when was leaked to the toronto star, by whom we don't know, did represent how he completely feels. >> we'll see what happens at 4:30 as of now the markets a little changed on the back of that headline, the 4:30 press conference >> have a great long weekend and you too at home. >> "closing bell" starts right now. it is time for "the closing bell." i'm sara eisen at the new york stock exchange coca-cola, i'll give you the full details on coke's latest acquisition coming up. it's the final trading hour of the month equities are seeing record inflows according to bank of america. where are investors putting their money? i'll have the details. president trump may be ready to move ahead with a new round of tariffs on china. how much impact will it have on

the u.s. economy and the sec chair says he wants to get more members of the public investing in private companies but could that pea a dangerous move we'll discuss as "the closing bell" starts right now good afternoon happy friday welcome to "the closing bell." we're going to get to all those stories in just a moment coke and costa >> a perfect brend here of our interests. >> british consumer goods, coffee which is needed on a friday afternoon, all that and much more to come. but first let's check in on the markets. the dow and s&p on pace to post their best since august. >> nasdaq winner today of the big three, also the biggest winner of the month on pace to post its best august since 2000. investors are going to be waiting to see whether the u.s.

can reach a trade deal with canada in washington with the latest. so we know there's going to be an announcement, but where guess we don't know what it's going to be >> at this moment reuters is reporting a canadian official is telling them that the u.s.-canada trade talks are now concluded. we also know there's this 4:30 press conference on the canadian side that's been scheduled by cristia freeland no word from the white house confirming that canadian report that the talks have now ended. but it all comes as we know just a few moments after the president tweeted about this intrigue surrounding the off-the-record comments he made to bloomberg news in an interview yesterday that were somehow leaked to a canad y newspaper. he said, wow, i made off-the-record comments to bloomberg concerning canada and this powerful understanding was

blatantly violated more dishonest reporting, i'm used to it, at least canada knows where i stand. the president confirming these were in fact his words to bloomberg. what did he say that's at the heart of this mini controversy this afternoon well he apparently told bloomberg reporters he was offering no concessions whatsoever to the canadian side. but he could only say that off-the-record he couldn't say it publicly. the idea there the president was telling bloomberg behind the scenes he wasn't going to offer anything at all to the canadians in terms of concessions, but he didn't want to say that publicly because he didn't want to embarrass the canadians to a point where they couldn't get to a deal before all of this intrigue, all of the signs were that we were heading to a deal. all of the signs were saying positive things about the conversations that were going on

behind closed doors. now, though, the tone has shifted throughout the afternoon a little bit all of these intrigue throwing a giant question mark what was already a dramatic deadline day. and we'll find out at 4:30 or shortly before then what's happening there. >> we're about to listen to the president now. he's about to sign an executive order in north carolina around retirement security. >> and also the spectacular small business owners that are here today many of those small business owners, a man who was a small business owner became a very big business, a great business and we have some of them here today. i know some of them, and congratulations. i want to wish everyone a very, very happy labor day and labor day weekend. have a good time i assume right after this you're just going to scoot, right, whenever you're going to go. stay in north carolina it's a great place you don't have to go

but i'm thrilled to be back in charlotte, and the fact is that it's a very special place, so special that we chose it for the 2020 republican national convention and we had a lot of places that want it, a lot of places want those things where so many people come in and spend their money. but charlotte's been a great place for us, and i actually have investments in charlotte. they'll say oh, there's a conflict of interest the fake news, oh, there's a cop flict. trump national, and it's a very big success, so lake norman, beautiful. largest man made lake in the world by far, right? the electric company had it been more than man made in just a few minutes i'll sign

an executive order to extend the incredible benefits of the retirement savings account, such a big thing, to american workers employed at small businesses all across our nation. as we head into labor dayure nation pays its gratitude to the hardworking men and women to make our country run and i'm going to be doing a bit of work over the weekend i'm going to be studying about those workers in washington you read so much about i said i'm going to study that over the weekend, a good time to study it, labor day. but a lot of people were against it i'm going to take a good hard look over the weekend. today's historic action will provide new retirement security to countless americans and their families we believe all americans should be able to retire with the confidence, dignity and economic security that you want we're going to make sure you do that, provide you get out there and you work a little bit, right?

we want to do that i especially want to thank the secretary of labor who's done an incredible job, by the way, alex acosta alex, great job. and small business -- i always say small business, but it's actually a massive, massive job that she does. it's incredible the size of it, but it's called small business administrator libda mcman for helping to lead this important effort and linda has been a real star thank you, linda, incredible job. we're also grateful to be joined by several fantastic members of congress they helped me and them and you and everybody with the largest tax cuts this country has ever seen and the cutting of regulation you know, as small business

owners, the cutting of regulation, i have friends that say we've cut more regulation in less than two years than any administration no longer how long it was has cut during their entire administration. and we're not finished we're not finished but i've had many business people say that's important even than the tax cuts. i don't want to knock our tax cuts because people love our tax cuts, but the cutting of regulations in many ways must be be important or even more important. i want to thank our incredible people they're working hard, and we're working against a tide of blue and the tide of blue, you know, they want to have open borders, they don't mind crime, they don't take care of our military, they don't care of our vets. we're taking great care of our vets we're doing for our vets choice

accountability how about after 48 years veterans now can go and if they have a long wait they say bye-bye i'm going to see the doctor next time and we pay for the bill and actually we're going to save a lot of money, but they're going to be taken care of. you know, we had vets that used to wait in line for seven days, 30 days, i've heard up to 38 days they go in, they're not feeling good and they -- but it's simple to get them okay, but then they can't see the doctor for so long they end up being terminal not going to happen anymore. so we've got that and now accountability we look at the vets and very gently say you're fired, get out. and these guys, these folks did it so i want to thank ted bud ted, incredible. and i have to tell you he loves you people i want to tell you that. we know that that is true, isn't it, ted,

huh? we have to give a little special acknowledgment to you, ted you've got a lot of friends you better believe it. virginia fox, she has been my friend from the beginning. right from the beginning richards hudson. richard, great job you're doing a great job i can't tell you how much they help me get this stuff done. we have make america great again. very soon it's going to morph into keep america great, exclamation point. when they say it without the exclamation point they say what is wrong with you? because it is, we are exclaiming but it's keep america great. but we're really at a point, we picked up $10 trillion in worth since the election we have more people working today than at any time in the

history of our country think of that. to me that's a stat that's just -- in other words, more people are working right now than -- do you think that that's a line the democrats are going to have a hard time with, don't you think? let's see, we have the highest stock market in history, 401ks have broken the highest in the history of the 401k world in terms of percentages up. i have friends who have 401ks and their wives think they're investment geniuses. we'll walk outside and i love the law enforcement so i always take pictures when i'm finished and one comes up, good-looking guy, and he says my wife always thought i was a financial loser,

and i have a 401k, and sir, i'm up 49% this year she thinks i'm a business genius all right. and i'll tell you what, i think it's going to be really hard for open border crime infested democrats to win that guy's vote maybe i'm wrong, but we're not wrong too often, are we? so i have another friend of mine who's been incredible. he has the single greatest name in all of politics his name is patrick mchenry, and congressman -- he's a powerful congressman, and i said if i was born with your name, patrick, i would have been president 20 years ago. in other words, i'd be retired right now.

