solved is what about teenagers in my case, my grandchildren don't have permission to go online as early teens. i know steve jobs' children didn't either. many people who know about technology have pretty strict parental control over their kids going on these types of services that would have a lot of impact on instagram, obviously. because instagram focuses on young people. >> you think tim cook goes to capitol hill >> well, i think tim cook is becoming a media star. i sort of wonder whether he isn't running for president. he's very articulate, has strong points of view he's highly respected. the other day he was on television for quite some time and he talked about privacy being a right, not just something -- >> some people thought he was holier than thou would you have been as critical of mark zuckerberg -- i don't

know if bragging is the right word about not using data. you're not the product >> well, we're all different i'm very respectful of mark zuckerberg i love what he's built by the way, i think social media still in the early days. it would be like citi back in 2006 before the iphone exactly what is the world of technology going to be like? and we didn't know what the big disrupters were. social media is still in the early days of disruption mark zuckerberg is clearly a leader >> always good to talk to you, john thank you. john sculley and we thank you for watching "power lunch." >> "closing bell" starts right now. live from the new york stock exchange, this is "the closing bell." i'm kelly evans.

>> and i'm wilfred frost we'll have the highlights of the zuckerberg testimony coming up >> president trump has threatened missiles in syria and blasts are heard in saudi arabia our reporters are closely monitoring the situation michelle caruso-cabrera is watching those situations in saudi for us hans nichols has the latest in syria. hans, let's start with you >> they're say successing options. they're trying to give the president the best advice. as far as we can tell, no decision has been made we heard from mattis earlier he said they're still looking at the intel. i think the most important thing to watch for in the next 24 to 48 hours is what they actually determine. they have a team on the ground they are looking to see just what kind of chemical weapon was used was it sarin or corn one thing we keep hearing here is the word deterrence they want to send a clear message to assad that chemical

weapons will not be tolerated. then it's a question of timing and we don't have a good sense of if there's been a final decision we just know the president has clearly signalled that he wants to take military action. guys >> hans, thank you very much for that michelle has the latest on another perspective. >> saudi arabia's air defense systems in riyadh intercepted at least three ballistic missiles headed towards three different cities saudi state tv says one of the missiles was intercepted over riyadh after three blasts were heard and three clouds of smoke were seen in the sky houthi tv said that was headed to the capitol the others were headed to jizan and najra n. close to facilities owned by an oil company. highest levels of oil we have seen since december of 2014 today.

$66.77 per barrel when it comes to wti remember, oil was already higher in the wake of what you heard president trump's tweet this morning about a potential air strike on syria to retaliate for that chemical attack that the administration believes was conducted by the assad regime. gold also hitting a fresh high of $1,356 an ounce and the saudi etf dipping on the news off by more than 1%. saudi arabia has led a coalition against houthi rebels in yemen for three years now. today's today ks mark the fourth time in months it has escalated. back to you. >> michelle, really quickly, are we to read anything into the missile launches today given what the president had to say about striking syria earlier >> i'm not so sure there's a connection there i think this is more of an ongoing escalation of what some people are calming saudi

arabia's potential vietnam or quagmire i mean, we have seen these attacks before these missile interceptions. i think them targeting areas with oil facilities may have raised concerns more and the oil market was already on tender hooks because of the president's tweet related to syria, kelly >> michelle, thank you michelle caruso-cabrera there. >> oil prices up healthy 2% now after 3% yesterday as well >> what could the tensions mean moving forward joining us now to discuss is jeffrey martini from the rand corporation. is there anything to draw? because we know that houthis in yemen are acting as a proxy for iran which is also involved with russia when it comes to syria. so what is happening across the mid-east as these events heat up >> well, as you point out, there is a common actor in these two different arenas and that is iran is involved in the syria arena in supporting

the regime and in yemen iran is involved in backing the houthi forces that launched today's missile attacks on saudi arabia. but it's unclear as your report pointed out that there's a direct connection in terms of the timing of the houthi ballistic missile attack on saudi arabia and president trump's threatened response to the assad regime attack >> jeffrey, given the evidence of whatted assad supposedly has done, do you think an attack on syria is inevitable if so, what's the likely response from russia >> i think in terms of the u.s. analytic community, there's a strong belief that president trump and his administration will retaliate militarily for the chemical weapons attack. there's a number of issues at play one of them has to do with

defending the broader norm against the use of chemical weapons. now, it's important to note that because they are the audience is not necessarily president bashar al assad and the regime but other regimes that may consider using kchemical weapons in the future there's the idea one would try to protect that norm against chemical weapons use by punishing someone who broke the norm then there's also the consideration of trying to restore deterrence it's often called deterrence is broken down in a sense that the regime has been employing chemical weapons in its counterinsurgency. please go ahead. >> just to close this out before we have to move along, russia this morning has said that it only thinks it's appropriate to strike terrorists and not a state actor which is syria

>> it appears that the trump administration is disregarding that president trump's tweet from this morning clearly called out the russians and intimated that they didn't have the ability to stop a missile strike. they appear to be disregarding that >> all right jeffrey martini, thank you for joining us today meantime, as tensions flair overseas, back in the u.s. mark zuckerberg faced another marathon day of testimony on capitol hill this time in front of the house energy and commerce committees julia boorstin is live in washington with the latest julia? >> well, mark zuckerberg just left the building wrapping up his second day of five hours of testimony. and the tone today was definitely more contentious. a number of committee members

pressing him for either yes or no answers, oftentimes he wasn't comfortable giving just a yes or no also interrupting him repeatedly take listen to this exchange with this congressman it's all about how facebook manages your data privacy. >> is it possible for facebook to exist without collecting and selling our data is it possible to exist? >> congressman, we don't sell people's data. so i think that that's an important thing to clarify up front. and then in terms of collecting data, the whole purpose of the service is that you can share the things that you want with the people around you. and your friends >> now, the questions certainly weren't limited just to data privacy. among other topics, congressmen holding his feet to the fire over concerns related to content censorship, to fake news, as

well as the illegal pharmacy selling opioids on facebook. zuckerberg said investing into artificial intelligence and 20,000 employees just focused on data saying will be key to addressing these concerns. he also reiterated today a number of times that he's not opposed to regulation. especially if it's done carefully. he said that data privacy is a fundamental right. and people have the right to own, control, and delete their data if they so wish back over to you >> julia, thank you. julia boorstin there on capitol hill facebook rallied today less than the 4.5% on the bell yesterday. >> to take away the share prices at all over the last few two days is mark suk fzuckerberg did pretty well. and if there was going to be more, are the people that quizzed him the right people to do it? as the former apple ceo just

pointed out, not the total best knowledge of what facebook did >> well, these are the people who write the laws it's not clear how much more they're going to regulate facebook like a tech company, media company, like something else these are the thorny issues everybody's trying to sort out right now. when said yesterday facebook does think it's responsible for its content, that kind of language is going to be one of the most significant things to come out of this >> and there was a tone throughout that which wasn't originally the point of these hearings suggesting that there is more influence from facebook on removing right leaning content in a way that it's not left leaning content. there was also something about the market share size. again, just that level of anti-competitive power is another thing that's on the mind of these guys. >> censorship has been an issue for google as well for example on youtube conservative group and google was asked to testify

