worldwide exchange on monday at 5:00 a.m. eastern time our brian sullivan is the new solo anchor of the program bringing his unsurpass the energy and knowledge to get you ready for the trading day ahead. the new downside with his hours, and they are early, he won't be with us on "power lunch" every day, but fear not, he's been named senior cnbc national correspondent. he'll join us and other day programs very frequently again get ready, 5:00 a.m., begin the day with sully on "worldwide exchange". "closing bell's" next. ♪ hi, everybody, welcome to the "closing bell" live from the new york stock exchange. i'm kelly evans. i was supposed to be off today. >> i thought you were on vacation. >> i had to come in when i saw the jobs report. and that wage number >> dedication, isn't it? >> was anything else happening >> no, there's nothing else going on today very quiet day i'm bill griffeth on "closing

bell" at the new york stock exchange the dow was up 445 at the peak today, propelled by that strong jobs report that brought kelly evans to the new york stock exchange. >> there's also some big banks news lloyd blankfein planning to exit goldman's by the end of the year bertha coombs at the nasdaq, which today hit an all-time high in trading for the first time in january. bob pisani is here on the floor with this more than 400-point rally. was it all the jobs report, bob? >> the important thing is, yes, it's about the jobs report throw in a little news about north korea. at least they're in negotiations and, of course, not as bad as we thought on the whole tariff issue. it's back to cyclicals we're in the growth area once again, so there you go the stock to watch all this week, cyclicals, up 1% for boeing that's about 30 points the dow jones industrial average, another classic

cyclical we've been watching, growth names, caterpillar up four bucks, 2.6% the banks are doing a little better that's a very, very good sign overall because even though we had some wage growth, it wasn't high enough to close any concern to the bond market banks are up and even companies like lennar and poulty the home builders are up finally, you see some smaller companies -- companies that are lagging, i should say, more accurately the defensive names like procter & gamble, consumer staples a bit on the downside. what happens next? do we have an all-clear for the markets? remember, march 21st is the federal reserve meeting. here's what we're likely to see. number one, you'll hear from bertha in a moment only 3% from new highs on the s&p 500. not clear where we'll hit but the path is there. the big worry remains in inflation. we had subdued inflation but the

market is saying to us, knit movement in inflation, up or down, is going to affect stocks. back to you. >> bob, thank you. we'll see you on the close meantime, yes, the nasdaq did hit a fresh all-time high since january. ba that, with a look at the movers. >> it's all more remarkable when you think that jobs report that led to the selloff that sent the nasdaq into correction now the nasdaq is up 11% since we bought them one month ago small caps and biotechs have lagged, at they recovered as well the big driver here have been some of the biggest losers from last month the philadelphia semiconductor index down more than 15% at the lows at a new record today, along with chip equipment makers lam research take a look at this chart, up 38% from last month's low after falling into bear market territory. some of the biggest recoveries among the usual suspects hitting new highs as well, mega cap tech

names, netflix, microsoft, amazon the point impact of those three combined accounts for more than half of the nasdaq's gains year-to-date amazon alone counts for 33%. today toy makers feeling the collateral damages as toys "r" us are set to shut down their door comcast and a number of other consumer names are among the biggest drags on the nasdaq year-to-date kel kelly? >> thank you bertha coombs. now, goldman's lloyd blankfein is preparing to exit the firm, reportedly, by the end of the year here's what he said last year during an interview with our becky quick. >> would you go into the government you said your last five predecessors have. >> the last one back died at his desk maybe that's my way out. >> more maybe not. let's get to more on this. >> the first thing i'd note in this "wall street journal" article is there's nothing hugely new in the body of the

article itself most importantly, the article says blankfein's fate remains in his own hands and could lose, quote, as soon as 2018 we should be taken over by the overall headline that said, there's a much higher chance of lloyd blankfein leaving in the next 12 months than jamie dimon why is that? his two co-presidents solomon and schwartz both want to be ceo. that's doesn't apply at jpmorgan where they are content for dimon to stay, say, five more years. the longer blankfein stays, the more he risk losing his contenders, as gary cohn the last few years have disappointed, in particular relative to closest rival morgan stanley. since he took over, his performance, as you can see there, has been very strong. when he does go, he will anoint

his successor, who will be solomon, who spent his career in the investment bank and as seen as very good with clients, or harvey schwartz, who is seen as having a broader background, coming up through sales and trading and then become cfo. and the shares today, yes, they're up on this news but up less than the other banks. so, it would be seen as bad news the day he decides to go. >> thank you let's talk moore abore about - >> lovely to have you here have a great weekend. >> let's talk more about lloyd blankfein and goldman sachs now. >> chris whalen, of whalen global advisers. what do you think, good thing, bad thing he's leaving, maybe at the end of the year? >> i think it's always helpful and healthy to see an enterprise going through an orderly succession process it looks like that's what goldman is doing i knew david solomon a little bit when he segued to bear stearns for a couple of years.

either one of these men are competent to run the bank. it's a good time for mr. blankfein to leave i mean, he stewarded them through the crisis, done a reasonable job, if you understand how much the central banks have hurt the trading side of the business for all of wall street god, i wish he would go to washington i think the president may need some help. so - >> i don't think the president -- i mean, he does -- he says he likes conflict in dispute, but based on lloyd's tweets, i don't know if the president will bring him in. >> just wait i think donald trump's smart enough to put smart people around him and having lloyd blankfein and public life for a few years might not be a bad thing for the country. >> i mean, goldman sachs is a real throwback to the way wall street used to be. other institutions on wall street have grown, expanded, gone in different directions goldman hasn't done that is it time they can do that or can they continue to thrive the way they are >> that's a very important question, bill

you know, blankfein, the longest tenured since sidney wineberg. when the great man of wall street was running goldman, they were bankers they were people you went to for advice not to necessarily execute deals but they were trusted and valued as advisers. bla blankfein is more about trading. they have to look at other areas where banks have withdrawn specifically because they're the smallest of the universal banks. they're competing with giants from all over the world for advisory business, for trading business they have small asset management they don't have a morgan stanley bought from citi their model hasn't really grown. there are some businesses that have made that choice to stay small. i wonder if it's not time for new leadership to turn the soil over at goldman and go through that rigorous process that they're known for. they've been known for being smart, known for being nimble and finding opportunities that baction aren't focused on. i think that's the problem

>> chris, thank you. chris whalen joining us. >> my pleasure. the dow is up 364 points as we mentioned, it had been up 405 points we bring the man himself, arthur cashin to post nine here the jobs report, a pretty strong report but there's a confluence of things going on on the mic optimism because of the north korea talks. >> a little less threat. >> a little relief. >> relief. goldilocks number on employment. no inflationary threat in wages and jobs are popping up, you know, the unemployment rate may be moving down, a key group, the 25 to 54-year-old males getting jobs what you really want to see going. so the president's probably got just about everything going for him here and the stock market

likes that and while we still looked a little iffy about maybe rolling over to retest the lows, they look like they don't want to be bothered and they want to get back to the old highs. >> i wonder what it means for inflation rates, too the ten-year was rising, can it happen now that we have this rally continue more people are coming into the labor force. it's not pushing up inflation. it's barely pushing up wages enough. >> yeah, i think they don't see anything there particularly threatening to powell. and that he's still on course for the three, possibly four rate hikes we're almost 100% going to go in march. and we'll get that under our belt and then we'll have time to see some new numbers and where they go so, the market could not have been happier with what's happened so far today. >> and we are certainly mindful of this date today it is the ninth anniversary of

what we call the haynes bottom here at cnbc. >> absolutely. >> we haven't looked back yet. you know, the volatility we saw earlier this year, quick head fake and we're off to the races again here >> and you did an entire year with no volatility at all. it was a remarkable call i remember him sitting there and turning and saying, you know, i think i'm going to go out on a limb and he did and he was dead right. >> the closest i got was i told everybody the market was going to bottom before st. patrick's day. got in the general area, but not as specific as march. >> can tell you what you're getting ready for there. arthur, always a pleasure. thank you. >> my pleasure heading to the close, 50 minutes left in the trading session with the dow off to the races. all the major averages are the dow is not the biggest gainer the nasdaq doing well today. up 1.54%. >> the "closing bell" is just getting under way. >> announcer: straight ahead,

sentencing day for martin shr shkreli. >> how the u.s. was able to bring north korea to the table this is the "closing bell" on cnbc. where can investors seek predictable income in an uncertain world? pgim sees alpha in real assets. like agriculture to feed the world.

