eclipse on this very historic day. it's a very moody kind of experience. >> and my check, please, is i'm putting in right now april 8, it 2024, i'm taking off and going to mexico to see the full eclipse. >> that is cool. i don't know why it was so exciting but it was. great "power lunch" today. we hope you have a great show on "closing bell. ♪ blinded by the light ♪ wrapped up like a deuce, like a roller in the night ♪ >> that is very cool looking, i have to say. welcome to "closing bell," everybody. i'm kelly evans at the new york stock exchange. >> and i'm scott wapner in for bill griffeth today who is in the carolinas somewhere, in an undisclosed location taking in the eclipse for himself. that is bill's dome passing in front of the sun today. >> he's taken many a good photo, but this might be his best one yet. enjoy yourself, mr. griff et. >> i hope he's having fun.

>> the eclipts is a big business story. dozens of companies with offers. >> and if ever a die to buy solar stocks, buy. >> all of the angles covered for you coming up. >> plus, treasury secretary steven mnuchin making a tax for tax reform tim pawlenty head of the financial services roundtable. what he wants to see in that plan coming up. >> and to our reporters covering the solar eclipse. contessa brewer is in columbia, south carolina and jane wells joins us as well but first to contessa. >> reporter: people are reacting now by leaving i can still see the sun partially occluded here. it's still a crescent as the moon moves out of its path and people are like, okay, been there, done that it's hot outside, feels like it's 15, 98 degrees with the

humidity so there's been a lot of people taking a move on, but i'll tell you what people paid a premium to be here i talked to people who have driven down from new york and people who drove over from macon, j., ageorgia and all of were paying a higher price for hotels, airbnbs ten times what they were normally going for in august and we were wondering if the clouds were going to occlude, eclipse the eclipse and turns out we had the most beautiful clear shot and a wild cheer and gasps of awe in the crowd. it was a magical experience. one of the young people, 16-year-old told me, my history says you know history when you're in it, and that's the way a lot of people felt out here, kelly. >> contessa, i'll take it. jane wells is out in oregon. that's where it all started. that's where the total eclipse was first visible, jane. >> reporter: well, guys, the eclipse technically only ended about 20 minutes ago, so i don't

need these anymore, but if you look here, it's going to take these people much longer than the eclipse ever was to get out of here, they are among the thousands of people who came to this campsite today for the full show, and here again is what it looked like, that just amazing corona some here described it as a diamond ring, and when that happened at 10:20 local. people were able to take off their goggles and look at the eclipse with the naked eye i was among them, but if you look at the reaction to the folks there. we had a little bit of everything, gasps, shouts, people howling at the moon, and a lot of cheers during that two minutes. now i want to show you what it looked like in a time lapse from my perspective the eclipse started at 9:06 a.m. local, but we didn't have to at all for more than an hour. it wasn't until 10:19, 10:20 local. it was gradually getting darker and cool ker and then about a minute before, boom, it just went black

the temperature went dark, and after a couple of minutes it was like the light switch went back on as the sun began to reveal itself again and right now i would say it's about 20 degrees at least hotter now than it was during the totality of that eclipse, but it has gone from here heading your way and off into the ocean back to you. >> yeah. jane, i was kind of over the whole eclipse thing. your report earlier, if anybody missed it. go look up jane's reaction to that thing happened. i felt like i experience it had through you. gave me chills, jane it was crazy. >> thank you it was -- i was -- i was trying not to cry i hate to be so -- i was trying not to get emotional, but i'm telling you, folks, in 2024, i mean it, it's going to come from texas up through maine don't miss it, kelly do not mission it. totally worth it >> you don't have to go to mexico if you're on the east coast this is our chance. >> jane, appreciate it snow bet.

>> jane wells. >> shall we get to our "closing bell" exchange. >> we mighting a well. >> so kenny -- >> speak of sun. >> i mean, somewhere george hamilton is jealous. >> i got a little bit this weekend. >> you needed a little more moon this weekend. >> kenny, is there any link between the solar eclipse and trading on wall street right now? >> no, there really isn't. it's very funny because everyone is asking that question. not at all kind of an exciting event but the solar eclipse has nothing to do with volumes or trading or market action. are i mean, you might be able to make a case for a solar stock specifically, but for the most part absolutely not. >> hey, joe, our colleague mike santoli passed around an interesting note earlier questioning whether this rally was just resting or if it was so worn out at this point that it's about to get sick and turn into something more

what's your feeling? >> i think -- i think there's probably more upside still to come, but it's going to be a little choppier, an i know all in our industry we've been saying it's time to get some back, but it does feel like the underpinning now when you have price to ebitda and price to sales equivalent to 1999 we've not seen valuation peaks like this since 1999 that's a very long time. 17, 18 years, and we've also not had a decline in excess of 3% for 18 months. that's unheard of. we haven't had a 10% decline in years, so i think we're primed for that i think certainly if the political landscape continues to be -- to use the eclipse fund -- eclipsed by donald trump's, our president's actions, we could see some movement here i think we're pricing in a lot of good things happen, and they might not as happen has smoothly as we would like. >> but the valuations, you know -- i'm sorry to interrupt

you. valuations are not nearly what they were in 1999. interest rates aren't near where they were in 1999. there's a whole bunch of different stuff going on and almost incomparable to the two period. >> if you look at price through sales and price to ebitda which is the two numbers you mess with, you can see we were at the peeks that we were in although 88 you're right about interest rates but that's also not a great side because what happens with the interest rate they can't could down much lower so i'm xeeg a confluence of things look, the markets will continue to go up, but you have to be careful here you have to allocate appropriately and be safe. you need not to be out on the risk curve because as the economy stabilizes you don't want to be out there exposed if the market has a 10%, 15%, 20%

decline here. >> holly, what do you make of the latest movements in interest rates? one of the analysts said earlier, look, the stock sellover hasn't been big enough to really drive bond prices higher but interest rates remain pretty low. >> yeah. i would entirely agree with you kelly. the stocks hasn't had at much effect on the rates as you think especially duringing about 1998 bull with operates so much lower, in you sea stocks coming off and stocks being lodge in the tooth then you could see a bump in yield. right now the ten-year is stuck between 2.12 and 3.29. if you get through there, could you have a move in a good

direction. if things start weakening from where we've seen it. if the felled pussed off a rate hike all of these things could help future prices higher, the yields lower you could head as low as 182 in the ten-year yield on the flip side if you get stronger data and the fed gets more aggressive you can go the other direction and a move through 279 in the yield would take you to 2.79 and even than would not be a bear market in rates. you'd have to get above 3:05 to really determine that. >> yeah. go ahead. >> 10%, 10%, 20% decline in the stock market are we even thinking about that kind of correction >> i don't think we're going to see 15% or 20% i'm not surprised going into the seasonally weak period september and october if we see the market

pull back 7% or 8% i think it's healthy i think a lot of people are expecting it i don't really see any reason for the market to really rally from here considering the debt is getting weaker. washington, as you can see, it's a mess had you won't get any reforms. think can talk about tax reform all you want. >> that wasn't really in the market anyway. we weren't expecting all that much this year from the administration, were we? there wasn't anything baked in. >> i absolutely think earlier in the year right after the election but now i think it's completely off the table and now i think is why the market will back off the risk models will now have to take into effect that it's not happening. i think if we see a 5% or 8% correction very healthy. >> the flip side of that, as stratijis would say, all markets would suggest that this is not a top owe market, right?

