and that's what's been happening with roger goodell, commissioner of the nfl and his contract. espn reporting mr. goodell is seeking $49.5 million a year in his new deal lifetime health insurance for himself and his family lifetime use of a private jet. for me, it isn't so much about money. money is the metaphor. it's about who runs the league the owners or the commission >> thanks for watching "power. >> "closing bell" starts now hi, everybody. welcome to the "closing bell," i'm kelly evans at the morning stock exkang. >> the stuff you miss before the show starts. i'm bill griffeth. big corporate story today. general electric, the stock sinking after lowering guidance unveiling its turnaround plan, cutting its dividend in half ceo john flannery says it is the opportunity of a lifetime to reinvent this 125-year-old company. so why aren't shareholders buying it? we have that story coming up

here >> the shares are down 8% right now. that's not even the biggest point decliner in the dow. which goes back to how low its share prices got. >> exactly. at this hour the senate finance committee is beginning to mark up its tax reform bill we'll tell you what's at stake there and what could be the most contentious issues between the house and senate. meanwhile, amazon is reportedly considering a freemium option for prime video. wel n will netflix make a similar move let's get to our top story today, the big decline in ge shares morgan brennan has all the ugly details for us morgan >> reporter: hey, bill, yeah, so ge cutting its dividend in half. it's only the third time since 1899 it's cut that payout, this is the first time it's done it notscenario. that's only part of the story here big part of why these shares are

falling 8% is the updated guidance new eps numbers for 2018 expected to be $1 to $1.07 a share, reduced by half since the previous target and lower than consensus estimate $6 billion to $7 billion in free cash flow for next year also disa i pointing. ceo john flanernery says 2018 wl be a, massive heavy lift with detailed execution he expects earnings and cash flow numbers to grow after next year three big takeaways in the midst of a very heavy news day for ge, first he's focusing on the core businesses of aviation, health care and power, despite the challenges in that power business $20 billion worth of other businesses will be exited over the next two years including transportation, industrial solutions, current and lighting. even ge's majority stake in oil field services, giant baker hughes could be up for grabs in

the next couple of year ps. second, cost cutting, going to continue including a cutting -- even though there's no retreat on the idea of digital. that's been a big push at ge for the last couple years. lastly, changes to the company's culture and to management and governance that's including performance and it's going to be more tied to -- excuse me, compensation more tied to performance. also more equity-based also the board is rishrinking dn from 12 to 18. three seats will be up for grans next year. and on the earnings front, they are are chanchanging methodologw earnings will be reported on a quarterly basis as well. lot of big headlines lot of changes at this company shares are still down with all of this news today guys, back over to you >> and 40% for the year, morgan, thank you. they have a lot of work to do. is this the end of the bad news for ge let's ask jim from cfra research and christopher glen from oppenheimer & co

welcome to you both. jim, what do you think about the share price reaction today i'm sure this isn't what the company was looking for. >> yeah, i think it's an understandable reaction to the fact ge is admitting that its culture, that its execution, that its targets, that its financial forecasting is off and the extent of the reset of financial guidance was such that the street couldn't only react in a negative way. >> christopher, you downgraded the stock. why? >> the extent of the cut at power on the last quarterly call as well as the projected restructuring savings just didn't add up to a very good prospect for today's investor day. and really indicates it's going to be a long turnaround, a drawn-out process. there are some very long plays here for the company to get it right, and some are going to be a tough haul like the power markets, the secular changes there. some could be quite good like potentially divesting or exitinp a lot

of cash flow here. what about earnings? is this a profitable company and will it be >> yeah, i think it's going to be a probable company. all we need to see is where is the growth ge is resetting in 2018 as we all heard. and then 2019 and on, their organic revenue growth targets are 2% to 4% this is not a company that is a growth company if you look at the stock price, it's not a value company either. where is it? it's a hold. >> well, and jim, i've heard more than one person question today why those three divisions to hang on to. are there synergies that make sense to keep them together in a conglomerate, do you think >> i certainly think there are synergies across the board at ge they have technology leadership in all these segments and the most important thing that they're hanging onto is the leadership position. the number one position in these segments that's what they want to be, day want to be the leaders in the segments they compete in and these are the segments they're holding onto, whether or not seeing that kind of traction, that's where they're trying to divest >> chris, what kind of challenges do they face in their

remaining businesses because this is in part a decision about what to keep and then still after that, a decision about how to make those more profitable going forward. >> yeah, so aviation and health care are in good stead, they're being run well, executing, growing profits, growing revenue. those are fine what you're seeing at power is a very large share shift to renewables where ge's margins are a lot lower. you're seeing a 40% contraction in the traditional gas power gen markets. and that means a lot of overcapacity in the industry and a lot of pricing power they're keeping it for a lack of pricing power. they're keeping it because there's no other logical owner like there may be logical exit strategies for some of the other businesses >> chris, what happened? how did the company find itself in this position >> it's not a single thing i mean, the oil and gas cycle never came to fruition for their particular orientation.

they're very long cycle. they're still a year or two out from seeing the improvement that others have seen they probably lost 20 cents there. that's the cycle the power gen markets, that's a secular change that's a fundamental change in the markets. day probably lost 30 cents in and they've got about 10 cents higher cost of interest to fund the dividend that they've accumulated and that's part of why they cut that. so it was a range of things. >> jim, who might be looking at these businesses now either the ones that are being let go or the ones that remain in terms of being attractive takeover targets >> i mean, it's uncertain who wants to buy assets that are in industries that are struggling right now. ge has historically been able to find buyers at good prices if you look at their industrial transformation when day got out of ge capital, they got out of the assets quickly day have a good track record of doing that the assets they have remaining are going to be good core assets for them for the long term it's a long-term story at ge it's going to take a while for

this to play out that's why the stock is reacting today. >> all right, gentlemen, thank you. jim, chris thank you for joining us today >> tauhank you. >> don't miss an exclusive interview with john famililanne tomorrow at 9:30 a.m., he'll join the gang on "squawk on the street." the dow is up 30 points at the moment with the s&p holding steady at 2,583. up three points. joining our "closing bell" exchange, chris from avions from us holly from btig joins us from chicago. and steven sarg gillfoi. you've been holding ge shares. what do you do with that >> this becomes not an investment but commerce exercisk management i got myself long. back when jeffrey immelt announced he was leaving the

firm, i figured that was a solid. warren buffett out of the way, a good chunk of the sell side was improved i thought it was a good point of entry. it was not i slammed on the brakes. john flannery does certainly sound like he's a serious guy and the right guy first job, but now you have to rely on your technicals but fundamentals are out the win ddow. you're looking at things like the pitchfork model, looking at retracements you're starting your models with the highs of late 2016 and tracing them through the recent lows of today's lows and it looks like support comes in right around $18. so we're approaching it right now. >> all right. >> at that level, i probably increase my holding by about 150% and i look for an exit hopefully somewhere down the road, three to six months around $24 >> chris, are there any readthroughs for you from ge to the broader markets? >> i don't see any to my way of looking at it, ge is still null and void in every way. now, if it was priced at $14, you'd g singing a different tune at the moment, the last segment

they really hit it no top-line growth that's the big thing ge has to do, not manufacturing of earnings. >> does it argue, chris, for the end of -- i mean, this comes and goes in cycles, i know, but is this just a bad environment to be a con grglomerate right now, you think? >> absolutely. it's going way back to the 7'70s we saw them all come apart ge is an example of a dinosaur that was like that. >> what about honeywell? >> it chris? >> i think united -- yes, united technology and honeywell have done transformational the right way and concentrated on those areas where they've been able to maintain growth and at the expense of ge, so it's a different story i think for those two companies. >> holly, the market you follow, the currencies, the interest rate forum out there, what are you seeing right now as we focus so much on the fed and changes there and the expected rate

increase later this month? >> well, the story in fixed income markets in the rate space sa about the yield curve. dramatic flattening of the yield curve not only in the past couple days and weeks but really all year i'm of the belief that's going to continue. you may say, why's that important to me, i'm trading stocks, might be trading commodities. the reason it's important is because in modern mystery history, every recession in the u.s. has been preceded by an inverted yield curve. 118 basis points that's not anywhere near inverting at this point. given the dramatic flattening, a lot of people are concerned that maybe the fed is raising too aggressively or maybe it's indicative of a weakening economy. you're talking about ge stocks being down granted they're their own story right now. a lot of people are concerned about a weakening economy, but i'm of the mindset that we're getting this flattening for other reasons and the number one is pure demand you saw one of the largest u.s. pension funds today come out and

