let's see if that happens first. julia boorstin and brentlang thank you for joining us i'll join tyler and melissa on "power lunch" and begins right now. >> it sure does, kelly see you in just a moment welcome, everybody i'm tyler mathisen along with melissa lee and here's what's new at 2:00. growing fears about the trade war with china and its economy how hard is it going to be to get a trade deal done? new news to tell you about this hour plus, has this recent rally in the stock market gotten ahead of itself by a little bit? and why a new round of bank mergers may be coming. that's all on "power lunch" which starts right now welcome to "power lunch. i'm melissa lee. trade in the global economy front and center the dow, s&p, and nasdaq posting the first drop in five sessions. the dow dropping one point 420 points

the s&p 500 dipping into correction territory right now, down by about 1.5% in the dow as well as the s&p 500 all 11 s&p 500 groups are lower today. energy and industrials are the biggest drags right now led by halliburton and much more on that straight ahead. is this a short-term pullback or sign the postchristmas rally went too far too fast the new york stock exchange, bob pisani trade headlines are roiling the rally here >> stocks moved in tandem and overbought but more fundamental things going on. let me show you the list of market concerns today. we have china growth over the weekend. over a monday night here, the gdp slowed down. lowest in 28 years global growth with the imf lowering the forecast. we've had downside surprises, melissa showed you halliburton stanley, black and decker, some issues and too much priced in.

when word eked out that the president rejected trade talks this week in china, we took a dip lower on that but i want to point out, remember thursday and friday, a long time ago but 500 dow points 50 s&p points from thursday to friday's close the next full screen, just on optimism about trade talks i agree on this idea we're a little ahead of ourselves on the trade issue, giving some of that back the sic says thvic vix certainlt breaking news that bob alluded to moments ago the u.s. saying no to a trade meeting, a preliminary one with china. kayla tausche in washington with all the details. >> reporter: hi, tyler it was the meeting bob was referencing. two chinese vice ministers were expected to come to washington this week to essentially lay the groundwork for a higher level meeting between the u.s. and china next week.

people who are briefed on the discussions said officials from the u.s. trade representative and the treasury department essentially suggested that china needed to come back with a stronger offer, with more remedies on intellectual property violations and force technology transfer. this is the crux of the trump administration's policy strategy of enacting tariffs in the first place. one person i talked to that talks may happen by phone but the retraction of this in-person visit signals how difficult it is going to be to flesh out with china that truce that was notched at the g-20 including china offering to increase its purchases of u.s. goods by 30% but even the president in a tweet signaled that china's offer may not be enough. yesterday, he tweeted that china should, quote, finally do a real deal and stop playing around as for the meeting scheduled this week, treasury usdr did not respond to the multiple requests for comment. the white house this afternoon does say that the teams remain

in touch in preparation for high level talks with china's vis premier leo hood that will take place at the end of this month and of course, any negative development in this story is going to be watched very closely by the markets back to you. >> back down we go, kayla, thank you. global leaders and economic experts gathered in davos today with a lot of pessimism about the global economy here's what they had to say about china, trade and the economy too. >> we're going to have a slowing of the economy not just in the u.s. but in europe and you're going to have a slow economy in other places. >> the chinese weren't sure that president trump really meant what he said about being tough on trade because he was very polite to xi jinping and realize he's very serious about this and they also realize this if he were to depart tomorrow, there is somebody behind him who supports the same views. in other words, his views are

probably views of 40% or 45% of the american people. >> i think that both sides would like to see something happen each for their own reasons and the chinese laid out a group of things they were prepared to do with argentina and i think following up on that >> clearly, any worsening in terms of trade threats would reduce confidence, have an impact on that growth which is clearly one of the two key economies in the world >> check out the two that track china. lower by more than 2%. on pace for the worst day in almost two weeks how difficult to get a trade deal done? joining us is head of research d then out with a new op-ed on cnbc.com today

