>> maybe an autograph for you, kelly. >> bring him on. >> for "closing bell"! >> yeah. >> i think time's running out. >> we would love this. >> thank you, guys, very, very much eric and commissioner silver maybe he will pop up elsewhere fortune 500. who knows? >> definitely. thank you for watching. >> "closing bell" starts right now. see you tuesday. ♪ happy friday welcome to "closing bell." i'm ra eisen. >> i'm david faber. >> good to have you here we'll talk about the state of retail gearing up for a big week of earnings. former sacks ceo staeve sadove i here. plus kareem kareem abdul ja.

>> let's check out the markets stocks surging with an hour to go into the close. dow's up 374 points just around the highs of the session really going strong all day long s&p 500 up almost a percent. every group within the s&p higher led by financial. check out the russell 2000 index of small caps on a roll up another 1.3% and strong gains for the week begin at the white house eamon javers with the latest on the funding bill and kayla tausche with more on trade with china. eamon? >> reporter: that's right. we are getting word that the american civil liberties union is now going to be filing a lawsuit to try to block the president's emergency action that he took here at the white house today. look at the dollars and cents. this is what the union is upset about. $1.375 billion from the appropriations bill that was signed today that was passed yesterday up on capitol hill they're going to take some money out of the drug forfeiture fund

and the national emergency declaration gets the president access to $3.6 billion from the department of defense's military construction budget. that's the piece that the aclu is going to be suing about the president talked about this earlier today in the rose garden and he made the point he said that democrats opposing him are doing it out of pure politics. >> nancy knows it. chuck knows it they all know it it's all a big lie it's a big con game. you don't have to be very smart to know you put up a barrier, the people come in and that's it >> reporter: so the president did that event in the rose garden on camera took questions from the media but he signed the national emergency declaration off camera we are told. he signed that and also signed now the spending bill to avert a government shutdown, guys.

>> eamon, the president seemed to indicate this thing could end up at the supreme court. >> reporter: all but guaranteed it willened up at the supreme court, you're right. >> he did. the terms and timing of that, how quickly to move through the lower courts or whether this is something that will be held up conceivably for quite sometime, perhaps even well into the presidential, you know, election year. >> reporter: you see how quickly the aclu moving today. presumably all parties had the case teed up and ready to go and the president seemed to expect it for a number of hurdles here from the white house's perspective, bad rulings in courts around the country before ultimately making the way to the supreme court. we are talking months at the earliest, david, my guess. no way of weeks. the question is whether democrats and opponents tie it up for years and that's an unknown at this point. >> right another way is legislatively, though, will they to get the two thirds in the senate, is that a possibility? >> reporter: it is

democrats in the house are talking about a resolution to oppose this national emergency declarati deck declaration. but ultimately, i think republicans will end up going along with the president that's a prediction on my part and political incentive to give the president what he wants. >> okay, eamon we'll be following it closely. eamon javers at the white house. let's turn to china and developments of the high-level trade talks in beijing and then washington we find kayla tausche with the latest on that. >> reporter: hey, david. the white house statement this morning said much work remains to get a deal with china the president in that event at the rose garden said the talks are going very well, making a lot of progress. if they continue on that pace, that he would consider extending

the trade truce beyond the march 1st deadline after which tariffs are set to double. the president acknowledged that if he were to do a deal with china and back off of the tariffs he's put in place to get criticized by democrats who will accuse him of going soft on china and to get them on board he suggested a potentially unorthodox approach. here's the president >> so what i'm thinking of doing is getting chuck schumer, getting nancy pelosi, having them bring two or three of their brilliant representatives and we'll all go down together and what we'll do is we'll negotiate, i'll put them in the room and let them speak up because any deal i make with china, if it's the -- it's going to be better than any deal anybody dreamt possible or i'm not going to have a deal. >> reporter: that would be appointment television if that meeting were to happen the president pointed back to the deal struck last year to

accept a billion-dollar payment in corporate governance changes of china's zte in order to roll back some penalties that the commerce department put in place to potentially cripple zte and put it out of business he said that the billion-dollar fine was worth it. that he had done that deal in a week that it was a good deal although we should point out that the criticism of that deal came from the gop's china hawks, not from democrats. and he could face that same resistance this time around from his own party. guys >> at the same time, we are expecting new on the auto tariffs this weekend do you have any guidance on that >> reporter: i've just been told by a source familiar with the situation that the report was delivered to the president this morning. we're still waiting for word on exactly what the recommendations are and whether and when that report will be made public i know it's something that the auto industry is on tender hooks waiting to see what it will say and i spoke to a senior official official saying there's not a lot of support of auto tariffs

in this building and only the opinion of the president that actually matters in this case. >> who did say in that news conference that he liked tariffs. i think he was talking about china but said he was the kind of guy that liked tariffs. kayla, thank you. shares of mattel plunging. morgan >> hey, sara so trading in mattel just resumed after the stock halted for volatility shares down about 14% right now. why? the company analyst day and just got guidance full-year 2019 ebita of 350 to 400 million. that is well below the consensus estimates of 551.6 million expected by analysts also that the company sees 2019 sales growth in constant currency flat versus 2018. so if you take a look at shares right now, down on pace for their worst day since january 2017 back over to you.

>> morgan, thank you very odd because the company just came out with earnings a few days ago. >> as you and i both know and the stock reacted positively and a surprise given the struggles of mattel for too long and i remember discussing the fact of a surprising beat. unclear why they would wait to have this stock go up on the back of those better than expected numbers only to deliver a -- a significant blow to bullish perceptions, yeah. >> weird communication there. closing the "closing bell" exchange for date, renee norris, michael faroli and rick santelli at the cme group in chicago. mike, starting with you, you lowered your gdp targets bring us up to speed. >> i think we know about the disastrous retail sales report yesterday and weaker than expected inventory numbers and expecting growth in the fourth quarter of 1.6%.

and given some of the setup we are seeing for the first quarter probably won't be much better in terms of not only the government shutdown, it looks like some tax refunds are probably going to be delayed again and the quarters around the turn of the year on the soft side. >> but some of what you said sounds temporary and what does it mean for the second quarter seeing what's going on with the fundamentals of the economy? >> i think we pick up in the second quarter for a number of reasons. and i think the economy overall looks obviously not as strong as it did last year and no one has really been expecting that to be the case and i think you see it in jobless claims, but that being said, i do think some of the weakness of the numbers over the past month or so were probably -- particularly on the sentiment side exaggerated by the shutdown and so we think some of the factors normalize and the equity market comes back, helps sentiment, as well

get out into the second quarter. not as good as last year but better than what we have seen over the last quarter or two. >> renee, we are a day out from that retail sales number which as sara said, of course, was surprisingly weak. and yet, here we are up, you know, almost 1% on the s&p today. should it be ignored >> well, i'm looking for either a global slouchwdown or global shutdown you know we have been trying to make up for the last quarter of last year but frankly i think it's raised the bar for this first quarter to be really, really tough and i think it's going to be a nasty first quarter and going into the second quarter, as well. partly because we have seen between rising interest rates, we have had the trade tariffs, a lot of people are concerned to turn into a trade war. and in addition to that, there's been a lot of talk of a global slowdown so we just saw that with the retail numbers that came out some of that probably came

