others like wealth management will keep the merrill part. >> and the bull. >> and the bull. >> which is so iconic, of course. >> in that case i see dropping, unfortunately -- >> the lynch watch financials going into the close. we are losing the leadership there in financials and just hovering bo hovering above 2800. >> "closing bell" starts right now. ♪ good monday afternoon. welcome to "closing bell." i'm wilfred frost. >> i'm courtney reagan david rube 2346stein, what he said about the market and taxing wealth. and merger monday. mario gabelli will weigh in on the pairings and who could be next if he's trading the names. big movers today off the back of m&a. just bofr the 2800 level on the

s&p. constructive tone in the sector performance today. tech, materials, financials towards the top which is encouraging. >> what's guiding the markets is going on with the latest of trade between the u.s. and china. kayla tausche is in washington with the latest. >> reporter: we know president trump tweeted yesterday that an enough progress was made with china to delay thetariff deadline and today the president said that not only had talks progressed but they're nearing conclusion with another round of talks in the u.s. followed by a summit with president xi jinping. >> i told you how well we did with our trade talks in china and it looks like they'll be coming back quickly again and we're going to have another summit we will have a signing summit which is even better so hopefully we can get that completed but we are getting

very, very close. >> reporter: that summit expected at mar-lag-o in late march. what gets signed is not clear. it's clear that the president wants to make one with china and with others. >> we lose $800 billion a year on trade think of it. it's inconceivable no one knows whatthat means. and we're fixing that all up we start with mexico, canada, china. china's the big one. 50% of the number. even more. we are doing well. that could happen fairly soon. >> reporter: prumesident trump signaling an end of tensions ahead of the 2020 campaign and wants to go out on the trail with a message of market highs and results on campaign promises guys >> kayla, that reported tension with robert lighthizer i guess we saw on the debate of mous on friday how much are the tensions

elevated and at risk of resignations >> reporter: well, i certainly think that that tension is simmering. we did see that public display on friday. i asked the ambassador in late january of the president's comments and undercut the negotiating position and he said everything he says helps what i do and could be tongue in cheek and laughs among the reporters in the room but certainly he makes it clear that he reports to the president and he's there to deliver on the president's orders and that is what he wants to do. that being said, he has his own views on the china relationship to be managed and we'll see if that reaches a fever pitch and results in a resignation. >> you said we don't know any of the details. do we have any clues on sort of any of those silos and how close we might be getting to discussions of intellectual

property and the like? >> reporter: we don't have any text or specific pillars within the broad buckets just yet the administration isn't going that far providing the details sources of mine say that some of the thorny issues like force technology transfers and the enforcement of the deal, there's a little bit of space between the two sides as they try to work toward the deal but that being said the treasury secretary said they had closed the chapter on currency and several other chapters nearing the finish line and seem to signal at least what was discussed and had been agreed upon at least met the president's expectations. >> kayla, thank you very much for that worth pointing out, of course, shanghai up 5.6% today and just for the month of february up 14.6% to the s&p's 3.6 so markets in china certainly taking the last couple of weeks of developments on trade much

more positively in china than they have in the u.s something to keep an eye on. turning to big deal news, ge climbing after the company said it will sell the bio pharma unit morgan brennan has the details morgan >> reporter: wilf, $21.4 billion, how much the acquisition is priced at in catch and the assumption of certain pension liabilities, that's how much they're paying to close by year end ge plans to pay down debt with that and it leaves the company with a $17 billion health care business with imaging and diagnostics. i did speak with ge's ceo and chairman saying today he's focused on completing the carve out and focused on managing the remaining core business, meaning an ipo for ge health care in 2019 looks unlikely at this point. but adding that they're excited to have health care a bit longer remember, it's been performing

well the company had been looking to spin that off. also notable who's buying the bio pharma business. we have culp used to run danaher. but the company had first expressed interest in the ge assets early last year before culp took the helm analysts say the price is good for ge and also in line with peers whereas danaher getting a fastest growing business of ge and seeing shares up on the news that said, this isn't the only deal for ge today. it closed the merger of the transportation business and culp saying with today's announcement of bio pharma, they can be thoughtful and deliberate in terms of how and when they exit that transportation stake, as well you can see all three of those companies are higher right now ge up 7% danaher up 9%. wabtec up. march 7 sthd a teach-in on

insurance and that had investors on edge for several years now and also march 14th when we're expecting an updated outlook from ge. >> a teach-in on insurance sounds thrilling, morgan. >> i think it sounds thrilling. >> i was going to say, i would, as well, to be honest. just quickly, clearly the market likes the deal across the board. 21.4 billion how big an amount of cash for the company to solve the financial and debt issues? >> that's why ge is up right now. it is a major move in terms of delev deleveraging the health care business, the oil and gas business through baker hughes and so this gets them two thirds of the way just with this bio pharma deal and buys them in terms of that near term liquidity situation that's had investors and analysts

really kind of nervous >> okay, morgan. great stuff. thank you for that. now earlier today on cnbc becky quick sat down with the oracle of omaha warren buffett and this is what he had to say about stocks more broadly. >> i said in the annual report we expect to be buyers of stocks we have not been the market has gone straight up. i think stocks are more attractive but i have trouble buying it everybody day up. >> joining our "closing bell" exchange, mike gibbs and rick santelli at the cme in chicago michael, do you agree with that sentiment if you're a long-term investors equities are more attractive than treasuries and with the run since christmas it's hard to be buying right now? >> yeah. that makes a lot of sense. it is odd for the market to move in a straight line and this market has we have walked through resistance levels and now have a low 2800s and at some point

stocks need to go sideways and c consolidate the gains and maybe the overall index goes down or up a little bit and sector rotation and we are still buyers but i agree with mr. buffet 26 and got to be patient what you're saying. >> rick, i have to ask you about what's going on in treasuries as far as the trade talks are concerned. just because i keep thinking about how much of our debt that china owns and they play a very big part what is the market for treasuries telling you right now or has told you or what it's expecting as the trade talks maybe move forward toward a resolution. >> it is hard to garner much information on any of those very relevant topics by looking at treasury rates as a matter of fact, you know, after october, november, and november was the last leg of that 324 top where we have reversed down so significantly,

