speculated in the media. >> but no one has said out of the white house that cohn is leaving. in fact, they knocked that rumor down. >> they have. >> but he is frustrated. i know that from a source. >> he is frustrated. >> all righty. >> thanks for joining us, morgan brennan. >> come back any time, all right? >> we can say "closing bell" starts right now hi, everybody. welcome to "closing bell." i'm kelly evans at the new york stock exchange. >> and i'm bill griffeth stocks round pressure today. the dow actually in negative territory for the week now it's been hovering above and below that line all week earnings from cisco and walmart dragged the average lower, and, of course, the uncertainty coming out of washington doesn't help as well. >> yeah. even p & g is negative all 30 dow components are. investors looking at the fate of former goldman chief operating

officer gary cohn. the white house says he's not leaving his post we'll have all the details. >> steve bannon says we're at economic war with china. the former ceo of lvmh will tell us why he actually doesn't think the u.s. can afford a trade war right now. let's start with the two big things investors are watching carefully. retail earnings again and more potential drama in washington. courtney reagan is covering the walmart story for us and eamon javers has the latest political intrigue out of the white house. courtney, let's start with you. >> shares of walmart are down today. you mentioned dragging the dow lower. pessimism, of course, hanging or the entire retail sector, and while there was a solid quarter for walmart expectations were high going in and walmart's quarter earnings only meet expectations on the high end some of the pressure down 2% walmart's profit and revenue beat expectations and raised the

lower end of its previous full-year guidance range now, profit is still held down in part due to some of the investments walmart is making to improve e-commerce, prices, wages, stores and a lot more, but the investments do seem to be working walmart's u.s. comp sales grew 1.8% that marks 12 straight quarters of comp sales growth in this country. traffic also higher for the 11th straight quarter it's pretty hard to find or beat a trend like that in retail right now. sam's club saw its comp sales grow for six straight quarters and 9 of 11 countries where walmart operates also grew the comp sales the big box retailer says sales strengths, pretty broad-based over categories noting the best performance in five years. some inflation helped it there, and the discounters, u.s. online net sales grew 60% last quarter with 63% both of those year over year online grocery ordering for

store pickup, that's a pretty important growth driver in that result, so it's part of e-commerce it's already in 900 stores and 1,100 by year end. back over to you guys. >> you know, i know, i don't think walmart would ever admit to it, but this reinvestment strategy, if just takes a page out of amazon's playbook for a long time and it does seem to be paying off this is what the second quarter that we've seen where you've seen such a huge increase in their online sales, right? >> yeah. so, i mean, i understand what you're saying. amazon certainly has been in investment phase for a long time i don't know if they were ever reinvestment walmart is reinvesting they started the big investment with the stores and they have to reinvest in the online and using the two together you're right the online sales are up 60% for net sales is really strong last quarter was 63% i will say though that walmart did change that metric a little bit so it's a little bit hard to compare over time beyond just the last two quarters, and they are pulling out u.s. e-commerce

as opposed to international. it's not a comp number anymore still strong, but harder to see the trend over time. >> that is why you do what you do, courtney she's reading the fine print. >> thanks. >> thanks. >> see you later. >> and the shares of walmart coming back a little bit even as the dow is down 200 points new questions about the fate of gary cohn and white house chief strategist steve bannon. eamon javers from bridgewater, new jersey with the president. eamon? >> reporter: just in the mast 15 minutes or so we've gotten a new tweet from president trump who as you said is in bedminster, new jersey, study what general pershing of the united states did to terrorists when caught. thereto was no more radical islamic terror for 35 years. this tweet coming, of course, after the apparent terrorist attack in barcelona today. the president appears to be referring to a story that circulated on the internet about general pershing in the philippines in 1899, allegedly

dipping soldier bullets in pig bloods before executing muslim insurgents historians have looked at that story and say it's not at all clear that this happened as alleged and the story that circulates on the internet nonetheless, it gives you a sense of the president's mood here today in terms of what he's focusing his attention on today. senator bob corker, republican of tennessee, issuing some of the toughest commentary yet we've seen about president trump this week from an ally in the united states senate here's corker's statement that he gave earlier today saying that the president recently has not demonstrate that had he understands the character of this nation. he has not common stwrated that he understands what has made this nation great. he also says the president hasn't demonstrated stability and competence and calls for radical changes inside the white house and so much here on the fate of gary cohn, the national

economic director. would he resign or not after the president's fiery press conference in relations between the various protest groups in charlottesville, virginia last weekend. cohn though not issuing any formal statement himself here's the most recent guidance we've gotten from the white house. they are saying nothing has changed. gary is focused on his responsibilities as nec director, and any reports to the contrary are 100% false. so that's the state of play here in new jersey, guys, where we're monitoring the president's working vacation back over to you >> all right eamon. thank you very much. we'll be checking back with you. let's get to sue herera for the late on the terror attack in barcelona. sue? >> thank you very much here's what we know this hour had. the death toll, as we told you briefly before, has gone up. we now have 13 dead and 50 injured. when that terrorist attack took place earlier today in barcelona, right now that's a little bit after 9:00 p.m. they have made one arrest in that attack. we do not know what he has been

arrested for, whether it was renting the van or driving the van through that group of people this occurred on the city center basically that is closed to cars but they can drive on either side, and apparently he jumped the curb and raced through what was a very crowded city center keep in mind that's dinnertime, and also it's the height of tourist season that's one of the most popular places in barcelona, and as a result of that have there were many, many injuries, and as we know now 13 casualties barcelona's hospitals are asking for blood donations. the police have shut down transportation too that particular part of the city at the request of emergency services all public events have been cancelled, and we are waiting for more comments, and we were hoping to get a press briefing, but that is what we know so far. we have 13 dead and 50 injured, and earlier on the interior

ministry expect that had death toll to go up and, unfortunately, it has. bill, kell de, i'll send it back to you. >> sue, what do we know the suspects at this point >> we don't know anything about them we don't know who they are, what their motivation was other than obviously to cause mass chaos and now ultimately death, but we do not know anything about the background of the suspect. we do not know if there is more than one there are conflicting reports about that as well >> all right sue, we'll check back in with you. >> you got it. >> please keep us posted sue herera. to the markets now a down day pretty clear for equities, yields in the treasuries are lower as well they are selling stocks, buying bonds. gold is also higher for a second day running here let's get to our "closing bell" exchange art cashin with us here at post 9 and rick santelli checks in from the cme

art, last week the concerns about north korea sent us down briefly and today the concerns that if something like gary cohn leaves the white house it could very much put in peril the president's economic agenda. >> yeah. well, no disrespect to mr. cohn, but it's real reaffecting the market not the fear that only he would leave. >> yes. >> they are afraid that it would lead to a kind of mass exodus, and the one thing that's been said, even by people who don't favor the president, is that well at least he's surrounded himself with some very capable people the generals that he has, wilbur ross, mnuchin, and if people began to fear as they did this morning that if cohn would leave and he was no longer surrounded by competent people and that took a hit in the market the other thing we have to remember is some of of this is technical. we've had a couple of hindenberg owe men meaning the new highs

and lows and breadth of the market has been sitting. >> and the s&p is below its 50-day moving average. 2450 was a beachhead for you this morning, but now we're well below that. >> yes that's where they held twice this morning and now have plunged through, so it's going to be a little bit tough here. >> tony, what do you think is behind all of the weakness that we're seeing today >> well, on a day-by-day basis our cio likes to call this the world's greatest reality tv show in terms of what we're seeing in weese, and when you have that it, you have episodes that are sometimes very fun and encouraging in terms of what it means to business and you have other times that are kind of disconcerting. that's what we've got going on today. our job as equity investors is to kind of hit the mute button on the tv and go back to our knitting and look for what matters in terms of being long-term investors. we have criteria for looking at that and selecting stocks that we think will do well. >> are you encouraged in what you see in that? earnings certainly being as we

like to say the lifeblood of the stock market, are you enkeernlged by what you've seen here >> we are. we are the companies we own are doing well you're seeing it in some of the beaten down sectors, for example, just talking about walmart and what happened there. target has been doing better lately, for example, and anything positive in retail is kind of amazing to anybody right now, right >> although the overall retail macro numbers pretty good. what about some of the data this morning? mixed back. >> yeah, again -- >> yeah, it was a mixed bagging. >> go ahead, rick. >> you want rick >> yes, sir. >> it was a mixed bag. everybody noticed down 12,000 in jobless, never a bad thing up .2 in industrial production and when you separate it out, the auto sectors, i'm sure everybody has been talking about that all day it was on weak side what i found the most fascinating is how the euro currency came in and got hit hard and did a bit of a reversal to me there's a lot of what's in that story with the ecb minutes that could actually not only