as well in front of this panel they have not -- we've heard from senators involved that the ceos of other companies like facebook did not accept their invitation so mark zuckerberg here is really the only one who's come forward so far from the major names to do so we also heard zuckerberg being asked if he would like to recommend other names that should now participate in these hearings. >> we are going to continue this facebook discussion. but let's have a quick look at the broader markets. because the dow just hit sessions lows. still a tepid selloff. we've been relatively stable through midwest of the day we're now down 209 points as you can see. close to where we opened we've stayed between 100 and 200 pointss down throughout the session. >> saying it's time for an internet bill of rights. he joins us now. welcome congressman. >> thanks for having me on >> first question here is what do you think you've learned from

mark zuckerberg's appearance here on the hill >> i think it revealed a knowledge gap. there are members of congress who don't know how social media works. in europe we have we need a similar internet bill of rights here in the united states to give consumers access to data like they have access to their health care data or credit data. >> are you fearful, though, congressman, of significant regulation withholding silicon valley from being the global leader that it is? europe perhaps is a decent example of that where the market capitalization of the tech sector is 5% of the total. in the u.s. it's 25% do you want to hold back these companies? >> you're absolutely right europe cannot compete with the united states innovation they don't have a first

amendment. we do. and so i don't think we should wholesale adopt the european framework. for example, in europe they have a right to be forgotten. that wouldn't fly in the united states i couldn't just say if i don't like this segment, take it off the internet we have a first amendment and free speech. also in europe, the plan has bureaucrats dictating how companies should design each tool i don't think that would fly but there are common sense regulations we can adopt that would protect people's freedoms. the right to know where your data is going or where your data is the right to be able to correct it the right to be able to move it. >> in fact, on that very front is where it could be more of a challenge for platforms like facebook if you guys were to require that i and other users could maintain ownership of our data and point it to a new social network, that could undermine facebook's business model more than what we're talking about right now. how likely is it you think we

could not only come up with a legislation to require that but also have the technology is that a significant goal for you? >> i think the technology already exists if we were to pass this, that would require facebook to say yes we need to tell a consumer where their data is and where it's going just like a consumer can get a credit report. i think facebook would still compete. look, a law says that social media has an exponential advantage based on the number of connecters facebook is a platform of 2 billion. i'm not concerned about their business model they're going to be fine i want to make sure there are other social networks that emerge that create competition so you could see, for example, that people could take their data to another social media company that another company may have a subscription model. but they know their data won't be used for advertisement. i think that kind of competition

will be healthy and ensure privacy is protected what the congress needs to do is not prescribe the exact tools or the exact formula that facebook should use we should set out the general principles that give people the rights in the cyber world that they have in their ordinary lives. >> is regulation of this sort you're talking about inevitable? and what's the timeline for it >> i do think it's inevitable. the obama administration tried twice to have an internet bill of rights. it didn't go anywhere. i think the focus became on snowden and making sure the government had access to individuals and there wasn't a concern as much about privacy. but the whole cambridge analytica scandal has reminded people that they need to be vigilant about the use of data in the cyber world and i think this is a moment where we need thoughtful regulation where i agree with mark

zuckerberg is it shouldn't be a sledge hammer approach >> congressman, thank you very much for joining us. congressman ro khanna also some questioning of the future of consumer data usage and the principle of privacy >> joining us now is president of purdue university and former governor of indiana. welcome to you >> thanks for having me. >> what i like about your recent piece is you point out the importance of cultivating the need for privacy i mean, one of the striking things about the hearings is to reflect on how much the population really cares what facebook is doing with their data why should they? >> yes, because i think this is much bigger than facebook. it's much bigger than social mo media. i think institutions of all kinds, health care and businesses and higher education institutions find themselves now in possession of lots of data. in fact, many of us don't know everything that we know or could know

and there are many possibilities for abuse and misuse >> and so how do we rectify that, governor is a process of education so that people care more about their data or a process of regulation >> i hope it starts with education. a enwith a l-- and with a lot m than people give it. i think there's far too casual an attitude about what people have given away, made available, and what the consequences of that may be. so maybe this event although it is in my judgment just the corner of the event, maybe these things around facebook will start -- i think may they already have -- that process of introspection and reflection i hope that institutions, businesses, places like ours are

already thinking about where the lines ought to be drawn so that people's privacy is respected and their autonomy is not infringed. >> and we have the luxury in the country of talking about private companies that we're giving our data to or not at the point of talking about places like china where active surveillance of the population is going on. what keeps us from going from here to there? is it -- is it just that every person starts to realize, hey, this is where all this data is going? or do we need to do something more proactive about it? >> this is why i think we have to be really careful on the regulatory front i'll give you two reasons. one is as we've seen in context after context, regulation can become a great barrier to entry. and can be a very collaborative endeavor between a very big business or industry and government that keeps out competition, stifles disruptive innovation and secondly, if government

wades too deeply into this area, people what they believe with the best of intentions will begin trying to direct the lives of others. and to use that information to either incentivize or even penalize those who behave in ways they don't like that's where china's going and, you know, without meaning to we could succumb to that temptation. >> reminds us of what's at stake here governor, thank you very jofor us it's a great piece in "the washington post. meantime, minutes from the fed's march meeting have come out. we should mention before we get to steve leisman we are at session lows now 230 points down on the dow losing a further 30 points in the last ten minutes or so steve joins us now with a look into the main points of the minutes. >> maybe weaker on stocks. it came up then went back down what they signal is there are more rate hikes ahead for the central bank

but maybe not more than the market already expected. take a look at what the fed is expecting out there. it's more confident reaching the 2% inflation goal. discuss shifting to neutral policy it's now still saying policy is accommodative. shifting more than policy itself or the outlook for policy. it says tax cuts in spending will deal a boost to output. but bigger deficits and trade retaliation, high equity valuations, are all risks. put all of that into a hopper, here's what you get. june looking at 70% chance of a hike that would be the second hike this year. and then december 63% for the third hike this year but virtually very low probabilities of that fourth rate hike currently in the market >> steve, thank you. mr. leisman back at headquarters 40 minutes to go to the close. the lows this morning, futures were down about 400. we've done better than that

throughout the session even briefly positive. the s&p now down 15. >> "the closing bell" is just getting started. next up, a widely followed analyst initiates coverage of tesla. if you're long this stock, watch out. that's next. plus, what paul ryan's decision to exit the political stage should signal for investors. this is "the closing bell" with kelly evans and wilfred frost. live from the new york stock exchange [fbi agent] you're a brave man, mr. stevens.

