have no doubt that this will be a competitive product if they produce it and market it properly. >> thank you so much we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> with that, thank you for watching "power lunch. >> "closing bell" starts right now. ♪ good afternoon welcome to the "closing bell." i'm wilfred frost. >> i'm sara eisen. former nec director gary cohn said the president is desperate for a deal with china. we'll get reaction from kevin rudd. oracle hit with a double downgrade and will report after the bell with adobe, broadcom and ulta beauty first let's check the market lower but we started a little

lower still than this and recovered to positive for most of the early part of the afternoon. the dow is exactly flat. s&p down .1% as is the nasdaq. >> mike santoli in the note today said we are jogging in place at the 2019 highs. we'll talk to him, of course, later. new home sales in january sinking. diana olick has more on what that signals for the economy and the housing market, diana. >> reporter: it may just be that consumers are pulling back from those big ticket items this was a surprise, especially given the drop in mortgage rates. sales of newly built homes fell nearly 7% in january compared to december and down over 4% annually according to the census this as the average rate on the 30-year fixed fell over 5% in november to 4.5% in january. the sales numbers based on signed contracts and not

closings and people out shopping in the neighborhoods just at the start of the new year. the median price of a new home seattle in january fell down over 3%. but that had less to do with actually lowering prices and more to do with the mix of homes that sold. 37% were on the lower end of prices a year ago just 27% were and that shows that buyers are only able to afford so much despite the pullback in mortgage rates. the census is still catching up on the data from the government shutdown and this particular data set is very volatile. so if you smooth out the sales over three months they were at the highest levels since last sum i and still below historical norms. builder sentiment has been rising and mostly on expectations of future sales buyer traffic in the models they say is still quite slow. back to you guys. >> diana, thank you. turning now to ge despite disappointing for forecasts.

morgan brennan spoke with the ceo earlier and joins us with the highlights of the day. >> that's right. so ceo and chairman culp is calling 2019 a reset year. catch is one of the keys here and ge's expecting industrial free cash flow flat to down $2 billion in 2019 before returning to positive territory in 2020 and then accelerating in 2021. power continues to be the biggest pain point for the company. and when i did speak to culp today he said we will have a greater level of negative cash flow in that business this year. that will be worse this year and from there will get significantly better in 2020 and we expect positive free cash flow in 2021 now, in terms of the other businesses, ge expects health care and renewables under pressure this year also, that free cash flow in aviation growth expected to be

flat year on year as they ramp production of the leap engine. on ge capital. another area of trouble. that financial arm will require about $4 billion this year we knew that but the company also saying it may still need more cash next year to fund the insurance portfolio but that it will stop losing money by 2021 in terms of the divestitures which ge is using to help pay down debt, $20 billion expected from bio pharma and expects to raise $28 billion over the next two years as it set sells down the stakes in two companies that now house former ge assets baker hughes and the locomotive maker which ge just closed its deal with in terms of its transportation business so what does all of this mean? it means the company's forecasting adjusted earnings of 45 to 50 cents a share in 2019 and down from 2018 but they do expect eps to again grow in 2020

and 2021 as you can see behind me right there, investors are sending shares of the stock up 3% on this news today. >> morgan, clearly, this company has let down analysts in the last couple of years with various moments. >> yeah. >> of guidance what is the level of faith from analysts in larry culp and his projections, particularly given that recent downgrade from the free ash flow outlook? >> great question. and i think you're right that is company that has been last year also considered a reset year the bears in terms of the analyst community will tell you, okay, we have been hearing this for a while now and are we going do see a turn around and skeptical still to see it in 2020 or 2021 that being said, culp still pretty new at the helm first outsider to take over. has a great reputation from the time at dannaher and upbeat on the call today and much more detailed, much more information. we have been getting more information from them in general

in recent weeks and i think investors cheered that even though at least for the near term outlook still pretty painful. >> thank you. we continue to watch general electric up 3% and tonight jim cramer with an exclusive interview of larry culp. don't want to miss that. joining the "closing bell" exchange, patrick palfrey and ben mandell, also cnbc's rick santelli from the cme in chicago as always. patrick, broadly speaking, did age, the number of years of the bear market, a concern for you >> it is not when we look at the benign recessionary backdrop and also seeing the likelihood of a trade catastrophe come in, reengaging investors in the market. >> a trade catastrophe

i thought we were getting a trade deal. >> well, no. the likelihood of it declined. >> fallen. >> oh, okay. you are hopeful of the deal and part of the thesis >> yes. >> does it matter that the talk now is that it's pushed back and maybe not this month >> i think, you know, as peel try to get the best deal possible, i wouldn't expect it immediately. i think ultimately both sides are looking for a solution and that's what we'll see. it may take more time than what we are seeing now but nevertheless we expect a solution. >> ben, is the trade deal or not a trade deal or the fed a more important factor for markets >> i think both helpful. over the next 12 months or so but it's important to realize those things are layering on top of a fundamental outlook which is right in the middle this is a low growth world we are in right now in 2019 recession risk is low per patrick's point and upside is also relatively limited. this is not 2015 and '16 out of a low growth world where back then rates lower, wage growth

lower. margins were in better shape chinese stimulus higher. you are name a litany of reasons why upside is positioned thinking about ways to add risk from a low base but again being in a low growth world mean that is the type of risk we're add rg narrow in nature and maybe a little bit more positive on equities looking at credit as an interesting, tactical option in a low growth world and thinking about, you know, emerging markets as a key beneficiary in the relative equity space and adding to risk but narrow. >> rick, we are seeing stronger dollar higher yields today. what's moving the fixed income 4x market on a day when we're stuck in these ranges? >> i think it's just, you know, a passive market i think the treasuries are passive in the aspects of how

the economy is going to turn out, how all the conventional wisdom of trade and brexit turns out. i think more actively being affected by the issues of low sovereign pressures on the relative value trade overseas and i was happy to see a little negative trade news because my opinion is definitely the opposite of ben's. for example, i think consider the counter factual. to see and understand all of the dynamics ben outlined, we are not coming off low growth, the future doesn't look at great but here we sit with all these questions of brexit. everybody, many saying that china is mostly priced in. and we are still hovering at the top of a range my feeling is that should we get any of these issues resolved that there may be a significant larger upside than many suspect and i think that also explains why we can't put the death knell in the treasury complex so close to challenging very important

support levels that core late with the trading levels. >> patrick, in terms of the risks to the market, one of those you think is inflation >> wage inflation is probably most important risk we see yes, wage inflation will impact corporate profits but that is not so much our concern. rather, more wage inflation to cause the fed to be more engaged. the tone to shift more hawkish if that happens, we're likely to see volatility pick up and people exit the market. >> ben, what is happening with earnings expectations? is momentum going down >> we are returning to a normal state of affairs and expectations migrate down. last year and year before, we exceeded them. so, i characterize earnings expectations coming down as normal where we see them ending up at the end of the year is somewhere in low single digits so not exciting but again not

