gdp out thursday credit expected to slow. big infrastructure projects going unfinished the u.s. blocking some deals a lot of individual headlines that don't mean much, but together they may mean something. >> absolutely. we'll watch that thanks for watching "power lunch. "closing bell" starts right now, so don't move. hi, everybody, welcome to the "closing bell. i'm kelly evans at the new york stock exchange. >> i'll bill griffeth. what a day stocks started off with a boom but fallen back down to earth. the dow was up 283 points. we broke through 26,000 for the first time ever. only seven days after we hit 25,000 i'm stealing all of don choo's thunder, i'm sure. the cooloff, the drop in the afternoon. did we hit a wall of resistance or something else going on here right now? >> let's ask dominick choo who

is standing by at hq. >> that was the best setup that was the reversal, now down 70, to 350-some up point reversal for intraday dow. the big reversal you talked about has been driven in large part by a handful of stocks. first of all, good news. let's start with that. take a look at intraday quotes for biggest point contributors to the dow if you take a look at some names, overall, united health, merck and johnson & johnson. these names still in the green united health adding about maybe 25 points to the overall mix in terms of the -- in terms of the dow's point. merck and johnson & johnson, 15 points, 10 points, thereabouts so, those guys still buoying things take a look at these stocks. we mentioned these as the biggest point contributors of the dow near term. we're talking about boeing, united technologies and caterpillar. those stocks about 25 points is

being dragged off by boeing just in and of itself 15 points by united technologies and caterpillar, as of a few moments ago. these three stocks matter a lot to the dow jones industrial average. we'll finish off with a look at the overall s&p 500 to broaden things out a little bit. you can see here, real estate, health care, consumer staples, some outperformers energy, underperformers. fnls, down half a percent. we had seen big moves today but financials a big part of the earnings that's why we'll watch that sector very closely, guys. back over to you. >> dom, thank you very much. after a lightning quick move from the dow from 25,000 to 26,000 and now back again, somewhat, are we in the overshoot phase of the bull market that's a question mike santoll i was asking and he asked it before this selloff. >> there was a piece up this

morning, a column asking it. what i was suggesting is the overshoot would expire by 10:00 a.m. i was talking about, yes, we have a very overheated market. sentiment surging. you had a market operating with a much higher metabolism than last year, even in terms of the percentage moves on a given day, the fact the volatility index was up, the fact retail investor flows were very heavy, suggested that maybe what is unfolding is what i would call an overshoot phase, which is a latter period of a bull market, where you had the public get very excited about stocks, where the prices made accelerate and go beyond the fundamentals and a self-reinforcing thing part of that is wider two-way swings in the market one reason we had no pullbacks last year is because you never took it on big bites on the upside it was a quarter point up a day. it's been different this year. people are wondering, we shot so quickly above 26,000 earlier in the session.

is this just a pullback for today or is it going to have to got deeper to correct some of that overbought stuff we were talking about? >> i think the market retains the benefit of the doubt that it is just a pullback there are all these technical reasons to think something was waiting, didn't even take a headline it was just the buying, it kind of ran out at a certain price level. and i also think up 280 points surging at the open after a three-day weekend on no news when everybody was talking about, let's chase this rally. it seemed a little couple umula. >> there's no real -- i mean, i've seen some headlines suggesting the market is going down because of the possibility of a government shutdown i don't buy that. >> that's been hanging out there for a very long time you do have a market that can get so stretched that essentially anything or nothing at all can be that thing that pulls it back. really it was just, i think, the technical dynamics of the market you temporarily ran out of buyers >> all right

we'll see you in a little bit. after being up nearly 280 points, the dow having its biggest reversal in a year joining our "closing bell" exchange today, we have chris betterleson, new york stock exchange trainer from o'neill securities and rick santelli at the cme. welcome to all of you. kenny, what do you think, a morning filled with exclamation sxoints now the reversal does the word exhaustion mean anything to anybody out there? we've been talking about this for weeks. the market has done nothing but march higher and higher without one ounce of a pullback. no sense of momentum being out of control at all. mike and bill said it just now, for the market to open up 280 points this morning after a three-day weekend with no news out, what is going on here you have the government shutdown

which just creates anxiety i have people telling me the market is just exhausted which i really think the market is just exhausted. i think it has to pull back. it's healthy to pull back. honestly, i hope it pulls back more. >> rick, do you see the markets you follow, are they sort of -- i don't want to say confirming this but are they reacting the way you think they would yields have gone down a little bitter, the dollar index was going lower, gold was going up are those the kind of reactions you expect with a reversal like we've seen in the equity market today? >> i try to always be objective in my approach to the markets. if i divorce myself from the reversal we've seen in equities today, and look at intraday and two-day charts of the dollar chart, ten-year note, gold, nothing jumps out at me. they've all been doing with what they've been doing with respect to the dow and being a technician, i would say there's a couple things we should pay close attention to. when you have all-time extremes in a market, those sessions are

always special, like today so, we open up at 259987, go up to 26,026. friday's low was 25,633. what we have now is a reversal if we close below that low friday, that could be a key reversal and it would mean something. if we close in negative territory, that's not quite a key reversal, but that's something to pay attention to. if after everything that occurs today we close in positive territory, i'd be much less concerned. another thing, mike hit it, mike did a great job, the extra volatility, the bigger ranges. these are all very legitimate areas to pay attention to if a market wants to take a coffee break or a lunch hour, which i think is a lot more apropos than -- and i love kenny, but i don't think this is exhaustion i think it's just going to take a coffee break if we close below friday's lows, then i would start to perspire.

>> we've been working together long enough, we've been thinking the same i saw the very number you cited and on the s&p, which i'm sure traders follow more closely, the low on friday was 27,069 we actually touched that number before we started to come back it will be interesting to see how we do going into the close this afternoon kelly? >> i was actually going to say, kenny, they're trying to take your job >> yeah. >> real quickly, kenny, why do you hope it keeps falling? >> say it again. >> why do you hope the market keeps falling? >> i think it's overdone the momentum has taken it so far out of line that it needs to come back. it would be healthy for the market to come back. we're up 4% in seven trading days, 10% up up in the last quarter with 2340 pullback at all. i think it's healthy for the market to pull back a little bit to give the market a chance to calm down because i think the momentum just created this

irrationality in the market. then your guy comes out and says the same thing, irrational exuberant comment which i think added anxiety to the market. le -- i think it's healthy for the market. >> what do you think is happening here and what do you do about it, chris >> one day doesn't a market make all we have to do is have one of the fang stocks have great earnings and people forget this. but it's a warning shot across the bow and i think it's time to look a little more defensively and valuation and in the short run never seems to matter, but in the long run it rules i think it's time to look at those areas where you've got some defensive characteristics from it and start way from technology and some of the other real names that have had huge runs here. so, it's a little bit of a preparation for, i think, the market only does another 3% or 4% between now and the end of the year i agree. 4% off the top right out of the box, yeah, that seems to me, way

overdone. >> here they've already bought the dip. we're positive again now on the dow. amazing. guys, thank you very much. we'll see you later. chris bertelson, kenny p. -- >> we were down 100, now up 11 >> yeah. we've had market cycles of all kinds in one day. a news alert on steve bannon eamon javers at the white house. what's going on? >> reporter: there is legal wrangling going on right now about steve bannon's testimony on capitol hill before the house intelligence committee the white house has just released a starment. this is in response to media reports that say the white house told bannon not to talk to the intelligence committee about matters relating to the white house or to the transition and that bannon did not do that when he initially appeared before that committee. the white house putting out this statement under the name of sarah huckabee sanders saying with all congressional inquiries touching upon the white house, congress must get in touch with

the white house. we have been fully cooperative with these ongoing investigations and encourage the committees to work with us to find an appropriate accommodation in order to ensure congress obtains information necessary to its legitimate interest so, what is going on here? when you talk to folks who are familiar with this situation, they tell you that this is all about the issue of executive privilege. will the president invoke executive privilege in this investigation? and how will he do that? when will he do that is still unknown. but it appears that the white house does not want steve bannon to testimony as to confidential matters he's aware of that occurred in the white house during his tenure here the way around that for the intelligence committee would be to issue him a subpoena and compel his testimony on that issue. and there will be some legal wra wrangling about that as well, depending on where they end up we could have steve bannon testifying today or being asked to come back on another day. we'll see where this one lands

but it's clear that the white house does not want steve bannon talking to that committee. we'll see whether that holds up here over the long run and whether or not the white house does, in fact, invoke executive privilege. we'll hear from the white house press secretary here at about 3:30 p.m. eastern time we'll also hear from the president's doctor who is likely to give us a briefing on the president's health remember, he had that physical last week. we should get some update on that as well back over to you guys. >> we have just been told we'll take that live, as a matter of fact we'll wait for that, when that gets under way. >> his doctor or the whole briefing >> yes >> the doctor, okay. >> yes >> thank you, eamon. >> they haven't even officially confirmed the doctor will come out but they said he will speak some time today. the 3:30 briefing is the opportunity for him to walk out to the podium and say what he needs to say they like to keep us in suspense. >> thanks. meanwhile, general electric has been the worst performer in the dow today. even as sources tell our david

faber that a major company breakup is likely in the works david joins us with the latest details. >> been an interesting day for the stock, to say the least. on many days, if this had been a few years ago and a ceo at ge said what john flannery said on a conference call this morning would probably be a great deal of hubbub about it that said, ge stock, as bill noted, down today. this after the company initially this morning shared kind of more of what seems to be an endless slew of not particularly good news taking after-tax gap charge of $2.6 billion and another $15 billion will be added to -- as a statutory cash contribution to its insurance subsidiaries over the next -- until 2024, so the next five, six, seven -- yeah, closer to six, seven years from here on the conference call explaining that charge and explaining what businesses had been left behind from the divestiture of their insurance businesses back in '04 and '06

