>> i don't want to overshadow either the most substantial news out of all of this was the saudi investment right? that's going to change the narrative whether this is true or not about taking private or not. the saudi investment is going to change the narrative for a while. >> if -- >> for a long while. >> if this is true and not retracted, my take-away is that he didn't post a facebook update and put it on twitter. >> we'll see what happens in the moments ahead. that's it for us thanks for watching. "power lunch" begins now with much more on this developing story around tesla >> we will be following the zoer that elan musk may be interested in taking his company private. it's a $60 billion plus venture, and it would take a lot of financing, and he says he has the financing. meantime, stocks are, again, on the verge of historic highs. strong earnings, a big part of the narrative, but not the only factor here. we'll tell you what's driving the market and whether the rally has legs plus, disney is on deck.

the stock is higher ahead of profit reports, and there will be plenty of big questions outside of the results for investors. we will break it all down for you. and navigating trump world many companies have weighed in on the president's policies either for or against, but does it pay off to take a stand on political issues trump or no trump? power lunch starts right now. >> the s&p on track for its highest lows since late january when it set a record high. not every name is soaring. shares of zillow tanking, but revenue missed estimates the company also issuing weaker than expected guidance, and says it's buying a mortgage lender. check out dean foods it's down sharply too. the dairy producer meeting

profit estimates, but slashing its outlook partly due to rising non-dairy products a market slash on tesla as the "halftime report" said, shares are spiking moving up following a tweet from elan musk's verified account. phil lebeau joins us now on the cnbc newsline. you see where the stock moves up phil, what do we know? >> we have more questions than answers at there point, tyler. all of this starts earlier in the day when it was reported that the saudi public investment fund had taken a 3% to 5% stake in tesla, had built this up over a period of time, which raises an interesting question. this was -- it did not appear that this was an investment that tesla or elan musk had sought out, but that the saudis had over time thought this is a good investment it's an interesting investment there. after that news comes out, there was this tweet from elan musk within the last 15 minutes where

he says he is thinking about taking tesla private 420 being the price that he would do it at with funding secured. sfla we have yet to hear back from him typically if there is something that is completely out of left field, that is not correct, we hear from tesla p.r. very quickly. the fact that we haven't heard from them may indicate that elan musk did, in fact, send out this twe tweet. >> i'm quite sure. >> correct

correct. and we have a long track record with them where things have come out in the past, and we've said, look, this is out there, and they've shot it down if it's out of left field, and the fact that we haven't heard from them yet, that leads me to believe that perhaps elan musk did send this out. now, whether or not he actually had secured funding private, how serious he is about this, i mean, those are all questions that need to be answered. >> alleged coming from his verified account, and the fact that the saudi sovereign wealth fund is acquiring shares >> i wouldn't be surprised if there is, tyler. there is a report in the ft that the saudis have in some capacity expressed interest in taking a stake in tesla in the relatively

recent past. that hasened happened, and perhaps elan musk is of the opinion, look, it's my company i run this company yes, it's publicly traded. we're content with what investment that we're going to sell here, and for whatever reason, maybe he did not want to sell a stake of the company or sell more shares to the saudis, and they've decided, well, fine, we'll go on the open market and we'll acquire 3% to 5% at the price that's out there >> maybe you know -- >> i don't know off the top of my head, but he has a substantial stake in there he has that substantial stake. in addition, he has the elan musk collateral, and as you guys know, you don't have tesla, you don't have elan musk if he were to go to whatever sources he needs to go to in order to secure funding, that's the ace in the hole.

he could pull this off if he needed to pull it off. it would not be cheap. it probably wouldn't be easy there is no way of doubting that elan musk could not pull this company private if he wanted to. he could do it >> you're reporting on this breaking news story about tesla and the potential that elan musk may be interested in taking the company he had founded private >> you also know tyler that we have heard in interviews from elan musk he has said previously that he would love to take this company private. spacex, his space entity that is private, he has basically signalled if he could keep it private forever, he probably would.

>> like to see that list broaden out. so far not that big. i've talked about for days what's moving the market u.s. is the place to invest for many reasons we've got the great earnings narrative, great gdp growth story, a tidal wave of buy-backs and dividends. we have limited impact from the tariffs, and we've had that sector rotation whenever tech falls back today tech is holding up pretty well we are the darling of the world. look how strong we've been right near the historic highs.

germany is about 6%, 7% off. india is close to us shanghai and the asian markets way, way behind on various issues, including currency and tariff concerns. bottom line here is not a lot of reasons to worry right now, and a lot of reasons to think fairly positively guys, back to you. >> thank you very much, bob. appreciate that. i like the power of positive thinking can the market keep grinding higher, or is there a ream reason to be worried about the market at these lofty levels let's bring in jim paulson, and cnbc contributor tim seymour chief investment officer with seymour asset management i want to start with you we got a lot of news to dig through here first, do you have any thoughts of what you are hearing about tesla and that elan musk may try to take this company private >> i don't really. i don't follow the individual company very closely, so i really don't have much to say on that >> fair enough then let's jump into the markets. we just heard from bob he thinks that we should think positively that there aren't a ton of potholes that he sees looking forward. what do you think? near term, is there reason to

worry? >> well, you know, it looks like we're going to go up and touch it and see if we can't surpass that s&p 500 high. i think it's likely that we're going to try to do that. i still have concerns. i don't think the bowl is over either, but i think we to go through more and let earnings catch up more yet before we really have another sustained run. have correlation near post-war lows, which typically has not been good. you have contraction of financial liquidity going on yields are probably going to move higher yet. i think we have a 3% problem coming 3% wages 3% cpi inflation 3% treasuries to deal with i think there's a good shot the economy slows in the second half on the back of tight monetary

policy maybe forcing a rethink of wall street earnings estimates, which could have some impact as well i just think there's a cadre of challenges that prevent this is from running up, you know, unrestricted higher. >> that's a lot of warning signs. a 3% problem is going to be something for us to watch on a number of different economic indicators tim, what do you think the vix sitting here at a low that we haven't seen since mid january. are we too complacent? >> jim has a pretty sober outlook, and i think it's totally fair i would just echo on the valuations, price to sales i mean, we're at bubble territory if you look at where we are historically. the vix at these lows augered a correction at the end of the first number of the year, which was totally warranted. sentiment is significant by better than where we were in january. we've got 24% earnings growth. this is extraordinary, but i would agree that the biggest

issues for this market are the fed and the dollar, and they may be somewhat related, although the dollar has been trading on its own, and it's been somewhat caught in the trade war's rhetoric the market should not have an expanding multiple if the fed continues to hike. you weigh that against where we are with valuations. you know, i think tactically traders kind of felt like the first half of the year, certainly the first and second quarter were very volatile, and a lot of people had this view that the second half of the year would be all clear it's totally followed that script at a time when i think there are still some big issues out there. i think you need to be cautious at these valuations, but there's no question this economy is in great shape and earnings have been tremendous in the second quarter. >> so, jim, given the number of potential headwinds as we come into the second half of the year, where do you put your money right now? >> well, i'm not ready to exit this market. you know, because i think it could still go on. the bull markets could still go hire i think we're going to have more corrective phase first what i'm going to do in the