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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. welcome back to "the closing bell." dow futures -- futures no we're almost closed. we have 35 minutes in the session. >> little bit of "squawk box" this morning sticking in your mind there seema mody has some details for us. >> this has to do with the model y which is the next generation in the tesla portfolio tesla is targeting november 2019

for the start of the u.s. production of the model y. also saying that 2021 for the production -- chinese production of the model y more or less in line what the market was projecting. tesla has yet to unveil the model y, by the way. but it looks like the company is in advanced stages of development. though i would point out tesla hasn't always stuck to its targets. >> yes twob p, to put ilt mildly today vertical research group looked at the stock with disappointing delivery growth expectations joining us is the analyst behind that gordon johnson from vertical group. good afternoon to you. >> thank you for having me. >> fresh guidance. do you believe other guidance from them? >> i don't want to say i don't believe it but let's look at history. in 2014 elon musk said they were going to produce 60,000 model xs in 2015. they produced 208. last year the expectation was they were going to produce just

over 1,600 in 2019 they did roughly 200 time and time they targeted projection numbers they haven't hit. >> is your price ten bucks under where we are right now >> price is actually $84. >> oh, lord. your price target is $84 >> we think the stock will be $84. >> talk to us how you get that >> i want to say something quick. the thing with tesla is competition. last year the first non-tesla battery vehicle car hit the market the chevy bolt tesla said they were going to do their sales in the first a of '17 were going to be up 61% to 71%. they were up just 6% they said they were going to have significant growth for the year, sales growth in the u.s. just up 3% so if you look at a bolt and tesla, two very different cars and price points here's the problem four more hitting the market

this year. and through 2022 we count 101. >> but it's tesla. it's got the fan boys, the believers, the halo. >> it's got everything but there's another problem. tesla is missing production guidance what people are asking us is why now. next year they have a billion-dollar bond maturing if their stock's not at 360, they have to raise money this year that's a big problem for them. >> that's been a huge issue hanging over the markets gordon johnson doesn't think it's going to stay there thank you for joining us coming up, we'll be joined by national economic council director larry kudlow. markets are hanging on every headline out of washington these days we'll see what he has to say about that

welcome back to "the closing bell." we are just off the lows we're now down 210 points on the dow. we were down 232 moments ago down the better part of a percent. nasdaq down half of 1% goldman sachs is positive on netflix. the firm increasing its price target to $360 a share from $315 and expects to see strong first quarter results when netflix reports its earnings on monday that stock as you can see up about 2% meantime, mattel upgraded to hold from jeffries that trading up 6% off that

note let's get a news update with sue herrera. >> hello here's what's happening at this hour algeria says 257 people have died in a military plane crash near that country's capital. the plane was carrying soldiers and their families it crashed soon after takeoff in a farm field in the northern part of the country. it appears to be the nation's worst-ever aviation disaster the cause as yet unclear back at home, bill cosby back in court for day three of his sexual assault retrial one of his accusers heidi thomas returning to the witness stand she stunned the courtroom by telling jurors she wants to see a, quote, serial rapist convicted. billionaire hedge fund manager ken griffin donating $10 million to the city of chicago to help reduce violent crime it will be used for training, early intervention, and mental health resources >> no child anywhere should be

afraid to walk to school or play outside. a safer chicago tracks more families, more businesses, better jobs. and creates more opportunities for all. >> and just moments ago, a change at the top of cambridge analytica. the company saying julian wheatland will take over as ceo. the other ceo as you know alexander nix was the former ceo. he officially resigned and now it is julian wheatland who is going to take over cambridge analytica. kelly, wilf, back to you >> as a temporary ceo in between those two, i believe >> there was >> nix appears in front of parliament in the uk next tuesday. >> i thought mark zuckerberg's remarks today that cambridge university needs to be looked at in terms of what researchers were doing was interesting i thought he misspoke at first. >> that was a big headline it was >> sue, thank you very much, indeed less than half an hour to go in the session here.

dow down just 200 points right now. >> cambridge university in the spotlight. not oxford >> you're the oxford boy, right? >> yeah. >> it's the same oxbridge this whole thing >> only one in the spotlight for negative reasons meantime, president trump tweeting it's great to have larry k. on board. coming up, we'll speak to him. larry kudlow will be discussing the tough adtre. it's market moving you won't want to miss that. we're back in a couple minutes trust. transparency. expertise. these are the building blocks enduring relationships are built on. as investment management professionals, let's measure up. cfa institute.

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welcome back a little over 20 minutes to go here dow's less than 200 points down right now. we saw the lows around the start of the hour here the russell is actually in the positive nasdaq and s&p down slightly as well let's get to our "closing bell" exchange joining us andy caprin, stewart franks, and rick santelli. steve, first to you. there's so many different things pushing the market around. this morning the futures were

down big on concerns what could happen in syria. what now >> isn't it really crazy, though all of the things this market has digested, has continued to digest whether it's real missiles that could be blaunlaunched you have to get the market some credit to still be 7% or so away from all-time highs. having said that, it does feel like the market wants to push a limit bit lower. we heard the minutes come out. and the market was a little bit of a symbol on that. what my case has been, it's going to be difficult -- >> you still think we're going to retest the lows >> i do. it's very difficult in the face of earnings. because you're going to have that tail wind of the corporate tax cut going from 35% to 21%. that's -- >> you're saying we only have a few more days to do that test? >> it's going to be a couple of more days. but i do think if the market greets earnings with a yawn and

says we already knew that was coming, to your point, you were on record saying that. maybe they factored it all in. if that's the case because this is anonymous. this is -- more than consensus this feels like it is definitely the theory that everyone feels as if we're going one place from here >> andy, your take in terms of whether we're going to retest the lows or is earnings going to deliver a sort of recovery >> i think earnings is going to give us an important and timely shot in the arm. but really prepare for this the rest of 2018 2017 the white house was focused inwards. but 2018 is a white house that is focused entirely outward outside of the country on trade policy, foreign policy, policy in syria geopubl geopolitics is always scarier. a market that is shy will look at every potential risk. and interpret a lot into it. >> and rick, this morning we

talked about how we had kind of squishy data on inflation. then we had the minutes this afternoon. did that do anything here to change it? yield still sinking a little >> you know, i find it fascinating today because the main discussion on the minutes to the march tightening meeting all seem to be centered on, you know, do we get two more tightenings, could there possibly be three? i think there are some bigger things to pay attention to you'll see some charts twos to tens hovering at 46, 47. makes a new flat going back. so i ask you between 46 and 38 basis points, where exactly is the fed going to squeeze in another 50 or 75 maybe it's possible. but maybe it could invert the curve. i think the real discussion if people want to think about what it's going to do is to think it

doesn't matter what they want to do it matter what is they worry about at night and in my opinion, inverting the curve through a tightening action when the long is lazy because inflation isn't getting its attention and growth isn't getting its attention, that's the big story of the day >> okay. rick, thanks very much for that. and steve and andy, thank you also >> thank you 19 minutes to go dow's down 186 right now nasdaq's down -- what does that say? 15 and russell still hanging onto a small gain paul ryan announcing today he will not seek re-election how a change could impact the market when "csi bl" tus.longel

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welcome back to "the closing bell." we're down about 0.8% on the dow. nasdaq just down 0.25% >> big news on washington today. paul ryan announcing he will not seek re-election ylan mui joins us with more.