through as a result of the partial global shutdown -- government shutdown, excuse me, but there's big concerns of what that will look like so here's what i'm thinking, really right now. and this is kind of interesting because according to fact set they're doing estimates for 2019 and they believe based on the numbers this they're pulling in, earnings estimates for companys that are -- have a higher exposure outside the united states, 50% more in global exposure, only going to show an earnings estimate growth of 1.7% those companies, though, that do business mostly here in the u.s. are going to show about three times that return of closer to 7% so it's going to be an interesting situation and some of the areas i think to look at right now to navigate around that slowness is going to be really in the areas of smaller companies, mid cap companies, that have a more focus here in the united states. >> small caps have been doing well so, rick, are we getting the

enthusiasm that you might expect in the bond market from a day like this or week like this? 2% plus across the major averages for stocks. are we getting that confirmed in bonds at all >> oh, i think the setup makes complete sense thank the global weakness. we should thank them we should send them dozens of flowers because they've impacted the fed into a pause they've kept interest rates basically at the same place they were a year ago. due to things like boons trading in single digits in terms of their yield. that's the 10-year in europe an while all that's going on, the dow jones industrial average is 4% away from all-time highs i can't think of a nicer setup and if you want to take it a step further, you know when the buy signal was it was what? about two months ago when everybody's refrain around the globe, 20% off the highs, official bear market territory that was the buy signal. i think that the economy isn't

as solid as it was but it's plenty solid enough given the global equity and while the rest of the globe pressures our rates down i think it's a perfect goldilocks setup and would be shocked if we don't test all-time highs sometime in the next month, month and a half or sooner >> mike, is that how you would characterize it, goldilocks economy? >> so far, yeah. i think that's right we are at full employment. inflation is under control that gives the fed a lot of reason to be patient and so, we don't see a lot of things that are going to really derail growth here you know we mentioned the tariffs the tariffs are not -- i mean, appears they're not going to be as bad as feared a few months ago in terms of intensification of that. we have the government funded now and a good thing so right now it does look like -- i mean, goldilocks, some of us think

about the late '90s. not that goldilocks but it is -- i think not a lot of huge risks right now obviously going to affect the economy over the next several months. >> okay. well, thanks to all of you, renee, michael, rick we'll see you again. after the break, emotions running high following amazon's decisions to cancel the plans to move a headquarters to new york. we'll look at how the move could impact future deals of big xans and governments. later earnings season is winding down we'll break down the most numbers to watch following yesterday's retail sales data. big disappointment there we always want to hear from you. reach out to the show on facebook, twitter or send usn mail a now i'm thinking...i'd like to retire early.

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emotions are still running high following amazon's decision to pull its plans for a new york headquarters cnbc's scott cohn joins us in seattle. how will it impact talks of bi companies and local and state governments? does it change the conversation? >> reporter: well, it does complicate things, sara, in a situation, a game that was already kind of complicated to begin with in a way that amazon may not have fully understood believe it or not. i was talking with a site selection consultant in new jersey saying that most companies nowadays understand the political minefield that incentives are and they are much more careful about engaging with the community. that's what we counsels his clients and certainly appears that amazon did not do that or do that to the extent that some of the local activists in new york expected. so, boyd say that is he thinks that these sort of big national sweepstakes are a thing of the past at least for now and will

be more and more community engagement >> national sweepstakes is one thing to sort of throw away. that may have been the mistake burr in terms of the incentives, scott, how widespread is this? isn't this common practice >> reporter: it's very common practice and that part of it is not going away companies are still going to look for tax breaks and states and cities are still going to be giving them to them and it happens on a much more sort of incremental level. some of them are more kind of universal or statewide incentives for manufacturing so this stuff is still going on. it's usually a lot more quiet. again, it is usually a lot more careful than this big splashy process that amazon engaged in for the last year and a half >> scott, it is surprising to me, though, how many people confused the incentives with a giveaway to be given $3 billion to come to do with whatever it wanted opposed to reduce the tax bill over many years

based on what it was paying and certain incentives it met. you know, i don't know what to make of that other than perhaps that ignorance helped to fuel the opposition to the headquarters itself >> reporter: well, i mean, not entirely ignorance, david. yes, the incentives are incremental, over time and more and more states and cities are building in clawbacks and ways to try to protect themselves in the way that apparently new york did. wisconsin has done that with foxcon but there are some things that you can't just stop thing that is you can't claw back for example, with foxcon in wisconsin, $4 billion in incentives foxcon's not collecting this year or for the past year not meeting the hiring targets but the states had to buy up land and do things like infrastructure that they may not be able to recover or not nearly as fast as they thought they could an some of this is money spent up front

it is a bet by cities and states to lure the businesses there sometimes it pays off but it's really tricky business >> yeah. on the case of queens, i don't believe they really made those infrastructure improvements. a lot of people want to awatch it, again, the opposition, scott, the stadium deals it would seem it's a different thing than making sure your hometown team stays and giving them incentives to do so >> reporter: oh, absolutely. it is not entirely different because some of this involves things like bragging rights. there's growth that was -- was going to happen, is going to happen in long island city with or without amazon. so, so there is a lot more care that's being put into both cities and states and municipalities giving these incentives and again companies receiving the incentives and more incentives now to do with infrastructure improvements, work force development things that the entire community does benefit from.

so there are some positive aspects of the incentives and they should not be sort of, you know, dismissed. but at the same time, it's very easy to get caught up in this bidding war as 238 communities did trying to get amazon hq2 and look at what's happened. >> scott cohn, scott, thank you. of course, everybody points at google saying they're buying billions of property in lower manhattan quietly hiring people. didn't run a beauty pageant. >> thousands of people over years and not the promise of 25,000 over a relatively short amount of time but true. >> though it wasn't in long island city, not an opportunity zone. >> no. >> a different issue. we have under 40 minutes to go here before the closing bell. look at stocks roaring higher at this hour. now we are looking at gains of more than 2% for the major averages on the week good for almost 1% on the s&p and more than that on the dow.

shares of pepsi getting a boost after earnings following coca-cola's worst day. kareem abdul-jabbar will ta tlkhe business of basketball and the venture into streaming content. stay with us put your data to work on the cloud that drives business. the ibm cloud. the cloud for smarter business. the ibm cloud. this is a very difficult job. failure is not an option.a. more than half of employees across the country bring financial stress to work. if you're stressed out financially at home, you're going to be too worried to be able to do a good job. i want to be able to offer all of the benefits that keep them satisfied. it is the people that is really the only asset that you have. put your employees on a path to financial wellness with prudential.