interim, i'm going to diversify much more broadly particularly away from the united states. i would go after some of the international markets that are just being wholesale dumped right now. i think they don't have as many of the issues that i just brought up that we do here, and i think they've been made really cheap here on this trade war fear that dissipates they could do well. i put a bigger weight over there. i would raise a little cash, and if we do hit an air pocket, you've got some funds to come back in. i would look at adding a commodity etf, which i think real assets from a full employed economy here if it lasts are going to continue to do better maybe better than stocks i would look to add a little hedge fund exposure that would give me mid to upper single digit returns without the down side risk overall. i maybe add a little gold in the sense of a panic i barbell my sector -- >> what would you not add, jim you mentioned everything, man. >> well, i think there's a lot of diversification there, though, away from just owning

large cap u.s. equities. i would also defang my portfolio and not own those really popular tech names >> all right tim -- jim has just given you a lot to respond to. i invite you to do that, but before you do that, give me your thoughts on tesla. >> look, i think tesla is the trillion dollar idea with a trillion dollars worth of risk attached to it, and i heard you talk bogus versus -- how about bogus versus bluster i think elan musk has intentionally gone through twitter and did things that maybe didn't make a whole lot of sense. i don't think that saudi arabia acquiring a $2 billion stake looking at that now especially when you consider how the stock has been so resilient during difficult times, that's nothing -- that doesn't do anything for me tomorrow as an investor i'm not running into tesla on this news. i'm pretty cynical on the story. i think there's a lot of competition. >> all right, folks. i guess we're going to leave it there. jim, tim, thank you very much. appreciate it. >> thanks. >> thanks. >>. news alert, $34 billion in

three-year notes up for auction. rick santelli is covering it what are you hearing, rick >> you know, the demand wasn't very good, tyler i gave the auction a d-plus in terms of demand and $34 billion garnered a 2.765 yield at the dutch auction. that was the bid side of the one issue market, and not a very aggressive one issued trade today. let's look at the internals, shall we 2.88 is the ten auction bid to cover. this was 2.65. even 2.65 if you look at the ask look, it was 2.51, which was really weak. if you take that away, you would have to go back to april of 2017 to find one lower than 2.65. 42.7 on the indirects against the 51% ten auction average. the only real bright spot, 12.1 versus ten auction average of 10%. d-plus tomorrow, of course, we get tens followed by 30s. the long end is going to be key. it seems like investors' interest in the short ends seems

to be waning as it has over the last several auctions. tyler, back to you >> thank you very much look who has come to dinner. president trump hosting a number of big name ceos tonight in bedminster, nnl new jersey, and many of them walking a fine line between reaping benefits of tax reform and the trade war backlash ayman javers joins us from d.c who is on the list >> tyler, well, would he have got a great big wall graphic here the white house not saying exactly what the agenda is, but if you look at some of the names and zoom in closer there to see some of the names of the companies involved here, but it's about 13 different ceos from a host of different industries all across the board some of them long-time friends and associates of the president of the united states, and some of them are people who have been active in his ceo counsel councils in the past they were largely disbanded in the wake of the president's controversial handling of the racist unrest in charlottesville, virginia, last year that said, we don't know exactly

what they're going to be discussing tonight at dinner in bedminster, new jersey the president is on this a little bit of a summer break here this week we do know that the white house says that ultimately this is going to be all about the president picking their brains on the economy he wants to hear what's working now and get their thoughts, the white house says, on what to look forward to for the rest of the year this year we'll wait and see what kind of reporting we can get coming out of that meeting tonight. if the ceos are offering up any suggestions to the president in terms of trade, that's obviously a big controversial one that we can expect at least some of them will want to discuss with the president. >> thank you very much amman javers from our bureau in washington sony, viacom, and our parent company nbc. jp morgan and alibaba on new tv to produce high quality content for your phone big names don't stop there jeffy catsenburg and meg whitman are running it we'll hear from them disney reporting results after the bell

we'll tell you everything you need to know to get ready for that report. that's coming up on "power that's coming up on "power lunch. at&t provides edge-to-edge intelligence, covering virtually every part of your healthcare business. so that if she has a heart problem & the staff needs to know, they will & they'll drop everything hey. & take care of this baby yeah, that procedure seems right. & that one too. at&t provides edge to edge intelligence. it can do so much for your business, the list goes on and on. that's the power of &. & when your patient's tests come back...

>> julia borestein has the details. hi, julia.

>> hi. that's right jeffrey catsenburg and meg whitman have -- are creating premium short form video the program -- the platform is set to launch next fall. catsenburg is saying they're creating the content just for the hour that people spent daily watching mobile video. proo it allows top talent -- >> catsenburg acknowledges that

if they're successful, others like netflix could follow. you could find more from the interview on cnbc.com. tyler. >> meanwhile, julia, investors are getting ready for disney earnings after the bell. great run there for the stock in the past month up more than 11%, and a lot of ne news tyler, this quarter is benefitted from the movie blockbusters avngers, infinity war as well as the incredibles 2. plus its theme parks analysts project the earnings will grow 23% to $1.95 a share revenues are expected to grow nearly 8% to $15.3 billion perhaps, even more important than that is what disney reveals about its media network divisions about espn and the cord cutting trend after last quarter saying subscriber declines were decelerating we're also watching for results from new subscription service, espn plus for details on digital revenues from skinny bundles and any details about the disney

streaming service that is set to launch next fall now, with international regulatory approval for the -- acquisition and process, we'll see bob iger it is in talks to bid for the remainder of sky to top comcast's offer. back to you. >> julia, stick around let's talk more about disney and the big picture for the media landscape. joining us now analyst at cfra great to see you today >> thank you for having me >> disney after the bell key things you're looking for. is it still espn and whether it's stabilizing the business there? >> you know, i think julia touched on some of the key expectations and what investors are going to be watching for any update on espn plus. obviously, we know the theme parks and the film studio are going to be the highlights for the quarter, but i think even the -- looking beyond that, i think the elephant in the room is going to be, you know, what does disney and fox do regarding the sky offer, which comcast right now seems to be in the driver's seat.

>> what do you think they do >> you know, there's any range of potential outcomes there. you know, they could decide to, you know -- i think they have until thursday according to the rules of the u.k. take-over panel to submit a higher offer, or they could decide to wait by submitting the preliminary paperwork that buys them additional time down the road to consider their options what we don't think they'll do is to walk away at this point. we think the sky assets are way too valuable once in a lifetime opportunity we think the bidding for that could go higher, and that could arguably overshadow all of the questions around the fundamentals >> does sky really fit in their portfolio -- into the disney, fox portfolio, as i think of as a more production and content portfolio now than having anything to do with distribution