>> i'm not as optimistic as you, and i look at interest rates, the dollar and also candidly what's happening what i take solace in is like '99 you made a lot of money if you invest conservatively. that's where you want to be. the general electrics of this world have not participated what's happening in the very large-cap growth names there are opportunities and that's what's great. if you think about happened, when you have high valuations it's not everything that's overvalued there's a couple of equities that are really expensive netflix, tesla and a lot of companies undervalued and from '99 we had a 30% decline in two weeks in the nasdaq with new news, two weeks. that's what that happen. i don't think that's what i see on the horizon, but you have very big pricing anomalies and opportunities to be had if you're cautious about how you invest. >> all i'm saying, guys, you've probably seen the charts making the rounds not comparing the s&p to the

nasdaq in 1999 but comparing bitcoin to the nasdaq in 1999. >> thank you, everybody. see you later. appreciate it. >> 50 minutes or so before the bell rings on wall street. the dow jones industrial average is flat at the moment. up less than one point watching the s&p today, too, not doing all that much. two of the most players in tax reform treasury secretary steven mnuchin and senate majority leader mitch mcconnell leading today to discuss tax reform. up next, a live report on the meeting and the ceo of the financial services roundtable on what he wants to see in the legislation. >> and as we mentioned solar stocks are actually getting hit today as the eclipse takes center stage a debate on whether this is a buying opportunity look at canadian solar, and we want to the hear from you. send us an e-mail closingbell@nbcuni.com you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide ♪ wake up, sunshine

time's up, insufficient we're on prenatal care.es. and administrative paperwork... your days of drowning people are numbered. same goes for you, budget overruns. and rising costs, wipe that smile off your face. we're coming for you, too. for those who won't rest until the world is healthier, neither will we. optum. how well gets done.

take a look at shares of lululemon right now. up 2.5% surging as bank of america and merrill lynch raises its rating from buy to underperform and increasesies price target to $70 a share. the firm says lululemon is gaining its share from saturated competitors and taking it from nike and under armour. you often don't see such a big jump in a car from a sell all the way to a buy. >> it captures sentiment such angst about what's transforming that sector that somebody says if this company might have a future, thank god, the relief rally 2.5% is not huge. >> right, right. the stock has had a decent run in the near term you can make the arguments a little bit late. >> all i wonder if fundamentally what's relative to lululemon relative to under armor? they are all their own brand

they all could potentially have access to the same technology. >> amid real questions about sort of where athleisure is in the cycle. >> at lethargy. >> ath-lethargy. >> very pithy. >> two of the most important players in tax reform steve mnuchin and mitch mcconnell talking about that today ylan mui were talking about that. >> reporter: they were here in louisville on mitch mcconnell's home turf and perhaps more important than what they said is how they said it the trump administration has been at odds with senate majority leader mitch mcconnell over the past few weeks and mcconnell today went out of his way to show that he has a strong relationship with treasury secretary steve mnuchin, at one point calling him an extraordinary individual, and that relationship is going to be critical once they get into the hard negotiations of tax reform this fall. mnuchin said today that the president remains full behind

this effort. >> we're 100% to getting it done i would like to think there's bipartisan support or some bipartisan support the issues that we're focused on tax reform with good for the american worker and good for the middle class this is about making business competitive and making business competitive is about making jobs >> before they can move on to tax reform they have to deal with the debt ceiling and mcconnell was adamant that lawmakers will raise it. >> there is zero chance, no chance we won't raise the debt ceiling, no chance america is not going to default and we'll get the job done in conjunction with the secretary of the treasury. >> reporter: now after their speaking engagement here, the two men went down to ft. knocks guys it's been many decades since a treasury secretary has visited the military base and we'll see if the gold is still there back over to you.

>> all right thanks very much treasury secretary steve mnuchin, by the way, will be one of the many great speakers at this year's delivering alpha conference coming up september 12 the look at that lineup, among others can't wait for tickets and details. check out deliveringalpha.com. for more on today's meeting and what a tax reform bill should look like we're joined by tim pawlenty, the former governor of minnesota, now president and ceo of the financial services roundtable governor, welcome. it's nice to see you on "closing bell." >> good to be with you >> treasury secretary sounds optimistic are you as much? >> i am on the minutic for this reason congress gets things done whether there's a legal deadline or political imperative or crisis, and the republicans must, it's been the political holy grail for the republicans to get tax reform done and if they don't it now between now and the 2018 elections they will be in big trouble. >> he even admit permanent is difficult, you know. maybe temporary is better than

nothing. our ron insana who is a contributor says and i quote simply cutting taxes can be a relatively easy feel-good fix but won't help the economy in the long run is he wrong? >> well, they need to at least significantly reduce corporate rates, and they also need to do that for pass-throughs and i think the other piece of that has to be middle income tax relief the other details can be worked out, but those are the main milestones that they will have to hit, and one of the big sub issues here is they will be willing to overlook the cbo projections on red ink and assume there's going to be more growth triggered by tax reform or will they make it revenue neutral or already that be a big fork in the road >> paint us a picture that stitches together enough votes and the recent look at health care was not that promising and i wonder for conservatives will be peeled off with pressure from bryant and others with steve bannon returning there. >> if they do this well, and i

described by maintaining middle income tax relief also, you can reasonably expect every republican to vote for this in the senate and if they do that they can do it through reconciliation and face with 51 votes. i don't think it's out of the question that at least some vulnerable democrats in red states up for re-election could vote for the package if the republicans don't overbake it. >> governor, as i'm sure you saw today, even the president's support in three key states, michigan and pennsylvania to name two of them, have dropped below 40% lately how relevant is it that those people in red states for the election should be worried that there still are enough supporters of the presidents that they should line up behind this gop effort? >> notwithstanding those numbers, tax reform is across the board popular in the republican party, including with conservatives, tea party types, nationalist, moderates, chamber of commerce types and a bunch of others, so if they can't do this, they can't do anything this is low-hanging fruit. >> governor, i'm wondering how much do you think the events of

the past week, specifically the turn lengths most recently in and around the white house will harm the president's efforts here >> i think the failure at least for now of health care reform and some of the other problems that have emerged could actually help this because this is something they have to get done. it's one thing they can get done, and their previous failures and distractions could actually add fuel to the notion that this must get done. otherwise they are going to have a big goose egg on the legislative front and that's why i think this will add fuel to it. >> some of your republican colleagues have been especially critical of the president over the last many days, in prime leadership roles within the party. do you think president trump has had a leadership problem today >> well, he clearly has some challenges because of the distractions and some of the decrease in his popularity, but keep in mind this is equally important to congress, and they can pass this on their own assuming they don't hit a tripwire of his and he'll sign,

it so the pathway forward certainly would be helpful to have his effective leadership and hopefully he'll be able to get to that point and even if he doesn't congress can pass it on their own. >> looking at some of the details as they say the devil is in those we're talking about a gop tax blueprint and some overlap with the president's one-page plan revealed earlier that would involve repealing the alternative minimum tax, increasing standard deductions and lowering investment on tax income and eliminating deductions except mortgage interest and charity and ones among many other things here what do you think are the most important planks of this effort? >> yeah. they did issue a statement of principles, the so-called big six which were the congressional lowered and administration leader it was a fairly general statement, so you have to take it with a grain of salt, but i think the milestones are these can you get competitive corporate rates, number one? number two, can you make sure you bring along the

pass-throughs so you don't set up a differential between c-corpse and pass-tlugs so that's important as well, and i think middle income tax relief, and the rest of it, you know, the exemptions, credits and deductions should all be reviewed i think they will hang on to some of those like charity giving and mortgage interest and the like, but the rest of it, as leader mcconnell said, is up for review and i think that's fair >> all right we'll see where this takes us after labor day. thank you, governor, for joining us. >> you're welcome. >> that's tim pawlenty 35 minutes to go and the dow is up 15 minute biggest decline on the dow is nike today as for the discussion you were just having, foot looker down another 7% and nasdaq down 12 and russell down about 1, come off four negative weeks and herbalife might be about to cause pain for its longtime nemesis. >> and one of the world's most

iconic vehicles first on the road back in 10.95 it's getting rhett fitted now for the 21st century details coming up.