negative so we are right in the intermediate phase in terms of growth and feeding through to equity fundamentals. >> can stocks go up where earnings revisions are going down >> there's two different stories. you have the mega cap companies, things in social media, things related to oil they're collapsing but typical companies actually holding up quite well and understand the trend from the aggregate statistic which i think people focused on. >> patrick, ben and rick, thank you all. >> thank you. another day, another brexit vote today the uk parliament deciding whether or not to delay the country's departure date from the eu wilfred, this was largely expected what happened? >> wasn't just one vote today. as always, many on the topic and prime minister may did not lose any of the brexit votes. most notably, amendments tabled trying to hand parliament more power and controlling brexit and pushing for a second referendum

and she won the vote meaning that the government will seek an extension to the brexit departure date that was expected so sterling not moved much today in the course of the votes. down 0.8%. but still stands around 2% higher for the week as a whole focus now turns to the eu. do they grant the extension? for how long under what terms meantime, president trump outlined his views on brexit earlier in the white house. >> i'm surprised how badly it's all gone from the standpoint of a negotiation. but i gave the prime minister my ideas on how to negotiate it and i think you would have been successful she didn't listen to that and that's fine. she has to do what she has to do but i think it could have been negotiated in a different manner, frankly. i hate seeing everything ripped apart right now. i don't think another vote is possible because it's unfair to the people that won.

i would like to see that whole situation with brexit work out i'd like to see so, you know, we are talking to them about trade. we can do a very big trade deal with the uk. we're also renegotiating our trade deal with the european groups and, you know, literally individual nations and also with the whole. but it's very sad to see what's happening there and there was no reason - >> the bottom line, sara, of the last three days of voting, may's deal failed again, mps don't want no-deal brexit, seeking an extension and the ball's in the eu court for that and sterling down today and higher this week. >> i wonder what president trump advised prime minister may to do in the negotiations. she didn't listen to him about. >> do you remember we asked that after they discussed their very special relationship, the highest form of special relationship traveling to london the theme that came out was that he should sue the eu was what

came out and only ever recorded to reports. >> i thought maybe tariffs and what would happen if they don't do a deal. >> yes if there's no deal i think eat ere way the point being the gist of what the president said back then and was pointing at today was a much tougher handed harder hitting approach. >> he is right she doesn't have a deal on the table and they don't want a no deal and sometime between now and delaying this they have to figure out the deal. >> correct if it's granted, looks likely even though there's tough rhetoric on the eu side, don add tusk's tweet this morning suggested they're open to it and if they do it's probably short extension and that puts us back to where we were in january if there's only a two, three months left to go again and lots of questions to be answered. >> kick the can. >> sterling is up week to date. >> giving back a little of yesterday. >> up about 2% because mps ultimately voted yesterday to say they don't want no deal.

still ahead, the trump administration's tariff tactics amid uncertainty over the time line with a deal with china. kevin rudd will weigh in. up next, facebook reportedly facing a criminal investigation into data deals it struck with device makers. we'll talk to a former prosecutor saying facebook has a history of misleading statements regarding privacy. that's next. ♪

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that protects what's important. it handles everything, and reaches everywhere. this is beyond wifi, this is xfi. simple. easy. awesome. xfinity, the future of awesome. facebook under fire again. "the new york times" today reporting the company's data sharing deals are now under criminal investigation by federal prosecutors. in a statement a facebook spokesperson says the company is, quote, cooperating with investigators and takes the probes seriously is there a case here let's bring in former federal prosecutor katie shirkaski thank you for joining us we don't have a lot of details but according to "the times" federal prosecutors are looking into the deals facebook signed with device makers, smartphone makers and other tech companies

of sharing data. that a criminal offense? >> facebook might have really tempted fate here with the continued insistence on the data sharing agreements after the trouble they have been in with the ftc and everything else they have gone through. so the fact there is a grand jury looking into this can only mean that there is potential criminal violations. thus the purpose of a grand jury they're at the beginning potentially of that to determine if there is enough evidence to issue an indictment. so right now that's all we know. there are some federal statutes that could relate to general fraud in obtaining information from users and would be my best guess to which potential violations they look into at this point. >> katie, is the crux of this on the 2011 consent order >> well, the consent ord we are the ftc is a separate sort of case related in that decree facebook agreed that they would

not use users' data without permission and certain parameters that they had to agree to if they violated that the ftc can seek fines, injunctions and other relief and go through the department of justice for that but the grand jury probe is a separate case altogether and very interesting there's lots of different cases that are related, they do overlap, but not the same thing necessarily. >> well, also, there's doj looking into the cambridge analytica scandal. this one's out of the eastern district this new one looking into whether there was criminal wrongdoing and data sharing. how do we separate the seriousness? how should investors look at the seriousness of the various investigations >> with the ftc violations, facebook can face huge amounts of money in fines and other sorts of consequences for that but a criminal prosecution of an

entity or an individual is a totally different story altogether and right now with the criminal side of things, we are at a very early stage to say there's an indictment at all the purpose of the grand jury to determine if that is even something that's viable. this could be a creative prosecutor that's covering the bases looking into that. i think realistically that the ftc violations from the concept decree are more concerningfor facebook and facebook has issued statements defending their actions. they have stated that they have abiding by the terms of the agreement an been the position and perhaps they prevail in that they would be very foolish to have violated after being on notice forso long but apparently that seems to be what the allegations are in many of these different probes. >> katie, i wanted to go back to something you said at the top. do you think what they have done, the statements they have made, the changes they have made to their own behavior over the last year or two will help their cause as a sign that they've realized potential errors and moved forward or does it sort of

a red rag to a bull as it were to suggest to the prosecutors, look, they're claiming they're now doing the right thing when they haven't been? >> well, facebook has some very specific rules and agreements that they entered into to use users' data for the purposes they have agreed to so if they deviated from that at all, the fact they tried is ant defense criminally or with the ftc violations it is either you followed the regulations and the agreements or you didn't. so, i hope that for their sake they actually did agree to those things because they face very severe consequences, potentially criminally now and on the financial side and it is a black and white question at the end of the day. facebook has issued their own statements and defended their actions and it is -- there's a fine line, of course, arguing about things legally does this constitute a violation or not but the answer is going to be

yes or no. >> we'll see what happens with this one, katie. the stock's under pressure again today. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. treasury secretary mnuchin taking questions of china trade moments ago. hoens the hi he's on the hill today let's listen. >> you have a number of questions from house democrats about the presidential tax returns or obscure law of 6103 can you talk to us more about the conversations with your general counsel on the issue and have you discussed how quickly you would be able to turn around a request should you receive something formal in writing? >> no. let me just say. obviously, internal discussions that i have with our legal team on any issue, not just related to this would be premature to comment on publicly. we haven't seen a request. if the democrats had it i was readily to take it i assume they'll deliver it. we'll evaluate it and consider

it and follow the law. >> two unrelated questions for you. you said that you did speak to your counterpart in china twice this week. how close do you feel that you are to actually reaching a deal? and in that negotiation. and then secondly, you have a lot of questions of salt the president previously said he would be open to looking at this again. have you had any conversations with him on revisiting that? >> let me say on the first comment, and again, i think we made a lot of progress when they came here. we have had several conversations since then ambassador lighthizer is leading this an i'm working closely with him on this and i think we're pleased with the progress. there had been some discussion about a presidential meeting at the and of this month. we won't do it at the end of the month because we have more wok to do. i think if we have an agreement the presidents are prepared to meet and be part of that and we're working through this as the president said, it was more important to get the right