but he's been great. and mark meadows and joe wilson. mark and joe we don't have to worry about mark and joe they're up very high in this world. i guess, mark, you're only up about -- i won't even is say it's almost embarrassing i saw poll numbers for mark meadows. i wouldn't give him too much money, okay? mark meadows is not going to lose his race. in life i won't guarantee anything, but i'll guarantee mark is going to do just fine. thank you. and dep, where's your wife she's here she's incredible thank you. they drove 3 1/2 hours to be here also a special thank you to north carolina's very talented, everyone's talking about them,

they're all talking about them, and i have a feeling he has his mind made up he's going to be going for a different position, slightly higher in two years, dan farves, your lieutenant governor he's a great guy great guy. you see, dan, with all of that -- >> president trump is in north carolina today he's there actually about to sign an executive order directing the treasury and the labor department to look at changing regulations and processes around helping americans and small business save more for retirement, stash more money away, save it for longer we're going to continue to monitor the president's remarks, review any headlines especially as they relate to trade, which investors are focused on let's get back to eamon javers for more on that story we're waiting a news conference

from the canadian foreign minister the last time we heard from her was during the 11:00 a.m. hour she said we're not there yet is there any reason to think given some of these bombshell off-the-record leaks we've gotten, really a sort of negative attitude from the americans towards the canadians that anything is going to be different come 4:30? >> well, sara, i think we'll go sooner than 4:30 i was just on the phone with an official, and i can tell you that the white house has no ability to confirm that the talks have now ended with the canadians. but i do expect that we may get a statement from the white house or some kind of comment here at some point shortly so the question is what is the white house going to say, are those talks in fact over, why have they ended, do we have a no deal situation earlier in the afternoon my sense of this was that, you know, some of the in your face rhetoric has been so intense between the united states and

canada over the past several week and months that this blip this afternoon would not necessarily disrupt these talks. but you do get the feel now that maybe the dynamic is shifting a little bit, and we're going to have to wait and see in which way it's shifting and what that means for negotiations but this is an unusual situation. off-the-record comments getting leaked by somebody to the canadian newspaper not clear who did that or why. but you had some independent operator out there who had access to these comments, and you have to assume wanted to vim pact on these negotiation. was it someone in canada who wanted political cover for the canadians to back away, someone in america who didn't want a trade agreement 2.0. that's unknown at this point but there's somebody with access to this tape or transcript who went out of their way for this to become public that's at the core of this

and the unknown is how that effects negotiations obviously billions and billions of dollars at stake here in international trade this afternoon. >> is this it low point, that leaking of those off-the-record comments, between the two this week >> this week, certainly. but, look, the president has called justin trudeau dishonest and weak clearly the irony here is that what the president was actually saying in that off-the-record comment was that he felt he was giving the canadians no concessions, but didn't want to be seen publicly saying that because he didn't want to publicly shame the cuthanadians so in a diplomatic sense he was trying to be diplomatic, but we'll see how the canadian side took them and if they responded

with some concessions or if these are broken up in the end >> wasn't this just a deadline that was imposed by the united states to try to get it into time frame with the current mexican president and with the current congress what would happen if canada did walk away at this point? >> well, the president addressed this, ironically in the on the record portion of the bloomberg news yesterday he said if we don't get it by friday, he said we'll get it to a period of time, the president suggesting friday could come and go but ultimately canada is going to come to the table and we'll get a deal at some point you're right, the idea was that the new mexican administration comes in december 1st. so backing up from that today would be the last day you could complete the agreement -- >> old on, we're going to go

back to the president. just listen in here. >> tremendous trade barriers and they have tremendous barriers. dairy products are almost 300% tariffs. we love canada, i do, too. i even love your national anthem it's called very appropriately oh, canada would you like me to sing it but -- but they have taken advantage of us, as has virtually every country in the world. in fact, when they haven't i say what's wrong with you? but i can't find any, so i haven't been able to say that. but i gave a totally off-the-record, you saw it, it said off-the-record. and i said something strong, but it's my belief and they violated it and they said they violated it it's unbelievable what's happening with the fake news it's unbelievable. when you say off-the-record, that's a very -- it's not a

legal term, but it's a term of honor. so when i say off-the-record, here's the story in order to really save time, i don't want to waste a lot of time and then they say, they actually printed my off-the-record. they said president trump said off-the-record, and then they go onto this. i said this is first, these are very dishonorable people but i said in the end it's okay because at least canada knows how i feel, so it's fine it's fine. it's true. it just happened it just happened as i came off the plane, i said that's impossible -- no, they didn't do that they would have been better off if they left the off-the-record. usually what they'll do is they will leave the off record and say oh, i thought it was on the record to explain more about how our plan will work, i'd like to invite -- really he's become a friend of mine but much more importantly the secretary of labor alex acosta and small business administrator linda

mcman. come up and say a few words exactly what this represents and what it means. >> mr. president, thank you. >> eamon, let's go back to you for some reaction on those comments clearly focusing on back to those off-the-record breaking the term of honor as he called it >> a couple of thoughts on this. one is the president is throwing bloomberg news under it bus in those off-the-record comments. we don't know who leaked these comments there are a lot of people who would have presumably had those transcripts or copies of that tape we certainly don't know if it was somebody inside bloomberg news, and the president's right off-the-record is a term of honor. it is an agreement between a source and a journalist that the comment is made in privacy it means that the journalist

can't repeat the comment but the journalist can then take that information and go dig further to find out whether they can find another source that can confirm it but generally reporters like myself and our colleagues at bloomberg honored that to the point of being willing to go to prison in order to protect those sources. it's a very serious thing in our profession, and we saw the president there suggesting that bloomberg did not in fact honor that we just don't know if that's the case >> he also got that part of the story wrong, eamon he said they printed those comments and said it was off-the-record it was actually leaked to the toronto star that printed the comments to bloomberg given off-the-record >> and he might be talking to the toronto newspaper if another entity, another

journalist who is not a party to that agreement obtains a document, a transcript a tape or something that journalist is under no obligation toprotect that information that journalist can go ahead and print it under the rules of our profession, the way we operate that's a promise i make to you as a source. if somebody else findsute about your comments, you don't have a agreement with them, they can print it the toronto newspaper had no obligation to keep this quiet in any way. >> if we had got him to sing the canadian national anthem there, that would have been something >> let's take a closer look, though, how important canad yan trade is to the u.s. economy steve liesman joining us with that story at headquarters steve, i've been wondering aren't the economics just going to point us to a deal.

>> >> and also i want to flag the economics with china because that happens next week here are our major trading partners 700 for canada and china and 1.2 billion with the eu. and here you can see with deficit. exports in yellow and blue has the imports. mexico will have the deficits over here. and we have a $64 billion trade deficit with them. canada we have a surplus with canada china, relative to the size of this one over here the trade deficit is huge over there and eu back down, $100 million trade deficit on $1.2 trillion worth of trade let's take a look what's been happening with china and the u.s. i want to zoom in on that particular you can see imports and exports grow together, and in fact they've been growing recently. the trouble is you'll never catch up because the chinese exports are so much higher than imports from the u.s. but now i

want to just let's put our heads together on this take a look over here at the u.s. gdp growth. when what you can see it goes down in '09 and '10 and comes back in '16, '17 so is trade subtracting from growth or adding to growth wilf, i think there's an argument here that trade is not necessarily the result of lower or higher growth, but it's the result of what's happening irregardless of the respective economies, wilf. >> we've actually got breaking trade headlines and eamon javers has them for us. >> reporter: breaking news from dow jones saying the u.s.-canada reporting that the president is expected to notify congress of plans to proceed with a mexico-only deal to replace

nafta. dow jones also reporting that the trump announcement is expected to suggest canada can still join a revised nafta we have not independently confirmed this dow jones reporting. but dow jones is saying the u.s.-canada talks have broken up today with no self-imposed agreement of a deadline today. that would it seem put us back to where we were earlier in the week, in which they cut a side deal with nafta in which they said they were both prepare today go ahead with a deal and leave canada out altogether. dow jones reporting now that that effort has failed and there will be no deal today. we'll expect to see something here to confirm this on the white house side at some point here this afternoon. i can imagine, that might be coming sooner rather than later, guys >> remind us something we've

been discussing all week, but remind us the likelihood the u.s.-mexico bilateral deal can go ahead and be confirmed without canada >> they may vote up and down on that and they may balk at that there are a number of republicans on capitol hill who feel that is not a big enough deal this is big region, and there are a lot of american companies that operate on these borders, that it would be too disruptive to trade, to have a simple bilateral agreement, and therefore they might want the administration to push for a trilateral deal. that said, the president has said he likes bilateralism and this is the president's