a u.s. trade deal with china won't be perfect it doesn't need to be. i'll start off with you, stefano. these are basically the lieutenants. the guys who get the work done ahead of the big meeting between trump and xi so how important, how significant is this that this meeting will happen? >> i think that's exactly the point, right these are vice ministerial level meetings, the level i operated on from the last administration and frankly, laid all of the groundwork and did the heavy lifting, in anticipation of the cabinet level meetings that were scheduled for the end of the month. i do think, if in fact, they are postponed or curtailed, it will have an impact on possibly being able to achieve what was already a very ambitious timetable only six weeks left too with the president's march 2nd deadline. >> wow that's not a lot of time the countdown clock here meredith, i want to go to you. from the president's standpoint, maybe sees this as a time to dig

in his heels and double down to get what he wants out of a trade deal with china to first and foremost be an end to force technology transfer as well as, you know, treating foreign investors more fairly when they invest in china. you know, this also comes on the heels of a very unusual meeting that president xi had in china with top level ministers and government officials, essentially warning the communist party of the political instability that could arise from an economic slowdown. i mean, maybe this is the time to say, you know what? china, give us what we want because you're in a tough spot. >> that certainly is the white house strategy here but i would agree that six weeks is certainly not enough time to get any kind of meaningful deal on these sorts of issues that have plagued the u.s. and china relationship for decades instead, i think what you're likely to see around that march 1st deadline is an agreement to continue talking, perhaps, some sort of interim announcement

that notes the progress that has been made and see some headline announcements on china agreeing to purchase substantially more of u.s. products, but certainly, the structural issues are going to keep both sides at the table for the foreseeable future and certainly probably throughout most of 2019 >> if they do that, meredith, they follow that tack, does that mean we will not impose or heighten the tariffs that are already in place >> certainly, this is a play out of the 232 automotive tariffs we've seen with the trump administration as well so long as both sides are meaningfully engaging in a negotiation that will likely stave off a further tariff escalation but as you noted earlier in your program, we have global growth head winds you have increasing nervousness within markets about to what extent the world's two largest economies are going to come to

an accommodation we actually see momentum building on both sides towards some sort of agreement, some sort of deal, but it certainly will be a narrow deal. not the kind of deal that will see the rapid rollback of tariffs that the u.s. has placed on china and china's placed on -- >> do you see what meredith s s sees, a narrowing of differences in the deal? i know announcing the cancellation of the subministerial level meetings, the issues being pointed to there are ones that the chinese really don't recognize one is technology transfers. saying we're not forcing anybody to transfer technology and number two, structural reforms to the chinese economy, which seems like it would have, a snowball chance it's very cold here today but you know what i'm saying. >> i think it's a tale of two cities i think there's opportunity to make real progress on technology transfer and the counterfeiting and the theft of international property but on the forced ip

transfer, we're not forcing any western company to do this they are doing it voluntarily to get access to our market and our customers which, of course, is a bit fooey. the question, are we going to get off this notion that they're fundamentally going to change the economic model and become closer to a market economy i think is not going to happen, the same way we would not accept the state sponsorship or a large stale role in our economy. >> tell me if you disagree what he said. if altering is really a core u.s. trade goal, the choice is tariffs forever or pretend they're complying. >> or living in a world where we're going to have constant tensions with occasional flare-ups we have to manage and i think that's what is likely to come from this, if we are successful

so we back down on some of the tariff threats but get off the notion we have enough leverage for them to change the economic model. >> thank you larry kudlow will weigh in on china. it will be interesting to see what he has to say on this situation. china's trade troubles are taking a toll on the markets as you can see there. caterpillar, dowdupont and 3m and boeing what the the biggest are saying about china and trade. and the wildfires are blamed in part for the financial woes of pg&e but the company may not be able to pay for the damages. protest against the company is planned for today and we'lbel live with erin brockovich coming

up on "power lunch." ♪ hawaii is the first state in the u.s. to have a hundred percent renewable energy goal. if we don't make this move we're going to have changes in our environment, and have a negative impact to hawaii's economy. ♪ verizon provided us a solution that lets us collect near real time data on our power grid. ♪ if we can create our own energy, we can take care of this beautiful place that i grew up in. ♪

with who we are as people and making everybody feel welcome. ordering custom ink t-shirts has been a really smart decision for our business. i love the custom ink design lab because it's really easy to use. they have customer service that you can reach anytime. t-shirts help us immediately get a sense of who we are as a group. from the moment clients walk in, they're able to feel like part of the family. - [spokesman] custom ink has hundreds of products for your business and free shipping.