agreement an not rush it >> and then on salt? >> on salt, as i said, we are monitoring the impact on the states in terms of the economy and economic growth. they are a big part of the overall economy. we haven't had any specific conversations with the president or anyone else about doing anything on this otherwise but we are monitoring it and want to understand the economic impact >> secretary mnuchin there, of course, with ylan mui. said we made a lot of progress with china the last time they came here pleased with the progress in general that the presidents will not meet this month and both are prepared to do so as and when there's progress. >> not sure that was new or investors or for the market but he generally had a more optimistic take on the work being done and the progress made on the trade talks

as far as salt, monitoring the impact on states earlier secretary mnuchin in his testimony had said i'm feeling it, too. i have to pay the higher taxes no conversations with the president on specifics about looking at it again which would be disappointing to people who live on the coasts. >> absolutely. we are down 1 point on the dow. >> still watching boeing down double digits this week after dozens of countries grounded the max series planes, including the u.s. we'll ask analysts how long the fallout could last. plus, a big afternoon for earnings as two red hot tech stocks gear up for results after the bell we'll bring you results of oracle and adobe as soon as they hit. now i'm thinking...i'd like to retire early.

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dow just popped into positive territory again we'll see if it holds. there's the picture of the s&p there's groups doing better than others financials best performing today. everybody else is red and biggest loser is materials time now for a cnbc sues update with tyler matheson. >> thank you very much 12 republican senators joined with democrats to vote in favor of a resolution to end president trump's disaster declaration opening up funding for a border wall the same resolution already passed the house but president

trump has vowed to veto the measure. it would be the first of his presidency. beto o'rourke hitting the campaign trail and spent the day speaking to voters in iowa, a former congressman from texas and an entrepreneur. facebook blames a server configuration for the disruption in the family of apps. it led to users across the globe beingen able to log on to their accounts or to post messages just watching this video is tiring 130 athletes battled high winds and rain to race up the eiffel tower's nearly 2,000 steps the male finished in just over eight minutes and the lady winner in ten. that is the cnbc news update at this hour. back to you. >> was that like a charity thing, tyler looked official. >> locked like a race.

maybe ever year. if you have walked some of the steps, that's quite a climb. >> about to say, rather them than me. if you visit, you take the elevator up and walk down. >> you could just look up at how beautiful it is. >> there we go lots of lazy options for the viewers to pick from there we go. >> see you next hour. >> thank you. still to come, tesla officially appointing the new cfo today hours before it's set to raise the curtain on the long awaited suv. what it could mean for the stock price. plus, fed up with the fed. the coauthor of a new "the wall street journal" op-ed why he thinks the federal reserve is, quote, a threat to growth. measure up?

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welcome back shares of boeing down more than 11% this week following the fatal ethiopian airlines crash on sunday. the faa joined more than 50 other countries in grounding the plane. joining us to discuss what it means for boeing is ken herbert and kyvan rumar.

ky, if i start with you, even in the worst-case scenario for boeing that it is ultimately found to be for blame for this particular set of crashes, will airlines still have to buy boeing's planes and even this model? >> well, it would be difficult for them to switch to airbus because it's a backlog further out than boeing's. but i think, you know, it is quite likely they will find a fix to this and not a situation that dire. >> so, ken, where's the financial risk the greatest for boeing >> yeah. hi good afternoon, sara i would say two areas. the first is obviously lack of deliveries right now and then lack of progress payments of boeing from the airlines and i estimate that's potentially up

to $1 billion a month and then of course there's compensation to the airlines and the leasing companies for disruptions and lost revenue around the fact that you have 375 of the aircraft parked out today as part of the grounding so there's two primary areas there. boeing's got to pay for the fix and the software and everything else and hope it's certainly that straightforward and still obviously risk around that, as well >> cai, if it's a software upgrade that's required how long could it be fixed in >> well, to give you an example, the 787 battery fire issue took four months to cure that and that was from the date they first found out there was problem. in this case, lion air was last october so boeing has been working on a fix they actually had one ready in january. so my guess six weeks to three

months they should be able to have this thing done >> how do you put a time frame on that? ken, you did that, too, in the note six to eight-week grounding. how could you know that? >> you are right it's very difficult to predict if you're under the assumption that the cause of each of these tragic accidents was similar then you -- it is a relatively straightforward fix. it is looking right now. there's certification to happen. flight testing, a lot of steps involved boeing indicated that the downloading of the software if this is the issue takes about an hour or two so that's a base case but you're right. until we fully know -- you don't know the exact cause or the final report from the lion air accident and then ethiopian investigation just happening and could be longer but that's a fair base case. >> ken, you mentioned compensation to the airlines that are seeing their planes

grounded what about potential compensation to the families of the lives lost >> that's certainly a factor, as well obviously, that's something i'm sure boeing has insurance for and being negotiated right now and certainly be a factor, as well and difficult to predict. i'm sure that will be in play, also. >> so bottom line, cai, if investors come to you saying is it safe to buy with the what ifs still hanging out there, how do you answer >> i think we are getting close to, you know, a point where you can buy. if you take a look at the 787 battery fire, it took them four months to cure the problem the stock really bottomed on a relative basis three weeks after the boston fire. and then it went sideways for another four weeks and after that it started to outperform. i don't think you need to have to wait until, you know, the grounding is going to be lifted.

you know you have a little risk here on the near term. delivery delays and people are aware of that so i think we are approaching a point writ's attractive again. >> but, ken, you have a hold >> yeah. i take a more cautious approach. near term you have more risk around the accidents and waiting for that real dif to the 787 battery issue was significant fatalities, more regulatory involvement ofchina and other regions. and this time around to push it to the right a bit and i think any further risk or perceived risk to the sort of cash flow story around boeing which is, of course, the primary bull thesis on the stock, i think it justifies waiting and see howing how it plays out before i'm more excited. >> thank you, guys >> thank you. up next, the u.s. economy is projected to grow 3% to 4% over

the next several years but is the fed a threat to growth we'll discuss that question next. plus, former nec director gary cohn said the president is desperate for a win with china and former australian prime minister kevin rudd is here to weigh in

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♪ welcome back to the "closing bell." here are the winners on the dow to visa, apple, jpmorgan chase and nike a nice spread of sectors banks topper forming sector on the s&p 500. week to date performance, the tech sector has outperformed at the moment the dow up 23 points just positive with 17 minutes left. >> nasdaq with the best week in month. despite the federal reserve signaling the rate hike policy on hold some economists believe they have gone too far in "wall street journal" out today, it says the fed is a threat to u.s. growth. a piece argues that the federal reserve's deflation their policies caused a severe dollar shortage, volatile swings in the

stock market joining us is roger agehill. thank you for joining us, lewis. i get a piece like this november when everybody was saying the fed was making a mistake and not acknowledging the softness but why now? >> the deflation is a problem for sometime but it got very severe late in the fourth quarter and it's just gotten a little better but it's -- money is still too tight. we felt it was time to speak out. >> you think there should be a cut now? >> the fed should stop targeting interest rates and target commodity prices. >> what does that even look like >> the crb index, cry on the ticker, at 183 right now they need it to be at 260 and keep it there forever.