>>. >> as you heard katzenburg and whitman, there's a move to repurpose and reproduce that content and offer them to consumers. sky has been a major player in that regard. we know that they have also signed on to the premier league rights for the next several years. i might add terms that were phenomenal based on an economic standpoint this is a platform that's still growing that i think bob iger would be a strategic asset for them, which, again, not your conventional wisdom, but -- >> remind me, tuna, or julia for that matter, where the asian assets of fox now reside will they reside with disney, the star and so forth? >> star will reside with disney, and that's -- i would just point out, that's a massive asset, and

i think that the international exposure that fox brings is one reason why it was so appealing both to disney and to comcast who also made a bid. also latin american assets that are very valuable. i think that the acquisition of fox had a number of appeals, but one of which is the direct to consumer potential having a controlling stake in hulu, but also having the access to those international markets through star and sky and also in latin america, but i would point out that disney with the acquisition will own about one-third of sky. the question is whether they make the bid for the rest of it and how this all plays out will they want to be a partner with comcast and comcast were to buy sky or will they sell their remainders we'll see if they try to top comcast bid. >> julia has had a busy day. she started with the exclusive

interview with jeffrey katzenburg and meg whitman around this new tv venture disney is one of the investors there, and actually most of the media companies are investing in this venture thoughts >> you know, i'm not really surprised. you know, i think, you know, no one wants to be left behind here in this kind of rat race to be where the consumers want to be this is actually along the lines of disney's core competency to invest in businesses that kind of fall within their strategic competency, and it's not inconceivable that down the road this could actually provide a platform for them to ink bait more content as weave se've seen, a good exae would be maker studio. i think it's all about finding sources, to develop stories, and package them to consumers and monotize them through the subscription streaming model, which we think now is probably the most viable way that

companies are looking to cash in on this trend. >> thank you both. >> all right, coming up, what companies -- what companies should do when they find themselves on the receiving end of a tweet from the president. tesla, the stock story of the hour, of the day shares are moving up following a tweet from elan musk's verified account saying he is considering taking tesla private we will get shareholder reaction as the stock is up about 5%. as the stock is up about 5%. it spiked more earlier at ally, we offer low-cost trades and high-yield savings. but if that's not enough, we offer innovative investing tools to prepare you for the future. looks like you hooked it. and if that's not enough, we'll help your kid prepare for the future. looks like he hooked it. we'll do anything... takes after his grandad. seriously anything, to help you invest for the future.

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>> e-mail me the [ bleep ] schedule just do it >> that's the answer to everything just do it >> well, just do it. when you do it, do it. >> and, again, we've had this talk false threats, and this and that and yelling and screaming get nowhere because people don't take it seriously. >> i trusted people to manage. >> that's not fair don't even go there where. >> what are you talking about? >> imi'm not going anywhere. >> so many times we come into people's businesses and they're afraid of the cameras and it takes a couple of days to ignore the cameras. for andrew he just was that personality whether the camera was rolling or not rolling >> he never had any self-awareness, which is i think his -- an asset to make a television show and a liability to run a business.

>> right >> and that all new episode of "the profit" appears at 10:00 p.m. eastern and pacific tonight. don't miss it. tesla shares are spiking following the tweet from elan musk's account that he may take the company private. leslie picker on set with us for the details. those shorting the stock getting hit today. >> we don't know the validity of this tweet, how real it is, about he is actually taking the company private and has funding secured. i have called out to sources of providers of funding, haven't gotten any confirmation yet. what we do know is that the paper losses for short sellers, that's real. that's real in real-time at $3.60 a share the shorts would be down $631 million just for today. based on this move, the moves we saw last week and for the year, the short sellers would be down. this is market to market losses. these aren't realized losses, but noteworthy for portfolios.

$2.35 billion for the year 35 million shares are held short with $12.7 billion worth of short interest that's the absolute value of short interest that's out there. that's the -- makes tesla, of course, the highest shorted stock. about 28% of market cap. >> that's a pretty big name on short. >> you have jim chenos who spoke as recently as delivering alpha. the company to meet saying that, you know, it doesn't have -- it's got a lot of sizzle, but it isn't cooked totally through also, of course, david einhorn, who has been short tesla for quite a while and put out his own investor letter last week talking about the short. got in a little bit of a skirmish with elan musk on twitter about this, but, you know, it appears here that based on today's news, up about -- more than 5% right now that, you know, clearly there's a lot of movement that is making

this a very difficult stock to short. >> some of those people with bearish positions on tesla are speaking out one spoke not for -- our producer has a bearish position. somebody needs to call the s.e.c. now this smacks of market manipulation this is utter total nonsense what he is doing it may be reflecting the number you said $ch, $631 million of short lost today he not only needs to stop this, but he needs to be fire, leave the company. it smacks of disregard for wall street, for free markets, for everything where. >> i think any short seller would probably share his view on that >> that is a frustrated person with a bearish position. >> yeah. >> on tesla. >> here's what i will say before we move on there was a big feature on him in "rolling stone" late 2017, and the quote is right here. i wish we could be private with tesla. musk mur murs as they exit it actually makes us lessee efficient to be a public company. he has voiced that he would like to do this before.

>> very interesting. >> yeah. >> like phil lebeau was saying earlier at the top of the show look, usually tesla is very quick to shoot down things that are untrue, and so far we've not officially heard from the company yet. >> leslie picker, thanks for looking at the numbers what are shareholders saying about all this news involving tesla? we'll speak with one next. stay tuned with the new chase ink business unlimited card i get unlimited 1.5% cash back. it's so simple, i don't even have to think about it. so i think about mouthfeel. i don't think about the ink card. fine, i obsess over the details. think about every part of your business except the one part that works without a thought your ink card. introducing chase ink business unlimited with unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase. chase for business. make more of what's yours. does it look like i'm done?yet? shouldn't you be at work?

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>> welcome back to "power lunch. the big story last hour, shares of tesla spiking following a tweet from elan musk's account saying he is considering taking tesla private. there you see it am considering taking it private at $420. funding secured. that would be, what, about a $70 billion nut to cover there i think. on the newsline is drew cupps with advisory research tesla is roughly 3% of his portfolio. drew, you must like what you see in the stock today

it's up about 5% on this news and other news involving tesla, but do you like the sound of a -- of this company going private and do you think it is legit? >> we have to have a dose of, you know, conservativism in our expectations there as an investor, an objective investor, a positive certain or near certain return is something we're always seeking clear positive there i think the drawback is only that those of us who have been more long over more time, and we start buying the stock in the $20s a long time ago, also maybe for going what we hoped would be a 50% or 100% future return. i think at the end of the day maybe it's a mixed situation,

but with a clear positive in terms of a 15% return. >> if you owned it from the 20s, god bless you, man it's at 360 now. another double what does it matter really you've made 20 times, 30 times your money on it go ahead >> well, there's always something called market to market it's always about what the return is tomorrow, not what happened in the past >> yeah. >> $420 a share, i think this is part of the reason there is some speculation about whether this is musk tweeting from musk's account right now. he has a history of essentially twitter trolling or putting some stuff out there as a prankster is there a scenario in which this is him or somebody else on his account pranking >> gosh, i mean, i guess you would have to say it's possible, but at the same time -- i mean, i guess the proposition is that it is him, and so the question is does it fit his profile he is a big thinker.