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let's fix that. let's give this guy gig- really? and these kids, and these guys, him, ah. oh hello. that lady, these houses! yes, yes and yes. and don't forget about them. uh huh, sure. still yes! xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. now you can get it, too. welcome to the party. these are some of the biggest gainers in the dow today. chevron, jpmorgan chase, caterpillar and cisco. a pretty good cross-section and a lot of those were sectors we saw good job growth last month as well. >> and it's sentencing today for pharma bro, martin shkreli.

>> reporter: a judge sentenced him to seven years in prison for securities fraud that he was convicted of last august that will include credit for time he's already served he's been in prison for six months when his bail was revoked in september after bizarre facebook page to pay some of his followers to grab hillary clinton's hair he'll have to pay a $75,000 fine and be subject to three years probation after his release. the judge ruled he will need to forfeit $7.4 million he obtained he was convicted back in august. these convictions have to do with former hedge funds he ran and a former biotech company not the thing that made shkreli so famous, raising a drug by 5,000% the government was seeking jail of 15 years. his defense attorney spoke with

us briefly outside the courthouse earlier >> i think he will get the benefit of every program he's eligible for with the time he's already been in and the 15% good time credit, i think the sentence will be significantly less than seven years. i think it's hard to claim victory when someone like martin shkreli is going to jail. >> reporter: he was making a case to the judge he's doing good thing mayor tin broke down in tears saying, there's so much more i want to do i'll do it the right way he'll be headed to prison to serve out that sentence. we haven't learned where he'll be doing we'll be waiting to hear that news over the next coming weeks or month back to you. >> meg, thank you. meg terrell in brooklyn. let's talk about the impact that

mart martin shkreli you say there was an unintended consequence, a positive one, that came out of this whole episode where he jacked up the price of that one particular drug. >> that's right, bill. you know, if you look at what he actually represents in terms of that one drug which was going for a very small population, it was a drop in the bucket of the bigger picture of the whole health care and drugs, but his -- the blow-back from his presentation was so intense that it extended into all branches of society. and that wound up causing a lot of self-examination and outside examination of drug development, drug pricing, access to medical care in general. and i think overall, that was a healthy thing. >> you know, he also just seemed like the type of person who could come in and exploit a situation for a profit which sort of, again, represented this idea that there's no real substancethere to these price hikes

because what martin shkreli did and the reason he got in trouble, he wasn't a science guy. he was a guy who said, i can go buy these chief off-patent drugs, raise the price my investment company benefits unfortunately, you know, he ran into some trouble with moving funds around that he wasn't supposed to on that front. but in that sense he was nothing like the rest of the industry except he showed this was possible, it was happening and something needed to be done about it. >> absolutely. he was a hedge fund manager. he was not a drug developer. he had nothing to do with the real biopharma he was a hedge fund manager who found a loophole for a drug that should have been generic years ago. it wasn't for various reasons. he exploited that and jacked the price up but in doing that, the way he expressed himself and the notoriety he achieved caused people -- caused the media, government groups, patient groups and so on, all -- and the pharmaceutical industry itself, all to look at the behaviors

that he was talking about. >> have they shut that down, though could somebody still -- could me or bill tomorrow say, you know what, there's another opportunity to go in and buy that drug and hike the price has anything really changed? >> it has changed. and i think that's the big positive. >> so, there is a lasting impact, you think -- >> i think there is, absolutely. >> this comes up every election cycle. politicians pay lip service, we have to do something about the drug price hikes and then absolutely nothing happens. >> you're right. i think this is different and it's different because of of the intensity of the responsibility to this particular -- efrs what we call a catalyst a catalyst is a small amount of something that causes a huge chemical change reaction he was very much a catalyst. you can see that today every single one of these industries, the insurance industries, the pbms, the pharma industry, so on, we're all working now on ways of limiting the source of behaviors he's talking about and, in fact, if you look, this year one of the major pdms reported that the total increase

in drug spending is going to be about 1.5% >> we'll see what happens. thanks for joining us today. ron cohen, founder and ceo of acorta they're put rapeutics. broad 1.5% gains for all the averages i'm sure you've heard about the unprecedented move, president trump agreeing to meet with north korea's kim jong-un wait until you hear how the u.s. was able to bring north korea to the table. we'll have that next on "closing bell." nothing compares to the real thing. experience the command performance sales event for yourself, now through april 2. experience amazing at your lexus dealer.

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welcome back to a strong session. friday to close out the week dow up 366 points. the nasdaq up 115. it's pretty even no matter where you look everyone up 1.5% a lot goes back to that strong jobs report this morning it was strong in all the right ways more people in the labor force, more jobs added but not a ton of inflationary wage pressure. >> on the ninth anniversary, when we hit that bottom in march of 2009. >> what did i read, we're now on the 89th straight month of job growth that's quite a stretch. >> crazy we are heading to the half hour mark. we've got the cnbc news update with sue herera. hello. >> hello, bill hello, everyone. a gunman has taken at least three people hostage at a large veterans home in california. police have locked down the grounds. they closed access to the veterans home in yountville after a man with a gun was

reported on those grounds. yountville is in napa valley. in kenya, secretary of state rex tillerson says despite a number of vacant leadership positions in the state department, his policies are working. he cited the proposed meeting between president trump and kim jong-un as evidence. >> i think as we've seen in the last 24 hours, the policy that was put in place and has been executed by the state department over the past year has succeeded. and we've done that in spite of the fact that we have people serving in acting positions in some cases. winter whiteout snarling traffic on a michigan highway where at least 50 cars were involved in a crash. three people were taken to the hospital all westbound lanes of interstate 94 have been closed for the day. what a mess. that is the news update this hour, guys i'll send it back downtown to you. >> rather awkward here

>> you guys are going to get to spend a lot more time -- >> with my two tv wives here. >> tv wives, that's right. >> or my tv daughter, i guess, over here. >> i'm not -- anyway, yes -- >> i'm not stealing him, kelly i'm just borrowing him. >> look forward -- >> sure you are! >> -- being back with you on nightly business reporter. >> cannot wait >> me, too >> ozzy and harriet back together again. >> you got it. while investors -- >> this is a tear. >> don't do that now do not look me in the eye. so, while investors are focusing on the ra rally, we're keeping an eye on billing news out of washington. just three weeks ago, as it happens, cnbc's carl quintanilla was in pyeongchang for the olympic games. he visited the korean demilitarized zone there it was a rather dramatic time that he and the crew experienced

au on that day. >> let's bring in eamon javers from the white house sarah huckabee sanders just finished speaking with reporters. how did she frame this big meeting? >> reporter: it was a little different from the message we got from the south koreans who you remember in a surprise move appeared on the white house driveway just behind me to announce that the president had agreed to meet with kim jong-un by may that sounded fairly definitive last night today the white house stressing there are certain conditions here to this meeting, including that the north koreans have to make some progress on denuclearizing their arsenal here's how sarah huckabee sanders put it. >> the president will not go to the meeting without seeing concrete steps by north korea. the president would actually be getting something. frankly, the world would be getting something. if we can get to a place where north korea is deal nuclearizing -- >> reporter: so, sarah huckabee