let's get a check on some of today's market-movers. nike is falling 2.5% after being downgraded to jeffreys to hold from buy jeffreys also cut its price target to $60 from 75 citing increased competition. nike trading around 53 starbucks getting a bit of a

bounce after it was said that the stock would rise 20% or more citing increasing popularity on mobile and the pay features. >> shares of herbalife spiking today after the company recently said it had talks to go private. the stock is up 10% despite their discussions ending without a deal this was one part, two parts of news at the very least they are doing a dutch tender. >> $600 million. >> doing a big buyback the go private thing was really interesting, and it's been rumored for so long that herbalife was going to try to eventually go private. real frethose very first moments that i was having the conversation right on this very set with with bill ackman himself and carl icahn and that famous exchange. >> is that because they feel the public markets sump police don't see the value. >> i think, well, the stocks have been incredibly well. >> i know. >> i think it's more of why do we need the spotlight and the

scrutiny at this point of the public markets after dealing, you know, ackman and his, you know, stuff, and his crew side for as long as they have >> it's just harder for me to make the case for going private if you're trading at a high valuation, so, you know, they are going to be spending a pretty benny and seen people like michael dell when the flip sides were happening shares were getting handled and dow putting a lot of bad news out there and got it at a great price. clearly investors like the potential plan up 10% and sounds like they have two years to do something like this. >> i'm glad you brought that up. >> they put in a provision called a contingent right valuation and in order to commence the buyback and the -- and the dutch auction that they are doing. they basically give shareholders an incentive to -- to tender their shares now rather than now that the news is out, that they have had these conversations to go private, if you don't have that in there, you encourage people to tend irtheir shares. they say, well, why would i do

that at the risk of miss mc out on a big deal that could happen down the road, so it's like an insurance policy to the shareholders to pony up and -- and give their shares. >> just one other little wrinkle on this. we mentioned this could be a way of trying to really put the squeeze on ackman. have we gotten any more information about why that might be taking place. >> we haven't. today this is all sort of unfolding, and we haven't been able to reach either him or carl icahn on the news, but it all sort of plays into the whole story of whether there will be, as icahn said in that, you know, quote, the mother of all short squeezes. >> right. >> and it's up 10% today. >> yeah. >> great report. time now for a cnbc news update. let's good morning, everyone over to sue her hera. >> at a chamber of commerce event arizona senator jeff flake, a republican critic of president trump, continues to call for less combative rhetoric and more problem-solving >> we've got to come to a place

where we look at other americans as our enemies no matter how fierce a debate can be, and i'm a fierce partisan on some issues you can have a partisan debate, but it can't get ugly. >> one of two girls charged with murder in the slenderman case has accepted a plea deal pleading guilty to attempted second-degree murder charges she's one of two girls charged with stabbing a classmate in 2014 to appease a fictional character named slender man. they were 12 years old at the time hundreds of people stopped and listened to the last time big ben will ring for quite a while. the iconic clock will will be shut down for renovations. it will be silent for the next four years, its longest period since it first rang in 1859. and that is the news update this hour. scott, back downtown to you. >> all right thank you so much, sue less than half an hour to go in

the first trading session of the week joining us now to discuss is mark newton from newton advisors good to see you. >> thanks, scott >> we started the show with questions about whether there would be some sort of correction of any sort of meaningful nature what are the charts tell you, or what do you think? >> definitely starting to see more signs of deterioration. the first period of weakness we've seen literally all year. a lot of people look at the s&p and we rook at the wilshire 5000, about 3,500, we've seen not only breaks in the trends since november and right down to key levels and look at this chart on a weekly basis going back we've broken the trend since the election and now we've seen underneath a strength index which is momentum. that has started to tail off to the lowest level of the whole year, down to the lowest level since last year. that's a concern because the last time that happened was when you saw breaks of momentum it led to a pullback in the broader wilshire 5,000 so you're starting to see a few cracks in the armor.

last year we saw at transport. >> the russ well small caps have been down over 5% just in the last three weeks alone so everybody is concentrating on dow within 1% of all-time highs and we've seen a little bit of weakness already in some of these broader indices. it's really a warning sign for a lot of technicians to say, you know what, something is changing doesn't mean you move down right away but things are starting more signs of going off. indices being high doesn't always reflect the broader deterioration. when the market peaks, you have more than a quarter of the stocks down more than 20%. >> right now we've had a rolling correction within the s&p. you've had hundreds of stocks within the s&p that are down at least 10% from the 52-week highs. >> my thinking is you start to see breaks of the whole move since last february, and you can see a greater than average 5% to 10% correction between now and late october doesn't mean we've seen right away down 2% to 3%, but really on any rally you want to use it to

lighten up. >> mark newton, thank you. newton advisers. >> thank you both. president trump making a primetime address to the nation on the subject of afghanistan. coming up, what a new strategy to mean for the defense sector and the moon may have been the star of today's eclipse but on wall street it's the sun that gets the money lastksod iwoh ether the dip in sor oc tays rt buying right after this.

president trump will address his strategy in afghanistan in a primetime speech tonight morgan brennan joins us now with a look at defense stocks ahead of the president's remarks morgan >> hey, that's right, scott. so a mixed session for defense stocks but the sector is continuing to be in focus as president trump outlines that strategy for america's longest running war. lots of unknowns still, but if that includes more american troops in afghanistan, more engagement would mean more money, so, first of all, how is it going to be paid for? the trump administration proposed a 2018 defense budget of 639 billion all in, but the overseas contingency operations oco portion which makes up the war fund would likely increase

if there's going to be a ratcheting up, service contractors like leidos and caci could be likely beneficiaries. could see more orders for remotely piloted aircrafts from general atomics, and could see more potential switch blades from small-cap contractor aero environment and like the text call armored vehicles made by bae systems, general dynamics and oshkosh corporation. lastly, this could make the case for a new light attack aircraft program. the air force is testing it its options as we speak. that's at holliman air force pace tek interest ron and l3 and air traveler all are experimented in that area and the a-29 super tacano is already being built for the afghanistan military,

being paid for by the u.s. but it's already in production just a few of the names to keep an eye on if, and i say if, if we don't know yet, if we see more troops on the ground in afghanistan and the pentagon decides to move forward with more procurement back over to you. >> morgan, did you say switch blades >> yes. >> like the kind used in street fights >> no, no, no. >> or is that a fancy name for a whole thing that i don't even know about >> we're talking about basically unmanned aircraft here. >> okay. >> specifically precision-guided missiles. >> that makes a lot more sense morgan, thank you. morgan brennan up at the nasdaq. >> 20 minutes ago. i didn't know. thought that was a pretty -- >> who knew. >> anyway, 20 minutes to go. the dow is up 22 right now s&p is up 2, but the nasdaq and russell israel slightly lower and a rare miss for warren buffett. how he was beaten out by a texas energy giant that's next. now that the eclipse is over, what do the companies making eclipse glasses do until