lend to what's moving in foreign exchange hand in the fixed income sovereign market but maybe partially in stocks. listen, multi-nationals have had a weak dollar for a while now, and the ecb is now at that point where they are not liking the strong euro. maybe it there affect policy and maybe it won't, but that's put extra volatility in it remember, when you're in the low 220s or under 220, you see a lot of things happen you see the vix shoot up as did and equities down. it's like the trifecta of the wrong type of cycle and we're now in that. if there's a yellow light flashing to me that comes from the fixed income market. right now you're at those yield levels so you want to monitor if you get above 15 and 16 in the vix and the down trade in the equities figures right in. remember, 213 is a low yield close for the year we're not too far away from t.arthur, what do you expect here we've got 48 minutes left in the trading session. what will are you looking at >> well, interestingly enough the first look at the market on closes heavily to the buy side

and yet the market has not moved, so that tells me that there's a high risk that they could actually pair off. i think pressure will remain on it it's the day before an option expiration it's going to be a tough look. the vice president i think is supposed to make a statement shortly, but he's coming back a day early, and that will a lot of chatter going on yesterday as to whether that may mean some changes in washington within this administration. >> yeah. we will see. gentlemen, thank you appreciate your thoughts on today's market action. tony scherer, art cashin and rick santelli. and we're 47 minutes away from the close right now with the dow just hovering above the lows of the session. down about 200 points. we'll take you live to the nasdaq for more on the technology weakness. this is one of the worst days for tech in quite a while. >> but, first, with all the uncertainty in washington, two top former ceos discuss what it will take for the president to regain support from the nation's business leaders when "closing bell" comes back

markets holding steady at the lows of the session. dow down 204 points.

interestingly the decline on august 14th, which we've been looking back on was also .93% for the dow. >> we've had a couple of sharper down days even as it tries to climb back. >> we're back below 22,000 let get a check on some of the day's market movers. l brands, the worst performing stock in the s&p after a 14% same-store sales decline prompted the retailer to lower its full-year earnings guidance. the sales decline largely due to its decision to stop selling swim wear and other apparel at victoria's secret, and we're told that they don't make the catalog anymore which doesn't make sense molina healthcare after morgan stanley raised its raise target to $68 to $65. the analyst says that molina's turnaround effort appear to be on the cusp of suck seweding. >> big move. >> backlash in washington over

the president's response to the violence in charlottesville, prompting the fate over some white house staffers in the spotlight is white house economic adviser gary cohn and what his departure could mean for business let's bring in our guests to talk about the relationship between business and washington, mark you know the questions of whether the ceo should have resigned from those councils or not. you're of the opinion that for a ceo, your company comes first, right? >> of course first and foremost, what you're there for, make the company work >> so if this is going to reflect badly on your company it's going to walk away? >> unfortunately, these people came to washington to help the government and what's going on now they can't because they have to walk away because their number one priority is to protect the brand they represent. >> as that happens, ben, has the

president risked losing the broader support of the business community? >> i think there is some risk of that, and i agree with mark. a ceo has to do what's right for the company and two things that businesses don't like are uncertainty and distraction and washington is sure supplying plenty of both of those things right now. >> but it comes, ben, at the cost of the economic agenda so dear to the business community, the tax cut and infrastructure spending, the reduction in regulations. does all of that work stop necessarily with the denies of these ceo councils, do you think? >> well, let's hope it doesn't in fact, it's disappointing that these have dissolve the but i understand why the ceos have made this decision, but the president and his advisers clearly need to stay close to the business community because he got elected at least in part because of a vision of lower taxes, less regulation and sort of an improved economic environment, and if the distractions going on are unable

to allow him to get the support that he needs to make those, that's going to make for a very difficult time and the american business in the economy. >> meanwhile, mark, do you read as everyone else does into the staffing issues with the president's inner circle, what it would mean if gary cohn left and if steve bannon did and so forth. >> i think everybody is replaceable and if he needs to deal with it, he'll deal with it the president still has the telephone and has the right to call anyone who he wants to give advice publicly these folks may not want to put their name out there and privately how can you turn your back on country it just won't happen. >> do you think the president having had this reputational hit from all of these executive departures will turn around and malign their industries and companies as a result? >> i would hope not and would think not. the president is a smart man hard to explain what he thinks but the business community is wonderful. for once and all we've had people involved in our government some of the greatest smartest people you've ever met came out

of business. with all due respect to politicians, i was thrilled when i saw business people get involved at the government have a different perspective ceos know one thing, charged with performing. executions don't work. they have to work. that's a good thing in washington. >> steve bannon says we're already at an economic war with china. are we can we afford that where do you think that goes >> with all due respect to steve bannon, first and foremost the word war doesn't work in life or in business. the chinese are our business partners we're very, very tight with them, and what do they have to gain we're a $50 billion deficit. they are benefiting by our relationship, but you have to look at it this way, if you will no one likes to be in an indefensible position. he called them on intellectual properties and said you need to toe the line here. what is the chinese premier going to say how dare you challenge me stealing your intellectual

property you can't do it. this is about negotiation. we need the chinese. they need us we buy a tremendous amount from each other we're partners and there's bluster back and forth and the president is negotiating. >> the president has been tough on china and they are heading into the people's congress this fall domestically they have been cracking down on incertainly dissent and how do you expect them to respond to what's coming out of the white house >> they will have to get their act together, right? if you remember former obama aide and now mayor of chicago rahm emanuel made the statement that never let a good crisis go to waste he got criticized for that, but the core of that is right. you did take a certain like what's happened in charlottesville and barcelona and before that and use that as a rallying cry as to how we need to pull together and how businesses need to work together and people can work together and if we can get the administration to think that way, get on to tax cuts and on to health care reform and get on to infrastructure spending, that's

where the focus has to be. it's the distractions that are causing the problem. get back focused on what's most important for the country. >> all right we have to go, gentlemen interesting conversation thank you. >> you're welcome. >> good to see you. >> mark weber and bill baldanza. >> the dow down 210 points and s&p down 30 and nasdaq down 102 and the russell down 18. we'll head up to that nasdaq to see which stocks are driving the selling. >> also, alibaba is bucking the trend today, still higher on the session. e vehebreak down what's behind thmo wn kelly and i come back for your heart... your joints... or your digestion... so why wouldn't you take something for the most important part of you... your brain. with an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is now the number one selling brain health supplement

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welcome back the dow is at session lows will, down it 17 points and that's about a 1% drop. far bigger drop. nasdaq down 1.7% s&p down 31. >> let mow point out art cashin was saying the market on close orders the are skewing to the buy side. let mow point out to those folks who even questioned why we mentioned those, it's not a guarantee when they skewed the buy side you'll see buying coming in. you'll see buying come in because those are declared orders on the close but that doesn't mean you can see sellers come in to meet that buying, and that's sometimes what happens. >> other way of engaging markets. >> shares of vipshop are lower

after mixed results in the second quarter after the bell. that's a chinese online discounter, down 8%. that's the other part of the alibaba story. vipshop missed wall street estimates which is contributing to the weakness. >> to the nasdaq, bertha coombs looking at what's driving the tech sector having one of its worst dawes in a while. >> seeing a broad selloff, every sector with the nasdaq and biotechs and also chips. cisco selling off, seeing its worst post-earnings selloff since last may, but the news this time wasn't bad just not quite as exciting perhaps in its outlook as some had been looking for but when you take a look at some of these names that are sell off today. they have actually performed very well. apple, in fact, is still up for the week and up for the month and up for its third straight week in a row. not so for the f.a.n.g. names. those have started to fall out of rotation and take a look at

amazon and netflix both of those are on pace to be down four straight weeks and both of them are down more than 10% in correction territory from their july all-time highs, so although today we're not seeing some sort of mass rotation, it's sort of been comingon some of these high flyers selling off. back to you. >> bertha, thank you we'll keep an eye on the nasdaq with the dow down 223 points right now, and those f.a.n.g. stocks may get all the attention. how about shares of alibaba? they were up 90% and then rallying again today about 3% after reporting earnings next, we'll look at the surelts from this sometimes formerly overlooked tech giant.

welcome back a sea of red for the blue chip industrials and the s&p 500 had. the dow is down 224 points the s&p is down 32 for a 1.33% drop. >> 29 minutes left in the trading session with the dow now down 225 points at the lows -- in fact, all the major averages are at the lows of the session joining me on the flor here is alan valdez from silver bear capital. blowing through some support

levels, aren't we? >> blown through quite a few of them. >> is wall street losing confidence in washington or what's going on? >> appears today we're losing confidence and the business communities and ceos, so that's problematic. i mean, it was the business world that really promoted this tax cut with deregulation and nothing has come from it yet and now the ceos seem to be getting nervous and we're backing away from them, so it could become a problem here this is where it could start to build. he's been bulletproof so far on everything, but this is where it might really hit him. >> not that i'm pushing back, but we've seen selloffs before selloffs are part of the game. i don't have to tell you that, and last week we saw one due to the north korean situation, and then the market found a way to snap back. >> right. >> this could be different again, it's the business community this time. it's not politics. it's -- it's break away from that, and it's real numbers, and i think, you know, we're coming to the end of earnings season and that's really pushed the market ahead this summer.