upload your logo or start your design today for your business and free shipping. and the army taught me a lot about commitment. which i apply to my life and my work. at comcast we're commited to delivering the best experience possible, by being on time everytime. and if we are ever late, we'll give you a automatic twenty dollar credit. my name is antonio and i'm a technician at comcast. we're working to make things simple, easy and awesome. well, it is a sell-off on the street today dow tumbling money managers and business leaders gathering for the annual meeting in davos, switzerland,

world economic forum many speaking to us on cnbc today and one of the topics, the health of the american economy and the global economy and where they go from here. >> when you look at potential output for the united states and then layer on the inflation rate, we're just not growing at the same pace we historically have >> the main thing the markets are forecasting right now is a global slowdown. china is slowing down. germany is slowing down. merging markets and then interest rates sensitive sectors of the united states not contributing as much to the economic growth consequence to housing and others have a consequence of interest rates going up. >> there's a significant risk of a recession, a recession, you know, minus one, is it plus one? let's not get technical about that too much.

there's a high likelihood of a significant slowing in 2020. >> how worried should investors be about that significant slowing that ray dalio referenced guide stone management and with qs investors start there, david do you see the risk being significant of a significant slowing, either in 2019 or 2020? >> i think that was the signal sending in the fourth quarter. not only equity but credit for the first time in years and usually that's the canary in the coal mine. the fed is raising rates got monetary tightening and we're in the tenth year of the economic cycle absolutely there's a risk of a slowdown, whether that's a recession or not, i'm not sure that even matters at this point. but it is going to affect valuations in the stock market. >> what do you see along those

lines and what should we do with our money as a result of that? >> the water is not as calm as it looks there's some deep current curre there because of deep levels of uncertainty. it comes down to the fed the fed was still forecasting over two interest rate hikes this year. the market was forecasting zero. either the economy has to slow significantly for that expectation to come or the fed will raise rates faster than the market expects so most certainly, whether there's a recession or not, remains to be seen but certainly going to be a slowdown this year compared to last year. they have to retilt their portfolios and essentially going to behaif bettve better in thoss >> let me probe farther there. are you saying people should raise their cash as the wall street journal reports or should

they be in different sort of qualitative sectors of the equity and bond markets? i'll pick up your thoughts >> sure. the cash market can look appealing, especially with rates around 2% but people should resist that temptation the idea is even as the economy slows, the equity market can have a long run before there's contraction. you have to tilt towards sectors that behave better in the slowing environment and during a potential market correction. companies with better dividend payers think about companies like public service enterprise last year it was only down 1% when the market corrected over 14%. in health care and consumer discretionary like pfizer and cracker barrel cheaper than the market as a whole and held up really well. it's about time to leave the equity market but rotate away from the technology and growth trade. >> love cracker barrel

i'll go there any time with you. ditto over here. votes from the left of me, from the right of me. what do you say i should do with my portfolio in light of what you see ahead? >> i like cracker barrel too those biscuits are something else i would agree with what he said and include things like defensive equity strategies. cash is a more viable alternative, so we shouldn't turn up our nose to cash or bond portfolios, captured most of the upside and respond better that volatility that's a great opportunity for investors to shield that risk in their portfolios. >> meet me at cracker barrel for the early bird at 5:00 mike, appreciate it. >> i don't know how this turned into a discussion about --