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♪ ♪ our new, hot, fresh breakfast will get you the readiest. (buzzer sound) holiday inn express. be the readiest. ♪ welcome back to "closing bell."

dow's up 359 points here with about a half hour to go before the close. s&p 500 going strong all sectors in the green financials are really making a move higher. energy, health care, industrials very strong. it's a very good week for the banks, a number of sectors energy up 4.5% as a group on the woke. >> yeah. only thing kind of not having a great day is fang. >> yeah, fang. >> old fang. all right. the nba all-star weekend festivities are kicking off today in charlotte and expected to generate $100 million for the local economy and the history of the game no one has played more minutes and been selected for more minutes than kareem abdul-jabbar eric is with him and we have both of them joining us now. eric >> that's right. we are here in charlotte with the one and only kareem abdul-jabbar you are actually auctioning off

some memorabilia, nba championship rings, jerseys. >> yes. >> you have a lot of memorabilia and people wondered at first, hey, is something okay financially with him why is he auctioning >> for me, it's -- coming down to the fact that i just don't have enough room for all of these items. they're valuable i have to take care of them. insure them, store them. do something to make sure that they're taken care of. and i think they could benefit my foundation and benefit me personally so i think an auction is in order. a lot of the fans out there appreciate these things and would like to have them. so, you know, it's -- what do they say a marriage of convenience. >> so your foundation is doing good work in the community you're out there you're not just a retired athlete. you are an activist and you're a community influencer and making things happen. when you look at this current

generation of players, a lot of them getting into business, starting a company also very outspoken about issues they think are important to the country. what is your thought about the current generation of players and public activism? >> i think especially in the nba, a lot of guys come from communities that are disadvantaged. and there's a lot of changes they would like to make in where they came from and the wealth that they have generated by playing professional basketballen abl es them to do good things that's my deal but having this auction i support the charity and do something good in the community and everybody wins with this. >> you have started your career let's say ucla, before you got to the nba you're from new york city. and then played in milwaukee not the biggest market ended up playing for the lakers

for a sometime the players want big market exposure, helps the brand and do things off the court s. that still very important to get to a big market like l.a. and new york so when they retire they can make a difference in the community like this? >> the popularity of the nba has mitigated that somewhat. you can come from a small market and if you're successful, if you have the fan base, they'll follow you wherever you go it's like that nba players now are recognized all over the world. >> do you think that players teaming up together is good for the business of the league or better if they're spread out that there's a star on every team and competing against each other as far as eyeballs and the benefit of the state of the league >> i don't think you should ask me about that. that's up to the managing partners of teams as to how they go about acquiring players lots of dimpfferent ways to skia

cat as we all know. >> you have done work with the foundation, active in the community. when you hear about the rhetoric out there right now, you know, in the political -- you have written a lot about this what are your thoughts on the state of the country right now and the world? >> well, it's tough times. it's a time of really extreme divisions and, you know, we have to be careful about what we do and can make mistakes and mess things up for a while. we don't want to do this. >> when you look at the future of the league, there's so many kids now not even playing basketball but on the video games, sitting in front of the computer, not shooting the ball. do you think that's good for youth and do you think that will affect the growth of the sport for the next generation? >> well, i don't think any one aspect of what you just mentioned dominates. there are kids, plenty of kids that love sport and are pursuing it and then others who couldn't be bothered. that's to be expected. >> people in new york will know that you're here and want to ask you about colin kaepernick

settling his grievance to the nfl. >> i'm really happy that colin managed to get some finality with his situation you know, he's a talented athlete. he should be playing in the nfl. i hope it is satisfied to his -- it is settled to his satisfaction it's been too long >> and so, finally, so golden auctions, people can buy this memorabilia. basically selling everything from your career >> i have a few tidbits left in the house. one or two things very personal to me but if you wanted to know what's going on, golden auctions and you will be able to see all that's available and hope people find a few things they're interested in. >> i wish i could afford this championship ring right here that you might be able to see on camera but i think that's a little bit too pricey for me.

i appreciate you coming on cnbc and chatting with us today from charlotte. i'll send it back to you in the studio. >> thank you for having me. >> thank you. >> all right, eric thank you. and our thanks to kareem abdul-jabbar time for a news update with sue herera. >> here's what's happening. the supreme court will decide whether the 2020 census can include a question of citizenship that could affect the allocation of seats in the house of representative and the distribution of billions of dollars in federal money the court agreed to a speedy review of a lower court ruling that blocked the trump administration from adding the question for the first time since 1950. long-time representative john dingell was laid to rest today at arlington national cemetery he died last week at 92 after serving 59 years in congress longer than anyone else in u.s. history. and the cdc reporting flu activity is widespread in 48

states people 65 and older having the highest rates of hospitalizations the cdc said that the savaccines 46% effective this year. a colorado man who survived a mountain lion attack said he knew he had to do something drastic when the cat's jaws stayed clamped on the wrist as he pounded its head with a rock. he said he put a foot on the lion's neck and held it there and then able to pull out his arm and he ran away. but he's a lucky guy he lived to tell about it. guys, you're up to date. back to you. >> okay. thank you, sue. >> it is friday. >> yeah. it's bird call time here at the nyse. >> yes. >> i don't know if you practice your bird calls. i'm working on mine. about 26 or so minutes before we get to the close and see it's a strong market. >> 3:33 before a 3-day weekend.

>> exactly. coming up, president trump said again today he loves tariffs and that can be bad news for automakers details on possible action against europe's biggest brands next. in> the smart money is pearinar down on risky bets stick around "closing bell" will be back after a break.

24 minutes to go in today's trade. stocks up big time let's go to dom chu on the floor for a look at the biggest movers. >> we are hovering around session highs so the dow jones industrial average currently up by about 375 points or thereabouts. let's bring you four of the biggest point contributors to that big gain. you have right now shares of home depot up by about 4.5%. about 30 points of that 375. home depot same thing with united health group. you can see up by 1.75%. similar dollar point move there. 30 points there, as well financial services giant goldman sachs up 3%, a strong financials trade. almost $6 to the upside. about 40 points to the dow if you swing around to post 6 over at imc, a look at boeing.

the biggest weighted in the dow jones up 1.5%. worth just around 40, 42 points for that overall 377-point gain so far a nice, strong move to the upside with a lot of these china centric's industrials or those closely associated with china like boeing up on the day. over to you. >> thank you, dom. this weekend we expect to get results of a commerce department investigation into european auto imports. cnbc's phil lebeau with a look at what could be at stake. phil >> a lot could be at stake, whether or not we find out if this report is released. you heard kayla say about half hour ago that the president now has the report from the commerce department, the question is will he release it, sit on it for a while and when will we find out there's a national security implication because of european autos being imported into the united states? the president is considering a

25% tariff on european built vehicles brought into the u.s. as well as auto parts and components made in europe an brought into the u.s what would be the impact well, today the center for automotive research crunched numbers and doing this over several months industry sales for the entire industry would drop almost 700,000 vehicles in a worst-case scenario with a 25% tariff on european autos and auto parts and vehicle prices for the entire industry could go up more than $1,400 and there would be substantial job losses both in terms of automakers, parts suppliers and dealerships. many people have asked me, how many vehicles do we get from europe it's just around 7%. the most recent numbers that we have from 2017 show that europe imports accounted for 6.7% of the vehicles that are bought in the u.s., primarily upscale

sedans and some suv frz the european automakers. bmw and daimler, could be hit the most and earlier this week we were talking with the ceo of bmw north america and very blunt saying, yeah, it is going to hurt it would not be good for sales the question is whether or not the president moves forward with a proposed 25% tariff at some point. >> remind us, phil, is anyone in the u.s. auto industry, parts industry in favor of these tariffs? >> no. no no nobody in the -- nobody in the auto industry wants tariffs and don't like the uncertainty they understand what the president is doing they're tired of the uncertainty creating problems in terms of the manufacturing supply chain. >> because i remember automakers complained of competitive disadvantages like the yen upset about the japanese currency. >> that's different. correct. >> wanted a level playing field but i guess not tariffs because it hurts them, too >> in theory