>> he called serving as speaker the honor of his life. he plans to finish out his term which ends in january 2019 ryan has served in congress for 20 years he says now it's time to put family first >> i have accomplished much of what i came here to do and my kids aren't getting any younger. if i stay, they're only going to know me as a weekend dad and that's just something i consciously can't do that's really it right there. >> this was a surprise announcement and it sets off a protracted battle between kevin mccarthy and steve scalise for his position that's assuming, of course the gop can hold onto their majority in the house ryan believes he will hand it over to another republican but ryan has been a major fund raiser for the party it's unseen if he will have the same draw now that he's stepping down senate minority chuck schumer called ryan a good man who is always true to his word but he

hopes he uses the rest of his time in congress to break free from the hard right. ryan called tax reform one of the biggest political victories in decades he himself has been working on this his entire career leaving now seems to suggest republicans aren't planning to get a whole lot done before november >> ylan, thank you for that summary. marc lasry outlined what he sees as the biggest risk to the market >> i think the biggest risk that you have in the next six months is if democrats retake control of the house because if they do, then what you're going to have is just constant investigations. i think what the market wants is a little bit of stability. and they're not going to have that at all. >> i think lasry is a big democrat joining us now are john berg and kenny calipari welcome to you both. kenny, first of all, are markets going to react one way or the

other in terms of who becomes leader at least let me put it this way. in terms of the succession race in the republican party. >> they might. i don't think that's going to happen today by any stretch at all. this is not necessarily unknown. he's been kind of inferring he wasn't going to run again. so the news today isn't necessarily catching the market by surprise at all i think certainly as we go forward, lasry has it right. and so i think between scalise or mccarthy and certainly mccarthy was the competition i think the last time. i think it'll be an interesting call i don't think the market will be affected one way or the other with either gentleman. >> john, do you think that this suggests that speaker ryan thinks there's less chance of republicans holding onto the house going forward and if the democrats do win control of congress generally, do you agree with lasry it's bad for markets? >> it's interesting that he said the markets don't like stability opposed to when?

i think we have instability already. >> he mentioned impeachment specifically you have to say every time it looks like this president is under direct threat and that includes the fbi raid of his lawyer's office the other day. it does sell off because it perceives losing him in that position bad for the market. >> i think the market really doesn't like the tariffs every time the tariff goes up, that's coming from trump or china, it goes down on that news i think if ryan, you know, ryan being out, that certainly doesn't help the republican cause in the elections in november but i'm not so sure it's bad news we've had basically for most of the last 30 years you've had mixed president and congress and the markets haven't minded that it's been a pretty good run for the last 30 years. so i don't think that it's going to be -- look. if it's a check and balance on trump, feels like he's got none of them now. >> his own party is not going to impeach him, are they? that's the real risk

>> his own party is not going to impeach him, but he's a divisive figure if you look at what's happening in congress and around the country. plenty republicans may like him, but there's a whole host of people on the other side who can't wait to get their claws into him that's really the fear, right? listen you may -- as a republican i may support the republican policies and a republican president but if we lose that in the house, if it goes to democrats and you have all these other threats, that will then cause some instability at least short-term in the market but remember, political events don't really price in the long-term. so you may get that short-term instability, but then the market will once again focus on the fundamentals and earnings and technicals and all that. >> quickly, facebook, how do you think zuckerberg did last couple of days? would you buy the stock? >> zuckerberg did a great job. when you invest in facebook, you're investing in zuckerberg he's certainly rewarded investors well

but there's a lot more uncertainties now. there's a new model they're going to charge a fee for some of the access to facebook. they've got to now police the ads. it's a risky time to invest in facebook right now >> final word in >> the argument really is about when they found autothat breach two years ago, they chose to do nothing about it i think that's really at the core of what this argument is going to be about. >> either way, stock's up around about 5% and a bit over the last couple of days gents, thanks for joining us we've got less than ten minutes to go before the bell. we're off the lows the dow is down 220 points in fact, back close to the lows. we were down a full 1% at one point. >> and coming up at 10:00 p.m. eastern tonight, be sure to tune in we have the series premiere of our new primetime show "staten

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welcome back to "the closing bell." there is the sector heat map for you. only two sectors positive today. energy and real estate energy up because oil is up a couple of percent after gaining 3% yesterday telco at the bottom. up next, we're coming up with the closing countdown. kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin kevin trusted advice for life. kevin, how's your mom? life well planned. see what a raymond james financial advisor can do for you. at&t gives you more for your thing. your getting the best but paying way less thing. now get 50% off a smartphone. more for your thing. that's our thing.

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welcome back to "the closing bell." three minutes to go until the close. we are just off the lows of the day. but we're, in fact, pretty close to them. we're down 230 points. we were down as much as 300 in the premarket this morning in fact, at one point around midday we were positive, steady selling during the afternoon in the last hour of trade, we've been at or around 200 points down let's look at that intraday chart. it shows you that kind of volatile but near the bottom for most of the day performance today. but also reminds us that we gained 2% yesterday. so the fact we're dow down 0.8%, 0.9% on the dow in perspective given we were up yesterday. let's have a look at the sector performance. energy the only meaningfully higher sector and that is, of course, because oil prices are performing well. consumers just lower but not too much you got real estate higher as well telco near the bottom, financials near the bottom

let's have a quick look at oil prices coming for you as well. that's why energy is up 1% again, sharper yesterday and today. yield curve as we round things off, just see the yield curve flatten a little bit short end going up a little bit. long end coming down that's hurt financials as i bring in bob pisani, the facebook stock price has loved zuckerberg's testimony >> i want to just bring up that oil chart again. because that's what traders are talking about. geopolitics really moving the markets now. we had a big move up today most of you heard but we were reporting, michelle talking about this earlier missile attacks in saudi arabia. apparently there were three of them the government says they were shot down. now, we don't have all of the facts here, but obviously it looks like the houthis, the people in yemen probably under the direction of the iranians are heating up a war there this has the potential to get

very, very serious at this point. and it was the subject of a lot of discussions because obviously this is all involved in iran, syria also an issue here this is getting very complicated and maybe starting to effect the markets. you mentioned energy stocks. we had new highs today and a number of energy stocks. 52-week highs. you haven't seen this in a long time finally just on banks, an area near and dear to your heart, wilf they'll be reporting tomorrow. you'll be all over that. banks tend to underperform going into the earnings season going into the first day so they've been down -- it hasn't helped we've got the yield curve becoming a little flatter. it's not unusual to see banks go down that's what's happened >> the big banks kick off then quickly, the general sentiment president trump's tweets about russia

>> people were amazed at the bluntness and some might say -- not my words, but the glibness >> certainly been an effect today. the market down 230 points for the dow as we hear the bell. store capital ringing the bell here kelly's got the second half. >> thank you, wilf welcome to "the closing bell," everybody. the dow dropping 217 as we continue to fall back. still above it after yesterday's gains. the dow down about 0.9% today. the dow is by far the worst performer. the blue chips with for. the s&p down about 0.5% or 14 points 2642 the nasdaq down to 7069.

joining me on the panel we have michael santoli alongside ian wynner welcome, guys. the biggest winner in the dow was exxonmobil today we saw a big jump in oil prices. exxon was up 0.5%. that makes it the winner boeing down more than 2% on the bell over in the s&p, mattel was the big winner while fastenal was the big loser. boeing's givebacks show the surge yesterday. there seems to be trade dominating the talk this week even though we also have teches kind of come back to consider and we were talking with steve grasso about last hour, this sense of the markets moving through this phase >> i think that's the big question the markets building up a little bit of resistance to the headline shocks. because coming into today, i would have said that traders were almost tuned into the noise opposed to trying to tune out the noise. and today was a day when, by the way, the average stock way outperformed the indexes you mentioned the small cap

index was up i think that's part of the theme of the market in this fitful way attempting to be resilient despite all those kind of policy swirling kus ining currents >> neil hennessey is also with us welcome to you, neil ian, let me just go to you this morning there was a lot of concern, of course, about what kind of strikes we might see in syria from this administration that said, are we now pricing for the possible outcomes there? given today's decline? or, you know, if we start to see missiles flying and some kind of international response, should we expect further selloff? >> yeah, i mean, i think we're priced for the most likely scenario which is very similar to what we saw last year. this is the most telegraphed air strikes since the blue star blows wablo employees walked out on wall street it's not the worst case