sanders saying concrete steps have to be taken she wouldn't say exactly what those concrete steps have to be by north korea she also wouldn't say exactly how the united states would know concrete steps have been taken just within the past couple of minutes, the white house has put out a readout here of a conversation that took place today between president trump and xi of china. saying north korea will take tangible steps toward complete verifiable and irreversible denuclearization clearly the rhetoric in that statement between the united states and china a little tougher than sarah huckabee sanders gave us in the briefing room an hour ago that tougher than what we saw last night on the white house driveway so, it's clear that the diplomacy continues behind the scenes the united states is continuing to keep up the pressure on north korea, guys. back over to you >> eamon, thank you. secretary of state tillerson

spoke in december about how he was pushing for talks with north korea. let's remember that. >> when do the talks begin we've said from the diplomatic side, we're ready to talk any time north korea would like to talk and we're prosecuted ready to h first meeting without precondition let's just meet and let's -- we can talk about the weather if you want you can talk about whether it's going to be a square table or a round table if that's what you're excited about but can we at least sit down and see each other face-to-face and then we can begin to lay out a map, a road map of what we might be willing to work towards >> and as you saw, that was a gathering at at atlantic counsel. fred kempe joins us along with

scott. thank you for joining us fred, what do you think? the fact that we were willing to take away all preconditions to open talks, was that a starter and why do you think kim jong-un is coming forward now? >> well, there are a couple of reasons. first, this bad channel has been going on a long time the other thing secretary tillerson said at atlantic counsel is he provided notes through to the north koreans saying the u.s. would not go for regime change, would not go for regime collapse, would not accelerate unification and didn't want to cross militarily into north korea so, they were sending reassuring signals. maximum pressure has had its impact the sanctions are worse or harder the military threats if you believe in the mad man theory, kim jong-un might have started to believe his survival could be in danger by the course he was taking and his calculus

up until now has been the nuclear weapons ensure his survival and finally, ahead of the olympics, president trump approved the cancellation or the postponement of military exercises ahead of the olympics allowing kim jong-un's sister to visit the olympics >> scott, what do you think the u.s. objective should be for these talks and what should the u.s. be willing to offer >> the united states is going to continue to focus on denuclearization as its main objective for the talks. the interesting thing is the idea of putting such a high level meeting up front, so the president is really kind of opening and framing discussion rather than being the closer >> but when you say the u.s. objective should be denuclearization, what does that mean we've had agreements with north korea in the past where they say, sure, we'll agree to not further develop our program, sure, we'll agree not to do these launches, et cetera.

it lasts for a little while, it breaks down, we find out they were cheating or whatever and then we end up where we are right back today, which is they've made further progress. they've come quite close to threaten us with nuclear threats. so, what do you mean by denuclearization >> denuclearization is a final goal in terms of what the united states needs in order to address the fact that north korea is an outlier in the international atomic community, a violator of the ntp and also a threat of blackmail to south korea all those things have to be addressed. what kim jong-un, i think, has done that has enabled a step forward to facilitate the possibility of talks has been to pledge self-restraint on nuclear and missile tests. and also to accept the fact that u.s./south korea military exercises will go forward. now the question is, how do we follow through and pursue talks about talks that can lead to a

denuclearization process >> well, it's going to be interesting. here we go fred kempe of the atlantic counsel, thank you scott snyder for the counsel on foreign relations, appreciate your thoughts as well. we have less than half an hour to go that might be contributing to the market rally but we saw a sharp takeoff after that jobs report across at 8:30 a.m. we're up nearly 400 points. >> the dow soaring on that strong jobs report pounl look at areas for oprtity within tech and health care coming up. this is "closing bell" on cnbc g. and, how's it looking? >>i don't know. there's so many opinions out there, it's hard to make sense of it all. well, victor, do you have something for him? >>check this out. td ameritrade aggregates thousands of earnings estimates into a single data point. that way you can keep your eyes on the big picture. >>huh. feel better? >>much better. yeah, me too. wow, you really did a number on this thing. >>sorry about that. that's alright. i got a box of 'em. thousands of opinions.

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welcome back less than half an hour to go in the session today. let's get back to bob pisani watching the action on the floor. >> 5-2 advancing in declining stocks we held up just off the highs and it's back to the growth stocks this week remember, a lot of things could go gone wrong and they didn't. take a look at the sectors leading us i'm talking about etfs there's the oil serviceses back ahead. they've been a laggard for a while. transportation stocks, not new highs but among leadership groups, financials are back in a big way and semiconductors remember, financials and technology stocks are 45% of the

s&p 500. when those two groups move, the s&p moves. i don't care what else happens also, you want to see that the market is not freaked out about just a little blip up in the ten-year yield today home builders and construction stocks are doing fine. they're up right along with the rest of the market kb home and pulte are outperforming. what happens next week do we have an all-clear for the market the nasdaq has already hit new highs. we're sailing that direction on the s&p. only 3% from historic highs. the market worries are still there. number one, it's still inflation. yes, the market moves on inflation. it moved up today on less inflationary worries here. remember, the big question is with the great economic news, will the fed push up rate hike expectations that fed date, march 21st may be a little air pocket between now and march 21st, but certainly we're not done with the fireworks yet. guys, back to you. >> bob, thank you. we'll see you a little later let's get to our "closing bell" exchange unfortunately, there's been a horrible mistake made.

they asked me who i wanted on my final exchange and i said anybody but gordon, but all they heard were gordon, so here he is managing director of rosenblatt securities doug foreman and cnbc's rick san stel santelli is checking in from the cme 37 all systems go. how far can this go? >> we still have room to retrace, a lot of negativity we've seen has been eviscerated. the reports came out today, very strong everything is going up today even gold is holding today you're seeing a real paradigm shift in the way people are looking at trading the vix is down. the wall of worry that pervaded this place in february has been knocked over and i think we're looking real strong going to the next week right through the month -- right through the rate increase.

>> we're off to the races, doug, what do you think? >> i think it's going to be another good year. not quite as good as last year corporate earnings are fantastic. companies are doing well we've had a lot of geopolitical tension, but that's nothing new. that's been going on since president trump was elected. so, we're still very favorably inclined toward the balance of the year. >> rick, you know how markets work the jobs number lit the fire -- the fuse, but did you expect this kind of a rally today what do you see going on here? >> you know, i sort of did expect this. i'm really glad we're making new highs right now on your last day here, the s&p, the dow, everybody's giving me the signal we're going, we're going listen, i didn't think that the 2.9 should have been that big of a deal the last report i thought with the average hourly work week deteriorating a bit, it might have been a one-off and it proved to be the case 2.6 was slid but the rest of the report was awesome the most awesome thing is that we went from 96.7 million, not

in the labor force, to 95.4 million not in the labor force because the participation rate moved from 62.7 to 63. that's huge, bill. it's huge. that means that we're drawing people back in so, maximum employment and all the pressures that may bring, may be a bitdy mib i diminished. i think that gave us a big green light. >> we're pretty near session highs. up about 407, 410. you know, we talked about how a lot of this felt like we were passing through the choppiness from earlier this year, but are we last year these kind of gains still would have been unusual. this year it feels like big moves up or down is par for the course. >> one of the things i think happened this week, there were some headwinds going on in terms of the tariffs and a lot of headline news people were afraid of i think a lot of that has gone away i think people are no longer focusing on geopolitical they understand that the tariffs are just a tool to negotiate

trade. and that they're going to use it to level the playing field and not -- you know, just going through a protectionist mode all the things that were out there that people were worried about seem to be clearing up and, you know, the vix is telling you it's a one-way market that direction is upward >> and, doug, i mean, the sec r sectors that have brung us to this point, technology, health care, those are the ones you want to stay with, right >> yeah. i think if you look at technology, there's all kinds of exciting things going on, early earnings - >> do you go with the f.a.n.g. stock says or deep in the sector >> i think you can look across the board in the sector. there's artificial intelligence, driveless cars, cloud software in the early stages in the business community, particularly there's a lot of innovative things that will keep people interested in technology for a multiyear period. >> gentlemen, thank you. appreciate it. gordon, i said, i'm going to miss most of the traders here at the new york stock exchange.