60 basis points, that i think it sends more of a message that, a, other central banks are keeping their somvereign rates low and the global slowing notion fits into the treasuries and then trying to divine how much is split between global and u.s. with regard to economic course powers effect especially on the long end of interest rates but coming to china i think that the best place to look is probably on the equities side and on the foreign exchange side especially knowing that the chinese understand that if they keep their kurcurrency weak it helpse export economy and we are at about a 7-month low on the dollar versus the chinese currency and screams of being in sync of the headlines hearing about how the talks are progressing, whether it's foreign exchange stability or, of course, all the i.t. issues

there is one area on the treasury curve to give us information on china that's the complexion of the yield curve and hopefully see it steepen and see the long end wake up a little bit once that deal, if that deal gets verified and we see some meat on the bone. >> mike, there's been some fears domestically in the u.s. of earnings not delivering the same growth in the year ahead as the past year. which sector in particular stands out as one that will deliver solid earnings growth for the rest of the year >> you know, it is kind of interesting. i'm not so sure i buy into the earnings being weaker. yeah, earnings revised lower as q1 -- as we went through q4. but for the full year 4.7% growth at the consensus but if you look at the median stock you are looking at earnings of 10.2%. if you look at the sectors, all sectors outside of one had their

earnings revised lower throughout the q4 earnings season and industrials were the only sector that saw their earnings moving higher so i think that really stands out as an area that looked attractive it extended and gone up too much and is a buyer as it pulled back and health care, for instance, earnings are expected up 5.7%. and it's actually seen its pe go up very little this year versus 2-point move for the s&p on a pe and very attractive area from a risk/reward perspective for a market that goes straight up. >> looks like you're in favor of consumer discretionary and waiting for earnings reports of the retail names in that group but then we got that disappointing december retail sales number which surprised many of us and wondering is that sort of an aberration or an indication of a slowdown

where are you thinking right now with consumer discretionary and if that's a play that makes sense for you? >> you know, something about that number that came in from december, it is hard for me to square when i see the largest retailer in the country put up a beautiful sales comp about a week ago for q4 and not so sure that earnings -- i mean that sales were as bad as that number alluded to also, if you think about the job market's healthy, wages are moving up, energy prices coming down and in that environment, the consumer should be in good shape and the beauty of the consumer discretion sector is you have so many different areas to play across that sector that have varying fundamental trends and some look very good. and so that's why we feel that it was worthy of an outperform rating given the backdrop and also technicians and watch the price momentum and the equal weight index and that means the average stock in consumer

discretion, it's doing much better than the cap weighted, which gives a larger weighting to a few stocks and equal weight, the arch stock is doing better and gives me a better opportunity to pick a winner. >> okay. michael gibbs and rick santelli, thank you both very much. still ahead here on "closing bell," david rubbenstein to join us live. oil prices taking a leg lower after president trump warned opec the world economy can't take a price hike. we have a chief economist with the take on the state of the energy market here next on "closing bell. ♪

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opec, please relax and take it easy world cannot take a price hike fran fragile, exclamation point we have a guest to talk about the outlook. price down about 3% on the day spencer, bp making an outlook of 2019 and beyond and if you could, i know it's a comprehensive outlook but what are the highlights for bp for 2019 looking at the market >> the outlook looks ahead to 2040 tries to think about some of the main trends. i think perhaps one single highlight is this sort of a dual challenge that the world faces so the world needs more energy and less carbon. the less carbon i think we all know about emissions need to fall sharply if we're going to stop the impacts of global warming. the more energy is perhaps less well understood. not rich countries like america

and the u k6 our energy demand is likely flat rather, it is that the poorest nations in the world need more energy those countries as they grow and prosper will need more energy and we show a lot of work of how increases in energy tend to go hand in hand with improvements in human development so when we think about the challenges facing 20 years we need to solve both of these problems. >> so that overall view and the growing demand allows you to be bullish and where are the sub sector shifts happening? >> almost under any scenario, wind and solar, renewable just driving energy growth going forward. in one of the scenarios wind and solar power account for around half of the growth in renewalible -- total energy over the next 20 years and renewables

the fastest growing. >> interested you said that emerging markets will see a big growth in demand yet i think i'm seeing you think chinese demand for energy peaks pretty soon and i would imagine most people haven't priced in. >> no. not peak just grow less quickly so over the last 20 years china has been by far and away the engine for the world, and in the last 20 years each year chinese energy demand gone up by about 6% on average over 20 years. looking ahead over the next 20 years we see that slowing to about 1% and still growing but growing far less quickly some of that is a story on economic growth. if you look over the last 20 years, china was growing at an average of 9%, 10% a year. going forward that halves. some is economic growth and the pattern of the growth is changing, away from the industrial sector, energy intensive towards consumer service facing sectors

they're far less energy sensitive and the two things together means overall demand in china slows and india rather than china sort of emerges as a major growth market for energy over the next 20 years. >> talking about energy more on a consumer level and electric vehicles and autonomous cars, how does that fit into your forecast going forward and when are there real realities and pulling market share >> they're so -- they're a real reality today. >> yes. >> so there's 4 million, 5 million electric cars on the planet today out of a car park of 1 billion 5 million out of 1 billion still pretty small they are likely to grow very rapidly. a scenario from 3 million to 4 million to 300 million by 2040 and another scenario over to 500 million. the confidence bands are huge and are they likely to go

quickly? yes. changing the nature of transportation throughout the world, the key point here is very important for sort of improving air quality, car manufacturers and the world they impact the impact on oil demand pretty small. that growth from 3 million and 4 million to 300 million to reduce oil demand by about 3 million, 4 million barrels a day relative to not seeing that growth and remember that today demands of 90 million barrels a day they're happening and important and the impact for oil demand relatively small. >> spencer, bringing it back to the short term in the next sort of year ahead, do you feel like whether it's opec or growing u.s. supply to offset the reduction in supply of venezuela and iran for geopolitical issues >> i think all the market is looking at the different supply impacts at the moment and one side is obviously when's happening in iran in terms of sanctions on iran and also venezuela. and on the other side is u.s.

tide oil and one thing that has sort of surprised us all is everybody year people say, well, it won't surprise us again and sure it has. i think we are seeing a world where we may see tightness in the first half of the year but the bottlenecks start to ease i expect it to come on strongly. >> spencer dale, thank you very much for joining us here today, bp's chief economist. coming up, 5g and foeblible phones are all the rage. we have the trends to change the way you communicate and the companies that stand to benefit. and a busy day of deal news and we'll talk to mario gabelli about the deals and much me mi up.or urant. ♪ you don't call the first plumber on the list do you?

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♪ coming up, new survey of bank executives sheds light on how concerned corporate america is about a possible recession. we'll tell you what wall street leaders are saying, coming up. fed chair powell is gearing up for a big week of capitol hill testimony but he's no stranger to the halls of congress. we'll look at how his relationship with congress differs from some of his predecessors it's not about quantity. it's about quality.