it could hurt you in terms of vehicles built here and exporting there. you will hear the trump administration say and correct about this, european autos coming into the u.s. hit with a 2.5% tariff and vehicles built here and sent to europe have a 10% tariff primarily what we build in this country as far as automobiles, suvs, pickup turucks, not many sedans go over there. >> they have the tariff on that, right. for them coming in here. don't we >> yeah. yeah, you never hear -- you never hear people talk about 25% and everybody builds trucks here. >> all right, phil we'll see what happens this week thank you. >> you bet. the beverage war is heating up going to break down the results next. and later, the state of retail ahead of next week's big earnings former sacks steve sadove tells

us what to watch for in those reports. "closing bell" back right after this

well, this week we get earnings results from beverage rivals coca-cola and pepsi but,

sara, they did have two very different reports. >> very different stock reactions. >> and you had james quincy on yesterday. i participated but i listened a lot on the call and then hugh johnson on "squawk on the street," as well i'm trying to understand what went on at coke and seemingly so cautious. >> so, here's the narrative on both of them they're both doing well, actually both companies are finding growth but both of them offer different views of the future. pepsico getting a boost and coke saw the worst performance in a decade why? pepsi said it will turn up the growth in sales and comes at a cost and ratcheted down expectations coca-cola said it's growing strongly and the weakening global economy an the strengthening dollar to cut into its growth offering a seemingly different take on the global landscape here's coke ceof and pepsi cfo on the macro backdrop of the. >> the headline number is

slightly softly than 2018 with 4% organic revenue growth. that we think will still be at the high end of consumer products organic revenue guidance for 2019 and it does represent a perhaps a more prudent view on the macroeconomic growth available in 2019 which is going to be softer than '18. >> by and large we think the macros are benign. perhaps slower than what it's been in the last couple of years but certainly for consumer staples x staples company not notably so. >> it is interesting they had a different take on the macroeconomic environment and usually when it softens it doesn't hurt staple companies that much. you buy coke or a pepsi. still, coca-cola is exposed heavily in places like argentina and turkey and some of the other emerging markets that are weakening and also exposed through the strong dollar which cuts into its sales bringing it back home. but i do think -

>> so's pepsi though, right? >> not to the extent of coke and i think the other story is that pepsi was lagging behind coke over the last year so the valuation really did favor coke going in, perhaps investors saw this quarter as a reason to change a sentiment shift in favor of pepsi over coke on the higher growth prospects despite the cost >> well, interesting tale of those two stocks, particularly coke yesterday no follow through at all today somewhat historic drop for it. >> it was surprising to a lot of investors and coke saw a downgrade, as well, in the market as people try to figure out why they feel the macroeconomic effect and dollar effect than the competitors. >> all right. moody's is weighing in on amazon's decision to pull its

plans to open a new headquarters in new york, hire thousands of people, pay billions in tax revenues i wonder what they see they don't like, morgan. >> i wonder. credit negative for the city moody's saying about the plans to pull out of hq2 in new york city the ratings agency does note that new york's economic fundamentals remain strong the decision to drop the plan unlikely to weaken the city's growth prospects but also warning that due to all of this news that you may see firms seeking incentives no longer viewing new york as the right place to do business the right business location. but again, david, the key takeaway, moody's saying credit negative for the big apple. >> a $92 billion budget for fiscal year '20. 7 billion, morgan, to debt repayment an see why it's important. >> absolutely, david. >> all right. >> i have a feeling we'll have this debate for days to come.

>> oh yeah i'm not goingto stop morgan, thank you. we have about 12 minutes, 11 minutes before closing bell for the week it's been a strong week overall for the markets and s&p above a 1% gain. fang but -- >> video game makers, take two and activision that's one rare weak spot in today's session. >> the case for weeks now. >> with those gamers. up next, how top hedge fund managers played the market in the fourth quarter when markets were in rml.tuoi we'll break down a key strategy when "closing bell" returns. [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, because you have e*trade which isn't complicated. their tools make trading quicker and simpler. so you can take on the markets with confidence. don't get mad. get e*trade and start trading today.

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risky sectors. >> some of the prominent hedge fund managers we track are dumping the cyclicals for one falling out of favor selling shares in large banks like bank of mamerica and citi berkshire did pick up shares in jpmorgan and bank of america and also souring on apple and the other fangs. tiger global dissolved 1 million shares of apple while david stepper and george soros selling out of the stakes xleelly. berkshire hathaway building a massive position in apple sold some of its stake in apple during the quarter, although reuters is reporting that warren buffett did not sell shares under his discretion among the other fangs, corvax selling some and omega cutting google's parent alphabet it's important to note the positions as of december 31st and may have changed since but

speaking with sources it appears hedge funds continued to delever and minimizing the exposure to the market overall guys >> yeah. always interesting, leslie they took a lot of risk off right when they may have been better putting it on. >> exactly what were they deploying in the fourth quarter when everything was getting cheaper and it is clear from these filings from yesterday that they really weren't deploying too much, maybe they were using that capital, you know, in the last six weeks and that's partially why we have seen such strong moves to the upside especially today but, you know, in the fourth quarter it appears like they're net-net picking up too much in the way of equities. >> okay. leslie, thank you. leslie picker. we are coming back with the closing -- this is what you promised me in the morning the big closing countdown. >> you get to do it. >> i get to do it? >> this is when you walk the floor. >> okay. it's crowded here actually we're back after this.

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don't get mad. get e*trade, dawg. welcome back to "closing bell." as we count you down to the end of trading for the week. a strong one, of course. s&p up more than 10% for the week sara just said, financials performing very strongly today overall they have not participated as much perhaps in

previous sessions but today quite strong and, well, a broad rally for the most part. except for fang. which is not participated today. apple down netflix down alphabet down. amazon, as well. which we talk so often about for different reasons, also actually having a down day today. another name in the last hour is mattel shares of the toymaker dropping precipitously after cutting guidance full year in terms of ebita at an investor meeting and mattel reported an unexpectedly strong number and so many may have actually bought the stock on the strength of the earnings report and did not actually inform investor base things were not going as well as anticipated at least for the guidance for the rest of the year dom chu's with us on the floor that at least is a mystery of what mattel was thinking in terms of communication strategy. >> i mean, it is curious because

mattel is a name in that duopoly of toys. always about hasbro always with the better franchise and story matteo talking about the idea that you could have execution mishaps and then a nice trade to the upside and then maybe even out again, the whole toy story no pun intended is awesome so far. the idea that the markets close at the high for the dow, a gain is not what we thought this morning. >> meanwhile, the week seems to be buoyed by no negatives on china trade. >> right. >> incremental positives ending this week. although, frankly, i mean, nothing to point to specifically an say it's very close. >> no. it is the whole johnny mercer song eliminate the negative latch on to the affirmative. don't mess with mr. in between the dow up 1.75%

the broader measure, only, only up 1% and seeing the gains happen with a handful -- on the dow. >> as wesaid the nasdaq weakes of the three as we count you down to the closing bell, i almost said opening, closing bell, ringing that closing bell here, the president of republic of colombia, and then stealth bio therapeutics and time for the second hour of "closing bell" an it starts right now. ♪ welcome to "closing bell." i'm sara eisen wilfred frost has the day off an i'm joined by mike santoli good thing you're along for the ride. >> on your right today. >> bullish day on wall street. dow up 443 points. that is just about session highs. s&p 500 with a nice 1% surge of

