >> cassandra, what would you add before we go? >> i hate to put a damper, but the flip side of all of this is as actually technology gets stronger and ai gets more involved, extrapolate that out

ten years from now. where are all those workers going to be? there is a downside pressure ultimately that's going to hit this economy and this stock market when you start to put all of the pieces together and that might not be in our immediate future or intermediate future, but it is going to come and that's going to create another set of havoc. >> i just think disruption has always happened -- look, maybe it will be worse this time. we don't know. and if it is worse this time, we have to deal with that. no question, but the flip side of it is perhaps that people find new industries, new forms of employment, better jobs. i don't know. >> i'm totally with your last point, kelly. i'm totally with your last point, kelly. there has never been a technological advance that net-net eliminated jobs. it eliminated some jobs, but people found other things to do. human ingenuity will make that happen again. >> we'll leave it on that hopeful, uplifting note, everybody. thank you for joining us, jim

and ka scassandra, really appree it. coming up, bank stocks rallied hard after president trump was elected. but they have been stock since he took office. could they see another boom if they pass the fed stress test. andrew schutz will give us his thoughts, next. plus, apple is holding its shareholder meeting today after becoming the latest company to top the $1,000 their mark this week. and you can contact this show via twitter, facebook, or send us an e-mail and let us know what you think. you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide. [vo] when it comes to investing,

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welcome back. financials getting a lift today, helped by news that spanish bank banco santaderris buys banco popular for 1 euro, or $1.13. but banco santader has been struggling for some time. so should this reassure investors about putting must be into european banks qu? joining us is anton schutz. we have a lot to talk to you about.

>> excellent. >> we're going to rip through it. let's start with this bail-in. is it more important what happens in italy now? what do you think? >> well, you know, it's important that we seek the right level and get some of these assets moving the through the system. so, you know, the market on these loans was -- on the non-performers was over 60%. so a lot of reserve there. we can clear the decks, you know, clear the inventory, you need a clearing process. it's going to take some time. so i would rather buy european banks on recaps, when they put new capital into -- >> what is what santader is doing. it's going to do, i think, a $7 billion rights issue, in order to recapitalize the banks. by the way, the european central bank had to make this happen last night. now -- so the senior debt holders, they're the ones who are going to be okay. it's more of the junior ones. but in italy, they have banks who are struggling. they've sold a lot of this debt to the retail italians. so they can't -- you can't really bail them in the same way. i guess that's why people look there and go, you know, that's the third biggest bond market in

the world. what happens if there's a bailout? >> and they're still doing it. when i was in italy last year, i saw a sign on a window, 0% down, 40-year mortgage. they're creating their own problems and continue to feed the beast there by doing that kind of stuff. >> so where'd you buy the house? >> wno, the prices are crazy because of those terms. >> are there any names in particular before i move on that you like in europe, since you mentioned some of the recaps? >> well, you've already had some recaps, so -- and i don't own any of them, but deutsche has already done some work. they've settled with the u.s. government. they've done a recap. credit suisse just did a recap. but it's a lot more than recaps. they have a lot of right-sizing of businesses to do. they've got to decide where the exposures are. what about the italian banks? who have exposure to the italian banks? >> when you look at the big u.s. banks that kind of play in the same arena with some of those, it's been striking for one, that citi has been such an outperformer in the last month,

year-to-date, all-around, why would that be? is it the business mix? the highest potential to return capital? what do you think? >> it's all of it. my estimate is $18 billion of capital return. that's a staggering sum between dividends and buybacks. low end estimates are $15 billion. so it's not like i'm completely out there on a limb. the other thing is, they're having their first analyst day that they've had since crisis. and that analyst day is july 25th. people are saying, look, if they're going to have an analyst day, they'll have good things to talk about. and it's about time. i've been long the name over the years and been kind of waiting for this. >> ken griffin was asked by bob pisani earlier about whether we should go back to glass/steagall? we've been talking a lot about this. dick bove has been putting out a note overnight saying it's time to break up the big banks. what risk is there for the biggest u.s. banks? are they able to hammer that message? you want us to compete against china, we need these big global

banks. are we going to be able to continue to kind of hold on as they are today? >> inc. they'll be able to hold on. the the real question is certainly thought provoking. they still have to hold more capital than anybody else does. and that return on equity is going to be held down by holding that more capital. so the real question is, obviously, in wells fargo's case, the cross-sale, well, you can't cross-sale. do we really need all these businesses together, don't you? and i think these different banks have different arguments about being able to cross-sale. i think jpmorgan has been very effective. i think bank of america with merrill is pretty effective. breaking them up does hurt us on a global stage from a competitive perspective. i think glass/steagall seems silly. glass ste glass/steagall did not cause the crisis. it had nothing to do wit. durbin is silly.