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♪ welcome back to the "closing bell." we have little over 30 minutes left to trade. tech, materials, financials lead the charge relatively constructive tone to the sector performance and we

are towards session lows at the moment up 73 on the dow the high was up 210. now time for a cnbc news update with sue herera. >> here's what's happening at this hour. new york's governor cuomo signing red flag gun legislation empowering schoolteachers to ask a judge to evaluate troubled students he was joined by house speaker nancy pelosi >> so when the teacher sees as a problem or a family member sees there's a problem and believes that a person could be a danger to themselves or others, they can go to a judge and say, judge, please do an evaluation it is common sense a case docket is opened for new england patriots owner robert kraft who's facing charges of soliciting a prostitute after allegedly visiting a florida day spa twice in january he denied engaging in illegal activity facing arraignment in

april. president trump going after director spike lee who used his oscar acceptance speech to urge mobilization for the 2020 election trump tweeting that lee did a, quote, racist hit on your president, end quote. you are up to date that's the news update this hour courtney, back to you. >> i watched the show and didn't miss not having a host. >> no. they are getting pretty good review this is year. >> yeah. i liked the musical number. >> you know who would be a good host sue herera. >> i don't know about that. >> worthy of going back. >> sue and will ferrell. >> i would be pleased but the whole thing would be over in half an hour there you go. >> no. >> i think everyone would welcome that. >> exactly. >> thank you see you next hour. fed chair powell gearing up to appear on capitol hill tomorrow cnbc's ylan mui joining us now to see what powell is trying to

win over congress. something different. >> reporter: so previous fed chairs reluck tantd to engage with congress but i spent a month going through the public calendars and he's taken a different approach, he's become a regular presence on capitol hill he's had 98 personal phone calls or meetings with lawmakers and that's 4 times the amount of janet yellen during her first year the heads of committee that is oversee the fed got special 'tension, had over 20 individual contacts with those lawmakers. >> he is much more direct in answering questions. much more regularly engaged in the hill conversations with policy makers than what i have seen over the last decade and a half >> reporter: this charm offensive comes as the fed could use friends in washington. since nominating powell, president trump lashed out over the interest rate hikes and reportedly considered firing powell guys, the fed would need to make

sure that it has friends in congress as well as in the white house in the future. the fed has built up goodwill on capitol hill so if trump tried to get rid of powell that could cause political tush mormoil. >> having friends is nice and the goodwill and nice and you have to be careful, do you not the fed needs to remain independent. >> reporter: that's right. it's an apolitical organization but i think that the sense here on the hill, at least amongst lawmakers, is that the fed is finally realizing that it's congress that's responsible for overseeing the fed and not the administration and in the past the fed spent a lot more time interacting with the treasury secretary, the head of the nce and cea and this chairman reversing that trend. >> clearly all those meetings, ylan, put a din we are the president in per suspect ifr have lawmakers already had the questions answered such that

testimony can be shorter and sweeter? >> reporter: we would all like that but i think that's the point of this to diffuse those potential flashpoints during a hearing. no fed chairman wants to go in and just be excoriated in public and this developing of the relationships helps him have a smoother ride. >> thank you very much for that. now earlier today, warren buffett on cnbc talking to becky quick jooutlining why he's bullh on the banks and the valuations and here talking about jpmorgan. >> you can find a bank like jpmorgan earns maybe 15%, 17% on net tangible equity. a business earning 15% or 16% or 17%, that's incredible in the world of 3% bonds. i mean, just imagine that you had a deposit account with

jpmorgan that they made a mistake and they gave you 15% on it and they couldn't redeem it. what would you sell that account for? you wouldn't sell it for 100 cents on the dollar or 200 not 300 cents on the dlash a lot of things can happen to change that equation around and the banks like almost all other american business got a big plus last year with the new tax bill. corporations benefited a lot including berkshire and the banks. that can be taken away >> i guess other factors exist, of course, that could change that equation. let's discuss further. joining us now, paul weinstein, consultant at pro monetary interfinancial network who conducted a survey on the banker sentiment. paul, i guess a reason many people would say that the banks are cheaply valued in the moment is the possible prospect of a recession and closely tied to

the u.s. economy this survey you have carried out, what did it tell you about how bank executives feel about the possibility of the economy turning south? >> bankers are quite concerned in the survey and concern is growing throughout 2018 an it's ironic because quite honestly 2018 as warren buffett mentioned was a pretty good year for banks, record profits, regulatory relief of congress and they got the tax cuts. yet our sy vays are at its lowest point since we have been doing this since 2015. >> and, just remind us how many people you surveyed and what levels they sit at in the banks because i think you said as much as 80% of the respondents think a recession could take place in 2019. >> there's 5,000 banks in the united states. we had about 447 responszs here so that's fairly good survey

numbers. it's all c-level execs, p primarily ceos and skewed to smaller banks because they make up the majority of banks in the u.s. but we have a nice cross-section. >> paul, i understand here that the bank confidence index dropped to 43, lowest ever recorded by your survey. talking about the bank confidence index, what's in that that's not just the prospect for recession and the banking business in general. is that correct? >> absolutely correct. it is at the lowest point, 43. 50 is an equilibrium point and dropping consistently in the year what comprises it is demand for deposits, loan demand which is not really been -- has not really reached the levels banks expected access to capital and funding. on all these things basically banks are sort of becoming queasy about what's happening out there. >> and, paul, on the medium

term, long term structural threats that bankers fear, it is cyber security more than anything else? >> absolutely. it's way up there. some challenges from fin tex we got a -- we asked a question about amazon and they were number one threat at the time for banks in their view but cyber security is huge and it is remaining huge and banks have been investing quite a bit in cyber security at all levels so i think they are wary and they also feel like they are putting a correct proportion of the budgets toward cyber security. >> paul, as you mentioned, your survey focused on the smaller, regional banks is there a difference in the respondents? any area more or less pessimistic about the outlook? >> it depends on which particular part of the survey you look at. the northeast is traditionally been more pessimistic than, say, the south or the midwest in our

surveys. it fluctuates sometimes. but generally, they tend to be a little bit more cautious about what's going on and about the future, as well. >> i know that you mentioned loan demand has not been as high as some bankers previously thought. is that largely just because we see interest rates rise or other factors at play there? >> interest rates are rising and i think initially the banks were happy that interest rates were kind of reaching some sort sof normalcy now they're concerned but generally the fed survey came out just a few days ago and it kind of confirms that we are seeing and the banks have not felt loan demand picked up and they foresee a tightening of standards going into 2019. >> paul, overall, pessimistic outlook overall but are there questions or concerns about how confident they feel about the individual future? >> i think the banks are

cautious and i think they feel good about the economy in general. and i think they feel better positioned for, you know, if there any kind of recession than, say, you know, ten years ago. so in that sense, i think they're feeling better and i think -- feeling more prepared >> okay. paul, thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you. >> a classic bull/bear debate. up next, we'll head to the mobile world congress in barcelona for the future of 5g. and mario gabelli with the latest market strategy "closing bell" will be right back ♪