scenario and unfortunately like orwell said, war isn't meant to be won. it's meant to be continuous. >> in that sense, i mean, this is a president who talked about not wanting to get mired in a lot of middle east conflicts and focusing on investing in the u.s. we have earnings approaching we're going to hear a lot about tax cuts is that theme you think going to come back and dominate markets >> oh, i think so. i think if you really look at it, if it wasn't the feds raising interest rates that was supposedly a surprise then it was tariffs in china now it's syria it's a wait and see situation. we'll see what happens in syria. but i don't think it's going to affect anything in the u.s. from the standpoint of corporate earnings being better. the tax help that they're going to receive is going to put more money in their pocket to put more back into their business. or raise dividends or make acquisitions or buyback stocks it's really good for the stock market but we're just entering the 19th

correction we've had since 2010. that's all it is is a correction >> mike, what about the news about paul ryan leaving the speakership in washington today? there's some speculation going around that this means when it comes to markets if they have any concerns about the debt and deficits, if they were looking for infrastructure, nothing's going to happen on that front. is there anything to read through there? >> i think the good news is the move more or less ratifies what the dominant thinking was. which is a pretty decent chance that democrats retake the house at least and therefore maybe there wasn't a lot of built-in expectation. they were going to get progress on a lot of those fronts i don't necessarily think it's good or bad news it's like that's more or less what we thought. it was handicapped on some level. that's why i see a lot of these things as more of a test of where the market is looking for a new excuse to sell off or looking for an excuse to actually rebound a little bit. if the market with the average stock two-thirds of all stocks down 10% if they can't seize on the good news of positive earnings and

have a bit of a rebound, that's going to tell you something more is going on. that's the way you have to test it. >> starting to get in the swing of things tomorrow oil, though, is a beneficiary today of the mid-east concern. wti just under $67 a barrel flight saudi arabia's energy minister also weighing in on the oil markets. let's get back to michelle caruso-cabrera with those details. >> as you highlighted, kelly, moving sharply on those reports initially from saudi state media of missile attacks in the country. oil finishing higher by nearly 2% crude spiked to the highs of the day on reports and it reached its highest level since december 2014 it was already higher after a potential attack on syria. gold also at a highest level since august of 2016 all of that reaction to local reports from saudi arabia saying the country's air defense forces intercepted at least three

ballistic missiles headed towards three cities saudi state tv saying one was over riyadh after at least three blasts were heard and three clouds of smoke were seen in the sky. houthi tv out of yemen says that missile was targeting the saudi defense ministry in the capital. the other two missiles according to reports were headed to the southern cities of jizan and najran saudi aramco spokesperson telling cnbc all company operations and facilities are operating normally and safely. and today's attacks mark the fourth time in five months that missiles have flown over as the tensions escalate. >> quickly, has there been any sense of what kind of response the saudis might further have here other than the fact they're shooting these missiles down or trying to? >> no. at this point we reached out to the saudis several times and

they have once again said many critical things about iran, blaming iran for what's going on with the situation remember the proxy war you guys have talked about both this hour and last hour. but we will wait to see response we're also waiting to see just how connected this might be to what the president said earlier about syria if you consider that to be a proxy war as well. are we seeing an intermingling of those two situations. >> certainly doesn't make it any easier to resolve. thank you, michelle. michelle caruso-cabrera there. ian, as we said, oil did spike on this. any time you are talking about saudi arabian assets, you can probably expect that kind of response highest level in four years? you think this is kind of 3% move reflects the possible outcomes here? >> yeah, i think that pretty much -- the commodity traders are usually pretty good at assessing risk more so than equity traders i would just highlight to your viewers it'll be interesting to see if people start talking

about this as a head wind for the consumer retail sales have been questionable lately. you start hiking up gas prices and that's another head wind for something to watch >> neil, it's just anecdotal, but i've had a lot of conversations with people lately who are saying what's going on with gas prices? they've gone back up and we are approaching the summer driving season ironically in the cpi, the inflation read this morning, gas went down and that contributed to a lower reading than expected is this a risk for the consumer? >> in california it is because, i mean, gas in california is astronomical compared to the rest of the country. but, you know, we're nowhere close to getting into the hundreds like we were before that really did crimp travel, did crimp airlines, did crimp construction so we're a long ways away from that but it is good that companies can now at least drill and have the possibility of being profitab profitable down in the 30s and 40s, there is no reason to drill because you were not going to be

profitable so at this particular time, i don't think it's going to cramp the economy. the economy's doing extremely well unemployment is doing very well. corporate earnings are coming in and hopefully higher than expectations but there's a lot of good left in this market on the upside >> and mike, is that the point you were making in your column today about pain and gain in the market >> if grow back nine or ten weeks, the s&p 500 was at exactly the same level but earnings forecasts were lower. so the market is cheaper right now. investor sentiment was much more bullish back then. so you've had subdued optimism i think all those things are at least allowing us to ask the question, have we basically had enough a payback, reset expectations enough that you can view this latest period of the market hovering above the lows as something like a base building i'm not saying the absolute lows are in for this period but you can be more susceptible to good news and a little more >> before we let you guys go,

best place you think investors should be at neil you first >> i think mid-caps are a sweet spot because they're large enough to weather a economic tsunami. they're also big enough to be bought to make it to another company. and they're also big enough to make small cap acquisitions. so the mid-cap arena is very good >> ian, you? >> buy facebook. zuckerberg did a terrific job today. the whole holding base has turned over and it's still the best show in town for advertisers. >> all right, guys thank you. great stuff. i always great to talk about the markets. now tax day is coming up and the irs, get this, is about to collect one of the largest-ever personal tax bills john paulson famous for betting against prime mortgages years ago and making $4 billion doing so now owes $1 billion on his

profits. greg zuckerman has more on this incredible story. >> great to see you. >> tell us how he ends up owing $1 billion >> he actually owes $1.5 billion. yeah, you know, when you make a lot of money, you have to pay a lot of money it just comes at a tough time for paulson. he made $4 billion as you said in the crisis. his firm made $15 billion in 2007 another $5 billion in 2008 because of a loophole available at the time, hedge fund managers like mr. paulson didn't have to pay their income, they earned income until a tax change took place in 2008. they had a decade to make payments and now he and others are paying it. and i don't think anyone's coming close to these kind of tax pams -- payments. >> is this an on shore/off shore thing? we heard some of them have moved their residence from new jersey to florida knowing this big bill was coming in order to minimize

the hit. >> that's exactly right. we did a story a good six, seven months ago anticipating that people had been anticipating it. yeah, paulson is one that's been caught up. what's fascinating to me is that he's had to make dramatic changes within his portfolio within his firm in anticipation of this big tax payment. for example, he's moved a billion and a half dollars, the money he has to pay, from a fund because he's got a lot of his own money in a fund. and they've sold it's had impact on certain shares like caesars according to others it's not just the guy has to write a big check, he's got to revamp his whole operation >> something to keep in mind we're reporting his holdings the share prices he owns >> exactly right by the way, if he had just taken the $4 billion and in ten years put it in a 60/40 mix of stock and bonds, he wouldn't even feel this payment because you would have had great gains but he kept it in his own fund >> greg, final word on that? >> yeah. that's what you want from your

manager. but he became a little overconfident. that's why he's had losses in recent years he shifted away from his traditional investing. he hasn't been able to succeed and find that so now he's paying a tax and he's feeling some pain at his own firm. >> greg, thank you it's fascinating greg zuckerman joining us there. meanwhile, larry fink will be on "squawk box" tomorrow 6:30 in the morning eastern time. you won't want to miss that. a lot more ahead here on "the closing bell." straight ahead, should facebook be regulated like a technology company or a media company? plus, white house economic council director larry kudlow is with us live as we talk trade, war, and facebook. "the closing bell" with kelly evans live from the new york stock exchange returns in two minutes. car... with the extra third row of seats. they think it's theirs. look at them, they have no idea!

