we'll see how this story develops as we head into the time hour of trading. >> 31 years ago in 1986, i wrote my first cover story, i think it was my first cover story for money magazine on tax reform it was lower rates and fewer deductions equals tax reform that's where we're going 31 years later >> "closing bell" starts right now. hi, everybody, welcome to the "closing bell" today, i'm kelly evans at the new york stock exkachange. >> i'm bill griffeth we have the same numbers yesterday they were red, today they're green. pretty much a rebound. ned we were talking about weakness in the market stocks today are surging for the most part. strong earnings from walmart and cisco. both of them are just booming today. plus as you know, the house just voted to pass its version of the tax reform bill is that one of the reasons for this all clear for stocks?

we'll talk about that coming up. speaking of taxes, coca cola ceo tells cnbc what he would do with a corporate tax cut we'll have all of those details coming up. then there's best buy, it's sitting out the rally today. down pretty sharply. in fact, it's off the lows right now. less than 4% decline is the iphone to blame, iphone x to blame we have a debate on best buy coming up here. we begin, though, with the breaking news. stocks hitting session highs as the house passes the tax bill. ylan mui, our intrepid reporter on capitol hill has the latest for us right now ylan >> reporter: bill, that final tally is 227-205, that is a comfortable margin of victory for republicans. they said they were going to get this done by thanksgiving. no one really believed them. they were able to pull it off. republican leadership held a press conference to celebrate. >> from the very start, we said that failure is not an option and the president and his team have worked so constructively

every step of the way with us. he's been a tremendous partner on this issue. >> reporter: president trump was on capitol hill earlier today to see this bill over the finish line lawmakers are told me that he has been very engaged in this process, but now all eyes turn to the senate. majority leader mitch mcconnell has issued a statement saying that his chamber is making real progress on its own tax plan, the senate finance committee is debating its plan right now and there is still a lot of question, knothough, what the future of that plan will be, how many senators will actually come out against it however, republicans with ill be able to go home for thanksgiving break with something to show as a success. back over to you guys. >> i'm sure they're relieved about that ylan, thank you very much. joining us to talk more about today's vote, terry haynes from evercore isi and terry bonson thank you, guys. thank you for being here terry, let me start with you

you still think the odds of success here are pretty high even after ron johnson came out against this yesterday why? >> well, fundamentally, kelly -- >> fundamentally, kelly -- >> day have the votes lined up. >> hang on, guys one at a time. terry haynes first. >> thank you thank you, bill. fundamentmental fundamentally, i think what's happening here, what ron johnson wants, for example, is he wants some work done on passthroughs he's said that he's said that he's interested in working the leadership has said they're interested in working with him got to figure out how to get the yes. that's always the case many senate legislation i think the markets have not seen major legislation other than spending bills pass for about seven or eight years now so you're going to have to get used to a little bit of this rope-a-dope. fundamentally, there's to reason to assume the senate is not going to be ongouboard when the time comes. >> daviding what were you going

to say >> i'm sorry about that. >> that's all right. >> what i was going to say, they've done the political discounting as to what they have to do to get different people onboard. i thought it was very interesting this week that the assumption was by adding this repeal of the obamacare mandate, they thought they were going to lose some votes, whether it be mccain or susan collins, somebody like thereat. in reality, what they were doing is picking up rand paul's vote there's a lot of intentional political work going on. to his point, the ron johnson issue, i think, is wise for senator johnson to hold to some of that bridge going into conference to kind of get some improvement and clarity and flatlining around that passthrough treatment. senator johnson is is not going to get everything he wants but i think he's going o gto get enou to get him onboard and probably improve the bill in the meantime. >> terry, what's that going to look like if everything you want to give back to someone cost the you money so if they do something to placate him, does that mean more temporary cuts

and that sort of thing >> well, my view of this, kelly, all along has been, really two things one, markets need to understand that we're in a substance-free zone now what this is about is about holding on to the fundamentals of tax reform and at the same time bringing up the pay fors enough to be able to pay for it. so, yeah, it's going to be a little bit of horse trading that goes on, but fundamentally, what this is about is about holding onto the structure of aggressive corporate tax cuts the individual tax cuts that have been talked about and keeping it within the budgetary lines of this small static increase in deficits that's been -- that's been agreed to by the house and the senate everything else is fungible, but everything else is less important than getting those things done for politicians. >> david, i'm getting slightly ahead of ourselves here since the senate bill hasn't passed by any means, but given the margin of victory for the republicans today in the house, they've got

some room to give here, do you think that maybe they -- the bill that finally comes s out of conference will have to look more like the senate's since they have more onerous rules, the byrd rule and so forth than the house does right now >> there's no question there's another reason for it, too, bill. the house after the senate passes their bill is going to have unbelievable political pressure to basically just take what's been given to them. i think that what the senate ends up approving will be what the final bill ends up being with maybe a couple minor tweaks i agree with what terry said -- >> so i'm sorry, so does that mean that you expect a one-year delay in the corporate tax cut seven individual rates rather than the four in h the house bill, and no deductions for the state and local taxes? i mean, is that what we're really looking at realistically here >> so there's sort of different answers to each of those things. i think what the senate ends up approving is going to be very similar to what the final bill ends up being but the final

senate bill i think is going to have changes primarily on that corporate tax start. i do not think they're going to hold 2019. i think it will come forward to 2018 and i think that's a lot of what the pay for is from the obamacare repeal the s.a.l.t., so-called state and local tax deductibility -- >> right. >> -- i think that that's a goner. i think the house was where they were going to have problems there. they've obviously gotten through that but i think really from an investor standpoint, even though it is true the basic framework is kind of there, it's corporate tax reform driven. there are a couple weeds still that matter. and i think the interest dedux b deductibility for the companies, what formula they use. see volatility in mlps and asset managers, there's still some issues that even though broadly are kind of granular i think have a big investment implication. >> terry, we're out of time. in a word, you think the senate will still have to delay that corporate tax cut?

>> i think the final -- i think the final version of this makes corporate tax cuts effective in 2018 i've always said so. >> wow. >> i still think so. >> all right we will see. thank you, guys. terry haines, david, thanks for joining us today. to the market now. this rally under way the dow up roughly 200 points. joining our "closing bell" exchange, john than corpina from meridian equity partners at post 9. rick santelli at the cme in chicago. john, we're talking about tax reform, it's maybe coincidental the market is rallying as the house passes its version when you consider the strength of a walmart and a cisco today that's powering the dow right now. >> right i mean, coming into today, i think everyone was looking for different headlines to really grab their hands aon we had a selloff in the market earlier in the week on z it's funny as the market moved higher today before the vote came out, there's still alot o

discussions about tax reform, how it's going to look forwamovg forward. earnings season and earnings overnight and this morning helped the marngt. not mu market very light tomorrow. obviouslyfection we lly next we week, holiday week 3 1/2 days of investing. investors and portfolio managers are trying to position themselves today and tomorrow and lot the end of the month move on its own. >> rene, do you think that was the selloff? the nasdaq today was back at all-time intraday highs. >> exactly this vote today i think is va really propelling the nasdaq, small cap stocks in particular tend to be a lot more sensitive to what might be happening as it relates to tax reforms so fra frankly i was a little surprised. we still have to get through the sfa senate we'll see what happens with that. >> that's for sure rick, meantime, same story, same station. the two-year note going to a ten-year high in terms of yield here actually the dollar picked up pace dollar index after the house vote as well what do you see happening today?