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some of the winners. caterpillar, dowdupont up there and cisco systems by 1.6% at this point. tech leaders are gathering in barcelona today the mobile world congress. we find cnbc's jon fortt what are the main headlines? >> reporter: it's all about 5 2k3w6. there are the hype years and then the kind of reality years of course, we always talk about the reality when we're here and sometimes what they want to talk about at the conference is really kind of hype. this year 5g and has been hype really is real and we have seen that in the u.s. with at&t and verizon actually starting to roll out 5g networks and we are seeing here companies actually start to launch 5g phones. one of those is huawei of course, we talked about huawei in the context of the controversies with the trump administration you know equipment with 5g, et cetera

here there's a 5g phone, a foldable 5g phone, samsung with one. huawei's phone getting rave reviews for its design and some dropping jaws for its price tag. $2,600 for that phone but i think kind of an iphone 10 and 10 plus et cetera, 10s plus, inoculated people from pricing shock. over $1,000 people say, okay, it's expensive, okay. >> well, it's quite a big increase in percentage terms jon, what is your take on why apple haven't done this? i guess for most of the last decade they have been the lead innovators coming to smartphone and now samsung and huawei out ahead of them with foldable. does apple think it won't work or doesn't have the inputts or the innovation >> reporter: well, wilf, i would say apple in something like

foldab foldable often isn't trying to be out front and 5g itself we have samsung, we have got huawei, others announcing 5 2k35g phones and expect it maybe 2020, not this year. but when it comes to displays, samsung is a leading creator of displays and expect them to come out with something like this first and then apple not appear to be chasing the latest thing, to kind of hang back in the cut and see what happens, put a spin perhaps on software and a different kind of design. >> i was going do say, that's not totally unlike apple where they weren't necessarily first and wanted to be the best coming to creating some sort of new development in hardware or software apple's focusing so much on health are there health competitors out there at mobile world congress with phones?

apple's pushing it with some of the apple watch designs. >> reporter: well, tell you one of the health competitors that we have seen here is not in phones it is in augmented reality or mixed reality. microsoft has much more of a presence here than they have in previous years yesterday a big event for the hollow lens 2, the headset to see mixed reality and tar getting it toward the enterprise, doctors, hospitals so did you recollect surgery they see a model of the patient, see inside the patient for training, you know similarly. you can see inside an engine tried that on, went through the simulation it is pretty amazing technology. it kind of scared me in a way because you have to step in when using the technology in order to touch certain things, step back to see certain things. saur software interacts with you in a way that's different than other augmented reality i have tried and seeing technology like that in medical applications and

mobile wireless it is going to work on 5g. >> what is the tone of the topic of security concern there is in barcelona? >> reporter: well, it is interesting. as you know, wilf, huawei is big in europe and mobile world congress is in europe and there's not nearly this tone of distrust that we experience in the u.s. here when it comes to huawei and the technology announcement that they're making they have four booths, steady traffic and their phone announce m announcementes received well there's been i asked them about the security concerns with huawei sometimes they give me answers about the political issues with huawei i don't know if that reflects how the trump administration has been putting the issues together

and interesting that executives giving political answers to a technology question. >> it's all blending together these days thank you very much, jon appreciate it. we'll talk to you tomorrow, i believe. carter's is jumping after an earnings beat and we'll break down what's driving that stock, next. shares of etsy is up and will report after the close. we will have those numbers for you. the close ten minutes away we are up 84 points on the dow [leaf blower]

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the other gene type therapy companies rising off the back of this a lot of activity off the back and up 120%. >> i think many competing sort of to come up with a new gene therapy for hemophilia specifically but wow. 120%. >> yeah. >> you don't see that often. >> particularly fight back by roche. >> exactly. karcarter's soaring today, also, after a beat on the fourth quarter eps and revenue before the bell today the company saw an increase in the e-commerce sales and better than expected outlook for the year saying this is one of the highest specialty names of e tail carter's sold in 17,000 stores in the u.s. and they have exclusive lines at target, amazon, strong growth in the quarter and a good name here

across the board even though some of those numbers below last year and beating expectations for the quarter. >> and the u.s. comp 6% nearly that beat. up next, the closing countdown. and after the bell, carlisle group co-founder david rubenstein to talk wealth and much, much more. "closing bell" is back after this quick break stick with us. when you look at the critical issues facing our world, what do you see? we see breakthrough medicines getting to patients in record time. we see harnessing natural gas unleashing the promise of clean energy. we see engineers simulating the future to improve today. at emerson, when issues become inspiration, focusing core strengths to create a better world

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don't get mad. get e*trade, dawg. welcome back to the "closing bell." we have a couple minutes left to trade. we are up for most of the session and well off the session highs and still in the green 0.1% higher. nasdaq does lead the charge and all of the indices seeing selling in the final hour of trade so the dow higher on the day 210. currently up 77 points sectors for you, constructive. we are seeing selling in the defensive names and more buying in some of the financials, materials, industrials, technology nonetheless, all of those returns for the major indices

have slipped in the final hour or so. individual stock movers, ge down here spark up 120% or so. bank of america which we'll talk about the branding and name changes up 1%. financials not done too badly today but bank of america slipping going to bring in bob pisani main takeaways of the day? >> we are up but off the highs of the day so the president made a very clear statement over the weekend about what the situationwas. couldn't have been more bullish for the trade talks overall and yet we didn't do that much today. >> shanghai jumped 5%. >> remember they generally have been underperforming all throughout last year on a dramatic level. >> not year to date. >> overall underperforming last year a little bit of catch up there i think the important thing

right now is we have the fed behind you global slowdown still there. the question for powell this week is how much of the recent weak economic data is due to the trade talks? the fed report implied it was. that will resolve -- be the key issue of how we do for the week. market internals are good. nice, new breakouts today. merck, boeing, procter & gamble. a bunch of dow components at 52-week highs. ge up 6%. >> oil, as well? year to date still looking very attractive and a decent pullback today and the correlation of oil and the stock market is relatively high. >> another tailwind. the end of december, concerns about what was going on with the fed, concerns of trade talks, concerns that oil in the 40s remember back in december that that was signaling a global recession? that kind of discussion is kind of gone away my main concern now is how much is europe slowing down and can

china improve its economic outlook once we get a trade deal >> we are at session lows. hitting the close, there's the bell the dow up less than 50 points about 0.2% we have got the s&p up 0.1%. something going wrong with the ringing of the bell. the russell just going negative into the close the dow closes up 58 points. that does it for the first hour of the "closing bell." court, back to you ♪ welcome to the "closing bell." i'm courtney reagan in for sara eisen. i'm joined, of course, by mike santoli, senior markets commentator. here's how we finish the day on wall street here we just did finish off the highs of the session, more towards the lows of the session. dow jones industrial average higher by about quarter of a percent. s&p 500 just barely eking out a gain nasdaq composeit higher.

