here's your top five at 5:00 major shake up the retail world the gap splitting into two separate companies investors love the news, but should they? the full details ahead indexing giant msci raising china's weighting within its benchmark index. if you didn't think that you had a lot of china exposure before, you might just now we're going to break down the impact on your money and investments. tesla shares going down again. elan musk saying the company probably will not post the profit for the first quarter hbo's long-time ceo is stemg

down amid the at&t restructuring and going unplugged. why you might want to get in all your screen time while you can today. we'll explain on this friday, march 1st, as world wooitd exchange begins right now. i am brian sullivan. happy friday thanks for joining us. by the way, welcome to march, and guess what, the ides o march, not with the futures. they're up triple digits 155 points on the dow. the retail giants is spinning off old navy while keeping its other brands like the gap and banana republic in a yet to be

named company. gap ceo art peck explaining the move on a conference call last night. >> i feel strongly that this combination of brands will be powerful by bringing them together we can better leverage capabilities and investments across the brands, share best practices, and drive efficiencies to create value for all stake holders. new co will have $9 billion in animal revenue, strong balance sheets, and a significant opportunity to ino vat, explore new ways to serve the customer, and quite frankly, what's on my mind is to write the next chapter for specialty retail investors clearly love the news happy friday excuse me. gap shares up more than 24% in the premarket right now. wow. what a pop let's bring in stacy, president of sw retail advisors and a cnbc contributor. thanks for braving the elements as well coming in this morning, stacy. the markets love the news.

should they? the idea here is that old navy -- banana republic and gap. >> that's harsh. are they sink sng. >> it's a little harsh, but it's -- know, you look at the gap. they have been negative for years. it's -- the market cap is a quarter of what it used to be. i think the idea is that you separate old navy and unlock all this value however, if you look at what old navy numbers are doing currently, the business is decelerating, so erases the question are we doing this at the peak of the business >> do you think they are >> i think potentially they are here i mean, you have seen old navy decelerate, and everybody is talking brks of course, the weather and all sorts of other things you are talking peak operating margins, and you are talking about the company said themselves old navy is currently not sick perhaps, it has caught a cold this winter. >> yeah. i found that to be in some ways resfreshing that they said that. most ceos are more optimistic. that was a tough statement even

saying that they're sick do you feel they're going to get better any time soon >> i mean, i think it's time we know that the market. the apparel market is incredibly competitive. we know the market is shifting on-line, which is a lower margin proposition. we know that there continues to be deflation and apparel to look at the operating margins and say, hey, they're going to recover, they're going to bounce back, things are going to get less competitive we had the best consumer environment ever in 2018 i think it's a bit of a hard sell it's a show me story >> what we don't know is the distribution okay if you own shares of the gap, gps, you are going to get some kind of combination now of the two stocks >> right >> the gap and the newco or old navy, rather, and the new co do you think the market either way is overreacting here with a 24% gain the short interest is high, but it's not that high >> right the short interest is 11%.

i think the market is overreacting to this because you're assuming that by separating these two companies, yes, you'll be able to focus and separate focussing on two different customers, but is that going to be able to create this kind of value in terms of margins and in terms of recovery and revenues >> i don't think so. >> does one plus one equal two and a half >> not always. >> if you split the two companies, are you going drew brees as a shareholder are you going to get more than the sum of the current parts >> i think, again, you do create value by separating assets that really don't belong together because you can't put differing assets in one pot and invest in a like-minded way, so, yes, you will create value for old navy perhaps, but this much value that the market is assuming and also, you have to take into account that gap itself is not improving and banana republic, they talked about they pulled back on promotions and what happened the traffic went down. they'll probably likely have to go back to the promotional stance there if you look at all the moving

parts and say, hey, what have i got here going forward, i think the rally that we've seen has been a hard sell >> bottom line, investors should not maybe now fall into the gap? >> mind the gap, i would say >> mind the gap. >> stacy, great analysis on a big story. thank you very much. let's turn back to the markets and your money as we gear up for an entirely new trading month. guess what, this month is beginning like the first two months kind of ended that's a positive way. stock futures indicating the dow should rise triple digits at the open the dow and s&p 500 are up 11% it is best starts to the year since 1987 it's best start to a year since 2012 also, a big technical change means big changes for holders of chinese stocks it's a little wonky, but listen up the msci, the company, is going to be expanding the weighting of