>> well, i don't think we have to worry about comping any farther back on a two-year note yield than pretty much october of 2008 because if you start to move much deeper into 2008, the yield mid 2008 was 3% on a 2 year don't see that happening any time soon. if you look at the notion of what interest rates are telling us today and the dollar index, dollar index did rebound a bit but it still is having a problem just getting above what many mechanicians regard as minimal amount to stay in the bull hunt. that would be 94 although it's toying with it finally interest ates, i can understand, rene, jonathan, looking at the tax reform package that passed the house and getting excited about it i get it interest rates dr s didn't move. they've been up three basis points basically all session there was some data that was strong today manufacturing. industrial production. up .9 of 1% is the second best number in 2 1/2 years. have to go back to february 2014

to find a higher number than that and april this year, that was a little more than 1%. o t on the other side of the same day, 77% utilization rates, best since april of '15 manufacturing is holding its own. we were talking about the economy at large yesterday some of the data points have slip add bit all in all, maybe today is just buyers that saw yesterday and jumped in h. i still wouldn't underestimate the horsepower of the stock market for u.s. economy. >> rene, you like some of the industrials here, too, is that right? >> i do. i do you know, there's three different sectors i like in particular and the industrials which had aerospace and defense in there, and some military, infrastructure, rebuild. that sector seems to be kind of growing up a little bit. i also like financials we're in a rising interest rate environment, for the first time in many years a lot of banks, regional banks, some insurance companies, not all of them, and payment platforms are going to do really well and i still like the boring space. which is consumer products

there's a lot of companies that are -- have activists on their board. today on the front page of the "wall street journal" we saw procter & gamble has got some activists on their board ge is going to be embracing and having activists on their board. colgate. so all of those are great companies that pay good dividends, too i like that space a lot. >> jonathan, before we let you go, where do you see opportunities in this market right now? >> i think financial sector like rene said is clearly something everyone has been looking at as we continue to talk about interest rates and the regional banks lending a little bit more it to small businesses think that area has certainly been one that was out of focus five years ago and that's slowly come back in. >> you see the russell rebounding here? i mean, i know a lot of you guys on the floor watch that a lot more than you watch some of the other indices right now. >> we do it's much more encompassing of what our economy is like clearly we've seen a lot of volatility overall momentum has been to that upside. >> only one that hasn't closed at a new high since october. not quite there today even

guys, thank you all. >> tauhank you. >> appreciate your thoughts on today's market action. as we head to the close, the dow up 200 points and hanging there right now. coming up, walmart, a big part of that gain today is at its highest level after reporting blowout earnings including strong online sales growth just ahead, we'll break down those earnings and find out how walmart is managing to find itself competing with its giant rival, amazon. and while walmart jumps, best buy is moving in the opposite direction today falling on results it failed to meet expectations. we've got a bull and a bear squaring off on whether best buy can pull off a big holiday season and we want to hear there you, reach out to the show and share your thought with us on maitters facebook, even over e-il you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide [ keyboard clacking ] [ click ] [ keyboard clacking ]

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have you seen shares of walmart, it's trading like a faang stock. we'll call it -- >> that's music -- >> up more than 10% after those third-quarter results out this morning. courtney reagan joins us with more on that right now courtney >> hi, bill, so walmart teaming up, putting up, rather, another

strong quarter on what the company calls really broad-based strength so they beat analyst estimates on profit and revenue, amlso raising full-year guidance to a range that now sits above the street they're forecasting a pretty happy holiday season u.s. comp store sales were up 2.7% that's the best in eight years it also marks the 13th straight quarter of growing comp sales. walmart does say that 30 to 50 basis points of the comp is slykely a hurricane benefit, but even if you take that out, the comp still would have been the strongest we've seen in years. amazon may be lowering prices at whole foods but walmart posted the strongest food comp in six years. and the cfo says some of it was likely hurricane related but not all of it. it's actually been an improving trend for years thanks to lower pricing, improved food quality and the expanded order online pickup in store grocery option now, walmart's commerce sales contributed 80 basis points to the total comp with net u.s. online sales up 50% year over

year that's actually measured a little bit different than the comp now the growth rate is down slightly from the last two quarters you can see here it's lapping the jet acquisition. that closed in september of last year so an important timing note. now, another factor that analysts largely agree on is walmart's commitment to better pay and training for store employees has ultimately translated into a better shopping experience. stores are cleaner, you get more help when you need it. overall, shoppers seem to be happier. kelly, i think i, for one, sort of underestimated the impact that paying your employees more, training them and offering them sort of other incentives could really do to help the store, but i think it's really working. >> i was thinking about sears in contrast you know, the choice that they made not to invest in their stores over the years and look at walmart, the payoff now. >> yeah. i think it's something definitely to notice everyone that i've talked to said, look, i mean, if you went to a store now versus, say, three years ago, they're noticeably different just the appearance of them. you may not be able to put your finger on it if you don't stu y

dy it like we do here. overall, people sort of have a better experience going into the stores and once they leave >> yeah. that counts if ar l s for a lot. courtn courtney, thank you. courtney reagan. on the flip side, best buy lower today. the shares are only down about 4% they were almost twice as bad this morning. >> joining us to debate that stock, anthony from luke capital. he still likes the stock with a buy rating and $72 price target. and ian from web bush securities who has an underperform rating has a $33 price target good to siee you both. anthony, are you rethinking it what are you doing here? >> i'm not rethinking it in the least bit. this is a strong quarter for best buy 4.4% comp store sales growth aside from last quarter, that would be the best in about seven years. their operating margin was up about 20 basis points. earnings were up 30% year over

year they also -- their guidance for the fourth quarter in terms of comp store sales was up 1% to 3% the fourth quarter tends to be a very, very competitive quarter we have a lot of competitors from mass who get into the consumer electronics space so from those perspectives, i was very pleased with the quarter. i think the valuation is very cheap. if you back out the $7 a share in net -- best buy has on their balance sheet, they're trading ten times my fiscal '18 estimate i think it was a strong quarter from best buy. >> ian, you're a $33 bear here why? >> well, i mean, ultimately if you look at best buy, they've had the best of everything for the last few years what i mean by that is, you've seen circuit city go away, you've seen radio shack go away, you've seen greg go away and now sears is basically going away. so they've had all the benefits of being the last person standing, so to speak, and now that that's all behind them, and they bought back all kinds of stock, which really has been the

way that they've gotten to the earnings numbers, and if you see they upgrade -- they upped the buyback again today, because they don't have a whole lot of other exciting things to say, and now oh, by the way, you've got walmart and amazon coming into the holiday season, and they're going to put all kinds of pressure on best buy. so up here, $54, $55, i'm just not seeing it. >> what do can you think, anthony? i mean, you know, the stock has come far we were just showing there, five-year track record up 300% is this as good as it gets >> i don't think it's as good as it gets by any stretch of the imagination. you know, ian's i think made some good points but, you know, look, circuit city went away years ago. you know, hh greg and radio shack just went away earlier this year. best buy should be able to benefit from that. in terms of walmart and amazon, they're both very strong competitors. no question about that one of the reasons best buy can co-exist with amazon is they brought their prices down so they're virtually there line with amazon. they will also price match amazon and a number of other

retailers including walmart. in terms of investments, you know, it's not just about buying back stock one thing they're investing right now in is smart home i think that's a great opportunity for them as well as in-home advisers. people to actually come to your home and, you know, make recommendations in terms of how you can make your home work better for you so i don't necessarily agree with ian i think there's plenty of white space for best buy going forward. >> okay. ian, real, real quickly, they did say it was matching amazon prices that hurt the quarter a little bit also this iphone x delay once that gets in stores, is it going to be a different story for best buy in a good way >> no. i mean, people go into best buy to buy the iphone, it's like they're also talking about people coming to best buy to buy a lex isus the street is littered wi corpses of companies that tried to compete with amazon on price. if that's the strategy, i wouldn't be there for sure >> all right thanks, guys appreciate it.

anthony, ian, always good to see you both appreciate it. >> thank you we have a news alerts on barns & mobile what's the latest there? >> barnes & noble is responding to activist investor sandal asset management's proposal to go private which we got out a couple hours ago barnes & noble basically saying this deal is not feasible. chairman of barnes & noble says he has no intention to roll his shares into such a transaction and that the company also believes debt financing of $500 million which was proposed by sendell is, quote, highly unlikely now the stock is up 8%, but it is halted due to volatility. we'll see where it re-opens. again, barnes & noble responding to activist investor saying this deal is not bona fide or feasible back to you. >> and if that's the news, hopefully they'll re-open the stock soon so we can look at the reaction. >> wouldn't that be nice >> true. i will point out the stock while up 8% today, it's still down over 32% this year lot of that having to do with the challenges it's facing in

this book market space of course, heightened competition with amazon. >> oh, it's been suffering for a long, long time. >> right. >> so, yeah, we'll see what happens here thanks, seema. see you later. >> as soon as that opens, we will bring it to you. less than 40 minutes to go until the close. dow up 196 about a third of that is probably the amazon move today look, it's not just the dow which is higher. in fact, it's the weakest performer of the major averages. the s&p is up 22 the nasdaq is up 91. the russell is up 22 points. up 1.5% today. up next, liberty media chairman john malone sitting down for an exclusive interview with cnbc today. we'll tell you what the media industry veteran said about consolidation in the space and which company could be the next takeout target. plus billionaire nelson peltz appears to have scored a victory to win a seat on procter & gamble's board after a recount found he had the most votes and by a very slim plarnmargin. insiders know what's likely tr come next a ip to the snick pit.

we' we'll explain what that means when the "closing bell" returns. win an uncertain world?k predictable income pgim sees alpha in real assets. like agriculture to feed the world. and energy to fuel its growth. real estate such as e-commerce warehouses. and private debt to finance transportation and infrastructure. building blocks of strategies to pursue consistent returns over time from over $120 billion dollars in real assets. partner with pgim. the global investment management businesses of prudential.