its own. nasdaq lags. weakness in communication services there david mentioned the fang names, lagged, as well. russell 2000 having another good day up 1.5% for the week stocks are up, major averages up 2% across the board this is the eighth straight weekly gain for the dow and the nasdaq s&p the seventh positive week out of the past eight. it is a strong run quite a comeback from the christmas eve bottom for stocks. this hour, former ceo steve sadove is here with the state of retail, industry, ahead of big earnings from walmart and the other names. we'll talk about that. here are the stories for investors. renewed opens of a trade deal for u.s. and china fuelling the markets and tensions continue to weigh on corporate profits hitting deere and transports under pressure after logistics announced disappointing warnings and a major customer is slashing

the business with the company. we'll get to that. but first, let's talk about the markets. tom lee is here. barbara durand also joins us welcome, guys. happy friday. >> happy friday. >> barbara, have you been putting money to work amid the market rally since the beginning of the year? >> i put it to work in december and then early january and not here i think now's the time -- we have had a rebound over the fright of earnings recession and seeing them come in. okay for the fourth quarter but it looks like they could actually be down for the first quarter. and we still have earnings at 11% to 12% for the fourth quarter and a big disconnect and got to see how the year plays out. no, i would not be putting new cash to work here unless selectively and stock picking. >> tom, try to connect those two things flat to down earnings for the first half of the year by the market market's up. treasury yields low.

seems investors are saying it's goldilocks backdrop and we overdid it on the downside in december we are up eight weeks in a low, 18% now into an area of the s&p with trouble last fall where does it leave us from your perspective? >> i think 2019's reminding investors that pe matters more than e there is an earnings rescission. it takes a whole lot and an increase in pe multiple offsets the negative earnings rescission since we have had this earnings recession so yeah. the fed's pivoted dovishly high yield's rallying. technicals are above the 200 day and so much money on the sidelines i think this argues this is a pe expansion year like '09. so it should be, you know, more than double digit gains. >> mike, looking at the performance of sectors this week i think the only one negative is utilities which makes sense on a

risk-on kind of moment the energy the biggest winners financials had a strong week what does that tell you about the major catalyst >> well, i don't know about the specific catalyst but it's more cyclical areas and arguably, i don't know, under owned areas, places beaten down in december it seems like a big 180 in sentiment after another 180 in sentiment and i think the question is how much more do people feel under invested and perhaps testing that high right now. >> i think you are right if you look at the study that is in january we had, you know, high cash levels like 4.5%, professional investors bearish which we saw back in the fall and that usually proceeds a rally like we have had today i think what we see today is obviously rallying on the chinanus and if we got something positive on china we'd see it go higher but then back off because it comes down to what's the fed doing? what are earnings going to be?

always comes back to this. >> on china, tom, i mean, we have joked on this desk to rally on the same news, probably a china deal but i guess as long as it's moving in that direction, do you think that's a catalyst when and if we get the actual agreement >> i think the market is beginning to recognize that china is not a structural downturn in the outlook for global growth. it's really just a sort of tension and transitory period to be worked through an that's why the market's sort of buying this news look if there's a real deal, it is a huge deal. right? it's a big positive structural change in favor of u.s. corporate so i think you would want to buy it. >> by the way, shenzhen with a 6% up week from the lunar new year holiday. >> yes, absolutely. >> signs of the stimulus working and -- >> fits together with this, as a matter of fact new developments of the high-level trade talks in beijing. kayla tausche with the latest on

that in washington hi, kayla. >> reporter: hey, mike official white house statement this morning was that much work remains but that the two stids are working toward a memoranda of understanding to have the areas of agreement and will continue working on what they called intensive and detailed discussions but the president was optimistic enough today to say there's still a possibly of extending that march 1st deadline and declined to say what it would take to get a deal, only that talks are going very well, the u.s. will win billions and billions of dollars in exchange for the trade deal and he talked a little bit about next steps and what happens from here. >> i want it to be good for china and i want it to be good for the united states. we'll see what happens china's coming here next week. they're coming home, the traders. and then china's coming here next week and then i'll be meeting with president xi some point after that to maybe -- for some remaining deals we'll make them directly one on

one ourselves. >> reporter: so, as a potential de-escalation of tariffs with china on the horizon, the white house could prepare to look at tariffs on automobiles a source says that the commerce department delivered a report to the white house today that was commissioned several months ago asking the commerce department to look into whether it would be acceptable to put tariffs on imported automobiles the president tweeted multiple times in the past calling for a blanket 25% tariff on the foreign autos. we are working the phones and we know that report was delivered and we'll wait and see exactly what it says >> we certainly will, kayla. thank you very much. it's kind of fun he calls them the traders. >> i know. >> at least in this instance he did. do the details matter at all in this we can have it hanging out there in front of the market and sort of serves the purpose and not getting new tariffs or new

efforts against autos. >> that's the exception. if we get no tariffs and roll back then the details for us don't matter certainly will matter for a lot of different countries and places but no. i think the biggest thing will be it will help boost business confidence and consumer confidence that's what we have seen recently a decline in consumer and business confidence. why? with full employment, wages going up i think that it's been the headline, you know, noise that's going on so that will be important, as well. >> tom, what happens to the market if the president signal that is he wants to move forward with the auto tariffs? >> it's a setback because -- >> that's an economically important sector of the economy. >> correct. >> this is not like minor, right? >> we are at the point of a china trade deal it's a big triumph for the administration and showing foreign policy's been quite genius. right? yeah so it would be a set back and the market was in 2900 before

the trade talks and i don't think we have to go down if we just have nothing. >> right we don't have to go down unless the market is perched at a spot looking for an excuse to go down. >> correct. >> who knows if that will be the case. >> it could happen look, we are up 11% year to date why are people so bearish? >> well, the okay. so i'll take the other side. did you see the retail sales report this week the data has turned and i think everyone's trying to figure out is this a slowdown from a strong year as the tax cuts sort of wear out and the trade policy takes shape or something more ominous in the numbers like auto delinquencies rising >> one, my opinion, our opinions don't matter because we can't tell the market what to do and looks like that 20% decline discounted a lot so now we are seeing a v-shaped recovery looking just like '09 and i think that's the playbook even value cyclicals working.

>> i mean, yeah, i'm sure you get the pushback i think it could look like 2011, 2015, '16. you say '09. you were down on a trailing 10-year basis in the stock market at that point that was a very, very low bottom. >> correct but we wrote a report showing the parallels. if you look at the structural damage, 72% industries fell into a bear market. higher number since 2009 we had the aai flip. the implosion looks like '09 and waterfall decline hasn't happened since '09 so this -- the closest period is march '09. >> so, we put together a little piece on how the trade tensions are impacting individual companies an stocks. agriculture equipmentmaker and deere claiming trade tensions for weakness in sales. barbara, how do you navigate where you want to be if there's a deal or if there isn't