china listed stocks in its global indexes what that means is it will place more importance and weight on china listed shares. that means the shanghai and shenzen indexes become more important to the gloenl indexes and guess what, they are rising today. the shanghai composite up nearly 2% hang seng up and the nikkei in p gentlemanan up by the way, soukts, which we focus odd a lot yesterday, given the breakdown of the trump-kim talks is closed. today the european markets may be catching a little bit of a bid as well with our futures up. asia is doing well there is green across the board. >> what stocks have been very accident very good for investors in 2019. well, let's find out on this fist day of march. here are some of the super stats you might have missed. boeing, the best stock in the dow last month 14%. the top stock in the s&p 500, a

name you heard on cnbc a couple of weeks ago beauty company cody up 42% just last month. remember, we interviewed bill miller, and he revealed that he had been buying cody personally. for the midcaps, february's number one performer, universal display. ticker oled. up 44% a post of numbers and the market loved it wow. coming up in our rbi, we're going to show you who could have, would have, should have been the best performer in the dow last month it's a mystery chart there it is. can you name it? we're going to have it coming up right now let's get a macromarket discussion and the rather incredible last three months and found out what might be ahead for your hard earned investment dollars >> here stateside we have had this incredible run over the last 60 days in your analysis does the global economy, does the u.s. economy merit this kind of move?

>> well, in actual fact this is more about relative economic performance, not absolute relative performance u.s. president trump announces that he has to start putting more taxes on americans and specifically, by putting trade taxes on what he is doing is taxing equities. when we look at global trade, about 80% of trade is done by large listed companies that clearly means we get exquits under performing that's the story for the end of last year. what we have seen, of course, over the last 60 days is president trump has grown back from that desire to put in place new taxes and with that i think that equities have moved back to

reflect a better environment for trade and reflect the current growth story that we're now seeing >> is it reflecting too much optimism on a major trade deal being struck what they're expecting is perhaps something a bit like the juncker deal we had at the e.u. last year where basically it's just not polite to mention it anymore. you kick it slightly to one side i think that markets are not really looking for some transformative deal. what they want is a guarantee that their operations are not going to be subject to the inefficiency and disruption of trade taxation >> well, the u.s. economy fall into a recession either later this year or next year, paul >> i think it's unlikely we'll get a recession later this year. there's no evidence of the triggers for a recession it's either significant policy era or significant overheating if we don't have those things i

don't see any reason why we would go in that direction, particularly as it's an election year in the united states, but you can't be confident on the two-year forecast. >> i love the honesty and the candor, paul final question here, maybe you can look out, what, 28 days? are we going to get a hard brexit, no deal brexit, or is a deal going to be struck? >> no and no i think what is most likely now is we will get a delay this is already a very tedious process that we're going through. we can agree on how to proceed i think the most likely scenario is that parliament on the 14th of march will vote for a dlie to the exit i think we end up with a deal, with an exit, but not on the 29th of march.

>> kicking that so-called can down the so-called road. paul donovan of ubs. it was a real pleasure thank you very much. we are just getting started on a busy friday up next, a tesla trifecta. three big pieces of news that need to be on your radar seeing red one cloud company completely cratering this morning the name and the reason why it's down next. ur brain is an amazin. but as you get older, it naturally begins to change, causing a lack of sharpness, or even trouble with recall. thankfully, the breakthrough in prevagen helps your brain and actually improves memory. the secret is an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. healthier brain. better life.