welcome back strong rally today across wall street making up for a lot of declines we saw yesterday. in the last few sessions nasdaq hit an intraday all-time high earlier russell up for a nice 1.5% gain shares of barnes & noble popped at 1% after a "wall street journal" report, a $9 a share take offer for the company the company came out a moment

ago and basically said it didn't think the deal was viable. shares are moderating but still higher up by 5%. >> that's still a good gain. we'll see. maybe somebody is feeling like the toothpaste is out of the tube, maybe they can't put it back. >> once can you get a specific share number, only at 6.90, way below $9, tells you what the market might think now. meantime the damage from hurricanes harvey and irma across texas, louisiana, florida, puerto rico, that's still being felt not only in those areas, of course, but by property and casualty insurers like the hartford which took a more than $300 million loss from those storms >> here to discuss the aftermath is hartford chairman and ceo christopher swit who's on his way shortly to ring today's closing bell at the new york stock exkang welcome. >> welcome to post 9. >> great to be here >> you guys definitely experienced a hit from the hurricanes how bad was it by the way, not just for you, but how much of an impact, a lasting one, could it have on

the industry >> i miean, you would have to g back at least more than a decade to see the level and destruction of storm activities, you know, for our industry, but more importantly, devastation that was felt by florida, texas, louisiana, just the toll on human life, it just pains us to see. it's been one of the most active catastrophe seasons in the last, you know, 12 years. >> and are you anticipating a pickup in that through the years here now for whatever reason? >> it's hard to forecast, but, i mean, there are a lot of discussion regarding climate change. >> right >> warmer, you know, ocean temperatures melting icecaps. which all are good indicators that we're still going to be in a highly convective storm pattern for a long time. >> how do you prepare for that >> we try to educate our policyholders on good risk remediation. we try to annually, you know, support them with teachings, but ultimately, it's going to be a

cost that all of us are going to bear if there's just more activity over a longer term. >> yeah, we'll see if those nfi -- the flood program changes happen that have been proposed i want to ask you about the economy a little bit more broadly since you do have such a good window into how businesses across the u.s. are doing. how what could you say is the state of affairs and how much are people looking to tax reform, if at all, here? >> you know, i would say that the economy is performing well across, you know, many sectors that we're involved with whether it be construction-related activity, whether it be home-related activity whether it be manufacturing. the economy is performing well i think it's slow and steady it's nothing exuberant it's nothing, you know, terribly slow in certain areas. we are watching inflation pick up in certain areas. you know, so there are pressures beginning to build but generally we're pleased. most people in our industry are economically sensitive to jobs and employment. >> it right. >> we insure a lot of workers, we insure a lot of buildings and activity and our particular group

benefits business. we also insure disability. >> is tax reform going to goose that or is it a nonissue >> it would create some short-term stimulus in our judgment, which would be, again, beneficial for jobs and employment >> i was reading through analyst notes today about your acquisition of the group's benefit division from aetna recently almost to the analyst, they applauded you for the diversification in your portfolio. i was interested each of them also thought maybe, maybe there was a possibility you made that acquisition so you become less likely a merger target of some kind, an acquisition target. was that part of the strategy? they also feel make you'ybe youe going to go out and make more acquisitions as well. >> the latter part's true. we're trying to grow the franchise, the organization. we've been talking to our investors about deploying capital into revenue-producing businesses as opposed to just buying back shares and paying down debt. our strategy is to grow the

firm, and the benefits business has been a core asset for ours for a long, long time. the aetna acquisition just fits so perfectly into our portfolio. >> can you grow from contra connecticut? a lot of companies are feeling like they can't. >> i believe we can. i believe we can we've been able to attract the right talent to connecticut. we have about 19,000 people across the country 7,000 based in connecticut so connecticut's our home. i always tell people, where's the hartford going to go >> right, right. >> they're changing their names for amazon around the country. they might change it for hartford >> maybe maybe. >> christopher swift, i know they're anxious to get you upstairs so you can ring the closing bell today good to see you. >> tarhanks for having me on. >> christopher swift, ceo of the company called the hartford at least for now. time for a cnbc news update. let's get over to sue herera. >> hello, kelly, hello, bill here's what's happening at this hour, everybody. house republicans passing a $1.5 trillion package which will

overhaul corporate and personal taxes. the 227-205 vote comes as democrats point to new estimates showing the bill will boost future taxes on low and middle income americans. los angeles radio news anchor leeann tweeden says democratic senator al franken forcibly kissed her during a 2006 uso tour skit, and then posed for a photo with his hands on her breasts as she slept. franken releasing a statement in which he apologized to her saying he did not remember the skit in the same way, but said he should not have groped her in that photo the federal communications commission adopting new rules that will give phone companies greater authority to block questionable calls from reaching its customers. it's the latest tool against robo calls which can pester consumers multiple times a day and as turkey day approaches, the thanksgiving meal will be a little bitless expense i this year. the american farm bureau says

the average cost for ten people is about $49.12. about 75 cents less than a year ago. turkey is down about 2 cents a pound. during dthat time period i don't know how you feed ten people on under $50, but apparently in some parts of the country, you can that's the -- >> yeah, that's what i -- that's amazing. >> thanks, sue. >> you got it. see you next hour. >> see you later. so the latest recount tally shows act visivist investor nel peltz inching out a win for the board seat at procter & gamble leslie picker ha eer has more o lies ahead >> the fight that will not die, bill the latest count swinging the vote to nelson peltz potentially granting him a board seat. p & g said about a month ago it had won the proxy fight to kpee peltz off. in this count, peltz won by a mere 43,000 votes, .0016% of the

shares outstanding to put that into perspective, guys, it's as if the population of the entire world voted and p&g's 100,000 employees were the ones who swayed the vote so what happens next it's called the snake pit. that's where the process where the two sides will huddle in a room, investigate each contested ballot there's room for error here because most the votes are done electronically p&g's shareholder base is 40% retail and tend to vote more with paper ballots additionally, if proxy fights, shareholders can vote more than once with only the latest vote counted. in the snake pit, they'll look at the contested ballots to make sure each one is valid for example, was it signed correctly, are they looking at the most recent ballot tlafs voted? it's a very tedious process. p m p&g can choose to challenge the result if they want to the company spent $135 million to keep peltz off the board.

other shareholders seem to like the idea p&g's stock is up about a percentage point today, guys, so, you know, if they get that support from shareholders, they may be more inclined to just give him the board seat. >> we shall see. >> what's the snake pit? >> it's not an actual snake pit, there are no snakes, but the two sides huddle into a room and literally go line by line done each and every vote that they think could switch the vote. so if you've got 43,000 votes that, you know, show that -- >> shares. >> yeah, 43,000 shares that show that peltz is winning, that technically, those could all be held by one person, by one ballot so if there's any kind of an error on that one ballot, it could actually flip the vote in favor of p&g, again, which is why they're saying they're nread to announce the final vote yet. >> are there any elections any more anywhere that are landslides everything is so close these

days doesn't matter what we're voting on it's 50/50. >> maybe in africa. >> okay, maybe in africa. >> adp and pershing square was pretty much in favor of adp with pershing square getting about 20%. other than that, you're right, bill, every vote seems very close these days. >> unbelievable. thank you, leslie. >> thank you. >> see you later coming up, coca cola's new ceo, james quincy, sitting down for his first interview since taking the helmet of the 131-year-old company in may. we'll head to quocoke's investo day in atlanta for a look at quincy's vision for the future of the iconic beverage. the leonardo da vinci painting sold for a record $450 million at auction last night. >> i am just still wrappi inpin head around that price. >> aren't we all hi t wni bmystery man or woman bendheinngid we're going to try to crack that code right ahead. >> i see what you did there.

hey, you every talk to anybody about your money? yeah, i got some financial guidance a while ago. how'd that go? he kept spelling my name with an 'i' but it's bryan with a 'y.' yeah, since birth. that drives me crazy. yes. it's on all your email. yes. they should know this? yeah. the guy was my brother-in-law. that's ridiculous. well, i happen to know some people. do they listen? what? they're amazing listeners. nice. guidance from professionals who take their time to get to know you. i just finished months of chemo. but i don't want to talk about months. i want to talk about years. treatments have gotten better, so... i'm hoping for good years ahead. that's thanks to research funded by the american cancer society. the same folks giving me free rides to treatment, insurance advice,and a place to stay during chemo.