say they may take profits in stocks and put that more into fixed income from 19% to 44% that outright demand is just going to help drive those longer-term rates versus the short term even flatter. so i think that curve flattening is going to continue three months, ten years, probably down to 85. possibly as low as 40. but keep in mind, bill, even at 40, that's still only about 20% of odds of a recession in 2018 >> chris, we mentioned the growth challenges over at ge just before we go, i see here you like the mulls pace where we saw a big deal happen possibly today between brookfield and ggp. why are malls an area where you think people should be investing right now? >> well, i think there's a big transformation everybody has been afraid of amazon and now we're getting clicks to bricks it's becoming a destination. it's becoming a service. it's becoming a whole different environment as far as the malls are concerned and what they used

to be afraid of filling big box places like sears and now they got plenty of fulfillment centers wanting to go into them. i see a big change there with great yields. >> all right, sarg, before we go, what are you watching right now? what kind oaf levf levels is. >> we cracked 2,585 to the up side, point of resistance all day long we don't expect to go that far in the next 20 minutes of the trading session. one attempt to the downside against 2,585 and a hold >> all right good to see you all. chris, thank you, holly. >> thaurnk you. >> sarg, thanks for joining us. >> appreciate it. the dow, we're up 33 right now as we begin another week here that will be busy, i think very busy in washington. the senate finance committee starting to mark up its tax reform bill and when we come back, we'll look at the potential changes. how the bill could affect your investments and which republicans may not vote for it. plus we'll have much more on

the fallout from ge. we're going to talk about what other big dividends in the market could be at risk and where those dividend investors that were in the name should turn to now. of course, we always love to hear from you, reach out to the show here, various platforms, twitter, facebook, send us an e-mail you're watching krcnbc, first in business worldwide

modest plus signs for the major averages to begin this week the dow up 30 points was down 78. so there's a bit of a comeback story here this afternoon. and in fact, shares of chipotle have staged a comeback of their own today. after the company denied claims by active jeremy jordan that he was hospitalized after eating food at the restaurant chipotle says no other claims of

illness had been reported at the restaurant where jordan ate. that stock now down just a third of a percent. >> i was there for lunch today so -- >> at that particular restaurant >> i don't foknow was it a new york one? anyway, a news alert on dfj venture capitals josh lipton, what is happening there? >> kelly, some big news out here in silicon valley. venture capitalist steve jurvetson leaving his job at draper jurvetson in the wake of an investigation into sexual harassment, according to recode which has the letter i'll read it, "as of today own by mutual agreement steve jurvetson will be leaving dfj. culture has been and will continue to be built on values of respect and integrity in all our interactions we're focused on the success of our portfolio companies as well as the long-term vision for the firm and will continue to operate with the highest professional standards." the firm apparently did not specify exactly the reason for

the ouster certainly jurvetson, kelly, one of the most well known, well respected venture capitalists out here friends with elon musk sits on the boards both space-x and tesla. we reached out to dfj for comment. we'll bring that to you as soon as we get it guys, back to you. >> this is a more than 30-year-old company now. is tim draper even still there, josh it's been, i mean, there have been a lot of changes at the top. >> there have been, kelly. i'm not certain now what mr. draper's role is here, but certainly with regard, steve jurvetson, listen, we interviewed steve on this network a lot, very well respected. has his hands in a lot of different investments. i mentioned very close to elon musk, always followed musk into those investments, as i mentioned on the boards of space-x and tesla. we reached out to the firm to get their specific comments on the news here. we'll get that to you as soon as we have it. >> all right yeah, it's a huge name in the valley. >> very much so. >> tauhank you, josh.

in washington, members of the senate finance committee are rolling up their sleeves and starting the markup of their tax reform bill. let's go over to ylan mui with the very latest. >> reporter: kelly, this process is going to take all week long there are literally hundreds of amendments that could be offered in the debate over the next few days including a potentially major revision from finance committee chairman senator orrin hatch, himself now, there is wide speculation that there could be some changes to provisions in this code to make them temporary or perhaps less generous in order to comply with senate rules that prevent this tax bill from adding to the deficit after ten years. and that could potentially affect the corporate tax rate, and it could shift the political dynamic here in the senate now, right now, this bill is expected to make it out of committee, but its fate on the floor of the senate is less certain. senator jeff flake of arizona is already raising some concerns about the impact of the national debt

meanwhile, you've got senators marco rubio and mike lee saying this tax bill doesn't do enough for working families they've been pushing to increase the child tax credit to $2,000 and rubio has said he's willing to vote against this bill if it doesn't do that. over in the house, there's also still some heartburn over the state and local tax deduction and some limitations to that provision. you see representative leonard lance, representative peter king leading the carriage there shar don't want to see this fully repealed house ways & means chairman kevin brady said he'll reject the full repeal of the state and local tax deduction that is in the senate version of the bill but there are still tough decisions and tough negotiations to be had once lawmakers get back from thanksgiving break and after they make it through this week of debate back over to you, kelly. >> and we're also mindful, ylan, the president comes back to town this week, he's already tweeted he'd like, among other things, to see the top individual rate

drop to 35%. not to mention, he wants to see the individual mandate of the aca added to that bill and taken out. so, i mean, that's going to sort of, shall we say, add to the stew that's being brewed this week, huh? >> reporter: yeah, absolutely. so on the individual mandate side, this is something that had been actively considered on the house side there are several senators, i think we counted at least five, who have said they'd like to see a repeal of the individual mandate in the senate version of the tax bill as well however, there is a lot of concern that mixing the politics of tax reform and health care will just end up doing both of them >> especially after the elections on tuesday where the health care issue is a major motivator for a lot of the democratic votes ylan, thank you. >> tauhank you. >> check back with you >> reporter: thank you. >> ylan mui in washington. less than 30 minutes to go until the close. dow is up. s&p up four. nasdaq up 13 russell's up a point. still ahead shares of toy

makers hasbro and mattel are skyrocketing today on a report hasbro approached its rival with a potential takeover is the deal just make believe? we will discuss. >> yeah, a pretty good move for hasbro even for the company that made the deal -- made the offer. plus is the success of "thor," that movie, a sign that the box office is turning around we're going to ask netflix executive and current moepviass ceo mitch lowe, thereat among oa other things when we come back what if we could keep more amof what we earn?d. trillions of dollars going back to taxpayers. who could possibly be against that? well, the national debt is $20 trillion. as we keep adding to it, guess who pays the bill? him. and her.

and her. congress, we should grow the economy. not the debt. ♪

welcome back and have a look at shares of roku. >> aye yi yi. >> deja vu they're up 27% today if you recall, this is the third day in a row this has taken place. the shares are now up 123% in three sessions roku, remember, makes hardware and software to stream video and it is still riding momentum from that report last wednesday after the bell as we highlighted last week, there is a lot of short interest, about 30% of the float, a lot of people pointing to that as a potential short squeeze. roku just went public in late september. day priced at $14 a share. they're trading above $42 right now. mitch lowe is with us to talk about the chacnging -- >> ceo of moviepass. co-founder of netflix. joining us at post 9 here. >> what do you think of this roku phenomenon? >> you know, a couple things, it really shows how there's this kind of migration away from linear television and roku makes a very clever device

i think even better than apple's device that -- especially kind of the newbie moving into over the top. i think they just -- they're just a part of that whole trans -- that kind of migration. >> what a change of fortunes we wanted to get to other things here what a change of fortunes for this company, last year you wouldn't have expected this ever to happen, right >> no. this is where technology and people who are really close to consumers can make a big impact. >> streaming is incredibly at right now. that's for sure. speaking of streaming, and media, earlier today on "power lunch," iac chairman barry diller spoke about traditional media and competing with big tech giants. listen >> i don't think having more content is going to get you more revenue or, in fact, the idea of saying, well, size and scale, the truth is they all have kind of sufficient scale to be able to play. what they'll never have again is

sufficient scale to dominate the media business as they have historically that's over. >> because of the dominance of the tech giants now. >> because, absolutely you have 100 million subscribers, and your best hope entering is maybe to get 20 million or 30 million, the math outdoes you. if you're google or facebook who have an absolute monopoly on advertising, you're never going to compete with them. >> do you agree with that, mitch, or is that taking it a step too far >>, he's absolutely right. that ship has sailed the studios did everything to help companies like netflix succeed and now it's a little too late i think what's fascinating is that really the only way to differe differentiate is price that's the way you have to attract new consumers. >> speaking of which, now amazon is apparently thinking about this new pricing model to use a freemium pricing for prime video. people who are not members of prime would get the video

streaming for free with advertising. >> yeah, well, you know, five times as many hours are watched in ad-supported content than are on non-ad-supported content. so that's the way kind of people are used to consuming, so it makes a lot of sense. >> in today's environment, it seems obvious this point that you and barry diller have been making, but going forward, when disney joins the fray, they're also trying to price very competitively, trying to bring a ton of content to bear, it's going to still be very crowded in that space. you know, is this going to be sort of the best of times in retrospect for these digital platforms because there are currently so few of them >> well, you know, the amazing thing about disney going at price is that this is counter to the entire history of disney they have always been the quality is what matters, price is not the issue they always believe people are willing to pay more for disney products >> yeah.