and why they're having to pay even more than they had previously thought mr. flannery went on to talk more broadly about ge and said this >> as i look at the company and continue to evolve along this continuum, i believe there could be different structures that can achieve all of those objectives. and that we need to examine those. so, i don't -- you know, i would categorize it as an examination of options and it's the kind of thing that could result in, you know, many, many different permutations, including different assets if that made sense. >> you don't i say that as ceo of ge off the cuff it wasn't off the cuff, it was in answer to a question. he had referenced this idea earlier in his prepared remarks earlier. you say it because it's something you're thinking clearly and hard about

sources indicate that the company is likely to move ahead with a potential plan to separate itself into its constituent businesses of course, aviation, health care and theed struggling power unit are the key parts of what remains of ge. nbc universal once had been. ge capital once had been both of those had been dispatched, at these insurance assets of ge capital they wish they could have had dispatched in full as well. the question now is what would it be worth? when will we hear more probably not until the spring is what i'm being told. it's a complex undertaking you're talking about with a lot of technical issues involving pension and tax and so many other things that leaves some questions as to how far they will get along with it take a look at some of the parts and analysis from various firms that follow the company to get a sense of why the stocks are not doing so well. if you said, ge was going to break itself up, you think the

market would react positively. bank of america says worth $25 goldman sachs, $18 a lot of moving parts. perhaps a momentous day when we look back on it. never heard those dmrents a ge ceo. you know it will, bill. >> i do. >> the stock action is very strange. exactly to the point you were making some people think the some of the parts would be $11 to $15. the argument for breaking it up is when it had the worst stock performance last year. ironically this year it's okay now the street's reaction to the possibility, instead of it r rallying big, is it -- this is a weird position. >> it is the news today is not good there are concerns, are there more liabilities in the ge capital portfolio, what's left that they may have to face up to - >> ge capital suspend their dividend they may have to pay the company. >> that was expected when we got the dividend cutover all from ge

cut in half. there was an anticipation, no dividend would be forthcoming from ge capital to the parent company in 2018 but that's going to be the case for a long time there's the idea, kelly, to your question, is it a desperate move he's looking for anything he can to create value, mr. flannery. >> does the market think it will create value >> he's certainly focused on unlocking value. that's what you'll hear from everybody. maybe he thinks this is the best way to go about it i think it's something the board will align themselves with that board, by the way, is changes its complexion going from 18 to 12, three new members. by april, when that happens, they may be off and running on this new plan. >> it goes without saying that we live in a time when things that we never, ever could have foreseen are happening and we can just add this to the list now >> yes, we can ge, the ultimate americanle corporation/conglomerate potentially no more. >> and nobody's paying attention. >> nobody's even talking -- i mean, it's sort of like, next.

how is amazon prime? what's that aws looking like how about that facebook feed >> thank you, david. >> thank you 43 minutes until the close today. the dow is negative again. just in the past couple of hours we've gone from having nearly 300-point gain to a decline of 100. then back positive a moment ago. now the dow is negative by 27. that's more action than we had all of last year. >> but we're here for you. that's what we're here for the nasdaq, a lot more ahead on the "closing bell" coming up is president trump using the markets as a barometer of success rather than the polls? >> the stock market is way up again today. and we're setting a record literally all the time and i'm telling you, we have a long way to go. >> and if so, what happens if and when stocks fail plus, why apple thought so many americans were having heart attacks at the same time this weekend? o nus thsing bell" is back in twmitewi more on this record-breaking day for wall street

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you missed a lot. >> you would think nothing happened but you're wrong. >> the dow was down 240 points on open. then down 190 points, turned positive briefly now we're -- who knows where we're going right now. they may have -- stocks may have seen a dramatic reversal today but that drop is nothing compared to bitcoin that hit a six-week low over new concerns south korea could take steps to crack down on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies there's the price for all four bitcoins. >> let's talk about the trump administration, shall we we have the news conference coming up at half past the hour. we're joined by larry kudlow to talk about this. sir, thank you for joining us, along with dave lawler, deputy editor at axios. larry, we wanted to start with your reporting/news on nafta do you think the president is staying in >> i'm hearing the president is leaning towards staying in and

not withdrawing from nafta negotiations this is made by his top economic people like treasury secretary steve mnuchin and others they're afraid would be bad for business, be bad for confidence, damage energy, agriculture, a lot of others, including automobiles. i can't say that with 100% certainty but that's what i'm hearing. there's an election coming up in mexico if we withdrawal from mexico and launch some tirade against mexico, that could help elect a left-wing president, which we don't need, neither do the mexicans at the moment, i think the theme is negotiate several more rounds are ahead of us it's not going to be an easy negotiation but it is preferable negotiation. negotiation is always preferable to pulling out of these very important trade deals. >> it is tough to make predictions like that because

last tuesday the president was saying he would sign anything they brought him on immigration and by thursday dick durbin and lindsey graham got their heads handed to them at the white house on that very issue it remains to be seen how things work out. >> you're right about that if you have big trade disruptions and pulling out of nafta would be bad for the economy and reflected in the weaker economy by a poorer stock market the stock market could blow up on this because we're so integrated with canada and mexico and raises issues about our credibility. for the moment, you're right, bill, these things can change, but for the moment rather than cut and run, i think there will be more rounds of negotiation s there's a big meeting in

montreal >> jonathan at your site said the white house will never admit this publicly but the president is developing a softer attitude toward nafta what larry is saying would kind of confirm that. does that mean the whole thing is over? this is something the president campaigned on that he might feel is important to his base is it something he's comfortable walking away from? >> what's interesting is one of the things jonathan reported is driving this cooling on the idea withdrawing from nafta is the idea it would hurt the dow in particular, which trump cites all the time, record highs he's concerned and people close to him are telling him, gary cohen, steve mnuchin, this could roil the markets, this big barometer of your success could go in the option direction that's one of the thins that's pulling him away from what would be his instinct and what we've heard him say for a long time which is nafta is a bad deal. >> wait a minute you said the president is listening to the stock market instead of the polls for his

next moves. >> yeah. i remember covering the primary campaigns and all they talked about is polls now the stock market is the big thing he pulls out to say, look how successful my presidency has been the stock market is responding we heard the tax cuts, watch what this will do to the markets. he likes to see record highs that's something now a factor in these decisions. >> that's always something dangerous for a president to do, larry, as you well know. >> i don't know. look, the stoment can change direction. i mean, you've had ten changes in the last 20 minutes in terms of long-term trends, the market's been on the rise. you've had tremendous increase since the election i think it does indicate better business conditions, better economy. the polls, i might add, corroborate that and it shows confidence i don't have a problem with that i do think in terms of giving mr. trump economic advice, there are a lot of things have you to look at in the world, a lot of

variables, but the stock market should be one of them. he's not the first president to look at the stock market i don't have a problem with this. >> that's because the markets agree with you on nafta. you have the same goal what if that's not true? >> you have to go with what you have to go with, kelly politics is a tricky business. money in politics is even more fun. if you don't like the stock market, i think the polls are worse. polls all over the place they so badly underweight republican voters, for heaven's sake you have all these polls with ten points lower public participation. i don't know use all of it, for heaven's sake look, no sane person right now can say the economy isn't getting better it is getting better consumer confidence and business confidence, they like the tax cuts

they're good for profits look at the wage increases from 100 companies. i mean, these -- mr. trump is right to be on this. >> this is important what you're saying, and maybe this would be reassuring to a lot of people, i think the president is trying to play to his base, but you're saying the most important thing to him is the performance of the economy, stock market being a piece of that. do you think 3%, 3.5%, 4%, gdp would influence this president more than what he thinks his base would want? >> absolutely. he's focused laser-like on the economy. that was his number one issue during the campaign. that doesn't mean there aren't other issues like immigration, national security and so forth i'm just saying, he just gave a speech in nashville i believe. and he was talking to the farm community and he knows darn well that restrictions or tariffs walking out of nafta would be damaging to the farm community, which is a key part of his own

base it would also be damaging to the upper midwestern states, the rust belt states, a key part of his base he gets that he's hearing that. i think he's two things merge quite nicely and it gives his advisers -- it gives his advisers a chance to keep the economy front and center precisely because mr. trump, a former businessman, understands the workings muof the stock mare and the economy. >> before we let you go, david, what's your assessment, is there an appetite in washington to allow the government to shut down on friday as that deadline looms? >> i would have said no, certainly, over the weekend. it looked like things were moving in a positive direction it's been chaotic today on the hill i don't think either side has an appetite for a shutdown. democrats are standing pretty firm on the idea that immigration needs to be a factor here and republicans aren't interested necessarily in making a deal on their terms. so, i would not rule it out. my instinct will be they'll pass

another short-term extension, but these things are hard to predict. >> i agree with dave on that you know, senator mcconnell, the majority leader, wants to separate what he calls funding from immigration i think they have to do it democrats trying to hold up the budget with daca or hold up the whole immigration broad-base reform, the merit system, the whole nine yards, this crazy diversity lottery, they're both important. the immigration thing is terribly important but you shouldn't get in way of the funding. you've got some very important defense funding increases on the table. so, we'll see. but i agree with dave. things are up in the air they ought to push something out in three, four weeks and maybe cooler heads will prevail. >> we will see larry kudlow and axios dave lawler thanks. time for a cnbc update with sue herera. >> a senate hearing on the

department of homeland security turned into a tense discussion of president trump's views and language on immigration. senator patrick leahy asking dhs head kriersten nelson if president trump used a vulgar word >> i did not hear that. >> did he use something similar to that describing certain countries? >> the conversation was very impassioned. i don't dispute the president was using tough language. california authorities say the mother of 13 children kept locked in filthy conditions were, quote, perplexed why police came to their home. some of the children, some chained to children, wer described as weak and small for their age. authorities are calling it torture. a florida state house committee presenting a report that shows county, state and federal agencies spent more than $4 billion after hurricane irma.