>> right. >> for this rally. we're coming into september. normally involved to begin with and the feds are talking about cutting back on their $4 trillion balance sheet that's hauls been a problem for markets when they start to cut back and, of course, it's september, so it could be a problem all the way around now. >> all right hardly quiet dog days of august like we used to have >> thanks. >> thanks, alan. >> kelly. >> let's get to sue herera for the late on the terror attack in barcelona. >> thank you, kelly. we've finished a press briefing from the minister, not the interior minister and the numbers are changing we have at least 13 dead we have at least 50 people injured, possibly as many as 80, and of those -- that are injured, 15 are in very serious condition, so once again they are warning that the death toll may go up. it occurred earlier. it's now about 9:31 in barcelona. they have arrested one

individual they cannot confirm any motive other than obviously to wreak destruction which the alleged attacker did indeed do everything in terms of public events has been canceled we are watching a still developing story concerning some of the checkpoints around the city, and as soon as we get some clarity on that we'll bring that to you this occurred, of course, at the city center in the las ram ambulan blas district there's reports from the minister earlier that the truck or van was able to go 500 meters into the crowd it was extremely crowded in this particular part of the square when this attack took place earlier this evening barcelona time as i mentioned, it's about 4:30 or so in barcelona right now so as it stands we have 50, possibly as many as 80 people injured.

of those injured 15 are serious. at least 13 dead at this point those numbers keep changing depending on which minister does the briefing so that's why we're staying with the 13 dead figure and some news organizations are going with 12 at this point, but we're waiting to hear from are the gentleman who has been tweeting out all the official information, so you're up to date on, unfortunately, the death and injury toll at this point. kelly, bill, back to you >> horrific. thank you, sue. >> joining us for more on barcelona is colin clark, a political scientist at rand. mr. clark, thank you for joining us the fact that this is barcelona to you suggests what we've seen these attacks in germany, seen a spate of these attacks in the uk. what about barcelona and spain >> yeah, i mean, spain was hit with a deadly terrorist attack back in 2004, the madrid attacks that killed 191 people while not as high profile as uk, france or germany, there's been

100 foreign fighters, spanish citizens who have left to go fight isis and rack in syria and a number of people arrested for material support to terrorism, funding islamic groups and others so many suspected that this was merely a matter of time >> reuters is reporting right now that islamic state is claiming responsibility for this, and the quote from isis is the perpetrators of the barcelona attack are soldiers of the islamic state and carried out the operation in response to calls for targeting coalition states, so it -- it seems like they are going down a checklist in terms of the countries they are going after. is that the idea >> yeah, and, again, no surprise that -- that isis claimed responsibility for this. the real question that a lot of terrorism analysts like myself are now going to be looking into is whether this was isis directed, that is, whether isis actually manipulateed this individual over encrypted

communications, or merely isis-inspired, so this was someone that consumed large quantities of isis propaganda and then decided on the -- to do this act themselves. my early hunch is based on the method and the target is that this could have been, again, could have been isis directed given that he rented a van and picked a very densely packed tourist spot to maximize propaganda value >> it's chilling conley, thank you for joining us. >> thank you, colin. >> that's colin clark of rand. >> meantime, alibaba one of the few big winners on wall street after reporting the earnings seema mody breaks down the results for us. >> shares of alibaba hitting had an all-time high after earnings blew through expectations helped by strong e-commerce sales growth now the chinese tech name has quickly become a favorite internet stock in the hedge fund hit here's world david step ter and dan loeb and

julian robertson bought shares and dan loeb says he believes alibaba is the best business model in the global business sector and is the clear winner in the chinese e-commerce market why is there so much love for alibaba? it's seen by analysts as a good play on china's growing case with online consumption on the rise plus, like amazon, alibaba is developing its cloud business. in fact, in this kwlaurter sales are up 96% year over year. while shares of alibaba are up more than 80%, it's still trading at a discount to amazon. alibaba at 63 times earnings and amazon at over 200 times trailing earnings. one big risk for alibaba going forward is competition with its chinese rivals, jd.com and tencent both growing their presence in and around frmt china. and keep in mind while alibaba's overseas presence has been limited jack ma has been buying companies in and around the

region, specifically asia and malaysia kell >> seema, thank you. our seema mody. >> about 20 minutes to go in a weak session today dow is down 211. at the lows we were down about 225. >> at that time our research staff is telling us that is that would be the worst day we've seen since may 17th so we're going back a few months there. we'll see if we get any sort of comeback as we head into the close here. >> hedge fund manager bill ackman is laying out his case for the proxy battle for adp as he tries to get a seat on that board. all of those details after this. ? i'm crazy stressed trying to figure out this complex trade so i brought in my comfort pony, warren, to help me deal. isn't that right warren? well, you could get support from thinkorswim's in-app chat. it lets you chat and share your screen directly with a live person right from the app, so you don't need a comfort pony. oh, so what about my motivational meerkat? in-app chat on thinkorswim. only at td ameritrade.

all right. the selling is intensifying. the dow down 241 points, a decline of is.1% we're now seeing the worst day since may 17th, and as we've already established, all 30 components of the dow are lower. goldman sachs the biggest decliner. >> in point terms the biggest drag on dow. cisco having a tough day after difficult earnings reports yesterday. >> we heard from art cashin that the bias on the market on close orders was on the buy side, but he was intrigued we weren't seeing any response to that, and this may be why, that there were a lot of sellers lying in wait

to come into the market here on the close and that seems to be happening with the dow down 246 points. >> fej fund manager bill ackman wants three seats on the board of adb and for a big stake in the company, leslie picker has the details. >> reporter: at a three and a half hour conference call today, ackman and his portfolio managers said adp was losing customers and had a services organization that was overstaffed and the company needed a technological reboot. he said if his three director nominees including himself were added to the board and made the company more efficient, that shares could double in four years. adp quickly responded by saying we strongly disagree with many of the assertions made by mr. ackman in today's demonstration which portrays a fundamental lack of understanding of adp's strategy and business

ackman said the c suite may need some fresh blood. >> having seen the reaction we got from car hose, his response and the kind of rejection to the dna, i think it very likely in my view that this will require a change in the ceo of the company. this is notable because this fight started with the company disclosing ackman's demands, not ackman himself adp said two weeks ago ackman wanted rodriguez out, but ackman kind of backed away from that claim. today's comment, of course, changed that the market, however, didn't seem too keen on his plans. shares of adp slumping more than 5.5% ackman addressed this on the call saying it was due to his, quote, airing of dirty laundry. >> also a tough day in general leslie, thank you. leslie picker. 15 minutes to go, and here's how tough it is, the dow down 239 points, a better than 1% drop. the nasdaq and s&p all lower and

the nasdaq i believe the worst performer in percentage terms. >> yields have been going down the low for the year is 213. we're 219 so that's holding right now. not seeing much action here late in the day when they were in electronic trading anyway. >> that's a point. >> walmart outperforming today still 1.5% drop. is this dip an opportunity to buy? we'll debate that when we come back ♪ top speed fifty knots life on the caribbean seas ♪ ♪ it's a champagne and models potpourri ♪ ♪ on my yacht made of cuban mahogany, ♪ ♪ gany, gany, gany, gany ♪ watch this don't get mad (bell mnemonic) get e*trade and get invested

welcome back with 12 minutes to go and 150-point drop on the dow jones industrial average today, it breaks a four-day winning streak coming into this one of the worst drops in point terms that we've seen this year. it's been a calm one otherwise shares had otherwise been trading near all-time high, 22,118 was the closing high for the dow, 100 points below that level with today owes selloff. >> meantime, walmart shares trading lower after that company reported that shrinking profit margins and it did issue lower than expected guidance the retailer saw a 60% increase in u.s. online net shaels, but is that enough to overcome the retail industry's struggles

overall? j joining us to discuss that is edward aruma and john brick from morning star who thinks it's a brck couldn't resist. what's the bold case for walmart as far as you're concerned >> you identified they are getting tremendous commerce. 60% e-commerce is tremendous most importantly the stores are in better shape. prices are coming down and employees seem to be more engaged. you have a retailer that's actually taking share in physical retail and growing e-commerce and that's a winning combination. >> before i get to our bear, let me point out art cashin just stopped by 300 million to buy is the market on close orders here it was larger than that earlier. but we are seeing selling coming in and right now the declared orders on market orders, plenty of selling going on right now.