$30 for a "lion king" dvd. >> yeah, this is a whole change in our philosophy, but it's smart because it recognizes that consumers are just inundated with options >> right. >> amazon, netnetflix, hulu. it's exactly moviepass, why we priced it such a low price this is the whole idea to get attention. >> i wanted to ask you about that you went from $40 a month for the priciing which would allow people to go to a movie a day for a month. >> yep. >> to $9.95. you mispriced it to begin with or what happened >> no, you know, what we found, there are tens of millions of consumers who want to go to the movies more often. today they're only going to four or five movies a year. so at the $40 price point, that only appealed to about 11% of the public that goes a lot so at $10 a month, we're getting all these people to go more often. >> and just like that, you went from 20,000 subscribers to 600,000. has it gone up more than that? that was the end of october. >> oh, yeah, goes up every day,

you know >> i was wondering when you're going to do a streaming movie pass >> well, there's that coming, too, right >> goes back to the content idea there are so many different platforms. that's maybe the appeal of roku, helps you sift through that but the price point becomes quite bloated when all these different services are available. >> no, it's exactly right. in the same way in the early days at netflix, we used to make bets on how big we could get my bet was 1.7 million subscribers and, of course, we know the numbers now but over time, that allowed netflix to do netflix exclusives, and so on. and with our partnership with hmny, we've got this big data platform to basketball to build out a whole night at the movies. and that's where it really starts to become valuable is people are going to the movies and then doing lots of other things. >> you're still -- you still are on the traditional side, they're going to go to the movies, this isn't about streaming it in your bedroom. >> you have to fay less for it. >> it may be at some point we launch a streaming service but this is the whole idea, you

build the big subscriber base then you have a great relationship with them. >> i think there's a streaming service coming we'll see. mitch, good to see you again thank you for coming in at post 9 here >> thank you. >> mitch lowe, ceo of moviepass joining us today. time for a cnbc news update right now with sue herera. sue. >> thank you, guys, here's what's happening at this hour, everyone a u.s. appeals court in california allowing part of president trump's latest travel ban to go into effect. ruling the government can bar entry of people from six muslim countries, if they have no family connections to the u.s. the ruling affects people from libya, iran, syria, yemen, somalia and chad. puerto rico's governor requesting $94 billion in federal assistance as that island continues to struggle to recover from the damage inflicted by hurricane maria he's also urging congress to adopt a tax overhaul plan which addresses that territory's specific needs >> we're not only looking to

rebuild as well as before, but we want to make it much stronger, much more resilient and make puerto rico a model for the rest of the caribbean and, frankly, the rest of the region. the makers of stovetop stuffing don't want you to worry about getting stuffed this thanksgiving so take a look at that they've created new thanksgiving pants. with an over the belly stretch waistband. they're available for $19.98 at thanksgivingdinnerpants.com for a limited time or you can just wear your yoga pants. or just don't eat that much. that's the news update at this hour guys, back downtown to you >> bill's giving me a look here. think he's contemplating sue, thank you very much. i'm on the floor with steve grasso feel free to weigh in any time on that one. half an hour to go until the close, comeback today, horrible day for ge

what's your read on things >> look at what's leading, utilities leading yet again. look at what utilities are, year-to-date performance, they outperformed the s&p would you have ever thought that was possible in what we see has been a growth -- >> exactly. >> we've seen a growth-driven market with bad, you know, segregation, i should say, or breadth in the marketplace where you have six stocks that have really taken over. the bullish run. >> growth and a rally, you'd think utilities would do well in a time where things look relatively grim, but -- >> that's the truth. today there was the headline coming out that the senate actually reached an agreement on the threshold for systemically important financial institutions and you saw the xlf run off of that but more importantly saw the regionals run off of that because the lower the asset value on these bank holdings, the more -- >> going to get some view leaf. >> exactly they'll get some relief. that's the driving force today the overall market is up does it feel like it's an up market today it doesn't to me. >> financials keep rallying even

if the yield curve is flat here? utilities doing -- >> i do think you're going to run into a wall eventually but look at the performance from the financials in the last couple of weeks, last months it hasn't been very good to an upwavrd brd bias. you're starting to see relief there. i don't think it's a long-term effe effect i do think that the december rate hike should not be totally in the cards i know that everyone says it's 100% but there's so much -- >> you made your point even larry kudlow agrees with you. >> so much room to back off it we'll see what happens we've been wrong before when they talked hawkish, they act dovish we've been wrong before. maybe we're wrong again and that should rally the overall markets en fu even further. >> will be interesting to see. thank you, steve bill, over to you. a market flash on pharmacy stocks seema mody, what's behind the move >> application filing by amazon states the online retailer will not use state licenses to sell prescription drugs the application stating that the applicant, amazon, will not

store or ship drugs. so it suggests that amazon will perhaps look at other areas of health care first before getting into prescription drugs. and on this news or report, we're looking at shares of the pharmacy stocks move sharply higher cvs health, rite aid, walgreens was officially higher, all moving on this news, guys. back to you. >> a sigh of relief perhaps. >> yes, for now. >> from some of those potential competitors. seema, thanks very much. 24 minutes left in the trading session with the dow up 31 points. coming up, a new report says walmart is intentionally raising its prices online in order to draw customers into stores we'll debate whether that strategy can work or whether it will backfire and provide a boost to guess who, rival amazon. plus, there was plenty of talk about the search for the next fed chair ahead of president trump's decision to appoint jerome powell but another fed search has been very, very quiet and just ahead, we'll tell you about the hunt for the next president of the new york fed.

a position which many call the second most important job at the central bank that's coming up cnbc sector sort is sponsored by sector spdr etfs. accused of obstructing justice to theat the fbinuclear war, and of violating the constitution by taking money from foreign governments and threatening to shut down news organizations that report the truth. if that isn't a case for impeaching and removing a dangerous president, then what has our government become? i'm tom steyer, and like you, i'm a citizen who knows it's up to us to do something. it's why i'm funding this effort to raise our voices together and demand that elected officials take a stand on impeachment. a republican congress once impeached a president for far less. yet today people in congress and his own administration know that this president is a clear and present danger

who's mentally unstable and armed with nuclear weapons. and they do nothing. join us and tell your member of congress that they have a moral responsibility to stop doing what's political and start doing what's right. our country depends on it. of emerging markets obsolete? at pgim, we see alpa in the trends, driving specific sectors of out performance. where a rising middle class powers a booming auto industry. a leap into the digital era draws youthful populations to mobile banking and e-commerce. trade and travel surge between emerging markets. everyday our 1,100 investment professionals around the world search out opportunities for alpha. partner with pgim, the global investment management businesses of prudential.

shares of hasbro and mattel both rallying today helping the consumer discretionary sector hit new highs. this after david faber confirmed hasbro has approached mattel after a potential takeover which would unite two of the largest u.s. toy makers and of course bring together iconic brands like barbie, "star wars" and g.i. joe with today's huge gain for mattel, those shares are still down 30% amid sale s troubles i the toy industry. >> hasbro the better performing of the two. >> off an all-time high. >> maybe we'll see if they can share the magic with mattel. 20 minutes to go until the close. we've seen rebounds today on wall street. the dow up 27 points s&p up by just three the nasdaq up seven. the russellterritory. >> by the way, we established,

yes, if bring hasbro and mattel together, you want to name the company hasmat i digress. investors may be focused on the nomination of jerome powell to be the next fed chair there's another job opening up many consider to be the second most important job at the central bank that's next. and ge shares have their worst day in more than six years. after slashing the dividend in half we'll tell you which other dividends on wall street could ocasibly be on the chopping blk well. that's later on the "closing bell." >> there's hasmat. [ keyboard clacking ]