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representative whether the cambridge analytica breach violated the agreement with the ftc. >> we do not believe it did. if a developer who people gave their information to in this case alexander cogan then goes in violation of his agreement with us sells to cambridge analytica, that's a big issue. i think people have a right to be very upset. i'm upset that that happened >> and new jersey congressman representative leonard lance joins us now were you satisfied with his response, congressman? >> i was not and i think it may very well be the case that the consent decree was violated of course we don't know that for sure, but the federal trade commission is investigating this matter as it certainly should investigate it >> at the same time, cambridge analytica was tweeting the last couple of days saying it did nothing wrong. it collected the data in compliance with facebook policies at the time when it found out the policy

changed, they deleted the data and zuckerberg felt comfortable with that solution at the time what does that tell you about all this >> i think through the testimony over the last two days, we learned the american people need their privacy protected. and that is why i favor legislation sponsored by congress woman marsha blackburn of tennessee the browser legislation. that would affect the whole universe edge providers and isps. i think we should move forward in that regard certainly the american people should be concerned about the breach of their privacy. >> what would the browser legislation do there's a risk here any response is overly broad, you know, hurts innovation on the internet doesn't get to the core of the problem. why do you think this is the right solution and the right fix? >> i think it's the right solution because we should have an even playing field not only regarding companies like facebook but the isps as well. the internet service providers and i hope the congress will

examine this legislation as quickly as possible. i'm pleased that mr. zuckerberg came before us, but i thought the questioning today was quite direct and i was pleased to participate in that questioning, kelly. >> congressman, one of the big questions, of course, has been whether facebook will be viewed by regulators, by the government as a nemedia company. whatever that might mean it seems when zuckerberg said we consider ourselves responsible for the content on our platform, that determines whether in fact you have media company treatment for a company like facebook. so if he's acknowledging that, is that enough at this point have we settled that issue >> i don't think it's settled yet. but i do think we should examine is the browser legislation and it is a company that has many different facets to it. but it's a very complicated issue. i think the questioning today indicated how complicated the issue really is.

>> do you consider facebook to be a media company, congressman? >> i consider it to be an internet company i certainly think that we should move forward, kelly, with the browser legislation. >> well, i think we take your point here on the importance of that legislation we'll see if there's movement. congressman, thank you for joining us >> thank you for having me always a pleasure to be with you. >> congressman leonard lance during his testimony today on capitol hill, mark zuckerberg conceded that some regulation of a company may be warranted what would that regulation indeed look like former ftc chair and the current cen of the internet and television association, michael powell joins us to discuss that. >> great to see you. >> so you just heard the congressman. he wants to pursue the browser bill marsha blackburn has put together as one path what do you think is the right way to regulate facebook, if any? >> i think it's easy to make it over-complicated

i think there is a couple fundamentals that i think everybody can understand i think the first begins with ensuring a degree of transparency do consumers really have a good understanding of what's happening to their data and how it's used? i think the second element is there sufficient disclosure of how it is used consumers are only learning about it this week i think the third party would be do we give consumers enough power in controlling that data and making affirmative choices about how it's used? or are we just the targets of surveillan surveillance and finally i think the anti-trust authorities will have to pay attention to size and market power more increasingly over time. >> i mean, that's -- you know, legislation coming at them on a number of different fronts zuckerberg admitted all that regulation will basically help facebook with its scale much

more than it would help competitors break into the market plenty of people who use it say i knew facebook was using my data what's the big deal? how do you balance the issue of regulating them against trying not to stifle innovation of the types of competitors that ultimately undermine them anyway >> yeah, i think it's just that. it's a balance but it's a little bit of a rhetorical trick oh, don't regulate the big guys because we'll be able to come ply with it and the little guys will be hurt i mean, the reality is because you're a big guy and you control sensitive data, an error by you could have dramatically harmful effects. regulation doesn't need to be punitive it can try tointroduce more serious incentives but counteract the profit motive incentives to use data to introduce incentives to have you be much more rigorous in the examination and protection of user rights. ipg b those are obligations that

all companies big or small should be willing to live with on behalf of our citizens. >> what about the user themselves asserting their new demands in the marketplace for example, if i'm learning this now going, you know what? i'm not comfortable with facebook having all this information on me. i'd rather go to a new platform that's going to protect that or i'm not comfortable with what google knows i'd like to go to a start-up that's able to offer me privacy controls that maybe those platforms don't offer. do you think the marketplace can answer that over time? >> i think this is a really important point because i think consumers are waking up to the fact that you can't actually escape much of what we're entangled with with the large data platforms it's like the big banks. they've almost become too big to fail we need them, we like them but we're also beholden to them. i don't think there's an easy way to move away and have a completely different data collection experience. and that's why i think the argument for federal regulatory

policy has become more compelling in recent months. >> we used to joke that tech is the new wall street. now you're saying they're too big to fail. so it sounds like maybe they are. >> maybe so. >> michael powell, thanks for joining us >> thank you for having me >> he is the former chairman of the ftc. want to get you these bed bath & beyond earnings >> so the stock is really reacting to the guidance let's run you through what they reported for the quarter $1.48 adjusted revenue also stronger than expected at $3.72 billion. comp sales lower by 0.6% but that's better than what analysts had modeled for a drop of more than 2%. however, bed bath & beyond is looking at earnings for 2018 for the full year to be weaker than what analysts had modeled for. they also income e increased the dividend they increased the dividend at the same time last year as well.

on the company's conference call, bed bath & beyond will go through a number of its sales including growing its net earnings per diluted share by 2020 >> all right, courtney thank you. they were also down 12% after the last earnings report >> and this is not one of the traditional retailers that had a big rebound after the fall last year, that kind of amazon panic that gripped the industry. it's basically at lows from late last year. so it's interesting. there is that theory out there each retail category should have one traditional winner, perhaps. this would be the one in home goods and things like that seems like it's just not playing that way >> shares down as we said 11.5% right now. oil prices going the other way spiking to their highest levels on increasing u.s. tensions with syria and russia we're going to discuss if crude could go even higher if the president orders an attack

plus could it lead to inflation fears? national economic council director larry kudlow will weigh in still to comen helong ll." o"t csi ve man, mr. stevens. your testimony will save lives. mr. stevens? this is your new name. this is your new house. and a perfectly inconspicuous suv. you must become invisible. [hero] i'll take my chances.