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welcome back here. big news on tesla hitting the tape late yesterday, and the stock is on the move let's get right now to frank collin with the story. >> brian, tesla is making three big moves overnight. first, the company announcing a long-awaited $35,000 version of its model three electric vehicle. this new car will have a shorter range than tesla's $45,000 version. it's available to order with a two to four-week delivery time the second big headline, tesla is moving completely on-line the company is going to stop selling its vehicles at physical retail locations now, this move comes as tesla looks to cut its costs tesla ceo elan musk acknowledging that more job cuts will be coming as the company moves on-line. he did not detail just how many. finally, elan musk telling investors that tesla does not expect to turn a profit in the first quarter. he based his expectations on one-time charges and other financial commitments.

brian, back to you >> frank, thank you. see you in a few minutes meantime, there's a big shake-up in the media world as well happening late yesterday, hbo ceo richard plepler stepping down after 27 years with the company. this comes amid a broad restructuring of at&t as they now own the assets of time warner and hbo he told employees of his departure in a memo saying, "it's an inflexion point for the company, and he is proud of what he has built." richard plepler, he is out let's talk about some of the other big stock movers that you need to know about on this friday we're talking clouds we're talking malls. we're even talking hotels. first to the cloud shares are down big. it is your disaster du jour. off 22% right now. company offering dismal 2019 guidance nutanix is expecting far less than analysts expected

nordstrom, those shares going in the other direction. they are moving higher right now. the retailer reporting relatively strong full year guidance despite a fourth quarter revenue miss nordstrom up 1%. marriott shares under pressure on this friday company posting mixed fourth quarter reports. profits did beat revenue missed expectations. marriott pointing to strength outside of north america that stock down. if you don't think you have exposure to chinese stocks, well, you might now. we're going to tell you what happened overnight that could have a major impact on the chinese markets and your investments. first, it is back to mystery chart time today we're talking about what might have been. what could have been i could have been a contender. we already told you boeing was last month's best dow performer. who could have been the runner-up? who is that chart? send in your tweets at sully @cnbc. we're back after this, where

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zbhierchlts maub you should forget it's the year of the pig in china and call this the year of the bull. if you are not paying attention, the shanghai composite is already up 18% this year that is the best start to a year since all the way back in the year 2000. something that happened that could power more gains msci is increasing the weight of china class a shares to 20% from 5% in its major index.

pa means the stock matter more to anyone that holds those global indexes, which means it might have to buy more the shanghai comportfolio is up 1.8% this morning. well, this move comes despite increased trade tensions between the u.s. and china let's get a check on where things stand right now eunice spgs yoon is live in beijing with more. >> thanks so much, brooen. well, the march 1st deadline has been delayed president trump and his administration appear to be largely bullish that a trade deal can be done at his press conference in hanoi, president trump had said that the negotiators on the two sides are on their way to "doing something special. a white house economic advisor had told cnbc that the two are on the verge of an historic deal and then treasury secretary steven mnuchin are working on a 150-page document that is very detailed now, the buzz is that the u.s. -- that there's a lot of hope that the u.s. is going to be able to hammer out an

agreement so they could put it in front of president xi and president trump so the two can can sit down for a summit possibly as early as mid-march a lot has to happen before then, and president xi is going to be very preoccupied with the big political event here in china called a national people's congress that's going to end on march 15th also, huawei cfo is going to be holding extradition hearings that's going to happen on march 6th. president trump had hinted that huawei could be added into the trade deal president trump also in hanoi, brian, had said that he could potentially walk away from a trade deal if he doesn't think that it's going to be a good one. there was no reaction officially from china on his comments >> dig in more to the national's peoples congress listen, it's a big deal. it's a little wonky, i suppose, on this side of the pacific ocean, but isn't this where they lay out sort of their yearly or longer term economic plans could see some market moving

information come from this congress >> yeah. absolutely the big day that people should be watching is on tuesday. that's when the national people's congress opens, and that's usually when the premier will present what he has called the work report. it's sort of this state of the union address. what usually we look for is the gdp target for the year, the consumer inflation target as well, and then as the course of the events unfold, we hear more about what's going to be in the budget, what's the military spending, but those are some of the key highlights that you are going to have to watch another thing that's important, i think, for foreign investors is that there's been a lot of discussion about a foreign investment law that china has said that it's going to pass to make it easier for foreign companies to do business here. there's some debate as to whether or not that's true, but that is expected to be passed at this legislative event >> eunice, have a great event.

