companies in the past 100 years that have had the largest market cap. only ten we've seen three of them in the past couple years. >> creativedestruction is picking up more, not less. >> a great stat. >> thank you for watching "power lunch.." >> "closing bell" starts right now. ♪ >> welcome to the "closing bell." i'm sara eisen. >> i'm wilfred frost city group posting high profit we'll dive into the numbers with the former wells fargo ceo >> this is the longest government shutdown in u.s. history. columbia sportswear taking out a full page ad in "the washington post" urging the government to make america's parks open again. we're going to talk to the company's ceo tim boyle about why they made that move coming up. >> let's have a look in on what the markets are doing as the dow intraday chart, the high of the session with one hour left to

trade. only down 32 points. albeit the nasdaq is down more like half of 1%. we started negatively with that poor china trade data. citigroup earnings helped propel us. >> the reaction to citigroup has been buying in the financials, best performing sector a long time since we've seen that potentially a good sign for absorbing earnings in what has been a beaten down market. questions remain about whether financials have gotten overly cheap and being down more than the rest. >> they're very cheap coming into the bank. the only positive sector, industrials and energy trying to get into positive territory. first let's talk about china's trade numbers which significantly disappointed exports fell 4.4% year over year in december marking the with weakest since july 2016, much weaker than expectations of a 3% rise imports declined 7.6%. the consensus there was a 5.4% increase now how will this impact policy

negotiations going forward joining us, john rutledge, cnbc contributor and gordon shank, columnist at the daily beast and author of "the coming collapse of china." gordon, i'll start with you. how bad were these numbers >> certainly much worse than i expected and everybody else expected we have to remember the chinese economy is extremely weak right now. in december it was probably in contraction. >> contraction, outright contraction? when we see these numbers it's going to hit 6%, last month it was actually declining. >> you look at the manufacturing pmis, the official and unofficial were negative you had bellwether car sales down 13% across the board we're going to see a lot more we got this university professor a couple weeks ago made a sensation across china, the chinese economy is growing at most 1.67%, maybe in contraction. december looked like it was declining. >> john, is this all because of the trade war with the u.s.?

>> the trade war with the u.s. is causing a lot of damage for sure, but the global economy is slowing as well. the u.s., the eu, the uk is a total mess, japan is sloel slowing. china is very weak manufacturing is weak as gordon says, service sector much larger, less so, but still it's slowing. i've been actually -- i like what i've seen lately in terms of the trade talks i expect both sides are ready to sit down and announce something, whether they do something or not, so they have some kind of a victory to show as we saw in the two communiques last week. >> gordon, do you think this latest economic data alters the balance of power in the negotiations i guess the kind of dialog, the rhetoric last quarter, was that the u.s. market sold off so much, maybe china had a better negotiating position has that flipped with the china data >> i don't think it's flipped.

the u.s. has always had the overwhelming leverage. look at the new data, it makes it more likely we've got more leverage than we thought for instance, this trade data, you know, when you look at china's officials numbers, 91.9% -- china's merchandise trade surplus with the u.s. was 91.9% of its merchandise surplus according to china's official numbers which underplay u.s. exports which means when we get our commerce department data that 91.9% number probably going to go over 100 that shows overwhelming dependence on the u.s. market. >> we also got that surplus number out of china. the annual surplus $323 billion was a big jump and the highest it's been since 2006 does that enrage president trump? this is exactly what he campaigned against >> it doesn't help because we've got a more robust economy, we're going to be buying more stuff. he had to expect that that was coming clearly i think this shows that china really needs the u.s on the other hand, it does

strengthen president trump's leverage in these crucial trade talks. >> john, you mentioned the global slowdown, do you think that is priced in to u.s. stocks, given the u.s. economy does remain more resilient >> the fact that i hold 70% cash says it's probably not i don't think that's true. i think that the weakness is yet to come and i think that the uk story is not getting enough attention. you know, there's big events happening this week in london and they're not good for the brexit story although they may end up not being a brexit at the end of the day. regarding china, i don't really think it's so easy to decide who has what ledverage because you have to see it not only through the numbers but the politics in both places to say that. the two things the u.s. is after, buy more of our stuff, and change your entire operating system, the first one they're getting wins on, that's easy buy more soybeans and more cars and so forth

in terms of changing the structure, the industrial policy, the i.p. enforcement mechanism, those are like turning an aircraft carrier. they take a long time. i don't think you will see a rabbit out of a hat. i think in a couple weeks we might have an opportunity to declare some mini victories. >> are you saying the market has this wrong, investors are too optimistic about the prospects of a deal? >> i think we need to ask what a deal is. when we're talking about changing i.p. law in china or the way they enforce it, you're talking about a massive enterprise that isn't -- that no one could pull off in a short period of time they can say they'll do it but that doesn't mean it's going to actually happen. in terms of actually purposes and tariffs and things like that, those are the easy ones. you can change them overnight. i think that we will see net positive news on the trade war front over the next few weeks as both sides now may be figging

out this is not something good for either one of us >> do you think that china's growth rates, expectations still being around 5% or 6%, maintains the story throughout the rest of the year or the truth as you believe it, it's 1% or in contraction, does that come out or are they able to keep covering up? >> i don't think they can cover up because the chinese are talking about this you're starting to see so many symptoms of economic decline a simple one, you have students at peking university selling their stuff at much greater levels which indicates that there's real suffering not only rich chinese but poor chinese as well. >> so what so what's going to be the impact of that? are you talking about unrest, uprising or just willingness to make a deal? >> i think it's willingness to make a deal. xi jinping is under pressure and he's going to have to agree to some of the things we want. >> guys, thank you for coming on john and gordon.

shares of citigroup we mentioned trading higher with all the banks as earnings season gets under way key take aways from the report and the call. >> despite a revenue miss citi is trading higher. most of its core businesses are performing well. investors welcomed good loan and deposit growth, solid asset quality and the net interest margin holding steady. no signs of a u.s. recession in the numbers or on the call, so the stock and the rest of the sector responded positively. this was further boosted by strong cost control with expenses down 4% year over year which led to an eps beat, but the capital markets environment was very tough investment banking down 1%, equity trading down 4%, fixed income currency and commodity trading down 21% here is the ceo addressing the sentiment that drove those trading misses >> people went from in some cases having pretty reasonable

years to having down years we really saw kind of a mindset that manifested itself in similar ways for those people that managed to get there and be up, they wanted to protect their ups and weren't willing to be that active and those that were down, said i'm down, i don't want to risk being down further and so we really saw a precipitous drop off in terms of client activity as a result of that >> citi gave a boost to the sector, tomorrow the focus turns to jpmorgan and wells fargo. >> as far as what people were worried about when it comes to bank earnings going in, was it -- it was loan growth. >> it was yeah, particularly loan growth and credit quality on both those citi was fine. as you mentioned they came in pricing whether or not for a recession, they were pricing for a bad outcome there. the call in the u.s. was resilient and that's why you see a big jump on this trading was poor as was