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i we worked with pg&eof to save energy because wenie. wanted to help the school. they would put these signs on the door to let the teacher know you didn't cut off the light. the teachers, they would call us the energy patrol. so they would be like, here they come, turn off your lights! those three young ladies were teaching the whole school about energy efficiency. we actually saved $50,000. and that's just one school, two semesters, three girls. together, we're building a better california. welcome back it's time again for a news update with sue herrera. >> paul ryan will not run for re-election as republicans face worries over losing majority in the fall he will retire in january.

he told reporters at a morning briefing he has no regrets >> you all know that i did not seek this job. i took it reluctantly. but i have given this job everything that i have and i have no regrets whatsoever for having accepted this responsibility former house speaker john boehner is joining the board of advisers for a marijuana company called acreage holdings. it is one of the largest multi-state marijuana corporations in the country. former massachusetts governor bill weld is also joining that board. parkland high school shooter nicolas cruz appearing in court. to address whether or not he has enough money to hire a personal lawyer currently he is being represented by appointed lawyers. you are up to date that's the news update back to you. >> all right, sue. thank you. let's get to some of the

other big stories of the day now in our rapid recap >> a tug of war on your money continues again today. futures indicating a lower open. this after yesterday's big rally. >> the president is tweeting russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at syria. get ready, russia, because they will be coming >> mark zuckerberg goes back to capitol hill for his second day of testimony and questioning >> i think it is inevitable there will need to be some regulation my position is not there should be no regulation, but you have to be afrl about what regulation you put in place >> paul ryan has told confidants he will not run for re-election. >> this will be my last year as member of the house. >> saudi defense forces intercepted three missiles price of oil spiking to the highest level since december of 2014 >> dow dropping 217 points on the bell here closing at 24,190

as we continue to fall back towards the 24k mark airlines are trading down today. united and american both down more than 4% that decline comes as oil races higher joining us to discuss how to trade this, guy adami and pete najarian what are you holding >> this is a myth aitt and a bal >> the fast pitch. >> i thought you were a football guy, pete. >> i am. but you're pitching a stock so we just made a play on words it's a lot of fun. >> watch just going to toss him the ball. that's the way it works. >> i think the power pitch is from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. >> oh. and fast pitch is on "fast money. is this over now you want us to go? >> yeah. no, i actually want to ask you what is going on with the airlines and whether that kind of drop because of oil price

issues and geopolitical concerns makes sense to you >> i'll let pete start off >> it does make sense. here's why everybody always talks about this, but it's true. the biggest input is oil if you're looking at any of the names, the name that tisticks ot for me would be delta. that will be an issue going forward. but warren buffett, he owns four biggies and i love southwest i'm in that name right now >> delta reports tomorrow before the bell i'll say this. these stocks are down significantly over the last couple of weeks. i think the move to the downside far outweighs the risks or the head winds that they're facing from the oil price i would be prized if delta didn't report a strong quarter tomorrow out of all of them that valuationwise i think makes the most sense southwest air at these levels especially if mr. buffett is going to get in is interesting >> i know. that kind of specter remains over the name.

pete, at what point does oil get high enough that it really makes a difference to these companies? i can't imagine we're there yet. >> we're not there quite yet, but we're on our way if this continues and you brought up the geopolitical. that's a huge factor especially for those that's why southwest is a little more interesting the others we talk about, the big three, international exposure that's a bigger head wind. >> i was at kennedy airport saturday night at 8:00 don't ask me why place was hopping. hopping. >> packed. their numbers are going to be good >> it was the craziest thing. >> did you just go there because you wanted to spend saturday evening in terminal five >> i had nothing to do >> he wanted to go to shake shack. >> there's a great international mcdonald's in there. i'm telling you. good stuff. >> well, listen. there's been a bit of a reversal of fortune with the mets and yankees lately. >> did mike just tell you to say that >> guy, you keep miscasting me as a met fan

it's getting to me >> if you're a yankee fan, fear not. the weather is lousy, things heat up. >> look at her pinstripes, by the way. >> i've got the pinstripes on. it will be the judge's robe next anyway, guys, thank you very much >> that was good >> we've taken enough of your time stay tuned for the fast pitch and all of "fast money" coming up at 5:00 p.m. eastern. all of the moves on the heels of the president tweeting that russia should get ready for missiles bound for syria we are going to look at what it could mean longer term after this oil prices could be joining inflation as economic items on rre rise lay kudlow will join us to talk about that still to come here on "the closing bell.

all eyes on washington today as the market zeroed in on trade, facebook, syria to name many issues. larry kudlow joins us now in a first on cnbc interview. good to see you again. >> thanks for having me. wilfred, how are you >> i'll speak for him. he's very well and michael is here with me too. he might lobby a question. we got a lot to throw at you but i want to actually ask you first what do you think about paul ryan leaving as speaker the narratives are going around. they say, you know, they're not going to win the midterms and nothing more is going to get

done and they're going to lose their seat what's the larry kudlow take >> i'm not surprised he never explicitly said this, but i'm not surprised. look, he wants to go back to wisconsin. he's got kids to raise and a wife to be with. i think he's had it with washington i don't think u it's an indicator of who's going to win in november. this is something that's been on his mind he shared it i know he wants to spend a lot of time in wisconsin with his family he's been doing this for a long, long time. i wish him well. >> do you think it matters who becomes -- you know, obviously it matters who becomes the next speaker. whether it's scalise or mccarthy or a different republican and what happens if it's nancy pelosi >> it might be who knows? the consensus view is she will be the next speaker. i don't want to forecast i'll just say this

her policies and the policies of the house democrats are much different than president trump's policies or gop congressional policies they want to raise taxes on companies and individuals they think that's the way to growth i disagree as i have for so many years. they don't like the deregulation they say they're becoming deficit hawks now. i don't believe it i think it will be bad for business if the democrats take over the house and probably very little will get done that's probably what's going to happen >> let me ask you quickly about facebook and whether you think -- you know, larry, what does facebook say -- you know -- i feel like the classic case is a company makes a ton of profits, you know, it's grown big and grown fast and now users are coming to terms with it. is there an economic concern for you there? a regulatory issue what is your take on everything that we've just seen play out the last couple of days?

>> i don't think it's an economic issue so much look he virtually admitted there was data sharing going on he was criticized for that then he comes back and he said we don't sell our data to various advertisers. but senator john cornyn made a very interesting point with zuckerberg he said, look. you rent the data. you may not sell the data, but you rent the data. you've got this 87 million data spill. i don't know how this is going to turn out. the administration hasn't taken a policy on this the ftc is going to look at it with respect to possible regulation i'm not sure what's going to happen i think zuckerberg made some good points today and he acknowledged his mistakes. now, it's up to them it's up to facebook to change. i don't know if anybody else can do it. facebook can do it >> and some people say we should be careful about undermining our own corporate champions when china is going to great measures to kind of build up its.

so we heard from xi jingping the other night touching on the we'll try to do more on intellectual property. he didn't say a lot one way or the other. so what measures should we be expecting now? >> well, look. i think that was a very important speech by president xi very important speech. because up to now, all of our trade initiatives, they're really trade reforms to settle trade disputes the chinese responses have been very, very negative. very bellicose, negative, mean, and so forth so this is the first time -- i mean, he's the president president for life for that matter that they had a good positive statement tariffs on cars, for example most importantly to my mind is the technology debate. america wins on technology every time we're the leader in the 21est

century. chinese hasn't been able to do that so they've been stealing our technology let's be honest. theft of intellectual property those are the key issues now, xi talked about that. it seems like he wants a good faith discussion president trump tweeted back his gratitude that we're now better positioned to have a conversation about how to solve these problems all these things could be solved so it's not in detail yet. china has made these promises in the past and has not delivered but it's a positive development, i think. a very positive development. >> larry, you've had the tweets and the rhetoric out of both sides here as you've described, but is there an actual process under way right now? is there a negotiation happening or are we just throwing things out into the air and this whole thing can recede a little bit and see where it goes over the longer term?