approach bilateralism he likes to negotiate one-on-one >> unclear when it comes to exports and imports what congress is going to do there. thank you. we will see you soon, no doubt joining your closing bell exchange -- and by the way we should say the dow jones is down about 80 points, and the canadian dollar is down 0.3% and new york stock exchange keith bliss, and our rick santelli i mean why not a bigger market reaction do you think it's the fact that no one think it's realistic for u.s. and mexico to proceed with a deal with canada when it comes to revamping nafta >> canada is our largest trade partner. a deal without canada is like an empty hole in this trade agreement. i do think though in the markets kind of expected earlier in the week we'd wrap this up in a nice

little bow and go off to the holiday weekend. we recognize trade is not a steady straight line there's often stops and starts, and i think the market is having a more realistic notion of what it takes to get a deal done. and also i would say that fundamentals matter a lot here, and we're still seeing strong fundamentals from the corporate side, from the economic side, and that's what's driving and netting these forces of concern on trade overall >> rick, strong dollar today, which is i guess what you would expect where the news on trade has worsened a little bit. but when i look at the statistics one 'n only the dollar is not as strong as people might expect. >> you were correct it's had a nice little pop here we're almost unchanged on the week on the dollar index, just by a wiskhisker, a few ticks. the trade issue, i think most

market participants can see through a lot of this. and believe me there's a lot of clouds to see through. but at the end of the day i don't think anyone in the investing community doesn't think canada is going to come onboard. but maybe for different reasons. maybe not easy themes to discuss. i know the theme all day has been the u.s. dedo something, should we, should we be nicer? i get all that but business is business you ever get two friends try to start and partnership and keep it, that's the way it is i don't think this administration is going to blink, and i think the marketerments that, investors understand that and the media is having a party with that >> rick might have characterized it right for the markets since we're not seeing a huge reaction but next week we start september and this is just another uncertainty. we've also got a biggy when it comes to china, and nothing is finalized with europe.

there's an impact whether in this market or emerging markets or overseas markets. >> we'll see what happens when we come back from the labor day holiday. as you pointed out from the lead in pretty thin tape and trade today. so we don't have the great moves we would expect. i don't think this tape today and this market today really reflects what market participants may feel when they come back and analyze this situation. trading tariffs are an important one, but you i've still got a booking economy, markets trading at all-time highs, you've got a very accommodating fed, money is still flowing into u.s. equities like gang busters, so those are other things market participants are dealing with, and they'll take the trade tariff news as it comes. >> when we consider the trade positives on of the u.s., and we look at europe down sort of 4%

for the u.k. for the month of august, germany down 3% should people be taking some profit from the u.s. and looking at these other developing markets >> we think so we think valuations are favorable for international large cap, and this may be an opportunity as monetary policy is still stimulating europe to really think about diversing your portfolios with international large cap security that's an opportunity. >> keith, in terms of the risks trade is one you're more concerned about the mid-terms, though. are we not focusing on that enough yet >> i think weal when avenue wn com everyone comes back in september. i think it's even more important now. let's be candid here, the knives are out for president trump and they will remain out and if the democrats take control of the house and senate, which i have no idea if they're going to, that could play a part

in the markets what we've seen last year the markets have ignored all the kabuki theater going on in washington i do think we need to start paying attention to that >> all right, guys, thank you. good weekend to all. for more on those breaking headlines on trade let's bring in the director of the peterson institute for international economics. fred, so much at stake the fact that dow jones is reporting that canada is walking away with no deal and the u.s. is going to move forward alone with mexico and the dow is down 66 points, really muted market reaction how do you process all of that >> i think it raises a real question -- the administration

thought they could notify the congress today that they have a deal with mexico and that canada was coming in. if canada is really on the outs and if there's any chance that canada will actually drop out of the agreement, i think that would change the calculus for a lot of people in the congress and raise some real doubts ability whether they will approve a separate bilateral deal with mexico >> sorry, fred, are you saying that makes approving a bilateral deal more or less likely >> less likely i think if canada really looks like it's outside permanently, which would mean a breakup of nafta, no more trilateral agreement with canada, and that i think would give real pause to a lot of members of the congress and would raise very, very sharp doubts about whether they would approve the new bilateral deal with mexico leaving canada totally outside. it raises the question of

whether they would have to vote on a dissolution of the nafta pack many in congress say they voted to bring it in, they'd have to vote to get rid of it. if canada now is outside that would essentially mean a breakup of nafta many would say they have to vote on that. so it raises a couple of very big questions with the congress, therefore, whether this whole strategy can proceed >> surely they're not going to vote to break up nafta so, fred, why wouldn't they just keep the current deal in place, which is an act of congress and they have to authority to change >> well, president trump said on sunday when they announced the new bilateral deal with mexico, that he was essentially tearing up nafta now, you're right one could keep the old nafta in place and put a new bilateral with mexico on top of it, but that's not what the

administration had been proposing to congress. and under the legal requirements of the trade promotion story you have to tell congress what you have in mind, go through consultations and work through what you have committed to do, and this turns out maybe it would be quite different than what they had commit today do which was to revise a trilateral agreement with both mexico and canada >> fred, hang on for just a moment we're getting some more breaking news on the trade front. >> a new wrinkle here. now this is from an administration official to cnbc. the administration official saying it is not accurate to say the talks have broken off. they are continuing. so we have that dow jones reporting indicating that talks have broken off with no deal as of friday. now we have an administration official, a u.s. administration official telling cnbc it is not accurate to say talks have broken off they are continuing. so where does that leave us right now? could there be some kind of

middle ground here between deal and no deal? this is often presented at binary, but could there be a scenario in which you see an agreement to agree at a future date we don't know at this point, but the u.s. administration now responding to those heads that just crossed the wire saying that talks are in fact continuing so unclear where we go from here, but we are expecting that news conference from the canadian side at 4:30 p.m. eastern. so we should get more clarity by the canadians by then and hoping for more clarity from the white house as well. >> all this terminology reminds me of brexit but the next definitive answer we'll get is 4:30, and it'll be from the canada side >> that's right. unless we get something from the white house in between then and now. and as i say i've been on the phone with officials trying to figure out where they're going to land on this. nothing public from the white house as of yet. so we're waiting from some kind

of statement from the administration publicly. we have an administration official saying it is not accurate to say talks have brok broken off >> this is wild, twist and turns. >> and weird, just the leak, the anonymous source was there a mole in the operation? some of this stuff reads like a spy novel and it's a trade negotiation. >> i was going to say reality show, but go ahead with the spy novel. thank you. stay very close. fred still with us from peterson institute. it's tough to imagine how the administration would move probably knowing that congress wouldn't be onboard with u.s. and mexico going at it alone now saying that talks are ongoing, what's your reaction? >> my answer to your colleague's question is yes, there could be a middle ground. the administration has hoped to go up through the congress today

with a pronouncement that they have a deal with mexico and that they're talking with canada and that canada may come into the agreement over the next 90 days. all the administration has to do is notify the congress today that they will be doing a deal, the details have to be worked out and provided to congress only after 90 days like -- i'm sorry, 30 days, a month from now so there is a middle ground. if the canadians agree to that the administration could say mexico's onboard, we're talking with canada but there's an agreement in principle, a handshake or intention or something to maintain canada in the agreement as a trilateral agreement, and as required under law we will send you the details in 30 days the problem would be if canada was definitively out and the

administration could not go to congress with the trilateral nafta pact was going to continue in that case as i said wfr you have a totally different animal, a new bilateral with mexico, possibly an end to the existing trilateral agreement with nafta. and then a completely different animal in terms of what had been consulted about with the congress, presented to congress and offered to congress as an administration proposal, in which case congress would say we have to reassess the whole thing. there'd be a lot of negative sentiment because many of the members, many senators have already said publicly they don't want to proceed without canada, and thad t that wouhat would bed flag if it turns out to be pivotal what they can get the canadians

to agree to today that canada is onboard, considering it, in principle agrees, i'm sure they're trying to work out some artful a artful language thal that will aab enable the administration to go forward with congress. >> with the dow now down only 45 points >> we have more on trade eamon has promised to stay close and he's been working the phones >> our cnbc team is now hearing from an official with this ongoing negotiation that the two sides have agreed to continue negotiating next week. this coming to us from a canadian official. so we're now being told talks will continue into next week per this official.