investment banking that doesn't bode particularly well for some of the investment banks like goldman sachs and morgan stanley, all cheap coming into this. >> good pop up more than 4%. joining our "closing bell" exchange, john from wealth management, john brady from ajo brian from the cme group in chicago and art cashin, director of floor operations at ubs what do you make of the market reaction to the citigroup earnings and the sector getting a boost off of it? >> i think it was finally time the financials have been under some duress. it was a great deal of concern that trading desks being what they are these days, the volatility might not help as much as we thought, so i think the earnings were surprisingly better than other people thought and it should be able to lift the group, unless there's a negative surprise that comes out tomorrow. >> john, you're nodding. do you think this is a buying opportunity for the banks? >> particularly citigroup, it's

trading at an 8% discount to its tangible book value. if you're trading at a discount to the book value that means the market thinks your book value will deteriorate, but citi is growing its book value since 2012 and on. it wasn't a perfect earnings call or number, but it wasn't as bad as the market was pricing in. >> john brady, we got the china data which was pretty disappointing in terms of the export numbers in particular, worse trop in two years. what other macro events are we watching this week with the government shut down it's hard to tell what economic data we will get. >> political instability globally will continue to be the main theme you have a brexit vote tomorrow and your earlier guest suggested at the end of the day brexit may not even take place. that would be a very difficult and challenging and volatile road likewise, talk about the markets about snap elections in germany this summer, the core of europe starts to weaken, italy has challenges and the whole conflict of nationalism taking place globally

geopolitically and politically will be the drivers of volatility moving forward for investors. >> the china data clearly a concern, but what do you make of gordon's point that things could be so much worse than the data suggests if that kind of came out and was confirmed over the next few months how badly would markets take it? >> i think they would be be concerned. what's interesting about it is, a good deal of the deterioration in the chinese trade is with europe and with japan. not as much with us. i would also caution the viewers, shanghai market is right down at a trend line that supported it back in 2005 and 2014 it's a long-term trend line. if you saw a 3% to 5% loss in shanghai we might look at a completely different market. keep your eye on china and the dow jones. >> if the ongoing shutdown with

no end in sights has any implications for president trump's trade fight, i mean, he needs to make a deal with congress and with china. does it make it one more likely than the other >> not yet the longer the shutdown happens the murkier it is going to make the gdp and economic data. if that starts to head into a negative spiral downward, then white impact it. until then no, i don't think it's an issue yet. >> we haven't seen that. >> that's right. >> john brady one of your top picks at the moment is to guy gold, is that right? >> yeah, it is, wilfred. we don't think gold is going to the moon but there is some embedded optionality on global market volatility within the current gold price at under 1300 dollars an ounce the fed moved to the sideline with regards to fed policy, but it's balance sheet that has the markets concerned. if things with china or brexit or continental europe really take a turn for a much worse way, we think gold has a little upside only because, again, it's

a diversification for volatility within someone's portfolio the downside seems limited and if policymakers make a misstake there's upside there >> where is the first place you're looking these days when you walk in the doors? is it still oil prices >> oil prices are a very good spot they looked like they were going to get appreciably weaker this morning. they held together, they didn't rally, but they held together. if you get wti down below 50 i think you're going to see pressure on the market the other thing to watch out for is we rallied the dow up to what our mutual friend dennis calls the box, the 50% to 62% retracement level. right now we're in that level. if you were to get a sharp sell off and close below 23,900, then that would indicate that the resistance has overtaken the buyers. >> the very first thing you do is turn on cnbc in the morning, right? >> i have it on constantly. >> thank you very much all of you, we'll leave it

there. john, john and arthur. great to speak with you as always now we've got an alert on nbc universal's streaming service which was announced about an hour ago julia boorstin has the details for us hi, julia. >> wilf, i spoke to nbc universal steve burke about the streaming service. our parent company announced it's planning to launch in 2020. burke telling me the free ad supported service is about the opportunity in advertising he says there's massive demand for digital ads for professionally produced programs burke telling me nbc universal expects to make it in the ballpark of $5 a month per user with advertising with three to five minutes of ads per hour compared to the roughly 15 minutes of commercials per hour of television on average the upcoming service will include live tv, news and sports and cnbc, as well as the on demand programming and in addition to nbc universal content, burke tells me they will look to add content from other creators from sony,

discovery, warner media. burke says the service will be like turbo charged tv everywhere that is the service that aimed to give paid tv subscribers access to the tv on-line he says that never really took off because authentication was too difficult, but burke says this news service will fix that and give paid tv subscribers more value and reason not to cut the cord you cecum cast shares trading up about a third of a percent back to you. >> thank you very much for that interesting development. with our parent company. still ahead on the "closing bell," shares of pg&e tanking today. the utility company facing backlash over its alleged role in sparking california wildfires. we'll bring you up to speed on the latest ahead. >> up next the detroit auto show under way as automakers place bets on new models and futuristic technologies. we'll bring you the highlights from the show floor. we want to hear from you, reach out on twitter, on facebook, or send us an e-mail. the dow down about 64 points "closing bell" will be right

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so you can do more of what you love. my name is tito, and i'm a tech-house manager at comcast. we're working to make things simple, easy and awesome. ♪ you drive me crazy welcome back to "closing bell." losses across the board. second day in a row for s&p 500. we are off and strength in financials and industrials today. potentially a good sign. technology is a loser. nasdaq composite down .6%. the chip names hit nat gas jumping today on forecast for much colder weather, trading at the highest level since december 27. nat gas popping 16%. still measured in per million british thermal units. it will be cold in the u.s. >> sure is

right. detroit auto show under way against the backdrop of lagging stock prices phil lebeau is there with the highlights so far. >> reporter: wilf, we talk about peak auto. we might have peak suvs. if you look around the show floor, you see them all. they're being introduced and automakers charging up their plans coming to ev models. we talked with the ford ceo. they have a surprise for next year we'll talk about cadillac in a little bit and another making news today coming to electric vehicles volkswagen adding a second final assembly plant in chattanooga next to the first and dedicated to all electric vehicles. and speaking of adding capacity, fiat chrysler ceo manly said the company will add capacity with so much demand for the jeep

brand and two new models coming out, they need the extra manufacturing space. here he is. >> one of the things we are going to do in the current five-year plan is bringing two new products to jeep we are going to bring the full size and in the large bring back grand wag oneer. there's no way to fit it in into the existing infrastructure. you know, as you know the pent-up interest really in grand wagoneer is huge that will have to happen in the very near future. >> reporter: okay. so it is not only about suvs or adding capacity. we still have some interest in good old-fashioned cars, especially those halo models toyota with the supra and ceo toyoda coming over from japan an i mentioned cadillac general motors last night talking about the future of cadillac give us an image, a video showing what it could be,

the image of an all-electric model it plans to roll out by 2021 and the reason we're showing you shares of tesla. i asked the president of cadillac, how much are you benchmarking tesla, looking what the they do. his response, obsessively. i have heard more talk about tesla here than anywhere they're not here but on the minds of automakers as they try to gear up their electric vehicle plans. >> that's really interesting color, phil. are you hearing anything about some of the bigger macro concerns at the forefront of this industry right now? china, trade war, tariffs, slowdown in auto vehicles or just the new sexy cars >> reporter: sure. well, it depends on the automaker. you talk with the ceo of vw, they're worried about tariffs given what's going on between the trump administration and european automakers. when you talk with others,