[ click ] [ keyboard clacking ] [ clacking continues ] good questions lead to good answers. our advisors can help you find both. talk to one today and see why we're bullish on the future. yours.

all right. we're getting more now on steve jurvetson's departure. josh lipton, what now? >> that's right, bill, so we told you how well known venture capitalist steve jurvetson was leaving his job at df zwrrks taking to twitter where he tweets "i am leaving dfj to focus on personal matters. including taking legal action against those whose false statements have degame efamed m" remember, guys, this really started when an entrepreneur took to facebook, said there was misconduct, inappropriate dehafr at dfj, did not name jurvetson specifically dfj had that indpept investigation that was ongoing but, again, jurvetson just now

taking to twitter an coop fi etg he is, indeed, leaving dfj guys, back to you. >> josh, thank you keep us posted josh lipton. we got breaking news out of the venezuelan bondholders' meeting. let's get over to michelle caruso-cabrera. >> hearing from a source who's familiar of what happened at the meeting, big meeting in caracas, venezuelan government called bondholders to come. many americans wouldn't go because they were fearful they'd end up meeting with sanctioned individuals in charge of the renegotiation. hearing that , indeed, there wa a panel presented to the few bondholders that showed up told very few participants it included sanctioned individuals. we presume that means vice president of the country, el asemi who the u.s. department of justice says is drug kingpin they read a press release. there were no questions. anybody who traveled there, it appears, was a big waste of time at this point, kelly. >> can't say it's totally shocking. >> no.

>> they're still trying to maintain some semblance of normalcy what seems like an inevitable default, right >> yes, i think that's true. we've seen them very late on very many payments recently. clearly they're having cash flow problems bondholders were waiting to see is would they actually have some kind of plan about how they would restructure the economy or do something that would prove that any kind of new bonds they bought they could eventually pay them that doesn't appear to be what happened so at this point, very little clarity for the bondholders. >> zpra yield of 132% on that o. >> that's what happens yoin think you're going to default, yes. >> exactly thanks, michelle. role of new york fed president has been called the second most important job at the federal reserve. so who could be at the list to replace bill dudley. >> after he announced his lee tir retirement last week steve liesman is here with a look steve? >> thanks very much. replacing dudley comes at a time with the fed under pressure to bring more diversity into the ranks of bank presidents

take a look at this graphic of 135 fed presidents in the history of the fed brookings says there were six women and just three non-whites. one of whom is the president of the atlanta fed. there's also the question about whether new york fed president should be like dudley, an economist. this after president trump nominated jerome powell to be the new fed chair. he is not. they're also looking for someone with strong banking, strong markets experience, but someone not beholden to either banks or the markets. so here's some of the names we're hearing b ining bandied an in the search that will take six to nine months peter blair henry, dean of the new york sterns school sandy o'connor of jp morgan. has regulatory affairs brian sack, once had a top job at the fed, as did peter fisher. also at the treasury, seth carpenter, ubs chief economist who was also in charge of financial markets for the -- sorry, at the treasury and has 15 years at the federal reserve. one more list to look at, a couple sort of fed current

members, robert kaplan, dallas fed president, been mentioned along with fed governor lael brainard and simon potter. the search as i said, guys, will take six to nine months. if you want to know how important diversity is, they hired two search firms, one of those search firms, bill, specializes in diversity >> of thought? >> yeah. thank you, steve. >> calls for that, too. >> sorry for the awkward pause there. see you later. thanks that is an important position. >> well, and they had no -- as you see, there was more than 100 people who -- there's no diversity. so, understandable. 12 minutes left in the trading session here the dow is up nine points. starting to lose altitude. we were down 78 points, up about 40 we'll see how he finish. walmart announcing it's raising prices online to help drive traffic into physical stores as it competes with

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art cashin ran by here a moment ago and told us the market on close orders show an imbalance to the sell side of

$750 million i think we've seen the impact of that already seeping into the market here the dow has been loosing altitude we're just up 20 points as we head toward the close here. >> in a break from its lowest-price policy, walmart reportedly decided to charge higher prices on its website than it does in stores for the same items it's the latest move in walmart's efforts to compete with amazon. but will it get more people into those stores >> so tiwill it be walmart or an who do you like going into the holiday season avery sheffield, manager at brandywine global, our walmart bull liz dunn, founder and ceo of o proforma inc, our amazon bull. do you buy this notion, strategy, seems odd, going to raise prices on certain consumer items on their website with a thought that it will drive people to the stores yes? >> i think it's a great idea. >> really? >> yes i think -- stepping back a bit, the reason that the retailers have lost -- have lost so many customers is because they've offered a fundamentally inferior customer experience, right

you haven't known what the price is going to be they've actually often beenless expensive than walmart why lose money online delivering the incredible value proposition you offer in store and while -- then also not highlighting the fact that you're much less expensive when you actually show up and they now have the inventory availability to demonstrate that you can buy online and pick up in store i think this is a way to demonstrate their value pop sigs is very strong in store and a way for them to stop losing money on sales that weren't profitable in the first place. >> liz, part of this, i guess, as well, can cost walmart 10 bucks to ship a thing of kraft mac and cheese they sell for a buck how has amazon gotten it right >> amazon is playing by a different playbook focused on growing the top line. walmart needs to make money. you're seeing this tension here between these two retailers. i think amazon will continue to take market share because they are kind of playing by their own rules. and they think that digital will continue to take market share from stores, amazon will get an

outsized portion of that share and i think walmart, you know, needs to make money. i don't understand why they went out and bought jet.com, though just to turn around and tell mark lore and team that they need to make money now you know, because it seems like a pretty risky proposition or an expensive bet to go out and buy a sports car to then ask the sports car to pick up the kids from soccer practice. >> what do you say >> so i would say that walmart has the lowest -- ability to be the lowest-cost retailer for consumers to shot autoin the t.n 4,600 stores with 1,000 items per store if you're a customer and you want the best value proposition, you're going to go to walmart long term. by the way, the reason why i became a walmart bull, i was looking for an item i originally would buy on amazon. i noticed it looked like to be double the price i initially purchased it for a couple years ago. i went to walmart.com, it was half the price. >> you think even at walmart.com they can be the lowest price retailer >> absolutely. >> not just in the stores? >> absolutely. >> are they getting their

money's worth to liz's point >> absolutely, mark is one of the most talented internet executives out there he founded diapers.com, soap.com which amazon purchased he worked for amazon for two years, absolutely knows amazon's playbook he has the talent and the authority and budget to do whatever he needs to do to make walmart the winner in e-commerce. >> all right thank you, both. appreciate your thoughts avery sheffield, liz dunn joining us today. up next we come back with the closing countdown with the dow up 22 points right now. after the bell, tesla ceo elon musk says thursday's reveal of the long-awaited semitruck will, quote, blow your mind. we'll look at whether -- excuse me -- >> we're going to look at whether musk's promises tend to ypve up to their he. that's still to come on "closing bell." >> thank you. >> i think