that's the leader and the russell 2000 did slip into the negative to finish the session here's stories on the radar today. ge shares are soaring after agreeing to sell bio pharma does to danaher warren buffett said he still likes apple and plans to buy shares if the stock is cheaper and bank of america planning to reband the investment banking business by dropping the merrill lynch name and waiting for earnings of shake shack, hertz and etsy meantime, joining us to talk about the market day, stephanie link, global research director and portfolio manager. mike, here we are today. we did finish higher often session highs bay decent amount more towards the lows here. >> from the morning, you kind of had a rally erode. basically as many stocks up as down on the new york stock exchange showing fatigue in there it's interesting is the market going to stall out

and maybe pull back at exactly the level that everybody's been watching at 2800 for the s&p that really three rallies failed in october and november. who knows? but coming into month end, as well, in just three days and probably when you start to see a little bit of that knitting up and rotation activity and been a strong run for stocks. >> mike, firstly, welcome back. >> thank you. >> hope you had a nice week off. in terms of what happened last week, i wonder whether the biggest takeaway is where the vix ended up. >> oh yes. >> plummeted bullish signal or not? >> confirming signal that the market is on more stable footing i think but at that level shows you that people have kind of almost given up on the idea of still in that agitated market. we shall going to wait for a pullback or a retest and bullish on net and more room to decline. beginning of october we were under 11 i think in the vix. right? we are here in the 14s

so i think it confirms the move we have had but the question is, do we have much more fuel in the tank immediate basis can credit get much better? all the rest of those things we don't know. >> stephanie, butch fete 26 wants to buy in and says the market goes higher are we overvalued? >> well, we are up 19% from the lows right? >> yep. >> that's why i think we lagged today and why i think china did so quite well because they lagged last year i think you have a push/pull of u.s. and em quite frankly. those are the two markets i think people look to invest in i think the fundamentals are quite good i do think that we are slowly checking off the boxes of uncertainty. that is, government shutdown, trade, fed, all those things are the reasons why we actually saw a contraction last year in the

multiples from 18.4 times to 14 in december. we have come a long way. we have gone from 14 times to 15.5 times forward on the s&p. and so can we go higher? sure we can. should we pause? probably and maybe it's time for em to take over because there's interesting fundamental changes happening overseas. >> mike, a big bounce in china really interesting this morning. up 5.5%. i'm more interested in the fact of february for the month so far we are up almost 15% for shanghai is it purely because it's opposed to last year or people think the deal on the table better for china relative to expectations than the united states >> how far was -- is down and how cheap the stocks looked? everybody said they did for a very long time and then thawing of the trade tensions and same time the chinese authority trying a massive stimulus effort and in terms of the timing this

idea we're inching closer to a trade deal and by the way the indications of the administration wants a deal, any deal, whatever you say, get to a deal, that's net positive for china because it suggests that they want some agreement even if they don't get the structural reforms. >> you are seeing green chutes in china you have seen online retail sales in december pick up. credit is picking up in january and december you don't want to be too excited but green chutes and people are excited. last week copper up 5.5%, best since september. that is a leading indicator of potential growth so we have to watch them. >> china trade data with germany and japan soft with the german and japanese side of the data. >> absolutely. germany is a scary part of this story and europe is certainly decelerating and why you need more green chutes in china for a global stabilization. >> ge finished higher today after selling bio pharma

business to danaher joining the life science as a standalone business ge says it plans to re-evaluate the ipo plans following today's sale mike, everyone likes the price but i guess it's a smaller carve-out than if they had gone the whole hog and ipo'd health care. >> right the idea of $21 billion in, pays down debt, obviously, net positive for the stock and the fact that the stock up earlier more in the day i guess shows there's residual concern down the road will people say, well, ge was in a position to sell a better business opposed to separating health care altogether maybe. i don't think that's necessarily a -- >> they got a good price for it. 17 times ebitda.

they delever the industrial piece from 48 billion to 28 billion and you have ge, the baker hughes piece so they're slowly delevering that balance sheet and the number one concern in this story near term. longer term, do you want to own the businesses they're left with you don't know but from a balance sheet point of view, a number one priority and having an analyst day for guidance latter in march and they set that date today and i think people feel better about that. >> that's interesting. some of that is assumed by danaher. >> can you imagine the morale of people leaving ge do go to danaher? that's awesome it's such a proven, wonderful company. they got a dollar in rnings power over the next year and should be expensive making great deals and make them work. >> stephanie's he's the man? >> i own a lot of the stock.

i hope he's the man. again, i think that you have to make baby steps and fix that balance sheet. they have a lot of work to do, for sure i don't think anybody has a solution for power gen but the right man. >> shares are both higher. becky quick sitting down with ceo warren buffett earlier today. here's what he had to say asked about the current position in apple. >> i don't see myself selling. every -- lower it goes, did better i like it, obviously. it's maybe not back to where -- it may have briefly, very briefly got there but -- but if it were cheaper we would be buying it. >> i found this fascinating, this whole debate on apple, mike i felt like the main takeaway is while the company is buying back

stock, a lower price is more beneficial therefore i don't buy for a couple of years almost regardless unless the share price drops sharply. >> sure. buffett owns $44 billion of the stock. the lower the price goes, the more apple buys back, his interest in the business goes up because the float is shrunk and owns a bigger chunk of the business and doesn't need to add with albuquerqberkshire's own m. >> it's down ands when a good entry point? >> we don't know his exact cost basis and he was buying at lower prices it is not as if it's dramatically higher than when he was buying and owns much, especially in concept of the portfolio. >> does this point to the issue of who's better at pricing when to buy ceos don't often time buybacks that well and have they made the most of their buybacks, apple,

considering the amount of cash they have left to deploy >> you could argue they weren't that good and maybe they're not but if you think about longer term and averaging in, i'm sure they were buying at the lows, as well it is a kind of a mechanism to continue to buy on a consistent basis. and you hope that it averages out over the long term obviously, it is a sign of confidence that the company is buying back stock and a good thing. this is such a sentiment stock 220, so loved and hung in relative to the other fang names until they reported and then all of a sudden poured out of the name and so overdone and you have to take a balance view long term great company. great balance sheet. decent management, too. >> apple has a stated policy of zero net cash and spending down $100 billion or more in net cash because they think it makes the balance sheet more efficient >> we have shake shack numbers

out. kate rogers has them for us. >> this is a strong fourth quarter. beats on everybody methamphetamine rick revenues $124.3 million for the quarter versus 118.8 million same store or shake sales as they call them, up 2.3% for the quarter. analysts looking for a decrease. they also said they opened up 20 system wide new shake shack locations in the quarter bringing them to 200 they also gave some guidance for 2019 opening between 36 and 40 company owned shacks and said same store sales mostly flat and gave some fairly light guidance on full-year revenue but you can see the stock higher by 2.5% right now. >> kate, thank you for that. mike, your initial take? i guess it's a good performer. >> been a good performer very