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communications, mentioned the name executives at softbank, altice and verizon listen. >> comes and throws a proposition at us, right, then question go talk to the newhouse guys you know, we studied it, we don't know, what do you think? it's one of those, right if they think it's worthy of further look, okay, then we both call up tom and we say, hey, tom, would you meet with these guys and so far, and this has happened with, as i say, four different approaches >> he didn't disclose the fourth -- >> didn't say who the fourth company was. >> did say none of the pitches for charter were worthy of bringing to the board so the price -- he said, you know, look, we're basically always for sale at the right price. none of these are remotely the right price. >> he is the toughest negotiator out there. i think he and barry diller both are such tough negotiators. >> the track record, he is loved by the investor community. and he's approached the whole

thing with -- he's an engineer by training and his whole approach to companies and tax minimizati minimization -- >> right. >> -- the way he's done deals is just -- >> any company that brings an offer better be ready, better b a good one and think it through. john malone already has. by the way, he also did say, he told david he thought the at&t/time warner deal had a 75% chance of going through and even with cnn in there. we'll see. as we all know, the government is opposing it but we'll see what happens. >> shares of both those companies moved higher today 18 minutes to go until the close. dow still hanging on to nearly a 200 point gain s&p up 21. nasdaq up 91 leonardo da vinci was the original renaissance man today he's a record breaker for a long lost artwork sold as auction. we'll tell you the actual price and maybe paint a picture of who that buyer could be, next. meantime, tesla boss elon musk unveiled his new space-aged

trucks he does it tonight, but some investors are wary of this latest venture a bull and a bear get behind the wheel of this coming debate. coming up.

a morning latte, strategically placed needles, unicorn and smaore muscles. with pint-sized helpers, i took time out of my busy schedule to get in the small business saturday spirit and try new businesses in my own brooklyn flaberhoo neighborhood for more watch "your business. weekends at 7:30 on msnbc.

as you do not have heard by now this painting of christ by renaissance master leonardo da vinci sold for just over $450 million at that christie's auction last night in new york city the buyer is still unknown, but our robert frank joins us now with some ideas on who that might be robert >> certainly, bill, who it is probably not at this point now, it is the greatest guessing game in the art world today. who bought salvator mundi. a mystery buyer, $450 million at christie's last lee far donardo to remain public hands christie's won't say who the buyer is only saying, "the bids came from all over the world." the consensus in the art world today is the buyer will probably give it to museum do anchor a new cultural center in the u.s. or probably asia

more than 27,000 people lined up to see this painting as it toured the world as part of christie's markets campaign proving its worldwide draw now the question is whether it's a u.s. buyer or someone from overseas most of the speculation is on foreign buyers today, probably china or asia, but the highest profile -- highest profile collector in china, lee chinuan, who bought one for $170 million in 2015, said on social media this morning, quote, he felt kind of dedpefeated since he wa not the buyer. we can rule him out. in the u.s., speculation has centered around ken griffin, of course the hedge funder who spent $500 million on a jackson pollack last year to lend to the art institute of chicago but i am told he also was not the buyer of the da vinci. we can rule him out. other names mentioned include steve cohen, hedge fund manager

alice walton one man who certainly has the cash is jeff bezos, worth $95 billion, richest man in the world. he sold $1 billion of amazon's stock without naming the purpose of those funds i have not gotten any response from amazon as to whether he was, in fact, the buyer. >> has he collected before, do we know, does he have a collection >> whoever buys this is buying an icon that will anchor a museum, a city, let's say he wanted to build a new headquarters in the city and put the da vinci there, that one a one-two punch. this is beyond the art collector world. it's going to be someone who hasn't collected art a big way, could be a brand new name >> but it also -- i don't know if the greens have thefinancia wherewithal, but if you're making a museum of the bible, for example, the hobby lobby sort of backing family -- >> yes. >> -- it makes more sense to me as a passionate buyer than as

any kind of art collector who would read all these critics who pooh-pooh'd the thing, said it wasn't worthwhile. i don't think anyone would pay up for something they didn't feel had value in the art world. it feels to me like it's somebody who's very passionate about it. >> a lot of speculation is on china. china wants to be the dominant country in the world for everything including the arts. this would immediately put them on the map as a huge cultural art center and the price here, $400 million -- >> i mean, maybe go to a museum, they're tearing down churches all across china i mean, who -- no one involved with the chinese government would be buying this thing >> no, but, look, this painting is a global draw asia does not have any da vincis right now. the u.s. has one asia would pay up in a big way to have that status and credibility, even though maybe they don't value their own history as much as we would like them to, this is something that the world considers a great

piece worth seeing so i suspect it's something in asia and we'll find -- and maybe with a government involvement or government support because this amount of money, look, there are only 150 people in the world with $10 billion or more who could probably afford this it's a small group. >> crazy, crazy, crazy thanks, object. >> dunk you, guy . similars of coca cola positive for the year. up next, hear what the new ceo has to say about the impact of x rermtafo could have on his business when we come back. do you want the same tools and seamless experience across web and tablet? do you want $4.95 commissions for stocks, $0.50 options contracts? $1.50 futures contracts? what about a dedicated service team of trading specialists? did you say yes? good, then it's time for power e*trade. the platform, price and service that gives you the edge you need. looks like we have a couple seconds left. let's do some card twirling twirling cards e*trade. the original place to invest online.

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for the closing bell ringing today, we mentioned that ceo hartford's ringing the bell. what they're doing is celebrating the 70th anniversary of hartford's junior fire marshal program. as you can tell, junior fire mar jillionma marshals arrived new york stock exchange ceo tom farley who we've cut off at the top there. so we can get the -- >> we can see them. >> fit in the fire marshals as they make their way toward the

bell ringing at the new york stock exchange great day for them. coca cola is holding its investor day at its headquarters today. sara eisen is there. she sat down with the ceo and joins us with some of those highlights >> reporter: kelly, bill, good to see you after years of underperformance versus pepsi and the broader market, coke is time lfinally seeing real momentum in the stock price ever since james quincy took over as ceo six months ago today he met with investors. told them he's making big changes in the company culture, in its e-commerce approach and diversifying the portfolio away from the core coke product that apparently won't include booze. i know you guys talked about that he told me this morning that they're not going there, as one analyst raised the prospect this week quincy also made a pretty definitive statement on tax reform when i asked him what he would do with the $20 billion plus of overseas cash, he said, well, take a listen. >> we'd bring some of it back and be able to invest more here in the u.s. and actually we use

some of it for dividends as we always do. and we use some of it for investment in the u.s. business. not like there's a big box of money out there that suddenly comes back and gets reinvested by us in 2018. i think this is an ongoing increase of the competitiveness of the u.s. economy. >> speaking of taxes, quincy said a growing waech ining wav taxes are not effective when it comes to solving health issues and not an ex tistential threat for coca cola. fighting obesity, smaller packages which we're seeing a lot today, sugar-free beverages. for instance, they rolled out a new prototype of coca cola with all stevia, no artificial ingredients. something the company has been working on for five years. >> smaller packages with the same price, though >> that bottle thing looked weird. >> reporter: oh, well, yeah,

there's not even a label, there's not a branding for it. that's a big shift, twaactually under quincey, rolling it out, getting it to market fast. when it comes to changing the culture, testing it out, killing it if consumers aren't happy they feel pretty good about this for the first time, all stevia, no aftertaste, they claim. >> all right, sara, thank you. good job and safe passage home. >> reporter: thank you. >> see you later all right. we'll come back with the "closing countdown" as the dow hangs on to those gains of almost 200 points. back after this. 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

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the original place to invest online. one minute to the close. bob pisani here with me. and a trading pattern has been broken, robert, we have a four-day chart of the dow. we saw first three days this week, selloffs on the open then a comeback today it was off to the races from the beginning. >> three things mattered number one, washington did something. heavens. never mind the senate's got to reconcile. okay something happened number two, big boys move today. cisco, good earnings, walmart, good earnings, procter & gamble, nelson peltz on the board. three big dow components moved almost half of the dow that was important finally, we saw high yield bonds we keep talking about. they finally turned around you put those three together, got a nice rally here, 4-1 advancing to declining stocks, bill. >> the dow wasn't even the best

performer of the major averages today. the russell 2000 was and that was also very positive as far as the traders go. >> finally, some out-performance there. >> yes, thank you, bob we got earnings coming your way from gap, william sonoma, and others and applied materials coming up on the second hour of the "closing bell" with kelly evans and and. see you tomorrow, kell >> okay. >> thank you, bill, welcome to the "closing bell. the nasdaq is closing at an all-time high, almost as if the little selloff we had the last couple sessions didn't happen. there's the nasdaq going out at 67,093, a new record close, after a 1.3% gain for that index today. russell 2000 up 1.5% to 1,486. 30 points off its early october closing high s&p 500 up 21 points to 2,585 today. it's about ten points below its