florida is working to get a designation from fema that would shift 90% of the financial burden of the recovery to the federal government and that is the news update this hour. bill, i'll send it back down to you guys >> all right thank you very much, sue. investors getting whiplash today after seeing the dow hit 26,000 plus and pulling back significantly. bob pisani is here with the -- forget the name of the drug you take when you get sea sickness. >> dramamine. >> yes look at the dow, 284 points top to bottom, that's a huge move. started to fall apart about 10:30 eastern time bids got canceled. seemed like a lot of buyers sort of lost interest didn't see a big pick up in selling activity a lot of people have different motives or means of describing what happened. some people talk about the government shutdown, worries as an issue there were some syrian headlines out at that time

we're talking about various issues turks at the syrian border that might be an issue but i think stick with the general idea that stocks are very overbought. that's the real theme here we have a vix expiration if you look at the vix, look how it shot up there are a lot of traders eager to reverse this trade. a lot of people were shorting volatility for ages and people want to reverse that move. look how it moved on the vix that's pretty dramatic meantime, if you look what's been down, it's the cyclical stuff that had the big moves to the upside you look at your -- oh, there's stuff that's up. look at the consumer staples, health care, these are names that have held up well throughout the day the stuff that hasn't held up are the cyclical names you see energy, consumer discretionary, industrials, these are the ones that led the charge throughout the end of last year and the beginning of

this year as we talked about this expanding global economy. it makes some sense. don't worry about a specific reason stick with the overbought theme and what's going on here, i think, makes sense back to you. >> bob, thank you. we brought art cashin up here but have you to cool your jets because we have to go to the white house. the press briefing is just getting under way and the doctor who examined him on friday will give the results of that examination of the president let's listen in. >> periodic physical exam as president of the united states having had the opportunity to review the tests, consult specialists, thoughtfully analyze the results and discuss them with his patient, he'll provide them with his considered assessment of the president's medical fitness for duty now and for the remainder of his term in office with regard to friday's examination, knowing dr. jackson, i'm confident that he practiced good medicine however, it would be an error to view that exam and dr. jackson's assessment as an isolated event

when in practice it's an ongoing practice far more important to a meaningful assessment of the president's fitness for duty is the doctor's evaluations, observation, conversations, examination during the remaining 364 days of the year dr. jackson and his team have been doing precisely that from the moment donald j. trump was elected. beginning on november 9, 2016, the members of the white house medical unit began shadowing the new president-elect figuratively velcroed to his side 24/7. on january 20, 2017, dr. jackson became that velcro dr. jackson's office is one of only a very few in the white house residence proper and located directly across the hall from the president's private elevator on any given day the physician's office, as it's known, is generally the first and last to see the president. dr. jackson has built and leads an organization that is better than any other in history. i know that. i as physician to the president was well served by this

president's doctor more importantly, president and mrs. bush were well served by dr. jackson as were president and mrs. obama in keeping with his oaths, i have every reason to believe dr. jackson will well and faithfully discharge the duties of his office, and president trump and his wife will be well served because of it thank you brigadier general richard tub fwchb for that information and background i'll turn it over to dr. jackson. if you could, keep your questions on topic after dr. jackson finishes, i'll address more questions of the day. thank you. >> good afternoon, everyone. i'm going to read the summary of the president's physical i'll read this after i'm done reading this, immediately after the brief we'll make this available to everyone exactly as i've read it here and i'll take a few

questions. start with, president donald j. trump has completed his first periodic physical examination as president of the united states i performed and supervised the examination with appropriate specialty consultation and diagnostic testing the exam was conducted january 12, 2018 at walter reed national military medical center. the purpose of the exam is to provide the public with an update of the president's current health status and ensure the president enjoys benefits of good health. this examination focused on evidence-based screening and prevention with president trump's consent i released the following health information. vitals as follows -- age, 71 years and 7 months at the time of the exam. height, 75 inches. weight, 239 pounds resting heart rate, 68 blood pressure, 122/74 pulse ox symmetry, 92.4.

physical examination by system to include any studies that were done by system eyes, the president's uncorrective visual acuity is 20/30 by laterally with corrective 20/20 bilaterally his visual fields were normal. his intraocular pressures were normal and no pathology was discovered head, ears, nose and throat, normal exam of the head, nose, ears, mouth and throat dental exam, he has healthy teeth and gums no other dental findings neck, normal thyroid exam. no noted lyphopathy. a screening low dose of the chest indicated no pathology cardiac exam, heart was normal regular rhythm, no murmurs or other abnormal heart sounds. ekg was normal sinus rhythm with a rate of 71

with a normal axis he had transecho cardiogram. normal left ventricular chamber side and wall thickness. his right ventricle was normal his atria were glowsly normal and all involves were normal he had an exercise stress echocardiogram done that was normal a normal heart rate, blood pressure and cardiac output in relation to exercise no ischemia. gastrointestinal, normal, no passes, no spleenomegaly, normal colonoscopy done in 2013 that demonstrated no polyps or abnormal findings.

no repeat is needed and will be deferred until next physical compassion extremities and musculoskeletal, normal throughout. full range of motion in all joints he had strong distal pulses and good capillary refills in all extremities. no swelling or edema examination of the cranial nerves, deep tendon reflexes, motor function and sensory system were all normal a cognitive screening exam using the montreal cognitive assessment was normal with a discovery of 30/30 no base of squamous cell carcino carcinoma. i'll go over the labs that i feel are most important, most providers will be interested in and you can look at the details when i put out the written laboratory results summarized -- lipid panel, total cholesterol

of 223 triglycerides of 129 hdl of 67. ldl cholesterol of 143 his total cholesterol at hdl ratio of 3.3 complete blood count to include his white blood cell count, hemoglobin, platelet were normal and values are on the written copy you'll get. his extended metabolic panel as follows, fasting glad glucose, bun was 19, karats of his reasonable function, his liver enzymes, alt was 27, ast was 19, normal, his hemoglobin a1c was 5% and his thyroid screen with tsh was 1.76 he had a urinalysis done that was clear. and had no evidence of protein,

ketones, glucose or blood. he has rosacea and cholesterolemia in past. social history, no past or present use of alcohol no past or present use of tobacco. his medications as follows -- he takes crestor, ten milligrams daily to lower his cholesterol, takes aspirin 81 milligrams daily for cardiac health, propeca for male pattern baldness, and takes a multivitamin each day for health maintenance. immunizations, the president during his physical exam had a prevnar and twinrix to prevent hepatitis. his seasonal flu are all up to date and travel vaccinations are up to date in summary, the president's

overall health is excellent. his cardiac performance during his physical exam was very good. he continues to enjoy the significant long-term cardiac and overall health benefits that come from a lifetime of abstinence from alcohol and tobacco. we discussed diet, exercise and weight loss. he would benefit from a diet lower in fats and carbohydrates and exercise regimen he has a history of elevated cholesterol. in order to further reduce his cholesterol level and decrease his cardiac risk, we'll increase dose of cholesterol medication he is up to date on preventive medicine and screening tests and exams. all clinical data indicates the president is very healthy and he will remain so for the duration of his presidency. with that i'll take some questions. before we get started, let me make one comment i would like to point out for all of you in this room, many of which know me, if something should happen to you over the next few months and you should

fall ill, most likely i'll be the one called to take care of you. when you ask your questions, please keep that in mind yes, sir. >> doctor, how much weight have you suggested the president lose he has not exactly been enthusiastic about exercising. the president believes we have a finite battery, why waste it on exercising when you can put it towards other pursuits what did you counsel him about that >> that's right. so, you know, i think the president, you know, he and i talked and he would like to lose over the next -- a reasonable goal over the next year is to lose 10 to 15 pounds we talked about diet and exercise a lot he's more enthusiastic about the diet part than the exercise part but we'll do both. he -- he and i will work together over the next year to incorporate a good plan so that we can meet those goals. >> thank you two questions for you. number one, there have been some questions as part of your exam

and if you talked to the president about his mental fitness. he pulled back on that can you assess the president's mental fitness for office? >> absolutely. so, many of you may have picked up on the fact that we did do a cognitive assessment as part of the exam i had no intention of including it in this exam because, to be honest with you, per all the guidelines that are out there, it's not indicated at this time. a lot of the guidelines would suggest you do -- that you do cognitive screening questions and if you have a positive or concerning answer in the screening questions you engage with a cognitive screening tool. i had no intentions whatsoever of doing that because i didn't feel it was clinically indicated. part of the reason i didn't think it was clinically indicated is because i've spent almost every day in the president's presence since january 20 -- or last year when he got into office and i've seen him every day. i see him one, two, sometimes three times a day because of the location of my office. we have conversations about many

things most don't revolve around medical issues at all. but i've got to know him pretty well i had absolutely no concerns about his cognitive ability or his, you know, his neurological function so, i was not going to do a cognitive exam i had no intention of doing one. the reason we did the cognitive assessment is, plain and simple, because the president asked me to do it he said, is there something we can do, a test, some type of screen to assess my cognitive ability? so, i looked into it once again, in my initial question was that i didn't think it was indicated and i didn't think we should do it. after looking at some guidelines, there are a few guidelines out there that lean in the direction of potentially doing it, the medicare guidelines and some of the nih, national institute of aging, they indicated it might be a good thing to do it for most patients in the future with that in mind, i went through and looked at a variety of cognitive assessments that were available most were very simple, very short. and i think that's part --