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goldman sachs ceo lloyd binkine tweeted wish the moon wasn't the only thing casting a shadow across the country we got through one we'll get true the other, #solareclipse2017. could he be referencing the current political environment? >> i don't think so. must be morgan stanley. >> anyhow, semper energy beating out warren buffett to buy a power transmission company encore quite a dramatic story leslie picker with more. >> reporter: one of the most dramatic deals we've seen in a while. it all started back in july when warren buffett's firm announced a bid to buy enfor for $9 billion owned by the bankrupt future energy holdings whose largest creditor is elliott management elliott did not think berkshire's bid was high enough and worked for weeks to pull together its own consortium. i spoke to people close to all sides here who helped piece together what went on behind the scenes elliott received interest from

large sovereign wealth funds and infrastructure funds as well as several central artery jim among them was sempra, another utility company. they ultimately decided to make an offer outside of the consortium and today announced the agreement to buy encore for $9.45 billion in cash. they said previously it would not raise its bid. a little while ago they put out a statement that read, quote, we're disappointed our agreement to acquire encore has been terminated now, one interesting twist is the financing side they plan to use third party equity to fund the deal. it will be about 60% of the new holding company and it's unclear at this time who actually will own the remaining 40%. the deal, of course, is subject to approval by the public utility commission of texas and bankruptcy court and federal regulators. >> i know we're painting this as a loss for warren buffett if he

was willing to pay 1.5. >> the highest bidder often wins, interestingly enough and this company has entertained takeover offers in the past at higher prices than what one buffet's firm berkshire hathaway was willing to pay so it's one of those situations where they came in in a favorable environment, one in which the regulators and all the different groups in texas would maybe see his more favorable, even as a lower price and elliott saw the writing on the wall and said, you know what, this bid is too low. we'll try to come up with a competing bid and ultimately they took encore and led to today's agreement. >> well, it's a picture of two shrewd investors at their best. >> that's right. >> buffet doesn't overpay and paul singer doesn't take less ever than he thinks he should get. >> exactly. >> that's what makes the situation so interesting is you really do have these two amazing

minds which ultimately led to a situation where neither of them acquired the asset but they got a strategic and got semper to come in and i guess save the day for elliott, at least, who appears that berkshire is a little disappointed but, you know, like kelly said. >> i think they get a break-up fee. >> leslie, thank you very much. >> thank you very much. >> 15 minutes to go in the trading day. dow's actually picked up a little bit dow up 32 points s&p is up nearly 4. >> and some solar stocks going the other way and sinking on today's eclipse. we'll tell you if that's behind the drop when we come back your brain is an amazing thing. but as you get older, it naturally begins to change, causing a lack of sharpness, or even trouble with recall. thankfully, the breakthrough in prevagen helps your brain and actually improves memory. the secret is an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory.

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that is so cool. it's a special graphic just for the eclipse. >> just for the eclipse. many of those today. some solar stocks getting hit today on the heels of the eclipse. aditi roy is here to explain why this rare event could be a problem for solar companies. >> hi there, scott and kelly the eclipse cast a shadow over solar stocks today shares of companies like first solar and canadian solar and

jinko solar all were down. they plummeted up to 90% depending on geography in california where 30% of the day's loads, the power grid projected to lose enough solar to supply 6 million homes. their main concern was how sudden and steep the decline of sunshine would be and how steep the ramp-up would be when the sun came back up it's not just in california. solar is also big in california that most sun, but the eclipse went smoothly and didn't result in major outages that we know of and solar companies say even though they lost a couple hours of snrg that's still a small blip and there's still plenty of sunny days to make up for it we have to wait and see whether investors agree. >> how is this different from a summer thunderstorm and blowing into the carolinas >> that's a good question. one thing that they aring is is on a cloudy day the clouds drift

in and drift out but it's not total lass ofin? so that's one thing and there's a really team done down rather than when the sun -- and when they came back it also happened very quickly in the middle of the day. >> i still remain skeptical. do you buy solar stocks on the dip today? welcome to boast of you. are they down today because the downgrade to dane solar? does that have to do with the actual eclipse >> i think it brought people's attention to it. >> in a negative way why would they sell because the eclipse happens? >> only happens every 99 years, but that coot be why -- convince me that's where the fox are

down i don't bu it. it's a -- it solves a number of problems and decreases solar provides one of the best sources of renewable injury and needs to play a big role >> when had you look at oil prices, the first thing you think about as they remain so historically old is how can can you be for solar in this kind of ail. to be honest, hon -- solar has gotten really, really cheap and sealary power is a factor.

>> tesla and first solar, i've seen tesla because of solar city. >> we're neutral on tesla because of the valuation and the volatility however, i think that's one of the best plays and then first solar panel maker and installer. >> yo, what do you think about the investment here it's paced pore they have been gaining market share so those are our two favorite names in solar at the moment. >> what's going on with the trade case at first savor? >> i really don't know >> there's a current red sox

that could result on hire i was ant that's what's been moving that at the present time', wanting us to buy americans and do want to put americans on -- where do the can have. >> it's a very important part for tesla for the cars and extremely important for the solar panels i believe the trump administration will increase the tax benefits of their legal which is one of the -- have been having a tough time and. >> real quickly, i can did you

the. trm frahm. >> guys. thank you both >> thank you. >> arthur cashin stopped by a moment ago 300 to buy on the bell, and he were up 43 of the day. >> right here. >> yls you look at the half. >> >> and then after the bell will opinion and guess what, he was watching the eclipse, too, and you're watching, first in business world

number

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♪ 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 >> all right we're on the floor for the countdown. the dow looks like it will go out near the highs of the day. up 33% are the dow jones industrials picking up steam one group that's not been participating lately and wasn't today are the f.a.n.g. stocks down across the board early on maybe they came back a little bit as the day progressed, but it's certainly something to keep an eye on him. here with bob pisani no coincidence, bob, thatty

we're standing at the former post of jimmy maguire sr. who was beloved down here on the floor and who passed away. >> passed away here this morning, and 86 years old. that was his post. perhaps most famous as the specialist for berkshire hathaway a very good friend of warren buffet who messaged me in the middle of the day. reader at tradertalk.cnbc.com and called jimmy the world's greatest specialist and appreciative of the time he spent with him a dear friend and beloved on the floor. when i came down here 20 years ago i spent hours standing behind him watching hick trade berkshire and very patient with me understanding how things work. >> every time i came down here filling in for you on occasion i would stop here always and say hi to jim el just that kind of guy. sweet, soft-spoken man. >> i was thinking about his family clearly today. >> i am. >> and three sons also work on wall street.