closing all-time high. the dow jones industrial average up 186, 2,357 is the close again, not a record high but a strong gain. lot about walmart. as you can see, there's a lot else driving these markets th s today. we have a handful of retailers about to report their earnings courtney reagan will bring us results from gap, william sonoma and ross courtstores you'll be busy, court. and josh lipton, applied materials. we'll bring you the earnings as soon as they're out. we have the highly anticipated ipo of stitch fix. the price we're going to get any minute we're going to take a closer look at the company's numbers and its business model coming up. joining me now on the panel, cnbc senior marketssantoli courtney gibson, new mama. glad you could join us, courtney welcome back stephanie link on set with tiaa investments. biggest winner is walmart, huge gain of about 10% after its

earnings biggest loser was travelers. and s&p, the biggest winner was net -- remember, we had earnings last night while the biggest loser was viacom which reported this morning. the overall market rebounding after yesterday's losses the dow jones had its best gain since september. saw the session highs after the house passed the tax bill, michael. maybe because it did happen kind of quickly day got more than the 218 they needed by a comfortable margin of nine. >> yeah, it's obviously part of the mix. i would say it was not an unexpected outcome so i don't know that it was really new information i mean, the market was bouncing before, you know, the nikkei was up 1.5% overvr ovnight. i like to point out, this is a global pullback after not that much of a setback in the major indexes so as i say, the tax cut was part of the mix. i don't think that's the drive er today. >> was that it, stephanie w the nasdaq closing at a record today? >> well, it was a nice impressive snapback for sure i just think today was a vote of

confidence in washington there's still a long laundry list of things that still has to happen so we can't just totally expect that things are going to go perfect in washington. however, it's a step in the right direction. and then i really truly think when you have old-school players like cisco and walmart laelly crushing the numbers and guiding higher, with the valuation still not stretched, the valuations are okay, i feel like brings if a whole new area in the market where people are putting money, right? >> yeah. >> particularly cisco. >> is that partly why you think the nasdaq in particular did well today or -- what is going on >> i definitely think that cisco helped the nasdaq. then, of course, repatriation. these guy s are really big beneficiaries of repatriation. the other piece was if tax does get passed, we have some of these very high taxpayers in something like the hmos and in the industrials, in the rails. it's very broad based as who benefits that's what i think kind of expanded as the day went through. >> courtney, would you agree

with that from where you sit >> you know, i actually do agree, but i do believe that this market is being fundamentally driven right now i'm not giving kind of washington or the house be the benefit of why wehave this bounce today off of yesterday's numbers. in reality, we're seeing some really good earnings and this market is fundamentally driven on a global basis at this point. people are finding value in the market right now and it's across the globe. >> yeah. let's talk about some of these earnings walmart soared today after its results beat had a big jump in e-commerce and post-hurricane demand. best buy did go the other way. it missed on revenue, had a weaker than expected holiday quarter profit forecast. see best buy shares down 3.5%. said sales were hurt by the late launch of the iphone x, mike. >> yes, i think that was plausible. best buy's guidance was cautious for the fourth quarter taken slightly as a anythinnegae

walmart, outsize move, 10% move -- >> exactly. >> the family still controls half of this stock so you can't lose sight of that. but to me, it has the feel of walmart having gone from, okay, fine, they can defend their position, they can kind of play defense to a net winner in this environment because of all the investments they've made stock still looks like it's a little bit, you know, up on a limb in the very short term. it's positive trend. >> up 44% year to date now, stephanie. you think it was a chinese internet company and trying to touch the $100 market. >> it's up quite a bit the fact they were one of the first old-school retailers to really invest in jet.com, the management of jet.com really changing the whole e-commerce platform for walmart e-commerce sales up 50% this past quarter that's on top of 60% growth the quarter before that. so clearly it validates what they have been doing that they're on the ball. they're on their game. and contrasts very sharply to

target which really is behind a bit. now, they're doing a lot of things, but they really haven't done to the extreme that walmart has. so, yeah, the stock was up a lot. guess what, it's a big benchmark name. >> sure. >> lot of pms are not market weight this thing. see exactly why it would run in addition, you have short covering, too. >> kourtney, you sold out of walmart earlier this year. is this a moment of reconsidering its fortunes and maybe the price after this big move >> i sold out of walmart personally because i had, you know, obviously baked in some profits there and when you have some profits, you want to take a little off the table i am a firm believer, though, they're absolutely doing the right thing. walmart is here and here to stay they're competing vividly and actively and, you know, their e-commerce play, they're doing it, they're getting profits out of their stores, their food sales are doing well i also do believe, though, kelly, that best buy is well positioned as well my analyst was on not too long

ago and i 100% agree with his call on best buy that they're in this to win it as well they're the last man standing, if you will, but if you think about it for a second, if a consumer is going into the store and they're going to buy something and they're looking at the televisions, looking at the stereos, you're telling me that best buy is billi gwilling to mh amazon's pricing, match target's pricing, match walmart's pricing, guess what, i'm going to buy is and walk out of the store rather than going online and buying it again. best buy is very well positioned and typically known for underpromising ae ining and overdelivering mike, the fourth-quarter guidance, i would venture to say they're probably being cautious, themselves and we'll probably see a good holiday season out of best buy. >> the market coming around to your view, it did close off the lows, down 3.5%. still up nearly 30% this year for best buy how about some earnings, just crossing the wire. >> i bought it today, kelly. >> let's get over to courtney reagan. >> dathat's right, kelly.

let's bring you the results from ross stores. competes in the off-price sector like t.j.maxx and marshalls. ross, third quarter earnings of 72 cents beating the street's estimates of 67 cents per similar. revenue stronger than education pekted, $3.33 billion. street looking for $3.26 billion. store sales, key measure we look for in retail, like-for-like sales of the stores and websites operating the year prior, up 4%. store was looking for that to improve only 1.8%. so the ceo says as a result of the sales in the third quarter, they're upping their sales forecast for that all-important fourth quarter holiday quarter to see comps grow between 2% and 3% however, the earnings guidance for the fourth quarter, range of 88 to 92 cents is a little light because the street is looking for that to come in at 92 cents. but, again, another point for that comp sales, on third quarter last year, ross stores' comp sales were up 7%.

it was the toughest comp of the year when you're looking at the comparison and they had two hurricanes and sales were still higher by 4% so i think that's something notable and you can see shares higher by more than 6% kelly, back over to you. >> remarkable. courtney, thank you. this makes tjx look even worse. >> yeah, well, particularly since a quarter of their stores are in texas and florida, that's ross stores. everyone thought they were going to have a real challenge in getting that comp. absolutely great i will say this about tjx, which i do own, and was disappointed lot of the problems were hurricane and weather but they also said they had a fashion mistake or miss in their quarter. they owned it, trying to fix it. they say they're in the process of fixing it that also weighed on tj. ross, really clear sailing, clean quarter. >> mike, what do you make of it? >> this stock had a hiccup, got joer o overowned. people thought the only things you could be comfortable with is the off price. pulled back. it's at a new high

4% comp in this environment is pretty good. i think it kind of earns the modest premium it trades for. >> still trading high after hours. more than 7% now for ross stores. how about applied materials? let's switch gears, get over to josh lipton with those numbers >> applied materials reporting eps of 93 cents versus expectations of 91 cents revenue $3.97 billion, expectation of $3.94 billion q1 quguide, kelly, 94 cents to 1 1.02 ref few of $4.2 billion. street looking for $3.97 billion. looking quickly through the segments, kelly, semiconductor systems $2.4 billion applied global services $831 million. looks like display clocking in at $677 million. heading into this print, the stock was already up nearly 80% year to date on the call analysts want to hear more about those spending trends for semi equipment. also the display business, the

company said they your looking for at least 30% growth next year are they on track for that that call starting at 4:30 eastern. kelly, back to you. >> josh, thank you mike, afterthat kind of run, i makes the 2.5% drop -- >> the two-year chart of this stock is ridiculous, gone from 18 to 58. >> wow. >> maybe a little bit of a cautious, you know, guidance for the next quarter explains that a little bit of a pullback pattern with these earnings in tech, it's expectations will tell you everything. >> is it something, steph -- by the way, it just flipped positive by quite a margin can you own companies like this -- i'm sorry, that was from today. can you own companies like this after the kinds of runs they've had? is there earnings power there? >> well, there is earnings power there because it does seem like this cycle in general has been extended and the stock even though it's up 78%, it's only trading at 17 -- >> always cheap. yeah >> this one, they're probably the two cheapest in the semiconductor world. semicap equipment world, if you will, that have product cycles that are going to benefit from

better wfe spending trends and have a diversified product mix, so e yeah, if you own it, you hold it. >> let's talk a little ge. former general electric ceo jim amelt telling executive editor of axios earlier today he's very confident in the company's future he also addressed reports of traveling with that second empty jet while he was ceo take a listen. >> it's a practice that in retrospect i wish we hasn't done it was never something -- it was never something i approved i never really talked to the guy in h corporate air really so in every way, i think i was this, just about the work. i really was it was a terrible practice as soon as i found out about it, we stopped it. >> so you didn't notice the extra plane? >> i really never thought about it, looked for it, knew what it was. i totally focused on the job >> mike, what do you think >> i actually -- i mean, i'm happy to buy that. i actually think that's a less, slightly less interesting

question than how ydo you feel about the capital allocation decisions, how do you feel about the decision making process you your there and -- >> the dodge he gave is the end markets aren't good. why are you in those end markets in the first place would have been an interesting -- >> each of the strategic moves seemed like they were going the way the puck was in that sense yes. >> yeah. now the puck is moving again, steph, the market conditions aren't great will this company look vastly better in a couple years' time if all of those underlying fundamentals change? i mean, or is it just that people don't like the way the business is structured >> well, i think people were dispinted that they're keeping power gen, kind of doubling down that particular end market hasn't even troughed yet some people think it is actually in secular decline so there's a lot of question marks. new ceo is saying it will take two years to fix that could be very legit same time, they had health care and aviation which are fine and good pieces of their business.