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$1.40, only ten points so the dow would be positive even if ge today that's what a price-weighted average will two for you. >> two other potential deals we're keeping an eye on here now we learned has squln bbro me offer for mattel both of them going higher here especially mattel. they had more room to go on the upside. >> trouble for mattel, they cut their dividend twice, essentially there is no dividend anymore. twice this year. very rare distinction for a company. >> decent gain for has squln kbr hasbro as well qualcomm said no thank you to broadcom $105 billion offer for the chip company they said was too low. they want more. >> would have been fun to cover that. >> you think it's dead >> i don't know if it's dead, certainly looks like tair trying to kill it from their point of view the answer is they may come back with a better bid. can i point out before we go, dow utilities, historic high again today. all the big new highs were in the utilities. the lower yields that we're seeing making utilities, again,

competitive. there's your one sector, another historic high. there it is. look at that up 17%, almost 16.5% this year if line with the s&p. >> tauhank you, bob. welcome back, too, by the way. dow up 24 on the close here. a lot to cover here. also what's going on in washington with the tax reform we'll bring you up to date on that with the second hour on the "closing bell" with kelly evanst and company. see you tomorrow, kell thank you, bill. welcome to the "closing bell," everybody. i'm kelly evans. here's how we're finishing up. i should say up and down day on wall street. anyway, the dow managing to go out with a gain of 20 points we were down about 70 there at the open fought back. 20-point gain despite a huge decline in shares of general electric today meanwhile the nasdaq composite up a tenth of a percent. so was the s&p 500 the russell 2000 did close in the red. there are ge shares closing down

more than 7% making it the biggest drag on the dow today. after cutting its dividendivid w lowering its guidance. kevin o'leary will join us with his top dividend picks for yield hunters who may be burned by ge now and tell us where he's seeing red flags. joining me, cnbc seniors market commentator michael santoli along with rob cox from reuters breaking news and kim forest from ft. pitt capital welcome, everybody the biggest winner today, home depot, the biggest loser was ge. over in the s&p the big winner was mattel on potential deal news with hasbro and the loser was also ge. general electric, its worst day since april of 2009. the company announced a turnaround plan including cutting its dividend by half and cutting its boston corporate staff by 25% michael? >> yeah, you know, i think investors were braced for some radical moves. certainly i think braced for a dif depd cut ge kind of reduced that base line of earnings and cash flow for next year upon which they

hope to build to a level that was low enough that was just not able to make the stock look cheap right here i do think today was almost a maybe part of the capitulation process by investors, tremendously heavy volume. a lot of people saying, look, we don't really see the light at the end of the tunnel here maybe that is a sign that slowly it can turn. >> rob, those shares were down about 40% now year to date i'm sure the company was hoping maybe that bottom was already in maybe with this news they'd start to see a rebound that's what happened initially on the announcement but not her at the close. >> there were shocking bits to this if you look at it, they actually have sacked their board -- half of their board they have 18 people on the board. they're going to 12. they're adding three so you go, nine or gone. that just tells you there was something revealing to flannery's gone in there and, what, six months into it, he has completely turned an aboutface on the company's strategy, on its outlook, on its entire face to the world i think that's -- i think a lot of people look at this and go, all right, this is not just something where it's going to

take, you know, three months, six months, this is a full restructuring. and you got to have, you know, do you want your money to be sitting in that for a year, two years, before you finally see something at the end of the tunnel i'm not so sure. you do. >> kim, do you guys? >> it well, you know, it's tricky but they do have really great assets ge jet engines is a big asset, why we've been in this stock for a very, very long time and even though power isn't exactly burning up the place, pun intended, it's still a powerful component for the company. so there are parts of it, but it is going to be a really tough slog, i think, for owners from here on out until the vision really starts to be executed >> so you're not owners of it yet. >> no, no, we have -- we currently own a position in it and we've held it for a very long time. >> long enough that you're burned >> long enough that we're

burned. >> okay. you're hanging on to it still. >> everybody who's holding this basically is burned. >> yes. >> more than a five-year low at this point. >> yeah, yeah, yeah. >> if you bought it in the crisis, you're doing okay. >> right right. it's very low. let's talk about a merger ho monday hasgrow ma hasbro making an offer for mattel today even though the terms of the potential deal aren't yet known. mattel still had its best day in 30 years on that news. on the flip side, qualcomm's board of directors unanimously rejected the bid from broadcom qualcomm ceo paul jacobed noted the proposal, quote, significantly undervalued qualcomm, mobile technology and our future growth prospects. still qualcomm shares were up 3% broadcom roughly unchanged then "new york post" reporting tom rutledge is looking for more acquisitions john malone is reportedly more

interested in selling charter. the stock up a percent and a half today. >> seems like it's the season or point in the cycle where it's decide who your partner's going to be one way or the other, where you're going to fit into the future of your industry. all that stuff i think plays into all these situations. the qualcomm deal i think is not very surprising. not only do they think that stock does not -- broadcom does not have a ton of room to maneuver here. doesn't have the balance sheet, may not have regulatory clearance. so a lot of this stuff i think is easy for them mattel/hasbro fascinating. you're seeing a lo the of these secularly challenged companies decide let's get together with our arch rivals and go after the bigger enemy >> rob, in -- it's funny to think there might be antitrust concerns with toy companies. the same time, you don't want there to be a monopoly on toys driving up the prices. is there any kind of concern about that today that would keep these companies from uniting forces >> this is the fascinating overhang of antitrust policy that i think is actually going to be tested now that donald trump has his

person in at the department of justice overseei ining antitrus, the first real test case is going to be the at&t/time warner thing. they're taking a harsh line about vertical integration, so much so at&t says it would upturn 40 years of antitrust policy, right? so a lot, you know, but then, again, look, 50% of the doll market, apparently, would be held by hasbro/mattel. you have to look at the market, right? like, so, what are the bigger factors that are impacting these guys is it going to be the fact that toys "r" us has gone bankrupt because online is now the thing, and, you know, so it's really the marketplace is really shifting i think every single one of these deals you really do have to look at on their own. it's not like there's an oh my god, stocks are up, merger monday i think we're going to be every single one you have to look through the prism of a really shifting antitrust environment. >> kim, i want to get your thoughts. first, we have more developments on steve jurvetson,

today stepping down from his firm dfj after allegations of sexual harassment. josh joins us this hour with details. josh >> kelly, steve jurvetson just took to twitter to confirm he would be leaving dfj as you noted in the wake of that investigation into sexual harassment at the firm remember, kelly, jurvetson also does sit on the boards of both space-x and tesla and those companies telling cnbc in a statement just now, steve jurvetson is on a leave of absence from the space-x and tesla boards pending resolution of these allegations." you know, kelly, steve jurvetson is friends with elon musk, a big believer in elon musk. i've interviewed jurvetson a few times for cnbc he is a great believer in elon musk and his investments they share a number of passions including all things space-rela space-related. when you go to jurvetson's office, it's a virtual private space museum telling cnbc jurvetson will be

on a leave of absence from those boards kelly, back to you. >> josh, thank you kim, do you guys have a lot of overlapping investments. i know you're a big tech b investor would there be reason to look at his involvement, maybe his lack thereof going forward? >> are we talking about the qualcomm or the venture capital guy? >> yeah, in the case of steve jurvetson, i'm wondering if he has to take a step back given his involvement in a lot of investments it sh. >> sure. >> -- is that a red flag for you? >> i think these are venture capital more so probably than equity or bond portfolio managers it's a very personal view about a company. and they also have a lot of input into these companies so when people leave venture capital, it is a red flag. and if you're an owner, i think you'd have to take a good hard look at continuing on in their funds or not

>> yeah. i also did want to circle back to you just on that last point we were making of one of the deals being this tie-up between haskbroe a hasbro and mattel, kim does that make you an owner of a space? as i understand it, s.t.e.m., science and tech focused toys for young women, have have been making a lot of inroads and certainly for boys as well. >> sure. >> against the toys they currently offer. >> i think there's a low barrier to entry in the toy business it's probably more a matter of distribution and with, you know, online becoming such a large part of buying products, you know, you could probably talk your way into getting amazon to take a look at your toys so i think this is great that they are banding together to try to do, you know, a little -- be a bit more powerful? the marketplace. but it may be too late for both of these companies >> would you own them, either one? >> to. not right now. >> okay. let's talk about regional banks. getting a boost after senate lawmakers reached a deal to ease

some post-crisis bank rules. the deal, banks with $250 billion in assets from increased joifr sight from the fed and exempt banks under $100 billion in assets from annual stress tests. big day for regional banks. >> this was a hoped for development. it was kind of understood they were going to try to draw this threshold. definitely good time for a bounce you had the ten year firm up a little bit this has been a weak sector, hard to escape notice that basically the last week or so that banks have been sagging so this was actually probably a welcome relief in that area. >> rob, there have been reports about some of these banks trying to shed their bank holding companies to avoid fed regulation and, you know, just try to eliminate at least one layer of the many regulators they do have to report to. what's your takeaway >> well, my takeaway is you're going to see m&a in consolidation now in the $250 billion range. i mean, there's still, like, a third of a target's cost cuts or costs you can rip out with these deals.