>> so how do you propose they do that this is not sort of -- this is sort of an unusual proposal given the traditional tools of monetary tools >> correct. >> take us through what you have in mind. >> okay. well the last ten years you have seen the results of the traditional tools of monetary policy things haven't worked very well. the crb index is a measure of the value of the dollar. if the fed wanted to ease they'd start bringing the interest on reserves rate down maybe two basis points a day until the crb index went up to where they want it to be >> what's the main target for this there's a line in the op-ed that says if the fed had been doing this, lowering interest rates, the recent wild stock market gyrations wouldn't have occurred do you think the stock market should be the main area of focus for the fed? >> well, the stock market is just something real.

the dollar, the real value of the dollar's the denominator for all prices the real dow didn't move all that much. it's just that the crb index plunged and the dow plunged with it and the rcb index rose and the dow rose with it think of a price of the ratio of the value of the thing and the value of the dollar if we stabilize the value of the dollar you won't have wild swings in the real prices of things. >> lewis, i don't get the overall criticism. the u.s. economy is still doing pretty well, particularly relative to the rest of the developed world and the eurozone and germany as a whole and the fed did respond and pivot when they started to sense that the data could be worsening just a little bit. >> well, with the tax and regulatory policies we have now the economy should be growing 4% to 5% to 6% right now like the mid-'80s when reagan cut taxes and the crb index rose at the

same time. the federal reserve bank of atlanta's gdp now indicator saying .4% for the first quarter. the quarter we are in now. that's virtually recession the fed -- it's being caused by the fed's tight money and saying that the fed should ease and let growth occur. >> i mean, if the economy was doing as well as you say it is under the fundamentals, then a few quarter percentage basis hikes off of a historically low level should not be the absolute growth killer. there are other factors out there like businesses not spending those tax cuts and putting them back into their businesses. >> deflation is what's caused every single severe recession. period since the dawn of time the interest rates aren't the problem. it's commodity prices. interest rates don't tell you anything we have had very loose money and

high inflation when the fed funds rate was 18% and we have had deflation and very tight money when the funds fund rate was zero interest rates are -- give you an indeterminant solution and to control money safely you have to look at commodity prices. >> lewis, we are out of time thank you for joining us. >> you're welcome. this social stock up more than 100% so far this year the mystery mover when we come back the chart is coming to you there it is. >> mystery chart oracle - >> i don't know which one it is. >> no. oracle hit with a double downgrade on monday and reports earnings with adobe and others tethe bell we'll bring you the numbers as soon as they hit

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all of you.

how you live, what you love. that's what inspired us to create america's most advanced internet. internet that puts you in charge. that protects what's important. it handles everything, and reaches everywhere. this is beyond wifi, this is xfi. simple. easy. awesome. xfinity, the future of awesome. ♪ welcome back to "closing bell." we have got under ten minutes to go before the bell how about viblg movers general mills slightly higher after an upgrade the firm cited stabilization in the company's core business. pet products brand blue buffalo underappreciated and particularly the new partnership with walmart the stock up 1%. it was notable because the stock

has been an under performer and the business has been. both revenue market trends and like other u.s. food companies disappointing and deutsche banc said maybe there's stabilization and like the new blue buffalo brand. it is not particularly exciting about innovations or turning themselves around like mondelez, for example. campbell's soup and hershey and kraft heinz. lack of demand and new innovations. >> has under performed and was up 20% year to date and interesting timing from the upgrade and focused on blue buffalo. >> 4% dividend yield that continues to make it attractive despite the weaker performance. >> i have gone for snap as the mystery mover. it soared today after btig

upgraded it to buy from neutral. a $15 price target and saw around 50% upside before today's 11% jump the firm cited increased spending in north america and discover section and better management for the upgrade they said it was going well. and sticky users and other points, everything had gone wrong since the ipo that could have gone wrong and that that was already priced in and very, very cheap. >> again, interesting to see the year to date performance which is tremendous comeback for this stock. >> up 100%. >> 100%. >> 11% today 50% upside before that 11%. a still long way to go to the $15 price target. >> over to the nasdaq for a look at the movers there with bertha coombs for us. >> wilf, we are off the highs of the day and nasdaq was fractionally higher on the day and it is really been led by big

cap tech that's been the strong point and held up the most and we have seen chips fade, apple among the big momentum names today is the one that is holding up the best. up about 1.25% as the cowan with an outperform with price target of $220 a share and the rest of the fang complex fading here in the day and amazon stronger earlier today and we are losing steam going into the close interestingly today as you look at some of the big tech names, we have a number of 52-week highs, particularly in financial tech check point software, all at 52-week highs with the parent company comcast today. hitting a new 52-week high,as well we have seen fewer and fewer of these. for the week we have a pretty strong move to the upside on the big cap tech names with the nasdaq 100 up better than 3% for

the week a pretty good performance here over the last nine weeks, in fact back over to you. >> bertha, thank you very much for that the nasdaq just negative approaching the close which is five minutes away. after the break the closing countdown. after the bell, former australian prime minister kevin rudd is here to talk about trade with china and much more that's coming up on "closing bell." measure up? a cfa charterholder does.

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welcome back to the "closing bell." there's the s&p 500 intraday for you. little bit of red and green. started lower. it's been a thin band. down about .1% kind of similar for the other indices. you can see the dow moving in unison with the other indices today because boeing is knocked down much more than the rest of the market sectors for you today, financials, technology, energy in positive territory. financials in particular up 0.4% materials down at 0.8% also communications services and industrials. interesting that the week to date performance not dissimilar from that. tech and energy atop week to date up 3% or so. s&p 500 up 2.5% for the week and industrials is bottom week to

date but in positive territory all sectors positive for the week it's been a strong week. the dollar week to date, as well bob pisani, down for the week. just above that 97 level for long that's helped stocks the dollar been softer. >> you will hear about that dollar in the first earnings commentary the dollar is stronger off highs but an issue so we still -- another day can't get over these critical levels here and break out. we have failed many times right at the spot here. >> up 2.5% this week. >> we haven't broken through we have failed right here in october, in november, in december, in february and in march. so we want do get to 2015 and then now new territory and you mentioned tech apple with a nice day today. the banks. bank of america and citigroup with a good day.