that's how -- what's got him here i guess it probably fits the profile more than it doesn't >> yeah. >> then we just have to bring together, you know, the wisdom of doing it, the ability to get the funding, et cetera >> also, the idea that if the folks at the s.e.c. aren't known for their senses of humor. >> yeah. right. i think this would be a bad -- >> maybe they are, and i just don't know them. >> if it was purely seeking humor. i think there needs to be some substance here in order for it to be at all a wise thing to do. >> in all seriousness, does it bother you if this is an actual tweet from elan musk -- does it bother you that he would be putting out this kind of news via twitter? >> it's a great point, a great question i think that it's very easy for me to say as a shareholder that there's a lot of things that

elan musk does that would not be top on my list of preferred behavior however, he is a very special person in terms of the vision, the ambition, et cetera, and i can't tap into those very powerful positives with at least it appears in this case, without getting some of those undesirable behaviors that he also possesses >> very interesting. thank you so much, drew cupps. really appreciate you joining us quickly on the newsline to talk about the big news in tesla shares on the back of the tweet that did come from elan musk's account. that's what we know as of now. let's turn quickly to sue herrera. she has your cnbc headlines. hi, sue. >> hello, courtney here's what's happening at this hour, everyone at the white house national security advisor john bolton says renewed u.s. sanctions against iran are already having a negative effect on that country's economy. >> we're working with all

countries to reduce oil imports from iran to zero. we're making progress on that. we think these sanctions are biting already, and we think they will continue to bite and cause significant negative economic consequences for iran >> three more cases of the ebola virus in the kivu province having confirmed in kong yoes ae latest outbreak. it's not related to the one in kongo's northwest that was declared over on july 24th, and that means vaccinations could begin by tomorrow. a japanese medical school confessing to system actual-- s attically changing test scores for women to keep more men becoming doctors they've been manipulating the test scores from at least the year 2000. school officials apologized at a news conference earlier today. that is the news update this hour courtney, i'll send it back to you. >> whoa, that's quite a story. i can't believe that >> it's a huge story

they felt that most of the women that got in would probably get married and have children and as a result, would not be doctors for as long a period of time as men. >> that's a shame. i have some pretty awesome female doctors that's a shame >> there you go. living in a trump world. a number of companies have taken a stand on the president's policies either for or against. does it actually pay off to take a stand? interesting insights from a new report report that's coming up next. 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 from wall st. to main st.takingg hey guys, wanna play some pool? eh, i'm not really a pool guy. what's the hesitation? it's just complicated. step-by-step options trading support from td ameritrade

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so we've been waiting to see whether elan musk would kind of confirm or deny or provide more

clarity about that tweet that came from his account that we still haven't been able to verify whether that was his true intention to take it private we would say this. somebody tweeted @elan musk saying "morning can you confirm if you would retain control over the company. it wouldn't be an outright sale?" to which elan musk's verified account then tweeted back in reply, "i don't have a controlling vote now and wouldn't expect any shareholder to have one if we go private i won't be selling in either scenario." it doesn't really say whether or not he is confirming this $420 number that's being put out there per share for a take private transaction. what it does say is that he is taking about not selling in either situation we should remind viewers right now and perhaps leslie picker brought this up before, that he owns about 20%, just shy of 20% of shares outstanding in tesla in any scenario that we talk

about, guys, we'll talk about the market value and we'll talk about the total enterprise value. that is minus the cash and then put in all the other debt that's gone on with it. with that right now we currently see at around $73 billion or so in total enterprise value. whether or not that kind of sticks remains to be seen, but that's the latest on twitter it doesn't really say anything about whether or not elan musk really meant to say what he wanted to say and with that take private proposition. >> obliquely, by saying i would not expect anyone to -- including himself, to have a controlling stake, if we do or don't go private, that is kind of to me an implicit acknowledgment that he is thinking about it. >> i mean, perhaps it is i am not going to profess to know what -- >> it is not a denial. >> it is not a denial. >> we journalists say -- >> if it's not a denial -- >> and he didn't >> he did not do it. what's also curious about this too is this was in response to another tweet, so it's not like

he came out and just flat out said that this is what he wants to do. it's in response to a question from somebody else whether or not this is the stream of consciousness that elan musk wants to put out there, i mean, i don't know. i'm not sure anybody besides elan musk does know that, but what it is doing right now, as you can see, the shares up by 7% we've been kind of moving back and forth between the up 4.5%, 5% to the up 7% to 8% mark there, and that's pretty much where we've stayed throughout the duration of this financial times story with regard to saudi arabia and then the subsequent tweet stories. i'm not sure if this provides any more clarity on it like you said, it's not a flat out denial it's not just a statement of fact either from elan musk, guys >> i would also note that this is what he tends to do on twitter. he does tend to answer questions and add more details through twitter threads. it is also what he does in terms of his companies he is constantly amassing more stock, whether it is tesla or whether it is space-ex on the

private markets. he is not one to sell. he is one to tend to buy more and hold thank you for giving us that, dom chu. navigating the trump world now, many companies have weighed in on the president's policies either for or against, but does it pay off to take a stand we'll answer that after the break. but how do you work with it? ask this farmer. he's using satellite data to help increase crop yields. that's smart for the food we eat. at this port, supply chains are becoming more transparent with blockchain. that's smart for millions of shipments. in this lab, researchers are working with watson to help them find new treatments. that's smart for medicine. at this bank, the world's most encrypted mainframe is helping prevent cybercrime. that's smart for everyone. and in africa, iot sensors and the ibm cloud

are protecting endangered animals. that's smart for rhinos. yeah. rhinos. because smart only really matters, when we put it to work- not just for a few of us, but for all of us. let's put smart to work.

amazon, pfizer, "the new york times" just a few of the major companies that have been on the receiving a angry tweet or two from the commander in chief. a new report outlines the best strategy when you are in the cross hairs or have a political stance you may or may not want to take. should the companies make nice or do nothing. let's bring in jeff cartwright who conducted this survey. interesting results here americans, it seems, would prefer their companies to be less political rather than more political. >> yeah, i think you hit the nail on the head there what we see, what's confusing is we hear political rhetoric from people boycotting when people take a political stance. what we found is only 22% of americans want companies to become more political. what we see is on the key issue

that is a lot of brands are taking stands most americans would say, can you butt out for a minute. >> i assume there are issues and then there are issues. where people would look at a political stance in a more benign way in other words, we are for racial justice. >> right. >> we are for equality and those they may be less polarized by, consumers as opposed to to others taking a stance pro or against president trump. taking a stance pro or against pro choice, pro-life, things like that. >> in our study we asked about a range of issues that brands could take a stance on and the ones that are most likely a win lgbtq rights, minority rights. the things that hurt the brand are things like taking a stands on trump if you don't have to mention trump, if you don't have to get involved with trump, don't

for every person you're going to make happy you're going to alienate two. >> this is and i what your mom says if someone hits you you should hit back. >> g you don't engage with trump don't. is what the study says. >> i sat down with the harley dachds ceo last wreak and he says we are afflictle. we don't get involved because you're consumers are consumers it's their business not ours we are in the business of selling motorcycles. it's a fine line, though, right, because you see the push including the push from wall street towards more social, corporate, environmental responsibility by the companies. >> um-hum. >> so how do you balance that with not getting political. >> when you look at the correspondent social responsibility strategy our main advice from the report is keep it simple. don't overthink the good you do. when he he we asked about the range of issues the things people cared about is treating employees fairly donating to charities. bringing back american jobs. those are the issues most likely

to win favor don't overthink when you think it through. >> that actually surprised me when you say pay the employees well, treat them fairly. then you asked the consumers to basically the ten most ethical brands on the top of the lift was wal-mart, amazon and target. those companies have gotten a decent amount of flak for how they treat and pay employees. >> the way you have to think about americans think about the companies when it comes to thinking about if ethical, we asked them at the top of your mind what's ekt cal. wal-mart, amazon, give you cheaper goodes you can buy school supplies bring jobs to community. when they think about it it's not so much from the perspective of how they -- what they are doing in a public sphere it's how it impacts their life. >> when the president tweets or comments at a company directly many of the companies have taken the road of not responding taufl

and going radio silent that's the best move. >> wait it out until the attention flips is the best bet. >> where in the panoply of there are issues and then issues does gun control fall. >> right in the middle interestingly. >> if a company takes a position pro or against it. >> yes. >> what you have half the population with you and half against. >> you right. >> if for example dick's says i'm not selling assault rifles anymore. >> that's right. it's like trump if you take a stance you are going to alienate a good portion of the country. best bet to to is to step away from gun control. >> thanks for coming. >> more details on the big story of the hour, a tweet from elon musk's account saying he may take the company private and the s.e.c. weighs in does the rally have enough it territory to keep going.