i mean, if you were worried about -- let's say you're $20 billion, margin of $50 billion, whatever it might be, the threshold basically kept you because you had to make the calculous, am i go iing to pay more in sort of increased complexity costs and capital requirements, blah, blah, blah, all the stuff that comes with being -- came with having fed oversight. now i guess you could make the case for doing it. so i would have thought one of the reasons that people are excited, investors are excite kd, they'll see some m&a in that space. >> makes a lot of sense. certainly keep our eyes peeled for that. finally the senate finance committee today began to mark up its tax reform bill, president trump is calling for tweaks to the gop tax plan he did tweet "how about ending the unfair, highly unpopular individual mandate in obamacare and reducing taxes even further? he said "cut the top rate to 35% with all the rest going to middle income tax cut. mike, we know he's wanted this does he get the move on removing the individual mandate the senate's plan does have the

top rate at 35% as i understand it where are we >> in terms of the individual mandate, this has been something that was thrown out there to potentially, i don't know if it's going to ease the way or just adds complexity to the whole process. i really don't know. what does seem clear, though, is the committees in the senate and the house are writing this bill. they're not really in the mode right now of taking direct input on details from the white house even i think because they want to just get things through committee and then hash it out in reconciliation. >> kim, how closely are you following -- i mean, this would be a big deal as we know for maybe corporate earnings next year. >> right. >> as we try to figure out whether this thing even happens and how much they're going to lower the rate if theyinvestor >> i'm still going to look at the corporate rate i think that really plaert matd more matters to the nonpublic companies and i think the president knows this and, you know, has been trying his best to, you know, get this -- get something to happen and get tax

cuts to happen for corporations. again, as an equity analyst, specializing in traded companies, i don't know that it's going to have all that much effect on most of my companies, but it will have an effect on smaller nonpublic companies and that, you know, extra money floating around the economy should do better for -- should drive the economy somewhat >> yeah. that's the hope. rob, we're out of time but in a word, we'll give you the last word does this bill get done, yes or no >> i'd say it's 60% chance it gets done. so that's better than 50%. what i said last time. >> and better than 40% always kind of the go-to hedge rob, thank you very much rob cox, kim forrest as well. >> thank you. >> thank you both for joining us. tough times may have started when that i got rid of the toaster ovens. ge is completely transforming the company. up next, we will look at the biggest changes, the big dividend cut and what other companies may have dividends at risk. the senate markup is under

way for the tax reform bill. major differences do exist over at the house we'll look at the most contentious areas still ahead on the "closing bell". we want to hear from you, contact the show on twitter, facebook, over e-mail. let us know at ywhou think you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide

shares of general electric sank today and closed down 7%. now down more than 40% this year john flannery laid out plans to turn things around he announced ge will slash the dividend in half and focus on power, aviation and health care equipment units. it's also trimming the board and revising the compensation program. investors did not seem impressed today. is the bleeding near an end? let's ask graham copley from ssr. and scott davis who's here at post 9 from melias research. guys, thanks for being here. graham, why do you think the shares reacted so poorly today >> i think it's a simple answer, kelly, he slashed the dividend which everyone was expecting he gave much more conservative guidance for '18, but that was all they did they didn't really explain why they want to keep the businesses

together that they're keeping together they talked about the company being too complex. but they really haven't set out a plan to make it any less complex. and so i think there's a lot of doubt cast as to what this company can really earn. not just in '18, but '19 as well and i think that's what has the investor base somewhat scared. this is a company that can make, you know, 1 buck a year for the next three years, why do i want it >> and scott, the other read, i guess, in what wasn't said or what was implied i get is there's been this accumulation of, you know, kind of either living beyond the company's means or not reckoning with exactly how profitable business is, what the cash sold levels really are so where are they in that process of trying to kind of come to terms with that? >> well, i think that's one of the disappointments from today is flannery had an opportunity to really set the stage for, hey, these are the sins of the past, here's how we move forward. he had an opportunity to really throw his prior, jeff immelt,

under the bus and the board. how does a company drop earnings 50% literally overnight in a macro expansion? it's just unbelievable i don't think we've heard the end of this yet. >> do you think they've made some wrong decisions here, then? >> yeah, i mean, i think they've made terrible decisions. >> i mean today. >> oh, today well, the reality is is that flannery needed to do more the stock price tells you everything you need to know at this point cutting in dividend was part of the show the bigger show is the businesses shouldn't be together i mean, he talked as graham said, flannery talked about it being too complex of a company and complexity being one of their main problems yet he didn't do anything to address that personally i think that's why the stock was down. >> graham, if it's the case that health care, aviation, and power don't really have any obvious synergies, why leave them together or does this especially with the share price reaction start to point toward a breakup? >> well, i hope that it does, kelly, but i think -- we talked back in june about the problem of hiring an insider to do this job and i think today we saw an

insider's presentation of how to remake ge. which is basically do a little bit at the edges but keep the core together. the only way he's going to make the company less complex is to break it into much more substantial pieces and holding on to the energy business is just not -- makes no sense at all >> if there becomes a core sort of stump of ge, which one is that is it aviation, is it health care >> i think you sell the pieces you can sell, frankly. rather than try and create something, you know, on paper to begin with if there's a good price for the health care business, sell it. if aviation has a good public market value, spin it out. and see what you're left with. but power is the real problem company. that's the one that needs the work >> yeah. scott, real quickly, john flannery is going to be back on the network tomorrow morning in an interview. last time the shares reacted quite well they felt like he was candid, he kind of came clean about the problems what are you expecting from him tomorrow

>> well, last time he did fantastic job. today he fell flat unfortunately. and we don't know why. i think he needed to announce something bigger explain why he's not spinning out health care, why he's not doing something in the power business needs to cut costs to a much greater extent than he announced today and be accountable for where it's trading now 100 days on the job and straight down for 100 days. >> all right it's a tall order. thank you, both, scott davis and graham copley joining us to talk about shares of general electric. with that 50% dividend cut at ge, lot of people wondering what other dividends might be at risk here. there are alternative stocks where investors should be looking for yield -- money to put their yield. yield -- anyway. kevin o'leary joins us he's chairman of oshares etfs and co-host of "shark tank." sarah hunt is here, a portfolio manager at alpine funds. sarah, the core question is where should you go for yield now? what should you avoid that might also be at risk here >> well, i think you had a big scare are energy prices being a lot lower a few months ago and a year ago

all of a sudden those dividends seem a lot less at risk now than they did then and big majors look pretty good we still own bp, still like the dividend there some sectors look like they're at risk like retail, sectors like telecom you have a combination of you need the cash flows so you can invest in your business and pay a dividend if you're a dividend payer. when those cash flows start to overwhelm or the dividend becomes too big, companies start to get into trouble. areas where it looks like revenue could be falling, those are places you need to be a little bit wary and the cash isn't coming in the way it used to. >> kevin, what about you >> i like sort of a back-of-hand rule when i look at dividends. s&p, s.e.c. yield is just around 2% so if you ever see a company that's three times that amount, let's say 6%, you know bad things are about to happen basically, if a stock is trading at $10 and has a 3% dividend and gets cut to $5, sort of the ge story. for a while the dividend looks

like it's 6% it's just a warning signal i think to derisk the port foal dwr portfolio these days, i like traditional names that have les leverage j&squlr j&j, exxon p&g. household names, boring as hell but really safe for the next year i think volatility is going to return a little taste of it today when the consumer sector really performed. it's a very boring sector. >> i guess, sarah, the question is, what should investors do instead of looking to stocks for pure yield kevin mentioned some boring stocks what's even more boring is investing at great corporate bonds at 3%, 3.5%. if that's what your game is to just get the yield, maybe stocks that look like day have a juicy yield are a warning in themselves. >> i think the trick ty thing i fixed income has come down interest rates on fixed income has come down so far

corporate yooelields at 3%. you compressed those spreads so tightly that people are looking for stocks and they're also hoping for little capital appreciation as well as that, which they're not looking for in the bonds. i think when you've got bond yeel yields down to the point, you're matching stock yields or lower than stock yields, people are going to keep looking at stock yields again, you have to be careful, what is the cash flow coming in, what do they need for the dif de dividend, what do they need for their business one of the reasons consumer goods were doing well for a while, they were stable dividend players and people were willing to pay higher multiples for them the multiples have come in but they're paying the dividends. >> names like macy's, at&t, does the high dividend, itself, tell you to stay away or do you have to look more it closely? >> to, i look at return on assets i look at free cash flow i look at how much debt is on the balance sheet. all of those matter as well. if you have too much debt and you're putting too much cash to service it, rates do go up