visa, another historic day a remarkable stock just been going up for years now. >> vix very low. there we go. that's it for trade today. there goes the close we are up 5 basis points or so on the dow s&p down 5 basis points or so. a pretty flat session all in all. that does it for the first hour of "closing bell." sara, back to you. ♪ welcome to "closing bell." i'm sara eisen wilfred frost rejoining me a moment with mike santoli, cnbc senior markets commentator look at the day on wall street as wilfred said, very little change up and down and up and down on the dow. finished up by 8 points. boeing was a drag after did close up yesterday pretty narrow trading range. s&p 500 just slightly lower. we did see some pockets of

strength within the overall s&p. financials were strong technology, energy and real estate closed positive while the nasdaq dipped, still on track for the best week in more than two months russell 2000 underperformed down almost .5% kevin rudd is here to tell us what he thinks a u.s./china trade deal should look for ge shares surging after a strong outlook for its power business facebook shares falling on reports of a criminal probe into data deals and we are waiting big earnings from oracle, adobe, broadcom and ulta. joining us to talk about the market today, ali mccartney is here from ubs. welcome back. >> thank you. >> so, mike, i quoted you earlier saying we are jogging many place feels like this search of some

sort of catalyst. >> yeah. i guess one hand you say holding near the highs right? up 2.5% coming in to today and the s&p ian stuck there. you mentioned the russell 2000 people point to that saying, okay, maybe there's a little bit of a softening up below the surface. hard to draw strong conclusions here seems like the market is okay with where we are. up 20% from the december lows as bob and wilf were talking about, right at the levels to be a high friction zone to try to get up through but i don't think you want to necessarily say that today is representative of either whether it's going to do that or not. >> ali, what do you put the bounce we have seen this week down to most of all? >> i think the bounce this week has a lot to do with this ings overhanging and dragging on the market you were saying you were having bread -- australia's a great example of markets do not die of

old age but they die of overly aggressive monetary policy in the last week or so, other than the stock-based news we have heard that has taken the market in a tiny range, you have globally supportive federal reserves bank of japan coming out saying they want do delay the sales tax. you have had the european union coming out an saying that they're pushing their growth forecast out a couple of years you have the u.s. continue to be dovish and see what happens in next week's minutes and seeing all this all over the world. you have china saying they're going to take the reserve rate down i think people are continuing to be buoyed on sort of a lower for longer more accommodative stance and the market likes that. and then the other thing that we have seen like we have again seen as a sort of continuation of ground hog's day into march is trade rhetoric. >> which appears to be making progress. >> yeah. >> even if it's not as soon as

we thought if you look at the week to date best performance, all groups are up technology doing the best. real estate. financials is that a central bank trade on? >> i would point to technology, health care and the yield based sectors as very much growth stocks that don't necessarily need the economy to roar ahead for them to do okay. low yields the market's okay with low yields right now if we don't have an utterly flat treasury curve and seeing the market kind of rotating into the areas where almost as if these are the stocks that can hold the tape together while we wait for either some resolution or a catalyst or earnings estimates bottoming. that coup months and no saying to actually hold off that long. >> i want to dig in a bit more your mentioned the fact that equities don't need to be worries by the fact of lower rates and part of the column

today. what would make you change your view on that >> i would say if the curve really did flatten aggressively. if the short end rallied a lot meaning that the yields went down a lot and almost can't, sitting on top of the fed funds rate right now and means a real recession scare and then obviously bad and then credit markets. credit spreads are tame right now. the market is firm and if that part of the bond market started to say we have to get worried about growth than we are already that's another reason. >> we have oracle numbers out. hey, josh. >> adjusted eps of 8 7 cents on revenue, 9.62 billion analysts modeled 9.95 billion. cloud services and license support 6.66 billion cloud license and on premise license 1.25 billion hardware 915 million services 786 million

the conference call starts at 5:00 p.m. eastern when you typically expect ceo katz for guidance and will be on the call back to you. >> thank you very much. >> let's bring in gerald fishbin from bgie. what is your first take? clearly a bit of a beat and not much of a reaction from the stock price. >> yeah. looking in a pretty good quarter. the numbers just came out and it's definitely above where we were expecting it is a lower bar and did have that -- impact -- not able to quantify and overall a pretty good quarter for oracle tonight. >> joel, i know you're always focused on the cloud part of this business. i think josh just said 6.6 billion of cloud revenue is that what you expected? >> a little bit ahead of where we expected. we were around 6.45 and it was slightly ahead of where we expected we wanted to see the cloud

growth and the key is -- continuing to show consistency here and market share gains. >> so the stock is basically gone nowhere in the last year but it's had a nice run into earnings what do you do next? >> i think you continue to buy the stock here, particularly because q4 which they'll give guidance on the call should be -- they have a low bar there again and easy comps and the stock has been trading fairly inexpensive, particularly relative to the peers. this is a safe place to be and it looks like executing a lot. more than the past couple of years. >> shares rewarded here. joel, thank you for jumping on the phone. we have got a big breaking news alert here on facebook with the departure, julia boorstin with the details. yulia? >> that's right. very big departure ceo zuckerberg announcing a reorganization of the company

say nounsi announcing that kris cox is leaving the company and worked with zuckerberg over a decade. working on that facebook product we're so familiar with saying he decided to leave because of his desire to do something else. along with this, various other announcements here a new head of what's app he previously had ran the facebook app they also announced a new head of the facebook app. that's fiji sumo and worked with facebook's investment and video and advertising. and in terms of that family of app strategy that zuckerberg talked about kris cox was partnered with a man of javier and as kris cox leaves, javier is taking over responsibility and be the lead identifying where the apps should be more integrated and of course lately a controversial issue as they wok on integrating the back end and a big reorganization here as

zuckerberg talked about the investigation of privacy and making sure that the apps are integrated on the back end we see facebook shares down about 1.5% today back over to you. >> julia, thank you very much for that mike, just scanning this release of mark zuckerberg and in the last paragraph he says as we begin the next chapter of our work building the privacy focused social foundation of the -- it is a -- the shift is significant. the share price is down today on this news. >> the shift and the message is significant and i guess the -- what we have to sort out is if it's a remaking of the orientation of the ompany, a real product kind of reboot or if it is just kind of messaging. >> i think also what investors need to sort out is whether it might be good for facebook in dealing with its privacy issues, scandals, overstepping. >> right. >> into data sharing and good for the bottom line? facebook is a money machine. >> so far i don't think you have

people get worried about investors thinking the return on investment isn't as good or anything like that and facebook of course does trade at a bit of a lower valuation an lower than let's say alphabet or microsoft right now looking at free cash flow and i think the market maybe kind of pulled in a little bit. >> do you think investors and analysts wrapped their head around what that means shifting to a privacy social media app from a very public sharing app? >> i do know that earnings forecast for this current year have gone from $9 to $7.50 so obviously we have already kind of downgraded what they're doing in the near term. >> another earnings alert on adobe. >> that's right. looking pretty good here a beat on the top and bottom line 9 cents better than estimates. revenue's $2.60 billion. that's $50 million better than estimates. seeing the stock up about 1.5%

and continues the trend. since christmas eve. the stock's up about 30% and continue dos go up there including the positive day today. the one negative to look out for, the next quarter earnings share $1.77, 11 cents less than the street was looking for so maybe that going forward number to bring the stock down a little bit. back to you. >> yeah. so far getting a pop beauty enings out. kate rogers? >> that's right. the nice pop on the back of the strong q4. eps a beat $3.61. analysts looking for $3.56 revenue in line here at $2.21 billion and the stock higher likely on the same store sales number up 9.4% versus estimates of 7.9%. the company said comps were driven primarily of traffic. the average ticket grew by 2.3%