thank you very much. let's now bring in linda yu, author of what would the great economist do linda, welcome back. we forget that today, march 1st, was supposed to be the deadline for the higher tariffs both sides and president trump sort of kicking that can, again, down the road. do you ultimately believe that a deal will be struck? >> i do. the economic pain is going to leave the leaders probably this month to sign a deal even though it's not going to tackle some of the issues that a lot of the trump administration team, people like robert lightheizer and others want to resolve chinese structural reforms they'll probably come up with some degree of measures to -- where china will promise to open up more to do less for transfers. actually, most importantly, they'll probably come up with some agreement on what the --

what's called the snap back provision. in other words the united states can impose tariffs unilaterally, and that's been a sticking point for some time. you know, brian, we are in an economic slowdown. in other words, cyclically we're on the down side of the cycle, and neither country wants a down side of the cycle to be worsened by a worsening trade war i think that's why this morning we're not talking about more tariffs and half of chinese imports going into the united states >> well, china is trying to stimulate their economy, linda do you believe that it will work >> yeah. great question one of the absolute problems that china has this year is that in the cyclical slowdown, higher tariffs are adding to production costs, and china is trying to rely more on its own consumers for growth both of those reasons mean the chinese government is going to implement widespread tax cuts. we're talking 1% of gdp national output if they gear that tax cut, which

it looks like they're aiming to do, we'll find out more on tuesday, that could actually help with reducing costs, boosting consumption, and really trying to mitigate some of the impact from the u.s. tariffs it shows contraction a lot of indicators that the economic slowdown is probably worse than what -- certainly what the government fears. there will be a temptation just to boost investment, ease credit, and, of course, that won't work very well that just adds to the debt issue which is one of the biggest concerns about the chinese economy. >> linda, do you believe that the chinese government is ready, willing, and able to increase intellectual property protection for u.s. companies and u.s. patents? >> yeah. that's a key question. i think it depends on how far advanced chinese companies are now in terms of their intellectual property rights

the reason i say that is because for many, many years china was imitating technology from the west it's part of their catch-up strategy, but more chinese firms now do have ipo's they want to protect. especially patents if chinese firms are innovative, they want their ipr's protected. they're going to push the government to do that. it's in line with china's made in china 2025 strategy to get domestic firms innovating. if chinese ipr's are worth protecting, then the chinese government logical protect iprs, including that of foreign fif z fifrmz, but that's because they're already competitive. the reason we don't know, they really are competitive and worth protecting is because there's no data on licensing of chinese patents. that's the key data we have for u.s. pat eents that tells us whh are valuable and which are not people are willing to pay a monopoly price to -- that doesn't exist for china. we're all left wondering how much do chinese firms push for

ir protection, and even if they get it is the chinese government still going to be preferring chinese firms over foreign ones. that's always a deep-seated suspicion there as well, and that's why this monitoring mechanism is going to be key when president trump meets president xi probably at mar-a-lago this month. >> great analysis as always. what would the great economists do we know because you are one, and you agreed to come on the show >> thank you, brian. on ek did, the current market bounce back has been once for the history books. are all you investors getting a little bit ahead of yourselves out there? we're going to debate it first, a major shakeup your top story, the gap splitting into two companies investors love the news. shipsticks.c om! no more lugging your clubs through the airport or risk having your clubs lost or damaged by the airlines. sending your own clubs ahead with shipsticks.com makes it fast & easy

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investors looking to kick off the month of march with a bang what may be in store going forward after what has been a great start to the year. a major shakeup. the gap splitting into two companies. the stock is soaring one says you need to turn your phone off. worldwide exchange rolls on right now.

loegts kick off the show with your executive recap all the news you need to know in about 60 seconds frank holland is back. >>. gap shares spiking on that news up more than 25% in the premarket. tesla sharing big headlines overnight. a long-awaited $35,000 version of its model 3 electric vehicle. it's going to stop selling its vehicles at physical retail locations. this is part of an effort to cut costs. meantime, elan musk is saying that tesla does not expect to turn a profit in the first quarter. this comes amid a brought restructuring of the cable company under its new parent