they'll talk about things like whether or not the demand is slowing down the general feeling is that while there are concerns out there that you might see sales slow down just a little bit, maybe 3% to 4%, they don't think we're headed to a big downturn similar to the great recession yeah some of the macro concerns are out there and discussed by executives. >> all right phil, thank you. see you soon from detroit today. >> reporter: you bet. we've got about 36 minutes here to go before the closing bell take a look at the major averages dow off 50 and off the lows of the session. one point earlier we were down 230 points we are actually near the highs of the session right now s&p down a third of a percent. nasdaq down about double that. the russell 2000 index of small caps, as well. coming up, shares of lululemon as they raise the fourth quarter outlook we'll have a debate on whether now is a good time to jump in. colombia sportswear

protesting the government shutdown the company's ceo will join us exclusively to explain why he took that anstd. we're back in a couple of minutes.

still ahead, former wells fargo ceo dick kovacevish says there might be surprises. a head of a top grocery chain sees red flags for the

consumer in 2019 what kroger ceo told me at the national retail federation conference over the weekend. >> what was it >> midtown manhattan they get 30,000 people 's a huge show we'll be right back.

♪ welcome back to the "closing bell." after three straight up weeks for the major averages, taking a pause today and within the overall market there's bright spots. financials and industrials are in the green it's energy weighed down by pg&e time now for a cnbc news update with sue herera. hello. >> hello, everyone. the white house is defending the lengths president trump went to to conceal details of conversations with russia's president putin. white house counselor saying there was great concern of leaks in 2017. >> he had an oval office meeting in may of 2017 contents of that leaked. there was great concern at the time i haven't discussed this directly with him but we were concerned -- we're always concerned about leaks,

particularly national security leaks. >> sergei lavrov meeting with japan warning that it must recognize them as part of russia's territory as a starting point for the talks. prized free agent machado with an eight-year deal from the white sox. the philadelphia phillies and a mystery team are also considering extending offers to the 26-year-old all-star you are up to date that's the news update this hour back down to you. >> lucrative set of offices, no doubt. thank you. we have 28 minutes left of trade in today's session we are close to the session highs, just off them really down 60 points on the day let's look at the biggest movers of the day bob pisani on the floor here and bertha coombs at the nasdaq. bob? >> we are -- it's true we are nearer the highs of the

day. we have a problem. we have been running out of steam for several days now there's no hope or no help, excuse me, from some of the defensive stocks so pfizer and merck, great stars going into december throughout the year and they have done not much walgreens, johnson & johnson have not helped. the groups that had been doing well are cyclical names, for example, united technologies, 3m, some of those stocks doing well banks perked up a little bit after being oversold in the fourth quarter so there's the two groups having a little bit of hen and we have a problem. where are we right now stuck in a trading range and gone nowhere four days in a row. china trade talks ongoing. the brexit uncertainty and the weak ens poi weakest point, international data that's a hard one to overcome right now. back to you. >> all right bob, thank you very much let's send it up to bertha

coombs at the nasdaq >> tech underperforming. bio tech down for the first time in nine sessions and small caps breaking a losing streak western digital today getting downgraded over at evercore isi over the concern of storage and demand for memory and weighing on apple supplier also having warned about its results, as well relative strengths coming from communications and consumer names, however take a look at those facebook up. now up better than 11%, 12% on the year activision also up for the first time after that big decline last week saying it was breaking with bungee finally, taking a look at lululemon. offering a better than expected outlook for the holiday quarter and interestingly, guys, i'm intrigued by the fact of booking.com and expedia, the

travel sites up considering all the concerns about the shutdown's impact on travel and security with the number of tsa members out. back to you. >> okay. bertha, thanks very much for that kroger ceo speaking out on the economy. sara, you spoke with him yesterday here in new york city. >> but they're based in cincinnati so we share that i sat down with ceo mcmillan at the trade show and with macy's recent warning of the market turbulence, i asked him as the country's largest grocer what his take was on the state of the u.s. consumer. here's what he said. >> it's fascinating right now from the customer standpoint they feel good about the economy but very nervous about where are things headed. so, if you talk about questions in the present, incredibly complimentary and excited. if you change the question a little bit in terms of where do

you think things are going, a lot more uncertainty and it's not necessarily bad. it's just exactly where is it going? we don't see anything that would cause us to say there's a recession right around the corner. >> he sort of framed it, wilfred, as a fork in the road feeling good about the present but when it comes to the future, watching the countuncertainties. the stock market to see how they pan out. before sort of feeling good about the future, as well. >> i guess the main takewatakea macy's is a one off. >> i think that the story has been and mastercard put out 5% plus spending numbers for the holiday season it's not a rising tide lifting all boats. they're spending on groceries and lululemon. but they're not spending as much

on department stores if they are, they're being promotional. so we also talked about the whole future of grocery with amazon entering the space last year i asked mcmullen where he sees retail and groceries in the future listen. >> people will always ask, do i think retail will go away. and it's absolutely not. now, it will not look like the way it looks today you know, i think about there will be stores do go in online on a screen and buy something. you can scan your loyalty card and tell you what's for dinner tonight. we'll make you dinner for tonight. it is going to continually change which to me makes it super fun. >> and as far as grocery in particular, at least in this country, he said we're in the second inning when it comes to online shopping. that they're all sort of trying to figure out and whether it's a three-way race kroger, amazon and walmart

he said it's so huge. >> second of how many? this is interesting how one of the few areas where the uk's moved ahead of this in terms of online retail. does he think the main amount of the threat and the hit to margins happened or still to come >> i don't think we were talking about hits to margins specifically but growth of grocery online and such a small part of the $800 billion market right now. most americans still stop in stores you are way ahead of us in the uk i think second inning out of nine isn't that baseball? >> in baseball it is i didn't know what sport we were referring to. >> baseball. it is early day s. that's the point. >> we are ahead on grocery delivery smaller countries. central hub. >> you have good companies who are doing -- and that's why kroger's partnering with them. anyway, speaking of retail, courtney reagan is there at the annual show and, kourtdny, there

have been a ton of high profile big ceo speakers on this topic what are you hearing >> reporter: there have and the other big piece of the show, sara, people don't see is the action on the expo floor and in the innovation lab that's where all the newest retail technologies are showcased and really start-ups from around the world, consumer facing and behind the scenes, things like mili here. a virtual stylist and a greeter for a store, a store ambassador. she can answer questions a canadian fashion brand is using her right now as well as a grocery store in germany in their stores and then there's a grocery store in queens using this caper smart cart. cameras weigh the produce and they can check out right there on the cart and walk out you have retailers that are using robots for picking merchandise and restocking there's also a drone powered by intel. that can gather inventory information used in a canadian