in the quarter and projecting that they're going to open 80 new stores in 2019 also another thing to keep an eye out for, nothing in the release but the kylie jenner beauty line they sell exclusively at ulta and listening for that on the call. >> quick programming note, the ceo of ulta tomorrow on "squawk street." shares gaining comps were better. margins were stronger. two words. kylie cosmetics. >> specialty retail still in expansion mode and comps up 9% a year, the market loves that and a pricey stock near the highs and somewhat rare for specialty retail right now. >> i know you can't get into the specific stock movers, alli. >> which is why we haven't come to you in the last five minutes. >> in terms of themes trickling

out and if they keep the market going. >> that's what i was thinking as we were having this conversation there are a lot of very stock specific things coming out in the last number of months and i think that jives with being in the late, late phases of a bull market and so what i think it means to me and my clients is, you know, this is a time to think about active management. this is a time to think about investing with people who understand all the nuances and strategies of different companies and can answer some of the questions that you have been asking last week actually marks ten years since we had the 2009 bottom global markets were up about 250% u.s. markets, s&p up about 400%. i think that the time for sort of rising tides and all boats is pret pretty much behind us. sector etfs, technology, finance or energy, you know, i think that people have to be really focused on who and what they're

buying and the implication going forward. >> you talk about defensive asset allocation >> i think defensive absolutely. there's -- what i would say is with the client base we have seen much less of a conversation of hedging to the downside and much more about being opportunistic and capturing and doing put selling to get into certain areas going forward and the conversations are no longer at least from what i'm seeing on an a grand scale really general market or geographical conversations. >> you said it's a central bank driven market where the easy policies around the world giving us a further support. >> they will but not the extent we have seen it in the past and people have come to rely on. if what you are looking for is to actually take risk in your portfolio that can have an outsized reward you start to think about things to be more tied to this environment. >> so do you buy a ulta beauty,

mike, up so much and continues to outperform? >> it is a sector where i think the market tends to play the hot hand but if you look at adobe, this is an anointed stock software is strongest area of the strongest sector for the past couple of years and adobe, you know, downgraded guidance but it beat the guidance by 11 cents for the current quarter and i don't think the street necessarily comes up short on it growth rates moderated. >> any countries or areas you're buying equities of >> actually this march we actually took away from international equities we are still very heavy into emerging markets and based on the concerns and did data coming out of the eu we moved a little back to the states and we took that from the eu, we also took that from large cap in the u.s. and have made sort of an all cap bet in the u.s. >> okay. we have another earnings alert >> wilfred, we have a beat on

earnings but a miss on revenue jabil. you will be able to see that earnings beat by 64 cents adjusted versus 61 cents revenue a slight share and shares up about 2% and digging through the earnings report. shares up in after hours trade back to you. >> seema, thank you very much for that up, mike take on this not a huge one but a bit of a china play? >> a lot of beats and pops. >> that's true in this little run of earnings jabil is mostly seen as a play on commodity manufacturer and sometimes viewed as a china play, too. a beat but i wouldn't necessarily say it's legs in terms of people extrapolated it to the rest of the group. >> that stock is up 2% as sara side a nice set of beats so far from most of the earnings reports alli, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. former national economic

council chairman cohn said president trump is desperate to reach a trade deal with china. up next, former australian prime minister rudd reacts to that statement telling us whether he thinks a trade deal is near. we have a look at why trump's policies may be backfiring jane >> i hate to rain on this ra-ra earnings report but trades down to china as of january imports surging. gumming up the works at nation's largest port complex is the tariff war backfire a true logistical nightmare when "closing bell" returns 300 miles an hour, that's where i feel normal. having an annuity tells me my retirement is protected.

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and it's simple, easy, awesome. welcome back seema? >> $5.55 adjusted versus $5.23 estimate a slight miss on revenue $5.79 billion. the company does reference the slowdown in china saying similar to the peers we see a slowdown in china impacting demand. however, must have of this was factored into the original guidance and maintaining the full-year fiscal 2019 business outlook. investors like what they see and

shares up. the stock has been outperforming the peers so far this year up about 15% over the past 6 months broadcom and keep in mind just one year ago it was told by president trump to back off of its attempt to buy qualcomm and responded buying ca technologies for $19 billion. back to you. >> yeah. a deal initially panned and then the stock sort of slowly crept back up. seema, thanks. new data released shows president trump's trade policies may be backfiring. jane wells is at the port of los angeles with the details hi, jane. >> reporter: hi, sara f. the point of tariffs to restore the balance of trade between the u.s. and china it had the opposite impact. take a look at this. down 25% last yeo across the country. exports to china it is worse as of january. see the acute impact out west. the institute of international finance estimates u.s. companies

are losing $40 billion in a year because of the chinese tariffs now the ports are doing fine because ships are still coming in filled with chinese cargo some companies continued to front load ahead of potentially even more tariffs but it's gumming up the system. there's only a 1% vacancy rate here for can taners. >> truckers are waiting longer railroads spend money to reposition equipment cargo owners carry a lot of cost with the advance of inventories. >> reporter: now what you are looking at is the largest ship ever to come to a north american port it can hold 19,000 standard containers part of the reason it's clear to clear out some of the empties to make room. another reason exports are down is china's new environmental policies cutting exports of recyclables of paper and plastic and metal. the disparity of goods in versus goods out softened a bit in february as a lot of stuff got in here before the chinese lunar

new year and they hope it's breathing room to get rid some of the clutter high and get ready for the next ships from china. guys >> is this trend for the u.s. only relates to china or is there a similar theme playing out with trade more generally because of, say, a global slowdown issue than just a tariff related issue with china? >> reporter: this is mostly a china related issue. as you heard before say that shipping traffic is expected to grow but more slowly in the coming year and grow this drop is strictly due to china and ripple effects i talked to an alfalfa farmer in you yeah who can't get the hay to saudi arabia. there's no room and they can't get stuff out of here to get to the warehouses 70 miles down the road to free up chassises and truck to bring the hay to the port they just need to clear stuff out to bring stuff in. what little of it is there is to

export >> jane wells, thank you very much. now former direct or the of national economic council cohn talked yesterday. >> tariffs were used as a threat did it hurt the chinese at all we have record trade deficits. >> why do did chinese seem to be at this point amenable for is that smoke screen? >> i think the u.s. is desperate for agreement. >> agreement or headline >> the president needs a big win. the open only open issue to claim as a big win and hope to have a big impact on the stock market would be a chinese resolution >> joining us now kevin rudd, president of the asia society policy institute and former australian prime minister. good afternoon. >> good to be with you. >> what do you make of that? >> he is right on. if you know the mind of president trump, he looks at polls, opinion opinions an this poll of new york stock exchange.