what a wonderful man and a great legend. >> interesting question as to whether the rally is just resting or getting tired enough to get sick. >> i think it's important that we have this sort of sideways move today volume was extraordinarily light, and i do think the solar eclipse may have had something to do with the trading action. >> thanks so much. the "closing bell" starts right now. thank you, scott welcome to "closing bell," everybody. i'm kelly evans. here's how we're finishing up on wall street. up 28 points just small gains, about .1% and the s&p 500 adding three the nasdaq couldn't get into positive territory today it closed a little bit lower as you can see there so did the russell dropping about a point to 1356. it's been eclipse mania across the country. we'll talk to one of the makers

of eclipse safety glasses and what the rare event has meant for his bottom line. looking forward to that coming up joining me on the panel is cnbc commentator michael santoli is back >> good to be back here. >> michael any, is there an analysis or direct relationship to between between the markets. >> reporter: i will say it depleted volume in an already quiet day. no real economic data to speak of earnings are pretty much done so the market is kind of dealing with its own sort of internal issues which are, as everybody has been talking about it's funny the conversation has taken a subtle turn from wow the index held up perfectly well through this magical rotation to there's been a lot of wear and tear on the index surfaces

most stocks are down significantly from their highs but doesn't mean we're necessarily in line for a pullback we've had these situations before and the market has not cooperated everybody is looking for the fat pitch for saying it's oversold and i'm going to buy it sgleg exactly. >> danny, as art cashin put it it earlier, this rebound has been listless and the passive and that the selloff wasn't good enough to get, for example, the bond markets going and the rebound hasn't been enough to excitement and talking about excitement, you have the industrial medals for weeks now has been on fire freeport-mcmoran. >> how do you make since of all of this? >> it's been so discordant forry in we've seen the bond market rally has has just made yields

disappear. yet in washington we continue to be all eyes on the soap opera, and usually we like washington to do absolutely nothing and wall street would cheer this on full boat, but we want to see it what washington has to deal with in rollbacks and regulatory. a lot of listlessness, and there's been a tremendous call by many large money managers saying this is the top we've got to take some money off the table or maybe hedging it by saying, well, we could see more gains, but it makes a lot of people very nervous. to euro is it 1.18 stvp everybody sid was going to be. >> the u.s. dollar rallied for six years into the beginning of 2070 take a look at interest rates in the united states. the u.s. dollar is down from where it was at the end of 20 is a when the federal reserve began

tightening u.s. interest rates haven't budged since where the federal reserve began tightening, and the rest of the world was bracing for a shock from the united states. everyone said interest rates must go up and must have these pressures and away from a sudden really sharp turn in washington, that simply has not happened and as the world relaxes about that. we have a lot to gain on the international equities front compared to the united states. >> meanwhile, michael, had a little bimt of -- we've had a flurter of deals where are industries going and valuations are high and it's been really quiet. >> i and everyone else said all the factionors are in place to have another surge of mergers and acquisitions and you want animal spirits rising in terms of ceo confidence and things like that. it hasn't really materialized and i wonder if it's because that disruption threat. >> technology.

>> if you look at all the sectors and subsectors of the market being viewed as almost investable because of the long term, this might be the last cycle for movie theaters, mall retailers, autos we don't really know and that's the way the market is treating them you have a very small group of kind of consensus winners who have a huge valuation. maybe that's what's subduing things i feel like it's a mature cycle and ceos have been rewith regarded for taking care of what they can control which is preserving margins and buying back stock and right now it's an okay story but you would expect the animal spirits to take the deals. >> they are not materializing unless it's around the f.a.n.g. names. >> and fin tech. >> the chinese technology names. baidu, alibaba and tencent they have an acronym for that. would you be taking the other suld of this at any point? >> i think you almost have to. what does consume me on the

consumeder, so overextended and have over $1 trillion and warren buffett buys synchrony and thinks it's a great play. >> and mastercard is up 30% this year really, again, it's discordant and we do think whatever is going to happen it won't be that it will be perhaps something out of china or somewhere where we haven't really expected it and hopefully not on the political front or war front but that's also -- >> china was not expect pedestrian, and we're seeing lots of signs. >> can you explain what is the firming in china that we're talking about? going back to the medals and the moves we've seen the last couple of weeks that seems to be the fact that the medals are are up and the u.s. is shrugging off. >> there's been capacity retrains and all three this

never seen anything. we've seen that since 2010 the u.s. is not disrupting that but it's moving along very nicely so much of a cycle already compared to other parts of the world. >> and usually that's happening. it's obvious that the u.s. is going to benefit and its obvious growth is going to pick up and maybe it will be in the fourth quarter and keeps being the next one it seems. >> they will it, and stocks here are up 10% here to today it looks like maybe we're on track for better than 3% in the third quarter. did better than 3% on the first print in the third quarter of last year so we're in the familiar cadence of early year slowdown and pick it up in the back half hand neglect out to the 2% i don't think that's necessarily bad for financial assets one of the tells has been we've had a really good earnings season it was expected to be good and better than probably most expected and it couldn't really translate into broad gains in the markets. that's the way the market is saying, look, we kind of got

here before the reports did and now we're looking for the next reason to get more excited >> we have a news report on trump. >> reporter: ross levinson has been named chief executive officer and publisher of the "l.a. times" effectively immediately. in that role he's going to oversee the "times" operation and expand product and content initiatives as well as their global footprint ross levinsonn named ceo and publishers of the "los angeles times" effective immediately kelly, back to you. >> josh, that's interesting news and also hear that he'll be on "halftime" tomorrow. what do you make of this, michael? >> well, it's difficult to know exactly just this particular

role as publisher and ceo of the "los angeles times" which programs is the biggest print property and, you know, everyone is trying to figure out exactly how these old brands can co-exist in this world we health reports today that maybe google is going to help create tools for traditional publishers to get better monetization of the content, so that's an interesting and definitely big name of hire. you couldn't name the other publishers of most of the other super regional newspapers. >> he's been a cnbc contributor. can he carry on? >> unbelievable that that he would potentially give that up what do you think about that >> i think it's interesting how the media has turned into the monster just in the past year or so and this is just such a high-profile situation and it's interesting to see what will happen with all the very large and very large order media properties that are moving

markets, are moving and swaying people's opinions to the tune that we've not seen before in our life phil. >> i'm also thinking about google and facebook trying to work more with the publishers even on reports this morning about different ways they are trying to help them increase their paid subscribers and this is what news corp. has been pushing for for so long now. >> there's leadups on both sides. this is the old world and the way you do it and the new media, the facebooks and googles saying, no, we've rewritten the script. >> and it's happening at a time when the next generation kind of digital first publishers, already become a cliche that they are all pivoting to video the "l.a. times" can move to video, too, but it's obviously a newsprint brand. >> we were at dow jones once when it was pivoting to video. takes a lot of investment. >> you were talking earlier about the lack of m & e and the amount of capacity that's out there to invest in a longer term horizon, but i think a lot of public investors are involved

in it's going to be out there, and they are looking. >> guys, thank you very much danny hughes and steve whiting joining us. >> two big events receiving global event first the reverberations following friday's white house shake-ups which could make it difficult for the president to attract new talent >> and event number two, of course, is today's eclipse up next a man who has said he's sold millions of those glasses what is he doing until the next historic event we'll ask. contact the show via facebook, twitter or senus ad n e-mail at closingbell@nbcuni.com you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide entertainment right here.you cr right now, when you get the incredible iphone 7 from at&t you can get unlimited data and live tv. the channels you love. your favorite shows and movies. making your iphone into more of a...