grocery store for ab inbev using analytics for your gender as a consumer, the age and micro target personalized messaging while in store and gather the data one did think i was a 22-year-old female i was flattered but needs calibration. call mart is using smart shelf technology to lower the prices of food that's expiring soon and the company says that retailers and brands are hesitant to use this technology at first and just over the last three months or so they're getting calls from brands and retailers that want to use it, put it in the stores and they think it's the amazon affect of what happened from the amazon go stores where everyone wondered would that be okay to just walk out but it seems like it is and they want more of it back over to you guys. >> what are you hearing from the heads of the department stores, courtney, after that big macy's

warning last week? can the little innovations actually help turn the tide? >> reporter: so it's funny that you mentioned that we haven't heard from a lot of other department store heads yet but we heard from best buy and target, both ceos today. really both of their key message if i were to tie together a theme is that stores are really important. yes, technology's important. yes, e-commerce is important but using the stores, greatest asset and biggest competitive advantage. they both sort of brought that up unaided and remember the numbers out of target saying 3 out of every 4 online purchases in the holiday season fulfilled by a store some way, shipped from the store or the consumer chose to come and pick it up so i think fundamentals, retail 101, that is still the most important even though all this whiz bang ai machine learning is important in the long run and helps us learn about the consumer, you have do get the

basics right. >> yeah. makes sense. thank you. courtney reagan. >> thanks. 19 minutes here to go before the closing bell dow's down about 68 points heading south a little bit again. nasdaq's off .75%. shares of pg&e tanking after announcing it's planning to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy details next

welcome back shares of pg&e plummeting today. its ceo stepping down as the company faces billions of dollars in potential liabilities. we have more from pg&e's hq. aditi? >> reporter: you can see the security guards and barricades are up the company says that it plans to file for bankruptcy by the end of the month in a regulatory filing, the utility also saying that if it is held liable for the total cost of the 2017 and the 2018 northern california wildfires, those costs could exceed $30 billion. and that doesn't even include punitive damages that includes the deadly campfire that was a deadliest blaze in

california history killing at least 86 people. the utility says it faces nearly a dozen class action suits related to the fires the state's attorney general and the butte county district attorney said they're exploring criminal charges this morning's filing after last knight's announced by the company that its ceo geisha williams is stepping down. pg&e services 16 million customers in northern and central california bankruptcy would likely not disrupt service and likely increase rates and this is the first big challenge for california govern newsome taking office last week back to you guys. >> aditi roy, thank you, in california lets's bring in david farber for more you have been reporting on this for days now about what led up to this. was there any choice was this -- anything that could

have prevented this? >> hard to say, sara the dye seemed to have been cast week weeks or months ago not just from the 2017 fire but the result of the 2018 fire and something called inverse condemnation which california and i believe only one other state maybe alabama actually have in place meaning that the utility bears the liability even if it's not negligent and so pg&e thought it had a way around that when the legislature actually crafted a bill this fall, 901, that would have allowed it to hit the securities markets with bond offerings to meet claims from the 2017 fire but, in fact, they make it clear that even there they would have had trouble because the claims would have been paid before the bonds and then that doesn't even include 2018 and when you're talking over $30

billion in potential liabilities, the numbers are simply too large for them to withstand it would seem. sara, the equity market may not have believed that this was going to be the case but the company seemed to be coming and to it sometime ago. >> david, as you were reporting this morning, some people wondered whether it was a bluff or a way to force the state to give aid that's resolutely not the case. >> doesn't appear to be, wilf. everything i heard in the last let's call it ten days of reporting on this is that the company really has been focused on bankruptcy, chapter 11, as the way to best at least deal with all of the issues coming at it and all the constituencies obviously, its customer base, the claimants from the fires, its bondholders, creditors and equity holders it is interesting to note despite what's horrific decline in the stock there is still

equity value here and may be certainly beyond even with the bankruptcy filing the bonds clearly it's indicating par plus accrued interest and that's a part of the story to be following from here. but it seems little doubt at this point, wilf, that they're not going to file bankruptcy on the 29th of january. >> and what do you know about how widely owned this was? there's reports it was a hot hedge fund stock popular at idea dinners. utilities, this is rare, i think, right for public utility to file for bankruptcy. >> it is except for pg&e in 2001 when they filed bankruptcy. but even there, there was equity recovery value and during the period of time that they actually were in bankruptcy, the equity increased in value. so you had huge funds looking at the possibility that they could file, thinking probably not. the state will step in going and having meetings in california with legislators and

feeling like the effort of researching this is a mispriced equity the other way they didn't foresee this or at least they didn't in the third quarter of last year. >> okay. thanks very much for joining us. david faber in new york at 30 rock. delta getting a downgrade ahead of the earnings report tomorrow we will have the details and the stock move next. [leaf blower] you should be mad at leaf blowers. [beep] you should be mad your neighbor always wants to hang out. and you should be mad your smart fridge is unnecessarily complicated. but you're not mad,

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united on 7 times and american on 6 times so still kind of like the overall sector and think delta's already got it in its earnings. >> so many warnings from them this season. i'm warning lululemon raising guidance, rising today and up more than 5 saw strong sales they say in the holiday season they raised profit guidance, raised revenues and comp store sales. a retailer resonating and the growth drivers for lulu is menswear and benefit from the fact it's so cold outside getting into outerwear, water resistant technologies the like nothing bra the first all day bra. they have a cult-like following. >> not from me i tried to buy something the trousers are too short the pants are too short.

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don't get mad. get e*trade, dawg. we have a market flash right now. alibaba. seema? >> shares are falling after president michael evans of alibaba told "the wall street journal" he sees china growth slowing in 2019 saying as a $13 trillion economy it would be quite unusual that it would continue to grow at 7% or 8% he expects growth to slow in 2019 because of natural causes within the country and cited the trade embargo. wilf, sending it back to you. >> seema, thank you very much for that china was a big factor that data we got on trade that weighed on the market but as we look at the close here, it is better than what europe and asia did we have improved in the day. the dow high was down 31

about half an hour ago approaching the close we are down about -- sorry. i can't see the screen here. down about 90 points and off the lows sector performance for you, banks only real sector with positive impetus and industrials and energy pausing for a bit utilities weighed severely pg&e dragging the banks. and also a quick look at steriling with a pop intraday on hopes that theresa may wins the deal tomorrow. bob? >> it's nice to see the underowned - >> me. >> always a pleasure underowned, underappreciated banks doing better' big time. >> like energy two years ago, nobody wants to own banks anymore and nice to see a pop. actually not bad numbers you reported that accurately the other thing that's disappointing is everybody has

advice for apple about the china situation. also getting advice on apple, i don't think it's necessarily a major issue. i think probably work it out and discount the iphones very quickly. >> at the close, bob, down .3% onthe dow. almost 4% on the nasdaq and the russell. s&p in between so a little bit of selling down into the close sara, back to you. ♪ welcome to the "closing bell." i'm sara eisen wilfred frost rejoining me in a moment along with mike santoli, markets commentator. let's look at how we finished the day on wall street as wilfred mentioned, second day in a row of declined selling into the close and not as bad as the open opening by 230 points lower a loss of 91 points. s&p 500 down half a percent.