>> yeah, no. i think it's problematic but deere and newell, that's the soybean farmers, newell is much more i think other issues. but i think it is very hard. you know that's why the industrials are up 17% year to date. people say, we got the china thing resolved and hopeful noises since christmas about that i think that's where the money is rotating to you have seen the fang stocks doing nothing. amazon - >> lower. >> down all day. so that is something important about where money is going. >> why did fang underperform today when most everything else went up? >> i think there's more cracks in the armor around the fang monopoly, you know, pricing power, secular growth. if this is an upturn taking place, they're coming out a recession, they like to own

price to book and all value stocks that i buy and i think that's what's really working right now. >> yeah. you mentioned the pe being instrumental in terms of how the market does. if we do get whatever technical version of an earnings recession or a kind of a lull in earnings growth, the market could be fine with that if it's confident to obviously bounce from there. right? i mean, at this point, if it's the end of the cycle, pe doesn't expand from there. >> you're exactly right. so the earnings recession bears are arguing we're late cycle that's kind of -- maybe the consensus from our clients remember in 2016 earnings rescissions negative 18% and up 16% for the year with a huge pe expansion year >> and a pe expansion is essentially the market's way of saying, we are looking across -- >> good times ahead. >> dovish fed. that's - >> look. >> high yield's rallying. >> i think you may very well be right and slow growth and the question is how slow at this

point? >> yeah. here's the group that could be moving in a lot of issues is transports, they did get hit a bit today. xpo, fed-ex, u.p.s. lower on the day. concentrated kind of in the freight sector of transports and airlines also got dinged is there either an economic signal in here, tom, or something related just to this sub segment of getting stuff around the country >> transports are super, super early cycle. super sensitive. so clearly the furlough and trade tensions will hurt them but yeah you know, that isn't necessarily the same as saying that they're leading us into recession. it is hard to say that this is actually a cycle signal versus just sensitive to speed buffers. >> do you own any of these names, barbara >> no, no. i own fed-ex

i have owned fed-ex and not exactly great because, again, a play on a longer term secular trend and then amazon coming in and then coming into any industry there's potential for great disruption and i think that's an issue overhanging. because of xpo we don't know the customer but that means -- air freights are dependent on have amazon as a customer. >> what's fascinating is setting aside amazon as a potential competitor, it just seems that it's the u.p.s. fed-ex area taking the hit for everyone's need to get everything overnight. otherwise, that's where the bottleneck in the whole chain is and funny they haven't been able to exploit it so much. >> i know. i know that's been what you have seen out there, an issue for a while and see the way things are going. people want it now so amazon's prepared to ickes ploit it

fully. >> an eighth week in a row of gains. you say pause. >> pause for now as an investor. don't sell you know >> you are still pretty bullish, right? >> yeah. i mean, i think last year people thought buy the dip died and this year looking like most of the last ten years you have to buy the dip. you know, there's an economic resilience u.s. companies are becoming more blue chip. i think that's what they're proving. >> btd is back. >> we haven't gotten any dips. >> intraday. >> yeah, right. >> and then the buying into the close which we got again today. >> why. >> even though the secret is thank you both. >> thank you. up next we'll debate if new york city is closed for business after the backlash over billions in government incentives led to amazon canceling the new headquarters plans. plus, former sacks ceo steve sadove previews next week's numbers.

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welcome back to "closing bell." bad deal bad company? bad billionaire? that was a report of new york communities for change criticizes amazon's hq2 plans and now that amazon canceled the

plans to come to new york will other businesses be concerned? >> joining us now is jonathan westin, executive director at new york communities for change and katherine wild, ceo of partnerships for new york city thank you both for being here. >> thank you. >> cathy, we'll start with you so we asked this question, what happens now with other businesses wanting to come here. you were in favor of this hq2 deal correct? >> yes. >> there were some talk when amazon was running this contest, at least the cities that put in a bid, at least now have this package that says come to our city we can do business with you. has that changed for new york right now? >> i think new york's image as a place to come and do business is a big tarnished and uncertainty in the minds of business which they don't like about whether or not they would locate here we were excited to have a tech, big tech headquarters operation here we have got lots of tech employees. we have lots of start-ups and

vice presideit makes a big difference of the leaders here in terms of our our role in the global tech economy. >> you, jonathan, represent community organizations, unions, have a very different take do you not want big business coming to new york >> i think the reality is businesses are flocking to new york you know all across the country, the trend is for people to come to big urban areas like new york city and i think, you know, our issue is that we shouldn't be paying $3 billion to bring in the richest company on earth to come to new york city. and, you know, the problem is when all of these businesses come to the city the people that work at these companies are displacing the long-term residents that live there and i think that's what amazon ran into here in new york. >> well, they ran into that perception without a doubt but that $3 billion as many people pointed out far gone revenue down the road assuming other sale tax and tax revenues

going to be a part of this is it better for them not to co -- in other words, was there a way for amazon to modify the deal to make it more appealable? >> they could have come -- >> that was the line >> this is actually good for the business community, reorienting how we believe businesses should operate in new york city is we shouldn't be subsidizing companies for jobs, you know, we spent a billion dollars in buffalo that the state just did. they produced almost no jobs so why are we shoveling money to corporations and should tax them for better schools, better subways. >> they pay taxes and the incentives to get repaid and then some. >> i mean, literally came out that amazon paid no taxes. they paid no taxes, there was a report today that amazon made billions of profit and paid no taxes. so the tax structure is rigged in favor of the corporations and

against every day people and i think that's why you are seeing a revolt all around the country. >> cathy, we are trying the find out what now do you think the conversation of businesses coming to cities will be different around the issue of subsidies? >> well, i hope it's not more negative i think the point i wanted to make is that new york is the highest taxed place in the country and when we're competing with every other state and city and places like nashville and dallas, runners-up to our application, it's pretty hard to compare our tax burden and cost burden there 'em plowers here pay 20%, 30% premium for employees in new york because of the cost of living and then the taxes so i think that's what people have to understand that in terms of making a winning package which was the goal of the governor and the mayor, they really had to put something on the table. >> you know, is there a sense in retrospect that amazon was not fully committed to this? the fact that, say, so quickly turned and said forget about it,

we won't pursue this deal and 25,000 jobs over 10 years and by the way not a tremendous percentage of the total job growth is likely to be for the company as a whole, are you disappointed that they just walked >> no. i think that amazon totally intended to come here and excited about the proposition of being close to cornell and long island city for a campus environment, they would have all the folks together on and not many places to absorb that and also have the talent to fill it up that we would hopefully local residents as well as their own -- they current employees so i think that amazon really did not think that in the end it was just worth the price and they didn't -- it didn't feel like they would get the deal they signed up for. they made a deal, they were prepared for those terms and then suddenly it seemed like that was uncertain. >> so what is your organization now doing to change the

conversation around these kind of issues like subsidies and all the things you objected to here? >> i think fighting this amazon deal and the $3 billion giveaway to jeff bezos, richest person on earth, has done more to educate every day new yorkers than almost anything else we could do so, you know, we feel like this is a huge victory for new yorkers and we feel like, you know, we'll now be able to reset what the climate should be for businesses in new york if you want to come to new york, you have to deal with regular people you actually have to make sure that people are included in the conversation and, you know, not displace, you know, working class communities that have been here forever. and that's what amazon was probably going to do if they came to long island city. >> all right well, from a company's point of view, it says the cost is higher than we thought to come here maybe that's the way it should be. >> i think definitely. as the economy shifts towards

places like new york where all of these -- google came here facebook came here everybody's coming here. we have to rethink how we are building cities and i think it's -- we actually need the people at the top, the rich, the jeff bezos literally the richest person on earth, to pay more we don't need to be -- >> this wasn't a personal project of his this was his company and just to be clear it was estimated to have brought in $30 billion in tax revenue. >> we were told the same thing in buffalo and we got nothing. >> final word, cathy >> i think this is a big loss for new york but i think we figure out how to work together how to make up for it and keep the tech economy growing, fastest growing industry and we need it. >> thank you to you both >> thank you. up next, we'll break down the charts to explain why further recovery of wall street could depend on more improvement in the bond market. plus, tax refunds are down

nearly 9% from a year ago. find out why and whether this is the new rm lern longnoalat o"csi bell."