that's the goal, actually, for primary care providers is to keep it simple and short we picked one of the ones that was a little more involved, longer, the more difficult one of all of them it took significantly longer to complete but the president did exceedi exceedingly well on it that was not driven by any concerns i had that was driven by the president's wishes and he did well on it. >> so follow-up, the president's personal doctor said during the campaign he would be healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency do you agree with that assessment >> i'm not going to comment on that my job is to give you my assessment of president trump today. i'm not going to make any comparisons with presidents over the last 200 years >> doctor, there was an incident recently where the president appeared to slur his words while giving an address. did you look into what the cause of that might have been at all >> i did yeah, we talked about that actually, one of my ent consultants was involved in that we ee vvaluated him, checked

everything out and everything was normal we did an ultrasound of his glands and a few other things and there was absolutely no clinical findings that would suggest -- i think the reason for that was, quite honestly, me being up here right now, i think i need a drink of water. but i think that -- i had given the president some medication, specifically some sudafed over the days recently and i dried up his secretion more than i intended to and that precipitated it. >> some suggested that could be related to dentures. >> the president has no partials or dentures of any kind. >> two questions one is about the ejection fracture my wife suffers from that. i clued in on 60%. is that a concern going forward for him? in some cases that indicates low activity - >> no, 60% to 65% is a normal ejection fraction. there's no concern about that at

all. >> second follow-up on cholester cholesterol. do you hope to get it under 200? >> we're not focusing on the total cholesterol as much as the ldl. we would like to get that down below 120, so that's what we're shootsing for. >> with the low -- i understand the blood pressure was within norms but with a high cholesterol, any concerns for his heart health >> not at all. i think that, you know, the one good thing -- there are many good thins that came from his exam he had great findings across the board. the one that stands out is the cardiac health his cardiac health is excellent. i think with all the other things in place, he doesn't have a family history of premature cardiac disease. he doesn't smoke he doesn't have diabetes a lot of the traditional risk factors he doesn't have. and so i think that those things in combination with the excellent cardiac results that we got from the exercise stress test are very reassuring >> thank you could you just elaborate in

laymen's terms -- you did a great job of that -- what you ruled out in these cognitive tests? there have been reports the president has forgotten names, he's repeating himself are you ruling out things like early onset alzheimer's? are you looking at dementia-like symptoms doctors like to give patients tips as they walk out the door, what they should change in lifestyle or behavior. what did you tell this president outside of diet he might want to change >> i think that cognitive test, you know, it's -- it's well respected, it's a test that's used throughout the united states lots and lots of institutions use that test. it's the one they use at walter reed for patients that they feel like they need to do cognitive screens on it's a universally accepted test it's a little more extensive than the shorter ones that are in some of the guidelines. but, yeah, it screens for all those things it screens for any type of cognitive issues, alzheimer's and all those other things

so, the fact that the president got, you know, 30 out of 30 on that exam, i think that there's no indication whatsoever that he has any cognitive issues you know, on a day-to-day basis, it's been my experience that the president, you know, he's very sharp. you know, he's very articulate when he speaks to me you know, i've never known him to repeat himself around me. he says what he's got to say and he speaks his mind and i found no reason whatsoever to think that the president has -- >> his mind? >> i found no reason whatsoever to think the president has any issues whatsoever with his thought process. >> the tips part, did you recommend he make any changes, lifestyle, behavioral? >> no. the main thing we focused on with regard to lifestyle changes are diet and exercise. if we get diet and exercise right, then weight loss will come those are the things we focused on there wasn't a lot to go on here as far as giving -- making him healthier in the year coming other than incorporating an

exercise routine, working on his diet and have him exercise those will make him healthier than right now at his health is excellent right now. dr. gupta, you want to answer one? >> there were some intensive test including the ekg, and transauthorize attic did he need to be sedated. was there anything you were worried about? >> no. we got the ct exam because i didn't have any background information on him from a pulmonary standpoint i didn't have any old chest x-rays i was initially going to get a xes x-ray and leave it at that but it's so easy to whip in -- takes a minute or two, but as much time to get a c.a.t. scan as a chest x-ray so it made more sense. with regard to the echo cardiogram, i want to prescribe

an exercise program for the president. i think it makes sense to get a good cardiac assessment in a controlled environment like the hospital before you prescribe an exercise program to a patient. >> he does have heart disease, is that what you said? >> he does not have heart disease. >> did he have a ct exam before that showed calcium in - >> he did. he had a -- so, i think -- so, technically he has nonclinical athe atheroschlerotic arthrosclerosis. he had a calcium done in 2009. he had one done in 2013 that was 98 we did get a calcium score in this one, i didn't mention it because it was clinically good information. but it was 133 so, i had a long conversation with the cardiologist. not only the cardiologist at walter reed but the cardiologist at cleveland clinic and several

other well-known institutions and everyone saw that has reassuring that he's gone this period of time and he's had that little of a change in his coronary calcium load. so, i think overall, his coronary calcium score is very reassuring and goes along with the rest of his cardiac workup >> can i ask a question, follow-up. the philosophy of the fitness of the president. the 25th amendment, a loot of people are been talking about it, it basically contemplates a group of senate-confirmed laymen will weigh in on whether the president is able to discharge the duties of the office you have certainly given this thought over the years since you've been in your role on what basis would you -- this is just a fif sophilosophical question -- advise the cabinet that the president is unable to discharge his duties how is that met? >> section 4 of that amendment doesn't really give me a specific duty or role in there as you said, it falls upon the

cabinet and members of congress and all. i think i'm just like any other member of the administration who sees him and stalks to him on a regular basis. if i were to see something that was very concerning and i had concerns about his cognitive ability or something to that extent that, you know, i would bring that up to the proper people in the chain of command, maybe starting off with the chief of staff or something. i think that's what everyone else in the administration would do so, i don't think my role as a physician would be much different than any other member of the president's administration if they thought something like that were going on i just think that, you know, once that happened, if it were someone else in the administration, i would immediately be brought in to make a clinical assessment and see if i agreed with that assessment but, you know, i think that -- at this particular point, you know, based on my exam and the cognitive testing we did and my day-to-day interactions with the president, the president is mentally very sharp, very intact >> do you believe he is fit for

duty >> absolutely, he's fit for duty i think he'll remain fit for duty for the remainder of this term and even for the remainder of another term if he's elected. >> doctor, you talked a bit about president trump and your kind of daily dealings - >> hang on did you say -- >> yeah, how can you determine four years out >> absolutely. i don't have a crystal ball. but based on his cardiac assessment, you can make predictions. you can make cardiac calculations and see what his risk of having a cardiac or cerebral vascular event might be if you look at that stuff where he falls out on his cardiac assessment, he falls into a category that portends years of event-free living. sure, you know, i might could have a big event tomorrow. i don't have that kind of -- i'm not making that kind of prediction but i'm saying based on the clinical information that i have right now over the year of me

observing him and the few few things that have happened with him medically over the year, and in large part on the objective data we have gained from this particular exam, i feel very confident that he has a very strong and a very probable possibility of making it completely through his presidency with no serious medical issues >> doctor, so you talked about dealing with president trump on a daily basis. can you talk a bit about him as a patient, like what type of patient he is. does he take all of your advice? he also talkeds about since you were dealing with him on a daily basis, has he had any ongoing illness? you talked about giving him sudafeds sometimes he sounds like he's sniffling. does he have allergies >> on occasion he suffers from the same viral upper respiratory stuff you and i do and he gets congestion and things of that nature for the most part, one thing i found about president trump is he's very independent when it comes to his medical stuff

so,you know, he's -- i guess, you know, the way he grew up, i guess, he just -- he takes care of most of the little stuff. he doesn't come to me for band-aids. i'm easily accessible and a lot of folks will. so, i think that he -- you know, he's a good patient. he sometimes, you know, apt to, you know, convince him why i want him to do something so, you you know, he doesn't just take everything i say and just take it, you know, at face value and move on. he'll ask me questions about why would i do that, why should i do that for the most part he's cooperative, follows medical direction. he's like every other president i take care of, i have to get the first lady involved and make sure he's doing what he's supposed to be doing but, yeah, he's a good patient. >> just to make sure we're clear on this, when you analyzed his cognitive ability or do neurological functions, that's not the same as a psychological exam >>, no it's not.

it's a screening assessment for cognitive impairment. >> doctor, does the president do anything at all right now in terms of exercise? what is his daily exercise routi routine, if there was one? >> right now on a day-to-day basis he doesn't have a dedicated defined exercise program. and so that -- you know, that's what i'm working on. the good part is that, you know, we can -- we can build on that pretty easily. >> you said you were discussing that with him. what were you discussing what would you like to see him start doing? >> like i said, he doesn't have a daily exercise, you know, regimen. some people exercise, some people don't some people, you know, just didn't -- didn't, you know, haven't done that as part of their routine. and i would say that's the category he falls in right now i would say, though, that, you know, despite that, one of the things being with the president on a day-to-day basis that's been impressive to me, he has a

lot of energy, a lot of energy and a lot of stamina and i think i first noticed that -- you know, we traveled, did some overseas travel last year and i was really surprised because i didn't know the president early on you know, when -- in the days we'd get these 14, 16-hour days. and the staff is just spent after a while. you're just like, man, when are we going to the hotel? when are you going down? you have all the issues of different time zones and things of that nature, too. out of everybody there, the president had more stamina and more energy than just about anybody there. and he was the one that was always like, we're not going to skip this event. we're not going to skip this we're going to do this, do that, and stuck to the schedule despite the urging of some of us to let's just forget the rest of the day. >> would you explain to me how a guy who eats mcdonald's and all those diet cokes and never exercises is in as good a shape as you say he's in >> it's call genetics. i don't know some people have just great genes. i told the president if he had a healthier diet over the last 20

years he might live to be 200 years. i don't know he has incredible -- he has incredible genes, i just assume. you know, if -- if i -- if i didn't watch what i eat, i wouldn't have the cardiac and overall health that he has he's very healthy, despite those things and i don't think that he does that anymore i mean, you know, he's in the white house now. he's eating what the chefs are cooking for him now and they're cooking a much healthier diet for him and we'll continue to make that healthier. i would say the answer to your question is he has incredibly good genes that's just the way god made him. >> go ahead. second row. >> me? thank you. you mentioned that you gave the president a ten-minute test. was that the mini mental state examination? if not, can you tell us what specific cognitive - >> it was the montreal cognitive assessment, sometimes roefeferr to as the moca you can find it online.