this is bit of a moving target here remember the friday deadline was about getting this done before the mexican presidency changes hands later this year. so there was a political impetus to have this deal done today not necessarily a legal impetus to have it done today. that is from one foiofficial, a we're getting a lot of conflicting information at one time we're sorting this out with you guys in realtime we're about to get more details as to what exactly that is, possible now we could see these talks extended into next week. >> and we're going to hear officially from the canadian prime minister i think one of the big questions people are going to be listening for did that off-the-record leak, the president's tone, that blunt tone, sort of the insulting tone towards the canadians have anything to do

this was wrapped up to snd. >> you be the president saying look, where he stands is no concessions for you. so that's the president's negotiating style. a very tough style of negotiating. the president is frustrated and determined here to get the deal he wants when he wants it. and he says ultimately he's frustrated with the fact that was leak, but at the end of the day maybe it served a purpose by sending a message. >> great stuff thanks again and again stay close. the s&p 500 back up to just shy of flat. it's down about 0.1% >> the market is trading it as noise. i mean, there's no -- it doesn't feel like this is high stakes negotiation, if you're looking at the bare and muted swings

yes, we're in thin holiday trading. what's going to happen on tuesday? but rick santelli's point is they're still negotiating. >> and month to date is higher >> eight weeks of gains for the s&p and the dow in the last nine weeks. we're going to continue to keep monitoring the trade situation headlines are coming every minute here. also coming up will coca-cola $5 billion bet on coffee pay off wilfred's favorite u.k. brand, what it means for coke's future. plus energy stocks were the worst performers in august, but one analyst says we could see a big pop in crude throughout the rest of the year we'll discuss that is much more still to come here on "the closing bell."

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for those who never settle, it's either mercedes-benz certified pre-owned, or it isn't. the mercedes-benz certified pre-owned sales event, now through august 31st. only at your authorized mercedes-benz dealer. welcome back to "the closing bell." a roller coaster first hour of the show where in terms of breaking news relating to this trade deal, first the dow jones headlines suggested the talks between the canada and u.s. have broken down in full. and then a u.s. administration official telling our aemon

javers that was not the case and then confirming talks are ongoing. no end to the talks but certainly full agreement >> we are awaiting a 4:30 news conference for foreman minister chrystia freeland. remember this all comes after the u.s. and mexico struck a renegotiated nafta version on their own. they worked through some of the difficulties especially around autos and then brought the canadians in to join the deal. those talks appeared to have broken down. we don't know if it's a no deal, no more talking, deal talks continue and it all comes mida very weird leak from an off-the-record comment president trump made to bloomberg news that came out in the toronto star today that were seen as insulting remarks to canada but he's not willing to compromise, and he didn't want that out there because he didn't

want to insult canada. >> the markets remain positive from the start of the week weak to date the s&p is up about 0.6% today and net net for the week as a whole, markets are higher. let's discuss what this all means for energy markets john, great to have you with us. i mean clearly trade has impacted energy prices a bit, particularly things like china talking lng tariffs and the like but what about this week's developments does that impact all price snz. >> not a little bit, wilf. i'll tell you that last month basically canada was our largest source of foreign crude oil, 3.5 billion barrels a day, very much part of the equation. crude oil itself hasn't been brought up all that munch. but certainly internationally

the lng picture has. there's no doubt in nigh mind canada would see the crude oil element as a big one we also export some crude oil to canada ourselves so there's a two way street there, partly for their refinery on the coast our west coast refinery, big markets for canada not to say they would use oil necessarily as a weapon, but when things start to get ugly, everything's sort of on the table and in the mix and certainly nobody likes this setup in terms of the disruption to the economic demand outlook, which is what starts to impact commodities and crude oil in particular >> what we're not really seeing a big move on that front don't you think if there was a real worry about break down in talks or a real break down in deal, there would be all sorts of macro economic implication you would see show up in oil >> no doubt. i think the agreement with

mexico shows there's a deal to be had, there's really no two ways about it. think about greece, the debt ceiling debates. i like to kid around the politicians like to take us up on a very uncomfortable ride, let us have a look over the cliff how ugly it could get, and then pull us back at the very last minute. there are headlines the talks could resume between the u.s. and canada on wednesday. so that's another factor here. >> we've got an official comment here from a u.s. trade representative >> a new development here now a u.s. trade representative on the record, robert lighthizer today saying the president identified the president of his intent to sign a trade agreement with canada and mexico if it is willing 90 days from now lighthizer going onto say the agreement is the most advanced trade greet in the world in the next few weeks they'll be

able to examine the agreement. they'll find it has huge benefits for our workers, ranchers, farmers and businesses saying we have also negotiated with canada throughout this yearlong process this week those moatings continued at yearlong levels, we made progress and our officials are continuing to work towards agreements the u.s. team will meet with freeland and her team next week. now saying on the record that the negotiations with canada will continue wednesday of next week, saying the president has officially notified kicking in that 90-day clock, notified congress of his intent to sign a trade agreement with mexico. and they say in a parenthetical here, and canada if it is willing, that the president will sign that in 90 days so where we are right now, negotiations with the canadians will continue as of wednesday next week, according to the u.s. trade representative but clearly we're going to reach the end of the day today without a deal in writing, signed in

inked by 5:00 p.m. friday, guys. >> if the deadline originally for canada was today, given this has kicked off 90 days, is there new deadline for canada 09 days away or realistically is it going to be next week or soon after or not at all? >> there's a nuanced legal answer to that i can't give you right now, but i think where we're going to land is that this 90 day notification to congress is trying to finesse that by, saying the united states is going to sign this deal with mexico in 90 days and canada could be part of it. so this is the official 90 day clock being started here by the administration i'm going to need some legal guidance here and congressional guidance whether that will pass muster or not. but that seems to be what's happening here i'm sort of analyzing on the fly here >> there's a u.s. law that requires the president to give 90 days notice before signing a trade agreement. and he wants to get that done

under the current mexican president and today's congress which is why the deadline today is so important on the 90 day clock front. the problem is he doesn't have buy in from canada >> the question can you notify congress under the law you're going to sign a trade agreement and maybe or maybe not have an agreement with canada? that's what they're saying here, and i don't know the legal answer to that we might have some viewers who know who are going to tweet me in a second. >> and i think some members of congress have interesting questions about what it's all going to look like >> and does this count as official 90 day notification or not under the rules? they're saying we're going to do with mexico and canada and it's going to happen in 90 days >> not weekend time, i'm afraid. stay with us a kp rkg e onesndeewoin up next we'll we back with the closing count down just five minutes left of trade.