>> i'm hungry. who wants a gravy and biscuit? >> stocks to watch starbucks higher ebay getting a huge bid today and what's behind the big drop in arconic that's coming up on, yes, "power lunch. td ameritrade lets you trade select securities 24 hours a day, five days a week. that's amazing. it's a pretty big deal. so i can trade all night long? ♪ ♪ all night long... is that lionel richie? let's reopen the market. mr. richie, would you ring the 24/5 bell? sure can, jim. ♪ trade 24/5, with td ameritrade. ♪

for decades banks have been getting away with it. charging you excess fees. making you wait in line. keeping billions of dollars of your interest. they've been treating you like you're lucky to have them. that's not right. show them who's the boss of your money. you. better is out there. ally. do it right.

starbucks. bucking the market sell-off today. a few dollars away from records to stocks set in november. is this a hot trade heading into the company's earnings on thursday craig johnson with piper and erin gibbs with s&p global craig, how does the trend look right here this is one of the big ones like with nike. >> the stock broke out of a huge multiyear consolidation pulled back from support around 64. 65 now at $66 it looks like it's starting a new leg higher from a technical perspective, this should be a decent entry point to buy the stock earnings coming this week but i would be buying this stock into that print >> starbucks has never looked particularly cheap

like a high value growth stock do you think that's justified right now? >> they definitely made some missteps over the last few years with the purchase of teav narann announced expanded uber eats delivery which is creating a lot of buzz and 10% earnings growth for next year which is well above the s&p 500 so certainly deserve that and organic revenue growth and interesting partnership going forward and we like the stock we have in a couple of our portfolios >> escaped a lot of negativity about china. thank you very much. for more "trading nation," follow us on twitter thank you. still ahead on "power lunch," bank of america ceo says

a round of bank mergers is on the way. and longest government shutdown in history hitting our airports. "priceline" ceo weighs in on that and the health of the consumer the dow happened now as many as 402. >> the latest from tradingnation.cnbc.com and a word from our sponsor. >> when markets get volt, it's a good idea to reduce the size of your trades or scaling out of your positions taking on a position larger than you're comfortable with to maximize gains only increases your risk. scaling in and out can help you buy and sell at least part of your position at potentially more favorable price

♪ ♪ our new, hot, fresh breakfast will get you the readiest. (buzzer sound) holiday inn express. be the readiest. itin 30,000 precision parts. or it isn't. it's inspected by mercedes-benz factory-trained technicians. or it isn't. it's backed by an unlimited mileage warranty, or it isn't.

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 february 28th. only at your authorized mercedes-benz dealer.

hello, everybody i'm sue herera here's your cnbc news update the trump administration rejecting a trade meeting with the chinese this week because of a lack of progress earlier, secretary of state pompeo spoke to business leaders in davos saying he was optimistic and an agreement could be reached. >> i'm optimistic that we'll receive them well and we'll have

a good outcome from those conversations. but remember, the course of the relationship will be determined by the principles that america stands by. russian president putin and japanese leader abe speaking after the meeting and settling a decades long territorial dispute with a daunting challenge but vowed to continue locations. chick-fil-a won't be open since it's playing on a sunday the company's locations have always been closed on sundays allowing employees to set aside one day to rest and worship if they choose, according to the company. you're up to date. kel kelly, back to you >> thank you very much 90 minutes until the closing bell and the sell-off right now. dow just down 400 points 395 to be exact. same for the s&p which is down 45 the nasdaq down more than 2% right now.