at&t pepler telling employees of a departure saying it's an inflexion point for the company, and he is proud of what he built. brian, back to you >> all right, frank. thank you very much. in the meantime, let's get a check on the morning's other top headlines outside much the world of money and business. nbc's phillip mena in new york now with those good morning >> hey, brian. happy friday to you. president trump is back home, but still reeling from the scathing accusations by his former attorney. michael cohen is set to appear before congress again next wednesday. that's exactly one week after his dramatic testimony while leaving yesterday's closed door house committee hearing, cohen said there's much more to discuss. the president is also beleaguered by a new controversy. this one involving mr. trump's son-in-law, jared curb measure according to the "new york times", mr. trump ordered his chief of staff to give kushner a security clearance despite serious concerns from the white house counsel and intelligence officials. the times cited four people briefed on the matter. the white house released a statement saying we don't

comment on security clearances a scandal rocking israel this morning after wrapping up a two-year investigation into corruption prosecutors say they intend to indict israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu for fraud, bribery, and other alleged crimes netanyahu is speaking out against the allegations which he calls outrageous if the case goes ahead, netanyahu who would be the first sitting israeli prime minister to be indicted that's it from here, brian back to you. have a great weekend >> you have a great weekend as well thank you very much, buddy the dow in the middle of a best start to a year since three men and a baby and fatal attraction were your top movies. that, my friends, 1987 the s&p 500 the best start to any year since 1991, and that looks to continue today. look at that the dow jones industrial average futures up another 155 points. call it optimism over trade. call it optimism -- a brexit deal being reached or call it just a high level of corporate buybacks whatever you want to call it, it looks leak it could be another

good friday. chad morganlander, fund manager with washington advisors where, where were you in 1987 >> i was in high school at that time i was born in 1971 >> it has been a spectacular start to the year. are you surprised by how good this year has been >> i am, but i'm also surprised by the about-face, by the federal reserve, and i think that has a major reason why the markets have taken off it's actually halted the massive sell-off that was drabing liquidity >> it's not trade. it's not brexit. it's not buy-back. >> it's a combination of everything, but that was the

major theme attic that kicked it off, and then now we are getting this excitement about trade and hopefully we can have a resolution there overall when it comes to the overall global economy and earnings, earnings, it looks as if it's decelerating moderately, and we can consider perhaps in the second half of the year you'll be reporting about an earnings recession for the s&p 500. >> okay. well, if that's the case then, chad, and the fed is the entree, and everything else is the sides, is the fed going to change again?

logic would suggest if they reacted that way to december, will they react now to what has been the best start to a year since you and i were in high school learning to shave >> there was a combination as the market was collapsing you started to see economic data points across the globe decelerate quite quickly that's what really spooked them. here you have a market that's moving higher. the global economy and economic data points are not showing any kind of bounceback, so they may be a little bit more patient before reacting to it and getting much -- getting hawkish and signaling about the rate hikes, but we'll have to see the global back drop is one of moderation you can have that imf number of 3.7 for global gdp we wouldn't be surprised if that's a 2.7 number at the end

of 2019. >> how do we make money in this market >> how you make money is you bookend it you put good quality companies that don't have a lot of debt on their balance sheet, that -- >> does any company not have it? >> a lot of these companies -- >> this has been a debt-heavy and pushed market for the last decade, chad >> you just put the finger on the issue, and that is that they're leveraging their balance sheets to buy back stock you want to do real good research about buying high-quality companies look at some of the consumer staple companies i know they look as if they're over extending at this point if i was going to give you one, i would probably say that you want to lock at a hormel, for example. they don't have -- >> dinte moore spam >> they've had little debt the company is a boring company, but it has an iron clad balance sheet, and the management is not looking out over the next two quarters for performance they're looking out over the next ten to 20 years to grow the company.

>> high quality, and high quality apparently is hormel i think it's minnesota-based company. chad morgan, boring is the new sexy chad, thank you very much. have a great weekend all right. coming up, going unplugged why your texting thumbs might want to brace themselves for a bit of a break stretch out because a group says you got to shut your phone off first, a double dose of trade news trade tariffs taking a toll on business both big and small. we'll break down the view from mn re wn t toaistethe we come back

zbloifrmgt how has the tariff tussle impacted companies and business in the united states? we're tackling this important story on two fronts. kate rogers looking at how the trade battle is impacting small business main street let's begin with wall street where frank holland has the pulse about chief financial officers dealing with all the uncertainty. frank. zbliej the u.s. outlook downgraded from improving to stable that ends a streak of ten