>> thank you, bill it's been a pleasure to you. congratulations on retiring for the 14th time. >> not going anywhere. thank you all, everybody. 19 minutes -- i'm not retiring, okay i'm not even leaving cnbc. i'm seeing all kinds of twitter things that i'm not leaving cnbc it's a long story. up 418 on the dow right now. big gains thanks to those jobs reports. toymakers feeling the pressure after news broke on our show late yesterday that toys "r" us is considering liquidation coming up, we'll talk to its former ceo jerry storch about the trouble in toyland "closing bell" is back in two.

welcome back it's our favorite board. do you want to do the honors >> oh, please, you start i'll pick up those two red ones there. >> these are the sectors of the s&p 500 today. leading the way are financials of 2.25% interesting because interest rates aren't exactly dramatically higher. in fact, you could argue the outlook has got be a little more diminished there. >> this is one of those boards when all you need to do is look at this and say it seems

interest rates are higher but they probably are telling us they're headed higher as well. especially with that jobs report even though the wage component wasn't all that strong. >> right it's a real estate, utilities and telecom are the underperformers today. it's friday. you know what that means, kids time for david darst, his market acronym rounds out the volatile week easy to analyze and take action? how about some of the lowest options fees? are you raising your hand? good then it's time for power e*trade the platform, price and service that gives you the edge you need. alright one quick game of rock, paper, scissors. 1, 2, 3, go. e*trade. the original place to invest online. what's critical thinking like? a basketball costs $14. what's team spirit worth?

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welcome back it's that time on a friday joining us now - >> hang on hang on. wait till you see this tie. >> it's just this time on a friday for bill to put his glasses on david darst is here with his market acronym of the week. >> and that tie -- does that glow in the dark >> you need sunglasses for that, bill. >> i do. >> i think we ought to go with the word hike, an old english word meaning to walk fast. h is higher revenue, higher gdp. charles evans was thinking about a 3% gdp growth for this year. earnings are supposed to be 18% up in 2018 as of now, up 15% for 2017 so, a very, very nice earnings

report the "i" is inflation concern we got concern about rising inflation. that's why fed chairman jay powell was talking about the need to maybe raise interest rates. in consumer inflation has come up -- the expectations over the next five years to about 2% per year a little over 2% from 1.5% six months ago never forget, chairman powell was also talking about asset price inflation. >> i just want you to get to kvetching. >> that's from the german word to squeeze kvetching about nothing is basically the "seinfeld show" ran from 1988 to 1998, ran for nine years, 20 episodes a year, 120 episodes about nothing when we're kvetching -- when we're -- >> i don't think it was about nothing. >> when we're kvetching about tariffs --

>> it's one siyllabel, kvetch. >> okay. good point really this is an opportunity to buy when the market sells off in response to tariff talk. it's not a big, serious issue. the "e" is encouraging data. you have the national federation of independent businesses, chicago fed, philly fed, the empire state manufacturing, the lead indicators, and you'll get more information on them next week they are giving very, very good readings right now and finally the s&p 500 is now up 4% for the year with its 1.6% today. basically, buy banks and continue to sell utilities and real estate investment trusts that get hurt by rising interest rates. and with that, i'd like to remind everybody to set their clocks forward one hour. speaking of hikes, hike your clock forward an hour this weekend. and don't touch it until november 4th that's when we hike them back.

>> already looking forward to it. >> you better not steal him. >> well, you know, we worked together long enough, you know how to read my mind. i was just going to say, you'll probably be seeing shim on "nightly business report". >> you speak german. your wish is my command. >> there you go. when the phone rings, answer it, will you >> i'm there. >> thank you, david darst. it's been a great pleasure. we'll come back with a closing countdown of sorts. >> by the way, i'm really going to miss doing this with you every day. >> in all sincerity -- i can't look at you in the eye i'm going to miss you, too >> it's been a great run. >> a great deal. we'll have the closing countdown after the bill wall street analyst doubling down on her call for ibm two "fast money" traders will give us their take on how to 'sllti tco ock it a sllo men the "closing bell. ch day our planets with signs of opportunity. but with opportunity comes risk. and to manage this risk, the world turns to cme group. we help farmers lock in future prices,

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if you'd have told me three years ago that we'd be downloading in seconds what used to take minutes. that guests would compliment our wifi. that we could video conference and do it like that (snaps). if you'd have told me that i could afford a gig-speed. a gig-speed network. it's like 20 times faster than what most people have. i'd of said... i'd of said you're dreaming. dreaming! definitely dreaming. then again, dreaming is how i got this far. now more businesses in more places can afford to dream gig. comcast, building america's largest gig-speed network. can afford to dream gig. the markets change... at t. rowe price... our disciplined approach remains. global markets may be uncertain... but you can feel confident in our investment experience around the world. call us or your advisor... t. rowe price. invest with confidence. ♪ ♪ wake up early, o. ♪ slap on some cologne ♪ i'm 85 and i wanna go home ♪ ♪ just got a job ♪ as a lifeguard in savannah ♪

♪ i'm 85 and i wanna go home ♪ ♪ dropping sick beats, they call me dj nana ♪ ♪ 85 and i wanna go don't get mad. get e*trade, kiddo. we miss him when he's here. >> very, very funny there. we're getting the last licks in here before we go, tuckman all right, very good see you later. john, i'm going to miss you, buddy. jay over here. let me just say -- i mean, you can look at charts of the dow and the s&p 500 and the nasdaq

and all that stuff i have something i want to say here you know, i've said this a million times. if nothing ever changed, we would all still be living in caves, right so, change is a part of life i am thrilled to be moving to the "nightly business report." that's a show i have coveted not so secretly for the last five years that cnbc has been producing that legendary program. i'm looking forward to that and i'll be back with my old friend and college classmate sue herera i hope you can check us out. but it comes at a very steep price. i hope i can get through this whole thing here because i'm going to miss my "closing bell" gang very much i love them dearly not only at hq, at headquarters, but also the gang here at the new york stock exchange. they have been a great group of people to work with. and that most especially includes what's her face, who's been sitting next to me all this time, because i have loved every

second working with her, trying to make her laugh and needling her the whole time i'm going to miss her the most also, it has been the pleasure and privilege of my life to be able to work in this historic building as a history buff, can you imagine the history this place has seen in the more than 100 years that it has been here? it is unbelievable and the people who work here, tom farley, the president of the exchange and his staff, and all of the traders who have been making me feel so welcome for the last seven years, i cannot thank them enough. except maybe gordon, but that's another story. so, on we go by the way, i wish wilfred frost who will be taking this spot, all the best he starts monday with kelly. they found somebody who's actually taller than kelly, so that works out great do you know, a fun fact, wilfred's grandfather was the

duke of norfolk. how cool is that i wish him well and i know he'll do very well on "closing bell" starting monday. thank you, thank you and my dear friend, robert pisani, we go out up 428 points on the dow a huge rally capping off a nine-year period that has just been unprecedented on wall street here. >> more important, has been the 27 years unprecedented period with bill griffeth with us he's assuming a new role at cnbc. >> not leaving. >> not leaving the clapping you heard is because everyone down here loves bill griffeth. i have loved him for 27 years. your calming influence, your warm demeanor, your knowledge, your humor just everything about it bill's a big part of the floor everyone loves him down here i remember may 18, 1991, fnm. >> oh, wow. >> we won fnm. cnbc it was a big moment. i watched you sign off you took the redeye, as i recall, over to be with us on