150 points barely above 7,000. crude also sliding today the oil market is closing. dom chu has more >> a rougher day for the bulls with the west texas intermediate brent crude brieprices down ove. 52 and $61.55 you have economics slowdown concerns hitting the stock markets. also hitting those commodity markets as well. oil and metals with a concern about a slowdown globally in play china's economy growing at the slowest pace and imf lowering its forecast off the worst levels of the day. a reminder now that the weekly u.s. government oil inventories now come out at 11:00 a.m. eastern time because of the holiday yesterday and tyler, we watch the big move lower 12% of the downside with that gas as well. warmer temperatures. back to you. >> thank you big movers today and ebay, arconic in the news for

different reasons but hedge funds involved in both of those companies. leslie, hi >> stocks, none other than elliot management. a firm with 11% stake in arconic, pluchmmeting after no longer pursuing a sale was this close to selling itself to apollo. there was an offer of $22.20 per share on the table for the whole company financing at the ready elliot had been pushing for the deal, i'm told but then by surprise, the board dropped a statement this morning saying it did not receive a proposal for a full company transaction that was in the best interest of shareholders as is often the case in activism, one door closes, even if temporarily, another one opens. elliot announcing beneficial ownership of 4% of ebay and a plan that the firm says could double the stock in two years. ebay saying in a statement it

appreciates elliot's recognition of the strength and power of ebay's business and will carefully review and evaluate elliot's proposals ebay getting a bounce on this news today guys. >> all right, leslie, thanks at the nasdaq for us the financials are under pressure at this hour. bank of america ceo brian moynihan is speaking to cnbc in davos, switzerland, why he expects a new round of bank mergers. >> the mergers will come out of the consolidation another round of people which still has to happen in the united states. so now 6,000 odd banks and you'll find them continuing to consolidate. that's the core banking world and versus the capital markets world which has consolidated a bit but you have to look at it business by business you could form one quickly and very hard in the fixed income trading business and that's more of a consolidated business with capital pools and the requirements but the core banking, the industry is very

consolidated >> with rbc capital markets. gerard, great to have you with us you kindly remind us in our guest notes that there were actually more than twice as many banks in the united states at one point in the 1980s compared to right now, brian moin hynihan mentioned about 6,000. a new bank could emerge, you find that plausible? >> depends on how you want to define giant but absolutely right. you know, back in the 1980s, we had over 14,000 banks. nationally, state banking legislation was passed in the early 1990s which enabled these giants to be created i don't think we'll ever see another trillion dollar in asset banks created but could we see banks with 5$500 billion to $700 billion created? i think we could but the giant size so-called globally important systemically bank? i doubt we'll see that kind of

bank created. >> in your coverage, which regionals seem to be on the hunt for some sort of acquisition fifth third, there's a pending one right? with fifth third and a bank out of chicago and the biggest banking merger we've seen in a little while >> you're right. that's probably the most recent and one of the larger deals that has been announced it's hard to say which banks are going to want to merge or acquire other banks amongst the large regionals because right now, as you've seen with the fourth quarter results, the banking industry is very profitable in fact, this year should be the fourth year of record profitability and when all the management teams are wrestling with today is the digitalization of banking as more product is delivered through the digital channel, there's less need more branches. i do think we'll see big bank mergers. we see big consolidation coming but i don't see it happening right away i think it will take 12 months before it starts to material

isaiah. >> is there smaller ones or any reasons the largest banks in the country would buy regional exposure >> that's a good question because there's an ongoing discussion can the smaller banks keep up with larger banks when it comes to technological investments brian moynihan, bank of america, they spend over $14 billion on technology so you have to ask yourself, if you're a billion dollar community bank, how do you keep up with that i see the smaller banks sell out or combine they have the personal touch, the local touch that really sells their product better than the big larger banks but it is going to be a consolidation over the next 12 to 24 months. >> if you're a large bank, would you be more afraid of a new banking giant emerging from smaller regional banks or just the threat of the digital banks,

the sort of disrupters coming after your deposits? >> that's an interesting question because i don't think they have to worry about another trillion dollar asset bank being created because the regulators probably won't allow it. that being said, they've competed against these banks very effectively over the last 10, 20 years i don't think they're intimidated by that but you bring up an interesting point about the digitalization and the disrupters we don't fully know yet whether you're going to see some outside player come in and be a disrun fodisru disrunptor if any of these want to be a bank, you've got to get a banking license. then your valuation is going to drop down to the bank level and no tech company wants that so right now, the barrier to