john brick, are you more worried about all the reinvestment that the company is doing at the expense of profitability >> that's exactly it valuation is also a key trading at 18 or 19 times forward numbers. again, it's a historical average around 15 to 16, but then when you look at the competition in the marketplace, i mean, 60% of their sales are still in the grocery market, and you have the aldi story and amazon entering through whole foods and retailers low in prices to try to prompt traffic. that segment is not going to generate too much profitability in the near term, and as as you said, the investment and wages in technology and lastly the online channels are a higher variable cost structure so over time they should see lower profitability overall. >> ed, we also saw improvement in target's performance yesterday. is that coming at walmart's expense? >> hard to say clearly walmart has been gaining share against target

some of that may begin to abate but there are lots of retailers walmart can continueto take share from this deflationary grocery trend has reverseed this quarter, so we're seeing more normal grocery pricing could be helpful to them. >> hey, john, you know, the concerns you have about am -- about walmart seems to be the same kind of concerns that analysts have had for years about amazon, about them plowing money back into the company and delaying any meaningful profitability down the road, and things seem to have worked out for them, and i point to that 60% increase that's the second quarter consecutively that we've seen such a meaningful increase in their online sales are you wringing your hands a little too much at the term here >> yeah, i mean. we still have about an $82 price target and, you know, we indicated this morning we could see a dollar increase after these results, but, unfortunately, walmart doesn't get priced like amazon they are held to the earnings per share and cash flow story so

we do have to kind of keep that in mind. i would also like to point out that in this tough environment, an inflationary environment might not be the best thing for them if it's a very tough environment and they don't want to pass on the higher costs to consumers, they might eat some of the gross margins in the short run and really denting their profitability. we also think that the 60% increase in e-commerce sales does lower margins over time as higher variable costs, so until the company can show strong earnings growth we just have to stay on the sidelines. >> what about the profit mar egyptian, ed, and what do you think is fair value for the stock? >> so, you know, look, a couple of things. first, yes, for right now e-commerce does weigh on margins, but ultimately the decision is going to be do they want the sales or not, and even though they come at a slightly lower margin, that's an incremental dollar profitability to them. the consumer continues to choose e-commerce and walmart is the one of the ones who made the rec sis investment to be ahead in the environment. from a price target perspective we continue to think $90 price

could be very interesting at walmart and certainly lots of long-term momentum in the business. >> all right good to see you both thanks for joining us. appreciate it. >> and another leg lower for stocks dow down 265 points. eight minutes, seven minutes to go, seema moldy has some of the latest on what's moving here. >> hi, kelly and bill. certainly a big market day, in fact, the worst day for the s&p and nasdaq since august 10th and the worst day for the dour industrial average since may 17th we're seeing a loss of around 258 points for the dow jones industrial on concerns over washington, trump's pro-business agenda and also watching the situation in barcelona very closely as well. all stocks on the s&p 500 and the nasdaq are trading below their 50-day moving averages the in terms of where we're seeing the losses, dow getting down 1.5% and transports have been a weak spot and healthcare

feeling the pain as well, down 5% and energy is officially in bear market territory off 20.2% from its recent high hit back in december of 2016 just when we thought oil was going to rebound and help energy stocks and profits, we're once again seeing a lot of weakness specifically in that sector. let's talk about currencies. that, of course, has been a big part of the discussion the dollar basically flat today, but weaker, down about 9% so far this year. we've been seeing emerging stocks tumble. they should actually be benefitting from a weaker dollar and emerging market index down about 2% today this. flight to saust, it's been helping the japanese yen, the swiss franc and gold it's higher for the second -- for the second consecutive day we'll now get to phil lebeau -- bill griffeth, i believe, for some market action bill, back for you. >> phil, bill, they both sound alike. thanks, seema. we're headed to the close here as we set lows

let me just show you the dow it's just been a slow roll south here through much of this day, and we are setting these lows for the session. very quickly before i bring art cashin in. just some of the other markets, as they sold stocks. they were buying bonds so the yields were going lower. the last year i checked the ten-year it was at 2.19 and as rick santelli pointed out 2.13 was the low for the year we'll see if that can half gold continued higher. we're strengthening into the close there as well, up $11 now on gold to 293, so that's two days in a row that we've seen pretty good gains there and, of course, the vix is moving higher we're back about 15 now on the fear indicator i've got art cashin here with me, bob pisani also joining us as you were saying, you saw the market on close orders skewing tots buy side, but the market wasn't responding at all in fact, we were seeing a lot more selling right now. >> yeah. at about the become we had over

$1 billion to buy on balance for the close. that's been paired off with the sellers coming in. we had maybe 200 million to 300 million to buy, and we're going to close right on bottom, it looks like. >> who knew there was a gary cohn premium in the market we took a dip when there were erroneous rumors that mr. cohn may resign and his concerns about mr. trump's leadership you saw senator corker with a blistering attack with him on the afternoon and we saw another dip in the market when that happened. >> absolutely. >> turn your mike on. >> and with all due respect i don't think that it's mr. cohn alone. i think the fear was that if one went, you might get a whole mass exodus the one thing, even people who don't agree with president trump, have said over and over since the election, at least he's got some very qualified people around him, and then the fear is that they all walk out. >> but what it all means though is what it does to the economic agenda all of those things that wall street has been hanging its hat on ever since the election, when

we saw the trump rally begin, the expectations for lower taxes, for higher infrastructure spending, for fewer regulations, those are the things that are called into question if you don't have a guy like gary cohn who just on tuesday before mr. trump's news conference saying he worked all morning on the tax cuts. >> remember, you need to raise the debt ceiling you need to, of course, pass another budget resolution before you actually get to tax cuts, and to the extent that there's any question about the ability of everybody, the white house as well as the congress to push through that agenda before the tax cuts, that's the issue so i do think that this is an issue now, leader >> what are you reading into the market here as we -- it seems like we're going to close on the low of the session we're down 1.2%, the worst trading day we've seen to the downside since may 17th. >> tomorrow is an option expiration, so we actually have volatility the day before that, but this is somewhat in excess i would think the market wants to stay on guard i would watch the bond yields.