>> do you have a life expectancy range for him based on his results? number two, what exactly does the exercise and eating plan look like? the elliptical machine in the bedroom? did you see any evidence of a bone spur the president said he suffers from >> none of that has been bothering him so we didn't examine him for bone spurs he's not come to me complaining of that so there was no reason in this particular assessment. we were pretty crunched for time with everything we had done. we didn't look at issues like that i didn't assess that, no as far as life expectancy, i'll say he probably won't live to be 200, but i don't know, i think his life expectancy is, you know, i would just have to say it's the same as every other american male right now but certainly no less. >> and the specifics of the dietary and exercise plan, what's in store? >> we're working that out right now. i'm doing -- one of the things is i'm getting a nutrition specialist to come up here and meet with the chefs we have here they're going to go over the preparation of the president's

food to make sure that we're, you know, cutting the calories and the fats and the carbohydrates as much as we possibly can and still making good meals for him with regard to the exercise, that's something that myself and, you know, potentially mrs. trump will work with him upstairs there's a gym upstairs we'll get that set up to his specificses and we'll see how that goes. >> is he limited to one scoop of ice cream now? >> i don't limit his diet at all. i make recommendations >> one follow-up question. there isn't anything that's a part of the president's health records or his overall physical fitness or any medications that he's taking that you're not permitted to tell us is there anything you're keeping from us for privacy reasons? >> i can promise you there's absolutely nothing i'm withholding from this. i can tell you that, you know, i've done the last four, five of these. i've been involved in probably the last six or seven of these this is, hands down, more

information than -- that's been put forth by any other assessment to date i was -- friday was a good day for me friday made today exceptionally easy for me. when we left friday, i was -- you know, it was good for me it made this much, much easier for me today no, i'm not withholding anything i have reviewed the president's past medical records to the extent they've been made available to me and there's nothing at all concerning to me. >> doctor, can you say given the president's age, he's somewhat appeared to where president reagan was at this time in his presidency can you say, given there's scrutiny of what was overlooked at the time with president reagan in terms of alzheimer's and things he was then suffered from at a later date, can you say whether the tests you ran would exclude any of those things and what the possibility of overlooking something like that would be? you know, how can you tell the american people that this time we're certain. >> i can say that that test, you

know -- and i don't know president reagan's actual medical condition and i don't know what his condition was like toward the end of his presidency i've read things and seen the document asarie documentaries. but let's just assume he did have some evidence of cognitive impairment toward the end of his presidency i can reliably say and i think the folks in the mental health community out there would back me up on the fact that if he had some type of mental cognitive issue, that this test is sensitive enough it would pick up on it he would not have gotten 30 out of 30 on the test. i'm confident at this stage that he has nothing like that going on my personal experience is that he has absolutely no, you know, cognitive off -- or mental issues whatsoever. he is very sharp >> a quick question about psa. are you confident of his

prostate health? you recited a very low prostate. >> that is probably why his psa is as low as it is, because it's very low but we have no indication whatsoever on prostate exam. based on his previous psas that he has any prostate issue going on a lot of people would recommend you don't even do a psa anymore. i did one because we had a long history of psas on previous exams when i reviewed his past medical record i thought it made sense to go ahead and do one had i seen a large bump in his sa or something, it would have been concerning, but i didn't so we're not going down that path. >> did you see a weight measurement -- he's at 239 seems it's just shy of obesity. >> it is. >> you're confident of that number and did you do any measurements -- >> we don't do any measurements. we do height and weight and you can put them in the bmi calculator we've never done measurements. there's not a lot -- you know,

there's not a lot of point in this at this point the president has acknowledged he'd be healthier if he lost a few pounds doing measurements and getting some other, you know, some other form of calculation wouldn't have really changed anything clinically for us. >> because of his age and continuing his physicals in the future, will you also continue the cognitive testing? >> that will be totally up to the president. like i said before, i didn't feel it was clinically indicated on this round. so, i will continue to monitor the president over the next year i'll talk to him on a regular basis. i'll visit with him every opportunity. i'll spend lots and lots of time with him over the next year. if i have any indication that we need to do it or if i come up with anything on any of his exams that clinically indicates we should do that, then, yes, i will recommend doing that. short of that, if the president wants to get one done next year, we'll do another one next year >> doctor, it's recommended that most baby boomers get screened for hepatitis c. did you do a hep c test or has

he had one recently? >> he had a hep c test remotely. i found that in his past medical record but i did not do one this time >> you talked a little bit about his diet here at the white house. can you flesh that out a little bit. what specifically he's eating. is he eating lots of chicken and fishes and white meat? also, does he take any sleep aids >> so, the president, you know, first off, i have to admit to you, you know, i see what he eats on the plane some and he eats the same food we eat on the plane which is fairly healthy meal, minus the desserts we get. i have not been as actively involved in his diet as i will be in the year to come so i don't have a lot of the nofgs that to come he's asked me to get the nutritionist involved, which basically has given me permission to become involved in that, so i will. i'll have more information on that next year what was the other question? oh, sleep aids the president does take some ambien on occasion on overseas

travel when we travel from one time zone to another time zone on the other side of the planet, you know, i recommend that everyone on the plane take a sleep aid at a certain time so we can try our best to get on the schedule of the -- of our destination. so, he has on those occasions done that. >> what about here at the white house? sleep troubles or -- >> no. only during travel. >> how much sleep does he get on average? >> he doesn't sleep much i mean, i would say that, you know, this is just my guess based on being around him. i didn't ask him this question so i could be wrong on this, but i would say he sleeps four to five hours a night you know, i think he's probably been one of those ways his whole life that's probably why he's been successful personally, i need a lot more sleep than that. he's just one of those people that does not require a lot of sleep. >> can you say whether your prediction of good health and no serious events still holds if the president does not make change to his diet and start to

exercise is that still your professional medical opinion? also, can you tell us how long the examination was from start to finish and how many people were involved? >> yeah. i don't know i guess it's going to depend this time next year we'll do a lot of the same tests. we'll do cardiac assessment and everything else. when we get the objects ive data next year we'll look at it and recalibrate. if he's made a lot of changes, i assume he'll be in even better shape than he is right now with the -- if he's -- if he's eating better and he's lost a few pounds but, you know, even if he hasn't, i'll make that assessment without doing a lot of the objective testing we just did this time. so, and then it is other question was >> how long was the entire - >> yeah, the exam was -- >> how many people were involved >> county exam lasted about four-plus hours. so, i think we were there -- well, about four hours, i think. and i had a total of, i believe, 12 consultants involved in it. i don't -- i don't execute these

physicals in a vacuum. i have a lot of specialists available to me. on a day-to-day basis i'm somewhat of a quarterback with regard to his care i spend weeks speaking with consultants and trying to figure out how to plan his plan appropriately and what was appropriate for his exam it was a team effort with a lot of the physicians at walter reed who did a great job helping me take care of him >> was there anything the president or anyone else specifically said for you not to mention today? >> as a matter of fact, there's a lot of things, are you okay with me mentioning this? he said, absolutely, i don't care so -- yeah, go ahead. >> a follow-up on that some of the president's friends have told reporters in the past that they think he's a germophobe, he washes his hands obsessive obsessively. do you see that around the president? >> no. pe washes his hands frequently, he uses purell as many hands as he shakes in a

day, he'd be a fool not to the more he can wash his hands and use purell, i encourage that i would like him to continue to be a bit of a germophobe and make my job easier along the way. >> how would you characterize the president's health to an average 71-year-old american male >> based on his cardiac assessment, hands down, no question he is in the excellent range, from a cardiac standpoint that's not me speaking that's objective data. you can look at the data that was collected and he will definitely fall into that category >> is that just cardiac or everything >> well, it's cardiac. look at his vision you know, he's 71 years old and his bilateral uncorrected vision is 20/30 he can drive if he wants to without glasses. i can -- you know, a lot of people his age can't do that so, i think, you know, if you look at, you know, a lot of things across the board, you know, he's very healthy. so, that's why, you know, i put out in the statement that the

president's health is excellent because his overall health is excellent. are there a few things he could do to make himself a little healthier with the diet and exercise absolutely he's tracking that, i'm tracking that and working on it overall, he has very, very good health excellent health dr. gupta. >> to be clear, doctor, he is taking a cholesterol lowering medication, he has evidence of heart disease and he's borderline obese can you characterize that as excellent health >> i mean, i think based on his current cardiac study, his heart is very healthy. those are all things we're looking at with regards -- you're a neurosurgeon. there are stroke issues there, too, but we're focused on his cardiac health as an karat of what the risk of his vascular health might be like, he has no evidence of peripheral vascular disease. his heart exam, like i said, was in the excellent category for his age and sex. so, i think that despite that, that you mentioned, i think that we're doing a decent job with his cholesterol. i would say the dose of his