entry for the non-banks is bank regulation >> all right, gerard, we'll leave it there thank you very much, gerard cassidy of rbc rick santelli. sliding with equities and oil. >> exactly they've been shadow boxing yeec eac other not only today but going back to the 9th or 10th of january. if you overlay the 10 year note yields, they are tracking and the reason makes perfect sense if you have a flexible potentially fed and read the the market signals, well, the market signals and the stock market pricing seem to be kind of the same thing and the interest rate can following that how can we tell? it's always a parallel shift no curve implications. fives, tens and 30s because the fed is a bit on hold and when this starts to diverge, i think we can glean some information. open the chart up to early june.

you can see this 280 mark is very key on the left from one direction on the right, lower to higher but it is definitely important and was halfway between a high and low yield for 2018 finally, a year-to-date chart of the dollar index you can see the treasuries took out the early high yield closes. everything did stocks did too they powered through early january pricing. but the dollar index didn't pay close attention to that high 96.82 from the second trading day of the year. back to you. >> rick, thank you very much long lines at security at the airport. nothing new. but the government shutdown making things even worse coming up, the ceo of priceline on the impact it is having on his business markets selling off this hour all the s&p 500 sectors lower. all 11 of them in the red. energy, the worst performing halliburton, diamondback pioneer. puinth gupow "power lunch" will be right back ♪

you should be mad they gave this guy a promotion. you should be mad at forced camaraderie. and you should be mad at tech that makes things worse. but you're not mad, because you have e*trade, who's tech makes life easier by automatically adding technical patterns on charts and helping you understand what they mean.

don't get mad. get e*trade's simplified technical analysis. ♪ hawaii is the first state in the u.s. to have a hundred percent renewable energy goal. if we don't make this move we're going to have changes in our environment, and have a negative impact to hawaii's economy. ♪ verizon provided us a solution that lets us collect near real time data on our power grid. ♪ if we can create our own energy, we can take care of this beautiful place that i grew up in. ♪

did you guys bring this up >> yes, we need to put it away [ bleep ]. >> is this your guys first presentation like this >> yes >> okay. >> it kind of shows. >> marcus? everyone's really down and freaking out and i need your help to pump them up can you help me do that? >> you need to do that. >> i need you to come in here and also really. everyone's already freaking out and like we know what's [ bleep ] and just need to thank you. >> okay. >> get these in the right. >> don't put it on me. >> i don't care that charlotte is frustrated with me. she's the leader she asked for this job >> as marcus is not being cheery enough for a big presentation. you can see how that got rov resolved in a brand-new episode on cnbc. today marks day 32 of the

longest government shutdown in history. according to the transportation administration, 10% of tsa agents called out sick on sunday, compared to 3% on the same day last year and add to this, growing fears about the global economy the ceo's take for a "power lunch" exclusive brett keller you have a cool announcement about the military we'll get to in just a moment. what is the bigger threat to your business right now? with some of the issues with china and trade or is it anna kendrick >> definitely not anna kendrick. i think we're okay on that front. >> so people know what i'm referring to there, a slew of these new hilton ads where she says, i'm booking right through the hilton app i don't need to go through priceline.com. what do you say about that >> obviously, any hotel chain in the world would prefer them to go direct to the service and we certainly understand the need to do that, but priceline and our

sister companies like booking.com offer other types of value that can't be found at those type of sites. like comparing prices and deals across many independent and large chain brands so we're very pleased with the service we provide. >> you have a lot of exposure to different countries. can you tell us whether you see a slowdown materializing >> well, obviously, we are in the middle of the, preparing our results here for the fourth quarter, but overall, i can speak to what's happening in the united states and looking back over the last year, things have been healthy in the travel industry you know, that travel industry is a very resilient industry and we've seen hotel occupancy at 66%, highs for them throughout the course of the year even in december and see we see planes filling up the seats throughout the course of 2018 travel in a good place projected to continue to grow at a similar pace the the next