that next day, i believe, anyma 19, 1991 he's been with us and a guiding light for us since then. >> i will see you on "nightly business report". >> come back here. >> i'll be back on big market days to do the show from here. i would have been back today, a big market day. >> the important thing is where do we go from here my feeling is we're a little air pocket for the next week and a half until we get the fed meeting march 21st path of least resistance, less than 3% from historic pies in the s&p. the nasdaq will close at an historic high. >> what do you think happens monday after a day like today, will we get these big numbers, can -- do you see a big pullback monday, some profit taking or can we keep this going? >> i think we'll see air pockets for the next week and a half because we're a little directionless. we're after earnings now, we're after the whole tariff issue, at least for the moment the whole thing with the jobs

report right now a little bit of an air pocket right now. clearly, the path of least resistance is to the upside. >> thank you, robert take care. >> one more time, a huge gain today of 430 points for the dow. and the other major averages as well stay tuned for the second hour of the "closing bell." have a great weekend, kelly. thank you, bill. for everything welcome to the "closing bell," everybody. i'm kelly evans. looks like we're out with a 439-point gain in the dow. that's a session high here for the blue chips up 1.8% nearly. it all goes back to that strong jobs report this morning look at the gains similar across all the major averages today the s&p adding 47 to close at 2786 the dow up at 25334. the nasdaq composite adding nearly 2%, and the russell 2000s

up we had the first intraday high for the nasdaq since late january. rates under 2.9% at the moment on the panel we have cnbc senior markets commentator mark santoli and jim kine the biggest winner in the dow this week was caterpillar while the biggest loser was exxonmobil caterpillar up 5% on the week. on the s&p the big winner was autodesk and dollar tree was the biggest loser. mike, i mean, let's talk about the session today, 440-point pop. is it all because of the jobs report this morning be >> the jobs report was this most recent reason for tension to be released from this market. i do think that the jobs report was strong in all the places you wanted, not strong in the places the market didn't want and i think that basically took away one remaining obstacle to say, okay, maybe it's safe to take on more risk again. i don't think it means it's an

all clear and this was an illusion, this pullback. it was ate necessary thing people were way too exposed to stock, too expensive bond yields went up too fast in early february and now we've kind of sorted a lot of that out the thing i would give pause is this chart would look exactly the same if we were to go back to the highs and fail as if we're going to blast up through them so, increstevestors have to shoa tolerance with equity levels where they are. >> since you're a resident bond hawk, do you feel more or less hawkish after that report this morning? we had a 313,000 jobs, great number, labor force is bigger, more people getting in, unemployment rate is down, and then the wage number it's just 2.6% on the year. >> yeah, you know, but if it had been 0.3% higher, you know, the margins -- i'm not -- it was good in the sense of it showed some -- not inflationary wage

growth the margins we're dealing with here, they're small. they're not -- i mean, you know, if the number for statistical ree reasons had come in hotter -- it's not justified given what's happening. i'm just saying we're looking at an economy this week, tariffs, the jobs report and the news out of north korea about meeting with trump that's as good -- you could not have been a bull and wanted better. >> why do you like tariffs if you're a bull? >> i don't like tariffs but given where we were last friday - >> oh, you mean they came off -- >> yeah. they kind of buried -- >> they are going to exempt mexico, canada, maybe australia. >> they made it as palatable for wall street. >> i think all the steam stocks are down on the week just a little bit. >> i don't look at this week and go, oh, great. as mike said, all clear, go and buy equities i think equities could melt up another 5% here quite easily the question for me is, this

past week we've seen precedence, especially on tariffs. and in terms of inflation, i'm very concerned about fiscal policy going forward in the u.s. i'm very concerned about just the precedence that's been set on tariffs i think trump comes out of this week going, no problem here. i'm going to keep on doing exactly what i'm doing. >> by the way, jim, it got overlooked a little bit, but the trade deficit number that came out this week was kind of bad. i mean, it was a big number. that's even with the u.s. not needing to import as much oil as we used to where is it is dollar? we're still sitting at about 90 on the dollar index. how do you think this shakes out? >> i think the story for the next six months is the goldilocks economy we got information that the economy is growing faster than the jobs number but that has to balance against relatively subtle growth and inflation so we don't spook the rally it's that balance that's going to go back and forth that's going to drive volatility in the market over the next six months or so.

i think tariffs are part of that story. when we bring tariffs in, that raises prices. if we do have that trade war, we push up prices, and we have that imbalance between -- >> jim, how do you -- are you making any moves, positioning changes for everything you described going on >> as we looked at our fixed income portfolio, it's priced to per fection perfection i just don't see how they can get any richer in this environment. as a result, we've been decreasing the credit risk in our fixed income portfolios, shortening duration. we took the opportunity a couple days ago when you saw the

ten-year retreat to about 2.80 to reduce the duration of portfolios, we thought that was a great opportunity. on the equity side it's problematic because you want to bring the portfolio down but our kind of favorite part of the market is emerging markets but that has a high beta so we cut some of what we like best to bring down the risk in the portfolio. >> i was going to say about credit, this is something brian renlts reynolds has been talking about a lot. look at the deal for cvs and aetna, they'll barely lose - >> the corporate debt market didn't flinch this entire time today, high-yield spreads were crushed, meaning they were amazingly strong today when you got this jobs number that's the one thing saying, look, this isn't a big, economic systemic event i think you can hang your hat on that area. you know, just the mention of

go goldilocks there was an late '90s feel. >> we got to cue up our late '90s song. today also marks the ninth anniversary of what we like to call the haynes bottom, the lowest point of the stock market during the great depression. dom chu is here to talk about winners and losers. >> 666 on march 6th of 2009. that was the intraday low. the haynes bottom called on march 10th referring to the march 9th closing lows i remember tom mclelland kind of made sure i remember that it was the 6th. that was the intraday low for that 666 number. it doesn't matter. generally speaking, we're talking about a quadrupling of the stock market as measured by the s&p 500 during that time span since the march lows of 2009 you can see it hasn't been exactly a straight line up, but it's very hard to find very many deep, deep pullbacks during that

bull run higher. we have had a couple bumps along the road take a look at these stocks. we wanted to run the numbers for what it would have been like had you taken the opportunity to go in when the late, great mark haines called that bottom and bottom blue chip names -- blue chip maybe not large cap names that have been beaten up so much during that mark melee during the market collapse if you bought apple in 2009, a $10,000 investment would be worth nearly $150,000 today. constellation brand, the beverage alcohol company is now is worth $171,000 on that 10k investment amazon.com, $250,000 nvidia, $283,000 and netflix worth over $500,000 for a $10,000 investment at those times. this is a huge move for a lot of these stocks this isn't even the best netflix out of some of the

current s&p members out of those lows want to balance it out with some stocks that haven't been performing as well newmont mining is flat century link, you lost money, $10,000 investment is worth $74000 and chesapeake energy worth $2300 on overall if you want to know more, see some of these other tickers that have done really well or really poorly, go to cnbc we have listed a whole bunch of the current s&p 500 members and what 10k investments would be worth today made at those levels back in 2009 back over to you. >> great stuff thank you very much, dominic chu. i look to look at the prices -- you could have gotten starbucks under 5 bucks a share. >> here's the whole problem with that if you wanted to do an advert e advertisement for stock market indexes, you couldn't have come up with a better advertisement

than dominic chu, if you sat in a s&p 500 ip decks of some sort, you got the benefit of all those stocks, the major upsides and major downside where most of the active investors have underperformed because they did not own enough of the winners. >> it's easy for us to look back now and say, oh, that was obvious. in fact, you could argue it hasn't really been one big rally so much as many little ones. >> there's a lot of ways to characterize it and look at these last nine years. yes, by the technical definition we've agreed upon, there hasn't been a full 20% drop since that time therefore, it's one bull market. i look at it as three distinct mini bull phases the first was the burst off the lows, 2009 into 2011 you had that top in 2011 basically the market doubled to that point and then the european debt crisis, the whole u.s. default square and a quasi bear market then up into, let's say, 2015, right before the oil crash that was sort of the, okay, i guess the economy is growing and the fed is our friend rally.