why was durbin added to dodd/frank? so the retailers can keep the profits from the banks? >> but i think they're hanging on to them -- >> oh, i know they are! which is insane. because durbin is a very popular senator, they're going to hang on to it. >> for any number of -- >> they've got a good lobby. >> that's a discussion for another time. anton, thank you for joining us. anton schutz. former fbi director jim comey is set to testimony tomorrow for the first time since president trump fired him. and investigators will be watching closely since comey has had such a huge impacts on the markets so far. we're going to look at how related events to him have led the markets to some big swings. and hollywood is under attack by hackers. they released eight episodes of steve harvey's new show. up next, you'll get our fast take on the trend. stay with us. your insurance company

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brian? brian... legacy technology can handcuff any company. but "yes" is here. you're saying the new app will go live monday?! yeah. with help from hpe, we can finally work the way we want to. with the right mix of hybrid it, everything computes. welcome back. time now for fast take. we begin today with facebook looking to move whatsapp off of ibm's public cloud and on to one of its own private ones. ibm says it's unaware of the shift and says that whatsapp is a top five or even top 20 cloud customer, but these headlines prove that the cloud is the megatech battleground right now. >> obviously, mass adoption in a hurry on the cloud. and the huge big players kind of playing a market share game. what's interesting here is at least by these reports, facebook looking to internalize. so i think you have the big customers who are just saying,

do i go with ibm, google, or amazon, but maybe we do it ourselves. >> and what's interesting to me, you talk to some of these investors and they say, we want a multi-cloud solution. so they'll say, i'll use amazon when amazon's cheapest, but i want some in-house -- so it feels like there's perhaps room for more than one player. >> they want to modulate their work room. they're kind of the same, but you use different ones for different deals -- >> they're all involved with the deals, most times just a different ranking. next, sony is making clear versions of top films, films like spider-man, big money, and talladega nights, prompt seth rogen to chime in and say, please don't do this. my guess is because of cyan. >> because china is very strict about the kinds of content. >> it could be partly china, partly other countries. i guess my theory is international markets and wanting to prevent the cleanest

possible version of its content to appeal. >> i do know, look, there have always been airline versions. every director has to create an airline cut -- >> i didn't know that. >> and they hate it. i know they consider it to be an impingement of their -- >> i can't believe what i've seen on the planes is the cut -- >> i think it you'd to be a little bit more restricted. i do know that family films is a big area of streaming. if you're going to have distribution that way. i, myself, have looked at hollywood comedies that i know would be amusing and tried to figure out if they would be okay for the 13-year-olds -- >> and you're always wrong, aren't you? >> you know, you have to be careful. let's put it that way. >> maybe it is for the kids. next, hollywood's hacker has now crossed steve harvey, releasing eight episodes, of ha new abc show called "thunder dome." the hacker says he only wants money so he holds the content for ransom. what should hollywood do? >> i don't think you should say absolutely never pay the ransom or always pay it. i do think, though, that it's very interesting. because i don't know that it's

going to take off in the sense that users -- that the audience, in a massive way, is going to start looking for pirated content. >> what i think, and i hope you're right, by the way, that this isn't napster 2.0, that it goes back to the clouds we were talking about. they better go with the big cloud providers like amazon or whoever to protect their data if they can't do it themselves. >> you know when this didn't happen? when they put spools of film in a tin and took it to the movie theater. >> finally, this is big, with i think, for best buy. apple is putting its glass-fixing horizon machines in 25 countries and stores and best buy will be one of the first recipients. before now, apple never even quickly mentioned these horizon machines. it's been such a headache for consumers. what does it tell you, though? >> they're bending to customers. it was a real nuisance. i've had a screen fixed at an unauthorized dealer. and when you do that, your apple warranty -- >> you void the warranty. >> so i feel like it's really just acknowledging that the market place is bigger than apple. >> i think it's good for best buy. >> oh, it will be.