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your kids love swimming in their pool. you like them. if you forget your trunks, they'll loan you some. they have a section in their stock portfolio just for pool stuff. everyone likes them. you like them. but you'd like them better if you made more money than they do. don't get mad at your well-liked neighbors. get e*trade. welcome back to "the closing bell." 90 seconds left of trade there's the s&p intraday chart for you. you can see we're just in the green as we approach the close the dow is still slightly lower, the nasdaq slightly higher those trade developments as you can see not really weighing on the market overall they did it around morning and

lunchtime but not at the moment. if we look at the s&p 500 you can see we're not hugely positive for the s&p the nasdaq is up about 1.5% overall for the week net net this week's trade headlines haven't weighed on the markets. the dollar is stronger today, but as a week on the whole as well stronger, but not as strong as you might expect. but 0.4% higher, pretty much flat for the week as a whole bob pisani joins me now. main take-aways for today? >> the important thing is the market is telling us that even when it came out and said trade talks were ending for the day and it looked like nothing was happening the impact was minimalist it was 4 or 5 points when they said talks would be resuming next week. the market is saying they believe some kind of deal is coming down the road i believe if no deal was happening with canada that would

be a bigger impact but as you've been reporting we've got a lot of congressman who want to be in that particular deal. we had s&p up 2%, tech stocks outperform, i want to point out amazon and apple's move on the up side here apple up 20% for the month, two essentially trillion dollar market valuation companies that have really dominated the markets. and particularly these two stocks together are almost are almost a quarter of the nasdaq 100. i don't know if we've ever seen that >> you mentioned the stats today, and mentioned around the rest of the world as well. hong kong down 2.5%, shanghai down 5%. >> it's continuing into the

third quarter, obviously, and that has to do with days when we get dollar strength. >> there goes the bell for the day, and we have ended it just positive on the s&p, up 0.3% for the nasdaq so a decent finish to end the day, the week and the month. that does it for the first hour of "the closing bell." sarah, back to you welcome to "the closing bell." i am sara eisen in for kelly evans. wilfred frost will be back in just a moment. let's take a look how we are finishing up the day, the week and the month on wall street the dow closing lower by about 28 points. certain ely off session lows s&p 500 little changed on the close. inh the nasdaq was the winner on the day. russell 2000 index with small caps also having a don't day,

closing up 0.5%. a good week for stocks as well eight out of nine gains for the np and dow we're going to be talking about some of the individual movers in just a moment. news of the day no resolution of the trade talks between the u.s. and canada, but a u.s. official has told nbc the talks are ongoing. and we're also expecting to hear live, minister cristia freeland in just about a half-hour's time we'll bring it to you as soon as it starts. eamon javers has been monitoring the situation for us at the white house. >> it's been a wild ride, sara but here's where we've landed as of right now these talks appear to have ended for the day, but officials say it's going to continue next week counting down the 90 day clock here with mexico and maybe

canada, according to the statement. we'll see whether canada can get into this deal the official statement from the u.s. trade representative saying today the president notified congress of his intent to sign a trade agreement with u.s. and mexico and canada if it's willing. 90 days from now the agreement is the most high standard trade agreement montana world. over the next few weeks congress is cleared advisers from civil society will be able to clear this agreement then we'll see how it's received up on capitol hill but that 90 day clock being kicked off today the president this afternoon continuing to use his leverage against the canadians. take a listen to what he said. >> if we don't make a deal with c canada, that's just fine we'll see how it all works out i say affectionately we'll just have to tariff those cars coming in that's a lot of money coming

into the coffers of the united states >> the president there using one of his favorite trade negotiating techniques, the threat of tariffs being imposed on canadian vehicles that, the white house expected, would bring the canadians to the table this week. and it appeared for a couple of days, in the past i would say 48 hours that the negotiators were getting close to a deal. but then we had this dramatic moment this afternoon where off-the-record comments of the president were leaked to canadian newspaper, the canadians responded to that. and now we're left at the end of the day friday with no agreement yet but negotiations continuing next week. >> now we have an official statement from the u.s. administration we're expecting one from canada at 4:30. one would expect she would say talks would continue >> one would expect she would

say that but this has been a wild day as of now we feel like she will come out and say they're going to continue negotiating next week, but you've just got to wait and say >> okay, eamon, awesome stuff. let's discuss what this all means. mike santoli, lindsey bell, and jim lecamp good afternoon to you all. mike, clearly the net effect on markets or the s&p 500 for this week has not been negative >> it's mild for months my case has been my belief is that trade is an overall issue. it wasn't the big make-or-break swing factor it's a net negative if it goes wrong. it's an annoyance, a bit of friction as dramatic as this all is what we're watching today i think you have to step back and say worst place gnat nafta is the law of

the land and the market kind of gets that. and when it comes to this particular negotiation, so the stakes seem high, it's kind of amped up in terms of the emotion level versus what you would expect or hope for but unless we actually see the president imposing tariffs on cars called chevrolet equinoxes and dodge charges that come back to the united states, i don't know if the market has something to react to right now. >> it is hard to break down the rift in diplomatic relations, or mike, is this the friday before labor day and we're going to come in tuesday with another giant uncertainty as it relates to trade who knows how you're going to extrapolate what this means for the china negotiations, which the market does care about with an economy that large. >> that would narrow the focus a bit, but well, it's a friday

before labor day, we get air pockets all the time, i don't think the market knows what it's supposed to be pricing in right here when it comes to this phase of the whole trade >> trading with a lot of noise >> i think we have to consider with the fact that according to ceos and portfolio managers the global trade system was not in need of urgent repair before this president took os he likes to be aggressive. it's a win-win if he seems like a tough guy and everything more or less stays the same >> earnings so far clearly not been impacted for trade. >> for the second quarter 25% earnings growth is what we got it was better than the 19% kperkted going into the quarter. we're still looking at the 12% growth in 2018, that's going to be reduced to 10% in 2019. but sales have been extremely strong and improving over the

last several quarters. 10% sales growth in the second quarter. if we can keep that the margin concern that everyone has with prices rising especially in the wake of potential tariffs where we can maintain those margins of sales and are able to continue to grow to double digits >> you've been looking at the estimates and the guidance and putting it all together. are we going to continue to see double digit sales growth? >> we are for this year. 2019 the numbers look weak 29% top line growth are what the estimates is but i think that could change if the fundamentals remain as strong as they are right now >> let's talk about the dollar stronger today but not too strong actually for the week or month as a whole what's your view >> the dollar pulled back a little bit and bounced right off support, like they drew it up that way and if you look at the dollar it really is driving a lot of investment themes.

a strong dollar means more money is coming internationally to the u.s. also the strong dollar has pointed the way to small caps and midcaps which have had a very, very good year and look to continue that way. look, we have a federal reserve board that's raising rates and no one else in the world is. the bank of japan isn't, the people's bank isn't, and so it should continue to be fairly healthy and that means themes that have been prevalent in this year's markets should continue and i expect that. and that may be more pressure on emerging markets, maybe more pressure on international markets. for smaller midcaps it means very good things, and they've been acting very well in here. >> now, august of course is a wrap let's get to bob pisani. he's got a look at some of the biggest movers as a whole. >> it was a great earnings

season we had combined with the fact the u.s. economy is outperforming the whole world that really made a difference. we had some really out-performance in two key sectors. look at that 6% move up. the other thing i want to highlight is health care right across the board, pharmaceuticals, bio tech, generally on the up side s&p 500 had a decent month one of the things you really notice was the outpnc-performane of a couple of stocks. one friend of mine said it's circumstantial two stocks at this point amazon and apple with those two stocks you've got a huge movement to the upside. let me so you how much they dominate these two stocks together are about 24% of the nasdaq 100 right now, you throw in albet

it's almost 9% you've got essentially five stocks at this point including facebook there that are just about 50% of the triple q, and that's a big, big mover every single day a lot of those gain sides we're seeing in the technology stocks and sector will essentially cease if they go down. >> so much for that. mike, some of those individual performers and tech is a broader subsector, extraordinary for one month. >> it was really a momentum month. so what it worked best going into august continued to be leadership in the month of august hasn't always worked out that way. and obviously if it was a laggard coming into august it suffered the most. that's how it broke down it wasn't this sense of rotating from strong to weak. it was a continuation of trend as bob said when you have $2 trillion worth of market cap in two companies and they're in these very strong up trends,

really perhaps overheating in the short-term in terms of the stocks, it does cover up for a lot of weakness. >> i'm just looking at some of the biggest winners. facebook is only up 1% for the month. >> facebook has been really a flat stock really net all year >> i would just add if you don't mind, if you look at the s&p 500 tech sector that's equal weighted versus the market cap weighted, which these big names really matter, too the equal weighted sector is doing very well, it's only about a percentage point underneath the weight of the tech sector. >> jim, when we consider what theina international returns were versus these big gains for the u.s., is that not a warning sign people should essentially take a turn for it u.s. market? >> we've seen plenty of time wheres the u.s. market was the