stocks have certainly come a long way from their december lows and the credit market is seeing a nice recovery, as well. mike's at the telestrator with more this is an oldie but goodie. >> and this fits together real nicely right here. obviously we set them up on

contrasting scales that's the dow jones industrial average and this is the relationship between the high yield junk bond etf and a treasury yield etf it is a proxy for risk spread they match up in october they ploung down here and basically match up in december obviously the rebounding credit, the rebound in risk appetite and liquidity supported the move to almost fully supported it. credit, the spreads are still farther off the high here looking at orange to orange than the dow is the dow made up more room. i think definitely necessary for the fate of any further extension of this stock market rally to make sure that credit keeps improving because the spreads are not aznar row as last fall and summer and this is something to watch if the rally is tired or divergence to make

it not as stable. >> typically credit leads. >> exactly. >> in the downturn and stocks falling on the scary days for the bulls last year, you know, one point of comfort was the credit market is not showing any kind of major crisis. >> exactly right here. this was last january, february. that was that big drop in the stock market and here you do see credit was relatively stable. certainly compared to what happened later in the year so it does -- it is usually leading indicator but a confirming indicator of something that should be watched. >> i wonder how much it's tied to the big fed u-turn like everything else. it eased so many financial conditions. >> a patient fed and no recession is all you need for credit to work very well you usually earnings growth for stocks to work well so that's why credit is a premise for further equity gains and not enough. >> that's sort of the goldilocks scenario refer it is.

>> counting on now. >> it is time for a news update. >> hello, everyone here's what's happening that the hour. an active shooting situation in aurora, illinois, just south of chicago late this afternoon numerous police cars surrounding a large commercial manufacturing building police say a shooter has been apprehended and at least three people have been hospitalized. democratic presidential candidate kamala harris blasting president trump's national emergency declaration calling it a crisis of his own making the senator claiming it will generate extensive litigation. >> i think that this declaration of an emergency is completely unnecessary. it is playing politics with taxpayer resources it is about creating a crisis of his own making because of the vanity project he feels he needs to pursue and the nfl says it has

settled collusion lawsuits from players colin kaepernick and eric reid. the resolution subject, though, to a confidentiality agreement both had claimed that they were blacklisted because of protesting the national anthem before nfl games and that is the cnbc news update this hour. back downtown to you. >> all right, sue. have a great weekend thank you. >> you, too. up next, former ceo steve sadove takes the pulse of the sector. plus, we'll look at whether uber has a uber problem ahead of growth of a highly anticipated o. ♪ driverless cars. all ground personnel please clear the hangar. trips to mars. $4.95. hydroponic farms. robotic arms.

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welcome back take a look at how we finished the day on wall street dow industrials up, 443 points outperformer on the day. s&p 500 up just over 1%. s&p now up 18.25% since the low on december 24th nasdaq lagged. did not really participate russell 2000 up 1.5%. check out shares of mattel

today falling more than 18% largely in the last hour of trading and finishing with the worst intraday performance since 1999 after the company issued some pretty weak 2019 guidance projecting earnings well below expectations just last week the stock rallied on strong earnings and now the company, mike, saying flat sales. so basically, no sales growth. >> yes. >> i think that was the big surprise and reading a cnbc.com article quoting an analyst telling us either they're super lowballing or the company is falling apart for the surprise in that forecast. >> flat sales guidance and also just a radical cut in cash flow prediction for this year, too. if you didn't know eight days ago it would be this bad that's an issue. >> barbie was doing well the new ceo cutting cost and getting people excited about the movie production part of the

company. they announced a new american girl movie and the narrative changed. >> we saw the category have a hard time in the retail sales report we thought that was because in part toys r us. >> yeah. speaking of retail sales did fall 1.2% in november from december according to a government report. while reports from individual retailers have been mixed for the holiday season, mastercard report showed solid spending gains. for more on what to expect, we are joined by steve sadove senior adviser to mastercard steve, what is going on with the u.s. consumer? >> i think the u.s. consumer is quite healthy. all of the numbers i have seen would tell you that she came out of the holiday season shopping the mastercard spending pulse numbers said that the holiday season was up 4% saw some of the best apparel

numbers of years and the forecast, for example, from the national retail federation are we're seeing somewhere around 3.8% to 4% growth in 2019. so i would look at it and say we have a healthy consumer. >> healthy consumer, steve at least that seems to be the backdrop do you have an explanation then for the weak december government sales number did people get spooked in the end of the month with the government shutdown and the stock market decline or maybe just something about the data that doesn't seem right? >> you have seen a lot of skepticism today from analysts of the validity of the numbers i wouldn't challenge the methodology of the government numbers but seeing revisions of one, two, and three and see what happens because i'm surprised, for example, amazon reported 20% growth in the month of december. that's half the internet and the commerce department numbers showed a negative nternet sales. doesn't make any sense to me i wouldn't be surprised if the government shutdown had an

affect on it but i feel very comfortable with the mastercard spending pulse numbers showing a 4% growth in the month of december and that to me is hard -- it is driven by credit card data. >> so, steve, if we are seeing a healthy spending consumer as you say it is not boosting everyone. we have gotten some mixed holiday sales reports. >> sure. >> which retailers if you're an investor do you want to own? who's getting the benefit of all that spending? >> you are right winners and losers i think the companies that embraced omnichannel ship in store. that they really understand how to play that doing well and retailers providing value to the consumer i think are doing well, off price players, the tj maxx, rosses, burlingtons performing well the walmart i think doing terrifically well. how they've been growing the dotcom business. i think target reported terrific

top line growth in the holiday season so you're clearly a lot of apparel players reporting doing very well. so i see a lot of growth in the consumer home depot's a good example. hardware home goods doing well and a positive growth. >> the picture you're sort of painting there, steve, is one of the giants being able to absorb a lot of this investment and being able to touch customers but maybe at the extense of some of the smaller chains and those that depend on foot traffic. is there any way to handicap whether that process is ever going to get any relief in terms of the smaller players or just this is the way it's going to be >> i think two pieces to the answer. the consumer actually loves niche specialty unique types of brands so small is actually where the consumer wants to go the reality is that there's a lot of investment required, whether it's digital, transportation, labor that are going to eat into some of the

margin structure so the really good big players are doing well. it could be a best buy it could be a walmart. it could be a target but i think that there are a lot of smaller players the direct to consumer brands are now opening up stores and they're doing very well. i look at the warby parkers of the world and see how well they drive growth small can be beautiful, as well. i do think that the really well omnichannel players have a good advantage in this environment. >> what about the luxury players? >> luxury's interesting. luxury is very much tied to the stock market running sacks we thought about a 90% corerelation of luxury and you saw a lag in the major issues the fourth quarter was probably slugging my sense is that you probably see a lull of the november, december and starting to see it