>> this shows, this is how you do it right amid the online takeover of retail. >> alphabet holding its shareholder meeting today and one shareholder group has been urging investors to vote against the company's pay plan for its stop execs, this is despite the stock's huge rally this year. he joins us next to explain why. and how are people in london planning to vote ahead of tomorrow's british election? wilfred frost headed to the pub to try to find out. that's still ahead on the "closing bell." new roads and bridges. new mass transit. new business friendly environment. new lower taxes. and new university partnerships to grow the businesses of tomorrow today. learn more at esd.ny.gov

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welcome back. we eked out a rally today on wall street. the dow was up. the s&p was up about 4. the nasdaq up 22. the russell up less than two points. time for a cnbc news update at this hour with sue herrera. >> here's what's happening at this hour. president trump traveled to cincinnati, as he called for bipartisan support in rebuilding the nation's infrastructure. >> i'm calling on all democrats and republicans to join together, if that's possible, in the great rebuilding of america. countless american industries, businesses, and jobs depend on rivers, runways, roads, and rails that are in dire and even

desperate condition. >> meantime, there is no crying over spilt milk, but, how about spilled beer? a truck driver lost control on a highway ramp in arizona and that's a lot of beer. the beer came pouring out. look at all of those bud light cans all over the ground. the driver, unfortunately, was hurt, but he is expected to be okay. and an historic feat in cincinnati last night. scooter gennett hit four home runs and drove in ten runs in the red's 13-1 rout of the st. louis cardinals. he became the 17th player in baseball history to hit four homers in a game and the first cincinnati red to do so. awfully impressive, if i do say so myself. there you go. mike, that one's for you. >> only the 17th ever, sue? and in fact, there was a lot of the baseball statners there were trying to determine if it was the best offensive game, perhaps, in history.

>> arguably -- >> because, yeah, he drove in ten runs, he actually had five hits, four home runs. and i think the cincinnati reds' twitter feed might have one of the winners, too. they tweeted, gennett, the best a man can hit. just like gillette, the best a man can get. >> excellent! >> he's got a great name. >> thanks, guys. >> our sue herrera. who was the guy with the name yesterday you were telling me about? >> baseball player with the name? >> other, stubby overmeyer. that's an old pitcher on the yankees. >> alphabet holding its annual shareholder meeting today. the company's ceo painted an optimistic picture for its future. >> we're still very, very healer. and that's what's so extraordinary. when you look at google, i'm often asked what's my biggest surprise coming here, having now been here two years, and the answer is how early we still have. google has quite a long runway ahead of it. we have all that's going on with ads and we're adding with on

with cloud hardware and youtube subscriptions. and all of the magical things coming out of the other bets, whether it's self-driving cars or transforming cities or life sciences or loon. >> despite her positive outlook and the stock's huge run, it's up about 26%, shareholders still address concerns over topics like executive compensation and the gender pay gap and the company's lobbying practices. we're joined now by patrick magern from iss, which is a shareholdering leading company that helped lead the charge against. a balphabet's corporate governance today. aren't they doing everything right? >> i guess they're hitting it out of the park as far as performance goes, that's true. but still there are some concerns for long-term investors. and a lot of them do relate to the company's compensation practices. >> what specifically about them? >> well, again, sendhar pinchay, it's a great ceo coming in.

i think he lives up to the hype. but when you look at the awards he's received over the last couple of years, basically covering about $300 million in value, that they aren't very retentive. this is a young, rising executive. you want to keep him in his share for a long time. you want super glue in there, not library paste. but the vesting on these shares last year ran about two years and this year's $200 million award vests over the next four years. and in addition, none of these awards are based upon performance. they're all purely discretionary on the part of the board and they time vest. it doesn't have any performance hurdles that would have to be cleared to provide value to the executives. >> understood. so, patrick, the concern of iss is not that sooner pichai made $200 million or $300 million, it's that you wish he had done so, but with the shares vesting over a larger number of years? that's a little bit of quibbling around the edges, isn't it?