you got another 80% or so there. then another stealth bear market late 2015 into early 2016. that's why a lot of people will make the point that it's not as mature or late cycle an environment as you might think however, it doesn't make the market any cheaper, okay maybe the economic cycle can persist for a long time but the market is still expensive meaning ten-year returns are probably going to be below average. >> it's quite a ride lloyd blankfein just tweeted, let's get to this one. "the wall street journal" reporting about his potential departure from goldman sachs sue herera has the story. >> in response to that "wall street journal" story, mr. blankfein is tweeting it's at the wsj's announcement, not mine i feel like huck finn listening to his own eulogy. it's a typical blankfein tweet but in response to that "wall street journal" report earlier today that we've been reporting on that mr. blankfein is

preparing to exit goldman sachs at the end of the year mr. blankfein says it's not his announcement, it's the wsj's this is the first reaction we've gotten from goldman or, in particular, mr. blankfein to that story. >> sue, thank you. let's get some reaction from cnbc contributor william cohen, who joins us now i mean, he's not denying it, sir. what do you think is going on here >> look -- >> we'll work on that. if you can hear me, we'll work on your sound and come right back to you in a moment. esc evan, you're a goldman guy what do you think? >> i think the secession

planning going on at goldman, and whenever you do, it's in certain people's interest to leak things at certain times i'm sure the board at goldman would be negligent if they weren't doing planning right now. unless something is super imnept, and i don't think anything is super, super imminent it's still -- we're early march. the fact he would step down by the end of the year, i don't see that as big news. >> jesse is standing by. thanks for joining us as well. what do you think is going on here >> thanks so much for having me. you know, i don't know it looks like a nondenial denial to me from that, but i think that, you know, the reference to huck finn is a reference to huck finn's fictional funeral and gets to see himself eulogized. when blankfein sees himself

eulogized where shareholders think he was really good but i think he was not he presided over the destruction of goldman sachs a goldplated name, a name hallowed in the has of government and in the has of wall street -- >> but is that just because he happened to be there when the financial crisis took place? zoof well, you know have no, i think it's because of goldman sachs' activities. you know, under his watch, they've had over $9 billion worth of regulatory fines. i think that the regulators go easy on the banks so that says something. we've had multiple trading violations we've had foreign exchange manipulation we had rmbs violations of course, we have the biggest fine in the history of the s.e.c. at the time for the cbo you can even throw in an illicit political donation that they got fined for. that's a serial -- you know be, a constant level of regulatory

violations i think you have to look at them as a recidivistcorporation and a malafactor. >> if you said to someone, name the bad actor in the banks industry, they would say wells fargo or whoever the flavor of the month happens to be. ironical ironically, goldman's reputation, at least on wall street, is sullied not because of the issues back during the crisis but because of its growth potential today. you know, its profitability and the fact it's gotten into these new business lines, certainly without the shareholder performance jpmorgan has delivered. on that front -- and maybe the matter is more to goldman, he's been less effective. >> i think that's a great point. of course, you know, i look at it from society's perspective and how the public should think about these companies. but if lloyd is getting out when the getting is good, it would be a classic goldman move and he'll

hand a bunch of problems potentially to his successor that's what goldman is known for so i wouldn't be surprised. >> thank you for joining us. >> thank you >> senior reporter jim, quickly, what do you think about what's happening at goldman? >> you know, i think he actually was a disappointing ceo. he got them through the crisis quite well but he was known for financial innovation prior to the crisis people aren't interested in financial innovation post-crisis. he never figured out how to do plain boring as well as jpmorgan and morgan stanley as a result, you saw basically revenue stag naturnate for the seven or eight years yes, he has profitability up but r.o.e. is still disappointing. my guess is the shareholders and board of directors want someone who can lead goldman into the

next 20 years with some fresh ideas and a little more aggressive embracement of some of these sort of products and ways to make those products may more money. >> thanks for your time. before we go, a news alert on ge. courtney reagan, what's happening over there >> reuters is reporting exclusively, citing sources that ge is exploring divesting its electrical engineering business. this is a business ge actually acquired in 2011, bought it out of private equity. it was called convert team at the time they bought it for $3.2 billion and reuters is reporting that if they do, indeed, explore this selloff -- or this spinoff, rather, it would likely be for less than the value of what it was purchased for back in 2011 remember, ge ceo john flannery said earlier this year to the investment community that he was exploring different motions like this as they look into the next sort of era for general electric

back over to you >> the courtney, thank you everything else still nailed down at this point -- >> that's the question this is -- this is not necessarily the big one in terms of any kind of wholesale breakup, but i think right now at a moment when finally, perhaps, the stock looks like it got washed out and people are looking for reasons to believe the restructuring and turn-around can work, it's probably going to be taken relatively well to say the ceo, flannery, is looking at all these ways to be opportunistic. >> share still under the $15 mark today, despite a little pop. there's still a lot more ahead on the "closing bell." >> announcer: ahead, the former ceo of toys "r" us after the company announces liquidation. his first reaction on what went wrong coming up. plus, why one key analyst is doubling down on her bullish call on big blue but next, mortgage rate shocker. ahead of a new weekend of the spring home selling season this is the "closing bell" live from the new york stock

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1.8% for the dow similar gains across all the major averages the home builders were lagging the market today take a look at the stocks. sure they're in the green. raising home prices helped soar to $100 trillion as the federal government's funds represent diana olick joins us with how rates might play in here, for example. >> reporter: today's jobs report was a mixed bag for housing. people with jobs buy houses but not great on wage growth because housing is getting more expensive. and the bond market reaction bad for mortgage rates take a look at where rates have gone since the start of this year, up half a percentage point. they dropped back a touch last week only to surge again

yes, they're still historically well but the jump has taken away purchasing power it means some borrowers will no longer qualify at the best rate, or at all. rising rates called a pullback in home buyer sentiment according to fannie mae. they showed a drop in respondents who thought now was a good time to buy a home and those who thought mortgage rates will fall and who think now is a good time to sell a home that last one hurts because this market desperately needs more home sellers there's a critical supply shortage and home builders are not healthy enough there was atd nice jump in construction jobs but much is in houston and florida, which is still rebuilding from last year's hurricanes and not so much the new supply. >> the i kn >> i know. we'll see how this spring goes thank you. shares of wynn resorts are higher after announcing a lawsuit settlement that will make it easier for former ceo to sell his stabke in the company.

we'll hear from the company's new ceo. plus, one big wall street bank making a bullish call on ibm the "fast money" traders tell us if you shoulfoowhaadce mi up.ll tt vi do that meeting tomorrow. well wait. what did you think about her? it's definitely a new idea, but there's no business track record. well, have you seen her work? no. is it good? good? at cognizant, we're helping today's leading banks make better lending decisions with new sources of data- so, multiply that by her followers, speaking engagements, work experience... credit history. that more accurately assess a business' chances of success. this is a good investment. she's a good investment. get ready, because we're helping leading companies see it- and see it through-with digital.