cholesterol medicine is very low. he takes a very low dose of his cholesterol medicine right now, so we have a lot of room to increase that. most cardiologists would put a patient on a larger dose of cholesterol medication than that to start with. we're going to up that i expect when we do that his ldl will fall even more. and, you know, like i said, if we do the diet and exercise, i mean, i just don't think that, you know, that he's got much room to do anything else >> concerns? you just said there were stroke concerns is that - >> no, no, i was talking to dr. gupta saying it's not just the heart. he's asking questions about -- i understand he's asking questions about vascular health including heart disease and stroke i'm saying we're looking at that we're looking at his vascular health overall the it looks very good right now >> what about potential diabetic changes as a result of his weight >> he has -- he doesn't -- >> i know his blood pressure is good but what about the potential because of the weight as he gets older >> sure. that's always a possibility. we'll monitor that

right now his hemoglobin a1c was normal and fasting blood glucose was normal so no indication of diabetes at all. we'll continue to be a routine thing we do every year with fasting glucose and hemoglobin a1c. >> did you test his hearing? >> i didn't. i will but the reason i didn't is because we didn't have time in the particular exam we had it is exam time packed and we had to make some conscious decisions on what we wanted to do and hearing seemed low on the priority list it's something i can do at any given test i will get a baseline hearing test on him just because i generally do that. >> thank you >> thank you >> when the president has his colonoscopy at the next physical, will he be sedated >> that's up to the president. i will recommend that he is because just -- you can do virtual colonoscopies where you're not sedated i'm a big fan of the optical colonoscopy. i will recommend if he does it

next year that he be sedated >> are you part of the decision-making process of handsing power over to it the vice president or whoever when he's sedated >> i'll make recommendations on that with chief of staff and national security council and everybody else i won't make that decision but i'll be a part of that decision. >> thank you you say that the president was the one who requested the cognitive test that it wasn't necessarily needed for someone of his age. did you -- did he tell you why he wanted it done? there's been a lot of speculation out there about his cognitive state. was he upset with some of that talk what were the discussions that you had from when he told you why he wanted to do? >> he wasn't upset but that did drive part of the process. this has been the narrative for a while and i think he saw doing the physical as an opportunity to put some of that to rest. i think -- he wasn't, obviously,

the least bit concerned he had anything to hide heactively asked me to include that in it so we did so, that, i think -- >> was there any one incident that kind of made him, you know, say, hey, this is something i want to do or just a collection of voices, you know, of criticisms or -- >> not that i'm aware of he didn't mention any one particular incident to me. the reason it came up is i was going over his physical exam, discussing everything else we were going to do and i was giving him a rundown of what we were going to do on that day and he asked me at that point, could i include that in the assessment it wasn't driven by anything that had just happened or anything he had just heard. >> i mean outside criticisms - >> no. i had no idea. he didn't discuss that with me he just said, hey, can we do this, so we did. >> on the president's stress level, in your conversations n your examinations, did he express any change in how stressful this job or lack of stress, as a result of becoming

president? >> no. i talk to him sometimes about stress, you know, just because i think it's my job as his physician to bring that up on occasion, as i do with many other members of the administration i've never seen the president, you know, stressed out about too much i think the one thing i noticed about him that i think is unique and i think -- this is just my personal opinion this is nothing to do with my medical assessment i think one of the things he has that's unique that is -- i would assume has led to some of his success over the years, he has a very unique ability to just get up in the morning and reset. and i've seen it before where, you know, things are going on. i think, you know, a lot of people around him and myself if i were in that situation, i would get up and the next morning and the next day would build on the day before and i would get more and more stressed he has the unique ability to push the reset button. he gets up and starts a new day. i think that, overall, that has helped him, you know, with his stress level and with his -- and made him healthier from a stress

standpoint. >> a follow-up regarding an exercise routine for the president. you said you've had these conversations with him can you take us through specific exercises you and the president are considering as you look at this routine >> there's a variety of ways to do this. can you do stationary bike, elliptical, treadmill. i wanted to do something that's low impact i don't want to do something to cause the president to have joint issues and things of that nature i'll look at how we can do something aerobically and with minimum impact on his joints that's what i'll approach him with is the best option. >> does he watch too much tv the sedentary lifestyle -- >> i'm not going to comment on that i might comment on that if that were my 5-year-old, tell you they watch too much tv the president can watch as much tv as he wants i don't know how much tv he watches. that's something i can't comment

on. >> because of the seated aspect of watching versus the active lyle style part of is it. >> i don't know what he's doing when he's watching tv. he might be in the office, he might be seated, i don't know. i think he spends probably as much time seated in a sedentary role as a lot of us do with office jobs. i don't think watching tv contributes to it that much in my opinion. >> what is your take of all the doctors and clinicians across the country who said in this president they see symptoms of this, that and the other >> sometimes in what way >> well, symptoms of dementia, symptoms of -- >> i would say the american psychiatric association has said so, too. i think that people shouldn't be making those kind of assessments about the president unless they've had the opportunity to get to know him and exam him in my opinion, that's just tabloid psychiatry and i just don't -- i'm not going to address it or fall into -- into,

you know, into responding to those kind of questions or accusations. >> how would you describe his diet before he became president? a lot has been said about too much mcdonald's, too many burgers. is that problematic? >> i have no idea. i just have the same information as you have. i didn't know the president before january 20th. i never saw him eat a meal before january 20th. i have no information on that. >> thank you you said you're not sure how much sleep he gets a night but you assume it's between four to five hours does that concern you? would you recommend him to try to get more sleep? >> sure. i think more sleep for all of us would be helpful but it doesn't concern me because i think it's his nature i think he's always been that way. and i think it works for him it wouldn't work for me but it works for him. if he could he could get more sleep, that would be great i think that's the way he's wired. in the back? >> did you tell the current president about his

predecessor's exercise routine and does this president ask you about how he could follow his predecessor's example to be as fit as barack obama was? a second question, do you keep a tally of how much golf the u.s. president plays? is that is something the press office repeatedly does not tell us do you keep a tally and do you consider that exercise >> no, i've not had that conversation no, i don't keep a tally yes, like everything else being on the golf course there is a certain amount of exercise involved in that next question. >> does the president take any medications you haven't disclosed here today >> he doesn't take any medications at all that i have not disclosed here >> doctor, can you give us an idea of exactly what the cognitive exam involved over that half hour and is that conclusively rule out any further psychological exam >> as i said, it does. you can look online and see what it's all about you know, you can -- it's easy to pull it up online, the

montreal cognitive assessment and you can see what it entails. it rules out the need to do any other cognitive testing. that's the reason you do it. it's a screening tool. if you do well on it i think anything above 26 is normal if you do -- certainly if you get a 30 out of 30, i think you can -- you can confidently assume you're done with the cognitive workup for now >> do you have any concerns about the president's twitter? >> no. yeah, twitter doesn't involved me as a doctor i don't have any concern on that >> thank you, dr. jackson. the president is the first life-long teetotaler and nonsmoker to sit in the office since jimmy carter you say that's extended his life in any way and makes him unusually healthier for his age? >> i would say that n my opinion, it's had a big impact, especially the smoking part of

it he has incredible cardiac fitness at this point in his life and i think a large part is partly due to the fact that he has had a life of abstinence from alcohol and tobacco particularly tobacco >> thank you you mentioned i whole bunch of doctors who participated in friday's exam. there are other question says about the president's emotional health is there anyone on the president's medical team such as psychiatrist or psychologist whose job it is to monitor the president's emotional state or watch for potential psychiatric problems or indicators of those? >> no, that's not anyone's official duty. i have all specialists at my disposal, civilian and military, including psychiatry should i need them. but that's really my job as his primary care doctor. i'm pretty suited for it in the sense i see him on a regular basis every day. so, i think that that -- that

that falls upon me to do that. >> thank you did you make any recommendation -- [ inaudible first and foremost - >> say again what? did i recommend any type of alternative medicine >> no, no, no. recommendation against -- like meditation, mindfulness, where do you stand on that >> sure. i think those are all relaxation methods. i think that in general any of us that can get involved in that, that can find the time for that, i think those are helpful and that they -- you know, that they make you healthier. i mean, yeah, i'm not opposed to, you know, him being involved in those kind of things in the future >> realistically, what do you think you can get him to do for

exercise >> we'll make progress i'm not worried about it. >> like what >> i don't know. we'll see. it will be aerobic exercise and something to spare his joints and that's healthy for him we're going to work on that. >> doctor, will your office be working with the white house chef at all in terms of formulating what kind of diet he'll eat? >> am i working with him >> is there some type of set plan >> like i said -- right, like i said to this point, i haven't been as involved in that as i want to be, but i'm getting -- i will become much more involved in that relationship from this point forward since the president has gwynn iven me diro to do so. >> thank you, doctor. >> you made a statement saying that you expected the president to be in good health for the duration of his term or even a second term. was there a specific request from the president to make that

statement or from anyone in the white house? >> absolutely not. i think someone asked the question regarding fitness for duty it just -- it's a natural extension of the fitness for duty assessment now and for the remainder of his presidency. and so i just followed that up with, you know, one term or two terms. you know, no one had prompted me or prepped me to ask any -- answer in any such way >> doctor, you've been answering questions for more than 50 minutes, which i think is really extraordinary. is that an indication of the president's desire to put all these rumors and questions to rest once and for all? >> absolutely. i think the president encouraged me to come out and he specifically told me, he said, i want you to get out there and i want you to talk to them and answer every single question they have. he specifically -- he called sarah and he told sarah, i do not want you pulling him off that stage, you leave him up there until he's ready to come off. yeah, i think two reasons, one is because the president wants

me up here two, because as of friday, i was excited getting up here and talking about his health because friday was a good day. it gave me a lot -- it made me enthusiastic about being up here today. so, it's really where we're going. >> [ inaudible ] >> absolutely. >> one more question about the montreal exam and other mini mental exams they're good but not sensitive to someone that's high functioning, there's not good at findings early stages of dementia if the president is worried about it, would you ask for more exams? >> yeah, but he's not worried about it they are good at finding subtle cognitive changes, everything i've read about them they'll tell you, the psychiatrists and psychologists that utilize these will tell you that they will pick up stuff, you know, that even the patient is sometimes not aware of. so, i think they're great

screening tools. i think short of having any type of issue with that -- with a cognitive screening tool, i wouldn't recommend doing anything beyond that >> are we saying because -- we had the issue and the issues about this president, cognitive testing, mental acuity testing is not a part of an annual exam with the president of the united states >> i'm totally unaware ofthis being done before. as far as i'm aware no president has had a cognitive assessment as president of the united states this is the first time it's happened if anybody is aware of it happening before, they have more information than i have because i looked extensively and i know most of the physicians that are alive that have taken care of the last three, four, maybe five presidents and it's never been done >> with the power that he yields, should is it not be? >> in my opinion as his physician, no.