i would also watch oil which is having a little bit of a tough time today but not really well. >> think about this. we've not had a 5% pullback since really brexit. you've got to go -- wasn't it june of 2016, right, so we're talking about, you know, almost two years now. the important thing here is we've got some leadership issues we've got stocks that are not cheap. earnings may or may not be topping out right now. the fed's been best neutral. i think you and i have talked about this. >> absolutely. >> so this would be the right time now, with not a lot of buyer enthusiasm at least for a minor step bill, 5% pullback in the s&p would put us to where we were at the end of may. >> right. >> even a 5% pullback would be notable and even then we'd only go back to may. >> you mentioned early this morning, 2450 was the number to keep an eye on on the s&p. we blew through that i heard traders, while i was standing over there with alan value desidentifying 2430 as a

new number that's exactly where we sit right now. is that the new support level for the moment >> it is. >> the support level of the moment. >> the 24, 25, 30 is a support range, and if we break through that that's going to be a bit of a problem. >> last week's lows were 2437 and when we broke through that late this afternoon the market took another dip down after senator corker spoke. >> you mentioned to keep an eye on interest rates. what's interesting, goldman sachs and the financials don't like the lower interest rates while the utilities and consumer discretionry, you know, are -- all the sectors are down today, but they are the least down, to put it in those terms, and they like the lower interest rates so that does seem to be something that's helping to call the shots here today. >> you're right about the financials they will suffer the most. >> yeah. >> so here we are down 2667 points on the close. thank you, gentlemen we also have some earnings coming up at the top hour applied materials, ross stores

among those reporting, and gap stores, so more retailers will be reporting those earnings coming up here in just a moment. finishing on the lows of the session, a decline of 1.2% on the dow jones industrial average. stay tuned now for the second hour of the "closing bell" with kelly evans and company. see you tomorrow, kemp thank you, bill, and welcome tomorrow the "closing bell." i'm kelly evans. a brutal session with a 270-point drop at the bell on the dow. that's a drop of 1.25% for the blue chips none of them were in the green today. the worst performers including cisco and goldman sachs. the s&p shedding 1.5% to close at 2430 and the nasdaq down nearly 2% to close at 6221 the russell 2000 small caps also down 1.8%, a 25-point drop to

1358 the flip side of that is the vix, volatility gauge jumping almost four points to touch 15.5, nearly 16 on the session today. the selling pressure picked up steadily into the close. we'll have more on this in just a moment as investors are also awaiting some big earnings, we have courtney reagan to cover gap and ross stores and morgan brennan following me applied materials we have stephanie link, managing director from tiaa investments and nancy tangler, chief executive officer at heartland financial. welcome, everybody, and stephanie, a really difficult day and a tough session. is this raul because of what's happening inside the white house, or is there a lot more to it >> i think that's certainly what it is. it's just the uncertainty as to what this economy needs and the potential for the lack of anything getting done in terms of tax policy and infrastructure i wouldn't write it off right now, you know, i just wouldn't we've had a nice run on the

markets. i understand that it's kind of a quiet next couple of weeks with people on vacation so take some profits if you feel comfortable doing that, but let's see what happens as we get back, as congress gets back and we hear more about the tax potential. but for now i get it the market doesn't like uncertainty, and you know the pendulum swings so wide on both sides >> always sort of overestimate that's the market's job. second worst day of the year for the dow and s&p, nancy names like delta airlines and american off 5%. >> yeah. the transports have been struggling had a little bit, kelly, but i do think -- i agree in principle with everything that stephanie said. i think there's also just a bit of concern around this presidency in terms -- in this regard this is a presidency of firsts, right, so can i say like all of your other guests were not on the edgech recession there's no euphoria in this

market we're poised to go higher, and do i believe that, but the risk, the thing that keeps me up hat night is something that we can't forecast, an exogenous event that may not come from north korea but might come from weeksy and the white house. >> stephanie, we also -- yeah, i hear you, nancy, and just looking, of course, at the horrific attack in barcelona the terror attack. we found out howie is veer that was. did that couldn't burst to the selling pressure >> i think it did. certainly obviously it's tragic news, and it's very disappointing and disturbing, so it certainly did not help matters, but i really do think that it's the uncertainty about policy here, about growth here h.ironically, kelly, the economic data this week has actually been pretty good across the board. >> even the retail sales. >> even retail sales. >> and the company specifics on retailers, some -- the winners are still wing and the losers also still having struggles, but even those companies are doing

okay, so i just -- i think the next couple of weeks, unfortunately, when you have earnings now will be past all of earnings, you're going to really focus on the macro and you'll be focusing on the politics and whatever happens with regards to terrorism and these attacks. >> right, as we know the president monitoring that situation. names like naoki and apple as some of the biggest declinesers in the dow are the those opportunities that you will find? >> yeah, absolutely. as you know, we have been buyers of apple a year ago, and then we've been trimming recently looking for an opportunity to go the back in, so definitely there. we like the retailers and by that we mean home depot, walmart, to a lesser extend nordstrom and still interested, and then we're also buying names like texas instruments, still adding to facebook, so i think that there are valuation opportunities, the pe on the s&p is actually somewhat artificially inflated by energy and reits.

so if you look at reits, 3% of the s&p, but they contribute 6% to the multiple and energy 5.7 contributing over 8, so there's more room from a valuation standpoint with earnings and revenue growth as robust as it's been. >> stephanie referring back to what's played out in washington. hey lost ceos on president's business council have expressed their extreme displeasure about how he handled the charlottesville terror attack over the weekend and then this afternoon, which perhaps may have contributed to what we saw play out, you had senator cork ker, a top republican, come out and say he doubts the president's stability and competence. >> again, it's kind can have like the uncertainty, the lack of confidence. the market doesn't like that, so clearly you can understand why the market would sell off. it's interesting though that yesterday the market young in there. it was really only said that i think everyone kind of absorbed kind of the massive situation that it was, but let's just take a deep breath for a second i mean, i'm sure that president trump is is going to reach out

to ceos and continue to be very pro business and pro growth. i don't think that changed overnight, so let's just see how it all shakes out. >> nancy, does that change in your view if there's not a gary cohn inside the white house fanned he's hearing more from the likes of steve bannon who in an interview last night talked about how it's important that the u.s. go to economic war with china? >> yeah, i mean, if that's true, kelly, i think that's marginally at the margin concerning i'm focused more on what he's done from a regulatory stand point and this year we're seeing annualized costs at 40 billion a year in new regulations. we haven't seen that since the bush administration. under obama it was 109 billion a year in regulatory costs, and new regulations have dropped to, you know, low double digits, so i -- i'm focused more on that, but, again, as i said earlier, i think we're all exhausted, and it's cumulative, and so that

cumulative strain is starting to show, and i would welcome a little bit of a pull back here. >> it's a good way to frame it, and if that's happening the exhaustion and strain beginning to snow, it is that happening in this market as well? >> we're only a couple hundred points off the all-time closing highs but two major triple-digit declines in the last week or so. is this a market losing confidence in the white house and in that agenda that you were describing >> i think that's definitely a risk, kelly, and i'm -- that is what concerns me at the margin, but i -- i'm hopeful that once we have that knee jerk response that will move forward as i said, this is a president of firsts and i would hate to think that this is a first because i'm almost always optimistic about the future, but -- but i -- it is gettinging to a point where, you know, you start to think of things a little differently what if gary cohn is gone and

what if okay of those others are thinking so highly of. >> that could provide opportunity as beboth talked about, it's really the fumt are driving the markets, right in the near-term uncertainty, i understand that completely that should give you your opportunity. you focus on earnings. earnings have been really good, not across the board, but you pick your names, the companies that have actually done very well and yet the stocks pull back with the broader average. that's when you nibble you don't go in with two feet. >> home depot. >> you just pick -- >> a whole bunch. >> caterpillar, citi group, tjx, cost co-i know i'm pick away, and you have to be very prudent about it you don't know what the macro is going, to but the micro, the bottoms um fundamentals are pretty good. >> pretty good, agreed. >> ross stores, courtney reagan has those results. >> wonder if you'll like ross stores after this. >> second quarter results, four

earnings beating wall street expectations by five cents and revenues stronger than expected coming in at 3.43 billion. comps, those were up 4%. that was actually stronger than the growth rate we saw for tjx comps. the third quarter earnings guidance is a little weak but the full year guidance actually looks strong ross is guiding for comps to grow only 1% to 2% for both the third and the fourth quarter, but shares are higher, as you can see here by 11% after hours. kelly, back over to you. >> courtney, thank you a 10% jump against a difficult backdrop today. >> for sure. >> look, i think the off-price retailers are telling you that they are not is hundred% amazon proof, but they are pretty amazon proof, if you know what i mean numbers are coming in better tj was really good i prefer tj given the diversification and the home business they have as well as europe but you can buy both of them, trading at the low end of the historical ranges and really

lack the broader averages here to date so these are places and, again, you want to look for opportunities and that's where you want to pick away. >> nancy, are they amazon proof? >> i think we're kind of through the amazon story i understand that they will continue to strengthen and they are a dominant force, but i think like best buy figured it out. a lot of the retailers are finding their way and building their niche, and walmart is a perfect example of that, and i would also say to stephanie's point you want to be focused on companies, at least i do, that are paying above market dividends because that's going to give you your cushion and a good portion of your total return as plarkts slow in terms of growth, so i think there's a lot of opportunities as well, and we've been in buying >> nancy, i'm just looking here at a couple of the other things that you see in this market. facebook, johnson & johnson, a blackrock even, texas instruments. again is that because they have created opportunities for you or is this part of the long-term

story? >> it's both, kelly. we look at dividend yield as part of our metric and what the stock is paying on its historical year compared to the market and then we look at the market, relative price to sales ratio. all of these companies are in our buy ranges some have outperformed the market year to date and some have not and we've added the weakness to go into holdings in those cases. >> dividend yields going better against the ten-year and applied materials, morgan brennan that is those numbers. >> hey, kelly, applied materials saying they had their best quarter in their 50-year history. non-gap earnings, 86 cents per share representing a 72% jump year over year and better than the street expectations of 84 cents. research knew, $3.74 billion, also a beat and increase of 33% year over year strong earnings in revenue guidance, too, for the current quarter which is q4.