>> not really, we're really looking here at the stewardship by the compensation committee. the membership of the board of directors. and we want them to have a more coherent compensation strategy in place. this is the fourth straight year, 2016 was, when there was at least one award made to a named executive officer with a face value that we calculated more than $100 million. and that's really not a strategy when you're not requiring long investing periods for those awards and you're not making them predicated upon hitting performance targets. >> patrick, i guess at least from the outside, it would seem that this is a company at a particular stage where the founders are still involved. they own massive percentages of the company. and i wonder if this is a matter of attempting to get the next generation of leadership kind of vested in a hurry with big equity positions. i mean, who knows if this is going to be the amount and type of awards that these folks are going to be getting, you know, for years on end. >> sure, but we've seen a steady

parade of folks leaving google and now, again, alphabet in recent years, because their personal net worths get so high that i think they actually lose the incentive to keep on charging forward. and maybe you say there's other people coming in behind them to replace them. but i would like to see a more targeted incentives. and i think investors would like to see some -- like i said before, some more glue put in the chairs of those good executives, that seem to stay around for a couple of years and then leave the company. >> perhaps it's because -- look, these aren't founders. and obviously, when there are founder-led companies, they retain a huge amount of the stock in many cases, making them very wealthy. and yet they're passionate about the company because they founded it. it sounds like a lot of investors aren't concerned about pichai's commitment to google long-term. what do you think they're missing? >> it's not that they're not concerned, it's that i think that what shareholders would like to see is just a compensation program that's

frankly more like those of their other peers and the s&p 500, where there are performance metrics being included turned pay program. and i think where you know, you're trying to retrain those top players on your team, rather than just assuming that they're going to stick around after you put a couple hundred million dollars in their pocket. >> all right, patrick, thank you for joining us today. >> thank you. >> that's patrick mcgern from iss. meantime, the countdown is on. we're less than 18 hours away from fired fbi director's james comey's appearance before the senate intelligence committee. up next, we will take a look at the road he and president trump traveled to get there. and britain is also going to the polls tomorrow, once again to vote for its next government. we'll go outside the halls of paurlt to get a pint and the pulse to have the country. amere 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

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welcome back. as the whole world knows by now, former fbi director james comey is set to testify on capitol hill tomorrow morning in front of a senate intelligence committee. it will be his first public testimony since being fired by the president last month. eama eamon javers is in washington with a closer look at the events and the timeline leading up to all of this. eamon? >> hi, kelly. we're asked most often, what are the dates, when has this story really moved markets? let's go through the timeline here and i'll show you exactly what's been happening during the course of this saga. pay attention. there are two days where this story has rae moved markets. but for the rest, maybe not so

much. so start with december 29th, 2016, the obama administration announces measures to punish russia for the 2016 election interference. that was very early on. michael flynn calls ambassador kislyak of russia to discuss sanctions relief on that date. that was an important early moment in all of this. on january 27th, trump and comey had dinner at the white house. that's the dinner we're learning more about in this testimony, including that famous stare down. on michael 14th, michael flynn resigned. trump met with comey and asked him to drop the flynn investigation altogether. on march 20th, comey testifies before the house intelligence committee and confirms the fbi investigation of the russian election interference, including any links with the trump campaign. and on may 3rd, comey testified before the senate judiciary committee. that was one where he said that the thought that it affected the election made him mildly nauseous.

trump fired comey on may 9th. and on may 10th, the next day, met with russian ambassador kislyak and russian foreign minister lavrov in the oval office. on may 17th, the justice department appointed fbi director robert mueller as special counsel in the russia investigation. as for the market reaction, the two days i talked about that stand out, march 21st and may 17th. those are the worst two days for each index since the trump inauguration. take a look. on march 21st, the dow, s&p, and nasdaq all fell more than 1% the day following comey's house intelligence committee testimony, when he confirmed the fbi's investigation of russian election interference. now, the other date here that's important, we've also got some sound here from comey. take a listen to what koum hcom to say that day. >> the fbi, as part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