couple of years by other analysts in the industry we feel about our position with the value with the deals we offer our consumers and if there is a greater slowdown in the economy, that's where we really shine as the deals come out and consumers bargain hunt at that point. >> i don't mean to be a wet blanket because i ride on air blankets and they are absolutely packed and so on but it's economically sensitive and if the u.s. slows, that has to affect what you do, even though your position is to help them find the best deals. >> well, obviously, if the economy slows, that's going to impact everyone in some way. one thing we have going for us, obviously, we primarily service the leisure consumer and disposable income, no matter what it is people are finding ways to use that income to travel.

what they may do is change behavior move down from a higher star category and they'll find ways to travel. >> i want to ask you about this initiative to help people in the armed forces to travel more cheaply. i was at verizon and they told me if i brought my grandfather's draft papers in, i could get $15 a month off my wireless bill but i don't know if i feel right about that what are you trying to do today? >> we've been working on a special project with the department of defense for the last year and finally come to fruition very exciting for us at priceline today. launched officially a new web site called american forces travel which is specifically tailored and really limited to members of the department of defense as well as civilians who work at those facilities and this is meant to give them an opportunity to book leisure

travel at very deep discounts. the department of defense is the largest employer in the world and never harnessed that in the past to provide discounts to members of the department. >> we see these usaa ads all the time is it like that where you want a major customer to look to you first and are you willing to make this a leader or are the zpounts not quite that big >> we don't need to make it a lost leader but not something we look to make deep margins or benefit from this is something we're proud to be a part of to provide a service to the department of defense and what the department brings is a very large negotiating leverage as we go out and negotiate prices on their behalf from our supply partners that's what we've done for 20 years is to provide deals to consumers. this is one extra angle to bring great deals to these folks. >> now i try to think of ways to solve the government shutdown. >> i don't think we have that type of negotiating power right

now. >> thank you for joining us. >> thank you >> the ceo of priceline.com. massive liability for last year's california wildfires but the company may not be able to cover all the damages. up next, the activist erin brockovich leading a protest today. you may recall this is not the first time that she has gone up against that company >> internal pg&e documents about contamination. the one i like the best, i'm paraphrasing, but yes, the water is poisonous but it would be better for all involved if this matter was not discussed with neighbors. at pg&e headquarters with the chase ink business unlimited card, i get unlimited 1.5% cash back. it's so simple, i don't even have to think about it. so i think about mouthfeel. i don't think about the ink card. i think about nitrogen ice cream in supermarkets all over the world. i think about the details. fine, i obsess over the details. think about every part of your business

except the one part that works without a thought. your ink card. chase ink business unlimited. chase ink business unlimited, with unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase. chase for business. make more of what's yours.

we are watching very carefully a market that right now sits pretty much at session lows the dow is down by 1.75%, decline of 435 points. the nasdaq down by 2.3% or 164 points and the s&p 500 is one that we are watching very closely. 2620 is a level right now violating the 50-day moving average which stood at around 2623 it was notable that earlier in

the session when the headlines first came across that these sub ministerial meetings to be canceled in washington, d.c. that the s&p 500 moved to session lows at 2623 so on the screws of the 50-day moving average exactly, managed to hold it and broken back through and this is one to watch going into the close here and watch the poster children of the china trade war. they're all trading lower, apple, boeing, caterpillar, semiconductors sharply lower and session lows right now let's check in with bob pisani on this market action. >> you know, i think the important thing, melissa, is a confluence of events happening today and one little surprise here we have the china slower growth story. lowest gdp in 28 years we have got issues with oil coming off the highs remember, the dollar and oil and stock market moving in tandem for a week and a half. we have the trade deal where