if you have to wait two years or maybe a year before you can start to discount the recovery in two, i think it's going to take a long time when you look at the vast, other industrial companies, whether it's in energy, whether it's in mining, whether it's in engines, trucks, that sort of thing, there's other areas you can place your bets. >> plenty of fish in the barrel. courtn kourtney, would you be sellers after the 14sharp selloff in ge? >> our clients hold ge, many do. it's a matter of whether or not you feel having this highly diversified business is the play you want to have or get exposure to those particular areas separately we're not portfolio managers we trade the flow in and out we are seeing clients picking up on this dip right now in ge. >> all right there's going to be some that go out on that limb. >> i would say the bright-side version of what steph said about how the other higher quality industrials are showing right now, their valuations are kind of high by their history on good earnings so in other words, if you're

looking at some tthe sum of thes analysis of ge or being a seller of something down the road it's not as if everything else is going on the cheap >> i get you there i know you don't want to buy industrials or cyclicals when they're cheap. >> yes. >> you want to buy them when they're expensive. that means you're at trough earnings i totally get that guess what, i have cat that's going to earn $12, $13, trading up 14 times earnings. >> i'm thinking of 3m at 25 times. >> no, no. >> that's a block box, tack box >> we have to pick and choose between what we like >> totally. >> i love it is all i'm going to say. korut in, e kor rrk kou kourtney gibson joining us and stephanie link. is there a real chance the tax bill won't make it to the president's desk we're going to get into that next. tesla ceo elon musk is

expected to reveal the long awaited semitruck tonight. whether the news will blow your mind as he promised. we want to hear from you, share your thoughts, do that on twitter, facebook or over e-mail yoreating cnbc, first in b business worldwide [ 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. when it might be time to buy or sell? with fidelity's real-time analytics, you'll get clear, actionable alerts about potential investment opportunities in real time. fidelity. open an account today.

welcome back we have an earnings alert on gap. courtney reagan, how did the numbers come in? >> for gap's third quarter, retailer actually beating across the board. earnings coming in at 58 cents street was looking for 54 cents a share. revenues beating at $3.84 billion. street looking for revenues to come in at $3.76 billion comp store sales up 3% the street was actually looking only for an improvement of 1%. this marks the fourth straight quarter of positive comps for gap. something notable, we know they sort of bumped along and struggled for a while with negative comps old navy still the strongest when you're looking at the brands those comps up 4%. banana republic only down 1% analysts actually expected those comps to be down about 5%. so that's a standout lastly, if you take a look at the full-year earnings guidance, the range they're giving of 208 to 212 is up

gap shares moving, 6.5%. we'll be back with william sonoma. >> courtney, thank you for now what else is in your portfolio >> walmart and cisco, drove the '90s bull market in those categories gap has been a very steady operator, been kind of shepherding their cash flow, no longer a growth company. 3% comp in that environment for them is pretty positive. >> pretty good. >> also banana republic had negative comps for so long the base of comps must not be terribly significant they don't really report thereat out separately in terms of the absolute number. >> that's true cheap stock chronically so i can why we're popping. >> gap shares up 4.5% on that earnings report after hours. president trump a step closer to getting his tax reform plan through congress after the house approved its bill today. ylan mui has the latest on capitol hill. >> reporter: kelly, this was a crucial win for republicans who frankly have been frustrated by the lack of points on the

scoreboard final tally was 227-205. republicans had said they were going to get this done by thanksgiving somewhat shockingly, they did. now they face a new deadline of getting this to the president's desk by christmas. >> we got a long road ahead o h us this is a very, very big milestone in that long road. we got a long road ahead of us we have a timeline to get this done by the end of the year. >> reporter: treasury secretary stephen p steven mnuchin congratulated the house. put out a statement saying "the administration is committed to work with congress to provide a simpler and fairer tax system. the finance committee has been debating its version of the tax plan all day, expected to vote on that tomorrow there are concerns not only about the inclusion of the repeal of the individual mandate in that plan but also about the expiration of the individual tax cuts and what that means for how the

benefits might be skewed toward the wealthy rather than toward middle class americans so still a lot of tough negotiations ahead, but for today, republicans are just thankful that they can go home to their constituents for the holidays with a big win. back over to you >> ylan, thank you very much ylan mui following this for us. treasury secretary steve mnuchin will discuss the house tax bill tomorrow at 7:30 a.m. on "squawk box." look forward to hearing what e has to say joining us to talk about the vote, dan clifton. dan, i'm glad you're here. welcome. >> thank youing for having me today, kelly >> i want to ask you about the senate bill to jump ahead there, we know they have to be reconciled our guest last hour both said they think the tax cut will actually happen in 2018, it will not be delayed what do you guys think >> well, then i think about what's happening on the senate side, they're on an expedited approval process largely because of this alabama senate election, kelly. on december 12th, we're going to

get a new senator from alabama, and quite frankly, the republican or democrat is not likely to vote for that senate bill and that will reduce the republican margin. so the senators are trying to get a bill out by december 1st and then give themselves about 11 or 12 days to be able to reconcile that bill with the house and actually get this done before the middle of december. the old deadline was christmas that seems to be moving up to hedge that political risk of the alabama senate election going. as you know, our call has always been first quarter of 2018 we'll be more than happy to move that up if we're going to see that progress, but you see a lot of momentum going on in the senate to try and get this wrapped up and i -- >> you guys -- >> yep, sorry. >> i was going to say, you have made the point that, you know, this now, if it's delayed a year means we're only going to get a $5 instead of $10 boost to eps next year. >> yep. >> the impact is not going to be strong enough to give them this big oomph going into the

midterms i was a little surprised to hear people think that -- just to say they think actually they won't have to delay it if they take the savings from the obamacare repeal, i thought that was going to go toward trying to make at least some of it permanent so what is the math here what's going to pay for this if it is -- if it does go into effect next year >> absolutely. we have two different bills. we have the house bill that comes into effect immediately, senate bill that does not go into effect immediately for corporate tax rate i think when you merge it, it will come into effect in 2018 but not going to 3 a 20% rate. the president has been forceful he wants a 20% rate. it may end up, kelly, at 22% or 23% but it will be immediate that will ensure they get a fiscal policy stimulus of 1% of gdp. you will get the earnings benefit from it and trust me, you'll get more than 3% growth you'll be on the higher end growth in 2018 3.5%, 3.6%, somewhere in that range and that may be strong

enough for them too get in the house is much more forceful on fiscal policy when the bills get reconciled, i think you're going to see the senate bill get approved. >> dan, the rate being above 20% for companies, what other levers are they going to have to pull to get within the senate's sort of deficit bench mark there? >> look, the senate is already in there now, right? they're in there because of the obamacare and because they let the individual tax cuts expire when the two bills come together, they're going to have a little bit of a math problem by the way, we may have to make s.a.l.t. a little more generous on the house side. the state and local deduction. when that gets -- when that gets confirmed. and so i think there's going to be four issues, mike what happens to the s.a.l.t., state and local tax deduction, what h happappens to the corpor interest deduction, how are passthroughs treated and what that corporate tax rate looks like on the passthrough, the house has $585 billion of tax relief for small business that number is probably going to

get a little bit smaller to meet where the senate is and then that provides you the middle class tax relief that you need to fit within that budget window >> it's all very complicated, dan, but i appreciate you sort of -- >> an exciting time. >> it certainly is dan clifton. thank you again. >> thank you tesla fans and shareholders are anxiously awaiting tonight's 11:00 p.m. eastern unveiling of the company's semitruck. will the latest product from elon musk help push the stock into overdrive we have a bull/bear debate on that next. plus fashion startup stitch fix could price its ipo any moment now bring you those details as soon as it happens and talk autbo whether investors should be buying this ipo. be right back.