come back as the market rebounded. so longer term i feel good about luxury but clearly it's a volatile play. >> and i guess, you know, nothing you're saying suggests that we are going do get relief any time soon from just store closures it seems like that process just continues for a while now and i guess the question being, is that going to be kind of a vicious cycle where, you know, more malls become impaired and things like that >> it's a story of growth and decline. so last year, you had probably 8,000 plus store closures but 6,000 or 7,000 store openings. you have a lot of growth brands opening up stores and then you have the sears of the world, toys r us closing a lot of stores the malls are the haves and have notes. a-malls performing pretty well 20% of the malls doing 70% to 80% of the business and then the c and d malls probably going to be slowly going away because they have lost their reason for being or going to be

repurposed into other uses so malls are very much the mixed bag and they have got to find a way of driving traffic to the mall providing better experiences, something unique. it's got to be a place where people want to gravitate and can't be a restaurant. it's got to be an expense thriee that people are going to they have a long way to go. >> steve, always good to get your take. >> thanks. >> former ceo of saks. adviser to mastercard. today uber, what the financials tell us about the ipo and the founder's new plans for another business on wheels both of those stories are next and tax refunds have dropped by nearly 9% so far this tax season geat you need to know about the chans impacting your money that's coming up maybe you could relieve some stress by calling geico for help with our homeowners insurance. pass pas geico helps with homeowners insurance?

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. welcome back here's some stories that are under the radar today. i saw this one former uber ceo kalanick working on something called cloud kitchens, a food service builds out kitchens for chefs to start businesses according to a report in the financial times, he is secretly doing this i don't know if you saw this. >> very much hush-hush. >> hiring some early uber employees but not letting them put on their linkedin where they work for and what they're doing and making it very, very - >> he is ready if you think about the

innovation of uber, having entremendous premuie entren preneuros to use an app to connect it's not an existing restaurant. >> the fact that restaurant kitchens can't handle that now they have extra space. makes sense though maybe the reason he's so quiet has to do with the fact he left uber in a pool of scandals. >> absolutely. under very tough circumstances and doesn't want any attention at all probably. i hope it doesn't mean there's other industry that is adopt cloud as this idea that it's the -- in the background, it is not right at the premise but that's a different story. well, speaking of uber -- you can do it better than i can. completing the first full year as ceo, reporting full-year revenue of $11.3 billion on a quarterly basis showing shower

growth fourth quarter up. but still losing enormous amount of money if you look at operating basis, it is still not really showing a lot of benefits of scale just yet in terms of -- it is not meant to at this point. right? the venture -- >> still growing double digits. >> invest in these businesses by losing a lot of money. >> and he talks about the fact they're gearing up toward an ipo. >> and they will and $70 billion valuation right now it's just a question of whether the market will soak up a company of that size unless it has a clear path to when it's profitable. we have news crossing now on uber josh lipton with the details josh >> yeah, sara. looks like uber has filed suit today to overturn new york city's law that would have capped the number of ride hail drivers in new york city and, in

fact, we have a statement here from the company saying that rather than rely on alternatives supported by transportation experts and economists, the city chose to significantly restrict service, growth and competition by the for-hire vehicle industry which will have an according to uber disproportionate impact on residents outside of manhattan who have long been underserved by yellow taxis and mass transit. so again, guys, more news here, uber filing suit to overturn new york city's law capping the number of drivers. back the you guys. >> josh lipton, thanks clearly they are going to fight any kind of rules, caps, bans, taxes. >> they have done it all over the world. almost every city tried to protect the existing cab fleet and it's interesting of a big tech against new york city right? amazon, uber taking them on. >> i wonder if the progressives jump on this issue, as well. if you're used to receiving a big tax return, pay attention.

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some taxpayers are taking to twitter to venting frustrations over their tax refunds or lack thereof. one user saying did my taxes same filing for the past 14 years. i usually get $1,000 to $1,200 back this year i owe $245 so why are people seeing this change joining us to explain is sharon epperson welcome. this is an important story. >> it is an important story, sara the irs just released updated numbers on this year's filing season

the report shows that the amount of the average tax refund fell roughly 9% from a year ago to $1,949 now, keep in mind it's still early in the season. the total number of returns processed is also lower than it was this time of year. but what's behind the smaller refunds? one big reason for the drop is the tax cuts and jobs act which brought about the most sweeping changes to our tax code in 30 years. as part of the overhaul, many companies lowered the amount of federal taxes they withheld from employees' paychecks and most people are seeing the benefits of the tax cut in larger paychecks throughout the year instead of tax refunds that are a result of overpaying the government there are other reasons why some may see smaller refunds or owe money. the new law eliminated miscellaneous expenses and limited others, like the s.a.l.t. deeduction, which is capped at $10,000.

these changes may increase your taxable income and as a result your tax bill. think about consulting a professional who can walk you through the specific tax situation that you have, suggest changes so that you're not surprised again, because many people are just baffled by what's happened. >> i can recall years ago the ceo for h & r block said for a lot of their customers, the tax refunding is the biggest financial event of their year. you count on it. if you live more or less paycheck to paycheck, you thought that was hanging out there. >> yeah. if you are planning to take a vacation, pay off your credit card bill from the holidays, all of these things you used to use your tax refund for, you're not able to do that because it's so much smaller or not even there at all. >> sharon, thank you for explaining it. up next, we will look at how the boating industry is trying to woo millenials. >> boat manufacturer - oh, wow. you two are going to have such a great trip. yeah, have fun!

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welcome from miami boat makers are trying to attract millenials that may seem a bit counterintuitive because millenials have student debt and are taking longer to buy big ticket items like homes and boats like we see out here but the industry really doesn't have a choice because right now the average age of a boat owner is 58 years old. 20 years ago, the average age was 48, a dramatic difference. in response, the industry is putting out more lower margin, lower priced products. just the opposite of what automakers are doing regulator is one of the brands leading that charge. just here in miami they debuted their new crossover boat it does offshore boating, fishing, even water sports it's a versatile boat. it has a lot of new tech like joy stick docking. that makes bringing your boat into a slip like a video game much easier than the traditional method the president of the company says the boat is about 32% less expensive than their average

price but she sees it as an investment in the future of boating and her company. >> this will bring us more buyers, so it's a longer term view the short-term view is sell everything you've got at the highest margins that you can but this is a longer term view. >> reporter: a lot of boat makers are looking at the long term because the short term they're facing tariff pressure in the form of retaliatory tariffs. the industry is expected to lose half a billion dollars in sales due to retaliatory tariffs in the eu, china, canada and mexico a lot of concerns about the future of boat sales if those sales do not continue to grow, there's fears there could be layoffs and production cuts back over to you. >> you're making us seasick with that bobbing, frank. why don't millenials buy boats is it a price thing? >> well, it is a price thing but also more of them are entering adulthood later in life and buying homes later they are also settling a lot of their student debt a lot of them are intimidated by

the commitment that's according to boat makers here. >> it does seem like a retiree hobby. >> absolutely. >> frank holland, thank you. have fun >> that does it for "the closing bell." >> have a good weekend "fast money" begins right now. "fast money" starts right now. live from the nasdaq market site overlooking new york city's times square, i'm melissa lee of the tonight on "fast" shipping stocks shudder after a major warning about amazon that could pose a logistical nightmare for the likes of u.p.s. and fedex. we've got the details. plus big box soaring as walmart is set to kick off earnings next week later, game on after getting killed the last couple of months, one trader says one video game stock is about to get new life. we start off with the market soaring on hopes of a trade deal no, your ears are not dece