recently well off the highs of last year. it's a similar story there's not a lot of individual store leverage in terms of earnings power the comps are not -- seems like they run at capacity from the start. so basically you're adding stores and adds top line and doesn't necessarily seem like it's increasing the profitability of the business and a generous valuation for what the business is right now. >> stephanie, you think it's quite steep. >> 68 times forward estimates. it is. nice to have a comp beat here's the issue, though they have a lot of issues with wages like most restaurant companies and also heavily investing in the store base so i like their guide in store openings and investing heavily and not seeing the operating leverage we want to see. there's other names i would like to own. >> bank of america dropping the u.s. trust and merrill lynch

brand names from its subsidiaries the banks, u.s. trust brand will be the bank of america private bank and the private wealth unit renamed just merrill bank of america to drop merrill lynch from the investment banking and markets operation. the bank, of course, bought merrill lynch in 2008 in the financial crisis banks with a decent day, a main reason for the move on the story. end 0 of an era. always trying to simplify and bring things together. >> exactly also really an acknowledgement that the merrill brand with much more resonance from the retail brokerage opposed to the investment bank. also all banks are now kind of leading with their brands. ubs is -- financial investor is a ubs adviser. smith barney is put to rest. by morgan stanley as well as naming a bunch of other ones

dean whiter. i think it's part of a trend and i guess also solidifying the bank of america, unifying the branding more. >> stephanie, warren buffett called out the job of moynihan has done and bigger position is bank of america and can't buy more of that does that -- and more broadly, buffett positive on u.s. banks today. >> yeah. the valuations are attractive. they have been for five years, for sure capital levels are better. this last quarter was interesting because you did definitely a separation within the big five anyway in terms of the performance. and i thought bank of america really stepped up to the plate i thought -- i think most people thought that they did a much better job than jpmorgan and traded at a discount and maybe that discount should start to narrow maybe not the same exactly just yet. they have a lot to prove in terms of responsible growth and that strategy but i think

they're certainly delivering and executing and can't ask for much more and need a couple more quarters and years of consistent sy and the multiple will ratchet higher. >> and avoid a recession etsy with courtney reagan. >> this is convenient. earnings at 32 cents a share that compares of 21 cents so that's a nice beat revenue beating expectations slightly so revenue of $200 million when the consensus was for about 194.9 million. you also have a nice uptick here on active buyers of 18%. sellers about 9% commentary of the thanksgiving to cyber monday period and the gms, gross merchandise sales, up 30% and shares spiking almost 8% in the after hours as the company is sort of experimenting more with sort of an education of the sellers to

make sure they're competitive with their shipping, timing and practices because we have gotten very accustomed to what the amazon prime been fits get us. got to make sure ordering the customized items you get them out quickly. >> what a gem. this company is such a gem look at this chart. >> i know. >> doesn't give you a chance to buy the darn thing the valuation is hard to buy and my goodness, what a niche for themselves what a great management team they execute 40% consistent growth. it trades obviously at a premium to amazon. i actually think it's better than amazon and i own amazon. >> hand made section. >> they're doing the loyalty program and increasing the frequency of guests and they're really doing the things to drive traffic and to drive interest in the brand and that's really powerful and doing the right things i hope it pulls back so i can buy it. >> not today, though

up 8%. >> today's not your entry point. >> stephanie, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. up next, carlo group co-founder david rubenstein tells us whether his firm is making any deals. and speaking to inveorst mario gabelli. stay tuned - in a crossfit gym, we're really engaged

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welcome back to the "closing bell." leslie picker is at the top adviser summit in las vegas and joined by david rubenstein, coexecutive chairman of the carlisle group leslie, over to you. >> hey, wilf, thank you so much. david, thank you for joining us. >> my pleasure to be here. >> president trump tweeting a little bit ago that the china trade deal is an advanced stages do you believe they get there? >> i think there'll be a deal because i think both sides want a deal i think the chinese recognize it's important for them to get the economy in the shape to a deal and i think the americans are ready for a deal, too. i think a deal gets done. >> is it a deal that america needs to see >> i think it's going to be a deal that everybody will like. no deal is perfect but this is the deal that will not have to be technically approved by

congress there will be hearings but with u. u.s.m.c.a. you have to get it approved by congress. >> jay powell, you know him well you interviewed him recently and what do you hope to hear from him this week in front of congressome. >> he's probably going to say somewhat he said before which is that the fed is monitoring the data and surprise people to say, well, we'll make a reversal, increase interest rates or decrease interest rates. i think people expect him to say pretty much what he said before and also said recently other places that steady as she goes right now. >> is that what your data says you own businesses and looking at the markets you have a good read on what's going on in the economy right now. does what you see with your underlying businesses at carlisle match up with where you

think the fed is >> we have the data and share it with the government agencies from time to time because we own more than 200 companies or part usual stakes in 200 companies and all around the world and we basically feel that the u.s. economy's in reasonably good shape. it is not going to grow at 4% this year or perhaps not 3%. but that's still reasonably good we are in a ten-year growth cycle and growing at 2.3% after 10 years is good for an economy of our size, certainly. >> what do you think is something to propel the markets higher what are the risks to derail it? >> clearly the markets are feeling pretty good an likely of a china trade agreement and congress is not likely to change the tax laws that we have currently. there's been discussion of tax changes. i don't think the congress is likely to do anything in that regard i think the president has been

very good of deregulating in the economy and i think the economy is in reasonably good shape and a fair amount of consumer confidence, as well. >> i want to ask you about modern monetary theory. >> okay. >> and this idea that the national debt is seemingly less and less important by policymakers on both sides of the aisle. where do you stand on this as someone that lives in washington, looks at issues related to the national debt all the time do you think that's the right way to - >> i think larry summers and jason furman had a publication saying that the debt we have is not as big of a problem of previously thought we have about $22 trillion of total debt an adding about 1.3 trillion a year. to me that's a problem something we have to address some time and not an immediate problem in part because we are able to sell our debt at pretty low prices people really have to buy dollars. we are the only reserve currency

so for the time being it is not as big of a problem as traditionally people thought and something to be addressed by my children or to my grandchildren. >> in a downturn does that threaten the ability to keep running up the tab on our national debt? >> doing into a downturn, interest rates would be lower and cheaper to service that debt but the gdp would probably be down and harder to get tax revenues no doubt better to have less debt than we have an not an immediate problem and greatest problem we have. >> you practice patriotic philanthropy. >> yes. >> looking at restoring various monuments, museums, different areas of the u.s you donated a copy of the magna carta, for example, helped restore james madison's estate in montpelier and there's talk of candidates and politicians of wealth redistribution through

taxation taxation primarily is that patriotic philanthropy. >> that's giving time or ideas to remind people of the history and the heritage that's what i mean so remind people of the past, the good and the bad, montpelier or mont chicello with slaves and it's good to be rebuilt to know the good an the bad about the people that were there in terms of tax redistribution, i think it's unlikely in the next couple of years and the more we talk about it and the moderates get scared you are likely to help the people against it get re-elected. i don't think there's a groundswell of support to change congress' ability to tax in a way that some of the candidates are talking about. remember, we have had a tax system for quite sometime.