>> the apple removing alex jones and infowars from the platform the big debate over censorship

i'm morgan presenten

welcome to the second hour of "power lunch." we begin with breaking news. tesla ceo elon musk considering taking tesla priefrpt at $40 and that fund something secured. he followed by saying, i don't have a controlling vote now and wouldn't expect any shareholder to have one if we go private i won't sell in either scenario. let's bring in mike and bob on the floor of the new york stock exchange to discuss. what's the sentiment on the floort of the exchange given the news today bob starting with you. >> anybody know what to make of it. >> people are puzzled and don't know what to make of it. i'll tell you the big question, was it even legal doing what he said i don't know the answer. i can tell you for sure mike knows this, the heart of the soek act of 1934 that created the sesk involved statements about market manipulation that was a big problem in the '20s. they wanted to make it clear when people were manipulating.

if he was trading around the announcement that's clearly manipulation i assume that's not happening. but even if he makes statements to effect the price of the stock that could involve questions of manipulation i'm sure the s.e.c. lawyers are looking at this right now. and that's kind of what people are wondering about. why would he make a statement. >> it was established as you said that disclosing material information by way of social media twitter or facebook has been allowed as a legal way for a corporate executive to get information out there. the question is, the trougtfulness of the information. and the intent behind it so yeah, having secured funding to me is the big number right here and beyond that, just financially, how would this potentially work if you look at all of the amount of capital you would need to take out all of the other shareholders aside from elon musk and maybe other strategic ones they have debt on the balance sheet already. and let's remember, once whatever group of investors were to maybe take this company private you still have tremendous capital demands

because the company is still investing to grow so much. building a plant in china for example is one of the wishes so so many questions about whether the market could swallow a deal like this, even if it were in process. >> but to go back to the question, even if the statement it is true everything he said assuming it's true there if this was effected for the murp epurpose of moving the stock price. he said he hates the shorts already -- that -- questions could arise about s.e.c. potential violations there that's why i'm- that's what immediately what i saw that was my question. >> we are talking about that with the next guest. former s.e.c. chairman harvey pitt but let me ask both ever you guys, our producer sandy canal asks if the deal were done involving a ton of foreign money, might cfius come into play might the president oppose it based on the idea we can't have a company strategically important electric vehicles controlled by foreign investors.

>> it's obviously an interesting question. >> it's a small investment process to 5% from saudis. >> but if the other investors were foreign big foreign players. >> actually a little bit of an irony, if in fact the administration said nope electric vehicles manufactured here is a strategic investment required for economic and national security. i do think the question would be asked, of course would it really matter a lot exactly what countries the funding is coming from the swirl of questions grows. >> we're getting into deep speculation which we just wallow. >> you love that. >> we love that. that's what we do. >> ask harvey pitt section 9 of the s.e.c. act and harvey would know dealt with market manipulation. they had a whole thing about this this is very, very well developed securities law right now. >> we will ask him now gentlemen thank you very much. on the news line former s.e.c. chairman and the ceo of.

good to have you with us bob pisani asking about section 9 we will get to that. but do you see anything problematic in elon musk saying he is considering taking the company private at $420 a share. >> i do see a few things problematic. but to just respond first going back, in 30u the s.e.c. made it clear that people could use social media to disclose significant information in 2013 about their companies. but they had a caveat, which is people had to know where to look so that's point number one that his mere statement about something on social media is not per se a violation of s.e.c. rules. but could be a violation of s.e.c. rules, just as was

suggested, is if it is designed to boost the market price of the stock. musk has complained about the market price he has complained about shorts and he got a quick bump of about 5% to 8% on the price of the stock. if his comments were issued for the purpose of moving the price of the stock, that could be manipulation it could also be securities fraud. the use of the specific price for a potential going private transaction is highly unprecedented. and therefore raises significant questions about what his intent was. so that would have to be investigated. >> so it's not the medium. it's the motive important here how would you ever -- if you were at the s.e.c. or the justice department and wanted to investigate this, how would you go about doing that? and i use the term prosecute

advisedly here how would you try and prove that price manipulation was the motive >> well, the first thing, of course, you would do is get all of the internal communications, communications that he had with other directors, with senior officers, with lenders, with the source of the funding. he is claiming there is a specific source of the funding so that had better be true he has also claimed there is a specific amount available for funding. that has to be true. otherwise, even if it's not manipulation it would be fraud so he's got two potential areas of difficulty right there. and one would look at all of the communications that led up to this tweet is there any basis for what he said are there any indications of a difficulty it should also be noted that i believe in 2017 he had

previously suggested he was thinking of going private. >> as morgan brennan pointed out. you're exactly right morgan brennan pointed this out earlier today. it was in a rolling stone article. finish your thought, harvey. >> that would cut, against in some respects the needed intent in order to prove manipulation, the government has to show specific intent to influence the price of the stock and manipulation cases have traditionally been very, very hard but fraud cases are subject to a lesser standard. and this might constitute fraud if any of the facts he disclosed were not true, or if there was an indication that he was just floating this out to have an influence on the market price. >> harvey, stay with us we want to get to dominic chu for breaking news. elon musk tweeting again dom. >> all right so he has been

responding to other people via tweet after the initial tweet about a possible take private transaction at $420 a share. this latest one was in response to a tweet from someone who said that they feel like they would miss out on the upside for those investors who have been around a while to which elon musk tweeted back as you can see there. my hope is all current investors remain with tesla even if we're private. even if we're private. would create special purpose fund enabling anyone to stay with tesla, already do thisfy delts. s spacex investment. so maybe to tyler's point prior, this idea that he is maybe not denying but perhaps even more so hinting at this idea that is now coming out we should say right now that tesla shares are halted as of this moment for news pending so tesla may be looking to make some kind of a statement here. but again a trading halt right

now. that's the latest on the tesla shares as you can see halted right now at $367.25 as this comes to fruition with the news coming out. we bring you more updates but that's the latest developments shares halted for a formal news pending announcement back to you. >> let's go back to harvey pitt and get your reaction, mr. chairman, to what we just heard there. mr. musk tweeting yet again about the idea of going private and saying he might create a special purpose fund so that any investor who was in tesla now could stay in in a company that was no longer publicly traded. so it looks like he is doing a lot of thinking about this. >> it does and it looks like he is issuing this in drips and drabs, which is of course contrary to the whole point of the securities laws the point of the securities laws is to give investors and

potential investors a complete picture at the moment of where a company's headed and what it is intending to do. having this drip and drab out is really contrary to the whole principle and philosophy of the securities laws. but, again, it does not necessarily constitute a specific violation of any commission rules or regulations. that would depend on the other facts we discussed earlier. >> but mr. pitt, does it at all concern with you with the language he uses, if we go private, i am considering going private. i mean, does that count as significant news that sort of oh, maybe we will do this thing. and clearly the stock is really responding is that a danger zone? >> it is because the commission has cautioned folks to state

things in the here and now and not in the conditional blue perfect as it might be the commission has cautioned broker dealers, investment advisers, all market professionals, state what the facts are now. if you are saying something could or should or would happen, that is not as helpful to investors as saying here is what's really going on right now. and that's why this process of having the ceo tweet out in drips and drabs these things is very confusing for the marketplace. >> right mr. pitt thank you so much for your time. you have enlightened us a great deal on the ins and outs of this situation. we really appreciate it. >> my pleasure >> and we should point out that tesla has been halted as you see there for news pending we don't know what the pending news is, whether a statement from tesla, right? we're not sure about that.