and when he saw things heading in a bad direction come december became clear to me and most other people that follow this closely since then he is in the marketplace for a deal as a necessary injection to new confidence into this economy but frankly the global economy, as well. >> gary cohn left the administration because he did not agree with the trade policies, the tariffs that president trump was going to implement and when he says president trump needs a win, sure doesn't china need a win more coming to this trade deal because they're suffering worse? >> well, i think the question here is what's in the mind of the u.s. president and what's in the mind of xi jinping on this president my judgment is he wants to see the economy back firing again and would have seen the slower growth in job additions in the last month, seen other economic i could kay or thes pointing to a slowing in this economy and wants a big shot in the arm for the u.s. domestic economy as for xi jinping, the causes of

slowing growth in china are two fold a much of domestic policies that not encouraged the private sector to expand operations and nothing to do with the trade war and the export sector affected by the trade war and so, xi jinping would actually like to take this piece of lead out of the saddle bags, for a confidence boost for other deeper structural problems and weaknesses in the chinese economy. >> what is your read currently on what he is willing to concede on paper through body language, through any of these -- this theatrics to go on assuming we get an agreement >> the chinese substantive bargaining stance is talk a lot and give nothing i think the hierarchy of where they can give ground is number one, market access which is obviously, adjustments to tariff regimes on agriculture affecting the united states and also opening up the services markts including financial

services so that's where i think the most ground will be given the second one where they try to give ground right now is on ip protection you'll see that the chinese right now with the national people's congress are trying to put through a foreign investment law which now has new criminal provisions for people that take the intellectual property of others unlawfully and as officials or as corporations so they're trying to as it were add on this question but frankly, there's an enforcement problem and the other areas so difficult to resolve, state subsidies for chinese firms competing with american firms going to the structure of the chinese state and that's the hardest thing of all to move. >> to go back to a topic with jane if tariffs work, will work in the future, what's your view on that? and does the fact that china's economy has changed shape that exports is a portion of gdp

fallen a lot over the last decade mean that maybe it would have worked better in the past than it is today >> well, tariffs are very blunt instrument in terms of a political message i think they had that affect. asking me about the economics of tariffs, i'm a rare bird who's a former labor prime minister of australia, a social democrat in this country probably, you know, blue dog democrat, i have always been pro free trade because it's the best thing going for working people better to pay $20 for a shirt than $40 if you have a limited income that is the argument of my country to bring that constituency over to free trade. so i think the president, however, who calls himself captain tariff, he's in the business of sending a warning shot across the bows to the chinese and to give him credit he has engaged xi jinping's attention. the chinese are mindful of the impact on the domestic growth which is sluggish any way for

other reasons and a piece of political communication. it's been effective. rotten long term for the economy. >> when you want the know whether everything is right in the world, whether there's risk taking and the global economy is doing okay, you look at the australian dollar and so far it's not sending a message that everything's okay. if you look this week, even with big gains in u.s. stocks or this quarter or the last few months it's down. what is that telling us? >> i think it says from the australian perspective i live there and i haven't been there for two months. >> time to send money back home, kevin. make the most of the - >> we're not a -- no, no but the bottom line is i think australia looking at the geo politics of u.s./china is a deep, new risk calculus. secondly, when where will the trade war go will it penalize exports into china long term of lng

and i think finally, there is a recognition in australia and maybe by investors that coal is not a good long-term bet and once of the principle exports for climate related reasons. >> is it australia specific a bit instead of making us worry about the world economy and world markets? >> i'm not a markets person like you guys here. so i can't comment on that history of us being a successful barometer for -- >> you are especially aussie/yen. >> we are naturally sunny people put it that way. i think reasons also local and domestic and a national election due in australia in may and normally the markets are skittish with election time. >> either way, kevin you and i both welcome the u.s. dollars at the moment for our respective currencies not doing the best great do see you >> good to be here. next, the charts to see the listed stocks and the rising markets says about the economy.

tesla to unveil the suv y compact. see if that's enough to help the struggling stock later on "closing bell.

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active than you expect this far into a bull market and fewer younger companies coming in to revitalize the market and drag that average age down. the blue line is average listed stocks back to early 1970s this i don't think it's particularly worrisome below the highs of the late '90s and a bubble in many, many ways. but the fact that we have been kintd kind of mired of these levels is private equity active and not many companies coming public rapidly and average age feeds into policy debate big entrenched companies stay that way longer. we used to have more turnover and maybe because we have the winner take all sectors and a reason i think you have a lot of politicians saying too companies are too strong, too dominant it's a sign of maturity of the u.s. economy as well as maybe some structural inefficiencies.

>> the positive spin i guess is just simply that companies didn't need to ipo as much because there's so much money in the private market. >> that's right. bigger companies don't actually have that moment of reckoning. the's good and bad in both of these. >> thank you very much. time for a news update. >> thank you very much the golfer phil mickelson said he used the company at the center of the admissions cheating scandal and maintains he didn't do anything wrong and the golfer claims he was shocked by the revelations and the family was not part of any fraud. that scandal hitting the children at the center of it cosmetics company sephora eliminated the partnership with olivia jade, the lawyer of lori loughlin massive weather system across the country is not just bringing snow and wind but look

at that! whoa man that is serious. a gust in texas blew over that tractor trailer. while in kentucky the storm spawned several tornadoes. and in some what of a reversal the american add ka'imi pediatrics said kids can receive the vaccine of flu through a shot or nasal spray and did not recommend the spray this year over worries it was ineffective. i guess the worries put to rest and you don't have to say ouch anymore. that's cnbc news update. back to you. >> next year we won't have to play the video of those needles. >> exactly >> play a different video. >> handy with a kid below 1 year old. thank you. tesla ending the revolving c-suite for a moment appointing a new cfo and whether that leads to stability in the executive ranks. and a major executive

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shares of tesla slightly higher today after the company officially appointed a new cfo the announcement was made in january. following the retirement of deepak hazua will the newly appointed executive stand the test of time let's bring in tim higgens from "the wall street journal." he's been following the story and the saga, tim. how does today's announcement fit in with the overall narrative of the departures and lack of stanlbility >> he surprised the market in january when he announced this guy is a cof he was relative unknown outside of the company and spent the entire career working there, working his way up except for business school and so here he is at the top of the company you know a young guy. well liked internally but not public face to investors at this point.

>> on that point, tim, do you think investors welcome the sort of internal promotion that the sense that he's likely to be able to get on with elon musk or would they like to have seen an external candidate >> it is a challenge here, right? clearly tesla had a lot of churn in the top positions musk by allaccounts can be difficult to work with and here the people promoting into the c-suite roles, general counsel or cfo or chief accounting officer spent time in the organization, they understand the culture and how to work with elon musk and that's a key thing to be having a long term career at tesla is understanding that unique culture you see people outside of established places they struggle there. >> well, i assume if it were mostly just about knowing the culture and being able to get

along with musk then the turnover might seem relatively benign there's critics of the company saying your counsel leaves with legal issues, cfo leaves with dicey financials, you have to make the bond payments and people questioning the accounting, that's less benign. >> it raises questions and adding to the surrounding drama of the company and no doubt they want to stop that churn because it raises more and more questions and trying to focus onramping up of the model 3 and getting the vehicle out and cutting the costs and they have different dramas on different days. >> tim, how important is the model y of the future of the company and what do you make of the timing of the announcement >> model y is going to be supremely important to be a mainstream electric car company. this compact suv really where the market is going here in the

u.s. and in china and china small suvs account for 1 in 5 sales. in the u.s. it is heading that way. people don't want cars anymore in the us but small suvs that drive like kacars but you sit u higher and you have room in the junk for the trunk small cars not so much here we are looking at tesla trying to get into the most -- probably most important market they can be if they really get to the million unit sales a year that elon keeps talking about. >> see what they unveil tonight. tim, thank you. >> thank you. >> tim higgins from "the wall street journal." we have a news alert on chipotle kate >> that's right. announcing two new members to the board of directors effective immediately. scott ma from starbucks. and also a second name, patricia philly-crewshaw. the company also announcing that

kim ball musk, the restaurantaur and brother of elon musk on the boyd since 2013 decided not to stand for re-election at the 2019 shareholder meeting in may. the stock isn't doing much on this news right now. back over to you. >> thank you for that. find out why sprinter usain bolt has stuck with endorsing puma throughout his career rather than being lured away by coetorlimpits ke nike. we're back in a couple of minutes.