we don't have a wealth tax in the united states. i think it's unlikely congress imposes a wealth tax any time soon. >> would you be willing to pay for taxes? >> i pay a fair amount of taxes i think by normal standards and i think it's important that everybody pay their fair share and i'm happy to pay the taxes i pay and you have to have some money to let people invest if you overtax you don't have the money to invest and people should have a fair tax and i think we have a system that's not perfect by a long shot and we can always improve it and always should be improvements and unlikely that congress will have a wealth tax or have marginal tax rates at 70%. to the extent people talk about that, i think it's more likely than not produce people saying i don't want that and therefore while i might not like the republican view of things i'm more likely to vote republican than otherwise do because they're afraid the taxes could be imposed so i think you have to be careful playing with fire in that regard

if you want to make a change in government, you have to be careful in my view maybe talk about that so much. unlikely to happen and could scare some people into voting the opposite way. >> interesting i think wilfred frost has a question for you. >> okay. >> just quickly, on a particular topic, you said the tax system, never perfect and you have to be careful. would you say it's fair to say that private equity executives are one ocht aref the areas it't perfect? for someone of your level of success. >> well, there's no doubt that private equity taxation has gotten a fair amount of attention over the years i don't think it's biggest problem in the tax system. relatively speaking, it would produce even if you changed the system and went to a different type of system ordinary income taxes, for example, instead of carried interest and produce

relatively modest amounts of money for the federal government to encrease the amount, you have to tax the middle class and very difficult to do. there aren't enough extremely well think people to really have a big impact on revenue if you change their tax rates even going to higher imagine nal tax rates, there are not enough people in the forbes 400 to make a difference and to have more tax revenue, you have to tax people who are much lower, closer to the middle class and produces some political problems. >> david, on air this morning becky quick sat down with warren buffett and they discussed the balance between public equity and private equity let's take a listen. >> they call themselves private equity but they're really private debt to a great extent. but that trillion might buy as much as, say, 3 trillion of assets if it's leveraged with 2 trillion of debt well, the total stock market is something like 30 trillion

and if you take the top five companies or six companies, knock 4 trillion off that. so you're down to something where the buying power of private equity and norm alibiing power of companies is a huge amount of competition. >> david, do you think that's a little bit of sour grapes given the success your industry had in attracting more assets under management in the last couple of decades? >> warren buffett is perhaps the greatest investor ever, somebody i regard as a great role model, a friend i'm not going to say that anything he says is wrong because i don't know enough to be able to criticize anything he says private equity did a pretty good job of improving the efficiency of the companies in the united states for 30 or 40 years an people like it in the country to show them how to improve and modernize companies and i think

created value for the economies in which it operated the returns have been very good. the returns are good the returns may not be as good as warren buffett but we are proud of what we have achieved >> david, it's courtney here at the new york stock exchange. i have a quick question for you. in regards to the trade talks, it does sound like you're confident we will have some kind of a resolution between the u.s. and china. but of course, the devil's in the details as they say and we don't know where we are on any of those details is it possible china could be unhappy with the final terms and possibly could change the way they buy or hold u.s. debt is there any risk there to be considering? >> neither side will be completely happy with the deal all trade deals, all deals of any consequence, have things that neither side really likes the most but as i have had discussions with the central

bankers in china, they do not look at buying of u.s. debt as something that is a political tool they think it's an important thing for them to be able to take the excess reserves they have, the foreign reserves and put it in something safe and get money back with interest and nothing else to find e equivalent lentd to u.s. treasury bills and i don't think it's used by the chinese with a trade deal or not but i think there's a trade deal because clearly both sides want a trade deal and i think something is imminent in the not too distant future. >> david, i know it's early to be looking ahead to 2020 but still there are candidates coming forth pretty much every other day at this point. >> i'm one of the few people i know not running for president of the united states. >> we have news here he is not running for president of the united states. >> not running for president of the united states. >> a lot of your peers of business are running or considering running for president of the united states do you believe that someone who's more of an independent like, say, howard schultz should be running for president of the united states?

do you think that someone with that type of a background should be running as an independent or at all >> well, i don't know if howard schultz wants my advice but i would say that we have seen independence affect the outcome of elections clearly, ross perot i think in 1992 and john anderson had affect in 1980 running against carter and reagan and i think ralph nader had some impact running in 2000. so there's no doubt that independents can make a difference the question is, do you have a moderate to republican running or a moderate to a democrat running? a plamoderate to republican running, he would probably have a fair impact. he hasn't said he's doing that and you have to be able to figure out whether you want to take votes away from a democrat or votes away from a republican and too early to say it is very early as you say. we love politics in the united states and to talk about how early it is when people run this

i recally a early. the last ten presidential elections and predict when's president two years subsequent to that, you would be wrong almost every time and never predict two years in advance nobody would have predicted two years ahead of the last election of donald trump elected. people wouldn't have predicted jim any carter, barack obama and so many people who were elected so it's fun, interesting but it's too soon to know the impact of the candidates running around. >> all right thank you so much for joining us. >> my pleasure. >> back downtown to you guys >> thank you very much, leslie and david rubenstein. coming up, investor and deal watcher mario gabelli weighs in and what do the headlines say ouabt the state of the m&a market that's coming up on "closing bell."

time for a news update with sue. >> hello, everyone he's what's happening at this hour. u.s. vice president pence in colombia meeting with juan guaido later at a speech before representatives of the so-called lima group nations, pence called on them to freeze the assets of venezuela's state-owned oil company. >> we call on all lima group nations to immediately freeze the assets of pdvsa.