and that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the trump campaign and the russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and russia's efforts. >> now, the second date i told you about, the worst market decline of the year would come on may 17th, the same day mueller was appointed special counsel, and a day after "the new york times'" report on the comey memo, revealing that trump had havasked him to end the fly investigation. no doubt, markets will be closely watchi ining all of thi comey appears on the hill tomorrow. we'll have to wait and see if there's market impact as dramatic as we saw on those two days, kelly. >> eamon, it seems a significant thing -- the reason we would get that if there was some surprise. in both of those two prior incidents, there was a huge surprise and the shock value. we already have his written testimony, so the q&a would be the only opportunity for that. and i'm trying to think of what -- obviously, that's what makes it a surprise. what kind of disclosure that

would be so market moving would be. >> one of the things to look at here is former director comey says here that there are nine instances where he had contact with president trump. he only details five of them in the written testimony. so we'll wait and see what he says happened on the other four occasions. if they were just talking about sports or the super bowl or something or there are other details ti s still to come here director comey. and of course, there's the bombshell questions and answers, which everyone expects will happen tomorrow, which is, what is director comey's opinion of all of this. does he think that the president's actions here amounted to obstruction of justice? if he answers yes, that would be something very, very dramatic. he might say, no, he doesn't think it rises to that threshold or he might simply punt on the question altogether and avoid giving an answer. >> anything you would add to that, mike? >> just as i look back to those two dates that eamon highlighted, when there was a perceived market impact, since those dates, the large nasdaq stocks have outperformed the dow by 7% since the march date, by

2.5% since that may date, which is less than a month ago. so it shows you that the market altogether fall apart, but change its orientation towards things that are thought to not be contingent on policy progress or anything going on in washington. >> that's a great point. and we'll see if there's a similar fulcrum tomorrow. eamon, thank you so much. in england, if you're looking for opinions, you hit the pubs. tomorrow, we'll do that. a top strategist is calling for investors to make one major change in their portfolios. they'll tell you what that is tonight on "fast money." ♪ say carl, we have a question about your brokerage fees. fees? what did you have in mind? i don't know. $4.95 per trade? uhhh. and i was wondering if your brokerage offers some sort of guarantee? guarantee? where we can get our fees and commissions back if we're not happy. so can you offer me what schwab is offering?

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welcome back. tomorrow is voting day in the uk for the general election. for all 650 members of parliament, our wilfred frost took to the streets and to the pubs to find out what issues are most personimportant to voters. wilf? >> reporter: yes, kelly, indeed. i couldn't come back home to london without visiting a couple of pubs. and tli ahere i asked the afterk crowd how they're planning to vote and the reason why. ♪ >> i am probably going to vote conservative at the moment. mainly because i don't trust corbyn. so it's an anti-vote rather than a vote for, if i'm absolutely honest. >> i'll probably vote conservative as well and a key reason is, i don't trust a far-leaded left party. and they've gone much further to the left to control the economy or grow the economy, as well. >> i'll be honest with you, i've

changed my mind. i'm kind of siding more to the left. i'm kind of tired of theresa may. i feel the labor, something a bit fresh, something a bit new. >> with the money i earn, it would be entirely stupid of me to vote labor with the it was the tax policies him. >> i think i'd enjoy a zouven my corbin. i think it would stir things up, a new approach. >> ilt a good sum rear of the campaign. she did so from a 20-point lead in the polls. sense then, things i things have struggled a bit. she still has a decent lead. they put that lead at six points right now. kelly. >> well, so even if she pulls this off, a as the conservatives

get their flurlity, i love reading the early morning notes from uk analysts all the time, one of the things that came up this morning was the idea that that has undermined her power as a leader and exposed. who sets up and be -- is the new leader, are we able to go down this road? is she able to put that behind her and consolidate power and emerge stronger? >> reporter: there is a little middle ground. largely speak, it is all or nothing. if she gets an increased majority, even though it's been clear under the scrutiny of this election campaign that she wasn't perhaps quite as popular or the mr. egg that people thought she was, she has increased and got a mandate and therefore she wouldn't be challenged by her own porte for quite some time. clearly, if she loses and jeremy corbin beats her, she is gone as the leader subpoena either way.