nasdaq down a percent and same with the russell 2000. financials only group to close higher after citigroup kicked off the big bank earnings and the context, coming off of three straight weeks of gains. coming up on the show this afternoon, the ceo of colombia sportswear saying why he is taking out an ad in protest of the government shutdown. china's trade surplus hitting a record $323 billion and how it could impact the trade talks. earnings season kicking off today as analysts cut that you are forecast at the highest rate since 2011 and apple under pressure again after one of its suppliers reported weak sales. joining us to talk about the market day, jim la camp is here, senior profolio manager at ubs mike, as always. markets ed tore. so the banks did okay. the rest of the market took a breather. >> banks did fine.

i think it's worth going back and recognizing how unthinkable a day like today would have been a month ago when the market opens down volatility's around 20 and then it just kind of finds its footing. dip is bought in the morning sleepwalks the way higher and modest losses but a mixed tape underneath the surface that's not to say empg is bavers back to normal but it's interesting after the 10% move we're hovering under the level everybody believes might be a challenge to get above and it was not really alarming behavior right? didn't take a few excuses it could have grabbed on to. >> asia was a softer session and europe an as you say shrugged it off. other point of the china trade data is weakness out trade with china and europe more than the u.s. and the point that the u.s. economy itself still okay. >> seems fine. and i do think you're right that

basically traders could have overextrapolated the chinese numbers and pressuredthe market we have seen this pattern in the last few weeks where any weakness in the morning tends to be picked up and you have had strong rotation and the growth stocks weak today. apple down almost 2% and you definitely had some weights in there but i think it's an inconclusive day rather than a day saying is this rally in jeopardy? >> jim, where are you on this market that, you know, still off 12% from the highs big downturn big comeback still lower. >> we still haven't solved anything technically and saying that every time i come on this show but it's still true and you mentioned levels, 2600 on the s&p as it's a technician's dream and then sells off a little bit 200-day moving average to overcome for the indices, as well yet we are well above the lows

and we're starting to see some stronger closes. i would mention, also, the budget deal was also another piece of bad news that could have impacted the market today >> the lack of a deal. >> there wasn't any particular news and the longer these go on then the more chronic they get and the market looks okay and the economy is really doing pretty well. looking at consumption is higher r looking at overall freight volume, it spells good things for the american economy unlike the rest of the globe we are moving in a positive direction. certainly doesn't spell recession. i want to point out two other things high yield spreads way back in over the last few days theis a sign risk taking might be peeking the head above and you and i talked about emerging markets last time. if it was weaker the

international areas will start to move. >> talk to us about the positioning in light of that are you avoiding anything with international exposure given the china trade data we had and u.s. consumer focus >> we think value outperforms finally. almost a boy that cried wolff now for five years but it's starting to show, peek the head up you have careful of getting too excited about the banks because look at where spreads are. 10-year treasury at 2.7% what will happen with lending? loan officer surveys are good. valuations are good for the banks. looking at 4% earnings growth for the markets and where are we positioned we have a high level of cash in the portfolios we have got some gold equities that have been mixed in there. so little more defensive but on the dips we are starting to buy things. and on rallies if we have something we don't want anymore

we're starting to prune those. play the trading range. >> talk about earnings season. has officially begun citigroup this morning closing almost 4% higher and analysts cutting. certainly the financials were a good sign. >> yes i think they were maybe an extreme example of exactly how beaten down one group had gotten in advance of this i guess some level of slowdown is priced in i don't think that the headline number of 7%, 2019 earnings growth plus the say 2%, 3% earnings beat on top of that, anything like that is priced in. on the other hand, it's common in december for people to say, oh, we almost have an earnings recession priced in. deutsche banc over the weekend said 10% decline priced in i think that's aggressive. it's still above 15 times forward earn agency ten proceins

so i think we're somewhere in the middle and a few things have to go right for the market to hold this valuation. one of them is earnings stay above the zero line for the year and the next few quarters anyway we can't be projecting into a likely recession next year the market won't give you a multiple if that's where we are in two to three quarters and credit spreads as jim mentioned, probably have to firm up a little more to keep the valuation. >> i have a question about the rest of the bank's earnings for you. so clearly today citi missed on revenue and beat on eps. all the other factors aside, that was enough for them to perform well if they all do that, do you think by the end of the week we will be down again ie, do people think give citi a pass and if everyone missed revenue and did well on the bottom line, would the market -- >> given they bounced today, you probably can't have across the

board revenue misses there's muscle memory and typically a trading line that's weak on one bank not smk that's followed by the others and a give and take in terms of product mix and positioning. sometimes -- >> i have a feeling the fik is tough across the board. >> a bad environment in that sense. >> loan growth good and some bigger banks grow in spite of that. >> we're positioning heavily investing is a matter of what's already priced into the market and how are people positioned. and we have tremendous amount of cash on the sidelines. there's a report out today, $3 trillion in cash how will we position and respond to bad news? if we can shaken out the nervous nellies, the market crawls higher: with the banks, negativity is priced in and i think doing better than what the market thinks they're doing and

so i don't think there's a particular hurry, particularly with the 10-year at 2.7 but an area to start shopping. >> we also, jim, have earnings tomorrow from delta. downgraded today it's been downgrades, warnings from that sector going into it do you think they're cheap enough >> on the airlines, i'm not crazy about the airlines one of the things about groups like the airlines is you're going do have to navigate through a lot of news, you have to navigate through where oil prices are and if you look at the history of airline stocks, they're not great growth stocks long term. right now i'm looking for things that i can position. we have a big correction in the market i think the economy's doing better than where the market priced it. >> so just to clarify, when i introduced the topic i said that analysts cutting earnings estimates overall most is that a sign they're too

optimistic or things deteriorated that much in the economy and the environment? >> i think it's a combination. i think global economy fell away faster than most thought and then you saw things like, you know, treasury yields coming down and basically all the models would have pointed you toward cutting pretty quickly but then also you had things like -- i mean, apple as a really big impact on overall s&p earnings and there's a downside bias to do that and we've in this unusual situation in 2017 especially where earnings estimates raised going into the quarter and then beaten. that's extremely unusual and not always that negative for the market when you've been slashing estimates coming into the quarter. sometimes the market has gotten there first. >> another negative day today for apple. chipmaker dialogue semi reporting fourth quarter sales at the low end of range. let's have a look at how it

finished down 1.5% today. it is down 32% in just the last 3 months mike, we kind of thought a while back that the worst news is priced in. started to see a bit of a bounce again, not just that news but china's trade so soft this morning didn't help. >> makes me wonder how many times the market discounts the same news. but to me it tells you that it wasn't really a true full washout yet psychologically in apple stock perhaps. it is up only 5% or 6% from its lows opposed to the market up 10% so i do think it's a show-me situation. prove that iphone sales aren't weaker than we expected and maybe shadowed by the general china concerns. >> it's positioning. if people are way heavy in a name and might take longer to

wash that name out than it would normally take. >> do you think more pain ahead for apple? >> here's a question people have to answer about apple. the question is, did they just price a phone too high that didn't have enough new features to draw people off the sidelines? product problem or is it a really global demand problem investors have to side that about apple. there's cross currents about apple and i'm not allowed to discuss whether i buy it or sell it in here but i do think these are the things people have to look at other than selling "x" number of phones and there's more cross currents there. >> rushing out three more models this year. >> one of the challenges they will have to have, i have the ten and i look at the new phones that come out saying do i want that phone do i want to pay another $400 more than i paid for this phone for that phone

they will have to bring new innovation, products that get people off the sidelines. >> i don't know which one i have anymore. which is a worrying sign >> it's a blackberry >> does everything i need to do. >> probably old. >> jim, thank you for joining us. up next, former wells fargo ceo dick kovacevich tells us about citi. and lululemon after strong holiday sales, two analysts debate whether you should buy the stock right now. you're awesome and xfinity would like to say, "thank you."