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new, more reliable equipment for your home. and a new culture built around customer service. it all adds up to our most reliable network ever. one that keeps you connected to what matters most. today's solar eclipse is just about complete and jane wells is in oregon where it all began how is the traffic getting out of there

>> reporter: terrible, just terrible i should have kept my temp they came, they saw, they wondered one of the most amazing events in recent american history take a look at video of the eclipse at 10:1. that's what people saw here. the full total eclipse of the sun. you could take off your safety goggles for two minutes to watch it 20,000 people campled here last night. it was just joyous and people were so happy and surprised and wondrous and such a change for all the -- the agitation we have in this country right now to know that we were all experiencing something bigger than all of us some called it a once in a lifetime opportunity well, not for dan olsen and roger bird they saw the last full total eclipse in the u.s. in 1979 and promised to be here 38 years later. listen how different compared to the

crowd and technology 38 years ago? >> the crowd wasn't very big at the time there wasn't maybe 100 people around us at the time. >> reporter: wow. >> but it was just as fascinating. >> reporter: and no selfie sticks. >> no selfies. we couldn't do that. >> no drones, no selfie sticks, no internet. >> reporter: and no legal marijuana in oregon but we won't talk about that. well, there was a little of that but not as much as i expected and if you look at how bad the traffic, is it's taking hours and hours to get out of here but i don't think anyone would say it wasn't worth it and those two men have promised to be at the next tote al solar eclipse in the u.s. in 2024 kelly. >> we don't have long to wait now. as much as i was shocked how much people would pay all that money takes all that time to go see it, i think it sets us up for bigger eclipse mania. >> reporter: coming into saturday there were fears in this area that the crowds

wouldn't turn out and they weren't going to make as much money as they wanted and yesterday, boom, it was big. of course, now, the longer we say, the more money mattress makes. they predicted people would spend at least $100 in incidentals in addition to their lodging and airfare. i think that's lowballing the figure. >> jane, we'll let you get out of there jane wells snow bet. >> from oregon to illinois many have profited from the great american eclipse mania and one area in particular are the special glasses you need to look safely at the eclipse. our next guest made a big bet on manufacturing them and tell us how he did joining us is the ceo of apm telescopes in carbondale, illinois did you see the eclipse yourself, welcome? >> welcome yes. we saw the corona and the end,

but everybody was silent and the sky was fantastic. >> do you have any complaints from people who wore your glasses? are you worried about any legal fallout? >> no, we have no complaints we manufacture our glasses to the highest standard in germany and they are certified in europe and certified in america we are specialized solar telescope making company so we know what to do to make the safety for the people our first priority. >> and your glasses still only cost five bucks a pop. what have about all the counterfeiters did you have the urge to go up to people and snatch away glasses that you knew weren't up to snuff >> people came up and asked how

it can be identified we brought ourselves a few on the market to have some in hand and to educated the people who came up and asked us the question to show them the difference between the safe glass and the counterfeit product so they have been very thankful to be educated about that. >> and final question, marcus, how much money do you think you've made selling these glasses? how many pairs have you sold >> we sold over 5 million of the glasses and our goal is to make next time ten times as much because the market was not prepared to deliver glasses to 300 million people watching. >> 5 million this year and hoping for 50 million for the next one see you in a few years thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you, enjoy. >> speaking of headsets vr is getting a harsh set of reality

more price cuts hitting the technology whose time may not have come. which provider is hitting the discount rack next in fast take. >> and jeep is one of the auto world's best known brabz and now it's the focal point of dueling public statements between owner fiat and china's great wall motor. a fact check on whethesopef r me ty odeal is really in the works coming up.

welcome back time for "fast take.

michael is back. so let's get to it first one up is jeff immelt and uber's eric schmidt. jim cramer is krachg heads at ricoh's report that he'll become ceo and maybe he's looking at travis kalanick. >> wow, this isn't somebody who will really embody what uber is all about, the hard-charging kind of rush to dominance cape of culture but somebody who brings coverage and you wonder if it's the worst of both worlds. >> is it a win-win or lose-lose? >> maybe so interim that's kind of a bridge to either, you know travis coming back. >> or the set inge of the lawsuit. >> next, is blue apron a unicorn no more? fell below $1 billion today. what about the dozens of other private sector unikworns that

are about to go public now >> are they looking warily at how they might be received i think the big lesson and also with snap, it won't go away. they will become more intense and you have to prove it pretty quickly out of the gate. if you look at the chart from the ipo of blue apron it looks a lot like groupon and zynga which in kind of retrospect were viewed as the overhyped fatally flawed concepts. we'll see. under $1 billion there's something like 300 million in cash that blue apron has, still has the proceeds from the ipo. they could figure it out, but the market is not giving them any credit for doing so. >> five and change and next we talk a lot about the ipos falling out of the gate and what about bond offerings turns out tesla's high yield are having a tough time in their debut trading it around 88 cents on the dollar today. >> with bonds the story only gets you so far, right it's not going to go up or down a lot based on sentiment

since they priced that deal which they priced very well because the market was very accommodating. high-yield spreads have gone up meaning the prices have gone down relative to treasuries. not as if it's going the opposite direction of the trend. obviously this was considered an opportunistic bond offering. >> still yielding more than 5% if people feels like that's what they would want. >> which is not used to be high yield but now. >> after the oculus rift price, now to the vr headset, hype is over for vr clearly as this chart shows, but is there a market for this technology to go mainstream >> i think it's got to go behind the stand-alone thing and that's never going to be how everybody is experiencing this somehow incorporated into the phone. >> part of the augmented reality on your phone.

>> i think it has to be more seamless as opposed to going out. >> the new thing according to gartner. ch >> president trump's first trump for labor secretary before he withdrew he joins us next to discuss the current state of the administration and to size up prospect on tax reform and today's total eclipse cost the u.s. economy about $700 million. nuer'lshe lit tse mbs coming up. ade trader offices. steve, other than making me move stuff, what are you working on? let me show you. okay. our thinkorswim trading platform aggregates all the options data you need in one place and lets you visualize that information for any options series. okay, cool. hang on a second. you can even see the anticipated range of a stock expecting earnings.

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welcome back mixed day with the dow up 29 points here and the nasdaq up three and the russell was a little bit lower as well nike the biggest weigher on the dow. >> time for a cnbc news update. >> hello, again. everybody. here's what's happening at this hour. >> police in the catalan area of sipped say they have tracked the

driver of the barcelona van. singapore's defense minister says four sailors from the "uss john mccain" were taken to a local hospital after that ship cloudied with an oil tanker. ten sailors from the mccain are still missing. it's the second collision in two months involving the ship's navy fleet. >> a los angeles jury order willing johnson & johnson to pay $417 million to a woman who claimed that the talc in the company's iconic baby powder caused ovarian cancer. the woman is dying from ovarian cancer and according to her lawyer j&j says it will appeal the ruling. and on a lighter note, a record-setting grouper, lock at, that caught off the florida coast this weekend james taylor objection not the singer, speared the 409-pound grouper during the st. pete open spear fishing tournament it took six men to drag it on to the stage where they posed tore

photos and got that big fish weighed. 409 pounds, and he got it with a spear. that's the news update this hour. >> spear, like medieval. ancient, prehistoric. >> it's a big contest down there every week they do this spear spear fishing. it's controversial let's just leave it at that. it's definitely controversial. >> i'll have nightmares. >> our sue herera. treasury secretary steve mnuchin leading with senate majority leader mitch mcconnell to talk tax reform here's what mnuchin had to say right after. >> we're 100% committed to getting it done. i would like to think there's bipartisan support the issues that we're focused on tax reform are good for the american worker and good for the middle class this is about making business competitive and making business

competitive is about making jobs y. >> joining us now by phone is andy puzder, former of hardy's and carl's junior and did you just see the eclipse, sir? >> i did just see the eclipse, in franklin, tennessee get 100% of the eclipse. the whole thing. really amazing much more amazing than i thought it was going to be. >> how is the traffic? >> that's why i'm not in the studio today i can't get there. the streets are just packed. there's 2 million people here in addition to the people who live here there's 2 million visitors it's crazy >> holy cow. since you have time while sitting there i want to ask you about tax reform what do you think about the prospects are? >> i think the prospects are good what the will the extent of the tax reform be. we really need to amend the entire tax code to make it simpler.