because we vice president really f haven't figured out if the fed is going to raise -- leverage now as rates start to increase is going to be a problem for lots of balance heights particularly if retail right now fixed income isn't an interesting place yet. if we continue to see rates increase on basically junk debt, i mean j&k has had a pretty rough ride because people are getting worried those companies can't perform well in a rising rate environment some point at a 5%, 6%, 7% yield, i might get interested again in credit. >> is all right. that's the benchmark thank you, both, kevin o'leary, sarah hunt, joining us talking dividends there. now as we speak, the senate has begun its markup of the tax bill yesterday, house ways & means committee chair kevin brady said firmly the house will not accept a bill that eliminates the state and local tax deduction in its entirety which is what the senate bill currently proposes up next, we'll look at where the

bill stands right now. and elon musk's tesla may be struggling to fulfill orders for the model 3 but it's not stopping him from announcing more new vehicles for america's roadways a look at his next big announcement coming up ♪

i can't wait for her to have that college experience that i had. the classes, the friends, the independence. and since we planned for it, that student debt is the one experience, i'm glad she'll miss when you have the right financial advisor, life can be brilliant. ameriprise we have a news alert on tax reform ylan mui on capitol hill with the details. >> reporter: kelly, nbc news confirmed president trump will

be coming to capitol hill on thursday he'll be speaking to house republicans ahead of the planned floor vote on the tax reform bill now there is still lots of differences between the house version of the bill and the that the's version of the bill that still need to be ironed out. i'm outside the senate finance committee hearing today where they are debating some of those contentious issues that are still outstanding. such as the estate tax the senate version of the bill would double the exemption for individuals to $11 million while the house acceleration of the bill would double the exemption but then get rid of the estate tax all together after seven years. another hot-button issue is the state and local tax deduction. on that issue, it's the senate that gets rid of that deduction entirely the house version of the bill would just limit the deduction to $10,000 for property taxes. now, ways & means committee chairman kevin brady has already drawn a line in the sand essentially saying that full repeal is not going to fly in the house.

so that is one issue to watch in the coming weeks as well president trump today threw himself into the mix i wonder if he'll bring this up on thursday. he tweeted about his desire to lower the top rate for individuals to 35% he also wants to see a repeal of the individual mandate included in any legislation that goes forward. now, on that top rate for individuals, both in the house and the senate, lawmakers have put this off the table for some time now because making the numbers work was simply too difficult. on the individual mandate, i'm told that senate leadership is coming under heavy pressure from conservative groups to include that in the tax bill however, that's not the direction they want to go, but i wouldn't rule it out entirely because repealing the individual mandate, kelly, does get them several hundred billion dollars that can start to look really tempting when they're trying to pay for some of those tax cuts back over to you. >> that's true, ylan thank you. ylan mui with the latest on lit.

time for a cnbc news update, let's get over to sue herera. >> here's what's happening at this hour, everyone. prosecutors in pennsylvania announcing new charges against 17 members of a former fraternity at penn state university this after authorities recovered deleted video that showed some members of the fraternity serving alcohol to 19-year-old timothy piazza who later died falling down the basement steps. jurors in the bribery trial of new jersey senator bob menendez sent a judge a note saying they can't reach a unanimous verdict on any of those charges. the judge excused the jurors for the day, told them to return tuesday to continue deliberating. ivanka trump and treasury secretary steven mnuchin discussed the gop tax reform plan in new jersey today ivanka has been promoting the plan at appearances throughout the country. the proposals in congress right now pose some problems for new jersey residents. and new medical guidelines just released have lowered the threshold for high blood

pressure adding 30 million americans to those who have that condition. that means nearly half of u.s. adults now have high blood pressure the new guidelines drops the top reading to 130 over 80 from 140 over 90. that's the news update this hour kelly, back downtown to you. >> sue, thank quyou very much. >> you got it. >> sue herera. let's take a look how we finished on wall street. the dow did manage to stay in positive territory by 17 points on the bell. the s&p up 2 1/2 the nasdaq up six. the russell turned lower on the bell for the dow and the others, it was a comeback from bigger declines earlier in the session. let's get to some of the other big stories today in our "rapid recap." >> alibaba smashing its singles day record once again. >> allibaba racked up $25 billio in sales jd, alibaba's rival, another $19 billion. >> g.i. joe makes a takeover bid for barbie shares of toy makers mattel and

hasbro up sharply this morning. >> news just breaking from dow component, ge to 12 cents a sha share. >> new ceo john flannery says ge will focus on its core businesses, power being one but also aviation and health care. his plan, exit $20 billion plus in assets over the next two years. >> here it is warts and all. the problem is there's a lot of worts. i mean, like, a huge number. you know, get me to a dermatologist now. >> what the hell, cnn, part of at&t or warner future has nothing to do with any position in terms of what's right or wrong about media consolidation. it's nuts. >> tyson foods, better earnings in the fourth quarter driven by strong demand for chicken and beef. >> consumers want protein and want to all the time it's now the number one health attribute that consumers want in their diet >> yeah, even breakfast cereal the cheerios

it's all about how much protein. >> added protein. >> how long have you been up, did you eat protein this morning? >> i've been up since it feels like yesterday. >> it probably was. >> about 3:00 in the morning you saw me at 5:00 a.m you know -- >> yes, no, that's true -- >> you were up to speed early. >> every morning i set the alarm, 4:59. >> tomorrow as well. >> good luck eat some protein. time now for the "takeaway." we begin with missouri's attorney general launching a probe into google to see whether it has violated the state's antitrust and consumer protection laws. at issue is google's collection of consumer data as well as the issue european regulators find the company over its manipulation of search to favor its own offerings. our feds looked into this years ago, mike, they closed the case. what happens if more states line up behind missouri >> i guess a nuisance becomes a slightly bigger nuisance if more do the interesting thing i think is to be a little cynical about this effort, it's a little bit of an attention-grabber. but it still spotlights some nagging issues that other authorities have also had about google's business. >> i just wonder, has everything become a tobacco thing

if all 50 states get onboard, shake down the company, they can get x millions of dollars. >> i mean, thekind of, again, the cynical take is state attorneys general have a great incentive to sort of grandstand and bring attention and this particular one is running for the senate you never know if this is really about a true concern about customers. >> yeah. >> or if it's just a little bit more of a gesture to say, hey, let's go after the big scary business. >> or know the climate is maybe right to revisit the issue given how big these companies have gotten and concerns people have. >> very true. next, as the bull market rolls on, calpers may be cutting its exposure to bonds. reports say calpers could boost its income to as high as 44% of the portfolio today. equities currently at 50% but could fall to over a third of the portfolio. if they do this, they also have to cut their 7% return target, michael, maybe to 6.5% which requires bigger contributions from taxpayers does any of this make sense to you? >> well, the math makes sense, in terms of -- i think this is

the fix that basically every big fiduciary is in that looks at asset allocation models and looks at expected returns for digit different asset classes. right or wrong, the expected returns should be average for the next ten years what does that mean? should you maybe say, fine, we can tilt away from them, get safer in fixed income which does mean reducing return expectations which is painful but also maybe reflects reality a bit more. >> sort of ironic, this should be some of the longest-term money and feel like you can't take -- forget five or ten years, but a quarter or two of underperformance. >> they can probably take a couple of quarters but what they can't do, in their minds, is another 2008 where their equity position gets cut in half and all of a sudden they're in peril. >> a quandary. they have to get 7%. if they don't, everyone else has to kick money. >> like an individual household that can't let the market do its savings for it, it has to save more the problem is the states and municipalitities have no appetie

for that. ceo of madison square garden steps down outgoing ceo david o'connor has only been there a couple years the stock did sell off on this news, mike what do you make of it >> you know, it doesn't surprise me the stock sold off on the news because of the suddenness of it, zero explanation of what was going on the dolan family had great assets, spun a bunch of them apart. i don't think anyone thought they were the ones to run the business day-to-day. my joke was he wants to take credit for the fact the knicks are finally good only 70 game to go. >> i'm cheering for them every night they're on. >> it's fun to watch the stock was down 2%. only back to the level it was at about 12 days ago. it's been a great stock. people still like the story. maybe there's another shoe to drop in terms of what exactly precipitated -- >> i feel like we need to know more check the "new york post" in the morning. we have a news alert on buffalo wild wings kate rogers has the details.