leader and the global markets did not participate. it is a possible warning sign, but there's not enough warning signs out there. high yield spreads are very much intact, and it's very unusual to see the dollar and energy rallying at the same time, and that's happening and what that says is that the economy here is strong, that's a strong signal. and if you look at forward returns in the stock market when energy in the dollar have both rallied at the same time, remember energy is price said in dollars, so it's a bit unusual we've seen no evidence that u.s. economic growth is slowing down to the point where we need to be worried about it in fact, earnings are growing so much faster than valuations that the market still has a lot more tail winds than it does head winds. there's too many tail winds to use that a proxy >> also points to geopolitical turmoil and sanctions. let's move onto coca-cola. shares of coke finishing lower today after the company agreed

to buy the coffee chain costa for $5.1 billion we did speak to james quincy about the deal this morning. he explained the deal would help costa's expansion into other markets. clearly the strategy is having stores, because they build businesses and the brand we are buying a great management team, though, that goes what it's doing in retail, clearly not our core competence. we're bringing global scale and we can introduce different formats as a total beverage provider in some places you might see stores, beans, some places machines wall street analyst investors had around this deal, which was huh, coke is getting into retail operations that's not coke does they don't know how to keep stores clean, and a lot of analysts asked that. and quincy's point is this is not a retail strategy. we're trying to get into a

really strong coffee brand we're going to frame costa as a brand, whether it's beans or some of their vending machines and to u.s. food restaurants and grocery stores and that's what coke wants coffee is a growth area right now in beverage. it's also been super hot with mma as well. >> the thing i would say on the u.k. side is u.k. is not known for exporting its consumer brands to the u.s. successfully. it's certainly not known for a coffee brand, which certainly not something it's done in the past it's done it by being a bit more mass market. it's a slightly cheaper entry point, and it's strong across all of the you can as opposed to just the expensive cities and in london, and i think that plays into coke's own brand whether this is going to be expanded into a few stores or vending machines mike, the question i have, which

i totally get the quote that sara has just read from james quincy but they might not want to expand the stores into the u.s. but they've got a pool of 4,000 stores that is new for them to take out clearly they've been operating fine as is, and you're not necessarily going to impose folks from atlanta going there and saying now we're going to run this retail you can coffee shop chain but i do think it's more about the category you have to make good with wall street a little bit on this and prove it's not really going to disrupt the model. $5 million on the scale of coca-cola is not a tremendous bet financially. >> hough, it is their biggest deal in years. and yeah, i think the question is going to come down to the execution of the stores and also how they can bring that brand here and compete with the giants, which have only grown bigger ajb, which also has keurig and

caribou, and starbucks and ne nestle >> it's actually peaked the last couple of years. peaked a bit now and it needs global expansion, and that is what coke is obviously going to bring. >> it's actually fairly, they have a presence in china as well >> a little bit internationally, mainly in the you can, but it's a good cup of coffee i look forward to having it in the u.s. we will leave it there. thank you very much for joining us when we come back, ford scrapping plans to import a new compact car from china because of tariff pressures. details on the trade fallout for auto makers straight ahead and we're minutes away from a news conference with canadian foreign minister chrystia freeland who will discuss the decision to extend the u.s.

trade talks, alet ast we think she will there's been a lot of back and forth in the last hour don't go anywhere. "the closing bell" back in two minutes. alerts -- wouldn't you like one from the market when it might be time to buy or sell? with fidelity's real-time analytics, you'll get clear, actionable alerts about potential investment opportunities in real time. fidelity.

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and today ford announced a change in its plans to import some cars from china hey, phil? >> hey, wilf this involves the focus active since the china, the vehicles built there are now subject to a 25% tariff, that's not going to be happening ford announcing today it has scrapped plans to import the chinese made focus active, which basically means it's not going to be sold in this market anymore. and again, it would have been subject to a 25% tariff because it was biltd in china or would have been built in china and imported here to the united states in charge of ford north america, i talked to him today and he said we obviously had to reassess the business case, and it doesn't make sense. right now not a whole lot makes sense with ford sales. year to date and then in the last two years sales getting worse. down 13% in 2016

down 14% in 2017 and down almost 16% this year. as you take a look at share of ford, morgan stanley out today saying we wish we knew it plan the fact that nobody on wall street and a lot of people are wondering what's ford's restructuring plan, because they still haven't told wall street or investors what that restructuring plan is, and as a result morgan stanley says it expects ford's cash flow next year to drop significantly so this is company that at 948, guys, they are close to their 52-week low. and they're back at levels that we saw back in 2012, 2013. and their credit rating just one notch above junk status. >> it's been difficult, philly, lately to say the least. have we seen other auto makers making announcements like this similar to tariffs

>> this is ford specific they originally decided they were going to build in mexico and they said that's not a good idea, and they said let's go to china, and that's not a good idea gm has the buick envision built over there, it has the petition for an exemption from the commerce department from the united states but it has yet to get an answer on that, and then you have volvo which imports a couple of vehicles from china. i expect we'll hear more situations like this from auto makers as the trade talks play out in the months to come. >> phil lebeau for us in chicago. for more ton the tariff impact on autos, let's bring in the fast money trader guy edami. is it time you're not by the big screen >> i'm sequestered like that guy from the quiz show you remember that? >> no, i don't >> thank you, michael.

>> guy, talk us through it is it buying opportunity yet for all these stocks, whether you looking at tesla, the u.s. taugauto or the german autos, they all look pretty cheap. >> as phil just mentioned talking about ford about the lowest the stock has been enough at least for the last six years. and you're talking about autos which stock market closed at an all-time high effectively today. the last seven or eight years you could make the argument it's the best years in history in terms of car sales for space yet ford and gm have been effectively grim death gm did rally about 34 to 45 in june it's given that entire move back the question you have to ask yourself is if these stocks can't rally in the environment we find ourselves in, are they going to rally i think you have to avoid these stocks value people would say these stooks are cheap, and that's true

but you know what, you look at these stocks that's been the argument the last four or five years and it hasn't gotten anywhere until something changes fund ltally i don't see a particularly compelling reason to own ford or general motors. >> guys, just curious to get your take on the market's response, maybe lack of response and the uncertainty about nafta and whether canada is going to be part of this new deal >> it's amazing, so the s&p was down ten handles, shrugged off today, shrugged off the off-the-record comments from president trump in a major way i think when you say some clarityoon wednesday market rallied back unchanged to me, and i'm sure mike will disagree or have views but i think there's two words to describe what's going on and it's effectively passive investing. i think that's what we've seen over the last couple of years. things that would have

historically taken the market down a percent or percent and a half have shrugged it off. a, there's huge complacency out there and b, the advent of passive investing. enjoy the long weekend, wilf you're off on monday so hopefully you got that news >> i'm well aware of that. you're taking a leaf from chrystia freeland's book, a little bit of french, a little bit of english don't forget to tune into fast money later, of course a number of surprising stocks surging. the team will tell you which stocks they are buying after that blow out month. coming up we are awaiting that news conference with the canadian foreign minister chrystia freeland who will e scuss the decision to extend thu.s. trade talks into next week stay tuned from our unlimited plan to the powerful new samsung galaxy note9...

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welcome back to "the closing bell," everyone. i'm sue herrera. here's what's happening at this hour president trump signing an executive order on retirement accounts this afternoon in north carolina that order directors regulators to see how small businesses can ban together to provide more retirement options for their works and to review rules forcing people to begin withdrawing from their 401ks

and nicaragua, the government under the president daniel ortaiga saying the findings were byssused and taken out of context. a mother finds her son's lost baseball glove a thousand miles away from where he lost it and 40 years later the woman was shopping at a thrift store when she saw a glove with her son's name on it in his handwriting christopher lost the glove in ohio in the 1970s. his mother found it in jupfer, florida, this week that's a great story and a parka has gone viral after some pointed out that it seems to have been inspired by a classic scene from the sitcom, friends. the key difference the designer parka costs $9,000 you could just do a little layering with all those winter coats you have in your closet. >> saw, thank you very much.

sue, thank you very much and welcome, everyone, back to "the closing bell." of course, we are expecting that news conference with canadian foreign minister chrystia free lp freeland it's expected to begin any moment, and we'll get new comments from the canadian side on that decision that we expect talks to get started next wednesday. >> has advised i guess democrats and republicans on capitol hill, also served in the clinton administration in the department of commerce. what's your reaction to everything we have just seen this week and this afternoon with canada on trade >> well, i think the first thing to do is keep in mind that it's a five act play. it's not short attention span theater. and this has got, you know, several more acts to go.

it sounds like they didn't end up screaming and throwing things at each other, that they're coming back next week to try to get to the end so i think it's too early to say that there's a disaster. it's too early to say they're not going to be able to reach an agreement. it's also obvious there are serious differences. if there were not, they would have closed today. >> bill, in terms of how optimistic you are that a deal will be struck between the u.s. and canada in the near future. we're not talking ability the u.s. and mexico going first and bring canada in at a later date, are you optimistic that's going to happen in the next three weeks? >> they don't have to produce an actual tax today or today, but i'm optimistic, i think 80-20 they'll be able to reach an agreement between now and then >> and what if it's not, is it that it's status quo nafta that we have. is that what the up shot is?