consecutive quarters where it was viewed as improving. china's economy downgraded from stable to declining. the survey was taken before february 22nd. respondents were aware of the ongoing trade talks and had an indication that president trump will let his march 1st deadline for tariffs slide, which he did do that progress may be why fewer cfo's see u.s. trade policy as a risk to their business looking back to q4, more than one-third saw trade policy as the biggest external risk facing their business now that number just over a quarter. the number of cfo's who see trade policy as having a negative impact also declining slightly from 73% to 63% also back in q4, no cfo saw trade policy as positive or very negative now 5.6% see it positively, but 3.7% see it as very negative opinions about trade policy certainly evolving where are our next survey in may by then we could see a deal in china or perhaps new tariffs

either way the majority of cfo's 83% say tax reform and government regulation is actually a bigger deal back over to you, brian. >> frank, bottom line, it sounds like that cfo's are still worried, but they are a little less worried or maybe more optimistic than they were last year >> absolutely. i mean, not only just last year just just in q4. there's a shift in the feeling about what the trade policy could do to their business some people actually see it having a positive impact and, again, a small amount actually seeing a very negative impact. strain street to uncertainty. the national federation of independent business just released new data on trade policy reporting that 37% of small businesses say they have been negatively impacted by

recent changes with canada, mechanics korks or china this polling comes from the nfib's research center which conducts survey on a monthly basis to gauge small business owner sentiment on varying topics in total, 28% reported a somewhat negative impact 9% reported a significant negative impact on their firm in january. 5% reported that they had been favorably impacted the group said this is most likely due to subsidies or targeted relief payments to offset some of the higher costs. breaking this down, the most impacted firms were in agriculture with 64% reporting that they had been negatively impacted 57% in wholesale trades reported in negative impact, and 41% of those in manufacturing and construction reported that negative impact. the least impacted firms were in service sectors like finance, real estate, and insurance as well as nonprofessional and professional services were 10% to 20% say that they were negatively impacted.

the nfib's latest report showed optimism back at levels not seen since before the 2016 election the group pointed largely to the government shutdown and uncertainty about future business prospects but said its membership was not sounding the alarm on a recession or a slowdown, brian, in the near future >> what was most striking to me about that was the 5% number that you had as far as a favorable impact >> yeah. >> because the president's goal is to try to help america, right? maybe america great again from a business perspective, bring it back home. doesn't sound like main street is buying into that. >> so many of these policies do have ripple effects, but what's interesting to me, this is the first time we've heard from the nfib specifically on trade, and it hasn't yet shown up in that monthly optimism index that we always talk about, so we saw data, you know, trickle over last month the next survey comes out in a few weeks on the overall sentiment on main street it will be interesting >> great stuff from main street as well. most people only -- they don't work for big companies they work for small businesses >> right

>> kate, can i ask your help >> sure. >> i need your help with trending stories are you ready to go? >> totally >> the first one you're going to love embattled technology giant huawei on a major charm offen offensive. they put out a video literally singing the company's praises. ♪ >> the video is making its rounds on-line the lyrics say things like huawei is earning reputation and honor for china and huawei is beautiful. it was created by regular people >> i love it >> just regular people making that video huawei has been a major charm offensive faced with claims its 5g technology could enable chinese -- regular people just coming out, hey, let's make a huawei video zhoo that's how you launch a charm offensive. regular people >> all the same shirt in a sound stage. >> sing a song that we've never heard before >> huawei blew it.

when my producer ken flynn told me, they blew it they should have licensed fleetwood mac. you can go your huawei >> i love that >> hacking you isn't the right thing to do. the event meant to be a technology time-out. no phones or even tv starts tonight at sundown and lasts until sundown tomorrow what do you make of this are you going to participate >> i will not participate. sorry. will you >> i will try. i'm actually -- yeah i'll give it a go. >> i do my own version of unplugging >> i am going to a charity event tonight, so i figure i can get iowa it. >> i delete social media app on my phone and do a social media detox every now and then that's my version of unplugging. >> really?