we've been preparing for this day. over the years, paul and i have met regularly with our ameriprise advisor. we plan for everything from retirement to college savings. giving us the ability to add on for an important member of our family. welcome home mom. with the right financial advisor, life can be brilliant. shares of wynn resorts sharply higher by 5.5% after announcing a settlement to a five-year-old lawsuit. ko contessa brewer is with

wynn's new ceo. >> reporter: it was a 2$2.4 billion settlement over this lawsuit that had been casting a long shadow over the future of wynn resorts some analysts told me it could have mept a $5.3 billion liability if the judgment came down against wynn, along with the dirty laundry that could have been introduced in court. matt maddox said when he took over as ceo, it was one of his first priorities when i sat down with him as his first interview as ceo of wynn resorts, i asked him about running the company without steve wynn >> since november of '13 to today, i've been running the day-to-day operations of this business so, steve wynn was very important part of this company, but we had begun the succession planning four years ago. granted, it's accelerated, but if you look at our company and where we are, our stock prices at 11% year to date from january

to today it's up so, i hate to judge success on stock price, but the business is valued on its assets we have the best assets in the business >> reporter: so, when did you learn about the complaints about steve wynn's behavior? >> the -- the complaints i learned about when they became public in a press release a couple of years ago in the middle of a proxy issue with a former board member. >> reporter: so, that has to do with $7.5 million settlement. >> that's correct. >> reporter: were you aware of that settlement, then, what, in 2012, 2013, earlier? >> it is -- when the press release came out, i read about it, that was the first time i heard about it i asked internally about it and was briefed. >> reporter: what about the complaints by employees, i mean, you're talking about taking over as president, about being truly

detail-oriented, about dining down here. we're sitting in the employee dining hall and you were telling me how important that is to hear quhae what's important to the employees. you never heard about the concerns people had about steve wynn >> there was never a complaint that made it to me we have hot lines in this building that are available since our inception. we've never had a complaint on our anonymous hot lines in the last 15 years, either here or in macau. there were not formal complaints coming to me to investigate. we're taking these issues very seriously. >> reporter: really, they have to because there are gaming licenses at stake in nevada and massachusetts. the concession in macau is due up for annual in 2022, to say nothing of a share of lawsuits against the board of directors for breach of fiduciary

responsibility he says wynn resorts is not for sale that might put to bed if you heard it was up for mergers and acquisitions with the settlement of this lawsuit. >> it's interesting because he's trying to make the point the ceo on one hand saying these plans have been in place and i've been doing a lot of things day-to-day but i didn't know, i had no idea and i just wonder if he -- i'm sure they're trying to stable the ship you wonder if this guy will end up being able to stick around for that >> reporter: remember, he said that he thinks it's an advantage that he's been here since 2002 i pressed him on that. weren't you entrenched into this system but he says that he is intept on getting to the bottom of it. we'll see whether that happens and whether his candor today plays out in the months and years to come. >> did you have a question >> i don't really have a question to contessa's point, he didn't sound like a ceo who would be there a year from now.

that's just totally an impression that's an impression - >> that's the impression you got from that? >> that's the impression i got from that. >> why do you think the shares are positive, then >> the name of the company is wynn resorts, okay it's called wynn resorts the company's face was steve woo wynn it wasn't mr. maddox, with all due respect to him you know, the shares are up because people want the liabilities kind of swept under the bridge so it could be fixed up for sale. >> they want wynn himself to sell - >> fblg, of course again, this is just interpreting for -- >> yeah, wall street is looking at the shortest path between where they are now and realizing more value for it. they're going to hope, perhaps, for a sale or partial sale doesn't mean it's going to happen right away. >> contessa, thank you great interview. here's a look at how we finished on wall street today. it was higher by more than 1.5% across the board second best day of the year for dow and s&p, third best day of

the year for nasdaq. it's time for our news update with sue herera. >> hello again, everyone flanked by family members of students who were killed in the parkland high school shooting, florida's governor, rick scott, signed a $400 million school safety bill which places new restrictions on guns he said the bill balances, quote, our individual rights with the need for public safety. >> as a businessman, i have always rejected the idea that government has to be slow. today should serve as an example to the entire country that government can and must move fast meantime, the suspect in the parkland shooting was back in court. nikolas cruz appearing before a judge to face 17 counts of attempted murder he is already facing 17 counts of first-degree murder his attorneys have said that he will plead guilty if the death penalty is taken off the table the projected cost of california's bullet train from

san francisco to los angeles has taken a big jump to $77 billion now. and the opening date has been pushed back four years to 2033 that's according to a business plan that was filed and released today. the new cost, it's a 20% increase that's the news update, kelly. have a great weekend we'll see you next week. >> you, too. we'll see you on yt nightly business report". >> you got it. >> thank you, sue. morgan stanley making a bullish call on ibm. up next, get the "fast money" trade on this stock which is down 10% in the past year. reports toys "r" us may liquidate its u.s. business. that's sending shock waves through toy land former ceo tells us what the potential move means for the industry and the potential for retail

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big market today and a lot of moving meeing pieces let's get to it in our rapid recap. >> nonfarm payroll increased in february by 313,000 jobs the unemployment rate is 4.1%. >> my own preference would be to wait a little longer, let the

march inflation rate from a year ago fall out of that. >> tariffs are important to preserve the -- the steel industry we've already exempted out canada and mexico. i can tell you i've had many conversations with many of my counterparts we have two ways of doing exemptions, so the president can do exemptions and my expectation is is there may be some other countries he considers in the next two weeks. >> goldman's lloyd blankfein planning to exit the firm by year's end. >> i think it's fate they will do the right thing, because they always have. >> looks like we're out with a 439-point gain on the dow, a session high for the blue chip, 1.8% goes back to the strong jobs report this morning. >> by the way, financials, the best performer today up about 2.25% industrials second best. and all the rate sensitive stuff. >> even before today, which obviously you can't ignore the strength of today's rally, the

market has been kind of passing more tests than it's been failing in terms of what the leadership was it was tech, semiconductors, even small cap up to today and banks. they were telling you, the market's accepting a little more risk and able to weather this period. >> we stalked about this time last year and how we had that big transition we started the year with the trump trade and then f.a.n.g. for the rest of the time >> that's right. >> what is - >> it's not transitioning. it's been the same leadership. so, the nasdaq at an all-time high today well, f.a.n.g. plus microsoft in the nasdaq is a third of the index. >> it's a huge -- i mean, it's -- of the nasdaq, but even more generally, the big stocks are now disproportionate in the s&p 500 and so much of the beginning of the year has come from ten or so stocks. >> see, this is where i would differ it's not that narrow it's not as if it's ten up and 490 down you're talking - >> getting back at you last week for trying to make me name 12

individual stocks. that was very -- >> that was wrong of me to look on the the bright side last week. >> you knew i kopt come up with 12 sotocks. >> ibm was up more than 10% today. morgan stanley doubled down and said their strategy has attracted many companies to the cloud and expects it to be a leader in ai should you be joining ibm? joining us are "fast money" traders steve grasso it's a doubling down on ibm, but would you be a buyer here? >> i think it's okay to jump in the water here and start to nibble away. i think they've really ratcheted down and figured out a strategy to fix their growth issues, right? i love the fact that they've invested in ai, i love the blockchain initiatives, even crypto , they're going after that i look at street ratings and say there's not a lot of real buy ratings. a lot of neutral ratings, if you will and two sell ratings

i think you could see street numbers and expectations and ratings ratchet higher if they continue to execute. it's going to take a few quarters to prove that i think the stock is a little range-bound near term. if they execute, you'll see it take off. >> what do you think >> they've had more than a few quarters even though david might be right shorter term, if you look back maybe four or five years, it's on a declining trend line. you start back from the $215 price level and it has not ripped out of that declining price trend since then free cash flow a problem, at 2017 probably an anomaly they grew free cash flow in 2017 but they have it lower for 2018. >> isn't the real issue whether they can pull off this transformation of the businesses - >> to services. >> they getcisco, get traded like something is a service, absolutely i guess it - >> why don't we take their word for it so, if you look at their guidance for four of their

segments, four of their revenue segments, to your point, cloud and stech services, they're guiding to single digit growth and that's not enough to turn this ship around that accounts for 45% of revenues if you're looking for that change to happen, i don't think they're logging up the right amount of data points to make that change happen. >> all i would say is look at a two-year chart of cisco. that's a low single digit grower you have these cheap old tech stocks that maybe can get discovered. >> we'll see if they can pull it off like cisco thank you both >> thanks. be sure to catch all the "fast money" action in 20 minutes' time. toys "r" us are planning to liquidate some u.s. stories. next, former executive of the anwh imes r t anfo the iconic brand