expectations by the company of 86 to 94 cents per share, and also the ceo of applied materials. gary dickerson saying with revenue and profits at all-time highs, applied has tremendous momentum and a very positive outlook for the future and he also cites their markets are growing with a broader demand set of or a broader -- a broader set of demand drivers. got a little tongue-tied there keep in mind hey played materials supplies services, equipment to the semiconductor industry so they are seen as a bellwether for the chip-makers and, again, we're seeing a beat on both bottom and top line of better than expected guidance and shares are up 3% right now and back over to you. >> morgan, thank you stephanie, you're 2 for 2 it there you go lam research had a very good report a couple of weeks ago so i'm glad to see both of them doing quite well applied is up 35% year to date and it's still trades at 13

times forward revenue. this company has really done a very good job diversifying as well, so i like them both. they are up a lot, but they are still very attractive and they are beating and raising and that's important. >> nancy, last word to you i'll just say the same we're overweight our largest overweight is technology a global growth story and the stocks are also still attractive and so we are content to hold our overweight because we think with europe growing and the rest of the world growing they get about 50% of their revenues abroad and their beneficiaries of a lower dollar so we still like the space very much. >> we'll see if that can turn things around after a rough session. nancy tangler and stephanie link, thank you very much. let's get to contessa brewer, the late rest on the terror attack in barcelona. >> we're just learning from nbc news that u.s. law enforcement has been talking to spanish law enforcement who have identified a suspect link to the van rental

used in that attack. we don't know if he's the attacker, but at this point one of two people detained by spanish authorities. right now the latest numbers, 12 dead that's an update at least 80 injured come from the catalon ministry and people urged to stay out of the public square and police are confirming that a driver hit two officers at a checkpoint in barcelona we're waiting to hear if that was connect asked, but, of course, these vehicle attacks have become a weapon of choice for terrorists throughout europe we'll keep our eye on it as we get new developments. >> contessa, thank you contessa brewer. >> we'll also get another check on state of retail gap is expected to report its results and we'll get instant analysis

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let's get more from bertha coombs bertha >> reporter: as it comes to volume as a measure of sentiment you really saw it big in terms of the nasdaq large caps the nasdaq qqqs, the eat yefrks is 90% of trading value. the smh, the semiconductor etf 180%, and the russell 2000 etf, 150% the russell 2000 technically is among the worst performers here. the small caps have really been taking it on the chin down below their 200-day moving average as a lot of the large caps are hitting had the 509-day moving average. some of the biggest losers today, also on very big volume including jd, a little bit of collateral damage over alibaba's greatest results, vipshops, another chinese online retailer and cisco, not a bad report but not exciting the street selling off once again not as badly as they did last may when they warned the thing we're watching here is the real sort of shift in

sentiment when it comes to the momentum names, the f.a.n.g. names. all of them are down for the month. amazon and netflix are actually in correction territory. down more than 10% from the recent high. apple is bucking the trend a lot of folks, perhaps, kell, a little bit anticipating maybe news from apple this fall. back to you. >> that's true bertha, thank you. >> uncertainty over the future of gary cohn weighing on stocks big time eamon javers has the latest. eamon? >> reporter: president trump coming under some of the toughest criticism from an ally on capitol hill, coming from tennessee republican senator bob coaching who had this to say earlier this afternoon >> the president has not yet -- has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability nor some of the competence that he needs to demonstrate in order to be successful, and we need for

him to be successful our nation needs for him to be successful >> reporter: kelly, it's not often that you hear a member of the president's own party questioning his stability or competence so that is tough language from bob cork ker on capitol hill today meanwhile you're talking about all the speculation about gary cohn the white house felt like it buttoned this up this morning when they issued a statement just after 1 is being this morning. i'll give you a sense what have they had to say. they said nothing has changed. gary is focused on his responsibilities as national security council director and any reports to the contrary are 100% false gary cohn though, we haven't heard from him yet today publicly directly. nonetheless, the white house putting out a statement saying any speculation about his leaving is 100% false, so what the market is reading into this, i'm not sure, you tell me, but from are the white house's perspective they put out their statement and they are done with it. >> we'll ask our guests now. eamon, thank you eamon javers for more on the market reaction

to the d.v. uncertainty let's bring in portfolio manager at incorp advisers and a member of bianca research. what do you think is going on with market sentiment at the white house this afternoon >> we know markets don't like uncertainty. you've said that quite well with your previous quests we've gone three times the number of norm a.m. trading days without at 5% to 10% correction, and what we're effectively getting here is what could be described as trump without the good stuff the good stuff being corporate tax relief, more sensible regulation and amid that uncertainty we're seeing stocks sell off, and that's more than anything of what's opinion doing the market with risk assets like stocks, not terribly expensive but pricey >> jim, you know, to eamon's point, the white house did put out those remarks and officials spoke about gary cohn this morning and said this is 100% false and yet much of the selloff as we deepen into the afternoon was attributed still

to speculation over whether he would go what is your own speculation about that >> i think he wants to be federal reserve chairman, and i think he's going to stick around to try and leave the white house by becoming federal reserve chairman if he was to leave the white house this week or next week or soon it presents that janet yellen's got the job because nobody else is going to get it he's the front-runner right now so i don't expect him to leave primarily for that reason. and i expect, you know, that the white house will weather this like they have weathered, you know, the north korea thing, the comey firing, the syria missiles and i can go on and on and on. there's been a lot of this that's gone on in this white house for the last nine months and as david mentioned -- >> let's clarify what this is that we're talking about everybody reassured by how they have continued to focus on deregulation has also been reassured by the presence of the gary cohn types in the white house. are you concerned like others that he may leave, whether it's to take the fed chair next year

or just at some future date, or are you basically saying you don't think he's going anywhere so you'll trade the other side of this? >> no. i think he's not going to leave. even if he was to take the fed chair job. i think that that would not bother the markets because it would still be involved in some kind of a policy-making role, but you're right what has driven the markets this year has been the one success that the trump administration has had is a massive rollback of regulations, and in that the market has cheered competitive enterprise inopportunity says companies spend more money complying with regulations than they do in taxes so it's been a big, big boost for them. >> you don't think that's changing >> no, i don't think that's changing right now if that were to change or we saw a mass exodus out of the white house it would change but i don't expect that. >> david >> and the market is getting impatient, kelly that's simply it more than eight months into this

administration and usually the rule of thumb to any president in your first year be bold t.worked early on for the reagan administration with tax cuts and then the market responded quite well so we're starting to run out of time where -- where regulation, deregulation is more favorable and especially where the u.s. is going in the wrong direction on its corporate taxes and its competitiveness. that -- that's not digesting very well by the market. >> yeah. if we have a wave election like forecasted the cross is ticking. >> thank you, kelly. >> gap earnings are out now. courtney reagan has those results. >> hi there, kell el gap's second quarter gap earnings coming in at 68 cents that does beat analyst estimates at 52 cents. revenues also coming in stronger than expected, though remember gap is still among those retailers we hear from more frequently comps up 1% for gap, the third straight quarter for positive

increase for comparable sales and the company increasing its full-year earnings range to 212 to 220 right now the street is at $2 even they are looking at comps for the year to stay flat to 1%. that's a forecast they had given previously, and they are sticking with that one old navy continues to be the standout brand gap brand sort of in the middle and banana republic, the weakest of the three, but shares are up sharply, almost 12% on this better than expected report and full-year earnings raise kelly, back over to you. >> seems like a standout quarter, courtney. 11.5% gain for the gap on back that have. >> up next, former walmart ceo paul simon and whether president umcan regain the support of corporate america and gop leadership when we come back