jussie smollett can travel to new york and california he is out on bail awaiting trial on charges that he staged a hate crime attack on himself. the trial in germany of a 95-year-old former guard at a nazi death camp has been stopped due to the defendant's health problems a medical report ruling that the defendant whose name cannot be revealed for legal reasons had heart problems and was no longer fit to stand trial and brings to an end what may be the last such prosecution linked to the holocaust. you are up to date guys, i'll send it back downtown to you. >> thank you very much. collection of major deals announced today in health care space. danaher buying from ge and roche

holdings buying spark therapeutics platinum equity announced today to buy label maker multicolor corporation and mining company barrick gold making an offer for newmont in an all-share transaction. catching the eye of one investor at least co-author of "merger masters," mario gabelli joins us via phone to discuss all of this dealmaking activity. welcome to the program, mario. appreciate you being here with us today >> yeah, i hope to see you in person, courtney i wouldn't do it today. >> hey, we understand. we appreciate you being with us any way you can do it. let's start with the ge/danaher deal you have to be happy today that stock popping on the news. >> well yeah sometimes the buyer of the business stock goes down, sometimes it goes up

in this particular deal up $10 showing that they are focused on getting that recurring revenue what we do as a firm, i started this place -- doing research 50 years ago as a sell side analyst, bottoms up research in the late '70s i coined the phrase private market catalyst what will narrow the gap between the public price and the -- and arbitrage is an outgrowth of that an interesting way to earn an absolute return and they have done well focusing on absolute return today was dealing surfacing. but, you know, just a notion of why should companies be allowed to do transactions and how does the free market work within that framework, how do managements allocate capital right or wrong? we have seen horrendous deals. think about how hewlett-packard bought a company in the uk, time

warner did aol at the time or aol did time warner. on the other side there's a significant number of well-done structural deals and then you get the price of the stocks of the targets aside from the newmont barrick deal today where they pay a big premium over last and those are the elements that come together. >> mario, ginn the elements, mike santoli, doesn't it seem like where we are in the economic expansion, how far along we are, the credit markets are accommodating. ceos should feel confident and seeing more mondays with at least as many deals an what do you make of the fact that deal activity as a percentage of market cap not that high given where we are in the bull market? >> you had transactions of last year, probably second or third best independent of that, you go through cycles and transactions,

obviously, the ceos of companies and boards feel comfortable of a tailwind okay an eu transaction or deal with china and they want to grow, they look at the capital, the tax structures of deals, they look at any been fits that they get. you know, what multiple are they paying and then the pe guys look at the multiple to sell at five to seven years from now and what is buffett looking at what are the corporate -- and the case of three deals of today, whether it's spark therapeutics or whether it was others, you know, actually clementia you would say to yourself, hey, you know, what values does the buyer have was this r&d off the balance sheet? those are the things, mike. >> mario, earlier today warren buffett seemed to suggest while he likes equities very long

term, short term it's quite hard to be buying when we consider some of those macro factors like the fed pivot, like china trade deal seemingly closer, do you feel like all of that good news is already priced in to the markets at the moment? >> you have three different questions. what is the market -- you know is the china deal baked in the market likes to discount six months in advance. as you look at alikely deal with china, months ago you started saying, look, trump positioning well like a ceo positioning the economy for a year from now so that he has a strong economy in the spring of 2020 when the election is running and so the market to a degree has and you have had multiples of ebitda minus cap x however you value businesses, crept up there's still a lot of very interesting nuggets out there. for example, steve -- wind now

they have the license and something happen to that company? will the deal with the chinese allow macau to get the license renewals will command spin off the advanced business? every day you have new opportunities. >> mario, earlier this morning warren buffett hinted he very nearly made a very large acquisition in q4. you follow him very closely. any idea you think what that might have been? >> none at all none at all. one sentence, however, in his chairman's letter, a lot of sentences, but one that was intriguing is saying for the first time more openly, aside from the best tax people around with john malone, he is more quiet about it, non u.s. what is he doing about saying, hey, many the bargains are

outside of the united states he did well with the chinese electric vehicle manufacturer and german opportunities with israel so is he saying i can get a better multiple outside the united states? read the last sentence that perked my interest. >> okay, mario thank you very much for joining us. >> delighted to be here. "read merger masters". >> thank you. coming back, we'll look at how the china trade tensions are impacting the market "closing bell" is back right after this (indistinguishable muttering) that was awful. why are you so good at this? had a coach in high school. really helped me up my game. i had a coach. math. ooh. so, why don't traders have coaches? who says they don't? coach mcadoo! you know, at td ameritrade, we offer free access to coaches and a full education curriculum- just to help you improve your skills.

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the crisis in venezuela reaching new heights over the weekend as president maduro closed the border with colombia and brazil in an effort to block aid from the u.s. from getting into the country >> vice president pence arrived in colombia today to meet with venezuela's opposition leader juan guaido and announced new sanctions on the troubled south american country joining us is nicklas casey of "new york times," living in caracas and covering the crisis since 2016

nicklas, thanks for joining us here today we have announced sanctions on four venezuelan states involved in corruption. is that truly going to change anything and really make a difference in the lives of the people down there? >> i don't see the sanctions today as changing things on the ground much in venezuela the biggest sanctions were against the oil company, the state oil company that happened earlier this year and those are the ones that hurt the most is not many levers left for the u.s. to pull in terms of sanctions right now. they sanctioned the president, most of his top lieutenants, the entire second legislature that maduro set up so in terms of sanctions there's not many options left at this stage. >> what about an oil embargo entirely >> that's already happened the u.s. said last month it wasn't going to buy venezuelan oil anymore and that's left venezuela looking for, you know, trying to buy -- send the oil to other places

the u.s. says it's only going to pay juan guaido for the oil. he is the interim president now and doesn't have control of the oil company and essentially amounted to an oil embargo. >> are you suggesting that president maduro is digging in and does he have the willpower and ability to last this out >> well, it is hard to say how someone who's digging in can last something out it just depends on their will to continue to dig in and also on the resolve of those that are pushing back on him. but what's clear is that maduro isn't pulling out his grape and seeing in the morning there's people in the town square saying they want him to go and deciding to leave he'll night as we has fought in 2014 and 2017 with massive protests and he is doing it again. this year. >> so will the u.s. have to step up militarily? >> i don't know about the u.s.

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mike santelli has more on how chinese and american stocks have reacted to the trade headlines over the last year >> a pretty dramatic turn. what you see here, this is when the enthusiasm seems to have taken hold and china stocks

seemed to outperform the u.s but back in october is when this started. sti technician would say that is a perfect bottom so maybe it can get back the underperformance. and this is always when arguably the u.s. economy started to slow, chinese economy started to bottom so this is a technician would say a pretty good trend worth perhaps playing. >> and last year was -- or last couple years was ageneral them of the u.s. outperforming the rest of the world. but this is only china doing it, not germany. >> china and broader emerging are markets. so for now, it is basically just that, but yes, i think that this is in addition to the relative growth rates, it is the trade story between the u.s. and china at work. >> mike, thanks very much. shares of hertz are jumping ringt hours, what is dvi i higher, coming up next ♪

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amazon has named nooyi to its board of directors mike, interesting takeaway for

this is of course pushing to whole foods of later >> and now a grocery business. and she is making her name with the healthier stilt 3r5perhaps. >> and we have to leave it there. "fast money" starts now. live from the nasdaq market site overlooking new york city's times square you can traders are still s at the desk. off a nine week winning streak, one strategist says there is no expiration on this bull market run. he will explain. plus the oracle of omaha speaking to cnbc on a number of issues, but it is his apple comments that wall street is focusing on. and first we start off with what looks like mission impossible for the market