fairer, flatter, all the things that republicans and conservative democrats have been talking about for years, but it may just be that we'll get more limited tax reform. >> that's the million dollar question we'll see if there's a plan in a couple of weeks. i wanted to ask you as a former ceo hand somebody who would have potentially worked in this white house, what do you think of all the ceos who have left the president's business councils? we have his adviser saying the ceos should not have abandoned him. you don't think they should have given up their seat at the table and carl icahn has left as well. should he have stayed in his role >> carl icahn left for a different reason than the rest of the ceos. carl icahn was worried about the appearance of his investments. he really didn't have as much influence as people were projecting that he would have.

he would have withdrawn no matter what the other ceos did i think it was the right time for carl to resign the other ceos, i think that when you are a ceo, you really -- when an issue becomes controversial, you're in a bad spot no matter whether you're supportive or you oppose the particular issue because generally the country, no matter what position you take, 30%, 40% of the people are going to be for it and 30% to 40% of the people are going to be against it and if you're running a business you don't want to offend any of the people you want people to buy your product and be supportive of what you're doing so ceos like to stay away from controversy, and being on these panels, even though they didn't meet often they did at least give people access to the president, but once it became risky to be on panels, once it looks like you could offend a substantial number of people on one side or the other it was the right move to disband them and i'm sorry they had to be disbanded because i think it was probably good for the country and good for

american business, but it's probably the right decision. >> i wonder, you know, you mentioned that it's an open question right now in terms of what extent of tax relief or reform we might get. do you think that there's a chance that it's really going to be dialed back from a business accept trick tax reform package because it seems like it might be tougher if you're in a position at the white house to make the case as the secretary mnuchin just attempted to do there in his comments to say, look, business tax relief does translate into jobs. it seems as if it's not necessarily something that the whole country has been crying out for, you know, make it easier on business right now. >> well, there is -- there was just a poll that came out this morning that showed very, very broad-based support for tax reform and even i think 70% of democrats in this poll came out saying they would like democrats to work with republicans to get the tax code reformed, and -- and a majority of people thought

taxes were too high. i think what they at least have to do is accomplish what larry kudlow and steve moore and art laugher have been proposing, the three easy pieces solution which is you lower taxes for working and middle class americans and a very, very easy way to do that they suggest would be to double the standard deduction and then we've got to lower the taxes on the corporate taxes. we've got to lower taxes on smallbusinesses. the proposal is 15%. if it got to be 15% or 20% i think people could live with that, and then the third thing they need to accomplish is they need to encourage businesses to bring back these billions of dollars that are sitting overseas and could really be used to invigorate, revitalize the economy, even without any taxes, and they are proposing a 10% penalty to bring that money back, and i think the ceo of apple said that he'd bring $250 billion. this is a lot of money it can generate growth and do lots for the economy

at least those three things have to be done >> do you think there should be any strings attached to that repatriation so they can't use it for share buybacks and they are forced to use it for r & d or something like that >> i think there should be strings attached so that they are doing something that benefits the economy if they are going to take advantage of that 10% penalty, but even share buybacks get money back. i mean, you really have to go through instance by instance things you didn't want them to spend the money on because i think -- just bringing the money back is going to be a huge invigorating factor for our economy and, you know, we could use it. >> we'll see what happens. >> edp is still too low. >> yeah, that's for sure. >> we're re-mined with each passing quarter. appreciate your time, and we hope that you enjoy the eclipse with your family. >> sorry about the telephone interview. next time i'll get into the studio. >> you can only use this excuse once every seven years or so >> that's true.

>> thank you very much. >> that's and pudzer eamon javers joins us now with more on the secret service. >> reporter: 12,100 secret service officers with going to blow through the statutorily mandated caps on overtime pay this year which means they need a legislate of fix up on capitol hill in order to get the officer their pay. there's been some controversy today over whether or not that's due to the fact that the president has taken a lot of travel this year and he's got a large family that also travels the world. the secret service put out a statement today and then it revised the statement ever so slightly i want to take you through the very subtle difference between statement one and statement two. they said in the first version this issue is not one that can be attributed to the current administration's protection requirements but rather has been an ongoing issue for nearly a decade due to an overall increase in operational tempo, and then later the secret

service putting out an additional statement changing that by one word to say this issue is not one that can be attributed to the current administration's protection requirements alone seeming to imply there that at least in some part this particular president's elaborate travel and large family that's also traveling the globe is part of what is putting a burden on the secret service but nonetheless they say this is an issue that date back a long time members of congress on both parties up on capitol hill said they are going to take steps to get that legislative fix soon so all the secret service officers working here around and the country and world, kelly, will get the overtime pay. >> is it a legislative fix or do they somehow need to restructure the workforce? >> they can do a number of things in the short term they can do a legislative fix and it lex tend the caps on how many overtime pay you can collect if you're a secret service officer and then in the longer run they do need to recruit officers. they are constantly out there

looking for new members to join the secret service and at some point they have to consider exactly how many trips they will take and howl they will staff all of that and that's longer term planning and in the short term if they get the legislative fix done they can take care of the fast bulk of this product. >> thanks for clarifying this. americans transfixed by today's solar eclipse but as people stopped to watch the once in a lifetime impact it could have a big impact on business bottom lines that's next. and whether jeeps are on their way overseas is ahead and josh levinsonn just named ceo of the "los angeles times" will be on "the halftime report" tomorrow at 12:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow don't miss it.

♪ it's a marvelous night for a moon dance ♪ >> you know, it's impossible to see -- they are basically completely black, michael. those are all the brand from frigidaire to live the to krispy kreme that are taking advantage of the eclipse to cash in. >> those were useful for one hour every seven years. >> only cost about $5 for the glasses. some of the customers were snapping up deals. the question is whether employees were meantime at a stand till more with a look that the eclipse has had on productivity. >> reporter: one of the numbers we've seen from challenger, gray and christmas, i'm sorry, my

throat is a little sore, challenger, gray andist mass said $200 million in lost productivity because of the eclipse. it seems like a big number but on the other hand it's kind of small because it's only $2 per american, right? that's not a lot of money, but when you compare to all the other things that everyone says we waste time on we waste worky productivity on, james comey, the day after the super bowl, last sleep, march madness, it goes on and on and $700 million in one day compares with bathroom breaks that all workers take, so at some point it just becomes, look, people clearly do not work all day long they waste their time doing all kinds of things it, and so if you want to add it it up they will either do twitter or do facebook or whatever. one corporate executive that i talked to said they would rather have all of their employees out and about outside together not bickering or fighting, hanging out and having a good time and the amount of time that's wasted is really no more than a five drill, so you've got to take

these numbers with a big grain of salt. kelly. >> the bathroom breaks is pretty hilarious. someone at allied up there's lost productivity. how can you be productive if you can't use the bathroom i agree. it's a little ridiculous. >> go ahead, mike. >> i was going to say i've always been fascinated by the math behind these estimates, in other words, who are these people who every minute of the day are, you know, putting this predictable amount of economic output out there you have to back into those numbers. >> there's numbers it cost $5:00 hundred million people have to go vote so anything that anybody does there's a number for it, so that's why the eclipse number is interesting to see it in that context. but like you said, comey's testimony, that was worth a lot more in lost productivity and maybe the eclipse not a bad thing if it gets your workers all together and off their computer >> that's a real thing if we think about how apple just designed its several billion dollar new headquarters, the whole idea was to foster interaction between co-workers i feel everyone has had much