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the final piece of the earnings puzzle is out william sonoma's results are in. courtney reagan has them for us now. >> always feels so good to be the one to put in the last piece of the puzzle. i'm going to do it for us right now, kelly william sonoma earnings out for the third quarter coming in in line for expectations for the bottom line at 84 cents. revenues slikt s slightly beatig analysts looking for $1.29 billion. comps stronger than expected up 3.3% the street was looking for an increase of 3% when you look at the individual brands, remember, william sonoma owns pottery barn, west elm, also its namesake brand. pottery barn comps down 0.3% the street expected that to grow slightly by 1.6% for the comps

pottery barn disappointing west elm much better than expected up. 11.5% for those comps. the street looking for those to be up by more than fourth quarter earnings guidance is a little weak. >> only explanation when you see a stock down 9% like that. >> yeah, would have expected a potential for a bit of a short squeeze moment here. the stock near its lows, 24% short position i guess not good enough. west elm has been the only thing working well consistently for that company. >> very good quarter for west elm. william sonoma time for a cnbc news update. let's get to sue herera. >> hello, kemly, everyone, here's what's happening at this hour former homeland security, tom ridge, in critical condition at a texas hospital after undergoing an emergency heart procedure. he served as governor for six years before becoming the nation's first secretary of homeland security. a new effort to speed up those slow security lines has arrived at chicago's midway

airport. previously, passengers would wait in line to take a tray for their items, like we do at many airports, but now there are four separate divesting stations so trays automatically pop up and four people can put their items in the trays all at once the russian defense ministry releasing video that it says shows russian bombers launching an air strike against isis fighters in syria. it described the strike near abukamal in eastern syria as massive. the movie "titanic" has been set for a 20th anniversary re-release starting december 1th, 87 amc theaters it's going to be shown in 3-d in 20 locations won 11 academy awards and grossed $2.18 billion worldwide. that's the news update at this hour kelly, back to you >>. >> maybe my parents will let me go this time >> yeah, you were young at that point. >> pg-13

sue, thank you very much. >> you got it. let's take a quick look at how we did finish on wall street today. dow up 187 strong gains for everybody, though the s&p higher there on the close by 21. the russell was up 23. the nasdaq was up 87 today. let's check on earnings movers now there are some big ones. gap brands up more than 6% ross stores up more than 7%. applied materials, moderated its decline, fractionally lower right now. william snoonoma down 9%. let's get to other big stories today in our rapid recap. >> ron johnson the first republican to come out against the tax bill >> revenue increase in the federal government by $1.2 trillion with meager economic growth we should be focusing on economic growth and right now, i don't think this tax proposal does that enough. >> walmart putting up another strong quarter on what the company calls broad-based strength. >> placed a lot of bets to be able to stop amazon. there's only one company that can, it's this company i really like them.

>> jeff is going to be the most disruptive. >> he already is bezos you mean. >> yes as the death star moves into striking range of every industry on the planet. >> every generation has had to reinvent the relevance of coca cola and it's now our job to reinvent coca cola for this generation, whether it's that's the way we engage with them on social media, smaller packages or reformulations we can find ways to keep growing. >> i own a ton of stock. i believe in the company for the long term. this is a great team and i'm fully confident that this company is going to thrive in the future. >> the house does have the votes to pass this tax bill. it will be official once they bring that gavel down. >> today was major step forward. this is certainly not the last step in our tax reform journey >> been a busy day and there's still more to come we're just hours away from tesla's big reveal, a reveal as elon musk tweeted, could "blow

your mind clear out of your skull and into an alternate dimension. 8:00 p.m. pacific time, the company will unveil its semitruck. joining us, jamie albertine, our goal the other side, gabe thank you both for being here. jamie, first to you. i saw all the analyst on the street today who thought this truck would be a nonevent for tesla in terms of revenue and earnings he's fairly optimistic on the stock. why are you so bullish, what do you think are the fortunes of this truck, potentially? >> yeah, thank you for having me, first and foremost you know, i do think this is a little bit of a nonevent, unfortunately. i think it's important for tesla to continue to remain on the cutting edge of innovation and showing how electric power trains have first of all come down a lot in price and have improved a lot if development so now it's about applications of those electric power trains and

tesla wants to box out as best as they can in as many segments as they can. this is a first foray into the semitruck segment. i think it's important from the long-term trajectory perspective. short term, it's about the model 3. and that's probably going to weigh on the stock i think more than tonight will. >> gabe, do you think the launch of the truck could make it harder for the bears here going forward? >> no, i think it's just another money wasting elon musk pipe dream project. frankly, today's diesel trucks get about 1,000 miles per refueling. one of these trucks with a weight of about 80,000 pounds of cargo when you get the batteries in and everything, you're no more than 200 or 300 miles of range tops and that's under ideal driving conditions really, you need to cut that in half for short haul, sort of like city versus highway driving on your car. >> but gabe, if, in fact, it is the case that this isn't going to be the make or break product for the company, how long do you

think investors are willing to kind of, to some degree, look beyond the production delays on more the mass market attempts, the model 3? >> well, you'd have to ask jamie about, you know, ignoring facts and looking to the future because i've gone over his research over the last year or so, his price target's gone 270, 300, 330, 385, yet cost estimates increase and future earnings get pushed further and further out into never ever land in the future. i don't really understand it pain he could explain it better than me. >> gabe, i would be happy to it sounds like that was a direct question so i would be happy to, gabe look, five years ago, there was a lot of speculation as to whether or not tesla can manufacture a successful luxury sedan. five years later, it's one of the most successful luxury sedans on the market after five years of being on the market porsche, mercedes, bmw, are taking a very close look at that they've changed the game in a

very short period of time and we expect the next stage with the model 3 will take it even further into a market not only dominated by audis and mercedes and bmws but also those of the toyota camry, honda accord and so forth costs a lot of money to build vehicles and gm and ford will tell you not all vehicles are profitable, not all vehicles sell well. particularly when you are banking on your first, second and now third vehicle. so we believe that the success of the "s," the "x" and various other projects that they've endeavored on gives a little bit more benefit of the doubt than i think you're giving them credit for and that is captured in our both short, medium and long-term models >> gabe, by the way, i don't know if you saw this, but eon musk said tesla's short sellers are jerks who want us to die you want to comment on that, too? >> well, it's nothing personal you know, it's a financial investment stock, supposed to be something financial which means

you look at the balance sheet, in tesla's case, it's a disaster over $20 billion in liabilities. debt from convertible debt to straight debt to hocking almost all their property plant equipment and yet lines. it's financial it's not personal. i'd really like to understand how somebody can claim to be an honest analyst when they raise their price target almost 50% in a year yet they're slashing their estimates. i just don'ts up how that works. it's kind a simple question. >> we're out of time, we'll let you guys duke it out thank you both for joining us, gabe and jamie, on the always -- >> thank you. >> -- controversial tesla. speaking of controversial, a news alert in venezuela, michelle ka rucaruso carrera joi by phone >> the organization that decides whether or not credit default swaps should be triggered decided in the case of venezuela, indeed, they should you may recall that venezuela's oil company had a big billion-dollar payment due back november 2nd they said they had started to

transfer the money but remember, the country is facing a lot of sanctions so they had moved the money, apparently had moved very, very slowly through the financial system much more slowly than would formal formally be the case, due to compliance situations, eth, w n cetera, when itle tos to banks as a result, holders of the bonds that were supposed to receive the money didn't get it on time according to all of the rules written into the bonds so it had created this amoubiguu situation. venezuela said they had paid yet people hadn't received the money. should the credit default swaps, the insurance bought, be triggered? four times they delayed the committee and then finally today, this afternoon, they have decided that because the money did not arrive by the end of the grace period written into the codes of the bond, they were going to trigger the credit default swaps. so people who bought those bonds are going to -- who bought those swaps are going to get paid. >> michelle, just because of the size of this debt, i mean, this is bigger than argentina, right,

venezuela default. this is one of the biggest, they have $150 billion of debt, right? this is not a small event. this is not a small country financially speaking. >> to, itno, it's not just the kelly, it's the complication yes, that's a lot of money there have been other bigger ones but they were much easier to do because most of that debt was outstanding in tradeable bonds that either were under new york jurisdiction, or london jurisdiction, they were very, very simple. venezuela's is much more complicated because they owe money to the russians. they owe money to the chinese. nobody's really sure how much. it would be the first international debt restructurin where the chinese will be involved they've got promissory notes out to a lot of major oil companies as well. their oil company hasn't been able to pay. so it's complicated even beyond just the mere size of it >> all right and a momentous event there,

declaring venezuela's pdvsa credit event, payment failure there. michelle caruso-cabrera. up next fashion startup stitch fix is set to price its ceo. whether investors should try the stock on for size or if it could be another, you know, blue apron, when we come back not rebalancing your portfolio. focused on what you love, not how your money will last through retirement. we make it easier to plan for retirement with day one target date funds

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the highly anticipated ipo of stitch fix is set to price any minute now we're going to discuss whether the stock is what -- whether this is a stock investors should buy. when it begins trading tomorrow when we come right back. throughout my career, i've been fortunate enough to travel to many interesting places. i've always wanted to create those experiences for others. with my advisor's help along the way, it's finally my turn to be the host.