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to grow your business with us in new york state, visit esd.ny.gov. welcome back a huge rally on wall street but look at shares of the toymakers in the red, in some cases deeply, after word that toys "r" us may liquidate >> analyst current estimates for mattel and hasbro are not factoring in complete liquidation of toys "r" us u.s. operations, so she's doing it. u.s. bankruptcy law gives companies just 210 days to renegotiate leases from the time

they file bankrupt today is day 172 when time runs out, it's rare that liquidationisn't in the results for retailers if they haven't come up with a plan. what happens to the big toymakers? barkley's estimates 9% of sales comes from toys "r" us, 8% of mattels. but they think hasbro would withstand bankruptcy better thap toys "r" us. mattel is early in its turn-around plan and she thinks a toys "r" us liquidation could be a more significant hit to the barbie maker pushing out a potential recovery, so she's lowering her rating on mattel to underrate with a price target of $13 a share. analyst estimates between 60% and 80% of mattel's hasbro business will be ultimately absorbed by other retailers but it could take up to two years.

by sales, they estimate walmart is the largest u.s. toy retailer, surpassing toys "r" us 17 years ago followed by target and amazon most estimates are that toys "r" us holds about a 15% market share when it comes to toys in the u.s. >> still pretty hefty. thank you. courtney reagan. join us george storch, ceo of toys "r" us. who was whose boss >> he was definitely my boss. >> this was at mckenzie, 30 years ago. my very initial unsuccessful stinted consultant. >> when toys "r" us was a much more important company. >> did it exist back then? >> was probably a client of someone. >> what do you make today -- i mean, what can survive of toys "r" us at this point this seems like pretty damning news. >> i've been gone for over five years and there have been two

additional ceos intervening in the half a decade since then so, i know everything that's going on inside the company. but, this is still a very valuable company with a lot of intellectual property, a meaningful brand franchise it's very important. as you saw from courtney's report, it would be very helpful if toys "r" us survived in some form to the toy industry it plays a special role -- >> for everything you've said, which makes sense, there are no bidders. it's not the fact that they got to this point. you can understand the brick and mortar challenges. it's the fact going through this with the shares doing what they are, no one is stepping up to the plate to say they've been interested. >> i've been on cnbc many times as a retail commentator, and consistently playing out, this is a disruption time in the retail industry. across the industry. even retailers that report we say they're doing well, you'll see their margins are down margins are being crushed by the

effect of the internet you have to invest in both stores >> but is this -- >> on the internet in order to succeed there. so, there is value there the issue here is that the companies that survive and thrive will be those that are well capitalized and have scale and you have a situation here where back before the internet really took hold like this, even before the great recession - >> the lbo i heart media, another example the company is cash flow positive but they are settle with so much debt from their own takeover how much of the problem is because of what happened in '05 with this company? >> i would imagine that's the problem they're looking at the possibility of liquidation as opposed to some kind of a workout. >> there's still multibillion dollar worth of value in this company but it has over $5 billion debt

cash flow from retags was fantastic back then but now cash flow is needed with margins lower and the need for investment in order to grow the business look at this and say, this is very confusing i want to be very careful here i don't know what the value is. >> i don't need all these boxes. >> i'm not sure -- >> let me ask you a quick question go super big picture, ala old mckenzie days. is the retail sector as a whole, take out the walmarts and maybe a couple others, obviously amazon, is it investable you were on storch advisers. >> look at kroger yesterday. >> most elements of -- >> generally speaking it's like the days when financial services moved to the screen. remember when margins got crush pd generally speaking, that's what's happening if you control your intellectual property so you make the margin you should make because it's your right to decide where it's sold and what price it's sold at >> what's the intellectual

property. >> i'm not sure the current size but it has had its own label business in the past also, you can control it through a relationship with vendors if you have very good differentiated through all retailing, vendors need -- >> what you are describing makes me think of companies like warby parker, lulumemon. >> when you say it's investable. if someone is vertical the margin is richer, you can afford to play in internet. internet is more expensive than operating stores in terms of delivering the bottom line someone who is vertical and controls the price transparency impact that's important sendly f you are the low cost provider, i love costco, i mention it every time i'm on here why? because the low cost provider. they are a retailers retailer, too. they are very good merchants

you can still survive if you are a low cost provider. and if you are like arms merchants, you can survive >> toys r us, i'm curious, there is a place for a category leader in physical toy stores with somebody who has young kids there is value to browsing just target and walmart. >> it is a place to take your kid on a sat afternoon you can both have fun. but it is a leveraged company at a time when the cash flows are diminishing. it's not the first or last we will see in this in retailing as a whole. as for the toy manufacturers, they are going to do fine. hasbro is a fantastic company. 's genius. he has driven that business as the others haven't done as well. >> we will see if these shares recover along with the

prospects. jerry, thanks. martin shkreli was sentenced to seven years on "fast money," bitcoin is in a fasrkt maet hear about that next hour. what are the ingredients of a life well lived? is it the places you go? the things you own? or the people that fill it with meaning? for 150 years, generations of families have chosen pacific life for retirement and life insurance solutions. protecting what's most important to you. that's the power of pacific. ask a financial advisor about pacific life.

welcome back martin shkreli found out he is getting sentenced to seven years in prison. meg? >> that's right. that seven year prison sentence for martin shkreli is because of the three counts of securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud he was convicted of last august his crimes have to do with former hedge funds and a biotech company that he ran, not having

to do with the things he did that made him infamous for those crimes, he will also have to pay $75,000 in fines and will be subject to three years probation after he is released from prison. the government was seeking at least 15 years in prison shkreli's defensive team asked for 12 to 18 months. his lead attorney had words use the courthouse after the hearing today. >> when the guidelines are 25 years and the government is demanding 15 years, one would think that a seven-year sentence is good. but i'm disappointed i thought the sentence should have been less than seven years. but you know, martin is fine and he will be fine. and obviously, it could have been a lot worse >> it was a very different martin shkreli that we saw in the courtroom today. none of the an ticks or facial expressions that we've come to

expect from martin it was very come better shkreli who broke down in tears as he told the judge that he had learned from his mistakes saying quote i still have work to do. i'm here because of my gross stupid negligent mistakes. the judge at one point even handing him a box of tissues though she said that the 12 to 18 months his attorneys were asking for she didn't believe were enough to deter him. >> meg terrell outside the brooklyn courthouse. it was a business jobs friday. it had the markets surging up 440 by the end of the day we will check the headlines and check on the after-hours movers when we come back. gglobal bonds, and high-dividend strategies. sure, these are investments. but they're not what people really invest in. what people really invest in, is what they hope to get out of life.

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quick check on the big headlines after nours. we had a sweet from goldman sachs saying he plans to step down as early as the end of the year in the journal. he tweeted goat it is the wall street george bush's announce men not mine i feel like huck fin listening to his own yulegy. also ge bought the business in 20 for more than $3 billion. ge shares under $15. not much movements there in the shares after-hours the bulls running wild after a strong jobs report this morning. dow s&p second best gains of the

year nasdaq third best day. doi is up 40. >> the s&p is back at its highest points since the correction got rolling we will see if there are any buyers at this level. >> amazing nine years since the low. companies, ge is like a nothing now. >> that's true it would have been one of the loosers. guys thank you that does it for "closing bell." have a great weekend "fast money" starts now. >> "fast money" starts right now live from the nasdaq market site overlooking new york city's times square i'm melissa lee. traders on the panel today -- tim seymour david daliberti. dan nathan guy adami tom lee created a bitcoin misery index. he will tell you how it works and why it is flashing a buy sign and. >> lloyd could be i want anding th