certainly could be that. but the stock is up 7.33%. where it sits now holding. we will get a analyst take on tesla's future next after this short break. ♪ it is such a good time to kiss ♪ ♪ it is such a good time to dance ♪ ♪ it is such a good time to [ laughing ] ♪ scoobidoo doobidoo ♪ scoobidoo doobidoo [ goose honking ] ♪

[ laughing ] a bad day on the road still beats a good one off it. ♪ progressive helps keep you out there.

welcome back to power lunch. elon musk tweeting he is considering taking the company private, that company being tesla. what does this mean for tesla stock? and what would they need to do

to be able to go private joining us on the phone is colin rusch. i'm afraid your day got busy i hope you didn't have plans what do you make of the tweets stleeft what we know so far. we want to remind everyone the sfok is currently halted shares of tesla. >> well we need a lot more information about some important details. first, the idea of a special purpose vehicle where shareholders could stay in would dramatically change the number of bidders to fund a go private transaction. because you just need a sfiftly smaller amount of capital. looking at the potential cfius issues, if it's a foreign entity would certainly raise flags and given the penchant for the current administration to participate in public dialogue around critical technologies, won be surprised to see that be raised as an issue and part of this just given you

know musk's willingness to be in the public realm and share you know some of his thought process, you know, i think he potentially just wants people to know this is an option for him whether they are serious about it or not. you know, there is questions around how to retire debt. he is talking about wanting to retire the debt with existing cash flow, saying they are going to be cash flow positive i think we're just looking for a lot of information trying to put the puzzle together at this point. but there is -- there do seem to be avenues to do this sort of transaction should the balance sheet from the potential group of investors to take this private, you know, come together. >> so we are still waiting a lot of details again to remind everyone we haven't heard officially from tesla the company. one specific detail he provided in the first tweet was the price, $420 a share. some thought that was a bit of a strange number kind of a fine point to put on this potential consideration of a purchase the number itself of course raising some questions

do you think that there is any trolling involved here do you truly think this is a number he figured out did the back of the envelope math and figured that is the right price. >> there is some email traffic, a price floated in by email. i would shock to to see shem speculate in such detail if there wasn't evidence to support the statement. whether the intent in which you were talking about earlier with the s.e.c. official, is there to manipulate the market or really consider that deal is going to be very hard to get to the bottom of. but this is a -- a strange situation for sure you know, and it's just hard to know without more detail about what they're considering, how serious they would be. but certainly it seems to me that elon has a love/hate relationship with both the media and with the analyst community and the public discourse and it seems like he would like

to be able to go about his business but he also seems very -- very attracted to the a attention he gets as part of the process. >> colin i need you to hang on because i think we need your reaction dom kmu is at the breaking news desk with more. >> by more what we have are two more tweets from elon musk in this drip and drab thing you heard harvey pitt, the former commissioner talk about. what we have a tweet from muvg saying shareholders could sell at that 420 level that you guys mentioned before or hold shares and go private in response to another question on twitter, where a user said interesting and would you like to stay ceo if this goes through question mark. elon musk applied from the verified account saying no change, implying he wants to stay ceo of the privately held company, hypothetically if this thing were real and come to fruition two more tweets in addition to what's happened.

we are still like you said waiting for news from tesla right now. shares halted at $367.259, up nearly 7.5% was the last trade at 2:08 "p" eastern time no shares trading since then that's the latest and we will bring you more. >> it feels more and more like a non-confirm confirm. >> it does to your point you beirut this up about a half hour ago, he hasn't flat out denied anything what's curious is whether they make any kind of definitive statement backing the tweets or maybe clouding things more we don't know that we don't know what the news pen something. when it comes out, the hope for a lot of investors out there, whether long or short is that there will be more clarity brought. but those musk tweets right now have innuendo like you said, a non-denial denial is pretty much what we have so far. whether or not he comes out and flatly says we want to do this or whether the company says it

itself remains to be seen, folks. >> thank you very much. >> sure. >> shall we get back to colin rusch. i had a question for you, colin. because i'm a ludite on the correspondent finance structural stuff. there has been a lot of talk over the years that tesla might need to raise more capital is it easier to raise capital as a private company or public company? >> i think it depends on the business and who is involved you know, certainly, you know elon private investment have been able to access a fair amount of capital. i don't think access to capital is an issue for him or his companies at this point. certainly we know plenty of -- plen of folks that would participate in a public raise and certainly what they've been able to do with spacex and private entities i would imagine there is additional capital. >> that's a musk factor. that's the musk factor at play there, right >> i believe that's true and then the question really is how do you get your money out of

those -- those investments when you want to. and it's far more complicated in a private entity than a public entity especially for small you are investors. it's hard to tell how much money would stay in, how many of the institutions that have mandates to be invested in public -- in liquid entities how many would stay in with their positions and what the real check would need to be to complete the transaction. >> fascinating story, today colin. thank you for helping us understand it. we have a ton of news on tesla in the past few minutes. shares halted right now have been for some time ntre e occongk mi upext. take prilosec otc and take control of heartburn. so you don't have to stash antacids here...

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welcome back to "power lunch. it's time for trading nation pl tesla shares halted as ceo elon musk considers taking the company private. airy i said is wrong there. forgive me we got a lot going on here with tesla. what do you make of it how do you trade it or do you touch it. >> you guys just had or analyst. he upgraded the stock last we

can. the most positive thing i would say is i wouldn't bet against that view. essentially in the charts the stock is trendless, trading in a wide range between $2509 to $390 that's the chart i brought i guess on the one hand i'm open for the breakout but want to be conscious that the ranging with be headaches 2014 to 2016 the stock traded for a wide range for almost three years. charts are neutral. >> bill, it seems you have to be in for a ride if you are getting onboard with this stock. what do you make of the moves today and how that sets up for the future if this is something you decide you want to play in. >> fundamentally speaking this is a skplikted scenario. i hope he has the funding if he is going down this route in announcing it. but i have to look at it technically. technically speaking i see a bull flag we had a move about last year late last year and it's been consolidating. i think the move is ultimately

bullish. if this can get above $who 0 there is upside. 500 to 50. i would protect any puts for the long position. but i do see a trend and going higher >> well it is higher aflt halted shares of tesla higher by 7.3% as elon musk says he considers taking it private for $420 we appreciate your thoughts. for more trading nation follow us on twitter. >> it's not surprising that he announced this vyeio social media. but more ahead on that. >> announcer: and now the latest from trading nation.cnbc.com and a sword from our sponsor. >> traders shouldn't lit politics affect trading.