friday afternoon it was a wonder to me we moved 500 points in 24 hours on rumors about trade deals. and then in the middle of the day we had those headlines where we came down a bit on that deflating. that's a real risk now because a lot of this is now starting to price in for a trade deal. so you had those three risks there and then the fourth one to worry me is the earnings i was not happy with the halliburton guidance and nor with stanley black & decker at all tomorrow what i want to watch is united technology. a big, global industrial company about the state of the global economy. that's concerning me a little bit. number within. number two, the domestic commentary of stanley black & decker is disconcerting overall and a lot surprisingly negative than most people thought an let's keep an eye on the earnings situation. >> all right thank you at the new york stock exchange. tack a quick break and

joining us after this, erin brockovich stay right there ♪ ♪ ♪ each day, brings new possibilities. that's why you need a partner dedicated to helping your company reach its goals. u.s. bank -- the power of possible.

his family. his steinway, which met a burst pipe. so grant met his insurance: you are caller number 12. which didn't quite cover the steinway. but what if he'd met pure insurance? owned by members. he'd have met: lisa, your member advocate. who'd introduce him to gustav: leave it to me. a temporary address,

temporary ivory, and help him get tickets to the mozart festival. excuse me, grant likes beethoven! uh, the beethoven festival. pure. love your insurance. the activist erin brockovich is leading a protest against pg&e today as the company intends to file bankruptcy saying it's unable to pay the billions in liabilities from the sonoma county fire and november's tragic campfire brockovich well-known for the role in the 1993 lawsuit against that very same company which inspired a movie starring julia

roberts. let's bring in adidi roy joined by eric brockovich folks? >> hi there, tyler we are steps from is sacramento state capitol holding a rally and press conference against pg&e included is wildfire victims and erin brockovich, a long-time crusader against pg&e starting from the landmark case in 1993, decades ago. pg&e says it faces about 11 class action lawsuits as well as hundreds of -- about 750 katss involving thousands of plaintiffs in the 2017 and 2018 northern california wildfires. pg&e did give us a statement saying the following we understand and recognize the serious concerns raised by customers and victims. we acknowledge that while we have made progress we have more work to do we're open to a range of solutions that will help make the energy system safer. again, i'm joined here by erin

brockovich. >> thank you for having me. >> you have gone up against pg&e for decades now. what makes the wildfires different from some of these other cases you have been involved in? >> well, it's different. it's a wildfire versus a water contamination but still dealing with massive destruction an people who get sick and here we are lost lives we can see failure to warn, failure infrastructures and this is a problem and an ongoing problem for way, way too long. i've seen them time and time again use bankruptcy as a tool to get out of liability or paying their claims. and i have found as of late very recently that blue mountain capital which i have here has an open letter to pg&e that they have absolute overwhelming evidence that the company is solvent so i don't know other than a tactic to file bankruptcy to get out of their responsibility why the state is going to let us get into this

chaos with that type company ag. >> this is kelly in new york they're facing $30 billion of class-action lawsuit if they are allowed to go bankrupt, does anyone get paid from this? what happens >> well, they can, yes it would be more of a chapter 11 again, as i said the blue mountain open letter is interesting because they state they have the evidence that they are solvent and shouldn't have to go into chapter 7 but chapter 11 and we need to encourage our state leaders to step up and really lead here and be a big seat at that table and whether they're going to let pg&e file bankruptcy or not. and i don't know how you file bankruptcy when you're a solvent company. they don't want to address and face the claims that they're going to have to because of the 2017 and the 2018 campfires. >> the ceo has left. >> this is what they do. >> yep erin, we understand you're going to put pressure on them. again, you and blue mountain

both are saying this shouldn't happen so thanks for joining us great to have you speaking to this issue, guys obviously, the shares went - >> thank you. >> creamed when they were trying to come out of this and came back a little bit with the financing lined up. >> we hand it off. thank you for watching "closing bell. ♪ ♪ good afternoon welcome to the "closing bell." i'll wilfred wilfrost. >> i'm morgan brennan. great to be here especially with led zeppelin playing. coming up, national economic council director larry kudlow joins us to talk about the economy, today's selloff a first on cnbc interview. plus, valueact jeffrey ubben talks at the world economic forum.

>