>> yes >> how does that work for you? >> i think it's great. you are not inundated with everybody's business >> is there a -- >> not really. i look at how much time you wind up spending, and i don't think i spend a lot, but i feel like i could be doing other things that are more important >> we all could. >> that's right. >> all right also trending today, major league baseball's biggest free agent in years has a new home and a record contract. bryce harper, are you ready for this, kate >> oh, yeah. >> 13-year, $330 million deal to join the philadelphia philliephs the deal will keep the 26-year-old harper in philly throughout the 2031 season

>> how do you feel about the move >> well. >> we're a yankees household my knowledge kind of starts and ends there >> you're a yankees house hoed >> yes >> be gone, you. you can go your huawei >> the segment is over, so i will go my huawei. >> fire up the time machine. >> the one stock that just missed out of being february's top perform er we're going to tell you the name anyway stick around

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>> dow futures up 158 points bill stone, chief investment officer at avalon advisors, and, bill, welcome. you point out something really interesting. the stock rebound is not only the best since 1987, but but it is the best of any post world war ii rebound whose sell-off was not caused by a recession. what do you make of it is it sustainable? >> yeah. well, i think there's, i guess, not as good short-term news, but better long-term news. i think it looks like we're a bit ahead of ourselves you know, maybe that's not a surprise given what you said, which is it's really been a phenomenal rebound that being said, even if you just say, hey, look at those, you know, rebounds post-, you know, really no recession, you still typically are up about 28% a year out that's still a decent -- it's still a very good upside when you look at it that way.

certainly it could be -- there are a lot of times it's higher than that. there's only one time where you weren't up a year out from now if you think about that we're up 19%. you know, i guess short-term, maybe see a little bit of bumpy consolidation here, but longer term, it still looks good. >> i would imagine, bill, you got calls from your client in december that were afraid, scared, right? what should i do you talked them into staying in the market as they should have are they now calling you and saying, bill, you were right i stuck with it, but now i'm up a lot. what i do? >> industrials have had a heck of a run you know, we liked them. still, you know, like them a bit, but you have a nice big fat

dividend to give you a little bit of cushion along the way >> i'm flug into houston today i love oil and gas and the city, but it's been a tough market it's wiped out investor returns. how can we stay positive? >> for a long time we want to maximize production. that doesn't mean to maximize earnings in fact, it did not. i think that's the real key to look for is good stewards of capital, and i think a lot of the large integrated, even an exxonmobil, has certainly even made really good strides in that direction. you have an over 4 3erz dif depd yield there. i think that's the places to look >> are you an owner of exxonmobil xom >> we are. >> yeah.

other oil and gas companies. are you sticking with big integrated the exxons of the world. >> primarily, yeah chevron, conco phillips. >> bill, thank you for your insight. have a great weekend see you soon >> you too >> all right time for the morning rbi the most random and interesting thing you'll hear all day. earlier in the show we walked you through the top stocks for february and the year. boeing came in as the best dow stock for the year and for the month of february. here's the thing if ge were still awe dow component, ge would have been the best performing stock in the dow this year. it is up 42%, of course. it's not on the index, so it can't be, but still, a tough ride from any investors, but a little bit of comfort if ge were still there, it would have been the best in the dow this year. something perhaps to take ka

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tesla finally launching the $35,000 version of its model three, and shifting all sales on-line. we'll show you how the stock is reacting straight ahead. retailer gap is separating its old navy brand as a stand-alone company, and the stock soaring. a game of thrones at hbo long-time executive richard pepler stepping down as new corporate overlords at at&t look to make their mark it's march 1st, friday, march 1s, 2019 "squawk box" begins right now.

live from new york where business never sleepsz this is ""squawk box." good morning welcome to "squawk box" right here on cnbc we're live at the nasdaq market site in times square the boys are back in town. i'm andrew ross sorkin along with joe kernan, and another boy wi wilfred frost. there's so much news to tote go this morning the dow looks like it would open up much higher 1 of 0 points higher the nasdaq looking higher as well 50 points higher s&p 500 up about 16 points let's show you stocks in asia. also trading higher overnight. the nikkei up over 11% the shanghai composite close to 2% higher. getting a boost after index giant msci dramatically raised china's weighting within the benchmark index. we'll have more on that story in the next hour. then europea