instead look to the price trend and build the exit strategy based on where and when the present conditions may change. this will help keep uryo biases at bay as the markets react differently than we might expect lunch" everybody

i'm sue herera here is the cnbc news update. the israeli military says it targeted a hamas military post in northern gaza after militants there opened fire. hamas says two fighters were killed the clash took place before midday amid egyptian efforts to broker a cease fire between the two. the ntsb is issuing a preliminary report on the missouri duck boat sinking that killed 17 people it says it is reviewing cell phones and a camera and recording device found on the boat as part of its investigation. in utah, the hill top fire burned roughly 1,000 acres and forced the evacuation of more than 100 homes the fire igniting monday and more evacuations are expected. and kenya and tanzania

marking the 20th anniversary of the bombings of u.s. embassies in nairobi and dara. and killed more than 250 and injured more than 5,000. the u.s. ambassador laying a wreath at the memorial wall where the victim names are engraved. that's the news update this hour back to you guys courtney. >> thank you very much, sue appreciate it. a lot of news on tesla it's been tweet after tweet from ee lyn musk about taking the company private. dom chu is here giving a time line of events keeping it in track for us. >> i am. i'm scratching my head right now. by my count right now folks there is about nine tweets and/ and/or applies coming out from ceo elon musk what's happening with this initial one. let's take you through a cliffs notes version of the time line first of all at 12:48 p.m. eastern time, the first tweet

that set this in motion came out. am considering taking tesla private at $420. funding secured, which set off a storm of speculation about what he really meant and whether there was a real tweet or not. a couple of others later at 1:40 in response to tweet from another user out there, saying i don't have a controlling vote now and i won't expect any shareholder to have one if we go private. i won't be selling in either scenario in response to a whether or not there would be a change of control, you know whether or not he would give it up. another response at 2:00 p.m. eastern time in response to a question about whether or not current investors could stay with tesla as a private investor, my hope is that all current investors says musk remain with tesla even if private. would create special purpose fund enabling anyone to stay with tesla we already do this withfy delts spacex investment. then in another response, at 2:07 p.m. eastern time absolutely i'm superappreciative

of tesla shareholders will ensure the prosperity in any scenario in response to a question about whether or not retail investors could benefit from the longer term prospect for tesla in a private situation. i will then note at 2:08 p.m. eastern time trading was halted by tesla per their request for news pending then at 2:13 p.m. he responds again to another tweet, saying shareholders could either sell at $420 or hold shares and go private. seemingly this progression as tyler mentioned before indicates that elon musk is perhaps serious about this whole situation about a take private transaction. there's been no outright clarity or statement that he would go ahead and do it. we are waiting for that in the press release or announcement that comes from tesla. but that string of nine tweets seems to indicate in some sort of deliberate fashion that perhaps elon musk from his verified account is being serious about this it remains to be seen what, guys, they say in the actual

news pending announcement. 2:08 p.m. eastern time the last time they traded shares. >> thank you, dom very much. is what elon musk saying on social media irresponsible joining us on the news line is jeff sonnenfeld, from the jail school of business he is also a cnbc contributor. what say you, jeff is musk acting responsibly or a little less than that? >> tyler, you know he is acting responsibly if your peer group is britney spears that's fine. as a 19-year-old pop star in 2000 she came out with oops, i did it again and that's what he is doing. if he were serious about this -- okay, maybe he is because a little summary you guys gave in terms of the eight tweets following from the earlier one in the last few minutes. it's something like he is putting on the image of this being serious. but nobody looking at

privatization dangles this way and does this sort of teasing dance of choreography. somebody only does this when they are trying to distract with a shiny new thing. who does that sound like. >> it's a brave new world, whether in politics or business it would appear in how you communicate to various constituencies and twitter obviously has become a -- a focal point of that do you suspect that mr. -- i almost said mr. trump -- mr. musk has spoken to his bored about all of this tweeting that he has been doing today? and what if he hasn't. >> good for you, tyler for making the giant leap. i never brought up the president's name i alluded to it. you exactly got it. >> wasn't hard. >> if you go from britney spears to donald trump. i have a piece coming out in chief executive magazine saying you are what you tweet it's a good thing to blurt out what's in the mind we know that somebody uses the

tweets not for serious negotiation but more distraction as the shiny new thing he has operational problems. the gigafactory is strange to show they come out with 5,000 cars a week as they managed so squeak out in june is this sustainable. >> i take your point. >> financial governance, staffing lost 50 key people. he can't afford the new factory he wants to build. this is a distracting strategy, like attacking the press. >> i take your point, that tweets can be like chaff that the bomber sends out the back of the plane to attract the shots but it can also be a way to do foreign policy or corporate policy. >> it's a narrative. >> and create the narrative. it's not merely a distraction in some cases, right? i mean. >> we have yet to see -- you name your foreign policy deal? did we come out with a new

agreement with iran? did we actually resolve stop the nuclear missile building in north korea? is that maybe this all will work out and there will be a method to the madness but right now we have seen strategic smoke screens created much the way we used to see the serial acquires of another era try to hide what's going on by stapling together a lot of companies. creating a strategic blur and smoke screen doesn't solve problems it tries to get the pressure off. this is a guy like mark zuckerberg who has gotten ee normszly wealth off others money and chafes at being accountable. with they don't like the loss of the culture they had as a private company as a public company enormously welt with others money they don't want to be accountable the skroutny ises sometimes what they resent and that's whaegs going on here. >> jeff isn't that the other side of the coin that you hit on, whether this is an unusual way or unorthodox way of doing

it, if this is elon musk taking tesla private, if it is a private company doesn't it have less pressure on the shoulders to execute on the challenges you laid out. >> he painted himself into a corner you are right if he is not serious how in the world does he not -- how toes he get out of this right now? well -- or you know the greeks would call it the hero is now stuck. and we need golden charities to come down and save him he will invent that. he is clever there will be some reason why -- who has this $80 billion cash sitting around to do this buyout or some way would i is a about 70 i think it's closer to 80 the "journal" says 70. at a $$420 a share stake that's hard to imagine there will be some reason why it doesn't go tlp why we'll all be better off that he doesn't do the buyout. >> i'm stuck on the point when you said earlier if he is serious. maybe he is serious.

maybe he wants to take the company private as morgan pointed out he said that before he would like to take it private it might be easier for him to do what he wants to do. but wanting to do it and then actually doing it or having the means to do it are two different things but he has put it out there now. the stock is halted we've been talking about it for an hour and a half which goes back to the point we started with is it responsible. you may serious but should you be saying this if it's not actually happening >> yeah, if it was really going to happen, you wouldn't see him tantalizing it this way. that if it was going to happen you know where is the money? where is the deal? you know, this is quite a bit more, you know, than a $24 billion -- or -- almost $25 billion buyback by michael dell. now michael dell had enormously deep pockets and yet that still wasn't

enough it took silver lake. dell's privatization was impressive but for this to be four times that, it's really hard to see. and that was of course not somebody playing games dangling this as a tweet. michael dell was serious he was trying to shop that everywhere before he put the deal himself carl icahn he is going to splinter the company to pay down the debt michael dell took to blackstone, everywhere ultimately he had the best deal. but 24, $25 billion is a lot less than 80. >> all right, jeff thank you very much. appreciate it. >> thank you >> i will note there is a trillion dollar mountain of private equity cash sitting out there looking to be deployed we have seen reports on this recently up next, a tesla shareholder weighs in on the musk tweets about taking tesla private the stock is halted right now.

it did a halt at 7% gains. we areaingn ws wti one from the company. "power lunch" back in two. you always pay your insurance on time. tap one little bumper an rates. what good is your insurance if you get punished for using it? news flash: nobody's perfect. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. switch and you could save $782 on home and auto insurance. call for a free quote today. liberty mutual insurance. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ with tripadvisor, finding your perfect hotel at the lowest price... is as easy as dates, deals, done!