his family. his steinway, which met a burst pipe. so grant met his insurance: you are caller number 12. which didn't quite cover the steinway. but what if he'd met pure insurance? owned by members. he'd have met: lisa, your member advocate. who'd introduce him to gustav: leave it to me. a temporary address, temporary ivory, and help him get tickets to the mozart festival. excuse me, grant likes beethoven! uh, the beethoven festival. pure. love your insurance.

welcome back here's stories on the "closing bell" radar today. yesterday i sat down with olympic gold medalist usain bolt and talked about the new move off track. he's become official spokesperson for bolt. listen to why he agreed to join the company. >> we were approached clearly because of the name of the brand and for me now that i'm retired trying to make different moves, get the business aspect of just life itself and chapter of my life and it is an easy choice the fact of the name and just work -- check the background and the work they have done is just big thing and it was an easy decision. >> fascinating thing about this is that he wasn't a founder and didn't come up with the name they have a yellow color scheme watching the jamaican colors and

highly, highly convenient. >> does it go faster >> i did have a little go around here and indoors tricky to kind of push the speed too hard we spoke about the endorsements and partnerships and why he stuck with puma for so long. >> puma. >> you were wrong about adidas so we'll see when we get the ceo on we can ask him and why he didn't go to nike trying to poach him. >> it was never about money. at that point. it was just about knowing the guys and being happy and comfortable with these guys. i can call anybody, talk to them any time if i'm having a problem or if i need sponsorship for my just -- my college football team or my high school team, i can call them saying i want some gear never a problem and always about the fact we ire're a family and tried to work with the spro sponsorship that closely.

>> i don't know how much is offered but nice to hear that from him and i feel like we undersold him by saying olympic gold medalist. greatest sprinter of all time i'm sure will hold that title for many, many decades and a privilege to sit down with him. >> i took a picture with you guys very short. >> we're both 6'5" he is a little faster than i am. >> a little bit. >> just about three or four times. >> i'm watching trip adviser because the company announced this week bette sy morgan and trinka shineman blake elected to the board of directors coming a few days after i reported just on friday international women's day that 15% of 3,000 largest companies in the u.s. have a zero female board members and trip adviser was one of the companies and female director had left so we knew we talked to the company and knew this was sort of in the works and, you know, good on them appointing two female directors because the

fact is companies do need to be shamed for not having female directors interacting so much with female buyers, customers and have the population. >> they have industry links, from the they're from the business and all the rest of it. i'm watching microinvesting app stash. customers get rewarded with fractional shares of stock in the companies where they shop. so obviously it's a little bit of a gimmick there's a lot of these apps that have a behavioral finance element of rounding up your purchases and investing it or saving it. this is to actually buy shares of the company you have to have a brokerage account with stash as well interesting, but it could get a little messy >> it's definitely an interesting idea and where we are with trading and advances with apps and technology makes it possible as you say, it's still a little clunky and messy. >> it's just trying to make it

kind of almost unnoticed and a little bit like fun, i guess. >> but rewards are all the rage. that's how people choose their credit cards you've got to do your homework on that one. after the break, we'll discuss what the departure of facebook's chief product officer just announced will mean for the company and the stock. at&t provides edge-to-edge intelligence, covering virtually every part of your manufacturing business. & so this won't happen. because you've made sure this sensor and this machine are integrated. & she can talk to him, & yes... atta, boy. some people assign genders to machines.

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facebook shares are falling after hours. the company announcing its chief of product is leaving. what it could mean for the stock, next.

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it's simply a matter of following the signs. they all lead here. cme group - how the world advances. boeing just putting out a statement on 737 max deliveries saying, quote, we have paused delivery of 737 max airplanes due to the temporary grounding we continue to build 737 max airplane, while assessing how the situation, including potential capacity constraints, will impact our production system boeing shares little changed after hours. >> the guidance seems to be, analysts sort of expected it,

they would continue production but take the hit by keeping the inventory on their balance sheet. so when the ban is lifted -- >> they're not behind on that. meantime another departure at facebook earlier this hour, they announced chris cox will be leaving the company. joining us on the phone to discuss, brent thill brent, thanks for joining us what's your immediate take >> it's not good given the ongoing concerns around the regulatory overhang and someone of his tenure that's been at the company so long is going to cause shareholders to think through. but i think this company is approaching $70 billion in revenue this year, it's one person but it's going to be concerning to investors so i think it's going to take time to digest this to understand exactly what they're going to do.

i don't think this will change the true trajectory for advertisers for facebook but certainly given the stock is up almost 30% year to date, which is double that of the market, certainly is going to have a little bit of a drag tomorrow >> brent, there's been a sort of question mark when we talk about great entrepreneurs, as companies grow older, whether they should change and have someone that's better at operational or executional type things rather than thinking of big picture ideas. at tesla people question how easy it is to work under that founder. is that starting to apply to facebook as a question >> i think there's definitely a question around the senior leadership i believe there's certainly been a lot of changes, right? dan rose left recently you certainly have a rotation. many of these executives have been at the company for quite some time and made a considerable amount of money

so there's a couple of factors one is the company matures secondarily these executives are extremely wealthy. third, they may want to run a more entrepreneurial, smaller organization so i think there are some factors at work but certainly that is a big one about is there broader changes that need to happen as facebook enters a new era. this happened at microsoft obviously what we saw from the balmer transition which was a fantastic transition when the stock tripled. so i think, yeah, it's a big question we're getting from investors but i don't think it has any impact, as you can see in the stock year to date. >> brent, thank you. >> thank you >> brent thill, facebook under pressure be sure to catch larry culp speaking with jim cramer tonight

at 6:00 p.m. after ge got a boost. mike, we are heading into a friday on a very strong week for the markets. what should we look for tomorrow >> we were looking at the actual levels of the s&p. can it get up through these levels and i think that's where we are tomorrow. >> thanks for watching, everyone that it does for "closing bell." "fast money" starts right now. live from the nasdaq market site overlooking new york city's times square, i'm melissa lee. we are just hours away from tesla's big reveal of its new crossover suv, but will it live up to the hype gene munster will be here. check out shares of ge surging today. the stock is on track for its best quarter ever, jim cramer just sat down with larry culp. apple launching a new advertisement all about privacy. let's get to josh lipton in san francisc