>> that's right. the stock is moving higher by more than 20% this on a dow jones headline that private equity firm rourke capital made an offer to take over the company. remember, buffalo wild wings is in kind of a slump, facing higher chicken prices. also slower foot traffic in stores and once again, the stock is moving higher, nearly 30% now on this dow jones headline that private equity firm roark capital made an offer to buy it for $2.23 billion. back over to you. >> wow kate, thank you. all right, mike, here we go. 28% higher for buffalo wild wings. the stock has been selling off after some concerns about the operations of the company, whether the last couple years they kind of struggled with the declines in tv -- football ratings and so forth maybe it seems like the right time to do something like this, take it private. you don't want to do it when they're trading at all-time highs. >> came into a zone of below $2 billion market value, balance sheet can be leveraged at this level, too seems like maybe a mid-sized

private equity firm can go with a specialty it seems in the restaurant business. maybe wants to make a go of it as a private company. >> they have to have a pretty long-term view on this. >> sure. >> let me put this out there, five or ten years from now they want to make the exit, nfl games on amazon -- >> i say more likely five than ten. no, obviously those are the big risks. i do think you can maybe -- look, i still think people, maybe i'm wrong about this, are going to go out and watch something. >> yeah. >> as they have beer and wings i do think this is the kind of company that's really lost the faith of investors when it tries to make its numbers quarter to quarter. that's the type of environment where you say, look, take them off the board for a while, see if they can figure it out in private. >> do a little bit of a cleanup. >> see if this is a real bid. >> absolutely. we'll follow that story. take a quick break. first it was cars then it was outer space. now elon musk says he has and nou an announcement thursday that will, quote, blow your mind. we'll find out what's behind that head trip, next ♪ [ keyboard clacking ]

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elon musk making more big promises, this time about the unveiling of the tesla semitruck set to take place this thursday. phil lebeau has the latest on

what we know about it. >> we don't know a whole lot, kelly, he's the master of marketing via the tweet ahead of an unveil. this is the tweet he sent out yesterday. that got a lot of people saying, oh, boy, this is going to be huge tesla semitruck unveiled to be webcast live on thursday at 8:00 p.m. this will blow your mind clear out of your skull. >> save this for elon musk >> before they sent out the tweet. in october of 2014, they were teasing the model s "d" model, dual motor as well as other news coming up. eight days before they unveiled, they sent out the tweet in that

time, shares went up 7%. as you take a look at shares o tesla, you should not be surprised that they were up 4% today. following this tweet they always go higher into an unveil now whether or not this hype lives up to everything in the future, people have to make up their minds after they see the truck and hear about what it can do, et cetera. but as far as tweets teasing events go, he is the master, kelly, and he's doing it once again. >> yes, he is. 4% move on that. phil, thank you very much. phil lebeau. facebook and twitter are already established as social need what giants but with major user growth, reddit could soon be catching up coming up, the company's chief executive will talk about how the company could be set to disrupt social media and today's closing word is interest i'll tell you why coming up. if you'd have told me three years ago... that we'd be downloading in seconds, what used to take... minutes. that guests would compliment our wifi. that we could video conference... and do it like that. (snaps) if you'd have told me that i could afford... a gig-speed. a gig-speed network.

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what's it worth to talk to your mom? what's the value of a walk in the woods? the value of capital is to create, not just wealth, but things that matter. morgan stanley reddit, online discussion board has seen nearly 40% year on year user growth. does it have momentum to capture investors' attention the ceo is hoping so he'll join us with the company's ipo plans next. on "fast money" one of wall street's biggest bulls are telling investors to just keep buying jonathan golub will talk about what's got him so excited. stay with us

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b. we have a news alert on seth carmen's hedge fund. seema mody has the details seema? is. >> that's right. of course the value investing hedge fund dissolving its entire stake in qualcomm. keep in in mind its stake was a $300 million holding also initiating aing in stake in amc entertainment. that stock is down about 60%, and also adding to the position in al allergan those are just some of the big moves. back to you, kelly. >> seema, thank you. just to reiterate. this is going back to the end of september. >> that's right. >> a lot could happen between now and then long-term contrarian when you very devalue, you're buying some stuff that's been banged up you. >> amc is real interesting

all day krvmt nbc has been at the virtual circle, where top leaders are sharing ideas. julia boorstin is out there, now joined by reddit's co. >> steve, thanks so much for joining you. >> my pressure. >> you have a redesign launching early next year and today announced a new chat feature kind of like slack, how do they fall in to compete with the other services. >> we're trying to make it the home of community and connection online, so wee trying to create as many surface areas to connect and share whatever it is they want to talk about >> how much do you think your changes will help about revenue. i have a 1.8 billion -- >> the is a try opportunities.

reddit is already big, but we can be larger. there's a bit after disconnect, like an incredible place, and what you might encounter today, which could be hard to -- at first. i think we can always grow more, but i think with the -- more users comes more revenue >> so what does it say about your ipo plans >> well, our investors -- i think when somebody invests at that valuation, they expect a sniismgs return. that's the contract we sign up for. both for or employees as well, where compensation is largely through equity, you know, here in the bay, and we're no different. so i think we have an obligation to find liquidity for our people at some point. >> time frame? >> we have a little way toss go yet. >> three years four years >> i would say at least, but it's not hard to say

we'll give you plenty of warning. >> okay. kel kelly? >> i'm still stuck on the word grok you're going to get unbelievable scrutiny does that mean you'll do more to clean up the site? >> yes and no. we want to clean up the site regardless it's always been i think the last couple users in tick lan an effort of hours. we have viewpoints this cover pretty much every topic, whiches think is one of our best strengths, but it also means we need to be more strict about our content and time but at the same time we also, you know, wand reddit to stay it it will always be edgier than some of our peers. we think about it as the most human place on the internet. we don't want to lose that, either. >> who do you consider your peers? do you think ear up again facebook and twitter

do you see the threat of them trying to create some of your more popular features? >> we do compete with all, and what do they do with their down time you can come, and laugh and learn and give advice and receive support, and all sorts of wonderful things that people do when they're together so we think less about them and more about how do we make the user experience on reddit as best it for him be >> well, we looked forward to seeinged redesign and more as you inch towards the ipo back over to you. thank you, and steve huffman, and monthly active users on par with twitter with reddit >> yeah. >> i would have guessed may 350%. >> mass it's more dispersed but it is an impressive number

i wonder what they can do in terms of data, in terms of determining trends. >> i wonder if the users want to scribble out of that data. 332 million active monthly users. today's closing word is "interest. we'll tell you why, next ♪

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a story in the "wall street journal" today claims tlblgd be cracks in citigroup's credit card strategy, and one of those could be due to the bank offering lengthy 0%-interest period a a number of cards over the past three years, they have mailed over 2 billion offers to u.s. households for periods up to 2 is months. that's about twice the industry average for a promotional period, but the strategy could come back to haunt the bank. according to numbs in the meantime the top four banks made $4 billion from the businesses just from july to september outstanding credit card debt hit a record $1 trillion earlier this year. despite record debt, citi reported a 1% decline in revenue for branded cards in north america last quarter over the summer, citi lowered its return on assets for branded

cards, on the earnings call last month, the cfo said the company made a conscious distortion to shift away from awards production the shift has caused a near-term dampening effects on revenues the journal points out there's a growing interest in rewards cards, which may once again shift the strategy and follow that consumer demand. >> it shows you how promotional the business is, so they have this choice between paying up for rewards or giving 0% balance transfer things, 0% cards. what that -- by definition, that means when the credit cycle turns, you're going to be caught, right? because you're going to have all these balances, and by the way, who takes you up on those? people who are kind of maxed out on other cards, so it seems like a bit of risks that's encroaching on the portfolio probably nothing critical yet, but just dampening returns. >> what choice do they have? >> i agree

they really don't have much choice there's a lot of capacity in the banking industry for lending it's kind of a -- it's a scale business. >> do you think they would be rewarded if they pulled their horns in probably not >> oh, you should have been more prudent. something to watch thanks as always, mike good luck tomorrow morning that's it for "closing bell." "fast money" starts right now. >> "fast money" starts right now overlooking times square the traders are pete najarian, tim seymour karen finerman and -- and if history is any indication there's even more games ahead. walmart is striking back at amazon with higher online prices, and the stock is on track for the best years since 1999 that might b