>> then it gets complicated because the president then may go ahead with just mexico. there may be people in congress -- there already have been -- who will say that you can't do that because last year you notified us you were going to do a trilateral agreement and now you're presenting a bilateral agreement that's bait and switch that, you know, congress gets to decide that, not the president. they could, worse case say this doesn't meet the terms that you committed to in 2017 we're not going to consider it but that's a vote they don't have to have until next year >> we just want to get to our eamon javers with some news outside the white house. >> that's right. senior administration officials now just wrapping up a background conference call for reporters. a couple of details that dove tail with your conversation you're having there in terms of whether or not this move to notify congress about a deal, start that 90 day clock under

the process but say canada may or may not be in that, whether that passes muster under the process, officials saying they feel they're in compliance with the deal >> let's listen to chrystia freeland. [ speaking foreign language ]

>> and sara, until we get her back in english, a little bit of french speak, she said something in there finding about something good for the u.s., good for canada and the u.s. mike, clearly mark hasn't been shaken up by this, but important what she has to say when it comes to english. >> it's just essentially we've made some progress, and i think all those things -- >> and she's back in english >> and we are going to continue working at it. as we've said from the outset our objective in these talks is to update and modernize nafta in a way that is good for canadians, good for americans and good for mexicans. we know that a win, win, win

agreement is within reach. and that's what we're working towards. with goodwill and flexibility on all sides i know we can get there. but as certainly the canadians here have heard me say before, i'm paid in canadian dollars, and my job is to ensure that this agreement works for cuthadicutha canadian workers, canadian families and canadian business the government of canada will not sign an agreement unless it's good for canada and good for canadians. and before answering your questions i'd like to thank ambassador lighthizer and his team they have worked hard and in good faith with us for more than a year including some very intense days this week we've made good progress, but there's still work to be done. >> we'll pass the questions now. please identify yourself and your outlet. one question, no follow ups.

if you want to follow up, get back in line, please >> josh with bloomberg news. >> i recognize you, josh >> i wanted to ask you what your message to the u.s. congress now, whether canada believes that president trump would have the authority under case notification to proceed with a bilateral homemade deal or whether he'd need -- >> when it comes to the u.s. legislative process, that's really question for the americans and our american counter parts to answer and to sort out >> [ inaudible ] >> that's a question for the americans, and that's their issue. >> hi, julie gordon from reuters. do you recognize me as well? >> i do. >> okay, good. i keep hearing that chapter 19 and dairy are the two main sticking points. which of those two are not negotiable and are there any

other sticking points or things that you can tell us about >> as i've said to the hardy reporters who were camped outside ustr earlier this week, ambassador lighthizer and i agreed that given the absolute intensity of the negotiations right now we wouldn't be negotiating in public. so i'm not going to talk about specific issues. >> president trump had said that today was the deadline for negotiations it seems to me that going forward on wednesday, are there any real deadlines to make sure there was a nafta deal and if so what was that deadline >> for canada the focus is on getting a good deal. and once we have a good deal for canada, we'll be done. >> hi, minister. >> hi, katey >> hi. donald trump confirmed he made some comments off-the-record suggesting that the u.s. would

not compromise when it came to negotiating with canada. i know that you're not going to get into details, but have you seen any movement from the americans that would suggest donald trump's characterization of the american negotiating tactics, that characterization is not accurate? >> as i said this week and from the beginning of the negotiation, ambassador lighthizer and his team have been negotiating in good faith and with goodwill. this is process that began more than a year ago, and we've made some progress. we've done some work together. i see gerry dias here, so i can't neglect to mention the car sect squr t sector and the rules of origin and our starting point was a place where canada and the u.s. were quite far apart in their

proposals. but what we found as the negotiation went on is canada and the united states shared a concern for our workers in the car sector who are high wage workers who have felt that they can be disadvantaged by trade agreements and one of the things that i think we are accomplishing in this agreement is a better deal for workers, canadian and u.s. workers in the auto sector that's important and that's been a success due to canada and the united states working together and due to mexico showing some significant flexibility over the summer. >> stephanie with cnbc so you mentioned the auto sector how difficult is the pharmaceutical sect sq pharmaceutical sector and the provisions that would cause drugs to rise, is that a key sticking point >> again i said we're not going to negotiate in public when it comes to canadian positions on issues, i think our positions are pretty clear and

pretty well-known. hi, adrian >> hi, chrystia. how can you possibly negotiate with a guy like donald trump who says he's not going to give any ground that's not a negotiation, is it? >> my negotiating party is ambassador lighthizer and as i said he has brought good faith and good will to the table as i've also said it is going to take flexibility on all sides to get to a deal in the end and what i can speak to is the canadian position. and i really want to assure canadians that we're working hard to get a deal we are confident that a win-win-win deal is possible, and we're always going to stand up for the national interests and for canadian values. okay >> we will continue to listen in there to chrystia freeland, the

canadian foreign minister. and if she goes back to speaking significantly in english, we will listen in again >> what we heard was the optimistic tone. >> but also she is a master of keeping all her cards close to her chest, not really revealing too much but as you said a positive tone and she said she wants to stand up for the national interest for canada but does believe there's a positive deal to be done for all three of the parts, mexico, u.s. and canada. >> she said ambassador lighthizer has been negotiating in good faith and has brought good will to the table eamon javers joining us again from the white house what stood out today >> chrystia freeland not willing to be pinned down on specifics trying to get her to talk about some of the sticking points in this negotiation and freeland

really wouldn't go there twr, n saying anything at all saying she's not going to negotiate in public. and you do get that sense of an optimistic tone. and some saying the deadline now is amorphous, but saying under the process now the united states is going to go ahead and release text in 30 days, 60 days after that, you'll have a formal process begin up on capitol hill where they'll then begin their process of having hearings and a vote on capitol hill so it may not be for another 30 days we actually see what's in this agreement, even as the pieces in the agreement are clearly a moving target as the negotiations are ongoing so we've got this sort of strange situation in which the administration is notifying congress as it's required to under the process, this is going to happen, but not saying which countries it's going to happen with the administration officials say they feel that that is in compliance with the statute, and

there's a big difference in the law between feeling you're in compliance with a statute and being in compliance with a statute. it's mltultily going to be whetr or not they have the vote to comply with the president on this >> let's bring in fred bergsten, any view there on whether this is compliant with the statute that congress has a 90-day window oh, wait, let's go back, excuse me, frank, to the canadian foreign minister for a moment. >> wonder if this is really a negotiation or we're being strong armed to a specific bargaining point the americans would like to see. >> so let me be clear yet again because it's important, and the importance of reiterating this is underscored by your question. canada will only sign a deal which is a good deal for canada. we are very, very clear about

that the prime minister has said that on a number of occasions including this week that we want a good deal, not just any deal and a good deal is one which is good for canada and good for canadians. a good deal is one which reflects the canadian national interest and which canadian values are defended. we are absolutely clear about that i also want to say, as i said in my opening remarks, i have now been working with ambassador lighthizer and his team for more than a year. we have had some very intense periods of working together. and ambassador lighthizer and his team are very experienced professionals, and they absolutely do bring good faith and good will to the negotiating table. i think this week we have really over the course of the entire year, we now understand each