more interaction said, taking the cnbc example, than on a normal business day. >> everyone is outside and together one thing you can all agree on everyone likes the eclipse there's no bad side. there's no disagreement side everyone is on this one together. >> although i didn't -- i was worried about -- did you look at it, michael? >> no. >> i've been in this building all day. i was -- i made sure i was not going to have permanent damage. >> that's the thing. i don't want permanent damage. want to make sure that the brightest lights i see can i barely -- you can't see anything in here these would keep me safe i hope that was a productive segment. >> no problem, you got it. >> shares of fiat chrysler on otws of a chinese takeover and anher strategist on why this is still a buy-the-dip market. there's more on "closing bell" right after this

welcome back shares of fiat chrysler up 2% on reports that chinese great wall motors is interested in a deal or are they? phil lebeau has been doing some reporting on this story for us phil >> reporter: no doubt they are interested especially talking to people who work with great wall over in chip, and they have made it clear great wall knows it has to expand and it has an interest in fiat chrysler but i think it might be overstating it to say there's been a formal offer extended there was a report out of asia that great wall had contacted fiat chrysler and when we reached out to fiat chrysler the company said we've had no formal discussions with any automaker including great wall about jeep or any other asset in the fiat chrysler portfolio by the way, jeep is widely considered to be the most valuable asset owned by fiat

chrysler because sales totaling about 1.4 million this year worldwide and they are just scratching the surface in china which is a huge suv market and only getting bigger, so who is great wall and what are they all about? it's among china's biggest automakers their sales last year in 2016 were up 44%. now, suvs and crossovers, they've been going through the roof that's one reason why greatwall is doing better, by the way, their main brand over there, hobble we had a chance to see some vehicles at the beijing, or shanghai auto show earlier this year they're interested in expanding beyond china might be saying, wow, why don't they make a deal with fiat chrysler for jeep? serge yore marcion may be in the mood to make a zeal but not giving away jeep whether they spin it off or sell it or include with with fiat chrysler as part of a larger

teal they may sthructure with another automaker, it's the crown jewel. highly unusual if we see it spun off or sold by itself. at this point, this is a report out of asia, fiat chrysler was emphatic today in shooting down. >> i like your point about how they're not going to, you know, give the jewel away, they're going to say take the whole thing. phil, i wanted to ask you about a different jewel, it's the volkswagon bus i hear that they're going electric on that, right? >> reporter: the i.d. buzz the i.d. buzz, take a look at this video, they unveiled it or officially launched it, if you will, announced they're going to be building it and selling it. they did that this weekend in pebble beach now this is from earlier this year when they first showed it in detroit as well as in germany. when you look at the i.d. buzz, there's no doubt they're trying to capture the spirit of the vw microbus you remember how popular those were in the 7 '70s and '80s, particularly in california

still can find some on the road in san francisco, other communities like boulder where i used to live, you still see a lot of people driving the vw microbus this doesn't come out until 20 it 2, howeve 22, however. one, vans are falling in popularity minivans, any kind of a van. it's falling in popularity and at the same time, by 2022, how big will ride sharing be will robo taxis be and how does that impact what people are buying? so, this is an interesting call by volkswagon to sort of rekindle that magic from the microbus. >> next time a group of us need to take a ride, we'll specifically hail the volkswagon electric minibus sounds like fun. >> reporter: it would be. >> a few years to wait thank you very much. >> reporter: you bet. a news alert on macy's simi modi has that story. >> reporter: dow jones is reporting macy's is reportedly poaching a senior executive from ebay in an effort to screamline

its decisionmaking amongst its top management hal lawton will join macy's september 8th. his title at ebay, senior vice president of north america he'll report to the ceo of macy's who joined in march and that's the news update new president, hal lawton. back to you, kelly. >> seema, thank you. not a lot of movement in the shares, michael, i don't know how much to read into this. >> obviously, macy's has a huge effort in trying to seem in tune with -- ebay, if you think about it, has experience in kind of creating one customer experience with a lot of vendors, a lot are traditional apparel vendors. maybe there's a fit in. >> do they need to accept paypal >> there you -- yeah how many steps down the chain do you want to go >> i don't snow. >> fascinating. >> that's the latest on macy's the man who called bill eokman a spoiled brat, a trdp c on his board's decision to

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welcome back this is ma what we like to calla sound bite from the future adp ceo carlos rodriguez he called bill ackman a spoiled

brat here's what rodriguez had to say this time an what would have happened if ackman had taken a different approach >> we're professionals, we don't take things personally i think the manner is less important than the facts the facts speak for themselves the performance that we have, versus pershing square, ideas that have been brought up which are not new to us, not new to the board of directors or management team. it's a different issue than the manner and form in which it was presented but it was an odd way to approach a company. >> you can catch the full interview with at trkatdp ceo c rodriguez on "mad money. has he fended off this campaign? >> i believe so. to me, the story has always been that activists have run out of low-hanging fruit. you have to go after well performing slow and steady companies like adp. >> make the good better instead of the bad good.

>> this is not a broken situation. the stock doubled in five years. talked about the out-performance versus peers in the market i think basically at this point i don't think the market is saying when is ackman going to come back? >> cgate invitedvited them righe board. the name says it all there, they're activists but typically seen as friendlier and low key in their approach and this, if it's about outcomes, it feels to me like they're getting the outcome that they're looking for with that approach. >> you need to obviously persuade a management team and board you're not here for the hit-and-run, quick score you're there because you want to own the business, you want to be there long term. you're kind of aligned with everybody else you know, you're not looking to grandstand, whatever else you might criticize pershing square. >> the other thing, too, interesting to watch png, if they try to take a page out of this book. >> exactly. >> granted it's a much larger deal still -- >> a very similar story, yes, you can have a lot more

legitimate criticisms of how png performed relative to its competit competitors. $200 billion plus company. what are we going to do? used to be stiomething called t just say no defense, the company says, no, twooer not going to entertain your offer, not going to bring it to the board, we're going to wait for it to go away. >> we'll see if just say no works in this case for aadp. just want to quickly turn our attention to, i know we should talk about the week, i can't relist one more look at the solar stocks you have names like canadian solar, some of its competitors down 8% today. and it would seem obvious to tie that back to the fact that we had this crazy i clieclipse. there was also a barclays downgrade. >> these are definitely jumpy kind of emotionally driven stocks in the first place. i mean, they're kind of, you know, a true believer or you hate them. i do think it's fascinating with

this by definition one-off event in the -- >> there's nothing -- >> maybe it's a reminder -- >> unless they hand ld it poorly, said, look, they didn't handle it well, then i'd understand. >> i don't think it's a utility where they have to go out and buy power on the open market in order to deliver to their customers. maybe i'm wrong about that. >> i don't think you are thank you very much. that does it for "closing bell." "fast money" starts right now. >> thank you, kelly and mike that's right, "fast money" start right now. i'm brian sullivan in for melissa lee. traders on the desk tonight, pete najarian, tim seymour, steve grasso, guy adami. energy stocks sinking again today, on pace for the worse month since december of 20 is15 as a group down 18% this year. with venezuela's problems heating up, are oil stocks finally a reel bual buy plus, chinese tech stocks are so