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welcome back shares of citigroup finishing higher by nearly 4% after mixed fourth quarter earnings before the bell this morning and beat on eps in part due to lowering expenses and missed on revenue because of weaker than expected bond trading. >> joining us now to discuss what today's earnings mean for other banks reporting this week, tom brown, ceo of second current capital and dick kovacevich formerly of wells fargo. do you think this puts the

concerns to rest or raise more questions? >> well, i thought it was a great report by citi in the sense that they did an outstanding job all yearlong on expense control. and the environment that they had to work with in the fourth quarter was terrible for trading as you mentioned and yet they were still able to lower their efficiency ratio for the ninth consecutive quarter and says that the bank stocks oversold in the fourth quarter citi was down about 30% and the expectations just got so negative that they exceeded those negative expectations. >> tom, do you think that cost cutting expense control will be repeated by the other names or is that stock specific, excuse me >> wilfred, i think you're getting a really good point which is in 2018 i think the four largest banks, excludeing goldman sachs and morgan stanley from the discussion but got to the point now where the cost of

running the business are going down because of efficiencies and they're able to take some of those savings and fund their investment and prior year's investments leading to lowering the cost of actually operating the business so yes i do think it will be followed by other banks >> dick, do you think the main thing we're seeing today with the banks trading higher is how cheap they'd become coming into earnings >> right as you know, in 2018, bank stocks down 18% while the overall market was down only 6%. and this is despite the fact that the dividend yields on banks is 30% to 50% higher than the market and yet their pe ratios about 30% lower than the market so if you're a value investor, this is a good time and i fully expect that bank earnings in the fourth quarter will be much, much better than what the recent stock prices

suggest they will be >> your old company reports tomorrow morning, dick clearly it doesn't have big exposure to the fixed income trading in the way that some of the other banks do are you encouraged this they should have a very strong set of numbers tomorrow >> well, i think, you know, they have other issues. and i think despite those issues their profits have been reasonably okay. but i think until those other issues are solved they're not likely to have, you know, great earnings increases but still do reasonably well i think that in my opinion market sensitive revenue, you know, it goes up and down. to me, it's -- in any given quarter it's irrelevant and i think the rest of the banks and the rest of the areas of which they do business will be reasonably strong and with more

efficiency the profits will be much better than xs expected by the market >> tom, a bigger picture, i wonder how you think about how the larger banks ought to be valued at this point in the cycle or just in general a few years ago saying regulation meant they're utilities but without dividends and maybe now with dividends and an economic leverage 9% return is that worth paying up for at this stage >> among the largest banks that would be the lowest return on equity we would be talking about so citi just barely made 10% return on -- i mean 11% return on equity in 2018. the goal is 12% for next year but you will have other of the large banks to report 15%. return on tangible equities. i don't see anything as a utility. i see a business in a remarkable

transition and particularly the largest banks winning in the retail banking business. >> in the long term, dick, do you think that these banks would be well priced regardless of what the economic outcome is clearly this morning citi suggests we're not heading to a recession but do you think because the recession was so focused on banks that people price in something more cataclysmic as a risk going forward? >> i think that's possible i think there's just a lot of things that are uncertain. and, you know, banks are involved with every aspect of the economy. when you have uncertain areas, you know, trade and federal reserve policies and so on, you know, it's just causing people to wait. and i think when they see the earnings, when they see the fact that, you know, credit quality is very good, efficiencies are improving, and because they just have been beaten down so badly,

i think all of the negatives in the banking area has already been built into the prices again, 30% below the market and 18% fall last year so they're at a level today where i think any good news is going to result in higher stock prices. >> gents, we'll leave it there thank you both for joining us. >> citi's the most internationally exposed bank, right? did you get anything on color from the executives on the call about globally >> mexico's pretty strong and encouraged by that some currency currency affects. asia is soft and more broadly from the region and not just the trade ibss and the tone from the cfo and the ceo on trade in asia is we haven't seen it filter into the real economy yet but by the end of 2019 we probably will but asian weakness was a theme

regardless of weakness. next, the charts to see why the market is still on edge despite the recent comeback. colombia sportswear political for the first time ever and urging an end to the government shutdown. we'll speak to the ceo of why etthshdoolved in the issue whher e utwn is hurting his business is it because so many go after it the same way, chasing after short-term returns? instead if getting caught up with the crowd, the investment managers at pgim take a long term view. uncovering opportunities for alpha across public and private markets, while anticipating unforeseen risk, has powered our rise to a top ten global asset manager. partner with pgim. the global investment management businesses of prudential financial, inc.

welcome back despilt the recrept comeback in stocks, the charts could signify

continued volatility. >> yes this is a goldman sachs financial conditions index so at least what it's suggesting is not fully back to the normal flush that we were before this big correction started in october. as you see here, the gs, goldman sachs, financial conditions, many of these that float around. tighter conditions mean less lick wi tid, perhaps lower risk ap titd. what goes into this? it is stock prices and treasury yields, credit spreads, general financial conditions are saying basically they peaked in tightness, so basically, got as bad as they have been in a few years in a december low. if this is a price, you would say, wow, that's a dramatic looking top and maybe we have seen the worst or the peak in stress right now and that's deposit look at the room down here before normal and i think this

explains that we're on edge and not getting to the point to be up, up and away with the stock market and the goldman index has the greatest link of predictive power of gdp and will have the growth concerns out there. maybe you get higher treasury yields to suggest that the market is getting more confident in the economic outlook. >> if we look at the sort of january/february wobble here, not as much of a cause then? financial conditions >> not at all. back then it was a gut check of the stock market you didn't see the affect in credit spreads whereas you did here finally in december. >> this is the powell put. this is where he hit the pain threshold and shiftedthe tone. >> right. >> and everything started

calming down. >> that's true what do you do when you rally 10%? we have decided perhaps is that things have to get intensely bad over a concentrated period of time to tightness before we get maybe a change in posture from the fed and why i think the market is not necessarily fully confident that we have left behind that phase. >> really is remarkable to see the repair across assets. >> yes. >> i would pin it to that point. people say there's optimism and it has to -- comes down to the fed. >> there was some kind of a panicky overshoot in december. some of that has been reversed and clearly not all. >> all right another good one, mike. time for a news update with sue herera. canadian prime minister trudeau reacting to a chinese court resentencing a canadian man to death for drug smuggling. escalating tensions following canada's arrest of huawei's cfo

last year. >> we are extremely concerned, as should be all countries around the world that china is choosing to act arbitrarily. thousands of l.a. teachers on strike demanding higher pay and smaller classes. they rallied in the rain outside of city hall officials say it could bankrupt the l.a. school system, the second largest in the country. elizabeth holmes at a court for criminal charges against her and her former president they were indicted on conspiracy and wire fraud charges last summer and could each face up to 20 years in prison you are up to date that's the news update i'll send it back downtown to you. >> thank you very much for that. gannett shares ending up 21% on rumors of a takeover. julia boorstin has more.