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tesla shares remain halted for the last 30 minutes after a series of tweets from elon musk that he may take the company private. with us is ross gerber president and ceo of gesh he shall kwau sackky ross what did tesla tell you is this actually happening? >> well, they didn't confirm if it was happening or not. they confirmed what elon was tweeting was really elon and they will probably have a formal release soon so, you know, we were just concerned that maybe the chinese had hacked into his email or something like that. they confirmed this is legit and it's not surprising for many reasons of course. >> because >> because of the difficulty they've had on wall street tesla has been an embattled stock for the last six months. and you know, certainly with his experience with spacex as a private company and not having

to deal with the constant barrage of criticisms and attacks, i mean this seems like a very attractive option for him. >> and he did of course send out a tweet warning the shorts >> yeah, i mean, this guy has been telling these people that it's been a bad idea and that's very kind of him to do that. because you know, i have always felt that there are so much capital in the world, especially among the sovereign welt fronts and stuff that really believe in the mission of tesla and to give them an edge in the technology that tesla is developing so the saudi arabian investment is a perfect kpafrmt of the type of divestiture of oil investment like aramco to buy a asset like tesla. so $2 billion is like a day's work you know so there is plenty of capital for them to be taken private. >> morgan brennan long time no

speak since we were on earlier today with a different topic but you hit the nail on the head in terms of plenty of capital. we have seen that play out with his other company. spacex the 420 number, what do you make of that and if the company is moving to go private are you holding or are are you going to sell. >> yeah, well i think that elon is an opportunityist i think 420 is awful cheap for this company we value it at $571 a share. about $100 billion valuation we have no intention of selling it at 420 in any way this is a steal if for elon if he is able to take out shareholders at that price and certainly you know we have no intention of selling our shares >> you know, one of the key things that i think maybe doesn't get talked about enough ross is the rise of trading platforms for the secondary markets whether equity, whether second market, whether it's nasdaq, even has an offering in some ways, i can see this is

even more attractive for many of these. and we see it with the big tech companies maybe not going public as soon as has been expected, that they're still -- they're now more liquid opportunities in terms of investors on these private markets. how does that play into this >> i think you're dead right with what you are talking about. you know, give me a reason to go public you know, my company is privately held we could try to go public. in the hold days small businesses used to try to go public and raise capital but it's just a nightmare of litigation, accounting fees, exchange fees. costing millions to be a public company and the criticism and the short sellers and the nightmare. if there is any reason to go public it seems to have been diminished over the last several years when there is such a huge liquid private market. and it is. it's a huge liquid private

market right now and many, many of the greatest companies in the world are private. >> ross, great to get your thoughts ross gerber, an investor in tesla. >> very interesting. very interesting several charts we put on at the end of his. >> yeah. >> segment there one year, the stock is basically flat five years, the stock is about 20 oh% about triple there is five years up 173%. go back and show the one year and year to date there is one year 3% show us year to date show us. survey says 18%. so it's had its challenges >> it has. >> but it has been a stock to own the last five years. >> hard to figure out the pattern as eric was explaining in trading nation. >> what industry watchers are saying about musk's tweets about taking tesla private we'll speak with one of them that would be paul ingrasia, will weigh in next

more on our top and breaking story, that is tesla's ceo elon musk tweeting that he is considering taking the company he founded private the stock is halted right now, news pending

we don't know whether that's going to be a statement from tesla or something else. we assume it's a statement from tesla, but that's my assumption. you know what assuming can do. paul, good to see you. >> hi, how are you >> i'm fantastic, thank you. what do you make of this, and does the make sense? and does it make sense he would announce these intentions if intentions they are via twitter. >> well, it's certainly unorthodox but everything elon musk has done with this company from the beginning has been unorthodox. and the stock obviously traded up on the news before the trading hall, i think it's hard to back off now. so then the question becomes is the $420 price the right price, and i think basically the investment community is probably going to want to hold out for more on this just given frankly the lofty expect eggs of this company that

have been created ironically in part by elon musk himself. >> certainly our last guest said he had a price target, he owns the shares and had a price target well up in the 5s on this stock. >> look, the price hit i guess 3 and 5 last september this would be 10% above the 85 we dipped down back in april so it's a volatile stock it makes sense in a couple of ways for elon and that is he doesn't like regulators. he doesn't like analysts he doesn't really like facing the media, and those are all things you have to do in spades when you're a public company the regulators are still going to be there -- >> you mean to tell me, paul, calling an analyst out for asking boring bone headed questions, it means he doesn't like analysts? >> well, he did apologize.

>> he did apologize, that's true but it's clearly a hairball to him to deal with all he has to deal with in the public markets. >> yeah. the other thing i think is interesting about this company -- first of all, they've been incredibly innovative one of the remarkable things to me is they're having so much trouble still meeting production goals without -- they're meeting them but it's a lot of work to put it mildly. and electric cars one of the big advantages over internal combustion engines is they're far simpler to build with fewer components it's interesting a lot of companies are starting to get into this in a big way, jaguar, bmw, et cetera, et cetera but tesla is the big name here and people want teslas >> does that play into the potential to go private here, the fact he can be more secretive in terms of

production, technology et cetera since the market is getting more competitive? >> that's one of the advantages. he has to communicate less with wall street and with the news media. you know, at some point i think you're going to want to communicate with the public in some way, but you can -- >> you can do it on twitter. >> he does that all the time through twitter. yeah, right. we witnessed it today. >> so what do you expect is next here in other words, he's issued a flurry of tweets, some in response to questions. none of which have knocked down the idea that he's actively considering this how far along do you think he is in this thinking, and do you think he has his board along with him he must. >> he's had his board along with him for everything so far. look, having said this in public communication with the investing public i think it's hard to back off now.

so i think the next thing that's going to happen is a fight over the price. >> paul, thank you you're in a nice place there down in florida, i know. "power lunch" back in two.

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so check please is going to be about tesla, and one of the checks is that mr. musk has just checked off a box. he has grown $850 million richer

according to our robert frank, just since he made the tweet about a little after noon today to the point of which the stock is halted there. $851 million richer because of the price increase tweet >> i'm stock on what the former commissioner said saying, look, he could be guilty of fraud if the facts aren't true that funding isn't secure i thought it was very interesting that mr. pitt laid out this is what the sec says. >> stocks have been halted almost an hour as we've discussed earlier in the show usually when see something incorrect or not true tesla tends to be very fast to respond. in this particular case haven't necessarily gotten a response yet. i just wonder whether musk got ahead of his team in terms of putting that news out there.

>> and who does that remind you of, by the way, with twitter we're waiting for news pending we don't know exactly what that news is, but we should point out that none of the subsequent tweets from mr. musk has poured water on his earlier tweet that c thanks for watching, everybody >> "closing bell" starts right now. it is the 7th of august and it's time for "the closing bell." tesla's ceo elon musk suggesting he wants to take his company private. could that really happen we'll discuss coming up. activist and investor car icon comes out swinging against the cign groups. disney and snap will report earnings in about an hour. i'll tell you the key numbers to watch.