other's positions very well and very clearly and we're working hard to find those win-win compromises that we're going to need. i'll take the next question. >> good afternoon, minister. from mexico. you said that you were encouraged by the progress that mexico made in these six weeks and that would help your negotiations could you please elaborate a little bit what was present now that you these negotiations that were not present before that made you think now a negotiation or agreement was possible and not before thank you. >> that's a really good question, and, you know, as i have said one -- probably for

people who have been following the this negotiation for a full year, i think you will remember the many, many days we spent focusing on rules of origin in the car sector it -- this is a fiendishly complex issue, and it is the issue which really is at the heart of the nafta negotiation and n way at the heart of the nafta relationship, the integrated north american car sector we have spent for more than a year, all three countries have focused a lot of attention on the rules of origin. and i want to take an opportunity to thank the canadian negotiating team which put forward some important ideas on rules of origin particularly around the time of the montreal round. but rules of origin are really, really complicated and in order to achieve the landing zone, which we found,

some big changes were required to be made by mexico in particular and i think the important progress that was the most important progress, a lot was done over the summer, but the most important progress over the summer was in the rules of origin, in the car sector, achieving a deal which required a lot of flexibility from mexico in particular, and thank you for that, that has now put us in a place that we can now move onto concluding -- we can move onto the other issues and the rules of origin agreement that was achieved i think has particular value for my government because our priority has always been middle class canadians and people working hard to join the middle class. and we understand the pressures on working canadians in the 21st century economy.

and we understand that working canadians have sometimes felt that trade agreements have hurt them and hurt their interests. what is really significant about the rules of origin agreement is it will be good for canadian workers and for american workers. and that is an essential part of this nafta modernization >> time for two more questions >> edward lawrence with fox business network were you surprised by the scope of the agreement that was signed with mexico and the u.s. including other industries like digital trade? also, what's your feeling on intellectual feeling of properties, in general does it need to be expanded? >> as i said i am not going to negotiate in public. what i will say, though, is the negotiations with canada are not complete and we continue to negotiate with the united states so that's why we're coming back next wednesday, and we're going

to continue talking until we reach a good deal. >> you said canada will only accept a good deal >> that's right. i hope you wouldn't imagine that canada would be looking for a not good deal. >> i can't imagine that, no. >> good. >> can you consider any deal that doesn't include a continuation of the dairy supply management system in a good deal >> i used to be a reporter and i understand the extreme frustration aven frustration everyone here is feeling, and it really hurts me to be imposing that frustration on all the hardworking reporters here but let me just reiterate that the canadian national interests and canadian values are at the core of our negotiating approach and our negotiating priorities

the core canadian positions are well-known i think by everyone and certainly by our negotiating partners and having said that, really as we are intense period, i am absolutely convinced and the ambassador and i agreed that the best way to get a good deal was not to be negotiating in the public and i am going to stay true to that agreement. >> thank you, minister inside u.s. trade. i wanted to ask about the steel and aluminum tariffs will canada accept a deal that doesn't include lifting those tariffs, and would you accept some kind of quota arrangement that other countries have? thank you. >> so on the 232 steel and aluminum tariff, canada has said from the very outset of the 232 considerations that this is an

issue entirely separate from nafta and that is not an opinion. that is a matter of fact section 232 is a national security consideration it is not one of the nafta negotiating chapters having said that, we very much are opposed to these tariffs they are unjustified, and they are illegal. the notion that somehow canadian steel or aluminum could pose a national security threat to the united states is, frankly, absurd we oppose that >> that is all for today. >> i imagine i will be seeing quite a few of you next wednesday and i look forward to that. >> that was canadian minister chrystia freeland. >> she cited her as a former

reporter keeping her cards close to the chest and the tone fairly optimistic given negative moments over the course of today. >> you wonder if canada hasn't won a significant victory by the friday deadline because it gives them more room to maneuver without a ticking clock measured in 24, 48 hours and they can really hold out for what they want the mexicans, meanwhile, have been making some statements while we are hearing from the canadian minister, we are also getting news from mexico the mexican economy ministry said that u.s. notification of congress on the new trade accord represents a step forward in agreement between the u.s. and mexico they're saying in mexico that mexico will continue to negotiate on a trilateral nafta deal and will continue pushing for canada to be part of that accord and finally, the economy minister there says mexico will continue following in the nafta

negotiation between the united states and canada and mexico expressing some optimism and hoping that canada can get in on this deal, as well and what you heard chrystia freeland say she gets paid in canadian dollars and not american dollars and that is where her interest lies and the canadians are clearly holding out to a better deal and not getting to the deadline of what we thought would be 5:00 p.m. today. >> and therefore, her canadian dollar value drops another .75% today. >> you're the currency expert. >> well, let's get back to fred bergman from the peterson institute. also on the phone is the center for strategic and international studies. so, fred, members of congress are going come back next week on tuesday. how are they going to take this from the administration that they're officially starting the process to review the revamped nafta without officially onboard. >> there will be a lot of

pressure on the administration from congress to make sure that the ongoing negotiations turn out to be successful there will be a debate within the congress with the deal with mexico by itself, but they won't cross that bridge unless they have to. they will urge canada to come along. in a way, the administration has mousetrapped itself. the congress will now step in on the side of the an cade ans and push the administration to bring them into the agreement and that will probably unfold over at least the next couple of weeks and maybe up to the real deadline which is 30 days from now when the administration is at the detailed text of the different chapters of the agreement. so canada has some running room. they've got a number of interests and the minister

freeland was peddling that and they've got a number of interests they're going to pursue and some of which were not mentioned today and some of which were not active on the table, and it will be a contentious discussion here over these next few weeks >> there was a momentary slip of the tongue from chrystia freeland where she said some of the concessions mexico made had allowed them to conclude and then she held herself and said to continue the discussions. do you think that part of this given the president's off-the-record leak today that they needed to delay their own agreement for this to save some political face back home and the overall tone of that was very optimistic >> no, i don't think so. everything that they said suggests that they really are trying to come to an agreement i think obviously, there's a short-term political benefit in canada that's standing up to the americans, but i don't think that really drove the train.

they've got some serious disagreements and they couldn't close and so, you know, they got to the point where they've gotten to. i think they seem to be positive about this which is why i think they'll come back to the table and see if they can get closer together, but no, i don't think that the tweet which -- not the tweet, the quote, which by the way, was not -- he didn't leak it i don't know, the president himself didn't say it publicly so it's hard to blame him for what happened. i don't think he had anything to do with it >> bill and fred, thank you very much for joining us and we will, of course, continue the discussion on trade and development ahead next week after this break

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that water could do. we called usaa. and they greeted me as they always do. sergeant baker, how are you? they were on it. it was unbelievable. having insurance is something everyone needs, but having usaa- now that's a privilege. we're the baker's and we're usaa members for life. usaa. get your insurance quote today. welcome back to the closing bell and 30 seconds after the show, lots of tweeting on the trade and there's optimism that can be done and the market doesn't mind in the short term perhaps it received a little bit from being out in front of us. wednesday will resume, and who

knows? we have three days of potential headlines of other stuff >> a win-win-win is in sight according to the canadian foreign minister look, this is the art of the deal and we might not be used to it and people might not be used to following the ins and outs of it, but the market seems okay with it and it seems to have faith that it's all going to work out >> we shall see. >> maybe next wednesday we'll get the next headline on it. >> that does it for the closing bell today have a good labor day weekend. "fast money" begins right now. "fast money" starts right now. live from the nasdaq marketsite overlooking times square your traders are mike ko and guy adami. tonight on fast, amazon cracking 2,000 for the first time ever this week and the stock is now part of a growing trend that might make it harder for retail investors to get in on the rally. we'll explain. plus the s&p 500 closing out its best august in years and a be in of surprising stocks are surging and we'll tell youha