hi. >> reporter: hi, wilf. shares spiking on an unsolicited takeover offer of mmg enterprises owning 7.5% of gannett. a merger would consolidate the struggling newspaper economy they own "usa today" and 120 local newspapers such as "detroit free press" and "milwaukee journal sentinel. mmg which also operations as digital first media owns 200 newspapers and publications including "the denver post," and "boston herald." mmg is criticized for dramatic cost cutting a "detroit free press" writer saying if it will be the end of the american newspaper industry.

mmg asked gannett to freeze digital acquisitions for which they say they have overpaid. gannett saying the board of directors will review the proposal received to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the company and shareholders. right now gannett is considered vulnerable hunting for a new ceo ahead of the retirement of the current ceo. >> thank you julia boorstin what is your take on this? >> i mean, it is obviously a bill of a salvage operation. you need scale if you're in this business and it's amazing the numbers and how small in terms of what gannett is worth newspaper cash flows were considered kind of inpenetrable and value stock play so the only way i think people believe that there's any way to get value out of it is to just, you know, cut

costs more to the bone and something of a sad thing. >> very sad for our industry. we have a news alert on dave & buster's seema? >> on the topic of consumer spending, dave and busters raising full-year guidance expected to increase by 1.8% to 2.5% shares are up 6% worth noting the stock coming off the worth month in history in december. it lost about 22%. but looks like some investors repricing the expectations back to you. >> thank you for that. still to come here on the "closing bell," a bull and bear square off on lululemon. we're back aerhisht eak.ft ts or i know that every single time that i suit up,

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shares of lululemon higher today after the company raised forecast for both revenue and earnings citing the best holiday season in six years and other retailers like macy's struggled to meet expectations for holiday sales. >> joining us to discuss whether it's a good bet right now, jan

niphon and brian nagel so, jan, if you follow the company today's news wasn't that shocking because they have been best in class retail for a while now. the question is for investors, is now a good time >> well, that is the question. i mean, they're a fabulous company. i'm wilf runs in the gear. and i do. >> he doesn't. >> they're not long enough. >> which i find hard to believe. >> that's probably true. but anyway, they're a great company. the product's great. they're in a market that's increasing at a decreasing rate. right? so it's that whole market is slowing down they're the winner in it and the most expensive company in it and so when you look at them you say as this slows down, will it start to affect them you worry about 2019 being a slower year for the aspirational customer and then i look at it saying could one more sell side analyst recommend it

i don't think so it's running at 38 times when you look at it as far as its, you know, pricing. so you say, i don't know do i want to buy it now at 38 times and may see slowing in the future and stocks like that can be cut in half by the market slowing down and taking a look at the multiples so it's not that i don't love them i do love the product and if company but not sure to own them now. >> we have someone saying yes to that question. brian, why at 38 times and 77% gain over the last 12 months is lulu still a buy >> i don't disagree. some point the high growth companies do slow but with the key of lululemon is not happening any time soon. if you look at the preannouncement, they issued today, here talking about mid to upper teens comparable sales and not seen that anywhere else in retail and frankly this is a stock that it's expensive and i

will probably quibble at the multiple out there i think it's more of a mid to high 20s multiple and it's actually well off the highs right now. trading 20% off the highs and i think as i look at that i think lulu's stock came down basically in a very tough market in the shift lowered in the stock price was completely at odds with much stronger fundamentals of the company. >> jan, we saw macy's weak release. l-brands weak release. strong from lulu do you think we see more of this pretty stark differentiation getting more numbers from the holiday season or one of these one offs >> oh no we have seen some stark differentiation already. right? and i think we see more in the not great okay category than in the lulu category. macy's was really the most disappointing and call them terrible and l-brands terrible kohl's were okay

target was okay. bed bath & beyond they liked and a case of if the price finally gets low enough and the expectations get low enough you can beat it. but in general, people turned in decent numbers and not the numbers you would have thought given the fact that mastercard saying sales up 5.1% the best in a decade and yet numbers were just okay coming out and some were bad. i think it's a clear case where there's good growth totally with the consumer the consumer's in good shape and no ability pass through and that's putting presumptive republican nominee -- pressure on all of these companies. >> just how much of an exception is lulu? you mentioned 10% to 18% comps or whatever it was will we be talking in a few quarters how they're lapping the great comps or bet on that momentum continuing there?

>> so let's take that piece. how much of an exception is lulu it's a big one this is one of -- my fastest growing i'm going to say brands. i follow a bunch of companies. some are brands, retailers a fastest growing company. with regard to the sustainability of that, yes, okay they have to deal with lapping this this is one of the things, factors that intrigues me most with lulu. you have an incredible product innovation and wasn't that long ago that this was a yoga company focused on female customers in canada and the united states okay now it's a company that is taking its legacy if you will in yoga, extending that to other type of sports if you will, broadening the reach of just canada and the united states and that's what helps to fuel the sustainability of the results is that it's lulu still a relatively small company with great innovation to be a player in a very, very large space.

>> just really s.t.a.r.t.itartit going overseas. >> that's correct. >> thank you jan, brian on lulu. the fight over the government shutdown, now has the ceo of one of america's leading sportswear companies sakg pein out. we will have his story coming up s at rootmetrics say is number one in the nation? sure, they probably know what they're talking about. or the one that j.d. power says is highest in network quality by people who use it every day? this is a tough one. well, not really, because verizon won both. so you don't even have to choose. why didn't you just lead with that? it's like a fun thing. (vo) chosen by experts. chosen by you. get six months apple music on us. it's the unlimited plan you need on the network you deserve. now buy the latest galaxy phones, get galaxy s9 free.

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page in "the washington post" urging the government to make america's parks open again we'll talk to the company's ceo coming up next. and tonight on "fast money," a top market bull will reveal where he sees opportunity in today's market who says our bank isn't tech enough? everyone, look at your phones. the design thinking, the digital engineering, security, blockchain, and we will be first to market! yes. when we do we launch? unfortunately, in 2 or 3, hours. why the delay? cognizant is helping banks use digital technologies at scale to advance speed to market. i've done all sorts of research, read earnings reports, looked at chart patterns. i've even built my own historic trading model. and you're still not sure if you want to make the trade? exactly. sounds like a case of analysis paralysis. is there a cure?