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the ipo of clothing delivery service stitch fix is set to price any moment now if you're not familiar with it, users pay a monthly fee of 20 bucks and stylist works with your preference for items of clothing $20 mike, look at what's in mine, that's not going to go for. >> $20 is just for them to pick the stuff out. >> once you buy it, you get a credit these are rag and bone jeans ear. this is like a really nice leather jacket okay this thing -- >> somebody knew you who you this -- punched up this profile. >> no, this is just a generic example of what you can get, a nice sweater. >> i'm not crazy about the -- >> this is expensivexpensive. what is that that's for you >> you can have it if you want. >> i think i might wear this so, yeah, you get it sent then you get to decide what to keep and what to send back. >> yeah. i mean, this is -- >> look at the size of this thing. that's a really nice jacket. >> yeah. if i hunted or something fox hunt yeah >> or if you just needed it in the new york city weather. now that we've seen these clothes, leslie picker is here with a look at the public

offering details the numbers. leslie >> kelly, i certainly like that leather jacket for you, that's a good look. this deal may be a little less colorful than the actual clothes. there were indications as early as this morning that it would price below the range. the company has been marketing 10 million shares for $18 to $20. the "wall street journal" says it will now be between $15 to $16 a piece. at the low end of that range, stitch fix would be shaving about half a billion dollars in value off of what it was initially targeting. speaking with sources close to this one, a few things turned off investors. ceo katrina lake planned to sell 1 million shares as part of the deal optically, that's a concern for investors. why is she selling when i'm planning on buying does she know something that i don't know additionally, the business model is similar to blue apron which went public back in june it's now trading at less than a third of its ipo price investors who lost money on that deal are less inclined to jump into another

i also heard there was september schi skeptici skepticism while top line growth is slowing the company has managed to achieve almost $1 billion in sales in the year through july stitch fix posted small losses this year but has been profitable in 2015 and 2016. now the company is expected to begin trading tomorrow and will be listed on the nasdaq under the symbol sfix. kelly. >> yeah, it's a tongue twister for me leslie, thank you. we'll see what the numbers do come in as leslie picker. joining us, david strasser kathleen smith on set with us from renaissance capital kathleen, there are reports they're going to price this below the range -- $18 to $20 is what we're looking for dow jones says it's below thereat. >> we have to give the company credit for reaching $1 billion in sales and being positive cash

flow since 2014 and that's not an easy thing to do. so and $2.4 million customers and they've solved the real worldwide problem of enabling customers to find jeans that fit. jeans that fit. so we're impressed with the fundamentals of the company. the issue is what is happening going forward. the easiest customers they've already acquired now they have to spend more and more to acquire these new customers. that's the issue >> i hate to jump in because this is such a good story. there might be an even better one breaking right now it's 21st century fox, maybe some deal, merger news sue herera, what's happening >> reporter: kelly, right now dow jones is reporting that comcast, the parent company of our company, has approached 21st century fox, expressing acquisition interest this is according to unnamed sources by dow jones it is unclear whether comcast is interested in buying all or part

of fox according to dow jones, citing, once again, sources. our david faber has been following this, bear with me cnbc has now confirmed that comcast has approached fox to express acquisition interest we have two sources on that. so cnbc has confirmed that our parent company comcast corporation has approached fox to express acquisition interest. now, julia boorstin has reached out to comcast david faber is working on it as well so we have our team working on it, kelly. but we have confirmed that comcast has approached fox to express acquisition interest what is unclear is what part of fox, either all or part of comcast, might be interested in. i'll send it back to you >> sue, thank you very much. mike, this is really interesting. >> certainly >> just to rewind the clock back a couple of weeks, there was a report that disney was looking to buy the assets, the entertainment assets of 21st

century fox. now, that would leave potentially the news and sports. >> it would leave -- >> not sports. it would leave sports. >> no, sports. >> oh, and sports, okay. >> it would leave fox news, fox sports, and the fox television stations it would take the 21st century fox studio >> david faber did recognize -- >> and the cable channel >> he said these talks are not currently ongoing. we saw an immediate reaction, 21st century fox and disney both moved higher on this then we heard nothing on the earnings report. but there was the sense that if this is on the table at all by the murd the murdochs >> they're trying to figure out where their assets fit in the big scheme and therefore who else might be out there, even if it's not disney. >> julia boorstin joins us more

with some color on this. >> reporter: kelly, it seems like everything is in play once those reports were out, once david faber reported that fox was in talks with disney, it was clear that the murdoch family, who controls the shares, that was a surprise to people. the fact that they're open to selling means now there will be other potential buyers on the table. if you look at what comcast has done with its acquisition of nbc universal, integrating that vertical integration of distribution and content, it seems like there could be more room to go with content, especially now that there are so many different buyers for content, especially from the tech companies >> at the same time, julia, we also have the at&t/time warner deal that there reportedly may be government pushback on. they'll cite the comcast/nbc universal deal, they'll say you

let that merger go through, why not us this is changing the kind of light being shown on this deal would it be less favorable in this regulatory environment, because if we're not going to get at&t and time warner go, we shouldn't let comcast double down >> reporter: absolutely. since david reported that news that disney was interested in buying fox, there were questions how likely this was to happen. i've been talking to a lot of people in the media space, people in hollywood. it really seems like the likelihood of that deal going through really hinged on how easily the at&t and time warner deal was approved. if that was going to be a real headache to get that at&t/time warner deal approved, then that's a much higher bar for any other media deals out there. and i think in order for a fox/comcast tieup to happen, you would need to have the at&t/time warner deal go through so i think everyone's going to

watch to see what happens with at&t and time warner it's also possible that perhaps comcast could be interested in buying only part of fox, not all of it. >> right >> reporter: so as we saw with the disney interest, disney wasn't talking about buying all of fox, only certain of those assets the entertainment assets would give disney more strength internationally. the comcast cable business is a u.s. business. there's been speculation that comcast could be interested in assets that would give it more global scope >> maybe one or the the other or both of these could happen 21st century fox shares up on this rorept. we'll have news coming up on this potential tieup when we come right back. me. ambitions live everywhere. synchrony financial gives people the buying power and financial toolsthat help make them happen.

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welcome back with some big breaking news in the last couple of minutes here. dow jones is reporting that comcast, our parent company, has approached 21st century fox to express acquisition interest it's unclear whether comcast is interested in buying all or part of fox remember, disney had expressed some interest, according to our david faber, in it buying part of fox just a couple of weeks ago. 21st century fox shares up comcast shares up 3/4 of 1%. julia boorstin, we're also

looking to see the reaction in shares of disney sounds like viacom shares are moving higher as well. there's a lot of balls in play >> reporter: a lot of balls in play here, it certainly seems like now everything's in play. the whole media landscape sees potential for consolidation and also pressure to consolidate, considering the fact that now the internet giants and the tech companies are getting more into the content space, netflix, amazon, all invest more in content, even apple staking a claim in content as well there's pressure to consolidate. i think the fact that comcast is interested in those fox assets, they're probably interested in the same assets that disney is, which are the entertainment assets, and particularly fox's strength the internationally, sky in the uk and star in india. >> fact, julia, it sounds like we do have some awareness that comcast is looking at the same assets that would put off the possibility, mike, that it would be, you know, comcast looking at the news and sports assets >> the news and sports stations. it is really the content factory

if you want to think of it that way, the studio and tv production units, and the international as julia said. >> it's one thing to bulk up on the news side of this, even on sports the fact that they're looking at entertainment, this is where everyone seems to be most interested in making -- >> the hottest area is scripted series to sell across different platforms. i think that's where you have the efficiencies >> all right crazy here that does it for "closing bell." michael, thank you as always i'll send it over to "fast money" which begins right now. "fast money" starts right now. live from the nasdaq market site overlooking new york city's times square i'm melissa lee. the markets are on a tear. the dow nearly 200 points up is this the beginning of a year end rally? the man who called the walmart rally in august, ron johnson is here for a victory lap he'll tell us what other retail name could have a walmart-like revival. we'll start with the story