welcome back the dow dropping nearly 300 points today amid new uncertainty about leadership in washington and the future of the president's once promising business-friendly agenda joining us now is bill simon who is former president and ceo of walmart and jimmy pethokoukis. let's just kind of sum up where you think you stand now has some are questioning whether the market itself has lost confidence in the president. >> well, i think the market's reaction today is to be expected we don't live in a parliamentary system in government where you can vote no confidence in the

administration and sort of have a do-over. we have to deal with president trump for the next three and a half years as distasteful as that might be so when the ceos and councils all disbanded this was a predictable outcome. it's sad but predictable. >> jimmy, meantime, this idea that deregulation or the president's agenda is not going to happen is probably true with the bigger agenda that involves congress than the smaller things playing out across federal agencies, correct? >> listen, there's always been the good bits and bad bits of the president's agenda k.deregulation business loves. they would love big sweeping tax reform, particularly corporate tax reform that looks like that's in trouble. didn't help that the president was attacking two senators who he could count on, lindsey graham and jeff flake or help with health care, attacking those this morning and the other part of the president's agenda which is the anti-trade stuff.

that he can do without congress. that he can do on his own, and i would be concerned, two things, one, the president and foreign policy right now and the president on trade. >> bill, do you share those trades >> i do, i do. when we spoke yesterday, if it the top talent, the good people, the ones that are rational and reasonable that can help move the president's agenda along disengage, you're left with this insulated group around the president, and, you know, i worry about some of those things that are very, very difficult for us we're not in a particularly stable global environment nailed, and a lot of the issues domestically that we have to deal with will require collaboration first amongst the republicans and then more broadly. that's going to be more difficult to do without this report. >> jimmy, go ahead. >> i mean the concern about gary cohn, not just the gary cohn magic, the goldman sachs magic

of the administration. if that voice is gone, then who -- who is the last person in the room is it steve miller is it steve bannon who is talking about higher taxes who desperately wants a trade war with china is it peter navarro, the key economic adviser what voices are left and the voices that are left certainly don't seem to be for an agenda that most of corporate america would like. >> so this raises the interesting question about what congress does. bill, it would seem that the best course of action for republicans is to be able to show, look, we came together, we got tax reform done and infrastructure done and show that to their constituents as they face what could be a wave election for the democrat in the mid terms, but at the same time the gop's sentiment has been so undercut by the president lately, are they going to be able to come together on that? >> i think that remains to be seen, but i think you've outlined the issues very, very well they have got to get something done and their window is closing, and i think leadership in both the house and the senate

know, that and i'd be surprised if they didn't -- if they just gave up and withdrew like the ceos did over the last few days. i think there needs to be engagement amongst all parties, and i applaud and support those who condemn the president's remarks and stated very unequivocally that that's not what they believe and they should do that, but that doesn't mean you should go home had. we eve got tone game we've got very, very difficult issues that need to be solved in this country and i really encourage people to come back to the table as difficult as that might be. >> jimmy, do you think that the democrats are more likely to leave the gop twisting in the wind on these issues than to have a defection or two that might join in ma more moderate bill if something like that on tax or infrastructure should be passed >> democrats, if there's a friendly bill, if there was an infrastructure bill, are they at the point where they would say no, i don't think they are there, you know, and when had you democrats talking about impeachment like nancy pelosi, trying to tamp that down, if

there's still positive things they can do, you know, i think they will do them. i -- i don't know if that is ever coming. republicans at this point are going to focus on getting tax reform or die drying and shoving this through two things i know my wife loves me and paul ryan is going to try hard to get something done on taxes. my baseline is they will get something done because i can't imagine them not getting something done on taxes. >> just chuckling at that mental image. bill, what would you add do you share the idea, again, in light of what we've heard from senator corker this afternoon doubting the president's stability and competence, it is this gop congress going to be able to marshall that plan through? >> i think -- i think they are going to i think they have to they have to give it it the very best effort they can, and i think they are going to come together and come to a point where they are going to take whatever it is that they can get and i do agree that there are democrats that -- that will join, you know, a reasonable tax approach i think you'll never get the

real extremists on either side to come along but there's a place and way to get this thing done, and i really do believe it need to be done and i believe they will get it we'll leave it on that semi-hopeful net very much appreciate it. >> today marked the second worst day of the year for the dow and s&p. cow down 274 points at the close. how much was driven by d.c. uncertainty, and will stocks fall dpeeer into the red tomorrow we'll take a closer look with mr. pisani next. r. the whisperer? why do they call him the whisperer? he talks to planes. he talks to planes. watch this. hey watson, what's avionics telling you? maintenance records and performance data suggest replacing capacitor c4. not bad. what's with the coffee maker? sorry. we are not on speaking terms.

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welcome back we slid lower throughout the session this afternoon and the dow dropped 274 points at the close and we'll go to 21,750 that was a drop of 1.25% the s&p down 1.5% and down 38 points to 2430 the nasdaq was down nearly 2%. 123-point drop to 62221 and bob pisani is here with more on a selloff that continued to pick up momentum today. >> yeah, yeah. so the big question is whether or not the markets are in trouble. not yet but there are cracks showing. we had a selloff last week and another one this week, today

that's starting to do some technical damage several events have some together first, there's leadership doubts about president donald trump emerging the markets drifted lower that national economic council head gary cohn might resign and senator bob corker has told reporters he's yet to show the stability or competence necessary to be a successful leader that's not good tore stocks. traders still very focused on tax cuts and they want the white house and congress to get it together soon. second, the stock market is not cheap. leadership looks a little tired here, so amazon, for example, is 11% off its recent high but it's still up 28% for the year. third, earnings may be topping, this is a hot topic of debate. the s&p is only expected to post gains of 6% in the third quarter after double-digit gains in the first and second quarter 12% the low for the fourth quarter. finally, the federal reserve such a help for stocks for so many years is now mostly

perceived to be neutral for stocks, so the next few days will be an important test all this year. people have been set to buy the dips, and there hasn't been much of that. we've had a huge one in the market and now may be the right time to get a pullback what esa pullback? in today's context, 5% would be notable and that would bring us back to the levels we saw in may. doesn't that seem like a long time ago, all the way back in may. >> it does, yes. >> here's what's interesting all this year people have been rewarded for buying the dip. you never lose buying the dip. >> not just that year. that's as ban as sharp as the selloffs have been the entire bull market run, the selloffs have been sharp. >> you have to go back to brexit for a 5% pullback. brexit june 2016, so this week all of a sudden it didn't work. bought the dip, last week, it went down. today all of a sudden it doesn't work and is there psychological damage i can't buy the dip anymore. it might not work. that's what i'm trying to figure how the. >> people are saying they buy the dip until it shows up and

then they are not so sure. i'm just curious as we learn more about the scale of the terror attack in barcelona how much did that contribute and the drop in volatility and flight in safe havens. >> we saw a clear move down when we had this erroneous rumor about mr. cohn market took a dip and started to recover and just after 11:00 eastern time and i circled the s&p 500 and i can see the cohn rumors down and markets are recovering after 11:00 there's the barcelona attack and you can see the market immediately starting to drift down here and then the third part we broke below the prior lows earlier in the day and that's technically very bad and you can see senator cork other spoke later in the day it was a factor and it adds to let's pull back. you get a buyer's strike the bids get cancelled not necessarily at love selling but the people who want to normally participate in the markets say, you know what, let's pull back on all the uncertainty. >> bob, thank you very much. our bob pisani.

our bob pisani. president trump losing ceo and gop support s.today is today's selloff a sign he's losing wall street support today? guy adami joins us after this. 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.