if the american public somehow thinks that's part of an assessment for a president, then i suppose they can -- you know, they can incorporate that into your ability to run for president or serve in office, but that's really not my call. i approach the president like i would any other patient and he has gone above and beyond what i would consider a requirement to demonstrate his cognitive abilities. >> so, would the questions - >> next question >> plays golf a lot, almost every weekend. is that good for his health? >> is it healthy for him >> yeah. >> i think so. being outside. you know, it's a good way to, you know, relieve a little stress i think if that's what he enjoys doing, i think it's healthy for him to do it >> doctor, thank you you said he doesn't drink, he doesn't smoke. other than the diet issue. did you address drug addiction >> drug addiction? >> i mean, any other drugs

>> no, no, he has no drug addiction, absolutely not. >> thank you, doctor >> sarah is telling me to wrap it up, so i'm going -- >> i'll take one more question from somebody else one more question. back there >> thanks. could you give us a sense of how involved the first family has been, the first lady, his daughter, others encouraging him to be -- step up the exercise? >> sure, they're involved in it. his daughter, ivanka, and mrs. trump are both proponents of eating healthier and exercising they'll be partners of mine in working this out so, yeah, they're involved in it, absolutely sorry, i wasn't trying to be disrespectful, just trying to spread the wealth. >> my question is, with all the questions that have been asked, going back to that issue, everyone has asked about mental

acuity, those questions have been in the public he told sarah to stay up here until you answer those questions. going forward, would you recommend presidents undergo that type of testing >> i don't think so. i'm comfortable with the algorithm ems out there. most start with personal observation and observation, you know, of the physician, you know, and the patient and, you know, the family and the patient. and then they go to screening questions after that after screening questions they go to a screening assessment tool, like the one we used if that's abnormal in some way, they go on to other detailed cognitive testing. i think there's a healthy algorithm in place in the future that should be a decision between, you know, the president and their physician. and i would have no problem in the future if someone comes in and takes my place and there's another president here, following in that particular algorithm. we followed that algorithm

had i followed it to a "t," we couldn't have done this test but the president added to his physical exam. i appreciate it. thank you. >> thank you very much >> and that is the president's physician concluding a lengthy, almost hour-long discussion of the president's health after administering his physical last friday michael, do we have any other questions at this point? >> pretty thorough. >> that was unbelievably thorough we all wish our doctors were that thorough. welcome to the "closing bell." by the way, here's how we're finishing up what was a roller coaster crazy day. the dow was up 284 points at the high of the session, only to give it all back and then some we close lower by ten for the blue chips it was the best performer. the s&p shed a third the nasdaq down 0.5. the russell small caps down 1.2% it was a pretty ugly session bit end of the day, especially for

the small caps let's get a quick wrap-up of our market action with bob pisani. >> roller coaster is a good way to describe it the dow strilindustrials, 26,00d about 10:30 everybody lost interests. bids evaporated. we just drifted lower. we ended fraction ally to the downside some talked about the fear of a government shutdown, a few syrian headlines but overboard conditions, in some cases absurdly overboard conditions were the factor looking to the vix, a lot of people looking to reverse this you see how rapidly the vix moved up this was a noticeable move we haven't seen that in quite a while. if you look at the sectors down and up the most, the cyclicals have had a huge rally. they got hit the most so your

industrials and consumer and discretionary material sock. and then sectors that held up relatively well, they tended to be defensive names like staples, health care and reits. we can agonize over why they lost interest but overbought conditions is the most likely culprit. >> thank you that's what mike was -- we were talking about that earlier meantime, csx is out with their earnings morgan has those numbers. >> you say roller coaster, i say railroad we got the earnings from csx a short while ago. 64 cents adjusted for the fourth quarter, better than the 56 cents expected by the street $2.86 billion in revenue, slightly below expectations. fourth quarter earnings included a $3.6 billion net tax reform benefit. taking a look at volumes on a nongap basis so adjusted, those were down 2% that was better than the 3.8% decline that was expected and operating ratio, one of those

key metrics that investors watched when looking at the railroad adjusted to 68.4% also better than expected. the company putting up its conference call presentation a short while ago. 2018 revenue expected to be, quote, up slightly continued improvement in operating ratio expected in 2018 as well. but the conferencecall just go started a few moments ago with brand-new ceo jim foote, who took over for hunter harrison, who passed away last month we'll jump on that call right now and we'll bring you some of those headlines as they come out in the next few moments as well. back over to you >> thank you csx shares are down a third of 1%. mike, hunter harrison's passing put some pressure on this company to show whether it is continuing to execute the plan that he and paul halow envisioned to make this a more efficient railroad or running into problems having lost the leader. >> whether this sense of urgency remains to execute that plan or whether the disruptive nature of some of the revamp is passed

them the stock is holding onto most of its gains it's trading near the highs. the bottom line, overstated the strength, but i thinkit's abou the conference call spinning it ahead. >> this has been a good period of time lately for the transports, at today they snapped that losing streak we started the year off - >> in a pretty big way. >> down 146. phil lebeau with details on boeing. >> the vertical integration we're seeing in terms of the aircraft industry, the airplane makers, manufacturers, it continues. boeing announcing it is forming a joint venture with adient. ticker symbol adnt to build airplane seats, commercial airplane seats. why? boeing wants to move forward in that direction for two reasons one, there's a bit of a backlog within the industry. and the seat manufacturers, it's been well documented, have had problems keeping up with demand. boeing believes this joint

venture could help alleviate that and also when you look at the possibilities for growing greater profits from your customers what if you have one-stop shopping. you're buying the planes, why the seats as well. boeing and adient putting $50 million in this ven stur adient getting a pop before it was before the end of the session. back to you. >> thank you i'm just thinking about it, i think it was last year we might have had some deals on this front in terms of big airplane suppliers. is this boeing trying to kind of push back against its suppliers and saying, look, anything you can do, maybe we can do, too >> absolutely. >> is this going to put pressure on them? >> absolutely. look at united technologies, it bought rockwell collins? who did they buy early last year bae aerospace, which makes airplane seats out of north carolina so, you're seeing that

consolidation within the aircraft manufacturing space. >> phil, thank you phil lebeau. boeing trying to go from strength to strength lately. joining me on the panel, by the way, to talk about these markets today, cnbc senior market michael santoli along with michael bloc, chief strategist at rhino trading partners thank you for your patience. the biggest winner in the dow was merck after announcing positive news. the biggest loser was general electric ge shedding 3% merck leading the s&p while under armour was the biggest loser there. ua shed nearly 12% today a big day for the market overall when we had that 282 pop, the dow crossed 22,000 for the first time today that was just seven trading days after it first crossed 25k then reversed and finished by lower than ten points. what are your thoughts >> leaves open the question whether the market in a short-term basis emptied the tank it's been whistling higher, blowing through the signs, it's

overdone, too much, too soon on a one-day basis after an opening pop, after a three-day weekend on no news, it seemed like it wasn't the smartest money bidding at the open. that doesn't mean this is some important reversal just means we might have gotten tired. >> michael, with your trading hat on, how tired are we are we going to look back on this morning's 26k run as a distant memory is there more of a decline to come, do you think >> there's some invincibility coming into the market here and i think that's what we can say maybe the bar has gone higher because we go up every day we hear earnings are going higher because of tax cuts i'm seeing bank earnings, they're not bad but not blowing the doors off. a lot is being said about tax cuts helping out we have to now see will tax cuts to corporations flow down to individuals will they spend that money will corporations spend the money on xcap x or just spend it

on dividends and buybacks? i don't see the lending activity the bar is higher here maybe we're seeing a little bit of that here maybe we're just consolidating and maybe it will play out and it's wonderful and we're off to the races. personally, i'm looking for the most overrun stocks. we're talking about transports and csx missing on revenues. that's important to me transports keep going and going. seems like a lot is priced in. >> mike santoli, you raised the question if we're in the overshoot phase of the market. that was this morning. >> that was this morning and i meant it on a much longer term basis than a couple of hours. >> which means it's still relevant now. >> it could be i think so once everybody acknowledges, as mike said, things are great and the market continues to show a bid and you still have flows coming into the market and the market itself is showing that much more energy by energy i mean, bigger daily moves. it's the high octane stocks that have been leading, the more cyclical risky ones. all of that suggests maybe your

bull case has to be, it's just a stampede and the public gets enthusiastic about stocks that's what i would call a potential overshoot phase for the market where it just outruns the fundamentals even if the fundamentals are improving. >> you mentioned the vix michael block, stay with us. i want to talk about energy in the market the vix soared 15% today it was doing it when the dow went up and then even when it turned negative in the trading day. what are market options saying about this joining us is peter najarian what do you think is going on? >> i tell you what, it's pretty wild obviously, bob pisani was stalking about volatility. we got over the 12 level interesting around noon today in the spy, in the spooiders, we saw big put buying, january 274 puts, 200,000 were bought for 53 cents. by the way, from that moment until the close, the s&p dropped 20 points. those puts went from 53 cents to