>> well, look. there's a very good process going on inside the administration you've seen some of it and there'll be more coming. we're talking about tariffs. maybe not, maybe yes president has been very tough on this he also wants to negotiate, but i can't come up here and say no tariffs. maybe this thing will turn out very well. you know, look it's not willy nilly stuff we've been having meetings before i got here. you've got to look at this as a long-term process. i'm an optimist. you know that. i think what's going to happen is we are going to have negotiations at some point there may be tariffs before, maybe not. we shouldn't panic so far no tariffs implemented. i hope everybody realizes that and that's important and you're not going to see any of that probably for a couple of months that's point number one. president trump regards himself as a free trader i heard it from him many, many times. but he's correct i mean, china's the problem. not trump. trump has said, look

we can't have free trade if you're going to steal our technology and create barriers and market closings. so we've got to clean that up. the rest of the world agrees with us. agrees with us i call it a trade coalition. some of this stuff is going to be used in the world trade organization where china is clearly wrong. and we're going to win that battle so let's sort of calmly look at this the movement yesterday was very positive i was in with the president for part of that discussion. and, you know, i'm always an optimist where there's a will there's a way. i believe both presidents want to get something good done.larro on not long ago and talked about how interest rates hadn't moved up he hinted maybe they don't need to raise rates many times. so this morning if we get another soft consumer inflation report what are you thinking about how much further tightening is needed at this point

>> in my current spot, i can't speculate on the fed or interest rates. but let me say this. my view on this is the fed is behaving responsibly they're letting out a plan and they're going to stick to a plan and i think jay powell doesn't believe that better economic growth causes inflation or more people working i don't think he believes that and some of his statements indicate that much to my joy so i think the fed is a good growth partner right now i'm not going to make a clear interest rate forecast we're going to be fine economy's going to be fine we may have a soft first quarter. but the rest of the year you're going to get 3% to 4% growth business investments and spending is strong inflation is low interest rates are historically very low we're seeing a big buildup in cap capex. even the cbo acknowledges that we could get 3% growth in 2018 that -- you know, growth solves everything

okay that's why the trade barrier is coming down. that will help growth here, china, around the world. deficits will be helped by better economic growth only the cbo would acknowledge that everybody in business will benefit including broadcast anchors and hosts. they will all benefit from stronger economic growth >> yes we are all in the tank for stronger economic growth larry, thank you for joining us. >> appreciate it >> larry kudlow. an old cold war heating up president trump, some strong words for russia today as he tweeted about retaliation for the chemical weapon attack last week then coming up on "fast money," bitcoin. iist a bubble we'll be right back. ions. i'm not really a wall street guy. what's the hesitation? eh, it just feels too complicated, you know? well sure, at first, but jj can help you with that. jj, will you break it down for this gentleman? hey, ian. you know, at td ameritrade, we can walk you through your options trades step by step until you're comfortable.

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welcome back crude oil was on the move today. settled at its highest level since 2014 just under $67 a barrel right now. after the president's tweet this morning warning of potential military action against syria. joining us are colonel jack jacobs and from rbc capital markets. colonel, we'll just begin with you on what you think is likely to play out over the next several days now that the president quite clearly put these strikes on the table. >> he's going to have to do something he's talked about it so much. we did strike last april after a similar attack i think he's -- he's sort of honor bound to do something after he talked about it so much it might be a slightly stronger attack maybe more missiles from different kinds of platforms, but it's hard to believe that it's going to be anything that is going to try to involve either iran or russians and as a result probably more absent

airfields or inconsequently targets. he could target command and control nodes, but when you do that you run the risk of collateral damage including killing iranians and russians, which he doesn't want to do. the ultimate attack, of course, would be on troop units where you wind up killing a lot of their -- a lot of syrian troops. i don't think we'll go in that direction. i think it's going -- in the next 24 to 48 hours there's libel to be an attack pretty much the same as we had last time. >> we saw oil prices react sharply to this, of course, but again trying to figure out how much to worry about, a conflict that draws in russia and iran versus something more like we saw last april. >> the big theory is what if you get some type of escalation through miscalculation and get a dispute that spills over border. the houthi missile strikes are

consequently for oil. >> unrelated in your mind? >> we have two raging proxy wars going on in the middle east. and in addition to the strikes on riyadh, we had an attempt to target the facility in iran. one week after we had a houthi attack on a saudi oil tanker in the red sea. and so this has been a steady escalation on houthi attacks on key saudi infrastructure >> it is fair to say it's also a proxy for iranian attacks on that infrastructure? i only ask because -- >> no, absolutely. i mean. >> the concern. >> that is the concern that we have iranians providing the ballistic missile technology to target saudi arabia. the concern is is yemen a trip wire for military confrontation between the region's two big oil heavy weights. the concern about yemen is absolutely warranted this is the conflict that does potentially affect the oil market. >> if this gets rolling, further gains on a lot of these headlines or threats, it's kind of oil going up for the wrong

reason from the market's perspective, economic perspective, right, adding geopolitical premium in there. how much right now is that kind of premium >> we've got a few dollars in the premium, but let's mac sure this is coming against the backdrop of a tightening market. the opec cuts have helped, the fundamentals are improving we have to watch what is happening with venezuelan production it is rolling off. does it impact iran's ability to place their barrels. a whole host of geopolitical issues coming to a head that are constructive for oil. >> so much more to talk about, colonel jake jacobs and helena croft. we'll take a look at some of the headlines after we come back the dow is down 218 at the bell today.

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cnbc's healthy returns conference is all about what's going on in medicine we've got scott got leeb. >> things we can do to make it easier for the generic companies. >> it's a huge business story but also deeply personal here's a check on some of the stories we're watching after hours today. shares of bed bath and beyond after reporting better than expected earnings and revenue are sinking after hour now down more than 13% after guidance for the full year was weak those shares struggling even after last quarter, same kind of response, under 19 bucks a share. zumiez surging after reporting a

12.6% increase in march comps. that's a pretty big number and finally speaking of retail gap ceo just sat down exclusively with jim cramer for tonight's mad money. what he said about athleta. >> i don't care if it's a millennial or 70-year-old woman, she sees that as a brand that she can relate to and it's a powerful equation. >> full interview coming up at 6:00 p.m. eastern on mad money i love atleta. it's pricey but -- >> see, i got push back when i had good things to say about gap, they're built for this environment and they never wanted to talk about atleta. but finally -- >> maybe just every gap story to an athleta store. >> maybe every banana store to a

store. >> every now and then you can get a decent item. >> you can because they're always on sale. >> i love that fact. 40 or 60% off, what have you. >> my card has been used to buy things at atleta. >> yes, i'm sure with the women in your family we'll see you family, fast money begins right now >> "fast money" starts right now live from the nasdaq market site overlooking new york city's times square i'm melissa lee. traders on the panel today -- pete ja nair jan, guy adami. tonight on fast did mark zuckerberg pass the d.c. test? traders tell us whether they liked the testimony and if the stock is in the clear. plus bank of america says the bitcoin bubble is bursting as we speak and they have a fancy chart to back up that claim. but danny masters, a former jpmorgan trader who has gone full crypto says it's not bursting, it's bottoming he's got a fancy chart of his own that might have you gett