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president trump addressing the shutdown earlier in a speech to farmers in new orleans. ylan has the latest. >> reporter: it is now day 24 and we are officially in the longest shutdown in u.s. history. no movement today. the president is on his way back from new orleans where he did

give a speech and this morning he took the idea of declaring a national emergency off the table and said it would be too easy and said in new orleans democrats in congress need to do their jobs. >> i'm asking the citizens to call the democratic lawmakers and ask them to pass a bill that secures our border, protects our country and now reopens our government because as soon as they do that, we reopen our government. >> reporter: while he was speaking, the top democrat in the senate chuck schumer tweeted this he said, u.s.d.a. can't pay out aid in the trump shutdown. farmers can't get loans. mr. president, if you want to help, reopen the government. meanwhile, the economic toll is rising s&p puts it at 1.2 billion off gdp each week and may not account that in the 2013 shutdown the u.s. didn't provide export certification for beer, wine and spirits i call that an unhappy hour.

back over to you >> always good on the word play. thank you very much. now, nearly one third of the u.s. national parks have been closed due to the shutdown this causing colombia sportswear to take out a first-ever political ad which ran friday saying make america's parks open again and saying walls shouldn't block access to parks and federal workers shouldn't be left out in the cold work together to open our parks. >> ceo tim boyle joining us now. welcome, tim nice to see you. >> thank you great to be with you thank you very much. >> why did you decide to do this >> well, these parks -- listen we are not running for office in any way here but our business is really predicated on people being able to enjoy the outdoors and the outdoors is no more better represented than by the national parks and, frankly, the

government has such an enormous investment in these parks that we feel it's really important that that investment is supported and protected. and that's really important to us not only for the citizen of the united states who are our customers but our company which does about 40% of the business outside the u.s. is really well thought of because people around the world think of america as an outdoor paradise and we really need to make sure that these assets that we own and have supported for so long are protected. >> but, why now? i'm sure there's lots of political issues that annoyed you in the past. why did this one particularly spark you into action to spend i believe $80,000 of company money that's politically motivated >> well, it's not politically motivated, frankly this is about, again, allowing access and protecting the assets that we have invested in so

heavily as a country you know, this is notabout which politicalparty is more i favor of the outdoors. in fact, the only party that's against the outdoors is the donner party and this is about protecting and is the -- party and about prospecting assets the country has invested in so heavily for a long time. >> i'm guessing the decision to do this had to come after some consideration how your customers might respond to it and engage with it. what has been the response and what was that calculation? >> of course, we wanted to know what the risks were of speaking out. frankly, you know, when you speak out, you will always have some negatives not only the response but the people who have contacted the company has been overwhelmingly positive this is an important issue and we want both sides to come together to get this solved and

get the parks open again >> is the shutdown actually hurting your business? are you seeing it in the sales >> not yet we would expect people who want to go outdoors need apparel and footwear to enjoy ne outdoors and over time this will definitely have an impact. frankly, we're thinking about the long term. the assets the country has invested in, thinking about the assets of the middle east that isis, you know, caused so much damage to. we want to make sure that doesn't happen to our pristine parks and areas that the government has historically protected. >> you're comparing isis action in the middle east to the government shutdown's effect on the national parks >> we don't know what's happening in the parks frankly the government invests heavily in personnel to make sure the parks are kept pristine.

when there's no one there, what's happening >> well, what's happening? that's a big leap, tim what's happening versus comparing it to something that's pretty dreadful you know in a negative sense seems like a big leap you mentioned you did get a response from customers. if it boosts sales, would you consider taking out political ads again? >> this is an area we typically don't get involved these are issues which are incredibly important right now and we feel it's important to raise our voice and say something about what's going on and encourage negotiations to conclude this and get the parks back open again. we'll say other things from time to time. this is such a critical area this is the first time we ever made an investment like this >> okay, tim, thanks for joining us, ceo, tim boyle

another company put out a digital campaign aimed at men. >> is this the best a man can get? is it? making the same old excuses. >> boys will be boys >> boys will be boys >> but something finally changed. >> allegations regarding sexual assault and sexual harassment. >> and there will be no going back because we -- we believe in the best in men. >> we reached out to gillette and company, procter & gamble. this is from the north american director for gillette. this is an important conversation happening a company that encourages men to be their best, we feel compelled to both address it and take action of our own. we're taking a realistic look at what's happening today and inspiring change by acknowledging the old saying, boys will be boys is not an excuse we want to inspire everyone to

be their best and everyone we serve will find out on that journey together it was a risky move. when you weigh into culture wars like colin kaepernick and nike and procter & gamble, those that have a broad audience, it hits a nerve and gets a lot of attention and this one is getting a lot of praise. >> it would be very easy for xwil let to sit it out gillette to sit it out the me too messages have been directed at women and women products it goes back to underscore their existing slogan. obviously, there's a convection what they've been conveying for years. i agree, calculated risks. >> but they had to cut prices. they have a heated razor >> i would say this one is well-placed. it didn't claim anything ground

breaking, still taking a stand and it was bold. >> but you can see how men -- some people would react, this is overkill, an attack on men >> i think they didn't overkill it when i first heard about it, i was intrigued to see >> mostly a social campaign. >> just online, youtube, social media, that sort of thing. certainly caught our attention crucial vote tomorrow that could determine britain's fate and shake global markets details for you next than silicon valley? techt with a cockpit fit for aspaceship. hang on. radar that senses things the human eye can't. busted. and the ability to make a thousand decisions before you even make one. was all this, really necessary? what do you think? ♪

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welcome back tomorrow, we will see members of parliament finally vote on theresa may's brexit plan and she's hoping to change minds to get them to vote with her. >> the only ways to guarantee we do not leave without a deal, abandon brexit, betray the vote of the british people or leave with a deal, and the only deal on the table is the one mps will vote on tomorrow night while leaving is a serious risk, at westminster the last seven

days it's my judgment there's a paralysis that risks there being no brexit. >> the math is very much against her. if she does lose tomorrow, here is deutsche bank's breakdown what could happen next 20th% chance she resigns 10% chance she gets her deal through. 15% chance of second referendum. 15% chance general election. and lots of moving parts still the key and this is why sterling rallied year-to-date the chance of a no deal brexit has fallen since parliament has taken back more of the control which is what she was referencing shares up 10% today. >> they more-or-less cancel one another, not priceable really. >> six options >> no deal -- >> no deal as deutsche bank had

it, 10% chance six months ago you probably say the default. >> aren't you watching to see how much she loses by if she loses. that could determine the direction. if it's not that much that could help the pound >> and we will see >> i'll be here. >> that does it for "closing bell"! >> "fast money" begins right now. "fast money" starts right now, from the nasdaq markets, i'm melissa. tonight, on "fast," bull says buckle up, we are in for a 20% rally this year. here to tell us why he is so bullish and what will lead the way. plus, the apple inferno leads the way and the tech giant is seeking into the semi-space and earnings season officially under way. citigroup jumping a low hurdle and rallying