$1.37. nearly a triple -- well more than a double. a nice move to the upside. that's about volatility. that's about people that were looking at the market and understanding, you know what, this market might be, to mike santoli's point, overbought. at least for the moment. there's not a lot of energy why the market was moving up as fast as it was, so why not take a position this position, by the way, very, very short term. we're talking january. it's not like they went out to march or june or somewhere like that this was very short term, expecting a pullback they might have gotten that entire pullback just today. >> that's interesting. i was going to ask you fundamentally you're saying that people are more interested in buying protection on the market and the cost of that protection is getting more expensive. you know, but then i hear you say this is only good for a couple of weeks, pete. >> right well, this is very, very short term and i think it's a combination of a lot of difference things. the new stories yet to come, obviously, earning season. we all know about tax reform is the next thing going to be

about something else in the market something about this trump -- you know, what is trump going to deliver next there are always going to be questions. that's why i expect to see volatility to increase it's interesting to see this huge spike today in the volatility index we move from 10 up through 12 pretty rapidly only to fall back towards 11.5 i think some of that was at the very end of the day. a lot of folks wanting to shore up positions. >> pete, thanks for joining us pete najarian. >> thank you. michael block, how does this -- you know, it's interesting because we started talking about volatility going up when the markets were going up do you think it's a logical move by people? >> i saw -- i saw exactly what pete talked about, that buying in the s&p 500 puts. the other thing that stood out to me today, kelly, was there was a lot of buying in the vix puts and calls themselves. people looking to play to volatility, so to speak. obviously if you're playing the call you thinks the vix is going higher people think there's going to be

a move one way or the other. we saw a lot of unusual activity a lot of people looking to buy the vix itself today in the options market so, i thought that was interesting. you've had this market where you've basically been punished for almost two years for hedging yourself think about it since february 2016 it's been straight up, straight up, straight up and sock hiccups, the election that lasted six hours, brexit lasted a day and a half and it's been off to the races now we're seeing it play out whenever we see any little spike in that, it's interesting. >> michael block, thank you. we'll let you go and get back to the desk. >> thank you >> appreciate you joining us michael block from rhino trading. that's the narrow picture. let's zoom out because the dow's case of whiplash from 26k to tumbling in the red may have some investors wondering what to do ed slott and kerry coghill good to have you here. ed, we had obviously a reversal

today. we had a, you know, a case of whiplash with how fast we've gone up this year. what are you hearing from clients wh clients? what do you think people should do >> it's good not to overreact but it's a good sign -- you know that commercial, what's in your wallet know what's in your 401(k) most people don't know their exposure for example, i have a guy -- >> that was jazzy. go ahead >> i had a guy that called me and -- a friend of mine. he said, you know, the market was up 25% but i only made 7% and i'm okay with exposure to begin with. >> this is a hard question, but given the run-up we've had, is there a -- is there advice that you would give people? i mean, i know you're saying, know your allocation, blah, blah, blah, blah - >> no. >> but do you have fli concerns about that >> if it's in an retirement account, it depends on your age. if you're close to retirement, i

would pull some gains off the table. right now. take it, lock in those gains the good part about it, in a 401(k) or an i.r.a., when i say lock in those gains, that means selling but there's no tax because it's in an i.r.a. or 401(k) i would especially do it in a roth i.r.a. >> but where are you putting people in bonds >> no. i would take -- i might even take -- if you're close to retirement, take some of that off the table and put it in guaranteed income. maybe even in annuities -- >> oh, lord. all right. >> wait a minute when you're getting towards retirement, income is more important than savings because savings can run out. >> what would your advice be, do you agree with that? >> to a certain degree our clients that we have -- we have some clients calling, very conservative clients calling, saying, i want to put more money in we have to pay attention to the behavioral aspect of this. it's very easy for us as professionals to sit back and say, hey, you know, it's time to

rebalance. that's really what the message is right now we are very concerned in terms of what clients are thinking and what they really should be doing. so, it's up to us -- >> so, you're trying -- yeah, carrie, you're trying to keep people from going in too much into the market? >> absolutely. and with existing portfolios, we are looking at -- if the prospects of rebalancing if a client has a certain exposure and risk tolerance and they've been invested all through 2017, they're portfolios inevitably have more risks so, taking some gains, as ed was saying, and redeploying those gains into other areas of the portfolio makings sense. it doesn't necessarily have to be fixed income or cash accounts it can be even within equity, looking at going from large cap u.s. growth to international, for example. so, there are a lot of alternatives but clients really need to be looking at their portfolios and

making sure that their risk tolerance isn't out of line. >> yeah, appreciate -- it's good to check in with you guys. thanks for joining us. carrie coghill and ed slott. on this dramatic day for stocks, they close in negative territory after dow and s&p hit intraday is this a sign the market is hitting some resistance? joining us now to talk more about it, "fast money" traders steve grasso i like how we're going from fast to slow. talk about what you think those important levels are that you're watching now, steve? >> big, fat, round numbers 2800 in the s&p cash, kelly, that has a mental significance and obviously technical significance i think that's why people got a little nervous today we had an outside reversal day but we closed above that low so, that's still bullish if you look at it in the greater scheme mack crow. i still think the market can continue higher.

>> all right >> so, i'll beat you to the punch. >> go ahead. i was trying to let ed cross there. >> february 10, 2016 was the last time we saw a reversal of this magnitude that last time we had a reversal this magnitude. the market got flushed and then rallied to make it into the green. but i will say this. for the last few months we have been saying what would be the signs that we have potentially topped out the vix was up all day today it didn't open lower and rally it opened higher and stayed elevated all day on a day when the market was making new highs. very interesting something to watch steve mentioned reversals, the reversal in the russel today was significant. i'm not saying anything is over. but if you are looking for a warning sign, this is as close to february 10th 2016 as i've

seen. >> last word. >> if you look at december 29th we also had an outside reversal day there. and the market is up 4% from there. don't get fooled by it give it a couple of days the breathe to see if we hold these levels. >> all right that's what we are going to do we will let you go getting ready for "fast money. be sure to catch all of the action beginning at the top of the hour that's in just nine minutes. >> much more on this huge market turnaround day when we come back plus, the final check on csx, we are keeping an eye on that conference call underway. we stay with you to and through retirement. so you'll still be here to help me make smart choices? well, with your finances that is. we had nothing to do with that tie. voya. helping you to and through retirement.

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breaking news on juneau

therapeutic. shares are jumping kate rogers has the story. >> reporter: that's right. those shares are higher by nearly 40% right now it's moving on a dow jones headline that sell gene is in talks to buy the company juneau therapeutics. the stock is moving higher as you can satisfy by nearly 40%. we have calls out to both companies and will bring you updates as we get them this is moving on a dow jones headline that sell gene is in talks to buy juneau. >> it remind me to the gilead -- >> one of the by owe techs looking for an immunotherapy cancer play. juneau is midsize. >> what do you think about the price. >> looks like the way the stock traded up to the stock's recent highs, which were only six or eight weeks ago. clearly the buyers being opportunistic and saw the stock break. no tell on where it's going the settle out for a bid price. >> 40% pop on news reports

meantime, the results of the president's physical are in. kayla touchy has the highlights. >> reporter: whouz physician dr. jackson reiterated he is in excellent health, 75 of ins tall, 239 pounds benefitted from a life of abstaining from alcohol and tobacco. all of his tests came back recall no. all of his labs are recall no. he is on prescription medication for elevated cholesterol and has been some time he and the president are discussing an kper advertise program targeting weight loss of ten to 15 pounds in the next year the doctor also conducted a cognitive test at the president's urging and he scored 30 out of a possible 30 overall on the montreal cognitive assessment asked how the president can maintain such health despite his diet and an estimated four to five hours of sleep a night, the doctor said it's genetics. >> i'm getting mcdonald's on the

way home and i'm not sleeping at ll because who cares. >> 20/30 that's the message i >>ok away from it. csx is trading lower. highlights from their conference call after this. [ click, keyboard clacking ] [ click, keyboard clacking ] [ keyboard clacking ] [ click, keyboard clacking ] ♪

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the csx conference call is underway the company reported earnings a short while ago. morgan brennan is monitoring it. >> the call is still underway, taking questions from analysts but so far, new ceo jim foot saying hunter harrison was truly a lenl end and csx would not be in the position today without the changes he was able to make during his time at the helm in past year. the company has been simplified, the organization into three business units, the new addition of ed harris is rock solid railroad operations executive with over 44 years of experience, and also their tax rate is expected to drop down to 25% in 2018. it has in the past been in the high 30s back over to you >> morgan, thank you shares are down about 1% right now, mike. >> actually a good preview of what we might be a lot of during

earnings season. a one time adjustment for taxes. a company's idea of what the tax rate is going to be. >> we will see what it does now, after today's big reversal. >> we are getting into the thick of things. >> mike, thank you as always that does it for us on "closing bell" today. "fast money" starts right now. >> "fast money" starts right now, live from the nasdaq market site overlooking new york city's times square i'm la listaly. traders, tim, karen, steve, and guy. tonight, it's crypto carnage, bitcoin sinking to a six week low. we will tell you what is behind the selloff and if any of the traders are buying this dip. plus one wall street strategist says bitcoin's blood bath could hit stocks later, is this the beginning of the end for ge? the stock getting slammed as the ceo hints at break up. we will bring you the latest details. first we start