there is a maul margin in between there, perhaps she has a small majority. i don't think they get their lives out immediately, because they won't want to unsteady the ship, her own party. so i think either way, it's a bit of an all or nothing thing. she will still be prime minister, although people won't love her as much as they once did. >> it's been an incredible turn of events. she said it was the right, politicaliant thing to do. now very different. thank you,le w wolford frost in lont. >> hi, kelly, parts of amazon's website have been down this afternoon in a rare outage for the company. it's amazon.com. when you try to close on products or items, instead of going to their details, it brings you to their outage page. according to oa website which

attracts these out annuals, they are affecting the northeast and west coast of the united states, kelly. i tried to click on a few products recently. it does appear to be working at lear for here for now. >> wow. all right. first a server issue. no you this one. thank you. it's that time again, we'll know if he knows the answers to this equation. up next, we have some business queries as we try, once again, to stump sansantoli. what people don't know is that it all started with points from my chase ink card. i bought the ingredients, utensils, even custom donut cutters. wow! all with 80,000 points. what will you create with your points? learn more about the ink business preferred card.

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welcome back. and drumroll, please, it's time for the favorite stump santoli. we are doing it early. i need to move town after this. >> i have been completely stumpable today. >> we had back-to-back 14-hour days, no excuses. question number one, goldman sax consumer arm claims it is raising the deposit rate, what is the new rate? a, b, c?

>> 1.2%. >> correct. that is so high. i checked a couple times, it was 1.05 before this. 1.2? ? >> it's interesting, you used to not go with the bank offering the highest rates. >> that is goldman trying to build his franchise. >> this should pull it off. if they don't get deposits with this move. >> the markets. >> question number two, the "wall street journal" says today china may not become the number one box office this year because of weakening tick sales and a drop in its currencies, here's the interesting question what is the average ticket price for a movie in china today? a, b or c? in u.s. dollars. >> in u.s. dollars, okay. >> this is a pure guess. i'm going to say $6 bucks. >> no, it's a, $4.50.

we threw $8.55, that is actually the average u.s. >> i feel like we are in that mode where things are in china are probably more expensive that you think they are. there is that calculation. >> i was almost thinking we should build in $14. i'm going to china to watch some movie, it's a bargain. there is no bonus question d. ten-year treasury yields fell to the lowest level. today it's around 2.17%. which of the following s&p 500 companies does not yield more than the tenure. is it a, apple? b, macy's or c, ibp? >> that would be apple. >> yes, correct. >> apple is under 2%. >> it is 1.26%. i thought ibp might be a strong defender in there. >> stocks have been depressed. they haven't cut the dividend yet. they cut it once in half in my living memory.

the stocks got crushed. >> i think we knew. yeah, exactly. that was not the case. so, yes, apple yield is 1.62%, which is lower than the ten-year yield, which itself is very low. >> i think the overall index is around 1.9. i not that much lower. >> you are tough to stump. not bad. can we briefly get your thoughts on tomorrow on the other thing that's happening with european central bank. >> sure. >> they are also meeting. they have to orchestrate a bail-in, in spain. >> some feel it's the fed's taper announcement. they will handicap how they might wind down qe? i think people are kind of geared up for a wishy washy net hawkish praej message. the director surprise could be they want to get on with things and get out of this. >> the euro is back at about $1.12. >> the euro trended in that

direction. >> exactly. maybe it's one of these opposites, the u.s. dollar, i'm looking at the index, it's under 97. how much lower can it get? >> on a lower side, we have seen the everything, in terms of corporate bond level the demand for paper, maybe that is something that wobbles. >> a great point. we will see what happens tomorrow. i will be here tomorrow. >> you will see me at 5:00 a.m. >> have a good one. thank you, everybody, for watching "closing bell" with santoli. "fast money" begins right now. >> fast money starts right now! live from the nasdaq markets overlooking new york city's time's square. i'm mellissa lee, the traders are pete najerian, karen feinerman, guy adami. oil is getting crushed. take the energy stocks down with it. there is one name some traders see as a bargain. plus, more tradings are soaring in both the nba finals and the stanley cup. we'll give you the names. later, stop strategists at