at ally, we offer low rates on home loans. but if that's not enough, we offer our price match guarantee too. and if that's not enough... we should move. our home team will help you every step of the way. still not enough? it's smaller than i'd like. we'll help you finance your dream home. it's perfect. oh, was this built on an ancient burial ground? okay... then we'll have her cleanse you house of evil spirits. we'll do anything, (spiritual chatter) seriously anything to help you get your home. ally. do it right. >> adrian: welcome back. it's time for fast take, but a different kind today "fast money" trader i go adami is here to talk about the market the dow down nearly 300 points what's going on, do you think? >> quite frankly if you said to me this morning was this going to be happen it would be dis-engenous of me to make any other comments

if this was going to happen it should have happened yesterday quite frankly. the gary cohn rumors i think sort of scared some folks but the bob corker comments were in a word damning i know you've talked about what he said, but you think about bob cork ker, pretty staunch supporter of the president up until this point have you to ask yourself why would he put himself out on this pretty much of an island unless -- unless maybe -- >> was he a staunch supporter, guy? >> staunch -- i won't say staunch. he was a supporter definitely in the camp, so i don't know if he's as staunch as some other folks, but he was definitely in the camp this is not like john mccain making these comments who has been a trump nasayer for quite some time so when corker made those comments i think it changed the landscape. i'm not suggesting the market collapses from here because quite frankly every time we've seen a selloff of this magnitude the last seven years, everybody says it's different this time. i've been one of those voices. it hasn't been different this

time, so nothing suggests to me at least it's going to be different this time around, but clearly when you have folks like him making comments like that as damning has they, that puts a little bit of a moaning wrench in the system, i would say. >> guy, let me separate out a couple of these concerns that the market may have with washington on the one hand if you have people like corker distancing himself from the president that raises the issue of what have congress can do on its own and that may be present he, or it may not be separately, you have are the question about whether gary cohn inside the white house is the overriding and more important factor in all of this h.which of the two do you think is more important? >> the gary cohn, you read the story like i read the story today about a market collapse if gary cohn were to least. i mean, that gives you a pretty big power of the -- the leverage that creates for garry is pretty significant. i'm not going to pretend to know what he was doing or what i think he's going to do i was surprised frankly he didn't step down yesterday, so

the fact that he's still on board leaves me to believe he's going to bite his tongue and stay with it, but i think another misstep by president trump in terms of comments or what have you i think you might see the departure of gary cohn and i will say that the market looks to gary as one of the -- and insaid it yesterday, i'll say it again one of the adults in the room and they look for him as a stabilizing force and to lose gary would be -- i think it would be somewhat market negative. >> so is this all been one giant cohn rally then, or are we perhaps putting too much on the president's inner circle knowing that -- he seems like the type who is going to drive deregulation across agencies like he already has been regardless of whether mr. cohn is there >> i think a lot of the rall has been somewhat justified. we can talk about earnings growth and economic growth around the world i mean, numbers significant foy that growth is picking up. now, i know that numbers have been lumpy in some places, but generally speaking it's been okay, so to a large extent the

rally has been justified, but when you get -- i mean, you can only imagine what's going on within the confines of the white house and what's going on in that home in bedminster. the president will be say everything is under control and we're in harmony and running a smooth machine but think about this as well this is a president and his administration who has talked about the market being a report card for the success of the administration. >> absolutely. >> obviously one day is not a big deal, but if this begins to build upon itself, what is going to be the commentary out of white house? >> that's a fair point guy, thank you for joining us. >> thanks, kell. >> guy adami, and you can watch more coming up on "fast money" with guy and the rest of the crew tonight and a top technician saying the market rally could be on its last legs. sounds like he looked at the market today that's at the top. hour new development on president trump's infrastructure advisory council and eamon javers with more on that.

>> another one of president trump's outside advisory councils is collapsing at this hour, this time the infrastructure council just announced in late july a statement from a white house official saying the president has announced the end of the manufacturing council and the strategy and policy forum. in addition, the president's advisory council on infrastructure, which was still being formed, will not move forward. they just signed this executive order, the president did, on july 20th, creating an outside advisory council on infrastructure as part of a push going into the fall for infrastructure bill up on capitol hill now though the white house pulling the plug on that effort in the wake of the collapse of the other two advisory councils of ceos. kelly, back over to you. >> and that goes back to the point of how this initiative will move along without it t.eamon, thank you. a deadly terror attack in barcelona today. two have been arrested we've got the latest details right after this break ♪ top speed fifty knots life on the caribbean seas ♪

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welcome back let's get to contessa brewer for the latest on the terror attack in barcelona >> we're watching a news break happening right now about that van that plowed through pedestrians earlier today. now the latest number of injured, 100 people hurt, 15 of them seriously they are saying 13 people have been killed and two people have been arrested in connection with that van attack. at this point they can't confirm what the motive was for driving through these crowds, but they do believe it was intentional. now people are being urged to stay away from the town center in barcelona all festivities have been canceled and it appears that a driver hit two police officers at a barcelona checkpoint

we don't know if that was related to the van attack, but we are following the news conference and will bring you the latest as we get them. >> has nbc confirmed whether isis has actually tried to take responsibility for what happened >> so far we're not hearing any official claims from isis or anyone else. and in fact there has been some confuse about the man who had been identified in connection with the attack, now it appears that the spanish law enforcement are fulling back somewhat to make sure that they ccan confir his identity >> all right 37 thank you. let's bring in professor of political science at the university of chicago, specializing in international security affairs thank you for joining us and again, spain hasn't seen an attack on a scale like this since i believe 2004 what does that say to you? >> it says to me that this really does have the hallmarks

of of an isis attack. this is not just circumstantial, but seconds ago the isis spokesman agency has claimed the attack and in that claim, they explain the reasons for the spanish attack according to isis, spain is part of the military coalition against it in iraq and syria and that is why they have encouraged and wanting to inspire this attack. in fact right now, there are 450 spanish troops in iraq training forces to go against isis. >> we heard some of those reporting earlier, we're just waiting on nbc to confirm that all. let's speculate for a moment if that is the case, what does that tell you about who of these other coalition states might be vul flerab vulnerable >> well, you're already seeing the united states, france, britain, belgium there are actually a number of western european countries that

are involved and in fact as we have succeeded in shrinking and rolling back isis territory, what you are seeing is isis lashing out. and they are lashing out against european and america, but they are lashing out against european states who are part of the military coalition against it as an acts desperation. you see isis is now a cornered cat. and we are coming at it, we are shrinking its territory, so they are doing what they can to change a losing game >> is spain seen as vulnerable or barcelona here, i mention because earlier i guess suggested to us that only 100 spanish foreign firts had been operating against isis, which would suggest that they are not likeliest or most emblematic target, and yet they are suffering 100 injuries, 13 fatalities, potentially more >> yeah, i would say the risk factor is not the number of foreign fighters i think that is probably not the best risk factor

it's just simply the case that barcelona is a tourist area, it's an area that many people are going in and out of. and so spain itself has been a transit point for a number of europeans who have gone to fight with isis. so it is simply the case that travel inside of europe is relatively easy, and so what you are seeing is isis is encouraging attacks within europe in a pointed way, trying to again change a losing game. i don't think this is going to work, but i'm afraid to say that this campaign against isis will go on for months so we in the united states have to be aware that the threat of another isis attack is real, it's serious, and it's not going away anytime soon. >> professor pape, thank you for joining us igngn x ceo aaron levy has bee wehi in on how president trump could impact his business. those comments when we come back

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jim cramer is sitting do you know with fox ceo tonight on "mad money." and jim asked him about president trump and how d.c. uncertainty could impact his business >> we really need to ensure that our country can be much more

unified, that we actually collectively appreciate our. >> caller: chur of diversity and we need a president who can stand up for that and stand up for what is right. so in this case, and i think you've seen it from other qvcs ceos being able to take a stand for this so we're just doing what is right and we think other ceos are as well. >> tune into "mad money" with jim who will have much more of that interview coming up at 6:00 p.m. let's do a quick check of the markets. we have of course major selloff on wall street followed by strong earnings movers to the up side let's begin with the 274 point drop for the dow declines of more than 1% for all the others and just very quickly, applied materials gap in ross stores, all moving higher at least at last check on strong earnings beat ps ofs after hours. scott wapner, i don't know if those beats will be enough to turn sentiment around. >> yeah, i think the market is poised to perhaps have a little

rough patch here and then the events the other evening in trump tower were a sea change really in the way that investors and the markets were going to view what is taking place in and around washington and perhaps in other areas as well. kelly, thank you so much we do have breaking news a sea of red on wall street as uncertainty around the trump administration slams stocks. the dow closing at a three week low. it was the worst day since may the nasdaq falling almost 2% the ten year yield falling below 220. now the selling started with a simple question. will top white house economic adviser gary cohn stay or go it did pick up testeam when bob cork erer made some critical comments eamon javers is in bed mind tmi with the latest. >> reporter: another one of th